Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Towards Scaleable Self-Governance through Situated Cognitive Systems: Utilising Deliberative Logic to Provide an Encompassing Epistemic Layer

A knowledge meta-system, to include and encompass a complex system, is proposed as a deliberative cognitive structure to enable self-governance and autonomic management. It is shown how, using a propositional sentential account of system epistemology via an observer model with known metrics and dimensions, as signatures for self-organising behaviour, associated with large scale networks, may be used to infer behaviour. Finally it is demonstrated how such a system can control and determine the type of evolving networks through an example generic network building example
Tubular Structure Induced by a Plant Virus Facilitates Viral Spread in Its Vector Insect

Rice dwarf virus (RDV) replicates in and is transmitted by a leafhopper vector in a persistent-propagative manner. Previous cytopathologic and genetic data revealed that tubular structures, constructed by the nonstructural viral protein Pns10, contain viral particles and are directly involved in the intercellular spread of RDV among cultured leafhopper cells. Here, we demonstrated that RDV exploited these virus-containing tubules to move along actin-based microvilli of the epithelial cells and muscle fibers of visceral muscle tissues in the alimentary canal, facilitating the spread of virus in the body of its insect vector leafhoppers. In cultured leafhopper cells, the knockdown of Pns10 expression due to RNA interference (RNAi) induced by synthesized dsRNA from Pns10 gene strongly inhibited tubule formation and prevented the spread of virus among insect vector cells. RNAi induced after ingestion of dsRNA from Pns10 gene strongly inhibited formation of tubules, preventing intercellular spread and transmission of the virus by the leafhopper. All these results, for the first time, show that a persistent-propagative virus exploits virus-containing tubules composed of a nonstructural viral protein to traffic along actin-based cellular protrusions, facilitating the intercellular spread of the virus in the vector insect. The RNAi strategy and the insect vector cell culture provide useful tools to investigate the molecular mechanisms enabling efficient transmission of persistent-propagative plant viruses by vector insects.
Context-Sensitive Statistics For Improved Grammatical Language Models

We develop a language model using probabilistic context-free grammars (PCFGs) that is "pseudo context-sensitive" in that the probability that a nonterminal N expands using a rule r depends on N's parent. We give the equations for estimating the necessary probabilities using a variant of the inside-outside algorithm. We give experimental results showing that, beginning with a high-performance PCFG, one can develop a pseudo PCSG that yields significant performance gains. Analysis shows that the benefits from the context-sensitive statistics are localized, suggesting that we can use them to extend the original PCFG. Experimental results confirm that this is both feasible and the resulting grammar retains the performance gains. This implies that our scheme may be useful as a novel method for PCFG induction.
Long-term effectiveness of aripiprazole in adolescents and young adults with bipolar disorder: A naturalistic study

Abstract Objective. The purpose of this study was to investigate the long-term effectiveness of aripiprazole in Taiwanese samples of adolescents and young adults with bipolar disorders. Methods. This investigation comprises a 24-week, observational, prospective study. A total of 28 patients with bipolar I disorder, diagnosed using the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview, were administered aripiprazole. Effectiveness was assessed by the change from the baseline in Clinical Global Impression Scale (CGI), Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) and The World Health Organization Quality of Life questionnaire (WHOQOL). Results. The sample comprised 19 males and nine females with a mean (SD) age of 18.5 (3.3) years. The diagnosis was bipolar I disorder with manic (n = 8), depressive (n = 6) and mixed (n = 14) episodes. Eighteen patients (64.3%) discontinued aripiprazole prematurely. The CGI severity, BPRS total score improved significantly from the baseline to the endpoint. Conclusion. Aripiprazole led to clinically meaningful improvement of global symptoms in adolescents and young adults with bipolar disorder. However, discontinuation of medication within 6 months was high. Whether aripiparzole benefits patients with manic episodes more than those with depressive or mixed episodes warrants further investigation.
Small-depth counting networks

