Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A targeted survey for H i clouds in galaxy groups

Five galaxy groups with properties similar to those of the Local Group have been surveyed for H I clouds with the Arecibo Telescope. In total 300 pointings have been observed on grids of approximately 2.5 x 1.5 Mpc(2) centred on the groups. The 4.5 sigma detection limit on the minimal detectable H I masses is approximately 7 x 10(6) M(circle dot) (H(0) = 65 km s(-1) Mpc(-1)). All detections could be attributed to optical galaxies; no significant detections of H I clouds have been made. This null result leads to the conclusion that the total H I mass of intragroup clouds must be less than 10 per cent of the total H I mass of galaxy groups and less than 0.05 per cent of the dynamical mass. The recent hypothesis that Galactic high-velocity clouds are Local Group satellite galaxies is highly inconsistent with these observations.
Optimality and Sub-optimality of PCA for Spiked Random Matrices and Synchronization

A central problem of random matrix theory is to understand the eigenvalues of spiked random matrix models, in which a prominent eigenvector is planted into a random matrix. These distributions form natural statistical models for principal component analysis (PCA) problems throughout the sciences. Baik, Ben Arous and Peche showed that the spiked Wishart ensemble exhibits a sharp phase transition asymptotically: when the signal strength is above a critical threshold, it is possible to detect the presence of a spike based on the top eigenvalue, and below the threshold the top eigenvalue provides no information. Such results form the basis of our understanding of when PCA can detect a low-rank signal in the presence of noise. However, not all the information about the spike is necessarily contained in the spectrum. We study the fundamental limitations of statistical methods, including non-spectral ones. Our results include: I) For the Gaussian Wigner ensemble, we show that PCA achieves the optimal detection threshold for a variety of benign priors for the spike. We extend previous work on the spherically symmetric and i.i. d. Rademacher priors through an elementary, unified analysis. II) For any non-Gaussian Wigner ensemble, we show that PCA is always suboptimal for detection. However, a variant of PCA achieves the optimal threshold (for benign priors) by pre-transforming the matrix entries according to a carefully designed function. This approach has been stated before, and we give a rigorous and general analysis. III) For both the Gaussian Wishart ensemble and various synchronization problems over groups, we show that inefficient procedures can work below the threshold where PCA succeeds, whereas no known efficient algorithm achieves this. This conjectural gap between what is statistically possible and what can be done efficiently remains open.
Malpractice Laws and Incentives to Shield Assets: Evidence from Nursing Homes

Previous empirical studies of the incentive effects of medical malpractice liability have largely ignored the incentives of providers to restructure to protect assets. This study uses a large panel database to provide evidence on asset-shielding responses to the enactment of pro-plaintiff tort laws in the nursing home industry. The evidence suggests two important asset-shielding responses. First, large chains sold many homes in the affected states to smaller, more judgment-proof owners (with fewer assets, little or no insurance coverage and protective legal structures). Second, chains became relatively less likely to brand their homes with names that linked them directly to the central corporation or sister units (we provide legal and informational explanations for why branding units is likely to increase expected tort liability). In addition to extending the empirical literature on malpractice, the paper provides evidence on the horizontal ownership of service establishments, branding and the choice of business names.
International Conference on Intelligent and Advanced Systems 2007 Image Enhancement in Simple Fingerprint Minutiae Extraction Algorithm Using Crossing Number on Valley Structure

— In fingerprint recognition system, fingerprint feature extraction algorithm requires good quality fingerprint images to produce good results. Therefore, one step in the preprocessing stage is image enhancement to improve the quality of poor fingerprint image, so the minutiae points can be detected with good results. In this paper, we present how this enhancement process in simple minutiae detection algorithm using crossing number on valley structure improves detection of true minutiae.
Natural Variation in Preparation for Nutrient Depletion Reveals a Cost–Benefit Tradeoff

Maximizing growth and survival in the face of a complex, time-varying environment is a common problem for single-celled organisms in the wild. When offered two different sugars as carbon sources, microorganisms first consume the preferred sugar, then undergo a transient growth delay, the “diauxic lag”, while inducing genes to metabolize the less preferred sugar. This delay is commonly assumed to be an inevitable consequence of selection to maximize use of the preferred sugar. Contrary to this view, we found that many natural isolates of Saccharomyces cerevisiae display short or non-existent diauxic lags when grown in mixtures of glucose (preferred) and galactose. These strains induce galactose-utilization (GAL) genes hours before glucose exhaustion, thereby “preparing” for the transition from glucose to galactose metabolism. The extent of preparation varies across strains, and seems to be determined by the steady-state response of GAL genes to mixtures of glucose and galactose rather than by induction kinetics. Although early GAL induction gives strains a competitive advantage once glucose runs out, it comes at a cost while glucose is still present. Costs and benefits correlate with the degree of preparation: strains with higher expression of GAL genes prior to glucose exhaustion experience a larger upfront growth cost but also a shorter diauxic lag. Our results show that classical diauxic growth is only one extreme on a continuum of growth strategies constrained by a cost-benefit tradeoff. This type of continuum is likely to be common in nature, as similar tradeoffs can arise whenever cells evolve to use mixtures of nutrients.
Soliton interaction for the extended Korteweg-de Vries equation

