Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparative Visual Tolerance to Vertical Disparity on 3D Projector Versus Lenticular Autostereoscopic TV

Vertical fusion amplitude (VFA) as a reference to assess visual tolerance for vertical disparity is measured by various methods. However, it has not been comprehensively investigated on current 3D displays, although some technical display features lead to different visual impacts, such as crosstalk and viewing angle. A psychophysical measurement of the VFA on representative 3D stereoscopic and autostereoscopic displays is presented here, with considerations on certain factors affecting visual performances. For the 3D stereoscopic display, we used a 3D projector, VFA was measured under different viewing distance, stimulus size, background luminance, room lighting, target complexity and disparity velocity. Corresponding tests were carried out on a lenticular autostereoscopic TV, with additional test parameters of viewing angle, due to the presence of the lenticular. Results show that the vertical disparity tolerance is generally better on 3D projector than on autostereoscopic TV. VFA on 3D projector is significantly affected by the stimulus size, target complexity and disparity velocity, whereas crucial factors for autostereoscopic TV are stimulus size, target complexity, disparity velocity, background luminance and viewing angle. The visual performance differences indicate that technical display features should be considered when VFA is measured on different 3D devices.
Social Capital and Urban Governance: Adding a More Contextualized ‘Top-down’ Perspective

There is growing interest in the social sciences in the concept of social capital and the role it plays in facilitating collaborative and collective actions. Within political science, it is the work of Robert Putnam which has dominated social capital research. This paper argues that the ‘Putnam-school’ approach is lacking in two main respects. First, the role played by public authorities in the creation of social capital is neglected. Second, the implications for governance cannot simply be read off from associational activity and ‘stocks' of social capital. The concept of the political opportunity structure is offered and adapted to develop a framework for social capital analysis. Original empirical material from Birmingham is drawn upon and compared to earlier studies of the city in order to support and illustrate the arguments of the paper.
A Chromatin-Focused siRNA Screen for Regulators of p53-Dependent Transcription

The protein product of the Homo sapiens TP53 gene is a transcription factor (p53) that regulates the expression of genes critical for the response to DNA damage and tumor suppression, including genes involved in cell cycle arrest, apoptosis, DNA repair, metabolism, and a number of other tumorigenesis-related pathways. Differential transcriptional regulation of these genes is believed to alter the balance between two p53-dependent cell fates: cell cycle arrest or apoptosis. A number of previously identified p53 cofactors covalently modify and alter the function of both the p53 protein and histone proteins. Both gain- and loss-of-function mutations in chromatin modifiers have been strongly implicated in cancer development; thus, we sought to identify novel chromatin regulatory proteins that affect p53-dependent transcription and the balance between the expression of pro-cell cycle arrest and proapoptotic genes. We utilized an siRNA library designed against predicted chromatin regulatory proteins, and identified known and novel chromatin-related factors that affect both global p53-dependent transcription and gene-specific regulators of p53 transcriptional activation. The results from this screen will serve as a comprehensive resource for those interested in further characterizing chromatin and epigenetic factors that regulate p53 transcription.
The impact of violence on mothers’ and children’s needs during and after parental separation

Men’s violence against mothers and children as a context of separation significantly increases the immediate and longer‐term parenting needs of affected children, according to a South Australian study of single mothers’ transition and adaptation to living in a single parent household. Qualitative research interviews with 18 separated mothers who cited violence as the main reason for ending their relationship included mothers’ views on how the violence had impacted on their children. Mothers who had fled violence named continuing concerns with their children’s behaviour including withdrawal, anxiety and aggression, as well as the children’s continuing exposure to violence during contact with their father. These mothers reported that access to professionals to seek help with their concerns about their children’s needs was often inadequate.
Long-term effects of the Chêneau brace on coronal and sagittal alignment in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis.

OBJECT The aim of the present study was to retrospectively evaluate progressive correction of coronal and sagittal alignment and pelvic parameters in patients treated with a Chêneau brace. METHODS Thirty-two patients with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) were assessed before initiation of bracing treatment and at the final follow-up. Each patient underwent radiological examinations, and coronal, sagittal, and pelvic parameters were measured. RESULTS No statistically significant modification of the Cobb angle was noted. The pelvic incidence remained unchanged in 59% of the cases and increased in 28% of the cases. The sacral slope decreased in 34% of the cases but remained unchanged in 50%. Thoracic kyphosis and lumbar lordosis were significantly decreased, whereas the sagittal vertical axis was significantly increased from a mean of -44.0 to -30.2 mm (p = 0.02). The mean pelvic tilt increased significantly from 4.5° to 8.3° (p = 0.002). CONCLUSIONS The Chêneau brace can be useful for preventing curvature progression in patients with AIS. However, the results of this study reveal high variability in the effect of brace treatment on sagittal and pelvic alignment. Treatment with the Chêneau brace may also influence sagittal global balance.
Authenticating Streamed Data in the Presence of Random Packet Loss

