Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sharpness, Restart and Acceleration

The Łojasievicz inequality shows that sharpness bounds on the minimum of convex optimization problems hold almost generically. Here, we show that sharpness directly controls the performance of restart schemes. The constants quantifying sharpness are of course unobservable, but we show that optimal restart strategies are fairly robust, and searching for the best scheme only increases the complexity by a logarithmic factor compared to the optimal bound. Overall then, restart schemes generically accelerate accelerated methods
Calcareous nannoplankton evolution and the Paleogene greenhouse to icehouse climate-mode transition

This thesis addresses calcareous nannoplankton evolutionary and palaeoecological response across the Paleogene greenhouse to icehouse transition using newly drilled material from Sites U1408 and U1411 (IODP Expedition 342) in the North Atlantic. Calcareous nannoplankton were the dominant oceanic phytoplankton group in the early Paleogene yet declined in diversity and underwent significant assemblage restructuring through the middle Eocene to early Oligocene, coinciding with major climatic reorganisation. However the structure and timing of this nannoplankton response is poorly constrained due to few records of appropriate stratigraphic resolution. Here, exceptionally preserved calcareous nannofossils from stratigraphically expanded packages of Paleogene clay-rich drift sediments from IODP Expedition 342 are used to document diversity loss and population shifts in order to interpret the relationship between plankton evolution and palaeoclimatic and palaeoceanographic change in the North Atlantic across this key interval, with focus on abrupt climatic change at the Middle Eocene Climatic Optimum (MECO) and the Eocene-Oligocene transition (EOT). Results indicate low speciation rates combined with relatively high extinction rates drove calcareous nannoplankton diversity loss through this interval and palaeoecological analysis highlights three key intervals; middle Eocene stability, incorporating muted assemblage response to transient warming at the MECO, the late Eocene transitional phase and the EOT and early Oligocene population restructuring, with major assemblage shifts controlled by intensified surface water cooling and increased nutrient availability. Palaeoclimatic and palaeoceanographic changes through this transition led to reduced optimal habitat space for this phytoplankton group resulting in decline and extinction in many taxa and the proliferation of select opportunists at the onset of the icehouse world.
Group Testing Schemes From Codes and Designs

In group testing, simple binary-output tests are designed to identify a small number <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$t$ </tex-math></inline-formula> of defective items that are present in a large population of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$N$ </tex-math></inline-formula> items. Each test takes as input a group of items and produces a binary output indicating whether the group is free of the defective items or contains one or more of them. In this paper, we study a relaxation of the combinatorial group testing problem. A matrix is called <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$(t,\epsilon )$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-disjunct if it gives rise to a nonadaptive group testing scheme with the property of identifying a uniformly random <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$t$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-set of defective subjects out of a population of size <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$N$ </tex-math></inline-formula> with false positive probability of an item at most <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\epsilon $ </tex-math></inline-formula>. We establish a new connection between <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$(t,\epsilon )$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-disjunct matrices and error correcting codes based on the dual distance of the codes and derive estimates of the parameters of codes that give rise to such schemes. Our methods rely on the moments of the distance distribution of codes and inequalities for moments of sums of independent random variables. We also provide a new connection between group testing schemes and combinatorial designs.
Mutation of luxS affects growth and virulence factor expression in Streptococcus pyogenes

Adaptive responses of bacteria that involve sensing the presence of other bacteria are often critical for proliferation and the expression of virulence characteristics. The autoinducer II (AI‐2) pathway has recently been shown to be a mechanism for sensing other bacteria that is highly conserved among diverse bacterial species, including Gram‐positive pathogens. However, a role for this pathway in the regulation of virulence factors in Gram‐positive pathogens has yet to be established. In this study, we have inactivated luxS, an essential component of the AI‐2 pathway, in the Gram‐positive pathogen Streptococcus pyogenes. Analyses of the resulting mutants revealed the aberrant expression of several virulence properties that are regulated in response to growth phase, including enhanced haemolytic activity, and a dramatic reduction in the expression of secreted proteolytic activity. This latter defect was associated with a reduced ability to secrete and process the precursor of the cysteine protease (SpeB) as well as a difference in the timing of expression of the protease. Enhanced haemolytic activity of the luxS strain was also shown to be linked with an increased expression of the haemolysin S‐associated gene sagA. Disruptions of luxS in these mutants also produced a media‐dependent growth defect. Finally, an allelic replacement analysis of an S. pyogenes strain with a naturally occurring insertion of IS1239 in luxS suggested a mechanism for modulation of virulence during infection. Results from this study suggest that luxS makes an important contribution to the regulation of S. pyogenes virulence factors.
Modelling and Rendering Large Volume Data with Gaussian Radial Basis Functions

