Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The impact of the CAG repeat polymorphism of the androgen receptor gene on muscle and adipose tissues in 20-29-year-old Danish men: Odense Androgen Study.

BACKGROUND The number of CAG repeats (CAG(n)) within the CAG repeat polymorphism of the androgen receptor gene correlates inversely with the transactivation of the receptor. OBJECTIVE To examine the impact of CAG(n) on muscle, fat distribution, and circulating androgen levels. Design, settings and participants Population-based, cross-sectional study of 783 Danish men aged 20-29 years. METHODS Genotyping was performed in 767 men. Areas of thigh and lower trunk muscle (muscle(thigh) and muscle(lower trunk)), subcutaneous adipose tissues (SAT(thigh) and SAT(lower trunk)), and deep adipose tissues (i.m. and visceral) were measured in 393 men by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Lean body mass (LBM) and fat mass (FM) were measured in all men by whole body dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA). The absolute areas acquired by MRI were the main outcomes. The absolute DEXA measurements and relative assessments of both modalities were considered as the secondary outcomes. Results CAG(n) (range: 10-32) correlated inversely with absolute muscle(thigh) (r=-0.108), absolute muscle(lower trunk) (r=-0.132), relative muscle(thigh) (r=-0.128), relative muscle(lower trunk) (r=-0.126), relative LBM(lower extremity) (r=-0.108), and relative LBM(total) (r=-0.082), and positively with relative SAT(thigh) (r=0.137), relative SAT(lower trunk) (r=0.188), relative FM(lower extremity) (r=0.107), and relative FM(total) (r=0.082). These relationships remained significant, controlling for physical activity, smoking, chronic disease, and age. CAG(n) did not correlate with any circulating androgen. CONCLUSIONS The CAG repeat polymorphism affects body composition in young men: absolute muscle(thigh) and absolute muscle(lower trunk) increase as CAG(n) decreases. Expressed relatively, muscle areas and LBM increase, while SAT and FM decrease as CAG(n) decreases. The polymorphism does not affect deep adipose tissues or circulating androgen levels in young men.
Management of Data Value Chains, a Value Monitoring Capability Maturity Model

This paper identifies management capabilities for data value chains as a gap in current data value research. It specifies a data value management capability framework and a first data value monitoring capability maturity model (CMM). This framework and CMM will enable organisations to identify and measure the current state of their data value monitoring processes, and show how to take steps to enhance value monitoring in order to exploit the full data value potential in their organisation. This new approach to data value management is needed since, despite the success of Big Data and the appeal of the data-driven enterprise, there is little evidence-based guidance for maximising data value creation. To date, most data value optimisation has focused on technological gains such as data platforms or analytics, without bridging the gap to organisational knowledge or human factors research. The evidence of best practice gathered here from the state of the art shows that there is a hierarchy of data value dimensions for data value monitoring, starting with cost and peaking with utility (understanding value creation). The models are validated by a case study of three organisations that are managing data value and using it to support strategic decision- making.
Assessment of Environment Impact of CAP Reforms on European Agricultural Production Efficiency

The studies of performance and production efficiency have ignored additional products of most transformation processes classified as undesirable outputs. Without the inclusion of the undesirable outputs, the efficiency measurement is a purely technical measure, and it does not account for the interaction of the system with the environment and the impact of policy decisions on the system. Moreover, there are technological dependencies between the desirable and the undesirable outputs which have to be included in the analytical tools used to measure efficiency. The relationships between the desirable and the undesirable outputs motivate the exploration of new areas of the measurement of efficiency to incorporate policy decisions and address new issues. This research develops a formulation that uses goal programming in conjunction with Data Envelopment analysis – known as GoDEA approach – to deal with the conflict between the desirable and the undesirable outputs. This approach is used to assess the environment impact of the Agenda 2000 and the 2003 Common Agricultural Policy reform on agricultural production in fifteen European countries. Model results show that the 2003 CAP reform strengthens environmental policies and has a better performance than the Agenda 2000 for some European countries. The North and Central European countries have been dealing better with environmental issues than the Mediterranean countries.
A modified NLM method for noise remove based on sequential images

