Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Loss of Sphingosine Kinase 1/S1P Signaling Impairs Cell Growth and Survival of Neurons and Progenitor Cells in the Developing Sensory Ganglia

Background Lysophospholipids such as lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) and sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) are important signaling molecules that can regulate a wide range of cellular responses. We discovered that Sphingosine kinase 1 (Sphk1), a key enzyme that converts sphingosine to S1P, is expressed in neurons and progenitor cells in nascent trigeminal and dorsal root ganglia during mouse embryogenesis. Methods and Findings Sphk1 null mouse embryos do not display overt deficits owing to compensation by Sphk2. Thus, we analyzed embryos that are deficient in both Sphk1 and Sphk2 (which essentially eliminates S1P function) in order to investigate the role(s) of Sphk1 during sensory ganglia formation. While animals lacking 1–3 alleles of Sphk1 and Sphk2 had no obvious phenotype, embryos without both genes displayed clear developmental defects. The complete absence of Sphk1 and Sphk2 resulted in trigeminal and dorsal root ganglia with fewer neurons and progenitor cells. The profound loss in cell number could be attributed to a decrease in cell proliferation as well as an increase in apoptosis. Furthermore, Sphk1/2 double mutants displayed an overall reduction in other sphingolipids as well as an imbalance of S1P/sphingosine and S1P/ceramide ratio, thereby favoring cell death and reducing cell growth. Conclusions Together, these results provide strong in vivo evidence that sphingosine kinase/S1P signaling plays an important role in regulating early events during development of sensory ganglia.
Handbook of public personnel administration

Analyzing the historical development of the American civil service great thinkers in personnel management assuring equal employment opportunity in the organization public personnel administration and the law public personnel administration outside the United States a comparative examination of national civil service and personnel reforms politicians and development of China's civil service system the economy and public personnel administration demographic changes and diversity in personnel - implications for public administrators human resource planning recruitment of personnel a review of research regarding criteria used to select job applicants placing the individual into the organization - staffing and classification in human resource management the practice of performance appraisal compensation administration and the human resource management function pension fund management budgeting human resource requirements comparable worth and pay equity - from legal principle to negotiating point race norming, validity generalization, and employment testing personnel training and development promotion of personnel - career advancement turnover of personnel motivation of personnel - a synthesis of current research the practice of employee discipline productivity and quality management strategic human resource management management of volunteers professionalism and the public sector.
Information Theoretic Approach to Cold Start Problem Using Genetic Algorithms

Genetic algorithms are becoming increasingly valuable in solving large-scale, realistic, difficult problems, and new customer personalization is one of these problems. In this paper, a method combining GA based clustering algorithm with Collaborative Filtering CF-based Recommender system is proposed named Information Gain Clustering using Genetic Algorithm (IGCGA), which alleviates the problem of being trapped in local clustering centroids using k-mean. Simulation results show that the proposed IGCGA, in most of the cases, is able to find much accurate personalization of new users compared to IGCN other Collaborative Filtering based Recommender system. Much better performance of IGCGA is observed.
Ecological environmental sounds classification based on genetic algorithm and matching pursuit sparse decomposition

The Mel-frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCCs) based on human auditory characteristics are widely used for audio recognition. However, the performance of MFCC-based audio recognition degrades due to noise interference. In consideration of this, we propose the matching pursuit (MP) sparse representation algorithm based on genetic algorithm (GA) improved by elite strategy and evolution reversal to accomplish the task of filtering out extraneous noise. In the first step, MP is carried out to represent the ecological environmental signal's inner structure. The second step consists of MFCCs feature extraction. Finally, two different classifiers, Support Vector Machine (SVM) and Gaussian mixture model (GMM) were performed and compared using the proposed features. Experimental results showed that the SVM-based classifier outperforms the GMM classifier and indicated that this method with sparse representation achieved improved performance in noisy environments.
Dynamic RKKY interaction in graphene

The growing interest in carbon-based spintronics has stimulated a number of recent theoretical studies on the RKKY interaction in graphene, based on which the energetically favourable alignment between magnetic moments embedded in this material can be calculated. The general consensus is that the strength of the RKKY interaction in undoped graphene decays as 1/D 3 or faster, where D is the separation between magnetic moments. Such an unusually fast decay for a 2-dimensional system suggests that the RKKY interaction may be too short ranged to be experimentally observed in graphene. Here we show in a mathematically transparent form that a far more long ranged interaction arises when the magnetic moments are taken out of their equilibrium positions and set in motion. We not only show that this dynamic version of the RKKY interaction in graphene decays far more slowly but also propose how it can be observed with currently available experimental methods. PACS numbers:
Semantics for the Internet of Things: Early Progress and Back to the Future

