Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
GRB 080503: IMPLICATIONS OF A NAKED SHORT GAMMA-RAY BURST DOMINATED BY EXTENDED EMISSION

We report on observations of GRB 080503, a short gamma-ray burst (GRB) with very bright extended emission (about 30 times the gamma-ray fluence of the initial spike) in conjunction with a thorough comparison to other short Swift events. In spite of the prompt-emission brightness, however, the optical counterpart is extraordinarily faint, never exceeding 25 mag in deep observations starting at ∼1 hr after the Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) trigger. The optical brightness peaks at ∼1 day and then falls sharply in a manner similar to the predictions of Li & Paczyński (1998) for supernova-like emission following compact binary mergers. However, a shallow spectral index and similar evolution in X-rays inferred from Chandra observations are more consistent with an afterglow interpretation. The extreme faintness of this probable afterglow relative to the bright gamma-ray emission argues for a very low density medium surrounding the burst (a “naked” GRB), consistent with the lack of a coincident host galaxy down to 28.5 mag in deep Hubble Space Telescope imaging. The late optical and X-ray peak could be explained by a slightly off-axis jet or by a refreshed shock. Our observations reinforce the notion that short GRBs generally occur outside regions of active star formation, but demonstrate that in some cases the luminosity of the extended prompt emission can greatly exceed that of the short spike, which may constrain theoretical interpretation of this class of events. This extended emission is not the onset of an afterglow, and its relative brightness is probably either a viewing-angle effect or intrinsic to the central engine itself. Because most previous BAT short bursts without observed extended emission are too faint for this signature to have been detectable even if it were present at typical level, conclusions based solely on the observed presence or absence of extended emission in the existing Swift sample are premature.
Sediment production from forest roads in western Oregon

Prevention and estimation of soil erosion from forest roads requires an understanding of how road design and maintenance affect sediment production. Seventy‐four plots were installed on forest roads in the Oregon Coast Range to examine the relationship between sediment production and road attributes such as distance between culverts, road slope, soil texture, and cutslope height. An additional comparison was made between road segments with cutslopes and ditches freshly cleared of vegetation and segments with established vegetation on cutslopes and in ditches. All road segments were 5 m wide and insloped with aggregate surfacing, light traffic, and no overhanging forest cover. Sediment production was correlated to the product of segment length times road slope squared. Sediment production from aggregate covered roads on a silty clay loam was about 9 times greater than that from roads constructed on a gravelly loam. Sediment production was not correlated to the cutslope height. Road segments where vegetation was cleared from the cutslope and ditch produced about 7 times as much sediment as road segments where vegetation was retained, showing the potential reduction in erosion by revegetation following construction and the potential impact of ditch cleaning during maintenance. Relationships and estimates from this study provide a basis for improved erosion estimates by commonly used empirical procedures.
Robust features for environmental sound classification

In this paper we describe algorithms to classify environmental sounds with the aim of providing contextual information to devices such as hearing aids for optimum performance. We use signal sub-band energy to construct signal-dependent dictionary and matching pursuit algorithms to obtain a sparse representation of a signal. The coefficients of the sparse vector are used as weights to compute weighted features. These features, along with mel frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCC), are used as feature vectors for classification. Experimental results show that the proposed method gives an accuracy as high as 95.6 %, while classifying 14 categories of environmental sound using a gaussian mixture model (GMM).
A modified fuzzy c-means algorithm for breast tissue density segmentation in mammograms

The fuzzy c-means (FCM) algorithm has been applied in a variety of medical image segmentation applications. The conventional FCM algorithm uses the greylevel information at a single pixel as the feature space and this contains no spatial contextual information, which makes it very sensitive to noise and intensity inhomogeneities. Recently, some modified FCM algorithms with spatial constraints have been published. However, these have individual disadvantages and are not robust enough with different types of noise. In this paper, we propose a modified FCM algorithm incorporating local spatial and intensity information based on an adaptive local window filter whose weighting coefficients differentiate the neighbouring pixels within the local window. Fast clustering is afterwards performed on the intensity histogram of the filtered image. To demonstrate the robustness and insensitivity to noise of the proposed algorithm, it is extensively tested using synthetic images corrupted by a variety of noise. The experimental results are quantitatively evaluated and compared. This algorithm is then applied to mammographic images for breast tissue density segmentation. The segmentation results indicate its effectiveness to the presence of intensity inhomogeneities in mammograms from different density categories.
Homeostatic Regulation of Sleep: A Role for Preoptic Area Neurons

