Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Global Well-Posedness in Critical Besov Spaces for Two-Fluid Euler-Maxwell Equations

In this paper, we study two-fluid compressible Euler--Maxwell equations in the whole space or periodic space. In comparison with the one-fluid case, we need to deal with the difficulty mainly caused by the nonlinear coupling and cancelation between electrons and ions. Precisely, the expected dissipation rates of densities for two carriers are no longer available. To capture the weaker dissipation, we develop a continuity for compositions, which is a natural generalization from Besov spaces to Chemin--Lerner spaces (space-time Besov spaces). An elementary fact that indicates the relation between homogeneous Chemin--Lerner spaces and inhomogeneous Chemin--Lerner spaces will been also used.
Kullback-Leibler Approximation for Probability Measures on Infinite Dimensional Spaces

In a variety of applications it is important to extract information from a probability measure $\mu$ on an infinite dimensional space. Examples include the Bayesian approach to inverse problems and (possibly conditioned) continuous time Markov processes. It may then be of interest to find a measure $\nu$, from within a simple class of measures, which approximates $\mu$. This problem is studied in the case where the Kullback--Leibler divergence is employed to measure the quality of the approximation. A calculus of variations viewpoint is adopted, and the particular case where $\nu$ is chosen from the set of Gaussian measures is studied in detail. Basic existence and uniqueness theorems are established, together with properties of minimizing sequences. Furthermore, parameterization of the class of Gaussians through the mean and inverse covariance is introduced, the need for regularization is explained, and a regularized minimization is studied in detail. The calculus of variations framework resulting from t.
The Effect of Age on Cervical Sagittal Alignment: Normative Data on 100 Asymptomatic Subjects

Study Design. Retrospective study. Objective. To determine age-related changes in cervical sagittal alignment using whole-spine standing radiographs in asymptomatic adults. Summary of Background Data. Modern surgical techniques have emphasized the importance of maintaining proper sagittal alignment. But there is a paucity of literature investigating age-related changes in cervical sagittal alignment. Methods. One hundred healthy unoperated adults who were free of spinal problems obtained whole-spine standing radiographs. They consisted of 2 groups divided by age: those in their 20s and those older than 60 years. Each group had an equal ratio of males and females. Distances from C2 as well as C7 plumb lines to the following points were measured: thoracic and lumbar apex as well as the posterior superior corner of the S1 vertebral body. In addition, Cobb angles for C0–C2, C2–C7, thoracic kyphotic angle, lumbar lordotic angle, and T1 sagittal slope angles were measured. Results. The distance between the C2 and C7 plumb lines did not vary with age. The thoracic apex shifted caudally from T6 in the younger group to T7 in the older group. The most common lumbar apex was L4 for both groups. The distance from C2, as well as C7 plumb lines to the posterior superior corner of the S1 vertebral body, as well as the thoracic apex increased significantly in the older group. On the contrary, the distance from the 2 plumb lines to the lumbar apex decreased in the older group. Also, C2–C7 angle increased and T1 sagittal slope angle decreased in the older group compared with the younger group. However, no difference was found for the other Cobb angles between the 2 groups. Conclusion. The distances between the plumb lines from C2 and C7 were maintained but C2–C7 sagittal angle increased with aging. Level of Evidence: 4
KCN1, a Novel Synthetic Sulfonamide Anticancer Agent: In Vitro and In Vivo Anti-Pancreatic Cancer Activities and Preclinical Pharmacology

