Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
What are good apertures for defocus deblurring?

In recent years, with camera pixels shrinking in size, images are more likely to include defocused regions. In order to recover scene details from defocused regions, deblurring techniques must be applied. It is well known that the quality of a deblurred image is closely related to the defocus kernel, which is determined by the pattern of the aperture. The design of aperture patterns has been studied for decades in several fields, including optics, astronomy, computer vision, and computer graphics. However, previous attempts at designing apertures have been based on intuitive criteria related to the shape of the power spectrum of the aperture pattern. In this paper, we present a comprehensive framework for evaluating an aperture pattern based on the quality of deblurring. Our criterion explicitly accounts for the effects of image noise and the statistics of natural images. Based on our criterion, we have developed a genetic algorithm that converges very quickly to near-optimal aperture patterns. We have conducted extensive simulations and experiments to compare our apertures with previously proposed ones.
An association between migraine and cutaneous allodynia

Recent animal studies on the mechanism of migraine show that intracranial pain is accompanied by increased periorbital skin sensitivity. These findings suggest that the pathophysiology of migraine involves not only irritation of meningeal perivascular pain fibers but also a transient increase in the responsiveness (ie, sensitization) of central pain neurons that process information arising from intracranial structures and skin. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the increased skin sensitivity observed in animal also develops in humans during migraine attacks. Repeated measurements of mechanical and thermal pain thresholds of periorbital and forearm skin areas in the absence of, and during, migraine attacks enabled us to determine the occurrence of cutaneous allodynia during migraine. Cutaneous allodynia is pain resulting from a nonnoxious stimulus to normal skin. In 79% of the patients, migraine was associated with cutaneous allodynia as defined, and in 21% of the patients it was not. The cutaneous allodynia occurred either solely within the referred pain area on the ipsilateral head, or within and outside the ipsilateral head. Cutaneous allodynia in certain well‐defined regions of the skin during migraine is an as yet unreported neurological finding that points to hyperexcitability of a specific central pain pathway that subserves intracranial sensation. Ann Neurol 2000;47:614–624
Cardiovascular psychophysiology

Both environmental and predispositional factors are of importance in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular (CV) disease. In humans, it is difficult to characterize the pathogenic environmental factors (exposures) because of the long time-span of pathogenesis. Perceived effort, control, social isolation, and absence of reward seem to increase the risk of CV diseases. It is methodologically easier to measure predispositional factors at one point in time and then record disease after some years; and there are several reports of associations between personality traits or behaviour patterns and CV disease. Recent psychophysiological research has focused on CV hyper-reactivity to challenge. Hyper-reactivity seems to be common in the offspring of hypertensives. This relation may be psychophysiological rather than physiological. Several questions remain regarding the validity and reliability of the hyper-reactivity construct. Studies of social hierarchies in animals have shown that social interactions produce pronounced psychophysiological responses. The existence of several differentiated CV response patterns may explain the contradictory findings of studies that only measure one or few physiological parameters. Predisposition to behaviours and reactivity of physiological systems may be accentuated by dominance-subordinate interactions. The availability of control and the perception of mastery is crucial in terminating responding to stressors. The presence of relatively constant response patterns to social interactions suggests that social interactions must be taken into account. Focus of CV psychophysiology should shift to studies of behavioural and somatic responses during social interactions.
Identification of the Regulator Gene Responsible for the Acetone-Responsive Expression of the Binuclear Iron Monooxygenase Gene Cluster in Mycobacteria

ABSTRACT The mimABCD gene cluster encodes the binuclear iron monooxygenase that oxidizes propane and phenol in Mycobacterium smegmatis strain MC2 155 and Mycobacterium goodii strain 12523. Interestingly, expression of the mimABCD gene cluster is induced by acetone. In this study, we investigated the regulator gene responsible for this acetone-responsive expression. In the genome sequence of M. smegmatis strain MC2 155, the mimABCD gene cluster is preceded by a gene designated mimR, which is divergently transcribed. Sequence analysis revealed that MimR exhibits amino acid similarity with the NtrC family of transcriptional activators, including AcxR and AcoR, which are involved in acetone and acetoin metabolism, respectively. Unexpectedly, many homologs of the mimR gene were also found in the sequenced genomes of actinomycetes. A plasmid carrying a transcriptional fusion of the intergenic region between the mimR and mimA genes with a promoterless green fluorescent protein (GFP) gene was constructed and introduced into M. smegmatis strain MC2 155. Using a GFP reporter system, we confirmed by deletion and complementation analyses that the mimR gene product is the positive regulator of the mimABCD gene cluster expression that is responsive to acetone. M. goodii strain 12523 also utilized the same regulatory system as M. smegmatis strain MC2 155. Although transcriptional activators of the NtrC family generally control transcription using the σ54 factor, a gene encoding the σ54 factor was absent from the genome sequence of M. smegmatis strain MC2 155. These results suggest the presence of a novel regulatory system in actinomycetes, including mycobacteria.
Broad-Market Return Persistence & Momentum Profits

