Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A floristic account of the benthic marine algae of Tuscany (Western Mediterranean Sea)

A floristic account of the benthic marine algae of Tuscany (north-western Italy) is presented. On the basis of literature reports and personal observations of the authors, a check-list was prepared; the flora consists of 471 taxa (76 Chlorophycota, 89 Phaeophycota and 306 Rhodophycota), 35 of which are new records for the region. Because of the little number of records in the Mediterranean or the particular habitat where they were collected, some of the new records are of particular ecological or biogeographical interest: Symphyocladia marchantioides , Scytosiphon sp. , Polysiphonia subtilissima , Halosia elisae , Polysiphonia perforans , Laurencia chondrioides . The overall compo- sition of the algal flora of Tuscany is similar to that of other western and central Mediterranean regions and the few floristic peculiarities are either the result of introductions or morphologically very close to much more common species. Riassunto: Viene presentato uno studio floristico della flora algale bentonica della Toscana. Sulla base di dati bibliografici ed osservazioni personali degli autori, e stata preparata una lista floristica; la flora consiste di 471 taxa (76 Chlorophycota, 89 Phaeophycota and 306 Rhodophycota), di cui 35 non sono stati precedentemente segnalati per la regione. Tra le nuove segnalazioni, alcune hanno un particolare interesse ecologico o biogeografico: Symphyocladia marchantioides , Scytosiphon sp. , Polysiphonia subtilissima , Halosia elisae , Polysiphonia perforans , Laurencia chondrioides . Com- plessivamente la composizione della flora algale bentonica della Toscana e' simile a quella di altre regioni del Mediterraneo centro-occidentale e le poche peculiarita floristiche sono probabilmente il risultato di introduzioni o di una morfologia simile a quella di altre specie piu' comuni.
OCCURRENCE OF URINARY CALCULI IN INBRED STRAIN (C3H) OF MICE TREATED WITH ESTROGEN1

INVESTIGATORS WHO HAVE TREATED castrated and noncastrated male mice with estrogen have observed various pathologic changes in the genitourinary tract, including a), slight increases in the dried weight of the kidneys, independent of possible inflammatory changes (1); b) hydronephrosis and hydroureter, sometimes complicated by infection and suppuration which led, in turn, to pyonephrosis and pyoureter (2, 3); c), dilatation of the urinary bladder (3, 4, 5), urinary retention, sometimes associated with purulent cystitis, and squamous metaplasia of the bladder epithelium with downgrowths extending to the muscular coat (2); d), squamous metaplasia of the epithelium of the prostatic urethra and periurethral glands (6); e) squamous metaplasia of the epithelium lining the prostate glands (4–11), seminal vesicles (5, 9,10,11), coagulating glands (6,10,11), and bulbourethral glands (12), sometimes with keratinization of the epithelium and suppuration in the glandular lumina; f) increase in the fibrous tissue strom.
Enhancing single-arm phase II trials by inclusion of matched control patients

When a novel treatment has successfully passed phase I, different options to design subsequent phase II trials are available. One approach is a single-arm trial, comparing the response rate in the intervention group against a fixed proportion. Another alternative is to conduct a randomized phase II trial, comparing the new treatment with placebo or the current standard. A significant problem arises in both approaches when the investigated patient population is very heterogeneous regarding prognostic factors. For the situation that a substantial dataset of historical controls exists, we propose an approach to enhance the classic single-arm trial design by including matched control patients. The outcome of the observed study population can be adjusted based on the matched controls with a comparable distribution of known confounders. We propose an adaptive two-stage design with the options of early stopping for futility and recalculation of the sample size taking the matching rate, number of matching partners, and observed treatment effect into account. The performance of the proposed design in terms of type I error rate, power, and expected sample size is investigated via simulation studies based on a hypothetical phase II trial investigating a novel therapy for patients with acute myeloid leukemia.
Dimension Groups and Dynamical Systems

This book is the first self-contained exposition of the fascinating link between dynamical systems and dimension groups. The authors explore the rich interplay between topological properties of dynamical systems and the algebraic structures associated with them, with an emphasis on symbolic systems, particularly substitution systems. It is recommended for anybody with an interest in topological and symbolic dynamics, automata theory or combinatorics on words. Intended to serve as an introduction for graduate students and other newcomers to the field as well as a reference for established researchers, the book includes a thorough account of the background notions as well as detailed exposition – with full proofs – of the major results of the subject. A wealth of examples and exercises, with solutions, serve to build intuition, while the many open problems collected at the end provide jumping-off points for future research.
Orientation-Preserving Vectorized Distance Between Curves

