Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Development of Very High Strength Concrete for Hong Kong

In order to explore the feasibility and means of producing very high strength concrete (with mean cube strength > 100 MPa) in Hong Kong, extensive trial mixing and testing have been conducted. The conditions adopted for the very high strength concretes described here are that only locally available materials and conventional production and curing methods can be used and that the heat of hydration and shrinkage should not be excessive. To satisfy these conditions, all ingredients were obtained from the local market and the mixes were designed to have a binder paste volume of not more than 35%. Because of the high strength requirement, volcanic aggregates, which are generally stronger, were used instead of the more commonly used granitic aggregates. In the testing programme, the effects of various mix parameters including binder paste volume, fine to total aggregates ratio, dosage of condensed silica fume, and combined usage of condensed silica fume and pulverized fuel ash etc. were studied. Based on the te.
Deep generative learning of location-invariant visual word recognition

It is widely believed that orthographic processing implies an approximate, flexible coding of letter position, as shown by relative-position and transposition priming effects in visual word recognition. These findings have inspired alternative proposals about the representation of letter position, ranging from noisy coding across the ordinal positions to relative position coding based on open bigrams. This debate can be cast within the broader problem of learning location-invariant representations of written words, that is, a coding scheme abstracting the identity and position of letters (and combinations of letters) from their eye-centered (i.e., retinal) locations. We asked whether location-invariance would emerge from deep unsupervised learning on letter strings and what type of intermediate coding would emerge in the resulting hierarchical generative model. We trained a deep network with three hidden layers on an artificial dataset of letter strings presented at five possible retinal locations. Though word-level information (i.e., word identity) was never provided to the network during training, linear decoding from the activity of the deepest hidden layer yielded near-perfect accuracy in location-invariant word recognition. Conversely, decoding from lower layers yielded a large number of transposition errors. Analyses of emergent internal representations showed that word selectivity and location invariance increased as a function of layer depth. Word-tuning and location-invariance were found at the level of single neurons, but there was no evidence for bigram coding. Finally, the distributed internal representation of words at the deepest layer showed higher similarity to the representation elicited by the two exterior letters than by other combinations of two contiguous letters, in agreement with the hypothesis that word edges have special status. These results reveal that the efficient coding of written words—which was the model's learning objective—is largely based on letter-level information.
Statistics of depolarization ratio from an airborne backscatter lidar

An important cloud optical property derived from elastic backscatter lidars is depolarization ratio because it is used to determine cloud phase. Statistics and trends of volume depolarization ratio were analyzed for four years, 2003–2007, of Cloud Physics Lidar data during five projects of varying geographic locations and meteorological seasons. The volume depolarization ratio was computed using the parallel and perpendicular polarized 1064 nm channels. The majority of the cloud layers yielded a volume depolarization ratio between 0.3 and 0.6 with the volume depolarization ratio frequency distribution centered at 0.45 for ice clouds and 0.05 for water clouds. On average for ice clouds, volume depolarization ratio increased significantly as temperatures decreased. No trend for water clouds was observed, since all water particles are in theory spherical.
Experiments in Constructing a Corpus of Discourse Trees

We discuss a tagging schema and a tagging tool for labeling the rhetorical structure of texts. We also propose a statistical method for measuring agreement of hierarchical structure annotations and we discuss its strengths and weaknesses. The statistical measure we use suggests that annotators can achieve good levels of agreement on the task of determining the high-level, rhetorical structure of texts. Our empirical experiments also suggest that building discourse parsers that incrementally derive correct rhetorical structures of unrestricted texts without applying any form of backtracking is unfea-
Mouse embryonic dorsal root ganglia contain pluripotent stem cells that show features similar to embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells

ABSTRACT In the present study, we showed that the dorsal root ganglion (DRG) in the mouse embryo contains pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) that have developmental capacities equivalent to those of embryonic stem (ES) cells and induced pluripotent stem cells. Mouse embryonic DRG cells expressed pluripotency-related transcription factors [octamer-binding transcription factor 4, SRY (sex determining region Y)-box containing gene (Sox) 2, and Nanog] that play essential roles in maintaining the pluripotency of ES cells. Furthermore, the DRG cells differentiated into ectoderm-, mesoderm- and endoderm-derived cells. In addition, these cells produced primordial germ cell-like cells and embryoid body-like spheres. We also showed that the combination of leukemia inhibitor factor/bone morphogenetic protein 2/fibroblast growth factor 2 effectively promoted maintenance of the pluripotency of the PSCs present in DRGs, as well as that of neural crest-derived stem cells (NCSCs) in DRGs, which were previously shown to be present there. Furthermore, the expression of pluripotency-related transcription factors in the DRG cells was regulated by chromodomain helicase DNA-binding protein 7 and Sox10, which are indispensable for the formation of NCSCs, and vice versa. These findings support the possibility that PSCs in mouse embryonic DRGs are NCSCs. Summary: We showed that mouse embryonic dorsal root ganglia contain pluripotent stem cells. We found significant similarities between pluripotent stem cells and neural crest-derived stem cells.
Electrophysiological properties of identified cells in the in vitro olfactory epithelium of the tiger salamander

An in vitro preparation of the salamander olfactory epithelium has been developed for electrophysiological analysis. Intracellular measurements of membrane properties of the main epithelial cell types have been carried out, combined with Lucifer Yellow injections. The most prevalent type of cell had a high resting membrane potential and relatively low input resistance. This cell never discharged impulses, either spontaneously or to injected current. Lucifer Yellow injections identified this cell type as a supporting cell. A less frequent type had a medium resting potential and a very high input resistance. This type always discharged impulses in response to injected depolarizing current. Lucifer Yellow injections identified this cell type as an olfactory receptor neuron. The least frequent type had a medium resting potential and a high input resistance. It never generated action potentials. This nonspiking type was tentatively identified as an immature receptor neuron in the process of differentiating from basal stem cells in the epithelium. These are the first results to document physiological properties for the main cell types and morphological identification of two of the types in the same preparation of the olfactory epithelium. Our results support previous suggestions regarding the glial-like properties of the supporting cells. The membrane properties of the receptor neurons appear to be well suited for mediating the olfactory sensory response of these cells.
Contextual Bandits with Linear Payoff Functions

In this paper we study the contextual bandit problem (also known as the multi-armed bandit problem with expert advice) for linear payoff functions. For T rounds, K actions, and d dimensional feature vectors, we prove an O (√ Td ln(KT ln(T )/δ) ) regret bound that holds with probability 1− δ for the simplest known (both conceptually and computationally) efficient upper confidence bound algorithm for this problem. We also prove a lower bound of Ω( √ Td) for this setting, matching the upper bound up to logarithmic factors.
Treatment of Human Tumor Xenografts with Monoclonal Antibody 806 in Combination with a Prototypical Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor–Specific Antibody Generates Enhanced Antitumor Activity

Monoclonal antibody (mAb) 806 is a novel epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) antibody with significant antitumor activity that recognizes a mutant EGFR commonly expressed in glioma known as delta2-7 EGFR (de2-7 EGFR or EGFRvIII) and a subset of the wild-type (wt) EGFR found in cells that overexpress the receptor. We have used two human xenograft mouse models to examine the efficacy of mAb 806 in combination with mAb 528, a prototypical anti-EGFR antibody with similar specificity to cetuximab. Treatment of nude mice, bearing s.c. or i.c. tumor human xenografts expressing the wt or de2-7 EGFR, with mAbs 806 and 528 in combination resulted in additive and in some cases synergistic, antitumor activity. Interestingly, mAb 528 was also effective against xenografts expressing the ligand independent de2-7 EGFR when used as a single agent, showing that its antitumor activity is not merely mediated through inhibition of ligand binding. When used as single agents, neither mAbs 806 or 528 induced down-regulation of the de2-7 EGFR either in vitro or in vivo. In contrast, the combination of antibodies produced a rapid and dramatic decrease in the total cell surface de2-7 EGFR both in vitro and in xenografts. Consistent with this decrease in total cell surface de2-7 EGFR, we observed up-regulation of the cell cycle inhibitor p27KIP1 and a decrease in tumor cell proliferation as measured by Ki-67 immunostaining when the antibodies were used in combination in vivo. Thus, mAb 806 can synergize with other EGFR-specific antibodies thereby providing a rationale for its translation into the clinic.
Effect of arginine vasopressin and ANP on intracellular pH and cytosolic free [Ca2+] regulation in MDCK cells.

