Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Does scent attractiveness reveal women's ovulatory timing? Evidence from signal detection analyses and endocrine predictors of odour attractiveness

Odour cues associated with shifts in ovarian hormones indicate ovulatory timing in females of many nonhuman species. Although prior evidence supports women's body odours smelling more attractive on days when conception is possible, that research has left ambiguous how diagnostic of ovulatory timing odour cues are, as well as whether shifts in odour attractiveness are correlated with shifts in ovarian hormones. Here, 46 women each provided six overnight scent and corresponding day saliva samples spaced five days apart, and completed luteinizing hormone tests to determine ovulatory timing. Scent samples collected near ovulation were rated more attractive, on average, relative to samples from the same women collected on other days. Importantly, however, signal detection analyses showed that rater discrimination of fertile window timing from odour attractiveness ratings was very poor. Within-women shifts in salivary oestradiol and progesterone were not significantly associated with within-women shifts in odour attractiveness. Between-women, mean oestradiol was positively associated with mean odour attractiveness. Our findings suggest that raters cannot reliably detect women's ovulatory timing from their scent attractiveness. The between-women effect of oestradiol raises the possibility that women's scents provide information about overall cycle fecundity, though further research is necessary to rigorously investigate this possibility.
An Iterative Maximum Likelihood Synchronization Method for OFDM System

OFDM system divides a wideband transmission bandwidth into several overlapped narrowband subcarriers to avoid the serious frequency selective fading problem. However, if Timing Offset (TO) and Carrier Frequency Offset (CFO) exist between the Transmitter (Tx) and Receiver (Rx), OFDM system will suffer the Inter-Symbol Interference (ISI) and Inter-Carrier Interference (ICI) that degrade the system performance dramatically. In this paper, we propose an iterative maximum likelihood method for synchronization. We also adopt the overlap concept to reduce the plateau problem. Simulation results show that the proposed method can predict the time delay and frequency offset correctly even under the multipath fading scenarios.
Volatile floral chemistry of Heliotropium arborescens L. 'Marine'

Additional index words. quality, odor, aroma, fl ower, fragrance Abstract. Selection emphasis on cyme size and fl ower color of Heliotropium arborescens L. has led to cultivars with diminished fl oral fragrance. As a preliminary inquiry into the fragrance chemistry of the species, we identifi ed 41 volatile compounds emanating from the fl owers of 'Marine' via isolation (Tenax trapping) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The majority of the volatile compounds emanating from the fl owers were terpenes (camphene, p-cymene, δ-3-carene, α-humulene, δ-1-limonene, linalool, (E)-β-ocimene, α-pinene, and β-thujone), benzenoids of which benzaldehyde was the most abundant, aldehydes (decanal, heptanal, nonanal and octanal), and hydrocarbons (decane, heneicosane, heptadecane, hexadecane, nonadecane, nonane, octadecane, tetradecane, tridecane and undecane) along with a cross-section of other compounds. Subsequent identifi cation and quantifi cation of critical ordorants will facilitate selecting new cultivars with quantitative and qualitative improvements in fragrance.
Can We Assess Formative Measurement using Item Weights ? A Monte Carlo Simulation Analysis

This study questions a common practice of using ite m weights for construct validity tests in the appli cat on of formative measurement. The practice does not confirm to the t heoretical formation of formative constructs. A Mon te Carlo simulation analysis is conducted to examine the practice. The results clearly demonstrate that item weights do no t reflect the true design of the focal formative construct; using item weight s may mislead the development and the application o f formative instruments in empirical research.
Muscle oxygen saturation increases during head‐up tilt‐induced (pre)syncope

To evaluate whether muscle vasodilatation plays a role for hypotension developed during central hypovolaemia, muscle oxygenation (SmO2) was examined during (pre)syncope induced by head‐up tilt (HUT). Skin blood flow (SkBF) and oxygenation (SskinO2) were determined because evaluation of SmO2 may be affected by superficial tissue oxygenation. Furthermore, we evaluated cerebral oxygenation (ScO2) and middle cerebral artery mean blood flow velocity (MCAvmean).
Murine Cytomegalovirus m02 Gene Family Protects against Natural Killer Cell-Mediated Immune Surveillance

