Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Do measurements of motorcycle conspicuity really measure conspicuity effects?

Abstract Accident studies have indicated that lack of detectability is a factor in daytime multivehicle accidents involving motorcycles. Until recently, little research had been conducted using direct behavioural observation procedures, but this has now changed with the procedures used involving gap-acceptance, detection and recall. Several problems with the use of these procedures to measure effectiveness of conspicuity ‘enhancers’ are outlined. It is concluded that the gap-acceptance procedure should not be used for this purpose; detection studies need to control for context effects, especially that of expectancy, and also to hold luminance contrast constant from the real scene to the simulation; recall studies need to investigate the influence of memory-related factors on recall performance, in addition to using moving motorcycles, rather than stationary motorcycles as in the studies to date.
VARIATIONS IN AFFINITIES OF ANTIBODIES DURING THE IMMUNE RESPONSE.

Horiguchi, M. , and Kandatsu, M. (1960), Bull. Agr. Chem. Soc. Japan (now Agr. Biol. Chem. [Tokyo]) 24, 565. Kandatsu, M. , and Horiguchi, M. (1962), Agr. Biol. Chem. (Tokyo) 26, 721. Kittredge, J. S. , Roberts, E. , and Simonsen, D. G. (1962), Biochemistry 1, 624. Rosenberg, H. (1959), J. Chromatog. 2, 487. Rouser, G. , Kritchevsky, G. , Heller, D. , and Lieber, E. (1963), J. Am. Oil Chemists’ Soc. 40, 425. Smith, Ivor (1960), Chromatographic and Electrophoretic Techniques, New York, Interscience, p. 84. Troll, W. , and Cannan, R. K. (1953), J. Biol. Chem. 200,803.
Cerebral angiography directly visualizes to‐and‐fro stream of vertebral artery stump syndrome

Vertebral artery stump syndrome is one of the minor causes (1.4%) of ischemic stroke in posterior circulation region.1,2 A seventyfiveyearold man repeated ischemic stroke three times for 7 days in posterior circulation area. Head magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of diffusionweighted image (DWI) revealed cerebral infarction at right cerebellum around the posterior inferior cerebellar artery (PICA) area (first time; Figure 1), right posterior cerebral artery (PCA) area (second time; Figure 1), and right lateral medullary (third time; Figure 1), respectively. D dimer in serum was 1.2 μg/mL. Abnormal myocardial motion by echocardiogram and atrial fibrillation (Af) by electrocardiogram were not detected. Cerebral angiography, using 4French Simons form catheter, revealed toandfro stagnated flow in right vertebral artery (Figure 2, arrow). Right VA first segment almost occluded (computed tomography angiography; data not shown). Blood flow came in right VA (Figure 3, arrow) through muscle branch of occipital artery (Figure 3, arrow head). The collateral flow of right VA and reverse flow from left VA formed toandfro stasis. Intravessel red fibrin thrombus was presumed to cause repeatable and multiple cerebral infarctions. Like this presentation case, VA stump syndrome often brings recurrent ischemic stroke in posterior circulation area.1,2 Although endovascular intervention on VA origin occlusion is one of surgical therapy,2 widerange occlusion or dissection of VA is challenging to treat. Not antiplatelet but anticoagulation therapy is useful to prevent stroke by VA stump syndrome.3 Because of long lesion of right VA, this patient started oral anticoagulant therapy (warfarin) without endovascular intervention.3 Recurrent infarction was not observed. Flow stasis with toandfro stream in VA was directly detected by cerebral angiography. Although angiography is invasive, it is useful to diagnose VA stump syndrome. Clinical symptoms of
Analyzing Content and Customer Engagement in Social Media with Deep Learning

In the present study, we investigate the effect of social media content on subsequent customer engagement (likes and reblogs) using a large-scale dataset from Tumblr. Our study focuses on companygenerated posts, which consist of two main information sources: visual (images) and textual (text and tags). We employ state-of-the-art machine learning approaches including deep learning to extract data-driven features from both sources that effectively capture their semantics in a systematic and scalable manner. With such semantic representations, we develop novel complexity, similarity, and consistency measures of social media content. Our empirical results show that proper visual stimuli (e.g., beautiful images, adult-content, celebrities, etc.), complementary textual content, and consistent themes have positive effects on the engagement, and that content demanding significant concentration levels (e.g., video, images with complex semantics, text with diverse topics, complex sentences, etc.) have the opposite effects. This work contributes to the literature by exemplifying how unstructured multimedia data can be translated into insights. Our framework for semantic content analysis, particularly for visual content, illustrates how to leverage deep learning methods to better model and analyze multimedia data for effective marketing and social media strategies.
Arthur Roger Thatcher's contributions to longevity research: A Reflexion.