We propose a new scheme for authenticating streamed data delivered in real-time over an insecure network. The difficulty of signing live streams is twofold. First, authentication must be efficient so the stream can be processed without delay. Secondly, authentication must be possible even if some packets in the sequence are missing. Streams of audio or video provide a good example. They must be processed in real-time and are commonly exchanged over UDP, with no guarantee that every packet will be delivered. Existing solutions to the problem of signing streams have been designed to resist worst-case packet loss. In practice however, network loss is not malicious but occurs in patterns of consecutive packets known as bursts. Based on this realistic model of network loss, we propose an authentication scheme for streams which achieves better performance as well as much lower communication overhead than existing solutions. We have implemented our constructions as plug-ins to the RealSystem platform from Real Networks to authenticate audio and video streams.
Vertically acquired paediatric HIV infection: the challenges of providing comprehensive packages of care in resource‐limited settings

The successes achieved in paediatric disease management in well‐resourced countries in recent years highlight the vast divide between the care options, and ultimately survival, between developed and developing areas of the world. Using an extensive literature review, we quantify recent achievements in terms of improved survival and quality of life, and examine current evidence of the effects of treatment on the survival and morbidity of HIV‐infected children in developing countries. When provided with the same care as their counterparts in developed countries, children in developing countries show similar improvements in survival and general health, with 1‐year survival rates exceeding 90% in many African settings. Despite the challenges of providing comprehensive packages of care in resource‐limited settings, there is an urgent need to scale up prevention and treatment of HIV infections in children, focussing on strengthening Prevention of Mother‐to‐Child Transmission programmes in order to reduce the numbers of infants who are infected in addition to reducing morbidity and mortality among their mothers.
Word Stemming to Enhance Spam Filtering

Generally a content based spam filter works on words and phrases of email text and if it finds offensive content it gives that email a numerical value (depending on the content). After crossing a certain threshold, that email may be considered as SPAM. This technique works well only if the offensive words are lexically correct. That means the words must be valid words with correct spelling. Otherwise most content based spam filters will be unable to detect offensive words. In this paper, we showed that if we use some sort of word stemming or word hashing technique that can extract the base or stem of a misspelled or modified word, the efficiency of any content based spam filter can be significantly improved. Here we presented a simple rule -based word stemming algorithm specifically designed for spam detection and showed some experimental results to corroborate our claim.
Subsets and overrelaxation in iterative image reconstruction

A number of iterative image reconstruction algorithms were integrated into one formula characterizing each algorithm by only two parameters: overrelaxation and number of subsets. From the formula it follows that the ordered-subsets iteration (OS-EM) is equivalent to iteration with overrelaxation, where the OS level corresponds to the overrelaxation parameter. Algorithms represented by the formula were studied with respect to speed of convergence and image characteristics. In particular, OS-EM was compared with a single-projection iteration procedure using an optimized sequence of overrelaxation parameters (HOSP) which combines rapid convergence with reduced storage requirements. As a result, OS-EM with a constant number of subsets either needed more iteration steps than HOSP or provoked additional noise, depending on the number of subsets used during iteration. OS-EM can be improved by using decreasing OS levels, imitating the decreasing overrelaxation parameters used for HOSP. The resulting OS-EM may be slightly more rapid than HOSP, due to the increasing number of projections used simultaneously.
Portable System for Microbial Sample Preparation and Oligonucleotide Microarray Analysis

ABSTRACT We have developed a three-component system for microbial identification that consists of (i) a universal syringe-operated silica minicolumn for successive DNA and RNA isolation, fractionation, fragmentation, fluorescent labeling, and removal of excess free label and short oligonucleotides; (ii) microarrays of immobilized oligonucleotide probes for 16S rRNA identification; and (iii) a portable battery-powered device for imaging the hybridization of fluorescently labeled RNA fragments with the arrays. The minicolumn combines a guanidine thiocyanate method of nucleic acid isolation with a newly developed hydroxyl radical-based technique for DNA and RNA labeling and fragmentation. DNA and RNA can also be fractionated through differential binding of double- and single-stranded forms of nucleic acids to the silica. The procedure involves sequential washing of the column with different solutions. No vacuum filtration steps, phenol extraction, or centrifugation is required. After hybridization, the overall fluorescence pattern is captured as a digital image or as a Polaroid photo. This three-component system was used to discriminateEscherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus thuringiensis, and human HL60 cells. The procedure is rapid: beginning with whole cells, it takes approximately 25 min to obtain labeled DNA and RNA samples and an additional 25 min to hybridize and acquire the microarray image using a stationary image analysis system or the portable imager.
A Codebook-Based Limited Feedback System for Large-Scale MIMO

