Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Automatic Musical Fountain Scenario Generation Using Musical Information Analysis

In this paper, we introduce our project the ‘Intelligent Musical Fountain Authoring System’, a system that automatically generates musical fountain scenarios by analyzing the musical information in accompanying music. The onset and beat information of the musical piece are retrieved and its musical structure is analyzed to provide temporal information through scenario generation. Then new scenarios can be generated using a Bayesian network established from sample scenarios. Though the guidance of musical information in accompanying music, musical fountain scenarios can be generated much faster than manual generation
A new species of Alastor Lepeletier de Saint-Fargeau, 1841 (Hymenoptera: Vespidae: Eumeninae) from Pakistan

A new species of the genus Alastor Lepeletier de Saint-Fargeau, 1841, namely A. laticlypeus sp. nov. , is described. This is the first record of Alastor from Pakistan. The new species shows characters intermediate between the subgenera Alastor s. str. , Megalastor Bluthgen, 1951 and Parastalor Bluthgen, 1939, placing in doubt the validity of the subgeneric division of the genus.
Transitional regions of finite Fermi systems and quantum chaos.

It is argued that phase transitions in finite systems are likely to exhibit level statistics ascribed to quantum chaos. Apparent counterexamples become chaotic under generic perturbation. The mathematical mechanism for this to occur lies in the abundance of exceptional points in the transitional region. Exceptional points are singularities in the complex \ensuremath{\lambda} plane of the spectrum ${\mathit{E}}_{\mathit{n}}$(\ensuremath{\lambda}), where \ensuremath{\lambda} is the parameter that effects the transition. Examples are given for illustration. It is shown that the quality of the mean field is unaffected outside the transitional region whether or not the transitional region is chaotic. Related properties of the eigenvectors are also discussed.
Effects of Adolescent Physical Abuse, Exposure to Neighborhood Violence, and Witnessing Parental Violence on Adult Socioeconomic Status

Research on the effects of adolescent physical abuse, witnessing domestic violence, and perceptions of community violence have generally, with few exceptions, found them to be predictive of subsequent negative behavioral outcomes, such as substance abuse, crime, and other problem behaviors. Less frequently studied is the relationship of these adverse adolescent experiences to adult socioeconomic statuses. This study utilizes longitudinal self-report data from the National Youth Survey Family Study to investigate how these three factors influence future socioeconomic statuses: marital status, educational attainment, employment, income, and wealth (net worth). Significant associations with adult socioeconomic statuses are found most often for physical abuse, but neighborhood violence is the only one of the three that is predictive of adult employment. Witnessing parental violence is associated with adult income and net worth. Limitations and policy implications of the present research, in the context of past research in this area, are considered.
Knockdown of tropomyosin‐related kinase B receptor expression in the nucleus accumbens shell prevents intermittent social defeat stress‐induced cross‐sensitization to amphetamine in rats

The nucleus accumbens (NAc) is a critical brain region for the rewarding effects of drugs of abuse. Brain‐derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) can facilitate stress‐ and drug‐induced neuroadaptation in the mesocorticolimbic system. BDNF‐containing projections to the NAc originate from the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and the prefrontal cortex, and BDNF release activates tropomyosin‐related kinase B (TrkB). In this study, we examined the necessity for BDNF‐TrkB signaling in the NAc shell during social defeat stress‐induced cross‐sensitization to amphetamine. Adeno‐associated virus expressing short hairpin RNA directed against TrkB (AAV‐shTrkB) was infused bilaterally into the NAc shell to knock down TrkB, whereas AAV‐GFP (green fluorescent protein) was used as the control virus. Rats were exposed to intermittent social defeat stress or handling procedures; amphetamine challenge was given at 10 days after the last defeat and locomotor activity was measured. Stressed rats that received the control virus showed cross‐sensitization to amphetamine compared with the handled rats. In contrast, NAc TrkB knockdown prevented social defeat stress‐induced cross‐sensitization. TrkB knockdown in the NAc was found to reduce the level of phospho‐extracellular signal‐regulated kinase 1 in this region. NAc TrkB knockdown also prevented stress‐induced elevation of BDNF and the glutamate receptor type 1 (GluA1) subunit of AMPA receptor in the VTA, as well as ΔFosB expression in the NAc. These findings indicated that BDNF‐TrkB signaling in the NAc shell was required for social defeat stress‐induced cross‐sensitization. NAc TrkB‐BDNF signaling also appeared to be involved in the regulation of GluA1 in the VTA, as well as in the NAc ΔFosB accumulation that could trigger cross‐sensitization after social defeat stress.
Dynamic Relationships between Stock Market Performance and Short Term Interest Rate - Empirical Evidence from Sri Lanka

