Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Rhythmic analysis and quantitative measures: the essence of rhythm as temporal patterning

A comparison of Standard Italian and Southern Italian dialects is carried out using acoustic measures related to structural properties: Vowel-interval and consonantal inter-vowel-interval durations are used to obtain rhythmic measures based on a number of approach. Italian is usually considered to be ‘syllable-timed’. The structural features found in the dialects offer support for a divergence from the traditional assumption of syllable-timing. Rhythm measures are calculated according to Ramus at al. 1999, Grabe-Low 2002, Barry et al. 2003, Russo-Barry to appear. In agreement with predictions derived from phonological observation, the results of the measures show a ‘rhythm plot’ in which the ‘Pairwise Variability Indices (PVIs) place the Italian dialect speakers nearer to the stress-timed’ languages than traditional typology statements would lead one to expect .
Psoriatic Nail Changes Are Associated With Clinical Outcomes in Psoriatic Arthritis

Background: Nail changes are common in psoriatic arthritis (PsA), with varying relationships existing between skin, nail, and joint disease. Objective: To further characterize relationships between nail changes, psoriasis, and joint involvement in PsA patients. Methods: One hundred eighty-eight PsA patients had skin, fingernail, and rheumatological assessments completed. Hand and fingernail photographs were taken and reviewed by a dermatologist. Results: Higher swollen joint counts were associated with distal interphalangeal (DIP)/periungual psoriasis (P = .001), more splinter hemorrhages (P = .006), and any nail bed change (P = .03). Higher tender joint counts were associated with rough onychorrhexis (P < .001), DIP/periungual psoriasis (P = .03), red lunula (P = .001), nail crumbling (P = .046), any nail matrix (P = .03), and nail bed change (P = .03). Joint involvement was associated with same-digit nail changes; strongest association was swollen or tender DIP with subungual hyperkeratosis, odds ratio = 26.6 (95% CI, 5.1-139.1). Conclusion: The DIP/periungual psoriasis and specific nail changes were associated with higher joint counts and certain nail changes with same-digit joint involvement.
A CONSTRUCTIONAL APPROACH TO ARGUMENT REALIZATION OF CHINESE RESULTATIVES

This paper argues for a constructional view of the resultative constructions, specifically the resultative-verb compounds (henceforth RVCs). We claim that the effect of the construction must be taken into account in the realization of arguments, and the realization must be moderated by the linking rules. This paper is organized as follows: Section 2 provides a brief definition of resultatives in English and Chinese; Section 3 reviews previous works on Chinese resultatives; Section 4 introduces the constructional approach and argument realization; Section 5 proposes the event-frames and linking rules in Chinese RVC constructions; Section 6 discusses the Chinese inverted causative RVC constructions. Section 7 concludes this paper.
Social Hierarchy and Depression: The Role of Emotion Suppression

ABSTRACT Position in the social hierarchy is a major determinant of health outcomes. We examined the associations between aspects of social hierarchy and depressive symptoms with a specific focus on one potential psychological mechanism: emotion suppression. Suppressing negative emotion has mental health costs, but individuals with low social power and low social status may use these strategies to avoid conflict. Study 1 assessed perceived social power, tendency to suppress negative emotion, and depressive symptoms in a community sample of women. Low social power was related to greater depressive symptoms, and this relationship was partially mediated by emotion suppression. Study 2 examined education as a proxy for social hierarchy position, anger suppression, and depressive symptoms in a national, longitudinal cohort study (The Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults [CARDIA] study; Cutter et al., 1991). Much as in Study 1, low education levels were correlated with greater depressive symptoms, and this relationship was partially mediated by anger suppression. Further, suppression mediated the relationship between low education and subsequent depression up to 15 years later. These findings support the theory that social hierarchy affects mental health in part through a process of emotion suppression.
Optimal routing control: repeated game approach

