Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
First light of the Gemini Planet Imager

Significance Direct detection—spatially resolving the light of a planet from the light of its parent star—is an important technique for characterizing exoplanets. It allows observations of giant exoplanets in locations like those in our solar system, inaccessible by other methods. The Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) is a new instrument for the Gemini South telescope. Designed and optimized only for high-contrast imaging, it incorporates advanced adaptive optics, diffraction control, a near-infrared spectrograph, and an imaging polarimeter. During first-light scientific observations in November 2013, GPI achieved contrast performance that is an order of magnitude better than conventional adaptive optics imagers. The Gemini Planet Imager is a dedicated facility for directly imaging and spectroscopically characterizing extrasolar planets. It combines a very high-order adaptive optics system, a diffraction-suppressing coronagraph, and an integral field spectrograph with low spectral resolution but high spatial resolution. Every aspect of the Gemini Planet Imager has been tuned for maximum sensitivity to faint planets near bright stars. During first-light observations, we achieved an estimated H band Strehl ratio of 0.89 and a 5-σ contrast of 106 at 0.75 arcseconds and 105 at 0.35 arcseconds. Observations of Beta Pictoris clearly detect the planet, Beta Pictoris b, in a single 60-s exposure with minimal postprocessing. Beta Pictoris b is observed at a separation of 434 ± 6 milliarcseconds (mas) and position angle 211.8 ± 0.5°. Fitting the Keplerian orbit of Beta Pic b using the new position together with previous astrometry gives a factor of 3 improvement in most parameters over previous solutions. The planet orbits at a semimajor axis of 9.0−0.4+0.8 AU near the 3:2 resonance with the previously known 6-AU asteroidal belt and is aligned with the inner warped disk. The observations give a 4% probability of a transit of the planet in late 2017.
Cancer stem cell theory: therapeutic implications for nanomedicine

Evidence continues to accumulate showing that tumors contain a minority population of cells responsible for tumor initiation, growth, and recurrence. These are termed “cancer stem cells” (CSCs). Functional assays have identified the self-renewal and tumor-initiation capabilities of CSCs. Moreover, recent studies have revealed that these CSCs is responsible for chemotherapy resistance within a tumor. Several mechanisms of chemoresistance have been proposed, including increased Wnt/â-catenin and Notch signaling, as well as high expression levels of adenosine triphosphate-binding cassette transporters, an active DNA repair capacity, and slow rate of self-renewal. Nanoscale drug-delivery systems, which transport therapeutically active molecules, prolong circulation, and improve biodistribution in the body, may allow more effective and specific therapies to address the challenges posed by CSCs. In particular, some nanovehicles are being exploited for selective drug delivery to CSCs and show promising results. In this review, we highlight the mechanisms of drug resistance and the novel strategies using nanoscale drugs to eliminate CSCs.
A semantic web-based approach for personalizing news

Hermes is an ontology-based framework for building news personalization services. This framework consists of a news classification phase, which classifies the news, a knowledge base updating phase, which keeps the knowledge base up-to-date, a news querying phase, allowing the user to search the news for concepts of interest, and a results presentation phase, showing the returned news items. The focus of this paper is on how to keep the knowledge base up-to-date. For this purpose, we elaborate on the updating phase that searches for key events in the news. Using rules based on patterns and actions, these events can be extracted and the knowledge base is updated. This is a semi-automatic process since user validation is required before updating the knowledge base.
A Histogram-Based Quality Model for HTTP Adaptive Streaming

HTTP Adaptive Streaming (HAS) has become a popular solution for multimedia delivery nowadays. Because of throughput variations, video quality fluctuates during a streaming session. Therefore, a main challenge in HAS is how to evaluate the overall video quality of a session. In this paper, we explore the impacts of quality values and quality variations in HAS. We propose to use the histogram of segment quality values and the histogram of quality gradients in a session to model the overall video quality. Subjective test results show that the proposed model has very high prediction performance for different videos. Especially, the proposed model provides insights into the influence factors of the overall quality, thus leading to suggestions to improve the quality of streaming video. key words: video quality model, adaptive streaming, subjective test, histogram
Demo: Non-classic Interference Alignment for Downlink Cellular Networks

Our demo aims at proving the concept of a recent proposed interference management scheme that reduces the inter-cell interference in downlink without complex coordination, known as non-classic interference alignment (IA) scheme. We assume a case where one main Base Station (BS) needs to serve three users equipments (UE) while another BS is causing interference. The primary goal is to construct the alignment scheme ; i.e. each UE estimates the main and interfered channel coefficients, calculates the optimal interference free directions dropped by the interfering BS and feeds them back to the main BS which in turn applies a scheduling to select the best free inter-cell interference directions. Once the scheme is build, we are able to measure the total capacity of the downlink interference channel. We run the scheme in CorteXlab ; a controlled hardware facility located in Lyon, France with remotely programmable radios and multi-node processing capabilities, and we illustrate the achievable capacity gain for different channel realizations.
Periodic travelling waves in cyclic populations: field studies and reaction–diffusion models

