Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Two-dimensional model of phase segregation in liquid binary mixtures.

The hydrodynamic effects on the late stage kinetics of phase separation in liquid mixtures is studied using the model H. Mass and momentum transport are coupled via a nonequilibrium body force, which is proportional to the Peclet number alpha, i.e., the ratio between convective and diffusive molar fluxes. Numerical simulations based on this theoretical model show that phase separation in low viscosity, liquid binary mixtures is mostly driven by convection, thereby explaining the experimental findings that the process is fast, with the typical size of single-phase domains increasing linearly with time. However, as soon as sharp interfaces form, the linear growth regime reaches an end, and the process appears to be driven by diffusion, although the condition of local equilibrium is not reached. During this stage, the typical size of the nucleating drops increases like t(n), where 1/3< n <1/2, depending on the value of the Peclet number. As the Peclet number increases, the transition between convection- and diffusion-driven regimes occurs at larger times, and therefore for larger sizes of the nucleating drops.
Efficient Path-Based Stereo Matching With Subpixel Accuracy

This paper presents an efficient algorithm to achieve accurate subpixel matchings for calculating correspondences between stereo images based on a path-based matching algorithm. Compared with point-by-point stereo-matching algorithms, path-based algorithms resolve local ambiguities by maximizing the cross correlation (or other measurements) along a path, which can be implemented efficiently using dynamic programming. An effect of the global matching criterion is that cross correlations at all pixels contribute to the criterion; since cross correlation can change significantly even with subpixel changes, to achieve subpixel accuracy, it is no longer sufficient to first find the path that maximizes the criterion at integer pixel locations and then refine to subpixel accuracy. In this paper, by writing bilinear interpolation using integral images, we show that cross correlations at all subpixel locations can be computed efficiently and, thus, lead to a subpixel accuracy path-based matching algorithm. Our results show the feasibility of the method and illustrate significant improvement over existing path-based matching methods.
Local directional pattern variance (ldpv): a robust feature descriptor for facial expression recognition

Automatic facial expression recognition is a challenging problem in computer vision, and has gained significant importance in the applications of human-computer interactions. The vital component of any successful expression recognition system is an effective facial representation from face images. In this paper, we have derived an appearance-based feature descriptor, the Local Directional Pattern Variance (LDPv), which characterizes both the texture and contrast information of facial components. The LDPv descriptor is a collection of Local Directional Pattern (LDP) codes weighted by their corresponding variances. The feature dimension is then reduced by extracting the most discriminative elements of the representation with Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The recognition performance based on our LDPv descriptor has been evaluated using Cohn-Kanade expression database with a Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier. The discriminative strength of LDPv representation is also assessed over a useful range of low resolution images. Experimental results with prototypic expressions show that the LDPv descriptor has achieved a higher recognition rate, as compared to other existing appearance-based feature descriptors .
A primer of probability logic

1. Introduction to probability logic 2. Probability and logic 3. Deduction and probability Part I. Statics: 4. Conditional probability and conditionalisation 5. Probability and deduction Part II. Dynamics: 6. Probability conditionals: Basics 7. Formal theory: Derivations and related matters 8. Truth, triviality, and controversy 9. Practical reason 10. The pragmatics of probability Appendices Answers to exercises.
Open Source Technology Changes Intra-Organizational Systems Development - A Tale of Two Companies

This paper explores how two organizations have changed their software development practices by implementing Open Source technology. Our aim is to understand the institutional changes needed in and emerging from this process. The paper develops a conceptualization building on the insights of entrepreneurial institutionalism and concentrating on the changing relationships of organizational groups in the areas of reward and communication. We identify the links between the 1) emerging yet embedded technology and 2) the underlying institutional reward and communication structures. In terms of contribution, we propose to move the Open Source 2.0 research agenda forward by concentrating empirical work on the nuances of institutional change that open source brings forward in large hierarchical organisations.
Quantification of grain boundary connectivity for predicting intergranular corrosion resistance in BFe10-1-1 copper-nickel alloy

We investigated the connectivity of high-energy random grain boundaries through fractal analyses of specimens with different grain boundary (GB) microstructures in BFe10-1-1 copper-nickel alloy. It was found that the profile of maximum random boundary network possesses a fractal nature and more than one fractal dimension can exist. The fraction of special boundaries and grain size homogeneity can play an important role on GB character distribution. Here, GB microstructures are combined with quantitative materials structure-property relationship models to predict intergranular corrosion properties. The experimental results are accurately consistent with the theoretical predictions.
The potential of flavonoids in the treatment of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease

ABSTRACT The contemporary pathophysiological model of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) comprises multiple parallel pathways with a dynamic cross talk that cumulate in steatosis and inflammation, and ultimately fibrosis, cirrhosis, liver failure, and hepatocellular carcinoma. So far, no pharmacological treatment has been approved. A major impediment of drugs, in general, is that they are intended to act on one single target in the pathology of a disease. However, the multitude of pathways involved in the pathogenesis of NAFLD underpins the need for treatments that address these various pathways. Interestingly, flavonoids have been found to have positive effects on lipid metabolism, insulin resistance, inflammation, and oxidative stress, the most important pathophysiological pathways in NAFLD. This puts flavonoids in the spotlight for the treatment of NAFLD and prompted us to review the existing evidence for the use of these food-derived compounds in the treatment of NAFLD.
Focal adhesions are hotspots for keratin filament precursor formation

Recent studies showed that keratin filament (KF) formation originates primarily from sites close to the actin-rich cell cortex. To further characterize these sites, we performed multicolor fluorescence imaging of living cells and found drastically increased KF assembly in regions of elevated actin turnover, i.e., in lamellipodia. Abundant KF precursors (KFPs) appeared within these areas at the distal tips of actin stress fibers, moving alongside the stress fibers until their integration into the peripheral KF network. The earliest KFPs were detected next to actin-anchoring focal adhesions (FAs) and were only seen after the establishment of FAs in emerging lamellipodia. Tight spatiotemporal coupling of FAs and KFP formation were not restricted to epithelial cells, but also occurred in nonepithelial cells and cells producing mutant keratins. Finally, interference with FA formation by talin short hairpin RNA led to KFP depletion. Collectively, our results support a major regulatory function of FAs for KF assembly, thereby providing the basis for coordinated shaping of the entire cytoskeleton during cell relocation and rearrangement.
Face Recognition Using Principal Component Analysis and RBF Neural Networks

In this paper, an efficient method for face recognition using principal component analysis (PCA) and radial basis function (RBF) neural networks is presented. Recently, the PCA has been extensively employed for face recognition algorithms. It is one of the most popular representation methods for a face image. It not only reduces the dimensionality of the image, but also retains some of the variations in the image data. After performing the PCA, the hidden layer neurons of the RBF neural networks have been modelled by considering intra-class discriminating characteristics of the training images. This helps the RBF neural networks to acquire wide variations in the lower-dimensional input space and improves its generalization capabilities. The proposed method has been evaluated using the ATand T (formerly ORL) and UMIST face databases. Experimental results show that the proposed method has encouraging recognition performance.
Receptor tyrosine kinases and schistosome reproduction: new targets for chemotherapy

Schistosome parasites still represent a serious public health concern and a major economic problem in developing countries. Pathology of schistosomiasis is mainly due to massive egg production by these parasites and to inflammatory responses raised against the eggs which are trapped in host tissues. Tyrosine kinases (TKs) are key molecules that control cell differentiation and proliferation and they already represent important targets in cancer therapy. During recent years, it has been shown that receptor tyrosine kinases (RTK) signaling was active in reproductive organs and that it could regulate sexual maturation of schistosomes and egg production. This opens interesting perspectives for the control of transmission and pathogenesis of schistosomiasis based on new therapies targeting schistosome RTKs. This review relates the numerous data showing the major roles of kinase signaling in schistosome reproduction. It describes the conserved and particular features of schistosome RTKs, their implication in gametogenesis and reproduction processes and summarizes recent works indicating that RTKs and their signaling partners are interesting chemotherapeutical targets in new programs of control.
LDCCNLP at IJCNLP-2017 Task 2: Dimensional Sentiment Analysis for Chinese Phrases Using Machine Learning

Sentiment analysis on Chinese text has intensively studied. The basic task for related research is to construct an affective lexicon and thereby predict emotional scores of different levels. However, finite lexicon resources make it difficult to effectively and automatically distinguish between various types of sentiment information in Chinese texts. This IJCNLP2017-Task2 competition seeks to automatically calculate Valence and Arousal ratings within the hierarchies of vocabulary and phrases in Chinese. We introduce a regression methodology to automatically recognize continuous emotional values, and incorporate a word embedding technique. In our system, the MAE predictive values of Valence and Arousal were 0.811 and 0.996, respectively, for the sentiment dimension prediction of words in Chinese. In phrase prediction, the corresponding results were 0.822 and 0.489, ranking sixth among all teams.
Assessment of Anxiety in Pregnancy Following Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) and Associated Infertility Factors in Women Commencing Treatment