The purpose of the present study was to determine the in vitro and in vivo anti-cancer activity and pharmacological properties of 3,4-dimethoxy-N-[(2,2-dimethyl-2H-chromen-6-yl)methyl]-N-phenylbenzenesulfonamide, KCN1. In the present study, we investigated the in vitro activity of KCN1 on cell proliferation and cell cycle distribution of pancreatic cancer cells, using the MTT and BrdUrd assays, and flow cytometry. The in vivo anti-cancer effects of KCN1 were evaluated in two distinct xenograft models of pancreatic cancer. We also developed an HPLC method for the quantitation of the compound, and examined its stability in mouse plasma, plasma protein binding, and degradation by mouse S9 microsomal enzymes. Furthermore, we examined the pharmacokinetics of KCN1 following intravenous or intraperitoneal injection in mice. Results showed that, in a dose-dependent manner, KCN1 inhibited cell growth and induced cell cycle arrest in human pancreatic cancer cells in vitro, and showed in vivo anticancer efficacy in mice bearing Panc-1 or Mia Paca-2 tumor xenografts. The HPLC method provided linear detection of KCN1 in all of the matrices in the range from 0.1 to 100 µM, and had a lower limit of detection of 0.085 µM in mouse plasma. KCN1 was very stable in mouse plasma, extensively plasma bound, and metabolized by S9 microsomal enzymes. The pharmacokinetic studies indicated that KCN1 could be detected in all of the tissues examined, most for at least 24 h. In conclusion, our preclinical data indicate that KCN1 is a potential therapeutic agent for pancreatic cancer, providing a basis for its future development.
Discordant heart anomalies in twins.

TIE ETIOLOGY of the great majority of congenital cardiac malformations remains obscure. Certain environmental factors, such as maternal rubella (Rutstein et al, 1952, Stuckey, 1956) and anoxia (Alzamora et al, 1953), are strongly suspected of having etiological significance in humans. Support for a genetic hypothesis for congenital heart disease has arisen from an increased incidence of cardiac malformations in certain families (reviewed by Taussig, 1947). In contrast to these reports it has been noted in a number of twins seen at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto that only one of each pair had a malformation of the heart. A systematic investigation of all twins referred to the Cardiac Service has therefore been made.
Seabird life histories and climatic fluctuations: a phylogenetic‐comparative time series analysis of North Atlantic seabirds

In the light of the predicted changes in climate as a consequence of global warming, it is a major concern how animal species will respond to altered meteorological and oceanographic conditions. Seabirds constitute a diverse group of marine top predators which have relatively low fecundity and high annual survival rates. In order to predict effects of climate change, it is a necessary precondition to first understand responses to naturally occurring climatic fluctuations. While the ecological effects of different large-scale climatic phenomena have received much attention in the recent past, the factors determining the responses of seabirds are still little understood. We analyze more than a hundred previously published time series of seabird offspring production and adult survival rates in the North Atlantic in order to detect climatic signals in this data base. As our analyses are phylogenetic-comparative, we are able to search for patterns across species. Using the correlation of these parameters with the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) as a measure of responsiveness to climatic variability, we find that effects of climate on either parameters considered are not more common than expected by chance. The magnitudes of the responsivenesses were not entirely randomly distributed throughout the seabird phylogeny, but were not strongly related to the explanatory variables considered. However, some tendencies indicate that both life-history traits and feeding ecology may influence how seabirds respond to climatic variability. An explanation of those patterns based on life-history theory is given.
Effects of morphine on neuronal and behavioural responses to visceral and somatic nociception at the level of sinal cord

This study was undertaken to examine the role of morphine in modulation of nociception in visceral and somatic pain tests at the level of the spinal cord, using neurophysiological and behavioural reflex assays. In the neurophysiological study, we recorded extracellularly the activity of the single viscero–somatic convergent neurons of the spinal dorsal horn, which was evoked by the colorectal distension (80 mmHg) of noxious visceral stimulation and the radiant heat (51C) of noxious somatic stimulation, in decerebrated, spinally transected cats. Spinally administered morphine (200 μg) produced significant suppression of noxiously evoked activity by both stimuli in a time–dependent manner. In addition, intravenously administered naloxone reversed the suppressive effects of morphine. In the behavioral reflex study, colorectal distension threshold and tail–flick latency were measured in rats chronically implanted with lumbar intrathecal catheter. Intrathecally administered morphine significantly elevated the colorectal distension threshold and prolonged the tail–flick latency in a time– and dose–dependent manner. The results of the present study demonstrated that spinal morphine was capable of suppressing the evoked activity of the viscero–somatic convergent neurons, resulting in suppression visceral and somatic pain behavioural reflexes.
Antagonistic Forces Generated by Cytoplasmic Dynein and Myosin‐II during Growth Cone Turning and Axonal Retraction

