Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Palladium on Plastic Substrates for Plasmonic Devices

Innovative chips based on palladium thin films deposited on plastic substrates have been tested in the Kretschmann surface plasmon resonance (SPR) configuration. The new chips combine the advantages of a plastic support that is interesting and commercially appealing and the physical properties of palladium, showing inverted surface plasmon resonance (ISPR). The detection of DNA chains has been selected as the target of the experiment, since it can be applied to several medical early diagnostic tools, such as different biomarkers of cancers or cystic fibrosis. The results are encouraging for the use of palladium in SPR-based sensors of interest for both the advancement of biodevices and the development of hydrogen sensors.
Relative Discrepancy Does Not Separate Information and Communication Complexity

Does the information complexity of a function equal its communication complexity? We examine whether any currently known techniques might be used to show a separation between the two notions. Ganor et al. [2014] recently provided such a separation in the distributional case for a specific input distribution. We show that in the non-distributional setting, the relative discrepancy bound is smaller than the information complexity; hence, it cannot separate information and communication complexity. In addition, in the distributional case, we provide a linear program formulation for relative discrepancy and relate it to variants of the partition bound, resolving also an open question regarding the relation of the partition bound and information complexity. Last, we prove the equivalence between the adaptive relative discrepancy and the public-coin partition, implying that the logarithm of the adaptive relative discrepancy bound is quadratically tight with respect to communication.
Categorizing wildlife responses to urbanization and conservation implications of terminology

The study of urban ecology has emerged as a key element of conservation research (Miller & Hobbs 2002). Urbanization is a primary driver of habitat loss and fragmentation but also provides an opportunity to design and manage cities to retain biodiversity and facilitate interactions between people and the natural world (Miller 2005). As the field has developed, Blair’s (1996) avoider, adapter, exploiter terminology has become the primary means of characterizing wildlife responses to urbanization. These terms, which were further developed by McKinney (2002), have provided a useful framework for studying urban ecology since 1996. However, we believe this terminology has shortcomings that obscure ecological mechanisms that affect urban biodiversity. We describe the limitations of this framework and offer a modified set of terms to advance urban wildlife conservation.
Subcritical Side-Weir Flow at High Lateral Discharge

Side weirs count among the important hydraulic structures for flow derivation in flood schemes or sewer networks. In this paper, the prismatic side weir in the rectangular channel is considered for entirely subcritical flow. Based on the momentum and energy equations, relationships are developed for the lateral outflow intensity, the local lateral outflow angle, the energy and momentum correction coefficients, and the relationship between the local streamwise component of the lateral outflow velocity and the average channel flow velocity. The governing equations are then numerically solved and the results compared with hydraulic laboratory observations, indicating that the momentum approach may be considered superior to the energy approach. The role of the momentum and energy correction coefficients is thereby particularly analyzed, stating that their correct inclusion both as absolute values and their local variation along a side weir have to be accounted for if the local discharge relative to the approach flow discharge tends to zero.
Title: A synthesis of Austrian Economics and Complexity theory to Agricultural Structural change: An Application of an Agent-Based Modeling Approach

U.S. agricultural markets have undergone a tendency of structural change from open/spot market exchanges to an increasing prevalence of vertically coordinated market structures (Boehlje, 1995, 1999; Martinez, 1999; Barkema and Cook, 1993; Hurt, 1994; Drabenstott, 1994). The magnitude of this change has prompted inquiries to the development of new theoretical and analytical methods to the study of structural change processes in agri- food systems (Boehlje,1999). This is the subject of this research paper. This paper presents a simulation using agent-based modeling of behavior of producers, processors, and life science firms. The behavior of agents (firms) draws upon the tenets of complexity science (Prigonine and Stengers, 1984) and Austrian economic notions of entrepreneurship and market processes (Kirzner, 1979, 1997; Hayek, 1967). The model is used to examine general tendencies towards market inertia and stability in Monte Carlo-style runs and the unexpected outcomes from entrepreneurial behavior that often lead to large-scale structural change –what complexity theorist call bifurcation of a normally stable system. There are two principal findings of this agent-based simulation model. Due to the complex interactions in a supply chain market structure and the unpredictable behavior of alert entrepreneurs, structural change processes are sensitive dependent to the initial conditions of the market and the idiosyncratic choices of entrepreneurs. In addition, increasing contract premiums in vertically coordinated market arrangements do not appear to significantly generate changes in markets to exploit these incentives. These findings fundamentally question social science's pre-occupation with models premised on an equilibrium orientation. Equilibrium behavior is only one possible expression of overall system behaviors. A spectrum of other behaviors exists to which new analytical methods and conceptual models are required to further understand and explain complex social systems. Agent-based modeling is argued as one such approach.
The Anti–Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Receptor-1 Monoclonal Antibody D16F7 Inhibits Glioma Growth and Angiogenesis In Vivo

The vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) receptor-1 (VEGFR-1) is a tyrosine kinase receptor that does not play a relevant role in physiologic angiogenesis in adults, whereas it is important in tumor angiogenesis. In high-grade glioma VEGFR-1 expression by tumor endothelium and neoplastic cells contributes to the aggressive phenotype. We recently generated an anti–VEGFR-1 monoclonal antibody (D16F7 mAb) characterized by a novel mechanism of action, since it hampers receptor activation without interfering with ligand binding. The mAb is able to inhibit chemotaxis and extracellular matrix invasion of glioma cells in vitro stimulated by VEGF-A and by the VEGFR-1–selective ligand placental growth factor (PlGF). In this study, we have investigated the influence of D16F7 on glioma growth and angiogenesis in vivo using C6 glioma cells transfected with the human VEGFR-1. D16F7 was able to inhibit receptor activation and migration and extracellular matrix invasion of C6 cells overexpressing the receptor in response to PlGF and VEGF-A. In nude mice, treatment with 10 and 20 mg/kg D16F7 as a single agent was well tolerated and significantly inhibited glioma growth (P < 0.001). Strikingly, in an intracranial orthotopic model, mice dosed with 20 mg/kg D16F7 demonstrated a 65% increase in median survival time compared with vehicle-treated controls (P < 0.001) with a high percentage of long-term survivors (46%). These effects were associated with glioma cell apoptosis and decreased tumor-associated vessel formation. Overall, these results highlight the therapeutic potential of D16F7 in glioma treatment, deserving further investigation after a humanization process as single agent or in combination therapies.
Hormones and Breast Cancer: What's the Story?

It has now been 30 years since the first epidemiologic report linked menopausal estrogen therapy—the exogenous estrogens that, along with progestins, came to be known as “hormone replacement therapy”—with an increased risk of breast cancer ([1][1]). Today, the body of evidence on this
Information credibility on twitter

We analyze the information credibility of news propagated through Twitter, a popular microblogging service. Previous research has shown that most of the messages posted on Twitter are truthful, but the service is also used to spread misinformation and false rumors, often unintentionally. On this paper we focus on automatic methods for assessing the credibility of a given set of tweets. Specifically, we analyze microblog postings related to "trending" topics, and classify them as credible or not credible, based on features extracted from them. We use features from users' posting and re-posting ("re-tweeting") behavior, from the text of the posts, and from citations to external sources. We evaluate our methods using a significant number of human assessments about the credibility of items on a recent sample of Twitter postings. Our results shows that there are measurable differences in the way messages propagate, that can be used to classify them automatically as credible or not credible, with precision and recall in the range of 70% to 80%.
Towards Practical Cadmium Phytoextraction with Noccaea Caerulescens

A series of field trials were conducted to investigate the potential of Noccaea caerulescens F.K. Mey [syn. Thlaspi caerulescens J &C Presl. (see Koch and Al-Shehbaz 2004)] populations (genotypes) derived from southern France to phytoextract localized Cd/Zn contamination in Thailand. Soil treatments included pH variation and fertilization level and application of fungicide. N. caerulescens populations were transplanted to the field plots three months after germination and harvested in May, prior to the onset of seasonal rains. During this period growth was rapid with shoot biomass ranging from 0.93–2.2 g plant–1 (280–650 kg ha–1) DW. Shoot Cd and Zn concentrations for the four populations evaluated ranged from 460–600 and 2600–2900 mg kg–1 DW respectively. Cadmium and Zn Translocation Factors (shoot/root) for the populations tested ranged from 0.91–1.0 and 1.7–2.1 and Bioaccumulation Factors ranged from 12–15 and 1.2–1.3. We conclude that optimizing the use of fungicidal sprays, acidic soil pH, planting density and increasing the effective cropping period will increase rates of Cd and Zn removal enough to facilitate practical Cd phytoextraction from rice paddy soils in Thailand.
Algorithmic aspects of Tverberg's Theorem

We study the complexity of finding Tverberg partitions within various convexity spaces. For the classic geometric version of Tverberg's theorem, we obtain probabilistic algorithms that are weakly polynomial in both the dimension and the number of points. These algorithms extend to other variations, such as the integer version of Tverberg's theorem. For geodetic convexity on graphs, we show that the general problem of finding Radon partitions is NP-hard, and present efficient algorithms for certain special classes of graphs.
Stroke Segmentation and Recognition from Bangla Online Handwritten Text

