Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Transformations in the structure of the cytoplasmic ground substance in erythrophores during pigment aggregation and dispersion. I. A study using whole-cell preparations in stereo high voltage electron microscopy

Pigment migration in cultured erythrophores of the squirrel fish Holocentrus ascensionis, after manipulation with K+, epinephrine, 3',5'- dibutyryl cyclic adenosine monophosphate, theophylline, and caffeine, is essentially identical to that observed in this chromatophore in situ. For such observations, the erythrophores are dissociated from the scales with hyaluronidase and collagenase, and allowed to spread on an amorphous collagen substrate, where they resemble the discoid erythrophore in situ. In this state, they are readily fixed by glutaraldehyde and osmium tetroxide, and are then critical-point dried for whole-cell viewing in the high voltage electron microscope. The organization and fine structure of the erythrophore cytoplast was stereoscopically examined after fixation of the pigment granules in four experimental states: pigment dispersed, pigment aggregated, pigment aggregating, and pigment dispersing. In the dispersed cell, granules are contained in an extensive three-dimensional lattice composed of radially oriented microtubules and a network of fine filaments 3-6 nm in diameter (microtrabeculae), whereas in the aggregated cell, the microtrabecular system is absent, and the majority of the microtubules appear displaced into the cortices on the cytoplasmic surface of the plasma membrane. In cells fixed while aggregating, few microtrabeculae are observed, although formless thickenings are observed in the cortices, on granules, and between clumped granules. In dispersing cells, the microtrabecular system is reformed from material stored in the cortices and with the granules in the centrosphere. These observations suggest that the granules are suspended in a dynamic microtrabecular system that withdraws during pigment aggregation and is restructured during pigment dispersion. The microtubules guide linear granule motion not by defining physical channels, but by a recognizable affinity of microtubules, microtrabeculae, and granules for one another.
Competition and coexistence of sports media: the case of watching the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games*

ABSTRACT This study was performed in the context of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games to examine the patterns of competition among television sets, personal computers, and mobile devices in gratifying audiences of one of the world's greatest sporting event. In light of the theory of niche, three measures of niche – niche breadth, niche overlap, and competitive superiority – were examined. Of the major findings, personal computers appeared to overlap the most with, and were superior to mobile devices in fulfilling socialization and diversion gratifications. These findings indicate personal computers are, at least partially, replacing mobile devices with respect to socialization and diversion gratifications. In comparison, the television set appeared to overlap the most with, and was superior to the personal computer in fulfilling the eustress, aesthetic, learning, and self-esteem gratifications. These findings indicate that television sets remain the dominant medium for fulfilling these four gratification dimensions.
Computing block importance for searching on web sites

In this paper we consider the problem of using the block structure of a Web page to improve ranking results when searching for information on Web sites. Given the block structure of the Web pages as input, we propose a method for computing the importance of each block (in the form of block weights) in a Web collection. As we show through experiments, the deployment of our method may allow a significant improvement in the quality of search results. We ran experiments to compare the quality of search results when using our method to the quality obtained when using no structure information. When compared to a ranking method that considered pages as monolithic units, our block-based ranking method led to improvements in the quality of search results in experiments with two sites with heterogeneous structures. Further, our method does not increase the cost of processing queries when compared to the systems using no structural information.
Language Engineering for Online Reputation Management Proceedings Editors: Language Engineering for Online Reputation Management Workshop Programme Editors Workshop Organizers/organizing Committee Workshop Programme Committee the Challenge of Processing Opinions Expressed in Online Contents in the S

In the new Social Web era, the globalization of markets combined with the fact that people can freely express their opinion on any product or company on forums, blogs or e-commerce sites led to a change in the companies’ marketing strategies, in the rise of awareness for client needs and complaints, and a special attention for brand trust and reputation. Specialists in market analysis, but also IT fields such as Natural Language Processing (NLP), demonstrated that in the context of the newly created opinion phenomena, decisions for economic action are not only given by factual information, but are highly affected by rumors and negative opinions. In this context, analyzing online reputation and being able to understand the mechanisms through which opinions are spread and the extent and manner in which they influence the business, social and political spheres become necessary endeavors. The problem in this context is much more difficult to solve, as entities, as opposed to products, are related to different events and topics and there is no fixed set of “attributes” that are commented on by persons expressing opinions on these entities. Additionally, answering opinion questions is an issue that is far from being trivial. This paper describes the challenges related to mining opinions for reputation management in the Social Web context.
RANDOM FORESTS-BASED FEATURE SELECTION FOR LAND-USE CLASSIFICATION USING LIDAR DATA AND ORTHOIMAGERY