Cytoplasmic dynein transports short microtubules down the axon in part by pushing against the actin cytoskeleton. Recent studies have suggested that comparable dynein‐driven forces may impinge upon the longer microtubules within the axon. Here, we examined a potential role for these forces on axonal retraction and growth cone turning in neurons partially depleted of dynein heavy chain (DHC) by small interfering RNA. While DHC‐depleted axons grew at normal rates, they retracted far more robustly in response to donors of nitric oxide than control axons, and their growth cones failed to efficiently turn in response to substrate borders. Live cell imaging of dynamic microtubule tips showed that microtubules in DHC‐depleted growth cones were largely confined to the central zone, with very few extending into filopodia. Even under conditions of suppressed microtubule dynamics, DHC depletion impaired the capacity of microtubules to advance into the peripheral zone of the growth cone, indicating a direct role for dynein‐driven forces on the distribution of the microtubules. These effects were all reversed by inhibition of myosin‐II forces, which are known to underlie the retrograde flow of actin in the growth cone and the contractility of the cortical actin during axonal retraction. Our results are consistent with a model whereby dynein‐driven forces enable microtubules to overcome myosin‐II‐driven forces, both in the axonal shaft and within the growth cone. These dynein‐driven forces oppose the tendency of the axon to retract and permit microtubules to advance into the peripheral zone of the growth cone so that they can invade filopodia.
Application of SPICE simulation to study WDM and SCM systems using EDFAs with chirping

The authors have proposed an equivalent electrical circuit model of erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs), including the chirping effect for teaching or studying the distortions and performance of lightwave transmission systems. Through the aid of a SPICE circuit simulator, its validity is demonstrated by analyzing the cross modulations of an eight-channel wavelength division multiplexing system. The intermodulations in an amplitude modulation-subcarrier multiplexing (SCM) system are demonstrated. The channel-number dependence of the composite second-order distortion in a 42-channel SCM system is shown, and its applications to analyze other systems are also discussed.
Inflammatory mediators in saliva associated with arterial stiffness and subclinical atherosclerosis

Objective: Whereas circulating levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) have been associated with, for example, arterial stiffness, subclinical atherosclerosis and metabolic syndrome, other inflammatory biomarkers with potential interest for these conditions may not be measurable systemically. The predictive value of salivary biomarkers in these contexts has remained largely unexplored. The aim of the present study was to establish the association of different salivary biomarkers of inflammation with subclinical cardiovascular disease. Methods: Two hundred and fifty-nine individuals were included in the study. Saliva and plasma samples were collected, and each individual underwent carotid ultrasound and measures of pulse wave velocity and blood pressure. Medical history of previous cardiovascular disease, current medications and smoking were collected by questionnaire. Results: Salivary levels of CRP, leukotriene B4 (LTB4), prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP-9), creatinine and lysozyme were measured. Salivary levels of CRP were significantly correlated with plasma levels (r = 0.73, P < 0.0001). In an age-adjusted and sex-adjusted analysis, salivary CRP was significantly and positively correlated with mean arterial blood pressure, pulse pressure, pulse wave velocity, BMI, metabolic syndrome, waist-to-hip ratio and intima–media thickness. Increasing age and sex-adjusted salivary CRP tertiles were in addition associated with carotid plaques. In a multivariate analysis, CRP and MMP-9 were associated with intima–media thickness, LTB4 and PGE2 with arterial stiffness, and lysozyme with hypertension. Conclusion: Saliva may represent an alternative mean for evaluation of cardiovascular risk.
Area of 16S ribonucleic acid at or near the interface between 30S and 50S ribosomes of Escherichia coli

