Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
HA 14-1 is able to reconstitute the impaired mitochondrial pathway of apoptosis in renal cell carcinoma cell lines

Renal cell carcinomas (RCCs) exhibit a marked resistance towards apoptosis. Although most apoptotic stimuli converge at the level of the mitochondria, little is known about the mitochondrial apoptosis pathway in renal cell carcinomas. The aim of the present study, therefore, was to investigate the functionality of the mitochondrial apoptosis pathway in renal cell carcinoma cell lines by exposure to TRAIL, etoposide, HA14-1 and betulinic acid activating the mitochondria by different mechanisms. Sensitivity to TRAIL-induced apoptosis correlated with cleavage of the initiator caspase-8, but the mitochondrial apoptosis pathway was not induced. Similarly, etoposide and betulinic acid could not induce mitochondrial damage. In contrast, HA14-1 was able to activate mitochondrial apoptosis, thereby demonstrating functionally inducible signalling pathways downstream of the mitochondria. The intactness of the pathways upstream of the mitochondria was shown by pretreatment of TRAIL-sensitive cell lines with HA14-1, which could reconstitute TRAIL-induced mitochondrial damage and resulted in a synergistic apoptosis induction. Our results demonstrate that the apoptotic pathways upstream and downstream of the mitochondria are intact and inducible in renal cell carcinoma cell lines. However, resistance towards mitochondrial apoptosis is located on the level of the mitochondria themselves.
AUTOREGRESSIVE MODEL BASED ON A DEEP CONVOLUTIONAL NEURAL NETWORK FOR AUDIO GENERATION

LAURA CABELLO PIQUERAS: Autoregressive model based on a deep convolutional neural network for audio generation Tampere University of Technology Master of Science thesis, 54 pages March 2017 Master’s Degree in Telecommunication Engineering Major: Signal Processing Examiner: Tuomas Virtanen, Heikki Huttunen
Quantius: Generic, high-fidelity human annotation of scientific images at 105-clicks-per-hour

We describe Quantius, a crowd-based image annotation platform that provides an accurate alternative to task-specific computational algorithms for difficult image analysis problems. We use Quantius to quantify a variety of computationally challenging medium-throughput tasks with ~50x and 30x savings in analysis time and cost respectively, relative to a single expert annotator. We show equivalent deep learning performance for Quantius- and expert-derived annotations, bridging towards scalable integration with tailored machine-learning algorithms.
Protective effects of melatonin on lung and liver injuries in a rat model of acute sepsis

Melatonin exhibits remarkable potential as an anti-inflammatory, antioxidative, and anti-apoptotic agent. This study aimed to investigate the protective effects of melatonin on sepsis-induced lung and liver injuries in rats. Male Wistar rats were subjected to cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) operation to induce sepsis. Melatonin (30 mg/ kg) was administered intraperitoneally at 0, 3, 6 and 12 hours after CLP treatment. Melatonin significantly improved survival and ameliorated histopathological damage of lung and liver in the CLP-challenged rats. Melatonin retarded CLP-caused deleterious hemodynamic changes of the rats, including hypotension, tachycardia, and hyporeactivity to norepinephrine. Moreover, melatonin alleviated CLP-induced pulmonary and hepatic dysfunction. Melatonin reduced CLP-increased plasma levels of tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin-1β (IL-1β), IL-6, high mobility group protein box 1, and nitric oxide (NO). The myeloperoxidase activity, inducible nitric oxide synthase expression, and NO level in the lung and liver of CLP-insulted rats were markedly suppressed by melatonin. Melatonin attenuated CLP-triggered oxidative stress, as shown by the reduction of malondialdehyde, increased activities of superoxide dismutase and catalase, and elevation of glutathione content. In addition, melatonin inhibited CLP-induced pulmonary and hepatic cell apoptosis by reducing caspase-3 activity, downregulating the pro-apoptotic cleaved caspase-3 and Bax expression, and upregulating anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 and phosphorylated-Akt levels. Taken together, melatonin effectively attenuated CLP-induced septic lung and liver damages via its anti-inflammatory, antioxidative, and antiapoptotic properties and may be a novel agent in the therapy of sepsis-caused multiple organ failure.
Pose-RCNN : Joint object detection and pose estimation by Yikang Wang