This paper proposes an improved Non-Local Means denoising method based on multiple images. The main idea of this method is to use several sequential images to improve the denoising performance of NLM algorithm. This method not only takes into consideration the self-similarity of images, but also uses the similarity between sequential images. This algorithm has been verified by using synthetic images with different levels of noise and real images. PSNR and SSIM has been introduced to evaluate the quality of images after processing. Experiments show that this algorithm is able to remove the noise, and retain the details of images at the same time.
Plug-and-Play Tool Handles for Laparoscopic Surgery Simulators

With ever growing attention of medical community on the usage of surgical simulators as effective training means, development of robust and cost-effective haptic tool interfaces is very much necessary. We have developed such tool interfaces that can be easily plugged to PHANTOM Omni. Besides simulating actual tools in operating room, they are cost-effective and are easy to build.
A low complexity parameter estimation technique for LFMCW signals

Linear frequency modulated continuous waveform (LFMCW) is a modulation technique commonly used in bistatic radar systems due to its constant power and excellent range resolution. In this paper, we propose a method for estimating the parameters of an unknown LFMCW signal embedded in noise. The parameters to be estimated include sweep length, time offset, bandwidth, and center frequency. Unlike existing LFMCW parameter estimation techniques, which estimate the parameters jointly, the proposed method estimates the unknown parameters in a sequential order. As a result, it has a very low computational complexity. In addition, it does not require any prior information about the unknown parameters. This property together with its low complexity makes it a suitable candidate for real-time applications.
Modulation Techniques for Simultaneous Wireless Information and Power Transfer With an Integrated Rectifier–Receiver

Using the wireless signals to extend the sensors’ battery life in a network or make them battery-free becomes prominent with the high number of sensors and circuits that are desired in the Internet of Things. Decreasing the power consumption of the sensors is also a valid point. Colocating information signals and power signals at the same frequency further decreases the size of the sensor and the used bandwidth. To fulfill all the mentioned requirements, we used an integrated rectifier–receiver (IRR) to decrease the power consumption and fully utilize all the received signals without splitting signals. We propose a novel magnitude ratio modulation, utilizing two-tone signals. We extend this paper by introducing the ratio phase modulation (PM) and, finally, merging the ratio amplitude–PM. The main advantage of the proposed modulations is the degree of freedom that it is possible to deliver a constant dc power to the sensor even with symbol variations, that is not possible by using M-ASK or ON–OFF keying modulations. If the channel is narrowband, the demodulation of our proposed modulation is possible even by not knowing the channel’s attenuation. Since the IRR is highly nonlinear and this feature is used to fulfill our goals to receive power and information, we characterize the IRR’s to show the symbol diagram considering the influence of nonlinearity of the circuit and its limitation on modulation. We report the power conversion efficiency to prove that the IRR is harvesting RF energy well with the proposed modulation.
Brother or Burden: An Experiment on Reducing Prejudice Toward Syrian Refugees in Turkey*

Can emphasis on shared religion reduce out-group prejudice? To explore this question, we conducted a survey experiment on the effect of religious primes on Turkish citizens’ attitudes and behavior toward Syrian refugees in Istanbul and Gaziantep. We used a factorial design to compare the independent and interactive effects of primes emphasizing refugees’ Sunni or Muslim identity and a factual statement on the economic cost of the refugees. We find that religious primes increase respondents’ level of donations to a charity supporting Syrian refugees and certain attitudinal measures of support for the refugees. We also uncovered a differential impact among the Sunni and Muslim primes and found that the statement of economic cost removed the pro-refugee effect of religious primes.
Models for investment capacity expansion