Periodic travelling waves have been reported in a number of recent spatio-temporal field studies of populations undergoing multi-year cycles. Mathematical modelling has a major role to play in understanding these results and informing future empirical studies. We review the relevant field data and summarize the statistical methods used to detect periodic waves. We then discuss the mathematical theory of periodic travelling waves in oscillatory reaction–diffusion equations. We describe the notion of a wave family, and various ecologically relevant scenarios in which periodic travelling waves occur. We also discuss wave stability, including recent computational developments. Although we focus on oscillatory reaction–diffusion equations, a brief discussion of other types of model in which periodic travelling waves have been demonstrated is also included. We end by proposing 10 research challenges in this area, five mathematical and five empirical.
Offspring ADHD as a Risk Factor for Parental Marital Problems: Controls for Genetic and Environmental Confounds

Background: Previous studies have found that child attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is associated with more parental marital problems. However, the reasons for this association are unclear. The association might be due to genetic or environmental confounds that contribute to both marital problems and ADHD. Method: Data were drawn from the Australian Twin Registry, including 1,296 individual twins, their spouses, and offspring. We studied adult twins who were discordant for offspring ADHD. Using a discordant twin pairs design, we examined the extent to which genetic and environmental confounds, as well as measured parental and offspring characteristics, explain the ADHD–marital problems association. Results: Offspring ADHD predicted parental divorce and marital conflict. The associations were also robust when comparing differentially exposed identical twins to control for unmeasured genetic and environmental factors, when controlling for measured maternal and paternal psychopathology, when restricting the sample based on timing of parental divorce and ADHD onset, and when controlling for other forms of offspring psychopathology. Each of these controls rules out alternative explanations for the association. Conclusion: The results of the current study converge with those of prior research in suggesting that factors directly associated with offspring ADHD increase parental marital problems.
Polarity of microtubules nucleated by centrosomes and chromosomes of Chinese hamster ovary cells in vitro

The structural and growth polarities of centrosomal and chromosomal microtubules were studied by analyzing the kinetics of growth of these microtubules and those initiated by flagellar seeds. By comparing rates of elongation of centrosomal and flagellar-seeded microtubules, we determined whether the centrosomal microtubules were free to grow at their plus ends only, minus ends ony, or at both ends. Our results show that centrosomal microtubules elongate at a rate corresponding to the addition of subunits at the plus end only. The depolymerization rate was also equivalent to that for the plus end only. Chromosomal microtubule elongation was similar to the centrosome-initiated growth. Since the data do not support the hypothesis that both ends of these spindle microtubules are able to interact with monomer in solution, then growth must occur only distal or only proximal to the organizing centers, implying tha the opposite ends in unavailable for exchange of subunits. Experiments with flagellar-seeded microtubules serving as internal controls indicated that the inactivity of the minus end could not be accounted for by a diffusible inhibitor, suggesting a structural explanation. Since there is no apparent way in which the distal ends may be capped, whereas the proximal ends are embedded in the pericentriolar cloud, we conclude that centrosomal microtubules are oriented with their plus ends distal to the site of nucleation. A similar analysis for chromosomal microtubules suggests that they too must be oriented with their plus ends distal to the site of initiation.
Hidden Markov model-based strategy for gait segmentation using inertial sensors: Application to elderly, hemiparetic patients and Huntington's disease patients

A solution to discriminate stance and swing in both healthy and abnormal gait using inertial sensors is proposed. The method is based on a two states hidden Markov model trained in a supervised way. The proposed method can generalize across different groups of subjects, without the need of parameters tuning. Leave-one-subject-out validation tests showed 20 ms and 16 ms errors on average in the determination of foot strike and toe off events across the three groups of subjects including 10 elderly, 10 hemiparetic patients and 10 Huntington's disease patients. The proposed methodology can be implemented online in portable devices to be used in clinical practice or in everyday personal health assessment.
Image-based Automated Reconstruction of the Great Buddha of Bamiyan, Afghanistan

In the great valley of Bamiyan, Afghanistan, two big standing Buddha statues were carved out of the sedimentary rock of the region around the second to fourth centuries AD. The larger statue was 53 meters high while the smaller Buddha measured 35 m. The two colossal statues were demolished on March 2001 by the Taleban, using mortars, dynamite and rockets. After the destruction, a consortium was founded to rebuild the Great Buddha at original shape, size and place. Our group performed the required computer reconstruction, which can serve as the basis for the physical reconstruction. The work has been done using three different types of imagery in parallel and in this paper we present our results of the 3D computer reconstruction of the statue using automated approaches of image analysis.
Insertion of a laryngeal mask airway in the prone position.

