Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Economic analysis of US textile production activities under the North American Free Trade Agreement

This economic analysis investigates the US textile industry's output supply and input demand pattern under the influence of North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and determines the significance of the agreement on the industry. This analysis employs the normalized restricted translog profit model as an analytical tool and introduces a time dummy variable in the model to distinguish the pre- and post-NAFTA years. The outcome of analysis shows the significant but negative effect of NAFTA on the industry's profit performance in the early years of the agreement, probably due to intensified import competition, fall of real output prices, and numerous mill closings. NAFTA, however, is identified as less significant than variable input prices of labor, material, and electricity. The elasticity estimates show the dominant role of maintenance and capital expenditures, followed by textile output and variable input prices in order, in determining the industry's output supply and input demand. Overall, NAFTA is identified as a short-term solution to the US textile industry's fundamental problems of high labor costs and declining price competitiveness.
The earth surface reflectance retrieval by exploiting the synergy of TERRA and AQUA MODIS data

The surface reflectance is of important geophysical parameter for many quantitative remote sensing applications. The inference of earth surface spectral reflectance using visible observations is complicated mainly because of scattering and absorption effects due to gases and aerosols. Surface reflectance product from MODIS data has been operationally offered, however, aerosol effect removal is based DDV algorithm which is restrictedly used for lower reflectance ground surface such as dense vegetation. In this paper we attempt a solution to the problem of retrieval of surface reflectance by exploiting the synergy of TERRA and AQUA MODIS data. Preliminary results of retrieval experiments and validation is encouraging and showed promising potential to address surface reflectance retrieval for land even for higher reflective surface.
Microchips as implantable drug delivery devices

A microchip has been designed for use as an implantable drug delivery device. Each dosage of drug is contained in an individually addressable microreservoir. This device has no moving parts, but instead relies on an electrochemical reaction to remove the gold cap off of a reservoir. After the cap is removed, the active substance inside the well is free to dissolve or diffuse into the surrounding solution. The performance of the device in phosphate buffered saline and calf serum has been evaluated using the release of fluorescent dye. The electrochemical and release kinetics are slower in serum than in saline, but pulsatile release was achieved in both media.
A Unified Granular Fuzzy-Neuro Min-Max Relational Learner: A Case Study

This paper deals with a real world problem of medical diagnosis, to this goal, we propose to learn a compact fuzzy medical knowledge base through a cognitively-motivated granular hybrid neuro-fuzzy or fuzzy-neuro possibilistic model appropriately crafted as a means to automatically extract fuzzy weighted production rules. The main idea is to start learning from coarse fuzzy partitions of the involved proteins variations of input variables and proceed progressively toward fine-grained partitions until finding the appropriate partitions that fit the data. We provide details of implementation issues, experimental results, and discussion of interpretability issues. Moreover, learning is firmly grounded on fuzzy relational calculus, linguistic approximation and the crucial notion of importance widely used in human decision making and clinical problem-solving.
Vaccine candidate MSP-1 from Plasmodium falciparum: a redesigned 4917 bp polynucleotide enables synthesis and isolation of full-length protein from Escherichia coli and mammalian cells.

The Plasmodium falciparum malaria parasite is the causative agent of malaria tropica. Merozoites, one of the extracellular developmental stages of this parasite, expose at their surface the merozoite surface protein-1 complex (MSP-1), which results from the proteolytic processing of a 190-200 kDa precursor. MSP-1 is highly immunogenic in humans and numerous studies suggest that this protein is an effective target for a protective immune response. Although its function is unknown, there are indications that it may play a role during invasion of erythrocytes by merozoites. The parasite-derived msp-1 gene, which is approximately 5000 bp long, contains 74% AT. This high AT content has prevented stable cloning of the full-size gene in Escherichia coli and consequently its expression in heterologous systems. Here, we describe the synthesis of a 4917 bp gene encoding MSP-1 from the FCB-1 strain of P. falciparum adjusted for human codon preferences. The synthetic msp-1 gene (55% AT) was cloned, maintained and expressed in its entirety in E.coli as well as in CHO and HeLa cells. The purified protein is soluble and appears to possess native conformation because it reacts with a panel of mAbs specific for conformational epitopes. The strategy we used for synthesizing the full-length msp-1 gene was toassemble it from DNA fragments encoding all of the major proteolytic fragments normally generated at the parasite's surface. Thus, after subcloning we also obtained each of these MSP-1 processing products as hexahistidine fusion proteins in E.coli and isolated them by affinity chromatography on Ni2+agarose. The availability of defined preparations of MSP-1 and its major processing products open up new possibilities for in-depth studies at the structural and functional level of this important protein, including the exploration of MSP-1-based experimental vaccines.
Price Index Convergence Among United States Cities

