Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Boundary Detection in Medical Images using Edge Following Algorithm Based on Intensity Gradient and Texture Gradient Features

If finding the correct boundary in noisy images is still a difficult task in this paper we can introduces a new edge following technique for boundary detection in utilization of the proposed technique is exhibited via its application to various types of medical images can detect the boundaries of objects in noisy images using the information from the intensity gradient via the vector image model and the texture gradient via the performance and robustness of the technique have been tested to segment objects in synthetic noisy images and medical images including prostates in cardiac magnetic resonance (MR) images, aortas in MR images, and knee joints in computerized tomography images we can compare the proposed segmentation technique with the active contour models, active contours and the gradient vector flow and ACMs based on vectors by using the skilled doctors’ opinions as the ground thus the results show that our technique performs very well and yields better performance than the classical contour models and the proposed method is robust and applicable on various kinds of noisy images without prior knowledge of noise properties.
The impact of ownership concentration on the trade-off between financial and tax reporting

Managers frequently encounter situations involving a trade-off between financial reporting and tax reporting incentives. This paper examines whether inside ownership concentration, a proxy for reduced capital market pressure, influences the balance of these two opposing external reporting incentives. The empirical tests use a sample of major asset divestitures to show that, for high taxrate firms, managers of firms with lower levels of inside ownership concentration realize larger gains or smaller losses, on average. This work extends previous research by combining insights from the micro-economics tax incentives literature and financial reporting incentives literature, and by considering explicitly the effect of a firm-specific variable on the balance between these two incentives.
Pricing Options on Commodity Futures: The Role of Weather and Storage

Options on agricultural futures are popular financial instruments used for agricultural price risk management and to speculate on future price movements. Poor performance of Black’s classical option pricing model has stimulated many researchers to introduce pricing models that are more consistent with observed option premiums. However, most models are motivated solely from the standpoint of the time series properties of futures prices and need for improvements in forecasting and hedging performance. In this paper I propose a novel arbitrage pricing model motivated from the economic theory of optimal storage and consistent with implications of plant physiology on the importance of weather stress. I introduce a pricing model for options on futures based on a generalized lambda distribution (GLD) that allows greater flexibility in higher moments of the expected terminal distribution of futures price. I use times and sales data for corn futures and options for the period 1995-2009 to estimate the implied skewness parameter separately for each trading day. An economic explanation is then presented for inter-year variations in implied skewness based on the theory of storage. After controlling for changes in planned acreage, I find a statistically significant negative relationship between ending stocks-to-use and implied skewness, as predicted by the theory of storage. Furthermore, intra-year dynamics of implied skewness reflect the fact that uncertainty in corn supply is resolved between late June and early October, i.e., during corn growth phases that encompass corn silking and grain maturity. Impacts of storage and weather on the distribution of terminal futures price jointly explain upward-sloping implied volatility curves.
Gene Expression Profiling in Paget's Disease of Bone: Upregulation of Interferon Signaling Pathways in Pagetic Monocytes and Lymphocytes

We examined the gene expression profile of genes involved in bone metabolism in 23 patients with PD compared with 23 healthy controls. We found a significant overexpression of the genes of the IFN pathway along with a downregulation of tnf‐α. Our result suggest that IFN‐mediated signaling may play important roles in aberrant osteoclastogenesis of PD.
Factors associated with typhoid relapse in the era of multiple drug resistant strains.

