Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Merging Latent Factors and Tags to Increase Interactive Control of Recommendations

We describe a novel approach that integrates user-generated tags with standard Matrix Factorization to allow users to interactively control recommendations. The tag information is incorporated during the learning phase and relates to the automatically derived latent factors. Thus, the system can change an item’s score whenever the user adjusts a tag’s weight. We implemented a prototype and performed a user study showing that this seems to be a promising way for users to interactively manipulate the set of items recommended based on their user prole or in cold-start situations.
Salivary Immunoglobulin A Response to a Match in Top-Level Brazilian Soccer Players

Moreira, A, Arsati, F, Cury, PR, Franciscon, C, Oliveira, PR, and Araújo, VC. Salivary immunoglobulin a response to a match in top-level brazilian soccer players. J Strength Cond Res 23(7): 1968-1973, 2009-It has been suggested that several parameters of mucosal immunity, including salivary immunoglobulin A (s-IgA), are affected by heavy exercise either in field sports or in the laboratory environment. Few observations have been made during a true sporting environment, particularly in professional soccer. We tested the hypothesis that salivary IgA levels will be decreased after a 70-minute regulation in a top-level professional soccer friendly match. Saliva samples from 24 male professional soccer players collected before and after the match were analyzed. Salivary immunoglobulin A concentration was measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and expressed as the absolute concentration (s-IgAabs), s-IgA relative to total protein concentration (IgA-Pro), and the secretion rate of IgA (s-IgArate). Rate of perceived exertion (RPE) was used to monitor the exercise intensity. The paired t-test showed no significant changes in s-IgAabs and s-IgArate (p > 0.05) from PRE to POST match. However, a significant (p < 0.05) increase in total protein concentration (1.46 ± 0.4 to 2.00 ± 07) and a decrease in IgA-Pro were observed. The best and most significant correlation was obtained with the RPE and changes in IgA-Pro (rs = −0.43) and could indicate that this expression may be an interesting marker of intensity in a soccer match. However, further investigation regarding exercise intensity, protein concentration, and immune suppression, particularly in team sports, is warranted. From a practical application, the variability of the responses among the players leads us to suggest that there is a need to individually analyze the results with team sports. Some athletes showed a decrease in s-IgA expressions, suggesting the need for taking protective actions to minimize contact with cold viruses or even reducing the training load.
Solid matrix priming with chitosan enhances seed germination and seedling invigoration in mung bean under salinity stress

The objective of present study was to evaluate the response of the mung bean seeds of ‘Sonali B1’ variety primed with chitosan in four different concentrations (0, 0.1%, 0.2% and 0.5%) under salinity stress of five different concentrations (i.e., 0, 4, 6, 8 and 12 dS*mm-1) and halotolerance pattern by applying Celite as matrix at three different moisture levels (5%, 10% and 20%). Improved germination percentage, germination index, mean germination time, coefficient of velocity of germination along with root and shoot length was observed comparing with control. Germination stress tolerance index (GSI), plant height stress tolerance index (PHSI) and root length stress tolerance index (RLSI) were used to evaluate the tolerance of the mung bean seeds against salinity stress induced by chitosan. Results of GSI, PHSI, RLSI showing noteworthy inhibitory effect of salinity stress in control set was significantly less pronounced in chitosan treated seedlings. Chitosan can remarkably alleviate the detrimental effect of salinity up to the level of 6 dS*m-1, beyond which no improvement was noticed. In conclusion present investigation revealed that chitosan is an ideal elicitor for enhancing the speed of germination and seedling invigoration that synchronize with emergence of radicle and salinity stress tolerance.
PIG SLURRY TREATMENT STRATEGY IN A HIGH LIVESTOCK CONCENTRATION AREA: ANAEROBIC DIGESTION AS THE KEY PROCESS

