Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Graph-Based Clustering for Semantic Classification of Onomatopoetic Words

This paper presents a method for semantic classification of onomatopoetic words like "[Abstract contained text which could not be displayed. ] (hum)" and "[Abstract contained text which could not be displayed. ] (clip clop)" which exist in every language, especially Japanese being rich in onomatopoetic words. We used a graph-based clustering algorithm called Newman clustering. The algorithm calculates a simple quality function to test whether a particular division is meaningful. The quality function is calculated based on the weights of edges between nodes. We combined two different similarity measures, distributional similarity, and orthographic similarity to calculate weights. The results obtained by using the Web data showed a 9.0% improvement over the baseline single distributional similarity measure.
A framework that supports collective creativity in design using visual images

The goal of our research is to develop computer systems that support designers’ collective creativity; such systems support individual creative aspects in design through the use of representations created by others in the community. We have developed two systems, IAM-eMMa and EVIDII, that both aim at supporting designers in finding visual images that would be useful for their creative design task. IAMeMMa uses knowledge-based rules, which are constructed by other designers, to retrieve images related to a design task and infers the underlying “rationale” when a designer chooses one of the images. EVIDII allows designers to associate affective words and images, and then shows several visual representations of the relationships among designers, images and words. By observing designers interacting with the two systems, we have identified that systems for supporting collective creativity need to be based on design knowledge that (1) is contextualized, (2) is respectable and trustful, and (3) enables “appropriation” of a design task.
Relationships and Mendelian Randomization of Gut Microbe-Derived Metabolites with Metabolic Syndrome Traits in the METSIM Cohort

The role of gut microbe-derived metabolites in the development of metabolic syndrome (MetS) remains unclear. This study aimed to evaluate the associations of gut microbe-derived metabolites and MetS traits in the cross-sectional Metabolic Syndrome In Men (METSIM) study. The sample included 10,194 randomly related men (age 57.65 ± 7.12 years) from Eastern Finland. Levels of 35 metabolites were tested for associations with 13 MetS traits using lasso and stepwise regression. Significant associations were observed between multiple MetS traits and 32 metabolites, three of which exhibited particularly robust associations. N-acetyltryptophan was positively associated with Homeostatic Model Assessment for Insulin Resistant (HOMA-IR) (β = 0.02, p = 0.033), body mass index (BMI) (β = 0.025, p = 1.3 × 10−16), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) (β = 0.034, p = 5.8 × 10−10), triglyceride (0.087, p = 1.3 × 10−16), systolic (β = 0.012, p = 2.5 × 10−6) and diastolic blood pressure (β = 0.011, p = 3.4 × 10−6). In addition, 3-(4-hydroxyphenyl) lactate yielded the strongest positive associations among all metabolites, for example, with HOMA-IR (β = 0.23, p = 4.4 × 10−33), and BMI (β = 0.097, p = 5.1 × 10−52). By comparison, 3-aminoisobutyrate was inversely associated with HOMA-IR (β = −0.19, p = 3.8 × 10−51) and triglycerides (β = −0.12, p = 5.9 × 10−36). Mendelian randomization analyses did not provide evidence that the observed associations with these three metabolites represented causal relationships. We identified significant associations between several gut microbiota-derived metabolites and MetS traits, consistent with the notion that gut microbes influence metabolic homeostasis, beyond traditional risk factors.
Corner Detection using Phase Congruency Features

In today's automated world, it is always a great challenge to secure individuals personal information. Palmprint has come out to be one of the most secure and effective biometric methods to automatically identify a person's identity. It contains so many features like geometry features, principal line features, wrinkles, ridges, delta point features, texture features and points. Here, Phase Congruency Corner Detector (PCCD) method is proposed as a corner detection technique to extract palmprint features in the form of corners. Match by Correlation is used for similarity measurement. Experiments were developed on a database of 600 images from 100 individuals, with 5 image samples per individual for training and one image sample per individual for testing. The proposed approach of Phase Congruency Corner Detector when combined together with Match by Correlation has the ability to discriminate similar palmprints.
Drought and its effects on spring discharge regimes in Poland and Germany during the 2015 drought

