Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Location Guard: location privacy for the rest of us

Location Guard is an open source [1] web browser extension that provides location privacy when using the HTML5 geolocation API. The privacy notion enforced by Location Guard is geo-indistingui-shability, a novel deﬁnition inspired by differential privacy. The extension has reached considerable popularity since its release, covering Chrome, Firefox and Opera browsers, and more recently moving to mobile devices with Firefox for Android. The next step for the project is to incorporate ideas from the recently proposed Elastic Mechanism and adapt the level of protection based on the actual location of the user. The talk will present the desktop and mobile versions of Location Guard, as well as its experimental elastic variant, together with what we learned on usable privacy from our user base.
The Mechanism of Pseudomorphic Transformation of Spherical Silica Gel into MCM-41 Studied by PFG NMR Diffusometry

The pseudomorphic transformation of spherical silica gel (LiChrospher® Si 60) into MCM-41 was achieved by treatment at 383 K for 24 h with an aqueous solution of cetyltrimethylammonium hydroxide (CTAOH) instead of hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTABr) and NaOH. The degree of transformation was varied via the ratio of CTAOH solution to initial silica gel rather than synthesis duration. The transformed samples were characterized by N2 sorption at 77 K, mercury intrusion porosimetry, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Thus, MCM-41 spheres with diameters of ca. 12 μm, surface areas >1000 m2 g−1, pore volumes >1 cm3 g−1 and a sharp pore width distribution, adjustable between 3.2 and 4.5 nm, were obtained. A thorough pulsed field gradient nuclear magnetic resonance (PFG NMR) study shows that the diffusivity of n-heptane confined in the pores of the solids passes through a minimum with progressing transformation. The final product of pseudomorphic transformation to MCM-41 does not exhibit improved transport properties compared to the initial silica gel. Moreover, the PFG NMR results support that the transformation occurs via formation and subsequent growth of domains of <1 μm containing MCM-41 homogeneously distributed over the volume of the silica spheres.
GreenMatch: Renewable-Aware Workload Scheduling for Massive Storage Systems

As datacenters grow in scale, increasing energy costs and carbon emissions have led data centers to seek renewable energy, such as wind and solar energy. However, tackling the challenges associated with the intermittent nature and variability of renewable energy is substantial. This paper proposes a scheme called GreenMatch, which deploys an SSD-cache to match green energy supplies with a time-shifting workload schedule while maintaining low latency for online data-intensive services. With the SSD-cache, the process for a latency-sensitive request to access a disk is divided into two stages: a low-energy low-latency online stage and a high-energy high-latency off-line stage. As the process in the latter stage is off-line, it offers opportunities for time-shifting workload scheduling in response to variations of green energy supplies. We also allocate an HDD-cache to guarantee data availability when renewable energy is non-adequate. Furthermore, we design a novel replacement policy called Inactive Disk First for the HDD-cache to avoid inactive disk accesses. The experimental results show that GreenMatch can make full use of renewable energy while minimizing the negative impact of intermittency and variability on performance and availability.
Integral quadratic forms : applications to algebraic geometry

© Association des collaborateurs de Nicolas Bourbaki, 1982-1983, tous droits réservés. L’accès aux archives du séminaire Bourbaki (http://www.bourbaki. ens.fr/) implique l’accord avec les conditions générales d’utilisation (http://www.numdam.org/legal.php). Toute utilisation commerciale ou impression systématique est constitutive d’une infraction pénale. Toute copie ou impression de ce fichier doit contenir la présente mention de copyright.
Low-excitation blobs in the Magellanic Clouds

