Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Water Balance Assessment for Lysimeter Station based on Water Pumping Station Kleče in Ljubljana

For soil water balance calculation two lysimeters were built on Water Pumping Station of Public Water Supply Company in Ljubljana. Soil water balance (change in storage) was calculated using precipitation, evapotranspiration, and lysimeter outflow. Outflow measurements systematically showed discrepancy between Lysimeter North and Lysimeter South, in average 300 mm/year. Yearly soil water balance calculation for the Lysimeter North shows slight decrease in water storage every year in studied period (2001 – 2004).
Characterizing Performance and Cache Impacts of Code Multi-versioning on Multicore Architectures

Code multi-versioning is an increasingly widely adopted tool for implementing optimizations which respond to unknown or dynamically changing runtime conditions, without the performance overhead of just-in-time compilation. A common concern in its use is instruction cache performance, due to larger binary sizes increasing cache pressure on the one hand and more unpredictable branching on the other. Despite this ongoing interest, there has been no comprehensive study of the impact of multi-versioning so far – particularly in a multi-threaded setting. In this paper, we present a categorization of the parameter space potentially affecting multi-versioned performance, a toolset for exploring this space, and an in-depth characterization of three hardware platforms using this toolset.
Noncompetitive Metabotropic Glutamate5 Receptor Antagonist (E)-2-Methyl-6-styryl-pyridine (SIB1893) Depresses Glutamate Release through Inhibition of Voltage-Dependent Ca2+ Entry in Rat Cerebrocortical Nerve Terminals (Synaptosomes)

The effect of (E)-2-methyl-6-styryl-pyridine (SIB1893), a selective metabotropic glutamate (subtype 5) receptor (mGlu5R) antagonist, on glutamate release from isolated nerve terminals (synaptosomes) was examined. SIB1893 caused a potent inhibition of the Ca2+-dependent release of glutamate evoked by 4-aminopyridine (4AP). That the implied mGlu5R-mediated modulation was contingent on diacylglycerol stimulation of protein kinase C (PKC) was indicated by PKC activator phorbol dibutyrate and PKC inhibitor Ro 32-0432 (bisindolylmaleimide XI), respectively, superceding or suppressing the inhibitory effect of SIB1893. The inhibitory action of SIB1893 was not due to it decreasing synaptosomal excitability or directly interfering with the release process at some point subsequent to Ca2+ influx, because SIB1893 did not alter the 4AP-evoked depolarization of the synaptosomal plasma membrane potential or Ca2+ ionophore ionomycin-induced glutamate release. Rather, examination of the effect of SIB1893 on cytosolic [Ca2+] revealed that the diminution of glutamate release could be attributed to a reduction in voltage-dependent Ca2+ influx. Consistent with this, the SIB1893-mediated inhibition of glutamate release was completely prevented in synaptosomes pretreated with a combination of the N- and P/Q-type Ca2+ channel blockers, ω-conotoxin GVIA, and ω-agatoxin IVA. Together, these results suggest that noncompetitive antagonism of mGlu5Rs using SIB1893 effects a decrease in PKC activation, which subsequently attenuates the Ca2+ entry through voltage-dependent N- and P/Q-type Ca2+ channels to cause a decrease in evoked glutamate release. These actions of SIB1893 and related agents may contribute to their neuroprotective effects in excitotoxic injury.
Identification of a cyanobacterial CRR6 protein, Slr1097, required for efficient assembly of NDH-1 complexes in Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803.

