Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
User behavior prediction for energy management in smart homes

In this paper, we focus on the prediction of user interactions within a real world scenario of energy management for a smart home. External signals, reflecting the low voltage grid's state, are used to address the challenge of balancing energy demand and generation. An autonomous system to aim at this challenge is proposed, in particular to coordinate decentralized power plants with the electrical load of the smart home. For that two prediction algorithms to estimate the future behavior of the smart home are presented: The Day Type Model and a probabilistic approach based on a first order Semi Markov Model. Some experimental results with real world data of the KIT smart home are presented.
Brief Glutamine Pretreatment Increases Alveolar Macrophage CD163/Heme Oxygenase-1/p38-MAPK Dephosphorylation Pathway and Decreases Capillary Damage but Not Neutrophil Recruitment in IL-1/LPS-Insufflated Rats

Background Glutamine (GLN) attenuates acute lung injury (ALI) but its effect on alveolar macrophages is unknown. We hypothesized that GLN pretreatment would induce the anti-inflammatory CD163/heme oxygenase (HO)-1/p38-MAPK dephosphorylation pathway in alveolar macrophages and reduce ALI in rats insufflated with interleukin-1 (IL-1) and lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Methods Male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomized to the following groups: GLN-IL-1/LPS-, GLN+IL-1/LPS-, GLN-IL-1/LPS+, and GLN+IL-1/LPS+. GLN pretreatment was given via gavage (1g/kg L-alanyl-L-glutamine) daily for 2 days. ALI was subsequently induced by insufflating 50ng IL-1 followed by 5mg/kg E.coli LPS. After 24h, bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) protein, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and neutrophil concentrations were analyzed. BAL alveolar macrophage CD163+ expression, HO-1 and p38-MAPK concentrations were measured, as well as alveolar macrophage tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α and interleukin (IL)-10 concentrations. Histology and immunofluorescence studies were also performed. Results Following IL-1/LPS insufflation, GLN pretreated rats had significantly decreased BAL protein and LDH concentrations, but not BAL neutrophil counts, compared to non-GLN pretreated rats. The number of alveolar macrophages and the number of CD163+ macrophages were significantly increased in GLN pretreated IL-1/LPS-insufflated rats compared to non-GLN pretreated, IL-1/LPS-insufflated rats. GLN pretreatment before IL-1/LPS also significantly increased HO-1 concentrations and dephosphorylated p38-MAPK levels but not cytokine levels in alveolar macrophages. Immunofluorescence localized CD163 and HO-1 in alveolar macrophages. Conclusion Short-term GLN pretreatment activates the anti-inflammatory CD163/HO-1/p38-MAPK dephosphorylation pathway of alveolar macrophages and decreases capillary damage but not neutrophil recruitment in IL-1/LPS-insufflated rats.
The Liberalization of Trade in Textiles and Clothing: China's impact on the ASEAN economies *

On January 1, 2005, quotas on textile and clothing trade were lifted. With this, US and EU pricecompetitive clothing imports from China soared. Recent talk of quota safeguards notwithstanding, this has development implications for other, relatively uncompetitive, countries—especially those heavily reliant on textile and clothing exports. This study examines the effect that China will have on the Southeast Asian countries, as part of a bigger picture of economic competition and cooperation within Asia. The Southeast Asian countries are found to have a more competitive than complementary relationship with China in this sector. Using a constant elasticity of substitution model, this paper then finds a significant negative effect of quota-abolition on the Southeast Asian countries. However, a paradox is found. Though China should out-compete all the Southeast Asian countries based on supply-side competition, this is not reflected in actual growth patterns, where some Southeast Asian countries see robust growth in the US market, as well as the Japanese non-quota market. This could be due to ongoing expansion of the import markets, as well as other supply-side trends such as changes in comparative advantage. The outlook for the Southeast Asian countries is thus less bleak than most predict.
Interpretability of machine learning models and representations: an introduction

Interpretability is often a major concern in machine learning. Although many authors agree with this statement, interpretability is often tackled with intuitive arguments, distinct (yet related) terms and heuristic quan-tiﬁcations. This short survey aims to clarify the concepts related to interpretability and emphasises the distinction between interpreting models and representations, as well as heuristic-based and user-based approaches.
Hierarchical phoneme classifier for Hindi speech

