Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Quantum versions of k-CSP algorithms: a first step towards quantum algorithms for interval-related constraint satisfaction problems

In data processing, we input the results xi of measuring easy-to-measure quantities xi and use these results to find estimates y = f (x1, . . ., xn) for difficult-to-measure quantities y which are related to xi by a known relation y = f(x1, . . ., xn). Due to measurement inaccuracy, the measured values xi are, in general, different from the (unknown) actual values xi of the measured quantities, hence the result y of data processing is different from the actual value of the quantity y.In many practical situations, we only know the bounds Δi on the measurement errors Δxi [EQUATION] xi - xi. In such situations, we only know that the actual value xi belongs to the interval [xi - Δi, xi + Δi], and we want to know the range of possible values of y. The corresponding problems of interval computations are NP-hard, so solving these problems may take an unrealistically long time. One way to speed up computations is to use quantum computing, and quantum versions of interval computations algorithms have indeed been developed.In many practical situations, we also know some constraints on the possible values of the directly measured quantities x1, . , xn. In such situations, we must combine interval techniques with constraint satisfaction techniques. It is therefore desirable to extend quantum interval algorithms to such combinations. As a first step towards this combination, in this paper, we consider quantum algorithms for discrete constraint satisfaction problems.
Gene expression of estrogen and oxytocin receptors in the uterus of pregnant and parturient bitches

In the canine species, the precise mechanisms of pregnancy maintenance and the initiation of parturition are not completely understood. The expression of genes encoding the receptors for estrogen (ERα mRNA) and oxytocin (OTR mRNA) was studied in the endometrium and myometrium during pregnancy and parturition in dogs. Real-time PCR was performed to quantify the levels of ERα mRNA and OTR mRNA in the uterus of bitches during early (up to 20 days of gestation), mid (20 to 40 days) and late pregnancy (41 to 60 days), and parturition (first stage of labor). All tissues expressed ERα and OTR mRNA, and are thus possibly able to respond to eventual estrogen and oxytocin hormonal stimuli. No statistically significant differences in the expression of ERα mRNA were verified in the endometrium and myometrium throughout pregnancy and parturition, but expression of OTR mRNA increased at both parturition and late pregnancy. We concluded that the increase of endometrial and myometrial OTR mRNA expression in dogs is not an event dependent on estrogenic stimulation. Moreover, the contractility response of the canine uterus to oxytocin begins during pregnancy and maintains myometrial activity. The expression of OTR mRNA in canine uterine tissues varied over time, which supports an interpretation that the sensitivity and response to hormone therapy varies during the course of pregnancy and labor. Further studies are needed to elucidate the factors underlying the synthesis of uterine oxytocin receptors and the possible role of ERβ rather than ERα in the uterine tissues during pregnancy and parturition in dogs.
Changes in the composition of ichthyoplankton assemblage and plastic debris in mangrove creeks relative to moon phases.

Lunar influence on the distribution of fish larvae, zooplankton and plastic debris in mangrove creeks of the Goiana Estuary, Brazil, was studied over a lunar cycle. Cetengraulis edentulus, Anchovia clupeoides and Rhinosardinia bahiensis were the most abundant fish larvae (56·6%), independent of the moon phase. The full moon had a positive influence on the abundance of Gobionellus oceanicus, Cynoscion acoupa and Atherinella brasiliensis, and the new moon on Ulaema lefroyi. The full and new moons also influenced the number of zoeae and megalopae of Ucides cordatus, protozoeae and larvae of caridean shrimps, and the number of hard and soft plastic debris, both <5 and >5 mm. Micro and macroplastics were present in samples from all 12 creeks studied, at densities similar to the third most abundant taxon, R. bahiensis. Cetengraulis edentulus and R. bahiensis showed a strong positive correlation with the last quarter moon, when there was less zooplankton available in the creeks and higher abundance of microplastic threads. Anchovia clupeoides, Diapterus rhombeus, U. lefroyi and hard microplastics were positively associated with different moon phases, when calanoid copepods, Caridean larvae and zoeae of U. cordatus were highly available in the creeks. Cynoscion acoupa, G. oceanicus and A. brasiliensis were strongly associated with the full moon, when protozoeae of caridean shrimps and megalopae of U. cordatus were also highly available, as were hard and soft macroplastics, paint chips (<5 mm) and soft microplastics. The results reinforce the role of mangrove creeks as nursery habitats. The moon phases influenced the distribution of fish larvae species, zooplankton and plastic debris by changing their compositions and abundances in the mangrove creeks of the Goiana Estuary when under the influence of different tidal current regimes.
Foundations of the Mind: Children's Understanding of Reality

