Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Conodont anatomy, chordate phylogeny and vertebrate classification

Interpretations of conodont anatomy and affinity continue to generate controversy. Fossilized soft-tissue evidence indicates that conodonts possessed eyes, extrinsic eye muscles, a notochord, myomeres, a differentiated tail with fin radiais, possible otic capsules and possible branchial structures. Indirect evidence suggests a differentiated brain and cartilaginous head skeleton. The multi-component phosphatic tissue complexes of the conodont feeding apparatus cannot be compared to the amorphous apatite of extant agnathan otoliths. By limiting cladistic analysis to a restricted selection of these characters the hypothesis that conodonts are a sister group of the clade comprising extant hagfish, lampreys and gnathostomes can be supported. However, exhaustive analysis of a more complete character-set strongly supports the hypothesis that conodonts are more derived than hagfish. From a taxonomic perspective, these two hypotheses have no effect on how conodonts should be classified. Whether they are a stem group (the former hypothesis) or part of the crown group (the latter), conodonts are clearly part of the total group Vertebrata (=Craniata).
A Note on Buyer's Agent Commission and Sale Price

The article examines whether and to what extent the level of a buyerâ€™s agent commission will affect the sale price of a house. The estimation results suggest that a higher commission rate leads to a higher sale price, although only for lower-priced houses. It is suggested that, at least for this market segment, there may be a principal-agent problem: buyerâ€™s agents do not act in the best interest of their clients because of the institutional structure of sales commissions.
PHOSPHOINOSITIDES IN PLATELETS OF NIDDM 85 significant differences between the platelets from group I and the control in

We have examined thrombin-induced metabolism of phosphoinositides in the platelets from fifteen NIDDM(non-insulin-dependent diabetesmellitus)patientsandfifteen healthy subjects! control) The diabetic patients were divided into two groups. One group (group I) had diabetic retinopathy (microangiopathy) and the other group (group II) had atherosclerosis of great vessels (macroangiopathy). In platelets incubated with [32P] orthophosphate for 80min, the incorporation of 32P radioactivity into phosphatidylinositol (PI), phosphatidylinositol 4-monophosphate (PIP) and phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PIP2) was significantly lower in the group II than in the control. The addition of thrombin induced a marked decrease in PIP2 radioactivity at 10 sec in platelets from group I compared with that from the control. These results suggest that the breakdown of polyphosphoinositides is increased in platelets from diabetic subjects with retinopathy, and also that the formation of polyphosphoinositides is decreased in the platelets from diabetic subjects with macroangiopathy. (Endocrinol Japon 38: 81-87, 1991) THE ADDITION of agonists such as thrombin to resting human platelets initiates the processes of intracellular Ca' mobilization, secretion, fibrinogen receptor exposure, and aggregation that are the features of normal platelet function. Several laboratories have suggested that phospholipid-derived messenger molecules are important participants in these events. Thrombin causes hydrolysis of phosphatidylinositol 4,5bisphosphate (PIP2) by phospholipase C with a concomitant formation of diacylglycerol and inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate (IP3) [1-5] and activates A2-type phospholipase to release arachidonic acid. IP3 induces the rapid discharge of Ca' from the dense tubular system [5]. Diacylglycerol is known to activate protein kinase C [6, 7]. Arachidonic acid is oxygenated to produce thromboxane A2. On the other hand, diacylglycerol is effectively phosphorylated to phosphatidic acid (PA) [8], which can then be redirected to phosphatidylinositol (PI) through CDP-diacylglycerol. PI is phosphorylated to phosphatidylinositol 4-monophosphate (PIP) and PIP2 by PI kinase and PIP kinase, respectively [9]. Platelet responsiveness to aggregating agents has been shown to be increased in both man and animals with diabetes mellitus [10, 11]. On the other hand, the alteration of platelet aggregation and arachidonic acid metabolism, as well as endothelial functions such as von Willebrand factor activity, prostacyclin release and fibrinolytic activity, and elevated low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol and low high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels in uncontrolled diabetes mellitus [11], participate in the pathogenesis of accelerated atherosclerosis complicated with diabetes mellitus as mnacroangiopathy. Platelet Received: July 24, 1990 Accepted: January 24, 1991 Correspondence to: Dr. Tatsuo ISHIZUKA, The Third Department of Internal Medicine, Gifu University School of Medicine, 40 Tsukasa-machi, Gifu 500, Japan.
Heuristics for scheduling parameter sweep applications in grid environments

