Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Framework for connections on Facebook: An exploratory study

There is a substantial amount of current information systems and marketing research focused on social networking sites, most frequently on Facebook. Often, these studies utilize available metadata on user on-line behavior, such as what links the users clicked on. In order to better understand behavior of Facebook users, it makes sense to investigate also whom the users connect to. It is possible to hypothesize that behavior of people, who connect only to relatives on Facebook, differs from behavior of people, who are connected only to their classmates. The paper offers a framework of Facebook connections and a proposal how to group these connections.
A phase-frequency transfer description of analog and mixed-signal front-end architectures for system-level design

A novel approach for the modeling of front-end architectures is presented. Architectures are described as a system transforming polyphase harmonic signals through building blocks modeled by polyphase harmonic transfer matrices and distortion tensors. The major goal of the method is to provide a model that is suited for systematic architectural exploration during front-end system design. An example of a downconversion architecture describes the system non-idealities as the result of parasitic transfers between phases and frequencies.
Interleukin-2 and blood brain barrier in cats: pharmacokinetics and tolerance following intrathecal and intravenous administration.

Single bolus doses of glycosylated human interleukin-2 (n IL-2) in the range of 2.8 x 10(3) to 2.0 x 10(6) IU/kg were administered to anesthesized cats via the cephalic vein (n = 10) or using suboccipital puncture (n = 8). CSF (cerebrospinal fluid) and blood samples were collected by repeated puncture. The n IL-2 concentration in four cats was determined on the basis of its biologic activity using 3H-thymidine incorporation into human ConA-blasts and by radioimmunoassay. In additional experiments radioactivity was determined in cerebrospinal fluid and serum after intravenous and intrathecal (i.th.) application of 5.8 x 10(3) - 3.2 x 10(3) IU/kg of 14C-acetyl-n IL-2 in regular time intervals. CSF and serum concentration time-profiles show a biexponential decline in the plasma elimination phase with half-lives of 4 min (alpha-phase) and 90 min (beta-phase) after intravenous and 20-120 min (alpha-phase) and 2-16 hours (beta-phase) after intrathecal application. There is a trend towards longer terminal elimination half-lives with increasing doses. Interleukin-2 is able to penetrate the blood brain barrier from the circulation into the cerebrospinal fluid and vice versa. Due to a slow rate of penetration and rapid elimination from blood only traces of n IL-2 (2-8 IU/ml) are detected in CSF after i.v. injection of 2 x 10(6) IU/kg, whereas concentrations between 400 and 1600 IU/ml are maintained in CSF for several hours following i.th. administration of 2-10 x 10(5) IU/kg. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Spontaneous uterine rupture after abdominal myomectomy at the gestational age of 20 weeks in pregnancy: A case report

Background: Uterine rupture in pregnancy is rare and often could be life threatening and catastrophic. Myomectomy is one of very common surgeries in gynecology, performed as the vaginal, abdominal and laparoscopic surgeries. Pregnancies occured after abdominal and laparoscopic myomectomy are high risk for uterine rapture. Case: Patient was a 28 Years old female, pregnant woman at the 20 wks of gestational age with abdominal pain and a history of abdominal myomectomy 6 yrs ago. Uterus was ruptured and fetus in amniotic sac was found in abdominal cavity. Conclusion: Early diagnosis of uterine rupture after myomectomy can save patients from death.
Visual–Inertial Combined Odometry System for Aerial Vehicles

The requirement to operate aircraft in GPS‐denied environments can be met by using visual odometry. Aiming at a full‐scale aircraft equipped with a high‐accuracy inertial navigation system (INS), the proposed method combines vision and the INS for odometry estimation. With such an INS, the aircraft orientation is accurate with low drift, but it contains high‐frequency noise that can affect the vehicle motion estimation, causing position estimation to drift. Our method takes the INS orientation as input and estimates translation. During motion estimation, the method virtually rotates the camera by reparametrizing features with their depth direction perpendicular to the ground. This partially eliminates error accumulation in motion estimation caused by the INS high‐frequency noise, resulting in a slow drift. We experiment on two hardware configurations in the acquisition of depth for the visual features: 1) the height of the aircraft above the ground is measured by an altimeter assuming that the imaged ground is a local planar patch, and 2) the depth map of the ground is registered with a two‐dimensional laser in a push‐broom configuration. The method is tested with data collected from a full‐scale helicopter. The accumulative flying distance for the overall tests is approximately 78 km. We observe slightly better accuracy with the push‐broom laser than the altimeter.
A different regional response by mouse oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs) to high‐dose X‐irradiation has consequences for repopulating OPC‐depleted normal tissue

