Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Principal Manifolds and Graphs in Practice: from Molecular Biology to Dynamical Systems

We present several applications of non-linear data modeling, using principal manifolds and principal graphs constructed using the metaphor of elasticity (elastic principal graph approach). These approaches are generalizations of the Kohonen's self-organizing maps, a class of artificial neural networks. On several examples we show advantages of using non-linear objects for data approximation in comparison to the linear ones. We propose four numerical criteria for comparing linear and non-linear mappings of datasets into the spaces of lower dimension. The examples are taken from comparative political science, from analysis of high-throughput data in molecular biology, from analysis of dynamical systems.
Comparison of sampling methods for microbiological testing of beef animal rectal/colonal feces, hides, and carcasses.

This study compared sampling methods for detecting Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Salmonella in beef cattle feces and on hides and carcasses and for enumerating E. coli biotype I counts (ECC) on carcasses. Fecal samples were collected by rectal/colonal palpation and colonal sponge swabbing. Hides were sampled by sponge swabbing three sites, hair clipping, excision, rinsing, and gauze swabbing, whereas carcasses were sampled by three-site thoracic and pattern-mark sponge swabbing and tissue excision. Overall, irrespective of sampling method, 36.7, 13.3, and 0.0% of lots contained at least one E. coli O157:H7-positive hide, fecal, and carcass sample, respectively, while the corresponding prevalence of Salmonella was 70.0, 16.7, and 6.7%, respectively. For hide sampling, excision and gauze swabbing yielded the fewest (13.3%) E. coli O157:H7-positive samples, while hair clipping and sponge swabbing yielded the most (23.3%). None of the carcass-sampling methods detected E. coli O157:H7 or differed (P > 0.05) in their ability to enumerate ECC. Colonal swabbing was the most effective (10.0%) method for detecting E. coli O157:H7 in feces. No differences (P > 0.05) in Salmonella prevalence were observed between carcass-sampling methods, although three-site sponge swabbing and tissue excision detected the most (3.3%). Hide rinsing was the most effective (P < 0.05) Salmonella detection method (63.3%), but dangers associated with its application may preclude its use by industry; there were no differences (P > 0.05) among other hide-sampling methods. No differences (P > 0.05) in Salmonella detection were observed between fecal-sampling methods. Overall, three-site sponge swabbing was the most feasible and effective sampling method for the detection of E. coli O157:H7 and Salmonella on hides and carcasses.
Runtime Prediction of Failure Modes from System Error Logs

Predicting potential failure occurrences during runtime is important to achieve system resilience and avoid hazardous consequences of failures. Existing failure prediction techniques in software systems involve forecasting failure counts, effects, and occurrences. Most of these techniques predict failures that may occur in future runtime intervals and only few techniques predict them at runtime. However, they do not estimate the failure modes and they require extensive instrumentation of source code. In this paper, we provide an approach for predicting failure occurrences and modes during system runtime. Our methodology utilizes system error log records to craft runtime error-spread signature. Using system error log history, we determine a predictive function (estimator) for each failure mode based on these signatures. This estimator can be used to predict a failure mode eventuality measure (a probability of failure mode occurrence) from system error log during system runtime. An experimental evaluation using PostgreSQL opensource database is provided. Our results show high accuracy of failure occurrence and mode predictions.
Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems ( PACIS ) December 2001 B 2 B Performance Evaluation Model

Many business firms are planning, or practicing B2B, however, analysis on the performance of companies achieved by B2B has not been made sufficiently, and there isn't any evaluation method to determine whether B2B has been planned and practiced in an appropriate way. Therefore, we proposed B2B performance Evaluation Model , which is able to make in-depth evaluation of the company's performance caused by B2B and the overall factors that causes the performance in the planning, implementation and practicing process. Evaluation Model is developed by the analysis of the current situation through interviews as well as the conceptual framework based on theoretical studies. We proposed 4 type B2B performance evaluation models: buyer-oriented B2B, seller-oriented B2B, e-Marketplace for Participants, and e-Marketplace for Intermediary. And each of them consist of three part of evaluation index; B2B initiation, B2B planning & implementation, and B2B performance evaluation. Validity of each evaluation factors was verified by surveying the six experts using the Delphi method, and the weights of each factors were proposed.
Contributions of A 2 A and A 2 B adenosine receptors in coronary flow responses in relation to the KATP channel using A 2 B and A 2 A / 2 B double-knockout mice

