Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Iterative Supervised Principal Components

In high-dimensional prediction problems, where the number of features may greatly exceed the number of training instances, fully Bayesian approach with a sparsifying prior is known to produce good results but is computationally challenging. To alleviate this computational burden, we propose to use a preprocessing step where we first apply a dimension reduction to the original data to reduce the number of features to something that is computationally conveniently handled by Bayesian methods. To do this, we propose a new dimension reduction technique, called iterative supervised principal components (ISPC), which combines variable screening and dimension reduction and can be considered as an extension to the existing technique of supervised principal components (SPCs). Our empirical evaluations confirm that, although not foolproof, the proposed approach provides very good results on several microarray benchmark datasets with very affordable computation time, and can also be very useful for visualizing high-dimensional data.
Visual short‐term memory for high resolution associations is impaired in patients with medial temporal lobe damage

The medial temporal lobe (MTL) plays a critical role in episodic long‐term memory, but whether the MTL is necessary for visual short‐term memory is controversial. Some studies have indicated that MTL damage disrupts visual short‐term memory performance whereas other studies have failed to find such evidence. To account for these mixed results, it has been proposed that the hippocampus is critical in supporting short‐term memory for high resolution complex bindings, while the cortex is sufficient to support simple, low resolution bindings. This hypothesis was tested in the current study by assessing visual short‐term memory in patients with damage to the MTL and controls for high resolution and low resolution object‐location and object‐color associations. In the location tests, participants encoded sets of two or four objects in different locations on the screen. After each set, participants performed a two‐alternative forced‐choice task in which they were required to discriminate the object in the target location from the object in a high or low resolution lure location (i.e., the object locations were very close or far away from the target location, respectively). Similarly, in the color tests, participants were presented with sets of two or four objects in a different color and, after each set, were required to discriminate the object in the target color from the object in a high or low resolution lure color (i.e., the lure color was very similar or very different, respectively, to the studied color). The patients were significantly impaired in visual short‐term memory, but importantly, they were more impaired for high resolution object‐location and object‐color bindings. The results are consistent with the proposal that the hippocampus plays a critical role in forming and maintaining complex, high resolution bindings. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Talking Face Generation by Conditional Recurrent Adversarial Network

Given an arbitrary face image and an arbitrary speech clip, the proposed work attempts to generate the talking face video with accurate lip synchronization. Existing works either do not consider temporal dependency across video frames thus yielding abrupt facial and lip movement or are limited to the generation of talking face video for a specific person thus lacking generalization capacity. We propose a novel conditional recurrent generation network that incorporates both image and audio features in the recurrent unit for temporal dependency. To achieve both image- and video-realism, a pair of spatial-temporal discriminators are included in the network for better image/video quality. Since accurate lip synchronization is essential to the success of talking face video generation, we also construct a lip-reading discriminator to boost the accuracy of lip synchronization. We also extend the network to model the natural pose and expression of talking face on the Obama Dataset. Extensive experimental results demonstrate the superiority of our framework over the state-of-the-arts in terms of visual quality, lip sync accuracy, and smooth transition pertaining to both lip and facial movement.
Choosing inequality: An experimental analysis of the impact of social immobility on the democratic election of distribution rules

Mainstream economists usually identify a fundamental conflict between efficiency and justice in re-source allocation: markets are generally considered an efficient allocation tool, but create unequal results. Corresponding governmental redistribution shall equalize some of these market results, but leads to inefficiency due to disincentives both for net payers and net receivers. Consequently, this pa-per analyses the impact of social inequality on distributive choices in an experimental democracy. In our experiment, we find that stark inequality is generally accepted provided a strong egalitarian in-come floor is ensured. Even though our samples showed a very strong egalitarian inclination, complete egalitarianism was not a stable outcome. Some degree of differentiation always emerged on an initial egalitarian base.
Inter- and Intraspecific Identification of the Screwworm, Cochliomyia hominivorax, Using Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA-Polymerase Chain Reaction

