Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Serum levels of immune globulins in health and disease: a survey.

Immune globulins in sera of normal persons of various ages were quantitated by a radial diffusion technique; the levels changed considerably with age, especially during early infancy. Adult levels (γG 1158 ± 305, γM 99 ± 27, and γA 200 ± 61 mg/100 ml) generally were attained by 16 years of age. In all specimens of umbilical cord serum the level of γG was similar to that of adult serum and a trace quantity of γM (mean 10 mg/100 ml) was present; in one-third there was a trace amount of γA-globulin. The level of γM increased rapidly after birth but synthesis of γG and, especially, γA was delayed. Because of these normal alterations, it is recommended that specimens of serum be compared with those of age-matched control subjects for optimal evaluation. There was significant elevation of levels of γG-, γA-, and total γ-globulins, and diminution of that of γM in the serum of mongols over 10 years of age. The diminution of γM may be implicated in the poor response of mongols to immunizing antigens and the increased susceptibility of such patients to infections. Mongols may have a genetic instability of immune globulin synthesis analogous to their abnormality of leukopoiesis. Patients with sex chromosome abnormalities or trisomy 18 syndrome had normal levels of immune globulins, whereas those with neutropenia had elevated levels of all immune globulins. Abnormal levels determined in 12 cases of antibody deficiency diseases are presented.
Dynamic range adaptation in primary motor cortical populations

Neural populations from various sensory regions demonstrate dynamic range adaptation in response to changes in the statistical distribution of their input stimuli. These adaptations help optimize the transmission of information about sensory inputs. Here, we show a similar effect in the firing rates of primary motor cortical cells. We trained monkeys to operate a brain-computer interface in both two- and three-dimensional virtual environments. We found that neurons in primary motor cortex exhibited a change in the amplitude of their directional tuning curves between the two tasks. We then leveraged the simultaneous nature of the recordings to test several hypotheses about the population-based mechanisms driving these changes and found that the results are most consistent with dynamic range adaptation. Our results demonstrate that dynamic range adaptation is neither limited to sensory regions nor to rescaling of monotonic stimulus intensity tuning curves, but may rather represent a canonical feature of neural encoding. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.7554/eLife.21409. 001
Automated Detection of Cell Nuclei in Pap Smear Images Using Morphological Reconstruction and Clustering

In this paper, we present a fully automated method for cell nuclei detection in Pap smear images. The locations of the candidate nuclei centroids in the image are detected with morphological analysis and they are refined in a second step, which incorporates a priori knowledge about the circumference of each nucleus. The elimination of the undesirable artifacts is achieved in two steps: the application of a distance-dependent rule on the resulted centroids; and the application of classification algorithms. In our method, we have examined the performance of an unsupervised (fuzzy C-means) and a supervised (support vector machines) classification technique. In both classification techniques, the effect of the refinement step improves the performance of the clustering algorithm. The proposed method was evaluated using 38 cytological images of conventional Pap smears containing 5617 recognized squamous epithelial cells. The results are very promising, even in the case of images with high degree of cell overlapping.
An AHRS Based on a Kalmann Filter for the Integration of Inertial, Magnetometric and GPS Data

The paper describes an Attitude & Heading Reference System able to achieve a high accuracy level by using a Kalman filter, which integrates the measurements coming from low cost inertial sensors, magnetometric sensors and a GPS receiver. The errors correction on attitude and heading angles, calculated through the integration of the gyroscopes measurements, is performed on the basis of their alternative estimation. Such values are provided by a model which uses magnetometric measurements and accurate estimation of the gravity vector, calculated by purging the aircraft acceleration effect from the accelerometers measurements. An estimation of aircraft acceleration is obtained tanks to velocity information coming from GPS measurements. The system performance has been evaluated through simulation tests in which the input signals were time histories of acceleration, velocity and position generated by a flight simulator.
The role of research leaders on the evolution of scientific communities

There have been considerable efforts in the literature towards understanding and modeling dynamic aspects of scientific communities. Despite the great interest, little is known about the role that different members play in the formation of the underlying network structure of such communities. In this paper, we provide a wide investigation of the roles that members of the core of scientific communities play in the collaboration network structure formation and evolution. To do that, we define a community core based on an individual metric, core score, which is an h-index derived metric that captures both, the prolificness and the involvement of researchers in a community. Our results provide a number of key observations related to community formation and evolving patterns. Particularly, we show that members of the community core work as bridges that connect smaller clustered research groups. Furthermore, these members are responsible for an increase in the average degree of the whole community underlying network and a decrease on the overall network assortativeness. More important, we note that variations on the members of the community core tend to be strongly correlated with variations on these metrics. We argue that our observations are important for shedding a light on the role of key members on community formation and structure.
New Methods for Attribution of Rabbinic Literature

Introduction In this paper, we will demonstrate how recent developments in the nascent field of automated text categorization can be applied to Hebrew and Hebrew-Aramaic texts. In particular, we illustrate the use of new computational methods to address a number of scholarly problems concerning the classification of rabbinic manuscripts. These problems include ascertaining answers to the following questions
Exploring GPs' experiences of using diagnostic tools for cancer: a qualitative study in primary care.

