Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Space‐time modeling of soil moisture: Stochastic rainfall forcing with heterogeneous vegetation

The present paper complements that of Isham et al. (2005), who introduced a space‐time soil moisture model driven by stochastic space‐time rainfall forcing with homogeneous vegetation and in the absence of topographical landscape effects. However, the spatial variability of vegetation may significantly modify the soil moisture dynamics with important implications for hydrological modeling. In the present paper, vegetation heterogeneity is incorporated through a two dimensional Poisson process representing the coexistence of two functionally different types of plants (e.g., trees and grasses). The space‐time statistical structure of relative soil moisture is characterized through its covariance function which depends on soil, vegetation, and rainfall patterns. The statistical properties of the soil moisture process averaged in space and time are also investigated. These properties are especially important for any modeling that aggregates soil moisture characteristics over a range of spatial and temporal scales. It is found that particularly at small scales, vegetation heterogeneity has a significant impact on the averaged process as compared with the uniform vegetation case. Also, averaging in space considerably smoothes the soil moisture process, but in contrast, averaging in time up to 1 week leads to little change in the variance of the averaged process.
Mechanisms of signal transduction by ethylene: overlapping and non-overlapping signalling roles in a receptor family

The plant hormone ethylene regulates growth and development as well as stress responses. This review focuses on recent discoveries that support a model for ethylene signal transduction that involves overlapping and non-overlapping roles for members of the ethylene receptor family. The roles of ethylene receptors in regulating plant growth, pathogen responses, and development are discussed. Mechanisms are proposed by which receptors can modulate downstream responses together and independently.
Safe Model-based Reinforcement Learning with Stability Guarantees

Reinforcement learning is a powerful paradigm for learning optimal policies from experimental data. However, to find optimal policies, most reinforcement learning algorithms explore all possible actions, which may be harmful for real-world systems. As a consequence, learning algorithms are rarely applied on safety-critical systems in the real world. In this paper, we present a learning algorithm that explicitly considers safety, defined in terms of stability guarantees. Specifically, we extend control-theoretic results on Lyapunov stability verification and show how to use statistical models of the dynamics to obtain high-performance control policies with provable stability certificates. Moreover, under additional regularity assumptions in terms of a Gaussian process prior, we prove that one can effectively and safely collect data in order to learn about the dynamics and thus both improve control performance and expand the safe region of the state space. In our experiments, we show how the resulting algorithm can safely optimize a neural network policy on a simulated inverted pendulum, without the pendulum ever falling down.
Bone-anchored hearing aid implant location in relation to skin reactions.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effect of implant location and skin thickness on the frequency and degree of adverse skin reactions around the abutment. DESIGN Retrospective multivariate analysis of implant position related to skin thickness and clinical variables. SETTING Tertiary referral center. PATIENTS Random sample of 248 patients with bone-anchored hearing aids. INTERVENTIONS Bone-anchored hearing aid implant placement by means of the linear incision technique. MEAN OUTCOME MEASURES Type and number of skin reactions and implant loss. RESULTS The mean (SD) distance from the external auditory ear canal to implant was 48.8 (8.0) mm (range, 29-84 mm). The mean skin thickness was 5.5 (1.9) mm. Severe skin reactions (Holgers classification, 2-4) were seen in 46 of the 248 patients (18.5%). Implant loss occurred in 4 patients (1.6%). Three implants were lost owing to failed osseointegration (1.3%), and another implant was removed because of deterioration of cochlear function (0.9%). No implant was lost as a result of infection. CONCLUSION Implant location and skin thickness were not correlated with implant loss or the frequency or degree of adverse skin reactions around the abutment.
Automatic node selection for Deep Neural Networks using Group Lasso regularization

We examine the effect of the Group Lasso (gLasso) regularizer in selecting the salient nodes of Deep Neural Network (DNN) hidden layers by applying a DNN-HMM hybrid speech recognizer to TED Talks speech data. We test two types of gLasso regularization, one for outgoing weight vectors and another for incoming weight vectors, as well as two sizes of DNNs: 2048 hidden layer nodes and 4096 nodes. Furthermore, we compare gLasso and L2 regularizers. Our experiment results demonstrate that our DNN training, in which the gLasso regularizer was embedded, successfully selected the hidden layer nodes that are necessary and sufficient for achieving high classification power.
The role of injury severity in neurobehavioral outcome 3 months after traumatic brain injury.