INTRODUCTION Typhoid has an estimated global burden of greater than 27 million cases per annum with a clinical relapse rate of 5% to 20%. Despite the large relapse burden, the factors associated with relapse are largely unknown. METHODOLOGY We have followed a protocol for the diagnosis and management of pediatric typhoid since 1988. We report factors associated with relapse of culture-proven enteric fever in 1,650 children presenting to the Aga Khan University Medical Center, Karachi, Pakistan, over a 15-year period. RESULTS In those infected with multiple drug resistant (MDR) strains, factors associated with subsequent relapse include constipation at presentation and presentation within 14 days of fever onset. Diarrhoea in those children infected with drug sensitive strains had an association with decreased subsequent relapse, as was quinolone therapy. CONCLUSIONS Multiple clinical factors at presentation are associated with subsequent typhoid fever relapse. These factors may be postulated to be associated with subsequent relapse due to alterations in the reticuloendothelial system organism load. These data will be valuable in developing algorithms for clinical follow-up in children infected with MDR enteric fever.
Retrieval schemes for scalable unstructured P2P system

In the unstructured peer-to-peer networks, the network topology and the placement of files are largely unconstrained. Gnutella is one of the prominent unstructured P2P networks. The primitive search in Gnutella is flooding-based search and the search region is constrained by TTL value. The scheme produces too much traffic though with limited search region. In addition, many of the peers in Gnutella are free riders, which waste too much traffic without contribution. In this paper, we propose several retrieval schemes to unstructured P2P network to extend the search region but reduce the search traffic, and also balance the network load, so that can acquire the whole networks scalable.
Design of PID controller for inverted pendulum using stability boundary locus

In this paper, PID controller has been designed for cart inverted pendulum system. The proposed approach is based on newly developed concept of stability boundary locus. The main advantage of this approach is that the cart oscillations has been minimized and angle of pendulum is stabilizes with minimum settling time. The results are also compared with the recently proposed approach of PID and LQR controller. The results are simulated in Matlab environment.
Reference-Free Displacement Estimation of Bridges Using Kalman Filter-Based Multimetric Data Fusion

Displacement responses of a bridge as a result of external loadings provide crucial information regarding structural integrity and current conditions. Due to the relative characteristic of displacement, the conventional measurement approach requires reference points to firmly install the transducers, while the points are often unavailable for bridges. In this paper, a displacement estimation approach using Kalman filter-based data fusion is proposed to provide a practical means for displacement measurement. The proposed method enables accurate displacement estimation by optimally utilizing acceleration and strain in combination that have high availability and are free from reference points for sensor installation. The Kalman filter is formulated using a state-space model representing the double integration of acceleration and model-based strain-displacement relationship. The validation of the proposed method is conducted successfully by a numerical simulation and a field experiment, which shows the efficacy and accuracy of the proposed approach in bridge displacement measurement.
Respiratory tract infection caused by Mycobacterium bovis in a black swan (Cygnus atratus)

ABSTRACT A 3-year-old male black swan (Cygnus atratus), belonging to a private collection, died suddenly and was subjected to post mortem examination. At necropsy, caseous exudate was observed in the lungs and air sacs; granulomatous lesions characterized by epithelioid macrophages and abundant mycobacteria were observed microscopically. Avian tuberculosis associated with Mycobacterium bovis was confirmed by bacteriologic isolation, biochemical tests and molecular methods. The organism was identified as spoligotype SB0140, which is frequently found in cattle and people in North America. In this case, interspecies transmission could have been the source of infection because the swan cohabited with cattle.
Replication and IRES-Dependent Translation Are Both Affected by Core Coding Sequences in Subgenomic GB Virus B Replicons

ABSTRACT The yield of G418-resistant Huh7 cell clones bearing subgenomic dicistronic GB virus B (GBV-B) is significantly affected by the insertion of a portion of the viral core gene between the GBV-B 5′ untranslated region and the exogenous neomycin phosphotransferase selector gene (A. De Tomassi, M. Pizzuti, R. Graziani, A. Sbardellati, S. Altamura, G. Paonessa, and C. Traboni, J. Virol. 76:7736-7746, 2002). In this report, we have dissected this phenomenon, examining the effects of the insertion of core sequences of different lengths on GBV-B IRES-dependent translation and RNA replication by using experimental approaches aimed at analyzing these two aspects independently. The results achieved indicate that an enhancement of translation efficiency does occur and that it correlates with the length of the inserted core sequences. Interestingly, the insertion of these sequences also has a direct similar effect on the efficiency of replication of the GBV-B replicon. These results suggest that in GBV-B replicon RNA and potentially in the complete viral genome, the core coding sequences not only are part of the IRES but also take part in the replication process, independently of the presence of the corresponding whole protein.
Highly Selective Actions of HuR in Antagonizing AU-Rich Element-Mediated mRNA Destabilization