A pig slurry treatment strategy must include processes with the aim of reducing volatile organic compound emissions, controlling odours, mineralising nutrients, improving its fertilising proprieties, and recovering energy, when it is possible. In this sense, anaerobic digestion fulfils all this requirements. However, in areas with high animal farming density and a structural nutrient surplus, it is necessary to include other processes, which favour nutrient redistribution. The objective of this paper is to study the importance of including anaerobic digestion process in the treatment strategy when the main objective is to recover nitrogen by means of ammonia air stripping at 80oC, or by vacuum evaporation in order to reduce volume and to favour redistribution. Two types of pig slurry (fresh and anaerobically digested slurry) were used and the initial pH was chosen as the control variable. Apart from producing part of the required thermal energy, previous anaerobic digestion presented several clear advantages: The consumption of volatile fatty acids and volatile organic compounds during anaerobic digestion reduced the volatilisation of organic matter in the stripping and vacuum evaporation processes. This fact resulted in high quality condensate when vacuum evaporation is applied and an ammonia salt with low organic matter contamination when nitrogen is recovered with stripping / absorption process. In this case, high ammonia removal efficiency is possible, over 96%, without modifying the pH.
Consistent Parameter Estimation for LASSO and Approximate Message Passing

We consider the problem of recovering a vector $\beta_o \in \mathbb{R}^p$ from $n$ random and noisy linear observations $y= X\beta_o + w$, where $X$ is the measurement matrix and $w$ is noise. The LASSO estimate is given by the solution to the optimization problem $\hat{\beta}_{\lambda} = \arg \min_{\beta} \frac{1}{2} \|y-X\beta\|_2^2 + \lambda \| \beta \|_1$. Among the iterative algorithms that have been proposed for solving this optimization problem, approximate message passing (AMP) has attracted attention for its fast convergence. Despite significant progress in the theoretical analysis of the estimates of LASSO and AMP, little is known about their behavior as a function of the regularization parameter $\lambda$, or the thereshold parameters $\tau^t$. For instance the following basic questions have not yet been studied in the literature: (i) How does the size of the active set $\|\hat{\beta}^\lambda\|_0/p$ behave as a function of $\lambda$? (ii) How does the mean square error $\|\hat{\beta}_{\lambda} - \beta_o\|_2^2/p$ behave as a function of $\lambda$? (iii) How does $\|\beta^t - \beta_o \|_2^2/p$ behave as a function of $\tau^1, \ldots, \tau^{t-1}$? Answering these questions will help in addressing practical challenges regarding the optimal tuning of $\lambda$ or $\tau^1, \tau^2, \ldots$. This paper answers these questions in the asymptotic setting and shows how these results can be employed in deriving simple and theoretically optimal approaches for tuning the parameters $\tau^1, \ldots, \tau^t$ for AMP or $\lambda$ for LASSO. It also explores the connection between the optimal tuning of the parameters of AMP and the optimal tuning of LASSO.
Early B-Cell Factor, E2A, and Pax-5 Cooperate To Activate the Early B Cell-Specific mb-1 Promoter

ABSTRACT Previous studies have suggested that the early-B-cell-specific mb-1(Igα) promoter is regulated by EBF and Pax-5. Here, we used in vivo footprinting assays to detect occupation of binding sites in endogenous mb-1 promoters at various stages of B-cell differentiation. In addition to EBF and Pax-5 binding sites, we detected occupancy of a consensus binding site for E2A proteins (E box) in pre-B cells. EBF and E box sites are crucial for promoter function in transfected pre-B cells, and EBF and E2A proteins synergistically activated the promoter in transfected HeLa cells. Other data suggest that EBF and E box sites are less important for promoter function at later stages of differentiation, whereas binding sites for Pax-5 (and its Ets ternary complex partners) are required for promoter function in all mb-1-expressing cells. Using DNA microarrays, we found that expression of endogenous mb-1 transcripts correlates most closely with EBF expression and negatively with Id1, an inhibitor of E2A protein function, further linking regulation of the mb-1 gene with EBF and E2A. Together, our studies demonstrate the complexity of factors regulating tissue-specific transcription and support the concept that EBF, E2A, and Pax-5 cooperate to activate target genes in early B-cell development.
Effects of Duplicate Administration of Human Neural Stem Cell After Focal Cerebral Ischemia in the Rat

