Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Template-based Synthetic Handwriting Generation for the Training of Recognition Systems

In this paper we present a method for synthesizing English handwritten textlines from ASCII transcriptions. The method is based on templates of characters and the Delta LogNormal model of handwriting generation. To generate a textline, rst a static image of the textline is built by concatenating perturbed versions of the character templates. Then strokes and corresponding virtual targets are extracted and randomly perturbed, and nally the textline is drawn using overlapping strokes and delta-lognormal velocity proles in accordance with the Delta LogNormal theory. The generated textlines are used as training data for a hidden Markov model based o-line handwritten textline recognizer. First results show that adding such generated textlines to the natural training set may be benecial.
Uncertainty and Monetary Policy in the US: A Journey into Non-Linear Territory

This paper estimates a non-linear Interacted VAR model to assess whether the real effects of monetary policy shocks are milder during times of high uncertainty. In a novel way, uncertainty, i.e., the conditioning indicator discriminating “high” and “low” uncertainty states, is modeled endogenously in the VAR and is found to reduce after an expansionary shock. Generalized Impulse Response Functions a la Koop, Pesaran and Potter (1996) suggest that monetary policy shocks are significantly less powerful during uncertain times, with the peak reactions of a battery of real variables being about two-thirds milder than those during tranquil times. Among the theoretical explanations proposed by the literature, real option effects and precautionary savings appear the ones supported by our results.
The Economic Vote: How Political and Economic Institutions Condition Election Results . By Raymond M. Duch and Randolph T. Stevenson. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008. 416p. $45.00 cloth, $19.00 paper.

accountability rather than governability more generally. In addition, by identifying the key role of the military, he places the issue of civil–military relations at the heart of the democratization debate. If there is any criticism to be leveled against the book it is that it might have been longer. It is not the length per se that is the issue, but there are times when the analysis might have been complemented with further models and other types of analysis to make the overall argument even more convincing. For example, Cheibub is unable to test directly a crucial element of his argument. Linz argues that presidential democracies are likely to collapse when they are legislatively ineffective. Cheibub shows that the circumstances in which presidential governments are likely to be legislatively ineffective are much more restricted than is usually assumed. However, he cannot test whether presidential democracies do collapse under these conditions because “there are simply too few instances of democratic breakdowns in the set of cases for which information on the government’s legislative success is also available” (p. 92). In this context, a case-study strategy may have provided useful insights. Also, bear in mind that the core chapter of the book—Chapter 4, “Are Coalitions Rare in Presidential Democracies? ”—comprises a series of null hypotheses. Cheibub stresses that he has used a number of models to confirm the null results, but more information about the models would have been welcome, particularly the specification of the survival models that he used. Finally, and unsurpringly as he was one of the coauthors, Cheibub uses the Przeworski et al. data set (Democracy and Development: Political Institutions and Well-Being in the World, 1950–1990, 2000) to determine case selection. Cheibub presents a convincing case as to why this is the best data set to use, but it would be reassuring to know that different data sets produce the same null results. For instance, most studies in the Linz tradition use either Freedom House or Polity data to determine case selection. Do these data corroborate the null findings from the Przeworski et al. data set? Cheibub has produced a book of reference. He has not only contributed a major piece of work to an old debate but also established a new research agenda in his chosen area.
On the Difficulties of Disclosure Prevention in Statistical Databases or The Case for Differential Privacy

In 1977 Tore Dalenius articulated a desideratum for statistical databases: nothing about an individual should be learnable from the database that cannot be learned without access to the database. We give a general impossibility result showing that a natural formalization of Dalenius’ goal cannot be achieved if the database is useful. The key obstacle is the side information that may be available to an adversary. Our results hold under very general conditions regarding the database, the notion of privacy violation, and the notion of utility. Contrary to intuition, a variant of the result threatens the privacy even of someone not in the database. This state of affairs motivated the notion of differential privacy [15, 16], a strong ad omnia privacy which, intuitively, captures the increased risk to one’s privacy incurred by participating in a database.
Estimation of Lithium Polymer cell characteristic parameters through genetic algorithms