BACKGROUND The UK has an estimated 5-10000 extra cancer deaths each year when compared to other European countries and diagnostic delays are thought to make a significant contribution to this. One of the initiatives in England intended to support primary care professionals has been the development of cancer risk assessment tools (RATs). These tools assist in identifying and quantifying the risk of cancer in symptomatic primary care patients. OBJECTIVE To explore GPs' experiences of incorporating the RATs for lung and bowel cancers into their clinical practice and in so doing, identify constraints and facilitators to the wider dissemination of the tools in primary care. METHODS We conducted semi-structured interviews over the telephone with 11 project managers who implemented the study and 23 GPs who used the tool. The interviews were digitally recorded, professionally transcribed verbatim and analysed through the construction of a 'thematic framework'. RESULTS The training and support package was fundamental to the successful integration of the RATs into GPs' daily routines. Ongoing support from cancer networks alongside acknowledgement of the clinical expertize of the GPs by those implementing the study enhanced GPs' uptake of the tool in practice. CONCLUSION Findings suggest that the embedding of clinical decision support tools into clinical practice is more likely to be achieved when they are perceived to support but not supersede the clinical judgement of their users. This element of our findings is a focal point of this article.
Nitric Oxide Mitigates Salt Stress by Regulating Levels of Osmolytes and Antioxidant Enzymes in Chickpea

This work was designed to evaluate whether external application of nitric oxide (NO) in the form of its donor S-nitroso-N-acetylpenicillamine (SNAP) could mitigate the deleterious effects of NaCl stress on chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) plants. SNAP (50 μM) was applied to chickpea plants grown under non-saline and saline conditions (50 and 100 mM NaCl). Salt stress inhibited growth and biomass yield, leaf relative water content (LRWC) and chlorophyll content of chickpea plants. High salinity increased electrolyte leakage, carotenoid content and the levels of osmolytes (proline, glycine betaine, soluble proteins and soluble sugars), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and malondialdehyde (MDA), as well as the activities of antioxidant enzymes, such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), ascorbate peroxidase (APX), and glutathione reductase in chickpea plants. Expression of the representative SOD, CAT and APX genes examined was also up-regulated in chickpea plants by salt stress. On the other hand, exogenous application of NO to salinized plants enhanced the growth parameters, LRWC, photosynthetic pigment production and levels of osmolytes, as well as the activities of examined antioxidant enzymes which is correlated with up-regulation of the examined SOD, CAT and APX genes, in comparison with plants treated with NaCl only. Furthermore, electrolyte leakage, H2O2 and MDA contents showed decline in salt-stressed plants supplemented with NO as compared with those in NaCl-treated plants alone. Thus, the exogenous application of NO protected chickpea plants against salt stress-induced oxidative damage by enhancing the biosyntheses of antioxidant enzymes, thereby improving plant growth under saline stress. Taken together, our results demonstrate that NO has capability to mitigate the adverse effects of high salinity on chickpea plants by improving LRWC, photosynthetic pigment biosyntheses, osmolyte accumulation and antioxidative defense system.
Structural Biology Communications Crystallization and Preliminary X-ray Diffraction Analysis of the Amidase Domain of Allophanate Hydrolase from Pseudomonas Sp. Strain Adp

The allophanate hydrolase from Pseudomonas sp. strain ADP was expressed and purified, and a tryptic digest fragment was subsequently identified, expressed and purified. This 50 kDa construct retained amidase activity and was crystallized. The crystals diffracted to 2.5 A ˚ resolution and adopted space group P2 1 , with unit-cell parameters a = 82.4, b = 179.2, c = 112.6 A ˚ , = 106.6 .
Two-photon absorption and nonclassical states of light.

