Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Solving Nonlinear Optimization Problems of Real Functions in Complex Variables by Complex-Valued Iterative Methods

Much research has been devoted to complex-variable optimization problems due to their engineering applications. However, the complex-valued optimization method for solving complex-variable optimization problems is still an active research area. This paper proposes two efficient complex-valued optimization methods for solving constrained nonlinear optimization problems of real functions in complex variables, respectively. One solves the complex-valued nonlinear programming problem with linear equality constraints. Another solves the complex-valued nonlinear programming problem with both linear equality constraints and an $\boldsymbol {\ell _{1}}$ -norm constraint. Theoretically, we prove the global convergence of the proposed two complex-valued optimization algorithms under mild conditions. The proposed two algorithms can solve the complex-valued optimization problem completely in the complex domain and significantly extend existing complex-valued optimization algorithms. Numerical results further show that the proposed two algorithms have a faster speed than several conventional real-valued optimization algorithms.
An Adaptive Semisupervised Feature Analysis for Video Semantic Recognition

Video semantic recognition usually suffers from the curse of dimensionality and the absence of enough high-quality labeled instances, thus semisupervised feature selection gains increasing attentions for its efficiency and comprehensibility. Most of the previous methods assume that videos with close distance (neighbors) have similar labels and characterize the intrinsic local structure through a predetermined graph of both labeled and unlabeled data. However, besides the parameter tuning problem underlying the construction of the graph, the affinity measurement in the original feature space usually suffers from the curse of dimensionality. Additionally, the predetermined graph separates itself from the procedure of feature selection, which might lead to downgraded performance for video semantic recognition. In this paper, we exploit a novel semisupervised feature selection method from a new perspective. The primary assumption underlying our model is that the instances with similar labels should have a larger probability of being neighbors. Instead of using a predetermined similarity graph, we incorporate the exploration of the local structure into the procedure of joint feature selection so as to learn the optimal graph simultaneously. Moreover, an adaptive loss function is exploited to measure the label fitness, which significantly enhances model’s robustness to videos with a small or substantial loss. We propose an efficient alternating optimization algorithm to solve the proposed challenging problem, together with analyses on its convergence and computational complexity in theory. Finally, extensive experimental results on benchmark datasets illustrate the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed approach on video semantic recognition related tasks.
Discovering the Relationship Between Generalization and Uncertainty by Incorporating Complexity of Classification

The generalization ability of a classifier learned from a training set is usually dependent on the classifier’s uncertainty, which is often described by the fuzziness of the classifier’s outputs on the training set. Since the exact dependency relation between generalization and uncertainty of a classifier is quite complicated, it is difficult to clearly or explicitly express this relation in general. This paper shows a specific study on this relation from the viewpoint of complexity of classification by choosing extreme learning machines as the classification algorithms. It concludes that the generalization ability of a classifier is statistically becoming better with the increase of uncertainty when the complexity of the classification problem is relatively high, and the generalization ability is statistically becoming worse with the increase of uncertainty when the complexity is relatively low. This paper tries to provide some useful guidelines for improving the generalization ability of classifiers by adjusting uncertainty based on the problem complexity.
Ligand-Dependent and -Independent Regulation of PPARγ and Orphan Nuclear Receptors

It is too soon to conclude that the physiological activities of PPARγ are truly ligand-independent. Peroxisome proliferator–activated receptor γ (PPARγ) is considered to be a ligand-activated nuclear receptor with essential roles in adipogenesis, glucose and lipid homeostasis, and inflammatory responses. An unusually large ligand-binding pocket is a distinguishing feature of PPARγ and two related receptors, PPARα and PPARβ (also known as PPARδ), which allows these receptors to interact with diverse chemical ligands including various fatty acids, fibrates, and the thiazolidinedione class of antidiabetic drugs. However, the physiologically relevant ligand of PPARs remains unknown. A PPARγ mutant that is incapable of binding ligands unexpectedly directed adipogenesis when introduced into fibroblasts. This raises key issues regarding the existence and roles of the hypothetical physiological ligands for PPARγ, issues that may also apply to other “orphan” nuclear receptors lacking bona fide ligands. Identification of the physiological ligands of PPARs and orphan nuclear receptors will be crucial for understanding the biology of these receptors.
Impaired αIIbβ3 Integrin Activation and Shear-Dependent Thrombus Formation in Mice Lacking Phospholipase D1