This paper deals with recognition of online handwritten Bangla (Bengali) text. Here, at first, we segment cursive words into strokes. A stroke may represent a character or a part of a character. We selected a set of Bangla words written by different groups of people such that they contain all basic characters, all vowel and consonant modifiers and almost all types of possible joining among them. For segmentation of text into strokes, we discovered some rules analyzing different joining patterns of Bangla characters. Combination of online and offline information was used for segmentation. We achieved correct segmentation rate of 97.89% on the dataset. We manually analyzed different strokes to create a ground truth set of distinct stroke classes for result verification and we obtained 85 stroke classes. Directional features were used in SVM for recognition and we achieved correct stroke recognition rate of 97.68%.
Modelling users' trust in online health rumours: an experiment-based study in China

Introduction. With the increasing availability of information on the Internet, online rumours have become prevalent, and it is not uncommon for search engines to return unverified rumours about health. However, false information in such domains may lead to serious consequences if it gains users' trust. An understanding of the characteristics of online health rumours that users' trust is important for fighting their spread. Method. Using real-world online health rumour data from a Chinese database, the authors investigated the predictors of users' trust in online health rumours. An experiment (n = 30) and interviews (n = 10) were conducted to examine how users evaluate particular types of health rumours. Analysis. The effects of rumours' manner of presentation and the perceived information quality on users' trust were tested using ANOVA (with SPSS software) for the quantitative data collected in the experiment. The qualitative component applied content analysis of the interview data to further explain the results produced by the quantitative analysis. Results. The impact of pictures (one dimension of rumour presentation) on users' trust varies, depending on the perceived quality of the pictures displayed with the online health rumours, and informativeness (a dimension of information quality) is an influential predictor of trusting beliefs. Conclusions. The paper serves the aim of highly effective prediction of users' trust in online health rumours, and it contributes new insights for proactively evaluating the hazard level of a particular online health-rumour item.
PALEOHYDROGRAPHIC INFLUENCES ON PERMIAN RADIOLARIANS IN THE LAMAR LIMESTONE, GUADALUPE MOUNTAINS, WEST TEXAS, ELUCIDATED BY ORGANIC BIOMARKER AND STABLE ISOTOPE GEOCHEMISTRY

Abstract The late Guadalupian Lamar Limestone Member of the Bell Canyon Formation, Delaware Basin, west Texas, records dramatic fluctuations in radiolarian faunal composition that are interpreted to record basin-scale changes in hydrography. Samples taken across one of these intervals of fluctuation show a change from a sparse, nearly monospecific fauna dominated by Follicucullus ventricosus to a more radiolarian-rich interval dominated by spongy spumellarians of the Copicyntrinae and Spongodiscidae. Carbonate stable isotope and organic biomarker geochemical data from this same interval support a strong terrestrial-freshwater influence on the spumellarian-dominated beds. Specifically, biomarker data show lower C22/C27 ratios and n-alkane distributions indicative of terrestrial organic matter sources in the spumellarian-dominated beds. In the whole-rock carbonate fraction, δ18O and δ13C show a shift to more negative values, consistent with increased meteoric water influence in the spumellarian-dominated interval. Lithologically, the spumellarian-dominated beds are siltier; however, they lack any increase in shallow water allochems, such as sponge spicules, that might indicate the spumellarians and associated terrestrial signature are a function of transporting a shallower radiolarian fauna into the basin via turbidity flows. Faunal changes more likely represent a stimulatory response to increased runoff by in situ spumellarians in the surface waters of the basin.
Long-Term Outcomes of Primary Craniofacial Reconstruction for Craniosynostosis: A 12-Year Experience

Background: The purpose of this study was to critically assess long-term outcomes after open reconstruction of craniosynostosis within the recent decade. Methods: The authors performed a retrospective, institutional review board–approved review of open repair for craniosynostosis between 1997 and 2009. Surgical factors, complications, and long-term outcomes were assessed. Pearson chi-square, Fisher's exact, and Kaplan-Meier analyses were performed. Results: Of 212 patients, 72 underwent primary extended synostectomy and 140 had traditional open craniofacial repair. Mean follow-up was 36.3 months (range, 0.5 to 138 months). Indications included sagittal (n = 96), metopic (n = 40), unicoronal (n = 33), bicoronal (n = 24), multisutural (n = 15), bilambdoidal (n = 3), and unilambdoidal (n = 1) synostoses; 8.5 percent of patients were syndromic. Surgical reconstruction was performed at a mean age of 11.3 months (range, 0.2 to 117.8 months), including nonsyndromic patients at an average age of 10.6 months and syndromic patients at age 19.3 months. There were no deaths. A 3.3 percent complication rate included two cerebral contusions, two hematomas, one cerebrospinal fluid leak, one infection, and one wound breakdown. Patients were categorized as 89.2 percent Whitaker class I/II and 10.8 percent Whitaker class III/IV. Major and total reoperation rates were 9.0 percent and 10.8 percent, respectively. Higher total reoperation rate and Whitaker class III/IV distribution significantly correlated with syndromic diagnosis, bicoronal synostosis, and surgical age younger than 6 months. Conclusions: In this experience of contemporary open craniosynostosis surgery, rates of morbidity, mortality, and reoperation were low. These results support the merits of surgical delay, targeting an age of 6 months or older, and may serve as a more accurate metric of comparison to current minimally invasive techniques for craniosynostosis repair.
Does material disadvantage explain the increased risk of adverse health, educational, and behavioural outcomes among children in lone parent households in Britain? A cross sectional study

