Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Valuing Information & Instrumental Goods

This essay offers a framework for valuing information process capital by combining ideas from economics and computer science. Drawing a distinction between data and procedures, it augments the traditional Bayesian model that treats information as a change in uncertainty with elements that permit information to be treated as reusable instructions. It then applies the standard hedonic methods—used in marketing to value tangible goods —to information goods. This leads to a generalized method for ascribing value that can be applied both to procedural information such as software, blueprints, and production know-how as well as to arbitrary resources that have instrumental qualities, that is, they represent tools for effecting outcomes. This approach has the added advantage of supporting efficient information transfers since consumers need not always see the information they are about to buy.
Simulació n con el modelo numérico WAVE del transporte de agua y nitróge no a travé s de la zona no saturada en un cultivo de platanera

The goal of this study was to test the WAVE model using field data obtained from a banana plot in the North of Tenerife. The ability of the model to estimate nitrate leaching rates to the highly polluted aquifer of the area was tested. An effort was made to measure model parameters at the field or from field samples rather than estimating them from literature values, and thus reduce the calibration needed. WAVE is a numerical model developed in Europe to study water and nitrogen fate through the unsaturated zone. Very little environmental modeling work has been done with bananas or other subtropical crops, specially on nutrient leaching. The available field data are discussed and compared to the WAVE model predictions. Good predictions are obtained from the water transport part of the model. Field concentration of N species in the unsaturated zone is within the range predicted by the model, but in some instances, there is a lack of model response to concentration changes observed in the field. This is explained in terms of problems in the way WAVE handles N uptake for the case of bananas. 1. - Introduccio n.
Fuzzy kernel-stable coalitions between rational agents

A large variety of solutions exists for the problem of coalition formation among autonomous agents, at the theoretical level within game theory, and at the practical, algorithmic level, within multi-agent systems. However, one major underlying assumption of algorithmic solutions suggested to date is that the values of the coalitions are known and are certain at the time of coalition formation negotiation. In many practical cases such as in open, dynamically changing environments this assumption does not hold. In this paper we propose an algorithmic solution to the coalition formation problem that overcomes this limitation of previous solutions. Our solution supports fuzzy coalition values and allows agents to form stable coalition configurations. For this, we combine concepts from the theory of fuzzy sets with the game-theoretic stability concept of the Kernel to deduce the new concept of a fuzzy Kernel. We further provide a low-complexity algorithm for forming fuzzy Kernel stable coalitions among agents.
Incidence and survival of retinoblastoma in the Netherlands: a register based study 1862–1995

AIM The aim of this study was to determine the (time trends in) incidence and survival of hereditary (familial and sporadic) and non-hereditary retinoblastoma for male and female patients born in the Netherlands between 1862 and 1995. METHOD The national retinoblastoma register was updated and now consists of 955 patients. The missing dates of death were obtained from the municipal registers and the Central Bureau of Genealogy in The Hague. Mortality was compared with the Dutch vital statistics. RESULTS From 1862 to 1995 no significant differences in incidence for retinoblastoma were found in the hereditary subgroups. Further, no significant differences between males and females were found, both overall and in the hereditary subgroups. The average incidence of retinoblastoma increased untill 1944, probably due to incompleteness of the register, and stabilised after 1945 (1 per 17 000 live births). From 1900 to 1995 the standardised mortality ratio increased for hereditary retinoblastoma patients from 2.9 to 9.0 and decreased for non-hereditary retinoblastoma patients from 1.9 to 1.0. CONCLUSION Although survival for retinoblastoma was significantly better after 1945 than before, in comparison with the Dutch population the mortality between 1900 and 1990 increased for the hereditary and decreased for the non-hereditary retinoblastoma patients.
Dedicated synthesis for MZI-based optical circuits based on AND-inverter graphs

Optical circuits received significant interest as a promising alternative to existing electronic systems. Because of this, also the synthesis of optical circuits receives increasing attention. However, initial solutions for the synthesis of optical circuits either rely on manual design or rather straight-forward mappings from established data-structures such as BDDs, SoPs/ESoPs, etc. to the corresponding optical netlist. These approaches hardly utilize the full potential of the gate libraries available in this domain. In this paper, we propose an alternative synthesis solution based on AND-Inverter Graphs (AIGs) which is capable of utilizing this potential. That is, a scheme is presented which dedicatedly maps the given function representation to the desired circuit in a one-to-one fashion — yielding significantly smaller circuit sizes. Experimental evaluations confirm that the proposed solution generates optical circuits with up to 97% less number of gates as compared to existing synthesis approaches.
Maternal diet quality before pregnancy and risk of childhood leukaemia

