Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
1 2 M ay 2 00 9 Self-organization without conservation ( I ) : true or just apparent scale-invariance ?

The existence of true scale-invariance in models of self-organized criticality without a conservation law, as forest-fires or earthquake automata, is scrutinized in this paper. By using three different levels of description-(i) a simple mean field, (ii) a more detailed mean-field description in terms of a (self-organized) branching processes, and (iii) a full stochastic representation in terms of a Langevin equation-, it is shown on general grounds that non-conserving dynamics does not lead to bona fide criticality. Contrarily to conserving systems, a parameter, which we term " recharging " rate (e.g. the tree-growth rate in forest-fire models), needs to be fine-tuned in non-conserving systems to obtain criticality. In the infinite size limit, such a fine-tuning of the loading rate is easy to achieve, as it emerges by imposing a second separation of timescales but, for any finite size, a precise tuning is required to achieve criticality and a coherent finite-size scaling picture. Using the approaches above, we shed light on the common mechanisms by which " apparent criticality " is observed in non-conserving systems, and explain in detail (both qualitatively and quantitatively) the difference with respect to true criticality obtained in conserving systems. We propose to call this self-organized quasi-criticality (SOqC). Some of the reported results are already known and some of them are new. We hope the unified framework presented here helps to elucidate the confusing and contradictory literature in this field. In a second accompanying paper, we shall discuss the implications of the general results obtained here for models of neural avalanches in Neuroscience for which self-organized scale-invariance in the absence of conservation has been claimed.
Towards Automated Property Discovery within Hume

Hume is a Turing-complete programming language, designed to guarantee space and time bounds whilst still working on a high-level. Formal properties of Hume programs, such as invariants and transformations, have previously been verified using the temporal logic of actions (TLA). TLA properties are verified in an inductive way, which often requires lemma discovery or generalisations. Rippling was developed for guiding inductive proofs, and supports lemmas and generalisation discovery through proof critics. In this paper we show how rippling and proof critics can be used in the verification of Hume invariants represented in TLA. Our approach is based on existing work on the problem of verifying and discovering loop invariants for an imperative program. We then extend this work to Hume program transformations.
When work comes home: technology-related pressure and home support

ABSTRACT Given the prevalence of workers bringing work home, issues arising from this practice are a central concern of human resource development (HRD) researchers and practitioners. This study investigates factors related to home boundary permeability (the extent to which one’s home domain is interrupted by work-related matters). Specifically, we examine the impact of technology-related pressure on home boundary permeability, and test both positive and negative consequences of home boundary permeability, along with the role of home support. Based on quantitative data from 267 full-time employees in the Midwestern United States, we found technology-related pressure predicted home boundary permeability, even after accounting for a person’s preference for work–home segmentation. Our findings suggest that high home boundary permeability may be a double-edged sword as it was significantly associated with both greater work-to-home conflict and positive spillover. Further, home support was found to play a buffering role in the relationship between home boundary permeability and work-to-home conflict. Suggestions for how HRD and management practitioners can help employees achieve a healthy balance between work and home are offered.
Investigation of enzyme-sensitive lipid nanoparticles for delivery of siRNA to blood–brain barrier and glioma cells

Clinical applications of siRNA for treating disorders in the central nervous system require development of systemic stable, safe, and effective delivery vehicles that are able to cross the impermeable blood–brain barrier (BBB). Engineering nanocarriers with low cellular interaction during systemic circulation, but with high uptake in targeted cells, is a great challenge and is further complicated by the BBB. As a first step in obtaining such a delivery system, this study aims at designing a lipid nanoparticle (LNP) able to efficiently encapsulate siRNA by a combination of titratable cationic lipids. The targeted delivery is obtained through the design of a two-stage system where the first step is conjugation of angiopep to the surface of the LNP for targeting the low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein-1 expressed on the BBB. Second, the positively charged LNPs are masked with a negatively charged PEGylated (poly(ethylene glycol)) cleavable lipopeptide, which contains a recognition sequence for matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), a class of enzymes often expressed in the tumor microenvironment and inflammatory BBB conditions. Proteolytic cleavage induces PEG release, including the release of four glutamic acid residues, providing a charge switch that triggers a shift of the LNP charge from weakly negative to positive, thus favoring cellular endocytosis and release of siRNA for high silencing efficiency. This work describes the development of this two-stage nanocarrier-system and evaluates the performance in brain endothelial and glioblastoma cells with respect to uptake and gene silencing efficiency. The ability of activation by MMP-triggered dePEGylation and charge shift is demonstrated to substantially increase the uptake and the silencing efficiency of the LNPs.
Aplikasi Katalis dalam Mengkonversi Limbah Plastik Menjadi Energi

