Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Surveillance acoustique des baleines bleues Antarctique dans l’océan Indien austral : traitement, analyse et interprétation

La baleine bleue Antarctique, Balaenoptera musculus intermedia, est en danger critique d’extinction depuis la chasse baleiniere intensive du 20e siecle. L’etat de ses populations et leur ecologie restent encore mal connus. En raison de l’inefficacite des observations visuelles, la surveillance par acoustique passive est privilegiee pour etudier cette espece vocalement tres active. Cette these porte sur l’analyse de 7 ans de surveillance acoustique passive dans l’ocean Indien austral, region d’habitat et de migration particulierement importante pour la baleine bleue Antarctique. Deploye depuis 2010 sur une aire de pres de 9 000 000 km2, le reseau d’hydrophones OHASISBIO fournit une base de donnees acoustiques multi-site et pluri-annuelle. L’application d’un algorithme de detection automatique des vocalisations de baleines bleues Antarctique, prealablement teste et valide, a permis d’etablir les patrons geographiques et saisonniers de presence de l’espece au sein du reseau. L’analyse systematique de ces vocalisations a egalement permis de caracteriser des variations intra- et inter-annuelles de leur frequence, affectee par une decroissance long-terme et des modulations saisonnieres. L’analyse preliminaire de signatures vocales d’autres especes presentes dans le reseau - rorquals communs et trois populations de baleines bleues pygmees – a revele des variations de frequence similaires de leur vocalisation et permis d’esquisser leurs patrons geographiques et saisonniers. Enfin, deux vocalisations, jusqu’alors non decrites, aux caracteristiques semblables a celles de baleines bleues, ont ete identifiees et caracterisees.
Multi patches 3D facial representation for person authentication using AdaBoost

In this paper, we investigate the(problem of 3D face authentication) use of AdaBoost-based learning algorithm which select the relèvent curves in the face. We use the shape of 3D curve for face authentication. The basic idea is the analysis of the shape of local facial set of cuves. The set of curves are extracted using level curves based representation centered on facial feature point landmarks. We apply our framework to study and compare this set through the computation of the geodesic distance between corresponding curves on different 3D facial models. AdaBoost considers each curve as a weak classifier and selects iteratively relevant curves and show that there is significant improvement in results. The effectiveness of this technique is evaluated on a subset taken from BU-3DFE(3D Facial Expression Database — Binghamton University) database. The proposed approach increase authentication performances using AdaBoost classifier compared to a simple fusion of scores from all curves.
A Phonetic-Based Approach to Chinese Chat Text Normalization

Chatting is a popular communication media on the Internet via ICQ, chat rooms, etc. Chat language is different from natural language due to its anomalous and dynamic natures, which renders conventional NLP tools inapplicable. The dynamic problem is enormously troublesome because it makes static chat language corpus outdated quickly in representing contemporary chat language. To address the dynamic problem, we propose the phonetic mapping models to present mappings between chat terms and standard words via phonetic transcription, i.e. Chinese Pinyin in our case. Different from character mappings, the phonetic mappings can be constructed from available standard Chinese corpus. To perform the task of dynamic chat language term normalization, we extend the source channel model by incorporating the phonetic mapping models. Experimental results show that this method is effective and stable in normalizing dynamic chat language terms.
Otx2 Promotes the Survival of Damaged Adult Retinal Ganglion Cells and Protects against Excitotoxic Loss of Visual Acuity In Vivo

Retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) are the projection neurons from the eye to the brain and their loss results in visual impairment in a number of diseases. Transcription factors with a homeodomain can translocate between cells and, in at least one reported case, can stimulate neuronal survival. Otx2 is a homeoprotein transcription factor expressed in the retina that is taken up by RGCs. We thus hypothesized that Otx2 capture could regulate the survival of adult RGCs. We report that Otx2 stimulates the survival of adult mouse and rat RGCs in vitro and protects RGCs against NMDA-induced toxicity in vivo in mice. In the latter model, Otx2 also preserves visual acuity.
Preclinical evaluation of new and highly potent analogues of octreotide for predictive imaging and targeted radiotherapy.

