Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Supplementary Results for Length Distributions in Planar STIT Tessellations

Formulas for the joint distribution of direction and length of the typical K and J -segment in a planar, homogeneous, anisotropic, random tessellations that are stable under iteration (so-called STIT tessellations) are derived. They were announced in Th äle (2009), supplement the results from Mecke (2009) and Mecke t al. (2007) and complete the picture concerning length distributions of segments in the planar case.
Clinical improvement and shrinkage of uterine fibroids after thermal ablation by magnetic resonance‐guided focused ultrasound surgery

Hysterectomy or myomectomy are the accepted treatments for symptomatic uterine fibroids. Heat ablation of uterine fibroids has been shown to be an effective alternative treatment. The aim of this study was to determine the clinical efficacy of non‐invasive thermal ablation by transcutaneous magnetic resonance‐guided high‐intensity focused ultrasound (MRgFUS) for the treatment of symptomatic uterine fibroids.
Integrated Pest Management ( IPM ) and Information Flow : Case Study Tomato Stakeholders ’ Practices in Kenya

Small holder horticultural farmers in Kenya, producing both for local and export markets, are faced with challenges arising from changes in consumer demands and environmental awareness concerns. This stems directly from over reliance on chemical pesticides for pests and diseases control. Currently, various pests and diseases control methods are being tested, all aimed at being used in an integrated pest management (IPM) approach. The approach is site specific and knowledge-intensive, hence effective information flow and management are fundamental tenets towards its success. The study is based on interviews with tomato-growing farmers in Kenya. The study assessed existing tomato IPM practices; IPM information management practices; IPM social networks among stakeholders and IPM communication media. Descriptive statistics and social network analyses were undertaken. Preliminary results show that tomato diseases (wilts and blights), thrips (insect pest), red spite mites, and nematodes were the most important production constraints reported by the farmers. Majority (over 80 %) of the farmers interviewed were not aware of the IPM approach, though a significant number practices various IPM components. Majority of the tomato farmers (over 50 %) reported spraying pesticides frequently mainly for common pests and diseases. Other practices mainly indigenous technical knowledge (ITKs) are used in cases of newly emerging tomato pests and diseases. Biological control agents and legislation regulations were not reported to be practised from the study. The most important medium of communication used is verbal. A significant numbers of farmers interviewed keep pest management information in memory. Social network analysis was undertaken using UCINET program. Results show that the density of social relations influence IPM stakeholders interaction behaviours inducing various structural patterns of connections. Implications towards IPM implementation and effective information flow in Kenya are discussed. The study is anticipated to contribute towards improvement of integration and communication of pest management information leading to effective crop protection in Kenya
NeuroAIDS in sub-Saharan Africa: a clinical review.

NeuroAIDS affects half of the 22 million people currently living with HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa, where cryptococcal meningitis alone is responsible for 504,000 deaths annually. A good understanding of NeuroAIDS may help improve disease-free survival in patients at risk and optimize resource utilization by caregivers. In this review, we aimed to provide a summary of major NeuroAIDS syndromes of relevance in Africa. We searched Medline for English language literature to identify relevant publications, using the search terms "NeuroAIDS" and "HIV AND nervous system. " The most common NeuroAIDS syndrome is HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND), which affects over 1.5 million Africans yearly. While incidence of HAND has decreased with the use of highly active antiretroviral therapy, prevalence has increased due to longer life expectancy. Other NeuroAIDS syndromes include tuberculous meningitis and intracerebral tuberculoma, cryptococcal meningitis, toxoplasma encephalitis, progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy, primary central nervous system lymphoma, stroke, and distal sensory polyneuropathy. NeuroAIDS care and research in Africa are hindered by resource limitations. Inadequate neuroimaging and laboratory facilities result in diagnostic delays and confusion, while limited access to drugs leads to inappropriate treatment. However, the situation may be improving. Better funding of HIV care by African governments and donor agencies have resulted in decreasing HIV prevalence and prolonged survival. Yet, central nervous system opportunistic infections remain important causes of death and disability among African patients with HIV/AIDS. There is the need for additional funding to improve access to antibiotics and to facilitate further research into NeuroAIDS and its treatment.
Conserving Threatened Rare Plants : Some Nursery Strategies

