Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Lipids of human retina, retinal pigment epithelium, and Bruch's membrane/choroid: comparison of macular and peripheral regions.

PURPOSE To understand the difference between macular and peripheral regions, tissue samples of human retina, retinal pigment epithelium, and Bruch's membrane/choroid were dissected and analyzed for lipid composition. METHOD To facilitate dissections and enhance the recovery of tissues, eyecups were prefixed for 1 hour in 10% formalin (pH 7). Lipids were extracted from 4-mm trephined punches of tissues and analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography. After separation of neutral lipids and phospholipids, total fatty acids in both lipid classes were quantitated. RESULTS The major phospholipid classes in retina, retinal pigment epithelium, and Bruch's membrane/choroid were phosphatidyl choline, phosphatidyl ethanolamine, phosphatidyl inositol, and phosphatidyl serine; the major fatty acids were palmitic (16:0), stearic (18:0), and oleic (18:1). Although the three tissues had similar total fatty acid and phospholipid components, their relative compositions were different. Neutral lipid/phospholipid ratios in retinal pigment epithelium and Bruch's membrane/choroid were almost three times higher than in the retina. CONCLUSIONS This study provides information about the lipid composition of macular and peripheral regions of the human retina, retinal pigment epithelium, and Bruch's membrane/choroid. The methodology employed enabled study of lipids in small amounts of tissue, which will be of value in investigating the biochemical aspects of age-related macular degeneration.
Flexible Network-Based Intrusion Detection and Prevention System on Software-Defined Networks

Software-defined networking (SDN) has recently generated considerable interest among researchers as a next generation network architecture that can overcome the limitations of the traditional network. Intrusion detection and prevention system (IDPS) can leverage the SDN approach to achieve lots of great benefits. The specialized hardware or software for network monitoring can be replaced by OpenFlow switches which might reduce the cost and decrease the latency of the whole IDPS system. SDN also enables the automatic response of the IDPS in case of intrusion detection. Besides, the administrator tasks can be much simpler and efficient thanks to the advantages of SDN. In this paper, we propose a network-based IDPS relying on SDN approach and carry out some typical experiments to evaluate its performance against Denial of Service and Probe attack.
Automatic self-calibration of a vision system during robot motion

This paper presents a new technique to estimate the extrinsic parameters of a robot-vision sensor system. More in general, this technique can be adopted to calibrate any robot bearing sensor. It is based on the extended Kalman filter. It is very simple and allows an automatic self-calibration during the robot motion. It only requires a source of light in the environment and an odometry system on the robot. The strategy is theoretically validated through an observability analysis which takes into account the system nonlinearities. This analysis shows that the system contains all the necessary information to perform the self-calibration. Furthermore, many accurate simulations and experiments performed on a real platform equipped with encoder sensors and an omnidirectional conic vision sensor, show the exceptional performance of the strategy
Peer Effects when Girls and Boys Learn Together , a Birth Cohort Approach

We propose estimating peer effects when girls and boys learn together by exploiting within-school variation in the share of girls/boys across birth cohorts. In school systems without grade retention, our birth cohort approach is equivalent to the grade level approach used in the literature. In school systems with grade retention, our birth cohort approach has the advantage that it does not yield spurious peer effects of girls/boys on the learning success of girls or boys. We apply the birth cohort approach and the grade level approach to primary schools in Spain, which permit grade retention.
Analysis of acylcarnitine profiles in umbilical cord blood and during the early neonatal period by electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry

Acylcarnitine profiling by electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (ESI-MS/MS) is a potent tool for the diagnosis and screening of fatty acid oxidation and organic acid disorders. Few studies have analyzed free carnitine and acylcarnitines in dried blood spots (DBS) of umbilical cord blood (CB) and the postnatal changes in the concentrations of these analytes. We have investigated these metabolites in healthy exclusively breastfed neonates and examined possible effects of birth weight and gestational age. DBS of CB were collected from 162 adequate for gestational age neonates. Paired DBS of heel-prick blood were collected 4-8 days after birth from 106 of these neonates, the majority exclusively breastfed. Methanol extracts of DBS with deuterium-labeled internal standards were derivatized before analysis by ESI-MS/MS. Most of the analytes were measured using a full-scan method. The levels of the major long-chain acylcarnitines, palmitoylcarnitine, stearoylcarnitine, and oleoylcarnitine, increased by 27, 12, and 109%, respectively, in the first week of life. Free carnitine and acetylcarnitine had a modest increase: 8 and 11%, respectively. Propionylcarnitine presented a different behavior, decreasing 9% during the period. The correlations between birth weight or gestational age and the concentrations of the analytes in DBS were weak (r ≤ 0.20) or nonsignificant. Adaptation to breast milk as the sole source of nutrients can explain the increase of these metabolites along the early neonatal period. Acylcarnitine profiling in CB should have a role in the early detection of metabolic disorders in high-risk neonates.
The RNase III Enzyme DROSHA Is Essential for MicroRNA Production and Spermatogenesis*

