Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Introduction to the special issue – exploring the value of museums

This special issue of Museum Management and Curatorship evolved from two sessions presented at the American Association of Museums (AAM) Annual meetings in 2008 and 2009. Both of these sessions were international in scope. In 2008, Carol Scott, then living and working in Australia, and Barbara Soren, who lives and works out of Toronto, Canada, joined forces to develop a session about the various ways in which museum professionals were applying the concept of value to museums. Rose Hiscock (Marketing Manager for Museum Victoria in Melbourne, Australia) and Barbara Wolf (Manager, Research and Evaluation at The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, USA) joined them at the 2008 AAM meeting. The 2008 session resonated so successfully with the AAM delegates that we felt the subject would be of benefit to a wider audience amongst our museum colleagues worldwide. Happily, Robert Janes, the Editor-in-Chief of Museum Management and Curatorship (MMC), supported our suggestion for a special issue of MMC on the subject of Exploring the Value of Museums, and we subsequently decided that the papers in planning for the 2009 AAM meeting would provide the content. We maintained the internationalism of our approach for the 2009 session. Marsha Semmel and Mamie Bittner, both Deputy Directors at the Institute of Museum and Library Services in the United States joined us, as did Jane Legget from New Zealand. Four of the papers in this volume reflect the composition of that 2009 AAM panel but, when it came to publication, we felt that there was an important gap in the content. The notion of Public Value has been gaining currency within public sector management since Mark Moore’s publication in 1995. As the majority of museums worldwide derive a considerable proportion of their funding from the public purse, this seemed a necessary addition to the suite of papers we proposed. Mark Weinberg and Marsha Lewis have contributed a thoughtful article on this topic which, for many, will be a useful introduction to what is becoming a major approach to museum management in the Twenty-First Century.
Assembly of the cytokinetic contractile ring from a broad band of nodes in fission yeast

We observed live fission yeast expressing pairs of functional fluorescent fusion proteins to test the popular model that the cytokinetic contractile ring assembles from a single myosin II progenitor or a Cdc12p-Cdc15p spot. Under our conditions, the anillin-like protein Mid1p establishes a broad band of small dots or nodes in the cortex near the nucleus. These nodes mature by the addition of conventional myosin II (Myo2p, Cdc4p, and Rlc1p), IQGAP (Rng2p), pombe Cdc15 homology protein (Cdc15p), and formin (Cdc12p). The nodes coalesce laterally into a compact ring when Cdc12p and profilin Cdc3p stimulate actin polymerization. We did not observe assembly of contractile rings by extension of a leading cable from a single spot or progenitor. Arp2/3 complex and its activators accumulate in patches near the contractile ring early in anaphase B, but are not concentrated in the contractile ring and are not required for assembly of the contractile ring. Their absence delays late steps in cytokinesis, including septum formation and cell separation.
Suicidality and depression among youth gamblers: a preliminary examination of three studies

Both suicide and problem gambling among youth are two growing areas of public health concern, though studies have yet to characterise the relationship between these issues. Youth report higher prevalence rates of problem gambling than adults, but no studies to date have investigated whether they are likewise prone to higher risks of gambling‐related suicidality. This article explores the relationship of depression, suicidality, and problem gambling in youth in three studies of middle and high‐school students (total N = 3,941; males n = 1,937, females n = 2,004) conducted in 1996, 2000, and 2001 in Quebec and Ontario. All studies reported significantly higher rates of suicidality among problem and pathological gamblers as compared to non‐gamblers and social gamblers, irrespective of gender, grade, or level of depression. The implications for future investigations are discussed.
Simulation for Cutting Deformable Model Based on X-FEM

An extended finite element simulation (X-FEM) framework for cutting models is presented. Based on the existing work, a simplified approach to deal with the multiple cuts in a element is proposed. Meanwhile, the simulating method of cutting large deformation models is expressed for the application of computer graphics and virtual reality. Other related issues are also discussion, such as the mass matrix calculation and the approximation function of cutting elements. Experiments prove that the proposed method can effectively improve the efficiency and realistic of the cut simulation in this paper.
Topics on Monte Carlo Simulation-Based Methods for Stochastic Optimization Problems : Stochastic Constraints and Variance Reduction Techniques