The legacy of the 1992 Earth Summit and the mandates of the Convention on Biodiversity have influenced the propagation of threatened and endangered native plants. Minimum viable population guidelines, appropriate gene pool sampling, micropropagation techniques, and strategies for returning propagules to the environment guide the development of conservation plans. The rare Pacific Northwest endemics Phlox idahonis, Douglasia idahoensis, and Hackelia venusta; oceanic island megararities; and once-abundant but now uncommon plants were evaluated for both ex situ plant recovery programs and other propagation opportunities. Micropropagating seed conserved scarce germplasm of rare Astragalus, Carex, and Lepidium species. The strategy of first propagating the common species, Astragalus aquilonius, was successful in culturing the closely related rare species A. amblytropis. Nurserymen can participate in species recovery programs, propagate regional rarities to promote conservation education, and prevent further decline of once-abundant native plants.
A Bond Between Man and Woman : Religiosity , Moral Foundations , and Same-Sex Marriage Attitudes in the Philippines

Correspondence concerning this article can be addressed to Danielle Ochoa, Department of Psychology, Lagmay Hall, Roxas Avenue corner Africa Street, UP Diliman, Quezon City 1101. E-mail: dpochoa@up.edu. ph Same-sex marriage in the Philippines remains a highly contentious issue due to the influence of religion in this predominantly Catholic country, where it is often framed as an issue of morality. However, the psychological underpinnings of this religious influence still merits further exploration. Thus, we examined the role of religious behaviors and moral foundations in predicting attitudes toward same-sex marriage among Filipinos. Data from 385 participants revealed that the particular behavior of reading the main sacred text of one’s religion, rather than the often-used predictor of religious attendance predicts negative attitudes. Beyond these religious variables, the moral foundation of Purity/sanctity also predicts negative attitudes. Recommendations for further research
Transmitter cooperation with distributed feedback in wireless networks. (Transmission coopérative dans les réseaux sans-fil avec feedback distribué)

Multiple-antenna based transmitter cooperation has been established as a promising tool towards avoiding, aligning, or shaping the interference resulting from aggressive spectral reuse. Although the impact of imperfect knowledge of the channel state information (CSI) is often investigated, it is usually assumed that the channel estimates are perfectly shared between all the transmitters. This assumption is however not adapted to many practical cases of transmitter cooperation between distant transmitters. Therefore, we focus in this thesis on the network scenario where the transmitters would like to cooperate in their transmission but can only imperfectly exchange on CSI which is acquired locally. This imperfect CSI sharing step gives rise to a CSI configuration, denoted as “distributed CSI”, where each transmitter has its own imperfect estimate of the global multi-user channel based on which it determines its transmit parameters. We study first the impact of having distributed CSI over the precoder design. Specifically, we show that conventional precoding schemes are not adapted to the distributed CSI configuration and lead to poor performance. We then turn to another aspect of this CSI configuration which is to determine “Who needs to know what", when it comes to CSI at cooperating transmitters. In contrast to the resource-hungry solution consisting in providing the same CSI to all transmitters, it is shown how a non-uniform spatial allocation of the CSI to the transmitters can provide strong gains depending on the networks topology.
Extensive Intraoperative Peritoneal Lavage as a Standard Prophylactic Strategy for Peritoneal Recurrence in Patients with Gastric Carcinoma

