Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Object-Oriented Classification of Forest Structure from Light Detection and Ranging Data for Stand Mapping

Stand delineation is an important step in the process of establishing a forest inventory and provides the spatial framework for many forest management decisions. Many methods for extracting forest structure characteristics for stand delineation and other purposes have been researched in the past, primarily focusing on high-resolution imagery and satellite data. High-resolution airborne laser scanning offers new opportunities for evaluating forests and conducting forest inventory. This study investigates the use of information derived from light detection and ranging (LIDAR) data as a potential tool for delineation of forest structure to create stand maps. Delineation methods are developed and tested using data sets collected over the Blue Ridge study site near Olympia, Washington. The methodology developed delineates forest areas using LIDAR data and object-oriented image segmentation and supervised classification. Error matrices indicate classification accuracies with a kappa hat values of 78 and 84% for 1999 and 2003 data sets, respectively.
Polymorphism at the Apoprotein‐E locus in relation to risk of coronary disease

The frequency of genotypes at the polymorphic locus which codes for Apoprotein‐E, an important constituent of very low density serum lipoprotein, has been determined in a random sample of persons between the ages of 45 and 60 years, born in the Grampian Region of North East Scotland. Three alleles, EII EIII and EIV occur with a frequency of respectively 0.08, 0.77 and 0.15. In a random sample of survivors of myocardial infarction, born in the same region, genotype EIVEIII occurs more and EIIIEII less frequently than expected. Also the mean age at first infarction is lower in men for genotype EIVEIII than for other genotypes. Commonly occurring genotypes at this locus apparently influence the risk of coronary disease. A prospective study is needed to show how the genetic effects are expressed.
A Recurrent Central Giant Cell Granuloma in a Young Patient and Orthodontic Treatment: A Case Report

Central giant cell granuloma (CGCG) is an uncommon benign intraosseous lesion of the jaw, found predominantly in children and young adults below 30 years of age. The purpose of this article was to present a summary of the current literature and a case report of an 11-year-old boy diagnosed with an aggressive CGCG involving the anterior maxilla that was removed in 2004 and subsequently recurred almost 3 years later in 2006. The presenting features of the patient and the effect of combined surgical and orthodontic treatment for this condition are discussed. This case shows how the dentition was successfully maintained with conservative surgery and orthodontic treatment in spite of the extensive destruction of the supporting bone, and the importance of long-term follow-up. The report also reminds orthodontic practitioners that rare pathological conditions can occur in their child patient groups.
Meeting the Nutritional Needs of the Low-Birth-Weight Infant

Delivering adequate amounts of nutrients to premature infants at all times is challenging because the infant’s immature gastrointestinal tract is initially unable to accept feedings, necessitating the use of parenteral nutrition. In the past, inadequate amounts of nutrients have commonly been given to premature infants because the administration of nutrients was thought to be hazardous. Inadequate nutrient intakes have resulted in widespread postnatal growth restriction. Now that it is known that postnatal growth restriction is associated with poor neurocognitive development, efforts are made to increase nutrient intakes. In this review, nutrient requirements of premature infants that have been determined by the factorial and empirical methods are reviewed. Current good practices regarding parenteral nutrition are discussed, as are guidelines for the introduction and advancement of enteral feedings. Because of its trophic effects on the gastrointestinal tract and its anti-infectious effects, human milk is strongly preferred as the early feeding of choice for premature infants. Human milk also protects infants against necrotizing enterocolitis. Once full feeding is achieved, the challenge is to provide nutrients in amounts that support the infant’s growth like that of the fetus. In the case of the infant fed his/her mother’s milk or banked donor milk, nutrient fortification is necessary and is generally practiced. However, adequate intakes of protein are seldom achieved with routine fortification and methods of providing additional fortification are discussed.
Intensive preoperative chemotherapy with colony-stimulating factor for resectable adenocarcinoma of the esophagus or gastroesophageal junction.

