Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Strong power and subexponential laws for an ordered list of trajectories of a Markov chain

Consider a homogeneous Markov chain with discrete time and with a finite set of states E0, . , En such that the state E0 is absorbing and states E1, . , En are nonrecurrent. The frequencies of trajectories in this chain are studied in this paper, i.e., “words” composed of symbols E1, . , En ending with the “space” E0. Order the words according to their probabilities; denote by p(t) the probability of the tth word in this list. As was proved recently, in the case of an infinite list of words, in the dependence of the topology of the graph of the Markov chain, there exists either the limit ln p(t)/ ln t as t → ∞ or that of ln p(t)/t1/D , where D ∈ N (weak power and subexponential laws). As appeared, in the latter case the decreasing order of the function p(t) is always subexponential (the strong subexponential law). In the first case, this paper describes necessary and sufficient conditions of the power order (the strong power law). These conditions are fulfilled, in particular, if the graph of the Markov chain that corresponds to states E1, . , En is strongly connected.
Mechanisms of Enamel Dissolution in Acid Buffers

A quantitative understanding of the mechanism of human dental enamel dissolution in buffers is important because it should lead to a clear description of the causative factors in caries formation, and it can be profitably employed in the design of meaningful screening methods for potential anti-decay agents. Gray' has reported studies on enamel dissolution, concluding that the rates of dissolution of enamel in his buffers were controlled by the diffusion rates of the reactants and products of the dissolution reaction. He also pointed out that the initial enamel dissolution rate is largely a function of the total buffer concentration, buffer acid strength, and pH. The effects of common and foreign ions on the rates of enamel dissolution were accounted for in a consistent fashion. Gray deduced a semi-empirical equation for the rate of dissolution which rather satisfactorily describes all the experimental findings. This relationship includes the bufferacid dissociation constant, the total buffer concentration, the hydrogen-ion concentration, and other terms, when necessary, for common and foreign ions affecting the rate. The success of this equation suggested that detailed mathematical models could be formulated and tested, employing simultaneous diffusion and chemical reaction, as has been done in describing the dissolution behavior of benzoic acid2 in basic and buffered media. The present communication is a report on the study of two such models. These have been examined with Gray's data. The analyses demonstrate the usefulness of this approach in future studies on dental problems.
Efficient Culturing and Genetic Manipulation of Human Pluripotent Stem Cells

Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSC) hold great promise as models for understanding disease and as a source of cells for transplantation therapies. However, the lack of simple, robust and efficient culture methods remains a significant obstacle for realizing the utility of hPSCs. Here we describe a platform for the culture of hPSCs that 1) allows for dissociation and replating of single cells, 2) significantly increases viability and replating efficiency, 3) improves freeze/thaw viability 4) improves cloning efficiency and 5) colony size variation. When combined with standard methodologies for genetic manipulation, we found that the enhanced culture platform allowed for lentiviral transduction rates of up to 95% and electroporation efficiencies of up to 25%, with a significant increase in the total number of antibiotic-selected colonies for screening for homologous recombination. We further demonstrated the utility of the enhanced culture platform by successfully targeting the ISL1 locus. We conclude that many of the difficulties associated with culturing and genetic manipulation of hPSCs can be addressed with optimized culture conditions, and we suggest that the use of the enhanced culture platform could greatly improve the ease of handling and general utility of hPSCs.
Benefits of GMPLS for multilayer recovery

IP-based backbone networks are gradually moving towards a network model consisting of high-speed routers that are flexibly interconnected by lightpaths set up by an optical transport network consisting of WDM links and optical cross-connects. Recovery mechanisms at both network layers are crucial to reach the high availability requirements of critical services. In such a model, the GMPLS protocol suite can provide a distributed control plane that can be used to deliver rapid and dynamic circuit provisioning of end-to-end optical lightpaths. This article explains that it can be very beneficial to exploit this functionality to enhance the cost effectiveness of multilayer recovery significantly. Several practical case studies illustrate this concept and highlight the opportunities and challenges to be faced.
Transitions in drinking in adolescent females: evidence from the Missouri adolescent female twin study.

