Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Micromanagement of the ovarian follicle reserve--do stem cells play into the ledger?

Like bell-bottoms and The Beatles in the 1960s, the rage of the day here in the new millennium has become stem cells. Unlike the Cultural Revolution 40 years ago, stem cell mania is captivating the attention of the general populace as the biomedical research community announces breakthrough after breakthrough with promises of disease cures and now the power to manipulate the building blocks of procreation, namely gametes. Fresh on the heels of studies showing that embryonic stem cells can be coaxed into making either oocytes (Hübner et al. 2003) or sperm (Geijsen et al. 2004) comes the paper in the 11 March 2004 issue of Nature by Johnson et al. implying the existence of germline stem cells in the mouse ovary which may serve to replenish the supply of ovarian follicles postnatally. Revisiting old problems and challenging doctrine with new approaches is the esprit de corps of any scientific endeavor and the Tilly group is to be commended for their work and the public perception it has shaped regarding the mechanisms underlying ovarian senescence. Speaking of senescence, history does repeat itself and needs to be examined if this work turns out to overturn dogma as has been suggested. Simply stated, the biological problem has always been one of the economy of the ovarian follicle reserve – and there is little dispute over the fact that follicle attrition is a hallmark of the aging mammalian ovary. The question raised by Johnson et al. is whether a stem cell exists in the surface epithelium of the mouse ovary that gives birth postnatally to new follicles. We might all benefit every once in a while from a visit to the ‘old’ literature and I especially suggest dusting off The development of the mouse ovary from birth to maturity (Peters 1969), in which Helen Peters cogently updates the historical argument around why the ovarian epithelium is indeed not at all ‘germinal’or, by today’s standards, ‘stemmish’. She proceeds to show that patterns of tritiated thymidine incorporation are inconsistent with a postnatal mitotic origin of germ cells but clearly consistent with a stem-like character in the ovarian somatic cells that contribute to various cell lineages in the mature ovary. Experimental evidence supportive of an ovarian stromal stem cell source for somatic cell types in rat and mouse ovary arrived in 2000 (Eppig & Wigglesworth 2000). How should we proceed and can guidance be obtained from the experimental approaches embodied in the Johnson et al. study? What follows below is an attempt to sketch a possible road map for soliciting input and encouraging discourse for some of the points raised in this work that warrant close scrutiny. Although by no means complete, it is hoped that a purpose and direction will derive from these very basic inquiries given that the authors have diligently and cogently delivered their conclusion that an ovarian stem cell with germ line potential exists in the mouse ovary.
An improved method of colorized line drawing

In this paper we present an improved non-photorealistic rendering method that automatically generates colorized line drawing from an input image. Based on flow based difference-of-Gaussians filtering which uses the edge tangent flow to strengthen the edge direction, the gray line drawing is generated while the obvious features are preserved well. As an improvement, we integrate color information into the gray line drawing which keeps another important component of images to visual cognition beside edges information, and aperture filling technique is also used to strength the coherent line effects, which is inspired by the labyrinth algorithm, making the final outcome more vivid and fantastic. The experiments validate our method's effectiveness.
Content-based communication: a research agenda

A content-based publish/subscribe system is a message-oriented communication facility based on the idea of interest-driven routing. A message, published by the sender without a set destination, is delivered to any and all the receivers that expressed an interest in its content. We refer to this communication style and to the distributed infrastructure that realizes it as content-based communication and content-based networking, respectively. In this paper we review what we consider the foundations of content-based networking, including some of the major advances of the past years. We then present a vision for further research in this area as well as for the practical realization of a content-based network. In particular, we discuss the implications of content-based communication for the network, the middleware, and applications.
Robust broadband periodic excitation design

Considers a practical problem arising when inexperienced users misuse the (otherwise well designed) periodic broadband excitation signals during the measurement or signal processing phase of an identification process. Using a fractional period of the excitation signal instead of full periods may affect not only the precision because of the well known leakage effect, but may cause a serious loss of information on the measured system as well. The power of the excitation signal in certain frequency bands may be much lower (30-40 dB) than it would be expected, and thus the measurement in a noisy environment may give poor result. A solution is presented to make periodic broadband (multisine) excitation signals more robust against such misuse. The suggested solution is analyzed, and the theoretical results are verified by practical examples.
Interaction Design Evaluation and Improvement of Beling.co: An Online Basic Programming Learning Website

