Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Automated detection of cut-points for disentangling overlapping chromosomes

Automating chromosome classification and segmentation has been a major challenge in automated karyotyping especially due to overlapping chromosomes. The earlier reported methods for disentangling the chromosome overlaps have limited success as they are sensitive to scale variations, computationally complex, use only color information in case of multispectral imaging and most of them are limited to separation of single overlap of two chromosomes in a cluster. This work proposes a heuristic approach to locate the cut-points on an overlap and thus addresses the first step towards automated extrication of overlapping chromosomes from the metaphase image. The proposed simple, but novel and robust algorithm, to identify the appropriate cut points is based on computational geometry of the pixels on the boundary of the cluster. Contribution of this work is in the ability of the algorithm to successfully identify the correct cut points in multiple overlaps with multiple chromosomes. Moreover, as the proposed algorithm is independent of shape and color information, it also applies to Multicolour Fluorescence in-situ Hybridization (MFISH) metaphase chromosomes, System performance was tested and analyzed using 40 real images giving an overall average accuracy of 98% for correct identification of cut points in 2, 3 and 4 overlapping chromosomes.
Out-migration and depopulation of the Russian North during the 1990s.

The large-scale out-migration from Russia's northern regions that has taken place over the course of the 1990s is analyzed. "The study is based on unpublished oblast-level migration data compiled by the Russian Government, field work by the author, as well as two extensive 1998 surveys of recent and potential migrants, respectively. Age, gender, and educational level of migrants are analyzed to determine the extent of change in Northern population structure attributable to migration. A concluding section presents Russian Government projections of the North's population to 2010. "
Trade-Related Technology Diffusion and the Dynamics of North-South and South-South Integration

This paper examines the impact on total factor productivity of North-South and South-South trade-related research and development (R&D) spillovers. It is the first to do so at the industry level for developing countries. North-South and South-South R&D flows are constructed based on industry-specific R&D in the North, North-South and South-South trade patterns, and input-output relations in the South. The main findings are: 1) North-South and South-South R&D flows have a positive impact on total factor productivity, though the former is larger. 2) R&D-intensive industries benefit mainly from North-South R&D flows while low R&D-intensive industries benefit mainly from South-South R&D flows. These results have implications for dynamic comparative advantage and for the dynamics of North-South and South-South regional integration.
Mergers and Malls

This paper examines competition between groups of firms selling products that are complementary within the group but substitutes across groups. Examples include shops within different malls and components of different computer systems. It shows that firms within a group will often prefer to stay as separate companies rather than merge. Copyright 1994 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Climate Change and Socio-Political Crises: Some Cases from Neolithic Central Europe

Abstract In recent years, data on an increasing number of violent conflicts within and between Central European Neolithic societies has come to light through both archaeological and physical anthropological studies. The spectrum of such evidence ranges from occasional incidents of healed trauma in otherwise 'ordinary' burial situations to mass burials of possibly tortured and certainly massacred villagers. There appears to be a temporal correlation between periods of increased violence/warfare and climatically unstable periods. Evidence is presented for three periods beginning with the so-called Initial Neolithic up to the earlier Eneolithic.
STRUCTURAL BREAKS IN ISE SECTORAL INDICES

Ekonomik ve politik krizler zaman serilerinde yapisal kirilmalara sebep olabilir. Bu calismada IMKB’de yer alan sekto endeksleri icn yapial kiimalar analiz edilmisir. Clisian doem Ocak 1997 ile Temmuz 2012 tarih araligii. Yapial kiimalariicel bir skilde belirleyen Zivot ve Andrews (1992) testi kullanimisi. Test sonucaritu sektoler icn yapial kiimalari oldugnu gotermektedir. Anahtar Kelimeler: Birim kok, Yapisal Kirilma, Sektor Endeksleri, IMKB, Zivot ve Andrews.
Impact of consumption of different levels of Bifidobacterium lactis HN019 on the intestinal microflora of elderly human subjects.

