Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Integrated Assessment of Energy Technologies: An Overview

It is often assumed in practice that electricity cannot be stored, even though in reality the storage of electricity is technically feasible. The issue is not whether electricity can be stored, but whether it can be stored efficiently and economically. In this paper, we present some of the current storage technologies and discuss their applications within power markets. We focus on the use of storage for intraday arbitrage and develop several models for optimizing the operation of a storage facility over a 24 hour period. The optimization problem has been framed as a linear program, a multi-stage stochastic program and a dynamic program. Two specific storage technologies, namely compressed air energy storage (CAES) and the sodium sulfur (NaS) battery, are modeled and analyzed within the separate optimization frameworks. We conclude with a sensitivity analysis of the model parameters and present an overall cost-benefit analysis of using electricity storage for arbitrage. The storage of electricity, although technically feasible, has seen little widespread implementation on the electricity grid. In this paper, we present some of the potential storage technologies, and the applications and value of storage in power markets. We address the financial feasibility of storage by developing a operations model for a generic storage facility and examine the valuation of electricity storage facilities purely from an intraday arbitrage approach. The optimization problem has been framed 1 Integrated Assessment of Energy Technologies Sweeney, et al. GCEP Technical Report 2006 99 as a linear program, a multi-stage stochastic program and a dynamic program. Two specific storage technologies are modeled, and analyzed within the separate optimization frameworks. We conclude with a sensitivity analysis of the model parameters, in addition to a cost-benefit analysis using capital costs and discuss the overall feasibility of using energy storage for arbitrage. 2 Integrated Assessment of Energy Technologies Sweeney, et al. GCEP Technical Report 2006 100
THE TELEGRAPH APPROXIMATION FOR FOCUSED COSMIC-RAY TRANSPORT IN THE PRESENCE OF BOUNDARIES

Diffusive cosmic-ray transport in nonuniform large-scale magnetic fields in the presence of boundaries is considered. Reflecting and absorbing boundary conditions are derived for a modified telegraph equation with a convective term. Analytical and numerical solutions of illustrative boundary problems are presented. The applicability and accuracy of the telegraph approximation for focused cosmic-ray transport in the presence of boundaries are discussed, and potential applications to modeling cosmic-ray transport are noted.
Dynamic Niche Clustering: a fuzzy variable radius niching technique for multimodal optimisation in GAs

This paper describes the recent developments and improvements made to the variable radius niching technique called Dynamic Niche Clustering (DNC). DNC is fitness sharing based technique that employs a separate population of overlapping fuzzy niches with independent radii which operate in the decoded parameter space, and are maintained alongside the normal GA population. We describe a speedup process that can be applied to the initial generation which greatly reduces the complexity of the initial stages. A split operator is also introduced that is designed to counteract the excessive growth of niches, and it is shown that this improves the overall robustness of the technique. Finally, the effect of local elitism is documented and compared to the performance of the basic DNC technique on a selection of 2D test functions. The paper is concluded with a view to future work to be undertaken on the technique.
Polyhedral Extraction Tool

We present a new library for extracting a polyhedral model from C source. The library is based on clang, the LLVM C frontend, and isl, a library for manipulating quasi-ane sets and relations. The use of clang for parsing the C code brings advanced diagnostics and full support for C99. The use of isl allows for an easy construction and a powerful and compact representation of the polyhedral model. Besides allowing arbitrary piecewise quasi-ane index expressions and conditions, the library also supports some data dependent constructs and has special treatment for unsigned integers. The library has been successfully used to obtain polyhedral models for use in an equivalence checker, a tool for constructing polyhedral process networks, a parallelizer targeting GPUs and an interactive polyhedral environment.
The MHD Equation of State with Post-Holtsmark Microfield Distributions

