Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
THE EFFECTS OF MOLECULAR ANIONS ON THE CHEMISTRY OF DARK CLOUDS

We have investigated the role of molecular anion chemistry in pseudo-time-dependent chemical models of dark clouds. With oxygen-rich elemental abundances, the addition of anions results in a slight improvement in the overall agreement between model results and observations of molecular abundances in Taurus molecular cloud 1 (TMC-1 (CP)). More importantly, with the inclusion of anions, we see an enhanced production efficiency of unsaturated carbon-chain neutral molecules, especially in the longer members of the families CnH, CnH2, and HCnN. The use of carbon-rich elemental abundances in models of TMC-1 (CP) with anion chemistry worsens the agreement with observations compared with model results obtained in the absence of anions.
AGILE detection of variable $\gamma$-ray activity from the blazar S5 0716+714 in September–October 2007

Aims. We report the ! -ray activity from the intermediate BL Lac S5 0716+714 during observations acquired by the AGILE satellite in September and October 2007. These detections of activity were contemporaneous with a period of intense optical activity, which was monitored by GASP‐WEBT. This simultaneous optical and ! -ray coverage allows us to study in detail the light curves, time lags, ! -ray photon spectrum, and Spectral Energy Distributions (SEDs) during di! erent states of activity. Methods. AGILE observed the source with its two co-aligned imagers, the Gamma-Ray Imaging Detector (GRID) and the hard X-ray imager (Super-AGILE), which are sensitive to the 30 MeV‐50 GeV and 18‐60 keV energy ranges, respectively. Observations were completed in two di! erent periods, the first between 2007 September 4‐23, and the second between 2007 October 24‐November 1. Results. Over the period 2007 September 7‐12, AGILE detected ! -ray emission from the source at a significance level of 9.6-" with an average flux (E > 100 MeV) of (97 ± 15) # 10 $ 8 photonscm $ 2 s $ 1 , which increased by a factor of at least four within three days. No emission was detected by Super-AGILE for the energy range 18‐60 keV to a 3-" upper limit of 10 mCrab in 335 ks. In October 2007, AGILE repointed toward S5 0716+714 following an intense optical flare, measuring an average flux of (47 ± 11) # 10 $ 8 photonscm $ 2 s $ 1 at a significance level of 6.0-" . Conclusions. The ! -ray flux of S5 0716+714 detected by AGILE is the highest ever detected for this blazar and one of the most intense ! -ray fluxes detected from a BL Lac object. The SED of mid-September appears to be consistent with the synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) emission model, but only by including two SSC components of di! erent variabilities.
Tax Morale and Institutions

This paper analyses the impact of direct democracy, trust in government, the court and the legal system, and federalism on tax morale. In the tax compliance literature it is novel to analyse tax morale as dependent variable and to systematically analyse the effects of formal and informal institutions in Switzerland, a country where participation rights and the degree of federalism vary across different cantons. We used two different data sets at the individual level (World Values Survey and International Social Survey Programme). The findings suggest that direct democratic rights, local autonomy, and trust in government, the court and the legal system have a significantly positive effect on tax morale.
Deep Neural Networks for extracting Baum-Welch statistics for Speaker Recognition

We examine the use of Deep Neural Networks (DNN) in extracting Baum-Welch statistics for i-vector-based textindependent speaker recognition. Instead of training the universal background model using the standard EM algorithm, the components are predefined and correspond to the set of triphone states, the posterior occupancy probabilities of which are modeled by a DNN. Those assignments are then combined with the standard 60-dim MFCC features to calculate first order BaumWelch statistics in order to train the i-vector extractor and extract i-vectors. The DNN-based assignment force the i-vectors to capture the idiosyncratic way in which each speaker pronounces each particular triphone state, which can enrich the standard short-term spectral representation of the standard ivectors. After experimenting with Switchboard data and a baseline PLDA classifier, our results showed that although the proposed i-vectors yield inferior performance compared to the standard ones, they are capable of attaining 16% relative improvement when fused with them, meaning that they carry useful complementary information about the speaker’s identity. A further experiment with a different DNN configuration attained comparable performance with the baseline i-vectors on NIST 2012 (condition C2, female).
Solexa Sequencing Identification of Conserved and Novel microRNAs in Backfat of Large White and Chinese Meishan Pigs