To determine the region of 16S ribonucleic acid (RNA) at the interface between 30 and 50S ribosomes of Escherichia coli, 30 and 70S ribosomes were treated with T1 ribonuclease (RNase). The accessibility of 16S RNA in the 5' half of the molecule is the same in 30 and 70S ribosomes. The interaction with 50S ribosomes decreases the sensitivity to T1 RNase of an area in the middle of 16S RNA. A large area near the 3' end of 16S RNA is completely protected in 70S ribosomes. The RNA near the 3' end of the molecule and an area of RNA in the middle of the molecule appear to be at the interface between 30 and 50S ribosomes. One site in 16S RNA, 13 to 15 nucleotides from the 3' end, normally inaccessible to T1 RNase in 30S ribosomes, becomes accessible to T1 RNase in 70S ribosomes. This indicates a conformational change at the 3' end of 16S RNA when 30S ribosomes are associated with 50S ribosomes.
Mitigating the negative impact of preemption on heterogeneous MapReduce workloads

Modern production clusters are often shared by multiple types of jobs with different priorities in order to improve resource utilization. Preemption is a common technique employed by MapReduce schedulers to avoid delaying production jobs while allowing the cluster to be shared by other non-production jobs. In addition, it also prevents a large job from occupying too many resources and starving others. Recent literature shows that jobs in production MapReduce clusters have a mixture of lengths and sizes spanning many orders of magnitude. In this type of environments, the current preemption policy used by MapReduce schedulers can significantly delay the completion time of long running tasks, resulting in waste of resources. This paper firstly discusses the heterogeneous nature of MapReduce jobs and their arrival rates in several production clusters. Secondly, we characterize the situations where the current preemption policy causes significant preemption penalty. We then propose a simple mechanism that works in conjunction with existing job schedulers to address this problem. Finally, we evaluate our solution under various types of workloads in Amazon EC2. Experiments show our method can improve system normalized performance by 15% during busy periods by effectively avoiding unnecessary preemption while preserving fairness.
Clustering and percolation of point processes

We are interested in phase transitions in certain percolation models on point processes and their dependence on clustering properties of the point processes. We show that point processes with smaller void probabilities and factorial moment measures than the stationary Poisson point process exhibit non-trivial phase transition in the percolation of some coverage models based on level-sets of additive functionals of the point process. Examples of such point processes are determinantal point processes, some perturbed lattices and more generally, negatively associated point processes. Examples of such coverage models are k-coverage in the Boolean model (coverage by at least k grains), and SINR-coverage (coverage if the signal to-interference-and-noise ratio is large). In particular, we answer in affirmative the hypothesis of existence of phase transition in the percolation of k-faces in the Cech simplicial complex (called also clique percolation) on point processes which cluster less than the Poisson process. We also construct a Cox point process, which is "more clustered” than the Poisson point process and whose Boolean model percolates for arbitrarily small radius. This shows that clustering (at least, as detected by our specific tools) does not always “worsen” percolation, as well as that upper-bounding this cluster-ing by a Poisson process is a consequential assumption for the phase transition to hold.
A passive temperature radio-sensor for concrete maturation monitoring

A planar “T” like passive UHF RFID temperature sensor is here proposed for application inside the fresh concrete at the purpose to hydration monitoring during the curing procedure into caissons. Since the concrete's electromagnetic parameters significantly change along with the drying process, the antenna modeling and design consider both the electromagnetic and the chemical phenomena. The described tag layout is such to separate, by means of a two-conductor transmission line, the sensing device, e.g. a specialized RFID IC placed up to 15cm deep into the concrete, from the scavenging element, placed instead outside the concrete. Computer simulation and then extensive laboratory experimentation in real conditions demonstrated that, despite of the low sensitivity of the IC and the high losses of concrete, the proposed RFID sensor tag provides reasonable communication performance in passive mode with read ranges up to 2 meters, and fast and reliable temperature sensing capabilities that look comparable with that of more invasive and costly wired measurement systems.
The Mouse Homeobox Gene Gbx2 Is Required for the Development of Cholinergic Interneurons in the Striatum

