Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Vol. 8, No. 5, pp. 1645–1670 c ○ 2010 Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics FRACTIONAL BROWNIAN VECTOR FIELDS ∗

This work puts forward an extended definition of vector fractional Brownian motion (fBm) using a distribution theoretic formulation in the spirit of Gel’fand and Vilenkin’s stochastic analysis. We introduce random vector fields that share the statistical invariances of standard vector fBm (self-similarity and rotation invariance) but which, in contrast, have dependent vector components in the general case. These random vector fields result from the transformation of white noise by a special operator whose invariance properties the random field inherits. The said operator combines an inverse fractional Laplacian with a Helmholtz-like decomposition and weighted recombination. Classical fBm’s can be obtained by balancing the weights of the Helmholtz components. The introduced random fields exhibit several important properties that are discussed in this paper. In addition, the proposed scheme yields a natural extension of the definition to Hurst exponents greater than one.
Young adults' favorable perceptions of snus, dissolvable tobacco products, and electronic cigarettes: findings from a focus group study.

OBJECTIVES We explored young adults' perceptions of snus (spitless moist snuff packed in porous bags), dissolvable tobacco products, and electronic cigarettes and intention to try these products. METHODS We conducted 11 focus group discussions involving a total of 66 young adults (18-26 years old) on these new tobacco products (e.g., harmfulness, potential as quit aids, intention to try) held between July and December 2010. We analyzed discussions using a thematic approach. RESULTS Participants generally reported positive perceptions of the new products, particularly because they came in flavors. Few negative perceptions were reported. Although some participants believed these products were less harmful than cigarettes and helpful in quitting smoking, others thought the opposite, particularly regarding electronic cigarettes. Participants also commented that these products could be gateways to cigarette smoking. Half of the participants, including a mix of smokers and nonsmokers, admitted they would try these products if offered by a friend. CONCLUSIONS Young adults perceive the new tobacco products positively and are willing to experiment with them. Eliminating flavors in these products may reduce young adults' intentions to try these products.
Laminin-induced Acetylcholine Receptor Clustering: An Alternative Pathway

The induction of acetylcholine receptor (AChR) clustering by neurally released agrin is a critical, early step in the formation of the neuromuscular junction. Laminin, a component of the muscle fiber basal lamina, also induces AChR clustering. We find that induction of AChR clustering in C2 myotubes is specific for laminin-1; neither laminin-2 (merosin) nor laminin-11 (a synapse-specific isoform) are active. Moreover, laminin-1 induces AChR clustering by a pathway that is independent of that used by neural agrin. The effects of laminin-1 and agrin are strictly additive and occur with different time courses. Most importantly, laminin- 1–induced clustering does not require MuSK, a receptor tyrosine kinase that is part of the receptor complex for agrin. Laminin-1 does not cause tyrosine phosphorylation of MuSK in C2 myotubes and induces AChR clustering in myotubes from MuSK−/− mice that do not respond to agrin. In contrast to agrin, laminin-1 also does not induce tyrosine phosphorylation of the AChR, demonstrating that AChR tyrosine phosphorylation is not required for clustering in myotubes. Laminin-1 thus acts by a mechanism that is independent of that used by agrin and may provide a supplemental pathway for AChR clustering during synaptogenesis.
Myogenic, matrix, and growth factor mRNA expression in human skeletal muscle: Effect of contraction intensity and feeding

Introduction: We examined short‐term (3‐hour) and long‐term (12‐week) training effects after heavy load [HL; 70% 1RM] and light load (LL; 16% 1RM) exercise. Methods: mRNA expression of genes involved in skeletal muscle remodeling were analyzed and muscle activity (EMG measurements) was measured. Results: Relative muscle activity differed between HL and LL resistance exercise, whereas median power frequency was even, suggesting an equal muscle‐fiber‐type recruitment distribution. mRNA expression of Myf6, myogenin, and p21 was mostly increased, and myostatin was mostly depressed by HL resistance exercise. No major differences were seen in atrophy‐related genes between HL and LL resistance exercise. No changes were seen over 12‐week training for any of the targets. Conclusions: Resistance exercise at LL and HL elevated the expression of genes involved in skeletal muscle hypertrophy, although the greatest response was from HL. However, no long‐term effect from either LL or HL resistance exercise was seen on basal levels of the mRNA targets. Muscle Nerve 47: 748–759, 2013
NIEHS News October 2003

