Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Invading Europe: Did Climate or Geography Trigger Early Eocene Primate Dispersals?

The Palaeocene-Eocene transition is characterized by a significant turnover of mammalian taxa in the fossil record of the northern continents, and primates are among the groups that make their first appearance at this time. One of the many questions that remain to be answered with regard to the earliest evolution of primates is the reason for their sudden and virtually simultaneous appearance in the fossil records of Asia, Europe and North America. The most obvious environmental correlate of the Palaeocene-Eocene transition is a sharp but relatively short-lived warming event leading up to the Palaeocene-Eocene thermal maximum (PETM) and evidenced in the stratigraphic record by a negative δ13C excursion. It remains unclear, however, whether or how this warming event may have influenced Palaeocene-Eocene faunal turnovers. This paper explores the hypothesis that environmental changes associated with the PETM facilitated an invasion of Western Europe by primates by comparing the ecological structure of local mammalian fauna immediately before and following the Palaeocene-Eocene transition. The results suggest that changes to the ecological profile of local mammalian fauna were relatively small and did not favour an invasion by primates, although a major uncertainty remains with respect to the availability of arboreal niches. At present it seems more likely that the invasion of western Europe by primates was due to the breakdown of one or more dispersal barriers close to the end of the Palaeocene.
Loss of Vps54 Function Leads to Vesicle Traffic Impairment, Protein Mis-Sorting and Embryonic Lethality

The identification of the mutation causing the phenotype of the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) model mouse, wobbler, has linked motor neuron degeneration with retrograde vesicle traffic. The wobbler mutation affects protein stability of Vps54, a ubiquitously expressed vesicle-tethering factor and leads to partial loss of Vps54 function. Moreover, the Vps54 null mutation causes embryonic lethality, which is associated with extensive membrane blebbing in the neural tube and is most likely a consequence of impaired vesicle transport. Investigation of cells derived from wobbler and Vps54 null mutant embryos demonstrates impaired retrograde transport of the Cholera-toxin B subunit to the trans-Golgi network and mis-sorting of mannose-6-phosphate receptors and cargo proteins dependent on retrograde vesicle transport. Endocytosis assays demonstrate no difference between wobbler and wild type cells, indicating that the retrograde vesicle traffic to the trans-Golgi network, but not endocytosis, is affected in Vps54 mutant cells. The results obtained on wobbler cells were extended to test the use of cultured skin fibroblasts from human ALS patients to investigate the retrograde vesicle traffic. Analysis of skin fibroblasts of ALS patients will support the investigation of the critical role of the retrograde vesicle transport in ALS pathogenesis and might yield a diagnostic prospect.
ADSL Transceivers Applying DSM and Their Nonstationary Noise Robustness

Dynamic spectrum management (DSM) comprises a new set of techniques for multiuser power allocation and/or detection in digital subscriber line (DSL) networks. At the Alcatel Research and Innovation Labs, we have recently developed a DSM test bed, which allows the performance of DSM algorithms to be evaluated in practice. With this test bed, we have evaluated the performance of a DSM level-1 algorithm known as iterative water-filling in an ADSL scenario. This paper describes the results of, on the one hand, the performance gains achieved with iterative water-filling, and, on the other hand, the nonstationary noise robustness of DSM-enabled ADSL modems. It will be shown that DSM trades off nonstationary noise robustness for performance improvements. A new bit swap procedure is then introduced to increase the noise robustness when applying DSM.
Crowd aided Web search

Keyword-based search algorithms may sometimes yield weird results despite the fact that they usually do their jobs well. Despite of the fact that the Web is the largest database, comparing to relational databases, the set of search operations for the Web is still primitive. This paper proposes two ways to remedy this: first, advanced information sources should be created. The role of advanced information sources of the Web is analogous to views of relational databases. Second, we propose several data processing tools based on the concept of advanced information sources. With these two mechanisms, the researcher tries to distinguish the data-centric view from the presentation view of the Web.
Field operations assisted by novel use of virtual 3D terrain models

