Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Market Power, Multinationality and Intra-Eu Industry Exports in the 90s

This paper assesses the impact of market power and multinationality in EU12 manufacturing industries on EU integration in goods trade in the 90s. An increase in the market concentration exhibits a positive impact on bilateral exports, while an increase in multinationality works in the opposite direction. Both effects are in accordance with the theoretical hypotheses. As a result, goods trade between the member countries was "polarised" in terms of a relative disintegration of southern Europe. Copyright (c) Scottish Economic Society 2004.
Fullwave Volumetric Maxwell solver using Conduction Modes

We present a gridless method for solving the interior problem for a set of conductors in an homogeneous dielectric, at sufficiently high frequencies, valid for conductor lengths that are not small compared to the minimum wavelength, and transverse dimensions that are large compared to the skin depth. For IC applications, we cover the regime 10-100 GHz and the inclusion of all relevant wire dimensions. We decompose the electromagnetic field in terms of the eigenfunctions of the Helmholtz equation for three dimensional current distributions inside the conductors. Using a relatively small number of modes per conductor we obtain results comparable to filament or mesh decompositions using a much larger dimensionality for the resulting linear problem. The method is an extension to the fullwave regime of a method introduced in (Daniel et al., 2001)
An Empirical Study of K-Means Initialization Methods for Document Clustering

Everyday vast amounts of documents, e-mails, and web pages are generated. In order to handle these data, automatic techniques such as document clustering are needed. The k-means method is a clustering technique widely used in practice because of its simplicity and empirical speed. In this paper, the basic k-means algorithm is augmented with two special initialization techniques that aim at improving both the accuracy and the speed of k-means. Experiments are run on two popular document collections. The results vary substantially between the document sets and the number of clusters, but overall, only marginal improvements in accuracy and a decline in speed are observed.
make test-zesti: A symbolic execution solution for improving regression testing

Software testing is an expensive and time consuming process, often involving the manual creation of comprehensive regression test suites. However, current testing methodologies do not take full advantage of these tests. In this paper, we present a technique for amplifying the effect of existing test suites using a lightweight symbolic execution mechanism, which thoroughly checks all sensitive operations (e.g., pointer dereferences) executed by the test suite for errors, and explores additional paths around sensitive operations. We implemented this technique in a prototype system called ZESTI (Zero-Effort Symbolic Test Improvement), and applied it to three open-source code bases - GNU Coreutils, libdwarf and readelf - where it found 52 previously unknown bugs, many of which are out of reach of standard symbolic execution. Our technique works transparently to the tester, requiring no additional human effort or changes to source code or tests.
Utility-guided Clustering-based Transaction Data Anonymization

Transaction data about individuals are increasingly collected to support a plethora of applications, spanning from marketing to biomedical studies. Publishing these data is required by many organizations, but may result in privacy breaches, if an attacker exploits potentially identifying information to link individuals to their records in the published data. Algorithms that prevent this threat by transforming transaction data prior to their release have been proposed recently, but they may incur significant utility loss due to their inability to: (i) accommodate a range of different privacy requirements that data owners often have, and (ii) guarantee that the produced data will satisfy data owners' utility requirements. To address this issue, we propose a novel clustering-based framework to anonymizing transaction data, which provides the basis for designing algorithms that better preserve data utility. Based on this framework, we develop two anonymization algorithms which explore a larger solution space than existing methods and can satisfy a wide range of privacy requirements. Additionally, the second algorithm allows the specification and enforcement of utility requirements, thereby ensuring that the anonymized data remain useful in intended tasks. Experiments with both benchmark and real medical datasets verify that our algorithms significantly outperform the current state-of-the-art algorithms in terms of data utility, while being comparable in terms of efficiency.
The development of lower limb musculoskeletal models with clinical relevance is dependent upon the fidelity of the mathematical description of the lower limb. Part 1: equations of motion

