Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The time dependence of rock healing as a universal relaxation process, a tutorial

The material properties of earth materials often change after the material has been perturbed (slow dynamics). For example, the seismic velocity of subsurface materials changes after earthquakes, and granular materials compact after being shaken. Such relaxation processes are associated by observables that change logarithmically with time. Since the logarithm diverges for short and long times, the relaxation can, strictly speaking, not have a log-time dependence. We present a self-contained description of a relaxation function that consists of a superposition of decaying exponentials that has log-time behaviour for intermediate times, but converges to zero for long times, and is ﬁnite for t = 0. The relaxation function depends on two parameters, the minimum and maximum relaxation time. These parameters can, in principle, be extracted from the observed relaxation. As an example, we present a crude model of a fracture that is closing under an external stress. Although the fracture model violates some of the assumptions on which the relaxation function is based, it follows the relaxation function well. We provide qualitative arguments that the relaxation process, just like the Gutenberg–Richter law, is applicable to a wide range of systems and has universal properties.
A robust approach for qualitative compression in JPEG 2000 standard

The development of new technologies and communication networks creates new needs and stimulates the introduction of new functionalities particularly in high speed internet data paths. The drawbacks of traditional Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) in image compression were suitably estimated. This paper investigates the importance of new technique to compress X-Ray medical images and satellite extracted images. It also verified for other types of images also. The proposed method out performs the existing methods and the simulation results of the new proposed algorithm shows better performance. The values of PSNR and Compression ratios clearly show the robustness of the algorithm in compression of the images. The simulation results performed on MATLAB.
R U S L a N M I T K O V , L E a N H a a N D N I K I F O R O S K a R a M a N I S

A co m p uter-aid ed env iro nm ent fo r generating m ultip le-ch o ice test item s (R eceiv ed 0 1 M ay 2 0 0 5 ; rev ised 2 5 No v em b er 2 0 0 5) A b stra c t T h is p a p e r d e scrib e s a n o v e l co m p u te r-a id e d p ro ce d u re fo r g e n e ra tin g m u ltip le-ch o ice te st ite m s fro m e le ctro n ic d o cu m e n ts. In a d d itio n to e m p lo y in g v a rio u s N a tu ra l L a n g u a g e P ro ce ssin g te ch n iq u e s, in clu d in g sh a llo w p a rsin g , a u to m a tic te rm e x tra ctio n , se n te n ce tra n s-fo rm a tio n a n d co m p u tin g o f se m a n tic d ista n ce , th e sy ste m m a k e s u se o f la n g u a g e re so u rce s su ch a s co rp o ra a n d o n to lo g ie s. It id e n tifi e s im p o rta n t co n ce p ts in th e te x t a n d g e n e ra te s q u e stio n s a b o u t th e se co n ce p ts a s w e ll a s m u ltip le-ch o ice d istra cto rs, o ff e rin g th e u se r th e o p tio n to p o st-e d it th e te st ite m s b y m e a n s o f a u se r-frie n d ly in te rfa ce. In a ssistin g te st d e v e lo p e …
Using NHDPlus as the Land Base for the Noah‐distributed Model

The National Elevation, Hydrography and Land Cover datasets of the United States have been synthesized into a geospatial dataset called NHDPlus which is referenced to a spheroidal Earth, provides geospatial data layers for topography on 30 m rasters, and has vector coverages for catchments and river reaches. In this article, we examine the integration of NHDPlus with the Noah‐distributed model. In order to retain compatibility with atmospheric models, Noah‐distributed utilizes surface domain fields referenced to a spherical rather than spheroidal Earth in its computation of vertical land surface/atmosphere water and energy budgets (at coarse resolution) as well as horizontal cell‐to‐cell water routing across the land surface and through the shallow subsurface (at fine resolution). Two data‐centric issues affecting the linkage between Noah‐distributed and NHDPlus are examined: (1) the shape of the Earth; and (2) the linking of gridded landscape with a vector representation of the stream and river network. At mid‐latitudes the errors due to projections between spherical and spheroidal representations of the Earth are significant. A catchment‐based “pour point” technique is developed to link the raster and vector data to provide lateral inflow from the landscape to a one‐dimensional river model. We conclude that, when Noah‐distributed is run uncoupled to an atmospheric model, it is advantageous to implement Noah‐distributed at the native spatial scale of the digital elevation data and the spheroidal Earth of the NHDPlus dataset rather than transforming the NHDPlus dataset to fit the coarser resolution and spherical Earth shape of the Noah‐distributed model.
From Weak Learning to Strong Learning in Fictitious Play Type Algorithms

