Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A novel acetylcholinesterase gene in mosquitoes codes for the insecticide target and is non–homologous to the ace gene Drosophila

Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) is the target of two major insecticide families, organophosphates (OPs) and carbamates. AChE insensitivity is a frequent resistance mechanism in insects and responsible mutations in the ace gene were identified in two Diptera, Drosophila melanogaster and Musca domestica. However, for other insects, the ace gene cloned by homology with Drosophila does not code for the insensitive AChE in resistant individuals, indicating the existence of a second ace locus. We identified two AChE loci in the genome of Anopheles gambiae, one (ace–1) being a new locus and the other (ace–2) being homologous to the gene previously described in Drosophila. The gene ace–1 has no obvious homologue in the Drosophila genome and was found in 15 mosquito species investigated. In An. gambiae, ace–1 and ace–2 display 53% similarity at the amino acid level and an overall phylogeny indicates that they probably diverged before the differentiation of insects. Thus, both genes are likely to be present in the majority of insects and the absence of ace–1 in Drosophila is probably due to a secondary loss. In one mosquito (Culex pipiens), ace–1 was found to be tightly linked with insecticide resistance and probably encodes the AChE OP target. These results have important implications for the design of new insecticides, as the target AChE is thus encoded by distinct genes in different insect groups, even within the Diptera: ace–2 in at least the Drosophilidae and Muscidae and ace–1 in at least the Culicidae. Evolutionary scenarios leading to such a peculiar situation are discussed.
Combining crowdsourcing and google street view to identify street-level accessibility problems

Poorly maintained sidewalks, missing curb ramps, and other obstacles pose considerable accessibility challenges; however, there are currently few, if any, mechanisms to determine accessible areas of a city a priori. In this paper, we investigate the feasibility of using untrained crowd workers from Amazon Mechanical Turk (turkers) to find, label, and assess sidewalk accessibility problems in Google Street View imagery. We report on two studies: Study 1 examines the feasibility of this labeling task with six dedicated labelers including three wheelchair users; Study 2 investigates the comparative performance of turkers. In all, we collected 13,379 labels and 19,189 verification labels from a total of 402 turkers. We show that turkers are capable of determining the presence of an accessibility problem with 81% accuracy. With simple quality control methods, this number increases to 93%. Our work demonstrates a promising new, highly scalable method for acquiring knowledge about sidewalk accessibility.
Modeling of high-pressure mixing and combustion in liquid rocket injectors

A unified treatment of general fluid thermodynamics is developed to handle fluid flows over their entire thermodynamic states. In particular, attention has been focused on the correct evaluation of the p − v − T relationship in the trans-and super-critical regime, using a modified version of the Peng Robinson cubic equation of state and deriving from it analytical expressions for enthalpy and specific heats. The proposed approach also provides an improved calculation for the transport properties (i.e., mixture viscosity and thermal conductivity) using models available in the literature and developed specifically for high-pressure conditions. The resulting routines are incorporated into a precondition-ing scheme with all the Jacobian matrices derived directly from the same fundamental thermodynamic theory. Finally, a new approach for high-pressure non-premixed reacting flows is proposed using a flamelet-based combustion model.
Maximum Secondary Stable Throughput of a Cooperative Secondary Transmitter–Receiver Pair: Protocol Design and Stability Analysis

In this paper, we investigate the impact of cooperation between a secondary transmitter-receiver pair and a primary transmitter on the maximum stable throughput of the primary-secondary network. Each transmitter, either primary or secondary, has a buffer for storing its own traffic. In addition to its own buffer, the secondary transmitter has a buffer for storing a fraction of the undelivered primary packets due to channel impairments. Moreover, the secondary destination has a relaying queue (buffer) for storing a fraction of the undelivered primary packets. In our proposed cooperative system, the secondary transmitter and the secondary destination increase the spectrum availability for the secondary packets by relaying the unsuccessfully transmitted packets of the primary transmitter. We consider two multiple-access strategies to be used by the secondary transmitter and the secondary destination to utilize the silence sessions of the primary transmitter. Numerical results demonstrate the gains of our proposed cooperative system over the noncooperation case and the systems when the secondary transmitter is the only cooperating node in the network.
NEGATIVE BEQUEST MOTIVES, TAX-SMOOTHING

