Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Uniform Asymptotic Expansions for Charlier Polynomials

The asymptotic behaviour of the Charlier polynomials C^(^a^)"n(x) as n->~ is examined. These polynomials satisfy a discrete orthogonality relation and, unlike classical orthogonal polynomials, do not satisfy a second-order linear differential equation with respect to the independent variable x. As such, previous results on their asymptotic behaviour have been restricted to integral methods and consequently have been quite limited in their scope. In this paper a new approach is used, where the polynomials C^(^a^)"n(x) are not regarded as a functions of x with a as a parameter, but rather with the roles reversed via a second-order linear differential equation in which a is the (real or complex-valued) independent variable and x is a parameter. This equation has two turning points in the a plane which depend on x, and are either positive or complex conjugates, according to the values of x. Moreover, the turning points can coalesce with one another, or one with a singularity of the equation, for certain critical values of x. By using two general asymptotic theories of differential equations, one for intervals free of turning points and the other for intervals containing a double pole and a coalescing turning point, expansions are derived for C^(^a^)"n(x) involving either elementary functions or Bessel functions. Taken together, the results are uniformly valid for -~
Sliding Disks in the Plane

Given a pair of start and target configurations, each consisting of n pairwise disjoint disks in the plane, what is the minimum number of moves that suffice for transforming the start configuration into the target configuration? In one move a disk slides in the plane without intersecting any other disk, so that its center moves along an arbitrary (open) continuous curve. We discuss efficient algorithms for this task and estimate their number of moves under different assumptions on disk radii and disk placements. For example, with n congruent disks, $\frac{3n}{2}+O(\sqrt{n {\rm log}n})$ moves always suffice for transforming the start configuration into the target configuration; on the other hand, $(1+\frac{1}{15}){\it n} - O(\sqrt{n})$ moves are sometimes necessary.
Distinct vascular patterns of early synovitis in psoriatic, reactive, and rheumatoid arthritis.

OBJECTIVE To examine the macroscopic vascular pattern of early synovitis in psoriatic arthritis (PsA), reactive arthritis (ReA), and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and to assess the reliability of the grading features for synovitis. METHODS Forty-four patients (14 PsA, 12 ReA, and 18 RA) with knee synovitis who were undergoing arthroscopy were assessed. Video recordings of the examination were scored independently by 3 arthroscopists who were blinded to the patient's identity and clinical details. Features of vascularity, villous formation, pannus, granularity, and capillary hyperemia were recorded and kappa values (-1<kappa<1) were calculated to assess interobserver reliability. RESULTS The interobserver reliability between experienced observers was high (kappa> or =0.8) for features of vascularity, villous hypertrophy, and pannus. Seventy-three percent of the PsA and ReA patients had predominantly tortuous, bushy vessels; 89% of the RA patients had mainly straight, branching vessels. CONCLUSION The distinct vascular patterns in PsA and ReA compared with those in RA may reflect different specific vascular factors in the pathogenesis of these arthritides. Vascularity and villous hypertrophy are the most reliable features of synovitis grading.
A novel framework for multilevel routing considering routability and performance

We propose in this paper a novel framework for multilevel routing considering both routability and performance. The two-stage multilevel framework consists of coarsening followed by uncoarsening. Unlike the previous multilevel routing, we integrate global routing, detailed routing, and resource estimation together at each level of the framework, leading to more accurate routing resource estimation during coarsening and thus facilitating the solution refinement during uncoarsening. Furthermore, the exact routing information obtained at each level makes our framework more flexible in dealing with various routing objectives (such as crosstalk, power, etc). Experimental results show that our approach obtains significantly better routing solutions than previous works. For example, for a set of 11 commonly used benchmark circuits, our approach achieves 100% routing completion for all circuits while the previous multilevel routing, the three-level routing, and the hierarchical routing can complete routing for only 3, 0, and 3 circuits, respectively. In particular, the number of routing layers used by our router is even smaller. We also have performed experiments on timing-driven routing. The results are also very promising.
Change in the Built Environment and its Association with Change in Walking and Obesity in Middle Age and Older Adults.