BACKGROUND Data from adult community samples indicate that alcohol dependence originates in late adolescence, thus marking that period as a fruitful one for the study of transitions in drinking. METHODS Using retrospective data about the timing of alcohol symptom onset from 1799 female twins who participated in the Missouri Adolescent Female Twin Study (MOAFTS), we integrated person-centered (PC) and variable-centered (VC) analyses to study 1-year transitions in alcohol symptomatology. A person-year data set reflecting the onset of 15 alcohol dependence symptoms was constructed, with each year in the young woman's life from the year of her first drink to her current age counting as one observation. Latent class analysis--a PC technique--identified classes of alcohol symptomatology for each person-year, and a lag function was used to identify class membership 1 year earlier. One-year transitions in drinking--a VC analysis--were then studied. RESULTS Smoking, marijuana use, and conduct problems were consistent promoters of transitions to more severe drinking classes, but depressed affect was not a significant predictor. Parental history of alcohol problems or excessive drinking, particularly maternal history, was a significant predictor of more serious transitions to moderate and dependent problem drinking. CONCLUSIONS These data confirm that even over a 1-year time frame there was considerable change in drinking patterns in this adolescent sample. Smoking was as potent a risk factor as conduct problems in promoting the progression of alcohol symptomatology, and the role of familial factors was found to be influential in transitions at the more severe end of the drinking spectrum.
A novel method for imaging internal growth patterns in marine mollusks: A fluorescence case study on the aragonitic shell of the marine bivalve Arctica islandica (Linnaeus)

In this article, we explore the use of fluorescence spectroscopy to image growth patterns in the marine bivalve Arctica islandica (L.). The method presented here does not require any chemical treatment of the polished shell section and yields results comparable to acetate peels of acid‐etched shell sections and Mutveitreated shell sections. Further, our results indicate that the annual growth lines in A. islandica fluoresce in the blue light spectrum (450–490 nm), thus an ultraviolet source (mercury lamp) is not required. The reflected light entering the digital camera was filtered (510–540 nm) and later enhanced to emphasize the annual growth patterns. The fluorescence of annual growth lines was consistent among the four animals used in this study. Additionally, we measured growth increments in the umbo section of one A. islandica shell using both the traditional acetate method and fluorescence imaging. The two sets of measurements were highly correlated (r = 0.97; P < 0.0001). We suggest that the fluorescence imaging method presented here is a viable option for increment identification and measurement in this key marine archive. It is likely that the methods demonstrated here for A. islandica can easily be used/modified for other bivalve (mollusk) taxa. Fluorescence microscopy permits rapid analysis of shell growth patterns with minimal pretreatment and offers an objective method of determination of annual growth increments and lines.
On sizing CCN content stores by exploiting topological information

In this work, we study the caching performance of Content Centric Networking (CCN), with special emphasis on the size of individual CCN router caches. Specifically, we consider several graph-related centrality metrics (e.g., betweenness, closeness, stress, graph, eccentricity and degree centralities) to allocate content store space heterogeneously across the CCN network, and contrast the performance to that of an homogeneous allocation.
High performance impulse detector using anisotropic diffusion

Since switching schemes for removing impulse noise detect the positions of pixels corrupted by impulse noise and selectively only filter out corrupted pixels, the restored image quality can be significantly improved compared with conventional median filters. However, when some impulses cannot be detected with impulse detectors, they remain behind, and may adversely degrade subjective image quality. To solve this problem, we propose a high-performance impulse detector based on anisotropic diffusion that smoothes out the details of images while preserving impulses, so that no impulses are left undetected. The experimental results revealed that the proposed approach could effectively improving objective and subjective image quality, especially when images were seriously corrupted with constant or randomly valued impulses.
Needle length required for intramuscular vaccination of infants and toddlers. An ultrasonographic study.

