Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Analysis of phosphatase 1B WPD loop closure

Protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B (PTP1B) is a negative regulator of insulin and leptin signaling, and is therefore a major molecular target for the treatment of type II diabetes and obesity. WPD loop is a key element in the mechanism of PTP1B catalysis. In the apo form, WPD loop is usually in an “open” conformation, whereas it closes over the active site upon substrate binding. Here, targeted molecular dynamics (TMD) simulations are reported to examine the transition of the WPD loop from the open to closed states as well as the effect of this motion on the PTP1B conformational activation mechanism. Our results indicate that WPD loop motion is described by some residue-residue interactions between the WPD loop and the active site and the changes of some WPD loop dihedral angles. Trp179 side chain dihedral angle changes gradually during the simulation, while Asp181 backbone dihedral angle makes a jump to the end of the simulation. The formation of hydrogen bonds between Trp-179 and Asp-181 with Arg-221 is observed to mediate the closure of WPD loop. Elucidating the detailed mechanism of PTP1B conformational activation will guide future drug design efforts toward type II diabetes and obesity.
Unified Identity Authentication between Heterogeneous Systems Based on LDAP and RBAC

To solve the problems of unified identity authentication between heterogeneous application systems that emerged in the procedure of informatization construction. The paper presents a 3-tier architecture solution that contains user tier, unified authentication tier and application system tier to realize unified identity authentication between legacy system and new application system. For legacy systems, the paper presents a method of double authentication that users firstly log on unified identity authentication system for unified identity validation, then securely transmit authenticated unified identity information and simulate the authentication progress via the authentication mechanism of legacy systems for permission distributing. For new application systems, the paper presents a method of centralized authentication through a relatively independent Role Based Access Control (RBAC) identity authentication model that consists of organization, user, role and permission entries to realize the logical separation of users and access permission, then designs a Directory Information Tree (DIT) structure based on the RBAC model for permissions distributing and access controlling
Optical frequency standard based on cold Ca atoms

An optical frequency standard (/spl lambda/=657 nm) based on cold neutral Ca atoms released from a magnetooptical trap has been realized. Systematic contributions to the uncertainty resulting from the residual velocity of the atoms and the acceleration in the gravitational field are determined and reduced by using a combination of different atom interferometers. With the uncertainty for the effect of cold collisions reduced and an AC Stark shift eliminated, the relative uncertainty in the measured frequency of the Ca clock transition is reduced to 2/spl times/10/sup -14/. The application of a novel method for producing ultracold atoms showed the potential to further reduce the relative uncertainty to below 10/sup -15/.
Development of membrane conductance improves coincidence detection in the nucleus laminaris of the chicken

Coincidence detection at the nucleus laminaris (NL) of a chicken was improved between embryos (embryonic days (E) 16 and 17) and chicks (post‐hatch days (P) 2–7) in slice preparations. Electrical stimuli were applied bilaterally to the projection fibres to the NL at various intervals. The response window corresponding to the temporal separation of electrical stimuli that resulted in half‐maximal firing probability was adopted as the measure of coincidence detection, and was narrower in chicks (1.4 ms) than in embryos (3.9 ms). Between these two ages, the membrane time constant of NL neurons was reduced from 18.4 to 3.2 ms and the membrane conductance was increased 5‐fold, while no difference was measured in the input capacitance. Evoked EPSCs decayed slightly faster in chicks, while the size and the time course of miniature EPSCs were unchanged. Action potentials had lower thresholds and larger after‐hyperpolarization in chicks than in embryos. Dendrotoxin‐I depolarized cells and increased their input resistance significantly at both ages, eliminated the after‐hyperpolarization, and delayed the decay phase of action potentials, indicative of the expression of low‐threshold K+ channels. Cs+ hyperpolarized the cells, increased the input resistance and eliminated sags during hyperpolarization at both ages, while the hyperpolarization sag was affected by neither Ba2+ nor TEA. These data indicate the expression of hyperpolarization‐activated cation channels. Between these two ages, the maximum conductance of low‐threshold K+ channels increased 4‐fold to about 16 nS, and hyperpolarization‐activated channels increased 6‐fold to about 10 nS. Improvement of coincidence detection correlated with the acceleration of the EPSP time course as a result of the increase of these conductances.
A 2.56 Gb/s soft RS (255,239) decoder chip for optical communication systems

