Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Low loss terahertz Planar Goubau Line on high resistivity silicon substrate

Improvement of THz waveguides with reduced losses has seen a rapid progress in the recent years. Among designs with the low loss, Planar Goubau Line have been designed and fabricated on high resistivity silicon substrate. In this contribution, we discuss two kinds of Planar Goubau lines: rectangular cross section line for low loss transmission and corrugated line in order to slow down and confine the electromagnetic waves. Moreover, in this paper we present our low-loss waveguides and focus mainly on the influence of strip width and the length of the PGL on the S-parameters. The measured loss at 210 GHz is 2.5 dB. This value of loss could be tuned depending on certain parameters such as length, width of the rectangular cross section, the dimension of the coplanar waveguide transition or the thickness of the silicon substrate, etc. At the end of this communication, we show an example of the corrugated PGL that could be used first to confine and to slow down the electromagnetic propagation, and second to be a candidate for a filter application in the THz domain.
Does the Institutionalization of Derivatives Trading Spur Economic Growth?

It is a widespread view that derivatives played a crucial role during the recent financial and economic crisis. This opinion manifested in headlines such as “Why Derivatives Caused Financial Crisis” and derivatives have been termed “Financial Weapons of Mass Destruction”. However, the analysis of the role of derivatives in the economy requires a much more differentiated discussion as the statements given above imply. In this paper we analyze the effect of institutionalization of derivatives trading on economic growth and economic growth volatility; measuring growth in GDP per capita. The relationship between the institutionalization of derivatives trading and economic growth is investigated by using a panel data set comprising of 45 countries observed over 39 years. Our results show a statistically and economically significant positive effect of the establishment and existence of a domestic derivatives exchange on economic growth. These results are robust to different model specifications and to controlling for financial reforms. The effect of institutionalized derivatives trading on growth volatility is analyzed by means of an EGARCH model and is found to be negative and significant.
Stand composition and structure across a changing hydrologic gradient: Jean Lafitte National Park, Louisiana, USA

We report the results of an intensive study of forest structure and composition across a 1.4-m elevation gradient from the top of a natural levee into the backswamp of Bayou Des Familles, Jean Lafitte National Park, Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, USA. At the southernmost edge of the great bottomland hardwood forest of the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley (LMAV), forests of the Bayou Barataria-Des Familles distributary are undergoing rapid subsidence with resulting increased flood frequency, depth, and duration. We used data from a 4.6-ha permanently marked plot to examine patterns of distribution and regeneration in forest trees. Non-metric multidimensional scaling ordination of 23 quadrats (20×100 m) from this plot showed variation in forest composition across this 1.4-m elevation gradient corresponding to bottomland hardwood forest Zones III (semipermanently flooded) through V (temporarily flooded). A comparison of the size-frequency distributions of common species in upper, middle, and lower sectors of the gradient revealed deficient and poor recruitment in Quercus virginiana, Acer negundo, Celtis laevigata, and Salix nigra and episodic regeneration in Liquidambar styraciflua, Taxodium distichum, and Quercus nuttallii. Recruitment of the exotic species, Sapium sebiferum, is occurring at the low end of the gradient, as well as in canopy gaps throughout the gradient. Logistic regressions of sapling (<10 cm dbh) and tree (>-10 cm dbh) size classes as a function of elevation showed that saplings of L. styraciflua, Q. nigra, and U. americana occur at higher elevations than do adult trees of the same species, evidence of the rate of hydrologic change in this forest. A fourth species, Acer rubrum, resprouts vigorously under rising water levels and may be an effective competitor with more light-demanding, flood-tolerant species at low elevations.
Distributed Test System based on LXI Bus

