Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Head and Neck Arteriovenous Malformations: Results of Ethanol Sclerotherapy

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Peripheral AVM is a locally aggressive disease with a high tendency to recur; its treatment is complex, especially in the anatomically delicate head and neck area. Here, we report results of ethanol sclerotherapy for head and neck AVM and discuss its potential use for peripheral AVM. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively assessed degree of AVM eradication, complications, and clinical or imaging signs of recurrence for 19 patients treated with ethanol sclerotherapy for head and neck AVM (1 intraosseous, 18 soft-tissue AVMs). RESULTS: Of the 19 patients, 11 had complete eradication of arteriovenous shunting at DSA, with 1 recurrence (mean follow-up 15 months), and for 7 patients, treatment is ongoing. During 59 treatment sessions, 12 patients experienced 14 complications, 1 leading to permanent functional damage. CONCLUSIONS: Ethanol sclerotherapy has potential for complete eradication of head and neck AVM with low recurrence within the first year after completion of treatment. Complete eradication may require several treatment sessions during which complications should be minimized with careful techniques.
EDGE-AWARE IMAGE PROCESSING WITH A LAPLACIAN PYRAMID BY USING CASCADE PIECEWISE LINEAR PROCESSING

The Laplacian pyramid is popular for decomposing images into multiple scales and is widely used for image analysis [15]. However, because it is constructed with spatially invariant Gaussian kernels, the Laplacian pyramid is widely believed as being unable to represent edges well and as being ill-suited for edge-aware operations such as edge-preserving smoothing and tone mapping. Paris, Hasinoff, and Kautz successfully take Laplaician pyramid to process [15]. But they still take advantage of exponential function. We propose another linear approximation and use cascade piecewise linear for more correct approximation. We can see the exponential curve is easily implemented and has small error. In the result, we also show that it has better quality by using BRISQUE score [14].
The Effect of the Characteristics of the Dataset on the Selection Stability

Feature selection is an effective technique to reduce the dimensionality of a data set and to select relevant features for the domain problem. Recently, stability of feature selection methods has gained increasing attention. In fact, it has become a crucial factor in determining the goodness of a feature selection algorithm besides the learning performance. In this work, we conduct an extensive experimental study using verity of data sets and different well-known feature selection algorithms in order to study the behavior of these algorithms in terms of the stability.
Water, sanitation and mortality in Swiss towns in the context of urban renewal in the late nineteenth century

ABSTRACT The modernisation of water supply and sanitation in Swiss towns at the end of the nineteenth century contributed to a reduction in waterborne infectious diseases such as typhoid fever. We analyse the association between mortality rates and these large-scale urban infrastructure projects in 15 major Swiss towns between 1876 and 1901. During this period, Switzerland experienced a rapid economic development and modernisation as well as rising living standards. We used panel data regression models with fixed effects to estimate the effects of the sanitary reforms. In 1876, the average typhoid fever mortality rate was 87 deaths per 100,000 people. In 1901 it had decreased to 10 deaths. We find that the introduction of modern water supply reduced typhoid fever mortality rates by 22 percent. Finally, we show that the modernisation of this central urban infrastructure was a complex, step-by-step process.
Multiplex polymerase chain reaction test for the diagnosis of acute viral hepatitis A

