Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Latitude distributions and lifetimes of star-spots on G dwarfs in the α Persei cluster

We present a set of maximum-entropy reconstructions of the star-spot distributions on two rapidly rotating G dwarfs in the (cid:97) Persei cluster, from spectra taken at the William Herschel Telescope on three nights in 1996 October and November. Since these stars are too faint for conventional Doppler imaging, which makes use of only one or a few lines, we take the large number of photospheric metal lines available in an echelle spectrum, and deconvolve them into a single, high signal-to-noise ratio proﬁle. We show that this technique results in a typical multiplex gain of 22.5 in signal-to-noise ratio for a given spectrum, the equivalent of using a single line obtained on a 63-m telescope. The image reconstructions demonstrate that both these stars have cool high-latitude regions or polar crowns, and low-latitude features, in contradiction to the suggestion that only high-latitude spots should be present. Cross-correlation between image reconstructions of He 699, 31 days apart, reveals a lack of correlation between detailed small-scale structures. This places an upper limit for the lifetime of the observed features at less than one month. The H (cid:97) proﬁles are also found to exhibit absorption features indicating the presence of prominence clouds, at or below the corotation radius.
Factors affecting learning capacity of information technology concepts in a classroom environment of adult learner

Research in adult multicultural education is sparse. Andragogy (by Knowles) describes the Art and Science of teaching adults. When teaching, educators have to take the adult as an experienced, self-directed and task oriented individual into consideration and be culturally intelligent. In addition, contemporary education in the technology field requires an approach, which is interactive, task oriented and focused on solving real-life problems. Educators, at RIMC/IMTC, at the U.S. Consulate General Frankfurt, are faced with challenges like, multiculturalism, understanding adult education, and teaching IT concepts to these populations. As a work-related project, the investigator conducted the aforementioned research at RIMC/IMTC located at the U.S. Consulate General, Frankfurt. Current research is concerned with whether Andragogy can be applied to adults from different cultural backgrounds at IMTC Frankfurt. Specifically, the intent of the investigation is to determinewhether cultural factors have an impact on adults learning IT concepts at IMTC Frankfurt.
Coalition structures induced by the strength of a graph

We study cooperative games associated with a communication structure which takes into account a level of communication between players. Let us consider an undirected communication graph : each node represents a player and there is an edge between two nodes if the corresponding players can communicate directly. Moreover we suppose that a weight is associated with each edge. We compute the so-called strength of this graph and use the corresponding partition to determine a particular coalition structure. The strength of a graph is a measure introduced in graph theory to evaluate the resistance of networks under attacks. It corresponds to the minimum on all subsets of edges of the ratio between the sum of the weights of the edges and the number of connected components created when the set of edges is suppressed from the graph. The set of edges corresponding to the minimum ratio induces a partition of the graph. We can iterate the calculation of the strength on the subgraphs of the partition to obtain refined partitions which we use to define a hierarchy of coalition structures. For a given game on the graph, we build new games induced by these coalition structures and study the inheritance of convexity properties, and the Shapley value associated with them.
Posttranslational Modifications and Receptor-Associated Proteins in AMPA Receptor Trafficking and Synaptic Plasticity

AMPA-type glutamate receptors (AMPARs) mediate most fast excitatory synaptic transmission in the mammalian brain. It is widely believed that the long-lasting, activity-dependent changes in synaptic strength, including long-term potentiation and long-term depression, could be the molecular and cellular basis of experience-dependent plasticities, such as learning and memory. Those changes of synaptic strength are directly related to AMPAR trafficking to and away from the synapse. There are many forms of synaptic plasticity in the mammalian brain, while the prototypic form, hippocampal CA1 long-term potentiation, has received the most intense investigation. After synthesis, AMPAR subunits undergo posttranslational modifications such as glycosylation, palmitoylation, phosphorylation and potential ubiquitination. In addition, AMPAR subunits spatiotemporally associate with specific neuronal proteins in the cell. Those posttranslational modifications and receptor-associated proteins play critical roles in AMPAR trafficking and regulation of AMPAR-dependent synaptic plasticity. Here, we summarize recent studies on posttranslational modifications and associated proteins of AMPAR subunits, and their roles in receptor trafficking and synaptic plasticity.
139-31: Problems Commonly Associated with Forest Plots Addressed Using High Resolution Graphics in SAS®

