Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Iterative closest point algorithm with anisotropic weighting and its application to fine surface registration

The Iterative Closest Point (ICP) algorithm is a widely used method for geometric alignment of 3D models. Given two roughly aligned shapes represented by two point sets, the algorithm iteratively establishes point correspondences given the current alignment of the data and computes a rigid transformation accordingly. It can be shown that the method converges to an at least local minimimum with respect to a mean-square distance metric. From a statistical point of view, the algorithm implicitly assumes that the points are observed with isotropic Gaussian noise. In this paper, we (1) present the first variant of the ICP that accounts for anisotropic localization uncertainty in both shapes as well as in both steps of the algorithm and (2) show how to apply the method for robust fine registration of surface meshes. According to an evaluation on medical imaging data, the proposed method is better suited for fine surface registration than the original ICP, reducing the target registration error (TRE) for a set of targets located inside or near the mesh by 80% on average.
Chitosan in Molecularly-Imprinted Polymers: Current and Future Prospects

Chitosan is widely used in molecular imprinting technology (MIT) as a functional monomer or supporting matrix because of its low cost and high contents of amino and hydroxyl functional groups. The various excellent properties of chitosan, which include nontoxicity, biodegradability, biocompatibility, and attractive physical and mechanical performances, make chitosan a promising alternative to conventional functional monomers. Recently, chitosan molecularly-imprinted polymers have gained considerable attention and showed significant potential in many fields, such as curbing environmental pollution, medicine, protein separation and identification, and chiral-compound separation. These extensive applications are due to the polymers’ desired selectivity, physical robustness, and thermal stability, as well as their low cost and easy preparation. Cross-linkers, which fix the functional groups of chitosan around imprinted molecules, play an important role in chitosan molecularly-imprinted polymers. This review summarizes the important cross-linkers of chitosan molecularly-imprinted polymers and illustrates the cross-linking mechanism of chitosan and cross-linkers based on the two glucosamine units. Finally, some significant attempts to further develop the application of chitosan in MIT are proposed.
A novel dynamic element matching technique suited for high pass ΔΣ ADCs

This paper presents a novel dynamic element matching technique (DEM) suited for high pass (HP) Delta Sigma (ΔΣ) modulators. It is based on transforming the high pass filtering behavior of classical DEM algorithms into a low pass behavior to make them adapted for HP ΔΣ modulators. The proposed technique is demonstrated for the data weight averaging (DWA) algorithm at the system level and the electrical level using a 65 nm CMOS process. The achieved performances in terms of SFDR and SNDR are similar to the performances of classical low pass (LP) ΔΣ modulators employing regular DWA. Moreover the required additional complexity is very low : just 8 simple switches and some digital gates.
Tobacco Institute lobbying at the state and local levels of government in the 1990s

Objective: To describe variation in Tobacco Institute (TI) lobbying expenditures across states and test whether these expenditures vary in relationship to measures of tobacco control activity at the state level. Independent variable: Data for this study came from the TI's State Activities Division (SAD) annual budgets for the years 1991-97, excluding 1993. These data include budgetary information pertaining to state and local lobbying activity and special projects reported by state. Dependent variables: The following measures of state tobacco control activity during the period 1991 to 1997 were considered: (1) American Stop Smoking Intervention Study (ASSIST) funding; (2) voter initiatives to raise cigarette taxes; (3) cigarette excise tax level; (4) workplace smoking restrictions; (5) the intensification of smoke-free air laws covering private worksites, government worksites, and restaurants; (6) the intensification of strength of sales to minors laws; (7) the intensification of strength of laws that punish minors for possessing, purchasing, and/or using cigarettes; (8) state status as a major grower of tobacco; (9) partisan control of state government, 1996; and (10) an overall composite index reflecting a state's strength of tobacco control, combining cigarette prices with workplace and home smoking bans. Results: The overall annual budget for the TI declined steadily during the 1990s, from $47.7 million in 1991 to $28.1 million by 1996. The proportion of the TI's budget allocated to the SAD remained relatively stable at about 30%. TI expenditures for lobbyists were highest in California where tobacco control activity has been strong for the past decade. We found significant associations between TI SAD expenditures and cigarette excise tax levels, the status of a state as a recipient of federal ASSIST funds, and changes in the strength of statewide laws that penalise minors for possessing, purchasing, and/or using cigarettes. We found little or no association between state and local lobbying budgets of the TI and changes in statewide smoke-free air laws, although we did find evidence of TI special project expenditures earmarked to specific states and localities to resist clean indoor air legislation/regulations (that is, Maryland and New York City). We found no significant correlation between TI lobbying expenditures and sales to minors' laws, status as a major producer of tobacco, or partisan control of state government. Conclusions: The findings from this study support the hypothesis that in the 1990s tobacco control activities such as raising cigarette excise taxes and participation in ASSIST attracted TI resources to undermine these efforts.
Biostructure of fecal microbiota in healthy subjects and patients with chronic idiopathic diarrhea.

