Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dynamical determination of the Kuiper Belt's mass from motions of the inner planets of the Solar System

In this paper we dynamically determine the mass of the Kuiper Belt Objects by exploiting the latest observational determinations of the orbital motions of the inner planets of the Solar System. Our result, in units of terrestrial masses, is 0.033 +/- 0.115 by modelling the Classical Kuiper Belt Objects as an ecliptic ring of finite thickness. A two-rings model yields for the Resonant Kuiper Belt Objects a value of 0.018 +/- 0.063. Such figures are consistent with recent determinations obtained with ground and space-based optical techniques. Some implications for precise tests of Einsteinian and post-Einsteinian gravity are briefly discussed.
Transcriptomic and Proteomic Analyses of a Wolbachia-Free Filarial Parasite Provide Evidence of Trans-Kingdom Horizontal Gene Transfer

Most filarial parasites in the subfamilies Onchocercinae and Dirofilariinae depend on Wolbachia endobacteria to successfully carry out their life cycle. Recently published data indicate that the few Wolbachia-free species in these subfamilies were infected in the distant past and have subsequently shed their endosymbionts. We used an integrated transcriptomic and proteomic analysis of Onchocerca flexuosa to explore the molecular mechanisms that allow worms of this species to survive without a bacterial partner. Roche/454 sequencing of the adult transcriptome produced 16,814 isogroup and 47,252 singleton sequences that are estimated to represent approximately 41% of the complete gene set. Sequences similar to 97 Wolbachia genes were identified from the transcriptome, some of which appear on the same transcripts as sequences similar to nematode genes. Computationally predicted peptides, including those with similarity to Wolbachia proteins, were classified at the domain and pathway levels in order to assess the metabolic capabilities of O. flexuosa and compare against the Wolbachia-dependent model filaria, Brugia malayi. Transcript data further facilitated a shotgun proteomic analysis of O. flexuosa adult worm lysate, resulting in the identification of 1,803 proteins. Three of the peptides detected by mass spectroscopy map to two ABC transport-related proteins from Wolbachia. Antibodies raised to one of the Wolbachia-like peptides labeled a single 38 kDa band on Western blots of O. flexuosa lysate and stained specific worm tissues by immunohistology. Future studies will be required to determine the exact functions of Wolbachia-like peptides and proteins in O. flexuosa and to assess their roles in worm biology.
Lagos-Wright vs. Cash-in-Advance: Government Policy Response to War-Expenditure Shocks

I pit the Lagos-Wright micro founded model of money with the reduced-form cash-in-advance model in terms of their predictions for the response of government policy to war-expenditure shocks. The Lagos-Wright model performs well qualitative and quantitatively. Depending on specific assumptions about preferences, the cash-in-advance model either has some qualitative or quantitative shortcomings.
CONTROL ISSUES IN HIGH‐SPEED AFM FOR BIOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS: COLLAGEN IMAGING EXAMPLE

This article considers the precision positioning problem associated with high‐speed operation of the Atomic Force Microscope (AFM), and presents an inversion‐based control approach to achieve precision positioning. Although AFMs have high (nanoscale) spatial resolution, a problem with current AFM systems is that they have low temporal resolution, i.e., AFM imaging is slow. In particular, current AFM imaging cannot be used to provide three‐dimensional, time‐lapse images of fast processes when imaging relatively‐large, soft samples. For instance, current AFM imaging of living cells takes 1–2 minutes (per image frame) — such imaging speeds are too slow to study rapid biological processes that occur in seconds, e.g., to investigate the rapid movement of cells or the fast dehydration and denaturation of collagen. This inability, to rapidly image fast biological processes, motivates our current research to increase the operating speed of the AFM. We apply an inversion‐based feedback/feedforward control approach to overcome positioning problems that limit the operating speed of current AFM systems. The efficacy of the method, to achieve high‐speed AFM operation, is experimentally evaluated by applying it to image collagen samples.
The Dictyostelium discoideum acaA Gene Is Transcribed from Alternative Promoters during Aggregation and Multicellular Development

Background Extracellular cAMP is a key extracellular signaling molecule that regulates aggregation, cell differentiation and morphogenesis during multi-cellular development of the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum. This molecule is produced by three different adenylyl cyclases, encoded by the genes acaA, acrA and acgA, expressed at different stages of development and in different structures. Methodology/Principal Findings This article describes the characterization of the promoter region of the acaA gene, showing that it is transcribed from three different alternative promoters. The distal promoter, promoter 1, is active during the aggregation process while the more proximal promoters are active in tip-organiser and posterior regions of the structures. A DNA fragment containing the three promoters drove expression to these same regions and similar results were obtained by in situ hybridization. Analyses of mRNA expression by quantitative RT-PCR with specific primers for each of the three transcripts also demonstrated their different temporal patterns of expression. Conclusions/Significance The existence of an aggregation-specific promoter can be associated with the use of cAMP as chemo-attractant molecule, which is specific for some Dictyostelium species. Expression at late developmental stages indicates that adenylyl cyclase A might play a more important role in post-aggregative development than previously considered.
The protein-tyrosine kinase substrate, p81, is homologous to a chicken microvillar core protein

