Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Average SNR of a generalized diversity selection combining scheme

The average signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of a generalized selection combining scheme, in which the m diversity branches (m/spl les/L, where L is the total number of diversity branches available) with the largest instantaneous SNRs are selected and coherently combined, is derived. A Rayleigh fading channel is assumed, and a simple closed-form expression for the SNR is found which is upper bounded by the average SNR of maximal ratio combining, and lower bounded by average SNR of conventional selection combining.
Characterization of spatial heterogeneity of groundwater-stream water interactions using multiple depth streambed temperature measurements at the reach scale

Papers published in Hydrology and Earth System Sciences Discussions are under open-access review for the journal Hydrology and Earth System Sciences Abstract Streambed temperatures can be easily, accurately and inexpensively measured at many locations. We obtained 140 vertical streambed temperature profiles along a 220 m section of a small artificial stream to characterize patterns of groundwater-stream water interaction with a high spatial resolution. Groundwater temperature at 5 a sufficient depth remains nearly constant while stream water temperatures vary seasonally and diurnally. In summer, streambed temperatures of groundwater discharge zones are relatively colder than downwelling zones of stream water. Assuming vertical flow in the streambed, the observed temperatures can be correlated to the magnitude of water fluxes. The water fluxes can then be estimated by applying a simple ana-10 lytical solution of the heat diffusion-advection equation to the observed vertical temperature profiles. The calculated water fluxes through the streambed ranged between 10.0 Lm −2 d −1 of stream water entering the streambed and 455.0 Lm −2 d −1 of groundwater discharging to the stream. The investigated reach was dominated by groundwater discharge with two distinct high discharge locations accounting for 50% of the total 15 flux on 20% of the reach length.
Transient activation of FOXN1 in keratinocytes induces a transcriptional programme that promotes terminal differentiation: contrasting roles of FOXN1 and Akt

The forkhead transcription factor FOXN1 is required for normal cutaneous and thymic epithelial development. Mutations in FOXN1 give rise to the nude phenotype in mice, rats and man. However, the genes that are regulated by FOXN1 are unknown. To investigate FOXN1 function we expressed an inducible form of the protein, FOXN1ER, that is activated by 4-hydroxytamoxifen in primary human epidermal keratinocytes. Transient activation of FOXN1 decreased the proportion of keratinocytes that formed actively growing clones attributable to stem cell founders and increased the number of abortive clones, without inducing apoptosis. Within 24 hours the majority of cells had initiated terminal differentiation, as assessed by involucrin expression. We performed a cDNA microarray experiment to analyse changes in the transcription of approximately 6000 genes. Following FOXN1 activation we detected increases of two fold or greater in the RNA levels of over 30 genes. Genes promoting growth arrest, survival and differentiation featured prominently and markers of early events in keratinocyte differentiation were also detected. Since one of the induced genes was Akt we investigated whether Akt played a role in terminal differentiation. Activation of PI 3-kinase but not Akt was necessary for FOXN1-induced differentiation. In reconstituted epidermis FOXN1 promoted early stages of terminal differentiation whereas Akt activation was sufficient to induce late stages, including formation of the cornified layers. These results establish a role for FOXN1 in initiation of terminal differentiation and implicate Akt in subsequent events.
R406, an Orally Available Spleen Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor Blocks Fc Receptor Signaling and Reduces Immune Complex-Mediated Inflammation

