Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A collective form of cell death requires homeodomain interacting protein kinase

We examined post-eclosion elimination of the Drosophila wing epithelium in vivo where collective “suicide waves” promote sudden, coordinated death of epithelial sheets without a final engulfment step. Like apoptosis in earlier developmental stages, this unique communal form of cell death is controlled through the apoptosome proteins, Dronc and Dark, together with the IAP antagonists, Reaper, Grim, and Hid. Genetic lesions in these pathways caused intervein epithelial cells to persist, prompting a characteristic late-onset blemishing phenotype throughout the wing blade. We leveraged this phenotype in mosaic animals to discover relevant genes and establish here that homeodomain interacting protein kinase (HIPK) is required for collective death of the wing epithelium. Extra cells also persisted in other tissues, establishing a more generalized requirement for HIPK in the regulation of cell death and cell numbers.
Interleukin-6 is a stronger predictor of total and cardiovascular mortality than C-reactive protein in haemodialysis patients.

BACKGROUND Despite the well known association between interleukin-6 (IL-6) and cardiovascular mortality, no study has so far verified whether IL-6 adds prognostic information to that provided by C-reactive protein (CRP). METHODS A cohort of 218 haemodialysis patients from four different dialytic centres was followed-up retrospectively. Plasma IL-6 and CRP concentrations were determined. Full information on co-morbidities was available in 162 patients. RESULTS With respect to the lowest quartile (< 3.6 pg/ml for IL-6, and < 2.2 mg/l for CRP), the crude relative risk (RR) of death from all causes of the upper quartile (> 13.9 pg/ml for IL-6, and > 12.8 mg/l for CRP) was 5.20 (95% confidence interval 2.06-13.011) for IL-6 and 3.16 (1.41-7.12) for CRP. When both variables were included, the estimates were 4.10 (1.30-12.96) for IL-6 and 1.29 (0.47-3.57) for CRP. As to continuous variables, the relationship between both variables and mortality tended to level off for the highest values, but became fairly linear after log transformation of the variables. For one unit SD of the log (variable), the RR was 2.09 (1.52-2.88) for IL-6 and 1.66 (1.23-2.24) for CRP. When they were included in the same model, the estimates were 1.90 (1.18-2.82) for IL-6 and 1.16 (0.81-1.66) for CRP. CONCLUSIONS IL-6 has a stronger predictive value than CRP for cardiovascular mortality and provides independent prognostic information, while conveying most of that provided by CRP.
Integrated network analysis and effective tools in plant systems biology

One of the ultimate goals in plant systems biology is to elucidate the genotype-phenotype relationship in plant cellular systems. Integrated network analysis that combines omics data with mathematical models has received particular attention. Here we focus on the latest cutting-edge computational advances that facilitate their combination. We highlight (1) network visualization tools, (2) pathway analyses, (3) genome-scale metabolic reconstruction, and (4) the integration of high-throughput experimental data and mathematical models. Multi-omics data that contain the genome, transcriptome, proteome, and metabolome and mathematical models are expected to integrate and expand our knowledge of complex plant metabolisms.
A Framework of Review Analysis for Enhancement of Business Decision Making

In order to remain competitive, modern businesses must keep informed about consumers' opinions via web-based reviews or similar channels. Today, the usefulness factor in opinion mining is mainly achieved through helpful user ratings in reviews. Reviews belong to different categories and each category contains different types of information that have not yet been the focus of sentiment analysis research so far. There is useful content in each type of review that may be helpful to users as well as designers. Therefore, it is essential to classify reviews into multiple types and then share relevant information with people involved in the development of business products and services. We hereby propose a review analysis framework, which may help designers and customers to extract useful information from user-generated contents. The proposed framework aims to enable users, designers and potential buyers to enhance decision making strategies and, hence, and improve business intelligence.
ON SQUARE-FREE VERTEX COLORINGS OF GRAPHS