Forest plots are frequently used to display the results of meta-analyses and have been published in the medical literature since 1988 (Lewis & Clarke, 2001). A review of forest plots reveals that the format chosen can affect the accuracy with which the information is conveyed to the reader. One formatting convention is the use of symbol areas to reflect the relative contributions, or weights, of the studies included in the analysis. Typically a study with a larger weight is represented by a symbol with a proportionately larger area. The use of symbol areas to convey study weights is not optimal for a number of reasons. First, it is difficult for viewers to accurately decode symbol areas to enable a visual comparison of study weights. Second, as symbol areas increase in size they can obscure other information on the plot. Third, if a logarithmic scale is used, studies with equal weights should, but often do not, have symbols with the same physical dimensions. This issue becomes more apparent as the difference in effect sizes increases. The macro used to generate the figures in this paper provides SAS software users with an easy to use program to produce high-resolution forest plots. It will generate forest plots where symbol widths represent study weights, but it will also generate traditional forest plots where symbol areas represent study weights. Regardless of the symbol format or type of scale being used, symbols representing studies of equal weight will have the same dimension anywhere on the plot.
Structure-based Inhibitor Discovery against Adenylyl Cyclase Toxins from Pathogenic Bacteria That Cause Anthrax and Whooping Cough*

Edema factor (EF) and CyaA are adenylyl cyclase toxins secreted by pathogenic bacteria that cause anthrax and whooping cough, respectively. Using the structure of the catalytic site of EF, we screened a data base of commercially available, small molecular weight chemicals for those that could specifically inhibit adenylyl cyclase activity of EF. From 24 compounds tested, we have identified one quinazoline compound, ethyl 5-aminopyrazolo[1,5-a]quinazoline-3-carboxylate, that specifically inhibits adenylyl cyclase activity of EF and CyaA with ∼20 μm Ki. This compound neither affects the activity of host resident adenylyl cyclases type I, II, and V nor exhibits promiscuous inhibition. The compound is a competitive inhibitor, consistent with the prediction that it binds to the adenine portion of the ATP binding site on EF. EF is activated by the host calcium sensor, calmodulin. Surface plasmon resonance spectroscopic analysis shows that this compound does not affect the binding of calmodulin to EF. This compound is dissimilar from a previously described, non-nucleoside inhibitor of host adenylyl cyclase. It may serve as a lead to design antitoxins to address the role of adenylyl cyclase toxins in bacterial pathogenesis and to fight against anthrax and whooping cough.
Typologies pour l’annotation de textes non standard en français (Typologies for the annotation of non-standard French texts)

La tâche de normalisation automatique des messages issus de la communication électronique médiée requiert une étape préalable consistant à identifier les phénomènes linguistiques. Dans cet article, nous proposons deux typologies pour l’annotation de textes non standard en français, relevant respectivement des niveaux morpho-lexical et morpho-syntaxique. Ces typologies ont été développées en conciliant les typologies existantes et en les faisant évoluer en parallèle d’une annotation manuelle de tweets et de SMS.
Evidence for an inhibitory effect of physiological levels of insulin on the growth hormone (GH) response to GH-releasing hormone in healthy subjects.

