Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The effect of erythropoietin on normal and neoplastic cells

Erythropoietin (Epo) is an essential hormone that binds and activates the Epo receptor (EpoR) resident on the surface of erythroid progenitor cells, thereby promoting erythropoiesis. Recombinant human erythropoietin has been used successfully for over 20 years to treat anemia in millions of patients. In addition to erythropoiesis, Epo has also been reported to have other effects, such as tissue protection and promotion of tumor cell growth or survival. This became of significant concern in 2003, when some clinical trials in cancer patients reported increased tumor progression and worse survival outcomes in patients treated with erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESAs). One of the potential mechanisms proffered to explain the observed safety issues was that functional EpoR was expressed in tumors and/or endothelial cells, and that ESAs directly stimulated tumor growth and/or antagonized tumor ablative therapies. Since then, numerous groups have performed further research evaluating this potential mechanism with conflicting data and conclusions. Here, we review the biology of endogenous Epo and EpoR expression and function in erythropoiesis, and evaluate the evidence pertaining to the expression of EpoR on normal nonhematopoietic and tumor cells.
An economic perspective on special events

Special events are widely recognized as having a tourism impact and frequently form part of the tourism strategy of a country, or a destination region within a country. Governments in Australia and elsewhere have increasingly taken to funding such events as deliberate policies of tourism promotion and economic development. Australian examples are used to frame an approach to the economic evaluation of such policies. The analysis of economic impact of an event needs to identify clearly the region of interest, and the expenditure that is new to the region because of the event. A full evaluation should encompass social and promotional impacts. These are identifiable, but they are difficult to quantify.
An Empirical Comparison of Tempo Trackers

One of the difficulties with assessing tempo or beat tracking systems is that there is no standard corpus of data on which they can be tested. This situation is partly because the choice of data set often depends on the goals of the system, which might be, for example, automatic transcription, computer accompaniment of a human performer, or the analysis of expressive timing in musical performance. Without standard test data, there is the risk of overfitting a system to the data on which it is tested, and developing a system which is not suitable for use outside a very limited musical domain. In this paper, we use a large, publicly available set of performances of two Beatles songs recorded on a Yamaha Disklavier in order to compare two models of tempo tracking: a probabilistic model which uses a Kalman filter to estimate tempo and beat times, and a tempo tracker based on a multiagent search strategy. Both models perform extremely well on the test data, with the multiagent search achieving marginally better results. We propose two simple measures of tempo tracking difficulty, and argue that a broader set of test data is required for comprehensive testing of tempo tracking systems.
Maximum in the Middle: Nonlinear Response of Microbial Plankton to Ultraviolet Radiation and Phosphorus

The responses of heterotrophic microbial food webs (HMFW) to the joint action of abiotic stressors related to global change have been studied in an oligotrophic high-mountain lake. A 2×5 factorial design field experiment performed with large mesocosms for >2 months was used to quantify the dynamics of the entire HMFW (bacteria, heterotrophic nanoflagellates, ciliates, and viruses) after an experimental P-enrichment gradient which approximated or surpassed current atmospheric P pulses in the presence vs. absence of ultraviolet radiation. HMFW underwent a mid-term (<20 days) acute development following a noticeable unimodal response to P enrichment, which peaked at intermediate P-enrichment levels and, unexpectedly, was more accentuated under ultraviolet radiation. However, after depletion of dissolved inorganic P, the HMFW collapsed and was outcompeted by a low-diversity autotrophic compartment, which constrained the development of HMFW and caused a significant loss of functional biodiversity. The dynamics and relationships among variables, and the response patterns found, suggest the importance of biotic interactions (predation/parasitism and competition) in restricting HMFW development, in contrast to the role of abiotic factors as main drivers of autotrophic compartment. The response of HMFW may contribute to ecosystem resilience by favoring the maintenance of the peculiar paths of energy and nutrient-mobilization in these pristine ecosystems, which are vulnerable to threats by the joint action of abiotic stressors related to global change.
QoS provisioning and policy management in a broker-based CR network architecture

The paper presents an infrastructure-based cognitive radio network architecture that enables for TV white spaces exploitation, QoS provisioning and policy management, under the real time secondary spectrum market policy. It describes the configuration of a spectrum broker that coordinates the radio resource management process (RRM) among LTE secondary systems as a matter of maximum possible TVWS utilisation and minimum frequency fragmentation, and also administrates the economics of such transactions towards maximum revenue following a fixed-price trading. The validity of the proposed architecture is verified via a number of tests carried under controlled experimental conditions (i.e. simulations) exploiting a decision-making algorithm.
Federal Revenue Options Testimony submitted to United States House of Representatives Committee on the Budget

