Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Reliability of self‐assessment in determining skin phototype for Korean brown skin

The widely used skin phototype system first introduced by Fitzpatrick, which is based on the history of an individual tendency to burn and tan, was studied in 733 Korean men by means of a self‐assessment questionnaire. Combining two factors, individual burning and tanning tendency, less than half (43.9%) could be classified according to the skin phototype system. Furthermore, the concordant ratio between subjective skin phototypes assessed by the subjects themselves and classification by combining self‐reported burning and tanning tendencies was much lower (34.4%). In a subgroup of 156 subjects, the minimal erythema dose (MED) was determined and compared with the reported tendencies to burn and tan. The results showed that subjects with higher MEDs tended to report more tanning. We concluded that in Korean brown skin, there is a disconcordant relationship between reported burning and tanning tendencies and, though reliable for white skin, self‐assessed skin phototypes are unreliable in Korean brown skin.
Pancreatic Cancer Is ‘Always Non-Resectable’

Pancreatic cancer is characterized by its very aggressive biological behavior which makes it a rapidly disseminating and deadly tumor. Due to their initial ‘silent’ behavior, pancreatic cancers are generally diagnosed too late and at that point surgical or medical interventions are futile. The outcome of pancreatic cancer has not improved over the last decades. It is evident that only very few pancreatic cancers are potentially resectable and curable, but many times even these small cancers have poor prognostic factors. Furthermore, upon surgery many of the patients considered preoperatively to have resectable tumors are found to have non-resectable disease. The problem of pancreatic cancer is further compounded by the fact that most tumors are diagnosed in elderly, frail or chronically ill patients, which makes them poor surgical candidates, and only half or fewer of these patients can undergo surgery. The stress of surgery is poorly tolerated by many patients who either die, develop complications or are then unable to receive adjuvant chemotherapy. The bottom line is that pancreatic cancer is a very aggressive tumor. Currently, most cancers are treated by non-surgical methods, and the very few patients with tumors which are potentially resectable should be operated on in specialized, high-volume pancreatic centers.
The Empire of Mind: Digital Piracy and the Anti-Capitalist Movement

Introduction 1 Capitalism and the Limits to Thought 2 Content and Audiences beyond Control 3 The Abnormalization of the Internet 4 Culture Jamming and the Transformation of Cultural Heresies 5 Naughty Barbies and Greasy Clowns 6 Online Journalism and the Subversion of Commercial News 7 Utopic Capitalism, Global Resistance, and the New Public Sphere Conclusion Notes Bibliography Name Index Subject Index
Health‐related quality of life, treatment adherence, symptom experience and depression in adolescent renal transplant patients

Dobbels F, Decorte A, Roskams A, Van Damme‐Lombaerts R. Health‐related quality of life, treatment adherence, symptom experience and depression in adolescent renal transplant patients. Pediatr Transplantation 2010:14:216–223. © 2009 John Wiley & Sons A/S.
Capacity, mutual information, and coding for finite-state Markov channels

The finite-state Markov channel (FSMC) is a discrete-time varying channel whose variation is determined by a finite-state Markov process. We obtain the FSMC capacity as a function of the channel state probability conditioned on all past inputs and outputs, and the channel state probability conditioned on all past outputs alone. We also show that when the channel inputs are i.i. d. , both conditional probabilities converge in distribution. In this case, the maximum mutual information of the FSMC, I/sub iid/, is determined from these limit distributions. A class of channels for which I/sub iid/ equals Shannon capacity is also defined. Next, we consider coding techniques for these channels. We propose a decision-feedback decoding algorithm that uses the channel's Markovian structure to determine the maximum likelihood input sequence. We show that, for a particular class of FSMCs, this decoding scheme preserves the inherent channel capacity. We also present numerical results for the capacity and cutoff rate of a two-state variable noise channel with 4-PSK modulation using the decision-feedback decoder. <<ETX>>
Social movements, civil society, and radical adult education

