Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
State constraints for the multiple-access arbitrarily varying channel

A discrete multiple-access arbitrarily varying channel with two transmitters and one receiver is considered. It has recently been shown that if such a channel is symmetrizable, then the capacity region has an empty interior. It is shown that if the channel is subject to a suitable state constraint, then the capacity region can contain certain open rectangles and thereby possess a nonempty interior, even if the channel is symmetrizable. A new weak converse under a state constraint is also proved. These results are then used to establish the capacity region of the two-user adder channel under state constraint 1/2. >
ZFP36L1 is regulated by growth factors and cytokines in keratinocytes and influences their VEGF production

Keratinocyte-derived growth factors and cytokines play an important role in epidermal homeostasis and particularly in cutaneous wound repair. Thus, we analyzed a potential role of the ZFP36/tristetraprolin family of zinc finger proteins, which are targets of these factors, but also regulate their production, in keratinocytes. We show that expression of ZFP36, ZFP36L1, and ZFP36L2 is induced by a broad variety of growth factors and cytokines, and by scratch wounding. Since ZFP36L1 is a modulator of vascular endothelium growth factor (VEGF) mRNA stability, we subsequently used siRNA technology to inhibit ZFP36L1 gene expression. Notably, this treatment resulted in prolonged maintenance of elevated VEGF levels in HaCaT keratinocytes upon epidermal growth factor stimulation of these cells. Taken together, our results suggest an important role of ZFP36L1 in wound healing.
Electron, photon, and ion beams from the relativistic interaction of Petawatt laser pulses with solid targets

In recent Petawatt laser experiments at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, several hundred joules of 1 μm laser light in 0.5–5.0-ps pulses with intensities up to 3×1020 W cm−2 were incident on solid targets and produced a strongly relativistic interaction. The energy content, spectra, and angular patterns of the photon, electron, and ion radiations have all been diagnosed in a number of ways, including several novel (to laser physics) nuclear activation techniques. About 40%–50% of the laser energy is converted to broadly beamed hot electrons. Their beam centroid direction varies from shot to shot, but the resulting bremsstrahlung beam has a consistent width. Extraordinarily luminous ion beams (primarily protons) almost precisely normal to the rear of various targets are seen—up to 3×1013 protons with kTion∼several MeV representing ∼6% of the laser energy. Ion energies up to at least 55 MeV are observed. The ions appear to originate from the rear target surfaces. The edge of the ion beam is very shar.
Story Comprehension through Argumentation

This paper presents a novel application of argumentation for automated Story Comprehension (SC). It uses argumentation to develop a computational ap- proach for SC as this is understood and studied in psychology. Argumentation provides uniform solutions to various representational and reasoning problems re- quired for SC such as the frame, ramification, and qualification problems, as well as the problem of contrapositive reasoning with default information. The grounded semantics of argumentation provides a suitable basis for the construction and re- vision of comprehension models, through the synthesis of the explicit information from the narrative in the text with the implicit (in the reader 's mind) common sense world knowledge pertaining to the topic(s) of the story given in the text. We re- port on the empirical evaluation of the approach through a prototype system and its ability to capture both the majority and the variability o f understanding of sto- ries by human readers. This application of argumentation can provide an important test-bed for the more general development of computational argumentation.
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO JOINTLY LEARNING MULTIPLE SIMILARITY METRICS FROM TRIPLET CONSTRAINTS A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE DIVISION OF THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE BY