We study the dynamics of price indices for major U.S. cities using panel econometric methods and find that relative price levels among cities mean revert at an exceptionally slow rate. In a panel of 19 cities from 1918 to 1995, we estimate the half-life of convergence to be approximately nine years. The surprisingly slow rate of convergence can be explained by a combination of the presence of transportation costs, differential speeds of adjustment to small and large shocks, and the inclusion of nontraded goods prices in the overall price index.
Cognitive Predictors of Vigilance

Three studies are reported of individual differences in performance of high event rate vigilance tasks. In each study, measures of attentional resource availability and elementary cognitive components of sustained attention were correlated with vigilance performance. It was predicted that correlates of vigilance should vary with two parameters of the task: the type of target discrimination required (simultaneous or successive) and the type of stimuli used (sensory or symbolic). Speed and accuracy of controlled, resource-demanding visual search predicted overall perceptual sensitivity on three out of four successive tasks used, but only one out of four simultaneous tasks, partially confirming the hypothesis that successive tasks are more strongly resource-limited than simultaneous tasks. Other correlates of overall level vigilance did not appear to vary systematically with task parameters. Few correlates of temporal decrement in perceptual sensitivity were found, possibly for statistical reasons. The data suggest that measures of controlled search may be useful in predicting vigilance on certain real-world tasks, although a substantial part of the variance of vigilance tasks may not be predictable fromts short cognitive tasks.
Developmental plasticity of NMDA receptor function in the retina and the influence of light

Despite the early expression of NMDA receptors (NMDARs) in the retina, not much is known about their regulation and involvement in plasticity processes during retinal development and synapse formation. Here we report that NMDAR function in the inner retina is developmentally regulated and controlled by ambient light condition. A prominent down‐regulation after eye opening of NMDAR function was observed in rat retinal ganglion cells (RGCs), which was prevented by dark rearing the animals for 1 month but was again induced by subsequent light exposure. As shown by molecular analysis of single RGCs, alterations in the subunit composition of NMDAR did not account for the light‐dependent regulation of NMDAR function. Immunocytochemistry showed no differences in the NMDAR protein expression pattern between normal and dark‐reared animals. In conclusion, our data clearly demonstrate that NMDAR function is modulated during periods of retinal plasticity independent of structural alterations in its subunit composition and thus different from mechanisms observed in higher visual centers.
Multi-step flow fusion: towards accurate and dense correspondences in long video shots

The aim of this work is to estimate dense displacement fields over long video shots. Put in sequence they are useful for representing point trajectories but also for propagating (pulling) information from a reference frame to the rest of the video. Highly elaborated optical flow estimation algorithms are at hand, and they were applied before for dense point tracking by simple accumulation, however with unavoidable position drift. On the other hand, direct long-term point matching is more robust to such deviations, but it is very sensitive to ambiguous correspondences. Why not combining the benefits of both approaches? Following this idea, we develop a multi-step flow fusion method that optimally generates dense long-term displacement fields by first merging several candidate estimated paths and then filtering the tracks in the spatio-temporal domain. Our approach permits to handle small and large displacements with improved accuracy and it is able to recover a trajectory after temporary occlusions. Especially useful for video editing applications, we attack the problem of graphic element insertion and video volume segmentation, together with a number of quantitative comparisons on ground-truth data with state-of-the-art approaches.
Agents Development for a Supply Chain Management Game

With the purpose of studying dynamic markets where different suppliers and customers interact, a platform which allows competition between agents in an environment of supply chains has been developed at Carnegie Mellon University. It is known as The trading agent competition: supply chain management game (TAC SCM). In this game, agents that represent computer sellers use different strategies to gain customer requests and to assure that the required components to satisfy them would be received in time. At the end of the game, the winner agent gets the highest utilities through the non-static conditions of the market. In this article, eight different agents able to compete in this game are presented and the results of their performance in different rounds are discussed
Differences in Early Cytokine Production Are Associated With Development of a Greater Number of Symptoms Following West Nile Virus Infection.

