Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Flexible Learning on the Sphere Via Adaptive Needlet Shrinkage and Selection

This paper introduces an approach for exible, robust Bayesian modeling of structure in spherical data sets. Our method is based upon a recent construction called the needlet, which is a particular form of spherical wavelet with many favorable statistical and computational properties. We perform shrinkage and selection of needlet coecients, focusing on two main alternatives: empirical-Bayes thresholding for selection, and the horseshoe prior for shrinkage. We study the performance of the proposed methodology both on simulated data and on a real data set involving the cosmic microwave background radiation. Horseshoe shrinkage of needlet coecients is shown to yield the best overall performance against some common benchmarks.
Optimal design of observable multi-agent networks: A structural system approach

This paper introduces a method to design observable directed multi-agent networks, that are: 1) either minimal with respect to a communications-related cost function, or 2) idem, under possible failure of direct communication between two agents. An observable multi-agent network is characterized by agents that update their states using a neighboring rule based on directed communication graph topology in order to share information about their states; furthermore, each agent can infer the initial information shared by all the agents. Sufficient conditions to ensure that 1) is satisfied are obtained by reducing the original problem to the travelling salesman problem (TSP). For the case described in 2), sufficient conditions for the existence of a minimal network are shown to be equivalent to the existence of two disjoint solutions to the TSP. The results obtained are illustrated with an example from the area of cooperative path following of multiple networked vehicles by resorting to an approximate solution to the TSP.
Postburn Knee Flexions Contractures: Anatomy and Methods of Their Treatment

Background: Postburn knee flexion contractures cause functional limitations of all lower extremity, not allowing the patient to walk normally, creating serious cosmetic defects, and, therefore, requiring surgical reconstruction. The anatomic features of knee flexion contractures and their treatment have been covered in literature far less than large joints of the upper extremities, and their treatment is still a challenge for many surgeons. Methods: Anatomy of postburn knee flexion contractures in 58 patients was studied and contractures were surgically eliminated by using new approaches and techniques. Follow-up results were observed from 6 months to 12 years. Results: Knee postburn flexion contractures were divided into three anatomic types: edge, medial, and total. Edge contractures were caused by scars located on the lateral or medial knee surface and were characterized by the presence of the fold along the popliteal fossa edge. The lateral sheet of the fold was scarred and k ulcerous scars should be excised. The study is the original research of the 1st level of evidence. Conclusion: Three anatomic types of knee scar flexion contractures were identified: edge, medial, and total. An anatomically justified technique for edge and medial contractures was trapeze-flap plasty. Total and most medial contractures were efficiently eliminated with scar excision and skin grafting; rarely was external distractor needed.
Early Antiretroviral Therapy for Simian Immunodeficiency Virus Infection Leads to Mucosal CD4+ T-Cell Restoration and Enhanced Gene Expression Regulating Mucosal Repair and Regeneration

ABSTRACT Simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections lead to rapid depletion of CD4+ T cells from gut-associated lymphoid tissue (GALT). Although the administration of antiretroviral therapy (ART) has been shown to increase CD4+ T-cell levels in the peripheral blood in both SIV and HIV infections, its efficacy in restoring intestinal mucosal CD4+ T cells has not been well investigated. To gain insights into the molecular mechanisms of virally induced disruptions in the mucosal immune system, we have evaluated longitudinal changes in viral burden, T-cell subsets, and mucosal gene expression profiles in SIV-infected rhesus macaques in the absence or presence of ART. Our results demonstrate a dramatic suppression of mucosal viral loads and rapid reconstitution of CD4+ T cells in GALT in animals receiving ART that were not observed in untreated SIV-infected animals. DNA microarray-based gene expression profiling indicated that CD4+ T-cell restoration in GALT was associated with up regulation of growth factors and genes involved in repair and regeneration of the mucosal epithelium. In contrast, untreated SIV-infected animals increased expression of lymphocyte activation and inflammatory response-associated genes and did not up regulate mucosal growth and repair associated transcription. In conclusion, these data indicate that initiating ART in primary SIV infection may lead to the restoration of the mucosal immune system through reduction of inflammation and promotion of epithelial repair in the intestinal mucosa.
Improved Deterministic Conditions for Sparse and Low-Rank Matrix Decomposition

In this paper, the problem of splitting a given matrix into sparse and low-rank matrices is investigated. The problem is when and how we can exactly do this decomposition. This problem is ill-posed in general and we need to impose some (sufficient) conditions to be able to decompose a matrix into sparse and low-rank matrices. This conditions can be categorized into two general classes: (a) deterministic conditions and (b) probabilistic conditions. Deterministic conditions guarantee the success of decomposition for a given fixed matrix. In contrast, proabilistic conditions guarantee the success of the decomposition with certain probability for a certain class of random matrices. We improved the best existing result for deterministic conditions in this paper by introducing alternative projection method for dual matrix construction.
A micromechanical analysis of time-dependent behavior based on subcritical damage in claystones

