Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dependence of entropy solutions in the large for the euler equations on nonlinear flux functions

We study the dependence of entropy solutions in the large for hyperbolic systems of conservation laws whose flux functions depend on a parameter vector p. We first formulate an effective approach for establishing the L 1 -estimate pointwise in time between entropy solutions for μ ≠ 0 and μ = 0, respectively, with respect to the flux parameter vector p. Then we employ this approach and successfully establish the L 1 -estimate between entropy solutions in the large for several important nonlinear physical systems including the isentropic and relativistic Euler equations and for the isothermal Euler equations, respectively, for which the parameters are the adiabatic exponent y > 1 and the speed of light c < ∞.
Molecular and Functional Profiling of the Polyamine Content in Enteroinvasive E. coli : Looking into the Gap between Commensal E. coli and Harmful Shigella

Polyamines are small molecules associated with a wide variety of physiological functions. Bacterial pathogens have developed subtle strategies to exploit polyamines or manipulate polyamine-related processes to optimize fitness within the host. During the transition from its innocuous E. coli ancestor, Shigella, the aetiological agent of bacillary dysentery, has undergone drastic genomic rearrangements affecting the polyamine profile. A pathoadaptation process involving the speG gene and the cad operon has led to spermidine accumulation and loss of cadaverine. While a higher spermidine content promotes the survival of Shigella within infected macrophages, the lack of cadaverine boosts the pathogenic potential of the bacterium in host tissues. Enteroinvasive E. coli (EIEC) display the same pathogenicity process as Shigella, but have a higher infectious dose and a higher metabolic activity. Pathoadaption events affecting the cad locus have occurred also in EIEC, silencing cadaverine production. Since EIEC are commonly regarded as evolutionary intermediates between E. coli and Shigella, we investigated on their polyamine profile in order to better understand which changes have occurred along the path to pathogenicity. By functional and molecular analyses carried out in EIEC strains belonging to different serotypes, we show that speG has been silenced in one strain only, favouring resistance to oxidative stress conditions and survival within macrophages. At the same time, we observe that the content of spermidine and putrescine, a relevant intermediate in the synthesis of spermidine, is higher in all strains as compared to E. coli. This may represent an evolutionary response to the lack of cadaverine. Indeed, restoring cadaverine synthesis decreases the expression of the speC gene, whose product affects putrescine production. In the light of these results, we discuss the possible impact of pathoadaptation events on the evolutionary emergence of a polyamine profile favouring to the pathogenic lifestyle of Shigella and EIEC.
The controllability of difference : social solidarity and immigrant integration

This paper is concerned with the relationship between solidarity and difference in European countries of immigration. Public and policy discourses on immigration and ethnic diversity in Europe have undergone substantial changes in recent years, revealing a shift away from the pluralist and multicultural approaches of the 1970s and 1980s. The new emphasis is on social cohesion and integration into mainstream social and cultural practices, as exemplified by a desire for listing ‘core values’, ‘integration contracts’ and citizenship tests. In order to understand the social processes underlying these changes, the article examines some major societal transformations – the technoscience revolution, the re-organization of work, and the process of individualization that have occurred in Europe over the past half century. These changes have had contradictory effects, highlighting what I refer to as the coexistence of interdependent contradictions, creating a new social distance and transforming the collective identities of the past. While in many respects liberating, the changes have not necessarily led to an enduring openness to difference. Finally, I examine current definitions of cohesion and integration and highlight some of the problems, contrasting them with a more feasible set of principles for social solidarity. I show how the new social distancing forms an inherent part of changes in social solidarity and conclude by considering whether the turn from multiculturalism and the new social cohesion is likely to achieve its desired outcomes.
Interior Point Trajectories in Semidefinite Programming

In this paper we study interior point trajectories in semidefinite programming (SDP) including the central path of an SDP. This work was inspired by the seminal work of Megiddo on linear programming trajectories [ Progress in Math. Programming: Interior-Point Algorithms and Related Methods, N. Megiddo, ed., Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1989, pp. 131--158]. Under an assumption of primal and dual strict feasibility, we show that the primal and dual central paths exist and converge to the analytic centers of the optimal faces of, respectively, the primal and the dual problems. We consider a class of trajectories that are similar to the central path but can be constructed to pass through any given interior feasible or infeasible point, and study their convergence. Finally, we study the derivatives of these trajectories and their convergence.
Golf club characteristics and vertical force distribution associated with pitch and lob shots of different carry distances