Series Foreword by Henry A. Giroux Foreword by Peter McLaren Preface Contextualizing the Contemporary Interest in Social Movements and Civil Society in Radical Adult Education Theory and Practice The Sociology and Politics of Social Movements Civil Society within the Marxist Tradition and Beyond Adult Education, Social Movements and Civil Society Gramsci's Concept of Civil Society Revisited: Implications for a Reconceptualization of Radical Adult Education Theory and Practice References Index
Mapping optical path length and image enhancement using quantitative orientation-independent differential interference contrast microscopy

Abstract. We describe the principles of using orientation-independent differential interference contrast (OI-DIC) microscopy for mapping optical path length (OPL). Computation of the scalar two-dimensional OPL map is based on an experimentally received map of the OPL gradient vector field. Two methods of contrast enhancement for the OPL image, which reveal hardly visible structures and organelles, are presented. The results obtained can be used for reconstruction of a volume image. We have confirmed that a standard research grade light microscope equipped with the OI-DIC and 100×/1.3 NA objective lens, which was not specially selected for minimum wavefront and polarization aberrations, provides OPL noise level of ∼0.5 nm and lateral resolution if ∼300 nm at a wavelength of 546 nm. The new technology is the next step in the development of the DIC microscopy. It can replace standard DIC prisms on existing commercial microscope systems without modification. This will allow biological researchers that already have microscopy setups to expand the performance of their systems.
Simulations of the effects of shoot structure and orientation on vertical gradients in intercepted light by conifer canopies.

Coniferous tree canopies typically carry more leaf area than is necessary to intercept most of the incoming light. I postulated that an excessively large leaf area will reduce net productivity at tree level, unless the net photosynthetic production of the most shaded shoots in the canopy remains positive. The hypothesis tested was that a coniferous tree canopy maintains a large productive leaf area by increasing the efficiency of light capture as the available light decreases. The light interception efficiency of a shoot was quantified by the ratio of shoot silhouette area to total needle surface area (STAR). The STAR depends on shoot geometry and varies with shoot orientation relative to the direction of light. Shade shoots have a larger STAR and, in particular, higher values of STAR(max) than sun shoots. In addition, shade shoots tend to be horizontally inclined, which may increase the advantage of a large STAR(max) in the lower canopy, where radiation is incident from angles closer to the zenith. Adaptation to shade (changes in STAR and shoot orientation) was described on the basis of empirical data for several coniferous species, and the vertical gradient of seasonal light interception by shoots was simulated assuming different adaptive strategies. Simulations were performed at two latitudes, to account for differences in the amount and directional distribution of light during the growing season. Results support the hypothesis that increases in STAR, shoot zenith angle and shoot asymmetry (flatness) with shading increase the efficiency of light interception by deeply shaded shoots. However, because competition for light among shoots increases progressively as soon as shade acclimation occurs, there cannot exist a deep layer of shade shoots, such that the net productivity of each shoot remains positive (i.e., irradiance is above the compensation point). Therefore, if maximization of productive leaf area is the goal, the optimal strategy is to maintain an inefficient deep canopy and to increase light interception efficiency only when shading becomes severe.
The transcription factor BELLRINGER modulates phyllotaxis by regulating the expression of a pectin methylesterase in Arabidopsis

Plant leaves and flowers are positioned along the stem in a regular pattern. This pattern, which is referred to as phyllotaxis, is generated through the precise emergence of lateral organs and is controlled by gradients of the plant hormone auxin. This pattern is actively maintained during stem growth through controlled cell proliferation and elongation. The formation of new organs is known to depend on changes in cell wall chemistry, in particular the demethylesterification of homogalacturonans, one of the main pectic components. Here we report a dual function for the homeodomain transcription factor BELLRINGER (BLR) in the establishment and maintenance of the phyllotactic pattern in Arabidopsis. BLR is required for the establishment of normal phyllotaxis through the exclusion of pectin methylesterase PME5 expression from the meristem dome and for the maintenance of phyllotaxis through the activation of PME5 in the elongating stem. These results provide new insights into the role of pectin demethylesterification in organ initiation and cell elongation and identify an important component of the regulation mechanism involved.
EDM: An Endurance-Aware Data Migration Scheme for Load Balancing in SSD Storage Clusters

