Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Organic Farming and Landscape Structure: Effects on Insect-Pollinated Plant Diversity in Intensively Managed Grasslands

Parallel declines in insect-pollinated plants and their pollinators have been reported as a result of agricultural intensification. Intensive arable plant communities have previously been shown to contain higher proportions of self-pollinated plants compared to natural or semi-natural plant communities. Though intensive grasslands are widespread, it is not known whether they show similar patterns to arable systems nor whether local and/or landscape factors are influential. We investigated plant community composition in 10 pairs of organic and conventional dairy farms across Ireland in relation to the local and landscape context. Relationships between plant groups and local factors (farming system, position in field and soil parameters) and landscape factors (e.g. landscape complexity) were investigated. The percentage cover of unimproved grassland was used as an inverse predictor of landscape complexity, as it was negatively correlated with habitat-type diversity. Intensive grasslands (organic and conventional) contained more insect-pollinated forbs than non-insect pollinated forbs. Organic field centres contained more insect-pollinated forbs than conventional field centres. Insect-pollinated forb richness in field edges (but not field centres) increased with increasing landscape complexity (% unimproved grassland) within 1, 3, 4 and 5km radii around sites, whereas non-insect pollinated forb richness was unrelated to landscape complexity. Pollination systems within intensive grassland communities may be different from those in arable systems. Our results indicate that organic management increases plant richness in field centres, but that landscape complexity exerts strong influences in both organic and conventional field edges. Insect-pollinated forb richness, unlike that for non-insect pollinated forbs, showed positive relationships to landscape complexity reflecting what has been documented for bees and other pollinators. The insect-pollinated forbs, their pollinators and landscape context are clearly linked. This needs to be taken into account when managing and conserving insect-pollinated plant and pollinator communities.
Evaluation of the protective effects of curcuminoid (curcumin and bisdemethoxycurcumin)-loaded liposomes against bone turnover in a cell-based model of osteoarthritis

Curcumin (Cur) and bisdemethoxycurcumin (BDMC), extracted from Curcuma longa, are poorly water-soluble polyphenol compounds that have shown anti-inflammatory potential for the treatment of osteoarthritis. To increase cellular uptake of Cur and BDMC in bone tissue, soybean phosphatidylcholines were used for liposome formulation. In this study, curcuminoid (Cur and BDMC)-loaded liposomes were characterized in terms of particle size, encapsulation efficiency, liposome stability, and cellular uptake. The results show that there is about 70% entrapment efficiency of Cur and BDMC in liposomes and that particle sizes are stable after liposome formation. Both types of liposome can inhibit macrophage inflammation and osteoclast differential activities. In comparison with free drugs (Cur and BDMC), curcuminoid-loaded liposomes were less cytotoxic and expressed high cellular uptake of the drugs. Of note is that Cur-loaded liposomes can prevent liposome-dependent inhibition of osteoblast differentiation and mineralization, but BDMC-loaded liposomes could not. With interleukin (IL)-1β stimulation, curcuminoid-loaded liposomes can successfully downregulate the expression of inflammatory markers on osteoblasts, and show a high osteoprotegerin (OPG)/receptor activator of nuclear factor κB ligand (RANKL) ratio to prevent osteoclastogenesis. In the present study, we demonstrated that Cur and BDMC can be successfully encapsulated in liposomes and can reduce osteoclast activity and maintain osteoblast functions. Therefore, curcuminoid-loaded liposomes may slow osteoarthritis progression.
Methods of Computer-Assisted Manual Control of Wheeled Robots

This paper deals with possibilities of manual control of wheeled robots. The problem is tested on a robot-soccer application. The manual computer-assisted control module creates an interface between game controller and controlled robot. There are several ways of steering implementation. The simplest is a differential steering. The module currently uses semi-automatic steering which provides a capability to move with the robot as a point. This functionality requires interaction with vision system, usage of Kalman or similar filter and compensators. Next logical step is a fully-assisted steering. This steering system interacts with strategy and motion control module and provides additional functionality such as tracking the ball and shot. The objective is the control of many robots by only one player.
Digital rubbings creation based on ink diffusion

