Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Noise Parameter Mismatch in Variance Stabilization, With an Application to Poisson–Gaussian Noise Estimation

In digital imaging, there is often a need to produce estimates of the parameters that define the chosen noise model. We investigate how the mismatch between the estimated and true parameter values affects the stabilization of variance of signal-dependent noise. As a practical application of the general theoretical considerations, we devise a novel approach for estimating Poisson-Gaussian noise parameters from a single image, combining variance-stabilization and noise estimation for additive Gaussian noise. Furthermore, we construct a simple algorithm implementing the devised approach. We observe that when combined with optimized rational variance-stabilizing transformations, the algorithm produces results that are competitive with those of a state-of-the-art Poisson-Gaussian estimator.
Secondary Traumatic Stress Among Mental Health Providers Working With the Military

Abstract Our research assessed the prevalence of secondary traumatic stress (STS) among mental health providers working with military patients. We also investigated personal, work-related, and exposure-related correlates of STS. Finally, using meta-analysis, the mean level of STS symptoms in this population was compared with the mean level of these symptoms in other groups. Participants (N = 224) completed measures of indirect exposure to trauma (i.e., diversity, volume, frequency, ratio), appraisal of secondary exposure impact, direct exposure to trauma, STS, and work characteristics. The prevalence of STS was 19.2%. Personal history of trauma, complaints about having too many patients, and more negative appraisals of the impact caused by an indirect exposure to trauma were associated with higher frequency of STS symptoms. A meta-analysis showed that the severity of intrusion, avoidance, and arousal symptoms of STS was similar across various groups of professionals indirectly exposed to trauma (e.g., mental health providers, rescue workers, social workers).
SELECTION BIASES THE PREVALENCE AND TYPE OF EPISTASIS ALONG ADAPTIVE TRAJECTORIES

The contribution to an organism's phenotype from one genetic locus may depend upon the status of other loci. Such epistatic interactions among loci are now recognized as fundamental to shaping the process of adaptation in evolving populations. Although little is known about the structure of epistasis in most organisms, recent experiments with bacterial populations have concluded that antagonistic interactions abound and tend to deaccelerate the pace of adaptation over time. Here, we use the NK model of fitness landscapes to examine how natural selection biases the mutations that substitute during evolution based on their epistatic interactions. We find that, even when beneficial mutations are rare, these biases are strong and change substantially throughout the course of adaptation. In particular, epistasis is less prevalent than the neutral expectation early in adaptation and much more prevalent later, with a concomitant shift from predominantly antagonistic interactions early in adaptation to synergistic and sign epistasis later in adaptation. We observe the same patterns when reanalyzing data from a recent microbial evolution experiment. These results show that when the order of substitutions is not known, standard methods of analysis may suggest that epistasis retards adaptation when in fact it accelerates it.
Phylogenetic and Evolutionary History of Influenza B Viruses, which Caused a Large Epidemic in 2011–2012, Taiwan

The annual recurrence of the influenza epidemic is considered to be primarily associated with immune escape due to changes to the virus. In 2011–2012, the influenza B epidemic in Taiwan was unusually large, and influenza B was predominant for a long time. To investigate the genetic dynamics of influenza B viruses during the 2011–2012 epidemic, we analyzed the sequences of 4,386 influenza B viruses collected in Taiwan from 2004 to 2012. The data provided detailed insight into the flux patterns of multiple genotypes. We found that a re-emergent TW08-I virus, which was the major genotype and had co-circulated with the two others, TW08-II and TW08-III, from 2007 to 2009 in Taiwan, successively overtook TW08-II in March and then underwent a lineage switch in July 2011. This lineage switch was followed by the large epidemic in Taiwan. The whole-genome compositions and phylogenetic relationships of the representative viruses of various genotypes were compared to determine the viral evolutionary histories. We demonstrated that the large influenza B epidemic of 2011–2012 was caused by Yamagata lineage TW08-I viruses that were derived from TW04-II viruses in 2004–2005 through genetic drifts without detectable reassortments. The TW08-I viruses isolated in both 2011–2012 and 2007–2009 were antigenically similar, indicating that an influenza B virus have persisted for 5 years in antigenic stasis before causing a large epidemic. The results suggest that in addition to the emergence of new variants with mutations or reassortments, other factors, including the interference of multi-types or lineages of influenza viruses and the accumulation of susceptible hosts, can also affect the scale and time of an influenza B epidemic.
Stability and change in strategic beliefs of Tony Blair about the Middle East peace process: institutional transition from Premiership to the Middle East Quartet

