Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Geometric Invariant Theory based on Weil divisors

Given an action of a reductive group on a normal variety, we describe all invariant open subsets admitting a good quotient with a quasiprojective or a divisorial quotient space. We obtain several new Hilbert–Mumford type theorems, and we extend a projectivity criterion of Białynicki-Birula and Święcicka for varieties with semisimple group action from the smooth to the singular case.
One-carbon metabolite levels in mid-pregnancy and risks of conotruncal heart defects.

BACKGROUND Evidence exists for an association between use of vitamin supplements with folic acid in early pregnancy and reduced risk for offspring with conotruncal heart defects. A few observations have been made about nutrients related to one-carbon metabolism other than folate. Our prospective study attempted to extend information on nutrition and conotruncal heart defects by measuring analytes in mid-pregnancy sera. METHODS This study included data from a repository of women's mid-pregnancy serum specimens based on screened pregnancies in California from 2002-2007. Each woman's specimen was linked with delivery information to determine whether her fetus had a conotruncal heart defect or another structural malformation, or was nonmalformed. We identified 140 conotruncal cases and randomly selected 280 specimens as nonmalformed controls. Specimens were tested for a variety of analytes, including homocysteine, methylmalonic acid, folate, vitamin B12 , pyridoxal phosphate, pyridoxal, pyridoxic acid, riboflavin, total choline, betaine, methionine, cysteine, cystathionine, arginine, asymmetric and symmetric dimethylarginine. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS We did not observe statistical evidence for substantial differences between cases and controls for any of the measured analytes. Analyses specifically targeting B-vitamins also did not reveal differences between cases and controls.
The Prolactin Receptor Gene is Associated with Increased Litter Size In Pigs

and Implications The prolactin receptor gene was investigated as a candidate gene for reproduction traits in five PIC lines consisting of Large White (2), Landrace, Duroc, and Large White/Meishan origin. Least squares means for total number born (TNB) and number born alive (NBA) were calculated for each genotype in addition to an analysis of additive and dominance effects by line. The PRLR gene was significantly associated with TNB and/or NBA in three of the lines tested. The effect was greater than one pig for NBA in one line, although the effect clearly varied depending on the background genetics of the line. Additional data is needed to confirm the significant effects seen in these three lines. However, the effects observed to date suggest that this gene test has the potential to be a powerful tool when used in conjunction with traditional selection methods for some lines.
Synthesizing technology adoption and learners' approaches towards active learning in higher education

: In understanding how active and blended learning approaches with learning technologies engagement in undergraduate education, current research models tend to undermine the effect of learners’ variations, particularly regarding their styles and approaches to learning, on intention and use of learning technologies. This study contributes to further examine a working model for learning outcomes in higher education with the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) on SRS adoption attitude, and the Study Process Questionnaire (SPQ) on students’ approach to learning. Adopting a cross-section observational design, the current study featured an online survey incorporating items UTAUT and SPQ. The survey was administered to 1627 undergraduate students at a large comprehensive university in Hong Kong. Relationships between SRS adoption attitude, learning approaches, and learning outcomes in higher-order thinking & learning and collaborative learning were analyzed with a structural equation model (SEM). A total of 3 latent factors, including four factors from UTAUT in Performance Expectancy, Effort Expectancy, and Deep Learning Approach from the SPQ, were identified in the structural model on students’ intention to adopt SRS in classes. Current results suggested that a model of active learning outcomes comprising both UTAUT constructs and deep learning approach. Model presented in the present study supported the UTAUT in predicting both behavioral intention and in adopting SRS in large classes of undergraduate education. Specifically, positive attitudes towards SRS use measured with the UTAUT, via a learning approach towards deep learning, accounted for variation on high-impact learning including higher-order thinking and collaborative learning. Results demonstrated that the process of technology adoption should be conceptualized in conjunction with learners’ diversity for explaining variation in adoption of technologies in the higher education context.
Springlets: Expressive, Flexible and Silent On-Skin Tactile Interfaces

