Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evolutionary Computation: Toward a New Philosophy of Machine Intelligence (IEEE Press Series on Computational Intelligence)

The Third Edition of this internationally acclaimed publication provides the latest theory and techniques for using simulated evolution to achieve machine intelligence. As a leading advocate for evolutionary computation, the author has successfully challenged the traditional notion of artificial intelligence, which essentially programs human knowledge fact by fact, but does not have the capacity to learn or adapt as evolutionary computation does.
Early postmenopausal women with cardiovascular risk factors improve microvascular dysfunction after acute estradiol administration

ObjectiveThis study aimed to compare endothelial microcirculatory function in hypertensive and diabetic (HD) and healthy postmenopausal women before and after nasal application of 17&bgr;-estradiol. MethodsSeventy-one women aged 42 to 59 years within 10 years of menopause, divided into HD (n = 31) and similar-age healthy (n = 40) women were evaluated noninvasively through nailfold videocapillaroscopy before and 1 hour after estradiol, measuring basal (RBCV) and maximum (RBCVmax) red blood cell velocity after 1 minute of arterial occlusion, representing baseline and endothelial-mediated vasodilation, and time to reach RBCVmax (TRBCVmax), representing microvascular compliance/stiffness. ResultsHot flashes did not differ from or affect microvascular results. Before estradiol, HD showed lower RBCV (1.495 ± 0.20 vs 1.52 ± 0.10 mm/s, P = 0.019), borderline lower RBCVmax (1.655 ± 0.09 vs 1.706 ± 0.10 mm/s, P = 0.054), and shorter TRBCVmax (7.94 ± 1.44 vs 8.8 ± 2.03 s, P = 0.011) compared with healthy women. After estradiol, RBCV and RBCVmax increased, and TRBCVmax decreased in both groups (P = 0.0001 for all). HD women showed a higher RBCV increment (14.6% ± 2% vs 11.1 ± 1.4%, P = 0.021) associated with a smaller TRBCVmax reduction (23.6% ± 2% vs 31% ± 2%, P = 0.045). Changes in RBCVmax did not differ between HD (11.6% ± 1%) and healthy (8.3% ± 1.3%, P = 0.1) women. RBCV, RBCVmax, and TRBCVmax absolute values after estradiol were similar between groups. Past oral contraceptive exposure (P = 0.035) and cigarette smoking (P = 0.047) influenced healthy women’s microvascular responses to estradiol, whereas triglyceride levels impaired HD vasodilation (P = 0.028). ConclusionsBefore estradiol, HD presented impaired microvascular dilation and compliance compared with control women of similar age. After estradiol, HD recovered microvascular endothelial-mediated dilation, reaching similar absolute values, but the smaller reduction in TRBCVmax suggests irreversible microvascular stiffness.
Machine translation with source-predicted target morphology

We propose a novel pipeline for translation into morphologically rich languages which consists of two steps: initially, the source string is enriched with target morphological features and then fed into a translation model which takes care of reordering and lexical choice that matches the provided morphological features. As a proof of concept we ﬁrst show improved translation performance for a phrase-based model translating source strings enriched with morphological features projected through the word alignments from target words to source words. Given this potential, we present a model for predicting target morphological features on the source string and its predicate-argument structure, and tackle two major technical challenges: (1) How to ﬁt the morphological feature set to training data? and (2) How to integrate the morphology into the back-end phrase-based model such that it can also be trained on projected (rather than predicted) features for a more efﬁcient pipeline? For the ﬁrst challenge we present a latent variable model, and show that it learns a feature set with quality comparable to a manually selected set for German. And for the second challenge we present results showing that it is possible to bridge the gap between a model trained on a predicted and another model trained on a projected morphologically enriched parallel corpus. Finally we exhibit ﬁnal translation results showing promising improvement over the baseline phrase-based system.
Niche Particle Swarm Optimization Combined with Chaotic Mutation Application in Image Enhancement

