Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Current applications of orcein in histochemistry. A brief review with some new observations concerning influence of dye batch variation and aging of dye solutions on staining

Current uses of orcein to demonstrate elastic fibers and, following permanganate oxidation (Shikata's modification), hepatitis B surface antigen, copper associated protein, and sulfated mucins, are reviewed. Variations in staining performance with batch of dye and age of dye solution is also discussed. Additional experimental findings support the view that the orcein stain for elastic tissue and Shikata's modification produces consistent, high quality results as long as appropriate controls and suitable dye batches, e.g., Biological Stain Commission certified dyes, are used.
ASTEROSEISMOLOGY OF THE NEARBY SN-II PROGENITOR: RIGEL. I. THE MOST HIGH-PRECISION PHOTOMETRY AND RADIAL VELOCITY MONITORING

Rigel (β Ori, B8 Ia) is a nearby blue supergiant displaying α Cyg type variability, and is one of the nearest Type II supernova progenitors. As such it is an excellent test bed to study the internal structure of pre-core-collapse stars. In this study, for the first time, we present 28 days of high-precision MOST photometry and over six years of spectroscopic monitoring. We report 19 significant pulsation modes of signal-to-noise ratio, S/N ≳ 4.6 from radial velocities, with variability timescales ranging from 1.21 to 74.7 days, which are associated with high-order low-degree gravity modes. While the radial velocity variations show a degree of correlation with the flux changes, there is no clear interplay between the equivalent widths of different metallic and Hα lines.
Comprehensive and Detailed Study on the Modeling of Commercial SiC Power MOSFET Devices Using TCAD

The main scattering mechanisms reducing the channel mobility and thus the typical performance of a SiC power MOSFET are reviewed. It is demonstrated that the Poisson equation within the drift-diffusion model is able to account for the effects of ionized impurity scattering. Furthermore, a correlation between the size of macro-or nanosteps at the SiC/SiO2 interface and the corresponding fitting parameter within the Lombardi surface roughness model is established. By qualitatively reproducing the typical performance of a commercial SiC power MOSFET a baseline for the TCAD modeling of power MOSFETs is provided.
NCBI GEO: mining millions of expression profiles—database and tools

The Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) at the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) is the largest fully public repository for high-throughput molecular abundance data, primarily gene expression data. The database has a flexible and open design that allows the submission, storage and retrieval of many data types. These data include microarray-based experiments measuring the abundance of mRNA, genomic DNA and protein molecules, as well as non-array-based technologies such as serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE) and mass spectrometry proteomic technology. GEO currently holds over 30 000 submissions representing approximately half a billion individual molecular abundance measurements, for over 100 organisms. Here, we describe recent database developments that facilitate effective mining and visualization of these data. Features are provided to examine data from both experiment- and gene-centric perspectives using user-friendly Web-based interfaces accessible to those without computational or microarray-related analytical expertise. The GEO database is publicly accessible through the World Wide Web at http://www.ncbi. nlm.nih. gov/geo.
Mechanisms of germ cell specification across the metazoans: epigenesis and preformation

Germ cells play a unique role in gamete production, heredity and evolution. Therefore, to understand the mechanisms that specify germ cells is a central challenge in developmental and evolutionary biology. Data from model organisms show that germ cells can be specified either by maternally inherited determinants (preformation) or by inductive signals (epigenesis). Here we review existing data on 28 metazoan phyla, which indicate that although preformation is seen in most model organisms, it is actually the less prevalent mode of germ cell specification, and that epigenetic germ cell specification may be ancestral to the Metazoa.
Antipsychotic medication, functional outcome and quality of life in schizophrenia: focus on amisulpride

Abstract Background: Restoration of quality of life is considered as the ultimate treatment goal in the management of schizophrenia and is important for destigmatising the disease. However, few studies, including the most recent, have collected quality of life data prospectively or evaluated the relationship of treatment with quality of life. Scope: Amisulpride is an atypical antipsychotic drug which has been described to have potency in improving negative symptoms of chronic schizophrenia and whose use is associated with a relatively low rate of emergence of extrapyramidal side-effects. These properties may contribute to a beneficial effect on quality of life. A systematic literature review of functional outcome in clinical trials with amisulpride was performed in order to assess the effect of this drug on quality of life and social functioning in patients. The Medline database was searched for all studies of amisulpride in schizophrenia which reported functional and quality of life outcomes up until 30 September 2009. Findings: Only one dedicated study assessing functional outcome or quality of life as a primary outcome criterion was identified. This demonstrated significant improvement in subjective well-being in patients with schizophrenia initiating treatment with amisulpride, and a correlation between this improvement and amelioration of psychopathology. In addition, functional outcome rating scales were used as secondary outcome measures in eight randomised clinical trials, and two naturalistic observational studies. Amisulpride treatment was associated with improvement in functional outcome, with effect sizes that were comparable between studies. Improvements in functional outcome are consistently greater than those observed in patients treated with haloperidol and similar in magnitude to those seen with three other atypical antipsychotics, namely olanzapine, ziprasidone and risperidone. A patient-reported outcome measure was used in only one comparative study, and demonstrated perception of a superior benefit with amisulpride compared to haloperidol. These findings could to some extent be replicated in several large naturalistic studies under standard conditions of care. Conclusions: The data from studies on functional outcome and subjective well-being provide consistent information supporting the use of amisulpride for the treatment of schizophrenia in order to improve social functioning, integration into the community and autonomy, which are critical for the overall quality of life of patients with schizophrenia.
Iron metabolism and the role of HFE gene polymorphisms in Wilson disease

