Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Data Comics: Sequential Art for Data-Driven Storytelling

We present Data Comics, a novel method for storytelling us-ing sequential art—also known as comics —constructed from data-driven visualizations. This allows for building narratives using comic layouts of panels containing both snapshots and live visualizations. Each panel in a comic layout can be dec-orated with visual comic symbols—such as captions, speech and thought bubbles, directional arrows, and motion lines— to augment the narrative. To validate our method, we implemented a web-based Data Comics application that consists of (1) a Clipper for capturing data-driven content from the web, (2) a Decorator for creating panels and adding comic symbols, (3) a Composer for arranging clips into comic strips, and (4) a Presenter for viewing a ﬁnished comic. We compared the method to PowerPoint slideshows in a qualitative study, and found that participants perceived Data Comics as more engaging, efﬁcient, and enjoyable.
Exact solutions of four-dimensional black holes in string theory.

We construct a class of exact conformal field theories as SL(2,[ital R])[times]SU(2)[times]U(1)/U(1)[sup 2] gauged WZW models, which describe a charged black hole in four dimensions. The black hole is axisymmetric and carries both electric and axionic charge. Other cosmological backgrounds related to this model are described as well.
Expression of the retinoblastoma protein RbAp48 in exocrine glands leads to Sjögren's syndrome–like autoimmune exocrinopathy

Although several autoimmune diseases are known to develop in postmenopausal women, the mechanisms by which estrogen deficiency influences autoimmunity remain unclear. Recently, we found that retinoblastoma-associated protein 48 (RbAp48) induces tissue-specific apoptosis in the exocrine glands depending on the level of estrogen deficiency. In this study, we report that transgenic (Tg) expression of RbAp48 resulted in the development of autoimmune exocrinopathy resembling Sjögren's syndrome. CD4+ T cell–mediated autoimmune lesions were aggravated with age, in association with autoantibody productions. Surprisingly, we obtained evidence that salivary and lacrimal epithelial cells can produce interferon-γ (IFN-γ) in addition to interleukin-18, which activates IFN regulatory factor-1 and class II transactivator. Indeed, autoimmune lesions in Rag2−/− mice were induced by the adoptive transfer of lymph node T cells from RbAp48-Tg mice. These results indicate a novel immunocompetent role of epithelial cells that can produce IFN-γ, resulting in loss of local tolerance before developing gender-based autoimmunity.
The Effect of Imagination on Stimulation: The Functional Specificity of Efference Copies in Speech Processing

The computational role of efference copies is widely appreciated in action and perception research, but their properties for speech processing remain murky. We tested the functional specificity of auditory efference copies using magnetoencephalography recordings in an unconventional pairing: We used a classical cognitive manipulation (mental imagery—to elicit internal simulation and estimation) with a well-established experimental paradigm (one shot repetition—to assess neuronal specificity). Participants performed tasks that differentially implicated internal prediction of sensory consequences (overt speaking, imagined speaking, and imagined hearing) and their modulatory effects on the perception of an auditory (syllable) probe were assessed. Remarkably, the neural responses to overt syllable probes vary systematically, both in terms of directionality (suppression, enhancement) and temporal dynamics (early, late), as a function of the preceding covert mental imagery adaptor. We show, in the context of a dual-pathway model, that internal simulation shapes perception in a context-dependent manner.
Deadlock-free buffer configuration for stream computing

Stream computing is a popular paradigm for parallel and distributed computing, where compute nodes are connected by first-in first-out data channels. Each channel can be considered as a concatenation of several data buffers, including an output buffer for the sender and an input buffer for the receiver. The configuration of buffer sizes impacts the performance as well as the correctness of the application. In this article, we focus on application deadlocks that are caused by incorrect configuration of buffer sizes. We describe three types of deadlock in streaming applications, categorized by how they can be created. To avoid them, we first prove necessary and sufficient conditions for deadlock-free computations; then based on the theorems, we propose both compile-time and runtime solutions for deadlock avoidance.
Adaptive M-Qam Modulation Over Nakagami Fading Channels

