Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Local asymptotic distribution of zeros of orthogonal polynomials

Converse results, which state a relation (inequality) for measures from that on their logarithmic potentials, are applied to local density of zeros of orthogonal polynomials when the measure of orthogonality is a general one with compact support. It will be shown that if the measure is sufficiently thick on a part of its support, then on that part the density of the zeros will be at least as large as the equilibrium measure of the support. A corresponding upper estimate on the distribution of the zeros will also be proved. All of our estimates are sharp, and they localize several well-known results.
The impact of the unilateral EU commitment on the stability of international climate agreements

The negotiation strategy of the European Union was analysed with respect to the formation of an international climate agreement for the post-2012 era. Game theory was employed to explore the incentives for key players in the climate policy arena to join future climate agreements. A −20% unilateral commitment strategy by the EU was compared with a multilateral −30% emission reduction strategy for all Annex-B countries. Using a numerical integrated assessment climate—economy simulation model, we found that leakage, in the sense of strategic policy reactions on emissions, was negligible. The EU strategy to reduce emissions by 30% (compared with 1990 levels) by 2020, if other Annex-B countries follow suit, does not induce the participation of the USA with a comparable reduction commitment. However, we argue that the original EU proposal can be reshaped so as to stabilize a larger and more ambitious climate coalition than the Kyoto Protocol in its first commitment period.
Multiple Insecticide Resistance in Anopheles gambiae s.l. Populations from Burkina Faso, West Africa

Malaria control programs are being jeopardized by the spread of insecticide resistance in mosquito vector populations. The situation in Burkina Faso is emblematic with Anopheles gambiae populations showing high levels of resistance to most available compounds. Although the frequency of insecticide target-site mutations including knockdown resistance (kdr) and insensitive acetylcholinesterase (Ace-1 R) alleles has been regularly monitored in the area, it is not known whether detoxifying enzymes contribute to the diversity of resistance phenotypes observed in the field. Here, we propose an update on the phenotypic diversity of insecticide resistance in An. gambiae populations sampled from 10 sites in Burkina Faso in 2010. Susceptibility to deltamethrin, permethrin, DDT, bendiocarb and fenithrotion was assessed. Test specimens (N = 30 per locality) were identified to species and molecular form and their genotype at the kdr and Ace-1 loci was determined. Detoxifying enzymes activities including non-specific esterases (NSEs), oxydases (cytochrome P450) and Glutathione S-Transferases (GSTs) were measured on single mosquitoes (N = 50) from each test locality and compared with the An. gambiae Kisumu susceptible reference strain. In all sites, mosquitoes demonstrated multiple resistance phenotypes, showing reduced mortality to several insecticidal compounds at the same time, although with considerable site-to-site variation. Both the kdr 1014L and Ace-1 R 119S resistant alleles were detected in the M and the S forms of An. gambiae, and were found together in specimens of the S form. Variation in detoxifying enzyme activities was observed within and between vector populations. Elevated levels of NSEs and GSTs were widespread, suggesting multiple resistance mechanisms segregate within An. gambiae populations from this country. By documenting the extent and diversity of insecticide resistance phenotypes and the putative combination of their underlying mechanisms in An. gambiae mosquitoes, our work prompts for new alternative strategies to be urgently developed for the control of major malaria vectors in Burkina Faso.
Prognostic value of total lesion glycolysis of baseline 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma

Purpose We evaluated the prognostic value of total lesion glycolysis (TLG) measured in baseline 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography (18F-FDG PET/CT) in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) treated with rituximab plus cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone (R-CHOP). Methods A total of 91 patients with newly diagnosed DLBCL underwent 18F-FDG PET/CT scans before R-CHOP therapy. Metabolic tumor volume (MTV) was measured with the marginal threshold of normal liver mean standard uptake value (SUVmean) plus 3 standard deviations (SD). TLG was the sum of the products of MTV and SUVmean in all measured lesions. The predictive value was estimated by Log-rank test and Cox-regression analysis. Results Median follow-up was 30 months (range, 5-124 months). The 5-year estimated progression-free survival (PFS) of the low and high TLG group were 83% and 34%, respectively (p<0.001). The 5-year overall survival (OS) of the same groups were 92% and 67%, respectively (p<0.001). Patients with high TLG level were more likely to relapse than those with low TLG level even though they had got complete or partial remission in R-CHOP therapy (40% versus 9%, p=0.012). Multivariate analysis revealed TLG was the only independent predictor for PFS (Hazard ratio=5.211, 95% confidence interval=2.210-12.288, p<0.001) and OS (Hazard ratio=9.136, 95% confidence interval=1.829-45.644, p=0.002). Other factors including MTV, National Comprehensive Cancer Network International Prognostic Index (NCCN-IPI) and Ann Arbor Stage were not independently predictive for survivals. Conclusion Baseline TLG is the only independent predictor for PFS and OS in DLBCL patients treated with R-CHOP therapy.
Neurocognitive Basis of Implicit Learning of Sequential Structure and Its Relation to Language Processing