The domestic pig (Sus scrofa), an important species in animal production industry, is a right model for studying adipogenesis and fat deposition. In order to expand the repertoire of porcine miRNAs and further explore potential regulatory miRNAs which have influence on adipogenesis, high-throughput Solexa sequencing approach was adopted to identify miRNAs in backfat of Large White (lean type pig) and Meishan pigs (Chinese indigenous fatty pig). We identified 215 unique miRNAs comprising 75 known pre-miRNAs, of which 49 miRNA*s were first identified in our study, 73 miRNAs were overlapped in both libraries, and 140 were novelly predicted miRNAs, and 215 unique miRNAs were collectively corresponding to 235 independent genomic loci. Furthermore, we analyzed the sequence variations, seed edits and phylogenetic development of the miRNAs. 17 miRNAs were widely conserved from vertebrates to invertebrates, suggesting that these miRNAs may serve as potential evolutional biomarkers. 9 conserved miRNAs with significantly differential expressions were determined. The expression of miR-215, miR-135, miR-224 and miR-146b was higher in Large White pigs, opposite to the patterns shown by miR-1a, miR-133a, miR-122, miR-204 and miR-183. Almost all novel miRNAs could be considered pig-specific except ssc-miR-1343, miR-2320, miR-2326, miR-2411 and miR-2483 which had homologs in Bos taurus, among which ssc-miR-1343, miR-2320, miR-2411 and miR-2483 were validated in backfat tissue by stem-loop qPCR. Our results displayed a high level of concordance between the qPCR and Solexa sequencing method in 9 of 10 miRNAs comparisons except for miR-1a. Moreover, we found 2 miRNAs, miR-135 and miR-183, may exert impacts on porcine backfat development through WNT signaling pathway. In conclusion, our research develops porcine miRNAs and should be beneficial to study the adipogenesis and fat deposition of different pig breeds based on miRNAs.
Membership Determination of Open Cluster M48 Based on BATC 13‐Band Photometry

Beijing‐Arizona‐Taiwan‐Connecticut (BATC) multiband photometric data in the field of open cluster M48 are used to determine its membership. By comparing observed spectral energy distributions of M48 stars with theoretical ones, membership probabilities of 750 stars with limiting magnitudes of 15.0 in the BATC c band (λeff = 4194 Å) are determined. We find 323 stars with membership probabilities higher than 30% that are considered to be candidate members of M48. Comparing membership probabilities of 229 stars obtained in common between the present method and proper‐motion–based methods, an 80% agreement among these methods is obtained.
Noise analysis of an algorithm for uncertain frequency identification

This note presents a noise analysis for an algorithm to identify the uncertain frequency of periodic signals or disturbances. This algorithm is based on the time-varying states of an internal model principle controller which can be mapped nonlinearly to the frequency and the magnitude or energy of the periodic signal or disturbance. This note provides an analysis of the 'measurement' of this frequency in the presence of white noise. In the case of an additive white noise, we develop some formulas to calculate the means and variances of the measured difference between the true frequency and nominal frequency for high and low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). When an integral controller is used to eliminate this difference, we prove that this frequency estimation is unbiased. The formulae to calculate the mean and variance are also given for the output of the integral controller. The simulations verify the validity of approximations used in our noise analysis.
The Effects of Corporate Spin-offs on Productivity