Implicit representations have the potential to represent large volumes succinctly. In this paper we present a multiresolution and progressive implicit representation of scalar volumetric data using anisotropic Gaussian radial basis functions (RBFs) dened over an octree. Our representation lends itself well to progressive level-of-detail representations. Our RBF encoding algorithm based on a Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE) calculation is non-iterative, scales in a O(n log n) manner, and operates in a memory-friendly manner on very large datasets by processing small blocks at a time. We also present a GPU-based ray-casting algorithm for direct rendering from implicit volumes. Our GPU-based implicit volume rendering algorithm is accelerated by early-ray termination and empty-space skipping for implicit volumes and can render volumes encoded with 16 million RBFs at 1 to 3 frames/second. The octree hierarchy enables the GPU-based ray-casting algorithm to efciently traverse using location codes and is also suitable for view-dependent level-of-detail-based rendering.
Color extended visual cryptography using error diffusion

This paper introduces a color visual cryptography encryption method that produces meaningful color shares via visual information pixel (VIP) synchronization and error diffusion halftoning. VIP synchronization retains the positions of pixels carrying visual information of original shares throughout the color channels and error diffusion generates shares pleasant to human eyes. Comparisons with previous approaches show the superior performance of the new method.
Homeostatic Imbalance between Apoptosis and Cell Renewal in the Liver of Premature Aging XpdTTD Mice

Unrepaired or misrepaired DNA damage has been implicated as a causal factor in cancer and aging. XpdTTD mice, harboring defects in nucleotide excision repair and transcription due to a mutation in the Xpd gene (R722W), display severe symptoms of premature aging but have a reduced incidence of cancer. To gain further insight into the molecular basis of the mutant-specific manifestation of age-related phenotypes, we used comparative microarray analysis of young and old female livers to discover gene expression signatures distinguishing XpdTTD mice from their age-matched wild type controls. We found a transcription signature of increased apoptosis in the XpdTTD mice, which was confirmed by in situ immunohistochemical analysis and found to be accompanied by increased proliferation. However, apoptosis rate exceeded the rate of proliferation, resulting in homeostatic imbalance. Interestingly, a metabolic response signature was observed involving decreased energy metabolism and reduced IGF-1 signaling, a major modulator of life span. We conclude that while the increased apoptotic response to endogenous DNA damage contributes to the accelerated aging phenotypes and the reduced cancer incidence observed in the XpdTTD mice, the signature of reduced energy metabolism is likely to reflect a compensatory adjustment to limit the increased genotoxic stress in these mutants. These results support a general model for premature aging in DNA repair deficient mice based on cellular responses to DNA damage that impair normal tissue homeostasis.
Susceptibility to DNA damage in workers occupationally exposed to pesticides, to tannery chemicals and to coal dust during mining

Our mutagenesis group has been studying with important economic drivers of our state, such as agriculture, the foot-wear and leather industry and open-cast coal mining. Working conditions in these sectors have potentially harmful to humans. The aim of these studies is to determine the health risk of workers by biomonitoring subjects exposed to genotoxic agents. The main results of our studies with vineyard farmers we observed a high rate of MN and DNA damage in individuals exposed to pesticides (p < 0.001). In addition, some effects of genetic polymorphisms in the modulation of MN results were observed in this group. Tobacco farmers were also evaluated at different crop times. The results showed a significant increase in the Damage index and frequency in tobacco farmers compared to the non-exposed group, for all crop times. The results for footwear and tannery workers showed a significant increase in the mean ID for the solvent-based adhesive (p < 0.001) group in comparison to the water-based adhesive group and control (p < 0.05). For open-cast coal mine workers, the EBCyt indicated a significant increase in nuclear bud frequency and cytokinetic defects in the exposed group compared to the non-exposed group (p < 0.0001). We were able to associate specific genetic susceptibility with each type of exposure and with the non-use or improper use of personal protection equipment and diet adequacy. These results show how important the continuous education of exposed workers is to minimizing the effect of the occupational exposure and the risk of disease associated with the work.
Teaching listening strategies with authentic videos: An intervention study with EFL secondary school students in Catalonia

