Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Backward compatible high dynamic range MPEG video compression

To embrace the imminent transition from traditional low-contrast video (LDR) content to superior high dynamic range (HDR) content, we propose a novel backward compatible HDR video compression (HDR MPEG) method. We introduce a compact reconstruction function that is used to decompose an HDR video stream into a residual stream and a standard LDR stream, which can be played on existing MPEG decoders, such as DVD players. The reconstruction function is finely tuned to the content of each HDR frame to achieve strong decorrelation between the LDR and residual streams, which minimizes the amount of redundant information. The size of the residual stream is further reduced by removing invisible details prior to compression using our HDR-enabled filter, which models luminance adaptation, contrast sensitivity, and visual masking based on the HDR content. Designed especially for DVD movie distribution, our HDR MPEG compression method features low storage requirements for HDR content resulting in a 30% size increase to an LDR video sequence. The proposed compression method does not impose restrictions or modify the appearance of the LDR or HDR video. This is important for backward compatibility of the LDR stream with current DVD appearance, and also enables independent fine tuning, tone mapping, and color grading of both streams.
Biodiesel: Production, Characterization, Metallic Corrosion and Analytical Methods for Contaminants

In face of recent changes in the edaphoclimatic conditions (climate and soil) occurring worldwide, it has been necessary reflections on the need to exploit natural resources in a sustainable manner. Sustainability is a systemic concept, relating to the continuity of eco‐ nomic, social, cultural and environmental aspects of human society. It proposes to be a means of configuring the civilization and human activity so that the society, its members and its economies can fulfill its needs and express its greatest potential at present, while pre‐ serving biodiversity and natural ecosystems, planning and acting to achieve pro-efficiency in maintaining undefined these ideals [1].
Orbital hybridization induced band offset phenomena in NixCd1-xO thin films

With a perspective of systematic investigating of compositional, structural, topological, electronic and optical properties of solgel derived NixCd1-xO (x= 0, 0.02, 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.4, 0.8, 1) thin films, thorough scrutiny has been accomplished.The exceptional compositional dependence of transmittance spectra and optical gap value of such alloy may be corroborated to the band gap renormalization effect incorporating the effect of local strain, electron-electron and electron-ionized impurity interaction. Raman spectroscopy reveals a stronger phonon scattering stem via optical phonon deformation potential, charged impurity scattering and also phonon stiffening of 477 cm-1 LO mode. The appearance of eg and t2g sub-band peaks at higher Ni doping as confirmed by X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy (XAS) is mainly associated to the anti-crossing interaction and crystal field splitting. X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) evidences the increasing prominence of satellite features with increasing density of shake-up states which justify the eg and t2g sub-band splitting also. These manifest the gradual reduction of orbital hybridization with Ni doping which in turn lead to decreases the band edge effective mass of electron and subsequently influence the band gap renormalization. Molecular dynamics simulation reflects 13% reduction in lattice parameter for NiO thin film compared to undoped one and projected density of states calculation further validates the experimental observation of reduced orbital hybridization with increasing doping percentage.
Current issues of selenium in cancer chemoprevention

The element selenium (Se) was identified, nearly 40 years ago, as being essential in the nutrition of animals and humans. In addition, antitumorigenic effects of Se compounds have been described in a variety of in vitro and animal models, suggesting that supplemental Se in human diets may reduce cancer risk. Apparent mechanisms underlying the potential of Se compounds as cancer chemopreventive agents have been suggested. Some recent clinical trials, however, have shed doubt on the anticancer effects of Se. The contradictory findings and consequent controversy might be due to the lack of understanding of the mechanisms underlying Se biology. This article reviews current knowledge on this topic and addresses the disparate viewpoints on the chemopreventive effects of Se, the human populations.
Cluster-Driven Model for Improved Word and Text Embedding

