Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
XTE J2123–058: A New Neutron Star X-Ray Transient

We report on optical and RXTE observations of a new high-latitude bursting X-ray transient, XTE J2123-058. We identified the optical counterpart and discovered a 5.9573 ± 0.0016 hr periodic optical modulation, which was subsequently shown to be the same as the spectroscopic orbital period. From the absence of orbital X-ray modulation and the presence of partial optical eclipses we conclude that the binary inclination is between 55° and 73°. From the optical magnitude in quiescence and from the X-ray flux of type I X-ray bursts, we estimate that the source distance is between 4.5 and 15 kpc, which implies that the source is unusually far from the Galactic plane, since b = -36. °2. Optical bursts with properties consistent with being reprocessed X-ray bursts occurred. We detected a pair of high-frequency quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) at 847.1 ± 5.5 Hz and 1102 ± 13 Hz simultaneously. According to the beat-frequency model, this QPO separation implies a neutron star spin period of 3.92 ± 0.22 ms. A change in the energy spectrum occurred during the decay of the outburst, which may have been due to the onset of the propeller mechanism. If so, then the neutron star magnetic field strength is between 2 and 8 × 108 G for an assumed distance of 10 kpc. However, the changes in the timing and spectral properties observed during the decay are typical of atoll sources, which may indicate that the changes are due solely to the dynamics of the accretion disk. As the phase-averaged V-band magnitude declined from 17.26 at the peak of the outburst to 19.24, and the X-ray flux decreased from 9.6 × 10-10 to 7.3 × 10-11 ergs cm-2 s-1, the peak-to-peak amplitude of the V-band modulation increased from 0.75 to 1.49 mag. This behavior can be explained if the size of the accretion disk decreases during the decay of the outburst.
imGraph: A Distributed In-Memory Graph Database

Diverse applications including cyber security, social networks, protein networks, recommendation systems or citation networks work with inherently graph-structured data. The graphs modeling the data of these applications are large by nature so the efficient processing of them becomes challenging. In this paper we present imGraph, a graph system that addresses the challenge of efficient processing of large graphs by using a distributed in-memory storage. We use this type of storage to obtain fast random data access which is mostly required for graph exploration. imGraph uses a native graph data model to ease the implementation of graph algorithms. On top of it, we design and implement a traversal engine that achieves high performance by efficient memory access, distribution of the work load, and optimizations on network communications. We run a set of experiments on real graph datasets of different sizes to asses the performance of imGraph in relation to other graph systems. The results show that imGraph gets better performance on traversals on large graphs than its counterparts.
Specification and Estimation of Network Formation and Network Interaction Models with the Exponential Probability Distribution

We model network formation and interactions under a unified framework by considering that individuals anticipate the effect of network structure on the utility of network interactions when choosing links. There are two advantages of this modeling approach: first, we can evaluate whether network interactions drive friendship formation or not. Second, we can control for the friendship selection bias on estimated interaction effects. We provide microfoundations of this statistical model based on the subgame perfect equilibrium of a two‐stage game and propose a Bayesian MCMC approach for estimating the model. We apply the model to study American high school students' friendship networks using the Add Health dataset. From two interaction variables, GPA and smoking frequency, we find that the utility of interactions in academic learning is important for friendship formation, whereas the utility of interactions in smoking is not. However, both GPA and smoking frequency are subject to significant peer effects.
On List Detection for Overloaded Receivers

Excessive co-channel interference (CCI) occurs in overloaded wireless environments where the number of transmitted signals exceeds the number of available receive antennas. We present a list-based multiuser detection scheme that effectively mitigates CCI in overloaded receivers with a circular array. The algorithm is named parallel symbol detection with reduced complexity interference estimation (PSD-RCIE). It employs an iterative parallel detector with list feedback of the best symbol estimates. Simulations show that our algorithm achieves near joint-maximum likelihood detection at a fraction of the complexity. Its good complexity-performance trade-off together with its parallel structure make PSD-RCIE well suited for practical implementation.
Problem-based learning in university education: do psychological preferences make a difference?

