Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The polarizability of the pion : no conflict between dispersion theory and chiral perturbation theory

Comments to the article " The polarizability of the pion: no conflict between dispersion theory and chiral perturbation theory " Abstract The statement of the authors of the article [1], that spurious singularities occur in the dispersion relation approach of the works [2–5], is analyzed. It has been shown that there are not any additional singularities in this approach and the disagreement between the predictions of the dispersion relations and ChPT for (α 1 − β 1) π ± remains. Reasons for the negative results of the description of the process γγ → π 0 π 0 in [1] are also discused. the authors attempt to eliminate discrepancies between predictions of the dispersion relations (DR) in [2–5] and the results obtained in the framework of chiral perturbation theory (ChPT) [6–8]. The authors claimed that, as the absorptive part of the Compton amplitudes in [3–5] is expressed by Breit-Wigner poles with coupling constants and decay widths dependent on energy, there must appear additional spurious singularities. As a result, the values of the polarizabilities obtained in [3–5] have to be modified essentially. The process γγ → ππ is described by the following invariant variables: t = (k 1 + k 2) 2 , s = (q 1 − k 1) 2 , u = (q 1 − k 2) 2 , (1) where q 1 (q 2) and k 1 (k 2) are the pion and photon four-momenta, respectively. In order to analyze this process, DRs at fixed t with one subtraction at s = µ 2 (where µ is the pion mass) have been constructed [4, 5] for the helicity amplitudes M ++ and M +− of this process. Via the cross symmetry these DRs are identical to DRs with two subtractions. The subtraction functions were determined with the help of DRs at fixed s = µ 2 with two subtractions and the subtraction constants were expressed through the sum and the difference of the electric and magnetic dipole and quadrupole pion polarizabilities. It is worth to note that these DRs do not have any expansions and so they can be used for the determination of the polarizabilities in the region of both low and intermediate energies. Besides, dispersion sum rules (DSR) have been constructed [3,4] for the dipole and quadru-pole pion polarizabilities using DRs at fixed u = µ 2 without and with one subtraction, respectively. The DSR for the …
DDL: Reaching the parts other teaching can’t reach?

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés. DDL: Reaching the parts other teaching can’t reach? Alex Boulton
Implicit Versus Explicit Local Contextual Processing

We investigated the effects of implicit local contextual processing using behavioral and electrophysiological measures. EEG recording blocks consisted of targets preceded by either randomized sequences of standards or by sequences including a predictive sequence signaling the occurrence of a target event. Subjects performed two sessions: in the first the regularity of the predictive sequence was implicit, while in the second this regularity was made explicit. Subjects pressed a button in response to targets. Both the implicit and explicit sessions showed shorter reaction times and peak P3b latencies for predicted versus random targets, although to a greater extent in the explicit session. In both sessions the middle and last most-informative stimuli of the three-standard predictive sequence induced a significant larger P3b compared with randomized standards. The findings show that local contextual information is processed implicitly, but that this modulation was significantly greater when subjects were explicitly instructed to attend to target-predictive contextual information. The findings suggest that top-down attentional networks have a role in modulating the extent to which contextual information is utilized.
Numerical Study of Hydrodynamics in an External-loop Air-lift Reactor

The aim of the numerical investigations presented in this paper was to determine hydrodynamics in the external-loop air-lift reactor. Euler-Euler numerical approach was used for unsteady simulations of gas-liquid dispersion flow in the reactor. Calculations were carried out using solver ANSYS-CFX 12.1. The results of the numerical simulations have been worked out in the form of the contours and axial distributions of the fluid velocity fields and gas hold-up in the air-lift reactor. Good agreement was achieved by comparison of averaged results of numerical simulations with the results of experimental investigations.
Predicting neck pain in Royal Australian Air Force fighter pilots.

