Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Developmental dyslexia

The paper by Bonilha et al in this issue (pp 1627–1630) represents yet another step in clarifying the significance of atrophy of mesial temporal structures beyond the hippocampus.1 One of the major advances in the imaging of patients with temporal lobe epilepsy was recognition of hippocampal atrophy, now visible and quantifiable, based on high quality magnetic resonance imaging.2 Measurements of the amygdala volume, carried out in addition to volumetric studies of the hippocampus, provided insights into the significance of the clinical symptom presentation in patients who turned out to have prominent amygdaloid atrophy. Much less clear is the significance of …
Learning aspects of interest from Gaze

This paper presents a probabilistic framework to model the gaze generative process when a user is browsing a content consisting of multiple regions. The model enables us to learn multiple aspects of interest from gaze data, to represent and estimate user's interest as a mixture of aspects, and to predict gaze behavior in a unified framework. We recorded gaze data of subjects when they were browsing a digital pictorial book, and confirmed the effectiveness of the proposed model in terms of predicting the gaze target.
Effect of alpha-lipoic acid on radiation-induced small intestine injury in mice

Purpose Radiation therapy is a highly effective treatment for patients with solid tumors. However, it can cause damage and inflammation in normal tissues. Here, we investigated the effects of alpha-lipoic acid (ALA) as radioprotection agent for the small intestine in a mouse model. Materials and Methods Whole abdomen was evenly irradiated with total a dose of 15 Gy. Mice were treated with either ALA (100 mg/kg, intraperitoneal injection [i.p.]) or saline (equal volume, i.p.) the prior to radiation as 100 mg/kg/day for 3 days. Body weight, food intake, histopathology, and biochemical parameters were evaluated. Results Significant differences in body weight and food intake were observed between the radiation (RT) and ALA + RT groups. Moreover, the number of crypt cells was higher in the ALA + RT group. Inflammation was decreased and recovery time was shortened in the ALA + RT group compared with the RT group. The levels of inflammation-related factors (i.e., phosphorylated nuclear factor kappa B and matrix metalloproteinase-9) and mitogen-activated protein kinases were significantly decreased in the ALA + RT group compared with those in the RT group. Conclusions ALA treatment prior to radiation decreases the severity and duration of radiation-induced enteritis by reducing inflammation, oxidative stress, and cell death.
Instruments and methods: a case study of ice core bubbles as strain indicators

Abstract Measurements of a sample from ~580 m depth in the WAIS Divide (WDC06A) ice core reveal that bubbles are preferentially elongated in the basal plane of their parent grain, as expected if bubble shape preserves the record of dominant basal glide. This suggests that a method using bubbles as strain gauges could provide insights to grain-scale ice deformation. We introduce a technique using fabric and image analyses of paired thin and thick sections. Comparison of the crystallographic orientations of 148 grains and the shape orientations of 2377 intragrain bubbles reveals a strongly preferred elongation of bubbles in the grain basal planes (R2 = 0.96). Elongation magnitudes are consistent with a balance between ice flow deformation and diffusive restoration, with larger bubbles more elongated. Assuming bubbles record ice strain, grains with greater resolved stress on their basal planes from the far-field ice flow stresses show greater deformation, but with large variability suggesting that heterogeneity of the local stress field causes deformation even in unfavorably oriented grains. A correlation is also observed among bubble elongation, grain size, and bubble size, explaining a small but significant fraction of the variance ( P< 0.05), with implications for controls on ice deformation, as discussed here.
Arithmetic core generation using bit heaps

A bit heap is a data structure that holds the unevaluated sum of an arbitrary number of bits, each weighted by some power of two. Most advanced arithmetic cores can be viewed as involving one or several bit heaps. We claim here that this point of view leads to better global optimization at the algebraic level, at the circuit level, and in terms of software engineering. To demonstrate it, a generic software framework is introduced for the definition and optimization of bit heaps. This framework, targeting DSP-enabled FPGAs, is developed within the open-source FloPoCo arithmetic core generator. Its versatility is demonstrated on several examples: multipliers, complex multipliers, polynomials, and discrete cosine transform.
Mental disorders, disability and treatment gap in a protracted refugee setting