Object detection was seen as a key part for driver assistance systems as well as autonomous cars during the last years. By making use of other information (e.g. pose information) more sophisticated knowledge can be gained. Among all of the object detection, the interaction between the cars and humans is always one of the most important part to study. With having pose information of road users, tracking can be initialized faster and intentions can be analyzed. Therefore we focus our work on road users detection and pose estimation with car-mounted video cameras. In this thesis we propose Pose-RCNN for joint object detection and pose estimation with the following three major contributions. First, we extend the well known Fast R-CNN[1] by a pose layer using Biternion net representation[2] to create a single framework for joint object detection and orientation estimation. Secondly, we propose R-GoogLeNet, which well integrate GoogLeNet[3] into our Pose-RCNN framework, providing more powerful performance. Last, we develop a proposal-box splitting technique for Pose-RCNN, enabling our system to do parts detection and parts pose estimation. The experiments are conducted using Tsinghua-Daimler Cyclist Benchmark[4] which contains bounding-box and orientation labels of cyclists. The full-object detection and pose estimation performance of different networks are compared and analyzed. The best performance is achieved by our proposed R-GoogLeNet with 0.824 average precision and 0.811 average orientation similarity. The relative small network R-GoogLeNet1 (a substructure of R-GoogLeNet with less layers, see Section 5.5 for detail) is 1.5× faster than R-GoogLeNet, with only less than 0.01 average precision and average orientation similarity drop. The results of parts detection and orientation estimation are also shown and compared. Based on all the results, we discuss the limitations of the approaches and show the possible directions for further work.
Bank output calculation in the case of France: what do new methods tell about the financial intermediation services in the aftermath of the crisis?

Since the onset of financial crisis, the System of National Accounts method for measuring the value added in the banking sector has become subject to criticism. Some authors argue that the value added by banks should be the residual net interest income after subtracting the required term and risk premiums on loans and deposits. For the first time, we apply this method to evaluate bank output for France for the period 2003 to 2012. First, we show that on average, using the traditional method, bank output is overestimated by between 31% and 74%. This overestimation is especially pronounced in times of financial stress. Second, we establish that the proposed new method is robust to the choice of various reference rates. Third, we find negative FISIM (Financial Intermediation Services Indirectly Measured) on deposits from 2009. Finally, we check the existence of a single or multiple structural unknown breaks in the long run relationship between retail interest rates and driving market reference rates. We find existence of break dates that are coincident with negative FISIM on deposits. We explain this result by a change in banking behavior that may result from the new banking regulation on liquidity and from banks' adaptation to "near" zero interest rate policy
' Post-print version Progress in satellite remote sensing for studying physical processes at the ocean surface and its borders with the atmosphere and sea-ice

Corresponding author email: j.d. shutler@exeter.ac. uk , tel:+44 1326 259212 a University of Exeter, Centre for Geography, Environment and Society, Penryn Campus, UK. b Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML), Plymouth, UK. c European Space Agency (ESA), Noordwijk, The Netherlands. d Institut Français de Recherche pour L'exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER), Brest, France. e Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Centre (NERSC), Bergen, Norway. f Heriot Watt University, Orkney, Scotland, UK. g Danish Meteorological Institute, København, Denmark.
UNDERSTANDING CURE INHIBITION IN CARBON FIBER REINFORCED VINYL ESTER RESIN COMPOSITES