In this paper, we consider limited feedback systems for FDD large-scale (massive) MIMO. A new codebook-based framework for multiuser (MU) MIMO downlink systems is introduced and then compared with an ideal non-codebook based system. We are particularly interested in the less-known finite-rate feedback regime where the number $M$ of transmit antennas and the number of users are of the same order of magnitude and $M$ is large but finite, which is a typical scenario of large-scale MIMO. We provide new findings in this regime and identify some benefits of the new framework in terms of scheduling gain and downlink dedicated pilot overhead.
Women with nonorganic psychosis: psychiatric and demographic characteristics of cases with versus without postpartum psychotic episodes

Within a sample of 88 reproducing women with nonorganic psychosis, psychiatric and demographic characteristics were compared for women having only postpartum psychotic episodes (PPPs), women never having PPPs, and women having both PPPs and other psychotic episodes. Cases with only PPPs or both PPPs/other episodes most frequently had affective disorders. Cases with no PPPs most frequently had schizophrenia. Even with diagnosis controlled, cases with only PPPs were comparatively high in social class and in age at initial illness onset and were less severely ill than others. Cases with both PPPs/other episodes had the opposite characteristics. Cases never having PPPs had an intermediary position between the other two groups. PPPs in patients having only PPPs bore a special relationship to parity, not seen in other patients. PPPs appear to be associated with two different types of clinical/demographic patterns, depending upon whether the PPPs occur in isolation or as part of another illness pattern.
Language Planning and Economics

This paper proposes a comprehensive overview of the 'economics of language'. This field of research, which is grounded in the discipline of economics, displays a strong interdisciplinary orientation, which places it on the fringes of mainstream economics. It studies the ways in which linguistic and economic processes influence one another. It is also well placed to contribute to the evaluation of public policies regarding language, because it offers analytical tools for the systematic identification and measurement of the advantages and drawbacks of policy alternatives. I begin by discussing the reasons why an economic perspective on language is scientifically and politically relevant; I then review some of the attendant epistemological and methodological issues, before moving on to an overview of the main lines of research in language economics. A full section of this paper is devoted to the economic approach to language policy, and another focuses on an application to education policy, detailing the economics of second or foreign language education. The paper aims at making the key economic tools accessible to readers from varied academic backgrounds; it also emphasises the need to combine disciplines to develop an inclusive methodology for the selection, design, and implementation of language policies.
An iterative method for restoring noisy blurred images

This paper introduces a new iterative image restoration method which is capable of restoring noisy blurred images by incorporatinga priori knowledge about the image and noise statistics into the iterative procedure. The iteration equation consists of a prediction part which is based on a noncausal image model description and an innovation part which is weighted by a gain factor. The gain is computed using a linear MSE optimization procedure and is updated at each step of the iteration. The convergence of the algorithm, the resolution of some convergence difficulties by using “reblurring,” and methods for the introduction of physical constraints will be discussed. This image restoration scheme can be interpreted as an iterative procedure with a statistical constraint on the image data. Results of several experiments with noisy blurred data are presented to demonstrate the feasibility of this approach.
Myeloid-related proteins 8 and 14 are specifically secreted during interaction of phagocytes and activated endothelium and are useful markers for monitoring disease activity in pauciarticular-onset juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.

OBJECTIVE To analyze which physiologic stimuli induce secretion of myeloid-related protein 8 (MRP8) and MRP14, two S100 proteins expressed in neutrophils and monocytes, and to determine whether serum concentrations of these proteins are reliable parameters for monitoring inflammatory activity in pauciarticular juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA). METHODS Secretion of MRP8 and MRP14 was analyzed using a coculture system of endothelial cells and monocytes. Concentrations of MRP8/MRP14 in the serum and synovial fluid of JRA patients or culture medium were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The expression of MRP8 and MRP14 by leukocytes in synovial tissue or fluid was investigated using immunohistochemistry. RESULTS MRP8 and MRP14 were specifically released during interaction of activated monocytes with tumor necrosis factor-stimulated endothelial cells. Secretion was mediated via an increase in intracellular calcium levels in monocytes. In contrast, contact with resting endothelium inhibited protein kinase C-induced secretion of the proteins by monocytes. In JRA patients, MRP8 and MRP14 were strongly expressed in infiltrating neutrophils and monocytes within the inflamed joints and could be found in significantly higher concentrations in synovial fluid (mean 42,800 ng/ml) compared with serum (2,060 ng/ml). Concentrations of MRP8/MRP14 in serum correlated well with those in synovial fluid (r = 0.78) and showed a strong correlation with disease activity (r = 0.62). After intraarticular triamcinolone therapy, the serum concentrations of MRP8/MRP14 decreased significantly in therapy responders, whereas no differences were found in patients who showed no clinical benefit. CONCLUSION MRP8 and MRP14 are specifically released during the interaction of monocytes with inflammatory activated endothelium, probably at sites of local inflammation. Their serum concentrations represent a useful marker for monitoring local inflammation in JRA.
Aggressive behaviour among convict cichlid (Cichlasoma nigrofasciatum) fry of different sizes and its importance to brood adoption