LXI is a new modularization instruments platform standard for automation test system based on Ethernet LAN after GPIB, VXI, PXI instrumentation bus. A type of LXI Distributed test system architecture was given out based on the development of instrumentation bus, LXI bus system structure and main characteristics, then compared and analyzed Drive command triggering, Network news triggering, IEEE-1588 clock synchronization triggering and the LXI triggering bus four kinds of different synchronization test strategies, the appropriate choice may carry on according to the triggering accuracy requirements, test object far and near, the dispersion degree. Finally, the reliability of the system is further analyzed through the application examples of the system.
Arginine catabolism by Treponema denticola

Treponema denticola, an anaerobe commonly present in the human mouth, ferments various amino acids and glucose. Amino acid analyses indicated that substrate amounts of arginine were utilized by T. denticola growing in a complex, serum-containing medium. Cell suspensions metabolized L-arginine to citrulline, NH3, CO2, proline, and small amounts of ornithine. CO2, NH3, ornithine, and proline were produced from L-citrulline by cell suspensions. Determinations of radioactivity in products formed from L-[U-14C]ornithine indicated that cell suspensions converted this amino acid to proline. Furthermore, proline was excreted by cells growing in a complex, arginine-containing medium. Arginine iminohydrolase (deiminase) and ornithine carbamoyltransferase activities were detected in T. denticola cell extracts. Carbamoylphosphate dissimilation by extracts yielded adenosine triphosphate. The data indicate that T. denticola derives energy by dissimilating L-argine via the arginine iminohydrolase pathway. However, unlike some of the other bacteria that utilize this pathway, T. denticola converts to proline much of the ornithine derived from L-arginine.
Conformational Space of a Polyphilic Molecule with a Fluorophilic Side Chain Integrated in a DPPC Bilayer

We investigate the conformational space of a polyphilic molecule with hydrophilic, lipophilic and fluorophilic parts inserted as a transmembrane agent into a dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine bilayer by means of all‐atom molecular dynamics simulations. Special focus is put on the competing structural driving forces arising from the hydrophilic, lipophilic and fluorophilic side chains and the aromatic backbone of the polyphile. We observe a significant difference between the lipophilic and the fluorophilic side chains regarding their intramembrane distribution. While the lipophilic groups remain membrane‐centered, the fluorophilic parts tend to orient toward the phosphate headgroups. This trend is important for understanding the influence of polyphile agents on the properties of phospholipid membranes. From a fundamental point of view, our computed distribution functions of the side chains are related to the interplay of sterical, enthalpic and entropic driving forces. Our findings illustrate the potential of rationally designed membrane additives which can be exploited to tune the properties of phospholipid membranes. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Redox Signal Transduction by the ArcB Sensor Kinase of Haemophilus influenzae Lacking the PAS Domain

ABSTRACT The Arc (anoxic redox control) two-component signal transduction system of Escherichia coli, which comprises the tripartite ArcB sensor kinase and the ArcA response regulator, modulates the expression of numerous operons in response to redox conditions of growth. We demonstrate that the arcA and arcBgenes of Haemophilus influenzae specify a two-component system. The Arc proteins of the two bacterial species sufficiently resemble each other that they can participate in heterologous transphosphorylation in vitro. Moreover, the Arc system of H. influenzae mediates transcriptional control according to the redox condition of growth both autologously in its own host and homologously in E. coli, indicating a high degree of functional conservation of the signal transduction system. The H. influenzae ArcB, however, lacks the PAS domain present in the region of E. coli ArcB linking the transmembrane to the cytosolic catalytic domains. Because the PAS domain participates in signal reception in a variety of sensory proteins, including sensors of molecular oxygen and redox state, a similar role was previously ascribed to it in ArcB. Our results demonstrate that the ArcB protein of H. influenzae mediates signal transduction in response to redox conditions of growth despite the absence of the PAS domain.
Points‐based user interface for character posing

We present a points‐based user interface for character posing. In our method, users insert a number of three‐dimensional (3D) points in a virtual environment. The system performs a linear search of a motion capture database for the best matched pose and then places the pose immediately in the virtual environment to be overlapped with the input points. For a fast and precise distance computation between the input points and the example poses from the database, we developed a closed‐form solution of the 3D points registration problem. To demonstrate the easiness and usability of our approach, we built a motion database including various kinds of human motion and conducted a user study of character posing tasks with non‐expert users. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Time-variant partial directed coherence in analysis of the cardiovascular system. A methodological study