Beling.co is an e-Learning website which has an objective to facilitate learning basic programming for Indonesian teenagers in a fun way. However, verification research to test whether Beling.co has achieved this objective is still warranted. Therefore, this research proposes to evaluate and improve the interactive capabilities and design of Beling.co. This research involved 23 high school students in Depok city, West Java, Indonesia. Three evaluation techniques were used in the study including expert evaluation, usability testing, and a desirability toolkit. The research concluded that Beling.co has a simple interactive design and is capable of motivating users to learn programming. The research reveals requirements needed to improve the interactive design of Beling.co.
Facility location: distributed approximation

In this paper, we initiate the study of the approximability of the facility location problem in a distributed setting. In particular, we explore a trade-off between the amount of communication and the resulting approximation ratio. We give a distributed algorithm that, for every constant k, achieves an O(√k(mρ)1/√klog(m+n)) approximation in O(k) communication rounds where message size is bounded to O(log n) bits. The number of facilities and clients are $m$ and n, respectively, and ρ is a coefficient that depends on the cost values of the instance. Our technique is based on a distributed primal-dual approach for approximating a linear program, that does not form a covering or packing program.
The Effects of Sludge Ash on the Strength of Soft Subgrade Soil

The object of this study is to improve the strength of cohesive subgrade soil by using sewage sludge ash as soil stabilizer. Tests such as pH value, EDS, X-ray, total concentration analysis, and TCLP were performed to analyze the properties of sewage sludge ash. Five different proportions, 0%, 2%, 4%, 8% and 16% of sludge ash were mixed with cohesive soil to manufacture ash-soil specimens. Furthermore, tests including pH value, Atterberg limits, compaction test, California bearing ratio, unconfined compressive strength test, and triaxial compression test were carried out to understand the soil strength improved due to the addition of sludge ash. Results indicated that the unconfined compressive strength of sludge ash-soil was two to three times better than the untreated soil, and the sludge ash additive was able to reduce swelling of the untreated soil. In addition, the ash additive could improve the CBR value of untreated soil 12%-14%. Results of triaxial compression test showed that the cohesive parameter of shear strength, c, increased with an increase amount of sludge ash added and the friction angle, , reduced with increasing of ash. Moreover, the shear strength of sludge ash-soil specimens rose with more addition of sludge ash. φ
Weighted-Sum-Rate Maximization in Certain Half-Duplex Cooperative Systems

In half-duplex cooperative systems the problem of finding the jointly optimal power and channel resource allocation that maximizes the weighted sum rate (WSR) can be difficult to solve. Algorithms to solve that problem are provided herein for two classes of orthogonal half-duplex systems. For a class of systems in which the set of rates that can be achieved without time sharing is convex, the WSR problem is decomposed into a direct search in which a target rate problem is solved at each step. The target rate problem involves maximizing one of the rates subject to target values for the others, and can often be efficiently solved. For a subclass of those systems, the notion of perspective is used to transform the WSR problem into an efficiently-solvable convex optimization problem. Numerical examples involving a multiple access relay system and a pairwise cooperation scheme show that joint optimization can result in significantly larger weighted sum rates than optimization over the powers alone with a fixed channel resource allocation.
Multimodal retrieval of autobiographical memories: sensory information contributes differently to the recollection of events

Previous studies on autobiographical memory have focused on unimodal retrieval cues (i.e., cues pertaining to one modality). However, from an ecological perspective multimodal cues (i.e., cues pertaining to several modalities) are highly important to investigate. In the present study we investigated age distributions and experiential ratings of autobiographical memories retrieved with unimodal and multimodal cues. Sixty-two participants were randomized to one of four cue-conditions: visual, olfactory, auditory, or multimodal. The results showed that the peak of the distributions depends on the modality of the retrieval cue. The results indicated that multimodal retrieval seemed to be driven by visual and auditory information to a larger extent and to a lesser extent by olfactory information. Finally, no differences were observed in the number of retrieved memories or experiential ratings across the four cue-conditions.
Quantifying Flow and Sediment Yield of an Ungauged Catchment using a Combination of Continuous Soil Moisture Accounting and Event-based Curve Number Method

ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT . iv LIST OF FIGURES . x LIST OF TABLES . xv CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION . 1 1.1 BACKGROUND . 1 1.2 HYDROLOGIC CYCLE AND HYDROLOGIC MODEL . 5 1.3 SCOPE AND OBJECTIVES . 7 1.4 THESIS ORGANIZATION . 8 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW . 9 2.1 PREDICTION IN UNGAUGED CATCHMENT . 9 2.2 HEC-HMS MODEL . 11 2.2.1 SOIL MOISTURE ACCOUNTING ALGORITHM . 13 2.2.2 CALIBRATION IN HEC-HMS AND PERFORMANCE CRITERIA . 17 2.3 MODIFIED UNIVERSAL SOIL LOSS EQUATION . 20 vi CHAPTER 3: STUDY AREA AND INPUT DATA . 23 3.1 STUDY AREA . 23 3.1.1 DONOR CATCHMENT . 23 3.1.2 RECEIVER CATCHMENT . 24 3.2 INPUT DATA . 27 3.2.1 DIGITAL ELEVATION MODEL . 27 3.2.2 LAND COVER DATA . 27 3.2.3 SOIL DATA . 31 3.2. 4 PRECIPITATION DATA . 34 3.2. 5 EVAPOTRANSPIRATION DATA . 35 3.2. 6 STREAMFLOW DATA . 37 CHAPTER 4: METHODOLOGY . 39 4.1 CATCHMENT DELINEATION AND STREAM DEFINITION. 39 4.2 PARAMETER ESTIMATION FOR SMA MODEL . 39 4.2.1 PARAMETER ESTIMATION FROM LAND COVER . 40 4.2.2 PARAMETER ESTIMATION FROM SOIL DATA . 41 4.2.3 PARAMETERS ESTIMATION FROM STREAMFLOW DATA . 45 4.3 CURVE NUMBER DEVELOPMENT AND BASIN LAG . 48
Parylene etching techniques for microfluidics and bioMEMS

Parylene C (poly(monochloro-p-xylylene)) is a member of a unique family of thermoplastic, crystalline polymers. Compared to other polymers, parylene films are exceptionally conformal and chemically inert owing to its vapor deposition polymerization (VDP) coating process. These properties bring about many interesting possibilities for MEMS, particularly in microfluidic and bioMEMS applications. Dry etching techniques are required to define fine features in parylene films. For the first time, selective parylene C removal using oxygen-based plasmas is characterized for plasma etching, reactive ion etching (RIE), and deep reactive ion etching (DRIE) based methods. The ability of these techniques to achieve high aspect ratio (HAR) structures desirable for MEMS applications is also investigated.
Identical Substitutions in Magnesium Chelatase Paralogs Result in Chlorophyll-Deficient Soybean Mutants

The soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr. ] chlorophyll-deficient line MinnGold is a spontaneous mutant characterized by yellow foliage. Map-based cloning and transgenic complementation revealed that the mutant phenotype is caused by a nonsynonymous nucleotide substitution in the third exon of a Mg-chelatase subunit gene (ChlI1a) on chromosome 13. This gene was selected as a candidate for a different yellow foliage mutant, T219H (Y11y11), that had been previously mapped to chromosome 13. Although the phenotypes of MinnGold and T219H are clearly distinct, sequencing of ChlI1a in T219H identified a different nonsynonymous mutation in the third exon, only six base pairs from the MinnGold mutation. This information, along with previously published allelic tests, were used to identify and clone a third yellow foliage mutation, CD-5, which was previously mapped to chromosome 15. This mutation was identified in the ChlI1b gene, a paralog of ChlI1a. Sequencing of the ChlI1b allele in CD-5 identified a nonsynonymous substitution in the third exon that confers an identical amino acid change as the T219H substitution at ChlI1a. Protein sequence alignments of the two Mg-chelatase subunits indicated that the sites of amino acid modification in MinnGold, T219H, and CD-5 are highly conserved among photosynthetic species. These results suggest that amino acid alterations in this critical domain may create competitive inhibitory interactions between the mutant and wild-type ChlI1a and ChlI1b proteins.
Early weaning and other potential risk factors for overweight among preschool children

OBJECTIVE To investigate whether early weaning constitutes a risk factor for overweight at preschool age and to identify other factors that affect this association. METHODS This was a case-control study of 366 children aged 2 to 6 years (176 boys and 190 girls) from three cities. The case group comprised overweight children, as defined by body mass index (BMI) for age greater than or equal to the 85th percentile. The main exposure analyzed was early weaning (exclusive or predominant breastfeeding for less than four months). RESULTS Early weaning was a significant risk factor for overweight in univariate analysis (OR = 1.69; 95% CI: 1.10–2.60; p = 0.02), but not in multivariate analysis (OR = 1.42; 95% CI: 0.86–2.34; p = 0.17). Maternal overweight, birth weight ≥ 3,500 g and sedentarism were the main risk factors for overweight in multivariate analysis. DISCUSSION In our study, the protective effect of breastfeeding against overweight was only shown in univariate analysis; it did not persist after controlling for other variables. It is possible that breastfeeding has only a small protective role against overweight in comparison with other variables of greater importance. CONCLUSION Our results suggest that the potential protective effect of breastfeeding against overweight among preschool children is weaker than genetic and other environmental factors.
Land use management in the Galapagos: A preliminary study on reducing the impacts of invasive plant species through sustainable agriculture and payment for ecosystem services