The objective of this thesis is to develop and analyse two stochastic control problems arising in the context of investment capacity expansion. In both problems the underlying market ﬂuctuations are modelled by a geometric Brownian motion. The decision maker’s aim is to determine admissible capacity expansion strategies that maximise appropriate expected present-value performance criteria. In the ﬁrst model, capacity expansion has price/demand impact and involves proportional costs. The resulting optimisation problem takes the form of a singular stochastic control problem. In the second model, capacity expansion has no impact on price/demand but is associated with ﬁxed as well as proportional costs, thus resulting in an impulse control problem. Both problems are completely solved and the optimal strategies are fully characterised. In particular, the value functions are constructed explicitly as suitable classical solutions to the associated Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equations
A Generative Approach to Zero-Shot and Few-Shot Action Recognition

We present a generative framework for zero-shot action recognition where some of the possible action classes do not occur in the training data. Our approach is based on modeling each action class using a probability distribution whose parameters are functions of the attribute vector representing that action class. In particular, we assume that the distribution parameters for any action class in the visual space can be expressed as a linear combination of a set of basis vectors where the combination weights are given by the attributes of the action class. These basis vectors can be learned solely using labeled data from the known (i.e., previously seen) action classes, and can then be used to predict the parameters of the probability distributions of unseen action classes. We consider two settings: (1) Inductive setting, where we use only the labeled examples of the seen action classes to predict the unseen action class parameters; and (2) Transductive setting which further leverages unlabeled data from the unseen action classes. Our framework also naturally extends to few-shot action recognition where a few labelled examples from unseen classes are available. Our experiments on benchmark datasets (UCF101, HMDB51 and Olympic) show significant performance improvements as compared to various baselines, in both standard zero-shot (disjoint seen and unseen classes) and generalized zero-shot learning settings.
Property rights regimes in complex fishery management in Tonle Sap : combining choice experiments and agent-based simulations

Overexploitation, conflicts and inequality in resource use are common consequences of many fishery management systems such as those in the developing countries. A better understanding of the spatial dynamics of fisheries and the causes of past failures in management is needed in order to provide more effective management systems. The small-scale inland fisheries in Tonle Sap are used as a case study in this thesis, as they combine property rights and conservation in the form of distinct management zones (private, common and conservation zones) with access to private fishing grounds determined through allocation of licences through an auction system. This thesis uses a choice experiment approach to investigate how this allocation system affects different groups of fishermen. The results indicate that the auction system is likely to further the advantages of better-off fishermen irrespective of the characteristics of fishing lots. This suggests that it is unlikely that the design of fishing lots in itself would be an effective way of securing access to fishing resources for all types of fishermen. Agent-based modelling is then used to examine the links between conservation and private property rights, through an analysis of the spatial effects of property rights and conservation, using different management system designs and focusing on the interactions between heterogeneous fishermen, fish biomass and fishing regulations. Private property is found to promote better fish biomass conditions on its own, but does not necessary generate the best conservation or socio-economic outcomes for fishing communities when evaluating the entire fishery. Conservation zones perform better when the reserves are located in baseline quality fish habitats and the reserve size is large. The results show how positive effects on fishery sustainability can be achieved. Effective management for subsistence fisheries can be designed using property rights and conservation areas, combined with other fishery regulations and enforcement, in order to ensure biological and socioeconomic sustainability.
Public R&D as a Standard-Setting Device

We propose a simple two-firm model with complementarities and imperfect knowledge about the optimal technology. Firms receive two signals about the technology, a public and a private one. We show that with complementarities public signals can serve as a coordination device between firms, even if the private signal is more precise. Our results point to an important function of standard-setting organizations and public R&D: providing a focal point for firms that might not coordinate otherwise.
3-D Printed Metal-Pipe Rectangular Waveguides