OBJECTIVE/BACKGROUND To assess neurobehavioral outcome using the Neurobehavioral Rating Scale-Revised (NRS-R), an instrument with established specificity and validity in Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) in a sample including the full spectrum of TBI severity 3 months after injury. METHOD A cohort group of 102 subjects with mild TBI, 41 with moderate TBI, and 139 with severe TBI, from multiple academic trauma centers, were assessed using the NRS-R and the Glasgow Outcome Scale. RESULTS Principal components analysis of the NRS-R resulted in a 3-factor model: (1) Cognitive, (2) Emotional, and (3) Hyperarousal. At 3 months, subjects with severe TBI show greater difficulties in cognitive and hyperarousal, but not emotional domains, than those with mild to moderate TBI. More than one third of subjects in all injury severity groups showed evidence of anxiety, depression, irritability, mental fatigability, and memory dysfunction. Scores on the NRS-R were related to outcome on the Glasgow Outcome Scale. CONCLUSIONS Three months after injury, subjects with severe TBI have more dysfunction in cognitive and behavioral (but not emotional) domains than those with mild-to-moderate TBI. The NRS-R is a useful tool for assessing the full spectrum of neurobehavioral dysfunction at all ranges of TBI severity.
Reflexive anaphor resolution in spoken language comprehension: structural constraints and beyond

We report results from an eye-tracking during listening study examining English-speaking adults’ online processing of reflexive pronouns, and specifically whether the search for an antecedent is restricted to syntactically appropriate positions. Participants listened to a short story where the recipient of an object was introduced with a reflexive, and were asked to identify the object recipient as quickly as possible. This allowed for the recording of participants’ oﬄine interpretation of the reflexive, response times, and eye movements on hearing the reflexive. Whilst our oﬄine results show that the ultimate interpretation for reflexives was constrained by binding principles, the response time, and eye-movement data revealed that during processing participants were temporarily distracted by a structurally inappropriate competitor antecedent when this was prominent in the discourse. These results indicate that in addition to binding principles, online referential decisions are also affected by discourse-level information.
Indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase activity and clinical outcome following induction chemotherapy and concurrent chemoradiation in Stage III non-small cell lung cancer

Indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) has recently been proposed to account for tumor-induced immunosuppression by influencing the conversion of tryptophan (Trp) into kynurenine (Kyn). The objective of our study was to correlate IDO activity with disease outcome in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients treated with multimodal combination therapy. In a single-arm Phase II trial involving induction gemcitabine and carboplatin followed by concurrent paclitaxel, carboplatin and 74 Gy thoracic radiation in stage III NSCLC patients, plasma was drawn at baseline, post-induction, and post-concurrent therapy. The mean plasma Kyn/Trp ratio was used as a surrogate indicator of IDO activity. The 33 participants were distributed as follows: 15 females, 18 males; median age = 62; median overall survival (OS) = 22.4 (95% CI 19.3–25.1) months; median progression-free survival (PFS) = 11.5 (95% CI 6.7–16.3) months. The mean Kyn/Trp ratio at baseline (4.5 ± 2.8) was higher than that of healthy controls (2.9 ± 1.9, p = 0.03) and increased after induction therapy (5.2 ± 3.2, p = 0.08) and chemoradiation (5.8 ± 3.9, p = 0.01). The post-treatment Kyn/Trp ratio and radiologic responses were not significantly associated at any time point. No significant correlation was found between baseline Kyn/Trp ratios and OS (HR = 1.1, 95% CI 0.45–2.5) or PFS (HR = 0.74, 95% CI 0.30–1.82). A post-induction chemotherapy increase in IDO activity portended worse OS (HR = 0.43, 95% CI 0.19–0.95, p = 0.037) and PFS (HR = 0.47, 95% CI 0.22–1.0, p = 0.055). This observed increase in IDO transcription may be a means for tumors to evade immunosurveillance.
How to change a person’s mind: Understanding the difference between the effects and consequences of speech acts

