Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Spectral Analysis of Quasi-Cyclic Product Codes

This paper considers a linear quasi-cyclic product code of two given quasi-cyclic codes of relatively prime lengths over finite fields. We give the spectral analysis of a quasi-cyclic product code in terms of the spectral analysis of the row and column codes. Moreover, we provide a new lower bound on the minimum Hamming distance of a given quasi-cyclic code and present a new algebraic decoding algorithm. More specifically, we prove an explicit (unreduced) basis of an ℓ<sub>A</sub>ℓ<sub>B</sub>-quasi-cyclic product code in terms of the generator matrix in reduced Grobner basis with respect to the position-over-term (RGB/POT) order form of the ℓ<sub>A</sub>-quasi-cyclic row code and the ℓ<sub>B</sub>-quasicyclic column code, respectively. This generalizes the work of Burton and Weldon for the generator polynomial of a cyclic product code (where ℓ<sub>A</sub> = ℓ<sub>B</sub> = 1). Furthermore, we derive the generator matrix in Pre-RGB/POT form of an ℓ<sub>A</sub>ℓ<sub>B</sub>-quasi-cyclic product code for two special cases: i) for ℓ<sub>A</sub> = 2 and ℓ<sub>B</sub> = 1 and ii) if the row code is a one-level ℓ<sub>A</sub>-quasi-cyclic code (for arbitrary ℓ<sub>A</sub>) and ℓ<sub>B</sub> = 1. For arbitrary ℓ<sub>A</sub> and ℓ<sub>B</sub>, the PreRGB/POT form of the generator matrix of an ℓ<sub>A</sub>ℓ<sub>B</sub>-quasi-cyclic product code is conjectured. The spectral analysis is applied to the generator matrix of the product of an ℓ-quasi-cyclic and a cyclic code, and we propose a new lower bound on the minimum Hamming distance of a given ℓ-quasi-cyclic code. In addition, we develop an efficient syndrome-based decoding algorithm for ℓ-phased burst errors with guaranteed decoding radius.
COMPUTATIONAL MODELS RELATING PROPERTIES OF VISUAL NEURONS TO NATURAL STIMULUS STATISTICS

The topic of this thesis is mathematical modeling of computations taking place in the visual system, the largest sensory system in the primate brain. While a great deal is known about how certain visual neurons respond to stimuli, a very profound question is why they respond as they do. Here this question is approached by formulating models of computation which might underlie the observed response properties. The main motivation is to improve our understanding of how the brain functions. A better understanding of the computational underpinnings of the visual system may also yield advances in medical technology or computer vision, such as development of visual prostheses, or design of computer vision algorithms. In this thesis several models of computation are examined. An underlying assumption in this work is that the statistical properties of visual stimuli are related to the structure of the visual system. The relationship has formed through the mechanisms of evolution and development. A model of computation specifies this relationship between the visual system and stimulus statistics. Such a model also contains free parameters which correspond to properties of visual neurons. The experimental evaluation of a model consists of estimation of these parameters from a large amount of natural visual data, and comparison of the resulting parameter values against neurophysiological knowledge of the properties of the neurons, or results obtained with other models. The main contribution of this thesis is the introduction of new models of computation in the primary visual cortex. The results obtained with these models suggest that one defining feature of the computations performed by a class of neurons called simple cells, is that the output of a neuron consists of periods of intense neuronal activity. It also seems that the activity levels of nearby simple cells are positively correlated over short time intervals. In addition, the probability of the occurrence of such regions of intense activity in the joint space of time and cortical area seems to be small. Another contribution of the thesis is the examination of the relationship between two previous computational models, namely independent component analysis and local spatial frequency analysis. This examination suggests that results obtained with independent component analysis share some important properties with wavelets, in the way their localization in space and frequency depends on their average spatial frequency.
An Epistemic Event Calculus for ASP-based Reasoning About Knowledge of the Past, Present and Future