A sequence of symbols a 1 , a 2 … is called square-free if it does not contain a subsequence of consecutive terms of the form x 1 , …, x m , x 1 , …, x m . A century ago Thue showed that there exist arbitrarily long square-free sequences using only three symbols. Sequences can be thought of as colors on the vertices of a path. Following the paper of Alon, Grytczuk, Haluszczak and Riordan, we examine graph colorings for which the color sequence is square-free on any path. The main result is that the vertices of any k -tree have a coloring of this kind using O ( c k ) colors if c > 6. Alon et al. conjectured that a fixed number of colors suffices for any planar graph. We support this conjecture by showing that this number is at most 12 for outerplanar graphs. On the other hand we prove that some outerplanar graphs require at least 7 colors. Using this latter we construct planar graphs, for which at least 10 colors are necessary.
Unveiling the thermal and magnetic map of neutron star surfaces though their X‐ray emission: method and light‐curve analysis

Recent Chandra and XMM–Newton observations of a number of X-ray ‘dim’ pulsating neutron stars have revealed quite unexpected features in the emission from these sources. Their soft thermal spectrum, believed to originate directly from the star surface, shows evidence for a phase-varying absorption line at some hundred eVs. The pulse modulation is relatively large (pulsed fractions in the range ∼12–35 per cent), the pulse shape is often non-sinusoidal, and the hard X-ray colour appears to be anticorrelated in phase with the total emission. Moreover, the prototype of this class, RX J0720.4−3125, has been found to undergo rather sensible changes in both its spectral and timing properties over a time-scale of a few years. All these new findings seem difficult to reconcile with the standard picture of a cooling neutron star endowed with a purely dipolar magnetic field, at least if surface emission is produced in an atmosphere on top of the crust. In this paper we explore how a dipolar+quadrupolar star-centred field influences the properties of the observed light curves. The phase-resolved spectrum has been evaluated accounting for both radiative transfer in a magnetized atmosphere and general relativistic ray-bending. We computed over 78 000 light curves, varying the quadrupolar components and the viewing geometry. A comparison of the data with our model indicates that higher-order multipoles are required to reproduce the observations.
Development of two degree of freedom (DoF) bionic hand for below elbow amputee

The Human hand is versatile in its interaction. Imitating the versatilities and human dexterity in robotic design is a huge challenge, and requires a great depth of understanding of the human upper limb physiology and its robotic equivalent. A huge amount of research worldwide is being carried out in order to develop a human hand like prosthetic which can provide natural haptic functionality. This paper provides an insight to the development of a bionic hand which performs hand opposition and reposition actions (clasp and release) based on real EMG signals from a below elbow amputee. It also provides an understanding of design involved in development of the robotic model of the hand, the electronics behind it and finally the signal processing technique behind classification of EMG signals to make the bionic hand perform the desired haptic function. The paper indicates that Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and Random Forest method is the best technique that can be used to classify actions indicated through real time EMG signals.
Fock space distributions, structure functions, higher twists and small x

We compute quark structure functions and the intrinsic Fock space distribution of sea quarks in a hadron wave function at small x. The computation is performed in an effective theory at small x where the gluon field is treated classically. At Q{sup 2} large compared to an intrinsic scale associated with the density of gluons {mu}{sup 2}, large compared to the QCD scale {Lambda}{sub QCD}{sup 2}, and large compared to the quark mass squared M{sup 2}, the Fock space distribution of quarks is identical to the distribution function measured in deep inelastic scattering. For Q{sup 2}{le}M{sup 2} but Q{sup 2}{gt}{mu}{sup 2}, the quark distribution is computed in terms of the gluon distribution function and explicit expressions are obtained. For Q{sup 2}{le}{mu}{sup 2} but Q{sup 2}{gt}{Lambda}{sub QCD}{sup 2} we obtain formal expressions for the quark distribution functions in terms of the glue. An evaluation of these requires a renormalization group analysis of the gluon distribution function in the regime of high parton density. For light quarks at high Q{sup 2}, the DGLAP flavor singlet evolution equations for the parton distributions are recovered. Explicit expressions are given for heavy quark structure functions at small x. {copyright} {ital 1999} {ital The American Physicalmore » Society}« less
2MASS wide field extinction maps II. The Ophiuchus and the Lupus cloud complexes