A niche chaotic mutation particle swarm optimization (NCPSO) algorithm is proposed to overcome the problem of loss details of images, the contrast is not obvious and poor adaptability in traditional image enhancement methods. In this algorithm, niching methods and elimination strategy are introduced to improve the global optimization ability. Mutative scale chaos mutation algorithm has refined local traversal search performance, which makes the algorithm has higher searching precision. The results indicate that image enhancement based on the algorithm has such advantage as image detail clearly, strong contrast and excellent versatility. Key-Words: Image enhancement; Niche particle swarm; Chaotic mutation; Particle swarm optimization
Did the colonial powers pick the economic winners

This paper proposes a new instrument for institutional quality—the salary of colonial governors—to investigate whether variations in the quality of British colonial rule continue to have an impact on the economic performance of former colonies. Governors’ salaries provide a good source of exogenous variation because the ranking of salaries across the British Empire remained relatively fixed from the late nineteenth century onwards. Perhaps most important, this instrument varies widely across colonies with historically low rates of European settlement—that is, most countries in today’s developing world. Using a two-stage least squares estimation procedure, I find that colonies with higher paid governors developed better institutions (and higher per capita income) than colonies with lower paid governors.
A sub-micron-gap soi capacitive accelerometer array utilizing size effect

This paper reports a 10×10 arrayed single-axis accelerometer, whose unit size is 1/10 of conventional accelerometers. From the theoretical calculation, we can increase sensitivity per sensing area volume by 10 times when decreasing all dimensions by 1/10. The negative resist pattern with a sub-õm gap was obtained by electron beam lithography. The reliability (stiction and pull-in) issue, which was more apparent on miniaturizing, was solved by a nonlinear programming method in the design. In this research in-plane size effect was demonstrated by a 10×10 array of 80-õm-square unit accelerometers that have the 0.5-õm gap in the sensing capacitance. The measured sensitivity is 0.99 fF/g, which is the same as that of conventional 3-õm gap accelerometers.
Perfusion MR Imaging of Extracranial Tumor Angiogenesis

Summary: Dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) using small molecular weight gadolinium chelates enables noninvasive imaging characterization of tissue vascularity. Depending on the technique used, data reflecting tissue perfusion (blood flow, blood volume, mean transit time), microvessel permeability surface area product, and extracellular leakage space can be obtained. Insights into these physiological processes can be obtained from inspection of kinetic enhancement curves or by the application of complex compartmental modeling techniques. Combining morphologic and kinetic features can increase the accuracy of clinical diagnoses. Potential clinical applications include screening for malignant disease, lesion characterization, monitoring lesion response to treatment, and assessment of residual disease. Newer applications include prognostication, pharmacodynamic assessments of antivascular anticancer drugs, and predicting efficacy of treatment. For dynamic MRI to enter into widespread clinical practice, it will be necessary to develop standardized approaches to measurement and robust analysis approaches.
Immunolocalization of Solanaceous SUT1 Proteins in Companion Cells and Xylem Parenchyma: New Perspectives for Phloem Loading and Transport1[W][OA]

Leaf sucrose (Suc) transporters are essential for phloem loading and long-distance partitioning of assimilates in plants that load their phloem from the apoplast. Suc loading into the phloem is indispensable for the generation of the osmotic potential difference that drives phloem bulk flow and is central for the long-distance movement of phloem sap compounds, including hormones and signaling molecules. In previous analyses, solanaceous SUT1 Suc transporters from tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum), potato (Solanum tuberosum), and tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) were immunolocalized in plasma membranes of enucleate sieve elements. Here, we present data that identify solanaceous SUT1 proteins with high specificity in phloem companion cells. Moreover, comparisons of SUT1 localization in the abaxial and adaxial phloem revealed higher levels of SUT1 protein in the abaxial phloem of all three solanaceous species, suggesting different physiological roles for these two types of phloem. Finally, SUT1 proteins were identified in files of xylem parenchyma cells, mainly in the bicollateral veins. Together, our data provide new insight into the role of SUT1 proteins in solanaceous species.
Doxorubicin‐eluting beads versus conventional transarterial chemoembolization for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma

Doxorubicin‐eluting bead transarterial chemoembolization (DEB‐TACE) is a novel locoregional treatment for unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, to date, the benefits of DEB‐TACE versus conventional transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) remain unclear. This meta‐analysis was conducted to evaluate the efficacy and safety of the two treatments for patients with unresectable HCC.
Are you a Good Driver?: A Data-driven Approach to Estimate Driving Style

In recent years, the study of aggressive driving behavior has reached interest due to its correlation with traffic accidents. Traffic accidents are considered the third cause of deaths in the United States. Prior research has reported the possibility to estimate aggressive driving style using in-vehicle data (e.g., acceleration, speeding, lane changes, among others). However, traffic violations have not yet been considered in the analysis of aggressive driving style. This paper proposes a model to estimate driver's aggressive driving style by considering aggressive events from in-vehicle data, and traffic violations data using a fuzzy logic model. In-vehicle data and GPS data from twenty-five drivers in different routes were collected, to generate a fuzzy logic model that captures aggressive events and traffic violations. We validate these results by comparing the results between the fuzzy logic model and human experts scores, showing an accuracy of 0.84 and a recall of 0.8974. Future work should consider to revise the rules and membership values to improve misclassification errors.
Proteomics Reveals a Physical and Functional Link between Hepatocyte Nuclear Factor 4α and Transcription Factor IID*

Proteomic analyses have contributed substantially to our understanding of diverse cellular processes. Improvements in the sensitivity of mass spectrometry approaches are enabling more in-depth analyses of protein-protein networks and, in some cases, are providing surprising new insights into well established, longstanding problems. Here, we describe such a proteomic analysis that exploits MudPIT mass spectrometry and has led to the discovery of a physical and functional link between the orphan nuclear receptor hepatocyte nuclear factor 4α (HNF4α) and transcription factor IID (TFIID). A systematic characterization of the HNF4α-TFIID link revealed that the HNF4α DNA-binding domain binds directly to the TATA box-binding protein (TBP) and, through this interaction, can target TBP or TFIID to promoters containing HNF4α-binding sites in vitro. Supporting the functional significance of this interaction, an HNF4α mutation that blocks binding of TBP to HNF4α interferes with HNF4α transactivation activity in cells. These findings identify an unexpected role for the HNF4α DNA-binding domain in mediating key regulatory interactions and provide new insights into the roles of HNF4α and TFIID in RNA polymerase II transcription.
Dietary influence on body temperature, performance, blood parameters and carcass characteristics of broiler chickens

This experiment was conducted on three hundred unsexed day-old Arbor acre strains of broiler chicks for 56 days. The birds were divided into 4 dietary groups with 3 replications of 25 birds each. The diets contained 20, 15, 10 and 5%, respectively of rice offal (RO) being replaced by 0, 5, 10 and 15%, respectively of cashew nut reject meal (CNM). The data obtained were subjected to one-way analysis of variance. Significant (P 0.05) best feed: gain of 3.27 and lowest mortality (2.90%) were obtained in diet 4 (5% RO and 15%CNM). The body temperature of 41.1 0 C obtained in diet 3 (10% RO and 10% CNM) resulted in the highest (37%) PCV value. The Hb, WBC and RBC values of the blood were also highest at this temperature. The total protein was significantly (P 0.05) across the treatment groups except in the abdominal fat which was significantly (P<0.05) lowest in diet 1 (control). The carcass yield ranged from 76.52 to 79.49% with diets 4 (5% RO and 15%CNM) and 2 (15% RO and 5% CNM) having the highest and lowest values, respectively. It was concluded that the nutritional intervention of using CNM to replace RO up to 15% in the diets of broiler chickens did not significantly reduce the bird’s body temperature though, there were marked improvements in the performance of the birds.
A Delaunay Triangulation Approach to Space Information Flow

