Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Modeling hypercalciuria in the genetic hypercalciuric stone-forming rat

Purpose of reviewIn this review, we discuss how the genetic hypercalciuric stone-forming (GHS) rats, which closely model idiopathic hypercalciuria and stone formation in humans, provide insights into the pathophysiology and consequences of clinical hypercalciuria. Recent findingsHypercalciuria in the GHS rats is due to a systemic dysregulation of calcium transport, as manifest by increased intestinal calcium absorption, increased bone resorption and decreased renal tubule calcium reabsorption. Increased levels of vitamin D receptor in intestine, bone and kidney appear to mediate these changes. The excess receptors are biologically active and increase tissue sensitivity to exogenous vitamin D. Bones of GHS rats have decreased bone mineral density (BMD) as compared with Sprague-Dawley rats, and exogenous 1,25(OH)2D3 exacerbates the loss of BMD. Thiazide diuretics improve the BMD in GHS rats. SummaryStudying GHS rats allows direct investigation of the effects of alterations in diet and utilization of pharmacologic therapy on hypercalciuria, urine supersaturation, stone formation and bone quality in ways that are not possible in humans.
Privacy Preserving Maximum-Flow Computation in Distributed Graphs

The maximum-flow problem arises in a wide variety of applications such as financial transactions and logistics collaboration networks, where the data can be modeled as a directed graph. In many such applications, the graph data is actually distributed across several organizations where each owns a portion of the overall graph. Due to privacy concerns, the parties may not wish to disclose their local graphs. However, the computation of maximum-flow over the overall graph brings great benefits to concerned stakeholders. In this paper, we address the privacy preserving maximum-flow computation problem in distributed graphs. We propose a two-stage approach that achieves privacy protection while ensuring the correct maximum flow computation. In the first stage, a novel probabilistic edge expansion process is used to obfuscate the graph structure and prevent node re-identification while preserving the maximum flow, the second stage securely integrates local graphs into a global whole such that any third party can then compute the maximum flow. We provide a thorough correctness and privacy analysis and experimentally evaluate the proposed approach.
Optical aircraft navigation with multi-sensor SLAM and infinite depth features

In the context of optical-aided navigation and visual Simultaneous Localization And Mapping (SLAM) for satellite-denied aircraft navigation, this paper extends the monocular SLAM approach by the use of multiple sensors with different viewing directions. Downward optical sensors see other movements than forward-looking cameras, hence it is straightforward to combine the benefits of both. This combination helps to estimate all the six motion components with increased robustness, yielding a more stable and accurate state estimation for optical-aided navigation solutions. The method is evaluated with aerial data from manned and unmanned flights. In the data analysis, a satellite navigation dropout is simulated, and the flight trajectory is then reconstructed just by the optical data. The method is tested in small-scale scenarios as well as in longer flights with several kilometers of flight range. The results show some increased performance of an additional forward camera in comparison to a setup with only downward sensors. It is proposed to use such multi-sensor configurations wherever motion estimation ambiguities with a single camera are probable, especially when larger distances have to be flown with optical navigation.
A reference-free on-chip timing jitter measurement circuit using self-referenced clock and a cascaded time difference amplifier in 65nm CMOS

This paper demonstrates a reference-free, high-resolution on-chip timing jitter measurement circuit. It combines a self-referenced clock and a cascaded time difference amplifier (TDA), which results in reference-free, high-resolution timing jitter measurement without sacrificing operational speed. The test chip was designed and fabricated in 65 nm CMOS. Measured results of the proposed circuit show the possibility of detecting a timing jitter of 1.61-ps RMS in 820 MHz clock with less than 4% error.
Development of epoxy-based nanocomposites for multifunctional applications