We introduce Springlets, expressive, non-vibrating mechanotactile interfaces on the skin. Embedded with shape memory alloy springs, we implement Springlets as thin and flexible stickers to be worn on various body locations, thanks to their silent operation even on the neck and head. We present a technically simple and rapid technique for fabricating a wide range of Springlet interfaces and computer-generated tactile patterns. We developed Springlets for six tactile primitives: pinching, directional stretching, pressing, pulling, dragging, and expanding. A study placing Springlets on the arm and near the head demonstrates Springlets' effectiveness and wearability in both stationary and mobile situations. We explore new interactive experiences in tactile social communication, physical guidance, health interfaces, navigation, and virtual reality gaming, enabled by Springlets' unique and scalable form factor.
The enigma of optical momentum in a medium

It is 100 years since Minkowski and Abraham first gave rival expressions for the momentum of light in a material medium. At the single-photon level, these correspond, respectively, either to multiplying or dividing the free-space value () by the refractive index (n). The debate that this work started has continued till the present day, punctuated by the occasional publication of ‘decisive’ experimental demonstrations supporting one or other of these values. We review the compelling arguments made in support of the Minkowski and Abraham forms and are led to the conclusion that both momenta are correct. We explain why two distinct momenta are needed to describe light in a medium and why each appears as the natural, and experimentally observed, momentum in appropriate situations.
Factor-Based Prediction of Industry-Wide Bank Stress

This article investigates the use of factor-based methods for predicting industry-wide bank stress. Specifically, using the variables detailed in the Federal Reserve Board of Governors’ bank stress scenarios, the authors construct a small collection of distinct factors. We then investigate the predictive content of these factors for net charge-offs and net interest margins at the bank industry level. The authors find that the factors do have significant predictive content, both in and out of sample, for net interest margins but significantly less predictive content for net charge-offs. Overall, it seems reasonable to conclude that the variables used in the Fed’s bank stress tests are useful for identifying stress at the industry-wide level. The final section offers a simple factor-based analysis of the counterfactual bank stress testing scenarios.
Optimized Product Quantization

Product quantization (PQ) is an effective vector quantization method. A product quantizer can generate an exponentially large codebook at very low memory/time cost. The essence of PQ is to decompose the high-dimensional vector space into the Cartesian product of subspaces and then quantize these subspaces separately. The optimal space decomposition is important for the PQ performance, but still remains an unaddressed issue. In this paper, we optimize PQ by minimizing quantization distortions w.r. t the space decomposition and the quantization codebooks. We present two novel solutions to this challenging optimization problem. The first solution iteratively solves two simpler sub-problems. The second solution is based on a Gaussian assumption and provides theoretical analysis of the optimality. We evaluate our optimized product quantizers in three applications: (i) compact encoding for exhaustive ranking [1], (ii) building inverted multi-indexing for non-exhaustive search [2], and (iii) compacting image representations for image retrieval [3]. In all applications our optimized product quantizers outperform existing solutions.
SUN3D: A Database of Big Spaces Reconstructed Using SfM and Object Labels

Existing scene understanding datasets contain only a limited set of views of a place, and they lack representations of complete 3D spaces. In this paper, we introduce SUN3D, a large-scale RGB-D video database with camera pose and object labels, capturing the full 3D extent of many places. The tasks that go into constructing such a dataset are difficult in isolation -- hand-labeling videos is painstaking, and structure from motion (SfM) is unreliable for large spaces. But if we combine them together, we make the dataset construction task much easier. First, we introduce an intuitive labeling tool that uses a partial reconstruction to propagate labels from one frame to another. Then we use the object labels to fix errors in the reconstruction. For this, we introduce a generalization of bundle adjustment that incorporates object-to-object correspondences. This algorithm works by constraining points for the same object from different frames to lie inside a fixed-size bounding box, parameterized by its rotation and translation. The SUN3D database, the source code for the generalized bundle adjustment, and the web-based 3D annotation tool are all available at http://sun3d.cs. princeton.edu.
Sampling of BTX in Hat Yai city using cost effective laboratory-built PCB passive sampler