Data migration schemes are critical to balance the load in storage clusters for performance improvement. However, as NAND flash based SSDs are widely deployed in storage systems, extending the lifespan of SSD storage clusters becomes a new challenge for data migration. Prior approaches designed for HDD storage clusters, however, are inefficient due to excessive write amplification during data migration, which significantly decrease the lifespan of SSD storage clusters. To overcome this problem, we propose EDM, an endurance aware data migration scheme with careful data placement and movement to minimize the data migrated, so as to limit the worn-out of SSDs while improving the performance. Based on the observation that performance degradation is dominated by the wear speed of an SSD, which is affected by both the storage utilization and the write intensity, two complementary data migration policies are designed to explore the trade-offs among throughput, response time during migration, and lifetime of SSD storage clusters. Moreover, we design an SSD wear model and quantitatively calculate the amount of data migrated as well as the sources and destinations of the migration, so as to reduce the write amplification caused by migration. Results on a real storage cluster using real-world traces show that EDM performs favorably versus existing HDD based migration techniques, reducing cluster-wide aggregate erase count by up to 40%. In the meantime, it improves the performance by 25% on average compared to the baseline system which achieves almost the same effectiveness of performance improvement as previous migration techniques.
A quantitative fluorescence‐based steady‐state assay of DNA polymerase

Fluorescent dyes that bind DNA have been demonstrated as a useful alternative to radionucleotides for the quantification of DNA and the in vitro measurement of the activity of DNA polymerases and nucleases. However, this approach is generally used in a semi‐quantitative way to determine relative rates of reaction. In this report, we demonstrate a method for the simultaneous quantification of DNA in both its single‐strand and double‐strand forms using the dye PicoGreen. This approach is used in a steady‐state assay of DNA polymerase Klenow fragment exo−, where we determine kcat and Km values for the DNA polymerase that are in excellent agreement with literature values.
Enabling Parallelization via a Reconﬁgurable Chip Multiprocessor

While reconﬁgurable computing has traditionally involved attaching a reconﬁgurable fabric to a single processor core, the prospect of large-scale CMPs calls for a reevaluation of reconﬁgurable computing from the perspective of multicore architectures. We present ReMAPP, a reconﬁgurable architecture geared towards application acceleration and parallelization. In ReMAPP, parallel threads share a common reconﬁgurable fabric which can be conﬁgured for individual thread computation or ﬁne-grained communication with integrated computation. The architecture supports both ﬁne-grained barrier synchronization and ﬁne-grained point-to-point communication for pipeline parallelization. The combination of communication and conﬁgurable computation within ReMAPP provides the unique ability to perform customized computation while data is transferred between cores, and to execute custom global functions after barrier synchronization. We demonstrate that ReMAPP achieves signiﬁcantly higher performance and energy efﬁciency compared to hard-wired communi-cation-only mechanisms, and over what can ideally be achieved by allocating the fabric area to more cores.
The Prevalence, Subtypes and Obstetric Risk Factors of Urinary Incontinence in Reproductive Age Women Referred to Community Health Care Centers of Dezful, Iran- 2015

ABSTRACT Background: Urinary incontinence (UI) is a common health problem and has a profound effect on the quality of life and psychosocial aspects of the affected women. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence and risk factors of UI in reproductive age women. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 2000 reproductive age women from February to June 2015. The women were selected from all of the primary health care centers of Dezful, using easy access sampling method. Body mass index (BMI) was measured and data were collected by demographic, detailed information regarding obstetric and International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire- Urinary incontinence - Short Form(ICIQ-SF) ICIQ-SF questionnaires. Results: The women’s mean age was 33.6±8, and 57.7% (1154) of them reported UI. The prevalence of UI subtypes was recorded in 38.2% (441) stress UI (SUI), 44.9% (518) mixed UI, and 16.9% (195) urge UI. There was a significant association between the mean of pregnancies, mean of deliveries, mode of delivery, abortion, neonate>4 kg, irregular menstruation and UI (P<0.05). Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that age, irregular menstruation and vaginal delivery increased the risk of UI in this age group. Conclusion: The findings suggest that a significant proportion of reproductive age women were undiagnosed with UI and MUI was the most common type of UI in this age group. Regular menstruation was a protective factor but older age and vaginal delivery were risk factors for UI in this study.
The random phase transducer: a new technique for incoherent processing-experimental results