PURPOSE Molecular imaging and targeted radiotherapy are emerging fields in nuclear oncology. Five human somatostatin receptors (hsstr1-hsstr5) are known to be overexpressed to some degree on various tumors, sstr2 being the most important one. Clinically used somatostatin based radiopeptides target exclusively sstr2. The aim of this study was to develop novel analogues with a broader sstr profile for diagnostic (positron emission tomography and single-photon emission computed tomography) and radiotherapeutic applications. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN The following promising structures emerged from a parallel synthetic approach: [1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane-1,4,7,10-tetraacetic acid (DOTA(0)),1-Nal(3),Thr(8)]-octreotide (1, DOTA-NOC-ATE) and [DOTA(0),BzThi(3),Thr(8)]-octreotide (2, DOTA-BOC-ATE). The conjugates were labeled with cold and radioactive (111)In. Pharmacologic properties were compared with [(111)In-DOTA,Tyr(3)]-octreotide ([(111)In-DOTA]-TOC). RESULTS The receptor affinity profile showed high affinity of both peptides to hsstr2, hsstr3, and hsstr5 and some intermediate affinity to hsstr4, whereas [(111)In-DOTA]-TOC shows affinity only to sstr2. The internalization is fast in sstr2 expressing AR4-2J and in transfected sstr3 expressing human embryonic kidney 293 cells. Both radiopeptides internalize much more efficiently than [(111)In-DOTA]-TOC. Animal biodistribution studies showed very high and specific uptake of [(111)In]-1 and [(111)In]-2 in s.c. implanted AR4-2J tumors (Lewis rats) and in somatostatin receptor expressing normal tissues. The uptake was at least 2-fold higher in these tissues and in the tumor compared with [(111)In-DOTA]-TOC. In addition, the kidney uptake was significantly lower for both radiopeptides. CONCLUSIONS These data suggest that the novel radiopeptides are superior to [(111)In/(90)Y-DOTA]-TOC and show great promise for the clinical application in the imaging of somatostatin receptor-positive tumors and their targeted radiotherapy.
Comportement mécanique haute température du superalliage monocristallin AM1 : étude in situ par une nouvelle technique de diffraction en rayonnement synchrotron

Les superalliages monocristallins base nickel sont largement utilises dans les parties chaudes (aux alentours de 1000°C) des turbines aeronautiques au vu de leur bonne resistance thermomecanique. Pendant le stade II du fluage leur microstructure est formee d’une matrice/couloirs γ (CFC) et de precipites en radeaux γ’ (L12). Le but de cette etude est de mieux comprendre la plasticite de ces materiaux, en particulier celle de l’alliage de 1ere generation AM1. Afin de suivre son comportement mecanique durant des transitions rapides, une nouvelle technique experimentale par diffraction en transmission des rayons X (synchrotron) a ete developpee. L’utilisation d’une camera en champ lointain permet d’enregistrer (une acquisition prend 7 secondes) la tache de diffraction (200) de chacune des deux phases, et donc l’evolution en temps reel du desaccord parametrique entre les deux phases. En utilisant un modele mecanique simplifie, il est possible d’en deduire les contraintes internes et la deformation plastique de chaque phase. Une campagne d’essai sur la ligne ID11 de l’ESRF a ete realisee avec cette technique. Deux types d’echantillons presentant une microstructure initiale differente, obtenues par des traitements thermiques adaptes, ont ete testes. Ils ont ete soumis in situ a des essais de fluage a temperature constante avec des sauts de contrainte. Apres essai, les echantillons ont ete caracterises par MET et MEB afin de determiner leur microstructure, verifier les desorientations des echantillons, cartographier la concentration de certains elements et evaluer la densite de dislocations au sein des radeaux γ’. Dans les couloirs γ, la propagation des dislocations necessite une contrainte de Von Mises superieure a la contrainte d’Orowan, et la densite de dislocations mobiles augmente avec la deformation plastique. Le mecanisme limitant la deformation plastique par montee de la phase γ’ est vraisemblablement l’entree des dislocations dans les radeaux. Les consequences deduites de cette hypothese sont detaillees ainsi que le comportement mecanique du materiau resultant
Optimized pulse source for 40-Gb/s systems based on a gain-switched laser diode in conjunction with a nonlinearly chirped grating