OBJECTIVE Fighter pilots frequently report neck pain and injury, and although risk factors have been suggested, the relationships between risk factors and neck pain have not been quantified. The aim of this study was to identify personal and work behaviors that are significantly associated with neck pain in fighter pilots. METHODS Eighty-two Royal Australian Air Force fighter pilots were surveyed about their flying experience, neck pain prevalence, and prevention. Multinomial logistic regressions were used to fit models between pilots' neck pain during and after flight and a range of personal and work characteristics. RESULTS In-flight neck pain was very weakly, yet positively associated with flight hours. Duration of postflight pain was positively associated with the weekly desktop work hours and the sum of preventative actions taken in flight. The duration pilots were considered temporarily medically unfit for flying was positively associated with pilots' age and their weekly desktop work hours. DISCUSSION The risk factors identified by the current study should guide neck pain prevention for fighter pilots. In particular, reducing desktop working hours as well as incorporating specific neck-strengthening exercises and in-flight bracing actions should be considered by agencies to help alleviating neck pain in their pilots.
Vision for Action in the Macaque Medial Posterior Parietal Cortex

Area V6A encodes hand configurations for grasping objects (Fattori et al., 2010). The aim of the present study was to investigate whether V6A cells also encode three-dimensional objects, and the relationship between object encoding and grip encoding. Single neurons were recorded in V6A of two monkeys trained to perform two tasks. In the first task, the monkeys were required to passively view an object without performing any action on it. In the second task, the monkeys viewed an object at the beginning of each trial and then they needed to grasp that object in darkness. Five different objects were used. Both tasks revealed that object presentation activates ∼60% of V6A neurons, with about half of them displaying object selectivity. In the Reach-to-Grasp task, the majority of V6A cells discharged during both object presentation and grip execution, displaying selectivity for either the object or the grip, or in some cases for both object and grip. Although the incidence of neurons encoding grips was twofold that of neurons encoding objects, object selectivity in single cells was as strong as grip selectivity, indicating that V6A cells were able to discriminate both the different objects and the different grips required to grasp them. Hierarchical cluster analysis revealed that clustering of the object-selective responses depended on the task requirements (view only or view to grasp) and followed a visual or a visuomotor rule, respectively. Object encoding in V6A reflects representations for action, useful for motor control in reach-to-grasp.
Controller for TORCS created by imitation

This paper is an initial approach to create a controller for the game TORCS by learning how another controller or humans play the game. We used data obtained from two controllers and from one human player. The first controller is the winner of the WCCI 2008 Simulated Car Racing Competition, and the second one is a hand coded controller that performs a complete lap in all tracks. First, each kind of controller is imitated separately, then a mix of the data is used to create new controllers. The imitation is performed by means of training a feed forward neural network with the data, using the backpropagation algorithm for learning.
Progressive NKCC1-Dependent Neuronal Chloride Accumulation during Neonatal Seizures

Seizures induce excitatory shifts in the reversal potential for GABAA-receptor-mediated responses, which may contribute to the intractability of electro-encephalographic seizures and preclude the efficacy of widely used GABAergic anticonvulsants such as phenobarbital. We now report that, in intact hippocampi prepared from neonatal rats and transgenic mice expressing Clomeleon, recurrent seizures progressively increase the intracellular chloride concentration ([Cl−]i) assayed by Clomeleon imaging and invert the net effect of GABAA receptor activation from inhibition to excitation assayed by the frequency of action potentials and intracellular Ca2+ transients. These changes correlate with increasing frequency of seizure-like events and reduction in phenobarbital efficacy. The Na+–K+–2Cl− (NKCC1) cotransporter blocker bumetanide inhibited seizure-induced neuronal Cl− accumulation and the consequent facilitation of recurrent seizures. Our results demonstrate a novel mechanism by which seizure activity leads to [Cl−]i accumulation, thereby increasing the probability of subsequent seizures. This provides a potential mechanism for the early crescendo phase of neonatal seizures.
Experiment materials for "The temporal delay hypothesis: Natural, vocoded and synthetic speech."