Sanjani MS, Teng B, Krahn T, Tilley S, Ledent C, Mustafa SJ. Contributions of A2A and A2B adenosine receptors in coronary flow responses in relation to the KATP channel using A2B and A2A/2B doubleknockout mice. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol 301: H2322–H2333, 2011. First published September 23, 2011; doi:10.1152/ajpheart.00052. 2011. — Adenosine plays a role in physiological and pathological conditions, and A2 adenosine receptor (AR) expression is modified in many cardiovascular disorders. In this study, we elucidated the role of the A2BAR and its relationship to the A2AAR in coronary flow (CF) changes using A2B single-knockout (KO) and A2A/2B double-KO (DKO) mice in a Langendorff setup. We used two approaches: 1) selective and nonselective AR agonists and antagonists and 2) A2AKO and A2BKO and A2A/2BDKO mice. BAY 60-6583 (a selective A2B agonist) had no effect on CF in A2BKO mice, whereas it significantly increased CF in wild-type (WT) mice (maximum of 23.3 9 ml·min ·g ). 5=-N-ethylcarboxamido adenosine (NECA; a nonselective AR agonist) increased CF in A2BKO mice (maximum of 34.6 4.7 ml·min ·g ) to a significantly higher degree compared with WT mice (maximum of 23.1 2.1 ml·min ·g ). Also, CGS-21680 (a selective A2A agonist) increased CF in A2BKO mice (maximum of 29 1.9 ml·min ·g ) to a significantly higher degree compared with WT mice (maximum of 25.1 2.3 ml·min ·g ). SCH-58261 (an A2A-selective antagonist) inhibited the NECA-induced increase in CF to a significantly higher degree in A2BKO mice (19.3 1.6 vs. 0.5 0.4 ml·min ·g ) compared with WT mice (19 3.5 vs. 3.6 0.5 ml·min ·g ). NECA did not induce any increase in CF in A2A/2BDKO mice, whereas a significant increase was observed in WT mice (maximum of 23.1 2.1 ml·min ·g ). Furthermore, the mitochondrial ATP-sensitive K (KATP) channel blocker 5-hydroxydecanoate had no effect on the NECAinduced increase in CF in WT mice, whereas the NECA-induced increase in CF in WT (17.6 2 ml·min ·g ), A2AKO (12.5 2.3 ml·min ·g ), and A2BKO (16.2 0.8 ml·min ·g ) mice was significantly blunted by the KATP channel blocker glibenclamide (to 0.7 0.7, 2.3 1.1, and 0.9 0.4 ml·min ·g , respectively). Also, the CGS-21680-induced (22 2.3 ml·min ·g ) and BAY 60-6583induced (16.4 1.60 ml·min ·g ) increase in CF in WT mice was significantly blunted by glibenclamide (to 1.2 0.4 and 1.8 1.2 ml·min ·g , respectively). In conclusion, this is the first evidence supporting the compensatory upregulation of A2AARs in A2BKO mice and demonstrates that both A2AARs and A2BARs induce CF changes through KATP channels. These results identify AR-mediated CF responses that may lead to better therapeutic approaches for the treatment of cardiovascular disorders.
Informations morpho-syntaxiques et adaptation thématique pour améliorer la reconnaissance de la parole