Recently there has been increasing interest in the socialization theory in the academic world. Yet, many scholars claim that the socialization within international institutions remains underdeveloped. Constructivists hold that the behavior of relevant actors changes due to endogenous change in their normative characteristics and identities. Another underdeveloped trend in academic scholarship is application of socialization approaches to the domain of peace studies and, in particular, international mediation. Neither is there consensus about whether identity, nature and cognitive characteristics of a mediator are indispensable for effective mediation. If on the one hand, certain scholars have addressed the identity of a mediator as predictors of success (for example, Oran Young, Jacob Bercovitch). On the other hand, others would reduce it to a secondary position (for example, Marvin Ott) arguing that they are essentially irrelevant compared to other contextual variables. Mediation scholarship has undertaken a number of essential case studies about the context and condition of high-level third party involvement. Yet past analyses of high-level actors taking part in mediation activities have not sufficiently treated the impact of international institutions on cognitive processes of mediators. For this reason, our doctoral analysis seeks to contribute to filling the above-mentioned gaps by combining these two perspectives: sociological and conflict resolution. The focus of our work is Tony Blair in the context of the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians. We seek to investigate Tony Blair's cognitive attitude towards the Middle East peace process within two institutional contexts: first, as British Prime Minister (1997-2007) and, subsequently, as the Middle East Quartet's Envoy (2007 until nowadays). In general terms, we intend to undertake insight into Tony Blair's conceptual understanding of the causes of the conflict, his perception about the intentions and capabilities of the parties, as well his strategic beliefs about the most optimal approaches to the peaceful settlement.
Ontogeny of odor liking during childhood and its relation to language development.

One important aspect of odor hedonics is its plasticity during human development. The present study set out to probe the modulators of such olfactory change during that period by testing the hypothesis that language and semantic representations of objects are strong organizers of odor liking. To this end, 15 three-year-old children were tested in a longitudinal study. Participants were exposed to exactly the same 12 odorants once a year over a 3-year period. At each experimental session, they were asked to answer 2 questions: 1) "Do you like or dislike this odor? " and 2) "Can you tell me what it is? " The level of language production was assessed on a standardized test. The 3-year-old children were found to categorize the same number of odorants as liked and as disliked. The follow-up study, in contrast, showed that at 5 years of age they categorized more of these odors as liked and that the shift was significant only in the children with higher language production skills. Taken as a whole, these findings suggest that the 3- to 5-year age range, when children begin to master language, is a turning point in the construction of olfactory hedonic categories during childhood.
Gender, Nationality and Identity

Personal identity requires agentic mediation of overlapping social structures and categories; and further the maintenance of a coherent self across different life contexts. A central means of achieving/maintaining identity is through self-narratives and modes of discursive positioning. In this article, we examine the intersection of two key identity categories, gender and nationality, in the biographical accounts of two female friends (one English and one Irish). Both categories can be seen to structure the speakers’ identities as particular types of people, and to interact in mutually defining ways. However, the speakers actively negotiate these structures and constraints to produce specific versions of themselves. While, on occasion, they invoke national (gender) stereotypes in constructing their identities, they both counter-position themselves in relation to gendered expectations within their respective national contexts. Drawing on selected extracts, we examine the discursive strategies through which they construct and maintain such identities across different biographical contexts.
Enhancing systems integration by incorporating business continuity drivers