In this paper the possibility to characterize a Lithium Polymer (LiPo) cell, starting from a small amount of measurements only, is investigated. Experimental results achieved by a deep measurement campaign performed on one of the lithium batteries capable of the highest power on the market are partially reported and described. Part of these results together with an analytical model and a data driven procedure based on a genetic algorithm are used to deduce different quantities believed to be important for the description of the cell behavior. Finally, deduced quantities are compared with the equivalent measured ones in order to evaluate the correctness of the proposed approach.
Epigenetic identification of ubiquitin carboxyl‐terminal hydrolase L1 as a functional tumor suppressor and biomarker for hepatocellular carcinoma and other digestive tumors

The ubiquitin carboxyl‐terminal hydrolase L1 (UCHL1) is a carboxyl‐terminal ubiquitin hydrolase regulating cellular ubiquitin levels, recently suggested as a tumor suppressor. However, the role of UCHL1 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is not clear. We investigated the expression and DNA methylation of the UCHL1 in primary HCC, liver metastases from digestive carcinomas, and primary digestive cancers. UCHL1 is expressed in all normal tissues and immortalized normal epithelial cell lines, but was low or silenced in 77% (10/13) of HCC cell lines, which is well correlated with its promoter methylation status. Methylation was further detected in 44% (12/27) of HCCs, but less in metastatic tumors generated from colorectal and stomach in the liver (19%, 3/16; P < 0.05). Methylation was also detected in primary digestive tumors, including 71% (22/31) of colon, 77% (53/69) of gastric, and 40% (18/45) of esophageal carcinomas, but none or occasionally in paired adjacent nontumor tissues. Detailed methylation analysis of 49 CpG sites at a 540‐bp promoter region by bisulfite genomic sequencing confirmed the methylation. UCHL1 silencing could be reversed by chemical or genetic demethylation of the promoter, indicating direct epigenetic silencing. Restoring UCHL1 expression in silenced cell lines significantly inhibited their growth and colony formation ability by inhibiting cell proliferation, causing cell cycle arrest in G2/M phase and inducing apoptosis through the intrinsic caspase‐dependent pathway. Moreover, UCHL1 directly interacts with p53 and stabilizes p53 through the ubiquitination pathway. Conclusion: Epigenetic inactivation of UCHL1 is common in primary HCCs and other digestive tumors. UCHL1 appears to be a functional tumor suppressor involved in the tumorigenesis of HCCs and other digestive cancers. (HEPATOLOGY 2008;48:508–518.)
Experimental Evidence for the Effect of Small Wind Turbine Proximity and Operation on Bird and Bat Activity

The development of renewable energy technologies such as wind turbines forms a vital part of strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. Although large wind farms generate the majority of wind energy, the small wind turbine (SWT, units generating <50 kW) sector is growing rapidly. In spite of evidence of effects of large wind farms on birds and bats, effects of SWTs on wildlife have not been studied and are likely to be different due to their potential siting in a wider range of habitats. We present the first study to quantify the effects of SWTs on birds and bats. Using a field experiment, we show that bird activity is similar in two distance bands surrounding a sample of SWTs (between 6–18 m hub height) and is not affected by SWT operation at the fine scale studied. At shorter distances from operating turbines (0–5 m), bat activity (measured as the probability of a bat “pass” per hour) decreases from 84% (71–91%) to 28% (11–54%) as wind speed increases from 0 to 14 m/s. This effect is weaker at greater distances (20–25 m) from operating turbines (activity decreases from 80% (65–89%) to 59% (32–81%)), and absent when they are braked. We conclude that bats avoid operating SWTs but that this effect diminishes within 20 m. Such displacement effects may have important consequences especially in landscapes where suitable habitat is limiting. Planning guidance for SWTs is currently lacking. Based on our results we recommend that they are sited at least 20 m away from potentially valuable bat habitat.
Characterization of the Cerebral Blood Flow Response to Balloon Deflation After Temporary Internal Carotid Artery Test Occlusion

