Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Flocks, herds, and schools: A quantitative theory of flocking

We present a quantitative continuum theory of ``flocking'': the collective coherent motion of large numbers of self-propelled organisms. In agreement with everyday experience, our model predicts the existence of an ``ordered phase'' of flocks, in which all members of even an arbitrarily large flock move together with the same mean velocity $〈\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{v}〉\ensuremath{\ne}0. $ This coherent motion of the flock is an example of spontaneously broken symmetry: no preferred direction for the motion is picked out a priori in the model; rather, each flock is allowed to, and does, spontaneously pick out some completely arbitrary direction to move in. By analyzing our model we can make detailed, quantitative predictions for the long-distance, long-time behavior of this ``broken symmetry state. '' The ``Goldstone modes'' associated with this ``spontaneously broken rotational symmetry'' are fluctuations in the direction of motion of a large part of the flock away from the mean direction of motion of the flock as a whole. These ``Goldstone modes'' mix with modes associated with conservation of bird number to produce propagating sound modes. These sound modes lead to enormous fluctuations of the density of the flock, far larger, at long wavelengths, than those in, e.g., an equilibrium gas. Our model is similar in many ways to the Navier-Stokes equations for a simple compressible fluid; in other ways, it resembles a relaxational time-dependent Ginsburg-Landau theory for an $n=d$ component isotropic ferromagnet. In spatial dimensions $dg4,$ the long-distance behavior is correctly described by a linearized theory, and is equivalent to that of an unusual but nonetheless equilibrium model for spin systems. For $dl4,$ nonlinear fluctuation effects radically alter the long distance behavior, making it different from that of any known equilibrium model. In particular, we find that in $d=2,$ where we can calculate the scaling exponents exactly, flocks exhibit a true, long-range ordered, spontaneously broken symmetry state, in contrast to equilibrium systems, which cannot spontaneously break a continuous symmetry in $d=2$ (the ``Mermin-Wagner'' theorem). We make detailed predictions for various correlation functions that could be measured either in simulations, or by quantitative imaging of real flocks. We also consider an anisotropic model, in which the birds move preferentially in an ``easy'' (e.g., horizontal) plane, and make analogous, but quantitatively different, predictions for that model as well. For this anisotropic model, we obtain exact scaling exponents for all spatial dimensions, including the physically relevant case $d=3. $
Human umbilical cord wharton's jelly mesenchymal stem cells do not transform to tumor‐associated fibroblasts in the presence of breast and ovarian cancer cells unlike bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells

Human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (hBMMSCs) were shown to transform into tumor‐associated fibroblasts (TAFs) when in the vicinity of breast cancer tumors and played an important role in tumor enhancement and metastasis. In early human development MSCs migrating from the yolk sac and aorta‐gonad‐mesonephros (AGM) via the umbilical cord to the placenta and back to the fetal bone marrow were shown to get trapped in the gelatinous Wharton's jelly of the umbilical cord. The common origin of the Wharton's jelly MSCs and the finally homed hBMMSCs prompted us to evaluate whether hWJSCs are also involved in TAF transformation. hWJSCs and hBMMSCs were grown in the presence of breast and ovarian cancer cell conditioned medium (MDA‐TCM, TOV‐TCM) for 30 days. No changes were observed in the hWJSCs but the hBMMSCs transformed from short to thin long fibroblasts, their proliferation rates increased and CD marker expression decreased. The transformed hBMMSCs showed positive staining for the tumor‐associated markers FSP, VEGF, EGF, and Tn‐C. Real‐time PCR and multiplex luminex bead analysis showed upregulation of TAF‐related genes (FSP, FAP, Tn‐C, Tsp‐1, EGF, bFGF, IL‐6, α‐SMA, VEGF, and TGF‐β) for hBMMSCs with low expression for hWJSCs. The luciferase assay showed that hWJSCs previously exposed to MDA‐TCM or TOV‐TCM had no stimulatory growth effect on luciferase‐tagged MDA or TOV cells unlike hBMMSCs. The results confirmed that hWJSCs do not transform to the TAF phenotype and may therefore not be associated with enhanced growth of solid tumors making them a safe MSC for cell based therapies. J. Cell. Biochem. 113: 1886–1895, 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Driving Roles of Tropospheric and Stratospheric Thermal Anomalies in Intensification and Persistence of the Arctic Superstorm in 2012