The effect of neat and oxidized carbon fiber reinforcements on vinyl ester resin free radical polymerization was investigated. First, the free radical polymerization of neat vinyl ester resin, vinyl ester resin reinforced by neat carbon fibers, and vinyl ester resin reinforced by oxidized carbon fibers was analyzed with DSC. Neat carbon fibers, and to a greater extent oxidized carbon fibers, were observed to inhibit vinyl ester cure. Second, the surface chemistry of neat and oxidized carbon fibers was analyzed with XPS, NEXAFS, and ATR-FTIR. The surface characterization of neat carbon fibers identified carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, and several trace elements, including silicon, sodium, chlorine, sulfur, magnesium, and calcium. Neat carbon fiber spectra provided evidence for the presence of hydroxyls, ethers, carbonyls, oxidized nitrogen, nitrogen bound to carbonyls, quaternized nitrogen, and non-quaternized nitrogen. The most significant impact of oxidation on carbon fiber surface chemistry was the increase in features indicative of hydroxyls, carbonyls, and non-quaternized nitrogen. These functional groups are present on common inhibitors of free radical polymerization, such as phenols, quinones, and aromatic nitro-compounds, and are likely the cause of the vinyl ester resin cure inhibition observed with DSC.
Using Constructivism as a Basic Idea to Design Multi-situated Game-Based Learning Platform and ITS Application

Nowadays, e-learning becomes a popular learning strategies because of the advance in technology and the development of learning platforms. At present, most of platforms are designed for single topic rather than multiple topics and are difficultly extended to different topics, since learning mode, design, and limitations of applications for game-based learning. Therefore, in this study, we developed a tower defense game-based platform based on situated learning theory and constructivism of knowledge and this platform can be applied to diverse learning programs. In this platform, users can learn in a simulated scenario. Additionally, the flexible design of platforms will provide the usability and expandability of the system.
OF GROWTH AND ANTIOXIDATIVE ENZYMES TO VARIOUS CONCENTRATIONS OF NICKEL IN ZEA MAYS LEAVES AND ROOTS

To assess nickel-induced toxicity in plants, Zea mays seeds were germinated and cultured on nutrient solution with nickel concentrations of 50–200 μM for a period of two weeks. Observed biological makers included biomass, soluble and total protein contents, and the activities of guaiacol peroxidase (GPX), ascorbate peroxidase (APX), catalase (CAT), and phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) in the leaves and roots of maize. The fresh and dry weight of leaves and roots increased in 50 μM nickel but decreased in 100 and 200 μM. Soluble and total protein contents were significantly increased by increasing nickel concentrations up to 200 μM nickel in both roots and leaves of maize. Significant increases of ascorbate peroxidase (the highest activity at 200 μM nickel), catalase (the highest activity at 50 μM nickel), and phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (the highest activity at 100 μM nickel) were observed in the leaves and roots of Zea mays seedlings at all tested nickel concentrations. Guiacol peroxidase activity was decreased in the leaves and roots of Zea mays seedlings exposed to different levels of nickel. The present results suggested that treatment with different levels of nickel may enhance the antioxidant activities in the leaves and roots of Zea mays seedlings, thus alleviate Ni-induced oxidative damage and enhance Ni tolerance.
Variance Reduced K-Means Clustering

It is challenging to perform k-means clustering on a large scale dataset efficiently. One of the reasons is that k-means needs to scan a batch of training data to update the cluster centers at every iteration, which is time-consuming. In the paper, we propose a variance reduced k-mean VRKM, which outperforms the state-of-the-art method, and obtain 4× speedup for large-scale clustering. The source code is available on https://github.com/YaweiZhao/VRKM_sofia-ml.
Single‐voxel 1H PRESS at 4.0 T: precision and variability of measurements in anterior cingulate and hippocampus

The precision [coefficient of variation or CV (%) = 100SD/X] of single‐voxel point resolved spectroscopic data was characterized bilaterally, in anterior cingulate and in hippocampus, at 4.0 T in a healthy subject. Data acquisition was replicated 10 times after voxel repositioning and readjusting higher order shims. Precision measurements show that the scan‐to‐scan precision is better in anterior cingulate than in hippocampus, with an average CV of 9.2% (for total NAA, tCho and Cr) in anterior cingulate and 13.9% in hippocampus. Variability measurements made by the same method in 24 healthy subjects and in 29 schizophrenia patients showed that there is substantial biological variability in metabolite levels, even in healthy subjects. Simple calculations suggest that more than 200 subjects would be needed to detect a 5% difference in NAA between patients and controls. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Time-Varying Cepstral Coefficients