The purpose of this study was to investigate the club characteristics and vertical force distribution of pitch and lob shots of 20 and 30 m in female golfers from the Korean Ladies Professional Golf Association (age: 21.3 ± 1.7 years; height: 161.5 ± 4.4 cm; body weight: 60.3 ± 5.6 kg; career: 7.5 ± 1.7 years). Ten infrared cameras and two force plates were used to record the swing of each golfer. The test golf swings included a pitch and lob shot to target distances of 20 and 30 m. The carry distance for the 20 and 30 m shots was affected by club shaft angle, loft angle, projected ball angle, and club head speed. Pitch and lob shots were distinguished by ball position, club shaft angle, loft angle, vertical force distribution, projected ball angle, and club head speed. For the lob shot, the ball was positioned about 6 cm toward the left foot from the center of the heel marker, compared to the ball position in the pitch shot for the 20 and 30 m shots. In addition, the loft angle was 10° wider and the vertical force of the right foot was 4% greater than for the pitch shot. The projection angle of the ball for the 30 m lob shot was 57°, while that for the pitch shot was about 47°. Taken together, the within-player between-task design and the realistic well-practiced goal-directed experimental tasks provided an opportunity to determine how individual players modify their control strategies to regulate shot distance and ball trajectory when using the same club. These findings have practical implications for coaches and for golfers aiming to improve their short game ability.
Anthropometric Measurements of Volleyball Players at Different Level of Competition

The purpose of this study was to compare the anthropometric characteristics of volleyball players at different level of competition (i.e. inter-college level and inter-school level). A sample of 72 subjects, which includes 36 each, inter-college level (N=36, mean ± SD: age 20.42 ± 0.87 years, height 178.06± 6.14cm, weight 67.64± 6.88kg, BMI 21.34± 2.06) and inter-school level (N=36, mean ± SD: age 17.42 ± 0.87 years, height 174.06± 6.14cm, weight 64.64± 6.88kg, BMI 21.33± 2.12) male volleyball players, was selected for the present study. The purposive sampling technique was used to select the subjects. All the subjects were assessed for height, weight, lengths, circumferences, diameters and skin fold thicknesses. An independent samples t-test revealed that inter-college volleyball players had significantly higher height (p˂0.05), arm length(p˂0.05), upper leg length (p˂0.05) and lower leg length (p˂0.05) as compared to inter-school level volleyball players. The inter-college level volleyball players were also found to have significantly greater elbow diameter (p˂0.05), shoulder diameter (p˂0.05), hip diameter (p˂ 0.05), knee diameter (p˂0.05),calf circumference (p˂0.05), chest circumference (p˂0.05), upper arm circumference (p˂0.05) and fore arm circumference (p˂0.05). Inter-school volleyball players had significantly greater biceps (p˂0.05), triceps (p˂0.05), subscapular (p˂ 0.05) andsuprailliacskinfold (p˂ 0.05) as compared to basketball players.
Purification of morphologically intact triad structures from skeletal muscle

A procedure has been devised for isolation of triads (t- tubule/sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) junctional complexes) from rabbit skeletal muscle. The procedure consists of preparation of a heavy microsomal fraction followed by two sequential 90-min sucrose gradient centrifugations to enrich the triads. A pyrophosphate/phosphate/magnesium buffer system was introduced to decrease aggregation in order to achieve effective separation. The preparation time is 12 h. Some differences between purified triads isolated by two variants of this method are noted. The purity of the triad fractions has been estimated by particle counting to be in the vicinity of 50%. There is good retention of morphology and Ca++-loading activity and enrichment in Na+,K+-ATPase and adenylate cyclase. The triads are practically devoid of contractile elements, mitochondria, and free plasmalemma, and low in content of light SR. The method for obtaining enriched triads is reproducible, and sufficient yields are obtained for structural, biochemical, and functional characterization.
Comparison Between Communication Infrastructures of Centralized and Decentralized Wide Area Measurement Systems

Restructuring in power systems has introduced new complexities and difficulties in controlling of these systems. Therefore, new control strategies should be investigated in operation of power systems. On the other hand, communication infrastructure (CI) is responsible for establishing any control strategy. The purposes of this study are twofold: firstly, to design a communication infrastructure for any given power network with determined measurements; secondly, to compare communication infrastructures for centralized and decentralized control strategies in power grids. The comparison criteria are communication network cost, delay (latency), and reliability. In this study, hybrid state estimation (HSE), as one of the most important wide area measurement systems (WAMS), is opted. Communication infrastructures are designed for two different control strategies; centralized and decentralized (multi-area) HSE. These strategies have been investigated in IEEE 118-bus test network. Some new concepts, that help us to compare any two given communication infrastructures with each other, are introduced. Finally, two designed communication infrastructures for these two strategies are compared with each other. The results show that, although communication infrastructure investments are almost the same in both cases, decentralizing, as a cause of decentralized control strategy, results in improvement of latency and reliability of CI.
The role of selective attention and action selection in the development of multiple action capabilities