We provide an overview of two select topics in Monte Carlo simulationbased methods for stochastic optimization: problems with stochastic constraints and variance reduction techniques. While Monte Carlo simulation-based methods have been successfully used for stochastic optimization problems with deterministic constraints, there is a growing body of work on its use for problems with stochastic constraints. The presence of stochastic constraints brings new challenges in ensuring and testing optimality, allocating sample sizes, etc., especially due to difficulties in determining feasibility. We review results for general stochastic constraints and also discuss special cases such as probabilistic and stochastic dominance constraints. Next, we review the use of variance reduction techniques (VRT) in a stochastic optimization setting. While this is a well-studied topic in statistics and simulation, again, the use of VRT in stochastic optimization requires a more thorough analysis. We discuss asymptotic properties of the resulting approximations and their use within Monte Carlo simulation-based solution methods. This chapter is intended to provide an overview of these two topics to introduce them to students and researchers.
Surface-Associated Lipoproteins Link Enterococcus faecalis Virulence to Colitogenic Activity in IL-10-Deficient Mice Independent of Their Expression Levels

The commensal Enterococcus faecalis is among the most common causes of nosocomial infections. Recent findings regarding increased abundance of enterococci in the intestinal microbiota of patients with inflammatory bowel diseases and induction of colitis in IL-10-deficient (IL-10-/-) mice put a new perspective on the contribution of E. faecalis to chronic intestinal inflammation. Based on the expression of virulence-related genes in the inflammatory milieu of IL-10-/- mice using RNA-sequencing analysis, we characterized the colitogenic role of two bacterial structures that substantially impact on E. faecalis virulence by different mechanisms: the enterococcal polysaccharide antigen and cell surface-associated lipoproteins. Germ-free wild type and IL-10-/- mice were monoassociated with E. faecalis wild type OG1RF or the respective isogenic mutants for 16 weeks. Intestinal tissue and mesenteric lymph nodes (MLN) were collected to characterize tissue pathology, loss of intestinal barrier function, bacterial adhesion to intestinal epithelium and immune cell activation. Bone marrow-derived dendritic cells (BMDC) were stimulated with bacterial lysates and E. faecalis virulence was additionally investigated in three invertebrate models. Colitogenic activity of wild type E. faecalis (OG1RF score: 7.2±1.2) in monoassociated IL-10-/- mice was partially impaired in E. faecalis lacking enterococcal polysaccharide antigen (ΔepaB score: 4.7±2.3; p<0.05) and was almost completely abrogated in E. faecalis deficient for lipoproteins (Δlgt score: 2.3±2.3; p<0.0001). Consistently both E. faecalis mutants showed significantly impaired virulence in Galleria mellonella and Caenorhabditis elegans. Loss of E-cadherin in the epithelium was shown for all bacterial strains in inflamed IL-10-/- but not wild type mice. Inactivation of epaB in E. faecalis reduced microcolony and biofilm formation in vitro, altered bacterial adhesion to intestinal epithelium of germ-free Manduca sexta larvae and impaired penetration into the colonic mucus layer of IL-10-/- mice. Lipoprotein-deficient E. faecalis exhibited an impaired TLR2-mediated activation of BMDCs in vitro despite their ability to fully reactivate MLN cells as well as MLN-derived colitogenic T cells ex vivo. E. faecalis virulence factors accounting for bacterial adhesion to mucosal surfaces as well as intestinal barrier disruption partially contribute to colitogenic activity of E. faecalis. Beyond their well-known role in infections, cell surface-associated lipoproteins are essential structures for colitogenic activity of E. faecalis by mediating innate immune cell activation.
Objectively Measured Physical Activity and Its Association With Adiponectin and Other Novel Metabolic Markers