The Internet of Things (IoT) has recently received considerable interest from both academia and industry that are working on technologies to develop the future Internet. It is a joint and complex discipline that requires synergetic efforts from several communities such as telecommunication industry, device manufacturers, semantic Web, and informatics and engineering. Much of the IoT initiative is supported by the capabilities of manufacturing low-cost and energy-efficient hardware for devices with communication capacities, the maturity of wireless sensor network technologies, and the interests in integrating the physical and cyber worlds. However, the heterogeneity of the “Things” makes interoperability among them a challenging problem, which prevents generic solutions from being adopted on a global scale. Furthermore, the volume, velocity and volatility of the IoT data impose significant challenges to existing information systems. Semantic technologies based on machine-interpretable representation formalism have shown promise for describing objects, sharing and integrating information, and inferring new knowledge together with other intelligent processing techniques. However, the dynamic and resource-constrained nature of the IoT requires special design considerations to be taken into account to effectively apply the semantic technologies on the real world data. In this article the authors review some of the recent developments on
Information Rates for Faster-Than-Nyquist Signaling with 1-Bit Quantization and Oversampling at the Receiver

Oversampling combined with low quantization resolutions has been shown to be a viable option when aiming for energy efficiency in multigigabit/s communications systems. This work considers the case of 1-bit quantization combined with oversampling and shows how the performance of such a system can be improved by using matched pulse shaping filters and faster than Nyquist signaling. The channel is considered with additive Gaussian noise and the performance of the system is evaluated in terms of achievable information rate under symbol-by-symbol detection.
Toward Reflective Management of Emergency Department Chief Complaint Information

An approach coined as ldquoreflective information managementrdquo is presented as a technique for the management of emergency department chief complaint information. The architecture of a system integrating principles from this approach is described and its performance is evaluated in providing categorical information from free-text chief complaints for use, e.g., in automated syndromic surveillance.
Hispanic Consumers Hispanic Consumers

Geoffrey D. Paulin is a senior economist in the Division of Consumer Expenditure Surveys, Bureau of Labor Statistics. E-mail: Paulin_G@bls.gov. As the composition of the Hispanic population changed, Hispanic consumers continued to increase their share of spending at a substantial pace; a revisited study examines whether changes in expenditure patterns are due to changes in income or other similar factors, or due to changes in underlying preferences A changing market: expenditures by Hispanic consumers, revisited
Maternal pregnancy-specific anxiety is associated with child executive function at 6–9 years age

Because fetal brain development proceeds at an extremely rapid pace, early life experiences have the potential to alter the trajectory of neurodevelopment, which may increase susceptibility for developmental and neuropsychiatric disorders. There is evidence that prenatal maternal stress and anxiety, especially worries specifically related to being pregnant, influence neurodevelopmental outcomes. In the current prospective longitudinal study, we included 89 women for whom serial data were available for pregnancy-specific anxiety, state anxiety, and depression at 15, 19, 25, 31, and 37 weeks gestation. When the offspring from the target pregnancy were between 6 and 9 years of age, their executive function was assessed. High levels of mean maternal pregnancy-specific anxiety over the course of gestation were associated with lower inhibitory control in girls only and lower visuospatial working memory performance in boys and girls. Higher-state anxiety and depression also were associated with lower visuospatial working memory performance. However, neither state anxiety nor depression explained any additional variance after accounting for pregnancy-specific anxiety. The findings contribute to the literature supporting an association between pregnancy-specific anxiety and cognitive development and extend our knowledge about the persistence of this effect until middle childhood.
Growth deletion models for the web graph and other massive networks

We propose new evolutionary stochastic models for the web graph and other massive networks, where edges are deleted over time and an edge is chosen to be deleted with probability inversely proportional to the in-degree of the destination. The degree distributions of graphs generated by our models follow a power law. A rigorous proof of power law degree distributions is given using martingales and concentration results. Depending on the parameters, the exponent of the power law can be any number in (1,∞). For this reason, our models apply not only to the web graph, but to certain biological networks, where the power law exponent is in the interval (1, 2).
On the Role of Features and Goals Models in the Aspect-Oriented Development of Software Product Line ∗

Requirements of a Software Product Line (SPL) are usu- ally captured in the form of a feature model, which rep- resents the product line variation model, but this model lets several requirements details aside, such as the specifi- cation of functional and non-funcional requirements. Due to the crosscutting nature of SPL variations, researchers are using aspect-oriented techniques, to deal with such crosscutting concerns. In this context, the sooner these aspects can be identified the better, influencing the SPL and products architecture upfront. In this work we pro- pose a Product Line extension to an aspect-oriented in- tentional model. The extended model provides both vari- ability information and requirements details, promoting a natural blending of SPL and aspect-oriented architec- tural abstractions. We present the mapping between the SPL and the modeling approach abstractions and discuss two development scenarios: starting with a plain feature model and generating the extended aspect-oriented inten- tional model and the opposite approach.
Qualitative and quantitative analysis of workflows based on the UML activity diagram and Petri net

