Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
DdrO is an essential protein that regulates the radiation desiccation response and the apoptotic‐like cell death in the radioresistant Deinococcus radiodurans bacterium

Deinococcus radiodurans is known for its extreme radioresistance. Comparative genomics identified a radiation‐desiccation response (RDR) regulon comprising genes that are highly induced after DNA damage and containing a conserved motif (RDRM) upstream of their coding region. We demonstrated that the RDRM sequence is involved in cis‐regulation of the RDR gene ddrB in vivo. Using a transposon mutagenesis approach, we showed that, in addition to ddrO encoding a predicted RDR repressor and irrE encoding a positive regulator recently shown to cleave DdrO in Deinococcus deserti, two genes encoding α‐keto‐glutarate dehydrogenase subunits are involved in ddrB regulation. In wild‐type cells, the DdrO cell concentration decreased transiently in an IrrE‐dependent manner at early times after irradiation. Using a conditional gene inactivation system, we showed that DdrO depletion enhanced expression of three RDR proteins, consistent with the hypothesis that DdrO acts as a repressor of the RDR regulon. DdrO‐depleted cells loose viability and showed morphological changes evocative of an apoptotic‐like response, including membrane blebbing, defects in cell division and DNA fragmentation. We propose that DNA repair and apoptotic‐like death might be two responses mediated by the same regulators, IrrE and DdrO, but differently activated depending on the persistence of IrrE‐dependent DdrO cleavage.
Características Granulométricas de los Cordones Litorales en Punta Fort Williams, Isla Greenwich, Península Antártica

Se presenta un estudio granulometrico de los cantos rodados que conforman los cordones litorales de laplataforma costera de Punta Fort Williams en la Peninsula Antartica. Se identificaron 6 cordones en secuencia,desde el nivel actual del mar hasta los 13.5 m de altura. Los cordones estan generalmente aislados, separados porespacios en donde se encuentran afloramientos del basamento volcanico o bloques de origen periglaciar. Elanalisis granulometrico de 1900 muestras en 39 estaciones donde se realizaron mediciones, permite identificarvarios tipos de distribucion granulometrica, en los cuales se nota la influencia de aportes locales, movilizacion yclasificacion del material. En los diagramas granulometricos de los cordones, los cortes verticales realizadospermitieron identificar tres secuencias mayores, repartidas en dos o tres cordones sucesivos. Estas secuenciasempiezan con material mal clasificado, interpretado como la influencia de material de origen periglaciar tipo till.La interpretacion de estas etapas en las construcciones de los cordones involucra probablemente una combinacionde condiciones tanto de levantamiento isostatico como de clima.
A preliminary investigation of the effects of study tours on L2 speech rhythm

This study is a preliminary investigation of L2 speech rhythm in a study abroad context. Five students from an English-medium secondary school in Hong Kong were recorded twice: once before a 16-day study tour to New Zealand, and once after they returned. Both spontaneous speech and read speech were recorded. Several durational speech rhythm metrics were employed to measure utterances from the two sets of recordings (%V, PVI and Varco of vocalic, intervocalic, and syllabic intervals). The results indicate wide individual differences among the students. Two students showed differences in vocalic and syllabic variability while the other three students had no differences between recordings. As for vowel reduction, four out of five students had significant differences in F2 values in read speech after the study tour. One of these four also had significantly different F1 values. The results, as stated, are preliminary and call for further longitudinal study in this area.
Flexible technology for millimeter-wave wireless sensors applications

This paper addresses recent advances obtained in LAAS CNRS concerning the developments of the flexible kapton technology and the use of this technology in the manufacturing of flexible and conformal structures for applications like Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) and Structure Health Monitoring (SHM). Flexible kapton supported passive devices are presented as well as the technological process developed for the heterogeneous integration of active circuits with such flexible passive devices.
A high-performance EIT system

