Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Stability and H∞ Performance Analysis for Markovian Jump Systems with Time-varying Delay and Partial Information on Transition Probabilities⋆

Abstract This paper focuses on stability and H ∞ performance analysis for a class of continuous-time Markovian jump systems with unknown transition probability and time-varying delay. Based on the free-connection weighting matrix method, the less conservative stability criterion and bounded real lemma (BRL) of Markovian jump systems with time-varying delay are obtained by considering the influence of partly unknown transition probability or completely unknown transition probability. Finally, numerical examples are given to illustrate the effectiveness and the merits of the proposed method.
Ductal Carcinoma In Situ: What the Pathologist Needs to Know and Why

Ductal carcinoma in situ is a proliferation of malignant epithelial cells confined to the ductolobular system of the breast. It is considered a pre-cursor lesion for invasive breast cancer and when identified patients are treated with some combination of surgery, +/− radiation therapy, and +/adjuvant tamoxifen. However, no good biomarkers exist that can predict with accuracy those cases of DCIS destined to progress to invasive disease or once treated those patients that are likely to suffer a recurrence; thus, in the era of screening mammography it seems likely that many patients with DCIS are overtreated. This paper details the parameters that should be included in a pathology report for a case of DClS with some explanations as to their importance for good clinical decision making.
Age-dependent Role of Microvascular Endothelial and Polymorphonuclear Cells in Lipopolysaccharide-induced Acute Kidney Injury

Background: The incidence of acute kidney injury following severe sepsis is higher in the elderly. We hypothesized that microvascular endothelium is “primed” by aging and that sepsis represents a “second hit,” resulting in more severe microvascular complications. Methods: Three- and 18-months-old mice were intraperitoneally injected with 1,500 EU/g body weight lipopolysaccharide and sacrificed after 8 h. Flow cytometry and myeloperoxidase ELISA determined neutrophils in plasma. Quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction was used to analyze messenger ribonucleic acid levels of cell adhesion molecules P-selectin and E-selectin, vascular cell adhesion protein-1, intercellular adhesion molecule-1, angiopoietin receptor TIE-2, and angiopoietins Ang1 and Ang2. In kidney tissue we assessed neutrophil influx and E-selectin protein expression. Neutrophils were depleted with the monoclonal antibody NIMP. Results: At basal conditions, microvascular endothelial cell activation status was similar in both groups, except for a higher Ang-2 expression (P < 0.05) in the kidney of aged mice. Lipopolysaccharide-induced increase in neutrophil count was higher in old (3.3-fold change) compared with young mice (2.2-fold change). Messenger ribonucleic acid analysis showed higher upregulation of P- and E-selectin (P = 0.0004, P = 0.0007) after lipopolysaccharide administration in kidneys of elderly mice, which was confirmed at the protein level for E-selectin. Renal neutrophil influx in lipopolysaccharide-treated aged mice was increased (2.5-fold induction in aged and 2.1-fold in young, P < 0.0001). Polymorphonuclear cell depletion exaggerated the lipopolysaccharide-induced kidney injury. Conclusion: Ang-2 is increased in older mice, which might cause priming of the endothelial cells. Endothelium responded by a more extensive increase in expression of P- and E-selectin in older mice and increased polymorphonuclear cell influx.
Initial service management architecture

This document describes D2.2 of the Internet Next Generation project. Internet Next Generation is a project performed within the context of the Gigaport programme, and is funded by many organizations within the Netherlands. Details of the Internet Next Generation project can be obtained from http://ing.ctit. utwente.nl/. The architecture that is described within this document explains how customers of a Differentiated Services (DiffServ) network can manage the service that is provided by them, by reading and modifying QoS parameters in an interactive way. Which parameters are available and which values these parameters can take, is defined in the Service Level Specification (SLS), which is part of the Service Level Agreement (SLA). The form of management in which customers can modify the behaviour of the provided service is called Customer Service Management (CSM); the idea that customers can manage the behaviour of the provided service is not only interesting in case of DiffServ, but also in cases like Mobile IP, IP security or Virtual Private Networks (VPNs). The scope of this deliverable is restricted to QoS management in a DiffServ environment; a subsequent deliverable will extend this work and address how service management can be performed in other environments, like IntServ / RSVP. This new deliverable will also address the problem of inter domain management. This deliverable is strongly related to: • the IETF work on policy based management and configuration management. The particular contribution of this deliverable is that it explicitly describes an architecture and discusses the differences between the COPS/PIBs and SNMP/MIBs approach. • the Internet-2 QBone project, in particular the work on the Bandwidth Broker.
Comparison of Word Recognition and Story Retelling Under the Conditions of Contextualized Versus Decontextualized Reading Events in At-Risk Poor Readers.

