Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Stochastic Model of the Dynamic Vehicle Allocation Problem

The stochastic vehicle allocation problem addresses the movement of vehicles between locations over a given planning horizon. The demand for vehicles to carry loads between locations is uncertain, and vehicles are assumed to be able to handle several loads over the course of the planning horizon. This requires tracking the movement of both loaded and empty vehicles, resulting in a network with stochastic flows. The methodology represents the flows of vehicles over the network explicitly as random variables, taking advantage of the acyclic structure of the time space network. The decision variables are formulated in terms of sending a certain fraction of the supply of vehicles at a node (which is random) over each of the outbound links. The result is a nonseparable objective function with a very simple constraint structure which lends itself readily to the Frank-Wolfe algorithm. Numerical experiments suggest very good computational efficiency.
Dynamic adaptive Search Based Software Engineering

Search Based Software Engineering (SBSE) has proved to be a very effective way of optimising software engineering problems. Nevertheless, its full potential as a means of dynamic adaptivity remains under explored. This paper sets out the agenda for Dynamic Adaptive SBSE, in which the optimisation is embedded into deployed software to create self-optimising adaptive systems. Dynamic Adaptive SBSE will move the research agenda forward to encompass both software development processes and the software products they produce, addressing the long-standing, and as yet largely unsolved, grand challenge of self-adaptive systems.
Scalability study on a capacitorless 1T-DRAM: from single-gate PD-SOI to double-gate FinDRAM

This paper describes both operation principle and scalability of a capacitor-less 1T-DRAM, and proposes a new concept about extending the use of 1T-DRAM to gate lengths of less than 50 nm. Superior characteristics such as long retention time and large sense margin even for gate lengths around 50 nm can be obtained with a double-gate fully depleted FinFET DRAM. Considering capacity, speed, power, and structural complexity of embedded memory, the capacitor-less 1T-DRAM has the possibility of playing the leading part among other memories.
THE SLOWDOWN IN BUSINESS EMPLOYMENT DYNAMICS : THE ROLE OF CHANGING SKILL DEMANDS

This paper studies the observed slowdown in U.S. business employment dynamics over recent decades. I propose and quantitatively evaluate the hypothesis that on-the-job human capital accumulation has become increasingly important over time. Indirect empirical support for this hypothesis relates to secular trends of rising educational attainment and changing skill demands due to technical advances. The paper also provides more direct and novel empirical evidence, showing that job training requirements have risen over time. I construct a multi-worker search and matching model with endogenous separations, where training investments act as adjustment costs. The model can explain how the increase in training requirements accounts for the decline in job turnover, the increase in inaction, and the evolution towards a more compressed employment growth distribution, all consistent with the data. Quantitatively, the observed increase in training costs can explain almost one-third of the decline in the job reallocation rate over the last few decades. The key mechanism is that higher job training requirements make firms reluctant to hire and fire workers when economic conditions change, resulting in lower labor turnover.
Recombinant Tissue Plasminogen Activator (rtPA) for Stroke: The Perspective at 8 Years

