Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Successful leveraging of image processing and machine learning in seismic structural interpretation: A review

As a process that identifies geologic structures of interest such as faults, salt domes, or elements of petroleum systems in general, seismic structural interpretation depends heavily on the domain knowledge and experience of interpreters as well as visual cues of geologic structures, such as texture and geometry. With the dramatic increase in size of seismic data acquired for hydrocarbon exploration, structural interpretation has become more time consuming and labor intensive. By treating seismic data as images rather than signal traces, researchers have been able to utilize advanced image-processing and machine-learning techniques to assist interpretation directly. In this paper, we mainly focus on the interpretation of two important geologic structures, faults and salt domes, and summarize interpretation workflows based on typical or advanced image-processing and machine-learning algorithms. In recent years, increasing computational power and the massive amount of available data have led to the rise of deep learning. Deep-learning models that simulate the human brain's biological neural networks can achieve state-of-the-art accuracy and even exceed human-level performance on numerous applications. The convolutional neural network — a form of deep-learning model that is effective in analyzing visual imagery — has been applied in fault and salt dome interpretation. At the end of this review, we provide insight and discussion on the future of structural interpretation.
Robustification of a map aided location process using road direction

Enhanced maps (Emaps) have proven their ability in aiding vehicle navigation, by applying constraints to lateral position of the vehicle. This is actually being demonstrated for instance in the frame of several lane level CVIS applications (Cooperative Vehicle Infrastructure Systems, a 6th Framework Programme Integrated Project). In some other research activities, the road direction between nodes or shape points of digital maps appeared to be of great interest as a possible way to improve vehicle heading estimation. Under this process, one assumes that both the vehicle and the road have most of time the same direction. In this article, we propose that the road geometry is described in Emaps by clothoids and contributes to vehicle location in a Bayesian framework by means of a particle filter. Actually, the road direction is a parameter very easily obtained when the road is precisely depicted by series of clothoids and acts as a strong constraint in the location process. Furthermore, the very challenging question of whether a GPS position should be accepted or rejected in such a filter has also been investigated. A strategy that aims at rewarding GPS instead of dead reckoning in case of lateral deviation is shown, with interesting results in particular for an on-board low-cost gyroscope.
EliScholar – A Digital Platform for EliScholar – A Digital Platform for Scholarly Publishing at Yale Scholarly Publishing at Yale

This paper explores the factors which eliminated the nonperforming loan (NPL) problem in Malaysia and Thailand following the 1997 Asian ﬁ nancial crisis. The number of NPL, which expanded in the aftermath of the crisis, has since declined in most South-East Asian countries. Although previous studies haveexploredthecausesof the increase in NPLnumbers,few haveanalysedthe factorsthat contributed to the reduction in their number in Asia. In Malaysia and Thailand, authorities put in place several measures to manage NPL. As a vehicle to acquire NPL from banks, Malaysia established the Pengurusan Danaharta Nasional Berhad (Danaharta) in 1998, while Thailand established the Thai Asset Management Corporation (TAMC) in 2001. We analyse whether the characteristic features of banks, improvements in macroeconomic conditions, and facilities for purchasing loans caused a reduction in the number of NPL in Malaysia and Thailand. The results suggest that selling loans to a public asset management company waseffectivein reducingthe number of NPLinThailand. Whilemacroeco-nomic conditions in ﬂ uenced the decline in NPL ratios in Thailand, in Malaysia, well performing commercial banks and large commercial and investment banks generally had smaller NPL ratios throughout and following the crisis.
Sequence-Level Analysis of the Diploidization Process in the Triplicated FLOWERING LOCUS C Region of Brassica rapa[W][OA]

