Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Protein Engineering for Cardiovascular Therapeutics: Untapped Potential for Cardiac Repair

A number of new and innovative approaches for repairing damaged myocardium are currently undergoing investigation, with several encouraging results. In addition to the progression of stem cell–based approaches and gene therapy/silencing methods, evidence continues to emerge that protein therapeutics may be used to directly promote cardiac repair and even regeneration. However, proteins are often limited in their therapeutic potential by short local half-lives and insufficient bioavailability and bioactivity, and many academic laboratories studying cardiovascular diseases are more comfortable with molecular and cellular biology than with protein biochemistry. Protein engineering has been used broadly to overcome weaknesses traditionally associated with protein therapeutics and has the potential to specifically enhance the efficacy of molecules for cardiac repair. However, protein engineering as a strategy has not yet been used in the development of cardiovascular therapeutics to the degree that it has been used in other fields. In this review, we discuss the role of engineered proteins in cardiovascular therapies to date. Further, we address the promise of applying emerging protein engineering technologies to cardiovascular medicine and the barriers that must be overcome to enable the ultimate success of this approach.
Footprint-based biometric verification

We investigate the potential of foot biometric features based on geometry, shape, and texture and present algorithms for a prototype rotation invariant verification system. An introduction to origins and fields of application for footprint-based personal recognition is accompanied by a comparison with traditional hand biometry systems. Image enhancement and feature extraction steps emphasizing specific characteristics of foot geometry and their permanence and distinctiveness properties, respectively, are discussed. Collectability and universality issues are considered as well. A visualization of various test results comparing discriminative power of foot shape and texture is given. The impact on real-world scenarios is pointed out, and a summary of results is presented.
No funny business: Precarious work and emotional labour in stand-up comedy

Freelance creative work is a labour of love where opportunities for self-expression are combined with exploitative working conditions. This article explores this dynamic by showing how a group of freelance creative labourers navigate employment while coping with the pressures associated with economic precarity. Drawing on semi-structured interviews, we argue that full-time stand-up comedians engage in ‘pecuniary’ forms of emotion management in an occupational field where social networks and professional relationships play a prominent role. First, comedians project an image of positivity to demonstrate a willingness to work for little or no pay in order to curry favour with comedy club promoters. Second, comedians suppress feelings of anxiety and frustration that arise from financial insecurity in order to keep their relationships with promoters on an even keel – even when the rate of pay and promptness of remuneration fall below acceptable standards. Our study thus has implications for other creative sectors in which precarity is the norm, since it suggests that emotional labour is a resource not only for engaging with customers and clients but also for engaging with multiple employers, negotiating pay and dealing with conditions of insecurity in freelance settings – often with unintended, paradoxical, results.
A Multilevel Framework for Sparse Optimization with Application to Inverse Covariance Estimation and Logistic Regression

Solving l1 regularized optimization problems is common in the fields of computational biology, signal processing and machine learning. Such l1 regularization is utilized to find sparse minimizers of convex functions. A well-known example is the LASSO problem, where the l1 norm regularizes a quadratic function. A multilevel framework is presented for solving such l1 regularized sparse optimization problems efficiently. We take advantage of the expected sparseness of the solution, and create a hierarchy of problems of similar type, which is traversed in order to accelerate the optimization process. This framework is applied for solving two problems: (1) the sparse inverse covariance estimation problem, and (2) l1-regularized logistic regression. In the first problem, the inverse of an unknown covariance matrix of a multivariate normal distribution is estimated, under the assumption that it is sparse. To this end, an l1 regularized log-determinant optimization problem needs to be solved. This task is challenging especially for large-scale datasets, due to time and memory limitations. In the second problem, the l1-regularization is added to the logistic regression classification objective to reduce overfitting to the data and obtain a sparse model. Numerical experiments demonstrate the efficiency of the multilevel framework in accelerating existing iterative solvers for both of these problems.
The Notch Ligand Jagged-1 Represents a Novel Growth Factor of Human Hematopoietic Stem Cells

The Notch ligand, Jagged-1, plays an essential role in tissue formation during embryonic development of primitive organisms. However, little is known regarding the role of Jagged-1 in the regulation of tissue-specific stem cells or its function in humans. Here, we show that uncommitted human hematopoietic cells and cells that comprise the putative blood stem cell microenvironment express Jagged-1 and the Notch receptors. Addition of a soluble form of human Jagged-1 to cultures of purified primitive human blood cells had modest effects in augmenting cytokine-induced proliferation of progenitors. However, intravenous transplantation of cultured cells into immunodeficient mice revealed that human (h)Jagged-1 induces the survival and expansion of human stem cells capable of pluripotent repopulating capacity. Our findings demonstrate that hJagged-1 represents a novel growth factor of human stem cells, thereby providing an opportunity for the clinical utility of Notch ligands in the expansion of primitive cells capable of hematopoietic reconstitution.
Integrating rich information for video recommendation with multi-task rank aggregation