ABSTRACT A laboratory-built printed circuit board (PCB) passive sampler used for the monitoring of xylene and styrene in copy print shops was re-validated for detecting benzene, toluene and xylene (BTX) and applied for the sampling of ambient air from Hat Yai city, Songkhla, Thailand, in the month of November 2014. For monitoring, the PCB passive samplers were exposed to target analytes in 16 locations covering high to low exposure areas. After sampling, the samplers were thermally desorbed and the analytes were trapped by multi-walled carbon nanotubes packed into a micro-preconcentrator coupled to a gas chromatograph (GC) equipped with a flame ionization detector. At the optimum GC operating conditions, the linear dynamic ranges for BTX were 0.06–5.6 µg for benzene, 0.07–2.2 µg for toluene and 0.23–2.5 µg for xylene with R2 > 0.99 with the limits of detection being 6.6, 6.8 and 19 ng for benzene, toluene and xylene, respectively. The concentrations of BTX in the 16 sampling sites were in the range of N.D. –1.3 ± 1.6, 4.50 ± 0.76–49.6 ± 3.7 and 1.00 ± 0.21–39.6 ± 3.1 µg m−3, respectively. When compared to past studies, there had been an increase in the benzene concentration.
Evidence suggesting a role for sperm metalloendoprotease activity in penetration of zona-free hamster eggs by human sperm.

It has been reported that metalloendoprotease (MEP) activity is involved in somatic cell membrane fusion events and in the sea urchin sperm acrosome reaction (AR). MEP activity also has been demonstrated in human and other mammalian sperm. The present study was concerned with investigating whether a human sperm MEP is important in membrane events necessary for sperm egg fusion. Ejaculated human sperm were washed, capacitated in vitro, and preincubated with the competitive MEP inhibitors phosphoramidon (50 microM) or CBZ-L-phenylalanine (1 mM), with 100 microM diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (DTPA), a heavy metal chelator, or as controls, with the appropriate solvents. The AR was initiated in vitro with preovulatory human follicular fluid and the sperm washed to dilute inhibitors and then coincubated with zona-free golden hamster eggs (zonae and cumuli removed with trypsin and hyaluronidase, respectively). Eggs were washed after 0.5 h, and the number of sperm remaining bound was counted. After 2.5 h further incubation, the eggs were stained with acetolacmoid or acetoorcein and penetration was assayed by counting the number of decondensed sperm heads per egg (penetration index) and the percent of penetrated eggs. The inhibitor treatments did not decrease the percentage of penetrated eggs (range 80-90%), but a significant reduction in the penetration index was observed. Phosphoramidon reduced the penetration index by 45%, CBZ-L-phenylalanine by 57%, and DTPA by 56%. None of the inhibitors decreased the penetration index or the percentage of penetrated eggs when added directly to suspensions of acrosome-reacted sperm and zona-free eggs at the diluted levels that would have been present after washing inhibitor-treated sperm. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Is there a case for routine clinical application of ploidy measurements in gastrointestinal tumours?

