Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Peripapillary choroidal thickness variation with age and race in normal eyes.

PURPOSE This study examined the association between peripapillary choroidal thickness (PCT) with age and race in a group of African descent (AD) and European descent (ED) subjects with normal eyes. METHODS Optic nerve head images from enhanced depth imaging spectral-domain optical coherence tomography of 166 normal eyes from 84 subjects of AD and ED were manually delineated to identify the principal surfaces of Bruch's membrane (BM), Bruch's membrane opening (BMO), and anterior sclera (AS). Peripapillary choroidal thickness was measured between BM and AS at increasing distance away from BMO. The mean PCT was compared between AD and ED subjects and generalized estimating equation (GEE) regression analysis was used to examine the association between race and PCT overall, in each quadrant, and by distance from BMO. Models were adjusted for age, BMO area, and axial length in the regression analysis. RESULTS Overall, the mean PCT increased from 63.9 μm ± 18.1 at 0 to 250 μm to 170.3 μm ± 56.7 at 1500 to 2000 μm from BMO. Individuals of AD had a greater mean PCT than those of ED at all distances from BMO (P < 0.05 at each distance) and in each quadrant (P < 0.05 in each quadrant). Results from multivariate regression indicate that ED subjects had significantly lower PCT compared to AD overall and in all quadrants and distances from BMO. Increasing age was also significantly associated with a lower PCT in both ED and AD participants. CONCLUSIONS Peripapillary choroidal thickness varies with race and age, as individuals of AD have a thicker peripapillary choroid than those of ED. (ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00221923.).
Accountants in Australia GAAP-based financial reporting : measurement of business performance

The Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia (the Institute) is the professional body representing Chartered Accountants in Australia. Our reach extends to more than 53,000 of today and tomorrow's business leaders, representing some 43,000 Chartered Accountants and 10,000 of Australia's best accounting graduates who are currently enrolled in our world-class postgraduate program. Our members work in diverse roles across commerce and industry, academia, government, and public practice throughout Australia and in 107 countries around the world. We aim to lead the profession by delivering visionary thought leadership projects, setting the benchmark for the highest ethical, professional and educational standards and enhancing and promoting the Chartered Accountant brand. We also represent the interests of members to government, industry, academia and the general public by actively engaging our membership and local and international bodies on public policy, government legislation and regulatory issues. The Institute can leverage advantages for its members as a founding member of the Global Accounting Alliance (GAA), an international accounting coalition formed by the world's premier accounting bodies. The GAA has a membership of 700,000 and promotes quality professional services to share information and collaborate on international accounting issues. In producing this monograph the author acknowledges the benefit from discussions with colleagues at the School of Accounting, University of New South Wales, and particularly the comments on earlier drafts by Jeff Coulton (UNSW), Sarah McVay (NYU) and Caitlin Ruddock (UNSW). Disclaimer: This monograph presents the opinions and comments of the author and not necessarily those of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia (the Institute) or its members. The contents are for general information only. They are not intended as professional advice – for that you should consult a Chartered Accountant or other suitably qualified professional. The Institute expressly disclaims all liability for any loss or damage arising from reliance upon any information contained in this paper. The use of extensions to traditional financial reporting to capture performance information, for example, the value of intangibles, corporate social responsibility and sustainable strategies has become common practice. For accountants, as preparers and interpreters of traditional financial statements, there is now a required awareness of these new reporting extensions. The Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia, the premier accounting body in the country, has a mandate to ensure that accounting as a discipline evolves to meet these changes. This monograph was commissioned by the Institute and written by Professor Stephen Taylor from …
DimStiller: Workflows for dimensional analysis and reduction

DimStiller is a system for dimensionality reduction and analysis. It frames the task of understanding and transforming input dimensions as a series of analysis steps where users transform data tables by chaining together different techniques, called operators, into pipelines of expressions. The individual operators have controls and views that are linked together based on the structure of the expression. Users interact with the operator controls to tune parameter choices, with immediate visual feedback guiding the exploration of local neighborhoods of the space of possible data tables. DimStiller also provides global guidance for navigating data-table space through expression templates called workflows, which permit re-use of common patterns of analysis.
Evolution and Mechanism of Spectral Tuning of Blue-Absorbing Visual Pigments in Butterflies