Strong evidence exists for polyploidy having occurred during the evolution of the tribe Brassiceae. We show evidence for the dynamic and ongoing diploidization process by comparative analysis of the sequences of four paralogous Brassica rapa BAC clones and the homologous 124-kb segment of Arabidopsis thaliana chromosome 5. We estimated the times since divergence of the paralogous and homologous lineages. The three paralogous subgenomes of B. rapa triplicated 13 to 17 million years ago (MYA), very soon after the Arabidopsis and Brassica divergence occurred at 17 to 18 MYA. In addition, a pair of BACs represents a more recent segmental duplication, which occurred ∼0.8 MYA, and provides an exception to the general expectation of three paralogous segments within the B. rapa genome. The Brassica genome segments show extensive interspersed gene loss relative to the inferred structure of the ancestral genome, whereas the Arabidopsis genome segment appears little changed. Representatives of all 32 genes in the Arabidopsis genome segment are represented in Brassica, but the hexaploid complement of 96 has been reduced to 54 in the three subgenomes, with compression of the genomic region lengths they occupy to between 52 and 110 kb. The gene content of the recently duplicated B. rapa genome segments is identical, but intergenic sequences differ.
Power optimization using divide-and-conquer techniques for minimization of the number of operations

We develop an approach to minimizing power consumption of portable wireless DSP applications using a set of compilation and architectural techniques. The key technical innovation is a novel divide-and-conquer compilation technique to minimize the number of operations for general DSP computations. Our technique optimizes not only a significantly wider set of computations than the previously published techniques, but also outperforms (or performs at least as well as other techniques) on all examples. Along the architectural dimension, we investigate coordinated impact of compilation techniques on the number of processors which provide optimal trade-off between cost and power. We demonstrate that proper compilation techniques can significantly reduce power with bounded hardware cost. The effectiveness of all techniques and algorithms is documented on numerous real-life designs.
A Bidirectional Hierarchical Skip-Gram model for text topic embedding

Taking advantage of the large scale corpus on the web to effectively and efficiently mine the topics within texts is an essential problem in the era of big data. We focus on the problem of learning text topic embedding in an unsupervised manner, which enjoys the properties of efficiency and scalability. Text topic embedding represents words and documents in a semantic topic space, in which the words and documents with similar topic will be embedded close to each other. When compared with conventional topic models, which implicitly capture the document-level word co-occurrence patterns, text topic embedding alleviates the data sparsity problem and captures the semantic relevance between different words and documents. To model text topic embedding, we propose a Bidirectional Hierarchical Skip-Gram model (BHSG) based on skip-gram model. BHSG includes two components: semantic generation module to learn semantic relevance between texts and topic enhance module to produce the text topic embedding based on text embedding learned in the former module. We evaluated our method on two kinds of topic-related tasks: text classification and information retrieval. The experimental results on four public datasets and one dataset we provide all demonstrate that our proposed method can achieve a better performance.
Biodesalination: an emerging technology for targeted removal of Na+ and Cl− from seawater by cyanobacteria

Although desalination by membrane processes is a possible solution to the problem of freshwater supply, related cost and energy demands prohibit its use on a global scale. Hence, there is an emerging necessity for alternative, energy and cost-efficient methods for water desalination. Cyanobacteria are oxygen-producing, photosynthetic bacteria that actively grow in vast blooms both in fresh and seawater bodies. Moreover, cyanobacteria can grow with minimal nutrient requirements and under natural sunlight. Taking these observations together, a consortium of five British Universities was formed to test the principle of using cyanobacteria as ion exchangers, for the specific removal of Na+ and Cl− from seawater. This project consisted of the isolation and characterisation of candidate strains, with central focus on their potential to be osmotically and ionically adaptable. The selection panel resulted in the identification of two Euryhaline strains, one of freshwater (Synechocystis sp. Strain PCC 6803) and one of marine origin (Synechococcus sp. Strain PCC 7002) (Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen). Other work packages were as follows. Genetic manipulations potentially allowed for the expression of a light-driven, Cl−-selective pump in both strains, therefore, enhancing the bioaccumulation of specific ions within the cell (University of Glasgow). Characterisation of surface properties under different salinities (University of Sheffield), ensured that cell–liquid separation efficiency would be maximised post-treatment, as well as monitoring the secretion of mucopolysaccharides in the medium during cell growth. Work at Newcastle University is focused on the social acceptance of this scenario, together with an assessment of the potential risks through the generation and application of a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points plan. Finally, researchers in Imperial College (London) designed the process, from biomass production to water treatment and generation of a model photobioreactor. This multimodal approach has produced promising first results, and further optimisation is expected to result in mass scaling of this process.
Inhibition of Cartilage Acidic Protein 1 Reduces Ultraviolet B Irradiation Induced-Apoptosis through P38 Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase and Jun Amino-Terminal Kinase Pathways