In the absence of PLD1, platelets do not form stable aggregates under high shear conditions. Aggregation Regulation When damage occurs to the endothelium lining a blood vessel and exposes the underlying extracellular matrix, platelets adhere to the site of injury and aggregate to stop blood loss. However, aggregated platelets can cause ischemia if they occlude the vessel, thus creating the need for therapies that can limit platelet aggregation without increasing blood loss. Elvers et al. found that platelets from mice deficient in phospholipase D1 (PLD1) showed reduced activation of αIIbβ3 integrin, a major adhesion receptor, and did not form stable aggregates when experiencing high shear forces (such as those found in small arterioles). PLD1 deficiency conferred protection against thrombosis and cerebral ischemia in vivo, an effect that was seen with Pld1−/− mice and wild-type mice transplanted with bone marrow from Pld1−/− mice. PLD1 deficiency did not, however, increase blood loss after tail wounding. Thus, PLD1 could be a potential therapeutic target to prevent or treat stroke or other ischemic conditions. Platelet aggregation is essential for hemostasis but can also cause myocardial infarction and stroke. A key but poorly understood step in platelet activation is the shift of the principal adhesive receptor, αIIbβ3 integrin, from a low- to high-affinity state for its ligands, a process that enables adhesion and aggregation. In response to stimulation of heterotrimeric guanosine triphosphate–binding protein or immunoreceptor tyrosine-based activation motif–coupled receptors, phospholipases cleave membrane phospholipids to generate lipid and soluble second messengers. An essential role in platelet activation has been established for phospholipase C (PLC) but not for PLD and its product phosphatidic acid. Here, we report that platelets from Pld1−/− mice displayed impaired αIIbβ3 integrin activation in response to major agonists and defective glycoprotein Ib–dependent aggregate formation under high shear conditions. These defects resulted in protection from thrombosis and ischemic brain infarction without affecting tail bleeding times. These results indicate that PLD1 may be a critical regulator of platelet activity in the setting of ischemic cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events.
Predisposing Factors and Aetiologic Diagnosis of Infectious Corneal Ulcer

This cross-sectional study was carried out to identify causative pathogens and to determine the demographic characteristics and predisposing factors of corneal ulcer presenting at tertiary care hospitals in Dhaka. A total of 250 samples (corneal swab and scrapings) were collected from clinically diagnosed corneal ulcer patients attending Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University and Islamia Eye Hospital from February, 2004 to January, 2005. Out of 250 samples, microbial infection was established in 147 (58.8%) cases by culture and microscopy in which 82 (32.8%) patients showed fungal growth, 52 (20.8%) cases had bacterial growth and 13 (5.2%) cases had mixed bacterial & fungal growth. Aspergillus species 48 (50.53%) were the most common fungal isolates followed by Fusarium species 25 (26.32%). The predominant bacterial isolates were Staphylococcus epidermidis 22(32.85%) followed by Staphylococcus aureus 17 (26.15%) and Pseudomonas species 13 (20%). Out of 147 cases a larger group of patients (105, 71.43%) were in middle age group (21 to 50 years). Males (95, 64.63%) were more often affected (P<0.001). A majority of patients (114, 77.55%) came from rural areas (P<0.001), and most patients (55, 37.41%) of bacterial & fungal keratitis were farmers. Ocular trauma (87, 59.18%) was a highly significant risk factor (P<0.001) of which mostly (41, 27.89%) were due to agricultural materials. The findings of this study would help the ophthalmologists in the management of their patients with keratitis. Keywords: Corneal Ulcer, Infective Keratitis, Predisposing factors. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.3329/bjmm.v4i1. 8466 BJMM 2011; 4(1): 28-31
β-Arrestin–Biased Agonism of the Angiotensin Receptor Induced by Mechanical Stress