This paper presents the development of a new electrical impedance tomography system for online measurement of two-phase flows with axial velocities up to 10 ms/sup -1/. The system is designed in a modular fashion and can consist of several data acquisition modules and computing modules. The data acquisition module includes a voltage controlled current source with a direct-current-restoration circuit, an equal-width pulse synthesizer unit and a synchronized digital demodulation unit. A new concept of current switching scheme is developed to enhance the ac coupling speed. The computing module includes a digital signal processor (TMS320C6202/6713) with memory, multichannel buffered serial ports and an IEEE1394 communication interface. Several DSP modules can be pipelined for a series of tasks ranging from measurement control to image reconstruction to flow velocity implementation. The performances have been tested and some trial results are reported. A data acquisition speed of 1164 dual-frames (2.383 million data points) per second has been achieved with a root mean square error less than 0.6% at 80 kHz in static test application. An application in the measurement of vertical oil-in-water pipe flow is reported.
The Missouri Lottery Optimizes Its Scheduling and Routing to Improve Efficiency and Balance

The Missouri lottery, a profit-driven nonprofit organization, generates annual revenues of over $800 million by selling lottery tickets; 27.5 percent of the revenue goes to Missouri's public education programs. The lottery sales representatives (LSRs) play a central role in increasing sales by providing excellent customer service to ticket retailers throughout the state. Hence, LSRs must have equitable, balanced work schedules and efficient routes and navigation sequences. Our objective was to provide scheduling and routing policies that minimize LSRs' total travel distance while balancing their workloads and meeting visitation constraints. We modeled the problem as a periodic traveling-salesman problem and developed improvement algorithms specifically to solve this problem. The newly implemented schedules and routes decrease the LSRs' travel distance by 15 percent, improve visitation feasibility by 46 percent, increase the balance of routes by 63 percent, decrease overtime days by 32 percent, and indirectly increase the sales of lottery tickets by improving customer service.
Why TanH is a Hardware Friendly Activation Function for CNNs

Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) [1] are the state of the art of image classification that improved accuracy and robustness of machine vision systems at the price of a very high computational cost. This motivated multiple research efforts to investigate the applicability of approximate computing and more particularly, fixed point-arithmetic for CNNs. In all this approaches, a recurrent problem is that the learned parameters in deep fraCNN layers have a significantly lower numerical dynamic range when compared to the feature maps, which prevents from using of a low bit-width representation in deep layers. In this paper, we demonstrate that using the TanH activation function is way to prevent this issue. To support this demonstration, three benchmark CNN models are trained with the TanH function. These models are then quantized using the same bit-width across all the layers. In the case of FPGA based accelerators, this approach infers the minimal amount of logic elements to deploy CNNs.
Food crops, exports, and the short-run policy response of agriculture in Africa

The response of agriculture to changes in relative prices is an important factor in the success of structural adjustment programs in Africa. In this paper I estimate supply functions for total agricultural output, food crops and export crops in 14 African countries for the years 1975 to 1990. Food and export crops are substitutes in production in the short run. Total agricultural output responds negatively to increases in export prices and positively to increases in food prices. A plausible explanation is that as farmers shift resources to export crop production, food supply falls in the short run, while the increase in export supply may take several years to materialize. The exchange rate is significant in explaining both food and export crop production and aggregate agricultural supply, suggesting that the exchange rate is acting as a proxy for excluded macroeconomic variables or that changes in the exchange rate are not passed immediately through to prices. © 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Inclusion Body Hepatitis and Hemorrhagic Enteritis in Two African Grey Parrots (Psittacus Erithacus) Associated with Adenovirus

tional suckling laboratory rats. Furthermore, these rotaviruses have been associated with natural cases of diarrhea in humans and lambs. Therefore, it is reasonable to surmise that the group B rotavirus associated with diarrhea in the Ohio confinement-reared lambs contributed to the clinical disease observed. Additional studies are needed, however, to confirm the pathogenicity of this ovine group B rotavirus by experimental inoculations and to determine its prevalence and etiologic significance in neonatal lambs throughout the United States. Acknowledgements. We thank Robert Whitmoyer of the electron microscopy laboratory for his cooperation in these studies and Ken Chamberlain and Margaret Latta for their technical help. Salaries and research support were provided by state and federal funds appropriated to the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, The Ohio State University. This is OARDC journal article 70-94.
Second-order Raman spectra of diamond from ab initio phonon calculations.