BACKGROUND & AIMS Dysbiosis is a key component of intestinal disorders. Our aim was to quantitatively access the biostructure of fecal microbiota in healthy subjects and patients with chronic idiopathic diarrhea and evaluate the responses to Saccharomyces boulardii treatment. METHODS We investigated punched fecal cylinders from 20 patients with chronic idiopathic diarrhea and 20 healthy controls using fluorescence in situ hybridization. Fluctuations in assembly of 11 bacterial groups were monitored weekly for 3 weeks before, during, and after oral S boulardii supplementation. RESULTS The structural organization of fecal microbiota in healthy subjects was stable and unaffected by S boulardii. The assembly of fecal microbiota in idiopathic diarrhea was markedly different, characterized by mucus depositions within feces; mucus septa and striae; marked reduction in concentrations of habitual Eubacterium rectale, Bacteroides, and Faecalibacterium prausnitzii groups; suppression of bacterial fluorescence in the center of the feces; increased concentrations and spatial shift of mucotrop bacteria to the fecal core; and increased concentrations of occasional bacteria. Except for elevated concentrations of some occasional bacterial groups, all parameters typical for diarrhea improved significantly with S boulardii treatment and most changes persisted after cessation of therapy. The improvement of the fecal microbiota was accompanied by partial (40%) and complete normalization (30%) of the diarrheal symptoms. CONCLUSIONS The fecal microbiota is highly structured. Fluorescence in situ hybridization analysis allowed us to quantitatively study the dysbiotic changes. S boulardii significantly improved the fecal biostructure in patients with diarrhea but had no influence on the feces in healthy subjects.
Retrovirus D/New England and its relation to Mason-Pfizer monkey virus

Seventeen isolates of retrovirus D/New England have been obtained from three species of macaques at the New England Regional Primate Research Center. Seven of the isolates were obtained from macaques who subsequently died with the macaque immunodeficiency syndrome; other isolates were obtained from macaques with less severe or other forms of illness. Attempts to isolate type D retrovirus from peripheral lymphocytes of 97 apparently healthy macaques have not been successful. Cloned DNA was prepared from Hirt supernatants of cells infected with one of these isolates (D/New England 398). By restriction endonuclease analysis, cloned pD398 DNA represented full-length viral DNA with one long terminal repeat. A detailed restriction endonuclease map of pD398 was derived and compared with a map of the cloned Mason-Pfizer monkey virus genome. Forty-six percent (13 of 28) of restriction endonuclease sites were found to be conserved when these related viruses were compared. Five of the D/New England isolates, including those from three different macaque species, were examined for strain variability by restriction endonuclease typing. Comparison of over 30 restriction endonuclease sites has not distinguished any of these D/New England isolates. It thus appears that a single strain of type D retrovirus is infecting three different species of macaques in the New England colony. Markedly reduced cross-hybridization was observed between cloned pD398 and Mason-Pfizer monkey virus DNAs at high stringency; this reduced cross-hybridization was localized to the pol-env regions of the genome. Only very weak hybridization of D/New England DNA to cloned squirrel monkey type D retrovirus DNA could be detected even at low-stringency conditions. What role type D retrovirus plays in the immunodeficiency syndrome of macaques remains to be determined.
Personality differences in emotions: Does emotion regulation play a role?

In Study 1, individuals high in neuroticism (high N) felt more negative and experienced less decrease of their negative emotions than individuals low in Neuroticism (low N) when extremely unpleasant hypothetical scenarios improved. Study 2 also found that high N individuals felt more negative than low N in a slightly unpleasant laboratory situation, and that individuals high in Extraversion (high E) felt more positive than individuals low in Extraversion (low E) in a slightly pleasant laboratory situation. The present studies also confirmed that high N individuals were less likely to repair negative emotions than low N, and high E individuals were more likely to savor positive emotions than low E. These attempts at negative and positive emotion regulation predicted negative and positive emotional reactions, respectively, and accounted for the trait differences in emotions. Hence, there is evidence that differences in negative emotion regulation mediated the relation between Neuroticism and negative emotio.
Digital simulation-based training: A meta-analysis

