Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Robust H2/H∞-state estimation for systems with error variance constraints: the continuous-time case

The paper is concerned with the state estimator design problem for perturbed linear continuous-time systems with H/sub /spl infin// norm and variance constraints. The perturbation is assumed to be time-invariant and norm-bounded and enters into both the state and measurement matrices. The problem we address is to design a linear state estimator such that, for all admissible measurable perturbations, the variance of the estimation error of each state is not more than the individual prespecified value, and the transfer function from disturbances to error state outputs satisfies the prespecified H/sub /spl infin// norm upper bound constraint, simultaneously. Existence conditions of the desired estimators are derived in terms of Riccati-type matrix inequalities, and the analytical expression of these estimators is also presented. A numerical example is provided to show the directness and effectiveness of the proposed design approach.
The Effects of Chemical Bonding of Nanoclay Surface Modifier and Compatibilizer on Microstructure Development and Rheological Properties of PP/PP-g-MA/Diamine Modified Nanoclay

The montmorillonite (MMT) surface was modified by 1,12 diaminododecane via cation exchange reaction in order to provide a chemical potential for MMT to react with polypropylene grafted maleic anhydride, PP-g-MA, compatibilizer. The Diamine modified nanoclay (DA) was then utilized to prepare PP based nanocomposite samples using two grades of PP-g-MA with different melt flow rate, and their performances were compared with the nanocomposite samples loaded with Cloisite®20A. All nanocomposite samples were prepared by melt compounding process in a laboratory internal mixer. The XRD results of the DA containing samples prepared using both compatibilizers showed a little increase in d001 spacing of nanoclay. The sample containing DA compatibilized with low melt flow rate PP-g-MA exhibited a rheological behavior similar to its matrix. In contrast, the sample containing DA and high melt flow rate PP-g-MA showed a considerably increased complex viscosity, η*, and storage modulus, G′, in whole range of frequencies with no sign of a low frequency nonterminal behavior. The absence of rigid tail in the Cole-Cole plot of the rheological data of this sample also evidenced the absence of a 3D network microstructure. Results of FTIR analysis, performed on the samples containing DA, confirmed the occurrence of a chemical reaction between the amine groups of modified MMT and maleic group of compatibilizer with higher efficiency in the sample compatibilized with high melt flow rate PP-g-MA. From these results, it was concluded that in this sample, a special microstructure consisting of nanocaly aggregates with strong interfacial interaction to matrix is formed. This was evidenced by observation of individual aggregates in TEM micrograph.
Human corneal endothelial cells expressing programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) suppress PD-1+ T helper 1 cells by a contact-dependent mechanism.

PURPOSE This study was designed to determine whether human corneal endothelial (HCE) cells could regulate the activation of bystander T cells in vitro. METHODS HCE cell lines were established from primary HCE cells. Target-activated T cells were used allogeneic T cells and Jurkat T-cell lines. As an additional target, T-cell clones from uveitis patients were established from aqueous humor via a limiting dilution. T-cell activation was assessed for proliferation by [(3)H]-thymidine incorporation, carboxyfluorescein succinimidyl ester incorporation, or IFNgamma production. Expression of co-stimulatory molecules on IFNgamma-treated corneal endothelial and non-treated cells was evaluated by flow cytometry, RT-PCR, or immunohistochemistry. Expression of co-stimulatory receptors on target T cells was evaluated by flow cytometry. Blocking antibodies was used to abolish the HCE-inhibitory function. RESULTS HCE cells suppressed both in vitro proliferation and IFNgamma production by CD4(+) T cells via a cell contact-dependent mechanism. HCE constitutively expressed co-stimulatory molecules programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) and PD-L2, and their expression was enhanced by IFNgamma. HCE efficiently inhibited the proliferation of Th1 cells that overexpressed PD-1 among various activated T-cell lines and clones established from patients with uveitis or corneal endotheliitis. A neutralizing mAb for PD-L1, but not PD-L2, blocked the suppressive effect of HCE on Th1 cells. CONCLUSIONS HCE can impair the effector functions and activation of Th1 infiltrating CD4(+) T cells via the PD-1/PD-L1 interaction. The data support the hypothesis that corneal endothelium may contribute to maintenance of the privileged immune status of the anterior chamber of the eye by inducing peripheral immune tolerance.
Kinesin associates with anterogradely transported membranous organelles in vivo