The second-order Oman spectra of diamond and silicon have been calculated using ab initio phonons and phenomenological polarizability coefficients. The sharp peak in the spectrum of diamond near the two-phonon cutoff is explained by a maximum in the vibrational density of states; this maximum originates from the uppermost phonon branch whose frequencies are calculated to have a minimum at the Brillouin-zone center. This frequency minimum as well as the sharp Raman peak are unique to diamond and do not occur for the other group-IV semiconductors. In our calculation based on harmonic ab initio lattice dynamics neither two-phonon bound states nor polarizability matrix element erects are needed to explain the peak, and we feel that the longstanding controversy about its origin has been resolved
Infrared imaging video bolometer for the large helical device

A new type of infrared imaging bolometer, known as the infrared imaging video bolometer (IRVB) has been under development at the National Institute of Fusion Science (NIFS) over the last year. A prototype of this diagnostic has been designed and constructed at NIFS and installed on the large helical device (LHD) and successfully operated. This diagnostic utilizes a 66×90×0.001 mm gold foil mounted in a frame to detect the radiation and neutrals from the plasma which are incident on the foil through a 1 cm diameter pinhole. The resulting temperature distribution on the foil is measured using an AGEMA THV 900 LW infrared camera having 136×272 pixels with a frame rate of 15 Hz and a nominal sensitivity of 80 mK. An image of the foil and surrounding frame consisting of 120×160 pixels is resampled down to 12×16 pixels using a linear interpolation scheme. Using a numerical technique the spatial and temporal derivatives of the temperature distribution on the foil are calculated and the incident power density on .
Testing of Lightning Protective System of a Residential Structure: Comparison of Data Obtained in Rocket-Triggered Lightning and Current Surge Generator Experiments

We present a comparison of data obtained during testing of lightning protective system of a residential structure in rocket-triggered lightning experiment at the International Center for Lightning Research and Testing (ICLRT) at Camp Blanding, Florida, and current surge generator experiment at Rzeszow University of Technology in Poland. Three different configurations of LPS were tested in Poland with the dc grounding resistances of the entire system 4.09 Omega (LPS 1a), 1.65 Omega (LPS 1b), and 2.88 Omega (LPS 2). For LPS 1a with three ground rods the value of the peak current entering the electrical circuit neutral was about 56% of the injected current peak, and for LPS 1b with two additional ground rods, each connected by a buried horizontal conductor 5 m long, was about 16%. For LPS 2 with five ground rods interconnected by a buried loop conductor this ratio was 21%. The current waveshapes in the ground rods differed from the injected current waveshapes and the current waveshapes in other parts of the test system, especially, for poorer LPS 1a. The surge-generator results are consistent with those of triggered-lightning experiments at Camp Blanding, Florida (DeCarlo et al., 2006 [2]).
Feeding Interventions for Children With Cerebral Palsy: A Review of the Evidence

ABSTRACT Aim: To examine the evidence of the effectiveness of different feeding interventions for children with cerebral palsy. Methods: A search of 12 electronic databases identified all relevant studies. For each study, the quality of the methods was assessed according to the study design. A total of 33 articles were retrieved, and 21 studies were included in the final analysis. Results: Feeding interventions were separated into five main categories: oral sensorimotor facilitation, food consistency, positioning, oral appliances, and adaptive equipment. Five studies were randomized controlled trials. Outcomes were mainly reported on feeding safety and efficiency. One study documented positive results in height and weight change. Nineteen of the 21 studies presented positive outcomes in eating efficiency and/or safety. Interpretation: Feeding interventions demonstrate potential benefits for children with cerebral palsy. However, the current level of evidence is poor, and empirical data are lacking. Methodologically, rigorous studies are required particularly investigating multimodal approaches.
The suppressive effect of dietary coenzyme Q10 on mitochondrial reactive oxygen species production and oxidative stress in chickens exposed to heat stress.

