Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Challenges in Seafloor Imaging and Mapping With Synthetic Aperture Sonar

Synthetic aperture sonar (SAS) is emerging as an imaging technology that can provide centimeter resolution over hundreds-of-meter range on the seafloor. Although the principle of SAS has been known for more than 30 years, SAS systems have only recently become commercially available. The success of SAS is critically dependent on overcoming several challenges related to the ocean environment. The sonar has to be positioned with accuracy better than a fraction of a wavelength along the synthetic aperture. We use the sensor itself for navigation, in combination with aided inertial navigation. The sound velocity has to be accurately estimated for successful focusing of SAS images. We calculate a simple rule of thumb for tolerance and show the effect of incorrect sound velocity. For nonstraight synthetic apertures, the bathymetry must be estimated. We use real aperture interferometry to map the scene before SAS processing. We calculate the required bathymetry accuracy and show the effects of insufficient mapping. Vehicle instability and nonstraight tracks, in combination with insufficient navigation accuracy, can cause grating lobes in the SAS images, which is not common in single-channel synthetic aperture radars. We show example imagery with severe grating lobes. In shallow waters, the acoustic signals will interact with the sea surface, possibly causing multipath. This will reduce the SAS quality. We use coherence to map the signal to multipath and, thereby, the valid sensor range. This paper illustrates the different challenges using examples from the HISAS 1030 interferometric SAS.
Book Clubs: Women and the Uses of Reading in Everyday Life

Book clubs are everywhere these days. And women talk about the clubs they belong to with surprising emotion: "You will never know what a difference it made in my life". But why are the clubs so important to them? Which women join book clubs and why? And what do the women discuss when they meet? To answer questions like these, Elizabeth Long spent years observing and participating in women's book clubs in the Houston area and interviewing members from dozens of different discussion groups. Far from being an isolated activity, she finds that for club members reading is an active and social pursuit, a crucial way for them to reflect creatively on the meaning of their lives and their place in the social order. Similar to their 19th-century predecessors, whom Long also considers, women today find in reading groups the inspiration, support and self-confidence to reimagine themselves both individually and collectively. Tracing how this process works, Long takes us on a guided tour of the book clubs themselves, from how they are formed and organized to how members choose which books to read. Through vivid examples, she shows how women use literature to achieve personal insight and empowerment. She then turns her attention to the emergence of book clubs that are run through chain bookstores, television shows and the Internet, and considers the importance of such clubs for women as a broader cultural forum. Far from just an excuse to get together once a month, book clubs are here revealed to be a vital arena for self-formation, one that has as much currency now as it did a century ago.
Thermoacoustic instabilities: modeling and control

The goal of this study was twofold. First, modeling strategies were proposed to characterize the dynamics driving the thermoacoustic instabilities in a swirl-stabilized premixed burner. Second, this model was used to synthesize controllers in order to apply active control strategies to suppress this phenomenon. An experimental combustor model based on acoustic properties of the combustion chamber was derived. This model separates the combustor into a four-block linear system. Acoustic and fuel modulations were used to obtain the frequency response of each block representing a part of the combustor test-rig. Using this linear representation H/sub /spl infin// disturbance rejection and H/sub /spl infin// loop-shaping controllers were computed and tested for a set of different working conditions of the chamber for the robustness of the resulting controllers. Standard phase-delay control was used as baseline control strategy to judge the performance of the proposed controllers. Experimental results show the advantages of these model-based control strategies to suppress thermoacoustic instabilities in the test-rig.
The Goat (Capra hircus) Mammary Gland Mitochondrial Proteome: A Study on the Effect of Weight Loss Using Blue-Native PAGE and Two-Dimensional Gel Electrophoresis