We study the performance of constant-power variable-rate M-QAM schemes over Nakagami fading channels. We obtain closed-form expressions for the outage probability, spectral eeciency and average bit-error-rate (BER) assuming perfect channel estimation and negligible time delay. For a target BER of 10 ? 3 , the spectral eeciency of adaptive continuous rate M-QAM comes within 5 dB of the Shannon capacity limit, and adaptive discrete rate M-QAM comes within 6.2 dB of this limit. Nonadaptive BPSK suuers a large spectral eeciency penalty relative to these adaptive techniques. We also analyze the impact of time delay on the BER of adaptive M-QAM. Results show that systems with low BER requirements will be more sensitive to time delay, but will still operate satisfactorily if the delay is below a critical value.
Anticoagulation Intensity of Rivaroxaban for Stroke Patients at a Special Low Dosage in Japan

Objectives In Japan, low-dose rivaroxaban [15 mg QD/10 mg QD for creatinine clearance of 30–49 mL/min] was approved for clinical use in NVAF patients partly because of its unique pharmacokinetics in Japanese subjects. The aim of the study was to determine the anticoagulation intensity of rivaroxaban and its determinant factors in Japanese stroke patients. Methods Consecutive stroke patients with NVAF admitted between July 2012 and December 2013 were studied. Prothrombin time (PT), activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT), and estimated plasma concentration of rivaroxaban (Criv) based on an anti-factor Xa chromogenic assay were measured just before and 4 and 9 h after administration at the steady state level of rivaroxaban. Determinant factors for Criv were explored using a linear mixed-model approach. Results Of 110 patients (37 women, 75±9 years old), 59 took 15 mg QD of rivaroxaban and 51 took 10 mg QD. Criv at 4 h was 186 ng/mL for patients taking 15 mg QD and 147 ng/mL for those taking 10 mg QD. Both PT and aPTT were positively correlated with Criv. Criv was 72% lower at 4 h in 15 patients receiving crushed tablets than in the other patients, and tablet crushing was significantly associated with lower Criv (adjusted estimate −0.43, 95% CI −0.60 to −0.26) after multivariate-adjustment. Conclusion The anticoagulation effects of rivaroxaban in the acute stroke setting for Japanese NVAF patients were relatively low as compared with those in the ROCKET-AF and J-ROCKET AF trials. Tablet crushing, common in dysphagic patients, decreased Criv.
Lightweight semiformal time complexity analysis for purely functional data structures

Okasaki and others have demonstrated how purely functional data structures that are efficient even in the presence of persistence can be constructed. To achieve good time bounds essential use is often made of laziness. The associated complexity analysis is frequently subtle, requiring careful attention to detail, and hence formalising it is valuable. This paper describes a simple library which can be used to make the analysis of a class of purely functional data structures and algorithms almost fully formal. The basic idea is to use the type system to annotate every function with the time required to compute its result. An annotated monad is used to combine time complexity annotations. The library has been used to analyse some existing data structures, for instance the deque operations of Hinze and Paterson's finger trees.
Implicit Permutation Enumeration Networks and Binary Decision Diagrams Reordering

Ordered Binary Decision Diagrams are a canonical representation of Boolean functions that is at the core of most formal verification systems and silicon compilers. Canonicity enables efficiency of manipulation but comes at the cost of fixing a variable evaluation order and predictably, BDD sizes are very sensitive to the selected order. The state-of-the-art reordering algorithms are based on transpositions of consecutive variables (swaps). Exact algorithms enumerate all possible n! permutations by performing a series of at least n! − 1 swaps, while heuristics typically either search for the optimum location of each variable independently (sifting) or utilize exact algorithms as a subroutine (k-window.) In this work we reduce the problem of variable ordering to that of obtaining a permutation enumeration transposition network. Our proposed network avoids traversing all n! permutations by exploiting structural properties of BDDs and requires the execution of fewer than 4n swaps sequentially instead of n! − 1. For the practically interesting cases of n = 4; 5 our algorithm requires only 11 (resp 59) sequential swaps instead of 23 (resp 119). We also propose an algorithm for moving between arbitrary variable orderings that executes at most n swaps sequentially, an improvement upon equation. Results suggest speedups of 162%; 308%;> 10X over the k - window heuristic for k = 4; 6; 8 and near-linear speedups when moving between orderings.
Flash correct-and-refresh: Retention-aware error management for increased flash memory lifetime