The eyes of flower-visiting butterflies are often spectrally highly complex with multiple opsin genes generated by gene duplication, providing an interesting system for a comparative study of color vision. The Small White butterfly, Pieris rapae, has duplicated blue opsins, PrB and PrV, which are expressed in the blue (λ max = 453 nm) and violet receptors (λ max = 425 nm), respectively. To reveal accurate absorption profiles and the molecular basis of the spectral tuning of these visual pigments, we successfully modified our honeybee opsin expression system based on HEK293s cells, and expressed PrB and PrV, the first lepidopteran opsins ever expressed in cultured cells. We reconstituted the expressed visual pigments in vitro, and analysed them spectroscopically. Both reconstituted visual pigments had two photointerconvertible states, rhodopsin and metarhodopsin, with absorption peak wavelengths 450 nm and 485 nm for PrB and 420 nm and 482 nm for PrV. We furthermore introduced site-directed mutations to the opsins and found that two amino acid substitutions, at positions 116 and 177, were crucial for the spectral tuning. This tuning mechanism appears to be specific for invertebrates and is partially shared by other pierid and lycaenid butterfly species.
Increased plasma cholesteryl ester transfer protein in obese subjects. A possible mechanism for the reduction of serum HDL cholesterol levels in obesity.

It is well known that obesity is frequently associated with low levels of serum high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol. However, the mechanism for this reduction has not been fully clarified. Cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) transfers cholesteryl ester from HDL to apolipoprotein B-containing lipoproteins and plays an important role in regulating the concentration and composition of HDL. To elucidate the mechanism for the reduction of serum HDL cholesterol in obesity, we analyzed serum lipoproteins, CETP, and postheparin lipoprotein lipase (LPL) and hepatic triglyceride lipase (HTGL) activities in 30 obese subjects (17 women and 13 men, age 44 +/- 14 years, mean +/- SD). We also investigated the relationship between these variables, total adiposity, and indices of body fat distribution. The average body mass index of the obese subjects was 33.1 +/- 4.8 kg/m2 (range, 26.4 to 43.8 kg/m2). The obese subjects showed significantly lower serum HDL cholesterol levels than control subjects (1.04 +/- 0.28 versus 1.50 +/- 0.34 mmol/L, P < .01). In the obese subjects, both activities and protein mass of CETP and postheparin HTGL activities were significantly increased, whereas postheparin LPL activities were significantly decreased. CETP activities, independent of postheparin HTGL and LPL activities, were correlated negatively with HDL cholesterol (r = -.39, P < .05) and the cholesteryl ester to triglyceride ratio of HDL2 and HDL3 (r = -.36, P < .05; r = -.46, P < .05, respectively). (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Entropic Cities: The Paradox of Urbanism in Ancient Mesopotamia

The growth of cities in antiquity is paradoxical: before modern health and sanitation standards, early urban dwellers suffered high mortality as a result of epidemics and chronic diseases arising, respectively, from propinquity and poor sanitation. At the same time, lower-status individuals within those cities would have endured depressed birth rates because, typically, many toiled in partially or fully dependent occupations not conducive to early marriage or stable families. The interplay between these compounding forces implies that early cities would not have been viable over the long term and could not have grown without a continual flow of immigrants. The early cities of Mesopotamia were no exception. In an earlier publication, I argued that the growth of the first centers that emerged in the alluvial lowlands of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers during the fourth millennium BC was predicated on migratory inflows that took place, in part, in the context of self-amplifying cycles whereby the replacement of imported commodities with locally made, mass-produced substitutes catalyzed increases in specialization, employment, market size, and trade (Smithian growth). In this article, I expand on these ideas, explore their applicability to later periods of Mesopotamian history, and consider further iterations of substitution-fueled growth cycles in those periods.
The Euclidean Division Implemented with a Floating-Point Division and a Floor

We study conditions under which the Euclidean division can be implemented using a floating-point division followed by a floor function. We show that under reasonable assumptions, the rounding downward mode can always be used, and the rounding to nearest mode can be used in most practical cases. These results may be useful for any language, but there is a particular benefit for languages, like ECMAScript, that do not have an integer division and that always round to nearest. We also show that an intermediate extended precision can introduce errors and give a condition under which an extended precision has no effect on the results.
Automated Tracking of Online Service Policies

The use of online services such as social networking sites or search engines is generally governed by one or more usage policies, such as terms of service, end-user license agreements, and privacy policies. To facilitate effective dissemination of policy information, structured policy data formats such as the Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P) and others have been proposed, but have not benefited from wide adoption. Consequently, today users still must resort to locating, reading, and understanding the usage policies for the services they use regularly – an onerous task for ordinary users.While structured policy formats have been slow to be adopted, human-readable natural language policy documents are ubiquitous across a wide variety of online services. For example, these documents can express a service’s privacy policy, end-user license agreement, or terms of service. In this paper, we present the design and implementation of the Policy Audit System, a system that aggregates the natural language policies for a wide variety of online services, monitors these policies for changes over time, and informs interested users of salient policy changes in a manner that is easy to understand.
Unruh model for the Einstein-Rosen charge: Squealing Wormholes?

