Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Establishment of a lectotype for the species Plesiochelys langii Rütimeyer, 1873

Background. In a recent paper, we proposed a lectotype for the species Plesiochelys langii Rütimeyer, 1873. However, we failed to register this publication in ZooBank as required by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) for electronic publication. Although our conclusions remain unchanged, this particular nomenclatural act cannot be considered as published under ICZN regulations. Results. The present work fulfills the requirements of the ICZN for a lectotype designation and has been registered in ZooBank.
Efficient Cryptographic Access Control Protocol for Sensitive Data Management

In view of sensitive datamanagement, an efficient cryptographic access control scheme is proposed. Basedon attribute-based encryption, the proposed scheme not only inheritsflexibility and fine-grained access control for users, but also realizes cryptographicmanagement for servers. In additional, the scheme alleviates the administeringburdens on the server, and handle dynamic access policies in a more efficientand cryptographic way. Compared with the existing system, the scheme relievesthe server from intense encryption /decryption processing, and achievesreliable decentralized encryption /decryption with good scalability andefficiency.
Buruli ulcer disease. Mycobacterium ulcerans infection.

Background1 Buruli ulcer is a widespread disease that can result in severe disfigurement. It is caused by Mycobacterium ulcerans, an environmental mycobacterium that produces a destructive toxin called mycolactone. The disease occurs in swampy, humid areas. The exact mode of transmission is not known and treatment is principally surgical. Buruli ulcer affects mainly children living in remote rural areas, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Early detection and early treatment prevent complications of the disease. Most patients in Africa present during the late stages of disease as a consequence of several factors, including limited access to medical care. Buruli ulcer is endemic in at least 30 countries. In 1998, WHO established the Global Buruli Ulcer Initiative to coordinate control and research efforts. The first International Conference on Buruli Ulcer Control and Research was organized by WHO that same year in Yamoussoukro, Côte d’Ivoire.
'Re'- Presentation: What Does Michael R. Kane Represent?

Disch's critique on the metaphysic of presence allows us to re-evaluate the Rousseau v. Madison debate in order to rethink political representation. In both theories we find equality among men as an undisputed issue, as given in advance, in the same way in which the original 're' of Pitkin's definition of re-presentation creates givenness-in-advance as one of its effects (Disch, 2008: 31). Rousseau's rational ideal attempts to assure a pre-given equality by means of radical autonomy, while Madison institutional design does so by a theory ofrepresentation and a system of checks and balances. However, equality remains unproblematic by these meta-political projects, when it is precisely the problematic character of equality that is at odds with political representation inside the concept itself. When we say that Michael F. Kane represents the City of Holyoke (in theMassachusetts legislature), we falsely reshape Holyoke in the distorted image of Michael F. Kane. By opposing this fictional white-Irish-Christian-bourgeois-democrat-conservative-male community with the City of Holyoke, we can devise the internal limits of the concept of re-presentation. The City of Holyoke is iteratively 're'-presented in Michael F. Kane, because it is absent (Macherey,1978). Michael F. Kane (taken as a representative) represents the City of Holyoke (taken as constituency) to the extent that there is not a City of Holyoke beyond the self-contained process of 're'-presentation. There is not a constituency that is represented, but a 're'-presentation that builds itself overa re-invention of the same constituency, once and again in its repetition, which means the absence of a diversity incapable of being repeated and so always put into the margins of Michael F. Kane's fictional identity.
Evaluation of Empirical Ray-Tracing Model for an Urban Outdoor Scenario at 73 GHz E-Band

In the summer of 2013, a wideband propagation measurement campaign using rotating directional antennas at 73 GHz was conducted at the New York University (NYU) campus, in order to collect extensive field measurements for use in a millimeter wave (mmWave) E-band statistical channel model. While the measurement campaign provided over 50 Gigabytes of wideband power delay profiles and angular responses [1], [2], the time and labor intensive measurements were based on only 5 transmitter (Tx) locations and 27 receiver (Rx) locations, making up a total of 74 Tx-Rx link combinations. To help generalize the measurements for immediate model development and eventual site planning, this paper presents an empirical ray-tracing model, with the goal of finding a suitable approach such that ray-tracing (RT) can fill in the gaps of the measurements. Here, we use the measured data to investigate the prediction capability of an empirical RT model, in which the 3D model of New York City (including the building structures and interaction losses) are greatly simplified. The comparison between the measured and predicted results show good accuracy is obtained when a simplified RT model is used, suggesting that fast and simple ray tracers will be able to correctly predict the propagation characteristics at mmWave bands.
Endo‐exonucleases: Enzymes involved in DNA repair and cell death?

