Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sustained Early Growth Response Gene 3 Expression Inhibits the Survival of CD4/CD8 Double-Positive Thymocytes1

In the absence of selection, CD4+, CD8+ double-positive (DP) thymocytes will die after 3–4 days. The mechanism for regulating the life span of DP cells is unknown. Previously, we demonstrated that the zinc finger transcription factor, early growth response gene 3 (Egr3), promotes proliferation during the transition from double negative (DN) to DP. In this study we demonstrate a novel role for Egr3 in controlling DP thymocyte survival in mice. Constitutive transgenic expression of Egr3 in thymocytes increases apoptosis among DP cells and shortens their survival in vitro. In addition, DP cells in Egr3 transgenic mice have poor expression of TCRα, and based on the predominant usage of 3′ Vα and 5′ Jα gene segments, the low level of TCRα expression is a result of DP death soon after the initiation of TCRα rearrangements. Constitutive transgenic expression of Egr3 results in poor expression of Bcl-xL and the thymic isoform of retinoic acid receptor-related orphan receptor γ (RORγt) in DP thymocytes, two molecules that are required in DP cells for normal life span. Egr3 expression induced by pre-TCR signals in nontransgenic mice is transient and returns to background levels before RORγt or Bcl-xL is induced. The data support a model in which Egr3 must be transiently induced in response to pre-TCR signals, so that the expression of the prosurvival molecules, RORγt and Bcl-xL, can be elevated only after the proliferative signal provided by Egr3 has subsided.
Simulating the Conversion of Rural Settlements to Town Land Based on Multi-Agent Systems and Cellular Automata

Rapid urbanization in China has triggered the conversion of land from rural to urban use, particularly the conversion of rural settlements to town land. This conversion is the result of the joint effects of the geographic environment and agents involving the government, investors, and farmers. To understand the dynamic interaction dominated by agents and to predict the future landscape of town expansion, a small town land-planning model is proposed based on the integration of multi-agent systems (MAS) and cellular automata (CA). The MAS-CA model links the decision-making behaviors of agents with the neighbor effect of CA. The interaction rules are projected by analyzing the preference conflicts among agents. To better illustrate the effects of the geographic environment, neighborhood, and agent behavior, a comparative analysis between the CA and MAS-CA models in three different towns is presented, revealing interesting patterns in terms of quantity, spatial characteristics, and the coordinating process. The simulation of rural settlements conversion to town land through modeling agent decision and human-environment interaction is very useful for understanding the mechanisms of rural-urban land-use change in developing countries. This process can assist town planners in formulating appropriate development plans.
Application of Curve Interpolation in Data Modeling and Restoration

Applied science and mechanics need mathematical methods for 2D processes modeling using the set of data points. A novel method of Hurwitz-Radon Matrices (MHR) is used in 2D curve modeling. Proposed method is based on the family of Hurwitz-Radon matrices which possess columns composed of orthogonal vectors. Two-dimensional process is modeled via different functions: sine, cosine, tangent, logarithm, exponent, arc sin, arc cos, arc tan and power function.
An Isocurvature Cold Dark Matter Cosmogony. II. Observational Tests

A companion paper presents a worked model for evolution through inflation to initial conditions for an isocurvature model for structure formation. It is shown here that the model is consistent with available observational constraints that can be applied without the help of numerical simulations. The model gives a generally good fit to the distributions of the thermal cosmic background radiation and the galaxies, with the possible need for a special adjustment to fit the COBE measurement of the slope of the fluctuation spectrum on large angular scales. The mass function for clusters of galaxies requires a rather low but observationally acceptable mass density, 0.1≲Ω≲0.2 in a cosmologically flat universe. Galaxies would be assembled earlier in this model than in the adiabatic version, an arguably good thing. Aspects of the predicted non-Gaussian character of the anisotropy of the thermal background radiation in this model are discussed.
Vitamin D and the elderly