Aims. We study an unknown, or very poorly known, interstellar H ii component in the Magellanic Clouds. This is the first study ever devoted to this class of objects, which we call low-excitation blobs (LEBs). Methods. We used low-dispersion spectroscopy carried out at ESO to obtain emission line intensities of ${{\rm H}\alpha}$, ${{\rm H}\beta}$, and $[{\rm O}\,\textsc{iii}]$ ($\lambda\lambda$ 4959 + 5007) for 15 objects in the Large Magellanic Cloud and 14 objects in the Small Magellanic Cloud. Results are displayed in excitation ($[{\rm O}\,\textsc{iii}]$/${{\rm H}\beta}$ ratio) versus ${{\rm H}\beta}$ luminosity diagrams. Results. We show the presence of an LEB component in the Magellanic Clouds and study its relationship with the already known class of high-excitation blobs (HEBs). The newly found LEBs are lower excitation counterparts of HEBs and are powered by less massive exciting stars. Further study of LEBs is expected to provide new pieces of information for a better understanding the low mass end of the upper initial mass function in the Magellanic Clouds.
Study on Oxidative Metabolic Changes to Differentiate Exudative from Transudative Pleural Effusions

The purpose of this present study was to differentiate transudates and exudates in pleural effusions. Oxidative stress has been associated with various respiratory disorders. Ninety patients of pleural effusions of diverse etiologies were participated in this study. Subjects underwent diagnostic thoracentesis and standard biochemical parameters (total protein, lactate dehydrogenase, glucose, MDA levels) were measured in pleural fluid and serum. MDA, total protein, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), glucose levels in plural fluid were higher in exudates compared to transudates (p<0.001). Total protein pleural fluid/ total protein serum ratio, LDH pleural fluid/LDH serum ratio and MDA pleural fluid/MDA serum ratio were raised in exudates compared to transudates (p<0.001). The present study showed that oxidative stress was more in exudates compared to transudates, probably due to the production of reactive oxygen species and it may serve as a marker for differentiation between transudates and exudates in clinical practice.
Evidence for multiple somatic pools of individual axonally transported proteins

The idea that individual axonally transported proteins can exist in several kinetically distinct pools within the cell body was studied using the presumptive neurosecretory low molecular weight (LMW) proteins of Aplysia neurons L11 and R15. Pulse-chase experiments revealed that the loss of labeled LMW proteins from the soma by axonal transport does not follow single exponential kinetics as it should if they are being removed from single pools. Rather, decay of label occurs in at least two phases having half-lives of approximately 1 and 40 h. The LMW proteins are homogeneous by sequential SDS gel electrophoresis and isoelectric focusing, indicating that individual protein species exhibit multiphasic decay kinetics. Two types of evidence imply that the bulk of cellular LMW protein turns over at the slower rate: the LMW pool does not reach constant specific activity at the rapid rate during continuous exposure to labeled precursor, and long-term blockade of axonal transport does not produce an appreciable accumulation of these species in the cell body. These results suggest that some of the newly synthesized LMW protein enters a small somatic pool from which it is rapidly subjected to axonal transport, while the remainder enters a larger pool where it can mix with previously synthesized protein before transport. A cellular mechanism that would yield this behavior is suggested.
Memory-Side Acceleration for XML Parsing in Cloud Computing Environments

As Extensible Markup Language (XML) becomes prevalent in cloud computing environments, it also introduces significant performance overheads. In this paper, we analyze the performance of XML parsing, identify that a significant fraction of the performance overhead is indeed incurred by memory data loading. To address this problem, we propose implementing memory-side acceleration on top of computation-side acceleration of XML parsing. To this end, we study the impact of memory-side acceleration on performance, and evaluate its implementation feasibility including bus bandwidth utilization, hardware cost, and energy consumption. Our results show that this technique is able to improve performance by up to 20% as well as produce up to 12.77% of energy saving when implemented in 32 nm technology.
Emerging evidence of the association between cognitive deficits and arm motor recovery after stroke: A meta-analysis