Endo‐exonucleases from E. coli to man, although very different proteins, are multifunctional enzymes with similar enzymatic activities. They probably have two common but opposing biological roles. On the one hand, they promote survival of the organism by acting in recombination and recombinational DNA repair to diversify and help preserve the genome intact. On the other hand, they degrade the genomic DNA when it is damaged beyond repair. This ensures elimination of heavily mutagenized cells from the population.
Electric and magnetic fields and field derivatives from lightning stepped leaders and first return strokes measured at distances from 100 to

[1] Using electric and magnetic field and field derivative sensors arrayed over an area of about 1 km, we measured the close fields of stepped leaders and first return strokes in 18 negative cloud-to-ground lightning flashes at distances to individual sensors ranging from about 100 m to about 1 km. We present examples of the close field waveforms along with their statistical characterization as a function of the distance to the lightning. Statistical data are presented for the half-peak width of the stepped-leader/return-stroke electric field waveform; the stepped-leader electric field change; the return-stroke electric field change at 20, 100, and 1000 ms after return-stroke initiation; the peak electric field derivative; the risetime of the electric field derivative waveform; and the magnetic field initial peak, largest peak, risetime, and half-peak width. For example, in the 100–200 m range, the average half-peak width of the leader/return-stroke electric field change was about 0.8 ms; the average observed leader electric field change was about 40 kV m ; the average return-stroke electric field change at 20 ms was about 35 kV m ; and the average peak electric field derivative was about 15 kV m 1 ms , the largest unsaturated measurement being about 20 kV m 1 ms . Peak derivative values observed at close range are consistent with derivative measurements made for return strokes over salt water at distances of some tens of kilometers if an inverse-distance dependence is assumed for the field amplitude.
A Note on Indices of Creativity

A number of investigators (Flescher, 1963; Getzels & Jackson, 1962; Torrance, 1962) have followed the practice of arriving at an index of creativity through summing an individual's scores on a number of measures purportedly measuring creativity. Thorndike ( 1963) pointed out that the correlations among the creativity tests employed by Getzels and Jackson were not high. T h e same can be said of findings reported by both Flescher and Torrance. More recently, Wallach and Kogan ( 1965 ) have discussed the dimensionality of tescs of creativity and rightly point out that, when several scores are summed, it is assumed that the components entering into the sum are comparable to one another in their psychological meaning. Where low correlations among the components are in evidence, a composite based upon the components can be arrived at in a number of psychologically different ways. As Holzinger (1944) has shown, a composite based upon the sum of the standard scores of the tests comprising a battery is an approximation of the first centroid factor of the tests so combined. A score representing the first centroid factor is meaningful only i f the tests which are combined measure essentially a single common factor. If the correlations of a set of creativity tescs approach the reliabilities of the individual tests, this condition is satisfied and combining the measures will serve to increase the reliability with which creativity is measured. Investigators wishing to combine measures of creativity or those of any other domain by summing their standard scores should assure themselves that the measures so combined do, in fact, reflect substantial common factor variance. REFERENCES FLESCHER, I. Anxiety and achievement of intellectually gifted and creatively gifted children. I. Psychol. , 1963, 56, 251-268. GETZELS, J. W. , & JACKSON, P. W. Creativity and intelligence. New York: Wiley, 1962. HOLZINGER, K. Factoring test scores and implications for the method of averages. Prychometrika, 1944,9 , 155-167. THORNDIKE, R. L. Some methodological issues i n the study of creativity. In Proceedings of he 1962 Invitational Conference on Testing Problems. Princeton, N. J.: Educational Testing Service, 1963. Pp. 40-54. TORRANCE, E. P. Guiding creative talent. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1962. WALLACH, M. A,, & KOGAN, N. Modes o f thinking in yorrng children. New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston, 1965.
Rethinking Distributed Query Execution on High-Speed Networks

In modern high-speed RDMA-capable networks, the bandwidth to transfer data across machines is getting close to the bandwidth of the local memory bus. Recent work has started to investigate how to redesign individual distributed query operators to best leverage RDMA. However, all these novel RDMA-based query operators are still designed for a classical shared-nothing architecture that relies on a shufﬂe-based execution model to redistribute the data. In this paper, we revisit query execution for distributed database systems on fast networks in a more holistic manner by reconsidering all aspects from the overall database architecture, over the partitioning scheme to the execution model. Our experiments show that in the best case our prototype database system called I-Store, which is designed for fast networks from scratch, provides 3 (cid:2) speed-up over a shufﬂe-based execution model that was optimized for RDMA.
Metformin Protects H9C2 Cardiomyocytes from High-Glucose and Hypoxia/Reoxygenation Injury via Inhibition of Reactive Oxygen Species Generation and Inflammatory Responses: Role of AMPK and JNK