ABSTRACT The murine cytomegalovirus m02 gene family encodes putative type I membrane glycoproteins named m02 through m16. A subset of these genes were fused to an epitope tag and cloned into an expression vector. In transfected and murine cytomegalovirus-infected cells, m02, m04, m05, m06, m07, m09, m10, and m12 localized to cytoplasmic structures near the nucleus, whereas m08 and m13 localized to a filamentous structure surrounding the nucleus. Substitution mutants lacking the m02 gene (SMsubm02) or the entire m02 gene family (SMsubm02-16) grew like their wild-type parent in cultured cells. However, whereas SMsubm02 was as pathogenic as the wild-type virus, SMsubm02-16 was markedly less virulent. SMsubm02-16 produced less infectious virus in most organs compared to wild-type virus in BALB/c and C57BL/6J mice, but it replicated to wild-type levels in the organs of immunodeficient γc/Rag2 mice, lacking multiple cell types including natural killer cells, and in C57BL/6J mice depleted of natural killer cells. These results argue that one or more members of the m02 gene family antagonize natural killer cell-mediated immune surveillance.
Antigenic differences between extracts of actively replicating and synchronized resting cells of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Protein extracts were prepared from aerobically replicating cells of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and from synchronized non-replicating cells derived from the sediments of non-agitated cultures. Although both preparations share a number of antigens, the extracts of the non-replicating cells also contain antigenic components that are not shared by the replicating cells, and which can be isolated and visualized by immunoaffinity chromatography and immunoelectrophoretic techniques.
A System for Dynamically Generating Photo Collage Based on Aesthetics

We present a novel dynamic photo collage generation system which can help users to easily share photos in social networks. The system can generate photo collage layouts based on an aesthetic model. In particular, the system can capture the region of interest (ROI) of photos by user interaction and calculate the attractiveness of each photo by an attractiveness model built via an experimental method. In addition, the system can adjust the layout dynamically based on user interaction.
‘About talk’: The category of talk-reflexive words

Une des caracteristiques de l'homme est sa capacite a parler a propos de son discours, c-a-d a metacommuniquer. C'est sur cette reflexivite que se penche ici l'A. en se concentrant sur un type de mots particulier, les mots portant sur le discours. Son objectif est de suivre le developpement des modes de reflexion dans une phenomenologie generale du discours. Il explique ainsi, dans une 1 e partie, la distinction entre la prereflexion et la reflexion, puis montre, dans une 2 e partie, comment cette distinction est a la fois developpee et mise en cause par les mots portant sur le discours
A PREALIMINARY STUDY OF SHIP DETECTION FROM UAV IMAGES BASED ON COLOR SPACE CONVERSION AND IMAGE SEGMENTATION

Abstract. Ship detection is an inherent process supporting tasks such as fishery management, ship search, marine traffic monitoring and control, and helps in the prevention of illegal activities. So far, sea and shore monitoring has been carried out by ship patrols and aircrafts along with sea vessel detection from data from space-borne platforms. Recently an increase interest in applying images delivered by UAV for marine application due to their advantages such as high spatial resolution, independence on time acquisition can be noticed. While investigating state of the art methods used for ship detection from different platforms using optical images, we found a significant problem with occurrence of a ship wake. This phenomena may prohibit correct detection of ship location and results in overestimating the ship size as the ship and its wake are often considered as being part of the same object in image or wakes are distinguished as a separate ship due to their possible similar brightness compared with sea vessel. In order to reduce the impact of ship wakes we investigated the behavior of images in different color spaces to provide data with little or almost no trace of ship wake. We took into consideration following color spaces: HSV, YCbCr, NTSC, XYZ and L*a*b and investigated each channel from new images. Finally we decided to use 2nd channel of L*a*b space where the ship wakes occurrence were significantly reduced. Object of interest were detected through the use of image segmentation. Applied method uses edge detection based on the gradient magnitude calculation. Afterwards several characteristics such as centroids, major and minor axis, size and orientation were calculated for later use to remove false positives and thus improve accuracy of the proposed method.
Socioeconomic Status of Patients Receiving Electroconvulsive Therapy

