Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Analyzing Nonconvex 2D and 3D Patterns

A nonconvex pattern can be analyzed by describing its concavity regions. These can be identified by computing the difference between the convex hull of the pattern and the pattern itself. A suitable approximation of the convex hull can be obtained by repeatedly filling local concavities of the pattern. Parallel and sequential algorithms are proposed, to fill concavities of 2D and 3D patterns. The resulting approximation of the convex hull is a covering polygon or polyhedron, which is either convex or nearly convex. Exact measures of worst remaining concavities and created protrusions are given. The concavity regions are extracted and different features are presented and computed. Hierarchical pattern descriptions are also suggested, based on the use of concavity trees.
Gain compression and asymmetric gain due to the Bragg grating induced by the standing waves in Fabry-Perot lasers

The Bragg grating induced by the pattern of standing waves in a Fabry-Perot laser diode is shown to give a significant contribution to nonlinear gain. An analytic expression is derived for the contribution leading to a simple universal relation between the damping rate of relaxation oscillations, the square of the relaxation resonance frequency, and the carrier diffusion time. The effect of the standing wave grating cannot explain present data from various experiments, which indicated that there must be additional important contributions to nonlinear gain. <<ETX>>
Development of the conduction system in the rat heart as determined by Leu-7 (HNK-1) immunohistochemistry and computer graphics reconstruction.

BACKGROUND The development of the heart conduction system is controversial. Our previous study demonstrated anti-Leu-7 antibody to cross-react with the cells of the conduction system in the embryonic rat heart. Thus, detailed analysis of the development of the conduction system was performed by immunohistochemical reaction with the use of the antibody. DESIGN Horizontal serial sections of hearts obtained from embryonic and neonatal rats were treated for immunohistochemical reaction with anti-Leu-7 antibody, and three-dimensional images were reconstructed by computer graphics. Images were analyzed by superimposing the results on scanning electron micrographs. RESULTS The development of the rat heart conduction system starts at 10 days and is completed by 18 days of gestation. The presence of three internodal tracts (INT1, -2, and -3) and two primordia of the atrioventricular node were confirmed in this process. INT1 and -3 pass through the septum spurium. INT2 follows the same route as the posterior internodal tract of James, but the other two INTs showed no correlation to previously described tracts. The sinuatrial node and INTs were found to be derivatives of the so-called S-A ring, and the bundle of His and bundle branches were found to be derived from the B-V ring. In this study, no immunoreactivity was observed in cells of the truncobulbar portion. CONCLUSIONS Three internodal tracts and two atrioventricular node primordia were observed in the developing heart. The paths of the three internodal tracts showed intimate relationships with the internal structures of the heart. The developmental significance of the septum spurium, sinus septum, and venous valve was discussed.
Early Adiposity Rebound and the Risk of Adult Obesity

Objective. At 5 to 6 years of age, body fatness normally declines to a minimum, a point called adiposity rebound (AR), before increasing again into adulthood. We determined whether a younger age at AR was associated with an increased risk of adult obesity and whether this risk was independent of fatness at AR and parent obesity. Design. A retrospective cohort study using lifelong height and weight measurements recorded in outpatient medical records. Setting. Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound (GHC), a health maintenance organization based in Seattle, Washington. Participants. All 390 GHC members (and their parents) born at GHC between January 1, 1965, and January 1, 1971, who had at least one recorded adult height and weight measurement plus two visits with recorded height and weight measurements in each of three age intervals: 1.5 to 4, 4 to 8, and 8 to 16 years. Main Outcome Measures. We calculated the mean body mass index (BMI) of each subject during young adulthood (age 21 to 29 years) and the BMI of the parents when each subject was 1.5 years of age. Adult obesity was defined as a BMI ≥27.8 for males and ≥27.3 for females. Curves were fit to each subject's BMI values between ages 1.5 and 16 years, and the age and BMI at AR were calculated from these curves. Subjects were divided into tertiles of age at AR (early, middle, and late), BMI at AR, and parent BMI (heavy, medium, and lean). Results. The mean age at AR was 5.5 years, and 15% of the cohort was obese in young adulthood. Adult obesity rates were higher in those with early versus late AR (25% vs 5%), those who were heavy versus lean at AR (24% vs 4%), those with heavy versus lean mothers (25% vs 5%), and those with heavy versus lean fathers (21% vs 5%). After adjusting for parent BMI and BMI at AR, the odds ratio for adult obesity associated with early versus late AR was 6.0 (95% CI, 1.3–26.6). Conclusion. An early AR is associated with an increased risk of adult obesity independent of parent obesity and the BMI at AR. Future research should examine the biological and behavioral determinants of AR.
Inferior Turbinectomy in Children