OBJECTIVE—Recent evidence suggests that, in children, traditional markers of metabolic disturbance are related only weakly to physical activity. We therefore sought to establish the corresponding relationships with newer metabolic markers. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS—This was a nonintervention longitudinal study of 213 healthy children recruited from 54 schools in Plymouth, U.K. MTI accelerometers were used to make objective 7-day recordings of physical activity at ages 5 ± 0.3 (mean ± SD), 6, 7, and 8 years. Overall physical activity was taken as the average of the four annual time points. The metabolic markers at 8 years were adiponectin, leptin, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP), and insulin resistance (homeostasis model assessment). Potential confounders included percent body fat measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry and diet measured by food frequency questionnaire. RESULTS—Whereas physical activity did not correlate with insulin resistance (r = −0.01), leptin (r = +0.04), or hsCRP (r = +0.01) independently of percent body fat, it did correlate with adiponectin, but inversely (r = −0.18, P = 0.02). This unexpected inverse relationship was strongest among the less active children (physical activity < median: r = −0.30, P = 0.01) but negligible in the more active children (physical activity > median: r = +0.04, P = 0.76). Adiponectin was significantly higher (0.52 SD, P < 0.01) in the least active tertile compared with the other two tertiles. Insulin resistance, however, did not differ across the physical activity tertiles (P = 0.62). CONCLUSIONS—Adiponectin levels in children are highest among those who are least active, but their insulin resistance is no different. Adiponectin has a known insulin-sensitizing effect, and our findings are consistent with a selective effect at low levels of physical activity.
Application of a Newly Identified and Characterized 18-O-Acyltransferase in Chemoenzymatic Synthesis of Selected Natural and Nonnatural Bioactive Derivatives of Phoslactomycins

ABSTRACT Phoslactomycins (PLMs) and related leustroducsins (LSNs) have been isolated from a variety of bacteria based on antifungal, anticancer, and other biological assays. Streptomyces sp. strain HK 803 produces five PLM analogs (PLM A and PLMs C to F) in which the C-18 hydroxyl substituent is esterified with a range of branched, short-alkyl-chain carboxylic acids. The proposed pathway intermediate, PLM G, in which the hydroxyl residue is not esterified has not been observed at any significant level in fermentation, and the only route to this potentially useful intermediate has been an enzymatic deacylation of other PLMs and LSNs. We report that deletion of plmS3 from the PLM biosynthetic cluster gives rise to a mutant which accumulates the PLM G intermediate. The 921-bp plmS3 open reading frame was cloned and expressed as an N-terminally polyhistidine-tagged protein in Escherichia coli and shown to be an 18-O acyltransferase, catalyzing conversion of PLM G to PLM A, PLM C, and PLM E using isobutyryl coenzyme A (CoA), 3-methylbutyryl-CoA, and cyclohexylcarbonyl-CoA, respectively. The efficiency of this process (kcat of 28 ± 3 min−1 and Km of 88 ± 16 μM) represents a one-step chemoenzymatic alternative to a multistep synthetic process for selective chemical esterification of the C-18 hydroxy residue of PLM G. PlmS3 was shown to catalyze esterification of PLM G with CoA and N-acetylcysteamine thioesters of various saturated, unsaturated, and aromatic carboxylic acids and thus also to provide an efficient chemoenzymatic route to new PLM analogs.
Fast wavelength switching in semiconductor micro-ring lasers using filtered optical feedback

We investigate the wavelength switching speed in semiconductor lasers that are wavelength tunable based on filtered optical feedback. The feedback section consists of two arrayed-waveguide gratings and four semiconductor optical amplifiers. The wavelength tuning and switching is controlled by changing the currents injected in the semiconductor optical amplifiers. We achieve a few nanoseconds wavelength switching speed. We also investigate how this switching speed depends on the phase and the amplitude of the feedback. We compare the experimental observations with numerical simulations based on a rate-equations model, from which we can identify the most important parameters that influence the switching speed.
A Genetic Spectral Clustering Algorithm