Soliton interactions for the extended Korteweg-de Vries (KdV) equation are examined. It is shown that the extended KdV equation can be transformed (to its order of approximation) to a higher-order member of the KdV hierarchy of integrable equations. This transformation is used to derive the higher-order, two-soliton solution for the extended KdV equation. Hence it follows that the higher-order solitary-wave collisions are elastic, to the order of approximation of the extended KdV equation. In addition, the higher-order corrections to the phase shifts are found. To examine the exact nature of higher-order, solitary-wave collisions, numerical results for various special cases (including surface waves on shallow water) of the extended KdV equation are presented. The numerical results show evidence of inelastic behaviour well beyond the order of approximation of the extended KdV equation; after collision, a dispersive wavetrain of extremely small amplitude is found behind the smaller, higher-order solitary wave.
Erythropoietin is reduced by combination of diuretic therapy and RAAS blockade in proteinuric renal patients with preserved renal function.

BACKGROUND Renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) blockade improves prognosis in renal patients, but usually requires diuretic co-treatment. RAAS blockade can decrease erythropoietin (EPO) and/or haemoglobin (Hb) levels. Diuretics decrease EPO in rodents, but their effect on EPO and Hb in humans is unknown. METHODS Proteinuric renal patients with preserved renal function were treated during 6-week periods with placebo, losartan 100 mg/day (LOS) and LOS plus hydrochlorothiazide 25 mg/day (LOS/HCT), in random order. RESULTS Hb was inversely related to proteinuria, and EPO levels were inappropriately low in relation to Hb. Hb was lowered by LOS with and without HCT. EPO was decreased by LOS/HCT, but not by LOS. CONCLUSIONS EPO and Hb are reduced by HCT added to LOS in proteinuric renal patients with preserved renal function. We hypothesize that EPO reduction by HCT is caused by a decrease in renal oxygen requirement, which is the main stimulus for EPO production, due to the inhibition of active tubular sodium reabsorption. Further studies should explore the exact mechanism of this phenomenon and its clinical impact.
Adaptive Primal Dual Optimization for Image Processing and Learning

The Primal-Dual Hybrid Gradient method is a powerful splitting scheme for largescale constrained and non-differentiable problems. We present practical adaptive variants of PDHG that converge more quicky and are easier to use than conventional splitting schemes. We also study the convergence of PDHG, and prove new results guaranteeing convergence of the method when adaptivity is used properly.
Consumption, Income and Earnings Inequality in the UK

This paper presents a consistent analysis of the trends in inequality across income, earnings and consumption in the UK since 1978. It shows the episodic nature of inequality growth over this period largely dominated by the inequality ‘boom’ of the 1980s. It presents a consistent picture across these key measures of inequality that can be used to provide a coherent link between the microeconomic and macroeconomic analysis of the evolution of inequality.
Cognitive Skills of Young Children with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder Using the BSID-III

Objective. The purpose of the study was to compare the cognitive skills of young children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to same-aged peers referred for possible developmental delays or behavioral concerns using the Bayley Scales of Infant Development-Third Edition. Method. A retrospective chart review was conducted of 147 children ages 16 to 38 months who were referred to a diagnostic clinic for developmental evaluation. Children with ASD were compared to those without ASD with respect to cognition and language outcomes, both overall and by age. Results. While language skills in children with ASD were more significantly delayed than language skills in children without ASD, there was less discrepancy in the cognitive skills of children with and without ASD. Conclusion. Formal cognitive assessment of children with ASD can provide guidance for developmental expectations and educational programming. Cognitive skills of children with ASD may be underappreciated.
The Role of the Elasticity of Substitution in Economic Growth : A Cross-Country Test of the de La Grandville Hypothesis

The elasticity of substitution between capital and labor (σ) is a second-order parameter of the production function but has a first-order effect on economic growth. Although the importance of this elasticity has long been recognized in several branches of economics, it has received too little attention in the growth literature. Grandville (1989) showed theoretically that at any stages of an economy’s development, the growth rate of income per capita is increasing with σ. The higher is σ, the greater the similarity between capital and labor in the production function, and thus diminishing returns sets-in very slowly. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper that tests the Grandville hypothesis at the cross-country level. We estimate σ for 90 countries from direct estimation of the normalized CES production function and then include these estimators as an explanatory variable in crosscountry growth regression. We investigate the sign and significance of the coefficient of σ conditioning on country characteristics, initial conditions, institutions and a set of policy variables. Since the unobservable σ is “generated” from the first-step estimation of the CES production function, in the second-step cross-country growth regression it is measured with sampling errors (Pagan, 1984; Murphy and Topel, 1985). After accounting for measurement errors and other sources of endogeneity, we find strong support for the de La Grandville hypothesis. We check the robustness of our results by Leamer’s (1983) extreme value analysis, and the coefficient of σ remains positive and the t-statistics remain large for all combinations of the conditioning variables.
Trumping Preemption

