Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Treatment of Ectopic Pregnancy by Transvaginal Intratubal Methotrexate Administration

Twelve women with tubal pregnancies were treated with intratubal transvaginal methotrexate injection (1 mg/kg body weight). Serum β-hCG levels decreased in all patients, and the resolution time from injection to undetectable β-hCG levels was 14-120 days. In spite of declining serum β-hCG and unruptured tubal pregnancy, two patients subsequently requested definitive treatment for their ectopic pregnancies and underwent surgery. Four of six women found to have a living embryo in their gestational sacs required a repeat methotrexate injection; one of these also required a local potassium chloride injection. The tubal pregnancies resolved in nine patients treated with methotrexate alone. During resolution, we noted a gradually increasing resistance index of the blood flow in the region of the gestation, but the tube became distended to 4.4 ± 0.4 cm before gradually decreasing in size. No complications or side effects were encountered. These findings suggest that intratubal transvaginal methotrexate administration can provide a safe alternative to surgical treatment for patients with early unruptured tubal ectopic pregnancy. However, the presence of a living embryo makes the ectopic pregnancy more resistant to methotrexate treatment.
K-way partitioning based packing for FPGA logic blocks without input bandwidth constraint

Cluster-based logic blocks from most commercial FPGA products do not have an input bandwidth constraint, i.e., limiting the number of signals going from routing channels into the block. We show that high quality packing for such logic blocks can be easily achieved based on k-way partitioning. We implemented 2 such packing tools: PPack (routability-only) and its timing driven version TPPack. Experimental results show that they have superior quality. Compared to T-VPack, PPack reduces total wire-length and minimal channel width by 22.6% and 22.6% with a 1.9% performance gain; TPPack reduces total wire-length and minimal channel width by 20.0% and 20.2% with a 9.0% performance gain. These results are achieved at no loss of utilization.
Who are the Equal Rights Amendment Defenders and Opposers?

In analyzing attitudes toward the Equal Rights Amendment 45 undergraduate males were significantly less favorable towards its passage than 89 undergraduate females. The “masculine” males held the strongest attitudes against the ERA, while the “masculine” females appeared to view it the most favorably of the four Bem sex-role classifications. It was also noted that “masculine” individuals, male and female, were significantly more likely than other sex-role types to take action in accordance with their attitudes toward the passage of the ERA.
Physiological Effects of the Synthetic Strigolactone Analog GR24 on Root System Architecture in Arabidopsis: Another Belowground Role for Strigolactones?1[C][W][OA]

In this study, the role of the recently identified class of phytohormones, strigolactones, in shaping root architecture was addressed. Primary root lengths of strigolactone-deficient and -insensitive Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) plants were shorter than those of wild-type plants. This was accompanied by a reduction in meristem cell number, which could be rescued by application of the synthetic strigolactone analog GR24 in all genotypes except in the strigolactone-insensitive mutant. Upon GR24 treatment, cells in the transition zone showed a gradual increase in cell length, resulting in a vague transition point and an increase in transition zone size. PIN1/3/7-green fluorescent protein intensities in provascular tissue of the primary root tip were decreased, whereas PIN3-green fluorescent protein intensity in the columella was not affected. During phosphate-sufficient conditions, GR24 application to the roots suppressed lateral root primordial development and lateral root forming potential, leading to a reduction in lateral root density. Moreover, auxin levels in leaf tissue were reduced. When auxin levels were increased by exogenous application of naphthylacetic acid, GR24 application had a stimulatory effect on lateral root development instead. Similarly, under phosphate-limiting conditions, endogenous strigolactones present in wild-type plants stimulated a more rapid outgrowth of lateral root primordia when compared with strigolactone-deficient mutants. These results suggest that strigolactones are able to modulate local auxin levels and that the net result of strigolactone action is dependent on the auxin status of the plant. We postulate that the tightly balanced auxin-strigolactone interaction is the basis for the mechanism of the regulation of the plants’ root-to-shoot ratio.
The Transition to Fatherhood: Identity and Bonding in Early Pregnancy