We present two kinds of acoustic models for the massless electric charge conceived by Einstein and Rosen in the form of a bridge (wormhole throat). It is found that the first kind of modelling requires a thin layer of exotic matter at the bridge. We also derive an acoustic equation that exclusively characterizes the model. Using a second kind of model, it is demonstrated that the Einstein-Rosen charge has a sonic Hawking-Unruh temperature proportional to +-1/$beta$, where $beta$ is the size of the charge. This suggests that (squealing! ) wormholes can also be formally accommodated into Unruh's fluid model.
Activation of Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinases by Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor Ligands: An Example of Nongenomic Signaling

Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs) are a subfamily of nuclear hormone receptors that function as ligand-activated transcription factors to regulate lipid metabolism and homeostasis. In addition to their ability to promote gene transcription in a PPAR-dependent manner, ligands for this receptor family have recently been shown to induce mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) phosphorylation. It is noteworthy that the transcriptional changes induced by PPAR ligands can be separated into distinct PPAR- and MAPK-dependent signaling pathways, suggesting that MAPKs alone mediate some of the effects of PPAR agonists in a nongenomic manner. This review will highlight recent studies that elucidate the nongenomic mechanisms of PPAR ligand-induced MAPK phosphorylation. The potential relevance of MAPK signaling in PPAR biology is also discussed.
Evolution at protein ends: major contribution of alternative transcription initiation and termination to the transcriptome and proteome diversity in mammals

Alternative splicing (AS), alternative transcription initiation (ATI) and alternative transcription termination (ATT) create the extraordinary complexity of transcriptomes and make key contributions to the structural and functional diversity of mammalian proteomes. Analysis of mammalian genomic and transcriptomic data shows that contrary to the traditional view, the joint contribution of ATI and ATT to the transcriptome and proteome diversity is quantitatively greater than the contribution of AS. Although the mean numbers of protein-coding constitutive and alternative nucleotides in gene loci are nearly identical, their distribution along the transcripts is highly non-uniform. On average, coding exons in the variable 5′ and 3′ transcript ends that are created by ATI and ATT contain approximately four times more alternative nucleotides than core protein-coding regions that diversify exclusively via AS. Short upstream exons that encompass alternative 5′-untranslated regions and N-termini of proteins evolve under strong nucleotide-level selection whereas in 3′-terminal exons that encode protein C-termini, protein-level selection is significantly stronger. The groups of genes that are subject to ATI and ATT show major differences in biological roles, expression and selection patterns.
Aspectos psicológicos associados à disfunção temporomandibular: uma revisão sistemática da literatura

A disfuncao temporomandibular se configura como uma sindrome que afeta a regiao orofacial causando prejuizo a qualidade de vida. Atualmente, e explicada atraves do modelo etiologico multifatorial com varios fatores determinantes. Apesar de existir um consenso em relacao a multifatoriedade, ha pouca concordância em relacao a importância dos fatores etiologicos envolvidos, e ainda nao se sabe ate que ponto estes fatores podem ser considerados predisponentes, desencadeantes ou perpetuantes. Diante disso, este estudo objetivou investigar, por meio de uma revisao sistematica de literatura, quais aspectos psicologicos sao mais frequentemente associados a disfuncao temporomandibular. Os artigos com datas entre 2000 e 2015 foram pesquisados nas bases de dados nacionais: SciELO, LILACS e BBO. Foram selecionados 21 artigos. Os resultados apontaram a depressao, o estresse, a ansiedade e caracteristicas da personalidade como aspectos psicologicos mais associados a disfuncao temporomandibular.
Performance Evaluation of Entorpy and Gini Using Threaded and Non-threaded ID3 on Anaemia Dataset

Classification is an important data mining task, and decision trees have emerged as a popular classifier due to their simplicity and relatively low computational complexity. Time required to build a decision tree becomes intractable, as datasets get extremely large. To overcome this problem we proposed a parallel mode of ID3 algorithm. Decision tree building is well-suited for thread-level parallelism as it requires a large number of independent computations. In this paper, we present the analysis and parallel implementation of the ID3 algorithm using Entropy and Gini as heuristics, along with experimental results conducted on the anaemic patient's data set.
Discus : Lateral Error Correction for Time-Critical Multicast Submission # 162 , 14 pages