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a framework for developing an integrated operating environment (IOE) within an enterprise information system by incorporating business continuity drivers. These drivers enable a business to continue with its operations even if some sort of failure or disaster occurs.Design/methodology/approach – Development and implementation of the framework are based on holistic and top‐down approach. An IOE on server's side of contemporary business computing is investigated in depth.Findings – Key disconnection points are identified, where systems integration technologies can be used to integrate platforms, protocols, data and application formats, etc. Downtime points are also identified and explained. A thorough list of main business continuity drivers (continuous computing (CC) technologies) for enhancing business continuity is identified and presented. The framework can be utilized in developing an integrated server operating environment for enhancing business contin.
Dental Enamel Development: Proteinases and Their Enamel Matrix Substrates

This review focuses on recent discoveries and delves in detail about what is known about each of the proteins (amelogenin, ameloblastin, and enamelin) and proteinases (matrix metalloproteinase-20 and kallikrein-related peptidase-4) that are secreted into the enamel matrix. After an overview of enamel development, this review focuses on these enamel proteins by describing their nomenclature, tissue expression, functions, proteinase activation, and proteinase substrate specificity. These proteins and their respective null mice and human mutations are also evaluated to shed light on the mechanisms that cause nonsyndromic enamel malformations termed amelogenesis imperfecta. Pertinent controversies are addressed. For example, do any of these proteins have a critical function in addition to their role in enamel development? Does amelogenin initiate crystallite growth, does it inhibit crystallite growth in width and thickness, or does it do neither? Detailed examination of the null mouse literature provides unmistakable clues and/or answers to these questions, and this data is thoroughly analyzed. Striking conclusions from this analysis reveal that widely held paradigms of enamel formation are inadequate. The final section of this review weaves the recent data into a plausible new mechanism by which these enamel matrix proteins support and promote enamel development.
Provisional chapter Evaluation of Biometric Systems

Biometrics is considered as a promising solution among traditional methods based on “what we own” (such as a key) or “what we know” (such as a password). It is based on “what we are” and “how we behave”. Few people know that biometrics have been used for ages for identification or signature purposes. In 1928 for example, fingerprints were used for women clerical employees of Los Angeles police department as depicted in Figure 1. Fingerprints were also already used as a signature for commercial exchanges in Babylon (-3000 before JC). Alphonse Bertillon proposed in 1879 to use anthropometric information for police investigation. Nowadays, all police forces in the world use this kind of information to resolve crimes. The first prototypes of terminals providing an automatic processing of the voice and digital fingerprints have been defined in the middle of the years 1970. Nowadays, biometric authentication systems have many applications [1]: border control, e-commerce, etc. The main benefits of this technology are to provide a better security, and to facilitate the authentication process for a user. Also, it is usually difficult to copy the biometric characteristics of an individual than most of other authentication methods such as passwords.
Database and baseline system for detecting degraded traffic signs in urban environments

We present a small database of “noisy” traffic signs in cluttered urban environments that exhibit various forms of degradation, including vandalism and fading (discoloration). The database contains five types of international traffic signs that allow differentiation by means of color and shape, and it has been collected in two cities in Greece. We further present a baseline system for detecting and recognizing signs in this database, primarily employing color segmentation in the RGB color space, shape detection, and a number of problem specific heuristics. Our approach proves quite robust to the degraded traffic signs of our collected database, achieving an F-score of 0.91.
Assembly of fibrillin microfibrils governs extracellular deposition of latent TGFβ