Including disfluencies in synthetic speech is being explored as a way of making synthetic speech sound more natural and conversational. How to measure whether the resulting speech is actually more natural, however, is not straightforward. Conventional approaches to synthetic speech evaluation fall short as a listener is either primed to prefer stimuli with filled pauses or, when they aren’t primed they prefer more fluent speech. Psycholinguistic reaction time experiments may circumvent this issue. In this paper, we revisit one such reaction time experiment. For natural speech, delays in word onset were found to facilitate word recognition regardless of the type of delay; be they a filled pause (um), silence or a tone. We expand these experiments by examining the effect of using vocoded and synthetic speech. Our results partially replicate previous findings. For natural and vocoded speech, if the delay is a silent pause, significant increases in the speed of word recognition are found. If the delay comprises a filled pause there is a significant increase in reaction time for vocoded speech but not for natural speech. For synthetic speech, no clear effects of delay on word recognition are found. We hypothesise this is because it takes longer (requires more cognitive resources) to process synthetic speech than natural or vocoded speech.
Antiinflammatory Effects of the ETS Factor ERG in Endothelial Cells Are Mediated Through Transcriptional Repression of the Interleukin-8 Gene

ERG (Ets-related gene) is an ETS transcription factor that has recently been shown to regulate a number of endothelial cell (EC)-restricted genes including VE-cadherin, von Willebrand factor, endoglin, and intercellular adhesion molecule-2. Our preliminary data demonstrate that unlike other ETS factors, ERG exhibits a highly EC-restricted pattern of expression in cultured primary cells and several adult mouse tissues including the heart, lung, and brain. In response to inflammatory stimuli, such as tumor necrosis factor-&agr;, we observed a marked reduction of ERG expression in ECs. To further define the role of ERG in the regulation of normal EC function, we used RNA interference to knock down ERG. Microarray analysis of RNA derived from ERG small interfering RNA– or tumor necrosis factor-&agr;–treated human umbilical vein (HUV)ECs revealed significant overlap (P<0.01) in the genes that are up- or downregulated. Of particular interest to us was a significant change in expression of interleukin (IL)-8 at both protein and RNA levels. Exposure of ECs to tumor necrosis factor-&agr; is known to be associated with increased neutrophil attachment. We observed that knockdown of ERG in HUVECs is similarly associated with increased neutrophil attachment compared to control small interfering RNA–treated cells. This enhanced adhesion could be blocked with IL-8 neutralizing or IL-8 receptor blocking antibodies. ERG can inhibit the activity of the IL-8 promoter in a dose dependent manner. Direct binding of ERG to the IL-8 promoter in ECs was confirmed by chromatin immunoprecipitation. In summary, our findings support a role for ERG in promoting antiinflammatory effects in ECs through repression of inflammatory genes such as IL-8.
Transiently Produced Hypochlorite Is Responsible for the Irreversible Inhibition of Chlorite Dismutase

Chlorite dismutases (Clds) are heme b-containing prokaryotic oxidoreductases that catalyze the reduction of chlorite to chloride with the concomitant release of molecular oxygen. Over time, they are irreversibly inactivated. To elucidate the mechanism of inactivation and investigate the role of the postulated intermediate hypochlorite, the pentameric chlorite dismutase of “Candidatus Nitrospira defluvii” (NdCld) and two variants (having the conserved distal arginine 173 exchanged with alanine and lysine) were recombinantly produced in Escherichia coli. Exchange of the distal arginine boosts the extent of irreversible inactivation. In the presence of the hypochlorite traps methionine, monochlorodimedone, and 2-[6-(4-aminophenoxy)-3-oxo-3H-xanthen-9-yl]benzoic acid, the extent of chlorite degradation and release of molecular oxygen is significantly increased, whereas heme bleaching and oxidative modifications of the protein are suppressed. Among other modifications, hypochlorite-mediated formation of chlorinated tyrosines is demonstrated by mass spectrometry. The data obtained were analyzed with respect to the proposed reaction mechanism for chlorite degradation and its dependence on pH. We discuss the role of distal Arg173 by keeping hypochlorite in the reaction sphere for O–O bond formation.
Speedup in the Traveling Repairman Problem with Constrained Time Windows