Video recommendation is an important approach for helping people to access interesting videos. In this paper, we propose a scheme to integrate rich information for video recommendation. We regard video recommendation as a ranking problem and generate multiple ranking lists by exploring different information sources. A multi-task rank aggregation approach is proposed to integrate the ranking lists for different users in a joint manner. Our scheme is flexible and can easily incorporate other methods by adding their generated ranking lists into our multi-task learning algorithm. We conduct experiments with 76 users and more than 10,000 videos. The results demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of our approach.
Macro-diversity versus micro-diversity system capacity with realistic receiver RFFE model

This paper studies the evolution of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system capacity in the context of macro-diversity antenna configurations, with respect to system parameters such as the distance between mobile devices. In this context, we redefine an accurate channel model by proposing a realistic configuration of the RF front end (RFFE). The impact of this improved model on system capacity is first checked in the micro-diversity context, when comparing our results with the model classically used in the literature. This new model is shown to explain some phenomena observed in actual implementations. Then, in the macro-diversity context, we concentrate on the usefulness of adding antennas, depending on the distance to the transmitter or receiver. The obtained results are strongly impacted by the RFFE model.
Financial Integration for India Stock Market, a Fractional Cointegration Approach

The Indian stock market is one of the earliest in Asia being in operation since 1875, but remained largely outside the global integration process until the late 1980s. A number of developing countries in concert with the International Finance Corporation and the World Bank took steps in the 1980s to establish and revitalize their stock markets as an effective way of mobilizing and allocation of finance. In line with the global trend, reform of the Indian stock market began with the establishment of Securities and Exchange Board of India in 1988. This paper empirically investigates the long-run equilibrium relationship and short-run dynamic linkage between the Indian stock market and the stock markets in major developed countries (United States, United Kingdom and Japan) after 1990 by examining the Granger causality relationship and the pairwise, multiple and fractional cointegrations between the Indian stock market and the stock markets from these three developed markets. We conclude that Indian stock market is integrated with mature markets and sensitive to the dynamics in these markets in a long run. In a short run, both US and Japan Granger causes the Indian stock market but not vice versa. In addition, we find that the Indian stock index and the mature stock indices form fractionally cointegrated relationship in the long run with a common fractional, nonstationary component and find that the Johansen method is the best reveal their cointegration relationship.
Testing the Disinhibition Hypothesis of Epileptogenesis In Vivo and during Spontaneous Seizures

The “disinhibition” hypothesis contends that (1) seizures begin when granule cells in the dentate gyrus of the dorsal hippocampus are disinhibited and (2) disinhibition occurs because GABAergic interneurons are excessively inhibited by other GABAergic interneurons. We tested the disinhibition hypothesis using the experimental model that inspired it—naturally epileptic Mongolian gerbils. To determine whether there is an excess of GABAergic interneurons in the dentate gyrus of epileptic gerbils, as had been reported previously, GABA immunocytochemistry, in situ hybridization of GAD67 mRNA, and the optical fractionator method were used. There were no significant differences in the numbers of GABAergic interneurons. To determine whether granule cells in epileptic gerbils were disinhibited during the interictal period, IPSPs were recorded in vivo with hippocampal circuits intact in urethane-anesthetized gerbils. The reversal potentials and conductances of IPSPs in granule cells in epileptic versus control gerbils were similar. To determine whether the level of inhibitory control in the dentate gyrus transiently decreases before seizure onset, field potential responses to paired-pulse perforant path stimulation were obtained from the dorsal hippocampus while epileptic gerbils experienced spontaneous seizures. Evidence of reduced inhibition was found after, but not before, seizure onset, indicating that seizures are not triggered by disinhibition in this region. However, seizure-induced depression of inhibition may amplify and promote the spread of seizure activity to other brain regions. These findings do not support the disinhibition hypothesis and suggest that in this model of epilepsy seizures initiate by another mechanism or at a different site.
DIVERSIFIED TREATMENT UNDER AMBIGUITY

This paper develops a broad theme about treatment under ambiguity through study of a particular decision criterion. The broad theme is that a planner may often want to cope with ambiguity by diversification, assigning observationally iden tical persons to different treatments. Study of t he m inimax-regret (MR) criterion substantiates the theme. The paper significantly extends my earlier analysis of one-period planning with individualistic treatment a nd a linear welfare function. I show that MR treatment a llocations are fractional in a large class of planning problems with nonlinear welfare functions, interacting treatments, dynamics with learning, and non-cooperative aspects. I also call attention to some problems of treatment under ambiguity in which the MR allocation is not fractional.
NASDA's activities in space robotics