Wilson disease (WD) is a rare inherited disorder of copper metabolism, which can lead to severe liver failure and to a variety of neuropsychiatric symptoms. Previous animal studies and case reports suggest that hepatic iron overload and alterations in iron processing are associated with WD. The aim of this study was the assessment of iron metabolism and of the frequency of the most common HFE gene polymorphisms in WD patients.
Analysis of P1 Latency in Normal Hearing and Profound Sensorineural Hearing Loss

Objectives P1 is a robust positivity at a latency of 50-150 msec in the auditory evoked potential of young children. It has been reported that over the first 2-3 years of life, there is a rapid decrease of the latency and the mean P1 latency in adults with normal hearing is approximately 60 msec. This study was designed to evaluate the change of the P1 latency in Koreans with normal hearing according to age and to compare this with the P1 latency of young patients with profound sensorineural hearing loss before and/or after cochlear implantation. Methods Among the patients who visited the Department of Otorhinolaryngology at Seoul National University Hospital from June 2007 to September 2009, the P1 response was recorded in 53 patients in the normal hearing group, in 13 patients in the pre-cochlear implantation (CI) group and in 10 patients in the post-CI group. A synthesized consonant-vowel syllable /ba/ was used to elicit the evoked responses. The evoked responses were collected using the center of the frontal head. For each subject, an individual grand average waveform was computed by averaging the ten recordings. The P1 latency was visually identified as a robust positivity in the waveform. Results For the normal hearing group, the P1 latency showed the pattern of shortening as the age increased (coefficient, -0.758; P<0.001). For the pre-CI group, 10 cases showed delayed latencies and 3 cases did not show the P1 wave. For the post-CI group, the P1 latencies showed a less delayed tendency than those of the pre-CI group, but this was not statistically different. Conclusion This report provides the standard value of the P1 latency at each age in Koreans for the first time and the findings support that the maturation of the central auditory pathways could be measured objectively using the P1 latency.
Issues in the Development of Global Optimization Algorithms for Bilevel Programs with a Nonconvex Inner Program

The co-operative formulation of a nonlinear bilevel program involving nonconvex functions is considered and two equivalent reformulations to simpler programs are presented. It is shown that previous literature proposals for the global solution of such programs are not generally valid for nonconvex inner programs and several consequences of nonconvexity in the inner program are identified. In particular, issues with the computation of lower and upper bounds as well as with the choice of branching variables in a branch-andbound framework are analyzed. This analysis lays the foundation for the development of rigorous algorithms and some algorithmic expectations are established.
Patterned Optical Activation of Retinal Ganglion Cells

Neuroprosthetic retinal interfaces depend upon the ability to bypass the damaged photoreceptor layer and directly activate populations of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs). To date, the preferred approach to this task largely relies on electrode array implants. We are currently pursuing two alternative methods for light-based direct activation of the RGCs. The first method is based on applying caged glutamate over the retina and uncaging it locally to obtain RGC excitation. The second method is to artificially cause RGCs to express Channelrhodopsin II (ChR2), a light-gated cation channel. In addition to being non-contact, optical techniques lend themselves relatively easily to a variety of technologies for achieving patterned stimulation with high temporal and spatial resolution. Using the Texas Instruments Digital Light Processing (DLP - DMD) technology, we have developed an optical stimulation system capable of controlled, large-scale, flexible stimulation of the retinal tissue with high temporal accuracy. In preliminary studies, we are performing patterned photo-stimulation experiments using samples of caged fluorescent probes and in rat retinas that were virally transfected with ChR2.
Creating Robust Supervised Classifiers via Web-Scale N-Gram Data

In this paper, we systematically assess the value of using web-scale N-gram data in state-of-the-art supervised NLP classifiers. We compare classifiers that include or exclude features for the counts of various N-grams, where the counts are obtained from a web-scale auxiliary corpus. We show that including N-gram count features can advance the state-of-the-art accuracy on standard data sets for adjective ordering, spelling correction, noun compound bracketing, and verb part-of-speech disambiguation. More importantly, when operating on new domains, or when labeled training data is not plentiful, we show that using web-scale N-gram features is essential for achieving robust performance.
Effect of the handoff area sojourn time distribution on the performance of cellular networks