BACKGROUND To be maximally effective and to induce less adverse reactions, injection with many vaccine antigens must penetrate muscle rather than subcutaneous tissue. AIM To determine the length of needle needed to penetrate muscle at the anterolateral thigh vaccination site in children aged two, four, six and 18 months. METHOD Ultrasound measurements were made of the subcutaneous and muscle layer thickness of children aged two, four, six and 18 months at the junction of the upper and middle thirds of the anterolateral thigh with the probe applied parallel to the long axis of the leg and at 45 degrees to the vertical and at 90 degrees to the skin's plane. RESULTS Subcutaneous tissue (SCT) and muscle layer (ML) thickness were measured in 57 children (2 months, n = 14; 4 months, n = 13; 6 months, n = 18; 18 months, n = 12) with mean SCT thickness of: 8.6 +/- 3.0 mm at 2 months; 9.4 +/- 2.0 mm at 4 months; 10.2 +/- 2.1 mm at 6 months; and 8.1 +/- 1.7 mm at 18 months. Muscle layer thickness in these children was: 10.5 +/- 2.4 mm at 2 months; 12.2 +/- 2.0 mm at 4 months; 14.8 +/- 2.0 mm at 6 months, and 16.5 +/- 4.6 mm at 18 months. CONCLUSION The optimal needle length to routinely penetrate muscle of the anterolateral thigh in children aged two, four, six and 18 months depends on the technique employed. A 16 mm long needle is suitable with the WHO technique (injecting at 90 degrees to skin's surface) and 25 mm long needle with the NH&MRC and American techniques (injecting at 45 degrees to skin's surface).
Subordinated clauses usage and assessment of syntactic maturity: A comparison of oral and written retellings in beginning writers

Fil: Silva, Maria Luisa. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas. Oficina de Coordinacion Administrativa Saavedra 15. Centro Interdisciplinario de Investigaciones en Psicologia Matematica y Experimental Dr. Horacio J. A. Rimoldi; Argentina
A Framework for the study of Evolved Term-Weighting Schemes in Information Retrieval

Evolutionary algorithms and, in particular, Genetic Programming (GP) are increasingly being applied to the problem of evolving term-weighting schemes in Information Retrieval (IR). One fundamental problem with the solutions generated by these s tochastic processes is that they are often difficult to analyse. A nu mber of questions regarding these evolved term-weighting schemes remain unanswered. One interesting question is; do different runs of the GP process bring us to similar points in the solution space? This paper deals with determining a number of measures of the distance between the ranked lists (phenotype) returned by d ifferent term-weighting schemes. Using these distance measures , we develop trees that show the phenotypic distance between these ermweighting schemes. This framework gives us a representatio of where these evolved solutions lie in the solution space. Finally, we evolve several global term-weighting schemes a nd show that this framework is indeed useful for determining th e relative closeness of these schemes and for determining the exp ect d performance on general test data.
The Crash of AA587: A Guide

American Airlines Flight 587 (AA587) was an Airbus A300-600 which encountered some wake turbulence from a preceding aircraft on climb out of JFK New York airport in 2001. During the second wake turbulence encounter, the rudder experienced 5 full deflections in opposite senses in about 7 seconds, and the vertical stabiliser (the fin at the back of the aircraft) broke off at its root due to overload. Control of the aircraft was immediately lost and it crashed into houses in the Belle Harbor area of New York City, in the borough of Queens, killing over 250 people on board and five people on the ground. The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) public hearing on the crash of AA587 on November 12, 2001, was held on October 26, 2004. Such a public hearing consists more or less of a presentation of a draft of the final report, in particular the conclusions (Findings, determination of probable cause and contributing factors, Recommendations), and comments from attendees. The NTSB’s preparatory work and presentations at the hearing were summarised in [DF04, Fio04]. This note considers some of the technical and sociotechnical aspects of the accident uncovered by the three-year investigation.
Motivations and Limitations Associated with Vaping among People with Mental Illness: A Qualitative Analysis of Reddit Discussions