Time-variant partial directed coherence (tvPDC) is used for the first time in a multivariate analysis of heart rate variability (HRV), respiratory movements (RMs) and (systolic) arterial blood pressure. It is shown that respiration-related HRV components which also occur at other frequencies besides the RM frequency (= respiratory sinus arrhythmia, RSA) can be identified. These additional components are known to be an effect of the ‘half-the-mean-heart-rate-dilemma’ (‘cardiac aliasing’ CA). These CA components may contaminate the entire frequency range of HRV and can lead to misinterpretation of the RSA analysis. TvPDC analysis of simulated and clinical data (full-term neonates and sedated patients) reveals these contamination effects and, in addition, the respiration-related CA components can be separated from the RSA component and the Traube–Hering–Mayer wave. It can be concluded that tvPDC can be beneficially applied to avoid misinterpretations in HRV analyses as well as to quantify partial correlative interaction properties between RM and RSA.
Two-stream recurrent convolutional neural networks for video saliency estimation

Recently, research has emphasized the need for video saliency estimation since its application covers a large domain. Traditional saliency prediction methods for video based on hand-crafted visual features lead to slow speed and ineffective results. In this paper, we propose a real-time end-to-end saliency estimation model combining two-stream convolutional neural networks from global-view to local-view. In global view, the temporal stream CNN extracts the inter-frame features from optical flow map, and spatial stream CNN extracts the intra-frame information. In local view, we adopt the recurrent connnections to refine the local details through correcting the saliency map step by step. We test our model TSRCNN on three datasets in video saliency estimation, and it shows not only exceedingly commendable performance but almostly real-time GPU processing time of 0.088s compared to other state-of-art methods.
Prepubertal Zearalenone Exposure Suppresses N-Methyl-N-nitrosourea-Induced Mammary Tumorigenesis but Causes Severe Endocrine Disruption in Female Sprague-Dawley Rats

The effect of prepubertal exposure to zearalenone, an estrogenic mycotoxin, on N-methyl-N-nitrosourea (MNU)-induced mammary tumorigenesis and its influence on reproductive organs were examined in female Sprague-Dawley rats. Prepubertal rats were treated daily with either 0.1 or 10 mg/kg body weight of zearalenone between 15 and 19 days of age and compared with zearalenone-untreated animals (30 rats in each group). Six rats in each group were autopsied at 28 days of age, and their growth was evaluated. All remaining rats were given 50 mg/kg body weight MNU at 28 days of age and followed by monitoring for occurrence of mammary tumors ≥1 cm in diameter. Zearalenone did not affect body weight increase, and mammary glands showed similar development at 28 days of age (time at carcinogen administration). Both low- and high-dose zearalenone treatment significantly reduced incidence of mammary tumors ≥1 cm in diameter but did not influence latency (time between MNU administration and harvest of mammary tumor ≥1 cm in diameter) compared with untreated controls. Zearalenone dose dependently suppressed the number of histologically detected tumors (carcinomas) and multiplicity; the suppression was significant with high-dose treatment. However, high-dose treatment caused significantly earlier vaginal opening, both low- and high-dose treatment significantly caused irregularity of estrous cycle (persistent estrus or prolonged diestrus) at 8 to 10 wk of age, and zearalenone dose dependently increased the number of anovulatory rats (ovaries without newly formed corpora lutea) at 37 wk of age. Thus, short-duration zearalenone treatment in the prepubertal period suppressed subsequent mammary cancer occurrence but also severely damaged ovarian functions. This suggests that ingestion of foods containing zearalenone in the infantile period can have dramatic effects in later life.
An Analysis of "Attention" in Sequence-to-Sequence Models