In contrast to network information flow proposed by Ahlswede et al., Space Information Flow (SIF) studies network coding in a geometric space such as a Euclidean space, in which additional relay nodes are allowed for reducing the communication cost. This work focuses on the problem of mincost multicast network coding in 2-D Euclidean space. We prove several properties of an optimal solution to the problem, and propose a new polynomial-time heuristic algorithm, combining techniques of Delaunay triangulation and non-uniform partitioning. The introduction of Delaunay triangulation aims to adapt the new algorithm to any density distribution of relay and terminal nodes, while non-uniform partitioning can handle any density distribution among terminal nodes. The two complementary techniques work in concert to eliminate an approaching-infinity problem that recent algorithms are known to be prone of, and consequently make the new algorithm fast-converging. Theoretic analysis and simulation results verify the effectiveness of the new algorithm.
Design of an intelligent diagnostic architecture to support the condition monitoring of power generation assets

Detailed, timely and accurate condition monitoring and diagnostic capability for generation assets is important for safely operating a power plant. A software system developed to perform this function for a fleet of plants must allow the extraction of important information from a large volume of data while operating over a distributed platform. This paper will focus on the development of a multi-agent system (MAS) to allow the condition monitoring and fault diagnosis of several power plants for a major UK utility. This system will exploit the advantages of a MAS approach while incorporating a range of anomaly detection and fault diagnosis techniques to provide accurate and robust condition monitoring capability. An overview of the User Requirements Specification is provided, as well as an outline of the proposed architecture including appropriate data interpretation algorithms and a definition of the interface and support mechanisms for the engineers.
Sub-pixel disparity estimation in continuous space

For depth-from-stereo vision applications such as driving assistance and object-size estimation, the accuracy of disparity estimation determines the precision of depth measurement. Conventional dense methods are hard to estimate disparity within a 0.1 pixel precision. In this paper, we present a novel object-based method to achieve robust and deep sub-pixel accurate disparity estimation. In our experimental system, it can provide depth measurement with less than 5% relative error within 150 m.
Direct Remaining Useful Life Estimation Based on Support Vector Regression

Prognostics is a major activity in the field of prognostics and health management. It aims at increasing the reliability and safety of systems while reducing the maintenance cost by providing an estimate of the current health status and remaining useful life (RUL). Classical RUL estimation techniques are usually composed of different steps: estimations of a health indicator, degradation states, a failure threshold, and finally the RUL. In this work, a procedure that is able to estimate the RUL of equipment directly from sensor values without the need for estimating degradation states or a failure threshold is developed. A direct relation between sensor values or health indicators is modeled using a support vector regression. Using this procedure, the RUL can be estimated at any time instant of the degradation process. In addition, an offline wrapper variable selection is applied before training the prediction model. This step has a positive impact on the accuracy of the prediction while reducing the computational time compared to existing indirect RUL prediction methods. To assess the performance of the proposed approach, the Turbofan dataset, widely considered in the literature, is used. Experimental results show that the performance of the proposed method is competitive with other existing approaches.
The Role of Vascular Biology, Nutrition and Nutraceuticals in the Prevention and Treatment of Hypertension

Vascular biology plays a primary and pivotal role in the initiation and perpetuation of hypertension and subsequent target organ damage. Endothelial activation and dysfunction, oxidative stress and vascular smooth muscle dysfunction (hypertrophy, hyperplasia, remodeling) may be some of the first events that trigger essential hypertension. Nutrientgene interactions determine specific phenotypic consequences of either vascular health, vascular disease or hypertension. Optimal nutrition, nutraceutical supplements, vitamins, antioxidants, minerals, weight loss, exercise, smoking cessation and judicious restriction of alcohol and caffeine as well as other lifestyle modifications can prevent, delay the
Innervation and cholinesterase activity of the developing taste buds in the circumvallate papilla of the mouse.