Abstract Purpose: Motor and cognitive impairments are common and often coexist in patients with stroke. Although evidence is emerging about specific relationships between cognitive deficits and upper-limb motor recovery, the practical implication of these relationships for rehabilitation is unclear. Using a structured review and meta-analyses, we examined the nature and strength of the associations between cognitive deficits and upper-limb motor recovery in studies of patients with stroke. Methods: Motor recovery was defined using measures of upper limb motor impairment and/or activity limitations. Studies were included if they reported on at least one measure of cognitive function and one measure of upper limb motor impairment or function. Results: Six studies met the selection criteria. There was a moderate association (r = 0.43; confidence interval; CI:0.09– 0.68, p = 0.014) between cognition and overall arm motor recovery. Separate meta-analyses showed a moderately strong association between executive function and motor recovery (r = 0.48; CI:0.26– 0.65; p < 0.001), a weak positive correlation between attention and motor recovery (r = 0.25; CI:0.04– 0.45; p = 0.023), and no correlation between memory and motor recovery (r = 0.42; CI:0.16– 0.79; p = 0.14). Conclusion: These results imply that information on the presence of cognitive deficits should be considered while planning interventions for clients in order to design more personalized interventions tailored to the individual for maximizing upper-limb recovery.
Interpersonal affect and host country national support of expatriates: An investigation in China

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the role played by host country nationals’ (HCNs) collectivism and the interpersonal affect they develop toward expatriate colleagues, in determining the degree to which Chinese HCNs would be willing to offer role information and social support to expatriates from India and the USA. Design/methodology/approach: The authors conducted a between-subjects simulation (n=402) with front-line, junior-level professionals in four global organizations operating in China, measuring their interpersonal affect toward a hypothetical expatriate colleague, and their willingness to offer role information and social support to the expatriate. Findings: Results indicated the interpersonal affect felt by Chinese HCNs mediates the relationship between the collectivism levels of Chinese HCNs, and their willingness to offer role information and social support to expatriates. Research limitations/implications: It should be acknowledged that the authors used hypothetical “paper-people” to test the hypotheses. Future studies should investigate the impact of collectivism and interpersonal affect on HCN willingness to offer role information and social support by examining HCNs’ attitudes toward real-life expatriate colleagues. Originality/value: While empirical studies examining HCN willingness to offer role information and social support have begun to emerge in the expatriate literature, only a couple of studies have included interpersonal affect as a key determinant. Given that interpersonal affect is a key determinant of individuals’ reactions to others, but also a complex construct, the findings confirm the need for organizations to examine how this impacts performance and co-worker interactions in the workplace.
A longitudinal, event-related potential pilot study of adult obsessive-compulsive disorder with 1-year follow-up

Aim Earlier brain imaging research studies have suggested that brain abnormalities in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) normalize as clinical symptoms improve. However, although many studies have investigated event-related potentials (ERPs) in patients with OCD compared with healthy control subjects, it is currently unknown whether ERP changes reflect pharmacological and psychotherapeutic effects. As such, the current study examined the neurocognitive components of OCD to elucidate the pathophysiological abnormalities involved in the disorder, including the frontal-subcortical circuits. Methods The Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale was used to evaluate 14 adult patients with OCD. The present study also included ten age-, sex-, and IQ-matched controls. The P300 and mismatch negativity (MMN) components during an auditory oddball task at baseline for both groups and after 1 year of treatment for patients with OCD were measured. Results Compared with controls, P300 amplitude was attenuated in the OCD group at Cz and C4 at baseline. Pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy treatment for 1 year reduced OCD symptomology. P300 amplitude after 1 year of treatment was significantly increased, indicating normalization compared with baseline at Fz, Cz, C3, and C4. We found no differences in P300 latency, MMN amplitude, or MMN latency between baseline and after one year of treatment. Conclusion ERPs may be a useful tool for evaluating pharmacological and cognitive behavioral therapy in adult patients with OCD.
Diastolic Function Evaluations by Tissue Doppler Imaging in Patients With Mitral Valve Prolapse

