Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Coarse-Grained Modeling of Genetic Circuits as a Function of the Inherent Time Scales

From a coarse-grained perspective the motif of a self-activating species, activating a second species which acts as its own repressor, is widely found in biological systems, in particular in genetic systems with inherent oscillatory behavior. Here we consider a specific realization of this motif as a genetic circuit, in which genes are described as directly producing proteins, leaving out the intermediate step of mRNA production. We focus on the effect that inherent time scales on the underlying finegrained scale can have on the bifurcation patterns on a coarser scale in time. Time scales are set by the binding and unbinding rates of the transcription factors to the promoter regions of the genes. Depending on the ratio of these rates to the decay times of the proteins, the appropriate averaging procedure for obtaining a coarse-grained description changes and leads to sets of deterministic equations, which differ in their bifurcation structure. In particular the desired intermediate range of regular limit cycles fades away when the binding rates of genes are of the same order or less than the decay time of at least one of the proteins. Our analysis illustrates that the common topology of the widely found motif alone does not necessarily imply universal features in the dynamics. PACS numbers: 87.10. Mn,87.16. dj,87.16. Yc,87.18. Cf ar X iv :1 20 9. 05 81 v1 [ ph ys ic s. bi oph ] 4 S ep 2 01 2 Coarse-Grained Modeling of Genetic Circuits as a Function of the Inherent . 2
Recent Understanding of the Molecular Mechanisms of Alzheimer's Disease

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common neurodegenerative disorder in the aged population. Pathological hallmarks of AD are the presence of extracellular senile plaques and intracellular neurofibrillary tangles. Extracellular plaques consist of aggregated amyloid-β (Aβ) peptides derived from sequential proteolytic cleavage of the amyloid precursor protein (APP) by β- and γ-secretase. Neurofibrillary tangles are composed of a hyperphosphorylated form of the microtubule-associated protein tau. This review summarizes the current understanding in the molecular mechanisms leading to Aβ generation as well as hyperphosphorylation of tau and the mechanisms of Aβ-induced neurotoxicity including Ca2+ dyshomeostasis, mitochondrial dysfunction, increased oxidative stress, cholinergic dysfunction and neuroinflammation finally resulting in neuronal/synaptic dysfunction and neuronal loss.
Enhanced Modulation Spectrum For In-Building Mechanical System Monitoring

For most buildings, virtually all mechanical subsystems such as fans, generators, and motors generate acoustic energy. This acoustic energy can weakly penetrate walls and pass through hallways and conduits. The propagation paths are complex and, given the typically low energy of received acoustic signals, present challenges for the detection and classification of the subsystems. While conventional approaches would not be expected to work under these difficult conditions, a key observation can be made: these types of subsystems produce line spectra which consist of harmonics of a fundamental frequency. Acoustic propagation effects then strongly affect the relative energy of these harmonics. Modulation spectra, which make use of the frequency spacing instead of the relative energy of the harmonics, are especially insensitive to these frequency-dependent acoustic attenuation affects. When combined with temporal averaging and 3-dimensional spatial (over an array of acoustic sensors) processing, enhanced modulation spectra offer a new approach to the detection and classification of building subsystems which produce sound. (EDICS: DSP-TFSR)
Rumor Spreading and Source Identification: A Hide and Seek Game

The goal of a rumor source node in a social network is to spread its rumor to as many nodes as possible, while remaining hidden from the network administrator. On the other hand, the network administrator aims to identify the source node based on knowledge of which nodes have accepted the rumor (which are called infected nodes). We model the rumor spreading and source identification problem as a strategic game, where the rumor source and the network administrator are the two players. As the Jordan center estimator is a minimax source estimator that has been shown to be robust in recent works, we assume that the network administrator utilizes a source estimation strategy that probes every node within a given radius of the Jordan center. Given any estimation strategy, we design a best-response infection strategy for the rumor source. Given any infection strategy, we design a best-response estimation strategy for the network administrator. We derive conditions under which the Nash equilibria of the strategic game exist. Simulations in both synthetic and real-world networks demonstrate that our proposed infection strategy infects more nodes while maintaining the same safety margin between the true source node and the Jordan center source estimator.
Evaluation of an improved method for automatic extraction of model parameters from fundamental frequency contours of speech

The authors have already presented a method for automatic extraction of accent and phrase commands of a model from a given F0 contour of speech. This paper describes improvements introduced to cope with difficulties encountered by the previous method, especially in connection with the extraction of accent commands, and reports the results of experiments conducted for the evaluation of the current method using two sets of speech materials differing in sentence length and syntactic complexity. It is shown that the method works quite well for the majority of utterances tested. Analysis of performance in terms of misses and false insertions of commands indicates that the performance is slightly better for shorter utterances, and that most of the errors are related to commands of smaller magnitude/amplitude, suggesting that their effects on the perception of naturalness of prosody are of minor importance.
A biodegradable antibiotic delivery system based on poly-(trimethylene carbonate) for the treatment of osteomyelitis