Objective:This prospective randomized multicenter study aims to evaluate the efficacy of extensive intraoperative peritoneal lavage followed by intraperitoneal chemotherapy (EIPL-IPC) on the overall 5-year survival of advanced gastric cancer patients with intraperitoneal free cancer cells without overt peritoneal metastasis (CY+/P−). The study also aims to determine the merit and reliability of EIPL-IPC therapy as a prophylactic strategy for peritoneal metastasis. Summary Background Data:Although the prognosis of advanced gastric cancer patients with CY+/P− is extremely poor, a suitable standard regimen for treating such patients has not yet been established. Methods:A total of 88 patients with CY+/P− from 1522 patients with advanced gastric cancer at multicenters were enrolled in this study and were randomly allocated to 3 groups: surgery alone group, surgery plus intraperitoneal chemotherapy (IPC) group, and surgery plus EIPL and IPC (EIPL-IPC) group. Prognostic significance of EIPL-IPC therapy was evaluated by Kaplan-Meier curves, and its value as an independent prognostic factor was assessed by univariate and multivariate analyses. Results:The overall 5-year survival rate of the patients with EIPL-IPC was 43.8%, and this data were significantly better than that of the IPC group (4.6%, P < 0.0001) and the surgery alone group (0%, P < 0.0001). Among various recurrent patterns, the EIPL-IPC group had a significantly lower incidence of peritoneal recurrence than both of the other groups (P < 0.0001). Univariate and multivariate analyses revealed that EIPL was the most significant impact factor. Conclusions:The present study clearly revealed that EIPL-IPC therapy significantly improved the 5-year survival span of advanced gastric cancer patients with CY+/P−. Thus, EIPL-IPC therapy is strongly recommended as a standard prophylactic strategy for peritoneal dissemination.
An Overview of Compiling Constraint Networks into AND / OR Multi-valued Decision Diagrams Project Report for CS 275

AND/OR Multi-valued Decision Diagrams (AOMDDs) combine the two frameworks of AND/OR search spaces and Multi-valued Decision Diagrams (MDDs) to create a framework that compiles a given graphical model into a smaller representation. AND/OR search spaces are an improved framework for search based inference algorithms for graphical models in general. The main idea is that it uses the underlying structure of the graphical model it provide a more compact search space due to possible independencies between variables in the model. Decision diagrams in general are used to represent functions as a directed acyclic graph, which can offer a very compact representation of these functions [4]. A motivation of compiling constraint networks into AOMDDs is that algorithms for performing queries on decision digrams are very fast [1]. We can compile a constraint network into an AOMDD once and perform quick online queries. This report summarizes the main ideas in [4] and provides some empricial results to extend its work. There are more recent results presented in [5, 3], but these are for weighted CSPs and Bayesian networks. Although constraint networks can be viewed as a special case of these two, experiments on them can still be useful to see how AOMDDs function on unweighted networks. Additionally, CNF formulas are also tested in this project.
Paracrine Regulation of Reproductive Function by Inhibin and Activin

Conclusions Inhibin has been confirmed as a factor produced in the gonads and capable of specifically regulating FSH release by the pituitary. However, inhibin and the related activins seem to play important paracrine roles in locally regulating testicular and ovarian function. They are also involved in paracrine regulation in the placenta, the pituitary, and other nonreproductive tissues. The local effects of these factors may be modified by the presence of binding proteins and the receptor or receptors expressed. The specific type of activin or inhibin produced and the net effect locally may vary as a function of the sexual development of the organism or the stage of the reproductive cycle. A more complete understanding of these complex relationships will develop with advances in our ability to measure the proteins, their binding proteins, and cell surface receptors.
' s personal copy The performance of gadolinium diethylene triamine pentaacetate-pullulan hepatocyte-speci fi c T 1 contrast agent for MRI

