Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Exponential convergence bounds in least squares estimation: Identification of viscoelastic properties in atomic force microscopy

Using atomic force microscopy (AFM) for studying soft, biological material has become increasingly popular in recent years. New approaches allow the use of recursive least squares estimation to identify the viscoelastic properties of a sample in AFM. As long as the regressor vector is persistently exciting (PE), exponential convergence of the parameters to be identified can be guaranteed. However, even exponential convergence can be slow. In this article, upper bounds on the parameter convergence is found, completely determined by the PE properties and least squares update law parameters. Furthermore, for a parameter vector which is piecewise constant at regular intervals, the time interval necessary for the error to converge to any specified upper limit is determined. For a soft sample in AFM, the viscoelastic properties can be spatially inhomogeneous. These properties can be spatially resolved by periodically tapping at discrete points along the sample. The results of this article then allows us to determine the time interval necessary at each tap in order to guarantee convergence to any specified fraction of the step-change in the parameters. Simulation results are presented, demonstrating the applicability of the approach.
Emotional Coloring of Computer-Controlled Music Performances

This dissertation presents research in the field ofautomatic music performance with a special focus on piano. A system is proposed for automatic music performance, basedon artificial neural networks (ANNs). A complex,ecological-predictive ANN was designed thatlistensto the last played note,predictsthe performance of the next note,looksthree notes ahead in the score, and plays thecurrent tone. This system was able to learn a professionalpianist's performance style at the structural micro-level. In alistening test, performances by the ANN were judged clearlybetter than deadpan performances and slightly better thanperformances obtained with generative rules. The behavior of an ANN was compared with that of a symbolicrule system with respect to musical punctuation at themicro-level. The rule system mostly gave better results, butsome segmentation principles of an expert musician were onlygeneralized by the ANN. Measurements of professional pianists' performances revealedinteresting properties in the articulation of notes markedstaccatoandlegatoin the score. Performances were recorded on agrand piano connected to a computer.Staccatowas realized by a micropause of about 60% ofthe inter-onset-interval (IOI) whilelegatowas realized by keeping two keys depressedsimultaneously; the relative key overlap time was dependent ofIOI: the larger the IOI, the shorter the relative overlap. Themagnitudes of these effects changed with the pianists' coloringof their performances and with the pitch contour. Theseregularities were modeled in a set of rules for articulation inautomatic piano music performance. Emotional coloring of performances was realized by means ofmacro-rules implemented in the Director Musices performancesystem. These macro-rules are groups of rules that werecombined such that they reflected previous observations onmusical expression of specific emotions. Six emotions weresimulated. A listening test revealed that listeners were ableto recognize the intended emotional colorings. In addition, some possible future applications are discussedin the fields of automatic music performance, music education,automatic music analysis, virtual reality and soundsynthesis.
CYTOMEGALOVIRUS EARLY PROMOTER INDUCED EXPRESSION OF hCD59 IN PORCINE ORGANS PROVIDES PROTECTION AGAINST HYPERACUTE REJECTION1

The critical shortage of human donor organs has generated growing interest for porcine to human xenotransplantation. The major immunological barrier to xenotransplantation is the hyperacute rejection (HAR) response that is mediated by preformed xenoreactive antibodies and complement. A promising strategy to control the complement activation, is the expression of human complement regulatory proteins in transgenic animals. We have used the human early cytomegalovirus (CMV) promoter to drive expression of the human complement regulatory protein CD59 (hCD59) in transgenic pigs. A total of eight live transgenic founder animals was born from which five transgenic lines could be established. mRNA analysis and Western blotting revealed high expression of hCD59 in heart, kidney, skeletal muscle, and skin in animals of lines 1 and 5, as well as in the pancreas of four lines. This pattern of expression was confirmed by immunhistological staining. A cell-specific expression in heart and kidney tissue of transgenic lines 1 and 5 was determined. Primary fibroblasts and endothelial cell cultures derived from the aorta of transgenic pigs showed a significantly diminished sensitivity against the challenge with xenoreactive human antibodies and complement whereas non-transgenic control cells were highly susceptible to complement mediated lysis. Ex vivo perfusion of kidneys with pooled human blood revealed a significant protective effect of hCD59 against HAR. The average survival of transgenic kidneys was significantly extended (P <0.05) over nontransgenic controls (207.5±54.6 vs. 57.5±64.5 min). These data support the concept that hCD59 protects nonprimate cells against human complement mediated lysis and suggest that donor pigs transgenic for hCD59 could play a crucial role in clinical xenotransplantation. Two of five hCD59 transgenic lines showed strong hCD59 expression in several organs relevant for xenotransplantation and a protective effect against HAR. This indicates that the use of the CMV-promoter can facilitate the selection process for optimized transgene expression.
Study on water resource risk using the interior-outer set model