Biochemical, pharmacological and immunocytochemical studies have implicated the microtubule-activated ATPase, kinesin, in the movement of membrane bounded organelles in fast axonal transport. In vitro studies suggested that kinesin moves organelles preferentially in the anterograde direction, but data about the function and precise localization of kinesin in the living axon were lacking. The current study was undertaken to establish whether kinesin associates with anterograde or retrograde moving organelles in vivo. Peripheral nerves were ligated to produce accumulations of organelles moving in defined directions. Regions proximal (anterograde) and distal (retrograde) to the ligation were analyzed for kinesin localization by immunofluorescence, and by immunogold electron microscopy using ultracryomicrotomy. Substantial amounts of kinesin were associated with anterograde moving organelles on the proximal side, while significantly less kinesin was detected distally. Statistical analyses indicated that kinesin was mostly associated with membrane-bounded organelles. These observations indicate that axonal kinesin is primarily associated with anterograde moving organelles in vivo.
Privacy-Friendly Business Models for Location-Based Mobile Services

This paper presents a theoretical model to analyze the privacy issues involved in business models for location-based mobile services. We report the results of an exploratory field experiment in Switzerland that assessed the factors driving the net payoff to users of mobile businesses. We found that (1) the personal data disclosed by users has a negative effect on user payoff; (2) the amount of personalization available has a direct and positive effect, as well as a moderating effect, on user payoff; and (3) the amount of control over a user's personal data has a direct and positive effect, as well as a moderating effect, on user payoff. The results suggest that privacy protection could be the main value proposition in the B2C mobile market. From our theoretical model, we derive a set of guidelines to design a privacy-friendly business model pattern for thirdparty services. We discuss four examples to show how the mobile platform can play a key role in the implementation of these new business models.
Higher Estimated Net Endogenous Acid Production May Be Associated with Increased Prevalence of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease in Chinese Adults in Hong Kong

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has been associated with reduced growth hormone levels and signaling. Such hormonal changes also occur in metabolic acidosis. Since mild metabolic acidosis can be diet induced, diet-induced acid load may constitute a nutritional factor with possible influence on NAFLD development. This study explored whether a higher diet-induced acid load is associated with an increased likelihood of NAFLD. Apparently healthy Chinese adults (330 male, 463 female) aged 19-72 years were recruited through population screening between 2008 and 2010 in a cross-sectional population-based study in Hong Kong. Estimated net endogenous acid production (NEAP) was calculated using Frassetto’s method and potential renal acid load (PRAL) was calculated using Remer’s method based on dietary data from a food frequency questionnaire. NAFLD was defined as intrahepatic triglyceride content at >5% by proton-magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Possible advanced fibrosis was defined as liver stiffness at >7.9 kPa by transient elastography. Multivariate logistic regression models were used to examine the association between each measure of dietary acid load and prevalent NAFLD or possible advanced fibrosis with adjustment for potential anthropometric and lifestyle factors. 220 subjects (27.7%) were diagnosed with NAFLD. Estimated NEAP was positively associated with the likelihood of having NAFLD after adjustment for age, sex, body mass index, current drinker status and the presence of metabolic syndrome [OR (95% CI) = 1.25 (1.02-1.52), p = 0.022]. The association was slightly attenuated but remained significant when the model was further adjusted for other dietary variables. No association between PRAL and NAFLD prevalence was observed. Both estimated NEAP and PRAL were not associated with the presence of possible advance fibrosis. Our findings suggest that there may be a modest association between diet-induced acid load and NAFLD. More studies are needed to ascertain the link between diet-induced acid load and NAFLD and to investigate the underlying mechanisms.
An Approach for the Automatic Classification of Work Descriptions in Construction Projects