xii Chapter 1 Background and Introduction 1 Rationale 1 Specific Aims 1 Background 3 Longitudinal Analysis of the Built Environment 6 Neighborhood Socioeconomic Status and Change in the Built Environment 8 Conceptual Framework 8 Chapter 2 Aim 1: Change in Walking and Body Mass Index Following Residential Relocation 11 Background 11 Methods 13 Results 16 Discussion 17 Conclusion 19 Tables 21
Resilience of Circadian Pacemaker Development in Hamsters

Disruptions of circadian rhythms have been linked to a wide range of pathologies from sleep disorders to cancer. The extent to which disruptions of circadian rhythms during development contribute to later conditions is not known. The present study tested the hypothesis that functional properties of the central circadian pacemaker, the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), are affected by abnormal entrainment during development. The SCN is specialized for the generation of robust rhythms, for direct and indirect output to physiological and behavioral systems, and for entrainment to light/dark cycles via direct retinal input. It consists of thousands of neurons and glia with distinct phenotypes and has subdivisions delineated by both anatomical and functional criteria. In rodents, SCN rhythms develop within days after SCN cells are produced and before many other aspects of differentiation, such as synaptogenesis, are complete. We demonstrated that around the time of birth, the hamster SCN in vivo can undergo repeated phase shifts by a dopamine D1 receptor agonist (SKF-38393). For 2 days before and 2 days after birth, one group of hamsters received regular exposure to the drug at the same time of day, while another group was exposed at varying times to induce repeated phase shifts. Free-running and entrained activity rhythms were compared between the groups at different ages after weaning. Repeated phase shifts during SCN development had a significant effect on free-running period measured immediately after weaning. This effect was eliminated by subsequent entrainment to a light/dark cycle, indicating that the effect was not permanent. These and other results suggest that SCN development required for functional properties such as free-running period is resilient to perturbation.
Image Processing Methods For Mobile Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus Sobriety Check

A method for eye gaze measurement is presented for the intended purpose of alcohol induced Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus detection. The method uses two pupil locating techniques on two still images, followed by geometric estimation to perform initial facial feature estimation. Laplacian-of-Gaussian filtering in scale-space is used to locate the pupil center on an image where the eye is centered, and gradient techniques are used to locate the pupil when the eye is not centered. After the initial geometric estimation, template matching techniques are used for video frame registration, and integral projection techniques combined with one dimensional template matching are used for fast, real-time gaze measurement. The method is designed to require minimal computation on video frames, and is tailored for use on a mobile device platform. A test implementation on a PC, using prerecorded video data, successfully tracks a noisy sinusoidal eye gaze with a mean error of approximately 11 percent.
Research on Active Power Factor Correction of the Electronic Ballast for High-Pressure Sodium Lamps Based on L6563

In the recent years, there has been a growing interest in the design of high-pressure sodium lamp electronic ballast. Two measures are proposed to improve the power factor of high-pressure sodium lamp electronic ballasts from the definition of harmonic and power factor. And the basic principle of active power factor correction is also discussed in this paper. The active power factor correction circuit of the electronic ballast for high-pressure sodium lamps is successfully designed based on L6563 integrated chips. Experiment results show that the power factor of this electronic ballast is above 10% and its total harmonic distortion is lower than 0.990.
A Privacy Preserving Model for Energy Internet Base on Differential Privacy

Comparing with the traditional grid, energy internet will collect data widely and connect more broader. The analysis of electrical data use of Non-intrusive Load Monitoring (NILM) can infer user behavior privacy. Consideration both data security and availability is a problem must be addressed. Due to its rigid and provable privacy guarantee, Differential Privacy has proverbially reached and applied to privacy preserving data release and data mining. Because of its high sensitivity, increases the noise directly will led to data unavailable. In this paper, we propose a differentially private mechanism to protect energy internet privacy. Our focus is the aggregated data be released by data owner after added noise in disaggregated data. The theoretically proves and experiments show that our scheme can achieve the purpose of privacy-preserving and data availability.
Jns Journal of Nutritional Science

