Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Identifying vital nodes on temporal networks: An edge-based K-shell decomposition

There is an ever-increasing interest in studying temporal networks nowadays, as temporal networks can illustrate the real-world system more accurately. To date, how to characterize nodes' importance is still unclear in temporal networks. In this work, we first use a time window graph model to cut the temporal network into slices, and then we give an indicator for network centrality according to the edge-based κ-shell decomposition for the temporal networks, which is named as temporal κ-shell decomposition. We mainly use the size of the largest component after removing the nodes with large centrality value to test the method's performance. The numerical experiments on several real networks indicate that the temporal κ-shell method outperforms some other indicators, and the results with different time window size show that the improvement is also robust.
Regulation of the Expression of Nitrate Reductase genes in Leaves of Medical plant, Foeniculum vulgare by Different Nitrate Sources

The effect of different sources of nitrate salts (ammonium nitrate, sodium nitrate and potassium nitrate) on nitrate reductase (NR) activity and nitrate reductase expression in the leaves of Foeniculum vulgare seedlings grown in pots containing perlite. Two week old seedlings were treated with 30, 60 and 120 mM aqueous solution of ammonium nitrate, sodium nitrate or potassium nitrate. After 21 days of nitrate supply, the leaves were harvest and kept in liquid nitrogen for analysis of nitrate/nitrite ratio, nitrate reductase activity and mRNA expression. Result showed that ammonium nitrate, sodium nitrate and potassium nitrate, as inducers, had significant effects on both nitrate reductase activity and nitrate reductase expression in some rates. In high ammonium nitrate, sodium nitrate and potassium nitrate supplies, nitrate reductase activity and nitrate reductase expressions were suppressed apparently due to nitrogen metabolite response inhibition and toxicity.
Perinatal Hypoxic-Ischemic Brain Damage: Evolution of an Animal Model

Early research in the Vannucci laboratory prior to 1981 focused largely on brain energy metabolism in the developing rat. At that time, there was no experimental model to study the effects of perinatal hypoxia-ischemia in the rodent, despite the tremendous need to investigate the pathophysiology of perinatal asphyxial brain damage in infants. Accordingly, we developed such a model in the postnatal day 7 rat, using a modification of the Levine preparation in the adult rat. Rat pups underwent unilateral common carotid artery ligation followed by exposure to systemic hypoxia (8% oxygen) at a constant temperature of 37°C. Brain damage, seen histologically, was generally confined to the cerebral hemisphere ipsilateral to the arterial occlusion, and consisted of selective neuronal death or infarction, depending on the duration of the systemic hypoxia. Tissue injury was observed in the cerebral cortex, hippocampus, striatum, and thalamus. Subcortical and periventricular white matter injury was also observed. This model was originally described in the Annals of Neurology in 1981, and during the more than 20 years since that publication numerous investigations utilizing the model have been conducted in our laboratories as well as laboratories around the world. Cerebral blood flow and metabolic correlates have been fully characterized. Physiologic and pharmacologic manipulations have been applied to the model in search of neuroprotective strategies. More recently, molecular biologic alterations during and following the hypoxic-ischemic stress have been ascertained and the model has been adapted to the immature mouse for specific use in genetically altered animals. As predicted in the original article, the model has proven useful for the study of the short- and long-term effects of hypoxic-ischemic brain damage on motor activity, behavior, seizure incidence, and the process of maturation in the brain and other organ systems.
Competition and the Location of Overseas Assembly

How does international competition affect overseas outsourcing? While it is commonly believed that international competition enables firms to desert high cost countries in favor of low wage locations, the frequency of such responses may be reduced if the movement of outsourcing activities involves sunk costs. To put these factors in perspective, I study the production decisions of participants in the U.S. overseas assembly program (OAP). A number of interesting regularities emerge. First, the strong positive effect of prior participation on current OAP participation probabilities suggests that sunk costs influence outsourcing choices. Such production persistence is especially strong among foreign assemblers who are responsible for completing a large percentage of value-added. Second, increases in own-country costs and declines in competitor-country costs reduce participation probabilities. In addition, while these persistence and cost effects characterize all overseas assembly choices, these effects are much larger for outsourcing in developing countries. Finally, outsourcing responses appear to reflect differences in ? market thickness? , as cost sensitivity generally rises with competitor presence. Taken together, these observations provide empirical support for modeling approaches that feature search costs and partner availability as determinants of outsourcing decisions.
The Impact of Perceived Racism: Psychological Symptoms Among African American Boys

