Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dietary Fiber in Sow Gestation Diets - An Updated Review

Opportunities exist for pork producers to maintain or improve sow reproductive performance by using fibrous feedstuffs during gestation. Twenty-fourpt~blished reports dating fiom 1975 to 2007 were examined to determine the overall effects of feeding gestation sows additional fiber. Sow and litter traits anlong trials were weighted by the number of litters for each treatment within euclz trial. Overall, sows can successf~~lly consume high-fiber diets duringgestation with few deleterious effects. Positive effects from feeding high-fiber diets were evident in litter size (0.2 to 0.6 pigditter) and sow lactation feed intake (0.5 to 0.8 lb/day), but they are not largely evident until the second reproductive cycle following exposure to the diet. It's possible that to ensure sow and litter performance inzprovements fiom feeding fiber, fiber must be included in the diet before mating. pttrio~i.
Using Musical Knowledge to Extract Expressive PerformanceInformation from Audio

A computer system is described which performs polyphonic transcription of known solo piano music by using high-level musical information to guide a signal-processing system. This process , which we term expressive performance extraction , maps a digital audio representation of a musical performance to a MIDI representation of the same performance using the score of the music as a guide. Analysis of the accuracy of the system is presented, and its usefulness both as a tool for music-psychology researchers and as an example of a musical-knowledge-based signal-processing system is discussed.
A microanalysis of EMG and EEG changes during the sleep onset period (SOP) : a theoretical investigation with practical applications /

The present study has both theoretical and practical aspects. The theoretical intent of the study was to closely examine the relationship between muscle activity (EMG) and EEG state during the process of falling asleep. Sleep stages during sleep onset (SO) have been generally defined with regards to brain wave activity (Rechtschaffen & Kales (1968); and more precisely by Hori, Hayashi, & Morikawa (1994)). However, no previous study has attempted to quantify the changes in muscle activity during this same
Retrospective analysis of breast cancer prognosis among young and older women in a Brazilian cohort of 738 patients, 1985–2002

Invasive breast cancer (BC) is infrequent among women aged ≤40 years, however, the disease outlook in these younger patients is generally worse than among older women. The present study aimed to compare socio-demographic, clinical and pathological characteristics, and their association with long-term survival, between two random cohorts of young (≤40 years) and older (50–69 years) Brazilian patients with BC. The cohort comprised of 738 randomly selected women who were diagnosed with BC at Barretos Cancer Hospital, Pio XII Foundation (Barretos, Brazil) between January 1985 and December 2002; the patients included young women (n=376) and older women (n=362). The current analysis suggested that BC in young women is associated with numerous pathological features of aggressiveness. Second cancer and bilateral BC were independent predictors of a poor outcome in the younger group. Furthermore, C-erB-2 was positively correlated with poor outcome in the older group, whereas estrogen receptor status and TNM stage were associated with disease prognosis in both groups. The overall survival rates of the two age groups were similar except when analyzed according the treatment period (1997–2002). Although patients aged ≤40 years harbored tumors with more aggressive clinicopathological characteristics, these characteristics were not independent predictors of overall survival. The present study indicates that medical advances associated with prevention of breast cancer may improve screening programs, which may therefore increase early diagnosis and subsequently lower mortality rates.
A systematic review of automated melanoma detection in dermatoscopic images and its ground truth data

