Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Efficient Linear Solution of Exterior Orientation

This paper concerns an efficient algorithm for the solution of the exterior orientation problem. Orthogonal decompositions are used to first isolate the unknown depths of feature points in the camera reference frame, allowing the problem to be reduced to an absolute orientation with scale problem, which is solved using the singular value decomposition (SVD). The key feature of this approach is the low computational cost compared to existing approaches.
Gene Transcription in Lactarius quietus-Quercus petraea Ectomycorrhizas from a Forest Soil

ABSTRACT Extracting fungal mRNA from ectomycorrhizas (ECMs) and forest soil samples for monitoring in situ metabolic activities is a significant challenge when studying the role of ECMs in biogeochemical cycles. A robust, simple, rapid, and effective method was developed for extracting RNA from rhizospheric soil and ECMs by adapting previous grinding and lysis methods. The quality and yield of the extracted RNA were sufficient to be used for reverse transcription. RNA extracted from ECMs of Lactarius quietus in a 100-year-old oak stand was used to construct a cDNA library and sequence expressed sequence tags. The transcripts of many genes involved in primary metabolism and in the degradation of organic matter were found. The transcription levels of four targeted fungal genes (glutamine synthase, a general amino acid transporter, a tyrosinase, and N-acetylhexosaminidase) were measured by quantitative reverse transcription-PCR in ECMs and in the ectomycorrhizospheric soil (the soil surrounding the ECMs containing the extraradical mycelium) in forest samples. On average, levels of gene expression for the L. quietus ECM root tips were similar to those for the extraradical mycelium, although gene expression varied up to 10-fold among the samples. This study demonstrates that gene expression from ECMs and soil can be analyzed. These results provide new perspectives for investigating the role of ectomycorrhizal fungi in the functioning of forest ecosystems.
Effects of annealing treatment on optical properties of anatase TiO2 thin films

In this investigation, anatase TiO2 thin films were grown by radio frequency magnetron sputtering on glass substrates at a high sputtering pressure and room temperature. The anatase films were then annealed at 300-600 °C in air for a period of 1 hour. To examine the structure and morphology of the films, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) methods were used respectively. From X-ray diffraction patterns of the TiO2 films, it was found that the as-deposited film showed some differences compared with the annealed films and the intensities of the peaks of the crystalline phase increased with the increase of annealing temperature. From AFM images, the distinct variations in the morphology of the thin films were also observed. The optical constants were characterized using the transmission spectra of the films obtained by UV-VIS-IR spectrophotometer. Besides, optical thickness of the film deposited at room temperature was calculated and cross-checked by taking a cross-sectional image through SEM. The optical band gaps were evaluated through Tauc model. It was observed that TiO2 films produced at room temperatures exhibited high visible transmittance and transmittance decreased slightly with the increase of annealing temperatures. The films were found to be crystalline having anatase phase. The refractive index of the films was found from 2.31-2.35 in the visible range. The extinction coefficient was nearly zero in the visible range and was found to increase with annealing temperature. The allowed indirect optical band gap of the films was estimated to be in the range from 3.39 to 3.42 eV which showed a small variation. The allowed direct band gap was found to increase from 3.67 to 3.72 eV. The porosity was also found to decrease at a higher annealing temperature making the film compact and dense. Keywords—Titanium dioxide, RF reactive sputtering, Structural properties, Surface morphology, Optical properties.
Grace Under Pressure: The Emergence of Women in Sport

An analysis of how sport has changed the shape of women's bodies and is now refashioning their psychology, with a detailed social history and exploration of motivation and inspiration, media, drugs, stress, prejudices and politics. Basing her research on first -hand interviews with players around the world, the author discusses the issues which sports reports normally omit. Finally, the author looks to the future and asks whether women will change the face of sport. Adrianne Blue was the first sports editor on "City Limits", has been a sports editor on the "Sunday Times" and also writes regularly for the "New Statesman".
Statistical inferences for isoform expression in RNA-Seq