ABSTRACT We investigated the functional and histological recovery of middle cerebral artery occluded (MCAo) rats after of duplicate intravenous (i.v.) injection of human neural stem cells (hNSCs). Rats received i.v. injections of hNSCs (HB1.F3, 4 × 106 cells) on day 1 (1C), day 7 (7C), or both days 1 and 7 (1/7C) following MCAo. Functional recovery of rats was evaluated 1 day before MCAo and 1, 7, 14, 21, and 28 days following MCAo, using the modified neurological severity score (mNSS), and cylinder test. Nissl staining and anti-human nuclear matrix antigen /NeuN or GFAP were used to measure infarct size and investigate the migration and differentiation of injected cells. Treatment with hNSCs did not significantly affect infarct size of ischemic animals. Behavior evaluation using mNSS showed that functional deficits in the 1C group were reduced faster than in the 7C and 1/7C groups, and functional recovery in 1/7C rats was significantly more pronounced than that in the 7C group (day 21). Injected cells were identified at the boundary of lesions, where they had differentiated into neurons and astrocytes. Our study suggests that duplicate i.v. administration of hNSCs after stroke offers no advantages over single administration, 1 day following an ischemic event.
DOMINO: a system to detect greedy behavior in IEEE 802.11 hotspots

The proliferation of hotspots based on IEEE 802.11 wireless LANs brings the promise of seamless Internet access from a large number of public locations. However, as the number of users soars, so does the risk of possible misbehavior; to protect themselves, wireless ISPs already make use of a number of security mechanisms, and require mobile stations to authenticate themselves at the Access Points (APs). However, IEEE 802.11 works properly only if the stations also respect the MAC protocol. We show in this paper that a greedy user can substantially increase his share of bandwidth, at the expense of the other users, by slightly modifying the driver of his network adapter. We explain how easily this can be performed, in particular with the new generation of adapters. We then present DOMINO (System for Detection Of greedy behavior in the MAC layer of IEEE 802.11 public NetwOrks), a piece of software to be installed in the Access Point. DOMINO can detect and identify greedy stations, without requiring any modification of the standard protocol at the AP and without revealing its own presence. We illustrate these concepts by simulation results and by the description of our prototype.
Anti-adhesive properties of bovine oligosaccharides and bovine milk fat globule membrane-associated glycoconjugates against bacterial food enteropathogens

The prevalence of the main raw milk and raw milk– derived dairy product enteropathogens (Campylobacter, Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli, Listeria, and Salmonella) is higher than the number of epidemiological cases related to ingesting these foodstuffs. Bovine milk oligosaccharides and milk fat globule membrane (MFGM)-linked glycoconjugates interact with foodborne enteropathogens to inhibit their adhesion to intestinal cells and tissues. This review examines the main mechanisms and strategies used by enteropathogens to adhere to their target, details the anti-adhesive properties of MFGM against enteropathogens and enterotoxins, assesses the integrity of bacteria–MFGM complexes during dairy product manufacture and digestion, and discusses the potential for using these macromolecules and glycoconjugates in foods for public health.
Media and Trading Frenzies at Earnings Announcements

We investigate whether market-wide demand shifts for financial information produce media and trading frenzies that concentrate at earnings announcements. We focus on the level of macroeconomic uncertainty as a common demand shift for financial information, as demand by market participants should grow when there is greater uncertainty about firms’ expected future payoffs. Consistent with the business press responding to greater information demands, we find that market-wide business press coverage dramatically increases for earnings announcements during periods of high macroeconomic uncertainty. In addition, consistent with the business press being an information intermediary that specializes in low fixed cost information, we find that their increased coverage of freely available earnings disclosures is in sharp contrast to their coverage of non-earnings announcement period news. Further, we find that the shift in coverage of earnings announcements leads to the appearance of trading frenzies when macroeconomic uncertainty is high, producing elevated trading levels for announcing firms and greater crosssectional return dispersion due to the increased disparity in coverage.
PolyQ Repeat Expansions in ATXN2 Associated with ALS Are CAA Interrupted Repeats