Malignant melanoma is the third most frequent type of skin cancer and one of the most malignant tumors, accounting for 79% of skin cancer deaths. Melanoma is highly curable if diagnosed early and treated properly as survival rate varies between 15% and 65% from early to terminal stages, respectively. So far, melanoma diagnosis is depending subjectively on the dermatologist's expertise. Computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) systems based on epiluminescense light microscopy can provide an objective second opinion on pigmented skin lesions (PSL). This work systematically analyzes the evidence of the effectiveness of automated melanoma detection in images from a dermatoscopic device. Automated CAD applications were analyzed to estimate their diagnostic outcome. Searching online databases for publication dates between 1985 and 2011, a total of 182 studies on dermatoscopic CAD were found. With respect to the systematic selection criterions, 9 studies were included, published between 2002 and 2011. Those studies formed databases of 14,421 dermatoscopic images including both malignant "melanoma" and benign "nevus", with 8,110 images being available ranging in resolution from 150 x 150 to 1568 x 1045 pixels. Maximum and minimum of sensitivity and specificity are 100.0% and 80.0% as well as 98.14% and 61.6%, respectively. Area under the receiver operator characteristics (AUC) and pooled sensitivity, specificity and diagnostics odds ratio are respectively 0.87, 0.90, 0.81, and 15.89. So, although that automated melanoma detection showed good accuracy in terms of sensitivity, specificity, and AUC, but diagnostic performance in terms of DOR was found to be poor. This might be due to the lack of dermatoscopic image resources (ground truth) that are needed for comprehensive assessment of diagnostic performance. In future work, we aim at testing this hypothesis by joining dermatoscopic images into a unified database that serves as a standard reference for dermatology related research in PSL classification.
Overcoming Large-Scale Fading in Cellular Systems With Network Coordination

The cellular systems with network coordination are known for increasing the cell edge user throughput by processing signals captured by geographically distributed base stations coherently. This concept is also known as macrodiversity or coordinated multipoint (CoMP) in the literature. It is now well known that large-scale fading has a significant influence on the link-level performance of users in multiuser (MU) multicell systems. In this paper, we investigate a channel distribution information (CDI)-based MU multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) power control problem in the uplink with joint processing to overcome the large-scale fading in macrodiversity systems. There are many power control algorithms for different variants of this problem, but the CDI-based problem in MU scenario has not been well addressed in the literature. Perhaps, the lack of understanding of the performance of macrodiversity MU systems, in terms of CDI, may have prohibited advanced power control solutions. Despite such analytical difficulties, we propose a simple algorithm for this uplink power control problem, and its accuracy is proved using Monte Carlo simulation.
Dynamic Texture Comparison Using Derivative Sparse Representation: Application to Video-Based Face Recognition

Video-based face, expression, and scene recognition are fundamental problems in human–machine interaction, especially when there is a short-length video. In this paper, we present a new derivative sparse representation approach for face and texture recognition using short-length videos. First, it builds local linear subspaces of dynamic texture segments by computing spatiotemporal directional derivatives in a cylinder neighborhood within dynamic textures. Unlike traditional methods, a nonbinary texture coding technique is proposed to extract high-order derivatives using continuous circular and cylinder regions to avoid aliasing effects. Then, these local linear subspaces of texture segments are mapped onto a Grassmann manifold via sparse representation. A new joint sparse representation algorithm is developed to establish the correspondences of subspace points on the manifold for measuring the similarity between two dynamic textures. Extensive experiments on the Honda/UCSD, the CMU motion of body, the YouTube, and the DynTex datasets show that the proposed method consistently outperforms the state-of-the-art methods in dynamic texture recognition, and achieved the encouraging highest accuracy reported to date on the challenging YouTube face dataset. The encouraging experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed method in video-based face recognition in human–machine system applications.
Mechanism of Cd-Induced Inhibition of Na-Glucose Cotransporter in Rabbit Proximal Tubule Cells: Roles of Luminal pH and Membrane-Bound Carbonic Anhydrase

Background/Aims: We have previously reported that a complex of cadmium-metallothionein (Cd-MT) directly affects the apical Na-glucose cotransporter on the luminal side in proximal tubules, suggesting that Cd-MT is more toxic than CdCl2 in causing tubulopathy. To find the potential mechanisms, we evaluated the effect of luminal pH alteration and carbonic anhydrase (CA) inhibition on Cd-MT-induced reduction of glucose-dependent transmural voltage in rabbit S2 segments perfused in vitro. Methods: Before and after the addition of Cd-MT (1 µg Cd/ml) to the lumen, the deflections of transmural voltage upon the elimination of glucose from the perfusate (ΔVtglu) were measured as a parameter of activity of the Na-glucose cotransporter. Results: During perfusion with a control solution of pH 7.4, the ΔVtglu significantly decreased after addition of Cd-MT for 10 min. A reduction in pH to 6.8 significantly shortened the time needed to reduce the ΔVtglu to <5 min, whereas an increase of pH to 7.7 significantly prolonged the time to >20 min. Furthermore, simultaneous addition of acetazolamide with control perfusate prevented the reduction. P-Fluorobenzyl-aminobenzolamide (pFB-ABZ), a membrane-impermeable CA inhibitor, added to the lumen also completely prevented the reduction in ΔVtglu. In rabbits with chronic Cd exposure, acetazolamide prevented the glucosuria. Conclusion: Cd-MT-induced inhibition of Na-glucose cotransporter activity in the S2 segment strongly depends on luminal pH, and that an increase in pH by inhibition of luminal membrane-bound CA is useful to prevent renal Cd toxicity.
The Invisible Display – Design Strategies for Ambient Media in the Urban Context

