Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Murine experimental abortion by IL-2 administration is caused by activation of cytotoxic T lymphocytes and placental apoptosis.

OBJECTIVE Fetal loss caused by IL-2 administration to pregnant mice is regarded as a model of human habitual abortion due to allo-immune reactions. To estimate feto-placental damages in this model, we examined apoptosis histochemically in the placenta. METHODS Four allogenic mated mice were administered intraperitoneally with 1000 IU of recombinant human IL-2 on days 3, 5 (7) after mating. We examined the presence of apoptosis in the placentae by TUNEL stain. We also examined expression of CTL specific granzyme B/perforin mRNA and usage of TCR V beta receptor segments by RT-PCR. RESULTS 1. Allogenic pregnant mice given IL-2 revealed increased apoptotic scores in villous trophoblasts compared with control mice. Extracted DNA from IL-2 treated placentae revealed ladder formations. 2. Expression of granzyme B mRNA was increased while expression of perforin mRNA was not changed. 3. We observed increased numbers of TCR V beta gene segments in the decidua from IL-2 treated mice compared with untreated mice. CONCLUSION We suggest that placental apoptosis caused by activation of maternal CTL may play important roles in the rejection of fetal allografts.
Stimuli-responsive command polymer surface for generation of protein gradients

Mixed polyelectrolyte brushes with a composition gradient were used as a platform for fabrication of stimuli-responsive command surfaces to control the generation of concentration gradients of adsorbed protein molecules. Switching between homogeneously adsorbed protein layers and adsorbed layers with protein concentration gradients was achieved by changing the pH of protein aqueous solutions. Protein adsorption and the direction of the adsorption gradient were tuned and also turned off and on or reversed by tuning the proton concentration in the pH range 4.0–8.6.
Integrating whole body motion primitives and natural language for humanoid robots

This paper describes the novel approach to integration of natural language processing and symbolization of motion patterns in order to allow for humanoid robotpsilas acquisition of language. This framework consists of two models : motion language model and natural language model. In the motion language model, morpheme words are stochastically associated with symbolized motion patterns via latent variables. The association is defined by probability that the motion pattern generates the latent variable and probability that the latent variable generates the morpheme word. The natural language model represents order relation among the morpheme words via word classes by using hidden Markov model. The motion language model and the natural language model are equivalent to semantics and syntax respectively. Integration of the motion language model and the natural language model achieves linguistic interpretation of motion patterns by composing semantically and syntactically appropriate sentence. The efficient algorithm for the composition is proposed. The validity of the motion language model, the natural language model and the integration is demonstrated by testing the implemented algorithm on human motion data.
Impact of the Diamond Light Source on research in Earth and environmental sciences: current work and future perspectives

Diamond Light Source Ltd celebrated its 10th anniversary as a company in December 2012 and has now accepted user experiments for over 5 years. This paper describes the current facilities available at Diamond and future developments that enhance its capacities with respect to the Earth and environmental sciences. A review of relevant research conducted at Diamond thus far is provided. This highlights how synchrotron-based studies have brought about important advances in our understanding of the fundamental parameters controlling highly complex mineral–fluid–microbe interface reactions in the natural environment. This new knowledge not only enhances our understanding of global biogeochemical processes, but also provides the opportunity for interventions to be designed for environmental remediation and beneficial use.
A Faster Triphosphorylation Ribozyme

In support of the RNA world hypothesis, previous studies identified trimetaphosphate (Tmp) as a plausible energy source for RNA world organisms. In one of these studies, catalytic RNAs (ribozymes) that catalyze the triphosphorylation of RNA 5'-hydroxyl groups using Tmp were obtained by in vitro selection. One ribozyme (TPR1) was analyzed in more detail. TPR1 catalyzes the triphosphorylation reaction to a rate of 0.013 min-1 under selection conditions (50 mM Tmp, 100 mM MgCl2, 22°C). To identify a triphosphorylation ribozyme that catalyzes faster triphosphorylation, and possibly learn about its secondary structure TPR1 was subjected to a doped selection. The resulting ribozyme, TPR1e, contains seven mutations relative to TPR1, displays a previously unidentified duplex that constrains the ribozyme's structure, and reacts at a 24-fold faster rate than the parent ribozyme. Under optimal conditions (150 mM Tmp, 650 mM MgCl2, 40°C), the triphosphorylation rate of TRP1e reaches 6.8 min-1.
Design of a multilink-articulated wheeled inspection robot for winding pipelines: AIRo-II

