Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
SAR2SAR: a self-supervised despeckling algorithm for SAR images

Speckle reduction is a key step in many remote sensing applications. By strongly affecting synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images, it makes them difficult to analyse. Due to the difficulty to model the spatial correlation of speckle, a deep learning algorithm with self-supervision is proposed in this paper: SAR2SAR. Multi-temporal time series are leveraged and the neural network learns to restore SAR images by only looking at noisy acquisitions. To this purpose, the recently proposed noise2noise framework has been employed. The strategy to adapt it to SAR despeckling is presented, based on a compensation of temporal changes and a loss function adapted to the statistics of speckle. A study with synthetic speckle noise is presented to compare the performances of the proposed method with other state-of-the-art filters. Then, results on real images are discussed, to show the potential of the proposed algorithm. The code is made available to allow testing and reproducible research in this field.
CYSTEINE PROTEASES, ENDOGENOUS INHIBITORS AND PROTEASES/INHIBITORS RATIO IN HUMAN COLORECTAL CANCER PROGRESSION CYSTEINOWE PEPTYDAZY, ENDOGENNE INHIBITORY CYSTEINOWYCH PEPTYDAZ I STOSUNEK PROTEAZ/INHIBITORY W PROGRESJI NOWOTWORU PRZEWODU POKARMOWEGO U LUDZI

Summary Tumour invasion and metastasis are the major causes of treatment failure and death in gastrointestinal cancer patients. Cathepsin B and D are some of the main proteolytic enzymes contributing to the development of cancer. Moreover, cathepsin B and D expressions were significantly associated with TNM stage, nodal status and histological grade. In physiological conditions, cysteine peptidases within the cells are regulated by endogenous cystatin C. Imbalance between cathepsins and endogenous inhibitors contribute to colorectal cancer invasion and metastasis. These markers with other clinical and biochemical criteria may play important metabolic roles in colorectal cancer progression. Chicken cystatin autogenous inhibitor includes reversible, tight-binding competitive inhibitors of cysteine proteases, which can promote cancer, cell invasion and metastasis, and may inhibit the mechanism of invasion of colorectal cancer.
Increasing PCR Fragment Stability and Protein Yields in a Cell-Free System with Genetically Modified Escherichia coli Extracts

Escherichia coli cell-free protein synthesis is a highly productive system that can be applied to high throughput expression from polymerase chain reaction (PCR) products in 96-well plates for proteomic studies as well as protein evolution. However, linear DNA instability appears to be a major limitation of the system. We modified the genome of the E. coli strain A19 by removing the endA gene encoding the endonuclease I and replacing the recCBD operon (in which recD encodes the exonuclease V) by the λ phage recombination system. Using the cell extract from this new strain increased the stability of PCR products amplified from a plasmid containing the cat gene. This resulted in CAT (chloramphenicol acetyltransferase) production from PCR products comparable to that from plasmids (500–600 µg/ml) in a batch reaction. We show that cell-free protein synthesis reactions using PCR products amplified from genomic DNA and extended with the T7 promoter and the T7 terminator give the same high yields of proteins (550 µg/ml) in 96-well plates. With this system, it was possible to rapidly express a range of cytoplasmic and periplasmic proteins.
Examining characteristics of resilience among university students: An international study

Attending university is a particularly stressful time due to unique emergent stressors such as changes in environment, loss or diminishment of social support networks, academic pressures, developing peer relationships, and financial management. There is growing recognition that these common stressors may have deleterious effects on the mental health of students. Resilience, a personality characteristic that moderates the negative effects of stress and promotes adaptation, has been associated with increased psychological well-being. Despite a growing body of research on resilience and its clinical significance in preventing mental health problems, relatively little is known about contributing factors for resilience in well-adjusted university students. This current study examined the characteristics of university students reporting high and low resilience for elucidating its clinical implications in preventing mental health problem, primarily focusing on potentially modifiable psychosocial variables. An international sample of 214 university students recruited from Australia, the United States of America, and Hong Kong universities completed measures of resilience, perceived social support, campus connectedness, and psychological distress. Results of a one-way between groups multivariate analysis of variance revealed that perceived social support, campus connectedness, and psychological distress accounted for a significant proportion (36%) of the variance between the high and low resilience groups of university students. University students with low levels of resilience reported significantly lower levels of perceived social support, campus connectedness, and higher levels of psychological distress, in comparison to university students with high levels of resilience. Findings offer important implications for the development of resilience-based interventions among university students.
Reasons for discontinuation of long-term opioid therapy in patients with and without substance use disorders

Abstract Several factors may accelerate opioid discontinuation rates, including lack of information about the long-term effectiveness of opioids for chronic pain, heightened awareness about opioid-related adverse events, closer monitoring of patients for opioid-related aberrant behaviors, and greater restrictions around opioid prescribing. Rates of discontinuation may be most pronounced in patients deemed to be at “high risk. ” The purpose of this study was to compare reasons for discontinuation of long-term opioid therapy (LTOT) between patients with and without substance use disorder (SUD) diagnoses receiving care within a major U.S. health care system. This retrospective cohort study assembled a cohort of Veterans Health Administration patients prescribed opioid therapy for at least 12 consecutive months who subsequently discontinued opioid therapy for at least 12 months. From this cohort, we randomly selected 300 patients with SUD diagnoses and propensity score–matched 300 patients without SUD diagnoses. A comprehensive manual review of patients' medical records ascertained reasons for LTOT discontinuation. Most patients (85%) were discontinued as a result of clinician, rather than patient, decisions. For patients whose clinicians initiated discontinuation, 75% were discontinued because of opioid-related aberrant behaviors. Relative to patients without SUD diagnoses, those with SUD diagnoses were more likely to discontinue LTOT because of aberrant behaviors (81% vs 68%), most notably abuse of alcohol or other substances. This is the first study to document reasons for discontinuation of LTOT in a sample of patients with and without SUD diagnoses. Treatments that concurrently address SUD and chronic pain are needed for this high-risk population.
Cloning and sequence analysis of beta‐4 cDNA: an integrin subunit that contains a unique 118 kd cytoplasmic domain.

The alpha 6 beta 4 complex is a member of the integrin superfamily of adhesion receptors. A human keratinocyte lambda gt11 cDNA library was screened using a monoclonal antibody directed against the beta 4 subunit. Two cDNAs were selected and subsequently used to isolate a complete set of overlapping cDNA clones. The beta 4 subunit consists of 1778 amino acids with a 683 amino acid extracellular domain, a 23 amino acid transmembrane domain and an exceptionally long cytoplasmic domain of 1072 residues. The deduced amino‐terminal sequence is in good agreement with the published amino‐terminal sequence of purified beta 4. The extracellular domain contains five potential N‐linked glycosylation sites and four cysteine‐rich homologous repeat sequences. The extracellular part of the beta 4 subunit sequence shows 35% identify with other integrin beta subunits, but is the most different among this class of molecules. The transmembrane region is poorly conserved, whereas the cytoplasmic domain shows no substantial identity in any region to the cytoplasmic tails of the known beta sequences or to other protein sequences. The exceptionally long cytoplasmic domain suggests distinct interactions of the beta 4 subunit with cytoplasmic proteins.
Vibration and torque ripple reduction of switched reluctance motors through current profile optimization

This paper proposes a differential evolution (DE) optimization-based current profiling method for simultaneous reduction of the torque ripple and vibration of switched reluctance motors (SRMs). The mechanism of torque generation in SRMs produces radial forces in addition to the required tangential force. It has been shown that the radial forces acting on the stator are the main vibration source in SRMs and keeping the sum of the radial forces constant can reduce the magnitude of the significant harmonics of the sum of radial forces and further reduce vibration by avoiding the resonance caused by those harmonics. A simple method is proposed to model the torque and radial forces generated in the SRMs while considering the saturation effects. The resulting torque and radial force models are then used in the DE optimization process to generate the current profile of each phase in the form of Fourier series, where the Fourier coefficients of each phase current profile are determined to minimize the torque ripple and significant harmonics in the sum of the radial forces. The proposed method significantly reduces the computational cost of the finite element analysis (FEA)-based methods. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified through both FEA simulation and experimental results.
IMPACT OF PERSONALITY AND ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT ON EMPLOYEES' JOB OUTCOMES

The research focuses to investigate the various unique aspects that may have impact on job outcomes during change implementation in a public sector organization. The study has two prime objectives. First objective is to study the association between employees’ withdrawal behavior and personality traits. Second objective is to find factors of organizational context that may have impact on employees’ job outcomes. Data have obtained from 345 employees of State Life Insurance Corporation (SLIC). These selected employees are working in top business zones. Data collected by using simple random sampling technique and self-administered questionnaire. The result revealed a positive association between employees’ withdrawal behavior and personality traits. Another significant connection has also found in between employees job outcomes and organizational contextual factors. The paper contributes in existing literature of organizational change implementation, personality traits, employees’ job outcomes, and organizational contextual factors in the perspective of a developing country.
Uniformly Accurate Finite Difference Schemes for p-Refinement

The accuracy deficiency of high-order conventional finite difference schemes in the high-frequency range is attributed to the approximation property of a power polynomial interpolation over equispaced nodes. To improve the numerical representation of high-frequency solutions, a new family of high-order finite difference schemes is constructed by trigonometric polynomial interpolation. As expected, these new difference schemes can resolve a wider frequency range than conventional finite difference schemes with the same stencil. In particular, they remove the possibility of Runge's phenomenon for uniform mesh. The recently proposed optimized difference schemes are indeed types of mixed difference schemes which make a compromise between power and trigonometric polynomial interpolation.
Board Characteristics and Ratios of Audit Fee to Asset

Using regression method,this paper examines the correlation between board characteristics and ratios of audit fee to asset(ROF)from annual reports about the listed companies in A-share market.Our research finds that ROF is significantly positively associat- ed with board independence,size of non-independent directors,and negatively associated with the size of independent directors.The size,numbers of subsidiary,proportion of the total as- set in account receivable and inventory of audit client,and auditor tenure are still predomi- nantly determinants factors of ROF.The negative relation between ROF and tenure indicates absence of the audit price cutting in initial engagement year.The results suggest that the boards with greater relative size of independent directors demand higher-quality audit service than auditor normally provides,and the boards with greater absolute size of independent di- rectors are more likely to improve control system of company than company normally has.
Segmental differences in the visual contribution to speech inteligibility

It is well known that the presence of visual cues increases the intelligibility of a speech signal (Sumby and Pollack, 1954). Although much is known about segmental differences in visual‐only perception, little is known about the contribution of visual cues to auditory–visual perception for individual segments. The purpose of this study was to examine (1) whether segments differ in their visual contribution to speech intelligibility, and (2) whether the contribution of visual cues is always to increase speech intelligibility. One talker produced triples of real words containing 15 different English consonants. Forced‐choice word‐identification experiments were carried out with these recordings under auditory–visual (AV) and auditory‐only (A) conditions with varying S/N ratios, and identification accuracy for the 15 consonants was compared for A versus AV conditions. As expected, there were significant differences in the visual contribution for the different consonants, with visual cues greatly improving s.
Stability Analysis of Electricity Markets Using TSK Fuzzy Modeling

This paper discusses the stability properties of electricity markets and their implications for the deregulated market environment. We formulate a Takagi-Sugeno-Kang (TSK) fuzzy model for electricity markets to account for their uncertainty and nonlinearity and obtain realistic stability results. The paper provides sufficient conditions for the stability and instability of electricity markets. All the proposed stability and instability conditions can be tested using linear matrix inequalities. Simulation results demonstrate the application of the stability and instability tests to electric power market under different market conditions. The tests also demonstrate the importance of the including nonlinearities and uncertainty in the electricity market when investigating its stability.
Cardiovascular risk factors associated with migraine among the elderly with a low income: The São Paulo Ageing & Health Study (SPAH)

Background: To investigate the association between cardiovascular risk-factor profile and migraine in the elderly, we evaluated a population sample of ageing men and women (65 years or more) living in a low-income area in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. Patients and Methods: We investigated migraine status and cardiovascular profile from a baseline of 1450 participants (65–102 years of age) of the São Paulo Ageing & Health Study (SPAH), a longitudinal population-based study with low-income elderly in Brazil. The following age and sex-adjusted cardiovascular risk factors were analyzed: blood pressure, pulse pressure, serum total and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, body mass index, smoking, history of hypertension, diabetes and the 10-year risk of myocardial infarction or coronary heart disease death based on the Framingham Risk Score. Results: The overall prevalence of migraine was 11.4%, and it was 3 times more frequent among women than men (15.3% vs 5.4%; P < 0.0001). Migraineurs were younger than non-migraineurs (mean age 70.6 years vs 72.1 years; P = 0.001, respectively). There was no statistically significant difference regarding the cardiovascular risk-factor profile after adjustment for age and sex among migraineurs and non-migraineurs. Only a decrease in the risk of hypertension among women (OR 0.58; 95% CI 0.38–0.90; P = 0.01) was also observed even after adjustment for age. Conclusions: Overall, we did not find a worse cardiovascular risk profile among elderly migraineurs. An inverse association between hypertension and migraine in women warrants further investigation.
The influence of privacy and security of internet technology on quality information exchange between businesses to business (B2B) in Malaysian Industry

