Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Case-Ready Modified-Atmosphere Packaging System for Beef.

Beef tenderness and color stability were evaluated in conventional and modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) systems. Equal portions of inside rounds removed immediately (PMO) or at 4 8 h postmortem (PM48) were vacuum packaged (VP) whole or cut into steaks and packaged in 80%N2:20%C02 MAP. On day 12, MAP environments were exchanged for 80%O2:20%C02. Calpastatin activity was lower at 2 d postmortem for PM48 steaks than PMO steaks. Electrophoresis indicated more degradation of 50 and >250 kDA compounds at 2 d postmortem for PM48 than PMO steaks. Steaks from PM48 required less shear force than PMO steaks. HunterLab 'L', 'a' and ' b' values were higher for PM48 steaks versus PMO steaks. The lethality of ozone to Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa was investigated using four ozone concentrations (0, 100, 1000, 5000 ppm) and three exposure times (1, 10, 50 m i n ) . No differences were detected between 0, 100, or 1000 ppm ozone in log CFU on plates, 5000 ppm resulted lower log CFU. Exposure time had no effect. The experiment was repeated with ozone concentration levels of 0, 1000, 2500, and 5000 ppm. No difference was detected between 0 and 1000 ppm ozone for log CFU per petri dish. Concentrations of either 2500 or 5000 ppm significantly reduced E. coli and Pseudomonas counts.
Mel-cepstrum modulation spectrum (MCMS) features for robust ASR

In this paper, we present new dynamic features derived from the modulation spectrum of the cepstral trajectories of the speech signal. Cepstral trajectories are projected over the basis of sines and cosines yielding the cepstral modulation frequency response of the speech signal. We show that the different sines and cosines basis vectors select different modulation frequencies, whereas the frequency responses of the delta and the double delta filters are only centered over 15 Hz. Therefore, projecting cepstral trajectories over the basis of sines and cosines yield a more complementary and discriminative range of features. In this work, the cepstrum reconstructed from the lower cepstral modulation frequency components is used as the static feature. In experiments, it is shown that, as well as providing an improvement in clean conditions, these new dynamic features yield a significant increase in the speech recognition performance in various noise conditions when compared directly to the standard temporal derivative features and C-JRASTA PLP features.
Trypanosoma cruzi Utilizes the Host Low Density Lipoprotein Receptor in Invasion

Background Trypanosoma cruzi, an intracellular protozoan parasite that infects humans and other mammalian hosts, is the etiologic agent in Chagas disease. This parasite can invade a wide variety of mammalian cells. The mechanism(s) by which T. cruzi invades its host cell is not completely understood. The activation of many signaling receptors during invasion has been reported; however, the exact mechanism by which parasites cross the host cell membrane barrier and trigger fusion of the parasitophorous vacuole with lysosomes is not understood. Methodology/Principal Findings In order to explore the role of the Low Density Lipoprotein receptor (LDLr) in T. cruzi invasion, we evaluated LDLr parasite interactions using immunoblot and immunofluorescence (IFA) techniques. These experiments demonstrated that T. cruzi infection increases LDLr levels in infected host cells, inhibition or disruption of LDLr reduces parasite load in infected cells, T. cruzi directly binds recombinant LDLr, and LDLr-dependent T. cruzi invasion requires PIP2/3. qPCR analysis demonstrated a massive increase in LDLr mRNA (8000 fold) in the heart of T. cruzi infected mice, which is observed as early as 15 days after infection. IFA shows a co-localization of both LDL and LDLr with parasites in infected heart. Conclusions/Significance These data highlight, for the first time, that LDLr is involved in host cell invasion by this parasite and the subsequent fusion of the parasitophorous vacuole with the host cell lysosomal compartment. The model suggested by this study unifies previous models of host cell invasion for this pathogenic protozoon. Overall, these data indicate that T. cruzi targets LDLr and its family members during invasion. Binding to LDL likely facilitates parasite entry into host cells. The observations in this report suggest that therapeutic strategies based on the interaction of T. cruzi and the LDLr pathway should be pursued as possible targets to modify the pathogenesis of disease following infection.
Financial Valuation and Risk Management Working Paper No . 602 Estimating the Effects of Large Shareholders Using a Geographic Instrument

