Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Aligning Popularity and Quality in Online Cultural Markets

Social influence is ubiquitous in cultural markets and plays an important role in recommendations for books, songs, and news articles to name only a few. Yet social influence is often presented in a bad light, often because it supposedly increases market unpredictability. Here we study a model of trial-offer markets, in which participants try products and later decide whether to purchase. We consider a simple policy which recovers product quality and ranks the products by quality when presenting them to market participants. We show that, in this setting, market efficiency always benefits from social influence. Moreover, we prove that the market converges almost surely to a monopoly for the product of highest quality, making the market both predictable and asymptotically optimal. Computational experiments confirm that the quality ranking policy quickly identifies "blockbusters", outperforms other policies, and is highly predictable.
A pharmacological analysis of high-affinity sodium transport in barley (Hordeum vulgare L.): a 24Na+/42K+ study

Soil sodium, while toxic to most plants at high concentrations, can be beneficial at low concentrations, particularly when potassium is limiting. However, little is known about Na+ uptake in this ‘high-affinity’ range. New information is provided here with an insight into the transport characteristics, mechanism, and ecological significance of this phenomenon. High-affinity Na+ and K+ fluxes were investigated using the short-lived radiotracers 24Na and 42K, under an extensive range of measuring conditions (variations in external sodium, and in nutritional and pharmacological agents). This work was supported by electrophysiological, compartmental, and growth analyses. Na+ uptake was extremely sensitive to all treatments, displaying properties of high-affinity K+ transporters, K+ channels, animal Na+ channels, and non-selective cation channels. K+, NH4+NH4+, and Ca2+ suppressed Na+ transport biphasically, yielding IC50 values of 30, 10, and <5 μM, respectively. Reciprocal experiments showed that K+ influx is neither inhibited nor stimulated by Na+. Sodium efflux constituted 65% of influx, indicating a futile cycle. The thermodynamic feasibility of passive channel mediation is supported by compartmentation and electrophysiological data. Our study complements recent advances in the molecular biology of high-affinity Na+ transport by uncovering new physiological foundations for this transport phenomenon, while questioning its ecological relevance.
Integrin Targeted Delivery of Gene Therapeutics

Integrins have become key targets for molecular imaging and for selective delivery of anti-cancer agents. Here we review recent work concerning the targeted delivery of antisense and siRNA oligonucleotides via integrins. A variety of approaches have been used to link oligonucleotides to ligands capable of binding integrins with high specificity and affinity. This includes direct chemical conjugation, incorporating oligonucleotides into lipoplexes, and use of various polymeric nanocarriers including dendrimers. The ligand-oligonucleotide conjugate or complex associates selectively with the integrin, followed by internalization into endosomes and trafficking through subcellular compartments. Escape of antisense or siRNA from the endosome to the cytosol and nucleus may come about through endogenous trafficking mechanisms, or because of membrane disrupting capabilities built into the conjugate or complex. Thus a variety of useful strategies are available for using integrins to enhance the pharmacological efficacy of therapeutic oligonucleotides.
Paperbox: a toolkit for exploring tangible interaction on interactive surfaces

There is a well-established culture of early prototyping when designing digital interactive systems, such as paper prototyping and wireframe methods. The culture of designing physical objects is somewhat different: early explorations of form is still prototyped via 2D sketches or renderings, but - mostly because of the construction effort involved - prototyping of actual physical objects is deferred to later stages. A problem occurs when designing mixed physical-digital systems, such as tangible user interfaces (TUIs) on interactive surfaces: the high degree of interactivity means that early prototyping is vital, yet there is no viable process for prototyping both the physical and digital aspects simultaneously on a low-fidelity (low-fi) level. Our solution is Paperbox, a toolkit for exploring design ideas for tangible interaction on interactive surfaces. It supports the early exploration of different form factors and immediately provides digital interactivity for the low-fidelity TUI prototypes built with it. We observed our toolkit in use in various settings: as a brainstorming tool by junior designers; in the development of a consumer electronics product in a large industrial company by senior designers; and in a usability study comparing the effect of different levels of fidelity on the outcome. The lessons learnt will enable others to replicate and extend our approach.
Uncertainty and sensitivity analysis: tools for GIS-based model implementation

A novel procedure to analyse the uncertainty associated to the output of GIS-based models is presented. The procedure can handle models of any degree of complexity that accept any kind of input data. Two important aspects of spatial modelling are addressed: the propagation of uncertainty from model inputs and model parameters up to the model output (uncertainty analysis); and the assessment of the relative importance of the sources of uncertainty in the output uncertainty (sensitivity analysis). Two main applications are proposed. The procedure allows implementation of a GIS-based model whose output can reliably support the decision process with an optimized allocation of resources for spatial data acquisition. This is possible in low cost strategy, based on numerical simulations on a small prototype of the GIS-based model. Furthermore, the procedure provides an effective model building tool to choose, from a group of alternative models, the best one in terms of cost-benefit analysis. A comprehensive case study is described. It concerns the implementation of a new GIS-based hydrologic model, whose goal is providing near real-time flood forecasting.
VisANT 3.0: new modules for pathway visualization, editing, prediction and construction

