Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Neo-Kleinian Approach to Comparatives

INTRODUCTION. Adjectives such as tall get a high degree meaning when used in isolation. Thus, John is tall does not simply mean that John has (a certain) height, but rather that he is taller than average. This led Cresswell (1976) to argue that gradable adjectives are relations between individuals and degrees and to postulate the operator pos which binds the degree variable of the adjective when used in the positive form. Given the fact that pos is invisible, its existence is based on circumstantial evidence. Not surprisingly, it has been claimed that pos does not exist: Klein (1980) argues that pos ‘is merely a device for fixing up the semantics’. In his framework, pos is not necessary as adjectives such as tall are interpreted as the property of being tall, where what counts as tall depends on the context. A major advantage of a Klein-style analysis is that gradability depends on orderings, and as such is predicted to be found outside of the adjectival system, a prediction which is born out (see Doetjes 2008). The distribution of degree modifiers such as less and more in English and for instance hodně ‘a lot’ in Czech or trop ‘too (much)’ in French, that combine with adjectives but also with nouns and verbs, is most easily understood if one assumes that gradability follows from the existence of an ordering, rather than from the presence of a degree variable. However, it has been shown that Klein’s theory cannot account for a number of phenomena (see, e.g. Kennedy 1999, 2001, Bale 2006, 2008). In this talk, we will argue in favor of a modified version of Klein’s theory, which allows us to maintain a non degree based interpretation for gradable adjectives. We will show that a number of important insights from both Kennedy and Bale can be accommodated in this modified version.
Mangrove Carbon Stocks and Ecosystem Cover Dynamics in Southwest Madagascar and the Implications for Local Management

Of the numerous ecosystem services mangroves provide, carbon storage is gaining particular attention for its potential role in climate change mitigation strategies. Madagascar contains 2% of the world’s mangroves, over 20% of which is estimated to have been deforested through charcoal production, timber extraction and agricultural development. This study presents a carbon stock assessment of the mangroves in Helodrano Fagnemotse in southwest Madagascar alongside an analysis of mangrove land-cover change from 2002 to 2014. Similar to other mangrove ecosystems in East Africa, higher stature, closed-canopy mangroves in southwest Madagascar were estimated to contain 454.92 (±26.58) Mg·C·ha−1. Although the mangrove extent in this area is relatively small (1500 ha), these mangroves are of critical importance to local communities and anthropogenic pressures on coastal resources in the area are increasing. This was evident in both field observations and remote sensing analysis, which indicated an overall net loss of 3.18% between 2002 and 2014. Further dynamics analysis highlighted widespread transitions of dense, higher stature mangroves to more sparse mangrove areas indicating extensive degradation. Harnessing the value that the carbon stored within these mangroves holds on the voluntary carbon market could generate revenue to support and incentivise locally-led sustainable mangrove management, improve livelihoods and alleviate anthropogenic pressures.
OCEAN WIND SPEED CLIMATOLOGY FROM SPACEBORNE SAR IMAGERY

AFFILIATIONS: Monaldo—The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Maryland; li—GST at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, College Park, Maryland; Pichel—National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, College Park, Maryland; Jackson—Global Ocean Associates, Alexandria, Virginia CORRESPONDING AUTHOR: Frank M. Monaldo, The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, 11100 Johns Hopkins Road, Laurel, MD 20723 E-mail: frank.monaldo@jhuapl.edu
Adsorption of Aclonifen, Alachlor, Cd and Cu onto Natural River Suspended Matter in the Context of Multi-Pollutions: Influence of Contaminant Co-Presence and Order of Input into the Aqueous Solution