Arthur Roger Thatcher, CB, died in London on February 13, 2010, at 83 years of age. He was actively engaged in demographic research until his death. One of his last papers, The Compression of Deaths above the Mode, is published in this volume of Demographic Research (Thatcher et al., 2010). Roger signed the copyright agreement for the paper on January 24, just a few weeks before his death. Another contribution will appear in a forthcoming monograph entitled Supercentenarians (Maier et al., 2010). In this note, we, the co-authors of his Demographic Research paper, will briefly review his remarkable research accomplishments. Roger Thatcher was born in Birmingham in 1926. He worked for 26 years as a statistician in several national government offices. Later, he served as Registrar General for England and Wales, and was Director of the Office of Population Censuses and Survey (OPCS) from 1978 to 1986. A short description of his professional career up to his retirement can be found in Population Trends (1986). He had a long-standing affinity for the history of actuarial sciences and statistics in England, taking particular interest in the early years of the Statistical Society of London, and helping to compile extracts from its 1830s Proceedings (see Boreham et al., 1988 and Rosenbaum, 2001). He published a historical abstract (1970) of British labour-force statistics back to 1886. Thatcher was also a scientist with broad interests, publishing papers in a wide range of fields, such as archaeology, mathematics (number theory), and cosmology (1972, 1973 and 1982).
Chronic conditions and the risk of long-term institutionalization among older people.

BACKGROUND As the public expenditure on long-term care is likely to increase with the ageing of the population, identifying chronic medical conditions associated with the risk of long-term institutionalization is of particular interest. However, there is little systematic evidence showing how chronic medical conditions, other than dementia, affect the risk of entering into institutional care in the general older population. METHODS We used population-based follow-up data on Finnish older people aged 65 and over (n = 280 722), to estimate the impact of different chronic conditions on the risk of long-term institutionalization. Furthermore, we analysed which chronic conditions were more strongly associated with the risk of institutionalization than with the risk of death without institutionalization. Cox proportional hazard regression models were used. RESULTS Our results showed that dementia, Parkinson's disease, stroke, depressive symptoms, other mental health problems, hip fracture and diabetes were strongly associated with increased risk of long-term institutionalization, independent of socio-demographic confounders and the presence of other chronic conditions. All these conditions raised the risk of institutionalization by 50% or more. Dementia, Parkinson's disease, stroke and mental health problems were more strongly associated with the risk of institutionalization than with the risk of death without institutionalization. CONCLUSIONS Overall, these results show that the future demand for institutional care depends not only on the ageing of the population but also on the development of the prevalence and severity of chronic conditions associated with institutionalization.
Ground-Based L-Band Emission Measurements at Dome-C Antarctica: The DOMEX-2 Experiment

In recent years, there has been growing interest on the part of the remote sensing community in using the Antarctic area for calibrating and validating data of low-frequency satellite-borne microwave radiometers. In particular, the East Antarctic Plateau appears to be suited for this purpose. The reasons for this interest are the size, structure, spatial homogeneity, and thermal stability of this area. This is particularly interesting for low-frequency microwave radiometers since, due to the low extinction of dry snow, the upper ice-sheet layer is almost transparent and the brightness temperature variability is therefore extremely small. In the context of calibration and validation activities of the European Space Agency's Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite, an experiment called DOMEX-2, which included radiometric L-band measurements, was carried out at the Italian-French base of Concordia located at Dome C in the East Antarctic Plateau from December 2008 to December 2010. Ground measurements (i.e., snow temperature at different depths, snow structure, meteorological data, etc.) were also collected during the experiment. This paper presents information on the experimental campaign, the characteristics of the radiometric measurements, and the main results. A comparison with SMOS data is also presented.
Relative roles of testosterone and the germ cell complement in determining stage-dependent changes in protein secretion by isolated rat seminiferous tubules.

