Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Simple Colloidal Silver Method (Autometallographic Technique) for Demonstrating Inorganic Mercury in Brain Sections

Abstract Standard methods for mercury measurement estimate total mercury burden in tissues but are not informative about cellular localization, for which histochemical techniques are needed. Because the main target of the toxic effects of mercury is the nervous system, it is of particular interest to localize its reservoir within the brain. This paper presents a simple, autometallographic method for demonstrating inorganic mercury in paraffin sections of brain by utilizing a buffered colloidal silver solution that contains hydroquinone. Formalin fixed, paraffin processed brain sections are cut at 7 μm and hydrated with deionized water. The sections are placed in a buffered colloidal silver nitrate solution containing hydroquinone and kept in a 37°C oven for 18 to 20 min. They are then washed immediately in hot running water and rinsed in deionized water. Following treatment with 2% sodium thiosulfate for 1 min, they are rinsed in deionized water and counterstained with nuclear fast red for 3 min or with cresyl violet acetate for 5 min. After the slides are rinsed in deionized water, they are dehydrated in alcohol, cleared in xylene, and mounted with synthetic resin. Mercury stains black and the results are consistent and reliable. (The J Histotechnol 23:337, 2000)
Are multifractal multipermuted multinomial measures good enough for unsupervised image segmentation?

By extending multinomial measures, a new class of self-similar multifractal measures is developed for texture representation. Two multifractal features have been shown to be suitable for texture discrimination and classification. Their use within a supervised segmentation framework provides us with satisfactory results. In this paper we complete the survey on these features by showing their rotation invariant property and their scaling behaviour. Both properties are particularly important for analyzing aerial images because the geographical elements can appear in different orientations and scales. Then, an automatic clustering algorithm based on a watershed technique is used for the segmentation of real world images. The experimental results are encouraging.
Photonic Dynamic Channel Allocation in Optical-Frequency-Interleaved DWDM Millimeter-Wave-Band Radio-over-Fiber Access Network

We newly propose a photonic dynamic channel allocation (DCA) for optical-frequency-interleaved dense wavelength division multiplexed (DWDM) millimeter-waveband (mm-wave-band) radio-over-fiber (RoF) systems. Two types of remote nodes (RNs) equipped with an optical cross-connect switch, a novel simple wavelength demultiplexer and multiplexer, which have a function of the photonic DCA, are investigated. We experimentally demonstrate for the first time an error-free photonic DCA operation of four-channel and six-channel 60-GHz-band RoF signals over 25-km plus 2-km standard single-mode fibers with 25-GHz channel spacing.
Function Approximation Model Ensembles for the Simultaneous Determinations of Odor Classes and Concentrations

This paper presents a kind of combinative function approximation models to simultaneously estimate many kinds of odor classes and concentrations. A single approximation model, namely an expert, may be a multivariate logarithmic regression (MVLR), a quadratic multivariate logarithmic regression (QMVLR), a multilayer perceptron (MLP), or a support vector machine (SVM). An ensemble is made up of four such experts, and simulates the behaviors of gas sensor array to a specified kind of odor. The real outputs of each ensemble are the average predicted concentrations as well as relative standard deviations (RSDs) of odor samples. The ensemble with the most identical views finally gives the label and concentration of a sample. The "most identical view" is weighed by the sizes of RSDs given by all ensembles. The experimental results for 4 kinds of fragrant materials, 21 concentrations in total, show that the proposed approximation model ensembles and combination strategies are effective for simultaneously estimating many kinds of odor classes and concentrations
Enzymatic determination of itoic acid, a Bacillus subtilis siderophore, and 2,3-dihydroxybenzoic acid

A specific enzymatic method to determine the amounts of itoic acid, a Bacillus subtilis siderophore, and 2,3-dihydroxybenzoic acid (2,3-DHBA) was devised. A sample was incubated first with hippurate hydrolase and then with 2,3-DHBA-3,4-dioxygenase. Itoic acid was estimated from the increase in A374. The incubation with the first enzyme was omitted for the determination of 2,3-DHBA.
Enamel Matrix Derivative Stimulates Human Gingival Fibroblast Proliferation via ERK

