Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Alignment and elongation of human adipose-derived stem cells in response to direct-current electrical stimulation

In vivo, direct current electric fields are present during embryonic development and wound healing. In vitro, direct current (DC) electric fields induce directional cell migration and elongation. For the first time, we demonstrate that cultured human adipose tissue-derived stem cells (hASCs) respond to the presence of direct-current electric fields. Cells were stimulated for 2-4 hours with DC electric fields of 6 V/cm that were similar to those encountered in vivo post-injury. Upon stimulation, hASCs were observed to elongate and align perpendicularly to the applied electric field, disassemble gap junctions, and upregulate the expression of genes for connexin-43, thrombomodulin, vascular endothelial growth factor, and fibroblast growth factor. In separate related studies, human epicardial fat-derived stem cells (heASCs) were also observed to align and elongate. It is interesting that the morphological and phenotypic characteristics of mesenchymal stem cells derived both from liposuction aspirates and from cardiac fat can be modulated by direct current electric fields. In further studies, we will quantify the effects of the electrical fields in the context of wound healing.
A Novel Risk Score to the Prediction of 10-year Risk for Coronary Artery Disease Among the Elderly in Beijing Based on Competing Risk Model

AbstractThe study aimed to construct a risk prediction model for coronary artery disease (CAD) based on competing risk model among the elderly in Beijing and develop a user-friendly CAD risk score tool.We used competing risk model to evaluate the risk of developing a first CAD event. On the basis of the risk factors that were included in the competing risk model, we constructed the CAD risk prediction model with Cox proportional hazard model. Time-dependent receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and time-dependent area under the ROC curve (AUC) were used to evaluate the discrimination ability of the both methods. Calibration plots were applied to assess the calibration ability and adjusted for the competing risk of non-CAD death. Net reclassification index (NRI) and integrated discrimination improvement (IDI) were applied to quantify the improvement contributed by the new risk factors. Internal validation of predictive accuracy was performed using 1000 times of bootstrap re-sampling.Of the 1775 participants without CAD at baseline, 473 incident cases of CAD were documented for a 20-year follow-up. Time-dependent AUCs for men and women at t = 10 years were 0.841 [95% confidence interval (95% CI): 0.806–0.877], 0.804 (95% CI: 0.768–0.839) in Fine and Gray model, 0.784 (95% CI: 0.738–0.830), 0.733 (95% CI: 0.692–0.775) in Cox proportional hazard model. The competing risk model was significantly superior to Cox proportional hazard model on discrimination and calibration. The cut-off values of the risk score that marked the difference between low-risk and high-risk patients were 34 points for men and 30 points for women, which have good sensitivity and specificity.A sex-specific multivariable risk factor algorithm-based competing risk model has been developed on the basis of an elderly Chinese cohort, which could be applied to predict an individual's risk and provide a useful guide to identify the groups at a high risk for CAD among the Chinese adults over 55 years old.
A particle filter human tracking method based on HOG and Hu moment

In this paper, a vision-based human tracking approach integrating Histogram of Oriented Gradient (HOG) and Hu moment feature is presented under the Particle Filter framework. Our motivation stems from the fact that traditional Particle Filter (PF) based on single feature is not robust when the background color, illuminate and target deformation change, and it may lead to lose target or fail to detect easily. In order to solve this problem, a Particle Filter tracking method based on HOG and Hu moment feature by utilizing vision method is presented. Due to the advantages of HOG feature in describing the target contour and shape and the advantages of Hu moment in the invariance property to translation, rotation and scaling, these features are used as recognition features. Besides, PF is introduced to adjust and predict the position of the tracking human. This paper details the architecture of the presented method and gives some experimental results to verify the effectiveness of the presented method.
High gain graphene field effect transistors for wideband amplifiers

We demonstrate graphene field of transistors (G-FETs) providing power gain of > 7 dB in a 50 O system. The G-FETs have |S21| > 0 dB up to 7 GHz. The result indicates the feasibility for G-FET based wideband amplifiers.
Retina biometric recognition in moving video stream using visible spectrum approach

Biometric authentication comes in play to release the users from the difficulties of remembering and protecting passwords as required by traditional authentication systems. Among all the biometrics in use today, eye biometrics (iris and retina) offers the highest level of uniqueness, universality, permanence, and accuracy. Video-based retina recognition has been one of the hot topics in the field of pattern recognition in the last several decades. The main advantage of the video based retina recognition method is that more information is available in a video sequence than in a single image.
Chinese Interpreting Studies: Genesis of a Discipline