Large shareholders may play an important role for firm performance and policies, but identifying this empirically presents a challenge due to the endogeneity of ownership structures. We develop and test an empirical framework which allows us to separate selection from treatment effects of large shareholders. Individual blockholders tend to hold blocks in public firms located close to where they reside. Using this empirical observation, we develop an instrument – the density of wealthy individuals near a firm’s headquarters – for the presence of large, non-managerial individual shareholders in firms. These shareholders have a large impact on firms, controlling for selection effects. * We have benefited from comments by an anonymous referee, Ulf Axelson, Malcolm Baker, Sanjai Bhagat, Peter Bossaerts, Murillo Campello, Shawn Cole, Harry DeAngelo, Mara Faccio, Cliff Holderness, Eric Hughson, Wei Jiang, Andrew Karolyi, Chris Leach, Florencio López-de-Silanes, Tim Loughran, Ernst Maug, Felix Meschke, Lisa Meulbroek, Bernadette Minton, Erwan Morellec, Ramana Nanda, Josh Pollet, Michael Roberts, Antoinette Schoar, Jagadeesh Sivadasan, Laura Starks, Phil Strahan, Günter Strobl, Per Strömberg, René Stulz, Elu von Thadden, Belen Villalonga, Michael Weisbach, Karen Wruck, Jamie Zender, and seminar participants at Boston College, Claremont McKenna College, 2 Annual Corporate Governance Conference at Drexel University, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, European Summer Symposium in Financial Markets in Gerzensee, European Finance Association, Harvard University, INSEAD, 6 Annual Napa Conference on Financial Markets Research, Ohio State University, Swedish Institute for Financial Research, University of Alberta, University of Amsterdam, University of Colorado at Boulder, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Universität Mannheim, and Vanderbilt University. Alexander Bonnett, Hannah Gregg, Alan Illing, Peter Wong, and Scott Yonker provided excellent research assistance. ** Becker, bbecker@hbs.edu, Harvard Business School, 1-617-496-5335; Cronqvist, hcronqvist@cmc.edu, Claremont McKenna College, Robert Day School of Economics and Finance, 1-909-607-1732); and Fahlenbrach, ruediger.fahlenbrach@epfl.ch, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), ++41-21-693-0098. Fahlenbrach gratefully acknowledges financial support from the Charles A. Dice Center for Research in Financial Economics and the Swiss Finance Institute.
Dry Season Evapotranspiration Dynamics over Human-Impacted Landscapes in the Southern Amazon Using the Landsat-Based METRIC Model

Although seasonal and temporal variations in evapotranspiration (ET) in Amazonia have been studied based upon flux-tower data and coarse resolution satellite-based models, ET dynamics over human-impacted landscapes are highly uncertain in this region. In this study, we estimate ET rates from critical land cover types over highly fragmented landscapes in the southern Amazon and characterize the ET dynamics during the dry season using the METRIC (Mapping Evapotranspiration at high Resolution with Internalized Calibration) model. METRIC, a Landsat-based ET model, that generates spatially continuous ET estimates at a 30 m spatial resolution widely used for agricultural applications, was adapted to the southern Amazon by using the NDVI indexed reference ET fraction (ETrF) approach. Compared to flux tower-based ET rates, this approach showed an improved performance on the forest ET estimation over the standard METRIC approach, with R2 = 0.73 from R2 = 0.70 and RMSE reduced from 0.77 mm/day to 0.35 mm/day. We used this approach integrated into the METRIC procedure to estimate ET rates from primary, regenerated, and degraded forests and pasture in Acre, Rondonia, and Mato Grosso, all located in the southern Amazon, during the dry season in 2009. The lowest ET rates occurred in Mato Grosso, the driest region. Acre and Rondonia, both located in the southwestern Amazon, had similar ET rates for all land cover types. Dry season ET rates between primary forest and regenerated forest were similar (p > 0.05) in all sites, ranging between 2.5 and 3.4 mm/day for both forest cover types in the three sites. ET rates from degraded forest in Mato Grosso were significantly lower (p < 0.05) compared to the other forest cover types, with a value of 2.03 mm/day on average. Pasture showed the lowest ET rates during the dry season at all study sites, with the dry season average ET varying from 1.7 mm/day in Mato Grosso to 2.8 mm/day in Acre.
A multiple testing method for hypotheses structured in a directed acyclic graph