Despite the "motherhood and apple pie" quality of these goals, tax policy remains controversial. One problem is that controversy arises over how to achieve each goal. Supporters of increased growth disagree over whether across-the-board income tax cuts, targeted tax cuts for saving and investment, or paying down public debt will do most for the economy. Another obstacle to consensus is that the goals are imprecise: views of what constitutes a fair tax, for example, vary widely. The most important source of controversy, however, is differing value judgments concerning the relative importance of the goals coupled with the fact that the goals sometimes conflict with one another. Research and data may answer technical questions, but they cannot resolve disagreements based on divergent values and preferences.
Development and Implementation of a Simplified Self-Tuned Neuro–Fuzzy-Based IM Drive

A novel simplified self-tuned neuro-fuzzy controller (NFC) for speed control of an induction motor (IM) drive is presented in this paper. The proposed NFC combines fuzzy logic and a four-layer neural network structure. Only speed error is employed as input to the NFC so that the computational burden of the NFC is reduced and it becomes suitable for real-time industrial drive applications. Based on the knowledge of back-propagation algorithm, an unsupervised self-tuning method is developed to adjust membership functions and weights of the proposed NFC so that the performance will be similar to that of the conventional two-input NFC. The complete drive incorporating the proposed self-tuned NFC is experimentally implemented using a digitalsignal-processor board DS-1104 for a laboratory 1/3-hp motor. The effectiveness of the proposed NFC-based vector control of IM drive is tested in both simulation and experiment at different operating conditions. Comparative results show that the simplification of the proposed NFC does not decrease the system performance as compared to the conventional NFC. In order to prove the superiority of the proposed simplified NFC, the performances of the proposed NFC are also compared to those obtained by a conventional proportional-integral controller.
Opposition Relations among Verb Frames

In this paper we propose a scheme for annotating opposition relations among verb frames in lexical resources. The scheme is tested on the T-PAS resource, an inventory of typed predicate argument structures for Italian, conceived for both linguistic research and computational tasks. After discussing opposition relations from a linguistic point of view and listing the tags we decided to use, we report the results of the experiment we performed to test the annotation scheme, in terms of interannotation agreement and linguistic analysis of annotated data.
Percolation Centrality: Quantifying Graph-Theoretic Impact of Nodes during Percolation in Networks

A number of centrality measures are available to determine the relative importance of a node in a complex network, and betweenness is prominent among them. However, the existing centrality measures are not adequate in network percolation scenarios (such as during infection transmission in a social network of individuals, spreading of computer viruses on computer networks, or transmission of disease over a network of towns) because they do not account for the changing percolation states of individual nodes. We propose a new measure, percolation centrality, that quantifies relative impact of nodes based on their topological connectivity, as well as their percolation states. The measure can be extended to include random walk based definitions, and its computational complexity is shown to be of the same order as that of betweenness centrality. We demonstrate the usage of percolation centrality by applying it to a canonical network as well as simulated and real world scale-free and random networks.
Exchange Rate Targeting as a Monetary Policy Alternative to Interest Rate Targeting

Abstract This paper examines the use of exchange rates as an instrument in attaining monetary policy objectives, as has been practiced in Singapore since 1981. Our basis for comparison is interest rate targeting. We present a model of the economy and examine the performance of “Taylor rule”-styled interest rate and exchange rate rules in stabilizing macroeconomic variables. We conclude that exchange rate targeting does confer considerable benefits to a small open economy that is highly dependent on trade, but these advantages diminish or disappear entirely for a less trade-dependent economy.
Applying Bee Colony Optimization Heuristic for Make-Pack Problem in Process Manufacturing

BCO is applied to the realistic-sized case study data with 59 bulk formulas and 203 final productions along with 4 types of resources; premix tank, mix tank, storage tank and packing line. The results show that BCO could be used to obtain a better makespan of the realistic-sized problem under acceptable run time.
BTI reliability of high-mobility channel devices: SiGe, Ge and InGaAs