This paper presents contextual strategies for staging ambient interfaces in public space. While ambient displays are often treated and evaluated as solitary objects in existing literature, I will argue that the experience of an ambient display is not determined in the first place by its intrinsic qualities, but essentially by the way how it is situated within its local context. The six described strategies show how cultural notions and practices can be incorporated into the design of ambient displays. Some of them seem counterintuitive and take advantage of phenomena that a designer usually might want to avoid. At the same time they are an invitation for further experiments and cross-pollination between the fields of architecture, public art and interaction design.
A SVD-based fragile watermarking scheme for webpage authentication

As the Internet becomes a common tool in people's daily life, more and more information is acquired through webpage. However, the website security has became an important issue in recent years. The tamper-proof of webpage is of great importance. Some watermarking schemes have been reported to solve this problem. For a webpage, we create the watermark according to the webpage tags by using SVD, and then embed them into the webpage If the extracted watermark from the received webpages is not the same as original watermark, then it shows that the webpage has been modified, and we can also locate the modified position. Experiments are performed on the proposed scheme and the results show that the proposed scheme can be a feasible and efficient tool for the tamper-proof of webpage. So our scheme plays an important role in the webpage authentication.
Crystal Structure of NC1 Domains

Type IV collagen, which is present in all metazoan, exists as a family of six homologous α(IV) chains, α1–α6, in mammals. The six chains assemble into three different triple helical protomers and self-associate as three distinct networks. The network underlies all epithelia as a component of basement membranes, which play important roles in cell adhesion, growth, differentiation, tissue repair and molecular ultrafiltration. The specificity of both protomer and network assembly is governed by amino acid sequences of the C-terminal noncollagenous (NC1) domain of each chain. In this study, the structural basis for protomer and network assembly was investigated by determining the crystal structure of the ubiquitous [(α1)2. α2]2 NC1 hexamer of bovine lens capsule basement membrane at 2.0 Å resolution. The NC1 monomer folds into a novel tertiary structure. The (α1)2. α2 trimer is organized through the unique three-dimensional domain swapping interactions. The differences in the primary sequences of the hypervariable region manifest in different secondary structures, which determine the chain specificity at the monomer-monomer interfaces. The trimer-trimer interface is stabilized by the extensive hydrophobic and hydrophilic interactions without a need for disulfide cross-linking.
Adaptive bases for Q-learning

We consider reinforcement learning, and in particular, the Q-learning algorithm in large state and action spaces. In order to cope with the size of the spaces, a function approximation approach to the state and action value function is needed. We generalize the classical Q-learning algorithm to an algorithm where the basis of the linear function approximation change dynamically while interacting with the environment. A motivation for such an approach is maximizing the state-action value function fitness to the problem faced, thus obtaining better performance. The algorithm is shown to converge using two time scales stochastic approximation. Finally, we discuss how this technique can be applied to a rich family of RL algorithms with linear function approximation.
AN ELECTRON-MICROSCOPE STUDY OF GERMINATION OF CONIDIA OF BOTRYTIS CINEREA.