There is a transition from a fuzzy set to crisp set. Therefore, we can obtain a conservative risk value, a venture risk value and a maximum probability risk value. Under such an α level, three risk values can be calculated. As α adopts all values throughout the set [0, 1], it is possible to obtain a series of risk values. Therefore, the fuzzy risk may be a multi-valued risk or set-valued risk. Calculation of the fuzzy expected value of Yiwu city's water resource risk has been performed based on the interior-outer set model. Selection of an α value depends on the confidence in different groups of people, while selection of a conservative risk value or venture risk value depends on the risk preference of these people.
Identification of plant leaf diseases using image processing techniques

Image processing is a diverging area where researches and advancements are taking a geometrical progress in the agricultural field. Various researches are going on vigorously in plant disease detection. Identification of plant diseases can not only maximize the yield production but also can be supportive for varied types of agricultural practices. This paper proposes a disease detection and classification technique with the help of machine learning mechanisms and image processing tools. Initially, identifying and capturing the infected region is done and latter image preprocessing is performed. Further, the segments are obtained and the area of interest is recognized and the feature extraction is done on the same. Finally the obtained results are sent through SVM Classifiers to get the results. The Support Vector Machines outperforms the task of classification of diseases, results show that the methodology put forward in this paper provides considerably better results than the previously used disease detection techniques.
ONE APPROACH TO RESOLVE THE EXCHANGE RATE PUZZLE: RESULTS USING DATA FROM THE UNITED KINGDOM AND THE UNITED STATES

We approach a significant research topic in international economics by restating the test procedures in a novel manner consistent with monetary theorems with controls using monetary variables and applying an appropriate econometric methodology to re-examine three aspects of exchange rate behavior. (i) Does the inflation (price) factor affect Nominal Exchange Rate (NER)? (ii) Do relative interest rates between countries affect a country’s exchange rate? (iii) Do the price and interest rate effects hold if controls for non-parity factors are embedded in tests? The data series for this study are taken over 55 years covering pre-and-post-Bretton Woods era: a second test was done over the post-Bretton Woods period only using 30 years of data. Also, the traditional factors of parity conditions are extended in this research to take into account recently theorized and tested non-parity factors related to cash flows. The resulting evidence affirms clearly that both the parity factors (prices and interest rates) and the non-parity factors affect exchange rates significantly over the long run, also over the 30-year period. In our view, these findings extend our knowledge of how currency behavior is consistent with parity and non-parity theorems.
Increased chronic lymphocytic leukemia proliferation upon IgM stimulation is sustained by the upregulation of miR‐132 and miR‐212

To assess the involvement of microRNAs (miRNAs) in B‐cell receptor (BCR) stimulation, we first evaluated miRNA profiling following IgM cross‐linking in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) cells and in normal B lymphocytes. Second, we combined miRNA and gene expression data to identify putative miRNA functional networks. miRNA profiling showed distinctive patterns of regulation after stimulation in leukemic versus normal B lymphocytes and identified a differential responsiveness to BCR engagement in CLL subgroups according to the immunoglobulin heavy chain variable region mutational status and clinical outcome. The most significantly modulated miRNAs in stimulated CLL are miR‐132 and miR‐212. Notably, these miRNAs appeared regulated in progressive but not in stable CLL. Accordingly, gene profiling showed a significant transcriptional response to stimulation exclusively in progressive CLL. Based on these findings, we combined miRNA and gene expression data to investigate miR‐132 and miR‐212 candidate interactions in this CLL subgroup. Correlation analysis pointed to a link between these miRNAs and RB/E2F and TP53 cascades with proproliferative effects, as corroborated by functional analyses. Finally, basal levels of miR‐132 and miR‐212 were measured in an independent cohort of 20 unstimulated CLL cases and both showed lower expression in progressive compared to stable patients, suggesting an association between the expression of these molecules and disease prognosis. Overall, our results support a model involving miR‐132 and miR‐212 upregulation in sustaining disease progression in CLL. These miRNAs may therefore provide new valuable strategies for therapeutic intervention. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Fatigability, Exercise Intolerance, and Abnormal Skeletal Muscle Energetics in Heart Failure

