Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
STUDIES ON THE LOCALIZATION OF CIRCULATING ANTIGEN-ANTIBODY COMPLEXES AND OTHER MACROMOLECULES IN VESSELS

A short term model in which circulating antigen-antibody complexes and host complement localized in vessel walls of guinea pigs was analyzed. Localization was accomplished by subjecting the animals to anaphylactic shock. The circulating macromolecules, such as antigen-antibody complexes, appeared to localize by being trapped in the vessel wall along the basement membrane that acted as a filter during a state of increased permeability of the vessel. It was suggested that this point of localization between the endothelial cell and the basement membrane may well represent the earliest focus of inflammation in diseases caused by the deposition of injurious macromolecules such as soluble antigen-antibody complexes from the blood stream. Complexes localized in the vessel walls did not provoke Arthus-type vasculonecrotic reactions even though in both these vessels and in cutaneous Arthus reactions antibody, antigen, and host complement (C'3c) were deposited in the vessel walls. The possibility was presented that since circulating macromolecules and probably complexes deposited in (a) relatively small amounts, and (b) in a position beneath endothelial cells, they were not strongly chemotactic toward circulating polymorphonuclear leukocytes. Vasculonecrotic reactions, therefore, were not observed. It was brought out that this may be similar to the situation in glomerulonephritis induced by localized immune complexes, in which severe necrosis is not observed. In the Arthus vascular reaction, host complement was found microscopically accumulated with the immune reactants in affected vessel walls.
Análise do Conservadorismo e Persistência dos Resultados Contábeis das Instituições Financeiras Brasileiras Analysis of Conservatism and Persistence of Financial Results of the Brazilian Financial Institutions

O ambiente regulatorio das companhias abertas e fechadas apresenta diferencas significativas na qualidade das informacoes contabeis entre as companhias abertas e fechadas (BALL; SHIVAKUMAR, 2005). Entretanto, a literatura tem sugerido que o processo de mensuracao contabil das instituicoes financeiras se diferenciam substancialmente das demais companhias (PEASNELL et al, 2000). Apesar disso, os estudos anteriores nao analisam sistematicamente as diferencas informacionais entre as instituicoes financeiras abertas e fechadas. O objetivo deste trabalho foi analisar o comportamento dos niveis de conservadorismo e de persistencia dos resultados contabeis das instituicoes financeiras abertas e fechadas brasileiras. Para atender ao objetivo deste trabalho, foi efetuado uma analise dos dados com base nos modelos de conservadorismo proposto por Ball e Shivakumar (2005) e de persistencia descrito por Dechow e Schrand (2004), estimados por meio de dados em painel. A amostra foi composta pelas instituicoes financeiras brasileiras abertas e fechadas no periodo compreendido entre 1996 e 2013. Os resultados desta pesquisa identificaram que nenhum dos tipos de instituicoes financeiras (abertas e fechadas) apresenta reconhecimento oportuno das perdas ocorridas no periodo analisado. Em relacao a persistencia dos resultados contabeis, as analises apontaram que as instituicoes financeiras fechadas apresentam maior persistencia em seus resultados contabeis que as instituicoes abertas, resultando em maior previsibilidade dos lucros futuros pelos lucros presentes. Por fim, conclui-se que os resultados contabeis das instituicoes financeiras brasileiras nao apresentam comportamento conservador, alem disso, os lucros das companhias fechadas sao mais persistentes do que os das companhias abertas.
The contribution of speech rate and pitch variation to the perception of vocal emotions in a German and an American sample