We present an extinction map of a ∼1700 deg sq region that encloses the Ophiuchus, the Lupus, and the Pipe dark complexes using 42 million stars from the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) point source catalog. The use of a robust and optimal near-infrared method to map dust column density (nicer, described in Lombardi & Alves 2001, A&A, 377, 1023) allow us to detect extinction as low as AK = 0.05 mag with a 2-σ significance, and still to have a resolution of 3 arcmin on our map. We also present a novel, statistically sound method to characterize the small-scale inhomogeneities in molecular clouds. Finally, we investigate the cloud structure function, and show that significant deviations from the results predicted by turbulent models are observed.
Group sparse kernelized dictionary learning for the clustering of white matter fibers

This paper presents a novel method that combines kernelized dictionary learning and group sparsity to efficiently cluster white matter fiber tracts obtained from diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging (dMRI). Instead of having an explicit feature representation for the fibers, this method uses a non-linear kernel and specialized distance measures that can better learn complex bundles. Through the use of a global sparsity prior, the method also provides a soft assignment of fibers to bundles, making it more robust to overlapping fiber bundles and outliers. Furthermore, by using a group sparsity prior, it can automatically discard small and uninteresting bundles. We evaluate our method both qualitatively and quantitatively using expert labeled data, and compare it with state of the art approaches for this task.
Quasi-Synchronism: a step away from the traditional fault-tolerant real-time system models

Distributed fault-tolerant real-time system models have exhibited a trend to polarize themselves in extreme positions. In this paper, we assess the tness of current models to represent the attributes underlying the distributed fault-tolerance of real-time systems. Namely, we are concerned with the correctness issues arising from the temporal properties of interprocess communication: reliable and ordered group communication, replication management protocols, time services, etc. We are particularly concerned with best-eeort or mission-critical systems, where despite the hard need to fulll timing guarantees, this cannot be ensured at all times in a given operational envelope, mandating that the system be highly dynamic and adaptive. In the paper, we suggest quasi-synchronism as a framework to address this kind of systems. We nalize by pointing out some contributions to materialize the model.
Comparing Adaptivity of Ants using NEAT and rtNEAT

Although individual ants have an extremely basic intelligence, and are completely incapable of surviving on their own, colonies of ants can develop remarkably sophisticated and biologically successful behavior. This paper discusses a set of experiments which attempt to simulate one of these behaviors, namely the ability of ants to place pheromones as a way of communication. These experiments involved a variety of different environments, and tested two varieties of the genetic algorithm NEAT: the standard offline version, and its online counterpart rtNEAT. Since the experimental environment did not seem to offer any benefit to continuous learning, we had expected NEAT and rtNEAT to have roughly similar learning curves. However, our results directly contradict this hypothesis, showing much more succesful learning with rtNEAT than with standard NEAT.
Information Extraction, Data Integration, and Uncertain Data Management: The State of The Art

Information Extraction, data Integration, and uncertain data management are different areas of research that got vast focus in the last two decades. Many researches tackled those areas of research individually. However, information extraction systems should have integrated with data integration methods to make use of the extracted information. Handling uncertainty in extraction and integration process is an important issue to enhance the quality of the data in such integrated systems. This article presents the state of the art of the mentioned areas of research and shows the common grounds and how to integrate information extraction and data integration under uncertainty management cover.
Sampled energy control of a single-phase shunt active power filter synthesising a resistive load