It has been previously reported that in healthy subjects, the acute reduction of free fatty acids (FFA) levels by acipimox enhances the GH response to GHRH. In the present study, the GH response to GHRH was evaluated during acute blockade of lipolysis obtained either by acipimox or by insulin at different infusion rates. Six healthy subjects (four men and two women, 25.8 +/- 1.9 yrs old, mean +/- SE) underwent three GHRH tests (50 micrograms iv, at 1300 h) during: 1) iv 0.9% NaCl infusion (1200-1500 h) after oral acipimox administration (250 mg) at 0700 h and at 1100 h; 2) 0.1 mU.kg-1.min-1 euglycemic insulin clamp (1200-1500 h) after oral acipimox administration (250 mg at 0700 h and at 1100 h); 3) 0.4 mU.kg-1.min-1 euglycemic insulin clamp (1200-1500 h) after oral placebo administration (at 0700 and 1100 h). Serum insulin (immunoreactive insulin) levels were significantly different in the three tests (12 +/- 2, 100 +/- 10, 194 +/- 19 pmol/L, P < 0.06), plasma FFA were low and similar (0.04 +/- 0.003, 0.02 +/- 0.005, 0.02 +/- 0.003, not significant), and the GH response to GHRH was progressively lower (4871 +/- 1286, 2414 +/- 626, 1076 +/- 207 micrograms/L 120 min), although only test 3 was significantly different from test 1 (P < 0.05). Pooling the three tests together, a significant negative regression was observed between mean serum immunoreactive insulin levels and the GH response to GHRH (r = -0.629, P < 0.01). Our results indicate that in healthy subjects, acipimox and hyperinsulinemia produce a similar decrease in FFA levels and that at similar low FFA, the GH response to GHRH is lower during insulin infusion than after acipimox. These data suggest that insulin exerts a negative effect on GH release. Because the insulin levels able to reduce the GH response to GHRH are commonly observed during the day, for instance during the postprandial period, we conclude that the insulin negative effect on GH release may have physiological relevance.
Enhanced air operations for ground situational awareness

Future digital avionics systems will work in complex and cluttered environments which require systems engineering solutions for such applications as airport ground surface management. In this paper, we highlight the use of a L1 video tracker for monitoring activities at an airport. We present methods of information fusion, entity detection, and activity analysis using airport videos for runway detection and terminal events. For coordinated airport security, automated ground surveillance enhances efficient and safe maneuvers for unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) and unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) operation at airport environments.
SUBDUCTION ZONES

Subduction zones are where sediments, oceanic crust, and mantle lithosphere return to and reequilibrate with Earth's mantle. Subduction zones are interior expressions of Earth's 55,000 km of convergent plate margins and are the geodynamic system that builds island arcs. Excess density of the mantle lithosphere in subduction zones provides most of the power needed to move the plates while inducing convection in the overriding mantle wedge. Asthenospheric mantle sucked toward the trench by the sinking slab interacts with water and incompatible elements rising from the sinking plate, and this interaction causes the mantle to melt. These melts rise vertically through downwelling mantle to erupt at arc volcanoes. Subduction zones are thus interior Earth systems of unparalleled scale and complexity. Subduction zone igneous activity formed most ore deposits and continental crust, and earthquakes caused by the downgoing plate present a growing hazard to society. This overview summarizes our present understanding of subduction zones, using perspectives of the incoming plate, downgoing plate, mantle wedge, and arc‐trench complex. Understanding the operation of subduction zones stands as one of the great challenges facing the Earth sciences in the 21st century and will require the efforts of global interdisciplinary teams.
A segmentation method for remote sensing image region on Riemannian manifolds

Focus on the issue of rotation and scale in-variance for remote sensing image(RSI) segmentation, a feature extraction and classification method is proposed based on differential space. A RSI is divided into many regions with different size, and all the covariance matrices of each region are calculated. Those covariance matrices construct a connected Riemannian manifold. The map relation between the Riemannian manifold and a Tangent space is built that contains an Exponent and a Logarithmic matrices computation. Furthermore, the distance measure is established on the Riemannian manifold. It is employed to segment regions of a RSI. Experiment results show that the method is efficient and has robust rotation and scale invariance.
Controlled ultrasonic concentration of nano particles on a nonvibrating substrate