This study was conducted to determine if dietary supplementation with coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10 ), which can act as a potent antioxidant and is an obligatory cofactor of mitochondrial uncoupling protein, suppresses the heat stress (HS)-induced overproduction of mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS) and oxidative damage in the skeletal muscle of birds. The carbonyl protein content of skeletal muscle was significantly higher in birds exposed to HS treatment (34°C, 12 h) than in thermoneutral birds (25°C). This increase was suppressed by CoQ10 supplementation (40 mg/kg diet). Succinate-supported mitochondrial ROS production was increased by HS treatment, and this increase was also suppressed by CoQ10 supplementation. In contrast, CoQ10 supplementation did not affect the HS-induced decrease in mitochondrial proton leak. The mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔΨ), to which HS-induced ROS production was previously shown to be sensitive, tended to be increased by HS treatment, but this rise in ΔΨ was not affected by CoQ10 supplementation. Taken together, these results suggest that dietary CoQ10 supplementation attenuates HS-induced oxidative damage to skeletal muscle, by preventing the overproduction of succinate-supported mitochondrial ROS in a manner that is independent of ΔΨ. © 2015 Japanese Society of Animal Science.
Effects of Sodium Bicarbonate Ingestion during an Intermittent Exercise on Blood Lactate , Stroke Parameters , and Performance of Swimmers

Campos EZ, Sangali EB, Gerosa Neto J, Gobbi RB, Freitas Junior IF, Papoti M. Effects of Sodium Bicarbonate Ingestion during an Intermittent Exercise on Blood Lactate, Stroke Parameters, and Performance of Swimmers. JEPonline 2012;15(6):84-92. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) ingestion in high intensity intermittent exercise on blood lactate ([La]), stroke parameters, and performance of swimmers. Ten swimmers completed six maximal front crawl efforts of 100 m interspaced by 6 min of rest in both situations: NaHCO3 (SB) and dextrose (placebo). The SB (0.3 g·kg of body mass) or the placebo was ingested 60 min before the training in gelatin capsules. After each effort, the rating of perceived exertion (RPE) was assessed and blood sample was collected. Stroke length (SL), stroke rate (SR), and stroke index (SI) were measured. All parameters were compared using twoway repeated measures ANOVA, followed by Tukey post-hoc test. The significance was set at 5%. The [La] in the sixth effort after SB (17.93 ± 3.8 mmol·l) supplementation was significantly higher than placebo [La] (15.67 ± 3.29 mmol·l) (P<0.05). No difference was found between SB and placebo for the time·100 m of any of the six swims. Neither stroke parameters (SL, SF, and SI) nor RPE were significantly different in all swim efforts. In conclusion, NaHCO3 did not improve performance in swimming training, but did enhance the glycolytic source without alteration of RPE.
Improving the performance of multi-parameter patient monitors using feature mapping and decision fusion

Multi-parameter patient monitor (MPM) uses vital signs, heart rate, blood pressure, oxygen saturation (SpO2) and respiration rate to identify the condition of patients. In this work, we use a support vector machine (SVM) backend classifier with four vital signs as its input and experimented using different kernels. It was observed that the SVM with a radial basis function kernel (SVM-RBF) outperforms the other kernels. Compared to non-linear SVMs, the linear SVM is computationally more efficient. Therefore, in this work we explore the use of feature mapping using locality constrained linear coding (LLC) to linearize the input features and thereby enhancing the performance of MPMs with a linear SVM (LLC-linSVM). To improve the performance further, we normalized LLC features by l2-norm (nLLC-linSVM). A performance improvement of 0.53% and 0.96% absolute for overall classification accuracy and specificity respectively was obtained over the baseline SVM-RBF system. However, a deterioration in the sensitivity was noted. To take advantage of both SVM-RBF and nLLC-linSVM, we finally fused the decision scores of both the systems. The fusion weights were estimated empirically using a dataset which is used neither for training nor testing. After decision fusion, we achieved a performance improvement of 0.90% absolute for classification accuracy, 0.24% absolute for sensitivity and 1.12% absolute for specificity compared to the baseline. All the systems were compared using receiver operating characteristics (ROC) and the results show that the performance of the fused system is better than the individual systems.
Structural Basis for Autoinhibition and Mutational Activation of Eukaryotic Initiation Factor 2α Protein Kinase GCN2*[boxs]