Most of the existing word embedding models only consider the relationships between words and their local contexts (e.g. ten words around the target word). However, information beyond local contexts (global contexts), which reflect the rich semantic meanings of words, are usually ignored. In this paper, we present a general framework for utilizing global information to learn word and text representations. Our models can be easily integrated into existing local word embedding models, and thus introduces global information of varying degrees according to different downstream tasks. Moreover, we view our models in the co-occurrence matrix perspective, based on which a novel weighted term-document matrix is factorized to generate text representations. We conduct a range of experiments to evaluate word and text representations learned by our models. Experimental results show that our models outperform or compete with state-of-the-art models. Source code of the paper is available at https://github.com/zhezhaoa/cluster-driven.
Negative interference of endogenous phytochrome B with phytochrome A function in Arabidopsis.

To study negative interactions between phytochromes, phytochrome B (phyB) overexpressor lines, the mutants phyA-201, phyB-4, phyB-5, phyD-1, phyA-201 phyB-5, phyA-201 phyD-1, and phyB-5 phyD-1 of Arabidopsis were used. Endogenous phyB, but not phytochrome D (phyD), partly suppressed phytochrome A (phyA)-dependent inhibition of hypocotyl elongation in far-red light (FR). Dichromatic irradiation demonstrated that the negative effect of phyB was largely independent of the photoequilibrium, i.e. far-red light absorbing form of phytochrome formation. Moreover, phyB-4, a mutant impaired in signal transduction, did not show a loss of inhibition of phyA by phyB. Overexpression of phyB, conversely, resulted in an enhanced inhibition of phyA function, even in the absence of supplementary carbohydrates. However, overexpression of a mutated phyB, which cannot incorporate the chromophore, had no detectable effect on phyA action. In addition to seedling growth, accumulation of anthocyanins in FR, another manifestation of the high irradiance response, was strongly influenced by phyB holoprotein. Induction of seed germination by FR, a very low fluence response, was suppressed by both endogenous phyB and phyD. In conclusion, we show that both classical response modes of phyA, high irradiance response, and very low fluence response are subject to an inhibitory action of phyB-like phytochromes. Possible mechanisms of the negative interference are discussed.
Theoretical Investigation on Failure Strength and Fracture Toughness of Precracked Single-Layer Graphene Sheets

Young’s modulus, failure strength, and failure strain of precracked graphene are investigated via finite element method based on molecular structure mechanics in this research. The influence of distribution, length, and orientation of precrack and graphene sizes on these mechanical properties is analyzed. The ratio of precrack length and graphene width is defined as P value, and its particular value Pc can be found, at which the variation trends of Young’s modulus, failure strength, and strain have changes with increasing P value. In addition, the fracture toughness of precracked graphene is investigated, and the stress intensity factor (SIF) is calculated according to the Griffith criterion in classical fracture mechanics. The numerical values of the SIF are about 3.20-3.37 MPa√m, which are compared with the experimental results, and the simulations verify the applicability of the classical fracture mechanics to graphene.
Magnetic OB[A] Stars with TESS: probing their Evolutionary and Rotational properties (MOBSTER) – I. First-light observations of known magnetic B and A stars

In this paper we introduce the MOBSTER collaboration and lay out its scientific goals. We present first results based on the analysis of 19 previously known magnetic O, B, and A stars observed in 2-min cadence in sectors 1 and 2 of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission. We derive precise rotational periods from the newly obtained light curves and compare them to previously published values. We also discuss the overall photometric phenomenology of the known magnetic massive and intermediate-mass stars and propose an observational strategy to augment this population by taking advantage of the high-quality observations produced by TESS.
HIV-induced apoptosis requires the CD4 receptor cytoplasmic tail and is accelerated by interaction of CD4 with p56lck