Despite significant progress in clarifying the subunit compositions and functions of the multiple NADPH dehydrogenase (NDH-1) complexes in cyanobacteria, the subunit maturation and assembly of their NDH-1 complexes are poorly understood. By transformation of wild-type cells with a transposon-tagged library, we isolated three mutants of Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 defective in NDH-1-mediated cyclic electron transfer and unable to grow under high light conditions. All the mutants were tagged in the same slr1097 gene, encoding an unknown protein that shares significant homology with the Arabidopsis protein chlororespiratory reduction 6 (CRR6). The slr1097 product was localized in the cytoplasm and was required for efficient assembly of NDH-1 complexes. Analysis of the interaction of Slr1097 with 18 subunits of NDH-1 complexes using a yeast two-hybrid system indicated a strong interaction with NdhI but not with other Ndh subunits. Absence of Slr1097 resulted in a significant decrease of NdhI in the cytoplasm, but not of other Ndh subunits including NdhH, NdhK and NdhM; the decrease was more evident in the cytoplasm than in the thylakoid membranes. In the ∆slr1097 mutant, NdhH, NdhI, NdhK and NdhM were hardly detectable in the NDH-1M complex, whereas almost half the wild-type levels of these subunits were present in NDH-1L complex; similar results were observed in the NdhI-less mutant. These results suggest that Slr1097 is involved in the maturation of NdhI, and that assembly of the NDH-1M complex is strongly dependent on this factor. Maturation of NdhI appears not to be crucial to assembly of the NDH-1L complex.
Characteristics of Arthrobacter cumminsii, the Most Frequently Encountered Arthrobacter Species in Human Clinical Specimens

ABSTRACT During a 2-year period, 10 strains of Arthrobacter cumminsii were isolated in or received by a Swiss routine clinical bacteriology laboratory, and 5 further isolates were referred to a Swedish bacteriology reference center over a 5-year period, makingA. cumminsii the most frequently encounteredArthrobacter species in these two laboratories. The present report outlines the clinical features of the 15 A. cumminsii strains and presents an extended biochemical characterization of this microorganism. A. cumminsiiexhibits a unique cellular fatty acid pattern with the consistent presence of C14:0i and C14:0 fatty acids as well as relatively large amounts of C16:0i and C16:0 fatty acids usually not seen in other Arthrobacter spp. Sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis was found to be a useful tool for confirmation of the identification of A. cumminsii. The MICs of 39 antimicrobial agents were determined, and it was demonstrated that aminoglycosides and quinolones had only weak activities against A. cumminsii strains, in contrast to their activities against most other coryneform bacteria. As a result of the extended characterization of A. cumminsii, an emended description of this species is presented. Due to the lack ofA. cumminsii in established identification systems, it is most likely that this species is underdiagnosed in many routine clinical bacteriology laboratories.
Motion planning under uncertainty for robotic tasks with long time horizons

Motion planning with imperfect state information is a crucial capability for autonomous robots to operate reliably in uncertain and dynamic environments. Partially observable Markov decision processes (POMDPs) provide a principled general framework for planning under uncertainty. Using probabilistic sampling, point-based POMDP solvers have drastically improved the speed of POMDP planning, enabling us to handle moderately complex robotic tasks. However, robot motion planning tasks with long time horizons remains a severe obstacle for even the fastest point-based POMDP solvers today. This paper proposes Milestone Guided Sampling (MiGS), a new point-based POMDP solver, which exploits state space information to reduce effective planning horizons. MiGS samples a set of points, called milestones, from a robot’s state space and constructs a simplified representation of the state space from the sampled milestones. It then uses this representation of the state space to guide sampling in the belief space and tries to capture the essential features of the belief space with a small number of sampled points. Preliminary results are very promising. We tested MiGS in simulation on several difficult POMDPs that model distinct robotic tasks with long time horizons in both 2-D and 3-D environments. These POMDPs are impossible to solve with the fastest point-based solvers today, but MiGS solved them in a few minutes.
Quantifying short-range surface-to-surface communications links

As wirelessly connected embedded systems become ubiquitous, previously undocumented propagation environments must be explored to support their design. This paper describes the results of a study of such an environment: short-range wireless propagation outdoors, near the ground. In the study, frequencies were considered within three industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) bands: 902-928 MHz, 2400-2426 MHz, and 5725-5752 MHz. Experimental propagation loss was summarized based on measurements in eighteen environments, at varying heights, distances, and polarizations. Based on the data collected, the appropriateness of a simple design guideline, based on a two-ray propagation model, is discussed. Summaries of the path loss, fading, and the influences of antenna height, antenna separation, and surrounding clutter in highly variable environments are given. Additionally, limited numerical modeling of the impact of surface roughness is provided. Particular focus was given in the study to heights and distances appropriate for randomly deployed wireless sensor networks, such as autonomous unattended ground-sensor systems.
Spem4mde : un métamodèle et un environnement pour la modélisation et la mise en œuvre assistée de processus IDM. (Spem4mde : a metamodel and software environment for assisted modeling and enactment of MDE processes)

