Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Assessing the Radiocarbon Freshwater Reservoir Effect for a Northwest-European River System (the Schelde Basin, Belgium)

ABSTRACT The freshwater reservoir effect (FRE) for the Schelde basin (Belgium) is assessed for the Roman, Medieval and early Post-medieval periods by comparing historical and archaeological dates from individual archaeological deposits with radiocarbon dates on the remains of freshwater fish and terrestrial mammals from those same deposits. This is the first time such an assessment has been attempted for the Schelde basin. The FRE offsets prove to be substantial for the historical periods considered. They also differ markedly between fish species and between size classes of a single species. These observations have implications for the evaluation of radiocarbon dates obtained on archaeological remains of humans (and animals) with a substantial amount of freshwater fish into their diet. The data obtained in this study suggest that it will not be easy to correct for any FRE.
FORMATION OF PHYTIC ACID IN CEREAL GRAINS *

The ripening process of plants is characterized by the accumulation of substances in the seeds. The important mineral nutrient phosphorus is no exception to this accumulation process. The active transport of phosphorus to seeds from leaves and roots is an important part of the ripening. In the rice plant, at the end of the ripening, about 60% of the phosphorus in the whole plant is found in the grains.l Most of the phosphorus thus transported to the seeds exists in the form of phytic acid, inositol hexaphosphate. In cereal grains, 60-80% of the total phosphorus is found in phytic acid. It has been generally supposed that phytic acid functions as a storage form of phosphorus and is utilized as a source of phosphorus at germination. Recently, the occurrence of transphosphorylation between phytic acid and adenosine diphosphate has been suggested.2 Further, the occurrence of an enzyme catalyzing the transphosphorylation between phytic acid and guanosine diphosphate was established in mung bean.3 These findings show a more active participation of phytic acid as a phosphagen, rather than as a source of phosphorus at germination. We do not have much information regarding the formation of phytic acid, but the enzyme catalyzing the formation of inositol monophosphate has been fo~nd . 4 -~ However, the phosphorylation mechanism in the biosynthesis of more highly phosphorylated inositol is unknown. Phytic acid is unique in having six phosphate ester linkages in one molecule of small molecular weight; hitherto, a highly phosphorylated compound such as phytic acid has not been known. From this point of view, it is supposed that phosphorylation of inositol is carried out through a mechanism different from the usual kinase reaction. A hypothesis for the mechanism of inositol phosphorylation, based on experiments on ripening grains of rice and wheat, is presented in this paper. According to this hypothesis, the phosphorylation of inositol in the formation of phytic acid does not occur in a sequential fashion through phosphorylated inositol, but occurs through a hypothetical phosphorylated inositol derivative. The occurrence of a new kind of polyphosphorylated inositol derivative in the ripening grains is postulated as a possible candidate.
Optimization of area in digit-serial Multiple Constant Multiplications at gate-level

The last two decades have seen many efficient algorithms and architectures for the design of low-complexity bit-parallel Multiple Constant Multiplications (MCM) operation, that dominates the complexity of Digital Signal Processing (DSP) systems. On the other hand, digit-serial architectures offer alternative low-complexity designs, since digit-serial operators occupy less area and are independent of the data wordlength. This paper introduces the problem of designing a digit-serial MCM operation with minimal area at gate-level and presents the exact formalization of the area optimization problem as a 0–1 Integer Linear Programming (ILP) problem. Experimental results show the efficiency of the proposed algorithm and digit-serial MCM designs in terms of area at gate-level.
Sensitivity and Frequencies of Dystrophin Gene Mutations in Thai DMD/BMD Patients As Detected by Multiplex PCR

Background: Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), a lethal X-linked disease affecting 1 in 3500 male births, and its more benign variant, Becker muscular dystrophy (BMD), are caused by mutations in the dystrophin gene. Because of its large size, analysing the whole gene is impractical. Methods have been developed to detect the commonest mutations i.e. the deletions of the exons. Although these tests are highly specific, their sensitivity is inherently limited by the prevalence of deletions, which differs among different populations. Methods: We reviewed our database for the detection of Dystrophin gene mutation by means of 31-exon multiplex PCR in Thai males, diagnosed clinically and biochemically with DMD or BMD from July 1994 to November 2006. One index patient was chosen from each family for statistical analysis. The overall sensitivity of the test, the number of fragment deleted, and the deletion frequency of each fragment were calculated, along with their 95% confidence intervals (C.I.). Results: We found deletions in 99 out of the 202 index patients (49%; Bayesian 95% C.I. = 42%–56%). 51% of these had deletion in only one of the 31 exons tested, while the patient with the most extensive deletions had 14 exons deleted. The mean number of deleted exons were 2.84 (BCa bootstrap 95% C.I. = 2.37–3.48), or 5.02 (3.81–6.85) if all the untested exons adjacent to the confirmed deleted exons were assumed to be deleted. The region spanning exons 44-52 was the most frequently deleted. These were similar to those reported in the Japanese. Conclusion: The multiplex PCR detected deletions only in about half of the Thai patients. The diseases therefore should not be excluded solely on the negative result if DMD/BMD is strongly suspected.
UMDFaces: An annotated face dataset for training deep networks