The roles of the CD4 receptor and the src kinase p56lck were examined in the process of HIV-induced apoptosis of CD4+ T lymphocytes. The presence of the CD4 cytoplasmic tail was found to be essential in delivering an apoptotic signal, and interaction of CD4 with p56lck potentiated HIV-induced apoptosis. Apoptosis, but not HIV replication, was abrogated by deleting the NH2-terminal intracytoplasmic tail of CD4, or by mutating the two critical cysteines in this tail that are responsible for CD4-p56lck interaction. Introduction of p56lck in C8166- 45 or MT-2 cells, CD4+ T cell lines deficient for this protein, greatly increased HIV-induced apoptosis and syncytium formation. The ability of p56lck to deliver an apoptotic signal did not depend on its kinase function, since a kinase-deficient mutant was as effective as its normal counterpart in inducing apoptosis, suggesting that p56lck may act as an adapter to anchor other proteins to transduce the death signal.
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy in Acute Acoustic Trauma

In this rapid systematic review, we studied the clinical question, What is the effect of hyperbaric oxygen therapy on hearing thresholds in patients who suffered a recent acute acoustic trauma? After screening for eligible titles and abstracts and extracting duplicates, 6 original research papers could be found. The general methodology of the studies was weak and the differences between these studies were too profound to pool the data, especially because of heterogeneity in adjuvant therapies, follow-up, and treatment protocol. The mean dB of hearing recovery in these studies ranged from 17 to 47 dB in the groups treated with hyperbaric oxygen versus 5 to 46 dB in the groups who did not receive hyperbaric oxygen therapy. We conclude that the effect of hyperbaric oxygen therapy on hearing thresholds in patients with hearing loss caused by a recent acute acoustic trauma remains unclear. A well-designed randomized controlled trial with enough power is advised to answer this clinical question.
Design and Implementation of Web Hot-Topic Talk Mining Based on Scale-Free Network

Data mining of Web hot-topic talks is one of the important branches on the Web text mining. In traditional data mining system of the Web hot-topic talks, it is assumed that the importance of each Web page is equal. However, complex network composed of the Web hot-topic talks is not a homogeneous network because of having the scale-free characteristic on the Internet. So the assumption above is not reasonable for this network. In this paper the topology of the complex network is analyzed and shown that the network has the scale-free characteristic firstly. Then the mining system based on the scale-free topology is designed, and some main modules are introduced. The workflow of this system is presented, and the implementations of two core modules, which are the analysis module of sites' topology and the distributing proportion to these Web-pages, are proposed in detail. Finally, the merits and shortcomings of this system are concluded, and this paper is summarized
C9ORF72, implicated in amytrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia, regulates endosomal trafficking

Department of Biochemistry, Department of Neuroscience, School of Psychological Science, La Trobe University, Victoria, Australia, Australian School of Advanced Medicine, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia, DepartmentofBiochemistryandMolecularBiology,Bio21MolecularScienceandBiotechnology Institute,TheUniversity of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, and Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
Characterization of premature atherosclerosis of carotid arteries in acromegalic patients

OBJECTIVE Acromegalic patients have increased mortality from vascular diseases. Although atherosclerotic risk factors such as hypertension, diabetes mellitus and dyslipoproteinaemia are highly associated with acromegaly, the prevalence of premature atherosclerosis in acromegalic patients and its relationship to these risk factors have not been reported.
Deep Multi-Instance Transfer Learning

We present a new approach for transferring knowledge from groups to individuals that comprise them. We evaluate our method in text, by inferring the ratings of individual sentences using full-review ratings. This approach, which combines ideas from transfer learning, deep learning and multi-instance learning, reduces the need for laborious human labelling of fine-grained data when abundant labels are available at the group level.
Interpretation of artificial neural networks by means of fuzzy rules

This paper presents an extension of the method presented by Benitez et al (1997) for extracting fuzzy rules from an artificial neural network (ANN) that express exactly its behavior. The extraction process provides an interpretation of the ANN in terms of fuzzy rules. The fuzzy rules presented are in accordance with the domain of the input variables. These rules use a new operator in the antecedent. The properties and intuitive meaning of this operator are studied. Next, the role of the biases in the fuzzy rule-based systems is analyzed. Several examples are presented to comment on the obtained fuzzy rule-based systems. Finally, the interpretation of ANNs with two or more hidden layers is also studied.
Incident Cervical HPV Infections in Young Women: Transition Probabilities for CIN and Infection Clearance