Due to the increasing uncertainty of data for higher transmission rate, the Forward Error Correction (FEC) devices need to provide more powerful error correcting capability for optical communication systems. As compared with traditional hard RS decoders, the soft RS decoders can perform substantial coding gain but require much higher hardware complexity. In this paper, a decision-confined algorithm is proposed to enhance the error correcting performance with an area-efficient architecture. The novelty is that, instead of decoding numerous possible transmitted codewords and choosing the most likely one, only one candidate sequence will be decoded after confining the degree of error-locator polynomial Λ(x). For RS (255,239) codes, simulation results confirm that our approach provides 0.4 dB performance gain at 104 CER over the hard RS decoders. The experimental result reveals that our soft decoder can achieve 2.56 Gb/s throughput in standard CMOS 90 nm technology while having similar complexity as a hard decoder. It can fit well for 10–40 Gb/s with 16 RS decoders in optical fiber systems and 2.5 Gb/s GPON applications.
From the Chartreuse Kid to the Wise Old Gnome of Tennis: Age Stereotypes as Frames Describing Andre Agassi at the U.S. Open

Communication and aging scholars have examined media portrayals of older adults but have not yet examined media representations of aging athletes. This study examines New York Times coverage of the U.S. Open, specifically focusing on how that coverage reports Andre Agassi_s age in six different years between 1990 and 2005. Factual and implied age reference categories emerged from the data.The number of age references decreased when Agassi is the typical age for competitive tennis but increased when his level of play is atypical for his age, whether too young or too old. Qualitative analysis further revealed complex and frequently stereotypical portrayals of young and old age. The results highlight how aging stereotypes functions as media frames for athletes.
Ultimate attainment in late second language acquisition: Phonetic and grammatical challenges in advanced Dutch–English bilingualism

The present article provides an exploration of ultimate attainment in second language (L2) and its limitations. It is argued that the question of maturational constraints can best be investigated when the reference population is bilingual and exposed on a regular basis to varieties of their first language (L1) that show cross-linguistic influence. To this end, 20 advanced Dutch–English bilinguals are compared to 9 English native speakers immersed in a Dutch environment. All participants are teachers or students of English at a Dutch institution of higher education. The populations are shown to be at similar global proficiency levels. Two phonetic variables (voice onset time or VOT and vowel discrimination) and one grammatical variable (verb phrase ellipsis), which are assumed to present particular challenges to Dutch learners of English, are explored, and speakers are furthermore rated for their global nativeness. The findings show no differences between populations on VOT but some variance on the production of a vowel that has no correlate in Dutch (the English trap vowel). However, all but one of the L2ers are rated outside the range of the natives on perceived foreign accent. There are also differences between groups where acceptance of different sentence types with verb phrase ellipsis are concerned. We interpret these findings to indicate that there are areas of L2 knowledge and production that are persistently difficult to acquire even under circumstances that are highly favourable for L2 acquisition.
Structured sparse ternary weight coding of deep neural networks for efficient hardware implementations

Deep neural networks (DNNs) usually demand a large amount of operations for real-time inference. Especially, fully-connected layers contain a large number of weights, thus they usually need many off-chip memory accesses for inference. We propose a weight compression method for deep neural networks, which allows values of +1 or −1 only at predetermined positions of the weights so that decoding using a table can be conducted easily. For example, the structured sparse (8,2) coding allows at most two non-zero values among eight weights. This method not only enables multiplication-free DNN implementations but also compresses the weight storage by up to x32 compared to floating-point networks. Weight distribution normalization and gradual pruning techniques are applied to mitigate the performance degradation. The experiments are conducted with fully-connected deep neural networks and convolutional neural networks.
Interactive Visualization for Singular Fibers of Functions f : R3 → R2

Scalar topology in the form of Morse theory has provided computational tools that analyze and visualize data from scientific and engineering tasks. Contracting isocontours to single points encapsulates variations in isocontour connectivity in the Reeb graph. For multivariate data, isocontours generalize to fibers-inverse images of points in the range, and this area is therefore known as fiber topology. However, fiber topology is less fully developed than Morse theory, and current efforts rely on manual visualizations. This paper presents how to accelerate and semi-automate this task through an interface for visualizing fiber singularities of multivariate functions R3→R2. This interface exploits existing conventions of fiber topology, but also introduces a 3D view based on the extension of Reeb graphs to Reeb spaces. Using the Joint Contour Net, a quantized approximation of the Reeb space, this accelerates topological visualization and permits online perturbation to reduce or remove degeneracies in functions under study. Validation of the interface is performed by assessing whether the interface supports the mathematical workflow both of experts and of less experienced mathematicians.
Sexual Violence in Relationships: Implications for Multicultural Counseling