Sampai dengan saat ini sampah masih menjadi masalah utama di negara-negara di dunia, termasuk Indonesia. Dari semua jenis sampah yang ada saat ini, sampah yang berasal dari plastik ternyata jumlahnya cukup besar. Karena dianggap lebih praktis dan ekonomis, hampir semua aktifitas baik rumah tangga, industri maupun perdagangan selalu menggunakan plastik. Padahal dibalik besarnya fungsi dan manfaatnya juga terdapat bahaya yang sangat besar pula. Berbagai usaha telah dilakukan untuk mengurangi limbah plastik tersebut. Salah satunya adalah mengkonversi limbah plastik menjadi sumber energi. Para peneliti di seluruh dunia telah membuktikan keberhasilan usaha tersebut. Pada kajian ini, dipaparkan beberapa metode yang telah diteliti oleh para peneliti dalam mengkonversi limbah plastik, diantaranya adalah pirolisis ( thermal cracking ), hydrocracking dan hidroisomerisasi. Selain metode proses, jenis katalis yang digunakan dalam proses mempengaruhi tinggi rendahnya komposisi produk yang dihasilkan. Dengan dikembangkannya metode tersebut, limbah plastik yang selama ini masih menjadi permasalahan serius di masyarakat dapat menjadi sesuatu yang bermafaat bagi kepentingan manusia dan lingkungan.
A Model Based on Fuzzy Linguistic Information to Evaluate the Quality of Digital Libraries

The Web is changing the information access processes and it is one of the most important information media. Thus, the developments on the Web are having a great influence over the developments on others information access instruments as digital libraries. As the development of digital libraries is to satisfy user need, user satisfaction is essential for the success of a digital library. The aim of this paper is to present a model based on fuzzy linguistic information to evaluate the quality of digital libraries. The quality evaluation of digital libraries is defined using users' perceptions on the quality of digital services provided through their Websites. We assume a fuzzy linguistic modeling to represent the users' perception and apply automatic tools of fuzzy computing with words based on the LOWA and LWA operators to compute global quality evaluations of digital libraries. Additionally, we show an example of application of this model where three Spanish academic digital libraries are evaluated by fifty users.
What Is Speciation and How Should We Study It?

To understand speciation, we first need to know what species are. Yet debates over species concepts have seemed endless, with little obvious relevance to the study of speciation. Recently, there has been progress in resolving these debates, favoring a lineage‐based, evolutionary species concept. This progress calls for reconsideration of the study of speciation. Traditional speciation research based on the biological species concept has led to great advances in understanding how nonallopatric speciation occurs and how species diverge and remain separate from each other. However, this research has neglected the question of how new species arise in the first place for the most common geographic mode (allopatric). A new and very different research program is needed to understand the ecological and evolutionary processes that split an ancestral species into new allopatric lineages. This research program will connect speciation to many other fundamental questions in evolutionary biology, ecology, biogeography, and conservation biology.
Undescended testis – current trends and guidelines: a review of the literature

The best mode of undescended testis (UDT) treatment remains controversial. However, knowledge gained from randomized controlled studies and meta-analyses allowed different groups of researchers to set out guidelines on management of patients with UDT. The authors reviewed recent literature and came to the following conclusions: (1) Hormonal treatment is not recommended, considering both the immediate results (only 15–20% of retained testes descend) and the possible long-term adverse effects on spermatogenesis. (2) Surgery is the treatment of choice; orchiopexy is successful in about 95% of UDT, with a low rate of complications (about 1%). (3) Orchiopexy should be performed between 12 and 18 months of age, or at first contact if diagnosed later.
Suboptimal Event-based Control of Linear Systems over Lossy Channels

Abstract The emergence of networked control systems urges the joint consideration of control and communications. It is well known that event-based controllers outperform standard time-triggered designs, when the transmission rate is constrained. This paper considers the design of suboptimal event-based controllers in the presence of packet loss and delayed acknowledgement for linear stochastic systems. The design objective consists of a quadratic cost reflecting the control performance and a communication penalty term. Based on various restrictions on the control design, optimal solutions within the corresponding class of event-based controller are derived. A numerical validation illustrates the effectiveness of the proposed event-triggers and gives a comparison to the optimal time-triggered controller.
TRUST CONCEPTUALIZED AS A

To most individuals, “trust” can be viewed as a knowledge corporate asset that may add, or rest, value to the company. The role of knowledge in achieving a competitive advantage is becoming an increasingly important management issue in all business and non-business sectors. As such, our Throughput Modeling approach indicates how six different trust behaviors can be guided, how trust decision making can be improved and made defensible, and how special problems facing individuals can be dealt with via decision-making pathways leading to an action.
A pose space for squash and stretch deformation