With the continued scaling of NAND flash and multi-level cell technology, flash-based storage has gained widespread use in systems ranging from mobile platforms to enterprise servers. However, the robustness of NAND flash cells is an increasing concern, especially at nanometer-regime process geometries. NAND flash memory bit error rate increases exponentially with the number of program/erase cycles. Stronger error correcting codes (ECC) can be used to tolerate higher error rates, but these have diminishing returns with increasing P/E cycles and can have prohibitively high power, area, and latency overheads. The goal of this paper is to develop new techniques that can tolerate high bit error rates without requiring prohibitively strong ECC. Our techniques, called Flash Correct-and-Refresh (FCR) exploit the observation that the dominant error source in NAND flash memory is retention errors, caused by flash cells losing charge over time. The key idea is to periodically read, correct, and reprogram (in-place) or remap the stored data before it accumulates more retention errors than can be corrected by simple ECC. Detailed simulations of a solid-state drive (SSD) storage system driven by measured experimental data from error characterization on real flash memory chips show that our techniques provide 46× average lifetime improvement on a variety of workloads at no additional hardware cost. We also find that our techniques achieve lifetime improvements that cannot feasibly be achieved with stronger ECC.
Multi-domain neural network language model

The paper describes a neural network language model that jointly models language in many related domains. In addition to the traditional layers of a neural network language model, the proposed model also trains a vector of factors for each domain in the training data that are used to modulate the connec-tions from the projection layer to the hidden layer. The model is found to outperform simple neural network language models as well as domain-adapted maximum entropy language models in perplexity evaluation and speech recognition experiments.
Expression of skeletal muscle sarcoplasmic reticulum calcium-ATPase is reduced in rats with postinfarction heart failure

OBJECTIVE To determine whether heart failure in rats is associated with altered expression of the skeletal muscle sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+-ATPase (SERCA). METHODS SERCA protein and mRNA were examined in the soleus muscles of eight female rats with heart failure induced by coronary artery ligation, six weeks after the procedure (mean (SEM) left ventricular end diastolic pressure 20.4 (2.2) mm Hg) and in six sham operated controls by western and northern analyses, respectively. RESULTS SERCA-2a isoform protein was reduced by 16% (112 000 (4000)v 134 000 (2000) arbitrary units, p < 0.001), and SERCA-2a messenger RNA was reduced by 59% (0.24 (0.06) v 0.58 (0.02) arbitrary units, p < 0.001). Although rats with heart failure had smaller muscles (0.54 mg/g v 0.66 mg/g body weight), no difference in locomotor activity was observed. CONCLUSIONS These results may explain the previously documented abnormalities in calcium handling in skeletal muscle from animals with the same model of congestive heart failure, and could be responsible for the accelerated muscle fatigue characteristic of patients with heart failure.
Policy Externalities: How Us Antidumping Affects Japanese Exports to the EU

This paper investigates the international externalities associated with US use of antidumping (AD) measures by examining the relationship between US AD duties (ADDs) and Japanese exports to the US and EU over the 1992-2001 period. We first examine the trade destruction and trade diversion associated with Japanese exports to the US market resulting from US AD duties. We then investigate whether US ADDs impose externalities on a non- targeted third country by examining the effect of these US policies on Japanese exports to the EU. We document sizable trade deflection and trade depression in the EU market resulting from US ADDs. Model estimates indicate that, on average, roughly one quarter to one third of the value of Japanese exports to the US thought to be destroyed by a US ADD is actually deflected to the EU in the form of a contemporaneous increase in exports. Finally, we present evidence that US ADDs impose terms-of-trade externalities on non-targeted markets. We find that US duties on Japanese exports are associated with substantially lower Japanese export prices in the EU market.
Relying on randomness PlanetLab experiments with distributed file-sharing protocols