The growth of Chinese Interpreting Studies (CIS) has been robust over the past two decades; this is reflected in the total number of research papers produced. This paper takes a scientometric approach to assessing the production, themes and theoretical influences of those papers over time. The most productive authors, universities, and regions, as well as patterns of research collaboration, were analyzed to gain a deeper understanding of the CIS landscape. This study reveals that the general culture of the discipline remained constant throughout the period, none of its theoretical influences or topics having gained significantly in popularity. However, certain limitations in the way research is conducted (lack of collaboration, inadequate academic policies, etc.) hinder its potential for future growth.
Real time stereo vision based pedestrian detection using full body contours

There are many approaches to pedestrian detection in collision avoidance systems depending on the sensors (visible light, thermal infrared, RADAR, LASER scanner) used for acquiring the data and the features (depth, shape, motion) used for detection. In this paper we present a method for shape based pedestrian detection in traffic scenes using a stereo vision system for acquiring the image frames and a contour matching technique for classifying the scene objects as belonging or not to the pedestrian class. The 3D information is used for determining the foreground points of each 2D object and a contour extraction and merging algorithm is performed on these points. A 2D image filtering is performed and edges are extracted and used for objects contours refinement. A hierarchy of pedestrian full body contours and a matching technique are used for classifying the extracted objects contours from the scene.
Alcohol Use Among Adolescents with Non-Residential Fathers

Abstract This study of a stratified random sample of 3,395 high school students from a statewide population was designed to investigate many elements of attachment theory, with a special focus on non-residential fathers. It examined several assets such as resilience, spirituality, and ego-identity, as well as many deficits such as sexual and physical abuses, depression, suicidal thoughts, and problems relating to biological father. Almost all study factors were significant predictors of alcohol use: Of particular note were statistical interactions between having a non-residential father and problems relating to him, attachment to him, caregiver monitoring, and spirituality. Clinical implications of these findings were discussed.
How Do Maternal Risk Factors Affect Children in Low-Income Families?

SUMMARY This longitudinal study examines the role of depressive symptoms and low literacy among mothers receiving welfare in predicting outcomes for both parents and children (mothers' psychological and employment-related outcomes and children's development across multiple domains). For African-American single mothers (n = 351), depressive symptoms in mothers are an important predictor of their later psychological well-being, while maternal literacy affects both their participation in welfare-to-work activities and later employment. An analysis of the academic functioning of children found a main effect for maternal literacy. Maternal literacy also significantly interacted with maternal depression. The children of mothers with a greater number of depressive symptoms had less favorable cognitive achievement outcomes when their mothers also had low literacy. Structural equation models indicate that parenting behavior mediates the relationship between depressive symptoms, literacy and later child outcomes. Among mothers with low literacy the pathways linking depressive symptoms, parenting, and child outcomes are stronger.
A real time advanced sonar ring with simultaneous firing

Sonar rings are widely used for indoor mobile robots. However, it is difficult to perform on-the-fly applications such as map building and localization using a conventional sonar ring due to low speed, accuracy and interference. Digital signal processing (DSP) techniques and interference rejection ideas are applied in this paper to design a new more sophisticated, fast and accurate sonar ring called an advanced sonar ring. The advanced sonar ring consists of 48 ultrasonic transducers, 24 acting as transceivers and 24 acting as receivers, seven DSP echo processor boards, twelve four-channel 12-bit 500 kHz ADCs and low noise variable gain preamplifiers. The sonar ring is able to cover 360 degrees around robot with simultaneously firing of all 24 transmitters. Transmission and echo analysis are performed at repetition rates of about 15 Hz, depending on the environment, for ranges up to six meters. Accurate distance and bearing measurements of objects are performed in the DSP system using matched filtering techniques. The paper presents new transmit coding based on pulse duration to differentiate neighbouring transmitters in the ring. Experimental data show the effectiveness of the proposed system.
Prebiotics, probiotics and synbiotics: An update

Probiotics have become well-known and widely-used, especially as supplements or add-on therapy in the prevention and management of antibiotic-associated diarrhoea. Very often, however, the beneficial action and correct use of probiotics may either be seriously misunderstood or not acknowledged at all. This article provides an overview of prebiotics, probiotics and synbiotics, including their mechanisms of action, clinical applications and available products on the local market.
Cylindrical affine transformation model for image registration

This paper describes the development of a cylindrical affine transformation model for image registration. The usefulness of the model for initial alignment was demonstrated for the application of registering prone and supine 3D MR images of the breast. Final registration results visually improved when using the cylindrical affine transformation model instead of none or a Cartesian affine transformation model before non-rigid registration.
An Investigation on Sieve and Detour Effects Affecting the Interaction of Collimated and Diffuse Infrared Radiation (750 to 2500 nm) With Plant Leaves

