Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nuclear DNA content and nuclear and cell volume are positively correlated in angiosperms

Volumes of flow sorted nuclei were analyzed from two highly endopolyploid (diploids with endopolyploid tissues) species (Arabidopsis thaliana and Barbarea stricta), from a less endopolyploid species (Allium cepa) and from two non-endopolyploid species (Chrysanthemum multicolor and Fritillaria uva-vulpis). Intraspecific as well as interspecific comparisons revealed a highly positive correlation (r >0.99) between DNA content and nuclear volume. No significant differences between expected and measured nuclear volumes were noted indicating that chromatin packing is not increased with increasing DNA content in the tested plant species. In epidermis cells of A. thaliana, A. cepa and Ch. multicolor, a lower (r between 0.6 and 0.7) but significant positive correlation between nuclear volume and cell volume was found. This correlation is compatible with the hypothesis that endopolyploidization (EP = consecutive replication cycles not separated by nuclear and cell divisions) might speed up the growth of endopolyploid species and compensate for small genome size.
Corticosteroid Therapy Improves the Outcome of Semen Analysis in an Oligozoospermic Patient With Epididymal Sarcoidosis

Sarcoidosis is a multisystem, inflammatory disorder characterized by the presence of noncaseating epithelioid granulomas. Sarcoidosis can involve the genitourinary system by affecting the kidney and genitals. Most characteristic genital lesions proceed to granuloma and can comprise the epididymis, testis, and vas deferens. Few case reports have been published on this rare entity. We report a case in which a man presented with bilateral epididymal sarcoidosis and severe oligospermia. Corticosteroid treatment, which was applied in gradually decreasing doses for 6 months, dissolved the testicular granuloma. Consequently, semen analysis demonstrated a significant increase in the sperm count to within normal limits.
A practical review of the muscles of facial mimicry with special emphasis on the superficial musculoaponeurotic system.

OBJECTIVE In this article, we elaborate a practical approach to superficial facial anatomy enabling easy identification of the facial mimic muscles by classifying them according to their shared common insertion sites. CONCLUSION The facial mimic muscles are often difficult to identify on imaging. By tracing them from their common group insertion sites back to their individual origins as well as understanding key anatomic relationships, radiologists can more accurately identify these muscles.
Generating Concise and Readable Summaries of XML Documents

XML has become the de-facto standard for data representation and exchange, resulting in large scale repositories and warehouses of XML data. In order for users to understand and explore these large collections, a summarized, bird's eye view of the available data is a necessity. In this paper, we are interested in semantic XML document summaries which present the "important" information available in an XML document to the user. In the best case, such a summary is a concise replacement for the original document itself. At the other extreme, it should at least help the user make an informed choice as to the relevance of the document to his needs. In this paper, we address the two main issues which arise in producing such meaningful and concise summaries: i) which tags or text units are important and should be included in the summary, ii) how to generate summaries of different sizes. %for different memory budgets. We conduct user studies with different real-life datasets and show that our methods are useful and effective in practice.
Hessian and Concavity of Mutual Information, Differential Entropy, and Entropy Power in Linear Vector Gaussian Channels

Within the framework of linear vector Gaussian channels with arbitrary signaling, the Jacobian of the minimum mean square error and Fisher information matrices with respect to arbitrary parameters of the system are calculated in this paper. Capitalizing on prior research where the minimum mean square error and Fisher information matrices were linked to information-theoretic quantities through differentiation, the Hessian of the mutual information and the entropy are derived. These expressions are then used to assess the concavity properties of mutual information and entropy under different channel conditions and also to derive a multivariate version of an entropy power inequality due to Costa.
Anti‐inflammatory cytokines and risk of type 2 diabetes

