Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Loop II of DNA polymerase beta is important for polymerization activity and fidelity

The accurate replication and transmission of genetic information is critical in the life of an organism. During its entire lifespan, the genetic information is constantly under attack from endogenous and exogenous sources of damage. To ensure that the content of its genetic information is faithfully preserved for synthesis and transmission, eukaryotic cells have developed a complex system of genomic quality control. Key players in this process are DNA polymerases, the enzymes responsible for synthesizing the DNA, because errors introduced into the genome by polymerase can result in mutations. We use DNA polymerase beta (pol β) as a model system to investigate mechanisms of preserving fidelity during nucleotide incorporation. In the study described here, we characterized the role that loop II of pol β plays in maintaining the activity and fidelity of pol β. We report here that the absence or shortening of loop II compromises the catalytic activity of pol β. Our data also show that loop variants of a specific length have a lower fidelity when compared to the wild-type polymerase. Taken together, our results indicate that loop II is important for the catalytic activity and fidelity of pol β.
Target-Specific Vulnerability of Excitatory Synapses Leads to Deficits in Associative Memory in a Model of Intellectual Disorder

Intellectual disorders (IDs) have been regularly associated with morphological and functional deficits at glutamatergic synapses in both humans and rodents. How these synaptic deficits may lead to the variety of learning and memory deficits defining ID is still unknown. Here we studied the functional and behavioral consequences of the ID gene il1rapl1 deficiency in mice and reported that il1rapl1 constitutive deletion alters cued fear memory formation. Combined in vivo and in vitro approaches allowed us to unveil a causal relationship between a marked inhibitory/excitatory (I/E) imbalance in dedicated amygdala neuronal subcircuits and behavioral deficits. Cell-targeted recordings further demonstrated a morpho-functional impact of the mutation at thalamic projections contacting principal cells, whereas the same afferents on interneurons are unaffected by the lack of Il1rapl1. We thus propose that excitatory synapses have a heterogeneous vulnerability to il1rapl1 gene constitutive mutation and that alteration of a subset of excitatory synapses in neuronal circuits is sufficient to generate permanent cognitive deficits.
Designing kinetic objects for digital information display

We have access to more and more information from computer networks. However, the means of monitoring this changing information is limited by its access through the narrow window of a computer screen. The interactions between people and digital information are now almost entirely confined to the conventional GUI (Graphical User Interface) comprised of a keyboard, monitor, and mouse, largely ignoring the richness of the physical world. As a critical step in moving beyond current interface limitations, this research is attempts to use many parts of our environment to convey information in a variety of ways. Rather than adding more video terminals into an environment, this thesis examines how to move information off the screen into our physical environment, where it is manifested in a more physical and kinetic manner. The thesis explores how these kinetic objects can be used to display information on a more visceral cognitive level than afforded by the interfaces of generalized information appliances like the computer. The approach in this thesis is through several exploratory design studies. A geography of the design space of kinetic objects as digital information displays was developed through this series of design studies so that it can be used in the development of future kinetic displays. Thesis Advisor: Hiroshi Ishii Title: Professor of Media Arts and Science Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The cataclysmic variable QZLib: a period bouncer

While highly evolved cataclysmic variables (CVs) with brown dwarf donors, often called “period bouncers”, are predicted to make up ' 40 − 70% of the Galactic CV population, only a handful of such systems are currently known. The identification and characterization of additional period bouncers is therefore important to probe this poorly understood phase of CV evolution. We investigate the evolution of the CV QZ Lib following its 2004 super–outburst using multi–epoch spectroscopy. From time– resolved spectroscopic observations we measure the orbital period of the system, Porb = 0.06436(20) d, which, combined with the superhump period PSH = 0.064602(24) d, yields the system mass ratio, q = 0.040(9). From the analysis of the spectral energy distribution we determine the structure of the accretion disc and the white dwarf effective temperature, Teff = 10 500 ± 1500 K. We also derive an upper limit on the effective temperature of the secondary, Teff . 1700 K, corresponding to a brown dwarf of T spectral type. The low temperature of the white dwarf, the small mass ratio and the fact that the donor is not dominating the near–infrared emission are all clues of a post bounce system. Although it is possible that QZ Lib could have formed as a white dwarf plus a brown dwarf binary, binary population synthesis studies clearly suggest this scenario to be less likely than a period bouncer detection and we conclude that QZ Lib is a CV that has already evolved through the period minimum.
Quantity versus Shares in Estimating Demand Systems