The computational grid provides a promising platform for the efficient execution of parameter sweep applications over very large parameter spaces. Scheduling such applications is challenging because target resources are heterogeneous, because their load and availability varies dynamically, and because independent tasks may share common data files. We propose an adaptive scheduling algorithm for parameter sweep applications on the grid. We modify standard heuristics for task/host assignment in perfectly predictable environments (max-min, min-min, Sufferage), and we propose an extension of Sufferage called XSufferage. Using simulation, we demonstrate that XSufferage can take advantage of file sharing to achieve better performance than the other heuristics. We also study the impact of inaccurate performance prediction on scheduling. Our study shows that: different heuristics behave differently when predictions are inaccurate; and an increased adaptivity leads to better performance.
Intersecting hypersurfaces in anti-de Sitter and Lovelock gravity

Colliding and intersecting hypersurfaces filled with matter (membranes) are studied in the Lovelock higher order curvature theory of gravity. Lovelock terms couple hypersurfaces of different dimensionalities, extending the range of possible intersection configurations. We restrict the study to constant curvature membranes in constant curvature anti-de Sitter (AdS) and dS background and consider their general intersections. This illustrates some key features which make the theory different from the Einstein gravity. Higher co-dimension membranes may lie at the intersection of co-dimension one hypersurfaces in Lovelock gravity; the hypersurfaces are located at the discontinuities of the first derivative of the metric, and they need not carry matter. The example of colliding membranes shows that general solutions can only be supported by (spacelike) matter at the collision surface, thus naturally conflicting with the dominant energy condition (DEC). The imposition of the DEC gives selection rules on the type.
The Necessity of the Medial Temporal Lobe for Statistical Learning

The sensory input that we experience is highly patterned, and we are experts at detecting these regularities. Although the extraction of such regularities, or statistical learning (SL), is typically viewed as a cortical process, recent studies have implicated the medial temporal lobe (MTL), including the hippocampus. These studies have employed fMRI, leaving open the possibility that the MTL is involved but not necessary for SL. Here, we examined this issue in a case study of LSJ, a patient with complete bilateral hippocampal loss and broader MTL damage. In Experiments 1 and 2, LSJ and matched control participants were passively exposed to a continuous sequence of shapes, syllables, scenes, or tones containing temporal regularities in the co-occurrence of items. In a subsequent test phase, the control groups exhibited reliable SL in all conditions, successfully discriminating regularities from recombinations of the same items into novel foil sequences. LSJ, however, exhibited no SL, failing to discriminate regularities from foils. Experiment 3 ruled out more general explanations for this failure, such as inattention during exposure or difficulty following test instructions, by showing that LSJ could discriminate which individual items had been exposed. These findings provide converging support for the importance of the MTL in extracting temporal regularities.
Asian Exchange Rate Expectations

Abstract This paper considers a new survey data set of expectations on Asian currencies. Our evidence indicates that variation in the forward discount is accounted for by variation in the risk premium, as well as irrationality on the part of market participants. In addition, we find some evidence that exchange rate expectations are not consistent across the maturity spectrum. J. Japan. Int. Econ., March 1993, 7 (1), pp. 57–77. City University Business School, London, United Kingdom; and University of Limburg, Maastricht 6200 MD, The Netherlands.
Discrete-time sliding mode control of nonlinear time-delay systems based on T-S fuzzy model

This paper presents the method of discrete-time sliding mode control (DT-SMC) for a class of nonlinear time-delay systems via Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy model. First, the discrete-time linear model with uncertainties and tine-varying delay is derived by employing T-S model to represent original system. Then the control problem becomes the robust stabilization controller design for linear uncertain system with interval time-varying delay. By using the linear matrix inequality (LMI) technique, a sufficient condition for the existence of stable sliding surface depending on the lower and upper delay bounds, is established. On basis of this existence condition, the synthesized discrete-time sliding mode controller can guarantee the sliding mode reaching condition of the specified discrete-time sliding surface. Finally, an illustrative example of truck-trailer is presented to show the correctness and effectiveness of the proposed method.
A Robust Panel Extraction Method for Manga

Automatically extracting frames/panels from digital comic pages is crucial for techniques that facilitate comic reading on mobile devices with limited display areas. However, automatic panel extraction for manga, i.e., Japanese comics, can be especially challenging, largely because of its complex panel layout design mixed with various visual symbols throughout the page. In this paper, we propose a robust method for automatically extracting panels from digital manga pages. Our method first extracts the panel block by closing open panels and identifying a page background mask. It then performs a recursive binary splitting to partition the panel block into a set of sub-blocks, where an optimal splitting line at each recursive level is determined adaptively.
Should infrastructure clouds be priced entirely on performance? An EC2 case study