Using a unique sample of plant level data from the Longitudinal Research Database of the U.S. Census Bureau, which enables us to correctly identify the parent and spun-off entities prior to spin-offs, we establish that efficiency improves following spin-offs. A spin-off refers to the separation of the management of some assets of a firm into a separate entity (which we term as the spun-off entity or subsidiary). We investigate the underlying mechanisms and the real effects of spin-offs after correcting for potential endogenous selection using treatment effect estimators and propensity score matching in our analysis. We identify how (the precise channel and mechanism), where (parent or subsidiary), and when (the dynamic pattern) efficiency improvements arise following spin-offs. We show that spin-offs increase total factor productivity (TFP) and that such productivity improvements are long-lived. This post spin-off productivity improvement can be attributed to cost savings but not to higher sales. Further, such improvements arise primarily in plants remaining with the parent. However, contrary to speculation in the previous literature, we show that plants that are spun-off do not underperform parent plants prior to the spin-off. We identify acquisitions following spin-offs and find that while productivity improvements occur immediately after the spin-off in non-acquired plants, they start only after being taken over by another firm in acquired plants. Finally, we show that unrelated spun-off entities show greater improvements in productivity compared to related spun-off entities.
NONLINEAR PREDICTION OF SOLAR CYCLE 24

Sunspot activity is highly variable and challenging to forecast. Yet forecasts are important, since peak activity has profound effects on major geophysical phenomena including space weather (satellite drag, telecommunications outages) and has even been correlated speculatively with changes in global weather patterns. This paper investigates trends in sunspot activity, using new techniques for decadal-scale prediction of the present solar cycle (cycle 24). First, Hurst exponent H analysis is used to investigate the autocorrelation structure of the putative dynamics; then the Sugihara–May algorithm is used to predict the ascension time and the maximum intensity of the current sunspot cycle. Here we report H = 0.86 for the complete sunspot number data set (1700–2007) and H = 0.88 for the reliable sunspot data set (1848–2007). Using the Sugihara–May algorithm analysis, we forecast that cycle 24 will reach its maximum in 2012 December at approximately 87 sunspot units.
Academic achievements, behavioral problems, and loneliness as predictors of social skills among students with and without learning disorders

This study aimed to examine to what extent academic achievements, learning disorders, behavior problems and loneliness explain the variance of students’ social skills. The differences between students diagnosed with learning disorders and students without learning disorders in all four variables were examined. Participants were 733 elementary students (642 without LD; 91 with LD). Homeroom teachers assessed students’ academic achievements, behavior problems, and social skills. Students completed questionnaires regarding their loneliness feelings. Regression analysis showed that academic achievement and behavior problems explained approximately 70% of the students’ social skills variance, whereas LD did not, and loneliness explained social skills variance only among boys. These unexpected but encouraging findings are discussed in terms of the positive process of change that occurred since the announcement of the Israeli National Special Education Law of 1988, which made it possible for students with LD to be integrated in regular classes.
Non-ideal evolution of non-axisymmetric, force-free magnetic fields in a magnetar

Recent numerical magnetohydrodynamic calculations by Braithwaite and collaborators support the ‘fossil field’ hypothesis regarding the origin of magnetic fields in compact stars and suggest that the resistive evolution of the fossil field can explain the reorganization and decay of magnetar magnetic fields. Here, these findings are modelled analytically by allowing the stellar magnetic field to relax through a quasi-static sequence of non-axisymmetric, force-free states, by analogy with spheromak relaxation experiments, starting from a random field. Under the hypothesis that the force-free modes approach energy equipartition in the absence of resistivity, the output of the numerical calculations is semiquantitatively recovered: the field settles down to a linked poloidal–toroidal configuration, which inflates and becomes more toroidal as time passes. A qualitatively similar (but not identical) end state is reached if the magnetic field evolves by exchanging helicity between small and large scales according to an α-dynamo-like, mean-field mechanism, arising from the fluctuating electromotive force produced by the initial random field. The impossibility of matching a force-free internal field to a potential exterior field is discussed in the magnetar context.
Comparison of Rhyming and Word Generation with FMRI