Listening is probably the most difficult skill to w ork in the ESL curriculum, making it seem an unappealing and even passive activity. This classroom-based research paper studies the impact of the teaching of listening str ategies with authentic videos on students’ listening comprehension skills and their perception s of the intervention. The training sessions were carried out in eight weeks with a gro up f secondary school students. The strategies group received training on the developme nt of listening strategies using authentic videos whereas the role-play group was as ked comprehension questions after the viewing of the video followed by oral activitie s. The study shows that systematic instruction in the use of strategies did not result in the improvement of listening comprehension. However, students who had been train ed i listening strategies demonstrated a statistically significant increase o v r their counterparts in a role-play group, -not only in most of the concepts referring to their perceptions of the listening activities but also in their level of metacognition awareness related to the listening skill learning.
Compiling Uncertainty Away in Non-Deterministic Conformant Planning

It has been shown recently that deterministic conformant planning problems can be translated into classical problems that can be solved by off-the-shelf classical planners. In this work, we aim to extend this formulation to non-deterministic conformant planning. We start with the well known observation that non-deterministic effects can be eliminated by using hidden conditions that must be introduced afresh each time a non-deterministic action is applied. This observation, however, leads to translations that have to be recomputed as the search for plans proceeds. We then introduce other translations, that while incomplete, appear to be quite effective and result in classical planning problems that need to be solved only once. A number of experimental results over existing and new domains are reported.
Exploring suicide stigma in the Peruvian population: a network analysis

: The public stigma of suicide is a potential barrier to suicide prevention, an obstacle to seeking professional support, and impairs the psychological and physical well-being of affected individuals. The aim of the study was to analyze the association and centrality of public stigma of suicide in Peruvian adults from the general population. A total of 1013 adults (55.6 % women) responded to a suicide stigma questionnaire. A Gaussian network model was estimated, examining its global and local properties and comparing structures according to sex. The results showed stronger associations between noble and dedicated ( r = .57), isolated and lonely ( r = .47), immoral and an embarrassment ( r = .41). The most central nodes and predictability were immoral, vindictive, a shame, lost, and irresponsible. In addition, for both women and men, the central node was immoral, although women described as vindictive and shameful, while men described as lonely and cowardly. In conclusion, there was evidence of stigmatizing attitudes towards people who die by suicide, with women and men presenting different perceptions. Suicide literacy programs can reduce public stigma in the general population.
Ability of ultrasound imaging to detect erosions in a bone phantom model

Objectives The authors examined the validity, interobserver reliability and interscanner variation in detecting bone erosions with ultrasonography using a custom-made phantom. Methods 21 bovine bones were used. Artificial erosions were made into 15 bones and six bones were left as controls. In the processed bones the numbers of erosions, their depths and widths varied between 1–7, 1–4 and 1.5–5 mm, respectively. Each bone was coated with polyvinyl alcohol cryogel to mimic overlying soft tissue and to hide the erosions. Four musculoskeletal sonography experts scanned the 21 blind-coded phantoms using one of the three sets of ultrasound equipment. Finally, quality assurance measurements of the ultrasound equipment was carried out using two additional bone samples. Results The sonographers detected the erosions successfully with ultrasound. The mean correlation coefficient for a correct result in terms of the number of erosions detected was 0.88 (range 0.75–0.975). The overall Cohen's κ coefficient for interobserver agreement was 0.683 in terms of discrimination between healthy bones and bones with erosions. The different sets of equipment showed that their overall performance was equal. Conclusions The sonographers had good correlations with the number of erosions and they were successful in separating healthy bones from bones with erosions. It seems that neither depth nor width is crucial but that in experimental conditions a 1.5 mm erosion width was the limit for the resolution with current ultrasound equipment. Ultrasound is a valid and reliable method of detecting cortical bone erosions in vitro, when the round erosion is at least 1 mm deep and 1.5 mm wide.
Knotting probability of DNA molecules confined in restricted volumes: DNA knotting in phage capsids

When linear double-stranded DNA is packed inside bacteriophage capsids, it becomes highly compacted. However, the phage is believed to be fully effective only if the DNA is not entangled. Nevertheless, when DNA is extracted from a tailless mutant of the P4 phage, DNA is found to be cyclic and knotted (probability of 0.95). The knot spectrum is very complex, and most of the knots have a large number of crossings. We quantified the frequency and crossing numbers of these knots and concluded that, for the P4 tailless mutant, at least half the knotted molecules are formed while the DNA is still inside the viral capsid rather than during extraction. To analyze the origin of the knots formed inside the capsid, we compared our experimental results to Monte Carlo simulations of random knotting of equilateral polygons in confined volumes. These simulations showed that confinement of closed chains to tightly restricted volumes results in high knotting probabilities and the formation of knots with large crossing numbers. We conclude that the formation of the knots inside the viral capsid is driven mainly by the effects of confinement.
Validation of SMOS Soil Moisture Products over the Maqu and Twente Regions

