Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sadasivam An Efficient Adaptive Thresholding Technique for Wavelet Based Image Denoising

This frame work describes a computationally more efficient and adaptive threshold estimation method for image denoising in the wavelet domain based on Generalized Gaussian Distribution (GGD) modeling of subband coefficients. In this proposed method, the choice of the threshold estimation is carried out by analysing the statistical parameters of the wavelet subband coefficients like standard deviation, arithmetic mean and geometrical mean. The noisy image is first decomposed into many levels to obtain different frequency bands. Then soft thresholding method is used to remove the noisy coefficients, by fixing the optimum thresholding value by the proposed method. Experimental results on several test images by using this method show that this method yields significantly superior image quality and better Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR). Here, to prove the efficiency of this method in image denoising, we have compared this with various denoising methods like wiener filter, Average filter, VisuShrink and BayesShrink. Keywords—Wavelet Transform, Gaussian Noise, Image Denoising, Filter Banks and Thresholding.
Attainment and Kinship Ties : Does Kin Network Density Predict High School Graduation ?

This paper attempts to address a gap in the literature, which does not account for the role of extended kin in the social fabric of the neighborhood. More specifically, this project seeks to answer whether the neighborhood effect on the chances of high school graduation may be confounded by the density of kin ties. My specific research questions are: 1) does kin network density affect high school graduation rates? And 2) does kin network density confound the correlation between neighborhood disadvantage and high school graduation? Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, U.S. decennial censuses, and the American Community Survey, I assess the density of the kinship network, measured as average number of extended kin within three miles, and likelihood of high school graduation. Results suggest that kin density affects high school graduation, but there is no confounding relationship between neighborhood effect and kin density. INDEX WORDS: Kinship, kin network, kin ties, social capital, neighborhood EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT AND KINSHIP TIES: DOES KIN NETWORK DENSITY PREDICT HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION?
The Origins of Financial Development: How the TseTse Fly Continues to Influence Modern Finance

We assess how the TseTse fly, a unique feature of African ecology that transmitted a parasite lethal to livestock and had enduring effects on human subsistence strategies, continues to influence modern financial systems. After showing that the suitability index of TseTse fly helps account for overall financial development, household access to credit, and firm access to finance, we evaluate three potential mechanisms linking the TseTse fly to modern finance—ethnic fragmentation, precolonial centralization, and trade. We discover that the TseTse fly is strongly, positively related to ethnic fragmentation and negatively related to precolonial centralization. We find limited evidence on the trade channel. JEL Code: G21; N57; O13; O16; O55
Myotis Molecular Phylogeny of Whiskered Bats , Vespretilionidae , Chiroptera ) in Palaearctic Region

Morphological features and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences were analysed to study the phylogenetic relationships among eight species of whiskered bats (genus Myotis, subgenus Selysius) in the Palaearctic region. The mtDNA phylogeny did not support the current division of the subgenus into species groups based on morphological data and species distributions, but showed instead that several species in the subgenus Selysius originated from distant lineages. The morphological similarity in some species could be due to convergence as a result of adaptation to similar habitats.
Coherent propagation of quasiparticles in topological spin liquids at finite temperature

The appearance of quasiparticle excitations with fractional statistics is a remarkable defining trait of topologically ordered systems. In this work, we investigate the experimentally relevant finite temperature regime in which one species of quasiparticle acts as a stochastic background for another, more energetically costly, species that hops coherently across the lattice. The nontrivial statistical angle between the two species leads to interference effects that we study using a combination of numerical and analytical tools. In the limit of self-retracing paths, we are able to use a Bethe lattice approximation to construct exact analytical expressions for the time evolution of the site-resolved density profile of a spinon initially confined to a single site. Our results help us to understand the temperature-dependent crossover from ballistic to quantum (sub-)diffusive behaviour as a consequence of destructive interference between lattice walks. The subdiffusive behaviour is most pronounced in the case of semionic mutual statistics, and it may be ascribed to the localised nature of the effective tight-binding description, an effect that is not captured by the Bethe lattice mapping. In addition to quantum spin liquids, our results are directly applicable to the dynamics of isolated holes in the large-$U$ limit of the Hubbard model, relevant to ultracold atomic experiments. A recent proposal to implement $\mathbb{Z}_2$ topologically ordered Hamiltonians using quantum annealers provides a further exciting avenue to test our results.
Practical aspects of topical PDT

