Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Surface properties of bacillus Calmette-Guerin-activated mouse macrophages. Reduced expression of mannose-specific endocytosis, Fc receptors, and antigen F4/80 accompanies induction of Ia

Infection of the mouse peritoneal cavity by bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) markedly alters the surface properties of the macrophages induced, compared with cells obtained from uninfected control animals or after injection of thioglycollate broth. Quantitative binding assays with radiolabeled ligands or antibodies showed that BCG-activated peritoneal macrophages (BCG-PM) expressed one-fourth or less receptor activity for mannose-terminal glycoconjugates as well as reduced levels of Fc receptors and of antigen F4/80 compared with nonactivated macrophages. Endocytosis mediated by mannose-specific receptors was reduced in parallel. In contrast, surface Ia antigen was increased threefold in the same adherent cell population. Radioautographic analysis confirmed that greater than 80% of adherent cells still expressed low levels of the macrophage-specific mannosyl receptor and antigen F4/80, and that I antigens had been induced on 64% of macrophages rather than on other cells. Control experiments established that only the BCG-PM macrophages released H2O2 after stimulation with phorbol myristate acetate, whereas both BCG-PM and thioglycollate- induced macrophages produced superoxide anion and plasminogen activator. The BCG-PM were viable, secreted normal levels of lysozyme, and displayed a stable phenotype after cultivation for 60 h. Inhibitors of oxygen products, prostaglandins, and proteases did not alter reduced endocytosis by BCG-PM. These studies indicated that expression of macrophage surface markers is reversed by BCG-activation, and that their known enhanced ability to lyse target cells extracellularly is associated with decreased endocytosis via specific receptors. Whether these changes are a result of an altered cell population or of modulation of selective surface properties is not known.
The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: Changing the Dominant Narrative About (and In) Research Institutions

Despite calls for and advances in the scholarship of teaching and learning (SOTL) over the years, research-intensive institutions have a persistent reputation as preferring and demanding Boyer’s “scholarship of discovery” at the expense of SOTL work. In this article, we challenge the dominant narrative that research-focused institutions—the Carnegie “R1”and “R2”—do not engage in or value SOTL research in business and management education (BME). In a previous empirical study, we found evidence that a surprising proportion of R1 and R2 schools are already creating and disseminating innovative and impactful BME work. Using diffusion of innovations theory, we argue that those institutions can provide leadership due to their BME work, and examine what this might mean in terms of the prospects for diffusion of BME research among all research-intensive institutions. Due to external stakeholder pressures for excellent, evidence-based instruction, we assert that institutions that do subordinate SOTL to discipline-based scholarship will be forced to reframe their research portfolios. We end the article with solutions for how faculty could include BME work within their overall research efforts and challenge institutions to reconsider how BME scholarship may help them craft a more inclusive research narrative.
Corticotropin-releasing factor produces fear-enhancing and behavioral activating effects following infusion into the locus coeruleus

The present series of experiments tested the hypothesis that the behavioral activating and anxiogenic effects produced by intraventricular administration of corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) may be mediated by noradrenergic neurons in the brain-stem locus coeruleus (LC). Results showed that infusion of CRF into the LC (100 ng) significantly increased nonambulatory spontaneous motor activity measured in photocell cages; ambulatory (i.e., locomotor) activity was not altered. In the modified Porsolt swim test, which examines arousal and agitation in a stressful situation, significant behavioral activation (i.e., decreased floating) was seen following infusion of CRF (10 ng) into the LC; a 500 ng dose of CRF was necessary to produce similar effects following infusion into the lateral ventricle. The results of these 2 tests suggest that the behavioral activating effects of CRF in the LC may be related to arousing or stress-related effects, rather than to increased locomotor activity per se. Anxiogenic activity was assessed in animals placed in an open field containing a small, darkened compartment. Infusion or CRF into the LC (1–100 ng) significantly increased the time spent in the compartment and decreased the amount of time spent exploring the outside of the compartment or venturing into the inner squares of the open field, all indices of anxiogenic behavior. Biochemical studies showed that bilateral infusion of CRF into the LC produced significant increases in the concentration of the norepinephrine metabolite 3,4-dihydroxyphenylglycol in such forebrain projection areas of the LC as the amygdala and posterior hypothalamus. These data, taken together, suggest that CRF produces its behavioral activating and anxiogenic effects, at least in part, by increasing the activity of LC noradrenergic neurons.
Probabilistic nucleotide assembling method for sequencing by hybridization

MOTIVATION Developing a new method of assembling small sequences based on sequencing by hybridization with many positive and negative faults. First, an interpretation of a generic traveling salesman problem is provided (i.e. finding the shortest route for visiting many cities), using genetic algorithms. Second, positive errors are excluded before assembly by a sanitization process. RESULTS The present method outperforms those described in previous studies, in terms of both time and accuracy. AVAILABILITY http://kamit.med.u-tokai.ac. jp/~takaho/sbh/index.html
Smart Photo Frame for Arousal Feedback - Wearable sensors and intelligent healthy work environment