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a devastating, rapidly progressive disease leading to paralysis and death. Recently, intermediate length polyglutamine (polyQ) repeats of 27–33 in ATAXIN-2 (ATXN2), encoding the ATXN2 protein, were found to increase risk for ALS. In ATXN2, polyQ expansions of ≥34, which are pure CAG repeat expansions, cause spinocerebellar ataxia type 2. However, similar length expansions that are interrupted with other codons, can present atypically with parkinsonism, suggesting that configuration of the repeat sequence plays an important role in disease manifestation in ATXN2 polyQ expansion diseases. Here we determined whether the expansions in ATXN2 associated with ALS were pure or interrupted CAG repeats, and defined single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) rs695871 and rs695872 in exon 1 of the gene, to assess haplotype association. We found that the expanded repeat alleles of 40 ALS patients and 9 long-repeat length controls were all interrupted, bearing 1–3 CAA codons within the CAG repeat. 21/21 expanded ALS chromosomes with 3CAA interruptions arose from one haplotype (GT), while 18/19 expanded ALS chromosomes with <3CAA interruptions arose from a different haplotype (CC). Moreover, age of disease onset was significantly earlier in patients bearing 3 interruptions vs fewer, and was distinct between haplotypes. These results indicate that CAG repeat expansions in ATXN2 associated with ALS are uniformly interrupted repeats and that the nature of the repeat sequence and haplotype, as well as length of polyQ repeat, may play a role in the neurological effect conferred by expansions in ATXN2.
Frequency and risk factors for incident and redetected Chlamydia trachomatis infection in sexually active, young, multi-ethnic women: a community based cohort study

Objective To investigate the frequency and risk factors for incident and redetected Chlamydia trachomatis infection in sexually active, young, multi-ethnic women in the community. Design Cohort study. Setting 20 London universities and Further Education colleges. Participants 954 sexually experienced women, mean age 21.5 years (range 16–27), 26% from ethnic minorities, who were recruited to the Prevention of Pelvic Infection (POPI) chlamydia screening trial between 2004 and 2006, and returned repeat postal self-taken vaginal swabs 11–32 (median 16) months after recruitment. Results The estimated annual incidence of chlamydia infection among 907 women who tested negative at baseline was 3.4 per 100 person-years (95% CI 2.5 to 4.6 per 100 person-years), but 6.6 per 100 person-years (95% CI 4.5 to 9.3 per 100 person-years) in the 326 teenagers (<20 years). Predictors of incident chlamydia infection were age <20 years (relative risk (RR) 4.0, 95% CI 2.1 to 7.5), and (after adjusting for age) a new sexual partner during 12 months follow-up (RR 4.4, 95% CI 2.0 to 9.9), smoking (RR 2.2 95% CI 1.2 to 3.9), concurrent bacterial vaginosis (RR 2.0 95% CI 1.1 to 3.9) and high risk carcinogenic human papillomavirus (RR 2.2, 95% CI 1.1 to 4.3). Of 47 women positive for chlamydia at baseline, 12 (25.5%, 95% CI 13.9% to 40.3%) had redetected infection at a median of 16 months follow-up. Taking into account follow-up time (65 person-years), the annual redetection rate was 18.5 per 100 person-years (95% CI 9.9 to 30.0 per 100 person-years). Conclusions One in four women with chlamydia infection at baseline retested positive, supporting recent recommendations to routinely retest chlamydia positives.
Contact fatigue of automotive gears: evolution and effects of residual stresses introduced by surface treatments

Helical gears from an automotive gearbox, previously subjected to the surface treatments of carbo-nitriding and shot-peening, were submitted to contact fatigue tests. The X-ray diffraction technique was used to characterize the evolution of different mechanical and metallurgical parameters as a function of gear damage. Particular attention was paid to residual stress relief. A numerical model was developed to predict residual stress relaxation and estimate the most likely localization of contact fatigue crack initiation. The stress–strain laws of the surface-treated layers were determined by means of two separate experimental methods, based on locally measured parameters. The Dang Van multiaxial fatigue criterion was used to analyse the failure of the gears, taking into account the effects of friction and roughness.
Executive dysfunction in Parkinson’s disease and timing deficits

Patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) have deficits in perceptual timing, or the perception and estimation of time. PD patients can also have cognitive symptoms, including deficits in executive functions such as working memory, planning, and visuospatial attention. Here, we discuss how PD-related cognitive symptoms contribute to timing deficits. Timing is influenced by signaling of the neurotransmitter dopamine in the striatum. Timing also involves the frontal cortex, which is dysfunctional in PD. Frontal cortex impairments in PD may influence memory subsystems as well as decision processes during timing tasks. These data suggest that timing may be a type of executive function. As such, timing can be used to study the neural circuitry of cognitive symptoms of PD as they can be studied in animal models. Performance of timing tasks also maybe a useful clinical biomarker of frontal as well as striatal dysfunction in PD.
Web content cartography

Recent studies show that a significant part of Internet traffic is delivered through Web-based applications. To cope with the increasing demand for Web content, large scale content hosting and delivery infrastructures, such as data-centers and content distribution networks, are continuously being deployed. Being able to identify and classify such hosting infrastructures is helpful not only to content producers, content providers, and ISPs, but also to the research community at large. For example, to quantify the degree of hosting infrastructure deployment in the Internet or the replication of Web content. In this paper, we introduce Web Content Cartography, i.e., the identification and classification of content hosting and delivery infrastructures. We propose a lightweight and fully automated approach to discover hosting infrastructures based only on DNS measurements and BGP routing table snapshots. Our experimental results show that our approach is feasible even with a limited number of well-distributed vantage points. We find that some popular content is served exclusively from specific regions and ASes. Furthermore, our classification enables us to derive content-centric AS rankings that complement existing AS rankings and shed light on recent observations about shifts in inter-domain traffic and the AS topology.
Efficient lattice realizations of adaptive IIR algorithms

Computationally efficient adaptive IIR-filter algorithms are presented based on lattice realizations allowing the adaptive filter stability to be easily monitored. New simplified recursive-in-order equations relating the parameters of the direct-form realization with the ones of two lattice realizations are presented. These equations lead to a simplified technique to compute the regressor vector and to a general method to implement any adaptive IIR algorithm using lattice realization. Results indicate that the proposed lattice-based algorithms converge to a set of parameters that realize the same transfer function as the corresponding direct-form algorithms.
Automated Fault Location and Isolation in Distribution Grids With Distributed Control and Unreliable Communication

This paper presents the analysis and simulation of the performance of fault location and isolation (FLI) in an automated power distribution feeder. This system is composed of two coupled networks: a power system consisting of a distribution feeder with multiple load buses, and an unreliable communication network of the distributed intelligent agents in the system, namely, the substation automation and fault protection units separating segments of the feeder. We provide a complete specification of a distributed algorithm for FLI and an exact characterization of the time from the occurrence of a fault to its location and isolation. Both apply to a distribution feeder with an arbitrary number of buses. These models are then refined into a hybrid simulation that combines three models executing in parallel: a power system model based on dc power flow, a distributed automation system model for the intelligent agents constructed using the IEC 61499 distributed automation standard, and an abstract communication network model that unreliably links the physically distributed agents. The results demonstrate the effect of communication network reliability at two levels of design abstraction, the correspondence of results at the two levels, and the use of a modern cosimulation framework to verify the performance of distributed smart grid automation algorithms.
iSAM: Incremental Smoothing and Mapping

In this paper, we present incremental smoothing and mapping (iSAM), which is a novel approach to the simultaneous localization and mapping problem that is based on fast incremental matrix factorization. iSAM provides an efficient and exact solution by updating a QR factorization of the naturally sparse smoothing information matrix, thereby recalculating only those matrix entries that actually change. iSAM is efficient even for robot trajectories with many loops as it avoids unnecessary fill-in in the factor matrix by periodic variable reordering. Also, to enable data association in real time, we provide efficient algorithms to access the estimation uncertainties of interest based on the factored information matrix. We systematically evaluate the different components of iSAM as well as the overall algorithm using various simulated and real-world datasets for both landmark and pose-only settings.