In this work, the main objective was to develop nanocomposites based on epoxy resin containing carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) and/or exfoliated graphite (GnP) in order to achieve synergistic effects while obtaining good mechanical and electrical properties to produce nanocomposites for multifunctional applications. The nanocomposites were prepared a three-roll machine to improve dispersion. The electrical and mechanical properties of the manufactured nanocomposites were assessed to see the effect of the addition of these fillers in the properties of the polymer, as well as the synergetic effect from their combination. The dispersion was analyzed by optical microscopy and TEM, and the processability of the system was evaluated by rheology. In addition, was investigated the relation between the level of dispersion attained and the enhancement in the electrical and mechanical properties. The incorporation of MWCNT to the epoxy resin induced a significant increase in electrical conductivity. For 0.250 wt. % MWCNT/epoxy, the electrical conductivity is 10 S.m, corresponding to a semiconductor material in the EMI shielding range. Epoxy/GnP nanocomposites did not show significant improvements in the electrical conductivity, showing a slight increase in comparison with epoxy. With 5 wt. % of GnP, an increase of only 4 orders of magnitude (from 10 S.m to 10 S.m) was observed, and no conducting network was formed. As for the mechanical properties, the best results were obtained for 0.06 wt. % MWCNT, showing an increase of 18% in the modulus, 36% in the tensile strength and 38% in the elongation at break. For higher values of incorporation of MWCNT, the results begin to degrade due to processing problems. On the other hand, the addition of GnP made the material less resistance and more brittle. The difference in these results is due to the geometry of the fillers (1D in the case of MWCNTs and 2D in the case of GnPs) that leads to different levels of dispersion. MWCNT/epoxy nanocomposites exhibit higher dispersion levels than GnP/epoxy nanocomposites, having the first one an inferior number of agglomerates. The processability of nanocomposites with MWCNT presents some limitations due to their high viscosity, however with the combination of MWCNT with GnP in the epoxy resin, the viscosity of the suspension decreased without loss of properties. In the MWCNT/GnP/epoxy hybrid nanocomposites, the conductive network was formed at a lower concentration than the nanocomposites of only MWCNT and GnP. With only 0.094 wt. % MWCNT combined with 0.031 wt. % GnP the electrical conductivity is 10 S.m whereas with only 0.125 wt. % MWCNT the electrical conductivity is 10 S.m. However, regarding the mechanical properties, for the studied concentration (0.250 wt.%), no benefit in the combination of the nanofillers was observed.
Image Segmentation using a Weighted Kernel PCA Approach to Spectral Clustering

In classical graph-based image segmentation, a data-driven matrix is constructed representing similarities between every pair of pixels. The eigenvectors of such matrices contain relevant information about the clusters present on the image. An approach to image segmentation using spectral clustering with out-of-sample extensions is presented. This approach is based on the weighted kernel PCA framework. An advantage of the proposed method is the possibility to train and validate the clustering model on subsampled parts of the image to be segmented. The cluster indicators for the remaining pixels can then be inferred using the out-of-sample extension. This subsampling scheme can be used to reduce the computation time of the segmentation. Simulation results with grayscale and color images show improvements in terms of computation times together with visually appealing clusters
Corticomotor excitability and plasticity following complex visuomotor training in young and old adults

Previous studies with transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) have shown that advancing age may influence plasticity induction in human motor cortex (M1), but these changes have been assessed with TMS‐induced paradigms or simple motor tasks. The aim of this study was to examine changes in corticospinal excitability and intracortical inhibition as markers of corticomotor plasticity following complex motor training in young and old adults. Electromyographic recordings were obtained from the right first dorsal interosseous (FDI) muscle of 16 young (20–35 years) and 16 older (aged 60–75 years) adults before and after motor skill training. Motor training consisted of three 6‐minute blocks of a complex visuomotor task that required matching the metacarpophalangeal (MCP) joint angle of the index finger using abduction–adduction movements. Single‐ and paired‐pulse TMS over the left M1 was used to assess changes in right FDI motor‐evoked potentials (MEPs) and short‐interval intracortical inhibition (SICI) before and after each training block. Visuomotor tracking performance was diminished in old compared with young adults throughout training. However, improvement in tracking error was similar for young and old adults (7–24% increase in each training block). For young and old adults, motor training increased FDI MEP amplitude (≥ 20%) and reduced the magnitude of SICI (≥ 19%) after each visuomotor training block, reflecting use‐dependent plasticity. However, no difference in corticomotor plasticity (change in MEP or SICI) was observed between young and old adults. Further studies are needed to identify the experimental or behavioral factors that might contribute to the maintenance of corticomotor plasticity in older adults.
Effects of failure on subsequent performance: the importance of self-defining goals.

Extending R.A. Wicklund and P.M. Gollwitzer's (1982) self-completion theory, 2 experiments examined the role of self-defining goals in predicting performance effects of failure among students committed to professional goals such as becoming a physician (Experiment 1) or a computer scientist (Experiment 2). Results of Experiment 1 revealed that failure on a task characterized as being relevant to students' professional self-definition led to (a) enhanced performance on a subsequent task relevant to the same self-definition and (b) impaired performance on a subsequent task unrelated to the self-definition challenged through prior failure. Experiment 2 replicated these findings. In addition, performance effects due to self-definitional failure were annulled when participants experience intermittent social recognition for the aspired-to-self-definition.
Robust pronoun resolution with limited knowledge

Most traditional approaches to anaphora resolution rely heavily on linguistic and domain knowledge. One of the disadvantages of developing a knowledge-based system, however, is that it is a very labour-intensive and time-consuming task. This paper presents a robust, knowledge-poor approach to resolving pronouns in technical manuals, which operates on texts pre-processed by a part-of-speech tagger. Input is checked against agreement and for a number of antecedent indicators. Candidates are assigned scores by each indicator and the candidate with the highest score is returned as the antecedent. Evaluation reports a success rate of 89.7% which is better than the success rates of the approaches selected for comparison and tested on the same data. In addition, preliminary experiments show that the approach can be successfully adapted for other languages with minimum modifications.
On the cell probe complexity of dynamic membership