Background Inferior turbinectomy on patients of all ages is a controversial procedure. Its effect on children has been reported little in the literature and the few studies that are available involved relatively older children, i.e., >10 years old. Nasal obstruction caused by extensive hypertrophy of the inferior turbinates is not an uncommon observation in the pediatric population. The clinical manifestations might present as snoring, noisy breathing, mouth breathing, and, possibly, sleep apnea. Methods In this study, we followed 227 children >10 years of age who underwent inferior turbinectomy (27 children also underwent a revision of an earlier adenoidectomy), of whom 179 children had significant relief of nasal obstruction at the 1-year follow-up. Results Nocturnal breathing was reported to be more regular and otherwise improved in the 36 children with a suspected history of sleep apnea. Forty-two of 47 children who had thick nasal secretions and did not respond to antibiotic therapy before the operation had significant relief postoperatively. Postoperative complications were few and their number did not exceed that of adults. Conclusions A complete inferior turbinectomy should be considered in children >10 years of age who have hypertrophied inferior turbinates that cause major interference with nasal breathing.
A Note on Bifix-Free Sequences

-A class of lower bounds to ratedistortion functions of stationary sources with context-dependent fidelity criteria is derived by mapping the source and distortion measure into an equivalent restricted-transition stationary source with a single-letter fidelity criterion, and then applying the composite bound. This approach is seen to yield bounds which, although sometimes quite loose, apply to general stationary sources and context-dependent fidelity criteria. Two examples are presented.
On the nature of the fat contained in the liver, kidney and heart

PAGE Introduction. 353 The fatty acids present in the lecithin-like substances of the liver 354 Separation of the saturated and unsaturated acids 355 The action of bromine on the unsaturated acids . 359 The oxidation of the unsaturated acids of the liver 360 The study of the products of this oxidation: (A) The saturated acids . 361 (B) Dihydroxystearic acid . 363 (C) Tetrahydroxystearic acid . 365 (D) Octohydroxyarachidic acid . 367 (E) The volatile acids . 368 (F) The residue . 369 Discussion of the results. 369 Conclusions! 373
Optimal maintenance policy of repairable system with bathtub shaped intensity

The power law process (PLP) and log linear process (LLP) are able to describe the processes with monotonic trend during the operating time. However, these models are not able to describe the processes with a non-monotonic trend such as bathtub shaped intensity. In this paper we proposed the superposed log linear process (S-LLP) for modeling bathtub shaped intensity function. The S-LLP is a nonhomogeneous Poisson process (NHPP) that results from the superposition of two LLP with different parameters. To get the maximum likelihood (ML) estimates, we proposed the three-parameter log-likelihood function evaluated using a genetic algorithm. Also, to obtain approximated confidence intervals, the information matrix and the variance-covariance matrix have been evaluated. The suggested methods are applied to field data from a repairable system.
Surface Brillouin scattering in transverse anderson localization disordered optical fibers