In this paper, a micromechanical model is proposed for time-dependent strain in claystones. The representative volume element of claystone is characterized by a three-phase composite. Quartz and calcite grains are embedded inside clay matrix. The time-dependent strain is related to subcritical propagation of microcracks inside the clay matrix. A two-step homogenization procedure is proposed. A micromechanics-based isotropic damage model is first formulated for the subcritical growth of microcracks inside the clay matrix. Different homogenization schemes are considered by taking into account opening and closure of microcracks. Two driving forces are used respectively for the subcritical evolution of damage under tensile and compressive stresses. Then the macroscopic properties of the claystone are determined by a second-level homogenization procedure using three different schemes. The numerical algorithm for numerical implementation of the proposed model in standard finite element code is proposed. Numerical evaluations of the proposed model are performed through simulations of creep tests under different loading paths and using different homogenization schemes. Finally, comparisons between numerical results and experimental data are presented.
An Analysis of Pairwise Geometric Histograms for View-Based Object Recognition

A pairwise geometric histogram (PGH) encodes the probability of geometric co-occurrences between any line and the set of lines defining an object. An object therefore has a set of PGHs associated with it, one histogram for each line. We describe here the way in which the probability of geometric co-occurrence is calculated and entered in the histograms, the different ways these histograms can be denned and the completeness properties of the set of histograms in terms of arbitrary shape representation. We show that this representation provides unambiguous shape representation by demonstrating an inverse reconstruction algorithm. We conclude that the methods suggested in a previous paper for object recognition and location provide a complete solution to the problem of recognition of edge based descriptors for fixed 2D projected views of rigid objects.
Computing geodesics and minimal surfaces via graph cuts

Geodesic active contours and graph cuts are two standard image segmentation techniques. We introduce a new segmentation method combining some of their benefits. Our main intuition is that any cut on a graph embedded in some continuous space can be interpreted as a contour (in 2D) or a surface (in 3D). We show how to build a grid graph and set its edge weights so that the cost of cuts is arbitrarily close to the length (area) of the corresponding contours (surfaces) for any anisotropic Riemannian metric. There are two interesting consequences of this technical result. First, graph cut algorithms can be used to find globally minimum geodesic contours (minimal surfaces in 3D) under arbitrary Riemannian metric for a given set of boundary conditions. Second, we show how to minimize metrication artifacts in existing graph-cut based methods in vision. Theoretically speaking, our work provides an interesting link between several branches of mathematics -differential geometry, integral geometry, and combinatorial optimization. The main technical problem is solved using Cauchy-Crofton formula from integral geometry.
Mouse myofibers lacking the SMYD1 methyltransferase are susceptible to atrophy, internalization of nuclei and myofibrillar disarray

ABSTRACT The Smyd1 gene encodes a lysine methyltransferase specifically expressed in striated muscle. Because Smyd1-null mouse embryos die from heart malformation prior to formation of skeletal muscle, we developed a Smyd1 conditional-knockout allele to determine the consequence of SMYD1 loss in mammalian skeletal muscle. Ablation of SMYD1 specifically in skeletal myocytes after myofiber differentiation using Myf6cre produced a non-degenerative myopathy. Mutant mice exhibited weakness, myofiber hypotrophy, prevalence of oxidative myofibers, reduction in triad numbers, regional myofibrillar disorganization/breakdown and a high percentage of myofibers with centralized nuclei. Notably, we found broad upregulation of muscle development genes in the absence of regenerating or degenerating myofibers. These data suggest that the afflicted fibers are in a continual state of repair in an attempt to restore damaged myofibrils. Disease severity was greater for males than females. Despite equivalent expression in all fiber types, loss of SMYD1 primarily affected fast-twitch muscle, illustrating fiber-type-specific functions for SMYD1. This work illustrates a crucial role for SMYD1 in skeletal muscle physiology and myofibril integrity. Summary: Elimination of the lysine methyltransferase SMYD1 from mouse skeletal muscle caused myopathy with excessive internal nuclei, atrophy, myofibrillar disorganization and broad upregulation of muscle gene expression.
Merotelic Kinetochore Orientation Is a Major Mechanism of Aneuploidy in Mitotic Mammalian Tissue Cells