In this work we develop a phoneme segmentation and phoneme recognition for Hindi speech recognition. Novel features like the number of dominating frequencies, the primary and secondary dominating frequencies are used in addition to standard features like zero crossing, length of the phoneme and energy. The results obtained with standard data sets show that the system has an accuracy of more than 85%.
Tubulin Is an Inherent Component of Mitochondrial Membranes That Interacts with the Voltage-dependent Anion Channel*

We have previously reported that anti-tubulin agents induce the release of cytochrome c from isolated mitochondria. In this study, we show that tubulin is present in mitochondria isolated from different human cancerous and non-cancerous cell lines. The absence of polymerized microtubules and cytosolic proteins was checked to ensure that this tubulin is an inherent component of the mitochondria. In addition, a salt wash did not release the tubulin from the mitochondria. By using electron microscopy, we then showed that tubulin is localized in the mitochondrial membranes. As compared with cellular tubulin, mitochondrial tubulin is enriched in acetylated and tyrosinated α-tubulin and is also enriched in the class III β-tubulin isotype but contains very little of the class IV β-tubulin isotype. The mitochondrial tubulin is likely to be organized in α/β dimers and represents 2.2 ± 0.5% of total cellular tubulin. Lastly, we showed by immunoprecipitation experiments that the mitochondrial tubulin is specifically associated with the voltage-dependent anion channel, the main component of the permeability transition pore. Thus, tubulin is an inherent component of mitochondrial membranes, and it could play a role in apoptosis via interaction with the permeability transition pore.
Cocaine abstinence alters nucleus accumbens firing dynamics during goal‐directed behaviors for cocaine and sucrose

Distinct subsets of nucleus accumbens (NAc) neurons differentially encode goal‐directed behaviors for natural vs. drug rewards [R. M. Carelli et al. (2000)The Journal of Neuroscience, 20, 4255–4266], and the encoding of cocaine‐seeking is altered following cocaine abstinence [J. A. Hollander & R. M. Carelli (2007) The Journal of Neuroscience, 27, 3535–3539]. Here, electrophysiological recording procedures were used to determine if the selective encoding of natural vs. cocaine reward by NAc neurons is: (i) maintained when the natural reinforcer is a highly palatable sweet tastant and (ii) altered by cocaine abstinence. Rats (n = 14) were trained on a multiple schedule of sucrose reinforcement and cocaine self‐administration (2–3 weeks) and NAc activity was recorded during the task before and after 30 days of cocaine abstinence. Of 130 cells recorded before abstinence, 82 (63%) displayed patterned discharges (increases or decreases in firing rate, termed phasic activity) relative to operant responding for sucrose or cocaine. As in previous reports, the majority of those cells displayed nonoverlapping patterns of activity during responding for sucrose vs. cocaine. Specifically, only 17 (21%) showed similar patterns of activity (i.e. overlapping activity) across the two reinforcer conditions. After abstinence, this pattern was largely maintained, 23 of 70 phasic cells (33%) were overlapping. However, cocaine abstinence altered the overall percentage of selectively active neurons across reinforcer conditions. Specifically, significantly more neurons became selectively activated during cocaine‐directed behaviors than during sucrose‐directed behaviors. The results indicate that, although the selective encoding of cocaine and natural rewards is maintained even with a highly palatable substance, 30 days of cocaine abstinence dynamically alters the overall population encoding of natural and drug rewards by NAc neurons.
A MODEL OF A HYBRID ZONE BETWEEN TWO CHROMOSOMAL RACES OF THE COMMON SHREW (SOREX ARANEUS)