Contemporary musculoskeletal modelling research is based upon the assumption that such models will evolve into clinical tools that can be used to guide therapeutic interventions. However, there are a number of questions that must be addressed before this becomes a reality. At its heart, musculoskeletal modelling is a process of formulating and then solving the equations of motion that describe the movement of body segments. Both of these steps are challenging. This article argues that traditional approaches to musculoskeletal modelling have been heavily influenced by the need to simplify this process (and in particular the solution process), and that this has to some degree resulted in approaches that are contrary to the principles of classical mechanics. It is suggested that future work is required to understand how these simplifications affect the outputs of musculoskeletal modelling studies. Equally, to increase their clinical relevance, the models of the future should adhere more closely to the classical mechanics on which they are based.
On the unknown input observer design: A decoupling class approach

This paper deals with state estimation for linear discrete-time systems subject to unknown input. Although many papers have dealt with the problem of Unknown Input Observer design, state decoupling and reconstruction; the goal is to present a new method allowing to characterize a class of unknown inputs to which the estimation error is decoupled. This contribution considers two problems: exact decoupling and ℒ2-attenuation of the unknown input to the state estimation error.
Decreased thalamic volumes in adolescent inhalant users from Korea and Australia

Abstract Objectives. Research investigating the impact of inhalant misuse on brain structure suggests abnormalities in subcortical regions. We investigated the association between inhalant misuse and subcortical brain volumes in adolescents. Methods. Based on a collaborative dataset from South Korea (inhalant users: N = 15, mean age = 16.7, SD = 1.1; controls: N = 15, mean age = 15.4, SD = 1.2) and Australia (inhalant users: N = 7, mean age = 18.2, SD = 1.4; controls: N = 7, mean age = 18.9, SD = 2.6), the volumes of caudate nucleus, putamen, pallidum, amygdala, hippocampus, and thalamus were estimated in adolescent inhalant users and healthy adolescents using FreeSurfer. Results. The results revealed a significantly decreased right thalamic volume in adolescent inhalant users (P = 0.042), along with a trend-level decrease in left thalamic volume (P = 0.061). A negative correlation (r = –0.544; P = 0.036) between thalamic volume and severity of inhalant use (i.e., reduced volumes associated with greater use) was identified among Korean participants. Conclusions. These findings suggest that compared with other subcortical structures, the thalamus is particularly sensitive to damage following chronic inhalant exposure during adolescence.
Recrystallization, abnormal grain growth and ultrafine microstructure of ODS ferritic steels

Oxide Dispersion Steels (ODS) alloys are mainly studied for their ability to fulfil the technical specifications required for Sodium Fast Reactor (SFR) fuel cladding application. Their processing involves powder metallurgy, mechanical alloying and extrusion. Therefore, despite their interesting mechanical creep properties, the extrusion processing involves a high microstructural anisotropy. These particular feature leads to poor mechanical properties in the transverse direction which are worsen by the occurrence of abnormal grain growth. Unfortunately, since internal pressure increases in the tube with the accumulation of gas fission products, the major stress component is precisely applied in the transverse direction. As a result, the material faces a critical risk of failure and control of the microstructure is a key issue. The aim of this thesis is to study the microstructural evolution of ODS ferritic steels. ODS ferritic steels show ultrafine microstructures in terms both grains and precipitates which made the recrystallization very difficult and allow for abnormal grain growth. To observe such evolutions, fine scale microstructure characterization are necessary. This is only possible by coupling different characterization methods: transmission electronic microscopy (in particular with the new developed tools for nanotexturation studies, i.e. ACOM-TEM); neutron and X-ray small angle scattering; and atomic probe tomography. Based on the mechanisms that lead to and control the abnormal grain growth, a model to predict the occurrence of abnormal grain growth is confronted to the experimental results. This model that takes a particular attention to the dislocation stored energy effect to adequately reproduce the observed characterization results.
A human detection system for proxemics interaction

In this paper, we present a human detection system for a domestic robot. A 2D laser scanner based leg detector and a vision based body detector are combined using a grid fusion strategy. This approach has been evaluated on a domestic robot. Furthermore, we propose a methodology to evaluate it in relation to proxemics that could be generalized to other robot's perceptive functions.
Coinciding Walk Kernels