The Mihalas-Hummer-Däppen (MHD) equation of state is a part of the Opacity Project (OP), where it mainly provides ionization equilibria and level populations of a large number of astrophysically relevant species. Its basic concept is the idea of perturbed atomic and ionic states. At high densities, when many-body effects become dominant, the concept of perturbed atoms loses its sense. For that reason, the MHD equation of state was originally restricted to the plasma of stellar envelopes, that is, to relatively moderate densities, which should not exceed ρ < 10-2 g cm-3. However, helioseismological analysis has demonstrated that this restriction is much too conservative. The principal feature of the original Hummer & Mihalas paper is an expression for the destruction probability of a bound state (ground state or excited) of a species (atomic or ionic), linked to the mean electric microfield of the plasma. Hummer & Mihalas assumed, for convenience, a simplified form of the Holtsmark microfield for randomly distributed ions. An improved MHD equation of state (Q-MHD) is introduced. It is based on a more realistic microfield distribution that includes plasma correlations. Comparison with an alternative post-Holtsmark formalism (APEX) is made, and good agreement is shown. There is a clear signature of the choice of the microfield distribution in the adiabatic index γ1, which makes it accessible to present-day helioseismological analysis. However, since these thermodynamic effects of the microfield distribution are quite small, it also follows that the approximations chosen in the original MHD equation of state were reasonable. A particular feature of the original MHD papers was an explicit list of the adopted free energy and its first- and second-order analytical derivatives. The corresponding Q-MHD quantities are given in the Appendix.
Atorvastatin reduces T-cell activation and exhaustion among HIV-infected cART-treated suboptimal immune responders in Uganda: a randomised crossover placebo-controlled trial

T‐cell activation independently predicts mortality, poor immune recovery and non‐AIDS illnesses during combination antiretroviral therapy (cART). Atorvastatin showed anti‐immune activation effects among HIV‐infected cART‐naïve individuals. We investigated whether adjunct atorvastatin therapy reduces T‐cell activation among cART‐treated adults with suboptimal immune recovery.
A Bayesian-Based Approach for Activity and Mobility Inference in Location-Based Social Networks

With the popularity of location-based social networks (LBSNs), users would like to share their check-ins with their friends for more social interactions. These check-in records reflect not only when and where they are, but also what they are doing. If we can capture the relations of the location, time, and activity factors in LBSNs, the location-based social platforms can provide more personalized location-based services to users. In this paper, we aim to infer individual activity and mobility based on their check-in records in LBSNs. For these two inference problems, we analyze check-in records, and utilize Bayesian network to represent the relations among location, time, and activity factors of check-in records. Based on the proposed network model, the two inference problems can be simplified to two modules, the activity-time and the location-activity relation. For the activity-time relation, we propose Order-1 Activity Transition Model to capture the activity-time relations of check-in records. Moreover, for the location-activity relation, we exploit the Gaussian mixture model to capture individual mobility features in different activities. To evaluate the proposed network model for the two inference problems, we conduct extensive experiments on two real datasets, and the experimental results show that our proposed Bayesian-based approach has higher performance than the state-of-the-art approaches for activity and mobility inference in LBSNs.
Online robust portfolio risk management using total least-squares and parallel splitting algorithms

The present paper introduces a novel online asset allocation strategy which accounts for the sensitivity of Markowitz-inspired portfolios to low-quality estimates of the mean and the correlation matrix of stock returns. The proposed methodology builds upon the total least-squares (TLS) criterion regularized with sparsity attributes, and the ability to incorporate additional convex constraints on the portfolio vector. To solve such an optimization task, the present paper draws from the rich family of splitting algorithms to construct a novel online splitting algorithm with computational complexity that scales linearly with the number of unknowns. Real-world financial data are utilized to demonstrate the potential of the proposed technique.
Multiprocessor system-on-chip data reuse analysis for exploring customized memory hierarchies

