Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Born-Infeld gravity in any dimension

We develop a Born-Infeld type theory for gravity in any dimension. We show that in four dimensions our formalism allows a self-dual (or anti-self dual) Born-Infeld gravity description. Moreover, we show that such a self-dual action is reduced to both the Deser-Gibbons and the Jacobson-Smolin-Samuel action of Ashtekar formulation. A supersymmetric generalization of our approach is outlined.
Presenilin-1-Dependent Transcriptome Changes

Familial forms of Alzheimer's disease (FADs) are caused by the expression of mutant presenilin 1 (PS1) or presenilin 2. Using DNA microarrays, we explored the brain transcription profiles of mice with conditional knock-out of PS1 (cKO PS1) in the forebrain. In parallel, we performed a transcription profiling of the hippocampus and frontal cortex of the FAD-linked ΔE9 mutant transgenic (TG) mice and matched controls [TG mice expressing wild-type human PS1 (hPS1)]. When the TG and cKO datasets were cross-compared, the majority of the 30 common expression alterations were in opposite direction, suggesting that the FAD-linked PS1 variant produces transcriptome changes primarily by gain of aberrant function. Our microarray studies also revealed an unanticipated inverse correlation of transcript levels between the brains of mice that coexpress ΔE9 hPS1+ amyloid precursor protein (APP)695 Swe and ΔE9 hPS1 single transgenic mice. The opposite directionality of these changes in transcript levels must be a function of APP and/or APP derivatives.
A set of stabilizing PD controllers for multi-input-multi-output systems

For a multi-input multi-output (MIMO) system a set of stabilizing proportional derivative (PD) controllers was designed for each decoupled subsystem. The design approach is based on generalized result of the classical Hermite Biehler theorem. Stability analysis of the composite system with the designed set of decoupled controller parameter is studied via LMI framework. A genetic algorithm based search technique is adopted to select an optimal PD controller gain from a search space of PD stabilizing controllers. A MIMO system is considered to show the effectiveness of the design procedure.
Performance of multihop decode-and-forward relaying assisted device-to-device communication underlaying cellular networks

We investigate a performance of cooperative relaying in the device-to-device (D2D) systems underlaying cellular networks while considering power constraints on the average received-interference at the evolved NodeB (eNB). Specifically, we consider the D2D communication assisted by relays using multihop decode-and-forward (DF) strategy in interference existing circumstances. In this paper, we obtain exact closed-form expression for the CDF and the PDF of the received Signal-to-Interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) at the end user over Rayleigh flat fading channel. The end-to-end performance is investigated in terms of the maximum ergodic capacity, and the outage probability. Simulation results follow to show the performance of the system in the various propagation conditions.
Natural Language Processing at the School of Information Studies for Africa

The lack of persons trained in computational linguistic methods is a severe obstacle to making the Internet and computers accessible to people all over the world in their own languages. The paper discusses the experiences of designing and teaching an introductory course in Natural Language Processing to graduate computer science students at Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia, in order to initiate the education of computational linguists in the Horn of Africa region.
Efficient model‐free deconvolution of measured femtosecond kinetic data using a genetic algorithm

Due to the uncertainty relation between the temporal and spectral widths of a laser pulse, sufficient selectivity in excitation and detection energy does not allow much shorter pulses in a femtosecond pump‐probe experiment than about 100 fs. Many ultrafast chemical processes have comparable characteristic times, so the results of these experiments are severely distorted by convolution of the kinetic response function with the pulses used. If we do not know the underlying photochemical and kinetic model, the only way to overcome the limitation in time resolution due to convolution is to perform a model‐free deconvolution. Most existing deconvolution methods—even after specifically adapted to femtochemical experimental data (Bányász Á, Keszei E. Nonparametric deconvolution of femtosecond kinetic data. J. Phys. Chem. A 2006; 110: 6192–6207)—do not provide a smooth deconvolved data set that could be used for unbiased statistical inference. Here, we report an efficient model‐free deconvolution method that enhances temporal resolution and improves statistical inference from measured pump‐probe data, using a genetic algorithm (GA). The proposed algorithm enables to create a fairly good initial population and uses highly efficient population dynamics to result in individuals who represent excellent solutions of the deconvolution problem without noise amplification, even in the case of a sharp initial steplike rise of the signal. The treatments of both synthetic and experimental data are supporting the outstanding applicability of the proposed deconvolution method. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The COSY Project : Veri cation of GlobalSeismic Modeling Algorithms