Examined the relations among perceived racism and externalizing symptoms, internalizing symptoms, hopelessness, and self-concept in African American boys (N = 84). The experience of racism is a complex phenomenon that has been found to have negative psychological outcomes in adult studies of African Americans. There has been a gap in the empirical literature regarding the possible associations between perceived racism and children's psychological well-being. This study is an attempt to address that gap. Results demonstrated that experiences of racism were related to self- and parent-reported externalizing symptoms. Personal experiences of racism were related to self-reported internalizing symptoms, lower self-concept, and higher levels of hopelessness. Potential mediators (e.g., trait anger, hostile attribution bias) were analyzed. Additional analyses indicated that trait anger mediated a number of the observed relations between perceived racism and behavioral symptoms. The results of the study suggest that perceived racism is associated with multiple negative correlates for African American boys.
Spatial and Temporal Properties of Stereoscopic Surface Interpolation

It is well established that under a wide range of conditions when a sparse collection of texture elements varies smoothly in depth, the spaces between the elements are assigned depth values. This disparity interpolation process has been studied in an effort to define some of its fundamental spatial and temporal constraints. To assess disparity interpolation we employed two tasks: a novel task that relies on the bisection of illusory boundaries created when subjective stereoscopic surfaces intersect, and one that relies on a 3-D shape discrimination. The results of both experiments show that there is no improvement in performance when texture density is increased from near 0.20 to 0.85 or when exposure duration is increased from 50–100 to 1000 ms. This lack of dependence on the addition of features that define the interpolated surface, along with the abrupt decline in performance below a critical value, is consistent with the view that surface interpolation is an important function of human stereoscopic vision.
Comparison of Suitability of the Most Common Ancient DNA Quantification Methods.

AIMS Ancient DNA (aDNA) extracted from historical bones is damaged and fragmented into short segments, present in low quantity, and usually copurified with microbial DNA. A wide range of DNA quantification methods are available. The aim of this study was to compare the five most common DNA quantification methods for aDNA. MATERIALS AND METHODS Quantification methods were tested on DNA extracted from skeletal material originating from an early medieval burial site. The tested methods included ultraviolet (UV) absorbance, real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) based on SYBR® green detection, real-time qPCR based on a forensic kit, quantification via fluorescent dyes bonded to DNA, and fragmentary analysis. Differences between groups were tested using a paired t-test. RESULTS Methods that measure total DNA present in the sample (NanoDrop™ UV spectrophotometer and Qubit® fluorometer) showed the highest concentrations. Methods based on real-time qPCR underestimated the quantity of aDNA. The most accurate method of aDNA quantification was fragmentary analysis, which also allows DNA quantification of the desired length and is not affected by PCR inhibitors. CONCLUSIONS Methods based on the quantification of the total amount of DNA in samples are unsuitable for ancient samples as they overestimate the amount of DNA presumably due to the presence of microbial DNA. Real-time qPCR methods give undervalued results due to DNA damage and the presence of PCR inhibitors. DNA quantification methods based on fragment analysis show not only the quantity of DNA but also fragment length.
Photon probe — an optical-fiber time-domain reflectometer

This paper describes an optical time-domain reflectometer that incorporates a gated photomultiplier receiver. The instrument can detect extremely weak reflections from fiber breaks (more than 65 dB below the 4-percent reflection of a perfect break) with 0.5-m distance resolution. In addition, backward Rayleigh scattering, which occurs roughly uniformly along a fiber, can be used to estimate the attenuation vs position within a fiber. Therefore, regions of high attenuation can be located nondestructively from one end of the fiber.
Videolaryngoscopy in the management of the difficult airway: a comparison with the Macintosh blade

Background and objective Several studies have shown that videolaryngoscopes can provide better laryngeal exposure than conventional laryngoscopy. These studies, however, did not exclusively focus on patients with an anticipated difficult intubation. The aim of the present study was to assess whether a videolaryngoscope would provide better laryngeal exposure than conventional laryngoscopy and therefore facilitate intubation in cases of difficult laryngoscopy. Methods One hundred and twelve patients with an estimated difficult intubation, scheduled to undergo surgical operations, requiring general anaesthesia and endotracheal intubation, were included in the study. Direct laryngoscopy with a Macintosh blade was performed, followed by videolaryngoscopy and intubation attempt(s). The laryngeal views obtained by each method were recorded according to the Cormack/Lehane scale. Results The percentage of Cormack–Lehane I and II views obtained by conventional laryngoscopy rose from 63.4 to 90.2% (P < 0.0005) with videolaryngoscopy, whereas Cormack–Lehane III and IV views declined from 36.6 to 9.8% (P < 0.0005). Intubation was successful in 98.2% of the cases. Conclusion In patients with an anticipated difficult airway, videolaryngoscopy significantly improved the laryngeal exposure thus facilitating endotracheal intubation.
Methods for the assessment of endobronchial biopsies in clinical research: application to studies of pathogenesis and the effects of treatment.

