Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Functional Significance of Cytochrome P450 1A2 Allelic Variants, P450 1A2*8, *15, and *16 (R456H, P42R, and R377Q)

P450 1A2 is responsible for the metabolism of clinically important drugs and the metabolic activation of environmental chemicals. Genetic variations of P450 1A2 can influence its ability to perform these functions, and thus, this study aimed to characterize the functional significance of three P450 1A2 allelic variants containing nonsynonymous single nucleotide polymorphisms (P450 1A2*8, R456H; *15, P42R; *16, R377Q). Variants containing these SNPs were constructed and the recombinant enzymes were expressed and purified in Escherichia coli. Only the P42R variant displayed the typical CO-binding spectrum indicating a P450 holoenzyme with an expression level of ∼ 170 nmol per liter culture, but no P450 spectra were observed for the two other variants. Western blot analysis revealed that the level of expression for the P42R variant was lower than that of the wild type, however the expression of variants R456H and R377Q was not detected. Enzyme kinetic analyses indicated that the P42R mutation in P450 1A2 resulted in significant changes in catalytic activities. The P42R variant displayed an increased catalytic turnover numbers (kcat) in both of methoxyresorufin O-demethylation and phenacetin O-deethylation. In the case of phenacetin O-deethylation analysis, the overall catalytic efficiency (kcat/Km) increased up to 2.5 fold with a slight increase of its Km value. This study indicated that the substitution P42R in the N-terminal proline-rich region of P450 contributed to the improvement of catalytic activity albeit the reduction of P450 structural stability or the decrease of substrate affinity. Characterization of these polymorphisms should be carefully examined in terms of the metabolism of many clinical drugs and environmental chemicals.
Constructing training distribution by minimizing variance of risk criterion for visual category learning

This work addresses the problem of constructing an effective training set at minimal labeling cost by selecting some images to build a subset from the whole database. This problem occurs in situations that the number of categories is large or the cost of obtaining labeled images is extremely high, because the images selected by uniform sampling do not reflect the desired training distribution and need additional labeling cost in order to obtain enough labeled images. We study the active training process in which the images are actively sampled process from a pool of unlabeled images, and then their labels are queried. We construct a training distribution by minimizing variance of structural risk of classification model. The experimental results show that our approach can derive more accurate model than the existing method with the same labeling cost, and our approach is proved to be more effective than common uniform sampling in which the images are drawn equally from the whole database.
The Persistence Characteristics of Output Growth in China: How Important is the Business Cycle?

Output growth volatility at the macroeconomic level reflects the impact of demand and supply-side shocks. These shocks differ in terms of the persistence of their impact on output growth with the former typically being responsible for cyclical fluctuations of the business cycle variety. This paper uses Spectral Density Analysis to decompose the persistence characteristics of output growth in China since 1953, including in its provinces and regions. An important finding is that the persistence characteristics of output growth changed dramatically in most provinces during the reform period to the extent that only a minority of output growth variance can be attributed to business cycle fluctuations. This finding points to a number of challenges for policy-makers, including questions over the expected effectiveness of using macroeconomic policies that are intended to smooth business cycle fluctuations when the nature of output growth volatility is considerably more complex.
Justifying ERP Investment: The Role and Impacts of Business Case A Literature Survey

ERP systems are booming these days. But it suffers from high rates of failure among different industries. Consequently, clear vision, objectives and compelling justification is needed to increase the rates of success. There are different approaches to justify IT investment in general and ERP investment in specific. This paper focuses on Business Case approach. A comprehensive model based on best practices for Business Case is proposed.
Predictive Menu Selection on a Mobile Phone

A mobile phone is often characterised by its limited user interface. We consider applying a machine learning approach to improve the usability of a mobile phone’s interface. We present an approach that predicts a user’s menu selection on a mobile phone. The learning approach consists of a highly restricted set of hypotheses. A restricted set of hypotheses allows both the learner to operate e(cid:14)ciently within the limited hardware resources of a mobile phone and learn concepts quickly from a small training set. We compare our approach with alternative menu prediction approaches in a simulation. Also a modi(cid:12)ed Nokia TM Series 60 mobile phone address book application was developed to incorporate our menu prediction approach. A user evaluation of this implementation shows that our predictive menu selection approach has the potential to reduce the number of key presses a user makes.
Determination of residual strength parameters of jointed rock masses using the GSI system