Project success is directly related to reliable access to accurate project data. During the construction project life cycle, an enormous amount of documents with largely interesting information are exchanged, which makes the decision‐making process very complex to project managers. One of the most important documents in this context is the Bill of Quantities (BoQ), which is a collection of Work Descriptions describing the nature of the different works needed to be done to achieve the project goal. As BoQs are differently built, practitioners have trouble when trying to insert them in a common database storage system, because both the linguistic descriptions and the structure of each BoQ document may be defined in a different way. In this article, we focus on this problem and present an approach to automatically extract the information from the work descriptions and to appropriately place it in a predefined hierarchical structure, independently of its original format. Our approach is based on a multicriteria aggregation process based on the use of learned information and expert knowledge. The methodology has been validated with a broad set of work descriptions. Results show that the proposal is able to classify them with success.
Object recognition using composed receptive field histograms of higher dimensionality

Effective methods for recognising objects or spatio-temporal events can be constructed based on receptive field responses summarised into histograms or other histogram-like image descriptors. This work presents a set of composed histogram features of higher dimensionality, which give significantly better recognition performance compared to the histogram descriptors of lower dimensionality that were used in the original papers by Swain & Bollard (1991) or Schiele & Crowley (2000). The use of histograms of higher dimensionality is made possible by a sparse representation for efficient computation and handling of higher-dimensional histograms. Results of extensive experiments are reported, showing how the performance of histogram-based recognition schemes depend upon different combinations of cues, in terms of Gaussian derivatives or differential invariants applied to either intensity information, chromatic information or both. It is shown that there exist composed higher-dimensional histogram descriptors with much better performance for recognising known objects than previously used histogram features. Experiments are also reported of classifying unknown objects into visual categories.
Biomechanics of the Peacock’s Display: How Feather Structure and Resonance Influence Multimodal Signaling

Courtship displays may serve as signals of the quality of motor performance, but little is known about the underlying biomechanics that determines both their signal content and costs. Peacocks (Pavo cristatus) perform a complex, multimodal “train-rattling” display in which they court females by vibrating the iridescent feathers in their elaborate train ornament. Here we study how feather biomechanics influences the performance of this display using a combination of field recordings and laboratory experiments. Using high-speed video, we find that train-rattling peacocks stridulate their tail feathers against the train at 25.6 Hz, on average, generating a broadband, pulsating mechanical sound at that frequency. Laboratory measurements demonstrate that arrays of peacock tail and train feathers have a broad resonant peak in their vibrational spectra at the range of frequencies used for train-rattling during the display, and the motion of feathers is just as expected for feathers shaking near resonance. This indicates that peacocks are able to drive feather vibrations energetically efficiently over a relatively broad range of frequencies, enabling them to modulate the feather vibration frequency of their displays. Using our field data, we show that peacocks with longer trains use slightly higher vibration frequencies on average, even though longer train feathers are heavier and have lower resonant frequencies. Based on these results, we propose hypotheses for future studies of the function and energetics of this display that ask why its dynamic elements might attract and maintain female attention. Finally, we demonstrate how the mechanical structure of the train feathers affects the peacock’s visual display by allowing the colorful iridescent eyespots–which strongly influence female mate choice–to remain nearly stationary against a dynamic iridescent background.
Inner-Shell Absorption Lines of Fe VI-Fe XVI: A Many-Body Perturbation Theory Approach