Within the framework of identity theory, this paper explores the emergence of the father status and its relationship with paternal fetal bonding in the first trimester of pregnancy. A sample of 115 first-time Australian fathers completed measures of their identity set and prominence of their father status, an exploratory measure of their father status content, and a measure of paternal fetal bonding. Expectant fathers reported their spousal and father status as most central to who they were. Regression analyses lent some support to the hypothesis that fetal bonding would be predicted by father status prominence and content. The results are discussed with reference to limitations and future directions.
Serine and tyrosine phosphorylations cooperate in Raf‐1, but not B‐Raf activation

The Raf family of serine/threonine protein kinases couple growth factor receptor stimulation to mitogen activated protein kinase activation, but their own regulation is poorly understood. Using phospho‐specific antisera, we show that activated Raf‐1 is phosphorylated on S338 and Y341. Expression of Raf‐1 with oncogenic Ras gives predominantly S338 phosphorylation, whereas activated Src gives predominantly Y341 phosphorylation. Phosphorylation at both sites is maximal only when both oncogenic Ras and activated Src are present. Raf‐1 that cannot interact with Ras‐GTP is not phosphorylated, showing that phosphorylation is Ras dependent, presumably occurring at the plasma membrane. Mutations which prevent phosphorylation at either site block Raf‐1 activation and maximal activity is seen only when both are phosphorylated. Mutations at S339 or Y340 do not block Raf‐1 activation. While B‐Raf lacks a tyrosine phosphorylation site equivalent to Y341 of Raf‐1, S445 of B‐Raf is equivalent to S338 of Raf‐1. Phosphorylation of S445 is constitutive and is not stimulated by oncogenic Ras. However, S445 phosphorylation still contributes to B‐Raf activation by elevating basal and consequently Ras‐stimulated activity. Thus, there are considerable differences between the activation of the Raf proteins; Ras‐GTP mediates two phosphorylation events required for Raf‐1 activation but does not regulate such events for B‐Raf.
Teaching Learners To Be Self-Directed

Based on the Situational Leadership model of Hersey and Blanchard (1988), the Staged Self-Directed Learning Model proposes that learners advance through stages of increasing self-direction and that teachers can help or hinder that development. Good teaching matches the learner's stage of self-direction and helps the learner advance toward greater self-direction. Specific methods are proposed for teaching students at each stage, although many different teaching styles are good when appropriately applied. Several pedagogical difficulties are explained as mismatches between teacher style and learner stage, especially the mismatch between a student needing direction and a non-directive teacher.
A Novel Technique for Opus Vermiculatum Mosaic Rendering

In this paper we present a method to generate a digital mosaic starting from a raster input image. Mosaics generation of artistic quality is challenging. The basic elements, the tiles, typically small polygons, must be packed tightly, emphasizing orientations chosen by the artist. An ad­hoc boundaries detection have to be performed according to the directional guidelines. Different mosaic styles can be automatically rendered, depending on artistic techniques considered (“opus musivum”, “opus vermiculatum”, etc.). The proposed method is able to reproduce the colors of the original image emphasizing relevant boundaries by placing tiles along their direction. The boundaries detection is based on the statistical region merging algorithm. In particular the technique is able to reproduce the “opus vermiculatum” mosaic style. Several examples reported in the paper show how the right mixture of mathematical tools together with century proved ideas from mosaicists may lead to impressive results.
Discovering link communities in complex networks by exploiting link dynamics