Background: Successful pregnancy is the ultimate goal of almost all couples. However, this pleasant event is usually accompanied psychological and behavioral changes and can result in stress in women, particularly women who pregnant by assisted reproductive technology methods (ARTs). Objectives: This study aims to determine the anxiety level during pregnancy and its relation with infertility factors in women who has been pregnant by Assisted Reproduction Technology (ART) methods. Patients and Methods: A total number of 100 ARTs pregnant women who came to three infertility centers in Tehran from August to November 2009 participated in this descriptive cross sectional study. The rational for selecting the subjects was their availability to the researcher at the time of the research. Anxiety was measured by Beck Anxiety Inventory and for obtaining the infertility data, a questionnaire designed by the researcher was given to the subjects. Data were statistically analyzed using the inferential statistic of chi-square. Results: Study results showed that 34 % of subjects were anxious (moderate and sever levels in total). There are significant relations between infertility duration, history of treatment failure and anxiety level (P = 0.03) (P = 0.02). There were no statistically significant relationships with regard to other variables. Conclusions: Infertility duration and history of treatment failure in ARTs pregnant women are two factors that affect the anxiety level during pregnancy.
LocZ Is a New Cell Division Protein Involved in Proper Septum Placement in Streptococcus pneumoniae

ABSTRACT How bacteria control proper septum placement at midcell, to guarantee the generation of identical daughter cells, is still largely unknown. Although different systems involved in the selection of the division site have been described in selected species, these do not appear to be widely conserved. Here, we report that LocZ (Spr0334), a newly identified cell division protein, is involved in proper septum placement in Streptococcus pneumoniae. We show that locZ is not essential but that its deletion results in cell division defects and shape deformation, causing cells to divide asymmetrically and generate unequally sized, occasionally anucleated, daughter cells. LocZ has a unique localization profile. It arrives early at midcell, before FtsZ and FtsA, and leaves the septum early, apparently moving along with the equatorial rings that mark the future division sites. Consistently, cells lacking LocZ also show misplacement of the Z-ring, suggesting that it could act as a positive regulator to determine septum placement. LocZ was identified as a substrate of the Ser/Thr protein kinase StkP, which regulates cell division in S. pneumoniae. Interestingly, homologues of LocZ are found only in streptococci, lactococci, and enterococci, indicating that this close phylogenetically related group of bacteria evolved a specific solution to spatially regulate cell division. IMPORTANCE Bacterial cell division is a highly ordered process regulated in time and space. Recently, we reported that the Ser/Thr protein kinase StkP regulates cell division in Streptococcus pneumoniae, through phosphorylation of several key proteins. Here, we characterized one of the StkP substrates, Spr0334, which we named LocZ. We show that LocZ is a new cell division protein important for proper septum placement and likely functions as a marker of the cell division site. Consistently, LocZ supports proper Z-ring positioning at midcell. LocZ is conserved only among streptococci, lactococci, and enterococci, which lack homologues of the Min and nucleoid occlusion effectors, indicating that these bacteria adapted a unique mechanism to find their middle, reflecting their specific shape and symmetry. Bacterial cell division is a highly ordered process regulated in time and space. Recently, we reported that the Ser/Thr protein kinase StkP regulates cell division in Streptococcus pneumoniae, through phosphorylation of several key proteins. Here, we characterized one of the StkP substrates, Spr0334, which we named LocZ. We show that LocZ is a new cell division protein important for proper septum placement and likely functions as a marker of the cell division site. Consistently, LocZ supports proper Z-ring positioning at midcell. LocZ is conserved only among streptococci, lactococci, and enterococci, which lack homologues of the Min and nucleoid occlusion effectors, indicating that these bacteria adapted a unique mechanism to find their middle, reflecting their specific shape and symmetry.
Targeting the Gdnf Gene in peritubular myoid cells disrupts undifferentiated spermatogonial cell development

Significance Glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) growth factor induces spermatogonial stem cells to proliferate in culture to produce progenitor spermatogonia. Sertoli cell GDNF was thought responsible for this in the testis. We showed that testosterone triggers GDNF secretion by peritubular myoid (PM) cells in culture and that undifferentiated spermatogonia (spermatogonial stem cells and progenitors) co-cultured with testosterone-treated PM cells and transplanted to sterile mice restored spermatogenesis. To determine if PM cell GDNF is essential to maintain the undifferentiated spermatogonial population, we made mice lacking the Gdnf gene in PM cells. The number of undifferentiated spermatogonia was severely depleted in 2-wk-old mice and adults were infertile. This is the first study, to our knowledge, to show that the undifferentiated spermatogonial pool cannot be maintained without GDNF from PM cells. Spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) are a subpopulation of undifferentiated spermatogonia located in a niche at the base of the seminiferous epithelium delimited by Sertoli cells and peritubular myoid (PM) cells. SSCs self-renew or differentiate into spermatogonia that proliferate to give rise to spermatocytes and maintain spermatogenesis. Glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) is essential for this process. Sertoli cells produce GDNF and other growth factors and are commonly thought to be responsible for regulating SSC development, but limited attention has been paid to the role of PM cells in this process. A conditional knockout (cKO) of the androgen receptor gene in PM cells resulted in male infertility. We found that testosterone (T) induces GDNF expression in mouse PM cells in vitro and neonatal spermatogonia (including SSCs) co-cultured with T-treated PM cells were able to colonize testes of germ cell-depleted mice after transplantation. This strongly suggested that T-regulated production of GDNF by PM cells is required for spermatogonial development, but PM cells might produce other factors in vitro that are responsible. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that production of GDNF by PM cells is essential for spermatogonial development by generating mice with a cKO of the Gdnf gene in PM cells. The cKO males sired up to two litters but became infertile due to collapse of spermatogenesis and loss of undifferentiated spermatogonia. These studies show for the first time, to our knowledge, that the production of GDNF by PM cells is essential for undifferentiated spermatogonial cell development in vivo.
Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms in the Metastasis-associated in Colon Cancer-1 Gene Predict the Recurrence of Hepatocellular Carcinoma after Transplantation

