Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Relationship between Sitting and the Use of Symmetry As a Cue to Figure-Ground Assignment in 6.5-Month-Old Infants

Two experiments examined the relationship between emerging sitting ability and sensitivity to symmetry as a cue to figure-ground (FG) assignment in 6.5-month-old infants (N = 80). In each experiment, infants who could sit unassisted (as indicated by parental report in Experiment 1 and by an in-lab assessment in Experiment 2) exhibited sensitivity to symmetry as a cue to FG assignment, whereas non-sitting infants did not. Experiment 2 further revealed that sensitivity to this cue is not related to general cognitive abilities as indexed using a non-related visual habituation task. Results demonstrate an important relationship between motor development and visual perception and further suggest that the achievement of important motor milestones such as stable sitting may be related to qualitative changes in sensitivity to monocular depth assignment cues such as symmetry.
Outbreak investigation and molecular diagnosis of Lumpy skin disease among livestock in Saudi Arabia 2016.

Lumpy skin disease (LSD) is a highly infectious disease of cattle caused by a virus of the Capripoxvirus genus in the family Poxviridae. The disease is a major concern for the dairy industry in Saudi Arabia. In this study, an outbreak of LSD in cattle herds was detected in Saudi Arabia in 2016. LSD outbreak was investigated in five regions of Saudi Arabia: Al-Hassa, Al-Sharqia, Al-Qassim, Riyadh and Al-Taif during the period from April to July 2016. Tissues from skin nodules were collected to characterize the virus by a real-time polymerase chain reaction (rt-PCR). During this period, 64,109 cattle were examined and morbidity, mortality and case fatality rates were 6%, 0.99% and 16.6%, respectively. The analysis showed 3,852 infected cases and 641 deaths. highest number of infected animals was reported in Al-Hassa (2,825), followed by Al-Qassim (547), Riyadh (471), Al-Sharqia (6) and Al-Taif (3). The highest morbidity rates were observed in Al-Qassim (6.8%), Al-Hassa (6.2%), Riyadh (5.5%) and Al-Taif (0.96%), while the lowest morbidity rates were recorded in Al-Sharqia (0.27%). The highest mortality rates were also observed in Al-Qassim (2.3%), followed by Al-Hassa (0.97%), Riyadh (0.19%) and lowest in Al-Sharqia and Taif (0%). LSD virus was detected in all samples (n = 191) by real-time PCR analysis. The disease has been observed in the cattle regardless of previous vaccination using the locally Romanian-pox vaccine; therefore, vaccination programme and vaccine efficacy should be assessed under field conditions.
Evaluating Textual Entailment Recognition for University Entrance Examinations

The present article addresses an attempt to apply questions in university entrance examinations to the evaluation of textual entailment recognition. Questions in several fields, such as history and politics, primarily test the examinee’s knowledge in the form of choosing true statements from multiple choices. Answering such questions can be regarded as equivalent to finding evidential texts from a textbase such as textbooks and Wikipedia. Therefore, this task can be recast as recognizing textual entailment between a description in a textbase and a statement given in a question. We focused on the National Center Test for University Admission in Japan and converted questions into the evaluation data for textual entailment recognition by using Wikipedia as a textbase. Consequently, it is revealed that nearly half of the questions can be mapped into textual entailment recognition; 941 text pairs were created from 404 questions from six subjects. This data set is provided for a subtask of NTCIR RITE (Recognizing Inference in Text), and 16 systems from six teams used the data set for evaluation. The evaluation results revealed that the best system achieved a correct answer ratio of 56%, which is significantly better than a random choice baseline.
Graphical analysis and design of multistage operational amplifiers with active feedback Miller compensation