Progress in understanding the details in the global 3-D seismic velocity structure rests on the assumption that we can accurately model seismic wave propagation (e.g. travel times, waveforms, etc.) through heterogeneous 3-D Earth models. While for spherically symmetric models (quasi-)analytical solutions are available for the veri cation of numerical algorithms this is not the case for general heterogeneous models. It is therefore desirable to establish global 3-D test models and veri ed reference seismograms, which allow us to access the accuracy of these algorithms in a quantitative way. Prior to a workshop held on this issue at the 1997 IASPEI Meeting, a 3-D test model was handed out to various groups and synthetic seismograms returned. This workshop was the initiation of the COSY Project (COmparison of global SYnthetic seismogram techniques) which aims at establishing a a WWW page (http://www.itg.cam.ac.uk/COSY) where the test models and seismograms as well as some of the used algorithms can be accessed. In this paper, we study the accuracy of and compare solutions from di erent numerical methods for a spherically symmetric model and the 3-D test model. Our 3-D test model perturbation of the spherically symmetric background model (PREM) is based on a (scaled) temperature eld from numerical mantle convection modelling. The model displays many features common in recent seismic tomographic images. We suggest that in addition to (future) 3-D reference Earth Models, veri ed reference synthetic seismograms should be established along with it.
A method for designing proximity-aware routing algorithms for structured overlays

In many structured overlays, nodes strictly maintain their routing tables using node identifiers. However, building routing tables while taking account of the physical network is difficult. We propose proximity-aware flexible routing tables (PFRT) in this paper as a method to systematically design proximity-aware routing algorithms for structured overlays. PFRT was developed by extending the flexible routing tables (FRT) method such that network proximity is considered. Routing tables in FRT-and PFRT-based algorithms are updated according to the order of the set of all routing table patterns. FRT-based algorithms define a total order based on node identifiers, whereas PFRT-based algorithms define two total orders based on node identifiers and network proximity. Because PFRT is a simple extension of FRT, PFRT-based algorithms also have many of the advantageous features of FRT. We extended Chord to design PFRT-Chord, which is a PFRT-based algorithm. Experimental results showed that PFRT-Chord preserves the expected FRT-derived properties and it could take account of network proximity.
Variable-order fractional equivalent circuit model for lithium-ion batteries

Battery models play important roles in battery manufacturing, design, safe operation, and many of its applications, such as in providing power sources of electric vehicles due to the high energy density, long life, and high cell voltage. Unlike the detection of impedance spectrum in a short linear interval, the I-V characteristic of lithium-ion batteries presents strongly nonlinearity such as the serious polarization in both ends of charging /discharging. To modeling the nonlinear characteristic of real battery accurately, this paper proposes a variable-order fractional equivalent circuit model that provides a novel and effective trade-off of model accuracy and simplicity. The proposed method is verified under the working conditions of pulse and constant current charging /discharging, where the maximum model error is less than 1.8%.
Integrating Boundary Cue with Superpixel for Image Segmentation

This paper researches image segmentation as a global optimization problem and proposes a new way, which is called super pixel status model, to integrate boundary and region cue. Super pixel status model is a label model which describes the joint distribution of boundary and region classification in a bayesian framework. For organizing a boundary classifier, the contour of super pixel is decomposed into multiple line segments, and a robust line descriptor is presented to form line feature vector. Finally, an objective function is defined to assemble all super pixels statuses across the entire image for segmentation. Experiments and results show that the effectiveness of our approach.
The Implicit Positive and Negative Affect Test: Validity and Relationship with Cardiovascular Stress-Responses

Self-report, i.e., explicit, measures of affect cannot fully explain the cardiovascular (CV) responses to stressors. Measuring affect beyond self-report, i.e., using implicit measures, could add to our understanding of stress-related CV activity. The Implicit Positive and Negative Affect Test (IPANAT) was administered in two studies to test its ecological validity and relation with CV responses and self-report measures of affect. In Study 1 students (N = 34) viewed four film clips inducing anger, happiness, fear, or no emotion, and completed the IPANAT and the Positive And Negative Affect Scale at baseline and after each clip. Implicit negative affect (INA) was higher and implicit positive affect (IPA) was lower after the anger inducing clip and vice versa after the happiness inducing clip. In Study 2 students performed a stressful math task with (n = 14) or without anger harassment (n = 15) and completed the IPANAT and a Visual Analog Scale as an explicit measure afterwards. Systolic (SBP), diastolic (DBP) blood pressure, heart rate (HR), heart rate variability (HRV), and total peripheral resistance (TPR) were recorded throughout. SBP and DBP were higher and TPR was lower in the harassment condition during the task with a prolonged effect on SBP and DBP during recovery. As expected, explicit negative affect (ENA) was higher and explicit positive affect (EPA) lower after harassment, but ENA and EPA were not related to CV activity. Although neither INA nor IPA differed between the tasks, during both tasks higher INA was related to higher SBP, lower HRV and lower TPR and to slower recovery of DBP after both tasks. Low IPA was related to slower recovery of SBP and DBP after the tasks. Implicit affect was not related to recovery of HR, HRV, and TPR. In conclusion, the IPANAT seems to respond to film clip-induced negative and positive affect and was related to CV activity during and after stressful tasks. These findings support the theory that implicitly measured affect can add to the explanation of prolonged stress-related CV responses that influence CV health.
Retrograde and anterograde object recognition in rats with hippocampal lesions