We present a novel multiple testing method for testing null hypotheses that are structured in a directed acyclic graph (DAG). The method is a top‐down method that strongly controls the familywise error rate and can be seen as a generalization of Meinshausen's procedure for tree‐structured hypotheses. Just as Meinshausen's procedure, our proposed method can be used to test for variable importance, only the corresponding variable clusters can be chosen more freely, because the method allows for multiple parent nodes and partially overlapping hypotheses. An important application of our method is in gene set analysis, in which one often wants to test multiple gene sets as well as individual genes for their association with a clinical outcome. By considering the genes and gene sets as nodes in a DAG, our method enables us to test both for significant gene sets as well as for significant individual genes within the same multiple testing procedure. The method will be illustrated by testing Gene Ontology terms for evidence of differential expression in a survival setting and is implemented in the R package cherry.
Techniques for Feature Extraction In Speech Recognition System : A Comparative Study

The time domain waveform of a speech signal carries all of the auditory information. From the phonological point of view, it little can be said on the basis of the waveform itself. However, past research in mathematics, acoustics, and speech technology have provided many methods for converting data that can be considered as information if interpreted correctly. In order to find some statistically relevant information from incoming data, it is important to have mechanisms for reducing the information of each segment in the audio signal into a relatively small number of parameters, or features. These features should describe each segment in such a characteristic way that other similar segments can be grouped together by comparing their features. There are enormous interesting and exceptional ways to describe the speech signal in terms of parameters. Though, they all have their strengths and weaknesses, we have presented some of the most used methods with their importance.
DeltaSyn: An efficient logic difference optimizer for ECO synthesis

During the IC design process, functional specifications are often modified late in the design cycle, after placement and routing are completed. However, designers are left either to manually process such modifications by hand or to restart the design process from scratch - a very costly option. In order to address this issue, we present DeltaSyn, a method for generating a highly optimized logic difference between a modified high-level specification and an implemented design. DeltaSyn has the ability to locate boundaries in implemented logic within which changes can be confined. Delta-Syn demarcates the boundary in two phases. The first phase employs fast functional and structural analysis techniques to identify equivalent signals forming the input-side boundary of the changes. The second phase locates the output-side boundary of the changes through a novel dynamic algorithm that detects matching logic downstream from the changes required by the ECO. Experiments on industrial designs show that together these techniques successfully implement ECOs while preserving an average of 97% of the existing logic. Unlike previous approaches, the use of bit-parallel logic simulation and fast SAT solvers enables high performance and scalability. DeltaSyn can process and verify a typical ECO for a design of around 10K gates in about 200 seconds or less.
Assessment of Biological Kinetics in a Conventional Municipal WWTP by Means of the Oxygen Uptake Rate Method

Pollution control of surface water bodies requires stringent checks on wastewater treatment plants performances. The satisfactory operation of biological treatment, commonly performed by means of activated sludge processes, requires a number of controlling and monitoring procedures. Suitable respirometric techniques for the determination of the kinetic parameters that regulate biological processes have been implemented in order to achieve this aim. This paper describes the results of an experimental research carried out in a conventional Italian municipal wastewater treatment plant. Particularly, the research has been finalized to both evaluate the biological process for the removal of biodegradable pollutants, such as carbonaceous substrates and ammonia nitrogen, and to collect data in order to evaluate a possible plant upgrade. Heterotrophic and autotrophic biomass kinetic parameters have been examined using respirometric techniques based on oxygen uptake measurements. The research performed makes a valuable contribution toward verifying the reliability of the values proposed in the literature for some kinetic parameters, which have been commonly used for a long time.
Analytical Computation of the Magnetic Field Distribution in a Magnetic Gear