`Squash & Stretch' is a fundamental technique in traditional animation, in which the shape of a character or object is intentionally distorted in order to accentuate its movement. Unfortunately the fluid deformation required by the squash & stretch technique is difficult to achieve using current tools, because the development of computer graphics algorithms has been largely driven by the goal of producing photo-realistic images and movement. We contribute a novel technique in which the squash & stretch effect can be introduced and controlled simply by specifying examples of the desired effect at any point along an animation timeline. The examples are associated with the pose of the model, where `pose' is defined as selected parameters of the underlying animation such as position, velocity, and acceleration. Unlike keyframe animation, which would require a squash or stretch to be specified every time that it occurs, our approach automatically produces the desired effect whenever the pose of the model approaches one of the trained poses. And unlike rigging-based approaches, which require the artist to specify various weight and expressions, our approach allows the desired deformations to be produced simply by sculpting them.
Robust semi-supervised nonnegative matrix factorization

Nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF), which aims at finding parts-based representations of nonnegative data, has been widely applied to a range of applications such as data clustering, pattern recognition and computer vision. Real-world data are often sparse and noisy which may reduce the accuracy of representations. And a small portion of data may have prior label information, which, if utilized, can improve the discriminability of representations. In this paper, we propose a robust semi-supervised nonnegative matrix factorization (RSSN-MF) approach which takes all factors above into consideration. RSSNMF incorporates the label information as an additional constraint to guarantee that the data with the same label have the same representation. It addresses the sparsity of data and accommodates noises and outliers consistently via L2,1-norm. An iterative updating optimization scheme is derived to solve RSSNMF's objective function. We have proven the convergence of this optimization scheme by utilizing auxiliary function method and the correctness based on the Karush-Kohn-Tucker condition of optimization theory. Experiments carried on well-known data sets demonstrate the effectiveness of RSSNMF in comparison to other existing state-of-the-art approaches in terms of accuracy and normalized mutual information.
Answering Questions with Complex Semantic Constraints on Open Knowledge Bases

A knowledge-based question-answering system (KB-QA) is one that answers natural language questions with information stored in a large-scale knowledge base (KB). Existing KB-QA systems are either powered by curated KBs in which factual knowledge is encoded in entities and relations with well-structured schemas, or by open KBs, which contain assertions represented in the form of triples (e.g., subject; relation phrase; argument). We show that both approaches fall short in answering questions with complex prepositional or adverbial constraints. We propose using n-tuple assertions, which are assertions with an arbitrary number of arguments, and n-tuple open KB (nOKB), which is an open knowledge base of n-tuple assertions. We present TAQA, a novel KB-QA system that is based on an nOKB and illustrate via experiments how TAQA can effectively answer complex questions with rich semantic constraints. Our work also results in a new open KB containing 120M n-tuple assertions and a collection of 300 labeled complex questions, which is made publicly available for further research.
Streamlining collection of training samples for object detection and classification in video

This paper is concerned with object recognition and detection in computer vision. Many promising approaches in the field exploit the knowledge contained in a collection of manually annotated training samples. In the resulting paradigm, the recognition algorithm is automatically constructed by some machine learning technique. It has been shown that the quantity and quality of positive and negative training samples is critical for good performance of such approaches. However, collecting the samples requires tedious manual effort which is expensive in time and prone to error. In this paper we present design and implementation of a software system which addresses these problems. The system supports an iterative approach whereby the current state-of-the-art detection and recognition algorithms are used to streamline the collection of additional training samples. The presented experiments have been performed in the frame of a research project aiming at automatic detection and recognition of traffic signs in video.
SINR Estimation in Limited Feedback Coordinated Multipoint Systems

Coordinated multipoint (CoMP) transmission can provide high spectral efficiency for cellular systems if perfect channels are available. In limited feedback systems, except for channel direction, signal-to-noise-plus-interference ratio (SINR) is necessary to assist in user scheduling and adaptive transmission. When the methods to estimate SINR in single-cell systems is applied to CoMP systems, the performance will significantly degrade. In this paper, we estimate the SINR for downlink CoMP systems. We start by showing that the quantization error vector is no longer isotropic when quantizing CoMP channels. This implies that the vector has an inherent structure. We proceed to formulate an optimization problem to find the quantization error vector that maximizes the multiuser interference power under the structure constraint. This way, we can exploit the nonisotropic nature of the quantization error vector and avoid overestimating the SINR. Simulation results show that the proposed method provides high throughput and low outage probability with negligible extra feedback overhead.
Dialogical leadership : Dialogue as Condition Zero