Problem-based learning method is widely used in different levels of education. In this article, we examine what is the role of psychological traits in problem-based learning. In the measurement of personality we used a questionnaire based on the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) framework. MBTI framework consists of four dichotomous types that differentiate between how individuals mix with others on a social basis (extroversion vs. introversion), how individuals search out information (practical vs. creative), how individuals make decisions (analytical vs. beliefs), and how individuals relate to the environment (structured vs. flexible). We have analysed data on psychological characteristics and learning performance measures of 179 master level university students who participated a course in which problem-based learning approach was used as a principal pedagogical method. Results show that females perform better than males, but when analysing psychological characteristics statistically significant differences were not found. Still it can be said that structured students had somewhat better grades than the flexible ones.
A Biomechanical Study of Posteromedial Tibial Plateau Fracture Stability: Do They All Require Fixation?

Objectives: Although the posteromedial fragment in tibial plateau fractures is often considered unstable, biomechanical evidence supporting this view is lacking. We aimed to evaluate the stability of the fragment in a cadaver model. Our hypothesis was that under the expected small axial force during rehabilitation and the combined effects of this force with shear force, internal rotation torque, and varus moment, the most common posteromedial tibial fragment morphology could maintain stability in early flexion. Methods: Axial compression force alone or combined with posterior shear, internal rotation torque, or varus moment was applied to the femurs of 5 fresh cadaveric knees. A Tekscan pressure mapping system was used to measure pressure and contact area between the femoral condyles, meniscus, and tibial plateau. A Microscribe 3D digitizer was used to define the 3-dimensional positions of the femur and tibia. A 10-mm and then a 20-mm osteotomy was created with a saw at an angle of 30 degrees in the axial plane with respect to the tangent of the posterior tibial plateau and 75 degrees in the sagittal plane, representing a typical posteromedial fracture fragment. At each flexion angle (15, 30, 60, 90, and 120 degrees) and loading condition (axial compression only, compression with shear force, torque, and varus moment), distal displacement of the medial femoral condyle and the tibial fracture fragments was determined. Results: For the 10-mm fragment, medial femoral condyle displacement was little affected up to approximately 30-degree flexion, after which it increased. For the 20-mm fragment, there was progressive medial femoral condyle displacement with increasing flexion from baseline. However, for the 10- and 20-mm fragments themselves, displacements were noted at every flexion angle, starting at 1.7 mm inferior displacement with 15 degrees of flexion and internal rotation torque and up to 10.2 mm displacement with 90 degrees of flexion and varus bending moment. Conclusions: In this cadaveric model of a posteromedial tibial plateau fracture, both fracture fragments studied displaced with knee flexion, even at low flexion angles. Although such fragments may initially seem nondisplaced after injury, posteromedial fragments similar to these tested are likely to displace during knee range of motion exercises in non-weight-bearing conditions.
Stories, not Words: Abstract Datatype Processors

In response to strict power constraints and diminishing single-core performance returns, the hardware industry has shifted en masse to parallel multicore chips. In theory, parallel processing can match historic performance gains while meeting modern power budgets, but as recent studies show, that this requires near-perfect application parallelization [7]. In practice, perfect or near-perfect parallelization is often unachievable: most algorithms have inherently serial portions and incur synchronization overheads in their parallel portions. Furthermore, parallel software requires drastic changes in how software is written, tested, and debugged. Application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) are the gold standard for computational power and performance efficiency, but it is uneconomical and impractical to produce a custom chip for every application. As a result most chips are likely to remain programmable, and, ideally, deliver custom-caliber efficiency in a general-purpose setting. Hardware accelerators, such as graphics coprocessors, cryptographic accelerators [10] or network processors [5] provide this for their target domain, but have usually had awkward, ad hoc interfaces that made them difficult to utilize and tended to impede software portability. In this paper, we argue that general-purpose processors should be supplemented with abstract datatype processors (or ADPs) to deliver custom hardware performance in a form palatable to software. Abstract datatype instructions (or ADIs) implement operations on high-level data types such as hash tables, XML DOMs, relational database tables, and other types in common use in software. In object-oriented terminology, each ADI directly implements one public method of a class. By encapsulating richer algorithms and data than the usual fine-grained arithmetic, memory, and control-transfer instructions, ADIs provide ample implementation optimization opportunities in the form of an already familiar programming interface. Architects have made heroic efforts to quickly execute streams of fine-grained instructions, but their hands have been tied by the narrow scope of program information that conventional ISAs afford to hardware. ADIs release these restraints. Good software programming practice has long encouraged the use of carefully written, well-optimized libraries instead of manual implementations of all functionality; ADIs simply supply such libraries in a new form.
Learning Facial Expressions: From Alignment to Recognition