Proinflammatory processes have been investigated extensively in the development of type 2 diabetes, but our knowledge on anti‐inflammatory proteins is rather limited. This article summarizes studies that investigated associations between circulating levels of anti‐inflammatory cytokines and incident type 2 diabetes preferably in prospective epidemiological studies. Adiponectin is the only known anti‐inflammatory protein whose circulating levels are decreased before type 2 diabetes. In contrast, concentrations of interleukin‐1 receptor antagonist (IL‐1RA), transforming growth factor‐β1 (TGF‐β1) and growth differentiation factor‐15 (GDF‐15) are increased and indicate the presence of a compensatory, but eventually futile, counter‐regulation of proinflammatory stimuli. Importantly, a proof‐of‐principle study using recombinant IL‐1RA to improve metabolic control in patients with type 2 diabetes demonstrated that a more pronounced upregulation of this protein than that found in the natural course of diabetes development may have clinical relevance. Other interesting candidates like omentin (which shows similar associations with metabolic parameters as adiponectin), interleukin‐10 (IL‐10) and secreted frizzled‐related protein‐5 (Sfrp5) are currently less well studied with sometimes conflicting results regarding their association with type 2 diabetes. Thus, further research is required to better understand the causal role of proinflammatory cytokines, hypoadiponectinaemia and the upregulation of anti‐inflammatory proteins before the onset of type 2 diabetes.
Biocalcification by Emiliania huxleyi in batch culture experiments

Abstract Coccolithophores, among which Emiliania huxleyi is the most abundant and widespread species, are considered the most productive calcifying organism on earth. The export of organic carbon and calcification are the main drivers of the biological CO2 pump and are expected to change with oceanic acidification. Coccolithophores are further known to produce transparent exopolymer particles (TEP) that promote particle aggregation. As a result, the TEP and biogenic calcium carbonate (CaCO3) contribute to the export of carbon from the surface ocean to deep waters. In this context, we followed the development and the decline of E. huxleyi using batch experiments with monospecific cultures. We studied the link between different processes such as photosynthesis, calcification and the production of TEP. The onset of calcification was delayed in relation to photosynthesis. The timing and the general feature of the dynamics of calcification were closely related to the saturation state of seawater with respect to calcite, Ωcal. The production of TEP was enhanced after the decline of phytoplankton growth. After nutrient exhaustion, particulate organic carbon (POC) concentration increased linearly with increasing TEP concentration, suggesting that TEP contributes to the POC increase. The production of CaCO3 is also strongly correlated with that of TEP, suggesting that calcification may be considered as a source of TEP precursors.
A TRANSFER THEORY ANALYSIS OF APPROXIMATE DECONVOLUTION MODELS OF TURBULENCE

This study considers Pao’s transfer theory of turbulence for the family of Approximate Deconvolution Models (ADMs). By taking a different representation of the persistent input of energy into the large scales of the turbulent flow, the Pao theory simplifies somewhat. Analysis of the resulting model is given and it is verified that (after the simplification as was known before it) it is consistent with the important statistics of homogeneous isotropic turbulence. The ADMs have an enhanced energy dissipation and a modification to the kinetic energy which affect the truncation of scales by reducing the models microscale from the Kolmogorov microscale. The energy dissipation can be even more enhanced by the time relaxation and the effects of this term are presented as well.
Risky Business: Institutions vs. Social Networks in FDI

Political economy accounts of economic integration strongly emphasize the importance of legal contract enforcement. We challenge extant research by showing that relational contracting, relationship-based contract enforcement, is more efficient for high-risk, human capital-intensive activities for which the costs of writing legally enforceable contracts are prohibitively high. We disaggregate foreign direct investment (FDI) into two distinct varieties: mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and venture capital (VC). We propose that VC flows are less sensitive to host institutions but correlate strongly with skilled migrant networks that monitor compliance and impose reputational costs. Our empirical analysis of dyadic VC and M&A flows covers over 100 countries during the 1980-2009 period. We control for other mechanisms through which migrant networks facilitate FDI and verify our results with industry-level analyses. These findings suggest that relational contracting facilitates global integration of dynamic, knowledge-intensive industries that are crucial to innovation, growth, and economic development.
Survey: Tree Transducers in Machine Translation