DNA aneuploidy, a quantitative abnormality in cellular DNA content, reflects widespread DNA changes due to genomic instability, but does not necessarily represent a specific genetic event that is essential for the development of cancer. In general, DNA aneuploidy is found to correlate with increasing histological tumour grade, stage and a poorer prognosis. It has been documented that DNA aneuploidy can be found in intraepithelial dysplasias, although at a much lower frequency compared with invasive malignancy. DNA aneuploid stemlines can be found in normal (non-neoplastic) tissue, and it has been suggested that evidence of DNA aneuploidy in histologically normal cells may signal prospective malignant potential. However, it is important to emphasize that DNA aneuploidy is not synonymous with malignancy, biological aggressiveness or even premalignancy. For many years now, it has been suggested that measurement of ploidy (DNA content) either by flow cytometry of cytophotometry can complement other prognostic factors such as histological grade and tumour stage in predicting disease-free survival and overall survival (for review see). Furthermore, DNA measurements have been reported to (i) discriminate between benign and malignant tumours, (ii) identify patients at high risk for developing dysplasia or malignancy, (iii) monitor disease progression, and in some studies to (iv) predict response to treatment. This review attempts to answer the following questions: 1 Is DNA aneuploidy a reliable, valid, specific and sensitive biological marker that can detect cancer at the incipient stage in preinvasive lesions such as Barrett’s oesophagus, ulcerative colitis and colorectal adenomas and thus identify high-risk individuals before or during the early stages of malignant transformation? 2 Is DNA aneuploidy an independent prognostic and ⁄ or predictive marker in oesophageal, gastric and colorectal carcinomas? 3 Does DNA aneuploidy identify a group of patients highly responsive to therapy? For this purpose the literature of the past 20 years has been reviewed.
JEDEC board drop test simulation for wafer level packages (WLPs)

In this paper, a comprehensive study is carried out to investigate the WLP package dynamic behaviors subjected to drop impact according to the JEDEC specification. First, a Direct Acceleration Input (DAI) method, which decouples the board dynamic responses from the test system, thus avoids the difficulties in modeling the complex behaviors of contact between the drop table and drop surfaces, is introduced. The equivalency of the DAI and Input-G methods has been proved mathematically and numerically in this paper. The DAI method removes a rigid-body motion of a test board. Second, the accuracy of global/local modeling techniques is examined in details. Very consistent results were obtained with various distances of cut boundary ranging from 1.5mm to 3.0 mm for the extended PCB board dimension from the package edge. Third, the dynamic responses of each component on JEDEC board are investigated. It is found that for WLP, the component U1, which is the closest to the mounting hole, will fail first due to the local bending effect. This is different from BGA packages. Such results have been validated by recently reported test data. It is noted that the crack initiation of solder ball always starts at the inner side. The corner balls at each component will fail first compared to the balls in other locations on the same components. The maximum peel stress contours for those critical corner balls at each component map the actual solder ball cracks very well. Fourth, the correlation of the board strain to the solder ball stress is studied with different package sizes with or without underfill. It is observed that board strain at the corner locations of component are not always proportional to the damage exerted on solder balls. Therefore caution must be taken when board strain alone is used to evaluate package dynamic performance. Finally, an improved JEDEC board design is proposed to avoid early failure of corner components by moving the screw locations further away from the current specified location. The components at the center column of the modified board will fail first, as observed in many BGA packages. The new board design ensures the package failures come from package intrinsic designs.
A Nonextensive Entropy Approach to Solar Wind Intermittency

The probability distribution functions (PDFs) of the differences of any physical variable in the intermittent, turbulent interplanetary medium are scale dependent. Strong non-Gaussianity of solar wind fluctuations applies for short time lag spacecraft observations, corresponding to small-scale spatial separations, whereas for large scales the differences turn into a Gaussian normal distribution. These characteristics were hitherto described in the context of the lognormal, the Castaing distribution, or the shell model. On the other hand, a possible explanation for nonlocality in turbulence is offered within the context of nonextensive entropy generalization by a recently introduced bi-kappa distribution, generating through a convolution of a negative-kappa core and positive-kappa halo pronounced non-Gaussian structures. The PDFs of solar wind scalar field differences are computed from Wind and ACE data for different time lags and compared with the characteristics of the theoretical bi-kappa functional, well representing the overall scale dependence of the spatial solar wind intermittency. The observed PDF characteristics for increased spatial scales are manifest in the theoretical distribution functional by enhancing the only tuning parameter κ, measuring the degree of nonextensivity where the large-scale Gaussian is approached for κ → ∞. The nonextensive approach assures for experimental studies of solar wind intermittency independence from influence of a priori model assumptions. It is argued that the intermittency of the turbulent fluctuations should be related physically to the nonextensive character of the interplanetary medium counting for nonlocal interactions via the entropy generalization.
Screening of siRNA nanoparticles for delivery to airway epithelial cells using high-content analysis.