Intimate partner sexual assault is a prevalent form of violence against women and outnumbers both stranger and acquaintance sexual assault. However, very little information is available on intimate partner sexual assault, let alone the experience and perception of different ethnicities in sexually violent relationships. To be effective, it is necessary for multiculturally competent counselors to understand the unique cultural, social, and economic experience of each couple to implement appropriate interventions.
Flexibility in Manual-Based Psychotherapies: Predictors of Therapist Interventions in Interpersonal and Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy

The goal of the current investigation was to explore the variables that predict therapist responsiveness in implementing specific therapist interventions. The authors found that therapists who were trained to adherence in manualized cognitive-behavioral (CBT) and interpersonal (IPT) psychotherapies demonstrated flexibility in the delivery of specific therapist techniques in response to specific patient characteristics and in-session therapeutic processes. Therapists used more clarifications and restatements with patients who rated the therapeutic empathy higher, more clarifications and questions with patients who rated higher on depression, and more learning statements with patients who provided more complete interpersonal narratives. Differences in responsiveness between treatment groups are discussed.
Outcome Uncertainty and Brain Activity Aberrance in the Insula and Anterior Cingulate Cortex Are Associated with Dysfunctional Impulsivity in Borderline Personality Disorder

Uncertainty is recognized as an important component in distress, which may elicit impulsive behavior in patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD). These patients are known to be both impulsive and distress intolerant. The present study explored the connection between outcome uncertainty and impulsivity in BPD. The prediction was that cue primes, which provide incomplete information of subsequent target stimuli, led BPD patients to overrate the predictive value of these cues in order to reduce distress related to outcome uncertainty. This would yield dysfunctional impulsive behavior detected as commission errors to incorrectly primed targets. We hypothesized that dysfunctional impulsivity would be accompanied by aberrant brain activity in the right insula and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), previously described to be involved in uncertainty processing, attention-/cognitive control and BPD pathology. 14 female BPD patients and 14 healthy matched controls (HCs) for comparison completed a Posner task during fMRI at 3T. The task was modified to limit the effect of spatial orientation and enhance the effect of conscious expectations. Brain activity was monitored in the priming phase where the effects of cue primes and neutral primes were compared. As predicted, the BPD group made significantly more commission errors to incorrectly primed targets than HCs. Also, the patients had faster reaction times to correctly primed targets relative to targets preceded by neutral primes. The BPD group had decreased activity in the right mid insula and increased activity in bilateral dorsal ACC during cue primes. The results indicate that strong expectations induced by cue primes led to reduced uncertainty, increased response readiness, and ultimately, dysfunctional impulsivity in BPD patients. We suggest that outcome uncertainty may be an important component in distress related impulsivity in BPD.
EMPIRICAL RESULTS ON DETERMINANTS OF ACCEPTANCE AND EMOTION ATTRIBUTION IN CONFRONTATION WITH A ROBOT RABBIT

As robots increasingly enter people's everyday lives, it becomes ever more important to explore the conditions and determinants of acceptance of human interactions with these devices. Moreover, a positive feeling associated with the interaction with robots is a precondition for the user's willingness to engage in further interactions and establish long-term relationships. This article presents empirical results from two studies that focus on the user's perception of the robot rabbit Nabaztag, a small WiFi-enabled device with movable ears, integrated RFID reader functionality, and speech-synthesis capability. In the first study, 53 participants were confronted with a range of the Nabaztag's functionality, and, using RFID cards, they interacted with the rabbit. The analysis of people's answers concerning Perceived Ease of Use and Perceived Usefulness as well as hedonic and pragmatic aspects, showed gender-accorded differences regarding the evaluation of the device. Neither the degree of familiarity with computers nor the fact of whether technical disfunctionality occurred during the trial influenced the evaluation of the robot, while ownership of a robotic toy let people evaluate the Nabaztag more positively. The second study took a more detailed observance of the effect of the rabbit's expression by its ears. In a within-subjects setting, a German (N = 100) and a U.S. American sample (N = 111) were asked to rate the rabbit's current emotional status from pictures that showed the rabbit with a variety of six different ear positions. Results indicate that people infer specific emotional states from the robot rabbit's different ear positions. Also illustrated is that observers' attribution of feelings to the rabbit depends on their cultural backgrounds. Implications and questions for future research are discussed.
Cancer risks in twins: Results from the Swedish family‐cancer database

