Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Unifying Viral Genetics and Human Transportation Data to Predict the Global Transmission Dynamics of Human Influenza H3N2

Information on global human movement patterns is central to spatial epidemiological models used to predict the behavior of influenza and other infectious diseases. Yet it remains difficult to test which modes of dispersal drive pathogen spread at various geographic scales using standard epidemiological data alone. Evolutionary analyses of pathogen genome sequences increasingly provide insights into the spatial dynamics of influenza viruses, but to date they have largely neglected the wealth of information on human mobility, mainly because no statistical framework exists within which viral gene sequences and empirical data on host movement can be combined. Here, we address this problem by applying a phylogeographic approach to elucidate the global spread of human influenza subtype H3N2 and assess its ability to predict the spatial spread of human influenza A viruses worldwide. Using a framework that estimates the migration history of human influenza while simultaneously testing and quantifying a range of potential predictive variables of spatial spread, we show that the global dynamics of influenza H3N2 are driven by air passenger flows, whereas at more local scales spread is also determined by processes that correlate with geographic distance. Our analyses further confirm a central role for mainland China and Southeast Asia in maintaining a source population for global influenza diversity. By comparing model output with the known pandemic expansion of H1N1 during 2009, we demonstrate that predictions of influenza spatial spread are most accurate when data on human mobility and viral evolution are integrated. In conclusion, the global dynamics of influenza viruses are best explained by combining human mobility data with the spatial information inherent in sampled viral genomes. The integrated approach introduced here offers great potential for epidemiological surveillance through phylogeographic reconstructions and for improving predictive models of disease control.
Named Entity Extraction and Linking Challenge: University of Twente at #Microposts2014

Twitter is a potentially rich source of continuously and instantly updated information. Shortness and informality of tweets are challenges for Natural Language Processing (NLP) tasks. In this paper, we present a hybrid approach for Named Entity Extraction (NEE)and Linking (NEL) for tweets. Although NEE and NEL are two topics that are well studied in literature, almost all approaches treated the two problems separately. We believe that disambiguation (linking) could help improving the extraction process. We call this potential for mutual improvement, the reinforcement effect. It mimics the way humans understand natural language. Furthermore, our proposed approaches handles uncertainties involved in the two processes by considering possible alternatives.
Breaking the “Purity Rule”: Industrial Sabotage and the Symbolic Process

In the past little has been written on the subject of industrial sabotage. Even the broader consideration of “resistance” of which sabotage could be considered part has been little attempted outside the glamorous subject of strikes. Taylor and Walton adopt an approach derived from the social psychology of deviance, relying on verbal accounts, press reports or hearsay for their data. Their emphasis is on rendering the act meaningful. Brown adopts a perspective which extends their definition of sabotage from deliberate damage to the machine, product or work environment to include deliberate bad workmanship and the withholding of effort. Consequently, he views it as an additional mechanism for negotiating terms and condition of employment, and is concerned with its effectiveness as a strategy.
Object representation for fast trajectory collision testing by means of 2-D algebraic conic sections

In recent years average life expectancy in developed countries has increased, hence the amount of people which depend on a wheeled walking frame and in addition are visually handicapped has grown. The independent mobility of this people is often limited since they need guidance by other humans. Recent research focused on technical guidance systems implemented on a walking frame. The mobile vehicle is often equipped with ultrasonic sensors or a laser scanner. Both sensors suffer of a low spatial resolution so that small objects are not always detected. This paper presents an object representation for high spatial resolution sensors like a depth camera. The amount of sensor data of a depth camera is challenging for real-time path planning. Therefore, the object representation, which is based on algebraic conic sections, and the corresponding proposed analytic collision test are designed with attention on calculation speed and safety.
Ocular dominance demonstrated by unconscious sighting.

By means of a device known as the V-scope several hundred individuals were asked to sight at a distant object. When photographed from or on the line of sight, the prints show the manifest dominance of one eye over the other. The V-scope is described in detail, and results are given showing that about 65% of the normal population demonstrated dominance of the right eye, about 30% dominance of the left and 5% give mixed or indeterminate results. A bibliography of 21 titles is appended. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Visual Signature of High-Dimensional Geometry in Parallel Coordinates