The authors tested the hypothesis that cerebral blood flow (CBF) would increase after acute and relatively brief internal carotid artery (ICA) test occlusion, and examined the relationship of the postdeflation CBF to the development of neurologic symptoms. In 16 patients undergoing ICA test occlusion with deliberate hypotension, the authors measured intracarotid 133Xe CBF at baseline, occlusion, and deflation. Four patients developed neurologic symptoms during occlusion. As positive controls, 11 other patients received intracarotid verapamil or papaverine before deflation as part of another protocol. Balloon occlusion was 23.1 ± 10.5 minutes (mean ± standard deviation) in duration. At 1.3 ± 1.6 minutes after balloon deflation, there was a trend (12 ± 31%) for CBF to increase (48 ± 9 mL/100 g/min versus 53 ± 17 mL/100 g/min, P = .15), and a 16 ± 27% decrease in cerebrovascular resistance (CVR; 2.1 ± 0.6 mm Hg/100 g/min/mL versus 1.7 ± 0.6 mm Hg/100 g/min/mL, P = .03) compared with baseline values. By comparison, patients who received a intracarotid dilator demonstrated a 53 ± 55% increase in CBF (48 ± 10 mL/100/min versus 70 ± 23 mL/100 g/min, P = .007) and a 33 ± 31% decrease in CVR (2.2 ± 0.6 mm Hg/100 g/min/mL versus 1.4 ± 0.6 mm Hg/100 g/min/mL, P = .0007) compared with baseline. Analysis of variance and regression analysis showed no other relationships between postocclusion CBF and balloon occlusion duration, distal internal carotid occlusion (“stump”) pressure, or the development of neurologic symptoms. Acute, temporary interruption of ICA blood flow resulted in minimal postocclusive changes in cerebrovascular hemodynamics, even in those patients who developed neurologic symptoms during the period of test occlusion.
Characterizing the shape and material properties of hidden targets from magnetic induction data

The purpose of this paper is to clear up a major mystery in metal detection and confirm that the engineering prediction of HT . M.HM, for the sensitivity of measurements of the perturbed magnetic field to the presence of a general conducting object placed in a low frequency background field, is correct. Explicitly, HT is the background field generated by the transmitter coil, HM is the background field generated by the receiving coil as if it were used as a transmitter and Mind is a rank 2 polarisation tensor, which describes the shape and material properties of the object. To show this, we apply a recently derived asymptotic formula for the perturbed magnetic field due to the presence of a conducting object, which is expressed in terms of a new class of rank 4 polarisation tensors (H. Ammari, J. Chen, Z. Chen, J. Garnier and D. Volkov Target detection and characterization from electromagnetic induction data, Journal de Mathe I�matiques Pures et Applique I�es (2013) http://dx.doi. org/10.1016/j.matpur. 2013.05. 002). At first sight this appears to contradict the engineering prediction, however, contrary to this, we show that at most 9 rather than 81 coefficients are required to describe the rank 4 tensor for a conducting object and a further 9 are required if the object is magnetic. We then show that the rank 4 tensor does in fact reduce to a rank 2 tensor, thus providing a solid theoretical foundation for the engineering prediction. Furthermore, by combining the reduced conductivity and permeability tensors, we obtain a symmetric rank 2 tensor, which describes a general conducting object in terms of just 6 complex independent coefficients. For objects with rotational and mirror symmetries we show that the number of coefficients is still smaller. We include numerical examples to demonstrate that the new polarisation tensors can be accurately computed by solving a vector valued transmission problem by hpâ��finite elements and include evidence to confirm that the asymptotic formula describing the perturbed fields agrees with the numerically predictions.
Explorations of the Effect of Experience on Preferences: Two Health-Care Case Studies