Communication networks shared by selfish users are considered and modeled as noncooperative repeated games. Each user is interested only in optimizing its own performance by controlling the routing of its load. We investigate the existence of a Nash equilibrium point (NEP) that achieves the system-wide optimum cost. The existence of a subgame-perfect NEP that not only achieves the system-wide optimum cost but also yields a cost for each user no greater than its stage game NEP cost is shown for two-node multiple link networks. It is shown that more general networks where all users have the same source-destination pair have a subgame-perfect NEP that achieves the minimum total system cost, under a mild technical condition. It is shown that general networks with users having multiple source-destination pairs do not necessarily have such an NEP.
Pharmacologic Receptor Activity of Rabbit Aorta: Effect of Dithiothreitol and N‐Ethylmaleimide

N-ethylmaleimide (NEM), an alkylating agent that covalently binds sulfhydryl groups, and dithiothreitol (DTT, Cleland's reagent), which reduces disulfide bridges to sulfhydryl groups, affected drug-induced contractions of rabbit aorta. NEM depressed aortic responses to potassium chloride (KCl), norepinephrine, serotonin, histamine, and angiotensin II. This action was attributed to an interaction of NEM with sulfhydryl groups vital to either the membrane function or the contractile apparatus. DTT had minimal effects on responses to KCl, norepinephrine, and serotonin; it potentiated aortic contractions produced by histamine and abolished responses to angiotensin II. Enhancement of the histamine response by DTT was not accompanied by an effect on the histamine-metabolizing enzymes or by an alteration in the KB and pA2 values for pyrilamine. The results suggest that a disulfide bridge plays a prominent role in both histamine and angiotensin receptor activity of rabbit aorta. With regard to the histamine receptor system, two possibilities exist: (1) reduction of a disulfide bridge at some vital point increases receptor activity or (2) the histamine receptor system, normally in a reduced state, is oxidized in the artificial environment of the tissue bath and needs to be reduced to regain full activity.
Different modes of evolution in males and females generate dichromatism in fairy-wrens (Maluridae)

Sexual dichromatism in birds is often attributed to selection for elaboration in males. However, evolutionary changes in either sex can result in plumage differences between them, and such changes can result in either gains or losses of dimorphism. We reconstructed the evolution of plumage colors in both males and females of species in Maluridae, a family comprising the fairy-wrens (Malurus, Clytomias, Sipodotus), emu-wrens (Stipiturus), and grasswrens (Amytornis). Our results show that, across species, males and females differ in their patterns of color evolution. Male plumage has diverged at relatively steady rates, whereas female coloration has changed dramatically in some lineages and little in others. Accordingly, in comparisons against evolutionary models, plumage changes in males best fit a Brownian motion (BM) model, whereas plumage changes in females fit an Ornstein Uhlenbeck (OU) multioptimum model, with different adaptive peaks corresponding to distributions in either Australia or New Guinea. Levels of dichromatism were significantly associated with latitude, with greater dichromatism in more southerly taxa. Our results suggest that current patterns of plumage diversity in fairy-wrens are a product of evolutionary changes in both sexes, driven in part by environmental differences across the distribution of the family.
Randomized Cache Placement for Eliminating Conflicts

Applications with regular patterns of memory access can experience high levels of cache conflict misses. In shared-memory multiprocessors conflict misses can be increased significantly by the data transpositions required for parallelization. Techniques such as blocking which are introduced within a single thread to improve locality, can result in yet more conflict misses. The tension between minimizing cache conflicts and the other transformations needed for efficient parallelization leads to complex optimization problems for parallelizing compilers. This paper shows how the introduction of a pseudorandom element into the cache index function can effectively eliminate repetitive conflict misses and produce a cache where miss ratio depends solely on working set behavior. We examine the impact of pseudorandom cache indexing on processor cycle times and present practical solutions to some of the major implementation issues for this type of cache. Our conclusions are supported by simulations of a superscalar out-of-order processor executing the SPEC95 benchmarks, as well as from cache simulations of individual loop kernels to illustrate specific effects. We present measurements of instructions committed per cycle (IPC) when comparing the performance of different cache architectures on whole-program benchmarks such as the SPEC95 suite.
The Gender-specific Face Aftereffect Is Based in Retinotopic Not Spatiotopic Coordinates across Several Natural Image Transformations Experiment 1 Experiment 2