BACKGROUND Age-related changes in the physiology and intestinal function of the elderly render them more susceptible to gut-related illnesses. Probiotic dietary supplementation has been shown to enhance the health indices in the elderly. OBJECTIVE To determine the effect of three different doses [5 x 109 CFU/day (high), 1.0 x 109 CFU/day (medium) and 6.5 x 107 CFU/day (low)] of Bifidobacterium lactis HN019 (DR10TM) on the intestinal flora of elderly human subjects and the dose response effect. DESIGN Randomised, double-blind and placebo-controlled human dietary intervention study consisting of four groups of 20 elderly (over 60 years old) volunteers. Each volunteer consumed 250 mL per day of reconstituted skim milk (RSM) which either did not contain any probiotic supplement (placebo group) or contained B. lactis HN019 at different levels (low, medium and high dose groups). The study comprised three stages: a 2-week pre-intervention (without any supplement), followed by 4 weeks of test feeding (dietary intervention) and then a 2-week washout period. RESULTS After dietary intervention, statistically significant increases in bifidobacteria, lactobacilli and enterococci were observed. At the end of the 4-week feeding period the mean number of bifidobacteria recorded in the placebo group were 9.31 +/- 0.01 log CFU/g of faeces. In the high, medium and low dose groups the bifidobacteria levels were significantly (p < 0.006) higher (9.88 +/- 0.1, 9.75 +/- 0.14 and 9.74 +/- 0.11 log CFU/g of faeces, respectively), when compared to the respective pre-intervention levels. There were no significant differences (p superior 0.05) between the responses of the different dose groups, indicating that even the lowest dose tested augmented the changes in bifidobacteria. Similar trends were observed for lactobacilli and enterococci. In contrast, the counts of enterobacteria were reduced in all the probiotic dose groups. CONCLUSION The present study showed that dietary supplementation with B. lactis HN019 significantly increased the number of resident bifidobacteria and reduced the enterobacteria counts. In addition, enterococci and lactobacilli were also increased. Based on this study and already published clinical evidence (4, 5, 8, 9) we conclude that, B. lactis HN019 is a suitable probiotic for elderly human subjects and even the lowest dose (6.5 x 107 CFU/day) tested is able to confer desired changes in the intestinal microflora.
Multi-input high step-up converter using switched-diode-capacitor

This paper analyzes the performance of three different topologies namely parallel, serial and variable-structure circuit of switched-diode-capacitor voltage accumulator (SDCVA). The converters are modelled in MATLAB/Simulink environment. Simulation is carried out to investigate the performance of the converters and the results are discussed. The optimum topology is identified based on the voltage gain and component stress.
Spatial Clustering and the Potential for Policy Practice: Experiences from Cluster-building Processes in Sweden

In the last decade, there has been an increased interest in the cluster approach as a regional development tool. Moreover, it has been increasingly acknowledged that TIME (Telekom, IT, Media and Entertainment) industries have come to be of great importance to the economy. This article sets out to examine the use of the cluster approach as an analytical tool as well as a proactive policy tool and an approach based on negotiated and collaborative efforts to manufacture and utilize 'visions' of regional development futures to good effect. Consequently, the intent is not to judge the economic performance of firms in the three case clusters but rather to demonstrate problems and prospects in regional TIME industry cluster-building.
After-the-Fact Leakage-Resilient Identity-Based Authenticated Key Exchange

Authenticated key exchange (AKE) scheme is one of the most widely used cryptographic primitives in practice, even in the Internet-of-Things (IoT) environments. In order to resist side-channel attacks, several works have been proposed for defining leakage-resilient (LR) security models and constructing LR-AKE protocols. However, all these LR-AKE schemes employed the traditional X.509 certificate-based public-key infrastructure authentication framework, where the online transmission and verification of the public-key certificate are the major drawbacks. In this paper, we first propose a general framework for constructing identity-based AKE protocols in the bounded after-the-fact LR extended-Canetti–Krawczyk security model, and show a formal proof in the standard model. Our proposed scheme offers a flexible approach to simplify the certificate management. Moreover, our result could be extended to the bounded-retrieval model, yielding the first LR-AKE protocol in this model.
Robot-assisted nephroureterectomy: current perspectives

Robot-assisted surgery was just a medical curiosity until the development of the da Vinci robotic system, and since then, it has become a widely accepted surgical treatment for many urological conditions such as prostate carcinoma and renal cell carcinoma. With the increase in the number of urologists using the robot and the improvement in surgeon experience, the use of the robot has been expanded to include performing radical nephroureterectomy (NU) for the treatment of primary upper tract urothelial carcinoma. We performed a literature review on robot-assisted laparoscopic NU with the aim of providing a current perspective on robot-assisted laparoscopic NU for the management of upper tract urothelial carcinoma. Surgical technique, perioperative outcomes, and oncological outcomes are discussed.
Interactions between SOX factors and Wnt/β‐catenin signaling in development and disease