This paper discusses a planner of the semantics of utterances, whose essential design is an epistemic theorem prover. The planner was designed for the purpose of planning communicative actions, whose effects are famously unknowable and unobservable by the doer/speaker, and depend on the beliefs of and inferences made by the recipient/hearer. The fully implemented model can achieve goals that do not match action effects, but that are rather entailed by them, which it does by reasoning about how to act: state-space planning is interwoven with theorem proving in such a way that a theorem prover uses the effects of actions as hypotheses. The planner is able to model problematic conversational situations, including felicitous and infelicitous instances of bluffing, lying, sarcasm, and stating the obvious. 1
Focus On Breast cancer and pregnancy

Breast cancer is one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers in pregnant women. Diagnosis and treatment in these women are particularly challenging as the necessary investigations and treatment modalities may potentially harm the developing foetus. Nonetheless, it appears that initial diagnostic investigations may be carried out as for non-pregnant women, but bearing in mind the risks of exposing the foetus to ionising radiation. Surgery can be carried out with little risk to the mother or foetus but radiotherapy is generally avoided. Chemotherapy can be given relatively safely when administered after the first trimester, but large volume prospective data and, in particular, data regarding the long-term implications of in utero exposure, are awaited.
Patient safety incident-reporting items in Korean hospitals.

OBJECTIVE To examine incident-reporting items in tertiary hospitals using the framework of the World Health Organization's International Classification for Patient Safety (ICPS). DESIGN Cross-sectional survey. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS Forty acute-care tertiary hospitals in Korea (response rate = 90.9%). METHODS Data were collected using a semistructured questionnaire during on-site interviews or via e-mail. Items were extracted from incident-reporting forms that required a reporter's input, and were analyzed using the ICPS framework. After removing redundant items, unique reporting items were mapped onto ICPS elements. The data are summarized using descriptive statistics. RESULTS On average, hospitals used 2.4 incident-reporting forms (range = 1-9) and 136.7 reporting items (range = 31-310). All of the hospitals had incident-reporting items that described 'incident type' and 'incident characteristics'; however, only 7 hospitals (17.5%) had reporting items on incident 'detection', and 18 hospitals (45.0%) collected information on the 'organizational outcomes'. Of the 1145 unique reporting items, 297 (25.9%) were completely mapped onto ICPS elements at different levels of granularity, and 12.7% (n = 145) were mapped onto ICPS elements that had more granular subcategories. CONCLUSIONS The ICPS framework is a useful reference model for the classification of incident-reporting items. However, further refinements to both the ICPS framework and incident-reporting items are needed in order to better represent data on patient safety. Furthermore, the use of a common reporting form at the national level is recommended for reducing variations in reporting items and facilitating the efficient collection and analysis of patient safety data.
The Effect of Chronic Protein‐Calorie Undernutrition in the Rat on Myocardial Function and Cardiac Function

The effect of chronic protein-calorie undernutrition (PCU) on cardiac structure, biochemistry, myocardial function, and left ventricular dynamics was studied in young, male, Long-Evans rats. Chronic PCU produced marked cachexia of the marasmic type (body weight decreased to 48% of normally nourished control rats) and cardiac atrophy (heart weight at 57% of control). Myocardial structure on light microscopy was normal and myocardial edema (dry/wet weight) was not present. An increased left ventricular DNA content (1.82 + 0.67 BE VS. 1.25 ± 0.58 pg/mg tissue wet weight) and collagen content (70.61 ± 4.54 vs. 31.72 ± 2.44 pg/mg, P< 0.001) in the presence of normal concentrations of RNA and actomyosin suggested a decrease in myofiber size with normal contractile proteins and protein synthesis. Resting length-tension curves for left ventricular papillary muscles failed to demonstrate alterations in myocardial stiffness with PCU. Active length-tension curves demonstrated enhanced myocardial contractility in chronic PCU hearts: peak developed isometric tension at U, was 4.84 ± 0.21 vs. 3.24 ± 0.31 g/mm+, P < 0.01. The in situ heart preparation in anesthetized PCU rats demonstrated bradycardia, hypotension, and a depressed cardiac output when compared to control hearts. However, cardiac output adjusted for body weight was normal (0.048 ± 0.005 vs. 0.044 ± 0.002 ml/min per g), and ventricular function curves, using stroke work index, showed a normal cardiac reserve in PCU rats. We conclude that uncomplicated chronic PCU is accompanied by cardiac atrophy, normal or enhanced myocardial contractility, and left ventricular function that has adjusted to the decrease in body mass and metabolic requirements. Ore Res 45:144-162, 1979
Late Triassic granites from the northwestern margin of the Tibetan Plateau, the Dahongliutan example: petrogenesis and tectonic implications for the evolution of the Kangxiwa Palaeo-Tethys