In four experiments, we measured the gender-specific face-aftereffect following subject's eye movement, head rotation, or head movement toward the display and following movement of the adapting stimulus itself to a new test location. In all experiments, the face aftereffect was strongest at the retinal position, orientation, and size of the adaptor. There was no advantage for the spatiotopic location in any experiment nor was there an advantage for the location newly occupied by the adapting face after it moved in the final experiment. Nevertheless, the aftereffect showed a broad gradient of transfer across location, orientation and size that, although centered on the retinotopic values of the adapting stimulus, covered ranges far exceeding the tuning bandwidths of neurons in early visual cortices. These results are consistent with a high-level site of adaptation (e.g. FFA) where units of face analysis have modest coverage of visual field, centered in retinotopic coordinates, but relatively broad tolerance for variations in size and orientation. The gender-specific face aftereffect is based in retinotopic not spatiotopic coordinates across several natural image transformations. Introduction David Marr (Marr, 1982) characterized vision as " knowing what is where. " For much of the visual cortex, " knowing where " appears to be based in a retinotopic coordinate system. With each eye, head and body movement , the image of the world shifts on the retina and across the retinotopic cortical areas. Despite these displacements, our perception of the world is for the most part reassuringly stationary and stable. Evidently, these displacements in retinal coordinates are corrected at some higher level to generate world-based coordinates. Whether these coordinates are explicitly represented in a spatiotopic map is a topic of intense debate. Clearly, a retinotopic map can be made to track object locations in the world if retinotopic target positions are shifted to compensate for eye movements One approach to examine the coordinate frame of visual coding is to test for aftereffects of adaptation when an eye movement intervenes between adaptation and test. There have been reports of spatiotopic aftereffectsVthe presence of an aftereffect at the same spatial location as the adaptation but different retinal locationVfor tilt, shape and face adaptation (Melcher, 2005) as well as for motion (Ezzati, Golzar, & Afraz, 2008). As pointed out by Melcher (2005), faces are among the stimuli thought to require the and therefore more likely to tap spatiotopic representations. For that reason, we focus here on …
A Sketch-based Sampling Algorithm on Sparse Data

We propose a sketch-based sampling algorithm, which effectively exploits the data sparsity. Sampling methods have become popular in large-scale data mining and information retrieval, where high data sparsity is a norm. A distinct feature of our algorithm is that it combines the advantages of both conventional random sampling and more modern randomized algorithms such as local sensitive hashing (LSH). While most sketch-based algorithms are designed for specific summary statistics, our proposed algorithm is a general purpose technique, useful for estimating any summary statistics including two-way and multi-way distances and joint histograms.
FOBr: a version-based recovery protocol for replicated databases

Within the field of databases that are deployed in distributed environments there is a need to guarantee consistency among replicas and availability among nodes despite of network disconnections and node crashes. A recovery protocol, such as FOBr, manages the database update of a recovering node as it might have missed many transactions during its absence. FOBr does so without stopping data access, and minimizing its interference with the active nodes, their memory usage, and the network traffic. The recovery protocol we propose is very suitable when a fast recovery of the missed data is required. It balances the recovery issues among nodes very fairly and due to this, out-dated data will promptly be recovered. Thus accesses to data that is not out-dated are not interrupted or delayed in any way. These characteristics allow regular transactions to be performed during the recovery process.
Analysis and Verification of Service Interaction Protocols - A Brief Survey

Modeling and analysis of interactions among services is a crucial issue in Service-Oriented Computing. Composing Web services is a complicated task which requires techniques and tools to verify that the new system will behave correctly. In this paper, we fi rst overview some formal models proposed in the literature to describe services. Second, we giv e a brief survey of verification techniques that can be used to analyse services and their interaction. L ast, we focus on the realizability and conformance of choreographies.
Expression of fibroblast growth factor by F9 teratocarcinoma cells as a function of differentiation