Discovery of communities in complex networks is a fundamental data analysis problem with applications in various domains. Most of the existing approaches have focused on discovering communities of nodes, while recent studies have shown great advantages and utilities of the knowledge of communities of links in networks. From this new perspective, we propose a link dynamics based algorithm, called UELC, for identifying link communities of networks. In UELC, the stochastic process of a link–node–link random walk is employed to unfold an embedded bipartition structure of links in a network. The local mixing properties of the Markov chain underlying the random walk are then utilized to extract two emerging link communities. Further, the random walk and the bipartitioning processes are wrapped in an iterative subdivision strategy to recursively identify link partitions that segregate the network links into multiple subdivisions. We evaluate the performance of the new method on synthetic benchmarks and demonstrate its utility on real-world networks. Our experimental results show that our method is highly effective for discovering link communities in complex networks. As a comparison, we also extend UELC to extracting communities of nodes, and show that it is effective for node community identification.
POPULATION DYNAMICS OF A DIVERSE RODENT ASSEMBLAGE IN MIXED GRASS-SHRUB HABITAT, SOUTHEASTERN COLORADO, 1995–2000

We followed seasonal and year-to-year population dynamics for a diverse rodent assemblage in a short-grass prairie ecosystem in southeastern Colorado (USA) for 6 yr. We captured 2,798 individual rodents (range, one to 812 individuals per species) belonging to 19 species. The two most common species, deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus) and western harvest mice (Reithrodontomys megalotis), generally had population peaks in winter and nadirs in summer; several other murid species demonstrated autumn peaks and spring nadirs; heteromyids were infrequently captured in winter, and populations generally peaked in summer or autumn. Interannual trends indicated an interactive effect between temperature and precipitation. Conditions associated with low rodent populations or population declines were high precipitation during cold periods (autumn and winter) and low precipitation during warm periods (spring and summer). Severity of adverse effects varied by species. Heteromyids, for example, were apparently not negatively affected by the hot, dry spring and summer of 2000. Cross-correlations for the temporal series of relative population abundances between species pairs (which are affected by both seasonal and interannual population dynamics) revealed positive associations among most murids and among most heteromyids, but there were negative associations between murids and heteromyids. These results have important implications for those attempting to model population dynamics of rodent populations for purposes of predicting disease risk.
Physicalism and Phenomenal Consciousness

An influential argument against physicalism goes: (1) If physicalism is true, transposed and absent qualia are impossible; (2) Transposed and absent qualia are possible; (3) Therefore physicalism is false. I argue that physicalism commits you to the ‘strict implication thesis’, hence to a strong construal of premiss (1). Neither the identity theory nor ‘a posteriori physicalism’ provides a way out of that commitment: physicalists must disprove premiss (2) (a task not attempted here). However, strict implication does not require analytic links from physical to mental; those who demand ‘transparency’ impose unnecessary constraints.
Metacognition, mindfulness and the modification of mood disorders

A distinction is made between metacognitive knowledge (knowing that thoughts are not necessarily always accurate) and metacognitive insight (experiencing thoughts as events in the field of awareness, rather than as direct readouts on reality). This distinction, and its relevance to preventing relapse and recurrence in depression, is examined within the Interacting Cognitive Subsystems (ICS) theoretical framework. This analysis suggests, as an alternative to cognitive therapy with its focus on changing the content of depression-related thought, the strategy of changing the configuration, or mode, within which depression-related thoughts and feelings are processed, i.e. changing one's relationship to inner experience. Specifically, facilitating a metacognitive insight mode, in which thoughts are experienced simply as events in the mind, offers an alternative preventative strategy. Mindfulness training teaches skills to enter this mode, and forms a central component of Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy, a novel, cost-efficient group preventative programme, for which there is encouraging evidence of effectiveness. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The relationship between dementia and elder abuse.