The capacity to sample directly the conducting airway tissue of subjects with asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) for comparison with tissue obtained from normal, healthy individuals has generated hypotheses and advanced our understanding of pathogenesis. Such studies in adults are now being extended, with informed consent and ethical approval, to include children. In adults, approval to obtain endobronchial biopsies on more than one occasion has also allowed us to begin to test whether or not therapeutic intervention will significantly reduce airway inflammation or restore altered tissue structure (i.e., remodeling) to normal. Endobronchial biopsy has been considered by some the standard by which to compare the validity and interpretation of results obtained by indirect, less invasive means, such as bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) and induced sputum.
The clinical value of urinary cytology: 12 years of experience with 615 patients.

AIMS--To analyse the diagnostic value of cytological examination compared with histological findings in a large series of patients (n = 615) with tumours of the urinary tract epithelium. METHODS--Cytological examinations (n = 785) after bladder washing and exfoliative cytology were retrospectively compared and correlated with histological findings. In addition, 1527 bladder washings were obtained during follow up of patients after transurethral resection of bladder tumours. RESULTS--Cytology in bladder washings (overall diagnostic accuracy 66%) provides considerably more information that exfoliative cytology (overall accuracy 49%). Cytological examinations (n = 1125) in patients with bladder tumours receiving intravesical cytostatic drugs (for example, mitomycin C) yielded suspicious or positive results in 28% of patients, without being confirmed by endoscopy during follow up. CONCLUSION--Our results illustrate two major drawbacks of urinary cytology. First, a high rate of false positive results in patients on intravesical chemotherapy. Second, a high rate of false negative results in highly differentiated carcinomas, stressing the need for additional diagnostic tests such as staining with monoclonal antibodies directed against tumour antigens or assessment of ploidy.
Reduction of Noise by Dual-Tree Complex Wavelet Transform Shrinkage

This paper presents a novel way to reduce noise introduced or exacerbated by image enhancement methods, in particular algorithms based on the random spray sampling technique, but not only. According to the nature of sprays, output images of spray based methods tend to exhibit noise with unknown statistical distribution. To avoid inappropriate assumptions on the statistical characteristics of noise, a different one is made. In fact, the non-enhanced image is considered to be either free of noise or affected by non-perceivable levels of noise. Taking advantage of the higher sensitivity of the human visual system to changes in brightness, the analysis can be limited to the luma channel of both the non-enhanced and enhanced image , the analysis is performed through the dual-tree complex wavelet transform (DTWCT). Unlike the discrete wavelet transform, the DTWCT allows for distinction of data directionality in the transform space. For each level of the transform, the standard deviation of the non-enhanced image coefficients is computed across the six orientations of the DTWCT, then it is normalized. The result is a map of the directional structures present in the non-enhanced image. Said map is then used to shrink the coefficients of the enhanced image. The shrunk coefficients and the coefficients from the non-enhanced image are then mixed according to data directionality. Finally, a noise-reduced version of the enhanced image is computed via the inverse transforms.
Betatron radiation from density tailored plasmas

In laser wakefield accelerators, electron motion is driven by intense forces that depend on the plasma density. Transverse oscillations in the accelerated electron orbits produce betatron radiation. The electron motion and the resulting betatron radiation spectrum can therefore be controlled by shaping the plasma density along the orbit of the electrons. Here, a method based on the use of a plasma with a longitudinal density variation (density depression or step) is proposed to increase the transverse oscillation amplitude and the energy of the electrons accelerated in a wakefield cavity. For fixed laser parameters, by appropriately tailoring the plasma profile, the betatron radiation emitted by these electrons is significantly increased in both flux and energy.
Nitrogen-15 nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy of some nucleosides and nucleotides.

High-resolution nitrogen-1 5 N M R spectra of six nucleosides and six nucleotides have been obtained at the naturalabundance level by high-resolution NMR spectroscopy. All of the nitrogen resonances have been assigned on the basis of comparison of their chemical shifts and nitrogen-hydrogen coupling constants with those of related compounds. Studies of the effect of protonation on the nitrogen chemical shifts of four of these compounds enabled the site of protonation to be detected di-
A low power high GBW Fully Differential subthreshold CMOS opamp for CT ΔΣ modulators

A very low power differential opamp operating in subthreshold region is proposed. The presented architecture achieves 8MHz gain-bandwidth and 20V/µsec slew rate with 5pF load while consuming a total power of 36 µW. Full voltage swing is obtained at the output by using a push-pull stage. The opamp aims to extend the application of very low power subthreshold opamps to moderate bandwidth, continuous time ΔΣ modulators by enhancing the gain-bandwidth product and improving the slew rate performance. The design is simulated with 0. 13µm CMOS process, and operates with 1.2V supply voltage.
How to use: a pH study