Momentum profits are shown to be driven by the broad-market persistence of returns between the formation period and the holding period, which is measured as the slope coefficient of the regression of the cross-section returns in the holding period on the cross-section returns in the formation period. Broad-market persistence offers an understanding on momentum profits from a market-wide perspective that goes beyond the stock-specific continuation of extreme winners and losers as proposed in Jegadeesh and Titman (1993) and Grundy and Martin (2001). The proposed framework provides an alternative explanation to the inability of widely accepted asset pricing models in explaining momentum ptofits.
Adaptation of the User Navigation Scheme using Clustering and Frequent Pattern Mining Techiques for Profiling

There is a need to facilitate access to the required information in the web and adapting it to the users’ preferences and requirements. This paper presents a system that, based on a collaborative filtering approach, adapts the web site to improve the browsing experience of the user: it generates automatically interesting links for new users. The system only uses the web log files stored in any web server (common log format) and builds user profiles from them combining machine learning techniques with a generalization process for data representation. These profiles are later used in an exploitation stage to automatically propose links to new users. The paper examines the effect of the parameters of the system on its final performance. Experiments show that the designed system performs efficiently in a database accessible from the web and that the use of a generalization process, specificity in profiles and the use of frequent pattern mining techniques benefit the profile generation phase, and, moreover, diversity seems to help in the exploitation phase.
The word class effect in the picture–word interference paradigm

The word class effect in the picture–word interference paradigm is a highly influential finding that has provided some of the most compelling support for word class constraints on lexical selection. However, methodological concerns called for a replication of the most convincing of those effects. Experiment 1 was a direct replication of Pechmann and Zerbst (2002; Experiment 4). Participants named pictures of objects in the context of noun and adverb distractors. Naming took place in bare noun and sentence frame contexts. A word class effect emerged in both bare noun and sentence frame naming conditions, suggesting a semantic origin of the effect. In Experiment 2, participants named objects in the context of noun and verb distractors whose word class relationship to the target and imageability were orthogonally manipulated. As before, naming took place in bare noun and sentence frame naming contexts. In both naming contexts, distractor imageability but not word class affected picture naming latencies. These findings confirm the sensitivity of the picture–word interference paradigm to distractor imageability and suggest the paradigm is not sensitive to distractor word class. The results undermine the use of the word class effect in the picture–word interference paradigm as supportive of word class constraints during lexical selection.
Applying Classification Problems via a Data Mining Approach Based on a Cerebellar Model Articulation Controller

Although applied to classification, neural network (NN) classifiers have certain limitations, including slow training time, complex interpretation and difficult implementation in terms of optimal network topology. To overcome these disadvantages, this study presents an efficient and simple classifier based on the cerebellar model articulation controller NN (CMAC NN), which has the advantages of very fast learning, reasonable generalization ability and robust noise resistance. The performance of the proposed CMAC NN classifier is measured using PROBEN1 benchmark data sets taken from the UCI Machine Learning Repository for diabetes and glass, each of which include, respectively, three permutations of the available patterns. Numerical results show that the proposed CMAC NN classifier was efficient for tested data sets. Therefore, the CMAC NN classifier can be considered as a data mining tool to classification.
Assessment of Toxicological Perturbations and Variants of Pancreatic Islet Development in the Zebrafish Model

The pancreatic islets, largely comprised of insulin-producing beta cells, play a critical role in endocrine signaling and glucose homeostasis. Because they have low levels of antioxidant defenses and a high perfusion rate, the endocrine islets may be a highly susceptible target tissue of chemical exposures. However, this endpoint, as well as the integrity of the surrounding exocrine pancreas, is often overlooked in studies of developmental toxicology. Disruption of development by toxicants can alter cell fate and migration, resulting in structural alterations that are difficult to detect in mammalian embryo systems, but that are easily observed in the zebrafish embryo model (Danio rerio). Using endogenously expressed fluorescent protein markers for developing zebrafish beta cells and exocrine pancreas tissue, we documented differences in islet area and incidence rates of islet morphological variants in zebrafish embryos between 48 and 96 h post fertilization (hpf), raised under control conditions commonly used in embryotoxicity assays. We identified critical windows for chemical exposures during which increased incidences of endocrine pancreas abnormalities were observed following exposure to cyclopamine (2–12 hpf), Mono-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (MEHP) (3–48 hpf), and Perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) (3–48 hpf). Both islet area and length of the exocrine pancreas were sensitive to oxidative stress from exposure to the oxidant tert-butyl hydroperoxide during a highly proliferative critical window (72 hpf). Finally, pancreatic dysmorphogenesis following developmental exposures is discussed with respect to human disease.
HTTP Cookies: Standards, privacy, and politics