The increasing number of public clouds, the large and varied range of VMs they offer, and the provider specific terminology used for describing performance characteristics, makes price/performance comparisons difficult. Large performance variation of identically priced instances can lead to clouds being described as ‘unreliable’ and ‘unpredictable’. In this paper, we suggest that instances might be considered mispriced with respect to their deliverable performance – even when provider supplied performance ratings are taken into account. We demonstrate how CPU model determines instance performance, show associations between instance classes and sets of CPU models, and determine class-to-model performance characteristics. We show that pricing based on CPU models may significantly reduce, but not eliminate, price/performance variation. We further show that CPU model distribution differs across different AZs and so it may be possible to obtain better price/performance in some AZs by determining proportions of models found per AZ. However, the resources obtained in an AZ are account dependent, displays random variation and is subject to abrupt change.
MONITORING MORPHOLOGY OF THE SAND ENGINE LEESIDE USING ARGUS' cBATHY

The Sand Engine is a mega-nourishment constructed in 2011 with the purpose of replenishing the surrounding southern Dutch coast by exploiting the strength of local alongshore currents for the next 20 years. Long term monitoring of the Sand Engine depends upon remote sensing coupled with in-situ measurements due to both its large spatial and temporal scales and variability. Herein, emphasis is made upon quantitatively and qualitatively observing the effects of this mega-nourishment upon its leeward side in the direction of the predominant alongshore current. One of the first applications of cBathy along the Dutch coast shows promising results for this remote technique to capture morphodynamics within the area over the coming years. cBathy is an algorithm developed to make estimations of nearshore bathymetry based upon the celerity of the propagating wave field extracted from Argus coastal images. So far, analysis shows that the Dutch wave climate variability influences hourly cBathy depth approximations, however running average depth estimations yield small deviation compared with a measured ground truth bathymetry of the area.
Dynamic channel allocation-based call admission control in cognitive radio networks

To alleviate the performance degradation of secondary users (SUs) due to failed handoff, channel reservation is applied as an efficient way in call admission control design in many previous studies on cognitive radio networks. However, in a cognitive radio environment, a straightforward application of this technique could actually reduce the probability of successful handoff, due to its conservative way of utilizing time-varying primary spectrum resource. In this work, a slotted call admission control scheme integrated with dynamic channel allocation is proposed to address the issue. In the proposed scheme, admitting user only occurs at the beginning of a new slot; thus, new SUs arriving between two slots must first enter a waiting queue until the next slot arrives. By imposing a mandatory yet limited waiting time on new SUs, the proposed scheme offers an opportunity to allow admitted SUs to fully utilize the available primary spectrum. An analytical framework using a three-dimensional discrete-time Markov chain is developed to analyze the impact of the proposed scheme on both the call-level and packet-level performances of SUs. Simulation results verify the accuracy of the analysis and show the effectiveness of the proposed scheme in terms of reducing blocking and dropping probabilities, lowering packet queueing delay, and improving spectrum utilization efficiency.
Security analysis of LTE/SAE networks over E-UTRAN

The security is an important issue in the mobile communications such as LTE/SAE systems, especially the mobile users' authentication and key production process which includes the most important risks. In this paper, we survey and compare authentication and key production solutions, namely the traditional solution EPS-AKA (Evolved Packet Switching - Authentication and key Agreement) which we consider as a benchmark solution and the J-PAKE (Password authenticated Key Exchange by Juggling) mechanism, included in the 4G networks by Cristina-Elena Vintilã et al., which have many advantages such as off-line and on-line dictionary attacks resistance, forward secrecy and Known-key security, so that we can show the strengths and weakness of these solutions.
Multiple environmental changes drive forest floor vegetation in a temperate mountain forest

Abstract Human‐induced changes of the environment and their possible impacts on temperate forest understory plant communities have been examined in many studies. However, the relative contribution of individual environmental factors to these changes in the herb layer is still unclear. In this study, we used vegetation survey data covering a time period of 21 years and collected from 143 permanent plots in the Northern Limestone Alps, Austria. Data on soil chemistry (49 plots), light condition (51 plots), soil temperature and moisture (four and six plots), disturbance (all plots), climate (one station in a clearing area), and airborne sulfur (S) and nitrogen (N) deposition (two forest stands) were available for analyses. We used these data together with plot mean Ellenberg indicator values in a path analysis to attribute their relative contributions to observed vegetation changes. Our analysis reveals a strong directional shift of the forest understory plant community. We found strong evidence for a recovery of the ground‐layer vegetation from acidification as response to decreased S deposition. We did not observe a community response to atmospheric N deposition, but we found a response to altered climatic conditions (thermophilization and drying). The path analysis revealed that changes in the light regime, which were related to small‐scale disturbances, had most influence on herb layer community shifts. Thermophilization and drying were identified as drivers of understory community changes independent of disturbance events.
The Dominance Tree in Visualizing Software Dependencies