Abstract This study describes the relationship between socioeconomic deprivation and electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) prescription and outcomes. Two research questions are addressed in this study: (1) Does the rate of ECT prescription increase with deprivation? and (2) Does deprivation influence ECT outcomes? Electroconvulsive therapy outcomes, of consecutive patients from Aberdeen, were compared across socioeconomic groups determined by the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) quintiles. A primary care sample, invited to complete the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), was used for comparison. The proportion of patients in the most affluent quintile (32%) was greater than that in the least affluent (9%): this reflects the distribution of the local population, unlike the prevalence of depressive disorder, as demonstrated in our primary care group. Severity of depressive symptoms in patients receiving ECT was no different across the socioeconomic groups: before ECT (&khgr;2 = 8.056; df = 4; P = 0.09), after ECT (&khgr;2 = 6.035; df = 4; P = 0.197); nor was the total change in score (&khgr;2 = 4.367; df = 4; P = 0.359). There were no differences among the SIMD quintiles for the number of ECT treatments administered (&khgr;2 = 6.076; df = 4; P = 0.194) or the number of courses of ECT each patient had during contact with the service (&khgr;2 = 6.505; df = 4; P = 0.164). Socioeconomic deprivation has no effect on the rate of ECT prescription or treatment outcomes despite a higher proportion of patients with severe depressive symptoms in the least affluent groups in a local community sample.
Paraprotein Interference Causing Pseudohyperphosphataemia: Evaluation of an Improved Methodology

The measurement of serum inorganic phosphorus by direct acid/molybdate assay is known to be subject to interference by some serum paraproteins. Serum samples from 45 paraproteinaemic patients were used for the measurement of inorganic phosphorus using a manufacturer's kit reagent and a detergent-modified reagent from the same manufacturer. In addition, the same samples were analysed with both reagents following precipitation of serum protein with trichloroacetic acid. Using the original reagent pseudohyperphosphataemia was found in 27% (12/45) of the samples. The modified reagent was free from interference with no significant difference between results from serum and protein-free supernatants.
Effects of essential and non-essential amino acids on in-vitro maturation, fertilization and development of immature bovine oocytes

Background: Addition of amino acids to the culture medium is beneficial for embryonic development in many species. Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of amino acids on the in vitro maturation and embryonic development of the bovine oocyte. Materials and Methods: Bovine ovaries were collected from a local abattoir and brought into laboratory. Cumulus-oocyte complexes (COCs; n=1212) were aspirated from follicles (2-8 mm in diameter) and randomly assigned to four groups for maturation in culture: (1) Basic medium alone as control; (2) Basic medium supplemented with 2% MEM essential amino acids solution; (3) Basic medium supplemented with 1% MEM non-essential amino acids solution; and (4) Basic medium supplemented with 2% MEM essential amino acids solution + 1% MEM non-essential amino acids solution. COCs were incubated in 1 ml maturation medium in an Organ culture dish at 38.5°C in an atmosphere of 5% CO2 with high humidity. After 24 h of culture, 372 oocytes were fixed to determine maturation rate and the remaining oocytes were used for in vitro fertilization (IVF). Following 18 h of insemination, 437 oocytes were fixed and examined for fertilization and 403 oocytes were further cultured. Results: There were no differences in maturation rates and penetration rates among the four groups. Although oocyte cleavage rates were not different in the four groups, embryo development up to the 8-cell stage and blastocyst were significantly higher (p<0.05) in Group (2) and (4) than in the Control and Group (3). Conclusion: These results indicate that the presence of amino acids, especially essential amino acids in the maturation medium is beneficial to oocyte cytoplasmic maturation and subsequent early embryo development in vitro.
Communication Systems

In this paper, we investigate the impetus for a Rake receiver together with an equalizer for UWB communication systems and then develop a novel Rake combining equalizer which employs a blind adaptive algorithm to improve the system performance by mitigating multi-path distortion and suppressing inter-symbol interference (ISI). Simulations have verified the usefulness of this structure in UWB communication systems.
Nursing Home Residents' Sense of Coherence and Functional Status Decline