In mitotic cells, an error in chromosome segregation occurs when a chromosome is left near the spindle equator after anaphase onset (lagging chromosome). In PtK1 cells, we found 1.16% of untreated anaphase cells exhibiting lagging chromosomes at the spindle equator, and this percentage was enhanced to 17.55% after a mitotic block with 2 μM nocodazole. A lagging chromosome seen during anaphase in control or nocodazole-treated cells was found by confocal immunofluorescence microscopy to be a single chromatid with its kinetochore attached to kinetochore microtubule bundles extending toward opposite poles. This merotelic orientation was verified by electron microscopy. The single kinetochores of lagging chromosomes in anaphase were stretched laterally (1.2–5.6-fold) in the directions of their kinetochore microtubules, indicating that they were not able to achieve anaphase poleward movement because of pulling forces toward opposite poles. They also had inactivated mitotic spindle checkpoint activities since they did not label with either Mad2 or 3F3/2 antibodies. Thus, for mammalian cultured cells, kinetochore merotelic orientation is a major mechanism of aneuploidy not detected by the mitotic spindle checkpoint. The expanded and curved crescent morphology exhibited by kinetochores during nocodazole treatment may promote the high incidence of kinetochore merotelic orientation that occurs after nocodazole washout.
An efficient transfer of EHRs on the cloud using Decaying Window principle

With the advent of digitized health records, also known as the Electronic Health Records (EHR's), patient information confidentiality over the cloud has become a challenging concern. Of which, data transfer rate has been a major bottleneck in delivering the EHRs to the various stakeholders. Our proposal intends to split the incoming data stream into frames, where each frame is a chunk of patient record referenced by a bookmark for easier identification. In this paper, we have analyzed the prospects of the renowned DGIM (Datar-Gionis-Indyk-Motwani) algorithm which proves to be a promising technique for the transfer of healthcare data from the cloud to the offline storage unit, however doesn't take into account the consideration of past inputs (which were already available in the data bucket and was discarded due to incoming stream of data) with respect to time for data transfer. Rather, the invocation of Decaying Window principle, a novel technique used in mining of massive data streams has paved brighter prospects to overcome the pitfalls of DGIM algorithm for real-time transfer of EHR's.
Dependency Parser for Bengali: the JU System at ICON 2009

This paper reports about our work in the ICON 2009 NLP TOOLS CONTEST: Parsing. We submitted two runs for Bengali. A statistical CRF based model followed by a rule-based post-processing technique has been used. The system has been trained on the NLP TOOLS CONTEST: ICON 2009 datasets. The system demonstrated an unlabeled attachment score (UAS) of 74.09%, labeled attachment score (LAS) of 53.90% and labeled accuracy score (LS) of 61.71% respectively.
The albatross plot: A novel graphical tool for presenting results of diversely reported studies in a systematic review

Meta‐analyses combine the results of multiple studies of a common question. Approaches based on effect size estimates from each study are generally regarded as the most informative. However, these methods can only be used if comparable effect sizes can be computed from each study, and this may not be the case due to variation in how the studies were done or limitations in how their results were reported. Other methods, such as vote counting, are then used to summarize the results of these studies, but most of these methods are limited in that they do not provide any indication of the magnitude of effect.
Distributed beamforming in relay networks for energy harvesting multi-group multicast systems

In this paper, simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) is considered for multi-group multicasting relay networks where there is no direct link between the source and destination nodes. Each source transmits its own multicast stream to a group of users with the help of single antenna relays which use amplify-and-forward relay protocol. Each user has energy harvesting capability. A part of the received signal is used for information decoding while the rest is used for energy harvesting. The design problem is to determine the complex relay weights and the power splitting ratios for the users. The resulting optimization problem is nonconvex and converted into a form suitable for quadratically constrained quadratic programming. In addition to the conventional relay beamforming, distributed phase-only beamformer design is also considered and both beamformer design problems are solved iteratively using feasible point pursuit-successive convex approximation algorithm. Several simulations are performed and the advantages of both approaches are outlined.
Metacognitive monitoring and dementia: how intrinsic and extrinsic cues influence judgments of learning in people with early-stage Alzheimer's disease.

OBJECTIVE The present research compared metamemorial monitoring processes among younger adults, nondemented older adults, and older adults diagnosed with early stage Dementia of the Alzheimer's Type (DAT). METHOD In three experiments we examined the influence of intrinsic and extrinsic cues on Judgment of Learning (JOL) accuracy. Changes in association strength between cue-target word pairs served as the intrinsic manipulation in Experiments 1 and 2. Changes in encoding orientation served as the extrinsic manipulation in Experiment 3. RESULTS Across all experiments we found that young adults, nondemented older adults, and individuals in the early stages of DAT effectively used intrinsic and extrinsic factors to guide JOL predictions. CONCLUSIONS We conclude that while certain aspects of metacognition may be impaired in both the normal and demented older populations, these groups remain able to use theory-based processing, or general knowledge about how memory works, to make metamemory monitoring predictions.
Maternal immune activation evoked by polyinosinic:polycytidylic acid does not evoke microglial cell activation in the embryo

