Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Reduction of progesterone receptor expression in human cumulus cells at the time of oocyte collection during IVF is associated with good embryo quality.

BACKGROUND It has been reported that the progesterone receptor (PR) level is transiently increased within the follicle by LH stimulation and controls cumulus cells in follicles and oocyte maturation. The purpose of this study was to predict developmental competence of human oocytes during IVF via analysis of PR in cumulus cells surrounding mature oocytes. METHODS Prior to oocyte retrieval, the follicular diameter was measured and follicular fluid was collected from each mature follicle. Cumulus cells were manually separated from the oocyte-cumulus complex under a microscope. PR and PR mRNA were assessed by immunohistochemistry and real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) measurement in human cumulus cells. RESULTS Immunoreactive PR-A was mainly localized in the cytoplasm and PR-B was localized in the nuclei. There was no significant relationship between PR expression and follicular diameter, follicular fluid concentration of steroids, or LH. There was no significant relationship between expression of PRs and fertilization or cleavage rate. However, PR expression was lower in the good morphology group (blastomeres > or =7 cells with fragmentation > or =5% on day 3) when compared to the other groups (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that follicular LH or steroids do not affect PR expression, and full reduction of total PR expression on cumulus cells at the time of oocyte collection is associated with good morphology in human oocytes.
Self-organizing manufacturing control: an industrial application of agent technology

We present an auction-based approach to manufacturing control. Workpieces auction off their current task, while machines bid for tasks. When awarding a machine, a workpiece takes into account not only the machine's current work in process, but also the outgoing flow of materials. If a machine's outgoing stream is blocked, eventually the machine will not accept a new workpiece, thus blocking its input stream as well. As a result a capacity bottleneck is automatically propagated in the opposite direction of the material flow. A unique feature of this mechanism is that it does not pre-suppose any specific material flow; the current capacity bottleneck is always propagated in the opposite direction of the actual flow, no matter what this flow looks like. This paper includes a detailed analysis of the mechanism, including a formal proof of its freedom of deadlocks. DaimlerChrysler evaluated the new control approach as a bypass to an existing manufacturing line. A suite of performance tests demonstrated the industrial feasibility and the benefits of the approach.
A Communication Module and TDMA Scheduling for a Swarm of Small Submarines

Swarming algorithms usually require fast and reliable local information distribution among neighbouring nodes. Additionally, many applications also require global information distribution in the shortest possible time. We show that communication links with a range which is small compared to the size of the swarm offer many advantages. We propose a system using low frequency radio communication as a viable alternative to acoustic communication. A time division multiple access algorithm is presented together with results from simulations. The presented system can be effectively used in large scale swarms of small submersibles.
POISketch: Semantic Place Labeling over User Activity Streams

Capturing place semantics is critical for enabling location-based applications. Techniques for assigning semantic labels (e.g., "bar" or "office") to unlabeled places mainly resort to mining user activity logs by exploiting visiting patterns. However, existing approaches focus on inferring place labels with a static user activity dataset, and ignore the visiting pattern dynamics in user activity streams, leading to the rapid decrease of labeling accuracy over time. In this paper, we tackle the problem of semantic place labeling over user activity streams. We formulate this problem as a classification problem by characterizing each place through its fine-grained visiting patterns, which encode the visiting frequency of each user in each typical time slot. However, with the incoming activities of new users in data streams, such fine-grained visiting patterns constantly grow, leading to a continuously expanding feature space. To solve this issue, we propose an updatable sketching technique that creates and incrementally updates a set of compact and fixed-size sketches to approximate the similarity between fine-grained visiting patterns of ever-growing size. We further consider the discriminative weights of user activities in place labeling, and seamlessly incorporate them into our sketching method. Our empirical evaluation on real-world datasets demonstrates the validity of our approach and shows that sketches can be efficiently and effectively used to infer place labels over user activity streams.
Bayesian Entropic Inverse Theory Approach to Implied Option Pricing with Noisy Data

A popular approach to nonparametric option pricing is the Minimum Cross Entropy (MCE) method based on minimization of the relative Kullback-Leibler entropy of the price density distribution and a given reference density, with observable option prices serving as constraints. When market prices are noisy, the MCE method tends to overfit the data and often becomes unstable. We propose a non-parametric option pricing method whose input are noisy market prices of arbitrary number of European options with arbitrary maturities. Implied transition densities are calculated using the Bayesian inverse theory with entropic priors, with a reference density which may be estimated by the algorithm itself. In the limit of zero noise, our approach is shown to reduce to the canonical MCE method generalized to a multi-period case. The method can be used for a non-parametric pricing of American/Bermudan options with a possible weak path dependence.
Study of early warning of copyright infringement risks in information resources

