Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The improvement of GAC model for image segmentation

An Adaptive image segmentation algorithm based on geometric active contour (GAC) model was presented in this paper in order to solve the problem that tradition GAC model can not segment adaptively. By combining the regional information to construct energy functional description area information. We propose an improved adaptive image segmentation algorithm, This algorithm combines the advantages of GAC model and C-V model effectively, Regional energy functional could determine the evolution speed to replace the constant evolution speed in traditional GAC model. Experimental results showed that the proposed algorithm is feasible, and reaches an obvious effect in terms of boundary leaking.
Hepatitis C virus core protein interacts with the cytoplasmic tail of lymphotoxin-beta receptor

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) core protein is a multifunctional protein. We examined whether it can interact with cellular proteins, thus contributing to viral pathogenesis. Using the HCV core protein as a bait to screen a human liver cDNA library in a yeast two-hybrid screening system, we have isolated several positive clones encoding cellular proteins that interact with the HCV core protein. Interestingly, more than half of these clones encode the cytoplasmic domain of lymphotoxin-beta receptor (LT betaR), which is a member of the tumor necrosis factor receptor family. Their binding was confirmed by in vitro glutathione S-transferase fusion protein binding assay and protein-protein blotting assay to be direct and specific. The binding sites were mapped within a 58-amino-acid region of the cytoplasmic tail of LT betaR. The binding site in the HCV core protein was localized within amino acid residues 36 to 91 from the N terminus, corresponding to the hydrophilic region of the protein. In mammalian cells, the core protein was found to be associated with the membrane-bound LT betaR. Since the LT betaR is involved in germinal center formation and developmental regulation of peripheral lymphoid organs, lymph node development, and apoptotic signaling, the binding of HCV core protein to LT betaR suggests the possibility that this viral protein has an immunomodulating function and may explain the mechanism of viral persistence and pathogenesis of HCV.
Space-varying coefficient models for brain imaging

The methodological development and the application in this paper originate from diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), a powerful nuclear magnetic resonance technique enabling diagnosis and monitoring of several diseases as well as reconstruction of neural pathways. We reformulate the current analysis framework of separate voxelwise regressions as a 3d space-varying coefficient model (VCM) for the entire set of DTI images recorded on a 3d grid of voxels. Hence by allowing to borrow strength from spatially adjacent voxels, to smooth noisy observations, and to estimate diffusion tensors at any location within the brain, the three-step cascade of standard data processing is overcome simultaneously. We conceptualize two VCM variants based on B-spline basis functions: a full tensor product approach and a sequential approximation, rendering the VCM numerically and computationally feasible even for the huge dimension of the joint model in a realistic setup. A simulation study shows that both approaches outperform the standard method of voxelwise regressions with subsequent regularization. Due to major efficacy, we apply the sequential method to a clinical DTI data set and demonstrate the inherent ability of increasing the rigid grid resolution by evaluating the incorporated basis functions at intermediate points. In conclusion, the suggested fitting methods clearly improve the current state-of-the-art, but ameloriation of local adaptivity remains desirable.
Literature Review on IMRT and VMAT for Prostate Cancer

12.00 Normal 0 7.8 磅 0 2 false false false EN-US ZH-CN X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:普通表格; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:. 0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Century","serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Century; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:宋体; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Century; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi; mso-font-kerning:1.0pt;} Volumetric intensity-modulated arc therapy (VMAT) is gaining popularity to treat the prostate cancer. The main aim of this article is to review the current literature on VMAT and intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) planning for prostate cancer, and highlights several factors which can influence the dosimetric results.
Research on control strategies for the stabilization of quadrotor UAV

Recently, quadrotors have drawn the attention of many researchers, which is due principally to the broad range of military and civilian purposes [1]. In this paper, three kinds of control strategies (PID, Sliding mode and Backstepping) are adopted to address the control problem of the quadrotor. Firstly, the mathematical model of the quadrotor is presented, and then the classical approach PID is directly applied. Secondly, due to the under-actuated property of the quadrotor, the Sliding mode and Backstepping controller can make the quadrotor track the reference signals of the positions and the yaw angle, and meanwhile guarantee the stability of the pitching and rolling motions. Finally, the simulation using Matlab-Simulink is carried out and the results show that the three proposed techniques can achieve a good performance.
A CMOS Outphasing Power Amplifier With Integrated Single-Ended Chireix Combiner

