Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The interaction between phonological processing, syntactic awareness and reading: a longitudinal study from Kindergarten to Grade 1

This longitudinal study examined the development of phono logical processing (phonological loop, phonological sensitivity) and syntactic awareness from Kindergarten to Grade 1, and addressed the question of their interaction with reading. The subjects were 37 French-speaking children. The experimental design consisted of a set of six tasks administered in two sessions. In the second phase of the study, reading efficiency was also evaluated. The individual profiles of the children with reading difficulties were analysed. The major findings reveal: (1) that the kindergarten children who exhibited early syntactic skills and syllable processing made particularly significant progress in consonant identification after one year of reading instruction; (2) that, within phonological sensitivity, syllable processing significantly contributed to reading; (3) that the relevance of syntactic awareness to reading could not be ruled out. This investigation also provided support for implementing early therapy programmes involving both phonological and syntactic features for children with reading disabilities.
Activation Domain-dependent Degradation of Somatic Wee1 Kinase*

Cell cycle progression is dependent upon coordinate regulation of kinase and proteolytic pathways. Inhibitors of cell cycle transitions are degraded to allow progression into the subsequent cell cycle phase. For example, the tyrosine kinase and Cdk1 inhibitor Wee1 is degraded during G2 and mitosis to allow mitotic progression. Previous studies suggested that the N terminus of Wee1 directs Wee1 destruction. Using a chemical mutagenesis strategy, we report that multiple regions of Wee1 control its destruction. Most notably, we find that the activation domain of the Wee1 kinase is also required for its degradation. Mutations in this domain inhibit Wee1 degradation in somatic cell extracts and in cells without affecting the overall Wee1 structure or kinase activity. More broadly, these findings suggest that kinase activation domains may be previously unappreciated sites of recognition by the ubiquitin proteasome pathway.
Energy-related Characteristics of Poplars and Black Locust

Poplar and black locust plantations are widely used for production of raw materials for biofuel. In this study, the main characteristics affecting energy content were evaluated for 2-year-old plantations obtained from 3 different sites of various qualities were evaluated. The ‘I-214’ poplar and the black locust had smaller (16 to 21%) bark ratios, while the ‘Kopecky’ poplar had a higher (22 to 26%) bark gain yield. The black locust had a higher basic density than that of the poplars, which were wood (446 kg/m3) and bark (402 kg/m3). The higher heating value of the bark of the black locust (19.51 to 19.59 MJ/kg) and of the ‘Kopecky’ (19.58 to 19.86 MJ/kg) was greater than that of the wood; in the case of the ‘I-214’ (19.59 to 19.81 MJ/kg), the higher heating value of the wood was higher. The ash content of the bark (4.50 to 8.22%) was several times greater in the case of poplars and black locust than that of the wood (0.46 to 1.29%). In the case of the wood, the ash content increased by the degradation of the site's quality. There were remarkable differences between the black locust and the poplars, as well as the individual poplar clones among the main energetic characteristics.
Adaptive and robust motion control in presence of LuGre-type friction

The proposed approach to the adaptive motion control in the presence of LuGre-type friction consists in the compensation of all components containing the internal model variable by a robust control term, based on a special “bounding function”. To minimize the chattering effect, this function is approximated by a linear-in-parameters model. The model is tuned on-line by the adaptive control, together with the remaining unknown parameters.
Topical Application of St. Johnʼs Wort (Hypericum perforatum)

Abstract St. Johnʼs wort (Hypericum perforatum) has been intensively investigated for its antidepressive activity, but dermatological applications also have a long tradition. Topical St. Johnʼs wort preparations such as oils or tinctures are used for the treatment of minor wounds and burns, sunburns, abrasions, bruises, contusions, ulcers, myalgia, and many others. Pharmacological research supports the use in these fields. Of the constituents, naphthodianthrones (e.g., hypericin) and phloroglucinols (e.g., hyperforin) have interesting pharmacological profiles, including antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, and antimicrobial activities. In addition, hyperforin stimulates growth and differentiation of keratinocytes, and hypericin is a photosensitizer which can be used for selective treatment of nonmelanoma skin cancer. However, clinical research in this field is still scarce. Recently, sporadic trials have been conducted in wound healing, atopic dermatitis, psoriasis, and herpes simplex infections, partly with purified single constituents and modern dermatological formulations. St. Johnʼs wort also has a potential for use in medical skin care. Composition and stability of pharmaceutical formulations vary greatly depending on origin of the plant material, production method, lipophilicity of solvents, and storage conditions, and this must be regarded with respect to practical as well as scientific purposes.
Arabidopsis β-Amylase2 Is a K+-Requiring, Catalytic Tetramer with Sigmoidal Kinetics1[OPEN]