This paper presents a multilink-articulated robot with omni and hemispherical wheels (AIRo-II) for inspecting and exploring winding pipes. To quickly adapt to winding pipes, holonomic rolling movement without moving forward and backward is more useful. However, this requires the replacement of driving actuators with rolling actuators at the expense of the driving force. In this paper, we investigate the possibility of high maneuverability of multilink-articulated robots in winding pipes by using less actuators and by designing spring joints. We further validate this by experimental verification.
Shortcomings of the Energy Evaluation Systems in Pigs: a Review

The aim of that review is to present the principles of energy evaluation systems used in pig feeding and to stress out some key consideration when introducing Net Energy (NE) systems and some areas of future research. Based on the relevant literature data it can be stated that despite the mentioned shortcomings of the currently used energy systems, we have to admit that NE and/or Potential Physiological Energy (PPE) are the least inaccurate feed evaluation, therefore they are recommended to use in practical pig production. There is not enough evidence to favor any of these systems. According to our opinion some kind of harmonization would be beneficial, since the European feed market would need a common understanding of energy (feeding) value of compound feeds and feedstuffs. However, according to our view it could be achieved only by the lobby and cooperative action of the European feed manufacturers.
Efficient top-k algorithms for approximate substring matching

There is a wide range of applications that require to query a large database of texts to search for similar strings or substrings. Traditional approximate substring matching requests a user to specify a similarity threshold. Without top-k approximate substring matching, users have to try repeatedly different maximum distance threshold values when the proper threshold is unknown in advance. In our paper, we first propose the efficient algorithms for finding the top-k approximate substring matches with a given query string in a set of data strings. To reduce the number of expensive distance computations, the proposed algorithms utilize our novel filtering techniques which take advantages of q-grams and inverted q-gram indexes available. We conduct extensive experiments with real-life data sets. Our experimental results confirm the effectiveness and scalability of our proposed algorithms.
A framework for implementing business transactions on the Web

Submitter: Mark Little (mark@arjuna.com) (c) Copyright 2001 Hewlett-Packard Company The Submitter(s) offer this document for consideration for incorporation into an OASIS specification, and acknowledge(s) that the requirements of OASIS IPR policy section 3.1 relate to this contribution. Other Contributors: Dave Ingham (dave.ingham@arjuna.com), Savas Parastatidis (savas@arjuna.com), Jim We bber (jim.webber@arjuna.com), Stuart Wheater (stuart.wheater@arjuna.com)
Cepstral noise subtraction for robust automatic speech recognition

The robustness of speech recognizers towards noise can be increased by normalizing the statistical moments of the Mel-frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCCs), e. g. by using cepstral mean normalization (CMN) or cepstral mean and variance normalization (CMVN). The necessary statistics are estimated over a long time window and often, a complete utterance is chosen. Consequently, changes in the background noise can only be tracked to a limited extent which poses a restriction to the performance gain that can be achieved by these techniques. In contrast, algorithms recently developed for single-channel speech enhancement allow to track the background noise quickly. In this paper, we aim at combining speech enhancement techniques and feature normalization methods. For this, we propose to transform an estimate of the noise power spectral density to the MFCC domain, where we subtract it from the noisy MFCCs. This is followed by a conventional CMVN. For background noises that are too instationary for CMVN but can be tracked by the noise estimator, we show that this processing leads to an improvement in comparison to the sole application of CMVN. The observed performance gain emerges especially in low signal-to-noise-ratios.
Complexity Theoretic Limitations on Learning DNF's

Using the recently developed framework of [Daniely et al, 2014], we show that under a natural assumption on the complexity of refuting random K-SAT formulas, learning DNF formulas is hard. Furthermore, the same assumption implies the hardness of learning intersections of $\omega(\log(n))$ halfspaces, agnostically learning conjunctions, as well as virtually all (distribution free) learning problems that were previously shown hard (under complexity assumptions).
The health and nutrition of young indigenous women in north Queensland – intergenerational implications of poor food quality, obesity, diabetes, tobacco smoking and alcohol use