The GCN2 protein kinase coordinates protein synthesis with levels of amino acid stores by phosphorylating eukaryotic translation initiation factor 2. The autoinhibited form of GCN2 is activated in cells starved of amino acids by binding of uncharged tRNA to a histidyl-tRNA synthetase-like domain. Replacement of Arg-794 with Gly in the PK domain (R794G) activates GCN2 independently of tRNA binding. Crystal structures of the GCN2 protein kinase domain have been determined for wild-type and R794G mutant forms in the apo state and bound to ATP/AMPPNP. These structures reveal that GCN2 autoinhibition results from stabilization of a closed conformation that restricts ATP binding. The R794G mutant shows increased flexibility in the hinge region connecting the N- and C-lobes, resulting from loss of multiple interactions involving Arg794. This conformational change is associated with intradomain movement that enhances ATP binding and hydrolysis. We propose that intramolecular interactions following tRNA binding remodel the hinge region in a manner similar to the mechanism of enzyme activation elicited by the R794G mutation.
Disturbance Attenuation for a Class of Exponentially Uncertain Switched Linear Systems with State Delay

In this paper, we address the disturbance attenuation problem for a class of state delay switched linear systems with exponential uncertainties via switched state feedback and switched dynamic output feedback, respectively. By using Taylor series approximation and convex polytope technique, exponentially uncertain switched linear systems with state delay is transformed into an equivalent switched polytopic model with additive norm bounded uncertainty. For such equivalent switched model, we design its switching strategy and associated state feedback sub controllers or dynamic output feedback sub-controllers so that whole switched model is asymptotical stabilization with H  disturbance attenuation based on multiple Lyapunov function technology and LMI approach.
Automating the Packing Heuristic Design Process with Genetic Programming

The literature shows that one-, two-, and three-dimensional bin packing and knapsack packing are difficult problems in operational research. Many techniques, including exact, heuristic, and metaheuristic approaches, have been investigated to solve these problems and it is often not clear which method to use when presented with a new instance. This paper presents an approach which is motivated by the goal of building computer systems which can design heuristic methods. The overall aim is to explore the possibilities for automating the heuristic design process. We present a genetic programming system to automatically generate a good quality heuristic for each instance. It is not necessary to change the methodology depending on the problem type (one-, two-, or three-dimensional knapsack and bin packing problems), and it therefore has a level of generality unmatched by other systems in the literature. We carry out an extensive suite of experiments and compare with the best human designed heuristics in the literature. Note that our heuristic design methodology uses the same parameters for all the experiments. The contribution of this paper is to present a more general packing methodology than those currently available, and to show that, by using this methodology, it is possible for a computer system to design heuristics which are competitive with the human designed heuristics from the literature. This represents the first packing algorithm in the literature able to claim human competitive results in such a wide variety of packing domains.
Compact CMOS-compatible polarization splitter and rotator based on 90° bends

We propose and experimentally demonstrate a compact highly-efficient CMOS-compatible polarization splitter and rotator (PSR) with a wide bandwidth covering the whole O-band. It benefits from the different confinement capability of TE and TM modes in bend structure. The fabricated PSR achieves a high TM-TE conversion efficiency of -0.4 dB and high TE-TE conversion efficiency of -0.2 dB at 1310 nm, while the extinction ratio is better than 18 dB.