Frequency compensation of a multistage operational amplifier (op‐amp) is normally performed through solving nodal equations of an equivalent circuit to obtain the op‐amp's final transfer function. The process is often very tedious and offers little insight into the roles of the selected compensation scheme. In this paper, we present a graphical design approach for two‐stage and three‐stage op‐amps with active feedback Miller compensation. By viewing frequency compensation as a standard feedback problem, we can utilize the well‐known graphical tools such as the root locus and Bode plot to understand the effects of the compensation and to estimate the locations of the closed‐loop poles and zeros of the op‐amp. Intuitive graphical design procedures for two‐stage and three‐stage op‐amps are also formulated. To show its effectiveness, we illustrate our design approach through the design of a three‐stage op‐amp in a standard 0.18‐μm complementary metal‐oxide‐semiconductor (CMOS) process. With a load capacitance of 500 pF, post‐layout simulations show that the op‐amp achieves a low‐frequency gain of 144 dB, a phase margin of 58∘, and a unity‐gain frequency of 1.38 MHz while consuming a total bias current of 31 μA from a 1.8‐V supply voltage. Comparisons with the published amplifiers show that our op‐amp achieves the figure of merits comparable to those of the state of the art. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Low-Resource Eclipse Attacks on Ethereum's Peer-to-Peer Network

We present eclipse attacks on Ethereum nodes that exploit the peer-to-peer network used for neighbor discovery. Our attacks can be launched using only two hosts, each with a single IP address. Our eclipse attacker monopolizes all of the victim’s incoming and outgoing connections, thus isolating the victim from the rest of its peers in the network. The attacker can then filter the victim’s view of the blockchain, or co-opt the victim’s computing power as part of more sophisticated attacks. We argue that these eclipse-attack vulnerabilities result from Ethereum’s adoption of the Kademlia peer-to-peer protocol, and present countermeasures that both harden the network against eclipse attacks and cause it to behave differently from the traditional Kademlia protocol. Several of our countermeasures have been incorporated in the Ethereum geth 1.8 client released on February 14, 2018.
Determining Genetic Causal Variants Through Multivariate Regression Using Mixture Model Penalty

With the availability of high-throughput sequencing data, identification of genetic causal variants accurately requires the efficient incorporation of function annotation data into the optimization routine. This motivates the need for development of novel methods for genome wide association studies with special focus on fine-mapping capabilities. A penalty function method that is simple to implement and capable of integrating functional annotation information into the estimation procedure, is proposed in this work. The idea is to use the prior distribution of the effect sizes explicitly as a penalty function. The estimates obtained are shown to be better correlated with the true effect sizes (in comparison with a few existing techniques). An increase in the positive and negative predictive value is demonstrated using Hapgen2 simulated data.
Chirality-controlled spontaneous twisting of crystals due to thermal topochemical reaction

Significance Recently many crystals have been reported to show various mechanical responses when triggered by stimuli (heat, light, and pressure). Such properties are attributed to polymorphic transitions, conformational changes, packing changes, isomerizations, or chemical reactions inside the crystal and the consequent strain developed between parent and daughter phases. The role of molecular chirality in such macroscopic phenomena is yet to be established. In the present study we found that crystals of dipeptide LL undergo right-handed twisting and those of its enantiomer, dipeptide DD, undergo left-handed twisting upon heat-induced topochemical azide–alkyne cycloaddition. This study provides clear evidence for the role of molecular chirality in controlling the direction of macroscopic twisting of crystals. Crystals that show mechanical response against various stimuli are of great interest. These stimuli induce polymorphic transitions, isomerizations, or chemical reactions in the crystal and the strain generated between the daughter and parent domains is transcribed into mechanical response. We observed that the crystals of modified dipeptide LL (N3-l-Ala-l-Val-NHCH2C≡CH) undergo spontaneous twisting to form right-handed twisted crystals not only at room temperature but also at 0 °C over time. Using various spectroscopic techniques, we have established that the twisting is due to the spontaneous topochemical azide–alkyne cycloaddition (TAAC) reaction at room temperature or lower temperatures. The rate of twisting can be increased by heating, exploiting the faster kinetics of the TAAC reaction at higher temperatures. To address the role of molecular chirality in the direction of twisting the enantiomer of dipeptide LL, N3-d-Ala-d-Val-NHCH2C≡CH (DD), was synthesized and topochemical reactivity and mechanoresponse of its crystals were studied. We have found that dipeptide DD not only underwent TAAC reaction, giving 1,4-triazole–linked pseudopolypeptides of d-amino acids, but also underwent twisting with opposite handedness (left-handed twisting), establishing the role of molecular chirality in controlling the direction of mechanoresponse. This paper reports (i) a mechanical response due to a thermal reaction and (ii) a spontaneous mechanical response in crystals and (iii) explains the role of molecular chirality in the handedness of the macroscopic mechanical response.
Molecular simulation study of gas storage and separation by novel micropore architectures