In the wake of Jean Piaget s work on children s understanding of reality, it is generally accepted that by age two, children assume that an object hidden in a box will remain there unchanged until someone tampers with it. Eugene Subbotsky persuasively demonstrates that many children and some adults will often accept mysterious disappearances and creations, perceiving them not as tricks or illusions but as actual occurrences. His analysis clearly shows that alongside our everyday belief in object permanence, we also have a set of quasi-magical beliefs that can be activated by appropriate situations and behaviors. The acceptability of these beliefs will vary from culture to culture, and will be widespread among preliterate peoples but less obvious in advanced industrial countries. The author, a Russian psychologist, draws on his own extensive research and examines other taken-for-granted concepts, such as the distinction between animate and inanimate. "Foundations of the Mind," amply illustrated with experimental material, has enormous implications for the study of both child development and the psychology of human beliefs. It attacks our complacent and often culturally biased faith in the nature of reality, and as such will become required reading for all psychologists. "
Fronto-Central Dysfunctions in Reading Disability Depend on Subtype: Guessers but not Spellers

The goal of this study was to test the hypothesis that the inhibitory deficits previously found in children with the guessing subtype of dyslexia (who read fast and inaccurately) can be attributed to dysfunctions in the fronto-central brain areas. For this purpose, the electrocortical correlates of the inhibition mechanism were assessed in a stop task that was adapted for event-related brain potential recording. It was found that in children with the spelling subtype of dyslexia (who read slowly and accurately) and normal readers, a positive component with a fronto-central scalp distribution was related to processes engaged in the inhibition of a response. Guessers did not show this "inhibition P300. " Analyses of the lateralized readiness potential (LRP) data suggested that response inhibition in spellers depended (at least in part) on their ability to inhibit the central activation of the response. In guessers, the association between response inhibition and inhibition of activity in the central motor structures was found to be weaker. It was concluded that the inhibitory deficits in guessers can be attributed to dysfunctions in the fronto-central brain structures involved in selective motor inhibition (indicated by the LRP data) and nonselective motor inhibition (indicated by the P300 data). It was suggested that there may be an association between guessers and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder children in that both clinical groups may suffer from the same type of deficits in executive functioning.
Efficient Implementation of Branch-and-Bound Method on Desktop Grids

The Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing (BOINC) is an open- source middleware system for volunteer and desktop grid computing. In this paper, we propose BNBTEST, a BOINC version of the distributed branch-and- bound method. The crucial issues of the distributed branch-and-bound method are traversing the search tree and loading the balance. We developed a subtask packaging method and three dierent subtask distribution strategies to solve these.
Topography effects on forest radar scattering, consequences on biomass retrieval

Ground topography under vegetated area is liable to bring significant changes on radar backscattering and thereby on the associated standard retrieval algorithms dedicated to forest biomass. Within the framework of the ESA BIOMASS mission, this paper evinces the evolution of P-band polarimetric intensities with a tilted underlying ground. For that purpose, electromagnetic simulations have been achieved using our model MIPERS which theoretical specificities accounting for the topographic effects are herein described. Its originality lies mainly in the 3D characterization of the ground and the volume, as well as the coupling effects between both. This description is followed by a sensitivity analysis in order to further-on quantify the possible consequences on biomass retrieval, conducted with the two standard approaches, namely the P-HV intensity technique and the Pol-InSAR one assuming the RVoG model. This investigation have been also undertaken for a better understanding of experimental data, particularly with the BioSAR and the TropiSAR airborne campaigns over boreal and tropical forests.
Algebraic Techniques for E cient Inference in Bayesian Networks

