Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Intégration Monétaire Africaine et Changements Structurels: Commerce, Partage des risques et Coordination budgétaire

Une monnaie unique emise par une banque centrale commune est un objectif politique des pays africains. La derniere decennie a ete marquee par la multiplication des projets d'unions monetaires en Afrique. Une importante litterature sur la faisabilite des integrations monetaires africaines a emerge. Cette derniere stipule que l'integration monetaire africaine est problematique puisqu'en depit des benefices potentiels, les unions monetaires sont couteuses a cause de l'importance des chocs asymetriques et de l'absence de politiques pour y faire face. Le veritable defi dans la litterature est l'identification des politiques economiques a mener afin de garantir des avantages nets de l'integration monetaire entre les Etats africains. Cette these s'inscrit dans cette derniere vision de la litterature. Nous etudions dans quelles mesures les Etats africains deja engages dans une integration monetaire ou qui envisagent former une zone monetaire peuvent faire face aux chocs. Le premier chapitre qui sert de socle a la these, presente le panorama de l'integration monetaire africaine depuis les independances et la situation de l'Afrique par rapport a la theorie. Le deuxieme chapitre analyse l'impact de l'intensification des echanges commerciaux entre les Etats africains sur la synchronisation de leurs cycles economiques. Le troisieme chapitre examine les canaux de stabilisation de la consommation des Etats qui peuvent servir de mecanismes d'ajustement en union monetaire. Le quatrieme et dernier chapitre etudie les consequences des regles multilaterales de surveillance dans les unions monetaires africaines sur la capacite de la politique budgetaire a stabiliser le produit. Les resultats des differentes etudes menees montrent que les mutations structurelles considerees dans cette these, ne changent pas les conclusions etablies par la litterature existante. Le message central de la these est la complementarite necessaire entre l'integration economique et l'adoption des monnaies communes en Afrique. Autant que l'integration monetaire stimule les autres formes de cooperations economiques (c'est-a-dire commerciale, financiere et economique) autant ces dernieres rendent meilleures, les conditions d'adoption des unions monetaires. Les efforts sont a realiser simultanement dans tous les domaines de l'integration.
Combining the Arc Marine Framework with Geographic Metadata to Support Ocean Acoustic Modeling

A data model for use in a rapid environmental assessment system is constructed. The data model is used in an information layer that supports acoustic assessments of the ocean environment. Such an assessment requires use of both historic and real‐time oceanographic data. The foundation of the data model is Arc Marine, a framework specification for geospatial oceanographic databases that provides structures for containing the basic data types used in oceanographic research. Arc Marine also allows design extensions to account for application specific data structures as demonstrated through incorporation of aspects of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 19115 Geographic Information–Metadata standard. The ISO 19115 standard provides structures for recording the historic processing of the data sets. The data model is used to construct a database in the open source database management system (DBMS) PostgreSQL. The resulting system also incorporates the concept of user exits, the seamless extension of the DBMS through inclusion of application‐specific software.
Papilla preservation technique combined with Emdogain in the treatment of intrabony defects: a novel treatment regimen for chronic periodontitis.

BACKGROUND Regenerative therapy with enamel matrix proteins derivative (EMD) was shown to induce periodontal regeneration in intrabony defects. However, the contribution of papilla preservation technique (PPT), to the clinical outcome of regenerative therapy is still not clarified. Therefore, we conducted the present study to evaluate clinically measurable results of a combined therapy by PPT and EMD in the treatment of isolated intrabony defects. METHODS Sixty isolated intrabony defects in 25 patients were surgically assessed with EMD and PPT. The clinical parameters: clinical attachment level (CAL), probing depth (PD) and gingival recession (GR) were evaluated at baseline and at three years. RESULTS The primary outcome variable was CAL. The sites treated with enamel matrix proteins demonstrated mean CAL change from 6.6+/-1.2 mm to 3.4+/-1.3 mm (p<0.001) and the mean PD was reduced from 5.9+/-1.0 mm to 2.7+/-0.8 mm (p<0.001) after three years. The mean GR decreased from 0.71+/-1.2 mm to 0.64+/-1.1 mm (p<0.821). CONCLUSIONS The results of the present case cohort study indicate that PPT combined with EMD resulted in significant improvement of the clinical parameters in the treatment of intrabony defects in chronic periodontitis.
α-Catenin is an inhibitor of transcription