OBJECTIVE Alzheimer's disease and other dementias may be associated with greater risk for physical abuse than other illnesses of the elderly. The authors examined the relationship between dementia and abusive behavior in a group of demented patients and their caregivers. METHOD An anonymous questionnaire was distributed to 1,000 caregivers who called a telephone help line specializing in dementia. Demographic characteristics of patients and caregivers were assessed, the occurrence of abuse was examined, and caregivers completed the Zarit Burden Interview and the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale. RESULTS Questionnaires were completed by 342 caregivers. The mean age of caregivers was 56.1 years; 163 (54.5%) were adult children caring for parents, 111 (37.1%) cared for spouses, and 25 (8.4%) cared for other relatives. Thirty-three caregivers (11.9%) reported that they had directed physically abusive behavior (e.g., pinching, shoving, biting, kicking, striking) toward the dementia patient in their care. These caregivers had been providing care for more years, cared for patients functioning at a lower level, displayed higher burden scores, and displayed higher depression scores than caregivers who reported no abuse. In addition, 92 caregivers (33.1%) reported that the patient directed abuse toward them during the course of providing care. Caregivers who had been abused by patients, in comparison to those who had not, were more likely to direct abusive behavior back toward the patient in their care. CONCLUSIONS These results support the hypothesis that abuse involving cognitively impaired older adults and their caregivers may be associated with the relatively high psychological and physical demands placed on family members who care for relatives with dementia.
Scientific alternatives to the anthropic principle

It is explained in detail why the Anthropic Principle (AP) cannot yield any falsifiable predictions, and therefore cannot be a part of science. Cases which have been claimed as successful predictions from the AP are shown to be not that. Either they are uncontroversial applications of selection principles in one universe (as in Dicke's argument), or the predictions made do not actually logically depend on any assumption about life or intelligence, but instead depend only on arguments from observed facts (as in the case of arguments by Hoyle and Weinberg). The Principle of Mediocrity is also examined and shown to be unreliable, as arguments for factually true conclusions can easily be modified to lead to false conclusions by reasonable changes in the specification of the ensemble in which we are assumed to be typical. We show however that it is still possible to make falsifiable predictions from theories of multiverses, if the ensemble predicted has certain properties specified here. An example of such a falsifiable multiverse theory is cosmological natural selection. It is reviewed here and it is argued that the theory remains unfalsified. But it is very vulnerable to falsification by current observations, which shows that it is a scientific theory. The consequences for recent discussions of the AP in the context of string theory are discussed.
The Gravitational Lens-Galaxy Group Connection. I. Discovery of a Group Coincident with CLASS B0712+472

Previous observations of the environments of the lensing galaxies in gravitational lens systems suggest that many of the lensing galaxies are associated with small groups of galaxies. As a result, we have begun a coordinated program to study the local environments of all known gravitational lens systems. In this paper, we present results on the gravitational lens system CLASS B0712+472, which has previously measured source and lens redshifts of (zl, zs) = (0.4060, 1.339). Although we have not found a galaxy group associated with the primary lensing galaxy, we have found a foreground group that is spatially coincident with the lens system. Based on multiobject spectroscopy taken at the Keck 10 m telescope, we have confirmed 10 group members with a mean redshift of = 0.2909. The resulting velocity dispersion and estimated virial mass are 306 km s-1 and 3.0 × 1013 h-1 M⊙, respectively, for (Ωm, ΩΛ) = (0.2, 0.0). The dynamical properties of this moderate-redshift group are completely consistent with the range of values found in nearby groups of galaxies. Five of the group members are red elliptical-like galaxies, while the remaining five are active star-forming galaxies. Based on the spectroscopic results and the publicly available Hubble Space Telescope imaging of nine group members, we find that the early-type fraction is 40%. We estimate that the effect of this foreground group on the gravitational lensing potential of B0712+472 is small, producing an external shear that is only a few percent, although the shear could be larger if the group centroid is significantly closer to the lens system than it appears to be.
Intra-data-center traffic engineering with ensemble routing

