Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Galaxy-galaxy-galaxy lensing: Third-order correlations between the galaxy and mass distributions in the Universe

Galaxy-galaxy lensing (GGL) measures the 2-point cross-correlation between galaxies and mass in the Universe. In this work we seek to generalise this effect by considering the third-order correlations between galaxies and mass: galaxy-galaxy- galaxy lensing. Third-order correlations in the cosmic shear field have recently been reported in the VIRMOS-DESCART and CTIO surveys. Such data should also be ideal for measuring galaxy-galaxy-galaxy lensing. Indeed, the effects of these higher- order correlations may have already been detected in recent studies of galaxy-galaxy lensing. Higher-order cross-correlation functions contain invaluable information about the relationship between galaxies and their mass environments that GGL studies alone cannot detect. In this paper we lay out the basic relations for third-order cross correlations and their projections and introduce a new set of scale dependent third-order bias parameters. We define three new observables: two galaxy-shear-shear correlation functions, G±, and a galaxy-galaxy-shear correlation, G. We relate these to the various projected cross-bispectra and give practical estimators for their measurement. We note that the observational signature of these correlators is simply the excess shear-shear correlation measured about foreground galaxies (for G±) and the average tangential shear around foreground galaxy pairs (for G). These quantities are no more than second order in the shear and so should be more easily measurable than the shear 3-point correlation. Finally we derive expressions for the third order aperture mass statistics in terms of both the cross-bispectra and the real-space correlation functions. Such statistics provide a very localized measurement of the bispectra, thus encapsulating essentially all of the available third-order information, while remaining easily obtainable from observations of 3-point cross-correlation functions. In addition we find that utilising aperture statistics has the further benefit that they measure only the connected part of the third order correlation.
What's in a face?: The late positive potential reflects the level of facial affect expression

Morphed faces depicting varying degrees of affect expression can be used to investigate the processing of ambiguous and thus more ecologically valid facial stimuli. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were measured while participants viewed a series of faces ranging in 10% increments from prototypically happy to prototypically neutral to prototypically angry. Results revealed that the late positive potential (LPP) – an ERP reflecting later stages of stimulus processing – followed the degree of expression of facial affect such that faces depicting a greater amount of affect elicited larger LPPs as compared to faces depicting less affect. The enhanced LPP to faces depicting greater amounts of affect was also more sustained for angry compared to happy faces – in general, angry faces elicited larger LPPs. Overall, these results demonstrate the sensitivity of the LPP to more ecologically valid facial expressions and thus the visual system’s finely tuned discriminability of important social signals.
Solving random satisfiable 3CNF formulas in expected polynomial time

We present an algorithm for solving 3SAT instances. Several algorithms have been proved to work whp (with high probability) for various SAT distributions. However, an algorithm that works whp has a drawback. Indeed for typical instances it works well, however for some rare inputs it does not provide a solution at all. Alternatively, one could require that the algorithm always produce a correct answer but perform well on average. Expected polynomial time formalizes this notion. We prove that for some natural distribution on 3CNF formulas, called planted 3SAT, our algorithm has expected polynomial (in fact, almost linear) running time. The planted 3SAT distribution is the set of satisfiable 3CNF formulas generated in the following manner. First, a truth assignment is picked uniformly at random. Then, each clause satisfied by it is included in the formula with probability p. Extending previous work for the planted 3SAT distribution, we present, for the first time for a satisfiable SAT distribution, an expected polynomial time algorithm. Namely, it solves all 3SAT instances, and over the planted distribution (with p = d/n2, d > 0 a sufficiently large constant) it runs in expected polynomial time. Our results extend to k-SAT for any constant k.
EBK-Means: A Clustering Technique based on Elbow Method and K-Means in WSN

consist of hundreds of thousands of small and cost effective sensor nodes. Sensor nodes are used to sense the environmental or physiological parameters like temperature, pressure, etc. For the connectivity of the sensor nodes, they use wireless transceiver to send and receive the inter-node signals. Sensor nodes, because connect their selves wirelessly, use routing process to route the packet to make them reach from source to destination. These sensor nodes run on batteries and they carry a limited battery life. Clustering is the process of creating virtual sub-groups of the sensor nodes, which helps the sensor nodes to lower routing computations and to lower the size routing data. There is a wide space available for the research on energy efficient clustering algorithms for the WSNs. LEACH, PEGASIS and HEED are the popular energy efficient clustering protocols for WSNs. In this research, we are working on the development of a hybrid model using LEACH based energy efficient and K-means based quick clustering algorithms to produce a new cluster scheme for WSNs with dynamic selection of the number of the clusters automatically. In the proposed method, finding an optimum "k" value is performed by Elbow method and clustering is done by k-means algorithm, hence routing protocol LEACH which is a traditional energy efficient protocol takes the work ahead of sending data from the cluster heads to the base station. The results of simulation show that at the end of some certain part of running the proposed algorithm, at some point the marginal gain will drop dramatically and gives an angle in the graph. The correct "k" i.e. number of clusters is chosen at this point, hence the "elbow criterion".
The Importance of G Protein-Coupled Receptor Kinase 4 (GRK4) in Pathogenesis of Salt Sensitivity, Salt Sensitive Hypertension and Response to Antihypertensive Treatment