The common shrew (Sorex araneus) is subdivided into several karyotypic races in Britain. Two of these races meet near Oxford o form the “Oxford‐Hermitage” hybrid zone. We present a model which describes this system a; a “tension zone,” i.e., a set of clines maintained by a balance between dispersal and selection against chromosomal heterozygotes. The Oxford and Hermitage races differ by Robertsonian fusions with monobrachial homology (kq, no versus ko), and so Fl hybrids between them would have low fertility. However, the acrocentric karyotype is found at high frequency within the hybrid zone, so that complex Robertsonian heterozygotes (kg no/q ko n) are replaced by more fertile combinations, such as (kg no/k q n o). This suggests that the hybrid zone has been modified so as to increase hybrid fitness. Mathematical analysis and simulation show that, if selection against complex heterozygotes is sufficiently strong relative to selection against simple heterozygotes, acrocentrics increase, and displace the clines for kg and no from the cline for ko. Superimposed on this separation is a tendency for the hybrid zone to move in favor of the Oxford (kg no) race. We compare the model with estimates of linkage disequilibrium and cline shape made from field data.
Therapeutic Roles of Heme Oxygenase-1 in Metabolic Diseases: Curcumin and Resveratrol Analogues as Possible Inducers of Heme Oxygenase-1

Metabolic diseases, such as insulin resistance, type II diabetes, and obesity, are associated with a low-grade chronic inflammation (inflammatory stress), oxidative stress, and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress. Because the integration of these stresses is critical to the pathogenesis of metabolic diseases, agents and cellular molecules that can modulate these stress responses are emerging as potential targets for intervention and treatment of metabolic diseases. It has been recognized that heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) plays an important role in cellular protection. Because HO-1 can reduce inflammatory stress, oxidative stress, and ER stress, in part by exerting antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antiapoptotic effects, HO-1 has been suggested to play important roles in pathogenesis of metabolic diseases. In the present review, we will explore our current understanding of the protective mechanisms of HO-1 in metabolic diseases and present some emerging therapeutic options for HO-1 expression in treating metabolic diseases, together with the therapeutic potential of curcumin and resveratrol analogues that have their ability to induce HO-1 expression.
Dietary Energy Balance Modulates Epithelial-to-Mesenchymal Transition and Tumor Progression in Murine Claudin-Low and Basal-like Mammary Tumor Models

Using novel murine models of claudin-low and basal-like breast cancer, we tested the hypothesis that diet-induced obesity (DIO) and calorie restriction (CR) differentially modulate progression of these aggressive breast cancer subtypes. For model development, we characterized two cell lines, “mesenchymal (M)-Wnt” and “epithelial (E)-Wnt,” derived from MMTV-Wnt-1 transgenic mouse mammary tumors. M-Wnt, relative to E-Wnt, cells were tumor-initiating cell (TIC)-enriched (62% vs. 2.4% CD44high/CD24low) and displayed enhanced ALDEFLUOR positivity, epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) marker expression, mammosphere-forming ability, migration, invasion, and tumorigenicity (P < 0.001; each parameter). M-Wnt and E-Wnt cells clustered with claudin-low and basal-like breast tumors, respectively, in gene expression profiles and recapitulated these tumors when orthotopically transplanted into ovariectomized C57BL/6 mice. To assess the effects of energy balance interventions on tumor progression and EMT, mice were administered DIO, control, or CR diets for 8 weeks before orthotopic transplantation of M-Wnt or E-Wnt cells (for each cell line, n = 20 mice per diet) and continued on their diets for 6 weeks while tumor growth was monitored. Relative to control, DIO enhanced M-Wnt (P = 0.01), but not E-Wnt, tumor progression; upregulated EMT- and TIC-associated markers including N-cadherin,fibronectin, TGFβ, Snail, FOXC2, and Oct4 (P < 0.05, each); and increased intratumoral adipocytes. Conversely, CR suppressed M-Wnt and E-Wnt tumor progression (P < 0.02, each) and inhibited EMT and intratumoral adipocyte accumulation. Thus, dietary energy balance interventions differentially modulate EMT and progression of claudin-low and basal-like tumors. EMT pathway components may represent targets for breaking the obesity–breast cancer link, particularly for preventing and/or controlling TIC-enriched subtypes such as claudin-low breast cancer. Cancer Prev Res; 5(7); 930–42. ©2012 AACR.
ACCEPTANCE OF MUSIC STIMULATION THERAPY FOR AUDITORY HALLUCINATION PATIENTS