The retrieval of plant biophysical and biochemical properties from high spectral resolution data represents an active area of research within the remote sensing field. Scientific studies in this area are usually supported by computational simulations of light attenuation processes within foliar tissues. In heterogeneous organic materials, like plant leaves, sieve and detour effects can affect these processes and ultimately change the light gradients within these tissues and their spectral signatures. Although these effects have been extensively examined for applications involving the interactions of visible radiation with plant leaves, little is known about their role in the infrared domain. In this paper, we describe the procedural basis for their incorporation in the modeling of infrared-radiation transport (in the range of 750-2500 nm) within plant leaves. We also assess their impact on the predictability of simulation solutions relating the directionality of the incident radiation and the internal arrangement of the tissues to changes on foliar spectral signatures in this domain. Our investigation is grounded by the observations involving the modeled results and quantitative and qualitative data reported in the literature.
Automatic Tracking and Labeling of Human Activities in a Video Sequence

This paper presents a novel approach for tracking multiple objects and a statistical learning approach for detection of human activities in a video sequence. For the tracking, a rigid transformation invariant appearance model combining color and edge information of the detected blob is proposed. For the activity detection, each activity label is regarded as a hypothesis. Given some labeled sequences, a group of features are first extracted from motion trajectories of each detected object and the likelihood of each feature under that hypothesis is calculated. A dynamic programming-based training algorithm is applied to get an optimal classifier for each feature. Then it selects the classifiers with the most discriminative power and combines them to form a stronger classifier. This algorithm complies with criterion so that it is guaranteed to achieve a specified detection rate as well as a minimized false alarm rate. Results on dataset 1show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.
Neonatal and adult microglia cross‐present exogenous antigens

Some observations have suggested that cells from the central nervous system (CNS) could present exogenous antigens on major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I molecules to CD8+ T cells (a process called cross‐presentation). Microglia are the major myeloid immunocompetent cells of the CNS. When activated, following the injury of the nervous parenchyma, they become fully competent antigen‐presenting cells (APC) that prime CD4+ T lymphocytes. We therefore tested the cross‐presentation capacity of murine microglia. We report that a microglial cell line (C8‐B4), neonatal microglia, and interestingly adult microglia cross‐present soluble exogenous antigen (ovalbumin) to a OVA‐specific CD8+ T‐cell hybridoma and cross‐prime OVA‐specific naive OT‐1 CD8+ T cells. In both these cases, C8‐B4 and neonatal microglia cross‐present OVA as well as peritoneal macrophages. Although cross‐presentation by adult microglia is less efficient, it is increased by GM‐CSF and CpG oligodeoxynucleotide (ODN) stimulation. Using microglial cells either exposed to an inhibitor of proteasome, lactacystin, or purified from TAP−/− mice, we demonstrate that the microglia cross‐present antigen in proteasome‐ and TAP‐dependant pathways, respectively. Last, microglia purified from adult mice injected intracerebrally with OVA efficiently stimulate OVA‐specific CD8+ T cells, thereby showing that microglia take up and process exogenous antigen into MHC class I in vivo. This first demonstration of the cross‐presentation property of microglia offers novel therapeutic approaches to modulate CD8 T‐cell responses in the brain. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Nuclear pore complex is able to transport macromolecules with diameters of about 39 nm.

Bidirectional transport of macromolecules between the nucleus and the cytoplasm occurs through the nuclear pore complexes (NPCs) by a signal-mediated mechanism that is directed by targeting signals (NLSs) residing on the transported molecules or "cargoes. " Nuclear transport starts after interaction of the targeting signal with soluble cellular receptors. After the formation of the cargo-receptor complex in the cytosol, this complex crosses the NPC. Herein, we use gold particles of various sizes coated with cargo-receptor complexes to determine precisely how large macromolecules crossing the NPC by the signal-mediated transport mechanism could be. We found that cargo-receptor-gold complexes with diameter close to 39 nm could be translocated by the NPC. This implies that macromolecules much larger than the assumed functional NPC diameter of 26 nm can be transported into the karyoplasm. The physiological relevance of this finding was supported by the observation that intact nucleocapsids of human hepatitis B virus with diameters of 32 and 36 nm are able to cross the nuclear pore without disassembly.
Weak lensing of the Sunyaev–Zel'dovich sky

We address the question of whether the angular power spectrum of the thermal SunyaevZel'dovich (SZ) sky is further distorted by weak gravitational lensing of foreground large-scale structures. Using an analytic approach to both gaseous and dark halo models, we show that the contamination of weak lensing in the measurement of SZ power is negligibly small, and relative corrections |ΔC l |/C l are less than 3 per cent up to l = 10 5 . This arises from both the weaker gravitational potentials of low-redshift matter inhomogeneities that can act as lenses for SZ sources (clusters), and the shallower shape of the intrinsic SZ power spectrum at large l, in contrast to the cosmic microwave background which can be significantly affected by weak lensing because of the distant location and significant damping of its intrinsic power spectrum at small angular scales.
Rao-Blackwellised inertial simultaneous localisation and mapping