ABSTRACT Areas of Western and Central Europe were severely affected by devastating droughts in 2003 and 2015. A sharp decrease in annual atmospheric precipitation led to diminished spring discharges. Analysis of the fluctuations in discharge from three groups of springs in the south of Poland, namely in the Sudetes and Carpathian mountains, and in the German province of Bavaria revealed an average discharge reduction ranging from 52 to 4%. The study proved the existence of a relationship between diminished groundwater recharge from precipitation and the type of rock forming the reservoir as well as the parameters of the rock in the drained catchment. Spring discharge regime was compared for various periods to show that a decline in the regime correlates with a decline in river flow rate; considering the continually changing weather patterns, this correlation is arguably a key factor in sustainable water management.
Endothelin-1 and Endothelial Nitric Oxide Synthase Immunoreactivity in Lymphatic Vessels of the Uterine Broad Ligament during the Estrous Cycle in the Pig

Immunohistochemical localization and distribution of endothelin (ET-1) and nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) were investigated in precollector and collector lymphangions of lymphatic vessels leaving the ovary and were found in the vascular subovarian plexus (mesovarium) as well as in those emanating from the oviductal isthmus and uterine horn (mesosalpinx and mesometrium, respectively) forming the paraovarian lymphatic plexus in the broad ligament of the uterus during different phases of the estrous cycle in pigs. The polyclonal antibody for ET-1 and the monoclonal antibody for eNOS isoform were used for studies on the light-microscopic level. Immunoreactivities to both ET-1 and eNOS were observed in the endothelial cell cytoplasm of precollector and collector lymphangions and were not demonstrated in smooth muscle cells of the lymphatics examined. In the endothelium, the intensity of immunostaining for ET-1 and eNOS was found to be estrous phase-dependent and differed between precollector and collector lymphangions. In general, immunoreactivity to ET-1 was more intense in the endothelium of shrunken lymphangions, whereas that for eNOS was more intense in lymphangions with the large lumen. These results suggest that ET-1 and eNOS can play a role in mechanisms regulating the vascular contractile activity promoting lymph flow during the estrous cycle in the porcine broad ligament.
Point object detection using a NL-means type filter

A new algorithm is proposed to detect small objects by background suppression. It relies on a modified version of the nonlocal means filter introduced by Buades et al. for background prediction. Background pixels are estimated by a weighted average depending on the similarity between neighborhoods pixels. For background suppression, the similarity criterion is modified to be less sensitive to point object presence. The resulting D-NLM filter better detects dim point objects than current detection filters. A straightforward spatio-temporal extension is also proposed, it has the advantage of not requiring prior accurate background motion compensation. Our method is well adapted to slow object velocity and large background motion contexts, where it outperforms significantly conventional spatio-temporal filters.
Tumor progression inhibits the induction of multifunctionality in adoptively transferred tumor‐specific CD8+ T cells

It is becoming increasingly evident that the multifunctionality of effector cells at the single‐cell level is an important factor to predict the quality of T‐cell response in immunological protection. The significance of the multifunctionality of T cells in anti‐tumor immunity, however, remains unclear. Here, we assessed the IFN‐γ and TNF‐α production and CD107a mobilization in adoptively transferred tumor‐antigen‐specific CD8+ T cells at the single‐cell level. Tumor growth of the murine fibrosarcoma CMS5 was found to limit the induction of multifunctionality in the transferred cells. These cells exhibited insufficient acquisition of the CD25highGITRhighCD62Llow phenotype and reduced infiltration in tumor. Depletion of Treg facilitated the induction of high multifunctionality of the transferred cells even in the hosts with progressing tumor, leading to enhanced tumor regression. The multifunctionality of the transferred cells correlated with in vivo CTL activity, and T cells with high multifunctionality harvested from hosts with successful therapy induced tumor regression when re‐transferred into the tumor‐bearing hosts. These data suggest that the appearance of multifunctional CD8+ effector T cells in vivo is a critical determinant of the success of anti‐tumor immunotherapy and Treg play an important role in the mechanism inhibiting the induction of multifunctionality in effector cells.
Monocyte-Derived Dendritic Cells Upregulate Extracellular Catabolism of Aggregated Low-Density Lipoprotein on Maturation, Leading to Foam Cell Formation