Background/Aims: Ultraviolet B (UVB) irradiation can easily induce apoptosis in human lens epithelial cells (HLECs) and further lead to various eye diseases including cataract. Here for the first time, we investigated the role of cartilage acidic protein 1 (CRTAC1) gene in UVB irradiation induced-apoptosis in HLECs. Methods: Three groups of HLECs were employed including model group, empty vector group, and CRTAC1 interference group. Results: After UVB irradiation, the percentage of primary apoptotic cells was obviously fewer in CRTAC1 interference group. Meanwhile, inhibition of CRTAC1 also reduced both reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and intracellular Ca2+ concentration, but the level of mitochondrial membrane potential (Δψm) was increased in HLECs. Further studies indicated that superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity and total antioxidative (T-AOC) level were significantly increased in CRTAC1-inhibited cells, while the levels of malondialdehyde (MDA) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) were significantly decreased. ELISA analysis of CRTAC1-inhibited cells showed that the concentrations of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) were significantly decreased, but the concentration of interleukin-10 (IL-10) was significantly increased. Western blot analyses of eight apoptosis-associated proteins including Bax, Bcl-2, p38, phospho-p38 (p-p38), Jun amino-terminal kinases (JNK1/2), phospho-JNK1/2 (p-JNK1/2), calcium-sensing receptor (CasR), and Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) indicated that the inhibition of CRTAC1 alleviated oxidative stress and inflammation response, inactivated calcium-signaling pathway, p38 and JNK1/2 signal pathways, and eventually reduced UVB irradiation induced-apoptosis in HLECs. Conclusion: These results provided new insights into the mechanism of cataract development, and demonstrated that CRTAC1 could be a potentially novel target for cataract treatment.
Association between Body Mass Index and Foot Posture Alignment in Nursing Professionals

: This study examines the correlation between body mass index BMI and foot posture index FPI among nursing professionals, highlighting the prevalent issue of work - related musculoskeletal disorders in the nursing field. Nurses, who are essential in providing holistic care across the health continuum, often face physical challenges due to prolonged periods of standing and patient handling tasks, leading to conditions such as low back pain, varicose veins, and foot problems. Through a cross - sectional study involving 69 participants, the research investigates the impact of BMI on the foot posture, utilizing the Foot Posture Index scale for evaluation. The findings reveal a moderate significant association between BMI and FPI, indicating that nurses with higher BMI are more prone to developing pronated foot posture, which can further contribute to musculoskeletal discomfort and injuries. The study underscores the importance of considering BMI in the rehabilitation management of lower extremity injuries and suggests the implementation of preventive strategies, such as the use of orthotics and ergonomic measures, to mitigate the risk of foot malalignment and its consequent health implications.
25(OH)D Is Effective to Repress Human Cholangiocarcinoma Cell Growth through the Conversion of 25(OH)D to 1α,25(OH)2D3

Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is a devastating disease without effective treatments. 1α,25(OH)2D3, the active form of Vitamin D, has emerged as a new anti-cancer regimen. However, the side effect of hypercalcemia impedes its systemic administration. 25(OH)D is biologically inert and needs hydroxylation by CYP27B1 to form 1α,25(OH)2D3, which is originally believed to only take place in kidneys. Recently, the extra-renal expression of CYP27B1 has been identified and in vitro conversion of 25(OH)D to 1α,25(OH)2D3 has been found in some cancer cells with CYP27B1 expression. In this study, CYP27B1 expression was demonstrated in CCA cells and human CCA specimens. 25(OH)D effectively represses SNU308 cells growth, which was strengthened or attenuated as CYP27B1 overexpression or knockdown. Lipocalcin-2 (LCN2) was also found to be repressed by 25(OH)D. After treatment with 800 ng/mL 25(OH)D, the intracellular 1α,25(OH)2D3 concentration was higher in SNU308 cells with CYP27B1 overexpression than wild type SNU308 cells. In a xenograft animal experiment, 25(OH)D, at a dose of 6 μg/kg or 20 μg/kg, significantly inhibited SNU308 cells’ growth without inducing obvious side effects. Collectively, our results indicated that SNU308 cells were able to convert 25(OH)D to 1α,25(OH)2D3 and 25(OH)D CYP27B1 gene therapy could be deemed as a promising therapeutic direction for CCA.
Exploring Inclusion of College Students with IDD in Campus Recreation and Sports Through the Lens of IPSE Programs’ Organizational Level Stakeholders

Participation in recreation and sports can produce health benefits for all college students and open pathways to inclusion for individuals with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities (IDD). Despite the growing number of college students with IDD on over 260 college campuses across the United States, there is a dearth of literature exploring their inclusion within campus recreation and sports. This study examined how organizational culture of campus recreation and sports departments and inclusive postsecondary education (IPSE) programs support and inhibit inclusion of college students with IDD, along with placements of IPSE programs on an academic-specific and broader continuum of inclusion.
Medical Therapy of Acromegaly

Acromegaly is a chronic disorder associated with increased mortality and morbidity. There are several studies have shown that mortality rate of acromegalic patients become similar to normal population when normal GH values are achieved. Surgery is the first line treatment of acromegaly. But the remission rates with surgery alone are low. Therefore, it is necessary to add other treatment modalities. Such as somatostatin anlogs, dopamin agonists, GH receptor antagonists and radiotherapy.
Early neurodegeneration in the retina of type 2 diabetic patients.

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to determine whether diabetes type 2 causes thinning of retinal layers as a sign of neurodegeneration and to investigate the possible relationship between this thinning and duration of diabetes mellitus, diabetic retinopathy (DR) status, age, sex, and glycemic control (HbA1c). METHODS Mean layer thickness was calculated for retinal layers following automated segmentation of spectral domain optical coherence tomography images of diabetic patients with no or minimal DR and compared with controls. To determine the relationship between layer thickness and diabetes duration, DR status, age, sex, and HbA1c, a multiple linear regression analysis was used. RESULTS In the pericentral area of the macula, the retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL), ganglion cell layer (GCL), and inner plexiform layer (IPL) were thinner in patients with minimal DR compared to controls (respective difference 1.9 μm, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.3-3.5 μm; 5.2 μm, 95% CI 1.0-9.3 μm; 4.5 μm, 95% CI 2.2-6.7 μm). In the peripheral area of the macula, the RNFL and IPL were thinner in patients with minimal DR compared to controls (respective difference 3.2 μm, 95% CI 0.1-6.4 μm; 3.3 μm, 95% CI 1.2-5.4 μm). Multiple linear regression analysis showed DR status to be the only significant explanatory variable (R = 0.31, P = 0.03) for this retinal thinning. CONCLUSIONS This study demonstrated thinner inner retinal layers in the macula of type 2 diabetic patients with minimal DR than in controls. These results support the concept that early DR includes a neurodegenerative component.
Denotational Semantics of the Simplified Lambda-Mu Calculus and a New Deduction System of Classical Type Theory

Classical (or Boolean) type theory is the type theory that allows the type inference $\sigma \to \bot) \to \bot => \sigma$ (the type counterpart of double-negation elimination), where $\sigma$ is any type and $\bot$ is absurdity type. This paper first presents a denotational semantics for a simplified version of Parigot's lambda-mu calculus, a premier example of classical type theory. In this semantics the domain of each type is divided into infinitely many ranks and contains not only the usual members of the type at rank 0 but also their negative, conjunctive, and disjunctive shadows in the higher ranks, which form an infinitely nested Boolean structure. Absurdity type $\bot$ is identified as the type of truth values. The paper then presents a new deduction system of classical type theory, a sequent calculus called the classical type system (CTS), which involves the standard logical operators such as negation, conjunction, and disjunction and thus reflects the discussed semantic structure in a more straightforward fashion.
AII amacrine cells quicken time course of rod signals in the cat retina.