The paper studies the highly prototypical Fictitious Play (FP) algorithm, as well as a broad class of learning processes based on best-response dynamics, that we refer to as FP-type algorithms. A well-known shortcoming of FP is that, while players may learn an equilibrium strategy in some abstract sense, there are no guarantees that the period-by-period strategies generated by the algorithm actually converge to equilibrium themselves. This issue is fundamentally related to the discontinuous nature of the best response correspondence and is inherited by many FP-type algorithms. Not only does it cause problems in the interpretation of such algorithms as a mechanism for economic and social learning, but it also greatly diminishes the practical value of these algorithms for use in distributed control. We refer to forms of learning in which players learn equilibria in some abstract sense only (to be defined more precisely in the paper) as weak learning, and we refer to forms of learning where players' period-by-period strategies converge to equilibrium as strong learning. An approach is presented for modifying an FP-type algorithm that achieves weak learning in order to construct a variant that achieves strong learning. Theoretical convergence results are proved.
The Development of Selective Inhibitory Control Across the Life Span

A modification of the stop-signal task was used to investigate the development of selective inhibitory control. A group of 317 participants, age 6 to 82 years, performed a visual choice reaction time (go) task and attempted to selectively inhibit their response to the go task when hearing one of two randomly presented tones (1000 Hz, 250 Hz), each presented on 20% of trials. Measures of response execution and inhibition were assessed by using reaction times to the go signal (GoRT) and stop signal (SSRT), respectively. Results indicated that SSRT gets faster with increasing age throughout childhood, with pronounced slowing in older adulthood. In addition, strong evidence was obtained for age-related speeding in GoRT throughout childhood, with marked slowing throughout adulthood. Subsequent hierarchical regression analyses illustrated that the age-related changes in selective inhibitory control could not be explained simply by overall slowing or speeding of responses. Findings are discussed in regard to the decay and maturation of selective inhibitory control across the life span.
Can organizational knowledge capabilities affect knowledge sharing behavior?

Recent concerns about the issue of knowledge management (KM) within an organization have accentuated the need for more efficient and effective knowledge sharing - that is, knowledge sharing plays an increasingly significant role in determining the outcomes of KM. Most scholars explore this issue from the economic perspective, while only a few research studies have focussed on organizational capabilities. Drawing from the theories of resource-based view and KM, this study aims to investigate the relationship between organizational knowledge capabilities (OKC) and knowledge sharing (KS). Using regression analysis with data from questionnaires collected in different industries with a valid response rate of 62.4%, the results show that OKC have a positive association with KS. Technical, structural, and human knowledge capabilities are significant for organizational knowledge sharing. Moreover, the effects of implementing KM on OKC and KS are also significant.
Hybrid Agile Development and Software Quality

Agile methods have been increasingly adopted as a way to increase the speed and flexibility of software development whilst maintaining or improving quality. However, organisations with a heavy investment in, and emphasis on, more traditional software engineering approaches may regard the wholesale adoption of agile methods as being potentially risky. As a result, a number of experiments in hybrid approaches have been made, suggesting that a combination of agile methods and traditional software engineering can be a route to quality software development. Further, that component based software engineering has an important role to play. In this paper we review the key issues in this debate and propose that test related practises are the most significant enabler in providing quality assurance in hybrid systems.
Postconcussional Symptoms in Chronic Back Pain