Significance Recent studies have shown that actin-binding and -regulating proteins, originally characterized in the context of cytoskeletal events, can also modify gene expression through directly impacting actin-dependent transcription. This study shows α-catenin (α-cat), an actin-binding protein that is essential for cell–cell adhesion and contact-dependent growth inhibition, can antagonize Wnt/β-catenin–mediated transcription and impact nuclear actin properties, suggesting that these events may be related. These findings establish α-cat as one of a growing list of actin-binding proteins that can modulate transcription, possibly by controlling actin dynamics in the nucleus. α-Catenin (α-cat) is an actin-binding protein required for cell–cell cohesion. Although this adhesive function for α-cat is well appreciated, cells contain a substantial amount of nonjunctional α-cat that may be used for other functions. We show that α-cat is a nuclear protein that can interact with β-catenin (β-cat) and T-cell factor (TCF) and that the nuclear accumulation of α-cat depends on β-cat. Using overexpression, knockdown, and chromatin immunoprecipitation approaches, we show that α-cat attenuates Wnt/β-cat–responsive genes in a manner that is downstream of β-cat/TCF loading on promoters. Both β-cat– and actin-binding domains of α-cat are required to inhibit Wnt signaling. A nuclear-targeted form of α-cat induces the formation of nuclear filamentous actin, whereas cells lacking α-cat show altered nuclear actin properties. Formation of nuclear actin filaments correlates with reduced RNA synthesis and altered chromatin organization. Conversely, nuclear extracts made from cells lacking α-cat show enhanced general transcription in vitro, an activity that can be partially rescued by restoring the C-terminal actin-binding region of α-cat. These data demonstrate that α-cat may limit gene expression by affecting nuclear actin organization.
eBSP: Managing NoC traffic for BSP workloads on the 16-core Adapteva Epiphany-III processor

We can deliver high performance and energy efficient operation on the multi-core NoC-based Adapteva Epiphany-III SoC for bulk-synchronous workloads using our proposed eBSP communication API. We characterize and automate performance tuning of spatial parallelism for supporting (1) random access load-store style traffic suitable for irregular sparse computations, as well as (2) variable, data-dependent traffic patterns in neural networks or PageRank-style workloads in a manner tailored for the Epiphany NoC. We aggressively optimize traffic by exposing spatial communication structure to the fabric through offline pre-computation of destination addresses, unrolling of message-passing loops, selective squelching of messages, and careful ordering of communication and compute. Using our approach, across a range of applications and datasets such as Sparse Matrix-Vector multiplication (Matrix Market datasets), PageRank (BerkStan SNAP dataset), and Izhikevich spiking neural evaluation, we deliver speedups of 6.5–10x while lowering power use by 2x over optimized ARM-based mappings. When compared to optimized OpenMP x86 mappings, we observe a 11–31x improvement in energy efficiency (GFLOP/s/W) for the Epiphany SoC. Epiphany is also able to beat state-of-the-art spatial FPGA (ZC706) and embedded GPU (Jetson TK1) mappings due to our communication optimizations. Our library is open-source and available at github.com/sidmontu/ebsp.git.
Determinants of Elderly Living Arrangements : Panel Multinomial Logit Estimates from Aging in Manitoba Longitudinal Data , Canada

Linking Aging In Manitoba (AIM) longitudinal survey data with long-term care use data, this paper for the first time analyzes the determinants of elderly living arrangements using panel multinomial logit models. It is found that a random effects multinomial logit model that accounts for unobserved individual heterogeneity is more appropriate than a simple multinomial logit model. Since home care received and home ownership variables in the current period are potentially endogenous in a living arrangement choice model, we construct and use home care received preceding the survey year and past home ownership as instrumental variables. After controlling for relevant socio-demographic factors and accounting for unobserved heterogeneity, we find that home care and home ownership reduce the probability of living in a nursing home. As found in most of the previous studies, age is a strong predictor of nursing home entry. Married people are less likely to be institutionalized and to cohabit than widows, widowers, separated and divorced, and those who lived longer in the community are more likely to live independently and less likely to be institutionalized. Those who are healthy are more likely to live independently and less likely to cohabit or enter a nursing home. JEL Classification: J14, I18, I11
Beamforming Capacity Optimization for Rician MIMO Wireless Channels

The beamformer that maximizes the ergodic beamforming capacity under correlated (or uncorrelated with non-unit covariance matrix) Rician MISO channels can be calculated in the context of a simple one-dimensional optimization problem, according to the solution proposed in [1]. The present work extends this concept and provides a new simple and practically feasible solution for the corresponding Rician MIMO propagation channels. Simulation results demonstrate that: a. the optimum beamformer further improves capacity compared to the max SNR Beamformer, b. the proposed one-dimensional search method that is employed to solve the optimum beamforming problem has significantly lower computational complexity compared to currently used (multi-dimensional) algorithms.
Distribution of contacts from vestibulospinal axons on the dendrites of splenius motoneurons