Objective:To review the 8-year experience with recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rtPA) for stroke, with commentary on ramifications for the approach to stroke treatment, directions in stroke research, and sociological aspects of stroke as a disease of concern in our society. Background:Approved in 1996, rtPA remains the only drug indicated for the treatment of ischemic stroke. Stroke treatment and research have evolved rapidly in response to opportunities and discoveries related to the advent of rtPA. The presence of rtPA has engendered an increased level of awareness about all aspects of stroke. Methodology:Literature review was performed, focusing on topics that in the author's view are of greatest relevance to the use of rtPA in clinical practice and to the directions in which the presence of rtPA is moving the field of stroke treatment, research, and politics. Results:Challenges have been raised, and met, regarding the validity of the data upon which the approval for rtPA was based. Limitations in the use of rtPA include the brief time available for treatment, the need for rapid imaging and blood-pressure control, and the fact that large-artery occlusions respond poorly. The major risk of treatment is brain hemorrhage, and although predictors of hemorrhage are known, their presence does not constitute an absolute contraindication to treatment. A virtual subindustry has evolved to enhance the benefit and applicability of rtPA through refined imaging technology and the use of rtPA intra-aterially, as well as in combination with other agents and devices. Sociopolitically, rtPA has elevated the level of awareness of stroke and provided impetus for the stroke center movement and federal legislation to stop stroke. Conclusion:The development of rtPA has been the most effective advance in the field of stroke. It has generated healthy debate regarding the design, performance, and interpretation of stroke trials, including cost-benefit considerations. rtPA has stimulated research in a multitude of areas, enhanced our understanding of stroke pathophysiology, and defined important limits and risks for urgent intervention. rtPA is the cornerstone of the stroke center movement, as well as legislation in behalf of stroke at the congressional level.
Building crack inspection using small UAV

As for large scaled skyscrapers, it is time-consuming, requires a significant amount of expenditures, and too risky for an inspector to examine in person with tools on hands. Therefore, unmanned aerial vehicle is specifically required to inspect the facilities in order to deal with limited access of an inspector, to examine multiple structures, and to confirm whether the inspected areas are damaged in each season or daily time frame. This study is intended to specifically develop the small aerial vehicle-based Image acquisition system for the inspection of structures aiming to identify the cracks of the building. Hereupon, safety inspection was conducted on the building. It is also intended to utilize the suggested system in this study to safety inspection in diverse fields of industry in the future.
Type Extension Trees : a Unified Framework for Relational Feature Construction

We introduce type extension trees as a formal representation language for complex combinatorial features of relational data. Based on a very simple syntax this language provides a unified framework for expressing features as diverse as embedded subgraphs on the one hand, and marginal counts of attribute values on the other. We show by various examples how many existing relational data mining techniques can be expressed as the problem of constructing a type extension tree and a discriminant function.
A novel compact quad-band microstrip bandstop filter design using open-circuited stubs

A novel compact quad-band microstrip bandstop filter design is presented. Input and output ports of the filter are connected with a high impedance transmission line. Proposed filter is designed by using open-circuited stubs attached to the input and output ports. Thus, based on the fr - 3fr harmonic property of the stub-loaded resonators, four stopbands at 1.15-2.22, 2.94-4.56, 4.95-6.98 and 8.26-8.96 GHz are obtained. Insertion losses of all stopbands are better than 15 dB inside the stopbands. Under the even and odd mode excitations, resonance conditions of the structure are also investigated. For the experimental verification of the simulated results, proposed filter has been fabricated. Simulated and measured results are in a good agreement.
Permanent magnet synchronous motor design, production and experimental verification for compressor application

In this study, 3 phase Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor (PMSM) for refrigerator application was designed and prototyped, experimental results carried out and validated. Design criteria was determined by taking into consideration constrains of the compressor. Proper slot/pole combination was identified and previously untested slot/pole combination was chosen as target. Speed® software was used for pre-design stage, optimization studies and detailed finite element analysis (FEA) was completed Maxwell® 3D software. The prototype of the motor was manufactured and motor performance was verified experimentally.
A scalable and accurate rectilinear Steiner minimal tree algorithm

FLUTE is a very fast and accurate rectilinear Steiner minimal tree (RSMT) algorithm particularly suitable for VLSI applications. It is optimal for nets up to degree 9 and is still very accurate for nets up to degree 30. However, for higher degree nets, the original FLUTE algorithm is not effective. In this paper, we present an improvement of FLUTE which is more effective in handling nets with degree tens or more. The main idea is to partition a net according to a spanning tree into small subnets that can be handled effectively by the original FLUTE algorithm. Several novel techniques are proposed to partition a net into small subnets and to merge the Steiner trees for the subnets together. Some improvements of the original FLUTE algorithm, and a scheme to allow users to control the tradeoff between accuracy and runtime are also presented. We show experimentally that the resulting algorithm FLUTE-3.0 achieves a much better accuracy-runtime tradeoff than the original FLUTE algorithm for degree 30 or more. It produces better quality of result than the well-known near-optimal BUS algorithm in a runtime shorter than the highly scalable BGA algorithm. FLUTE-3.0 is also highly scalable. It can route a 3-million-pin net in about 25 minutes.
Characteristics of Communication in Families of Alcoholics

