Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Passive conformance testing of service choreographies

Choreography supports the specification, with a global perspective, of the interactions between the roles played by partners in a collaboration. These roles are the basis for the implementation of the collaboration, by developers and/or software architects, as a set of distributed communicating peers. An issue is to check for the conformance of the implementation with reference to the choreography specification. We address this issue with a passive testing approach. It tackles the peculiarities of choreography implementations through non-intrusiveness, support for black-box peers without source code being available, and both local and global conformance. Several languages have been proposed for choreography. We chose Chor since it is both expressive and abstract enough to suit the requirements of a specification language. Further, it can be seen as an abstraction of the standard Web service choreography language, WS-CDL. In this paper we present both the formal framework of our approach and our tool support for one possible implementation model, Web service choreographies.
Autonomous Intersection Management for Semi-Autonomous Vehicles

Recent advances in autonomous vehicle technology will open the door to highly efficient transportation systems in the future, as demonstrated by Autonomous Intersection Management, an intersection control protocol designed for fully autonomous vehicles. We, however, anticipate there will be a long transition period during which most vehicles have some but not all capabilities of fully autonomous vehicles. This paper introduces a new protocol called Semi-Autonomous Intersection Management, which allows vehicles with partially-autonomous features such as adaptive cruise control to enter an intersection from different directions simultaneously. Our experiments show that this protocol can greatly decrease traffic delay when most vehicles are semi-autonomous. Our incremental deployment study reveals that traffic delay keeps decreasing as more and more vehicles employ features of autonomy.
Sensing nerve injury at the axonal ER: Activated Luman/CREB3 serves as a novel axonally synthesized retrograde regeneration signal

Significance Peripheral nerve injury often occurs at axonal sites remote from the neuronal cell bodies. Information about these remote injuries must be accurately relayed back to the cell body as part of the reprogramming that occurs to transition the neuron to a regenerating state. We provide new insights into how the axonal endoplasmic reticulum (ER) proximal to the injury site generates a critical regeneration signal in sensory neurons. This involves injury-triggered activation and synthesis of an intraaxonal, ER transmembrane transcription factor, Luman/cAMP response element binding protein 3, that is retrogradely transported back into the nucleus. Manipulation of axon-derived Luman expression in injured sensory neurons reveals an important role for Luman in regulation of the intrinsic elongating form of axonal growth associated with the regeneration state. Luman/cAMP response element binding protein 3 is an endoplasmic reticulum (ER) transmembrane basic leucine zipper transcription factor whose mRNA and protein localize to adult sensory axons, the latter with axonal ER components along the axon length. Here we show that axon-derived Luman plays an important role in relaying information about axonal injury to the neuronal cell body. Axotomy induces axonal Luman synthesis and also release from the axonal ER of Luman’s transcriptionally active amino terminus, which is transported to the cell body in an importin-mediated manner. Visualization of the activation and retrograde translocation of Luman into the nucleus in real time both in vivo and in vitro was accomplished using a specially created N- and C-terminal–tagged Luman adenoviral vector. Small interfering RNA used to reduce Luman expression either neuronally or just axonally significantly impaired the ability of 24-h injury-conditioned sensory neurons to extend the regeneration-associated elongating form of axon growth but had no impact on axon outgrowth in naïve neurons. Collectively, these findings link injury-associated axonal ER responses proximal to the site of injury to the intrinsic regenerative growth capacity of adult sensory neurons.
Recurrence Matrices for Human Action Recognition

One important issue for action characterization consists of properly capturing temporally related information. In this work, recurrence matrices are explored as a way to represent action sequences. A recurrence matrix (RM) encodes all pair-wise comparisons of the frame-level descriptors. By its nature, a recurrence matrix can be regarded as a temporally holistic action representation, but it can hardly be used directly and some descriptor is therefore required to compactly summarize its contents. Two simple RM-level descriptors computed from a given recurrence matrix are proposed. A general procedure to combine a set of RM-level descriptors is presented. This procedure relies on a combination of early and late fusion strategies. Recognition performances indicate the proposed descriptors are competitive provided that enough training examples are available. One important finding is the significant impact on performance of both, which feature subsets are selected, and how they are combined, an issue which is generally overlooked.
High levels of gene flow and heterozygote excess characterize Rhizoctonia solani AG-1 IA (Thanatephorus cucumeris) from Texas.