Background: Hereditary Inclusion Body Myopathy (HIBM) is an autosomal recessive, adult onset, non-inflammatory neuromuscular disorder with no effective treatment. The causative gene, GNE, codes for UDP-N-acetylglucosamine 2epimerase/N-acetylmannosamine kinase, which catalyzes the first two reactions in the synthesis of sialic acid. Reduced sialylation of muscle glycoproteins, such as α-dystroglycan and neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM), has been reported in HIBM. Methods: We treated 4 HIBM patients with intravenous immune globulin (IVIG), in order to provide sialic acid, because IgG contains 8 μmol of sialic acid/g. IVIG was infused as a loading dose of 1 g/kg on two consecutive days followed by 3 doses of 400 mg/kg at weekly intervals. Results: For all four patients, mean quadriceps strength improved from 19.0 kg at baseline to 23.2 kg (+22%) directly after IVIG loading to 25.6 kg (+35%) at the end of the study. Mean shoulder strength improved from 4.1 kg at baseline to 5.9 kg (+44%) directly after IVIG loading to 6.0 kg (+46%) at the end of the study. The composite improvement for 8 other muscle groups was 5% after the initial loading and 19% by the end of the study. Esophageal motility and lingual strength improved in the patients with abnormal barium swallows. Objective measures of functional improvement gave variable results, but the patients experienced improvements in daily activities that they considered clinically significant. Immunohistochemical staining and immunoblotting of muscle biopsies for α-dystroglycan and NCAM did not provide consistent evidence for increased sialylation after IVIG treatment. Side effects were limited to transient headaches and vomiting. Conclusion: The mild benefits in muscle strength experienced by HIBM patients after IVIG treatment may be related to the provision of sialic acid supplied by IVIG. Other sources of sialic acid are being explored as treatment options for HIBM. Published: 29 January 2007 BMC Neurology 2007, 7:3 doi:10.1186/1471-2377-7-3 Received: 12 September 2006 Accepted: 29 January 2007 This article is available from: http://www.biomedcentral. com/1471-2377/7/3 © 2007 Sparks et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Report on ISCTM Consensus Meeting on Clinical Assessment of Response to Treatment of Cognitive Impairment in Schizophrenia

If treatments for cognitive impairment are to be utilized successfully, clinicians must be able to determine whether they are effective and which patients should receive them. In order to develop consensus on these issues, the International Society for CNS Clinical Trials and Methodology (ISCTM) held a meeting of experts on March 20, 2014, in Washington, DC. Consensus was reached on several important issues. Cognitive impairment and functional disability were viewed as equally important treatment targets. The group supported the notion that sufficient data are not available to exclude patients from available treatments on the basis of age, severity of cognitive impairment, severity of positive symptoms, or the potential to benefit functionally from treatment. The group reached consensus that cognitive remediation is likely to provide substantial benefits in combination with procognitive medications, although a substantial minority believed that medications can be administered without nonpharmacological therapy. There was little consensus on the best methods for assessing cognitive change in clinical practice. Some participants supported the view that performance-based measures are essential for measurement of cognitive change; others pointed to their cost and time requirements as evidence of impracticality. Interview-based measures of cognitive and functional change were viewed as more practical, but lacking validity without informant involvement or frequent contact from clinicians. The lack of consensus on assessment methods was viewed as attributable to differences in experience and education among key stakeholders and significant gaps in available empirical data. Research on the reliability, validity, sensitivity, and practicality of competing methods will facilitate consensus.
Management of pediatric chronic spontaneous and physical urticaria patients with omalizumab: case series

anti-IgE antibody (omalizumab) could contribute to a new therapeutic scenario for SU and throw light on the potential pharmacological mechanism of omalizumab in this disease. In fact, it is conceivable that omalizumab, depleting IgE, downregulates mast cell activities and reduces mast cell-dependent inflammatory mechanisms (8). Further studies are needed to identify patients with SU who could be treated earlier and successfully with omalizumab. In addition, randomized controlled trials are awaited to identify both effective treatment schedule(s) and doses for eligible patient suffering from solar urticaria unresponsive to conventional treatment.
Robust Control for Signal Temporal Logic Specifications using Average Space Robustness

Control systems that satisfy temporal logic specifications have become increasingly popular due to their applicability to robotic systems. Existing control methods, however, are computationally demanding, especially when the problem size becomes too large. In this paper, a robust and computationally efficient model predictive control framework for signal temporal logic specifications is proposed. We introduce discrete average space robustness, a novel quantitative semantic for signal temporal logic, that is directly incorporated into the cost function of the model predictive controller. The optimization problem entailed in this framework can be written as a convex quadratic program when no disjunctions are considered and results in a robust satisfaction of the specification. Furthermore, we define the predicate robustness degree as a new robustness notion. Simulations of a multi-agent system subject to complex specifications demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed method.
Physical-based time series model applied on water table depths dynamics characteristics simulation