We introduce an orientation-preserving landmark-based distance for continuous curves, which can be viewed as an alternative to the Fr$\rm\acute{e}$chet or Dynamic Time Warping distances. This measure retains many of the properties of those measures, and we prove some relations, but can be interpreted as a Euclidean distance in a particular vector space. Hence it is significantly easier to use, faster for general nearest neighbor queries, and allows easier access to classification results than those measures. It is based on the $signed$ distance function to the curves or other objects from a fixed set of landmark points. We also prove new stability properties with respect to the choice of landmark points, and along the way introduce a concept called signed local feature size (slfs) which parameterizes these notions. Slfs explains the complexity of shapes such as non-closed curves where the notion of local orientation is in dispute -- but is more general than the well-known concept of (unsigned) local feature size, and is for instance infinite for closed simple curves. Altogether, this work provides a novel, simple, and powerful method for oriented shape similarity and analysis.
Neural Language Generation: Formulation, Methods, and Evaluation

Recent advances in neural network-based generative modeling have reignited the hopes in having computer systems capable of seamlessly conversing with humans and able to understand natural language. Neural architectures have been employed to generate text excerpts to various degrees of success, in a multitude of contexts and tasks that fulfil various user needs. Notably, high capacity deep learning models trained on large scale datasets demonstrate unparalleled abilities to learn patterns in the data even in the lack of explicit supervision signals, opening up a plethora of new possibilities regarding producing realistic and coherent texts. While the field of natural language generation is evolving rapidly, there are still many open challenges to address. In this survey we formally define and categorize the problem of natural language generation. We review particular application tasks that are instantiations of these general formulations, in which generating natural language is of practical importance. Next we include a comprehensive outline of methods and neural architectures employed for generating diverse texts. Nevertheless, there is no standard way to assess the quality of text produced by these generative models, which constitutes a serious bottleneck towards the progress of the field. To this end, we also review current approaches to evaluating natural language generation systems. We hope this survey will provide an informative overview of formulations, methods, and assessments of neural natural language generation.
AGE DETERMINATION OF EUROPEAN LOBSTERS (HOMARUS GAMMARUS L.) BY HISTOLOGICAL QUANTIFICATION OF LIPOFUSCIN

Abstract During the past decade, quantification of the pigment lipofuscin in the olfactory lobe cell masses (OLCM) has been successfully used for age determination of crustaceans. The aim of the current study was to quantify the amount of lipofuscin in European lobsters (Homarus gammarus L.) of known age and to determine the accuracy of lipofuscin as an age predictor. Lipofuscin was quantified by confocal fluorescence microscopy and image analysis of histological sections. Our results showed that age and OLCM lipofuscin were closely and linearly related (r2 = 0.88). Furthermore, in contrast to earlier studies, age was also closely, but nonlinearly, related to carapace length (r2 = 0.78). Comparison of lipofuscin and carapace length as age predictors nevertheless showed that lipofuscin produced significantly more accurate estimates of age than carapace length. The relatively small difference in the precision of age estimation between lipofuscin and carapace length emphasises the importance of evaluating the relationship between age and carapace length/lipofuscin in studies of populations with variable environmental conditions or demographic processes. It is possible that age, in specific situations, could be satisfactorily predicted on basis of measurements of size.
Modularity and Optimality in Social Choice

Marengo and the second author have developed in the last years a geometric model of social choice when this takes place among bundles of interdependent elements, showing that by bundling and unbundling the same set of constituent elements an authority has the power of determining the social outcome. In this paper we will tie the model above to tournament theory, solving some of the mathematical problems arising in their work and opening new questions which are interesting not only from a mathematical and a social choice point of view, but also from an economic and a genetic one. In particular, we will introduce the notion of u-local optima and we will study it from both a theoretical and a numerical/probabilistic point of view; we will also describe an algorithm that computes the universal basin of attraction of a social outcome in O(M^3 log M) time (where M is the number of social outcomes).
Evaluating the life quality of patients with diseases of oral mucosa referred to Kerman Dental School, Kerman, Iran, in 2014-2015

BACKGROUND AND AIM : This study evaluated the quality of life (QOL) of patients with diseases of oral mucosa referred to Kerman Dental School, Kerman, Iran during 2014-2015. METHODS : Total of 101 patients seen in the Kerman Department of Oral Medicine with chronic oral mucosal diseases were included in the study. They completed the designed questionnaire to assess their QOL. After the final edit, the questionnaire was filled by the subjects. Data were analyzed by t-test, chi-square, Pearson’s correlation, analysis of variance, and post-hoc analysis using SPSS. The level of significance for all data analysis was < 0.05. RESULTS : In this study, 101 patients with oral lesions were studied, [57 women (56.4%) and 44 men (43.6%)]. The patients’ age range was 19-65 years and the average age was 32.4 ± 5.6 years. Patients older than 35 years of age reported significantly lower QOL in the domain of social and emotional status. Significant age-related differences in QOL were not observed in other domains. Men reported significantly better oral health-related QOL in pain and functional limitation than women. Significant differences were observed between the disease groups only for recurrent aphthous ulcers and pemphigus. CONCLUSION : The present study indicated that chronic oral mucosal diseases affect patients’ QOL. Therefore, it seems that oral disease specialists play a key role in the treatment of these patients, including the disease management and symptomatic treatment, and in managing all issues affecting patients’ living conditions.
Assessing Performance in Health Care Using International Surveys: Are Patient and Clinician Perspectives Complementary or Substitutive

