Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
3D modeling and accuracy assessment- a case study of photosynth

In recent years, many commercial 3D modeling software combined with cloud computing have been released. People can use these free software for getting point clouds data and building 3D models quickly with digital camera. The most commonly used software available on the Internet for 3D model reconstruction was Photosynth (Microsoft) and Project Photofly (Autodesk). The advantages of these two software include convenience to use and ease to operate. Users just need to take digital photos and upload them onto the website on the Internet. Point clouds data could then be generated for users to download point clouds from the website. After point clouds data editing, 3D models would be easily reconstructed. However, there may be insufficient point clouds generated for 3D model reconstruction caused by shooting angle, number of photos taken, and other factors. This study compares the positioning accuracy of point clouds by adjusting factors such as shooting rotation, photo resolution, and brightness of image.
Propranolol targets the contractility of infantile haemangioma‐derived pericytes

Propranolol, a β‐adrenergic receptor (AR) antagonist, is an effective treatment for endangering infantile haemangioma (IH). Dramatic fading of cutaneous colour is often seen a short time after initiating propranolol therapy, with accelerated regression of IH blood vessels discerned after weeks to months.
Securitization of Somali refugees : case study of Kenya

In May 2016, the government of Kenya decided to close down all refugee camps in the country. This was due to an increase in the levels of insecurity in the country. But later on, the decision to close down Kakuma camp was later reversed with the government explaining that links to insecurity was found only in Dadaab camp whose majority population is the Somalis. This in itself argues as securitization act by the Kenyan government to the Somali refugees. As noted in the study, securitization of refugees has been a growing trend in the world. Therefore, this thesis studies how the Kenyan government has securitized Somali refugees. Drawing from qualitative research and discourse analysis this study considers the securitization of the Somali refugees through labeling them as threat by the Kenyan government. This helps understand the narrative created by the Kenyan government towards Somali refugees. The study finds out that the Copenhagen School speech act approach is too narrow as securitization of Somali refugees is not only done through labelling them as threat but as demonstrated in the paper through acts. Following some of the literature by other researchers, this thesis finds the Copenhagen School theory limited in its explanation of the role of audiences in the non-western context as some sectors, not considered as audiences play a significant role in the decision whether or not to legitimize the securitization move. It further argues that the governments should find reliable solutions of dealing with the refugee situations in their borders other than securitizing them.
Who Benefits More From Manufacturing Foreign Direct Investment? Examining Its Earnings Distribution Effects Across Earnings Quantiles

Although several studies suggest foreign manufacturers in the United States may provide access to good quality employment opportunities with fair compensation and stable benefits, the question of who benefits more from the location of manufacturing foreign direct investment (FDI) remains open. Using the National Establishment Time Series data set and individual earnings data from the American Community Survey Public Use Microdata Sample files, this research conducts a quantile regression to estimate the earnings distribution effects that a concentration of manufacturing FDI may have on different earnings groups in Georgia between 2004 and 2010. The research does not measure inequality directly, but the findings both from place-of-work and place-of-residence earnings analyses suggest strong implications relating to the issue of inequality among people. The concentration of manufacturing FDI in a certain area shows the largest distribution effects on area workers in the lower earnings group and residents in the middle earnings group.
CD103− and CD103+ Bronchial Lymph Node Dendritic Cells Are Specialized in Presenting and Cross-Presenting Innocuous Antigen to CD4+ and CD8+ T Cells1

Dendritic cells (DC) are able to capture, process, and present exogenous Ag to CD8+ T lymphocytes through MHC class I, a process referred to as cross-presentation. In this study, we demonstrate that CD103+ (CD11chighCD11blow) and CD103− (CD11cintCD11bhigh) DC residing in the lung-draining bronchial lymph node (brLN) have evolved to acquire opposing functions in presenting innocuous inhaled Ag. Thus, under tolerogenic conditions, CD103− DC are specialized in presenting innocuous Ag to CD4+ T cells, whereas CD103+ DC, which do not express CD8α, are specialized in presenting Ag exclusively to CD8+ T cells. In CCR7-deficient but not in plt/plt mice, Ag-carrying CD103+ DC are largely absent in the brLN, although CD103+ DC are present in the lung of CCR7-deficient mice. As a consequence, adoptively transferred CD8+ T cells can be activated under tolerizing conditions in plt/plt but not in CCR7-deficient mice. These data reveal that CD103+ brLN DC are specialized in cross-presenting innocuous inhaled Ag in vivo. Because these cells are largely absent in CCR7−/− mice, our findings strongly suggest that brLN CD103+ DC are lung-derived and that expression of CCR7 is required for their migration from the lung into its draining lymph node.
It's The Same Old Story: Rape Representation in New Zealand Newspapers (1975 - 2015)