Generalizing the notion of a sorting network, Aspnes, Herlihy, and Shavit recently introduced a class ofso-called “counting” networks, and established an 0(lg2n) upper bound on the depth complexity of such networks. Their work was motivated byanumberofpractical applications arising inthe domain of asynchronous shared memory machines. This paper continues the analysis of counting networks, providing a number of new upper bounds. In particular, we present an explicit construction of an O(c]g” ~ lg n)depth counting network, a randomized construction of an O(lg n)-depth network (that works with extremely high probability), and using the random construction we present an existential proof of a deterministic o(lg n)-depth network, The latter result matches the trivial Q(lg n)-depth lower bound to within a constant factor.
Depressed pacemaker activity of sinoatrial node myocytes contributes to the age-dependent decline in maximum heart rate

Significance Maximum heart rate (mHR) declines with age, contributing to the reduced aerobic capacity of the elderly. A parallel reduction in "intrinsic heart rate" (which is measured during autonomic blockade) underlies the decline in mHR, and indicates that pacemaker function of the sinoatrial node is compromised during aging. In this study we demonstrate that the slower heart rates in the elderly result from depressed spontaneous activity of individual sinoatrial node myocytes (SAMs). Patch-clamp electrophysiology revealed that aged SAMs have slowed AP firing rates, altered AP waveforms, and changed properties of Ca2+ currents and the cardiac "funny current,"If. Our findings demonstrate that age-dependent changes ion channel activity in SAMs are a major cause of the decline in mHR during aging. An inexorable decline in maximum heart rate (mHR) progressively limits human aerobic capacity with advancing age. This decrease in mHR results from an age-dependent reduction in “intrinsic heart rate” (iHR), which is measured during autonomic blockade. The reduced iHR indicates, by definition, that pacemaker function of the sinoatrial node is compromised during aging. However, little is known about the properties of pacemaker myocytes in the aged sinoatrial node. Here, we show that depressed excitability of individual sinoatrial node myocytes (SAMs) contributes to reductions in heart rate with advancing age. We found that age-dependent declines in mHR and iHR in ECG recordings from mice were paralleled by declines in spontaneous action potential (AP) firing rates (FRs) in patch-clamp recordings from acutely isolated SAMs. The slower FR of aged SAMs resulted from changes in the AP waveform that were limited to hyperpolarization of the maximum diastolic potential and slowing of the early part of the diastolic depolarization. These AP waveform changes were associated with cellular hypertrophy, reduced current densities for L- and T-type Ca2+ currents and the “funny current” (If), and a hyperpolarizing shift in the voltage dependence of If. The age-dependent reduction in sinoatrial node function was not associated with changes in β-adrenergic responsiveness, which was preserved during aging for heart rate, SAM FR, L- and T-type Ca2+ currents, and If. Our results indicate that depressed excitability of individual SAMs due to altered ion channel activity contributes to the decline in mHR, and thus aerobic capacity, during normal aging.
In silico selection of RNA aptamers

In vitro selection of RNA aptamers that bind to a specific ligand usually begins with a random pool of RNA sequences. We propose a computational approach for designing a starting pool of RNA sequences for the selection of RNA aptamers for specific analyte binding. Our approach consists of three steps: (i) selection of RNA sequences based on their secondary structure, (ii) generating a library of three-dimensional (3D) structures of RNA molecules and (iii) high-throughput virtual screening of this library to select aptamers with binding affinity to a desired small molecule. We developed a set of criteria that allows one to select a sequence with potential binding affinity from a pool of random sequences and developed a protocol for RNA 3D structure prediction. As verification, we tested the performance of in silico selection on a set of six known aptamer–ligand complexes. The structures of the native sequences for the ligands in the testing set were among the top 5% of the selected structures. The proposed approach reduces the RNA sequences search space by four to five orders of magnitude—significantly accelerating the experimental screening and selection of high-affinity aptamers.
A relaxation time heuristic for reducing initialization bias in simulation of M/Ek/1 queueing systems