To date, much of the genetics of the basidiomycete Thanatephorus cucumeris (anamorph = Rhizoctonia solani) remains unknown. Here, we present a population genetics study using codominant markers to augment laboratory analyses. Seven single-copy nuclear RFLP markers were used to examine 182 isolates of Rhizoctonia solani AG-1 IA collected from six commercial rice fields in Texas. Thirty-six multilocus RFLP genotypes were identified. Population subdivision analyses indicated a high degree of gene flow/migration between the six geographic populations. Tests for Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE) among the 36 multilocus RFLP genotypes revealed that four of the seven loci did not significantly differ from HWE. Subsequent analysis demonstrated that departures from HWE at the three remaining loci were due to an excess of heterozygotes. Data presented here suggest that R. solani AG-1 IA is actively outbreeding (heterothallic). Possible explanations for heterozygote excess, which was observed at all seven RFLP loci, are discussed.
ESTIMATION OF STATURE FROM CEPHALO-FACIAL ANTHROPOMETRY IN 800 HARYANVIADULTS

The study is aimed at modeling the stature on the basis of cephalo-facial dimensions. The study was conducted in Department of Anatomy, MM institute of medical sciences & research, Mullana (Ambala), on 800 Haryanvi adults comprising of 400 males and 400 females. Prior informed written consent was obtained from subjects. Inclusion and exclusion criteria for the study were predefined. The measurements were taken by using standard anthropometric instruments. The purpose of study was to access the head length, head breadth, horizontal circumference of head, facial length, bigonial diameter, stature and to find out the correlation of these parameters with stature. The results showed a statistically significant positive correlation between stature and all cephalo-facial measurements except for maximum head breadth which showed a insignificant correlation with stature in both sexes.
Entrainment as a basis for co-ordinated actions in speech

This paper asks how rhythmicity is used to manage speaker transition in spontaneous talk and how temporal alignment helps to achieve interactional alignment. 56 Question + Answer (Q+A) pairs were analysed. 44 (79%) Qs ended rhythmically: in their last few accented syllables, f0 prominences were quasi-periodic. Of the As to these rhythmic Qs, 32 (73%) began with the same periodicity as the Q. As with non-rhythmic entry into ‘turn space’ set up by a rhythmic Q were sequentially and interactionally complex. Rhythmic A entries included accented syllables, in-breaths, clicks and nods, suggesting ‘embodied’ rather than solely ‘linguistic’ temporal entrainment. Interactional alignment thus seems to exploit temporal entrainment in the vicinity of turn boundaries, like that established for musicians.
SELF-CONSISTENT SOLUTION FOR THE POLARIZED VACUUM IN A NO-PHOTON QED MODEL

We study the Bogoliubov–Dirac–Fock model introduced by Chaix and Iracane (1989 J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 22 3791–814) which is a mean-field theory deduced from no-photon QED. The associated functional is bounded from below. In the presence of an external field, a minimizer, if it exists, is interpreted as the polarized vacuum and it solves a self-consistent equation. In a recent paper, we proved the convergence of the iterative fixed-point scheme naturally associated with this equation to a global minimizer of the BDF functional, under some restrictive conditions on the external potential, the ultraviolet cut-off Λ and the bare fine structure constant α. In the present work, we improve this result by showing the existence of the minimizer by a variational method, for any cut-off Λ and without any constraint on the external field. We also study the behaviour of the minimizer as Λ goes to infinity and show that the theory is 'nullified' in that limit, as predicted first by Landau: the vacuum totally cancels the external potential. Therefore, the limit case of an infinite cut-off makes no sense both from a physical and mathematical point of view. Finally, we perform a charge and density renormalization scheme applying simultaneously to all orders of the fine structure constant α, on a simplified model where the exchange term is neglected.
In Search of a Dataset for Handwritten Optical Music Recognition: Introducing MUSCIMA++