In this survey, several model of tree transducers are investigated with respect to properties that are relevant in machine translation. These properties include: suitable expressiveness, symmetry, preservation of regularity, and closure under composition. For three tree transducer models, top-down tree transducers, extended top-down tree transducers, and extended multi bottom-up tree transducers, the relevant results are presented in an informal and illustrative manner. The aim of the survey is provide a synopsis that illustrates how theory (tree transducers) and practice (machine translation) interact on this particular example. Additional details can be found in the original results that are referenced throughout the text.
Learning Bayesian Networks: Search Methods and Experimental Results

We discuss Bayesian approaches for learning Bayesian networks from data. First, we review a metric for computing the relative posterior probability of a network structure given data developed by Heckerman et al. (1994a,b,c). We see that the metric has a property useful for inferring causation from data. Next, we describe search methods for identifying network structures with high posterior probabilities. We describe polynomial algorithms for (cid:12)nding the highest-scoring network structures in the special case where every node has at most k = 1 parent. We show that the general case (k > 1) is NP-hard, and review heuristic search algorithms for this general case. Finally, we describe a methodology for evaluating learning algorithms, and use this methodology to evaluate various scoring metrics and search procedures.
The Spitzer c2d Survey of Large, Nearby, Interstellar Clouds. X. The Chamaeleon II Pre-Main-Sequence Population as Observed with IRAC and MIPS

We discuss the results from the combined IRAC and MIPS c2d Spitzer Legacy survey observations and complementary optical and NIR data of the Chamaeleon II (Cha II) dark cloud. We perform a census of the young population in an area of ~1.75 deg2 and study the spatial distribution and properties of the cloud members and candidate pre-main-sequence (PMS) objects and their circumstellar matter. Our census is complete down to the substellar regime (M ≈ 0.03 M☉). From the analysis of the volume density of the PMS objects and candidates we find two groups of objects with volume densities higher than 25 M☉ pc −3 and 5-10 members each. A multiplicity fraction of about 13% ± 3% is observed for objects with separations 0.8'' < θ < 6.0'' (142-1065 AU). No evidence for variability between the two epochs of the c2d IRAC data set, Δ t ∼ 6 hr, is detected. We estimate a star formation efficiency of 1%-4%, consistent with the estimates for Taurus and Lupus, but lower than for Cha I. This might mean that different star formation activities in the Chamaeleon clouds reflect a different history of star formation. We also find that Cha II is turning some 6-7 M☉ into stars every Myr, which is low in comparison with the star formation rate in other c2d clouds. The disk fraction of 70%-80% that we estimate in Cha II is much higher than in other star-forming regions and indicates that the population in this cloud is dominated by objects with active accretion. Finally, the Cha II outflows are discussed; a new Herbig-Haro outflow, HH 939, driven by the classical T Tauri star Sz 50, has been discovered.
Tree Revision Learning for Dependency Parsing

We present a revision learning model for improving the accuracy of a dependency parser. The revision stage corrects the output of the base parser by means of revision rules learned from the mistakes of the base parser itself. Revision learning is performed with a discriminative classifier. The revision stage has linear complexity and preserves the efficiency of the base parser. We present empirical evaluations on the treebanks of two languages, which show effectiveness in relative error reduction and state of the art accuracy.
Defending active learning against adversarial inputs in automated document classification

Business and government operations generate large volumes of documents to be categorized through machine learning techniques before dissemination and storage. One prerequisite in such classification is to properly choose training documents. Active learning emerges as a technique to achieve better accuracy with fewer training documents by choosing data to learn and querying oracles for unknown labels. In practice, such oracles are usually human analysts who are likely to make mistakes or, in some cases, even intentionally introduce erroneous labels for malicious purposes. We propose a risk-factor based strategy to defend active-learning-based document classification against human mistakes or adversarial inputs. We show that the proposed strategy can substantially alleviate the damage caused by malicious labeling. Our experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of our defense strategy in terms of maintaining accuracy against adversaries.
A prospective study of Japas' osteotomy in paralytic pes cavus deformity in adolescent feet