An unusual β-amylase from Arabidopsis (BAM2) is catalytically active in the presence of K+, exhibits sigmoidal kinetics, functions as a tetramer, and has a putative secondary carbohydrate-binding site. The Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) genome contains nine β-amylase (BAM) genes, some of which play important roles in starch hydrolysis. However, little is known about BAM2, a plastid-localized enzyme reported to have extremely low catalytic activity. Using conservation of intron positions, we determined that the nine Arabidopsis BAM genes fall into two distinct subfamilies. A similar pattern was found in each major lineage of land plants, suggesting that these subfamilies diverged prior to the origin of land plants. Moreover, phylogenetic analysis indicated that BAM2 is the ancestral member of one of these subfamilies. This finding, along with the conservation of amino acids in the active site of BAM2, suggested that it might be catalytically active. We then identified KCl as necessary for BAM2 activity. Unlike BAM1, BAM3, and BAM5, three Arabidopsis BAMs that all exhibited hyperbolic kinetics, BAM2 exhibited sigmoidal kinetics with a Hill coefficient of over 3. Using multi-angle light scattering, we determined that BAM2 was a tetramer, whereas BAM5 was a monomer. Conserved residues from a diverse set of BAM2 orthologs were mapped onto a homology model of the protein, revealing a large, conserved surface away from the active site that we hypothesize is a secondary carbohydrate-binding site. Introduction of bulky methionine for glycine at two points on this surface reduced catalytic activity significantly without disrupting the tetrameric structure. Expression analysis indicated that BAM2 is more closely coexpressed with other starch degradation enzymes than any other BAM, suggesting that BAM2 may play an important role in starch degradation in plants.
Genome Sequencing of Recent Clinical Chlamydia trachomatis Strains Identifies Loci Associated with Tissue Tropism and Regions of Apparent Recombination

ABSTRACT The human pathogen Chlamydia trachomatis exists as multiple serovariants that have distinct organotropisms for different tissue sites. Culture and epidemiologic data have demonstrated that serovar G is more prevalent, while serovar E is less prevalent, for rectal isolates from men having sex with men (MSM). The relative prevalence of these serovars is the opposite for isolates from female cervical infections. In contrast, the prevalence of serovar J isolates is approximately the same at the different tissue sites, and these isolates are the only C-class strains that are routinely cultured from MSM populations. These correlations led us to hypothesize that polymorphisms in open reading frame (ORF) sequences correlate with the different tissue tropisms of these serovars. To explore this possibility, we sequenced and compared the genomes of clinical anorectal and cervical isolates belonging to serovars E, G, and J and compared these genomes with each other, as well as with a set of previously sequenced genomes. We then used PCR- and restriction digestion-based genotyping assays performed with a large collection of recent clinical isolates to show that polymorphisms in ORFs CT144, CT154, and CT326 were highly associated with rectal tropism in serovar G isolates and that polymorphisms in CT869 and CT870 were associated with tissue tropism across all serovars tested. The genome sequences collected were also used to identify regions of likely recombination in recent clinical strains. This work demonstrated that whole-genome sequencing along with comparative genomics is an effective approach for discovering variable loci in Chlamydia spp. that are associated with clinical presentation.
Towards Trust-Aware Resource Management in Grid Computing Systems

Resource management is a central part of a Grid computing system. In a large-scale wide-area system such as the Grid, security is a prime concern. One approach is to be conservative and implement techniques such as sandboxing, encryption, and other access control mechanisms on all elements of the Grid. However, the overhead caused by such a design may negate the advantages of Grid computing. This study examines the integration of the notion of "trust" into resource management such that the allocation process is aware of the security implications. We present a formal definition of trust and discuss a model for incorporating trust into Grid systems. As an example application of the ideas proposed, a resource management algorithm that incorporates trust is presented. The performance of the algorithm is examined via simulations.
Drop spreading with random viscosity

