Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The cluster birthline in M33

Aims. The aim of this paper is twofold: (a) to determine the reliability of infrared (IR) emission to trace star formation in individual star-forming sites of M 33, and (b) to outline a new method for testing the distribution function of massive stars in newly formed clusters. Methods. We select 24 μm IR sources from the Spitzer survey of M 33 with Hα counterparts and show that the IR luminosities have a weak dependence on galactocentric radius. The IR and Hα luminosities are not correlated. Complementing the infrared photometry with GALEX-UV data, we estimate the bolometric luminosities to investigate how they are related to the Hα luminosities. We simulate a theoretical diagram for the expected bolometric-to-Hα luminosity ratio, Lbol/LHα, of young clusters as a function of the cluster luminosity. We then compare the observed Lbol/LHα ratios with the theoretical predictions. Results. In the log(Lbol) − log(Lbol/LHα) plane, stellar clusters should be born along a curve that we call the cluster birthline . T he birthline depends on the stellar initial mass function (IMF) at the high-mass end, but not on the cluster mass function. For an upper stellar mass limit of 120 M� , the birthline is flat for Lbol > 3 × 10 39 erg s −1 because all clusters fully sample the IMF. It increases toward lower luminosities as the upper end of the IMF becomes incompletely sampled. Aging moves clusters above the birthline. The observations of M 33 show that young isolated clusters lie close to the theoretical birthline for a wide range of Lbol. The observed Lbol/LHα ratio increases toward low Lbol like the theoretical curve, indicating that luminosity is not proportional to Hα emission for low mass clusters. The best fit to the birthline is for a randomly sampled IMF, in which the mass of most massive star in a cluster is not strictly limited by the cluster’s mass, but can have any value up to the maximum stellar mass with a probability determined by the IMF. We also find that the IR luminosity of young stellar clusters in M 33 is not proportional to their bolometric luminosity. This irregularity could be the result of low and patchy dust abundance. In M 33 dust absorbs and re-radiates in the IR only part of the UV light from young clusters.
Detection and Prevalence Intestinal Parasites in Patients in Abeokuta, South-western, Nigeria

6 Abstract: This study reports on detection and prevalence of intestinal parasites in patients in Abeokuta, the capital city of Ogun State located in the forest zone of southwestern Nigeria. Stool samples were collected from 2215(100.0%) patients; 1485(67.0%) males and 730(33.0%) females. Microscopic examination of both thin and thick films techniques were employed for this study. Of the 2215 (100%) stool specimens examined, parasites positive-slides were 147(6.6%). The overall prevalence was 6.6% and mostly in females (7.1%) than in males (6.4%). More parasites were detected in stool samples collected in 2002 (59(23.6%)) than other years studied, there was also significant difference in the years under study (P=0.05). The parasites include: Ascaris lumbricoides (57(38.8%)) and Schistosoma mansoni (4(2.7%)) and trophozoites/cysts of Entamoeba histolytica (76(51.7%)). There were cases of multiple infection of Ascaris lumbricoides and E. histolytica (10(6.9%)). There was higher incidence of the cyst of E. histolytica (51.7%) than other parasitic worms observed in this study and a low incidence of S. mansoni (2.7%). This study shows that a good percentage of people were infested by parasitic protozoa and worms and re-enforces the need for an urgent effort to check the unnecessary and avoidable heavy parasites load.
Aquaporins in the Spinal Cord

Aquaporins (AQPs) are water channel proteins robustly expressed in the central nervous system (CNS). A number of previous studies described the cellular expression sites and investigated their major roles and function in the brain and spinal cord. Among thirteen different mammalian AQPs, AQP1 and AQP4 have been mainly studied in the CNS and evidence has been presented that they play important roles in the pathogenesis of CNS injury, edema and multiple diseases such as multiple sclerosis, neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, glioblastoma multiforme, Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. The objective of this review is to highlight the current knowledge about AQPs in the spinal cord and their proposed roles in pathophysiology and pathogenesis related to spinal cord lesions and injury.
Uptake of ammonium by the scleractinian coral Stylophora pistillata: Effect of feeding, light, and ammonium concentrations