Abstract Previous studies on maternal nutrition and childhood leukaemia risk have focused on the role of specific nutrients such as folate and have not considered broader measures of diet quality, which may better capture intake of diverse nutrients known to impact fetal development. We examined the relationship between maternal diet quality before pregnancy, as summarised by a diet quality index, and risk of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) and acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) in a case–control study in California. Dietary intake in the year before pregnancy was assessed using FFQ in 681 ALL cases, 103 AML cases and 1076 matched controls. Conditional logistic regression was used to estimate OR and 95 % CI for diet quality continuous score and quartiles (Q1–Q4). Higher maternal diet quality score was associated with reduced risk of ALL (OR 0·66; 95 % CI 0·47, 0·93 for Q4 v. Q1) and possibly AML (OR 0·42; 95 % CI 0·15, 1·15 for Q4 v. Q1). No single index component appeared to account for the association. The association of maternal diet quality with risk of ALL was stronger in children diagnosed under the age of 5 years and in children of women who did not report using vitamin supplements before pregnancy. These findings suggest that the joint effects of many dietary components may be important in influencing childhood leukaemia risk.
DIR-visible grey matter lesions and atrophy in multiple sclerosis: partners in crime?

Background The extent and clinical relevance of grey matter (GM) pathology in multiple sclerosis (MS) are increasingly recognised. GM pathology may present as focal lesions, which can be visualised using double inversion recovery (DIR) MRI, or as diffuse pathology, which can manifest as atrophy. It is, however, unclear whether the diffuse atrophy centres on focal lesions. This study aimed to determine if GM lesions and GM atrophy colocalise, and to assess their independent relationship with motor and cognitive deficits in MS. Methods Eighty people with MS and 30 healthy controls underwent brain volumetric T1-weighted and DIR MRI at 3 T, and had a comprehensive neurological and cognitive assessment. Probability mapping of GM lesions marked on the DIR scans and voxel- based morphometry (assessing GM atrophy) were carried out. The associations of GM lesion load and GM volume with clinical scores were tested. Results DIR-visible GM lesions were most commonly found in the right cerebellum and most apparent in patients with primary progressive MS. Deep GM structures appeared largely free from lesions, but showed considerable atrophy, particularly in the thalamus, caudate, pallidum and putamen, and this was most apparent in secondary progressive patients with MS. Very little co-localisation of GM atrophy and lesions was seen, and this was generally confined to the cerebellum and postcentral gyrus. In both regions, GM lesions and volume independently correlated with physical disability and cognitive performance. Conclusions DIR-detectable GM lesions and GM atrophy do not significantly overlap in the brain but, when they do, they independently contribute to clinical disability.
Metabolite Profiling to Characterize Disease-related Bacteria

Background: Phenotypic profiling of knockout libraries is a possible functional genomics strategy. Results: Gluconate excretion is a novel phenotype of the Pseudomonas aeruginosa rpoN mutant, which is also weakly associated with antibiotic susceptibility in a clinical strain panel. Conclusion: The rpoN phenotype results from catabolite repression deregulation of 6-phosphogluconate dehydratase. Significance: NMR profiling can uncover novel gene functions with potential clinical relevance. Metabolic footprinting of supernatants has been proposed as a tool for assigning gene function. We used NMR spectroscopy to measure the exometabolome of 86 single-gene transposon insertion mutant strains (mutants from central carbon metabolism and regulatory mutants) of the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa, grown on a medium designed to represent the nutritional content of cystic fibrosis sputum. Functionally related genes had similar metabolic profiles. E.g. for two-component system mutants, the cognate response regulator and sensor kinase genes clustered tightly together. Some strains had metabolic phenotypes (metabotypes) that could be related to the known gene function. E.g. pyruvate dehydrogenase mutants accumulated large amounts of pyruvate in the medium. In other cases, the metabolic phenotypes were not easily interpretable. The rpoN mutant, which lacks the alternative σ factor RpoN (σ54), accumulated high levels of gluconate in the medium. In addition, endometabolome profiling of intracellular metabolites identified a number of systemic metabolic changes. We linked this to indirect regulation of the catabolite repression protein Crc via the non-coding RNA crcZ and found that a crcZ (but not crc) mutant also shared the high-gluconate phenotype. We profiled an additional set of relevant metabolic enzymes and transporters, including Crc targets, and showed that the Crc-regulated edd mutant (gluconate-6-phosphate dehydratase) had similar gluconate levels as the rpoN mutant. Finally, a set of clinical isolates showed patient- and random amplification of polymorphic DNA (RAPD) type-specific differences in gluconate production, which were associated significantly with resistance across four antibiotics (tobramycin, ciprofloxacin, aztreonam, and imipenem), indicating that this has potential clinical relevance.
IN VITRO GENERATION OF HELPER T CELLS AND SUPPRESSOR T CELLS THAT REGULATE THE CYTOLYTIC T LYMPHOCYTE RESPONSE TO TRINITROPHENYL‐MODIFIED SYNGENEIC CELLS