The measure of similarity plays a crucial role in many applications such as content-based recommendation, image search and speech recognition. Similarity between objects is multifaceted and it is easier to judge similarity when the focus is on a specific aspect. We consider the problem of mapping objects into view specific embeddings where the distance between them is consistent with the similarity comparisons of the form “from the t-th perspective, object A is more similar to B than to C”. We propose a framework to jointly learn multiple views by deploying different similarity metrics in a unified embedding space. Our approach is a natural extension of the view-wise independent approach and is capable of exploiting the correlation between the views if it exists. Experiments on a number of datasets, including a large dataset of multi-view crowdsourced comparison on bird images, showed the proposed method achieved lower triplet generalization error and better grouping of classes in most cases, when compared to learning embeddings independently for each view or learning a single embedding from triplets collected on all views. More specifically, on datasets where correlation between views is strong, the proposed method is able to achieve significant improvement, while on datasets with limited view correlation, it still performs no worse than its independent learning counterpart.
Targeted Disruption of the Meprin β Gene in Mice Leads to Underrepresentation of Knockout Mice and Changes in Renal Gene Expression Profiles

ABSTRACT Meprins are multidomain zinc metalloproteases that are highly expressed in mammalian kidney and intestinal brush border membranes and in leukocytes and certain cancer cells. Mature meprins are oligomers of evolutionarily related, separately encoded α and/or β subunits. Homooligomers of meprin α are secreted; oligomers containing meprin β are plasma membrane associated. Meprin substrates include bioactive peptides and extracellular matrix proteins. Meprins have been implicated in cancer and intestinal inflammation. Additionally, meprin β is a candidate gene for diabetic nephropathy. To elucidate in vivo functions of these metalloproteases, meprin β null mice were generated by targeted disruption of the meprin β gene on mouse chromosome 18q12. Analyses of meprin β knockout mice indicated that (i) 50% fewer null mice are born than the Mendelian distribution predicts, (ii) null mice that survive develop normally and are viable and fertile, (iii) meprin β knockout mice lack membrane-associated meprin α in kidney and intestine, and (iv) null mice have changes in renal gene expression profiles compared to wild-type mice as assessed by microarray analyses. Thus, disruption of the meprin β allele in mice affects embryonic viability, birth weight, renal gene expression profiles, and the distribution of meprin α in kidney and intestine.
An Efficient Boosting Approach for Score Level Fusion of Face and Palmprint Biometrics in Human Recognition

: Biometrics based personal identification is regarded as an effective method for automatically recognizing a person’s identity with confidence. A multimodal biometric system consolidates the evidence presented by multiple biometric sources and typically better recognition performance compare to systems based on a single biometric modality. This paper proposes a novel multipartite algorithm for score level fusion of multimodal biometric system identification using two biometric features i.e. face and palmprint. Multimodal biometric system is developed through fusion of face and palmprint recognition system. Further, to evaluate the performance of boosting-based fusion methods, experimental tests are carried over PolyU and CASIA databases. A comparative study is done by using different classification techniques on two databases.
A meta‐analysis of the prognostic significance of atrial fibrillation in chronic heart failure

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is one of the commonest sustained arrhythmias in chronic heart failure (CHF), although the prognostic implications of the presence of AF in CHF remain controversial. We have therefore performed this meta‐analysis to study the effects of the presence of AF on mortality in CHF patients.
Survivor profiles predict health behavior intent: the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study

Objectives: To determine whether unique groups of adult childhood cancer survivors could be defined on the basis of modifiable cognitive, affective, and motivation indicators. Secondary objectives were to examine to what extent group membership co‐varied with more static variables (e.g. demographics, disease, and treatment) and predicted intent for subsequent medical follow‐up.
Cutting Edge: Chronic Inflammatory Liver Disease in Mice Expressing a CD28-Specific Ligand

Inflammation of the normally tolerant liver microenvironment precedes the development of chronic liver disease. Study of the pathogenesis of autoimmune liver diseases, such as autoimmune hepatitis (AIH), has been hampered by a lack of autochthonous chronic animal models. Through our studies of T cell costimulation, we generated transgenic mice expressing a ligand specific for the CD28 receptor, which normally shares ligands with the related inhibitory receptor CTLA-4. The mice spontaneously develop chronic inflammatory liver disease with several pathologies found in AIH, including elevated serum aminotransferases in the context of normal alkaline phosphatase and bilirubin levels, lymphocytic inflammation, focal necrosis, oval cell hyperplasia, and fibrosis. The prevalence of IFN-γ–producing CD8+ T cells in the livers of transgenic mice suggests a role for autoimmune cytotoxicity in the chronic disease state. The CD28 ligand–specific transgenic mice will facilitate evaluation of CD8+ T cell function in liver disease pathologies found in AIH.
A panoramic endoscope design and implementation for Minimally Invasive Surgery

Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) is a current major technique for surgery. Compared to traditional methods of surgery, MIS can reduce the post-surgical recovery time, cost and pain to patients due to surgery. It is therefore in the interest of doctors and patients. There are several MIS techniques that have been widely accepted for diagnosis and treatment in most hospitals, such as hysteroscopy, laparoscopy, and colon endoscopy. The major problem of MIS is a narrow field of vision. We develop and validate a MIS Panoramic Endoscope (MISPE) to provide doctors with broad fields of view. MISPE features a combination of image overlapping and image stitching. The panoramic image apparatus has two side-by-side endoscopic lenses that provide wide-angle inputs for image stitching. MISPE can provide doctors with panoramic images, so that doctors can easily discriminate the organ's positions between surgery operations. Experimental results show that MISPE can enhance the image size up to 155%. The whole system is validated by personal computer. The animal vivo experimental videos have been successfully validated.
A dynamic fault localization algorithm using digraph

Analyzed here is a dynamic learning fault localization algorithm based on directed graph fault propagation model and feedback control. Input and output of the algorithm are named as fault and hypothesis respectively. Because of the complexity and uncertainty of fault and symptom, it's difficult to accurately model the relationship of them in probabilistic fault localization. Fault localization algorithm depends on the prior specified model, and the parameter and structure of model is approximate correct and often differ from the real situation. So we propose DMCA+ algorithm which has 3 features: reduce the requirement for accuracy of initial conditions; statistically learn to automatically adapt the probability distribution of fault occurrence while localizing fault; generalize the MCA+ algorithm of no feedback. The feedback learning is similar with proportional adjusting of PID control, but increment is sensitive to detection rate because little increment adjusts output too slowly and big will result in a large number of error hypotheses. The simulation results show the validity and efficiency of dynamic learning under complex network. In order to promote detection rate, optimizing measures are also discussed.
A telematic based antenatal care demonstrator

This paper describes an experience carried out in Portugal in the area of antenatal care. A telematic based system is being implemented on a region of very high perinatal death rate enabling integration of services, remote access to expert advice and identification of high risk pregnancies. Considering the methodology used during early stages of the implementation, the system is an example of a general model of health care integration that may be used as a framework for other systems aiming at to integrate different levels of health care.
The utilization of VP 28 gene to protect penaeid shrimps from white spot syndrome virus disease : a review

White spot syndrome (WSS) is a viral disease which affects most of the commercially cultivated marine shrimp species all over the world causing significant losses. Deaths occur within days of symptoms and affect a diverse range of commercial crustacean species. A heavy mortality is usually observed in the entire infected population. Survival rates can be anywhere from 30% to zero. Consequently, tools with the capability to effectively and timely detect the diseases have been developed to prevent and contain these pathogens. White spot syndrome virus (WSSV) envelope protein VP28 gene is widely used because its ability to bind to the surface of shrimp epithelial cells and might promote innate immune recognition of WSSV. Its recombinant protein was expressed in various expression systems and used as recombinant vaccine or immunostimulant to increase shrimp survival against WSSV. An anti-body against VP28 was successfully used in virus neutralization assay. A DNA vaccine encoding VP28 gene also provided long-term and high levels of protection against WSSV. Moreover, RNA interference (RNAi) resulted in endogenous RNA sequence-specific degradation to silence VP28 gene expression as well as induced an immune response against virus using non-specific dsRNA in shrimp. However, in order to use VP28 on a commercial scale in the shrimp industry, there are several concerns that need to be addressed such as storage, delivery methodology, protection efficiency; protection period and ensuring that it can be produced in large scale. All these methods might lead to the new strategies to control WSSV using the VP28 gene in future.
Arterial stiffness correlated with cardiac remodelling in patients with chronic kidney disease