Experiments were designed to assess the uptake rates of 0.2, 1, and 5 μM ammonium by the scleractinian coral Stylophora pistillata maintained under different feeding regimes (highly fed, slightly fed, and starved) for 4–8 weeks. 15NH4 was used to follow the incorporation of nitrogen in the zooxanthellae or in the animal tissue and to calculate uptake rates. After 4 or 8 weeks, fed corals contained significantly higher concentrations of protein, chlorophyll, and zooxanthellae than starved nubbins. They also contained significantly higher amounts of carbon and nitrogen per unit surface skeleton. Results obtained showed that the algal fraction was enriched with 15N at up to 10 times the rate of the host, which suggests that the zooxanthellae are the primary site of assimilation. Uptake rates (measured in the algal fraction) varied according to the nitrogen concentration in seawater. They were ~20 times lower at 0.2 than at 1 or 5 μM 15NH4 enrichment (2–30 vs. 120–510 ng N h−1 cm−2) for both fed and starved nubbins. These rates were also affected by the feeding history of the host, because they were significantly lower for fed than for starved nubbins (analysis of variance, P < 0.005), at both high and low ammonium concentrations. On the basis of the nitrogen content of the zooxanthellae, we suggest that an external concentration of ammonium equal to 0.6 mM can sustain the growth of the zooxanthellae population.
A Review of Food Frequency Questionnaires Developed  and Validated in Japan

Background The food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) has been used throughout the world for epidemiological purposes. Because dietary habits vary greatly, the FFQ must be tailored for use with specific populations. The usefulness of FFQs in Japan was assessed by reviewing questionnaires developed and validated in that country. Methods A literature search was conducted to identify articles on the development and/or validation of FFQs for Japanese populations. For each FFQ identified, validation studies were used to abstract its characteristics and information. The correlation coefficients between diet records (DRs) and FFQ estimates and those between the same FFQs completed twice were used to evaluate validity and reproducibility, respectively, of the questionnaires. Results Twenty-one eligible FFQs were identified. They were found to be reasonably valid and reproducible. The median of correlation coefficients between DRs and FFQs ranged from 0.31 to 0.56 for target nutrients, and that between the same FFQs completed twice within a period of 9 months to 1 year ranged from 0.50 to 0.72. Relatively poor validity was found for FFQ estimates on consumption of potatoes, seaweed, sodium, niacin, and polyunsaturated fatty acids. For the purpose of analysis, FFQs were divided into long FFQs (97 or more food items) and short FFQs (<70 items); the former had slightly higher validity. Conclusion FFQs are useful for assessing dietary intake in Japan, although careful consideration is required for the food groups and nutrients for which FFQs had low validity.
A Child’s Capacity to Commit Crime: Examining the Operation of Doli Incapax in Victoria (Australia)

The rebuttable presumption of doli incapax is available in all Australian states and territories and provides that, where a child is unable to comprehend the distinction between actions that are ‘seriously wrong’ and those that are ‘naughty or mischievous’, they cannot be held criminally responsible for their actions. Despite the key role that doli incapax should play in diverting the youngest offenders away from the criminal justice system, its operation to date has been largely unexamined. This article seeks to directly address this gap. Drawing on the experiences of those involved in all aspects of the youth justice system, this article examines the need for, and the effectiveness of, the presumption of doli incapax in Victoria, Australia. Revealing inconsistencies in the use of the presumption, the article also examines the need for future reform of this area of law.
Identity Questioning: Antecedents and Consequences of Prejudice Attributions