We present a generalisation of the Event Calculus, specified in classical logic and implemented in ASP, that facilitates reasoning about non-binary-valued fluents in domains with non-deterministic, triggered, concurrent, and possibly conflicting actions. We show via a case study how this framework may be used as a basis for a “possible-worlds” style approach to epistemic and causal reasoning in a narrative setting. In this framework an agent may gain knowledge about both fluent values and action occurrences through sensing actions, lose knowledge via non-deterministic actions, and represent plans that include conditional actions whose conditions may be initially unknown.
Effect of Different Live Foods Source (Culex Larvae, Chironomus Larvae and Artemia) on Pigmentation of Electric Yellow Fish (Labidochromis Caeruleus)

The orange-red spectrum of the skin of electric yellow (Labidochromis caeruleus) is one of the idealistic and necessary schemas sought by aquarists and commercial producers. In this study, the effect of live foods meal on the skin coloration of juvenile electric yellow was examined. 270 fish with an average living body weight was 0.42 ± 0.11 g, and average total length was 3.3 ± 0.35 cm. Their sex was not taken into consideration. The fish were fed twice in the morning and afternoon by 3-5 percent of the biomass for 8 weeks. The six different treatments (three replicates/treatment) used in the experiment were used. Skin color was measured in below the dorsal fin of all fish. Measurements were recorded at the end of the feeding trial using a Konica Minolta Chroma Meter CR400. At the end of the trial, the carotenoid supplemented diets significantly increased the values of redness (a*), yellowness (b*), and chroma (C*), and decreased the values of lightness (L*) and hue (Hoab) on the tail, body, and head areas (p<0.05). luminosity (L*) and hue (H°ab) were less in fishes fed the diets with live foods and astaxanthin than in fishes fed the control diet with no pigment sources (p<0.05). yellowness (b*), and Chroma (C*) were greater in fish fed the culex and were less in fish fed the control diet(p<0.05). Results show that live foods used in this trial can be used as an alternative natural carotenoid source in electric yellow diets.
NMO-IgG in the diagnosis of neuromyelitis optica

Sinemet or carbidopa/levodopa (C/L) is the major formulation of dopa-decarboxylase inhibitor/levodopa in the United States and is available in three doses: 10/100, 25/100, and 25/250. Skin rash has been associated with the yellow dye in the 25/100 formulation.1 We report two patients with rashes resulting from C/L 25/100 who were switched to different levodopa formulations not containing yellow dye without difficulty. ### Case 1. A 63-year-old man was diagnosed with Parkinson disease (PD) in 1999 at a movement disorders clinic after a 2-year history of left hand tremor and slowness. Initial treatment with selegiline and pramipexole resulted in good clinical benefit. Because of increasing disability, C/L 25/100 three times daily was added in 2003. While this helped his symptoms significantly, within 14 days a maculopapular rash developed over the trunk and arms. C/L was abruptly discontinued, and the rash resolved, but returned a few months later, when this agent was re-initiated. The patient found …
Estimates of lifetime attributable risk of cancer after a single radiation exposure from 64-slice computed tomographic coronary angiography

Aims To estimate the life attributable risk (LAR) of cancer incidence over a wide range of dose radiation exposure and a large spectrum of possible diagnostic computed tomographic coronary angiography (CTCA) scenarios. Methods This study included 561 consecutive patients who underwent a successful prospective ECG-gating CTCA protocol (low-dose group) 64-slice CTCA and 188 patients who underwent retrospective ECG-gating CTCA with ECG-triggered dose modulation CTCA (high-dose group). LAR was computed, given the organ equivalent dose, for all cancers in both sexes. LAR was tabulated for each decile of dose-length product by 10-year age classes, separately for each sex. Results Estimates of LAR of any cancer for an exposure at age ≤40 year were lower in males than in females for any given quantile. At age ≥50years, LAR was similar between sexes only at the lowest exposure doses, whereas at higher dosage, it was, in general, higher for women. At the median age of this case series (62 years) and for a radiation exposure ranging from 1.33 to 3.81 mSv, LAR was 1 in 4329 (or 23.1 per 105 persons exposed) and 1 in 4629 (or 21.6 per 105 persons) in men and women, respectively. For an exposure ranging from 10.34 to 18.97 mSv at the same median age, the LAR of cancer incidence was 1 in 1336 (or 74.8 per 105 persons) in men and doubled (1 in 614 or 162.8 per 105 persons) in women. Conclusions This study provided an estimate of the LAR of cancer in middle-aged patients of both sexes after a single diagnostic CTCA, providing an easy-to-read table.
Temporal changes in TFF 3 expression and jejunal morphology during methotrexate-induced damage and repair

