Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Theoretical Analysis of NDCG Ranking Measures

A central problem in ranking is to design a measure for evaluation of ranking functions. In this paper we study, from a theoretical perspective, the Normalized Discounted Cumulative Gain (NDCG) which is a family of ranking measures widely used in practice. Although there are extensive empirical studies of the NDCG family, little is known about its theoretical properties. We ﬁrst show that, whatever the ranking function is, the standard NDCG which adopts a logarithmic discount, converges to 1 as the number of items to rank goes to inﬁnity. On the ﬁrst sight, this result seems to imply that the standard NDCG cannot diﬀerentiate good and bad ranking functions on large datasets, contradicting to its empirical success in many applications. In order to have a deeper understanding of the general NDCG ranking measures, we propose a notion referred to as consistent distin-guishability . This notion captures the intuition that a ranking measure should have such a property: For every pair of substantially diﬀerent ranking functions, the ranking measure can decide which one is better in a consistent manner on almost all datasets. We show that standard NDCG has consistent distinguishability although it converges to the same limit for all ranking functions. We next characterize the set of all feasible discount functions for NDCG according to the concept of consistent distinguishability. Speciﬁcally we show that whether an NDCG measure has consistent distinguishability depends on how fast the discount decays; and r (cid:0) 1 is a critical point. We then turn to the cut-oﬀ version of NDCG, i.e., NDCG@k. We analyze the distinguishability of NDCG@k for various choices of k and the discount functions. Experimental results on real Web search datasets agree well with the theory.
miRU: an automated plant miRNA target prediction server

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play important roles in gene expression regulation in animals and plants. Since plant miRNAs recognize their target mRNAs by near-perfect base pairing, computational sequence similarity search can be used to identify potential targets. A web-based integrated computing system, miRU, has been developed for plant miRNA target gene prediction in any plant, if a large number of sequences are available. Given a mature miRNA sequence from a plant species, the system thoroughly searches for potential complementary target sites with mismatches tolerable in miRNA–target recognition. True or false positives are estimated based on the number and type of mismatches in the target site, and on the evolutionary conservation of target complementarity in another genome which can be selected according to miRNA conservation. The output for predicted targets, ordered by mismatch scores, includes complementary sequences with mismatches highlighted in colors, original gene sequences and associated functional annotations. The miRU web server is available at .
Leukemia stem cells

Leukemia stem cells (LSCs) might originate from malignant transformation of normal hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), or alternatively, of progenitors in which the acquired mutations have re‐installed a dysregulated self‐renewal program. LSCs are on top of a hierarchy and generate leukemia cells with more differentiated characteristics. While most leukemia cells are initially sensitive to chemo‐ and radiotherapy, LSCs are resistant and are considered to be the basis for disease relapse after initial response. Albeit important knowledge on LSC biology has been gained from xenogeneic transplantation models introducing human leukemia cells into immune deficient mouse models, the prospective identification and isolation of human LSC candidates has remained elusive and their prognostic and therapeutic significance controversial. This review focuses on the identification, enrichment and characterization of human LSC derived from patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Experimental data demonstrating the clinical significance of estimating LSC burden and strategies to eliminate LSC will be summarized. For long‐term cure of AML, it is of importance to define LSC candidates and to understand their tumor biology compared to normal HSCs. Such comparative studies might provide novel markers for the identification of LSC and for the development of treatment strategies that might be able to eradicate them.
Relevance Measures for Localized Partial Evaluation of Belief Networks

Localized partial evaluation (LPE) [Draper and Hanks, 1994] is an algorithm for computing bounds on the marginal probability of a variable in a belief network. LPE accomplishes this by considering information incrementally, attempting to find more relevant information first. In the following sections, we briefly describe belief networks, the localized partial evaluation algorithm, and then discuss how relevance can be defined and used in LPE.
Family History of Cancer in Relation to Breast Cancer Subtypes in African American Women

