Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Note on the Ichoua et al ( 2003 ) Travel Time Model

In this paper we exploit some properties of the travel time model proposed by Ichoua et al (2003), on which most of the current time-dependent vehicle routing literature relies. Firstly, we prove that any continuous piecewise linear travel time model, satisfying the FIFO property, can be generated by an appropriate Ichoua et al (2003) model. We also show that the model parameters can be obtained by solving a system of linear equations for each arc. Then such parameters are proved to be nonnegative which allows to interpret them as (dummy) speeds. Finally, we illustrate the procedure through a numerical example. As a by-product, we are able to link the travel time models of a road graph and the associated complete graph over which vehicle routing problems are usually formulated.
Metric learning approach for graph-based label propagation

The efficiency of graph-based semi-supervised algorithms depends on the graph of instances on which they are applied. The instances are often in a vectorial form before a graph linking them is built. The construction of the graph relies on a metric over the vectorial space that help define the weight of the connection between entities. The classic choice for this metric is usually a distance measure or a similarity measure based on the euclidean norm. We claim that in some cases the euclidean norm on the initial vectorial space might not be the more appropriate to solve the task efficiently. We propose an algorithm that aims at learning the most appropriate vectorial representation for building a graph on which the task at hand is solved efficiently.
Glycoproteins M and N of Pseudorabies Virus Form a Disulfide-Linked Complex

ABSTRACT Genes homologous to the herpes simplex virus UL49.5 open reading frame are conserved throughout the Herpesviridae. In the alphaherpesvirus pseudorabies virus (PrV), the UL49.5 product is an O-glycosylated structural protein of the viral envelope, glycoprotein N (gN) (A. Jöns, H. Granzow, R. Kuchling, and T. C. Mettenleiter, J. Virol. 70:1237–1241, 1996). For functional characterization of gN, a gN-negative PrV mutant, PrV-gNβ, and the corresponding rescuant, PrV-gNβR, were constructed, gN-negative PrV was able to productively replicate on noncomplementing cells, and one-step growth in cell culture was only slightly reduced compared to that of wild-type PrV. However, penetration was significantly delayed. In indirect immunofluorescence assays with rabbit serum directed against baculovirus-expressed gN, specific staining of wild-type PrV-infected cells occurred only after permeabilization of cells, whereas live cells failed to react with the antiserum. This indicates the lack of surface accessibility of gN in the plasma membrane of a PrV-infected cell. Western blot analyses and radioimmunoprecipitation experiments under reducing and nonreducing conditions led to the discovery of a heteromeric complex composed of gM and gN. The complex was stable in the absence of 2-mercaptoethanol but dissociated after the addition of the reducing agent, indicating that the partners are linked by disulfide bonds. Finally, gN was absent from gM-negative PrV virions, whereas gM was readily detected in virions in the absence of gN. Thus, gM appears to be required for virion localization of gN.
The effect of public health measures on the 1918 influenza pandemic in U.S. cities

During the 1918 influenza pandemic, the U.S., unlike Europe, put considerable effort into public health interventions. There was also more geographic variation in the autumn wave of the pandemic in the U.S. compared with Europe, with some cities seeing only a single large peak in mortality and others seeing double-peaked epidemics. Here we examine whether differences in the public health measures adopted by different cities can explain the variation in epidemic patterns and overall mortality observed. We show that city-specific per-capita excess mortality in 1918 was significantly correlated with 1917 per-capita mortality, indicating some intrinsic variation in overall mortality, perhaps related to sociodemographic factors. In the subset of 23 cities for which we had partial data on the timing of interventions, an even stronger correlation was found between excess mortality and how early in the epidemic interventions were introduced. We then fitted an epidemic model to weekly mortality in 16 cities with nearly complete intervention-timing data and estimated the impact of interventions. The model reproduced the observed epidemic patterns well. In line with theoretical arguments, we found the time-limited interventions used reduced total mortality only moderately (perhaps 10–30%), and that the impact was often very limited because of interventions being introduced too late and lifted too early. San Francisco, St. Louis, Milwaukee, and Kansas City had the most effective interventions, reducing transmission rates by up to 30–50%. Our analysis also suggests that individuals reactively reduced their contact rates in response to high levels of mortality during the pandemic.
Undetectable on-line password guessing attacks