This study examines how design characteristics in digital simulation-based learning environments moderate self-efficacy and transfer of learning. Drawing on social cognitive theory and the cognitive theory of multimedia learning, the meta-analysis psychometrically cumulated k = 15 studies of 25 years of research with a total sample size of N = 2274 learners. The findings indicate that high levels of user control result in higher estimates of self-efficacy and transfer. Offering assessment feedback after rather than during training led to higher efficacy beliefs and transfer. Effects of social, narrative and multimedia characteristics were nonsignificant. Implications for computer-based instructional design and directions for future research associated with motivational outcomes in technology-enhanced learning are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
WebDAV-based distributed authoring of databases (WebDAD)

Recently many applications and much software has been provided to support distributed authoring of file systems (files and directories) based on WebDAV (protocol for Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning). WebDAV claims to handle any resource accessible using a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI). However, there is a lack of applications which support distributed authoring of databases using WebDAV. This arises because the WebDAV methods are mostly intended to operate on files and directories. This paper investigates the issues of distributed authoring of databases based on the WebDAV protocol, and provides a standard way of authoring databases, whether relational or object-oriented, via the Internet. Indeed, we use WebDAV advantages such as metadata and access control to present database metadata in a standardized way via WebDAV properties. The access control presents control on databases via WebDAV permissions, and improves that access control, e.g. down to the level of individual records rather than just tables. A prototype system has been implemented with the help of the Jakarta Slide package.
Recognising diversity in managing work life issues of flexpatriates

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to explore flexpatriates' perceptions of work life balance (WLB) issues and identify possible adjustments of WLB programs to better meet the needs of flexpatriates. This paper investigates flexpatriates' challenges at the interface of personal and work lives and their perception of standard WLB programs and then proposes organizational adjustments to better meet the needs of flexpatriates.Design/methodology/approach – This study employed a qualitative research approach and two kinds of empirical data were collected: first, through in‐depth semi‐structured interviews with 40 employees involved in flexpatriate assignments in multinational companies operating in Austria and, second, through a document analysis of the homepages of their employing organizations to gain information about WLB practices.Findings – Drawing upon the study findings, the authors present a typology of flexpatriates and propose a model that considers both WLB and work life imbalance as a desirable or .
Emociones morales y comportamiento altruista

ABSTRACT According to evolution's theory, the unconditional altruist behavior (the behavior that it gives indistinctly to parents and no parents) is biological and psychologically impossible. For this theory, it is not possible that one individual increases the aptitude of the others and the same time lows his aptitude without expectations. Against to the skeptical evolutionist, recent advances shown the possibility of the altruist behavior, and suggest that it has to do with the moral emotions. In this paper I refer some of these advances that suggest that some kind emotions can contribute to individual's interest as well as group's interest. Keywords : Altruism, Emotions, Darwin, Dawkins, Trivers.
Genetic Analysis of Digestive Physiology Using Fluorescent Phospholipid Reporters

Zebrafish are a valuable model for mammalian lipid metabolism; larvae process lipids similarly through the intestine and hepatobiliary system and respond to drugs that block cholesterol synthesis in humans. After ingestion of fluorescently quenched phospholipids, endogenous lipase activity and rapid transport of cleavage products results in intense gall bladder fluorescence. Genetic screening identifies zebrafish mutants, such as fat free, that show normal digestive organ morphology but severely reduced phospholipid and cholesterol processing. Thus, fluorescent lipids provide a sensitive readout of lipid metabolism and are a powerful tool for identifying genes that mediate vertebrate digestive physiology.
Joining retinal vessel segments

A new method is introduced for joining vessel segments together to form a vessel graph. Using a reference image set from the Sunderland Eye Infirmary, we analysed the retinal bifurcation geometry, to define measurements for the geometrical junction features. These distinctive measurements are employed to resolve the junctions. Self organized feature maps (SOFM) are used to ldquolearnrdquo cost functions for forming bifurcation and bridge forms. The system joins segments depending on their ldquoprojective intersectionsrdquo and the SOFM cost functions. The system includes algorithms to handle overlapping and parallel segments. Transferring the vascular network to a vascular graph provides an opportunity to extract more information and to calculate features that have been not previously calculated, by providing new measurements from graph theory.
A Learning Objects Recommendation Model based on the Preference and Ontological Approaches