SUMMARY The development of RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) makes it possible for us to measure transcription at an unprecedented precision and throughput. However, challenges remain in understanding the source and distribution of the reads, modeling the transcript abundance and developing efficient computational methods. In this article, we develop a method to deal with the isoform expression estimation problem. The count of reads falling into a locus on the genome annotated with multiple isoforms is modeled as a Poisson variable. The expression of each individual isoform is estimated by solving a convex optimization problem and statistical inferences about the parameters are obtained from the posterior distribution by importance sampling. Our results show that isoform expression inference in RNA-Seq is possible by employing appropriate statistical methods.
A Spatiotemporal Analysis of the Global Diffusion of ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 Certification

We study the global diffusion of ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 certification using a network diffusion framework. We start by investigating the presence and nature of contagion effects by defining alternative cross-country networks and testing their relative strength. Second, we study how the rate of diffusion differs between the two standards and between early-and later-adopting countries. Third, we identify which countries had more influence on diffusion than others. Empirically, we build a diffusion model which includes several possible cross-country contagion effects and then use Bayesian methods for estimation and model selection. Using country by year data for 56 countries and nine years, we find that accounting for cross-country influences improves both the fit and the prediction accuracy of our models. However, the specific cross-country contagion mechanism is different across the two standards. Diffusion of ISO 9000 is driven primarily by geography and bilateral trade relations, whereas that of ISO 14000 is driven primarily by geography and cultural similarity. We also find that the diffusion rate of ISO standards is higher for later-adopting countries and for the later ISO 14000 standard. We discuss several implications of our findings for the global diffusion of management standards.
Acute Multiple Organ Failure in Adult Mice Deleted for the Developmental Regulator Wt1

There is much interest in the mechanisms that regulate adult tissue homeostasis and their relationship to processes governing foetal development. Mice deleted for the Wilms' tumour gene, Wt1, lack kidneys, gonads, and spleen and die at mid-gestation due to defective coronary vasculature. Wt1 is vital for maintaining the mesenchymal–epithelial balance in these tissues and is required for the epithelial-to-mesenchyme transition (EMT) that generates coronary vascular progenitors. Although Wt1 is only expressed in rare cell populations in adults including glomerular podocytes, 1% of bone marrow cells, and mesothelium, we hypothesised that this might be important for homeostasis of adult tissues; hence, we deleted the gene ubiquitously in young and adult mice. Within just a few days, the mice suffered glomerulosclerosis, atrophy of the exocrine pancreas and spleen, severe reduction in bone and fat, and failure of erythropoiesis. FACS and culture experiments showed that Wt1 has an intrinsic role in both haematopoietic and mesenchymal stem cell lineages and suggest that defects within these contribute to the phenotypes we observe. We propose that glomerulosclerosis arises in part through down regulation of nephrin, a known Wt1 target gene. Protein profiling in mutant serum showed that there was no systemic inflammatory or nutritional response in the mutant mice. However, there was a dramatic reduction in circulating IGF-1 levels, which is likely to contribute to the bone and fat phenotypes. The reduction of IGF-1 did not result from a decrease in circulating GH, and there is no apparent pathology of the pituitary and adrenal glands. These findings 1) suggest that Wt1 is a major regulator of the homeostasis of some adult tissues, through both local and systemic actions; 2) highlight the differences between foetal and adult tissue regulation; 3) point to the importance of adult mesenchyme in tissue turnover.
A review of recent advances in understanding the mesoand microscale properties of the severe Bora wind