We examine theoretically the spreading of a viscous liquid drop over a thin film of uniform thickness, assuming the liquid’s viscosity is regulated by the concentration of a solute that is carried passively by the spreading flow. The solute is assumed to be initially heterogeneous, having a spatial distribution with prescribed statistical features. To examine how this variability influences the drop’s motion, we investigate spreading in a planar geometry using lubrication theory, combining numerical simulations with asymptotic analysis. We assume diffusion is sufficient to suppress solute concentration gradients across but not along the film. The solute field beneath the bulk of the drop is stretched by the spreading flow, such that the initial solute concentration immediately behind the drop’s effective contact lines has a long-lived influence on the spreading rate. Over long periods, solute swept up from the precursor film accumulates in a short region behind the contact line, allowing patches of elevated viscosity within the precursor film to hinder spreading. A low-order model provides explicit predictions of the variances in spreading rate and drop location, which are validated against simulations.
THE INTERMEDIATE LUMINOSITY OPTICAL TRANSIENT SN 2010DA: THE PROGENITOR, ERUPTION, AND AFTERMATH OF A PECULIAR SUPERGIANT HIGH-MASS X-RAY BINARY

We present optical spectroscopy, ultraviolet-to-infrared imaging, and X-ray observations of the intermediate luminosity optical transient (ILOT) SN 2010da in NGC 300 (d = 1.86 Mpc) spanning from −6 to +6 years relative to the time of outburst in 2010. Based on the light-curve and multi-epoch spectral energy distributions of SN 2010da, we conclude that the progenitor of SN 2010da is a ≈10–12 M⊙ yellow supergiant possibly transitioning into a blue-loop phase. During outburst, SN 2010da had a peak absolute magnitude of Mbol ≲ −10.4 mag, dimmer than other ILOTs and supernova impostors. We detect multi-component hydrogen Balmer, Paschen, and Ca ii emission lines in our high-resolution spectra, which indicate a dusty and complex circumstellar environment. Since the 2010 eruption, the star has brightened by a factor of ≈5 and remains highly variable in the optical. Furthermore, we detect SN 2010da in archival Swift and Chandra observations as an ultraluminous X-ray source (LX ≈ 6 × 1039 erg s−1). We additionally attribute He ii 4686 Å and coronal Fe emission lines in addition to a steady X-ray luminosity of ≈1037 erg s−1 to the presence of a compact companion.
Remote Sensing of Particulate Pollution from Space: Have We Reached the Promised Land?

Abstract The recent literature on satellite remote sensing of air quality is reviewed. 2009 is the 50th anniversary of the first satellite atmospheric observations. For the first 40 of those years, atmospheric composition measurements, meteorology, and atmospheric structure and dynamics dominated the missions launched. Since 1995, 42 instruments relevant to air quality measurements have been put into orbit. Trace gases such as ozone, nitric oxide, nitrogen dioxide, water, oxygen/tetraoxygen, bromine oxide, sulfur dioxide, formaldehyde, glyoxal, chlorine dioxide, chlorine monoxide, and nitrate radical have been measured in the stratosphere and troposphere in column measurements. Aerosol optical depth (AOD) is a focus of this review and a significant body of literature exists that shows that ground-level fine particulate matter (PM2.5) can be estimated from columnar AOD. Precision of the measurement of AOD is ±20% and the prediction of PM2.5 from AOD is order ±30% in the most careful studies. The air quality needs that can use such predictions are examined. Satellite measurements are important to event detection, transport and model prediction, and emission estimation. It is suggested that ground-based measurements, models, and satellite measurements should be viewed as a system, each component of which is necessary to better understand air quality.
Thresholded Lasso for high dimensional variable selection and statistical estimation