BACKGROUND The effects of arginine vasopressin (AVP) on intracellular pH (pHi) are not clearly defined, and may vary with cell membrane surface and the hormonal doses being studied. Since cytosolic free calcium concentration ([Ca2+]i) has an important effect on cellular H+ extrusion and it was shown that AVP increases [Ca2+]i while atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) reduces it, there may be some interaction between AVP and ANP during the regulation of pHi. METHODS The effects of AVP and/or ANP on pHi and [Ca2+]i were investigated in Madin-Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cells by the fluorescent probes BCECF-AM and Fluo 4-AM, respectively. The pHi recovery rate was examined in the first two minutes following the acidification of pHi with a NH4Cl pulse. RESULTS AVP (10(-12) or 10(-9) mol/L) stimulated the rate of the Na+-dependent pHi recovery, but AVP (10(-6) mol/L) impaired it. At the apical membrane surface, specific V1 or V2 receptor antagonists did not alter the effects of AVP. At the basolateral membrane surface, the V1 antagonist returned both the stimulatory and inhibitory effects of AVP to control levels, and the V2 antagonist converted the inhibitory effect of AVP to a stimulatory effect. ANP (10(-6) mol/L) or dimethyl-BAPTA-AM (50 micromol/L) impaired both the stimulatory and inhibitory effects of AVP. AVP increased [Ca2+]i in a dose-dependent manner. ANP or dimethyl-BAPTA-AM decreased [Ca2+]i, and the subsequent addition of AVP caused only a partial recovery of [Ca2+]i. CONCLUSIONS The results are compatible with stimulation of the Na+/H+ exchanger by increases of [Ca2+]i in the lower range (at 10(-12) or 10(-9) mol/L AVP, via basolateral V1 receptors) and inhibition at high [Ca2+]i levels (at 10(-6) mol/L AVP, via basolateral V1 and V2 receptors). ANP, by impairing the path causing the increase in [Ca2+]i, blocks both the stimulatory and inhibitory effects of AVP on Na+-dependent pHi recovery.
From the past to the future.

Synthetic polymers were portrayed a mere curiosity by the leading organic chemists. They were considered an interesting but rather exotic playground by physical chemists and physics was barely interested in materials which showed such a complex and parameter dependent behavior as were polymers available in the years 1950–1970. And yet, polymers had become a major field of growth for the chemical industry worldwide and increasing amounts of polymers – frequently called ‘‘plastics’’ in a simplifying and generalizing context – were thrown into a seemingly unsaturable market. The reason was that synthetic polymers had developed into the growth engine for mass production of advanced technology products in rapidly growing markets of the automotive, aero space, electronics and packaging industries, just to mention a few of the important areas. In consequence, industry was in need to find scientifically trained experts and contacts to research groups who could assist in understanding the materials properties in response to the ever growing complex requests of the markets. This was particularly true in Germany where the chemical industry had become a major supplier of polymer materials for the world market in the late 1970s. The landscape of academic research in the field of polymers was rich but extremely scattered into small and highly specialized individual groups at the time. It was felt by the scientific community that the critical mass was lacking to bring the field of polymer science to a similar level of competence, international competitiveness
Analytical Study of Low-Field Diffusive Transport in Highly Asymmetric Bilayer Graphene Nanoribbon