The authors demonstrate the generation of short optical pulses, which display spectral sidemode suppression ratio, and temporal pedestal suppression ratio, well in excess of 30 dB. The exceptional spectral and temporal characteristics exhibited by these pulses are attained by employing a novel technology, based on an externally injected gain-switched laser in conjunction with a nonlinearly chirped grating. Using this technique, near transform limited 7-ps optical pulses, exhibiting a time bandwidth product of 0.49, are generated.
HRM and Workplace Motivation: Incremental and Threshold Effects

The HRM-performance linkage often invokes an assumption of increased employee commitment to the organization and other positive effects of a motivational type. We present a theoretical framework in which motivational effects of HRM are conditional on its intensity, utilizing especially the idea of HRM 'bundling'. We then analyse the association between HRM practices and employees' organisational commitment (OC) and intrinsic job satisfaction (IJS). HRM practices have significantly positive relationships with OC and IJS chiefly at high levels of implementation, but with important distinctions between the domain-level analysis (comprising groups of practices for specific domains such as employee development) and the across-domain or HRM-system level. Findings support a threshold interpretation of the link between HRM domains and employee motivation, but at the system-level both incremental and threshold models receive some support.
A New Hierarchical Conceptual Graph Formalism Adapted for Chinese Document Retrieval

In this paper, we present a hierarchical conceptual graph formalism to describe the meaning of document content in a specified domain. This formalism can be considered as an extension of the Sowa formalism of conceptual graphs, in which concept vertices are extended to be a recursive structure. Based on this hierarchical framework, we index the documents and queries into such graphs, and propose a new comparison operator between graphs taking the needs of retrieval into account. This operator is the core of the searching process of our document management system, called HCG-DMS, which manages Chinese documents for virtual database. This Chinese collection is searched by their conceptual graphs built from the titles now. The first retrieval evaluation of our method gives better results than traditional Boolean-model based documentary system.
Deconfining phase transition in 2+1 D: the Georgi-Glashow model

We analyze the finite temperature deconfining phase transition in (2+1)-dimensional Georgi-Glashow model. We show explicitly that the transition is due to the restoration of the magnetic Z2 symmetry and that it is in the Ising universality class. We find that neglecting effects of the charged W bosons leads to incorrect predictions for the value of the critical temperature and the universality class of the transition, as well as for various correlation functions in the high temperature phase. We derive the effective action for the Polyakov loop in the high temperature phase and calculate the correlation functions of magnetic vortex operators.
Detection of bacterial antigens and Alzheimer’s disease-like pathology in the central nervous system of BALB/c mice following intranasal infection with a laboratory isolate of Chlamydia pneumoniae

Pathology consistent with that observed in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) has previously been documented following intranasal infection of normal wild-type mice with Chlamydia pneumoniae (Cpn) isolated from an AD brain (96-41). In the current study, BALB/c mice were intranasally infected with a laboratory strain of Cpn, AR-39, and brain and olfactory bulbs were obtained at 1–4 months post-infection (pi). Immunohistochemistry for amyloid beta or Cpn antigens was performed on sections from brains of infected or mock-infected mice. Chlamydia-specific immunolabeling was identified in olfactory bulb tissues and in cerebrum of AR-39 infected mice. The Cpn specific labeling was most prominent at 1 month pi and the greatest burden of amyloid deposition was noted at 2 months pi, whereas both decreased at 3 and 4 months. Viable Cpn was recovered from olfactory bulbs of 3 of 3 experimentally infected mice at 1 and 3 months pi, and in 2 of 3 mice at 4 months pi. In contrast, in cortical tissues of infected mice at 1 and 4 months pi no viable organism was obtained. At 3 months pi, only 1 of 3 mice had a measurable burden of viable Cpn from the cortical tissues. Mock-infected mice (0 of 3) had no detectable Cpn in either olfactory bulbs or cortical tissues. These data indicate that the AR-39 isolate of Cpn establishes a limited infection predominantly in the olfactory bulbs of BALB/c mice. Although infection with the laboratory strain of Cpn promotes deposition of amyloid beta, this appears to resolve following reduction of the Cpn antigen burden over time. Our data suggest that infection with the AR-39 laboratory isolate of Cpn results in a different course of amyloid beta deposition and ultimate resolution than that observed following infection with the human AD-brain Cpn isolate, 96-41. These data further support that there may be differences, possibly in virulence factors, between Cpn isolates in the generation of sustainable AD pathology.
BELO HORIZONTE/MG: PRÁTICAS DE DESENVOLVIMENTO DO VETOR NORTE METROPOLITANO / BELO HORIZONTE/MG: DEVELOPMENT PRACTICES IN THE METROPOLITAN NORTH SECTION