Although we can interactively rotate a 3D projected high-dimensional geometry and observe its dynamic changes, this traditional visualization method is limited and highly sensitive to the choice of viewing direction. Parallel-coordinates plots supplement this visualization scenario by providing statistical analysis of the geometry for distinct pairs of co-dimensions. Such analysis results in visual signatures that embed geometric structures such as symmetry, and thus allows us to overview the status of the missing dimensions while exploring the projected geometry. This paper presents a blue-noise sampling approach for efficient construction of continuous parallel-coordinates plots of high-dimensional geometric surfaces defined by mathematical equations. We employ the parallel-coordinates plots with the embedded visual signatures to assist the interactive exploration of high-dimensional geometries, typically for 2-manifold embedded in 4-space. While we interactively explore the 3D projected geometry, we can observe dynamic changes on its visual signature. Various geometric properties can also be identified and visualized. Moreover, we can interactively brush the plots, and see their counterparts in the 3D projection. Assorted geometric properties such as curvature can further be used to enhance the visual signature.
Checking Full Satisfiability of Conceptual Models

UML class diagrams (UCDs) are the de-facto standard for- malism for the analysis and design of information systems. By adopting formal language techniques to capture constraints expressed by UCDs one can exploit automated reasoning tools to detect relevant properties, such as schema and class satisfiability and subsumption between classes. Among the reasoning tasks of interest, the basic one is detecting full sat- isfiability of a diagram, i.e., whether there exists an instantiation of the diagram where all classes and associations of the diagram are non-empty and all the constraints of the diagram are respected. In this paper we es- tablish tight complexity results for full satisfiability for various fragments of UML class diagrams. This investigation shows that the full satisfiabil- ity problem is ExpTime-complete in the full scenario, NP-complete if we drop isa between relationships, and NLogSpace-complete if we further drop covering over classes.
Year : 1998 A Drosophila RNA helicase gene , pitchoune , is required for cell growth and proliferation and is a potential target of d-Myc

This article describes the characterization of a new Drosophila gene that we have called pitchoune (pit) (meaning small in Provence) because mutations in this gene produce larvae that cannot grow beyond the first instar larval stage although they can live as long as 7-10 days. All the tissues are equally affected and the perfectly shaped larvae are indistinguishable from first instar wild-type animals. Analysis of mutant somatic clones suggests a function in cell growth and proliferation, which is supported by the fact that cell proliferation is promoted by pit overexpression. Tagged-Pit, when transfected in S2 cells, localizes mainly to the nucleolus, pointing towards a possible role in ribosome biogenesis and, consequently, in protein biosynthesis. pit encodes a DEAD-box RNA helicase, a family of proteins involved in the control of RNA structure in many cellular processes and its closest homologue is a human DEAD-box RNA helicase, MrDb, whose corresponding gene transcription is directly activated by Myc-Max heterodimers (Grandori, C., Mac, J., Siëbelt, F., Ayer, D. E. and Eisenman, R. N. (1996) EMBO J. 15, 4344-4357). The patterns of expression of d-myc and pit are superimposable. Ectopic expression of myc in the nervous system drives an ectopic expression of pit in this tissue indicating that in Drosophila as well, pit is a potential target of d-Myc. These results suggest that myc might promote cell proliferation by activating genes that are required in protein biosynthesis, thus linking cell growth and cell proliferation. 3571 Development 125, 3571-3584 (1998) Printed in Great Britain © The Company of Biologists Limited 1998
Improved Deadbeat Predictive Current Control Combined Sliding Mode Strategy for PMSM Drive System

To promote the drive performance of permanent magnet synchronous machine (PMSM), such as tracking accuracy of both speed and current, one improved deadbeat-based predictive current control (DPCC) scheme based sliding mode is proposed in this paper. First, one novel PMSM model is derived by considering uncertainties of both parameters and external disturbances. Second, in order to improve the dynamic response of PMSM drive system, both sliding mode control (SMC) and DPCC are employed to control the speed and current, respectively. Third, a unified high-order sliding mode observer is designed for the estimation of disturbances and uncertainties in the speed and current loops. Furthermore, the estimated values are compensated with feedback to the designed SMC and DPCC to increase the speed robustness and current tracking accuracy. Comprehensive simulation and experiments demonstrate that the proposed control strategy is strongly robust to acute variations of load and machine parameters, and it is testified to have better speed and current tracking performance.
A Field Study of Adjunct Faculty: The Impact of Career Stage on Reactions to Non-Tenure-Track Jobs

As universities increasingly employ adjunct faculty in both teaching and research positions, how these individuals experience their jobs becomes of greater concern. This study uses both quantitative and qualitative data from a sample of 105 non-tenure-track instructors and research associates to examine the work experiences of adjunct faculty. The article examines both the advantages and disadvantages associated with this type of employment. In addition, the article examines how career stage influences individuals' reactions to these positions. Specifically, the results suggest that adjunct faculty in late career generally demonstrate more positive job attitudes and work behaviors than adjunct faculty in earlier career stages. The article concludes with implications for the more effective management and utilization of adjunct faculty.
Evaluation of the overnight hold of whole blood at room temperature, before component processing: platelets (PLTs) from PLT‐rich plasma