Today's data centers are shared among multiple tenants running a wide range of applications. These applications require a network with a scalable and robust layer-2 network management solution that enables load-balancing and QoS provisioning. Ensemble routing was proposed to achieve management scalability and robustness by using Virtual Local Area Networks (VLANs) and operating on the granularity of flow ensembles, i.e. group of flows. The key challenge of intra-data-center traffic engineering with ensemble routing is the combinatorial optimization of VLAN assignment, i.e., optimally assigning flow ensembles to VLANs to achieve load balancing and low network costs. Based on the Markov approximation framework, we solve the VLAN assignment problem with a general objective function and arbitrary network topologies by designing approximation algorithms with close-to-optimal performance guarantees. We study several properties of our algorithms, including performance optimality, perturbation bound, convergence of algorithms and impacts of algorithmic parameter choices. Then we extend these results to variants of VLAN assignment problem, including interaction with TCP congestion and QoS considerations. We validate our analytical results by conducting extensive numerical experiments. The results show that our algorithms can be tuned to meet different temporal constraints, incorporate fine-grained traffic management, overcome traffic measurement limitations, and tolerate imprecise and incomplete traffic matrices.
Reducing in-vehicle interaction complexity: gaze-based mapping of a rotary knob to multiple interfaces

We present a gaze-based interaction approach that maps a single rotary control knob to multiple interfaces in the car using the user's gaze to determine the respective interaction context. By this, the complexity of physical interfaces (e.g. number of buttons) can be reduced and abstracted to a single remaining physical control interface located at the steering wheel to allow for interaction that doesn't require drivers to take their hands off the steering wheel. We implemented a prototype that uses multiple eye-trackers in a driving simulator to explore the concept of gaze mapping.
Extensions and Analysis of Local Non-linear Techniques

The techniques Conformal Eigenmap and Neighborhood Preserving Embedding (NPE) have been proposed as extensions of local non-linear techniques. Many of the commonly used non-linear dimensionality reduction, such as Local Linear Embedding (LLE) and Laplacian eigenmap are not explicitly designed to preserve local features such as distances or angles. In first proposed Conformal Eigenmap technique, a low dimensional embedding is constructed that maximally preserves angles between nearby data points. The embedding is derived from the bottom eigenvectors of LLE by solving an additional problem in Semidefinite Programming (SDP). In second proposed method, NPE minimizes the cost function of a local nonlinear technique for dimensionality reduction under the constraint that the mapping from the high-dimensional to the low-dimensional data representation is linear. The idea is to modify the LLE by introducing a linear transform matrix. The effectiveness of the proposed methods is demonstrated on synthetic datasets. Experimental results on several data sets demonstrate the merits of proposed techniques.
Actuation and tangible user interfaces: the Vaucanson duck, robots, and shape displays

In the last decade, the vision of future interfaces has shifted from virtual reality to augmented and tangible user interfaces (UI) where virtual and physical (or "bits and atoms") co-exist in harmony. Recently, a growing number of designers and researchers have been taking the next logical step: creating interfaces where physical, tangible elements are not merely dynamically coupled to the digital attributes and information, but are themselves dynamic, self-reconfigurable devices that can change their physical properties depending on the state of the interfaces, the user, or the environment.A combination of the actuation, self-configuration, and tangibility can expand and enhance the design of tangible interfaces. In this paper, we present an overview of the use of actuation in user interfaces and discuss the rationality of building actuated interfaces. We then discuss actuated interfaces in detail based on our experience designing Lumen shape displays. Work on actuated interfaces is still in its infancy, projects are few and far between, so we consider this paper an invitation to discussion and hope it can help stimulate further research in this area.
Climbing the Ladder of Research Utilization

In this article, the Knott and Wildavsky stages of knowledge utilization are considered separately and compared with the previous stage to find factors explaining why researchers are able to climb up the ladder of knowledge utilization from the echelon of no transmission to transmission, then to cognition, reference, effort, influence, and application. The results suggest that there are barriers to climbing and that these barriers are primarily located between the stage of no transmission and the stage of transmission. These results carry theoretical and policy implications that are explored in the last part of the article.