The fast economy and technology development as well as the competitive markets nowadays results in high expectation on performance of employees in companies. Therefore, a working environment which can take care of the wellbeing of employees is important for an employee to stay healthy, enjoy work and be able to develop himself / herself. In this paper we propose and demonstrate a design of a feedback system for body worn wireless sensors to be used in wireless emotion monitoring. Wireless sensors developed by Holst Centre IMEC NL has are applied to monitor physiological signals related to emotions. A prototype, the Smart Photo Frame has been made as the feedback device. This device provides employees feedback on the emotional arousal status in real-time, in an effort towards reducing work-related stressful states through positive calming. The feedback system is designed to be subtle in an office related environment. The prototype demonstrates the design concept and enables users to interact.
3D Human Pose Estimation by an Annealed Two-Stage Inference Method

This paper proposes a novel human motion capture method that locates human body joint position and reconstructs the human pose in 3D space from monocular images. We propose a two-stage framework including 2D and 3D probabilistic graphical models which can solve the occlusion problem for the estimation of human joint positions. The 2D and 3D models adopt directed acyclic structure to avoid error propagation of inference in the models. Both the 2D and 3D models utilize the Expectation Maximization algorithm to learn prior distributions of the models. An annealed Gibbs sampling method is proposed for the two-stage method to inference the maximum posteriori distributions of joint positions. The annealing process can efficiently explore the mode of distributions and find solutions in high-dimensional space. Experiments are conducted on the Human Eva dataset to show the effectiveness of the proposed method. The experimental data are image sequences of walking motion with a full 180° turn around a region, which causes occlusion of poses and loss of image observations. Experimental results show that the proposed two-stage approach can efficiently estimate more accurate human poses from monocular images.
An early childhood education curriculum that responds to children's voices on transition to first grade

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to examine how an early childhood education (ECE) curriculum responds to children’s voices in reference to transition from kindergarten to first grade. Drawing from the findings of a previous study which examined the empowering and limiting aspects of transition as voiced by first graders, I consider the points where this document responds and supports children’s needs. Qualitative document analysis is employed to untangle the details of the curriculum and make the necessary connections. Findings suggest that a curriculum which integrates learning and development can respond to children’s voices on transition to first grade. A different image of the transitioning child is considered, one which encompasses the temporal dimensions of the past, present, and future. This study considers the importance of capitalizing on the ECE experiences in order to respond to the readiness of transition to first grade.
Cenozoic Expansion of Grasslands and Climatic Cooling

Mountains, ocean currents, forests, and swamps have played an important role in regulating global climate for hundreds of millions of years, but the truly novel event of the Cenozoic was the evolution and expansion of grasslands, with their uniquely coevolved grasses and grazers. Neogene expansion of the climatic and geographic range of grasslands at the expense of woodlands is now revealed by recent studies of paleosols, fossils, and their stable isotopic compositions. Grasslands and their soils can be considered sinks for atmospheric CO2, CH4, and water vapor, and their Cenozoic evolution a contribution to long‐term global climatic cooling. Grassland soils are richer in organic matter than are woodland and desert soils of comparable climates, and when eroded, their crumb clods form sediment unusually rich in organic matter. Grasslands also promote export of bicarbonate and nutrient cations to lakes and to the oceans where they stimulate productivity and C burial; this increased productivity and C burial occur because grasslands preferentially exploit fertile young soils in the first flush of weathering and their soils have a crumb structure with much higher internal surface area for weathering than soils of woodlands and deserts. Grasslands also promote regional climatic drying by virtue of their higher albedo and lower transpiration than woodlands of comparable climatic regions. Labile pools of C in grassland soils and their accelerated weathering rates early in soil development may also account for increased climatic instability over the past 40 m.yr. Unidirectional, stepwise, long‐term climatic cooling, drying, and climatic instability may have been driven not by tectonic forcing but by the coevolution of grasses and grazers.
Digital Parenting: Perceptions on Digital Risks

Today, child rearing has become more complicated since the recent changes caused by digital technologies in daily lives of families. Digital media brings both new learning opportunities and risks for its consumers simultaneously. Especially, children and adolescents are susceptible for the digital risks. Parents are expected to have a mediating role for their children in adapting digital life. The purpose of the study was to investigate parents’ perceptions related to digital risks and on what aspects of digital media (risks or opportunities) they wanted to be trained. Seventy-nine parents (38 mothers and 41 fathers) of children aged 10 to 18 responded to survey on digital risks. 132 Dr. Öğr. Üye. Gamze İNAN-KAYA/Arş. Gör. Dr. Duygu MUTLU-BAYRAKTAR/Dr. Öğr. Üye. Özgür YILMAZ Parents’ perceptions related to the risks involved in the digital media were investigated by forced-choice and open-ended questions and the responses analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The results revealed that, parents had knowledge on digital risks and taking precautions against those risks. Besides, according to the findings from content analysis, parents utilized several parenting strategies and they needed to be educated on both risks and opportunities of digital media for their children.
Stochastic Kronecker graph revisited