We propose an analytical computation of the magnetic field distribution in a magnetic gear. The analytical method is based on the resolution of Laplace's and Poisson's equations (by the separation of variables technique) for each subdomain, i.e., magnets, air gap, and slots. The global solution is obtained using boundary and continuity conditions. Our analytical model can be used as a tool for design optimization of a magnetic gear. Here, we compare magnetic field distributions and electromagnetic torque computed by the analytical method with those obtained from finite-element analyses.
Evaluation of the diagnostic and prognostic value of plasma D-dimer for abdominal aortic aneurysm.

AIMS A number of biomarkers have been associated with abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA), but there has been no assessment of how such markers along with clinical risk factors can be used to stratify the risk of AAA presence and its progression. The aims of this study were to assess the diagnostic, prognostic, and risk stratification potential of plasma D-dimer for AAA presence and growth. METHODS AND RESULTS We included 1260 subjects (337 with AAA) recruited from a population screening study and 132 (41 with AAA) from a referral clinic. A total of 299 of the population group were followed by repeat ultrasound imaging for a median of 5.5 years to monitor AAA growth. The diagnostic and prognostic potential of plasma D-dimer was assessed by multivariate regression (adjusting for other AAA risk factors), receiver operator characteristic, and classification and regression tree (CART) analyses. In both groups, the dominant risk factor for AAA was D-dimer; thus in the population group, cut-off values of > 400 and > 900 ng/mL had adjusted odds ratios of 12.1 (95% CI 7.1-20.5) and 24.7 (95% CI 13.7-44.6), respectively. In both groups, CART analyses confirmed the dominating role of plasma D-dimer in defining extreme risk-groups with AAA prevalence as disparate as 3 and 82%. Average yearly AAA growth was positively and significantly associated with D-dimer which was able to predict growth as disparate as 0.4 and 2.5 mm/year. CONCLUSION This study suggests that plasma D-dimer can play a role in the diagnosis and prognosis of AAA.
Getting more out of your images: augmenting photos for recollection and reminiscence

In recent years HCI-related research has shown an increasing interest in systems designed for supporting human memory. However, many of these systems focus more on the technical challenges, especially around data collection and retrieval. In this paper we introduce three ideas for augmenting digital images to support recollection, reminiscing and reflection. Three playful applications are proposed that are motivated by related theories in psychology. They employ experimental concepts by modifying images in different ways before displaying them and hence adding additional value. Our intention is to activate the observer's memory, to focus on the detail of things and to take a look "behind the camera". We propose that such approaches can encourage more mindful engagement with the huge amount of digital images available and promote positive effects linked to reminiscing.
Enhanced Efficacy of a Codon-Optimized DNA Vaccine Encoding the Glycoprotein Precursor Gene of Lassa Virus in a Guinea Pig Disease Model When Delivered by Dermal Electroporation

Lassa virus (LASV) causes a severe, often fatal, hemorrhagic fever endemic to West Africa. Presently, there are no FDA-licensed medical countermeasures for this disease. In a pilot study, we constructed a DNA vaccine (pLASV-GPC) that expressed the LASV glycoprotein precursor gene (GPC). This plasmid was used to vaccinate guinea pigs (GPs) using intramuscular electroporation as the delivery platform. Vaccinated GPs were protected from lethal infection (5/6) with LASV compared to the controls. However, vaccinated GPs experienced transient viremia after challenge, although lower than the mock-vaccinated controls. In a follow-on study, we developed a new device that allowed for both the vaccine and electroporation pulse to be delivered to the dermis. We also codon-optimized the GPC sequence of the vaccine to enhance expression in GPs. Together, these innovations resulted in enhanced efficacy of the vaccine. Unlike the pilot study where neutralizing titers were not detected until after virus challenge, modest neutralizing titers were detected in guinea pigs before challenge, with escalating titers detected after challenge. The vaccinated GPs were never ill and were not viremic at any timepoint. The combination of the codon-optimized vaccine and dermal electroporation delivery is a worthy candidate for further development.
A Uniform Integration of Higher-Order Reasoning and External Evaluations in Answer-Set Programming