BACKGROUND West Nile virus (WNV) is an emerging cause of meningitis and encephalitis in the United States. Although severe neuroinvasive disease and death can occur in rare instances, the majority of infected individuals remain asymptomatic or present with a range of clinical manifestations associated with West Nile fever. METHODS To better understand the interindividual variability associated with the majority of WNV infections, we evaluated the association of cytokine/chemokine production and outcome of infection among 115 WNV-positive US blood donors identified in 2008-2011. All subjects self-reported symptoms as having occurred during the 2 weeks following blood donation, using a standardized questionnaire. RESULTS We discovered that, prior to seroconversion, an early potent, largely type I interferon-mediated response correlated with development of a greater number of symptoms in WNV-infected individuals. Interestingly, individuals who developed fewer symptoms had not only a more modest type I interferon response initially, but also a protracted cytokine response after seroconversion, marked by the production of monocyte and T-cell-associated chemokines. CONCLUSIONS Collectively, our data suggest that, although an early type I interferon response appears to be crucial to control WNV infection, successful immunity may require a modest early response that is maintained during the course of infection.
Checking The Correctness of Agent Designs Against Model-Based Requirements

Agent systems are used for a wide range of applications, and techniques to detect and avoid defects in such systems are valuable. In particular, it is desirable to detect issues as early as possible in the software development lifecycle. We describe a technique for checking the plan structures of a BDI agent design against the requirements models, specified in terms of scenarios and goals. This approach is applicable at design time, not requiring source code. A lightweight evaluation demonstrates that a range of defects can be found using this technique.
Immunity to RSV in Early-Life

Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) is the commonest cause of severe respiratory infection in infants, leading to over 3 million hospitalizations and around 66,000 deaths worldwide each year. RSV bronchiolitis predominantly strikes apparently healthy infants, with age as the principal risk factor for severe disease. The differences in the immune response to RSV in the very young are likely to be key to determining the clinical outcome of this common infection. Remarkable age-related differences in innate cytokine responses follow recognition of RSV by numerous pattern recognition receptors, and the importance of this early response is supported by polymorphisms in many early innate genes, which associate with bronchiolitis. In the absence of strong, Th1 polarizing signals, infants develop T cell responses that can be biased away from protective Th1 and cytotoxic T cell immunity toward dysregulated, Th2 and Th17 polarization. This may contribute not only to the initial inflammation in bronchiolitis, but also to the long-term increased risk of developing wheeze and asthma later in life. An early-life vaccine for RSV will need to overcome the difficulties of generating a protective response in infants, and the proven risks associated with generating an inappropriate response. Infantile T follicular helper and B cell responses are immature, but maternal antibodies can afford some protection. Thus, maternal vaccination is a promising alternative approach. However, even in adults adaptive immunity following natural infection is poorly protective, allowing re-infection even with the same strain of RSV. This gives us few clues as to how effective vaccination could be achieved. Challenges remain in understanding how respiratory immunity matures with age, and the external factors influencing its development. Determining why some infants develop bronchiolitis should lead to new therapies to lessen the clinical impact of RSV and aid the rational design of protective vaccines.
Reliability in Application Specific Mesh-Based NoC Architectures

Networks on chips (NoCs) provide a mechanism for handling complex communications in the next generation of integrated circuits. At the same time, lower yield in nano-technology, makes self repair communication channels a necessity in design of digital systems. This paper proposes a reliable NoC architecture based on specific application mapped onto an NoC. This architecture is capable of recovering from permanent switch failures via replacing them by neighboring switches. This method has hardware and power consumption overhead, but significantly improves reliability and has a very little effect on the performance of the system. We suggest a reliability analysis method based on the combinatorial reliability models and use it to evaluate our proposed fault-tolerant NoC architecture.
What is a healthy Nordic diet? Foods and nutrients in the NORDIET study

Background A healthy Nordic diet (ND), a diet based on foods originating from the Nordic countries, improves blood lipid profile and insulin sensitivity and lowers blood pressure and body weight in hypercholesterolemic subjects. Objective To describe and compare food and nutrient composition of the ND in relation to the intake of a Swedish reference population (SRP) and the recommended intake (RI) and average requirement (AR), as described by the Nordic nutrition recommendations (NNR). Design The analyses were based on an estimate of actual food and nutrient intake of 44 men and women (mean age 53±8 years, BMI 26±3), representing an intervention arm receiving ND for 6 weeks. Results The main difference between ND and SRP was the higher intake of plant foods, fish, egg and vegetable fat and a lower intake of meat products, dairy products, sweets and desserts and alcoholic beverages during ND (p<0.001 for all food groups). Intake of cereals and seeds was similar between ND and SRP (p>0.3). The relative intake of protein, fat and carbohydrates during ND was in accordance with RI. Intake of all vitamins and minerals was above AR, whereas sodium intake was below RI. Conclusions When compared with the food intake of an SRP, ND is primarily a plant-based diet. ND represents a balanced food intake that meets the current RI and AR of NNR 2004 and has a dietary pattern that is associated with decreased morbidity and mortality.
Study of contact resistance for high copper alloys under indentation and insertion forces