Many ethnic minorities in the United States hold both an ethnic minority and national American identity. Yet, they often encounter identity questioning when asked questions such as, “Where are you really from? ,” which may operate as an ambiguous threat to their national identity. Because varied motivations (curiosity versus exclusion) create ambiguity, targets likely vary in their tendency to view identity questioning as prejudicial. Study 1 examined the extent to which ethnic minorities attribute identity questioning to prejudice, and the associated well-being consequences. Study 2 examined the immigration policy-oriented antecedents of identity questioning prejudice attributions. The results suggest that prejudice attributions are psychologically harmful (Study 1) and are associated with anti-immigration policies (Study 2). Because identity questioning challenges one’s ability to maintain a dual identity, it is important to better understand identity questioning. Specifically, these findings provide initial evidence of the role policy contexts may play in shaping identity questioning attributions.
Reconciling forecasts for hierarchical and grouped time series

Time series can often be naturally disaggregated in a hierarchical structure using attributes such as product type. For example, the total number of bicycles sold by a cycling warehouse can be disaggregated into a hierarchy of bicycle types. Such a warehouse will sell road bikes, mountain bikes, children bikes or hybrids. Each of these can be disaggregated into finer categories. Children’s bikes can be divided into balance bikes for children under 4 years old, single-geared bikes for children between 4 and 6 and multi-geared bikes for children over the age of 6. Hybrid bikes can be divided into city, commuting, comfort, and trekking bikes; and so on. Such disaggregation imposes a hierarchical structure. We refer to these as hierarchical time series.
NADH/NADPH Oxidase and Enhanced Superoxide Production in the Mineralocorticoid Hypertensive Rat

We previously reported increased aortic reactive oxygen species (ROS) production in mineralocorticoid (deoxycorticosterone acetate [DOCA]-salt) hypertensive rats. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that NADH/NADPH oxidase is responsible for increased ROS production, namely superoxide (O2−), in aorta from the DOCA-salt rat. Treatment of aortic rings from DOCA-salt rats with the NO synthase inhibitor N-nitro-l-arginine and the xanthine oxidase inhibitor allopurinol did not significantly change O2− production. Furthermore, de-endothelialization of aorta from DOCA-salt rats did not affect O2− production compared with that of sham-operated rats. Thus, xanthine oxidase and uncoupled endothelial NO synthase were not responsible for increased O2− production in the DOCA-salt rats. In contrast, treatment with the NADPH oxidase inhibitor apocynin significantly decreased O2− production in aortic rings from DOCA-salt rats compared with sham-operated rats. Moreover, long-term administration of apocynin (in drinking water, 1.5 mmol/L, 28 days) to DOCA-salt rats significantly decreased systolic blood pressure compared with that of rats treated with DOCA-salt alone. Furthermore, O2− production in aortic rings from DOCA-salt rats treated with apocynin for 28 days was reduced compared with that of untreated DOCA-salt rats. Reverse transcriptase–polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis demonstrated that DOCA-salt rats have significantly greater mRNA levels of the NADPH oxidase subunit p22phox than do sham-operated rats. These findings suggest that NADPH oxidase is increased and is responsible for increased O2− production and possibly contributes to increased blood pressure in the DOCA-salt hypertensive rat.
A Short Evaluation of a New Haematological Analyser: The Cobas Argos 5 Diff

In order to evaluate the Cobas Argos 5 Diff, a five-part differential haematological analyser, we performed a comparative study using our current analyser, the Toa E-5000, and the manual leukocyte differential. Samples (n = 593) were collected from various departments in our hospital and were tested on both Cobas Argos 5 Diff and Toa E-5000. Regression lines were calculated for all standard haematological quantities. A group of 100 samples, including 50 negative (absence of flags) and 50 positive (presence of flags), on the Cobas Argos 5 Diff were randomly selected from the above-mentioned collection. All these samples had been checked under the microscope by two persons counting 200 cells each. The comparison of standard haematological quantities between Cobas Argos 5 Diff and the Toa E-5000 shows good correlation: Red Blood Cells r = 0.993; White Blood Cells r = 0.998; Haemoglobin r = 0.989; Haematocrit r = 0.982; Thrombocytes r = 0.988; Lymphocytes (%) r = 0.983; Neutrophils (%) r = 0.959. The correlation between Cobas Argos 5 Diff and the manual leukocyte differential shows good correlation for lymphocytes and neutrophils, with acceptable correlation for eosinophils. The correlation for basophils and monocytes was less acceptable, especially for normal samples. We conclude that the efficiency of the Cobas Argos 5 Diff is good (93%) and that it is a suitable haematological cell analyser.
From Trepidation to Transformation: Strategies Used by Occupational Therapy Students on Role-Emerging Placements