This study examines the dynamic relationships between stock market performance and the interest rates in Sri Lanka during June 2004 to April 2011. We use all share price index in the Colombo stock exchange as a measure of stock market performance indicator and Sri Lanka interbank offer rate as a measure of interest rate. We employ some conventional time series econometric techniques namely Unit root test, cointegration test, vector auto correction model (VECM), Granger-Causality test and Impulse response functions (IRF) to trace out the relationships between stock market index and interest rate. The findings of interest include stock market performance is negatively associated with interest rate in the long run while no causal relationship is found in the short run.
French Brain Tumor DataBase: 5‐Year Histological Results on 25 756 Cases

This work aimed to prospectively record all primary central nervous system tumor (PCNST) cases in France, for which histological diagnosis is available. The objectives were to (i) create a national registry and a network to perform epidemiological studies; (ii) implement clinical and basic research protocols; and (iii) harmonize the health care of patients affected by PCNST. For 5 years, 25 756 cases of newly diagnosed and histologically confirmed PCNST have been recorded. Histological diagnoses included glioma (48.9%), all other neuroepithelial tumors (5%), meningioma (28.8%), nerve sheath tumors (8.4%), lymphoma (3.2%) and others (5.7%). Cryopreservation was reported for 6018 PCNST specimens. Tumor resections (R) were performed in 78% cases, while biopsies accounted for 22%. Median age (MA), sex, percentage R and number of cryopreserved tumors were detailed for each histology; for example, out of 6053 glioblastomas (MA 63 years, male 59.4%, R 62%, 1611 were cryopreserved), and out of 37 atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumors (MA 2 years, male 56.8%, R 94%, 17 were cryopreserved). This database or databank dedicated to PCNST cases contains detailed data on clinical, histological and other characteristics, such as the inclusion of data on cryopreserved specimens that are not available in other European registries. Therefore, this is a valuable resource that can be used for planning future epidemiological and clinical research.
Fog Networking: An Overview on Research Opportunities

The past 15 years have seen the rise of the Cloud, along with rapid increase in Internet backbone traffic and more sophisticated cellular core networks. There are three different types of Clouds: (1) data center, (2) backbone IP network and (3) cellular core network, responsible for computation, storage, communication and network management. Now the functions of these three types of Clouds are descending to be among or near the end users, i.e., to the edge of networks, as Fog. This article presents an overview on research opportunities of Fog networking: an architecture that users one or a collaborative multitude of end-user clients or near-user edge devices to carry out a substantial amount of storage, communication and management. Architecture allocates functionalities, while engineering artifacts that may use a Fog architecture include 5G, home/personal networking, and the Internet of Things.
Generation of Tn5 insertions in streptococcal conjugative transposon Tn916

A method has been developed for the introduction of Tn5 into Escherichia coli plasmid chimeras containing Streptococcus faecalis DNA. Tn5 could be introduced via a lambda::Tn5 delivery vehicle. The system proved to be particularly efficient and facilitated insertions at numerous sites on DNA containing the 16-kilobase conjugative transposon Tn916. It was possible to introduce some of the resulting Tn916::Tn5 derivatives back into S. faecalis by using a recently developed protoplast transformation procedure. A presumed zygotic induction resulted in insertion of the Tn916 derivatives at multiple sites in the S. faecalis chromosome.
Diminished Cognitive Function Among Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Patients During Periods of Acute Illness Exacerbation.