The validation of Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) soil moisture products is a crucial step in the investigation of their inaccuracies and limitations, before planning further refinements of the retrieval algorithm. Therefore, this study intended to contribute to the validation of the SMOS soil moisture products, by comparing them with the data collected in situ in the Maqu (China) and Twente (The Netherlands) regions in 2010. The seasonal behavior of the SMOS soil moisture products is generally in agreement with the in situ measurements for both regions. However, the validation analysis resulted in determination coefficients of 0.55 and 0.51 over the Maqu and Twente region, respectively, for the ascending pass data, and of 0.24 and 0.41, respectively, for the descending pass data. Moreover, a systematic dry bias of the SMOS soil moisture was found of approximately 0.13 m3/m3 for the Maqu region and 0.17 m3/m3 for the Twente region for ascending pass data. Several factors might have affected the retrieval accuracy, such as the presence of Radio Frequency Interference (RFI), the use of inaccurate land cover information and the presence of frozen soils not correctly detected in winter. Improving the RFI filtering method and the quality of the retrieval algorithm inputs, such as land surface temperature and land cover, would certainly improve the accuracy of the retrieved soil moisture.
Inflationary Pressure: Exploring the Impact of Inflation on Gen Z’s Sustainable Consumption

Background: Consumers of Gen Z are facing a reality of high inflation. With their unique characteristics and strong attitudes towards sustainability and environmental concern, this thesis is examining how their sustainable consumption is affected by inflation. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of inflation on the sustainable consumption of Generation z. Method: A paradigm of interpretivism and abductive reasoning is used in the research and a multiple case study was conducted using semi-structured interviews. Conclusion: Consumers of Gen Z are having a difficult time purchasing sustainable products because of inflation. Sustainable consumption has become difficult to maintain due to having less funds among Gen Z. As a result, Gen z consumers changed their consumption to less-costly and more sustainable alternative in order to adapt to the economic situation. Despite inflation, our research has shown Gen Z consumers are still dedicated to the issue of sustainability and environment.
A study on miniaturization of 900 MHz and 2 GHz band antennas utilizing magnetic material

Built-in antennas are becoming a more intense requirement for cellular phone handset antennas. Many studies on miniaturization of the antenna using dielectric materials have been reported. However, lately, the use of magnetic materials has been considered for an electromagnetic shield and a radio wave absorber. Furthermore, low loss magnetic materials, which can be used for higher frequency bands, have been developed. A technique is studied for downsizing handset antennas at the 900 MHz and 2 GHz bands using a magnetic material. A planar inverted-F antenna (PIFA), which is the popular handset built-in antenna, is used. Firstly; basic characteristics such as input impedance, current distribution and radiation patterns are obtained, and calculated results are compared with measured results. Secondly, the change of resonance frequency obtained by arranging various types of magnetic materials is examined. Suitable configurations and arrangements of magnetic materials are also examined. The possibility of miniaturization by using magnetic materials is confirmed; approximately 50% miniaturization of the PIFA is possible at the 900 MHz and 2 GHz bands. The electromagnetic simulator HFSS, which can consider magnetic loss, is applied to calculate VSWR and radiation patterns.
Comparison of Sirolimus and Paclitaxel-Eluting Stents for Complex Coronary Lesions: An Intravascular Ultrasound Study

Background/Aims Recent intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) studies of sirolimus-eluting stents (SES) and paclitaxel-eluting stents (PES) have demonstrated a significant reduction in neointimal hyperplasia (NIH) based on simple coronary lesions. In this study, we evaluated the efficacy of SES and PES using IVUS in complex coronary lesions. Methods Eighty-seven patients in whom 95 drug-eluting stents (66 SES and 29 PES) were implanted in complex coronary lesions were enrolled in this study. Case selection was based on the availability of IVUS and quantitative coronary angiographic (QCA) examinations at the index procedure and at follow-up. The neointimal volume index (volume/length: NIVI) and percent neointimal volume (% NIV) were calculated. The longitudinal length of stented segments without IVUS-detectable NIH was also evaluated. Results The baseline patient demographics were similar between the SES and PES groups. At follow-up, no significant differences were observed in the vessel, plaque, or stent volume indices between the two groups. However, the NIVI and % NIV were significantly lower in the SES group (p<0.01). The longitudinal length of stented segments without IVUS-detectable NIH was significantly higher in the SES group (p<0.01). The net gain was significantly larger in the SES group (2.3±0.7 vs. 2.0×0.6 mm, p=0.025), while the rate of major adverse cardiac events was similar between the two groups. Conclusions Although SES showed significantly greater suppression of NIH at follow-up, both stents were highly effective at inhibiting NIH in complex coronary lesions.