The increasing use of multiprocessor systems-on-chip (MPSoCs) for high performance demands of embedded applications results in high power dissipation. The memory subsystem is a large and critical contributor to both energy and performance, requiring system designers to perform exploration of low power memory organizations. In this paper we present a novel multiprocessor data reuse analysis technique that allows the system designer to explore a wide range of customized memory hierarchy organizations with different size and energy profiles. Our technique enables the system designer to explore feasible memory subsystem solutions that meet power and area constraints while maintaining the necessary performance level. Our experiments on the complex QSDPCM benchmark illustrate the exploration of a wide range of customized memory hierarchies for an MPSoC implementation
Serotonin at the level of the amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex modulates distinct aspects of positive emotion in primates

Impaired top-down regulation of the amygdala, and its modulation by serotonin (5-HT), is strongly implicated in the dysregulation of negative emotion that characterizes a number of affective disorders. However, the contribution of these mechanisms to the regulation of positive emotion is not well understood. This study investigated the role of 5-HT within the amygdala and the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), on the expression of appetitive Pavlovian conditioned emotional responses and their reversal in a primate, the common marmoset. Its effects were compared to those of the amygdala itself. Having developed conditioned autonomic and behavioural responses to an appetitive cue prior to surgery, marmosets with excitotoxic amygdala lesions failed to display such conditioned autonomic arousal at retention, but still displayed intact cue-directed conditioned behaviours. In contrast, 5,7-DHT infusions into the amygdala, reducing extracellular 5-HT levels, selectively enhanced the expression of appetitive conditioned behaviour at retention. Similar infusions into the OFC, producing marked reductions in post-mortem 5-HT tissue levels, had no overall effect on autonomic or behavioural responses, either at retention or during reversal learning, but caused an uncoupling of these responses, thereby fractionating emotional output. These data demonstrate the critical role of the amygdala in the expression of appetitive autonomic conditioning, and the region-selective contribution of 5-HT in the amygdala and OFC, respectively, to the expression of conditioned behaviour and the overall coordination of the emotional response. They provide insight into the neurochemical mechanisms underlying the regulation of positive emotional responses, advancing our understanding of the neural basis of pathologically dysregulated emotion.
Reducing Pervasive False-Positive Identical-by-Descent Segments Detected by Large-Scale Pedigree Analysis

Analysis of genomic segments shared identical-by-descent (IBD) between individuals is fundamental to many genetic applications, from demographic inference to estimating the heritability of diseases, but IBD detection accuracy in nonsimulated data is largely unknown. In principle, it can be evaluated using known pedigrees, as IBD segments are by definition inherited without recombination down a family tree. We extracted 25,432 genotyped European individuals containing 2,952 father–mother–child trios from the 23andMe, Inc. data set. We then used GERMLINE, a widely used IBD detection method, to detect IBD segments within this cohort. Exploiting known familial relationships, we identified a false-positive rate over 67% for 2–4 centiMorgan (cM) segments, in sharp contrast with accuracies reported in simulated data at these sizes. Nearly all false positives arose from the allowance of haplotype switch errors when detecting IBD, a necessity for retrieving long (>6 cM) segments in the presence of imperfect phasing. We introduce HaploScore, a novel, computationally efficient metric that scores IBD segments proportional to the number of switch errors they contain. Applying HaploScore filtering to the IBD data at a precision of 0.8 produced a 13-fold increase in recall when compared with length-based filtering. We replicate the false IBD findings and demonstrate the generalizability of HaploScore to alternative data sources using an independent cohort of 555 European individuals from the 1000 Genomes project. HaploScore can improve the accuracy of segments reported by any IBD detection method, provided that estimates of the genotyping error rate and switch error rate are available.
Matrix Intensification Affects Body and Physiological Condition of Tropical Forest-Dependent Passerines