This brief proposes an on-chip outphasing power amplifier that uses a single-ended Chireix combiner for a linear amplification with a nonlinear component amplifier. The proposed combiner structure consists of a lumped inductor and a lumped capacitor that can achieve the simple single-ended configuration of a Chireix combiner. It is also suitable for on-chip implementation with minimum efficiency deterioration. An inductance-capacitance balun using the lumped model of λ/4 and 3λ/4 transmission lines was effectively merged into a simple Chireix combiner for two outphased input signals. The relation between the output resistance and the outphasing angle of the input signals was derived to determine the maximum efficiency. A voltage-mode class-D power amplifier was used with the combiner to illustrate the combiner's effectiveness. The prototype fabricated in a 0.13-μm complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor process shows a maximum 52% power-added efficiency (continuous wave) and a -47-dBc adjacent channel power ratio performance at a 10-MHz offset with a 1.92-GHz wideband code-division multiple-access signal.
Sociology and the Second Darwinian Revolution: A Metatheoretical Analysis*

Sociologists tend to eschew biological explanations of human social behavior. Accordingly, when evolutionary biologists began to apply neo-Darwinian theory to the study of human social behavior, the reactions of sociologists typically ranged from indifference to overt hostility. Since the mid-1960s, however, neo-Darwinian evolutionary theory has stimulated a “second Darwinian revolution” in traditional social scientific conceptions of human nature and social behavior, even while most sociologists remain largely uninformed about neo-Darwinian theory and research. This article traces sociology's long-standing isolation from the life sciences, especially evolutionary biology, to divergence in the metatheoretical assumptions that typify conventional sociological thought versus contemporary evolutionary biology. We conclude with a discussion of the recent emergence of a nascent “evolutionary sociology” that integrates sociobiological reasoning with contemporary sociological thought.
Regrets, I’ve had a few

Despite extensive research on regret, relatively little is known about the underlying mechanisms of regret within close relationships. Attachment theory provides a theoretical framework to study regret within close relationships. Specifically, anxiously attached people tend to have negative views of themselves and their past acts, which is likely to result in a higher tendency to experience regret. Attachment security is likely to attenuate this tendency. Two studies provide support for these claims. Study 1 used a correlational design and showed that attachment anxiety is positively associated with the tendency to feel regret within close relationships but not with regrets in other domains. Study 2 used an experimental design and showed that reducing attachment anxiety via attachment security enhancement reduces the tendency to feel regret mainly for participants high in attachment anxiety.
Do Online Mental Health Services Improve Help-Seeking for Young People? A Systematic Review

Background Young people regularly use online services to seek help and look for information about mental health problems. Yet little is known about the effects that online services have on mental health and whether these services facilitate help-seeking in young people. Objective This systematic review investigates the effectiveness of online services in facilitating mental health help-seeking in young people. Methods Using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, literature searches were conducted in PubMed, PsycINFO, and the Cochrane library. Out of 608 publications identified, 18 studies fulfilled the inclusion criteria of investigating online mental health services and help-seeking in young people aged 14-25 years. Results Two qualitative, 12 cross-sectional, one quasi-experimental, and three randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were reviewed. There was no change in help-seeking behavior found in the RCTs, while the quasi-experimental study found a slight but significant increase in help-seeking. The cross-sectional studies reported that online services facilitated seeking help from a professional source for an average of 35% of users. The majority of the studies included small sample sizes and a high proportion of young women. Help-seeking was often a secondary outcome, with only 22% (4/18) of studies using adequate measures of help-seeking. The majority of studies identified in this review were of low quality and likely to be biased. Across all studies, young people regularly used and were generally satisfied with online mental health resources. Facilitators and barriers to help-seeking were also identified. Conclusions Few studies examine the effects of online services on mental health help-seeking. Further research is needed to determine whether online mental health services effectively facilitate help-seeking for young people.
A Step Up in Expressiveness of Decidable Fixpoint Logics

Guardedness restrictions are one of the principal means to obtain decidable logics — operators such as negation are restricted so that the free variables are contained in an atom. While guardedness has been applied fruitfully in the setting of first-order logic, the ability to add fixpoints while retaining decidability has been very limited. Here we show that one of the main restrictions imposed in the past can be lifted, getting a richer decidable logic by allowing fixpoints in which the parameters of the fixpoint can be unguarded. Using automata, we show that the resulting logics have a decidable satisfiability problem, and provide a fine study of the complexity of satisfiability. We show that similar methods apply to decide questions concerning the elimination of fixpoints within formulas of the logic.
Improved method for parallel AES-GCM cores using FPGAs