Background: miRNA biogenesis requires two RNase III enzymes, DROSHA and DICER. Results: Lack of DROSHA in the male germ line leads to deficiency in miRNA production and male infertility. Conclusion: DROSHA and DICER have both common and unique functions in male germ cell development. Significance: This study reveals an essential role of DROSHA, DICER, and DROSHA-/DICER-dependent small noncoding RNAs spermatogenesis. DROSHA is a nuclear RNase III enzyme responsible for cleaving primary microRNAs (miRNAs) into precursor miRNAs and thus is essential for the biogenesis of canonical miRNAs. DICER is a cytoplasmic RNase III enzyme that not only cleaves precursor miRNAs to produce mature miRNAs but also dissects naturally formed/synthetic double-stranded RNAs to generate small interfering RNAs (siRNAs). To investigate the role of canonical miRNA and/or endogenous siRNA production in spermatogenesis, we generated Drosha or Dicer conditional knock-out (cKO) mouse lines by inactivating Drosha or Dicer exclusively in spermatogenic cells in postnatal testes using the Cre-loxp strategy. Both Drosha and Dicer cKO males were infertile due to disrupted spermatogenesis characterized by depletion of spermatocytes and spermatids leading to oligoteratozoospermia or azoospermia. The developmental course of spermatogenic disruptions was similar at morphological levels between Drosha and Dicer cKO males, but Drosha cKO testes appeared to be more severe in spermatogenic disruptions than Dicer cKO testes. Microarray analyses revealed transcriptomic differences between Drosha- and Dicer-null pachytene spermatocytes or round spermatids. Although levels of sex-linked mRNAs were mildly elevated, meiotic sex chromosome inactivation appeared to have occurred normally. Our data demonstrate that unlike DICER, which is required for the biogenesis of several small RNA species, DROSHA is essential mainly for the canonical miRNA production, and DROSHA-mediated miRNA production is essential for normal spermatogenesis and male fertility.
The Effect of Napster on Recorded Music Sales: Evidence from the Consumer Expenditure Survey

The subject of the invention is a process for the manufacture of water-soluble condensation products of hydroxymethylphosphonium compounds and a 1,3,5-triazine characterised in that (a) 1 mol of a tetrakis-(hydroxymethyl)-phosphonium compound is condensed with (b) 0.02 to 0.1 mol, preferably 0.05 to 0.1 mol of optionally methylolated 1,3,5-triazine which is substituted by at least one primary amino group, at 40 DEG to 120 DEG C, optionally in the presence of formaldehyde or a formaldehyde-releasing agent and optionally in the presence of an inert organic solvent, the condensation is optionally thereafter continued at temperatures of 100 DEG to 150 DEG C and, if appropriate, free hydroxyl groups are etherified at least partially with at least one alkanol with 1 to 4 carbon atoms and, if appropriate, the salts of the condensation products are converted into the corresponding hydroxides.
Structural model of self‐care agency in patients with diabetes: A path analysis of the Instrument of Diabetes Self‐Care Agency and body self‐awareness

Aim The aim of this study was to examine a causal model of self‐care agency by exploring the relationship between the structure of “body self‐awareness” and the structure of the Instrument of Diabetes Self‐Care Agency (IDSCA). Methods The participants were 353 patients with diabetes. The internal consistency of the six items for body self‐awareness was examined by calculating the factor structure using principal factor analysis and Cronbach's alpha. In order to examine the relationship between the seven factors in the IDSCA, a path analysis was conducted. Results With regard to the factor structure, the factor loading of these five items was 0.511–0.743 (α = 0.739). In the path analysis, “body self‐awareness” was influenced by the “ability to acquire knowledge” and had a direct effect (0.33) on the “motivation to self‐manage”, while “motivation to self‐manage” had an effect (−0.32) on the “ability to self‐manage”. The Goodness‐of‐Fit Index was 0.974. Conclusion “Body self‐awareness” plays a part in the self‐care operation process and serves as an intermediary factor to enable the performance of self‐care operations by making the most use of self‐care agency. Moreover, striking a proper balance between self‐management that is focused on the treatment of diabetes and a person's ability for self‐management of diabetes was found to be important.
An Energy-Efficient Clustered Superscalar Processor

Power consumption is a major concern in embedded microprocessors design. Reducing power has also been a critical design goal for general-purpose microprocessors. Since they require high performance as well as low power, power reduction at the cost of performance cannot be accepted. There are a lot of device-level techniques that reduce power with maintaining performance. They select non-critical paths as candidates for low-power design, and performance-oriented design is used only in speedcritical paths. The same philosophy can be applied to architectural-level design. We evaluate a technique, which exploits dynamic information regarding instruction criticality in order to reduce power. We evaluate an instruction steering policy for a clustered microarchitecture, which is based on instruction criticality, and find it is substantially energy-efficient while it suffers performance degradation. key words: low power architecture, energy reduction, clustered processors, dual-voltage pipeline, critical path prediction
Marxism And Morality