Exploiting autocorrelation for node-label prediction in networked data has led to great success. However, when dealing with sparsely labeled networks, common in present-day tasks, the autocorrelation assumption is dicult to exploit. Taking a step beyond, we propose the coinciding walk kernel (cwk), a novel kernel leveraging label-structure similarity { the idea that nodes with similarly arranged labels in their local neighbourhoods are likely to have the same label { for learning problems on partially labeled graphs. Inspired by the success of random walk based schemes for the construction of graph kernels, cwk is dened in terms of the probability that the labels encountered during parallel random walks coincide. In addition to its intuitive probabilistic interpretation, coinciding walk kernels outperform state-ofthe-art kernel- and walk-based methods on the task of nodelabel prediction in sparsely labeled graphs. We also show that computing cwks is faster than many state-of-the-art kernels on graphs. We evaluate cwks on several real-world networks, including cocitation and coauthor graphs, as well as a network of interlinked populated places extracted from the dbpedia knowledge base.
Opsin Immunocytochemical Characterization of Different Types of Photoreceptors in the Frog Pineal Organ

The pineal organ of the frog, Rana esculenta and R. temporaria was studied by opsin immunocytochemistry using two polyclonal antibovine rhodopsin and the monoclonal antichicken opsin antibodies OS‐2 (detecting blue and green pigments) and COS‐1 (detecting green and red pigments). Four types of photoreceptor cells were distinguished. The large outer segments of the numcrous electron‐dense photoreceptor cells (“large pineal rods”) were immunoreactive with the rhodopsin and OS‐2 antibodies, but reacted weakly with antibody COS‐1. Some electron‐dense photoreceptors with smaller outer segments (“small pineal rods”) were found that were strongly OS‐2‐immunoreactive but moderately rhodopsin‐positive. The long outer segments of the oil droplet containing photoreceptors (“large pineal cones”) were only immunoreactive with the COS‐1 antibodies. The small electron‐lucent photoreceptors (“small pineal cones”) were immunonegative with all the opsin antisera used.
Monoclonal antibodies to P24 and P61 immunodominant antigens from Nocardia brasiliensis

We prepared a Nocardia brasiliensis cell extract and purified two immunodominant antigens with molecular weights of 61,000 and 24,000. The isolated proteins were shown to be reasonably pure when analyzed with sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (8 to 18% polyacrylamide gradient) and stained with Coomassie blue and silver nitrate. By using an immunoelectrotransfer blot method (Western blotting), we demonstrated that these two purified proteins reacted strongly with serum from N. brasiliensis-infected mycetoma patients. To obtain anti-P61 and anti-P24 monoclonal antibodies (MAbs), we used an N. brasiliensis cell extract as the antigen for the first immunization; 2 weeks later female mice were reimmunized with a semipurified antigen containing the P24 or P61 fraction. A booster injection was given 3 days before the fusion was carried out. Two hybrids that reacted strongly with P24 were cloned by limiting dilution, the generated MAbs were analyzed for isotyping, and their specificity was tested in a Western blot assay with cell extracts from Nocardia asteroides and Mycobacterium tuberculosis cultures. Anti-P24 MAbs were shown to be specific for N. brasiliensis HUJEG-1 and did not cross-react with either the N. asteroides or M. tuberculosis strains used. However, additional studies with several N. asteroides and N. brasiliensis strains are needed to investigate whether there are cross-reactions between strains or species when these MAbs are used. The anti-P61 and anti-24 MAbs were used to locate the antigen in N. brasiliensis cells by immunofluorescence. The lack of reaction with intact cells suggests that the P24 and P61 antigens are not exposed in the complete bacterial cell surface or that the recognized epitopes are different. Only one anti-P61 MAb that reacted specifically with the N. brasiliensis cell extract was obtained.
Astragaloside IV, a Novel Antioxidant, Prevents Glucose-Induced Podocyte Apoptosis In Vitro and In Vivo