L’avenement de l’IDM (Ingenierie Dirigee par les Modeles) a suscite beaucoup d’interet de la part des organisations qui de fait commencent a transformer leur processus de developpement traditionnel en un processus de developpement dirige par les modeles, appele aussi processus IDM.Au moment ou ces processus commencent a emerger, nous notons l’absence d’un langage dedie pour les modeliser et les mettre en œuvre. Le standard SPEM 2.0 propose des concepts generiques qui sont supposes etre capables de decrire tout type de processus logiciel. Cependant, les concepts de SPEM ne capturent pas la nature exacte des processus IDM. D’autre part, une autre insuffisance majeure de SPEM reside dans le fait qu’il n’integre pas les concepts relatifs a la mise en œuvre des processus.L’objectif de cette these est triple : (1) proposer une extension de SPEM dans laquelle les concepts centraux des processus IDM sont reifies ; (2) proposer un langage dedie a la modelisation comportementale des processus IDM ; (3) proposer une architecture conceptuelle d’un environnement logiciel d’aide a la modelisation et a la mise en œuvre des processus IDM.Pour valider notre approche, un prototype a ete developpe sous l’environnement TOPCASED. Ce prototype fournit d’une part un editeur graphique pour la modelisation structurelle et comportementale des processus IDM et d’autre part un environnement de mise en œuvre s’appuyant sur les modeles comportementaux des processus. Nous avons egalement applique notre approche a une etude de cas significatif: le processus UWE (UML-based Web Engineering), qui est un processus IDM dedie au developpement d’applications web.
In Defense of Sparsity Based Face Recognition

The success of sparse representation based classification (SRC) has largely boosted the research of sparsity based face recognition in recent years. A prevailing view is that the sparsity based face recognition performs well only when the training images have been carefully controlled and the number of samples per class is sufficiently large. This paper challenges the prevailing view by proposing a ``prototype plus variation'' representation model for sparsity based face recognition. Based on the new model, a Superposed SRC (SSRC), in which the dictionary is assembled by the class centroids and the sample-to-centroid differences, leads to a substantial improvement on SRC. The experiments results on AR, FERET and FRGC databases validate that, if the proposed prototype plus variation representation model is applied, sparse coding plays a crucial role in face recognition, and performs well even when the dictionary bases are collected under uncontrolled conditions and only a single sample per classes is available.
Epidemiological and Etiological Characteristics of Fever, Thrombocytopenia and Leukopenia Syndrome in Henan Province, China, 2011–2012

The Fever, Thrombocytopenia and Leukopenia Syndrome (FTLS) is caused by a bunyavirus known as the FTLS virus (FTLSV), which was recently discovered in China. We examined the epidemiological and etiological features of 637 laboratory-confirmed cases of FTLS with onset from January 2011 to December 2012 in Henan Province, China. The highest incidence of FTLS occurred between May and August: 76.5% of all laboratory-confirmed cases occurred during those four months. Of the laboratory-confirmed cases, 60.9% were in the 46–69 years old age groups; 96.1% (612/637) occurred in farmers; 98.1% (625/637) were reported from Xinyang Prefecture. During the same time period, 2047 cases were reported in China. The nucleotide and amino acid sequences of FTLSV strains identified during 2011–2012 in Henan Province were ≥96% identical. This findings provides insight for developing public-health interventions for the control and prevention of FTLS in epidemic area.
Age-Related Neuronal Degeneration: Complementary Roles of Nucleotide Excision Repair and Transcription-Coupled Repair in Preventing Neuropathology