Emdogain®, a formulation of Enamel Matrix Proteins, is used clinically for periodontal regeneration to stimulate PDL (periodontal ligament), cementum, and bone formation. Its effects on gingival fibroblasts and tissue have not been thoroughly studied. Therefore, we investigated the mechanisms by which Emdogain affects the cell cycle of human gingival fibroblasts. Without serum, Emdogain (50 μg/mL) induced human gingival fibroblast entry into the S phase and DNA synthesis, but not completion of the cell cycle. With low serum concentrations (0.2–0.5%), Emdogain synergistically induced completion of the cell cycle, resulting in increased cell numbers. The mitogenic response to Emdogain depended on Extracellular Regulated Kinase (ERK) activation, which occurred in two waves, peaking after 15 min and 4 to 6 hrs, since it was abolished by U0126, a specific MAPK inhibitor. Inhibition of the second wave was sufficient to abrogate mitogenesis. This study characterized the mitogenic effect of Emdogain on primary human gingival fibroblasts, its cooperation with serum growth factors, and the key mediatory role of the ERK cascade.
Long-term effects of the Family Bereavement Program on spousally bereaved parents: Grief, mental health problems, alcohol problems, and coping efficacy

Abstract This study reports on the findings from a 6-year follow-up of a randomized trial of the Family Bereavement Program (FBP) on the outcomes for spousally bereaved parents. Spousally bereaved parents (N = 131) participated in the trial in which they were randomly assigned to receive the FBP (N = 72) or literature control (N = 59). Parents were assessed at four time points: pretest, posttest, and 11-month and 6-year follow-up. They reported on mental health problems, grief, and parenting at all four time periods. At the 6-year follow-up, parents reported on additional measures of persistent complex bereavement disorder, alcohol abuse problems, and coping efficacy. Bereaved parents in the FBP as compared to those in the literature control had lower levels of symptoms of depression, general psychiatric distress, prolonged grief, and alcohol problems, and higher coping efficacy (for mothers) at the 6-year follow-up. Multiple characteristics of the parent (e.g., gender, age, and baseline mental health problems) and of the spousal death (e.g., cause of death) were tested as moderators of program effects on each outcome, but only 3 of 45 tests of moderation were significant. Latent growth modeling found that the effects of the FBP on depression, psychiatric distress, and grief occurred immediately following program participation and were maintained over 6 years. Mediation analysis found that improvement in positive parenting partially mediated program effects to reduce depression and psychiatric distress, but had an indirect effect to higher levels of grief at the 6-year follow-up. Mediation analysis also found that improved parenting at the 6-year follow-up was partially mediated by program effects to reduce depression and that program effects to increase coping efficacy at the 6-year follow-up was partially mediated through reduced depression and grief and improved parenting. FBP reduced mental health problems, prolonged grief, and alcohol abuse, and increased coping efficacy of spousally bereaved parents 6 years later. Mediation pathways for program effects differed across outcomes at the 6-year follow-up.
Letter: Performance of SVM and Bayesian classifiers on the systematic review classification task

We are grateful to Professor Cohen for his letter and clarification of the support vector machine algorithm (SVM) results (in press). We agree that the results he supplies fill a gap in our paper. We could not have performed this comparison in our paper, as the first version was written prior to the publication of his own article,1 which in any case, as Dr Cohen points out, did not include the SVM results in terms of within-groups sum of squares (WSS). We would like, however, to …
Short‐ and long‐term toxicities of multi‐walled carbon nanotubes in vivo and in vitro

