Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Wavelength dependence of prepulse laser beams on EUV emission from CO2 reheated Sn plasma

Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) emission from laser-produced plasmas (LPP) centered at 13.5 nm is considered a leading candidate for the light source in future lithography systems. Tin is currently the best material for generating this EUV emission since it emits strongly within the 13.5 nm region due to its various ionic states (Sn8+-Sn14+). Highly efficient and low-debris LPPs are a pre-requisite for their use as light sources for EUV lithography. Tin plasmas generate debris that can damage collection optics over time. Techniques to mitigate debris are needed to extend the lifetime of these components and the system. Optimization of plasma conditions is necessary for increasing EUV emission and enhancing conversion efficiency (CE). Improving the source CE is necessary in order to reduce the cost of ownership and hence, develop a commercially viable lithography system for the semiconductor industry. One method to accomplish this is to reheat pre-formed plasma with a laser pulse to enhance EUV emission. This enhancement is achieved by controlling those plasma conditions necessary for optimizing EUV emission. We investigated the role of prepulse laser wavelength on prepulse plume formation and EUV in-band signal enhancement. A 6 ns Nd:YAG laser operating at 1064 nm and 266 nm was used for generating the prepulse plume. The expanding plume was then reheated by a 35 ns CO2 laser operating at 10.6 μm. The role of prepulse wavelength and energy on EUV conversion efficiency is discussed.
Non-membranous granular organelle consisting of PCM-1: subcellular distribution and cell-cycle-dependent assembly/disassembly

Centriolar satellites were initially identified as electrondense spherical granules, ∼70-100 nm in diameter, localized around the centrosomes. We have previously identified pericentriolar material 1 (PCM-1), with a molecular mass of ∼230 kDa, as a component of centriolar satellites. We now show by immunofluorescence microscopy that these granules are not only concentrated around centrioles but also scattered throughout the cytoplasm in various types of mouse cells, leading us tentatively to call them `PCM-1 granules'. We then found that, when overexpressed, PCM-1 molecules lacking their C-terminal region bound directly with each other through two distinct regions to form large aggregates, which then recruited endogenous PCM-1. These large aggregates as well as endogenous PCM-1 granules appear to be disassembled during mitosis, and reassembled when the cells entered interphase. These findings suggest that PCM-1 granules are formed by self-aggregation of PCM-1 and that this self-aggregation is regulated in a cell-cycle-dependent manner. Furthermore, we found that PCM-1 granules are distinct from pericentrin-containing granules, and that these two distinct types of granular structures are frequently associated with each other within the cytoplasm. These findings are discussed with special reference to the possible physiological functions of PCM-1 granules.
Deviations from interest rate parity in small open economies: A quantitative-theoretical investigation

It is frequently claimed that the expected yield on emerging market bonds commands a premium. Here we investigate the sources of this phe-nomenon. A stochastic general equilibrium model of a small open economy is analyzed numerically to derive conditions for interest rate premia. The novelty of our approach is to attack the problem form the point of view of state dependent policy mixes. The main lessons include: if positive premia were universal, then 1. nominal rigidity should be important, 2. monetary authorities might have a current account stabilization motive, and 3. taste shocks possibly play some role in emerging markets.
Influence of Poisson's ratio on elastographic direct and inverse problems

We consider the displacement of an elastic material under an external compression (axial or almost axial stress). We assume that only one component of the displacement is observed, in the direction of compression (axial displacement), or alternatively, that two components are observed in a plane. These hypotheses are in accordance with an imaging modality, namely ultrasonic elastography. In the case of a homogeneous medium we show that any value of Poisson's ratio allows us to predict the observed value of the axial displacement. When two components of the displacement are measured in a plane, the Poisson's ratio of the plane strain model that predicts the observed displacement is not the same as the tri-dimensional material. These facts are illustrated by numerical experiments in the case of an inhomogeneous medium. We also present results on experimental phantom data, where the inverse problem of reconstructing the Young's modulus is solved assuming different values for Poisson's ratio.
Flexible recommendation using random walks on implicit feedback graph

Realizing context-aware recommender systems (CARS) has been acknowledged as one of the most important topics in the area of recommender systems. CARSs aim to incorporate contextual information in recommendation to achieve better recommendation results. Although existing CARSs deal with multiple dimensions, most of them focus on the problem of predicting users' ratings for one specific recommendation target dimension (e.g. movie) considering fixed contextual dimensions. However, in many real world cases, contextual dimensions and recommendation target dimension can often vary depending on different purposes or needs. In this paper, we show how to transform log data which implies users' preference and contextual information into implicit feedback graph and propose a recommendation method using random walks on the transformed graph. Our method has advantages in that it supports flexibility of varying contextual dimensions and recommendation target dimension without time-consuming learning process. We perform several experiments, and the experimental results show that our method can be actually used for real world cases.
Maternal pre-pregnancy weight and externalising behaviour problems in preschool children: a UK-based twin study