Adults with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are known to experience more rapid declines in cognitive function over time than adults without the disease (1). It is not known, however, how their cognitive functioning changes in the context of acute COPD exacerbations, when they may be exposed to conditions that often disrupt cognitive processes, like hypoxemia, high dose steroids, and altered sleep-wake cycles. In this study, we evaluated change in cognitive function during and after COPD-related hospitalizations.
Discovery and identification of serum potential biomarkers for pulmonary tuberculosis using iTRAQ‐coupled two‐dimensional LC‐MS/MS

Pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis is a chronic disease. Currently, there are no sufficiently validated biomarkers for early diagnosis of TB infection. In this study, a panel of potential serum biomarkers was identified between patients with pulmonary TB and healthy controls by using iTRAQ‐coupled 2D LC‐MS/MS technique. Among 100 differentially expressed proteins screened, 45 proteins were upregulated (>1.25‐fold at p < 0.05) and 55 proteins were downregulated (<0.8‐fold at p < 0.05) in the TB serum. Bioinformatics analysis revealed that the differentially expressed proteins were related to the response to stimulus, the metabolic and immune system processes. The significantly differential expression of apolipoprotein CII (APOCII), CD5 antigen‐like (CD5L), hyaluronan‐binding protein 2 (HABP2), and retinol‐binding protein 4 (RBP4) was further confirmed using immunoblotting and ELISA analysis. By forward stepwise multivariate regression analysis, a panel of serum biomarkers including APOCII, CD5L, and RBP4 was obtained to form the disease diagnostic model. The receiver operation characteristic curve of the diagnostic model was 0.98 (sensitivity = 93.42%, specificity = 92.86%). In conclusion, APOCII, CD5L, HABP2, and RBP4 may be potential protein biomarkers of pulmonary TB. Our research provides useful data for early diagnosis of TB.
A differentiation in RNA response in neurons early and late during learning.

The following paper will discuss RNA changes in the brain correlated with changes in early and late behavior during the course of a learning process. Quantitative RNA changes and base ratio alterations found in neurons, nuclei of neurons, and in glia in those parts of the brain which are engaged in the new response to be estab-lished serve as the biochemical basis for the discussion. An increasing interest in problems related to and biological memory is observed in recent literature. with that obtained by conventional macrochemical electrophoretic separations. The analysis of nucleo-lar and ribosomal RNA of mature starfish o6cytes gave the same results with both methods.8 In model experiments on purified samples of RNA, the correspondence between macro- and microelectrophoresis is clear.9 The advantage of microelectrophoresis over macroelectrophoresis is the possibility of analyzing samples at the cellular level. This has proved to be a sine qua non for nervous tissue since its two cellular components, neurons and glia, differ in amount and composition of RNA. Even if as little as 10-6 gm of "gray matter" is taken, such a sample probably contains more glia than parts of neurons.5 In the handedness experiments, 88 rats were used for the analysis of 14,000 cortical cells. In the balancing experiments, 12,000 nerve cells were analyzed from 78 rats.
The oral and written side of word production in young and older adults: generation of lexical neighbors

ABSTRACT The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of aging on both spoken and written word production by using analogous tasks. To do so, a phonological neighbor generation task (Experiment 1) and an orthographic neighbor generation task (Experiment 2) were designed. In both tasks, young and older participants were given a word and had to generate as many words as they could think of by changing one phoneme in the target word (Experiment 1) or one letter in the target word (Experiment 2). The data of the two experiments were consistent, showing that the older adults generated fewer lexical neighbors and made more errors than the young adults. For both groups, the number of words produced, as well as their lexical frequency, decreased as a function of time. These data strongly support the assumption of a symmetrical age-related decline in the transmission of activation within the phonological and orthographic systems.
Dirigent Proteins from Cotton (Gossypium sp.) for the Atropselective Synthesis of Gossypol.