Space robots are indispensable tools the reaction wheels were run-downed and for future space missions such a s building1 switched off. This mission gave us a lot of insight operation of the international space station, about the rendezvous docking and space robot realization of on-orbit satellite servicing operations. (inspection, logistic support, repair, rescue from stranded orbit etc.), and lunarlplanetary explorations. NASDA has various space robot related projects a s follows. Retrieval of Japan's free flyer (SFU) by the shuttle's manipulator which was conducted by NASDA astronaut Wakata in January 1996 (STS-72). Manipulator Flight Demonstration (MFD) on the space shuttle which was conducted in August 1997 (STS-85). Space robot experiments which are being conducted on the Engineering Test Satellite7 (ETS-VII) A remote manipulator system (JEMRMS) for the Japanese experiment module of the international space station This paper introduces these projects and shows the most up-to-date results of the ETS-VII robot experiments which are being conducted in space. 1. Retr ieva l of a f ree flyer (SFU) by t h e s h u t t l e man ipu la to r (Ref.1) A team of Japan's national agencies (ISASI NASDAI MITI) developed and launched a free flyer named SFU in March, 1995. Mission of SFU was to conduct material and life science experiments in the micro-gravity environment. This free flyer was designed to be launched by NASDA's H-I1 rocket and to be retrieved by the space shuttle. The retrieval mission was conducted in January 1996 and a NASDA astronaut, Mr. Wakata manipulated the shuttle manipulator in this mission. In this retrieval mission, SFU made a slight orbital descent from its mission orbit to the rendezvous orbit (472km alt.) and waited there. The space shuttle made the ground-up rendezvous and approached SFU from beneath of i t (R-bar approach). When the shuttle's manipulator was positioned ahead of SFU, RCS of the shuttle was disabled and the shuttle manipulator grasped SFU. SFU maintained its attitude using reaction wheels while the space shuttle approached and grasped i t by the manipulator. After the shuttle's manipulator grasped SFU a t its grapple fixture, J apan ' s a free flyer( SFU) using the shutt le manipulator (STS-72 / 1996) 2. Manipu la to r F l igh t Demonst ra t ion (MFD) o n t h e space s h u t t l e (Ref.2) NASDA is now developing the Japanese experiment module's manipulator system (JEMRMS) to be used on the international space station. In order to verify design of the JEM's manipulator and its operation system, NASDA conducted the manipulator flight demonstration (MFD) mission on the shuttle cargo bay in 1997 by STS-85.
[18F]-Fluorodeoxyglucose Positron Emission Tomography Can Contribute to Discriminate Patients with Poor Prognosis in Hormone Receptor-Positive Breast Cancer

Background Patients with hormone receptor-positive breast cancer typically show favorable survival. However, identifying individuals at high risk of recurrence among these patients is a crucial issue. We tested the hypothesis that [18F]-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) scans can help predict prognosis in patients with hormone receptor-positive breast cancer. Methods Between April 2004 and December 2008, 305 patients with hormone receptor-positive breast cancer who underwent FGD-PET were enrolled. Patients with luminal B subtype were identified by positivity for human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER2) or high Ki67 (≥14%) according to criteria recently recommended by the St. Gallen panelists. The cut-off value of SUVmax was defined using the time-dependent receiver operator characteristic curve for recurrence-free survival (RFS). Results At a median follow up of 6.23 years, continuous SUVmax was a significant prognostic factor with a hazard ratio (HR) of 1.21 (p = 0.021). The cut-off value of SUVmax was defined as 4. Patients with luminal B subtype (n = 82) or high SUVmax (n = 107) showed a reduced RFS (p = 0.031 and 0.002, respectively). In multivariate analysis for RFS, SUVmax carried independent prognostic significance (p = 0.012) whereas classification with immunohistochemical markers did not (p = 0.274). The Harell c-index was 0.729. High SUVmax was significantly associated with larger tumor size, positive nodes, HER2 positivity, high Ki67 (≥14%), high tumor grade, and luminal B subtype. Conclusions Among patients with hormone receptor-positive breast cancer, FDG-PET can help discriminate patients at high risk of tumor relapse.
Towards Probabilistic Assessment of Modularity