I read with interest the article by Ng et al. (1) regarding induction of anesthesia and insertion of a laryngeal mask airway (LMA) in the prone position. Some earlier reports on the placement of LMA in the prone position should be cited as references (2,3). In the figure, the anesthesiologist does not wear gloves, which may harm the relevant physician. The standard precautions for health-care workers should be taken during all encounters with patients. Additionally, the LMA cuff does not appear to be adequately collapsed. This practice may produce soft tissue trauma to the airway, induce laryngospasm and/or push down the epiglottis (4). In addition, the LMA does not appear to be secured, which may lead it to dislodge due to gravity and cause it to be squeezed up out of the pharynx when nitrous oxide diffuses into the cuff. Lastly, if properly oxygenated, ventilation via a face mask is not necessary during anesthesia induction with propofol without the use of muscle relaxants (2,3,5,6). Both apnea and airway obstruction, the main disadvantages of propofol, can be overcome with the insertion of an LMA (5,6). Thus, I do not think that ventilation via a mask should be performed before LMA insertion especially in the awkward prone position because LMA itself can provide a better airway, with respect to ventilation and oxygenation, than a conventional mask and oropharyngeal airway (7,8). During LMA insertion in the prone position, keeping the neck flexed and the head extended does not seem to be needed because the tongue falls anteriorly by gravity (1,3), and the head may be slightly turned to the side (1) or extended (2,3). Besides, LMA can be inserted in the same way as recommended in the supine position except that we may grasp it with the aperture facing the intubator. While inflating the cuff, we should hold the LMA passively to prevent it from being withdrawn by the weight of LMA and anesthetic hosing and to yield to a small outward movement during cuff inflation. A spare trolley should be available to move the patient to a supine position in case of airway emergency (1,3). However, patients may be allowed to recover in the prone position until the return of reflexes allows removal of the LMA (2).
Discriminative tag learning on YouTube videos with latent sub-tags

We consider the problem of content-based automated tag learning. In particular, we address semantic variations (sub-tags) of the tag. Each video in the training set is assumed to be associated with a sub-tag label, and we treat this sub-tag label as latent information. A latent learning framework based on LogitBoost is proposed, which jointly considers both the tag label and the latent sub-tag label. The latent sub-tag information is exploited in our framework to assist the learning of our end goal, i.e., tag prediction. We use the cowatch information to initialize the learning process. In experiments, we show that the proposed method achieves significantly better results over baselines on a large-scale testing video set which contains about 50 million YouTube videos.
Improved Cut-Based Foreground Identification

Automatic content based schemes, as opposed to those with human endeavor, have become important as users attempt to organize massive data presented in the form of multimedia data such as images, and home or movie videos. One important goal, be it in shot understanding, or scene detection, or compression, is the ability to find foreground pixels. This higher level task is best realized using a graphbased description of the input image or video. The normalized cut framework is appealing because it looks at an image or an image sequence from a global perspective. Unfortunately due to quadratic storage and time complexity, the algorithm appears to be infeasible to use on medium and large datasets. In this paper, we show how to make graph based schemes tractable and useful.
Family Involvement in Rehabilitation: A Developmental Model

The family has assumed an increasingly important role in the conceptualization of the course and treatment of schizophrenia. Psychosocial treatments that intervene at the environmental level to reduce stress, such as family interventions, have been shown to have a positive effect on the subsequent course of schizophrenic illness (Goldstein, et aI., 1978; Falloon, etal., 1982; Leffet aI., 1982, 1985; FalloonP Hogartyet aI., 1986, 1991;Tarrier, 1988; Randolph et aI., 1994). Given the importance ofthe family in terms oftheir effect on the course of illness, the burden suffered, and their lack of satisfaction with existing treatment by professionals, it is critical to systematically investigate family involvement patterns and ultimately use the information to target treatment more effectively. The Clinical Research Services Panel ofNIMH (1992) has recommended that the varying kinds and degrees offamily involvement "should become an important variable in rehabilitation effectiveness research" (Attkisson, 1992, p. 601).
Explaining the difference between PISA 2009 reading scores in Finland and Estonia