Abstract. The development of lidar system, especially incorporated with high-resolution camera components, has shown great potential for urban classification. However, how to automatically select the best features for land-use classification is challenging. Random Forests, a newly developed machine learning algorithm, is receiving considerable attention in the field of image classification and pattern recognition. Especially, it can provide the measure of variable importance. Thus, in this study the performance of the Random Forests-based feature selection for urban areas was explored. First, we extract features from lidar data, including height-based, intensity-based GLCM measures; other spectral features can be obtained from imagery, such as Red, Blue and Green three bands, and GLCM-based measures. Finally, Random Forests is used to automatically select the optimal and uncorrelated features for landuse classification. 0.5-meter resolution lidar data and aerial imagery are used to assess the feature selection performance of Random Forests in the study area located in Mannheim, Germany. The results clearly demonstrate that the use of Random Forests-based feature selection can improve the classification performance by the selected features.
A Phase I and Pharmacological Study of the Platinum Polymer AP5280 Given as an Intravenous Infusion Once Every 3 Weeks in Patients with Solid Tumors

Purpose: This Phase I study was designed to determine the maximum tolerated dose, profile of adverse events, and dose-limiting toxicity of AP5280 in patients with solid tumors. Furthermore, the platinum (Pt) pharmacokinetics after AP5280 administration and preliminary antitumor activity were evaluated. AP5280 is a Pt agent linked to the water-soluble, biocompatible copolymer N-(2-hydroxypropyl)methacrylamide, which potentially increases Pt accumulation in tumors via the enhanced permeability and retention effect. In this way, it is anticipated that a higher activity of therapeutic Pt can be reached. The pharmaceutical product contains approximately 8.5% of Pt by weight and has a molecular weight of approximately 25,000. Experimental Design: Adult patients with solid tumors received AP5280 as a 1-h i.v. infusion every 21 days. Pharmacokinetics of total and unbound Pt were determined during the first treatment course and before the start of each new cycle using noncompartmental pharmacokinetic analysis. Pt-DNA adduct concentrations in WBCs and, if available, in tumor tissue were quantified using a sensitive 32P postlabeling assay. Results: Twenty-nine patients were treated at eight dose levels (90–4500 mg Pt/m2). The dose-limiting toxicity was Common Toxicity Criteria grade 3 vomiting and was experienced at 4500 mg Pt/m2 in two of six patients. The maximum tolerated dose on this schedule was therefore 4500 mg Pt/m2, and the recommended dose for a Phase II study is 3300 mg Pt/m2. Renal toxicity and myelosuppression, toxicities typically observed with cisplatin and carboplatin, were minimal for AP5280. The area under the curve of total Pt increased with increasing AP5280 dose. Plasma clearance of total Pt was 644 ± 266 ml/h, and the terminal half-life was 116 ± 46.2 h. After AP5280 administration, Pt-guanine-guanine DNA adduct concentrations in WBCs ranged from 70 to 1848 amol/μg DNA, concentrations that were substantially lower than concentrations measured after administration of therapeutic doses of cisplatin. Conclusions: AP5280 can be administered safely as a 1-h i.v. infusion at a dose of 3300 mg Pt/m2 once every 3 weeks and produces prolonged plasma exposure compared with any of the free Pt-containing drugs. However, it remains to be determined whether AP5280 can actually increase Pt delivery to the DNA of tumor cells in man as has been shown in experimental models.
Work pressure, workplace social resources, and work–family conflict: The tale of two sectors.

Although research has extensively examined work–family issues in the private sector, little is known about sector-related differences. Here, we used data from the 2002 National Study of the Changing Workforce and multiplegroup structural equation modeling to compare the levels and mechanisms through which work pressure and 3 workplace social resources (i.e., work– family culture, supervisor support, and coworker support) are related to work–family conflict in the public and private sectors. First, work–family culture affected work–family conflict directly in the private sector and indirectly, through reduced work pressure, in the public sector. Moreover, work–family culture had a much stronger impact on supervisor support in the private sector. Second, public sector employees perceived higher levels of supervisor and organizational support while experiencing higher levels of work pressure. The study illustrates the necessity of differentiating between the 2 sectors of employment when studying work–family relationships.
Equivalence between local tracking procedures and monotonic algorithms in quantum control

The computer simulations of quantum control use several approaches including local tracking procedures that prescribe the controlling field through the requirement that a certain functional be decreasing and monotonic algorithms that solve the Euler-Lagrange equations for a predefined cost functional. While different in implementation, recent works [1] hinted that these two classes share some common characteristics. We propose in this contribution a rigorous ground for such conclusions and discuss the precise formulation that allows to construct this equivalence.
An embedding problem of Noetherian rings into the Witt vectors

The aim of this article is to prove some results on the existence of an integral extension domain of a complete local Noetherian domain in mixed characteristic $p>0$ having certain distinguished properties with respect to the Frobenius map. We prove the main results by constructing required extension domains via Witt vectors and the method of maximal \'etale extensions. It is worth remarking that the resulting algebras have deep connections with the homological conjectures and the rings in $p$-adic Hodge theory.
Partially Synchronous Overlays : Issues and Challenges

