Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Inter and intraspecific comparisons of the skeletal Mg/Ca ratios of high latitude Antarctic echinoderms

Abstract Echinoderms are vulnerable to ocean acidification because of their high magnesium calcite skeletons. Here, skeletal Mg/Ca ratios were examined within and between individuals of 20 Antarctic echinoderms representative of the asteroids, ophiuroids and echinoids. The highest mean Mg/Ca ratios occurred in the discs and arms (0.111 and 0.110, respectively) of brittle-stars and the lowest in the spines (0.010) of cidaroid sea urchins. Many taxa (11 of 14 species) from the collection sites showed no intraspecific differences in Mg/Ca ratios between given skeletal components. Exceptions were the spines of two regular sea urchins and the skeletal ossicles of the combined arms and disc of a brittle-star. The relationship between skeletal magnesium content and latitude was further evaluated and an inverse correlation was found between Antarctic echinoderm taxa skeletal magnesium content and latitude across 62° to 76°, indicating that the relationship occurs over relatively narrow latitudes. Upon examination of an even narrower range (70–76° latitude), a region where the mineralogy of echinoderm skeletons has not been investigated, the predicted inverse relationship between Mg/Ca ratio and latitude was still observed in sea-stars, but not in brittle-stars or sea urchins.
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Low-Delay, High-Rate Nonsquare Complex Orthogonal Designs

The maximal rate of a nonsquare complex orthogonal design for n transmit antennas is [1/2]+[1/(n)] if n is even and [1/2]+[1/(n+1)] if n is odd and the codes have been constructed for all n by Liang (2003) and Lu (2005) to achieve this rate. A lower bound on the decoding delay of maximal-rate complex orthogonal designs has been obtained by Adams (2007) and it is observed that Liang's construction achieves the bound on delay for n equal to 1 and 3 modulo 4 while Lu et al.'s construction achieves the bound for n=0 , 1, 3 mod 4. For n=2 mod 4, Adams (2010) have shown that the minimal decoding delay is twice the lower bound, in which case, both Liang's and Lu et al.'s construction achieve the minimum decoding delay. For large value of n , it is observed that the rate is close to half and the decoding delay is very large. A class of rate-[1/2] codes with low decoding delay for all n has been constructed by Tarokh (1999). In this paper, another class of rate-[1/2] codes is constructed for all n in which case the decoding delay is half the decoding delay of the rate-[1/2] codes given by Tarokh This is achieved by giving first a general construction of square real orthogonal designs which includes as special cases the well-known constructions of Adams, Lax, and Phillips and the construction of Geramita and Pullman, and then making use of it to obtain the desired rate-[1/2] codes. For the case of nine transmit antennas, the proposed rate-[1/2] code is shown to be of minimal delay. The proposed construction results in designs with zero entries which may have high peak-to-average power ratio and it is shown that by appropriate postmultiplication, a design with no zero entry can be obtained with no change in the code parameters.
The sea surface temperature configuration of Greenland Sea–subpolar region of North Atlantic and the summer rainfall anomaly in low‐latitude highlands of China

Based on reanalysis and observational data sets, the present study reveals that the variability of summer rainfall in the low‐latitude highlands of China (CLLH) is significantly correlated to the sea surface temperature (SST) configuration from the Greenland Sea (GS) southeastwards to the subpolar region of North Atlantic (NASR). The SST configuration orientated in northwest–southeast direction exerts its impact on the summer rainfall coming into the CLLH via modifying the activity of cold air in the northeast CLLH. When SST is warmer than normal in the GS and colder than normal around the NASR, a teleconnection with an anomalous cyclone over the Europe, an anomalous anticyclone around the Lake Baikal and an anomalous cyclone over the East Asia will be forced out by the dispersion of Rossby wave on the spherical surface of the earth. The teleconnection traversing Europe–East China is favourable to transportation of cold air from the East Siberian southwestwards to the CLLH and thus gives rise to the increase of summer rainfall in the CLLH. When SST is colder than normal in the GS and warmer than normal around the NASR, the similar teleconnection with opposite phase is forced out, causing a less than normal summer rainfall in the CLLH.
A new class of asynchronous iterative algorithms with order intervals