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Post‐Critical Belief Scale and Scripture as Predictors of Prejudice

Recent research has linked the strength of belief (transcendence) dimension of the Post-Critical Belief Scale (PCBS) and exposure to violent Bible verses to greater prejudice toward value-violating outgroups. Effects of exposure to specific Bible verses on attitudes toward outgroup members have not been measured in combination with the PCBS. The current study examined the two dimensions of the PCBS and exposure to scriptural endorsements of prejudice as predictors of prejudice toward value-violating outgroups. The strength of belief dimension of the PCBS was a significant predictor of attitudes toward atheists, gay men, lesbians, Christians, and highly religious people. Conversely, exposure to scriptural endorsements of prejudice toward atheists and gay individuals did not have a significant effect on levels of prejudice. Implications are discussed in terms of intergroup bias and the religious values conflict model.
Significant impact of biochemical recurrence on overall mortality in patients with high‐risk prostate cancer after carbon‐ion radiotherapy combined with androgen deprivation therapy

Whether biochemical recurrence (BR) is a significant predictive factor of mortality after definitive radiation therapy for prostate cancer remains unknown. The aim of the current study was to investigate the relation between BR and overall mortality (OAM) in high‐risk prostate cancer patients who were treated with carbon‐ion radiotherapy (CIRT) and had long‐term follow‐up in 2 prospective trials.
O R I G I N a L I N V E S T I G a T I O N Open Access

Increased haemodynamic adrenergic load with isoflurane anaesthesia in type 2 diabetic and obese rats in vivo Abstract Background: Increasing numbers of type 2 diabetic and obese patients with enhanced rates of cardiovascular complications require surgical interventions, however they have a higher incidence of perioperative haemodynamic complications, which has been linked to adrenergic dysfunction. Therefore, we aimed to determine how α-and β-adrenoceptor (AR)-mediated haemodynamic responses are affected by isoflurane anaesthesia in experimental type 2 diabetes and obesity in vivo. Methods: Sixteen-week old male Zucker type 2 Diabetic Fatty (ZDF) rats, Zucker Obese rats and their lean counterparts (n = 7-9 per group) were instrumented with radio telemeters to record blood pressure and heart rate and with vascular access ports for non-invasive intravenous drug delivery in vivo. Haemodynamic effects of α-AR (phenylephrine; 1-100 μg.kg −1) or β-AR (dobutamine; 2-120 μg.kg −1) stimulation were assessed under
Meta-analysis of recurrent laryngeal nerve injury in thyroid surgery with or without intraoperative nerve monitoring

SUMMARY Intraoperative nerve monitoring (IONM) aimed at reducing the injuries of recurrent laryngeal nerve during thyroidectomy is controversial. We conducted a meta-analysis to assess the incidence of nerve injuries with or without IONM. Studies published from January 1994 to February 2012 in English language on humans were identified. Heterogeneity of studies was checked by the Higgins test. Summary estimates of predictive values of injury were made using the Mantel-Haenszel test based on the fixed-effects model. Publication bias was assessed by a funnel plot and Egger's method. Eight articles were selected accounting a total of 5257 nerves at risk. IONM revealed a significant impact in preventing transient injuries (positive predictive value = 5% [95% CI: 2-8], negative = 96% [95% CI: 91-100], relative risk = 0.73 [95% CI: 0.54-0.98], p = 0.035), whereas they failed to demonstrate effect on permanent injuries (positive predictive value = 2% [95% CI: 0.6-3.8], negative 99% [95% CI: 97-100], relative risk = 0.73 [95% CI: 0.44-1.23], p = 0.235). This meta-analysis demonstrated the merit of IONM in preventing transient injury during thyroidectomy. No advantage was found in permanent injuries.
Depressive State and Social Anxiety in Adolescents: The Role of Family Interactions

Abstract Depression and social anxiety in adolescents may be examined based on parental acceptance and rejection. The scale of quality of family interactions, the social anxiety scale and the state depression scale were used. Mothers’ rejection and family satisfaction, rated by adolescents (N = 324), are significant predictors of the depressive state, while satisfaction with family is a significant predictor of social anxiety. The depressive state is a significant mediator between family interactions and social anxiety. The prevention of the depressive state and social anxiety in adolescents should be based on increasing the quality of family interactions.
On-chip sensor networks for soft-error tolerant real-time multiprocessor systems-on-chip