Newspaper reporting of rape, and in particular, representations of women as rape victims, have historically been presented by the media in a misinformed manner, influenced by myths and misconceptions about the dynamics of sexual violence. Previous research has shown media depictions can promote victim-blaming attitudes which affect society’s understanding toward sexual violence, promoting false narratives and rape-supportive beliefs. Victim narratives of sexual victimisation struggle within a ‘culture of silencing’ that prevents the majority of sexual offending from coming to the attention of authorities, and identifying the silencing of women’s experiences of rape has, and continues to be, a key objective for feminist scholars. Newspapers are one medium which has been exclusionary of women's experiences, therefore it is important to look at the role of newspapers on a longitudinal level to investigate whether there have been changes in reporting practices and attitudes. To address this issue, this study draws on feminist perspectives and adopts a quantitative and qualitative methodology utilising newspaper articles as a specific source of inquiry. Articles concerning male-female rape were collected from eight prominent New Zealand newspapers across a 40 year period from 1975 – 2015 with individual years for analysis being 1975, 1985, 1995, 2005 and 2015. Results from this analysis show minimal inclusion of women’s words regarding newspaper commentary in articles concerning rape. This study also found that across the four decades of analysis, newspapers consistently reported the rape of women by strangers, and sympathetic justice system responses were achieved if the victim was ‘respectable’ and adhered to an ‘appropriate’ version of femininity. The findings from this study illustrate discourses that reflect features of a broader social discourse relating to the responsibility of women to protect themselves from rape. The implications from this research can be utilised to better inform journalists in their reporting practices on sexual violence cases in the New Zealand press, with a hope to challenge the way that newspaper reporters and consumers think about constructing rape, and women as rape victims.
Curriculum Field in the Making: Influences That Led to Social Efficiency as Dominant Curriculum Ideology in Progressive Era in the U.S.

This article problematizes the development of curriculum field in the United States at the turn of the 20th century. During the time, the curriculum field was – and to some extent still is - far from a clearly defined, unified, well-established theory of education or education programme. The present article addresses the development of curriculum field in the United States through a historical lens. Specifically, it initially briefly discusses the four widely-recognized competing curriculum ideologies or approaches, namely humanists, developmentalists, social reconstruction, and social efficiency, as well as European influences on these approaches. In the second part, it discusses how social efficiency model became the prevailing education ideology throughout the 20th century to date in the U.S. context. It is concluded that prevailing interests and needs of the U.S. at the turn of 20th century aligned well with promises of social efficiency education ideology, thus, paving the way for it to become the dominant curriculum approach that we know today, while the other ideologies remained part of U.S. mainstream education to lesser extent, and never ceased to exist completely.
Reliability and Validity of the Spanish Version of the Substance Dependence Severity Scale

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to estimate the reliability and provide evidence for the validity of the Spanish version of the Substance Dependence Severity Scale (SDSS). Methods: A total of 211 substance abusers recruited at a public center that provides treatment for substance-related disorders in an outpatient setting were assessed. Reliability was estimated by Cronbach's α and test-retest. Validity evidence was studied by analyzing the relationships with the European Addiction Severity Index (EuropASI) and Health-Related Quality of Life for Drug Abusers (HRQoLDA). Results: Adequate reliability coefficients were found for the dependence scales of all addressed substances (α = 0.737 to 0.877; test-retest r = 0.796-0.952). Low internal consistency was found for the abuse scales (α = 0.329-0.694), and adequate test-retest coefficients on alcohol, cocaine and heroin (test-retest r = 0.708-0.902). The reliability of the cannabis abuse scales was inadequate. The SDSS scores showed significant relationships with the EuropASI and HRQoLDA dimensions. Conclusions: The psychometric analyses validate the use of the severity of dependence scales. The SDSS abuse scales must be used taking the limitations detected into consideration.
Prognostic and predictive factors in prostate cancer: Historical perspectives and recent international consensus initiatives