ABSTRACT In the United States, roughly 43% of adults have encountered alcoholism in their family, and one in four children lives with an alcoholic parent (Grant, 2000). Prior research suggests that alcoholism can negatively impact the nature and quality of family relations, but studies rarely consider the specific ways in which family communication dynamics are impacted by the disease. Thus, the goal of this study was to identify the characteristics of communication in families of alcoholics and to develop a larger conceptual model to guide future inquiries in this context. A national sample of 682 adult children of alcoholics were asked to describe the communication dynamics in their family of origin. A theme analysis of the open-ended data revealed four overarching themes that were comprised of nine subcategories: (a) aggressive communication (e.g., heightened conflict, tense communication, and secretive slandering); (b) protective communication (e.g., superficiality, limited or indirect communication, and sober parent buffering); (c) adaptive communication (e.g., functional communication); and, (d) inconsistent communication (e.g., struggles over power and control, mood fluctuation). We draw on the results of this analysis to propose a model depicting communication dynamics in families of alcoholics and the antecedent conditions and consequent outcomes of such communication patterns in the family.
Efficient Commitment to Functional CD34+ Progenitor Cells from Human Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem-Cell-Derived Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

The efficient commitment of a specialized cell type from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) without contamination from unknown substances is crucial to their use in clinical applications. Here, we propose that CD34+ progenitor cells, which retain hematopoietic and endothelial cell potential, could be efficiently obtained from iPSCs derived from human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (hBMMSC-iPSCs) with defined factors. By treatment with a cocktail containing mesodermal, hematopoietic, and endothelial inducers (BMP4, SCF, and VEGF, respectively) for 5 days, hBMMSC-iPSCs expressed the mesodermal transcription factors Brachyury and GATA-2 at higher levels than untreated groups (P<0.05). After culturing with another hematopoietic and endothelial inducer cocktail, including SCF, Flt3L, VEGF and IL-3, for an additional 7–9 days, CD34+ progenitor cells, which were undetectable in the initial iPSC cultures, reached nearly 20% of the total culture. This was greater than the relative number of progenitor cells produced from human-skin-fibroblast-derived iPSCs (hFib-iPSCs) or from the spontaneous differentiation groups (P<0.05), as assessed by flow cytometry analysis. These induced cells expressed hematopoietic transcription factors TAL-1 and SCL. They developed into various hematopoietic colonies when exposed to semisolid media with hematopoietic cytokines such as EPO and G-CSF. Hematopoietic cell lineages were identified by phenotype analysis with Wright-Giemsa staining. The endothelial potential of the cells was also verified by the confirmation of the formation of vascular tube-like structures and the expression of endothelial-specific markers CD31 and VE-CADHERIN. Efficient induction of CD34+ progenitor cells, which retain hematopoietic and endothelial cell potential with defined factors, provides an opportunity to obtain patient-specific cells for iPSC therapy and a useful model for the study of the mechanisms of hematopoiesis and drug screening.
mCSM: predicting the effects of mutations in proteins using graph-based signatures

