Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
iPCA: An Interactive System for PCA‐based Visual Analytics

Principle Component Analysis (PCA) is a widely used mathematical technique in many fields for factor and trend analysis, dimension reduction, etc. However, it is often considered to be a “black box” operation whose results are difficult to interpret and sometimes counter‐intuitive to the user. In order to assist the user in better understanding and utilizing PCA, we have developed a system that visualizes the results of principal component analysis using multiple coordinated views and a rich set of user interactions. Our design philosophy is to support analysis of multivariate datasets through extensive interaction with the PCA output. To demonstrate the usefulness of our system, we performed a comparative user study with a known commercial system, SAS/INSIGHT's Interactive Data Exploration. Participants in our study solved a number of high‐level analysis tasks with each interface and rated the systems on ease of learning and usefulness. Based on the participants' accuracy, speed, and qualitative feedback, we observe that our system helps users to better understand relationships between the data and the calculated eigenspace, which allows the participants to more accurately analyze the data. User feedback suggests that the interactivity and transparency of our system are the key strengths of our approach.
Evidence of Active Methanogen Communities in Shallow Sediments of the Sonora Margin Cold Seeps

ABSTRACT In the Sonora Margin cold seep ecosystems (Gulf of California), sediments underlying microbial mats harbor high biogenic methane concentrations, fueling various microbial communities, such as abundant lineages of anaerobic methanotrophs (ANME). However, the biodiversity, distribution, and metabolism of the microorganisms producing this methane remain poorly understood. In this study, measurements of methanogenesis using radiolabeled dimethylamine, bicarbonate, and acetate showed that biogenic methane production in these sediments was mainly dominated by methylotrophic methanogenesis, while the proportion of autotrophic methanogenesis increased with depth. Congruently, methane production and methanogenic Archaea were detected in culture enrichments amended with trimethylamine and bicarbonate. Analyses of denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) fingerprinting and reverse-transcribed PCR-amplified 16S rRNA sequences retrieved from these enrichments revealed the presence of active methylotrophic Methanococcoides burtonii relatives and several new autotrophic Methanogenium lineages, confirming the cooccurrence of Methanosarcinales and Methanomicrobiales methanogens with abundant ANME populations in the sediments of the Sonora Margin cold seeps.
White Matter Ischemic Changes in Hyperacute Ischemic Stroke

Background and Purpose— The purpose of this study was to evaluate changes in fractional anisotropy (FA), as measured by diffusion tensor imaging, of white matter (WM) infarction and hypoperfusion in patients with acute ischemic stroke using a quantitative voxel-based analysis. Methods— In this prospective study, diffusion tensor imaging and dynamic susceptibility contrast perfusion sequences were acquired in 21 patients with acute ischemic stroke who presented within 6 hours of symptom onset. The coregistered FA, apparent diffusion coefficient, and dynamic susceptibility contrast time to maximum (Tmax) maps were used for voxel-based quantification using a region of interest approach in the ipsilateral affected side and in the homologous contralateral WM. The regions of WM infarction versus hypoperfusion were segmented using a threshold method. Data were analyzed by regression and ANOVA. Results— There was an overall significant mean difference (P<0.001) for the apparent diffusion coefficient, Tmax, and FA values between the normal, hypoperfused, and infarcted WM. The mean±SD of FA was significantly higher (P<0.001) in hypoperfused WM (0.397±0.019) and lower (P<0.001) in infarcted WM (0.313±0.037) when compared with normal WM (0.360±0.020). Regression tree analysis of hypoperfused WM showed the largest mean FA difference at Tmax above versus below 5.4 s with a mean difference of 0.033 (P=0.0096). Conclusions— Diffusion tensor imaging-FA was decreased in regions of WM infarction and increased in hypoperfused WM in patients with hyperacute acute ischemic stroke. The significantly increased FA values in the hypoperfused WM with Tmax≥5.4 s are suggestive of early ischemic microstructural changes.
Turing Type Mechanisms for Linear Diffusion Systems under Nondiagonal Robin Boundary Conditions