Intense synoptic‐scale storms have been more frequently observed over the Arctic during recent years. Specifically, a superstorm hit the Arctic Ocean in August 2012 and preceded a new record low Arctic sea ice extent. In this study, the major physical processes responsible for the storm's intensification and persistence are explored through a series of numerical modeling experiments with the Weather Research and Forecasting model. It is found that thermal anomalies in troposphere as well as lower stratosphere jointly lead to the development of this superstorm. Thermal contrast between the unusually warm Siberia and the relatively cold Arctic Ocean results in strong troposphere baroclinicity and upper level jet, which contribute to the storm intensification initially. On the other hand, Tropopause Polar Vortex (TPV) associated with the thermal anomaly in lower stratosphere further intensifies the upper level jet and accordingly contributes to a drastic intensification of the storm. Stacking with the enhanced surface low, TPV intensifies further, which sustains the storm to linger over the Arctic Ocean for an extended period.
Testing of DRAINMOD for Forested Watersheds with Non-Pattern Drainage

Models like DRAINMOD and its forestry version, DRAINLOB, have been specifically developed as a field scale model for evaluating hydrologic effects of crops (trees), soil, and water management practices for lands with pattern drainage (i.e. with parallel ditches) on relatively flat, high water table soils. These models conduct a water balance between the ditches to predict water table depths, drainage rates, surface runoff, ET, and soil water storage. However, a vast landscape under silvicultural management in the coastal plains along the southeast and Gulf Coast region consists of lands with non-pattern drainage systems. Reliable models are needed to determine the processes and water quality impacts of management practices on these lands also. In this study data from two naturally drained forested watersheds without the pattern drainage in Florida and South Carolina coasts were used to test the ability of DRAINMOD to predict water table depths and drainage outflow rates. A large ditch spacing and a shallow drain depth were assumed to simulate outflows from both of these flat depressional wet sites. With minimal field calibration, the model’s predictions of daily outflows from Santee watershed in South Carolina were satisfactory. The predicted outflows for Bradford watershed on Florida flatwoods with a higher level of field calibration were found to be better, as expected, for wet, dry, and normal years. The results suggest that reliable estimates of surface storage and PET inputs in DRAINMOD with a surface flow routing component may further enhance the flow predictions on these watersheds.
Hybrid Repair of Thoracoabdominal Aortic Aneurysms Is a Durable Option for High-Risk Patients in the Endovascular Era

Objective: To report our long-term experience in using the hybrid technique in complex thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysms (TAAAs). Methods: Between March 2005 and September 2013, 10 patients with TAAA underwent hybrid procedures with open renovisceral revascularization and thoracoabdominal aortic endografting. Patients were analyzed retrospectively. Results: Six men and 4 women with a mean age of 66 years (range 54-81 years) were treated electively during the study period. All 4 visceral vessels were revascularized in 8 patients, whereas 1 patient underwent 3-vessel revascularization and another 2-vessel revascularization. The primary technical success rate was 100%. Eight of the procedures were single staged, and the 2 most recent cases were performed in 2 stages. Perioperative and 30-day mortality was 0%. The mean follow-up was 55 months (4-133 months). None of the patients died due to aortic complications. Major complications included paraplegia (10%, n = 1) and bowel ischemia (n = 1). Postoperative cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) pressure and mean arterial pressure measurements were systematically monitored and corrected. The CSF drainage solved another 4 cases of paraparesis. Three patients required postoperative dialysis, but none of them required permanently. Postoperative spinal cord ischemia and renal complications accumulated in extensive TAAA cases. One renal graft was occluded 45 days after the initial procedure but was successfully treated with thrombolysis. One type I and 1 type III endoleak were noted and successfully treated with an additional stent graft. Two cases of type II endoleak were detected—one with a growing aneurysm sac was treated successfully and another showed no growth and further procedures were abandoned after 2 embolization attempts. In long-term follow-up, 90% of the aneurysms showed shrinkage by a mean of 23 mm (range 7-45 mm). Conclusion: The results of hybrid repair on high-risk patients with complex TAAAs are encouraging, and this approach is a valuable alternative when branched and fenestrated endovascular techniques are not considered an option.
Classification of anxiety disorders: Changes, conundrums and consequences

Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 48(12) language, cognitive control); systems for social processes (imitation, theory of mind, social dominance, facial expression, attachment/separation fear, self-representation); and arousal regulatory systems (arousal and regulation, resting state activity). According to First (2013) , the RDoC approach represents a true paradigm shift in classification of mental disorders, moving away from defining disorders based on descriptive phenomenology, and focuses on neural circuitry as the fundamental classificatory principle. He points out that RDoC’s impact on future clinical classification in psychiatry will depend on how well the included molecular and neurobiological parameters end up predicting prognosis and treatment response. Baroni and Castellanos (2015) have reviewed RDoC constructs implicated in ADHD (reward-related processing, inhibition, vigilant attention, reaction time variability, timing and emotional lability). They report that the most frequently used neuropsychological test in ADHD has been the Continuous Performance Test (CPT), though reaction time variability (RTV) has also been found to be present in other conditions. While the RDoC approach promises the greater reliability of objective measurement, it will still be important to maintain careful phenomenological description and relationships in terms of ADHD subtypes, comorbidity and development. Ideally, DSM5, ICD-11 and RDoC should enrich each other and perhaps RDoC will help clarify interesting relationships between ADHD and comorbid conditions such as autism, oppositional defiant disorder, conduct disorder and personality development, as well as treatment response.
Mapping vegetation community types in a highly disturbed landscape: integrating hierarchical object-based image analysis with lidar-derived canopy height data

ABSTRACT Focusing on the semi-arid and highly disturbed landscape of San Clemente Island (SCI), California, we test the effectiveness of incorporating a hierarchical object-based image analysis (OBIA) approach with high-spatial resolution imagery and canopy height surfaces derived from light detection and ranging (lidar) data for mapping vegetation communities. The hierarchical approach entailed segmentation and classification of fine-scale patches of vegetation growth forms and bare ground, with shrub species identified, and a coarser-scale segmentation and classification to generate vegetation community maps. Such maps were generated for two areas of interest on SCI, with and without vegetation canopy height data as input, primarily to determine the effectiveness of such structural data on mapping accuracy. Overall accuracy is highest for the vegetation community map derived by integrating airborne visible and near-infrared imagery having very high spatial resolution with the lidar-derived canopy height data. The results demonstrate the utility of the hierarchical OBIA approach for mapping vegetation with very high spatial resolution imagery, and emphasizes the advantage of both multi-scale analysis and digital surface data for accurately mapping vegetation communities within highly disturbed landscapes.
A Light Sliding-Window Part-of-Speech Tagger for the Apertium Free/Open-Source Machine Translation Platform

This paper describes a free/open-source implementation of the light sliding-window (LSW) part-of-speech tagger for the Apertium free/open-source machine translation platform. Firstly, the mechanism and training process of the tagger are reviewed, and a new method for incorporating linguistic rules is proposed. Secondly, experiments are conducted to compare the performances of the tagger under different window settings, with or without Apertium-style "forbid" rules, with or without Constraint Grammar, and also with respect to the traditional HMM tagger in Apertium.
Allqokirus australis (Sparassodonta, Metatheria) from the early Palaeocene of Tiupampa (Bolivia) and the rise of the metatherian carnivorous radiation in South America