This study investigated the relative effects of two instructional approaches on reading recognition and comprehension of passages read by low-SES first grade children. It was hypothesized that use of a contextualized instructional approach (i.e., Communicative Reading Strategies) (CRS) which facilitated written language processing (i.e., vocabulary acquisition, grammatical understanding, narrative structure, and passage comprehension) within the context of oral reading would result in better internalization of a written story than would decontextualized activities (i.e., Directed Reading) (DR) targeting the same behaviors immediately preceding or following the reading of a story. The efficacy of the two treatments was measured by 1) fluency and accuracy of story rereading, and 2) complexity and accuracy of story retellings elicited immediately following the instructional sessions. An alternating treatment design (ATD) was employed in the single-subject study. The subjects included Four female subjects, one Anglo-American, one American-Hispanic, and two African-Americans. Their ages ranged from 6;3 to 6;11 years. Many of the measures failed to yield significant differences between the two instructional approaches. The seven significant differences and the trends in the data all favored the CRS treatment. These findings suggested that under the CRS condition 1) fewer miscues occurred, 2) with
Clustering Based on Yukawa Potential

Clustering is a common natural phenomenon. In microcosms, the nucleus is formed by the aggregation of nuclear particles through strong interactions, which can be illustrated by Yukawa potential. Inspired by this clustering phenomenon, we propose a novel dynamic clustering algorithm based on Yukawa potential (Yupc). Each data object is regarded as a particle following the basic rules of movements in the Yukawa potential field. After several time intervals, similar objects gradually aggregate together and form clear clusters. Yupc neither relies on any assumption of data distribution, nor prescribes any specific number of clusters. Natural clusters of different shapes, densities, sizes, numbers and distributions can be detected by Yupc, reflecting the intrinsic structure of the original data set. In addition, we propose a framework to automatically find appropriate parameters for Yupc. Experiments performed on synthetic and real-world data show that this approach outperforms existing algorithms, especially in data sets with arbitrary kinds of
Neural respiratory drive and breathlessness in COPD

The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that neural respiratory drive, measured using diaphragm electromyogram (EMGdi) activity expressed as a percentage of maximum (EMGdi%max), is closely related to breathlessness in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. We also investigated whether neuroventilatory uncoupling contributes significantly to breathlessness intensity over an awareness of levels of neural respiratory drive alone. EMGdi and ventilation were measured continuously during incremental cycle and treadmill exercise in 12 chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients (forced expiratory volume in 1 s±sd was 38.7±14.5 % pred). EMGdi was expressed both as EMGdi%max and relative to tidal volume expressed as a percentage of predicted vital capacity to quantify neuroventilatory uncoupling. EMGdi%max was closely related to Borg breathlessness in both cycle (r=0.98, p=0.0001) and treadmill exercise (r=0.94, p=0.005), this relationship being similar to that between neuroventilatory uncoupling and breathlessness (cycling r=0.94, p=0.005; treadmill r=0.91, p=0.01). The relationship between breathlessness and ventilation was poor when expansion of tidal volume became limited. In chronic obstructive pulmonary disease the intensity of exertional breathlessness is closely related to EMGdi%max. These data suggest that breathlessness in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease can be largely explained by an awareness of levels of neural respiratory drive, rather than the degree of neuroventilatory uncoupling. EMGdi%max could provide a useful physiological biomarker for breathlessness in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Exertional breathlessness in patients with severe COPD is closely related to levels of neural respiratory drive http://ow.ly/BO6MI
Brain^computer interface using fMRI: spatial navigation by thoughts

A brain^computer interface (BCI) is a way of conveying an individual’s thoughts to control computer or electromechanical hardware.Capitalizing on the ability to characterize brain activity in a reproduciblemanner,we exploredthepossibilityofusingreal-time fMRI to interpret the spatial distribution of brain function as BCI commands. Using a high-¢eld (3T) MRI scanner, brain activities associatedwithfourdistinctcovertfunctionaltaskswere detected and subsequently translated into predetermined computer commands for moving four directional cursors.The proposed fMRI-BCI method allowed volunteer subjects to navigate through a simple 2D maze solely through their thought processes. NeuroReport 15:1591^1595 (cid:1) c 2004 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
TCP-Friendly Rate Control for Streaming Service Over 3G Network

Rate control is an important issue in streaming applications over wireless network. TFRC is a widely accepted rate control protocol in wired networks, but it has a serious shortcoming that it cannot distinguish the wireless channel error based loss rate from the total packet loss rate measured at streaming client. In this paper, we focus on wireless streaming over 3G network, and propose an amended TCP-friendly rate control protocol TFWSRC which makes use of the characteristic of 3G network to distinguish the congestion based packet loss rate from the total packet loss rate. TFWSRC proposes a convenient method to measure the total end to end packet loss rate without considering the jitter problem. It not only inherit the TCP-friendly features of TFRC and also adopts a flexible increasing strategy of packet sending rate to ensure the presentation quality at streaming client
Accelerated Consensus Protocol for Distributed Networked Multi-Agent System with Interconnected Topology: A Specific Architecture