F9 teratocarcinoma stem cells treated with retinoic acid (RA) and dibutyryl cAMP (but2 cAMP) differentiate into embryonic parietal endoderm. Using heparin-affinity chromatography, endothelial cell proliferation assays, immunoprecipitation, and Western analysis with antibodies specific for acidic and basic fibroblast growth factors (FGFs), we detected biologically active FGF in F9 cells only after differentiation. A bovine basic FGF cDNA probe hybridized to 2.2-kb mRNAs in both F9 stem and parietal endoderm cells and to a 3.8-kb mRNA in F9 stem cells. A genomic DNA probe for acidic FGF hybridized to a 5.8-6.0-kb mRNA in both F9 stem and parietal endoderm cells, and to a 6.0-6.3-kb mRNA only in parietal endoderm cells. Although these FGF mRNAs were present in the stem cells, we could find no evidence that F9 stem cells synthesized FGFs, whereas differentiated F9 cells synthesized both acidic and basic FGF-like proteins. We conclude that biologically active factors with properties characteristic of acidic and basic FGF are expressed by F9 parietal endoderm cells after differentiation. Differentiating embryonic parietal endoderm thus may serve as a source of FGF molecules in the developing blastocyst, where these factors appear to play a central role in subsequent embryogenesis.
Gyrokinetic simulation model for kinetic magnetohydrodynamic processes in magnetized plasmas

A nonlinear gyrokinetic simulation model incorporating equilibrium current has been formulated for studying kinetic magnetohydrodynamic processes in magnetized plasmas. This complete formulation enables gyrokinetic simulation of both pressure-gradient-driven and current-driven instabilities as well as their nonlinear interactions in multi-scale simulations. The gyrokinetic simulation model recovers the ideal magnetohydrodynamic theory in the linear long wavelength regime including ideal and kinetic ballooning modes, kink modes and shear Alfvén waves. The implementation of this model in the global gyrokinetic particle code has been verified for the simulation of the effects of equilibrium current on the reversed shear Alfvén eigenmode in tokamaks.
Power Control for Cognitive Radio Networks Under Channel Uncertainty

Cognitive radio (CR) networks can re-use the RF spectrum licensed to a primary user (PU) network, provided that the interference inflicted to the PUs is carefully controlled. However, due to lack of explicit cooperation between CR and PU systems, it is often difficult for CRs to acquire CR-to-PU channels accurately. In fact, if the PU receivers are off, the sensing algorithms cannot obtain the channels for the PU receivers, although they have to be protected nevertheless. In order to achieve aggressive spectrum re-use even in such challenging scenarios, power control algorithms that take channel uncertainty into account are developed. Both log-normal shadowing and small-scale fading effects are considered through suitable approximations. Accounting for the latter, centralized network utility maximization (NUM) problems are formulated, and their Karush-Kuhn-Tucker points are obtained via sequential geometric programming. For the case where CR-to-CR channels are also uncertain, a novel outage probability-based NUM formulation is proposed, and its solution method developed in a unified fashion. Numerical tests verify the performance merits of the novel design.
Associations of adiponectin receptor 2 (AdipoR2) gene polymorphisms and AdipoR2 protein expression levels with the risk of colorectal cancer: A case-control study