The main aim of this study is to assess the potential copyright infringement risks (CIR) in information resources by using the extension theory. At first, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is employed to determine the weights of the existing early warning indicators system. Secondly, a model is built based on the extension theory to evaluate the potential CIR in information resources. Finally, a real-world application is presented to show the effectiveness and usefulness of our approach. The main findings of this study are as follows: (1) the early warning extension theory model is effective in distinguishing the degree of the potential CIR in information resources; (2) the information resources of XX University is identified as located in the non-warning level, which meaning there is only a slim chance of infringing copyright. This paper introduces the extension theory into the evaluation of the potential CIR in information resources. The results contribute to providing decision support for the decision maker in handling the potential CIR in information resources.
The Functional Role of Hippocampal Subregions and Subfields: A High-Resolution fMRI Study of Memory

The involvement of the hippocampus in episodic memory is well accepted. What is often overlooked is the involvement of hippocampal subfields and subregions. The hippocampal subfields Cornu Ammonis (CA), Dentate Gyrus (DG) and Subiculum (Sub) are cellularly distinct areas that communicate transversely across the hippocampus, while hippocampal subregions (Head, Body & Tail) are delineated from anterior to posterior along the length of the hippocampus and have different cortical connectivity. The current study addressed the question of how hippocampal subfields and subregions are involved in the encoding of episodic memory using high-resolution fMRI and an adaptation of the Wechsler Memory Scale Designs Subtest (2009). Our memory tasks consisted of 3 conditions: Symbol (content memory), Location (spatial memory) and Both (associative memory). We found that the total hippocampus was active for the Symbol, Location and Both conditions. All subfields and subregions were active across all conditions of the task relative to baseline. DG activity was significantly larger than CA activity when averaged across conditions. For the Location condition the hippocampal tail was more active than the hippocampal body, suggesting it may play a more dominant role in spatial memory. In addition hemisphere by subfield and subfield by condition interactions were observed. Our results provide support for the theory of posterior hippocampal involvement in spatial memory, and suggest the human hippocampus works in discrete but connected subsections to encode episodic memory. Our results suggest the entire hippocampus was engaged during a spatial task, as all subregions were significantly active relative to baseline during the encoding of our spatial episodic memory task. While all regions were active, there was a significant difference between the hippocampal head and tail where hippocampal tail activity was larger. The activity observed across subregions for our study suggests there is a gradient in activation where the posterior hippocampus (hippocampal tail) is most active for our spatial task, followed by the intermediate hippocampus (hippocampal body) and then the anterior hippocampus (hippocampal head). This is in line with previous literature and adds to human studies confirming the posterior hippocampus’ involvement in spatial memory. The Canonical model showed that when averaged across all conditions the DG was more active than CA1-3, and that CA1-3 activity was similar across hemispheres while DG and Sub activity differed. The DG was more active than CA1-3 and Sub during the Symbol condition, and more active than CA1-3 during the Both condition. Our use of two different HRF models and analysis procedures showed that the way you analyze your data could modify your results. Some approaches are more sensitive than others for assessing differential activity. Our study contributes to current knowledge of how the human hippocampus encodes episodic memories.
Controls on pathogen species richness in plants’ introduced and native ranges: roles of residence time, range size and host traits

Introduced species escape many pathogens and other enemies, raising three questions. How quickly do introduced hosts accumulate pathogen species? What factors control pathogen species richness? Are these factors the same in the hosts’ native and introduced ranges? We analysed fungal and viral pathogen species richness on 124 plant species in both their native European range and introduced North American range. Hosts introduced 400 years ago supported six times more pathogens than those introduced 40 years ago. In hosts’ native range, pathogen richness was greater on hosts occurring in more habitat types, with a history of agricultural use and adapted to greater resource supplies. In hosts’ introduced range, pathogen richness was correlated with host geographic range size, agricultural use and time since introduction, but not any measured biological traits. Introduced species have accumulated pathogens at rates that are slow relative to most ecological processes, and contingent on geographic and historic circumstance.
Bounds and Prices of Currency Cross-Rate Options