As nanomaterials are developed and applied, their potential for health hazards needs to be determined. In the present study, we used commercial nude multi‐walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) trimmed to a short length (50–200 nm; s‐MWCNTs) and synthesized functionalized MWCNTs with polyethylene glycol (PEG) (s‐MWCNTs‐PEG). We then studied the toxic effects of s‐MWCNTs and s‐MWCNTs‐PEG on cultured cells and in a mouse model. Peripheral haemograms and various biochemical markers of the heart, liver and kidney were measured. We found no toxicity of either type of nanotube on the viability of human SKBR‐3 breast carcinoma cells or control cells. There were no differences in vivo on inflammatory responses, the coagulation system, haemograms or vital organ functions between the test and control groups. Additionally, we found no toxicity of these nanotubes on male mouse sperm production or mutagenesis in the long term. In conclusion, both s‐MWCNTs and s‐MWCNTs‐PEG displayed good in vitro and in vivo biocompatibility, making future applications in biology and clinical therapy as a carrier for drug delivery feasible. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Cavitation and Its Discontents: Opportunities for Resolving Current Controversies1[C]

An understanding of cavitation and the spread of embolism in plant xylem can be viewed from the perspective of physical models of air seeding, the potential for artifacts to interact with natural variation in xylem structure, and new technologies that could lead to their resolution. Cavitation has long been recognized as a key constraint on the structure and functional integrity of the xylem. Yet, recent results call into question how well we understand cavitation in plants. Here, we consider embolism formation in angiosperms at two scales. The first focuses on how air-seeding occurs at the level of pit membranes, raising the question of whether capillary failure is an appropriate physical model. The second addresses methodological uncertainties that affect our ability to infer the formation of embolism and its reversal in plant stems. Overall, our goal is to open up fresh perspectives on the structure-function relationships of xylem.
CrowdMap: Crowdsourcing based city traffic map generation

Bus transports in the cities of many developing countries are marred with severe problems, like information unavailability, bad road and bus conditions, lack of proper scheduling and timing, and so on. An information service can become extremely handy for the travelers in countries with emerging economy, where public traffic systems are generally riddled with uncertainty. We have developed CrowdMap an intelligent data logging module for smart-phones and a server side processing mechanism to extract road and bus route information, and to annotate them over the city map.
Étude du méandrement du sillage éolien lointain dans différentes conditions de rugosité

Le phenomene connu sous l'appellation "meandrement" (ou meandering) designe les variations aleatoires de la trajectoire du sillage aerodynamique d'une eolienne. Ce phenomene est responsable de contraintes mecaniques particulieres sur les eoliennes positionnees dans le sillage d'autres eoliennes et joue donc role dans la conception et dans la prevision de production des parcs eoliens.Ce travail propose d'etudier le meandrement par des moyens experimentaux et numeriques. La problematique est traitee en deux parties, la premiere portant sur la modelisation de l'ecoulement de couche limite atmospherique, avec une attention particuliere portee a la modelisation des grandes echelles de la turbulence atmospherique. La seconde partie porte sur l'etude du sillage d'un disque actuateur soumis a un ecoulement atmospherique. Chacune de ces parties comporte un volet experimental et un volet numerique. La modelisation numerique instationnaire de l'ecoulement atmospherique fait intervenir une technique de generation stochastique de champs de vitesse turbulente avec evolution temporelle, specialement developpee au cours de la presente these et a laquelle un chapitre specifique est dedie.L'un des principaux resultats est que le meandrement du sillage est fortement correle avec les grandes echelles de la turbulence atmospherique.
Experimental assessment of an innovation knowledge system for decision support

Purpose – Today, a second generation of computer‐based innovation tools employs knowledge systems technology to automate and support key intellectual activities required for effective process design. But a central question remains as to the effectiveness of innovation through such knowledge systems. The research described in this paper is focused on testing the effectiveness of knowledge‐based process‐innovation systems.Design/methodology/approach – One such system called “KOPeR‐lite” is employed as a platform for experimentation to assess the relative efficacy of process designs generated by people using this tool versus that of designs developed by people without it.Findings – Performing in a decision‐support role, KOPeR‐lite helps people to perform comparatively well in certain respects, but human subjects without this tool outperform their KOPeR‐lite‐supported counterparts in others.Originality/value – The results provide evidence to support some claims of innovation efficacy through knowledge systems.
Effects of low temperature on in vivo and in vitro protein synthesis in Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas fluorescens