Background: Pes cavus is a progressive and ugly deformity of the foot. Although initially the deformity is painless, with time, painful callosities develop under metatarsal heads and arthritis supervenes later in feet. Mild deformities can be treated with corrective shoes, or foot exercises. However, in others, operative treatment is imperative. Soft tissue operations are largely unsatisfactory and temporary. Bony operations give permanent correction. We present our series of 18 patients of pes cavus in the adolescent age group, treated by Japas' V-osteotomy of the tarsus. Materials and Methods: 18 patients of paralytic pes cavus deformity were treated by Japas osteotomy, between March 1995 and 2005, at our institute. The age of the patients ranged from 8.6 to 15 years (mean 11.3); 10 were boys and 8 girls. All cases had unilateral involvement, and all, but one, were post-polio cases. Result: The mean follow-up is 5.4 years. Of the 18 patients, 14 had excellent or good corrections; 4 had poor correction/complications. However, those patients could be salvaged by triple arthordesis or Dwyer's calcaneal osteotomy. Conclusion: Japas' osteotomy is a satisfactory option for correction of pes cavus deformity in adolescents. In patients who have rigid hind foot equinus or varus, however, the results are compromised.
A Structural Pattern for Encapsulating Functions within Classes

This paper describes the Wrapper Facade pattern. The intent of this pattern is to encapsulate low-level functions and data structures with object-oriented (OO) class interfaces. Common examples of the Wrapper Facade pattern are class libraries like MFC, ACE, and AWT that encapsulate native OS C APIs, such as sockets, pthreads, or GUI functions. Programming directly to native OS C APIs makes networking applications verbose, non-robust, non-portable, and hard to maintain because it exposes many low-level, errorprone details to application developers. This paper illustrates how the Wrapper Facade pattern can help to make these types of applications more concise, robust, portable, and maintainable. This paper is organized as follows: Section 2 describes the Wrapper Facade pattern in detail using the Siemens format [1] and Section 3 presents concluding remarks.
Temporal Coordination of Gene Networks by Zelda in the Early Drosophila Embryo

In past years, much attention has focused on the gene networks that regulate early developmental processes, but less attention has been paid to how multiple networks and processes are temporally coordinated. Recently the discovery of the transcriptional activator Zelda (Zld), which binds to CAGGTAG and related sequences present in the enhancers of many early-activated genes in Drosophila, hinted at a mechanism for how batteries of genes could be simultaneously activated. Here we use genome-wide binding and expression assays to identify Zld target genes in the early embryo with the goal of unraveling the gene circuitry regulated by Zld. We found that Zld binds to genes involved in early developmental processes such as cellularization, sex determination, neurogenesis, and pattern formation. In the absence of Zld, many target genes failed to be activated, while others, particularly the patterning genes, exhibited delayed transcriptional activation, some of which also showed weak and/or sporadic expression. These effects disrupted the normal sequence of patterning-gene interactions and resulted in highly altered spatial expression patterns, demonstrating the significance of a timing mechanism in early development. In addition, we observed prevalent overlap between Zld-bound regions and genomic “hotspot” regions, which are bound by many developmental transcription factors, especially the patterning factors. This, along with the finding that the most over-represented motif in hotspots, CAGGTA, is the Zld binding site, implicates Zld in promoting hotspot formation. We propose that Zld promotes timely and robust transcriptional activation of early-gene networks so that developmental events are coordinated and cell fates are established properly in the cellular blastoderm embryo.
Sustained Expression of Exendin-4 Does Not Perturb Glucose Homeostasis, β-Cell Mass, or Food Intake in Metallothionein-Preproexendin Transgenic Mice*