p81, a protein-tyrosine kinase substrate previously identified in epidermal growth factor-treated A431 cells, is demonstrated to be homologous to ezrin, an 80-kD component of microvillar core proteins. p81 has been characterized using antiserum raised against purified chicken intestinal ezrin. p81, located by indirect immunofluorescent staining, is concentrated in surface projections of A431 cells such as microvilli and retraction fibers. None of the conditions of biochemical cell fractionation tested completely solubilizes p81; the insoluble p81 partitions as if associated with the cytoskeleton. The soluble form of p81 behaves as a monomer in all extraction procedures studied. EGF- stimulated phosphorylation of p81 does not appear to change its intracellular location. p81 exhibits a wide tissue distribution with highest levels of expression in small intestine, kidney, thymus, and lung. Intermediate levels are found in spleen, thymus, lymph nodes, and bone marrow, with low levels in brain, heart, and testes. p81 is undetectable in muscle and liver. In A431 cells, p81 is phosphorylated on serine and threonine residues. Upon EGF treatment, approximately 10% of p81 becomes phosphorylated on tyrosine, and the phosphorylation of threonine residues increases.
Measuring Semantic Similarity of Word Pairs Using Path and Information Content

Measuring semantic similarity of word pairs is a popular topic for many years. It is crucial in many applications, such as information extraction, semantic annotation, question answering system and so on. It is mandatory to design accurate metric for improving the performance of the bulk of applications relying on it. The paper presents a new metric for measuring word sense similarity using path and information content. Different from previous works, the new metric not only reflects the semantic density information, but also reflects the path information. It is evaluated on the dataset provided by Rubenstein and Goodenough. Experiments demonstrate that the coefficient based on our proposed metric with human judgment is 0.8817, which is significantly outperformed than other existing methods.
Affective Instability in Daily Life Is Predicted by Resting Heart Rate Variability

Previous research has shown that being affectively unstable is an indicator of several forms of psychological maladjustment. However, little is known about the mechanisms underlying affective instability. Our research aims to examine the possibility that being prone to extreme fluctuations in one’s feelings is related to maladaptive emotion regulation. We investigated this hypothesis by relating affective instability, assessed in daily life using the experience sampling method, to self-reported emotion regulation strategies and to parasympathetically mediated heart rate variability (HRV), a physiological indicator of emotion regulation capacity. Results showed that HRV was negatively related to instability of positive affect (as measured by mean square successive differences), indicating that individuals with lower parasympathetic tone are emotionally less stable, particularly for positive affect.
The Democratic Deficit Closer to Home : Agenda-building relations between parliament and the press, and the impact of European integration, in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and France

9 7 8 9 0 8 6 5 9 1 6 0 2 > ISBN 978 90 8659 160 2 The politician and the journalist are involved in a daily struggle, the one for a favourable public opinion and the other for a wide audience. They rely on each other to achieve these objectives. Agenda building, the research object of this book, refers to the basic process underlying this power struggle: irrespective of who decides how issues are discussed, the first conquest is gained by deciding which issues are discussed. The study zooms in on the reciprocal agenda-building influences between the two watchdogs of democracy: MPs and journalists, in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and France. Who leads whom? Has the balance of power changed in favour of the media in recent decades? Does the balance of power change when issues are no longer exclusive to the national political domain as a result of European integration? These and related questions are tackled in this book with an extensive data set comprising cross-national comparative, cross-sectional and longitudinal data, as well as a detailed instrument for automated content analysis, and a comprehensive statistical framework of time-series analysis. The results suggest that the Dutch parliamentary agenda has retained some authority as a news source in the eyes of the Dutch press, whereas the British and French parliaments appear to hardly have a say in the contents of tomorrow’s headlines. Quite the contrary. Moreover, the more the news conveys a European flavour, the more media’s hold over the parliamentary agenda grows tighter. T he D em oratic D ecit C lser to H om e
Management of Patients with Atopic Dermatitis: The Role of Emollient Therapy

Atopic dermatitis is a common inflammatory skin disorder that afflicts a growing number of young children. Genetic, immune, and environmental factors interact in a complex fashion to contribute to disease expression. The compromised stratum corneum found in atopic dermatitis leads to skin barrier dysfunction, which results in aggravation of symptoms by aeroallergens, microbes, and other insults. Infants—whose immune system and epidermal barrier are still developing—display a higher frequency of atopic dermatitis. Management of patients with atopic dermatitis includes maintaining optimal skin care, avoiding allergic triggers, and routinely using emollients to maintain a hydrated stratum corneum and to improve barrier function. Flares of atopic dermatitis are often managed with courses of topical corticosteroids or calcineurin inhibitors. This paper discusses the role of emollients in the management of atopic dermatitis, with particular emphasis on infants and young children.
Accessing an undergraduate program in the United States: Latin American male experiences and perceptions