Cliff inscriptions in ancient China play very important role to record the historical relics, such as calligraphy, sculpture, art and so on. Although Chinese ancestors invent rubbing technique to preserve the valuable cliff inscriptions, lots of cliff inscriptions are eroded or damaged with time going on. In this paper, we propose a digital method to create rubbing images using photos of cliff inscriptions. First, the rubbing background texture is acquired through stitching some rubbing background images after adjust the intensity levels. Second, the characters of inscriptions are rectified and segmented from photos automatically or manually. Next, we use ink diffusion method to produce rubbing effect. Finally, the background and the processed character image are fused together to get the digital rubbing. Photogrammetry method can be used to measure the real size of the characters. Experiments show that our method can create rubbing image with the effect as same as the real rubbing.
Adaptive beacon placement

Beacon placement strongly affects the quality of spatial localization, a critical service for context-aware applications in wireless sensor networks; yet this aspect of localization has received little attention. Fixed beacon placement approaches such as uniform and very dense placement are not always viable and will be inadequate in very noisy environments in which sensor networks may be expected to operate (with high terrain and propagation uncertainties). We motivate the need for empirically adaptive beacon placement and outline a general approach based on exploration and instrumentation of the terrain conditions by a mobile human or robot agent. We design, evaluate and analyze three novel adaptive beacon placement algorithms using this approach for localization based on RF-proximity. In our evaluation, we find that beacon density rather than noise level has a more significant impact on beacon placement algorithms. Our beacon placement algorithms are applicable to a low (beacon) density regime of operation. Noise makes moderate density regimes more improvable.
A Ubiquitous and Context-Aware Framework for Supporting virtual Engineering Services

AbstractContext-aware engineering services in ubiquitous environments are emerging as a viable alternative to traditional engineering services. In this paper, we present a Ubiquitous and Context-Aware computing Framework for collaborative virtual Engineering (U-CAFE) services by adopting semantic web-based context-awareness. Topic Maps are used to represent dynamically changing engineering contexts and to query and reason about the contexts for supporting ubiquitous and human-centered engineering services. We discuss how web services and JINI services are used to support engineering service federations and seamless interactions among persons, devices, and various kinds of engineering services.
MedMeSH Summarizer: Text Mining for Gene Clusters

Gene Expression is the process by which a gene’s coded information is translated into the proteins present and operating in the cell. Changes in gene expression are associated with many important biological phenomena, including morphogenesis and aging, cancer and disease states, and adaptive responses to the environment. The advent of high density microarrays, introduced by Schena et al.[1] in 1995, made it possible for the first time to measure the expression levels simultaneously of all or most of the genes in a given genome. Since then, cDNA microarrays[2] and GeneChips (also called high-density oligonucleotide arrays)[6] have been used extensively in generating genome-wide expression profiles for different organisms under different environmental conditions. The microarray technologies for whole-genome expression profiling are new and rapidly evolving, and we refer the reader to the recent reviews ([4],[3],[5]). The vast quantity of data being generated using these microarrays provides researchers with a significant opportunity to transform biology, medicine, and pharmacology using systematic computational methods. The availability of genome-wide expression profiles promises to have a profound impact on the understanding of basic cellular processes, the diagnosis and treatment of disease, and the efficacy of designing and delivering targeted therapeutics. Particularly relevant to these objectives is the ability to cross-reference experimental and analytical results with previously known biological facts, theories, and results. Biological and medical literature databases provide the kind of knowledge warehouses required for such extensive crossreferencing. However, the volume of such databases makes the task of cross-referencing very lengthy, tedious, and daunting. The MedMeSH Summarizer system described in this paper is geared precisely for this task of helping a biologist in cross-referencing experimental and analytical results obtained from microarray experiments.
HIV Restriction by APOBEC3 in Humanized Mice