Seasonal weight loss (SWL) is the most important limitation to animal production in the Tropical and Mediterranean regions, conditioning producer’s incomes and the nutritional status of rural communities. It is of importance to produce strategies to oppose adverse effects of SWL. Breeds that have evolved in harsh climates have acquired tolerance to SWL through selection. Most of the factors determining such ability are related to changes in biochemical pathways as affected by SWL. In this study, a gel based proteomics strategy (BN: Blue-Native Page and 2DE: Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis) was used to characterize the mitochondrial proteome of the secretory tissue of the goat mammary gland. In addition, we have conducted an investigation of the effects of weight loss in two goat breeds with different levels of adaptation to nutritional stress: Majorera (tolerant) and Palmera (susceptible). The study used Majorera and Palmera dairy goats, divided in 4 sets, 2 for each breed: underfed group fed on wheat straw (restricted diet, so their body weight would be 15–20% reduced by the end of experiment), and a control group fed with an energy-balanced diet. At the end of the experimental period (22 days), mammary gland biopsies were obtained for all experimental groups. The proteomic analysis of the mitochondria enabled the resolution of a total of 277 proteins, and 148 (53%) were identified by MALDI-TOF/TOF mass spectrometry. Some of the proteins were identified as subunits of the glutamate dehydrogenase complex and the respiratory complexes I, II, IV, V from mitochondria, as well as numerous other proteins with functions in: metabolism, development, localization, cellular organization and biogenesis, biological regulation, response to stimulus, among others, that were mapped in both BN and 2DE gels. The comparative proteomics analysis enabled the identification of several proteins: NADH-ubiquinone oxidoreductase 75 kDa subunit and lamin B1 mitochondrial (up-regulated in the Palmera breed), Guanine nucleotide-binding protein G(I)/G(S)/G(T) subunit beta-2 (up-regulated in the Majorera breed) and cytochrome b-c1 complex subunit 1, mitochondrial and Chain D, Bovine F1-C8 Sub-Complex Of Atp Synthase (down-regulated in the Majorera breed) as a consequence of weight loss.
Storytelling in conversation

There is a substantial body of literature on storytelling in a number of fi elds, including Linguistics, Anthropology, Folklore, Sociology, Cultural Studies, Communication, Psychology and Cognitive Science. This work has focused predominantly on the story . In contrast, conversation analytic work focuses on the telling , revealing the stable set of features that interactants deploy to produce storytelling as a recognizable activity and through which they implement a variety of social actions. (On activity and overall structural organization, see Robinson, this volume.) In focusing on the telling of stories, conversation analysts have shown that stories are interactive productions, co constructed by teller and recipient and tailored to the occasions of their production. The focus on telling also facilitates the observation that with stories, tellers not only relate experiences but simultaneously complain, blame, account, justify and so on (Schegloff, 1997a : 97). Sacks ( 1972c : 345) examined the story “ the baby cried the mommy picked it up, ” explicating the kind of knowledge necessary to understand the story, and to understand it as a story (although a particular kind of story — one told by a child, not the canonical story told in conversation discussed here). He explained that it is recognizable as a story not only
A Micro-Power EEG Acquisition SoC With Integrated Feature Extraction Processor for a Chronic Seizure Detection System

This paper presents a low-power SoC that performs EEG acquisition and feature extraction required for continuous detection of seizure onset in epilepsy patients. The SoC corresponds to one EEG channel, and, depending on the patient, up to 18 channels may be worn to detect seizures as part of a chronic treatment system. The SoC integrates an instrumentation amplifier, ADC, and digital processor that streams features-vectors to a central device where seizure detection is performed via a machine-learning classifier. The instrumentation-amplifier uses chopper-stabilization in a topology that achieves high input-impedance and rejects large electrode-offsets while operating at 1 V; the ADC employs power-gating for low energy-per-conversion while using static-biasing for comparator precision; the EEG feature extraction processor employs low-power hardware whose parameters are determined through validation via patient data. The integration of sensing and local processing lowers system power by 14× by reducing the rate of wireless EEG data transmission. Feature vectors are derived at a rate of 0.5 Hz, and the complete one-channel SoC operates from a 1 V supply, consuming 9 ¿ J per feature vector.
Measuring sex stereotypes : a thirty-nation study