Abstract The screwworm, Cochliomyia hominivorax (Coquerel) (Diptera: Calliphoridae), is one of the most devastating arthropod pests of livestock in the Western Hemisphere. Early instars are very difficult to distinguish morphologically from several closely related blow fly species. Random amplified polymorphic DNA-polymerase chain reaction (RAPD-PCR) markers were developed for identifying C. hominivorax from other wound inhabiting species. Forty decameric primers were screened; nine showed clear reproducible RAPD profiles suitable for distinguishing all life stages of C. hominivorax from 7 other species, including C. macellaria (Fabricius). The results from RAPD-PCR with field-collected samples of unknown first instars agreed with morphological identification that the samples were not C. hominivorax. Three different primers showed DNA polymorphisms (intraspecific) for samples originating from Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Jamaica, and Brazil. Therefore, RAPD-PCR may be useful for determining the geographic origin of C. hominivorax samples. Comparing products from these primers, used with known and unknown screwworm samples from an outbreak in Mexico, clearly showed that the outbreak did not originate from the mass rearing facility. Accurate identification of suspected C. hominivorax samples is possible using RAPD-PCR. Further development to identify the geographic origin of samples would benefit the ongoing surveillance programs against C. hominivorax and the decision process during suspected outbreaks of this important pest.
A Focus on the Beneficial Effects of Alpha Synuclein and a Re-Appraisal of Synucleinopathies

Alpha synuclein (α-syn) belongs to a class of proteins which are commonly considered to play a detrimental role in neuronal survival. This assumption is based on the occurrence of a severe neuronal degeneration in patients carrying a multiplication of the α-syn gene (SNCA) and in a variety of experi-mental models, where overexpression of α-syn leads to cell death and neurological impairment. In these conditions, a higher amount of normally structured α-syn produces a damage, which is even worse com-pared with that produced by α-syn owning an abnormal structure (as occurring following point gene muta-tions). In line with this, knocking out the expression of α-syn is reported to protect from specific neurotox-ins such as 1-methyl, 4-phenyl 1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP). In the present review we briefly dis-cuss these well-known detrimental effects but we focus on findings showing that, in specific conditions α-syn is beneficial for cell survival. This occurs during methamphetamine intoxication which is counteracted by endogenous α-syn. Similarly, the dysfunction of the chaperone cysteine-string protein-alpha leads to cell pathology which is counteracted by over-expressing α-syn. In line with this, an increased expression of α-syn protects against oxidative damage produced by dopamine. Remarkably, when the lack of α-syn is combined with a depletion of β- and γ- synucleins, alterations in brain structure and function occur. This review tries to balance the evidence showing a beneficial effect with the bulk of data reporting a detri-mental effect of endogenous α-syn. The specific role of α-syn as a chaperone protein is discussed to ex-plain such a dual effect.
Three-Dimensional Tracking of an Aircraft Using Two-Dimensional Radars

Accurate three-dimensional (3-D) position and velocity estimates of an aircraft are important for air traffic control (ATC) systems. An ATC 2-D radar measures the slant range and azimuth of an aircraft. Thus, a single measurement from a 2-D radar is not sufficient to calculate the 3-D position of an aircraft. Previous researchers have used the multiple-model-based height-parametrized (HP) extended Kalman filter with Cartesian state vector (HP-CEKF) with one or two 2-D radars for an aircraft with nearly constant velocity and altitude. However, the filter initialization algorithms contain errors. In this paper, in addition to the HP-CEKF, we present the HP Cartesian unscented Kalman filter (HP-CUKF) and HP Cartesian cubature Kalman filter (HP-CCKF). We also present two new nonlinear filters for the two-radar problem. The first filter uses modified spherical coordinates based HP-UKF (HP-MSCUKF) where the range and azimuth are components of the target state. The second filter uses a cubature Kalman filter with filter initialization by the bias-compensated pseudolinear estimator. We also consider the climbing motion of an aircraft with nearly constant climbing rate, which has not been studied before. All four aforementioned HP filters use the single-point track initiation algorithm. The state estimation accuracy of an aircraft is analyzed as a function of the distance of the aircraft from the radar(s). We compare the performance of the nonlinear filters with the posterior Cramér-Rao lower bound. The normalized computational times of all algorithms in all scenarios are presented. Our results show that accurate 3-D trajectory estimates of an aircraft can be obtained using one or two ATC 2-D radars.
Achievable Efficiency and Stability of Supercritical CO2 Compression Systems

The efficiency and stability of supercritical compressors operating near the critical point continue to be topics of interest. Testing of sub-scale power cycles in recent years has indicated compressor efficiency levels lower than expected for full-scale hardware. Such compressor performance levels are consistent with design predictions for these sub-scale systems. Despite this general agreement, there seems to be a persistent perception that supercritical compressors suffer from inherent efficiency and stability disadvantages. The perceived stability issues stem from the well known difficulties associated with operating pumps in two phase conditions (e.g. cavitation phenomena). However, test experience and analysis indicate that full-scale compressor performance near the critical point can be both stable and efficient, even if two phase conditions become present in the compressor flow path. An analysis of the turbomachinery for a representative full-scale power cycle indicates compressor efficiencies significantly higher than that of the sub-scale test data are to be expected.
Sex Differences in the Default Mode Network with Regard to Autism Spectrum Traits: A Resting State fMRI Study

