Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Clean Energy Standard Analysis with the US-REGEN Model

Abstract A clean energy standard (CES) is a potential policy alternative to reduce carbon emissions in the electric sector. We analyze this policy under a range of technological assumptions, expanding on the Energy Modeling Forum (EMF) 24 study scenarios, using a new modeling tool, US-REGEN. We describe three innovative features of the model: treatment of spatial and temporal variability of renewable resources, cost-of-service electric sector pricing, and explicit representation of energy end-use specific capital. We find that varying technology assumptions results in vastly different futures, with large contrasts in the distribution and scale of inter-regional financial flows, and in the generation mix. We explore regional differences in how the costs of CES credits are passed through with cost-of-service vs. competitive pricing. Finally, we compare the CES to an economy-wide emissions cap. We find that although the two policies result in a similar generation mix, price and electricity end-use results differ.
Nutritional value of wheat and corn distiller’s dried grain with solubles: Digestibility and digestible contents of energy, amino acids and phosphorus, nutrient excretion and growth performance of grower-finisher pigs

Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the nutritional value of distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGS) samples derived from corn, wheat and a wheat/corn blend (4:1). Specifically, the digestibility and digestible contents of energy, amino acids (AA) and P, N and P excretion, and growth performance were determined in grower-finisher pigs. In exp. 1, 12 ileal cannulated barrows (64.6 ± 6.4 kg) had restricted access (2.6 × maintenance) to a wheat-control diet or one of three diets containing 40% DDGS sample of corn, wheat or wheat/corn origin that replaced wheat. For energy, apparent total tract digestibility was highest for wheat (85%; P 0.10). Total tract digestible energy (DE) was higher for corn DDGS (4292 kcal kg-1 DM; P < 0.05) than wheat/corn DDGS, wheat DDGS and wheat samples (4038, 4019 and 3807). For lysine, apparent ileal digestibility (AID) was highest for wheat (71%; P < 0.05) and did not differ among DDGS samples (59 t.
Kainate Receptor Post-translational Modifications Differentially Regulate Association with 4.1N to Control Activity-dependent Receptor Endocytosis*

Background: The mechanisms that govern kainate receptor localization are poorly understood. Results: The cytoskeletal adapter 4.1N interacts with kainate receptors to promote receptor surface expression. Conclusion: Kainate receptor association with the neuronal cytoskeleton is dynamically regulated by post-translational modifications to control kainate receptor localization. Significance: Understanding the mechanisms governing kainate receptor localization may reveal how their expression is coordinated to modulate neuronal excitability. Kainate receptors exhibit a highly compartmentalized distribution within the brain; however, the molecular and cellular mechanisms that coordinate their expression at neuronal sites of action are poorly characterized. Here we report that the GluK1 and GluK2 kainate receptor subunits interact with the spectrin-actin binding scaffolding protein 4.1N through a membrane-proximal domain in the C-terminal tail. We found that this interaction is important for the forward trafficking of GluK2a receptors, their distribution in the neuronal plasma membrane, and regulation of receptor endocytosis. The association between GluK2a receptors and 4.1N was regulated by both palmitoylation and protein kinase C (PKC) phosphorylation of the receptor subunit. Palmitoylation of the GluK2a subunit promoted 4.1N association, and palmitoylation-deficient receptors exhibited reduced neuronal surface expression and compromised endocytosis. Conversely, PKC activation decreased 4.1N interaction with GluK2/3-containing kainate receptors in acute brain slices, an effect that was reversed after inhibition of PKC. Our data and previous studies therefore demonstrate that these two post-translational modifications have opposing effects on 4.1N association with GluK2 kainate and GluA1 AMPA receptors. The convergence of the signaling pathways regulating 4.1N protein association could thus result in the selective removal of AMPA receptors from the plasma membrane while simultaneously promoting the insertion and stabilization of kainate receptors, which may be important for tuning neuronal excitability and synaptic plasticity.
Décisions d'investissement et de démantèlement sous incertitude : une application au secteur électrique