Matrix land-use intensification is a relatively recent and novel landscape change that can have important influences on the biota within adjacent habitat patches. While there are immediate local changes that it brings about, the influences on individual animals occupying adjacent habitats may be less evident initially. High-intensity land use could induce chronic stress in individuals in nearby remnants, leading ultimately to population declines. We investigated how physiological indicators and body condition measures of tropical forest-dependent birds differ between forest adjacent to surface mining sites and that near farmlands at two distances from remnant edge in southwest Ghana. We used mixed effects models of several condition indices including residual body mass and heterophil to lymphocyte (H/L) ratios (an indicator of elevated chronic stress) to explore the effect of matrix intensity on forest-dependent passerines classed as either sedentary area-sensitive habitat specialists or nomadic generalists. Individual birds occupying tropical forest remnants near surface mining sites were in poorer condition, as indicated by lower residual body mass and elevated chronic stress, compared to those in remnants near agricultural lands. The condition of the sedentary forest habitat specialists white-tailed alethe, Alethe diademata and western olive sunbird, Cyanomitra obscura was most negatively affected by high-intensity surface mining land-use adjacent to remnants, whereas generalist species were not affected. Land use intensification may set in train a new trajectory of faunal relaxation beyond that expected based on habitat loss alone. Patterns of individual condition may be useful in identifying habitats where species population declines may occur before faunal relaxation has concluded.
Strategies for accelerating the design of dialogue applications using heuristic information from the backend database

Nowadays, current commercial and academic platforms for developing spoken dialogue applications lack of acceleration strategies based on using heuristic information from the contents or structure of the backend database in order to speed up the definition of the dialogue flow. In this paper we describe our attempts to take advantage of these information sources using the following strategies: the quick creation of classes and attributes to define the data model structure, the semi-automatic generation and debugging of database access functions, the automatic proposal of the slots that should be preferably requested using mixed-initiative forms or the slots that are better to request one by one using directed forms, and the generation of automatic state proposals to specify the transition network that defines the dialogue flow. Subjective and objective evaluations confirm the advantages of using the proposed strategies to simplify the design, and the high acceptance of the platform and its acceleration strategies. Index Terms: Development Platforms, Automatic Design of Dialogue Systems, Data Mining.
Gag-Specific CD4 and CD8 T-Cell Proliferation in Adolescents and Young Adults with Perinatally Acquired HIV-1 Infection Is Associated with Ethnicity — The ANRS-EP38-IMMIP Study

The ANRS-EP38-IMMIP study aimed to provide a detailed assessment of the immune status of perinatally infected youths living in France. We studied Gag-specific CD4 and CD8 T-cell proliferation and the association between the proliferation of these cells, demographic factors and HIV disease history. We included 93 youths aged between 15 and 24 years who had been perinatally infected with HIV. Sixty-nine had undergone valid CFSE-based T-cell proliferation assays. Gag-specific proliferation of CD4 and CD8 T cells was detected in 12 (16%) and 30 (38%) patients, respectively. The Gag-specific proliferation of CD4 and CD8 T cells was more frequently observed in black patients than in patients from other ethnic groups (CD4: 32% vs. 4%, P = 0.001; CD8: 55% vs. 26%, P = 0.02). Among aviremic patients, the duration of viral suppression was shorter in CD8 responders than in CD8 nonresponders (medians: 54 vs. 20 months, P = 0.04). Among viremic patients, CD8 responders had significantly lower plasma HIV RNA levels than CD8 nonresponders (2.7 vs. 3.7 log10 HIV-RNA copies/ml, P = 0.02). In multivariate analyses including sex and HIV-1 subtype as covariables, Gag-specific CD4 T-cell proliferation was associated only with ethnicity, whereas Gag-specific CD8 T-cell proliferation was associated with both ethnicity and the duration of viral suppression. Both CD4 and CD8 responders reached their nadir CD4 T-cell percentages at younger ages than their nonresponder counterparts (6 vs. 8 years, P = 0.04 for both CD4 and CD8 T-cell proliferation). However, these associations were not significant in multivariate analysis. In conclusion, after at least 15 years of HIV infection, Gag-specific T-cell proliferation was found to be more frequent in black youths than in patients of other ethnic groups, despite all the patients being born in the same country, with similar access to care.
Control of flocking behavior using informed agents: An experimental study