Optical Music Recognition (OMR) has long been without an adequate dataset and ground truth for evaluating OMR systems, which has been a major problem for establishing a state of the art in the field. Furthermore, machine learning methods require training data. We analyze how the OMR processing pipeline can be expressed in terms of gradually more complex ground truth, and based on this analysis, we design the MUSCIMA++ dataset of handwritten music notation that addresses musical symbol recognition and notation reconstruction. The MUSCIMA++ dataset version 0.9 consists of 140 pages of handwritten music, with 91255 manually annotated notation symbols and 82261 explicitly marked relationships between symbol pairs. The dataset allows training and evaluating models for symbol classification, symbol localization, and notation graph assembly, both in isolation and jointly. Open-source tools are provided for manipulating the dataset, visualizing the data and further annotation, and the dataset itself is made available under an open license.
Monte Carlo Investigation of High-Field Electron Transport Characteristics in ZnMgO/ZnO Heterostructures

The high-field electron transport properties of ZnMgO/ZnO heterostructures considering multisubband conduction were systematically investigated with an ensemble Monte Carlo program developed by us. Electronic band structures were obtained by first-principles calculations using density functional theory, which provides more accurate parameters to calculate the electronic states and transport characteristics of 2-D electron gas. Wave functions and energy levels describing the subband structure were achieved to determine the 2-D scattering rates by solving the Schrödinger and Poisson equations self-consistently. The highest electron mobility gained at room temperature was approximately 4.23×102 cm2/Vs. The negative differential mobility was observed with a threshold electric field of approximately 80 kV/cm. The peak drift velocity of the Zn0.694Mg0. 306O/ZnO heterostructure at 200 KV was about 2.011 × 108 cm/s. This paper benefits the development of high-performance ZnMgO/ZnO heterostructure devices.
Cytochrome P450 1B1 and Catechol-O-Methyltransferase Genetic Polymorphisms and Breast Cancer Risk in Chinese Women: Results from the Shanghai Breast Cancer Study and a Meta-analysis

Cytochrome P450 1B1 (CYP1B1) and catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) are important estrogen-metabolizing enzymes and, thus, genetic polymorphisms of these enzymes may affect breast cancer risk. A population-based case-control study was conducted to assess the association of breast cancer risk with CYP1B1 and COMT polymorphisms. A meta-analysis was done to summarize the findings from this and previous studies. Included in this study were 1,135 incident breast cancer cases diagnosed from August 1996 through March 1998 among female residents of Shanghai and 1,235 randomly selected, age frequency-matched controls from the same general population. The common alleles of the CYP1B1 gene were Arg (79.97%) in codon 48, Ala (80.53%) in codon 119, and Leu (86.57%) in codon 432. The Val allele accounted for 72.46% of the total alleles identified in codon 108/158 of the COMT gene. No overall associations of breast cancer risk were found with any of the single nucleotide polymorphisms described above. This finding was supported by a meta-analysis of all previous published studies. No gene-gene interactions were observed between CYP1B1 and COMT genotypes. The associations of breast cancer risk with factors related to endogenous estrogen exposure, such as years of menstruation and body mass index, were not significantly modified by the CYP1B1 and COMT genotypes. We observed, however, that women who carried one copy of the variant allele in CYP1B1 codons 48 or 119 were less likely to have estrogen receptor–positive breast cancer than those who carried two copies of the corresponding wild-type alleles. The results from this study were consistent with those from most previous studies, indicating no major associations of breast cancer risk with CYP1B1 and COMT polymorphisms.
Enumeration of Increasing Boolean Expressions and Alternative Digraph Implementations for Diagnostic Applications

