Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Habitat associations of trees and shrubs in a 50‐ha neotropical forest plot

1 Tests of habitat association among species of tropical trees and shrubs often assume that individual stems can be treated as independent sample units, even though limited dispersal conflicts with this assumption by causing new recruits to occur near maternal parents and siblings. 2 We developed methods for assessing patterns of association between mapped plants and mapped habitat types that explicitly incorporate spatial structure, thereby eliminating the need to assume independence among stems. 3 We used these methods to determine habitat‐association patterns for 171 species of trees and shrubs within the permanent 50‐ha Forest Dynamics Project plot on Barro Colorado Island, Panama. 4 Many fewer significant habitat associations result from the new methods than from traditional, but inappropriate, chi‐square tests. The low‐lying plateau, the most extensive habitat on the 50‐ha plot, had nine species positively associated with it and 19 species negatively associated, leaving 143 species whose distributions were not biased with respect to this habitat. A small swamp in the plot was the most distinct habitat, with 32 species positively and 20 species negatively associated, leaving more than two‐thirds of the species neither positively nor negatively associated. 5 To the extent that habitat association reflects habitat specialization, our results suggest that local habitat specialization plays a limited role in the maintenance of species diversity in this forest.
Short‐Term Effects of Pilocarpine on Rat Hippocampal Neurons in Culture

Summary: Purpose: Status epilepticus (SE) has been considered an epileptogenic factor in humans. In the pilocarpine (PILO) model, after a brief period marked by SE, the rats exhibit recurrent spontaneous seizures, mimicking the clinical features of temporal lobe epilepsy. The aim of our study was to identify the molecular actions of PILO that could account for its ability to induce SE.
Very Large Vocabulary ASR for Spoken Russian with Syntactic and Morphemic Analysis

In this paper, we present a word-based very large vocabulary automatic speech recognition system for Russian. Some novel methods are proposed for organization of the lexicon and the language model. Two-level morpho-phonemic prefix graph that uses some information on morphemic structure of lexical units is suggested for a compact representation of the pronunciation vocabulary and search space. Such model is more compact than the lexical tree or the linearly-based vocabulary and provides speeding up the recognition process. The syntactic analysis of a training text corpus in a combination with the statistical analysis is suggested for generation of N-gram language models. The syntax-based Russian language model allows taking into account long-distance syntactic dependencies between word pairs. The results have proved that the syntactic-statistic language model gives 5% relative improvement on the word and letter error rates with respect to the baseline models.
Comparative study of caudal clonidine and midazolam added to bupivacaine during infra-umbilical surgeries in children

Background and Aims: Caudal analgesia is a good, reliable, and easy method to provide intraoperative and postoperative analgesia for infra-umbilical surgeries in children. Many additives are being used in combination with local anesthetics in caudal block to prolong the postoperative analgesia (clonidine, midazolam, ketamine, fentanyl, and dexmedetomidine). The purpose of this study was to compare the intraoperative hemodynamics, postoperative analgesia, postoperative rescue analgesic requirement, postoperative sedation and side-effects of clonidine and midazolam used as adjuvants to bupivacaine for caudal analgesia. Material and Methods: Following approval from Institutional Ethical Research Committee, 75 American Society of Anesthesiologists I and II patients aged between 1 and 7 years undergoing various elective infra-umbilical surgical procedures were included in this study. The patients were randomly allocated into three groups of 25 patients each. Group B received 1 ml/kg 0.25% bupivacaine in normal saline, Group BC received 1 ml/kg 0.25% bupivacaine + 1 μg/kg clonidine in normal saline, and Group BM received 1ml/kg 0.25% bupivacaine + 30 μg/kg midazolam in normal saline. The various parameters studied were intraoperative hemodynamic changes, duration of postoperative analgesia, postoperative sedation, postoperative analgesic requirement, and incidence of side-effects. Results: All the groups were similar with respect to patient and block characteristics. The hemodynamic parameters before and after administering caudal analgesia were also comparable. The mean duration of analgesia was 724.80 ± 60.29 min in Group BC, 605.40 ± 82.37 min in Group BM and 295.00 ± 41.78 min in Group B. Thus, the duration of analgesia was significantly prolonged in Group BC compared to Groups BM and B. The FLACC pain score was higher in Group B at the end of 4th, 8th and 12th h compared with Group BC and Group BM. Furthermore at the end of 12th h, pain scores were significantly higher in Group BM compared to Group BC. Only 1 child in Group BC received three rescue medications compared to 15 (60%) children in Group B and 7 (28%) children in Group BM. None of the groups were treated for bradycardia or hypotension and no significant sedation was noted. Conclusion: This study showed that the addition of both clonidine (1 μg/kg) and midazolam (30 μg/kg) with bupivacaine administered caudally significantly increase the duration of postoperative analgesia with minimal side-effects in children. The use of clonidine as an additive to bupivacaine in caudal epidural is a superior choice to midazolam as it reduces the demand of postoperative rescue analgesics significantly.
A Ternary Brain-Computer Interface Based on Single-Trial Readiness Potentials of Self-initiated Fine Movements: A Diversified Classification Scheme