Background/Aims The early diagnosis of acute hepatitis A (AHA) is hindered because serum IgM against hepatitis A virus (HAV) can yield false-negative results during the window period. This study evaluated the diagnostic accuracy of a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) kit for HAV RNA for the diagnosis of AHA. Methods Samples were collected from 136 patients with acute severe hepatitis at their admission to Asan Medical Center between June 2010 and July 2010. Samples were analyzed for serum IgM anti-HAV using an immunoassay test and for qualitative HAV RNA using the Magicplex HepaTrio PCR test kit. The diagnostic accuracies of these methods were tested on the basis of clinical and laboratory diagnoses of AHA. Results The concordance rate and kappa value between IgM anti-HAV and HAV RNA PCR were 88.2% and 0.707, respectively. For the diagnosis of AHA, the sensitivity and specificity of IgM anti-HAV were 90.7% and 100%, respectively, when an "equivocal" result was regarded as positive; and 79.1% and 100%, respectively, when an "equivocal" result was regarded as negative. The sensitivity and specificity of HAV RNA PCR were 81.4% and 100%, respectively. All four patients with negative IgM anti-HAV and positive HAV RNA PCR results and all four patients with equivocal IgM anti-HAV RNA and positive HAV RNA PCR results were eventually diagnosed with AHA. Conclusions The qualitative HAV RNA PCR test has an equivalent diagnostic accuracy for AHA compared to IgM anti-HAV and may be more sensitive during the window period.
X‐ray active galactic nuclei in the core of the Perseus cluster

We present a study of the X-ray emission from the nuclei of galaxies observed in the core of the Perseus cluster in a deep exposure with Chandra. Point sources are found coincident with the nuclei of 13 early-type galaxies, as well as the central galaxy NGC 1275. This corresponds to all galaxies brighter than M B > -18 in the Chandra field. All of these sources have a steep power-law spectral component and four have an additional thermal component. The unabsorbed power-law luminosities in the 0.5-7.0 keV band range from 8 x 10 38 to 5 x 10 40 erg s -1 . We find no simple correlations between the K-band luminosity, or the FUV and NUV AB magnitudes of these galaxies and their X-ray properties. We have estimated the black hole masses of the nuclei using the K-band M BH -L Kbol relation and again find no correlation between black hole mass and the X-ray luminosity. Bondi accretion on to the black holes in the galaxies with minihaloes should make them much more luminous than observed.
Essays on Financial Regulation in Macroeconomics

Title of dissertation: ESSAYS ON FINANCIAL REGULATION IN MACROECONOMICS Julien Yonathan Bengui, Doctor of Philosophy, 2012 Dissertation directed by: Professor Anton Korinek and Professor Enrique G. Mendoza Department of Economics This dissertation investigates two aspects of how to regulate the financial sector optimally in order to increase macroeconomic stability and mitigate the risk of future financial crises. Chapter 1 analyzes the desirability of international coordination in financial regulation. It develops a two-country model of systemic liquidity risk-taking in which financial market imperfections provide a rationale for macro-prudential regulation. In the model, curbing liquidity risk-taking via regulation lowers the price of liquidity during financial crises and thereby reduces the costs associated with market incompleteness. But regulation also entails costs in the form of distortions to productive investment decisions. The discrepancy between the domestic dimension of the costs and the global dimension of the benefits of regulation generates free-riding incentives among regulators operating in different countries. The theory predicts that absent international coordination, national authorities are tempted to regulate their financial systems in a way that results in excessive illiquidity. It therefore speaks in favor of a stronger global coordination of banking regulation. Chapter 2 analyzes the social optimality of private debt maturity choices. It studies debt maturity decisions in a dynamic macroeconomic model in which financial frictions give rise to systemic risk in the form of amplification effects. Long-term liabilities provide insurance against shocks to the asset side of the balance sheet, but they come at an extra cost. The debt maturity structure therefore maps into an allocation of macroeconomic risk between lenders and leveraged borrowers, and fundamental shocks propagate more powerfully in the economy when the maturity is shorter. The market equilibrium is not constrained efficient as borrowers fail to internalize their contribution to systemic risk and take on too much short-term debt in a decentralized economy. The theory indicates that a tax on short-term debt – a form of macroprudential policy – leads to Pareto improvements and results in less volatile allocations and asset prices. ESSAYS ON FINANCIAL REGULATION IN MACROECONOMICS
The Role of “Bone Immunological Niche” for a New Pathogenetic Paradigm of Osteoporosis

