Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Structural Alterations in a Component of Cytochrome c Oxidase and Molecular Evolution of Pathogenic Neisseria in Humans

Three closely related bacterial species within the genus Neisseria are of importance to human disease and health. Neisseria meningitidis is a major cause of meningitis, while Neisseria gonorrhoeae is the agent of the sexually transmitted disease gonorrhea and Neisseria lactamica is a common, harmless commensal of children. Comparative genomics have yet to yield clear insights into which factors dictate the unique host-parasite relationships exhibited by each since, as a group, they display remarkable conservation at the levels of nucleotide sequence, gene content and synteny. Here, we discovered two rare alterations in the gene encoding the CcoP protein component of cytochrome cbb 3 oxidase that are phylogenetically informative. One is a single nucleotide polymorphism resulting in CcoP truncation that acts as a molecular signature for the species N. meningitidis. We go on to show that the ancestral ccoP gene arose by a unique gene duplication and fusion event and is specifically and completely distributed within species of the genus Neisseria. Surprisingly, we found that strains engineered to express either of the two CcoP forms conditionally differed in their capacity to support nitrite-dependent, microaerobic growth mediated by NirK, a nitrite reductase. Thus, we propose that changes in CcoP domain architecture and ensuing alterations in function are key traits in successive, adaptive radiations within these metapopulations. These findings provide a dramatic example of how rare changes in core metabolic proteins can be connected to significant macroevolutionary shifts. They also show how evolutionary change at the molecular level can be linked to metabolic innovation and its reversal as well as demonstrating how genotype can be used to infer alterations of the fitness landscape within a single host.
Expressive speech synthesis: synthesising ambiguity

Previous work in HCI has shown that ambiguity, normally avoided in interaction design, can contribute to a user's engagement by increasing interest and uncertainty. In this work, we create and evaluate synthetic utterances where there is a conflict between text content, and the emotion in the voice. We show that: 1) text content measurably alters the negative/positive perception of a spoken utterance, 2) changes in voice quality also produce this effect, 3) when the voice quality and text content are conflicting the result is a synthe-sised ambiguous utterance. Results were analysed using an evalu-ation/activation space. Whereas the effect of text content was restricted to the negative/positive dimension (valence), voice quality also had a significant effect on how active or passive the utterance was perceived (activation).
Performance analysis of transmit diversity in multiuser data networks with fading correlation

This paper studies the performance of multiuser data networks with transmit diversity under correlated fading channels. Previous work shows that correlated fading reduces the link performance of multiple antenna systems, but how correlated fading affects the throughput of multiuser data networks is still unknown since the throughput depends not only on the link performance but also on the multiuser diversity. We derive the throughput of the multiuser data networks with various transmit diversity schemes under correlated fading channels. The impact of correlated fading on the throughput is investigated. Analytical and simulation results show that, although correlated fading is harmful for link performance, it increases the throughput of the multiuser data networks if the transmit scheme is appropriately selected.
A new motion-compensated reduced-order model Kalman filter for space-varying restoration of progressive and interlaced video

We propose a new approach for motion-compensated, reduced order model Kalman filtering for restoration of progressive and interlaced video. In the case of interlaced inputs, the proposed filter also performs deinterlacing. In contrast to the literature, both motion-compensation and reduced-order state modeling are achieved by augmenting the observation equation, as opposed to modifying the state-transition equation. The proposed modeling, which includes the two-dimensional (2-D) reduced order model Kalman filtering (ROMKF) of Angwin and Kaufman as a special case, results in significant performance improvement in fixed-lag Kalman filtering of space-varying blurred images. This is demonstrated by experimental results.
Quantization of compressed sensing measurements using Analysis-by-Synthesis with Bayesian-optimal Approximate Message Passing