There is clear evidence that the integrity of taste buds is dependent upon intact innervation. They degenerate after transection (Olmsted, 1920, 1921; Whiteside, 1927; Torrey, 1934, 1936; Guth, 1957; Naga et al. 1970) and reappear with regeneration of the gustatory nerve (Griffini, 1887; Olmsted, 1920; Guth, 1958). These findings have suggested that nerve fibres might release a neurohumoral factor which initiates the regeneration of taste buds (Olmsted, 1920; May, 1925; Torrey, 1934) and possibly the early development of taste buds in the fetus (Hermann, 1884; Graberg, 1899; Farbman, 1965). Harrison (1904) transplanted various parts of different species of frog tadpole and concluded that lateral-line sensory organs developed independently of a nerve supply and that there was an inherent capacity for self-differentiation within the anlage of these organs. Other investigators concluded that taste buds also were formed independently of nerve fibres (Stone, 1933; Mintz & Stone, 1934; Wright, 1951, 1955, 1958). They used urodeles to show that tongue transplants to the orbit, side of the body, tail or surface of the liver first lost their taste buds and then after several days the buds reappeared. Since it was impossible for the nerves that ordinarily innervate taste buds to have reached the transplants, they decided that the gustatory nerves could not have exerted a formative influence. This paper gives a report on the morphological development of the circumvallate papilla and its related taste buds, as well as an account of cholinesterase activity in relevant nerves, in fetal and early postnatal mice.
Real time polymerase chain reaction: a new powerful tool for the diagnosis of neurobrucellosis

Background/methods: We compared the diagnostic yield of a real time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples with conventional microbiological techniques for the diagnosis of neurobrucellosis. Following amplification of a 223 bp sequence specific for Brucella genus, melting curve analysis was performed to verify the specificity of the PCR products. Results: All six patients with neurobrucellosis (three meningitis and three meningoencephalitis) had a positive real time PCR assay, whereas CSF cultures and Wright seroagglutination tests were positive in only two and four cases, respectively. Brucella specific amplicons were easily demonstrated by their characteristic melting temperature in all the real time PCR assays. Conclusion: LightCycler based real time PCR assay in CSF samples is more rapid and sensitive than conventional microbiological tests. This technique could be useful for the rapid diagnosis of neurobrucellosis.
Towards understanding the workspace of human limbs

Significant attention in recent years has been given towards obtaining a better understanding of human joint ranges, measurement, and functionality, especially in conjunction with commands issued by the central nervous system. Studies of those commands often include computer algorithms to describe path trajectories. These are typically in ‘open-form’ with specific descriptions of motions, but not ‘closed form’ mathematical solutions of the full range of possibilities. This paper proposes a rigorous ‘closed form’ kinematic formulation to model human limbs, understand their workspace (also called the reach envelope), and delineate barriers therein where a path becomes difficult or impossible owing to physical constraints. The novel ability to visualize barriers in the workspace emphasizes the power of these closed form equations. Moreover, this formulation takes into account joint limits in terms of ranges of motion and identifies barriers therein where a person is required to attain a different posture. Examples include the workspaces of a typical forearm and a typical finger. The wrist's range of motion is used to illustrate the visualization of the progress in the functionality of a wrist undergoing rehabilitation.
Risk stratification for Splenic Marginal Zone Lymphoma based on haemoglobin concentration, platelet count, high lactate dehydrogenase level and extrahilar lymphadenopathy: development and validation on 593 cases

This international retrospective study of 593 Splenic Marginal Zone Lymphoma (SMZL) patients aimed to identify factors that determine treatment initiation and influence lymphoma‐specific survival (LSS). Logistic regression was used to identify the factors associated with treatment. A Cox regression was used to analyse LSS in a derivation cohort of 366 patients. This produced a prognostic index (PI) and enabled the identification of three risk groups. The resulting stratification was validated in another cohort of 227 patients and compared with the Interguppo Italiano Linfomi (IIL) score in the group of 450 patients for whom all the required data were available using an extension of the net reclassification improvement. Haemoglobin concentration (Hb), extrahilar lymphadenopathy and hepatitis C virus status were associated with the initiation of treatment. Hb, platelet count, high lactate dehydrogenase level and extrahilar lymphadenopathy were independently associated with LSS. Three risk groups with significantly different five‐year LSS (94%, 78% and 69%, respectively) were identified. This stratification (named HPLL on the basis of determinant factors) had a better discriminative power than the IIL score. This system is useful for stratifying SMZL patients into risk groups and may help in the selection of risk‐tailored treatment approaches.