Osteoporosis is characterized by low bone mass and microarchitectural deterioration of bone tissue. The etiology and pathogenetic mechanisms of osteoporosis have not been clearly elucidated. Osteoporosis is linked to bone resorption by the activation of the osteoclastogenic process. The breakdown of homeostasis among pro- and antiosteoclastogenic cells causes unbalanced bone remodeling. The complex interactions among these cells in the bone microenvironment involve several mediators and proinflammatory pathways. Thus, we may consider the bone microenvironment as a complex system in which local and systemic immunity are regulated and we propose to consider it as an “immunological niche. ” The study of the “bone immunological niche” will permit a better understanding of the complex cell trafficking which regulates bone resorption and disease. The goal of a perfect therapy for osteoporosis would be to potentiate good cells and block the bad ones. In this scenario, additional factors may take part in helping or hindering the proosteoblastogenic factors. Several proosteoblastogenic and antiosteoclastogenic agents have already been identified and some have been developed and commercialized as biological therapies for osteoporosis. Targeting the cellular network of the “bone immunological niche” may represent a successful strategy to better understand and treat osteoporosis and its complications.
An Attempt to Understand Students' Understanding of Basic Algebra

This paper reports the results obtained with a group of 24 14-year-old students when presented with a set of algebra tasks by the Leeds Modelling System, LMS. These same students were given a comparable paper-and-pencil test and detailed interviews some four months later. The latter studies uncovered several kinds of student misunderstandings that LMS had not detected. Some students had profound misunderstandings of algebraic notation: Others used strategies such as substituting numbers for variables until the equation balanced. Additionally, it appears that the student errors fall into several distinct classes: namely, manipulative, parsing, clerical, and “random. ” LMS and its rule database have been enhanced as the result of this experiment, and LMS is now able to diagnose the majority of the errors encountered in this experiment. Finally, the paper gives a process-oriented explanation for student errors, and re-examines related work in cognitive modelling in the light of the types of student errors reported in this experiment. Misgeneralization is a mechanism suggested to explain some of the mal-rules noted in this study.
Underdetermined Sparse Blind Source Separation of Nonnegative and Partially Overlapped Data

We study the solvability of sparse blind separation of $n$ nonnegative sources from $m$ linear mixtures in the underdetermined regime $m<n$. The geometric properties of the mixture matrix and the sparseness structure of the source matrix are closely related to the identification of the mixing matrix. We first illustrate and establish necessary and sufficient conditions for the unique separation for the case of $m$ mixtures and $m+1$ sources, and develop a novel algorithm based on data geometry, source sparseness, and $\ell_1$ minimization. Then we extend the results to any order $m\times n$, $3\leq m<n$, based on the degree of degeneracy of the columns of the mixing matrix. Numerical results substantiate the proposed solvability conditions and show satisfactory performance of our approach.
Expression of gangliosides in an immortalized neural progenitor/stem cell line

Glycosphingolipids (GSLs) are known to play important roles in cellular growth and differentiation in the nervous system. The change in expression of gangliosides is correlated with crucial developmental events and is evolutionarily conserved among many vertebrate species. The emergence of neural progenitors represents a crucial step in neural development, but little is known about the exact composition and subcellular localization of gangliosides in neural progenitor cells. The C17.2 cell line was derived after v‐myc transformation of neural progenitor cells isolated from neonatal mouse cerebellar cortex. The developmental potential of C17.2 cells is similar to that of endogenous neural progenitor/stem cells in that they are multipotential and capable of differentiating into all neural cell types. We characterized the GSL composition of C17.2 cells and found the presence of only a‐series gangliosides. Subcellular localization studies revealed that GM1 and GD1a are localized mainly on the plasma membrane and partly in the cytoplasm, both as punctate clusters. Reverse transcription‐polymerase chain reaction revealed the absence of ST‐II transcripts in C17 cells, which most likely accounts for the lack of expression of b‐ and c‐series complex gangliosides in this cell line. These data suggest that the divergence in ganglioside expression in C17.2 cells is regulated at the transcriptional level. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The informal economy in the former Soviet Union and in Central and Eastern Europe