In the environment, a pollutant is rarely present alone, and other contaminants can influence its fate. To investigate the influence of the presence of other pollutants on the sorption of pesticides and trace metals (TM), the adsorption of Aclonifen, alachlor, Cd and Cu onto suspended particulate matter (SPM) was studied. SPM was isolated during the flood event of May 2010 in the Save agricultural watershed of SW France. Adsorption equilibrium was reached after 2 h of contact with SPM for pesticides and 24 h for TM. To simulate natural conditions, the SPM load allowing a maximum adsorption of pollutants was set at 1 g L−1 and the concentration of pollutants at 10 μg L−1. These factors being established, the co-presence experiments showed that most contaminants were influenced by the presence of other pollutant(s) in the water, trace metals to a lesser extent than pesticides. The mutual influence can be either competition for the same adsorption sites or formation of new complexes between pollutants. These phenomena can modify the adsorption capacities of each pollutant. The order of introduction into the aqueous solution also influenced the amount of adsorption of pollutants onto SPM. These results open new perspectives on the fate of pollutants.
The Myogenic Basic Helix-Loop-Helix Family of Transcription Factors Shows Similar Requirements for SWI/SNF Chromatin Remodeling Enzymes during Muscle Differentiation in Culture*

The myogenic basic helix-loop-helix family of transcription factors, MyoD, Myf5, myogenin, and MRF4, can each activate the muscle differentiation program when ectopically expressed in non-muscle cells. SWI/SNF complexes are ATP-dependent chromatin remodeling enzymes. We demonstrated previously that SWI/SNF enzymes promote MyoD-mediated muscle differentiation. To ascertain the requirement for SWI/SNF enzymes in muscle differentiation mediated by different MyoD family members, we examined MyoD, Myf5, MRF4, and myogenin-mediated induction of muscle differentiation in cells expressing dominant negative versions of BRG1 or BRM-based SWI/SNF enzymes. We demonstrated that expression of dominant negative BRG1 or BRM inhibited the induction of muscle-specific gene expression by Myf5 and MRF4; however, myogenin failed to induce measurable quantities of muscle-specific mRNAs, even in cells not expressing dominant negative SWI/SNF. In contrast, all four myogenic regulators induced expression of the cell cycle regulators p21, Rb, and cyclin D3 and promoted cell cycle arrest independently of the SWI/SNF enzymes. We proposed that SWI/SNF enzymes are required for the induction of all muscle-specific gene expression by MyoD, Myf5, and MRF4, whereas induction of the cell cycle regulators, p21, Rb, and cyclin D3 occurred independently of SWI/SNF function.
Echocardiographic assessment of myocardial infarction evolution in young and adult rats.

BACKGROUND The regeneration of cardiomyocytes after a myocardial infarction (MI) is more evident in young animals; however, it is not known whether it is associated with functional improvement. OBJECTIVE To perform the functional analysis by echocardiography (echo) of young adult rats submitted to MI. METHODS Seventy-two animals were included in the study: 35 young rats (group Y) that were 28 days old and 37 adult rats (group A) that were 153 days old. The rats were subdivided in two subgroups: infarcted (YI and AI) and control (YC and AC). The animals were assessed by echocardiogram on the 7thand 30th postoperative days for the analysis of the ejection fraction (EF) and the final systolic (FSV) and diastolic volume (FDV) of the left ventricle. Only animals with EF < 40% were included in the study. RESULTS The comparison of the FDV and FSV between infarcted and control animals showed that there was a significant increase in infarcted adult animals at the two analyzed phases. Among young animals only the FSV was significantly higher on the 7th day. The intragroup evolution analysis showed an increase in FDV and FSV in the two young subgroups, which was proportional to growth and only increase in FDV in the infarcted adult group. There was an improvement in EF in young rats, whereas EF remained decreased in adult rats when compared to controls. CONCLUSION The infarcted young rats presented improvement in the systolic function and ventricular volumes 30 days after the infarction, whereas the adult rats presented increased FDV with no improvement in systolic function.
Extractable Witness Encryption for KZG Commitments and Efficient Laconic OT

We present a concretely eﬃcient and simple extractable witness encryption scheme for KZG polynomial commitments. It allows to encrypt a message towards a triple ( com , α, β ), where com is a KZG commitment for some polynomial f . Anyone with an opening for the commitment attesting f ( α ) = β can decrypt, but without knowledge of a valid opening the message is computationally hidden. Our construction is simple and highly eﬃcient. The ciphertext is only a single group element. Encryption and decryption both require a single pairing evaluation and a constant number of group operations. Usingourwitness encryption scheme, we construct a simple and highly eﬃcient laconic OT protocol, which signiﬁcantly outperforms the state of the art in most important metrics.
Linear Prediction