Article accepted on 23/11/2005 Currently, topical photodynamic therapy (PDT) has received approval for the treatment of dermato-oncologic conditions like actinic keratoses, Bowen’s disease, in-situ squamous cell carcinoma and basal cell carcinoma in many countries all over the world. For many non-neoplastic dermatological diseases like localized scleroderma, acne vulgaris and viral warts a therapeutical benefit of PDT is evident, too. Unlike the formerly used, only systemically-applicable haematoporphyrin derivates, the recently developed topical photosensitizers 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) or its methyl ester (MAL) induce photosensitizing porphyrins. Moreover, the latter do not induce strong generalized cutaneous photosensitization. Due to the easy accessibility of skin to light activation, incoherent lamps or LED arrays are suitable for PDT. The production of reactive oxygen intermediates like singlet oxygen depends on the applied light dose as well as the concentration and localization of the photosensitizer in the diseased tissue. Either cytotoxic effects resulting in tumor destruction or immunomodulatory effects improving inflammatory skin conditions are induced. Treating superficial non-melanoma skin cancer, PDT has been shown to be highly efficient despite the low level of invasiveness. The excellent cosmetic results after treatment are beneficial, too.
Studies of PDGF receptor signaling in vitro and in vivo

Tsioumpekou, M. 2019. Studies of PDGF receptor signaling in vitro and in vivo. Digital Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Medicine 1538. 67 pp. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. ISBN 978-91-513-0571-4. Platelet-derived growth factor receptor (PDGFR) signaling is essential for proliferation, migration and survival of cells of mesenchymal origin; however, its deregulation has been associated with various diseases, including cancer. The aim of this thesis was to clarify the molecular mechanisms of PDGFR signaling regulation. We have studied PDGFR downregulation, identified the E3 ligases and deubiquitinases (DUBs) acting on the receptor, characterized the role of the downstream effector Erk5, as well as elucidated the role of PDGFRβ isoform in tumor growth and angiogenesis. As Erk5 activation has been associated with tumorigenesis, it is important to delineate the pathway from activated PDGFR to Erk5. Here, we demonstrate not only a complex mechanism for PDGF-induced Erk5 activation that involves Mek5, Mekk2, Mek1/2, PI3K and classical PKCs, but also a novel function for Erk5 by showing that PDGF-BB affects BMP-Smad signaling in an Erk5 pathway-dependent manner, indicating a crosstalk between tyrosine kinase receptor and serine/threonine receptor signaling. By investigating PDGFRβ downregulation, we demonstrated that ubiquitination of PDGFRβ, mediated by Cbl-b and c-Cbl, is essential for the receptor internalization, signaling, as well as downstream biological responses. Additionally, as ubiquitination is a reversible posttranslational modification, we identified USP4 as one of the DUBs acting on PDGFRβ and discovered that USP4 interacts with PDGFRβ, removing both K48and K63-linked polyubiquitin chains, and increases its stability, in both normal and cancer cells. Although several studies have highlighted the therapeutic benefit of PDGFR inhibition in cancer treatment, all available PDGFR kinase inhibitors have secondary targets; consequently, the details underlying the importance of PDGFR in tumorigenesis remain unknown. By targeting specifically PDGFRβ in the stroma of various tumor models, we showed that specific inhibition of PDGFRβ signaling suppresses growth of tumors with high levels of PDGF-BB, whereas the multi-target kinase inhibitor imatinib has less effect, indicating the significance of selective targeting of PDGFRβ. Our data provide new insights into the molecular events underlying PDGFRβ signaling and downregulation, highlight its importance as cancer therapeutic target and lead the way for further discoveries.
Heritability of the Varroa-speci ® c hygienic behaviour in honey bees ( Hymenoptera : Apidae )

The hygienic behaviour of the honey bees is considered to be a potential characteristic associated with resistance to Varroa destructor n.sp. In this study the heritability of the hygienic behaviour of Apis mellifera L. bees was estimated on the basis of the mother±daughter regression. Data were obtained from measurements of the bees' hygienic behaviour towards V. destructor-infested cells and towards pin-killed sealed brood. The heritability for the hygienic behaviour towards V. destructorinfested brood cells was h 0.18 (+ 0.27) and h 0.36 (+ 0.30) for the hygienic behaviour towards dead brood cells. The repeatability was likewise higher for the pin-killed brood assay (W 0.46) compared with the assay using living mites-infested brood cells (W 0.24). The genetic correlation between the behavioural responses to either the mite-infested or pin-killed brood cells was calculated to be rg 0.61 (+ 0.51) and the phenotypic correlation to be rp 0.11 (p 0.28, n 100). Since hygienic colonies demonstrate resistance to brood diseases such as American foulbrood and chalkbrood, it may be worthwhile to intensify the expression of the hygienic behaviour through selective breeding and thus strengthen these potential characteristics associated with resistance to V. destructor in honey bee stock.
User Behavior in Mass Media Website