Xian, C. J., G. S. Howarth, C. E. Mardell, J. C. Cool, M. Familari, L. C. Read, and A. S. Giraud. Temporal changes in TFF3 expression and jejunal morphology during methotrexate-induced damage and repair. Am. J. Physiol. 277 (Gastrointest. Liver Physiol. 40): G785–G795, 1999. —Trefoil factor TFF3 has been implicated in intestinal protection and repair. This study investigated the spatiotemporal relationship between TFF3 expression and morphological changes during intestinal damage and repair in a rat model of methotrexateinduced small intestinal mucositis. Intestinal tissues from rats with mucositis were collected daily for 10 days. Mucosal damage was characterized by an initial decrease in cell proliferation resulting in crypt loss, villus atrophy, and depletion of goblet cells, followed by hyperproliferation that lead to crypt and villus regeneration and mucous cell repopulation. TFF3 mRNA levels increased marginally during histological damage, and the cell population expressing TFF3 mRNA expanded from the usual goblet cells to include some nongoblet epithelial cells before goblet cell repopulation. TFF3 peptide, however, was depleted during histological damage and normalized during repair, mirroring the disappearance and repopulation of goblet cells. Although there is no temporal relationship between TFF3 levels and crypt hyperproliferation, confirming the nonmitogenic nature of TFF3, the coincidental normalization of TFF3 peptide with repopulation of goblet cells and mucin production after proliferative overshoot suggests that TFF3 may play a role in the remodeling phase of repair.
Maternal and Fetal Outcomes of Women with Epilepsy: Study from a Tertiary Care Center in India

Second only to headache as the commonest neurological disorder in pregnancy, epilepsy has a prevalence of 0.3-0.7% [1]. Most of the females with epilepsy have uneventful pregnancies [2,3] but many studies have shown that epilepsy can cause increased complications in the form of abortions, bleeding in early pregnancy, nausea and vomiting, preterm labor, hypertension, intrauterine growth restriction, intrauterine foetal demise and increased caesarean delivery rates [4-6]. The fetus is at a much higher risk of teratogenicity due to the antiepileptic drug (AED) intake by the mother [7]. Due to increased drug metabolism and clearance, and increased volume of distribution associated with pregnancy, serum concentration of drugs decrease, leading to higher frequency of seizures in pregnancy necessitating an increase in the dosage of AED [8]. In this study we have analyzed the obstetric and fetal outcomes of women with epilepsy. We have also compared outcomes of women who had epilepsy due a known cause and the ones with epilepsy of unknown origin; and outcomes in women on first and second generation AEDs. Materials and Methods
Understanding Locality-Awareness in Peer-to-Peer Systems

Locality-awareness is one of the essential characteristics for peer-to-peer (P2P) systems. Recently, many locality-aware algorithms have been proposed, in which locality can be defined as different network metrics. In this paper, we compare different performance optimization goals between peer users and ISPs, and then present a detailed simulation study to accurately explore how locality-aware algorithms based on different network metrics influence the performance of real P2P systems. Two widely deployed P2P systems, including BitTorrent, a content-distribution system, and CoolStreaming, a media streaming system, are tested under the real data set from PlanetLab in our extensive simulations. Experimental results suggest that selecting neighbors within the same AS is desirable, which can decrease user experienced delays and keep traffic locality.
Bandlimited Quasi-Synchronous CDMA: A Novel Satellite Access Technique for Mobile and Personal Communication Systems