In recent years, the readiness potential (RP), a type of pre-movement neural activity, has been investigated for asynchronous electroencephalogram (EEG)-based brain-computer interfaces (BCIs). Since the RP is attenuated for involuntary movements, a BCI driven by RP alone could facilitate intentional control amid a plethora of unintentional movements. Previous studies have mainly attempted binary single-trial classification of RP. An RP-based BCI with three or more states would expand the options for functional control. Here, we propose a ternary BCI based on single-trial RPs. This BCI classifies amongst an idle state, a left hand and a right hand self-initiated fine movement. A pipeline of spatio-temporal filtering with per participant parameter optimization was used for feature extraction. The ternary classification was decomposed into binary classifications using a decision-directed acyclic graph (DDAG). For each class pair in the DDAG structure, an ordered diversified classifier system (ODCS-DDAG) was used to select the best among various classification algorithms or to combine the results of different classification algorithms. Using EEG data from 14 participants performing self-initiated left or right key presses, punctuated with rest periods, we compared the performance of ODCS-DDAG to a ternary classifier and four popular multiclass decomposition methods using only a single classification algorithm. ODCS-DDAG had the highest performance (0.769 Cohen's Kappa score) and was significantly better than the ternary classifier and two of the four multiclass decomposition methods. Our work supports further study of RP-based BCI for intuitive asynchronous environmental control or augmentative communication.
Erythropoietin and hypoxia inducible factor‐1 expression in the mid‐trimester human fetus

Aim: Infants born prematurely lack a normal response to anemia and fail to increase erythropoietin (Epo) production despite an apparent need for improved tissue oxygenation. This anemia may involve a deficiency in the fetal and premature kidney to produce Epo. To evaluate fetal Epo production, Epo and hypoxia inducible factor‐1 (HIF) mRNA expression was measured in the mid‐trimester human fetus. Methods: Fetal liver and kidney samples were obtained at 11–22 wk of gestation. RNA was isolated and reverse transcribed from snap‐frozen specimens. Epo and HIF cDNA concentrations were determined using real‐time polymerase chain reaction (PRISM). Epo cDNA concentrations were standardized to HIF concentrations present in each sample. Results: HIF concentrations remained constant during gestation in kidney and liver samples. Epo cDNA concentrations in kidney did not change from 12 to 22 wk (8.4 ± 3.4 fg Epo pg−1 HIF cDNA, 4.8 ± 1.4, 2.6 ± 0.4, and 4.2 ± 1.8 at 11–14, 15–16, 17–19, and 20–22 wk of gestation, respectively), while Epo cDNA concentrations in liver increased with gestation (74.5 ± 31.9 fg pg−1 HIF, 23.8 ± 6.5, 96.4 ± 19.2 and 276.1 ± 28.5 at 12–14, 15–16, 17–19 and 20–22 wk of gestation, respectively, p± 0.05, 20–22 wk of gestation liver samples vs all other gestations). Concentrations were 5–20‐fold higher in liver than in kidney in each gestational group (p± 0.01, liver vs kidney).
Physiological changes occurring in the blood of the Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) accompanying sexual maturation and spawning.