[eng] Investment and Decommissioning Decisions Under Uncertainty : an Application to the Electricity Sector . by Corinne Chaton . The purpose of this study is to use real options theory to answer the following question : Is it necessary, in France, to invest in new nuclear power units or should some of the existing units be decommissioned ? The theoretical model developed establishes two price thresholds which determine investment or decommissioning rules for a regulated risk-neutral firm which does not know the future price of its input. It also provides an empirical reading of past choices in construction of French nuclear power plants. The main finding is that, on a certain number of theoretical and empirical assumptions, it is optimal at present is to leave French nuclear power capacity unchanged. Other more general findings follow from the theoretical model. Thus an increase in uncertainty facilitates investment, defers decommissioning and extends the range of input prices for which there is no change in capacity. Key-words : investment, partial irreversibility, uncertainty, inelasticity, options. JEL Classification : D8 . [fre] L’objectif de cette etude est d’utiliser la theorie des options reelles pour tenter de repondre a la question suivante : faut-il, en France, investir dans de nouvelles unites electronucleaires ou faut-il demanteler certaines unites existantes ? Le modele theorique elabore determine deux seuils de prix qui definissent les regles d’investissement et de demantelement dans le cas d’une firme reglementee, neutre au risque et qui ne connait pas le prix futur de son intrant. Il fournit aussi une lecture a posteriori des choix passes de construction des centrales nucleaires francaises. La principale conclusion est que sous un certain nombre d’hypotheses theoriques et empiriques, il est optimal actuellement de ne pas modifier la capacite electronucleaire francaise. D’autres conclusions, plus generales, decoulent du modele theorique. Ainsi, un accroissement de l’incertitude facilite l’investissement, retarde le demantelement et elargit l’intervalle des prix de l’intrant pour lesquels il n’y a pas de modification des capacites de production. Mots-cles : investissement, irreversibilite partielle, incertitude, inelasticite, options. Classification JEL : D8.
Detecting Breast Cancer with a Dual-Modality Device

Although mammography has been the gold standard for the early detection of breast cancer, if a woman has dense breast tissue, a false negative diagnosis may occur. Breast ultrasound, whether hand-held or automated, is a useful adjunct to mammography but adds extra time and cost. The primary aim was to demonstrate that our second-generation Aceso system, which combines full-field digital mammography (FFDM) and automated breast ultrasound (ABUS) in a single platform, is able to produce improved quality images that provide clinically meaningful results. Aceso was first tested using two industry standards: a Contrast Detail Mammography (CDMAM) phantom to assess the FFDM images, and the CIRS 054GS phantom to evaluate the ABUS images. In addition, 25 women participated in a clinical trial: 14 were healthy volunteers, while 11 were patients referred by the breast clinic at Groote Schuur Hospital. The CDMAM phantom results showed the FFDM results were better than the European Reference (EUREF) standard of “acceptable” and were approaching “achievable”. The ABUS results showed a lateral and axial spatial resolution of 0.5 mm and an adequate depth penetration of 80 mm. Our second-generation Aceso system, with its improved quality of clinical FFDM and ABUS images, has demonstrated its potential for the early detection of breast cancer in a busy clinic.
EACSIP: Extendable Access Control System With Integrity Protection for Enhancing Collaboration in the Cloud

It is widely acknowledged that the collaborations with more users increase productivity. Secure cloud storage is a promising tool to enhance such a collaboration. Access control system can be enabled with attribute-based encryption. In this system, a user encrypts and uploads his/her data to the cloud with an access policy, such that only people who satisfy that access policy can decrypt the data. When a recipient would like to enable another person who is originally unauthorized by the original access policy, this recipient will need to extend the access policy by adding a new policy that includes the new person hence, the notion of extendable access control system. Admitting new users to access the uploaded data is an important requirement in enhancing collaborations. The main issue is with regards to the integrity protection during the process of extending the access policy. When a new access policy is added, the cloud has to be sure that the extended access policy remains guarding the same encrypted data as the original access policy, even though the cloud cannot decrypt this ciphertext, which is a challenging problem to solve. In this paper, we answer the above problem affirmatively by introducing an extendable access control system with Integrity Protection (EACSIP), which is suitable to enhance collaboration in the cloud. The construction of EACSIP is built on top of a novel cryptographic primitive, namely functional key encapsulation with equality testing. The security proof and the performance evaluation of EACSIP are provided in this paper.
A 77% energy-saving 22-transistor single-phase-clocking D-flip-flop with adaptive-coupling configuration in 40nm CMOS