Objective—Although dendritic cells are known to play a role in atherosclerosis, few studies have examined the contribution of the wide variety of dendritic cell subsets. Accordingly, their roles in atherogenesis remain largely unknown. We investigated the ability of different dendritic cell subsets to become foam cells after contact with aggregated low-density lipoprotein (LDL; the predominant form of LDL found in atherosclerotic plaques). Approach and Results—We demonstrate that both murine and human monocyte-derived dendritic cells use exophagy to degrade aggregated LDL, leading to foam cell formation, whereas monocyte-independent dendritic cells are unable to clear LDL aggregates by this mechanism. Exophagy is a catabolic process in which objects that cannot be internalized by phagocytosis (because of their size or association with extracellular structures) are initially digested in an extracellular acidic lytic compartment. Surprisingly, we found that monocyte-derived dendritic cells upregulate exophagy on maturation. This contrasts various forms of endocytic internalization in dendritic cells, which decrease on maturation. Finally, we show that our in vitro results are consistent with dendritic cell lipid accumulation in plaques of an ApoE−/− mouse model of atherosclerosis. Conclusions—Our results show that monocyte-derived dendritic cells use exophagy to degrade aggregated LDL and become foam cells, whereas monocyte-independent dendritic cells are unable to clear LDL deposits. Furthermore, we find that exophagy is upregulated on dendritic cell maturation. Thus, exophagy-mediated foam cell formation in monocyte-derived dendritic cells could play a significant role in atherogenesis.
CotA of Bacillus subtilis Is a Copper-Dependent Laccase

ABSTRACT The spore coat protein CotA of Bacillus subtilisdisplays similarities with multicopper oxidases, including manganese oxidases and laccases. B. subtilis is able to oxidize manganese, but neither CotA nor other sporulation proteins are involved. We demonstrate that CotA is a laccase. Syringaldazine, a specific substrate of laccases, reacted with wild-type spores but not with ΔcotA spores. CotA may participate in the biosynthesis of the brown spore pigment, which appears to be a melanin-like product and to protect against UV light.
¿Blanco, negro o escala de grises? Determinación de la contribución relativa del nicho ecológico y la teoría neutral en los ensambles de especies

According to the niche theory, species assemblies should reflect biotic and abiotic local conditions. In turn, the neutral theory of biodiversity stands that species are equivalent and that local species assembly is the product of colonization and extinction rates. After some years of debate, nowadays, ecologists agree that purely niche or neutral assemblies rarely occur in nature and, in turn, that the rule are assemblies somewhere in the middle. A niche assembly is the product of interspecific interactions or environmental forcing, while a neutral assembly is derived from intrinsic population dynamics (e.g., colonization and extinction rates). The beta-diversity concept (it has various definitions, but all of them share the idea of a link between local [alpha] and regional [gamma] diversity, and, thus, refers to the heterogeneity in species composition between places or times) has become particularly popular during the last decade. It is used to analyze a great variety of systems in different ways. In particular, it gained attention as a tool to differentiate niche- vs neutral-based species assembly. This could be easily addressed using ad hoc neutral models. A pure neutral assembly should exhibit a variability in species composition similar to that expected by randomly selecting species from the regional pool (gamma diversity) for each sample (alpha diversity). The more deviant from the variability expected by chance, the more niche-based assembly. We have greatly expanded our knowledge of the factors that promote one or the other type of assembly. However, there is still much more to elucidate, like how neutral vs. niche assembly is influenced by the interaction between factors, spatio-temporal relationships or if there are scale-dependent variations. In this review, we analyze the potential uses and methodologies associated with this emerging topic in community ecology and discuss some related and interesting scientific questions that remain unanswered. https://doi.org/10.25260/EA.18. 28.1. 0.622
Spoken Word Recognition Enhancement Due to Preceding Synchronized Beats Compared to Unsynchronized or Unrhythmic Beats

