Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Molecular biosensors: promising new tools for early detection of cancer

: Over the last decade, an increasing number of researchers have focused on developing rapid techniques based on biosensor technology for the detection of various human health-related conditions. Cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, and infectious diseases are at the top of these investigations. Huge advances have taken place in a wide range of disciplines, with improved sensitivity, specificity, and reproducibility of the designed methodologies. Advances in other scientific disciplines, including genetics, chemical and microelectronic engineering, computational sciences, and medicine have also impacted on the developments taking place in the diagnostics field. As a result of these developments, more stable, rapid, and reliable sensing platforms have been successfully constructed for specific and ultrasensitive biomarker-based disease diagnostics. These achievements were also a result of improving sensor production quality, developing appropriate surface chemistries, selection of high affinity ligands for target biomarkers, and using nanomaterials such as carbon nanotubes, magnetic/gold nanoparticles, or quantum dots for signal amplification. Moreover, use of bioinformatics tools, combined with proteomics and genomics technologies and metabolomics, has significantly improved the knowledge and discovery of new biomarkers that can be used for early detection. Due to these significant outputs, coupled with advances in miniaturization and nanotechnology, the demand for development and production of sensor systems, including optical, piezoelectric/acoustic, electrochemical, and colorimetric, has gradually increased during the last decade. Moreover, not only protein and gene markers, but also secondary metabolites and cell signaling pathway molecules can be used for disease detection. To date, diagnostic tests for the early detection of cancer biomarkers are available on the market, and these provide noninvasive/minimally invasive tests that can play a crucial role both in successful treatment and patient survival. This paper reviews disease biomarkers, post-genomic technology, and use of molecular biosensors for early detection of cancer.
UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) Balancing the information gain against the movement cost for multi-robot frontier exploration

Summary. This article investigates the scenario where a small team of robots needs to explore a hypothetical disaster site. The challenge faced by the robot-team is to coordinate their actions such that they eﬃciently explore the environment in their search for victims. A popular paradigm for the exploration problem is based on the notion of frontiers: the boundaries of the current map from where robots can enter yet unexplored area. Coordinating multiple robots is then about intelligently assigning frontiers to robots. Typically, the assignment of a particular frontier to a particular robot is governed by a cost measure, e.g. the movement costs for the robot to reach the frontier. In more recent approaches these costs are traded oﬀ with the potential gain in information if the frontier would be explored by the robot. In this paper we will further investigate the eﬀect of balancing movement costs with information gains while assigning frontiers to robots. In our experiments we will illustrate how various choices for this balance can have a signiﬁcant impact on the exploratory behavior exposed by the robot team.
Assessment of phytochemicals, antioxidant properties, and in vivo antidiarrheal activity of date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.)

ABSTRACT Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) has a significant role in our daily life due to its diverse nutritional composition and potential health benefits. This study was designed to evaluate the phytochemicals, antioxidant, and antidiarrheal potential of various extracts of Ajwa whole fruit, date palm pit, and flesh. The extracts with the highest phytochemical quantities were further subjected to bio-assay assessment against castor oil-induced diarrhea using different animal models. The results indicated that Ajwa whole fruit extract (AWFE) exhibited higher amount of total phenolic contents (TPC: 36 ± 16 mg/g GAE), total flavonoid contents (TFC: 360 ± 135 mg/g RE), and 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH: 60 ± 7%) in hydro-ethanolic extracts. In vivo results revealed that Ajwa whole fruit 60% hydro-ethanolic extract at high dose (2000 mg/kg) showed significantly (p < .05) highest protective effect against diarrheal changes in mice. In case of AWFE, the intestinal contents % inhibition was slightly higher (72%) as compared to that of loperamide control (70%). High dose of Ajwa whole (2000 mg/kg) demonstrated less effectiveness (66 ± 11%) in comparison with loperamide (78 ± 8%) regarding % inhibition of fluid accumulation in enteropooling studies. High dose (2000 mg/kg) of Ajwa also reduced intestinal transit time by decreasing the % distance (53 ± 1%) in comparison with loperamide (57 ± 1%). The % inhibition of charcoal meal traveling of AWFE (38 ± 2%) was also significantly higher as compared to loperamide (26 ± 1%). The findings of the current study reveal that AWFE might be consumed as an ingredient in daily food products to counter effect the symptoms of diarrhea.
Women and Multi-tasking: Strategy or pitfall for Career Advancement?

