Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cooperative Tasking for Deterministic Specification Automata

This paper proposes necessary and sufficient conditions for task decomposability with respect to an arbitrary finite number of agents. It is furthermore shown that fulfilling the decomposed local tasks by individual agents guarantees the satisfaction of the original global decomposable task. A divide‐and‐conquer approach for cooperative tasking among multi‐agent systems is proposed. The basic idea is to decompose an assigned global specification (given as a deterministic automaton) into subtasks for individual concurrent agents such that the fulfillment of these subtasks by each individual agent leads to the satisfaction of the global specification as a team. A cooperative scenario involving three robots has been implemented to illustrate the proposed technique. This work provides insights into what kinds of tasks can be achieved distributively, which helps designers specify achievable global tasks for a group of agents and design necessary information sharing among each other for a particular task.
Activity Completion Duration Based Checkpoint Selection for Dynamic Verification of Temporal Constraints in Grid Workflow Systems

In grid workflow systems, to verify temporal constraints efficiently at the run-time execution stage, some checkpoints are selected such that temporal verification need only be conducted at those checkpoints rather than at all activity points. However, existing typical checkpoint selection strategies may ignore some necessary checkpoints and select some unnecessary ones. This eventually impacts overall temporal verification effectiveness and efficiency. To improve such status, in this paper, we develop a new checkpoint selection strategy. Specifically, we first investigate the relationships between activity completion duration and the consistency of temporal constraints. Then, based on those relationships we present our new checkpoint selection strategy. Our new strategy can avoid the omission of necessary checkpoints and the selection of excess unnecessary checkpoints. Consequently, it can achieve better temporal verification effectiveness and efficiency than the existing typical checkpoint selection strategies. The final comparison and quantitative evaluation further demonstrate this result.
Mortality and Survival : The Curious Relationship between Relative Differences in Mortality and Relative Differences in Survival

This item principally addresses the pattern whereby relative differences in mortality and relative differences in survival tend to change in opposite directions as mortality changes in overall prevalence. The item gives special attention to the way, particularly with regard to cancer disparities issues, researchers discuss one relative difference while examining the other without realizing that one may commonly reach different conclusions depending on which relative difference is analyzed. Usually the names of the journals in which references are published are mentioned in the text because it is the journals that are principally at fault in this area. Researchers can hardly be blamed for failing to understand issues the journals and their statistical consultants fail to understand. And while researchers can be faulted for failing even to set out the rates that would allow a reader to reappraise the researchers’ conclusions, a greater fault lies with the journals that permit such practices.
Yield stress and elastic modulus of suspensions of noncolloidal particles in yield stress fluids

We study experimentally the behavior of isotropic suspensions of noncolloidal particles in yield stress fluids. This problem has been poorly studied in the literature, and only on specific materials. In this paper, we manage to develop procedures and materials that allow us to focus on the purely mechanical contribution of the particles to the yield stress fluid behavior, independently of the physicochemical properties of the materials. This allows us to relate the macroscopic properties of these suspensions to the mechanical properties of the yield stress fluid and the particle volume fraction, and to provide results applicable to any noncolloidal particle in any yield stress fluid. We find that the elastic modulus-concentration relationship follows a Krieger-Dougherty law, and we show that the yield stress-concentration relationship is related to the elastic modulus-concentration relationship through a very simple law, in agreement with results from a micromechanical analysis.
Circulating immunoreactive cardiac troponin forms determined by gel filtration chromatography after acute myocardial infarction.

