Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nd-YAG Laser Treatment of Venous Malformations of the Head and Neck: An Update

Malformations of the arterial and venous systems often are manifested in the head and neck. Low-flow venous malformations are generally benign lesions; however, complications, such as bleeding, obstruction, pain, or cosmetic deformities, may warrant surgical intervention. Treatment of these lesions can be challenging. Laser photocoagulation, particularly with the neodymium-yttrium aluminum garnet (Nd-YAG) laser, has been successful in the majority of patients, with minimal morbidity and good results. Thirty-two patients with low-flow venous malformations of the head and neck were treated with the Nd-YAG laser using low-power density and intermittent short exposures in a punctate nonoverlapping technique. When possible, two glass slides were used to compress the lesion. There was excellent regression with minimal damage to the surrounding tissue. No major complications or morbidity, postoperative pain, or mortality occurred. Lesions occurring in some areas of the head and neck would not have been amenable to standard surgical excision. Follow-up period has ranged from 1 to 8 years. Nd-YAG laser photocoagulation has proved safe and effective for treatment of low-flow vascular malformations of the head and neck.
The Complete Nucleotide Sequences of the 5 Genetically Distinct Plastid Genomes of Oenothera, Subsection Oenothera: II. A Microevolutionary View Using Bioinformatics and Formal Genetic Data

A unique combination of genetic features and a rich stock of information make the flowering plant genus Oenothera an appealing model to explore the molecular basis of speciation processes including nucleus–organelle coevolution. From representative species, we have recently reported complete nucleotide sequences of the 5 basic and genetically distinguishable plastid chromosomes of subsection Oenothera (I–V). In nature, Oenothera plastid genomes are associated with 6 distinct, either homozygous or heterozygous, diploid nuclear genotypes of the 3 basic genomes A, B, or C. Artificially produced plastome–genome combinations that do not occur naturally often display interspecific plastome–genome incompatibility (PGI). In this study, we compare formal genetic data available from all 30 plastome–genome combinations with sequence differences between the plastomes to uncover potential determinants for interspecific PGI. Consistent with an active role in speciation, a remarkable number of genes have high Ka/Ks ratios. Different from the Solanacean cybrid model Atropa/tobacco, RNA editing seems not to be relevant for PGIs in Oenothera. However, predominantly sequence polymorphisms in intergenic segments are proposed as possible sources for PGI. A single locus, the bidirectional promoter region between psbB and clpP, is suggested to contribute to compartmental PGI in the interspecific AB hybrid containing plastome I (AB-I), consistent with its perturbed photosystem II activity.
Visual Recognition of Age Class and Preference for Infantile Features: Implications for Species-Specific vs Universal Cognitive Traits in Primates

Despite not knowing the exact age of individuals, humans can estimate their rough age using age-related physical features. Nonhuman primates show some age-related physical features; however, the cognitive traits underlying their recognition of age class have not been revealed. Here, we tested the ability of two species of Old World monkey, Japanese macaques (JM) and Campbell's monkeys (CM), to spontaneously discriminate age classes using visual paired comparison (VPC) tasks based on the two distinct categories of infant and adult images. First, VPCs were conducted in JM subjects using conspecific JM stimuli. When analyzing the side of the first look, JM subjects significantly looked more often at novel images. Based on analyses of total looking durations, JM subjects looked at a novel infant image longer than they looked at a familiar adult image, suggesting the ability to spontaneously discriminate between the two age classes and a preference for infant over adult images. Next, VPCs were tested in CM subjects using heterospecific JM stimuli. CM subjects showed no difference in the side of their first look, but looked at infant JM images longer than they looked at adult images; the fact that CMs were totally naïve to JMs suggested that the attractiveness of infant images transcends species differences. This is the first report of visual age class recognition and a preference for infant over adult images in nonhuman primates. Our results suggest not only species-specific processing for age class recognition but also the evolutionary origins of the instinctive human perception of baby cuteness schema, proposed by the ethologist Konrad Lorenz.
Optimizing a MapReduce module of preprocessing high-throughput DNA sequencing data

The MapReduce framework has become the de facto choice for big data analysis in a variety of applications. In MapReduce programming model, computation is distributed to a cluster of computing nodes that runs in parallel. The performance of a MapReduce application is thus affected by system and middleware, characteristics of data, and design and implementation of the algorithms. In this study, we focus on performance optimization of a MapReduce application, i.e., CloudRS, which tackles on the problem of detecting and removing errors in the next-generation sequencing de novo genomic data. We present three strategies, i.e., content-exchange, content-grouping, and index-only strategies, of communication between the Map() and Reduce() functions. The three strategies differ in the way messages are exchanged between the two functions. We also present experimental results to compare performance of the three strategies.
New analytical model for the TCP throughput in wireless environment

