Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pattern Recognition Using Finite-Iteration Cellular Systems ( Invited Paper )

Cellular Systems are defined by cells that have an internal state and local interactions between cells that govern the dynamics of the system. We propose to use a special kind of Cellular Neural Networks (CNNs) which operates in finite iteration discrete-time mode and mimics the processing of visual perception in biological systems for digit recognition. We propose also a solution to another type of pattern recognition problem using a non-standard cellular neural networks called Molecular Graph Networks (MGNs) which offer direct mapping from compound to property of interest such as Physico-Chemical, Toxicity, logP, Inhibitory Activity MGNs translate molecular topology to network topology. We show how to design/train by backpropagation CNNs and MGNs in their discrete-time and finite-iteration versions to perform classification on real-world data sets.
Digging for golden carrots: an analysis of research tournaments

Contracting for research is often infeasible because research inputs are unobservable and research outcomes cannot be verified by a court. Sponsoring a research tournament can resolve these problems. A model is presented in which contestants compete to find the innovation of highest value to the tournament sponsor. The winner receives a prespecified prize. The tournament game has a unique subgame-perfect equilibrium. Free entry is not optimal because equilibrium effort by each researcher decreases in the number of contestants. An optimally designed research tournament balances the probability of overshooting the first-best quality level against the probability of falling short. Copyright 1995 by American Economic Association.
Cost and peak-to-average ratio reduction of electricity usage via intelligent EV charging

This paper mainly focuses on the minimization of total energy cost and reduction of peak-to-average ratio of energy usage for multiple homes in a community. Taking into account different characteristics of energy usage of a future home, such as whether an electric vehicle (EV) is available, whether the EV is for daily commute, as well as the battery charging characteristics, a constrained optimization problem is formulated. Two pricing schemes are considered, the real-time energy price from The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), and a functional energy price which is not only based on the given ERCOT price pattern changing along with time, but also a function of the usage quantity of electricity during each time interval. It is demonstrated in this study that EV is going to play a major role in future home energy usage, as a result, intelligently charging EV would reduce the electricity cost dramatically and reduce the peak-to-average ratio of electricity usage.
The Evisceration of Equal Employment Opportunity in Higher Education

This paper considers the way in which neoliberalism has impacted on equal employment opportunity (EEO) within the academy. Instead of a focus on the common good, there has been a shift to promotion of the self within the market. Higher education has not been immune from the contemporary imperative to commodify and privatise. Corporatisation has resulted in top-down managerialism, perennial auditing and the production of academics as neoliberal subjects. Within this context, identity politics have either moved to the periphery or disappeared altogether. Against the background of the ramifications of the socio-political shift and the transformation of the university, the paper considers the rise and fall of EEO and the emergence of new discourses, such as that of diversity, which better suit the market metanarrative. The market has also induced a shift away from staff to students, inviting the question is to whether EEO is now passe.
Validation of Recombinant Salivary Protein PpSP32 as a Suitable Marker of Human Exposure to Phlebotomus papatasi, the Vector of Leishmania major in Tunisia