In a previous paper, a heuristic technique was introduced for reducing initialization bias in Monte-Carlo simulation of stationary, infinite-capacity, Markovian queueing systems. The technique differs from many existing methods in that, rather than relying on a statistical analysis of output from preliminary simulation runs, it is based on characteristics of the underlying theoretical model. Experimental results presented earlier provide convincing evidence that use of the heuristic yields an unbiased estimate of the steady-state expected queue length in M/M/1 systems with virtually no cost added to the simulation. We now present results of experiments designed to validate the technique for estimating the steady-state expected number of customers in M/Ek/1 queueing systems.
Integrative warehousing of biomolecular information to support complex multi-topic queries for biomedical knowledge discovery

Biomedical questions are often complex and address multiple topics simultaneously. Answering them requires the comprehensive evaluation of several different types of data. They are often available, but in distributed and heterogeneous data sources; this hampers their global evaluation. We developed a software architecture to create and maintain updated a Genomic and Proteomic Data Warehouse (GPDW), which integrates several of the main of such dispersed data. It uses a modular and multi-level global data schema based on abstraction and generalization of integrated data features. Such a schema eases integration of data sources evolving in data content, structure and number, and assures provenance tracking of all the integrated data. Thanks to the developed software architecture and adopted data schema, the GPDW has been kept updated easily and progressively extended with additional data types and sources; it is publicly usable at http://www.bioinformatics. dei.polimi. it/GPKB/.
Purification and characterization of a novel antifungal protein from Bacillus subtilis strain B29

An antifungal protein was isolated from a culture of Bacillus subtilis strain B29. The isolation procedure comprised ion exchange chromatography on diethylaminoethyl (DEAE)-52 cellulose and gel filtration chromatography on Bio-Gel® P-100. The protein was absorbed on DEAE-cellulose and Bio-Gel® P-100. The purified antifungal fraction was designated as B29I, with a molecular mass of 42.3 kDa by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), pI value 5.69 by isoelectric focusing (IEF)-PAGE, and 97.81% purity by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). B29I exhibited inhibitory activity on mycelial growth in Fusarium oxysporum, Rhizoctonia solani, Fusarium moniliforme, and Sclerotinia sclerotiorum. The 50% inhibitory concentrations (IC50) of its antifungal activity toward Fusarium oxysporum and Rhizoctonia solani were 45 and 112 μmol/L, respectively. B29I also demonstrated an inhibitory effect on conidial spore germination of Fusarium oxysporum and suppression of germ-tube elongation, and induced distortion, tumescence, and rupture of a portion of the germinated spores.
Characterization of Calmodulin–Fas Death Domain Interaction: An Integrated Experimental and Computational Study

The Fas death receptor-activated death-inducing signaling complex (DISC) regulates apoptosis in many normal and cancer cells. Qualitative biochemical experiments demonstrate that calmodulin (CaM) binds to the death domain of Fas. The interaction between CaM and Fas regulates Fas-mediated DISC formation. A quantitative understanding of the interaction between CaM and Fas is important for the optimal design of antagonists for CaM or Fas to regulate the CaM–Fas interaction, thus modulating Fas-mediated DISC formation and apoptosis. The V254N mutation of the Fas death domain (Fas DD) is analogous to an identified mutant allele of Fas in lpr-cg mice that have a deficiency in Fas-mediated apoptosis. In this study, the interactions of CaM with the Fas DD wild type (Fas DD WT) and with the Fas DD V254N mutant were characterized using isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC), circular dichroism spectroscopy (CD), and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. ITC results reveal an endothermic binding characteristic and an entropy-driven interaction of CaM with Fas DD WT or with Fas DD V254N. The Fas DD V254N mutation decreased the association constant (Ka) for CaM–Fas DD binding from (1.79 ± 0.20) × 106 to (0.88 ± 0.14) × 106 M–1 and slightly increased a standard state Gibbs free energy (ΔG°) for CaM–Fas DD binding from −8.87 ± 0.07 to −8.43 ± 0.10 kcal/mol. CD secondary structure analysis and MD simulation results did not show significant secondary structural changes of the Fas DD caused by the V254N mutation. The conformational and dynamical motion analyses, the analyses of hydrogen bond formation within the CaM binding region, the contact numbers of each residue, and the electrostatic potential for the CaM binding region based on MD simulations demonstrated changes caused by the Fas DD V254N mutation. These changes caused by the Fas DD V254N mutation could affect the van der Waals interactions and electrostatic interactions between CaM and Fas DD, thereby affecting CaM–Fas DD interactions. Results from this study characterize CaM–Fas DD interactions in a quantitative way, providing structural and thermodynamic evidence of the role of the Fas DD V254N mutation in the CaM–Fas DD interaction. Furthermore, the results could help to identify novel strategies for regulating CaM–Fas DD interactions and Fas DD conformation and thus to modulate Fas-mediated DISC formation and thus Fas-mediated apoptosis.
Second-order asymptotics of mutual information