Flip-flops (FF) typically consume more than 50% of random-logic power in an SoC chip, due to their redundant transition of internal nodes, when the input and the output are in the same state. Several low-power techniques have been proposed [1–5], but all of them incur transistor-count penalties, leading to an increase in size, which is too costly since flip-flops typically account for 50% of random-logic area. In this work, we design and test a D-flip-flop, known as adaptive-coupling flip-flop (ACFF), which has a reduced transistor count compared to other low-power flip-flops, and 2 fewer transistors than the mainstream transmission-gate flip-flop (TGFF). ACFF features a single-phase clocking structure, with no local clock buffer and no precharging stage, enabling it to be more energy efficient than TGFF, where up to 77% energy saving is achieved at 0% data activity. ACFF also has an adaptive-coupling configuration, which weakens state-retention coupling during a transition, allowing it to be tolerant to process variations. Test chips are fabricated in a 40nm CMOS technology for 1.1V application, and 500k ACFFs are tested over all chips in 5 skew wafers. All tested ACFFs are fully functional down to 0.75V supply voltage, with spreads of timing parameters comparable to TGFF. We also demonstrate a P&R test by employing ACFF to a wireless LAN chip, and the results indicate chip power is reduced by as much as 24%.
Evidence of hearing loss in a ‘normally-hearing’ college-student population

Abstract We report pure-tone hearing threshold findings in 56 college students. All subjects reported normal hearing during telephone interviews, yet not all subjects had normal sensitivity as defined by well-accepted criteria. At one or more test frequencies (0.25–8 kHz), 7% of ears had thresholds ≥25 dB HL and 12% had thresholds ≥20 dB HL. The proportion of ears with abnormal findings decreased when three-frequency pure-tone-averages were used. Low-frequency PTA hearing loss was detected in 2.7% of ears and high-frequency PTA hearing loss was detected in 7.1% of ears; however, there was little evidence for ‘notched’ audiograms. There was a statistically reliable relationship in which personal music player use was correlated with decreased hearing status in male subjects. Routine screening and education regarding hearing loss risk factors are critical as college students do not always self-identify early changes in hearing. Large-scale systematic investigations of college students’ hearing status appear to be warranted; the current sample size was not adequate to precisely measure potential contributions of different sound sources to the elevated thresholds measured in some subjects. Sumario Reportamos los hallazgos de umbrales auditivos con tonos puros en 56 estudiantes universitarios. Todos los sujetos reportaron audición normal durante entrevistas telefónicas, aunque no todos tenían sensibilidad auditiva normal, conforme se define por criterios bien aceptados. En una o más de las frecuencias evaluadas (0.25-8 kHz), el 7% de los oídos tuvieron umbrales >25 dB HL y el 12% tuvieron umbrales >20 dB HL. La proporción de oídos con hallazgos anormales disminuyó cuando se usaron promedios tonales puros de tres frecuencias. Se detectaron hipoacusias con PTA en las frecuencias bajas en 2.7% de los oídos, e hipoacusias con PTA en altas frecuencias fueron detectadas en un 7.1% de los oídos; sin embargo, hubo poca evidencia de audiogramas con “muescas”. Existió una relación estadísticamente confiable en la que el uso de dispositivos para escuchar música se correlacionó con una disminución en la condición auditiva de sujetos varones. El tamiz de rutina y la educación en relación con los factores de riesgo para la hipoacusia se vuelven críticos, dado que los estudiantes universitarios no siempre auto-identifican cambios en su audición. Parecen justificadas las investigaciones sistemáticas a gran escala en estudiantes universitarios sobre su condición auditiva; el tamaño actual de la muestra no fue adecuado para medir con precisión las contribuciones potenciales de diferentes fuentes de sonido en la elevación de los umbrales medidos.
The challenge of haemoglobinopathies in resource‐poor countries