Gossypol is a defense compound in cotton plants for protection against pests and pathogens. Gossypol biosynthesis involves the oxidative coupling of hemigossypol and results in two atropisomers owing to hindered rotation around the central binaphthyl bond. (+)-Gossypol predominates in vivo, thus suggesting stereochemically controlled biosynthesis. The aim was to identify the factors mediating (+)-gossypol formation in cotton and to investigate their potential for asymmetric biaryl synthesis. A dirigent protein from Gossypium hirsutum (GhDIR4) was found to confer atropselectivity to the coupling of hemigossypol in presence of laccase and O2 as an oxidizing agent. (+)-Gossypol was obtained in greater than 80% enantiomeric excess compared to racemic gossypol in the absence of GhDIR4. The identification of GhDIR4 highlights a broader role for DIRs in plant secondary metabolism and may eventually lead to the development of DIRs as tools for the synthesis of axially chiral binaphthyls.
Photosynthetic and biochemical characterization of in vitro-derived African violet (Saintpaulia ionantha H. Wendl) plants to ex vitro conditions

African violet (Saintpaulia ionantha H. Wendl) is one of the most easily and commonly tissue-cultured ornamental plants. Despite this, there are limited reports on photosynthetic capacity and its impact on the plant quality during acclimatization. Various growth, photosynthetic and biochemical parameters and activities of antioxidant enzymes and dehydrins of micropropagated plants were assessed under three light intensities (35, 70, and 100 µmol m−2 s−1 photosynthetic photon flux density – PPFD). Fresh and dry plant biomass, plant height, and leaf area were optimal with high irradiance (70–100 µmol m−2 s−1 PPFD). Chlorophyll and carotenoid contents and net photosynthesis were optimal in plants grown under 70 µmol m−2 s−1 PPFD. Stomatal resistance, malondialdehyde content, and Fv/Fm values were highest at low light irradiance (35 µmol m−2 s−1 PPFD). The activities of three antioxidant enzymes, superoxide dismutase, catalase, and glutathione peroxidase, increased as light irradiance increased, signaling that high light irradiance was an abiotic stress. The accumulation of 55, 33, and 25 kDa dehydrins was observed with all light treatments although the expression levels were highest at 35 µmol m−2 s−1 PPFD. Irradiance at 70 µmol m−2 s−1 PPFD was suitable for the acclimatization of African violet plants. Both low and high irradiance levels (35 and 100 µmol m−2 s−1 PPFD) induced the accumulation of antioxidants and dehydrins in plants which reveals enhanced stress levels and measures to counter it.
Attitude tracking control for hypersonic vehicles based on type-2 fuzzy dynamic characteristic modeling method

It is obvious that the highly nonlinear nature of dynamic behavior in hypersonic vehicle system impose very challenging obstacles to the controller design. In this paper, we discuss the design of a novel type-2 fuzzy dynamic characteristic modeling method to attitude tracking control problem for hypersonic vehicles in gilding phase. The type-2 (T2) fuzzy logic is introduced into the characteristic modeling (CM) method. Unlike the traditional fuzzy dynamic modeling method normally with a fixed local linear model in every fuzzy subspace, our approach performs CM in subspace, which actually can handle the nonlinearity well while reducing the number of fuzzy rules. After dividing the whole restriction region into several subspaces, the whole nonlinear system can be regarded as a T2 fuzzy “blending” of each individual characteristic model. Then this novel T2 fuzzy logic system modelled by decomposition of a complex nonlinear system into a collection of local CMs, can overcome the deficiencies of traditional fuzzy dynamic modeling and CM approaches. Therefore, it can achieve a better trade-off between tracking accuracy and convergence efficiency in the controller design for hypersonic vehicles. Simulation results under the conditions of certainty and uncertainty are given to show the effectiveness of the novel method for the attitude tracking control of hypersonic vehicles in gilding phase.
A 1.9-GHz DECT CMOS power amplifier with fully integrated multilayer LTCC passives