Metformin is a first-line drug for the management of type 2 diabetes. Recent studies suggested cardioprotective effects of metformin against ischemia/reperfusion injury. However, it remains elusive whether metformin provides direct protection against hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R) injury in cardiomyocytes under normal or hyperglycemic conditions. This study in H9C2 rat cardiomyoblasts was designed to determine cell viability under H/R and high-glucose (HG, 33 mM) conditions and the effects of cotreatment with various concentrations of metformin (0, 1, 5, and 10 mM). We further elucidated molecular mechanisms underlying metformin-induced cytoprotection, especially the possible involvement of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) and Jun NH(2)-terminal kinase (JNK). Results indicated that 5 mM metformin improved cell viability, mitochondrial integrity, and respiratory chain activity under HG and/or H/R (P < 0.05). The beneficial effects were associated with reduced levels of reactive oxygen species generation and proinflammatory cytokines (TNF-α, IL-1α, and IL-6) (P < 0.05). Metformin enhanced phosphorylation level of AMPK and suppressed HG + H/R induced JNK activation. Inhibitor of AMPK (compound C) or activator of JNK (anisomycin) abolished the cytoprotective effects of metformin. In conclusion, our study demonstrated for the first time that metformin possessed direct cytoprotective effects against HG and H/R injury in cardiac cells via signaling mechanisms involving activation of AMPK and concomitant inhibition of JNK.
Reconfigurable Fiducial-Integrated Modular Needle Driver for MRI-Guided Percutaneous Interventions

Needle-based interventions are pervasive in Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS), and are often used in a number of diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, including biopsy and brachytherapy seed placement. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) which can provide high quality, real time and high soft tissue contrast imaging, is an ideal guidance tool for image-guided therapy (IGT). Therefore, a MRI-guided needle-based surgical robot proves to have great potential in the application of percutaneous interventions. Presented here is the design of reconfigurable fiducial-integrated modular needle driver for MRI-guided percutaneous interventions. Further, an MRI-compatible hardware control system has been developed and enhanced to drive piezoelectric ultrasonic motors for a previously developed base robot designed to support the modular needle driver. A further contribution is the development of a fiber optic sensing system to detect robot position and joint limits. A transformer printed circuit board (PCB) and an interface board with integrated fiber optic limit sensing have been developed and tested to integrate the robot with the piezoelectric actuator control system designed by AIM Lab for closed loop control of ultrasonic Shinsei motors. A series of experiments were performed to evaluate the feasibility and accuracy of the modular needle driver. Bench top tests were conducted to validate the transformer board, fiber optic limit sensing and interface board in a lab environment. Finally, the whole robot control system was tested inside the MRI room to evaluate its MRI compatibility and stability.
Development of lipophilic cations as therapies for disorders due to mitochondrial dysfunction

Mitochondrial dysfunction causes or exacerbates a number of diseases. These include genetic disorders such as Friedreich’s ataxia where the primary lesion is a defect in a nuclear gene and those diseases caused by mutations to mitochondrial DNA. Mitochondrial damage also contributes to neurodegenerative diseases, diabetes and ischaemia-reperfusion injury. Drug therapies to prevent or alleviate mitochondrial dysfunction use redox active compounds, anti-oxidants or mitochondrial co-factors, however, their effectiveness is limited. A promising approach to increase the selectivity and potency of these compounds is to modify them so that they concentrate within mitochondria. This can be done by incorporating a lipophilic cation which causes the molecules to concentrate several hundred-fold in mitochondria, driven by the membrane potential across the inner membrane. As lipophilic cations cross biological membranes easily, they can be delivered to mitochondria of the heart, brain and skeletal muscle, the organs most affected by mitochondrial damage. Mitochondria-targeted lipophilic cations may lead to improved therapies for diseases involving mitochondrial dysfunction.
Personalized Attention @ Scale: Talk Isn't Cheap, But It's Effective

Fostering an effective learning environment in large classes is a challenge: instructors and teaching assistants are stretched thin across many students, students often lack opportunities for personal interaction with course staff, and the size of the classes makes them seem impersonal. Furthermore, students in large classes can often find solutions to their labs and assignments online or copy them from other students, diminishing their impetus to learn and raising plagiarism concerns. This paper describes our experience and evaluation of an assessment method that resolves many of these problems and appears to scale to large classes of 600+ students. Using this method, students are evaluated via a combination of automatic grading mechanisms (or clear objective rubrics) and a 1-on-1 "grading interview". The grading interview serves to ensure the provenance of the student's work product and their depth of understanding. This change allows us to make more effective use of peer-instruction and pair-programming in our courses. It also provides the ability to re-use assignments, the insurance of timely feedback to students, and the opportunity for individualized staff attention. This paper describes variations on this method across numerous classes over the past seven years, some of the goals of this method, modifications and adaptations of the method over time, and the student experience of using this method based on survey feedback.
Spatial relationship of i-gel® and Ambu® AuraOnceTM on pediatric airway: a randomized comparison based on three dimensional magnetic resonance imaging.