This review summarizes current knowledge on vitamin D status in the elderly with special attention to definition and prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency and deficiency, relationships between vitamin D status and various diseases common in the elderly, and the effects of intervention with vitamin D or vitamin D and calcium. Individual vitamin D status is usually estimated by measuring plasma 25‐hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD) levels. However, reference values from normal populations are not applicable for the definition of vitamin D insufficiency or deficiency. Instead vitamin D insufficiency is defined as the lowest threshold value for plasma 25OHD (around 50 nmol/l) that prevents secondary hyperparathyroidism, increased bone turnover, bone mineral loss, or seasonal variations in plasma PTH. Vitamin D deficiency is defined as values below 25 nmol/l. Using these definitions vitamin D deficiency is common among community‐dwelling elderly in the developed countries at higher latitudes and very common among institutionalized elderly, geriatric patients and patients with hip fractures. Vitamin D deficiency is an established risk factor for osteoporosis, falls and fractures. Clinical trials have demonstrated that 800 IU (20 µg) per day of vitamin D in combination with 1200 mg calcium effectively reduces the risk of falls and fractures in institutionalized patients. Furthermore, 400 IU (10 µg) per day in combination with 1000 mg calcium or 100 000 IU orally every fourth month without calcium reduces fracture risk in individuals over 65 years of age living at home. Yearly injections of vitamin D seem to have no effect on fracture risk probably because of reduced bioavailability. Simulation studies suggest that fortification of food cannot provide sufficient vitamin D to the elderly without exceeding present conventional safety levels for children. A combination of fortification and individual supplementation is proposed. It is argued that all official programmes should be evaluated scientifically. Epidemiological studies suggest that vitamin D insufficiency is related to a number of other disorders frequently observed among the elderly, such as breast, prostate and colon cancers, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disorders including hypertension. However, apart from hypertension, causality has not been established through randomized intervention studies. It seems that 800 IU (20 µg) vitamin D per day in combination with calcium reduces systolic blood pressure in elderly women.
The Capacity of Gaussian Multi-User Channels With State and Feedback

This correspondence considers communication over two Gaussian channels with additive state interference and noiseless output feedback-the multiple access channel (MAC) and the augmented broadcast channel (ABC) (a special class of the physically degraded broadcast channel). The state interference is assumed to be available noncausally at the transmitters. Deterministic coding schemes for these two channels were suggested by Ozarow when there is no state present. Recently, Merhav and Weissman derived an optimal feedback coding scheme for the single-user Gaussian channel with additive state interference. Combining ideas from these two schemes, we extend Ozarow's coding algorithms to the state-dependent case, showing that the capacity regions of the MAC and the ABC are not affected, even though not all parts of the system have knowledge of the state. The proposed schemes attain a better error performance and reduce the coding complexity with respect to the standard random binning coding technique.
Synthesis Report on the Impact of Capital Use. Factor Markets Working Document No. 57, August 2013

This paper examines the drivers of productivity in EU agriculture from a factor markets perspective. Using econometrically estimated production elasticities and shadow prices of factors for a set of eight EU member states, we focus on field crop farms represented in the FADN database for the years 2002-08. As it turned out that output reacts most elastically to materials input, we investigate this factor further and find different rationing regimes represented in different member states. Marginal return on materials is low in Denmark and West Germany, but significantly above typical market interest rates in East Germany, Italy and Spain. In the latter countries and in Denmark it also increased towards the end of the observed period. This finding is consistent with a perception of tightening funding access, possibly induced or reinforced by the unfolding financial crisis. Marginal returns to land, labour and fixed capital are generally low. We conclude that the functioning of factor markets plays a crucial role for productivity growth, but that factor market operations display considerable heterogeneity across EU member states.
Shape Restoration of the Left Ventricle

This paper describes an automatic algorithm to restore the shape of three-dimensional (3D) left ventricle (LV) models created from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data using a geometry-driven optimization approach. Our basic premise is to restore the LV shape such that the LV epicardial surface is smooth after the restoration. A geometrical measure known as the Minimum Principle Curvature (κ2) is used to assess the smoothness of the LV. This measure is used to construct the objective function of a two-step optimization process. The objective of the optimization is to achieve a smooth epicardial shape by iterative in-plane translation of the MRI slices. Quantitatively, this yields a minimum sum in terms of the magnitude of κ2, when κ2 is negative. A limited memory quasi-Newton algorithm, L-BFGS-B, is used to solve the optimization problem. We tested our algorithm on an in vitro theoretical LV model and 10 in vivo patient-specific models which contain significant motion artifacts. The results show that our method is able to automatically restore the shape of LV models back to smoothness without altering the general shape of the model. The magnitudes of in-plane translations are also consistent with existing registration techniques and experimental findings. Keywords—Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Left Ventricle, Shape Restoration, Principle Curvature, Optimization
Cysteine-based Redox Switches in Enzymes

The enzymes involved in metabolism and signaling are regulated by posttranslational modifications that influence their catalytic activity, rates of turnover, and targeting to subcellular locations. Most prominent among these has been phosphorylation=dephosphorylation, but now a distinct class of modification coming to the fore is a set of versatile redox modifications of key cysteine residues. Here we review the chemical, structural, and regulatory aspects of such redox regulation of enzymes and discuss examples of how these regulatory modifications often work in concert with phosphorylation=dephosphorylation events, making redox dependence an integral part of many cell signaling processes. Included are the emerging roles played by peroxiredoxins, a family of cysteine-based peroxidases that now appear to be major players in both antioxidant defense and cell signaling.
Pesticides Remediation from Soil and Water Accessing to Zero Residue Level