Department of Computer Science, The Academic College of Tel-Aviv Yaffo, Tel-Aviv 64044,Israel fY aniv.Ninio@amdocs.com gAbstract. One of the main challenges in 'real-life' object recognition applica-tionsiskeepingsomeinvariancepropertiessuchas:translation,scaling,androta-tion.However,tryingtomaintainsuchinvariantscanimpairrecognitioncapabili-ties,especiallywhenthefamilyofobjectsofinteresthasalargeshapevariability.We present a general family of shape metrics that generalizes Procrustes metricand within this framework learns the desired shape metric parameters from la-beled training samples. The learnt distance retains invariance properties on onehand and emphasizes the discriminative shape features on the other hand. Weshow how these metrics can be incorporated in multi-class classication kernelSVMs. We demonstrate the merits of this approach on multi-class facial expres-sions recognition using the AR dataset. The results address some questions andcautions regarding the interpretation of classication results when using still im-ages datasets collected in a controlled lab environment and their relevance for'real-life' applications.
Characteristics and Prognostic Analysis of 69 Patients With Pulmonary Sarcomatoid Carcinoma

Background:Pulmonary sarcomatoid carcinoma (PSC) is a rare malignancy. Methods:A total of 69 patients with PSC treated at a single institution in southern China with long-term follow-up were evaluated in this study. We analyzed the clinical characteristics, immunohistochemical profiles, epidermal growth factor receptor mutation status, K-RAS mutation status, treatments, and prognosis. Results:PSC mainly occurred in young male patients with a history of smoking. Most patients received multimodality treatments and the majority had early-stage disease. The median survival time was 19.1 months, and the 5-year survival rate was 17.4%. The patients without distant metastasis, with normal or higher body mass index (≥18.5), with normal hemoglobin, with smaller tumor size (⩽4 cm), and those who received complete resection had significantly better overall survival (P<0.05). The patients with pleomorphic carcinoma had much worse prognosis. In a Cox regression model, M stage, pathology, and having received a complete resection were independent prognostic factors (P<0.05). Conclusions:PSC is a unique lung malignancy with poor prognosis. Patients receiving complete resection had better prognosis, likely a reflection of early-stage disease. Neither neoadjuvant nor adjuvant chemotherapy improved patient survival for those with early-stage disease. The retrospective design and small sample size limited the generalizability. Future multicenter collaborations may be necessary to determine the optimal treatment.
COMMD1-Deficient Dogs Accumulate Copper in Hepatocytes and Provide a Good Model for Chronic Hepatitis and Fibrosis