Introduction.The majority of increasing rates of mental illness cases cause by recurrence. Music stimulation therapy on patients with hallucinations is one of the modalities of therapy in nursing care. The purpose of this study was to reduce the recurrence rate of patients experienced with hearing voices.Methods. Patients were asked to listen to music when hallucinations appeared. The nurse was accompanying and observing during therapy. After completion of therapy, patients were interviewed using an open ended question how the response toward the music therapy. Interview data were analyzed using narrative strategies of inquiry. In addition the patients were also measured a number of hallucinations that appeared before therapy. The intervention was applied for one month, and then the patients are repeated its measures by the appearance of hallucinations. The Wilcoxon test was utilized to compare differences between before and after intervention.Result. The themes finding that can be developed were the music therapy shows specific responses and the music therapy disrupts hallucinations. While the quantitative analysis, there were the differences mean between before and after the intervention, but the statistical test showed insignificant value.Discussion. Stimulation therapy of hearing voice panned out and eliminated ongoing hallucinations in patients with a medical diagnosis of undifferentiated schizophrenia, but the response of paranoid schizophrenia patients were unsuccessful. Key words: Nursing modalities therapy, schizophrenia, auditory hallucinations
Online service with delay

In this paper, we introduce the online service with delay problem. In this problem, there are n points in a metric space that issue service requests over time, and a server that serves these requests. The goal is to minimize the sum of distance traveled by the server and the total delay (or a penalty function thereof) in serving the requests. This problem models the fundamental tradeoff between batching requests to improve locality and reducing delay to improve response time, that has many applications in operations management, operating systems, logistics, supply chain management, and scheduling. Our main result is to show a poly-logarithmic competitive ratio for the online service with delay problem. This result is obtained by an algorithm that we call the preemptive service algorithm. The salient feature of this algorithm is a process called preemptive service, which uses a novel combination of (recursive) time forwarding and spatial exploration on a metric space. We also generalize our results to k > 1 servers, and obtain stronger results for special metrics such as uniform and star metrics that correspond to (weighted) paging problems.
Between feast and famine: endogenous inducer synthesis in the adaptation of Escherichia coli to growth with limiting carbohydrates

Escherichia coli adapted to growth with low carbohydrate concentrations bypassed the requirement for exogenous inducer with at least three well-studied sugar regulons. Induction of mgl and gal genes became independent of added galactose in bacteria approaching stationary phase or during continuous culture with micromolar glucose in the medium. Bacteria became independent of exogenous induction because endogenous galactose and cyclic AMP (cAMP) pools were sufficient for high expression of mgl and gal genes under glucose limitation. Limitation-stimulated induction of mgl was dependent on a functional galETK operon for synthesis of the inducer galactose. Intracellular galactose levels were maximal not during starvation (or slow steady-state growth rates approaching starvation) but at fast growth rates with micromolar glucose. The extent of mgl/gal induction correlated better with inducer availability than with cAMP concentrations under all conditions tested. Endogenous inducer accumulation represents an adaptation to low-nutrient environments, leading to derepression of high-affinity transport systems like Mgl essential for bacterial competitiveness at low nutrient concentrations.
Implementation and Experiments of a Distributed SMT Solving Environment

—SMT-based Bounded Model Checking (BMC) consists of two primary tasks: (1) encoding a bounded model checking problem into a propositional formula that represents the problem, and (2) using a SMT solver to solve the formula, that is, finding a set of variable assignments that makes the formula true. Solving the formula (namely, SMT solving) involves computation-intensive processes and is thus time-consuming. Furthermore, as the model-checking bound increases, the encoded formulas become larger in size and harder to solve. The target of this paper is to accelerate SMT solving through distributed computation so as to enhance the performance of SMT-based BMC. To this end, we implement a multi-CPUs & multi-cores based distributed computation environment, to which different SMT solvers can be integrated. In this paper, we describe the implementation details and report our preliminary experimental results.
Brain-computer interfaces in end-of-life decision-making

Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) may enable some patients with brain injuries preventing verbal or gestural communication to communicate through brain activity alone. Cognitive impairment in the minimally conscious state (MCS), however, would appear to preclude patients in this state from meeting the requirements of informed consent and decision-making about life-sustaining care. Yet some patients at the higher end of the MCS spectrum may have enough awareness to understand their condition, experience pleasure or pain and suffering and enough cognitive capacity to express wishes through a BCI to continue or end their experience. A weaker concept of informed consent and decisional capacity confirmed through a repeated and consistent pattern of affirmative or negative responses to questions about quality of life and artificial nutrition and hydration (ANH) may justify these responses as sufficiently informed decisions about care. Failure to take these responses as autonomous decisions may harm these patient.
Detecting Signals in Correlated Motion of the Fingers

Normally, when we explore or manipulate objects more than one of our fingers will come into contact with and move over a surface. Movement of the object or our fingers may give rise to different motion at each finger yet we retain a sense of a single object. We have investigated this by examining how correlated motion across the fingers may help detection of a kinaesthetic stimulus. We have found lowered thresholds for detecting stimuli in the presence of positively correlated background movement compared to negatively or uncorrelated background movement. In future experiments we will investigate the effect of positive correlation by varying time differences between the movements at the fingers.
In vitro activity of an essential oil against Leishmania donovani

The in vitro antileishmanial effect of the essential oil from Chenopodium ambrosioides against Leishmania donovani was investigated. The product showed significant activity against promastigotes and amastigotes, with a 50% effective concentration of 4.45 and 5.1 µg/mL, respectively. The essential oil caused an irreversible inhibition of the growth of promastigotes after a treatment with 100 or 10 µg/mL for 1 or 24 h, respectively. The phagocytic activity of the macrophages was preserved at a concentration toxic to the parasite. The essential oil from C. ambrosioides may be a potential candidate drug to development a new agent to combat this parasitic disease. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The Effects of Concomitant Administration of Theophylline and Toborinone on the Pharmacokinetics of Both Compounds in Poor and Extensive Metabolizers via CYP2D6

This study investigated the effects of the concomitant administration of theophylline and toborinone on the pharmacokinetics of both compounds in poor and extensive metabolizers via CYP2D6. In period 1, a single dose of 3.5 mg/kg theophylline was administered orally. In period 2, a single dose of 1.0 μg/kg/min toborinone was infused over 6 hours. In period 3, 3.5 mg/kg theophylline was coadministered with 1.0 μg/kg/min toborinone. Serial blood and pooled urine samples were collected before and after toborinone administration for the quantification of toborinone and its metabolites in plasma and urine. Serial blood samples were collected before and after theophylline administration for the quantification of theophylline and its metabolites in plasma. No significant differences were observed in toborinone pharmacokinetics between poor and extensive metabolizers via CYP2D6. Toborinone coadministration with theophylline did not result in a substantive effect on the disposition of theophylline and vice versa.
Eurographics Symposium on Geometry Processing 2014 Feature-preserving Surface Completion Using Four Points

(a) original object (b) zoom-in (c) hole (d) context-based (e) context-based (f) our completion of original & four points without assistance with assistance Figure 1: Completing a broken artefact using four points of user input. The hole spans part of the ear and parts of the curls. As the curls differ from each other, the hole cannot be completed by copying another part of the head. Our completion (f) uses the user's four points (c), to complete the original object (a,b). For problems such as this, involving large holes whose reconstruction requires consideration of semantics and context, our user-guided process compares favorably to (d) recent, automated context-based approaches [HTG14], (e) even if they are extended in a straightforward manner to respect user constraints. Abstract We present a user-guided, semi-automatic approach to completing large holes in a mesh. The reconstruction of the missing features in such holes is usually ambiguous. Thus, unsupervised methods may produce unsatisfactory results. To overcome this problem, we let the user indicate constraints by providing merely four points per important feature curve on the mesh. Our algorithm regards this input as an indication of an important broken feature curve. Our completion is formulated as a global energy minimization problem, with user-defined spatial-coherence constraints, allows for completion that adheres to the existing features. We demonstrate the method on example problems that are not handled satisfactorily by fully automatic methods.