Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Torsional oscillations of longitudinally inhomogeneous coronal loops

Aims. We explore the effect of an inhomogeneous mass density field on frequencies and wave profiles of torsional Alfvcn oscillations in solar coronal loops. Methods. Dispersion relations for torsional oscillations are derived analytically in limits of weak and strong inhomogeneities. These analytical results are verified by numerical solutions, which are valid for a wide range of inhomogeneity strength. Results. It is shown that the inhomogeneous mass density field leads to the reduction of a wave frequency of torsional oscillations, in comparison to that estimated from mass density at the loop apex. This frequency reduction results from the decrease of an average Alfvcn speed as far as the inhomogeneous loop is denser at its footpoints. The derived dispersion relations and wave profiles are important for potential observations of torsional oscillations which result in periodic variations of spectral line widths. Conclusions. Torsional oscillations offer an additional powerful tool for the development of coronal seismology.
Passive and electro-optic polymer photonics and InP electronics integration for multi-flow terabit transceivers at edge SDN switches and data-center gateways

Within PANTHER research project, we aim to develop multi-rate, multi-format, multi-reach and multi-flow terabit transceivers for data-center gateways, having the capability of flexibly controlling this enormous capacity and distributing it among independent optical flows. To this end, we combine electro-optic with passive polymers and we develop a novel photonic integration platform with unprecedented potential for high-speed modulation and optical functionality on-chip. We also rely on the combination of polymers with InP elements and the use of InP-DHBT electronics for driving circuits based on 3-bit power-DACs and high-speed TIA arrays. Using 3D integration techniques, we also aim to integrate these components in system-in-package transceivers capable of operation at 64 Gbaud, operation with formats up to DP-64-QAM and flexibility in the handling of multiple optical flows on-chip. In this paper, we present the system level vision and the technical approach for the development of these modules, and we present the concept for a thin software layer that will control the parameters of the transceivers and will extend the SDN hierarchy down to the flexible optical transport layer.
Long Term High Fat Diet Treatment: An Appropriate Approach to Study the Sex-Specificity of the Autonomic and Cardiovascular Responses to Obesity in Mice

Obesity-related cardiovascular disease (CVD) involves increased sympathetic activity in men and male animals. Although women exhibit increased visceral fat, metabolic disorders, inflammation and CVD with obesity, whether body weight gain affects autonomic control of cardiovascular function in females remain unknown. Due to the lack of adequate model to mimic the human pathology, this study aimed to develop a murine model, which would allow studying the sex-specificity of the response of the autonomic nervous system to obesity and identifying the origin of potential sex-differences. We tested the hypothesis that sexual dimorphisms in the autonomic response to obesity disappear in mice matched for changes in body weight, metabolic and inflammatory disorders. Male and female C57Bl/6 mice were submitted to control (CD) or high fat diet (HFD) for 24 weeks. Female mice gained more adipose mass and lost more lean mass than males but reached similar visceral adipose mass and body weight, as males, at the end of the diet. 24 weeks of HFD matched male and female mice for visceral adiposity, glycaemia, plasma insulin, lipids, and inflammatory cytokines levels, demonstrating the suitability of the model to study human pathology. HFD did not elevate BP, but similarly increased heart rate (HR) in males (CD: 571 ± 9 vs. HFD: 631 ± 14 bpm, P < 0.05) and females (CD: 589 ± 19 vs. HFD: 642 ± 6 bpm, P < 0.05). Indices of autonomic control of BP and HR were obtained by measuring BP and HR response to ganglionic blockade, β-adrenergic, and muscarinic receptors antagonists. HFD increased vascular but reduced cardiac sympathetic drive in males (CD: –43 ± 4 and HFD: –60 ± 7% drop in BP, P < 0.05). HFD did not alter females' vascular or cardiac sympathetic drive. HFD specifically reduced aortic α-adrenergic constriction in males and lowered HR response to muscarinic receptor antagonism in females. These data suggest that obesity-associated increases in HR could be caused by a reduced cardiac vagal tone in females, while HR increases in males may compensate for the reduced vascular adrenergic contractility to preserve baseline BP. These data suggest that obesity impairs autonomic control of cardiovascular function in males and females, via sex-specific mechanisms and independent of fat distribution, metabolic disorder or inflammation.
Inaccuracy of clinical phenotyping parameters for hypertensive nephrosclerosis.