This paper proposes an efficient method for implementing parallel AES-GCM cores using FPGAs. The proposed method improves the performance of the parallel architecture (Throughput/Slice). Presented architectures can be used for applications which require encryption and authentication with slow changing keys like Virtual Private Networks (VPNs). Our architectures were evaluated using Virtex5 FPGAs. It is shown that the performance of the presented parallel AES-GCM architecture outperforms the previously reported ones.
Associations between Handedness and Cerebral Lateralisation for Language: A Comparison of Three Measures in Children

It has been known for many years that hand preference is associated with cerebral lateralisation for language, but the relationship is weak and indirect. It has been suggested that quantitative measures of differential hand skill or reaching preference may provide more valid measures than traditional inventories, but to date these have not been validated against direct measures of cerebral lateralisation. We investigated the associations of three different handedness assessments; 1) a hand preference inventory, 2) a measure of relative hand skill, and 3) performance on a reaching task; with cerebral lateralisation for language function as derived from functional transcranial Doppler ultrasound during a language production task, in a group of 57 typically developing children aged from 6 to 16 years. Significant correlations between cerebral lateralisation for language production and handedness were found for a short version of the inventory and for performance on the reaching task. However, confidence intervals for the correlations overlapped and no one measure emerged as clearly superior to the others. The best handedness measures accounted for only 8–16% of the variance in cerebral lateralisation. These findings indicate that researchers should not rely on handedness as an indicator of cerebral lateralisation for language. They also imply that lateralisation of language and motor functions in the human brain show considerable independence from one another.
The impact of C-reactive protein on risk of stroke, stroke subtypes, and ischemic heart disease in middle-aged Japanese: the Japan public health center-based study.

AIM To examine the impact of C-reactive protein on the risks of stroke and its subtypes, particularly among Asian populations in which median C-reactive protein levels are typically lower than in Western populations. METHODS A prospective, nested case-control study was conducted to examine the associations between high sensitivity-CRP (hs-CRP) and risks of cardiovascular disease within a cohort of 29,876 men and women aged 40-69 years, with no history of stroke, ischemic heart disease or cancer, who submitted blood samples between 1990 and 1993. Systematic cardiovascular surveillance was performed throughout 2007. One control for each stroke and two controls for each ischemic heart disease were matched for sex, age, date of blood drawing, time since last meal and study location. RESULTS We documented 1,132 incident strokes (638 ischemic and 494 hemorrhagic strokes) and 209 ischemic heart diseases (168 myocardial infarctions and 41 sudden cardiac deaths), and observed a linear association between hs-CRP levels and risks of ischemic stroke and ischemic heart disease, more specifically myocardial infarction. The multivariable odds ratios associated with 1-SD increment of logarithmically transformed hs-CRP were 1.13 (0.99-1.29),p= 0.07 for ischemic stroke, 1.16 (0.96-1.41),p= 0.13 for lacunar infarction, 1.41 (0.98-2.01),p= 0.06 for embolic infarction, and 1.28 (1.03-1.59),p= 0.03 for myocardial infarction. The predictive value of hs-CRP for ischemic stroke was reduced primarily after adjustment for hypertensive status and body mass index. No association was found between hs-CRP levels and the risk of hemorrhagic or total stroke. CONCLUSIONS High serum hs-CRP levels were associated with the risk of myocardial infarction and more weakly with the risk of ischemic stroke among middle-aged Japanese men and women.
Hydraulic trade-offs and space filling enable better predictions of vascular structure and function in plants

Plant vascular networks are central to botanical form, function, and diversity. Here, we develop a theory for plant network scaling that is based on optimal space filling by the vascular system along with trade-offs between hydraulic safety and efficiency. Including these evolutionary drivers leads to predictions for sap flow, the taper of the radii of xylem conduits from trunk to terminal twig, and how the frequency of xylem conduits varies with conduit radius. To test our predictions, we use comprehensive empirical measurements of maple, oak, and pine trees and complementary literature data that we obtained for a wide range of tree species. This robust intra- and interspecific assessment of our botanical network model indicates that the central tendency of observed scaling properties supports our predictions much better than the West, Brown, and Enquist (WBE) or pipe models. Consequently, our model is a more accurate description of vascular architecture than what is given by existing network models and should be used as a baseline to understand and to predict the scaling of individual plants to whole forests. In addition, our model is flexible enough to allow the quantification of species variation around rules for network design. These results suggest that the evolutionary drivers that we propose have been fundamental in determining how physiological processes scale within and across plant species.
Progress towards butyrate-producing pharmabiotics: Butyricicoccus pullicaecorum capsule and efficacy in TNBS models in comparison with therapeutics