Checklist measures of persisting postconcussional and control symptom change (postinjury-preinjury self-ratings on 5-point scales) were compared among selected groups of consecutive referrals with traumatic back pain and concussion. Mean symptom change was not significantly different between the 2 groups. Positive correlations were found between postconcussional symptom change and psychometric measures of emotional distress for participants with valid Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory profiles in the 2 groups combined. Results suggested that persisting postconcussional symptoms were not specific to concussion but were associated with increased emotional distress.
Identification of the first surrogate agonists for the G protein-coupled receptor GPR132

GPR132 is an orphan class A G protein-coupled receptor. It has been proposed to be activated by protons and to regulate apoptosis, atherosclerosis and inflammation, but these results are still preliminary. In the current work, we designed and screened a focused compound library using a β-arrestin recruitment assay, and thereby identified the first disclosed surrogate GPR132 agonist 1 with a potency of 3.4 μM. This constitutes the first available pharmacological tool for the in vitro characterization of the orphan receptor GPR132. The testing of 32 analogs furthermore identified a number of compounds with lower activity – of which six were agonists and two were antagonists – that were used to construct preliminary structure–activity relationships. Docking followed by a molecular dynamics simulation of compound 1 in a structural model of GPR132 displayed the putative interactions for the key ligand functionalities.
Exploring the Effect of Mutual Gaze Perception on Students ’ Collaborative Discourse

The goal of this project is to 1) explore a broad set of computational techniques for analyzing educational datasets (i.e. transcripts of students, essays); 2) see if any of those measures sheds a new light on previous results; 3) test whether those metrics have any predictive power regarding learning outcomes. Using the dataset from a previous study, I found that cosine similarity measures are positively correlated with students learning gains when paired with a reference text (such as a textbook chapter). I also explored students’ collaboration, and found that linguistic coordination (i.e. the extent to which students mimic each other in terms of their grammatical structure) did not predict students’ quality of collaboration or learning gains. However, the same measure used at a semantic level (i.e. with word similarity from WordNet) was indeed correlated with those two outcomes. Finally, I used the metrics explored in this paper to feed a machine learning algorithm (SVM) and found that students’ quality of collaboration and learning gains could be “roughly” (using a median split) predicted with an accuracy higher than 90%. Implications for using Natural language processing techniques in education are discussed. Author
The Novel Kinase Inhibitor PRT062070 (Cerdulatinib) Demonstrates Efficacy in Models of Autoimmunity and B-Cell Cancer

The heterogeneity and severity of certain autoimmune diseases and B-cell malignancies warrant simultaneous targeting of multiple disease-relevant signaling pathways. Dual inhibition of spleen tyrosine kinase (SYK) and Janus kinase (JAK) represents such a strategy and may elicit several benefits relative to selective kinase inhibition, such as gaining control over a broader array of disease etiologies, reducing probability of selection for bypass disease mechanisms, and the potential that an overall lower level suppression of individual targets may be sufficient to modulate disease activity. To this end, we provide data on the discovery and preclinical development of PRT062070 [4-(cyclopropylamino)-2-({4-[4-(ethylsulfonyl)piperazin-1-yl]phenyl}amino)pyrimidine-5-carboxamide hydrochloride], an orally active kinase inhibitor that demonstrates activity against SYK and JAK. Cellular assays demonstrated specific inhibitory activity against signaling pathways that use SYK and JAK1/3. Limited inhibition of JAK2 was observed, and PRT062070 did not inhibit phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate–mediated signaling or activation in B and T cells nor T-cell antigen receptor–mediated signaling in T cells, providing evidence for selectivity of action. Potent antitumor activity was observed in a subset of B-cell lymphoma cell lines. After oral dosing, PRT062070 suppressed inflammation and autoantibody generation in a rat collagen-induced arthritis model and blocked B-cell activation and splenomegaly in a mouse model of chronic B-cell antigen receptor stimulation. PRT062070 is currently under evaluation in a phase I dose escalation study in patients with B-cell leukemia and lymphoma (NCT01994382), with proof-of-concept studies in humans planned to assess therapeutic potential in autoimmune and malignant diseases.
A Review on Intelligent Deployment of Nodes for Improving the Performance of Overlay Networks