BACKGROUND Gross morphological differences exist among different brands of pediatric supraglottic devices (SGDs). The aim of this study is to compare the spatial relationship of i-gel® and Ambu® AuraOnce (AO)TM on pediatric airway based on three dimensional (3-D) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measurements. METHODS Sixty patients up to 12 years of age were enrolled and assigned in two groups, i-gel® or Ambu® AOTM. After confirmation of proper placement of these SGDs, 3-D MRI scans of head and neck were performed. Another native scan was also obtained after removal of the SGD for comparison. RESULTS i-gel® produced significant degree of compression of the tongue (P<0.001) while Ambu® AOTM significantly reduced the axial diameter of glottis (P=0.033) compared to their native values. Both i-gel® and Ambu® AOTM significantly reduced the area of the glottic opening (P<0.001 for each device) and the distance between the arytenoids (P<0.001 and P=0.007 respectively); and increased the distance between the hyoid bone and cervical spine (P<0.001 and P=0.001 respectively) in comparison to their corresponding native values. Bowl of i-gel® produced greater dilation of the upper esophageal sphincter at all levels of measurement- upper (P<0.001), middle (P=0.001) and lower (P=0.015) in comparison to Ambu® AOTM. CONCLUSIONS Based on 3-D MRI measurements done on living patients, both SGDs distorted the anatomy of pediatric airway compared to their respective native values to variable extent. The relevance of these effects needs further studies on larger patient group in order to reduce morbidity on pediatric airway.
Robust Adaptive Extended Kalman Filtering for Real Time MR-Thermometry Guided HIFU Interventions

Real time magnetic resonance (MR) thermometry is gaining clinical importance for monitoring and guiding high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) ablations of tumorous tissue. The temperature information can be employed to adjust the position and the power of the HIFU system in real time and to determine the therapy endpoint. The requirement to resolve both physiological motion of mobile organs and the rapid temperature variations induced by state-of-the-art high-power HIFU systems require fast MRI-acquisition schemes, which are generally hampered by low signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). This directly limits the precision of real time MR-thermometry and thus in many cases the feasibility of sophisticated control algorithms. To overcome these limitations, temporal filtering of the temperature has been suggested in the past, which has generally an adverse impact on the accuracy and latency of the filtered data. Here, we propose a novel filter that aims to improve the precision of MR-thermometry while monitoring and adapting its impact on the accuracy. For this, an adaptive extended Kalman filter using a model describing the heat transfer for acoustic heating in biological tissues was employed together with an additional outlier rejection to address the problem of sparse artifacted temperature points. The filter was compared to an efficient matched FIR filter and outperformed the latter in all tested cases. The filter was first evaluated on simulated data and provided in the worst case (with an approximate configuration of the model) a substantial improvement of the accuracy by a factor 3 and 15 during heat up and cool down periods, respectively. The robustness of the filter was then evaluated during HIFU experiments on a phantom and in vivo in porcine kidney. The presence of strong temperature artifacts did not affect the thermal dose measurement using our filter whereas a high measurement variation of 70% was observed with the FIR filter.
Content description and classification for Image recognition system

In this paper, an heterogeneous image recognition system based on content description and classification is proposed. In this system and for an heterogeneous image database several features extraction methods are used and applied to better describes the images content. The features relevance is tested and improved through support vectors machines (SVMs) classifier of the consequent images index database. The obtained accuracy recognition of proposed system is evaluated on heterogeneous images database using precision/recall curves.
Text-image alignment for historical handwritten documents

We describe our work on text-image alignment in context of building a historical document retrieval system. We aim at aligning images of words in handwritten lines with their text transcriptions. The images of handwritten lines are automatically segmented from the scanned pages of historical documents and then manually transcribed. To train automatic routines to detect words in an image of handwritten text, we need a training set - images of words with their transcriptions. We present our results on aligning words from the images of handwritten lines and their corresponding text transcriptions. Alignment based on the longest spaces between portions of handwriting is a baseline. We then show that relative lengths, i.e. proportions of words in their lines, can be used to improve the alignment results considerably. To take into account the relative word length, we define the expressions for the cost function that has to be minimized for aligning text words with their images. We apply right to left alignment as well as alignment based on exhaustive search. The quality assessment of these alignments shows correct results for 69% of words from 100 lines, or 90% of partially correct and correct alignments combined.