Background and purpose Many investigations on biodegradable materials acting as an antibiotic carrier for local drug delivery are based on poly(lactide). However, the use of poly(lactide) implants in bone has been disputed because of poor bone regeneration at the site of implantation. Poly(trimethylene carbonate) (PTMC) is an enzymatically degradable polymer that does not produce acidic degradation products. We explored the suitability of PTMC as an antibiotic releasing polymer for the local treatment of osteomyelitis. Methods This study addressed 2 separate attributes of PTMC: (1) the release kinetics of gentamicin-loaded PTMC and (2) its behavior in inhibiting biofilm formation. Both of these characteristics were compared with those of commercially available gentamicin-loaded poly(methylmethacrylate) (PMMA) beads, which are commonly used in the local treatment of osteomyelitis. Results In a lipase solution that mimics the in vivo situation, PTMC discs with gentamicin incorporated were degraded by surface erosion and released 60% of the gentamicin within 14 days. This is similar to the gentamicin release from clinically used PMMA beads. Moreover, biofilm formation by Staphylococcus aureus was inhibited by approximately 80% over at least 14 days in the presence of gentamicin-loaded PTMC discs. This is similar to the effect of gentamicin-loaded PMMA beads. In the absence of the lipase, surface erosion of PTMC discs did not occur and gentamicin release and biofilm inhibition were limited. Interpretation Since gentamicin-loaded PTMC discs show antibiotic release characteristics and biofilm inhibition characteristics similar to those of gentamicin-loaded PMMA beads, PTMC appears to be a promising biodegradable carrier in the local treatment of osteomyelitis.
Hows and whys of Internet usage in Chile and the world : First results of the World Internet Project-Chile by

This article reveals the main results of WIP-Chile ́s first year 2003, compares them with those of the other affiliated countries and tries to evaluate the influence of internet in people’s everyday life. In contrast to other studies about the internet in Chile, WIP is a longitudinal analysis of both users and nonusers of the web, it includes provinces as well as the capital, and it is internationally comparable. The main conclusion is that the expansion of this technology is neither automatic nor inevitable, despite its potential. Factors like awareness about the web, type of access, experience, place of use, personal traits, public policies and national culture differ from country to country in a way it prevents generalizing on the rate and intensity of internet adoption around the world. Although WIP reveals some important changes in the daily life of internauts, our findings contradict comparable studies. So we must be especially careful when interpreting different data and methodologies. In any case, it seemed that more than replacing offline activities, Internet seems to deepen and refine them.
On projection in CAD-based quantifier elimination with equational constraint

Collins [4] observed t.hat quant.ifirr climimtion problen~s oft,en have cquat,ional constraints. and he asserted that. such const,raints ~a.11 be used to reduce the projection wt,s required for cylindrical algebraic decomposition (cad) lmwd qumtifier climinat.ion. This paper provides a. dct,ailed partial validity proof for t,lic: restricted equatiom.1 projection method out,lirwd by Collins [Ll]. The proof is sufficicmt t.0 valitMo the use of t.he nwt~hod for the first. projection of the projection phase. A further consequence is t,hat the 111cth0d cm 1. ~ used for both t,he first, and second projections in the case of a trivarintc qua.nt. ificr eliniination prolAcu~ llil.viIlg sufficient e~UatiOlli~l constraints.
Wavelet coherence based channel selection for classifying single trial motor imagery

Multi-channel electroencephalography (EEG) recordings require excessive computation and sometimes engender outliers, which make brain computer interface (BCI) systems inefficient. Thus, optimal channel selection becomes a key factor for developing a more comfortable BCI. This study emphasized on a time-frequency (T-F) coherence method, called as Wavelet Coherence (WC), for selecting lesser number of channels. The selected sets of channels were then used to classify two motor imagery (MI) tasks, i.e., right hand (RH) and right foot (RF). The data was collected from publicly available dataset IVa from BCI Competition III. Common spatial pattern (CSP) with and without regularization were applied as preprocessing techniques. While the classification accuracy is 90% using available 118 channels for subject ay, we have achieved higher classification accuracy of 93% using only 24 channels using CSP with regularization. Interestingly, the achieved classification accuracy for subject av is 67% using 4 channels only, that outperform the classification accuracy (i.e., 61%) achieved using 118 channels.
A novel control approach based on second order sliding modes & its application to hydraulic drives

Sliding modes impose strong robustness toward parametric plant uncertainties and disturbances and accurate tracking performance in control systems. However, in physical systems the application of sliding modes may give rise to undesirable chattering of the control signal due to actuator dynamics. This may be avoided by application of smoothing functions imposing boundary layers on the control constraint, or by carrying out the design in relation to the control derivative. However, such boundary layers introduces additional design parameters and actuator dynamics may not allow the desired control accuracy to be reached. In this paper a novel control approach based on second order sliding modes utilizing the idea of the power rate reaching law is introduced. Dependent on parameters the proposed controller may preserve the main features of sliding controls, while at the same time avoiding control chattering. Simulation studies confirm the announced properties when applied to a hydraulic drive model subjected to strong variations in supply pressure and friction.
Systematic review and meta-analysis of distraction and hypnosis for needle-related pain and distress in children and adolescents.