We study linear diagonal diffusion systems under linear nondiagonal Robin boundary conditions. “Nondiagonal” means that the flux of each component on the boundary depends linearly on the values of (possibly) all components consisting of the system. Our purpose is to show how the stability of the trivial solution depends on the diagonal diffusion matrix and the eigenvalues of the matrix (mass transfer matrix) which specifies the aforementioned linear dependence on the boundary. There are two simplifying situations where the stability and instability of the system are characterized in rather easy ways. One is the case in which the mass transfer matrix is symmetric, and the other is the case in which the diffusion rates are all equal. Investigations in these situations enable us to identify stable and unstable systems in terms of the stability/instability of the mass transfer matrix. Outside these two cases, to describe the critical eigenvalues by using the properties of the diffusion and mass transfer matri.
Advanced glycation end-products reduce podocyte adhesion by activating the renin-angiotensin system and increasing integrin-linked kinase

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of advanced glycation end-products (AGEs) on podocyte adhesion and the underlying mechanisms. Immortalized mouse podocytes were exposed to various conditions and podocyte adhesion was evaluated using a hexosaminidase assay. The expression levels of integrin-linked kinase (ILK) were measured by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and western blotting. Treatment with AGEs resulted in a significant, concentration-dependent reduction in podocyte adhesion (P<0.05) and an incremental rise in ILK expression up to a maximum of 100%. Pretreatment with losartan significantly prevented the upregulation of ILK and attenuated the loss of podocyte adhesion observed in podocytes exposed to AGEs (P<0.05). However, the adhesion of losartan-treated podocytes remained lower than that of the podocytes exposed to bovine serum albumin. The results indicate that AGEs reduce podocyte adhesion via the upregulation of ILK expression, which occurs partly through activation of the renin-angiotensin system in podocytes.
Competing spring constant versus double resonance effects on the properties of dispersive modes in isolated single-wall carbon nanotubes

We report a study of the disorder-induced D band in the resonance Raman spectra of isolated single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWNTs). We show that the D-band frequency ${\ensuremath{\omega}}_{D}$ depends directly on the nanotube diameter ${d}_{t}$ and also on the magnitude of the wave vector for the quantized states ${k}_{\mathrm{ii}},$ where the van Hove singularities in the density of states occur. These two effects are manifested in the D-band frequency through the ${\ensuremath{\omega}}_{D}={\ensuremath{\omega}}_{D}^{0}{+C/d}_{t}$ functional form, but with C negative (positive) for the spring-constant- (double-resonance-) dependent processes, thereby indicating that the spring constant softens and the double resonance stiffens the D-band frequencies. In the case of the spring constant effect, ${\ensuremath{\omega}}_{D}^{0}$ is the frequency observed in two-dimensional graphite. The outcome of the softening versus stiffening competition depends on the nanotube diameter range. When plotted over a wide ${d}_{t}$ range, the diameter dependence of ${\ensuremath{\omega}}_{D}$ $(Cl0)$ arises from the softening of the spring constants due to the nanotube curvature, but within a single interband transition ${E}_{\mathrm{ii}},$ whereby the ${d}_{t}$ variation is small, the D-band stiffening $(Cg0)$ due to the double-resonance condition becomes the dominant effect.
REGBASE : An Information Infrastructure for Regulation Management and Analysis

1. Introduction and Motivation to the Problem Government regulations are an important asset of the society; ideally they should be readily available and retrievable by the general public. Curious citizens are entitled to and thus should be provided with the means to better understand government regulations. However, due to the heavy reference structure of regulations, an average citizen is likely to soon get lost in the jungle of definitions of legal terms and links. Multiple sources of regulations, e.g. from the federal or state government, or from local offices, further complicates the matter. These different sources of regulations sometimes compliment and modify each other, while they might as well contradict with one another. Therefore, to ease understanding of regulations by the general public, tools are needed to locate similar or related code sections, and to compare and contrast them if possible.
Conceptual Design toward a Visualization System of University's Web Presence: Simple Analysis and System Development Using Twitter