Convict cichlids (Cichlasoma nigrofasciatum) exhibit extended biparental care of their young. Parents will adopt unrelated (foreign) conspecific young of similar size to or smaller than their own but reject larger foreign young. Adoption of smaller foreign young may benefit the parents by reducing loss of their own young to predators by the dilution effect, which may be enhanced by differential predation on the smaller young. Another factor influencing adoption is that larger foreign young may pose a direct predatory threat to the host parents' young. Measures of aggression among free-swimming young of different sizes showed that there was at least a 1 mm (standard length) size difference before larger young attacked smaller, a 3 mm difference before injury occurred, and a 4–5 mm difference before predation occurred. Parents were initially more discriminating than their young with respect to the size of foreign young accepted. As their young grew and became stronger swimmers, parents less actively rejecte.
Expression quantitative trait loci: present and future

The last few years have seen the development of large efforts for the analysis of genome function, especially in the context of genome variation. One of the most prominent directions has been the extensive set of studies on expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs), namely, the discovery of genetic variants that explain variation in gene expression levels. Such studies have offered promise not just for the characterization of functional sequence variation but also for the understanding of basic processes of gene regulation and interpretation of genome-wide association studies. In this review, we discuss some of the key directions of eQTL research and its implications.
The Roles of SNF2/SWI2 Nucleosome Remodeling Enzymes in Blood Cell Differentiation and Leukemia

Here, we review the role of sucrose nonfermenting (SNF2) family enzymes in blood cell development. The SNF2 family comprises helicase-like ATPases, originally discovered in yeast, that can remodel chromatin by changing chromatin structure and composition. The human genome encodes 30 different SNF2 enzymes. SNF2 family enzymes are often part of multisubunit chromatin remodeling complexes (CRCs), which consist of noncatalytic/auxiliary subunit along with the ATPase subunit. However, blood cells express a limited set of SNF2 ATPases that are necessary to maintain the pool of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and drive normal blood cell development and differentiation. The composition of CRCs can be altered by the association of specific auxiliary subunits. Several auxiliary CRC subunits have specific functions in hematopoiesis. Aberrant expressions of SNF2 ATPases and/or auxiliary CRC subunit(s) are often observed in hematological malignancies. Using large-scale data from the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) we observed frequent mutations in genes encoding SNF2 helicase-like enzymes and auxiliary CRC subunits in leukemia. Hence, orderly function of SNF2 family enzymes is crucial for the execution of normal blood cell developmental program, and defects in chromatin remodeling caused by mutations or aberrant expression of these proteins may contribute to leukemogenesis.
Optimal Weighted Combinational Models for Software Reliability Estimation and Analysis

Software is currently a key part of many safety-critical and life-critical application systems. People always need easy- and instinctive-to-use software, but the biggest challenge for software engineers is how to develop software with high reliability in a timely manner. To assure quality, and to assess the reliability of software products, many software reliability growth models (SRGMs) have been proposed in the past three decades. The practical problem is that sometimes these selected SRGMs by companies or software practitioners disagree in their reliability predictions, while no single model can be trusted to provide consistently accurate results across various applications. Consequently, some researchers have proposed to use combinational models for improving the prediction capability of software reliability. In this paper, three enhanced weighted-combinations, namely weighted arithmetic, weighted geometric, and weighted harmonic combinations, are proposed. To solve the problem of determining proper weights for model combinations, we further study how to incorporate enhanced genetic algorithms (EGAs) with several efficient operators into weighted assignments. Experiments are performed based on real software failure data, and numerical results show that our proposed models are flexible enough to depict various software development environments. Finally, some management metrics are presented to both assure software quality and determine the optimal release strategy of software products under development.