ABSTRACT Human RNA-binding protein HuR, a nucleocytoplasmic shuttling protein, is a ubiquitously expressed member of the family of Hu proteins, which consist of two N-terminal RNA recognition motifs (RRM1 and RRM2), a hinge region, and a C-terminal RRM (RRM3). Although in vitro experiments showed indiscriminate binding of Hu proteins synthesized in bacterial systems to many different AU-rich elements (AREs), in vivo studies have pointed to a cytoplasmic role for HuR protein in antagonizing the rapid decay of some specific ARE-containing mRNAs, depending on physiological situations. By ectopically overexpressing HuR and its mutant derivatives in NIH 3T3 cells to mimic HuR upregulation of specific ARE-containing mRNAs in other systems, we have examined the in vivo ARE-binding specificity of HuR and dissected its functionally critical domains. We show that in NIH 3T3 cells, HuR stabilizes reporter messages containing only the c-fos ARE and not other AREs. Two distinct binding sites were identified within the c-fos ARE, the 5′ AUUUA-containing domain and the 3′ U-stretch-containing domain. These actions of HuR are markedly different from those of another ARE-binding protein, hnRNP D (also termed AUF1), which in vivo recognizes AUUUA repeats found in cytokine AREs and can exert both stabilizing and destabilizing effects. Further experiments showed that any combination of two of the three RRM domains of HuR is sufficient for strong binding to the c-fos ARE in vitro and to exert an RNA stabilization effect in vivo comparable to that of intact HuR and that the hinge region containing nucleocytoplasmic shuttling signals is dispensable for the stabilization effect of HuR. Our data suggest that the ARE-binding specificity of HuR in vivo is modulated to interact only with and thus regulate specific AREs in a cell type- and physiological state-dependent manner.
The Expression Strategy of Goose Parvovirus Exhibits Features of both the Dependovirus and Parvovirus Genera

ABSTRACT The RNA transcription profile of the goose parvovirus (GPV) was determined, and it is a surprising hybrid of features of the Parvovirus and Dependovirus genera of the Parvovirinae subfamily of the Parvoviridae. Similar to the Dependovirus adeno-associated virus type 5, RNAs transcribed from the GPV upstream P9 promoter, which encode the viral nonstructural proteins, were polyadenylated at a high efficiency at a polyadenylation site [(pA)p] located within an intron in the center of the genome. Efficient usage of (pA)p required a downstream element that overlaps with the polypyrimidine tract of the A2 3′ splice site of the central intron. An upstream element required for efficient use of (pA)p was also identified. RNAs transcribed from the P42 promoter, presumed to encode the viral capsid proteins, primarily extended through (pA)p and were polyadenylated at a site, (pA)d, located at the right end of the genome and ultimately spliced at a high efficiency. No promoter analogous to the Dependovirus P19 promoter was detected; however, similar to minute virus of mice and other members of the Parvovirus genus, a significant portion of pre-mRNAs generated from the P9 promoter were additionally spliced within the putative GPV Rep1 coding region and likely encode an additional, smaller, nonstructural protein. Also similar to members of the Parvovirus genus, detectable activity of the GPV P42 promoter was highly dependent on transactivation by the GPV Rep1 protein in a manner dependent on binding to a cis-element located in the P42 promoter.
Episodic memory predictions in persons with amnestic and nonamnestic mild cognitive impairment