Recent trends in digital communications are opening commercial applications to code division multiple access (CDMA). A novel access technique based on bandlimited quasi-synchronous CDMA (BLQS-CDMA) is described, showing all the advantages of synchronizing conventional direct sequence CDMA to drastically reduce the effect of self-noise. Bandlimitation is achieved with no detection loss by means of Nyquist chip shaping, leading to a simple all-digital demodulator structure. Detection losses due to imperfect carrier frequency and chip timing synchronization are analytically derived and numerical results are checked by computer simulations. Impairments due to satellite transponder distortions are evaluated. The full digital modem structure is presented, together with possible applications to mobile and very small aperture terminal (VSAT) satellite communications. >
Evaluating an Authentic Audio-Visual Expressive Speech Corpus

This paper presents an evaluation of the acted part of an audio-visual corpus of emotional speech. This corpus is intended to collect both spontaneous and acted emotions, and then the perceptive efficiency of stimuli to carry emotional expression has to be rated. The evaluation of acted speech is presented here, and will give us a scale to measure the spontaneous expressions.
A method for evaluating workplace utility

Acquiring office buildings that provide the required level of utility, and maintaining the buildings in that state, should be a priority for any organisation. Failure to do so may give rise to increased churn, reduced productivity, higher employee turnover, increased staff absenteeism and rising health care costs related to heightened stress. There is, however, no single measure of office building utility. Discusses the development of a valid and reliable scale for measuring the utility of public sector office buildings. Data collection involved the use of focus groups and an online survey of 1,800 building occupants. The findings suggest that the utility of public sector office buildings can be measured using a 22‐item scale comprising four dimensions. The potential applications of the scale and its use in current research are examined.
Social Solidarities: Theories, Identities and Social Change

Social solidarity is important in many areas of our lives, or at least in how we wish our lives to be. Family and kinship relationships, community life, trade union activity and the identity politics of new social movements are just some of the numerous ways in which social solidarity features in contemporary social arrangements. This book explores the way in which people strive to come together and act as a coherent, unified force. It considers the arguments of those who claim that solidarity is increasingly fragile, and of those who are concerned with revitalizing solidarities in our unsettled societies. The author shows how social change can be understood in the contexts of the limitations as well as the potential of the pursuit of solidarity, drawing on research findings on social relationships in families, communities, and the post-communist world. Written with undergraduate students and researchers in mind, this text should be of value to those studying social theory, and family, community or comparative sociology.
Online Social Spammer Detection

The explosive use of social media also makes it a popular platform for malicious users, known as social spammers, to overwhelm normal users with unwanted content. One effective way for social spammer detection is to build a classifier based on content and social network information. However, social spammers are sophisticated and adaptable to game the system with fast evolving content and network patterns. First, social spammers continually change their spamming content patterns to avoid being detected. Second, reflexive reciprocity makes it easier for social spammers to establish social influence and pretend to be normal users by quickly accumulating a large number of "human" friends. It is challenging for existing anti-spamming systems based on batch-mode learning to quickly respond to newly emerging patterns for effective social spammer detection. In this paper, we present a general optimization framework to collectively use content and network information for social spammer detection, and provide the solution for efficient online processing. Experimental results on Twitter datasets confirm the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed framework.
Refinement of docked protein–ligand and protein–DNA structures using low frequency normal mode amplitude optimization

Prediction of structural changes resulting from complex formation, both in ligands and receptors, is an important and unsolved problem in structural biology. In this work, we use all-atom normal modes calculated with the Elastic Network Model as a basis set to model structural flexibility during formation of macromolecular complexes and refine the non-bonded intermolecular energy between the two partners (protein–ligand or protein–DNA) along 5–10 of the lowest frequency normal mode directions. The method handles motions unrelated to the docking transparently by first applying the modes that improve non-bonded energy most and optionally restraining amplitudes; in addition, the method can correct small errors in the ligand position when the first six rigid-body modes are switched on. For a test set of six protein receptors that show an open-to-close transition when binding small ligands, our refinement scheme reduces the protein coordinate cRMS by 0.3–3.2 Å. For two test cases of DNA structures interacting with proteins, the program correctly refines the docked B-DNA starting form into the expected bent DNA, reducing the DNA cRMS from 8.4 to 4.8 Å and from 8.7 to 5.4 Å, respectively. A public web server implementation of the refinement method is available at .
Retrotransposition-Competent Human LINE-1 Induces Apoptosis in Cancer Cells With Intact p53