Overlay network is a network built on top of one or more existing networks. It adds an additional layer of virtualization to the network. Overlays enhance the performance of the network. They provide various services to the underlying network for efficient resource utilization. Overlay nodes present in the network can overcome path outages in a short duration and can also bypass congestion if necessary. However theoretically if overlay nodes are substituted for every node in the network, it complicates the performance of the network. Hence optimized number of overlay nodes must be deployed. This paper reviews various available techniques for deploying overlay nodes and the impact of deployment of overlay nodes in the network by various methods followed by different researchers. From the literatures surveyed, it is clear that many static approaches are already available for the deployment of overlay nodes. However the performance of the network can be improved by dynamic deployment of overlay nodes using intelligent methods.
The Emerging Role of GLP-1 Receptors in DNA Repair: Implications in Neurological Disorders

Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) is originally found as a metabolic hormone (incretin) that is able to regulate blood-glucose levels via promoting synthesis and secretion of insulin. GLP-1 and many analogues are approved for treatment of type II diabetes. Accumulating results imply that GLP-1 performs multiple functions in various tissues and organs beyond regulation of blood-glucose. The neuroprotective function of GLP-1 has been extensively explored during the past two decades. Three of our previous studies have shown that apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease 1 (APE1) is the only protein of the base excision repair (BER) pathway able to be regulated by oxidative stress or exogenous stimulations in rat primary cortical neurons. In this article, we review the role of APE1 in neurodegenerative diseases and its relationship to neuroprotective mechanisms of the activated GLP-1 receptor (GLP-1R) in neurodegenerative disorders. The purpose of this article is to provide new insight, from the aspect of DNA damage and repair, for studying potential treatments in neurodegenerative diseases.
The combined effect of calcium channel blocker Lercanidipine and antioxidants on low-grade systemic inflammation parameters in essential hypertension patients.

AIM The influence of oxidative stress (OS) and inflammation on up-regulation of blood pressure (BP) has been well established. Peripheral polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNLs) are primed in essential hypertension (EH) patients, releasing uncontrolled superoxide anion contributing to OS in these patients. PMNL priming correlates with PMNL intracellular calcium [Ca2+]i. Previous studies have shown that treatment by calcium channel blockers lowers BP, OS and inflammation. In the same time, there are some trials showing down regulation influence of ''anti-oxidative'' drugs as Vitamin E and C to inflammation and OS. The data of clinical significance of anti-oxidative drugs to BP is controversial. The aim of this paper was to evaluate the benefit of combined treatment by calcium channel blockers (Lercanidipine) and antioxidative drugs (Vitamins C and E) on BP and on parameters of inflammation and OS. METHODS Sixteen new diagnosed patients with mild to moderate BP were sampled to 2 groups after randomization by age, sex, and mean arterial pressure (MAP), cholesterol and glucose level. The first group was treated by Lercanidip-ine only, the second group by combination of Lercanidipine and antioxidative drugs both for 6 months. PMNL priming was assessed by the rate of superoxide release from separated, phorbol ester-stimulated PMNLs and by PMNL-CD11b level. Inflammation was reflected by plasma C-reactive protein (CRP) and albumin levels, white blood cells (WBC) and PMNL counts and by PMNL apoptosis. RESULTS In both groups, BP decreased after 6 months of treatment, and in a more pronounced manner following the combined treatment. In both groups PMNL priming parameters remained unchanged after 6 months of treatment, with transient differences between the two groups during the experimental period. In both groups inflammation parameters remained unchanged after 6 months of treatment, without difference between the two groups, except a pronounced decrease in the percentage of apoptotic PMNLs in the combined treatment group. CONCLUSION Our trial shows a clinical benefit combining calcium channel blockers treatment with antioxidants in BP treatment, although it did not reveal significant influence of complementation of antioxidants to calcium channel blockers on OS and inflammation parameters. Additional clinical and laboratory investigations are needed to clear this issue. Conflicting data are reported on the influence of vitamins E and C on OS and inflammation together with controversy regarding anti-oxidative drugs and their effect on BP.
Mechanism underlying the inhibitory effect of high calcium carbonate intake on iron bioavailability from ferrous sulphate in anaemic rats