Glucose-induced reactive oxygen species (ROS) production initiates podocyte apoptosis, which represents a novel early mechanism leading to diabetic nephropathy (DN). Here, we tested the hypothesis that Astragaloside IV(AS-IV) exerts antioxidant and antiapoptotic effects on podocytes under diabetic conditions. Apoptosis, albuminuria, ROS generation, caspase-3 activity and cleavage, as well as Bax and Bcl-2 mRNA and protein expression were measured in vitro and in vivo. Cultured podocytes were exposed to high glucose (HG) with 50, 100 and 200 µg/ml of AS-IV for 24 h. AS-IV significantly attenuated HG-induced podocyte apoptosis and ROS production. This antiapoptotic effect was associated with restoration of Bax and Bcl-2 expression, as well as inhibition of caspase-3 activation and overexpression. In streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats, severe hyperglycemia and albuminuria were developed. Increased apoptosis, Bax expression, caspase-3 activity and cleavage while decreased Bcl-2 expression were detected in diabetic rats. However, pretreatment with AS-IV (2.5, 5, 10 mg·kg−1·d−1) for 14 weeks ameliorated podocyte apoptosis, caspase-3 activation, renal histopathology, podocyte foot process effacement, albuminuria and oxidative stress. Expression of Bax and Bcl-2 mRNA and protein in kidney cortex was partially restored by AS-IV pretreatment. These findings suggested AS-IV, a novel antioxidant, to prevent Glucose-Induced podocyte apoptosis partly through restoring the balance of Bax and Bcl-2 expression and inhibiting caspase-3 activation.
Dairy, Calcium, and Vitamin D Intake and Postmenopausal Breast Cancer Risk in the Cancer Prevention Study II Nutrition Cohort

Background: Calcium, vitamin D, and dairy products are highly correlated factors, each with potential roles in breast carcinogenesis. Few prospective studies have examined these relationships in postmenopausal women. Methods: Participants in the Cancer Prevention Study II Nutrition Cohort completed a detailed questionnaire on diet, vitamin and mineral supplement use, medical history, and lifestyle in 1992 to 1993. After exclusion of women with a history of cancer and incomplete dietary data, 68,567 postmenopausal women remained for analysis. During follow-up through August 31, 2001, we identified 2,855 incident cases of breast cancer. Multivariate-adjusted rate ratios (RR) were calculated using Cox proportional hazards models. Results: Women with the highest intake of dietary calcium (>1,250 mg/d) were at a lower risk of breast cancer than those reporting ≤500 mg/d [RR, 0.80; 95% confidence interval (95% CI), 0.67-0.95; Ptrend = 0.02]; however, neither use of supplemental calcium nor vitamin D intake was associated with risk. Consumption starting at two or more servings of dairy products per day was likewise inversely associated with risk (RR, 0.81; 95% CI, 0.69-0.95; Ptrend = 0.002, compared with <0.5 servings/d). The associations were slightly stronger in women with estrogen receptor–positive tumors comparing highest to lowest intake: dietary calcium (RR, 0.67; 95% CI, 0.51-0.88; Ptrend = 0.004); dairy products (RR, 0.73; 95% CI, 0.57-0.93; Ptrend = 0.0003), and dietary vitamin D (RR, 0.74; 95% CI, 0.59-0.93; Ptrend = 0.006). Conclusions: Our results support the hypothesis that dietary calcium and/or some other components in dairy products may modestly reduce risk of postmenopausal breast cancer. The stronger inverse associations among estrogen receptor–positive tumors deserve further study. (Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2005;14(12):2898–904)
Experimental Investigations of Normal Deformation Characteristics of Foundation Chocks Used in the Seating of Heavy Machines and Qevices Part II. Experimental Investigations of a Chock Cast of EPY Resin

Address: Paweł GRUDZI ŃSKI, DSc Eng., Konrad KONOWALSKI, DSc Eng., West Po meranian University of Technology, Szczecin, Department of M echanics and Machine Elements, Piastów 19 Av. , PL 70-310 Szczecin EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATIONS OF NORMAL DEFORMATION CHARACTERISTICS OF FOUNDATION CHOCKS USED IN THE SEATING OF HEAVY MACHINES AND QEVICES Part II. EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATIONS OF A CHOCK CAST OF EPY RESIN
Tyrosine 706 and 807 phosphorylation site mutants in the murine colony-stimulating factor-1 receptor are unaffected in their ability to bind or phosphorylate phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase but show differential defects in their ability to induce early response gene transcription