Given $n$ noisy samples with $p$ dimensions, where $n \ll p$, we show that the multi-step thresholding procedure based on the Lasso -- we call it the {\it Thresholded Lasso}, can accurately estimate a sparse vector $\beta \in \R^p$ in a linear model $Y = X \beta + \epsilon$, where $X_{n \times p}$ is a design matrix normalized to have column $\ell_2$ norm $\sqrt{n}$, and $\epsilon \sim N(0, \sigma^2 I_n)$. We show that under the restricted eigenvalue (RE) condition (Bickel-Ritov-Tsybakov 09), it is possible to achieve the $\ell_2$ loss within a logarithmic factor of the ideal mean square error one would achieve with an {\em oracle} while selecting a sufficiently sparse model -- hence achieving {\it sparse oracle inequalities}; the oracle would supply perfect information about which coordinates are non-zero and which are above the noise level. In some sense, the Thresholded Lasso recovers the choices that would have been made by the $\ell_0$ penalized least squares estimators, in that it selects a sufficiently sparse model without sacrificing the accuracy in estimating $\beta$ and in predicting $X \beta$. We also show for the Gauss-Dantzig selector (Cand\`{e}s-Tao 07), if $X$ obeys a uniform uncertainty principle and if the true parameter is sufficiently sparse, one will achieve the sparse oracle inequalities as above, while allowing at most $s_0$ irrelevant variables in the model in the worst case, where $s_0 \leq s$ is the smallest integer such that for $\lambda = \sqrt{2 \log p/n}$, $\sum_{i=1}^p \min(\beta_i^2, \lambda^2 \sigma^2) \leq s_0 \lambda^2 \sigma^2$. Our simulation results on the Thresholded Lasso match our theoretical analysis excellently.
Biodistribution and toxicity of spherical aluminum oxide nanoparticles

With the rapid development of the nano‐industry, concerns about their potential adverse health effects have been raised. Thus, ranking accurately their toxicity and prioritizing for in vivo testing through in vitro toxicity test is needed. In this study, we used three types of synthesized aluminum oxide nanoparticles (AlONPs): γ‐aluminum oxide hydroxide nanoparticles (γ‐AlOHNPs), γ‐ and α‐AlONPs. All three AlONPs were spherical, and the surface area was the greatest for γ‐AlONPs, followed by the α‐AlONPs and γ‐AlOHNPs. In mice, γ‐AlOHNPs accumulated the most 24 h after a single oral dose. Additionally, the decreased number of white blood cells (WBC), the increased ratio of neutrophils and the enhanced secretion of interleukin (IL)‐8 were observed in the blood of mice dosed with γ‐AlOHNPs (10 mg kg−1). We also compared their toxicity using four different in vitro test methods using six cell lines, which were derived from their potential target organs, BEAS‐2B (lung), Chang (liver), HACAT (skin), H9C2 (heart), T98G (brain) and HEK‐293 (kidney). The results showed γ‐AlOHNPs induced the greatest toxicity. Moreover, separation of particles was observed in a transmission electron microscope (TEM) image of cells treated with γ‐AlOHNPs, but not γ‐AlONPs or α‐AlONPs. In conclusion, our results suggest that the accumulation and toxicity of AlONPs are stronger in γ‐AlOHNPs compared with γ‐AlONPs and α‐AlONPs owing their low stability within biological system, and the presence of hydroxyl group may be an important factor in determining the distribution and toxicity of spherical AlONPs. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A bilingual OCR for Hindi-Telugu documents and its applications

This paper describes the character recognition process from printed documents containing Hindi and Telugu text. Hindi and Telugu are among the most popular languages in India. The bilingual recognizer is based on Principal Component Analysis followed by support vector classification. This attains an overall accuracy of approximately 96.7%. Extensive experimentation is carried out on an independent test set of approximately 200000 characters. Applications based on this OCR are sketched.
Genetics of familial melanoma: 20 years after CDKN2A

Twenty years ago, the first familial melanoma susceptibility gene, CDKN2A, was identified. Two years later, another high‐penetrance gene, CDK4, was found to be responsible for melanoma development in some families. Progress in identifying new familial melanoma genes was subsequently slow; however, with the advent of next‐generation sequencing, a small number of new high‐penetrance genes have recently been uncovered. This approach has identified the lineage‐specific oncogene MITF as a susceptibility gene both in melanoma families and in the general population, as well as the discovery of telomere maintenance as a key pathway underlying melanoma predisposition. Given these rapid recent advances, this approach seems likely to continue to pay dividends. Here, we review the currently known familial melanoma genes, providing evidence that most additionally confer risk to other cancers, indicating that they are likely general tumour suppressor genes or oncogenes, which has significant implications for surveillance and screening.
Reversible Logic Synthesis by Iterative Compositions