We introduce HEX programs, which are nonmonotonic logic programs admitting higher-order atoms as well as external atoms, and we extend the well-known answer-set semantics to this class of programs. Higher-order features are widely acknowledged as useful for performing meta-reasoning, among other tasks. Furthermore, the possibility to exchange knowledge with external sources in a fully declarative framework such as Answer-Set Programming (ASP) is nowadays important, in particular in view of applications in the Semantic Web area. Through external atoms, HEX programs can model some important extensions to ASP, and are a useful KR tool for expressing various applications. Finally, complexity and implementation issues for a preliminary prototype are discussed.
Cancer after transplantation.

paid for from federal sources for all United States citizens. It costs more than $2 billion a year, and its unique availability, in the absence of reliable information about outcomes of dialysis in the elderly, may create as many problems as it solves. The report recognises anxieties about the indiscriminate use of cardiopulmonary resuscitation and life sustaining antibiotic treatment in the elderly: while saving life is a legitimate goal, prolonging death is not. There is no optimism about rigid guidelines in either case. Sensitivity to the views of patients and relatives, discussions with them and with staff, and a humane awareness of quality of survival are, however, not easy to encourage in a vast, heterogeneous, and litigation conscious medical culture. The report presents information clearly and does not shrink from irreducibly awkward problems. It should succeed in its aim of clarifying for legislators the issues without oversimplifying them. Should the Department of Health and Social Security now contemplate a similar exercise? For several reasons, probably not. The NHS, rough beast that it is, at least succeeds in combining cost containment with a concept of equity. Individual clinical decisions about life sustaining technology and the elderly are generally uninfluenced by the fear of litigation and are made far from the sound of any individual or corporate cash register. Awareness of costs is general rather than particular but probably sufficient to bring to mind Haldane's aphorism "We are poor, therefore we must think" whenever an expensive venture for an elderly (or indeed any) patient is contemplated. The NHS also commands skill in the care of the elderly that is impressive by the modest international standards of the discipline. Therein lies the real importance of the Office ofTechnology Assessment's report. Its final chapter is the most powerful argument that has yet been advanced for developing the specialty of geriatric medicine in the United States. No one can legislate for clinical wisdom, but the discerning and therefore effective and economically realistic use of life saving technologies in the elderly will become far more likely if American physicians can be persuaded to take an interest in the care of the elderly for its own sake. If this report does nothing more than increase the pressure to achieve the Rand Corporation's target of 8000 full time equivalent geriatricians providing patient care together with 900 clinical academic staff much will have been accomplished.2 And if the riddle of devising some generally acceptable form of reimbursement for humane and broadly low technology care of the elderly in the United States can also be solved these 8900 doctors may even be able to make a living. Meanwhile, in the words of a fictional hospital administrator in a satire on terminal care in America, "Your last two weeks on earth may not be your most comfortable, but sure as hell they'll be your most expensive. "3
A practical method for estimating performance degradation on multicore processors, and its application to HPC workloads

When multiple threads or processes run on a multi-core CPU they compete for shared resources, such as caches and memory controllers, and can suffer performance degradation as high as 200%. We design and evaluate a new machine learning model that estimates this degradation online, on previously unseen workloads, and without perturbing the execution. Our motivation is to help data center and HPC cluster operators effectively use workload consolidation. Data center consolidation is about placing many applications on the same server to maximize hardware utilization. In HPC clusters, processes of the same distributed applications run on the same machine. Consolidation improves hardware utilization, but may sacrifice performance as processes compete for resources. Our model helps determine when consolidation is overly harmful to performance. Our work is the first to apply machine learning to this problem domain, and we report on our experience reaping the advantages of machine learning while navigating around its limitations. We demonstrate how the model can be used to improve performance fidelity and save energy for HPC workloads.