ABSTRACT The present paper describes a disarticulated skull of Allqokirus australis Marshall & Muizon, 1988, a basal sparassodont (Metatheria, Mammalia) from the early Palaeocene (c. 65 Ma.) of Tiupampa (Bolivia). The specimen includes the rostrum and palate with right premaxilla, both maxillae, left lacrimal, palatines and most upper teeth. The second largest element includes the frontals, the left squamosal, the parietals, the supraoccipital, the basisphenoid, the presphenoid, the alisphenoid, and part of the pterygoids. The nasals, basioccipital and exoccipitals are missing. Other elements are the left petrosal, the right jugal and squamosal, and both dentaries. The elements of the specimen allow for a good reconstruction of the skull, which is thoroughly described and compared to that of other sparassodonts and to the Tiupampa pucadelphyids, Pucadelphys and Andinodelphys. The dental morphology of Allqokirus australis is extremely similar to that of Patene simpsoni from the early Eocene of Itaboraí (Brazil) and presents distinct (although incipient) carnivorous adaptations. Furthermore, some characters of the ear region (e.g. medial process of the squamosal, deep groove for the internal carotid artery at the ventral apex of the petrosal) are also present in most other sparassodonts and in the pucadelphyids from the same locality. A parsimony analysis performed on the basis of a data matrix of 364 characters and 38 taxa placed Allqokirus in a sparassodont clade (the Mayulestidae) that also included Mayulestes and Patene. This family constitutes the sister group of all other sparassodonts. Our analysis also retrieved a large clade composed of the sparassodonts and the pucadelphyids, formally named Pucadelphyda n. superord. This superorder represents the large metatherian carnivorous radiation of the Tertiary of South America, which is first known at Tiupampa, and which started to diversify probably slightly earlier, during the late Cretacous in South America. So far, no representative of Pucadelphyda has been discovered in North America. At Tiupampa, Allqokirus and Mayulestes are the largest metatherians of the fauna and they fill the predaceous mammalian ecological niche. They are the earliest representatives of Sparassodonta, a successful metatherian carnivorous radiation which persisted in South America until the late Pliocene, i.e., during more than 63 Ma.
The effect of endothelial progenitor cells on the development of collateral formation in patients with coronary artery disease.

OBJECTIVE Unlike arteriogenesis, little is known about the effects of vasculogenesis and its major effector cells, endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) on collateral formation. In this study, we investigated whether or not the number and function of EPCs were associated with the development of collateral formation in patients with single-vessel coronary artery disease of chronic total occlusion (CTO). METHODS AND RESULTS The subjects were patients (n=35) undergoing coronary angiography (CAG) who had CTO in one major coronary artery. EPCs were isolated from peripheral blood samples and cultured. Their phenotypes were confirmed by uptake of acetylated LDL and binding of fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)-labeled Ulex europaeus agglutinin 1 (UEA-1) lectin. The numbers of colony-forming units (CFUs) and the senescent cells, determined by acidic beta-galactosidase staining, were counted. The angiogenic growth factors from the culture medium were also measured by ELISA. Patients with good collaterals (n=22, Rentrop class 2 and 3) exhibited an increased number of CFUs (p=0.023), reduced number of senescent cells (p=0.010), and higher concentration of b-FGF (0.036) in the culture medium, compared with subjects with poor collaterals (n=13, Rentrop class 0 and 1). CONCLUSION Our findings suggested that EPC-mediated angiogenesis might be associated with coronary collateral formation in humans.
Serum concentrations of cartilage oligomeric matrix protein and bone sialoprotein in hip osteoarthritis: A one year prospective study