doi: 10.12957/geouerj.2017. 28465 Na cidade capitalista atual, a supremacia do capital financeiro frente ao industrial redefine o sentido de espaco, que passa a assumir, tambem, a condicao de produto imobiliario. O arranjo espacial da cidade capitalista e orientado, entao, pelo poder do capital, que utiliza o solo urbano com o proposito de aumentar as forcas produtivas. A partir de ambiciosos projetos estrategicos, o Poder Publico atua no sentido de flexibilizar suas estruturas produtivas e comerciais, atrair investimentos, promover o turismo, etc., capacitando-as a insercao nas redes da economia global e possibilitando-lhes maior competitividade, tudo sob a otica da globalizacao das cidades. O presente trabalho tem como objetivo avaliar o processo de restruturacao economica espacial implementado pelo Poder Publico no Vetor Norte da Regiao Metropolitana de Belo Horizonte (RMBH), a partir de 2005, e a apropriacao do espaco pelo mercado fundiario/imobiliario na regiao norte e periferica da capital. O plano estrategico metropolitano objetiva a diversificacao da base industrial da RMBH, mediante a atracao de investimentos e da criacao de polos de alta tecnologia, e e acompanhado de grandes obras publicas de infraestrutura e de suporte a servicos. A pesquisa demonstrou que as acoes modificadoras procedidas pelo Poder Publico tem influenciado a valorizacao da terra urbana, a apropriacao do espaco pelo mercado fundiario/imobiliario e a elitizacao da regiao norte e periferica da capital.
Iterative Bilateral Filtering of Polarimetric SAR Data

In this paper, we introduce an iterative speckle filtering method for polarimetric SAR (PolSAR) images based on the bilateral filter. To locally adapt to the spatial structure of images, this filter relies on pixel similarities in both spatial and radiometric domains. To deal with polarimetric data, we study the use of similarities based on a statistical distance called Kullback-Leibler divergence as well as two geodesic distances on Riemannian manifolds. To cope with speckle, we propose to progressively refine the result thanks to an iterative scheme. Experiments are run over synthetic and experimental data. First, simulations are generated to study the effects of filtering parameters in terms of polarimetric reconstruction error, edge preservation and smoothing of homogeneous areas. Comparison with other methods shows that our approach compares well to other state of the art methods in the extraction of polarimetric information and shows superior performance for edge restoration and noise smoothing. The filter is then applied to experimental data sets from ESAR and FSAR sensors (DLR) at L-band and S-band, respectively. These last experiments show the ability of the filter to restore structures such as buildings and roads and to preserve boundaries between regions while achieving a high amount of smoothing in homogeneous areas.
Floating-Point Trigonometric Functions for FPGAs

Field-programmable circuits now have a capacity that allows them to accelerate floating-point computing, but are still missing core libraries for it. In particular, there is a need for an equivalent to the mathematical library (libm) available with every processor and providing implementations of standard elementary functions such as exponential, logarithm or sine. This is all the more important as FPGAs are able to outperform current processors for such elementary functions, for which no dedicated hardware exists in the processor. FPLibrary, freely available from www.ens-lyon.fr/LIP/Arenaire/, is a first attempt to address this need for a mathematical library for FPGAs. This article demonstrates the implementation, in this library, of high-quality operators for floating-point sine and cosine functions up to single-precision. Small size and high performance are obtained using a specific, hardware-oriented algorithm, and careful datapath optimisation and error analysis. Operators fully compatible with the standard software functions are first presented, followed by a study of several more cost-efficient variants.
Working Papers in Economics and Statistics Bargaining or Searching for a Better Price? -an Experimental Study Bargaining or Searching for a Better Price? -an Experimental Study

This experimental study investigates two bargaining games with two-sided incomplete information between a seller and a buyer. In the first game with no outside options many subjects do not use the incomplete information to their advantage as predicted. We find that a model with adjusting priors better explains observed behavior. The second game gives the buyer the option to buy via search or return to bargaining. Here many buyers choose a bargaining agreement when a search outcome is predicted. For those who opt out, search outcomes are overall efficient and behavior is relatively close to the optimal search policy.
Global Landscape of a Co-Expressed Gene Network in Barley and its Application to Gene Discovery in Triticeae Crops