The main advantage of synchronous systems over asynchronous systems is that timing and reliability guarantees can be established ensuring a strong programming model for many applications. These strong guarantees are not provided by the current model of the Internet. However the Internet possesses some synchronous properties which can be exploited to observe partial synchrony, leading to a stronger programming model. In this paper, we argue the importance of synchrony and describe mechanisms which can be used for the construction of partially synchronous overlays on
Toward Safe Human Robot Collaboration by Using Multiple Kinects Based Real-Time Human Tracking

We present a multiple Kinects based exteroceptive sensing framework to achieve safe human-robot collaboration during assembly tasks. Our approach is mainly based on a real-time replication of the human and robot movements inside a physics-based simulation of the work cell. This enables the evaluation of the human-robot separation in a 3D Euclidean space, which can be used to generate safe motion goals for the robot. For this purpose, we develop an N-Kinect system to build an explicit model of the human and a roll-out strategy, in which we forward-simulate the robot's trajectory into the near future. Now, we use a precollision strategy that allows a human to operate in close proximity with the robot, while pausing the robot's motion whenever an imminent collision between the human model and any part of the robot is detected. Whereas most previous range based methods analyzed the physical separation based on depth data pertaining to 2D projections of robot and human, our approach evaluates the separation in a 3D space based on an explicit human model and a forward physical simulation of the robot. Real-time behavior (≈ 30 Hz) observed during experiments with a 5 DOF articulated robot and a human safely collaborating to perform an assembly task validate our approach.
Characterizing performance and fairness of big data transfer protocols on long-haul networks

This paper presents a characterization study of big data transfer protocols on a long-haul network. We analyzed the performance and fairness of three well-known open-source protocols, namely, GridFTP, FDT, and UDT. Using a real-world 10 Gb/s network link between New Zealand and Sweden, we studied data transfer rates (in terms of goodput) and fairness (in terms of impact on round trip time) of the protocols. We performed extensive experiments using single and multiple data flows to comprehend how these protocols behave in real-world situations. We found that GridFTP has the fastest data transfer rates when using a single flow. UDT suffered from poor performance due to implementation issues. A small buffer size limited FDT's performance, however, this drawback can be overcome by using multiple flows in lieu of fairness.
Adapting to Resident Preferences in Smart Environments

In the past decade, smart home technologies have been a topic of interest for many researchers with the aim of automating daily activities. However, despite increasing progress in this area, less attention has been paid to smart environments that can adapt to changes in residents’ preferences over time. Here we introduce CASAS, an adaptive smart home system that discovers and adapts to changes in the resident’s preferences in order to generate satisfactory automation policies. The adaptation capability of CASAS is achieved by utilizing data mining methods as well as learning strategies that adapt to the resident’s explicit and implicit preference feedback. In this paper, we present a description of the adaptation models employed by CASAS together with the results of experiments applied to both synthetic and real smart environment data.
Power and rate assignment policies for best-effort services in WCDMA

Two resource assignment algorithms are studied and evaluated for best-effort services in the downlink of WCDMA. The basic idea is to update users' bitrate periodically in response to traffic and channel variations. Both schemes are based on power fairness, which means users are allowed to have the same power consumption. However, one scheme provides minimum guaranteed bitrate to all the users, whereas the second algorithm does not give any guarantee. The guaranteed and non-guaranteed schemes provide a throughput gain in the order of 15-20% and 55-60% with respect to the reference scenarios. The continuous execution of the schemes also unifies admission and congestion controls into one principal algorithm.
Incorporating Coercive Constructions into a Verb Lexicon

We take the first steps towards augmenting a lexical resource, VerbNet, with probabilistic information about coercive constructions. We focus on Causedmotion as an example construction occurring with verbs for which it is a typical usage or for which it must be interpreted as extending the event semantics through coercion, which occurs productively and adds substantially to the relational semantics of a verb. However, through annotation we find that VerbNet fails to accurately capture all usages of the construction. We use unsupervised methods to estimate probabilistic measures from corpus data for predicting usage of the construction across verb classes in the lexicon and evaluate against VerbNet. We discuss how these methods will form the basis for enhancements for VerbNet supporting more accurate analysis of the relational semantics of a verb across productive usages.
A multi-instance learning algorithm based on a stacked ensemble of lazy learners

This document describes a novel learning algorithm that classifies "bags" of instances rather than individual instances. A bag is labeled positive if it contains at least one positive instance (which may or may not be specifically identified), and negative otherwise. This class of problems is known as multi-instance learning problems, and is useful in situations where the class label at an instance level may be unavailable or imprecise or difficult to obtain, or in situations where the problem is naturally posed as one of classifying instance groups. The algorithm described here is an ensemble-based method, wherein the members of the ensemble are lazy learning classifiers learnt using the Citation Nearest Neighbour method. Diversity among the ensemble members is achieved by optimizing their parameters using a multi-objective optimization method, with the objectives being to maximize Class 1 accuracy and minimize false positive rate. The method has been found to be effective on the Musk1 benchmark dataset.
Review: SMCs in the world of chromosome biology- from prokaryotes to higher eukaryotes.