The standard assumption in economic theory is that preferences are stable. In particular, they are not changed as a result of experience with the good/service/event. Behavioral scientists have challenged this assumption and claimed (providing evidence) that preferences are constantly changing when experience is accumulated. This paper tests the effect of experience on preferences for attributes of health-care events. We are using two very different samples and a methodology that facilitates the estimation of marginal utilities of various attributes of a composite non-traded health-care service. Discrete Choice Experimental design is employed for the analysis of samples of (1) women who gave birth, and (2) women who were diagnosed with breast cancer. For each group we had information on experience. In the case of women who gave birth, the sample was decomposed into 3 sub-samples: pregnant women with their first child (no experience); women after one delivery (single experience); and mothers after more than one delivery (multiple experience). Preferences of the 3 sub-groups have then been compared. The breast cancer patients reported the number of chemotherapy/radiation treatments they have already received, thus enabling the construction of an experience variable and testing for the effect of experience on preferences. The basic finding is that preferences for health-care attributes are significantly changed as a result of experience with the health event. However, the amount of experience is irrelevant.
Scattering norm estimate near the threshold for energy-critical focusing semilinear wave equation

We consider the energy-critical semilinear focusing wave equation in dimension $N=3,4,5$. An explicit solution $W$ of this equation is known. By the work of C. Kenig and F. Merle, any solution of initial condition $(u_0,u_1)$ such that $E(u_0,u_1)<E(W,0)$ and $\|\nabla u_0\|_{L^2}<\|\nabla W\|_{L^2}$ is defined globally and has finite $L^{\frac{2(N+1)}{N-2}}_{t,x}$-norm, which implies that it scatters. In this note, we show that the supremum of the $L^{\frac{2(N+1)}{N-2}}_{t,x}$-norm taken on all scattering solutions at a certain level of energy below $E(W,0)$ blows-up logarithmically as this level approaches the critical value $E(W,0)$. We also give a similar result in the case of the radial energy-critical focusing semilinear Schr\"odinger equation. The proofs rely on the compactness argument of C. Kenig and F. Merle, on a classification result, due to the authors, at the energy level $E(W,0)$, and on the analysis of the linearized equation around $W$.
The multi-path utility maximization problem

In this paper, we study solutions to the multi-path utility maximization problem of the type in (1). Optimizations of this type arise naturally in several networking problems such as the multi-path flow control problem. When the capacity of the network is large, it can also model the optimal QoS routing problem and the optimal pricing problem. We present a distributed solution to this problem that can be implemented online. The convergence of the algorithm is established.
Online user community for efficient citizen participation

Involving citizens in the development activities of a company or public sector is getting more and more important to be able to design e.g. services, products, and city plans that people like and want to use. To be able to develop online user communities that support company or public sector user research needs, it is important to focus on customer perceptions of online user communities. This paper addresses customer perceptions of crowdsourcing and citizen participation through an online user community. Empirical data was collected in two phases: through a pre-study containing interviews and an online survey with 52 participants in total and a follow-up interview for seven selected informants after using an online user community for citizen involvement in the development activity. Several real-life citizen involvement activities conducted through the case online user community are presented in the paper. Findings show that the online user involvement platform PATIO's customers have experienced it as an easy, fast, and cost-effective way to involve citizens in different development activities. Findings also suggest that an online user involvement platform and user community allows collecting rich feedback because of an easy access to target end-users. The results of the study contribute to the scientific discussion on crowdsourcing, citizen participation and living labs, and the development of efficient online tools in this context.
Service capabilities within open innovation: Revisiting the applicability of capability maturity models