In cellular systems there is usually an overlap cell coverage area (area covered by two or more base stations) which has valuable practical applications. Particularly, it permits the queuing of handover requests as a handover prioritization scheme. The modeling of the sojourn time in the overlap area is a topic which is not sufficiently explored, and even less is the effect it may have on the performance of prioritized channel assignment schemes based on handover queuing. In this paper we develop an analytical model for a cellular system with channel reservation for handovers and handoff queuing. In our model, the common assumption of exponentially distributed maximum queuing time is removed and a general distribution is allowed. The model is used to quantify the influence that the coefficient of variation of the overlap area sojourn time has on system performance. We also propose an approximate model that is more versatile and numerically more efficient than the exact model.
What Do We Know About Capital Structure? Some Evidence from International Data

We investigate the determinants of capital structure choice by analyzing the financing decisions of public firms in the major industrialized countries. At an aggregate level, firm leverage is fairly similar across the G-7 countries. We find that factors identified by previous studies as correlated in the cross-section with firm leverage in the United States, are similarly correlated in other countries as well. However, a deeper examination of the U.S. and foreign evidence suggests that the theoretical underpinnings of the observed correlations are still largely unresolved.
Analysis and approximation of optimal co-scheduling on Chip Multiprocessors

Cache sharing among processors is important for Chip Multiprocessors to reduce inter-thread latency, but also brings cache contention, degrading program performance considerably. Recent studies have shown that job co-scheduling can effectively alleviate the contention, but it remains an open question how to efficiently find optimal co-schedules. Solving the question is critical for determining the potential of a co-scheduling system. This paper presents a theoretical analysis of the complexity of co-scheduling, proving its NP-completeness. Furthermore, for a special case when there are two sharers per chip, we propose an algorithm that finds the optimal co-schedules in polynomial time. For more complex cases, we design and evaluate a sequence of approximation algorithms, among which, the hierarchical matching algorithm produces near-optimal schedules and shows good scalability. This study facilitates the evaluation of co-scheduling systems, as well as offers some techniques directly usable in proactive job co-scheduling.
Spatial Attention Does Not Strongly Modulate Neuronal Responses in Early Human Visual Cortex

Attention can dramatically enhance behavioral performance based on a visual stimulus, but the degree to which attention modulates activity in early visual cortex is unclear. Whereas single-unit studies of spatial attention in monkeys have repeatedly revealed relatively modest attentional modulations in V1, human functional magnetic resonance imaging studies demonstrate a large attentional enhancement of the blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signal in V1. To explore this discrepancy, we used intracranial electrodes to directly measure the effect of spatial attention on the responses of neurons near the human occipital pole. We found that spatial attention does not robustly modulate stimulus-driven local field potentials in early human visual cortex, but instead produces modest modulations that are consistent with those seen in monkey neurophysiology experiments. This finding suggests that the neuronal activity that underlies visual attention in humans is similar to that found in other primates and that behavioral state may alter the linear relationship between neuronal activity and BOLD.
The cost-efficiency of mobile stroke units

In the vanguard of acute stroke care, the pursuit of ultra-early diagnosis and treatment has led to the development of mobile stroke units (MSU): ambulances equipped with portable CT imaging and other advanced diagnostics capable of administering IV thrombolysis in the prehospital setting. Since initial reports of feasibility, separate research groups have demonstrated the effectiveness of MSUs to facilitate earlier treatment with IV tissue plasminogen activator (tPA). 1,2
Data Quality Assessment

How good is a company’s data quality? Answering this question requires usable data quality metrics. Currently, most data quality measures are developed on an ad hoc basis to solve specific problems [6, 8], and fundamental principles necessary for developing usable metrics in practice are lacking. In this article, we describe principles that can help organizations develop usable data quality metrics. Studies have confirmed data quality is a multi-dimensional concept [1, 2, 6, 9, 10, 12]. Companies must deal with both the subjective perceptions of the individuals involved with the data, and the objective measurements based on the data set in question. Subjective data quality assessments reflect the needs and experiences of stakeholders: the collectors, custodians, and consumers of data products [2, 11]. If stakeholders assess the quality of data as poor, their behavior will be influenced by this assessment. One can use a questionnaire to measure stakeholder perceptions of data quality dimensions. Many healthcare, finance, and consumer product companies have used one such questionnaire, developed to assess data quality dimensions listed in Table 1 [7]. A major U.S. bank that administered the questionnaire found custodians (mostly MIS professionals) view their data as highly timely, but consumers disagree; and data consumers view data as difficult to manipulate for their business purposes, but custodians disagree [4, 6]. A follow-up investigation into the root causes of differing assessments provided valuable insight on areas needing improvement. Objective assessments can be task-independent or task-dependent. Task-independent metrics reflect states of the data without the contextual knowledge of the application, and can be applied to any data set, regardless of the tasks at hand. Taskdependent metrics, which include the organization’s business rules, company and government regulations, and constraints provided by the database administrator, are developed in specific application contexts.
Phylogeography of Recently Emerged DENV-2 in Southern Viet Nam