Motivation: Mutations play fundamental roles in evolution by introducing diversity into genomes. Missense mutations in structural genes may become either selectively advantageous or disadvantageous to the organism by affecting protein stability and/or interfering with interactions between partners. Thus, the ability to predict the impact of mutations on protein stability and interactions is of significant value, particularly in understanding the effects of Mendelian and somatic mutations on the progression of disease. Here, we propose a novel approach to the study of missense mutations, called mCSM, which relies on graph-based signatures. These encode distance patterns between atoms and are used to represent the protein residue environment and to train predictive models. To understand the roles of mutations in disease, we have evaluated their impacts not only on protein stability but also on protein–protein and protein–nucleic acid interactions. Results: We show that mCSM performs as well as or better than other methods that are used widely. The mCSM signatures were successfully used in different tasks demonstrating that the impact of a mutation can be correlated with the atomic-distance patterns surrounding an amino acid residue. We showed that mCSM can predict stability changes of a wide range of mutations occurring in the tumour suppressor protein p53, demonstrating the applicability of the proposed method in a challenging disease scenario. Availability and implementation: A web server is available at http://structure.bioc. cam.ac. uk/mcsm. Contact: dpires@dcc.ufmg. br; tom@cryst.bioc. cam.ac. uk Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Strain-Specific Association of Cytotoxic Activity and Virulence of Clinical Staphylococcus aureus Isolates

ABSTRACT Staphylococcus aureus has been shown to invade and induce the death of various cell types. Here we investigate whether the cytotoxicity of intracellular S. aureus is a general feature or rather characteristic of individual S. aureus strains. The majority of 23 randomly collected clinical S. aureus isolates were killed inside keratinocytes and fibroblasts, indicating that the uptake of S. aureus represents an important mechanism of cell-autonomous host defense. However, seven independent S. aureus isolates survived intracellularly and induced significant cytotoxicity for their host cells. Subcloning analysis revealed that the ability or inability to kill host cells is a stable, apparently genetically determined trait of a given S. aureus isolate. We show that noncytotoxic strains but not cytotoxic strains colocalize with the lysosomal marker LAMP-1, suggesting that only cytotoxic strains escape degradation by the endolysosomal pathway. In a mouse septicemic model, cytotoxic S. aureus isolates produce significantly greater lethality (96%) compared to noncytotoxic strains (41%), which corresponds to 23-, 63-, and 30,000-fold increases of bacterial loads in the liver, spleen, and kidney, respectively. Finally, cytotoxic S. aureus strains produce clinically apparent arthritis in mice at a greater frequency than compared to noncytotoxic S. aureus strains. The results of our study unravel a previously unrecognized dichotomy of cytotoxic and noncytotoxic S. aureus isolates, which may play an important role in the dissemination of, and mortality induced by, S. aureus infection.
The Correlations Between Ovarian Activity and Psychodynamic Processes: I. The Ovulative Phase*

THE EXISTENCE OF RELATIONS between gonadal function and emotional states had been inferred before the dawn of history and can be traced in the folklore of nearly all people. The emotional changes associated with puberty and menopause in both sexes are well known. The ebb and flow of emotion in the adult woman has also been associated in a vague way with the cycle of sex function. Premenstrual nervousness, apathy and depression have often been described in the clinical literature. Less well known, but recognized, are the sudden changes of mood associated with "Mittelschmerz" and other midperiod symptoms, which have recently been related to ovulation. For a review of pertinent literature see Seward (22). Proof of such correlations has, however, been strikingly absent due to ignorance concerning the precise details of the cycle in women on both the physiological and psychological sides. The recently described day-by-day
Oxidative Challenges of Avian Migration: A Comparative Field Study on a Partial Migrant