In this paper, we conduct a detailed investigation of attentionbased models for automatic speech recognition (ASR). First, we explore different types of attention, including “online” and “full-sequence” attention. Second, we explore different subword units to see how much of the end-to-end ASR process can reasonably be captured by an attention model. In experimental evaluations, we find that although attention is typically focused over a small region of the acoustics during each step of next label prediction, “full-sequence” attention outperforms “online” attention, although this gap can be significantly reduced by increasing the length of the segments over which attention is computed. Furthermore, we find that context-independent phonemes are a reasonable sub-word unit for attention models. When used in the second-pass to rescore N-best hypotheses, these models provide over a 10% relative improvement in word error rate.
In vivo static imaging for the real and the reactive parts in electrical impedance tomography using multifrequency techniques

Multifrequency measurements in electrical impedance tomography are a viable alternative to absolute measurements for obtaining images from static structures inside the human body. If two fixed frequencies are used, however, it may happen that we cannot discriminate different tissues because of a similar impedance (or admittance) variation for that given frequency pair. A frequency sweep would help to discriminate different tissues, according to widely accepted models for impedance variation with frequency. An alternative to a frequency sweep is imaging both the real and the reactive parts of the impedance (or admittance), because for a given tissue both parts can have a different frequency dependance. In this work we present some images obtained in the human body for the real and the reactive part of the impedance using two different frequencies.
Hiring, investments, and financial distress: evidence from a Panel VAR analysis of Japanese firms

We analyse the dynamic interactions among investment, hiring, and financial distress using a panel vector auto-regression approach to identify the effect of one shock while other shocks remain constant. The results indicate that adjustments in capital and labour significantly interact with each other and that financial distress critically influences these two components. We conclude that firm's dynamic optimization problem should be understood by accounting for these three factors simultaneously.
Effects of a Physical Activity Behavior Change Intervention on Inflammation and Related Health Outcomes in Breast Cancer Survivors

Background. The goal of this pilot study was to determine the magnitude and direction of intervention effect sizes for inflammatory-related serum markers and relevant health outcomes among breast cancer survivors (BCSs) receiving a physical activity behavior change intervention compared with usual care. Methods. This randomized controlled trial enrolled 28 stage I, II, or IIIA BCSs who were post–primary treatment and not regular exercisers. Participants were assigned to either a 3-month physical activity behavior change intervention group (ING) or usual care group (UCG). Intervention included supervised aerobic (150 weekly minutes, moderate-intensity) and resistance (2 sessions per week) exercise that gradually shifted to home-based exercise. Outcomes were assessed at baseline and 3 months. Results. Cardiorespiratory fitness significantly improved in the ING versus the UCG (between-group difference = 3.8 mL/kg/min; d = 1.1; P = .015). Self-reported sleep latency was significantly reduced in the ING versus the UCG (between group difference = −0.5; d = −1.2; P = .02) as was serum leptin (between-group difference = −9.0 ng/mL; d = −1.0; P = .031). Small to medium nonsignificant negative effect sizes were noted for interleukin (IL)-10 and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α and ratios of IL-6 to IL-10, IL-8 to IL-10, and TNF-α to IL-10, whereas nonsignificant positive effect sizes were noted for IL-6 and high-molecular-weight adiponectin. Conclusions. Physical activity behavior change interventions in BCSs can achieve large effect size changes for several health outcomes. Although effect sizes for inflammatory markers were often small and not significant, changes were in the hypothesized direction for all except IL-6 and IL-10.
On the tourism-led growth hypothesis in the UAE: a bootstrap approach with leveraged adjustments

Abstract The emerging market of the UAE has chosen attracting international tourism as one of the main strategies during the recent decades in order to diversify its economy. The main goal has been to achieve sustainable growth without overreliance on the volatile oil sector. This article investigates the impact of tourism on economic performance in the UAE by using bootstrapped causality tests with leverage adjustments. The results show that the tourism-led growth hypothesis can be supported empirically. Thus, the conducted policy by the UAE government to promote international tourism for achieving economic growth might be considered as a sustainable strategy.
Associations of television viewing, physical activity and dietary behaviours with obesity in aboriginal and non-aboriginal Canadian youth