This study aims to understand the nature and significance of online lay discussions about e-cigarettes and mental illness. We systematically searched the website Reddit.com using keywords related to e-cigarettes and mental illness. We coded relevant posts into themes under the framework of motivations for and limitations of vaping for people with mental illness. The thematic analysis included 3263 comments from 133 discussion threads. Six themes were classified as motivations to vape for people with mental illness: Self-medication; Quitting smoking; Freedom and control; Hobby; Social connectedness; and Motivation from caregivers and online communities. The limitations of vaping included: Unsatisfactory substitute for cigarettes and psychiatric medicines; Drug interactions; Nicotine addiction; Risks of e-liquid; Practical difficulties and Cost. People with mental illness; and their carers; use online discussion boards like Reddit to discuss the benefits and limitations of e-cigarettes for people with mental illness. Both positive and negative views exist. Media platforms like Reddit may shape the opinions of stakeholders and generate lay expertise about contentious health topics such as e-cigarettes. These findings have implications for policy and practice concerning assisting smokers with mental illness to reduce their health risk through switching to e-cigarettes.
Inhibition of the cystathionine‐&ggr;‐lyase/hydrogen sulfide pathway in rat vascular smooth muscle cells by cobalt‐60 gamma radiation

Background Radiation is a promising treatment for in stent restenosis and restenosis following percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty, which has troubled interventional cardiologists for a long time. It inhibits neointima hyperplasia, vascular remodeling, and increases the mean luminal diameter. The mechanism of intracoronary brachytherapy for restenosis is not well understood. Endogenous gaseous transmitters including nitric oxide and carbon monoxide are closely related to restenosis. Hydrogen sulfide, a new endogenous gaseous transmitter, is able to inhibit the proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells and vascular remodeling. This study aimed to clarify the effect of radiation on cystathionine‐&ggr;‐lyase/hydrogen sulfide pathway in rat smooth muscle cells. Methods We studied the effect of radiation on the cystathionine‐&ggr;‐lyase/hydrogen sulfide pathway. Rat vascular smooth muscle cells were radiated with 60Co &ggr; at doses of 14 Gy and 25 Gy respectively. Then the mRNA level of cystathionine‐&ggr;‐lyase was studied by quantitative reverse‐transcription competitive polymerase chain reaction. Hydrogen sulfide concentration in culture medium was determined by methylene blue spectrophotometry. Cystathionine‐&ggr;‐lyase activity in vascular smooth muscle cells was also studied. Results 60Co &ggr; radiation at a dose of 1 Gy did not affect the cystathionine‐&ggr;‐lyase/hydrogen sulfide pathway significantly. However, 60Co &ggr; radiation at doses of 14 Gy and 25 Gy decreased the hydrogen sulfide synthesis by 21.9% (P <0.05) and 26.8% (P<0.01) respectively. At the same time, they decreased the cystathionine‐&ggr;‐lyase activity by 15.1% (P<0.05) and 20.5% (P <0.01) respectively, and cystathionine‐&ggr;‐lyase mRNA expression by 29.3% (P <0.01) and 38.2% (P <0.01) respectively. Conclusion Appropriate 60Co &ggr; radiation inhibits the H2S synthesis by inhibiting the gene expression of cystathionine‐&ggr;‐lyase and the cystathionine‐&ggr;‐lyase activity.
Creativity tool selection for design engineers in idea generation

The aim of this study is to investigate the utility of a framework of selecting suitable creativity tools for designers according to personality attributes and design application. Five intuitive feeling (NF) design engineers who share similar if not identical personality type, were observed while using lateral thinking, which is suggested as one of the suitable creativity tools based on this framework, to produce ideas for a design task. The aim of this study is to understand the creative process that designers go through when using lateral thinking, and the perceived utility of this creativity tool in ideation by this personality group. The analysis of the ideation process revealed creative thinking is an intuitive and associative process where intuition and imagination are frequently employed by the intuitive feeling designers to construct the problem, trigger ideas or illustrate ideas. The subjects’ positive evaluations towards the use of lateral thinking in ideation supported its utility, but factors such as ease of use and previous experience in using creativity tools should be taken into account when applying the framework.
Detection and classification of TCP/IP network services