Recent progress in face detection (including keypoint detection), and recognition is mainly being driven by (i) deeper convolutional neural network architectures, and (ii) larger datasets. However, most of the large datasets are maintained by private companies and are not publicly available. The academic computer vision community needs larger and more varied datasets to make further progress. In this paper, we introduce a new face dataset, called UMDFaces, which has 367,888 annotated faces of 8,277 subjects. We also introduce a new face recognition evaluation protocol which will help advance the state-of-the-art in this area. We discuss how a large dataset can be collected and annotated using human annotators and deep networks. We provide human curated bounding boxes for faces. We also provide estimated pose (roll, pitch and yaw), locations of twenty-one key-points and gender information generated by a pre-trained neural network. In addition, the quality of keypoint annotations has been verified by humans for about 115,000 images. Finally, we compare the quality of the dataset with other publicly available face datasets at similar scales.
Population Structure of Lethrinus Lentjan (Lethrinidae, Percoidei) Across the South China Sea and the Philippines Is Detected With Lane-Affected RADSeq Data

POPULATION STRUCTURE OF LETHRINUS LENTJAN (LETHRINIDAE, PERCOIDEI) ACROSS THE SOUTH CHINA SEA AND THE PHILIPPINES IS DETECTED WITH LANEAFFECTED RADSEQ DATA Ellen E. Biesack Old Dominion University, 2017 Director: Dr. Kent E. Carpenter Southeast Asia includes the Coral Triangle, a marine biodiversity hotspot that supports important fishery resources experiencing varied threats. Patterns of speciation and population structure in the Coral Triangle have been examined to test hypotheses relating to the historical geologic processes that may have influenced this biodiversity phenomenon. This study investigates the genetic population structure of the Pink-ear Emperor Snapper, Lethrinus lentjan (Lacepède, 1802), across the Philippines and the South China Sea. The species is fished throughout the Coral Triangle by subsistence and commercial fishers and their landings have been in decline for several years, which could be indicative of depleted stocks. Six locations were sampled representing the northeastern, southeastern, central, and western Philippines, and central and southern Vietnam. This study used restriction-site associated DNA sequencing (RADSeq) to sample single nucleotide polymorphism markers from throughout the genome. Here, RADseq data is successfully used to detect structuring within the Philippines where a previous study of L. lentjan mitochondrial control region sequences did not. Genetic structure analyses revealed significant divergence along the boundaries of repeatedly isolated ocean basins, as observed in several Indo-Pacific species. Pleistocene vicariance is a suspected driving factor in lineage diversification for this species, supporting the hypothesis that the Coral Triangle is a center of origin. Before management or conservation strategies can be implemented, a stock assessment should be completed for L. lentjan, including research on its life history, ecosystem services, and metapopulation dynamics. This study also used STRUCTURE analysis to detect a strong Illumina sequencer lane effect, where the genotype of a fish is associated with the sequencer lane used to generate the data. To control and remove this lane effect, the data was parsed into two clusters, a new method for salvaging lane-affected data. It is recognized that RADSeq is prone to lane effects that can result in erroneous conclusions, and several strategies are outlined for identifying, mitigating, and avoiding them in future high-throughput RADSeq studies.
The plaque-inhibiting effect of chlorhexidine-containing dentifrices.

– In a double blind longitudinal study the plaque-inhibiting effect of two chlorhexidine-containing dentifrices was tested on 53 students for 2 months. The mean Plaque Index values of the groups employing active toothpastes were significantly lower than in a placebo group (p < 0.5). The differences tended to increase with time. Standardized color photographs were taken of all participants at the start and at the termination of the experiment. Brownish stains on silicate fillings and tooth surfaces were observed frequently. No damage to the oral mucosa or discoloration of the dorsum of the tongue could be detected. Storing of the dentifrices at room temperature up to 6 months caused no changes in the antibacterial activity against salivary bacteria in vitro. It is concluded that the use of a dentifrice as a vehicle for chlorhexidine might be of value in the general preventive application of the agent.
An improved algorithm for robust safety analysis of sampled data systems