Accumulated transcriptome data can be used to investigate regulatory networks of genes involved in various biological systems. Co-expression analysis data sets generated from comprehensively collected transcriptome data sets now represent efficient resources that are capable of facilitating the discovery of genes with closely correlated expression patterns. In order to construct a co-expression network for barley, we analyzed 45 publicly available experimental series, which are composed of 1,347 sets of GeneChip data for barley. On the basis of a gene-to-gene weighted correlation coefficient, we constructed a global barley co-expression network and classified it into clusters of subnetwork modules. The resulting clusters are candidates for functional regulatory modules in the barley transcriptome. To annotate each of the modules, we performed comparative annotation using genes in Arabidopsis and Brachypodium distachyon. On the basis of a comparative analysis between barley and two model species, we investigated functional properties from the representative distributions of the gene ontology (GO) terms. Modules putatively involved in drought stress response and cellulose biogenesis have been identified. These modules are discussed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the co-expression analysis. Furthermore, we applied the data set of co-expressed genes coupled with comparative analysis in attempts to discover potentially Triticeae-specific network modules. These results demonstrate that analysis of the co-expression network of the barley transcriptome together with comparative analysis should promote the process of gene discovery in barley. Furthermore, the insights obtained should be transferable to investigations of Triticeae plants. The associated data set generated in this analysis is publicly accessible at http://coexpression.psc. riken.jp/barley/.
Schlaganfall

Zusammenfassung Der Schlaganfall stellt eine große globale gesundheitspolitische und ökonomische Herausforderung dar. Die Eindämmung des Schlaganfalls kann nur durch genaue Kenntnis der Risikofaktoren und ggf. präventive Intervention erfolgen. Es werden unbeeinflussbare biologische Faktoren (z. B. Geschlecht, Lebensalter, ethnische Herkunft) von proatherosklerotischen bzw. prothrombotischen Risikofaktoren (Hypertonie, Diabetes mellitus, Fettstoffwechselstörungen, serologische und hämostaseologische Faktoren) und kardialer Komorbidität unterschieden. Immer wichtiger werden so genannte Lifestyle-Faktoren (z. B. Rauchen, körperliche Inaktivität und Alkoholkonsum). Neben diesen traditionellen Risikofaktoren hat in den vergangenen Jahren die Beschäftigung mit den genetischen Grundlagen des Schlaganfalls enorm zugenommen. Bei der Suche nach Kandidatengenen werden genetische Varianten (Polymorphismen) funktionell relevanter Gene in Fallkontrollstudien untersucht. Metaanalysen haben eine signifikante Assoziation des Faktor-V-Leiden-Arg506Gln-Polymorphismus, des MTHFR-C677T-Polymorphismus und des ACE-Insertions- Deletions-Polymorphismus zum Schlaganfall gezeigt. Große Hoffnung wird auf populationsbasierte, genomweite Linkage-Analysen gesetzt.
Effects of dietary selenium supplementation on DNA damage and apoptosis in canine prostate.

The trace mineral selenium inhibits cancer development in a variety of experimental animal models. We used an in vivo canine model to evaluate the effects of dietary selenium supplementation on DNA damage in prostate tissue and on apoptosis in prostate epithelial cells. Sexually intact elderly male beagle dogs were randomly assigned to receive an unsupplemented diet (control group) or diets that were supplemented with selenium (treatment group), either as selenomethionine or as high-selenium yeast at 3 micro g/kg or 6 micro g/kg body weight per day for 7 months. The extent of DNA damage in prostate cells and in peripheral blood lymphocytes, as determined by the alkaline comet assay, was lower among the selenium-supplemented dogs than among the control dogs (prostate P<.001; peripheral blood lymphocytes P =.003; analysis of variance) but was not associated with the activity of the antioxidant enzyme glutathione peroxidase in plasma. The median number of terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick end-labeling-positive (i.e., apoptotic) prostate epithelial cells was 3.7 (interquartile range = 1.1-7.6) for the selenium-supplemented dogs and 1.7 (interquartile range = 0.2-2.8) for the control dogs ( P =.04, Mann-Whitney U test). These data suggest that dietary selenium supplementation decreases DNA damage and increases epithelial cell apoptosis within the aging canine prostate.