Mechanical stress on hearts triggers β-arrestin–dependent cell survival signaling through the angiotensin receptor. An Arrestin Stretch Activation of G protein–coupled receptors (GPCRs) can selectively trigger distinct signaling cascades through a process known as biased agonism. Mechanical stress has been linked to activation of the angiotensin type I receptor (AT1R) in a manner that does not require its ligand (angiotensin II). Rakesh et al. found that, in cells and ex vivo heart preparations, mechanical stress activated a signaling pathway that required neither angiotensin II nor G proteins. Instead, β-arrestin was recruited to AT1R, the complex was internalized, and β-arrestin activated an antiapoptotic signaling pathway through extracellular signal–regulated kinase (ERK) and Akt. Treating mice with the angiotensin receptor blocker losartan led to increased cardiomyocyte apoptosis, leading the authors to suggest that these drugs may block β-arrestin–mediated protective signaling in response to mechanical stress. β-Arrestins, which were originally characterized as terminators of heterotrimeric guanine nucleotide–binding protein (G protein)–coupled receptor (GPCR) signaling, also act as important signal transducers. An emerging concept in GPCR signaling is β-arrestin–biased agonism, in which specific ligand-activated GPCR conformational states selectively signal through β-arrestins, rather than through G proteins. Here, we show that mechanical stretch induced β-arrestin–biased signaling downstream of angiotensin II type I receptors (AT1Rs) in the absence of ligand or G protein activation. Mechanical stretch triggered an AT1R-mediated conformational change in β-arrestin similar to that induced by a β-arrestin–biased ligand to selectively stimulate receptor signaling in the absence of detectable G protein activation. Hearts from mice lacking β-arrestin or AT1Rs failed to induce responses to mechanical stretch, as shown by blunted extracellular signal–regulated kinase and Akt activation, impaired transactivation of the epidermal growth factor receptor, and enhanced myocyte apoptosis. These data show that the heart responds to acute increases in mechanical stress by activating β-arrestin–mediated cell survival signals.
Generation of linguistic membership functions from word vectors

Our goal is to automatically generate membership functions for linguistic terms such as newborn, baby, child, teen, and adult. Many approaches have been proposed to generate membership functions from data, for example using fuzzy clustering or neural networks, but these generate abstract membership functions with no semantic meaning. Our approach uses word vectors that are extracted from large text corpora, so that semantically similar words have similar word vectors. We use projections of word vectors to (i) generate the peaks of membership functions over one-dimensional domains and use similarities between pairs of word vectors to (ii) compute selected membership values. We present four different alternatives to construct membership functions from (i) and (ii), which produce (a) singleton functions, (b) piecewise linear functions, (c) triangular functions, and (d) normalized triangular functions. In the experimental part we present examples from four different domains where our method successfully generates linguistically meaningful membership functions from word vectors of the 50-dimensional glove.6B. 50d data set, and we also present an example that illustrates the limitations of the word vector based approach, when the considered linguistic terms come from different domains or contain ambiguity.
3D effect generation from monocular view

Describes the technique used to generate stereo pair images starting from a single image source (single view-point) and its related depth map. The conjunction between source image and depth map allows reconstruction artificially of the binocular view producing a 3D effect depending on screen dimension and image resolution. The system does not reconstruct the real 3D-coordinates of any object inside the scene, but simply assigns the most comfortable shift to the source points to give a 3D-entertainment to the viewer. A simple smoothing filtering technique adaptively resolves the occlusions generated by shifting of the source points without introducing visible and/or annoying artifacts.
Kostenbewertung von Arzneimitteln - Tagestherapiekosten und Defined Daily Doses am Beispiel von Paricalcitol

