Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Physica a Scaling of Prosocial Behavior in Cities

Previous research has examined how various behaviors scale in cities in relation to their population sizes. Behavior related to innovation and productivity has been found to increase per capita as the size of the city increases, a phenomenon known as superlinear scaling. Criminal behavior has also been found to scale superlinearly. Here we examine a variety of prosocial behaviors (e.g., voting and organ donation), which also would be presumed to be categorized into a single class of scaling with population. We find that, unlike productivity and innovation, prosocial behaviors do not scale in a unified manner. We argue how this might be due to the nature of interactions that are distinct for different prosocial behaviors.
Comparative Study of Channel Estimation Algorithms under Different Channel Scenario

The principle objective of this work is to enhance the knowledge about channel estimation and to compare the existing channel estimation techniques under different channel conditions. Normally the received signal is corrupted by the channel (Multipath, ISI). The estimation of a time-varying multipath fading channel is a difficult task for the receiver. Its performance can be improved if an appropriate channel estimation filter is used according to the prior knowledge of the fading channel. In this work the two popular estimation algorithms, viz., LMS and RLS are studied with respect to AWGN, Rician and Rayleigh channels. The simulation is performed in MATLAB platform. General Terms Vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V/ VTV) communication, intelligent transport systems (ITS), adaptive algorithm, equalizer, channel, fading channel, multipath.
In Vivo Demonstration and Quantification of Intracellular Bacillus anthracis in Lung Epithelial Cells

ABSTRACT Inhalational anthrax is initiated by the entry of Bacillus anthracis spores into the lung. A critical early event in the establishment of an infection is the dissemination of spores from the lung. Using in vitro cell culture assays, we previously demonstrated that B. anthracis spores are capable of entering into epithelial cells of the lung and crossing a barrier of lung epithelial cells without apparent disruption of the barrier integrity, suggesting a novel portal for spores to disseminate from the lung. However, in vivo evidence for spore uptake by epithelial cells has been lacking. Here, using a mouse model, we present evidence that B. anthracis spores are taken up by lung epithelial cells in vivo soon after spores are delivered into the lung. Immunofluorescence staining of thin sections of lungs from spore-challenged BALB/c mice revealed that spores were associated with the epithelial surfaces in the airway and the alveoli at 2 and 4 h postinoculation. Confocal analysis further indicated that some of the associated spores were surrounded by F-actin, demonstrating intracellular localization. These observations were further confirmed and substantiated by a quantitative method that first isolated lung cells from spore-challenged mice and then stained these cells with antibodies specific for epithelial cells and spores. The results showed that substantial amounts of spores were taken up by lung epithelial cells in vivo. These data, combined with those in our previous reports, provided powerful evidence that the lung epithelia were directly targeted by B. anthracis spores at early stages of infection.
Chicken scFvs with an Artificial Cysteine for Site-Directed Conjugation

For the site-directed conjugation of chemicals and radioisotopes to the chicken-derived single-chain variable fragment (scFv), we investigated amino acid residues replaceable with cysteine. By replacing each amino acid of the 157 chicken variable region framework residues (FR, 82 residues on VH and 75 on VL) with cysteine, 157 artificial cysteine mutants were generated and characterized. At least 27 residues on VL and 37 on VH could be replaced with cysteine while retaining the binding activity of the original scFv. We prepared three VL (L5, L6 and L7) and two VH (H13 and H16) mutants as scFv-Ckappa fusion proteins and showed that PEG-conjugation to the sulfhydryl group of the artificial cysteine was achievable in all five mutants. Because the charge around the cysteine residue affects the in vivo stability of thiol-maleimide conjugation, we prepared 16 charge-variant artificial cysteine mutants by replacing the flanking residues of H13 with charged amino acids and determined that the binding activity was not affected in any of the mutants except one. We prepared four charge-variant H13 artificial cysteine mutants (RCK, DCE, ECD and ECE) as scFv-Ckappa fusion proteins and confirmed that the reactivity of the sulfhydryl group on cysteine is active and their binding activity is retained after the conjugation process.
On the topological repeatability of experiments with wireless multihop networks

Repeatability has most often been neglected in experiments with wireless multihop networks. In this paper, we propose to consider repeatability in a coarse-grained fashion on a topological level. For this, a metric for comparing the similarity of topologies in static and mobile setups is presented and used to examine the level of repeatability achievable in such experiments. This metric is able to classify experiments according to the presence or absence of interference and to changes in the behavior of mobile nodes. It can be used to identify experimental runs where application layer performance is influenced by topological effects.
Genetic Variants of Retinoic Acid Receptor-Related Orphan Receptor Alpha Determine Susceptibility to Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in Han Chinese