Background During a blood meal, female sand flies, vectors of Leishmania parasites, inject saliva into the host skin. Sand fly saliva is composed of a large variety of components that exert different pharmacological activities facilitating the acquisition of blood by the insect. Importantly, proteins present in saliva are able to elicit the production of specific anti-saliva antibodies, which can be used as markers for exposure to vector bites. Serological tests using total sand fly salivary gland extracts are challenging due to the difficulty of obtaining reproducible salivary gland preparations. Previously, we demonstrated that PpSP32 is the immunodominant salivary antigen in humans exposed to Phlebotomus papatasi bites and established that humans exposed to P. perniciosus bites do not recognize it. Methodology/Principal Findings Herein, we have validated, in a large cohort of 522 individuals, the use of the Phlebotomus papatasi recombinant salivary protein PpSP32 (rPpSP32) as an alternative method for testing exposure to the bite of this sand fly. We also demonstrated that screening for total anti-rPpSP32 IgG antibodies is sufficient, being comparable in efficacy to the screening for IgG2, IgG4 and IgE antibodies against rPpSP32. Additionally, sera obtained from dogs immunized with saliva of P. perniciosus, a sympatric and widely distributed sand fly in Tunisia, did not recognize rPpSP32 demonstrating its suitability as a marker of exposure to P. papatasi saliva. Conclusions/Significance Our data indicate that rPpSP32 constitutes a useful epidemiological tool to monitor the spatial distribution of P. papatasi in a particular region, to direct control measures against zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis, to assess the efficiency of vector control interventions and perhaps to assess the risk of contracting the disease.
Determination of Effect of Intellectual Capital on Firm Value Via Value Added Intellectual Coefficient Methodology: An Empirical Study on ISE-Listed Manufacturing Firms

This study aims to determine the effect of intellectual capital on firm value. The relationships among profitability, productivity and market-to-book value ratio that are considered to be the main performance indicators are analyzed via Value Added Intellectual Capital (VAIC) methodology developed by Ante Pulic within a multiple regression model. The data consists of 30 Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE) listed manufacturing firms during the period of 2000-2002. In spite of some limitations, the findings of the study shed light on the relationship between intellectual capital and firm value. According to the results, capital employed efficiency (CEE) and structural capital efficiency (SCE) are significantly related to profitability, productivity and market value. However, human capital efficiency (HCE) is significantly related to only market-to-book value ratio.
Effects of CO2 and Temperature on Tritrophic Interactions

There has been a significant increase in studies of how global change parameters affect interacting species or entire communities, yet the combined or interactive effects of increased atmospheric CO2 and associated increases in global mean temperatures on chemically mediated trophic interactions are mostly unknown. Thus, predictions of climate-induced changes on plant-insect interactions are still based primarily on studies of individual species, individual global change parameters, pairwise interactions, or parameters that summarize communities. A clear understanding of community response to global change will only emerge from studies that examine effects of multiple variables on biotic interactions. We examined the effects of increased CO2 and temperature on simple laboratory communities of interacting alfalfa, chemical defense, armyworm caterpillars, and parasitoid wasps. Higher temperatures and CO2 caused decreased plant quality, decreased caterpillar development times, developmental asynchrony between caterpillars and wasps, and complete wasp mortality. The effects measured here, along with other effects of global change on natural enemies suggest that biological control and other top-down effects of insect predators will decline over the coming decades.
Low-phase-noise VCO with active resonator

The phase noise of an oscillator tuned by an Active Resonator is compared to the phase noise of a Varactor-Tuned Oscillator, and to that of a fixed-frequency, Dielectric Resonator Oscillator for comparison. The three oscillators share the same active device and output network, and differ for the resonator only. The Active Resonator is composed of an active inductor for low losses and high Q-factor, and of a varactor for tunability. The active-resonator oscillator has better phase noise and slightly lower tunability with respect to the varactor-tuned oscillator, and slightly worse phase noise than the dielectric-resonator oscillator.
Mutual bootstrapping between language and analogical processing

Abstract What makes us so smart as a species, and what makes children such rapid learners? We argue that the answer to both questions lies in a mutual bootstrapping system comprised of (1) our exceptional capacity for relational cognition and (2) symbolic systems that augment this capacity. The ability to carry out structure-mapping processes of alignment and inference is inherent in human cognition. It is arguably the key inherent difference between humans and other great apes. But an equally important difference is that humans possess a symbolic language. The acquisition of language influences cognitive development in many ways. We focus here on the role of language in a mutually facilitating partnership with relational representation and reasoning. We suggest a positive feedback relation in which structural alignment processes support the acquisition of language, and in turn, language — especially relational language — supports structural alignment and reasoning. We review three kinds of evidence (a) evidence that analogical processes support children's learning in a variety of domains; (b) more specifically, evidence that analogical processing fosters the acquisition of language, especially relational language; and (c) in the other direction, evidence that acquiring language fosters children's ability to process analogies, focusing on spatial language and spatial analogies. We conclude with an analysis of the acquisition of cardinality — which we offer as a canonical case of how the combination of language and analogical processing fosters cognitive development.
A 6 bit, 7 mW, 700 MS/s Subranging ADC Using CDAC and Gate-Weighted Interpolation