Background: It is well known that both pressure and volume overloads contribute to left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) and left ventricular dilatation in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Few studies have evaluated the association between increased pulse wave velocity (PWV) and LVH in CKD patients not yet receiving dialysis. The purpose of this study was to assess the relationship between arterial stiffness and cardiac remodelling in patients with CKD, and to determine the independent factors associated with increased left ventricular mass index (LVMI) and left ventricular volume index (LVVI).
Short-term effects of triiodothyronine on thyroid hormone receptor alpha by PI3K pathway in adipocytes, 3T3-L1.

OBJECTIVE The present study aimed to examine the effects of thyroid hormone (TH), more precisely triiodothyronine (T3), on the modulation of TH receptor alpha (TRα) mRNA expression and the involvement of the phosphatidyl inositol 3 kinase (PI3K) signaling pathway in adipocytes, 3T3-L1, cell culture. MATERIALS AND METHODS It was examined the involvement of PI3K pathway in mediating T3 effects by treating 3T3-L1 adipocytes with physiological (P=10nM) or supraphysiological (SI =100 nM) T3 doses during one hour (short time), in the absence or the presence of PI3K inhibitor (LY294002). The absence of any treatment was considered the control group (C). RT-qPCR was used for mRNA expression analyzes. For data analyzes ANOVA complemented with Tukey's test was used at 5% significance level. RESULTS T3 increased TRα mRNA expression in P (1.91±0.13, p<0.001), SI (2.14±0.44, p<0.001) compared to C group (1±0.08). This increase was completely abrogated by LY294002 in P (0.53±0.03, p<0.001) and SI (0.31±0.03, p<0.001). To examine whether TRα is directly induced by T3, we used the translation inhibitor cycloheximide (CHX). The presence of CHX completely abrogated levels TRα mRNA in P (1.15±0.05, p>0.001) and SI (0.99±0.15, p>0.001), induced by T3. CONCLUSION These results demonstrate that the activation of the PI3K signaling pathway has a role in T3-mediated indirect TRα gene expression in 3T3-L1 adipocytes.
BRIDGING SCALES BY USING DISCRETE-PARTICLES IN MODELING COMPLEX FLUIDS

Macroscopic phenomena can couple together with microscopic events creating complex feedback dynamics. When the changes in the microscale involved by macroscopic behavior : 1. can be modeled by downscaling of the macroscopic models, 2. follow assumed constitutive relations, 3. do not violate the assumptions of mass, momenta and energy continuity, then the continuum model can be regarded as a cross-scale solver, which adequately illustrate the behavior of the entire system in multiple spatio-temporal scales. For less well-defined situations, when the influence of cumulated microscopic effects on the system behavior cannot be explained within the continuum model, the cross-scale computer simulation becomes essential for predicting temporal evolution of the entire system. The cross-scale endeavor should be regarded as a computer model, which couples the macroscopic and microscopic properties of the system. Because of the methodological and computational difficulty of this approach, new homogeneous methods, which can provide a bridge between the microscopic and macroscopic worlds , are in great demand. In this paper I present briefly the components of computational ly homogeneous discrete-particles model including non-equilibrium molecular dynamics (NEMD), dissipative particle dynamics (DPD), fluid particle method (FPM), smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) and thermodynamically consistent DPD, which can be used for hierarchical modeling of complex fluids in various spatio-temporal scales. Many examples are presented, which come from 2D and 3D computer simulations of complex fluids and colloidal suspensions. The resulting structures reveal complex multi-resolution patterns, similar to those occurring in realistic complex fluids, and mimicking single micelle, colloidal crystals, largescale colloidal aggregates up to the mesoscopic processes of hydrodynamic instabilities in the bulk of colloidal suspensions and blood flow in capillaries.
High Gain Multiband Stacked DRA for WiMax and WLAN Applications