Current descriptions of the organization of synapses on the dendritic trees of spinal motoneurons indicate that the inputs are arranged in several patterns: some are widely distributed; some are distributed to proximal dendrites; others are distributed based on the trajectory of the dendrites. However, the principles governing the organization of synapses on spinal motoneurons remain poorly defined. Our goal was to extend the descriptions of the distribution of synapses, identified by their source, on the dendritic trees of spinal motoneurons. We combined anterograde and intracellular staining techniques in cats to determine the distribution of contacts between excitatory axons from the rostral aspect of the descending vestibular nucleus and the dendrites of motoneurons supplying a dorsal neck muscle, splenius. In five of five motoneurons, the contacts were preferentially distributed on dendrites medial to the soma. This qualitative observation was confirmed by using Monte Carlo methods. The results from this analysis showed that the distribution of contacts can be explained not by the overall distribution of the dendritic membrane area but rather by a systematic innervation of the medial regions of the dendritic trees (P < 0.02). Despite this selectivity, there was no additional bias in the distribution of contacts to proximal vs. distal dendrites. By concentrating excitatory synapses in a restricted region of the dendritic tree, the actions of vestibulospinal connections on neck motoneurons may be increased as a result of a greater probability of activating persistent inward currents on the dendrites. J. Comp. Neurol. 491:339–351, 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Towards social integration of humanoid robots by conversational concept learning

Several real world applications of humanoids in general will require continuous service over a long time period. A humanoid robot operating in different environments over a long period of time means that A) there will be a lot of variation in the speech it has to ground semantically and B) it has to know when a conversation is of interest in order to respond.
TURBINE VALVE CONTROL BASED ON ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORKS

Conventional schemes of fast valving generate a fixed valve stroke sequence for the control of turbine valves under transient conditions. A simple fixed valve control sequence cannot give optimum result for different fault conditions and loading levels, due to its poor adaptability. This paper presents an artificial-neural- network (ANN) based controller to govern the operation of the turbine control and intercept valves under different fault conditions. A quasi-optimal scheme based on the generator speed deviation and accelerating power generates the valve control sequences under these fault cases. These sequences are further used to train the ANN- based controller. The simulation results show that an ANN-based controller has very good generalization capability. The results are compared with the conventional schemes of control. The ANN-based controller gives satisfactory stability performance for a variety of conditions.
Adaptive interpolation filters and high-resolution displacements for video coding

Standardized hybrid video coding systems are based on motion compensated prediction with fractional-pel displacement vector resolution. In the recent video coding standard H.264/AVC, a displacement vector resolution of 1/4-pel is applied. In order to estimate and compensate these fractional-pel displacements, interpolation filters are used. So far, these interpolation filters are invariant. The same filter with the same filter-coefficients is applied for all sequences and for all images of a sequence. Therefore, it is not possible to consider nonstationary statistical properties of the video signal and the motion compensated prediction process like aliasing, quantization errors, and displacement estimation errors. This paper presents two techniques that improve the motion compensated prediction and accordingly the coding efficiency. The first technique applies an adaptive interpolation filter that uses filter-coefficients which are adapted once per image. The adapted filter-coefficients are coded and transmitted. The second technique is based on an increased displacement vector resolution of 1/8-pel. In combination, the developed techniques indicate bit-rate reductions up to 25 % compared to H.264/AVC.
Early identification of children at risk for academic difficulties using standardized assessment: stability and predictive validity of preschool math and language scores

ABSTRACT Despite the claim by several researchers that variability in performance may complicate the identification of ‘at-risk’ children, variability in the academic performance of young children remains an undervalued area of research. The goal of this study is to examine the predictive validity for future scores and the score stability of two widely administered Dutch preschool tests. Specifically, the focus was on their suitability for identifying children that are at risk for academic difficulties. To evaluate at-risk identification using early standardized assessment, language and math scores were collected over a four-year period (N = 431). Score stability was evaluated by means of transition rates and score differences. Predictive validity was assessed using a mixed model. The majority of low-scoring children showed broad fluctuations in scores, although 12% to 17% did remain relatively stable in their scores. Correlations between preschool scores, and first- and second-grade language and math measurements were estimated at between . 09 and . 30. The longitudinal design of this study illustrates how assessment scores can fluctuate over time, which is a problem that may be inherent in this age group but one that warrants greater attention. This study provides a transparent evaluation of the suitability of assessments used for identifying children at risk for academic difficulties.
Novel Grating Design for Out-of-Plane Coupling With Nonuniform Duty Cycle