We present a review of our recent studies of BTI in FET devices fabricated in different material systems, highlighting the reliability opportunities and challenges of each device family. We discuss first the intrinsic reliability improvement offered by SiGe and Ge pMOS technologies when a Si cap is used to passivate the channel and to fabricate a standard SiCh/HfCh gate stack. We ascribe this superior reliability to a reduced interaction of channel holes with oxide defects, thanks to a favorable energy alignment of the (Si)Ge Fermi level to the dielectric stack We discuss gate stack optimization (Ge fraction, quantum well and Si cap thicknesses, channel strain engineering) for maximum BTI reliability, and we propose a simple model able to reproduce all the experimental trends. We then invoke the model to understand the excessive BTI in other high-mobility channel gate stacks, as Ge/GeOx/high-k and InGaAs/high-k Finally we discuss how to pursue a reduction of charge trapping in alternative material systems in order to boost the device reliability.
Acoustic measure of noise energy in vocal folds operated patients

Voiced sounds are the result of a periodic excitation of the vocal tract due to the vocal folds vibration. They are characterised by the fundamental frequency of the phonation, named pitch, which is the rate of vibration of the folds. In pathologic voices, pitch variations are indicative of the patient status, hence robust pitch estimation methods are required in order to track such variations and to quantify the degree of voice deterioration. This paper compares some pitch estimation methods, with modifications suitable for the present application. A measure of the signal "noise" level is adopted which allows tracking its variations with time. The methods are tested on simulated signals and then applied to real signals coming both from healthy and pathologic voices.
DANBI: Dynamic scheduling of irregular stream programs for many-core systems

The stream programming model has received a lot of interest because it naturally exposes task, data, and pipeline parallelism. However, most prior work has focused on static scheduling of regular stream programs. Therefore, irregular applications cannot be handled in static scheduling, and the load imbalance caused by static scheduling faces scalability limitations in many-core systems. In this paper, we introduce the DANBI1 programming model which supports irregular stream programs and propose dynamic scheduling techniques. Scheduling irregular stream programs is very challenging and the load imbalance becomes a major hurdle to achieve scalability. Our dynamic load-balancing scheduler exploits producer-consumer relationships already expressed in the stream program to achieve scalability. Moreover, it effectively avoids the thundering-herd problem and dynamically adapts to load imbalance in a probabilistic manner. It surpasses prior static stream scheduling approaches which are vulnerable to load imbalance and also surpasses prior dynamic stream scheduling approaches which have many restrictions on supported program types, on the scope of dynamic scheduling, and on preserving data ordering. Our experimental results on a 40-core server show that DANBI achieves an almost linear scalability and outperforms state-of-the-art parallel runtimes by up to 2.8 times.
Discovering process models through relational disjunctive patterns mining

The automatic discovery of process models can help to gain insight into various perspectives (e.g., control flow or data perspective) of the process executions traced in an event log. Frequent patterns mining offers a means to build human understandable representations of these process models. This paper describes the application of a multi-relational method of frequent pattern discovery into process mining. Multi-relational data mining is demanded for the variety of activities and actors involved in the process executions traced in an event log which leads to a relational (or structural) representation of the process executions. Peculiarity of this work is in the integration of disjunctive forms into relational patterns discovered from event logs. The introduction of disjunctive forms enables relational patterns to express frequent variants of process models. The effectiveness of using relational patterns with disjunctions to describe process models with variants is assessed on real logs of process executions.
The potential risk of infections during (prolonged) rituximab therapy in rheumatoid arthritis

Introduction: Biologicals are a fast expanding group of new drugs and rituximab (RTX) is one of them. Long-term efficacy and safety constantly need addressing as little is known about these factors. In rheumatoid arthritis, RTX it is used for active disease that is not responding to other therapies. Since RTX acts by depleting B-cells, concerns regarding the long-term safety of this drug have been raised. Areas covered: This review covers 10 manuscripts on RTX safety in rheumatoid arthritis published between January 2004 and July 2010. Expert opinion: In present literature RTX appears to be safe for up to five courses. In this review, important drawbacks of current research are discussed. Longer follow-up time is needed to make relevant conclusions on RTX safety with regard to infectious complications. Prolonged RTX therapy causes subsequent B-cell depletion. Eventually, plasma cells disappear, causing hypogammaglobulinemias and subsequent problems in immunity. The formation of new plasma cells is halted due to a lack of B-cells. Attention needs to be focused on the status of immunoglobulins and the role this plays in the occurrence of infections. Until a complete, long-term safety profile of RTX is available, it cannot be considered safe with regard to the incidence of infectious complications.
Optimal Capacity Analysis in the Cooperative Relay System