The present study examined acoustic cue utilisation for perception of vocal emotions. Two sets of vocal-emotional stimuli were presented to 35 German and 30 American listeners: (1) sentences in German spoken with five different vocal emotions; and (2) systematically rate- or pitch-altered versions of the original emotional stimuli. In addition to response frequencies on emotional categories, activity ratings were obtained. For the systematically altered stimuli, slow rate was reliably associated with the “sad” label. In contrast, fast rate was classified as angry, frightened, or neutral. Manipulation of pitch variation was less potent than rate manipulation in influencing vocal emotional category choices. Reduced pitch variation was associated with perception as sad or neutral; greater pitch variation increased frightened, angry, and happy responses. Performance was highly similar for the two samples, although across tasks, German subjects perceived greater variability of activity in the emotional stimuli than did American participants.
Normal moveout from dipping reflectors in anisotropic media

Description of reflection moveout from dipping interfaces is important in developing seismic processing methods for anisotropic media, as well as in the inversion of reflection data. Here, I present a concise analytic expression for normal‐moveout (NMO) velocities valid for a wide range of homogeneous anisotropic models including transverse isotropy with a tilted in‐plane symmetry axis and symmetry planes in orthorhombic media. In transversely isotropic media, NMO velocity for quasi‐P‐waves may deviate substantially from the isotropic cosine‐of‐dip dependence used in conventional constant‐velocity dip‐moveout (DMO) algorithms. However, numerical studies of NMO velocities have revealed no apparent correlation between the conventional measures of anisotropy and errors in the cosine‐of‐dip DMO correction (“DMO errors”). The analytic treatment developed here shows that for transverse isotropy with a vertical symmetry axis, the magnitude of DMO errors is dependent primarily on the difference between Thomsen pa.
Super-resolution, Extremal Functions and the Condition Number of Vandermonde Matrices

Super-resolution is a fundamental task in imaging, where the goal is to extract fine-grained structure from coarse-grained measurements. Here we are interested in a popular mathematical abstraction of this problem that has been widely studied in the statistics, signal processing and machine learning communities. We exactly resolve the threshold at which noisy super-resolution is possible. In particular, we establish a sharp phase transition for the relationship between the cutoff frequency (m) and the separation (Δ). If m > 1/Δ + 1, our estimator converges to the true values at an inverse polynomial rate in terms of the magnitude of the noise. And when m < (1-ε) /Δ no estimator can distinguish between a particular pair of Δ-separated signals even if the magnitude of the noise is exponentially small. Our results involve making novel connections between extremal functions and the spectral properties of Vandermonde matrices. We establish a sharp phase transition for their condition number which in turn allows us to give the first noise tolerance bounds for the matrix pencil method. Moreover we show that our methods can be interpreted as giving preconditioners for Vandermonde matrices, and we use this observation to design faster algorithms for super-resolution. We believe that these ideas may have other applications in designing faster algorithms for other basic tasks in signal processing.
The effects of image misregistration on the accuracy of remotely sensed change detection

Image misregistration has become one of the significant bottlenecks for improving the accuracy of multisource data analysis, such as data fusion and change detection. In this paper, the effects of misregistration on the accuracy of remotely sensed change detection were systematically investigated and quantitatively evaluated. This simulation research focused on two interconnected components. In the first component, the statistical properties of the multispectral difference images were evaluated using semivariograms when multitemporal images were progressively misregistered against themselves and each other to investigate the band, temporal, and spatial frequency sensitivities of change detection to image misregistration. In the second component, the ellipsoidal change detection technique, based on the Mahalanobis distance of multispectral difference images, was proposed and used to progressively detect the land cover transitions at each misregistration stage for each pair of multitemporal images. The impact of misregistration on change detection was then evaluated in terms of the accuracy of change detection using the output from the ellipsoidal change detector. The experimental results using Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) imagery are presented. It is interesting to notice that, among the seven TM bands, band 4 (near-infrared channel) is the most sensitive to misregistration when change detection is concerned. The results from false change analysis indicate a substantial degradation in the accuracy of remotely sensed change detection due to misregistration. It is shown that a registration accuracy of less than one-fifth of a pixel is required to achieve a change detection error of less than 10%.
Sight and Sound Converge to Form Modality-Invariant Representations in Temporoparietal Cortex