Retrograde and anterograde object‐recognition memory was assessed in rats with cytotoxic lesions of the hippocampal formation (HPC), using a paradigm based on the natural tendency of rats to spend more time exploring novel objects than familiar objects. The rats were allowed to explore a sample object for 5 min/day on 5 consecutive days, either 5 weeks or 1 week before surgery. After surgery, retrograde recognition was assessed by comparing the amount of time spent exploring the sample versus a novel object in a free‐choice situation. Control rats spent more time exploring the novel object than the sample objects from both presurgery time periods, whereas rats with HPC lesions did not discriminate between the novel objects and sample objects from either presurgery time period. Despite their deficits on the retrograde recognition test, the rats with HPC lesions performed like control rats on anterograde recognition tests, displaying a strong exploratory preference for novel objects over sample objects, with retention delays of either 15 min or 24 h. The findings suggest that extrahippocampal circuitry is capable of supporting object recognition, but only if the HPC does not participate in encoding the original encounter with the object. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Insights into the Mechanisms Underlying Ultraviolet-C Induced Resveratrol Metabolism in Grapevine (V. amurensis Rupr.) cv. “Tonghua-3”

Stilbene compounds belong to a family of secondary metabolites that are derived from the phenylpropanoid pathway. Production of the stilbene phytoalexin, resveratrol, in grape (Vitis spp.) berries is known to be induced by ultraviolet-C radiation (UV-C), which has numerous regulatory effects on plant physiology. While previous studies have described changes in gene expression caused by UV-C light in several plant species, such information has yet to be reported for grapevine. We investigated both the resveratrol content and gene expression responses of berries from V. amurensis cv. Tonghua-3 following UV-C treatment, to accelerate research into resveratrol metabolism. Comparative RNA-Seq profiling of UV-C treated and untreated grape berries resulted in the identification of a large number of differentially expressed genes. Gene ontology (GO) term classification and biochemical pathway analyses suggested that UV-C treatment caused changes in various cellular processes, as well as in both hormone and secondary metabolism. The data further indicate that UV-C induced increases in resveratrol may be related to the transcriptional regulation of genes involved in the production of secondary metabolites and signaling, as well as several transcription factors. We also observed that following UV-C treatment, 22 stilbene synthase (STS) genes exhibited increases in their expression levels and a VaSTS promoter drove the expression of the GUS reporter gene when expressed in tobacco. We therefore propose that UV-C induction of VaSTS expression is an important factor in promoting resveratrol accumulation. This transcriptome data set provides new insight into the response of grape berries to UV-C treatment, and suggests candidate genes, or promoter activity of related genes, that could be used in future functional and molecular biological studies of resveratrol metabolism.
Efficient database pruning for large-scale cover song recognition

This paper focuses on cover song recognition over a large dataset, potentially containing millions of songs. At this time, the problem of cover song recognition is still challenging and only few methods have been proposed on large scale databases. We present an efficient method for quickly extracting a small subset from a large database in which a correspondence to an audio query should be found. We make use of fast rejectors based on independent audio features. Our method mixes independent rejectors together to build composite ones. We evaluate our system with the Million Song Dataset and we present composite rejectors offering a good trade-off between the percentage of pruning and the percentage of loss.
Isomap Algorithm Based on 2D Gabor Wavelets and 2DPCA

Compared with gray feature, the Gabor feature is more effective for facial image representation. But in practice, the dimension of a Gabor feature is so high that the computation is prohibitively large. In this paper, We use the two-dimensional principal component analysis? 2DPCA? to reduce the dimension and then replace the original gray feature with the Gabor feature vector of reduced dimension as the front-end input of traditional Isometric Mapping(Isomap) algorithm. The validity of this method can be verified by experimental results.
Designing, Implementing, and Evaluating a School-Based Literacy Program for Adolescent Learners With Reading Difficulties: A Mixed-Methods Study

Abstract This 12-week mixed-methods study examined an 8th-grade English language arts curriculum designed to increase participants’ (N = 62) reading comprehension and reading motivation. Data consisted of demographic information, pre/post standardized reading comprehension scores, reading motivation survey scores, and participants’ periodic semistructured written reflections. We used the quantitative data to describe changes in reading comprehension and reading motivation and found a significant increase in participants’ scores. The qualitative data on participants’ experiences revealed several constructs directly related to evidence-based theoretical and practical research in the field of adolescent literacy as well as several emergent themes related to implementation. The results suggest improvements in participants’ reading comprehension and reading motivation through the implementation of an English language arts curriculum embodying social constructivism and cognitive theories with embedded research-based instructional practices supporting adolescent learning: explicit strategy instruction; text-based collaborative practices; and a partnership among a researcher, literacy specialist, and novice teacher.
How to Add Threads to a Sequential Language Without Getting Tangled Up