BACKGROUND: Whole blood (WB) must be refrigerated within 8 hours to optimize Factor VIII : C yield, but chilled platelets (PLTs) are rapidly removed from circulation and cannot be used clinically. It is logistically preferable to hold WB overnight at room temperature for next‐day processing. We compared in vitro quality of PLT‐rich plasma (PRP)‐derived PLT concentrates (PCs) from fresh versus overnight‐held WB.
A Constructive Mean-Field Analysis of Multi-Population Neural Networks with Random Synaptic Weights and Stochastic Inputs

We deal with the problem of bridging the gap between two scales in neuronal modeling. At the first (microscopic) scale, neurons are considered individually and their behavior described by stochastic differential equations that govern the time variations of their membrane potentials. They are coupled by synaptic connections acting on their resulting activity, a nonlinear function of their membrane potential. At the second (mesoscopic) scale, interacting populations of neurons are described individually by similar equations. The equations describing the dynamical and the stationary mean-field behaviors are considered as functional equations on a set of stochastic processes. Using this new point of view allows us to prove that these equations are well-posed on any finite time interval and to provide a constructive method for effectively computing their unique solution. This method is proved to converge to the unique solution and we characterize its complexity and convergence rate. We also provide partial results for the stationary problem on infinite time intervals. These results shed some new light on such neural mass models as the one of Jansen and Rit (1995): their dynamics appears as a coarse approximation of the much richer dynamics that emerges from our analysis. Our numerical experiments confirm that the framework we propose and the numerical methods we derive from it provide a new and powerful tool for the exploration of neural behaviors at different scales.
Regulation of arachidonic acid metabolites in macrophages

The lipids of mouse peritoneal macrophages contain high levels (25 mole percent) of esterified arachidonic acid (20:4). Following in vitro exposure to unopsonized zymosan, these cells synthesize and release oxygenated products of 20:4. Maximal levels of zymosan ingestion promote the release of 40-50% of the 20:4 content of cultures without loss of viabilitiy. Release of radiolabel from macrophages prelabeled with [3H]20:4 provides a quantitative measure for the synthesis of 20:4- derived products. Approximately 67% of the released 20:4 is recovered as prostaglandins (PG) (51% PGE and 16% 6-oxo-PGF1 alpha) and the remainder as apolar products tentatively identified as hydroxy- eicosatetraenoic acids. The kinetics of synthesis are comparable for both sets of products. A detailed examination of PGE synthesis indicated the PGE levels rise in parallel with phagocytosis during a continuous exposure of macrophages to zymosan. The concentration of particles determines the initial rate of PGE release, but the time- course of synthesis is finite (approximately 60 min), regardless of the zymosan dose. These observations are compatible with the notion that phagocytosis results in a burst of PG synthesis, the size of which is determined by the phagocytic stimulus. This is supported by the finding that secondary challenges of zymosan promote new rounds of PG synthesis by macrophages.
Description of heart-rate variability data in accordance with a physiological model for the genesis of heartbeats.

A survey is presented of techniques which transform heart-rate variability data into a signal that is both visually informative and accessible for analysis. The Instantaneous Heart-Rate (IHR) signal is introduced, i.e. the signal having the value of the heart rate (inverse interbeat interval) during the interval concerned. The IHR signal differs from the standard Delayed Heart-Rate (DHR) signal, which is always one beat late. The relationship is discussed between the different representation methods and the Integral Pulse Frequency Modulation (IPFM) model, the latter being a physiologically plausible model for the transformation of a continuous input signal (e.g., nervous influence on the cardiac pacemaker) into a series of events (heartbeats). It is shown that when the IHR signal is used as input of the IPFM model, the event series from which the signal was derived appears at the output. Hence, if the IPFM model is accepted as a model of the pacemaker, the IHR signal may be considered as an approximation of the neural (sympathetic and parasympathetic) influence on the pacemaker. In addition we show that the appearance of the IHR signal is less affected by trigger errors or extrasystoles than the standard DHR signal. It is concluded that the most attractive time-domain representation of physiological event series consists of the IHR signal, because this signal, being conceptually and computationally simple, is consistent with the IPFM model.
A Scenarios Mediated Approach for Tacit Knowledge Acquisition and Crystallisation: Towards Higher Return-On-Knowledge and Experience