OBJECTIVE To systematically review the evidence (and quality) for distraction and hypnosis for needle-related pain and distress in children and adolescents. To explore the effects of distraction characteristics (e.g., adult involvement, type of distracter), child age, and study risk of bias on treatment efficacy. METHODS 26 distraction and 7 hypnosis trials were included and self-report, observer-report, and behavioral pain intensity and distress examined. Distraction studies were coded for 4 intervention characteristics, and all studies coded for child age and study risk of bias. RESULTS Findings showed strong support for distraction and hypnosis for reducing pain and distress from needle procedures. The quality of available evidence was low, however. Characteristics of distraction interventions, child age, and study risk of bias showed some influence on treatment efficacy. CONCLUSIONS Distraction and hypnosis are efficacious in reducing needle-related pain and distress in children. The quality of trials in this area needs to be improved.
Designing Bézier surfaces minimizing the Gaussian curvature

In the freeform surface design, developable surfaces have much application value. But, in 3D space, there is not always a regular developable surface which interpolates the given boundary of an arbitrary piecewise smooth closed curve. In this paper, tensor product Bezier surfaces interpolating the closed curves are determined and the result surface is a minimum of the functional defined by the L2 -integral norm of the Gaussian curvature. The Gaussian curvature of the surfaces is minimized by the method of solving nonlinear optimization problems. An improved approach is proposed: the Pseudo-Newtonian method. A simple application example is also given.
Service-Level Agreements for Electronic Services

The potential of communication networks and middleware to enable the composition of services across organizational boundaries remains incompletely realized. In this paper, we argue that this is in part due to outsourcing risks and describe the possible contribution of Service-Level Agreements (SLAs) to mitigating these risks. For SLAs to be effective, it should be difficult to disregard their original provisions in the event of a dispute between the parties. Properties of understandability, precision, and monitorability ensure that the original intent of an SLA can be recovered and compared to trustworthy accounts of service behavior to resolve disputes fairly and without ambiguity. We describe the design and evaluation of a domain-specific language for SLAs that tend to exhibit these properties and discuss the impact of monitorability requirements on service-provision practices.
How Facebook Advertising Affects Buying Behavior of Young Consumers: The Moderating Role of Gender

This study assessed the affects of Facebook advertisement and Facebook environment on buying behavior of young consumers, while moderating effects of gender. The study used quantitative approach to collect data through questionnaires based survey. The collected data were analyzed through step wise regressions. Results indicated that Facebook advertisement and Facebook environment have significant effects on buying behavior of young consumers, while gender has moderating effect on Facebook advertisement and no moderating effect on Facebook environment. Further, it was noted that females have negative perceptions’ toward Facebook environment as compared to male.
THE TURBULENT MAGNETIC PRANDTL NUMBER OF MHD TURBULENCE IN DISKS

The magnetic Prandtl number PrM is the ratio of viscosity to resistivity. In astrophysical disks the diffusion of angular momentum (viscosity) and magnetic fields (resistivity) are controlled by turbulence. Phenomenological models of the evolution of large-scale poloidal magnetic fields in disks suggest that the turbulent magnetic Prandtl number PrM,T controls the rate of escape of vertical field from the disk; for PrM,T ⩽ R/H vertical field diffuses outward before it can be advected inward by accretion. Here we measure field diffusion and angular momentum transport due to MHD turbulence in a shearing box, and thus PrM,T, by studying the evolution of a sinusoidal perturbation in the magnetic field that is injected into a turbulent background. We show that the perturbation is always stable, decays approximately exponentially, has decay rate ∝k2, and that the implied PrM,T ∼ 1.
Not Just Noise: A Goal Pursuit Interpretation of Stochastic Choice

This paper contributes to our understanding of individual decision making by testing the proposal that differential weighting of 2 (or more) goals can be an important factor leading to stochastic (probabilistic) choice. The tested models follow from the endogenous maximum entropy program (eMEP) paradigm (Swait & Marley, 2013), which proposes that stochastic choice is (partially or entirely) a consequence of balancing multiple goals. That framework leads to an interpretation of the scale factor in classic random utility models (such as the multinomial logit [MNL]) as an endogenous property of a decision maker—an interpretation that is in stark contrast to the standard interpretation of the scale as due to heterogeneity or other “noise. ” The new perspective is supported by data from a task that manipulates (by a prime) an individual’s propensity to be either consistent or to seek variety, suggesting that balanced pursuit of exploitation and exploration goals is a reasonable interpretation of stochastic choice.
A New Beacon-based System for the Localization of Moving Objects