People can identify objects in the environment with remarkable accuracy, regardless of the sensory modality they use to perceive them. This suggests that information from different sensory channels converges somewhere in the brain to form modality-invariant representations, i.e., representations that reflect an object independently of the modality through which it has been apprehended. In this functional magnetic resonance imaging study of human subjects, we first identified brain areas that responded to both visual and auditory stimuli and then used crossmodal multivariate pattern analysis to evaluate the neural representations in these regions for content specificity (i.e., do different objects evoke different representations? ) and modality invariance (i.e., do the sight and the sound of the same object evoke a similar representation? ). While several areas became activated in response to both auditory and visual stimulation, only the neural patterns recorded in a region around the posterior part of the superior temporal sulcus displayed both content specificity and modality invariance. This region thus appears to play an important role in our ability to recognize objects in our surroundings through multiple sensory channels and to process them at a supramodal (i.e., conceptual) level.
Shared reservoir of ccrB gene sequences between coagulase-negative staphylococci and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

OBJECTIVES Methicillin resistance in Staphylococcus aureus and coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS) is caused by expression of the low-affinity penicillin-binding protein (PBP) 2a encoded by the mecA gene. This gene is carried on the staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec (SCCmec) of which several types and subtypes have been described. CoNS and S. aureus share SCCmec types and it has been suggested that CoNS are a potential reservoir of mecA for S. aureus. Evidence for this is mainly based on PCR typing of SCCmec or on sequence-based methods including only a limited number of strains. In this study, we determined the genetic relatedness of ccrB sequences contained in SCCmec elements of a spatio-temporally diverse and comprehensive collection of methicillin-resistant CoNS and S. aureus. METHODS Part of the ccrB genes of 367 methicillin-resistant CoNS and 94 methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) were sequenced and compared. RESULTS The data revealed that 92 of 94 (98%) MRSA isolates carried ccrB genes, involving different ccrB alleles, which were indistinguishable from ccrB genes of methicillin-resistant CoNS. In total, 273 of 367 (74%) CoNS shared ccrB gene sequences with MRSA. CONCLUSIONS The high rate of identical ccrB sequences in a geographically, temporally and genotypically diverse set of S. aureus and CoNS isolates indicates frequent horizontal transfer of SCCmec between CoNS and S. aureus, which may have contributed to the emergence of MRSA.
Variable speed limit to improve safety near traffic congestion on urban freeways

Recently, the convergence of information technology with biotechnology, nano-technology, or other technologies has been creating a new paradigm. In the field of transportation, intelligent transport systems (ITSs) - a convergence of information technologies and transportation systems - have been studied. The VSL is one ITS technologies that aims to improve the safety and efficiency of transportation while controlling the speed limit according to traffic circumstances. Existing studies for VSL algorithms have considered only one station to control the traffic. However, it is not appropriate for an urban freeway to be installed with many stations. In this paper, a new VSL algorithm is proposed to enhance the effectiveness of VSL for multiple stations. It is based on the cooperation of stations and the real-time road information. The proposed algorithm consists of 4 steps: first is a “searching bottleneck station,” second is a “calculating a size of congestion,” third is a “calculating the number of controlled stations,” fourth is a “calculating VSL. ” In our experiments, the microscopic traffic simulator VISSIM performed our modeling works. The results show that the proposed algorithm improves safety on roads with minimum additional travel time.
Fulfilling mutual nonrepudiation for cloud storage