Recent compelling evidence has lead to renewed interest in the role of antibodies and immune complexes in the pathogenesis of several autoimmune disorders, such as rheumatoid arthritis. These immune complexes, consisting of autoantibodies to self-antigens, can mediate inflammatory responses largely through binding and activating the immunoglobulin Fc receptors (FcRs). Using cell-based structure activity relationships with cultured human mast cells, we have identified the small molecule R406 [N4-(2,2-dimethyl-3-oxo-4H-pyrid[1,4]oxazin-6-yl)-5-fluoro-N2-(3,4,5-trimethoxyphenyl)-2,4-pyrimidinediamine] as a potent inhibitor of immunoglobulin E (IgE)- and IgG-mediated activation of Fc receptor signaling (EC50 for degranulation = 56–64 nM). Here we show that the primary target for R406 is the spleen tyrosine kinase (Syk), which plays a key role in the signaling of activating Fc receptors and the B-cell receptor (BCR). R406 inhibited phosphorylation of Syk substrate linker for activation of T cells in mast cells and B-cell linker protein/SLP65 in B cells. R406 bound to the ATP binding pocket of Syk and inhibited its kinase activity as an ATP-competitive inhibitor (Ki = 30 nM). Furthermore, R406 blocked Syk-dependent FcR-mediated activation of monocytes/macrophages and neutrophils and BCR-mediated activation of B lymphocytes. R406 was selective as assessed using a large panel of Syk-independent cell-based assays representing both specific and general signaling pathways. Consistent with Syk inhibition, oral administration of R406 to mice reduced immune complex-mediated inflammation in a reverse-passive Arthus reaction and two antibody-induced arthritis models. Finally, we report a first-inhuman study showing that R406 is orally bioavailable, achieving exposures capable of inhibiting Syk-dependent IgE-mediated basophil activation. Collectively, the results show R406 potential for modulating Syk activity in human disease.
Measurement of thermally induced deformations by means of phase retrieval

We show that phase retrieval from a set of intensity measurements can be used to determine the thermally induced deformation of a diffusely reflecting surface. The presented approach is based on an experimental setup with a spatial light modulator (SLM) located in the Fourier domain of a 4f-configuration. The SLM is used to modulate the incident light with the transfer function of propagation. Since no mechanical adjustment is required throughout the measurement process, the setup is capable of capturing the intensity distributions associated with a large number of propagated representations of the same wave field in a short instance of time. Consequently, it enables the investigation of quasi static scenes, e.g. object surfaces under thermal load which are common in the field of non destructive testing for example. The result of the measurement process can be subjected to well established, iterative phase retrieval algorithms in order to recover the deformation from the lateral phase distribution directly in front of the object. As a proof of principle we show experimental investigations which address the deformation of a resistors surface under thermal load. Eventually, the results obtained from phase retrieval are compared to those of standard interferometry.
Cloning and sequence analysis of the genes coding for Eco57I type IV restriction-modification enzymes.

A 6.3 kb fragment of E.coli RFL57 DNA coding for the type IV restriction-modification system Eco57I was cloned and expressed in E.coli RR1. A 5775 bp region of the cloned fragment was sequenced which contains three open reading frames (ORF). The methylase gene is 1623 bp long, corresponding to a protein of 543 amino acids (62 kDa); the endonuclease gene is 2991 bp in length (997 amino acids, 117 kDa). The two genes are transcribed convergently from different strands with their 3'-ends separated by 69 bp. The third short open reading frame (186 bp, 62 amino acids) has been identified, that precedes and overlaps by 7 nucleotides the ORF encoding the methylase. Comparison of the deduced Eco57I endonuclease and methylase amino acid sequences revealed three regions of significant similarity. Two of them resemble the conserved sequence motifs characteristic of the DNA[adenine-N6] methylases. The third one shares similarity with corresponding regions of the PaeR7I, TaqI, CviBIII, PstI, BamHI and HincII methylases. Homologs of this sequence are also found within the sequences of the PaeR7I, PstI and BamHI restriction endonucleases. This is the first example of a family of cognate restriction endonucleases and methylases sharing homologous regions. Analysis of the structural relationship suggests that the type IV enzymes represent an intermediate in the evolutionary pathway between the type III and type II enzymes.
Effects of a Brain Improvement Program on Students' Reading Achievement