Innate immune restriction factors represent important specialized barriers to zoonotic transmission of viruses. Significant consideration has been given to their possible use for therapeutic benefit. The apolipoprotein B mRNA editing enzyme catalytic polypeptide 3 (APOBEC3) family of cytidine deaminases are potent immune defense molecules capable of efficiently restricting endogenous retroelements as well as a broad range of viruses including Human Immunodeficiency virus (HIV), Hepatitis B virus (HBV), Human Papilloma virus (HPV), and Human T Cell Leukemia virus (HTLV). The best characterized members of this family are APOBEC3G (A3G) and APOBEC3F (A3F) and their restriction of HIV. HIV has evolved to counteract these powerful restriction factors by encoding an accessory gene designated viral infectivity factor (vif). Here we demonstrate that APOBEC3 efficiently restricts CCR5-tropic HIV in the absence of Vif. However, our results also show that CXCR4-tropic HIV can escape from APOBEC3 restriction and replicate in vivo independent of Vif. Molecular analysis identified thymocytes as cells with reduced A3G and A3F expression. Direct injection of vif-defective HIV into the thymus resulted in viral replication and dissemination detected by plasma viral load analysis; however, vif-defective viruses remained sensitive to APOBEC3 restriction as extensive G to A mutation was observed in proviral DNA recovered from other organs. Remarkably, HIV replication persisted despite the inability of HIV to develop resistance to APOBEC3 in the absence of Vif. Our results provide novel insight into a highly specific subset of cells that potentially circumvent the action of APOBEC3; however our results also demonstrate the massive inactivation of CCR5-tropic HIV in the absence of Vif.
A low complexity method of color image demosaicing directly to YCbCr 4:2:0

In this paper a new color image demosaicing algorithm is presented. The proposed algorithm processes Bayer pattern image data directly into YCbCr 4:2:0 format. The proposed demosaicing algorithm requires fewer operations than the existing methods to produce a YCbCr output while maintaining considerable quality in terms of SSIM and PSNR. The proposed algorithm shows a 2x throughput improvement over existing methods.
Systolic time intervals as simple echocardiographic parameters of left ventricular systolic performance: correlation with ejection fraction and longitudinal two-dimensional strain.

AIMS Conventionally, the evaluation of left ventricular (LV) systolic function is based on ejection fraction assessment, which may be supplemented by other echocardiographic techniques, such as tissue Doppler imaging, 3D evaluation, and speckle tracking strains. However, these imaging modalities have a high technicity and are time-consuming, while being associated with reproducibility limitations. In this context, the usefulness of simpler measurements such as systolic time intervals (STI) by pulsed Doppler echocardiography must be emphasized. METHODS AND RESULTS In this multicentre study, left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), dP/dt(max), LV stroke volume, myocardial longitudinal deformation, aortic pre-ejectional period (PEP, ms), and left ventricular ejection time (LVET, ms) were prospectively investigated and compared in 134 consecutive heart failure (HF) patients and 43 control subjects. Feasibility of STI measurements was 100%. Intra-observer reproducibility was 98% for PEP, 96% for LVET, 87% for LVEF, and 93% for global longitudinal strain (GLS). By subgroup analyses, with increasingly altered LVEF or GLS, PEP significantly increased, whereas significantly LVET decreased, resulting in a significantly increased PEP/LVET ratio (P < 0.001). In the HF patients group, a correlation between LVEF and PEP/LVET was found, with r = 0.55 (y = -0.0083x + 0.75, P < 0.001). Based on receiver operating curve analyses, the area under the curve was 0.91 for PEP/LVET > 0.43, which allowed us to detect LVEF < 35% with a sensitivity of 87%, and a specificity of 84%. CONCLUSION STI can be easily and accurately measured in clinical practice, and may be used for detecting alterations in LV systolic function. Moreover, this method is likely to have potential applications in the management of HF patients.
Sentential query rewriting via mutual reinforcement of paraphrase-coordinate relationships