This paper focuses on explaining the intertemporal and cross-country differences in budget deficits. In particular, it tests two prominent theories of budget deficits, namely the Barro (1979) tax-smoothing approach, and the still-untested theory of negative bequest motives advocated by Cukierman and Meltzer (1989). Results from country and time fixed-effects panel regressions, estimated from 1972 to 1992, find relatively stronger statistical support for the tax-smoothing approach among developing countries but not in developed countries. The existence of empirical evidence supporting the theory of negative bequest motives is indeterminate. This paper also finds that both theories perform very well at accounting for cross-country differences in budget surplus shares but are relatively weak in accounting for intertemporal changes in budget deficits.
Sparse Gaussian Markov Random Field Mixtures for Anomaly Detection

We propose a new approach to anomaly detection from multivariate noisy sensor data. We address two major challenges: To provide variable-wise diagnostic information and to automatically handle multiple operational modes. Our task is a practical extension of traditional outlier detection, which is to compute a single scalar for each sample. To consistently define the variable-wise anomaly score, we leverage a predictive conditional distribution. We then introduce a mixture of Gaussian Markov random field and its Bayesian inference, resulting in a sparse mixture of sparse graphical models. Our anomaly detection method is capable of automatically handling multiple operational modes while removing unwanted nuisance variables. We demonstrate the utility of our approach using real equipment data from the oil industry.
Objective Analysis Of Ultrasound Images By Use Of A Computational Observer

We present a computer-based computational observer method for the analysis and evaluation of digitized ultrasound images of the contrast-detail phantom, which was developed earlier. This evaluation method evolved from image evaluation studies, which demonstrates that human observer performance is not sufficiently consistent or accurate for objective evaluation of images or imaging system. The computational observer measures the detection threshold for imaged targets of known contrast, and computes contrast-detail data from this information. We find that our new method meets the criteria of being objective, accurate, reproducible, transportable, and relevant to human observer image evaluations.
Understanding Implicit Entities and Events with Getaruns

Semantic processing represents the new challenge for all applications that require text understanding, as for instance Q/A. In this paper we will highlight the need to couple statistical approaches with deep linguistic processing and will focus on “implicit” or lexically unexpressed linguistic elements that are nonetheless necessary for a complete semantic interpretation of a text. We will address the following types of “implicit” entities and events: - grammatical ones, as suggested by a linguistic theories like LFG or similar generative theories; - semantic ones suggested in the FrameNet project, i.e. CNI, DNI, INI; - pragmatic ones: here we will present a theory and an implementation for the recovery of implicit entities and events of (non-) standard implicatures. In particular we will show how the use of commonsense knowledge may fruitfully contribute in finding relevant implied meanings. We will also briefly explore the Subject of Point of View which is computed by Semantic Informational Structure and contributes the intended entity from whose point of view is expressed a given subjective statement. We also present an evaluation based on section 24 of Penn Treebank as encoded by LFG people in the PARC-700 treebank where lexically unexpressed are adequately classified and diversified.
Application of Artificial Bee Colony Algorithm to Software Testing

This paper presents an artificial bee colony based novel search technique for automatic generation of structural software tests. Test cases are symbolically generated by measuring fitness of individuals with the help of branch distance based objective function. Evaluation of the test generator was performed using ten real world programs. Some of these programs had large ranges for input variables. Results show that the new technique is a reasonable alternative for test data generation, but doesn’t perform very well for large inputs and where constraints are having many equality constraints.
Multiphase converter structures applied to integrated micro-power application circuits.