A sampled data model falls somewhere between continuous and discrete time models: The plant evolves in continuous time, but the controller receives feedback and can modify its control input(s) only at periodic points in time. In previous work we have demonstrated how to compute the discriminating kernel (also called the maximal robust control invariant set) for sampled data systems and how this kernel can be used to analyze and even synthesize safe feedback controllers for systems with state space safety constraints; however, the algorithm for computing the kernel was conservative. In this paper we provide an improved abstract algorithm whose computations are tight to the sampled data discriminating kernel. The improved algorithm can also take sample time jitter into account. A level set implementation is used to demonstrate that the new algorithm is tight and a conservative ellipsoidal implementation is used to demonstrate its practical benefits on a nonlinear quadrotor model.
A Basic Review on Hypertension, its Non-Pharmacological and Pharmacological Treatment

Hypertension (HTN) Is Prevalent Leading Health Issue Around the World. It is significant cause for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality risk factors? The term "high blood pressure" refers to hypertension. It is long term condition in which the blood pressure in the arteries continuously increased. Distribution of HTN in developed nation, in obese, elderly, pregnancy and now a day’s teenager is also affected. The pathological mechanisms involved in HTN are genetics, sympathetic nervous system over activity, gender differences, cardiac output and peripheral vascular resistance, obstructive sleep apnoea, racial and ethnic factors, and many others. it can be prevented by reducing salt intake, weight loss, exercise, smoking cessation. There are many drugs are available for the treatment of this and its combination therapy is more effective. The pathophysiology, diagnosis, and current state of the disease's management are covered in this study. Keywords: Hypertension, cardiovascular morbidity, cardiac output, peripheral vascular resistance
When is Nontrivial Estimation Possible for Graphons and Stochastic Block Models?

Block graphons (also called stochastic block models) are an important and widely-studied class of models for random networks. We provide a lower bound on the accuracy of estimators for block graphons with a large number of blocks. We show that, given only the number $k$ of blocks and an upper bound $\rho$ on the values (connection probabilities) of the graphon, every estimator incurs error at least on the order of $\min(\rho, \sqrt{\rho k^2/n^2})$ in the $\delta_2$ metric with constant probability, in the worst case over graphons. In particular, our bound rules out any nontrivial estimation (that is, with $\delta_2$ error substantially less than $\rho$) when $k\geq n\sqrt{\rho}$. Combined with previous upper and lower bounds, our results characterize, up to logarithmic terms, the minimax accuracy of graphon estimation in the $\delta_2$ metric. A similar lower bound to ours was obtained independently by Klopp, Tsybakov and Verzelen (2016).
PATTERNS OF ACCUMULATION OF HEAVY METALS IN NON-WOODY VEGETATION ESTABLISHED ON ZINC-LEAD SMELTER CONTAMINATED SOILS

Soil columns for two soil types obtained from an abandoned lead and zinc smelter at Dearing in Montgomery County, Kansas, were vegetated by means of a grass/legume seeding mixture. Herbaceous shoot and root material was analyzed for zinc, lead, and cadmium by ICP spectrometry. Results indicate that for both types of substrate there was significant accumulation of all three metals by root systems with relatively low concentrations of any of these metals being partitioned to the shoots. Partitioning between shoots and roots for all three metals on both soil types averaged 1:5 (shoot:root). There was little correlation between root and shoot concentrations of any of these metals. Implications of these observations for phytoremediation of smelter sites are considered.
Joint network optimization and beamforming for Coordinated Multi-Point Transmission using mixed integer programming

Coordinated Multi-Point Transmission (CoMP) has been proposed for 4G standards, like WiMAX and LTE-Advanced, as an effective mean to control intercell interference and to increase spectral efficiency in single frequency reuse networks. In practical systems, the remarkable benefits of CoMP operation over conventional single basestation transmission need to be traded against a significant overhead in network complexity and associated operational costs. In order to retain the benefits of CoMP at reasonable costs, we consider the problem of joint basestation selection and multicell beamforming (JBSB). We address this problem via a mixed integer second order cone programming (MI-SOCP) approach. We propose a novel MI-SOCP formulation of the JBSB problem and a reformulation with tighter continuous relaxations. Based on this formulation, we propose fast algorithms to find almost optimal feasible solutions. We show via simulations that the proposed algorithms outperform existing solutions in terms of both complexity and total transmitted power at a guaranteed signal-to-interference-plus-noise-ratio (SINR) level at each mobile station (MS).
Of Landscapes, Anchors, and Tools: on learning with multimedia computer programs

Abstract Under the cognitive paradigm human learners are portrayed as information processing systems. The idea of looking upon human beings as computers certainly seems to be progressive if one bears in mind that under the behaviourist paradigm, human learners are treated as black boxes, but it still leaves something to be desired. In recent instructional studies, the capacity of this approach to account for learning outcomes has therefore been questioned, arguing that processes of cognition and learning are basically situated, i.e. are based on an individual's activities in a social situation. The idea of cognition being situated has had some influence on theoretical approaches that have been developed in the field of learning and instruction with multimedia computer programs. Interestingly, a number of images or metaphors can be found in the writings of the respective authors that are used to characterise certain aspects of knowledge and knowledge acquisition processes: landscapes, anchors, and tools. I.
Clinical Implications of Phosphorylated STAT3 Expression in De Novo Diffuse Large B-cell Lymphoma