A performance-prediction paradigm was used to examine metamemory abilities in 27 individuals with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (MCI), 14 individuals with nonamnestic MCI, and 41 controls. To assess memory self-awareness, participants predicted the number of words they would remember before completing a list-learning memory task. Memory self-monitoring was evaluated by participants' ability to increase the accuracy of their predictions after experience with the list-learning task. As expected, participants with amnestic MCI demonstrated poorer memory abilities than the controls and participants with nonamnestic MCI. The amnestic MCI group also correctly predicted that they would recall less information than controls. Furthermore, both MCI groups showed accurate awareness of how differing task demands influence recall and successfully modified their memory predictions to be more accurate following task exposure. These findings revealed that individuals with amnestic and nonamnestic MCI were able to competently assess the demands of an externally driven metamemorial situation and utilize experience with a task to accurately update memory self-knowledge. Accurate metamemory skills may facilitate the ability of individuals with MCI to benefit from targeted behavioral interventions focused on utilizing compensatory strategies for everyday memory problems.
Adaptive design of digital FIR filter for beamforming with Its application in PSK UWA communication

The frequency response of real weight digital FIR filters used in traditional time domain broadband beamforming structure can't fit the design requirements well when the ratio of communication band to central frequency is large. This may result in mainbeam aberration and increasing of sidelobe level. In order to solve this problem, a time domain broadband beamforming structure with complex weight digital FIR filters is presented. Also a digital FIR filter design algorithm is proposed and this algorithm is used to design the complex weight FIR filters. Computer simulation is done when the ratio of central frequency to communication band is 0.8 and the results show: the frequency responses of the filters designed by the proposed algorithm fit the requirements well inside the communication band (the error of amplitude responses is less than 0.3dB and the error of phase responses is less than 0.1rad)
Brief report 5 S rDNA organization in the fish Synbranchus marmoratus ( Synbranchidae , Synbranchiformes )

Studies on ribosomal RNA genes have gained prominence in a broad range of animals and plants, especially in relation to species or population characterization, evolutionary relationships and genome structuring. The 5S rDNA array consists of multiple copies of a highly conserved 120 base pair (bp) coding sequence, separated by a variable nontranscribed spacer (NTS) (LONG and DAVID 1980). While the 5S rRNA gene is conserved even among non-related taxa, the NTS shows extensive length and sequence variation which can give an accentuated dynamism to these genes (WILLIAMS and STROBECK 1985). The fish Synbranchus marmoratus BLOCH 1795 (Synbranchidae, Synbranchiformes) is widely distributed in freshwater river systems of different hydrographic basins of South America. Previous cytogenetic and biochemical studies have been carried out in several populations of the species and detected extensive levels of variation (NAKAMOTO et al. 1986; FORESTI et al. 1992; MELILLO et al. 1996; TORRES 2000). These data strongly support the hypothesis that S. marmoratus represents a complex of species (FORESTI et al. 1992) and that further biological and genetic studies are required for a better characterization of the species. To further understand the genetic structure of S. marmoratus and the 5S rDNA organization among fishes, we have studied the nucleotide sequence and genome organization of 5S rDNA tandem repeats in this species.
Turbulence modeling and Kalman prediction for the control of large AO systems

Measurements of large ground telescopes are affected by the presence of the terrestrial atmospheric turbulence: local changes of the atmospheric refraction index (e.g. due to wind and temperature variations) cause a non flat surface of the wavefront of light beams incoming on the telescope, thus degrading the quality of the observed images. Adaptive Optics (AO) systems are of fundamental importance to reduce such atmospheric influence on ground telescopes and thus to obtain high resolution observations. The goal of the AO system is that of estimating and compensating the atmospheric turbulence effect by properly commanding a set of deformable mirrors. Because of delays in the closed loop system, the Kalman filter plays an important role in ensuring an effective control performance by providing good atmosphere predictions. However, the need of periodically updating the Kalman filter gain because of changes in the atmosphere characteristics, the increase of telescopes and sensors resolutions and the high sampling rate impose quite strict restrictions to the computational load for computing the Kalman gain. Motivated by the above considerations, some strategies have been recently considered in the system theory and astronomical communities for the efficient computation of the Kalman gain for large AO systems. Specifically, this paper presents some changes to a recently proposed procedure: the proposed approach, which exploits some results in the control theory of distributed systems, computes an approximation of the optimal gain in the frequency domain exploiting the spatial homogeneity of the system. Then, the control strategy takes advantage of some information on the turbulent phase dynamic, that is estimated from the turbulence measurements. Performances of the proposed method are investigated in some simulations.
Approches hybrides pour la recherche sémantique de l'information : intégration des bases de connaissances et des ressources semi-structurées. (Hybrid Approaches for Semantic Information Retrieval : Towards the Integration of Knowledge Bases and Semistructured Resources)