We have investigated the surface Brillouin scattering (SBS) in the transverse Anderson localization (TAL) disordered optical fibers (DOFs), theoretically and numerically. There are random air-holes in the across of silica DOF, and the disordered silica glass-air structure can bring in TAL to the light, as a result, an optical fiber can be produced. The SBS in this TAL DOF is then numerically investigated. It is found that there are two main peaks in the SBS spectrum, and the Brillouin frequency shift is sensitive to the air fill-fraction of the TAL DOF. It seems to be that this result can be utilized in the longitudinal structural fluctuations monitoring of TAL DOF.
Submicron VLSI memory circuits

cell, alpha-induced soft-errors, are a serious problem. A solution is an on-chip ECC technique using bidirectional parity checking. A logic diagram of a RAM with on-chip ECC circuits is shown in Figure 1. In addition to (k x m) fundamental memory cells, (k tm) parity cells are connected with each word line. All of the cells along the same word line compose an ECC data set for bidirectional parity checking. Each element of this data in the fundamental memory cells belong t o two imaginary groups; V and H. In the reading cycle, two types of parity checking occur using m-bit V-group, k-bit H-group and 2-bit parity cell data: Figure 1. The final correction is decided by comparing the parity checking results with the selected memory cell data. The (k+m)-bit memory cell data necessary for ECC is transfered to the parity generation circuits through a selector block for the appropriate 'decoding function. In the case of the proposed bidirectional parity checking technique, however, the column decoder for a multiplexer can also be used for a selector. Therefore, there is no need to prepare an additional decocler for memory cell selection. Since a single bit error per word line is correctable by introducing this ECC technique, the soft error rate of a high packing density RAM can be improved substantially, as shown in Figure 2. To accomplish high sensitivity without degrading operating speed, a threshold-difference compensated amplifier with capacitor-coupler presensing is proposed. Figure 3 shows an Organization 256K x 1 amplifier c rcuit and its operating waveforms. During the resetSupply voltage +5V single ting period, source nodes NC1 and Nc2 are precharged by clock 4kS to their own levels according to the threshold voltage of the flip flop transistors Q1 and Qz. In the sensing period, a flip flop Power consumption 200/3mW (active/standby) begins to detect the signal by clock @ ~ 1 . Since the source nodes are driven individually through coupling capacitors C1 and C2, the voltage difference between NC1 and Nc2 is almost equal Process technology to the reshold difference of the flip flop transistors at the beMo-gate (NMOS To,= 200 4 Leff=l.Op In developing VLSI memories that utilize a single transistor
Effect of Fatty Acids on Reproductive Performance of Ruminants

Different types of fats have been utilized in an attempt to improve reproductive function in ruminant animals. Fatty acids derived from plants and oil seeds have exerted a major impact on reproductive performance, some of the most common sources include sunflower, linseed, cottonseed, rapeseed and soyabean. Animal fat (tallow) and calcium salts of saturated fatty acids may escape in a significant percentage rumen hydrogenation to be incorporated into adipose tissue and milk. Fish by-products contain a high proportion of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) and pass without being altered in the rumen exerting no effects on rumen fermentation. Each dietary source of fat varies regarding composition of specific fatty acids (Table 1). Early studies of the effect of fat in the ration on reproductive performance were carried out by Burr & Burr (1930), who observed that fat deficiency in the ration of growing rats induced alterations in ovulation rate and on the onset of oestrus, while lipid supplementation reestablished reproductive performance of the females, coining the concept of essential fatty acids. In later studies, research was aimed at evaluating the effect of fat supplementation in different animal species both ruminant and non-ruminant, on reproductive aspects such as the establishment of puberty (Smith et al., 1989), semen production (Castellano et al., 2010), maternal recognition of pregnancy (Abayasekara & Wathes, 1999, Filley et al., 2000, Lopes et al., 2009) by means of the suppression of luteolytic signals (Mattos et al., 2000), restart of ovarian activity after parturition (de Fries et al., 1998), follicle development, quality of oocytes (Staples & Thatcher, 2005; Bilby et al., 2006c), and of the embryo (Cerri et al., 2009), modification in the mechanism of synthesis and secretion of hormones involved in reproductive processes (Staples et al., 1998) and on production aspects such as quality of milk (Rego et al., 2004; Bernal et al., 2010) or meat (Wood et al., 2003). Due to the fact that some fatty acids (FA) are essential for mammals and to the role of fatty acids on reproductive processes, it is possible that cattle reproduction will be influenced more by the type of lipids consumed than for the total lipid intake. This is particularly important since ruminants hydrogenate PUFAs in the rumen, limiting the amount of PUFAs that are absorbed from the small intestine (Thatcher & Staples, 2007,
GPU-based acoustic feature extraction for electronic media processing