The magnetic resonance (MR) functionalities of pullulan-conjugated gadolinium diethylene triamine pentaacetate (Gd-DTPA-Pullulan) as a new hepatocyte-specific contrast agent were evaluated. Pullulan, which specifically accumulates on hepatocytes via asialoglycoprotein receptors, was chemically linked with Gd-DTPA. Gd-DTPA-Pullulan displayed three times greater contrast enhancement than Gd-DTPABMA (Omniscan ) in delayed MR imaging (MRI) on orthotopic rat hepatocarcinoma (HCC). This contrast effect lasted up to 24 h. In particular, Gd-DTPA-Pullulan displayed a discriminative MR contrast on the regenerative and malignant hepatic nodules sequentially observed during the progress of cirrhotic HCC. Approximately 50% of injected Gd-DTPA-Pullulan was eliminated via the hepato-biliary system. IC50 of Gd-DTPA-Pullulan on Chang liver cells was much higher than Gd-DTPA and Gd-DTPA-BMA (309.1 11.2, 173.5 15.5 and 49.4 8.9 mM, respectively). Any significant toxicities of Gd-DTPAPullulan at the conventional dose on the rats weren’t detected on histology studies. Gd-DTPA-Pullulan worked as a hepatocyte-specific MR contrast agent with increased MR functionalities and an acceptable safety profile setting the scene for future clinical trials. 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Common symptoms and type of impacted molar tooth in King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital.

BACKGROUND Patients who suffered from impacted teeth increase in number every year They have a wide range of ages and also have symptomatic or asymtomatic impacted molar teeth. The most common symptoms were pain, dental carious problem, gingivitis and oral infection. This was different in each patient. OBJECTIVES 1) to study the relation of age and common symptoms among patients with an impacted molar tooth. 2) to study the type of impacted molar tooth SETTING Department of Dentistry, King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital RESEARCH DESIGN Descriptive study MATERIAL AND METHOD Six hundred and eighty patients who had an impacted tooth were treated at the Department of Dentistry, King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital from June 2002 to December 2005. They were categorized in 5 age groups, namely: < or = 20 years, 21-30 years, 31-40 years, 41-50 years, and > 50 years. Data was collected from history taking, oral and radiographic examinations. The details of the patient's data and tooth's data were recorded, i.e., gender, age, location and type of the impacted tooth including the details of symptoms including pain, dental caries, gingivitis, oral and throat infections. RESULTS Four common symptoms including pain, dental caries, gingivitis and oral infection were recorded in each age group. The Pearson Chi - square test showed that in the statistical difference of variation of ages, p-values were 0.001, 0.037, < 0.001, 0.036 for the symptoms of pain, dental carious problem, gingivitis, and infection, respectively. One hundred and seventy eight maxillary third molar impacted teeth and 502 mandibular third molar impacted teeth were found. The impacted molar teeth were classified into five types. There was a mesioangular (402 cases), horizontal (125 cases), vertical (116 cases), distoangular (30 cases) and linguoversion or buccoversion impacted tooth (7 cases). There was a significant difference of type of impacted tooth, p-values were 0.013, 0.002 for the symptom ofpain and oral infection, respectively, but non significant difference for the dental carious problem and gingivitis, p-values were 0.702, 0.367 respectively. CONCLUSION The most frequent age group of patients with an impacted molar tooth was 21-30 years. Patient under 30 years had dental carious problems more than other symptoms, while gingivitis was more common in the older group. There was a statistical significant difference of variation of age and symptom. The most common type of impacted molar tooth was mesioangular type.
8 th World Rabbit Congress , Septembre 7-10 , 2004-Puebla , Mexico

A total of 287 females of a Kabylian local population of rabbits were studied at the University of Tizi-Ouzou (Algeria) over 6 years. The females were mated at first time at the age of 4.5 months and remated 10-12 days after parturition. The females are characterized (average ± standard deviation) by a medium to small adult weight (2.81±0.38 kg) and a rather low prolificacy at birth and weaning (7.2±2.5 total born of which 6.1±3.0 born alive and 5.4±2.3 weaned). Based on the registration of 1377 presentation of does to a male, acceptation of mating and conception rates were 74.3±3.8% and 73.3±4.3% respectively. The Algerian hot summer season did not seem to affect parameters of practical importance such as fertility or litter size at weaning. The only significant effect (P<0.01) was a reduction of litter weight at weaning (-13%) compared with the average of the 3 other seasons (1070 g vs 2368 g at 28 days). Acceptation and conception rates were not significantly affected by mating number. At first parturition, total number of kits (6.6/litter) was significantly lower when compared to that of multiparous does (7.3 to 7.4), and individual birth weight of first litter's kits was 10% lower than that observed for subsequent litters (51.4 g on average). On the other hand, it must be emphasised that for this sample of the Kabylian population, the kit's individual weight at weaning did not vary significantly with parturition number. Birth to weaning mortality was the lowest for parturition of rank 4 and more (9.8% vs 14.4 to 16.9% for previous ones).
Glufosinate-Resistant Italian Ryegrass Populations Emerge from Glyphosate-Resistant Populations in Japan