We show a method of concentrating nanoscale samples in a film of aqueous suspension on a stationary substrate (not in vibration), which employs the acoustic streaming generated by an ultrasonically vibrating needle parallel to and above the stationary substrate. The acoustic streaming eddy on the substrate surface brings nano particles (NPs) to the center of the eddy. Concentrated SiO2 nano particles with a diameter of 250 nm may form one circular spot on the stationary substrate, with a diameter up to 400 μm. The principles of the above phenomena are analyzed and verified by the finite element method.
Preparing Case Retrieval Nets for Distributed Processing

In this paper, we discuss two approaches of applying the memory model of Case Retrieval Nets to applications where a distributed processing of information is required. For this, we distinguish two types of such applications, namely (a) the case of distributed case libraries and (b) the case of distributed cases. While a solution to the former is straightforward, the latter requires an extension to Case Retrieval Nets which provides a kind of partitioning of the entire net structure. This extended model even allows for a concurrent implementation of the retrieval process or for the use of collaborative agents for retrieval.
FAST STEREO PAIR GENERATION USING SRTM REGISTRATION AND OPTICAL FLOW

: In Digital Surface Model generation applications, obtaining stereo correspondences is a crucial step. The geometry of stereo image generation causes significant disparities between match points. Unlike the pinhole camera model, in pushbroom sensor images, search is less structured, since there exists no epipolar geometry. This situation brings significant computational load over the stereo correspondence generation step. In this study, a fast sparse stereo pair generation scheme is presented. This approach uses SRTM data, RPC coefficients and quadratic polynomial interpolation to generate an estimate for the geodetic coordinates of each pixel in the reference image. Harris corner detector is used to generate many feature points in the reference image. The geodetic coordinate estimates at these feature points are projected onto the second image using RPC coefficients and this projection is taken as an initial estimate for a pyramidal Kanade-Lucas-Tomasi (KLT) optical flow estimation method. Since the initial estimates for optical flow are quite reliable, the resulting match points are obtained using more precise spatio-temporal derivatives during optical flow estimation step. The pyramidal nature of the optical flow estimation method allows quite fast and promising results, even for cluttered and perspective-distorted regions, which are usually difficult to mark manually. On satellite images, the accuracy of the geodetic coordinate estimates and the success of the proposed pair generation scheme are presented through experiments. The differences for urban and rural areas are also investigated. The limits of the KLT algorithm for satellite stereo match generation and the potential of the method are discussed. Based on the experiments, it is shown that the proposed approach gives quite reliable sparse stereo correspondences for urban and rural areas in relatively small execution time.
Is predictability salient? A study of attentional capture by auditory patterns

In this series of behavioural and electroencephalography (EEG) experiments, we investigate the extent to which repeating patterns of sounds capture attention. Work in the visual domain has revealed attentional capture by statistically predictable stimuli, consistent with predictive coding accounts which suggest that attention is drawn to sensory regularities. Here, stimuli comprised rapid sequences of tone pips, arranged in regular (REG) or random (RAND) patterns. EEG data demonstrate that the brain rapidly recognizes predictable patterns manifested as a rapid increase in responses to REG relative to RAND sequences. This increase is reminiscent of the increase in gain on neural responses to attended stimuli often seen in the neuroimaging literature, and thus consistent with the hypothesis that predictable sequences draw attention. To study potential attentional capture by auditory regularities, we used REG and RAND sequences in two different behavioural tasks designed to reveal effects of attentional capture by regularity. Overall, the pattern of results suggests that regularity does not capture attention. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Auditory and visual scene analysis’.
Accelerating and focusing protein-protein docking correlations using multi-dimensional rotational FFT generating functions