BACKGROUND Multiple studies suggest that hypertension-induced end-stage renal disease (ESRD) is heritable. Identification of nephropathy susceptibility genes absolutely requires accurate phenotyping, but the clinical hypertensive nephrosclerosis (HN) phenotype is poorly characterized. We hypothesized that many patients with HN as the indicated cause of ESRD on the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) 2728 form, fail to satisfy stringent HN phenotyping criteria. METHODS Since renal biopsy documentation of HN is uncommon, clinical parameters for HN phenotype were applied: family history of hypertension, left ventricular hypertrophy, proteinuria <0.5 g/day, and hypertension preceding renal dysfunction (Schlessinger et al., 1994) or urine protein:creatinine (prot:creat) ratio <2.0 and no evidence of other renal diseases (AASK Trial Group, 1997). RESULTS ESRD patients (n=607, 73% African American, 25% Caucasian) were enrolled in a study to identify HN susceptibility genes. HN was the most common cause of ESRD according to HCFA 2728 forms (37% prevalence). Phenotyping of randomly selected patients with HN from the total cohort revealed that 4/100 subjects satisfied the Schlessinger criteria, and 28/91 African Americans met AASK criteria for HN. From these figures, the adjusted prevalence of HN was only 1.5-13.5%. Of patients that could not be phenotyped for HN, 14 were misdiagnosed, 14 had urine prot:creat >2.0, and insufficient data were available in the remainder. Four patients underwent renal biopsy, but histology from only one was consistent with HN. If the HN phenotype definitions are revised to exclude 'hypertension preceding renal dysfunction', or proteinuria limits, then 44/100 and 39/91 patients respectively satisfy clinical phenotyping parameters for HN. CONCLUSIONS (i) We provide the strongest evidence to date that HN is less frequent in an ESRD population than commonly assumed if strict clinical criteria are used; many patients clinically diagnosed with HN may have undetected, treatable renal disease from other causes; (ii) relaxing HN phenotype criteria may erroneously include patients with glomerular diseases and secondary hypertension; (iii) reliance on HCFA 2728 diagnoses will confound identification of HN susceptibility genes; (iv) to attain adequate statistical power for genotype analysis, rigorous HN phenotyping will require screening an extremely large number of patients, which can be reasonably accomplished only in a multi-centre trial design.
Discovery of three new pulsars in a 610-MHz pulsar survey with the GMRT

We report on the discovery of three new pulsars in the first blind survey of the north Galactic plane (45° < l < 135°; |b| < 1°) with the Giant Meterwave Radio telescope (GMRT) at an intermediate frequency of 610 MHz. The survey covered 106 deg 2 with a sensitivity of roughly 1 mJy to long-period pulsars (pulsars with period longer than 1 s). The three new pulsars have periods of 318, 933 and 1056 ms. Their timing parameters and flux densities, obtained in follow-up observations with the Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank and the GMRT, are presented. We also report on pulse nulling behaviour in one of the newly discovered pulsars, PSR J2208+5500.
The effect of uphill stride manipulation on race walking gait

Stride length analysis represents an easy method for assessing race walking kinematics. However, the stride parameters emerging from such an analysis have never been used to design a training protocol aimed at increasing stride length. With this aim, we investigated the effects of stride frequency manipulation during three weeks of uphill (2%) training on stride length at iso-efficiency speed. Twelve male race walkers were randomly allocated to one of two training groups: stride frequency manipulation (RWM, n=6) and free stride frequency (RWF, n=6). Results. Kinematic parameters measured before and after the 3-week training in RWM showed increased stride length (4.54%; p<0.0001) and contact time (4.58%; p<0.001); inversely, a decreased stride frequency (4.44%; p<0.0001) and internal work (7.09%; p<0.05) were found. In RWF the effect of the training showed a decrease in stride length (1.18%; p<0.0001) and contact time (<1%; p<0.0001) with respect to baseline conditions and an increased stride frequency and internal work of 1.19% (p<0.0001). These results suggest that using slopes (2%) as RWM could help coaches to provide some training methods that would improve an athlete's performance, through increasing stride length without altering his or her race walking technique or metabolic demands.
Turing's test and believable AI in games

The Turing test is perhaps the most famous, most quoted, and probably most often misrepresented and misunderstood measure of machine intelligence. In this article we'll briefly review the Turing test and some of its key criticisms. In particular, we will try to answer whether the Turing test -- or something derived from it -- can be of use in developing and assessing game AI. We will also present a brief overview of a methodology for conducting believability testing for games and highlight some of the problems inherent in any attempt to categorically determine whether or not some AI behavior is capable of convincing, life-like behavior.
Intégration Par Le Marché : Le Cas De L'Uemoa

This paper uses the gravity model to assess the determinants of intra- UEMOA trade flows and focuses on the impact of the wave of economic reforms of the 1980s and 1990s on internal trade. Furthermore, it computes trade potentials among UEMOA member nations. The model is tested for 1990-1994 and for 1996-2000 using a sample of 25 reporting and 31 partner countries. The results indicate that the traditional variables of the gravity model (GDP, distance and GDP per capita) are significant and display the expected signs. They are therefore the main determinants of intra-UEMOA trade flows. Specifically, membership in UEMOA significantly increased trade creation among member countries after the economic reforms. Our findings also suggest that there is an important trade potential among the economies of the subregion.
Socially Responsible Investment in General Equilibrium