Several 3-party-based authentication protocols have been proposed, which are resistant to off-line password guessing attacks. We show that they are not resistant to a new type of attack called "undetectable on-line password guessing attack". The authentication server is not able to notice this kind of attack from the clients' (attacker's) requests, because they don't include enough information about the clients (or attacker). Either freshness or authenticity of these requests is not guaranteed. Thus the authentication server responses and leaks verifiable information for an attacker to verify his guess.
Striking Similarity of Murine Nectin-1α to Human Nectin-1α (HveC) in Sequence and Activity as a Glycoprotein D Receptor for Alphaherpesvirus Entry

ABSTRACT A cDNA encoding the murine homolog of human nectin-1α (also known as poliovirus receptor-related protein 1 [Prr1] and herpesvirus entry protein C [HveC]) was isolated. The protein encoded by this cDNA proved to be 95% identical in sequence to the human protein and to have similar herpesvirus entry activity. Upon expression of the murine cDNA in hamster cells resistant to alphaherpesvirus entry, the cells became susceptible to the entry of herpes simplex virus types 1 and 2 (HSV-1 and -2), pseudorabies virus, and bovine herpesvirus 1. HSV envelope glycoprotein D (gD), a viral ligand for human nectin-1α, is also a ligand for the murine homolog based on evidence that (i) a soluble hybrid protein composed in part of the murine nectin-1 ectodomain bound specifically to purified soluble forms of HSV-1 and HSV-2 gD as demonstrated by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, (ii) a soluble hybrid of HSV-1 gD bound to hamster cells expressing murine nectin-1α but not to control cells, and (iii) cells expressing both murine nectin-1α and one of the alphaherpesvirus gDs were resistant to entry of HSV-1, indicative of interference with entry resulting from interactions of cell-associated gD with the entry receptor. Northern blot analysis revealed that nectin-1 is expressed in most of the mouse tissues examined and at high levels in the brain, skin, and kidneys. Immunocytochemical localization demonstrated the presence of nectin-1 in epithelial cells of the mouse vagina and also in neuronal cells of the central nervous system, suggesting an expression pattern relevant to both infection at a portal of entry and spread of infection to the brain.
Achievement of ultralow emittance beam in the accelerator test facility damping ring.

For high luminosity in electron-positron linear colliders, it is essential to generate low vertical emittance beams. We report on the smallest vertical emittance achieved in single-bunch-mode operation of the Accelerator Test Facility, which satisfies the requirement of the x-band linear collider. The emittances were measured with a laser-wire beam-profile monitor installed in the damping ring. The bunch length and the momentum spread of the beam were also recorded under the same conditions. The smallest vertical rms emittance measured at low intensity is 4 pm at a beam energy of 1.3 GeV, which corresponds to the normalized emittance of 1.0x1. 0(-8) m. It increases by a factor of 1.5 for a bunch intensity of 10(10) electrons. The measured data agreed to the calculation of intrabeam scattering within much better than a factor of 2.
Optical vortices and vortex solitons

Optical vortices are phase singularities in electromagnetic waves that constitute a unique and fascinating class of phenomena within the context of the physics of light. We present a brief overview of the recent advances in the study of optical vortices propagating in nonlinear media. We demonstrate that self-focusing nonlinearity leads, in general, to the azimuthal instability of a vortex-carrying beam, but it can support novel types of stable (or quasi-stable) self-trapped beams carrying nonzero angular momentum, such as vortex solitons, necklace beams, and soliton clusters. We also describe the properties of the discrete vortex solitons in periodic photonic lattices.
Why Do People Fail to Adopt Environmental Protective Behaviors? Toward a Taxonomy of Environmental Amotivation1