New therapeutic concepts developed in rodent models should ideally be evaluated in large animal models prior to human clinical application. COMMD1-deficiency in dogs leads to hepatic copper accumulation and chronic hepatitis representing a Wilson’s disease like phenotype. Detailed understanding of the pathogenesis and time course of this animal model is required to test its feasibility as a large animal model for chronic hepatitis. In addition to mouse models, true longitudinal studies are possible due to the size of these dogs permitting detailed analysis of the sequence of events from initial insult to final cirrhosis. Therefore, liver biopsies were taken each half year from five new born COMMD1-deficient dogs over a period of 42 months. Biopsies were used for H&E, reticulin, and rubeanic acid (copper) staining. Immunohistochemistry was performed on hepatic stellate cell (HSC) activation marker (alpha-smooth muscle actin, α-SMA), proliferation (Ki67), apoptosis (caspase-3), and bile duct and liver progenitor cell (LPC) markers keratin (K) 19 and 7. Quantitative RT-PCR and Western Blots were performed on gene products involved in the regenerative and fibrotic pathways. Maximum copper accumulation was reached at 12 months of age, which coincided with the first signs of hepatitis. HSCs were activated (α-SMA) from 18 months onwards, with increasing reticulin deposition and hepatocytic proliferation in later stages. Hepatitis and caspase-3 activity (first noticed at 18 months) increased over time. Both HGF and TGF-β1 gene expression peaked at 24 months, and thereafter decreased gradually. Both STAT3 and c-MET showed an increased time-dependent activation. Smad2/3 phosphorylation, indicative for fibrogenesis, was present at all time-points. COMMD1-deficient dogs develop chronic liver disease and cirrhosis comparable to human chronic hepatitis, although at much higher pace. Therefore they represent a genetically-defined large animal model to test clinical applicability of new therapeutics developed in rodent models.
A Clustering Based Automated Glacier Segmentation Scheme Using Digital Elevation Model

We present an automated scheme for segmentation of high mountain glaciers using Fast Adaptive Medoid Shift (FAMS) algorithm and Digital Elevation Model (DEM). FAMS is a non-parametric clustering technique that has been optimized and made data driven from its original Medoid Shift algorithm. 6 Band TM sensor satellite images are fed to FAMS as input along with height, slope and gradient information extracted from a DEM. Clean glacier and debris covered glacier are treated separately. Each glacier having its own regional minima and debris is delineated individually. A unique slope-gradient model is used to separate the debris covered portion from its surrounding and extension rocks as well as to exclude the lateral moraine. The proposed model is independent of the DN values of satellite image bands and therefore is able to perform well even in areas where debris covered glaciers exactly resemble the surrounding rocks. Experiments have been carried out on KaraKoram and Hindukush mountain ranges of Asia and validated against supervised manual segmentation results as well as Google EarthTM imagery. Results have shown our fully automated method to be time efficient, robust and accurate.
Lactoferrin Acts as an Alarmin to Promote the Recruitment and Activation of APCs and Antigen-Specific Immune Responses12

Lactoferrin is an 80-kDa iron-binding protein present at high concentrations in milk and in the granules of neutrophils. It possesses multiple activities, including antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal, and even antitumor effects. Most of its antimicrobial effects are due to direct interaction with pathogens, but a few reports show that it has direct interactions with cells of the immune system. In this study, we show the ability of recombinant human lactoferrin (talactoferrin alfa (TLF)) to chemoattract monocytes. What is more, addition of TLF to human peripheral blood or monocyte-derived dendritic cell cultures resulted in cell maturation, as evidenced by up-regulated expression of CD80, CD83, and CD86, production of proinflammatory cytokines, and increased capacity to stimulate the proliferation of allogeneic lymphocytes. When injected into the mouse peritoneal cavity, lactoferrin also caused a marked recruitment of neutrophils and macrophages. Immunization of mice with OVA in the presence of TLF promoted Th1-polarized Ag-specific immune responses. These results suggest that lactoferrin contributes to the activation of both the innate and adaptive immune responses by promoting the recruitment of leukocytes and activation of dendritic cells.
L'épuisement professionnel des enseignants : l'indiscipline des élèves et le rôle modérateur du sentiment d'autoefficacité