Abstract Objective To document nutritional status and health behaviours of young indigenous women of childbearing age in rural communities in north Queensland. Design Cross-sectional survey of 424 Aboriginal and 232 Torres Strait Islander (TSI) women aged 15–34 years, conducted in twenty-three rural and remote communities of far north Queensland in 1999–2000, with follow-up of a smaller cohort (n 132) in 2006–2007. Main outcome measures Weight, waist circumference, intake of fruit and vegetables, smoking, alcohol intake, fasting blood glucose, blood pressure, HDL cholesterol, γ-glutamyltransferase, red cell folate (RCF), interval weight and waist gain and incidence of diabetes. Results Forty-one per cent of Aboriginal and 69 % of TSI had central obesity, 62 % were smokers, 71 % drank alcohol regularly and of those, 60 % did so at harmful levels. One third of Aboriginal and 16 % of TSI women had very low RCF levels. In the group followed up, there was a mean annual waist gain of 1·6 cm in Aboriginal women and 1·2 cm in TSI, 0·5 kg/m2 in BMI and 1·5 kg in weight. Incidence of new type 2 diabetes mellitus in this cohort was 29·1 per 1000 person-years (py) (95 % CI 14·0, 52·8) in Aboriginal women and 13·9 per 1000 py (95 % CI 5·6, 28·5) among TSI. Conclusions High prevalence and incidence of central obesity and diabetes, poor nutrition, high rates of alcohol use and tobacco smoking together with young maternal age, provide a poor intra-uterine environment for many indigenous Australian babies, and contribute to high perinatal morbidity and future disability. Community level interventions to improve pre-pregnancy nutrition and health behaviours in young women are urgent.
Joint scheduling and resource allocation for device-to-device underlay communication

Device-to-device (D2D) communication as an underlay to cellular networks can bring significant benefits to users' throughput. However, as D2D user equipments (TIEs) can cause interference to cellular TIEs, the scheduling and allocation of channel resources and power to D2D communication need elaborate coordination. In this paper, we propose a joint scheduling and resource allocation scheme to improve the performance of D2D communication. We take network throughput and TIEs' fairness into account by performing interference management. Specifically, we develop a Stackelberg game framework in which we group a cellular TIE and a D2D TIE to form a leader-follower pair. The cellular user is the leader, and the D2D TIE is the follower who buys channel resources from the leader. We analyze the equilibrium of the game, and propose an algorithm for joint scheduling and resource allocation. Finally, we perform computer simulations to study the performance of the proposed algorithm.
Self-Reported Posttraumatic Stress and Borderline Personality Behaviors in Relation to Reports of Traumatic Events, Attachment, Parental Behavior, and Social Support

Self-Reported Posttraumatic Stress and Borderline Personality Behaviors in Relation to Reports of Traumatic Events, Attachment, Parental Behavior, and Social Support Vanessa Jacoby Borderline personality disorder (BPD) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are conceptualized as different constructs in the DSM-IV, but research increasingly reveals an association among the symptoms of these disorders. Two relational models were examined: a Shared Risk Factor Model and a Continuum Model. In a sample of 603 college students, principle axis factoring of the Borderline Symptom List and PTSD Checklist showed minimal overlap in symptom presentation, partially supporting a Shared Risk Factor Model. Further support was established as regression analyses showed shared risk factors for reporting a greater number of BPD and PTSD behaviors, including experiencing at least one interpersonal traumatic event, a greater number of incidents of interpersonal trauma, and interpersonal trauma across more age periods (0-4, 5-8, etc.). Mediation analyses suggest only parental behavior mediated the relation between trauma characteristics and PTSD. However, there were multiple mediators of BPD and trauma characteristics, including parental rejection, attachment, and social support by the primary support BORDERLINE AND PTSD iii
Elevated Aortic Pulse Wave Velocity, a Marker of Arterial Stiffness, Predicts Cardiovascular Events in Well-Functioning Older Adults