Background: Over the last decade, international surveys of patients and clinicians have been used to compare health care across countries. Findings from these surveys have been extensively used to create aggregate scores and rankings. Objective: To assess the concordance of survey responses provided by patients and clinicians. Methods: Analysis of 16 pairs of questions that focused on coordination, organizational factors, and patient-centered competencies from the Commonwealth Fund International Health Policy Survey of older adults (2014) and of primary care physicians (2015). Concordance was assessed by comparing absolute rates and relative rankings. Results: In absolute terms, patients and clinicians gave differing responses for questions about coordination of care (patients were more positive) and provision of after-hours care (patients were less positive). In relative terms, country rankings were positively correlated for 5 of 16 question pairs (Spearman ρ > .6 and P < .05). Conclusion: Patterns of concordance between patient and clinician perspectives provides information to guide the use of survey data in performance assessment. However, this study highlights the need to assess the complementarity and substitutive nature of patients’ and clinicians’ perspectives before combining them to create aggregate assessments of performance.
The Impact of Self Care Education on Quality of Life of Those Clients Suffering from Osteoarthritis in Rehabilitation Centers of Shiraz University of Medical Science (Iran)

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Chronic diseases such as ostreoarthritis by the reason of successive progressing are frequently disabling and effect on quality of life of patients. The aim of this study was to assign the impact of self care education on quality of life of those clients suffering from ostreoarthritis in rehabilitation centers of Shiraz University of Medical Science. METHODS: This pseudo research was done on 110 patients suffering from osteoarthritis by easy sampling and random counting in two multitudes of case and control (55 patients in each group). A medias including 36 short choices questionnaires includes 8 domains and scoring between 0-100 which are completed for both groups in two steps. Case group in time distance between two levels of measuring quality of life received principled education via face to face and educational notebook. Ultimately, alterations in the quality of life in two groups were evaluated and compared. FINDINGS: In both groups of case and control, among 110 patients that have been under study, 101 women, with average age of 56±7.2 who were illiterate and under educated, married, housewife and with average income had their both knee joints involved and the difference was not significant between two groups. There was a meaningful relationship between age, affection period and amount of incoming with the quality of life (p=0.01) so that by increasing age and the affection period of osteoarthritis and amount of incoming, the quality of life has been decreased and by increasing the level of education, the quality of life has been increased. The average change of the quality of life was 280.4±87.5 in case group and 52.8±11.2 in control group that showed a statistical meaningful difference (p=0.001). CONCLUSION: According to the results of the study and positive impact of self care education on quality of life of those clients suffering from osteoarthritis, the method of modifying and conformity toward the disease can be provided effectively and play a significant role in recovering the quality of life of the patient and the health level of society.
MIMO Applications for Multibeam Satellites

High throughput satellites employing multibeam antennas and full frequency reuse for broadband satellite services are considered in this paper. Such architectures offer, for example, a cost-effective solution to optimize data delivery and extend the coverage areas in future 5G networks. We propose the application of the multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) technology in both the feeder link and the multiuser downlink. Spatial multiplexing of different data streams is performed in a common feeder beam. In the user links, MIMO with multiple beams is exploited to simultaneously serve different users in the same frequency channel. Under particular design constraints, effective spatial separation of the multiple user signals is possible. To mitigate the inter-stream interference in the MIMO feeder link as well as the multiuser downlink, precoding of the transmit signals is applied. Simulation results illustrate the performance gains in terms of sum throughput.
The cost of an immune response: vaccination reduces parental effort

A fundamental assumption of theories of the ecology and evolution of inducible defences is that protective responses to attacks by parasites or predators should not only have benefits, but also costs. The vertebrate immune system is by far the best studied example of an inducible defence, yet little is known about the costs of an immune response, especially in natural populations. To test: if an immune response per se is costly, we induced an antibody response in female blue tits, Parus caeruleus, by immunising them with human diphtheria-tetanus vaccine, and compared their nestling-feeding rate with that of saline-injected controls. We found that vaccinated females reduced their nestling feeding rate, thus demonstrating a cost of the immune response in the currency of parental effort. (Less)
Implant failure and management: A review