PURPOSE The curative resection rate in patients with potentially resectable carcinoma of the esophagus is approximately 55% and their median survival time is 11 months. Preoperative chemotherapy with high doses of chemotherapeutic agents was used to evaluate clinical and pathologic responses, curative resection rate, toxicity, and survival. Colony-stimulating factor (CSF) was added to reduce the severity of myelosuppression. PATIENTS AND METHODS Twenty-six consecutive assessable patients with potentially resectable adenocarcinoma of the esophagus or gastroesophageal junction were treated with two preoperative courses of intensive chemotherapy (etoposide, doxorubicin, and cisplatin [EAP]) with granulocyte-macrophage CSF (GM-CSF). Additional three conventional-dose postoperative chemotherapy courses without GM-CSF were given to patients who responded to preoperative chemotherapy. RESULTS A median of three courses (range, one to six), were administered. Of 27 patients, 26 were assessable for response to preoperative EAP; 13 (50%) achieved a major response. Among 23 patients who underwent surgery, 15 (65%) had a curative resection (58% of 26 assessable patients); none of the patients had a pathologic complete response, but two patients had only microscopic carcinoma in the resected specimen. Six patients had carcinoma present at the resection margins and received postoperative radiotherapy. Two patients were found to have liver metastases at exploration. At a median follow-up of 22 months, the median survival of 26 patients was 12.5 months (range, 2 to 32 +). Fourteen patients died of their carcinoma; two patients died of treatment-related causes; one died of an unrelated CNS arterial malformation; and the causes of death in two patients remain unknown. Seven patients are alive with no evidence of relapse. Major toxicities of this regimen included severe myelosuppression, nausea and vomiting, infections, and severe constitutional symptoms related to GM-CSF. However, subcutaneous injection of GM-CSF was well tolerated. CONCLUSION High-dose EAP is active against locoregional adenocarcinoma of the esophagus and gastroesophageal junction but can be associated with significant toxicity. Although this strategy remains attractive and needs to be developed further, less toxic and more effective regimens need to be identified.
Enterprise System Implementation Failure: A Strategic Response?

A global manufacturing company needing to upgrade its IT to support rapid growth decides to pilot an Enterprise System implementation in one of its European businesses. This was unsuccessful, but a second attempt in Australia, drawing on the many lessons learnt was regarded as successful. Subsequently, 14 implementations proceeded all over the Asia Pacific region and elsewhere in Europe. The subsequent implementation of the Enterprise System into a recently acquired business in New Zealand proved problematic. The NZ management team and users were highly critical of the system and appeared to strongly resist its implementation. Cutover was eventually mandated and did occur, but the business almost failed due to problems with the new system. Much seemed to depend on the system’s perceived continuing capability to support the business. The CIO in Head Office dispatched a small experienced team to New Zealand to review the situation.
What are the factors that contribute to parental vaccine-hesitancy and what can we do about it?

Parental refusal or delay of childhood vaccines is increasing. Barriers to vaccination among this population have been described, yet less is known regarding motivating factors. Researchers are beginning to evaluate various approaches to address the concerns of “vaccine-hesitant” parents, but few studies have evaluated the effect of interventions on timely vaccine uptake. Several models for communicating with vaccine-hesitant parents have been reported for healthcare providers; however, the effectiveness and utility of these strategies has not been quantified. This article reviews the known barriers to vaccination reported by vaccine-hesitant parents and the current evidence on strategies to address parental vaccine hesitancy.
Women, men and coronary heart disease: a review of the qualitative literature.