We propose a waveguide grating coupler with nonuniform duty cycle for the out-of-plane coupling of light from a planar waveguide to an optical fiber, and evaluate the optical performances based on Bloch-wave analysis. The mode profile and focusing performance of the diffracted output beam are investigated in terms of the duty cycle to improve optical coupling efficiency.
Hybrid analog and digital beamforming for space-constrained and energy-efficient massive MIMO wireless systems

Massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems can achieve high data rates due to the large number of antennas at the base station when it serves a small number of users. However, deploying massive MIMO in current mobile networks faces a lot of practical issues such as limited physical space and power consumption. Packing large number of antennas in a limited physical space makes spatial correlation between the base station antennas inevitable. In this paper, we study the effect of correlation and we investigate the effectiveness of increasing the number of antennas given limited physical space. Hybrid analog and digital MIMO decoding is adopted to exploit the large array gain at a lower cost and power consumption. Also, different antenna-array structures are investigated and compared in terms of power consumption versus performance.
Efficient experimental design and analysis of real-time PCR assays

Real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) is currently the standard for gene quantification studies and has been extensively used in large-scale basic and clinical research. The operational costs and technical errors can become a significant issue due to the large number of sample reactions. In this paper, we present an experimental design strategy and an analysis procedure that are more efficient requiring fewer sample reactions than the traditional approach. We verified mathematically and experimentally the new design on a well-characterized model, to evaluate the gene expression levels of CACNA1C and CACNA1G in hypertrophic ventricular myocytes induced by phenylephrine treatment.
Hostility toward Caregivers as a Selection Criterion for Transplantation

Researchers have focused on hostility and aggression of psychiatric patients but little is known about what effects transplant candidates' hostility toward their caregivers has on the care the candidates receive. Hostility is defined as any verbal, nonverbal, or physical behavior which threatens persons or property. Although hostility may be one of the precipitating factors in the need for an organ transplant, it may also be a response of the patient to his or her condition. This study focused on whether transplant coordinators felt that hostility should be used as a criterion for accepting or rejecting a transplant candidate. A nonexperimental descriptive survey design targeted 559 organ transplant coordinators who were members of the North American Transplant Coordinators Organization. Many coordinators in this study (62%) felt that a hostile candidate should not receive an organ transplant. Different methods of caring for hostile patients should be explored, especially for those who are antagonistic and who exhibit aggressive behaviors. Given the scarcity of donor organs, ethical principles must guide the allocation of these organs and the selection of transplant recipients.
Modulo-PCM: A new source coding scheme

A new source coding technique called MODULO-PCM (MPCM) is presented and it shown that this new scheme has essentially the same performance as linear predictive coding or transform coding. In contrast with the conventional schemes, MPCM employs a simple memoryless encoder and a moderately complex decoder incorporating the Viterbi algorithm. Bounds for distortion in MPCM systems fora first-order Gauss-Markov process are numerically calculated.
Antitumor effect of actinomycin D entrapped in liposomes bearing subunits of tumor-specific monoclonal immunoglobulin M antibody.

Sonicated liposomes containing actinomycin D in the membranes were chemically coated with the subunits of monoclonal immunoglobulin M (IgM) antibody against a mouse mammary tumor-associated antigen (MM antigen) and examined for their in vitro and in vivo antitumor effects against MM46 (MM+) and MM48 (MM-) tumors of C3H/He mouse origin. The antibody-bearing, actinomycin D-containing liposomes (chemoimmunoliposomes) were selectively bound to MM+ tumor cells and showed much more in vitro cytotoxicity against the tumor cells than that shown by free actinomycin D. The in vivo antitumor effect of the chemoimmunoliposomes was tested on the mammary tumor cells (5 X 10(4) to 5 X 10(6) transplanted i.p. into syngeneic mice. A single i.p. injection of the chemoimmunoliposomes containing 0.3, 0.5, or 1 microgram of actinomycin D into MM46 tumor-bearing mice resulted in the cure of some mice and a prolonged survival time in the rest of the mice as compared to results in controls. In this test, free actinomycin D, anti-MM IgM antibody, and bovine serum albumin-coated liposomes containing actinomycin D were marginally effective or ineffective. To examine a systemic antitumor effect of chemoimmunoliposomes, mice were inoculated with MM46 tumor cells and then treated with a single i.v. injection of liposomes 4 days later. If the mice were pretreated with an i.v. injection of unmodified multilamellar liposomes, an injection of the chemoimmunoliposomes containing 1 microgram of actinomycin D resulted in a significant inhibition of tumor growth. Both free actinomycin D and bovine serum albumin-coated liposomes containing actinomycin D were ineffective against the s.c. tumor. These results indicate that an antitumor drug entrapped in the membranes of small sonicated liposomes bearing antitumor monoclonal antibodies can be delivered to antigenic tumor cells and exert more efficient antitumor activity than does the free drug.