Twin studies on cancer have addressed two general questions, one about the possible carcinogenic effects of twinning and the second about heritable effects of cancer. The first question is answered by comparing the occurrence of cancer in twins to that in singletons; the second is answered in probandwise analysis of monozygotic twins compared to dizygotic twins or siblings. We used the nationwide Swedish Family‐Cancer Database on 10.2 million individuals and 62,574 0–66‐year‐old twins to calculate standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for all main cancer compared to cancer in singletons. In probandwise analysis, the SIR was calculated for the co‐twin of an affected twin. The overall risk of cancer in same or opposite sex twins was at the level of the risk for singletons. Testicular cancer was increased among same sex twins and all twins to an SIR of 1.43. Melanoma was decreased in these groups of twins to an SIR of 0.84. Some other cancer sites were increased or decreased in some groups of twins, but none in all twins. The SIR of breast cancer was 1.01 and 1.04 in same and opposite sex twins, respectively. Probandwise analysis showed increased risks for Hodgkin's disease in males and breast cancer and childhood acute lymphoid leukemia among females. The data on this unselected population of twins suggest that twinning per se is not a risk factor of cancer. However, because twins are smaller than singletons at birth, some possible effects could be masked by such differences. In utero hormonal exposures may be related to the risk of testicular cancer. The protective effects in melanoma may be due to socioeconomic factors. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Global Estimates of Fatal Work-Related Diseases by Region and Disease Group, 2002

Abstract Work-related and occupational diseases are multifactorial diseases among the working population that have a heavy impact on workers, enterprises, and society. We calculated estimates for 2002, using global regional estimates of disease mortality, and adjusted attributable fractions produced for work-related diseases in Finland. The estimated number of fatal work-related diseases is about 2 million worldwide. The most common fatal workrelated disease groups are cancers (25%), circulatory diseases (21%), and communicable diseases (28%). Though estimates of fatal work-related diseases have some limitations, they are needed for prevention.
Polynomial-Time Approximation of the Permanent

Despite its apparent similarity to the (easily-computable) determinant, it is believed that there is no polynomial-time algorithm for computing the permanent of an arbitrary matrix. In this survey, we review the known approaches for eciently estimating the permanent and discuss their relative merits and limits. Emphasis is placed on the most successful approach to date, which is based on random sampling via Markov chains. In particular, we review the historical developments that lead to a result of Jerrum, Sinclair, and Vigoda, which states that the permanent of an arbitrary matrix with non-negative entries can be approximated in polynomial time. We describe a number of techniques that were developed for this specic problem and have since been generalized to become standard techniques in the area. We assume some familiarity with complexity classes (such as P and NP), as well as a rudimentary understanding of Markov chains.
The analysis and control method about the stop motion of Symmetric Planar Rimless Wheel on slope

Symmetric Planar Rimless Wheel (SPRW) is an important reference model of passive biped walking. Most of the researches on SPRW emphasis on the global characteristics but are lack of the detailed motion process. In this paper, the process of the stop motion of SPRW on slope and the relation between different kinds of motion form with SPRW's instinct characteristics are discussed. Furthermore, an approximate calculation method about the basin of attractions to different kinds of motion form is proposed. Finally, a control method about the stop motion of SPRW on slope is developed which is helpful to control complex Planar Rimless Wheel when it walks in the unknown environment.
Cashless and card-based technologies in gambling:A review of the literature

The aim of this report is to provide the Gambling Commission and its stakeholders with an overview of empirical evidence and other relevant literature by which to better understand the arguments for and against the introduction of cashless and card-based technologies including cashless and card-based responsible gambling features (CCRGF) to reduce problem gambling and promote responsible gambling. This report also identifies current and emerging cashless and card-based technologies, considers various approaches to regulation in other jurisdictions and identifies ongoing and planned research.
A Recombinant Influenza A Virus Expressing Domain III of West Nile Virus Induces Protective Immune Responses against Influenza and West Nile Virus

West Nile virus (WNV) continues to circulate in the USA and forms a threat to the rest of the Western hemisphere. Since methods for the treatment of WNV infections are not available, there is a need for the development of safe and effective vaccines. Here, we describe the construction of a recombinant influenza virus expressing domain III of the WNV glycoprotein E (Flu-NA-DIII) and its evaluation as a WNV vaccine candidate in a mouse model. FLU-NA-DIII-vaccinated mice were protected from severe body weight loss and mortality caused by WNV infection, whereas control mice succumbed to the infection. In addition, it was shown that one subcutaneous immunization with 105 TCID50 Flu-NA-DIII provided 100% protection against challenge. Adoptive transfer experiments demonstrated that protection was mediated by antibodies and CD4+T cells. Furthermore, mice vaccinated with FLU-NA-DIII developed protective influenza virus-specific antibody titers. It was concluded that this vector system might be an attractive platform for the development of bivalent WNV-influenza vaccines.