A randomised, double-blind, cross-over study investigating the prebiotic effect of agave fructans in healthy human subjects Abstract This placebo-controlled, randomised, double-blind, cross-over human feeding study aimed to determine the prebiotic effect of agave fructans. A total of thirty-eight volunteers completed this trial. The treatment consisted of 3 weeks' supplementation with 5 g/d of prebiotic agave fructan (Predilife) or equivalent placebo (malto-dextrin), followed by a 2-week washout period following which subjects were crossed over to alternate the treatment arm for 3 weeks followed by a 2-week washout. Faecal samples were collected at baseline, on the last day of treatment (days 22 and 58) and washout (days 36 and 72), respectively. Changes in faecal bacterial populations, SCFA and secretory IgA were assessed using fluorescent in situ hybridisation, GC and ELISA, respectively. Bowel movements, stool consistencies, abdominal comfort and mood changes were evaluated by a recorded daily questionnaire. In parallel, the effect of agave fructans on different regions of the colon using a three-stage continuous culture simulator was studied. Predilife significantly increased faecal bifidobacteria (log 10 9·6 (SD 0·4)) and lactobacilli (log 10 7·7 (SD 0·8)) compared with placebo (log 10 9·2 (SD 0·4); P = 0·00) (log 10 7·4 (SD 0·7); P = 0·000), respectively. No change was observed for other bacterial groups tested, SCFA, secretory IgA, and PGE 2 concentrations between the treatment and placebo. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis analysis indicated that bacterial communities were randomly dispersed and no significant differences were observed between Predilife and placebo treatments. The in vitro models showed similar increases in bifidobacterial and lactobacilli populations to that observed with the in vivo trial. To conclude, agave fructans are well tolerated in healthy human subjects and increased bifidobacteria and lactobacilli numbers in vitro and in vivo but did not influence other products of fermentation. The importance of human gastrointestinal microbiota is becoming increasingly recognised. Diet–microbe interactions within the colon can result in a number of health benefits: protection from invading pathogens, modulation of immune system , production of vitamins and removal of carcinogens (1–3). Selectively modulating the gut microbial activities is the basis of the prebiotic concept that advocates targeting beneficial bacteria through non-viable food ingredients (4,5). To date most attention has been focused on the prebiotic potential of fructo-oligosaccharides and trans-galacto-oligosaccharides. However, other fibres including resistant starches or dextrins, glucans, gums and pectins are also increasingly being recognised as having prebiotic potential (6,7). Fructans have been …
GoMRI: DEEPWATER HORIZON OIL SPILL AND ECOSYSTEM SCIENCE Responses of Microbial Communities to Hydrocarbon Exposures

USAGE Permission is granted to copy this article for use in teaching and research. Republication, systematic reproduction, or collective redistribution of any portion of this article by photocopy machine, reposting, or other means is permitted only with the approval of The Oceanography Society. Send all correspondence to: info@tos.org or The Oceanography Society, PO Box 1931, Rockville, MD 20849-1931, USA. Oceanography THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE OCEANOGRAPHY SOCIETY
Outage Probability and Bit Error Rate of the Amplify-and-Forward Relay Network

In this paper, we investigate the outage probability and bit error rate performance of the amplify-and forward relay network. The system model we consider has three nodes, with one antenna at the transmit end, one antenna at relay node, and multiple antennas at the receive end where maximal ratio combining is employed. In the Rayleigh fading channel, we derive closed-form upper and lower bounds of the outage probability and bit error rate of the system instead of the expressions of exact values due to considerable complexity. Then we proceed to validate our analytical results through link-level simulations. The simulation results reveal that our theoretical analysis agree well with link-level simulation results, thus our results greatly contributes to the simplification of calculating outage probability and bit error rate of our system.
EphA2 proteomics in human keratinocytes reveals a novel association with afadin and epidermal tight junctions