Background: The evidence on the relation of family history of cancers other than breast cancer to breast cancer risk is conflicting, and most studies have not assessed specific breast cancer subtypes. Methods: We assessed the relation of first-degree family history of breast, prostate, lung, colorectal, ovarian, and cervical cancer and lymphoma or leukemia, to the risk of estrogen receptor–positive (ER+), ER−, and triple-negative breast cancer in data from the African American Breast Cancer Epidemiology and Risk Consortium. Multivariable logistic regression models were used to calculate ORs and 95% confidence intervals (CI). Results: There were 3,023 ER+ and 1,497 ER− breast cancer cases (including 696 triple-negative cases) and 17,420 controls. First-degree family history of breast cancer was associated with increased risk of each subtype: OR = 1.76 (95% CI, 1.57–1.97) for ER+, 1.67 (1.42–1.95) for ER−, and 1.72 (1.38–2.13) for triple-negative breast cancer. Family history of cervical cancer was associated with increased risk of ER− (OR = 2.39; 95% CI, 1.36–4.20), but not ER+ cancer. Family history of both breast and prostate cancer was associated with increased risk of ER+ (3.40; 2.42–4.79) and ER− (2.09; 1.21–3.63) cancer, but family history of both breast and lung cancer was associated only with ER− cancer (2.11; 1.29–3.46). Conclusions: A family history of cancers other than breast may influence the risk of breast cancer, and associations may differ by subtype. Impact: Greater surveillance and counseling for additional screening may be warranted for women with a family history of cancer. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 25(2); 366–73. ©2015 AACR.
Fidelity of Runx2 Activity in Breast Cancer Cells Is Required for the Generation of Metastases-Associated Osteolytic Disease

The osteolytic bone destruction associated with breast cancer skeletal metastases represents a serious and incurable clinical condition. However, the molecular mechanisms regulating tumor cell expression of factors involved in the generation of osteolytic disease remain elusive. We demonstrated recently that breast cancer cells express the Runx2 transcription factor, essential for bone formation and a regulator of skeletal homeostasis. Our experimental results demonstrate that perturbation of Runx2 regulatory function in tumor cells abolishes their ability to form osteolytic lesions in vivo. In vitro, we show that breast cancer cells inhibit osteoblast differentiation while concurrently enhancing osteoclast differentiation in marrow stromal cell cultures. Disruption of Runx2 activity abrogates both of these cancer cell-mediated effects on bone cells. These results demonstrate that Runx2 expression in breast cancer cells provides a molecular phenotype that enables the interactions between tumor cells and the bone microenvironment that lead to osteolytic disease.
The synthesis of emotions in artificial intelligences: an affective agent architecture for intuitive reasoning in artificial intelligences

[Abstract]: This dissertation addresses several highly-critical issues in affective computing and agent architecture design including knowledge representation, motivation, emotion appraisal and affective decision making. The approach presented integrates motivational drives, goals and associated behaviours via a multi-dimensional Affective Space. The research focuses on an emotionally motivated artificial intelligence (EMAI) architecture. This architecture dispenses with the ideas implemented in contemporary affective agent architectures where individual emotional states are modelled as individual variables, integrated and processed using complex algorithms. Contemporary approaches required significant programming effort to modify them for domains outside their realm, integration of new emotional states and high-level complex affective decision making. Unlike contemporary affective agent architectures, the EMAI architecture reasons using a multi-dimensional decision making process where emotional states are modelled as coexisting locations in a six-dimensional affective continuum called the Affective Space. Through use of the Affective Space, an EMAI agent can predict the effect that certain behaviours will have on its emotional state and in turn decide how to behave. Furthermore, the agent can use the emotions produced from its behaviour to update its beliefs about particular events and entities. The nature of the Affective Space also allows an EMAI agent to deal with processes related to emotion synthesis in a more effective manner than contemporary architectures. These processes include the natural diminishing of an emotional state's strength over time, the way in which emotions can influence an agent's perspective of a situation and the way in which an agent can migrate from one emotional state to another. This dissertation contributes crucial and unique concepts and formalisations of emotion based intelligence for agent construction to the domain of Artificial Intelligence (in particular Affective Computing). It introduces a unique process for emotionally motivated decision making based on holistic and atomic appraisals made with respect to events. The thesis contained within has been supported through experimentation that has confirmed the effectiveness of the emotion synthesis technique in the EMAI architecture and how this is used to produce intelligent agents capable of emotional reasoning and decision making.
Circular and linear plasmids of Lyme disease spirochetes have extensive homology: characterization of a repeated DNA element