A study of gender roles in thirty countries from Peru to Malaysia, which tests the perceptions of both children and adults. The authors uncover an array of ideas about gender and sex roles that are almost universally held across the cultures studied. Does this mean that sex stereotypes have an empirical basis in something other than cultural conditioning? This and many other questions and the implications for individual people and whole societies are considered. The meticulous methodology used in the study is described in detail, and should be of interest to people doing similar research. 'The most extensive review currently available of sex stereotypes in cross-cultural perspective. ' -- Choice, July/August 1983 '. Williams and Best bring to the study a decade of research experience on sex-related stereotypes, reflected in a book that makes important reading for professionals and students of measurements, cross-cultural psychology, women's studies, childhood socialization, education, and the social sciences in gerneral. ' -- Resources for Feminist Research 'Measuring Sex Stereotypes does a very good job of providing a conceptual framework for future cross-cultural studies and, it is to be hoped, will stimulate more cross-cultural research. ' -- The Annals of the American Academy, Vol 472, March 1984 'This book is highly recommended also for its wealth of related information; discussions of ongoing research projects, speculations about the significance of such variables as religion in shaping sex stereotypes, and the excellent eleven page bibliography at the end. ' -- Journal of psychology and Theology, Spring 1985, Vol 13 No 1
Constraints on the Richness-Mass Relation and the Optical-SZE Positional Offset Distribution for SZE-Selected Clusters

We cross-match galaxy cluster candidates selected via their Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect (SZE) signatures in 129.1 deg2 of the South Pole Telescope 2500d SPT-SZ survey with optically identified clusters selected from the Dark Energy Survey science verification data. We identify 25 clusters between 0.1 ≲ z ≲ 0.8 in the union of the SPT-SZ and redMaPPer (RM) samples. RM is an optical cluster finding algorithm that also returns a richness estimate for each cluster. We model the richness lambda-mass relation with the following function ∝ Blambdaln M500 + Clambdaln E(z) and use SPT-SZ cluster masses and RM richnesses lambda to constrain the parameters. We find B_lambda = 1.14^{+0.21}_{-0.18} and C_lambda =0.73^{+0.77}_{-0.75}. The associated scatter in mass at fixed richness is sigma _{ln M|lambda } = 0.18^{+0.08}_{-0.05} at a characteristic richness lambda = 70. We demonstrate that our model provides an adequate description of the matched sample, showing that the fraction of SPT-SZ-selected clusters with RM counterparts is consistent with expectations and that the fraction of RM-selected clusters with SPT-SZ counterparts is in mild tension with expectation. We model the optical-SZE cluster positional offset distribution with the sum of two Gaussians, showing that it is consistent with a dominant, centrally peaked population and a subdominant population characterized by larger offsets. We also cross-match the RM catalogue with SPT-SZ candidates below the official catalogue threshold significance xi = 4.5, using the RM catalogue to provide optical confirmation and redshifts for 15 additional clusters with xi ∈ [4, 4.5].
Risk factors and decision criteria for intensive chemotherapy in older patients with acute myeloid leukemia