The ‘Knowledge Age’ has fuelled the need to capitalise on organisation-wide Intellectual Capital with the aim of gaining competitive advantage vis-a-vis a higher return-on-knowledge and experience. In this paper, we propose a novel tacit knowledge acquisition and representation strategy using Scenarios based on the assumption that tacit knowledge can best be explicated through controlled challenge situations. We also describe in detail, a knowledge crystallisation algorithm that is used to refine the acquired tacit knowledge by modelling the natural mechanics of crystallisation and annealing. We conclude by asserting that our approach would further enhance organisation-wide performance through its superior quality and value-added delivery of organisational services.
Differential Automatic Processing Deficits in Early Stage Alzheimer's Disease

This experiment sought further support for the view that early stage Alzheimer's disease (AD) disrupts cognitive structures that cast experience into a temporal framework. Forty participants, evenly divided between normal elderly (NE) and persons diagnosed with mild AD, viewed 19 lists of 14 pictures each. Following the presentation of each list participants were asked to identify the most recently experienced picture (target) from 3 pictures. A second stimulus was a picture never previously seen; the third picture was a distracting item that had appeared in the list on either one or three occasions. The results show that whereas choice accuracy of the NE group remained largely unimpaired regardless of the delay between the target and the judgment task or the frequency of the distractor, the AD participants exhibited large and profound deficits in temporal judgments, especially when distractor frequency was greater than the more recent event. In effect, the AD group relied on how often an event occurred rather than the time of its occurrence. This finding is consistent with previous research that found AD patients deficient in forming a temporal representation of their experience.
Bioinformatics Applications Note Multi-threaded Vectorized Distance Matrix Computation on the Cell/be and X86/sse2 Architectures

Multiple sequence alignment is an important tool in bioinformatics. Although efficient heuristic algorithms exist for this problem, the exponential growth of biological data demands an even higher throughput. The recent emergence of multi-core technologies has made it possible to achieve a highly improved execution time for many bioinformatics applications. In this article, we introduce an implementation that accelerates the distance matrix computation on x86 and Cell Broadband Engine, a homogeneous and heterogeneous multi-core system, respectively. By taking advantage of multiple processors as well as Single Instruction Multiple Data vectorization, we were able to achieve speed-ups of two orders of magnitude compared to the publicly available implementation utilized in ClustalW. Availability and Implementation: Source codes in C are publicly available at https://sourceforge.net/projects/distmatcomp/
A Calm After the Storm? Beyond Schooling as Violence

Media coverage of schooling around the world from the US and the UK to South Africa convey images of violence. Many academic texts confirm the seriousness and prevalence of violence in schools. An obvious conclusion to be drawn is that schools, far from being peaceful and safe places of learning are sites of violence. Some views go so far as to suggest that schools actually produce violence. The theme of this special issue--schooling as violence--picks up on this view. In this article I shall discuss and interrogate various definitions of violence in order to get some sense of what violence is understood to be, who is (and is not) affected, and how seriously. I will be arguing that violence is best understood using a gender perspective. A gendered analysis allows an examination of violence in terms beyond victim and perpetrator. It allows one to get inside violence, to see how people are implicated. Finally, I will critique discourses of violence and argue that they actually stand in the way of successful engagement. In order successfully to work for peace we need to use understandings of violence which are not moralistic and prescriptive and which grapple with the continued existence of social inequalities.
Intramolecular disulphide bond arrangements in nonhomologous data

The presence and location of intramolecular disulphide bonds are a key determinant of the structure and function of proteins. Intramolecular disulphide bonds in proteins have previously been analyzed under the assumption that there is no clear relationship between disulphide arrangement and disulphide concentration. To investigate this, a set of sequence nonhomologous protein chains containing one or more intramolecular disulphide bonds was extracted from the Protein Data Bank, and the arrangements of the bonds, Protein Data Bank header, and Structural Characterization of Proteins fold were analyzed as a function of intramolecular disulphide bond concentration. Two populations of intramolecular disulphide bond-containing proteins were identified, with a naturally occurring partition at 25 residues per bond. These populations were named intramolecular disulphide bond-rich and -poor. Benefits of partitioning were illustrated by three results: (1) rich chains most frequently contained three disulphides, explaining the plateaux in extant disulphide frequency distributions; (2) a positive relationship between median chain length and the number of disulphides, only seen when the data were partitioned; and (3) the most common bonding pattern for chains with three disulphide bonds was based on the most common for two, only when the data were partitioned. The two populations had different headers, folds, bond arrangements, and chain lengths. Associations between IDSB concentration, IDSB bonding pattern, loop sizes, SCOP fold, and PDB header were also found. From this, we found that intramolecular disulphide bond-rich and -poor proteins follow different bonding rules, and must be considered separately to generate meaningful models of bond formation.