Multicore architectures are frequently utilized if very high computation power is required. At the same time current multicore graphic processing units (GPUs), designed for parallel data processing, have become applicable for general purpose computation. Thus, in current research projects the usage of GPUs is examined for a variety of applications. Thereby, GPUs are attractive for the realization of complex multimedia signal processing in terms of reducing computation time. An example for the processing of electronic media content is the automated classification of music collections, which is a highly attractive feature for multimedia terminals. Such tasks are based on the extraction of acoustic features, which are required to analyse the audio content. The extraction process is highly computation intensive and can benefit from the parallel computation power of GPUs. In this work, scalable parallelization methods are presented for GPU-based feature extraction applied to huge databases. The advantages of such a GPU realization are verified by a quantitative comparison to the results of a single core processor implementation in terms of computation times.
Applying Fairness Theories to Financial Decision Making

This paper explores the role of fairness in consumer financial decisions. Specifically, we investigate how consumers’ perceptions of fairness for financial products can influence their willingness to purchase those products. In doing so, we also consider why perceptions of fairness for financial decisions are different from fairness concerns for other types of consumer products. We also explore the concept of consumer revenge for unfair actions by financial institutions, and measure whether consumers are willing to sacrifice their own outcomes in exchange for the ability to punish an unfair company. In a series of studies we find that perceived fairness mediates purchase intentions, and that consumers will indeed incur costs to punish unfair company offers as measured through a modified Ultimatum Game allocation task. We end by outlining some rich areas for additional research specific to financial contexts.
Association of hypercholesterolemia and apolipoprotein E4 in school children

To investigate the association of apolipoprotein (APO) E4 and hypercholesterolemia in children, we studied the APOE phenotypes of 51 school‐age children with hypercholesterolemia and of 51 age, sex and obesity index‐matched controls with normocholesterolemia by two‐dimensional gel electrophoresis. APOE4 was present in 21 of 51 hypercholesterolemic children (41.2%), and in nine of 51 control subjects (17.6%). The difference was significant (p<0.01). This finding indicates that APOE4 is associated with hypercholesterolemia in children.
Development of a magnetic seat sensor for monitoring condition of a car driver

The purpose of our research is to develop the prevention system of a car driver's dozing off at the wheel by a magnetic sensor, which is built in driver's seats of cars and trucks. Torsion bars are ones of the parts of the car driver's seat. Torsion stress occurs in these bars when a car driver sits on the seat, and these bars works as a cushion to the driver. In this research, we tried to measure difference of magnetic properties of those torsion bars because of the torsion stress by a magnetic sensor to apply it to monitor car driver's condition.
Producer-cell modification of human immunodeficiency virus type 1: Nef is a virion protein