A formula for the second-order expansion of the input-output mutual information of multidimensional channels as the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) goes to zero is obtained. While the additive noise is assumed to be Gaussian, we deal with very general classes of input and channel distributions. As special cases, these channel models include fading channels, channels with random parameters, and channels with almost Gaussian noise. When the channel is unknown at the receiver, the second term in the asymptotic expansion depends not only on the covariance matrix of the input signal but also on the fourth mixed moments of its components. The study of the second-order asymptotics of mutual information finds application in the analysis of the bandwidth-power tradeoff achieved by various signaling strategies in the wideband regime.
EvoDeb: Debugging Evolving Hardware Designs

Increasing design complexity, skyrocketing fabrication costs for modern digital systems coupled with an unacceptably large number of silicon respins led to growing importance of comprehensive and automated design verification. Akin to software configuration management, it is becoming commonplace to maintain large hardware design code-bases with hardware configuration management tools. A missing piece of crucial technology in this approach is to manage design verification across evolving hardware designs. In this paper, we propose an efficient methodology for automatically localizing design errors across design versions. The proposed technique, Evo Deb, can be easily integrated into a hardware configuration management framework and is scalable for large designs. We demonstrate the efficacy of Evo Deb on a couple of bugs on open-source hardware designs across multiple evolving variants.
NPP VIIRS on-orbit calibration and characterization using the moon

The Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) is one of five instruments on-board the Suomi National Polarorbiting Partnership (NPP) satellite that launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. , on Oct. 28, 2011. VIIRS has been scheduled to view the Moon approximately monthly with a spacecraft roll maneuver after its NADIR door open on November 21, 2012. To reduce the uncertainty of the radiometric calibration due to the view geometry, the lunar phase angles of the scheduled lunar observations were confined in the range from -56° to -55° in the first three scheduled lunar observations and then changed to the range from -51.5° to -50.5°, where the negative sign for the phase angles indicates that the VIIRS views a waxing moon. Unlike the MODIS lunar observations, most scheduled VIIRS lunar views occur on the day side of the Earth. For the safety of the instrument, the roll angles of the scheduled VIIRS lunar observations are required to be within [-14°, 0°] and the aforementioned change of the phase angle range was aimed to further minimize the roll angle required for each lunar observation while keeping the number of months in which the moon can be viewed by the VIIRS instrument each year unchanged. The lunar observations can be used to identify if there is crosstalk in VIIRS bands and to track on-orbit changes in VIIRS Reflective Solar Bands (RSB) detector gains. In this paper, we report our results using the lunar observations to examine the on-orbit crosstalk effects among NPP VIIRS bands, to track the VIIRS RSB gain changes in first few months on-orbit, and to compare the gain changes derived from lunar and SD/SDSM calibration.
Performance evaluation of AODV and OLSR in highly fading vehicular ad hoc network environments

Vehicular Ad hoc Network (VANET) is a challenging network environment in which communication between vehicles in highly fading environments, like an urban scenario, is unpredictable and difficult. In order to analyze the performance of protocols and applications, network simulators like NS-2 use deterministic Two Ray Ground radio propagation model. This model, however, poorly reflects the channel characteristics of real world conditions. In this paper, probabilistic Nakagami radio propagation model is used to represent channel fading characteristics of urban scenarios. The performance analysis of two routing protocols, AODV and OLSR using Nakagami propagation model under high obstacle urban environment is presented. It is observed that both routing protocols fail to provide acceptable packet delivery ratio. Overall, OLSR, with short interval of control messages, performed better than AODV in urban environments.
Enhanced Operating System Security Through Efficient and Fine-grained Address Space Randomization