Background: We describe transition probabilities for incident human papillomavirus (HPV) 16/18/31/33/35/45/52/58/59 infections and cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) 1 lesions. Methods: Women ages 16 to 23 years underwent cytology and cervical swab PCR testing for HPV at approximately 6-month intervals for up to 4 years in the placebo arm of an HPV vaccine trial. The cumulative proportion of incident HPV infections with diagnosed CIN, clearing (infection undetectable), or persisting without CIN, were estimated. Results: Most incident infections cleared, without detection of CIN, ranging at 36 months from 66.9% for HPV31 to 91.1% for HPV59. There was little variation in the 36-month proportion of incident HPV16, 18, and 31 infections followed by a CIN1 lesion positive for the relevant HPV type (range 16.7%–18.6%), with lower risks for HPV59 (6.4%) and HPV33 (2.9%). Thirty-six–month transition probabilities for CIN2 ranged across types from 2.2% to 9.1%; however, the number of events was generally too small for statistically significant differences to be seen across types for this endpoint, or CIN3. Conclusions: Some incident HPV types appear more likely to result in diagnosed CIN1 than others. The relative predominance of HPV16, vis-à-vis some other high-risk HPV types (e.g., HPV33) in prevalent CIN2/3, appears more directly associated with relatively greater frequency of incident HPV16 infections within the population, than a higher risk of infection progression to CIN2/3. Impact: Nearly all incident HPV infections either manifest as detectable CIN or become undetectable within 36 months. Some HPV types (e.g., 16 and 33) appear to have similar risk of CIN2/3 despite widely varied incidence. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 20(2); 287–96. ©2011 AACR.
Aquaporin-2 expression in primary cultured rat inner medullary collecting duct cells.

Cultured renal epithelial cells rapidly downregulate expression of the vasopressin-regulated water channel aquaporin-2 (AQP-2). Our aim was to define conditions that favor maintenance of AQP-2 expression in vitro without genetic manipulation. We show here that primary cultures of rat inner medullary collecting duct (IMCD) cells retain AQP-2 expression for at least 6 days when grown with dibutyryl cAMP (DBcAMP) supplementation. We also found that coating the culture dishes with type IV collagen, rather than rat-tail collagen, retards AQP-2 downregulation. Immunofluorescence and biochemical studies indicate a shuttling of AQP-2-bearing vesicles after stimulation with vasopressin or forskolin. Rab3 proteins, known to be involved in regulated exocytosis, were detected only in cells grown in the presence of DBcAMP. Using the adenylyl cyclase assay, we confirmed the functional integrity of the vasopressin V2receptor in a broken cell preparation. Our data show that cAMP supplementation is sufficient for the maintenance of AQP-2 expression in primary cultured cells. The model system established here allows the study of the regulation of genes encoding the antidiuretic machinery at the cellular level.
Crustal and mantle velocity models of southern Tibet from finite frequency tomography

[1] Using traveltimes of teleseismic body waves recorded by several temporary local seismic arrays, we carried out finite-frequency tomographic inversions to image the three-dimensional velocity structure beneath southern Tibet to examine the roles of the upper mantle in the formation of the Tibetan Plateau. The results reveal a region of relatively high P and S wave velocity anomalies extending from the uppermost mantle to at least 200 km depth beneath the Higher Himalaya. We interpret this high-velocity anomaly as the underthrusting Indian mantle lithosphere. There is a strong low P and S wave velocity anomaly that extends from the lower crust to at least 200 km depth beneath the Yadong-Gulu rift, suggesting that rifting in southern Tibet is probably a process that involves the entire lithosphere. Intermediate-depth earthquakes in southern Tibet are located at the top of an anomalous feature in the mantle with a low Vp, a high Vs, and a low Vp/Vs ratio. One possible explanation for this unusual velocity anomaly is the ongoing granulite-eclogite transformation. Together with the compressional stress from the collision, eclogitization and the associated negative buoyancy force offer a plausible mechanism that causes the subduction of the Indian mantle lithosphere beneath the Higher Himalaya. Our tomographic model and the observation of north-dipping lineations in the upper mantle suggest that the Indian mantle lithosphere has been broken laterally in the direction perpendicular to the convergence beneath the north-south trending rifts and subducted in a progressive, piecewise and subparallel fashion with the current one beneath the Higher Himalaya.
Nitrogen Use Efficiency of Irrigated Corn for Three Cropping Systems in Nebraska

Nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) is of economic and environmental importance. Components of NUE were evaluated in 32 irrigated corn (Zea mays L.) trials conducted across Nebraska with different N rates and where the previous crop was either corn (CC), drybean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) (CD), or soybean (Glycine max L.) (CS). The mean grain yield with adequate nutrient availability was 14.7 Mg ha–1 . When no N was applied, measured soil properties and irrigation water N accounted for <20% of the variation in plant N uptake (UN). Mean fertilizer N recovery in above-ground biomass was 74% at the lowest N rate compared with 40% at the highest N rate, a mean of 64% at the economically optimal N rate (EONR), and least with CD. Agronomic efficiency of fertilizer N averaged 29 kg grain kg-1 N at EONR and was also least with CD. Partial factor productivity of N averaged 100 kg grain kg-1 N at EONR, and was greater with CS compared with CC and CD. After harvest, residual soil nitrate-N (RSN) in the 0 to 1.2 m depth ranged from 21 to 121 kg ha-1 and increased with N rate. Mean RSN was 88, 59, and 59 kg ha-1 for CD, CC, and CS, respectively. High corn yields can be achieved with high NUE and low RSN by management to maximize profitability in consideration of yield potential, and by applying N at the right amount and time.
Throughput and ergodic capacity of wireless energy harvesting based DF relaying network

In this paper, we consider a decode-and-forward (DF) relaying network based on wireless energy harvesting. The energy constrained relay node first harvests energy through radio-frequency (RF) signals from the source node. Next, the relay node uses the harvested energy to forward the decoded source information to the destination node. The source node transfers energy and information to the relay node through two mechanisms, i) time switching-based relaying (TSR) and ii) power splitting-based relaying (PSR). Considering wireless energy harvesting constraint at the relay node, we derive the exact analytical expressions of the achievable throughput and ergodic capacity of a DF relaying network for both TSR and PSR schemes. Through numerical analysis, we study the throughput performance of the overall system for different system parameters, such as energy harvesting time, power splitting ratio, and signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR). In particular, the throughput performance of the PSR scheme outperforms the throughput performance of the TSR scheme for a wide range of SNRs.
A clinician’s approach to clinical ethical reasoning

We offer a systematic strategy that situates clinical ethical reasoning within the paradigm of clinical reasoning. The trajectory of this strategy parallels clinical reasoning: a plain statement of the initial problem, careful gathering of data, a differential diagnostic assessment, and articulation and confirmation of a justified plan. This approach pays special attention to the goals of medical care, because so much depends on whether or not physician and patient share the same goals. This approach also addresses the heterogeneity of clinical problems that at first appear ethical and acknowledges the ethical pluralism that pervades clinical ethics.
Virulence Factors in Enterococcal Infections of Orthopedic Devices

Enterococci are opportunistic pathogens which today represent one of the leading causes of nosocomial infections. We have examined a collection of 52 Enterococcus faecalis isolated from orthopedic infections to determine if they were characterized by a specific pattern of virulence factors. The isolates were evaluated for biofilm formation, presence of genes coding the enterococcal surface protein (esp) and gelatinase (gelE), as well as for gelatinase production. While the rate of esp-positive isolates was comparable to that found among strains from other clinical sources, we found a significantly higher rate of strong biofilm formers and gelatinase producers. Particularly high was the rate of gelE-carrying strains expressing the gene. Data suggest that these two factors in particular may play an important role in enterococcal infections associated with biomaterials.