Purpose – Open innovation is an emerging paradigm which exposes organisations to networked capabilities and competencies though collaboration relationships. The traditional view of the organisational environment raises concerns regarding the mismatch in the methods used to assess business value and understanding service process maturity. The purpose of this paper is to address this gap. Design/methodology/approach – This paper employs a systematic literature review to present a state-of-the-art literature review with particular focus on the applicability of capability maturity models (CMM) within an open innovation context. Findings – The authors present a conceptual account of our research developments and build on the state-of-the-art which bridges open innovation and CMM. The authors provide a comprehensive discussion on the literature and challenge the applicability of individual organisations evolving through maturity stages. The authors identify a significant gap in the emergence of open innovation .
Learning Scene-Independent Group Descriptors for Crowd Understanding

Groups are the primary entities that make up a crowd. Understanding group-level dynamics and properties is thus scientifically important and practically useful in a wide range of applications, especially for crowd understanding. In this paper, we show that fundamental group-level properties, such as intra-group stability and inter-group conflict, can be systematically quantified by visual descriptors. This is made possible through learning a novel collective transition prior, which leads to a robust approach for group segregation in public spaces. From the former, we further devise a rich set of group-property visual descriptors. These descriptors are scene-independent and can be effectively applied to public scenes with a variety of crowd densities and distributions. Extensive experiments on hundreds of public scene video clips demonstrate that such property descriptors are complementary to each other, scene-independent, and they convey critical information on physical states of a crowd. The proposed group-level descriptors show promising results and potentials in multiple applications, including crowd dynamic monitoring, crowd video classification, and crowd video retrieval.
Bioavailability of metalloporphyrin-based SOD mimics is greatly influenced by a single charge residing on a Mn site

Abstract In the cell Mn porphyrins (MnPs) likely couple with cellular reductants which results in a drop of total charge from 5+ to 4+ and dramatically increases their lipophilicity by up to three orders of magnitude depending upon the length of alkylpyridyl chains and type of isomer. The effects result from the interplay of solvation, lipophilicit and stericity. Impact of ascorbate on accumulation of MnPs was measured in E. coli and in Balb/C mouse tumours and muscle; for the latter measurements, the LC/ESI-MS/MS method was developed. Accumulation was significantly enhanced when MnPs were co-administered with ascorbate in both prokaryotic and eukaryotic systems. Further, MnTnHex-2-PyP5+ accumulates 5-fold more in the tumour than in a muscle. Such data increase our understanding of MnPs cellular and sub-cellular accumulation and remarkable in vivo effects. The work is in progress to understand how coupling of MnPs with ascorbate affects their mechanism of action, in particular with respect to cancer therapy.
Myocardial Akt Activation and Gender: Increased Nuclear Activity in Females Versus Males

Abstract— Cardiovascular disease risk is higher in men than women, but the basis for this discrepancy remains controversial. Estrogenic stimulation of the myocardium or isolated cardiomyocytes has been purported to exert multiple beneficial effects associated with inhibition of maladaptive responses to pathogenic insults. This report describes a significant difference between the sexes in myocardial activation of Akt, a protein kinase that regulates a broad range of physiological responses including metabolism, gene transcription, and cell survival. We find that young women possess higher levels of nuclear-localized phospho-Akt473 relative to comparably aged men or postmenopausal women. Both localization of phospho-Akt473 in myocardial nuclei of sexually mature female mice versus males and Akt kinase activity in nuclear extracts of hearts from female mice versus males are elevated. Cytosolic localization of phospho-forkhead, a downstream nuclear target of Akt, is also increased in female relative to male mice, suggesting a potential mechanism for cardioprotective nuclear signaling resulting from Akt activation. Phospho-Akt473 levels and localization at cardiac nuclei are similarly increased in transgenic mice with myocardium-specific expression of insulin-like growth factor I, a proven stimulus for Akt activation. Phospho-Akt473 is also localized to the nucleus of cultured cardiomyocytes after exposure to 17&bgr;-estradiol or genistein (a phytoestrogen in soy protein-based diets), and neonatal exposure of litters to genistein elevated nuclear phospho-Akt473 localization. The activation of Akt in a gender-dependent manner may help explain differences observed in cardiovascular disease risk between the sexes and supports the potential beneficial effects of estrogenic stimulation.