With recent trends showing increasing rates of software evolution and complexity, modularity is more important than it ever has been for on-time, on-budget software development. Assessing modularity is important for both evaluating current software quality and planning future changes. This latter use case is becoming more relevant as open-source models become more common and developers contribute to code with which they may be quite unfamiliar. Software engineers tasked with implementing specific changes to unfamiliar software might ask questions such as:
TRAP-TANDEM: data-driven extraction of temporal features from speech

Conventional features in automatic recognition of speech describe the instantaneous shape of a short-term spectrum of speech. The TRAP-TANDEM features describe the likelihood of sub-word classes at a given time instant, derived from temporal trajectories of band-limited spectral densities in the vicinity of the given instant. The paper presents some rationale behind the data-driven TRAP-TANDEM approach, briefly describes the technique, points to relevant publications and summarizes results achieved so far.
Development of the Learning Analytics Dashboard to Support Students' Learning Performance

The Learning Analytics Dashboard (LAD) is an application to show students' online behavior patterns in a virtual learning environment. This supporting tool works by tracking students' log-files, mining massive amounts of data to find meaning, and visualizing the results so they can be comprehended at a glance. This paper reviews previously developed applications to analyze their features. Based on the implications from the review of previous studies as well as a preliminary investigation on the need for such tools, an early version of the LAD was designed and developed. Also, in order to improve the LAD, a usability test incorporating a stimulus recall interview was conducted with 38 college students in two blended learning classes. Evaluation of this tool was performed in an experimental research setting with a control group and additional surveys were conducted asking students' about perceived usefulness, conformity, level of understanding of graphs, and their behavioral changes. The results indicated that this newly developed learning analytics tool did not significantly impact on their learning achievement. However, lessons learned from the usability and pilot tests support that visualized information impacts on students' understanding level; and the overall satisfaction with dashboard plays as a covariant that impacts on both the degree of understanding and students' perceived change of behavior. Taking in the results of the tests and students' open- ended responses, a scaffolding strategy to help them understand the meaning of the information displayed was included in each sub section of the dashboard. Finally, this paper discusses future directions in regard to improving LAD so that it better supports students' learning performance, which might be helpful for those who develop learning analytics applications for students.
Distributed computing systems and checkpointing

This paper examines the performance of synchronous checkpointing in a distributed computing environment with and without load redistribution. Performance models are developed, and optimum checkpoint intervals are determined. The analysis extends earlier work by allowing for multiple nodes, state dependent checkpoint intervals, and a performance metric which is coupled with failure-free performance and the speedup functions associated with implementation of parallel algorithms. Expressions for the optimum checkpoint intervals for synchronous checkpointing with and without load redistribution are derived and the results are then used to determine when load redistribution is advantageous. <<ETX>>
Indexing Word Sequences for Ranked Retrieval

Formulating and processing phrases and other term dependencies to improve query effectiveness is an important problem in information retrieval. However, accessing word-sequence statistics using inverted indexes requires unreasonable processing time or substantial space overhead. Establishing a balance between these competing space and time trade-offs can dramatically improve system performance. In this article, we present and analyze a new index structure designed to improve query efficiency in dependency retrieval models. By adapting a class of (ε, Δ)-approximation algorithms originally proposed for sketch summarization in networking applications, we show how to accurately estimate statistics important in term-dependency models with low, probabilistically bounded error rates. The space requirements for the vocabulary of the index is only logarithmically linked to the size of the vocabulary. Empirically, we show that the sketch index can reduce the space requirements of the vocabulary component of an index of n-grams consisting of between 1 and 4 words extracted from the GOV2 collection to less than 0.01% of the space requirements of the vocabulary of a full index. We also show that larger n-gram queries can be processed considerably more efficiently than in current alternatives, such as positional and next-word indexes.
Design of distributed optical-fiber raman amplifiers using multi-objective particle swarm optimization

A novel method is presented to design the configuration of pumping lasers of Raman amplifiers using a multi-objective particle swarm optimizer. The goal is to obtain the pump laser wavelengths and powers that maximize the amplifier on-off gain, while maintaining the flatness of the gain over the used bandwidth. We used an algorithm called Multiple Objective Particle Swarm Optimization with Crowding Distance and Roulette Wheel to generate the non-dominated solutions, considering the average on-off gain and the ripple of the amplifier over the transmission bandwidth as the objectives in the optimization process. We designed amplifiers using three, four and five pump lasers. The experimental results showed that our proposal was able to design Raman amplifiers with a gain ripple lower than 0.2 dB and with an average on-off gain around 16.7 dB, when 20 signal channels and a total pump power of 1 W were considered. Moreover, we demonstrated that it is possible to allow the decision maker to choose among many possible non-dominated solutions depending on the application requirements.