The effects of temperature on protein synthesis by Escherichia coli, a mesophile, and Pseudomonas fluorescens, a psychotroph, were investigated by using whole-cell and cell extract preparations. After shifts to 5 degrees C, protein was synthesized at a slowly decreasing rate for 1 h by both organisms, after which P. fluorescens synthesized protein at a new rate corresponding to its 5 degrees growth rate, in contrast to E. coli which did not synthesize protein at a measurable rate. In vitro protein-synthesizing systems using MS-2 RNA, endogenous mRNA, and purified polysomes were utilized to investigate initiation of translation at 5 degrees C. In these systems, P. fluorescens cell extracts synthesized protein at linear rates for up to 2 h at 5 degrees C, whereas E. coli cell extracts synthesized protein for only 25 min at 5 degrees C. The rates of polypeptide elongation, as tested by the incorporation of phenylalanine into polyphenylalanine by cell extract protein-synthesizing systems from both organisms, were identical over the range of 25 to 0 degrees C. The polysome profiles of E. coli whole cells shifted from 37 to 5 degrees C showed accumulation of 70S ribosomal particles and ribosomal subunits at the expense of polysomes. Similar experiements done with P. fluorescens resulted in polysome reformation at 5 degrees C. In vitro experiments demonstrated that the 70S ribosomal particles, which accumulated in E. coli at 5 degrees C, were capable of synthesizing protein in vitro in the absence of added mRNA. These in vivo and in vitro results suggest that incubation of E. coli at subminimal temperatures results in a block in initiation of translation causing polysomal runoff and the accumulation of 70S particles, some of which are 70S monosomes.
Fully Closed Genome Sequences of Five Type Strains of the Genus Cronobacter and One Cronobacter sakazakii Strain

ABSTRACT Cronobacter is associated with infant infections and the consumption of reconstituted infant formula. Here we sequenced and closed six genomes of C. condimentiT, C. muytjensiiT, C. universalisT, C. malonaticusT, C. dublinensisT, and C. sakazakii that can be used as reference genomes in single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-based next-generation sequencing (NGS) analysis for source tracking investigations.
Reverse Engineering Top-k Join Queries

Ranked lists have become a fundamental tool to represent the most important items taken from a large collection of data. Search engines, sports leagues and e-commerce platforms present their results, most successful teams and most popular items in a concise and structured way by making use of ranked lists. This paper introduces the PALEO-J framework which is able to reconstruct top-k database queries, given only the original query output in the form of a ranked list and the database itself. The query to be reverse engineered may contain a wide range of aggregation functions and an arbitrary amount of equality joins, joining several database relations. The challenge of this work is to reconstruct complex queries as fast as possible while operating on large databases and given only the little amount of information provided by the top-k list of entities serving as input. The core contribution is identifying the join predicates in reverse engineering top-k OLAP queries. Furthermore we introduce several optimizations and an advanced classification system to reduce the execution time of the algorithm. Experiments conducted on a large database show the performance of the presented approach and confirm the benefits of our optimizations.
Radiology's ethical responsibility for healthcare reform: Tempering the overutilization of medical imaging and trimming down a heavyweight

In this review we describe the problem of overutilization of high‐cost imaging modalities, especially magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT). The overuse of CT is numerically more dramatic and also carries with it the not insignificant risk of harm to patients, namely, induction of radiation‐induced malignancies. We report what is known of these risks in various imaging scenarios. The use of Radiology Business Managers is described as a means adopted to control overuse and the limitations of this strategy. The imperative of appropriate utilization is focused on, with emphasis placed on computer‐based medical decision support. Impediments to appropriate use, however, exist, with concerns of medicolegal liability high on the list of these issues. Finally, we recommend that radiologists take the lead in the reform process by implementing strategies such as decision support. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2012;35:512‐517. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
1 “ Pyramiding ” : Efficient identification of rare subjects