Background—Aging results in vascular stiffening and an increase in the velocity of the pressure wave as it travels down the aorta. Increased aortic pulse wave velocity (aPWV) has been associated with mortality in clinical but not general populations. The objective of this investigation was to determine whether aPWV is associated with total and cardiovascular (CV) mortality and CV events in a community-dwelling sample of older adults. Methods and Results—aPWV was measured at baseline in 2488 participants from the Health, Aging and Body Composition (Health ABC) study. Vital status, cause of death and coronary heart disease (CHD), stroke, and congestive heart failure were determined from medical records. Over 4.6 years, 265 deaths occurred, 111 as a result of cardiovascular causes. There were 341 CHD events, 94 stroke events, and 181 cases of congestive heart failure. Results are presented by quartiles because of a threshold effect between the first and second aPWV quartiles. Higher aPWV was associated with both total mortality (relative risk, 1.5, 1.6, and 1.7 for aPWV quartiles 2, 3, and 4 versus 1; P=0.019) and cardiovascular mortality (relative risk, 2.1, 3.0, and 2.3 for quartiles 2, 3, and 4 versus 1; P=0.004). aPWV quartile was also significantly associated with CHD (P=0.007) and stroke (P=0.001). These associations remained after adjustment for age, gender, race, systolic blood pressure, known CV disease, and other variables related to events. Conclusions—Among generally healthy, community-dwelling older adults, aPWV, a marker of arterial stiffness, is associated with higher CV mortality, CHD, and stroke.
Relative importance of risk factors for coronary heart disease – The Hordaland Homocysteine Study

Abstract Objectives. The aim was to rank coronary heart disease (CHD) risk factors according to their importance in predicting CHD morbidity and mortality using a scale-independent statistical approach. Design. We studied 15 515 community-dwelling adults in a population-based cohort established during 1992–93 in Western Norway. Participants were 40–42 and 65–67 years old at baseline and were followed through 2006. Endpoints were non-fatal/fatal acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and CHD death. Each factor was rank transformed and scaled to the range 0–5 before estimation of Cox models. Hazard ratios (HR) may thus be interpreted as HR per quintile increment for each factor, and the magnitude of the HR was used to rank the risk factors according to strength. Results. Total cholesterol and triglycerides were important risk factors for both CHD death and non-fatal/fatal AMI only in the middle-aged group. Risk factors were generally stronger in the middle-aged, except total homocysteine which was significantly associated with CHD death in the oldest group only. The only significant difference between men and women was found for single living which was an important risk factor for non-fatal/fatal AMI in middle-aged women but not in middle-aged men. Conclusions. We have demonstrated a simple method for direct and scale-independent comparison of the strength of both categorical and continuous risk factors. The importance of individual risk factors differed substantially between the two age groups.
Architectural Support to Accelerate Fine-Grain Program Monitoring

Keywords: software robustness ; application monitoring ; support for single- and multi-threaded applications ; architectural extensions ; filtering accelerator ; software bugs ; debugging These Ecole polytechnique federale de Lausanne EPFL, n° 6257 (2014)Programme doctoral Informatique, Communications et InformationFaculte informatique et communicationsInstitut des systemes informatiques et multimediasLaboratoire d'architecture de systemes parallelesJury: Prof. M. Grossglauser (president) ; Prof. B. Falsafi (directeur) ; Dr E. Bugnion, Dr Ph. Gibbons, Prof. S. Kaxiras (rapporteurs) Public defense: 2014-10-3 Reference doi:10.5075/epfl-thesis-6257Print copy in library catalog Record created on 2014-10-07, modified on 2017-05-12
Understanding salt mobilization from an irrigated catchment in south‐eastern Australia