This study was designed to investigate whether the residual, dysfunctional oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs) observed following X‐irradiation of the mouse spinal cord [D. M. Chari et al. (2003 ) Exp. Neurol. , 198, 145–153], the presence of which prevented the endogenous repopulation of these areas from normal tissue, reflects a general response of OPCs in the mouse central nervous system (CNS) to X‐irradiation. The brains of adult mice were exposed to 40 Gy of X‐irradiation and the effect of X‐irradiation on the OPCs was assessed up to 4 weeks post‐irradiation using anti‐NG2 antibodies. X‐irradiation resulted in almost complete depletion of OPCs within the telencephalon (cortex, corpus callosum and hippocampus) by 7 days post‐irradiation, which was followed by progressive repopulation of OPCs from non‐irradiated areas of the cortex. By contrast, within the lower brain centres (the diencephalon and mesencephalon) OPC loss occurred much more slowly so that 26% of the OPCs still remained 4 weeks after X‐irradiation. The consequence of this heterogeneous response to X‐irradiation was that whereas transplanted and endogenous OPCs rapidly established themselves in the OPC‐depleted telencephalon this did not occur in the areas where there was incomplete depletion of endogenous OPCs. Our findings confirm not only the requirement for almost complete OPC depletion in order to establish transplanted OPCs in normal tissue but also highlight a heterogeneity of progenitor populations in different areas of the mouse CNS.
Temporal scales and hydrological regimes: Implications for flood frequency scaling

This paper investigates the interactions among storm, within‐storm, between‐storm, and seasonal variabilities of rainfall and catchment response time and how these interactions can help identify different hydrological regimes. Using the theoretical framework provided by a simple linear rainfall‐runoff model and intuitive reasoning, five hydrological regimes, ranging from very fast to very slow, are identified on the basis of two dimensionless ratios of the constituent timescales. For each regime, the paper addresses the question of how the interactions between the timescales in rainfall and in the runoff response manifest in the flood peak response and in the shape of the flood frequency curve, and the resulting implications for the scaling of the flood frequency curve between catchments. It is found that, for example, in fast regimes, within‐storm patterns are the important determinant of flood peaks, while in slow regimes multiple storms and seasonality are critical. The latter result is verified by means of simulations with a derived flood frequency model for an actual catchment, Salmon Creek, in Western Australia. Slow regimes are characterized by low values of the coefficient of variation, CV[Qp], of the flood peaks, while fast regimes are characterized by higher values of CV[Qp]. Analysis of the simulation results on the Salmon catchment, which belongs to the slow regime and exhibits a nonlinear rainfall‐runoff response, also shows that nonlinearity in catchment response substantially increases CV[Qp] and may even dominate the scaling of CV[Qp] with catchment size. The scaling exponent in the relationship between mean annual flood and catchment size, for a linear runoff response, is higher for slow catchments and lower for fast catchments, and in both cases it remains constant with catchment area. A major conclusion of the paper is that the combined effects of within‐storm patterns, multiple storms, and seasonality have an important control on the observed scaling behavior in empirical flood frequency curves, each being dominant over a different range of catchment sizes.
Tumor Genomic Profiling Reports from Different Vendors: A Comparison with Respect to Clinical Action Ability of the Provided Data