This paper deals with a new class of parallel asynchronous iterative algorithms for the solution of nonlinear systems of equations. The main feature of the new class of methods preseted here is the possibility of flexible commmunication between processors. In particular partial updates can be exchanged. Approximation of the asssociated fixed point mapping is also considered. A detailed convergengence study is presented. A connection with the Schwarz alternating method is made for nonlinear boundary value problems. Computational results on a shared memory multiprocessotr IBM 3090 are presented.
High Prevalence of inhA Promoter Mutations among Patients with Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Background Drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) remains extremely difficult to treat because there are often few remaining active medications and limited diagnostic options to detect resistance. Resistance to isoniazid is typically caused by mutations in either katG or the inhA promoter. inhA mutations confer low-level resistance to isoniazid and cross-resistance to ethionamide while katG mutations confer high-level isoniazid resistance and no cross-resistance. Line Probe Assays (LPAs) that detect mutations in katG and inhA are currently performed on all positive TB cultures in KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa, but the frequency of inhA mutations in drug-resistant TB patients has not been examined. Methods We sought to determine the proportion of patients who could potentially benefit from high-dose isoniazid and who may be resistant to ethionamide. We reviewed 994 LPA (Hain MTBDRplus) results at the TB reference laboratory in KwaZulu-Natal to determine the frequency of mutations in either katG or the inhA promoter. We stratified these results by drug-resistance category (i.e., MDR-TB, pre-XDR-TB, and XDR-TB) as determined by phenotypic drug-susceptibility testing. Results Among MDR- and XDR-TB isolates, the prevalence of inhA mutations without a concurrent katG mutation was 14.8% and 10.3% respectively. The prevalence of inhA mutations with OR without a katG mutation was 30.3% and 82.8%, respectively. Conclusion More than 10% of patients with MDR- and XDR-TB may benefit from high-dose isoniazid. Although ethionamide is empirically included in all MDR- and XDR-TB regimens, nearly a third of MDR-TB patients and a majority of XDR-TB patients likely have resistance to ethionamide. Laboratories performing line probe assays should report specific band patterns so that clinicians may adjust treatment regimens accordingly.
FACS Based Generating of Facial Expressions

In this paper we describe a semiautomatic system for facial animation based on the Facial Action Coding System. The overview of the system highlights its modularization and the distribution of the knowledge about facial expressions that is being used. Further in this article we describe the two last modules in the expression processing part of the system. Both the “Facial Model” and “AUs Blender” modules influence in a direct way the visual outcome of the expression being rendered.
Interactive control restructuring

An interactive algorithm for improving control flow is introduced. This algorithm has been implemented within the ENCORE re-engineering environment. The objective of the algorithm is to restructure input code so as to simplify the control flow. A key feature of the algorithm is that is permits user control during the restructuring. The algorithm also handles, in a natural manner, multiple return statements, multiple loop exits, multi-level loop exits and endless loops.
Geometric Relations Between Rigid Bodies (Part 1): Semantics for Standardization

This tutorial explicitly states the semantics of all coordinate-invariant properties and operations, and, more importantly, all the choices that are made in coordinate representations of these geometric relations. This results in a set of concrete suggestions for standardizing terminology and notation, allowing programmers to write fully unambiguous software interfaces, including automatic checks for semantic correctness of all geometric operations on rigid-body coordinate representations. A concrete proposal for community-driven standardization via the Robot Engineering Task Force [4] is accepted as a Robotics Request for Comment.
Mapping out the Uncanny Valley: a multidisciplinary approach

This presentation will detail the results of two studies done for the purpose of investigating the Uncanny Valley in virtual character modeling, and present the results in the context of research from other disciplines. The emphasis of the presentation will be on translating the results to provide information for character designers and modelers. Media critics including The New York Times, Wired Magazine, and ESPN have mentioned Dr. Masahiro Mori's theory of the Uncanny Valley in reviews of film and video games. The concept involves the negative reaction some people experience when seeing real world robots or virtual 3-d models of humans that are intended to be very realistic. This increasingly common concept comes from robotics, and most direct investigation of the theory has been done with robots, not virtual characters. The original Uncanny Valley paper presented a theorized relationship between familiarity and human appearance. Mori's original 1970 paper begins with the idea that the relationship between how human a robot looks and how positively people will regard its appearance is a positive one. The main concept is that this positive relationship temporarily turns extremely negative for robots that look very human but aren't totally so. The two studies at the center of this submission were designed to investigate the design of virtual agents for the screen, and provide information for character designers. The first asked sixty research subjects to evaluate seventy five video game and animation characters, including humans, robots, anthropomorphized animals and others. The initial findings of this first study were presented at SIGGRAPH's Sandbox Symposium in 2007, a more detailed contextual analysis will be presented here. The second study looked at a more specific group of characters, the humanoid characters of Second Life. While the first study gave details about the relationship between human appearance and attraction in a wide range of characters, the second provides more specific information on the design of human characters. Data analysis from these studies provided a fountain of information that would be of use to any character modeler. The first study using a wider range of characters showed a clear relationship between subjects' opinion on human-like appearance and attraction. The relationship found was more complex than the one from the original Mori paper, but supported the Valley idea. The data from the second study also was found to be supportive of the concept, and analysis provided insight into how character gender, use of texture, level of facial detail, and other design decisions influenced the relationship. Research on virtual character design will be used to provide a third perspective on the Uncanny Valley. Human reaction to virtual agents has been explored in areas such as psychology, computer science, telecommunications, and instructional technology. The most relevant studies from these areas will be used to put the studies' results in context for designers.
Health Impact of Fasting in Saudi Arabia during Ramadan: Association with Disturbed Circadian Rhythm and Metabolic and Sleeping Patterns