BACKGROUND Cardiac troponin I (cTnI) and cTnT measurements are used in the diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Together with troponin C (TnC), the cTnI and cTnT forms make up the ternary cTnT-cTnI-TnC (TIC) complex found within myocardium. Whether cTn occurs in the circulation after AMI as ternary TIC, binary cTnI-TnC (IC) complexes, or free troponin forms has not been thoroughly investigated. METHODS Blood samples from 10 AMI patients were collected at hospital admission and then at 12, 24, and 48 h after onset of chest pain. Serum was subjected to gel filtration chromatography and cTnT (Roche cTnT) and cTnI (Siemens Centaur UltraTnI and Beckman Access AccuTnI) concentrations were measured in the gel filtration chromatography fractions. RESULTS cTnT was present predominantly as free cTnT and cTnI as binary IC complex. These 2 forms were present at every time point. Lesser quantities of TIC complex (6%-32% of total cTnT and <50% of total cTnI) were detected in 4 patients at varying times. Minor quantities of a high molecular mass form of cTnI were detected occasionally. No free cTnI was found. Both cTnI assays identified a similar pattern of cTnI forms. CONCLUSIONS After AMI, cTnI is present in serum as TIC and IC complexes. cTnT may be present as a combination of TIC and free cTnT or exclusively as free cTnT.
Topology control algorithm and dynamic management scheme for mobile FSO networks

Due to the limited node degree and fragile links, design and management of free space optical (FSO) networks is still a great challenge. In this paper, based on a tiered mobile FSO network model, a localized Delaunay triangulation (LDT) algorithm for the topology control of the upper tier is proposed. Then we study how the lower tier is supported by the upper tier. An effective dynamic multipoint-to-point access (DMPPA) method is presented, which can “enlarge” the access degree without sacrificing the connectivity of the upper tier. Meanwhile, a mutual “help” strategy is proposed to balance the residual energy of the cluster heads and improve the node distribution uniformity. Simulation results show that the LDT algorithm can produce a high-connectivity topology and satisfy node degree constraints and that the DMPPA method and the “help” strategy can ensure the network quality of service and extend the survival time of the whole FSO network.
The linear geodesic property is not generally preserved by a FIFO queue

If a FIFO queue is fed by several input streams that jointly satisfy a Ž . sample path large deviation principle LDP with ‘‘linear geodesics,’’ then Ž . the cumulative departures up to a large time also satisfy the LDP with a rate function which depends in a relatively simple way on the rate function corresponding to the inputs: this was demonstrated in a recent paper by the second author. It suggests the possibility of an iterative scheme which would allow one to determine the large deviation behavior of more complicated networks. To do this, however, one would require that the linear geodesic property be preserved: in this paper we demonstrate that in general it is not preserved. This is true even in the case of a single input stream.
DTN-enabled Infostation and Cinema-in-a-Backpack

Delay Tolerant Networks (DTNs) aim to enable content distribution in areas where little to no access to affordable communication channels is available. We are interested in DTNs for reaching out into under-served regions in growing economies, when distributing media and videos from cities to rural areas. DTNs enable content distribution in such areas, using mobility of devices and avoiding the need for traditional network infrastructure. The content is distributed to the target destinations using buses equipped with infostations, namely wireless DTN-enabled devices. Mobile cinema entertainment, possibly combined with educational content, will be the use case. Micro-entrepreneurs in remote villages will be provided with low-complex small cinema-in-a-backpack systems, which allow them to screen the content and start with a micro-business activity around the show events. In this paper, we present our wireless infostation and the cinema-in-a-back that we have built for the purpose and ready for a six-month long field deployment in rural South Africa, in partnership with local institutions.
Representations of the holonomy algebras of gravity and nonAbelian gauge theories

Holonomy algebras arise naturally in the classical description of Yang-Mills fields and gravity, and it has been suggested, at a heuristic level, that they may also play an important role in a nonperturbative treatment of the quantum theory. The aim of this paper is to provide a mathematical basis for this proposal. The quantum holonomy algebra is constructed, and, in the case of real connections, given the structure of a certain C*-algebra. A proper representation theory is then provided using the Gel'fand spectral theory. A corollary of these general results is a precise formulation of the 'loop transform' proposed by Rovelli and Smolin (1990). Several explicit representations of the holonomy algebra are constructed. The general theory developed here implies that the domain space of quantum states can always be taken to be the space of maximal ideals of the C*-algebra. The structure of this space is investigated and it is shown how observables labelled by 'strips' arise naturally.
CDC2 Mediates Progestin Initiated Endometrial Stromal Cell Proliferation: A PR Signaling to Gene Expression Independently of Its Binding to Chromatin