This study has compared the effect of withdrawal of testosterone (+/- replacement) with that of selective depletion of pachytene spermatocytes (PS) or round/elongating spermatids (RS), or both PS and RS, on the level of overall protein secretion by seminiferous tubules (ST) isolated at particular stage-groups of the spermatogenic cycle. Testosterone withdrawal was induced by destroying the Leydig cells with a single injection of ethane-dimethane sulphonate (EDS), with or without concomitant replacement of testosterone by injection; ST at stages II-V, VI-VIII or IX-XII were then isolated from control and treated rats at 4 days after treatment. Methoxyacetic acid (MAA) was administered, in either one or two doses, to selectively destroy 80-100% of pachytene and later spermatocytes; ST at stages I-V, VI-VIII or IX-XIV were then isolated at specific times after treatment such that ST were depleted selectively of either PS, RS or PS+RS. Isolated ST (5 cm) were then cultured for 22 h at 34 degrees C with 35S-methionine and its incorporation into secreted proteins then quantified. Based on the incorporation of 35S-methionine, ST at stages VI-VIII showed a significantly higher level of protein secretion than did ST at earlier or later stages. This difference was abolished following testosterone withdrawal but was maintained by testosterone replacement. The normal increase in protein secretion by ST at stages VI-VIII was also prevented if either PS or RS were depleted, whereas depletion of either PS or RS alone had no significant effect on protein secretion by ST at stages I-V, and only the depletion of RS significantly reduced protein secretion by ST at stages IX-XIV. Depletion of both PS+RS reduced protein secretion significantly by ST at all stages. In contrast to the data for total protein secretion, the levels of sulphated glycoprotein (SGP)-1 and SGP-2 secreted by ST at stages VI-VIII showed that these two Sertoli cell proteins were unaffected by germ cell depletion except after co-depletion of PS+RS when secretion of SGP-1 was halved. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Harmonic stability analysis of inverter-fed power systems using Component Connection Method

This paper presents a Component Connection Method (CCM)-based harmonic stability analysis for ac power-electronic-fed power systems. In the approach, the system is partitioned as individual components, including the controllers of DG units, LC filters, network impedances, and power loads. They are first independently modeled and then assembled together based on component interconnection relationships, forming a composite system model featured with the sparse and diagonal state matrix, and thereby reducing the computational burdens. A modular modelling technique for inverter-fed power system is formulated. And the harmonic stability is assessed based on eigenvalue traces of the composite model. Simulations and experimental results are given to validate the effectiveness of the analysis method, which can be employed to assess the system harmonic stability for any combinations of system parameters.
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) circulates as a population of different but closely related genomes: quasispecies nature of HCV genome distribution

Sequencing of multiple recombinant clones generated from polymerase chain reaction-amplified products demonstrated that the degree of heterogeneity of two well-conserved regions of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) genome within individual plasma samples from a single patient was consistent with a quasispecies structure of HCV genomic RNA. About half of circulating RNA molecules were identical, while the remaining consisted of a spectrum of mutants differing from each other in one to four nucleotides. Mutant sequence diversity ranged from silent mutations to appearance of in-frame stop codons and included both conservative and nonconservative amino acid substitutions. From the relative proportion of essentially defective sequences, we estimated that most circulating particles should contain defective genomes. These observations might have important implications in the physiopathology of HCV infection and underline the need for a population-based approach when one is analyzing HCV genomes.
Proof Test of Chaos-Based Hierarchical Network Control Using Packet-Level Network Simulation

Computer networks require sophisticated control mechanisms to realize fair resource allocation among users in conjunction with efficient resource usage. To successfully realize fair resource allocation in a network, someone should control the behavior of each user by considering fairness. To provide efficient resource utilization, someone should control the behavior of all users by considering efficiency. To realize both control goals with different granularities at the same time, a hierarchical network control mechanism that combines microscopic control (i.e., fairness control) and macroscopic control (i.e., efficiency control) is required. In previous works, Aida proposed the concept of chaos-based hierarchical network control. Next, as an application of the chaos-based concept, Aida designed a fundamental framework of hierarchical transmission rate control based on the chaos of coupled relaxation oscillators. To clarify the realization of the chaos-based concept, one should specify the chaos-based hierarchical transmission rate control in enough detail to work in an actual network, and confirm that it works as intended. In this study, we implement the chaos-based hierarchical transmission rate control in a popular network simulator, ns-2, and confirm its operation through our experimentation. Results verify that the chaos-based concept can be successfully realized in TCP/IP networks. key words: chaos, hierarchical network architecture, congestion control, TCP global synchronization, TCP (transmission control protocol), RED (random early detection)
The effect of channel state information on the capacity bounds of MIMO relay channel

In this paper, we compare the capacity bounds of full-duplex MIMO relay channel, by considering two cases for channel state information (CSI). In the first case, we assume that the CSI is available at all nodes; in the second case, we consider that the CSI is only available at the receivers and there is no information about the channel gains at the transmitters. Numerical results show that under certain constraint on the relay position with respect to the source and the destination, the availability of CSI at the transmitters does not affect the capacity bounds. Thus, this simple result can be considered as a practical approach for constrained implementation of relay-based wireless networks.
Metformin use and asthma: Further investigations