A number of exact algorithms have been developed to perform probabilistic inference in Bayesian belief networks in recent years. These algorithms use graph-theoretic techniques to analyze and exploit network topology. In this paper, we examine the problem of e cient probabilistic inference in a belief network as a combinatorial optimization problem, that of nding an optimal factoring given an algebraic expression over a set of probability distributions. We de ne a combinatorial optimization problem, the optimal factoring problem, and discuss application of this problem in belief networks. We show that optimal factoring provides insight into the key elements of e cient probabilistic inference, and present simple, easily implemented algorithms with excellent performance. We also show how use of an algebraic perspective permits signi cant extension to the belief net representation. 1 Probabilistic inference in belief networks The problem of e cient inference in belief networks is usually formulated graph-theoretically as a problem of exploiting typically sparse network topology. In this paper we argue that the problem can be pro tably explored algebraically, and present some results we have developed in the course of such exploration. A belief network is a directed acyclic graph containing a set of nodes, a set of arcs and a set of numeric probability distributions. A node represents a domain variable with mutually exclusive and exhaustive values. Arcs and numeric probability distributions describe the probabilistic relationship among nodes. A belief network is singly-connected if there is at most one undirected path between any two nodes, otherwise it is called multiply-connected. Figure 1 shows a simple multiplyconnected belief network. Probabilistic inference in a belief network is the task of computing a marginal or conditional probability distribution across some subset of the variables in the network, given evidence on some subset of the remaining variables. A belief network is a compact representation of a full joint probability distributor over the n domain variables in the belief network. In particular, the full joint probability distribution can be calSeveral key results, including the formalization of the problem, were developed in collaboration with former Phd student Zhaoyu Li Z Z Z Z~ = Z Z Z Z~ Z Z ZZ~ =
Small dense low density lipoprotein has increased affinity for LDL receptor-independent cell surface binding sites: a potential mechanism for increased atherogenicity.

Small dense low density lipoprotein (LDL) particles have altered apolipoprotein (apo) B conformation and lowered affinity for the LDL receptor (J. Biol. Chem. 1994. 269: 511-519). Herein, we examine the interaction of small dense LDL with cell LDL receptor-independent binding sites. Compared to normal LDL, at low LDL cell media concentrations (<10 microg/ml), small dense LDL had decreased specific binding to the LDL receptor on normal fibroblasts at 4 degrees C, but a 2-fold increased binding to LDL receptor-independent cell sites. At higher LDL concentration (100 microg/ ml), LDL receptor-independent binding of small dense LDL was 4.5-fold that of normal LDL in normal fibroblasts, but greater (2- to 14- fold) in LDL receptor-negative fibroblasts. In LDL receptor-negative fibroblasts at 37 degrees C, small dense LDL had higher (3-fold) cell association than normal size LDL but no effective LDL degradation. At high LDL concentrations (> or =100 microg/ml), LDL binding to normal or LDL receptor-negative fibroblasts was not affected by several anti-apoB monoclonal antibodies or by cell pretreatment with proteases, chondroitinase, or neuraminidase. In contrast, pretreating normal and receptor-negative fibroblasts with heparinase and heparitinase decreased LDL cell binding by 35% and 50%, respectively. Similarly, preincubation of receptor-negative fibroblasts with sodium chlorate, an inhibitor of proteoglycan sulfation, decreased LDL binding by about 45%. We hypothesize that small dense LDL might be more atherogenic than normal size LDL due to decreased hepatic clearance by the LDL receptor, and enhanced anchoring to LDL receptor-independent binding sites in extrahepatic tissues (e.g., the arterial wall), a process mediated, in part, by cell surface proteoglycans.
Sulfadoxine Resistance in Plasmodium vivax Is Associated with a Specific Amino Acid in Dihydropteroate Synthase at the Putative Sulfadoxine-Binding Site