Type 1 human immunodeficiency viruses encoding mutated nef reading frames are 10- to 30-fold less infectious than are isogenic viruses in which the nef gene is intact. This defect in infectivity causes nef-negative viruses to grow at an attenuated rate in vitro. To investigate the mechanism of Nef-mediated enhancement of viral growth rate and infectivity, a complementation analysis of nef mutant viruses was performed. To provide Nef in trans upon viral infection, a CEM derivative cell line (designated CLN) that expresses Nef under the control of the viral long terminal repeat was constructed. When nef-negative virus was grown in CLN cells, its growth rate was restored to wild-type levels. However, the output of nef-negative virus during the first 72 h after infection of CLN cells was not restored, suggesting that provision of Nef within the newly infected cell does not enhance the productivity of a nef-negative provirus. The genetically nef-negative virions produced by the CLN cells, however, were restored to wild-type levels of infectivity as measured in a syncytium formation assay in which CD4-expressing HeLa cells were targets. These trans-complemented, genetically nef-negative virions yielded wild-type levels of viral output following a single cycle of replication in primary CD4 T cells as well as in parental CEM cells. To define the determinants for producer cell modification of virions by Nef, the role of myristoylation was investigated. Virus that encodes a myristoylation-negative nef was as impaired in infectivity as was virus encoding a deleted nef gene. Because myristoylation is required for both membrane association of Nef and optimal viral infectivity, the possibility that Nef protein is included in the virion was investigated. Wild-type virions were purified by filtration and exclusion chromatography. A Western blot (immunoblot) of the eluate fractions revealed a correlation between peak Nef signal and peak levels of p24 antigen. Although virion-associated Nef was detected in part as the 27-kDa full-length protein, the majority of immunoreactive protein was detected as a 20-kDa isoform. nef-negative virus lacked both 27- and 20-kDa immunoreactive species. Production of wild-type virions in the presence of a specific inhibitor of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 protease resulted in virions which contained only 27-kDa full-length Nef protein. These data indicate that Nef is a virion protein which is processed by the viral protease into a 20-kDa isoform within the virion particle.
Spirometry, bronchodilator test or symptom scoring for the assessment of childhood asthma

The value of spirometry, the bronchodilator test and 2 weeks' symptom scoring for the assessment of the severity of childhood asthma was studied in a series of 65 consecutively referred school‐aged asthmatic children, with the diurnal peak expiratory flow (PEF) variability in home recordings serving as a golden standard. The amplitude of the peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) variation could be best predicted by the baseline forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) and the past history of the symptom rate, the correlation with FEV1 being ‐ 0.48, p < 0.001, Although the baseline forced expiratory flow between 25 and 75% of the forced vital capacity (FEF25‐75%) and the responses of FEV1 and FEF25‐75% to salbutamol also showed significant correlations with the diurnal PEFR variability (r= ‐0.43, r= 0.47 and 0.41, p < 0.001, respectively), these variants did not improve the regression model. The baseline FEV1, FEF25‐75% and PEFR and their responses to salbutamol also had a slight but statistically significant correlation with the methacholine threshold, but the symptom score on the diary card did not show comparable correlations with either the diurnal PEFR variability or the methacholine threshold (r= 0.09, NS, and r= 0.05, NS, respectively). These results indicate that both baseline lung function and the response to the bronchodilator test correlate with the severity of childhood asthma more appropriately than does the symptom score on a diary card. Since many of these correlations were rather weak, however. the assessment of the severity of childhood asthma cannot be reliably based solely on spirometry in all patients.
Regulation of folate receptor 1 gene expression in the visceral endoderm.

BACKGROUND Nutrient supply to the developing mammalian embryo is a fundamental requirement. Before completion of the chorioallantoic placenta, the visceral endoderm plays a crucial role in nurturing the embryo. We have found that visceral endoderm cells express folate receptor 1, a high-affinity receptor for the essential micronutrient folic acid, suggesting that the visceral endoderm has an important function for folate transport to the embryo. The mechanisms that direct expression of FOLR1 in the visceral endoderm are unknown. METHODS Sequences were tested for transcriptional activation capabilities in the visceral endoderm utilizing reporter gene assays in a cell model for extraembryonic endoderm in vitro, and in transgenic mice in vivo. RESULTS With F9 embryo carcinoma cells as a model for extraembryonic endoderm, we demonstrate that the P4 promoter of the human FOLR1 gene is active during differentiation of the cells towards visceral endoderm. However, transgenic mouse experiments show that promoter sequences alone are insufficient to elicit reporter gene transcription in vivo. Using sequence conservation as guide to choose genomic sequences from the human FOLR1 gene locus, we demonstrate that the sequence termed F1CE2 exhibits specific enhancer activity in F9 cells in vitro, in the visceral endoderm, and later the yolk sac in transgenic mouse embryos in vivo. We further show that the transcription factor HNF4-alpha can activate this enhancer sequence. CONCLUSIONS We have identified a transcriptional enhancer sequence from the FOLR1 locus with specific activity in vitro and in vivo, and suggest that FOLR1 is a target for regulation by HNF4-alpha.