Discussion of Marxism in the Western world since the nineteen-sixties has been dominated by a reaction against Hegelian ideas. This agenda has been shared equally by the analytical Marxism which has predominated in the English speaking world and by the structuralist Marxism which has been the major influence in the continental tradition. The main purpose of my own work has been to reassess these attitudes.
Rate-optimized power allocation for OFDM transmission with multiple DF relays and individual power constraints

We consider an OFDM (orthogonal frequency division multiplexing) point to point transmission scheme improved by means of multiple relays. For each carrier, symbols sent by the source during a first time slot may be retransmitted during a second time slot by the relays, which are assumed to be of the DF (Decode-and-Forward) type. For each relayed carrier the destination implements maximum ratio combining between what is received over the direct link and what is received from the relay(s). Perfect CSI (channel state information) knowledge is assumed. The paper investigates the power allocation problem in order to maximize the rate offered by the scheme. The source is allowed to transmit a new symbol during the second time slot when none of the relays is assisting. The constraints of decodability at the relays are properly handled. The optimization is conducted for individual constraints on the powers at the source and at the relays. The theoretical analysis is illustrated by numerical results.
Early trauma experiences, parenting styles, and personality patterns in individuals with depression from India

ABSTRACT The study was carried out to understand the vulnerability factors for depression. The objectives were to, explore the early trauma experiences, parenting styles and personality patterns in depression and to examine relationship between the variables. The Sample composed of 30 individuals diagnosed with depression and 30 controls from the community in the age range of 18–45 years. The tools used were Socio demographic sheet, MINI-International Neuropsychiatric Interview Plus, Beck Depression Inventory- II, Early Trauma Inventory Self Report-Short Form, Parental Bonding Instrument, Sociotropy-Autonomy Scale, and General Health Questionnaire –12. Study group had significantly lower score on father care and higher overprotection from both parents along with higher scores on general punishment, emotional abuse, total trauma score and sociotropy compared to control group. Depression and early trauma experiences were positively correlated with mother’s overprotection and negatively correlated with mother care. Mother overprotection positively correlated with mother care. Father’s care negatively correlated with early trauma. Sociotropy, general punishment, and emotional abuse are significant predictors of depression. The study has implications in understanding the parenting, childhood adversity and personality in the cultural context while treating depression.
Mobile mixed reality

This work represents a new solution for augmented reality systems for desktop computers with Windows OS and mobile devices specifically with Android OS. It describes and explains the basic aspects and principles of augmented reality, and at the same time it analyzes problems of the actual implementation of such systems. After this analysis, two separate applications are designed for desktop computers and mobile devices. All steps of the implementation are documented, ranging from software requirements of the given platforms, to each steps during the application implementation.
Smart pricing for cloud resource and service markets: A brief overview

With the surging demand for network, Apps and clouds from both mobile devices and broadband end-users, the way of resource management and allocation is changing greatly. Smart pricing can tackle the issue of data traffic and services for network monetization and growth sustainability. Therefore, to design optimal pricing policies is the most fundamental work for both the profits of cloud providers and Quality of Services (QoS) of end-users. This paper investigates the pricing models and approaches to resource allocation and service management problems in cloud resource and service markets. We propose a taxonomy of pricing problems in the cloud resource and service markets, which shows how these problems can be formulated as optimization problems. We demonstrate how relevant theory from game theory, control theory and optimization can be leveraged to address smart pricing problems for resource and service allocation of the cloud markets.
Common Noctule Bats Are Sexually Dimorphic in Migratory Behaviour and Body Size but Not Wing Shape

Within the large order of bats, sexual size dimorphism measured by forearm length and body mass is often female-biased. Several studies have explained this through the effects on load carrying during pregnancy, intrasexual competition, as well as the fecundity and thermoregulation advantages of increased female body size. We hypothesized that wing shape should differ along with size and be under variable selection pressure in a species where there are large differences in flight behaviour. We tested whether load carrying, sex differential migration, or reproductive advantages of large females affect size and wing shape dimorphism in the common noctule (Nyctalus noctula), in which females are typically larger than males and only females migrate long distances each year. We tested for univariate and multivariate size and shape dimorphism using data sets derived from wing photos and biometric data collected during pre-migratory spring captures in Switzerland. Females had forearms that are on average 1% longer than males and are 1% heavier than males after emerging from hibernation, but we found no sex differences in other size, shape, or other functional characters in any wing parameters during this pre-migratory period. Female-biased size dimorphism without wing shape differences indicates that reproductive advantages of big mothers are most likely responsible for sexual dimorphism in this species, not load compensation or shape differences favouring aerodynamic efficiency during pregnancy or migration. Despite large behavioural and ecological sex differences, morphology associated with a specialized feeding niche may limit potential dimorphism in narrow-winged bats such as common noctules and the dramatic differences in migratory behaviour may then be accomplished through plasticity in wing kinematics.
Update on the evaluation of hypersensitivity reactions to betalactams