Background Among central and peripheral factors contributing to exercise intolerance (EI) in heart failure (HF), the extent to which skeletal muscle (SM) energy metabolic abnormalities occur and contribute to EI and increased fatigability in HF patients with reduced or preserved ejection fraction (HFrEF and HFpEF, respectively) are not known. An energetic plantar flexion exercise fatigability test and magnetic resonance spectroscopy were used to probe the mechanistic in vivo relationships among SM high-energy phosphate concentrations, mitochondrial function, and EI in HFrEF and HFpEF patients and in healthy controls. Methods and Results Resting SM high-energy phosphate concentrations and ATP flux rates were normal in HFrEF and HFpEF patients. Fatigue occurred at similar SM energetic levels in all subjects, consistent with a common SM energetic limit. Importantly, HFrEF New York Heart Association class II–III patients with EI and high fatigability exhibited significantly faster rates of exercise-induced high-energy phosphate decline than did HFrEF patients with low fatigability (New York Heart Association class I), despite similar left ventricular ejection fractions. HFpEF patients exhibited severe EI, the most rapid rates of high-energy phosphate depletion during exercise, and impaired maximal oxidative capacity. Conclusions Symptomatic fatigue during plantar flexion exercise occurs at a common energetic limit in all subjects. HFrEF and HFpEF patients with EI and increased fatigability manifest early, rapid exercise-induced declines in SM high-energy phosphates and reduced oxidative capacity compared with healthy and low-fatigability HF patients, suggesting that SM metabolism is a potentially important target for future HF treatment strategies.
Experience Curves and Dynamic Demand Models: Implications for Optimal Pricing Strategies

Recent empirical research shows that supply and demand conditions are typically not stable over time. The evolution of these factors and the firm's ability to impact the evolution have important pricing implications. This paper presents a general methodology for determining the optimal pricing strategy over the product life cycle given evolutionary forces in the environment, and derives the optimal pricing strategy for some well known dynamic models.
Can US Metropolitan Areas Use Large Commercial Airports as Tools to Bolster Regional Economic Growth?

Local governments own and operate most large US commercial airports. They have long considered air traffic development and airport expansions as essential tools to support regional economic growth. This literature review investigates the validity of this claim. Recent econometric studies estimated airports’ economic benefits, while geographers cautioned that airport expansions cannot trump macroeconomic trends. The burgeoning knowledge on the economic and environmental risks of airports and air service sheds critical light on airport-based economic development strategies. Planning scholarship should investigate airport planning practices, analyze the variations of airports’ economic effects between metropolitan areas, and measure the impacts of airport expansions.
Mechanisms of Identity and Gender Decisions to Faces: Who Rocked in 1986?

Two experiments are reported in which participants made familiarity decisions (Is this face familiar or not? ) or gender decisions (Is this face male or female? ) to the same sets of faces presented as whole faces or as internal features only. The experimental items on which the analysis was performed were famous and unfamiliar male faces that differed on rated masculinity. The famous faces also differed on age of acquisition (AoA). The experimental male faces were combined with an equal number of famous and unfamiliar female faces for presentation to participants. In experiment 1 we found faster and more accurate familiarity decisions to whole male faces than to internal features; also an interaction between AoA and masculinity such that familiarity decisions were both faster and more accurate to high-than to low-masculinity faces when those faces were late-acquired, but not when they were early-acquired. In experiment 2 we found the same benefit for whole faces over internal features and the same interaction between AoA and masculinity in gender decisions. The similarity between the effects of AoA and masculinity in familiarity and gender decisions is more readily accounted for by models of face processing which posit a close relationship between gender and identity processing than by models which maintain that those aspects of face perception are dealt with by quite separate processing streams. We propose that gender decisions, like familiarity decisions, are semantic judgments (rather than judgments based on the analysis of the surface features of faces), and that the shared basis of the two forms of decision explains why they show similar influences of AoA and masculinity.
Making survey results easy to report to consumers: how reporting needs guided survey design in CAHPS. Consumer Assessment of Health Plans Study.

OBJECTIVES CAHPS is designed to report information about health care quality from the consumer perspective. Enrollees are surveyed about their experiences with their health plan and medical care, and results are reported to other consumers choosing among health plans. Based on survey instruments designed to elicit reliable and valid information about health plan experiences from plan enrollees, the aim of the CAHPS team was to design a series of reporting products that present survey results so that consumers find the information understandable, meaningful, and useful in choosing among health plans. METHODS Design of the survey instruments and reporting products were closely linked. The approach to reporting was based on previous research on consumers' information interests and needs in evaluating and choosing among plans. Cognitive tests were conducted with consumers to get their reactions to mock-ups of various approaches to reporting CAHPS survey results. RESULTS Findings from previous research and cognitive testing, together with feedback from various experts and the public, were used to modify the survey questions, response options, and reporting formats to make it easier for consumers to understand and use reports. Changes included dropping topics of less interest to consumers, changing question wordings that were hard to understand, minimizing the number of different response categories, and revising questions to make them easier to group together for purposes of reporting. CONCLUSIONS The CAHPS focus on reporting results to consumers presented an unusual challenge for survey design, requiring close coordination between instrument design and report development to produce a survey and reporting kit that serves consumers' information needs.
Hyperthyroidism Evokes Myocardial Ceramide Accumulation