An understanding of prognosis in cancer medicine is important for patient care, research and cancer control programs. In prostate cancer, prognostic (predictive) factors are particularly important given the marked heterogeneity of this disease at clinical, morphologic and biomolecular levels. Clinical stage and histologic grade have historically played major roles in defining heterogeneity in prostate cancer. More recently, serum prostate-specific antigen measurement has assumed a significant prognostic role. Over the last two decades there has been an explosion of research into biomarkers, many of which have been purported to have prognostic significance. In this paper we present an overview of the various consensus initiatives that have transpired over the last dozen years. Criteria for evaluating prognostic factors and classifications of predictive factors have emerged that have proven useful and advanced our understanding of the biology of prostate cancer. The results of these consensus initiatives form a foundation on which the current international consultation on prognosis (prediction) in prostate cancer is built. Advances in our understanding of the new and promising prognostic factors will require a more rigorous evidence-based approach to the analysis of published studies. Furthermore, appropriate mathematical models for the analysis of the multiple factors that influence a prognostic system will have to be employed.
A wide-angle impedance matching metasurface

The performance of phased arrays degrades as the beam is scanned off broadside due to the effects of mutual coupling. A classical technique known as wide-angle impedance matching alleviates this issue by introducing a dielectric sheet at some distance above the array. Replacing the dielectric sheet with a metasurface allows greater flexibility in achieving a match. Here, a zero-thickness sheet composed of split-ring resonators is shown to achieve a significant improvement in the H- and D-plane scan of a phased dipole array, while having minimal impact on the E-plane.
Computer decision support for acute kidney injury: current and future

Purpose of reviewGrowing awareness regarding the impact of acute kidney injury (AKI) as a grave consequence of critical illnesses resulted in the expansion of the need for early detection and appropriate management strategies. Clinical decision support systems (CDSS) can generate information to improve the care of AKI patients by providing point-of-care accurate patient-specific information and recommendations. Our objective is to describe the characteristics of CDSS and review the current knowledge regarding the impact of CDSS on patients in the acute care settings, and specifically for AKI. Recent findingsSeveral recent systematic analyses showed the positive impact of CDSS on critically ill patients care processes. These studies also highlighted the scarcity of data regarding the effect of CDSS on the patient outcomes. In the field of AKI, there have been several reports to describe development and validation of homegrown CDSS and electronic alert systems. A large number of investigations showed the implementation of CDSS could improve the quality of AKI care; although, only in a very small subgroup of these studies patient outcomes improved. SummaryThe heterogeneity of these studies in their size, design, and conduct has produced controversial findings; hence, this has left the field completely open for further investigations.
2D PIC-DSMC simulation of gas breakdown in micrometer scale gaps

It is known that Paschen curve became inapplicable in micrometer scale gaps, especially gap separation was less than 5 μm. Hence, an particle-in-cell (PIC) code with direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) particle collision is utilized to investigate two dimensional direct current gas breakdown between two electrodes separated by nitrogen. Then, temporal and spatial distribution evolution of electrons and ions can be present, and ions enhance field near cathode surface which may induce breakdown obviously appeared. Therefore, it can quantitative explain the relation between the field enhanced at cathode surface and the net charge density near cathode. Finally, simulation and experiment result was compared. It would be the basis of the further study on microscale gas breakdown.
Consequences of culture and diversity for governmental redistribution

We empirically study the effects of culture and diversity on government redistribution based on a large sample of countries. To disentangle culture from institutions, our analysis employs regional instruments as well as data on the prevalence of the pathogen Toxoplasma Gondii, linguistic differences, and the frequency of blood types. Redistribution is higher in countries with (1) loose family ties and individualistic attitudes, (2) high prevalence of trust and tolerance, (3) low acceptance of unequally distributed power and obedience, and (4) a prevalent belief that success is the result of luck and connections. Apart from their direct effects, these traits also exert indirect impact by influencing the transmission of inequality to redistribution. Finally, we show that redistribution and diversity in terms of culture, ethnic groups, and religion stand in a non-linear relationship, where moderate levels of diversity impede redistribution and higher levels offset the generally negative effect.
Lyapunov-based output feedback learning control of robot manipulators

This paper address the output feedback learning tracking control problem for robot manipulators with repetitive desired joint level trajectories. Specifically, an observer-based output feedback learning controller for periodic trajectories with known period have been proposed. The proposed learning controller guarantees semi-global asymptotic tracking despite the existence of parametric uncertainties associated with the robot dynamics and lack of velocity measurements. A learning-based feedforward term in conjunction with a novel observer formulation is designed to obtain the aforementioned result. The stability of the controller-observer couple is guaranteed via Lyapunov based arguments. Numerical studies performed on a two link robot manipulator are also presented to demonstrate the viability of the proposed method.
Learning to Blend by Relevance