To evaluate glufosinate resistance, we conducted a dose-response bioassay using two glyphosate-resistant Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum Lam.) populations (S63 and S64) in Shizuoka, Japan. Two additional cultivars, Waseyutaka and Common, were used as the susceptible control in the experiment. At the five to six leaf stage, glufosinate was applied at a rate of 0, 0.25, 0.5, 1.0, or 2.0 kg active ingredient (a.i.) ha –1 for each of the susceptible cultivars, at a rate of 0, 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, or 4.0 kg a.i. ha –1 for S63, and at a rate of 0, 1.0, 2.0, or 4.0 kg a.i. ha –1 for S64. Almost all individuals of the two susceptible cultivars died after the application of 1.0 kg a.i. ha –1 , the recommended rate for pest control, but 33 and 23% of individuals survived from the S63 and S64 populations, respectively. The ratios of the LD50 values for resistant vs. susceptible populations (R/S ratios) for S63 and S64 were 1.3 and 1.8, respectively. However, because Italian ryegrass is an obligate out crossing, wind-pollinated species, the S63 and S64 populations included both susceptible and resistant individuals and thus the R/S ratios may have been underestimated.
A Study of Anatomical Variations of Coronary Arteries in North Indian Population

The human heart is vascularized by right and left coronary arteries. The current study was done to assess the normal patterns of coronary arteries with reference to its predominance, branching pattern, variations and anomalies.Fifty two adult North Indian cadaveric hearts from both genders fixed with 10% formalin were obtained from the Department of Anatomy, King George’s Medical University, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India. The exit points and various branching patterns of right and left coronary arteries were observed.Right coronary artery was originating from the anterior aortic sinus in 100%while left coronary artery took origin from left posterior aortic sinus in 96.15% and anterior aortic sinus in 3.85%. Right coronary artery gave origin to right marginal artery in 96.15% while absent in 3.85% specimen. Posterior interventricular branch coming from right coronary artery was noted in 92.31%. Accessory posterior interventricular branches were also seen in 11.54%. SA Nodal artery was noted in 34.62%, right conus artery in 57.69% and third coronary artery in 19.23%. Termination of left coronary artery was seen as bifurcation in 65.38% while trifurcation in 34.62%. Left marginal artery, a branch of circumflex artery was visualized in 15.38% specimens. Right dominance was present in 88.54%, left dominance in 7.69% andco-dominance was present in 3.85% specimens. Variations in branching pattern of coronary arteries as reported in present study necessitate its importance for proper diagnosis and management of coronary artery disease.
Shape and Structure, from Engineering to Nature

Seemingly universal geometric forms unite the flow systems of engineering and nature. For example, tree-shaped flows can be seen in computers, lungs, dendritic crystals, urban street patterns, and communication links. In this groundbreaking book, Adrian Bejan considers the design and optimization of engineered systems and discovers a deterministic principle of the generation of geometric form in natural systems. Shape and structure spring from the struggle for better performance in both engineering and nature. This idea is the basis of the new constructal theory: the objective and constraints principle used in engineering is the same mechanism from which the geometry in natural flow systems emerges. From heat exchangers to river channels, the book draws many parallels between the engineered and the natural world. Among the topics covered are mechanical structure, thermal structure, heat trees, ducts and rivers, turbulent structure, and structure in transportation and economics. The numerous illustrations, examples, and homework problems in every chapter make this an ideal text for engineering design courses. Its provocative ideas will also appeal to a broad range of readers in engineering, natural sciences, economics, and business.