Despite the ubiquitous approach of multi-tasking in the workplace and home, research suggests that multi-tasking is not an effective strategy for productivity. Women multitask more than men do and are also perceived to be better multitaskers than men. The purpose of this paper is to share research on multi-tasking and its effects on productivity and to assist women in making informed decisions about whether multi-tasking is a strategy or a pitfall for career advancement. We discuss the perspectives on why women multi-task, the challenges associated with multi-tasking, and propose solutions. We conclude this paper by outlining successful strategies for career advancement in professional and personal spaces in a modern era where multi-tasking is the defacto coping strategy. Successful strategies include mindfulness, domestic sourcing, and the effective use of executive control functions such as goal switching and rule activation. We also discuss the importance of revisiting one's ethos, pathos, and logos
Supplementary Material for “Bidirectional Copy-Paste for Semi-Supervised Medical Image Segmentation”

We set β = { 13 , 1 2 , 2 3 , 5 6} for the zero-value region βH×βW in the mask M on ACDC dataset to see how the performance changes. Results are shown in Table 1. Although our method outperforms SOTA when β is set as 23 , we can get a better result when β = 12 . For LA dataset, which is trained with 3D volume as input, the best results are achieved when β = 2 3 . Results are not very sensitive when β ∈ [ 1 3 , 2 3 ]. The best β is slightly different for these two datasets. From the perspective of zero-value region ratio γ of mask M, the two datasets achieved the best performance at similar γ (i.e., γ = 8 27 for LA dataset when β = 2 3 and γ = 1 4 for ACDC dataset when β = 1 2 ). It is worth mentioning that for β = 1 2 , our method also outperforms SOTA methods on LA dataset.
Research on small-scale structures of ice particle density and electron density in the mesopause region

Abstract. The formation of ice particle density irregularities with a meter scale in the mesopause region is explored in this paper by developing a growth and motion model of ice particles based on the motion equation of a variable mass object. The growth of particles by water vapor adsorption and the action of gravity and the neutral drag force on particles are considered in the model. The evolution of the radius, velocity, and number density of ice particles is then investigated by solving the growth and motion model numerically. For certain nucleus radii, it is found that the velocity of particles can be reversed at a particular height, leading to a local gathering of particles near the boundary layer, which then forms small-scale ice particle density structures. The spatial scale of the density structures can be affected by vertical wind speed, water vapor density, and altitude, and it remains stable as long as these environmental parameters do not change. The influence of the stable small-scale structures on electron and ion density is further calculated by a charging model, which considers the production, loss, and transport of electrons and ions, along with dynamic particle charging processes. Results show that the electron density is anti-correlated to the charged ice particle density and ion density for particles with radii of 11 nm or less due to plasma attachment by particles and plasma diffusion. This finding is in accordance with most rocket observations. The small-scale electron density structures created by small-scale ice particle density irregularities can produce the polar mesosphere summer echo (PMSE) phenomenon.
Identification of Copy Number Variations in Four Horse Breed Populations in South Korea