We propose the concept and design of a system for visualization of university's Web presence. Using tweets obtained by university names as search keywords, we analyzed the frequency and specificity of terms to propose five categories for those terms. Moreover, we summarized tweets into classifications of tweets on universities. By way of both term analysis and philological analysis, we propose ten aspects to characterize universities, which are used to define university's Web presence for our proposed system.
A compact difference scheme for one-dimensional nonlinear delay reaction-diffusion equations with variable coefficient

First of all, a compact difference scheme (CDS) is established for one-dimensional (1D) nonlinear reactiondiffusion equations (RDEs) with a fixed delay. By the energy method, it is proved that the difference solution converges to exact solution with a convergence order of O(τ2 + h) in L∞− norm. Then, a Richardson extrapolation method (REM) is applied to make the final solution fourth-order accurate in both time and space. Besides, the extensions of the solver to other complex delay problems are studied in detail. Finally, numerical results demonstrate the high accuracy and efficiency of our algorithms.
Computing human to human Avian influenza ℜ₀ via transmission chains and parameter estimation.

The transmission of avian influenza between humans is extremely rare, and it mostly affects individuals who are in contact with infected family member. Although this scenario is uncommon, there have been multiple outbreaks that occur in small infection clusters in Asia with relatively lowtransmissibility, and thus are too weak to cause an epidemic. Still, subcritical transmission from stut-tering chain data is vital for determining whether avian influenza is close to the threshold of ℜ₀ > 1.In this article, we will explore two methods of estimating ℜ₀ using transmission chains and parameterestimation through data fitting. We found that ℜ₀ = 0.2205 when calculating the ℜ₀ using the maxi-mum likelihood method. When we computed the reproduction number for human to human transmis-sion through differential equations and fitted the model to data from the cumulative cases, cumulativedeaths, and cumulative secondary cases, we estimated ℜ₀ = 0.1768. To avoid violating the assumptionof the least square method, we fitted the model to incidence data to obtain ℜ₀ = 0.1520. We tested thestructural and practical identifiability of the model, and concluded that the model is identifiable undercertain assumptions. We further use two more methods to estimate ℜ₀ : by the ℜ₀ definition whichgives an overestimate of 0.28 and by Ferguson approach which yields ℜ₀ = 0.1586. We conclude that ℜ₀ for human to human transmission was about 0.2.
Working Paper Series Congressional Budget Office Washington, Dc Labor Adjustment, Productivity and Output Volatility: an Evaluation of Japan's Employment Adjustment Subsidy

Working papers in this series are preliminary and are circulated to stimulate discussion and critical comment. These papers are not subject to CBO's formal review and editing processes. The analysis and conclusions expressed in them are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as those of the Congressional Budget Office. References in publications should be cleared with the authors. Papers in this series can be obtained at www.cbo. gov (select Publications and then Working and Technical Papers). Abstract This paper provides a theoretical examination of the impact of Japan's Employment Adjustment Subsidy, a major employment insurance policy since 1975, on labor adjustment, productivity and output fluctuations in the iron and steel sector. A partial equilibrium industry model with heterogeneous establishments and aggregate uncertainty shows that the EAS reduces steady-state labor productivity by encouraging labor hoarding, while reducing job flows and increasing average firm-level employment. While the directly measured impact on productivity is proportional to the fraction of subsidized workers, the indirect effects of the subsidy on output and employment volatility can be substantially larger. First, the subsidy can lead to a sizable increase in output fluctuations over business cycles by symmetrically increasing the output response to shocks. This result is achieved through lower output via subsidy during unfavorable aggregate shocks and higher output via less spending on hiring during favorable aggregate shocks. Second, the subsidy meets its primary objective of reduced employment volatility. The reduction can be considerable when hiring and firing costs are set equal to the annual wage.
Sprint: a middleware for high-performance transaction processing