Emergence of various vertical search engines highlights the fact that a single ranking technology cannot deal with the complexity and scale of search problems. For example, technology behind video and image search is very different from general web search. Their ranking functions share few features. Question answering websites (e.g., Yahoo! Answer) can make use of text matching and click features developed for general web, but they have unique page structures and rich user feedback, e.g., thumbs up and thumbs down ratings in Yahoo! answer, which greatly benefit their own ranking. Even for those features shared by answer and general web, the correlation between features and relevance could be very different. Therefore, dedicated functions are needed in order to better rank documents within individual domains. These dedicated functions are defined on distinct feature spaces. However, having one search box for each domain, is neither efficient nor scalable. Rather than typing the same query two times into both Yahoo! Search and Yahoo! Answer and retrieving two ranking lists, we would prefer putting it only once but receiving a comprehensive list of documents from both domains on the subject. This situation calls for new technology that blends documents from different sources into a single ranking list. Despite the content richness of the blended list, it has to be sorted by relevance none the less. We call such technology blending, which is the main subject of this paper.
Insight Derived from Molecular Dynamics Simulation into Substrate-Induced Changes in Protein Motions of Proteinase K

Abstract Because of the significant industrial, agricultural and biotechnological importance of serine protease proteinase K, it has been extensively investigated using experimental approaches such as X-ray crystallography, site-directed mutagenesis and kinetic measurement. However, detailed aspects of enzymatic mechanism such as substrate binding, release and relevant regulation remain unstudied. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of the proteinase K alone and in complex with the peptide substrate AAPA were performed to investigate the effect of substrate binding on the dynamics/molecular motions of proteinase K. The results indicate that during simulations the substrate-complexed proteinase K adopt a more compact and stable conformation than the substrate-free form. Further essential dynamics (ED) analysis reveals that the major internal motions are confined within a subspace of very small dimension. Upon substrate binding, the overall flexibility of the protease is reduced; and the noticeable displacements are observed not only in substrate-binding regions but also in regions opposite the substrate-binding groove/pockets. The dynamic pockets caused by the large concerted motions are proposed to be linked to the substrate recognition, binding, orientation and product release; and the significant displacements in regions opposite the binding groove/pockets are considered to play a role in modulating the dynamics of enzyme-substrate interaction. Our simulation results complement the biochemical and structural studies, highlighting the dynamic mechanism of the functional properties of proteinase K.
Interpolation and visualization for advected scalar fields

Doppler radars are useful facilities for weather forecasting. The data sampled by using Doppler radars are used to measure the distributions and densities of rain drops, snow crystals, hail stones, or even insects in the atmosphere. In this paper, we propose to build up a graphics-based software system for visualizing Doppler radar data. In the system, the reflectivity data gathered by using Doppler radars are post-processed to generate virtual cloud images which reveal the densities of precipitation in the air. An optical flow based method is adopted to compute the velocities of clouds, advected by winds. Therefore, the movement of clouds is depicted. The cloud velocities are also used to interpolate reflectivities for arbitrary time steps. Therefore, the reflectivities at any time can be produced. Our system composes of three stages. At the first stage, the raw radar data are re-sampled and filtered to create a multiple resolution data structure, based on a pyramid structure. At the second stage, a numeric method is employed to compute cloud velocities in the air and to interpolate radar reflectivity data at given time steps. The radar reflectivity data and cloud velocities are displayed at the last stage. The reflectivities are rendered by using splatting methods to produce semi-transparent cloud images. Two kinds of media are created for analyzing the reflectivity data. The first kind media consists of a group of still images of clouds which displays the distribution and density of water in the air. The second type media is a short animation of cloud images to show the formation and movement of the clouds. To show the advection of clouds, the cloud velocities are displayed by using two dimensional images. In these images, the velocities are represented by arrows and superimposed on cloud images. To enhance image quality, gradients and diffusion of the radar data are computed and used in the rendering process. Therefore the cloud structures are better portrayed. In order to achieve interactive visualization, our system is also comprised with a view-dependent visualization module. The radar data at far distance are rendered in lower resolutions, while the data closer to the eye position is rendered in details.