We provide improved atomic calculation of wavelengths, oscillator strengths, and autoionization rates relevant to the 2 → 3 inner-shell transitions of Fe VI-XVI, the so-called Fe M-shell unresolved transition array (UTA). A second-order many-body perturbation theory is employed to obtain accurate transition wavelengths, which are systematically larger than previous theoretical results by 15-45 mÅ. For a few transitions of Fe XVI and Fe XV for which laboratory measurements exist, our new wavelengths are accurate to within a few mÅ. Using these new calculations, the apparent discrepancy in the velocities between the Fe M-shell UTA and other highly ionized absorption lines in the outflow of NGC 3783 disappears. The oscillator strengths in our new calculation agree well with the previous theoretical data, while the new autoionization rates are significantly larger, especially for lower charge states. We attribute this discrepancy to the missing autoionization channels in the previous calculation. The increased autoionization rates may slightly affect the column density analysis of the Fe M-shell UTA for sources with high column density and very low turbulent broadening. The complete set of atomic data is provided as an electronic table.
Treatment of prednisolone‐induced hyperglycaemia in hospitalized patients: Insights from a randomized, controlled study

Prednisolone causes hyperglycaemia predominantly between midday and midnight. Consequently, glargine‐based basal‐bolus insulin regimens may under treat daytime hyperglycaemia and cause nocturnal hypoglycaemia. We investigated whether an isophane‐based insulin regimen is safer and more effective than a glargine‐based regimen in hospitalized patients.
Low-Dose Lipopolysaccharide Selectively Sensitizes Hypoxic Ischemia-Induced White Matter Injury in the Immature Brain

Little is known about roles of inflammation and hypoxic ischemia (HI) in the generation of neuroinflammation and damage of blood-brain barrier (BBB) in the white matter (WM) that displays regional vulnerability in preterm infants. We investigated whether low-dose lipopolysaccharide (LPS) sensitizes HI-induced WM injury in postpartum (P) day 2 rat pups by selectively increasing neuroinflammation and BBB damage in the WM. Pups received LPS (0.05 mg/kg) (LPS + HI) or normal saline (NS + HI) followed by 90-min HI. LPS and NS group were the pups that had LPS or NS only. Myelin basic protein immunohistochemistry on P11 showed WM injury in LPS + HI group, but not in NS + HI, LPS, and NS groups. In contrast, no gray matter injury was found in the four groups. LPS + HI group also showed decreased number of oligodendrocytes in the WM 72-h postinsult. In the same brain region, increases of activated microglia, TNF-α expression, BBB leakage, and cleaved caspase-3 positive cells were much more prominent in LPS + HI group than in the other three groups 24-h postinsult. The oligodendrocytes were the major cells with cleaved caspase-3 expression. We concluded that low-dose LPS sensitized HI-induced WM injury in the immature brain by selectively up-regulating neuroinflammation and BBB damage in the WM.
Diet and physical activity for children's health: a qualitative study of Nepalese mothers’ perceptions

Objectives Non-communicable diseases account for 50% of all deaths in Nepal and 25% result from cardiovascular diseases. Previous studies in Nepal indicate a high burden of behavioural cardiovascular risk factors, suggesting a low level of knowledge, attitude and practice/behaviour regarding cardiovascular health. The behavioural foundation for a healthy lifestyle begins in early childhood, when mothers play a key role in their children's lives. This qualitative study, conducted in a Nepalese peri-urban community, aimed to explore mothers’ perception of their children's diet and physical activity. Design We notated, tape-recorded and transcribed all data collected from six focus group discussions, and used qualitative content analysis for evaluation and interpretation. Setting The study was conducted in the Jhaukhel-Duwakot Health Demographic Surveillance Site in the Bhaktapur district of Nepal. Participants Local health workers helped recruit 61 women with children aged 5–10 years. We distributed participants among six different groups according to educational status. Results Although participants understood the importance of healthy food, they misunderstood its composition, perceiving it as unappetising and appropriate only for sick people. Furthermore, participants did not prioritise their children's physical activities. Moreover, mothers believed they had limited control over their children's dietary habits and physical activity. Finally, they opined that health educational programmes would help mothers and recommended various intervention strategies to increase knowledge regarding a healthy lifestyle. Conclusions Our data reveal that mothers of young children in a peri-urban community of Nepal lack adequate and accurate understanding about the impact of a healthy diet and physical activity. Therefore, to prevent future cardiovascular disease and other non-communicable diseases among children, Nepal needs health education programmes to improve mothers’ cardiovascular health knowledge, attitude and behaviour.
Interactions between the discoidin domain receptor 1 and β1 integrin regulate attachment to collagen