Conceptions of literacy have changed over the past 20 years as scholars have recognized that the emergence of digital and multimodal technologies has resulted in the creation of new literacy practices (New London Group, 1996; Lankshear & Knobel, 2011). These new literacies are recognized as important both by scholars and educational organizations who have documented the importance of digital communication as it impacts one’s success and opportunities in the modern world (Coiro, Knobel, Lankshear, & Leu, 2008; International Reading Association, 2009), and it is important to investigate how children develop new literacies practices as their development of digital communication skills can provide researchers understandings of children’s learning and educators with practical implications for instruction. This study aimed to develop an understanding of how firstand second-grade children develop their ability to create digital stories, a new literacy practice, through computer coding. The study utilized a mixed-methods approach to investigating how four first-grade and four second-grade children engaged in literacy practices through creating digital stories using a computer coding application. This study was conducted in a university reading clinic in which preservice teachers tutor children from the community to support literacy development. Three research questions were developed to guide this investigation, all of which relate to the ways children demonstrated their ability to engage literacy and communication practices through digital storytelling. With the support of their literacy tutors, all of the children created three digital stories with a multimedia coding application, Scratch Jr, which was designed for fiveto
Prediction and verification of miRNA expression in human and rat retinas.

PURPOSE MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play a global role in regulating gene expression and have important tissue-specific functions. Little is known about their role in the retina. The purpose of this study was to establish the retinal expression of those miRNAs predicted to target genes involved in vision. METHODS miRNAs potentially targeting important "retinal" genes, as defined by expression pattern and implication in disease, were predicted using a published algorithm (TargetScan; Envisioneering Medical Technologies, St. Louis, MO). The presence of candidate miRNAs in human and rat retinal RNA was assessed by RT-PCR. cDNA levels for each miRNA were determined by quantitative PCR. The ability to discriminate between miRNAs varying by a single nucleotide was assessed. The activity of miR-124 and miR-29 against predicted target sites in Rdh10 and Impdh1 was tested by cotransfection of miRNA mimics and luciferase reporter plasmids. RESULTS Sixty-seven miRNAs were predicted to target one or more of the 320 retinal genes listed herein. All 11 candidate miRNAs tested were expressed in the retina, including miR-7, miR-124, miR135a, and miR135b. Relative levels of individual miRNAs were similar between rats and humans. The Rdh10 3'UTR, which contains a predicted miR-124 target site, mediated the inhibition of luciferase activity by miR-124 mimics in cell culture. CONCLUSIONS Many miRNAs likely to regulate genes important for retinal function are present in the retina. Conservation of miRNA retinal expression patterns from rats to humans supports evidence from other tissues that disruption of miRNAs is a likely cause of a range of visual abnormalities.
Faults in grids: why are they so bad and what can be done about it?

Computational grids have the potential to become the main execution platform for high performance and distributed applications. However, such systems are extremely complex and prone to failures. We present a survey with the grid community on which several people shared their actual experience regarding fault treatment. The survey reveals that, nowadays, users have to be highly involved in diagnosing failures, that most failures are due to configuration problems (a hint of the area's immaturity), and that solutions for dealing with failures are mainly application-dependent. Going further, we identify two main reasons for this state of affairs. First, grid components that provide high-level abstractions when working, do expose all gory details when broken. Since there are no appropriate mechanisms to deal with the complexity exposed (configuration, middleware, hardware and software issues), users need to be deeply involved in the diagnosis and correction of failures. To address this problem, one needs a way to coordinate different support teams working at the grids different levels of abstraction. Second, fault tolerance schemes today implemented on grids tolerate only crash failures. Since grids are prone to more complex failures, such those caused by heisenbugs, one needs to tolerate tougher failures. Our hope is that the very heterogeneity, that makes a grid a complex environment, can help in the creation of diverse software replicas, a strategy that can tolerate more complex failures.
Sexual division of labor: Energetic and evolutionary scenarios