Most avian migrants alternate flight bouts, characterized by high metabolic rates, with stopovers, periods of fuel replenishment through hyperphagia. High-energy metabolism and excessive calorie intake shift the balance between damaging prooxidants and antioxidants toward the former. Hence, migration likely affects the oxidative balance of birds. Migratory flight indeed appears to cause oxidative damage; however, whether migration affects the oxidative state of birds at stopover is unclear. Therefore, we compared total nonenzymatic antioxidant capacity (AOX) and malondialdehyde concentration (MDA; a measure of lipid peroxidation) in the plasma of migrant and resident common blackbirds. We also determined plasmatic uric acid (UA) and fatty acid (FA) concentrations and calculated a FA peroxidation index. Birds were sampled during autumn migration at a stopover site that also supports a sedentary blackbird population. Migrants had higher AOX than residents, also after correcting for UA concentration. Migrants tended to have higher FA peroxidation indexes than residents, indicating that the energy source of migrants contains higher concentrations of peroxidizable FAs. However, the two groups did not differ in MDA concentration, also not after correcting for peroxidation index. Peroxidation-corrected MDA concentration was negatively correlated with UA-corrected AOX. In other words, individuals with low nonenzymatic AOX suffered more from lipid peroxidation than individuals with high nonenzymatic AOX. These results together indicate that migrant blackbirds invest in antioxidant defenses to reduce oxidative damage to lipids, likely representing an adaptation to diminish the physiological costs of migration.
Identification and Mapping of QTLS for Drought Resistance in Rice

Rice has been feeding the world for over 4000 years and is the staple food of about 557 million people (Manzanilla et al., 2011). In 2016-17, the average annual consumption per capita in India was about 102.72 million tonnes (Rice Commodity Profile, 2017). According to IRRI (2000) the global rice production should increase by 800 million tonnes by 2025 in order to feed the growing population. As a semi-aquatic crop, rice faces various abiotic stresses among which, drought is the most prominent.
Selection of waveform units for corpus-based Mandarin speech synthesis based on decision trees and prosodic modification costs

A lazy decision tree approach is described in this paper for the selection of concatenative units for Mandarin speech synthesis. The concept is not to induce a concise hypothesis from a given training data; the selection is delayed until a test instance is given. Thus we can construct the “best” decision tree for each selection. The selection of waveform units is guided with other simultaneously selected prosodic parameters. The selected waveform units can be directly concatenated into output speech or modified with the selected prosodic parameters. This method can produce synthetic speech that sounds very natural and resembles the acoustic and prosodic characteristics of the original speaker. A Mandarin speech synthesizer is described in this paper. However, most of the technologies are language independent and can be extended to a multilingual system.
Assessment of Antifungal Activities of Fluconazole and Amphotericin B Administered Alone and in Combination againstCandida albicans by Using a Dynamic In Vitro Mycotic Infection Model

ABSTRACT We evaluated the pharmacodynamic activities of fluconazole and amphotericin B given alone and in combination against Candida albicans by using an in vitro model of bloodstream infection that simulates human serum pharmacokinetic parameters for these antifungals. Fluconazole was administered as a bolus into the model to simulate regimens of 200 mg every 24 h (q24h) and 400 mg q24h. Amphotericin B was administered at doses producing the peak concentration (2.4 μg/ml) observed with a regimen of 1 mg/kg of body weight q24h. A combination regimen of fluconazole (400 mg q24h) and amphotericin B (1 mg/kg q24h) administered simultaneously and as a staggered regimen (amphotericin B bolus given 8 h after fluconazole bolus) was also simulated in the model to characterize possible antagonism between these agents. Fluconazole alone and amphotericin B alone demonstrated fungistatic (<99.9% reduction in numbers of CFU per milliliter from the starting inoculum) and fungicidal (>99.9% reduction) activity, respectively. When fluconazole and amphotericin B were administered simultaneously, fungicidal activity similar to that observed with amphotericin B alone was observed. Staggered administration of fluconazole and amphotericin B, however, resulted in a substantial reduction of the fungicidal activity of amphotericin B, producing fungistatic activity similar to that observed with noncombination fluconazole regimens. These results demonstrate the usefulness of this model for comparing the in vitro pharmacodynamic characteristics of different antifungal regimens and support the theory of azole-polyene antagonism. The effects of this antagonism on the in vivo activity and clinical usefulness of combination antifungal therapy, however, remain to be determined.