Abstract A gusty downslope windstorm that blows at the eastern Adriatic coast is called bora. Similar winds exist at many other places on virtually all continents. Related hourly mean wind speeds surpassing 20 m s-1, with gusts reaching up to 50 or even 70 m s-1, in the coastal mountain lee areas are common (hurricane speeds). There has been substantial progress in bora observations and measurements, understanding, modelling and its more detailed prediction during the last 25 yr. It was generally thought before that bora was a falling, mostly thermodynamically driven wind; however, (severe) bora is primarily governed by mountain wave breaking. Understandings of bora interactions and influences on other processes have taken place as well, most notably in the air-sea interaction, but are not completed yet. The overall progress mentioned would not be possible without airborne data, non-linear theory and advances in computational techniques, most notably mesoscale numerical models. Some gaps in bora knowledge are also indicated, for example, dynamical transition from weak to moderate to strong to severe bora flows, where the latter are the main subject here, and vice versa. Moreover, the role of the boundary layer and waves on the upwind side of the bora evolution and the consequent lee side flow structures are inadequately understood; this is especially so for bora at the southern Adriatic coast. The focus here is on stronger bora flows at the NE Adriatic coast.
Cytosolic caspases mediate mislocalised SOD2 depletion in an in vitro model of chronic prion infection

SUMMARY Oxidative stress as a contributor to neuronal death during prion infection is supported by the fact that various oxidative damage markers accumulate in the brain during the course of this disease. The normal cellular substrate of the causative agent, the prion protein, is also linked with protective functions against oxidative stress. Our previous work has found that, in chronic prion infection, an apoptotic subpopulation of cells exhibit oxidative stress and the accumulation of oxidised lipid and protein aggregates with caspase recruitment. Given the likely failure of antioxidant defence mechanisms within apoptotic prion-infected cells, we aimed to investigate the role of the crucial antioxidant pathway components, superoxide dismutases (SOD) 1 and 2, in an in vitro model of chronic prion infection. Increased total SOD activity, attributable to SOD1, was found in the overall population coincident with a decrease in SOD2 protein levels. When apoptotic cells were separated from the total population, the induction of SOD activity in the infected apoptotic cells was lost, with activity reduced back to levels seen in mock-infected control cells. In addition, mitochondrial superoxide production was increased and mitochondrial numbers decreased in the infected apoptotic subpopulation. Furthermore, a pan-caspase probe colocalised with SOD2 outside of mitochondria within cytosolic aggregates in infected cells and inhibition of caspase activity was able to restore cellular levels of SOD2 in the whole unseparated infected population to those of mock-infected control cells. Our results suggest that prion propagation exacerbates an apoptotic pathway whereby mitochondrial dysfunction follows mislocalisation of SOD2 to cytosolic caspases, permitting its degradation. Eventually, cellular capacity to maintain oxidative homeostasis is overwhelmed, thus resulting in cell death.
Named Entity Recognition without Gazetteers

It is often claimed that Named Entity recognition systems need extensive gazetteers---lists of names of people, organisations, locations, and other named entities. Indeed, the compilation of such gazetteers is sometimes mentioned as a bottleneck in the design of Named Entity recognition systems.We report on a Named Entity recognition system which combines rule-based grammars with statistical (maximum entropy) models. We report on the system's performance with gazetteers of different types and different sizes, using test material from the MUC-7 competition. We show that, for the text type and task of this competition, it is sufficient to use relatively small gazetteers of well-known names, rather than large gazetteers of low-frequency names. We conclude with observations about the domain independence of the competition and of our experiments.
Stimulation of insulin secretion by large-dose oral arginine administration in healthy adults

The effects of large-dose oral arginine administration on the secretion of insulin by islet β-cells in healthy adults were determined. Eight non-obese healthy volunteers with normal glucose tolerance participated randomly in tests with four stages (with an interval of at least 3 days): the 300 ml purified water stage (PWS), the 75 g glucose stage (GSS), the 30 g arginine stage (ARS) and the 75 g glucose with 30 g arginine stage (GAS). Venous blood samples were collected to detect the concentrations of glucose and insulin at baseline (0) and at 15, 30, 45, 60 and 120 min after drug administration. The glucose and insulin levels were steady in the PWS. The remaining three stages had similarly shaped insulin concentration-time curves, which differed from that of the PWS. The peak concentration of blood insulin and the net incremental area under the curve of blood insulin in the GSS, ARS and GAS were significantly higher compared with those in the PWS (P<0.05). In the ARS, the glucose levels remained stable; however, the net incremental area under the curve for blood insulin in the ARS was much lower compared with that in the GSS or GAS (P<0.05). Large-dose oral arginine administration may slightly stimulate insulin secretion by islet β-cells in healthy adults with normal glucose tolerance in a manner that is independent of glucose concentration.
Dopaminergic and Clinical Correlates of Pathological Gambling in Parkinson’s Disease: A Case Report