How did we get from a world where cookies were something you ate and where "nontechies" were unaware of "Netscape cookies" to a world where cookies are a hot-button privacy issue for many computer users? This article describes how HTTP "cookies" work and how Netscape's original specification evolved into an IETF Proposed Standard. I also offer a personal perspective on how what began as a straightforward technical specification turned into a political flashpoint when it tried to address nontechnical issues such as privacy.
Can an Incidental Picture Make Us More or Less Willing to Risk

This paper explores a new phenomenon – DIstant Context Effects (DICE) – and in this way it broadens the spectrum of known context effects on individual decision making and further challenges both the rational choice theory and alternative theories proposed in psychology such as reason-based choice. Distant context effects are typically influences of some elements of the environment that are completely irrelevant to the task on the decisions we make and moreover, we are typically not aware of these influences.
The Psychology Behind Commitment And Loyalty - An Empirical Study In A Bank Setting

Despite the extant literature on customer loyalty, it is recognized that the psychological processes behind commitment and customer loyalty are still ill understood. Therefore, the primary objective of this study is to assess the impact of three psychological antecedents (position involvement, volitional choice and informational complexity) on affective, calculative and normative commitment to a bank. In turn, we assess the impact of an individual difference variable (consumer relationship proneness) on these three psychological antecedents. And finally, this research project addresses the consequences of affective, calculative and normative commitment on loyalty in terms of word of mouth, purchase intention, price insensitivity and complaining. An empirical research among 439 bank customers was conducted to test our conceptual model. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) results reveal the pivotal role of affective commitment as an antecedent of customer loyalty. In turn, affective commitment can best be explained by position involvement. Moreover, relationship proneness seems to be most strongly related to position involvement. Managerial implications, limitations and directions for future research are provided.
Decreased miR-124-3p Expression Prompted Breast Cancer Cell Progression Mainly by Targeting Beclin-1.

BACKGROUND Recent findings have revealed that abnormal expression of microRNAs (miRNA, miR) contributes to the malignancies of various cancers. Here, we report a novel miRNA that regulates the expression of Beclin-1 in breast cancer cells. METHODS The expression of miR-124-3p and Beclin-1 was identified in breast cancer tissues and breast cancer cell lines. To explore whether Beclin-1 was the target gene of miR-124-3p, luciferase reporter assay was applied. MIR-124-3p was overexpressed or inhibited with the corresponding mimics or inhibitors. The expression of autophagy-related proteins including Beclin-1 and LC3II were explored by western blot and quantitative real-time PCR. RESULTS We first demonstrated that miR-124-3p was decreased in breast cancer tissues and breast cancer cells lines. Furthermore, we validated that miR-124-3p could negatively regulate the expression of Beclin-1. Increased miR-124-3p significantly decreased the expression of Beclin-1 and LC3I. Further study showed that overexpres- sion of miR-124-3p could partially reverse 4-hydroxytamoxifen (4-OHT)-induced autophagy in breast cancer cells. CONCLUSIONS Decreased miR-124-3p expression prompted breast cancer cell progression mainly by enhancing the expression of autophagy related protein, Beclin-1.
Tests on 1/4-scale six-story two-bay hybrid concrete moment-resisting frames under lateral loading

The hybrid concrete frame investigated herein was composed of precast concrete T beams and cast-in-place concrete columns. This study presents the results of experimental investigations on 1/4-scale six-story two-bay hybrid concrete frames under cyclic loading and monotonic loading, respectively. Behavior of the specimens was evaluated in terms of failure pattern, failure mechanism, stiffness degradation, energy dissipation, and displacement ductility. The results revealed that the plastic hinge first occurred in the second story beam end. Both specimens, as expected, exhibited a mixed sideway mechanism. The hysteresis loops of the test specimen were globally stable and exhibited some pinching. The maximum load-carrying capacity under cyclic loading was about 6% higher than that under monotonic loading. Both specimens behaved in a ductile manner, and the global displacement ductility under cyclic loading was 38% lower than that under monotonic loading. An overview of damage observations and the local and global behaviors were provided.
Holistic Practice in Traumatic Brain Injury Rehabilitation: Perspectives of Health Practitioners