This paper introduces a new set of cepstral features, based on a slightly modified version of the time-varying linear predictive models pioneered by Subba Rao and Liporace. In these models, the non-stationarity of the speech signal is accommodated by expressing the filter coefficients as a weighted combination of known basis functions. By running the parameterized filter coefficients through the recursive link between all-pole models and cepstral coefficients, we obtain a time-varying cepstral representation in analytical form. In a preliminary recognition experiment this representation is shown to give a satisfactory performance. It is argued that the introduced features are well suited for tasks such as detection of landmarks and stationary segments.
Perspectives on Computational Models of Learning and Forgetting

Technological developments have spawned a range of educational software that strives to enhance learning through personalized adaptation. The success of these systems depends on how accurate the knowledge state of individual learners is modeled over time. Computer scientists have been at the forefront of development for these kinds of distributed learning systems and have primarily relied on data-driven algorithms to trace knowledge acquisition in noisy and complex learning domains. Meanwhile, research psychologists have primarily relied on data collected in controlled laboratory settings to develop and validate theory-driven computational models, but have not devoted much exploration to learning in naturalistic environments. The two fields have largely operated in parallel despite considerable overlap in goals. We argue that mutual benefits would result from identifying and implementing more accurate methods to model the temporal dynamics of learning and forgetting for individual learners. Here we discuss recent efforts in developing adaptive learning technologies to highlight the strengths and weaknesses inherent in the typical approaches of both fields. We argue that a closer collaboration between the educational machine learning/data mining and cognitive psychology communities would be a productive and exciting direction for adaptive learning system application to move in.
Strength Training Decreases Inflammation and Increases Cognition and Physical Fitness in Older Women with Cognitive Impairment

Introduction: Cognitive impairment that affects older adults is commonly associated with an inflammatory imbalance, resulting in decreased physical fitness. Exercise has been pointed to mitigate immunosenescence and cognitive impairment associated with aging, while increase in physical fitness. However, few studies explored the relationship between changes in cytokine concentration and improvement on cognition due to elastic band strength training. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of strength training on pro-and anti-inflammatory cytokines, hematological markers and physical fitness of older women with cognitive impairment. Methods: Thirty-three women (82.7 ± 5.7 years old) participated in the study and were divided in two groups: strength exercise training group (ST; n = 16) and Control Group (CG; n = 17) and were evaluated before and after 28 weeks of the exercise program. The CG did not undergo any type of exercise programs. Data for IL-10, TNF-α, IFN-γ, C-Reactive Protein (CRP), white blood counts (WBC), red blood counts (RBC), Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) and physical fitness tests were analyzed in both moments. Results: IL-10 increased in the ST group without changes in CG. TNF-α and CRP increased in the control group while no changes were observed for IFN-γ in both groups. Strength training decreased leukocyte and lymphocyte counts and increase hemoglobin, mean cell volume and mean cell hemoglobin concentration. The MMSE score increased in strength training group but remained unchanged in the control group. A correlation between the variation of granulocyte counts and the MMSE scores was also observed within the total sample. An improvement in physical fitness was observed with strength training. Conclusion: Resistance exercise promoted better anti-inflammatory balance and physical performance simultaneously with an increase in cognitive profile in older women with cognitive impairment.
Authorship Attribution and Gender Identification in Greek Blogs

The aim of this study is to obtain authorship attribution and author’s gender identification in a corpus of blogs written in Modern Greek language. More specifically, the corpus used contains 20 bloggers equally divided by gender (10 males & 10 females) with 50 blog posts from each author (1,000 posts in total and an overall size of 406,460 words). From this corpus we calculated a number of standard stylometric variables (e.g. word length statistics and various vocabulary “richness” indices) and 300 most frequent word and character n-grams (character and word unigrams, bigrams, trigrams). Support Vector Machines (SVM) were trained on this data, and the author’s gender prediction accuracy in 10-fold cross-validation experiment reached 82.6% accuracy, a result that is comparable to current state-of-the-art author profiling systems. Authorship attribution accuracy reached 85.4%, an equally satisfying result given the large number of candidate authors (n=20).
Health Care Resource Utilization in Untreated HIV-Infected Children in A Pediatric Programme, Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, 2004–2009