Simple Summary The objective of this study is to detect copy number variations (CNVs) in four horse populations (Jeju horses, Thoroughbreds, Jeju riding horses, and Hanla horses) in South Korea. We found a total of 843 CNV regions (CNVRs) (164.3 Mb), which coincided with 7.2% of the reference horse genome. Overall, copy number losses were found more than gains and mixed CNVRs. A comparison of the CNVRs among the populations showed that a substantial number of CNVRs overlapped each other, while some CNVRs were found specifically in each population. We retrieved parts of CNVRs that overlapped with genes; these overlapping areas are potentially associated with traits of interest in horses. The Thoroughbred and crossbred populations had shared CNVRs overlapping with QTLs (Quantitative trait loci) that were associated with withers height and racing performance. Using gene ontology (GO) analysis, a total of 1884 functional genes were identified within the 577 CNVRs. GO analysis further showed that several of the genes are involved in the olfactory pathway and the nervous system. Abstract In this study, genome-wide CNVs were identified using a total of 469 horses from four horse populations (Jeju horses, Thoroughbreds, Jeju riding horses, and Hanla horses). We detected a total of 843 CNVRs throughout all autosomes: 281, 30, 301, and 310 CNVRs for Jeju horses, Thoroughbreds, Jeju riding horses, and Hanla horses, respectively. Of the total CNVRs, copy number losses were found to be the most abundant (48.99%), while gains and mixed CNVRs accounted for 41.04% and 9.96% of the total CNVRs, respectively. The length of the CNVRs ranged from 0.39 kb to 2.8 Mb, while approximately 7.2% of the reference horse genome assembly was covered by the total CNVRs. By comparing the CNVRs among the populations, we found a significant portion of the CNVRs (30.13%) overlapped; the highest number of shared CNVRs was between Hanla horses and Jeju riding horses. When compared with the horse CNVRs of previous studies, 26.8% of CNVRs were found to be uniquely detected in this study. The CNVRs were not randomly distributed throughout the genome; in particular, the Equus caballus autosome (ECA) 7 comprised the largest proportion of its genome (16.3%), while ECA 24 comprised the smallest (0.7%). Furthermore, functional analysis was applied to CNVRs that overlapped with genes (genic-CNVRs); these overlapping areas may be potentially associated with the olfactory pathway and nervous system. A racing performance QTL was detected in a CNVR of Thoroughbreds, Jeju riding horses, and Hanla horses, and the CNVR value was mixed for three breeds.
Sri Lanka navigating major power rivalry: How domestic drivers collide with the international system

: In an era of major-power competition, the alliance politics of small states are attracting more attention. This article examines the case of Sri Lanka, a small South Asian state seen as balancing against India’s interests or bandwagoning with China. Through the evaluation of international relations theories and use of data sources from Sri Lanka, this article argues that the country was not balancing against India, bandwagoning with China, or even hedging. Instead, the article will engage with new scholarship on small-state alliance strategies and suggest that the episode was driven primarily by domestic-level factors. When a smaller state faces pressure at the system level, the choices it makes are not necessarily between bandwagoning, balancing or hedging, but between the pursuit of domestic-level interests and preferences; and “bandwagoning as a last resort. ”
Difference-in-Differences Meets Tree-based Methods: Heterogeneous Treatment Effects Estimation with Unmeasured Confounding

This study considers the estimation of conditional causal effects in the presence of unmeasured confounding for a balanced panel with treatment imposed at the last time point. To address this, we combine Difference-in-differences (DiD) and tree-based methods and propose a new identification assumption that allows for the violation of the (conditional) parallel trends assumption adopted by most existing DiD methods. Under this new assumption, we prove partial identifiability of the conditional average treatment effect on the treated group (CATT). Our proposed method estimates CATT through a tree-based causal approach, guided by a novel splitting rule that avoids model misspecification and unnecessary auxiliary parameter estimation. The splitting rule measures both the error of fitting observed data and the violation of conditional parallel trends simultaneously. We also develop an ensemble of multiple trees via gradient boosting to further enhance performance. Experimental results on both synthetic and real-world datasets validate the effectiveness of our proposed method.
H.E.S.S. detection of TeV emission from the interaction region between the supernova remnant G349.7+0.2 and a molecular cloud