The WHO originally introduced defined daily doses (DDD) for drug quantity comparisons. The term DDD describes the quantity of a drug administered as the daily maintenance dose. In Germany, DDD, multiplied with the average price of the active pharmaceutical ingredient, are used as daily therapy costs (Ta-gestherapiekosten) to draw a price comparison between drugs in order to establish an economical / cost effective prescription mode. This application of direct costs without regarding indirect costs and drug effectiveness leads to incomplete assessment of drug efficiency. It has been demonstrated with Paricalcitol how unspecific and differentiated this method of cost calculation can be. In contrast, cost-bene-fit-analyses, as internationally accepted, are mandatory to asses the costs of a medical treatment. Since the act for business competition between the statutory health insurances (Gesetz zur St(cid:1)rkung des Wettbewerbs in der gesetzlichen
A Sweet Spot in the FGFR Signal Transduction Pathway

Signaling through the fibroblast growth factor receptors Heartless and Breathless requires O-GlcNAcylation of an adaptor protein. The hexosamine biosynthetic pathway, whose end product is UDP-N acetylglucosamine (UDP-GlcNAc), lies at the base of cellular glycosylation pathways, including glycosylation of lipids, formation of heparin sulfated proteoglycans, and N- and O-linked glycosylation of proteins. Forward genetic studies in Drosophila have revealed that mutations in genes encoding different enzymes of the hexosamine biosynthetic pathway result in reduction of UDP-GlcNAc to different extents, with a consequent disruption of distinct glycosylation pathways and developmental processes. A maternal and zygotic loss-of-function screen has identified mutations in nesthocker (nst), which encodes an enzyme in the hexosamine biosynthetic pathway. Embryos lacking maternal and zygotic nst gene products show defective O-GlcNAcylation of a fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR)–specific adaptor protein, which impairs FGFR-dependent migration of mesodermal and tracheal cells.
A day in the country

A picture window faces north east. Through the morning, skyscapes come and go: dark rain-clouds, uncertain cumulus, sudden clear blue. Far from the bustle of the city, we sit at ease. When I was a houseman, my colleague for today was our senior student: a diffident, kindly young man. I ask after his father: “A bit sore from running for a bus. Probably shouldn't have. Of course he's 92. ” And now we too talk of retirement. Outside, seagulls, starlings, …
Resumption of Smoking After Release From a Tobacco-Free Correctional Facility

Approximately 70% of incarcerated people smoke tobacco, and an estimated 12% of all smokers in the United States leave correctional facilities annually. Many facilities prohibit smoking, but no published study has measured the relapse to tobacco after release. In a study of 200 people with chronic health conditions reentering the community from jail, 165 (83%) were cigarette smokers. Of these, 129 were interviewed at 1 and/or 6 months after release. Self-reported sustained abstinence rates were 37.3% at the end of the first day, 17.7% for the first week, 13.7% for 1 month, and 3.1% for 6 months. These abstinence rates are lower than those reported after military basic training and medical hospitalization but similar to rates after inpatient psychiatric and addiction programs. More efforts and resources are needed to determine successful tobacco cessation interventions during incarceration and after release.
The Response of Cancers to BRAF Inhibition Underscores the Importance of Cancer Systems Biology

Targeting the receptor and a mutant component may be an effective colon cancer treatment. The BRAF inhibitor vemurafenib has become an important treatment option for melanoma patients, the majority of whom have a BRAF(V600E) mutation driving their malignancy. However, this same agent does not generally benefit colon cancer patients who have the BRAF(V600E) mutation. Recent work suggests that BRAF(V600E) inhibition by vemurafenib results in decreased negative feedback to the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) pathway and that the different clinical responses are due to differences in the amount of EGFR present in these two cancers. The experimental work that identified the feedback signaling was an elegant mix of functional genomic approaches and focused, hypothesis-driven cellular and molecular biology. The results of these studies suggest that combined treatment of BRAF(V600E)-driven colon cancers with both vemurafenib and EGFR inhibitors is worth clinical evaluation.
Evolutionary Development of Fuzzy Cognitive Maps