Abstract Objective To determine associations of diet, physical activity and television (TV) viewing time with obesity among aboriginal and non-aboriginal youth in conjunction with socio-economic variables. Design Cross-sectional study of differences between aboriginal and non-aboriginal groups and associations between lifestyle and socio-economic factors with obesity were examined. Setting Population data from the Canadian Community Health Survey Cycle 2·2 conducted in 2004 in the ten provinces of Canada. Subjects A total of 198 aboriginal and 4448 non-aboriginal Canadian youth aged 12–17 years. Results Compared to non-aboriginal youth, physical activity participation among aboriginal youth was higher, but consumption of vegetables and dairy products was lower, and more aboriginal youth were ‘high’ TV watchers. Low income adequacy was associated with decreased odds for obesity among aboriginal youth in contrast to higher odds among non-aboriginal youth. Non-aboriginal ‘high’ TV watchers consumed more soft drinks and non-whole-grain products than did ‘low’ TV watchers. Physical activity participation did not differ between ‘high’ and ‘low’ TV watchers for both groups, and was associated with lowered odds for obesity only among aboriginal youth. Conclusions Sociodemographic and lifestyle risk factors associated with obesity differ between aboriginal and non-aboriginal youth. These findings may be useful for guiding intervention efforts.
Molecular epidemiology of penicillin-resistant pneumococci isolated in Nairobi, Kenya

A total of 26% of the pneumococci isolated from an outpatient clinic in Nairobi, Kenya, during 1991 to 1992 had intermediate levels of penicillin resistance. Gene fingerprinting and DNA sequencing were used to distinguish the penicillin-binding protein (PBP) 1A, 2B, and 2X genes in 23 resistant isolates. Isolates were grouped into those that had identical forms of each of the three PBP genes (fingerprint groups) and those that had identical rRNA gene restriction patterns (ribotypes). Both methods divided the isolates into 11 groups. In a few cases, horizontal gene transfer appeared to have distributed an identical altered PBP gene into different pneumococcal lineages. Eight isolates were indistinguishable by ribotyping or multilocus enzyme electrophoresis and contained identical PBP 1A genes. Although these isolates were therefore members of the same clone, they were divided into two fingerprint groups which contained different PBP 2X and 2B genes. Presumably, members of this clone have acquired different altered PBP 2X and 2B genes on two separate occasions. One of these fingerprint groups contained isolates of serotype 14, whereas the other contained isolates of both serotypes 14 and 7. The identification of isolates in the latter group that are identical by all criteria, except serotype, implies the occurrence of a change in serotype. The predominant serotypes of the penicillin-resistant pneumococci from Nairobi were serotypes 14 and 19. In both cases, isolates of the same serotype which required the same MIC of penicillin were not members of a single clone, indicating that identity of serotype and MIC are not sufficient criteria for defining clones of resistant pneumococci even when the bacteria are isolated from a single clinic.
ECCA Grading Scale: An Original Validated Acne Scar Grading Scale for Clinical Practice in Dermatology

Introduction: The ECCA grading scale (échelle d’évaluation clinique des cicatrices d’acné) is a tool designed to help dermatologists to assess the severity of acne scars and to standardize the discussions about the treatments of scars. Methods: We developed an acne scar clinical grading scale called ECCA, which consists of 6 items designed to assess easily and quickly the severity of acne scars by a global score. The interobserver reliability of the ECCA grading was statistically validated. Results: The statistical analysis showed the interinvestigator reliability of the ECCA grading scale among 7 dermatologists who used it on the same group of 10 acne patients. Conclusion: ECCA is a new tool which will now be available for dermatologists to use in their everyday practice and for clinical trials evaluating the efficacy of treatments on acne scars.