In recent years, the deployment of many application-level countermeasures against memory errors and the increasing number of vulnerabilities discovered in the kernel has fostered a renewed interest in kernel-level exploitation. Unfortunately, no comprehensive and well-established mechanism exists to protect the operating system from arbitrary attacks, due to the relatively new development of the area and the challenges involved. In this paper, we propose the first design for fine-grained address space randomization (ASR) inside the operating system (OS), providing an efficient and comprehensive countermeasure against classic and emerging attacks, such as return-oriented programming. To motivate our design, we investigate the differences with application-level ASR and find that some of the well-established assumptions in existing solutions are no longer valid inside the OS; above all, perhaps, that information leakage becomes a major concern in the new context. We show that our ASR strategy outperforms state-of-the-art solutions in terms of both performance and security without affecting the software distribution model. Finally, we present the first comprehensive live rerandomization strategy, which we found to be particularly important inside the OS. Experimental results demonstrate that our techniques yield low run-time performance overhead (less than 5% on average on both SPEC and syscall-intensive benchmarks) and limited run-time memory footprint increase (around 15% during the execution of our benchmarks). We believe our techniques can greatly enhance the level of OS security without compromising the performance and reliability of the OS.
Autism: A Comprehensive Occupational Therapy Approach

Some of the field's foremost authorities offer their knowledge, clinical expertise, and insights on a wide variety of topics across the PDD spectrum. Chapters present diagnostic criteria, interventions, worksheets, sample assessment tools, resources, case studies, and more. The topics included in this title cover exploring the etiology of autism spectrum disorders, occupation in older children with PDDs, collaboration to improve communication in children with autism, and best practices in occupational therapy for children with autism.
Mapping isoprene emissions over North America using formaldehyde column observations from space

good simulation of both the GOME data (r 2 = 0.69, n = 756, bias = +11%) and the in situ summertimeHCHOmeasurementsoverNorthAmerica(r 2 =0.47,n=10,bias= � 3%). The GOMEobservationsshowhighvaluesoverregionsofknownhighisoprene emissions anda day-to-day variability that is consistent with the temperature dependence of isoprene emission. Isoprene emissions inferred from the GOME data are 20% less than GEIA on average over North America and twice those from the U.S. EPA Biogenic Emissions Inventory System (BEIS2) inventory. The GOME isoprene inventory when implemented in the GEOS-CHEM model provides a better simulation of the HCHO in situ measurements thaneitherGEIAorBEIS2(r 2 =0.71,n=10,bias= � 10%). INDEXTERMS:0312Atmospheric Composition and Structure: Air/sea constituent fluxes (3339, 4504); 0345 Atmospheric Composition and Structure: Pollution—urban and regional (0305);0365 Atmospheric Composition and Structure: Troposphere— composition and chemistry; 0394 Atmospheric Composition and Structure: Instruments and techniques; 0399 Atmospheric Composition and Structure: General or miscellaneous; KEYWORDS: Isoprene, Formaldehyde, GOME, biogenic emissions, satellite instrument, volatile organic compounds
Structure of Plant Cell Walls : XII. Identification of Seven Differently Linked Glycosyl Residues Attached to O-4 of the 2,4-Linked l-Rhamnosyl Residues of Rhamnogalacturonan I.

Seven differently linked glycosyl residues have been found to be glycosidically linked to O-4 of the branched 2,4-linked l-rhamnosyl residues contained in the rhamnosyl and galacturonosyl backbone of the cell wall pectic polysaccharide rhamnogalacturonan I. These seven glycosyl residues are, therefore, the first residues of at least seven different side chains attached to the rhamnogalacturonan backbone. These first side chain glycosyl residues are 5-linked l-arabinofuranosyl and terminal 3-, 4-, 6-, 2,6-, and 3,6-linked d-galactopyranosyl residues. The existence of at least seven different side chains in rhamnogalacturonan I indicates that rhamnogalacturonan I is either an exceedingly complex polysaccharide or that rhamnogalacturonan I is a family of polysaccharides with similar or identical rhamnogalacturonan backbones substituted with different side chains.