In this paper, we propose solution for obtaining mutual nonrepudiation between the user and service provider in cloud storage. One of the solutions for mutual nonrepudiation is based on logging attestations, which are signed messages. For supporting write‐serializability and read freshness of files, an intuitive solution is to have attestations be chain hashed. However, it is inefficient when files in an account can be accessed by multiple client devices interchangeably because client devices must keep all the attestations or there must exist a way to broadcast the last attestation to all the client devices. We propose a scheme that can guarantee mutual nonrepudiation between the user and service provider without requiring the client devices to exchange any messages, and each client device only has to store the last attestation it received. Concurrent accesses of files should be forbidden if all attestations need to be chained together with one chain. We propose to use multiple chains to provide concurrent file accesses in a single account. In addition, we also propose how to apply the hash tree to remove accumulated attestations. The results from related experiments demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed scheme. A service provider of cloud storage can use the proposed scheme to provide a mutual nonrepudiation guarantee in their service‐level agreement. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The boundary of hyperbolicity for Hénon-like families

Abstract We consider C2 Hénon-like families of diffeomorphisms of $ \mathbb R^{2} $ and study the boundary of the region of parameter values for which the non-wandering set is uniformly hyperbolic. Assuming sufficient dissipativity, we show that the loss of hyperbolicity is caused by a first homoclinic or heteroclinic tangency and that uniform hyperbolicity estimates hold uniformly in the parameter up to the bifurcation parameter and even, to some extent, at the bifurcation parameter.
Positive spin polarization in Co/Al2O3/Co tunnel junctions driven by oxygen adsorption

Using a first-principles Green’s function technique, we study spin-dependent tunneling in two model realizations of 111 fcc Co/Al2O3/Co tunnel junctions assuming O-terminated crystalline epitaxy in the corundum structure. For the first model, which includes 3 O atoms at the interface, the tunneling current is polarized negatively, just as for the clean Co surface. The second model contains additional oxygen atoms inside large pores at each interface. Located at the three-fold hollow adsorption sites, these O atoms bind very strongly to Co. This bonding creates an interface band in the majority-spin channel which strongly enhances the tunneling current in this channel. As a result, the spin polarization changes sign and becomes positive, similar to that for the oxidized Co surface studied previously. These results show that the common argument of “mostly s-electron tunneling,” which is often used to explain the positive spin polarization in Co/Al2O3/Co junctions is quantitatively incorrect. In reality, the spin polarization in these junctions is controlled by the interfacial structure and bonding. Moreover, interfacial adsorption of oxygen may be a prerequisite for achieving the positive spin polarization.
On using Articulatory Features for Discriminative Speaker Adaptation

This paper presents a way to perform speaker adaptation for automatic speech recognition using the stream weights in a multi-stream setup, which included acoustic models for "Articulatory Features" such as Rounded or Voiced. We present supervised speaker adaptation experiments on a spontaneous speech task and compare the above stream-based approach to conventional approaches, in which the models, and not stream combination weights, are being adapted. In the approach we present, stream weights model the importance of features such as Voiced for word discrimination, which offers a descriptive interpretation of the adaptation parameters.
Open Targets: a platform for therapeutic target identification and validation

We have designed and developed a data integration and visualization platform that provides evidence about the association of known and potential drug targets with diseases. The platform is designed to support identification and prioritization of biological targets for follow-up. Each drug target is linked to a disease using integrated genome-wide data from a broad range of data sources. The platform provides either a target-centric workflow to identify diseases that may be associated with a specific target, or a disease-centric workflow to identify targets that may be associated with a specific disease. Users can easily transition between these target- and disease-centric workflows. The Open Targets Validation Platform is accessible at https://www.targetvalidation. org.
Implications of free Shiga toxin-converting bacteriophages occurring outside bacteria for the evolution and the detection of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli

In this review we highlight recent work that has increased our understanding of the distribution of Shiga toxin-converting phages that can be detected as free phage particles, independently of Shiga toxin-producing bacteria (STEC). Stx phages are a quite diverse group of temperate phages that can be found in their prophage state inserted within the STEC chromosome, but can also be found as phages released from the cell after activation of their lytic cycle. They have been detected in extraintestinal environments such as water polluted with feces from humans or animals, food samples or even in stool samples of healthy individuals. The high persistence of phages to several inactivation conditions makes them suitable candidates for the successful mobilization of stx genes, possibly resulting in the genes reaching a new bacterial genomic background by means of transduction, where ultimately they may be expressed, leading to Stx production. Besides the obvious fact that Stx phages circulating between bacteria can be, and probably are, involved in the emergence of new STEC strains, we review here other possible ways in which free Stx phages could interfere with the detection of STEC in a given sample by current laboratory methods and how to avoid such interference.
The Hot Inner Disk of FU Orionis