Control of the bioavailability of the growth factor TGFβ is essential for tissue formation and homeostasis, yet precisely how latent TGFβ is incorporated into the extracellular matrix is unknown. Here, we show that deposition of a large latent TGFβ complex (LLC), which contains latent TGFβ-binding protein 1 (LTBP-1), is directly dependent on the pericellular assembly of fibrillin microfibrils, which interact with fibronectin during higher-order fibrillogenesis. LTBP-1 formed pericellular arrays that colocalized with microfibrils, whereas fibrillin knockdown inhibited fibrillar LTBP-1 and/or LLC deposition. Blocking α5β1 integrin or supplementing cultures with heparin, which both inhibited microfibril assembly, disrupted LTBP-1 deposition and enhanced Smad2 phosphorylation. Full-length LTBP-1 bound only weakly to N-terminal pro-fibrillin-1, but this association was strongly enhanced by heparin. The microfibril-associated glycoprotein MAGP-1 (MFAP-2) inhibited LTBP-1 binding to fibrillin-1 and stimulated Smad2 phosphorylation. By contrast, fibulin-4, which interacted strongly with full-length LTBP-1, did not induce Smad2 phosphorylation. Thus, LTBP-1 and/or LLC deposition is dependent on pericellular microfibril assembly and is governed by complex interactions between LTBP-1, heparan sulfate, fibrillin-1 and microfibril-associated molecules. In this way, microfibrils control TGFβ bioavailability.
Safety profile of suppository Hamamelis virginiana leaf extract

The increased use of herbal remedies combined with their increasing availability in pharmacies, beauty and nutrition shops and supermarkets necessitates the evaluation of their efficacies and safety. The objective of the present study is to evaluate the safety of the rectal administration of the dry leaf extract of witch hazel (Hamamelis virginiana L. Family: Hamamelidaceae), one of the traditionally used herbs for treating hemorrhoids. H. virginianadry leaf extract was formulated in suppositories. An acute single dose study on rabbits and a 28 day repeated dose rectal administration of hamamelis extract on rats were preformed. No deaths occurred in either the placebo or the hamamelis treated rabbits. The general condition of all the rabbits was normal without any significant changes in their body weights. The changes in clinical and hematological parameters were non significant (p > 0.05). In the 28 day repeated dose study, no deaths occurred and normal body weight gains were recorded in all groups. Before sacrifice, the rats behaved normally with no detected signs of sickness or discomfort. After sacrifice, the inspected organs were normal in morphology and histopathology without any detected weight differences. All treated rats showed normal biochemical and hematological profiles compared to placebo treated animals (p > 0.05). The results obtained from the present study indicate that the rectal administration of H. virginianadry leaf extract (up to 300 mg/kg) formulated as suppositories was devoid of systemic toxicity. Key words: Witch hazel, rectal, safety, hemorrhoids, astringent, suppositories.
TURP for BPH. How Large is Too Large?

BPH remains one of the most common disease that the urologist has to manage. The last decade brought numerous new techniques, aiming to improve the minimally invasive approach to BPH, but none had, for the moment, changed the place of TURP as the gold standard treatment for medium sized prostates. Based on a large personal experience, the authors present a study in which TURP is used for prostates over 80ml, the cutoff point set by the guidelines of the European Association of Urology. The rationale for this study is that many situations require minimally invasive treatment, based on the express request of the patient, other conditions that makes open surgery very difficult or impossible, or the need for a quick discharge in an overcrowded service. The aim of the study was to prove that TURP is safe and effective even in larger prostates. The technique used is basically the classic one, with minor tactical alterations in some cases. Some cases required a two-stage approach, but offered good functional results after the first stage. The results proved that, with a good technique, a skilled urologist might achieve the same results by using TURP or open surgery for large sized prostates.
The Progenitor of Supernova 1993J Revisited