A bicriteria approximation algorithm is presented for the unrooted traveling repairman problem, realizing increased profit in return for increased speedup of repairman motion. The algorithm generalizes previous results from the case in which all time windows are the same length to the case in which their lengths can range between l and 2. This analysis can extend to any range of time window lengths, following our earlier techniques. This relationship between repairman profit and speedup is applicable over a range of values that is dependent on the cost of putting the input in an especially desirable form, involving what are called "trimmed windows. " For time windows with lengths between 1 and 2, the range of values for speedup $s$ for which our analysis holds is $1 \leq s \leq 6$. In this range, we establish an approximation ratio that is constant for any specific value of $s$.
B cells are essential for murine mammary tumor virus transmission, but not for presentation of endogenous superantigens

Murine mammary tumor viruses (MMTVs) are retroviruses that encode superantigens capable of stimulating T cells via superantigen-reactive T cell receptor V beta chains. MMTVs are transmitted to the suckling offspring through milk. Here we show that B cell-deficient mice foster nursed by virus-secreting mice do not transfer infectious MMTVs to their offspring. No MMTV proviruses could be detected in the spleen and mammary tissue of these mice, and no deletion of MMTV superantigen- reactive T cells occurred. By contrast, T cell deletion and positive selection due to endogenous MMTV superantigens occurred in B cell- deficient mice. We conclude that B cells are essential for the completion of the viral life cycle in vivo, but that endogenous MMTV superantigens can be presented by cell types other than B cells.
Epidemiological Aspects of Parapartum Mental Illness

Mental illnesses associated withchildbearing add unforeseen complexities toprepartum careorpostpartumrecoveryaswell astotheresponsibilities of marriage andparenthood. Whiletheonsetofmental illness atsuch atime may seem especially tragic, its obstetric background provides ancillary datathat may helptoidentify causative elements. Comparative data areavailable fromtheinformation routinely collected on allmaternity cases. Overa century ago,Marce(1858) differentiated theclinical characteristics ofprepartumandpostpartummental illnesses. He foundno features to distinguish prepartum psychotic andpsychoneurotic disturbances fromthoseunassociated withpregnancy.Incontrast, heidentified syndromes unique topostpartum mental illness. Hamilton (1962) hasfurther delineated thepsychiatric syndromes characteristic ofpostpartum disturbances. Theonsetisinsidious or sudden and thecourseerratic andunpredictable, asparturition isfirst followed bya lucid interval andthenew motherislater overwhelmed by a confusion or delirium which may ormay notbesoondispelled. Anepidemiological study (Paffenbarger, 1961) of obstetric andothervariables inpatients afflicted withpsychoses after childbirth hasledtofurther differentiation ofprepartum andpostpartum mental disturbances. Thepresent papercontrasts mothers whosechildbearing experience isaccompanied by mental illness andthose whoescapesuchtroubles. Specific obstetric variables areshowntodistinguish prepartum andpostpartum mental illness patients fromeachother andfromnormal childbearing women.
Mutation in the pssA Gene Involved in Exopolysaccharide Synthesis Leads to Several Physiological and Symbiotic Defects in Rhizobium leguminosarum bv. trifolii