This paper derives the pricing bounds of a currency cross-rate option using the option prices of two related dollar rates via a copula theory and presents the analytical properties of the bounds under the Gaussian framework. Our option pricing bounds are useful, because (1) they are general in the sense that they do not rely on the distribution assumptions of the state vari-ables or on the selection of the copula function; (2) they are portfolios of the dollar-rate op-tions and hence are potential hedging instruments for cross-rate options; and (3) they can be applied to generate bounds on deltas. The empirical tests suggest that there are persistent and stable relationships between the market prices and the estimated bounds of the cross-rate op-tions and that our option pricing bounds (obtained from the market prices of options on two dollar rates) and the historical correlation of two dollar rates are highly informative for ex-plaining the prices of the cross-rate options. Moreover, the empirical results are consistent with the predictions of the analytical properties under the Gaussian framework and are robust in various aspects.
Extracting the lowest-frequency words: pitfalls and possibilities

Abstract In a medical information extraction system, we use common word association techniques to extract side-effect-related terms. Many of these terms have a frequency of less than five. Standard word-association-based applications disregard the lowest-frequency words, and hence disregard useful information. We therefore devised an extraction system for the full word frequency range. This system computes the significance of association by the log-likelihood ratio and Fisher's exact test. The output of the system shows a recurrent, corpus-independent pattern in both recall and the number of significant words. We will explain these patterns by the statistical behavior of the lowest-frequency words. We used Dutch verb-particle combinations as a second and independent collocation extraction application to illustrate the generality of the observed phenomena. We will conclude that a) word-association-based extraction systems can be enhanced by also considering the lowest-frequency words, b) significance levels should not be fixed but adjusted for the optimal window size, c) hapax legomena, words occurring only once, should be disregarded a priori in the statistical analysis, and d) the distribution of the targets to extract should be considered in combination with the extraction method.
The merit factor of binary sequences related to difference sets

Long binary sequences related to cyclic difference sets are investigated. Among all known constructions of cyclic difference sets it is shown that only sequences constructed from Hadamard difference sets can have an asymptotic nonzero merit factor. Maximal-length shift register sequences, Legendre, and twin-prime sequences are all constructed from Hadamard difference sets. The authors prove that the asymptotic merit factor of any maximal-length shift register sequence is three. For twin-prime sequences it is shown that the best asymptotic merit factor is six. This value is obtained by shifting the twin-prime sequence one quarter of its length. It turns out that Legendre sequences and twin-prime sequences have similar behavior. Jacobi sequences are investigated on the basis of the Jacobi symbol. The best asymptotic merit factor is shown to be six. Through the introduction of product sequences, it is argued that the maximal merit factor among all sequences of length N is at least six when N is large. The authors also demonstrate that it is fairly easy to construct sequences of moderate composite length with a merit factor close to six. >
Convolutive Bottleneck Network features for LVCSR

In this paper, we focus on improvements of the bottleneck ANN in a Tandem LVCSR system. First, the influence of training set size and the ANN size is evaluated. Second, a very positive effect of linear bottleneck is shown. Finally a Convolutive Bottleneck Network is proposed as extension of the current state-of-the-art Universal Context Network. The proposed training method leads to 5.5% relative reduction of WER, compared to the Universal Context ANN baseline. The relative improvement compared to the 5-layer single-bottleneck network is 17.7%. The dataset ctstrain07 composed of more than 2000 hours of English Conversational Telephone Speech was used for the experiments. The TNet toolkit with CUDA GPGPU implementation was used for fast training.
Genetic Constraints on the Evolution of Mate Recognition under Natural Selection

Field populations of Drosophila serrata display reproductive character displacement in cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) when sympatric with Drosophila birchii. We have previously shown that the naturally occurring pattern of reproductive character displacement can be experimentally replicated by exposing field allopatric populations of D. serrata to experimental sympatry with D. birchii. Here, we tested whether the repeated evolution of reproductive character displacement in natural and experimental populations was a consequence of genetic constraints on the evolution of CHCs. The genetic variance‐covariance (G) matrices for CHCs were determined for populations of D. serrata that had evolved in either the presence or absence of D. birchii under field and experimental conditions. Natural selection on mate recognition under both field and experimental sympatric conditions increased the genetic variance in CHCs consistent with a response to selection based on rare alleles. A close association between G eigenstructure and the eigenstructure of the phenotypic divergence (D) matrix in natural and experimental populations suggested that G matrix eigenstructure may have determined the direction in which reproductive character displacement evolved during the reinforcement of mate recognition.
Effect of Work Conflict on the Employee Motivation