A support structure for forming eave corners on a hipped roof of a steel framed structure comprises a rectangular frame having two triangular sub frames tiltable along their adjacent diagonal sides. The inner corner of the rectangular sub frame is supported above the outer diagonal corner to form triangular planes coplanar with adjacent roof planes on each side of a hip line, the rectangular frame being cantilevered over the corner walls of the building to form an eave corner. The support structure may also be used to form internal or external corners on a verandah roof. A method for constructing hipped roofs on steel frame buildings is also provided.
Stressful life events and insomnia complaints among nursing assistants from a university hospital in Rio de Janeiro : The Pro-Saude Study

Jaqueline R. RobainaI Claudia S. LopesI Lúcia RotenbergII Eduardo FaersteinI Frida M. FischerIII Claudia R. de C. MorenoIII Guilherme L. WerneckI Dora ChorIV I Departamento de Epidemiologia do Instituto de Medicina Social da Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (UERJ). II Laboratório de Educação em Ambiente e Saúde do Departamento de Biologia do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz da Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (FIOCRUZ). III Departamento de Saúde Ambiental da Faculdade de Saúde Pública da Universidade de São Paulo (USP). IV Departamento de Epidemiologia e Métodos Quantitativos em Saúde de Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública Sérgio Arouca da Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (FIOCRUZ).
Influence of translation on RppH‐dependent mRNA degradation in Escherichia coli

In Escherichia coli, the endonuclease RNase E can access internal cleavage sites in mRNA either directly or by a 5′ end‐dependent mechanism in which cleavage is facilitated by prior RppH‐catalysed conversion of the 5′‐terminal triphosphate to a monophosphate, to which RNase E can bind. The characteristics of transcripts that determine which of these two pathways is primarily responsible for their decay are poorly understood. Here we report the influence of ribosome binding and translocation on each pathway, using yeiP and trxB as model transcripts. Ribosome binding to the translation initiation site impedes degradation by both mechanisms. However, because the effect on the rate of 5′ end‐independent decay is greater, poor ribosome binding favours degradation by that pathway. Arresting translation elongation with chloramphenicol quickly inhibits RNase E cleavage downstream of the initiation codon but has little or no immediate effect on cleavage upstream of the ribosome binding site. RNase E binding to a monophosphorylated 5′ end appears to increase the likelihood of cleavage at sites within the 5′ untranslated region. These findings indicate that ribosome binding and translocation can have a major impact on 5′ end‐dependent mRNA degradation in E. coli and suggest a possible sequence of events that follow pyrophosphate removal.
Classical Swine Fever Virus p7 Protein Is a Viroporin Involved in Virulence in Swine

ABSTRACT The nonstructural protein p7 of classical swine fever virus (CSFV) is a small hydrophobic polypeptide with an apparent molecular mass of 6 to 7 kDa. The protein contains two hydrophobic stretches of amino acids interrupted by a short charged segment that are predicted to form transmembrane helices and a cytosolic loop, respectively. Using reverse genetics, partial in-frame deletions of p7 were deleterious for virus growth, demonstrating that CSFV p7 function is critical for virus production in cell cultures. A panel of recombinant mutant CSFVs was created using alanine scanning mutagenesis of the p7 gene harboring sequential three- to six-amino-acid residue substitutions spanning the entire protein. These recombinant viruses allowed the identification of the regions within p7 that are critical for virus production in vitro. In vivo, some of these viruses were partially or completely attenuated in swine relative to the highly virulent parental CSFV Brescia strain, indicating a significant role of p7 in CSFV virulence. Structure-function analyses in model membranes emulating the endoplasmic reticulum lipid composition confirmed that CSFV p7 is a pore-forming protein, and that pore-forming activity resides in the C-terminal transmembrane helix. Therefore, p7 is a viroporin which is clearly involved in the process of CSFV virulence in swine.
A Major Locus for Manganese Tolerance Maps on Chromosome A09 in a Doubled Haploid Population of Brassica napus L.