La recherche semantique de l'information a connu un nouvel essor avec les nouvelles technologies du Web semantique. Des langages standards permettent aujourd'hui aux logiciels de communiquer par le biais de donnees ecrites dans le vocabulaire d'ontologies de domaine decrivant une semantique explicite. Cet acces ``semantique'' a l'information requiert la disponibilite de bases de connaissances decrivant les instances des ontologies de domaine. Cependant, ces bases de connaissances, bien que de plus en plus riches, contiennent relativement peu d'information par comparaison au volume des informations contenu dans les documents du Web.La recherche semantique de l'information atteint ainsi certaines limites par comparaison a la recherche classique de l'information qui exploite plus largement ces documents. Ces limites se traduisent explicitement par l'absence d'instances de concepts et de relations dans les bases de connaissances construites a partir des documents du Web. Dans cette these nous etudions deux directions de recherche differentes afin de permettre de repondre a des requetes semantiques dans de tels cas. Notre premiere etude porte sur la reformulation des requetes semantiques des utilisateurs afin d'atteindre des parties de document pertinentes a la place des faits recherches et manquants dans les bases de connaissances. La deuxieme problematique que nous etudions est celle de l'enrichissement des bases de connaissances par des instances de relations.Nous proposons deux solutions pour ces problematiques en exploitant des documents semi-structures annotes par des concepts ou des instances de concepts. Un des points cles de ces solutions est qu'elles permettent de decouvrir des instances de relations semantiques sans s'appuyer sur des regularites lexico-syntaxiques ou structurelles dans les documents. Nous situons ces deux approches dans la litterature et nous les evaluons avec plusieurs corpus reels extraits du Web. Les resultats obtenus sur des corpus de citations bibliographiques, des corpus d'appels a communication et des corpus geographiques montrent que ces solutions permettent effectivement de retrouver de nouvelles instances relations a partir de documents heterogenes tout en controlant efficacement leur precision.
NAI2 Is an Endoplasmic Reticulum Body Component That Enables ER Body Formation in Arabidopsis thaliana[W][OA]

Plants develop various endoplasmic reticulum (ER)–derived structures, each of which has specific functions. The ER body found in Arabidopsis thaliana is a spindle-shaped structure that specifically accumulates high levels of PYK10/BGLU23, a β-glucosidase that bears an ER-retention signal. The molecular mechanisms underlying the formation of the ER body remain obscure. We isolated an ER body–deficient mutant in Arabidopsis seedlings that we termed nai2. The NAI2 gene (At3g15950) encodes a member of a unique protein family that is only found in the Brassicaceae. NAI2 localizes to the ER body, and a reduction in NAI2 gene expression elongates ER bodies and reduces their numbers. NAI2 deficiency does not affect PYK10 mRNA levels but reduces the level of PYK10 protein, which becomes uniformly diffused throughout the ER. NAI1, a transcription factor responsible for ER body formation, regulates NAI2 gene expression. These observations indicate that NAI2 is a key factor that enables ER body formation and the accumulation of PYK10 in ER bodies of Arabidopsis. Interestingly, ER body–like structures are also restricted to the Brassicales, including the Brassicaceae. NAI2 homologs may have evolved specifically in Brassicales for the purpose of producing ER body–like structures.