Contamination of soil and water with various types of pesticides, resulting from accidental spills at agrochemical manufacturing, formulation, and distribution facilities, farm loading/washdown sites, or abandoned waste sites, is a serious environmental problem in many places in the world. The remediation of two types of pesticides which were (pirimicarb and imidacloprid) from three types of Iraqi soils (sandy, silty loam, and clayey) was investigated in this study. The treatment process for soils was carried out through washing method using distilled water in a packed bed column then; a continuous fixed bed unit was used to perform the removal of the same two types of pesticides from wasted washing polluted water using adsorption technique at different operating conditions with low-cost adsorbents: watermelon peel (WP) and used tea leaves (UTL). The results show that the maximum removal efficiencies of pesticide from polluted soils were 75.375, 86.283, and 99.786 percentage for clayey, silty loam, and sandy soils, respectively, of pirimicarb pesticides, and 71.651, 77.708, and 93.278 percentage for clayey, silty loam, and sandy soils, respectively, of imidacloprid pesticides. Finally, in this study a novel way was suggested and experimented as a safe, economic, beneficial, and eco-friendly non-conventional method to get rid of the WP and UTL loaded with pirimicarb and imidacloprid pesticides wasted. This method was trying to convert these toxic residues to applicable useful material like rodenticide. The results show that good ability for these residues to be an active rodenticide through the calculated mean lethal dosage, LD50.
COCOTS Software Integration Cost Model : An Overview

Barry W. Boehm, Ph.D. Christopher M. Abts, M.S. Elizabeth K. Bailey, Ph.D. Center for Software Engineering Center for Software Engineering University of Southern California University of Southern California Software Metrics, Inc. 941 W. 37 Place, SAL 328 941 W. 37 Place, SAL 328 4345 High Ridge Road Los Angeles, CA 90089-0781 Los Angeles, CA 90089-0781 Haymarket, Virginia 20169 +1-213-740-5703 +1-213-740-6470 + 1-703-754-0115 boehm@sunset.usc. edu cabts@sunset.usc. edu bkbailey@erols.com
GMM-SVM Kernel With a Bhattacharyya-Based Distance for Speaker Recognition

Among conventional methods for text-independent speaker recognition, Gaussian mixture model (GMM) is known for its effectiveness and scalability in modeling the spectral distribution of speech. A GMM-supervector characterizes a speaker's voice by the GMM parameters such as the mean vectors, covariance matrices and mixture weights. Besides the first-order statistics, it is generally believed that speaker's cues are partly conveyed by the second-order statistics. In this paper, we introduce a Bhattacharyya-based GMM-distance to measure the distance between two GMM distributions. Subsequently, the GMM-UBM mean interval (GUMI) concept is introduced to derive a GUMI kernel which can be used in conjunction with support vector machine (SVM) for speaker recognition. The GUMI kernel allows us to exploit the speaker's information not only from the mean vectors of GMM but also from the covariance matrices. Moreover, by analyzing the Bhattacharyya-based GMM-distance measure, we extend the Bhattacharyya-based kernel by involving both the mean and covariance statistical dissimilarities. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the new kernel on the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) speaker recognition evaluation (SRE) 2006 dataset.
Characterization and Control of Hysteretic Dynamics Using Online Reinforcement Learning

Hysteretic dynamical systems are challenging to control due to their hard nonlinearity and difficulty in modeling. One type of system with hysteretic dynamics that is gaining use in aerospace systems is the shape-memory alloy-based actuator. These actuators provide aircraft and spacecraft systems with the ability to achieve component-level or vehicle-level geometry or shape changes. Characterization of the material dynamics and properties of these actuators is usually accomplished with empirical testing of physical specimens, in which the hysteresis dynamics are often abstracted to very simplified models or ignored entirely. Machine learning techniques have the potential to learn hysteretic dynamics, but they routinely encounter difficulties that make them unsuitable. This paper proposes and develops a reinforcement learning-based approach that directly learns an input–output mapping characterization of hysteretic dynamics, which is then used as a control policy. A hyperbolic tangent-based model is used t.
Iterative LMMSE transceiver design for dual-hop AF MIMO relay systems under channel uncertainties