As a novel clustering algorithm, spectral clustering is applied in machine learning extensively. Spectral clustering is built upon spectral graph theory, and has the ability to process the clustering of non-convex sample spaces. Most of the existing spectral clustering algorithms are based on k-means algorithm, and k-means algorithm uses the iterative optimization method to find the optimal solution, which is easy to prematurely converge to the local optimal solution. Combined with the global search ability of genetic algorithm, a genetic spectral clustering algorithm is proposed. Compared with the original spectral clustering and k-means clustering analysis based on genetic algorithm, the suggested algorithm reduces the input dimension of the clustering algorithm using dimension reduction of spectral clustering, and replaces the traditional k-means algorithm by genetic k-means algorithm. The experiments show that the suggested algorithm obtains the stable cluster centers, and effectively improves the clustering performance on both artificial data and UCI datasets, which validate the stability and effectiveness of the suggested algorithm.
Transient Stimulation of Deoxyribonucleic Acid-Dependent Ribonucleic Acid Polymerase and Histone Acetylation in Human Embryonic Kidney Cultures Infected with Adenovirus 2 or 12: Apparent Induction of Host Ribonucleic Acid Synthesis

The synthesis of cell-specific ribonucleic acid (RNA) appeared to be stimulated in human embryonic kidney (HEK) cultures infected with adenovirus 2 or 12. Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)-RNA hybridization experiments revealed that by 44 to 70 hr after infection with either virus, the relative amount of pulse-labeled RNA capable of hybridizing with HEK cell DNA increased considerably; such RNA was detected in both nuclear and cytoplasmic fractions. The main increase in apparent host RNA synthesis was preceded by (i) a relatively early transient stimulation of the DNA-dependent RNA polymerase activity in isolated nuclei, and (ii) a small but consistently observed increase in the rate of acetylation of lysine-rich and arginine-rich histone fractions. The Mn2+-(NH4)2SO4 and Mg2+-activated RNA polymerase reactions measured in nuclei isolated from cells infected with adenovirus 2 or 12 were stimulated at about the same time; a rapid loss of polymerase activity followed. The augmentation of the two RNA polymerase reactions found in adenovirus 12-infected cells was independent of protein synthesis. After the initial increase, the acetylation rate of histones of cells infected with adenovirus 2 or 12 declined, until late in infection it was approximately 40 to 70% of the control cell rate.
Divalent cation block and competition between divalent and monovalent cations in the large-conductance K+ channel from Chara australis

The patch-clamp technique is used to investigate divalent ion block of the large-conductance K+ channel from Chara australis. Block by Ba2+, Ca2+, Mg2+, and Pt(NH3)4(2+) from the vacuolar and cytoplasmic sides is used to probe the structure of, and ion interactions within, the pore. Five divalent ion binding sites are detected. Vacuolar Ca2+ reduces channel conductance by binding to a site located 7% along the membrane potential difference (site 1, delta = 0.07; from the vacuolar side); it also causes channel closures with mean a duration of approximately 0.1- 1 ms by binding at a deeper site (site 2, delta = 0.3). Ca2+ can exit from site 2 into both the vacuolar and cytoplasmic solutions. Cytoplasmic Ca2+ reduces conductance by binding at two sites (site 3, delta = -0.21; site 4, delta = -0.6; from the cytoplasmic side) and causes closures with a mean duration of 10-100 ms by binding to site 5 (delta = -0.7). The deep sites exhibit stronger ion specificity than the superficial sites. Cytoplasmic Ca2+ binds sequentially to sites 3-5 and Ca2+ at site 5 can be locked into the pore by a second Ca2+ at site 3 or 4. Ca2+ block is alleviated by increasing [K+] on the same side of the channel. Further, Ca2+ occupancy of the deep sites (2, 4, and 5) is reduced by K+, Rb+, NH4+, and Na+ on the opposite side of the pore. Their relative efficacy correlates with their relative permeability in the channel. While some Ca2+ and K+ sites compete for ions, Ca2+ and K+ can simultaneously occupy the channel. Ca2+ binding at site 1 only partially blocks channel conduction. The results suggest the presence of four K+ binding sites on the channel protein. One cytoplasmic facing site has an equilibrium affinity of 10 mM (site 6, delta = -0.3) and one vacuolar site (site 7, delta less than 0.2) has low affinity (greater than 500 mM). Divalent ion block of the Chara channel shows many similarities to that of the maxi-K channel from rat skeletal muscle.
A Case Series of Burning Mouth Syndrome Treated with Stellate Ganglion Near-Infrared Irradiation : Assessment of Health-Related Quality of Life Based on the Japanese Version of the MOS 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey Version 2