Retinoic acid receptor-related orphan receptor alpha (RORA) plays a key role in the regulation of lipid and glucose metabolism and insulin expression that are implicated in the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). However, the effects of genetic variants in the RORA gene on the susceptibility to T2DM remain unknown. Nine tagging single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were screened by using the SNaPshot method in 427 patients with T2DM and 408 normal controls. Association between genotypes and haplotypes derived from these SNPs with T2DM was analyzed using different genetic models. Allele and genotype frequencies at rs10851685 were significantly different between T2DM patients and control subjects (allele: p = 0.009, Odds ratios (OR) = 1.36 [95% Confidence intervals (CI) = 1.08–1.72]; genotype: p = 0.029). The minor allele T, at rs10851685, was potentially associated with an increased risk of T2DM in the dominant model, displaying OR of 1.38 (95% CI: 1.04–1.82, p = 0.025) in subjects with genotypes TA+TT vs. AA. In haplotype analysis, we observed that haplotypes GGTGTAACT, GGTGTAACC, and GATATAACT were significantly associated with increased risk of T2DM, while haplotypes GATGAAGTT, AGTGAAGTT, and AATGAAATT were protective against T2DM. These data suggest that the genetic variation in RORA might determine a Chinese Han individual’s susceptibility to T2DM.
A Many-Core Machine Model for Designing Algorithms with Minimum Parallelism Overheads

We present a model of multithreaded computation, combining fork-join and single-instruction-multiple-data parallelisms, with an emphasis on estimating parallelism overheads of programs written for modern many-core architectures. We establish a Graham-Brent theorem for this model so as to estimate execution time of programs running on a given number of streaming multiprocessors. We evaluate the benefits of our model with four fundamental algorithms from scientific computing. In each case, our model is used to minimize parallelism overheads by determining an appropriate value range for a given program parameter; moreover experimentation confirms the model's prediction.
Automatic segmentation of focal adhesions from mouse embryonic fibroblasts

This work describes an automatic algorithm for the segmentation and quantification of focal adhesions from mouse embryonic fibroblasts. The main challenges solved by this algorithm are: the variability of the intensity of the focal adhesions, the detection of an outer ring, which distinguishes the cell periphery responsible for the cell migration, and the quantification of the characteristics of the focal adhesions. The algorithm detects maximal regions through gradients and uses a region-growing algorithm limited by intensity-based edges. The outer ring is calculated based on the average radial intensity from an extended centroid of the cell. Finally, traditional morphological characteristics are obtained to distinguish between two groups of cells. Two of the measurements employed showed statistical difference between two groups of cells.
Arid-Zone Mammals Adaptation to Heat and Water Shortage in Large ,

Physiol. Soc. ESSN: 1548-9221. Visit our website at http://www.the-aps.org/. American Physiological Society, 9650 Rockville Pike, Bethesda MD 20814-3991. ©2014 Int. Union Physiol. Sci./Am. the physiological developments. It is published bimonthly in February, April, June, August, October, and December by (formerly published as News in Physiological Science) publishes brief review articles on major Physiology by gest on N ovem er 4, 2016 http://physioline.physiology. org/ D ow nladed fom
Transient dsDNA breaks during pre-replication complex assembly

Initiation of DNA replication involves the ordered assembly of the multi-protein pre-replicative complex (pre-RC) during G1 phase. Previously, DNA topoisomerase II (topo II) was shown to associate with the DNA replication origin located in the lamin B2 gene locus in a cell-cycle-modulated manner. Here we report that activation of both the early-firing lamin B2 and the late-firing hOrs8 human replication origins involves DNA topo II-dependent, transient, site-specific dsDNA-break formation. Topo IIβ in complex with the DNA repair protein Ku associates in vivo and in vitro with the pre-RC region, introducing dsDNA breaks in a biphasic manner, during early and mid-G1 phase. Inhibition of topo II activity interferes with the pre-RC assembly resulting in prolonged G1 phase. The data mechanistically link DNA topo IIβ-dependent dsDNA breaks and the components of the DNA repair machinery with the initiation of DNA replication and suggest an important role for DNA topology in origin activation.
Thermal expansion coefficient prediction of fuel-cell seal materials from silica sand

This study is focused on the prediction of coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of silica-sand-based fuel-cell seal materials (FcSMs) which in principle require a CTE value in the range of 9.5–12 ppm/°C. A semi-quantitative theoretical method to predict the CTE value is proposed by applying the analyzed phase compositions from XRD data and characterized density-porosity behavior. A typical silica sand was milled at 150 rpm for 1 hour followed by heating at 1000 °C for another hour. The sand and heated samples were characterized by means of XRD to perceive the phase composition correlation between them. Rietveld refinement was executed to investigate the weight fraction of the phase contained in the samples, and then converted to volume fraction for composite CTE calculations. The result was applied to predict their potential physical properties for FcSM. Porosity was taken into account in the calculation after which it was directly measured by the Archimedes method.
GABA Transaminase Inhibition Induces Spontaneous and Enhances Depolarization-Evoked GABA Efflux via Reversal of the GABA Transporter