Hypersensitivity reactions to betalactams (BLs) are classified as immediate or nonimmediate. The former usually appear within 1 h of drug‐intake and are mediated by specific IgE‐antibodies. Nonimmediate reactions are those occurring more than 1 h after drug‐intake, and they can be T‐cell mediated. The diagnostic evaluation of allergic reactions to BLs has changed over the last 5 years, for several reasons. Major and minor determinants are no longer commercially available for skin testing in many countries. In immediate allergic reactions, the sensitivity of skin testing and immunoassays is decreasing and new in vitro methods, such as the basophil activation test, are gaining importance for diagnosis. For nonimmediate reactions, skin testing appears to be less sensitive than previous results, although more studies need to be carried out in this direction. Nevertheless, the drug provocation test is still necessary for diagnosis.
A Fast-Stable Optimization Algorithm for Multi-objective Population Migration

This paper presents a fast-stable population migration algorithm for multi-objective optimization to solve multi-objective optimization problems. Based on the concept of Pareto non-domination and guided by a global optimization experiments, this algorithm adopts dynamic mutation operator and the entire population migrating method to increase the algorithm convergence speed and population diversity. Finally it is tested for algorithm performance by using nine standard multi-objective functions, which is compared with simulation of algorithms such as SPEA, NSGAII and so on, The test shows that proposed algorithm is much better in the way of convergence, diversity and solution distribution.
One‐Dimensional Nanostructures: Synthesis, Characterization, and Applications

This article provides a comprehensive review of current research activities that concentrate on one‐dimensional (1D) nanostructures—wires, rods, belts, and tubes—whose lateral dimensions fall anywhere in the range of 1 to 100 nm. We devote the most attention to 1D nanostructures that have been synthesized in relatively copious quantities using chemical methods. We begin this article with an overview of synthetic strategies that have been exploited to achieve 1D growth. We then elaborate on these approaches in the following four sections: i) anisotropic growth dictated by the crystallographic structure of a solid material; ii) anisotropic growth confined and directed by various templates; iii) anisotropic growth kinetically controlled by supersaturation or through the use of an appropriate capping reagent; and iv) new concepts not yet fully demonstrated, but with long‐term potential in generating 1D nanostructures. Following is a discussion of techniques for generating various types of important heterostructured nanowires. By the end of this article, we highlight a range of unique properties (e.g., thermal, mechanical, electronic, optoelectronic, optical, nonlinear optical, and field emission) associated with different types of 1D nanostructures. We also briefly discuss a number of methods potentially useful for assembling 1D nanostructures into functional devices based on crossbar junctions, and complex architectures such as 2D and 3D periodic lattices. We conclude this review with personal perspectives on the directions towards which future research on this new class of nanostructured materials might be directed.
EOG guidance of a wheelchair using neural networks

Presents a method to control and guide mobile robots. In this case, to send different commands we have used electrooculography (EOG) techniques, so that, control is made by means of the ocular position (eye displacement into its orbit). A neural network is used to identify the inverse eye model, therefore the saccadic eye movements can be detected and where the user is looking can be determined. This control technique can be useful in multiple applications, but in this work it is used to guide an autonomous robot (wheelchair) as a system to help to people with severe disabilities. The system consists of a standard electric wheelchair with an on-board computer, sensors and graphical user interface running on a computer.
Grammar Acquisition and Statistical Parsing by Exploiting Local Contextual Information

This paper presents a method for inducing a context-sensitive conditional probability context-free grammar from an unlabeled bracketed corpus using local contextual information and describes a natural language parsing model which uses a probabilitybased scoring function of the grammar to rank parses of a sentence. This method uses clustering techniques to group brackets in a corpus into a number of similar bracket groups based on their local contextual information. From the set of these groups, the corpus is automatically labeled with some nonterminal labels, and consequently a grammar with conditional probabilities is acquired. Based on these conditional probabilities, the statistical parsing model provides a framework for finding the most likely parse of a sentence. A number of experiments are made using EDR corpus and Wall Street Journal corpus. The results show that our approach achieves a relatively high accuracy: 88% recall, 72% precision and 0.7 crossing brackets per sentence for sentences shorter than 10 words, and 71% recall, 51% precision and 3.4 crossing brackets for sentences between 10-19 words. This result supports the assumption that local contextual statistics obtained from an unlabeled bracketed corpus are effective for learning a useful grammar and parsing.