The haemoglobinopathies, inherited disorders of the structure or synthesis of haemoglobin, are the commonest monogenic diseases. Approximately 80% of the annual births of babies with these conditions occur in low‐or middle‐income countries, many of which have extremely limited facilities for their control and management. Given that the population size of many of them is growing and, as social and public health facilities improve, increasing numbers of these babies will survive to present for diagnosis and treatment. Hence, the haemoglobinopathies will constitute an increasing global health burden. Hitherto, they have been largely ignored by governments of high‐frequency countries and by the international health agencies. However, a start has been made in developing control programmes in some low‐income countries and there is already considerable evidence that much can be done to improve the situation by the development of partnerships between groups in richer countries and centres in low‐income countries. The natural extension of this approach is the further development of partnerships between countries where expertise in this field has been developed and adjacent countries where no such expertise exists. It is vital that the haematology community of the richer countries becomes involved in programmes of this type while, at the same time, putting pressure on their governments and on international health agencies for support for this work.
Stock returns and inflation: a covariance decomposition

The paper introduces the concept of covariance decomposition in a vector autoregression system. It is applied to the negative relationship between real stock returns and inflation in the postwar United States, and examine whether monetary policy accounts for the negative covariance. When the Federal funds rate is used to identify changes in monetary policy, for the 1959–1990 sample, about 30% of the observed negative covariance is attributable to monetary shocks.
Switch to raltegravir-based regimens and HIV DNA decrease in patients with suppressed HIV RNA

Raltegravir intensification is associated with an increase in 2‐LTR episomal HIV DNA= circles, indicating a persistent low‐level replication, in some individuals in ART with suppressed HIV RNA. We aimed at monitoring residual plasma HIV RNA and cellular HIV DNA in virologically suppressed patients switching to a raltegravir‐based regimen.
Cesarean Section, Formula Feeding, and Infant Antibiotic Exposure: Separate and Combined Impacts on Gut Microbial Changes in Later Infancy

Established during infancy, our complex gut microbial community is shaped by medical interventions and societal preferences, such as cesarean section, formula feeding, and antibiotic use. We undertook this study to apply the significance analysis of microarrays (SAM) method to quantify changes in gut microbial composition during later infancy following the most common birth and postnatal exposures affecting infant gut microbial composition. Gut microbiota of 166 full-term infants in the Canadian Healthy Infant Longitudinal Development birth cohort were profiled using 16S high-throughput gene sequencing. Infants were placed into groups according to mutually exclusive combinations of birth mode (vaginal/cesarean birth), breastfeeding status (yes/no), and antibiotic use (yes/no) by 3 months of age. Based on repeated permutations of data and adjustment for the false discovery rate, the SAM statistic identified statistically significant changes in gut microbial abundance between 3 months and 1 year of age within each infant group. We observed well-known patterns of microbial phyla succession in later infancy (declining Proteobacteria; increasing Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes) following vaginal birth, breastfeeding, and no antibiotic exposure. Genus Lactobacillus, Roseburia, and Faecalibacterium species appeared in the top 10 increases to microbial abundance in these infants. Deviations from this pattern were evident among infants with other perinatal co-exposures; notably, the largest number of microbial species with unchanged abundance was seen in gut microbiota following early cessation of breastfeeding in infants. With and without antibiotic exposure, the absence of a breast milk diet by 3 months of age following vaginal birth yielded a higher proportion of unchanged abundance of Bacteroidaceae and Enterobacteriaceae in later infancy, and a higher ratio of unchanged Enterobacteriaceae to Alcaligenaceae microbiota. Gut microbiota of infants born vaginally and exclusively formula fed became less enriched with family Veillonellaceae and Clostridiaceae, showed unchanging levels of Ruminococcaceae, and exhibited a greater decline in the Rikenellaceae/Bacteroidaceae ratio compared to their breastfed, vaginally delivered counterparts. These changes were also evident in cesarean-delivered infants to a lesser extent. The clinical relevance of these trajectories of microbial change is that they culminate in taxon-specific abundances in the gut microbiota of later infancy, which we and others have observed to be associated with food sensitization.
Control of energy homeostasis and insulin action by adipocyte hormones: leptin, acylation stimulating protein, and adiponectin