Une des voies pour ameliorer les performances des systemes de reconnaissance automatique de la parole (RAP) consiste a employer davantage de connaissances linguistiques. Nous nous placons dans ce cadre en axant nos travaux sur deux aspects : les informations morpho-syntaxiques et l'adaptation thematique. Dans une premiere partie, nous proposons une nouvelle prise en compte des parties du discours en post-traitement du decodage de la parole. Nous etiquetons pour ce faire des listes d'hypotheses a l'aide d'un analyseur morpho-syntaxique developpe pour tenir compte des spe- cificites des transcriptions. Nous reordonnons ces listes en modifiant le score global employe par un systeme de RAP pour reconnaitre un groupe de souffle, de maniere a inclure les informations morpho-syntaxiques. Une diminution significative du taux d'erreur de mots est obtenue lors d'experiences menees sur des emissions d'information francophones (corpus Ester). Nous etablissons en outre l'interet des informations morpho-syntaxiques pour ameliorer des mesures de confiance. Dans une seconde partie plus exploratoire, nous nous interessons a l'adaptation thematique d'un modele de langage (ML) d'un systeme de RAP. Nous proposons a cette fin une chaine de traitements originale qui nous permet de specialiser de maniere ne et non supervisee le ML. Nous decoupons tout d'abord une premiere transcription du document etudie en sections thematiquement homogenes. Pour cela, nous developpons un nouveau cadre probabiliste pour prendre en compte dfferentes modalites (coherence lexicale, indices acoustiques et marqueurs linguistiques) et montrons son interet pour ameliorer la qualite de la segmentation. Nous construisons ensuite des corpus d'adaptation a partir du Web en utilisant une procedure novatrice. Nous modifions enfin le ML avec ces corpus specifiques et montrons que, sur des sections thematiques selectionnees manuellement, cette methode permet d'ameliorer significativement la modelisation du ML, meme si le gain constate au niveau de la qualite de la transcription est leger.
An Efficient Implementation of the Head-Corner Parser

This paper describes an efficient and robust implementation of a bidirectional, head-driven parser for constraint-based grammars. This parser is developed for the OVIS system: a Dutch spoken dialogue system in which information about public transport can be obtained by telephone.After a review of the motivation for head-driven parsing strategies, and head-corner parsing in particular, a nondeterministic version of the head-corner parser is presented. A memorization technique is applied to obtain a fast parser. A goal-weakening technique is introduced, which greatly improves average case efficiency, both in terms of speed and space requirements.I argue in favor of such a memorization strategy with goal-weakening in comparison with ordinary chart parsers because such a strategy can be applied selectively and therefore enormously reduces the space requirements of the parser, while no practical loss in time-efficiency is observed. On the contrary, experiments are described in which head-corner and left-corner parsers implemented with selective memorization and goal weakening outperform "standard" chart parsers. The experiments include the grammar of the OVIS system and the Alvey NL Tools grammar.Head-corner parsing is a mix of bottom-up and top-down processing. Certain approaches to robust parsing require purely bottom-up processing. Therefore, it seems that head-corner parsing is unsuitable for such robust parsing techniques. However, it is shown how underspecification (which arises very naturally in a logic programming environment) can be used in the head-corner parser to allow such robust parsing techniques. A particular robust parsing model, implemented in OVIS, is described.
Bisphenol S and F: A Systematic Review and Comparison of the Hormonal Activity of Bisphenol A Substitutes

Background Increasing concern over bisphenol A (BPA) as an endocrine-disrupting chemical and its possible effects on human health have prompted the removal of BPA from consumer products, often labeled “BPA-free. ” Some of the chemical replacements, however, are also bisphenols and may have similar physiological effects in organisms. Bisphenol S (BPS) and bisphenol F (BPF) are two such BPA substitutes. Objectives This review was carried out to evaluate the physiological effects and endocrine activities of the BPA substitutes BPS and BPF. Further, we compared the hormonal potency of BPS and BPF to that of BPA. Methods We conducted a systematic review based on the Office of Health Assessment and Translation (OHAT) protocol. Results We identified the body of literature to date, consisting of 32 studies (25 in vitro only, and 7 in vivo). The majority of these studies examined the hormonal activities of BPS and BPF and found their potency to be in the same order of magnitude and of similar action as BPA (estrogenic, antiestrogenic, androgenic, and antiandrogenic) in vitro and in vivo. BPS also has potencies similar to that of estradiol in membrane-mediated pathways, which are important for cellular actions such as proliferation, differentiation, and death. BPS and BPF also showed other effects in vitro and in vivo, such as altered organ weights, reproductive end points, and enzyme expression. Conclusions Based on the current literature, BPS and BPF are as hormonally active as BPA, and they have endocrine-disrupting effects. Citation Rochester JR, Bolden AL. 2015. Bisphenol S and F: a systematic review and comparison of the hormonal activity of bisphenol A substitutes. Environ Health Perspect 123:643–650; http://dx.doi. org/10.1289/ehp.1408989
HySAR: Hybrid Material Rendering by an Optical See-Through Head-Mounted Display with Spatial Augmented Reality Projection