Socially responsible investment in analyzed in a general equilibrium context. This is important in order to understand the ultimate consequences of SRI on the decisions of economic agents. Building on models by Brock (1982) and Merton (1987), SRI is modelled as the choice to voluntarily give up investment in stocks and bonds issues by a firm producing an externality. The model is used to analyze the utility costs of SRI to the responsible investor and the impact on the price of the stock issued by the firm which is responsible for the externality. The results shed light on the factors which may magnify or reduce the impact of SRI, among which are crucial the wealth commended in relative terms by the responsible agents and the diversification possibilities offered by the firms which are excluded from the investment opportunity set. A set of firms targeted by SRI may be seriously affected by SRI only if the responsible investors command a large portion of overall wealth; moreover the same firms are more likely to be hit by SRI behavior if they do not represent important diversification instruments. Firms with unique characteristics from the point of view of overall diversification are less likely to be the target of SRI.
Does “Vote No” Change Corporate Governance and Firm Value? Evidence from the Shareholder Activism of the Korean National Pension Service

Abstract: In this paper, we analyze the effect of shareholder activism on firm value through internal corporate governance in an emerging market. We investigate the shareholder activism by the National Pension Service (NPS) of Korea, the fourth-largest pension fund in the world in 2010. We investigate stock price reaction to a “vote no” press announcement and find that the market does not react in the short run, which reaction is inconsistent with the results from developed countries. We also find that firms experiencing “vote no” and improved internal corporate governance have higher firm valuation. Shareholder activism by the NPS is effective in increasing target firm value through improving internal corporate governance.
Norwegian Salmon Aquaculture and Sustainability: The Relationship Between Environmental Quality and Industry Growth

This paper discusses the relationship between industry growth and environmental quality in the context of salmon aquaculture. It is argued that industry growth can reduce pollution by inducing more technological innovations for industry-specific, pollution-reducing inputs. This increases the elasticity of substitution between conventional factors of production on the one hand, and pollution on the other, and therefore enables a greater degree of internalization of environmental problems. Four indicators of pollution are examined for Norwegian salmon aquaculture. The salmon aquaculture industry is one in which growth is associated with reduced environmental problems not only in relative, but also in absolute terms.
The education arcade: crafting, remixing, and playing with controllers for Scratch games

The recent development of low cost tangible construction kits has lowered the barriers to entry for amateur and youth hardware designers. In this paper, we discuss the outcomes of a pilot study in which middle school youths set up a game arcade by remixing Scratch games and crafting physical game controllers using the MaKey MaKey and Play-Doh. The analyses focused on the youths' designs and reflections on Scratch remixes, their game controllers, and the culminating arcade. Designing game controllers and setting up the arcade was a productive learning experience for the youths in which they were able to glean insights about how to improve their designs by watching younger students play their games. In the discussion we highlight the parts of the workshop that were most successful, address what we learned about the youths' experiences, develop suggestions for the design of future workshops, and discuss the significance of authentic audience designs.
Editor's Note and Announcement of a New Journal Section

Reinforcement learning, as understood by Sutton and Barto, is a fusion of the trial-and-error “law-of-effect” tradition in psychology, optimal control theory in engineering, the secondary reinforcement tradition in learning, and the use of decaying stimulus traces in, for example, Hull’s (1952) concept of a goal gradient and, more recently, Wagner’s (1981) model of conditioning. This fusion has given researchers in artiacial intelligence a number of ideas for computer algorithms that learn a policy that maximizes the agent’s long term return (amount of reward) from the performance of a task. Although many of the ideas behind reinforcement learning originated in psychological theorizing, in recent years these ideas have been most extensively developed within the artiacial learning community, particularly by the authors of this important summary, their students, and colleagues. The book is intended for use in a one-semester course for students interested in machine learning and artiacial intelligence. It would probably not be suitable for a course intended for psychology and neuroscience students, because it does not present models of experimentally established behavioral or neuroscientiac phenomena, and the problems given to illustrate how reinforcement learning algorithms may be applied are not necessarily problems that animals (even human animals) are notably good at solving (e.g., efacient scheduling problems). However, reinforcement learning, incentive, and utility remain central concepts in contemporary work on the neurobiological basis of learned, goaldirected behavior (Schultz, Dayan, & Montague, 1997; Shizgal, 1997), and this book is the place to look for the latest ideas on how these concepts may be developed into effective models for the direction of action. The preface says that the only mathematical background assumed is familiarity with elementary concepts of probability, such as expectations of random variables. Most students will feel that rather more than that is in fact assumed. Nonetheless, the material is presented in an intuitively understandable form, emphasizing the basic ideas and giving helpful illustrations of their application, rather than elaborating proofs. It can be read with proat by motivated neuroscience and psychology students interested in a more rigorous development of these psychologically important ideas. The biographical and historical sections at the end of each chapter are useful for the perspective they give. The many suggested exercises are challenging, open ended, and thought provoking.
The ribonuclease H activity of the reverse transcriptases of human immunodeficiency viruses type 1 and type 2 is modulated by residue 294 of the small subunit.