SUMMARY A 6-bit, 7 mW, 700 MS/s subranging ADC using Capacitive DAC (CDAC) and gate-weighted interpolation fabricated in 90 nm CMOS technology is demonstrated. CDACs are used as a reference selection circuit instead of resistive DACs (RDAC) for reducing settling time and power dissipation. A gate-weighted interpolation scheme is also incorporated to the comparators, to reduce the circuit components, power dissipation and mismatch of conversion stages. By virtue of recent technology scaling, an interpolation can be realized in the saturation region with small error. A digital offset calibration technique using capacitor reduces comparator’s offset voltage from 10 mV to 1.5 mV per sigma. Experimental results show that the proposed ADC achieves a SNDR of 34 dB with calibration and FoM is 250 fJ/conv. , which is very attractive as an embedded IP for low power SoCs.
The Traditional Japanese Medicine Rikkunshito Promotes Gastric Emptying via the Antagonistic Action of the 5-HT3 Receptor Pathway in Rats

The traditional Japanese medicine rikkunshito ameliorates the nitric oxide-associated delay in gastric emptying. Whether rikkunshito affects gastric motility associated with 5-hydroxytryptamine (serotonin: 5-HT) receptors or dopamine receptors is unknown. We examined the effects of rikkunshito on the delay in gastric emptying induced by 5-HT or dopamine using the phenol red method in male Wistar rats. 5-HT (0.01–1.0 mg kg−1, i.p.) dose dependently delayed gastric emptying, similar to the effect of the 5-HT3 receptor agonist 1-(3-chlorophenyl) biguanide (0.01–1.0 mg kg−1, i.p.). Dopamine also dose dependently delayed gastric emptying. The 5-HT3 receptor antagonist ondansetron (0.04–4.0 mg kg−1) and rikkunshito (125–500 mg kg−1) significantly suppressed the delay in gastric emptying caused by 5-HT or 1-(3-chlorophenyl) biguanide. Hesperidin (the most active ingredient in rikkunshito) suppressed the 5-HT-induced delayed gastric emptying in a dose-dependent manner, the maximum effect of which was similar to that of ondansetron (0.4 mg kg−1). The improvement obtained by rikkunshito or ondansetron in delaying gastric emptying was completely blocked by pretreatment with atropine. Rikkunshito appears to improve delay in gastric emptying via the antagonistic action of the 5-HT3 receptor pathway.
Software Support For Improving Locality in Advanced Scientific Codes

Programs can achieve good performance only if they possess data locality, This paper describes our proposal to develop and evaluate software support for improving locality for advanced scientific applications for both sequential and parallel machines. The basic premise is that both compile-time analyses and sophisticated run-time systems are necessary. Run-time systems are needed because many programs are not analyzable statically. Compiler support is crucial both for inserting interfaces to the run-time system and for directly applying program transformations where possible. We examine locality optimizations needed for three features of advanced scientific applications (3D arrays, irregular accesses, and pointers). Preliminary experimental evaluation is very encouraging, but much work remains to automate and improve these compiler and run-time systems. We propose to extend locality optimizations in several directions, handling: cache conflicts between multiple data, deep memory hierarchies (multi-level caches and TLBs), hardware and software prefetching, nonlinear memory layouts, parallel and cluster architectures, and memory performance tools. Because of trends in computer architectures, lessons learned here are also likely to prove very useful for other application domains, including image processing and high-performance databases. Technical Report CS-TR-4168 (also UMIACS-TR-2000-56), Dept. of Computer Science, University of Maryland, June 2000
The regulatory role of heat shock protein 70-reactive CD4+ T cells during rat listeriosis.