During the last years we have developed terrain based virtual copies of landscapes covering interesting areas on the globe. The basis is digital terrain models draped with various textures, e.g. satellite imageries, geological maps, etc. Geological and geophysical data, as well as photos, videos and animations are put into the virtual terrain, at the position the data is relevant or measured. Traveling around in the virtual landscape is very simple and enables learning by discovery. The simulators can be used in full size visionariums, but also on PC’s and Laptop PC’s. The simulators can also be controlled by GPS when used out in the field, showing the correct view compared to the real flight or sailing path. GPS waypoints or tracks can be imported into the terrain simulator showing the positions where data is sampled or documenting the path of a real field-trip. This field-trip can then be redone in the virtual model e.g. in a visionarium. A recorder is developed enabling a user to prepare a real trip in the virtual landscape by traveling around e.g. focusing on interesting outcrops or phenomena. This path can then be exported to a GPS unit and used in the field to instruct the user where to go. The simulators can also be used in the field under hash conditions like fog, white-out or complete darkness. The view on the Laptop monitor or goggle displays the correct view in the landscape controlled by GPS-information. A planned Search and Rescue path will be shown in the simulator like a colored pipe, at the right position and elevation. The pilot can then use this 3D image, shown in the head-mounted goggle for navigation very effectively. Comparing the planned path with the real flight path is important for documenting the search. In the interactive poster session at IGARSS05 demonstrations will be given as well as videos showing real experiments.
Socioeconomic position and health among persons with diabetes mellitus: a conceptual framework and review of the literature.

There has been a resurgence of interest in the relation between health and socioeconomic position (SEP). SEP encompasses two important notions: the influence of the structural location of individuals and groups in a society and the cumulative effects of time. It addresses the context in which health-damaging exposures and health-protective resources act at different stages of the life course to influence adult health (1, 2). Such an approach provides a broad framework in which to think about and understand how both recent and remote socioeconomic factors interact to affect adult health. A substantial body of literature demonstrates that in the general population, material and social deprivation are directly related to disease incidence and prevalence and inversely related to health status (1, 3–8). Various studies have addressed the relation between lower SEP and mortality (9) or the development of chronic conditions (10–13) such as diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. Although some compelling evidence exists for an association between low SEP and adverse health outcomes for persons with diabetes and other chronic conditions, the pathways through which SEP and health are related in persons with chronic illness are poorly understood.
Interaction of plasminogen activator inhibitor type-1 (PAI-1) with vitronectin.

The serpin plasminogen activator inhibitor type 1 (PAI-1) plays an important role in physiological processes such as thrombolysis and fibrinolysis, as well as pathophysiological processes such as thrombosis, tumor invasion and metastasis. In addition to inhibiting serine proteases, mainly tissue-type (tPA) and urokinase-type (uPA) plasminogen activators, PAI-1 interacts with different components of the extracellular matrix, i.e. fibrin, heparin (Hep) and vitronectin (Vn). PAI-1 binding to Vn facilitates migration and invasion of tumor cells. The most important determinants of the Vn-binding site of PAI-1 appear to reside between amino acids 110-147, which includes alpha helix E (hE, amino acids 109-118). Ten different PAI-1 variants (mostly harboring modifications in hE) as well as wild-type PAI-1, the previously described PAI-1 mutant Q123K, and another serpin, PAI-2, were recombinantly produced in Escherichia coli containing a His(6) tag and purified by affinity chromatography. As shown in microtiter plate-based binding assays, surface plasmon resonance and thrombin inhibition experiments, all of the newly generated mutants which retained inhibitory activity against uPA still bound to Vn. Mutant A114-118, in which all amino-acids at positions 114-118 of PAI-1 were exchanged for alanine, displayed a reduced affinity to Vn as compared to wild-type PAI-1. Mutants lacking inhibitory activity towards uPA did not bind to Vn. Q123K, which inhibits uPA but does not bind to Vn, served as a control. In contrast to other active PAI-1 mutants, the inhibitory properties of A114-118 towards thrombin as well as uPA were significantly reduced in the presence of Hep. Our results demonstrate that the wild-type sequence of the region around hE in PAI-1 is not a prerequisite for binding to Vn.
Morality Politics in American Cities

Morality Politics in American Cities. By Elaine B. Sharp. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2005. 288p. $35.00 cloth, $19.95 paper. Elaine Sharp's book examines the political climate and specifics of the local policy debate, authorization, and implementation associated with a number of controversial issues: casino gambling projects and regulation/prohibition of “sex industries,” as well as municipal support for/opposition to gay rights and provision of abortion and addiction services. Using the blanket notion of morality politics to characterize these matters, Sharp looks at local-level political/policy debates in 10 metropolitan areas during the 1990s. With this number of cities available for comparative analysis, she structures her numerous city/issue narratives by way of four independent variables: local cultural climate, local economic climate, municipal institutional structure, and intergovernmental relationships.
‘Nice maps, shame about the theory’? Thinking geographically about the economic