We read with interest the commentary of Philippe Marteau1 on our study2 in which the author rightly questions the therapeutic value of butyrate-producing bacteria as pharmabiotics in humans because of their difficulty to grow in vitro. While indeed lactic acid bacteria are easy to grow but seem to have limited efficacy, the butyrate-producing bacteria from Clostridium cluster IV and XIVa are promising candidates as pharmabiotics, provided that the strains can be cultured and formulated in a stable way. Butyricicoccus pullicaecorum easily grows under anaerobic conditions in M2GSC medium reaching 108 cfu/mL after 24 h incubation. Our group further evaluated the survival and viability of B pullicaecorum in hydroxypropylmethylcellulose (HPMC) capsules after they were anaerobically lyophilised in horse serum supplemented with 7.5% trehalose and 1 mg/mL cysteine HCl and only observed a reduction of 1 log after 7 months. Now, after 15 months of storage at 4°C, still 107 …
The Virtual Geographies of Retail Display

This article explores the commercial website as a virtual landscape of consumption, and considers how six Canadian retailers are displaying this landscape to entice a rapidly growing community of surfers. The article argues that the virtual geographies of retail display are determined by the interplay between corporate philosophies and the specificities of the market sector. In turn, the resultant ‘experiential space’ of the web store can be thought of as being framed by two broadly opposed discourses, which propose divergent levels of technological complexity in the design of the web store. However, the tension between these discursive extremities is already beginning to stabilize around a customized strategy of display, which uses real-time information about consumer behaviour in the web store to realize an appropriate balance between simplicity and interactivity at the scale of the individual surfer.
Combining Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning and Bayesian Networks for Natural Language Generation in Situated Dialogue

Language generators in situated domains face a number of content selection, utterance planning and surface realisation decisions, which can be strictly interdependent. We therefore propose to optimise these processes in a joint fashion using Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning. To this end, we induce a reward function for content selection and utterance planning from data using the PARADISE framework, and suggest a novel method for inducing a reward function for surface realisation from corpora. It is based on generation spaces represented as Bayesian Networks. Results in terms of task success and human-likeness suggest that our unified approach performs better than a baseline optimised in isolation or a greedy or random baseline. It receives human ratings close to human authors.
Further results on the approximation of log-normal power sum via pearson type IV distribution: a general formula for log-moments computation

In, we have recently proposed a general approach for approximating the power sum of Log-Normal Random Variables (RVs) by using the Pearson system of distributions. Therein, we have also highlighted the main advantages of using Pearson approximation instead of the usual Log-Normal one, and compared the proposed method with other approaches available in the open technical literature. However, despite being very accurate, the proposed method may be, in some circumstances, computational demanding since a non-linear least-squares problem needs to be solved numerically to get an accurate approximation. Motivated by the above consideration, the aim of this Letter is to provide an alternative approach for computing the parameters of the approximating Pearson distribution. The proposed solution is based on the Method of Moments (MoMs) in the logarithmic domain. In particular, by using some known properties of the Laplace transform, we will show that the MGF of the Log-Normal power sum in the logarithmic domain (denoted as log-MGF) can be obtained from the Mellin transform of the MGF of the Log-Normal power sum in the linear domain. From the estimated log-MGF, we will then compute the desired log-moments required for Pearson approximation. Numerical results will be also shown in order to substantiate the accuracy of the proposed method.
Thermohydraulic Dynamics and Fuzzy Coordination Control of a Microchannel Cooling Network for Space Electronics

This paper presents the dynamic model, analysis, and fuzzy control of a microchannel-heat-exchanger (MHE) space cooling network for dissipating exhaust heat of onboard electronic components inside spacecraft to the outer space environment. Along with a method for modeling a nonlinear fluid resistance network, a detailed analysis of flow rate changes and temperature transients of the MHE cooling network is given, providing a basis for developing a fuzzy coordination control strategy. The fuzzy controller employs two synergic PID controllers to simultaneously control both fluid- and radiation-based cooling mechanisms. The fuzzy coordination controller has been numerically evaluated, demonstrating a better performance than single-input PID controllers in terms of its ability to leverage between two actuators in rejecting disturbances and preventing overmanipulation. This unique feature will benefit the operating reliability of the MHE cooling network under stiff space working conditions.