Purpose: Activated signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) regulates tumor growth, invasion, cell proliferation, angiogenesis, immune response, and survival. Data regarding expression of phosphorylated (activated) STAT3 in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) and the impact of phosphorylated STAT3 (pSTAT3) on prognosis are limited. Experimental Design: We evaluated expression of pSTAT3 in de novo DLBCL using immunohistochemistry, gene expression profiling (GEP), and gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA). Results were analyzed in correlation with cell-of-origin (COO), critical lymphoma biomarkers, and genetic translocations. Results: pSTAT3 expression was observed in 16% of DLBCL and was associated with advanced stage, multiple extranodal sites of involvement, activated B-cell–like (ABC) subtype, MYC expression, and MYC/BCL2 expression. Expression of pSTAT3 predicted inferior overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) in patients with de novo DLBCL. When DLBCL cases were stratified according to COO or MYC expression, pSTAT3 expression did not predict inferior outcome, respectively. Multivariate analysis showed that the prognostic predictability of pSTAT3 expression was due to its association with the ABC subtype, MYC expression, and adverse clinical features. GEP demonstrated upregulation of genes, which can potentiate function of STAT3. GSEA showed the JAK–STAT pathway to be enriched in pSTAT3+ DLBCL. Conclusions: The results of this study provide a rationale for the ongoing successful clinical trials targeting the JAK–STAT pathway in DLBCL. Clin Cancer Res; 20(19); 5113–23. ©2014 AACR.
Aid effectiveness disputed

There is a widespread perception among academic researchers and aid practitioners alike that empirical cross‐country analysis fails to find any significant link between aid flows and growth, and that aid is successful only when associated with good policies in the recipient countries. These positions do not stand up to careful scrutiny of existing studies. In this paper, we offer a re‐examination of the literature on the aid–savings, aid–investment, and aid–growth relationships, and a comparative appraisal of more recent research contributions. Using an analytic framework for evaluating the empirical work, a coherent and positive picture of the aid–growth link emerges. There is a robust aid–growth link even in countries hampered by an unfavourable policy environment. © 2016. The Authors. Journal of International Development published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Two theoretical results for sequential semidefinite programming

We examine the local convergence of a sequential semidefinite programming approach for solving nonlinear programs with nonlinear semidefiniteness constraints. Known convergence results are extended to slightly weaker second order sufficient conditions and the resulting subproblems are shown to have local convexity properties that imply a weak form of self-concordance of the barrier subproblems.
THE IMPRINTING OF NUTRITIONAL DISTURBANCES ON THE GROWING BONE.

WHEN nutritional disturbances in the young animal become so severe that nutrient material is inadequate to go around, in the economy of nature the bones are sacrificed. Preference is given to those organs on which continued existence depends and, if they also suffer, they do not do so to a comparable extent. In the crisis the bones simply cease to grow and, when the crisis is over, proceed to carry on again as if nothing had happened. Nature's method of shedding the burden of the skeleton and, presumably, of the other extra-vital tissues in periods of nutritional stress leaves marks in the growing bones, as seasonal sapless periods leave their marks in trees in the form of rings and as the fasting spawning periods in the anadromous fishes record themselves by lines in the scales. Doubtless, the soft tissues of the locomotor system, like the bones, reflect these nourishment withdrawals, but the resulting cellular changes are not located in areas where they can be recognized and, moreover, are probably evanescent anyway. The marks in the trunks of trees, in the scales of fishes and in the growing bones of warm-blooded animals can be recognized because they are strung out seriatim, for the reason that linear growth takes place in increments, one superimposed upon another in the order of time, and also because the material is durable. Although growth arrest marks in the bones originate in the organic matrix, the matrix becomes immediately infiltrated with mineral matter so that the marks become petrified in situ, so to speak.
A unified model of spatial and episodic memory

Medial temporal lobe structures including the hippocampus are implicated by separate investigations in both episodic memory and spatial function. We show that a single recurrent attractor network can store both the discrete memories that characterize episodic memory and the continuous representations that characterize physical space. Combining both types of representation in a single network is actually necessary if objects and where they are located in space must be stored. We thus show that episodic memory and spatial theories of medial temporal lobe function can be combined in a unified model.
Design patterns over SOLID and GRASP principles in real projects

Design patterns (models) are repeatable and reusable constructions and solutions for common situations and problems to improve the quality of software systems. SOLID and GRASP are sets of design principles that are used in object-oriented software development. In this work we consider these solutions and principles and compare their (possibly combined) usage in diﬀerent cases.