From Hubble Space Telescope images with 0 . ″05 resolution, we identify four stars brighter than V = 25 mag within 2 . ″5 of SN 1993J in M81, which contaminated previous ground‐based brightness estimates for the supernova progenitor. Correcting for the contamination, we find that the energy distribution of the progenitor is consistent with that of an early K‐type supergiant star with MV ≈ -7.0 ± 0.4 mag and an initial mass of 13–22 M⊙. The brightnesses of the nearby stars are sufficient to account for the excess blue light seen from the ground in preexplosion observations. Therefore, the SN 1993J progenitor did not necessarily have a blue companion, although by 2001, fainter blue stars are seen in close proximity to the supernova. These observations do not strongly limit the mass of a hypothetical companion. A blue dwarf star with a mass up to 30 M⊙ could have been orbiting the progenitor without being detected in the ground‐based images. Explosion models and observations show that SN 1993J progenitor had a helium‐rich envelope. To test whether the helium abundance could influence the energy distribution of the progenitor, we calculated model supergiant atmospheres with a range of plausible helium abundances. The models show that the presupernova colors are not strongly affected by the helium abundance longward of 4000 Å, and abundances ranging between solar and 90% helium (by number) are all consistent with the observations.
Diagnostic Characteristics of Psychosis and Autism Spectrum Disorder in Adolescence and Adulthood. A Case Series

Roberto Keller1, Alessandro Piedimonte1, Francesca Bianco1, Stefania Bari1 and Franco Cauda2,3* 1Centre for Autism Spectrum Disorder in Adulthood ASL To2 Turin Italy 2GCS-fMRI, Koelliker Hospital and Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy 3Focus Lab, Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy *Corresponding author: Roberto K, Centre for Autism Spectrum Disorder in Adulthood ASL To2 Turin Italy, cso Francia 73 10138 Torino Italy, Tel: + 390114336129; Fax: + 39011740092; E-mail: rokel2003@libero.it
The Future of Cognitive Neuroscience? Reverse Inference in Focus

This article presents and discusses one of the most prominent inferential strategies currently employed in cognitive neuropsychology, namely, reverse inference. Simply put, this is the practice of inferring, in the context of experimental tasks, the engagement of cognitive processes from locations or patterns of neural activation. This technique is notoriously controversial because, critics argue, it presupposes the problematic assumption that neural areas are functionally selective. We proceed as follows. We begin by introducing the basic structure of traditional “location-based” reverse inference (§1) and discuss the influential lack of selectivity objection (§2). Next, we rehearse various ways of responding to this challenge and provide some reasons for cautious optimism (§3). The second part of the essay presents a more recent development: “pattern-decoding reverse inference” (§4). This inferential strategy, we maintain, provides an even more convincing response to the lack of selectivity charge. Due to this and other methodological advantages, it is now a prominent component in the toolbox of cognitive neuropsychology (§5). Finally, we conclude by drawing some implications for philosophy of science and philosophy of mind (§6).
Automatic Indexing for Research Papers Using References

An effective way to reveal the contents of research papers is assigning a group of terms against a controlled vocabulary. To the best of our knowledge, a variety of automatic indexing techniques have been studied to enhance the effectiveness and the efficiency. However, the current approaches depended on the content of a research paper, such as title, abstract, etc., which suffering from limitations on the automatic indexing performance. In this paper, we propose a new approach of automatic indexing for single research paper with its references based on Genetic Algorithm (GA). The extensive experiments on four subjects show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
Parsimony, likelihood, and the role of models in molecular phylogenetics.

Methods such as maximum parsimony (MP) are frequently criticized as being statistically unsound and not being based on any "model. " On the other hand, advocates of MP claim that maximum likelihood (ML) has some fundamental problems. Here, we explore the connection between the different versions of MP and ML methods, particularly in light of recent theoretical results. We describe links between the two methods--for example, we describe how MP can be regarded as an ML method when there is no common mechanism between sites (such as might occur with morphological data and certain forms of molecular data). In the process, we clarify certain historical points of disagreement between proponents of the two methodologies, including a discussion of several forms of the ML optimality criterion. We also describe some additional results that shed light on how much needs to be assumed about underlying models of sequence evolution in order to successfully reconstruct evolutionary trees.