Revealing the dispersal of dengue viruses (DENV) in time and space is central to understanding their epidemiology. However, the processes that shape DENV transmission patterns at the scale of local populations are not well understood, particularly the impact of such factors as human population movement and urbanization. Herein, we investigated trends in the spatial dynamics of DENV-2 transmission in the highly endemic setting of southern Viet Nam. Through a phylogeographic analysis of 168 full-length DENV-2 genome sequences obtained from hospitalized dengue cases from 10 provinces in southern Viet Nam, we reveal substantial genetic diversity in both urban and rural areas, with multiple lineages identified in individual provinces within a single season, and indicative of frequent viral migration among communities. Focusing on the recently introduced Asian I genotype, we observed particularly high rates of viral exchange between adjacent geographic areas, and between Ho Chi Minh City, the primary urban center of this region, and populations across southern Viet Nam. Within Ho Chi Minh City, patterns of DENV movement appear consistent with a gravity model of virus dispersal, with viruses traveling across a gradient of population density. Overall, our analysis suggests that Ho Chi Minh City may act as a source population for the dispersal of DENV across southern Viet Nam, and provides further evidence that urban areas of Southeast Asia play a primary role in DENV transmission. However, these data also indicate that more rural areas are also capable of maintaining virus populations and hence fueling DENV evolution over multiple seasons.
Common approach to childhood obesity in Japan

Abstract Although the prevalence of childhood obesity is plateauing, it remains a social concern. The Japan Society for the Study of Obesity devised criteria for obesity disease as a morbid state that requires medical treatment in 2002. Moreover, the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare announced diagnostic criteria for childhood metabolic syndrome in 2010 because of the increasing number of children with lifestyle-related diseases. The treatment of obesity needs to be prioritized, and three principles, other than behavioral therapy, have been introduced in this study for the general medical treatment of obesity without underlying diseases: (1) diet therapy, (2) exercise, and (3) no pharmacotherapy. However, preventing obesity is more important than its treatment. A previous study reported the tracking of an overweight status from infancy; therefore, it is important to prevent infants from becoming overweight. The concept of the developmental origins of health and disease has been attracting more attention in recent years; however, preventative measures prior to birth should also be considered to reduce the incidence of obesity. Although the methods used to approach the treatment of childhood obesity change with differences in race or lifestyle, those who are engaged in the medical treatment of childhood obesity worldwide can contribute to its treatment and prevention by a mutual exchange of information.
Fine-grained Recognition in the Noisy Wild: Sensitivity Analysis of Convolutional Neural Networks Approaches

In this paper, we study the sensitivity of CNN outputs with respect to image transformations and noise in the area of fine-grained recognition. In particular, we answer the following questions (1) how sensitive are CNNs with respect to image transformations encountered during wild image capture? ; (2) how can we predict CNN sensitivity? ; and (3) can we increase the robustness of CNNs with respect to image degradations? To answer the first question, we provide an extensive empirical sensitivity analysis of commonly used CNN architectures (AlexNet, VGG19, GoogleNet) across various types of image degradations. This allows for predicting CNN performance for new domains comprised by images of lower quality or captured from a different viewpoint. We also show how the sensitivity of CNN outputs can be predicted for single images. Furthermore, we demonstrate that input layer dropout or pre-filtering during test time only reduces CNN sensitivity for high levels of degradation. Experiments for fine-grained recognition tasks reveal that VGG19 is more robust to severe image degradations than AlexNet and GoogleNet. However, small intensity noise can lead to dramatic changes in CNN performance even for VGG19.
A Bi-directional battery charger for electric vehicles using photovoltaic PCS systems

In this paper, a new concept of bi-directional battery charger for PHEV/EV with photovoltaic generation system and operation algorithm of battery charger system is proposed. A novel battery charger system with photovoltaic generation is designed to have function of photovoltaic power conversion and battery charging/discharging. Also, considering sensitive photovoltaic source according to in the environment conditions, grid and battery characteristic, operation algorithms of the system is proposed and these algorithms are analyzed by four cases according to load conditions in detail. Moreover, it is applied to battery charging algorithm of hybrid constant current constant voltage control combined merits of constant current control and constant voltage control. Informative simulation using PSIM and experimental result using 3.3kW lab-prototype set are presented for performance verification.