Spatial augmented reality (SAR) pursues realism in rendering materials and objects. To advance this goal, we propose a hybrid SAR (HySAR) that combines a projector with optical see-through head-mounted displays (OST-HMD). In an ordinary SAR scenario with co-located viewers, the viewers perceive the same virtual material on physical surfaces. In general, the material consists of two components: a view-independent (VI) component such as diffuse reflection, and a view-dependent (VD) component such as specular reflection. The VI component is static over viewpoints, whereas the VD should change for each viewpoint even if a projector can simulate only one viewpoint at one time. In HySAR, a projector only renders the static VI components. In addition, the OST-HMD renders the dynamic VD components according to the viewer's current viewpoint. Unlike conventional SAR, the HySAR concept theoretically allows an unlimited number of co-located viewers to see the correct material over different viewpoints. Furthermore, the combination enhances the total dynamic range, the maximum intensity, and the resolution of perceived materials. With proof-of-concept systems, we demonstrate HySAR both qualitatively and quantitatively with real objects. First, we demonstrate HySAR by rendering synthetic material properties on a real object from different viewpoints. Our quantitative evaluation shows that our system increases the dynamic range by 2.24 times and the maximum intensity by 2.12 times compared to an ordinary SAR system. Second, we replicate the material properties of a real object by SAR and HySAR, and show that HySAR outperforms SAR in rendering VD specular components.
Boosting concolic testing via interpolation

Concolic testing has been very successful in automatically generating test inputs for programs. However one of its major limitations is path-explosion that limits the generation of high coverage inputs. Since its inception several ideas have been proposed to attack this problem from various angles: defining search heuristics that increase coverage, caching of function summaries, pruning of paths using static/dynamic information etc. We propose a new and complementary method based on interpolation, that greatly mitigates path-explosion by subsuming paths that can be guaranteed to not hit a bug. We discuss new challenges in using interpolation that arise specifically in the context of concolic testing. We experimentally evaluate our method with different search heuristics using Crest, a publicly available concolic tester.
Compressed indexes for dynamic text collections

Let <i>T</i> be a string with <i>n</i> characters over an alphabet of constant size. A recent breakthrough on compressed indexing allows us to build an index for <i>T</i> in optimal space (i.e., <i>O</i>(<i>n</i>) bits), while supporting very efficient pattern matching [Ferragina and Manzini 2000; Grossi and Vitter 2000]. Yet the compressed nature of such indexes also makes them difficult to update dynamically. This article extends the work on optimal-space indexing to a dynamic collection of texts. Our first result is a compressed solution to the <i>library management</i> problem, where we show an index of <i>O</i>(<i>n</i>) bits for a text collection <i>L</i> of total length <i>n</i>, which can be updated in <i>O</i>(|<i>T</i>| log <i>n</i>) time when a text <i>T</i> is inserted or deleted from <i>L</i>; also, the index supports searching the occurrences of any pattern <i>P</i> in all texts in <i>L</i> in <i>O</i>(|<i>P</i>| log <i>n</i> + <i>occ</i> log<sup>2</sup> <i>n</i>) time, where <i>occ</i> is the number of occurrences. Our second result is a compressed solution to the <i>dictionary matching</i> problem, where we show an index of <i>O</i>(<i>d</i>) bits for a pattern collection <i>D</i> of total length <i>d</i>, which can be updated in <i>O</i>(|<i>P</i>| log<sup>2</sup> <i>d</i>) time when a pattern <i>P</i> is inserted or deleted from <i>D</i>; also, the index supports searching the occurrences of all patterns of <i>D</i> in any text <i>T</i> in <i>O</i>((|<i>T</i>| + <i>occ</i>)log<sup>2</sup> <i>d</i>) time. When compared with the <i>O</i>(<i>d</i> log <i>d</i>)-bit suffix-tree-based solution of Amir et al. [1995], the compact solution increases the query time by roughly a factor of log <i>d</i> only. The solution to the dictionary matching problem is based on a new compressed representation of a suffix tree. Precisely, we give an <i>O</i>(<i>n</i>)-bit representation of a suffix tree for a dynamic collection of texts whose total length is <i>n</i>, which supports insertion and deletion of a text <i>T</i> in <i>O</i>(|<i>T</i>| log<sup>2</sup> <i>n</i>) time, as well as all suffix tree traversal operations, including forward and backward suffix links. This work can be regarded as a generalization of the compressed representation of static texts. In the study of the aforementioned result, we also derive the first <i>O</i>(<i>n</i>)-bit representation for maintaining <i>n</i> pairs of balanced parentheses in <i>O</i>(log <i>n</i>/log log <i>n</i>) time per operation, matching the time complexity of the previous <i>O</i>(<i>n</i> log <i>n</i>)-bit solution.
Assessing the Health Needs of Chinese Older Adults: Findings from a Community-Based Participatory Research Study in Chicago's Chinatown