Background: Next generation sequencing (NGS) of selected genes is an expanding field of solid tumor characterization. Multiple vendors offer this service, but panel design and policies on interpretive reporting are variable. This study compared reports from selected vendors, with emphasis on clinical Action ability reporting. Methodology: DNA aliquots of five breast and five colorectal cancers were sent to providers offering the following solid tumor NGS tests: Foundation oneTM, StrandAdvantageTM, CANCP, and GeneTrailsTM. The interpretive reports were compared for the reporting of clinically actionable variants. Results: Detection of mutants was mostly consistent (17 of 21, 81% concordant), while detection of copy number variants was highly discordant (6 of 23, 26.1% concordant). Discordance of copy number variation appeared to be primarily due to difference in analytical sensitivity. Actionable variants with approved targeted therapies for the same tumor type were detected and interpreted uniformly by all tests. Reporting of variants with other action ability was variable, largely due to difference in panel design and analytical sensitivity, and, to a lesser degree, to different annotation policies. Actionable variant reporting by Foundation one provided better coverage of clinical trials for targeted therapies while strand advantage uniquely covered chemotherapeutic response modulation. GeneTrails provided moderate coverage of clinical trials despite its small gene panel size. Utility of rearrangement targets in Foundation one and StrandAdvantage panel was not evident, due to the tumor type assessed. Conclusion: All enrolled tests reported actionable variants with FDA-approved target therapy for the specific tumor type with consistent clinical interpretations. In contrast, reporting of variants with other Action ability was heavily impacted by panel design, reporting policy, and annotation policy. Larger studies will be needed to quantify the qualitative differences outlined above and evaluate the benefit to the patient in order to improve the practice of precision medicine in the future.
The mercury and silver contents of gold in quartz vein deposits, Otago Schist, New Zealand

Abstract A regional study of gold from Otago Schist vein deposits from both Caples and Torlesse Terranes has revealed the presence of both Au‐Ag and Au‐Ag‐Hg alloys in both terranes. Almost all Hg‐bearing gold occurs in east Otago vein systems, and Hg‐free gold occurs in central and northwest Otago vein systems, irrespective of host terrane. One Central Otago mineralised zone has up to 1.7 wt% Hg in the gold. Au‐Ag alloy (3–8 wt% Ag) is typical for gold found in most Torlesse‐hosted vein deposits, and Au‐Ag‐Hg alloys with 1–4 wt% Hg are found in vein material from the Torlesse‐hosted Hyde‐Macraes Shear Zone. Au‐Ag‐Hg alloy (3–8 wt% Ag, 2–8 wt% Hg) is found in many Caples‐hosted vein deposits. There is no relationship between depth of vein emplacement and Hg content of gold, as both high and low Hg gold are found in shallow‐formed (<2 km) and deep‐formed (>6 km) deposits. There is no spatial relationship between Hg‐bearing gold and cinnabar‐bearing veins that occur in Caples Terrane rocks on the southern edge of the schist belt. Mercury‐bearing placer gold in eastern Southland may have been derived from erosion of east Otago veins. The source of Hg‐bearing placer gold in northern Southland is unknown as yet.
On modeling gene regulatory networks using Markov random fields

Modeling the joint expression patterns of genes is a challenging task due to the large number of genes simultaneously studied, relative to the amount of microarray data available. To model the joint expression profiles of genes using a small number of observations, we use Ising models to approximate the joint expression profiles. This approach naturally lends itself to the study of gene interactions and has a close connection to clustering techniques, which we use to reconstruct E. coli gene interaction pathways from microarray data. In addition, we note that extending available partial network topology information can be done using very few microarray samples-logarithmic in the number of genes.
EXPRESSION OF PHENYLAMIDES IN ABIOTIC STRESS CONDITIONS

The formation of phenylamides – conjugates of aliphatic diand polyamines and hydroxy cinnamic acids – was investigated in two plant abiotic stress model systems: tobacco-water excess stress and bean-high temperature stress. The concentration of free radicals was also determined. It was established that in both systems the stressed leaves synthesized a set of plant specific phenylamides lacking in the controls. Hence, having also in mind that phenylamides are scavengers of toxic free radicals, it may be assumed that they are components of a general defense system in plants against stresses of different origin.
Matching a tone-based and tune-based approach to English intonation for concept-to-speech generation