This paper presents methods which enable the Rao-Blackwellised (R-B) particle filtering technique to be applicable for the airborne simultaneous localisation and mapping problem. Although R-B filter has been successfully applied to mobile/ground vehicles, its extension to flying vehicles has been impractical due to the high dimensionality involved in inertial navigation system (INS). To overcome this problem, the full INS state is further partitioned into an external state (vehicle pose) and an internal state (navigation and sensor calibration), with a particle filter being applied only to the external state. The computational complexity is further reduced by developing a hybrid R-B Inertial-SLAM. Simulation results will be presented with simulated flight data, showing reliable performances during loop-closures.
From linguistic elicitation to eliciting the linguist: Lessons in community empowerment from Melanesia

As an outsider, I would feel very uncomfortable if I were to advocate to a speech community that it ought to try to keep its language alive. It is entirely up to the community or to individuals within a community as to whether they want to put in the effort to develop new speakers for their language. Community members have the right to advocate within their community for the survival of their language; someone from outside the community does not. The right to language choice includes the right to choose against a language. This is the logical result of believing that maintaining an indigenous language is a matter of human rights, a belief virtually all language advocates must share. The outside expert’s role is to assist in providing the means for language survival or revival to motivated community members and perhaps to provide encouragement and a sense of hope that it can be done. (Leanne :151–52)
Accelerating COTS Middleware Acquisition: The i-Mate Process

COTS middleware speeds e-business application deployment but can be difficult to select. The i-Mate tool provides a proven, structured software engineering process for COTS middleware acquisition. Using i-Mate in six major projects for a wide range of organizations led to highly visible, accountable, and ultimately reliable selections of COTS middleware products in greatly compressed time scales. This significantly reduced the risks associated with inappropriate product selections and made these projects more likely to succeed.
Competition in the Absence of Standards in Enterprise Software Industries : A Social Network Perspective

Whether developed by a firm (de-facto) or set by a committee (de-jure), interface standards are an important element of competition in software industries. While adopting the right set of technology standards for their products is crucial for firms in the enterprise software industry, the absence of a single set of open standards or leading standards from a dominant firm makes this choice difficult for firms. Despite the absence of standards seamless interaction between products of different firms is a requisite for organizational end-users. Therefore, firms maintain alliances to render their products technical compatible. While prior research identifies primarily access to user bases as the network externality benefits arising from technical compatibility, we argue that in addition alliances also enhance social compatibility. We view this dimension of compatibility as the market’s perception of compatibility resulting from reputation transfer and knowledge spillovers through alliances. We also argue that benefits from such compatibility are transmitted through both direct and indirect partners in the alliance network. We use the social network perspective to understand how resources are transferred in this alliance network and aggregate these resources into a construct that we call Sociotechnical capital. We then propose that in the absence of uniform industry-wide leading standards the relative prominence of a firm in this network is a valid surrogate for market power and is correlated with its performance. To address the limitations of extant social network measures we develop an alternative theoretically grounded metric for firm prominence that is based on the Sociotechnical resource transfer. An analysis of 65 enterprise system firms empirically supports our proposition. Our study offers insights into the behavior of firms in the enterprise systems software industry.
Segmentation Techniques Comparison in Image Processing

: In day-to-day life, new technologies are emerging in the field of Image processing, especially in the domain of segmentation. This paper presents a brief outline on some of the most common segmentation techniques like thresholding, Model based, Edge detection, Clustering etc., mentioning its advantages as well as the drawbacks. Some of the techniques are suitable for noisy images. In that Markov Random Field (MRF) is the strongest method of noise cancellation in images whereas thresholding is the simplest technique for segmentation.
Role of HR Practices in Turnover Intentions with the Mediating Effect of Employee Engagement

Abs tract: The research paper seeks to identify the mediating role of employee engagement between HR practices and turnover intentions in the telecom sector of Pakistan. There has been a considerable gap in the existing literature indicative of the need to study HR practices and turnover intentions with reference to the employee engagement in Pakistan. Two leading Telecom Companies in Pakistan were included in the sample and the study was conducted on them. The results turned out to be extremely noteworthy as they highlighted a definite relationship between HR practices, employee engagement and turnover intentions. In addition to that, the research provides an effective model for the stake holders of concern telecom companies to keep hold of their capable work force in a highly dynamic and fluid business environment.