Protection against infection with Listeria monocytogenes depends primarily on Listeria-specific T cells. We show here that CD4+ TCR alphabeta+ T cells are capable of recognizing the mycobacterial heat shock protein (HSP) 70, that appears in the peritoneal cavity of F344 rats infected i.p. with L. monocytogenes. The HSP70-reactive CD4+ T cells recognized a peptide comprising 234-252 residues as present in the 70 kDa HSP of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in the context of RT1.B MHC class II molecules. Analysis of TCR Vbeta gene expression with RT-PCR revealed that the HSP70-reactive CD4+ T cells predominantly used the Vbeta16 gene segment, whereas the heat-killed Listeria (HKL)-specific T cells expressed a diverse set of Vbeta gene segments. In contrast to the HKL-specific T cells producing IFN-gamma, the HSP70-reactive CD4+ T cells produced TGF-beta1 and IL-10 but neither Th1- or Th2-type cytokines. Adoptive transfer with HSP70-reactive T cells rendered rats susceptible to listerial infection. Collectively, these results proposed that the HSP70-reactive CD4+ T cells appearing during rat listeriosis may be involved in termination of Th1 cell-mediated excessive inflammation after the battle against L. monocytogenes has been won.
Islet constitutive nitric oxide synthase and glucose regulation of insulin release in mice.

We have studied, by a combined in vitro and in vivo approach, the relation between the inhibitory action of N(G)-nitro-l-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME), a selective inhibitor of nitric oxide synthase (NOS), on the activity of islet constitutive NOS (cNOS) and glucose regulation of islet hormone release in mice. The cNOS activity in islets incubated in vitro at 20 mM glucose was not appreciably affected by 0.05 or 0.5 mM L-NAME, but was greatly suppressed (-60%) by 5 mM L-NAME. Similarly, glucose-stimulated insulin release was unaffected by the lower concentrations of L-NAME but greatly enhanced in the presence of 5 mM of the NOS inhibitor. In incubated islets inhibition of cNOS activity resulted in a modestly enhanced insulin release in the absence of glucose, did not display any effect at physiological or subphysiological glucose concentrations, but resulted in a markedly potentiated insulin release at hyperglycaemic glucose concentrations. In the absence of glucose, glucagon secretion was suppressed by L-NAME. The dynamics of glucose-induced insulin release and (45)Ca(2+) efflux from perifused islets revealed that L-NAME caused an immediate potentiation of insulin release, and a slight increase in (45)Ca(2+) efflux. In islets depolarized with 30 mM K(+) in the presence of the K(+)(ATP) channel opener, diazoxide, L-NAME still greatly potentiated glucose-induced insulin release. Finally, an i.v. injection of glucose to mice pretreated with L-NAME was followed by a markedly potentiated insulin response, and an improved glucose tolerance. In accordance, islets isolated directly ex vivo after L-NAME injection displayed a markedly reduced cNOS activity. In conclusion, we have shown here, for the first time, that biochemically verified suppression of islet cNOS activity, induced by the NOS inhibitor L-NAME, is accompanied by a marked potentiation of glucose-stimulated insulin release both in vitro and in vivo. The major action of NO to inhibit glucose-induced insulin release is probably not primarily linked to changes in Ca(2+) fluxes and is exerted mainly independently of membrane depolarization events.
Chapter 1 EMG Decomposition and Artefact Removal

Traditionally, in clinical electromyography (EMG), neurophysiologists assess the state of the muscle by studying basic units of an EMG signal, which are referred to as motor unit action potentials (MUAPs). Information regarding the morphology and rate of occurrence of MUAPs is often used for diagnosis of neuromuscular disorders. In addition, recent studies have shown that the analysis of the energy content of MUAPs is a possible way for discriminating among normal, neurogenic, and myopathic MUAPs [38], illustrating, thus, the clinical value of the interpretation of MUAP information.
Reversal and Momentum Patterns in Weekly Stock Returns: European Evidence