Peter Rodgers is a research fellow in the Economics and Strategy Group, Aston Business School, Aston University, United Kingdom. His interests include business– state relations in post-Soviet societies and the role of informal economies in transition economies. E-mail: p.rodgers1@aston.ac. uk. Colin C. Williams is professor of public policy in the School of Management at the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom. His books include The Hidden Enterprise Culture (Edward Elgar, 2008), Re-thinking the Future of Work (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2007), and Cash-in-Hand Work (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2004). Address correspondence to Colin C. Williams, Centre for Regional Economic and Enterprise Development (CREED), School of Management, University of Sheffield, 9 Mappin Street, Sheffield S1 9DT, UK; tel. : +44 (0)114 222 3476; e-mail: C.C. Williams@sheffield.ac. uk. International Journal of Sociology, vol. 39, no. 2, Summer 2009, pp. 3–11. © 2009 M.E. Sharpe, Inc. All rights reserved. ISSN 0020–7659/2009 $9.50 + 0.00. DOI 10.2753/IJS0020-7659390200
Community detection for networks with unipartite and bipartite structure

Finding community structures in networks is important in network science, technology, and applications. To date, most algorithms that aim to find community structures only focus either on unipartite or bipartite networks. A unipartite network consists of one set of nodes and a bipartite network consists of two nonoverlapping sets of nodes with only links joining the nodes in different sets. However, a third type of network exists, defined here as the mixture network. Just like a bipartite network, a mixture network also consists of two sets of nodes, but some nodes may simultaneously belong to two sets, which breaks the nonoverlapping restriction of a bipartite network. The mixture network can be considered as a general case, with unipartite and bipartite networks viewed as its limiting cases. A mixture network can represent not only all the unipartite and bipartite networks, but also a wide range of real-world networks that cannot be properly represented as either unipartite or bipartite networks in fields such as biology and social science. Based on this observation, we first propose a probabilistic model that can find modules in unipartite, bipartite, and mixture networks in a unified framework based on the link community model for a unipartite undirected network [B Ball et al (2011 Phys. Rev. E 84 036103)]. We test our algorithm on synthetic networks (both overlapping and nonoverlapping communities) and apply it to two real-world networks: a southern women bipartite network and a human transcriptional regulatory mixture network. The results suggest that our model performs well for all three types of networks, is competitive with other algorithms for unipartite or bipartite networks, and is applicable to real-world networks.
The relationship between school science and mathematics education

Science is dependent on mathematical thinking and mathematical tools but this close and dependent relationship is frequently not reflected in schools or education policy. There have been calls in the literature for school science and mathematics departments to work together more closely for reasons including a perceived overlap of content and to improve students’ use of mathematics in science. This thesis critiques these calls and questions the plausibility of such proposals. In particular, it asks: 1. How and to what extent can mathematics and science educators work together? 2. What are the barriers to effective, mutually beneficial, collaborations between mathematics and science teachers? 3. How might these barriers be addressed? A two-phase qualitative approach was undertaken to explore participants’ experiences and views of the relationship between mathematics and science education. Two distinct groups were approached and interviewed to gain insights into both the policy-making process at a national level and the realities of working in school: those influential in science and mathematics policy-making; and science and mathematics teachers collaborating in schools. The interview data were coded and analysed using thematic analysis. Different theoretical lenses were used to interrogate the data, each providing unique perspectives. They included: power and boundaries, based particularly on the writing of Bernstein; policy, using Bernstein and Ball; the notion of transfer; and the impact of beliefs and identity on curriculum decision making. The findings demonstrate that the dependency in the relationship is asymmetrical: science is dependent on mathematics, but the reverse is not true making it difficult for a truly mutually beneficial relationship to be developed as science will always tend to gain more from any collaboration. This asymmetric dependency is not discussed in other authors’ work on science-mathematics collaboration but would appear to be critical in understanding why collaboration in school is rare and often shortlived. School science and mathematics V Wong
Drinfeld J Presentation of Twisted Yangians