Retrotransposition of human LINE-1 (L1) element, a major representative non-LTR retrotransposon in the human genome, is known to be a source of insertional mutagenesis. However, nothing is known about effects of L1 retrotransposition on cell growth and differentiation. To investigate the potential for such biological effects and the impact that human L1 retrotransposition has upon cancer cell growth, we examined a panel of human L1 transformed cell lines following a complete retrotransposition process. The results demonstrated that transposition of L1 leads to the activation of the p53-mediated apoptotic pathway in human cancer cells that possess a wild-type p53. In addition, we found that inactivation of p53 in cells, where L1 was undergoing retrotransposition, inhibited the induction of apoptosis. This suggests an association between active retrotransposition and a competent p53 response in which induction of apoptosis is a major outcome. These data are consistent with a model in which human retrotransposition is sensed by the cell as a “genetic damaging event” and that massive retrotransposition triggers signaling pathways resulting in apoptosis.
The influence of demographic characteristics, cognitive and non-cognitive attributes on the effectiveness of the LADDERS probation intervention program

THE INFLUENCE OF DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS, COGNITIVE AND NON-COGNITIVE ATTRIBUTES ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE LADDERS PROBATION INTERVENTION PROGRAM Tend M. Mathews Old Dominion University, 2008 Director: Dr. Linda Bol Retention is an important measure for institutions of higher education thereby making improved academic success and increased retention of paramount concern to university administrators. This concern has resulted in a body of literature addressing retention and the development of retention programs. Few of these programs however, have been empirically evaluated for their effectiveness and repeatedly, the literature has cited the need for evaluation of retention and probation programs across demographic, cognitive and non-cognitive characteristics. The purpose of this research was to determine whether the LADDERS (Let Academic Difficulty Disappear to Energize and Retain Students) program developed by Old Dominion University is an effective model that can be used to improve academic achievement and retention rates of probationary undergraduate students. ANOVA, Factorial ANOVA and Logistic Regression were used to compare the academic achievement and retention of probationary students who attended the LADDERS program across their demographic characteristics and cognitive and non-cognitive attributes. The results of this study showed that participation in the LADDERS program leads to higher GPA and greater retention of students. Findings further suggest that participation in LADDERS may be especially effective for improving retention rates among minority male students.
The p21‐activated kinase, Shk1, is required for proper regulation of microtubule dynamics in the fission yeast, Schizosaccharomyces pombe

The p21‐activated kinase, Shk1, is required for the proper establishment of cell polarity in the fission yeast, Schizosaccharomyces pombe. We showed recently that loss of the essential Shk1 inhibitor, Skb15, causes significant spindle defects in fission yeast, thus implicating Shk1 as a potential regulator of microtubule dynamics. Here, we show that cells deficient in Shk1 function have malformed interphase microtubules and mitotic microtubule spindles, are hypersensitive to the microtubule‐destabilizing drug thiabendazole (TBZ) and cold sensitive for growth. TBZ treatment causes a downregulation of Shk1 kinase activity, which increases rapidly after release of cells from the drug, thus providing a correlation between Shk1 kinase function and active microtubule polymerization. Consistent with a role for Shk1 as a regulator of microtubule dynamics, green fluorescent protein (GFP)–Shk1 fusion proteins localize to interphase microtubules and mitotic microtubule spindles, as well as to cell ends and septum‐forming regions of fission yeast cells. We show that loss of Tea1, a cell end‐ and microtubule‐localized protein previously implicated as a regulator of microtubule dynamics in fission yeast, exacerbates the growth and microtubule defects resulting from partial loss of Shk1 and that Shk1 localizes to illicit growth tips produced by tea1 mutant cells. Our results demonstrate that Shk1 is required for the proper regulation of microtubule dynamics in fission yeast and implicate Tea1 as a potential Shk1 regulator.