Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Discretely Tunable Semiconductor Lasers Suitable for Photonic Integration

A sequence of partially reflective slots etched into an active ridge waveguide of a 1.5 mum laser structure is found to provide sufficient reflection for lasing. Mirrors based on these reflectors have strong spectral dependence. Two such active mirrors together with an active central section are combined in a Vernier configuration to demonstrate a tunable laser exhibiting 11 discrete modes over a 30 nm tuning range with mode spacing around 400 GHz and side-mode suppression ratio larger than 30 dB. The individual modes can be continuously tuned by up to 1.1 nm by carrier injection and by over 2 nm using thermal effects. These mirrors are suitable as a platform for integration of other optical functions with the laser. This is demonstrated by monolithically integrating a semiconductor optical amplifier with the laser resulting in a maximum channel power of 14.2 dBm from the discrete modes.
Public Policy Implementation: Recreational Marijuana in Colorado

In 2012, voters in Colorado and Washington State voted to legalize marijuana for recreational use. These states have the challenging task of creating and implementing a policy framework with which to regulate the now legal cultivation, distribution, and use of marijuana. This is a considerable task due to the lack of precedent and information regarding the issue, and because of the intergovernmental issues involved. This thesis focuses on the issue in regard to local governments in Colorado. The goal of this thesis is to gain a better understanding of the adoption of RME and barriers to the implementation processes of RME in local governments in Colorado. In order to gain this understanding, a survey of city and county managers and administrators across Colorado was conducted. The survey acted as a ‘status check’ of where localities are in the decision making process and sought to gain information about the policy adoption and implementation processes thus far. Existing public policy implementation literature was used as a foundation for the survey questions. The results of the survey indicated that most respondents have made a decision on the operation of RME and that a majority have banned them. Further analysis indicated that those local governments that have smaller populations, and are classified as rural and Republican, are more likely to have banned RME. Those localities that do not allow the operation of medical marijuana establishments (MME) are
Insight in Schizophrenia – A Comprehensive Update

Objective: To comprehensively review and update the research evidence on insight in schizophrenia. Methods: Search of electronic databases (up to September 2009) as well as manual search of relevant publications or cross references. The search terms used (in various combinations) were: insight, schizophrenia, psychosis, neuropsychology, neurobiology, instruments, model, prognosis, outcome, psychopathology, therapy. Results: There are several ways of defining and conceptualizing insight. Clinical concept of insight refers to awareness of a mental disorder and its consequences, awareness of need for treatment, awareness of symptoms and attribution of the symptoms to the disorder. Numerous conceptual models have attempted to explain insight: as a symptom, as a defence, as psychological (misattribution) or neuropsychological phenomenon, or from a sociocultural perspective. Neurobiologically, insight has been associated with frontal and other cortical structures implicated in higher mental functions. Several instruments exist for assessing insight. Clinical correlates of insight are many but always consistent: severity of illness, psychotic symptoms, depressive symptoms, treatment adherence, quality of life, functioning, violence, and competence to consent. Conclusions: In recent years, there has been a surge of research into the conceptualization and assessment of insight, as well as its relationships with prognosis, compliance, neuropsychological impairment and severity of psychopathology in schizophrenia. However, these studies have yielded inconsistent results. Different dimensions of insight are probably related to different aspects of outcome, and this needs to be reflected in the study planning phase. Although important advances have been made in this area, many questions remain unanswered, and these need to be addressed in future research (German J Psychiatry 2010; 13: 17-30).
Adaptive Binary Quantization for Fast Nearest Neighbor Search

Hashing has been proved an attractive technique for fast nearest neighbor search over big data. Compared to the projection based hashing methods, prototype based ones own stronger capability of generating discriminative binary codes for the data with complex inherent structure. However, our observation indicates that they still suffer from the insufficient coding that usually utilizes the complete binary codes in a hypercube. To address this problem, we propose an adaptive binary quantization method that learns a discriminative hash function with prototypes correspondingly associated with small unique binary codes. Our alternating optimization adaptively discovers the prototype set and the code set of a varying size in an efficient way, which together robustly approximate the data relations. Our method can be naturally generalized to the product space for long hash codes. We believe that our idea serves as a very helpful insight to hashing research. The extensive experiments on four large-scale (up to 80 million) datasets demonstrate that our method significantly outperforms state-of-the-art hashing methods, with up to 58.84% performance gains relatively.
From Seeing to Observing: How Parents and Children Learn to See Science in a Botanical Garden