Computer intruders are employing more sophisticated techniques to compromise computer systems. Once compromised, in most cases, intruders install remote terminal software to ensure continued, undetectable access to the victim site bypassing standard system audit and security features. Detection of this type of intruder activity was a problem for law enforcement during a computer intrusion investigation that went to prosecution in Australia. The increasing availability of remote terminal software to intruders poses a significant problem to both the detection and monitoring of an intruder's activities. This paper discusses an approach to the analysis of network traffic to detect the presence of unauthorised and anomalous network services. The aim of the project is the development of a network connection signature for common network services, therefore allowing connection type recognition independent of the port information. The specific service signatures can then be used to correlate port information with observed connection types facilitating the detection of anomalous and unauthorised network connections. The detection of anomalous connections may indicate the presence of unauthorised modifications to systems on the network being monitored or the installation of illicit remote terminal software on those systems. A modified neural network was used to analyse the network traffic captured for the experiment. Apart from its learning and generalisation properties, the neural network engine lends the application the ability to adapt to the different network environments on which the software may be employed.
Non-Transgenic Mouse Models of Kidney Disease

Animal models are essential tools to understand the mechanisms underlying the development and progression of renal disease and to study potential therapeutic approaches. Recently, interventional models suitable to induce acute and chronic kidney disease in the mouse have become a focus of interest due to the wide availability of genetically engineered mouse lines. These models differ by their damaging mechanism (cell toxicity, immune mechanisms, surgical renal mass reduction, ischemia, hypertension, ureter obstruction etc.), functional and histomorphological phenotype and disease evolution. The susceptibility to a damaging mechanism often depends on strain and gender. The C57BL/6 strain, the most commonly used genetic background of transgenic mice, appears to be relatively resistant against developing glomerulosclerosis, proteinuria and hypertension. This review serves to provide a comprehensive overview of interventional mouse models of acute and chronic kidney disease.
CONDITIONAL ENTROPY CONSTRAINED TREE STRUCTURED VECTOR QUANTIZATION WITH APPLICATIONS TO SOURCES WITH MEMORY

An algorithm is derived for designing tree structured vector quantizers to encode sources with memory The algorithm minimizes the average distortion subject to a conditional entropy constraint and the tree structure restriction This technique called conditional entropy constrained tree structured vector quantization CECTSVQ can more e ciently exploit the source memory This work is an extension of the recent work by Balakrishnan Pearlman and Lu for the variable rate tree structured vector quantization The tree is grown by applying a rate constrained iterative splitting process to achieve the maximum attainable ratio of the decrease in the average distortion over the increase in the conditional entropy of the output of the quantizer The iterative splitting process and thus the design algorithm are shown to con verge A fast algorithm is also developed to dramatically reduce the compu tational cost while maintaining virtually the same performance as the ideal This material is based on work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No NCR The government has certain rights in this material Ligang Lu is with IBM Thomas J Watson Research Center Yorktown Heights NY lul us ibm com and William A Pearlman is with the Electrical Computer and System Engineering Department Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Troy NY pearlman ecse rpi edu algorithm Experiments on sampled speech and synthetic sources have shown that at rates under bit sample and under the square error distortion mea sure more than dB gain in the signal to quantization noise ratio SQNR can be achieved over the full search entropy constrained vector quantization ECVQ and the entropy constrained tree structured vector quantization ECTSVQ on the speech source about dB improvement over ECVQ and dB over ECTSVQ on the synthetic sources can be achieved Fur thermore in the entire tested rate range CECTSVQ can be expected to have performance very close to that of the conditional entropy constrained full search vector quantization CECVQ Index Terms Source coding vector quantization rate distortion theory tree structured vector quantization variable rate coding entropy coding conditional entropy coding