Helper T cells and suppressor T cells have been generated in vitro that regulate the cytolytic T lymphocyte (CTL) response to trinitrophenyl (TNP)-modified syngeneic cells. B6D2F, helper cells generated to TNP-modified parental (P1) cells augment the CTL response to those P1-TNP-modified antigens but not to P2-TNP-modified antigens. The generation of these helper T cells requires the presence of splenic adherent cells and these helper T cells are radioresistant. A soluble factor can be obtained from the helper T cell cultures that can also augment the CTL response. The suppressor T cells generated in culture do not demonstrate the specificity observed with the helper T cells; however, they are antigen-dependent in their induction. Whether helper or suppressor activity is obtained depends upon the length of time cells are cultured in vitro.
Alias analysis for optimization of dynamic languages

Dynamic languages such as Python allow programs to be written more easily using high-level constructs such as comprehensions for queries and using generic code. Efficient execution of programs then requires powerful optimizations - incrementalization of expensive queries and specialization of generic code. Effective incrementalization and specialization of dynamic languages require precise and scalable alias analysis. This paper describes the development and experimental evaluation of a may-alias analysis for a full dynamic object-oriented language, for program optimization by incrementalization and specialization. The analysis is flow-sensitive; we show that this is necessary for effective optimization of dynamic languages. It uses precise type analysis and a powerful form of context sensitivity, called trace sensitivity, to further improve analysis precision. It uses a compressed representation to significantly reduce the memory used by flow-sensitive analyses.We evaluate the effectiveness of this analysis and 17 variants of it for incrementalization and specialization of Python programs, and we evaluate the precision, memory usage, and running time of these analyses on programs of diverse sizes. The results show that our analysis has acceptable precision and efficiency and represents the best trade-off between them compared to the variants.
Performance evaluation of localization techniques in wireless sensor networks using RSSI and LQI

Low-cost precise localization is crucial for wireless sensor networks. RSSI based localization is cost effective when compared to TOA, AOA, TDOA, ultrasonic and acoustic localization as it does not require any extra hardware, power or bandwidth. The radio of sensor nodes provides information about both the RSSI and LQI of a received radio signal. Localization error can be decreased by simultaneously observing both RSSI and LQI. We propose two novel techniques for localizing a target node using RSSI+LQI. They are Recursive Bayesian-RSSI-LQI (RB-RSSI-LQI) and Maximum a posteriori-RSSI-LQI (MAP-RSSI-LQI). A comparison between these techniques is done with the existing Mean-RSSI technique. We show that MAP-RSSI-LQI gives the best results in terms of localization error and computational complexity. The root mean square error of the RB-RSSI-LQI is 53.35% less than Mean-RSSI in case of stationary target node. The root mean square error of MAP-RSSI-LQI is 52.25% and 58.88% less than Mean-RSSI in case of stationary and mobile target nodes. A combination of simulation and experimental evaluation is used to develop and validate the proposed techniques.
The ARMv8 simulator

In this work, we implement an ARMv8 function and performance simulator based on gem5 infrastructure, which is the first open source ARMv8 simulator. All the ARMv8 A64 instructions other than SIMD are implemented using gem5 ISA description language. The ARMv8 simulator supports multiple CPU models, multiple memory systems, and McPAT power model.
Mechanisms of Mitotic Kinase Regulation: A Structural Perspective

Protein kinases are major regulators of mitosis, with over 30% of the mitotic proteome phosphorylated on serines, threonines and tyrosines. The human genome encodes for 518 kinases that have a structurally conserved catalytic domain and includes about a dozen of cell division specific ones. Yet each kinase has unique structural features that allow their distinct substrate recognition and modes of regulation. These unique regulatory features determine their accurate spatio-temporal activation critical for correct progression through mitosis and are exploited for therapeutic purposes. In this review, we will discuss the principles of mitotic kinase activation and the structural determinants that underlie functional specificity.
Dynamic construction of circuits for reactive traffic in homogeneous CMPs

Networks on Chip (NoCs) have a large impact on system performance, area and energy. Considering the characteristics of the memory subsystem while designing the NoC helps identify improvement opportunities and build more efficient designs. Leveraging the frequent request-reply pattern, our proposal dynamically builds the reply path in advance, is able to share circuits between messages, and even removes some implicit replies, significantly reducing NoC latency. A careful implementation of this circuit reservation mechanism achieves an average 17% reduction in router energy consumption, 8% smaller router area and a 2% system performance increase, compared with its baseline counterpart.
Pliocene vegetation and climate of Arctic Norway and the variability of the Norwegian Atlantic current