ABSTRACT Sulfadoxine is predominantly used in combination with pyrimethamine, commonly known as Fansidar, for the treatment of Plasmodium falciparum. This combination is usually less effective against Plasmodium vivax, probably due to the innate refractoriness of parasites to the sulfadoxine component. To investigate this mechanism of resistance by P. vivax to sulfadoxine, we cloned and sequenced the P. vivax dhps (pvdhps) gene. The protein sequence was determined, and three-dimensional homology models of dihydropteroate synthase (DHPS) from P. vivax as well as P. falciparum were created. The docking of sulfadoxine to the two DHPS models allowed us to compare contact residues in the putative sulfadoxine-binding site in both species. The predicted sulfadoxine-binding sites between the species differ by one residue, V585 in P. vivax, equivalent to A613 in P. falciparum. V585 in P. vivax is predicted by energy minimization to cause a reduction in binding of sulfadoxine to DHPS in P. vivax compared to P. falciparum. Sequencing dhps genes from a limited set of geographically different P. vivax isolates revealed that V585 was present in all of the samples, suggesting that V585 may be responsible for innate resistance of P. vivax to sulfadoxine. Additionally, amino acid mutations were observed in some P. vivax isolates in positions known to cause resistance in P. falciparum, suggesting that, as in P. falciparum, these mutations are responsible for acquired increases in resistance of P. vivax to sulfadoxine.
Design Issues in Permissioned Blockchains for Trusted Computing

A permissioned blockchain (BC) is a secure distributed ledger maintained by a number of trusted validation nodes. However, a validator may become compromised and send inconsistent messages to different nodes. To counter the problem, consensus protocols like Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (PBFT) can be used. The paper presents a permissioned BC system and discusses various design issues including control messages, block size and window size of block creation time. Furthermore, it is necessary to identify those compromised nodes discovered during the consensus protocol. This paper then proposes a reputation system to track the trustworthiness of nodes as it is necessary to distinguish failed nodes from compromised nodes. A compromised node may send inconsistent messages to others or accuse other nodes compromised, and it should be removed as soon as it is identified and confirmed.
OFDM-Based Semi-Soft Handover for High Data Rate Services

Various approaches for analyzing handover have been developed to guarantee the QoS (Quality of Service) of multimedia services over mobile communication networks. However, no framework for multicarrier-based broadband systems, such as MC-CDMA (Multi-Carrier Code Division Multiple Access) or OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access) is available, from the perspective of link capacity. This paper presents a handover technique, referred to as semi-soft handover utilizing macro diversity, which permits both hard and soft handover advantages for services over multicarrier-based broadband networks to be retained. A theoretical analysis is then performed to measure the handover gain over the forward link in terms of an outage probability. The simulation data verifies that the semi-soft handover outperforms other traditional handover techniques, in particular, for high data rate services.
RISO: Enforce Noninterfered Performance With Relaxed Network-on-Chip Isolation in Many-Core Cloud Processors

Workload consolidation is widely used in modern cloud processors to reduce total cost of ownership. Performance isolation has to be enforced between consolidated workloads to achieve controllable quality of service. Networks-on-chip (NoCs), as a major shared resource, often incur traffic interference and violate performance isolation criteria. Previous work resorts to strict isolation strategy that partitions NoC into independent regions to isolate core-to-core communication traffic. However, strict isolation either results in low consolidation density or degrades network performance, and more importantly, cannot be applied to memory access traffic. To address these weaknesses, we propose a novel performance isolation strategy in NoC, called relaxed isolation (RISO). It permits underutilized routers and links to be shared by multiple applications, and, at the same time, it keeps the aggregated traffic in check to enforce performance isolation. Experimental results show that RISO could effectively improve consolidation density and network performance in synergy.
An efficient adaptive FEC algorithm for short-term quality control in wireless networks