This paper considers the problem of robust linear transceiver design for a dual-hop amplify-and-forward (AF) MIMO relay system, with Gaussian random channel uncertainties in both hops. By taking the channel uncertainties into account, an iterative algorithm is proposed to minimize the mean-square-error (MSE) of the output signal at the destination. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm reduces the sensitivity of the AF MIMO relay systems to channel estimation errors, and performs better than the algorithm based on estimated channels only.
“My Worries Are Rational, Climate Change Is Not”: Habitual Ecological Worrying Is an Adaptive Response

Qualifications such as “global warming hysteria” and “energy policy schizophrenia” put forward by some climate change skeptics, usually outside the academic arena, may suggest that people who seriously worry about the environment suffer from psychological imbalance. The present study aimed to refute this thesis. While habitual worrying in general is strongly associated with psychopathological symptoms, in a survey a near-zero correlation was found between habitual ecological worrying and pathological worry. Instead, habitual ecological worrying was associated with pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors, and with a personality structure characterized by imagination and an appreciation for new ideas. The study had sufficient statistical power and measures were valid and reliable. The results confirm that those who habitually worry about the ecology are not only lacking in any psychopathology, but demonstrate a constructive and adaptive response to a serious problem. In the public domain, these findings may contribute to a more rational and less emotional debate on climate change and to the prevention of stigmatization of people who are genuinely concerned about our habitat and are prepared to do something about it (“habitual worriers are not crazy”). In the academic arena this study may contribute to environmental psychology (“habitual worrying is part of a green identity”), as well as to the literature on worry and anxiety (“habitual worrying can be a constructive response”).
Pulsating torque and losses in multiphase induction machines

In this paper the authors take a high level look at multiphase induction machines in order to examine those aspects that are not design-specific. They show that for a machine in which the only design variable is the phase number, the main target for loss reduction is the stator copper loss, which by the use of more than three phases may be attenuated by as much as 8.5%. In addition, a general expression for the harmonic fields produced when a machine having any phase number is excited from a PWM inverter is derived, and the sources of torque pulsation are identified.
Non-interference through Determinism

The standard approach to the specification of a secure system is to present a (usually state-based) abstract security model separately from the specification of the system's functional requirements, and establishing a correspondence between the two specifications. This complex treatment has resulted in development methods distinct from those usually advocated for general applications.We provide a novel and intellectually satisfying formulation of security properties in a process algebraic framework, and show that these are preserved under refinement. We relate the results to a more familiar state-based (Z) specification methodology. There are efficient algorithms for verifying our security properties using model checking.
FPGA-accelerated Heterogeneous Hyperscale Server Architecture for Next-Generation Compute Clusters

Hyperscale servers tend to increase the resource efficiency in data centres by utilizing specialized and highly modular platforms. Instead of providing extreme high-performance nodes, scale-out is the main paradigm to increase the overall performance, i.e., adding additional energy-efficient compute nodes via high-bandwidth low-latency networks. In addition to this, heterogeneous architectures that can be tailored towards the specific needs of a particular application by integrating, e.g., FPGAs and GPUs, are a promising approach towards resource-efficient high-performance computing. In this paper, we present a novel highly-scalable, heterogeneous server architecture that seamlessly integrates arbitrary combinations of microservers based on general purpose CPUs, low power mobile CPUs, FPGAs and GPUs. Mobile CPUs based on the latest ARM Cortex-A15 devices with integrated GPUs are combined with FPGA-based reconfigurable SoCs, which can be used for application-specific hardware acceleration. A flexible multi-level interconnect enables communication between the microservers based on standard protocols like 10 Gigabit Ethernet. Additionally, serial high-speed links between the FPGA-based microservers are used as communication accelerators for highbandwidth, low-latency data transmission. Control and finegrained monitoring of all relevant system parameters is enabled by a dedicated monitoring network. The performance and energy efficiency of the platform is evaluated based on a set of synthetic benchmarks as well as a real-world sequence alignment application, which shows an increase in energy efficiency compared to CPU and GPU implementations.
An Analysis of the Skype Peer-to-Peer VoIP System

Nowadays, peer-to-peer (P2P) applications are in vogue everywhere. Business models have been defined and setup in order to take profit from their decentralized and lowcost architectures. One of the most promising revenue potential markets is the sector of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP or Internet telephony) systems which have even brought telephone companies fright and concern. Skype is one of the most popular P2P VoIP clients and is the current leader in the market with about 4.5 million distinct user profiles in October 2005. Despite Skype’s popularity, relatively little is known about the characteristics of the Skype and how they differ from other P2P systems. The objectives of this project is to analyze some key issues of Skype such as the architecture and topology of Skype, the routing issues in Skype networks, authentication and identification in Skype and security issues on Skype. Then, based on these analysis, I want to propose some improvement on the Skype VoIP system especially when it is used for some specific applications.