Web traffic analysis; Zipf distribution; Web user patterns; Mass Media Website Mass media websites can be worthy to understand user trends in web services. RTVE, the National Broadcaster in Spain is a sample of such kind of service. The analysis of trends points to a shorter user interaction over the last three years, and a more straight access to content. Besides the number of pages consumed in a visit is becoming smaller as well. This article reviews these trends with data obtained from public sources, and analyze the distribution of web pages in the client layer and the corresponding distribution observed in the server layer. These two distributions can be characterized by Zipf-like distributions and α, the degree of disparity in the popularity distribution, is calculated for both. In all cases α is higher to one implying a huge concentration of popularity on a few objects.
Stable Transformation of Mouse , Rabbit and Monkey Cells and Abortive Transformation of Human Cells by BK Virus , a

Semi-permissive mouse, rabbit and monkey cells were stably transformed by BK virus (BKV). The specificity of transformation was demonstrated by the presence of BKV tumour (T) antigen in nuclei of transformed cells and by virus rescue with Sendai virus-mediated fusion or transfection. Two out of seven BKVtransformed cell lines were oncogenic. Permissive human cells were only abortively transformed by BKV, since morphologically modified cells persisted in culture for a few passages and eventually died.
Race and diagnosis : an assesment of clinician detection of eating disorder symtomatology in Asian , African-American , and White women

The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to further explore the effect of race on clinicians’ recognition of eating disorder symptomatology in Asian, AfricanAmerican, and White women. This study replicated the work of Gordon, Brattole, Wingate, and Joiner (2006) in an attempt to re-affirm or challenge previous research findings found by Gordon et al., 2006, which suggest that clinicians identify eating disorder symptoms in White women more frequently than in African American women. The present study expanded Gordon et al.’s (2006) work by assessing clinicians’ identification of eating disorder symptoms in Asian women and by examining themes in the qualitative portion of the narrative. The study explored the following question: Does a client’s race impact clinicians’ identification of eating disorder symptoms? It was hypothesized that clinicians are less likely to identify eating disorder symptoms in Asian and African American women than in White women and that clinicians would rate the severity of eating disorder symptoms similarly across racial groups. Thirty-four clinicians trained in the field of Social Work participated in this study. Data was collected using the Drive for Thinness subscale of the Eating Disorder Inventory 3-RF (Garner, 2005) and the narrative portion of a case vignette describing the symptoms of Mary, a 16 year old Asian, African American, or White female (Gordon et al., 2006). Quantitative findings from the present study challenge the findings of Gordon et al. (2006) by suggesting that race does not significantly impact clinicians’ identification of eating disorder symptomatology. Analyses of qualitative data suggest that race impacts the language used by clinicians to describe eating disorder symptomatology and is often reflective of racial stereotypes. An examination of the findings as they compare to previous literature and a discussion of language use in diagnoses were explored. Implications for social work practice were discussed. RACE AND DIAGNOSIS: AN ASSESSMENT OF CLINICIAN DETECTION OF EATING DISORDER SYMPTOMATOLOGY IN ASIAN, AFRICAN AMERICAN, AND WHITE WOMEN A study based upon an independent investigation, submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Social Work Kristin Amy Swenson Smith College School for Social Work Northampton, Massachusetts 01063 2009
INFLUENCE OF PRE-SOWING SEED TREATMENTS ON GERMINATION PROPERTIES AND SEEDLING VIGOR OF WHEAT

Healthy seed germination and vigorous seedlings are important in all crops for obtaining bumper yield under harsh environment. The objective of this study was to assess the potential of pre-sowing seed treatments in improving germination and early seedling growth of wheat cultivars. Laboratory experiments were conducted to examine the efficacy of different presowing treatments on seed germination behavior and vigor attributes of four wheat cultivars, Pirsabak-2013, Shahkar-2013, Hashim and Lalma at Agronomy research laboratory, University of Agriculture, Peshawar.Studied treatments include hydropriming (distilled water) and halopriming with Calcium Ammonium Nitrate (2%) for 24 hours. For seed hardening, seed were soaked in CAN solution (2%) for 24 hours and drying back to original moisture content at room temperature and this cycle was repeated twice for 12 hours. Dry/non primed seeds were used as control. Results revealed that halopriming and seed hardening with CAN solution (2%) improved the rate of germination in all wheat cultivars and reduced the mean germination time compared to hydropriming and control treatment. Among vigor evaluation tests, halopriming, seed hardening and hydropriming treatment were found effective as expressed by final emergence percentage, root and shoot length and their fresh and dry weight,. Control/non primed seeds gave minimum final emergence percentage, seedling dry weight and minimum fresh weight of seedling, root and shoot length. Pirsabak-2013 performed better in all the studied parameters over other cultivars.
Identifying cognitive distraction using steering wheel

