Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Chroma variations and perceived quality of color images of natural scenes

Transformations of natural images in the per- ulated with respect to luminance and chromaticity in order ceptually uniform CIELUV color space have been investi- to improve the display of color. Usually, some implicit gated with respect to perceptual image quality. To this assumptions are made to limit the almost infinite number end, digitized color images of four natural scenes were of possible manipulations. One of these assumptions is described on the basis of their color point distributions that only global changes need to be considered. This stems in the CIELUV color space. A new set of images was from the notion that images are coherent in the sense that created by varying the chroma value of each pixel while different parts of the same image share luminance and the lightness and hue angle were kept constant. The spectral properties due to the fact that they belong to the chroma was changed in two different ways: (1) through same object or are illuminated by the same light source. the addition or subtraction of the same amount of chroma This assumption underlies global reproduction techniques to or from the chroma value of each pixel; (2) through in which the same color operation is applied to all pixels, multiplication of the chroma value of each pixel by a irrespective of the content of the image. 1,2 Another as- constant. In three experiments, subjects judged the per- sumption is that the optimum image equals the original ceptual quality, colorfulness, and naturalness of the im- ( real-life ) scene. Hence, all efforts should be directed ages on a ten-point numerical category scale. The results towards finding ways of approaching this equality as indicate that colorfulness is the main perceptual attribute closely as possible. underlying image quality when chroma varies. Colorful- In this article, a different constraint on color reproduc- ness itself was found to depend on both the average tion is proposed, namely, the experienced naturalness of chroma and its variability. In general, the subjects pre- an image. This choice is motivated by the argument that ferred slightly more colorful images to the original ones. constraints should be formulated not in the physical, but The perceptual quality of the images was found to be in the psychological domain, the reason being that image closely related to the naturalness of the images.q 1997 quality judgments are based on a comparison between the
Clinical Features of Sensitization to Methamphetamine Observed in Patients with Methamphetamine Dependence and Psychosis

Abstract: Metamphetamine (METH) has been the most popular drug of abuse in Japan for more than 50 years, resulting in serious health and social issues. Most adult abusers in Japan consume only METH; multiple‐substance abusers are rare. This unusual aspect of drug abuse makes it possible to observe clearly the sequential alteration of psychiatric symptoms induced by METH without modification by other illegal drugs. Clinical investigation reveals three core characteristics of METH abuse: (1) progressive qualitative alteration in mental symptoms from a nonpsychotic to a prepsychotic to a severely psychotic state; (2) enhanced vulnerability to relapse of psychosis; and (3) very long duration of the vulnerability to relapse. These findings indicate that the phenomenon of sensitization to METH develops during abuse and plays a key role in the susceptibility to and onset of psychosis and in the refractory process. Molecular findings using animal sensitization models may facilitate a better understanding of, and open the way for innovative therapies for, METH psychosis and also chronic schizophrenia.
Modeling and simulation of an open-loop architecture ADC

This paper introduces a behavioral simulation of an open loop architecture pipeline ADC. A behavioral model is developed in MATLAB/SIMULINK. The main error sources that affect the ADC are investigated and various non-idealities in an open loop architecture ADC, such as S/H bandwidth limitation, clock jitter, and interpolator gain mismatch, are analyzed. It also shows the impact of nonlinearities on the performance of the ADC. The results aid the design of open loop pipeline ADCs by providing a comprehensive set of design specifications that must be satisfied by each building block.
A non-self-consistent range-separated time-dependent density functional approach for large-scale simulations

We propose an efficient method for carrying out time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) calculations using range-separated hybrid exchange–correlation functionals. Based on a non-self-consistent range-separated Hamiltonian, the method affords large-scale simulations at a fraction of the computational time of conventional hybrid TDDFT approaches. For typical benchmark molecules including N2, CO, C6H6, H2CO and the C2H4–C2F4 dimer, the method possesses the same level of accuracy as the conventional approaches for the valence, Rydberg, and charge-transfer excitation energies when compared to the experimental results. The method is used to determine π → π* excitations in both disordered and crystalline poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) conjugated polymers with more than six hundred atoms and it yields excitation energies and charge densities that are in excellent agreement with experiments. The simulation of the crystalline P3HT reveals that the phase of the wavefunctions could have an important effect on the excitation energy; a hypothesis based on π–π stacking is proposed to explain this novel effect in conjugated polymers.
Binding of Nucleotides to Guanylate Kinase, p21 ras , and Nucleoside-diphosphate Kinase Studied by Nano-electrospray Mass Spectrometry*