Individuals' reasons for their lack of motivation toward environmental protective behaviors were proposed: amotivation because of strategy, capacity, effort, and helplessness beliefs. Confirmatory factor analyses and correlations between the four types of amotivation and constructs related to the environment supported the validity of the constructs. A structural model in which helplessness beliefs could be predicted by the other sets of beliefs, and wherein strategy and ability beliefs resulted from effort beliefs, was tested. All estimated parameters were significant, with the exception of one link: amotivation because of effort beliefs did not display a significant relationship with helplessness beliefs. The importance of understanding why individuals may be amotivated and the strategies liable to help reduce their lack of motivation are discussed.
New insights into flood warning reception and emergency response by affected parties

Abstract. Flood damage can be mitigated if the parties at risk are reached by flood warnings and if they know how to react appropriately. To gain more knowledge about warning reception and emergency response of private households and companies, surveys were undertaken after the August 2002 and the June 2013 floods in Germany. Despite pronounced regional differences, the results show a clear overall picture: in 2002, early warnings did not work well; e.g. many households (27 %) and companies (45 %) stated that they had not received any flood warnings. Additionally, the preparedness of private households and companies was low in 2002, mainly due to a lack of flood experience. After the 2002 flood, many initiatives were launched and investments undertaken to improve flood risk management, including early warnings and an emergency response in Germany. In 2013, only a small share of the affected households (5 %) and companies (3 %) were not reached by any warnings. Additionally, private households and companies were better prepared. For instance, the share of companies which have an emergency plan in place has increased from 10 % in 2002 to 34 % in 2013. However, there is still room for improvement, which needs to be triggered mainly by effective risk and emergency communication. The challenge is to continuously maintain and advance an integrated early warning and emergency response system even without the occurrence of extreme floods.
Automatic classification of medical reports, the CIREA project

Choosing a patient's reasons for staying in hospital amongst the 52, 000 pathology codes listed in the ICD-10 (International Classification of Diseases) requires that the practitioner spends a large amount of time keyboarding and searching, which may discourage him. However these codes are mandatory in many countries when the patient leaves the hospital, for biostatistical and administrative studies. The aim of the CIREA project is to propose an automatic ICD coding approach by mining textual medical reports. For that purpose we have proposed new algorithms such the EDA desuffixer, the CLO3 classification algorithm and the K-measure indicator.
A Multiprotein Bicarbonate Dehydration Complex Essential to Carboxysome Function in Cyanobacteria

ABSTRACT Carboxysomes are proteinaceous biochemical compartments that constitute the enzymatic “back end” of the cyanobacterial CO2-concentrating mechanism. These protein-bound organelles catalyze HCO3 − dehydration and photosynthetic CO2 fixation. In Synechocystis sp. strain PCC6803 these reactions involve the β-class carbonic anhydrase (CA), CcaA, and Form 1B ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco). The surrounding shell is thought to be composed of proteins encoded by the ccmKLMN operon, although little is known about how structural and catalytic proteins integrate to form a functional carboxysome. Using biochemical activity assays and molecular approaches we have identified a catalytic, multiprotein HCO3 − dehydration complex (BDC) associated with the protein shell of Synechocystis carboxysomes. The complex was minimally composed of a CcmM73 trimer, CcaA dimer, and CcmN. Larger native complexes also contained RbcL, RbcS, and two or three immunologically identified smaller forms of CcmM (62, 52, and 36 kDa). Yeast two-hybrid analyses indicated that the BDC was associated with the carboxysome shell through CcmM73-specific protein interactions with CcmK and CcmL. Protein interactions between CcmM73 and CcaA, CcmM73 and CcmN, or CcmM73 and itself required the N-terminal γ-CA-like domain of CcmM73. The specificity of the CcmM73-CcaA interaction provided both a mechanism to integrate CcaA into the fabric of the carboxysome shell and a means to recruit this enzyme to the BDC during carboxysome biogenesis. Functionally, CcaA was the catalytic core of the BDC. CcmM73 bound H14CO3 − but was unable to catalyze HCO3 − dehydration, suggesting that it may potentially regulate BDC activity.
STAIRS Redux: Thoughts on the STAIRS Evaluation, Ten Years after