Neuronal degeneration is a hallmark of many DNA repair syndromes. Yet, how DNA damage causes neuronal degeneration and whether defects in different repair systems affect the brain differently is largely unknown. Here, we performed a systematic detailed analysis of neurodegenerative changes in mouse models deficient in nucleotide excision repair (NER) and transcription-coupled repair (TCR), two partially overlapping DNA repair systems that remove helix-distorting and transcription-blocking lesions, respectively, and that are associated with the UV-sensitive syndromes xeroderma pigmentosum (XP) and Cockayne syndrome (CS). TCR–deficient Csa−/− and Csb−/− CS mice showed activated microglia cells surrounding oligodendrocytes in regions with myelinated axons throughout the nervous system. This white matter microglia activation was not observed in NER–deficient Xpa−/− and Xpc−/− XP mice, but also occurred in XpdXPCS mice carrying a point mutation (G602D) in the Xpd gene that is associated with a combined XPCS disorder and causes a partial NER and TCR defect. The white matter abnormalities in TCR–deficient mice are compatible with focal dysmyelination in CS patients. Both TCR–deficient and NER–deficient mice showed no evidence for neuronal degeneration apart from p53 activation in sporadic (Csa−/−, Csb−/−) or highly sporadic (Xpa−/−, Xpc−/−) neurons and astrocytes. To examine to what extent overlap occurs between both repair systems, we generated TCR–deficient mice with selective inactivation of NER in postnatal neurons. These mice develop dramatic age-related cumulative neuronal loss indicating DNA damage substrate overlap and synergism between TCR and NER pathways in neurons, and they uncover the occurrence of spontaneous DNA injury that may trigger neuronal degeneration. We propose that, while Csa−/− and Csb−/− TCR–deficient mice represent powerful animal models to study the mechanisms underlying myelin abnormalities in CS, neuron-specific inactivation of NER in TCR–deficient mice represents a valuable model for the role of NER in neuronal maintenance and survival.
Serum inhibits penicillin-induced L-form growth in Staphylococcus aureus: a note of caution on the use of serum in cultivation of bacterial L-forms

Heat-inactivated horse serum inhibited penicillin-induced L-form colony formation in Staphylococcus aureus when included in an osmotically stabilized culture medium. Most, perhaps all, L-form colonies that appeared with low frequencies on the serum-supplemented medium were of the penicillin-independent, stable type. This relationship must be taken into account when use of serum is considered for L-form cultivation.
Laparoscopic treatment of primary hyperaldosteronism in a pregnant patient.

Primary hyperaldosteronism in pregnancy is a rarely reported clinical entity that may result in life-threatening complications both for mother and the fetus and is most often caused by an aldosterone producing adenoma (APA). 1,2 The physiologic rise in aldosterone during pregnancy overlaps the levels seen in primary aldosteronism, making diagnosis difficult.2 Suppressed renin in the setting of hyperaldosteronism is, however, diagnostic. Accompanying hypertension and hypokalemia may become more difficult to be controlled as pregnancy progresses, and severe maternal hypertension may lead to intrauterine growth retardation, placental abruption and preterm delivery.3 The introduction of advanced laparoscopic techniques has improved the care and therapy for patients with APA in general. Rarely, laparoscopic adrenalectomy has also been performed for pregnant patients.4 To our knowledge, in this report we document the first laparoscopic retroperitoneal adrenalectomy for an APA in a pregnant patient.
Genes implicated in stem cell identity and temporal programme are directly targeted by Notch in neuroblast tumours

Notch signalling is involved in a multitude of developmental decisions and its aberrant activation is linked to many diseases, including cancers. One example is the neural stem cell tumours that arise from constitutive Notch activity in Drosophila neuroblasts. To investigate how hyperactivation of Notch in larval neuroblasts leads to tumours, we combined results from profiling the upregulated mRNAs and mapping the regions bound by the core Notch pathway transcription factor Su(H). This identified 246 putative direct Notch targets. These genes were highly enriched for transcription factors and overlapped significantly with a previously identified regulatory programme dependent on the proneural transcription factor Asense. Included were genes associated with the neuroblast maintenance and self-renewal programme that we validated as Notch regulated in vivo. Another group were the so-called temporal transcription factors, which have been implicated in neuroblast maturation. Normally expressed in specific time windows, several temporal transcription factors were ectopically expressed in the stem cell tumours, suggesting that Notch had reprogrammed their normal temporal regulation. Indeed, the Notch-induced hyperplasia was reduced by mutations affecting two of the temporal factors, which, conversely, were sufficient to induce mild hyperplasia on their own. Altogether, the results suggest that Notch induces neuroblast tumours by directly promoting the expression of genes that contribute to stem cell identity and by reprogramming the expression of factors that could regulate maturity. Summary: Genome-wide screens identify direct targets of Notch involved in promoting neural stem cell tumours in Drosophila, tying Notch into the transcription factor network coordinating these stem cells.
A generic distributed architecture for nonconformance diagnosing systems

The nonconformance diagnosis problem has been a major issue facing industry and academia over the years. Nonconformance diagnosis is a knowledge-intensive and experience-based task, which in a complex manufacturing environment can sometimes be beyond the capabilities of skilled operators and engineers. The existing systems for nonconformance diagnosis are usually special purpose systems. They lack the capabilities to adapt to new working domains. In addition, since there is no standard protocol for the information exchange among different diagnosis systems, the existing systems cannot cooperate with each other to form an integrated solution to complex nonconformance diagnosis problems. This paper proposes a generic distributed architecture for nonconformance diagnosis. The drive towards designing such a system is motivated by the need to implement a generic base of system capabilities that is reliable, economical and provides a stable foundation for adding more functionality as diagnosis needs grow and change. The proposed architecture is designed using the multi-agent systems (MAS) technology and has the capacities of integration, cooperation, coordination, robustness and viability. Under such an open distributed architecture, different nonconformance diagnosis systems designed for special diagnosis applications can communicate with each other and share information. In addition, it is possible to dynamically integrate new subsystems into or remove existing subsystems from the system without stopping and reinitializing the working environment. A prototype system based on Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) is being developed.
A Full-Reference Image Quality Assessment Algorithm Based on Haar Wavelet Transform

This paper proposes a new objective full-reference (FR) image quality assessment method with discrete Haar wavelet transform (HWSSIM). Here, both reference and test images are decomposed into four bands by 2-D Haar wavelet transform: LL, HL, LH and HH. The luminance and contrast information are extracted in the LL band, and the edge structure information is obtained with edge information map based on other three bands and the whole image quality is defined as MHWSSIM. We also develop our algorithm on the multi-resolutions case (MRHWSSIM). which is defined as the human visual system (HVS) contrast sensitivity based weighted mean of four MHWSSIM values evaluated at four Haar wavelet decomposition levels. Experiment results indicate that the proposed methods are better correlated with HVS when compared to PSNR, MSSIM and MGSSIM.
Scenarios for network composition in ambient networks: a new paradigm for internetworking

Today connectivity between IP networks can be automatically configured, but the control layers are often not compatible. In the IST Project Ambient Networks, a novel concept for internetworking in the control plane and control sharing, called Composition, is being developed. This paper describes the composition mechanism and illustrates it by means of scenarios, devoting particular attention to migration issues.
Contextual information access and storytelling in mixed reality using hypermedia

This article describes gaming and storytelling activities in a mixed environment that integrates the real and virtual worlds, uses an augmented reality paradigm, and is supported by a structuring and presentation framework for use in context-aware mixed-reality applications. The basis of the framework is a generic hypermedia model that can handle different media elements, objects, and relations between spaces and locations in physical and virtual worlds. A main component of the model deals with providing contextual content according to the state of the application and the person using it. A storytelling layer was also defined, mainly by using the contextual mechanisms of the base model. This layer provides abstractions to storytelling applications that reflect the morphology of common story structures and supports gaming flow. The framework is being tested in a gaming and storytelling environment that integrates the real world, media elements, and virtual 3D worlds.
Mixed quantum states in higher categories

There are two ways to describe the interaction between classical and quantum information categorically: one based on completely positive maps between Frobenius algebras, the other using symmetric monoidal 2-categories. This paper makes a first step towards combining the two. The integrated approach allows a unified description of quantum teleportation and classical encryption in a single 2-category, as well as a universal security proof applicable simultaneously to both scenarios.