The paper describes the results of a comparison of two annotation systems for intonation, the tone-based TOBI approach and the tune-based approach proposed by Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG). The goal of this comparison is to define a mapping between the two systems for the purpose of concept-to-speech generation of English. Since TOBI is widely used in speech synthesis and SFG is widely used in natural language generation and offers a linguistically motivated account of intonation, it appears a promising step to combine the two approaches for concept-to-speech. A corpus of English utterances has been analysed with both TOBI and SFG categories; comparison of the analysis results has lead to the identification of some basic equivalents between the two systems on which a mapping can be based.
Increased Plasma Citrulline in Mice Marks Diet-Induced Obesity and May Predict the Development of the Metabolic Syndrome

In humans, plasma amino acid concentrations of branched-chain amino acids (BCAA) and aromatic amino acids (AAA) increase in states of obesity, insulin resistance and diabetes. We here assessed whether these putative biomarkers can also be identified in two different obesity and diabetic mouse models. C57BL/6 mice with diet-induced obesity (DIO) mimic the metabolic impairments of obesity in humans characterized by hyperglycemia, hyperinsulinemia and hepatic triglyceride accumulation. Mice treated with streptozotocin (STZ) to induce insulin deficiency were used as a type 1 diabetes model. Plasma amino acid profiling of two high fat (HF) feeding trials revealed that citrulline and ornithine concentrations are elevated in obese mice, while systemic arginine bioavailability (ratio of plasma arginine to ornithine + citrulline) is reduced. In skeletal muscle, HF feeding induced a reduction of arginine levels while citrulline levels were elevated. However, arginine or citrulline remained unchanged in their key metabolic organs, intestine and kidney. Moreover, the intestinal conversion of labeled arginine to ornithine and citrulline in vitro remained unaffected by HF feeding excluding the intestine as prime site of these alterations. In liver, citrulline is mainly derived from ornithine in the urea cycle and DIO mice displayed reduced hepatic ornithine levels. Since both amino acids share an antiport mechanism for mitochondrial import and export, elevated plasma citrulline may indicate impaired hepatic amino acid handling in DIO mice. In the insulin deficient mice, plasma citrulline and ornithine levels also increased and additionally these animals displayed elevated BCAA and AAA levels like insulin resistant and diabetic patients. Therefore, type 1 diabetic mice but not DIO mice show the “diabetic fingerprint” of plasma amino acid changes observed in humans. Additionally, citrulline may serve as an early indicator of the obesity-dependent metabolic impairments.
Herbaceous Peony (Paeonia lactiflora Pall.) as an Alternative Source of Oleanolic and Ursolic Acids

Oleanolic acid (OA) and ursolic acid (UA) have been proven to possess many biological activities, and much attention is focused on the search for plants which are rich in OA and UA. In this report, the OA and UA accumulation characteristics were investigated in 47 cultivars of Chinese herbaceous peony (Paeonia lactiflora Pall.) and were followed in three cultivars over different developmental stages as measured by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). OA and UA levels in leaves and stems demonstrated an overall upward trend from May 1 to September 15 except for UA in the leaves of “Hong Feng”. The maximum values of OA and UA in leaves of “Yangfei Chu Yu”, “Fen Zhu Pan” and “Hong Feng” were 852.98, 575.60, 290.48 μg/g FW and 924.94, 827.36, 432.67 μg/g FW, respectively. The maximum values of OA and UA in stems of “Yangfei Chu Yu”, “Fen Zhu Pan” and “Hong Feng” were 359.28, 90.49, 43.90 μg/g FW and 326.86, 82.25, 56.63 μg/g FW, respectively. OA and UA contents in leaves of 47 different herbaceous peony cultivars ranged from 66.73–618.12 and 36.23–665.14 μg/g FW, respectively, with average values of 171.62 and 227.57 μg/g FW, respectively. The results suggested that the aboveground parts of herbaceous peony may be used as an alternative source of OA and UA for medicinal purposes in addition to its ornamental purposes.
Transconjunctival orbitotomy for orbital cavernous hemangiomas.