In this paper we illustrate how the capacity to select the most appropriate actions when handling contexts affording multiple conflicting actions can be solved either through a selective attention strategy (in which the stimuli affording alternative actions are filtered out at the perceptual level through top-down regulation) or at later processing stages through an action selection strategy (through the suppression of the premotor information eliciting alternative actions). By carrying out a series of experiments in which a neuro-robot develops an ability to choose between conflicting actions, we were able to identify the conditions that lead to the development of solutions based on one strategy or another. Overall, the results indicate that the selective attention strategy constitutes the most simple and straightforward mechanism enabling the acquisition of such capacities. Moreover, the characteristics of the adaptive/learning process influence whether the adaptive robot converges towards a selective attention and/or action selection strategy.
The complexity of querying indefinite data about linearly ordered domains

In applications dealing with ordered domains, the available data is frequently indefinite. While the domain is actually linearly ordered, only some of the order relations holding between points in the data are known. Thus, the data provides only a partial order, and query answering involves determining what holds under all the compatible linear orders. In this paper we study the complexity of evaluating queries in logical databases containing such indefinite information. We show that in this context queries are intractable even under the data complexity measure, but identify a number of PTIME subproblems. Data complexity in the case of monadic predicates is one of these PTIME cases, but for disjunctive queries the proof is nonconstructive, using well-quasi-order techniques. We also show that the query problem we study is equivalent to the problem of containment of conjunctive relational database queries containing inequalities. One of our result implies that the latter is? p2-complete, solving an open problem of Klug (J. Assoc. Comput. Mach.35, No. 1 (1988), 146? 160).
Intrapopulation genome size dynamics in Festuca pallens.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS It is well known that genome size differs among species. However, information on the variation and dynamics of genome size in wild populations and on the early phase of genome size divergence between taxa is currently lacking. Genome size dynamics, heritability and phenotype effects are analysed here in a wild population of Festuca pallens (Poaceae). METHODS Genome size was measured using flow cytometry with DAPI dye in 562 seedlings from 17 maternal plants varying in genome size. The repeatability of genome size measurements was verified at different seasons through the use of different standards and with propidium iodide dye; the range of variation observed was tested via analysis of double-peaks. Additionally, chromosome counts were made in selected seedlings. KEY RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS Analysis of double-peaks showed that genome size varied up to 1.188-fold within all 562 seedlings, 1.119-fold within the progeny of a single maternal plant and 1.117-fold in seedlings from grains of a single inflorescence. Generally, genome sizes of seedlings and their mothers were highly correlated. However, in maternal plants with both larger and smaller genomes, genome sizes of seedlings were shifted towards the population median. This was probably due to the frequency of available paternal genomes (pollen grains) in the population. There was a stabilizing selection on genome size during the development of seedlings into adults, which may be important for stabilizing genome size within species. Furthermore, a positive correlation was found between genome size and the development rate of seedlings. A larger genome may therefore provide a competitive advantage, perhaps explaining the higher proportion of plants with larger genomes in the population studied. The reason for the observed variation may be the recent induction of genome size variation, e.g. by activity of retrotransposons, which may be preserved in the long term by the segregation of homeologous chromosomes of different sizes during gametogenesis.
Modeling the Effects of Advertisement-Avoidance Technology on Advertisement-Supported Media

Technology occasionally changes media consumers’ control over the amount of advertising to which they are exposed. Advertisers and media firms will benefit from an empirical methodology to forecast the degree to which such technologies will affect their business. This paper introduces such a methodology. I develop a game-theoretic model of advertiser-supported media markets: media platforms (e.g., television networks) compete both for media consumers (viewers) and for advertisers. The profit-maximizing network sets its ad level to trade off marginal advertising revenue with the value of its last ad’s marginal audience loss. I estimate the model’s structural parameters, using television advertisement and audience data from four sources. I then re-specify the model to account for the effects of advertisementavoidance technology, and solve the re-specified model to make predictions about new equilibrium advertisement prices, ad quantities, and audience sizes. Preliminary results indicate that viewers are averse to advertisements, and that cost per thousand viewers decreases with the number of ads sold, and increases with the size of the audience.
Languages that are easier than their proofs