The ability to learn and exploit environmental regularities is important for many aspects of skill learning, of which language may be a prime example. Much of such learning proceeds in an implicit fashion, that is, it occurs unintentionally and automatically and results in knowledge that is difficult to verbalize explicitly. An important research goal is to ascertain the underlying neurocognitive mechanisms of implicit learning abilities and understand its contribution to perception, language, and cognition more generally. In this article, we review recent work that investigates the extent to which implicit learning of sequential structure is mediated by stimulus‐specific versus domain‐general learning mechanisms. Although much of previous implicit learning research has emphasized its domain‐general aspect, here we highlight behavioral work suggesting a modality‐specific locus. Even so, our data also reveal that individual variability in implicit sequence learning skill correlates with performance on a task requiring sensitivity to the sequential context of spoken language, suggesting that implicit sequence learning to some extent is domain‐general. Taking into consideration this behavioral work, in conjunction with recent imaging studies, we argue that implicit sequence learning and language processing are both complex, dynamic processes that partially share the same underlying neurocognitive mechanisms, specifically those that rely on the encoding and representation of phonological sequences.
The Red-Sequence Cluster Survey

The Red-Sequence Cluster Surveys (RCS-1 and RCS-2) are large optical imaging surveys optimized to create well-characterized catalogs of clusters of galaxies up to a redshift of ~1. We describe our first cosmological analysis, using the self-calibration technique, of a cluster sample of ~1000 from the 90 sq. deg RCS-1, using optical richness as a mass proxy. We obtain values for the cosmological parameters $\Omega_m$ and $\sigma_8$ that are in excellent agreement with the year-three WMAP results. Furthermore, the derived cluster richness-mass relationship is entirely consistent with those measured directly using dynamical mass measurements.
An Efficient Composite Scheduling Algorithm for Optical Burst Switching Networks

Optical burst switching (OBS) is a promising paradigm for the next generation Internet. Data channel scheduling algorithm is one of the key issues in OBS networks. In this paper, an efficient composite data channel scheduling algorithm is proposed, this algorithm select LAUC or LAUC-VF to schedule the arriving burst according to the current information of the void interval of the data channel. The algorithm reduces scheduling time of data burst while minimizing the void interval of the data channel. Simulation results show that the scheduling time of the proposed algorithm is close to LAUC, and the performance of data burst loss probability is better than LAUC-VF.
Glomerular Endothelial Cell Injury and Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis Lesion in Idiopathic Membranous Nephropathy

Background Focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) lesions have often been discussed as a negative predictor in idopathic membranous nephropathy (MN). The mechanism of the development of FSGS lesion in MN is still uncertain. Methods From 250 cases of MN, 26 cases contained FSGS lesion. We compared the clinicopathological characteristics between MN cases with FSGS lesion [MN-FSGS(+)] and MN without FSGS lesion [MN-FSGS(−)], matched for gender, age, stage of MN. Results The glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) was significantly lower in MN-FSGS(+) cases compared to MN-FSGS(−), although nephrotic syndrome, hematuria, and systolic blood pressure levels were not significantly different between the two groups. Pathologically, glomeruli in MN-FSGS(+) cases showed narrowing and loss of glomerular capillaries with separating from GBM or disappearance of CD34+ endothelial cells, and accumulation of extracellular matrix (ECM) in capillary walls, indicating the development of glomerular capillary injury. These findings of endothelial injury were seen even in MN-FSGS(−) cases, but they were more prominent in MN-FSGS(+) than MN-FSGS(−) by computer assessed morphometric analysis. In MN-FSGS(+) cases, 44 out of 534 glomeruli (8.2%) contained FSGS lesions (n = 31, NOS lesion; n = 13, perihilar lesion). Significant thickness of GBM with ECM accumulation was evident in MN-FSGS(+) cases. Podocyte injury with effacement of foot processes was also noted, but the expression of VEGF on podocytes was not different between the two groups, which suggests that the significant thickness of capillary walls may influence the function of VEGF from podocyte resulting in the glomerular capillary injury that contribute to the development of FSGS lesion in MN. Conclusion Glomerular capillary injury was seen in all MN cases. Furthermore, the prominent injuries of glomerular capillaries may be associated with the deterioration of eGFR and the formation of FSGS lesions in MN.
A Prototype Implementation of MOOSE on a NetFPGA / OpenFlow / NOX Stack

Ethernet does not scale well to large networks. The flat MAC address space, whilst having obvious benefits for the user and administrator, is the primary cause of this poor scalability. MOOSE — Multi-level Origin-Organised Scalable Ethernet — has been presented as a viable solution to this problem. In this paper, we present an evaluation of MOOSE through a prototype switch, built using OpenFlow and NOX on the NetFPGA network prototyping platform. We find MOOSE to be a worthwhile protocol, achieving its proposed improvements, and worthy of future research.
Germination and seedling establishment in orchids: a complex of requirements.