With the integration of the KEGG and Predictome databases as well as two search engines for coexpressed genes/proteins using data sets obtained from the Stanford Microarray Database (SMD) and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database, VisANT 3.0 supports exploratory pathway analysis, which includes multi-scale visualization of multiple pathways, editing and annotating pathways using a KEGG compatible visual notation and visualization of expression data in the context of pathways. Expression levels are represented either by color intensity or by nodes with an embedded expression profile. Multiple experiments can be navigated or animated. Known KEGG pathways can be enriched by querying either coexpressed components of known pathway members or proteins with known physical interactions. Predicted pathways for genes/proteins with unknown functions can be inferred from coexpression or physical interaction data. Pathways produced in VisANT can be saved as computer-readable XML format (VisML), graphic images or high-resolution Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG). Pathways in the format of VisML can be securely shared within an interested group or published online using a simple Web link. VisANT is freely available at http://visant.bu. edu.
Fabrication of YBa/sub 2/Cu/sub 3/O/sub 7/ ramp-type junctions by interface treatments

We have investigated ramp-type junctions with barriers fabricated by interface treatments instead of epitaxially grown barrier layers. In our approach, YBa/sub 2/Cu/sub 3/O/sub 7/ ramps were treated with Ar ions in a Kaufmann-type source and subsequently annealed prior to the deposition of the top electrode. The I-V curves of the junctions as well as the power dependence of the Shapiro step height can be well described by the RSJ-model. At 77 K the critical current density is 10 kA/cm/sup 2/, and the critical voltage is about 30 /spl mu/V. The strong modulation of the critical current with external magnetic field indicates the formation of a homogeneous barrier layer at the interface. The temperature dependence of critical current and normal resistance suggests a metallic barrier as interface layer.
Advances in Brief Helicobacter pylori VacA Toxin UpRegulates Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Expression in MKN 28 Gastric Cells through an Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor-, Cyclooxygenase-2-dependent Mechanism 1

Purpose: Helicobacter pylori causes gastric damage and is involved in gastric carcinogenesis. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) plays a major role in gastric mucosa repair and is overexpressed in gastric cancer. We investigated: (a) whether H. pylori, and in particular H. pylori VacA toxin, affected VEGF expression in gastric epithelial cells in culture; and (b) the signal transduction pathway involved in any effect exerted by H. pylori. Experimental Design: MKN-28 cells were incubated with uninoculated BCF (control) or with BCF obtained from VacA-producing wild-type H. pylori 60190 strain or from its isogenic mutant 60190:v1, specifically lacking vacA gene in the presence or absence of ZD 1839, a selective inhibitor of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase, PD098059, a selective inhibitor of mitogen-activated protein (MAP)/extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) kinase, the kinase responsible for ERK phosphorylation, or SC-236, a selective inhibitor of cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 for 24–48 h. Results: (a) Toxigenic H. pylori up-regulated VEGF mRNA and protein expression and caused a 2.5-fold increase in VEGF release compared with control, whereas nontoxigenic H. pylori did not; (b) H. pylori VacA toxininduced up-regulation of VEGF was counteracted by selective inhibition of EGFR tyrosine kinase; (c) toxigenic H. pylori activated the ERK/MAP kinase cascade, and inhibition of MAP kinase activation counteracted H. pyloriinduced VEGF up-regulation; (d) toxigenic H. pylori upregulated COX-2 expression, and this effect was counteracted by blockade of EGFR tyrosine kinase; and (e) COX-2 selective inhibition counteracted H. pylori-induced up-regulation of VEGF. Conclusion: (a) H. pylori up-regulates VEGF expression in gastric epithelial cells; and (b) this effect is specifically related to VacA toxin and seems to depend on the activation of an EGFR-, MAP kinase-, and COX-2-mediated pathway.
Multiple Imputation to Correct for Measurement Error in Admixture Estimates in Genetic Structured Association Testing