Several studies have indicated that inflammation during pregnancy increases the risk for the development of neuropsychiatric disorders in the offspring. Morphological brain abnormalities combined with deviations in the inflammatory status of the brain can be observed in patients of both autism and schizophrenia. It was shown that acute infection can induce changes in maternal cytokine levels which in turn are suggested to affect fetal brain development and increase the risk on the development of neuropsychiatric disorders in the offspring. Animal models of maternal immune activation reproduce the etiology of neurodevelopmental disorders such as schizophrenia and autism. In this study the poly (I:C) model was used to mimic viral immune activation in pregnant mice in order to assess the activation status of fetal microglia in these developmental disorders. Because microglia are the resident immune cells of the brain they were expected to be activated due to the inflammatory stimulus. Microglial cell density and activation level in the fetal cortex and hippocampus were determined. Despite the presence of a systemic inflammation in the pregnant mice, there was no significant difference in fetal microglial cell density or immunohistochemically determined activation level between the control and inflammation group. These data indicate that activation of the fetal microglial cells is not likely to be responsible for the inflammation induced deficits in the offspring in this model.
Design of Robust Data Gathering MAC in Wireless Sensor Networks

DMAC using the staggered wakeup schedule can achieve both low latency and low energy consumption. However, the data gathering tree built by DMAC is fixed permanently. A fixed data gathering tree can't adapt to the variability in the environment of wireless sensor networks, and it needs to be reconstructed frequently to suit the current environment. For example, the interference is a factor that will change the environment because it changes node connectivity of wireless sensor networks. In this paper, we propose robust-DMAC (RDMAC) which can dynamically construct the data gathering tree according to the changing environment. Because RDMAC separates the formation of the data gathering tree from the arrangement of the wakeup schedules, it can easily construct a new data gathering tree without adjusting nodes' schedules. From simulation results in variable environments affected by interference, it is shown that RDMAC performs closely with DMAC in effective energy consumption and has remarkable improvement in packet arrival ratio, network throughput, and packet delivery latency over DMAC
Title: Biosonar Navigation above Water I: Estimating Flight Height. Authors: Phone: +49 8161712807

30 Locomotion and foraging on the wing require precise navigation not only in the 31 horizontal plane. Navigation in three dimensions and specifically, precise adjustment 32 of flight height is essential for flying animals. Echolocating bats drink from water 33 surfaces in flight, which requires an exceptionally precise vertical navigation. Here we 34 exploit this behavior in the bat, Phyllostomus discolor, to understand the biophysical 35 and neural mechanisms which allow for sonar-guided navigation in the vertical plane. 36 In a set of behavioral experiments, we show that for echolocating bats, adjustment of 37 flight height depends on the tragus in their outer ears: Specifically, the tragus 38 imposes elevation-specific spectral interference patterns on the echoes of the bats’ 39 sonar emissions. Head-related transfer functions of our bats show that these 40 interference patterns are most conspicuous in the frequency range around 55 kHz. 41 This conspicuousness is faithfully preserved in the frequency tuning and spatial 42 receptive fields of cortical singleand multi-units recorded from anaesthetized 43 animals. In addition, we recorded vertical spatio-temporal response maps, which 44 describe neural tuning in elevation over time. One class of units, which were very 45 sharply tuned to frequencies around 55 kHz, showed unusual spatio-temporal 46
An Integrated Genetic Linkage Map of the Soybean Genome

A number of molecular genetic maps of the soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr. ] have been developed over the past 10 yr. These maps are primarily based on restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) markers. Parental surveys have shown that most RFLP loci have only two known alleles. However, because the soybean is an ancient polyploid, RFLP probes typically hybridize and map to more than one position in the genome. Thus, the polymorphic potential of an RFLP probe is primarily a function of the frequency of the two alleles at each locus the probe detects. In contrast, simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers are single locus markers with multiple alleles. The polymorphic potential of an SSR marker is dependent on the number of alleles and their frequencies. Single locus markers provide an unambiguous means of defining linkage group homology across mapping populations. The objective of the work reported here was to develop and map a large set of SSR markers. A total of 606 SSR loci were mapped in one or more of three populations: the USDA/Iowa State G. max × G. soja F 2 population, the Univ. of Utah Minsoy × Noir 1 recombinant inbred population, and the Univ. of Nebraska Clark × Harosoy F 2 population. Each SSR mapped to a single locus in the genome, with a map order that was essentially identical in all three populations. Many SSR loci were segregating in two or all three populations. Thus, it was relatively simple to align the 20+ linkage groups derived from each of the three populations into a consensus set of 20 homologous linkage groups presumed to correspond to the 20 pairs of soybean chromosomes. On the basis of in situ segregation or linkage reports in the literature all but one of the classical linkage groups can now be assigned to a corresponding molecular linkage group.