ABSTRACT Time series modelling applied to study water table depths monitoring data is an elegant way to model irregular and continuous data. When successive observations are dependent, future values may be predicted from past observations, and target parameters can be estimated. These may include expected values of groundwater levels, or probabilities that critical levels are exceeded at certain times or during certain periods. These target parameters are estimated with the purpose of obtaining characteristics of the development of a certain domain in time and such characteristics can, for instance, be extrapolated to future situations. In a system identification approach, is it possible to establish the dynamic relationship between water table perturbations and climatological events, vegetation, hydrogeological local conditions, management and groundwater abstraction. The aim of this work was demonstrate the use of a physical-based time series model to stablish the relationship between precipitation and water table depths from hydrogeological monitoring data. The results enabled to infer about water table dynamics even when it is affected by different climatological patterns, simulating mean, maximum and minimum states.
Appropriate Method of Determination of Coefficient of Consolidation for Municipal Solid Waste

To predict the rate of settlement of municipal solid waste specimens (MSW), it is essential to estimate the value of the coefficient of consolidation (Cv) using laboratory consolidation test results. Literature suggests that the various empirical curve-fitting methods used for assessing Cv are Casagrande’s logarithm of time fitting method and Taylor’s square root of time fitting method for the same test data. Both methods are derived from the time factor and degree of consolidation (T–U) relationship and corresponding laboratory time–compression (T–δ) relationship. For different types of wastes and loading conditions, the shapes of curves vary considerably, and the validity of these approaches is not established. In all these cases, the estimation of the Cv poses a serious problem. To overcome the above difficulties, the rectangular hyperbola method is used, in this article, to determine the Cv by U–T or t versus δ relationship. Earlier, this method was used for different coefficient of consolidation values of time for completion of different percentages of consolidation. It is found that the calculated values of Cv are found to be more reliable when the time for 60 % of consolidation is taken. The estimated Cv values from the rectangular hyperbola method lie between the existing standard methods of Casagrande’s and Taylor’s. The rectangular hyperbola method is simple and can be used for all shapes of time–compression curves, and the specific advantage of this method is that the initial compression need not be known and is devised to separate the initial, primary, and secondary compression for any load increment.
Dietary Advanced Glycation End Products and Aging

Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) are a heterogeneous, complex group of compounds that are formed when reducing sugar reacts in a non-enzymatic way with amino acids in proteins and other macromolecules. This occurs both exogenously (in food) and endogenously (in humans) with greater concentrations found in older adults. While higher AGEs occur in both healthy older adults and those with chronic diseases, research is progressing to both quantify AGEs in food and in people, and to identify mechanisms that would explain why some human tissues are damaged, and others are not. In the last twenty years, there has been increased evidence that AGEs could be implicated in the development of chronic degenerative diseases of aging, such as cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s disease and with complications of diabetes mellitus. Results of several studies in animal models and humans show that the restriction of dietary AGEs has positive effects on wound healing, insulin resistance and cardiovascular diseases. Recently, the effect of restriction in AGEs intake has been reported to increase the lifespan in animal models. This paper will summarize the work that has been published for both food AGEs and in vivo AGEs and their relation with aging, as well as provide suggestions for future research.
Bidding under Uncertainty: Theory and Experiments

This paper describes a study of agent bidding strategies, assuming combinatorial valuations for complementary and substitutable goods, in three auction environments: sequential auctions, simultaneous auctions, and the Trading Agent Competition (TAC) Classic hotel auction design, a hybrid of sequential and simultaneous auctions. The problem of bidding in sequential auctions is formulated as an MDP, and it is argued that expected marginal utility bidding is the optimal bidding policy. The problem of bidding in simultaneous auctions is formulated as a stochastic program, and it is shown by example that marginal utility bidding is not an optimal bidding policy, even in deterministic settings. Two alternative methods of approximating a solution to this stochastic program are presented: the first method, which relies on expected values, is optimal in deterministic environments; the second method, which samples the nondeterministic environment, is asymptotically optimal as the number of samples tends to infinity. Finally, experiments with these various bidding policies are described in the TAC Classic setting.
Effects of in ovo exposure to 3,3′,4,4′‐tetrachlorobiphenyl (PCB 77) on heart development in tree swallow (Tachycineta bicolor)