BACKGROUND Seedling recruitment is essential to the sustainability of any plant population. Due to the minute nature of seeds and early-stage seedlings, orchid germination in situ was for a long time practically impossible to observe, creating an obstacle towards understanding seedling site requirements and fluctuations in orchid populations. The introduction of seed packet techniques for sowing and retrieval in natural sites has brought with it important insights, but many aspects of orchid seed and germination biology remain largely unexplored. KEY CONSIDERATIONS The germination niche for orchids is extremely complex, because it is defined by requirements not only for seed lodging and germination, but also for presence of a fungal host and its substrate. A mycobiont that the seedling can parasitize is considered an essential element, and a great diversity of Basidiomycota and Ascomycota have now been identified for their role in orchid seed germination, with fungi identifiable as imperfect Rhizoctonia species predominating. Specificity patterns vary from orchid species employing a single fungal lineage to species associating individually with a limited selection of distantly related fungi. A suitable organic carbon source for the mycobiont constitutes another key requirement. Orchid germination also relies on factors that generally influence the success of plant seeds, both abiotic, such as light/shade, moisture, substrate chemistry and texture, and biotic, such as competitors and antagonists. Complexity is furthermore increased when these factors influence seeds/seedling, fungi and fungal substrate differentially. CONCLUSIONS A better understanding of germination and seedling establishment is needed for conservation of orchid populations. Due to the obligate association with a mycobiont, the germination niches in orchid species are extremely complex and varied. Microsites suitable for germination can be small and transient, and direct observation is difficult. An experimental approach using several levels of environmental manipulation/control is recommended.
Welfare reform: the US experience

The reform of the cash-based welfare program for single mothers in the US which occurred in the 1990s was the most important since its inception in 1935. The reforms imposed credible and enforceable work requirements into the program for the first time, as well as establishing time limits on lifetime receipt. Research on the effects of the reform have shown it to have reduced the program caseload and governmental expenditures on the program. In addition, the reform has had generally positive average effects on employment, earnings, and income, and generally negative effects on poverty rates, although the gains are not evenly distributed across groups. A fraction of the affected group appears to have been made worse off by the reform.
Screenplay alignment for closed-system speaker identification and analysis of feature films

Existing methods for audiovisual and text analysis of videos perform "blind" recovery of metadata from the audiovisual signal. The film production process however, is based on the original screenplay and its versions. Using this information is like using the recipe book for the movie. High-level semantic information that is otherwise very difficult to derive from the audiovisual content can be extracted automatically by enhancing feature extraction with screenplay processing and analysis. As a test-bed of our approach, we investigated the use of screenplay as a source of information for speaker/character identification. Our speaker identification method consists of screenplay parsing, extraction of time-stamped transcript, alignment of the screenplay with the time-stamped transcript, audio segmentation and audio speaker identification. As the screenplay alignment cannot identify all dialogue sections within any film, we use the segments found by alignment as labels to train a statistical model in order to identify unaligned pieces of dialogue. We find that the screenplay alignment is able to identify the speaker correctly in 30% of lines of dialogue on average. However, with additional automatic statistical labeling for audio speaker ID on the soundtrack, our recognition rate improves significantly.
Role of allogeneic stem cell transplantation in adult patients with Ph-negative acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Because a pediatric-inspired Group for Research on Adult Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (GRAALL) protocol yielded a markedly improved outcome in adults with Philadelphia chromosome-negative ALL, we aimed to reassess the role of allogeneic stem cell transplantation (SCT) in patients treated in the GRAALL-2003 and GRAALL-2005 trials. In all, 522 patients age 15 to 55 years old and presenting with at least 1 conventional high-risk factor were candidates for SCT in first complete remission. Among these, 282 (54%) received a transplant in first complete remission. At 3 years, posttransplant cumulative incidences of relapse, nonrelapse mortality, and relapse-free survival (RFS) were estimated at 19.5%, 15.5%, and 64.7%, respectively. Time-dependent analysis did not reveal a significant difference in RFS between SCT and no-SCT cohorts. However, SCT was associated with longer RFS in patients with postinduction minimal residual disease (MRD) ≥10(-3) (hazard ratio, 0.40) but not in good MRD responders. In B-cell precursor ALL, SCT also benefitted patients with focal IKZF1 gene deletion (hazard ratio, 0.42). This article shows that poor early MRD response, in contrast to conventional ALL risk factors, is an excellent tool to identify patients who may benefit from allogeneic SCT in the context of intensified adult ALL therapy. Trial GRAALL-2003 was registered at www.clinicaltrials. gov as #NCT00222027; GRAALL-2005 was registered as #NCT00327678.
Cloud Based Short Read Mapping Service