A study was made of thechanges occurring in a number of blood constituents during the spawning migration of the Pacific salmon (O. tshawytscha). The glucose content of the blood increased to about twice that found in salmon in the sea. Rarely wasglucose found in the urine. Theconcentrations of sodium and potassium decreased, the latter to a marked degree. Cholesterol values rose during the migratory period, then fell at the time of spawning to concentrations lower than those found in seasalmon. Total proteins exhibited a pronounced diminution. Protein-bound iodine decreased progressively from the seato thespawning grounds. Estimations of thenumber of redblood cells, hemoglobin content and packed cell volume showed fluctuations during the migration period butbythetime of spawning the blood picture was in general like that of the sea salmon. Accompanying the above changes was a progressive rise in the concentration of 17-hydroxycorticosteroids to high levels at thetime of spawning. Detailed comparison with .
Seasonal variation of methane, water vapor, and nitrogen oxides near the tropopause: Satellite observations and model simulations

[1] Seasonal variations of several trace constituents near the tropopause are analyzed based on satellite measurements, and results are compared to a recent numerical model simulation. We examine methane, water vapor, and nitrogen oxides (NOx) derived from Halogen Occultation Experiment (HALOE) satellite observations; these species have strong gradients near the tropopause, so that their seasonality is indicative of stratosphere-troposphere exchange (STE) and circulation in the near-tropopause region. Model results are from the Model for Ozone and Related Chemical Tracers (MOZART) stratosphere-troposphere chemical transport model (CTM). Results show overall good agreement between observations and model simulations for methane and water vapor, whereas nitrogen oxides near the tropopause are much lower in the model than suggested by HALOE data. The latter difference is probably related to the lightning and convective parameterizations incorporated in MOZART, which produce NOx maxima not near the tropopause, but in the upper troposphere. Constituent seasonal variations highlight the imporatance of the Northern Hemisphere (NH) summer monsoons as regions for transport into the lowermost stratosphere. In MOZART, there is clear evidence that air from the monsoon region is transported into the tropics and entrained into the upward Brewer-Dobson circulation, bypassing the tropical tropopause.
Microfluidic chip for isolation of viable circulating tumor cells of hepatocellular carcinoma for their culture and drug sensitivity assay

ABSTRACT Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) have been proposed to be an active source of metastasis or recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The enumeration and characterization of CTCs has important clinical significance in recurrence prediction and treatment monitoring in HCC patients. We previously developed a unique method to separate HCC CTCs based on the interaction of the asialoglycoprotein receptor (ASGPR) expressed on their membranes with its ligand. The current study applied the ligand-receptor binding assay to a CTC-chip in a microfluidic device. Efficient capture of HCC CTCs originates from the small dimensions of microfluidic channels and enhanced local topographic interactions between the microfluidic channel and extracellular extensions. With the optimized conditions, a capture yield reached > 85% for artificial CTC blood samples. Clinical utility of the system was further validated. CTCs were detected in all the examined 36 patients with HCC, with an average of 14 ± 10/2 mL. On the contrary, no CTCs were detected in healthy, benign liver disease or non-HCC cancer subjects. The current study also successfully demonstrated that the captured CTCs on our CTC-chip were readily released with ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA); released CTCs remained alive and could be expanded to form a spheroid-like structure in a 3-dimensional cell culture assay; furthermore, sensitivity of released CTCs to chemotherapeutic agents (sorafenib or oxaliplatin) could be effectively tested utilizing this culture assay. In conclusion, the methodologies presented here offer great promise for accurate enumeration and easy release of captured CTCs, and released CTCs could be cultured for further functional studies.
Efficient Modeling of Rerouted Return Currents in Multilayered Power-Ground Planes by Using Integral Equation