Background Tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) is a new echocardiographic imaging technique that is believed to be superior to older conventional techniques in assessing abnormalities of cardiac function in many conditions affecting the heart. There are very limited data regarding the role of TDI in evaluating patients with mitral valve prolapse (MVP). Current study evaluates diastolic function in patients with MVP by this method. Methods From November 2009 to April 2011, one hundred and ten adults matched for age and sex and without structural heart disease were studied in two groups, with and without MVP, at Madani Heart Center, Tabriz, Iran. TDI was performed at the basal-lateral wall and S, E, E’, A, and A’ velocities, as well as the E/A and E’/A’ ratios were measured. Mitral annular systolic velocity and early diastolic (E’) velocities were measured lateral corner of mitral valve in apical 4-chamber view. Results Patients with MVP had higher left atrium volume (42.31 ± 10.47 vs. 35.19 ± 9.15 cm3; P < 0.001) and deceleration time (186.70 ± 26.00 vs. 176.89 ± 20.36 ms; P = 0.03). Diastolic dysfunction, although seemed more prevalent in MVP group (14.54%) than normal subjects (5.45%), the difference was not statistically significant between groups (P = 0.11). Conclusion Left atrial volume and deceleration time of mitral valve inflow was significantly higher in MVP which could be indicative of early stages of diastolic dysfunction in patients with MVP. However, larger follow-up studies are required to evaluate clinical significance of our findings in these patients.
Are You Experienced? Prior Experience and the Survival of New Organizations

This paper investigates the relationship between the level of pre‐entry experience of managers and founders, and the survival of their new firms. Using a comprehensive dataset covering the entire Danish labor market from 1980 to 2000, we are able to trace prior activities of all employees working in all Danish start‐ups with at least one employee. We examine whether spin‐offs from surviving parents, spin‐offs from exiting parents or other start‐ups are more likely to survive. Moreover, we investigate whether firms managed and founded by teams with higher levels of industry‐specific experience have a higher chance of surviving. We find that spin‐offs from a surviving parent and to a lesser degree industry‐specific experience positively affects the likelihood of survival. We also find that spin‐offs from a parent that exits are less likely to survive than either spin‐offs from surviving parents or other start‐ups.
Nonparametric Regression

We establish optimal rates for online regression for arbitrary classes of regression functions in terms of the sequential entropy introduced in [14]. The optimal rates are shown to exhibit a phase transition analogous to the i.i. d. /statistical learning case, studied in [16]. In the frequently encountered situation when sequential entropy and i.i. d. empirical entropy match, our results point to the interesting phenomenon that the rates for statistical learning with squared loss and online nonparametric regression are the same. In addition to a non-algorithmic study of minimax regret, we exhibit a generic forecaster that enjoys the established optimal rates. We also provide a recipe for designing online regression algorithms that can be computationally efficient. We illustrate the techniques by deriving existing and new forecasters for the case of finite experts and for online linear regression.
Adjectives co-occurring with the illative form of the MA-infinitive in Finnish and Estonian

In both Finnish and Estonian, the illative form of the MA-infinitive/supine can be used at the end of a predicative clause, as in the Finnish olimme hitaita oppimaan (‘we were slow to learn’) or the Estonian olen kups seda aktsepteerima (‘I am ready/ ripe to accept it’). In these sentences, a characteristic expressed by an adjective is attributed to the subject of the sentence, with the scope of the characteristic related to a single activity marked by the illative form of the MA-infinitive/supine. In this paper I will present data to describe this type of construction in both languages and will analyze it as a constructional schema in terms of cognitive grammar (Langacker 2000, 2008). My analysis will concentrate on the adjectival component of the schema with the help of examples from Estonian and Finnish corpora.
Distorted Odor Maps in the Olfactory Bulb of Semaphorin 3A-Deficient Mice