We investigate the dynamical evolution of nonclassical states of light undergoing a two-photon absorption process. We consider two distinct cases of initial states, a squeezed coherent state and an eigenstate of the two-photon annihilation operator (a superposition of macroscopically distinct coherent states). We analyze the fluctuations in the photon-number operator and in the quadrature components of the field. Whereas one-photon linear damping rapidly destroys quantum features such as squeezing, we demonstrate that substantial coherence is retained when such light interacts with a two-photon-absorbing reservoir. This surviving coherence is responsible for the preservation of squeezing in the steady state despite the effect of dissipation. We relate the origin of squeezing of initially unsqueezed light interacting with two-photon absorbers with the squeezing generated by simple superposition states of light.
Analysis of the major transcripts encoded by the long repeat of human cytomegalovirus strain AD169

In this report, we describe the size and kinetics of appearance of RNAs from the long repeat of human cytomegalovirus. The most abundant RNA from this region was a 2.7-kilobase (kb) species that was detected throughout the infection and was most abundant at 27 and 72 h after infection. The 2.7-kb RNA was the only major species detected with a probe that included the terminus of the long repeat and the heterogeneous L-S junction region. Other transcripts were detected with probes from the internal portion of the long repeat, including an immediate-early RNA of 1.3 kb, early and late RNAs of 1.2 kb, and minor late transcripts of 4.4, 3.6, 3.3, and 1.8 kb. S1 nuclease and exonuclease VII protection analyses of RNA from immediate-early, early, midpoint, and late times in the infection indicated that the major 2.7-kb RNA was not spliced and that the RNA mapped within the long repeat, 1.6 kb from the heterogeneous region. No evidence for temporally regulated changes in transcription initiation, splicing, or choice of 3' end of this RNA was observed. Nuclease protection analysis also demonstrated that the second most abundant late RNA from this region, the 1.2-kb species, was not spliced and had the same polarity as the 2.7-kb RNA. The 1.2-kb also mapped entirely within the long repeat, with its 3' terminus 1.7 kb upstream from the 5' terminus of the 2.7-kb RNA.
TP-CRAHN: a Transport Protocol for Cognitive Radio Ad-Hoc Networks

Existing research in transport protocols for wireless ad-hoc networks has focused on reliable end-to-end packet delivery under uncertain channel conditions, route failures due to node mobility and link congestion. In a cognitive radio (CR) environment, there are several key challenges that must be addressed apart from the above concerns. The intermittent spectrum sensing undertaken by the CR users, the activity of the licensed users of the spectrum, large-scale bandwidth variation based on spectrum availability, and the channel switching process need to be considered in the transport protocol design. In this paper, a window-based Transport Protocol for CR Ad-Hoc Networks, TP-CRAHN, is proposed that distinguishes each of these events by a combination of explicit feedback from the intermediate nodes and the destination. This is achieved by adapting the classical TCP rate control algorithm running at the source to closely interact with the physical layer channel information, the link layer functions of spectrum sensing and buffer management, and a predictive mobility framework that is developed at the network layer. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work on the transport layer to specifically address the concerns of the CR ad-hoc networks and our approach is thoroughly validated by simulation experiments.
Removal of Viruses by Soil Passage: Overview of Modeling, Processes, and Parameters

In this article, the modeling of subsurface virus transport under saturated conditions and the factors that affect adsorption and inactivation are evaluated. Both equilibrium and kinetic adsorption are considered. Equilibrium adsorption is found to be of little significance. Adsorption appears to be mainly kinetically limited. At pH 7 and higher, conditions are generally unfavorable for attachment, but viruses may preferentially attach to a minor surface fraction of soil grains that is positively charged. The relation of pH with surface charge and their effects on sticking efficiencies are evaluated. Dissolved organic matter decreases virus attachment by competition for the same binding sites and thus reduces attachment. Bonded organic matter may provide hydrophobic binding sites for viruses and thus enhance attachment. Dissolved organic matter may disrupt hydrophobic bonds. The enhancing and attenuating effects of organic matter are very difficult to quantify and may be responsible for considerable uncertainty when predicting virus removal. Values of inactivation rate coefficients for attached viruses were calculated using data from some batch studies. Enhanced or reduced inactivation is found to be virus-specific and almost independent of adsorption. Temperature is the most important factor that influences virus inactivation. Probably the inactivation rate coefficients of free and attached viruses change similarly with temperature. Some frequently used bacteriophages are evaluated as model viruses. MS2 and PRD1 meet the requirements for worst-case model viruses, at water temperatures less than about 10°C, at pH 6 to 8, and if the soil does not contain too many hydrophobic sites and not too much multivalent cations. Bacteriophage ϕX 174 may be a relatively conservative model virus, because of its low hy drophobic-ity and stability. Together in a cocktail, these three viruses span a range of properties, like size, surface charge, and hydrophobicity. F-specific RNA bacteriophages (FRNAPHs) may be very useful naturally occurring worst-case viruses. FRNAPHs that are present in surface water or treated wastewater that is used for recharging groundwater, consist of stable and poorly adsorbing viruses. An inventory of parameter values from field studies is made. Attachment appears to be the major process that determines virus removal. Still, only very few data are available on attachment and detachment of viruses under field conditions. Removal of viruses by soil passage, log(C/C 0), appears to decline nonlinearly with distance due to heterogeneities within the soil as well as within the population of transported virus particles. Predictions of virus removal at larger distances are severely overestimated if they are based on removal data from column experiments or from short-distance field studies.
Crowd-assisted search for price discrimination in e-commerce: first results