Since business workflows are closely related to enterprise performance, successfule execution of workflow is a critical driving force for strategic advantages of enterprise. Therefore, it is quite essential to customer satisfaction and productivity enhancement that structural errors in workflow instances must be detected and their performance must be evaluated before their enactments. For a structural verification and performance evaluation of workflows, this paper integrates the strengths of UML activity diagram and Petri net, proposes the mapping scheme from UML activity diagram to Petri net, verify the structural errors of workflow using the reachability tree analysis, and finally predict the workflow performance before its execution using the business process simulation. Through the proposed workflow analysis procedure, workflow modelers in enterprises can analyze the qualitative and quantitative aspects of workflow in an integrated way.
SOLUTION OF MATRIX MODELS IN THE D III GENERATOR ENSEMBLE

In this work we solve two new matrix models using standard and new techniques. The two models are based on matrix ensembles not previously considered, namely the D III generator ensemble. It is shown that, in the double scaling limit, their free energy has the same behavior as previous models describing oriented and unoriented surfaces. We also found an additional solution for one of the models.
A complete circuit breaker model for calculating very fast transient voltages

Various studies have been carried out to determine the origin, the development and the effects of very fast transients (VFT) in GIS-Busbars. To date little knowledge exists on how VFT propagate through a high voltage circuit breaker, when the interrupter itself is the source of the VFT. For the development of circuit breakers it is important to know if these VFT are able to affect the dielectric coordination of the interrupter. In order to determine transient voltages at different locations inside an interrupter unit a numerical model has been derived. The model approach represents the circuit breaker as a system of concatenated transmission lines. The simulations were compared to measurements of a real circuit breaker and prooved the accuracy of the model in the frequency range from 9 kHz up to 500 MHz. This model allows future parameter studies which show the dependence of VFT overvoltages on the geometry of the circuit breaker.
On the Adjacent Eccentric Distance Sum Index of Graphs

For a given graph G, ε(v) and deg(v) denote the eccentricity and the degree of the vertex v in G, respectively. The adjacent eccentric distance sum index of a graph G is defined as ξsv(G)=∑v∈V(G)ε(v)D(v)deg(v), where D(v)=∑u∈V(G)d(u,v) is the sum of all distances from the vertex v. In this paper we derive some bounds for the adjacent eccentric distance sum index in terms of some graph parameters, such as independence number, covering number, vertex connectivity, chromatic number, diameter and some other graph topological indices.
Ubiquitination within the membrane-proximal ezrin-radixin-moesin (ERM)-binding region of the L1 cell adhesion molecule

The dynamic turnover of the L1 cell adhesion molecule to and from the plasma membrane that is mediated through exo-and endocytic trafficking is central to axon outgrowth. Although the ubiquitination of L1 in response to incubation with an L1 antibody that mimics L1-L1 homophilic binding has been previously shown, the endocytic trafficking pathway of the ubiquitinated L1 destined for degradation is yet unclear. I have recently shown that the ubiquitinated L1 is endocytosed by Rabex-5, which is an ubiquitin-binding protein and guanine nucleotide exchange factor for Rab5, into early endosomes from the plasma membrane. Here, I speculate on the putative ubiquitination site within the membrane-proximal ezrin-binding motif in the cytoplasmic domain of L1 and discuss the regulatory role of this motif in the competition between ubiquitination and the binding of ezrin prior to L1 internalization.
BirdStore: Block-grained snapshot management system for instant disaster recovery

Block-grained snapshot management is a requirement for emerging instant disaster recovery systems that generally use on-demand data fetching strategy. This paper presents BirdStore, an efficient block-grained snapshot management system. Block-grained snapshot version is difficult to organize due to multiple disk IOs that are needed to query the snapshot version of each block. BirdStore reduces disk IOs by grouping blocks sharing the same backup history into a segment. Thus disk IOs are issued once per segment instead of once per block. Evaluation shows that BirdStore's algorithm is 33.5 times faster than the existing algorithm, and is very storage-efficient.
Measuring the default risk of Sukuk holders for shariah compliance companies in Malaysia: Using Merton's model with maximum likelihood estimator

The purpose of this paper is to measure the default probability of Malaysian companies which have issued Sukuk for the period 2001 to 2010 by using Merton's Model. Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE) method has been used in the computation of the unavailable parameters of the Merton's Model which are the market value of the company's asset, the volatility and the asset expected return. Findings show that Sukuk with high default risk earns higher returns than Sukuk with low default risk. The rating of the Sukuk supports the result of the default probability whereby most of the Sukuk with high probability of default were rated low. This study finds the default probability measured from Merton's Model can explain the credit ratings of the Sukuk. Ordered probit model has been used to examine the effectiveness of the market based model in explaining credit ratings as compared to the accounting based model. By incorporating Merton's default probability model with two other related default risk factors (issuer size and book-to-market ratio), the model is found to have outperformed accounting-based model in explaining Sukuk credit ratings.
2-Deoxy-D-glucose-induced cytotoxicity and radiosensitization in tumor cells is mediated via disruptions in thiol metabolism.