The need to economically identify rare subjects within large, poorly-mapped search spaces is a frequently-encountered problem for social scientists and managers. It is notoriously difficult, for example, to identify “the best new CEO for our company,” or the “best three lead users to participate in our product development project. ” Mass screening of entire populations or samples becomes steadily more expensive as the number of acceptable solutions within the search space becomes rarer. Pyramiding can be significantly more efficient under many conditions. “Pyramiding” is a search process based upon the view that people with a strong interest in a topic or field tend to know people more expert than themselves. In this paper we empirically explore the efficiency of pyramiding searches relative to mass screening in search spaces where there is only one “best” solution. In four experiments, we find that pyramiding in each case identifies the best solution within the search space using an average of only 30% of the effort required by mass screening. Based on our findings, we propose conditions under which pyramiding will be a more efficient approach to exploring a search space than screening. * MIT Sloan School of Management, Cambridge, MA, USA: evhippel@mit.edu ** WU Wien (Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration), Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (www.e-and-i.org), Vienna User Innovation Research Initiative (www.userinnovation.at), Austria: nikolaus.franke@wu-wien.ac. at *** Innsbruck University School of Management, Marketing Group of the Department of Strategic Management, Marketing, and Tourism, Austria: reinhard.pruegl@uibk.ac. at
Exploitation of the self in community-based software production: Workers' freedoms or firm foundations?

Free and open-source software (FOSS) communities constitute an arena in which thousands of users voluntarily explore design codes, spot bugs in codes, and make contributions to the code in a fashion at odds with the otherwise hugely competitive software market. This computerisation movement emerged as a challenge to the domination of such behemoth firms as Microsoft and IBM, and is portrayed as having a revolutionary ultimate goal: ‘to provide free software to do all of the jobs computer users want to do’ (Free Software Foundation, 2008). We ask to what extent FOSS actually challenges the orthodoxy: does ego-less programming of the information bazaar really free participants from the stuffy pews of the cathedral, and challenge the essence of capitalism?
Virtual Environment Training Therapy for Arm Motor Rehabilitation

Enhanced feedback provided by a virtual reality system has been shown to promote motor learning in normal subjects. We evaluated whether this approach could be useful for treating patients with motor deficits following brain lesions. Fifty subjects with mild to intermediate arm impairments due to stroke were selected for the study. The patients received treatment daily for one month, consisting of an hour of virtual-environment therapy with enhanced feedback. Before and after the therapy, we assessed the degree of motor impairment and autonomy in daily living activities using the Fugl-Meyer scale for the upper extremities and Functional Independence Measure, respectively. We also analyzed the velocity, duration, and morphology of a sequence of reaching movements, finally comparing the kinematic measures with the scores obtained on the clinical scales. The rehabilitation therapy yielded significant improvements over baseline values in the mean scores on the Fugl-Meyer and Functional Independence Measure scales. The mean Fugl-Meyer score correlated significantly with the duration and velocity of reaching movements. The collated data indicate that motor recovery in post-stroke patients may be promoted by the enhanced feedback provided in a virtual environment and that kinematic analysis of their movements provides reliable measures of motor function changes in response to treatment.
Analyzing Knowledge Transfer in Deep Q-Networks for Autonomously Handling Multiple Intersections

We analyze how the knowledge to autonomously handle one type of intersection, represented as a Deep Q-Network, translates to other types of intersections (tasks). We view intersection handling as a deep reinforcement learning problem, which approximates the state action Q function as a deep neural network. Using a traffic simulator, we show that directly copying a network trained for one type of intersection to another type of intersection decreases the success rate. We also show that when a network that is pre-trained on Task A and then is fine-tuned on a Task B, the resulting network not only performs better on the Task B than an network exclusively trained on Task A, but also retained knowledge on the Task A. Finally, we examine a lifelong learning setting, where we train a single network on five different types of intersections sequentially and show that the resulting network exhibited catastrophic forgetting of knowledge on previous tasks. This result suggests a need for a long-term memory component to preserve knowledge.