AIM This paper presents a review of the qualitative literature which examines the experiences of patients with coronary heart disease. The paper also assesses whether the experiences of both female and male patients are reflected in the literature and summarizes key themes. BACKGROUND Understanding patients' experiences of their illness is important for coronary heart disease prevention and education. Qualitative methods are particularly suited to eliciting patients' detailed understandings and perceptions of illness. As much previous research has been 'gender neutral', this review pays particular attention to gender. METHODS Published papers from 60 qualitative studies were identified for the review through searches in MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, PREMEDLINE, PsychINFO, Social Sciences Citation Index and Web of Science using keywords related to coronary heart disease. FINDINGS Early qualitative studies of patients with coronary heart disease were conducted almost exclusively with men, and tended to generalize from 'male' experience to 'human' experience. By the late 1990s this pattern had changed, with the majority of studies including women and many being conducted with solely female samples. However, many studies that include both male and female coronary heart disease patients still do not have a specific gender focus. Key themes in the literature include interpreting symptoms and seeking help, belief about coronary 'candidates' and relationships with health professionals. The influence of social roles is important: many female patients have difficulties reconciling family responsibilities and medical advice, while male patients worry about being absent from work. CONCLUSIONS There is a need for studies that compare the experiences of men and women. There is also an urgent need for work that takes masculinity and gender roles into account when exploring the experiences of men with coronary heart disease.
Expression of EGF, EGF‐receptor, p53, v‐erb B and ras p21 in colorectal neoplasms by immunostaining paraffin‐embedded tissues

Immunohistochemical studies were performed to clarify the significance of the expression or overexpression of epidermal growth factor (EGF), EGF‐receptor (EGFR), p53, v‐erb B, ras p21 in 23 cases each of tubular adenoma and adenocarcinoma. The expression of EGF, EGFR, p53, v‐erb B, and ras p21 in paraffin‐embedded tissues, from 46 patients with colorectal tumors (adenoma: 23 cases; 14 mild dysplasia, six moderate dysplasia, three severe dysplasia, adenocarcinoma: 23 cases; 17 well differentiated, two moderately differentiated, three poorly differentiated, one mucinous carcinoma was analyzed immunohistochemically using anti‐EGF, EGFR, p53, v‐erb B and ras p21 antibodies. The EGF and ras p21 tended to express more strongly in carcinoma cases than in the adenoma cases, and in severe and moderate dysplasia than in mild dysplasia (EGF: stained positive in five adenomas [21.74%] and 17 adenocarcinomas [73.91%]; ras p21: stained positive in six adenomas [26.09%] and 14 adenocarcinomas [60.87%]. The EGFR stained positive in two adenomas (8.70%) and two adenocarcinomas (8.70%). The p53 and v‐erb B showed positive staining only in the carcinoma cases (p53: stained positive in four cases [17.39%]; v‐erb B: stained positive in eight cases [34.78%]). This study suggests that these factors seem to have some role in the progression of colon neoplasms. It suggests that genetic alteration is not always equal to the overexpression of protein products, but that it reflects them well, and that the staining makes some contribution to differential diagnosis in colorectal neoplasms.
MiR‐139 Inhibits Mcl‐1 Expression and Potentiates TMZ‐Induced Apoptosis in Glioma

Mcl‐1, an antiapoptotic member of the Bcl‐2 family, is overexpressed in human glioblastoma, conferring a survival advantage to tumor cells. The mechanisms underlying its dysregulation have not been clarified. In this study, we explored the involvement of micro‐RNAs that acted as endogenous sequence‐specific suppressors of gene expression.
Barriers to open data release: A view from the top

The pressure for governments to release much of the vast reservoir of data that they collectively hold continues to grow. This pressure is grounded not just in principles such as the right of the public to know or freedom of information, but in beliefs about the economic, social, administrative and political benefits that will flow from the wide availability of such data. However it is also acknowledged that there is a considerable gap between such expectations and current realities one component of which is the many barriers to open data release. This paper examines these barriers from the perspective of senior managers in Irish central and local government. A taxonomy of such barriers is proposed and compared with other classifications of barriers in the literature. The paper concludes with some reflections on the implications for the opening up of government data.
Psychometric Properties of the Turkish Versions of the Drug Use Disorders Identification Test (DUDIT) and the Drug Abuse Screening Test (DAST-10) in the Prison Setting