We present a simplified theory of carrier backscattering coefficient in a twofold degenerate asymmetric bilayer graphene nanoribbon (BGN) under the application of a low static electric field. We show that for a highly asymmetric BGN (Δ = γ), the density of states in the lower subband increases more that of the upper, in which Δ and γ are the gap and the interlayer coupling constant, respectively. We also demonstrate that under the acoustic phonon scattering regime, the formation of two distinct sets of energy subbands signatures a quantized transmission coefficient as a function of ribbon width and provides an extremely low carrier reflection coefficient for a better Landauer conductance even at room temperature. The well-known result for the ballistic condition has been obtained as a special case of the present analysis under certain limiting conditions which forms an indirect validation of our theoretical formalism.
An Association-Oriented Partitioning Approach for Streaming Graph Query

The volumes of real-world graphs like knowledge graph are increasing rapidly, which makes streaming graph processing a hot research area. Processing graphs in streaming setting poses significant challenges from different perspectives, among which graph partitioning method plays a key role. Regarding graph query, a well-designed partitioning method is essential for achieving better performance. Existing offline graph partitioning methods often require full knowledge of the graph, which is not possible during streaming graph processing. In order to handle this problem, we propose an association-oriented streaming graph partitioning method named Assc. This approach first computes the rank values of vertices with a hybrid approximate PageRank algorithm. After splitting these vertices with an adapted variant affinity propagation algorithm, the process order on vertices in the sliding window can be determined. Finally, according to the level of these vertices and their association, the partition where the vertices should be distributed is decided. We compare its performance with a set of streaming graph partition methods and METIS, a widely adopted offline approach. The results show that our solution can partition graphs with hundreds of millions of vertices in streaming setting on a large collection of graph datasets and our approach outperforms other graph partitioning methods.
Yield Curves with Jump Short Rates

This paper develops a new approach to yield curve modelling, solving analytically for bond prices when the short interest rate is a pure jump process with a rate of jump proportional to the square of an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process. Our approach is best-suited to the problem of pricing short-dated bonds in markets in which the monetary authorities peg the short-rate, adjusting it periodically by discrete amounts. We thank Mike Orszag for many useful discussions and Jesus Saa-Requejo for valuable comments on a preliminary version of this paper. Much of the work for this project was completed while Perraudin was a visiting scholar at the Sveriges Riksbank and he thanks the Economics Department of the Riksbank for its hospitality. Opinions expressed in this paper are the authors' and do not necessarily agree with those of the Riksbank or of the Bank of England. Communications concerning this paper should be directed to William Perraudin, at the Department of Economics, Birkbeck College, 7-15, Gresse Street, London, W1P 2LL, UK, telephone 44-631 6404, email 100757.130@COMPUSERVE.COM .
Optimization of Phenolic Antioxidant Extraction from Wuweizi (Schisandra chinensis) Pulp Using Random-Centroid Optimazation Methodology

The extraction optimization and composition analysis of polyphenols in the fresh pulp of Wuweizi (Schisandra chinensis) have been investigated in this study. The extraction process of polyphenols from Wuweizi pulp was optimized using Random-Centroid Optimization (RCO) methodology. Six factors including liquid and solid ratio, ethanol concentration, pH, temperature, heating time and extraction times, and three extraction targets of polyphenol content, antioxidant activity and extract yield were considered in the RCO program. Three sets of optimum proposed factor values were obtained corresponding to three extraction targets respectively. The set of optimum proposed factor values for polyphenol extraction given was chosen in further experiments as following: liquid and solid ratio (v/w) 8, ethanol 67.3% (v/v), initial pH 1.75, temperature 55 °C for 4 h and extraction repeated for 4 times. The Wuweizi polyphenol extract (WPE) was obtained with a yield of 16.37 mg/g and composition of polyphenols 1.847 mg/g, anthocyanins 0.179 mg/g, sugar 9.573 mg/g and protein 0.327 mg/g. The WPE demonstrated high scavenging activities against DPPH radicals.
An approach to engineer and enforce context constraints in an RBAC environment