Ultrasonic speckle is an inherent consequence of the stochastic nature of the reflectivity of biological tissues. Speckle is a source of noise on envelope detected echoes as well as on the power spectra. A technique where the spatial coherence of the transducer is controlled by moving a random phase screen (RPS) through the ultrasonic beam is described. An RPS that is a rough surface generating phase shifts that are randomly distributed between 0 and 2 pi is presented. Measurements with unfocused and focused transducers working in broadband pulse-echo mode were performed. Experimental results on the directivity pattern and the ability of the system to obtain uncorrelated speckle patterns are presented. The performance of the RPS in SNR improvements is discussed. Experimental results are in good agreement with theoretical predictions. <<ETX>>
Experimental and model based analysis of single and multi- stage membrane reactors for the oxidation of short-chain hydrocarbons in a pilot scale

This contribution intends to provide a deeper insight into various aspects of multi stage dosing concepts based on an experimental and model based analysis. For this aim the oxidative dehydrogenation (ODH) of ethane to ethylene and propane to propylene on a VOx/Al2O3 catalyst were considered as model reactions. For the experimental study, a pilot scale set-up has been constructed with a single stage packed bed membrane reactor and a three stage cascade. The inner/outer membrane diameter was 21/35 mm. Asymmetric alumina membranes were investigated. For comparison with a conventional fixed-bed reactor operation was feasible using the cofeed mode. Reduced simple 1D and more detailed 2D models have been used to identify optimal operation parameters and to describe the concentration and temperature profiles, respectively. Based on a preliminary theoretical analysis, a large set of experimental studies was carried out in a temperature range between 520/630°C (ethane) and 350/500°C (propane). The molar O2/CnHm ratio was varied between 0.5 and 8. In the three stage membrane reactor different dosing profiles could be realised, e.g. increasing (10-30-60), uniform (33-33-33) and decreasing (60-30-10) profiles. Due to the separated and distributed feeding of the reactants, the resulting concentration and residence time profiles and the corresponding product spectra are different in membrane reactors compared to fixed-bed reactors. The analysis performed reveals for the investigated operation range a higher ethylene/propylene selectivity and simultaneously a higher conversion in membrane reactors. In case of low oxygen concentrations the selectivity of the desired product ethylene can be increased significantly compared to the conventional fixed-bed reactor. The developed detailed 2D models allow a good mathematical description of the exothermal reactions taking place in the membrane reactor. The obtained results for the ODH of propane are similar even though the increase of the propylene selectivity is not so distinctive compared to ethylene.
Evaluating Path Tracker Performance for Outdoor Mobile Robots

Accurate, high precision path tracking is an important capability for mobile robots in certain applications. In this paper, we discuss a formal method for comparing and evaluating the performance of path tracking algorithms. This method provides a way to quantify both the stability and performance of a tracker, and is of particular interest when high-accuracy off-road tracking is required. Previous work on path tracker performance has focused on the average and maximum position error over the entire path, or has dealt with simulated results. Overall, there is little analysis of tracking error at a lower level, which can provide insight into the behavior of the tracker, along with overall weaknesses and strengths. Our method includes measuring the tracker’s response to particular situations such as discontinuities in the path’s x, y coordinates and path curvature. We also examine the time for the tracker to settle onto the path and the distribution of tracking error vs. path curvature. We apply this method to two commonly used path trackers operating on an outdoor mobile robot. The first is based on a pure-pursuit model, and the second is based on work by Zhang et al (1997). By using this method we were able to evaluate the performance of these two trackers, and discover their relative strengths and weaknesses. The insight gained through this analysis has led to recommendations for path tracker development that will be presented.
Mild cognitive impairment in prediagnosed Huntington disease