Objective To estimate the heritability of child behaviour problems and investigate the association between maternal pre-pregnancy overweight and child behaviour problems in a genetically sensitive design. Design Observational cross-sectional study. Setting The Twins and Multiple Births Association Heritability Study (TAMBAHS) is an online UK-wide volunteer-based study investigating the development of twins from birth until 5 years of age. Participants A total of 443 (16% of the initial registered members) mothers answered questions on pre-pregnancy weight and their twins’ internalising and externalising problems using the Child Behavior Checklist and correcting for important covariates including gestational age, twins’ birth weight, age and sex, mother's educational level and smoking (before, during and after pregnancy). Primary outcomes The heritability of behaviour problems and their association with maternal pre-pregnancy weight. Results The genetic analysis suggested that genetic and common environmental factors account for most of the variation in externalising disorders (an ACE model was the most parsimonious with genetic factors (A) explaining 46% (95% CI 33% to 60%) of the variance, common environment (C) explaining 42% (95% CI 27% to 54%) and non-shared environmental factors (E) explaining 13% (95% CI 10% to 16%) of the variance. For internalising problems, a CE model was the most parsimonious model with the common environment explaining 51% (95% CI 44% to 58%) of the variance and non-shared environment explaining 49% (95% CI 42% to 56%) of the variance. Moreover, the regression analysis results suggested that children of overweight mothers showed a trend (OR=1.10, 95% CI 0.58% to 2.06) towards being more aggressive and exhibit externalising behaviours compared to children of normal weight mothers. Conclusions Maternal pre-pregnancy weight may play a role in children's aggressive behaviour.
Habitat correlates of the southern torrent salamander, rhyacotriton variegatus (Caudata: Rhyacotritonidae), in northwestern California

Asystematic stratified sampling design was used to quantify the habitat relationships of the southern torrent salamander, Rhyacotriton variegatus, in northwestern California. We sampled 53 first to third order streams, each surrounded by at least 5-7 ha of relatively homogeneous forest or harvested forest habitat. Measurements of 121 attributes of the forest and stream environment were recorded in conjunction with area-constrained aquatic sampling for salamanders. A subset of 68 variables, grouped into 11 ecological components including attributes at the landscape, macrohabitat, and microhabitat scales, was used in a hierarchical analysis of habitat associations. Results from discriminant and regression analyses indicated that this species occurs within a relatively narrow range of physical and microclimatic conditions and is associated with cold, clear headwater to low-order streams with loose, coarse substrates (low sedimentation), in humid forest habitats with large conifers, abundant moss, and HO% canopy closure. Thus, the southern torrent salamander demonstrates an ecological dependence on conditions of microcli- mate and habitat structure that are typically best created, stabilized, and maintained within late seral forests in northwestern California.
Keyword-based correlated network computation over large social media

Recent years have witnessed an unprecedented proliferation of social media, e.g., millions of blog posts, micro-blog posts, and social networks on the Internet. This kind of social media data can be modeled in a large graph where nodes represent the entities and edges represent relationships between entities of the social media. Discovering keyword-based correlated networks of these large graphs is an important primitive in data analysis, from which users can pay more attention about their concerned information in the large graph. In this paper, we propose and define the problem of keyword-based correlated network computation over a massive graph. To do this, we first present a novel tree data structure that only maintains the shortest path of any two graph nodes, by which the massive graph can be equivalently transformed into a tree data structure for addressing our proposed problem. After that, we design efficient algorithms to build the transformed tree data structure from a graph offline and compute the γ-bounded keyword matched subgraphs based on the pre-built tree data structure on the fly. To further improve the efficiency, we propose weighted shingle-based approximation approaches to measure the correlation among a large number of γ-bounded keyword matched subgraphs. At last, we develop a merge-sort based approach to efficiently generate the correlated networks. Our extensive experiments demonstrate the efficiency of our algorithms on reducing time and space cost. The experimental results also justify the effectiveness of our method in discovering correlated networks from three real datasets.
Dietary flavonoids and the development of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases: review of recent findings