The receptor for colony-stimulating factor-1 (CSF-1) is a receptor protein-tyrosine kinase. To study the possible function of CSF-1 receptor autophosphorylation, two autophosphorylation sites, Tyr-706, located in the kinase insert, and Tyr-807, a residue conserved in all protein-tyrosine kinases, were changed independently to either phenylalanine or glycine. Wild-type and mutant receptors were stably expressed in Rat-2 cells. In response to CSF-1, cells expressing Phe- or Gly-706 mutant receptors showed increased growth rate and altered cell morphology. Both the Phe- and Gly-706 mutant receptors associated with and phosphorylated phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase at levels comparable with those of wild-type receptors. However, these mutant receptors differed subtly from each other and from the wild-type receptor in their ability to induce different aspects of the response to CSF-1. The Phe-706 mutant receptor was most strongly affected in its ability to increase growth rate or elevate the levels of c-fos and NGF1A mRNAs, whereas the Gly-706 mutant receptor was most markedly affected in its ability to induce a change in cell morphology or increase the levels of c-jun and NGF1A mRNAs. These findings indicate that Tyr-706 itself, or this region of the receptor, may be important for interaction of the CSF-1 receptor with different signalling pathways. Gly-807 mutant receptors lacked protein-tyrosine kinase activity, failed to respond to CSF-1, and were defective in biosynthetic processing. Phe-807 mutant receptors had 40 to 60% reduced protein-tyrosine kinase activity in vitro. Although cells expressing Phe-807 receptors were able to respond to CSF-1, the changes in growth rate and cell morphology were significantly less than seen with wild-type receptors, and the induction of early response genes was also slightly lower than for the wild-type receptor. In contrast, Phe-807 receptors were equivalent to wild-type receptors when tested for their ability to interact with phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase. These findings indicate that phosphorylation of Tyr-807 may be important for full activation of the receptor.
Genome Wide Expression Profiling Reveals Suppression of Host Defence Responses during Colonisation by Neisseria meningitides but not N. lactamica

Both Neisseria meningitidis and the closely related bacterium Neisseria lactamica colonise human nasopharyngeal mucosal surface, but only N. meningitidis invades the bloodstream to cause potentially life-threatening meningitis and septicaemia. We have hypothesised that the two neisserial species differentially modulate host respiratory epithelial cell gene expression reflecting their disease potential. Confluent monolayers of 16HBE14 human bronchial epithelial cells were exposed to live and/or dead N. meningitidis (including capsule and pili mutants) and N. lactamica, and their transcriptomes were compared using whole genome microarrays. Changes in expression of selected genes were subsequently validated using Q-RT-PCR and ELISAs. Live N. meningitidis and N. lactamica induced genes involved in host energy production processes suggesting that both bacterial species utilise host resources. N. meningitidis infection was associated with down-regulation of host defence genes. N. lactamica, relative to N. meningitidis, initiates up-regulation of proinflammatory genes. Bacterial secreted proteins alone induced some of the changes observed. The results suggest N. meningitidis and N. lactamica differentially regulate host respiratory epithelial cell gene expression through colonisation and/or protein secretion, and that this may contribute to subsequent clinical outcomes associated with these bacteria.
Toward a Generic Hybrid CPU-GPU Parallelization of Divide-and-Conquer Algorithms

The increasing power and decreasing cost of Graphic Processing Units (GPUs) together with the development of programming languages for General Purpose Computing on GPUs (GPGPU) have led to the development and implementation of fast parallel algorithms for this architecture for a large spectrum of applications. Given the streaming-processing characteristics of GPUs, most practical applications so far are on highly data-parallel algorithms. Many problems, however, allow for task-parallel solutions or a combination of task and data-parallel algorithms. For these, a hybrid CPU-GPU parallel algorithm that combines the highly parallel stream-processing power of GPUs with the higher scalar power of multi-cores is likely to be superior. In this paper we describe a generic translation of any recursive sequential implementation of a divide-and-conquer algorithm into an implementation that benefits from running in parallel in both multi-cores and GPUs. This translation is generic in the sense that it requires little knowledge of the particular algorithm. We then present a schedule and work division scheme that adapts to the characteristics of each algorithm and the underlying architecture, efficiently balancing the workload between GPU and CPU. Our experiments show a 4.5x speedup over a single core recursive implementation, while demonstrating the accuracy and practicality of the approach.