Background Muslims go through strict Ramadan fasting from dawn till sunset for one month yearly. These practices are associated with disturbed feeding and sleep patterns. We recently demonstrated that, during Ramadan, circadian cortisol rhythm of Saudis is abolished, exposing these subjects to continuously increased cortisol levels. Hypothesis Secretory patterns of other hormones and metabolic parameters associated with cortisol, and insulin resistance, might be affected during Ramadan. Protocol Ramadan practitioners (18 males, 5 females; mean age ±SEM = 23.16±1.2 years) were evaluated before and two weeks into Ramadan. Blood was collected for measurements of endocrine and metabolic parameters at 9 am (±1 hour) and again twelve hours later. Results In Ramadan, glucose concentration was kept within normal range, with a significant increase in the morning. Mean morning concentration of leptin was significantly higher than pre-Ramadan values (p = 0.001), in contrast to that of adiponectin, which was significantly lower (p<0.001). These changes were associated with increased insulin resistance in morning and evening. Concentrations of hsCRP were lower during Ramadan than those during regular living conditions, however, normal circadian fluctuation was abolished (p = 0.49). Even though means of liver enzymes, total bilirubin, total protein and albumin were all decreased during Ramadan, statistically lower means were only noted for GGT, total protein, and albumin (p = 0.018, 0.002 and 0.001 respectively). Discussion Saudi Ramadan practitioners have altered adipokine patterns, typical of insulin resistance. The noted decreases of hsCRP, liver enzymes, total protein, and albumin, are most likely a result of fasting, while loss of circadian rhythmicity of hsCRP is probably due to loss of circadian cortisol rhythm. Conclusions Modern Ramadan practices in Saudi Arabia, which are associated with evening hypercortisolism, are also characterized by altered adipokines patterns, and an abolished hsCRP circadian rhythm, all likely to increase cardiometabolic risk.
Brain Tissue Oxygen: In Vivo Monitoring with Carbon Paste Electrodes

In this communication we review selected experiments involving the use of carbon paste electrodes (CPEs) to monitor and measure brain tissue O2 levels in awake freely-moving animals. Simultaneous measurements of rCBF were performed using the H2 clearance technique. Voltammetric techniques used include both differential pulse (O2) and constant potential amperometry (rCBF). Mild hypoxia and hyperoxia produced rapid changes (decrease and increase respectively) in the in vivo O2 signal. Neuronal activation (tail pinch and stimulated grooming) produced similar increases in both O2and rCBF indicating that CPE O2currents provide an index of increases in rCBF when such increases exceed O2 utilization. Saline injection produced a transient increase in the O2 signal while chloral hydrate produced slower more long-lasting changes that accompanied the behavioral changes associated with anaesthesia. Acetazolamide increased O2 levels through an increase in rCBF.
A Lazy-Binding Communication Protocol for Highly Dynamic Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless sensor networks are characterized by limited availability and reliability of the wireless channel and by high rates of node failure. These pose challenging requirements for communication protocols. Beyond these inherent limitations, node mobility and energy conserving protocols that power down nodes, introduce additional dynamics to routing protocols. Since routing performance depends on the freshness of routing or neighborhood tables, traditional state-based protocols may suffer excessive delay or packet loss (system dynamics require expensive upkeep of these tables). In this paper, a novel concept of Lazy-Binding is proposed to cope with the elevated dynamics found in sensor networks. Based on this concept, we introduce Implicit Geographic Forwarding (IGF), the first WSN protocol that is altogether state-free. We compare our work against several established routing protocols in static, mobile and energy-conserving sensor networks under a wide range of system and workload configurations. In the presence of mobility and other dynamics, IGF demonstrates over 1000% improvement in delivery ratio and significant reduction in both end-to-end delay and control overhead. In addition, a prototype of the IGF protocol has been implemented and evaluated on the Berkeley motes platform.
Clinical, laboratory and histological associations in adults with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease

The Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis Clinical Research Network (NASH CRN) was formed to conduct multicenter studies on the etiology, contributing factors, natural history, and treatment of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). The aim of this study was to determine the associations of readily available demographic, clinical, and laboratory variables with the diagnosis of NASH and its key histological features, and determine the ability of these variables to predict the severity of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). A total of 1266 adults were enrolled in NASH CRN studies between October 2004 and February 2008, of whom 1101 had available liver histology. The median age was 50 years; 82% were white and 12% Hispanic. The median body mass index was 33 kg/m2; 49% had hypertension and 31% had type 2 diabetes. On liver biopsy, 57% were judged to have definite NASH and 31% bridging fibrosis or cirrhosis. Using data from the 698 patients with liver biopsies within 6 months of clinical data, patients with definite NASH were more likely to be female and have diabetes, higher levels of aspartate and alanine aminotransferases, alkaline phosphatase, gamma glutamyl transpeptidase, and homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA‐IR). Progressive models for predicting histological diagnoses performed modestly for predicting steatohepatitis or ballooning (area under receiver operating characteristic curves [AUROC] ranged from 0.70‐0.79), and better for advanced fibrosis (AUROC 0.73‐0.85). Conclusion: Readily available clinical and laboratory variables can predict advanced fibrosis in adults with NAFLD, but additional information is needed to reliably predict the presence and severity of NASH. Prospective studies of this well‐characterized population and associated tissue bank samples offer a unique opportunity to better understand the cause and natural history of NAFLD and develop more precise means for noninvasive diagnosis. (HEPATOLOGY 2010)
Jigsaw puzzle image retrieval via pairwise compatibility measurement

To solve jigsaw puzzles, pairwise compatibility scores for all pairs should be computed first. As puzzles are reassembled according to the compatibility scores, how to measure pairwise compatibility is crucial. In this paper, we propose a novel pairwise piece compatibility scoring approach that considers not only edge similarity but also content similarity between puzzle pieces. Specifically, we propose an algorithm that computes content similarity scores between two puzzle pieces and introduce two pairwise scoring measurements that assemble the content similarity scores and edge similarity scores. We designed a jigsaw puzzle image retrieval system that identifies the best matching puzzle piece from the candidate set given a target piece to evaluate the proposed pairwise compatibility measurements. We tested our approach on the jigsaw puzzle test images, and the experimental results show our approach is comparable to the state-of-the-art and even outperforms them for some test images.
Expansion of Acute Myocardial Infarction: Its Relationship to Infarct Morphology in a Canine Model

Regional dilation (expansion) of newly infarcted myocardium has been associated with increased mortality. To study this entity further, and to define the relationship of expansion to infarct morphology, infarcts were created in 44 open-chest dogs by a coronary ligation and coronary embolization method. Twenty-one transmural and 18 nontrangmural infarcta of 1 to 11 days of age were studied. Infarct expansion was quantified by comparison of lengths of infarct and noninfarct containing segments of transversely sliced hearts. Five dogs died less than 6 hours after infarction and showed no evidence of expansion. Of those surviving more than 24 hours, 17 had infarct expansion and 22 did not. In the latter group, four infarcts were transmural and 18 were nontansmural; in the former, all 17 infarcts with expansion were transmuraL Infarct thinning for the 17 infarcts with expansion was significantly greater than that observed in the nontransmura) infarcta or the nonexpanded transmural infarcts (P < 0.001). Of the 21 transmural infarcts, the largest infarct without expansion was 10.8%, and the smallest infarct with expansion was 11.3% of left ventricular weight. Among infarcts with expansion, there was a poor correlation between the extent of expansion and infarct size (r = 0.19). A significant inverse relationship (P<0.02) was observed, however, between the extent of expansion and postinfarct survival for the transmural infarcts. Although infarct expansion occurred only in transmural infarcts exceeding a critical but relatively small threshold of injury, the absence of a further relationship between transmural infarct size and extent of expansion suggests that other anatomic, metabolic, or hemodynamic factors affect the development of acute infarct expansion. Circ Res 49: 80–88, 19S1