As transistor density continues to increase with the advent of nanotechnology, reliability issues raised by the more frequent appearance of soft errors are becoming critical for future embedded multiprocessor systems design. State-of-the-art techniques for soft error protections targeting multiprocessor systems result either high chip cost and area overhead or high performance degradation and energy consumption, and do not fulfill the increasing requirements for high performance and dependability. In this article we present a systematic approach, that is, the Sensor Networks-on-Chip (SENoC), to collaboratively and efficiently manage on-chip applications and overcome reliability threats to Multiprocessor Systems-on-Chip (MPSoC). A hardware-software collaborative approach is proposed to solve soft error problems: a hardware-based on-chip sensor network is built for soft error detection, and a software-based recovery mechanism is applied for soft error correction. A two-step scheduling scheme is presented for reliable application and chip management, combining an off-line static optimization stage for application performance maximization and an online lightweight dynamic adjustment stage to handle runtime variations and exceptions. This strategy introduces only trivial overhead on hardware design and much lower overhead on software control and execution, and hence performance degradation and energy consumption is greatly reduced. We build a cycle-accurate simulator using SystemC, and verify the effectiveness of our technique by comparing performance with related techniques on several real-world applications.
CD4 and CD8 T Cell Responses to the M. tuberculosis Ag85B-TB10.4 Promoted by Adjuvanted Subunit, Adenovector or Heterologous Prime Boost Vaccination

Background Although CD4 T cells are crucial for defense against M.tb, it is still not clear whether the optimal response against M.tb in fact involves both CD4 and CD8 T cells. To test this, we used a new vaccine strategy that generated a strong balanced T cell response consisting of both CD4 and CD8 T cells. Methods and Findings To compare CD4 and CD8 responses against Ag85B-TB10.4 (H4), H4 was delivered as a subunit vaccine in cationic liposomes (CAF01), expressed in Ad5 (Ad-H4) or as a heterologous prime boost vaccination. H4/CAF01 induced primarily CD4 T cells and Ad-H4 gave predominantly a CD8 T cell response. In contrast, the heterologous prime boost combination resulted in augmentation of both the CD4 and CD8 response. The majority (>40%) of the CD4 T cells induced by the heterologous prime boost protocol were polyfunctional, and expressed IFN-γ+, IL-2+, and TNF-α+, whereas most of the CD8 T cells expressed IFN-γ+ and TNF-α+ and possessed strong cytotoxic potential. The heterologous prime boost protocol also gave an increase in protective efficacy against M.tb challenge compared to H4/CAF01 and Ad-H4. Both the H4 specific CD4 and CD8 T cells were recruited to the site of infection, at the onset of infection. However, compared to CD8 T cells, CD4 T cells showed more extensive recruitment and were the main T cell subset proliferating at the site of infection. Conclusions/Significance Heterologous prime boost based on H4, produced an additive effect on the priming of CD4 and CD8 cells and in terms of the protective capacity of the vaccine, and therefore represent an interesting new vaccine strategy against M.tb. However, CD4 and CD8 T cells respond very differently to live M.tb challenge, in a manner which supports the consensus that CD4 T cells do play the major role during the early stages of an M.tb infection.
The Impact of Event Scale – Revised: psychometric properties of the Lithuanian version in a sample of employees exposed to workplace bullying

Background. The Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) is often used as a self-report instrument for symptoms of post-traumatic stress (PTS). The objective of this study was to explore the reliability and validity of the Lithuanian IES-R in a sample of employees with exposure to workplace bullying in different occupations. Materials and methods. The original IES-R was translated into Lithuanian, and the comparability of content was verified through back-translation procedures. 294 employees with exposure to workplace bullying (52 teachers from the secondary schools of Kaunas, 56 family physicians, 101 nurses of internal medicine departments, 40 waiters, and 45 seafarers) were administered the Lithuanian IES-R and the General Health Questionnaire – 12 (GHQ-12) in order to verify some aspects of convergent validity. The exploratory factor analysis was used to verify the construct validity of the IES-R. Results. The reliability of the Lithuanian version of the IES-R was verified. Cronbach’s α of the total scale was 0.95. Exploratory factor analysis showed a clear factor structure with three independent dimensions: intrusion, avoidance and hyperarousal. Cronbach’s α for subscales of intrusion, avoidance and hyperarousal were 0.89, 0.85, and 0.88, respectively. The convergent validity was supported by positive correlations between the subscales (intrusion, avoidance, hyperarousal) and the GHQ-12. Conclusions. The results suggest that the self-reported Lithuanian IES-R is a valid instrument for assessing the dimensions of post-traumatic stress, has good psychometric properties, and may be applied in prolonged trauma-exposed populations.