The relation between rhythm and language has been investigated over the last decades, with evidence that these share overlapping perceptual mechanisms emerging from several different strands of research. The dynamic Attention Theory posits that neural entrainment to musical rhythm results in synchronized oscillations in attention, enhancing perception of other events occurring at the same rate. In this study, this prediction was tested in 10 year-old children by means of a psychoacoustic speech recognition in babble paradigm. It was hypothesized that rhythm effects evoked via a short isochronous sequence of beats would provide optimal word recognition in babble when beats and word are in sync. We compared speech recognition in babble performance in the presence of isochronous and in sync vs. non-isochronous or out of sync sequence of beats. Results showed that (a) word recognition was the best when rhythm and word were in sync, and (b) the effect was not uniform across syllables and gender of subjects. Our results suggest that pure tone beats affect speech recognition at early levels of sensory or phonemic processing.
Rhizosphere Priming and Methane Oxidation in Agricultural Soil - Effect of Land Use on Atmospheric Concentrations of CO2 and CH4 and Climate Change

Rhizosphere interactions have high influence on the fluxes of carbon to and from terrestrial ecosystems. One very important part of the rhizosphere interactions is the rhizosphere priming effect (RPE) which is defined as changes in the decomposition rate of soil organic matter (SOM) in response to labile organic carbon input from plant roots. Changes in decomposition of SOM affect nutrient availability and nutrient cycling, and does also bring changes in emissions of CO2 from soil. Therefore, changes in the RPE can have a crucial impact in the ecosystems of soil and on the atmospheric concentrations of CO2. Oxidation of methane in soil is another component affecting carbon fluxes in soil and global climate. The aim of this study was to test whether differences in priming could be observed in soil of different agricultural land uses; arable land, pasture and ley, and at the same time measuring methane oxidation to test if any differences occurred between the three different land uses. According to the microbial mining hypothesis, it was hypothesized that the highest levels of priming would occur in pasture soil with low availability of nitrogen. Due to expected low concentrations of nitrogen and especially ammonium, methane oxidation was also expected to be highest in pasture. Priming was observed as significant changes in SOM decomposition due to glucose amendments. No significant differences were found between arable land, pasture and ley in terms of SOM respiration, priming or methane oxidation. However, a pattern supporting the stoichiometric decomposition theory was observed, as pasture on average had the lowest priming effect. At the same time, the highest methane oxidation rate was observed on pasture. This indicate low emissions of greenhouse gasses from pasture relative to arable land and ley. However, this pattern is not significantly evident and does need more research.
Marine Biogeochemical Modelling and Data Assimilation for Operational Forecasting, Reanalysis, and Climate Research

Marine biogeochemistry is the study of chemical elements in the ocean, and their interactions with marine life. Chief amongst these elements is carbon, the building block of life and a key influence on Earth’s climate. thers of importance include nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, silicon, and iron. Biogeochemical cycling happens through physical transport, chemical reactions, and uptake and processing by plankton, which are organisms unable to swim against ocean currents. Phytoplankton, microscopic photosynthesising algae, form the base of the ocean food web and contribute about half of Earth’s primary production. The zooplankton that consume them also process a significant quantity of carbon and nutrients. In addition, many plankton produce shells or skeletons mostly made of calcium carbonate or silicate (also referred to as biogenic opal). Higher trophic levels such as fish and marine mammals play a lesser role in elemental cycling, and so are generally considered separately.
Malignant skin lesions in Oshogbo, Nigeria