Here we calculate the expected number of isolated vertices, edges, self loops and triangles in a random realization of stochastic Kronecker graph. We then establish some bounds on the values of the parameters of the stochastic Kronecker graph which are sufficient to generate large random graph with no isolated vertices, edges, self loops and triangles. Finally we show two phase transitions: one for the emergence of edges and the other for the emergence of self loops under stochastic Kronecker model of graph generation.
Evaluating the SEVIRI Fire Thermal Anomaly Detection Algorithm across the Central African Republic Using the MODIS Active Fire Product

Satellite-based remote sensing of active fires is the only practical way to consistently and continuously monitor diurnal fluctuations in biomass burning from regional, to continental, to global scales. Failure to understand, quantify, and communicate the performance of an active fire detection algorithm, however, can lead to improper interpretations of the spatiotemporal distribution of biomass burning, and flawed estimates of fuel consumption and trace gas and aerosol emissions. This work evaluates the performance of the Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager (SEVIRI) Fire Thermal Anomaly (FTA) detection algorithm using seven months of active fire pixels detected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) across the Central African Republic (CAR). Results indicate that the omission rate of the SEVIRI FTA detection algorithm relative to MODIS varies spatially across the CAR, ranging from 25% in the south to 74% in the east. In the absence of confounding artifacts such as sunglint, uncertainties in the background thermal characterization, and cloud cover, the regional variation in SEVIRI’s omission rate can be attributed to a coupling between SEVIRI’s low spatial resolution detection bias (i.e., the inability to detect fires below a certain size and intensity) and a strong geographic gradient in active fire characteristics across the CAR. SEVIRI’s commission rate relative to MODIS increases from 9% when evaluated near MODIS nadir to 53% near the MODIS scene edges, indicating that SEVIRI errors of commission at the MODIS scene edges may not be false alarms but rather true fires that MODIS failed to detect as a result of larger pixel sizes at extreme MODIS scan angles. Results from this work are expected to facilitate (i) future improvements to the SEVIRI FTA detection algorithm; (ii) the assimilation of the SEVIRI and MODIS active fire products; and (iii) the potential inclusion of SEVIRI into a network of geostationary sensors designed to achieve global diurnal active fire monitoring.
Indian plant species identification under varying illumination and viewpoint conditions

The emergence and development of plant diseases and pest outbreaks have become more common nowadays due to the unsettled climate and environmental conditions. Actions controlling diseases or remedial measures can be undertaken if the symptoms are identified at an early stage. This would help the farmer in detecting and controlling plant diseases, thereby controlling the financial losses. We present a method for automatically recognizing the plant species based on leaf shape for five different species of common garden plants, Anant (Gardeniajasminoides), Aboli (Crossandra), Chandani (Crapejasmine), Jui (Common Jasmine) and Jaswand (hibiscus). The work focuses on identifying garden plants species which will act as an input to a decision support system (DSS) that would be developed for giving advice to farmers as and when required over mobile internet. The proposed system is comprised of four main stages. First, is image acquisition that can be done using mobile camera with minimum resolution of 2 mega pixels. The images are captured with differing scales, different viewpoint and at different time of day.Second stage is preprocessing and segmentation. Third stage detects the most discriminable set of features. Scale invariant feature transform (SIFT) is used for detecting SIFT features and finally using these features SIFT feature matching is done using k-d tree. The experimental results gave an accuracy of about 85% suggesting that SIFT can be used for plant species identification.
An improved spatial impulse-response matrix for error calibration of aperture synthesis radiometers

The system imperfections have great influence on the performance of aperture synthesis radiometers (ASRs). An improved spatial impulse-response matrix (G matrix) is presented for error calibration of ASRs. Most receiver errors except for the baseline fringe-washing error can be eliminated with the improved G matrix in the image reconstruction of ASR without need for complex hardware calibration system. Simulations show the improved G matrix can improve image quality of inversed image of ASRs. Experiments validate the performance of the improved G matrix.
A Competence Model for Object-Interaction in Introductory Programming