Compressed sensing allows for stable reconstruction of sparse source vectors from noisy, linear measurement vectors of much lower dimension than the source vectors. In many applications, low-bit rate quantization is unavoidable or even desired in further processing of the signal, and suitable algorithms need to be developed for minimizing negative effects on the recovered source signal due to the quantization of the measurements. We present an Analysis-by-Synthesis (AbS) quantization scheme in which, as a novelty, Bayesian-optimal Approximate Message Passing (BAMP) is used as a reconstruction algorithm. The focus is on source signals that can be modeled by a linear combination of a discrete component and a zero-mean Gaussian component; for those signals suitable estimation functions are given for use in the BAMP algorithm. We investigate different setups of the AbS scheme with BAMP and compare the results with an AbS scheme known from the literature, in which Orthogonal Matching Pursuit is used as the reconstruction algorithm.
A Controlled Study on the Correlation between Tear Film Volume and Tear Film Stability in Diabetic Patients

Purpose. To assess the tear film quantity and correlate it with the quality and stability of the tear film in diabetics and compare them to age matched controls. Introduction. Diabetes affects tear film parameters in multiple ways. Poor metabolic control and neuropathy are postulated factors. To further understand how diabetes affects tear film parameters this study was conducted. Subjects and Methods. Tear meniscus height was measured by anterior segment OCT, along with tear thinning time, a subtype of noninvasive tear break-up time, and blinking rate per minute which were all recorded for 22 diabetic patients. Correlations between these tear film parameters were studied and then compared to 16 age matched controls. Results. A statistically significant difference was found in blinking rate between the diabetic and the control group (P = 0.002), with higher blinking rate among diabetics. All tear film parameters were negatively correlated with duration of diabetes. A positive correlation was found between tear film volume and stability. Conclusion. Diabetes affects the tear film in various ways. Diabetics should be examined for dry eye signs even in absence of symptoms which may be masked by associated neuropathy. Duration of diabetes has an impact on tear film status.
Globalization and Income Inequality Revisited

This paper re-examines the link between globalization and income inequality. We use data for 140 countries over the period 1970-2014 and employ an IV approach to deal with the endogeneity of globalization measures. We find that the link between globalization and income inequality differs across different groups of countries. There is a robust positive relationship between globalization and inequality in the transition countries including China and most countries of Middle and Eastern Europe. In the sample of the most advanced economies, neither OLS nor 2SLS results show any significant positive relationship between globalization and inequality. We conclude that institutions providing income insurance and education, which characterize most advanced economies but are less developed in transition economies, may have moderated effects of globalization on income inequality.
Randomized Trial of Atorvastatin for Reduction of Myocardial Damage During Coronary Intervention: Results From the ARMYDA (Atorvastatin for Reduction of MYocardial Damage during Angioplasty) Study

Background—Small myocardial infarctions after percutaneous coronary intervention have been associated with higher risk of cardiac events during follow-up. Observational studies have suggested that statins may lower the risk of procedural myocardial injury. The aim of our study was to confirm this hypothesis in a randomized study. Methods and Results—One hundred fifty-three patients with chronic stable angina without previous statin treatment were enrolled in the study. Patients scheduled for elective coronary intervention were randomized to atorvastatin (40 mg/d, n=76) or placebo (n=77) 7 days before the procedure. Creatine kinase-MB, troponin I, and myoglobin levels were measured at baseline and at 8 and 24 hours after the procedure. Detection of markers of myocardial injury above the upper normal limit was significantly lower in the statin group versus the placebo group: 12% versus 35% for creatine kinase-MB (P=0.001), 20% versus 48% for troponin I (P=0.0004), and 22% versus 51% for myoglobin (P=0.0005). Myocardial infarction by creatine kinase-MB determination was detected after coronary intervention in 5% of patients in the statin group and in 18% of those in the placebo group (P=0.025). Postprocedural peak levels of creatine kinase-MB (2.9±3 versus 7.5±18 ng/mL, P=0.007), troponin I (0.09±0.2 versus 0.47±1.3 ng/mL, P=0.0008), and myoglobin (58±36 versus 81±49 ng/mL, P=0.0002) were also significantly lower in the statin than in the placebo group. Conclusions—Pretreatment with atorvastatin 40 mg/d for 7 days significantly reduces procedural myocardial injury in elective coronary intervention. These results may influence practice patterns with regard to adjuvant pharmacological therapy before percutaneous revascularization.
Object Segmentation and Tracking in 3 D Video With Sparse Depth Information Using a Fully Connected CRF Model