Today, advances in the technology of power systems integration allow new multiple functions in power conversion. However, performances are not improved enough to have today a complete DC-DC converter integrated on a same chip. This study proposes a comparison between different DC-DC converter topologies to deduce the most adapted for a future complete integrated circuit version. For this type of circuit, high efficiencies for high performing power densities storage and transfer are necessary.
LAMBERT CUBE AND LÖBELL POLYHEDRON REVISITED

The first example of a closed orientable hyperbolic 3-manifold was constructed by F. Löbell in 1931 from eight copies of the right-angled 14-hedron. We consider the family of hyperbolic polyhedra which generalize the Lambert cube and the Löbell polyhedron. For polyhedra from this family we give trigonometric relations between essential dihedral angles and lengths and obtain volume formulae in various forms.
A Polar Transmitter With CMOS Programmable Hysteretic-Controlled Hybrid Switching Supply Modulator for Multistandard Applications

This paper presents the realization of a linear polar transmitter supporting multistandard applications. The harmonic-tuned class-AB biased (class-AB/F) power amplifier (PA) with the novel envelope shaping method linearly amplifies the input signal with high efficiency. The hybrid switching supply modulator with programmable hysteretic comparator enables the multimode operation whatever the envelope signal characteristics such as the peak-to-average power ratio and the bandwidth are. The designed polar transmitter is fabricated with CMOS 0.13-mum technology and InGaP/GaAs 2-mum HBT process for the supply modulator and the PA, respectively. For the IEEE 802.16e m-WiMax signal, it shows a power-added efficiency (PAE), an average output power (Pout), and a gain of 34.3%, 23.9 dBm, and 27.9 dB, respectively. Without any predistortion techniques, it satisfies the overall spectrum emission mask specifications. The relative constellation error and the error vector magnitude for the m-WiMax signal are -30.5 dB and 2.98%, respectively. For a WCDMA signal, it presents a PAE, a Pout, and a gain of 46%, 29 dBm, and 27.8 dB, respectively. For the EDGE signal, it delivers a PAE of 45.3% at a Pout of 27.8 dBm with a gain of 29.4 dB. There is about a 7% improvement of the overall PAE for EDGE through the optimum multimode operation.
xAMp: a multi-primitive group communications service

The xAMp is a highly versatile group communications service aimed at supporting the development of distributed applications with different dependability, functionality, and performance requirements. These range from unreliable and nonordered to atomic multicast, and are enhanced by efficient group addressing and management support. The basic protocols are synchronous, clockless and designed to be used over broadcast local area networks (LANs), and are portable to a number of them. The functionality provided yields a reasonably complete solution to the problem of reliable group communication. While other protocols offer similar services, the authors follow a novel engineering approach by deriving all qualities of services from a single basic procedure. Thus, their implementation shares data structures, procedures, failure-recovery algorithms, and group monitor services, resulting in a highly integrated package. <<ETX>>
Usefulness of saliva for measurement of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine and its metabolites: correlation with plasma drug concentrations and effect of salivary pH.

BACKGROUND Saliva is an alternative biologic matrix for drugs-of-abuse testing that offers the advantages of noninvasive, rapid, and easy sampling. We studied the excretion profile of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) and its metabolites in both saliva and plasma, as well the effect of the drug on salivary pH. METHODS Saliva and plasma samples were obtained from eight healthy MDMA consumers after ingestion of a single 100-mg dose of the drug. Concentrations of MDMA and its main metabolites, 3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA) and 4-hydroxy-3-methoxymethamphetamine (HMMA), in saliva and plasma were measured by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Apparent pharmacokinetic parameters for MDMA in saliva were estimated, and the saliva-to-plasma ratio at each time interval was calculated and correlated with salivary pH. RESULTS MDMA, MDA, and HMMA were detected in saliva. Salivary concentrations of MDMA were 1728.9-6510.6 microg/L and peaked at 1.5 h after drug intake. This was followed by a progressive decrease, with a mean concentration of 126.2 microg/L at 24 h. The saliva-to-plasma ratio was 32.3-1.2, with a peak of 18.1 at 1.5 h after drug administration. Salivary pH seemed to be affected by MDMA administration; pH values decreased by 0.6 units (mean pH values of 6.9 and 6.8 at 1.5 and 4 h after drug administration vs predose pH of 7.4). CONCLUSIONS Measurement of MDMA in saliva is a valuable alternative to determination of plasma drug concentrations in both clinical and toxicologic studies. On-site testing is also facilitated by noninvasive and rapid collection of salivary specimens.
Achieving Optimal Efficiency in Energy Transfer to a CMOS Fully Integrated Wireless Power Receiver