The binding of nucleotides to three different nucleotide-binding proteins and to a control protein was studied by means of nano-electrospray mass spectrometry applied to aqueous nondenaturing solutions. The method leads to unambiguous identification of enzyme complexes with substrates and products but does not allow the determination of dissociation constants or even stoichiometries relevant to the binding in solution. For guanylate kinase (EC 2.7.4.8), the transfer of HPO3 between nucleotides was observed whenever a ternary complex with adenylate or guanylate nucleotides was formed. Guanosine 5′-tetraphosphate was generated after prolonged incubation with GDP or GTP. Mg2+ binding was considerably enhanced in functional high affinity complexes, such as observed between guanylate kinase and its bisubstrate inhibitorP 1-(5′-guanosyl)-P 5-(5′-adenosyl) pentaphosphate or with the tight nucleotide-binding protein p21 ras and GDP. Nucleoside-diphosphate kinase (EC 2.7.4.6) itself was phosphorylated in accordance to its known ping-pong mechanism. All nucleotide-binding proteins were shown to bind sulfate (SO4 2−) with presumably high affinity and slow exchange rate. The binding of phosphate (PO4 3−) could be inferred indirectly from competition with SO4 2−.
Epstein-Barr Virus Nuclear Antigen 3C Recruits Histone Deacetylase Activity and Associates with the Corepressors mSin3A and NCoR in Human B-Cell Lines

ABSTRACT Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) nuclear antigen 3C (EBNA3C) is a known regulatory transcription factor that has been shown to interact with histone deacetylase 1 (HDAC1) when cotransfected in human cell lines and by in vitro binding experiments. Previous studies have shown that EBNA3C interacts with p300 and prothymosin alpha (ProTα) in EBV-infected cells and may be involved in recruiting acetyltransferases to the chromatin for acetylation of histones and transcriptional activation. EBNA3C has also been shown to function as a repressor of transcription when directed to promoters. In this report, we show that EBNA3C complexed with ProTα can also recruit deacetylase activity and associates in a complex that includes HDAC1 and HDAC2 in human B cells. A complex of EBNA3C and ProTα coimmunoprecipitated with HDAC1 and HDAC2 in cell lines stably expressing EBNA3C. Additionally, this complex associated with the mSin3A and NCoR corepressors in EBNA3C-expressing cell lines and may function in a complex with additional transcription factors known to be repressors of transcription. EBNA3C in complex with ProTα recruited deacetylase activity in cell lines stably expressing EBNA3C, and this activity was shown to be partially sensitive to trichostatin A (TSA). This suggests an association with other deacetylases that are insensitive to the general inhibitory effects of TSA, as the entire activity was not abolished in multiple assays. The association between EBNA3C and the corepressors as well as HDACs is likely to depend on the presence of ProTα in the complex. Immunoprecipitation with anti-ProTα antibody immunoprecipitated EBNA3C and the other repressors, whereas immunoprecipitation with anti-EBNA3C antibody resulted in little or no association with these molecules associated with transcription repression. Clearly, EBNA3C functions as a component of a number of dynamic complexes which function in repression and activation of transcription.
Depression in elderly patients with Alzheimer dementia or vascular dementia and its influence on their quality of life

Background: Alzheimer dementia (AD) and vascular dementia (VD) are the most common causes of dementia in the elderly. Depression is an important co-morbid disorder in these diseases, which is often challenging to recognize. We investigated the prevalence of depression in patients with AD and VD and estimated the influence of depression on the health-related quality of life (HrQoL) in these patients. Materials and Methods: We evaluated prevalence of depression in consecutively recruited patients with AD or VD (n= 98). Depression was diagnosed according to criteria of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) and scored using the Geriatric Depression Scale. The EuroQol (EQ-5D and visual analogue scale) was applied to evaluate HrQoL. The severity of cognitive impairment was measured by the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). Multiple regression analysis was used to identify factors predicting severity of depression. Results: The prevalence of depression in AD/VD was 87%. In comparison to the general population, HrQoL measured on the visual analogue scale was reduced by 54% in patients with AD/VD. In the dimension “anxiety/depression” of the EQ-5D, 81% of patients with AD/VD had moderate or severe problems. Depression showed significant association with reduced HrQoL (P<0.01). Independent predictors of more severe depression were older age, male gender, better MMSE scores and being not married. Conclusions: Depression is a prevalent psychiatric co-morbidity in patients with AD/VD, which is often under-diagnosed being masked by cognitive impairment. Depression is a predictor of reduced HrQoL in elder people with AD/VD. Therefore, they should be screened for presence of depressive symptoms and receive adequate antidepressant treatment.
The impact of overweight and obesity on health-related quality of life and blood pressure control in hypertensive patients