Human resources are the main assets that support the running of an activity in a company. Human resources in the company are closely related to various things such as position, division of tasks, status, authority, and others. It is the main reason for frequent conflicts in an organization. The purpose of this study is to determine that the work conflict and miscommunication affect the employee motivation in the office of the Ministry of Justice and Human rights. This research is a quantitative research that is analyzing data that has been collected through questionnaires (Melissa, 2017) which are distributed to the Employees section of Legal Services and Human Rights. The process of analysing the data used SPSS statistical test tools version 20. Based on the result there is a contribution of independent variables (work conflict) to the dependent variable (work motivation). The result of the research is partially known that there is a significant effect to work conflict on employee work motivation with t
List-Free ID-Based Mutual Authentication and Key Agreement Protocol for Multiserver Architectures

A multiserver architecture consisting of multiple servers provides resources and services for clients by way of open channels. Thus, a cryptographic protocol should be offered to ensure the legitimacy of both clients and servers, and to provide communication confidentiality. In the past, a large number of ID-based mutual authentication and key agreement (ID-MAKA) protocols have been proposed regarding this issue. Several circumstances require a revocation mechanism to revoke misbehaving/compromised clients and servers before their intended expiration dates. To do so, the existing ID-MAKA protocols generally adopt a black/white list to revoke/permit clients for access authorization. So far, no work addresses the revocation problem on servers in the sense that clients should be notified to avoid malicious services or applications provided by revoked servers. In this letter, we propose the first list-free ID-MAKA protocol with an efficient revocation mechanism for multiserver architectures. Compared with previously proposed protocols, our protocol possesses three main merits. First, it provides a simple revocation mechanism to solve the management problem of both compromised clients and servers. Second, neither clients nor servers need to keep any black/white list. Finally, it is well suitable for mobile clients by performance analysis and experimental data.
Gravity solutions for the D1-D5 system with angular momentum

We construct a large family of supergravity solutions that describe BPS excitations on AdS_3 x S^3 with angular momentum on S^3. These solutions take into account the full backreaction on the metric. We find that as we increase the energy of the excitation, the energy gap to the next non-BPS excitation decreases. These solutions can be viewed as Kaluza-Klein monopole ``supertubes'' which are completely non-singular geometries. We also make some remarks on supertubes in general.
Stable expression of modified Gene encoding functional Human coagulation Factor viii

Hemophilia A or factor VIII deficiency is a com mon X-linked genetic bleeding disorder in humans. F VIII contains a domain sequence organization designated A1-A2-B-A3-C1-C2 w hich B domain is not necessary in coagulation activ ity. We constructed a new B-domain deleted FVIII cDNA and cloned into N -terminal His tagged expression vector via Gateway technology. This vector transfected into three cell lines: NIH3T3 CH O and HepG2. rFVIII extracted purified and detected with SDS PAGE and western blot using anti His tag and anti FVIII anti bodies and rFVIII activity was measured using ST4 k it. The results showed high expression and activity in NIH3T3 and CHO cell lines. B-domain containing glycosylation sites was removed in this construct but some elements were added to enhance elevel of this recombinant rFVIII. As a re sult of this Diminished glycosylation heterogeneity, B-domain-Truncated and modified variants of FVIII may also be a more suit able precursor for making well-characterized long acting FVIII variant s.
The Art of Listening: Listening Skill Development, Classical Music Appreciation, and Personal Response through Visual Art in a Middle School Program

Although many programs aim to develop students’ listening skills and promote the appreciation of Western classical music, relatively few such programs incorporate visual art. This study examined the perceived effectiveness of the Edinburgh International Festival’s (EIF) Art of Listening program in reaching its stated goals to: develop skills for listening, encourage the enjoyment of listening to Western classical music, break down preconceptions held about Western classical music, cultivate a deeper relationship with the imagination through music and art, and encourage students’ personal responses to music. Focusing primarily on the first three goals, this study gathered data from 78 students from six upper primary classes (generally students ages 11 or 12) from four schools located in the Edinburgh, Scotland metropolitan area. Findings from student and teacher surveys before and after the program as well as program observations indicate that participants perceive that the Art of Listening program achieves the specific objectives examined, at least in the short-term. Both students and teachers responded positively to the program’s unique combination of listening skill development, classical music appreciation, and responses to music through visual art. The article discusses considerations for implementing similar programs in other contexts and makes suggestions for future research.