Fuzzy cognitive maps (FCMs) form a convenient, simple, and powerful tool for simulation and analysis of dynamic systems. The popularity of FCMs stems from their simplicity and transparency. While being successful in a variety of application domains, FCMs are hindered by necessity of involving domain experts to develop the model. Since human experts are subjective and can handle only relatively simple networks (maps), there is an urgent need to develop methods for automated generation of FCM models. This study proposes a novel evolutionary learning that is able to generate FCM models from input historical data, and without any human intervention. The proposed method is based on genetic algorithms, and is carried out through supervised learning. The paper tests the method through a series of carefully selected experimental studies
The Homeobox Transcription Factor Cut Coordinates Patterning and Growth During Drosophila Airway Remodeling

Signals converge on the transcription factor Cut to orchestrate tracheal development. Balanced Cut for Proper Development For tissues and organs to properly develop, cell growth, differentiation, and proliferation must be carefully coordinated. Pitsouli and Perrimon investigated mechanisms by which airways develop in the fruitfly by analyzing the effects of the homeobox transcription factor Cut on the proliferation and differentiation of tracheal progenitor cells called spiracular branch tracheoblasts. Quantitative imaging revealed nonuniform Cut abundance, and experimental manipulation of the abundance of Cut through overexpression or knockdown showed that just the right amount of Cut was required: Too little or too much impaired development of the trachea, with differential effects on cell survival, proliferation, and differentiation. The Wingless pathway and the Notch pathway positively and negatively, respectively, controlled Cut abundance, and the fibroblast growth factor receptor pathway was a transcriptional target of Cut in this developing tissue. A fundamental question in developmental biology is how tissue growth and patterning are coordinately regulated to generate complex organs with characteristic shapes and sizes. We showed that in the developing primordium that produces the Drosophila adult trachea, the homeobox transcription factor Cut regulates both growth and patterning, and its effects depend on its abundance. Quantification of the abundance of Cut in the developing airway progenitors during late larval stage 3 revealed that the cells of the developing trachea had different amounts of Cut, with the most proliferative region having an intermediate amount of Cut and the region lacking Cut exhibiting differentiation. By manipulating Cut abundance, we showed that Cut functioned in different regions to regulate proliferation or patterning. Transcriptional profiling of progenitor populations with different amounts of Cut revealed the Wingless (known as Wnt in vertebrates) and Notch signaling pathways as positive and negative regulators of cut expression, respectively. Furthermore, we identified the gene encoding the receptor Breathless (Btl, known as fibroblast growth factor receptor in vertebrates) as a transcriptional target of Cut. Cut inhibited btl expression and tracheal differentiation to maintain the developing airway cells in a progenitor state. Thus, Cut functions in the integration of patterning and growth in a developing epithelial tissue.
After the Fact

Women who have been in jail are at increased risk of acquiring HIV when they are in the community. Nonoccupational postexposure prophylaxis (nPEP) reduces HIV transmission following high-risk behaviors and is an effective HIV prevention strategy. The authors designed a 15-minute interactive educational program to increase inmates’ knowledge of nPEP. Before the program, participants self-reported high HIV risk yet low risk perception and lack of nPEP awareness. After the program, nPEP knowledge scores increased by 40% regardless of demographic or HIV-risk characteristics. This study demonstrates that a brief, easy-to-deliver educational intervention can be carried out in a jail, is effective at raising awareness of both HIV risk and nPEP, and may be useful for others seeking to increase use of this prevention strategy for high-risk women during incarceration.