This is the first case report of patients with burning mouth syndrome (BMS), who underwent treatment with stellate ganglion near-infrared irradiation (SGR) and an assessment of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) based on the Japanese version of the MOS 36-item short-form health survey version 2 (SF-36v2). BMS is characterized by oral burning and painful sensations with a normal clinical appearance; its real cause is still unknown. Recently, the relationships between BMS and the function of the autonomic nervous system have been pointed out; SGR has been reported to be beneficial in BMS patients. The Japanese SF-36v2 was designed to assess HRQoL for medical outcome study. The aim of this study is to assess HRQoL outcomes of SGR by using the Japanese SF-36v2. Five BMS patients received SGR. Evaluation of SGR response by visual analogue scale and assessment of HRQoL by the Japanese SF-36v2 were carried out. BMS patients had a positive response to SGR and yielded higher scores in almost all domains of the Japanese SF-36v2. Pathological conditions of BMS patients were considered to be complicated by physical and mental factors; psychosocial supports are needed for their care in addition to physical supports such as pain control.
Classification of CSCW proposals based on a taxonomy

In this paper we propose a conceptual framework for the design the groupware user interface. It supports the interface design enabling integration with software development processes through UML notation. We studied relevant proposals in the domain of CSCW and HCI. Taxonomy is defined in order to classify concepts from those proposals. Finally, the taxonomy is populated for defining main concepts of the conceptual framework.
Decoding Wikipedia Categories for Knowledge Acquisition

This paper presents an approach to acquire knowledge from Wikipedia categories and the category network. Many Wikipedia categories have complex names which reflect human classification and organizing instances, and thus encode knowledge about class attributes, taxonomic and other semantic relations. We decode the names and refer back to the network to induce relations between concepts in Wikipedia represented through pages or categories. The category structure allows us to propagate a relation detected between constituents of a category name to numerous concept links. The results of the process are evaluated against ResearchCyc and a subset also by human judges. The results support the idea that Wikipedia category names are a rich source of useful and accurate knowledge.
A Spatial Compositional Model for Linear Unmixing and Endmember Uncertainty Estimation

The normal compositional model (NCM) has been extensively used in hyperspectral unmixing. However, previous research has mostly focused on the estimation of endmembers and/or their variability, based on the assumption that the pixels are independent random variables. In this paper, we show that this assumption does not hold if all the pixels are generated by a fixed endmember set. This introduces another concept, endmember uncertainty, which is related to whether the pixels fit into the endmember simplex. To further develop this idea, we derive the NCM from the ground up without the pixel independence assumption, along with: 1) using different noise levels at different wavelengths and 2) using a spatial and sparsity promoting prior for the abundances. The resulting new formulation is called the spatial compositional model (SCM) to better differentiate it from the NCM. The SCM maximum a posteriori objective leads to an optimization problem featuring Noise-weighted least-squares minimization for unmixing. The problem is solved by projected gradient descent, resulting in an algorithm that estimates endmembers, abundances, noise variances, and endmember uncertainty simultaneously. We compared SCM with current state-of-the-art algorithms on synthetic and real images. The results show that SCM can, in the main, provide more accurate endmembers and abundances. Moreover, the estimated uncertainty can serve as a prediction of endmember error under certain conditions.
An Automatic Antenna Tuning System Using Only RF Signal Amplitudes

The operating environment of mobile phones fluctuates continuously, due to changing handling conditions and nearby objects. The resulting fluctuations in antenna impedance cause both a decrease in link quality and a higher standing wave ratio, that requires more robust and hence less efficient power amplifier implementations. In this paper, an automatic antenna tuner system for handheld applications is presented that uses two series reactances combined with three simple RF peak detectors to sense both reactive and real impedance mismatches. The control loop only requires low-frequency electronics which makes it low cost, low power and relatively easy to integrate. Measurements on a demonstrator system show correct behaviour for voltage standing-wave ratio up to 10.