Background Studies have shown high levels of distress and mental disorder among people living in refugee camps, yet none has confirmed diagnosis through clinical reappraisal. Aims To estimate the prevalence of mental disorders, related disability and treatment gap in adult refugees living in the Burj el-Barajneh camp. Method Randomly selected participants were screened by household representative (n = 748) and individual (n = 315) interviews; clinical reappraisal was performed on a subset (n = 194) of 326 selected participants. Weighted prevalence estimates and 95% confidence intervals were calculated. Results The prevalence of current mental disorders was 19.4% (95% CI 12.6–26.2); depression was the most common diagnosis (8.3%, 95% CI 4.4–12.2) and multiple diagnoses were common (42%) among the 88 persons with mental disorder. Lifetime prevalence of psychosis was 3.3% (95% CI 1.0–5.5). Mental disorders were associated with moderate to severe dysfunction (odds ratio = 8.8, 95% CI 4.5–17.4). The treatment gap was 96% (95% CI 92–100). Conclusions A range of mental disorders and associated disability are common in this long-term refugee setting. Combined with an important treatment gap, findings support the current consensus-based policy to prioritise availability of mental health treatment in refugee camps, especially for the most severe and disabling conditions.
In-Band OSNR Monitoring Technique Based on Link-by-Link Estimation for Dynamic Transparent Optical Networks

A cost-effective optical performance monitoring system, based on link-by-link optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) estimation, is proposed for a dynamic transparent optical network. The proposed technique estimates the OSNR by monitoring the channel powers at the input and output of each optical link and the total input power to the inline EDFAs. In-band OSNR monitoring was successfully demonstrated at 42.7 Gb/s RZ-DQPSK signals, reflecting the transmission performance.
Segmenting skin ulcers based on thresholding and watershed segmentation

Skin ulcers can be the outcome of a cancerous tumor, or it could be due to an infection, or may be due to a pressure sore, or by vein problems. It can also be caused due to prolonged pressure on tissues or as an result of the increase of the UV Radiation due to the ozone depletion. In the modern ascensions of the electronic field, segmentation of skin ulcers using camera images has turned out to be an emergent area in the medical image processing discipline. Skin ulcer segmentation helps the user to determine the precise size of the ulcers. We have suggested a synergistic and an effective algorithm for the detection of skin ulcers based on watershed, and threshold segmentation and morphological operators. In this proposed approach we enhance the quality of the ulcer images acquired by the camera and then to detect the size of the skin ulcers, the morphological operators are applied.
The relationship of the postsynaptic 43K protein to acetylcholine receptors in receptor clusters isolated from cultured rat myotubes

We have examined the relationship of acetylcholine receptors (AChR) to the Mr 43,000 receptor-associated protein (43K) in the AChR clusters of cultured rat myotubes. Indirect immunofluorescence revealed that the 43K protein was concentrated at the AChR domains of the receptor clusters in intact rat myotubes, in myotube fragments, and in clusters that had been purified approximately 100-fold by extraction with saponin. The association of the 43K protein with clustered AChR was not affected by buffers of high or low ionic strength, by alkaline pHs up to 10, or by chymotrypsin at 10 micrograms/ml. However, the 43K protein was removed from clusters with lithium diiodosalicylate or at alkaline pH (greater than 10). Upon extraction of 43K, several changes were observed in the AChR population. Receptors redistributed in the plane of the muscle membrane in alkali-extracted samples. The number of binding sites accessible to an anti-AChR monoclonal antibody directed against cytoplasmic epitopes (88B) doubled. Receptors became more susceptible to digestion by chymotrypsin, which destroyed the binding sites for the 88B antibody only after 43K was extracted. These results suggest that in isolated AChR clusters the 43K protein covers part of the cytoplasmic domain of AChR and may contribute to the unique distribution of this membrane protein.
Timing yield estimation of carbon nanotube-based digital circuits in the presence of nanotube density variation and metallic-nanotubes