We propose a new analytical model of different versions of the TCP, viz., Tahoe, Reno and New Reno, where TCP mechanisms such as slow start, fast retransmit, fast recovery and timeout are modeled as a Markov chain. In our proposed model, we consider the exponential increase of the congestion window and the exponential increase of the timeout back-off. Finally, we focus on the bulk throughput performance analytically, and compare it of different versions of the TCP in the presence of random bit errors on a wireless link.
Resource allocation for self-backhauled networks with half-duplex small cells

Large-scale ad-hoc deployment of small cells or access points is expected to improve the coverage and spectrum reuse. The need for high-cost optical fiber or similar wired connectivity for backhaul can be mitigated by using radio access spectrum for backhaul links. The radio resources are shared among access links and self-backhaul links. This is referred as in-band self-backhauling. In this paper, we propose a solution for the scheduling, resource allocation and flow control problem for networks with self-backhauled half-duplex small cells. We formulate the resource allocation and scheduling problem as an optimization problem, where the objective is to maximize the sum-utility. The logarithm of user equipment (UE) throughputs is used as the utility function. The optimization problem is solved using Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) conditions. The solution obtained is used to develop a distributed method where the small cells pass on the most parsimonious information to the macro cell to aid it in its scheduling. Based on the intuition from the optimal long-term fraction of resources to be allocated, we propose a solution for the transmission time interval (TTI)-level scheduling problem. Further, we propose a flow-control algorithm between the macro eNodeB (eNB) and the small cell UEs that determines which small cell UEs data needs to be transmitted based on an appropriate feedback on the UE buffer status from the small cell. System-level simulation results are provided to quantify the performance gains of the proposed algorithms for full buffer traffic under different scenarios.
Parsing Strategies with ‘Lexicalized’ Grammars: Application to Tree Adjoining Grammars

In this paper we present a general parsing strategy that arose from the development of an Earley-type parsing algorithm for TAGs (Schabes and Joshi 1988) and from recent linguistic work in TAGs (Abeille 1988). In our approach elementary structures are associated with their lexical heads. These structures specify extended domains of locality (as compared to a context-free grammar) over which constraints can be stated. These constraints either hold within the elementary structure itself or specify what other structures can be composed with a given elementary structure.We state the conditions under which context-free based grammars can be 'lexicalized' without changing the linguistic structures originally produced. We argue that even if one extends the domain of locality of CFGs to trees, using only substitution does not give the freedom to choose the head of each structure. We show how adjunction allows us to 'lexicalize' a CFG freely.We then show how a 'lexicalized' grammar naturally follows from the extended domain of locality of TAGs and present some of the linguistic advantages of our approach.A novel general parsing strategy for 'lexicalized' grammars is discussed. In a first stage, the parser builds a set structures corresponding to the input sentence and in a second stage, the sentence is parsed with respect to this set. The strategy is independent of the linguistic theory adopted and of the underlying grammar formalism. However, we focus our attention on TAGs. Since the set of trees needed to parse an input sentence is supposed to be finite, the parser can use in principle any search strategy. Thus, in particular, a top-down strategy can be used since problems due to recursive structures are eliminated. The parser is also able to use non-local information to guide the search.We then explain how the Earley-type parser for TAGs can be modified to take advantage of this approach.
Design and Implementation of Health Monitoring Device using FPGA

In recent time’s healthcare is gaining importance and technology is playing an important role in patient’s health monitoring. Health monitoring deals with monitoring various parameters of patient’s continuously over a period of time. Sensors are used for monitoring parameters which in turn sends the output to a central unit for further data processing. A patient’s health monitoring device based on FPGA has been developed for monitoring parameters such as heartbeat, temperature and motion. FPGA has been used here instead of microcontroller as it is reconfigurable and necessary hardware can be added as and when required. The graphical user interface (GUI) is developed using visual basic and the data received from these sensors is forwarded to GUI. When the parameters are above the threshold value, email, message will be sent directly to the doctor for remote monitoring. As a first aid to the patient the doctor can reply by prescribing the necessary medicine which the patient can consume after making use of switch button available on the graphical user interface. Android application shows the patients data in real time to the doctor at remote location.
Correction of moisture effects on near infrared calibration for the analysis of phenol content in eucalyptus wood extracts