Abstract The aim of this study was to evaluate psychometric properties of the Drug Use Disorders Identification Test (DUDIT) and the Drug Abuse Screening Test (DAST-10) in prisoners with (n = 124) or without (n = 78) drug use disorder. Participants were evaluated with the DUDIT, the DAST-10, and the Addiction Profile Index-Short (API-S). The DUDIT and the DAST-10 were found to be psychometrically sound drug abuse screening measures with high convergent validity when compared with each other (r = 0.86), and API-S (r = 0.88 and r = 0.84, respectively), and to have a Cronbach’s α of 0.93 and 0.87, respectively. In addition, a single component accounted for 58.28% of total variance for DUDIT, whereas this was 47.10% for DAST-10. The DUDIT had sensitivity and specificity scores of 0.95 and 0.79, respectively, when using the optimal cut-off score of 10, whereas these scores were 0.88 and 0.74 for the DAST-10 when using the optimal cut-off score of 4. Additionally, both the DUDIT and the DAST-10 showed good discriminant validity as they differentiated prisoners with drug use disorder from those without. Findings support the Turkish versions of both the DUDIT and the DAST-10 as reliable and valid drug abuse screening instruments that measure unidimensional constructs.
Scanning microscopy of ciliary organelles

Cilia and flagella are characteristic cellular appendages widely present in diverse animal phyla, as well as in some algae; motility of these organelles results from interactions within a rather organized array of axial microtubules, well known as the “9+2 complex”. High resolution transmission electron microscopy studies of different cilia, along with data of physical parameters, biochemistry, and computer modeling as well, support current interpretation of their motion mechanisms. Less frequently used in these studies, scanning electron microscopy however, is valuable in providing 3-dimensional views of ciliated cell surfaces; of the waveform of ciliary’s beating, as also, details of the organelles themselves. The use of “instantaneous” fixatives is of particular interest in this regard. A few preparative routes are presented here, as collected from published papers and from personal experience.
Synaptic Mechanism for the Sustained Activation of Oculomotor Integrator Circuits in the Rat Prepositus Hypoglossi Nucleus: Contribution of Ca2+-Permeable AMPA Receptors

Sustained neural activity is involved in several brain functions. Although recurrent/feedback excitatory networks are proposed as a neural mechanism for this sustained activity, the synaptic mechanisms have not been fully clarified. To address this issue, we investigated the excitatory synaptic responses of neurons in the prepositus hypoglossi nucleus (PHN), a brainstem structure involved as an oculomotor neural integrator, using whole-cell voltage-clamp recordings in rat slice preparations. Under a blockade of inhibitory synaptic transmissions, the application of “burst stimulation” (100 Hz, 20 pulses) to a brainstem area projecting to the PHN induced an increase in the frequency of EPSCs in PHN neurons that lasted for several seconds. Sustained EPSC responses were observed even when the burst stimulation was applied in the vicinity of a recorded neuron within the PHN that was isolated from the slices. Pharmacologically, the sustained EPSC responses were reduced by 1-naphthyl acetyl spermine (50 μm), a blocker of Ca2+-permeable AMPA (CP-AMPA) receptors. Analysis of the current–voltage (I–V) relationship of the current responses to iontophoretic application of kainate revealed that more than one-half of PHN neurons exhibited an inwardly rectifying I–V relationship. Furthermore, PHN neurons exhibiting inwardly rectifying current responses showed higher Ca2+ permeability. The sustained EPSC responses were also reduced by flufenamic acid (200 μm), a blocker of Ca2+-activated nonselective cation (CAN) channels. These results indicate that the sustained EPSC responses are attributable to the sustained activation of local excitatory networks in the PHN, which arises from the activation of CP-AMPA receptors and CAN channels in PHN neurons.
Pain and inflammation in 41 patients following the placement of 131 dental implants.