Gas storage and separation in microporous materials is now a subject of greater interest than ever before, even though the problem of finding suitable materials has existed from the beginning of the 19th century. Since then, many researchers have attempted to modify various materials’ chemical stability for gas storage and separation applications. The 21st century has seen revolutionary advancement in microporous materials. A promising candidate, named Porous Aromatic Frameworks (PAFs), has been discovered which are ideal and have a unique combination of ultrahigh surface area and extraordinary physicochemical stability. In this work, based on molecular simulation, we present a method for hydrogen gas storage within lithiated fullerenes (Li6C60) impregnated PAF materials, with the goal of reaching the DoE capacity targets for on-board hydrogen storage at cryogenic temperature (not within DoE specifications). Despite an apparent loss of free volume related to pore filling by lithiated fullerenes, the adsorption capacity is increased at low pressures for gravimetric uptake and increased at all pressures for volumetric uptake. This improvement strategy may remove the need for high pressure vessels. Water/Methanol separation by molecular simulation within fullerenes (C60) incorporated (PAFs) is also studied. Grand Canonical Monte Carlo (GCMC) simulations are utilized to calculate the pure component and mixture adsorption isotherms. The adsorption of water is very small compared to methanol, a useful material property for membrane and adsorbent-based separations. We have also studied Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations to confirm that the water diffusivity is also
Clinical significance of B7-H4 expression in matched non-small cell lung cancer brain metastases and primary tumors

Background B7-H4, a member of the inhibitory B7 family, is shown to have a profound inhibitory effect on the proliferation, activation, cytokine secretion, and development of cytotoxicity of T cells and may be involved in immune evasion in cancer patients. Although B7-H4 expression has been detected in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), there are no published reports on the expression of B7-H4 in brain metastases from NSCLC. Methods We examined the expression of B7-H4 by immunohistochemistry in 49 cases of brain metastatic NSCLC, 18 cases of matched primary NSCLC, and 20 cases of NSCLC patients who had neither brain metastases nor other distant metastases. Results B7-H4 was highly expressed in 20 (40.8%) out of 49 brain metastases and two (11.1%) out of 18 matched primary tumors. The expression of B7-H4 in brain metastases appeared to be significantly higher than their matched primary tumors (P = 0.016). We also found that patients with high B7-H4 expression in their primary NSCLC have a higher risk of developing brain metastases (P = 0.022). Univariate analyses showed that median overall survival was significantly shorter in patients with high B7-H4 expression in brain metastases (P = 0.002). Multivariate analyses showed that B7-H4 was a significant independent prognostic indicator (P = 0.003). Conclusion NSCLC patients with high B7-H4 expression may benefit from aggressive treatment and close surveillance. Furthermore, our study suggests that B7-H4 may play an important role in the metastatic process of NSCLC and is promising to be a new immune checkpoint molecule for future antitumoral immunotherapy.
Elastic LiDAR Fusion: Dense Map-Centric Continuous-Time SLAM