The median preoptic nucleus (MnPN) and the ventrolateral preoptic area (vlPOA) contain putative sleep-regulatory neurons that exhibit elevated discharge rates during sleep compared with waking. Expression of c-Fos protein immunoreactivity (IR) in GABAergic neurons in the MnPN and the vlPOA is high in spontaneously sleeping rats and in rats undergoing recovery sleep after sleep deprivation. However, it is unclear whether c-Fos-IR in these neurons is evoked by increases in sleep pressure or by increases in sleep amount. We examined c-Fos-IR in MnPN and vlPOA neurons under experimental conditions that dissociated homeostatic sleep pressure, sleep amount, and time of day. Groups of rats with strong diurnal rhythms in sleep-wake organization were killed after (1) spontaneous sleep in the light, (2) spontaneous sleep in the dark, (3) sleep deprivation (SLD) in the light and (4) recovery sleep after SLD in the light. Numbers of GABAergic neurons expressing c-Fos-IR in the MnPN were significantly higher after SLD in the light compared with spontaneous sleep and recovery sleep in the light. In contrast, Fos-IR in vlPOA GABAergic neurons was most prevalent after spontaneous sleep and recovery sleep in the light. No light–dark differences in Fos-IR were observed in the MnPN after SLD in groups of rats with weak or absent diurnal sleep-waking rhythms. Our findings define potential roles for MnPN and vlPOA GABAergic neurons in homeostatic aspects of sleep regulation.
Understanding the role of NRF2-regulated miRNAs in human malignancies

Nuclear factor (erythroid-derived 2)-like 2 (NRF2) is a key transcription factor that regulates the expression of over a hundred cytoprotective and antioxidant genes that provide cellular protection from reactive oxygen species. Chemotherapy resistance in several cancers has been linked to dysregulation of the NRF2 signalling pathway, moreover there is growing evidence that NRF2 may contribute to tumorigenesis. MicroRNA (miRNA) are small non-coding RNA sequences that post-transcriptionally regulate mRNA sequences. In cancer pathogenesis, aberrantly expressed miRNAs can act as either tumor suppressor or oncogenic miRNA. Recent evidence has been described that identifies a number of miRNA that can be regulated by NRF2. This review outlines the importance of NRF2 in regulating miRNA, and the functional role this may have in the tumorigenesis of human malignancies and their chemotherapy resistance.
A post-processing technique to remove background noise from echo integration data

Echo integration of biological organisms with a low target strength can be difficult because of the problem of setting suitable pre-integration thresholds, and this is particularly acute with higher frequencies, such as 120 or 200 kHz, which are often used in studies of euphausiids. One solution is to integrate data without any threshold and then remove background noise during post-processing. Unthresholded, integrated data of micronekton and Euphausia superba collected with a SIMRAD EK500 at frequencies of 38 and 120 kHz are presented. The underlying background noise level follows a 20 log R+2αR relationship, which can be scaled to the minimum volume backscatter (Sv) in each layer during a transect and then subtracted from the entire data set to remove background noise. The utility of this procedure is demonstrated by making comparisons of Sv at each frequency and investigating the effect of noise removal on the identification of targets based on the dB difference (120 kHz Sv–38 kHz Sv).
Attachment to fibronectin or vitronectin makes human neutrophil migration sensitive to alterations in cytosolic free calcium concentration

Transient increases in cytosolic free calcium concentration, [Ca2+]i, appear to be required for the migration of human neutrophils on poly-D- lysine-coated glass in the presence of dilute serum (Marks, P. W., and F. R. Maxfield. 1990. J. Cell Biol. 110:43-52). In contrast, no requirement for [Ca2+]i transients exists when neutrophils migrate on albumin-coated glass in the absence of serum. To determine the mechanism that necessitates [Ca2+]i transients on poly-D-lysine in the presence of serum, migration was examined on substrates consisting of purified adhesive glycoproteins. In the absence of external Ca2+, a treatment which causes the cessation of [Ca2+]i transients, migration on fibronectin (fn) and vitronectin (vn) was significantly inhibited. Migration was also inhibited in Ca2(+)-buffered cells on these substrates, indicating that this effect was the result of an alteration of [Ca2+]i. In the absence of external Ca2+, the inhibition of migration on fn or vn was more pronounced when soluble fn or vn was added to cells migrating on these substrates. This effect of soluble adhesive glycoprotein was specific: in the absence of external Ca2+, soluble fn did not affect the migration of cells on vn, and soluble vn did not affect the migration on fn. No additional inhibition of migration was observed in Ca2(+)-buffered cells with the addition of soluble adhesive glycoprotein. These data indicate that [Ca2+]i transients are involved in continued migration of human neutrophils on fn or vn, proteins which are part of the extracellular matrix that neutrophils encounter in vivo.
Micro-Baseline Stereo