The influence of high CaCO3, intake on the bioavailability of Fe from FeSO4, was assessed during Fe repletion of rats with Fe-deficiency-induced anaemia. Fe-deficient rats with a mean blood haemoglobin concentration of 4. 1 mmol/l were fed on purified Fe-adequate diets containing either 6.2 or 25.0g CaCO,/kg (ten rats per group). Haemoglobin repletion after 14 d was significantly depressed by high CaCO, intake (9.5 v. 9.8 mmol/l for high and low CaCO, intake respectively; P = 0·03), as was apparent Fe retention (367 v. 552 µg/d during days 5–7, P<0·001; 146 v. 196 µg/d during days 19–21, P < 0·001). The concentration of Fe in the liquid phase of the proximal half of the small intestine was significantly lower in the high-CaCO, group (3.71 v. 520 µg/g digesta; P = 0-02). Mucosal uptake and mucosal transfer of Fe were determined with orally administered 59Fe and Cr as a non-absorbable marker. Mucosal transfer was significantly diminished by CaCO, loading (90 v. 100% of mucosal uptake; P = 0·04), whereas mucosal uptake was not. 59Fe retention values at 14 d after administration were not significantly different (57.6 v. 51.9%; P = 0·14). Fe contents of liver and spleen were significantly decreased by high compared with low CaCO, intake (879 v. 590 pg Fe in liver, P < 0·001; 92 v. 63pg Fe in spleen, P <0·001). It is concluded that high intake of CaCO, depresses Fe bioavailability in rats. The CaCO,-induced decrease in Fe solubility in the digesta probably was associated with an increased efficiency of mucosal Fe uptake so that the amount of mucosal uptake remained unaltered. The CaCO,-induced decrease in Fe transfer through the mucosal cytoplasm and/or basolateral membrane may have been responsible for the concurrent decrease in Fe bioavailability.
New frontiers in biologging science

The term ‘biologging’ refers to the use of miniaturized animal-attached tags for logging and/or relaying of data about an animal's movements, behaviour, physiology and/or environment. Biologging technology substantially extends our abilities to observe, and take measurements from, free-ranging, undisturbed subjects, providing much scope for advancing both basic and applied biological research. Here, we review highlights from the third international conference on biologging science, which was held in California, USA, from 1 to 5 September 2008. Over the last few years, considerable progress has been made with a range of recording technologies as well as with the management, visualization, integration and analysis of increasingly large and complex biologging datasets. Researchers use these techniques to study animal biology with an unprecedented level of detail and across the full range of ecological scales—from the split-second decision making of individuals to the long-term dynamics of populations, and even entire communities. We conclude our report by suggesting some directions for future research.
Profiling depression in childhood and adolescence: the role of conduct problems

Background Depression is typically more common in females and rates rise around puberty. However, studies of children and adolescents suggest that depression accompanied by conduct problems may represent a different subtype not characterised by a female preponderance, with differing risk factors and genetic architecture compared to pure‐depression. This study aimed to identify aetiologically distinct profiles of depressive symptoms, distinguished by the presence or absence of co‐occurring conduct problems. Methods Latent profile analysis was conducted on a school sample of 1648 children (11–12 years) and replicated in a sample of 2006 twins (8–17 years). Results In both samples pure‐depressive and conduct‐depressive profiles were identified. The pure‐depressive profile was associated with female gender, while the conduct‐depressive profile was associated with lower cognitive ability but not with gender. Twin analyses indicated possible differences in genetic aetiology. Conclusions There was evidence for aetiologically heterogeneous depression symptom profiles based on the presence or absence of co‐occurring conduct problems.