Salt sensitivity is probably caused by either a hereditary or acquired defect of salt excretion by the kidney, and it is reasonable to consider that this is the basis for differences in hypertension between black and white people. Dopamine acts in an autocrine/paracrine fashion to promote natriuresis in the proximal tubule and thick ascending loop of Henle. G-protein receptor kinases (or GRKs) are serine and threonine kinases that phosphorylate G protein-coupled receptors in response to agonist stimulation and uncouple the dopamine receptor from its G protein. This results in a desensitisation process that protects the cell from repeated agonist exposure. GRK4 activity is increased in spontaneously hypertensive rats, and infusion of GRK4 antisense oligonucleotides attenuates the increase in blood pressure (BP). This functional defect is replicated in the proximal tubule by expression of GRK4 variants namely p.Arg65Leu, p.Ala142Val and p.Val486Ala, in cell lines, with the p.Ala142Val showing the most activity. In humans, GRK4 polymorphisms were shown to be associated with essential hypertension in Australia, BP regulation in young adults, low renin hypertension in Japan and impaired stress-induced Na excretion in normotensive black men. In South Africa, GRK4 polymorphisms are more common in people of African descent, associated with impaired Na excretion in normotensive African people, and predict blood pressure response to Na restriction in African patients with mild to moderate essential hypertension. The therapeutic importance of the GRK4 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) was emphasised in the African American Study of Kidney Disease (AASK) where African-Americans with hypertensive nephrosclerosis were randomised to receive amlodipine, ramipril or metoprolol. Men with the p.Ala142Val genotype were less likely to respond to metoprolol, especially if they also had the p.Arg65Leu variant. Furthermore, in the analysis of response to treatment in two major hypertension studies, the 65Leu/142Val heterozygote predicted a significantly decreased response to atenolol treatment, and the 65Leu/142Val heterozygote and 486Val homozygote were associated in an additive fashion with adverse cardiovascular outcomes, independent of BP. In conclusion, there is considerable evidence that GRK4 variants are linked to impaired Na excretion, hypertension in animal models and humans, therapeutic response to dietary Na restriction and response to antihypertensive drugs. It may also underlie the difference in hypertension between different geographically derived population groups, and form a basis for pharmacogenomic approaches to treatment of hypertension.
III. A second paper on the forms assumed by drops of liquids falling vertically on a horizontal plate

In a previous paper which I had the honour of submitting to the Society, a method was described by which the later stages of the oscillation had been seen. I wish now to supplement that paper with an account of the earlier stages. The experiments of the sequel were, by the kind permission of Professor Balfour Stewart, made this autumn in the Physical Laboratory at Owens College. The arrangement that was found most successful for seeing the earlier stages was one b j which the support was withdrawn from under a drop, so as to leave it free to fall, while at the same instant an electrical circuit was broken.
Finding the answer in space: the mental whiteboard hypothesis on serial order in working memory

Various prominent models on serial order coding in working memory (WM) build on the notion that serial order is achieved by binding the various items to-be-maintained to fixed position markers. Despite being relatively successful in accounting for empirical observations and some recent neuro-imaging support, these models were largely formulated on theoretical grounds and few specifications have been provided with respect to the cognitive and/or neural nature of these position markers. Here we outline a hypothesis on a novel candidate mechanism to substantiate the notion of serial position markers. Specifically, we propose that serial order WM is grounded in the spatial attention system: (I) The position markers that provide multi-item WM with a serial context should be understood as coordinates within an internal, spatially defined system; (II) internal spatial attention is involved in searching through the resulting serial order representation; and (III) retrieval corresponds to selection by spatial attention. We sketch the available empirical support and discuss how the hypothesis may provide a parsimonious framework from which to understand a broad range of observations across behavioral, neural and neuropsychological domains. Finally, we pinpoint what we believe are major questions for future research inspired by the hypothesis.
Improving Bilingual Projections via Sparse Covariance Matrices