BACKGROUND Orbital cavernous hemangiomas, particularly those within the retrobulbar space, are approached by neurosurgeons as well as by ophthalmic surgeons. Several surgical techniques have been applied over the past decades. Less traumatic approaches in this functionally and cosmetically important region are desirable. We describe a transconjunctival approach in 39 patients with orbital cavernous hemangiomas. METHODS Thirty-nine patients with orbital cavernous hemangiomas were treated with transconjunctival orbitotomy. The clinical and radiologic characteristics of orbital cavernous hemangiomas were analyzed in the course of their appropriate treatment. RESULTS In all patients, cavernous hemangiomas were just behind the globe or were compressing it. Computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging showed orbital cavernous hemangiomas as round, well-defined intraconal masses. In 37 cases, the tumors were removed intact, and only 1 patient suffered permanent vision loss as a result of intraoperative hemorrhage. In the other 2 cases, the tumor fragments were incompletely removed. Visual acuity increased in 6 of the 9 cases with primary visual impairment. Thirty-two patients with primary proptosis were resolved completely. Six patients with visual field defect were also improved. INTERPRETATION Retrobulbar intraconal cavernous hemangiomas can be removed successfully through a transconjunctival approach. However, if the tumor is close to, or touching, the orbital apex, adhering tightly to retrobulbar tissue, or combined with large draining veins, operation through other approaches must be considered.
An investigation of tied-mixture GMM based triphone state clustering

Parameter tying is a crucial scheme for robust context dependent acoustic modeling since it takes a major role in balancing the desired model complexity and the amount of data available. In this paper, a modified decision tree state clustering scheme based on tied-mixture Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) is proposed. Instead of using a single Gaussian untied triphone system, a tied-mixture GMM triphone system is adopted as a better acoustic model for state clustering. Meanwhile, the proposed scheme allows easy incorporation of discriminative training during clustering. Experimental results show that for a varying number of state clusters, the proposed approach consistently outperforms the standard single Gaussian based state tying. The best WER performance has a 10.5% relative improvement over the conventional decision tree clustering and the proposed scheme achieves its best performance using a much smaller number of state clusters. Moreover, detailed analyses reveal that the proposed GMM clustering has a better state distribution which leads to 1) better frame-state alignments 2) better phonetic question selections. These two factors may make the proposed approach superior for clustering.
Past, Present and Future Therapeutics for Cerebellar Ataxias

Cerebellar ataxias are a group of disabling neurological disorders. Patients exhibit a cerebellar syndrome and can also present with extra-cerebellar deficits, namely pigmentary retinopathy, extrapyramidal movement disorders, pyramidal signs, cortical symptoms (seizures, cognitive impairment/behavioural symptoms), and peripheral neuropathy. Recently, deficits in cognitive operations have been unraveled. Cerebellar ataxias are heterogeneous both at the phenotypic and genotypic point of view. Therapeutical trials performed during these last 4 decades have failed in most cases, in particular because drugs were not targeting a deleterious pathway, but were given to counteract putative defects in neurotransmission. The identification of the causative mutations of many hereditary ataxias, the development of relevant animal models and the recent identifications of the molecular mechanisms underlying ataxias are impacting on the development of new drugs. We provide an overview of the pharmacological treatments currently used in the clinical practice and we discuss the drugs under development.
Kinetics of copolymer localization at a selective liquid-liquid interface

The localization kinetics of a regular block copolymer of total length N and block size M at a selective liquid−liquid interface is studied in the limit of strong segregation between hydrophobic and polar segments in the chain. We propose a simple analytic theory based on scaling arguments which describes the relaxation of the initial coil into a flat-shaped layer for the cases of both Rouse and Zimm dynamics. For Rouse dynamics, the characteristic times for attaining equilibrium values of the gyration radius components perpendicular and parallel to the interface are predicted to scale with block length M and chain length N as τ⊥ ∝ M1+2ν (here ν ≈ 0.6 is the Flory exponent) and as τ∥ ∝ N2, although initially the characteristic coil flattening time is predicted to scale with block size as ∝ M. Since typically N ≫ M for multiblock copolymers, our results suggest that the flattening dynamics proceeds faster perpendicular rather than parallel to the interface, in contrast to the case of Zimm dynamics where th.