We present a quantization of a Lie coideal structure for twisted half-loop algebras of finite-dimensional simple complex Lie algebras. We obtain algebra closure relations of twisted Yangians in Drinfeld J presentation for all symmetric pairs of simple Lie algebras and for simple twisted even half-loop Lie algebras. We provide the explicit form of the closure relations for twisted Yangians in Drinfeld J presentation for the ${\mathfrak{sl}}_3$ Lie algebra.
A leachate a day keeps the seedlings away: mowing and the inhibitory effects of Festuca paniculata in subalpine grasslands.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Is the release of allelochemicals by the dominant tussock grass Festuca paniculata responsible for its dominance by inhibiting growth of neighbour grasses in subalpine grasslands? As such a community is also structured by mowing practices, what could be the impact of mowing on allelopathy? METHODS A design was used that isolated allelopathy from resource competition by separating donor plants (Festuca paniculata) from target plants (F. paniculata, Dactylis glomerata and Bromus erectus). Leachates from donor pots containing bare soil, unmown F. paniculata or mown F. paniculata continuously irrigated target pots containing seedlings. Activated carbon was added in half of the target pots to adsorb potential allelochemicals. C and N analyses of target potting soil were used to test for any effect of treatments on resources. Total phenol concentration was measured in the solutions flowing from donor to target pots. RESULTS Festuca paniculata leachates inhibited seedling growth of D. glomerata and B. erectus. Inhibition was correlated with polyphenol concentration, and was not due to resource competition for nitrogen. Mowing the leaves of the donor plants did not significantly increase this inhibition. The activated carbon treatment was not conclusive as it inhibited the seedling growing under control pots with only bare soil. CONCLUSIONS The results suggest that allelopathy may be at least partly responsible for F. paniculata dominance in subalpine meadows by inhibition of colonization by neighbouring species.
Preliminary abundance analysis of galactic bulge main sequence, subgiant, and giant branch stars observed during microlensing with Keck/HIRES

We present an abundance analysis of six main sequence turnoff, subgiant, and giant branch stars toward the Galactic bulge that were observed with Keck/HIRES during microlensing events. This is an early look at the first detailed chemical analysis of main sequence stars in the Galactic bulge. Lensing events allow the effective aperture of Keck to be increased beyond its current dimensions; although, some events still stretched its spectroscopic capabilities. Future large telescopes with high resolution and high throughput spectrometers will allow the study of abundances in distant stellar populations and in less evolved stars with greater ease.
Job Market Paper Competing Auctioneers ∗

We study a model where multiple sellers with limited supply strategically choose both the price formation rule and the allocation rule. We show that inefficiency in this setting arises both because sellers withhold the good and because they sell to lower valuation buyers despite the presence of higher valuation buyers. This contrasts with the findings of the literatures on monopolistic and competing sellers, which suggest that the only form of inefficiency that arises is from sellers choosing to withhold the good. Both types of inefficiencies vanish as the number of sellers in the market grow large: it is an equilibrium for all sellers to offer efficient mechanisms in the limit.
Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) en la producción oral del idioma Inglés

This research examined the contribution of the Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) method in the oral production of the English language of the students of the second high school year of the afternoon section of the "Nelson Torres" Educational Institution in the city of Cayambe, academic year 2017-2018. This study was performed applying a socio-educational methodology and a qualitative-quantitative, bibliographical-documental approach. Moreover, the survey and the interview were the technique and instrument that were applied for data collection. Hence, after conducting this research it was determined that the teaching and learning of the English language, based on the integration of academic content with the language, allows students to develop cognitive and linguistic skills effectively, especially oral production. In conclusion, a creative proposal is designed which includes the planning of activities, integrating curricular contents from other areas, in order to effectively teach the English language.