This project extends the most state-of-the-art technique for multiclass image segmentation [1] to a technique that incorporates geometric and temporal data for multi-class segmentation and tracking of unknown classes of objects. Previous video rate segmentation techniques only achieve fast performance with considerably lower accuracy by reducing the density of pairwise connected graphs. This has been done using hierarchical region-level models or pixel-level models with connectivity limited to nearest neighbors. A fully connected CRF model over the complete set of all pixels results in billions of connections and has therefore been impractical to segment before now. Using this new technique which defines edge potentials as a linear combination of Gaussian Kernels, it is possible to approximate the segmentation of a fully connected CRF in a fraction of a second. This project extends the core algorithm to incorporate sparse geometric features from a laser scanner into the segmentation. It also provides some tracking capabilities for the segmented objects.
A highly scalable dense linear system solver for multiple right-hand sides in data analytics

We describe PP-BCG, a parallel iterative solver for the solution of dense and symmetric positive-definite linear systems with multiple right-hand sides suitable for MPPs. Such linear systems appear in the context of stochastic estimation of the diagonal of the matrix inverse in Uncertainty Quantification and the trace of matrix products in statistical analysis. We propose a novel numerical scheme based on the block Conjugate Gradient algorithm combined with Galerkin projections and describe its implementation. We test the method on model covariance matrices from uncertainty quantification, where the solution of the linear systems is typically used to estimate the diagonal of the matrix inverse. Numerical experiments on an MPP illustrate the performance of the proposed scheme in terms of efficiency and convergence rate, as well as its effectiveness relative to block Conjugate Gradient and the Cholesky-based ScaLAPACK solver. In particular, on a 4 rack BG/Q with up to 65536 cores using dense matrices of order as high as 0.5×10 and 800 rhs, PP-BCG is 2-3 times faster. Keywords-Linear systems, multiple right-hand sides, block Conjugate Gradient, Galerkin projections, distributed memory environments, uncertainty quantification
A simple two-sided market model with side-payments and ISP service classes

We consider a simple two-sided market model of an Internet Service (access) Provider (ISP) and Content Provider (CP, over commodity Internet access) on a platform of user-demand. Though the model does not consider provider competition and resource congestion, it does consider advertising revenue, multiple ISP service classes, separate price sensitives for each provider type, and side-payments from CP to ISP [16]. We argue that side-payments are effectively in play even under network-neutrality regulations owing to considerations in Service-Level Agreements (SLAs) of asymmetries in traffic aggregates at boundaries (NNIs) between eyeball ISPs and transit ISPs, the latter serving the CPs remote to the eyeball ISPs. Finally, we consider a game between content providers based on “managed” and commodity-Internet-access services.
Some Hermite--Hadamard type inequalities for the product of two operator preinvex functions

In this paper we introduce operator preinvex functions and es- tablish a Hermite-Hadamard type inequality for such functions. We give an estimate of the right hand side of a Hermite-Hadamard type inequality in which some operator preinvex functions of selfadjoint operators in Hilbert spaces are involved. Also some Hermite-Hadamard type inequalities for the product of two operator preinvex functions are given.
Evaluation of Climate Change on Drought Impulses in Thessaly , Greece

The impacts of various climate change scenarios on drought impulses were evaluated to provide a framework for sustainable water resources management in the region of Thessaly, Greece. Thessaly was divided into twelve hydrological sub-basins and monthly precipitation data from 50 stations were used for the estimation of sub-basin mean areal precipitation. The Canadian Centre for Climate Modeling Analysis General Circulation Model (CGCMa2) has been used to estimate the precipitation changes for the periods 2020-2050 and 2070-2100 and for three climate change scenarios (IS92a, SRES A2, SRES B2). The “delta” method was employed for the downscaling of precipitation. The Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) computed at various time scales was used as an indicator of meteorological drought for present and future climate conditions. Comparison of the drought characteristics for the historical period (1960-1990) and the future periods indicated that the drought intensity, duration and severity increases for the three examined climate change scenarios. Furthermore, analysis of two historical drought periods has shown that frequent, extreme and spatially extended droughts would be expected in future.
Waste Stream Treatment and Waste Form Fabrication for Pyroprocessing of Used Nuclear Fuel