How do children begin to make the transition from seeing the natural world to scientifically observing the natural world? This study explored how differences in parent conversational strategies and disciplinary knowledge impact children’s experience observing biological phenomena during shared informal learning. A total of 79 parent–child pairs with children ages 6–10 participated in a controlled study in which half of the parents used their natural conversational style and the other half were trained to use 4 conversational strategies during family observations of pollination in a botanical garden. Parents were also assigned to high- and low-knowledge groups according to their knowledge of pollination biology. Findings suggest that parents who received training used the conversational strategies more than parents who used their natural conversational style. Parents and children who knew more about pollination at the start of the study exhibited higher levels of disciplinary talk in the garden. However, the use of the conversational strategies also increased the amount of disciplinary talk in the garden. The extent to which families engaged in disciplinary talk in the garden predicted significant variance in what children learned from the experience. An extended example illustrates how shared family noticing and conversation may support learning to observe nature.
Identifying Stable Network in Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks

In a Wireless Networks, Quality of Service has become a logical step because of the increasing popularity of using multimedia and real time applications in different potential commercial in MANETs. Resource allocation and Reservation are the part of QoS to satisfy the application requirements. Bandwidth, delay, delay-jitter and packet to loss ratio are the requirements. The complexity in QoS routing in MANETs is to maintain the path constantly till the end of the transmission. Lack of resources in the network as well as frequent changes in the network topology has made MANETs a challenging task. The open problem in the networks is even though lots of research made to support QoS in Internet and other networks, they are not suitable for MANETs. Quality of Service is proposed in this paper in terms of reliable packet transmission, multiple connections and stable routes. This paper offers good adaptation to dynamic linking, distributed processing. Proposed scheme is incorporated using NTP protocol and it also offers low processing overhead and loop freedom al all times.
Proteomics of the Autographa californica Nucleopolyhedrovirus Budded Virions

ABSTRACT Baculoviruses produce two progeny phenotypes during their replication cycles. The occlusion-derived virus (ODV) is responsible for initiating primary infection in the larval midgut, and the budded virus (BV) phenotype is responsible for the secondary infection. The proteomics of several baculovirus ODVs have been revealed, but so far, no extensive analysis of BV-associated proteins has been conducted. In this study, the protein composition of the BV of Autographa californica nucleopolyhedrovirus (AcMNPV), the type species of baculoviruses, was analyzed by various mass spectrometry (MS) techniques, including liquid chromatography-triple quadrupole linear ion trap (LC-Qtrap), liquid chromatography-quadrupole time of flight (LC-Q-TOF), and matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight (MALDI-TOF). SDS-PAGE and MALDI-TOF analyses showed that the three most abundant proteins of the AcMNPV BV were GP64, VP39, and P6.9. A total of 34 viral proteins associated with the AcMNPV BV were identified by the indicated methods. Thirteen of these proteins, PP31, AC58/59, AC66, IAP-2, AC73, AC74, AC114, AC124, chitinase, polyhedron envelope protein (PEP), AC132, ODV-E18, and ODV-E56, were identified for the first time to be BV-associated proteins. Western blot analyses showed that ODV-E18 and ODV-E25, which were previously thought to be ODV-specific proteins, were also present in the envelop fraction of BV. In addition, 11 cellular proteins were found to be associated with the AcMNPV BV by both LC-Qtrap and LC-Q-TOF analyses. Interestingly, seven of these proteins were also identified in other enveloped viruses, suggesting that many enveloped viruses may commonly utilize certain conserved cellular pathways.
Evaluation of Moxifloxacin-Containing Regimens in Pathologically Distinct Murine Tuberculosis Models