Terrestrial invasive species have been identified as one of the largest threats to endemic plants and wildlife in Galapagos, and their spread remains one of the biggest challenges for the region. The management of these species is a common link among all land‐use activities, and impacts all residents as economic activities in Galapagos are linked to its status as a unique landscape. The study aims, through the use of key informant interviews, policy documents and literature, to provide new insights into plant invasive species management by exploring two land‐use interventions—and the associated challenges and opportunities—currently being proposed by policymakers, academics, and other relevant actors. These are (a) local sustainable agricultural production and (b) policies and mechanisms, specifically the ‘Buen vivir’ paradigm with/and payments for ecosystem services. It explores how these can create bridges and be beneficial to both conservation and development. However, although the initiatives offer real opportunities to manage and control invasive species, challenges remain in the form of how these activities will be carried out and by whom. Findings show that probable success is dependent on community inclusion with coordinated and integrated approaches from robust institutions with connectivity among land‐use actors/managers. In addition, support is needed for organisations/stakeholders that are currently tackling the invasive species issue. Studies on land use remain crucial as relatively contained and pristine landscapes such as Galapagos are likely to be increasingly important as a means to detect human‐induced alterations at the frontiers of ecology.
Chlorhexidine arachnoiditis

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A practical MATLAB program for multifractal interpolation surface

The fractals in the nature possess the characteristics of statistically self-similar or multifractal. This paper introduces gives the principles of the multifractal interpolation surface. The methods of dividing local interpolation neighborhood and determining multiple vertical compression ratios are described. A practical MATLAB program for the multifractal interpolation surface is presented and the main parameters in the program are explained. Based on the measured data, the practical case is studied. By comparison, multifractal interpolation surface is more consistent with the actual fault surface than the self-affine fractal interpolation surface.
On the boundary complexity of the union of fat triangles

A triangle is said to be /spl delta/-fat if its smallest angle is at least /spl delta/>0. A connected component of the complement of the union of a family of triangles is called hole. It is shown that any family of /spl delta/-far triangles in the plane determines at most O (n//spl delta/ log 2//spl delta/) holes. This improves on some earlier bounds of (Efrat et al., 1993; Matousek et al., 1994). Solving a problem of (Agarwal and Bern, 1999) we also give a general upper bound for the number of holes determined by n triangles in the plane with given angles. As a corollary, we obtain improved upper bounds for the boundary complexity of the union of fat polygons in the plane, which, in turn, leads to better upper bounds for the running times of some known algorithms for motion planning, for finding a separator line for a set of segments, etc.
Recoverable Video Watermark in DCT Domain

Few of current video watermarking algorithms can prevent HD videos from unauthorized copying after the production is distributed. This paper proposes a recoverable video watermarking algorithm in DCT domain to achieve this goal. Watermark is first split and modulated by CDMA. Then, after applying boundary detection, frames in one shot are divided into blocks. Finally, watermark is embedded into DCT coefficients of these blocks. The embedded watermark could resist to conventional video processing such as loss compression, resolution change, and format change, etc. The security of embedded watermark is based on the key used in CDMA modulation. With correct user keys, authorized user can completely remove the watermark and restored the high quality video. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm is robust and practical.
Adaptive force-motion control of coordinated robots interacting with geometrically unknown environments

Most studies on adaptive coordination of multi-robot systems assume exact knowledge of system kinematics and deal only with dynamic uncertainties. However, many industrial applications involve tasks in which a multi-robot system interacts with geometrically unknown environments. In this paper, we consider a multi-robot system grasping a rigid object in contact with a geometrically unknown surface. The proposed adaptive hybrid force-motion controller guarantees asymptotic tracking of desired motion and force trajectories while ensuring exact identification of constraint Jacobian matrix without persistency of excitation condition. The control signal is smooth and does not depend on contact force derivative. The proposed adaptive controller is robustified against environmental friction and nonparametric uncertainty in environment geometry. Simulation examples are presented to illustrate the results.