&NA; Adipose tissue performs complex metabolic and endocrine functions. This review will focus on the recent literature on the biology and actions of three adipocyte hormones involved in the control of energy homeostasis and insulin action, leptin, acylation‐stimulating protein, and adiponectin, and mechanisms regulating their production. Results from studies of individuals with absolute leptin deficiency (or receptor defects), and more recently partial leptin deficiency, reveal leptin's critical role in the normal regulation of appetite and body adiposity in humans. The primary biological role of leptin appears to be adaptation to low energy intake rather than a brake on overconsumption and obesity. Leptin production is mainly regulated by insulin‐induced changes of adipocyte metabolism. Consumption of fat and fructose, which do not initiate insulin secretion, results in lower circulating leptin levels, a consequence which may lead to overeating and weight gain in individuals or populations consuming diets high in energy derived from these macronutrients. Acylation‐stimulating protein acts as a paracrine signal to increase the efficiency of triacylglycerol synthesis in adipocytes, an action that results in more rapid postprandial lipid clearance. Genetic knockout of acylation‐stimulating protein leads to reduced body fat, obesity resistance and improved insulin sensitivity in mice. The primary regulator of acylation‐stimulating protein production appears to be circulating dietary lipid packaged as chylomicrons. Adiponectin increases insulin sensitivity, perhaps by increasing tissue fat oxidation resulting in reduced circulating fatty acid levels and reduced intramyocellular or liver triglyceride content. Adiponectin and leptin together normalize insulin action in severely insulin‐resistant animals that have very low levels of adiponectin and leptin due to lipoatrophy. Leptin also improves insulin resistance and reduces hyperlipidemia in lipoatrophic humans. Adiponectin production is stimulated by agonists of peroxisome proliferator‐activated receptor‐gamma; an action may contribute to the insulin‐sensitizing effects of this class of compounds. The production of all three hormones is influenced by nutritional status. These adipocyte hormones, the pathways controlling their production, and their receptors represent promising targets for managing obesity, hyperlipidemia, and insulin resistance.
Camera self-calibration from ellipse correspondences

We introduce a new technique for camera self-calibration using ellipse correspondences. Based on an analysis of ellipse matches between the images obtained from the same viewpoint but with different and unknown view directions, our approach estimates the intrinsic camera parameters. We present both linear and nonlinear solutions to recovering intrinsic camera parameters. The algorithm's performance is validated extensively using both synthetic and real image data. Compared with similar techniques but using points, we observe a comparable performance. The use of ellipses, however, greatly simplifies feature matching between images, improves matching accuracy, and avoids mismatch.
Aneurysms of the Vertebral Artery (VA)

ed surgical experience of having treated 1767 vertebrobasilar artery aneurysms [VBAAs]) quoted Francis Bacon (1561–1626) in his book on vertebrobasilar aneurysms (VBAAs): “Every man owes it as a debt to his profession to put on record whatever he has done that might be of use to others” [1]. We read with great interest the excellent technical article by Sandalcioglu et al. on 28 vertebral PICA aneurysms [8]. Actually, the total number of patients was 32, but only those cases that could be treated were reported as a series: 2 patients died, and 2 refused any treatment. It is our policy that all patients should be included in the series, and when calculating the outcome of the treatment [4]. Furthermore, we always are standing on the shoulders of pioneering giants and feel that their techniques and their results as gold standards should be carefully scrutinized. As the series of 9 surgically treated patients by Sandalcioglu et al. remains small; we would like to add some more, mainly unpublished, information on vertebral PICA aneurysms, that might be useful for those attacking these deadly lesions of vertebral artery, endoor exovascularly.