How to close the reading achievement gap among K-12 students is an ongoing emphasis for educators in the 21st century. The purpose of the study was to determine if using kinesthetic movements from the Brain Gym® program improved the reading achievement of Grade 3 Hispanic and African American students. Students from four elementary schools participated in the study. The students in the control and experimental groups completed a 2004 release TAKS third grade reading assessment for the pretest and posttest. Students in the experimental group completed five selected kinesthetic movements from the Brain Gym® program five minutes at the beginning of each Monday through Friday school day. The intervention lasted 30 days and a total of 150 minutes. Data were analyzed using a 2 x 2 mixed between-within subjects analysis of variance. Findings revealed that performing the five kinesthetic movements from the Brain Gym® program did not increase students' reading achievement scores. Only the variable of time between pretest and posttest affected students' reading scores. The results from this study did not support the findings of other studies of the effectiveness of kinesthetic movements.
Una teoría cognitiva integral para la recuperación de información: saliendo del entorno del laboratorio

The paper demonstrates how the Laboratory Research Framework fits into the integrated Cognitive Framework for IR. It first discusses the Laboratory Framework with emphasis on its underlying assumptions and known limitations. This is followed by a view of interaction and relevance phenomena associated with IR evaluation and central to the understanding of IR. The ensuing section outlines how interactive IR is viewed from a Cognitive Framework, and ‘light’ interactive IR experiments are suggested performed by drawing on the latter framework’s contextual possibilities. These include independent variables drawn from a collection, matching principles in a retrieval system, and the searcher’s situation and task context. The paper ends with concluding points of summarization of issues encountered.
The Redistributive Effects of Tax Benefit Systems in the Enlarged EU

How do different components of the tax and transfer systems affect disposable income inequality? This article explores the redistributive effects of different tax benefit instruments in the enlarged European Union (EU) based on two approaches. Inequality analysis based on the sequential accounting approach suggests that benefits are the most important factor reducing inequality in the majority of countries. The factor source decomposition approach, however, suggests that benefits play a negligible role and sometimes even contribute slightly positively to inequality. On the contrary, here taxes and social contributions are by far the most important contributors to income inequality reduction. The authors explain these partly contradictory results with the different normative focus of the two approaches and show that benefits have other aims than redistribution.
New stability results for adversarial queuing

We consider the model of "adversarial queuing theory" for packet networks introduced by Borodin et al. [6]. We show that the scheduling protocol First-In-First-Out (FIFO) can be unstable at any injection rate larger than $1/2$, and that it is always stable if the injection rate is no more than 1/d, where d is the length of the longest route used by any packet. We further show that every work-conserving (i.e., greedy) scheduling policy is stable if the injection rate is no more than 1/(d+1).
Stress effects on the initial lithiation of crystalline silicon nanowires: reactive molecular dynamics simulations using ReaxFF.

Silicon (Si) has been recognized as a promising anode material for the next-generation high-capacity lithium (Li)-ion batteries because of its high theoretical energy density. Recent in situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM) revealed that the electrochemical lithiation of crystalline Si nanowires (c-SiNWs) proceeds by the migration of the interface between the lithiated Si (LixSi) shell and the pristine unlithiated core, accompanied by solid-state amorphization. The underlying atomic mechanisms of Li insertion into c-Si remain poorly understood. Herein, we perform molecular dynamics (MD) simulations using the reactive force field (ReaxFF) to characterize the lithiation process of c-SiNWs. Our calculations show that ReaxFF can accurately reproduce the energy barriers of Li migration from DFT calculations in both crystalline (c-Si) and amorphous Si (a-Si). The ReaxFF-based MD simulations reveal that Li insertion into interlayer spacing between two adjacent (111) planes results in the peeling-off of the (111) facets and subsequent amorphization, in agreement with experimental observations. We find that breaking of the Si-Si bonds between (111)-bilayers requires a rather high local Li concentration, which explains the atomically sharp amorphous-crystalline interface (ACI). Our stress analysis shows that lithiation induces compressive stress at the ACI layer, causing retardation or even the stagnation of the reaction front, also in good agreement with TEM observations. Lithiation at high temperatures (e.g. 1200 K) shows that Li insertion into c-SiNW results in an amorphous to crystalline phase transformation at Li : Si composition of ∼4.2 : 1. Our modeling results provide a comprehensive picture of the effects of reaction and diffusion-induced stress on the interfacial dynamics and mechanical degradation of SiNW anodes under chemo-mechanical lithiation.
A comparative study of secret code variants in terms of keystroke dynamics