The 24 h oesophageal pH study is considered to be the gold standard for quantifying acid reflux.1 In this review we provide an evidence-based discussion of the role of 24 h pH studies as part of the investigation of children with suspected gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GORD), and provide a practical guide on when a pH study is indicated, how to perform pH studies and how to interpret the results. Gastro-oesophageal reflux (GOR) is defined as the effortless regurgitation of gastric contents into the oesophagus. GORD is defined as GOR associated with sequelae (table 1) including faltering growth.2 View this table: Table 1 Symptoms associated with gastro-oesophageal reflux disease Physiological reflux is common in both primary and secondary care settings, and usually improves with age.3 Improvement is due to a combination of factors including growth in the length of the oesophagus, a more upright posture, increased tone of the lower oesophageal sphincter, and a more solid diet. In most cases, diagnosis is based on clinical assessment without the need for invasive testing. Investigation is reserved for those children in whom, for example, there is doubt about the diagnosis, or empirical therapy is considered to have failed, or for those children with extra-intestinal manifestations, such as acute life threatening events (ALTEs), apnoeas, Sandifer syndrome, asthma or faltering growth, in whom reflux is suspected to be a contributing factor. In children with co-existing problems, such as asthma, cerebral palsy, epilepsy or congenital heart disease, GORD may be part of a complex interaction of pathologies as a primary or secondary phenomena. In such settings children may benefit from the diagnosis and treatment of GORD, and GORD may be improved by optimal treatment of the child’s co-existing problems. Children with isolated GORD can remain symptomatic into adulthood; severe oesophagitis4 and oesophageal strictures from GORD in childhood have been reported.5 The investigation …
[Study on the rapid detection of Dengue viruses by Taqman MGB real-time fluorescent PCR].

OBJECTIVE To develop the Taqman MGB real-time fluorescent PCR assay for rapid detection of Dengue viruses. METHODS Using Taqman MGB technique, a pair of universal primers and Taqman MGB probe were designed according to a highly reserved sequence of the 3'-noncoding region of dengue viruses type 1-4. Dengue virus strains were used as standard and Japanese encephalitis virus strains were used as control, the real-time PCR assay for specific and sensitive detection of the dengue viruses was established. While 8 serum specimens of ELISA positive were detected by the RT-PCR and fluorescent PCR. RESULTS The sensitivity of real-time PCR was 0.17pg/microl (cDNA)or 10(-5)TCID50. There was no cross-reaction with Japanese encephalitis virus. Of 8 specimens, 2 were positive by RT-PCR and 5 were positive by real-time PCR. The test could be completed in 4 hours. CONCLUSION The Taqman MGB real-time PCR assay was fast, sensitive and specific. It could be applied to the quick early diagnosis of dengue viruses.
Pregnancy and childbirth in carriers of the lamin A/C‐gene mutation

This retrospective case report describes 11 pregnancies in five women. All of the women were carriers of the lamin A/C gene mutation known to cause dilated cardiomyopathy, often together with atrioventricular conduction disturbances. The penetrance of these mutations is age‐dependent but almost complete. We found no major adverse effects or worsening in the cardiac condition during or after the pregnancy in these patients. All babies were healthy except for one with a small ventricular septal defect, one diagnosed with tracheobronchomalasia, and one with a patent ductus arteriosus. None of these defects have been associated with lamin A/C mutations.
Dynamics of Land Cover/Land Use Changes in the Mekong Delta, 1973-2011: A Remote Sensing Analysis of the Tran Van Thoi District, Ca Mau Province, Vietnam

The main objective of this study is to assess the spatio-temporal dynamics of land cover/land use changes in the lower Mekong Delta over the last 40 years with the coastal Tran Van Thoi District of Ca Mau Province, Vietnam as a case study. Land cover/land use change dynamics are derived from moderate to high spatial resolution (Landsat and SPOT) satellite imagery in six time intervals ranging from 1973 to 2011. Multi-temporal satellite images were collected, georeferenced, classified using per-pixel method, validated, and compared in post classification for the land use/land cover change detection in decades. Seven major land cover/land use classes were obtained, including cultivated lands, aquaculture ponds, mangrove forest, melaleuca forest, built up areas, bare lands, and natural water bodies. The accuracies of the land cover/land use maps for 1973, 1979, 1989, 1995, 2004, and 2011 were 81%, 82%, 86%, 87%, 89%, and 89%, respectively. The results show that the area of cultivated lands reduced over the period 1973–2011, however, it still represents the dominant land use in the case study. Aquaculture ponds were almost absent in 1973 but greatly increased from 1995 to 2004, to represent 20% of the land surface in 2011. Overall, from 1973 to 2011, bare lands, cultivated lands, mangrove forest, and melaleuca forest decreased by 104 km2, 77 km2, 61 km2, and 5 km2, respectively. In contrast, aquaculture lands and built up areas increased by 123 km2 and 120 km2, respectively. Temporal analysis highlights that these changes took place mostly between 1995 and 2004. This study is a first step to identify the main drivers of land use changes in this delta region, which include economical policies as well as demographic, socio-economic, and environmental changes.