We have cloned three copies of a repeated DNA segment from Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto strain B31, present on both circular and linear plasmids of this and other B. burgdorferi sensu lato strains. The DNA sequences are characterized by a highly homologous segment containing two open reading frames (ORFs), ORF-A and ORF-B. Five additional ORFs can be found on the slightly less homologous flanking sequences: ORF-G on the opposite strand upstream of ORF-A, and ORF-C, ORF-D, ORF-E, and ORF-F downstream of ORF-B. The 4.6-kb-long element containing ORF-A through ORF-E is flanked by approximately 180-bp-long imperfect inverted repeats (IRs). The putative gene product of ORF-C displays homology to proteins involved in plasmid maintenance in a number of gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. ORF-E features several short, highly homologous direct repeats. ORF-A, ORF-B, and ORF-D are homologous to three ORFs on a recently described 8.3-kb circular plasmid of Borrelia afzelii Ip21 that are flanked by similar IRs (J. J. Dunn, S. R. Buchstein, L.-L. Butler, S. Fisenne, D. S. Polin, B. N. Lade, and B. J. Luft, J. Bacteriol. 176:2706-2717,1994). ORF-C and ORF-E, however, are missing from this region on the Ip21 plasmid. Furthermore, the repeated DNA element as defined by the IRs is present in opposite orientations relative to the flanking sequences on the B31 and Ip21 plasmids.
Opportunistic transient-fault detection

CMOS scaling increases susceptibility of microprocessors to transient faults. Most current proposals for transient-fault detection use full redundancy to achieve perfect coverage while incurring significant performance degradation. However, most commodity systems do not need or provide perfect coverage. A recent paper explores this leniency to reduce the soft-error rate of the issue queue during L2 misses while incurring minimal performance degradation. Whereas the previous paper reduces soft-error rate without using any redundancy, we target better coverage while incurring similarly-minimal performance degradation by opportunistically using redundancy. We propose two semi-complementary techniques, called partial explicit redundancy (PER) and implicit redundancy through reuse (IRTR), to explore the trade-off between soft-error rate and performance. PER opportunistically exploits low-ILP phases and L2 misses to introduce explicit redundancy with minimal performance degradation. Because PER covers the entire pipeline and exploits not only L2 misses but all low-ILP phases, PER achieves better coverage than the previous work. To achieve coverage in high-ILP phases as well, we propose implicit redundancy through reuse (IRTR). Previous work exploits the phenomenon of instruction reuse to avoid redundant execution while falling back on redundant execution when there is no reuse. IRTR takes reuse to the extreme of performance-coverage trade-off and completely avoids explicit redundancy by exploiting reuse's implicit redundancy within the main thread for fault detection with virtually no performance degradation. Using simulations with SPEC2000, we show that PER and IRTR achieve better tradeoff between soft-error rate and performance degradation than the previous schemes.
Exploring inter-organizational alignment with e3alignment - An Aviation Case

In this paper we present the e 3 alignment framework and approach, which we use to explore a wide range of inter-organizational alignment issues concerning the interaction between organizations in a value web, as seen from multiple perspectives, and with the aid of modeling techniques. The e 3 alignment approach focuses on interaction between actors, since “interaction” is one of the key success factors for a sustainable value web. Our ultimate goal is to create a sustainable value web, where various organizations cooperate to successfully meet a consumer need. To support our claims we conducted an industrial strength case study at the Dutch aviation sector.
The T-calculus: towards a structured programing of (musical) time and space