We study the dynamic membership problem, one of the most fundamental data structure problems, in the cell probe model with an arbitrary cell size. We consider a cell probe model equipped with a cache that consists of at least a constant number of cells; reading or writing the cache is free of charge. For nearly all common data structures, it is known that with sufficiently large cells together with the cache, we can significantly lower the amortized update cost to o(1). In this paper, we show that this is not the case for the dynamic membership problem. Specifically, for any deterministic membership data structure under a random input sequence, if the expected average query cost is no more than 1+Δ for some small constant Δ, we prove that the expected amortized update cost must be at least Ω(1), namely, it does not benefit from large block writes (and a cache). The space the structure uses is irrelevant to this lower bound. We also extend this lower bound to randomized membership structures, by using a variant of Yao's minimax principle. Finally, we show that the structure cannot do better even if it is allowed to answer a query mistakenly with a small constant probability.
Partial VP1 sequencing of Brazilian infectious bursal disease virus strains

Infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) is classified according to the antigenicity and virulence into classical virulent (cv), very virulent (vv), and antigenic variant strains. The molecular basis for the IBDV antigenic variation is well established and is associated to the capsid protein, VP2 (gene VP2 of segment A), whereas both VP2 and the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase, VP1 (gene VP1 of segment B), have been correlated with the virulence. In this study, seventeen Brazilian IBDV samples previously characterized by the VP2 gene as cv (three) and vv (fourteen) strains were genetically and molecularly analyzed for their VP1 gene. All of the strains kept with the same cv or vv classification except one sample, Br/03/DR. This sample was classified as vv by its VP2 gene, but it was most closely related to the cv strains by its VP1 partial sequence and phylogeny. Studies on the phylogeny of VP1 have suggested a possible reassortment event that originated the vvVP1. In this case, the sample carrying vvVP2 and cvVP1 could be a descendant of IBDV ancestors prior to the reassortment of vvVP1; alternatively, it could be the result of a genetic exchange between the segments of different strains or with a live attenuated vaccine. Nevertheless, this is the first report of natural genetic reassortment of IBDV in Brazil.
Is eye contact the key to the social brain?

Abstract Eye contact plays a critical role in many aspects of face processing, including the processing of smiles. We propose that this is achieved by a subcortical route, which is activated by eye contact and modulates the cortical areas involve in social cognition, including the processing of facial expression. This mechanism could be impaired in individuals with autism spectrum disorders.
Prague Dependency Treebank 2.5 – a Revisited Version of PDT 2.0

We present the Prague Dependency Treebank 2.5, the newest version of PDT and the first to be released under a free license. We show the benefits of PDT 2.5 in comparison to other state-of-the-art treebanks. We present the new features of the 2.5 release, how they were obtained and how reliably they are annotated. We also show how they can be used in queries and how they are visualised with tools released alongside the treebank.
eview reatment technologies for petroleum refinery effluents : review asheer

This paper presents a brief account of different technologies used for the treatment of petroleum refinery effluents (PRE). Broadly, PRE treatment is accomplished in two stages, namely, a series of pre-treatment steps, in which suspended matter, oil and grease are reduced, and an advanced stage, in which wastewater contaminants are decreased to certain acceptable discharge limits. Photocatalytic degradation techniques have been widely used in water and wastewater treatment. However, the literature regarding PRE treatment is scarce, and the technique is still not being utilised on an industrial scale in refineries. This is largely due to limited research findings discussing PRE treatments. Most researches are focused on treating singular contaminants found in PRE, e.g., phenols, sulphides, oil, grease and other organic components. This review focused on works that investigated PRE treatment by monitoring general refinery wastewater parameters, namely, chemical oxygen demand (COD), biological oxygen demand (BOD), total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH), oil and grease (O&G), sulphate and phenols at the advanced treatment steps. This paper presents an overview of photocatalytic degradation and discusses published works with the goal of presenting the technique as an attractive and viable process unit. If optimised, this process has great potential for replacing other separation and degradation treatment approaches employed at the advanced treatment stage for PRE. © 2010 The Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
A topical link model for community discovery in textual interaction graph