AIMS To study pain and swelling in the first week after dental implant placement. MATERIAL AND METHODS A total of 131 implants were placed in 41 patients (17 males and 24 females) under local anesthesia. Pain was scored by means of a verbal and visual analog scale (VAS), while swelling was evaluated by a verbal scale. RESULTS Most patients who experienced pain reported the latter to be slight, with a peak intensity 6 hours after the operation in 41.5% of cases. A significant relation was observed between pain and the number of implants placed. Swelling was moderate in most patients who reported pain -- peak intensity of inflammation being recorded after 48 hours in 48.8% of cases. A significant association was observed between swelling and older patients, the placement of more than four dental implants, and operations in which sinus lift or bone regeneration procedures were carried out. Swelling was greater in patients with implants positioned in the posterior sector versus those placed in the anterior zone, and in those located at free extreme or totally edentulous patients, versus those placed in interdental spaces. CONCLUSIONS Following implant placement, pain tends to be mild, with moderate inflammation. The latter is seen to be greater in older patients, in subjects receiving a larger number of implants, and in interventions involving regenerative techniques.
A multi-level authorization based tenant separation mechanism in cloud computing environment

Separation issue is one of the most important problems about cloud computing security. Tenants should be separated from each other based on cloud infrastructure and different users from one tenant should be separated from each other with the constraint of security policies. Learning from the notion of trusted cloud computing and trustworthiness in cloud, in this paper, a multi-level authorization separation model is formally described, and a series of rules are proposed to summarize the separation property of this model. The correctness of the rules is proved. Furthermore, based on this model, a tenant separation mechanism is deployed in a real world mixed-critical information system. Performance benchmarks have shown the availability and efficiency of this mechanism.
Investigation of the timing of velar movements during speech.

High‐speed cinefluorographic films were taken of four normal subjects speaking English sentences containing various combinations of nasal consonants (N), consonants (C), and vowels (V) at normal speaking levels and rates of production. Word and syllable boundaries were designed to fall across the sequences in various ways. From frame‐by‐frame tracings, measures of velar movement and velopharyngeal opening were made. Results indicate extensive anticipatory coarticulation of velar movement toward velopharyngeal opening in CVN and CVVN sequences such that velar movement toward opening began during the approach to the initial vowel in all cases and some velopharyngeal opening was observed on all vowels. For NC and NCN sequences, velar movement toward closure for the consonant usually began during the preceding nasal such that some velar closure was observed during all plosive and fricative consonants used. These results directly contradict the hypothesis that a CV‐type syllable is the minimal unit of coarticu.
Near-Field Chipless-RFID System With High Data Capacity for Security and Authentication Applications

A high data capacity chipless radio frequency identification (chipless-RFID) system, useful for security and authentication applications, is presented in this paper. Reading is based on the near-field coupling between the tag, a chain of identical split-ring resonators (SRRs) printed on a (typically flexible) dielectric substrate (e.g., liquid crystal polymer, plastic, and paper), and the reader. Encoding is achieved by the presence or absence of SRRs at predefined (equidistant) positions in the chain, and tag identification (ID) is based on sequential bit reading. Namely, the tag must be longitudinally displaced, at short distance, over the reader, a microstrip line loaded with an SRR and fed by a harmonic signal. By this means, the harmonic signal is amplitude modulated, and the (ID) code is contained in the envelope function, which can be obtained by means of an envelope detector. With this system, tag reading requires proximity with the reader, but this is not an issue in many applications within the domain of security and authentication (e.g., secure paper for corporate documents and certificates). Several circularly shaped 40-bit encoders (implemented in a commercial microwave substrate), and the corresponding reader, are designed and fabricated as proof-of-concept demonstrators. Strategies for programming the tags and a first proof-of-concept chipless-RFID tag fabricated on plastic substrate through inkjet printing are included in this paper.
Trends in suicide rates of the elderly in Austria, 1970–2004: an analysis of changes in terms of age groups, suicide methods and gender

Suicides of the elderly (persons aged 65 and older) make up a large proportion of total suicides. Since suicide rates of the elderly are highest in western populations, addressing them as a risk group in prevention plans has been recommended. In order to assess possible approaches to prevention strategies, this study examines high‐risk groups of the elderly.