ABSTRACT In the recently concluded REMox-TB trial, two 4-month moxifloxacin-containing regimens did not meet the criteria for noninferiority compared to the current 6-month first-line regimen to treat tuberculosis (TB). Despite the disappointing result, this phase 3 clinical trial provides a rare opportunity to gauge the predictive accuracy of the nonclinical models used to support regimen development. In parallel with the REMox-TB trial, we compared the efficacy of the same three regimens against chronic TB infection in the commonly used BALB/c mouse strain and in C3HeB/FeJ mice, which have attracted recent interest as a nonclinical efficacy model because they develop caseous lung lesions which may better resemble human TB. In long-term treatment experiments at two institutions, using low-dose aerosol infection models with 6- to 8-week incubation periods in both mouse strains, control mice received rifampin, isoniazid, pyrazinamide, and ethambutol (RHZE), and test mice received the same regimen with moxifloxacin replacing isoniazid (RMZE) or ethambutol (RHZM). Outcome measures were lung CFU counts during treatment and relapse after various durations of treatment. At both institutions and in both mouse strains, RMZE and RHZM reduced by approximately 1 month and 0 to 1 month, respectively, the treatment duration needed to produce the same relapse rate as RHZE. These results demonstrating generally similar treatment-shortening effects of the moxifloxacin-containing regimens in each mouse strain, with effect sizes consistent with the REMox-TB trial results, reinforce the predictive value of murine models for TB regimen development.
Smiling after thinking increases reliance on thoughts

The present research examines the impact of smiling on attitude change. Participants were first exposed to a story that elicited mostly positive thoughts (about an employee’s good day at work) or negative thoughts (about an employee’s bad day at work). After writing down their thoughts, participants were asked to hold a pen with their teeth (smile) or with their lips (control). Finally, all participants reported the extent to which they liked the story. In line with the self-validation hypothesis, we predicted and found that the effect of the initial thought direction induction on story evaluations was greater for smiling than control participants. These results conceptually replicate those obtained in previous research on embodiment (i.e., more favorable evaluations of stories when smiling; Strack, Martin, & Stepper, 1988) when participants had positive thoughts, but showed the opposite pattern of results (less favorable evaluations for smiling) for negative thoughts.
CRM1 mediates nuclear-cytoplasmic shuttling of mature microRNAs

Drosha-processed microRNAs (miRNAs) have been shown to be exported from the nucleus to the cytoplasm by Exportin 5, where they are processed a second time to generate mature miRNAs. In this work we show that miRNAs also use CRM1 for nuclear-cytoplasmic shuttling. Inhibition of CRM1 by Leptomycin B results in nuclear accumulation of miRNA guide sequences. Nuclear to cytoplasmic transport can be actively competed by synthetic small interfering RNAs, indicating that this pathway is shared by different classes of processed small RNAs. We also find that CRM1 coimmunoprecipitates with Ago-1, Ago-2, Topo2α, EzH2, and Mta, consistent with a role of Argonautes and small RNAs in chromatin remodeling.
Associations and Dissociations between Oculomotor Readiness and Covert Attention

The idea that covert mental processes such as spatial attention are fundamentally dependent on systems that control overt movements of the eyes has had a profound influence on theoretical models of spatial attention. However, theories such as Klein’s Oculomotor Readiness Hypothesis (OMRH) and Rizzolatti’s Premotor Theory have not gone unchallenged. We previously argued that although OMRH/Premotor theory is inadequate to explain pre-saccadic attention and endogenous covert orienting, it may still be tenable as a theory of exogenous covert orienting. In this article we briefly reiterate the key lines of argument for and against OMRH/Premotor theory, then evaluate the Oculomotor Readiness account of Exogenous Orienting (OREO) with respect to more recent empirical data. These studies broadly confirm the importance of oculomotor preparation for covert, exogenous attention. We explain this relationship in terms of reciprocal links between parietal ‘priority maps’ and the midbrain oculomotor centres that translate priority-related activation into potential saccade endpoints. We conclude that the OMRH/Premotor theory hypothesis is false for covert, endogenous orienting but remains tenable as an explanation for covert, exogenous orienting.
Exact superpartners of N=2 supergravity solitons.