Multilayered power-ground (PG) planes are commonly used to supply power to circuits in high-speed electronic packages and printed circuit boards (PCBs). In this paper, we propose an efficient integral equation equivalent network method to simulate the interference produced by the rerouted return currents of signal traces inside such PG planes. The integral equation is created based on the geometrical features of the PG planes. Therefore, it could reduce the computing time and will be maintaining good accuracy. By discretizing the integral equation, a multiport equivalent network model is derived for each layer of the PG planes. Their [Z] matrices are then obtained. These [Z] matrices can be smoothly integrated with signal traces and other circuit models of lumped components mounted in the package and on the PCB, so that the system-level signal integrity and power integrity can be simulated efficiently.
An automatic laser scanning system for accurate 3D reconstruction of indoor scenes

3D reconstruction of indoor scenes is important for lots of applications like SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping), VR (virtual reality) and AR (augmented reality) etc. This paper presents a precise and low-cost 3D reconstruction system, which consists of a laser emitter, a monocular camera and a turntable. The system is firstly calibrated to determine the intrinsic and extrinsic parameters of the camera and laser plane. By rotating the scanning device, a serial of laser strip images can be obtained. With the proposed point cloud registration algorithm, multiple 3D profiles of the target scene can be computed precisely and aligned automatically. As a result, a complete 3D model of the indoor scene with color information and high accuracy can be obtained. In the experiments, some real scenes are reconstructed and evaluated from the aspects of both visual quality and measurement accuracy.
Prevalence and clinical implications of occult hepatitis B viral infection in hemophilia patients in Japan

The prevalence and clinical implications of occult hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection were investigated in the Japanese patients with hemophilia in whom a high prevalence of infection with transfusion‐transmissible viruses has been reported. HBV DNA was detected in the sera of 22 of 43 (51.2%) patients with hemophilia who were negative for HBV surface antigen (HBs), indicating that these patients had occult HBV infection. No factor, including age, type or severity of hemophilia, presence of HBs or HBV core (HBc) antibody, or coinfection with hepatitis C virus (HCV) or human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was associated with occult HBV infection, except for high anti‐HBc titer and/or coinfection with HCV genotype 1 (1a or 1b). In general, occult HBV infection did not appear to have significant clinical implications. However, in patients in whom HBV was detected by PCR specific for the surface (S)–region, higher alanine aminotransferase levels were observed. The genotype of the occult HBV in the present study was exclusively the domestic type indigenous to Japan (genotype C), suggesting a different route of transmission for HBV in comparison to HCV and HIV in this population. J. Med. Virol. 73:195–199, 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Pharmacokinetic-Pharmacodynamic Modeling of Rifampicin-Mediated Cyp3a11 Induction in Steroid and Xenobiotic X Receptor Humanized Mice

The purpose of this study was to develop a mechanistic pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic (PK-PD) model to describe the effects of rifampicin on hepatic Cyp3a11 RNA, enzymatic activity, and triazolam pharmacokinetics. Rifampicin was administered to steroid and xenobiotic X receptor (SXR) humanized mice at 10 mg/kg p.o. (every day for 3 days) followed by triazolam (4 mg/kg p.o.) 24 h after the last dose of rifampicin. Rifampicin and triazolam concentrations and Cyp3a11 RNA expression and activity in the liver were measured over the 4-day period. Elevations in Cyp3a11 RNA expression were observed 24 h after the first dose of rifampicin, reaching a maximum (∼10 times baseline) after the third dose and were sustained until day 4 and began declining 48 h after the last rifampicin dose. Similar changes in enzymatic activity were also observed. The triazolam serum area under the curve (AUC) was 5-fold lower in mice pretreated with rifampicin, consistent with enzyme induction. The final PK-PD model incorporated rifampicin liver concentration as the driving force for the time-delayed Cyp3a11 induction governed by in vitro potency estimates, which in turn regulated the turnover of enzyme activity. The PK-PD model was able to recapitulate the delayed induction of Cyp3a11 mRNA and enzymatic activity by rifampicin. Furthermore, the model was able to accurately anticipate the reduction in the triazolam plasma AUC by integrating a ratio of the predicted induced enzyme activity and basal activity into the equations describing triazolam pharmacokinetics. In conjunction with the SXR humanized mouse model, this mathematical approach may serve as a tool for predicting clinically relevant drug-drug interactions via pregnane X receptor-mediated enzyme induction and possibly extended to other induction pathways (e.g., constitutive androstane receptor).
Coping with social stigma: people with intellectual disabilities moving from institutions and family home.