What can geography tell us about the economy other than drawing maps of it? The spatiality of economic activity points towards the practical and performative complexity of the economic as well as to the complexity of geography in its embedding of the economic. While the synthetic nature of geography – its raison d'être is the relationships between, rather than the separation of, processes and things – disrupts economy in profound ways, its treatment by nonpractitioners is weak and over-narrowly interpreted. At the same time, a tendency for geographers to sidestep certain economic imperatives undermines more culturally and socially inflected interpretations of economy. What is at issue here, however, is not simply an attempt to reconcile two disciplines or to reclaim either one of them but a need to embed the one relationally in the other in mutually formative ways. This involves a transcendence of disciplinary perspectives by stressing the complex practices of social reproduction operating at all scales from the ultralocal to the hyperglobal. It is this stress on practice and instance, rather than a determinative claim for place or space, that makes geography matter in the construction of understandings of the economy.
Query-Based Summarization Based on Document Graphs

Text summarization is an important problem, which has numerous applications. This problem has been extensively studied and many approaches have been proposed in the literature for its solution. One of the most challenging problems in the field of text summarization is generating a user-focused summary based on a query. In this paper, we investigate a new approach that tackles this problem and propose a new solution using document graphs. This is our first time to participate in Document Understanding Conferences.
Associated with T Cell Dysfunction Cells from Renal Cell Carcinoma Patients Is Elevated Levels of Select Gangliosides in T

H. FinkeBrian Rini, Inderbir Gill, Charles S. Tannenbaum and JamesKo, Sankar Ghosh, Matthew Simmons, Patricia Rayman, Soumika Biswas, Kaushik Biswas, Amy Richmond, Jenniferhttp://www.jimmunol.org/content/183/8/5050doi: 10.4049/jimmunol.0900259J Immunol€2009; 183:5050-5058; ;Referenceshttp://www.jimmunol.org/content/183/8/5050.full#ref-list-1This article cites 40 articles, 20 of which you can access for free at: Subscriptionshttp://jimmunol.org/subscriptionsInformation about subscribing to The Journal of Immunology is online at: Permissionshttp://www.aai. org/ji/copyright.htmlSubmit copyright permission requests at: Email Alertshttp://jimmunol.org/cgi/alerts/etocReceive free email-alerts when new articles cite this article. Sign up at:
A Complete Logo Detection/Recognition System for Document Images

In this paper, a complete logo detection/ recognition system for document images is proposed. In the proposed system, first, a logo detection method is employed to detect a few regions of interest (logo-patches), which likely contain the logo(s), in a document image. The detection method is based on the piece-wise painting algorithm (PPA) and some probability features along with a decision tree. For the logo recognition, a template based recognition approach is proposed to recognize the logo which may present in every detected logo-patch. The proposed logo recognition strategy uses a search space reduction technique to decrease the number of template logo-models needed for the recognition of a logo in a detected logo-patch. The features used for search space reduction are based on the geometric properties of a detected logo-patch. Based on our experimentations on 1290 document images of Tobacco800 dataset, 99.31% of the logos were detected as logo-patches. Among the detected logo-patches 97.90% of logos were fairly recognized. Considering both logo detection and recognition results, 97.22% of the logos in the document images could truly be detected/recognized as the overall performance of the proposed system.
Consumer IT at Work: Development and Test of an IT Empowerment Model

The consumerization of IT is gaining momentum. Employees bring their smartphones, notebooks and tablets into the workplace—and with these devices, a growing toolbox of applications. Google Apps, Skype, Dropbox and many others emerge, often pushing aside technologies provided by the IT department. In bypassing the IT department employees seize the power to decide which IT tool best fits their job need. In this study, we define and explicate the concept of IT empowerment, i.e., the level of authority an employee assumes in utilizing IT in order to control or improve aspects of his job, and test the resultant model in the context of IT consumerization. Surveying 529 employees, we find support for a multi-faceted construct, consisting of IT meaning, IT competency, IT self-determination and IT impact. We also find evidence that IT empowerment is a strong precursor for explaining the level of consumer IT usage within the organization.
Emotion recognition in the wild using deep neural networks and Bayesian classifiers

Group emotion recognition in the wild is a challenging problem, due to the unstructured environments in which everyday life pictures are taken. Some of the obstacles for an effective classification are occlusions, variable lighting conditions, and image quality. In this work we present a solution based on a novel combination of deep neural networks and Bayesian classifiers. The neural network works on a bottom-up approach, analyzing emotions expressed by isolated faces. The Bayesian classifier estimates a global emotion integrating top-down features obtained through a scene descriptor. In order to validate the system we tested the framework on the dataset released for the Emotion Recognition in the Wild Challenge 2017. Our method achieved an accuracy of 64.68% on the test set, significantly outperforming the 53.62% competition baseline.
Mixture experiments: A severe test of the ability of a broiler chicken to make the right choice