This paper considers the estimation and testing of demand systems when the number of sample goods is smaller than the number of commodity choices available to consumers. In this case, the demand system is incomplete. The large majority of papers that appeared in the literature specifies and estimates a demand system in share format even when the system may be incomplete. The criterion for deciding whether a share format is admissible without loss of information is a test of the adding-up condition. This test, however, requires the estimation of a demand system in quantity format.
Cloud response to summer temperatures in Fennoscandia over the last thousand years

Cloud cover is one of the most important factors controlling the radiation balance of the Earth. The response of cloud cover to increasing global temperatures represents the largest uncertainty in model estimates of future climate because the cloud response to temperature is not well‐constrained. Here we present the first regional reconstruction of summer sunshine over the past millennium, based on the stable carbon isotope ratios of pine treerings from Fennoscandia. Comparison with the regional temperature evolution reveals the Little Ice Age (LIA) to have been sunny, with cloudy conditions in the warmest periods of the Medieval at this site. A negative shortwave cloud feedback is indicated at high latitude. A millennial climate simulation suggests that regionally low temperatures during the LIA were mostly maintained by a weaker greenhouse effect due to lower humidity. Simulations of future climate that display a negative shortwave cloud feedback for high‐latitudes are consistent with our proxy interpretation.
Power Customer Resource Value Evaluation Model Based on TOPSIS and Grey Correlation Degree Method Under Background of Power Sales Side Market Liberalization

In the future the electricity selling companies need to evaluate customer resource value scientifically and rationally for improving profitability. This paper analyzes the connotation of power customer resource value, divided into the current value and potential value. It evaluates the current value according to power customers’ financial situation, the level of purchase, electrical characteristics and evaluates the potential value through the power customer credit status, power customer development potential, building a power customer resource value evaluation index system containing 46 four level segment indexes. In order to improve the rationality of giving weight to various factors, it constructs TOPSIS comprehensive evaluation method based on gray correlation degree optimization, evaluating the customer resource value to provide support for the electricity selling companies making decision.
Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe Evaluating Component Assembly Specialization for 3 D FFT

The Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) is a widely-used building block for many high-performance scientific applications. Efficient computing of FFT is paramount for the performance of these applications. This has led to many efforts to implement machine and computation specific optimizations. However, no existing FFT library is capable of easily integrating and automating the selection of new and/or unique optimizations. To ease FFT specialization, this paper evaluates the use of component-based software engineering, a programming paradigm which consists in building applications by assembling small software units. Component models are known to have many software engineering benefits but usually have insufficient performance for high-performance scientific applications. This paper uses the LC model, a general purpose high-performance component model, and studies its performance and adaptation capabilities on 3D FFTs. Experiments show that LC, and components in general, enables easy handling of 3D FFT specializations while obtaining performance comparable to that of well-known libraries. However, a higher-level component model is needed to automatically generate an adequate LC assembly.
Contribution Suicide Among US Veterans : A Prospective Study of 500 , 000 Middle-aged and Elderly Men

Expert opinion is divided about whether USmilitary veterans, the vast majority of whom are middle-aged or older, are at increased risk of suicide. To assess the risk of suicide associated with veteran status, the authors conducted a prospective cohort study of 499,356 male participants in the Cancer Prevention Study II. Participants reported their veteran status and other characteristics in 1982 and were followed for mortality through 2004. The relative risk of mortality from suicide according to veteran status at baseline was estimated by using Cox proportional hazards models. During follow-up, 1,248 veterans and 614 nonveterans died by suicide. In age-adjusted analyses, the risk of suicide did not differ by veteran status. Additional adjustment for several sociodemographic, behavioral, and clinical factors had little effect on hazard ratios. The authors concluded that the risk of death from suicide among middle-aged and older US males is independent of veteran status and suggest that policies to prevent veteran suicide should focus on factors that may heighten suicide risk rather than on veteran status per se.
Symmetry, gravity and noncommutativity

We review some aspects of the implementation of spacetime symmetries in noncommutative field theories, emphasizing their origin in string theory and how they may be used to construct theories of gravitation. The geometry of canonical noncommutative gauge transformations is analysed in detail and it is shown how noncommutative Yang–Mills theory can be related to a gravity theory. The construction of twisted spacetime symmetries and their role in constructing a noncommutative extension of general relativity is described. We also analyse certain generic features of noncommutative gauge theories on D-branes in curved spaces, treating several explicit examples of superstring backgrounds.
Multi-iterative tracking method using meanshift based on kalman filter

This paper presents a multi-iterative tracking method using meanshift algorithm based on Kalman filter in order to quicken the relatively slow convergence in the original tracking system, on the condition that Kalman filter based meanshift algorithm has been widely used as a methodology of object tracking. The specific number of iteration in meanshift and Kalman filter, which m and n are used respectively as variables, is decided by automatic computer searching from training sequences under constrained conditions, which will lead to an optimal tracking system. The goal of this algorithm which adapt to a variety of tracking environments is to make promotion to the velocity of convergence, accuracy and robustness. The experimental results prove to be efficient, which means the target been tracking can be located precisely.
rTSR: When Do Relative Performance Metrics Capture Relative Performance?