The aim of the present study was to investigate the associations between adiponectin receptor 2 (AdipoR2) gene polymorphisms, AdipoR2 protein expression levels and the risk of colorectal cancer (CRC). From April 2012 to May 2015, 281 CRC patients (case group) admitted to the China-Japan Friendship Hospital and 325 healthy control subjects (control group) were recruited for the study. Peripheral venous blood samples were collected and the DNA was extracted. Genotyping was performed using denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography in the condition of partial degeneration. Linkage disequilibrium and haplotype were analyzed using SHEsis analysis software. AdipoR2 protein expression levels were detected by immunohistochemistry and logistic regression analysis was performed to determine the risk factors of CRC. The distribution of the TT genotype of AdipoR2 rs10773989 and the CC genotype of AdipoR2 rs1044471 was higher in the case group than in the control group (P<0.05). The AdipoR2 rs10773989 polymorphism was associated with the degree of tumor infiltration in CRC (P<0.05) and the AdipoR2 rs1044471 polymorphism was associated with the degree of differentiation and Dukes' staging in CRC (P<0.05). The CT haplotype was identified as a protective factor, while the TC haplotype was a risk factor in a healthy population. AdipoR2 protein expression was associated with the degree of differentiation, Dukes' staging, degree of tumor infiltration and lymphatic metastasis in CRC (all P<0.05). Logistic regression analysis demonstrated that the TT genotype of AdipoR2 rs10773989 and CC genotype of AdipoR2 rs1044471 were independent risk factors for CRC. The AdipoR2 rs10773989 and rs1044471 polymorphisms may be correlated with the susceptibility to CRC. In addition, the TC haplotype and AdipoR2 positive expression may increase the risk of CRC.
CO2-evoked release of PGE2 modulates sighs and inspiration as demonstrated in brainstem organotypic culture

Inflammation-induced release of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) changes breathing patterns and the response to CO2 levels. This may have fatal consequences in newborn babies and result in sudden infant death. To elucidate the underlying mechanisms, we present a novel breathing brainstem organotypic culture that generates rhythmic neural network and motor activity for 3 weeks. We show that increased CO2 elicits a gap junction-dependent release of PGE2. This alters neural network activity in the preBötzinger rhythm-generating complex and in the chemosensitive brainstem respiratory regions, thereby increasing sigh frequency and the depth of inspiration. We used mice lacking eicosanoid prostanoid 3 receptors (EP3R), breathing brainstem organotypic slices and optogenetic inhibition of EP3R+/+ cells to demonstrate that the EP3R is important for the ventilatory response to hypercapnia. Our study identifies a novel pathway linking the inflammatory and respiratory systems, with implications for inspiration and sighs throughout life, and the ability to autoresuscitate when breathing fails. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.7554/eLife.14170. 001
Passive Realtime Datacenter Fault Detection and Localization

Datacenters are characterized by their large scale, stringent reliability requirements, and signiﬁcant application diversity. However, the realities of employing hardware with small but non-zero failure rates mean that datacenters are subject to signiﬁcant numbers of failures, impacting the performance of the services that rely on them. To make matters worse, these failures are not always obvious; network switches and links can fail partially, dropping or delaying various subsets of packets without necessarily delivering a clear signal that they are faulty. Thus, traditional fault detection techniques involving end-host or router-based statistics can fall short in their ability to identify these errors. We describe how to expedite the process of detecting and localizing partial datacenter faults using an end-host method generalizable to most datacenter applications. In particular, we correlate transport-layer ﬂow metrics and network-I/O system call delay at end hosts with the path that trafﬁc takes through the datacenter and apply statistical analysis techniques to identify outliers and localize the faulty link and/or switch(es). We evaluate our approach in a production Facebook front-end datacenter.
Epidemiology of chronic venous ulcers

A metropolitan population of 238000 in Perth, Western Australia, was screened for chronic ulceration of the leg. Patients with a chronic leg ulcer and a venous abnormality comprised 57 per cent of all patients with a chronic leg ulcer, giving a prevalence of 0·62 per 1000 population. There was an increasing prevalence with age; 90 per cent of patients were 60 years and older. This group comprised 16·7 per cent of the population, and had a prevalence of 3·3 per 1000. Although chronic venous ulcers were more common in women there was no difference in age related prevalence. In 36 per cent of patients with a venous abnormality, there was at least one other aetiological factor contributing to chronic ulceration of the leg; 96 per cent had either a history of deep venous thrombosis or a condition known to predispose to deep venous thrombosis.