G349.7+0.2 is a young Galactic supernova remnant (SNR) located at the distance of 11.5 kpc and observed across the entire electromagnetic spectrum from radio to high energy (HE; 0.1 GeV 100 GeV) gamma-ray emission coincident with this SNR with the High Energy Stereoscopic System (HESS.) is reported. This makes it one of the farthest Galactic SNR ever detected in this domain. An integral flux F(E > 400 GeV) = (6.5 +/- 1.1(stat) +/- 1.3(syst)) x 10-11 ph cm(-2) s(-1) corresponding to similar to 0.7% of that of the Crab Nebula and to a luminosity of similar to 10(34) erg s(-1) above the same energy threshold, and a steep photon index Gamma(VHE) = 2.8 +/- 0.27(stat) +/- 0.20(syst) are measured. The analysis of more than 5 yr of Fermi-LAT data towards this source shows a power-law like spectrum with a best-fit photon index Gamma(HE) = 2.2 +/- 0.04. 2(stat-0.31sys)(+0.13), The combined gamma-ray spectrum of 0349.7+0.2 can be described by either a broken power law (I3PL) or a power law with exponential (or sub exponential) cutoff (PLC). In the former case, the photon break energy is found at E-br,E-gamma = 551(-30)(+70) GeV, slightly higher than what is usually observed in the HE/VHE gamma-ray emitting middle-aged SNRs known to be interacting with molecular clouds. In the latter case. the exponential (respectively sub-exponential) cutoff energy is measured at E-cat,E-gamma = 1.4(-0.55)(+1.6) (respectively 0.35(-0.21)(+0.75)) TeV. A pion decay process resulting from the interaction of the accelerated protons and nuclei with the dense surrounding medium is clearly the preferred scenario to explain the gamma-ray emission. The BPL with a spectral steepening of 0.5-1 and the PLC provide equally good fits to the data. The product or the average gas density and the total energy content of accelerated protons and nuclei amounts to nu W-p similar to 5 x 10(51) erg cm(-3)
Modelisation numerique des phenomenes de transport de chaleur et de masse dans les fluides supercritiques

Il a ete recemment montre durant les experiences spatiales et par des considerations theoriques que le transfert de chaleur a proximite du point critique liquide vapeur se faisait par le mecanisme de l'effet piston. En effet, la tres forte expansion de la fine couche limite initiale entraine, par un processus adiabatique, une augmentation rapide de la temperature dans le reste du fluide par le biais du va-et-vient des ondes acoustiques. Dans ce present travail sont explores les mecanismes de transport de masse et de chaleur dans une cavite rectangulaire chauffee par le cote, remplie d'un fluide supercritique, et la competition entre la convection naturelle et l'effet piston (ou convection theroacoustique). Les equations de navier-stokes pour un fluide proche de son point critique, suivant une loi d'etat de type van der waals, sont resolues numeriquement par la methode des volumes finis avec la procedure de filtrage acoustique. Les resultats ont ete surprenants compares a ceux d'un fluide parfait: i) l'equilibration en temperature est toujours aussi rapide que dans le cas de conditions de gravite nulle (simulations 1d) par effet piston (avant que la convection ne demarre): ii) l'equilibration de la masse se fait sur une echelle de temps beaucoup plus longue par la convection naturelle quasi-isotherme iii) a cause de la tres forte compressibilite, un effet de point d'arret similaire a celui que l'on rencontre dans les ecoulements a forte vitesse, provoque une surchauffe de mur superieur
Yalaga sheep - A microsatellite based genetic profile

The genetic profile of Yalaga sheep of Karnataka was sketched based on genotypes at 25 microsatellite markers recommended for Indian sheep. A high level of genetic variation was discovered within the investigated breed as quantified from various genetic diversity estimates. Distinct alleles (240) were detected across the analyzed microsatellite loci. The mean number of observed alleles per microsatellite marker was 9.60 and number of effective alleles was 4.86. The average observed and expected heterozygosity values were 0.596 and 0.757, respectively. The mean polymorphism information content (PIC) value (0.725) reflected high level of genetic variability and utility of the markers used. The high FIS value (0.215) may have been generated due to heterogeneity among the flocks sampled within the population caused by Wahlund effect. The information generated may be useful in guiding conservation management programs for sheep breeds in Karnataka.
pdf2gtfs: Timetable Extraction from PDF Files