Tradeoffs exist between the baseline or distance between cameras and the difficulty of matching corresponding points in stereo and structure from motion. Smaller baselines result in reduced disparities reducing the accuracy of depth estimation. Larger baselines increase the range of observed disparities, but also increase the difficulty of finding corresponding points. In this paper, we explore the use of very small baselines, called micro-baselines. Microbaselines, typically just a few millimeters, provide the advantage that they can be captured using a single camera. That is, a “static” camera that is either hand-held or mounted on a tripod will typically vibrate some small amount while capturing video. We take advantage of the vibrating motion to compute depth information. For hand-held cameras a small amount of motion is generally always present, while many surveillance applications involve cameras mounted outside or on high poles that exhibit this type of motion. Even indoor cameras mounted on tripods move due to human traffic and machine vibrations.
Investigating the sources of process innovation among UK manufacturing firms

Although it retains a central position in the main theories of innovation, there are few studies that examine the factors that provide inducements for process innovation at the firm level. Using a large scale survey of UK manufacturing firms, we explore different explanations for why firms develop process innovations. Contrasting the sources of incremental and radical process innovation, our study indicates that there may be complementarities between them. We also find that firm size, the presence of formal research and development, and the use of suppliers as a source of knowledge all increase the chances that a firm will be a process innovator. This article discusses the implications of these results for future theoretical and empirical studies of the innovation process.
CMIP5 Projected Changes in the Annual Cycle of Precipitation in Monsoon Regions

AbstractAnalyses of phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) experiments show that the global monsoon is expected to increase in area, precipitation, and intensity as the climate system responds to anthropogenic forcing. Concurrently, detailed analyses for several individual monsoons indicate a redistribution of rainfall from early to late in the rainy season. This analysis examines CMIP5 projected changes in the annual cycle of precipitation in monsoon regions, using a moist static energy framework to evaluate competing mechanisms identified to be important in precipitation changes over land. In the presence of sufficient surface moisture, the local response to the increase in downwelling energy is characterized by increased evaporation, increased low-level moist static energy, and decreased stability with consequent increases in precipitation. A remote mechanism begins with warmer oceans and operates on land regions via a warmer tropical troposphere, increased stability, and decrease.
The experimental critique and philosophical practice

Abstract Some experimental philosophers have criticized the standard intuition-based methodology in philosophy. One worry about this criticism is that it is just another version of the general skepticism toward the evidential efficacy of intuition, and is thereby subject to the same difficulties. In response, Weinberg provides a more nuanced version of the criticism by targeting merely the philosophical use of intuition. I contend that, though Weinberg’s approach differs from general skepticism about intuition, its focus on philosophical practices gives rise to a new difficulty. Most extant experimental surveys investigate intuitions about particular cases through vignettes giving little contextual information. However, philosophical practices crucially depend on intuitions about general claims and typically provide more contextual background. I argue that, due to these two differences between surveys’ and philosophers’ appeals to intuition, Weinberg’s critique lacks enough support from current experimental data. I conclude that experimental philosophers who engage in the negative program should pay more attention on testing philosophers’ use of general intuitions and context-rich intuitions.
Global Methylation in Exposure Biology and Translational Medical Science

Background: Many groups are actively investigating how the epigenetic state relates to environmental exposures and development of disease, including cancer. There are myriad choices for capturing and measuring the epigenetic state of a tissue, ranging from assessing the total methyl-CpG content to array-based platforms that simultaneously probe hundreds of thousands of CpG loci. There is an emerging literature that uses CpG methylation at repetitive sequences, including LINE-1 (long interspersed nuclear element-1) elements, to capture the epigenomic state. Objectives: We explored the complexity of using CpG methylation at repetitive sequences in epidemiology and translational medical research and suggest needed avenues of research to clarify its meaning and utility. Conclusions: Among the most urgent avenues of research is the need for prospective studies to eliminate the possibilities of reverse causality, and development of new LINE-1 assays that capture both class of LINE-1 element and copy number.
Efficient Indexing and Querying over Syntactically Annotated Trees

Natural language text corpora are often available as sets of syntactically parsed trees. A wide range of expressive tree queries are possible over such parsed trees that open a new avenue in searching over natural language text. They not only allow for querying roles and relationships within sentences, but also improve search effectiveness compared to flat keyword queries. One major drawback of current systems supporting querying over parsed text is the performance of evaluating queries over large data. In this paper we propose a novel indexing scheme over unique subtrees as index keys. We also propose a novel root-split coding scheme that stores subtree structural information only partially, thus reducing index size and improving querying performance. Our extensive set of experiments show that root-split coding reduces the index size of any interval coding which stores individual node numbers by a factor of 50% to 80%, depending on the sizes of subtrees indexed. Moreover, We show that our index using root-split coding, outperforms previous approaches by at least an order of magnitude in terms of the response time of queries.
In vivo imaging of anaesthetic action in humans: approaches with positron emission tomography (PET) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