The Pliocene Epoch (5.33–2.59 Ma) is characterised by climatic conditions similar to those predicted for 2100, with enhanced warming in the (sub-)Arctic. The climate evolution at high latitudes is not well understood due to the sparsity of time-continuous palaeoenvironmental records. This study provides new records of Pliocene vegetation changes in Arctic Norway and the variability of the Norwegian Atlantic Current based on analyses of terrestrial and marine palynomorphs from ODP Site 642 (Norwegian Sea, 67°N) to assess climate variability and identify different scale forcing mechanisms. The Piacenzian pollen record (3.60–3.14 Ma) shows vegetation changes between cool temperate and boreal forests during warmer-than-present and similar-to-present climate phases, respectively, implying shifts of the northern deciduous/mixed forest limit of 4–8° latitude. During warm phases, warmest month temperatures were 8–14°C higher than present. The development of peatlands during cooler phases may have amplified the cooling through CO2-drawdown and positive vegetation-snow feedbacks. The high regional and hemispheric-wide climate variability highlights the importance of well-dated, high-resolution records for regional to global palaeoenvironmental reconstructions and data-model comparisons. Long-term Pliocene vegetation changes (5.03–3.14 Ma) reveal a continuous decline of thermophilic elements over successive warm phases, supporting the notion of long-term climate cooling caused by decreasing CO2 concentrations. This cooling is superimposed on shifts between cool temperate and boreal climate phases on multi-millennial timescales. Minima in eccentricity (400-ka), together with low-amplitude obliquity/precession cycles are associated with the development of boreal conditions. At 4.56 Ma, a marked decline in pollen influx suggests atmospheric circulation changes in response to the shoaling of the Central American Seaway, a hypothesis supported by model results. Subsequently, changes in northward heat transport via the North Atlantic Current strongly affected vegetation changes. The Pliocene climate evolution represents the later part of late Neogene cooling instead of a reversal of that trend. Dinoflagellate cyst assemblage changes (3.320–3.137 Ma) indicate variations in Atlantic and Arctic water influence, corresponding to cool temperate and boreal terrestrial climatic conditions in Arctic Norway, respectively. These records emphasise a high climate variability on glacial-interglacial timescales and linkage of both marine and terrestrial environmental changes.
Low spring primary production and microplankton carbon biomass in Sub-Antarctic Patagonian channels and fjords (50–53°S)

ABSTRACT It is relevant to understand the processes and factors that modulate the efficiency of the carbon pump throughout the ecosystem of Patagonian fjords. Spatial variability of primary productivity and bacteria-microplankton biomass was assessed in relation to inorganic nutrients and stratification across nearshore zones of southern Patagonia (50–53°S) in austral spring 2009. Estimates of primary productivity (300–500 mg C m−2 d−1) and phytoplankton biomass (9–180 mg chlorophyll-a m−2) were low at offshore and inshore waters. Synergistic effects of low silicic acid concentrations and poor light penetration because of salinity-driven stratification of glacier meltwater in springtime appeared to negatively affect phytoplankton carbon biomass and primary production in this sub-Antarctic region. The knowledge of the relative importance of nutrient sources and light is especially significant for Patagonian glacier-fjord systems that are expected to receive higher freshwater inputs and will be more stratified in the future.
COMPARISON THEOREMS FOR REVERSIBLE MARKOV CHAINS

By symmetry, P has eigenvalues 1 = I03 > I381 > ? > I 31xI- 1 2 -1. This paper develops methods for getting upper and lower bounds on 8i3 by comparison with a second reversible chain on the same state space. This extends the ideas introduced in Diaconis and Saloff-Coste (1993), where random walks on finite groups were considered. The bounds involve geometric properties such as the diameter and covering number of an associated graph along the lines of Diaconis and Stroock (1991). The main application gives a sharp upper bound on the second eigenvalue of the symmetric exclusion process. Thus, let S0 be a connected undirected graph with n vertices. For simplicity, we assume in this introduction that SW is regular. To start, r unlabelled particles are placed in an initial configuration, 1 < r < n. At each step, a particle is chosen at random; then one of the neighboring sites of this particle is chosen at random. If the neighboring site is unoccupied, the chosen particle is moved there; if the neighboring site is occupied, the system stays as it was. This is a reversible Markov chain on the r-sets of {1, 2, . , n} with uniform stationary distribution. Liggett (1985) gives background and motivation (he focuses on infinite systems). Fill (1991) gives bounds on the second eigenvalue of the labeled exclusion process on the finite circle ZZn 1 We study this chain by comparison with a second Markov chain on r-sets that proceeds by picking a particle at random, picking an unoccupied site at random (not necessarily a neighboring site) and moving the particle to the unoccupied site. This is a well studied chain (the Bernoulli-Laplace model for diffusion). Its eigenvalues are known. We show that the comparison techniques apply to give upper bounds on the eigenvalues of the exclusion