Background: Thyroid hormones (THs) are key regulators of cardiac physiology as well as modulators of different cellular signals including the sphingomyelin/ceramide pathway. The objective of this study was to examine the effect of hyperthyroidism on the metabolism of sphingolipids in the muscle heart. Methods: Male Wistar rats were treated for 10 days with triiodothyronine (T3) at a dose of 50µg/100g of body weight. Animals were then anaesthetized and samples of the left ventricle were excised. Results: We have demonstrated that prolonged, in vivo, T3 treatment increased the content of sphinganine (SFA), sphingosine (SFO), ceramide (CER) and sphingomyelin (SM), but decreased the level of sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) in cardiac muscle. Accordingly, the changes in sphingolipids content were accompanied by a lesser activity of neutral sphingomyelinase and without significant changes in ceramidases activity. Hyperthyroidism also induced activation of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) with subsequently increased expression of mitochondrial proteins: cytochrome c oxidase IV (COX IV), β-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase (β-HAD), carnityne palmitoyltransferase I (CPT I) and nuclear peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ coactivator-1α (PGC1α). Conclusions: We conclude that prolonged T3 treatment increases sphingolipids metabolism which is reflected by higher concentration of SFA and CER in heart muscle. Furthermore, hyperthyroidism-induced increase in heart sphingomyelin (SM) concentration might be one of the mechanisms underlying maintenance of CER at relatively low level by its conversion to SM together with decreased S1P content.
Distinct role of non-covalent interactions to the function and structural stability of glutaredoxins: a multifunctional redox protein

In this work, the role of cation-pi and CH.pi interactions in the activity of glutaredoxins is analysed. Among the proteins, an average of 1 cation-pi interaction per 109 residues and an average of 1 CH.pi interaction per 16 residues were found. These interactions were influenced by long-range contacts whereas short- and medium-range contacts were found insignificant. Significant differences in these interactions were noticed when the same glutaredoxin was analysed in its glutathionylated, reduced and oxidised states. Since activities of glutaredoxins depend on its state, the role of these interactions in regulation of these proteins might be significant.
A One-Plasmid System To Generate Influenza Virus in Cultured Chicken Cells for Potential Use in Influenza Vaccine

ABSTRACT Influenza virus has a set of ribonucleoproteins (RNPs) consisting of viral RNAs, influenza virus polymerase subunits, and nucleoprotein. Intracellular reconstitution of the whole set of RNPs via plasmid transfection results in the generation of influenza virus. By the use of reverse genetics and dual promoters, we constructed a 23.6-kb eight-unit plasmid that contains all the required constituents to generate influenza virus in chicken cells. Our “one-plasmid” system generated higher titers of influenza virus in chicken cells than the “eight-plasmid” system, enabling a simpler approach for generating vaccine seeds. Our study identified plasmid size as a potential limiting factor affecting transfection efficiency and hence the influenza viral yield from chicken cells.
Zygote Transfer to Facilitate Altered Expression of Immunoglobulin Light Chain Phenotypes in Homozygous Rabbits∗

Summary By the techniques of zygote transfer and allotype suppression, b5 homozygous rabbits were produced with an altered expression of immunoglobulin light chain allotypes; i.e., at 24 weeks of age, only 27% of the total γG was b5γG compared to 90% in nonsuppressed homozygotes. Of the 73% b-negative molecules, 44% were c7γG and 29% were both b- and c-negative. These results suggest that there may be at least three “loci” which control the synthesis of light chains.
RESTORATION OF IMMUNOCYTE FUNCTIONS BY THYMOSIN α1 IN CYCLOPHOSPHAMIDE-INDUCED IMMUNODEFICIENT MICE

Thymosin α1 (Tα1) is an oligopeptide hormone originally isolated from the thymus gland, and has been reported to have stimulating effects on the differentiation of T cells and NK cells. These immunostimulating properties have been considered to be useful for improving immune disorders associated with various diseases including cancer, AIDS and hepatitis. Here, we characterized immunostimulating properties of Tα1 in experimental immunodeficiency of mice that was induced by the administration of cyclophosphamide (CY). Repeated injection of 30–300 μg/kg/day of Tα1 after CY-treatment significantly accelerated the restoration of the reduced number of CD4+CD8+ T cells in the thymus. Tα1 administration was effective in restoring the suppressed activities of helper T cells and cytotoxic T cells in CY-treated mice. Tα1 also had stimulating effects on reduced activity of lymphokine-activated killer cells in CY-treated mice. These results indicate that Tα1 is stimulatory for both humoral and cellular immune responses, thus providing the immunological basis for the clinical benefit of this compound.