Background: Cognitive decline has been reported in Huntington disease (HD), as well as in the period before diagnosis of motor symptoms (i.e., pre-HD). However, the severity, frequency, and characterization of cognitive difficulties have not been well-described. Applying similar cutoffs to those used in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) research, the current study examined the rates of subtle cognitive dysfunction (e.g., dysfunction that does not meet criteria for dementia) in pre-HD. Methods: Using baseline data from 160 non–gene-expanded comparison participants, normative data were established for cognitive tests of episodic memory, processing speed, executive functioning, and visuospatial perception. Cutoff scores at 1.5 standard deviations below the mean of the comparison group were then applied to 575 gene-expanded pre-HD participants from the observational study, PREDICT-HD, who were stratified by motor signs and genetic risk for HD. Results: Nearly 40% of pre-HD individuals met criteria for MCI, and individuals closer to HD diagnosis had higher rates of MCI. Nonamnestic MCI was more common than amnestic MCI. Single-domain MCI was more common than multiple-domain MCI. Within the nonamnestic single-domain subtype, impairments in processing speed were most frequent. Conclusions: Consistent with the Alzheimer disease literature, MCI as a prodromal period is a valid concept in pre-HD, with nearly 40% of individuals showing this level of impairment before diagnosis. Future studies should examine the utility of MCI as a marker of cognitive decline in pre-HD.
Cartilage Repair in Football (Soccer) Athletes

The prevalence of focal articular cartilage lesions among athletes is higher than in the general population. Treatment goals differ considerably between the professional and recreational athlete. High financial stakes and the short duration of a professional career influence the treatment selection for the professional athlete, while such parameters weigh differently in recreational sports. This article describes our investigation of the relation between sports and a high prevalence of focal cartilage lesions. In addition, we provide a critical review of the best available evidence for cartilage surgery and treatment selection, evaluate specific patient profiles for professional and recreational athletes, and propose a treatment algorithm for the treatment of focal cartilage lesions in football (soccer) players.
Effect of simvastatin in the autonomic system is dependent on the increased gain/sensitivity of the baroreceptors

A number of mechanisms have been proposed to explain the pleiotropic effect of statin therapy to reduce sympathetic outflow in cardiovascular disease. We tested the hypothesis that statin treatment could improve baroreflex gain‐sensitivity triggered by morphological adaptations in the mechanoreceptor site, thus reducing sympathetic activity, regardless of arterial pressure (AP) level reduction. Male spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) were divided into control (SHR, n = 8) and SHR‐simvastatin (5 mg/kg/day, for 7 days) (SHR‐S, n = 8). After treatment, AP, baroreflex sensitivity (BRS) in response to AP‐induced changes, aortic depressor nerve activity, and spectral analyses of pulse interval (PI) and AP variabilities were performed. Internal and external carotids were prepared for morphoquantitative evaluation. Although AP was similar between groups, sympathetic modulation, represented by the low frequency band of PI (SHR: 6.84 ± 3.19 vs. SHR‐S: 2.41 ± 0.96 msec2) and from systolic AP variability (SHR: 3.95 ± 0.36 vs. SHR‐S: 2.86 ± 0.18 mmHg2), were reduced in treated animals. In parallel, simvastatin induced an increase of 26% and 21% in the number of elastic lamellae as well as a decrease of 9% and 25% in the carotid thickness in both, external and internal carotid, respectively. Moreover, improved baroreceptor function (SHR: 0.78 ± 0.03 vs. SHR‐S: 1.06 ± 0.04% mv/mmHg) was observed in addition to a 115% increase in aortic depressor nerve activity in SHR‐S rats. Therefore, our data suggest that the reduction of sympathetic outflow in hypertension by simvastatin treatment may be triggered by structural changes in the carotid arteries and increased BRS in response to an improvement of the baroreceptors discharge and consequently of the afferent pathway of the baroreflex arch.