Objectives: Structured association tests (SAT), like any statistical model, assumes that all variables are measured without error. Measurement error can bias parameter estimates and confound residual variance in linear models. It has been shown that admixture estimates can be contaminated with measurement error causing SAT models to suffer from the same afflictions. Multiple imputation (MI) is presented as a viable tool for correcting measurement error problems in SAT linear models with emphasis on correcting measurement error contaminated admixture estimates. Methods: Several MI methods are presented and compared, via simulation, in terms of controlling Type I error rates for both non-additive and additive genotype coding. Results: Results indicate that MI using the Rubin or Cole method can be used to correct for measurement error in admixture estimates in SAT linear models. Conclusion: Although MI can be used to correct for admixture measurement error in SAT linear models, the data should be of reasonable quality, in terms of marker informativeness, because the method uses the existing data to borrow information in which to make the measurement error corrections. If the data are of poor quality there is little information to borrow to make measurement error corrections.
Overview of Nucleic Acid Analysis

This unit discusses the general applicability of nucleic‐acid analytical methods in both basic and clinical research. After immunophenotyping, analysis of nucleic acids is perhaps the most common application of flow cytometry. The methodologies are of particular interest for researchers in basic and clinical oncology, as they provide information on cell attributes associated with tumor malignancy, and are widely used in various areas of cell and molecular biology.
Gaussian Mixture Model Using Semisupervised Learning for Probabilistic Fault Diagnosis Under New Data Categories

Fault diagnosis has played a vital role in industry to prevent operation hazards and failures. To overcome the limitation of conventional diagnosis approaches, which misclassify new types of faults into existing categories from training, a novel probabilistic diagnosis framework will be proposed in this paper for effective detection on new data categories. Gaussian mixture model (GMM) is applied for the pattern recognition, while its training procedure is improved from conventional unsupervised learning to novel semisupervised learning. Even with unlabeled training data, component number in our GMM can be autoselected instead of predetermined. For online testing, the probabilistic classification results from GMM’s soft assignment assist to improve overall diagnosis framework, which is able to first detect whether new types of faults occur and further categorize them in detail via the GMM update. The effectiveness of our fault diagnosis framework is testified on an industrial fault simulator of rotary machine and the partial discharge measurement of various high-voltage electronic equipment components. Compared with existing approaches, our probabilistic diagnosis framework is able to achieve an average diagnosis accuracy of 97.9% without new data categories and it can also classify new data categories with diagnosis accuracy of at least 86.3% if occurred.
Cohort Profile Cohort Profile : Footprints in Time , the Australian Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children

Indigenous Australians experience profound levels of disadvantage in health, living standards, life expectancy, education and employment, particularly in comparison with non-Indigenous Australians. Very little information is available about the healthy development of Australian Indigenous children; the Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children (LSIC) is designed to fill this knowledge gap. This dataset provides an opportunity to follow the development of up to 1759 Indigenous children. LSIC conducts annual face-to-face interviews with children (aged 0.5–2 and 3.5–5 years at baseline in 2008) and their caregivers. This represents between 5% and 10% of the total population of Indigenous children in these age groups, including families of varied socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds. Study topics include: the physical, social and emotional well-being of children and their caregivers; language; culture; parenting; and early childhood education. LSIC is a shared resource, formed in partnership with communities; its data are readily accessible through the Australian Government Department of Social Services (see http:// dss.gov.au/lsic for data and access arrangements). As one of very few longitudinal studies of Indigenous children, and the only national one, LSIC will enable an understanding of Indigenous children from a wide range of environments and cultures. Findings from LSIC form part of a growing infrastructure from which to understand Indigenous child health. VC The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Epidemiological Association 789 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions@oup.com International Journal of Epidemiology, 2015, 789–800 doi: 10.1093/ije/dyu122 Advance Access Publication Date: 9 July 2014
Fast Retrieval by Spatial Structure in Image Databases

Abstract The state-of-the-art approach for speeding-up the time responses in databases is using Spatial Access Methods (SAMs) like e.g. R-trees. However, these methods do not treat image content directly (e.g. objects are approximated by their minimum bounding rectangles), nor can they handle images with multiple regions. The proposed approach extends the existing framework of indexing using SAMs to treat image content in conjunction with two well-known image-matching methods, namely the editing distance on Attributed Relational Graphs (ARGs) and the Hungarian method for graph matching. It provides index support for the two most common types of similarity queries, referred to as range andnearest-neighbor queries and has many desirable properties. For instance, it handles even complex queries specifying multiple objects (such as queries by image example), it returns exactly the same answers with the sequential scan methods (without indexing) and works with any SAM (e.g. R-tress) and with any image distance function provided that it satisfies the so-calledLower Bounding Principle .
Reasoning the fast and frugal way: models of bounded rationality.