Although non-genomic steroid receptor pathways have been studied over the past decade, little is known about the direct gene expression changes that take place as a consequence of their activation. Progesterone controls proliferation of rat endometrial stromal cells during the peri-implantation phase of pregnancy. We showed that picomolar concentration of progestin R5020 mimics this control in UIII endometrial stromal cells via ERK1-2 and AKT activation mediated by interaction of Progesterone Receptor (PR) with Estrogen Receptor beta (ERb) and without transcriptional activity of endogenous PR and ER. Here we identify early downstream targets of cytoplasmic PR signaling and their possible role in endometrial stromal cell proliferation. Microarray analysis of global gene expression changes in UIII cells treated for 45 min with progestin identified 97 up- and 341 down-regulated genes. The most over-represented molecular functions were transcription factors and regulatory factors associated with cell proliferation and cell cycle, a large fraction of which were repressors down-regulated by hormone. Further analysis verified that progestins regulate Ccnd1, JunD, Usf1, Gfi1, Cyr61, and Cdkn1b through PR-mediated activation of ligand-free ER, ERK1-2 or AKT, in the absence of genomic PR binding. ChIP experiments show that progestin promoted the interaction of USF1 with the proximal promoter of the Cdc2 gene. Usf1 knockdown abolished Cdc2 progestin-dependent transcriptional regulation and cell proliferation, which also blocked Cdc2 knockdown. We conclude that progestin-induced proliferation of endometrial stromal cells is mediated by ERK1-2 and AKT dependent early regulation of USF1, which directly induces Cdc2. To our knowledge, this is the first description of early target genes of progestin-activated classical PR via crosstalk with protein kinases and independently of hormone receptor binding to the genomic targets.
MicroRNA‐214 Is Upregulated in Heart Failure Patients and Suppresses XBP1‐Mediated Endothelial Cells Angiogenesis

More and more miRNAs have been shown to regulate gene expression in the heart and dysregulation of their expression has been linked to cardiovascular diseases including the miR‐199a/214 cluster. However, the signature of circulating miR‐214 expression and its possible roles during the development of heart failure has been less well studied. In this study, we elucidated the biological and clinical significance of miR‐214 dysregulation in heart failure. Firstly, circulating miR‐214 was measured by quantitative PCR, and we found that miR‐214 was upregulated in the serum of chronic heart failure patients, as well as in hypertrophic and failing hearts of humans and mice. Adeno‐associated virus serotype 9 (AAV9)‐mediated miR‐214 silencing attenuates isoproterenol (ISO) infusion‐induced cardiac dysfunction and impairment of cardiac angiogenesis in mice. Mechanistically, miR‐214 overexpression reduces angiogenesis of HUVECs by targeting XBP1, an important transcription factor of unfolded protein response, and XBP1 silencing decreases HUVECs proliferation and angiogenesis similar to miR‐214 overexpression. Furthermore, ectopic expression of XBP1 enhances endothelial cells proliferation and tube formation, and reverses anti‐angiogenic effect of miR‐214 over expression. All these findings suggest that miR‐214 is an important regulator of angiogenesis in heart in vitro and in vivo, likely via regulating the expression of XBP1, and demonstrate that miR‐214 plays an essential role in the control/inhibition of cardiac angiogenesis. J. Cell. Physiol. 230: 1964–1973, 2015. © 2015 The Authors. Journal of Cellular Physiology published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
A Novel Parallel Hierarchical Community Detection Method for Large Networks

Detection of community structure in big social network is a c h llenging task. In this paper, a novel hierarchical clustering method taking a dvantages of traditional methods such as CNM proposed by Clauset et al and Spectral Clustering is presented as well as its parallel implementation. Computer -generated networks and a real world network of about two million vertices and two billion edges we crawled from Sina Weibo are used for testing the implementat ion. Our parallel method achieves relatively high modularity within much sho rter time than other fast algorithms (CNM method, Spectral Clustering, etc) announced be suitable for massive data. And it works well on the real world network data se , which is difficult to be handled by traditional algorithms because of lim itations in both CPU and memories.
The influences of age on olfaction: a review