The GABA transporter can reverse with depolarization, causing nonvesicular GABA release. However, this is thought to occur only under pathological conditions. Patch-clamp recordings were made from rat hippocampal neurons in primary cell cultures. Inhibition of GABA transaminase with the anticonvulsant γ-vinyl GABA (vigabatrin; 0.05–100 μm) resulted in a large leak current that was blocked by bicuculline (50 μm). This leak current occurred in the absence of extracellular calcium and was blocked by the GABA transporter antagonist SKF-89976a (5 μm). These results indicate that vigabatrin induces spontaneous GABA efflux from neighboring cells via reversal of GABA transporters, subsequently leading to the stimulation of GABAA receptors on the recorded neuron. The leak current increased slowly over 4 d of treatment with 100 μm vigabatrin, at which time it reached an equivalent conductance of 9.0 ± 4.9 nS. Blockade of glutamic acid decarboxylase with semicarbazide (2 mm) decreased the leak current that was induced by vigabatrin by 47%. In untreated cells, carrier-mediated GABA efflux did not occur spontaneously but was induced by an increase in [K+]o from 3 to as little as 6 mm. Vigabatrin enhanced this depolarization-evoked nonvesicular GABA release and also enhanced the heteroexchange release of GABA induced by nipecotate. Thus, the GABA transporter normally operates near its equilibrium and can be easily induced to reverse by an increase in cytosolic [GABA] or mild depolarization. We propose that this transporter-mediated nonvesicular GABA release plays an important role in neuronal inhibition under both physiological and pathophysiological conditions and is the target of some anticonvulsants.
A Novel Approach to Scene Classification using K-Means Clustering

challenging problem of computer vision is scene classification. An efficient method for classifying natural scenes from the Oliva - Torralba dataset is proposed. The method is based on K-Means clustering algorithm followed by a novel two phase voting method for classification which is the main contribution of this paper. Two distinct feature sets have been used. The first feature set is used for grouping perceptually similar images into two clusters based on K- Means algorithm. The second feature set is selected based on observed visual attributes of images in these two clusters. Classification is achieved by a novel voting method which firstly assigns test image to the most similar cluster. Each cluster contains images from four categories. Therefore to assign test image to correct category within an assigned cluster, candidate voters from the assigned cluster are selected. The category of majority candidate voters decides the class of test image. The efficiency of the proposed voting scheme is that 83.4% test images are correctly classified. Silhouette index, purity, variance, F-measure and Rand's metric are used for cluster validation.
Situa & onal * * Scheduler * Parallel & Hardware & Concurrency & Primi 2 ves & Learn * and * Configure * So 4 ware * & * Hardware * Distributed & Hardware & Resources &

Cognitive computing has emerged as a challenge application domain that requires sensor-to-decision algorithms. However, situational dynamic changes in such algorithms give rise to efficiency challenges in computational settings. These algorithmic variations stem from input dependence, such as the context of data or the sparsity of the graph being processed. Consequently, concurrency control becomes challenging since the complex data-dependent behavior in these workloads exhibits a range of plausible parallel implementations. Moreover, today’s computational hardware increasingly exposes concurrency controls to the software, and the right choice for the execution model varies with the algorithm and its input characteristics. In this paper we address the question of how to efficiently harness concurrency controls in the cognitive computing context. We present a situationally adaptive scheduler (SAS) that manages input dependence to yield a near-optimal parallelization strategy at the software layer, and the right concurrency control at the architecture layer. We evaluate SAS on a large-scale simulated multicore and show that situational scheduling helps achieve better scalability over naive settings.
Physical and Chemical Properties of Fly Ash based Portland Pozzolana Cement

This project is aimed to study the Physical and Chemical properties of fly ash based Portland pozzolana cement manufactured by Tokyo cement (lanka) PLC. Basics of cement, fly ash, pozzolana and physical and chemical properties of cement have been studied to proceed the project easily. The test methods available to find out Physical and Chemical properties of fly ash based Portland pozzolana cement have been studied. To identify the importance of this blended cement, comparison of Physical and Chemical properties of fly ash based Portland pozzolana cement with normal Ordinary Portland cement is proposed. From that it can be easily identified the importance of this locally manufactured special fly ash based Portland pozzolana cement in many applications in the construction industry.
A Survey on Congestion Control and Maximization of Throughput in Wireless Networks