Exposure to ionizing radiation is believed to cause cell injury via the production of free radicals that are thought to induce oxidative damage. It has been proposed that exposure to agents that enhance oxidative stress-induced injury by disrupting thiol metabolism may sensitize cells to the cytotoxic effects of ionizing radiation. Recently, it has been shown that glucose deprivation selectively induces cell injury in transformed human cells via metabolic oxidative stress (J. Biol. Chem., 273: 5294-5299; Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci., 899: 349-362), resulting in profound disruptions in thiol metabolism. Because 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2DG) is a potent inhibitor of glucose metabolism thought to mimic glucose deprivation in vivo, the hypothesis that exposure to 2DG might be capable of inducing radiosensitization in transformed cells via perturbations in thiol metabolism was tested. When HeLa cells were exposed to 2DG (4-10 mM) for 4-72 h, cell survival decreased (20-90%) in a dose- and time-dependent fashion. When HeLa cells were treated with 6 mM 2DG for 16 h before ionizing radiation exposure, radiosensitization was observed with a sensitizer enhancement ratio of 1.4 at 10% isosurvival. Treatment with 2DG was also found to cause decreases in intracellular total glutathione content (50%). Simultaneous treatment with the thiol antioxidant N-acetylcysteine (NAC; 30 mM) protected HeLa cells against the cytotoxicity and radiosensitizing effects of 2DG, without altering radiosensitivity in the absence of 2DG. Furthermore, treatment with NAC partially reversed the 2DG-induced decreases in total glutathione content, as well as augmented intracellular cysteine content. Finally, the cytotoxicity and radiosensitizing effects of 2DG were more pronounced in v-Fos-transformed versus nontransformed immortalized rat cells, and this radiosensitization was also inhibited by treatment with NAC. These results support the hypothesis that exposure to 2DG causes cytotoxicity and radiosensitization via a mechanism involving perturbations in thiol metabolism and allows for the speculation that these effects may be more pronounced in transformed versus normal cells.
Leaf Morphology, Photosynthetic Performance, Chlorophyll Fluorescence, Stomatal Development of Lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) Exposed to Different Ratios of Red Light to Blue Light

Red and blue light are both vital factors for plant growth and development. We examined how different ratios of red light to blue light (R/B) provided by light-emitting diodes affected photosynthetic performance by investigating parameters related to photosynthesis, including leaf morphology, photosynthetic rate, chlorophyll fluorescence, stomatal development, light response curve, and nitrogen content. In this study, lettuce plants (Lactuca sativa L.) were exposed to 200 μmol⋅m−2⋅s−1 irradiance for a 16 h⋅d−1 photoperiod under the following six treatments: monochromatic red light (R), monochromatic blue light (B) and the mixture of R and B with different R/B ratios of 12, 8, 4, and 1. Leaf photosynthetic capacity (Amax) and photosynthetic rate (Pn) increased with decreasing R/B ratio until 1, associated with increased stomatal conductance, along with significant increase in stomatal density and slight decrease in stomatal size. Pn and Amax under B treatment had 7.6 and 11.8% reduction in comparison with those under R/B = 1 treatment, respectively. The effective quantum yield of PSII and the efficiency of excitation captured by open PSII center were also significantly lower under B treatment than those under the other treatments. However, shoot dry weight increased with increasing R/B ratio with the greatest value under R/B = 12 treatment. The increase of shoot dry weight was mainly caused by increasing leaf area and leaf number, but no significant difference was observed between R and R/B = 12 treatments. Based on the above results, we conclude that quantitative B could promote photosynthetic performance or growth by stimulating morphological and physiological responses, yet there was no positive correlation between Pn and shoot dry weight accumulation.
A One Pass Decoder Design For Large Vocabulary Recognition

To achieve reasonable accuracy in large vocabulary speech recognition systems, it is important to use detailed acoustic models together with good long span language models. For example, in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) task both cross-word triphones and a trigram language model are necessary to achieve state-of-the-art performance. However, when using these models, the size of a pre-compiled recognition network can make a standard Viterbi search infeasible and hence, either multiple-pass or asynchronous stack decoding schemes are typically used. In this paper, we show that time-synchronous one-pass decoding using cross-word triphones and a trigram language model can be implemented using a dynamically built tree-structured network. This approach avoids the compromises inherent in using fast-matches or preliminary passes and is relatively efficient in implementation. It was included in the HTK large vocabulary speech recognition system used for the 1993 ARPA WSJ evaluation and experimental results are presented for that task.