ABSTRACT EphA2 is a receptor tyrosine kinase that helps to maintain epidermal tissue homeostasis. A proximity-dependent biotin identification (BioID) approach was used to identify proteins in close proximity to EphA2 within primary human keratinocytes and three-dimensional (3D) reconstituted human epidermis (RHE) cultures to map a putative protein interaction network for this membrane receptor that exhibits a polarized distribution in stratified epithelia. Although a subset of known EphA2 interactors were identified in the BioID screen, >97% were uniquely detected in keratinocytes with over 50% of these vicinal proteins only present in 3D human epidermal culture. Afadin (AFDN), a cytoskeletal and junction-associated protein, was present in 2D and 3D keratinocyte cultures, and validated as a so-far-unknown EphA2-interacting protein. Loss of EphA2 protein disrupted the subcellular distribution of afadin and occludin in differentiated keratinocytes, leading to impairment of tight junctions. Collectively, these studies illustrate the use of the BioID approach in order to map receptor interaction networks in 3D human epithelial cultures, and reveal a positive regulatory role for EphA2 in the organization of afadin and epidermal tight junctions. Summary: EphA2 was used as a prototypical receptor tyrosine kinase to map a signaling protein interaction network in 2D and 3D stratified epithelial tissue cultures composed of primary human skin cells.
A Novel Method for Inducing Amastigote-To-Trypomastigote Transformation In Vitro in Trypanosoma cruzi Reveals the Importance of Inositol 1,4,5-Trisphosphate Receptor

Background Trypanosoma cruzi is a parasitic protist that causes Chagas disease, which is prevalent in Latin America. Because of the unavailability of an effective drug or vaccine, and because about 8 million people are infected with the parasite worldwide, the development of novel drugs demands urgent attention. T. cruzi infects a wide variety of mammalian nucleated cells, with a preference for myocardial cells. Non-dividing trypomastigotes in the bloodstream infect host cells where they are transformed into replication-capable amastigotes. The amastigotes revert to trypomastigotes (trypomastigogenesis) before being shed out of the host cells. Although trypomastigote transformation is an essential process for the parasite, the molecular mechanisms underlying this process have not yet been clarified, mainly because of the lack of an assay system to induce trypomastigogenesis in vitro. Methodology/Principal Findings Cultivation of amastigotes in a transformation medium composed of 80% RPMI-1640 and 20% Grace’s Insect Medium mediated their transformation into trypomastigotes. Grace’s Insect Medium alone also induced trypomastigogenesis. Furthermore, trypomastigogenesis was induced more efficiently in the presence of fetal bovine serum. Trypomastigotes derived from in vitro trypomastigogenesis were able to infect mammalian host cells as efficiently as tissue-culture-derived trypomastigotes (TCT) and expressed a marker protein for TCT. Using this assay system, we demonstrated that T. cruzi inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate receptor (TcIP3R)—an intracellular Ca2+ channel and a key molecule involved in Ca2+ signaling in the parasite—is important for the transformation process. Conclusion/Significance Our findings provide a new tool to identify the molecular mechanisms of the amastigote-to-trypomastigote transformation, leading to a new strategy for drug development against Chagas disease.
Balance Sheets, Exchange Rate Policy, and Welfare

The debate about the appropriate choice of exchange rate regime is fundamental in international economics. This paper develops a small open-economy model with balance sheet effects and compares the performance of fixed and flexible exchange rate regimes. The model is solved up to a second-order approximation which allows us to address the issue of risk and welfare rigorously. The paper identifies threshold levels of the debt-to-GDP ratio above which fixed exchange rate regimes are welfare superior to monetary policy rules that imply flexible exchange rate regimes. The results suggest that emerging market economies that suffer from a relatively high level of indebtedness and are constrained in their pursuit of optimal monetary policy, could find it beneficial to opt for a fixed exchange rate regime.
Increased reproductive success of women after prenatal undernutrition