This paper is concerned with community discovery in textual interaction graph, where the links between entities are indicated by textual documents. Specifically, we propose a Topical Link Model(TLM), which leverages Hierarchical Dirichlet Process(HDP) to introduce hidden topical variable of the links. Other than the use of links, TLM can look into the documents on the links in detail to recover sound communities. Moreover, TLM is a nonparametric model, which is able to learn the number of communities from the data. Extensive experiments on two real world corpora show TLM outperforms two state-of-the-art baseline models, which verify the effectiveness of TLM in determining the proper number of communities and generating sound communities.
Oropharyngeal candidiasis in children with lymphohematopoietic malignancies in Mashhad, Iran

Background and Purpose: Over the past years, the role of fungi as a cause of nosocomial infections in hospitalized patients has been accentuated. Candida species constitute an important group of fungi causing diseases in immunocompromised patients. Oropharyngeal candidiasis continues to be a prevalent infection in immunodeficient patients. In this study, we aimed to determine the incidence of oropharyngeal candidiasis in children with lymphohematopoietic malignancies. Materials and Methods: In total, 102 patients with lymphohematopoietic malignancies and 50 healthy controls were examined in terms of Candida infections via direct sampling of the oropharyngeal cavity. Fresh smears were prepared with 10% potassium hydroxide and Gram staining was carried out. Subsequently, the obtained specimens were cultured on Sabouraud dextrose agar for further analysis. Results: The most common Candida species were Candida albicans (31%), other non-C. albicans species (14.7%), C. glabrata (6.8%), and C. krusei (0.98%) in the case group, while in the control group, other non-C. albicans species (10%) and C. albicans (8%) were the most common species. Conclusion: In the present study, Candida species were the most common fungal pathogens in pediatric cancer patients; therefore, efforts should be made to prevent fungemia and fungal pneumonia. Also, non-C. albicans species must be considered as a new risk factor for pediatric cancer patients.
Clarity is a Worthwhile Quality: On the Role of Task Clarity in Microtask Crowdsourcing

Workers of microtask crowdsourcing marketplaces strive to find a balance between the need for monetary income and the need for high reputation. Such balance is often threatened by poorly formulated tasks, as workers attempt their execution despite a sub-optimal understanding of the work to be done. In this paper we highlight the role of clarity as a characterising property of tasks in crowdsourcing. We surveyed 100 workers of the CrowdFlower platform to verify the presence of issues with task clarity in crowdsourcing marketplaces, reveal how crowd workers deal with such issues, and motivate the need for mechanisms that can predict and measure task clarity. Next, we propose a novel model for task clarity based on the goal and role clarity constructs. We sampled 7.1K tasks from the Amazon mTurk marketplace, and acquired labels for task clarity from crowd workers. We show that task clarity is coherently perceived by crowd workers, and is affected by the type of the task. We then propose a set of features to capture task clarity, and use the acquired labels to train and validate a supervised machine learning model for task clarity prediction. Finally, we perform a long-term analysis of the evolution of task clarity on Amazon mTurk, and show that clarity is not a property suitable for temporal characterisation.
Detecting Zero-day Polymorphic Worms with Jaccard Similarity Algorithm

Zero-day polymorphic worms pose a serious threat to the security of Mobile systems and Internet infrastructure. In many cases, it is difficult to detect worm attacks at an early stage. There is typically little or no time to develop a well-constructed solution during such a worm outbreak. This is because the worms act only to spread from node to node and they bring security concerns to everyone using Internet via any static or mobile node. No system is safe from an aggressive worm crisis. However, many of the characteristics of a worm can be used to defeat it, including its predictable behavior and shared signatures. In this paper, we propose an efficient signature generation method based on string similarity algorithms to generate signatures for Zero-day polymorphic worms. Then, these signatures are practically applied to an Intrusion Detection System (IDS) to prevent the network from such attacks. The experimental results show the efficiency of the proposed approach compared to other existing mechanisms.
Striking Variations in Corticosteroid Modulation of Long-Term Potentiation along the Septotemporal Axis of the Hippocampus

The ability to express long-term potentiation (LTP) of reactivity to afferent stimulation along the septotemporal axis was explored in transverse rat hippocampal slices. The ventral pole of the hippocampus (VH) was found to be much impaired in ability to express LTP compared with the rest of the hippocampus. An exposure to acute stress before the rat was killed reversed this trend, and slices from VH now expressed a large LTP, whereas in the rest of the hippocampus, it was much suppressed. The enhanced LTP in VH was mediated by activation of a mineralocorticoid receptor (MR), whereas the suppressed LTP was mediated by activation of a glucocorticoid receptor, and indeed selective agonists of the respective steroid receptors mimicked the effects of stress, whereas selective antagonists blocked them. The MR-enhanced LTP in VH was not mediated by activation of the NMDA receptor but by enhancement of voltage-gated calcium channels. Because the VH has an unique efferent system to the hypothalamus, these results indicate that stress may activate this system while suppressing the ability of the rest of the hippocampus to express plastic properties under stressful conditions.