Osseo integrated dental implants have been considered the most esthetical and functional alternative to missing teeth. However, the treatment is not always successful resulting in the implant loss. The implant failure can be classified as early failure (the Osseo integration is not established) and late failure (involving a breakdown of the established Osseo integration). The implant loss can be attributed to factors such as biological, microbiological and biomechanical, but the cause and mechanism of the early implant failure are still obscure. Dental implant failure has led to continuous innovations of various implants systems and to different interceptive treatment modalities. These concerns have also led to selection of implant designs that best suit the various types of bone. There are a variety of reasons for the failure of end osseous implants. Different reasons for the implant failure and their contributing factors have been discussed in the review article.
ANTICANCER ACTIVITIES OF PHENOLIC COMPOUNDS FROM RED ROOMY GRAPE FRUITS AND ITS LEAVES EXTRACTS.

A study was carried out to evaluate the anticancer activities of red roomy grape (whole fruit, seeds and leaves) extracts. The methanolic (80%) extract was evaporated to dryness, the residue (crude extract) (CE) was fractionated by using two solvents, i.e. ethyl acetate fraction (EAF) and butane fraction (BUF). EAF extract contained total phenol compounds 55.03%, 29.90% and 5.40%, while BUF extract contained 52.06%, 33.65% and 8.10% and CE contained 43.39%, 20.93% and 1.70% in whole fruit, seeds and leaves respectively. The results revealed that all extracts of red roomy grape (whole fruit, seeds and leaves) were effective as anticancer agent since their activities ranged from 70.05% to 79.91%, 54.34% to 61.22% and 18.15% to 42.50% at concentration of 10 μg/ml in whole grape sample, seeds and leaves respectively.
Data Mining Application in Air Transportation – a Case of Turkish Airlines

The paper presents an exemplification of data mining techniques in aviation industry on the basis of Turkish Airlines. The purpose of the paper is to present application of data mining on the selected operational data, concerning international flight passenger baggage data, in year 2015. Examined were differences in passenger and flight profiles. Firstly, two-steps approach allowed defining the number of clusters. Secondly, K-means clustering were applied to divide data into a certain number of clusters representing the different areas of consumption. Results can contribute to higher efficiency in decision making regarding destination offer and fleet management.
Etude en imagerie biphotonique in vivo de l'impact de l'hypertension artérielle chronique sur la dynamique des cellules microgliales

L’hypertension arterielle chronique represente le premier facteur de risque de l’AVC ischemique, mais elle en est aussi le principal facteur aggravant. Les mecanismes a l’origine du risque ischemique lie a l’hypertension ne sont pas encore entierement compris. Plusieurs etudes ont montre l’existence d’une forte composante inflammatoire deletere impliquee dans la physiopathologie de l’hypertension. Au niveau cerebral, la presence d’une intense reactivite microgliale hypothalamique, participant a l’aggravation de la pathologie a ete observe. Dans le travail presente ici, nous nous sommes interesses a l’impact de l’hypertension arterielle sur l’etat inflammatoire du cortex cerebral, une region particulierement touchee lors d’un AVC ischemique chez le patient. Nous avons tire parti de la souche transgenique de souris CX3CR1GFP/+ pour l’imagerie de la dynamique microgliale, principal acteur de l’immunite cerebrale. Par une analyse in vivo realisee en microscopie biphotonique, nous avons montre que l’hypertension induite par infusion chronique d’angiotensine-II altere la morphologie de la microglie, mais surtout sa capacite de surveillance du parenchyme cerebral et sa capacite cicatricielle. Nous avons aussi montre que ce type d’hypertension endommage la structure et la fonctionnalite des vaisseaux corticaux. L’ensemble de ces resultats pourrait expliquer, au moins en partie, la sensibilisation du cerveau aux lesions ischemiques par l’hypertension arterielle, avant meme la survenue de l’AVC.
Sperm co‐operation in the Fishfly, Parachauliodes japonicus

1. Males of the Fishfly Parachauliodes japonicus (McLachlan) produce sperm in bundles. Each bundle consists of hundreds of sperm with their heads agglutinated. At copulation, on average 500 bundles are packed in a single spermatophore which is attached externally to the female genitalia. The bundles swim forward by synchronous flagellate movements in viscous seminal fluids and finally enter a spermatheca of the female. Females detach the spermatophore without guarding by the male; males guard the spermatophore for 5 h. 2. In this study, the effects of sperm-bundle size and medium viscosity on their swimming velocities were examined. As sperm-bundle mass increased, the amount of time it took to move a unit length decreased. As viscosity increased, those sperm-bundles with greater mass moved faster than sperm-bundles with less mass. 3. The distance sperm move seems to be longer in P. japonicus than in most other insects that ejaculate directly or place the spermatophore internally in the female storage organs. Thus, large sperm-bundles may be an advantage for sperm of P.japonicus who move over a long distance in a viscous environment.