This work investigates the controlling effects of a small group of agents on a large flock. The flock consists of a small fraction of informed agents, who are aware of the final goal, and a large fraction of naïve agents, who are not aware of the final goal but tend to stay with the group. The interesting point of this work is that although the informed agents can not transmit information such as their moving direction or their headings, they, just as naïve agents, tend to stay with the group — but because of having the extra tendency (of goal attraction), they use any occasion to approach the goal. It is shown that the flocking target can be controlled using a small fraction of these informed agents. The evaluation experiments are executed on E-Puck miniature robots and the effect of some parameters, such as the fraction of informed agents, information about target, and randomness of movements, are investigated.
Equilibrium Times For The Multicanonical Method

This work measures the time to equilibrium for the multicanonical method on the 2D-Ising system by using a new criterion, proposed here, to find the time to equilibrium, teq, of any sampling procedure based on a Markov process. Our new procedure gives the same results that the usual one, based on the magnetization, for the canonical Metropolis sampling on a 2D-Ising model at several temperatures. For the multicanonical method we found a power-law relationship with the system size, L, of teq=0.27(15) L2.80(13) and with the number of energy levels to explore, kE, of $t_{\rm eq} = 0.7(13) k_{\rm E}^{1.40(11)}$, in perfect agreement with the above result. In addition, a kind of critical slowing down was observed around the critical energy. Our new procedure is completely general, and can be applied to any sampling method based on Markov processes.
Refined factorizations of solvable potentials

A generalization of the factorization technique is shown to be a powerful algebraic tool to discover further properties of a class of integrable systems in quantum mechanics. The method is applied in the study of radial oscillator, Morse and Coulomb potentials to obtain a wide set of raising and lowering operators, and to show clearly the connection that links these systems.
Involvement of Sphingosine 1-Phosphate in Nerve Growth Factor-Mediated Neuronal Survival and Differentiation

Sphingolipid metabolites, such as ceramide and sphingosine-1-phosphate (SPP), are emerging as a new class of second messengers involved in cellular proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis. Nerve growth factor (NGF), a neurotrophic factor for pheochromocytoma PC12 cells, induced a biphasic increase in the activity of sphingosine kinase, the enzyme that catalyzes the formation of SPP. This activation was blocked by K252a, an inhibitor of tyrosine kinase A (trkA). A rapid 1.7-fold increase was followed by a marked prolonged increase reaching a maximum of fourfold to fivefold stimulation with a concomitant increase in SPP levels and a corresponding decrease in endogenous sphingosine levels. Levels of ceramide, the precursor of sphingosine, were only slightly decreased by NGF in serum-containing medium. However, NGF decreased the elevation of ceramide induced by serum withdrawal. Treatment of PC12 cells with SPP did not induce neurite outgrowth or neurofilament expression, yet it enhanced neurofilament expression elicited by suboptimal doses of NGF. Moreover, SPP also protected PC12 cells from apoptosis induced by serum withdrawal. To further substantiate a role for SPP in the cytoprotective actions of NGF, we found thatN,N-dimethylsphingosine, a competitive inhibitor of sphingosine kinase, also induced apoptosis and interfered with the survival effect of NGF. These effects were counteracted by exogenous SPP. Moreover, other structurally related compounds, such as dihydrosphingosine 1-phosphate and lysophosphatidic acid, had no significant protective effects. Our results suggest that activation of sphingosine kinase and subsequent formation of SPP may play an important role in the differentiation and survival effects induced by NGF.
Efficient simulation for tail probabilities of Gaussian random fields

We are interested in computing tail probabilities for the maxima of Gaussian random fields. In this paper, we discuss two special cases: random fields defined over a finite number of distinct point and fields with finite Karhunen-Loeve expansions. For the first case we propose an importance sampling estimator which yields asymptotically zero relative error. Moreover, it yields a procedure for sampling the field conditional on it having an excursion above a high level with a complexity that is uniformly bounded as the level increases. In the second case we propose an estimator which is asymptotically optimal. These results serve as a first step analysis of rare-event simulation for Gaussian random fields.