We present pdf2gtfs, which enables us to extract timetable data from PDF schedules and export it in the machine-readable GTFS format. This format requires the coordinates of the location of each stop. We use OpenStreetMap to search for the location of a stop, using only the stops name and the other stops of a route. We also introduce a new table extraction algorithm to pdf2gtfs that is rowand column-independent, meaning that we can process timetables regardless of their orientation. As further improvement to pdf2gtfs, we include additional information from OpenStreetMap about stops, such as the internationally unique IFOPT, or whether a stop is wheelchair-accessible. Finally, we create p2g-eval to evaluate the GTFS feed generated by pdf2gtfs based on a ground truth. This is to quantify the quality of the extracted information, and to help discover those parts that can still be improved. We show that the new table extraction algorithm achieves more accurate results, when compared to the previously used algorithm, and another, state-of-the-art table extraction tool. We also find that the detected locations are, in general, close to the true locations.
Hinomiyagura 2015 TDP for RoboCup 2015 Rescue Infra Structure League : A realistic RoboCup Rescue Simulation based on Gazebo

More than a decade has passed since RoboCup Virtual Robot competition based on the USARSim interface started. During that time, the underlying simulation platform, Unreal Engine, has seen three major upgrades (UT2004, UT3 and UDK). The interface to USARSim has not been modified, so member of virtual robot league have concentrated on their control and perception algorithms. The Robot Operating System (ROS) has been steadily gaining popularity among robotics researchers as an open source framework for robot control. The community of US- ARSim is smaller than the community of ROS. Gazebo, the simulation environment native to ROS, is a much better choice for the future. This paper describes a new prototype of the USARSim interface; implemented as plugin to Gazebo, the simulation environment native of ROS. This plugin would attract new teams to the Virtual Robot competition.
UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Markov Chain Monte Carlo and Variational Inference: Bridging the Gap Markov Chain Monte Carlo and Variational Inference: Bridging the Gap

Recent advances in stochastic gradient variational inference have made it possible to perform variational Bayesian inference with posterior approximations containing auxiliary random variables. This enables us to explore a new syn-thesis of variational inference and Monte Carlo methods where we incorporate one or more steps of MCMC into our variational approximation. By doing so we obtain a rich class of inference algorithms bridging the gap between variational methods and MCMC, and offering the best of both worlds: fast posterior approximation through the maximization of an explicit objective, with the option of trading off additional computation for additional accuracy. We de-scribe the theoretical foundations that make this possible and show some promising ﬁrst results.
UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Markov Chain Monte Carlo and Variational Inference: Bridging the Gap

Recent advances in stochastic gradient variational inference have made it possible to perform variational Bayesian inference with posterior approximations containing auxiliary random variables. This enables us to explore a new syn-thesis of variational inference and Monte Carlo methods where we incorporate one or more steps of MCMC into our variational approximation. By doing so we obtain a rich class of inference algorithms bridging the gap between variational methods and MCMC, and offering the best of both worlds: fast posterior approximation through the maximization of an explicit objective, with the option of trading off additional computation for additional accuracy. We de-scribe the theoretical foundations that make this possible and show some promising ﬁrst results.
UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Markov Chain Monte Carlo and Variational Inference: Bridging the Gap

Recent advances in stochastic gradient variational inference have made it possible to perform variational Bayesian inference with posterior approximations containing auxiliary random variables. This enables us to explore a new synthesis of variational inference and Monte Carlo methods where we incorporate one or more steps of MCMC into our variational approximation. We describe the theoretical foundations that make this possible and show some promising ﬁrst results.