The estimation problem for stochastic parametric nonlinear dynamical models is recognized to be challenging. The main diﬃculty is the intractability of the likelihood function and the optimal one-step ahead predictor. In this paper, we present relatively simple prediction error methods based on non-stationary predictors that are linear in the outputs. They can be seen as extensions of the linear prediction error methods for the case where the hypothesized model is stochastic and nonlinear. The resulting estimators are deﬁned by analytically tractable objective functions in several common cases. It is shown that, under certain identiﬁability and standard regularity conditions, the estimators are consistent and asymptotically normal. We discuss the relationship between the suggested estimators and those based on second-order equivalent models as well as the maximum likelihood method. The paper is concluded with a numerical simulation example as well as a real-data benchmark problem.
Arginine Methylation of Vasa Protein Is Conserved across Phyla*

Recent studies have uncovered an unexpected relationship between factors that are essential for germline development in Drosophila melanogaster: the arginine protein methyltransferase 5 (dPRMT5/Csul/Dart5) and its cofactor Valois, methylate the Piwi family protein Aub, enabling it to bind Tudor. The RNA helicase Vasa is another essential protein in germline development. Here, we report that mouse (mouse Vasa homolog), Xenopus laevis, and D. melanogaster Vasa proteins contain both symmetrical and asymmetrical dimethylarginines. We find that dPRMT5 is required for the production of sDMAs of Vasa in vivo. Furthermore, we find that the mouse Vasa homolog associates with Tudor domain-containing proteins, Tdrd1 and Tdrd6, as well as the Piwi proteins, Mili and Miwi. Arginine methylation is thus emerging as a conserved and pivotal post-translational modification of proteins that is essential for germline development.
Roles of Corticotropin‐Releasing Factor, Neuropeptide Y and Corticosterone in the Regulation of Food Intake In Xenopus laevis

In mammals, hypothalamic control of food intake involves counterregulation of appetite by anorexigenic peptides such as corticotropin‐releasing factor (CRF), and orexigenic peptides such as neuropeptide Y (NPY). Glucocorticoids also stimulate food intake by inhibiting CRF while facilitating NPY actions. To gain a better understanding of the diversity and evolution of neuroendocrine feeding controls in vertebrates, we analysed the effects of CRF, NPY and glucocorticoids on food intake in juvenile Xenopus laevis. We also analysed brain CRF and NPY mRNA content and plasma corticosterone concentrations in relation to nutritional state. Intracerebroventricular (i.c.v.) injection of ovine CRF suppressed food intake while CRF receptor antagonist αhelical CRF(9–41) significantly increased food intake relative to uninjected and placebo controls. By contrast, i.c. v. injection of frog NPY and short‐term corticosterone treatment increased food intake. Semi‐quantitative reverse transcription‐polymerase chain reaction analyses showed that CRF and NPY mRNA fluctuated with food intake in the brain region containing the mid‐posterior hypothalamus, pretectum, and optic tectum: CRF mRNA decreased 6 h after a meal and remained low through 31 days of food deprivation; NPY mRNA content also decreased 6 h after a meal, but increased to prefeeding levels by 24 h. Plasma corticosterone concentration increased 6 h after a meal, returned to prefeeding levels by 24 h, and did not change with prolonged food deprivation. This postprandial increase in plasma corticosterone may be related to the subsequent increase in plasma glucose and body water content that occurs 24 h postfeeding. Overall, our data support the conclusion that, similar to other vertebrates, CRF is anorexigenic while NPY is orexigenic in X. laevis, and CRF secretion modulates food intake in the absence of stress by exerting an inhibitory tone on appetite. Furthermore, the stress axis is activated in response to food intake, but in contrast to mammals and birds is not activated during periods of food deprivation.
Gas chromatographic-tandem mass spectrometric quantification of free 3-nitrotyrosine in human plasma at the basal state.