The Geological Strength Index (GSI) system, proposed in 1995, is now widely used for the estimation of the rock mass strength and the rock mass deformation parameters. The GSI system concentrates on the description of two factors, rock structure and block surface conditions. The guidelines given by the GSI system are for the estimation of the peak strength parameters of jointed rock masses. There are no guidelines given by the GSI, or by any other system, for the estimation of the rock mass’ residual strength that yield consistent results. In this paper, a method is proposed to extend the GSI system for the estimation of a rock mass’s residual strength. It is proposed to adjust the peak GSI to the residual GSIr value based on the two major controlling factors in the GSI system—the residual block volume V b and the residual joint condition factor J r c. Methods to estimate the residual block volume and joint condition factor are presented. The proposed method for the estimation of rock mass’s residual strength is validated using in-situ block shear test data from three large-scale cavern construction sites and data from a back-analysis of rock slopes. The estimated residual strengths, calculated using the reduced residual GSIr value, are found to be in good agreement with field test or back-analyzed data. r 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Self-Learning MTPA Control of Interior Permanent-Magnet Synchronous Machine Drives Based on Virtual Signal Injection

This paper describes a simple but effective novel self-learning maximum torque per ampere (MTPA) control scheme for interior permanent-magnet synchronous machine (IPMSM) drives to achieve fast dynamic response in tracking the MTPA points without accurate prior knowledge of machine parameters. The proposed self-learning control (SLC) scheme generates the optimal d-axis current command for MTPA operation after training. Virtual signal injection control (VSIC), which has been recently developed as a novel parameter-independent MTPA points tracking scheme, is utilized to train the SLC and compensate the error of the SLC during its operation. In this way, the proposed SLC can achieve the MTPA operation accurately with fast response and the online training of the SLC will not affect MTPA operation of IPMSM drives. The proposed control scheme is verified by simulations and experiments under various operation conditions on a prototype IPMSM drive system.
An ILP-based obstacle-avoiding routing algorithm for pin-constrained EWOD chips

Electrowetting-on-dielectric (EWOD) chips have become the most popular actuator particularly for droplet-based digital microfluidic (DMF) systems. In order to enable the electrical manipulations, wire routing is a key problem in designing EWOD chips. Unlike traditional very-large-scale-integration (VLSI) routing problems, in addition to routing-path establishment on signal pins, the EWOD-chip routing problem needs to address the issue of signal sharing for pin-count reduction under a practical constraint posed by limited pin-count supply. Moreover, EWOD-chip designs might incur several obstacles in the routing region due to embedded devices for specific fluidic protocols. However, no existing works consider the EWOD-chip routing with obstacles. To remedy this insufficiency, we propose in this paper the first obstacle-avoiding routing algorithm for pin-constrained EWOD chips. Our algorithm, based on effective integer-linear-programming (ILP) formulation as well as efficient routing framework, can achieve high routability with a low design complexity. Experimental results based on real-life chips with obstacles demonstrate the high routability of our obstacle-avoiding routing algorithm for pin-constrained EWOD chips.
Exit and Voice in a Marriage Market

In this paper, we present a model in which agents choose voice, exit, or stay options when their marital condition becomes bad. The "voice" option can be interpreted as a spouse's effort or "investment" in the household to resolve his/her dissatisfaction and improve the marital condition. If a spouse hopes to divorce, he/she chooses the "exit" option. If a spouse does not hope to express his/her opinion and divorce, he/she chooses the "stay" option. We focus on the role of "exit" and "voice" in a marriage and investigate the effects of a divorce law that is based on fault or no-fault on divorce rates. Our study shows that divorce rates tend to be too high under a unilateral divorce law in the non-transferable utility case. On the other hand, mutual-consent divorce law generates multiple equilibria, and divorce rates are then inefficient even in the transferable utility case. In this multiple equilibrium case, divorce rates are determined by social factors, such as culture, norm, and religion.
Radiofrequency ablation in the management of Barrett's esophagus – preliminary own experience

Introduction Barrett's esophagus develops as a result of chronic injury of esophagus epithelium from gastroesophageal reflux disease. It is defined when metaplastic columnar epithelium replaces the stratified squamous epithelium which normally lies in the distal esophagus. The condition represents a risk factor for esophageal adenocarcinoma. The aim of the radiofrequency ablation (RFA) method is to destroy metaplastic epithelium with radiofrequency electric current and to stimulate reappearance of the flat multilayer epithelium in the distal esophagus. Aim To evaluate the efficiency and safety of the RFA technique, newly introduced in Poland, in the management of Barrett's esophagus. Material and methods Twelve patients were treated with the RFA method. Patients with Barrett's esophagus confirmed in the histopathological report were qualified for treatment. Two RFA techniques were applied using a BARRX® device: circular based on the balloon HALO360 system or focal based on the HALO90 system mounted to the endoscopic ending. The procedures were performed at 2-month intervals. The macroscopic and microscopic effects of RFA therapy, the patients’ treatment tolerance as well as potential complications were evaluated. Results In the group of 12 patients subjected to RFA therapy, 10 completed the therapeutic cycle. A total of 37 procedures were performed: 5 HALO360 and 32 HALO90. In all patients eradication of the abnormal metaplastic esophageal epithelium was achieved, as confirmed in both endoscopic and histopathological evaluation. In 2 patients with ongoing therapy progressive eradication of metaplastic epithelium was observed. No significant RFA-related complications were reported. Conclusions Based on our preliminary results we consider this method to be promising, free of significant complications and well tolerated by patients. In most patients it results in successful eradication of metaplastic epithelium in the distal esophagus.
Spatial Gradients in the Cosmological Constant Typeset Using Revt E X