Groundwater discharge from the Riverine Plains of the southern Murray‐Darling Basin is a major process contributing salt to the Murray River in Australia. In this study, data from an irrigated 60 000 ha catchment in the Riverine Plains were analysed to understand groundwater discharge into deeply incised drains, the process dominating salt mobilization from the catchment. We applied three integrated methodologies: classification and regression trees (CART), conceptual modelling and artificial neural networks (ANNs) to a comprehensive, spatially lumped, monthly data set from July 1975 to December 2004. Using CART analysis, it was shown that rainfall was the most important variable consistently explaining the salt load patterns at the catchment outlet. Using the conceptual model representing spatially lumped groundwater discharge into deeply incised drains, we demonstrated that salt mobilization from the study catchment can be well represented by a rainfall contribution, influenced by the hydraulic head in the deep regional aquifer and potential evapotranspiration. Using ANNs, it was confirmed that rainfall had a much higher impact on salt loads at the catchment outlet than irrigation water use. All these results demonstrate that under conditions similar to those experienced from 1975 to 2004, it is rainfall rather than irrigation water use that governs salt mobilization from the study catchment. Management of salt mobilization from irrigated catchments has traditionally focussed on the improvement of irrigation practices but it could be equally important to further understand the scope for management to control groundwater discharge in these irrigation areas. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Enhanced DNA Damage Induced by Secondary Electron Emission from a Tantalum Surface Exposed to Soft X Rays

Abstract Cai, Z. , Cloutier, P., Hunting, D. and Sanche, L. Enhanced DNA Damage Induced by Secondary Electron Emission from a Tantalum Surface Exposed to Soft X Rays. Radiat. Res. 165, 365–371 (2006). Both thick and thin films of pGEM®-3Zf(-) plasmid DNA deposited on a tantalum foil were exposed to soft X rays (effective energy of 14.8 keV) for various times in air under a relative humidity of 45% (Γ ≈ 6, where Γ is the number of water molecules per nucleotide) and 84% (Γ ≈ 21), respectively. For a thick film, the DNA damage was induced chiefly by X-ray photons. For a thin film of DNA, X-ray-induced secondary electrons emitted from the tantalum result in a substantial increase in DNA damages. Different forms of plasmid DNA were separated and quantified by agarose gel electrophoresis and laser scanning. The exposure curves for the formation of nicked circular (single-strand break, SSB), linear (double-strand break, DSB), and interduplex crosslink forms 1 and 2 were obtained for both thick and thin films of DNA. The secondary electron enhancement factor for SSBs, DSBs and crosslinks of the thin film of DNA were derived to be 3.8 ± 0.5, 2.9 ± 0.7 and 7 ± 3 at Γ ≈ 6 and 6.0 ± 0.8, 7 ± 1 and 3.9 ± 0.9 at Γ ≈ 21, respectively. This study provides a molecular basis for understanding the enhanced biological effects at interfaces during diagnostic X-ray examination and radiotherapy.
Integrating groupware technology into a business process improvement framework

Much of the evaluative research on groupware in organizations so far has been preoccupied with the role of groupware as a new interaction medium to replace or extend face‐to‐face communication in groups. It has focused on gains and losses from a group interaction point of view, typically disregarding the impact of other functions such as group access, and contribution to information concerning the organization. Attempts to bridge this gap with an action research into the effects of the introduction of an asynchronous groupware system to support business process improvement groups in a service company based in Brazil. The research suggests that improvements in business redesign efficiency and effectiveness can be attained not only from asynchronous groupware support to group communication, but also from public sharing of historical information about previous business process improvement efforts, and by providing a repository of information about business processes which could be candidates for improvement.
Dynamic Scheduling of Parallel Applications on Shared-Memory Multiprocessors

This first chapter introduces the need for efficient and welltuned parallel execution environments to support the execution of parallel applications in shared memory multiprocessors. It shows the architecture of the current symmetric multiprocessors (SMP) and cachecoherent NUMA machines, and the aspects to consider when developing parallel execution environments. Taking them into consideration, it presents the goals of this thesis, and an overview of the NANOS parallel execution environment. It concludes with the contributions of this work. Gene Roddenberry Crater on Mars At the 42nd General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union (IAU), held in The Hague in 1994, a Martian crater was named in honor of Gene Roddenberry. The Roddenberry crater is located at Martian latitude -49.9 degrees and longitude 4.5 degrees, in Quad MC26SE on Map I-1682. [Quad defines the name of the map on which it appears and "Map" is the USGS number for that map. ] Its diameter is approximately 140 km or about 87 miles. Introduction to "Death of a Neutron Star", Star Trek Voyager, Eric Kotani, Pocket Books, March 1999.