OBJECTIVE To evaluate serum concentations of cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (COMP) and bone sialoprotein (BSP) as predictors of disease progression in hip osteoarthrtitis (OA). METHODS Forty eight consecutive patients, referred to hospital for symptomatic hip OA, (ACR criteria) were monitored in a one year prospective trial with radiographs and serum samples. The radiographs were graded for joint space narrowing, osteophytes, and sclerosis and the joint space width was measured by a digitised image analyser. Serum COMP and BSP were quantified by immunoassays. RESULTS The COMP concentrations at baseline correlated with the joint space width at entry and with its yearly mean narrowing (r = 0.38, p = 0.002) but not with joint space narrowing grade progression. The concentrations were higher in patients with bilateral hip OA (p = 0.03). The serum BSP concentrations at baseline were unrelated to OA progression but correlated inversely to the osteophyte grade (r = −0.36, p = 0.004) and sclerosis grade ( r = −0.42, p = 0.0004). CONCLUSION Serum COMP seems to be a surrogate marker of OA and may be of interest for the detection of patients at risk of rapidly progressing disease in hip OA. Serum BSP changes seem to reflect alterations in the subchondral bone turnover in hip OA. Measurement of joint space width using a digitised image analyser is a sensitive way of assessing OA progression that facilitates evaluation of tissue markers in relation to anatomical changes in the joint.
Retinal and Ocular Toxicity in Ocular Application of Drugs and Chemicals – Part II: Retinal Toxicity of Current and New Drugs

Aims: Retinal pharmacotherapy has gained great importance for the treatment of various retinal diseases. An increasing number of drugs have been constantly released into the market, especially for wet age-related macular disease and diabetic macular edema. In this review, the issues concerning the toxicity of current and new classes of drugs are discussed. Methods: An extensive search of the literature was performed to review various aspects of drug toxicity in retinal pharmacotherapy. The different major classes of drugs, such as corticosteroids, antibiotics, antimetabolites, antineoplastic agents, monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, enzymes, fibrinolytics, miscellaneous anti-inflammatory and antiangiogenic agents, as well as toxicity unrelated to the drug were identified and discussed. Results: Corticosteroids like fluocinolone, dexamethasone or triamcinolone at low dose cause little damage to the retina, but at high doses signs of toxicity have been well documented. Complications like cataract and glaucoma are quite common with corticosteroids. Aminoglycosides showed differences in the type and doses associated with toxic reactions, thereby the following order of toxicity can be described (from most toxic to least toxic): gentamicin > netilmicin = tobramycin > amikacin = kanamycin. Vancomycin at the usual dose of 1 mg is not toxic to the retina, while further studies are necessary in order to clarify the safety of new-generation quinolones. 5-Fluorouracil has been shown to be nontoxic to the retina after an injection of 2.5 mg in animals. mAbs like ranibizumab and bevacizumab were demonstrated to be safe to the retina in cell culture, animals and humans at high doses. The exact biocompatibility of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory agents like diclofenac needs further evaluation. Preservatives like benzyl alcohol and changes in pH or osmolarity exert an influence on the toxic effects of intravitreally applied drugs. Conclusions: A great number of drugs are now used mainly intravitreally without relevant retinal toxicity.
Effects of germinated barley foodstuff in preventing diarrhea and forming normal feces in ceco-colectomized rats.

Germinated barley foodstuff (GBF) derived from the aleurone and scutellum fractions of germinated barley was rich in glutamine and low-lignified hemicellulose. The diarrhea caused by ceco-colectomy could be prevented by feeding GBF to rats. GBF could also increase the protein content and sucrase activity of small intestinal mucosa in this model. This diarrhea-preventive effect of GBF would be based on the water-holding capacity and bulging force under alkaline conditions, e.g. in the small intestine.
Study of suitable filter architectures for FBMC techniques applied to PLC communications

Multi-carrier approaches have arisen in the last years as a suitable medium access technique for many communications standards, such as PowerLine Communications (PLC). This one is based on using mains for data transmission, not only in industrial environments but also in public buildings, residences and houses. One of these multi-carrier solutions is based on the Filter-Bank Multi-Carrier (FBMC), where a polyphase filter bank is used to obtain greater spectral separation in the information transmitted over each subcarrier, or higher robustness in noisy environments. Nevertheless, these techniques often imply a high computational load, with also high data rates, which make difficult to achieve real-time implementations for the approaches. This work analyses three different architectures that can be applied to the polyphase filter bank implementation in a FBMC technique for PLC. Every proposal is studied in terms of quantization errors, due to fixed-point representation, and in terms of resource consumption, always taking into account that a FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array) device has been considered for the final deployment.