Abstract• Methods based on near infrared spectroscopy used to assess wood properties are susceptible to variations in physical parameters (temperature, grain size, etc.). As wood is a hygroscopically sensitive material, we studied the effects of moisture on near infrared absorbance and calibration to accurately determine the application potential of this technique under routine. • A collection of Eucalyptus urophylla × E. grandis hybrid wood pieces were analysed to obtain reference calibration of polyphenol contents in wood extracts via NIR spectra acquired under constant moisture conditions. Other specimens from the same source were assessed to obtain spectra for eight moisture contents spanning a broad variation range. The effects of moisture on absorption and on estimates based on a reference model were analysed. • An increase in moisture content prompted a rise in near infrared absorption over the entire spectrum and for water O-H absorption bands. The polyphenol content estimates obtained by assessing specimens against the reference calibration at variable moisture contents revealed prediction bias. Five correction methods were then tested to enhance the robustness relative to moisture. • In-depth calibration and external parameter orthogonalization (EPO) were found to be the most efficient methods for offsetting this factor. Résumé• Les méthodes basées sur la spectroscopie proche infrarouge pour estimer les propriétés du bois sont sensibles aux variations des paramètres physiques (température, granulométrie…). Le bois étant un matériau hygroscopique sensible, l’influence de l’humidité sur l’absorbance et l’étalonnage proche infrarouge a été étudiée afin de mieux considérer les possibilités d’applications dans des conditions réelles. • Un étalonnage de référence de la quantité de polyphénols présents dans les extraits a été établi à partir de spectres d’une collection de bois d’hybrides d’Eucalyptus urophylla × E. grandis à humidité constante fixée. D’autres spectres ont été obtenus sur des échantillons de même provenance mais à 8 teneurs en eau couvrant une large plage de variation. L’influence de l’humidité sur l’absorbance proche infrarouge puis sur l’estimation par le modèle de référence a été analysée. • Une augmentation de l’humidité élève la ligne de base du spectre d’absorbance et également les régions d’absorbance caractéristiques de la liaison O-H de l’eau. Les estimations de la quantité de polyphénols à partir de l’étalonnage de référence sur les échantillons à humidité variable révèlent un biais sur les prédictions. • Parmi les cinq méthodes de correction testées pour rendre l’étalonnage robuste vis-à-vis de l’humidité, l’étalonnage exhaustif et l’EPO (External Parameter Orthogonalisation) s’avèrent être les plus efficaces et permettent de s’affranchir de ce facteur.
Evolving connectionist systems for on-line, knowledge-based learning: Principles and applications

The paper introduces evolving connectionist systems (ECOS) as an effective approach to building on-line, adaptive intelligent systems. ECOS evolve through incremental, hybrid (supervised/unsupervised), on-line learning. They can accommodate new input data, including new features, new classes, etc. through local element tuning. New connections and new neurons are created during the operation of the system. The ECOS framework is presented and illustrated on a particular type of evolving neural networks evolving fuzzy neural networks (EFuNNs). EFuNNs can learn spatial-temporal sequences in an adaptive way, through one pass learning. Rules can be inserted and extracted at any time of the system operation. The characteristics of ECOS and EFuNNs are illustrated on several case studies that include: adaptive pattern classification; adaptive, phoneme-based spoken language recognition; adaptive dynamic time-series prediction; intelligent agents.
The Impact of Elementary School Related Factors on the Achievement of Montreal Francophone Children: Results from a Global Model.

The objective of this paper is to evaluate empirically the impact of elementary school related factors on the academic achievement of Montreal francophone children. Using a threeequation model we seek to explain simultaneously the level of achievement in mathematics and French and the self-concept of the students in our sample. The individual student is the basic unit of the model. The model includes numerous explanatory variables concerning personal characteristics of students, socioeconomic background of the student, and schoolrelated factor variables. More specifically, school effects are defined in terms of not only structural components of the school setting but also teachers' and administrators' objective characteristics, specific educational interventions in a low-income area, and attitudinal variables. The data used in this paper originate from a two-year longitudinal sample concerning about 3,000 students. A logistic functional form is specified, and two-stage least square techniques are used for estimation.
Cyber-physical handshake

While sensor-enabled devices have greatly enriched human interactions in our daily life, discovering the essential knowledge behind sensing data is a critical issue to connect the cyber world and the physical world. This motivates us to design an innovative sensor-aided social network system, termed cyber-physical handshake. It allows two users to naturally exchange personal information with each other after detecting and authenticating the handshaking patterns between them. This work describes our design of detection and authentication mechanisms to achieve this purpose and our prototype system to facilitate handshake social behavior.
Effects of dietary polychlorinated biphenyls on cholesterol catabolism in rats

Dietary polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) caused hypercholesterolaemia in rats. The concentration and output of biliary cholesterol was significantly lower than that of the control group. Biliary output of total bile acids was significantly decreased in rats given the PCB-supplemented diet. Faecal excretion of total steroids (sum of neutral steroids and acidic steroids) was not significantly changed in rats given the PCB-supplemented diet. The present results indicate that dietary PCBs cause hypercholesterolaemia without modifying the faecal total steroids excretion. These results suggest that PCBs produce hyper-cholesterolaemia accompanied by changes in biliary or faecal excretion of bile acids and neutral steroids in addition to an increase in hepatic cholesterol synthesis.
Maximum lifetime routing in wireless sensor network by minimizing rate capacity effect