MOTIVATION Predicting how proteins interact at the molecular level is a computationally intensive task. Many protein docking algorithms begin by using fast Fourier transform (FFT) correlation techniques to find putative rigid body docking orientations. Most such approaches use 3D Cartesian grids and are therefore limited to computing three dimensional (3D) translational correlations. However, translational FFTs can speed up the calculation in only three of the six rigid body degrees of freedom, and they cannot easily incorporate prior knowledge about a complex to focus and hence further accelerate the calculation. Furthemore, several groups have developed multi-term interaction potentials and others use multi-copy approaches to simulate protein flexibility, which both add to the computational cost of FFT-based docking algorithms. Hence there is a need to develop more powerful and more versatile FFT docking techniques. RESULTS This article presents a closed-form 6D spherical polar Fourier correlation expression from which arbitrary multi-dimensional multi-property multi-resolution FFT correlations may be generated. The approach is demonstrated by calculating 1D, 3D and 5D rotational correlations of 3D shape and electrostatic expansions up to polynomial order L=30 on a 2 GB personal computer. As expected, 3D correlations are found to be considerably faster than 1D correlations but, surprisingly, 5D correlations are often slower than 3D correlations. Nonetheless, we show that 5D correlations will be advantageous when calculating multi-term knowledge-based interaction potentials. When docking the 84 complexes of the Protein Docking Benchmark, blind 3D shape plus electrostatic correlations take around 30 minutes on a contemporary personal computer and find acceptable solutions within the top 20 in 16 cases. Applying a simple angular constraint to focus the calculation around the receptor binding site produces acceptable solutions within the top 20 in 28 cases. Further constraining the search to the ligand binding site gives up to 48 solutions within the top 20, with calculation times of just a few minutes per complex. Hence the approach described provides a practical and fast tool for rigid body protein-protein docking, especially when prior knowledge about one or both binding sites is available.
An Effective Bail-out Test for RANSAC Consensus Scoring

The random sample consensus (RANSAC) algorithm, along with its many cousins such as MSAC and MLESAC, has become a standard choice for robust estimation in many computer vision problems. Recently, a raft of modifications to the basic RANSAC algorithm have been proposed aimed at improving its efficiency. Many of these optimizations work by reducing the number of hypotheses that need to be evaluated. This paper proposes a complementary strategy that aims to reduce the average amount of time spent computing the consensus score for each hypothesis. A simple statistical test is proposed that permits the scoring process be terminated early, potentially yielding large computational savings. The proposed test is simple to implement, imposes negligible computational overhead, and is effective for any given size of data set. The approach is evaluated by estimation of the fundamental matrix for a large number of image pairs and is shown to offer a significant reduction in computational cost compared to recently proposed RANSAC modifications.
A Framework for Autonomous Mobile Robot Exploration and Map Learning through the use of Place-Centric Occupancy Grids

The Autonomous Intelligent Knowledgebuilding Exploration (AIKE) system explores how an autonomous mobile robotic agent using sonar sensors and dead reckoning can learn a map of a completely unknown environment. AIKE generates grid-based maps based on the notion of a "place" (i.e., a location separated from other places by a confining gateway such as a door or entryway). Empirical trials show that the AIKE agent explores the environment with a faster rate of knowledge acquisition than random exploration, learning maps of higher accuracy by reducing error propagation. The algorithm produces a high level of similarity between maps of the same location created from different agent starting locations, making place recognition easier and providing consistency in mapping. We describe the AIKE system in the context of a proposed architecture for autonomous map learning, navigation, and map refinement. Our approach is best suited to operate effectively in large connected spaces such as office buildings using small mobile robots.
Resolving mixed Hodge modules on configuration spaces

Given a mixed Hodge module E on a scheme X over the complex numbers, and a quasi-projective morphism f:X->S, we construct in this paper a natural resolution of the nth exterior tensor power of E restricted to the nth configuration space of f. The construction is reminiscent of techniques from the theory of hyperplane arrangements, and relies on Arnold's calculation of the cohomology of the configuration space of the complex line. This resolution is S_n-equivariant. We apply it to the universal elliptic curve with complete level structure of level N>=3 over the modular curve Y(N), obtaining a formula for the S_n-equivariant Serre polynomial (Euler characteristic of H^*_c(V,Q) in the Grothendieck group of the category of mixed Hodge structures) of the moduli space M_{1,n}. In a sequel to this paper, this is applied in the calculation of the S_n-equivariant Hodge polynomial of the compactication \bar{M}_{1,n}.