After years of speculation, price discrimination in e-commerce driven by the personal information that users leave (involuntarily) online, has started attracting the attention of privacy researchers, regulators, and the press. In our previous work we demonstrated instances of products whose prices varied online depending on the location and the characteristics of prospective online buyers. In an effort to scale up our study we have turned to crowd-sourcing. Using a browser extension we have collected the prices obtained by an initial set of 340 test users as they surf the web for products of their interest. This initial dataset has permitted us to identify a set of online stores where price variation is more pronounced. We have focused on this subset, and performed a systematic crawl of their products and logged the prices obtained from different vantage points and browser configurations. By analyzing this dataset we see that there exist several retailers that return prices for the same product that vary by 10%-30% whereas there also exist isolated cases that may vary up to a multiplicative factor, e.g., x2. To the best of our efforts we could not attribute the observed price gaps to currency, shipping, or taxation differences.
A Centralized Multi-targets Positioning System based on UWB

In this paper, we implement a positioning system for tracking multiple targets using ultra-wideband. The system consists of a master device, multiple sensors and multiple targets. The positioning system developed does not require synchronization in run-time, but only once in the system initialization. Experiments show that a master device can estimate the positions of multiple targets within tens of milliseconds.
Cardiomyocytes Self-Powered Polymer Microrobot

We established a novel method to fabricate a micro-machine that can actuate for long-term in physiological condition. Backbone of micro machine is built with bio-compatible material of PDMS by using specially designed 3D molding aligner. The high generative force of hybrid actuator is realized based on selective cell culture on groove surface that leads higher concentration of cells. Those key techniques enable the developed micro-machines to work for two weeks in medium condition. For performance demonstration of micro-machine, we construct a tripod micro-machine and observe sustained and synchronous locomotion in medium condition for almost two weeks-period.
Anthropometric characteristics and body composition in Mexican older adults: age and sex differences

Abstract Anthropometric reference data for older adults, particularly for the oldest old, are still limited, especially in developing countries. The aim of the present study was to describe sex- and age-specific distributions of anthropometric measurements and body composition in Mexican older adults. The methods included in the present study were assessment of height, weight, BMI, calf circumference (CC), waist circumference (WC) and hip circumference (HC) as well as knee height in a sample of 8883 Mexican adults aged 60 years and above and the estimation of sex- and age-specific differences in these measures. Results of the study (n 7865, 54 % women) showed that men are taller, have higher BMI, and larger WC than women, whereas women presented higher prevalence of obesity and adiposity. Overall prevalence of underweight was 2·3 % in men and 4·0 % in women, with increasing prevalence with advancing age. Significant differences were found by age group for weight, height, WC, HC, CC, BMI and knee height (P<0·001), but no significant differences in waist–hip circumference were observed. Significant differences between men and women were found in height, weight, circumferences, BMI and knee height (P<0·001). These results, which are consistent with studies of older adults in other countries, can be used for comparison with other Mexican samples including populations living in the USA and other countries with similar developmental and socio-economic conditions. This information can also be used as reference in clinical settings as a tool for detection of individuals at risk of either underweight or overweight and obesity.
Learning-based deformable registration of MR brain images

This paper presents a learning-based method for deformable registration of magnetic resonance (MR) brain images. There are two novelties in the proposed registration method. First, a set of best-scale geometric features are selected for each point in the brain, in order to facilitate correspondence detection during the registration procedure. This is achieved by optimizing an energy function that requires each point to have its best-scale geometric features consistent over the corresponding points in the training samples, and at the same time distinctive from those of nearby points in the neighborhood. Second, the active points used to drive the brain registration are hierarchically selected during the registration procedure, based on their saliency and consistency measures. That is, the image points with salient and consistent features (across different individuals) are considered for the initial registration of two images, while other less salient and consistent points join the registration procedure later. By incorporating these two novel strategies into the framework of the HAMMER registration algorithm, the registration accuracy has been improved according to the results on simulated brain data, and also visible improvement is observed particularly in the cortical regions of real brain data