In this paper, dynamic protocols for multi-agent systems are designed and presented to reach consensus on different scenarios. The architecture of such group of agents are with interconnected scattered topology. In static synchrony communication circumstance, a consensus protocol which is depicted in linear dynamic-system form, is developed to make group of agents finally obtain consensus. The consensus pro- posed can be employed to solve average-consensus problem as well. Faster consensus process is usually required, because in real applications agents should interact (or, make decision) swiftly. Aiming at faster consensus progress and reducing the consensus time, a improved consensus protocol for accelerated consensus is also presented, by adding an acceleration design- parameter. Simulation experiments shows the efficacy and efficiency of such consensus protocols.
Exploring Software Product Management decision problems with constraint solving - opportunities for prioritization and release planning

Decision-making is central to Software Product Management (SPM) and includes deciding on requirements priorities and the content of coming releases. Several algorithms for prioritization and release planning have been proposed, where humans with or without machine support enact a series of steps to produce a decision outcome. Instead of applying some specific algorithm to find an acceptable solution to a decision problem, we propose to model SPM decision-making as a Constraint Satisfaction Problem (CSP), where relative and absolute priorities, interdependencies, and other constraints are expressed as relations among variables representing entities such as feature priorities, stakeholder preferences, and resource constraints. The solution space is then explored with the help of a constraint solver without humans needing to care about specific algorithms. This paper discusses advantages and limitations of CSP modeling in SPM and gives principal examples as a proof-of-concept of CSP modeling in requirements prioritization and release planning. A discussion of further research on constraint solving in SPM is also given.
RiPLE-HC: javascript systems meets spl composition

Context. Software Product Lines (SPL) engineering is increasingly being applied to handle variability in industrial software systems. Problem. The research community has pointed out a series of benefits which modularity brings to software composition, a key aspect in SPL engineering. However, in practice, the reuse in Javascript-based systems relies on the use of package managers (e.g., npm, jam, bower, requireJS), but these approaches do not allow the management of project features. Method. This paper presents the RiPLE-HC, a strategy aimed at blending compositional and annotative approaches to implement variability in Javascript-based systems. Results. We applied the approach in an industrial environment and conducted an academic case study with six open-source systems to evaluate its robustness and scalability. Additionally, we carried a controlled experiment to analyze the impact of the RiPLE-HC code organization on the feature location maintenance tasks. Conclusion. The empirical evaluations yielded evidence of reduced effort in feature location, and positive benefits when introducing systematic reuse aspects in Javascript-based systems.
The spectrum of the broad-line region and the high-energy emission of powerful blazars

High-energy emission (from the X-ray through the γ-ray band) of Flat Spectrum Radio Quasars is widely associated with the inverse Compton (IC) scattering of ambient photons, produced either by the accretion disc or the broad-line region (BLR), high-energy electrons in a relativistic jet. In the modelling of the IC spectrum, one usually adopts a simple blackbody approximation for the external radiation field, though the real shape is probably more complex. The knowledge of the detailed spectrum of the external radiation field would allow to better characterize the soft-medium X-ray IC spectrum, which is crucial to address several issues related to the study of these sources. Here, we present a first step in this direction, calculating the IC spectra expected by considering a realistic spectrum for the external radiation energy density produced by the BLR, as calculated with the photoionization code cloudy. We find that under a wide range of the physical parameters characterizing the BLR clouds, the IC spectrum calculated with the blackbody approximation reproduces quite well the exact spectrum for energies above few keV. In the soft-energy band, instead, the IC emission calculated using the BLR emission shows a complex shape, with a moderate excess with respect to the approximate spectrum, which becomes more important for decreasing values of the peak frequency of the photoionizing continuum. We also show that the high-energy spectrum shows a marked steepening, due to the energy dependence of the scattering cross-section, above a characteristic energy of 10–20 GeV, quasi-independent on the Lorentz factor of the jet.
T17b murine embryonal endothelial progenitor cells can be induced towards both proliferation and differentiation in a fibrin matrix