The aim of the study was to explain the difference between the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2009 reading results for Finland and Estonia using characteristics of teaching and learning, and characteristics of the overall development of these countries. PISA data were collected via a reading test and student questionnaires from 4,729 students in Estonia and 5,810 students in Finland. Regression analysis made it possible to identify the speed of the rise in PISA scores in relation to the selected variables. The speed was multiplied by the value of the variable to calculate the effect of the variable. The effects of the joy of reading and the diversity of reading materials were greater in Finland, but the effects of metacognition and online reading activities were greater in Estonia. The countries had different values for several indices of development, and this was concordant with the difference in the PISA scores.
Clostridium difficile Carriage and Serum Antitoxin Responses in Children with Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Background:Adults with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) have a high prevalence of Clostridium difficile carriage, but little data exist regarding pediatric patients with IBD. Serum antibody responses to C. difficile toxins in correlation with organism carriage are not described in IBD. This study determines the prevalence of C. difficile carriage and compares serum antibody responses to C. difficile toxins in pediatric outpatients with IBD and controls. Methods:Fecal and serum samples were prospectively collected from pediatric outpatients with IBD (n = 85) and age-matched controls (n = 78). Initial and follow-up stool samples were tested using cytotoxigenic C. difficile culture and PCR to detect the toxin B gene. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis determined the strain type. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay determined serum immunoglobulin responses to C. difficile toxins. Results:Asymptomatic C. difficile carriage was significantly greater in IBD (17%) versus controls (3%) (P = 0.012). IBD type, disease severity, IBD therapy, recent antibiotics, and hospitalizations were not associated with carriage. Proton pump inhibitor use was significantly higher in patients with C. difficile carriage (54% versus 25%, P < 0.05). North American pulsed-field (NAP) strain carriage varied over time in patients colonized with C. difficile. A significantly greater proportion of patients with IBD had a positive serum antibody response to toxin A (69%) compared with controls (53%) (P < 0.05). Conclusions:Asymptomatic toxigenic C. difficile carriage was increased in pediatric outpatients with IBD compared with controls. Proton pump inhibitor use was associated with increased carriage. Antibody responses to C. difficile toxins were increased in IBD, potentially promoting asymptomatic colonization. Future studies should identify the risk factors for symptomatic C. difficile in pediatric IBD.
Affect and Artificial Intelligence

In 1950, Alan Turing, the British mathematician, cryptographer, and computer pioneer, looked to the future: now that the conceptual and technical parameters for electronic brains had been established, what kind of intelligence could be built? Should machine intelligence mimic the abstract thinking of a chess player or should it be more like the developing mind of a child? Should an intelligent agent only think, or should it also learn, feel, and grow? Affect and Artificial Intelligence is the first in-depth analysis of affect and intersubjectivity in the computational sciences. Elizabeth Wilson makes use of archival and unpublished material from the early years of AI (1945-70) until the present to show that early researchers were more engaged with questions of emotion than many commentators have assumed. She documents how affectivity was managed in the canonical works of Walter Pitts in the 1940s and Turing in the 1950s, in projects from the 1960s that injected artificial agents into psychotherapeutic encounters, in chess-playing machines from the 1940s to the present, and in the Kismet (sociable robotics) project at MIT in the 1990s.
Modifications to a LATE MERISTEM IDENTITY1 gene are responsible for the major leaf shapes of Upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.)

Significance Leaves are the primary source of photoassimilate in crop plants. A precise understanding of the genetic architecture underlying leaf morphology is critical to engineering climate-resilient crop varieties. An ideal cotton cultivar would produce a lower canopy of broad, normal leaves before transitioning to an upper canopy of highly lobed, okra leaves. Here we show that the major leaf shapes of cotton are controlled by the okra locus, which encodes an HD-Zip transcription factor Gossypium hirsutum LATE MERISTEM IDENTITY1-D1b (GhLMI1-D1b). Using gene silencing, we temporarily induced normal leaf formation in okra, thus validating the candidate gene and creating the leaf shape ideotype in cotton. This study, identifying a single locus responsible for cotton leaf shape, expands the genetic toolbox for breeders to produce superior cotton varieties. Leaf shape varies spectacularly among plants. Leaves are the primary source of photoassimilate in crop plants, and understanding the genetic basis of variation in leaf morphology is critical to improving agricultural productivity. Leaf shape played a unique role in cotton improvement, as breeders have selected for entire and lobed leaf morphs resulting from a single locus, okra (l-D1), which is responsible for the major leaf shapes in cotton. The l-D1 locus is not only of agricultural importance in cotton, but through pioneering chimeric and morphometric studies, it has contributed to fundamental knowledge about leaf development. Here we show that an HD-Zip transcription factor homologous to the LATE MERISTEM IDENTITY1 (LMI1) gene of Arabidopsis is the causal gene underlying the l-D1 locus. The classical okra leaf shape allele has a 133-bp tandem duplication in the promoter, correlated with elevated expression, whereas an 8-bp deletion in the third exon of the presumed wild-type normal allele causes a frame-shifted and truncated coding sequence. Our results indicate that subokra is the ancestral leaf shape of tetraploid cotton that gave rise to the okra allele and that normal is a derived mutant allele that came to predominate and define the leaf shape of cultivated cotton. Virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) of the LMI1-like gene in an okra variety was sufficient to induce normal leaf formation. The developmental changes in leaves conferred by this gene are associated with a photosynthetic transcriptomic signature, substantiating its use by breeders to produce a superior cotton ideotype.