We develop a measurement-error framework for assessing the quality of relative-performance metrics designed to filter out the systematic component of performance, and analyze relative total shareholder return (rTSR)-the predominant metric market participants use to isolate managers' idiosyncratic performance-chosen by boards to evaluate managers. Among firms that explicitly use rTSR in relative performance contracts, 60%-those that choose specific peers-select rTSR metrics that do a remarkable job of filtering out the systematic component of returns in adherence to the informativeness principle. Firms that choose index-based benchmarks retain substantial systematic noise in their rTSR metrics. The choice of noisy benchmarks is associated with compensation consultants' preferences, which are uncorrelated with observable firm attributes. Firms with weak governance are more likely to choose indexes, not because of opportunism, but because they do not adequately scrutinize outside experts' advice. These findings provide novel evidence on why some executives are evaluated on systematic noise and on compensation consultants' impact on firms.
The Efficiency of State Subsidies to Public Universities

I exploit the large variation in resident tuitions and subsidies to public universities across states to assess the efficiency of subsidizing higher education for state residents. The focus is on substitution between public in-state 4-year universities (low tuition for residents) and private or public out-of-state 4-year universities (high tuition). Utilizing NPSAS 19951996 data on individual students, and data on universities, I estimate demand for public instate universities, accounting for differences in university quality and individual characteristics. In the process, this paper presents a model of how states decide on subsidies and resident tuitions and offers some instruments to rebut the possibility that state policies are caused by the differences in the unobservable. Behavior of individuals has been modeled as a discrete choice model with probability for different choice sets being estimated together with parameters of utility. My results show that a $1000 increase in resident tuition induces a 17% drop in the number of students in public in-state institutions in an average state (here 100% corresponds to all the state students in any public or private 4-year school). A major consequence of subsidies to public universities is that people go to schools they would be unlikely to attend otherwise; substantial portion of the total subsidy dissipates as a deadweight loss.
Symbolic Debugging of Globally Optimized Code: Data Value Problems and Their Solutions

Symbolic debuggers are program development tools that allow a user to interact with an executing process at the source level. In response to a user query, the debugger must be able to retrieve and display the value of a source variable in a manner consistent with what the user expects with respect to the source statement where execution has halted. However, when a program has been compiled with optimizations, values of variables may either be inaccessible in the run-time state or inconsistent with what the user expects. Such problems that pertain to the retrieval of source values are called data value problems. In this paper we address the data value problems caused by global scalar optimizations. We describe in detail how global optimizations cause data value problems and the information a symbolic debugger can provide a user when data value problems occur. We provide a data flow algorithm that detects the impact of two global transformations: code hoisting and dead code elimination. These two transformations capture the effects of global optimizations that cause data value problems. Common optimizations such as dead store elimination, common subexpression elimination, loop invariant code motion, partial redundancy elimination, or non-speculative global instruction scheduling can be expressed in terms of these transformations. Symbolic debugging, endangered variables, suspect variables, noncurrent variables, compiler optimization, data flow analysis
Ju n 20 16 Self-similar aftershock rates

Jörn Davidsen 2, ∗ and Marco Baiesi 4, † Complexity Science Group, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Calgary, Canada GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Section 3.2: Geomechanics and Rheology, Telegrafenberg, D14473 Potsdam, Germany Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Padova, Via Marzolo 8, I-35131 Padova, Italy INFN Sezione di Padova, Via Marzolo 8, I-35131 Padova, Italy (Dated: October 14, 2018)
Analysis of On-off policies in Sensor Networks Using Interacting Markovian Agents