In multihop wireless networks, designing distributed Scheduling algorithms to achieve the maximal throughput is a challenging problem because of the complex interference constraints among different links. Traditional maximalweight scheduling (MWS), although throughput-optimal, is difficult to implement in distributed networks. On the other hand, a distributed greedy protocol similar to IEEE 802.11 does not guarantee the maximal throughput. This proposed system introduces an adaptive carrier sense multiple access (CSMA) scheduling algorithm that can achieve the maximal throughput distributively. Some of the major advantages of the algorithm are that it applies to a very general interference model and that it is simple, distributed, and asynchronous. We are also including congestion control algorithms to reduce the packet loss in the network which improves the packet delivery ratio substantially. KeywordsMultihop wireless networks, CSMA, Distributed network, Congestion control, Conflict graph, MAC Layer.
A study for neutral format to exchange and reuse engineering knowledge in KBE applications

In the discipline of Knowledge Based Engineering (KBE), we propose a study for a possible solution to reuse pieces of engineering knowledge that have been already represented in other software tools. Those tools are mainly programs or CAD files, and are usually stored in companies' repositories (databases and PLM systems among the others). For reusing, we mean the possibility of replicating tout-court a specific set of rules, geometry and user interfaces in different projects, software and even application field. In particular, we propose the adoption of a tailored language based on XML syntax, whose taxonomy allows describing the most common aspects of the engineering design process: (1) product architecture descriptions, with their parts relations and design rules; (2) design process descriptions, with the interactions between company's knowledge and products. Thus we propose the Rules Interchange Format (RIF) file to fulfil this achievement. The RIF file is the main output of a specific Work Package in the context of the "LinkedDesign" European Commission founded project. It is represented by an XML schema where we translated and joined together two of the most common knowledge formalization modelling languages into XML tags: an UML Class Diagram based pattern, to describe products architectures; an IDEF0 Diagram based pattern, to describe design processes. In order to include the description of design automation aspects, to be used with KBE systems, we enriched the mentioned patterns introducing special tags for managing product configuration rules and connections interfaces with CAD tools and PLM.
Connecting feelings and thoughts - modeling the interaction of emotion and cognition in embodied agents

The integration of emotion and cognition in cognitive architectures for embodied agents is a problem of increasing importance. In this paper, we describe how two separate modules for these tasks, as we employ them in our virtual human Max, can influence each other in such an architecture. In the first direction, from cognition to emotion, we present domain-specific as well as more general appraisal mechanisms, as employed in three different interaction scenarios. For domain-independent appraisal the belief-desire-intention model is exploited to derive emotional impulses during the decision process. In the opposite direction, we discuss how emotions can influence cognition either as self-beliefs or as modulators to the decision-making process itself. For the latter, extensions to the BDI-interpreter are proposed.
Effect of fiber orientation angle on thermal degradation and ablative properties of short‐fiber reinforced EPDM/NBR rubber composites

A series of short aramid fibers reinforced ethylene- propylene-diene terpolymer (EPDM)/acrylonitrile-butadiene rubber (NBR) composites with designed fiber orientation angle (β) between the short fibers orientation and the ablative surface have been prepared in this work. The influence of β on the thermal degradation and ablation resistance properties of the composites under the oxyacetylene flame is carefully discussed. With the increasing of β, the porosity of the char layer is reduced, whereas its hardness is improved. As a result, the pyrolysis rate (Rp) and the carbonization rate (Rc) are accelerated since the thermal conductivity of the char layer is enlarged after the composites were carbonized. The acceleration of the thermal degradation results in an increasing mass loss during the pyrolysis reaction. However, the erosion rate (RL), mainly caused by the mechanical ablation of the high speed heat flux, is reduced gradually as β increases due to the improved hardness of the char layer. Dominated by the two kinds of ablation methods oppositely as β increases, the mass loss rates (Rm) decreases firstly and then increases gradually. POLYM. COMPOS. , 31:1223–1231, 2010. © 2009 Society of Plastics Engineers
Offset Triangular Mesh Using the Multiple Normal Vectors of a Vertex

AbstractThis paper introduces and illustrates the results of a new method for offsetting triangular mesh by moving all vertices along the multiple normal vectors of a vertex. The multiple normal vectors of a vertex are set the same as the normal vectors of the faces surrounding the vertex, while the two vectors with the smallest difference are joined repeatedly until the difference is smaller than allowance. Offsetting with the multiple normal vectors of a vertex does not create a gap or overlap at the smooth edges, thereby making the mesh size uniform and the computation time short. In addition, this offsetting method is accurate at the sharp edges because the vertices are moved to the normal directions of faces and joined by the blend surface. The method is also useful for rapid prototyping and tool path generation if the triangular mesh is tessellated part of the solid models with curved surfaces and sharp edges. The suggested method and previous methods are implemented on a PC using C++ and illustrate.