ABSTRACT The Dahongliutan granitic pluton consists of two-mica granites and is located in the eastern part of the Western Kunlun Orogen, northwestern Tibetan Plateau. Zircon separates from the pluton yield a SIMS U–Pb age of 217.5 ± 2.8 Ma. Rocks from the pluton contain relatively high and uniform SiO2 (72.32–73.48 wt%) and total alkalis (Na2O + K2O = 8.07–8.67 wt%) and are peraluminous and high-K calc-alkaline to shoshonitic in composition. The Dahongliutan granites are relatively depleted in the high-field-strength elements and the heavy rare earth elements (HREEs) and have relatively high Rb, and low Ba and Sr concentrations. They contain low total rare earth element (REE) concentrations. The light REEs are strongly enriched relative to the HREEs, with (La/Yb)N values of 28.56–37.01. The εNd(t) values range from −10.6 to −8.8, and (87Sr/86Sr)i = 0.7142–0.7210. Zircons from the pluton yield εHf(t) values of −13.8 to −1.6, and δ18O = 10.5–11.6‰. Petrographic and geochemical features of the pluton indicate that the granites are S-type and were derived from parting melting of a mixture of metasedimentary and minor metaigneous sources in the middle–lower crust. Magmatic differentiation was dominated by the fractional crystallization of plagioclase, K-feldspar, muscovite, biotite, and accessory monazite, allanite, and Fe–Ti oxides. Regional granitoids were emplaced in the Early-to-Middle Triassic. Other younger granitoids, with ages of 240–200 Ma, are mostly I-type in character and were likely derived from multiple types of source rock, suggesting the source was heterogeneous Triassic crust. Such a scenario is consistent with their formation in a post-collisional setting. Our new data, combined with other geological evidence, suggest that the collision between the Tianshuihai and southern Kunlun terranes occurred between ca. 250 and 240 Ma, resulting in the closure of the Palaeo-Tethys. Post-collisional tectono-magmatic events may have occurred between 240 and 200 Ma.
Content-based sub-image retrieval using relevance feedback

This paper presents the use of relevance feedback to the problem of content-based sub-image retrieval (CBsIR). Relevance feedback is used to improve the accuracy of successive retrievals via a tile re-weighting scheme that assigns penalties to each tile of database images and updates the tile penalties for all relevant images retrieved at each iteration using both the relevant (positive) and irrelevant (negative) images identified by the user. Performance evaluation on a dataset of over 10,000 images shows the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed framework. Using 64 quantized colors in the RGB color space, the system can achieve a stable average recall value of 70% within the top 20 retrieved (and presented) images after only 5 iterations, with each such iteration taking about 2 seconds.
Segregation of two endocannabinoid‐hydrolyzing enzymes into pre‐ and postsynaptic compartments in the rat hippocampus, cerebellum and amygdala

Fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) and monoglyceride lipase (MGL) catalyse the hydrolysis of the endocannabinoids anandamide and 2‐arachidonoyl glycerol. We investigated their ultrastructural distribution in brain areas where the localization and effects of cannabinoid receptor activation are known. In the hippocampus, FAAH was present in somata and dendrites of principal cells, but not in interneurons. It was located mostly on the membrane surface of intracellular organelles known to store Ca2+ (e.g. mitochondria, smooth endoplasmic reticulum), less frequently on the somatic or dendritic plasma membrane. MGL immunoreactivity was found in axon terminals of granule cells, CA3 pyramidal cells and some interneurons. In the cerebellum, Purkinje cells and their dendrites are intensively immunoreactive for FAAH, together with a sparse axon plexus at the border of the Purkinje cell/granule cell layers. Immunostaining for MGL was complementary, the axons in the molecular layer were intensively labelled leaving the Purkinje cell dendrites blank. FAAH distribution in the amygdala was similar to that of the CB1 cannabinoid receptor: evident signal in neuronal somata and proximal dendrites in the basolateral nucleus, and hardly any labelling in the central nucleus. MGL staining was restricted to axons in the neuropil, with similar relative signal intensities seen for FAAH in different nuclei. Thus, FAAH is primarily a postsynaptic enzyme, whereas MGL is presynaptic. FAAH is associated with membranes of cytoplasmic organelles. The differential compartmentalization of the two enzymes suggests that anandamide and 2‐AG signalling may subserve functional roles that are spatially segregated at least at the stage of metabolism.
Impact of Opportunistic Scheduling on Cooperative Dual-Hop Relay Networks