Carbon Nanotube Field Effect Transistors (CNFETs) show great promise to become successor of silicon CMOS because of its excellent electrical properties. However, CNFET-based circuits will face great fabrication challenges that will translate into imperfection and variability and lead to significant yield reduction. In this paper, we address the timing yield problem of CNFET-based sequential digital circuits. We propose an analytical approach to parametric timing yield prediction of CNFET-based circuits. In our approach, a statistical method is used to get the timing yield based on the delay distributions of register-to-register paths in a circuit with respect to carbon nanotube density variation and metallic-nanotubes. The superiority of the proposed technique is studied and verified against Monte Carlo simulation.
Phosphorus concentration and export by silage maize and cut grassland under temperate climate.

Algal blooming caused by phosphorus (P) losses from agricultural soils to groundand surface water is a major problem as P is typically the limiting factor for eutrophication in freshwater systems. To fine-tune the advice on P fertilisation and increase P-use efficiency, it is important to have up to date information on amounts of phosphate (P2O5) exported by crops. We re-analysed Flemish nitrogen fertilisation experiments on silage maize (Zea mays) and cut grassland (Poaceae) to derive their quantities of exported P2O5. The median P2O5 export by silage maize increased significantly from 78 kg P2O5 ha -1 in the last decade of the 20th century to 94 kg P2O5 ha -1 in recent years (median of 2.1 g P kg-1 dry matter (DM)). This increase is due to the higher crop yields. The median P2O5 export for cut grassland remained at approximately 110 kg P2O5 ha -1 with a median of 4.1 g P kg-1 DM.
Comparison of angle-only filtering algorithms in 3D using Cartesian and modified spherical coordinates

We compare the performance of the extended Kalman filter (EKF), unscented Kalman filter (UKF), and particle filter (PF) for the angle-only filtering problem in 3D using bearing and elevation measurements from a single maneuvering sensor. These nonlinear filtering algorithms use discrete-time dynamic and measurement models. Two types of coordinate systems are considered, Cartesian coordinates and modified spherical coordinates (MSC) for the relative state vector. The paper presents new algorithms using the UKF and PF with the MSC. We also present an improved filter initialization algorithm. Numerical results from Monte Carlo simulations show that the EKF-MSC and UKF-MSC have the best state estimation accuracy among all nonlinear filters considered and have comparable accuracy with modest computational cost.
A Discriminative Latent Variable Chinese Segmenter with Hybrid Word/Character Information

Conventional approaches to Chinese word segmentation treat the problem as a character-based tagging task. Recently, semi-Markov models have been applied to the problem, incorporating features based on complete words. In this paper, we propose an alternative, a latent variable model, which uses hybrid information based on both word sequences and character sequences. We argue that the use of latent variables can help capture long range dependencies and improve the recall on segmenting long words, e.g., named-entities. Experimental results show that this is indeed the case. With this improvement, evaluations on the data of the second SIGHAN CWS bakeoff show that our system is competitive with the best ones in the literature.
Absorption, Distribution, Metabolism, and Excretion of 2,2-Bis(bromomethyl)-1,3-propanediol in Male Fischer-344 Rats