SUMMARY: Conidia of Botrytis cinerea have a 2-layered cell wall, a thin electron-dense outer layer and a thicker electron-transparent inner one. The cell contents comprise typical nuclei, mitochondria and endoplasm with a surrounding plasmalemma and a sparse endoplasmic reticulum. There are a few small peripheral vacuoles. On germination the outer spore wall ruptures and the emergent germ tube is surrounded by the elastic inner one and what appears to be a sheath of mucilage. A cross wall with a simple central pore is laid down at the base of the germ tube at a very early stage. As the germ tube elongates the contents of the spore flow into it, causing a large vacuole to form in the centre of the original spore. The numbers of nuclei and mitochondria suggest that divisions of these organelles take place during the early stages of germination. The mucilaginous sheath surrounding the germ tube appears to condense to give a thin electron-dense outer zone to the wall at the base of the germ tube.
No Deterioration of Oral Glucose Tolerance During Pregnancy in Rural Tanzania

There is still controversy concerning the reference ranges for glucose tolerance tests in pregnancy. The WHO has recommended the universal use of the 75 g oral glucose load with 2‐h post‐load values of > 6.7 mmol l−1 to be considered impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) in the non‐pregnant, and equivalent to gestational diabetes in the pregnant. Some data are available for pregnant Caucasians but little information is available for other ethnic groups. Oral glucose tolerance tests (75 g) have therefore been performed in 189 pregnant women in rural Tanzania. Mean fasting blood glucose values were 4.0 mmol l−1 in non‐pregnant women, and 3.7, 3.5, and 3.3 mmol l−1 in pregnant women in the first, second, and third trimesters, respectively. Two‐hour OGTT values were 4.7 mmol l−1, and 4.6, 4.5, and 4.2 mmol l−1 while the upper limit of normal values (mean+2SD) were 7.1 mmol l−1, and 6.8, 6.8, and 6.1 mmol l−1. The 2‐h glucose levels are therefore close to WHO recommendations but lower than those reported for Caucasians. By contrast with reports for Caucasians, glucose tolerance did not deteriorate during pregnancy. The prevalence of diabetes and IGT was zero in the pregnant group.
Controlled formaldehyde fumigation system

A comparative study of formaldehyde (HCHO) fumigation was carried out by controlled vaporization, using an electric vapor generator, and by the Formalin-permanganate method. Determination of vapor levels as well as bactericidal action showed the generator to be more effective. Maximum achievable fumigant levels were temperature dependent and related to the equilibrium vapor concentration of HCHO. At a room temperature of 21 degrees C, vaporization of more than 2,000 micrograms of HCHO per liter resulted in conversion of HCHO to paraformaldehyde, which condensed on surfaces and contributed to prolonged residual vapor levels. An electronic monitor is described which is capable of detecting HCHO levels as low as 10 microgram/liter and can be used to monitor the complete fumigation process.
Optimization of hologram computation for real-time display

Several methods of increasing the speed and simplicity of the computation of off-axis transmission holograms are presented, with applications to the real-time display of holographic images. A bipolar intensity approach enables a linear summation of interference fringes, a factor of two speed increase, and the elimination of image noise caused by object self- interference. An order of magnitude speed increase is obtained through the use of precomputed look-up tables containing a large array of elemental interference patterns corresponding to point source contributions from each of the possible locations in image space. Results achieved using a data-parallel supercomputer to compute horizontal-parallax- only holographic patterns containing 6 megasamples indicate that an image comprised of 10,000 points with arbitrary brightness (grayscale) can be computed in under one second.
Bay K 8644, modifier of calcium transport and energy metabolism in rat heart mitochondria: a new intracellular site of action