The effectiveness of retrieval decreases with the increase in query length. We target at sentential queries and propose a method for improving their retrieval performance, called query rewriting. Briefly, given a sentential query, our method acquires paraphrases from the noisy Web and uses them to avoid returning no answers. In particular, since a relation can be represented either intensionally (referred to as paraphrase templates) or extensionally (referred to as coordinate tuples), the mutual reinforcement between them are taken into account. The experimental results show that for declarative sentences, the average precision of our method is 68.1%, compared to 44.2% of the baseline. Besides, the relative recall of our method is 95.9%, nearly 3 times compared to that of the baseline. While for questions, the average precision of our method is 46.9%, compared to 39.9% of the baseline. We also show the effectiveness of query rewriting in two applications.
Visual Tracking Based on Extreme Learning Machine and Sparse Representation

The existing sparse representation-based visual trackers mostly suffer from both being time consuming and having poor robustness problems. To address these issues, a novel tracking method is presented via combining sparse representation and an emerging learning technique, namely extreme learning machine (ELM). Specifically, visual tracking can be divided into two consecutive processes. Firstly, ELM is utilized to find the optimal separate hyperplane between the target observations and background ones. Thus, the trained ELM classification function is able to remove most of the candidate samples related to background contents efficiently, thereby reducing the total computational cost of the following sparse representation. Secondly, to further combine ELM and sparse representation, the resultant confidence values (i.e., probabilities to be a target) of samples on the ELM classification function are used to construct a new manifold learning constraint term of the sparse representation framework, which tends to achieve robuster results. Moreover, the accelerated proximal gradient method is used for deriving the optimal solution (in matrix form) of the constrained sparse tracking model. Additionally, the matrix form solution allows the candidate samples to be calculated in parallel, thereby leading to a higher efficiency. Experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed tracker.
Bayesian Neural Network Applied in Medical Survival Analysis of Primary Biliary Cirrhosis

A benchmark medical study is realized for a Primary Biliary Cirrhosis (PBC) dataset by using two different versions of a Bayesian Neural Network (BNN) entitled Partial Logistic Artificial Neural Network for Competing Risks with Automatic Relevance Determination (PLANN-CR-ARD). The two BNN versions are based on two different compensation mechanisms which are designed to preserve the numerical stability of the PLANN-CR-ARD model and to calculate the marginalized network results. The predictions of the PLANN-CR-ARD models are comparable to the non-parametric estimates obtained through the survival analysis of the PBC dataset. The input variables from the PBC dataset which can have a strong influence on the outcome of the disease are determined. The PLANN-CR-ARD models can be used to investigate the non-linear inter-dependencies between the predicted outputs and the input data which consist of the characteristics of the PBC patients.
PAPER Special Section on Papers Selected from the 20th Symposium on Signal Processing Enlargement for Images with Gaussian Noise by Embedded Filtering in the LP Algorithm

SUMMARY In this paper, we propose an enlargement method for images with Gaussian noise based on the Laplacian pyramid (LP) representation. Unlike lowpass pre-processing approaches to the LP enlargement method, an embedded approach is used in this paper. Since the amplitude of Gaussian noise signals is smaller than the amplitude of image edge signals in the predicted LP stage, we adopt a modified e-filter in the proposed LP enlargement algorithm to reduce the Gaussian noise. Experimental results show that the proposed method can obtain high accuracy denoise enlarged images.
Do Migrant Labor Markets Clear ? Evidence from Overseas Filipino Workers

McKenzie et al. (2014) find that changes in economic conditions at destination induce a variation in the scale of Filipino emigration flows but exert no influence on their wages, consistent with a model with binding minimum wages. Our analysis reveals that: (i) wages for Filipino migrants do respond positively and significantly to GDP shocks at destination; and (ii) the number of Filipino migrants is influenced by the time-varying attractiveness of alternative destinations, a finding which is at odds with binding minimum wages. These results are consistent with a market-clearing model with an elastic demand for Filipino migrants.
SARS Molecular Detection External Quality Assurance

Inactivated severe acute respiratory syndrome–associated coronavirus samples were used for an external quality assurance study within the World Health Organization SARS Reference and Verification Network and other reference institutions. Of 58 participants, 51 correctly detected virus in all samples >9,400 RNA copies per milliliter and none in negative samples. Commercial test kits significantly improved the outcome.
The inevitable drift to triple therapy in COPD: an analysis of prescribing pathways in the UK