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) has been successfully used to non‐invasively map language function, but has several disadvantages. These include severe motion sensitivity, which limits overt verbal responses in behavioral paradigms, such as word generation. The lack of overt responses prevents behavioral validation, making data interpretation difficult. Our objective was to compare the FMRI activation patterns of a novel silent rhyme determination task requiring a non‐verbal response, to covert word generation from visually presented letters. Five strongly right‐handed subjects performed both tasks during multi‐slice coronal echo‐planar T2*–weighted FMRI. Single subject activation maps were generated for each task by correlation analysis of single pixel time series to a boxcar reference function. These maps for the two tasks were separately interpolated to 2563, transformed into Talairach space, summed, and thresholded at t>6. Combined activation maps from both tasks showed similar robust perisylvian language area activation, including inferior frontal gyrus, posterior superior temporal lobe, and fusiform gyrus. Subjects performed well on the rhyming task, which activated left hemisphere cortical regions more selectively than the word generation task. The rhyming task showed less activation than the word generation task in areas typically not considered specifically related to language function, such as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate. The rhyming task is a useful tool for brain mapping and clinical applications, potentially more specific to cortical language areas than verbal fluency. Hum. Brain Mapping 10:99–106, 2000. © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Pathological tremor management: Modelling, compensatory technology and evaluation

A great deal of effort has been devoted in the past decades in the generic area of tremor management. Specific topics of modelling for objective classification of pathological tremor out of kinematics and physiological data, compensatory technologies and evaluation rating tools are just a few examples of application field. This paper introduces a comprehensive review of research work in this generic field during the last decades. In particular special focus has been put on the systems approach and thus a specific section on modelling has been included. Aspects related to experimental protocol and tremor pattern identification are reviewed in detail with the aim of drawing a practical guideline when compensatory technology has to be developed. The current status on ambulatory and non-ambulatory tremor reduction technologies is given in the section devoted to tremor man- agement. Here compensatory technologies are classified according to the tremor isolation and the tremor reduction approaches. Eventually, we finish our discussion with those aspects related to tremor evaluation.
In Vitro Prediction of the Evolution of the GES-1-Lactamase 1 Hydrolytic Activity 2

22 Resistance to ß-lactams is constantly increasing, due to the emergence of totally new 23 enzymes, but also to the evolution of pre-existing ß-lactamases. GES-1 is a clinically24 relevant extended-spectrum -lactamase (ESBL) hydrolyzing penicillins and broad25 spectrum cephalosporins, but sparing monobactams and carbapenems. However, 26 several GES-1 variants (i.e. GES-2 and GES-5) previously identified among clinical 27 isolates display an extended spectrum of activity toward carbapenems. To study the 28 evolution potential of the GES-1 -lactamase, this enzyme was submitted to in-vitro 29 directed evolution, with selection on increasing concentrations of the cephalosporin 30 cefotaxime, the monobactam aztreonam, or the carbapenem imipenem. The highest 31 resistance levels were conferred by the combination of up to four substitutions. The 32 A6T, E104K, G243A variant selected on cefotaxime, and the A6T, E104K, T237A, 33 G243A variant selected on aztreonam, conferred high resistance to cefotaxime, 34 ceftazidime, and aztreonam. Conversely, the A6T, G170S variant selected on imipenem 35 conferred high resistance to imipenem and cefoxitin. Noteworthy, the A6T substitution 36 involved in higher MICs for all ß-lactams is located in the leader peptide of the GES 37 enzyme, therefore not present in the mature protein. Acquired cross resistance was not 38 2 ht tp :// do c. re ro . c h observed since selection with CTX or ATM did not select for resistance to IPM and vice 39 versa. Here we demonstrated that -lactamase GES-1 exhibits peculiar properties with a 40 significant potential to gain activity toward broad-spectrum cephalosporins, 41 monobactams, and carbapenems. 42
Dry soda lime markedly degrades sevoflurane during simulated inhalation induction.