This article examines comparative energetic data on hunter–gatherers in the context of evolutionary scenarios of the sexual division of labor, with respect to both specific task allocation and overall levels of daily physical activity. The division of labor between men and women, well marked in contemporary foraging societies, was once posited as the “true watershed” for the evolution of the genus Homo. Some research on brain‐wiring even links sex differences in cognitive and spatial abilities to sex‐specific foraging activities. Most recent evolutionary arguments posit that men focus on hunting and women on gathering activities to realize potentially conflicting mating and parenting goals. A range of cooperative strategies (male/female and female/female) for child provisioning is also under investigation. Attention to energetic and reproductive trade‐offs has usefully challenged the proposition that women are excluded from big‐game hunting due to constraints of foraging ecology and reproduction. Simplistic assumptions about gender roles are thus increasingly questioned in anthropology, as well as in archaeology. Current models in behavioral ecology explore ways in which foraging practices vary with ecological circumstances, aiming to derive testable hypotheses from fine‐grained data on the behavior of contemporary hunter–gatherers. Data on overall physical activity levels (PAL) can also serve to evaluate relative male/female workloads in modern groups, reconstruct hominid energy requirements and activity profiles, and examine changes with subsistence intensification. Male/female PAL ratios show that a task‐specific division of labor does not readily extrapolate to 24‐hour energy expenditure and that male/female differences in workloads were not necessarily reduced with the transition to agriculture. With respect to gender roles and PAL, a shift away from facile stereotypes of human behavior is evident. The challenge is to incorporate a range of behavioral responses to ecological circumstances in reconstructions of our evolutionary past. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 14:627–640, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Texture classification using spline, wavelet decomposition and fractal dimension

Feature extraction is an important process for texture classification. This paper suggests two sets of features for texture analysis. In the first set of features, a set of fractal features is obtained from the eight wavelet sub-bands that are generated by applying Haar wavelet transform twice times according to dyadic architecture. The fractal features are determined using the differential box counting method. While for determining the second set of features, the cubic spline representation is applied to decompose the image signal into rough and smooth components; then applying the wavelet transform and finally compute the fractal dimension for all the sub-bands of both images. Each type of these two extracted feature sets is studied individually, and they are used together. Their overall performance is investigated. The proposed features set has been applied on two texture datasets, one consists of textures with directional properties, and the second set consists of textures samples that have directional attributes. The test results showed that the proposed methods give a high level of classification with images that have or do not have directional properties.
"Sorry, I was hacked": a classification of compromised twitter accounts

Online social networks like Facebook or Twitter have become powerful information diffusion platforms as they have attracted hundreds of millions of users. The possibility of reaching millions of users within these networks not only attracted standard users, but also cyber-criminals who abuse the networks by spreading spam. This is accomplished by either creating fake accounts, bots, cyborgs or by hacking and compromising accounts. Compromised accounts are subsequently used to spread spam in the name of their legitimate owner. This work sets out to investigate how Twitter users react to having their account hacked and how they deal with compromised accounts. We crawled a data set of tweets in which users state that their account was hacked and subsequently performed a supervised classification of these tweets based on the reaction and behavior of the respective user. We find that 27.30% of the analyzed Twitter users change to a new account once their account was hacked. 50.91% of all users either state that they were hacked or apologize for any unsolicited tweets or direct messages.
Preanalytical determinants of total and free prostate-specific antigen and their ratio: blood collection and storage conditions.

Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) is present in serum in several forms (1). About 70–90% of total PSA (t-PSA) is complexed with serum protease inhibitors, especially with α1-antichymotrypsin. About 10–30% are not bound to serum proteins (at least not with high affinity), and that fraction is called free PSA (f-PSA). Patients with prostate cancer exhibit a lower ratio of f-PSA to t-PSA (f-PSA%) than patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia (1). Subsequent studies have shown the clinical usefulness of f-PSA% in distinguishing between these two groups of patients (2). Whereas preanalytical, analytical, and biological factors of t-PSA changes have already been compiled (3)(4)(5), details on variation of f-PSA% are still lacking. The influence of preanalytical factors like blood collection, storage conditions, and freeze-thaw cycles on that ratio is of special interest because PSA as a nonurgent analyte is often quantified in batches after various storage periods (6). The purpose of the present study is to gain insight into these influencing factors on PSA fractions as measured by a widely used instrument and to lay down practical recommendations. AxSYM PSA and AxSYM Free PSA (Abbott Diagnostics), automated microparticle enzyme immunoassays, were used for measuring t-PSA and f-PSA, respectively (7). Each run was checked by three control sera for t-PSA (4.06, 14.6, and 45 μg/L) and f-PSA (0.38, 0.98, and 6.84 μg/L). The between-run CVs (n = 32) were 3.7–4.5% for t-PSA and 2.9–3.8% for f-PSA. The within-run CVs (n = 12) were 2.1–3.5%. The study included 18 patients with prostate cancer and 4 patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia. All procedures followed were approved by the Ethical Standard …
K2K (KEK to Kamioka) neutrino-oscillation experiment at KEK-PS

A long-baseline neutrino-oscillation experiment using a well-defined neutrino beam is in preparation at KEK. Neutrinos generated at KEK will be detected by the Super-kamiokande detector 250 km away. The design of the neutrino beam line, beam monitors and detector are briefly presented. The sensitivities for neutrino oscillations are also discussed.