The study of higher order chromosome structure and how it is modified through the course of the cell cycle has fascinated geneticists, biochemists, and cell biologists for decades. The results from many diverse technical avenues have converged in the discovery of a large superfamily of chromosome-associated proteins known as SMCs, for structural maintenance of chromosomes, which are predicted to have ATPase activity. Now found in all eukaryotes examined, and numerous prokaryotes as well, SMCs play crucial roles in chromatid cohesion, chromosome condensation, sex chromosome dosage compensation, and DNA recombination repair. In eukaryotes, SMCs exist in five subfamilies, which appear to associate with one another in particular pairs to perform their specific functions. In this review, we summarize current progress examining the roles these proteins, and the complexes they form, play in chromosome metabolism. We also present a twist in the SMC story, with the possibility of one SMC moonlighting in an unpredicted location.
FLAGELLAR MOVEMENT AND ADENOSINE TRIPHOSPHATASE ACTIVITY IN SEA URCHIN SPERM EXTRACTED WITH TRITON X-100

Extraction with 0 04% (w/v) Triton X-100 removes the flagellar membrane from sea urchin sperm while leaving the motile apparatus apparently intact When reactivated in a suitable medium containing exogenous adenosine triphosphate (ATP), nearly 100% of the sperm are motile and they swim in a manner resembling that of live sperm. Under standard conditions, with 1 mM ATP at 25°C, the reactivated sperm had an average frequency of 32 beats/sec and progressed forward a distance of 2.4 µm/beat; comparable figures for live sperm in seawater were 46 beats/sec and 3 9 µm/beat. The adenosine triphosphatase (ATPase) activity of the reactivated sperm was measured with a pH-stat in the presence of oligomycin to inhibit residual mitochondrial ATPase. The motile sperm had an ATPase activity of 0.16 µmole Pi/(min x mg protein), while sperm that had been rendered non-motile by homogenizing had an activity of 0 045 µmole Pi/(min x mg protein). The difference between the ATPase activities of the motile and nonmotile sperm was tentatively interpreted as the amount of activity coupled to movement, and under optimal conditions it amounted to about 72% of the total ATPase activity Under some conditions the movement-coupled ATPase activity was proportional to the beat frequency, but it was possibly also affected by other wave parameters. The coupled ATPase activity decreased to almost zero when movement was prevented by raising the viscosity, or by changing the pH or salt concentration. The motility of reactivated sperm was wholly dependent on the presence of ATP; other nucleotides gave very low phosphatase activity and no movement. The requirement for a divalent cation was best satisfied with Mg++, although some motility was also obtained with Mn++ and Ca++. The coupled ATPase activity had a Michaelis constant (Km) of 0.15 mM. The beat frequency of the reactivated sperm varied with the ATP concentration, with an effective "Km" of 0.2 mM.
Design and control of two planar cable-driven robots for upper-limb neurorehabilitation

Post-stroke robot-aided neurorehabilitation is an emerging research field, aiming to improve the intensity and the effectiveness of post-stroke rehabilitation protocols by using robotic technology and virtual reality. One classification that has been proposed for therapy robots is between exoskeletons and end-effector based machines. The latter are those devices whose interaction with the patient's arm takes place at the end-effector level. This paper presents the design of two novel end-effector based robots for upper-limb rehabilitation, named Sophia-4 and Sophia-3. Although the devices are based on a common concept (the cable-drive actuation over a planar workspace), the latter differs from the former by the number of employed cables (4 and 3, respectively), and, by several design solutions, such as the introduction of a moving pulley-block to enhance workspace and a tilting table to better target the patient's shoulder. Both mechanical and control system design are addressed and a comparison of performances is presented.
Investigating Knowledge Contribution from the Online Identity Perspective

Knowledge contribution is one of the essential factors for the success of virtual communities (VCs). Although there has been a great deal of research on knowledge management in organizational settings, there is a lack of understanding about the knowledge contributions of individual members in non-organizational settings, especially in VCs. This study examines the knowledge contribution of individuals in VCs from the online identity perspective based on social identity theory. Previous research on identity explains that human behavior is an activity for communicating the identity. This study tests the effect of personal and social aspects of online identity on knowledge contribution. The results indicate both personal and social aspects of online identity significantly affect knowledge contribution. This research contributes toward the understanding of online identity and its effect on knowledge contribution. This study also offers suggestions to VC organizers and Internet vendors for managing the online knowledge contributions of their members.