It is possible to integrate Scheme-style first-class continuations and threads in a systematic way. We expose the design choices, discuss their consequences, and present semantical frameworks that specify the behavior of Scheme programs in the presence of threads. While the issues concerning the addition of threads to Schemelike languages are not new, many questions have remained open. Among the pertinent issues are the exact relationship between continuations and the call-with-current-continuation primitive, the interaction between threads, first-class continuations, and dynamic-wind, the semantics of dynamic binding in the presence of threads, and the semantics of thread-local store. Clarifying these issues is important because the design decisions related to them have profound effects on the programmer’s ability to write modular
Kinetic analysis of T7 RNA polymerase-promoter interactions with small synthetic promoters.

Specific interactions between T7 RNA polymerase and its promoter have been studied by a simple steady-state kinetic assay using synthetic oligonucleotide promoters that produce a short five-base message. A series of promoters with upstream lengths extending to promoter positions -19, -17, -14, and -12 show that promoters extending to -19 and -17 produce very specific transcripts with initiation rate constant Kcat = 50 min-1 and a Michaelis constant Km = 0.02 microM, indicating that the consensus sequence to position -17 is sufficient for maximum promoter usage. Shortening the upstream region of the promoter to -14 substantially increases Km (0.3 microM) but does not significantly reduce the maximum velocity (kcat = 30 min-1). Finally, truncation of the promoter at position -12 results in extremely low levels of specific transcription. The coding and noncoding strands appear to make different contributions to promoter recognition. Although the double-stranded promoter of upstream length -12 is very poor as a transcription template, extension of only the noncoding strand to -17 very significantly improves both Kcat and Km. In contrast, extension of only the coding strand results in no significant improvement. Substitution of an AT base pair at position -10 by CG (as found in T3 RNA polymerase promoters) produces a 10-fold increase in Km, with little effect on Kcat. Comparison of two promoters containing a base pair mismatch at this site (AG or CT) demonstrates that promoter recognition is very sensitive to the nature of the base on the noncoding strand and is only slightly affected by the presence of a mismatch created by a wrong base in the coding strands. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
A Minimum Relative Entropy Controller for Undiscounted Markov Decision Processes

Adaptive control problems are notoriously difficult to solve even in the presence of plant-specific controllers. One way to by-pass the intractable computation of the optimal policy is to restate the adaptive control as the minimization of the relative entropy of a controller that ignores the true plant dynamics from an informed controller. The solution is given by the Bayesian control rule-a set of equations characterizing a stochastic adaptive controller for the class of possible plant dynamics. Here, the Bayesian control rule is applied to derive BCR-MDP, a controller to solve undiscounted Markov decision processes with finite state and action spaces and unknown dynamics. In particular, we derive a non-parametric conjugate prior distribution over the policy space that encapsulates the agent's whole relevant history and we present a Gibbs sampler to draw random policies from this distribution. Preliminary results show that BCR-MDP successfully avoids sub-optimal limit cycles due to its built-in mechanism to balance exploration versus exploitation.
Differences in the action and metabolism between retinol and retinoic acid in B lymphocytes

We have previously reported on the dependency of activated B lymphocytes for retinol. Here we confirm and extend these findings that cells deprived of retinol perish in cell culture within days, displaying neither signs of apoptosis nor of cell cycle arrest. Cell death can be prevented by physiological concentrations of retinol and retinal, but not by retinoic acid or three synthetic retinoic acid analogues. To exclude the possibility that retinoic acid is so rapidly degraded as to escape detection, we have tested its stability in intra- and extracellular compartments. Contrary to expectation, we find that retinoic acid persists for longer (t 1/2 3 d) in cultures than retinol (t 1/2 1 d). Furthermore, despite the use of sensitive trace-labeling techniques, we cannot detect retinoic acid or 3,4-didehydroretinoic acid among retinol metabolites. However, retinol is converted into several new retinoids, one of which has the ability to sustain B cell growth in the absence of an external source of retinol, supporting the notion of a second retinol pathway. We have also determined which of the known retinoid-binding proteins are expressed in B lymphoblastoid cells. According to results obtained with polymerase chain reaction- assisted mRNA detection, they transcribe the genes for cellular retinol- and cellular retinoic acid-binding proteins, for the nuclear retinoic acid receptors, RAR-alpha, -gamma, and RXR-alpha, but not RAR-beta. Our findings that B cells do not synthesize retinoic acid or respond to exogenous retinoic acid on the one hand, but on the other hand convert retinol to a novel bioactive form of retinol, suggest the existence of a second retinoid pathway, distinct from that of retinoic acids.