Power management in battery operated sensor networks, is a hot topic addressed by many ongoing researches. One of the most commonly employed technique consists in turning on and of the power of the radio unit to reduce the power consumption. In this paper we exploit the modelling power of Interacting Markovian agent to evaluate the performance of four different on-off strategies. A Markovian agent (MA) is an entity whose behaviour is described by a continuous time Markov chain (CTMC) and that is able to interact with other MA's by sending and receiving messages. A perceived message may induce a state transition in an MA according to a perception function than can depend on the geographical location of the MA's, on the message routing strategy and on the transmission property of the medium. We represent each sensor by an MA and we show how MA's can interact to produce the collective behaviour of the sensor network.
THE USE OF DIGITAL IMAGE CROSS-CORRELATION ( DICC ) TO STUDY THE MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF A POLYMER BONDED EXPLOSIVE ( PBX )

Many methods exist to quantify the deformation of bodies under stress. Strain gauges and extensometers are commonly used to provide a measure of average displacement but they are unable to provide data on microstructural deformation. Several high-resolution non-contact optical techniques exist that are more sutable and these have previously been applied to PBXs . The PBX of interest is formed from HMX and ~1% nitrocellulose (NC) which is swollen with an organic plasticiser to form a gelatinous binder. The inherent mobility of the plasticiser has precluded the adhering of a phase-grating to the PBX surface, this being required for the use of optical Moiré interferometry, as used with other PBX compositions. This paper reports the successful application of Digital Image Cross Correlation, a non-contacting imaging technique, to the study of the PBX microstructure and reviews the results from Brazilian mechanical testing.
Results of surgical resection in lung cancer with synchronous brain metastasis.

Background This study aims to investigate the factors affecting the survival of operated non-small cell lung cancer patients with synchronous brain metastasis. Methods Clinical outcomes of a total of 16 patients (14 males, 2 females; mean age 60 years; range, 41 to 71 years) who were diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer and concomitant solitary/oligo brain metastasis and who underwent an intervention primarily for cranium, followed by lung resection in our clinic between January 2012 and January 2016 were retrospectively analyzed. Cranial surgery or gamma-knife radiosurgery was performed in the treatment of brain metastases. Results Twelve patients with solitary brain metastasis underwent cranial surgery, while four patients with solitary/oligo metastases underwent gamma-knife radiosurgery prior to pulmonary resection. Definitive pathological examination revealed adenocarcinoma in 13 patients and squamous-cell lung carcinoma in three patients. Mean survival time was 15.3±8.6 months. One-year and two-year survival rates were 56.2% and 32%, respectively. The number of brain metastases, treatment type, tumor cell type, resection type, and status of lymph nodes were not statistically significantly associated with survival (p>0.05). Conclusion Cranial surgery or gamma-knife radiosurgery followed by aggressive lung resection can be effectively applied in selected non-small cell lung cancer patients with synchronous brain metastasis. However, the suitability of the primary tumor and brain metastases for complete resection is of utmost importance in patient selection.
An IFC-to-CityGML Triple Graph Grammar

A triple graph grammar has been adopted as a formal framework for semantic and geometric conversion of IFC models into CityGML Level of Detail (LoD) 3/4 building models. The advantages of a triple graph grammar approach are threefold: firstly, it allows for the conversion rules to be graphically defined; secondly, the generation of the conversion routines corresponding to these rules can be automated; and, thirdly, a complete mapping can be achieved in an incremental way by adding rule by rule.The objective of this work is the development of a methodology and algorithms to automate the conversion of Building Information Models into CityGML building models, capturing both geometric and semantic information as available in the BIM models, in order to create semantically enriched 3D city models that include both exterior and interior structures such as corridors, rooms, internal doors, and stairs.
Investigating the Effectiveness of Problem Templates on Learning in Intelligent Tutoring Systems BSc Honours Report

Deliberate practice within a coached environment is required for skill acquisition and mastery. Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITSs) provide such an environment. A goal in ITS development is to find means to maximise effective learning. This provides the motivation for the project presented. This paper proposes the notion of problem templates. These mental constructs extend the idea of memory templates, and allow experts in a domain to store vast amounts of domain-specific information that are easily accessible when faced with a problem. This research aims to examine the validity of such a construct and investigate its role in regards to effective learning within ITSs. After extensive background research, an evaluation study was performed at the University of Canterbury. Physical representations of problem templates were formed in Structured Query Language (SQL). These were used to model students, select problems, and provide customised feedback in the experimental version of SQLTutor, an Intelligent Tutoring System. The control group used the original version of SQL-Tutor where pedagogical (problem selection and feedback) and modelling decisions were based on constraints. Preliminary results show that such a construct could exist; furthermore, it could be used to help students attain high levels of expertise within a domain. Students using template based ITS showed high levels of learning within short periods of time. The author suggests further evaluation studies to investigate the extent and detail of its effect on learning.