It is possible that there may be differences in the fundamental physical parameters from one side of the observed universe to the other. I show that the cosmological constant is likely to be the most sensitive of the physical parameters to possible spatial variation, because a small variation in any of the other parameters produces a huge variation of the cosmological constant. It therefore provides a very powerful indirect evidence against spatial gradients or temporal variation in the other fundamental physical parameters, at least 40 orders of magnitude more powerful than direct experimental constraints. Moreover, a gradient may potentially appear in theories where the variability of the cosmological constant is connected to an anthropic selection mechanism, invoked to explain the smallness of this parameter. In the Hubble damping mechanism for anthropic selection, I calculate the possible gradient. While this mechanism demonstrates the existence of this effect, it is too small to be seen experimentally, except possibly if inflation happens around the Planck scale. Typeset using REVTEX
Cross-Project Aging Related Bug Prediction

In a long running system, software tends to encounter performance degradation and increasing failure rate during execution, which is called software aging. The bugs contributing to the phenomenon of software aging are defined as Aging Related Bugs (ARBs). Lots of manpower and economic costs will be saved if ARBs can be found in the testing phase. However, due to the low presence probability and reproducing difficulty of ARBs, it is usually hard to predict ARBs within a project. In this paper, we study whether and how ARBs can be located through cross-project prediction. We propose a transfer learning based aging related bug prediction approach (TLAP), which takes advantage of transfer learning to reduce the distribution difference between training sets and testing sets while preserving their data variance. Furthermore, in order to mitigate the severe class imbalance, class imbalance learning is conducted on the transferred latent space. Finally, we employ machine learning methods to handle the bug prediction tasks. The effectiveness of our approach is validated and evaluated by experiments on two real software systems. It indicates that after the processing of TLAP, the performance of ARB bug prediction can be dramatically improved.
Arithmetic and Attractors

We study relations between some topics in number theory and supersymmetric black holes. These relations are based on the ``attractor mechanism'' of N=2 supergravity. In IIB string compactification this mechanism singles out certain ``attractor varieties. '' We show that these attractor varieties are constructed from products of elliptic curves with complex multiplication for N=4 and N=8 compactifications. The heterotic dual theories are related to rational conformal field theories. In the case of N=4 theories U-duality inequivalent backgrounds with the same horizon area are counted by the class number of a quadratic imaginary field. The attractor varieties are defined over fields closely related to class fields of the quadratic imaginary field. We discuss some extensions to more general Calabi-Yau compactifications and explore further connections to arithmetic including connections to Kronecker's Jugendtraum and the theory of modular heights. The paper also includes a short review of the attractor mechanism. A much shorter version of the paper summarizing the main points is the companion note entitled ``Attractors and Arithmetic'' (hep-th/9807056).
MCMC for hidden continuous-time MarkovchainsF

Hidden Markov models have proved to be a very exible class of models, with many and diverse applications. Recently Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) techniques have provided powerful computational tools to make inferences about the parameters of hidden Markov models, and about the unobserved Markov chain, when the chain is deened in discrete time. We present a general algorithm, based on reversible jump MCMC, for inference in hidden Markov models where the unobserved chain runs in continuous time. The method is illustrated using two examples. One is a relatively simple application to Markov modulated Poisson processes. The second is a more complex problem of inference from single ion channel data, and serves to demonstrate the power and exibility of the algorithm.
Social protection and cash transfers to strengthen families affected by HIV and AIDS.