The objective of this study is to examine the cultural views of healthy aging, knowledge and barriers to services, and perception of health sciences research among community-dwelling Chinese older adults in Chicago's Chinatown. This qualitative study is guided by the Precede-Proceed conceptual model with community-based participatory research design. Data analysis is based on eight focus group interviews with Chinese older (age 60+) adults (n = 78). We used a grounded theory framework to systematically guide the thematic structure of our data. Findings show participants described cultural conception of health in terms of physical function, psychological well-being, social support, and cognitive function. The availability, affordability, and cultural barriers towards health care services were major negative enabling factors that inhibit participants from fulfilling health needs. Perception and knowledge of health sciences research were also discussed. This study has implications for the delivery of culturally appropriate health care services to the Chinese aging population.
Spatio‐temporal patterns of retinal ganglion cell death during Xenopus development

During development of the retina in mammals and birds, most retinal ganglion cells (RGC) that are produced are eliminated later in development by cell death. In lower vertebrates, however, such massive cell death has not been observed; total ganglion cell number increases linearly during most of development. Using 3H‐thymidine or 5‐bromodeoxyuridine labeling of retinal cell nuclei, we have been able to identify postmitotic RGC populations in Xenopus central retina at different developmental stages and follow their fate during development to postmetamorphic stages. RGC populations that become postmitotic between embryonic stages 32 and 49, during the initial stages of retinal growth, lose 40–77% of their cells during metamorphosis (approximately 4,000–5,000 cells). Twenty percent of the RGC present at stage 54, which later disappear, represent the same population of dying RGC that were present at stage 49. This suggests that the ganglion cells that became postmitotic between stage 49 and 53/54 show no apparent decline in numbers during metamorphosis. Since thyroxine is known to stimulate an increase in RGC number as well as the extent of fiber projection on the tectum, we suggest that this reduction in RGC numbers is not due to thyroxine‐induced neuronal cell death. After stage 54, however, binocular vision develops in Xenopus (Keating, '74) and ipsilateral fibers begin to grow into thalamic visual neuropils (Hoskins and Grobstein, '85). We suggest, therefore, that as in mammals, in which RGC elimination correlates with binocular segregation of contralateral and ipsilateral retinal axons in visual centers, a similar process may occur in the frog among those RGC projecting to thalamic visual neuropils.
Endoscopic Examination of Egyptian Mummies

Three Pharaonic mummies, preserved for thousand of years, had fiberoptic endoscopy carried out of the cranial, thoracic and abdominal cavities. The aim of the study was to gather medical data and ascertain the extent of damage of these mummies before undertaking restoration procedues. The endoscopic examinations revealed some valuable data concerning certain points of historical interest.