This paper first reviews manufacturing technologies for realizing air-filled metal-pipe rectangular waveguides (MPRWGs) and 3-D printing for microwave and millimeter-wave applications. Then, 3-D printed MPRWGs are investigated in detail. Two very different 3-D printing technologies have been considered: low-cost lower-resolution fused deposition modeling for microwave applications and higher-cost high-resolution stereolithography for millimeter-wave applications. Measurements against traceable standards in MPRWGs were performed by the U.K.'s National Physical Laboratory. It was found that the performance of the 3-D printed MPRWGs were comparable with those of standard waveguides. For example, across X-band (8-12 GHz), the dissipative attenuation ranges between 0.2 and 0.6 dB/m, with a worst case return loss of 32 dB; at W-band (75-110 GHz), the dissipative attenuation was 11 dB/m at the band edges, with a worst case return loss of 19 dB. Finally, a high-performance W-band sixth-order inductive iris bandpass filter, having a center frequency of 107.2 GHz and a 6.8-GHz bandwidth, was demonstrated. The measured insertion loss of the complete structure (filter, feed sections, and flanges) was only 0.95 dB at center frequency, giving an unloaded quality factor of 152 - clearly demonstrating the potential of this low-cost manufacturing technology, offering the advantages of lightweight rapid prototyping/manufacturing and relatively very low cost when compared with traditional (micro)machining.
Design of an efficient high power electromagnetic radiator using a Yagi-Uda antenna connected to a switched oscillator (YU+SWO)

We propose in this paper the use of a monopolar version of the Yagi-Uda antenna connected to a switched oscillator (SWO). At the resonance frequency, this antenna offers a higher impedance than, for example, a Half Impulse Radiating Antenna (HIRA), a helical or a conical antenna. On the other hand, compared to an Impulse Radiating Antenna or a helical antenna, Yagi-Uda (YU) is relatively easy to assemble and can withstand high amplitude fields.
3D-PhysNet: Learning the Intuitive Physics of Non-Rigid Object Deformations

The ability to interact and understand the environment is a fundamental prerequisite for a wide range of applications from robotics to augmented reality. In particular, predicting how deformable objects will react to applied forces in real time is a significant challenge. This is further confounded by the fact that shape information about encountered objects in the real world is often impaired by occlusions, noise and missing regions e.g. a robot manipulating an object will only be able to observe a partial view of the entire solid. In this work we present a framework, 3D-PhysNet, which is able to predict how a three-dimensional solid will deform under an applied force using intuitive physics modelling. In particular, we propose a new method to encode the physical properties of the material and the applied force, enabling generalisation over materials. The key is to combine deep variational autoencoders with adversarial training, conditioned on the applied force and the material properties.We further propose a cascaded architecture that takes a single 2.5D depth view of the object and predicts its deformation. Training data is provided by a physics simulator. The network is fast enough to be used in real-time applications from partial views. Experimental results show the viability and the generalisation properties of the proposed architecture.
The immediate activation of defense responses in Arabidopsis roots is not sufficient to prevent Phytophthora parasitica infection.

SUMMARY *The outcome of plant-microbe interactions is determined by a fine-tuned molecular interplay between the two partners. Little is currently known about the molecular dialogue between plant roots and filamentous pathogens. We describe here a new pathosystem for the analysis of molecular mechanisms occurring during the establishment of a compatible interaction between Arabidopsis thaliana roots and a root-infecting oomycete. *We performed cytological and genetic analyses of root infection during the compatible interaction between A. thaliana and Phytophthora parasitica. *Phytophthora parasitica uses appressoria to penetrate A. thaliana roots. Initial biotrophic growth is accompanied by the formation of haustoria, and is followed by a necrotrophic lifestyle. Arabidopsis thaliana mutants with impaired salicylic acid (SA), jasmonic acid (JA) or ethylene (ET) signaling pathways are more susceptible than the wild-type to infection. The salicylate- and jasmonate-dependent signaling pathways are concertedly activated when P. parasitica penetrates the roots, but are downregulated during invasive growth, when ethylene-mediated signaling predominates. *Thus, defense responses in A. thaliana roots are triggered immediately on contact with P. parasitica. Our findings suggest that the pattern of early defense mechanism activation differs between roots and leaves.
Testing for Credibility Effects