We have constructed a detailed radiative transfer disk model which reproduces the main features of the spectrum of the outbursting young stellar object FU Orionis from ~4000 Å to ~8 μm. Using an estimated visual extinction AV ~ 1.5, a steady disk model with a central star mass ~0.3 M☉, and a mass accretion rate ~2 × 10-4 M☉ yr-1, we can reproduce the SED of FU Ori quite well. Higher values of extinction used in previous analysis (AV ~ 2.1) result in SEDs which are less well fitted by a steady disk model, but might be explained by extra energy dissipation of the boundary layer in the inner disk. With the mid-infrared spectrum obtained by the IRS on board the Spitzer Space Telescope, we estimate that the outer radius of the hot, rapidly accreting inner disk is ~1 AU, using disk models truncated at this outer radius. Inclusion of radiation from a cooler irradiated outer disk might reduce the outer limit of the hot inner disk to ~0.5 AU. In either case, the radius is inconsistent with a pure thermal instability model for the outburst. Our radiative transfer model implies that the central disk temperature Tc ≥ 1000 K out to ~0.5-1 AU, suggesting that the magnetorotational instability can be supported out to that distance. Assuming that the ~100 yr decay timescale in brightness of FU Ori represents the viscous timescale of the hot inner disk, we estimate the viscosity parameter to be α ~ 0.2-0.02 in the outburst state, consistent with numerical simulations of the magnetorotational instability in disks. The radial extent of the high-Ṁ region is inconsistent with the model of Bell & Lin, but may be consistent with theories incorporating both gravitational and magnetorotational instabilities.
Permutation binomials over finite fields

We prove that if x m + ax n permutes the prime field F p , where m > n > 0 and a ∈ F * p , then gcd(m - n,p ― 1) > √/p ― 1. Conversely, we prove that if q > 4 and m > n > 0 are fixed and satisfy gcd(m - n, q ― 1) > 2q(log log q)/ log q, then there exist permutation binomials over F q of the form x m + ax n if and only if gcd(m, n, q - 1) = 1.
Speciation of heavy metals in the sediments of former tin mining catchment

The chemical speciation of heavy metals (arsenic, chromium, copper, lead, zinc and tin) in the sediments of former tin mining catchment Bestari Jaya, Peninsular Malaysia was determined by using the latest version of the Community Bureau of Reference, usually called the BCR 3-step sequential extraction procedure. Furthermore, a fourth step was introduced for digestion and analysis of the residue. The analysis of total metal content was carried out by using microwave acid digestion. The percentage of each metal obtained from the 4 step extraction (acidsoluble + reducible + oxidizable + residual) is in good agreement with the percentage of total metal content obtained from microwave digestion, which implies the accuracy of the procedure. The degree of pollution in catchment sediments was assessed using geoaccumulation index Igeo and pollution intensity IPOLL. The results indicate that (1) the sediments have been polluted with arsenic (8.8%), chromium (12.9%), copper (17.4%), lead (19.5%), zinc (14.9%) and tin (33.8%) and have high anthropogenic influences; (2) the calculation of geoaccumulation index suggests that catchment sediments have the background concentration for all studied metals (Igeo Pb>Zn>Cr >Cu >As, whereas at S3, S4 and S5, Cu>Pb>Zn>Cr>Sn>As; In conclusion, acidic pH, total organic carbon, scavenging ability and co-precipitation (inclusion, occlusion and adsorption) of studied metals with non-metals could account for change in the geochemistry of the catchment sediments.