In this paper we present and evaluate a fully distributed file-sharing system architecture. Initially, a seeder node splits a large file into moderate-sized chunks and offers it for download. The seeder and all peers interested in downloading the file join a Chord-based overlay and contact each other randomly for chunk transfers. We report and discuss PlanetLab tests on this system as well as on our modified Chord implementation which it is based on. We give an algorithm for finding uniformly random peers in the overlay and another for estimating the distribution of chunk copies. Both algorithms turn out to have a significant effect on the performance, the first one in particular.
Advancing Paternal Age Is Associated with Deficits in Social and Exploratory Behaviors in the Offspring: A Mouse Model

Background Accumulating evidence from epidemiological research has demonstrated an association between advanced paternal age and risk for several psychiatric disorders including autism, schizophrenia and early-onset bipolar disorder. In order to establish causality, this study used an animal model to investigate the effects of advanced paternal age on behavioural deficits in the offspring. Methods C57BL/6J offspring (n = 12 per group) were bred from fathers of two different ages, 2 months (young) and 10 months (old), and mothers aged 2 months (n = 6 breeding pairs per group). Social and exploratory behaviors were examined in the offspring. Principal Findings The offspring of older fathers were found to engage in significantly less social (p = 0.02) and exploratory (p = 0.02) behaviors than the offspring of younger fathers. There were no significant differences in measures of motor activity. Conclusions Given the well-controlled nature of this study, this provides the strongest evidence for deleterious effects of advancing paternal age on social and exploratory behavior. De-novo chromosomal changes and/or inherited epigenetic changes are the most plausible explanatory factors.
Validation and understanding of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer aerosol products (C5) using ground-based measurements from the handheld Sun photometer network in China

[1] The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) currently provides the most extensive aerosol retrievals on a global basis, but validation is limited to a small number of ground stations. This study presents a comprehensive evaluation of Collection 4 and 5 MODIS aerosol products using ground measurements from the Chinese Sun Hazemeter Network (CSHNET). The Collection 5 product uses a new method to determine the surface reflectance and a new aerosol model to retrieve aerosol optical thickness (AOT). Substantial improvement was found in the Collection 5 AOT product relative to the Collection 4 AOT product. Overall, the correlation coefficient of regression with ground measurements increased from 0.66 to 0.84 for all data points. The offset is reduced from 0.179 to 0.047, and the slope is improved from 0.74 to 0.98. At individual sites, the improvement varies with surface and atmospheric conditions. In general, both versions of the MODIS aerosol product tend to overestimate AOT over deserts/semideserts, tend to underestimate AOT over forests, and are more accurate over agricultural and suburban sites. The poorest retrievals occur over urban areas. The land cover dependence of aerosol retrievals was traced to the estimation of surface reflectance. The selection of the aerosol type is another major factor contributing to the discrepancies. Errors caused by both factors are subject to considerable variations with season and location due to land cover changes and varying fractions of coarse and fine mode aerosols, as well as the changing amount of scattering and absorbing aerosols.
Inhibitory Spillover

Visceral states are known to reduce the ability to exert self-control. In the current research, we investigated how self-control is affected by a visceral factor associated with inhibition rather than with approach: bladder control. We designed four studies to test the hypothesis that inhibitory signals are not domain-specific but can spill over to unrelated domains, resulting in increased impulse control in the behavioral domain. In Study 1, participants’ urination urgency correlated with performance on color-naming but not word-meaning trials of a Stroop task. In Studies 2 and 3, we found that higher levels of bladder pressure resulted in an increased ability to resist impulsive choices in monetary decision making. We found that inhibitory spillover effects are moderated by sensitivity of the Behavioral Inhibition System (Study 3) and can be induced by exogenous cues (Study 4). Implications for inhibition and impulse-control theories are discussed.
Genomic Organization of gypsy Chromatin Insulators in Drosophila melanogaster