There is a need to define the therapeutic strategy in older patients with acute myeloid leukemia. This study suggests that cytogenetics is of fundamental importance in decision making: patients with unfavorable cytogenetics should not be considered for standard induction chemotherapy. See related perspective article on page 1769. Background There is a need for standardization of treatment decisions in older patients with acute myeloid leukemia. The aim of the present study was to analyze the decisional value of poor risk factors in 416 elderly patients treated in the ALFA-9803 trial in order to derive a decisional index. Design and Methods Standard multivariate analysis was used to identify risk factors for overall survival. Risk factors were then considered as good decision tools if associated with a frequency >10% and a false positive rate <10% in predicting overall survival as poor as observed after low-dose cytarabine therapy (25% survival or less at 12 months). Results Among six independent risk factors (age, performance status, white blood cell count, hematopoietic cell transplantation comorbidity index, infection at baseline, and cytogenetics), cytogenetics was the only potent, independent decision tool. High hematopoietic cell transplantation comorbidity index scores or infections were found too rarely to guide further decisions. The three other factors (age, performance status, and white cell count) needed to be combined to provide a good specificity. The proposed decisional index, therefore, included high-risk cytogenetics and/or the presence of at least two of the following criteria: age ≥75 years, performance status ≥2, and white cell count ≥50 × 109/L. This simple two-class decisional index, which was validated in an independent patient set, enabled us to discriminate 100 patients (24%) who had an estimated overall survival of only 19% at 12 months, with a good 9% false positive rate. Conclusions We propose waiting for cytogenetic information before making treatment decisions in elderly patients with acute myeloid leukemia. Those patients with unfavorable cytogenetics, as well as patients with at least two of the following features, age ≥75 years, performance status ≥2, and white cell count ≥50 × 109/L, should not be considered for standard intensive chemotherapy (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00363025).
Learning Nonlinear Visual Processing from Natural Images

The paradigm of computational vision hypothesizes that any visual function – such as the recognition of your grandparent – can be replicated by computational processing of the visual input. What are these computations that the brain performs? What should or could they be? Working on the latter question, this dissertation takes the statistical approach, where the suitable computations are attempted to be learned from the natural visual data itself. In particular, we empirically study the computational processing that emerges from the statistical properties of the visual world and the constraints and objectives specified for the learning process. This thesis consists of an introduction and 7 peer-reviewed publications, where the purpose of the introduction is to illustrate the area of study to a reader who is not familiar with computational vision research. In the scope of the introduction, we will briefly overview the primary challenges to visual processing, as well as recall some of the current opinions on visual processing in the early visual systems of animals. Next, we describe the methodology we have used in our research, and discuss the presented results. We have included some additional remarks, speculations and conclusions to this discussion that were not featured in the original publications. We present the following results in the publications of this thesis. First, we empirically demonstrate that luminance and contrast are strongly dependent in natural images, contradicting previous theories suggesting that luminance and contrast were processed separately in natural systems due to their independence in the visual data. Second, we show that simple cell -like receptive fields of the primary visual cortex can be learned in the nonlinear contrast domain by maximization of independence. Further, we provide first-time reports of the emergence of conjunctive (corner-detecting) and subtractive (opponent orientation) processing due to nonlinear projection pursuit with simple objective functions related to sparseness and response energy optimization. Then, we show that attempting to extract indepen-
TARDBP mutations are not a frequent cause of ALS in Finnish patients

In previous studies 1-3 % of ALS patients have TARDBP mutations as the cause of the disease. TARDBP mutations have been reported in ALS patients in different populations but so far there are no studies on the frequency of TARDBP mutations in Finnish ALS patients. A cohort of 50 Finnish patients, 44 SALS and 6 FALS patients, were included in the study. Genomic DNA was extracted from venous blood or muscle tissue and a mutation analysis of TARDBP was performed. No definitely pathogenic mutations could be identified in TARDBP in our patient cohort. However, two previously unknown variations were found: one silent mutation in exon 2 and one relatively deep intronic single nucleotide insertion in intron 5. In addition, two previously known non-pathogenic polymorphisms in intron 5 were detected. The size of our cohort is obviously not large enough to conclusively exclude TARDBP mutations as a very rare cause of ALS in Finland. However, based on our results TARDBP mutations do not appear to be a frequent cause of familial or sporadic ALS in Finland.
A rare cause of hematuria and abdominal pain: our clinical experiences with Nutcracker Syndrome

Compression of the left renal vein between the abdominal aorta and the superior mesenteric artery is named as Nutcracker syndrome (NCS). It is an extremely rare pathology which usually manifests with hematuria, pain, or proteinuria. The diagnosis of the disease is primarily based on clinical suspicion. Various treatment models such as observation, conservative therapies, and surgery are available. In this article, we discuss a rare condition of NCS in three patients with left renal vein compression in the light of radiological findings.
Remodeling of Mitochondrial Interior in Cardiac Lipofuscinosis