Assuming that understanding object-oriented programming requires the understanding of object-interaction, this article outlines the development of a theoretical model that provides a framework to assess a hierarchy of competences related to object-interaction. A newly developed test allows for an in-depth analysis of this hierarchy, including its relationship with other (e.g. more 'traditional') factors that impact students' understanding of object- oriented programming. Based on a study at two learning institutions, we conclude that the proposed model is an effective tool for describing different competence levels. The analysis of how different factors influence students' object-interaction skills shows a correlation between object-interaction and imperative programming, as well as self-efficacy; the correlation between object-interaction and math, however, was weak. We found that the degree of visibility of object-interaction in the program text is the most critical factor for understanding object-interaction. The analysis is followed by a discussion of the implications of the findings for teaching.
Perceptual video quality assessment for adaptive streaming encoding

Adaptive video streaming has become prominent due to the rising diversity of Web-enabled personal devices. Common limitations in bandwidth and decoding power challenge the efficiency of content encoders to preserve visual quality at reduced data rates over a wide range of display resolutions. Objective assessment of perceptual video quality has greatly improved in the past decade but remains an open problem. Among the most relevant metrics are the many variations of the Structural Similarity (SSIM) index. In this work, several SSIM-based metrics are compared, optimized and improved towards better correlation with human perception by testing the HD content of the LIVE Mobile Video Quality Database. A shifted gradient is proposed to preserve more image feature information for similarity comparison, thus increasing accuracy, along with a down-sampling box pooling filter that coherently emulates Gaussian pooling while reducing computation complexity by a factor of four and providing broader scalability.
A Survey of Noise Removal Methodologies for Lung Cancer Diagnosis

Investigation of signal and image are presently an essential step of the heart diseases processes like diagnostic, prognostic and follow-up. Lung cancer is the most intense type of cancer among every type of cancer with less rate of survival. It is exceptionally hard to examine the cancer at its initial stage. In the previous couple of years, numerous Computer aided systems have been intended to distinguish the lung cancer at its initial stage. In medical imaging, diverse types of images are being utilized yet for the detection of diagnosis of lungs. In medical imaging, detection of nodule is standout amongst the challenging tasks. Computed Tomography (CT) images are generally preferred due to less distortion, low noise and better clarity. Detecting and then curing that disease in the initial stages offers the patients with higher possibility of survival. There are different types of the noise present in the images we obtain for the lung mass detection like salt and pepper noise, Gaussian noise and speckle noise. This paper is based on quality improvement analysis of digital dental X-ray image. Removal of noise from images is the most active field of research. This paper presents the review on the lung cancer, types of noise in medical imaging and then the methods for the removal of noise.
Love or Loss: Effective message framing to promote environmental conservation

ABSTRACT Understanding the influence of message framing is critical to promote public support for environmental conservation. We tested six brief, online videos about biodiversity conservation with positive (love and benefits) versus negative (loss and warning) messages with 524 participants. The respondents were willing to donate more money and time to organizations associated with positively framed videos. Contrary to the other studies, neither the gender nor level of audience involvement in environmental issues influenced response to positive or negative messaging. Findings highlight the use of positive messaging in digital media campaigns and encourage environmental practitioners to refine and test their messages with specific audiences.
Adiposity and ischaemic and haemorrhagic stroke : prospective study in women and meta-analysis

Objective: To compare associations of body mass index (BMI) with ischemic stroke and hemorrhagic stroke risk, and to review the worldwide evidence. Methods: We recruited 1.3 million previously stroke-free UK women between 1996 and 2001 (mean age 57 years [SD 5]) and followed them by record linkage for hospital admissions and deaths. We used Cox regression to estimate adjusted relative risks for ischemic and hemorrhagic (intracerebral or subarachnoid hemorrhage) stroke in relation to BMI. We conducted a metaanalysis of published findings from prospective studies on these associations. Results: During an average follow-up of 11.7 years, there were 20,549 first strokes, of which 9,993 were specified as ischemic and 5,852 as hemorrhagic. Increased BMI was associated with an increased risk of ischemic stroke (relative risk 1.21 per 5 kg/m2 BMI, 95% confidence interval 1.18–1.23, p, 0.0001) but a decreased risk of hemorrhagic stroke (relative risk 0.89 per 5 kg/m2 BMI, 0.86–0.92, p , 0.0001). The BMI-associated trends for ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke were significantly different (heterogeneity: p , 0.0001) but were not significantly different for intracerebral hemorrhage (n 5 2,790) and subarachnoid hemorrhage (n 5 3,062) (heterogeneity: p 5 0.5). Published data from prospective studies showed consistently greater BMI-associated relative risks for ischemic than hemorrhagic stroke with most evidence (prior to this study) coming from Asian populations. Conclusions: In UK women, higher BMI is associated with increased risk of ischemic stroke but decreased risk of hemorrhagic stroke. The totality of the available published evidence suggests that BMI-associated risks are greater for ischemic than for hemorrhagic stroke. Neurology®