The rise of the Internet and the push for ubiquitous computing has brought a proliferation of numerous single method solutions, forcing users to remember numerous secret codes, a task that is becoming increasingly difficult. On the web, codes are used by publications, blogs, Webmail, e-commerce sites, and financial institutions. Elsewhere, they serve as authentication mechanism for Internet service providers (ISPs), email servers, local and remote host account, ATM, voicemails and so on. Existing textual passwords, token based systems, and other methods often do not offer the necessary security standard. Fortunately biometric systems that are based on the biological features of the user when typing texts are very promising in enhancing the de facto textual password. The main objective of this paper is to assess and report on the suitability of keystroke dynamics in protecting access to resources when users are typing the different types of password that exist.
Prediction of High-Risk Types of Human Papillomaviruses Using Statistical Model of Protein “Sequence Space”

Discrimination of high-risk types of human papillomaviruses plays an important role in the diagnosis and remedy of cervical cancer. Recently, several computational methods have been proposed based on protein sequence-based and structure-based information, but the information of their related proteins has not been used until now. In this paper, we proposed using protein “sequence space” to explore this information and used it to predict high-risk types of HPVs. The proposed method was tested on 68 samples with known HPV types and 4 samples without HPV types and further compared with the available approaches. The results show that the proposed method achieved the best performance among all the evaluated methods with accuracy 95.59% and F1-score 90.91%, which indicates that protein “sequence space” could potentially be used to improve prediction of high-risk types of HPVs.
Implementation and comparison of machine learning classifiers for information security risk analysis of a human resources department

The aim of this study is threefold. First, a qualitative information security risk survey is implemented in human resources department of a logistics company. Second, a machine learning risk classification and prediction model with proper data set is established from the results obtained in this survey. Third, several classifier algorithms are tested where their training and test performances are compared using error rates, ROC curves, Kappa statistics and F-measures. The results show that some classifier algorithms can be used to estimate specific human based information security risks within acceptable error rates.
Temporal Stability of Alexithymia Over a Five-Year Period in Outpatients with Major Depression

Background: Previous research on alexithymia and depression has led to a controversy over whether alexithymia should be viewed as a state-dependent phenomenon or as a stable personality trait. The aim of this 5-year follow-up study was to examine the temporal stability of alexithymia in outpatients suffering from major depression. Methods: The study population comprised 116 (49 male and 67 female) outpatients with major depression. Alexithymic features were assessed with the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) and the degree of depression with the Beck Depression Inventory. The patients were retested after a period of 5 years. Results: Mean alexithymia and depression scores decreased significantly over the 5-year period. Alexithymia and depression were associated with each other, but the high test-retest correlations in the TAS-20 scores indicate relative stability of alexithymia. The three factors of alexithymia behaved differently. Difficulty in identifying feelings and difficulty in describing feelings were associated with alleviation of depressive symptoms, whereas externally oriented thinking was not. Conclusions: Alexithymia seems to be related with the severity of depression in outpatients with major depression, but it also shows relative stability over 5 years. Our findings support the view that the alexithymia construct represents a stable personality trait, but is also a state-dependent phenomenon.
Characterization of Ig Gene Somatic Hypermutation in the Absence of Activation-Induced Cytidine Deaminase1