Languages in NP are presented for which it is harder to prove membership interactively than it is to decide this membership. Similarly, languages where checking is harder than computing membership are presented. Under assumptions about triple-exponential time, incoherent sets in NP are constructed. Without any assumptions, incoherent sets are constructed in DSPACE (n to the log n), yielding the first uncheckable and non-random-self-reducible sets in that space. <<ETX>>
Collateral Damage: Refinancing Constraints and Regional Recessions

In the current structure of the U.S. residential mortgage market, a decrease in property values may make it very difficult for homeowners to refinance their mortgages to take advantage of declining interest rates. In this paper, the authors show that this form of collateral constraint has greatly reduced refinancing in states with depressed property markets. They outline the interaction between regional recessions and refinancing constraints. Copyright 1997 by Ohio State University Press.
Inverse Synthetic Aperture LADAR for Geosynchronous Space Objects - Signal-to-Noise Analysis

Abstract : Inverse synthetic aperture LADAR (ISAL) provides high resolution images which are not limited in resolution by the diffraction limit of the telescope collecting the imaging data. This makes it an ideal method for imaging Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO) space objects. Although LADAR is a well researched topic, little has been published on the suitability of ISAL for imaging GEO space objects and the associated SNR models. This paper derives an expression for the return signal detected by a coherent ISAL system. Using tomographic techniques common to synthetic aperture radar (SAR), a model is developed for the signal-to-noise ratio of the reconstructed image. Noise sources considered include photon noise and laser speckle noise.
The influence of sleep-associated memory consolidation on beneficial effects of retrieval practice

One of the most powerful tools to promote memories is active retrieval of to-be-remembered information. Retrieval practice during the learning phase can improve memory performance and reduce time-dependent forgetting, compared to simple restudy. Several studies indicate that there are robust testing effects after longer delays, which are naturally filled both with periods of sleep and wakefulness. However, sleep delays have been found to affect memories differentially compared to wake delays. Research on the sleep effect shows that sleep can strengthen and stabilize memories resulting in mnemonic benefits. The present work aimed to investigate a possible influence of sleep on the testing effect. In a series of 4 experiments testing effects after wake versus sleep delays were analyzed using categorized item material (Experiments 1 and 2) as well as paired associates (Experiments 3 and 4). Following initial study, participants were asked to restudy the items or to engage in active retrieval practice. After a 12-h delay of either diurnal wakefulness or nocturnal sleep, subjects were asked to retrieve the items in a final recall test. Effects were investigated both in the presence (Experiment 2 and 4) and in the absence (Experiments 1 and 3) of retroactive interference. The results showed that there were reliable testing effects after wake delays, while testing effects were reduced or even eliminated after sleep delays. This pattern of results arose because only restudied items could profit reliably from sleep, while items did not show sleep-related benefits after retrieval practice. Additionally, testing effects were increased, while sleep effects being unaltered, in the presence versus absence of retroactive interference. Implications of these results are discussed on the basis of empirical and theoretical work on the testing effect and on sleep-associated memory consolidation.
Text messaging reminders to reduce non-attendance in chronic disease follow-up: a clinical trial.

BACKGROUND Non-attendance results in administrative problems and disruption in patient care. Several interventions have been used to reduce non-attendance, with varying degree of success. A relatively new intervention, text messaging, has been shown to be as effective as telephone reminders in reducing non-attendance. However, no study has looked specifically at using text messaging reminders to reduce non-attendance in chronic disease care. AIM To determine if text messaging would be effective in reducing non-attendance in patients on long-term followup, compared with telephone reminders and no reminder. DESIGN OF STUDY A randomised controlled trial with three arms: text messaging reminder, telephone reminder, and control. SETTING Two primary care clinics in Malaysia. METHOD A total of 931 subjects who had been on at least 6 months of follow-up were randomised into the three groups. Demographic variables were recorded at the first visit. In the intervention arms, a reminder was sent 24–48 hours prior to the appointment. Non-attendance rate was documented at the second visit. Non-attenders were defined as those who did not attend, attended early, or attended late without rescheduling their appointment. Attenders were defined as participants who had turned up for their scheduled appointment and those who had changed or cancelled their appointment with notification. RESULTS The non-attendance rates in the text messaging group (odds ratio [OR] = 0.62, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.41 to 0.93, P = 0.020) and the telephone reminder group (OR = 0.53, 95% CI = 0.35 to 0.81), P = 0.003) were significantly lower than the control group. The absolute non-attendance rate for telephone reminders was lower by 2% compared to the text messaging group. This difference was not found to be statistically significant (P = 0.505). CONCLUSION Text messaging was found to be as effective as telephone reminder in reducing non-attendance in patients who required long-term follow-up for their chronic illnesses in this study. It could be used as an alternative to conventional reminder systems.