A reversible circuit maps each output vector into a unique input vector, and vice versa. CMOS reversible / adiabatic circuits are currently the most important approaches to power optimization. This paper introduces an approach to synthesize generalized multi-rail reversible cascades for singleoutput Boolean functions. Minimizing the “garbage bits” is the main challenge of reversible logic synthesis. Experimental results over a set of single output functions (derived from Espresso PLAs) will be presented at IWLS 2002.
Tracking an unknown time-varying number of speakers using TDOA measurements: a random finite set approach

Speaker location estimation techniques based on time-difference-of-arrival measurements have attracted much attention recently. Many existing localization ideas assume that only one speaker is active at a time. In this paper, we focus on a more realistic assumption that the number of active speakers is unknown and time-varying. Such an assumption results in a more complex localization problem, and we employ the random finite set (RFS) theory to deal with that problem. The RFS concepts provide us with an effective, solid foundation where the multispeaker locations and the number of speakers are integrated to form a single set-valued variable. By applying a sequential Monte Carlo implementation, we develop a Bayesian RFS filter that simultaneously tracks the time-varying speaker locations and number of speakers. The tracking capability of the proposed filter is demonstrated in simulated reverberant environments
Is the energy density of the ground state of the sine-Gordon model unbounded from below for β2 > 8π?

We discuss Coleman's theorem concerning the energy density of the ground state of the sine-Gordon model proved in Coleman S (1975 Phys. Rev. D 11 2088). According to this theorem the energy density of the ground state of the sine-Gordon model should be unbounded from below for coupling constants β2 > 8π. The consequence of this theorem would be the non-existence of the quantum ground state of the sine-Gordon model for β2 > 8π. We show that the energy density of the ground state in the sine-Gordon model is bounded from below even for β2 > 8π. This result is discussed in relation to Coleman's theorem (Coleman S 1973 Commun. Math. Phys. 31 259), particle mass spectra and soliton–soliton scattering in the sine-Gordon model.
Aortopexy for Innominate Artery Tracheal Compression in Children

Objectives (1) Evaluate the presentation, diagnostic workup, and outcomes of contemporary surgical intervention for airway obstruction from innominate artery tracheal compression in children. (2) Assess the significance of synchronous airway lesions in the treatment of innominate artery tracheal compression. Study Design Case series with chart review. Setting Tertiary care children’s hospital. Methods This study is a retrospective medical record review of 26 consecutive children who underwent aortopexy for innominate artery tracheal compression at a tertiary care children’s hospital. Presenting symptoms, diagnostic workup, presence of synchronous airway lesions, length of hospitalization, and treatment outcomes were examined. Results Twenty-six patients (17 male, 65%) were included in the study. All were diagnosed with bronchoscopy and confirmed with radiographic imaging. Median age at diagnosis and surgery was 9.7 and 10.0 months, respectively. Presenting symptoms included noisy breathing (93%), cough (78%), dyspnea (44%), apnea (44%), cyanosis (19%), and recurrent respiratory infections (15%). Average degree of tracheal compression was 71% (SD, 12%). Fifteen of 26 (58%) patients had synchronous airway lesions, including mild laryngomalacia and subglottic stenosis. Median length of stay was 2 days. Median follow-up was 10 months. Subjective improvement occurred in all 21 patients for whom follow-up information was available. Conclusion Anterior tracheal vascular compression can cause a variety of airway symptoms. Mild synchronous airway lesions are common and do not prevent successful aortopexy. Aortopexy is a viable treatment option for symptomatic anterior tracheal vascular compression from the innominate artery.
Sternal fractures and their management

Sternal fractures are predominantly associated with deceleration injuries and blunt anterior chest trauma. Sternal trauma must be carefully evaluated by monitoring of vital parameters and it is of paramount importance that concomitant injuries are excluded. Nevertheless, routine admission of patients with isolated sternal fractures for observation is still common in today's practice, which is often unnecessary. This article aims to describe the prognosis, the recommended assessment and management of patients with sternal fractures, to help clinicians make an evidence-based judgment regarding the need for hospitalization.