Background Real-world prescription pathways leading to triple therapy (TT) (inhaled corticosteroid [ICS] plus long-acting β2-agonist bronchodilator [LABA] plus long-acting muscarinic antagonist) differ from Global initiative for chronic Obstructive Lung Disease [GOLD] and National Institute for Health and Care Excellence treatment recommendations. This study sets out to identify COPD patients without asthma receiving TT, and determine the pathways taken from diagnosis to the first prescription of TT. Methods This was a historical analysis of COPD patients without asthma from the Optimum Patient Care Research Database (387 primary-care practices across the UK) from 2002 to 2010. Patient disease severity was classified using GOLD 2013 criteria. Data were analyzed to determine prescribing of TT before, at, and after COPD diagnosis; the average time taken to receive TT; and the impact of lung function grade, modified Medical Research Council dyspnea score, and exacerbation history on the pathway to TT. Results During the study period, 32% of patients received TT. Of these, 19%, 28%, 37%, and 46% of patients classified as GOLD A, B, C, and D, respectively, progressed to TT after diagnosis (P<0.001). Of all patients prescribed TT, 25% were prescribed TT within 1 year of diagnosis, irrespective of GOLD classification (P=0.065). The most common prescription pathway to TT was LABA plus ICS. It was observed that exacerbation history did influence the pathway of LABA plus ICS to TT. Conclusion Real life UK prescription data demonstrates the inappropriate prescribing of TT and confirms that starting patients on ICS plus LABA results in the inevitable drift to overuse of TT. This study highlights the need for dissemination and implementation of COPD guidelines to physicians, ensuring that patients receive the recommended therapy.
On the reliability of ultra low voltage circuits built from minority-3 gates

Different ultra low voltage implementations of the minority-3 function are compared with respect to robustness, area and metrics including power, energy and delay. It is shown how entire synchronous or asynchronous systems could be made from minority-3 functions only, instead of traditional Boolean gates and memory. Chip measurements and simulations in 120, 90 and 65 nm technologies are used as background. Monte Carlo simulations including process and parameter variations, as well as multi-objective optimization algorithm, are used to compare implementations of combinatorial circuits and memory, based on Boolean gates and minority-3 gates. The most promising minority-3 implementations are suggested, for use in arithmetics and memory, like D-latches and Muller C elements. A brief discussion suggests implementation of arithmetics based on serial adders instead of parallell, as they have been shown to be more power- and energy- economic for the same computational throughput, under subthreshold operation. Low level redundancy, with a redundancy factor from 2 (duplication) and up, may be used for defect and error tolerance, using shorted driven outputs and no voter.
An Intelligent GIS Database Framework Featuring Building Query Functionality Using n-grams Encoding and k-means Classification

In the current work we present the design and synthesis of a GIS framework with emphasis in building classification and identification. Its fundamental functionality comprises the submission of the geometric representation of a building as a query sample, subsequently encoded and employed by a classifying mechanism in order to discover similar occurrences within a pre-processed GIS-based building database. The encoding of both the query sample and the existing building database relies on n-grams whereas the classification and identification scheme combines k-means and a set of global and local features for the construction of similarity classes.
Algebra, Playstation Jä Alykkyys

Suomalaisten PISA-menestys on närkästyttänyt monet matemaatikot ristiretkelle algebran puolesta. On jopa väitetty, että PlayStationien parissa kasvaneet nykynuoret ovat keskittymiskyvyttömiä hamstereita(yleisönosastokirjoitus, HS). Omat havaintomme eivät tue esitettyä näkemystä. Pikemminkin olemme huomanneet, että juuri informaatioteknologian viihdekäyttäjät ovat menestyneet parhaiten akateemisssa opinnoissaan, erityisesti matematiikan ja luonnontieteiden alueella. Koska ilman perusteluja emme katso intuitiomme olevan sen arvokkaampi kuin muidenkaan, olemme pyrkineet etsimään asiasta tutkittua tietoa.