Ultrastructural analysis was performed in cardiac ceroidlipofuscinosis to confirm the presence and the nature of storage material. Granular osmophilic deposits characteristic of GROD structures coincidented with particularly aberrant mitochondria. Remodeling of mitochondrial interior with the appearance of several form of abnormal inclusions was never observed in cardiac ceroidlipofuscinosis. The presence of dense osmophilic bodies, glycogen conglomerates, balloon-like and onion-like structures in mitochondrial interior seem to be early events of this storage process.
Loss of a Biofilm-Inhibiting Glycosyl Hydrolase during the Emergence of Yersinia pestis

ABSTRACT Yersinia pestis, the bacterial agent of plague, forms a biofilm in the foregut of its flea vector to produce a transmissible infection. The closely related Yersinia pseudotuberculosis, from which Y. pestis recently evolved, can colonize the flea midgut but does not form a biofilm in the foregut. Y. pestis biofilm in the flea and in vitro is dependent on an extracellular matrix synthesized by products of the hms genes; identical genes are present in Y. pseudotuberculosis. The Yersinia Hms proteins contain functional domains present in Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus proteins known to synthesize a poly-β-1,6-N-acetyl-d-glucosamine biofilm matrix. In this study, we show that the extracellular matrices (ECM) of Y. pestis and staphylococcal biofilms are antigenically related, indicating a similar biochemical structure. We also characterized a glycosyl hydrolase (NghA) of Y. pseudotuberculosis that cleaved β-linked N-acetylglucosamine residues and reduced biofilm formation by staphylococci and Y. pestis in vitro. The Y. pestis nghA ortholog is a pseudogene, and overexpression of functional nghA reduced ECM surface accumulation and inhibited the ability of Y. pestis to produce biofilm in the flea foregut. Mutational loss of this glycosidase activity in Y. pestis may have contributed to the recent evolution of flea-borne transmission.
Does Social Support Buffer the Effects of Occupational Stress on Sleep Quality Among Paramedics? A Daily Diary Study

Given evidence suggesting a detrimental effect of occupational stress on sleep, it is important to identify protective factors that may ameliorate this effect. We followed 87 paramedics upon waking and after work over 1 week using a daily diary methodology. Multilevel modeling was used to examine whether the detrimental effects of daily occupational stress on sleep quality were buffered by perceived social support availability. Paramedics who reported more support availability tended to report better quality sleep over the week. Additionally, perceived support availability buffered postworkday sleep from average occupational stress and days of especially high occupational stress. Perceived support availability also buffered off-workday sleep from the cumulative amount of occupational stress experienced over the previous workweek. Those with low levels of support displayed poor sleep quality in the face of high occupational stress; those high in support did not show significant effects of occupational stress on sleep.
Reduced Incidence of Lower-Extremity Amputations in People With Diabetes in Scotland

OBJECTIVE To establish the incidence of nontraumatic lower-extremity amputation (LEA) in people with diabetes in Scotland. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS This cohort study linked national morbidity records and diabetes datasets to establish the number of people with diabetes who underwent nontraumatic major and minor LEA in Scotland from 2004 to 2008. RESULTS Two thousand three hundred eighty-two individuals with diabetes underwent a nontraumatic LEA between 2004 and 2008; 57.1% (n = 1,359) underwent major LEAs. The incidence of any LEA among persons with diabetes fell over the 5-year study period by 29.8% (3.04 per 1,000 in 2004 to 2.13 per 1,000 in 2008, P < 0.001). Major LEA rates decreased by 40.7% from 1.87 per 1,000 in 2004 to 1.11 per 1,000 in 2008 (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS There has been a significant reduction in the incidence of LEA in persons with diabetes in Scotland between 2004 and 2008, principally explained by a reduction in major amputation.