Mapping documents into an interlingual representation can help bridge the language barrier of cross-lingual corpora. Many existing approaches are based on word co-occurrences extracted from aligned training data, represented as a covariance matrix. In theory, such a covariance matrix should represent semantic equivalence, and should be highly sparse. Unfortunately, the presence of noise leads to dense covariance matrices which in turn leads to suboptimal document representations. In this paper, we explore techniques to recover the desired sparsity in covariance matrices in two ways. First, we explore word association measures and bilingual dictionaries to weigh the word pairs. Later, we explore different selection strategies to remove the noisy pairs based on the association scores. Our experimental results on the task of aligning comparable documents shows the efficacy of sparse covariance matrices on two data sets from two different language pairs.
Bilateral posterior dislocation of the crystalline lens after a head injury sustained during a seizure

This article presents a case of bilateral posterior dislocations of the crystalline lens in a patient with epilepsy who presented with reduced vision and anisocoria 2 weeks after having sustained head injuries during a seizure. The possibility of lens dislocation was raised only at this time, and subsequently confirmed on computed tomography. Such patients may require prompt referral to the ophthalmologist to treat complications such as functional aphakia, uveitis and more seriously pupillary block glaucoma. This case highlights the importance of ocular examination of head injuries to rule out possible ophthalmological pathology.
Assessing security threats of looping constructs

There is a clear intuitive connection between the notion of leakage of information in a program and concepts from information theory. This intuition has not been satisfactorily pinned down, until now. In particular, previous information-theoretic models of programs are imprecise, due to their overly conservative treatment of looping constructs. In this paper we provide the first precise information-theoretic semantics of looping constructs. Our semantics describes both the amount and rate of leakage; if either is small enough, then a program might be deemed "secure". Using the semantics we provide an investigation and classification of bounded and unbounded covert channels.
Dynamical Principles of Two-Component Genetic Oscillators

Genetic oscillators based on the interaction of a small set of molecular components have been shown to be involved in the regulation of the cell cycle, the circadian rhythms, or the response of several signaling pathways. Uncovering the functional properties of such oscillators then becomes important for the understanding of these cellular processes and for the characterization of fundamental properties of more complex clocks. Here, we show how the dynamics of a minimal two-component oscillator is drastically affected by its genetic implementation. We consider a repressor and activator element combined in a simple logical motif. While activation is always exerted at the transcriptional level, repression is alternatively operating at the transcriptional (Design I) or post-translational (Design II) level. These designs display differences on basic oscillatory features and on their behavior with respect to molecular noise or entrainment by periodic signals. In particular, Design I induces oscillations with large activator amplitudes and arbitrarily small frequencies, and acts as an “integrator” of external stimuli, while Design II shows emergence of oscillations with finite, and less variable, frequencies and smaller amplitudes, and detects better frequency-encoded signals (“resonator”). Similar types of stimulus response are observed in neurons, and thus this work enables us to connect very different biological contexts. These dynamical principles are relevant for the characterization of the physiological roles of simple oscillator motifs, the understanding of core machineries of complex clocks, and the bio-engineering of synthetic oscillatory circuits.
mHealth Technologies for Palliative Care Patients at the Interface of In-Patient to Outpatient Care: Protocol of Feasibility Study Aiming to Early Predict Deterioration of Patient’s Health Status

Background Palliative care patients are a particularly vulnerable population and one of the critical phases in patients’ trajectories is discharge from specialized in-patient palliative care into outpatient care, where availability of a palliative care infrastructure is highly variable. A relevant number of potentially avoidable readmissions and emergency visits of palliative patients is observed due to rapid exacerbation of symptoms indicating the need for a closer patient monitoring. In the last years, different mHealth technology applications have been evaluated in many different patient groups. Objective The aim of our study is to test feasibility of a remote physical and social tracking system in palliative care patients. Methods A feasibility study with explorative, descriptive study design, comprised of 3 work packages. From the wards of the Clinic of Radiation-Oncology at the University Hospital Zurich, including the specialized palliative care ward, 30 patients will be recruited and will receive a mobile phone and a tracking bracelet before discharge. The aim of work package A is to evaluate if severely ill patients accept to be equipped with a tracking bracelet and a mobile phone (by semiquantitative questionnaires and guideline interviews). Work package B evaluates the technical feasibility and quality of the acquired electronic health data. Work package C will demonstrate whether physical activity parameters, such as step count, sleep duration, social activity patterns like making calls, and vital signs (eg, heart rate) do correlate with subjective health data and can serve as indicator to early detect and predict changes in patients’ health status. Activity parameters will be extracted from the mobile phone’s and wristband’s sensor data using signal processing methods. Subjective health data is captured via electronic version of visual analog scale and Distress Thermometer as well as the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer – Quality of Life Questionnaire C30 in paper version. Results Enrollment began in February 2017. First study results will be reported in the middle of 2018. Conclusions Our project will deliver relevant data on patients’ acceptance of activity and social tracking and test the correlation between subjective symptom assessment and objective activity in the vulnerable population of palliative care patients. The proposed study is meant to be preparatory work for an intervention study to test the effect of wireless monitoring of palliative care patients on symptom control and quality of life.
Physical Activity and Quality of Life