We present the first demonstration of a CMOS power amplifier (PA) utilizing fully integrated multilayer low-temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) high-Q passives for 1.9-GHz digital European cordless telecommunications (DECT) applications. The inductor and capacitor library were built in a multilayer LTCC board using a compact topology. An inductor Q-factor as high as 100 with a self-resonant frequency (SRF) as high as 8 GHz was demonstrated. Measured results of the CMOS-LTCC PA show good agreement with the simulated results exhibiting 48% power added efficiency, 26-dBm output power and 17-dB gain at 1.9 GHz with a 3.3-V drain supply voltage. This result is the first significant step toward a compact DECT transceiver module development utilizing fully integrated multilayer LTCC passives and a standard CMOS technology.
Sexual selection predicts advancement of avian spring migration in response to climate change

Global warming has led to earlier spring arrival of migratory birds, but the extent of this advancement varies greatly among species, and it remains uncertain to what degree these changes are phenotypically plastic responses or microevolutionary adaptations to changing environmental conditions. We suggest that sexual selection could help to understand this variation, since early spring arrival of males is favoured by female choice. Climate change could weaken the strength of natural selection opposing sexual selection for early migration, which would predict greatest advancement in species with stronger female choice. We test this hypothesis comparatively by investigating the degree of long-term change in spring passage at two ringing stations in northern Europe in relation to a synthetic estimate of the strength of female choice, composed of degree of extra-pair paternity, relative testes size and degree of sexually dichromatic plumage colouration. We found that species with a stronger index of sexual selection have indeed advanced their date of spring passage to a greater extent. This relationship was stronger for the changes in the median passage date of the whole population than for changes in the timing of first-arriving individuals, suggesting that selection has not only acted on protandrous males. These results suggest that sexual selection may have an impact on the responses of organisms to climate change, and knowledge of a species' mating system might help to inform attempts at predicting these.
Development of next-generation system-on-package (SOP) technology based on silicon carriers with fine-pitch chip interconnection

System-on-Package (SOP) technology based on silicon carriers has the potential to provide modular design flexibility and high-performance integration of heterogeneous chip technologies and to support robust chip manufacturing with high-yield/low-cost chips for a wide range of two- and three-dimensional product applications. Key technology enablers include silicon through-vias, high-density wiring, high-I/O chip interconnection, and supporting test and assembly technologies. The silicon through-vias are a key feature permitting efficient area array signal, power, and ground interconnection through these thinned silicon packages. High-density wiring and high-density chip I/O interconnection can enable tight integration of heterogeneous chip technologies which approximate the performance of an integrated system-on-chip with a "virtual chip" using the silicon package for integration. Silicon carrier fabrication leverages existing manufacturing capability and mid-UV lithography to provide very dense package wiring following CMOS back-end-of-line design rules. Further, the thermal expansion of the silicon carrier package matches the chip, which helps maintain reliability even as the high-density chip microbump interconnections scale to smaller size. In addition to heterogeneous chip integration, SOP products may leverage the integration of passive components, active devices, and electro-optic structures to enhance system-level performance while also maintaining functional test capability and known good chips when needed. This paper describes the technical challenges and recent progress made in the development of silicon carrier technology for potential new applications.
Assisting Mouse Pointer Recovery in Multi-Display Environments

Recovering the mouse pointer in a multi-display environment after it got lost, e.g., because the user shifted his or her visual attention to another task, can be very annoying and frustrating. The reason is that the user has to oversee a large display space requiring sequential sampling actions. These actions consume psycho-physiological effort for moving the eyes and head around, and increase the time needed to recover the mouse pointer. In this paper, we present an assistant system to support users to recover their mouse pointers in multi-display environments. A preliminary user study showed no significant improvement of mouse pointer recovery time, but usability and satisfaction were assessed positive. This work was carried out as part of a course on human-machine interaction at the University of Oldenburg.