BACKGROUND Social stigma and its impact on the life opportunities and emotional well-being of people with intellectual disabilities (IDs) are a subject of both practical and theoretical importance. The disability movement and evolving theories of self, now point to individuals' ability to develop positive identities and to challenge stigmatizing views and social norms. METHOD This paper presents findings from a phenomenological study of 10 individuals making the transition from their family home to live more independently and 18 individuals moving from a long-stay hospital to live in community housing. It builds on an earlier data set obtained from people living at home with their families and examines: (1) people's awareness of stigma, and (2) their modes of adaptation to stigma. RESULTS The participants all believed that they faced stigmatized treatment and were aware of the stigma associated with ID. They presented a range of views about self in relation to disability and stigma. These views included regarding themselves as part of a minority group who reject prejudice, and attempts to distance themselves from stigmatizing services and from other individuals with IDs. CONCLUSIONS The findings are discussed in relation to theories of self and the importance of considering psychosocial factors is stressed in clinical work with people who have IDs.
Querying imprecise data in moving object environments

In moving object environments it is infeasible for the database tracking the movement of objects to store the exact locations of objects at all times. Typically the location of an object is known with certainty only at the time of the update. The uncertainty in its location increases until the next update. In this environment, it is possible for queries to produce incorrect results based upon old data. However, if the degree of uncertainty is controlled, then the error of the answers to certain queries can be reduced. More generally, query answers can be augmented with probabilistic estimates of the validity of the answer. We study the execution of such probabilistic nearest-neighbor queries. The imprecision in answers to the queries is an inherent property of these applications due to uncertainty in the data, unlike the techniques for approximate nearest-neighbor processing that trade accuracy for performance.
Nanolayer effects in thermal conductivity of nanofluids containing cylindrical nanoparticles

We present a theoretical model for explaining the enhancement in the effective thermal conductivity of nanotubes (cylindrical shape particles) for use in nanotube-in-fluid suspensions. Our theoretical model shows that with the decrease of nanotube diameter, the thermal conductivity increases if the thickness of nanolayers increases. We also show that the effective thermal conductivity is decreased with cylindrical nanoparticle diameter, which agrees with experimental results. We provide a good estimation for the nanolayer's thickness which plays an important role in increasing the thermal conductivity.
Digital labor is the new killer app

Research on digital labor tends to fall into idealized, oppositional binaries that are judgmental rather than based on detailed analyses of the actual system or site. Our goal in this article is to provide a view on digital labor that is grounded less in speculation but in narratives from the producers of the platforms and content of the digital economy. To provide original perspectives on digital work we emphasize the agency of the producers and freelancers working at the global outsourcing firm Samasource and the cable television network Current TV. Our analyses of these two cases reveal important questions regarding 1) the values and organizational culture of firm founders and executives and 2) the mobility of freelance workers within the networks of digital labor. In conclusion we interrogate how wealth is distributed within the network. Across these questions, we introduce a research agenda that considers to bridge the ethical challenges of labor exploitation as well as the promises of social entrepreneurship in the digital economy.
Document image defect models and their uses

The accuracy of today's document recognition algorithms falls abruptly when image quality degrades even slightly. In an effort to surmount this barrier, researchers have in recent years intensified their study of explicit, quantitative, parameterized models of the image defects that occur during printing and scanning. The author reviews the recent literature and discusses the form these models might take. A preview of a large public-domain database of character images, labeled with ground-truth including all defect model parameters, is given. The use of massive pseudo-randomly generated training sets for the construction of high-performance decision trees for preclassification is described. In a more theoretical vein, the author reports preliminary results in the estimation of the intrinsic error of precisely-specified text recognition problems. Finally, the author calls attention to some open problems. <<ETX>>