1. In a perfused eyecup preparation, AII amacrine cells of the cat retina were penetrated with glass microelectrodes and their electrical responses to photic stimuli recorded. 2. Intracellular injections of the stains Procion, lucifer, or horseradish peroxidase revealed dendritic tree diameters of 30-80 micrometers (48 +/- 16 micrometers, mean +/0 SD) and cell body diameters from 7 to 12 micrometers (9 +/- 3 micrometers) for these cells. The dendrites were broadly stratified throughout the inner plexiform layer (IPL) but possessed large, terminal varicosities in the IPL and inner nuclear lyer (INL) proximal to the cell body. 3. The waveform of these cells in response to photic stimulation suggested division into four components: a) an initial rapid depolarization of the cell membrane followed by a slower decay toward the dark level; b) suppression of the dark noise of the cell; c) with dim or moderately intense stimuli, an off-hyperpolarization; d) in some cases a hyperpolarizing surround response. 4. The receptive fields of AII cells have been characterized using spatial stimuli consisting of long narrow slits. Curves have been fitted to spatial data using two space constants, one for the center mechanism and an opposing one for the surround. For the central mechanism, space constants ranged from 20 to 80 micrometers (46 +/- 22 micrometers), while for the surround they ranged from 60 to 130 micrometers (85 +/- 28 micrometers). The mean half-width of the center mechanism, calculated from the mean space constant, was about 0.25 degrees of visual angle (64 micrometers). The receptive-field properties of AII amacrine cells resemble those of center-depolarizing bipolar cells of other species. 5. Spectral studies of AII amacrine cells reveal that they are rod driven at all criterion voltage levels. Furthermore, adaptation of the rods by rod-saturating backgrounds eliminates 95% of the response amplitude of the AII amacrine cells. Under these conditions the tiny response component remaining is driven by the cat's long wavelength (556-nm peak) cones. 6. AII amacrine cells depolarize to rod stimulation more rapidly than other rod-dominated cells, such as rod bipolar cells, which hyperpolarize. For stimuli corresponding to about 10% of rod saturation, the latency to half-maximum amplitude is about 65 ms for AII cells, 40 ms faster than rod-dominated hyperpolarizing units. The leading edge of the response waveform for AII cells is also much more restricted in time. With the above stimulus it requires about 20 ms to increase from 25 to 75% of its peak, a period almost 4 times shorter than required by rod-dominated S-potential responses. With saturating stimuli the AII response requires only 5 ms to increase from 25 ot 75% of its peak. 7. Although prominent in the rod system, AII amacrine cells do not appear to be able to detect single quantum events. Threshold signals require the bleaching of about 200 rhodopsin molecules within a receptive field containing some 1,300 rods.
Depth-based tracking with physical constraints for robot manipulation

This work integrates visual and physical constraints to perform real-time depth-only tracking of articulated objects, with a focus on tracking a robot's manipulators and manipulation targets in realistic scenarios. As such, we extend DART, an existing visual articulated object tracker, to additionally avoid interpenetration of multiple interacting objects, and to make use of contact information collected via torque sensors or touch sensors. To achieve greater stability, the tracker uses a switching model to detect when an object is stationary relative to the table or relative to the palm and then uses information from multiple frames to converge to an accurate and stable estimate. Deviation from stable states is detected in order to remain robust to failed grasps and dropped objects. The tracker is integrated into a shared autonomy system in which it provides state estimates used by a grasp planner and the controller of two anthropomorphic hands. We demonstrate the advantages and performance of the tracking system in simulation and on a real robot. Qualitative results are also provided for a number of challenging manipulations that are made possible by the speed, accuracy, and stability of the tracking system.