This letter advocates the performance of a multiuser relay network (MRN) equipped with a single amplify-and-forward (AaF) relay over Rayleigh fading environments. We derive new expressions for the cumulative distribution function (CDF) of the highest instantaneous end-to-end signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) taking into consideration the two cases of fixed gain relays and variable gain relays. Relying on these statistical results, we derive new expressions for the outage probability and symbol error rate (SER), both of which are obtained in exact closed form. Furthermore, we derive simple asymptotic outage probability and SER. Our asymptotic results confirm that opportunistic scheduling has no impact on the diversity order. We further prove that the array gain is what determines the SNR advantage of opportunistic scheduling over the single user scenario.
Cetuximab+FOLFIRI as first-line treatment for metastatic colorectal CA.

3513 Background: Cetuximab is an IgG1 monoclonal antibody targeting the EGFR. In irinotecan-refractory metastatic CRC and in first-line therapy trials cetuximab has shown to be active (ASCO 2002, 2003). This phase II trial evaluates the safety and efficacy of cetuximab combined with a FOLFIRI regimen as first-line treatment for pts with EGFR-expressing metastatic CRC. METHODS Cetuximab was given at an initial dose of 400 mg/m2, then 250 mg/m2 i.v. weekly. FOLFIRI was administered every 2 weeks: Irinotecan 180 mg/m2, FA 400 mg/m2 and 5-FU 300 mg/m2 bolus plus infusion of 2,000 mg/m2/46h (low dose group, LD) or 400 mg/m2 bolus plus infusion of 2,400 mg/m2/46h (high dose group, HD). Dose limiting toxicity (DLT) was defined as neutropenia/leukopenia, thrombopenia, alk. phosphatase, bilirubin, ASAT, ALAT or skin toxicity > grade (Gd) 3; neutropenia with fever/infection, anemia, diarrhea, mucositis, creatinine, or any treatment-related organ toxicity > Gd 2 during the first 3 cycles. RESULTS The first 23 pts were evaluated for DLT, 10 in LD, 13 in HD group. Median age was 66 years (36-76) and median KPS was 90 (60-100). No DLT occurred in the LD group, but 3 DLT in the HD (diarrhea Gd 3, allergy Gd 3, neutropenia Gd 4). 22 pts were evaluable for efficacy: PR 10 (46%, C.I., 25-66%), SD 9 (41%), PD 3 (14%). 7 pts underwent secondary surgery of metastases. So far, median TTP was 10.9 months. To allow a better estimate of safety and efficacy for a planned phase III trial, further 29 patients were enrolled in the HD group that has demonstrated an acceptable safety profile. Safety analysis in the HD group was based on 42 pts. The most frequent grade 3/4 adverse events were diarrhea 14.3%, neutropenia 11.9%, rash, 11.9%, and nausea/vomiting 9.5%. Frequency of acne-like rash of grade 1/2/3/4 was 28.6/26.2/4.8/0 %. 5 pts were still on treatment at the time of abstract submission. CONCLUSION The combination of cetuximab with FOLFIRI is safe and feasible in pts with EGFR-expressing metastatic CRC and is clearly active. [Table: see text].
Assessment of CASP10 contact‐assisted predictions

In CASP10, for the first time, contact‐assisted structure predictions have been assessed. Sets of pairs of contacting residues from target structures were provided to predictors for a second round of prediction after the initial round in which they were given only sequences. The objective of the experiment was to measure model quality improvement resulting from the added contact information and thereby assess and help develop so‐called hybrid prediction methods—methods where some experimentally determined distance constraints are used to augment de novo computational prediction methods. The results of the experiment were, overall, quite promising. Proteins 2014; 82(Suppl 2):84–97. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.