Recent progress in brain imaging offers great potential for anaesthesia research. Among the most important imaging modalities for mapping human brain activation are positron emission tomography (PET) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Both techniques are based on mapping haemodynamic or metabolic changes that are a direct consequence of alterations in neuronal activity. 59 In comparison with electroencephalographic techniques, which are able to demonstrate that a given anaesthetic agent has central nervous system activity, PET or fMRI provide information about the pathways and the anatomical localization of the drug effect. On one hand, fMRI offers a superior spatial resolution to PET. The theoretical limit for PET is expected to be 2 mm isotropic resolution for the human head, whereas a recent fMRI study has demonstrated an in-plane resolution of 0.55 mm. Furthermore, fMRI does not require the injection of exogenous radioactive tracers. Therefore, a subject can perform a variety of different tasks during various experimental conditions within the same imaging session. Besides these methodological factors, fMRI is of advantage in terms of lower costs and clinical availability. On the other hand, PET offers the unique possibility of in vivo receptor imaging, only shared in part with magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and it provides absolute values of physiological variables. Using the complementary features of both techniques allows us to obtain information about how the brain works from the molecular to the complex neural network level and to explore regional drug effects on integrated brain processes at these various levels. Both imaging modalities have the ability to reveal new insights in altered brain processes during anaesthesia and may contribute to our understanding of where, why, and how brain functions collapse in the presence of anaesthetic drugs. This review will focus mainly on previously reported results obtained with human brain imaging techniques related to the general mechanism of anaesthetic action. It will ®rst discuss some methodological aspects of PET and fMRI and then comment on results obtained mostly from volunteer studies.
Determinants of customer acceptance for mobile data services: an empirical analysis with formative constructs

Despite all forecasts, innovative mobile data services are not yet widespread. The aim of this research is to explain what influences customer acceptance and usage of mobile data services. For this purpose, we develop a structural equation model. To gain a maximum insight into the reasons for acceptance or rejection of mobile data services, we operationalise our model mainly with formative constructs. The model is validated with data from Europe's largest mobile market, Germany. We show that perceived usefulness of any b2c mobile data service highly depends on perceived enjoyment – which for instance explains the high acceptance of iPhone applications compared to others. Our results allow not only for a better understanding of the underlying customer behaviour but also for concrete recommendations on the design of mobile data services.
POLARIZATION OF DENTAL CARIES AMONG INDIVIDUALS AGED 15 TO 18 YEARS

Objective: To evaluate the role of socioeconomic variables and self-perceived oral health in the polarization of caries among adolescents in Santa Bárbara D'Oeste, Brazil. Material and Methods: Cross-sectional study. Sampling was randomized and sample size was defined according to WHO criteria. Two hundred and seventy seven adolescents (15 to 18 year-old) were examined by five trained examiners that assessed DMFT index according to WHO criteria. Self-perceived oral health, access to dental services and socio-demographic variables were self-reported. Student's t tests, chi-square tests, and multivariate logistic regression (with significant caries index (SiC) as the outcome), were performed. Results: Mean DMFT was 5.48 (±4.22) and the proportion of "caries free" subjects was 15.5%. Mean DMFT (9.71±2.85) and mean D (1.67±2.18) of SiC positive subjects were significantly higher than mean DMFT (2.88±2.17) and mean D (0.45±0.87) of SiC negative subjects (p<0.0001). Mean D of white (0.76±1.51) was significantly smaller than mean D of non-white subjects (1.32±2.01). The only variable independently associated with the "SiC positive" outcome was "report of toothache within six months prior to the study" [OR=1.83 (95%CI 1.08 to 3.12)], p<0.001. Conclusion: SiC was associated with "report of toothache" but not with sociodemographic variables in the studied population.
Epidermal growth factor receptor expression regulates proliferation in the postnatal rat retina

Epidermal growth factor (EGF) is known to promote proliferation of both retinal progenitors and Muller glia in vitro, but several questions remain concerning an in vivo role for this factor. In this study, we investigated whether the EGF receptor (EGFR) is necessary for the maintenance of normal levels of progenitor and Muller glial proliferation in vivo. Here, we show that (1) mice with homozygous deletion of the Egfr gene have reduced proliferation in late stages of retinal histogenesis, (2) EGF is mitogenic for Müller glia in vivo during the first two postnatal weeks in the rodent retina, (3) the effectiveness of EGF as a Müller glial mitogen declines in parallel with the decline in EGFR expression as the retina matures, and (4) following damage to the retina from continuous light exposure, EGFR expression is up‐regulated in Müller glia to levels close to those in the neonatal retina, resulting in a renewed mitotic response to EGF. Together with previous results from other studies, these data indicate that the downregulation of a growth factor receptor is one mechanism by which glial cells maintain mitotic quiescence in the mature nervous system. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.