1. A mixture experiment was used to measure the biological performance (weight gain and food conversion efficiency) of broilers from 7 to 21 d of age when Fed 1 of 13 combinations of 3 protein sources. The objective was to determine the combination of ingredients that would maximise biological performance. 2. The experiment consisted of 2 diet series: in the Ist series, the 3 protein sources used were fishmeal, sunflower oilcake meal and soyabean oilcake meal, and in the 2nd, the soyabean oilcake meal was supplemented with DL-methionine. The combinations of 2 and 3-component mixtures that maximised performance in the 2 series were then compared with the selections made by chickens offered a choice of 2 or 3 components separately. 3. In all cases, the choices made by the broilers coincided with those mixtures that maximised performance. 4. It is clear from this experiment that broiler chickens will attempt to maximise performance by choosing the best possible combination of protein sources when given the opportunity to do so.
Epidemiology of neural tube defects

The epidemiological investigation of the common open neural tube defects (NTDs), anencephaly, and spina bifida, has a long history. The most significant finding from these past studies of NTDs was the identification of the protective effect of maternal, periconceptional supplementation with folic acid. Fortuitously, the association between folic acid and NTDs became widely accepted in the early 1990s, at a time when genetic association studies of complex traits were becoming increasingly feasible. The confluence of these events has had a major impact on the direction of epidemiological, NTD research. Association studies to evaluate genes that may influence the risk of NTDs through their role in folate‐related processes, or through other metabolic or developmental pathways are now commonplace. Moreover, the study of genetic as well as non‐genetic, factors that may influence NTD risk through effects on the nutrient status of the mother or embryo has emerged as a major research focus. Research efforts over the past decade indicate that gene–gene, gene–environment, and higher‐order interactions, as well as maternal genetic effects influence NTD risk, highlighting the complexity of the factors that underlie these conditions. The challenge for the future is to design studies that address these complexities, and are adequately powered to detect the factors or combination of factors that influence the development of NTDs. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
La politique des pôles de compétitivité : la question de l'articulation entre compétitivité des entreprises et compétitivité des territoires

La politique des poles de competitivite consacre l’avenement du concept de competitivite des territoires locaux en France. L’objectif de cet article est de reflechir aux limites de telles politiques qui associent, de fait, competitivite des firmes et celle de ces territoires. En effet, d’une part, le concept de competitivite applique a un territoire fait debat. D’autre part, il ne va pas necessairement de pair avec la competitivite des firmes. Promouvoir la competitivite des firmes peut, dans certains cas, conduire a degrader le niveau de vie sur le territoire et son attractivite. En outre, si les territoires locaux sont un des determinants de la competitivite des firmes, force est de constater que cette derniere depend egalement d’autres determinants. Certains relevent d’autres echelles spatiales (systeme national d’innovation, echelle europeenne, etc.), d’autres dependent des caracteristiques (taille, capacite a cooperer, etc.) et strategies des firmes.
A Web Service Model for Climate Data Access on the Grid

The problem of sharing environmental and climate data (from measurements or models) across networks does not yet have a standard solution. Ad hoc approaches are common, with complications arising through a number of different file formats and conventions. The state of the art in the climate research community is the Distributed Oceanographic Data System (DODS, also “OPeNDAP”), which maps a file or aggregation of files onto a URL. Data subsets may be retrieved, and limited (and non-standard) metadata queries made. Data are abstracted from storage only to a limited degree. We present an alternate data access mechanism, the Grid Access Data Service (GADS), better suited to Grid applications. Requirements of data abstracted from storage, rich metadata models, flexible delivery, security, and orchestrated workflows all suggest a Web Service solution. The GADS Web Service has two operations: a querying mechanism, and a request mechanism. Three metadata models are required: one for the abstract representation of climate data, one for characterizing data usage, and one for describing data storage artifacts. A compatibility interface has been layered on the Web Service to provide DODS/OPeNDAP functionality. A visualization Web portal has also been built to interface with GADS to demonstrate extendable functionality.
NAND Flash Memory With Multiple Page Sizes for High-Performance Storage Devices

In recent years, the demand for NAND flash-based storage devices has rapidly increased because of the popularization of various portable devices. NAND flash memory (NFM) offers many advantages, such as nonvolatility, high performance, the small form factor, and low-power consumption, while achieving high chip integration with a specialized architecture for bulk data access. A unit of NFM's read and program operations, the page, has continuously grown. Although increasing page size reduces costs, it adversely affects performance because of the resultant side effects, such as fragmentation and wasted space, caused by the incongruity of data and page sizes. To address this issue, we propose a multiple-page-size NFM architecture and its management. Our method dramatically improves write performance through adopting multiple page sizes without requiring additional area overhead or manufacturing processes. Based on the experimental results, the proposed NFM improves write latency and NFM lifetime by up to 65% and 62%, respectively, compared with the single-page-size NFM.