Endothelial progenitor cells (EPC) may enhance blood vessel formation in a variety of clinical settings such as ischaemia and tumour angiogenesis as well as in tissue‐engineered matrices. In the present study, we cultured a murine endothelial progenitor cell line, T17b, in vitro in cell culture as well as in an FDA‐approved fibrin matrix and investigated cell proliferation, differentiation and secretion patterns of the angiogenic growth factor VEGF under hypoxia and differentiation. We show that T17b EPC remain viable for at least 8 days in the fibrin matrix where they proliferate and form clusters including lumen‐like structures. Proliferation in fibrin clots overlayed with basal medium (BM) was confirmed morphologically and immunohistochemically by positive Ki67 staining, indicating mitotic activity. Significant cell proliferation and Ki‐67 expression were absent when cells were incubated with dibutyryl‐cAMP and retinoic acid (RA). Incubation with dibutyryl‐cAMP and RA stimulated the expression of the EPC differentiation markers von Willebrand Factor (vWF) and VEGF receptor 2 (VEGFR‐2), indicating successful differentiation in the fibrin clot. EPC differentiation induced by dibutyryl‐cAMP and RA was confirmed in 2‐D chamber slide cultures by positive vWF immunostaining, which was absent in BM controls. EPC chamber slides also displayed positive vWF staining when exposed to hypoxia under BM conditions, indicating EPC activation and differentiation could also be induced by hypoxia. Taken together, T17b EPC secrete increased levels of VEGF when submitted to either hypoxia or differentiation and can be differentiated into mature endothelial cells not only in cell and matrigel cultures but also in a fibrin matrix that is FDA approved for clinical application.
Localization of Web Design : An Empirical Comparison of German , Japanese , and U . S . Website Characteristics

To explore issues of user interface design and experience, including culturally preferred design elements, a study was conducted analyzing sites in Germany, Japan, and the U.S. (30 municipal sites in each country). Design elements considered are use of symbols and graphics, color preferences, site features (links, maps, search functions, page layout), language and content. Significant modal differences were found in each of the listed categories. Outcomes from the study are used to discuss future research directions in the areas of experience design and localization.
Mammalian Sperm Head Formation Involves Different Polarization of Two Novel LINC Complexes

Background LINC complexes are nuclear envelope bridging protein structures formed by interaction of SUN and KASH proteins. They physically connect the nucleus with the peripheral cytoskeleton and are critically involved in a variety of dynamic processes, such as nuclear anchorage, movement and positioning and meiotic chromosome dynamics. Moreover, they are shown to be essential for maintaining nuclear shape. Findings Based on detailed expression analysis and biochemical approaches, we show here that during mouse sperm development, a terminal cell differentiation process characterized by profound morphogenic restructuring, two novel distinctive LINC complexes are established. They consist either of spermiogenesis-specific Sun3 and Nesprin1 or Sun1η, a novel non-nuclear Sun1 isoform, and Nesprin3. We could find that these two LINC complexes specifically polarize to opposite spermatid poles likely linking to sperm-specific cytoskeletal structures. Although, as shown in co-transfection/immunoprecipitation experiments, SUN proteins appear to arbitrarily interact with various KASH partners, our study demonstrates that they actually are able to confine their binding to form distinct LINC complexes. Conclusions Formation of the mammalian sperm head involves assembly and different polarization of two novel spermiogenesis-specific LINC complexes. Together, our findings suggest that theses LINC complexes connect the differentiating spermatid nucleus to surrounding cytoskeletal structures to enable its well-directed shaping and elongation, which in turn is a critical parameter for male fertility.
Deep Inelastic e p Asymmetry Measurements and Comparison with the Bjorken Sum Rule and Models of Proton Spin Structure

We report new measurements of the asymmetry in the deep-inelastic scattering of longitudinally polarized electrons by longitudinally polarized protons in the kinematic range 2 < or = . omega. < or = 10, 1 < or = Q/sup 2/ < or = 4 (GeV/c)/sup 2/, and 2 < or = W < or = 4 GeV. We compare our results with the Bjorken sum rule and with several theoretical models of the internal spin structure of the proton.
Some equivalences on ATC: actors with temporal constraints

In this paper, we undertake to enhance a general framework for the modeling and validation of real-time concurrent systems which is known as ATC (Actors with Temporal Constraints). To prove that a given system is a valid implementation of its specification, one is often led to decide whether two systems behave in the same manner with respect to a given equivalence relation. In that connection, we propose equivalence relations between systems expressed within the ATC model. As a timed extension of the Actor model, ATC inherits all the functional capabilities of actors and further allows for the expression of most of the temporal constraints pertaining to real-time systems: exceptions, delays and emergencies.
Efficient approximations of neutrino physics for three-dimensional simulations of stellar core collapse

Neutrino transport in spherically symmetric models of stellar core collapse and bounce has achieved a technically complete level, rewarded by the agreement among independent groups that a multi-dimensional treatment of the fluid-instabilities in the post-bounce phase is indis- pensable to model supernova explosions. While much effort is required to develop a reliable neutrino transport technique in axisymmetry, we explore neutrino physics approximations and parameterizations for an efficient three-dimensional simulation of the fluid-instabilities in the shock-heated matter that accumulates between the accretion shock and the protoneutron star. We demonstrate the reliability of a simple parameterization scheme in the collapse phase and extend our 3D magneto-hydrodynamical collapse simulations to a preliminary postbounce evolution. The growth of magnetic fields is investigated.