Dominance analysis from graph theory allows one to locate subordinated software elements in a rooted dependency graph. It identifies the nesting structure for a dependency graph as a dominance tree, and, hence, adds information not immediately visible in large and complex graphs. Moreover, the subordination (or locality) can be leveraged for drawing dependency graphs. This paper envisions ways to leverage the dominance relation for structuring and presenting large dependency graphs. To explore the feasibility of these hinds of visualization, we measure dominance trees for large software systems written in different programming languages. These measurements give us the necessary information to design a usable visualization
Implementation and performance evaluation of graphene-based passive UHF RFID textile tags

In this paper, we investigate the fabrication and wireless performance of graphene-based passive UHF RFID textile tags. Two different graphene-based inks were used to fabricate identical antennas on a fabric substrate by doctor blading technique. The performance of the tags was evaluated with wireless measurements throughout the UHF RFID frequency band. Based on our results, the graphene-based tags showed attainable read ranges of 1.6 and 2.4 meters. According to these first results, these tags have a great potential in future wearable applications along with cost-effective and eco-friendly aspects.
Integrating Solar PV in Utility System Operations

LBNL-XXXX E RNEST O RLANDO L AWRENCE B ERKELEY N ATIONAL L ABORATORY Integrating Solar PV in Utility System Operations A. Mills 1 , A. Botterud 2 , J. Wu 2,4 , Z. Zhou 2 , B-M. Hodge 3 , M. Heany 3 Environmental Energy Technologies Division October 2013 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Argonne National Laboratory National Renewable Energy Laboratory University of Chicago Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s contribution to this work was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (Solar Energy Technologies Office) under Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH112
Leveraging Ontologies for Lifted Probabilistic Inference and Learning

Exploiting ontologies for efficient inference is one of the most widely studied topics in knowledge representation and reasoning. The use of ontologies for probabilistic inference, however, is much less developed. A number of algorithms for lifted inference in first-order probabilistic languages have been proposed, but their scalability is limited by the combinatorial explosion in the sets of objects that need to be considered. We propose a coarse-to-fine inference approach that leverages a class hierarchy to combat this problem. Starting at the highest level, our approach performs inference at successively finer grains, pruning low-probability atoms before refining. We provide bounds on the error incurred by this approach relative to full ground inference as a function of the pruning threshold. We also show how to learn parameters in a coarse-to-fine manner to maximize the opportunities for pruning during inference. Experiments on link prediction and biomolecular event prediction tasks show our method can greatly improve the scalability of lifted probabilistic inference.
Electrocardiographic imaging of myocardial infarction using heart vector analysis

Hypothesis/Objective: The aim of this study is to characterize the location and extent of moderate to large, relatively compact infarcts using ECG evidence. Method: In this paper, we proposed a method on the basis of vectorcardiography which assumes that heart vector is proportional to relevant active depolarization area(s). To examine our ideas, we used the normal VCG which includes the information of location, amplitude, and direction of heart vector at any instant. The model based comparison of cases under study and relevant normal VCGs gives region i.e. segment(s) and depth i.e. extent of myocardial infarction. Results and Conclusion: We evaluated the method on CinC/Physionet Challenge 2007 database. In our final entry the scores of EPD equal to 32 (ranked 3rd), SO equal to 0.933 (ranked 3rd) and CED equal to 1 (ranked 1st) are achieved. It also ranked the third among the other methods proposed to CinC/Physionet Challenge 2007.
Blackbox Identity Testing for Simple Depth 3 Circuits

The Polynomial Identity Testing problem (PIT) requires one to determine whether a given polynomial is identically equal to the zero polynomial. In the blackbox version we are promised that the polynomial belongs to a certain class, and are only provided input/output access to it. There is a strong connection between efficent blackbox PIT algorithms for a class of polynomials, and lower bounds against that class of polynomials. Coupled with the recently proved ‘Chasm at Depth 3’, this can used to show that polynomial time blackbox PIT for depth-3 circuits is enough for explicit polynomials with subexponential lower bounds. This has motivated inquiry into blackbox PIT algorithms for restricted classes of polynomials. In this thesis, we provide alternate quasi-polynomial time algorithms for two well studied classes – the Diagonal depth-3 model, and the Basic Set Multilinear model. In the case of Diagonal depth-3, we design a map that reduces the number of variables, while preserving the non-zeroness of such a circuit. The running time of our algorithm is n. We approach the Basic Set Multilinear model from the tensorial point of view. We show that the correctness of our PIT algorithm is equivalent to tensor rank lower bounds for a class of tensors we call simplicial tensors. These tensors are a simple generalization of triangular matrices, and rank lower bounds for them may be of independent interest – We direct most of our efforts here to proving these bounds. The running time of our algorithm is n log .