Autism spectrum traits exist on a continuum and are more common in males than in females, but the basis for this sex difference is unclear. To this end, the present study draws on the extreme male brain theory, investigating the relationship between sex difference and the default mode network (DMN), both known to be associated with autism spectrum traits. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was carried out in 42 females (mean age ± standard deviation, 22.4 ± 4.2 years) and 43 males (mean age ± standard deviation, 23.8 ± 3.9 years) with typical development. Using a combination of different analyses (viz., independent component analysis (ICA), fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (fALFF), regional homogeneity (ReHo), and seed-based analyses), we examined sex differences in the DMN and the relationship to autism spectrum traits as measured by autism-spectrum quotient (AQ) scores. We found significant differences between female and male subjects in DMN brain regions, with seed-based analysis revealing a significant negative correlation between default-mode resting state functional connectivity of the anterior medial prefrontal cortex seed (aMPFC) and AQ scores in males. However, there were no relationships between DMN sex differences and autism spectrum traits in females. Our findings may provide important insight into the skewed balance of functional connectivity in males compared to females that could serve as a potential biomarker of the degree of autism spectrum traits in line with the extreme male brain theory.
Quantization for Low-Rank Matrix Recovery

We study Sigma-Delta quantization methods coupled with appropriate reconstruction algorithms for digitizing randomly sampled low-rank matrices. We show that the reconstruction error associated with our methods decays polynomially with the oversampling factor, and we leverage our results to obtain root-exponential accuracy by optimizing over the choice of quantization scheme. Additionally, we show that a random encoding scheme, applied to the quantized measurements, yields a near-optimal exponential bit-rate. As an added benefit, our schemes are robust both to noise and to deviations from the low-rank assumption. In short, we provide a full generalization of analogous results, obtained in the classical setup of bandlimited function acquisition, and more recently, in the finite frame and compressed sensing setups to the case of low-rank matrices sampled with sub-Gaussian linear operators. Finally, we believe our techniques for generalizing results from the compressed sensing setup to the analogous low-rank matrix setup is applicable to other quantization schemes.
Dietary Phytochemicals as Cancer Preventive Agents: Efficacy andMechanisms

Despite significant advances in cancer therapeutic modalities, available anti-tumor drugs display limited efficacy and sometimes carry a risk of severe adverse side effect. Therefore, it is important to identify and develop cancer chemopreventive agents without toxicity. Epidemiological examinations in human populations and experimental rodent studies provide evidence that certain types of phytochemicals suppress development and growth of cancers at various organ sites. A number of clinical investigations have been also conducted and shown that dietary phytochemicals are able to inhibit tumorigenesis, indicating several phytochemicals are regarded as cancer chemopreventive agents. Epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), the major catechin in green tea, is considered as the most biologically active constituent in drinking tea with respect to inhibiting cell proliferation and inducing apoptosis in cancer cells. EGCG appears to directly target receptor tyrosine kinases with inhibiting activation of the receptors and down-stream signaling pathways. In addition, EGCG has improving effects against obesity and insulin resistance, which leads to suppressing the development of obesity-related malignancies. Other polyphenolic phytochemicals, including curcumin and resveratrol, are also reported to exert anti-cancer effect. In this review article, we summarize the potential of dietary phytochemicals as anti-cancer drugs and those possible mechanisms against cancer, especially chemopreventive effect of green tea catechins.
A randomized clinical trial investigating pain associated with superelastic nickel–titanium and multistranded stainless steel archwires during the initial leveling and aligning phase of orthodontic treatment