The test of retrieval effectiveness performed on IBM's STAIRS and reported in Communications of the ACM ten years ago, continues to be cited frequently in the information retrieval literature. The reasons for the study's continuing pertinence to today's research are discussed, and the political, legal, and commercial aspects of the study are presented. In addition, the method of calculating recall that was used in the STAIRS study is discussed in some detail, especially how it reduces the five major types of uncertainty in recall estimations. It is also suggested that this method of recall estimation may serve as the basis for recall estimations that might be truly comparable between systems. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Is Transformational Leadership Always Perceived as Effective? Male Subordinates' Devaluation of Female Transformational Leaders1

This study investigated the impact of the gender composition of the leader– subordinate dyad on the relationship between leaders’ transformational leadership behavior and their subordinates’ ratings of the leaders’ effectiveness. There were 109 dyads of leaders (58 male, 51 female) paired with a subordinate who was either the same or a different gender from themselves. The relationship between a leader’s self-report on transformational leadership and their subordinates’ evaluation of their performance was significantly less positive for female leaders with male subordinates than for female leaders with female subordinates. The male and female subordinates of male leaders rated their performance as equally effective, regardless of their levels of transformational leadership.
Measurement and Application of Intellectual Capital in Turkey.

The purpose of this paper is to define the elements of intellectual capital of firms in Turkey and to empirically investigate the relationship between intellectual capital and market value of firms in Istanbul Stock Exchange. To create a suitable intellectual capital measurement model for this study, a wide literature research was made. In almost every created intellectual capital measurement model, elements of intellectual capital are defined in three dimensions; i.e. human capital, structural capital and relation capital. For the research, an intellectual capital measurement model is created and four hypotheses are defined. The main conclusions from this study are that: human capital and relation capital of firms have a positive relationship with market/book value of firms in Turkey; and structural capital of firms in Turkey has a correlation with human and relation capital.
Coherence linearity and SKP-structured matrices in multi-baseline PolInSAR

In this paper we examine two different approaches to the estimation of ground and volume interferometric coherences from single and multi-baseline PolInSAR data. One approach, largely retained in literature, is to force the hypothesis that, in each interferogram, the variation of the interferometric coherence with polarization gives rise to a line in the complex plane. The other approach is to process all interferograms jointly by assuming that the data covariance matrix is structured as a Sum of Kronecker Products (SKP). Those two approaches are compared from the algebraic and statistical point of view. Results from simulations show that joint processing all available interferograms improves coherence estimation, even though a careful implementation is required to avoid underestimation of coherences close to one in magnitude.
Steps Towards a Computational Theory of Interactive Narrative in Virtual Worlds

Department of Computer Science North Carolina State University Raleigh, NC, 27695 young@csc.ncsu. edu 919.513. 3038 In this paper, we set out a basic approach to the modeling of narrative in interactive virtual worlds. This approach adopts a bipartite model taken from narrative theory, in which narrative is composed of story and discourse. In our approach, story elements – plot and character – are defined in terms of plans that drive the dynamics of a virtual environment. Discourse elements – the narrative’s communicative actions – are defined in terms of discourse plans whose communicative goals include conveying the story world plan’s structure. To ground the model in computational terms, we provide examples from research under way in the Liquid Narrative Group involving the design of the Mimesis system, an architecture for intelligent interactive narrative incoroprating concepts from artificial intelligence, narrative theory, cognitive psychology and computational linguistics.
Geiger-Mode Avalanche Photodiodes for Three-Dimensional Imaging