Objective: Hypertension and obesity deteriorate patient health-related quality-of-life (HRQoL). This study assessed the impact of overweight and obesity on HRQoL and blood pressure (BP) control in hypertensive participants, according to sex. Methods: HRQoL was assessed using the 12-item Short Form Health Survey in 11 498 white patients treated for hypertension for at least 12 months. Nutritional status was diagnosed according to WHO criteria. Results: Overweight and obesity were associated with worse BP control, regardless of sex. In women, overweight and especially obesity were inversely associated with all analyzed HRQoL dimensions. Among men, obesity decreased all HRQoL dimensions, and overweight influenced only physical functioning, role physical, bodily pain, vitality, general health, and Physical Component Score (PCS) but not Mental Component Score (MCS). Overweight in men did not influence social functioning, or emotional and mental health. The BMI values associated with optimal PCS and MCS scores were higher for men than for women. Age-adjusted multivariate regression analysis revealed that PCS score was associated with obesity, higher education level, comorbidities, and antihypertensive therapy duration, whereas MCS score was associated with female sex. Polydrug BP control diminished PCS and MCS. Conclusion: Overweight and obesity deteriorate BP control, regardless of age and polytherapy. BMI values associated with optimal HRQoL are higher for men than women treated for hypertension. Obesity more strongly diminishes the physical versus mental HRQoL component, regardless of sex. Overweight worsens HRQoL physical components in both sexes and mental component-only in women.
Evaluation of reliability design based on information axiom

Reliability design is in order to satisfy the reliability requirements with minimum cost. Similar to functional design, reliability design will face decision-making of multiple schemes. A new method for evaluation of reliability design from the standpoint of scheme implementation complexity (the cost of the design execution) based on information axiom is proposed in this paper. Comprehensive assessment system of products reliability design schemes has been built based on the information axiom and fuzzy theory. Quantitative and qualitative reliability design requirements evaluation methods considering benefits and costs are presented, including single-scheme evaluation in independent condition, multi-scheme evaluation in independent condition and multi-scheme evaluation in decoupling condition. Requirement satisfied reliability design schemes with low implementation complexity and cost can be found easily by using the evaluation method proposed in this paper which helps to optimize the design and improve the reliability of the products. Application of the proposed approach on a signal processor indicates the methods can be effectively used for reliability design evaluation of any system. The proposed method has the capability and potential to become a useful evaluation tool for system reliability design in industry. As a future research, the criticality of the corresponding failure modes can be taken into account of the schemes selection process.
Employability and marketing education : insights from the United Kingdom

The importance of developing employability attributes within university graduates is gaining rapid momentum in the UK. One reason for this is that employers in the UK are disappointed by the quality of graduates moving into the workforce; this sentiment has also been echoed by the UK Government. With this in mind, attempts have been made to identify general attributes that lead to employability. However, to-date limited research has been undertaken to identify the key employability attributes for marketing graduates. Consequently, this study explores and identifies the key attributes for marketing graduates from an employer’s perspective. Further, in-depth interviews with marketing educators and experts in the field of employability were utilised to identify how these attributes can be successfully embedded into the marketing curriculum. Eight employability attributes emerge from the data; being (1) Communication; (2) Teamwork; (3) Problem Solving; (4) Work Ethic; (5) Desirable persona; (6) Customer focus; (7) Core Skills; (8) Leadership. These are discussed and potential employability enhancing strategies presented.
Fluticasone furoate and vilanterol for the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

ABSTRACT Introduction: Current national and international guidelines for the management of patients with stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) recommend the use of inhaled long-acting bronchodilators, inhaled glucocorticoids and their combinations for maintenance treatment of moderate to severe stable COPD. Areas covered: The role of fluticasone furoate (FF) and vilanterol (VI) once daily combination therapy for the regular treatment of patients with stable COPD is discussed in this review. Expert commentary: The regular treatment of moderate to severe stable COPD with once daily FF/VI combination therapy is effective, as seen in in several large placebo-controlled clinical trials involving many thousands of patients. FF/VI improved lung function, decreased respiratory symptoms and decreased the number of COPD exacerbations, including COPD-related hospitalizations. FF/VI combination therapy has also been approved for this indication in most countries. The use of this combination therapy may significantly decrease the economic costs for some National Health Services.
Physical co-design for micro-fluidically cooled 3D ICs