Decreased olfactory function is very common in the older population, being present in over half of those between the ages of 65 and 80 years and in over three quarters of those over the age of 80 years. Such dysfunction significantly influences physical well-being and quality of life, nutrition, the enjoyment of food, as well as everyday safety. Indeed a disproportionate number of the elderly die in accident gas poisonings each year. As described in this review, multiple factors contribute to such age-related loss, including altered nasal engorgement, increased propensity for nasal disease, cumulative damage to the olfactory epithelium from viral and other environmental insults, decrements in mucosal metabolizing enzymes, ossification of cribriform plate foramina, loss of selectivity of receptor cells to odorants, changes in neurotransmitter and neuromodulator systems, and neuronal expression of aberrant proteins associated with neurodegenerative disease. It is now well established that decreased smell loss can be an early sign of such neurodegenerative diseases as Alzheimer's disease and sporadic Parkinson's disease. In this review we provide an overview of the anatomy and physiology of the aging olfactory system, how this system is clinically evaluated, and the multiple pathophysiological factors that are associated with its dysfunction.
Dictionaries of the Mind

How lexical information should be formulated, and how it is organized in computer memory for rapid retrieval, are central questions for computational linguists who want to create systems for language understanding. How lexical knowledge is acquired, and how it is organized in human memory for rapid retrieval during language use, are also central questions for cognitive psychologists. Some examples of psycholinguistic research on the lexical component of language are reviewed with special attention to their implications for the computational problem.
Preparation, characterization and in-vitro evaluation of sustained release protein-loaded nanoparticles based on biodegradable polymers

Controlled drug delivery technology of proteins/peptides from biodegradable nanoparticles has emerged as one of the eminent areas to overcome formulation associated problems of the macromolecules. The purpose of the present investigation was to develop protein-loaded nanoparticles using biodegradable polymer poly l-lactide-co-glycolidic acid (PLGA) with bovine serum albumin (BSA) as a model protein. Despite many studies available with PLGA-based protein-loaded nanoparticles, production know-how, process parameters, protein loading, duration of protein release, narrowing polydispersity of particles have not been investigated enough to scale up manufacturing of protein-loaded nanoparticles in formulations. Different process parameters such as protein/polymer ratio, homogenizing speed during emulsifications, particle surface morphology and surface charges, particle size analysis and in-vitro protein release were investigated. The in-vitro protein release study suggests that release profile of BSA from nanoparticles could be modulated by changing protein-polymer ratios and/or by varying homogenizing speed during multiple-emulsion preparation technique. The formulation prepared with protein-polymer ratio of 1:60 at 17,500 rpm gave maximum protein-loading, minimum polydispersion with maximally sustained protein release pattern, among the prepared formulations. Decreased (10,000 rpm) or enhanced (24,000 rpm) homogenizing speeds resulted in increased polydispersion with larger particles having no better protein-loading and -release profiles in the present study.
Dynamic virtual network embedding algorithm based on multi-path virtual concatenation in elastic optical network

This paper focuses on the concept of multi-path virtual concatenation as a key enabling technology to support the requirements of spectrum bandwidth of link mapping in the process of virtual network embedding (VNE). A dynamic VNE_MP algorithm for distributed data centers inter-connecting is proposed. Based on the multi-path virtual concatenation mechanisms, a virtual link is split into multiple smaller sub-streams and carried on multiple paths. The object for this algorithm is to maximize the spectrum utilization and request accept ratio under the constraint of different delay constraint between splitting paths.
Applying Data Mining Techniques in Property/Casualty Insurance