iii INTENTIONALLY BLANK . Error! Bookmark not defined. ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS . ix 1. INTRODUCTION . 1 1.1 Pyroprocessing of Used Oxide Nuclear Fuel . 2 1.2 Pyroprocessing Waste Streams . 3 1.2.1 Hardware . 4 1.2.2 Cladding Hulls . 4 1.2.3 Off-Gas Filter Media . 5 1.2. 4 Waste Salt . 5 1.2. 5 Undissolved Solids . 6 2. WASTE TREATMENT PROCESSES . 7 2.1 Off-gas Treatment . 7 2.2 Cladding Hull Treatment . 9 2.2.1 Cladding Hull Treatment by Chlorination . 9 2.2.2 Cladding Hull Treatment by Electrorefining . 11 2.3 Waste Salt Minimization . 14 2.3.1 Melt Crystallization. 14 2.3.2 Selective Distillation . 16 2.3.3 Selective Reaction (Precipitation) . 18 3. PYROPROCESSING WASTE FORMS . 20 3.1 ANL Developed EBR-II Waste Forms . 20 3.1.1 Ceramic Waste Form . 20 3.1.2 Metal Waste Form . 22 3.2 KAERI Developed Waste Forms . 23 3.2.1 SAP . 24 3.2.2 Ln Waste Form . 27 3.3 PNNL Developed Waste Forms . 28 3.3.1 Tellurite Glass . 28 3.3.2 Solution-Based Sodalite . 31 3.3.3 Lanthanide Borosilicate glass . 32 4. WASTE FORM PERFORMANCE. 34 4.1 Performance of Glass Waste Forms . 36 4.2 Performance of Glass-Ceramic Waste Forms . 37 4.3 Performance of Metallic Waste Forms . 41 4.4 Experimental Approach . 42 5. INTEGRATED RECYCLE TEST – WASTE STUDIES . 43 5.1 Integrated Recycle Test . 43 5.2 IRT Phase III Waste Stream Treatment . 45
Sunflower ( Helianthus annuus L . ) germplasm evaluation for drought tolerance

Future climate changes are expected to increase risks of drought, which already represent the most common stress factor for sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) production throughout the world. It is important, therefore, to evaluate genotypes for this stress. Our objective was to study yield and yield-related traits under irrigated and drought conditions in 56 sunflower genotypes of different origin and growth habit. A wide range of intraspecific genetic variability was present in sunflower, which could be used to develop new genotypes, more adapted to drought conditions. The highest level of tolerance was present in local genotypes. Among restorers, the highest level of tolerance was present in RL-57 (Pakistan), whereas an exotic restorer F-Yu-82 (Spain) showed the highest yield, along with high drought susceptibility index. Inbred line ORI-9/B (Pakistan) was identified as the most tolerant line combined with low yield potential, whereas AMES-10107 and AMES-10103 (China) were found to be moderately drought-tolerant lines with highest yield. Selection among segregating progeny from hybridization among lines with good drought tolerance with lines of good yield potential may lead to the development of superior inbred lines.
A new paradigm for general architecture routing

The interest in alternatives to traditional Manhattan routing has increased tremendously during recent years. The so-called Y- and X-architectures have been proposed as architectures of the future. Manhattan, Y- and X-architectures are special cases of a general architecture in which a fixed set of uniformly oriented directions is allowed. In this paper we present a new paradigm for routing in this general architecture. The routing algorithm is based on a concept of flexibility polygons for Steiner minimum trees --- a new way of describing the inherent flexibility of Steiner trees in uniform orientation metrics. Flexibility polygons characterize possible routing regions for the nets while keeping their netlength at a minimum. The proposed routing algorithm first routes nets that intersect highly congested areas of the chip --- as given by the flexibility polygons --- and then employs dynamic maze (liquid) routing. Experiments with industrial chips show great promise for this new routing paradigm.
2-D Model-Based Human Body Tracking

Visual tracking of human body movement is a key technology in a number of areas. In this paper we present a 2-D model-based method of human body tracking from a monocular video sequence. Morris & Rehg put forward a 2-D Scaled Prismatic Model (SPM) for figure registration which has far fewer singularity problems than 3-D models. Here we extend it in a 2-D cardboard human body model with additional one DOF of width change. We set up a mixture motion model for body movements and then solve body motion parameters using EM in a statistical framework, where the model-based kinematic constraints are incorporated in a linear form. Tracking results from real video sequences are encouraging.
The mining of fuzzy gradient in the case of materialized cube