By applying long-range N = 2 supergauge transformations to the Majumdar-Papapetrou configuration, the set of all superpartners to the bosonic multisolitons is exhibited. The resulting configuration is parametrized by two additional complex Grassmann numbers. Apart from mass and electric (possibly magnetic) charge it carries a supercharge which is algebraically constrained due to the central charges in the supersymmetry algebra. The supercharge gives rise to an ''intrinsic'' angular momentum. Similar to the Kerr metric, the configuration is stationary with the quantum-mechanical magnetic moment.
Jiří Raclavský Petr Kuchyňka CONCEPTUAL AND DERIVATION SYSTEMS

Pavel Materna proposed valuable explications of concept and conceptual system. After their introduction, we contrast conceptual systems with (a novel notion of) derivation systems. Derivation systems differ from conceptual systems especially in including derivation rules. This enables us to show close connections among the realms of objects, their concepts, and reasoning with concepts.
Expression and characterization of genetically engineered human immunodeficiency virus-like particles containing modified envelope glycoproteins: implications for development of a cross-protective AIDS vaccine

Noninfectious human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) viruslike particles containing chimeric envelope glycoproteins were expressed in mammalian cells by using inducible promoters. We engineered four expression vectors in which a synthetic oligomer encoding gp120 residues 306 to 328 (amino acids YNKRKRIHIGP GRAFYTTKNIIG) from the V3 loop of the MN viral isolate was inserted at various positions within the endogenous HIV-1LAI env gene. Expression studies revealed that insertion of the heterologous V3(MN) loop segment at two different locations within the conserved region 2 (C2) of gp120, either 173 or 242 residues away from the N terminus of the mature subunit, resulted in the secretion of fully assembled HIV-like particles containing chimeric LAI/MN envelope glycoproteins. Both V3 loop epitopes were recognized by loop-specific neutralizing antibodies. However, insertion of the V3(MN) loop segment into other regions of gp120 led to the production of envelope-deficient viruslike particles. Immunization with HIV-like particles containing chimeric envelope proteins induced specific antibody responses against both the autologous and heterologous V3 loop epitopes, including cross-neutralizing antibodies against the HIV-1LAI and HIV-1MN isolates. This study, therefore, demonstrates the feasibility of genetically engineering optimized HIV-like particles capable of eliciting cross-neutralizing antibodies.
Molecular Genetic Alterations of Chromosome 17 and p53 Nuclear Overexpression in Human Bladder Cancer

We set out to define the alterations of chromosome 17 in human bladder tumors and to correlate p53 nuclear over-expression with 17p deletions in those neoplasms. We studied 60 bladder tumors by restriction fragment-length polymorphism analysis directed at five different loci on chromosome 17. The same tumors were studied with a panel of mouse monoclonal antibodies (PAb1801, PAb240, and PAb1620) to mutant and wild-type p53 proteins using immunohistochemistry. Deletion of 17p correlated with grade (p = 0.039), stage (p = 0.004). and the presence of vascular invasion (p = 0.056). None of the pathologic parameters correlated with 17q deletions. p53 nuclear overexpression correlated with grade (p = 0.027), stage (p = 0.008), vascular invasion (p = 0.021), and the presence of nodal metastases (p = 0.007). In superficial (Ta) lesions, 17p was not deleted, whereas 557c of T1 and T2-T4 tumors showed a loss of heterozygosity. Mutations of p53 as detected by immunohistochemistry were seen in superficial as well as invasive tumors, whereas loss of heterozygosity was seen only in invasive tumors. A strong correlation was found between the presence of mutation and the loss of heterozygosity of the remaining allele (p = 0.0003). Additional follow-up and further studies are required to better define the role of p53 nuclear overexpression and 17p deletions as markers of tumor progression in human bladder cancer.
Age-specific incidence of Alzheimer's disease in a community population.