Purpose of review This review summarizes the results on flavonoid intakes and the development of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Recent findings Recent advances in food composition databases have allowed the evaluation of a more comprehensive range of flavonoids in epidemiological studies. In addition, the number of randomized trials of flavonoid-rich foods has increased rapidly. Results from both cohort studies and randomized trials suggest that anthocyanidins from berries and flavan-3-ols from green tea and cocoa may lower the risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Meta-analyses of randomized trials indicate that the strongest evidence exists for a beneficial effect of green tea on LDL-cholesterol and a beneficial effect of flavan-3-ol-rich cocoa on endothelial function and insulin sensitivity. Few randomized trials had a long duration or evaluated pure flavonoid compounds. Summary Evidence from cohort studies and randomized trials suggest beneficial effects of food sources of anthocyanidins (berries) and flavan-3-ols (green tea and cocoa) on cardiovascular health. These findings need to be confirmed in long-term randomized trials, and evaluation of pure compounds will be important to establish what specific flavonoids and doses are effective.
Isoflurane leakage from non-rebreathing rodent anaesthesia circuits: comparison of emissions from conventional and modified ports

Chronic exposure to low levels of fluorocarbon-based waste anaesthetic gas (WAG) has been linked to a multitude of human health problems. We have shown that isoflurane exhaust from passive gas-scavenging canisters is often quite high when using conventional rodent anaesthesia protocols and equipment. Another likely source of WAG build-up in rodent procedure rooms is leakage at the interface between the breathing circuit and the animal's face. We evaluated this possibility using three non-rebreathing circuits: traditional Bain, modified Bain, and Mapleson (type E). For the Mapleson E circuit, a conical rodent facemask was attached and used in one of two configurations: normal aperture, or aperture modified with a latex diaphragm (cut from an unpowdered surgical glove) to reduce the orifice diameter and tighten the seal. Adult female Sprague–Dawley rats were anaesthetized with isoflurane (5% for induction, 2% or 3.5% for maintenance) in oxygen (2 L/min for induction, 1 L/min for maintenance). Isoflurane leakage was assessed by real-time spectrophotometry. In 94% of the trials, three configurations – traditional Bain, modified Bain, and Mapleson E with unmodified mask – permitted isoflurane leakage approaching or exceeding 100 ppm at the face/port interface. In contrast, the Mapleson circuit with diaphragm-modified mask emitted significantly (P≤0.0003) less isoflurane (peak of 9.5±1.7 ppm [mean±standard error]). These data indicate that (1) WAG leakage from standard rodent non-rebreathing circuits is substantial, and that (2) a simple, rapid, and economical modification to a conventional rodent facemask can significantly reduce WAG exposure to workers performing many rodent anaesthesia procedures in one session.
The mastery of generic skills amongst students with the aim to increase the employability: IPTA and IPTS

The purpose of this research is an analysis amongst public higher education institution (IPTA) and private higher education institution (IPTS) students on the mastery level of generic skills in order to increase the employability. The sample of this study is comprised 386 IPTA and IPTS final semester students and two industrial representatives. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used as a research design by using questionnaire and interview as research instruments. The questionnaire data then was analyzed using descriptive statistical analysis while t-test had been conducted to compare generic skills among IPTA and IPTS students. Overall the finding indicated that IPTA and IPTS students had high awareness towards the importance of generic skills. And, the mastery level of generic skills amongst IPTA and IPTS students were also rather high. Nevertheless, the result shows that there are differences on the mastering of the generic skills between IPTA and IPTS students. Hence, with the hope, the results of the research can help the IPTA and IPTS to ensure the mastery of generic skills amongst students can fulfill the needs of the employee in the industry.
Efficient event processing through reconfigurable hardware for algorithmic trading

In this demo, we present fpga-ToPSS (Toronto Publish/Subscribe System Family), an efficient event processing platform for high-frequency and low-latency algorithmic trading. Our event processing platform is built over reconfigurable hardware---FPGAs---to achieve line-rate processing. Furthermore, our event processing engine supports Boolean expression matching with an expressive predicate language that models complex financial strategies to autonomously buy and sell stocks based on real-time financial data.
Mutation Screening and Association Study of the Folylpolyglutamate Synthetase (FPGS) Gene with Susceptibility to Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.

BACKGROUND Folylpolyglutamate synthetase (FPGS), an important enzyme in the folate metabolic pathway, plays a central role in intracellular accumulation of folate and antifolate in several mammalian cell types. Loss of FPGS activity results in decreased cellular levels of antifolates and consequently to polyglutamatable antifolates in acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). MATERIALS AND METHODS During May 1997 and December 2003, 134 children diagnosed with ALL were recruited from one hospital in Thailand. We performed a mutation analysis in the coding regions of the FPGS gene and the association between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within FPGS in a case-control sample of childhood ALL patients. Mutation screening was conducted by polymerase chain reaction-single strand conformation polymorphism (PCR-SSCP) and subsequently with direct sequencing (n=72). Association analysis between common FPGS variants and ALL risk was done in 98 childhood ALL cases and 95 healthy volunteers recruited as controls. RESULTS Seven SNPs in the FPGS coding region were identified by mutation analysis, 3 of which (IVS13+55C>T, g.1297T>G, and g.1508C>T) were recognized as novel SNPs. Association analysis revealed 3 of 6 SNPs to confer significant increase in ALL risk these being rs7039798 (p= 0.014, OR=2.14), rs1544105 (p=0.010, OR= 2.24), and rs10106 (p=0.026, OR= 1.99). CONCLUSIONS These findings suggested that common genetic polymorphisms in the FPGS coding region including rs7039789, rs1544105, and rs10106 are significantly associated with increased ALL risk in Thai children.
Automatic Ground-truth Generation for Document Image Analysis and Understanding