Background: The newly identified metastasis-associated in colon cancer-1 (MACC1) gene is involved in angiogenesis, epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), invasiveness, and metastasis in a variety of malignancies. Overexpression of MACC1 gene is a prognostic marker for poor outcome of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients. However, the association between genetic polymorphisms of MACC1 gene and poor outcome in HCC has been not been performed. We therefore investigated the correlation of MACC1 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with tumor recurrence and overall survival in HCC patients undergoing liver transplantation (LT). Methods: The study included 187 HCC patients treated with LT. Five polymorphisms in the MACC1 gene (rs1990172, rs3735615, rs4721888, rs2241056, rs975263) were genotyped in 183 cases of tumorous tissue sample and 117 cases of adjacent normal tissue sample using SNaP-Shot assays. The association of SNPs with tumor recurrence and overall survival was then analyzed by additive, dominant, recessive, and overdominant models in a cohort of 156 HCC patients. Results: In terms of tumor recurrence, heterozygous of SNP rs1990172 and SNP rs975263 showed a significant high risk of relapse using univariate and multivariate analysis (overdominant, HR(95%CI)=2.27 [1.41-3.66], P=0.001; HR(95%CI)=2.16 [1.37-3.39], P=0.001). But the difference between heterozygous of these two SNPs and overall survival did not reach a significance in all models. The other three investigated SNPs were not significantly associated with tumor recurrence and overall survival (P>0.05). In addition, we found no significant difference in genotype frequencies between HCC and controls. Conclusions: Our data suggest that SNP rs1990172 and SNP rs975263 in the MACC1 gene may be potential genetic markers for HCC recurrence in LT patients.
Renal Denervation vs Pharmacotherapy for Resistant Hypertension: A Meta‐Analysis

The effect of renal denervation (RD) for resistant hypertension remains controversial because of the conflicting results of finished and ongoing studies. The authors performed a meta‐analysis of case‐control studies to identify whether renal sympathetic denervation or pharmacotherapy (PHAR) was more effective for resistant hypertension. A systematic Internet database search of relevant papers written in English was performed. A total of nine studies met the inclusion criteria, with a total of 1096 patients. When comparing the RD group with the PHAR group, there was a significant decrease in systolic blood pressure (SBP) (weighted mean difference, −12.81 mm Hg; 95% confidence interval [CI], −22.77 mm Hg to −2.85 mm Hg; P=.01) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) (weighted mean difference, −5.56; 95% CI, −8.15 mm Hg to −2.97 mm Hg; P<.0001). This pooled analysis shows that for patients with resistant hypertension, RD is more effective in reducing SBP and DBP than PHAR. RD may be more effective in special subgroups of patients, which needs to be identified in future investigations.
EasiDesign: An Improved Ant Colony Algorithm for Sensor Deployment in Real Sensor Network System

In this paper, we formulate coverage requirements of the sensor network as a minimum-cost connectivity guaranteed point k-coverage problem. An improved ant colony algorithm (EasiDesign) is proposed to achieve the approximate solution to this optimization problem. We made modifications in the convergence strategy and the ant state transition rule of the general ant colony optimization. Considering the practicability issues, we design the obstacle avoidance and the routing cost tradeoff strategies to ensure that EasiDesign can work efficiently. The simulation results show that EasiDesign uses less sensor nodes than the existing works in the same scenario. The performance is also demonstrated through a real sensor network system for the environment monitoring in the Forbidden City.
Long Short-Term Memory Neural Networks for Chinese Word Segmentation

Currently most of state-of-the-art methods for Chinese word segmentation are based on supervised learning, whose features aremostly extracted from a local context. Thesemethods cannot utilize the long distance information which is also crucial for word segmentation. In this paper, we propose a novel neural network model for Chinese word segmentation, which adopts the long short-term memory (LSTM) neural network to keep the previous important information inmemory cell and avoids the limit of window size of local context. Experiments on PKU, MSRA and CTB6 benchmark datasets show that our model outperforms the previous neural network models and state-of-the-art methods.