We analyze short-term reversal and medium-term momentum patterns in weekly stock returns in Europe. Focusing on raw and on stock-specific returns, our empirical results show for both return specifications i) a negative relation between weekly past returns and future returns in the short run and ii) a positive relation in the medium run. However, returns of reversal and momentum strategies based on stock-specific returns are less volatile. In further analyses, we find short-term reversal and medium-term momentum patterns to be connected to stock characteristics. Looking at the potential causes of these effects, our results do not corroborate that short-term reversal in weekly stock returns is due to an over- or underreaction to firm-specific news nor mainly driven by illiquidity. On the other hand, medium-term momentum in weekly stock returns can be connected to behavioral biases. Finally, our concluding tests confirm that our findings are robust among industries, in sub-periods, for the January effect and in varying market states.
Crisis and control : institutional change in financial market regulation

In reaction to the international financial crisis of 2007, a network of social scientists from seven countries analyzed the various changes in the regulation of financial markets, and this book presents their results. The articles published herein show patterns of institutional change that were triggered by the economic crisis on different political levels, of their implementation and effectiveness, as well as their results. An indispensible tool for political scientists, Crisis and Control contributes significantly to the theory of institutional change.
Tax Policy and Human Capital Formation

Missing from recent discussions of tax reform is any systematic analysis of the effects of various tax proposals on skill formation. This gap in the literature in empirical public finance is due to the absence of any empirically based general equilibrium models with both human capital formation and physical capital formation that are consistent with observations on modern labor markets. This paper is a progress report on our ongoing research on formulating and estimating dynamic general equilibrium models with endogenous heterogeneous human capital accumulation. Our model explains many features of rising wage inequality in the U.S. economy (James Heckman, Lance Lochner and Christopher Taber, 1998). In this paper, we use our model to study the impacts on skill formation of proposals to switch from progressive taxes to flat income and consumption taxes. For the sake of brevity, we focus on steady states in this paper, although we study both transitions and steady states in our research.
Mutational Analysis of the Connector Segment in the HAMP Domain of Tsr, the Escherichia coli Serine Chemoreceptor

ABSTRACT HAMP domains are ∼50-residue motifs, found in many bacterial signaling proteins, that consist of two amphiphilic helices joined by a nonhelical connector segment. The HAMP domain of Tsr, the serine chemoreceptor of Escherichia coli, receives transmembrane input signals from the periplasmic serine binding domain and in turn modulates output signals from the Tsr kinase control domain to elicit chemotactic responses. We created random amino acid replacements at each of the 14 connector residues of Tsr-HAMP to identify those that are critical for Tsr function. In all, we surveyed 179 connector missense mutants and identified three critical residues (G235, L237, and I241) at which most replacements destroyed Tsr function and another important residue (G245) at which most replacements impaired Tsr function. The region surrounding G245 tolerated 1-residue deletions and insertions of up to 10 glycines, suggesting a role as a relatively nonspecific, flexible linker. The critical connector residues are consistent with a structural model of the Tsr-HAMP domain based on the solution structure of an isolated thermophile HAMP domain (M. Hulko, F. Berndt, M. Gruber, J. U. Linder, V. Truffault, A. Schultz, J. Martin, J. E. Schultz, A. N. Lupas, and M. Coles, Cell 126:929-940, 2006) in which G235 defines a critical turn at the C terminus of the first helix and L237 and I241 pack against the helices, perhaps to stabilize alternative HAMP signaling conformations. Most I241 lesions locked Tsr signal output in the kinase-on mode, implying that this residue is responsible mainly for stabilizing the kinase-off signaling state. In contrast, lesions at L237 resulted in a variety of aberrant output patterns, suggesting a role in toggling output between signaling states.