Sprint is a middleware infrastructure for high performance and high availability data management. It extends the functionality of a standalone in-memory database (IMDB) server to a cluster of commodity shared-nothing servers. Applications accessing an IMDB are typically limited by the memory capacity of the machine running the IMDB. Sprint partitions and replicates the database into segments and stores them in several data servers. Applications are then limited by the aggregated memory of the machines in the cluster. Transaction synchronization and commitment rely on total-order multicast. Differently from previous approaches, Sprint does not require accurate failure detection to ensure strong consistency, allowing fast reaction to failures. Experiments conducted on a cluster with 32 data servers using TPC-C and a micro-benchmark showed that Sprint can provide very good performance and scalability.
Secured power aware virtual node routing scheme for ad-hoc networks

A recent trend in ad-hoc network routing is the reactive on-demand philosophy where routes are established only when required. Most protocols in this category do not incorporate proper security features. The ad-hoc environment is accessible to both legitimate network users and malicious attackers. It has been observed that different protocols need different strategies for security. The proposed scheme is intended to be incorporated on the power aware virtual node routing protocol to protect its routing strategy. The study will help in making protocol more robust against attacks and standardizing parameters for security in routing protocols.
Upper-Extremity Dual-Task Function: An Innovative Method to Assess Cognitive Impairment in Older Adults

Background: Difficulties in orchestrating simultaneous tasks (i.e., dual-tasking) have been associated with cognitive impairments in older adults. Gait tests have been commonly used as the motor task component for dual-task assessments; however, many older adults have mobility impairments or there is a lack of space in busy clinical settings. We assessed an upper-extremity function (UEF) test as an alternative motor task to study the dual-task motor performance in older adults. Methods: Older adults (≥65 years) were recruited, and cognitive ability was measured using the Montreal cognitive assessment (MoCA). Participants performed repetitive elbow flexion with their maximum pace, once single-task, and once while counting backward by one (dual-task). Single- and dual-task gait tests were also performed with normal speed. Three-dimensional kinematics was measured both from upper-extremity and lower-extremity using wearable sensors to determine UEF and gait parameters. Parameters were compared between the cognitively impaired and healthy groups using analysis of variance tests, while controlling for age, gender, and body mass index (BMI). Correlations between UEF and gait parameters for dual-task and dual-task cost were assessed using linear regression models. Results: Sixty-seven older adults were recruited (age = 83 ± 10 years). Based on MoCA, 10 (15%) were cognitively impaired. While no significant differences were observed in the single-task condition, within the dual-task condition, the cognitively impaired group showed significantly less arm flexion speed (62%, d = 1.51, p = 0.02) and range of motion (27%, d = 0.93, p = 0.04), and higher speed variability (88%, d = 1.82, p < 0.0001) compared to the cognitively intact group, when adjusted with age, gender, and BMI. Significant correlations were observed between UEF speed parameters and gait stride velocity for dual-task condition (r = 0.55, p < 0.0001) and dual-task cost (r = 0.28, p = 0.03). Conclusion: We introduced a novel test for assessing dual-task performance in older adults that lasts 20 s and is based on upper-extremity function. Our results confirm significant associations between upper-extremity speed, range of motion, and speed variability with both the MoCA score and the gait performance within the dual-task condition.
Sun-Compass Orientation in Mediterranean Fish Larvae