AIMS Delivery of siRNA to the lungs via inhalation offers a unique opportunity to develop a new treatment paradigm for a range of respiratory conditions. However, progress has been greatly hindered by safety and delivery issues. This study developed a high-throughput method for screening novel nanotechnologies for pulmonary siRNA delivery. METHODOLOGY Following physicochemical analysis, the ability of PEI-PEG-siRNA nanoparticles to facilitate siRNA delivery was determined using high-content analysis (HCA) in Calu-3 cells. Results obtained from HCA were validated using confocal microscopy. Finally, cytotoxicity of the PEI-PEG-siRNA particles was analyzed by HCA using the Cellomics multiparameter cytotoxicity assay. CONCLUSION PEI-PEG-siRNA nanoparticles facilitated increased siRNA uptake and luciferase knockdown in Calu-3 cells compared with PEI-siRNA.
Efficacy of Memantine on Behavioral and Psychological Symptoms Related to Dementia: A Systematic Meta-Analysis

Background: The behavioral and psychological symptoms related to dementia (BPSD) are difficult to manage and are associated with adverse patient outcomes. Objective: To systematically analyze the data on memantine in the treatment of BPSD. Methods: We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, Pharm-line, the Cochrane Centre Collaboration, www.clinicaltrials. gov, www.controlled-trials.com, and PsycINFO (1966–July 2007). We contacted manufacturers and scrutinized the reference sections of articles identified in our search for further references, including conference proceedings. Two researchers (IM and CF) independently reviewed all studies Identified by the search strategy. We Included 6 randomized, parallel-group, double-blind studies that rated BPSD with the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) in our meta-analysis. Patients had probable Alzheimer's disease and received treatment with memantine for at least one month. Overall efficacy of memantine on the NPI was established with a t-test for the average difference between means across studies, using a random effects model. Results: Five of the 6 studies identified had NPI outcome data. In these 5 studies, 868 patients were treated with memantine and 882 patients were treated with placebo. Patients on memantine improved by 1.99 on the NPI scale (95% CI –0.08 to –3.91: p = 0.041) compared with the placebo group. Conclusions: Initial data appear to indicate that memantine decreases NPI scores and may have a role in managing BPSD. However, there are a number of limitations with the current data; the effect size was relatively small, and whether memantine produces significant clinical benefit is not dear.
Differentiation of toxigenic from nontoxigenic isolates of Pasteurella multocida by PCR

A PCR assay was developed for the differentiation of toxigenic Pasteurella multocida subsp. multocida strains, the major etiologic agent for progressive atrophic rhinitis in pigs, from nontoxigenic strains. The PCR targeted a toxA gene encoding a 143-kDa dermonecrotic toxin that is considered to be the central etiologic factor in progressive atrophic rhinitis. toxA fragments were amplified from toxigenic P. multocida isolates but not from nontoxigenic isolates or other bacteria isolated from pigs. The sensitivity of the reaction was as low as 10 pg of chromosomal DNA from a toxigenic strain. The results obtained by PCR of the DNAs of 187 field isolates of P. multocida were consistent with those obtained by the guinea pig skin test and Western blot (immunoblot) analysis. Restriction fragment analysis of the PCR-amplified fragments from 67 field isolates and comparison of the DNA sequences of fragments from capsular serotype A and D strains suggest that the PCR-amplified region, which is considered to encode the major immunologic determinants of the toxin, would be the same among P. multocida strains. The PCR that we describe should be useful for the diagnosis and the etiologic survey of progressive atrophic rhinitis.