Recent techniques designed to draw inferences about the credibility of changes in macroeconomic policy regimes are examined. An alternative two-step approach, based on the decomposition between permanent and transitory components of a "credibility variable," is proposed. The methodology is then used to test for the existence of a credibility effect in the cruzado stabilization plan implemented in Brazil in 1986.
Mesenchymal Stromal Cells Mediate Aspergillus Hyphal Extract‐Induced Allergic Airway Inflammation by Inhibition of the Th17 Signaling Pathway

Systemic administration of mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) suppresses airway inflammation and methacholine‐induced airway hyper‐responsiveness (AHR) in mouse models of T helper cell (Th) type 2‐mediated eosinophilic allergic airway inflammation (AAI); however, the efficacy of MSCs in mouse models of severe Th17‐mediated neutrophilic AAI has not yet been demonstrated. We assessed MSC effects in a mouse model of mixed Th2/Th17 AAI produced by mucosal exposure to Aspergillus fumigatus hyphal extract (AHE). Following sensitization produced by oropharyngeal AHE administration, systemic (tail vein) administration of syngeneic MSCs on the first day of challenge significantly reduced acute AHR predominantly through reduction of Th17‐mediated airway inflammation. In parallel experiments, MSCs also mitigated AHR when administered during recurrent challenge 10 weeks after initial sensitization and challenge through reduction in systemic Th17‐mediated inflammation. Investigation into potential mechanistic actions of MSCs in this model demonstrated that although T regulatory cells were increased in all AHE‐treated mice, MSC administration did not alter T regulatory cell numbers in either the acute or recurrent model. Differential induction of interleukin‐17a secretion was observed in ex vivo restimulation of mediastinal lymph node mixed‐cell cytokine analyses. Although the mechanisms by which MSCs act to decrease inflammation and AHR in this model are not yet fully elucidated, decrease in Th17‐mediated airway inflammation appears to play a significant role. These results provide a basis for further investigations of MSC administration as a potential therapeutic approach for severe refractory neutrophilic asthma.
Abnormal perception of the tonic vibration reflex in idiopathic focal dystonia

Although the pathophysiological basis of idiopathic focal dystonia (IFD) remains unclear, we recently reported abnormal perception of the tonic vibration reflex (TVR) in the biceps brachii in IFD. In this study we examined whether the abnormality affects muscles other than the biceps brachii. A 100‐Hz vibration stimulating predominantly the muscle spindle afferent was transcutaneously applied to one muscle tendon of the triceps brachii, the wrist extensor and flexor muscles in 29 subjects with IFD (18 with torticollis, 9 with writer's cramp, 2 with blepharospasm) and 15 control subjects. The blindfolded subjects were instructed to copy any perceived movement with the opposite tracking arm. The elbow or wrist angle changes were quantified electronically. The TVR and subjects’ perception of the TVR were evaluated by angle movements of the vibrated joint and of the tracking joint, respectively. Perception of the TVR was significantly reduced in dystonic subjects at both elbow and wrist joints, while magnitude of the TVR did not differ between the two groups. Abnormal central perception of the TVR is a feature of IFD, suggesting a widespread involvement of abnormal muscle spindle afferent processing in IFD.
Towards a task oriented method for accessing network based services

Today's networked users are required to configure a number of different network settings on their computer in order to access specific network based services. For example, these users need to know whether to enable a Virtual Private Network (VPN) tunnel and, in some cases, also select the appropriate wireless network. As more sophisticated security models are incorporated into networks, the user's task in managing these settings will become more complex. This paper describes a design which simplifies the task of accessing network based services using a more user oriented, less technology centric task flow.