Discus is a low-latency reliable multicast protocol designed for time-critical clustered applications. It uses IP Multicast to transmit data and recovers from packet loss in end-hosts using Lateral Error Correction (LEC), a novel repair mechanism involving the exchange of XOR repairs between receivers and across groups. In datacenters and clusters, application needs frequently dictate large numbers of fine-grained overlapping multicast groups. Existing multicast reliability schemes scale poorly in such settings, providing latency of packet recovery that depends inversely on the data rate within a single group the lower the data rate, the longer it takes to recover lost packets. LEC is insensitive to the rate of data in any one group and allows each node to split its bandwidth between hundreds to thousands of fine-grained multicast groups without sacrificing timely packet recovery. As a result, Discus provides developers with a scalable, reliable and fast multicast primitive to layer under high-level abstractions such as publish-subscribe, group communication and replicated service/object infrastructures. We evaluate Discus on a 64node cluster, showing that it scales up to 1024 groups per node while recovering more than 97% of lost packets at an average of 25 milliseconds, with 1% loss rate.
AMAM 2008 Abstracts

Most human infants, before standing and walking on two feet, locomote on their four limbs. They can use a wide variety of locomotor patterns, but the most widespread one is alternated locomotion on hands and knees. Despite being the first locomotor pattern of humans, there are almost no quantitative information available on infants crawling. Since infants crawl only for a short time period of their life, use only one gait and have a very different functional limb geometry compared to other quadruped mammals (indeed infants use two functional segments for their fore limbs and one for the hind limbs since they crawl on their hands and knees), they offer an interesting way of studying quadruped locomotion in a simple form in order to understand its important characteristics. In this contribution, we present results on quantitative analysis of infants crawling compared to other quadruped mammals. Then, based on these observations, we formulate a set of desirable properties for the controller of a quadruped robot. Finally, we present such a controller for different robots, especially for an infant-like humanoid robot that crawls on its hands on knees, the iCub [1]. The controller design is based on central pattern generators (CPGs) constructed as networks of coupled oscillators. We also show how sensory feedback for online modulation of the control policies can improve the robustness of locomotion. Through kinematic analysis of several crawling infants, we show
Effect of chlorpyrifos on the profile of subpopulations immunocompetent cells B, T and NK in in vivo model.

BACKGROUND Current studies have indicated many environmental factors, such as pesticides, that cause immune system disorders through inducing changes in humoral and cellular responses thereby increasing the risk of contracting infectious diseases and cancer. The literature suggests that low exposures to certain organophosphorus pesticides stimulate the immune system, whilst high exposures result in decreased function. Precise mechanisms for the fall in immunocompetence are often unclear, however it can be predicted that the intimate interaction between the nervous and immune systems can potentially lead to toxicity. OBJECTIVES To determine the effects of organophosphorus pesticide, chlorpyrifos that is often used in Poland, on selected immunological responses, such as immune-competent cell proportions formed experimentally in-vivo by cells of Wistar rats during subchronic exposures after 45 and 90 days. MATERIALS AND METHODS The test was carried out on ten male and ten female Wistar rats in each of three test groups, who received 3 chlorpyrifos doses for 90 days intragastrically, according to OECD guidelines (No. 401). Two control groups were given olive oil. After completion, the animals were deeply anaesthetised by a mixture of ketamine (Vetaketam) and xylazine (Vetaxym). Immuno-competent cells were profiled by a commercial monoclonal antibody method. In order to measure the dynamics of any changes, the aforementioned immunological responses were investigated after 45 days using the same procedures for obtaining the relevant biological test material. RESULTS Test animals exposed to chlorpyrifos had altered number of white bood cells which were either increased or decreased relative to controls after 45 and 90 days for all exposure levels used. CONCLUSIONS The study demonstrated changes in white-blood cell (lymphocyte) response profiles, reflecting an immunomodulation although such changes were equivocal, where both suppression and stimulation were observed. KEY WORDS immunomodulation, immune system, lymphocyte, organophosphorus pesticides, chlorpyrifos.
OVI, NV and CIV in the Galactic Halo: II. Velocity-Resolved Observations with Hubble and FUSE

We present a survey of N V and O VI (and where available C IV ) in the Galactic halo, using data from the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) along 34 sightlines. These ions are usually produced in nonequilibrium processes such as shocks, evaporative interfaces, or rapidly cooling gas, and thus trace the dynamics of the interstellar medium. Searching for global trends in integrated and velocity-resolved column density ratios, we ﬁnd large variations in most measures, with some evidence for a systematic trend of higher ionization (lower N V /O VI column density ratio) at larger positive line-of-sight velocities. The slopes of log[N(N V )/N(O VI )] per unit velocity range from − 0 . 015 to +0 . 005, with a mean of − 0 . 0032 ± 0 . 0022(r) ± 0 . 0014(sys) dex (km s -1 ) -1 . We compare this dataset with models of velocity-resolved high-ion signatures of several common physical structures. The dispersion of the ratios, O VI /N V /C IV , supports the growing belief that no single model can account for hot halo gas, and in fact some models predict much stronger trends than are observed. It is important to understand the signatures of diﬀerent physical structures to interpret speciﬁc lines of sight and future global surveys.