This paper addresses the issues and techniques for Property/Casualty actuaries using data mining techniques. Data mining means the efficient discovery of previously unknown patterns in large databases. It is an interactive information discovery process that includes data acquisition, data integration, data exploration, model building, and model validation. The paper provides an overview of the information discovery techniques and introduces some important data mining techniques for application to insurance including cluster discovery methods and decision tree analysis.
Amenable groups that act on the line

Let Gamma be a finitely generated, amenable group. Using an idea of E Ghys, we prove that if Gamma has a nontrivial, orientation-preserving action on the real line, then Gamma has an infinite, cyclic quotient. (The converse is obvious.) This implies that if Gamma has a faithful action on the circle, then some finite-index subgroup of Gamma has the property that all of its nontrivial, finitely generated subgroups have infinite, cyclic quotients. It also means that every left-orderable, amenable group is locally indicable. This answers a question of P Linnell.
Preliminary study of dry knitted fabric electrodes for physiological monitoring

Textile electrodes (20times20 mm) were knitted from commercially available conductive yarns, including silver coated nylon, stainless steel yarn, and silver coated copper filaments. The textile electrodes were fixed into a model structure that enabled control of electrode location and skin contact pressure. The Silver coated nylon electrode was used to demonstrate the repeatability of applying the structure to the subject (without skin preparation), whilst an ECG signal obtained using a set of 3M RedDOTTM electrodes placed at the same locations was used as a control for assessing the textile structures' ECG signals. A set of promising ECG signals from many of the dry textile electrodes validated the methods used for fabricating electrodes from conductive yarns by conventional textile processing, placing these on the body in a model textile structure, acquiring ECG signals from dry fabric electrodes, and provided some initial insight into useful conductive fibre and filament properties, dry electrode design, and garment characteristics.
Hardware‐Accelerated Rendering of Photo Hulls

This paper presents an efficient hardware‐accelerated method for novel view synthesis from a set of images or videos. Our method is based on the photo hull representation, which is the maximal photo‐consistent shape. We avoid the explicit reconstruction of photo hulls by adopting a view‐dependent plane‐sweeping strategy. From the target viewpoint slicing planes are rendered with reference views projected onto them. Graphics hardware is exploited to verify the photo‐consistency of each rasterized fragment. Visibilities with respect to reference views are properly modeled, and only photo‐consistent fragments are kept and colored in the target view. We present experiments with real images and animation sequences. Thanks to the more accurate shape of the photo hull representation, our method generates more realistic rendering results than methods based on visual hulls. Currently, we achieve rendering frame rates of 2–3 fps. Compared to a pure software implementation, the performance of our hardware‐accelerated method is approximately 7 times faster.
Effects of macrolides on pneumolysin of macrolide-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae

To clarify the discrepancy between increasing resistance and conservative clinical effects of macrolides on macrolide-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae, the authors evaluated the effects of sub-minimum inhibitory concentrations of macrolides on pneumolysin. In vitro, S. pneumoniae was incubated with 1, 2 and 4 µg·mL−1 of clarithromycin (CLR) and azithromycin (AZM) for 8 h. Western blot analysis and haemolytic assay were performed to examine the production and activities of pneumolysin. In vivo, mice were infected with S. pneumoniae intra-nasally and treated with CLR (40 or 200 mg·kg−1 twice daily) or AZM (40 or 200 mg·kg−1 once daily) orally for 7 days. After 72 h post-infection, western blot analysis was performed to examine pneumolysin production in lungs. Survival rates were observed for 10 days. In vitro, every concentration of macrolide inhibited pneumolysin production more than the control. CLR (2 and 4 µg·mL−1) and AZM (4 µg·mL−1) reduced the pneumolysin activities more than the control. In vivo, macrolides (200 mg·kg−1) reduced pneumolysin in murine lungs more than the control. CLR (40 and 200 mg·kg−1) and AZM (200 mg·kg−1) improved the survival rates more than the control. The study results show that sub-minimum inhibitory concentrations of macrolides reduced pneumolysin. This might be related to the effectiveness of macrolides against pneumonia caused by high-level macrolide-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae. Further investigations are necessary to evaluate the effects of macrolides on macrolide-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae.