Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Mind for Structure: Exploring the Roots of Intelligent Systems

This book is an attempt to offer foundations for understanding the evolution and nature of cognitive functions. It argues that what has been missing is a full appreciation of the complexity of environmental change; how it furnishes important dynamic structure; and how the increasing complexity, and associated abstraction, of that structure, has driven the evolution of complex systems, especially of cognitive functions. The book shows how recent dynamic systems theory is leading to a better appreciation of environmental structure and how the origins of life itself are based on such structure. The book then goes on to illustrate evolving capacities for the abstraction of structure in genetic and epigenetic systems; in cell signalling and developmental systems; and in perceptual and cognitive systems, reaching a new potency in human socio-cognitive abilities. The idea has many implications for research and theory on the human mind; for the goals and purposes of science itself in such dynamic fields; and for the nature of interventions in many practical domains.
Methods for calculating the absolute entropy and free energy of biological systems based on ideas from polymer physics

The commonly used simulation techniques, Metropolis Monte Carlo (MC) and molecular dynamics (MD) are of a dynamical type which enables one to sample system configurations i correctly with the Boltzmann probability, P iB , while the value of P iB is not provided directly; therefore, it is difficult to obtain the absolute entropy, S ∼ −ln P iB , and the Helmholtz free energy, F. With a different simulation approach developed in polymer physics, a chain is grown step‐by‐step with transition probabilities (TPs), and thus their product is the value of the construction probability; therefore, the entropy is known. Because all exact simulation methods are equivalent, i.e. they lead to the same averages and fluctuations of physical properties, one can treat an MC or MD sample as if its members have rather been generated step‐by‐step. Thus, each configuration i of the sample can be reconstructed (from nothing) by calculating the TPs with which it could have been constructed. This idea applies also to bulk systems such as fluids or magnets. This approach has led earlier to the “local states” (LS) and the “hypothetical scanning” (HS) methods, which are approximate in nature. A recent development is the hypothetical scanning Monte Carlo (HSMC) (or molecular dynamics, HSMD) method which is based on stochastic TPs where all interactions are taken into account. In this respect, HSMC(D) can be viewed as exact and the only approximation involved is due to insufficient MC(MD) sampling for calculating the TPs. The validity of HSMC has been established by applying it first to liquid argon, TIP3P water, self‐avoiding walks (SAW), and polyglycine models, where the results for F were found to agree with those obtained by other methods. Subsequently, HSMD was applied to mobile loops of the enzymes porcine pancreatic α‐amylase and acetylcholineesterase in explicit water, where the difference in F between the bound and free states of the loop was calculated. Currently, HSMD is being extended for calculating the absolute and relative free energies of ligand–enzyme binding. We describe the whole approach and discuss future directions. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Pharmacologic and intermittent pneumatic compression thromboembolic prophylaxis in 563 consecutives abdominoplasty cases

Background: Abdominoplasty is a common cosmetic surgery and is subject to the same complications as any surgical procedure, including thromboembolic phenomena. The aim of this study was to assess the incidence of complications in consecutive abdominoplasties performed over a 3-year period, to identify risk factors for the complications, and to compare the efficacy of two protocols for prevention of thromboembolism. Methods: A retrospective study was conducted of 563 patients who underwent isolated abdominoplasty or abdominoplasty combined with additional cosmetic surgeries between March 2008 and April 2011. All patients received thromboembolism prophylaxis using either pharmacological (enoxaparin; 357 patients) or mechanical (intermittent pneumatic compression, IPC; 206 patients) protocols. Results: Of the 563 patients studied, 4 (0.7%) were male (0.7%) and 559 (99.3%) were female. The patients underwent isolated abdominoplasty (201; 35.7%) or abdominoplasty combined with other procedures (362; 64.3%). The patient groups receiving pharmacological and mechanical prophylaxis presented similar demographic and clinical characteristics and had similar risk factors for thromboembolic events. The incidence of complications in the patient groups undergoing pharmacological versus mechanical prophylaxis were: hematoma (5.6% vs. 10.7%), infection (2.2% vs. 2.4%), dehiscence (3.1% vs. 1.9%), seroma (2.2% vs. 2.4%), and deep vein thrombosis/pulmonary embolism (0.6% vs. 0.5%). There were no statistically significant differences in the incidence of complications between the two groups. Conclusion: The incidence of complications in 563 consecutive cases of abdominoplasty was similar to that reported in the literature. The pharmacological and mechanical protocols for thromboembolic prophylaxis in abdominoplasty were equally effective.
Partially linear mixed-effects joint models for skewed and missing longitudinal competing risks outcomes

ABSTRACT Longitudinal competing risks data frequently arise in clinical studies. Skewness and missingness are commonly observed for these data in practice. However, most joint models do not account for these data features. In this article, we propose partially linear mixed-effects joint models to analyze skew longitudinal competing risks data with missingness. In particular, to account for skewness, we replace the commonly assumed symmetric distributions by asymmetric distribution for model errors. To deal with missingness, we employ an informative missing data model. The joint models that couple the partially linear mixed-effects model for the longitudinal process, the cause-specific proportional hazard model for competing risks process and missing data process are developed. To estimate the parameters in the joint models, we propose a fully Bayesian approach based on the joint likelihood. To illustrate the proposed model and method, we implement them to an AIDS clinical study. Some interesting findings are reported. We also conduct simulation studies to validate the proposed method.
Variable Expression of Pathogenesis-Related Protein Allergen in Mountain Cedar (Juniperus ashei) Pollen1

Allergic diseases have been increasing in industrialized countries. The environment is thought to have both direct and indirect modulatory effects on disease pathogenesis, including alterating on the allergenicity of pollens. Certain plant proteins known as pathogenesis-related proteins appear to be up-regulated by certain environmental conditions, including pollutants, and some have emerged as important allergens. Thus, the prospect of environmentally regulated expression of plant-derived allergens becomes yet another potential environmental influence on allergic disease. We have identified a novel pathogenesis-related protein allergen, Jun a 3, from mountain cedar (Juniperus ashei) pollen. The serum IgE from patients with hypersensitivity to either mountain cedar or Japanese cedar were shown to bind to native and recombinant Jun a 3 in Western blot analysis and ELISA. Jun a 3 is homologous to members of the thaumatin-like pathogenesis-related (PR-5) plant protein family. The amounts of Jun a 3 extracted from mountain cedar pollen varied up to 5-fold in lots of pollen collected from the same region in different years and between different regions during the same year. Thus, Jun a 3 may contribute not only to the overall allergenicity of mountain cedar pollen, but variable levels of Jun a 3 may alter the allergenic potency of pollens produced under different environmental conditions.
The Effects of Explicitness and Clause Order on the Comprehension of Reversible Causal Relationships.

THE PURPOSE OF THE STUDIES reported here was to examine the effects of clause order and explicitness on fifth-grade and college-level students' comprehension of reversible causal relationships. Four versions of each of the experimental passages were developed: the explicit-normal clause order version, the implicit-normal clause order version, the explicit-reverse clause order version, and the implicit-reverse clause order version. Comprehension was measured by means of a forced-choice task. The results of the fifth-grade study indicated that the explicit-condition groups had a higher level of comprehension of the causal relationships than did the implicitcondition groups. The level of comprehension of all the fifth-grade groups was generally quite low, however, and clause order was not a significant variable in that study. In the college-level study, both explicitness and clause order were significant factors.
Two-dimensional magnetic resonance digital subtraction angiography using array spatial sensitivity encoding techniques in the assessment of intracranial hemodynamics.

OBJECTIVE Array spatial sensitivity encoding techniques (ASSET) were employed to improve the temporal resolution of two-dimensional (2D) thick-slice contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance digital subtraction angiography (MRDSA). METHODS 2D MRDSA using ASSET was performed in 28 patients via fast spoiled gradient-echo sequence (TR/TE 5.4/1.5 ms; FA 60; FOV 24x24 cm; matrix size 256x256; slicethickness 50-70 mm), followed by a bolus injection of gadolinium chelate and subsequent saline flush, for 40 seconds on a sagittal plane. Images were evaluated for visualization of normal intracranial vessels and brain lesions utilizing a three-point scale; additionally, in 10 of the 28 patients, results were compared with those of conventional 2D MRDSA. RESULTS 2D MRDSA using ASSET, which improved temporal resolution from 1.45 to 0.77 seconds, displayed image quality comparable to that of conventional 2D MRDSA. Moreover, this technique afforded superior detectability with respect to early venous filling in patients with arteriovenous malformations (AVMs). CONCLUSION ASSET improves the temporal resolution of 2D MRDSA without compromising spatial resolution.
Success rate of implants placed in autogenous bone blocks versus allogenic bone blocks: A systematic literature review

The aim of this study is to review and compare survival/success rate of dental implants inserted in autogenous and allogenic bone blocks (ALBs). A PubMed search was performed from January 1990 to June 2014 limited to English language and human studies. Studies that reported treatment outcome of implants inserted in augmented alveolar ridges with autogenous or ALBs were included. Primary search identified 470 studies. For autogenous bone block (ABB) 36 articles and for ALB 23 articles met the inclusion criteria. Evidence on implant survival/success rate of both techniques was limited to observational studies with relatively small sample sizes. Study design, treatment methods, follow-ups, defect location, and morphology varied among studies. The range of implant survival and success rates in ABB was from 73.8% to 100% and 72.8% to 100%, respectively. The corresponding numbers for ALB were 95.3–100% and 93.7–100%, respectively. A definite conclusion could not be reached. Future studies with long-term follow-ups are required to further elucidate this issue.
Processing of Facial Emotion in the Human Fusiform Gyrus

Electrophysiological and fMRI-based investigations of the ventral temporal cortex of primates provide strong support for regional specialization for the processing of faces. These responses are most frequently found in or near the fusiform gyrus, but there is substantial variability in their anatomical location and response properties. An outstanding question is the extent to which ventral temporal cortex participates in processing dynamic, expressive aspects of faces, a function usually attributed to regions near the superior temporal cortex. Here, we investigated these issues through intracranial recordings from eight human surgical patients. We compared several different aspects of face processing (static and dynamic faces; happy, neutral, and fearful expressions) with power in the high-gamma band (70–150 Hz) from a spectral analysis. Detailed mapping of the response characteristics as a function of anatomical location was conducted in relation to the gyral and sulcal pattern on each patient's brain. The results document responses with high responsiveness for static or dynamic faces, often showing abrupt changes in response properties between spatially close recording sites and idiosyncratic across different subjects. Notably, strong responses to dynamic facial expressions can be found in the fusiform gyrus, just as can responses to static faces. The findings suggest a more complex, fragmented architecture of ventral temporal cortex around the fusiform gyrus, one that includes focal regions of cortex that appear relatively specialized for either static or dynamic aspects of faces.
Living in Mythical Spaces

Jim March says ‘organization studies’ is a myth, a poetic concept that wraps fictional unity around a very diverse assortment of ideas and people. Artificiality and heterogeneity are intrinsic to organization studies. Organization studies must be artificial and heterogeneous because organizations themselves are artificial and heterogeneous. In a practical sense, the category called ‘organizations’ did not exist until the 1920s. Before the 1920s, people perceived churches, armies, companies, voluntary associations, governmental agencies and so forth as different things and they did not have a word to denote the union of them. The term ‘organization’ dates to Roman times, when people used it to denote a state of good health; they said an unhealthy person had a body that lacked organization. During the late 18th century, in rather direct analogy to the medical usage, some people began to speak of societies as possessing or lacking ‘organization’ (Starbuck 2003). When the 18th and 19th centuries brought proliferation of organizations, people used different names for different forms of them; and, late in the 19th century, people began to use the term ‘organization’ to denote a not-for-profit voluntary association formed for pleasure and shared interests, a social fraternity. Finally, during the 1920s and early 1930s, various writers started to talk about a more general category and, after experimenting with some alternative labels for this category, they settled on the term ‘organization’. This idea that churches, armies, companies, voluntary associations and governmental agencies all belong together as variations within a single category is not an incontestable fact but a hypothesis about the usefulness of a general category. The usefulness of this general category has to be demonstrated through application. So far, there is little or no evidence that this category is useful, so the existence of a category called ‘organizations’ remains a myth. In fact, during the 1960s and 1970s, a lot of statistical research sought to identify the common properties that researchers assumed to be shared by all kind of organizations, and this research basically demonstrated that the only properties shared by all organizations are ones that have no substantive importance (Starbuck 1993). Whereas people create organizations to do things that are not already being done, the desire to find general properties forced researchers to ignore or de-emphasize those properties that enable organizations to do distinctive things, and thus to exist (Starbuck 1981). After many studies over many Organization Studies 28(1): 21–25 ISSN 0170–8406 Copyright © 2007 SAGE Publications (London, Thousand Oaks, CA & New Delhi) William H. Starbuck University of Oregon, USA
Natural Products from Chinese Medicines with Potential Benefits to Bone Health

Osteoporosis is a progressive, systemic bone disorder characterized by loss of bone mass and microstructure, leading to reduced bone strength and increased risk of fracture. It is often associated with reduced quality of life and other medical complications. The disease is common in the aging population, particularly among postmenopausal women and patients who receive long-term steroidal therapy. Given the rapid growth of the aging population, increasing life expectancy, the prevalence of bone loss, and financial burden to the healthcare system and individuals, demand for new therapeutic agents and nutritional supplements for the management and promotion of bone health is pressing. With the advent of global interest in complementary and alternative medicine and natural products, Chinese medicine serves as a viable source to offer benefits for the improvement and maintenance of bone health. This review summarizes the scientific information obtained from recent literatures on the chemical ingredients of Chinese medicinal plants that have been reported to possess osteoprotective and related properties in cell-based and/or animal models. Some of these natural products (or their derivatives) may become promising leads for development into dietary supplements or therapeutic drugs.
Environmental Correlates of Physical Activity: A Review of Evidence about Parks and Recreation

Research on physical activity (PA) has expanded in recent years to examine environmental influences that enhance or limit the opportunities people have to be active. The purpose of this study was to review and critically examine evidence related to parks and recreation as features of the built environment and the relationship of these settings to PA. Fifty studies were retrieved from four major databases that reported an empirical relationship between parks or recreation variables and PA variables. Mixed associations with PA were observed for different types of parks or recreation settings, while proximity to parks or recreation was generally associated with increased PA. Shortcomings exist in this literature and many opportunities for researching parks, recreation, and active living are evident for the future.
Technology, Gender and Time: A Contribution to the Debate

Using the data collected from research carried out at two Portuguese universities, this article highlights the way university lecturers currently deal with space and time. Their professional activity is not externally subjected to a specific time geometry that defines their working day. Teaching and researching time–spaces are basically task oriented. Furthermore, university lecturers are increasingly requested to perform tasks in very short time periods in order to secure financial support. To a certain extent, this pressure upon their work is facilitated by the use of technology. However, technology also causes a profound reconfiguration of working times and spaces, especially because it allows lecturers to work at any time from anywhere. This not only renders university physical spaces and times virtual, but it also leads to the colonization of several other time–spaces of their social lives. This article analyses the ambivalence and difficulty of managing time–spaces, as described by the lecturers themselves, with the objective of providing a more accurate awareness of the implications of technology on their lives, as well as the hazards of the progressive externalization of academic work, particularly for women.
Economic and Feasibility Analysis for Stand–alone Solar Photovoltaic Generation System

The paper presents a feasibility computing approach to solve the optimal planning problem applied to Stand-alone Photovoltaic (SPV) system by considering the reliability requirement and economical performance. Evaluation technique based on genetic algorithm to get global optimum capacity of solar array and battery in a SPV system is more efficiently. Explicit strategy selects proper values of systems' parameters improving local exploration and avoiding trapped in local optimum. Different requirements of system reliability are investigated to achieve the optimal planning of a SPV system. Sensitivity analysis of components' cost and load profiles are conducted to demonstrate the impacts of system uncertainty. The solar radiation and temperature data from the Central Weather Bureau of Taiwan at four different locations were used.
Automatic segmentation and matching of planar contours for visual servoing

We present a complete system for segmenting, matching and tracking planar contours for use in visual servoing. Our system can be used with arbitrary contours of any shape and without any prior knowledge of their models. The system is first shown the target view. A selected contour is automatically extracted and its image shape is stored. The robot and object are then moved and the system automatically identifies the target. The matching step is done together with the estimation of the homography matrix between the two views of the contour. Then, a 2 1/2 D visual servoing technique is used to reposition the end-effector of a robot at the target position relative to the planar contour. The system has been successfully tested on several contours with very complex shapes such as leaves, keys and the coastal outlines of islands.
The DUBm subunit Sgf11 is required for mRNA export and interacts with Cbp80 in Drosophila

SAGA/TFTC is a histone acetyltransferase complex that has a second enzymatic activity because of the presence of a deubiquitination module (DUBm). Drosophila DUBm consists of Sgf11, ENY2 and Nonstop proteins. We show that Sgf11 has other DUBm-independent functions. It associates with Cbp80 component of the cap-binding complex and is thereby recruited onto growing messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA); it also interacts with the AMEX mRNA export complex and is essential for hsp70 mRNA export, as well as for general mRNA export from the nucleus. Thus, Sgf11 functions as a component of both SAGA DUBm and the mRNA biogenesis machinery.
Inkjet-printed sensors on paper substrate for agricultural applications

In this paper, recent progresses in inkjet-printed sensors on paper substrate is introduced. The advantages of inkjet-printing technology and paper substrate for agricultural applications are discussed. Inkjet-printed RFID-enabled sensor, inkjet-printed retro-directive dual band transponder and inkjet-printed sensor platform are presented as design examples.
Testing General Relativity with Pulsar Timing

Pulsars of very different types, including isolated objects and binaries (with short- and long-period orbits, and white-dwarf and neutron-star companions) provide the means to test both the predictions of general relativity and the viability of alternate theories of gravity. This article presents an overview of pulsars, then discusses the current status of and future prospects for tests of equivalence-principle violations and strong-field gravitational experiments.
A Numeric Watermark Method Based on Valve-Value Surface

This paper proposes a digital watermarking method based on valve-value surface. First it builds the valve value of curve surface of the original image to get the outline information of the original image; then it embeds watermarks into the edge of the outline. Because the function used by the method to build valve-value surface has high gliding property and easy interpolation ability, the method has strong resistance to attacks like filtering and zooming. The experimental outcome shows that the method has the above advantages.