Background:We describe health care resource utilization among HIV-1–infected children who have not yet undergone antiretroviral treatment (ART) in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire. Methods:HIV-infected children enrolled prospectively in an HIV care programme in 2 health facilities in Abidjan (2004–2009) were followed up from date of inclusion until database closeout, death, ART initiation, or loss to follow-up (no clinical contact for more than 6 months). Incidences of health care resource utilization (outpatient care, inpatient day care, and hospitalization) were described according to severe morbidity and mixed effect log linear models were computed to identify associated factors. Results:Overall, 405 children were included, entering care at a median age of 4.5 years, 66.9% were receiving cotrimoxazole prophylaxis, and 27.7% met 2006 WHO criteria for immunodeficiency by age. The median follow-up time was 11.6 months (interquartile range: 1.4; 30.7). Overall, 371 clinical events occurred in 162 children yielding to an incidence rate (IR) of 60.9/100 child-years (CY) [95% confidence interval (CI): 55.1 to 67.2]: 57% of clinical events led to outpatient care (IR: 33/100 CY), 38% to inpatient day care (IR: 22/100 CY), and 10% to hospitalization (IR: 5.9/100 CY). Further medical examinations were made allowing confirmed diagnoses in 40% of those (IR: 22.4/100 CY). Outpatient care was less common among immunodeficient children than those not (relative risk [RR] = 0.32, 95% CI: 0.18 to 0.56), in those whose main caregivers are both parents compared with those who are primarily cared for by their mother only (RR = 0.34, 95% CI: 0.15 to 0.77). Conclusion:Untreated HIV-infected children require substantial inpatient and outpatient care in a context where ART is scaling up but still not available to all.
An Overlapping Scan Architecture for Reducing Both Test Time and Test Power by Pipelining Fault Detection

We present a novel scan architecture for simultaneously reducing test application time and test power (both average and peak power). Unlike previous works where the scan chain is partitioned only based on the excitation properties of the flip-flops (FFs), our work considers both the excitation and propagation properties of the scan FFs. In the proposed scan architecture, the scan chain is partitioned to maximize the overlapping between the excitation and propagation on different fault sets. The scan architecture also allows the entire set of detectable faults in the circuit under test (CUT) to be detected with only a portion of the scan elements active at a time, and thereby completely eliminates the need for the "serial full-scan" mode which is inefficient for both the test time and test power. Experimental results show that by introducing minimal hardware overhead, and without sacrificing fault coverage, an average peak power reduction of 22.8%, average power reduction of 41.6%, and an average reduction of 18.5% on the test application time can be achieved, compared with the ordinary full-scan architecture
Smart city solutions in regard to urbanization processes – Polish cases

Abstract The aim of this paper is to show the spectrum of problems associated with the growing importance of cities in the context of rapidly occurring processes of urbanization. Therefore the following issues are included: the concept of smart cities, which are a combination of the intelligent use of information systems allowing for active management of the various areas of urban activity with the potential of institutions, companies and the active involvement and creative people; transport problems and the use of new technologies. Particular attention will be given to both, the issue of transport congestion as the strongest factor affecting the quality of life of residents and to the role of social capital in the creation of sustainable development. To exemplify the result of the cooperation between southern Polish communities there will be presented a case of the introducing process of the Silesian Card of Public Services with a wide range of its functionality.
Themes and Methodologies in Pauline Missiology for a Contemporary World

This article explores themes and methodologies in Pauline missiology for a contemporary world. Themes include Paul’s missiological concepts of conversion, redemption, sacraments, participation and methodologies include Paul’s contextual and evangelistic concepts of cruciformed participation in God’s apocalyptic mission. The purpose of this article is not merely to relate Paul’s missiology and missionary methodologies as the kind of theory and practice to the extent that his missionary methodologies flow from his missiological theories, rather to the extent that his missiology and methodologies are indivisibly one or what Arland Hultgren calls “missionary theology” (Hultgren, 1983: 145). Seen in this way, the article begins where Paul himself began—with the Damascus event of his conversion to Christ and call of God’s apocalyptic mission—and argues that his conversion and call are the foundations of his missiology.