We have investigated gas composition during simulated inhalation induction with sevoflurane to elucidate possible mechanisms of incidental prolonged induction times and airway irritation. Using a circle system, 8% sevoflurane in oxygen 6 litre min-1 was washed into an absorbing canister filled with fresh soda lime containing 2.9% KOH (Draegersorb, 'D') or no KOH (< 0.01%, Sofnolime, 'S'). The absorbent was dried by oxygen 20,000 litre before every second experiment. Maximum soda lime temperatures attained after 4-6 min were 107 degrees C using dry D and 62 degrees C (61 degrees C) with dry S. Temperature did not increase with fresh soda lime. With dry soda lime, sevoflurane was not detected at the T-piece for 3 min and reached 6-7% within 6-10 min. After 1 min, we detected methanol and compound A (CH2F-O-C(= CF2) (CF3)). Total amounts over 20 min were: methanol 1125 mg (D dry), 334 mg (S dry) and < 5 mg (fresh soda lime); compound A 148 mg (D dry), 13 mg (S dry) and 3-8 mg (fresh); and fluoride 8.5 mg (D dry), 3.3 mg (S dry) and 1 mg (fresh). Formaldehyde was detected only with dry lime (D > 2.5 mg, S > 0.6 mg). In summary, the use of moist soda lime is of crucial importance during inhalation induction. With dry soda lime, the patient may inhale potentially toxic degradation products in significant amounts. Sevoflurane degradation is aggravated by a high KOH content of the lime. The observed airway irritation may be caused by formic acid, which is generated in isomolar concentrations with methanol (Cannizzaro reaction). The amount of compound A found with dry KOH-containing lime is unlikely to be noxious.
Comparison of Physical and Virtual Express Topologies for Future Many-core On-Chip Networks

With the advent of many-core chips, the number of cores present on-chip are increasing rapidly. In these chips, the on-chip network that connects these cores needs to scale efficiently. The topology of on-chip networks is one of the important design choices that affects how these networks scale. Most current on-chip networks use 2-D mesh topologies to connect various on-chip nodes. 2-D meshes do not scale to large node counts due to their large diameter and energy inefficiency. To tackle the scalability problem of 2D meshes, various express topologies have been proposed. These proposals fall within two categories: physical express topologies and virtual express topologies. The physical express topologies employ long-hop wires to enable bypassing of intermediate hops for non-local communication. This leads to lower latency and energy consumption. There are even more savings if the long hops use recently proposed link designs like capacitively driven low-swing interconnects (CDLSI). However, the addition of long-hop channels leads to additional router ports, larger crossbars and extra physical channels. The virtual express topologies employ opportunistic flow control techniques to enable bypassing of router pipelines, except the crossbar traversal stage. This leads to saving of router pipeline cycles as well as lower energy consumption. The virtual bypasses are not as aggressive as physical bypasses since router crossbars and local links still have to be traversed. So, there is a clear tradeoff between the two bypassing techniques. However, there has not been an extensive comparative study of these two approaches in the past. In this work, we present a detailed characterization of how CDLSI links can be used to model long-hop links in physical express topologies. We also compare physical express topologies to that of virtual express topologies using both synthetic network traffic as well as full-system evaluations. We show that CDLSI-based physical express topologies are attractive for designs that operate at relatively lower network traffic, in which case such topologies exhibit high performance at lower power. For networks that operate at higher injection rates, virtual express topologies are a better fit to the high throughput requirements of such systems.
An integrated introductory course for computer science and engineering

This paper reports the results of teaching an introductory course designed for both computer science and computer engineering majors. Both hardware and software development topics were integrated into a single course. Programming assignments involved the simulation of various hardware devices in software; these assignments were used both to teach programming concepts and to provide a means to reinforce the discussion of hardware concepts. The course also made extensive use of learning and active learning.
Anomaly Detection via One Class SVM for Protection of SCADA Systems

Funded by European Framework-7 (FP7), the CockpicCI project aims at developing intelligent risk detection, analysis and protection techniques for Critical Infrastructures (CI). In this paper, we describes our recent research on automated anomaly detection from central Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems and their related commands/measurements in the SCADA-field equipment communications. The work exploits the concept of one-class SVM (Support Vector Machines) and adaptively controls its decision parameter to detect unusual patterns from inputs and generate alarms for on-site engineers to further investigate. Experiments on simulation data sets from telecommunication networks illustrate that the proposed algorithm achieves high detection rates, providing excellent potential for further research and development towards practical tools for protection of SCADA systems.