Shunt Active Power Filters (APF's) are becoming an important consideration for installations where a large number of non-linear loads are responsible for failure to comply with standards for harmonic distortion of the current waveform [16, 17]. This paper is concerned with a control strategy for a voltage-fed shunt APF. A control system is proposed that uses two sampled difference-energy components to achieve good dynamic performance to changing loads. The system uses a current error driven discrete proportional hysterisis method to inject harmonic and reactive correction currents into the load so as to remove these components from the source current. Another feature of this system is that the source current remains proportional to the source voltage so that the combined load/APF appears purely resistive.
Testing for Unit Roots Cointegration in a Bayesian Framework

Classical tests for unit roots have been criticized of their unusual asymptotic theory leading to disconnected confidence intervals and their lack of power in small samples. Such critiques were initiated by SIMS (1998) who promoted a Bayesian approach to the question. Various papers then appeared, which took-up this idea. The present paper deals with the problem of testing for unit roots and cointegration in a Bayesian framework. The Bayesian approach is not exempt from criticism, as shown by PHILLIPS (1990). So great emphasis is given in this paper to the choice of an adequate parameterization for the model used for testing and of a prior density on the autoregressive parameter under test. These precautions are taken in order to get results which are as neutral as two hypotheses. Three empirical applications are provided concerning the tests of purchasing power parity theory, the presence of a unit root in GNP, and the French consumption function.
Design and Evaluation of aFeedback Control EDF Sch eduling Algorithm

* Supported in part by NSF grant CCR-9901706 and con tract IJRP-9803-6 from the Ministry of Information and Communi cation of Korea. Abstract Despite the significant body of results in real-tim e scheduling, many real world problems are not easily supported. While algorithms such as Earliest Deadli ne First, Rate Monotonic, and the Spring scheduling al gorithm can support sophisticated task set characteristics (such as deadlines, precedence constraints, shared resources , jitter, etc.), they are all "open loop" scheduling algorith ms. Open loop refers to the fact that once schedules are cre ated they are not "adjusted" based on continuous feedback. Wh ile open-loop scheduling algorithms can perform well in static or dynamic systems in which the workloads can be accuratelymodeled,theycanperformpoorlyin unpredictable dynamic systems. In this paper, we pr esent a feedback control real-time scheduling algorithm and its evaluation. Performance results demonstrate the effectiveness of the algorithm when execution times vary fromthe worst case and when there are major shifts of t otal load in the system. A key part of this feedback sol ution is its explicit use of deadline based metrics. Real-time scheduling algorithms fall into two categ ories: static and dynamic scheduling. In static scheduling, the scheduling algorithm has complete knowledge of the task set and its constraints, such as deadlines, computa tion times, precedence constraints, and future release t imes. The RateMonotonic(RM)algorithmand itsextensions [Liu73][Leho89] are static scheduling algorithms an d represent one major paradigm for real-time scheduli ng. In dynamic scheduling, however, the scheduling algorit hm does not have the complete knowledge of the task se t or its timing constraints. For example, new task activatio ns, not known to the algorithm when it is scheduling the cu rrent task set, may arrive at a future unknown time. Dyna mic scheduling can be further divided into two categori es: scheduling algorithms that work in resource sufficient environments and those that work in resource insufficient environments.Resourcesufficientenvironmentsare systems where the system resources are sufficient t o a priori guarantee that, even though tasks arrive dynamical ly, at any given time all the tasks are schedulable. Under certain conditions, Earliest Deadline First (EDF) [ Liu73] is an optimal dynamic scheduling algorithm in resource sufficient environments. EDF is a second major para digm for real-time scheduling [Stan98]. While real-time system designers try to design the system with sufficient resources, because of cost and highly unpredictable environmen ts, it is sometimesimpossibletoguaranteethatthesystem …
Secretion of biologically active human interleukin-2 and interleukin-4 from genetically modified tobacco cells in suspension culture.