This paper presents an approach that uses special purpose RBAC constraints to base certain access control decisions on context information. In our approach a context constraint is defined as a dynamic RBAC constraint that checks the actual values of one or more contextual attributes for predefined conditions. If these conditions are satisfied, the corresponding access request can be permitted. Accordingly, a conditional permission is an RBAC permission which is constrained by one or more context constraints. We present an engineering process for context constraints, that is based on goal-oriented requirements engineering techniques, and describe how we extended the design and implementation of an existing RBAC service to enable the enforcement of context constraints. With our approach we aim to preserve the advantages of RBAC, and offer an additional means for the definition and enforcement of fine-grained context-dependent access control policies.
Evidence for Fast Electron Transfer between the High-Spin Haems in Cytochrome bd-I from Escherichia coli

Cytochrome bd-I is one of the three proton motive force-generating quinol oxidases in the O2-dependent respiratory chain of Escherichia coli. It contains one low-spin haem (b558) and the two high-spin haems (b595 and d) as the redox-active cofactors. In order to examine the flash-induced intraprotein reverse electron transfer (the so-called ''electron backflow''), CO was photolyzed from the ferrous haem d in one-electron reduced (b5583+b5953+d2+-CO) cytochrome bd-I, and the fully reduced (b5582+b5952+d2+-CO) oxidase as a control. In contrast to the fully reduced cytochrome bd-I, the transient spectrum of one-electron reduced oxidase at a delay time of 1.5 μs is clearly different from that at a delay time of 200 ns. The difference between the two spectra can be modeled as the electron transfer from haem d to haem b595 in 3–4% of the cytochrome bd-I population. Thus, the interhaem electron backflow reaction induced by photodissociation of CO from haem d in one-electron reduced cytochrome bd-I comprises two kinetically different phases: the previously unnoticed fast electron transfer from haem d to haem b595 within 0.2–1.5 μs and the slower well-defined electron equilibration with τ ~16 μs. The major new finding of this work is the lack of electron transfer at 200 ns.
Integrating flood depth and plant resistance with chlorantraniliprole seed treatments for management of rice water weevil, Lissorhoptrus oryzophilus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae)

Chlorantraniliprole seed treatments in rice provide effective suppression of rice water weevil populations in the United States; however, heavy reliance on prophylactic insecticide treatments as a sole strategy could destabilize management programs for this insect. The present research evaluated the compatibility of seed treatments with two other potential management tactics—plant resistance and shallow flooding–by conducting two split‐plot experiments in 2009 and 2011. In both experiments, no substantial antagonism was found among the 3 different tactics. Statistical interactions in these experiments arose from the strong and persistent effects of chlorantraniliprole on larval densities rather than incompatibility of tactics. In 2009, weevil densities differed among varieties and were significantly lower on the cultivar “Jefferson. ” In 2011, weevil densities were reduced significantly in shallow‐flooded plots compared to deep‐flooded plots. Significant reductions in weevil numbers by chlorantraniliprole seed treatments, even at application rates 5 fold lower than commercially recommended rates, demonstrated the potential to reduce application rates of this highly potent larvicide. These latter results suggest that future studies on the relationship between chlorantraniliprole seed treatment rate and weevil fitness are warranted.
Knowledge, probability, and adversaries

What should it mean for an agent to know or believe an assertion is true with probability 9.99? Different papers [2, 6, 15] give different answers, choosing to use quite different probability spaces when computing the probability that an agent assigns to an event. We show that each choice can be understood in terms of a betting game. This betting game itself can be understood in terms of three types of adversaries influencing three different aspects of the game. The first selects the outcome of all nondeterministic choices in the system; the second represents the knowledge of the agent's opponent in the betting game (this is the key place the papers mentioned above differ); and the third is needed in asynchronous systems to choose the time the bet is placed. We illustrate the need for considering all three types of adversaries with a number of examples. Given a class of adversaries, we show how to assign probability spaces to agents in a way most appropriate for that class, where “most appropriate” is made precise in terms of this betting game. We conclude by showing how different assignments of probability spaces (corresponding to different opponents) yield different levels of guarantees in probabilistic coordinated attack.