The concept of continuous-time trajectory representation has brought increased accuracy and efficiency to multi-modal sensor fusion in modern SLAM. However, regardless of these advantages, its offline property caused by the requirement of global batch optimization is critically hindering its relevance for real-time and life-long applications. In this paper, we present a dense map-centric SLAM method based on a continuous-time trajectory to cope with this problem. The proposed system locally functions in a similar fashion to conventional Continuous-Time SLAM (CT-SLAM). However, it removes the need for global trajectory optimization by introducing map deformation. The computational complexity of the proposed approach for loop closure does not depend on the operation time, but only on the size of the space it explored before the loop closure. It is therefore more suitable for long term operation compared to the conventional CT-SLAM. Furthermore, the proposed method reduces uncertainty in the reconstructed dense map by using probabilistic surface element (surfel) fusion. We demonstrate that the proposed method produces globally consistent maps without global batch trajectory optimization, and effectively reduces LiDAR noise by surfel fusion.
Multiuser power control with competitive market equilibrium

In an effort to improve the efficiency of spectrum usage, the cognitive radio (CR) [1] technology was proposed, bringing the possibility of dynamic spectrum management (DSM) [2]. Power control is one of the central issues in the design of CR multiuser communication systems. The multiuser power control problem can be modeled as a competitive market equilibrium (CME) system. In this paper, we reveal the differences between the CME problem and the standard Linear Complementary Problem (LCP), and then derive the closed form solution to a simplified CME problem. We also propose a hybrid algorithm which combines the tâtonnement process [3] and the proposed proportional allocation scheme. When the convergence conditions for the tâtonnement process are not tenable, it can be shown that our proposed algorithm outperforms the tâtonnement process in terms of average iteration number.
UvA-DARE ( Digital Academic Repository ) Neural Networks for Information Retrieval

Citation for published version (APA): Kenter, T. , Borisov, A. , Van Gysel, C. , Dehghani, M. , de Rijke, M. , & Mitra, B. (2017). Neural Networks for Information Retrieval. In SIGIR'17 : proceedings of the 40th International ACM SIGIR Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval: August 7-11, 2017, Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan (pp. 1403-1406). New York, NY: Association for Computing Machinery. DOI: 10.1145/3077136.3082062
90Y-Labeled Anti-ROBO1 Monoclonal Antibody Exhibits Antitumor Activity against Small Cell Lung Cancer Xenografts

Introduction ROBO1 is a membrane protein that contributes to tumor metastasis and angiogenesis. We previously reported that 90Y-labeled anti-ROBO1 monoclonal antibody (90Y-anti-ROBO1 IgG) showed an antitumor effect against ROBO1-positive tumors. In this study, we performed a biodistribution study and radioimmunotherapy (RIT) against ROBO1-positive small cell lung cancer (SCLC) models. Methods For the biodistribution study, 111In-labeled anti-ROBO1 monoclonal antibody (111In-anti-ROBO1 IgG) was injected into ROBO1-positive SCLC xenograft mice via the tail vein. To evaluate antitumor effects, an RIT study was performed, and SCLC xenograft mice were treated with 90Y-anti-ROBO1 IgG. Tumor volume and body weight were periodically measured throughout the experiments. The tumors and organs of mice were then collected, and a pathological analysis was carried out. Results As a result of the biodistribution study, we observed tumor uptake of 111In-anti-ROBO1 IgG. The liver, kidney, spleen, and lung showed comparably high accumulation of 111In-labeled anti-ROBO1. In the RIT study, 90Y-anti-ROBO1 IgG significantly reduced tumor volume compared with baseline. Pathological analyses of tumors revealed coagulation necrosis and fatal degeneration of tumor cells, significant reduction in the number of Ki-67-positive cells, and an increase in the number of apoptotic cells. A transient reduction of hematopoietic cells was observed in the spleen, sternum, and femur. Conclusions These results suggest that RIT with 90Y-anti-ROBO1 IgG is a promising treatment for ROBO1-positive SCLC.
Learning of causal relations

To learn about causal relations between variables just by observing samples from them, particular assumptions must be made about those variables' distributions. This article gives a practical description of how such a learning task can be undertaken based on dierent possible assumptions. Two categories of assumptions lead to dierent methods, constraint-based and Bayesian learning, and in each case we review both the basic ideas and some recent extensions and alternatives to them.
Gold price movement forecasting using hybrid ES-FIS