Somatic hypermutation (SHM) of Ig genes depends upon the deamination of C nucleotides in WRCY (W = A/T, R = A/G, Y = C/T) motifs by activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AICDA). Despite this, a large number of mutations occur in WA motifs that can be accounted for by the activity of polymerase η (POL η). To determine whether there are AICDA-independent mutations and to characterize the relationship between AICDA- and POL η-mediated mutations, 1470 H chain and 1313 κ- and λ-chain rearrangements from three AICDA−/− patients were analyzed. The Ig mutation frequency of all VH genes from AICDA−/− patients was 40-fold less than that of normal donors, whereas the mutation frequency of mutated VH sequences from AICDA−/− patients was 6.8-fold less than that of normal donors. AICDA−/− B cells lack mutations in WRCY/RGYW motifs as well as replacement mutations and mutational targeting in complementarity-determining regions. A significantly reduced mutation frequency in WA motifs compared with normal donors and an increased percentage of transitions, which may relate to reduced uracil DNA-glycosylase activity, suggest a role for AICDA in regulating POL η and uracil DNA-glycosylase activity. Similar results were observed in VL rearrangements. The residual mutations were predominantly G:C substitutions, indicating that AICDA-independent cytidine deamination was a likely, yet inefficient, mechanism for mutating Ig genes.
Substance use in adolescent girls: the interplay of pubertaltiming, family and peer influence

Pubertal timing and relationships with parents and peers have each been linked to substance use in adolescent girls. However, to understand the origin of adolescent substance use in relation to these factors, it is important to focus on combined risk effects. As shown in the systematic review (the first part of this PhD project) only a few studies have tested the relationships between these factors in predicting adolescent substance use The aim of this thesis was to evaluate the main effects of pubertal timing and psycho-social factors (parent-daughter relations and peer deviance) on substance use. A second aim was to examine whether the links between pubertal timing and girl’s substance use are indirect via psycho-social factors (mediation) and whether the links between psycho-social factors and substance use differ across pubertal timing groups (moderation). Girls’ data from the population-based Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) was analysed. Pubertal timing was assessed yearly between ages 8 and 17, parent-daughter relations and peer deviance at age 15, and alcohol, cigarette and cannabis use at age 16. Additionally, analyses controlled for a set of a priori selected confounders. Late maturing girls had lower levels of cannabis use compared to on-time maturing girls. Late maturing girls had fewer alcohol drinking, cannabis using and delinquent friends than early maturing girls and fewer cannabis using friends than ontime maturing girls. Additionally, late maturing girls’ lower levels of alcohol use were partly explained by having fewer cannabis using and delinquent friends. To conclude, in late adolescence, the combined effects of peer deviance and pubertal timing are more influential than the combined effects of parent-daughter relations and pubertal timing, in predicting adolescent substance use. Collectively, the findings indicate the importance of creating targeted prevention programs that are sensitive to developmental stage in relation to the peer group.
Optimization of a temporal decomposition model of speech

A dynamic programming based optimization strategy for a modified temporal decomposition (TD) model of speech is presented. In previous work with the SBEL-TD algorithm, the event localization was performed based on a spectral stability criteria. Although this approach gave reasonably good results (spectral distortion of about 1.5 dB), there was no assurance on the optimality of event locations. In this present work we have optimized the event localization task using a dynamic programming based optimization strategy. An overlapping buffering technique is also proposed to ensure smooth transitions between consecutive speech parameter blocks. Simulation results show that an improved TD model accuracy in terms of the spectral distortion (0.9 dB) can be achieved. The new optimised algorithm also adds a new degree of freedom, TD resolution (events/sec), to the analysis paradigm which can be effectively used to control the TD model accuracy.
A TCM Diagnosis System Based on Textbook Information Extraction

The digitization of books can not only provide a electronic way to read but also make it possible to establish information systems via information extraction and correlation. This paper proposed a new approach that build up a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) diagnosis system by extracting information from textbooks. First of all, we design a semantic ontology which can achieve targeted and precise extraction by combining it with SVM classification and regular expression match. After the popularization of the ontology, data and information in the database can be correlated automatically. Moreover, aiming at the domain of TCM textbooks, a new symptom identification algorithm is adopted. Eventually, a structural knowledge database is constructed and the experiment system shows that our method can be useful to provide new services for digital library.