Mortality is very high during the pelagic larval phase of fishes but the factors that determine recruitment success remain unclear and hard to predict. Because of their bipartite life history, larvae of coastal species have to head back to the shore at the end of their pelagic episode, to settle. These settlement-stage larvae are known to display strong sensory and motile abilities, but most work has been focused on tropical, insular environments and on the influence of coast-related cues on orientation. In this study we quantified the in situ orientation behavior of settlement-stage larvae in a temperate region, with a continuous coast and a dominant along-shore current, and inspected both coast-dependent and independent cues. We tested six species: one Pomacentridae, Chromis chromis, and five Sparidae, Boops boops, Diplodus annularis, Oblada melanura, Spicara smaris and Spondyliosoma cantharus. Over 85% of larvae were highly capable of keeping a bearing, which is comparable to the orientation abilities of tropical species. Sun-related cues influenced the precision of bearing-keeping at individual level. Three species, out of the four tested in sufficient numbers, oriented significantly relative to the sun position. These are the first in situ observations demonstrating the use of a sun compass for orientation by wild-caught settlement-stage larvae. This mechanism has potential for large-scale orientation of fish larvae globally.
The slow component of O2 uptake is not accompanied by changes in muscle EMG during repeated bouts of heavy exercise in humans

1 We hypothesized that either the recruitment of additional muscle motor units and/or the progressive recruitment of less efficient fast‐twitch muscle fibres was the predominant contributor to the additional oxygen 1uptake (V̇ O 2) observed during heavy exercise. Using surface electromyographic (EMG) techniques, we compared the V̇ O 2 response with the integrated EMG (iEMG) and mean power frequency (MPF) response of the vastus lateralis with the V̇ O 2 response during repeated bouts of moderate (below the lactate threshold, LT) intensity cycle ergometer exercise. 2 Seven male subjects (age 29 ± 7 years, mean ±s.d.) performed three transitions to a work rate (WR) corresponding to 90 % LT and two transitions to a work rate that would elicit a V̇ O 2 corresponding to 50 % of the difference between peak V̇ O 2 and the LT (i.e. Δ50 %, >LT1 and >LT2). 3 The V̇ O 2 slow component was significantly reduced by prior heavy intensity exercise (>LT1, 410 ± 196 ml min−1; >LT2, 230 ± 191 ml min−1). The time constant (τ), amplitude (A) and gain (ΔV̇ O 2 /ΔWR) of the primary V̇ O 2 response (phase II) were not affected by prior heavy exercise when a three‐component, exponential model was used to describe the V̇ O 2 response. 4 Integrated EMG and MPF remained relatively constant and at the same level throughout both >LT1 and >LT2 exercise and therefore were not associated with the V̇ O 2 slow component. 5 These data are consistent with the view that the increased O2 cost (i.e. V̇ O 2 slow component) associated with performing heavy exercise is coupled with a progressive increase in ATP requirements of the already recruited motor units rather than to changes in the recruitment pattern of slow versus fast‐twitch motor units. Further, the lack of speeding of the kinetics of the primary V̇ O 2 component with prior heavy exercise, thought to represent the initial muscle V̇ O 2 response, are inconsistent with O2 delivery being the limiting factor in V̇ O 2 kinetics during heavy exercise.
Technological hybridization for efficient runtime reconfigurable FPGAs

The goal of this paper is to propose an FPGA using emerging non volatile technologies for its configuration memory. Studies on magnetic memories have already been carried out (Bruchon et al., 2006) but solid electrolyte and phase change memories are also good candidates for such type of application. Features of these technologies can provide some interesting characteristics to the FPGA such as short writing time with non volatile technology. A small structure (RSRAM) for remanent SRAM is used to convert information from these technologies into electrical information. This structure naturally provides some more features like partial and shadowed reconfiguration
Solving Continuous-domain Problems Exactly with Multiresolution B-splines

We propose a discretization method for continuous-domain linear inverse problems with multiple-order total-variation (TV) regularization. It is based on a recent result that proves that such inverse problems have sparse polynomial-spline solutions. Our method consists in restricting the search space to splines with knots on a uniform grid, which results in a standard convex finite-dimensional problem. As basis functions for this search space, we use the B-splines matched to the regularization order, which are optimally localized. This leads to a well-conditioned, computationally feasible optimization task. Our proposed iterative multiresolution algorithm then refines the grid size until a desired level of accuracy is met and converges to sparse solutions of our inverse problem. Finally, we present experimental results that validate our approach.