I read with interest the article entitled ‘Metformin use and asthma outcomes among patients with concurrent asthma and diabetes’ by Li et al. I appreciate the authors for their work in investigating the risk of asthma outcomes with metformin use among patients with concurrent asthma and diabetes diagnoses using a large population-based retrospective cohort – the Taiwan National Health Insurance Database. This study supplements the possible mechanistic role of metformin in activating 5-adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK), which is shown to attenuate allergic eosinophilic airway inflammation, to inhibit TNFα-induced inflammatory signalling and to decrease oxidative stress, thus providing evidence for possible beneficial role of metformin in asthma patients. There are significant strengths to the study along with several limitations just like other retrospective cohort studies involving large administrative medical claims data. Lack of information on important confounders, including BMI, allergens or environmental triggers, dietary and socio-economic factors, limits the study findings and future epidemiological studies should address these limitations. I have a few concerns about the study and would like to hear from the authors on the following: First, the study identified metformin use as lowering the risk of asthma hospitalizations and exacerbations, but not emergency department visits. An explanation about this important finding might help us in understanding the characteristics of asthma patients where metformin is beneficial. Second, the study excluded patients if they had an International Classification of Disease (ICD)-9 code for COPD, thereby possibly excluding patients with severe asthma. The survival benefit of metformin in COPD patients has been demonstrated in an earlier study, with COPD not to present as a barrier to the clinical use of metformin.5 Additional analyses with the inclusion of these patients, and matched on severity, will further help understand the role of metformin use in reducing asthma morbidity. Finally, a rationale for 3 years of follow-up for outcome assessment should be provided.
Neural correlates of ostracism in transgender persons living according to their gender identity: a potential risk marker for psychopathology?

Abstract Background Stigmatization in society carries a high risk for development of psychopathology. Transgender persons are at particularly high risk for such stigmatization and social rejection by others. However, the neural correlates of ostracism in this group have not been captured. Method Twenty transgender men (TM, female-to-male) and 19 transgender women (TW, male-to-female) already living in their gender identity and 20 cisgender men (CM) and 20 cisgender women (CW) completed a cyberball task assessing both exclusion and re-inclusion during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Results During psychosocial stress between-group differences were found in the dorsal and ventral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG). Patterns were consistent with sex assigned at birth, i.e. CW showed greater activation in dorsal ACC and IFG relative to CM and TW. During re-inclusion, transgender persons showed greater ventral ACC activity relative to CW, possibly indicating persistent feelings of exclusion. Functional connectivity analyses supported these findings but showed a particularly altered functional connectivity between ACC and lateral prefrontal cortex in TM, which may suggest reduced emotional regulation to the ostracism experience in this group. Depressive symptoms or hormonal levels were not associated with these findings. Conclusion The results bear implications for the role of social exclusion in development of mental health problems in socially marginalized groups.
The meaning of evolution.

All scholarly subjects seem to go through cycles, from periods when most of the answers seem to be known to periods when no one is sure that even the questions are right. Such is the case for evolutionary biology. Twenty years ago Mayr, in his Animal Species and Evolution (2), seemed to have shown that if evolution is a jigsaw puzzle, then at least all the edge pieces were in place. But today we are less confident and the whole subject is in the most exciting ferment. Evolution is both troubled from without by the nagging insistencies of antiscien tists and nagged from within by the troubling com plexities of genetic and developmental mechanisms and new questions about the central mystery? speciation itself. In looking over recent literature in and around the field of evolutionary theory, I am struck by the necessity to reexamine the simpler foundations of the subject, to distinguish carefully between what we know and what we merely think we know. The first and strongest of our critics to be answered should be ourselves. Scientists can always do themselves a great service by being scrupulously precise about the nature of their statements. Are they statements of fact, strong logical inferences from scientific methods, or hypotheses? In this essay I will attempt to show that the word evolution is currently used in at least three quite separate senses. The first way in which the term evolution has come to be used is the oldest: it is the general sense of change over time. We now have a wealth of scientific information about changes in the qualitative and quantitative di versity of organisms over space and time in the earth's history and a parallel set of data for changes in the earth itself. This information forms a linear? i.e., nonrepeat ing? and apparently progressive pattern of change. But it is composed of different types of statements. For ex ample, we know that there were once creatures of the sort we call dinosaurs. We know that their fossils occur
Anaphylactic reaction to infliximab in two rheumatoid arthritis patients who had previously received infliximab and resumed

Here we report on two cases of anaphylactic reaction following infliximab infusion in patients with active rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Both individuals had received infliximab treatment during a clinical trial approximately 2 years prior to further therapy; subsequent infusion of this agent led to anaphylactic reactions in both cases. In light of these findings, we recommend that future treatments with infliximab in RA patients who have previously received this agent should be carefully monitored.