As HIV and AIDS simultaneously undermine livelihoods and household and community safety nets, families are especially vulnerable to poverty, food insecurity, and threats to their children’s nutrition, health, and education, with irreversible consequences. With more than 33.3 million people affected by HIV globally, a new focus on the risks for families and the long-term well-being of children has accelerated international, regional, and national commitments to social protection programs in heavily AIDS-affected countries.
TDP1 is an HMG chromatin protein facilitating RNA polymerase I transcription in African trypanosomes

Unusually for a eukaryote, Trypanosoma brucei transcribes its variant surface glycoprotein (VSG) gene expression sites (ESs) in a monoallelic fashion using RNA polymerase I (Pol I). It is still unclear how ES transcription is controlled in T. brucei. Here, we show that the TDP1 architectural chromatin protein is an essential high mobility group box (HMGB) protein facilitating Pol I transcription in T. brucei. TDP1 is specifically enriched at the active compared with silent VSG ES and immediately downstream of ribosomal DNA promoters and is abundant in the nucleolus and the expression site body subnuclear compartments. Distribution of TDP1 at Pol I-transcribed loci is inversely correlated with histones. Depletion of TDP1 results in up to 40–90% reduction in VSG and rRNA transcripts and a concomitant increase in histones H3, H2A and H1 at these Pol I transcription units. TDP1 shares features with the Saccharomyces cerevisiae HMGB protein Hmo1, but it is the first architectural chromatin protein facilitating Pol I-mediated transcription of both protein coding genes as well as rRNA. These results show that TDP1 has a mutually exclusive relationship with histones on actively transcribed Pol I transcription units, providing insight into how Pol I transcription is controlled.
The Chas-Sullivan conjecture for a surface of infinite genus

Let Σ∞,1 be the inductive limit of compact oriented surfaces with one boundary component. We prove the center of the Goldman Lie algebra of the surface Σ∞,1 is spanned by the constant loop. A similar statement for a closed oriented surface was conjectured by Chas and Sullivan, and proved by Etingof. Our result is deduced from a computation of the center of the Lie algebra of oriented chord diagrams.
A Taxonomy of Job Scheduling on Distributed Computing Systems

Hundreds of papers on job scheduling for distributed systems are published every year and it becomes increasingly difficult to classify them. Our analysis revealed that half of these papers are barely cited. This paper presents a general taxonomy for scheduling problems and solutions in distributed systems. This taxonomy was used to classify and make publicly available the classification of 109 scheduling problems and their solutions. These 109 problems were further clustered into ten groups based on the features of the taxonomy. The proposed taxonomy will facilitate researchers to build on prior art, increase new research visibility, and minimize redundant effort.
Fault-tolerant hard-real-time communication of dynamically reconfigurable, distributed embedded systems

Building up hard-real-time networks for distributed systems with dynamical structures poses severe design challenges. As the set of nodes varies, the use of protocols, which request a complete setup with every modification, becomes prohibitive. This paper presents a new concept (called TrailCable) that aims at increasing the flexibility in building up hard-real-time communication systems. The concept consists of an extendable network made up of point-to-point connections, with each node acting as a router with an integrated communication scheduler. The protocol offers the possibility to use unallocated bandwidth for periodic data transmissions. Moreover, functionalities that guarantee the communication channels to be fault-tolerant are also included. Through the collection of these properties, the protocol described in this paper is well adapted to highly dynamic, distributed real-time systems. As a case study, this new communication protocol is applied to an innovative railway system, the so-called RailCab.
Extensive changes in innate immune gene expression in obese Göttingen minipigs do not lead to changes in concentrations of circulating cytokines and acute phase proteins.

The usefulness of Göttingen minipigs as models for obesity and obesity-related pathologies is well established. The low-grade inflammation associated with obesity involves a range of innate immune factors; however, to our knowledge, the impact of obesity on innate immune factor expression has not been studied in Göttingen minipigs. Therefore, we studied the expression of innate immune genes in liver and adipose tissues as well as serum concentrations of cytokines and acute phase proteins in obese vs. lean Göttingen minipigs. In the liver, of 35 investigated genes, the expression of nine was significantly different in obese pigs (three up-regulated, six down-regulated). Of 33 genes in adipose tissues, obesity was associated with changed expression of 12 genes in the visceral adipose tissue (VAT) (three up-regulated), 11 in the abdominal retroperitoneal adipose tissue (RPAT) (seven of these up-regulated) and eight in the subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) from the neck (five of which were up-regulated). Obesity-associated expression changes were observed for three genes in all adipose tissues, namely chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 3-like 1 (up-regulated), CD200 molecule (down-regulated) and interleukin 1 receptor antagonist (up-regulated) with interleukin 1 receptor antagonist being the most highly regulated gene in both VAT and RPAT. Looking at patterns of expression across the three types of adipose tissues, obesity was associated with an increased number of acute phase proteins differentially expressed between adipose tissues and a decreased tissue-specific expression of cytokines and chemokines. In contrast to obese humans, no changes in serum concentrations of haptoglobin, C-reactive protein, serum amyloid A, tumor necrosis factor-α and interleukin 6 were found in obese Göttingen minipigs.