OBJECTIVE To determine age-specific incidence rates of clinically diagnosed Alzheimer's disease. DESIGN Cohort, followed a mean of 4.3 years. SETTING East Boston, Mass. PARTICIPANTS Of 2313 persons aged 65 years and older who were initially free of Alzheimer's disease, 1601 participated in the ascertainment of incident disease (80% of survivors), 409 declined participation, and 303 died before the end of the follow-up period. A stratified sample of 642 persons received detailed clinical evaluation. OUTCOME MEASURE Diagnosis of new probable Alzheimer's disease through structured clinical evaluation including neurologic, neuropsychological, and psychiatric examination. Community incidence rates were computed by 5-year age groups, adjusted for gender, single year of age, length of follow-up interval, and sampling design. RESULTS The estimated annual incidence of Alzheimer's disease in the population was 0.6% (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.3% to 0.9%) for persons aged 65 to 69 years, 1.0% (95% CI, 0.6% to 1.4%) for persons aged 70 to 74 years, 2.0% (95% CI, 1.3% to 2.7%) for persons aged 75 to 79 years, 3.3% (95% CI, 2.2% to 4.4%) for persons aged 80 to 84 years, and 8.4% (95% CI, 3.7% to 13.1%) for persons aged 85 years and older. CONCLUSIONS The incidence of Alzheimer's disease is substantial and is approximately 14 times higher among persons older than 85 years compared with those between 65 and 69 years of age.
Probabilistic Modelling of Sensors in Autonomous Vehicles Autoregressive Input/Output Hidden Markov Models for Time Series Analysis

Testing the quality of sensors in autonomous vehicles is crucial for safety verification. This is usually done by collecting a lot of data in many different settings. However, this can be very time consuming and expensive. Therefore, one is interested in virtual verification methods that simulate these situations, so many scenarios can be tested in parallel without actual hazards. In this thesis a generative model is created for the longitudinal errors in the sensors and an extension to the hidden Markov model, called autoregressive input/output hidden Markov model (AIOHMM) is implemented. In this extension the transition probabilities are conditioned on an input vector and the emissions are conditioned with the emissions at previous time steps, making it better suited for modelling long-term dependencies. We show that conditioning on the previous error is not enough to capture the behaviour of the errors, and that conditioning the transitions on an input is an important aspect of the model.
Metal binding acute phase proteins and trace elements in Nigerian children with urinary schistosomiasis.

Fifty-five Nigerian children with urinary schistosomiasis (USS) and 34 apparently healthy children of matched ages and sexes were considered for this study. In these children metal binding acute phase proteins (transferrin and caeruloplasmin) and trace elements were measured by single radial immunodiffusion and atomic absorption spectrophotometry respectively. The result shows that Cd Mn albumin and transferrin were reduced (p 0.20 p<0.01 and p < 0.01 respectively) while Fe Cu and caeruloplasmin were raised (p < 0.01 p < 0.01 and p < 0.01 respectively) in USS subjects when compared with the controls. Low levels of transferrin might be responsible for raised level of plasma Fe which is in turn modulated by caeruloplasmin. It may be concluded that trace elements and antioxidants are involved in the pathogenesis of USS. (authors)
Segmentation of Lung Vessels Together With Nodules in CT Images Using Morphological Operations and Level Set

With a fast development of computer tomography (CT) technology, CT images has become one of the most efficient examination methods of lung diseases in clinical. The appearance of vessels and nodules together with their changes over the time in CT images may provide an exact diagnosis. Segmenting blood vessels, extracting nodules together with distinguishing between vessel junctions and nodules have become important clinical challenges. Some factors usually used to distinguish between blood vessels and nodules include the structure, shape, size, color and intensity differences, i.e. bright light or shady. The precision of segmenting lung vessels and nodules plays an important role in analyzing the volumetric growth rate and the nodule status. There are many applications of image processing techniques proposed and used nowadays to give radiologists necessary information in their work such as vessel enhancement, nodule enhancement, vessel and nodule segmentation, etc. With the recognition that intensity is one of the most important factors in classifying strong and weak vessels, solid and nonsolid nodules, this paper presents a way of segmenting vessels together with nodules in CT lung images into three levels of the intensity using morphological operations and level set method. Level-1 indicates the highest intensity or bright light regions, level-3 includes the lowest intensity or shady grayish regions and level-2 is