1 The dihydropyridine Ca2+ channel agonist Bay K 8644 (10–200 μm) produced a concentration‐dependent increase in State 4 respiration in the rat heart mitochondria with the highest concentration (200 μm) increasing the rate from 33.1 ± 0.7 to 187.0 ± 13.3 ng atoms O2 consumed min−1 mg−1 protein. 2 Bay K 8644 (200 μm) reduced State 3 respiration from 247.2 ± 11.7 to 174.4 ± 0.06 ng atoms O2 min−1 mg−1 protein, reduced the respiratory control index (RCI) from 5.3 ± 0.45 to 1.1 ± 0.03 and reduced the ADP:O ratio from 2.75 ± 0.03 to 1.3 ± 0.15. 3 A similar, but smaller, stimulation of State 4 respiration was seen with nitrendipine (25–200 μm), the rate increasing from 22.6 ± 1.0 to 33.1 ± 1.8 ng atoms O2 consumed min−1 mg−1 protein in the presence of 200 μm nitrendipine. 4 Bay K 8644 (10–60 μm) increased the total Ca2+ uptake into rat heart mitochondria, the total increasing from 248.8 ± 8.4 to 406.9 ± 17.6 ng Ca2+ mg−1 protein at 60 μm Bay K 8644 (EC50 = 18.9 ± 1.4 μm). 5 Bay K 8644 (10–60 μm) produced a concentration‐dependent reduction in the Ca2+ influx rate (IC50 = 52.5 ± 2.8 μm). Similar effects were seen with (+)‐Bay K 8644 and (−)‐Bay K 8644. 6 Nitrendipine (40–120 μm) stimulated Ca2+ efflux from mitochondria preloaded with the ion; the efflux rate increasing from 2.9 ± 0.05 to 114.2 ± 6.2 nmol Ca2+ min−1 mg−1 protein (EC50 = 57.3 ± 1.3 μm). 7 These data indicate dihydropyridine‐induced changes in the activity of the mitochondrial Na+/Ca2+. antiporter pathway; nitrendipine causing stimulation and Bay K 8644 causing inhibition.
Imperceptible sensorics for medical monitoring

Society is aging so there is a need for new reliable mobile health monitoring systems. A wireless, stretchable and mobile health monitoring platform has been developed which consists of a wireless stretchable, biocompatible sensor tag placed on the skin and an RFID reader which collects and evaluates data and shows it on a display.
Psychophysical Relations between Interacted Fabric Thermal-Tactile Properties and Psychological Touch Perceptions

Touch sensation perception includes three processes – physical, neurophysiological and psychological. Psychophysical relationships that bridge physical and psychological results have varied. Meanwhile, interactive effects of thermal-tactile physical features have seldom been investigated. Therefore, this study aims to compare various hypothesized psychophysical relations, including monomode relations between single stimuli and single sensations, as well as multimode relations between multistimuli and sensory dimensions. Potential simultaneous effects from thermal-tactile factors and their interactions are also explored. This study uses physical data, obtained from a simultaneous measurement instrument Fabric Touch Tester, and psychological data collected from over 200 subjects. The results imply that a universal psychophysical function relation can hardly be achieved. Different neural stimulation mechanisms seem to be better presented by dissimilar function relations. It is also found that thermal and tactile physical information can simultaneously affect all defined sensory dimensions – including smoothness, softness and warmth. Interaction effects from multistimuli are also concluded to be important predictors. Practical Applications Study of the relationship between psychological touch sensations and fabric physical properties has always been an attractive field in textile sensory research. Along with the increased demands on the touch comfort of clothing, precise quantitative characterization methods are eagerly needed in industry. A number of approaches have been proposed during past studies, including psychophysical laws and stepwise-box-linear regression. However, these resolutions focused on tactile properties and mechanical sensations only. Although the latest neurophysiological findings have enlarged the scope of thermal-tactile properties, there is still a lack of investigation into interactive effects of both thermal and tactile properties. This work provides comparison studies on different types of psychophysical relations and particularly explores the interactive effects of multiple physical aspects. Proposed psychophysical relations are concluded with satisfied correlation coefficients to the subjective sensations. Such interactive multimode psychophysical relations could be used to advance current prediction models with stronger connections to neurophysiological perception mechanisms.
Sequential message-passing decoding of LDPC codes by partitioning check nodes

In this paper, we analyze the sequential message- passing decoding algorithm of low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes by partitioning check nodes. This decoding algorithm shows better bit error rate (BER) performance than the conventional message-passing decoding algorithm, especially for the small number of iterations. Analytical results indicate that as the number of partitioned subsets of check nodes increases, the BER performance is improved. We also derive the recursive equations for mean values of messages at check and variable nodes by using density evolution with a Gaussian approximation. From these equations, the mean values are obtained at each iteration of the sequential decoding algorithm and the corresponding BER values are calculated. They show that the sequential decoding algorithm converges faster than the conventional one. Finally, the analytical results are confirmed by the simulation results.