Objective: To test the hypothesis that material disadvantage explains the increased risk among children and young people of adverse health, educational, and behavioural problems associated with living in lone parent households in Britain Study design: Secondary analysis of a cross sectional survey of a representative sample of British households with children and youth Main outcomes: Parent reported fair/poor health, longstanding illness and disability, statement of special educational needs, suspension and/or expulsion from school, and in trouble with the police. Participants: Data were available on 15 636 (8049 boys and 7587 girls) aged 0–18 years in 8541 households in the third sweep (2001) of the British government’s families and children study Results: Lone parenthood was associated with increased risk of health and educational problems, and antisocial behaviour among boys and girls in a logistic regression model adjusting for child’s age alone. Adding age of main carer, number of dependent children, and child’s rank in the household made little difference to the associations. Addition of housing tenure, household hardship index, and an interaction term for lone parenthood and hardship eliminated the relation with lone parenthood for all outcomes except parent reported health among girls. Similar results were obtained for households headed by lone parents for at least a year. An interaction effect of lone parenthood with hardship for parent reported health and statement of special educational needs was noted. Conclusion: Adverse effects of lone parenthood on health, education, and antisocial behaviour were apparently explained by material disadvantage in this cross sectional sample of British households with children and youth.
Measurements of stratospheric plume dispersion by imagery of solid rocket motor exhaust

Plume expansion from nine space shuttle and Titan IV vehicles was measured at altitudes of 18, 24, and 30 km in the stratosphere. The plume diameters, inferred from electronic images of polarized, near-infrared solar radiation scattered from the exhaust particles, increased linearly with time. The expansion rate was measured for as long as 50 min. Observations made simultaneously at multiple altitudes showed that the expansion rate increased with increasing altitude for six measurements made at Cape Canaveral but decreased between 24 and 30 km for the one measurement made at Vandenberg Air Force Base. The average expansion rates for all measurements are 4.3 ± 1.0 m s -1 at 18 km, 6.8 ± 1.9 m s -1 at 24 km, and 8.7 ± 2.4 m s -1 at 30 km. Expansion rates varied from launch to launch by as much as a factor of 1.6 at 18 km, 2.2 at 24 km, and 2.6 at 30 km. No correlation between the expansion rate and wind speed or wind shear was evident. These data are compared with several models for diffusivity and are used to update a comprehensive particle model of solid rocket motor exhaust in the stratosphere. The expansion rates are required by models to calculate the spatial extent and temporal persistence of the local stratospheric ozone depletion cause by solid rocket exhaust.
Ki‐67 expression level, histological subtype, and the International Prognostic Index as outcome predictors in mantle cell lymphoma

Abstract: Objectives : Mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) is characterised by translocation t(11;14) (q13;q32) leading to rearrangement of bcl1/CCND1 and overexpression of the cell‐cycle regulatory protein cyclin D1. We assessed the significance of the cell proliferation rate as an outcome predictor with the five components of the International Prognostic Index (IPI) and the histological subtypes of MCL. Patients and methods : The hospital case records and histopathological material of 127 patients diagnosed with MCL in a single centre were reviewed. The cell proliferation rate was assessed by Ki‐67 immunostaining and mitosis counting. Cox's multivariate regression model was used in multivariate survival analyses. The median follow‐up time was 87 months. Results : The mantle zone/nodular subtype of the common variant (19%) was associated with median survival of 70 months, the diffuse subtype of the common variant (64%) of 35 months, and the blastoid subtype (17%) of 11 months ( P < 0.001). Patients with Ki‐67 expression in ≥ 26% (the upper tertile) of the lymphoma cells had median survival of only 13 months as compared with 45 months in the rest of the patients ( P < 0.001). In a multivariate analysis high Ki‐67 expression, Ann Arbor stage III–IV, and age over 60 yr had independent influence on survival, whereas serum lactate dehydrogenase level, the number of extranodal disease sites, and performance status did not. Conclusions : The IPI may not be an optimal tool for outcome prediction in MCL, and a better prognostic index may be obtained by including Ki‐67 expression and possibly the histological subtype in the index.