This paper presents the design and measurement of an inductive link for transferring energy to a fully integrated wireless power receiver. The power receiver design was focused on optimizing each factor that contributes to the link efficiency while its size was constrained to 1.5 mm × 1.5 mm in a conventional CMOS 180-nm process. On the power transmitter side, the primary inductor is printed on an FR4 board and its dimensions are selected so as to optimize its quality factor and the magnetic coupling factor. A strategy is proposed to experimentally determine the performance of the entire system. Using the proposed strategy, we measured a link efficiency of -25.4 dB at a frequency of 986 MHz, with a primary inductor of average diameter 22 mm and distance 15 mm from the receiver. Considering the characteristics of the receiver: monolithic implementation, chip area, link efficiency, and distance to the transmitter, the designed wireless power transfer system exhibits a better performance than state-of-the-art systems.
The senescence-associated secretory phenotype induces cellular plasticity and tissue regeneration

Here, Ritschka et al. provide insight into new functions for the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP), which can reinforce the arrest and induce senescence in a paracrine manner. They show that SASP promotes a proregenerative response through the induction of cell plasticity and stemness and demonstrate that transient therapeutic delivery of senescent cells could be harnessed to drive tissue regeneration.
Engineered Metallic Structures and Nanofabrication Techniques for Plasmonic Biosensors

Optical energy can be harnessed on the nanoscale by exploiting plasmonic resonances in metallic nanostructures. These resonances are the result of the unique optical properties of metals and their abundance of conduction electrons. Utilizing these properties, it is possible to engineer metallic nano-devices that operate with large electric field intensities confined in and around the structure. Due to these large fields, optical, chemical and spectroscopic properties can be probed with high sensitivity. This project covers the various fabrication methods unique to the precise fabrication of metallic nano-structures as well as some applications as nano-optical sensors.
"NÅGONTING ANNAT" - ESTETISKA MUSIKÄMNEN OCH KÖRSÅNG I GYMNASIESKOLAN 2014

The purpose of this paper is to study and describe the occurrence and conditions of aesthetic subjects and choral singing in Swedish upper secondary schools 2014. The paper is based on seven recorded individual interviews with three music teachers, four principals and one director of education in three upper secondary schools in Sweden. The study uses discursive psychology and the interviews were analysed with focus on music teachers and school leaders interpretative repertoires and rhetorical strategies and how they use the language to legitimate aesthetic subjects in an upper secondary school context. In the most recent upper secondary school reform of 2011 the aesthetic subjects are no longer mandatory. Today there are different ways to provide opportunities for the students to participate in music activities but since the government no longer decides how it shall be implemented it is up to the management of each school to determine the activities. The statement made by the informants are interesting in relation to the status of music subjects, but due to the limited scope of the paper, no general conclusions can be drawn. However, the status of the subjects appears to be low. The school leaders and the music teachers identify the competitive situation between school subjects as a part of the problem, since the educational system favour some subjects that are higher valued and give students extra credits, or courses that give admission to higher education. Time, financing and adoption are concepts used in rhetorical strategies in negotiations between the involved parties. Music teachers seem to be able to adapt to any circumstances in order to keep their educational activities since the subject is no longer mandatory in upper secondary schools. Music teachers and school leaders are thus positioning themselves to both be able to resolve situations and benefit from agreements.
Magnetic domain wall logic requires new synthesis methodologies