To prepare graduates for the diverse practice contexts in which they may work in the future, roleemerging placements are increasingly being used within curricula. Literature highlights the benefits and challenges of such placements but there has been little research to examine how students manage and overcome these challenges. Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was used to gain a deeper understanding of how five MSc pre-registration occupational therapy students coped with the challenges of undertaking a role-emerging placement. Interviews were carried out and analysed using IPA guidelines. The students utilised personal attributes, reflection, supervision, communities of practice, peer support and experiential learning to help them cope with, and overcome, the placement challenges. This enabled them to take ownership of their own learning and development, leading to positive placement outcomes. We conclude that students need to be encouraged to use and develop a range of strategies to overcome challenges of role-emerging placements. The findings build on existing accounts of students’ experiences of role-emerging placements by providing deeper insights into the strategies they use to help them manage such placements successfully. Recommendations for further research are highlighted. Suggestions for placement preparation to facilitate students’ coping strategies are made.
UPF-Cobalt Submission to WMT15 Metrics Task

An important limitation of automatic evaluation metrics is that, when comparing Machine Translation (MT) to a human reference, they are often unable to discriminate between acceptable variation and the differences that are indicative of MT errors. In this paper we present UPF-Cobalt evaluation system that addresses this issue by penalizing the differences in the syntactic contexts of aligned candidate and reference words. We evaluate our metric using the data from WMT workshops of the recent years and show that it performs competitively both at segment and at system levels.
Learning nonlinear multi-variate motion dynamics for real-time position and orientation control of robotic manipulators

We present a generic framework that allows learning non-linear dynamics of motion in manipulation tasks and generating dynamical laws for control of position and orientation. This work follows a recent trend in Programming by Demonstration in which the dynamics of an arm motion is learned: position and orientation control are learned as multi-variate dynamical systems to preserve correlation within the signals. The strength of the method is three-fold: i) it extracts dynamical control laws from demonstrations, and subsequently provides concurrent smooth control of both position and orientation; ii) it allows to generalize a motion to unseen context; iii) it guarantees on-line adaptation of the motion in the face of spatial and temporal perturbations. The method is validated to control a four degree of freedom humanoid arm and an industrial six degree of freedom robotic arm.
Ulcerative colitis has an aggressive course after orthotopic liver transplantation for primary sclerosing cholangitis

Background—The course of inflammatory bowel disease after liver transplantation has been reported as variable with usually no change or improvement, but there may be an increased risk of early colorectal neoplasms. In many centres steroids are often withdrawn early after transplantation and this may affect inflammatory bowel disease activity. Aims—To evaluate the course of inflammatory bowel disease in primary sclerosing cholangitis transplant patients who were treated without long term steroids. Methods—Between 1989 and 1996, there were 30 patients transplanted for primary sclerosing cholangitis who survived more than 12 months. Ulcerative colitis was diagnosed in 18 (60%) patients before transplantation; two had previous colectomy. All patients underwent colonoscopy before and after transplantation and were followed for 38 (12–92) months. All received cyclosporin or tacrolimus with or without azathioprine as maintenance immunosuppression. Results—Ulcerative colitis course after transplantation compared with that up to five years before transplantation was the same in eight (50%) and worse in eight (50%) patients. It remained quiescent in eight and worsened in four of the 12 patients with pretransplant quiescent course, whereas it worsened in all four patients with pretransplant active course (p=0.08). New onset ulcerative colitis developed in three (25%) of the 12 patients without inflammatory bowel disease before transplantation. No colorectal cancer has been diagnosed to date. Conclusions—Preexisting ulcerative colitis often has an aggressive course, while de novo ulcerative colitis may develop in patients transplanted for primary sclerosing cholangitis and treated without long term steroids.
In vivo diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging and fiber tracking of the mouse brain