The SOX family of transcription factors have emerged as modulators of canonical Wnt/β‐catenin signaling in diverse development and disease contexts. There are over 20 SOX proteins encoded in the vertebrate genome and recent evidence suggests that many of these can physically interact with β‐catenin and modulate the transcription of Wnt‐target genes. The precise mechanisms by which SOX proteins regulate β‐catenin/TCF activity are still being resolved and there is evidence to support a number of models including: protein–protein interactions, the binding of SOX factors to Wnt‐target gene promoters, the recruitment of co‐repressors or co‐activators, modulation of protein stability, and nuclear translocation. In some contexts, Wnt signaling also regulates SOX expression resulting in feedback regulatory loops that fine‐tune cellular responses to β‐catenin/TCF activity. In this review, we summarize the examples of Sox–Wnt interactions and examine the underlying mechanisms of this potentially widespread and underappreciated mode of Wnt‐regulation. Developmental Dynamics 239:56–68, 2010. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Decentralized control of multiple mobile manipulators based on virtual 3-D caster motion for handling an object in cooperation with a human

In this paper, we propose a decentralized control algorithm of multiple mobile manipulators for handling a single object in cooperation with a human. In this algorithm, a grasping point of each mobile manipulator is controlled as if it has a caster-like dynamics referred to as virtual 3-D caster, and each mobile manipulator could handle the object based on an intentional force/moment applied by a human. In addition, the coordination among multiple mobile manipulators was realized without using the geometric relations among robots. The proposed control algorithm is experimentally applied to two mobile manipulators referred to as DR HelperII and experimental results illustrate the validity of the proposed control algorithm.
Capital Controls, Exchange Rates, and Monetary Policy in the World Economy

The essays collected in this volume, written by well-known academics and policy analysts, discuss the impact of increased capital mobility on macroeconomic performance. The authors highlight the most adequate ways to manage the transition from a semi-closed economy to a semi-open one. Additionally, issues related to the measurement of openness, monetary control, optimal exchange rates regimes, sequencing of reforms, and real exchange rate dynamics under different degrees of capital mobility are carefully analyzed. The book is divided into four parts after the editor's introduction. The first part contains the general analytics of monetary policy in open economies. Parts two to four deal with diverse regional experiences, covering Europe, the Asian Pacific region, and Latin America. The papers on which the essays are based were originally presented at a conference on Monetary Policy in Semi-Open Economies, held in Seoul, Korea in November 1992.
Analysis of $p$-Laplacian Regularization in Semi-Supervised Learning

We investigate a family of regression problems in a semi-supervised setting. The task is to assign real-valued labels to a set of $n$ sample points, provided a small training subset of $N$ labeled points. A goal of semi-supervised learning is to take advantage of the (geometric) structure provided by the large number of unlabeled data when assigning labels. We consider random geometric graphs, with connection radius $\epsilon(n)$, to represent the geometry of the data set. Functionals which model the task reward the regularity of the estimator function and impose or reward the agreement with the training data. Here we consider the discrete $p$-Laplacian regularization. We investigate asymptotic behavior when the number of unlabeled points increases, while the number of training points remains fixed. We uncover a delicate interplay between the regularizing nature of the functionals considered and the nonlocality inherent to the graph constructions. We rigorously obtain almost optimal ranges on the scaling of $\epsilon(n)$ for the asymptotic consistency to hold. We prove that the minimizers of the discrete functionals in random setting converge uniformly to the desired continuum limit. Furthermore we discover that for the standard model used there is a restrictive upper bound on how quickly $\epsilon(n)$ must converge to zero as $n \to \infty$. We introduce a new model which is as simple as the original model, but overcomes this restriction.
Progressive Cognitive Human Parsing

Human parsing is an important task for human-centric understanding. Generally, two mainstreams are used to deal with this challenging and fundamental problem. The first one is employing extra human pose information to generate hierarchical parse graph to deal with human parsing task. Another one is training an end-to-end network with the semantic information in image level. In this paper, we develop an end-to-end progressive cognitive network to segment human parts. In order to establish a hierarchical relationship, a novel component-aware region convolution structure is proposed. With this structure, latter layers inherit prior component information from former layers and pay its attention to a finer component. In this way, we deal with human parsing as a progressive recognition task, that is, we first locate the whole human and then segment the hierarchical components gradually. The experiments indicate that our method has a better location capacity for the small objects and a better classification capacity for the large objects. Moreover, our framework can be embedded into any fully convolutional network to enhance the performance significantly.
Product Market Volatility and the Adjustment of Earnings to Risk

This investigation of compensating wage differentials uses an instrument for the risk of unemployment, namely, the industry-specific shipment volatility, to address some empirical anomalies found in the literature. I find that risk premiums for the risk of unemployment range from 8.5 to 19 percent when the covariance between shipment volatility and total manufacturing employment is taken into account. Covariance risk requires positive premiums that range from 1.4 to 14 percent depending on the specification.
Multiuser scheduling scheme and power allocation algorithm for Multiuser Turbo-BLAST system