A fully validated gas chromatographic-tandem mass spectrometric (GC-tandem MS) method for the accurate and precise quantification of free 3-nitrotyrosine in human plasma at the basal state is described. In the plasma of 11 healthy humans a mean concentration of 2.8 nM (range 1.4-4.2 nM) for free 3-nitrotyrosine was determined by this method. This is the lowest concentration reported for free 3-nitrotyrosine in plasma of healthy humans. The presence of endogenous free 3-nitrotyrosine in human plasma was unequivocally shown by generating a daughter mass spectrum. Various precautions had to be taken to avoid artifactual formation of 3-nitrotyrosine from nitrate during sample treatment. Endogenous plasma 3-nitrotyrosine and 3-nitro-l-[(2)H(3)]tyrosine added for use as internal standard were isolated by high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) analysis of 200-microl aliquots of plasma ultrafiltrate samples (20 kDa cut-off), extracted from a single HPLC fraction by solid-phase extraction, derivatized to their n-propyl ester-pentafluoropropionyl amide-trimethylsilyl ether derivatives, and quantified by GC-tandem MS. Overall recovery was determined as 50 +/- 5% using 3-nitro-l-[(14)C(9)]tyrosine. The limit of detection of the method was 4 amol of 3-nitrotyrosine, while the limit of quantitation was 125 pM using 3-nitro-l-[(14)C(9)]tyrosine. 3-Nitrotyrosine added to human plasma at 1 nM was quantitated with an accuracy of > or = 80% and a precision of > or = 94%. The method should be useful to investigate the utility of plasma free 3-nitrotyrosine as an indicator of nitric oxide ((.)NO)-associated oxidative stress in vivo in humans.
Masked Multi-time Diffusion for Multi-modal Generative Modeling

Multi-modal data is ubiquitous, and models to learn a joint representation of all modalities have flourished. However, existing approaches suffer from a coherence-quality tradeoff, where generation quality comes at the expenses of generative coherence across modalities, and vice versa. To overcome these limitations, we propose a novel method that uses a set of independently trained, uni-modal, deterministic autoencoders. Individual latent variables are concatenated and fed to a masked diffusion model to enable generative modeling. We also introduce a new multi-time training method to learn the conditional score network for multi-modal diffusion. Empirically, our methodology substantially outperforms competitors in both generation quality and coherence.
Mode d’emploi pour la v ´eriﬁcation des protocoles de population †

Cet article est consacr´e `a la v´eriﬁcation bas´ee sur le mod`ele ( model-checking ) du mod`ele des protocoles de population introduit par Angluin et al. [AAD + 06]. Ces deux derni`eres ann´ees, la v´eriﬁcation des protocoles de population par model-checking a fait l’objet de nombreuses ´etudes et de nouveaux outils ont ´et´e propos´es ([PLD08, BFPvdP08, LPSZ09, SLDP09, CMS10]). Nous montrons dans cet article que, dans une certaine mesure, les outils classiques de model-checking tels que Spin et Prism peuvent ˆetre utilis´es pour effectuer les v´eriﬁcations. Pour cela, nous appliquons la technique d’abstraction par comptage [GS92] pour obtenir des mod`eles abstraits de protocoles de population qui peuvent ˆetre v´eriﬁ´es efﬁcacement par les outils de model-checking existants. Le probl`eme essentiel pour la complexit´e de la v´eriﬁcation des protocoles de population concerne la condition d’´equit´e forte. Cette derni`ere ne peut ˆetre utilis´ee directement avec Spin mˆeme pour des exemples de relativement petite taille. Nous montrons qu’on peut cependant remplacer dans de nombreux cas cette ´equit´e par une ´equit´e faible efﬁcacement v´eriﬁable en Spin. Plus notable encore, nous montrons que la v´eriﬁcation avec la condition d’´equit´e forte est ´equivalente `a un probl`eme de v´eriﬁcation d’un mod`ele probabiliste. Ainsi, le model-checker probabiliste Prism s’av`ere ˆetre un outil de v´eriﬁcation adapt´e aux protocoles de population.
Bound states due to a strong δ interaction supported by a curved surface