Biologically active human interleukin-2 (IL-2) and IL-4, key lymphokines involved in immune regulation, were produced and secreted into the medium by genetically modified Nicotiana tabacum cells grown in suspension culture. Secretion through the plasma membrane and cell wall into the medium was facilitated by the natural mammalian leader sequences. IL-2 and IL-4 were detected in the medium at concentrations of 0.10 and 0.18 microgram/mL, respectively, although higher levels were detected within the lymphokine-producing cells (approximately 0.80 microgram/mL for IL-2 and approximately 0.28 microgram/mL for IL-4). By Western blot, IL-4 was found to be secreted as two small polypeptides with molecular masses of approximately 18-20 kDa. The biological activity of IL-2 was determined by cell proliferation of the IL-2-dependent murine CTLL-2 cell line, while that of IL-4 was determined by cell proliferation of the CTLL-2 cell line [CT.h4S] which was stably transfected with the human IL-4 receptor. These findings indicate that plant suspension culture can be used to produce and secrete into the medium a variety of biologically active mammalian proteins that are of clinical and diagnostic relevance.
A Critical Evaluation of Failure in a Nearshore Outsourcing Project: What Dilemma Analysis Can Tell Us

Global Software Engineering (GSE) research contains few examples consciously applying what Glass and colleagues have termed an 'evaluative-critical' approach. In this study we apply dilemma analysis to conduct a critical review of a major (and ongoing) near shore Business Process Outsourcing project in New Zealand. The project has become so troubled that a Government Minister has recently been assigned responsibility for troubleshooting it. The 'Novo pay' project concerns the implementation of a nationwide payroll system responsible for the payment of some 110,000 teachers and education sector staff. An Australian company won the contract for customizing and implementing the Novo pay system, taking over from an existing New Zealand service provider. We demonstrate how a modified form of dilemma analysis can be a powerful technique for highlighting risks and stakeholder impacts from empirical data, and that adopting an evaluative-critical approach to such projects can usefully highlight tensions and barriers to satisfactory project outcomes.
Effects of prior phonotactic knowledge on infant word segmentation: the case of nonadjacent dependencies.

PURPOSE In this study, the authors explored whether French-learning infants use nonadjacent phonotactic regularities in their native language, which they learn between the ages of 7 and 10 months, to segment words from fluent speech. METHOD Two groups of 20 French-learning infants were tested using the head-turn preference procedure at 10 and 13 months of age. In Experiment 1, infants were familiarized with 2 passages: 1 containing a target word with a frequent nonadjacent phonotactic structure and the other containing a target word with an infrequent nonadjacent phonotactic structure in French. During the test phase, infants were presented with 4 word lists: 2 containing the target words presented during familiarization and 2 other control words with the same phonotactic structure. In Experiment 2, the authors retested infants' ability to segment words with the infrequent phonotactic structure. RESULTS Ten- and 13-month-olds were able to segment words with the frequent phonotactic structure, but it is only by 13 months, and only under the circumstances of Experiment 2, that infants could segment words with the infrequent phonotactic structure. CONCLUSION These results provide new evidence showing that infant word segmentation is influenced by prior nonadjacent phonotactic knowledge.
First-person experience and usability of co-located interaction in a projection-based virtual environment

Large screen projection-based display systems are very often not used by a single user alone, but shared by a small group of people. We have developed an interaction paradigm allowing multiple users to share a virtual environment in a conventional single-view stereoscopic projection-based display system, with each of the users handling the same interface and having a full first-person experience of the environment.Multi-viewpoint images allow the use of spatial interaction techniques for multiple users in a conventional projection-based display. We evaluate the effectiveness of multi-viewpoint images for ray selection and direct object manipulation in a qualitative usability study and show that interaction with multi-viewpoint images is comparable to fully head-tracked (single-user) interaction. Based on ray casting and direct object manipulation, using tracked PDA's as common interaction device, we develop a technique for co-located multi-user interaction in conventional projection-based virtual environments. Evaluation of the VRGEO Demonstrator, an application for the review of complex 3D geo-seismic data sets in the oil-and-gas industry, shows that this paradigm allows multiple users to each have a full first-person experience of a complex, interactive virtual environment.