Reverse transcriptases (RTs) exhibit DNA polymerase and ribonuclease H (RNase H) activities. The RTs of human immunodeficiency viruses type 1 and type 2 (HIV-1 and HIV-2) are composed of two subunits, both sharing the same N-terminus (which encompasses the DNA polymerase domain). The smaller subunit lacks the C-terminal segment of the larger one, which contains the RNase H domain. The DNA polymerase domain of RTs resembles a right hand linked to the RNase H domain by a connection subdomain. Despite the high homology between HIV-1 and HIV-2 RTs, the RNase H activity of the latter is substantially lower than that of HIV-1 RT. The thumb subdomain of the small subunit controls the level of RNase H activity. We show here that Gln294, located in this thumb, is responsible for this difference in activity. A HIV-2 RT mutant, where Gln294 in the small subunit was replaced by a proline (present in HIV-1 RT), has an activity almost 10-fold higher than that of the wild-type RT. A comparative in vitro study of the kinetic parameters of the RNase H activity suggests that residue 294 affects the K(m) rather than the kcat value, influencing the affinity for the RNA.DNA substrate.
Hearing support system using environment sensor network

In order to solve the problems of current hearing aid devices, we make use of environment sensor network, and propose a hearing support system, where individual target and anti-target sound sources in the environment can be selected, and spatial information of the target sound sources is reconstructed. The performance of the selective sound separation module was evaluated for different noise conditions. Results showed that signal-to-noise ratios of around 15dB could be achieved by the proposed system for a 65dB babble noise plus directional music noise condition. In the same noise condition, subjective intelligibility tests were conducted, and an improvement of 65 to 90% word intelligibility rates could be achieved by using the proposed hearing support system.
Changing dentists' knowledge, attitudes and behavior regarding domestic violence through an interactive multimedia tutorial.

BACKGROUND Dentists have a unique opportunity to address the problem of domestic violence (DV). The authors tested the effectiveness of a tutorial designed to educate dentists in identifying and responding to DV. METHODS The authors developed a brief interactive multimedia tutorial for dentists and recruited practicing dentists (N = 174) for a randomized, controlled trial. A 24-question instrument assessed participants' knowledge, attitudes and practice behaviors regarding DV at two time points. The control group took the tutorial before completing a posttest. The authors also administered a 20-question empathy scale. RESULTS The experimental group demonstrated significantly greater improvement in scores on most items, including knowledge, attitudes and behaviors, relative to control subjects (P < .01). Empathy scores did not show significant correlation with change scores on the DV assessment instrument. CONCLUSIONS The tutorial is effective in helping dentists learn how to identify and help patients who are experiencing abuse. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS Broad dissemination of the tutorial about DV would introduce dentists to simple strategies for responding to patients who experience DV.
Diagnosis of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease: Invasive versus Noninvasive

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common chronic liver disease in the United States and many other parts of the world. Its prevalence continues to rise-currently affecting approximately 20 to 30% of adults and 10% of children in the United States. NAFLD represents a wide spectrum of conditions ranging from fatty liver, which in general follows a benign nonprogressive clinical course, to steatohepatitis or NASH, a more serious form of NAFLD that may progress to cirrhosis and end-stage liver disease. Although currently a combination of noninvasive clinically available laboratory and imaging tests may help in the diagnostic evaluation of a patient with suspected NAFLD, a liver biopsy remains the only reliable way to precisely diagnose NASH and establish the severity of liver injury and presence of fibrosis. It also provides important information regarding prognosis as well as response to therapeutic interventions. However, a liver biopsy is an invasive and costly procedure, which is poorly suited as a diagnostic test for a condition that may affect about one-third of the U.S. population. This review provides a concise overview of the role of liver biopsy versus noninvasive diagnostic tools for the differentiation of fatty liver from nonalcoholic steatohepatitis as well as for the determination of presence and extent of fibrosis. In particular, this review focuses on the methods currently available in daily clinical practice in hepatology and touches briefly on potential future markers under investigation.