Performance evaluation for document image analysis and understanding is a recurring problem. Many ground- truthed document image databases are now used to evaluate algorithms, but these databases are less useful for the design of a complete system in a precise context. This paper proposes an approach for the automatic generation of synthesised document images and associated ground-truth information based on a derivation of publishing tools. An implementation of this approach illustrates the richness of the produced information.
Subjective evaluation of image understanding results

Image understanding has many applications. Given an image and a ground truth, it is possible to measure the quality of understanding results provided by different algorithms or parameters. In this paper, we ask some users to make a subjective evaluation of image understanding results by sorting them from the best to the worst. We compared the results with some provided by a metric we defined recently. Experimental results show the good behavior of this metric compared to the human judgment.
Induction of multiple cytotoxic T lymphocyte responses in mice by a multiepitope DNA vaccine against dengue virus serotype 1

Dengue virus (DENV) is still a major threat to human health in most tropical and subtropical countries and regions. In the present study, a multi‐epitope DNA vaccine that encodes 15 immunogenic and conserved HLA‐A*0201‐, HLA‐A*1101‐, HLA‐A*2402‐restricted CTL epitopes from DENV serotype 1 (DENV‐1) was constructed based on the eukaryotic expressing plasmid pcDNATM3.1/myc‐His(−) A. Immunization of HLA‐A*0201, HLA‐A*1101 and HLA‐A*2402 transgenic mice with the recombinant plasmid pcDNATM3.1/myc‐His(−) A‐DENV‐1‐Meg resulted in significantly greater IFN‐γ‐secreting T‐cell responses against most (14/15) CTL epitopes than occurred in mice immunized with the empty plasmid pcDNATM3.1/myc‐His(−) A. Additionally, the epitope‐specific T cells directed to some epitopes secreted not only IFN‐γ but also IL‐6 and/or TNF‐α. Finally, the induced epitope‐specific T cells also efficiently lysed epitope‐pulsed splenocytes and DENV‐1‐infected splenic monocytes. The present study confirms the immunogenicity of multi‐epitope DENV vaccine, suggesting that it may contribute to the development of a universal DENV vaccine.
GPU-based fast cone beam CT reconstruction from undersampled and noisy projection data via total variation.

PURPOSE Cone-beam CT (CBCT) plays an important role in image guided radiation therapy (IGRT). However, the large radiation dose from serial CBCT scans in most IGRT procedures raises a clinical concern, especially for pediatric patients who are essentially excluded from receiving IGRT for this reason. The goal of this work is to develop a fast GPU-based algorithm to reconstruct CBCT from undersampled and noisy projection data so as to lower the imaging dose. METHODS The CBCT is reconstructed by minimizing an energy functional consisting of a data fidelity term and a total variation regularization term. The authors developed a GPU-friendly version of the forward-backward splitting algorithm to solve this model. A multigrid technique is also employed. RESULTS It is found that 20-40 x-ray projections are sufficient to reconstruct images with satisfactory quality for IGRT. The reconstruction time ranges from 77 to 130 s on an NVIDIA Tesla C1060 (NVIDIA, Santa Clara, CA) GPU card, depending on the number of projections used, which is estimated about 100 times faster than similar iterative reconstruction approaches. Moreover, phantom studies indicate that the algorithm enables the CBCT to be reconstructed under a scanning protocol with as low as 0.1 mA s/projection. Comparing with currently widely used full-fan head and neck scanning protocol of approximately 360 projections with 0.4 mA s/projection, it is estimated that an overall 36-72 times dose reduction has been achieved in our fast CBCT reconstruction algorithm. CONCLUSIONS This work indicates that the developed GPU-based CBCT reconstruction algorithm is capable of lowering imaging dose considerably. The high computation efficiency in this algorithm makes the iterative CBCT reconstruction approach applicable in real clinical environments.
Fire-Raising: Its motivation and management

In recent years, fire-raising has become an increasing problem in Britain and elsewhere, and now involves many professionals in the investigation and management of those who set fires. The motives of fire-raisers are complex and their behaviour is hard to change. Herschel Prins sets the problem in an historical and anthropological context, examines the size of the problem, its investigation and motivation, in a way which will enable more effective management.