The influence of driver distraction on driving performance is not yet well understood, but it 7 can have detrimental effects on road safety. In this study, we examined the effects of visual and non8 visual distractions during driving, using a high-fidelity driving simulator. The visual task was 9 presented either at an offset angle on an in-vehicle screen, or on the back of a moving lead vehicle. 10 Similar to results from previous studies in this area, non-visual (cognitive) distraction resulted in 11 improved lane keeping performance and increased gaze concentration towards the centre of the 12 road, compared to baseline driving, and further examination of the steering control metrics 13 indicated an increase in steering wheel reversal rates, steering wheel acceleration, and steering 14 entropy. We show, for the first time, that when the visual task is presented centrally, driversげ lane 15 deviation reduces (similar to non-visual distraction), whilst measures of steering control, overall, 16 indicated more steering activity, compared to baseline. When using a visual task that required the 17 diversion of gaze to an in-vehicle display, but without a manual element, lane keeping performance 18 was similar to baseline driving. Steering wheel reversal rates were found to adequately tease apart 19 the effects of non-visual distraction (increase of 0.5 degree reversals) and visual distraction with 20 offset gaze direction (increase of 2.5 degree reversals). These findings are discussed in terms of 21 steering control during different types of in-vehicle distraction, and the possible role of manual 22 interference by distracting secondary tasks. 23
SERIES Working paper 6 / 2013 War Finance and the Modern State

The institutional setting of the modern state is characterized by taxation, parliament, central banking and public debt. This work models war as a contest, where expenditures are funded in the financial market, and explores the complementary effects of these four institutions. If there is free entry in the financial market, taxation makes victory more likely, while under forced loans it increases the chances of defeat. With free entry, parliament and central bank are individually ineffective while they are a perfect substitute for taxation when both are in place. If the financial market is monopolized, the investor lends to both sides of the conflict and may want the states to develop these institutions to increase its profits. War Finance and the Modern State Alberto Vesperoni⇤ June 2012 Abstract The institutional setting of the modern state is characterized by taxation, parliament, central banking and public debt. This work models war as a contest, where expenditures are funded in the financial market, and explores the complementary e↵ects of these four institutions. If there is free entry in the financial market, taxation makes victory more likely, while under forced loans it increases the chances of defeat. With free entry, parliament and central bank are individually ine↵ective while they are a perfect substitute for taxation when both are in place. If the financial market is monopolized, the investor lends to both sides of the conflict and may want the states to develop these institutions to increase its profits. JEL C72,D44,D53,O01.The institutional setting of the modern state is characterized by taxation, parliament, central banking and public debt. This work models war as a contest, where expenditures are funded in the financial market, and explores the complementary e↵ects of these four institutions. If there is free entry in the financial market, taxation makes victory more likely, while under forced loans it increases the chances of defeat. With free entry, parliament and central bank are individually ine↵ective while they are a perfect substitute for taxation when both are in place. If the financial market is monopolized, the investor lends to both sides of the conflict and may want the states to develop these institutions to increase its profits. JEL C72,D44,D53,O01.
CT of aortic and mitral valve calcification.

: In a retrospective study of 100 patients 40 years of age or older, routine CT of the thorax demonstrated calcification of the aortic valve in five and mitral valve in five. The prevalence of valvular calcification increased with increasing age; calcification was present in 36% of patients over 70 years of age and 75% over 80. None had a history of rheumatic fever; in nine of 10 cases valvular calcification appeared to be degenerative in etiology. In one younger patient, aortic valvular calcification occurred in a congenitally bicuspid valve. Aortic valvular calcification on CT is specific for aortic stenosis; CT also demonstrates the calcification earlier than either plain radiographs or echocardiography. In the elderly, mitral valve calcification on CT seems to occur as a manifestation of degenerative changes in the mitral valve and anulus and may be associated with mitral insufficiency, mitral valve prolapse, or conduction abnormalities. Two-dimensional echocardiography and doppler interrogation of the valves should be done in any patient in whom CT demonstrates aortic or mitral valvular calcification.
The rational use of biologics in rheumatoid arthritis RA treatment milestones

Dr Jones attended Sydney University, graduating with first-class honours in Medicine in 1985. He then did training in Internal Medicine and Rheumatology in Sydney and Newcastle. He became a fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians in 1991. While at Newcastle he also did a Masters degree in Clinical Epidemiology. He then moved to the Garvan Institute in Sydney, where he completed a doctorate in Osteoporosis Epidemiology in 1994. He is also a fellow of the Australian faculty of Public Health Medicine. Since 1995 he has been in Hobart, Tasmania, where he combines clinical practice and research. He is currently Professor of Rheumatology and Epidemiology and Head of the Musculoskeletal Unit at the Menzies Research Institute as well as Head of the Department of Rheumatology at Royal Hobart Hospital. An NHMRC Practitioner Fellowship funds his position. He is also the current Medical Director of the Arthritis Foundation of Australia. He has received grants from competitive and non-competitive sources totalling over $12 million dollars and has published >240 articles, primarily on the epidemiology of osteoporosis and osteoarthritis.