Cette etude cherche a identifier les types de comportements d’indiscipline qui ont des relations significatives avec les composantes de l'epuisement professionnel et a determiner le role du sentiment d'autoefficacite des enseignants dans la relation entre l'indiscipline scolaire et l'epuisement professionnel. Nous avons fait parvenir des questionnaires, en debut et fin d'annee scolaire, a des enseignants d'ecoles secondaires publiques francophones de la region de Lanaudiere et de Quebec. Nous avons procede a des analyses statistiques longitudinales. Les resultats des regressions multiples (n=98) montrent que les actes d'hostilite a l'endroit des enseignants et la non-preparation des eleves sont associes positivement a l'epuisement professionnel et qu'un haut niveau du sentiment d'autoefficacite joue un role moderateur en regard des retards injustifies de eleves et des actes d'hostilite. Les resultats des analyses qualitatives (n=449) confirment que la gestion de l'indiscipline est l'aspect le plus anxiogene de la profession enseignante et que, plus particulierement, les actes d'hostilite des eleves a l'endroit des enseignants representent les evenements les plus stressants. La principale contribution de cette recherche se situe au niveau de la comprehension du role du sentiment d'autoefficacite des enseignants: un sentiment d'autoefficacite eleve represente un facteur de protection dans la relation entre l'indiscipline scolaire et l'epuisement professionnel.
Lyso-Sulfatide Binds Factor Xa and Inhibits Thrombin Generation by the Prothrombinase Complex

Blood coagulation reactions are strongly influenced by phospholipids, but little is known about the influence of sphingolipids on coagulation mechanisms. Lysosulfatide (lyso-SF) (sulfogalactosyl sphingosine) prolonged factor Xa (fXa) 1-stage plasma clotting assays, showing it had robust anticoagulant activity. In studies using purified clotting factors, lyso-SF inhibited >90% of prothrombin (II) activation for reaction mixtures containing fXa/factor Va (fVa)/II, and also inhibited II activation generation by fXa/ phospholipids and by Gla-domainless-fXa/fVa/phospholipids. When lyso-SF analogs were tested, results showed that N-acetyl-sulfatide was not anticoagulant, implying that the free amine group was essential for the anticoagulant effects of lyso-SF. Lyso-SF did not inhibit fXa enzymatic hydrolysis of small peptide substrates, showing it did not directly inhibit the fXa activity. In surface plasmon resonance studies, lyso-SF bound to immobilized inactivated fXa as well as inactivated Gla-domainless-fXa. Confirming this lyso-SF:fXa interaction, fluorescence studies showed that fluorescently-labeled-fXa in solution bound to lyso-SF. Thus, lyso-SF is an anticoagulant lipid that inhibits fXa when this enzyme is bound to either phospholipids or to fVa. Mechanisms for inhibition of procoagulant activity are likely to involve lyso-SF binding to fXa domain(s) that are distinct from the fXa Gla domain. This suggests that certain sphingolipids, including lyso-SF and some of its analogs, may down-regulate fXa activity without inhibiting the enzyme’s active site or binding to the fXa Gla domain.
Incremental type-checking for type-reflective metaprograms

Garcia introduces a calculus for type-reflective metaprogramming that provides much of the power and flexibility of C++ templates and solves many of its problems. However, one of the problems that remains is that the residual program is not type checked until after meta computation is complete. Ideally, one would like the type system of the metaprogram to also guarantee that the residual program will type check, as is the case in MetaML. However, in a language with type-reflective metaprogramming, type expressions in the residual program may be the result of meta computation, making the MetaML guarantee next to impossible to achieve. In this paper we offer an approach to detecting errors earlier without sacrificing flexibility: we incrementally type check code fragments as they are created and spliced together during meta computation. The incremental type system is a variant of the gradual type system of Siek and Taha, in which we use type variables to represent type expressions that are not yet normalized and a new dynamic variation on existential types to represent residual code fragments. A type error in a code fragment is treated as a run-time error of the meta computation. We show that the incremental type checker can be implemented efficiently and we prove that if a well-typed metaprogram generates a residual program, then the residual program is also well-typed.