Objective To investigate and compare the effects of superelastic nickel–titanium and multistranded stainless steel archwires on pain during the initial phase of orthodontic treatment. Design A double-blind two-arm parallel design stratified randomized clinical trial. Setting A single centre in India between December 2010 and June 2012. A total of 96 participants (48 male and 48 females; 14.1±2.1 years old) were randomized (stratified on age, sex and initial crowding) to superelastic nickel–titanium or multistranded stainless steel archwire groups using a computer-generated allocation sequence. Methods We compared 0.016-inch superelastic nickel–titanium and 0.0175-inch multistranded stainless steel wires in 0.022-inch slot (Roth prescription) preadjusted edgewise appliances. The follow-up period was 14 days. Outcome was assessed with a visual analogue scale at baseline and 32 pre-specified follow-up points. Data was analyzed using mixed-effects model analysis. Results One participant was lost to follow up and 10 were excluded from the analysis due to bond failure or incomplete questionnaire answers. Ultimately, 85 participants (42 males and 43 females; 14.1±2.0 years old) were analysed for the final results. No statistically significant difference was found for overall pain [F value = 2.65, degrees of freedom (df) = 92.6; P = 0.1071]. However, compared to multistranded stainless steel wires, pain in subjects with superelastic nickel–titanium archwires was significantly greater at 12 h (t = 2.34; P = 0.0193), as well as at day 1 in the morning (t = 2.21, P = 0.0273), afternoon (t = 2.11, P = 0.0346) and at bedtime (t = 2.03, P = 0.042). Conclusion For overall pain, there was no statistically significant difference between the two wires. However, subjects with superelastic nickel–titanium archwires had a significantly higher pain at peak level.
Detection of FOXO1 (FKHR) Gene Break-apart by Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization in Formalin-fixed, Paraffin-embedded Alveolar Rhabdomyosarcomas and Its Clinicopathologic Correlation

Chromosomal translocations of t(2;13)(q35;q14) and t(1;13)(p36;q14), resulting in PAX3-FOXO1 (FKHR) and PAX7-FOXO1 (FKHR) gene fusions, have been found to be specific molecular markers for alveolar rhabdomyosarcomas (ARMS) and can be identified in approximately 80% cases. As the prognosis of ARMS is worse than that of embryonal rhabdomyosarcomas (ERMS), it is important to accurately distinguish between these 2 subtypes. This distinction may be difficult on the basis of morphology alone. To detect the genetic alterations, reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) or dual-color dual-fusion fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) have been used in most studies so far. In this study, we used FOXO1 (FKHR) gene break-apart FISH probe, which can detect both of the translocations involving the FOXO1 gene, and tested 20 cases of rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) including 6 cases of ARMS, 8 ERMS, 1 pleomorphic type, 5 not otherwise specified (RMS-NOS), and 10 non-RMS sarcomas. A home-brew RT-PCR that could detect both PAX3-FOXO1 and PAX7-FOXO1 was also performed. Four pathologists independently reviewed all RMS and a consensus diagnosis was also reached in discrepant cases. Histologic and molecular findings were correlated with clinical outcomes with an average of a 49-month follow-up. FOXO1 break-apart by FISH was positive in 4 of 6 (66%) ARMS and 2 of 5 (40%) RMS-NOS cases. All other cases, including all ERMS, were negative. RT-PCR assay confirmed all FISH results. While 2 of 6 (33%) RMS patients with a FOXO1 break-apart died of the disease, there were no deaths among the patients with negative result. The FOXO1 gene break-apart FISH probe is a simple and accurate tool to detect the translocations associated with ARMS. As characteristic genetic alterations of ARMS can be identified in 40% of RMS-NOS cases in our study, the FISH assay would provide an additional useful tool in the diagnosis and prognosis of ARMS, and an alternative to RT-PCR.
Integrin-based diffusion barrier separates membrane domains enabling the formation of microbiostatic frustrated phagosomes

Candida albicans hyphae can reach enormous lengths, precluding their internalization by phagocytes. Nevertheless, macrophages engulf a portion of the hypha, generating incompletely sealed tubular phagosomes. These frustrated phagosomes are stabilized by a thick cuff of F-actin that polymerizes in response to non-canonical activation of integrins by fungal glycan. Despite their continuity, the surface and invaginating phagosomal membranes retain a strikingly distinct lipid composition. PtdIns(4,5)P2 is present at the plasmalemma but is not detectable in the phagosomal membrane, while PtdIns(3)P and PtdIns(3,4,5)P3 co-exist in the phagosomes yet are absent from the surface membrane. Moreover, endo-lysosomal proteins are present only in the phagosomal membrane. Fluorescence recovery after photobleaching revealed the presence of a diffusion barrier that maintains the identity of the open tubular phagosome separate from the plasmalemma. Formation of this barrier depends on Syk, Pyk2/Fak and formin-dependent actin assembly. Antimicrobial mechanisms can thereby be deployed, limiting the growth of the hyphae.