■ We discuss the properties of Geiger-mode avalanche photodiodes (APDs) and their use in developing an imaging laser radar (ladar). This type of photodetector gives a fast electrical pulse in response to the detection of even a single photon, allowing for sub-nsec-precision photon-flight-time measurement. We present ongoing work at Lincoln Laboratory on three-dimensional (3D) imaging with arrays of these diodes, and the integration of the arrays with fast complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) digital timing circuits.
EXPATRIATES' PSYCHOLOGICAL WITHDRAWAL FROM INTERNATIONAL ASSIGNMENTS: WORK, NONWORK, AND FAMILY INFLUENCES

Integrating the expatriate adjustment and employee turnover literatures, we develop a model of expatriates' decisions to quit their assignments. This model explicitly considers the role of adjustment, the project-based nature of international assignments, and the importance of several nonwork and family context factors in this withdrawal process. We test this model with a sample of 452 expatriates and a matched subsample (providing multiple sources of data) of 224 expatriates and spouses, living in 45 countries. Consistent with domestic turnover research, multiple regression analyses indicated that the work-related factors of job satisfaction and organizational commitment were significant predictors of expatriate withdrawal cognitions. We also found support for the direct, indirect, and moderating influence of nonwork satisfaction and several family context variables (i.e., family responsibility, spouse adjustment, spouse overall satisfaction, and living conditions) on decisions of expatriates to quit their assignments. Implications for both organizational withdrawal and international HRM researchers and practitioners are discussed.
Diacylglycerol/protein kinase C signalling: a mechanism for insulin resistance?

Abstract. It is proposed that an intracellular cycle exists to limit or terminate the insulin signal. The cycle involves increased synthesis of sn‐1,2‐diacylglycerol (DAG) in response to insulin. The DAG activates protein kinase C (PKC) which phosphorylates glycogen synthase either directly or through other protein kinases to render it inactive. Protein kinase C may also inhibit the insulin receptor by phosphorylation of receptor serine residues.
Inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate receptors selectively localized to the acrosomes of mammalian sperm

Calcium flux is required for the mammalian sperm acrosome reaction, an exocytotic event triggered by egg binding, which results in a dramatic rise in sperm intracellular calcium. Calcium-dependent membrane fusion results in the release of enzymes that facilitate sperm penetration through the zona pellucida during fertilization. We have characterized inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate (IP3)-gated calcium channels and upstream components of the phosphoinositide signaling system in mammalian sperm. Peptide antibodies colocalized G alpha q/11 and the beta 1 isoform of phospholipase C (PLC beta 1) to the anterior acrosomal region of mouse sperm. Western blotting using a polyclonal antibody directed against purified brain IP3 receptor (IP3R) identified a specific 260 kD band in 1% Triton X-100 extracts of rat, hamster, mouse and dog sperm. In each species, IP3R immunostaining localized to the acrosome cap. Scatchard analysis of [3H]IP3 binding to rat sperm sonicates revealed a curvilinear plot with high affinity (Kd = 26 nM, Bmax = 30 pmol/mg) and low affinity (Kd = 1.6 microM, Bmax = 550 pmol/mg) binding sites, reflecting among the highest receptor densities in mammalian tissue. Immunoelectron microscopy confirmed the acrosomal localization in rat sperm. The IP3R fractionated with acrosomes by discontinuous sucrose gradient centrifugation and was enriched in the medium of acrosome- reacted sperm. ATP-dependent 45Ca2+ loading of digitonin permeabilized rat sperm was decreased by 45% in the presence of 10 microM IP3. The IP3-mediated release of calcium was blocked by heparin. Thapsigargin, a sequiterpene lactone inhibitor of the microsomal Ca(2+)-ATPase, stimulated the acrosome reaction of mouse sperm to the same extent as the Ca2+ ionophore, A23187. The failure of caffeine and ryanodine to affect calcium accumulation suggested that thapsigargin acted through an IP3-sensitive store. The presence of G alpha q/11, PLC beta 1 and a functional IP3R in the anterior acrosomal region of mammalian sperm, as well as thapsigargin's induction of the acrosome reaction, implicate IP3-gated calcium release in the mammalian acrosome reaction.