BACKGROUND Prenatal exposure to the Dutch famine is associated with an increased risk of chronic degenerative disease. We now investigate whether prenatal famine exposure affected reproductive success. METHODS We assessed reproductive success (number of children, number of twins, age at delivery, childlessness) of men and women born around the time of the Dutch famine of 1944–1945 in the Wilhelmina Gasthuis, Amsterdam, whose birth records have been kept. RESULTS Women who were exposed to the Dutch famine of 1944–1945 in utero are more reproductively successful than women who were not exposed to famine during their fetal development; they have more offspring, have more twins, are less likely to remain childless and start reproducing at a younger age. The increased reproductive success of these women is unlikely to be explained by genes which favor fertility and are passed from mothers to their daughters. In utero exposure to famine did not affect the reproductive success of males. CONCLUSIONS These findings suggest that poor nutrition during fetal development, followed by improved nutrition after birth can give rise to a female phenotype characterized by greater reproductive success.
Non-dominated sorting environmental adaptation method (NS-EAM)

A modified version of NSGA-II named as NSEAM is proposed to solve multi-objective optimization (MOO) problems, which is better in performance as compared to NSGA-II. In this proposed algorithm a new Bio inspired algorithm (EAM) is used instead of genetic algorithm. Benchmark functions have been used to justify the performance of this newly proposed algorithm. Initially this bio inspired algorithm was created for the purpose of solving single objective optimization (SOO) problems and it had already showed promising results as compared to the currently prevailing evolutionary algorithms. So it was thought to extend this EAM algorithm's application area over MOO problems. With slight change in the present SOO algorithm, it can be applied in the MOO problems. This proposed algorithm is compared with NSGA-II and Result analysis shows that it is more efficient and converges to the true parito-optimal front very rapidly.
EXTENDING SMIL WITH 3 D AUDIO

This paper describes how SMIL can be extended to support 3D audio in a similar fashion than AABIFS does it for MPEG-4. The SMIL 2D layout is extended with an extra dimension to support a 3D space. New audio elements are positioned in the 3D space, whilst a listener element defines a listening point. Similarly to AABIFS perceptual modeling approach, an environment element describes environmental parameters for audio elements. These extensions enable interactive 3D audio capabilities in SMIL. In addition, any XML based rendering language could be extended with 3D audio capabilities by using a similar approach.
Load-aware based adaptive rescheduling mechanism for workflow application

In order to integrate the massive distributed resources to accomplish the complex engineering applications cooperatively, workflow scheduling is an important aspect. However, as the available computing power of Grid resources is changing dynamically, static scheduling scheme will lead to low performance in real Grid environment. Therefore, the rescheduling mechanism should be taken into consideration. Although a few relevant mechanisms have been proposed in recent year, as they do not consider the essence of dynamic feature and the relevant algorithms are too simple, they can not obtain a good enough result yet. To address these problems, a load-aware based adaptive rescheduling mechanism for DAG application called LAR is proposed. Therein, during application running, the load exception will be detected and the execution state of application will be judged to decide whether the rescheduling process should be triggered. And in rescheduling stage, an effective rescheduling algorithm which utilizes the latest prediction information is present. The simulation results show that our mechanism can outperform the relevant algorithms in NRSL, and can effectively solve the performance decreasing problem in real Grid environment.
Student-Teacher Relationships and Impacts of Goal Orientation, Personality, Socio-Economic Status, and Performance: An Examination of Those Served by Project GRAD Knoxville

This study seeks to understand the importance of teacher student relationships and the impacts of goal orientation, personality, socio-economic status, and student achievement. The study used a sample of students served by Project GRAD Knoxville, a non-profit organization that serves students in the heart of the city. The sample consisted of 110 college students who have received a scholarship from the organization. The results show that learning goal orientation is a significant predictor of student-teacher relationships. Knowing a student’s LGO and time spent discussing social topics can predict whether or not students will end up on academic probation 64% of the time. Females report higher levels of performance goal orientation than men.