2,2-Bis(bromomethyl)-1,3-propanediol (BMP) is a brominated flame retardant, previously shown to be a multisite carcinogen in experimental animals. Studies were performed to characterize the dispositional and metabolic fate of BMP after oral or intravenous administration to male Fischer-344 rats. After a single oral administration of [14C]BMP (10 or 100 mg/kg) >80% of the low dose and 48% of the high dose were excreted by 12 h in the urine predominantly as a glucuronide metabolite. After repeated daily oral doses for 5 or 10 days, route and rate of elimination were similar to those obtained after single administrations of BMP. In all studies, the radioactivity recovered in feces was low (<15%). The total amount of radioactivity remaining in tissues at 72 h after a single oral administration of BMP (100 mg/kg) was less than 1% of the dose, and repeated daily dosing did not lead to retention in tissues. After intravenous administration, the radiolabel found in blood decreased rapidly. Excretion profiles were similar to those after oral administration. Parent BMP and BMP glucuronide were present in blood plasma after oral or intravenous dosing. After an intravenous dose of BMP (15 mg/kg) the hepatic BMP glucuronide was primarily exported into the bile (>50% within 6 h), but it underwent enterohepatic recycling with subsequent elimination in the urine. These data indicate that the extensive extraction and rapid glucuronidation by the liver limits exposure of internal tissues to BMP by greatly reducing its systemic bioavailability after oral exposure.
Robust video fingerprinting based on affine covariant regions

This paper proposes a robust video fingerprinting method based on affine covariant regions. In video fingerprinting, a video clip is identified using short feature vectors referred to as fingerprints. In the proposed method, local fingerprints based on the centroid of gradient orientations are extracted from affine covariant regions detected in each key-frame. For the region detection, the maximally stable extremal region (MSER) detector which is considered to have high repeatability and low complexity is used. For reliable matching of the local fingerprints, only spatio-temporally consistent matches are taken into account. The experimental results show that the proposed method is robust against both geometric and non-geometric transformations.
The Weak Complex between RhoGAP Protein ARHGAP22 and Signal Regulatory Protein 14-3-3 Has 1∶2 Stoichiometry and a Single Peptide Binding Mode

ARHGAP22 is a RhoGAP protein comprising an N-terminal PH domain, a RhoGAP domain and a C-terminal coiled-coil domain. It has recently been identified as an Akt substrate that binds 14-3-3 proteins in response to treatment with growth factors involved in cell migration. We used a range of biophysical techniques to investigate the weak interaction between 14-3-3 and a truncated form of ARHGAP22 lacking the coiled-coil domain. This weak interaction could be stabilized by chemical cross-linking which we used to show that: a monomer of ARHGAP22 binds a dimer of 14-3-3; the ARHGAP22 PH domain is required for the 14-3-3 interaction; the RhoGAP domain is unlikely to participate in the interaction; Ser16 is the more important of two predicted 14-3-3 binding sites; and, phosphorylation of Ser16 may not be necessary for 14-3-3 interaction under the conditions we used. Small angle X-ray scattering and cross-link information were used to generate solution structures of the isolated proteins and of the cross-linked ARHGAP22:14-3-3 complex, showing that no major rearrangement occurs in either protein upon binding, and supporting a role for the PH domain and N-terminal peptide of ARHGAP22 in the 14-3-3 interaction. Small-angle X-ray scattering measurements of mixtures of ARHGAP22 and 14-3-3 were used to establish that the affinity of the interaction is ∼30 µM.
Study on the Variation of Annual Runoff and Influencing Factors in Kuye River during the Past 60 Years

In this study, observed runoff series from a hydro-station respectively named Wenjiachuan station in the Kuye river was manipulated for monthly annual variation analysis assisted by using nonuniformity coefficient and concentration degree(period). the cumulative filter methods was employed to detect the trend of inner-annual runoff. Based on meteorological and hydrological data of the Wenjiachuan hydrologic station from 1955 to 2015, the paper studied the variation tendency, the abrupt and periodic changes of annual runoff using the Mann-Kendall non-parametric test and accumulation anomaly curve. Double mass curve was used to estimate the impact of human activities and climate change on the runoff variation. The curve of seasonal runoff distribution for Wenjiachuan station appeared two peak patterns. The annual runoff declined markedly, the effect of climate on runoff decreased, the influence of human activities on runoff gradually increased the human activities are the primary factors leading to the reduction of annual runoff. In human activities, large-scale water and soil conservation measures and high-strength coal mining have produced significant effects on the annual runoff reduction in Kuye River.
Influence of Hydroxyl Group Position and Temperature on Thermophysical Properties of Tetraalkylammonium Hydroxide Ionic Liquids with Alcohols

In this work, we have explored the thermophysical properties of tetraalkylammonium hydroxide ionic liquids (ILs) such as tetrapropylammonium hydroxide (TPAH) and tetrabutylammonium hydroxide (TBAH) with isomers of butanol (1-butanol, 2-butanol and 2-methyl-2-propanol) within the temperature range 293.15–313.15 K, with interval of 5 K and over the varied concentration range of ILs. The molecular interactions between ILs and butanol isomers are essential for understanding the function of ILs in related measures and excess functions are sensitive probe for the molecular interactions. Therefore, we calculated the excess molar volume (VE) and the deviation in isentropic compressibility (Δκs) using the experimental values such as densities (ρ) and ultrasonic sound velocities (u) that are measured over the whole compositions range at five different temperatures (293.15, 298.15, 303.15, 308.15 and 313.15 K) and atmospheric pressure. These excess functions were adequately correlated by using the Redlich–Kister polynomial equation. It was observed that for all studied systems, the VE and Δκs values are negative for the whole composition range at 293.15 K. And, the excess function follows the sequence: 2-butanol>1-butanol>2-methyl-2-propanol, which reveals that (primary or secondary or tertiary) position of hydroxyl group influence the magnitude of interactions with ILs. The negative values of excess functions are contributions from the ion-dipole interaction, hydrogen bonding and packing efficiency between the ILs and butanol isomers. Hence, the position of hydroxyl group plays an important role in the interactions with ILs. The hydrogen bonding features between ILs and alcohols were analysed using molecular modelling program by using HyperChem 7.
Text and content based image retrieval via locality sensitive hashing

We present a scalable image retrieval system based jointly on text annotations and visual content. Previous approaches in content based image retrieval often suffer from the semantic gap problem and long retrieving time. The solution that we propose aims at resolving these two issues by indexing and retrieving images using both their text descriptions and visual content, such as features in colour, texture and shape. A query in this system consists of keywords, a sample image and relevant parameters. The retrieving algorithm first selects a subset of images from the whole collection according to a comparison between the keywords and the text descriptions. Visual features extracted from the sample image are then compared with the extracted features of the images in the subset to select the closest. Because the features are represented by high-dimensional vectors, locality sensitive hashing is applied to the visual comparison to speedup the process. Experiments were performed on a collection of 1514 images. The timing results showed the potential of this solution to be scaled up to handle large image collections.
On the complexity of range searching among curves

Modern tracking technology has made the collection of large numbers of densely sampled trajectories of moving objects widely available. We consider a fundamental problem encountered when analysing such data: Given $n$ polygonal curves $S$ in $\mathbb{R}^d$, preprocess $S$ into a data structure that answers queries with a query curve $q$ and radius $\rho$ for the curves of $S$ that have \Frechet distance at most $\rho$ to $q$. We initiate a comprehensive analysis of the space/query-time trade-off for this data structuring problem. Our lower bounds imply that any data structure in the pointer model model that achieves $Q(n) + O(k)$ query time, where $k$ is the output size, has to use roughly $\Omega\left((n/Q(n))^2\right)$ space in the worst case, even if queries are mere points (for the discrete \Frechet distance) or line segments (for the continuous \Frechet distance). More importantly, we show that more complex queries and input curves lead to additional logarithmic factors in the lower bound. Roughly speaking, the number of logarithmic factors added is linear in the number of edges added to the query and input curve complexity. This means that the space/query time trade-off worsens by an exponential factor of input and query complexity. This behaviour addresses an open question in the range searching literature: whether it is possible to avoid the additional logarithmic factors in the space and query time of a multilevel partition tree. We answer this question negatively. On the positive side, we show we can build data structures for the \Frechet distance by using semialgebraic range searching. Our solution for the discrete \Frechet distance is in line with the lower bound, as the number of levels in the data structure is $O(t)$, where $t$ denotes the maximal number of vertices of a curve. For the continuous \Frechet distance, the number of levels increases to $O(t^2)$.