Introduction The aim of this study is to retrospectively assess the prevalence of some of skin malignancies in our environment and to provide a data base for creating awareness for prevention and early detection of the diseases in order to reduce morbidity and mortality associated with these skin lesions in our environment. Methods This is a retrospective study of all histologically diagnosed malignant skin lesions which presented at Ladoke Akintola University of Technology Teaching Hospital Osogbo Osun State between January 2006 and December 2010. Results Ninety- eight patients presented with skin cancers out of which 60 (61.2%)were males and 38 (38.8%) were females. Malignant melanoma ranked highest followed by squamous cell carcinoma, dermatofibrosarcoma and basal cell carcinoma in that order. Malignant melanoma affects male more than female and it commonly affects lower limbs. Conclusion Skin malignancies pose a burden to the economy of the country. Efforts should be directed toward prevention, early diagnosis and management in order to abolish or reduce morbidity, as well as mortality associated with late presentation of people in the developing countries.
Efficient Algorithm for Localized Support Vector Machine

This paper presents a framework called localized support vector machine (LSVM) for classifying data with nonlinear decision surfaces. Instead of building a sophisticated global model from the training data, LSVM constructs multiple linear SVMs, each of which is designed to accurately classify a given test example. A major limitation of this framework is its high computational cost since a unique model must be constructed for each test example. To overcome this limitation, we propose an efficient implementation of LSVM, termed profile SVM (PSVM). PSVM partitions the training examples into clusters and builds a separate linear SVM model for each cluster. Our empirical results show that (1) LSVM and PSVM outperform nonlinear SVM for all 20 of the evaluated data sets and (2) PSVM achieves comparable performance as LSVM in terms of model accuracy but with significant computational savings. We also demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed approaches in terms of classifying data with spatial and temporal dependencies.
Mineralogy and temperature of crater Haulani on Ceres

We investigate the region of crater Haulani on Ceres with an emphasis on mineralogy as inferred from data obtained by Dawn's Visible InfraRed mapping spectrometer (VIR), combined with multispectral image products from the Dawn Framing Camera (FC) so as to enable a clear correlation with specific geologic features. Haulani, which is one of the youngest craters on Ceres, exhibits a peculiar “blue” visible to near‐infrared spectral slope, and has distinct color properties as seen in multispectral composite images. In this paper, we investigate a number of spectral indices: reflectance; spectral slopes; abundance of Mg‐bearing and NH4‐bearing phyllosilicates; nature and abundance of carbonates, which are diagnostic of the overall crater mineralogy; plus a temperature map that highlights the major thermal anomaly found on Ceres. In addition, for the first time we quantify the abundances of several spectral endmembers by using VIR data obtained at the highest pixel resolution (~0.1 km). The overall picture we get from all these evidences, in particular the abundance of Na‐ and hydrous Na‐carbonates at specific locations, confirms the young age of Haulani from a mineralogical viewpoint, and suggests that the dehydration of Na‐carbonates in the anhydrous form Na2CO3 may be still ongoing.
Implications Of Loss Aversion And Investment Decisions

As a behavioral bias known as "Loss Aversion," it states that people are more negatively affected by the prospect of losing money than they are by the prospect of gaining it. Concerning its effect on investors, the findings of the many research conducted on loss aversion have been contradictory. Individuals who engage in the Indian stock markets via brokerage companies are the target of this research, which seeks to answer the question, "Is loss aversion real? " and how does it influence investing decisions. This research also looks at the potential effects of gender, income, investing history, and risk perception on loss aversion. The research relied on primary data gathered via a structured questionnaire and analyzed using statistical procedures such as linear regression, independent t-test, and analysis of variance. According to the study's findings, loss aversion bias influences investors' investing choices and is significantly impacted by the respondents' gender.