Summary Collagen degradation by phagocytosis is essential for physiological collagen turnover and connective tissue homeostasis. The rate limiting step of phagocytosis is the binding of specific adhesion receptors, which include the integrins and discoidin domain receptors (DDR), to fibrillar collagen. While previous data suggest that these two receptors interact, the functional nature of these interactions is not defined. In mouse and human fibroblasts we examined the effects of DDR1 knockdown and over-expression on &bgr;1 integrin subunit function. DDR1 expression levels were positively associated with enhanced contraction of floating and attached collagen gels, increased collagen binding and increased collagen remodeling. In DDR1 over-expressing cells compared with control cells, there were increased numbers, area and length of focal adhesions immunostained for talin, paxillin, vinculin and activated &bgr;1 integrin. After treatment with the integrin-cleaving protease jararhagin, in comparison to controls, DDR1 over-expressing cells exhibited increased &bgr;1 integrin cleavage at the cell membrane, indicating that DDR1 over-expression affected the access and susceptibility of cell-surface &bgr;1 integrin to the protease. DDR1 over-expression was associated with increased glycosylation of the &bgr;1 integrin subunit, which when blocked by deoxymannojirimycin, reduced collagen binding. Collectively these data indicate that DDR1 regulates &bgr;1 integrin interactions with fibrillar collagen, which positively impacts the binding step of collagen phagocytosis and collagen remodeling.
Democracy, Inequality, and Inflation

Do democracies suffer higher inflation than nondemocracies? We identify two competing hypotheses regarding the impact of democracy on inflation. In the “populist” approach, inflation is the result of public demands for transfers financed by the inflation tax, suggesting that electoral competition will increase inflation. In the “state-capture” approach, inflation is a result of pressure from elites who derive private benefits from money creation, suggesting that electoral competition may constrain inflation. We present a simple model that captures both ideas and argue that the impact of democracy is conditioned by the prevailing level of income inequality. This claim is tested with data from more than 100 countries between 1960 and 1999 using different dynamic panel estimation methods to control for unobserved effects and the potential endogeneity of some independent variables. We find robust evidence that democracy is associated with lower inflation in lower-inequality countries but with higher inflation in higher-inequality countries.The authors thank Michael Bailey, Robert Cumby, Philip Keefer, Torsten Persson, Dennis Quinn, George Shambaugh, David Stasavage, and David Strömberg for comments on early drafts. The central bank turnover data used in this paper were generously provided by Jakob de Haan. Previous versions of this paper were delivered at the annual meetings of the Midwest Political Science Association and American Political Science Association. Financial support from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service and research assistance from Jorge Ugaz and Mouneer Odeh are gratefully acknowledged.
Can A Retail Web Site be Social?

Avatars are lifelike characters created by technology. Research suggests that avatars can increase the persuasiveness of online sales channels. The authors investigate how the social cues inherent in avatars influence consumers' affect and shopping value. In Study 1, social cues induce perceptions of Web site socialness, leading to increased pleasure and arousal, both of which positively influence flow, hedonic and utilitarian value, and patronage intentions. Study 2 finds that social cue–induced arousal leads to increased pleasure only for consumers who are involved with the product category. Moreover, the influence of arousal on hedonic value is stronger for women, flow does not lead to pleasure for older consumers, and utilitarian value is less important for this group than for their younger counterparts. The findings suggest that there is a competitive advantage for online retailers that use social cues that provide consumers with enhanced perceptions of human connection and the formation of emotional bonds.