Until very recently, the study of neural architecture using fixed tissue has been a major scientific focus of neurologists and neuroanatomists. A non‐invasive detailed insight into the brain's axonal connectivity in vivo has only become possible since the development of diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging (DT‐MRI). This unique approach of analyzing axonal projections in the living brain was used in the present study to describe major white matter fiber tracts of the mouse brain and also to identify for the first time non‐invasively the rich connectivity between the amygdala and different target regions. To overcome the difficulties associated with high spatially and temporally resolved DT‐MRI measurements a 4‐shot diffusion weighted spin echo (SE) echo planar imaging (EPI) protocol was adapted to mouse brain imaging at 9.4T. Diffusion tensor was calculated from data sets acquired by using 30 diffusion gradient directions while keeping the acquisition time at 91 min. Two fiber tracking algorithms were employed. A deterministic approach (fiber assignment by continuous tracking ‐ FACT algorithm) allowed us to identify and generate the 3D representations of various neural pathways. A probabilistic approach was further used for the generation of probability maps of connectivity with which it was possible to investigate – in a statistical sense ‐ all possible connecting pathways between selected seed points. We show here applications to determine the connection probability between regions belonging to the visual or limbic systems. This method does not require a priori knowledge about the projections' trajectories and is shown to be efficient even if the investigated pathway is long or three‐dimensionally complex. Additionally, high resolution images of rotational invariant parameters of the diffusion tensor, such as fractional anisotropy, volume ratio or main eigenvalues allowed quantitative comparisons in‐between regions of interest (ROIs) and showed significant differences between various white matter regions. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The Value of Nation

Drawing on ethnographical observations made in the Naturalization Office of a prefecture of the Paris region, and on interviews carried out with bureaucrats and French citizens who have been naturalized, this article examines both the institutional process of granting citizenship as well as its impact on subjectivities. It investigates the assumptions and broad judgments that underlie the granting of French citizenship to see how norms and values linked to this procedure circulate between bureaucrats and applicants. It focuses on the idea of “deservingness,” linked to the act of being granted French citizenship, to determine how bureaucrats from the Naturalization Office and French naturalized citizens differently appropriate this notion. By addressing the articulated difference between bureaucratic practice and lived experience, this article aims to highlight the political, moral, and ethical dimensions at stake in the procedure of making foreigners into French citizens.
Numerical-experimental comparison in the simulation of rotor/stator interaction through blade-tip/abradable coating contact

Higher aircraft energy efficiency may be achieved by minimizing the clearance between the rotating blade tips and respective surrounding casing. A common technical solution consists in the implementation of an abradable liner which improves both the operational safety and the efficiency of modern turbomachines. However, unexpected abradable wear removal mechanisms were recently observed in experimental set-ups as well as duringmaintenance procedures. Based on a numerical strategy previously developed, the present study introduces a numerical-experimental comparison of such occurrence. Attention is first paid to the review and analysis of existing experimental results. Good agreement with numerical predictions is then illustrated in terms of critical stress levels within the blade as well as final wear profiles of the abradable liner. Numerical results suggest an alteration of the abradablemechanical properties in order to explain the outbreak of a divergent interaction. New blade designs are also explored in this respect and it is found that the interaction phenomenon is highly sensitive to (1) the blade geometry, (2) the abradablematerial properties and (3) the distortion of the casing.