The mining of cube gradient is a new research problem in the data mining community. It is an extension of the traditional association rules mining in the data cube and its purpose is to mine the changes of measures in a multidimensional space. However, previous works explore for cube gradients with raw number, and the semantics of the changes of cube gradients, such as high or low, are not clear and those are not easy to be understood for the decision makers. In this paper, the fuzzy gradient mining problem with fuzzy constraint sets is presented. The mining algorithm, MFG, for the problem in the case of materialized cube is presented. In MFG, the condensed cube technology is used to reduce the searching space of the mining algorithm. The performance tests based on the synthesized data sets show the mining algorithm is effective and scalable with the fuzzy constraint sets
Insulin-like growth factor-I receptor signalling and acquired resistance to gefitinib ( ZD 1839 ; Iressa ) in human breast and prostate cancer cells

De novo and acquired resistance to the anti-tumour drug gefitinib (ZD1839; Iressa), a specific epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) has been reported. We have determined whether signalling through the IGF-I receptor (IGF-1R) pathway plays a role in the gefitinib-acquired resistance phenotype. Continuous exposure of EGFR-positive MCF-7-derived tamoxifen resistant breast cancer cells (TAM-R) to 1 mM gefitinib resulted in a sustained growth inhibition (90%) for 4 months before the surviving cells resumed proliferation. A stable gefitinibresistant subline (TAM/TKI-R) was established after a further 2 months and this showed no detectable basal phosphorylated EGFR activity. Compared with the parental TAM-R cells, the TAM/ TKI-R cells demonstrated (a) elevated levels of activated IGF-1R, AKT and protein kinase C (PKC)d, (b) an increased sensitivity to growth inhibition by the IGF-1R TKI AG1024 and (c) an increased migratory capacity that was reduced by AG1024 treatment. Similarly, the EGFR-positive androgen-independent human prostate cancer cell line DU145 was also continuously challenged with 1mM gefitinib and, although substantial growth inhibition (60%) was seen initially, a gefitinibresistant variant (DU145/TKI-R) developed after 3 months. Like their breast cancer counterparts, the DU145/TKI-R cells showed increases in the levels of components of the IGF-1R signalling pathway and an elevated sensitivity to growth inhibition by AG1024 compared with the parent DU145 cell line. Additionally, DU145/TKI-R cell migration was also decreased by this inhibitor. We have therefore concluded that in breast and prostate cancer cells acquired resistance to gefitinib is associated with increased signalling via the IGF-1R pathway, which also plays a role in the invasive capacity of the gefitinib-resistant phenotype. Endocrine-Related Cancer (2004) 11 793–814
DYNAMIC PRICING AND REPLENISHMENT IN A PRODUCTION-INVENTORY SYSTEM WITH MARKOV-MODULATED DEMAND Submitted to Naval Research Logistics , September 2004

We consider dynamic pricing and replenishment decisions for a production/inventory system modeled by a make-to-stock queue. The potential customer demand is generated by a MarkovModulated (environment-dependent) Poisson process and the actual demand depends on the price offered at the time of the transaction. Using a Markov Decision Process framework, we obtain results on the structure of the optimal replenishment and pricing policies. We also carry out a numerical study in order to assess the potential benefits of dynamic pricing in different situations. Our results indicate that dynamic pricing is potentially more beneficial in a fluctuating demand environment.
Comparison of Techniques for Environment / Application Adaptation in a Telephony Context

Model adaptation is a key point to have reliable speech recognizers for practical applications. In this article, we recall the main adaptation techniques: Maximum a Posteriori and MLLR Adaptation. We emphasize the sources of knowledge they use and show how to take them into account; for MLLR a data-driven clustering procedure is presented: a Gaussian tree is built at training time; based on this tree and adaptation data, the clusters for adaptation are chosen. We report experiments on field data that show the efficiency of adaptation techniques both in supervised and unsupervised mode in practical telephony applications.