Tree swallow (Tachycineta bicolor) eggs from 2 uncontaminated sites, the Patuxent Research Refuge (Laurel, MD, USA) and the Cobleskill Reservoir (Cobleskill, NY, USA) were dosed with polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) 77 to evaluate effects on the developing cardiovascular system. To ensure embryonic viability, treatments were administered into the air cell at embryonic day 2.5 including: untreated (control), vehicle (filtered sterilized fatty acid mixture), 100 ng/g and 1000 ng/g egg. Eggs were dosed in the field with 0.2 μL/egg, returned to the nest, collected at embryonic day 13, hatched in the laboratory, and necropsied. The PCB 77‐treated hatchlings were compared with uninjected, vehicle‐injected, and environmentally exposed hatchlings collected from a PCB‐contaminated Upper Hudson River (NY, USA) site. The PCB 77‐treated embryos showed no effects on hatching success or hatchling mortality, heart index, or morphological measures of 4 distinct heart layers (heart width, length, septal thickness, total and ventricular cavity area) compared with controls. Hatchlings that had received PCB 77 exhibited increased incidence of a cardiomyopathy and absence of the ventricular heart wall compact layer (Chi square test; p < 0.001); environmentally exposed embryos showed no apparent effects. The compact layer is essential in development and overall heart function for ventricular cardiomyocyte proliferation and normal heart contraction. The finding that in ovo exposure to PCB 77 resulted in distinct cardiomyopathy has implications for long‐term individual fitness. Environ Toxicol Chem 2018;37:116–125. © 2017 SETAC
Breathing Life into Monuments of Death: The Stupa and the 'Buddha Body' in Sanchi's Socio-Ecological Landscape

Introduction This paper focuses on the stūpa and the associated relic cult as a complex architectural manifestation of the Buddha body (Walters 2002), its potency enhanced by a range of older, intersecting Indic mortuary traditions and religio-cosmogonic symbologies. Drawing on epigraphical and textual evidence for corporeal relics as retainers of ‘vital breath’ (prāṇa), it will examine the relevance of this material and related scholarship on stūpas as monuments that are ‘infused with life’ or as repositories of the Buddha’s ‘essence’ (Schopen 1997a, 1268) for understanding the dynamics of the stūpa cult in central India.
From here to utility - melding phonetic insight with speech technology

It is the twelfth-century in Japan, and a nobleman has died a violent death. A magistrate is charged with establishing the identity of the killer and delineating the sequence of events leading up to the murder. During the formal hearing several witnesses are called to testify ‐ the victim’s wife, the accused (a notorious bandit), a woodsman and the victim himself (through a spirit medium). Each witness provides a singular account of the man’s death. They agree on but a single fact ‐ that the nobleman is, indeed, dead. How he died and by whose hand are very much in dispute.
Dissection of Genetic Factors underlying Wheat Kernel Shape and Size in an Elite × Nonadapted Cross using a High Density SNP Linkage Map

Wheat kernel shape and size has been under selection since early domestication. Kernel morphology is a major consideration in wheat breeding, as it impacts grain yield and quality. A population of 160 recombinant inbred lines (RIL), developed using an elite (ND 705) and a nonadapted genotype (PI 414566), was extensively phenotyped in replicated field trials and genotyped using Infinium iSelect 90K assay to gain insight into the genetic architecture of kernel shape and size. A high density genetic map consisting of 10,172 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers, with an average marker density of 0.39 cM/marker, identified a total of 29 genomic regions associated with six grain shape and size traits; ∼80% of these regions were associated with multiple traits. The analyses showed that kernel length (KL) and width (KW) are genetically independent, while a large number (∼59%) of the quantitative trait loci (QTL) for kernel shape traits were in common with genomic regions associated with kernel size traits. The most significant QTL was identified on chromosome 4B, and could be an ortholog of major rice grain size and shape gene GS3 or qGL3. Major and stable loci also were identified on the homeologous regions of Group 5 chromosomes, and in the regions of TaGW2 (6A) and TaGASR7 (7A) genes. Both parental genotypes contributed equivalent positive QTL alleles, suggesting that the nonadapted germplasm has a great potential for enhancing the gene pool for grain shape and size. This study provides new knowledge on the genetic dissection of kernel morphology, with a much higher resolution, which may aid further improvement in wheat yield and quality using genomic tools.
Habitat complementation in urban barnacle geese: from safe nesting islands to productive foraging lawns

Since the first breeding in the Helsinki area (60°N, 20°E) in 1989, barnacle geese (Branta leucopsis) have increased drastically. In 2010, the number of nesting geese was estimated at 1440 pairs while the post-breeding population was 8400 individuals. The Helsinki area was clearly an open niche for this arctic species. Geese nested in the relatively natural archipelago and broods used urban lawns for foraging. This behaviour may indicate that by nesting on small islands geese avoid predation by terrestrial mammalian predators and by moving to urban lawns broods decrease predation risk by avian predators. Furthermore, during the autumn, geese foraged on urban lawns and in cultivated fields and roosted in coastal waters. The use of post-breeding habitat is again likely linked with predator avoidance. We suggest that the successful establishment of the barnacle geese is due to a combination of high brood production and low predation rate, and this is possible to achieve by using the landscape in a complementary manner.