Functional status decline places an enormous burden on health care services and strategies to identify at risk subgroups are needed. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between sense of coherence (SOC) and functional status to determine if SOC can be used to identify at-risk subgroups. In a convenience sample (N = 65) of nursing home residents measures of functional status and SOC were compared at 2 times. The mean functional status score of the weak SOC group (n = 28) at Time 1 was 16.14 and 17.32 at Time 2 indicating functional status decline. The mean functional status score of the strong SOC group (n = 37) at Time 1 was 12.38 and 11.76 at Time 2 indicating improved functional status. Although these changes were not statistically significant the trends suggest that a weak SOC may indicate increased risk for functional status decline.
Birokrasi Dalam Perspektif “Politik & Administrasi”

Menjelaskan secara tuntas semua hal yang berkaitan dengan pemikiran tentang birokrasi. Membahas ber- bagai konsepsi dan teori birokrasi klasik dan modern, serta pandangan para ahli tentang bentuk birokrasi masa depan. Layak dibaca oleh kalangan mahasiswa, PNS, anggota TNI, Polri, anggota parlemen, anggota DPR, wartawan, pengusaha, pengurus partai politik, dan siapa pun yang berkecimpung dalam bidang-bidang yang bersinggungan dengan institusi sang pelayan masyarakat itu.
The Neurology of Menopause

Background:Menopause is a normal milestone experienced annually by 2 million American women each year, and many women are concerned about the relation between menopause and health. Associated hormonal changes have the potential to influence neurologic disease, as do hormonal therapies prescribed for menopausal symptoms or other conditions. The objective of this article is to increase neurologists’ awareness of the relation between menopause and neurologic illness. Review Summary:This was a focused review of 4 common neurologic disorders potentially influenced by menopause or by estrogen-containing hormone therapy: stroke, epilepsy, Parkinson disease, and Alzheimer disease. Hormonal effects are germane to each illness, although clinical implications are clearer for stroke and Alzheimer disease than for epilepsy and Parkinson disease. For women with epilepsy, few clinical data directly address the role of menopause or estrogen-containing hormone therapy on seizure frequency. Relevant clinical research findings on Parkinson disease are inconsistent and provide an inadequate basis for practice guidelines. There is clinical trial evidence that hormone therapy does not reduce stroke incidence and may increase risk of ischemic stroke; hormone therapy cannot be recommended for stroke prevention. The natural menopausal transition is not characterized by objective memory loss. There is clinical trial evidence that hormone therapy should not be used for the postmenopausal woman age 65 years or older for the preservation of cognitive skills, prevention of dementia, or treatment of dementia due to Alzheimer disease. Long-term cognitive consequences of short-term hormone therapy used by younger women for menopausal symptoms remains an important area of uncertainty. Conclusions:Increased awareness of hormonal influences on neurologic illness is important for the practicing neurologist.
Cerebral Blood Flow in Experimental and Clinical Neurotrauma: Quantitative Assessment

In a modern world the traumatic brain injury (TBI) becomes one of major health problems, with annually 500.000 cases in the US alone (Narayan et al., 2002), it poses the largest threat and considerably the most common cause of both the morbidity and mortality of the human young and pediatric population, and it is one of the major cases of disability and long capability in all ages (Langfitt et al., 1977; Levin et al., 1982; Fife & Jagger, 1984; Luerssen et al., 1988; Kraus et al., 1990). Moreover, TBI to children younger than 4 years of age has been shown to cause significantly more severe neurological, cognitive and motor deficits than in older children (Khoshyomn & Tranmer 2004). Thus TBI is a serious social, medical and scientific problem as well. New data, available to improve both efficacy of treatment and life quality after TBI would benefit each patient with TBI. Despite many successful clinical and laboratory investigations on TBI, many questions of pathophysiology of development and an effective treatment remain open and demand further investigation and understanding (Potts et al., 2006). There is experimental evidence that the inflammatory response may differ in the developing brain as compared to the adult (Fan et al., 2003; Claus et al., 2010; Yoneyama-Sarnecky et al., 2010), another possible factor could be age-dependent differences in posttraumatic cerebral blood circulation (Bayir et al., 2003).
Retinal vessel segmentation under pathological conditions using supervised machine learning