Dopaminergic medication for motor symptoms in Parkinson’s disease (PD) recently has been linked with impulse control disorders, including pathological gambling (PG), which affects up to 8% of patients. PG often is considered a behavioral addiction associated with disinhibition, risky decision-making, and altered striatal dopaminergic neurotransmission. Using [11C]raclopride with positron emission tomography, we assessed dopaminergic neurotransmission during Iowa Gambling Task performance. Here we present data from a single patient with PD and concomitant PG. We noted a marked decrease in [11C]raclopride binding in the left ventral striatum upon gambling, indicating a gambling-induced dopamine release. The results imply that PG in PD is associated with a high dose of dopaminergic medication, pronounced motor symptomatology, young age at disease onset, high propensity for sensation seeking, and risky decision-making. Overall, the findings are consistent with the hypothesis of medication-related PG in PD and underscore the importance of taking clinical variables, such as age and personality, into account when patients with PD are medicated, to reduce the risk of PG.
Impact of a Novel Collaborative Long-Term Care –EMS Model: A Before-and-After Cohort Analysis of an Extended Care Paramedic Program

Abstract To compare system and clinical outcomes before and after an extended care paramedic (ECP) program was implemented to better address the emergency needs of long-term care (LTC) residents. Data were collected from emergency medical services (EMS), hospital, and ten LTC facility charts for two five-month time periods, before and after ECP implementation. Outcomes include: number of EMS patients transported to emergency department (ED) and several clinical, safety, and system secondary outcomes. Statistics included descriptive, chi-squared, t-tests, and ANOVA; α = <0.05. 413 cases were included (before: n = 136, 33%; after n = 277, 67%). Median patient age was 85 years (IQR 77–91 years) and 292/413 (70.7%) were female. The number of transports to ED before implementation was 129/136 (94.9%), with 147/224 (65.6%) after, p < 0.001. In the after period, fewer patients seen by ECP were transported: 58/128 (45.3%) vs. 89/96 (92.7%) of those not seen by ECP, p < 0.001. Hospital admissions were similar between phases: 39/120 (32.5%) vs. 56/213 (29.4%), p = NS, but in the after phase, fewer ECP patients were admitted vs. non-ECP: 21/125 (16.8%) vs. 35/88 (39.8%), p < 0.001. Mean EMS call time (dispatch to arrive ED or clear scene) was shorter before than after: 25 minutes vs. 57 minutes, p < 0.001. In the after period, calls with ECP were longer than without ECP: 1 hour, 35 minutes vs. 30 minutes, p < 0.001. The mean patient ED length-of-stay was similar before and after: 7 hours, 29 minutes compared to 8 hours, 11 minutes; p = NS. In the after phase, ED length-of-stay was somewhat shorter with ECPs vs. no ECPs: 7 hours, 5 minutes vs. 9 hours, p = NS. There were zero relapses after no-transport in the before phase and three relapses from 77 calls not transported in the after phase (3/77, 3.9%); two involved ECP (2/70, 2.8%). Reductions were observed in the number of LTC patients transported to the ED when the ECP program was introduced, with fewer patients admitted to the hospital. EMS calls take longer with ECP involved. The addition of ECP to the LTC model of care appears to be beneficial and safe, with few relapse calls identified.
Metabolic Syndrome Components are Associated with Increased Prostate Cancer Risk