In this paper a new system for the 2D localisation of moving objects and mobile robots is presented. A rotating laser on board the moving object sweeps the surrounding space, reaching a set of known-position beacons. Each time the light reaches a beacon, it emits a radiofrecuency identity code. The corresponding (known) beacon position, along with the actual laser angle allow the position and orientation of the object to be calculated though triangulation. The system supplies 15 localisations per second to an accuracy of 1 cm and 0.1o, which is suitable for vehicle or goods localisation in automated storehouses, or robot navigation, for example.
Evaluating Performance of the Single Leg Squat Exercise with a Single Inertial Measurement Unit

The single leg squat (SLS) is an important component of lower limb rehabilitation and injury risk screening tools. This study sought to investigate whether a single lumbar-worn IMU is capable of discriminating between correct and incorrect performance of the SLS. Nineteen healthy volunteers (15 males, 4 females, age: 26.09± 3.98 years, height: 1.75± 0.14m, body mass: 75.2±14.2kg) were fitted with a single IMU on the lumbar spine and asked to perform 10 left leg SLS. These repetitions were recorded and labelled by a chartered physiotherapist. Features were extracted from the labelled sensor data. These features were used to train and evaluate a random-forests classifier. The system achieved an average of 92% accuracy, 78% sensitivity and 97% specificity. These results indicate that a single IMU has the potential to differentiate between a correctly and incorrectly completed SLS. This may allow such devices to be used by clinicians to help track rehabilitation of patients and screen for potential injury risks. Furthermore, the classifier described may be a useful input to an exercise biofeedback application.
4. DIMENSIONES DEL DOCENTE COMUNITARIO EN EDUCACIÓN ESPECIAL NO CONVENCIONAL

The study was intended to generate a theoretical construct of Community teachers in non conventional special education, considering the vision of a teacher who transforms their pedagogical action criteria, interweaving the cognitive, emotional and critical emancipatory interest. A documentary methodology of theoretical development is subscribed: the comprehensive review of their referents allowed building a new knowledge from the epistemological, ontological, and pedagogical dimension. It is concluded, that this teacher promotes knowledge and practice through action-reflection-action rule because it emphasizes the use of meaningful experiences within the community with family responsibility, community and other significant adults of the special person and is called to strengthen and transform their making, in light of emotions, actions and knowledge beyond the boundaries of the school.
Interaction between Mitochondria and the Actin Cytoskeleton in Budding Yeast Requires Two Integral Mitochondrial Outer Membrane Proteins, Mmm1p and Mdm10p

Transfer of mitochondria to daughter cells during yeast cell division is essential for viable progeny. The actin cytoskeleton is required for this process, potentially as a track to direct mitochondrial movement into the bud. Sedimentation assays reveal two different components required for mitochondria–actin interactions: (1) mitochondrial actin binding protein(s) (mABP), a peripheral mitochondrial outer membrane protein(s) with ATP-sensitive actin binding activity, and (2) a salt-inextractable, presumably integral, membrane protein(s) required for docking of mABP on the organelle. mABP activity is abolished by treatment of mitochondria with high salt. Addition of either the salt-extracted mitochondrial peripheral membrane proteins (SE), or a protein fraction with ATP-sensitive actin-binding activity isolated from SE, to salt-washed mitochondria restores this activity. mABP docking activity is saturable, resistant to high salt, and inhibited by pre-treatment of salt-washed mitochondria with papain. Two integral mitochondrial outer membrane proteins, Mmm1p (Burgess, S.M., M. Delannoy, and R.E. Jensen. 1994. J.Cell Biol. 126:1375–1391) and Mdm10p, (Sogo, L.F., and M.P. Yaffe. 1994. J.Cell Biol. 126:1361– 1373) are required for these actin–mitochondria interactions. Mitochondria isolated from an mmm1-1 temperature-sensitive mutant or from an mdm10 deletion mutant show no mABP activity and no mABP docking activity. Consistent with this, mitochondrial motility in vivo in mmm1-1 and mdm10Δ mutants appears to be actin independent. Depolymerization of F-actin using latrunculin-A results in loss of long-distance, linear movement and a fivefold decrease in the velocity of mitochondrial movement. Mitochondrial motility in mmm1-1 and mdm10Δ mutants is indistinguishable from that in latrunculin-A–treated wild-type cells. We propose that Mmm1p and Mdm10p are required for docking of mABP on the surface of yeast mitochondria and coupling the organelle to the actin cytoskeleton.