Multiuser Turbo-BLAST system model based on zero-forcing principle is presented and the user scheduling algorithm and power allocation scheme are proposed in this paper. At the transmitter, the zero-forcing beam-forming technique is adopted for user multiplexing. When there are a lot of active users, the proposed user scheduling algorithm is proposed to pick the proper user subset and the adaptive power allocation scheme is presented to allocate appropriate power for the selected users. Simulation results show that the multiuser multiplexing is realized through zero-forcing beam-forming technique, the capacity can be improved by user scheduling and adaptive power allocating.
CHAPTER 30

Saprolegniosis (Chapter 29) is a widespread, familiar disease (or a complex of diseases, perhaps) seemingly accorded only a lowly place in the economics of fisheries. Save for occasional outbreaks, it is a malady of endemic proportions with which the freshwater fisheries industries coexist. Not so the crayfish plague (Krebspest, Kräftpesten), caused by Aphanomyces astaci (Schikora, 1906). This is a disease of epidemic extent, and although it affects only a small industry -the sale and export of edible crayfish, particularly in the Scandinavian Peninsula -it seriously reduces populations of an animal regarded by many as an irreplaceable delicacy. In this chapter we consider what is known of the crayfish plague, and, as well, chronicle a miscellaneous assortment of case histories of other associations between animals and watermolds.
STATE-LEVEL STOCK SYSTEM MODEL OF GASOLINE DEMAND

A summary overview of the specification and econometric estimation of a state-level model of highway gasoline demand is presented. The model, which was developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory for the Energy Information Administration, was designed for policy-and technology-sensitive forecasting of gasoline use by light-duty highway vehicles over the 1980-2000 period. (Author)
Enterprise Risk Management as a Dynamic Capability: A Test of Its Effectiveness During a Crisis

The dynamic capabilities framework has emerged as a growing area of research within business disciplines—the framework seeks to explain how and why firms adapt successfully to changes in their environments. Yet, whether such capabilities are effective in periods of environmental changes that can be characterized as a crisis remains an unexplored area of research. This paper adopts the position that enterprise risk management (ERM) constitutes a dynamic capability, and examines whether a firm's ERM capability allowed it to respond effectively to the financial crisis of 2008. We find that superior ERM capability was associated with smaller decline in stock price during the downturn and superior profitability during the upturn. The results suggest that firms may need different types of dynamic capabilities to react and respond to different dimensions of environment and types of change. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Hagley Oval: Canterbury's Future Home of Test Cricket?

The provision of recreational facilities is among the more important functions of local government. Their scale and location are often controversial as they can have significant positive and adverse effects on a community. Cricket is traditionally New Zealand’s summer game, often televised and contributing to the culture of the nation through the deeds of its top players (including Sir Richard Hadlee, a Cantabrian who was knighted for his services to cricket), and controversies like the under-arm bowling incident (Australia vs NZ, 1981). It should therefore come as no surprise that seeking a new home for test cricket in Christchurch has created significant debate and been a subject of great interest for planners. This article places the issue in historical context and briefly reviews the range of options considered before evaluating the final choice based on the relevant planning matters.
Marriage, social policy and social work

Abstract This article argues that the response to marital/couple problems by social work agencies and the application of therapeutic concepts outside specialist marital agencies must locate marriage and social work in the context of recent changes in social policy. We therefore discuss the family, marriage and divorce in the 1980s and related changes in social policy in particular, two key developments: the Children Act 1989 and recent proposals of the Law Commission for reform of the divorce law The impact of developments in social policy on social work in the 1990s are then discussed with particular reference to the National Health Service and Community Care Act 1989. The implications of the reconstruction of the role of social workers as case managers and the issue of the relationship between the statutory and the independent sectors are considered. We argue from this the importance of retaining provision for direct help to couples by statutory agencies in view of the limited resources of specialist ag.
When is a balanced scorecard a balanced scorecard

Purpose – The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is widely applied as a performance measurement and strategy implementation tool by organizations. Research has revealed that the term “balanced scorecard” may be understood differently by managers both within as well as across organizations implying that the performance measurement systems implemented in organizations may not be similar to the construct envisioned by Kaplan and Norton. Using Kaplan and Norton's Balanced Scorecard construct as a basis, the paper aims to develop and test a five‐level taxonomy to classify firms' performance measurement systems.Design/methodology/approach – A Balanced Scorecard taxonomy is validated using a large sample of professional accountants working in Canadian organizations.Findings – The five‐level taxonomy is used to categorize the performance measurement systems of 149 organizations. It is found that 111 organizations' (74.5 percent) performance measurement systems met the criteria to be classified as a Basic Level 1 BSC, while.