Soil acidity poses a major threat to productivity of several crops; mainly due to the prevalence of toxic levels of Al3+ and Mn2+. Crop productivity could be harnessed on acid soils via the development of plant varieties tolerant to phytotoxic levels of these cations. In this study, we investigated the extent of natural variation for Mn2+ tolerance among ten parental lines of the Australian and International canola mapping populations. Response to Mn2+ toxicity was measured on the bases of cotyledon chlorosis, shoot biomass, and leaf area in nutrient solution under control (9 μM of MnCl2⋅4H2O) and Mn treatment (125 μM of MnCl2⋅4H2O). Among parental lines, we selected Darmor-bzh and Yudal that showed significant and contrasting variation in Mn2+ tolerance to understand genetic control and identify the quantitative trait loci (QTL) underlying Mn2+ tolerance. We evaluated parental lines and their doubled haploid (DH) progenies (196 lines) derived from an F1 cross, Darmor-bzh/Yudal for Mn2+ tolerance. Mn2+-tolerant genotypes had significantly higher shoot biomass and leaf area compared to Mn2+-sensitive genotypes. A genetic linkage map based on 7,805 DArTseq markers corresponding to 2,094 unique loci was constructed and further utilized for QTL identification. A major locus, BnMn2+. A09 was further mapped with a SNP marker, Bn-A09-p29012402 (LOD score of 34.6) accounting for most of the variation in Mn2+ tolerance on chromosome A09. This is the first report on the genomic localization of a Mn2+ tolerance locus in B. napus. Additionally, an ortholog of A. thaliana encoding for cation efflux facilitator transporter was located within 3,991 bp from significant SNP marker associated with BnMn2+. A09. A suite of genome sequence based markers (DArTseq and Illumina Infinium SNPs) flanking the BnMn2+. A09 locus would provide an invaluable tool for various molecular breeding applications to improve canola production and profitability on Mn2+ toxic soils.
Adaptive multi-user detection of fading CDMA channels using antenna arrays

We consider the problem of detecting a number of short-code CDMA signals that impinge (bit-) synchronously on the antenna array of a base station (reverse link). The signals are assumed to be corrupted by both multipath fading and multiple access interference (MAI). To boost performance (measured either in BER for each user or in user capacity), we are interested in using jointly for the signal detection three key signal detection technologies: (1) RAKE processing, (2) array processing, and (3) multi-user detection. The resulting space-time multi-user detectors (ST-MUDs) have been shown in previous works to offer significant improvements over previously existing techniques. In this paper we focus on a specific type of linear detector presented by Huang and Papadias (see Proc. 1998 PIMRC Conference, Boston, 1998), which has been shown to combine good performance with implementation advantages. We propose to update this linear detector with adaptive filtering algorithms, and in particular with stochastic-gradient type trained or blind algorithms. It is shown that, such simple techniques allow the receiver to approach the ST-MUD MMSE solution and achieve significant capacity gains with respect to conventional techniques.
Virtual soybean—a computational model for studying autoregulation of nodulation

Nitrogen fixation by legumes is the product of a symbiosis of legume plants and a group of bacteria known as rhizobia (Carroll, et al., 1985; Kinkema, et al., 2006). It has been hypothesised that when rhizobia receive flavonoid signals from the host plants, production of a chemical nodulation factor is induced. The perception of nodulation factor by legume roots then activates a signal cascade leading to division of cortical cells for nodule formation. The activated cells produce a translocatable signal (Q), sent through a root-shoot pathway to the leaves and then detected by a leucine-rich repeat receptor kinase encoded by the NARK gene (Searle, et al., 2003). The detection of this root-shoot signal further induces the production of a shoot-derived signal (SDI) transported to the root, which inhibits development of new nodules. These signals, operating in a growing structure of root and shoot, compose a regulatory network known as autoregulation of nodulation (AON). The overall purpose of this study is to develop a greater understanding of this system through multi-scale modelling of processes including intra- and inter-cellular signalling, long-distance signalling and phenotypic development regulated by internal control mechanisms. The first step is to build a structural framework capable of simulating soybean growth driven by empirical results and hypothetical patterns, incorporating control mechanisms modelling Q and SDI.