The growing importance of using internet technology has led companies to make their applications highly commercial and widely accepted for all sorts of customers and suppliers relations such as advertising, brand building and information sharing. Unfortunately, empirical studies on information quality delivery over the internet application particularly in the Malaysian manufacturing companies have been less than encouraging. This empirical research investigates the influence of security and privacy of internet technology on the quality information shared by the company to their suppliers. 650 questionnaires were distributed to different manufacturers in different regions of Malaysia, 184 were returned and only 151 were analyzed due to incomplete responses. This research found a significant relationship between perceived security and quality information exchange. Perceived privacy did not as a significant predictor. Further justification and discussion has been made at the end of chapters in order to clarify this finding. Hence, this article ends with suggestion for the industry, responsible parties that involved in promoting internet usage for quality information delivery among industries. Key words: Privacy, security, internet technology, quality information exchange, Malaysian industry.
Relations among Hand Preference, Craniofacial Asymmetry, and Ear Advantage in Young Subjects

The relations for hand preference with craniofacial asymmetry and ear advantage, and between craniofacial asymmetry and ear advantage were investigated in young healthy subjects. Ear advantage was recorded as duration of hearing, craniofacial asymmetry by computerized tomography in 44 right-handed and 38 left-handed male and female high school students. Right-handers had a right ear advantage and a larger left craniofacial region, whereas left-handers had a left ear advantage and a larger right craniofacial region. These results are consistent with the speculation that hand preference may be related to craniofacial and consequently aural asymmetries.
Could sickle cell trait be a predisposing risk factor for CKD?

Whilst the needs of individuals with sickle cell disorder (SCD) may be apparent, individuals with sickle cell trait (SCT) are generally reassured that their health will not be affected by their carrier status. Renal failure is a recognized complication of SCD; however, little is known concerning the relationship between SCTand the development of chronic kidney disease (CKD). In this short article, we discuss the rationale for further studies into this area, which we believe could impact on global public health recommendations.
Studies on Maturity in Newborn Infants IV. Postnatal Radiological Examination of Epiphyseal Centers

O. Studies on maturity in newborn infants. IV. Postnatal radiological examination of epiphyseal centers. Neuropadiatrie 3 : 119—128 (1971). The presence and size of the epi-physeal centers in the distal femur, proximal tibia, calcaneus and talus were studied by post-natal radiological examination in 172 newborn infants. There was no difference between the two body halves or between boys and girls in this material. There is great variation in the time at which the centers can be visualized by radiological examination. Even when the size of the centers and not only their presence was considered, the method gave no better estimation of gestational age than did birth weight. The prediction interval for estimation age from the mean size of the femoral epiphysis in the present material was ±29.3 days. Using more than one center did not improve the accuracy of the estimation by more than 2 days. Small-for-gestational-age infants have a delayed ossification of epiphyseal centers.
The Energetics during the World's Most Challenging Mountain Ultra-Marathon—A Case Study at the Tor des Geants®

Purpose: To provide insights into the energy requirements as well as the physiological adaptations of an experienced 50-year-old ultra-marathon male athlete during the world's most challenging mountain ultra-marathon (MUM). Methods: The international race supporting the study was the Tor des Geants®, characterized by 330 km with +24,000 m D+ to be covered within 150 h. Before the MUM, we assessed the peak oxygen uptake (V˙O2peak) by means of an incremental graded running test. During the MUM we monitored six ascents (once per race day) with a portable gas analyzer, a GPS and a finger pulse oximeter. We then calculated the net metabolic cost per unit of distance (C), the vertical metabolic cost (Cvert) and the mechanical efficiency of locomotion (Effmech) throughout the six uphills monitored. We further monitored the distance covered, speed, altimetry and D+ from the GPS data as well as the pulse oxygen saturation with the finger pulse oximeter. Results: Subject's V˙O2peak was 48.1 mL·kg−1·min−1. Throughout the six uphills investigated the mean exercise intensity was 57.3 ± 6.0% V˙O2peak and 68.0 ± 8.7% HRpeak. C, Cvert and Effmech were 11.4 ± 1.9 J·kg−1·m−1, 57.9 ± 15.2 J·kg−1·mvert−1, and 17.7 ± 4.8%, respectively. The exercise intensity, as well as C, Cvert, and Effmech did not consistently increase during the MUM. Conclusions: For the first time, we described the feasibility of assessing the energy requirements as well as the physiological adaptations of a MUM in ecologically valid environment settings. The present case study shows that, despite the distance performed during the MUM, our participant did not experience a metabolic fatigue state. This is likely due to improvements in locomotor efficiency as the race progressed.