The symbiotic nitrogen-fixing bacterium Rhizobium leguminosarum bv. trifolii 24.2 secretes large amounts of acidic exopolysaccharide (EPS), which plays a crucial role in establishment of effective symbiosis with clover. The biosynthesis of this heteropolymer is conducted by a multi-enzymatic complex located in the bacterial inner membrane. PssA protein, responsible for the addition of glucose-1-phosphate to a polyprenyl phosphate carrier, is involved in the first step of EPS synthesis. In this work, we characterize R. leguminosarum bv. trifolii strain Rt270 containing a mini-Tn5 transposon insertion located in the 3′-end of the pssA gene. It has been established that a mutation in this gene causes a pleiotropic effect in rhizobial cells. This is confirmed by the phenotype of the mutant strain Rt270, which exhibits several physiological and symbiotic defects such as a deficiency in EPS synthesis, decreased motility and utilization of some nutrients, decreased sensitivity to several antibiotics, an altered extracellular protein profile, and failed host plant infection. The data of this study indicate that the protein product of the pssA gene is not only involved in EPS synthesis, but also required for proper functioning of Rhizobium leguminosarum bv. trifolii cells.
A critical review of techniques for Term Structure analysis

Fixed income markets share many features with the equity markets. However there are significant differences as well and many attempts have been done in the past to develop specific tools which describe (and possibly forecasts) the behavior of such markets. For instance, a correct pricing of fixed income securities with fixed cache flows requires the knowledge of the {\it term structure} of interest rates. A number of techniques have been proposed for estimating and interpreting the term structure, yet solid theoretical foundations and a comparative assessment of the results produced by these techniques are not available. In this paper we define the fundamental concepts with a mathematical terminology. Besides that, we report about an extensive set of experiments whose scope is to point out the strong and weak points of the most widely used approaches in this field.
Statistical Structure Learning to Ensure Data Integrity in Smart Grid

Robust control and management of the grid relies on accurate data. Both phasor measurement units and remote terminal units are prone to false data injection attacks. Thus, it is crucial to have a mechanism for fast and accurate detection of tampered data-both for preventing attacks that may lead to blackouts, and for routine monitoring and control of current and future grids. We propose a decentralized false data injection detection scheme based on the Markov graph of the bus phase angles. We utilize the conditional covariance test CMIT to learn the structure of the grid. Using the dc power flow model, we show that, under normal circumstances, the Markov graph of the voltage angles is consistent with the power grid graph. Therefore, a discrepancy between the calculated Markov graph and learned structure should trigger the alarm. Our method can detect the most recent stealthy deception attack on the power grid that assumes knowledge of the bus-branch model of the system and is capable of deceiving the state estimator; hence damaging power network control, monitoring, demand response, and pricing scheme. Specifically, under the stealthy deception attack, the Markov graph of phase angles changes. In addition to detecting a state of attack, our method can detect the set of attacked nodes. To the best of our knowledge, our remedy is the first to comprehensively detect this sophisticated attack and it does not need additional hardware. Moreover, it is successful no matter the size of the attacked subset. Simulation of various power networks confirms our claims.
Extended Latanoprost Release from Commercial Contact Lenses: In Vitro Studies Using Corneal Models

In this study, we compared, for the first time, the release of a 432 kDa prostaglandin analogue drug, Latanoprost, from commercially available contact lenses using in vitro models with corneal epithelial cells. Conventional polyHEMA-based and silicone hydrogel soft contact lenses were soaked in drug solution ( solution in phosphate buffered saline). The drug release from the contact lens material and its diffusion through three in vitro models was studied. The three in vitro models consisted of a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) membrane without corneal epithelial cells, a PET membrane with a monolayer of human corneal epithelial cells (HCEC), and a PET membrane with stratified HCEC. In the cell-based in vitro corneal epithelium models, a zero order release was obtained with the silicone hydrogel materials (linear for the duration of the experiment) whereby, after 48 hours, between 4 to 6 of latanoprost (an amount well within the range of the prescribed daily dose for glaucoma patients) was released. In the absence of cells, a significantly lower amount of drug, between 0.3 to 0.5 , was released, (). The difference observed in release from the hydrogel lens materials in the presence and absence of cells emphasizes the importance of using an in vitro corneal model that is more representative of the physiological conditions in the eye to more adequately characterize ophthalmic drug delivery materials. Our results demonstrate how in vitro models with corneal epithelial cells may allow better prediction of in vivo release. It also highlights the potential of drug-soaked silicone hydrogel contact lens materials for drug delivery purposes.