Semaphorin 3A (Sema3A) repels growing olfactory axons that express neuropilin-1 (NP-1), a receptor for Sema3A. The Sema3A-mediated axon guidance seems to be essential for the formation of the glomerular sensory map in the olfactory bulb (OB). To understand whether and how Sema3A is involved in sensory map formation, we examined the glomerular map in the OB of adult Sema3A-deficient mice. In wild-type mice, NP-1-positive glomeruli form the lateral and medial bands and avoid the anteromedial and ventral regions of the OB. In the Sema3A-deficient OB, NP-1-positive glomeruli spread over the entire OB, and we consistently found the ectopic arrangement of NP-1-positive glomeruli in the anteromedial and ventral regions. In addition, a specific subset of NP-1-negative and olfactory cell adhesion molecule-positive glomeruli, especially those in the anteromedial region, disappeared from the mutant OB. These results show a critical role for Sema3A in the spatial arrangement of glomeruli in the OB. Optical imaging from the dorsal OB showed that the distorted glomerular map conserved molecular-feature domains. However, the positions of the domains were shifted, which suggests a secondary rearrangement of the glomerular map in the Sema3A-deficient OB.
MuTE: A MATLAB Toolbox to Compare Established and Novel Estimators of the Multivariate Transfer Entropy

A challenge for physiologists and neuroscientists is to map information transfer between components of the systems that they study at different scales, in order to derive important knowledge on structure and function from the analysis of the recorded dynamics. The components of physiological networks often interact in a nonlinear way and through mechanisms which are in general not completely known. It is then safer that the method of choice for analyzing these interactions does not rely on any model or assumption on the nature of the data and their interactions. Transfer entropy has emerged as a powerful tool to quantify directed dynamical interactions. In this paper we compare different approaches to evaluate transfer entropy, some of them already proposed, some novel, and present their implementation in a freeware MATLAB toolbox. Applications to simulated and real data are presented.
Evolutionarily conserved Ets family members display distinct DNA binding specificities [published erratum appears in J Exp Med 1993 Sep 1;178(3):1133]

Members of the Ets family of proto-oncogenes encode sequence-specific transcription factors that bind to a purine-rich motif centered around a conserved GGA trinucleotide. Ets binding sites have been identified in the transcriptional regulatory regions of multiple T cell genes including the T cell receptor alpha and beta (TCR-alpha and -beta) enhancers and the IL-2 enhancer, as well as in the enhancers of several T cell-trophic viruses including Maloney sarcoma virus, human leukemia virus type 1, and human immunodeficiency virus-2. T cells express multiple members of the Ets gene family including Ets-1, Ets-2, GABP alpha, Elf-1, and Fli-1. The different patterns of expression and protein-protein interactions of these different Ets family members undoubtedly contribute to their ability to specifically regulate distinct sets of T cell genes. However, previous studies have suggested that different Ets family members might also display distinct DNA binding specificities. In this report, we have examined the DNA binding characteristics of two Ets family members, Ets-1 and Elf-1, that are highly expressed in T cells. The results demonstrate that the minimal DNA binding domain of these proteins consists of adjacent basic and putative alpha-helical regions that are conserved in all of the known Ets family members. Both regions are required for DNA binding activity. In vitro binding studies demonstrated that Ets-1 and Elf-1 display distinct DNA binding specificities, and, thereby interact preferentially with different naturally occurring Ets binding sites. A comparison of known Ets binding sites identified three nucleotides at the 3' end of these sequences that control the differential binding of the Ets-1 and Elf-1 proteins. These results are consistent with a model in which different Ets family members regulate the expression of different T cell genes by binding preferentially to purine-rich sequences that share a GGA core motif, but contain distinct flanking sequences.
On the properties of input-to-output transformations in networks of perceptrons

Information processing in certain neuronal networks in the brain can be considered as a map of binary vectors, where ones (spikes) and zeros (no spikes) of input neurons are transformed into spikes and no spikes of output neurons. A simple but fundamental characteristic of such a map is how it transforms distances between input vectors. In particular what is the mean distance between output vectors given certain distance between input vectors? Using combinatorial approach we found an exact solution to this problem for networks of perceptrons with binary weights. he resulting formulas allow for precise analysis how network connectivity and neuronal excitability aect the transformation of distances between the vectors of neuronal spiking. As an application, we considered a simple network model of information processing in the hippocampus, a brain area critically implicated in learning and memory, and found a combination of parameters for which the output neurons discriminated similar and distinct inputs most eectively. A decrease of threshold values of the output neurons, which in biological networks may be associated with decreased inhibition, impaired optimality of discrimination.