The purpose of this paper is to present an experimental and a numerical study of simple geometries representing the electrical contact in automotive connectors (a sphere-plane and cylinder-plane electrical contact) when a current passes through them. High copper alloys were used to improve mechanical and electrical connector behaviour. Changes in the electrical contact resistance versus force in the range of 1-100N for different sizes and geometries were studied. The designed samples were subjected to indentation (static contact) and insertion (sliding contact). The temperature evolution for different copper alloys was studied for different forces and currents. The temperature reached near the contact area, between two solids constituting the contact, is a significant parameter to indicate the damage level. However, it is very difficult to know the inner temperatures. A finite element simulation code including the roughness contact surface profile was carried out in order to obtain the internal temperatures. Experimental power law of contact resistance versus forces was obtained where the law parameters are well related to electrical resistivity, Young modulus, yield stress. On the other hand, a numerical size optimization was carried out to obtain the resistance gain or the volume gain with mechanical, geometrical and physical constraints.
Dimensionality reduction for EEG classification using Mutual Information and SVM

Dimensionality reduction is a well known technique in signal processing oriented to improve both the computational cost and the performance of classifiers. We use an electroencephalogram (EEG) feature matrix based on three extraction methods: tracks extraction, wavelets coefficients and Fractional Fourier Transform. The dimension reduction is performed by Mutual Information (MI) and a forward-backward procedure. Our results show that feature extraction and dimension reduction could be considered as a new alternative for solving EEG classification problems.
Functional Electrical Stimulation Improves Motor Recovery of the Lower Extremity and Walking Ability of Subjects With First Acute Stroke: A Randomized Placebo-Controlled Trial

Background and Purpose— The effectiveness of functional electrical stimulation (FES) has been investigated in chronic hemiplegia. The present study examines whether FES, given during acute stroke, was more effective in promoting motor recovery of the lower extremity and walking ability than standard rehabilitation alone. Methods— Forty-six subjects, 70.9±8.0 years old and 9.2±4.1 days after stroke, were assigned randomly to 1 of 3 groups receiving standard rehabilitation with FES or placebo stimulation or alone (control). FES was applied 30 minutes and placebo stimulation 60 minutes, 5 days per week for 3 weeks. Outcome measurements included composite spasticity score, maximum isometric voluntary contraction of ankle dorsi-flexors and planter-flexors, and walking ability. They were recorded before treatment, weekly during the 3-week treatment, and at week 8 after stroke. Results— No significant differences were found in the baseline measurements. After 3 weeks of treatment, there was a significant reduction in the percentage of composite spasticity score, and a significant improvement in the ankle dorsiflexion torque, accompanied by an increase in agonist electromyogram and a reduction in electromyogram cocontraction ratio in the FES group, when compared with the other 2 groups (P<0.05). All subjects in the FES group were able to walk after treatment, and 84.6% of them returned home, in comparison with the placebo (53.3%) and control (46.2%, P<0.05) groups. Conclusions— Fifteen sessions of FES, applied to subjects with acute stroke plus standard rehabilitation, improved their motor and walking ability to the degree that more subjects were able to return to home.
Inferior clinical outcome of the CD4+ cell count-guided antiretroviral treatment interruption strategy in the SMART study: role of CD4+ Cell counts and HIV RNA levels during follow-up.

BACKGROUND AND METHODS The SMART study compared 2 strategies for using antiretroviral therapy-drug conservation (DC) and viral suppression (VS)-in 5,472 human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients with CD4+ cell counts >350 cells/microL. Rates and predictors of opportunistic disease or death (OD/death) and the relative risk (RR) in DC versus VS groups according to the latest CD4+ cell count and HIV RNA level are reported. RESULTS During a mean of 16 months of follow-up, DC patients spent more time with a latest CD4+ cell count <350 cells/microL (for DC vs. VS, 31% vs. 8%) and with a latest HIV RNA level >400 copies/mL (71% vs. 28%) and had a higher rate of OD/death (3.4 vs. 1.3/100 person-years) than VS patients. For periods of follow- up with a CD4+ cell count <350 cells/microL, rates of OD/death were increased but similar in the 2 groups (5.7 vs. 4.6/100 person-years), whereas the rates were higher in DC versus VS patients (2.3 vs. 1.0/100 person-years; RR, 2.3 [95% confidence interval, 1.5-3.4]) for periods with the latest CD4+ cell count >or= 350 cells/microL-an increase explained by the higher HIV RNA levels in the DC group. CONCLUSIONS The higher risk of OD/death in DC patients was associated with (1) spending more follow-up time with relative immunodeficiency and (2) living longer with uncontrolled HIV replication even at higher CD4+ cell counts. Ongoing HIV replication at a given CD4+ cell count places patients at an excess risk of OD/death.