In the field of music system programming, the T-calculus is a proposal for combining space modeling and time programming into a single programming feature: spatiotemporal tiled programming. Based on a solid algebraic model, it aims at decomposing every operation on musical objects into the sequence of a synchronization operation that describes how objects are positioned one with respect the other, and a fusion operation that describes how their values are then combined. A first simple version of such a tiled calculus is presented and studied in this paper.
Neurophysiologic changes in hemiplegia

In an attempt to clarify the neurophysiologic changes that may follow a cerebral lesion in man, we have studied patients with recent and with long-standing hemiplegia from cerebral infarction. In patients with recent cerebral lesions, inhibition of the monosynaptic reflex by vibration is enhanced. In patients with long-standing cerebral lesions, this inhibitory mechanism is less effective and a comparison of the electrically and mechanically induced monosynaptic reflexes suggests that fusimotor drive may be increased. Related clinical findings are reduced muscle “tone” immediately after the lesion and increased muscle “tone” and exaggerated tendon jerks in patients with long-standing hemiplegia.
Towards universal rendering in MathJax

Mathematics support on the web is currently very limited mainly due to the lack of browser support for the dedicated markup language MathML. While for visual display JavaScript libraries like MathJax can ensure flawless rendering of formulas across all platforms and browsers, there currently exists no system independent assistive technology solutions for Mathematics. We report on the attempt to transform MathJax into a universal rendering solution, providing accessibility also for readers with visual, print, and motor impairments. As our goal is to integrate seamlessly with other assistive technology solutions, we are faced with a number of technical challenges to provide a consistent user experience, regardless of the particular combination of platform, browser, and screen reader employed by readers. This paper presents MathJax's accessibility features and some of the technical challenges to motivate a wish-list for future standards to enhance web accessibility for STEM content.
How can they possibly believe that? The influence of age-related inhibitory losses on belief in false and suspicious information

The aim of this study was to investigate whether declines in inhibitory functioning could influence older adults’ beliefs about false or suspicious information presented to them. Participants included 40 older adults (29 female, mean age = 72.2 years) and 40 younger adults (30 female, mean age = 19.38 years). Participants first read a suspicious story and were required to generate words from letter strings periodically throughout the task, some of which were prefixes of words describing apparently truthful statements, apparently untruthful statements, or neutral statements from the story. Participants then read a crime report containing both true and false information about a criminal defendant, and then made guilt and character judgements about the target. It was hypothesised that older adults would be unable to inhibit the ‘suspicious’ claims made in the story (as evidenced by the fact that they would generate more apparently untruthful words than younger adults in the word completion task), and that older adults would believe the false information from the crime report and incorporate it into their impressions of the criminal. It was expected that both of these relationships would be mediated by inhibitory deficits. Contrary to predictions, results indicated that younger adults showed more activation for apparently truthful, apparently untruthful, and neutral words than older adults. Findings also revealed that while older adults’ ratings of the criminal did not appear to be influenced by the false statements, younger adults appeared to over-correct for the false information. However this effect was not mediated by inhibitory deficits. These results failed to indicate that inhibitory functioning affects older adults’ beliefs about misleading information. Reasons for these findings are considered, along with suggestions for future research. Ageing, Inhibition and False Belief viii
Purification and Characterization of a Nitric-oxide Synthase from Rat Liver Mitochondria*