A two-hop decode-and-forward relay system is considered, which consists of one source, one destination and K relay stations and all the nodes are deployed with multiple antennas. The capacity expressions in the two hops are analyzed and the maximal capacity expressions when signal-to-noise ratio is sufficiently small and sufficiently large are deduced respectively. Based on the capacity expressions, the numerical relation between the relays and the antennas of source, relay and destination is concluded to get optimal data rate of the end to end link from source to destination. When signal-to-noise ratio is small, relay number increases linearly with the ratio of the antennas of source and destination, when signal-to-noise ratio is large, relay number increases exponentially with the ratio of the antennas of relay and destination. Simulation results verified our conclusions and showed that the simulation results are approximately equal to theoretical optimal results.
MORTY: A Toolbox for Mode Recognition and Tonic Identification

In the general sense, mode defines the melodic framework and tonic acts as the reference tuning pitch for the melody in the performances of many music cultures. The mode and tonic information of the audio recordings is essential for many music information retrieval tasks such as automatic transcription, tuning analysis and music similarity. In this paper we present MORTY, an open source toolbox for mode recognition and tonic identification. The toolbox implements generalized variants of two state-of-the-art methods based on pitch distribution analysis. The algorithms are designed in a generic manner such that they can be easily optimized according to the culture-specific aspects of the studied music tradition. We test the generalized methodology systematically on the largest mode recognition dataset curated for Ottoman-Turkish makam music so far, which is composed of 1000 recordings in 50 modes. We obtained 95.8%, 71.8% and 63.6% accuracy in tonic identification, mode recognition and joint mode and tonic estimation tasks, respectively. We additionally present recent experiments on Carnatic and Hindustani music in comparison with several methodologies recently proposed for raga/raag recognition. We prioritized the reproducibility of our work and provide all of our data, code and results publicly. Hence we hope that our toolbox would be used as a benchmark for future methodologies proposed for mode recognition and tonic identification, especially for music traditions in which these computational tasks have not been addressed yet.
Physiological Activities of Thiacremonone Produced in High Temperature and High Pressure Treated Garlic

To examine the possibility of using thiacremonone isolated from high-temperature-high-pressure treated garlic, this study investigated the physiological activities properties. The IC50 values of hydroxyl, superoxide, hydrogen peroxide, and nitric oxide radical scavenging activities of thiacremonone were 92.50, 65.05, 12.60, and 81.53 μg/mL, respectively. On the other hand, the activities of vitamin C were 104.93, 99.43, 42.42, and 122.64 μg/mL, and the activities of butylated hydroxyanisole were 37.22, 68.45, 22.47, and 40.54 μg/mL, respectively. The IC50 value of ACE inhibition activities of thiacremonone and captoprill were 0.265 and 0.036 μg/mL, respectively. The IC50 value of xanthine oxidase inhibition activities of thiacremonone and allopurinol were 39.430 and 9.346 μg/mL, respectively. The IC50 value of tyrosinase inhibition activities of thiacremonone and kojic acid were 101.931 and 65.648 μg/mL, respectively.
Multi-factors energy model and demonstration of innovation technology adoption

Innovation technology adoption is a kind of decision process of technology innovation diffusion based on heterogeneous adopter under specific situation. The concept of "enterprise energy" is proposed to name the dynamic factors which have impact on innovation technology adoption, multi-factors energy model of adoption as well as the evaluation system is also established. With BP (back propagation) algorithm, quantitative analysis of examples in gene chip manufacture demonstrate the proposed energy model can solve the problem of omitting and weighting of dynamic factors in decision evaluation.
The Effects of Biopolymer Encapsulation on Total Lipids and Cholesterol in Egg Yolk during in Vitro Human Digestion

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of biopolymer encapsulation on the digestion of total lipids and cholesterol in egg yolk using an in vitro human digestion model. Egg yolks were encapsulated with 1% cellulose, pectin, or chitosan. The samples were then passed through an in vitro human digestion model that simulated the composition of mouth saliva, stomach acid, and the intestinal juice of the small intestine by using a dialysis tubing system. The change in digestion of total lipids was monitored by confocal fluorescence microscopy. The digestion rate of total lipids and cholesterol in all egg yolk samples dramatically increased after in vitro human digestion. The digestion rate of total lipids and cholesterol in egg yolks encapsulated with chitosan or pectin was reduced compared to the digestion rate of total lipids and cholesterol in other egg yolk samples. Egg yolks encapsulated with pectin or chitosan had lower free fatty acid content, and lipid oxidation values than samples without biopolymer encapsulation. Moreover, the lipase activity decreased, after in vitro digestion, in egg yolks encapsulated with biopolymers. These results improve our understanding of the effects of digestion on total lipids and cholesterol in egg yolk within the gastrointestinal tract.