Mammalian forebrain cholinergic neurons are composed of local circuit neurons in the striatum and projection neurons in the basal forebrain. These neurons are known to arise from a common pool of progenitors that primarily resides in the medial ganglionic eminence (MGE). However, little is known about the genetic programs that differentiate these two types of cholinergic neurons. Using inducible genetic fate mapping, here we examined the developmental fate of cells that express the homeodomain transcription factor Gbx2 in the MGE. We show that the Gbx2 lineage-derived cells that undergo tangential migration exclusively give rise to almost all cholinergic interneurons in the striatum, whereas those undergoing radial migration mainly produce noncholinergic neurons in the basal forebrain. Deletion of Gbx2 throughout the mouse embryo or specifically in the MGE results in abnormal distribution and significant reduction of cholinergic neurons in the striatum. We show that early-born (before embryonic day 12.5) cholinergic interneurons preferentially populate the lateral aspect of the striatum and mature earlier than late-born (after embryonic day 12.5) neurons, which normally reside in the medial part of the striatum. In the absence of Gbx2, early-born striatal cholinergic precursors display abnormal neurite outgrowth and increased complexity, and abnormally contribute to the medial part of the caudate–putamen, whereas late-born striatal cholinergic interneurons are mostly missing. Together, our data demonstrate that Gbx2 is required for the development of striatal cholinergic interneurons, perhaps by regulating tangential migration of the striatal cholinergic precursors.
Differential Expression of Extracellular Matrix-Mediated Pathways in Single-Suture Craniosynostosis

Craniosynostosis is a disease defined by premature fusion of one or more cranial sutures. The mechanistic pathology of single-suture craniosynostosis is complex and while a number of genetic biomarkers and environmental predispositions have been identified, in many cases the causes remain controversial and inconclusive. In this study, gene expression data from 199 patients with isolated sagittal (n = 100), unilateral coronal (n = 50), and metopic (n = 49) synostosis are compared against both a control population (n = 50), as well as each other. After controlling for variables contributing to potential bias, FGF7, SFRP4, and VCAM1 emerged as genes associated with single-suture craniosynostosis due to their significantly large changes in gene expression compared to the control population. Pathway analysis implicated focal adhesion and extracellular matrix (ECM)-receptor interaction as differentially regulated gene networks when comparing all cases of single-suture synostosis and controls. Lastly, overall gene expression was found to be highly conserved between coronal and metopic cases, as evidenced by the fact that WNT2 and IGFBP2 were the only genes differentially regulated to a significantly large extent in a direct comparison. The identification of genes and gene networks associated with Fgf/Igf/Wnt signaling and ECM-mediated focal adhesion not only support the involvement of biomarkers previously reported to be related to craniosynostosis, but also introduce novel transcripts and pathways that may play critical roles in its pathogenesis.
Efficient Tempo and Beat Tracking in Audio Recordings

Automatic beat tracking consists of estimating the number of beats per minutes at which a music track is played and identifying exactly when these beats occur. Applications range from music analysis, sound-effect synchronization, and audio editing to automatic playlist generation and deejaying. An off-line beat-tracking technique for estimating a time-varying tempo in an audio track is presented. The algorithm uses an MMSE estimation of local tempo and beat location candidates, followed by a dynamic programming stage used to determine the optimum choice of candidate in each analysis frame. The algorithm is efficient in its use of computation resource, yet provides very good results on a wide range of audio tracks. The algorithm details are presented, followed by a discussion of the performance and suggestions for further improvements.