The biosynthesis of nitric oxide (NO⋅) in different cell types occurs concomitantly with the conversion ofl-arginine to l-citrulline by the enzyme nitric-oxide synthase (NOS). NO⋅ has been identified as a major participant in a number of basic physiological functions such as neurotransmission, vasodilation, and immune response. At the subcellular level, mitochondria have been identified as targets for NO⋅; however, to date, no unambiguous evidence has been presented to identify these organelles as sources of NO⋅. In this study, a NOS was isolated to homogeneity from Percoll-purified rat liver mitochondria. Kinetic parameters, molecular weight, requirement of cofactors, and cross-reactivity to monoclonal antibodies against macrophage NOS suggest similarities to the inducible form. However, the constitutive expression of the mitochondrial enzyme and its main membrane localization indicate the presence of either a distinctive isoform or a macrophage isoform containing posttranslational modifications that lead to different subcellular compartments. The detection of NADPH-oxidizing activities and a production of superoxide anion catalyzed by mtNOS and recombinant cytochrome P450reductase were consistent with the sequence homology reported for these two proteins. Given the role of NO⋅ as cellular transmitter, messenger, or regulator, the presence of a functionally active mitochondrial NOS may have important implications for the intermediary metabolism.
A Proteomic Profiling Approach to Reveal a Novel Role of Brassica napus Drought 22 kD/Water-Soluble Chlorophyll-Binding Protein in Young Leaves during Nitrogen Remobilization Induced by Stressful Conditions1

Despite its water-soluble chlorophyll-binding protein (WSCP) function, the putative trypsin inhibitor (TI) activity of the Brassica napus drought 22 kD (BnD22) protein and its physiological function in young leaves during leaf nitrogen (N) remobilization promoted by stressful conditions remains an enigma. Therefore, our objectives were to determine (1) if BnD22 is related to the 19-kD TI previously detected in B. napus young leaves, and (2) if the levels of BnD22 transcripts, BnD22 protein, and TI activity in young leaves are associated with plant responses to stress conditions (N starvation and methyl jasmonate [MeJA] treatments) that are able to modulate leaf senescence. Compared to control, N starvation delayed initiation of senescence and induced 19-kD TI activity in the young leaves. After 3 d with MeJA, the 19-kD TI activity was 7-fold higher than the control. Using two-dimensional electrophoresis gel, TI activity, and electrospray ionization liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry analysis, it was demonstrated that two 19-kD proteins with isoelectric points 5.0 and 5.1 harboring TI activity correspond to BnD22 perfectly. BnD22 gene expression, TI activities, and BnD22 protein presented similar patterns. Using polyclonal anti-WSCP antibodies of Brassica oleracea, six polypeptides separated by two-dimensional electrophoresis were detected in young leaves treated with MeJA. Electrospray ionization liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry analysis of six polypeptides confirms their homologies with WSCP. Results suggest that BnD22 possesses dual functions (WSCP and TI) that lead to the protection of younger tissues from adverse conditions by maintaining metabolism (protein integrity and photosynthesis). By sustaining sink growth of stressed plants, BnD22 may contribute to a better utilization of recycling N from sources, a physiological trait that improves N-use efficiency.
The Impact of School Tobacco Policies on Student Smoking in Washington State, United States and Victoria, Australia

This paper measures tobacco polices in statewide representative samples of secondary and mixed schools in Victoria, Australia and Washington, US (N = 3,466 students from 285 schools) and tests their association with student smoking. Results from confounder-adjusted random effects (multi-level) regression models revealed that the odds of student perception of peer smoking on school grounds are decreased in schools that have strict enforcement of policy (odds ratio (OR) = 0.45; 95% CI: 0.25 to 0.82; p = 0.009). There was no clear evidence in this study that a comprehensive smoking ban, harsh penalties, remedial penalties, harm minimization policy or abstinence policy impact on any of the smoking outcomes.
A multi-functional converter for a reduced cost, solar powered, water pump

Solar powered water pumps classically use a boost converter for power point tracking followed by a motor inverter to drive the pump. This paper introduces a new, novel solution using a Multi-Functional Converter (MFC) that combines the boost function and the motor inverter function into a single, 6-switch, inverter bridge. Thus reducing cost and complexity and increasing reliability. The paper describes the operation of the MFC and gives both simulated and measured results. In addition, the advantage of varying the amount of voltage boost in response to the solar panel's maximum power point is demonstrated and a performance comparison with a classical system made.