In error-prone wireless networks, packet errors causes media quality degradation. To enhance media quality in case of packet errors, Forward Error Correction (FEC) mechanisms are the preferred error-control schemes for interactive multimedia applications. However, random error behavior causes unstable media quality so that average quality is not a sufficient metric to represent media quality. In this paper, we first propose a novel short-term quality metric to represent the short-term media quality. Second, based on this metric, we develop adaptive FEC mechanisms to determine appropriate FEC redundancy to protect media packets under various wireless error models. Simulation results show that the proposed adaptive FEC mechanisms tolerate most of burst errors to meet the user requirements on media quality with appropriate bandwidth consumption.
UBE2I (UBC9), a SUMO-Conjugating Enzyme, Localizes to Nuclear Speckles and Stimulates Transcription in Mouse Oocytes1

Abstract Sumoylation is a posttranslational modification in which SUMO (small ubiquitin-related modifier) proteins are covalently attached to their substrates. In vertebrates, developmental roles for sumoylation have been studied, but the function of sumoylation during mammalian oocyte growth and maturation is not known. As a prelude to conducting studies on the role of sumoylation during oocyte development, we analyzed the temporal and spatial pattern of expression of UBE2I, a SUMO-conjugating E2 enzyme. Immunocytochemical analysis of UBE2I revealed a punctate nuclear staining pattern, with transcriptionally quiescent, fully grown, GV-intact oocytes having larger UBE2I-containing bodies than transcriptionally active, meiotically incompetent growing oocytes. Inhibiting transcription in incompetent oocytes resulted in an increase in the size of the UBE2I-containing bodies. Overexpression of either wild-type UBE2I or catalytically inactive UBE2I resulted in an increase in the size of the UBE2I-containing bodies but also an increase in BrUTP incorporation, suggesting that transcriptional activation by UBE2I is independent of its catalytic activity. Although UBE2I-containing bodies did not completely colocalize with SUMO1 or SUMO2 and SUMO3, which were localized mainly on the nuclear membrane and in the nucleoplasm, UBE2I strikingly colocalized with SFRS2, which is a component of nuclear speckles and critical for mRNA processing. These results suggest a novel function for UBE2I and therefore sumoylation in gene expression.
Extracting knowledge from evaluative text

Capturing knowledge from free-form evaluative texts about an entity is a challenging task. New techniques of feature extraction, polarity determination and strength evaluation have been proposed. Feature extraction is particularly important to the task as it provides the underpinnings of the extracted knowledge. The work in this paper introduces an improved method for feature extraction that draws on an existing unsupervised method. By including user-specific prior knowledge of the evaluated entity, we turn the task of feature extraction into one of term similarity by mapping crude (learned) features into a user-defined taxonomy of the entity's features. Results show promise both in terms of the accuracy of the mapping as well as the reduction in the semantic redundancy of crude features.
The human NKG2D ligand ULBP2 can be expressed at the cell surface with or without a GPI anchor and both forms can activate NK cells

The activating immune receptor NKG2D binds to several stress-induced ligands that are structurally different. MHC-class-I-related chain (MIC) A/B molecules have a transmembrane domain, whereas most UL16 binding proteins (ULBPs) are glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-linked molecules. The significance of this variability in membrane anchors is unclear. Here, we demonstrate that ULBP2, but not ULBP1 or ULBP3, can reach the cell surface without the GPI modification. Several proteins are expressed at the cell surface as both transmembrane and GPI-linked molecules, either via alternative splicing or by the expression of linked genes. However, to our knowledge, ULBP2 is the first single mammalian cDNA that can be expressed as either a transmembrane or a GPI-anchored protein. The rate of maturation and the levels of cell surface expression of the non-GPI-linked form were lower than those of the GPI-linked ULBP2. Nonetheless, non-GPI ULBP2 was recognised by NKG2D and triggered NK cell cytotoxicity. These data show that differences in membrane attachment by NKG2D ligands are more important for regulation of their surface expression than for cytotoxic recognition by NKG2D and emphasise that detailed characterisation of the cell biology of individual NKG2D ligands will be necessary to allow targeted modulation of this system.