Chromatin insulators have been implicated in the regulation of higher-order chromatin structure and may function to compartmentalize the eukaryotic genome into independent domains of gene expression. To test this possibility, we used biochemical and computational approaches to identify gypsy-like genomic-binding sites for the Suppressor of Hairy-wing [Su(Hw)] protein, a component of the gypsy insulator. EMSA and FISH analyses suggest that these are genuine Su(Hw)-binding sites. In addition, functional tests indicate that genomic Su(Hw)-binding sites can inhibit enhancer–promoter interactions and thus function as bona fide insulators. The insulator strength is dependent on the genomic location of the transgene and the number of Su(Hw)-binding sites, with clusters of two to three sites showing a stronger effect than individual sites. These clusters of Su(Hw)-binding sites are located mostly in intergenic regions or in introns of large genes, an arrangement that fits well with their proposed role in the formation of chromatin domains. Taken together, these data suggest that genomic gypsy-like insulators may provide a means for the compartmentalization of the genome within the nucleus.
Parameter estimation in bandlimited long-code CDMA systems

This paper considers the problem of parameter estimation in multiuser bandlimited long-code DS/CDMA systems. Centralized (i.e., multiuser) and decentralized (i.e., single-user) estimation procedures for the delay, amplitude and phase offset of the users' CDMA received signals are derived. The proposed estimation procedures may be devised as two-steps ones: indeed, first a composite channel impulse response is estimated and then, such an estimate is further processed in order to obtain the parameter estimates. Closed-form formulas for the Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB) are derived, and the performance of the proposed estimators is numerically contrasted to that of the CRLB and of competing alternatives.
Beyond poverty: Engaging with input in generative SLA

A generative approach to language acquisition is no different from any other in assuming that target language input is crucial for language acquisition. This discussion note addresses the place of input in generative second language acquisition (SLA) research and the perception in the wider field of SLA research that generative SLA ‘ignores’ the input. This impression may have arisen because generative SLA researchers have tended not to systematically study quantitative distribution of input properties, nor qualitative properties of the input available to learners. We argue that precisely these sorts of studies would be at least beneficial, if not indispensable, to the development of a comprehensive (generative) theory of SLA. Furthermore, a welcome side-effect of more systematic engagement with input would be potential for greater accessibility for generative SLA in the wider field of second language (L2) studies.
Localization of Canine Brachycephaly Using an Across Breed Mapping Approach

The domestic dog, Canis familiaris, exhibits profound phenotypic diversity and is an ideal model organism for the genetic dissection of simple and complex traits. However, some of the most interesting phenotypes are fixed in particular breeds and are therefore less tractable to genetic analysis using classical segregation-based mapping approaches. We implemented an across breed mapping approach using a moderately dense SNP array, a low number of animals and breeds carefully selected for the phenotypes of interest to identify genetic variants responsible for breed-defining characteristics. Using a modest number of affected (10–30) and control (20–60) samples from multiple breeds, the correct chromosomal assignment was identified in a proof of concept experiment using three previously defined loci; hyperuricosuria, white spotting and chondrodysplasia. Genome-wide association was performed in a similar manner for one of the most striking morphological traits in dogs: brachycephalic head type. Although candidate gene approaches based on comparable phenotypes in mice and humans have been utilized for this trait, the causative gene has remained elusive using this method. Samples from nine affected breeds and thirteen control breeds identified strong genome-wide associations for brachycephalic head type on Cfa 1. Two independent datasets identified the same genomic region. Levels of relative heterozygosity in the associated region indicate that it has been subjected to a selective sweep, consistent with it being a breed defining morphological characteristic. Genotyping additional dogs in the region confirmed the association. To date, the genetic structure of dog breeds has primarily been exploited for genome wide association for segregating traits. These results demonstrate that non-segregating traits under strong selection are equally tractable to genetic analysis using small sample numbers.