Humans and animals make inferences about the world under limited time and knowledge. In contrast, many models of rational inference treat the mind as a Laplacean Demon, equipped with unlimited time, knowledge, and computational might. Following H. Simon's notion of satisfying, the authors have proposed a family of algorithms based on a simple psychological mechanism: one-reason decision making. These fast and frugal algorithms violate fundamental tenets of classical rationality: They neither look up nor integrate all information. By computer simulation, the authors held a competition between the satisfying "Take The Best" algorithm and various "rational" inference procedures (e.g., multiple regression). The Take The Best algorithm matched or outperformed all competitors in inferential speed and accuracy. This result in an existence proof that cognitive mechanisms capable of successful performance in the real world do not need to satisfy the classical norms of rational inference.
Intestinal Subepithelial Myofibroblasts Support in vitro and in vivo Growth of Human Small Intestinal Epithelium

The intestinal crypt-niche interaction is thought to be essential to the function, maintenance, and proliferation of progenitor stem cells found at the bases of intestinal crypts. These stem cells are constantly renewing the intestinal epithelium by sending differentiated cells from the base of the crypts of Lieberkühn to the villus tips where they slough off into the intestinal lumen. The intestinal niche consists of various cell types, extracellular matrix, and growth factors and surrounds the intestinal progenitor cells. There have recently been advances in the understanding of the interactions that regulate the behavior of the intestinal epithelium and there is great interest in methods for isolating and expanding viable intestinal epithelium. However, there is no method to maintain primary human small intestinal epithelium in culture over a prolonged period of time. Similarly no method has been published that describes isolation and support of human intestinal epithelium in an in vivo model. We describe a technique to isolate and maintain human small intestinal epithelium in vitro from surgical specimens. We also describe a novel method to maintain human intestinal epithelium subcutaneously in a mouse model for a prolonged period of time. Our methods require various growth factors and the intimate interaction between intestinal sub-epithelial myofibroblasts (ISEMFs) and the intestinal epithelial cells to support the epithelial in vitro and in vivo growth. Absence of these myofibroblasts precluded successful maintenance of epithelial cell formation and proliferation beyond just a few days, even in the presence of supportive growth factors. We believe that the methods described here can be used to explore the molecular basis of human intestinal stem cell support, maintenance, and growth.
Evaluation of bone quality in osteoporosis model mice by Raman spectroscopy

To evaluate the bone quality in the osteoporosis, we generated sciatic nerve resection (NX) mice as an osteoporosis model and analyzed by Raman spectroscopy. Raman spectra were measured in anterior cortical surface of the proximal tibia at 5 points in each bone. After that, the samples were fixed with 70% ethanol. We then performed DXA and μCT measurement. Raman peak intensity ratios were significantly different between NX and Control. Those changes in the Raman peak intensity ratios may reflect loss of bone quality in the osteoporosis model. Raman spectroscopy is a promising technique for measuring the bone quality and bone strength.
S26 ribosomal protein RNA: an invariant control for gene regulation experiments in eucaryotic cells and tissues.

In the course of studies looldng for differenially expressed genes, we isolated as a control a cDNA hybridizing to a highly and constantly expressed RNA. Further characterization of the hamster and human full-length cDNAs showed that they correspond to ribosomal protein S26 RNA. Sequence comparison revealed a very high degree of conservation at the proteic level amongst distantly related eukaryotic organisms such as man and Drosophila. The S26 gene is expressed as a 600-700 bases long RNA at high and constuan level in human adult tissues and in mammalian cell lines cultured in different physiological contexts. This mRNA therefore represents a very suitable invariant standard for all experiments involving RNA quantification. Only a few probes, including glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH), (3-actin and (32-microglobulin, are available for controling RNA levels on Northern blots, in RNAse mapping procedures or run-on assays. Several years ago, we isolated and used a set of GAPDH cDNAs as a control to monitor gene regulation experiments, as the level of the corresponding RNA remains unaltered in cells treated by various drugs, such as cycloheximide, or actinomycinD (1-3). Since then, the use of GAPDH probe became so widespread that detection kits have been made available for the monitoring of RT-PCR reactions.
Thermal Investigation of Permanent-Magnet Synchronous Motor for Aerospace Applications

This paper concerns the thermal investigation of a surface-mounted permanent-magnet synchronous motor designed for high-temperature aerospace actuation applications. A finite-element package was developed, enabling accurate 3-D transient thermal analysis by considering complex and unsymmetrical actuator housing configurations. Its validity was verified by measurements carried out at different duty cycles and operating conditions.
Towards a Dynamic Linkage of Example-Based and Rule- Based Machine Translation

As a result of a long-standing co-operation between IAI and IPPI in the area of MT (Machine Translation), IAI and IPPI started to develop and implement an advanced plug-in software module, a Case-Based Analysis and Generation Module (CBAG), which serves as a front-end for conventional rule-based machine translation systems (RBMT). The principal idea of CBAG is to combine the advantages of two machine translation ideologies: RBMT, on the one hand, and Translation Memories (TM), on the other hand, which, in our opinion, will drastically improve the quality of machine translation, ensure a stronger performance, and contribute to better maintainability and adaptability of the MT systems involved.