The excessive heat accompanying high performance 3D ICs requires the use of aggressive cooling solutions such as interlayer micro-channels. However, interlayer micro-fluidic cooling comes with overheads such as conflict with through silicon vias (TSVs). Conventional approach which incorporates cooling after the design of the 3D system ([20]) could suffer significant overheads (e.g. substantially increasing chip area, wire-length etc.) in order to realize thermally-feasible designs. In this paper, we present a co-design approach to achieve sufficient cooling with compact layout in 3D ICs with micro-channel based fluidic cooling. Our approach follows a hierarchical partitioning based technique to simultaneously place the gates, TSVs as well as interlayer micro-channels. Simulation results illustrate that, by realizing thermally-feasible design, our algorithm achieves an average of 40.2% and 10.94% saving in chip area compared to air cooling and the method of allocating micro-channels after the design of 3D systems, respectively.
Modelling and Analysis of Reduced Power Subframes in Two-Tier Femto HetNets

The Reduced Power Subframes (RPS) are encouraged to be applied in the LTE-Advanced Heterogeneous Networks (HetNets), to reduce the capacity loss caused by the Almost Blank Subframes (ABS). However, the RPS are supposed to be used in the macrocells only. In fact, the RPS can also be used in femtocells to mitigate the interference that the macrocell edge users suffers, but its performance is not investigated yet. In this paper, we introduce the RPS both in the macrocells and the femtocells. The results of the Signal to Interference Ratio (SIR) coverage probability under the stochastic geometry framework are derived in a closed-form which is verified through Monte Carlo simulation. Based on these results, the macrocell edge users' SIR coverage and the average rate coverage of the network (the average fraction of users achieving a target rate) are analysed numerically. Our proposed scheme enhanced both the SIR of the macro edge users and the average rate coverage probabilities.
Stoichiometry of LHCI antenna polypeptides and characterization of gap and linker pigments in higher plants Photosystem I.

We report on the results obtained by measuring the stoichiometry of antenna polypeptides in Photosystem I (PSI) from Arabidopsis thaliana. This analysis was performed by quantification of Coomassie blue binding to individual LHCI polypeptides, fractionation by SDS/PAGE, and by the use of recombinant light harvesting complex of Photosystem I (Lhca) holoproteins as a standard reference. Our results show that a single copy of each Lhca1-4 polypeptide is present in Photosystem I. This is in agreement with the recent structural data on PSI-LHCI complex [Ben Shem, A. , Frolow, F. and Nelson, N. (2003) Nature, 426, 630-635]. The discrepancy from earlier estimations based on pigment binding and yielding two copies of each LHCI polypeptide per PSI, is explained by the presence of 'gap' and 'linker' chlorophylls bound at the interface between PSI core and LHCI. We showed that these chlorophylls are lost when LHCI is detached from the PSI core moiety by detergent treatment and that gap and linker chlorophylls are both Chl a and Chl b. Carotenoid molecules are also found at this interface between LHCI and PSI core. Similar experiments, performed on PSII supercomplexes, showed that dissociation into individual pigment-proteins did not produce a significant loss of pigments, suggesting that gap and linker chlorophylls are a peculiar feature of Photosystem I.
A mobile application supporting outpatient treatment and follow-up

An increasing prevalence of chronic diseases is observed, among which cancer is now included because of its survival rates. That trend requires new ways of supporting outpatients and improving their compliance to treatments. This paper introduces HeNeA, a mobile application designed to support patients affected by Head and Neck cancer during their treatments. The application leverages on the mHealth features described in the literature and has been reviewed by a small set of patients during its development. Further evaluation is expected to occur when it will be offered to every eligible patient discharged from the Head and Neck division of a major Italian cancer centre.
The anti-tumor efficacy of lymphokine-activated killer cells and recombinant interleukin 2 in vivo.

We showed previously that adoptive immunotherapy with the combination of LAK cells and recombinant IL 2 (RIL 2) can markedly reduce pulmonary micrometastases from multiple sarcomas established 3 days after the i.v. injection of syngeneic tumor cells in C57BL/6 mice. In this report, we analyzed the factors required for successful therapy. Titration analysis in vivo revealed an inverse relationship between the number of pulmonary metastases remaining after treatment and both the number of LAK cells and the amount of RIL 2 administered. Fresh or unstimulated splenocytes had no anti-tumor effect; a 2- to 3-day incubation of splenocytes in RIL 2 was required. LAK cells generated from allogeneic DBA (H-2d) splenocytes were as effective in vivo as syngeneic, C57BL/6 (H-2b) LAK cells. The anti-metastatic capacity of LAK cells was significantly reduced or eliminated when irradiated with 3000 rad before adoptive transfer. The combined therapy of LAK cells plus RIL 2 was shown to be highly effective in mice immunosuppressed by 500 rad total body irradiation and in treating macrometastases established in the lung 10 days after the i.v. injection of sarcoma cells. Further, reduction of both micrometastases and macrometastases could also be achieved by RIL 2 alone when administered at higher levels than were required with LAK cells. The value of LAK cell transfer and of IL 2 administration for the treatment of tumors established at other sites is currently under investigation.