With vigorous development of Internet, especially the Web page interaction technology, distant e-learning has become more and more realistic and popular. Digital courses may consist of many learning units or learning objects and, currently, many learning objects are created according to SCORM standard. It can be seen that, in the near future, a vast amount of SCORM-compliant learning objects will be published and distributed cross the Internet. Facing the huge volume of learning objects, learners will be lost in selecting suitable and favorite learning objects. In this paper an adaptive personalized ranking mechanism is proposed to help recommend SCORM-compliant learning objects from repositories in the Internet. The mechanism uses both preference-based and neighbor-interest-based approaches in ranking the degree of relevance of learning objects to a user's intension. By this model, a tutoring system is able to provide easily and efficiently for active learners suitable learning objects
Effect of Aripiprazole on Mismatch Negativity (MMN) in Schizophrenia

Background Cognitive deficits are considered core symptoms of the schizophrenia. Cognitive function has been found to be a better predictor of functional outcome than symptom levels. Changed mismatch negativity (MMN) reflects abnormalities of early auditory processing in schizophrenia. Up to now, no studies for the effects of aripiprazole on MMN in schizophrenia have been reported. Methodology/Principal Findings Subjects included 26 patients with schizophrenia, and 26 controls. Psychopathology was rated in patients with the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) at baseline, after 4- and 8-week treatments with aripiprazole. Auditory stimuli for ERP consisted of 100 millisecond/1000 Hz standards, intermixed with 100 millisecond/1500 Hz frequency deviants and 250 millisecond/1000 Hz duration deviants. EEG was recorded at Fz. BESA 5.1. 8 was used to perform data analysis. MMN waveforms were obtained by subtracting waveforms elicited by standards from waveforms elicited by frequency- or duration-deviant stimuli. Aripiprazole decreased all PANSS. Patients showed smaller mean amplitudes of frequency and duration MMN at baseline than did controls. A repeated measure ANOVA with sessions (i.e., baseline, 4- and 8-week treatments) and MMN type (frequency vs. duration) as within-subject factors revealed no significant MMN type or MMN type × session main effect for MMN amplitudes. Session main effect was significant. LSD tests demonstrated significant differences between MMN amplitudes at 8 weeks and those at both baseline and 4 weeks. There was significant negative correlation between changes in amplitudes of frequency and duration MMN and changes in PANSS total scores at baseline and follow-up periods. Conclusions Aripiprazole improved the amplitudes of MMN. MMN offers objective evidence that treatment with the aripiprazole may ameliorate preattentive deficits in schizophrenia.
A closed-form expression for BER to quantify MAI for synchronous DS-CDMA multi-user detector

A closed-form expression to determine an average error rate for synchronous DS-CDMA multi-user detector is derived based on the transformation matrix (TM) algorithm proposed in [1]. The derived expression for average bit error rate (BER) can be used to produce higher and consistent values of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) that consequently results good quality signal. In addition, the closed-form expression can be used to quantify the multiple access interference (MAI) for a desirable BER performance by which unwanted signals or interference can be suppressed relative to the desired signal at the receiving end. The derived closed-form expression for BER is not only shown to substantially improve the performance of the multiuser detectors by means of higher values of SNR but also has much lower MAI. The performance measure adopted in this paper is the achievable bit rate for a fixed probability of bit error (10-7) and the consistent values of SNR.
Selenium in Cattle: A Review

This review article examines the role of selenium (Se) and the effects of Se supplementation especially in the bovine species. Selenium is an important trace element in cattle. Some of its roles include the participation in the antioxidant defense the cattle farms. The nutritional requirements of Se in cattle are estimated at 100 μg/kg DM (dry matter) for beef cattle and at 300 μg/kg DM for dairy cows. The rations high in fermentable carbohydrates, nitrates, sulfates, calcium or hydrogen cyanide negatively influence the organism’s use of the selenium contained in the diet. The Se supplementation may reduce the incidence of metritis and ovarian cysts during the postpartum period. The increase in fertility when adding Se is attributed to the reduction of the embryonic death during the first month of gestation. A use of organic Se in feed would provide a better transfer of Se in calves relative to mineral Se supplementation. The addition of Se yeasts in the foodstuffs of cows significantly increases the Se content and the percentage of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) in milk compared to the addition of sodium selenite. The enzyme 5-iodothyronine deiodinase is a seleno-dependent selenoprotein. It is one of the last proteins to be affected in the event of Se deficiency. This delay in response could explain the fact that several studies did not show the effect of Se supplementation on growth and weight gain of calves. Enrichment of Se in the diet did not significantly affect the slaughter weight and carcass yield of bulls. The impact and results of Se supplementation in cattle depend on physiological stage, Se status of animals, type and content of Se and types of Se administration. Further studies in Se supplementation should investigate the speciation of Se in food and yeasts, as well as understanding their metabolism and absorption. This constitute a path to exploit in order to explain certain different effects of Se.