Gold is the most popular commodity that has been used for the exchange of goods for centuries. For a trader, the most important thing to gain profit on gold-exchange trading world is to know the behaviour gold price, when it will be moving down or moving up in the stock market. Gold prices affected by some economic factors such as foreign exchange but most methods that studied gold forecasting only focused on technical analysis using time series and historical price. This paper is trying to formulate fundamental analysis to forecast gold price by using a hybrid between Evolution Strategies and Fuzzy Inference System. It resulted in lower error based on MAE compared to regular FIS, with the value is 9.46 for regular FIS Mamdani and 2.73 for ES-FIS.
Draft Genome Sequence of Plant Growth-Promoting and Drought-Tolerant Bacillus altitudinis FD48, Isolated from Rice Phylloplane

ABSTRACT The genome sequence of a temperature-tolerant strain, Bacillus altitudinis FD48, is described here. The reads were assembled into contigs with a total size of 3.7 Mb. The genome information will aid in understanding its role in alleviating stress in crop plants as a potential bioinoculant for agricultural applications.
Man or Machine? The Clinimetric Properties of Laser Doppler Imaging in Burn Depth Assessment

Burns of an indeterminate depth present a challenge to burns surgeons and nurses on a daily basis in terms of healing and subsequent management, be it by a surgical or a more conservative approach. Laser Doppler imaging has become an important diagnostic modality in assisting the clinical decision-making process, being used widely in burns units throughout the United Kingdom and the rest of the world. Clinimetrics focuses on the methodology of measuring various biological parameters, and this article aims to describe laser Doppler imaging in this context by appraising the current body of evidence that illustrate its various properties. The authors conclude that indeterminate burn depth assessment should be a clinical judgment assisted by information provided by this device.
Short-Term Environmental Enrichment Enhances Adult Neurogenesis, Vascular Network and Dendritic Complexity in the Hippocampus of Type 1 Diabetic Mice

Background Several brain disturbances have been described in association to type 1 diabetes in humans. In animal models, hippocampal pathological changes were reported together with cognitive deficits. The exposure to a variety of environmental stimuli during a certain period of time is able to prevent brain alterations and to improve learning and memory in conditions like stress, aging and neurodegenerative processes. Methodology/Principal Findings We explored the modulation of hippocampal alterations in streptozotocin-induced type 1 diabetic mice by environmental enrichment. In diabetic mice housed in standard conditions we found a reduction of adult neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus, decreased dendritic complexity in CA1 neurons and a smaller vascular fractional area in the dentate gyrus, compared with control animals in the same housing condition. A short exposure -10 days- to an enriched environment was able to enhance proliferation, survival and dendritic arborization of newborn neurons, to recover dendritic tree length and spine density of pyramidal CA1 neurons and to increase the vascular network of the dentate gyrus in diabetic animals. Conclusions/Significance The environmental complexity seems to constitute a strong stimulator competent to rescue the diabetic brain from neurodegenerative progression.
Boosting the Photocatalytic Activity of P25 for Carbon Dioxide Reduction by using a Surface-Alkalinized Titanium Carbide MXene as Cocatalyst.

Although they are widely used as cocatalysts in promoting photocatalysis, practical application of noble metals is limited by their high cost and rarity. Development of noble-metal-free cocatalysts is thus highly demanded. Herein titanium carbide (Ti3 C2 ) MXene is shown to be a highly efficient noble-metal-free cocatalyst with commercial titania (P25) for photocatalytic CO2 reduction. Surface alkalinization of Ti3 C2 dramatically enhances the activity; the evolution rates of CO (11.74 μmol g-1 h-1 ) and CH4 (16.61 μmol g-1 h-1 ) are 3- and 277-times higher than those of bare P25, respectively. The significantly enhanced activity is attributed to the superior electrical conductivity and charge-carrier separation ability, as well as the abundant CO2 adsorption and activation sites of surface-alkalinized Ti3 C2 MXene, indicating its promise as a highly-active noble-metal-free cocatalysts for photocatalytic CO2 reduction.