Activation of glucagon-like peptide (GLP)-1 receptor signaling promotes glucose lowering via multiple mechanisms, including regulation of food intake, glucose-dependent insulin secretion, and stimulation of β-cell mass. As GLP-1 exhibits a short t 1 2 in vivo, the biological consequences of prolonged GLP-1 receptor signaling remains unclear. To address this question, we have now generated metallothionein promoter-preproexendin (MT-Ex) transgenic mice. MT-Ex mice process preproexendin correctly, as is made evident by detection of circulating plasma exendin-4 immunoreactivity using high pressure liquid chromatography and an exendin-4-specific radioimmunoassay. Despite elevated levels of exendin-4, fasting plasma glucose and glucose clearance following oral and intraperitoneal glucose tolerance tests are normal in MT-Ex mice. Induction of transgene expression significantly reduced glycemic excursion during both oral and intraperitoneal glucose tolerance tests (p < 0.05) and increased levels of glucose-stimulated insulin following oral glucose administration (p < 0.05). Despite evidence that exendin-4 may induce β-cell proliferation, β-cell mass and islet histology were normal in MT-Ex mice. MT-Ex mice exhibited no differences in basal food intake or body weight; however, induction of exendin-4 expression was associated with reduced short term food ingestion (p < 0.05). In contrast, short term water intake was significantly reduced in the absence of zinc in fluid-restricted MT-Ex mice (p < 0.05). These findings illustrate that sustained elevation of circulating exendin-4 is not invariably associated with changes in glucose homeostasis, increased β-cell mass, or reduction in food intake in mice in vivo.
A Moving Object Tracked by A Mobile Robot with Real-Time Obstacles Avoidance Capacity

This paper describes a robotic application that tracks a moving object by utilizing a mobile robot with multiple sensors. The robotic platform uses a visual camera to sense the movement of the desired object and a range sensor to help the robot detect and then avoid obstacles in real time while continuing to track and follow the desired object. In terms of real-time obstacle avoidance capacity, this paper also presents a modified potential field algorithm called dynamic goal potential field algorithm (DGPF) for this robotic application specifically. Experimental results show that the robotic and intelligent system can fulfill the requirements of tracking an object and avoiding obstacles simultaneously when the object is moving
Sleep Quality and Associated Factors in Hemodialysis Patients

BACKGROUND: Many patients on regular hemodialysis have sleep disorders, which affect not only their quality of life but also their immune function, thus causing inflammatory disorders and cardiovascular disease. The aim of this study was to assess the sleep quality and related risk factors of sleep disorder in hemodialysis patients from a rural area in central Taiwan. METHODS: The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) were adopted to assess sleep quality in hemodialysis patients and the associated factors. These two questionnaires were translated into Chinese and were completed by the participants under the assistance of the nursing staff during dialysis session. RESULTS: Most of the patients with PSQI ＞ 6 (poor sleep quality) were female (60.5%) with longer dialysis history. Age was positively correlated with PSQI and ESS scores. The serum triglyceride level and Kt/V had a positive relation with PSQI scores, and the serum albumin level had an inverse relation with PSQI scores. In multivariate logistic regression analysis, female gender was a significant predictor of poor sleep quality.CONCLUSION: Most dialysis patients in Taiwan are elders, who were generally more susceptible to sleep disorder. We should pay more attention to sleep disorders and the ensuing clinical burden. Patient management protocols should include improving sleep quality, in addition to managing common medical problems. (Acta Nephrologica 2011; 25: 97-104)
A comparison of four disability scales for Turkish patients with neck pain.

OBJECTIVE The Neck Disability Index, the Northwick Park Pain Questionnaire, the Copenhagen Neck Functional Disability Scale and the Neck Pain and Disability Scale are widely used scales for assessing neck pain or disability. The aim of this study was to determine the most suitable scale for Turkish patients with neck pain. METHODS All scales were translated into Turkish, administered to 102 patients with neck pain, then compared with regard to their construct validity, reliability, responsiveness, acceptability and usefulness. RESULTS The scales were similar in their high validity, reliability standards and sensitivity to change, but differed in their acceptability and usefulness. The item about driving in the Neck Disability Index and the Northwick Park Pain Questionnaire was omitted by 69.6% of patients for reasons other than a neck problem. CONCLUSION All scales were reliable, valid and sensitive instruments, with similar psychometric properties. The scale that most adequately reflects the patient should be chosen.