Dielectric resonator antennas find widespread applications in high speed wireless systems because of low loss, compact size and light weight. In this study, performance of a multiband Dielectric Resonator Antenna (DRA) with higher gain and improved radiation efficiency for 3.8 GHz band Wi-Max, fixed point satellite links and 4.8GHz band 5G services and 5GHz wireless networks is presented. The proposed design consists of stacked rectangular dielectric resonator fed by a microstrip line placed above grounded Arlon substrate. Simulation results of the proposed DRA shows dualband operation from 3.65 to 4.45GHz and 4.7 to 5.6GHz with impedance bandwidth of 20.25 and 17.47% respectively. The gain and directivity of the DRA is 8.22 and 8.17dB respectively.
Compact inverted index storage using general‐purpose compression libraries

Efficient storage of large inverted indexes is one of the key technologies that support current web search services. Here we re‐examine mechanisms for representing document‐level inverted indexes and within‐document term frequencies, including comparing specialized methods developed for this task against recent fast implementations of general‐purpose adaptive compression techniques. Experiments with the Gov2‐URL collection and a large collection of crawled news stories show that standard compression libraries can provide compression effectiveness as good as or better than previous methods, with decoding rates only moderately slower than reference implementations of those tailored approaches. This surprising outcome means that high‐performance index compression can be achieved without requiring the use of specialized implementations.
Indicator selection based on Rough Set Theory

A method for indicator selection is proposed in this paper.The method, which adopts the General Methodology and Design Research approach, consists of four steps: Problem Identification, Requirement Gathering, Indicator Extraction, and Evaluation. Rough Set approach also has been applied in the Indicator Extraction phase.This phase consists of 5 steps: Data selection, Data Preprocessing, Discretization, Split Data, Reduction, and Classification.A dataset of 427 records have been used for experimentation.The datasets which contains financial information from several companies consists of 30 dependant indicators and one independent indicator.The selection of indicators is based on rough set theory where sets of reducts are computed from a dataset.Based on the sets of reducts, indicators have been ranked and selected based on certain set of criteria.Indicators have been ranked through computation of frequencies in reduct sets.The major contribution of this work is the extraction method for identifying reduced indicators.Results obtained have shown competitive accuracies in classifying new cases, thus showing that the quality of knowledge is maintained through the use of a reduced set of indicators.
Androgens and Fetal Growth

Boys are heavier than girls at term birth. Children with a 46,XY karyotype and androgen insensitivity syndrome (clinically complete form and/or proven mutations in the androgen receptor gene) were found to have a birth weight comparable to that of girls. These findings support the hypothesis that the difference in birth weight between boys and girls is generated by androgen action.
Assessing the physiological concentration and targets of nitric oxide in brain tissue

Low nanomolar concentrations of nitric oxide activate guanylyl cyclase to produce cGMP, which has diverse physiological effects. Higher concentrations inhibit mitochondrial respiration at cytochrome c oxidase and this has been proposed to be important physiologically, increasing oxygen permeation into tissue (by reducing the oxygen use of cells near blood vessels), activating AMP kinase, and regulating the relationship between cerebral blood flow and oxygen use. It is unclear, however, whether nitric oxide can accumulate physiologically to concentrations at which inhibition of respiration occurs. In rat cerebellar slices, we activated nitric oxide production from each isoform of nitric oxide synthase. Only activation of inducible nitric oxide synthase, which is expressed pathologically, caused any significant inhibition of respiration. Modelling oxygen and nitric oxide concentrations predicted that, in vivo, physiological nitric oxide levels are too low to affect respiration. Even pathologically, the nitric oxide concentration may only rise to 2.5 nm, producing a 1.5% inhibition of respiration. Thus, under physiological conditions, nitric oxide signals do not inhibit respiration but are well‐tuned to the dynamic range of guanylyl cyclase activation.