We study the Schrodinger operator −Δ − αδ(x − Γ) in L2(3) with a δ interaction supported by an infinite non-planar surface Γ which is smooth and admits a global normal parametrization with a uniformly elliptic metric. We show that if Γ is asymptotically planar in a suitable sense and α > 0 is sufficiently large, this operator has a non-empty discrete spectrum and derive an asymptotic expansion of the eigenvalues in terms of a 'two-dimensional' comparison operator determined by the geometry of the surface Γ.
Cutting Edge: Depletion of CD4+CD25+ Regulatory T Cells Is Necessary, But Not Sufficient, for Induction of Organ-Specific Autoimmune Disease

Thymectomy of BALB/c mice on day 3 of life results in the development of autoimmune gastritis (AIG) due to the absence of CD4+CD25+ regulatory T cells. However, depletion of CD4+CD25+ T cells by treatment with anti-CD25 rarely resulted in AIG. Depletion was efficient, as transfer of splenocytes from depleted mice induced AIG in nu/nu mice. One explanation for this result is that CD4+CD25− T cells upon transfer to nude recipients undergo lymphopenia-induced proliferation, providing a signal for T cell activation. Cotransfer of CD25+ T cells did not inhibit initial proliferation but did suppress AIG. Surprisingly, immunization with the AIG target Ag, H/K ATPase, in IFA failed to induce disease in normal animals but induced severe AIG in CD25-depleted mice. These results demonstrate that second signals (nonspecific proliferation, TCR activation, or inflammation) are needed for induction of autoimmunity in the absence of CD25+ regulatory T cells.
Arterial Stiffening Precedes Systolic Hypertension in Diet-Induced Obesity

Stiffening of conduit arteries is a risk factor for cardiovascular morbidity. Aortic wall stiffening increases pulsatile hemodynamic forces that are detrimental to the microcirculation in highly perfused organs, such as the heart, brain, and kidney. Arterial stiffness is associated with hypertension but presumed to be due to an adaptive response to increased hemodynamic load. In contrast, a recent clinical study found that stiffness precedes and may contribute to the development of hypertension although the mechanisms underlying hypertension are unknown. Here, we report that in a diet-induced model of obesity, arterial stiffness, measured in vivo, develops within 1 month of the initiation of the diet and precedes the development of hypertension by 5 months. Diet-induced obese mice recapitulate the metabolic syndrome and are characterized by inflammation in visceral fat and aorta. Normalization of the metabolic state by weight loss resulted in return of arterial stiffness and blood pressure to normal. Our findings support the hypothesis that arterial stiffness is a cause rather than a consequence of hypertension.
INFLUENCE OF ACTIVE GAMES AND PLAY ON CHILDREN’S COGNITION: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

Games and play are strategies to assist in the cognitive development of children. However, there are still gaps about their effects and associations when it comes to children’s cognition. Thus, the objective is to synthesize the influence of active games and play on the cognition of children. The databases searched were: Lilacs, PsycINFO, Pubmed, Scielo and Scopus. Articles with observational or experimental design were included. Their quality was evaluated by means of RoB 2. Five studies were included, in accordance with the eligibility criteria. All studies had an experimental design, with two being conducted chronically, and three, acutely. Three studies showed positive effects of games and play on attention, reaction time, and executive functions: inhibitory control, logical reasoning, verbal factor, numerical factor, spatial factor, and general intelligence. Regarding the methodological quality of the studies, it is necessary to better describe and use the randomization allocation process, be more careful with data analysis, and avoid multiple assessments for a single variable. It is concluded that active games and play can generate a positive effect on the attention and executive functions of children. Further research is needed for an understanding of the relationship that parameters such as intensity, length and types of activities have with cognition.
Speeding Up Architectural Simulations for High-Performance Processors

Designing a high-performance microprocessor is extremely time-consuming, taking at least several years. In this article, the authors discuss these issues and propose a solution for each of them. As such, they present a new simulation methodology for designing high-performance microprocessors by combining several recently proposed techniques, such as statistical simulation, representative workload design, trace sampling, and reduced input sets. The major contribution of this study is to present a holistic view on speeding up the architectural design phase in which the above-mentioned techniques are integrated in one single architectural design framework. In this methodology, the authors first identify a region of interest in the huge design space through statistical simulation. As such, the authors conclude that this methodology can reduce the total simulation time considerably. In addition to presenting this new architectural modeling and simulation approach, a survey of related work of this fast-growing research field is presented.