Background Our study investigated the associations of metabolic syndrome (MS) and metabolic indicators with prostate cancer (PCa) risk in the Chinese Han ethnic population. Material/Methods We studied 101 PCa patients (without/with MS) and 120 healthy controls. Clinical data, including waist circumference, BMI, TG, FINS, FBG, and PCa-related indicators, were collected. The correlations between MS and PCa were analyzed. Results Compared to PCa, PV and Gleason scores increased and PSA levels decreased in PCa with MS group (all P<0.001). PV was positively correlated with BMI, FINS, and HOMA-IR (r=0.459, P<0.001; r=0.421, P=0.001; r=0.490, P=0.003, respectively), and was negatively correlated with HDL-C (r=−0.378, P<0.001). PSA level in MS patients was negatively correlated with BMI (r=−0.125, P<0.001), TG (r=−0.256, P<0.001) and FBG (r=−0.183, P<0.001). Large PV, high TG, low HDL-C, high LDL-C, and high FBG were associated with an increased risk of PCa (P<0.001, OR=1.10, 95%CI: 1.009–3.304; P<0.001, OR=2.91, 95%CI: 1.612–5.241; P<0.001, OR=7.89, 95%CI: 3.908–15.947; P=0.015, OR=1.87, 95%CI: 1.131–3.077; P=0.004, OR=2.17, 95%CI: 1.280–3.686, respectively). MS-related indicators showed a positive relationship with PCa (P<0.001, OR=1.90, 95%CI: 1.107–10.629). Conclusions Our study shows that MS and metabolic indicators are associated with an increased risk of PCa, pointing to a novel therapeutic approach for PCa management.
Fixed, random or fuzzy adaptive parameters in an evolutionary algorithm

Particular steady-state strategies of evolution with small sized population are studied in this paper. We specially focus our attention on the ways to reach a compromise with the best parameters, we observe improvements in order to optimize classical problems when using small populations and some clearing to make exploration directly connected to the homogeneity of the population We use for this fuzzy rules or random way to decide and move parameters.
Ofloxacin-like Antibiotics Inhibit Pneumococcal Cell Wall-degrading Virulence Factors*

The search for new drugs against Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus) is driven by the 1.5 million deaths it causes annually. Choline-binding proteins attach to the pneumococcal cell wall through domains that recognize choline moieties, and their involvement in pneumococcal virulence makes them potential targets for drug development. We have defined chemical criteria involved in the docking of small molecules from a three-dimensional structural library to the major pneumococcal autolysin (LytA) choline binding domain. These criteria were used to identify compounds that could interfere with the attachment of this protein to the cell wall, and several quinolones that fit this framework were found to inhibit the cell wall-degrading activity of LytA. Furthermore, these compounds produced similar effects on other enzymes with different catalytic activities but that contained a similar choline binding domain; that is, autolysin (LytC) and the phage lytic enzyme (Cpl-1). Finally, we resolved the crystal structure of the complex between the choline binding domain of LytA and ofloxacin at a resolution of 2.6 Å. These data constitute an important launch pad from which effective drugs to combat pneumococcal infections can be developed.
Using Indirect Encoding of Multiple Brains to Produce Multimodal Behavior

An important challenge in neuroevolution is to evolve complex neural networks with multiple modes of behavior. Indirect encodings can potentially answer this challenge. Yet in practice, indirect encodings do not yield effective multimodal controllers. Thus, this paper introduces novel multimodal extensions to HyperNEAT, a popular indirect encoding. A previous multimodal HyperNEAT approach called situational policy geometry assumes that multiple brains benefit from being embedded within an explicit geometric space. However, experiments here illustrate that this assumption unnecessarily constrains evolution, resulting in lower performance. Specifically, this paper introduces HyperNEAT extensions for evolving many brains without assuming geometric relationships between them. The resulting Multi-Brain HyperNEAT can exploit human-specified task divisions to decide when each brain controls the agent, or can automatically discover when brains should be used, by means of preference neurons. A further extension called module mutation allows evolution to discover the number of brains, enabling multimodal behavior with even less expert knowledge. Experiments in several multimodal domains highlight that multi-brain approaches are more effective than HyperNEAT without multimodal extensions, and show that brains without a geometric relation to each other outperform situational policy geometry. The conclusion is that Multi-Brain HyperNEAT provides several promising techniques for evolving complex multimodal behavior.