Physical activity (PA) professionals and participants recognize enhanced quality of life (QoL) as a benefit of and motivator for PA. However, QoL measures are often problematic and rarely consider the participants'perspective. This paper focuses on recent findings from a larger project on the role of QoL in PA and health promotion. More specifically, we focus on the views of participants and potential participants to better understand the relationship of PA and QoL. In earlier stages of the project we began with a conceptual model of QoL and developed a survey. We now focus on participants' views and ask two questions: 1) what is QoL? and 2) how does PA relate to QoL? We first asked those questions of a large sample of university students and community participants as open-ended survey items, and then asked focus groups of community participants. Overall, participants' responses reflected the multidimensional, integrative QoL model, but the responses and patterns provided information that may not be picked up with typical survey measures. Findings suggest that PA contributes to multiple aspects of QoL, that social and emotional benefits are primary motivators and outcomes for participants, and that the meaning of QoL and PA benefits is subjective and contextualized, varying across individuals and settings. Programs that directly target and highlight the multiple dimensions and integrative QoL, while considering the individual participants and contexts, may enhance both PA motivation and participants' health and QoL.
Mechanical and thermal properties improvement of nano calcium carbonate-filled epoxy/glass fiber composite laminates

In this work, the influence of precipitated nano calcium carbonate (PNCC) on the mechanical and thermal properties of epoxy/glass fiber (GF) laminates was studied. The mechanical properties of the epoxy/GF/PNCC composites were characterized by flexural and impact tests. The fracture toughness of the epoxy hybrid composites was evaluated by the principle of linear elastic fracture mechanics via single-edge notched bending tests. The thermal properties of the epoxy hybrid composites were studied using dynamic mechanical analyzer (DMA) and thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA). The flexural properties, impact strength, and fracture toughness of the epoxy/GF laminates were increased profoundly in the presence of PNCC. Additionally, from the DMA and TGA results, it was found that the storage modulus and thermal decomposition temperature of the epoxy/GF increased remarkably with the addition of PNCC.
Femoral Aperture Fixation Improves Anterior Cruciate Ligament Graft Function When Added to Cortical Suspensory Fixation

Background: Recommendations for bone tunnel placement during anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction have become more precise. However, these recommendations differ neither with the choice of graft nor with the method of fixation used. The influence of the method of femoral fixation used on the biomechanical function of a soft tissue ACL graft remains unknown. Hypothesis: Our null hypothesis was that adding femoral aperture fixation to femoral cortical fixation, using the same bone tunnels, will not alter the control of anterior translation (AT) and internal rotation (IR) during ACL reconstruction using a hamstring graft. Study Design: Controlled laboratory study. Methods: A total of 22 patients with an acute isolated ACL rupture underwent reconstruction using a single-bundle autologous hamstring graft. Computer navigation was used intraoperatively to plot the AT and IR during the pivot-shift test before reconstruction, after ACL reconstruction using cortical suspensory fixation, and after the addition of femoral aperture fixation. Statistical analysis (analysis of variance) was used to compare the AT and IR during the pivot shift at each stage in the procedure. Results: Before ACL reconstruction, the mean (±SD) AT was 14.2 ± 7.3 mm and mean IR was 17.2° ± 5.5°. After reconstruction using femoral cortical suspension, these figures were significantly reduced to 6.2 ± 3.5 mm and 12.5° ± 3.20°, respectively (P < .001). The addition of the aperture fixation was associated with a further significant reduction to 4.6 ± 3.2 mm and 10.4° ± 2.7°, respectively (P < .001). Conclusion: The addition of femoral aperture fixation to suspensory fixation results in a significant reduction in both the AT and IR that occurs during the pivot-shift assessment immediately after ACL reconstruction using autologous hamstring graft. Clinical Relevance: The most precise positioning of bone tunnels during soft tissue ACL reconstruction needs to take into consideration the type of fixation being used.