Given that the literature suggests there are various (and often contradictory) interpretations of holistic practice in brain injury rehabilitation and multiple complexities in its implementation (including complex setting, discipline, and client-base factors), this study aimed to examine the experiences of practitioners in their conceptualization and delivery of holistic practice in their respective settings. Nineteen health practitioners purposively sampled from an extensive Brain Injury Network in Queensland, Australia participated in individual interviews. A systematic text analysis process using Leximancer qualitative analysis program was undertaken, followed by manual thematic analysis to develop overarching themes. The findings from this study have identified several items for future inter-professional development that will not only benefit the practitioners working in brain injury rehabilitation settings, but the patients and their families as well.
THE SINGLE STRAND CONFORMATIONAL ANALYSIS OF CATTLE AND HUMAN SINGLE NUCLEOTIDE POLYMORPHISMS MAY BE BIASED TOWARDS SPECIFIC SEQUENCE MOTIFS THAT MINIMIZE LOCAL SECONDARY STRUCTURE OF SINGLE STRAND DNA

Single strand conformational polymorphisms (SSCP) resulting from point mutations were found to be associated preferentially with two DNA sequence motifs. These motifs are [1] three or more of the same base but in which the polymorphism is not due to length variation and [2] a region of polypurine or polypyrimidine bases. These motifs were identified after SSCP alleles from cattle were sequenced. The sequence difference and flanking sequence for each single nucleotide polymorphism are shown. The motifs were also found in SSCP from humans chosen at random from the literature, in which the alleles had been sequenced. There is a low level of complementarity of adjacent bases in these motifs and they should represent regions of low secondary structure in the single stranded DNA. Regions of high secondary structure, such as palindromes, were found in the same sample to have allelic variation that was not detected by SSC analysis. These results give a rule of thumb for selecting the particular part of a DNA fragment to be selected for testing for polymorphisms, but this rule clashes with rules used to design primers to amplify sequences using the PCR, namely, minimise hydrogen bonding within and between primers and reduce self-complementarity.
Association of Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha Polymorphisms and Risk of Coronary Artery Disease in Patients With Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

Background: Cardiovascular events account for the main cause of death in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), and are largely influenced by genetic factors. Although multiple studies showed that tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) polymorphisms are risk factors in the progression of NAFLD, few papers on the association of the polymorphisms and the developing coronary artery disease (CAD) in NAFLD patients have been reported. Objectives: The present study was designed to evaluate the association of TNF-α polymorphisms at residues -238 and -308, with the risk of developing CAD in Chinese patients with NAFLD. Patients and Methods: The TNF-α polymorphisms at residues 238 and 308 were genotyped in B-type ultrasonography proven NAFLD patients with (n = 246), without (n = 247) CAD and healthy controls (n = 304), using polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Serum lipid profiles were determined using biochemical methods. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS statistical software, version 20.0 for Mac. Results: We found a significant association between TNF-α-238 guanine to alanine (GA) polymorphism and carriers of variant allele A between NAFLD patients with and without CAD (P < 0.05). Carriers of the A allele of TNF-α-238 had higher serum triglycerides (TG) and low density lipoprotein (LDL) levels in NAFLD patients with CAD (P = 0.025 and 0.001, respectively) and a higher TG level in NAFLD patients without CAD (P = 0.017), than their non-carrier counterparts. Conclusions: In the Chinese Han population that we studied, NAFLD patients who carry the TNF-α-238 GA polymorphism have an increased risk of developing CAD. Mechanisms underlying this potentially important association require further investigation.
Query-based partitioning of documents and indexes for information lifecycle management

Regulations require businesses to archive many electronic documents for extended periods of time. Given the sheer volume of documents and the response time requirements, documents that are unlikely to ever be accessed should be stored on an inexpensive device (such as tape), while documents that are likely to be accessed should be placed on a more expensive, higher-performance device. Unfortunately, traditional data partitioning techniques either require substantial manual involvement, or are not suitable for read-rarely workloads. In this paper, we present a novel technique to address this problem. We estimate the future access likelihood for a document based on past workloads of keyword queries and the click-through behavior for top-K query answers, then use this information to drive partitioning decisions. Our overall best scheme, the document-split inverted index, does not require any parameter tuning and yet performs close to the optimal partitioning strategy. Experiments show that document-split partitioning improves performance on a large intranet query workload by a factor of 4 when we add a fast storage server that holds 20% of the data.