The demonstration of NOT and OR logic gates using magnetic domain walls could suggest that digital circuit design methodology may apply directly to this new technology to build complex circuits. In this paper, the authors show that the use of an external rotating field which propagates domain walls of opposite magnetization at different times, reveals unforeseen delays which modify the operation of sequential logic circuits. To overcome this difficulty, the authors present a new device capable of re-synchronizing the signals
Concurrent 43 and 86 GHz Very Long Baseline Polarimetry of 3C 273

We present submilliarcsecond resolution total intensity and linear polarization VLBI images of 3C 273, using concurrent 43 and 86 GHz data taken with the Very Long Baseline Array in 2002 May. The structure seen in the innermost jet suggest that we have fortuitously caught the jet in the act of changing direction. The polarization images confirm that the core is unpolarized (fractional polarization ≤1%) at 86 GHz, but also show well ordered magnetic fields (m ~ 15%) in the inner jet, at a projected distance of 2.3 pc from the core. In this strongly polarized region, the rotation measure changes across the jet by ~4.2 × 104 rad m-2 over an angular width of about 0.3 mas. If the lack of polarization in the core is also attributed to a Faraday screen, then a rotation measure dispersion ≳5.2 × 104 rad m-2 must be present in or in front of that region. These are among the highest rotation measures reported so far in the nucleus of any active galaxy or quasar, and must occur outside (but probably close to) the radio emitting region. The transverse rotation measure gradient is in the same sense as that observed by Asada and coworkers and by Zavala and Taylor at greater core distances. The magnitude of the transverse gradient decreases rapidly with distance down the jet, and appears to be variable.
“Picolog,” a Synthetically-Available Bryostatin Analog, Inhibits Growth of MYC-Induced Lymphoma In Vivo

Bryostatin 1 is a naturally occurring complex macrolide with potent anti-neoplastic activity. However, its extremely low natural occurrence has impeded clinical advancement. We developed a strategy directed at the design of simplified and synthetically more accessible bryostatin analogs. Our lead analog, “picolog”, can be step-economically produced. Picolog, compared to bryostatin, exhibited superior growth inhibition of MYC-induced lymphoma in vitro. A key mechanism of picolog's (and bryostatin's) activity is activation of PKC. A novel nano-immunoassay (NIA) revealed that picolog treatment increased phospho-MEK2 in the PKC pathway. Moreover, the inhibition of PKC abrogated picolog's activity. Finally, picolog was highly potent at 100 micrograms/kg and well tolerated at doses ranging from 100 micrograms/kg to 1 milligram/kg in vivo for the treatment of our aggressive model of MYC-induced lymphoma. We provide the first in vivo validation that the bryostatin analog, picolog, is a potential therapeutic agent for the treatment of cancer and other diseases.
Choosing Ayurveda as a healthcare practice in Argentina

This article analyzes the process of adoption of Ayurveda as a healthcare practice in Buenos Aires, focusing on sociocultural dimensions and material aspects which either facilitate or discourage the following of this foreign medical tradition. Ayurveda is an ancient Indian medicine whose popularity has been on the rise among the Argentinean middle and upper classes. Introduced as a ‘lifestyle’ medicine, it resonates with the new health consciousness of individual responsibility in health maintenance and improvement. Based on in-depth interviews conducted with 20 followers of Ayurveda in Buenos Aires, the article shows that it attracts New Agers, adherents to food-driven subcultures, and patients dissatisfied with the limitations of biomedicine. Followers develop new skills for self-understanding, self-healing, and wellbeing. As adherents to a foreign medical approach, however, they adopt Ayurvedic practices in flexible ways, and some even hold critical views on the elitist market niches of Ayurvedic specialists and products.