Capacity of the battery is usually specified in ampere-hour. So far, while designing a routing protocol people are considering that if C is the capacity of the battery and the current drawn out of it is at rate R then total time to evacuate is T=C/R. On contrary, the batteries show rate capacity effect. That is, capacity of a battery decreases with increase in discharge current. Thus lifetime of the battery also decreases significantly with increase in discharge current. Researchers have been minimizing this effect using proper pulse shape and traffic shaping, all at physical layer of communication protocol. Our present work deals with these limitations of realistic battery model at network layer in routing protocols itself. We are presenting here two types of power aware algorithms to overcome this issue. In our algorithm rate capacity effect, minimum drain rate and minimum transmission power constraints are exploited altogether as a metric to design a routing protocol, which minimizes rate capacity effect and ultimately gives improved lifetime of the sensor network. This is to be noted that this improvement in lifetime of the battery used in sensor nodes is in addition to the improvement done at physical layer by other researchers
Accuracy of In Vivo Multimodal Optical Imaging for Detection of Oral Neoplasia

If detected early, oral cancer is eminently curable. However, survival rates for oral cancer patients remain low, largely due to late-stage diagnosis and subsequent difficulty of treatment. To improve clinicians' ability to detect early disease and to treat advanced cancers, we developed a multimodal optical imaging system (MMIS) to evaluate tissue in situ, at macroscopic and microscopic scales. The MMIS was used to measure 100 anatomic sites in 30 patients, correctly classifying 98% of pathologically confirmed normal tissue sites, and 95% of sites graded as moderate dysplasia, severe dysplasia, or cancer. When used alone, MMIS classification accuracy was 35% for sites determined by pathology as mild dysplasia. However, MMIS measurements correlated with expression of candidate molecular markers in 87% of sites with mild dysplasia. These findings support the ability of noninvasive multimodal optical imaging to accurately identify neoplastic tissue and premalignant lesions. This in turn may have considerable impact on detection and treatment of patients with oral cancer and other epithelial malignancies. Cancer Prev Res; 5(6); 801–9. ©2012 AACR.
On feature interactions among Web services

Web services promise to allow businesses to adapt rapidly to changes in the business environment, and the needs of different customers. However, the rapid introduction of new services paired with the dynamicity of the business environment also leads to undesirable interactions that negatively impact service quality and user satisfaction. In this paper, we propose an approach for modeling such undesirable interactions as feature interactions. Our approach for detecting interactions is based on goal-oriented analysis and scenario modeling. It allows us to reason about feature interactions in terms of goal conflicts, and feature deployment. Two case studies illustrate the approach. The paper concludes with a discussion, and an outlook on future research.
Electrical coupling between cells of the insect Aedes albopictus.

1. Cell pairs of an insect cell line (Aedes albopictus, clone C6/36) were used to study the electrical properties of intercellular junctions. A double voltage‐clamp approach was adopted to control the voltage gradient between the cells and measure the intracellular current flow. 2. Determinations of junctional conductance (gj) revealed two types of intercellular contacts, gap junctions and cytoplasmic bridges. Identification occurred by means of functional criteria, i.e. the dependency of gj on (i) junctional membrane potential, (ii) non‐junctional membrane potential, and (iii) heptanol. 3. In cell pairs with putative gap junctions, gj was dependent on the junctional membrane potential (Vj). When determined at the beginning of voltage pulses, gj was insensitive to Vj; when determined at the end of 15 s pulses, it depended on Vj in a bell‐shaped manner (70% decrease for a change in Vj of +/‐ 75 mV). 4. These cell pairs also showed a dependency of gj on the non‐junctional membrane potential (Vm). When determined immediately after changing the non‐junctional membrane potential in both cells, gj was not affected by Vm; when determined 30 s later, gj was modified by Vm in a S‐shaped fashion (100% decrease when Vm was depolarized to +50 mV). 5. Exposure to 3 mM‐heptanol gave rise to complete and reversible block of gj in cell pairs with putative gap junctions. 6. Cell pairs susceptible to uncoupling by heptanol revealed junctional currents indicative of the operation of gap junction channels. The single‐channel conductance, determined at a Vm of ‐50 to ‐70 mV, was 133 pS. 7. In the case of putative cytoplasmic bridges, gj was insensitive to the junctional and non‐junctional membrane potential. In addition, it was not affected by 3 mM‐heptanol. 8. While most cell pairs showed functional properties characteristic of gap junctions or cytoplasmic bridges, few cell pairs exhibited junctional currents compatible with the co‐existence of both junctional structures.