Organizations are confronted with enormous leadership challenges. Experts around the world formulate the greatest leadership challenges as being able to cope with deep complexity, global interconnectedness and continuous change ‘wicked problems’. This type of leadership issues needs a dialogic approach. This means high expectations of leadership, as many of our current leaders are trained in dialectical management skills. As leadership is relational and contextual, it is created and sustained through discourse. In this article we explore the role of dialoguing in ‘wicked problems’. We argue that the role of dialogue cannot be overestimated, in particular regarding ethics and authenticity.
The Bridges with Unseating Prevention Devices Analyzed through Nonlinear Time History Analysis and Hilbert-Huang Transform

In this paper, the mechanical behaviors of bridges with unseating prevention devices in the superstructure were investigated. These devices can prevent bridge from unseating and divert most of the seismic forces from transferring to the bridge columns. The models of the rubber bearing, restrainer, and shear key were proposed and implemented into the SAP 2000 to obtain the seismic response of the bridge. The nonlinear time history analysis was used to determine the time history response of the superstructure of the bridge. In the meantime, the Hilbert–Huang Transform (HHT) was used to transfer the displacement–time responses of the superstructure of the bridge into the time–frequency domain, while the spectra are a function of both frequency and time. The spectra of the HHT can be used to determine the operation sequences of the unseating prevention devices.
The Design and Simulation of an Adaptive Dispersive Mobile Ad Hoc Routing Protocol

Most Ad Hoc routing protocol select route based on shortest path mechanism, which do not take network load into consideration and may lead to congestion in the path selected, the lifetime of network nodes will be reduced. This paper puts forward an adaptive dispersive mobile Ad Hoc routing protocol(ADMAR) ,which can disperse the network load reasonably, and reduce the possibility of occurrence of network hotpot.This paper also simulate this protocol through OPNET.
Do the Levels of Maternal Plasma Trace Elements Affect Fetal Nuchal Translucency Thickness?

Objective Fetal nuchal translucency (NT) thickness is an important marker for prenatal screening; however, studies focusing on the correlation between maternal trace element levels and NT thickness are limited. The aim of this study was to evaluate maternal trace element levels during the first trimester and to investigate the association between maternal trace element levels and fetal NT thickness. Methods In total, 113 samples were obtained from singleton pregnant women. Maternal plasma samples were collected in the first trimester of gestation. Plasma trace element levels were measured using Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS). Nuchal translucency thickness was measured using ultrasonography at 10–14 weeks of gestation. Results We found that maternal plasma potassium (K) levels had a significant negative correlation with both NT (r = -0.230, p < 0.05) and NT Multiples of the Median (NT MoM) (r = -0.206, p < 0.05). After adjustment for potential confounders, log-transformed maternal plasma potassium levels in the first trimester were significantly associated with fetal NT (NT MoM: β = -0.68, p < 0.05; NT: β = -1.20, p < 0.01). Although not statistically significant, the As, Hg and Pb levels in maternal plasma were positively correlated with NT, and the Mg, Cu, Zn, Na and Ca levels were negatively correlated with NT. Conclusion Maternal plasma K levels during the first trimester appeared to be associated with NT thickness. The essential elements tended to decrease NT thickness, and non-essential elements tended to increase it.
Otoferlin Couples to Clathrin-Mediated Endocytosis in Mature Cochlear Inner Hair Cells

The encoding of auditory information with indefatigable precision requires efficient resupply of vesicles at inner hair cell (IHC) ribbon synapses. Otoferlin, a transmembrane protein responsible for deafness in DFNB9 families, has been postulated to act as a calcium sensor for exocytosis as well as to be involved in rapid vesicle replenishment of IHCs. However, the molecular basis of vesicle recycling in IHCs is largely unknown. In the present study, we used high-resolution liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry to copurify otoferlin interaction partners in the mammalian cochlea. We identified multiple subunits of the adaptor protein complex AP-2 (CLAP), an essential component of clathrin-mediated endocytosis, as binding partners of otoferlin in rats and mice. The interaction between otoferlin and AP-2 was confirmed by coimmunoprecipitation. We also found that AP-2 interacts with myosin VI, another otoferlin binding partner important for clathrin-mediated endocytosis (CME). The expression of AP-2 in IHCs was verified by reverse transcription PCR. Confocal microscopy experiments revealed that the expression of AP-2 and its colocalization with otoferlin is confined to mature IHCs. When CME was inhibited by blocking dynamin action, real-time changes in membrane capacitance showed impaired synaptic vesicle replenishment in mature but not immature IHCs. We suggest that an otoferlin-AP-2 interaction drives Ca2+- and stimulus-dependent compensating CME in mature IHCs.