Bioinformatics is an emerging field with seemingly limitless possibilities for advances in numerous scientific research and applications domains. In this paper, we summaries the explosive cutting-edge acceleration engines for the emerging short read mapping problems. What's more, we propose a novel Cloud based web service solution to the short read mapping problem in DNA sequencing, which greatly accelerates the task of aligning continuous incoming short length reads to uncertain known reference genomes. This approach is based on the pre-process of the reference genomes and iterative MapReduce jobs for aligning the continuous incoming reads. The MapReduce-based read-mapping algorithm is modeled after RMAP. Preliminary experimental results on incorporated MapReduce programming framework demonstrate that our proposed architecture and methods efficiently reduces the waiting time for large scale short reads applications. This architecture would be much important and efficient in future commercial personal gnome sequencing service.
Tumor Necrosis Factor Enhances the Capsaicin Sensitivity of Rat Sensory Neurons

The capacity of the proinflammatory cytokines, tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα) and interleukin 1β (IL-1β), to modulate the sensitivity of isolated sensory neurons grown in culture to the excitatory chemical agent capsaicin was examined. Alterations in capsaicin sensitivity were assessed by quantifying the number of neurons labeled with cobalt after exposure to capsaicin and by recording the whole-cell response from a single neuron to the focal application of capsaicin. A 24 hr pretreatment of the neuronal cultures with TNFα (10 or 50 ng/ml), but not IL-1β (10 or 50 ng/ml), produced a concentration-dependent increase in the number of cobalt-labeled neurons after exposure to 100 nm capsaicin. The peak increase in the number of labeled neurons was attained after a 4 hr treatment with 10 ng/ml TNFα. Similarly, pretreatment with TNFα (10 ng/ml for 4, 12, and 24 hr) produced a greater than twofold increase in the average peak amplitude of the inward current evoked by 100 nm capsaicin. Both the TNFα-induced increase in labeling and current amplitude were blocked by treating the neuronal cultures with indomethacin before the addition of TNFα. Enhancement of the capsaicin-evoked current also was blocked by the specific cyclo-oxygenase-2 inhibitor SC-236. These results indicate that TNFα can enhance the sensitivity of sensory neurons to the excitation produced by capsaicin and that this enhancement likely is mediated by the neuronal production of prostaglandins. Isolated sensory neurons grown in culture may prove to be a useful model system in which to explore how prolonged exposure to mediators associated with chronic inflammation alter the regulatory pathways that modulate the excitability of the nervous system.
Group Communication Support for Dependable Multi-User Object Oriented Environments

Distributed multi-user interactive systems have a rich and complex set of requirements including the need for dependable operation. A promising approach to tackle the complexity of these systems is to rely on configurable architectures that are able to support component re-utilization and composition. The MOOSCo project, Multi-user Object-Oriented environments with Separation of Concerns, addresses the difficulties in applying a component-based approach in a vertical and integrated manner, from analysis to implementation, to the design of this class of systems. To support communication among distributed entities, the project will use a configurable group communication system called Appia. The paper discusses the role of Appia in the MOOSCo architecture.
Radio observations of ZwCl 2341.1+0000: a double radio relic cluster

Context. Hierarchal models of large-scale structure (LSS) formation predict that galaxy clusters grow via gravitational infall and mergers of smaller subclusters and galaxy groups. Diffuse radio emission, in the form of radio halos and relics, is found in clusters undergoing a merger, indicating that shocks or turbulence associated with the merger are capable of accelerating electrons to highly relativistic energies. Double relics are a rare class of radio sources found in the periphery of clusters, with the two components located symmetrically on the opposite sides of the cluster center. These relics are important probes of the cluster periphery as (i) they provide an estimate of the magnetic field strength, and (ii) together with detailed modeling can be used to derive information about the merger geometry, mass, and timescale. Observations of these double relics can thus be used to test the framework of LSS formation. Here we report on radio observations of ZwCl 2341.1+0000, a complex merging structure of galaxies located at z = 0.27, using Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) observations. Aims. The main aim of the observations is to study the nature of the diffuse radio emission in the galaxy cluster ZwCl 2341.1+0000. Methods. We carried out GMRT 610, 241, and 157 MHz continuum observations of ZwCl 2341.1+0000. The radio observations are combined with X-ray and optical data of the cluster. Results. The GMRT observations show a double peripheral radio relic in the cluster ZwCl 2341.1+0000. The spectral index is −0.49 ± 0.18 for the northern relic and −0.76 ± 0.17 for the southern relic. We have derived values of 0.48−0.93 μGauss for the equipartition magnetic field strength. The relics are probably associated with outward traveling merger shock waves.