In this paper we present an automated blood vessel segmentation system algorithm for the retinal images under pathological conditions like Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) using matched filters and supervised classification techniques. Matched filter has been extensively used in the enhancement and segmentation of the retinal blood vessels due to the cross sectional similarity of the vessels to the Gaussian profile. However in addition to the vessel edges the non vessel edges also gives a strong response to the matched filter leading to false detection. Based on the structural and spatial differences between the segmented vessels and the non vessels components, we propose a classification technique using machine learning approach to mask out the false detection due to non vessel structures. The proposed method shows an increased accuracy than the state of the art matched filter techniques especially in the case of vessel segmentation from pathologically affected retinal images.
Performance Analysis of OSTBC Transmission in Amplify-and-Forward Cooperative Relay Networks

A performance analysis is presented for amplify-and-forward (AF) cooperative relay networks employing transmit antenna diversity with orthogonal space-time block codes (OSTBCs), where multiple antennas are equipped at the transmitter. We develop a symbol-error-rate (SER) and outage performance analysis for OSTBC transmissions with and without cooperative diversity over flat Rayleigh fading channels. We first derive exact probability density functions (pdf's) and cumulative distribution functions (cdf's) for the system SNR without direct transmission with an arbitrary number of transmit antennas and then present the exact closed-form SER and outage probability expressions. Next, we derive the moment-generating function (MGF) for the overall system SNR with direct transmission and present the exact SER and outage probability with joint transmit antenna diversity and cooperative diversity. The theoretical analysis is validated by simulations, which indicate an exact match between them. The results also show how the transmit antenna diversity and the cooperative diversity affect the overall system performance.
Effects of Dietary Fat on Mammary Development Relative to Age and Hormones in BALB/c Mice

Abstract Earlier studies reported that mammary ducts grew faster if the 10% fat in the diet was composed of oils containing polyunsaturated fatty acids (corn oil: CO) compared to hydrogenated cottonseed oil (HCTO), which is devoid of such fatty acids. These experiments were primarily carried out in immature mice and left unanswered questions regarding the effects of dietary fats on more differentiated stages of mammary development. The use of transplanted ducts permitted the study of mammary growth rates in adult mice. If the diet was started when the animals were adults, there was no difference in the growth rate of those fed HCTO diet compared to those fed CO diet. However, when the diets were fed to immature mice, the mammary gland grew slower in mice fed the HCTO diet, confirming our earlier observations. The HCTO and CO diets caused no difference in the growth rate or morphology of fine ducts and alveoli that developed during pregnancy. Furthermore, no differences were seen in female mice following 6 weeks of progesterone administration begun at 3 week of age. Experiments that used male mice to examine the initial stages of mammary duct growth also showed that the effect of dietary fat was not observed when estrogen (E) or E and progesterone (P) were injected. In addition, there was no effect of dietary fat in ovariectomized 3-week-old females when any dose of E was administered from 0.01 to 1 μg/day. Examination of the ovaries from mice fed either HCTO or CO diets from 3 to 9 weeks or 3 to 13 weeks of age showed that mice fed HCTO diet did not develop corpora lutea, while those fed CO diet had normal appearing ovaries. The HCTO diet inhibits normal maturation of the follicle and corpus luteum formation. We conclude that the effect of the dietary fat on the developing mouse is on the maturation of the ovary and subsequently on mammary growth.
A SYSTEM FOR HETEROTROPHIC SOIL RESPIRATION ASSESSMENT OF RUSSIAN LAND

A model cluster for soil respiration assessment was developed. It is based on 3592 in-situ measurements and considered climatic parameters, soil and vegetation types, land use, vegetation productivity and disturbances. Heterotrophic efflux from Russian soil was assessed as 3.47 Pg C year -1 or 215 g C m -2 year -1 .