Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Semi-supervised learning using a graph-based phase field model for imbalanced data set classification

In this paper, we address the problem of semi-supervised learning for binary classification. This task is known to be challenging due to several issues including: the scarceness of labeled data, the large intra-class variability, and also the imbalanced class distributions. Our learning approach is transductive and built upon a graph-based phase field model that handles imbalanced class distributions. This method is able to encourage or penalize the memberships of data to different classes according to an explicit a priori model that avoids biased classifications. Experiments, conducted on real-world benchmarks, show the good performance of our model compared to several state of the art semi-supervised learning algorithms.
Effects of Pressure-Induced Membrane Phase Transitions on Inactivation of HorA, an ATP-Dependent Multidrug Resistance Transporter, in Lactobacillus plantarum

ABSTRACT The effects of pressure on cultures of Lactobacillus plantarum were characterized by determination of the viability and activity of HorA, an ATP-binding cassette multidrug resistance transporter. Changes in the membrane composition of L. plantarum induced by different growth temperatures were determined. Furthermore, the effect of the growth temperature of a culture on pressure inactivation at 200 MPa was determined. Cells were characterized by plate counts on selective and nonselective agar after pressure treatment, and HorA activity was measured by ethidium bromide efflux. Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy and Laurdan fluorescence spectroscopy provided information about the thermodynamic phase state of the cytoplasmic membrane during pressure treatment. A pressure-temperature diagram for cell membranes was established. Cells grown at 37°C and pressure treated at 15°C lost >99% of HorA activity and viable cell counts within 36 and 120 min, respectively. The membranes of these cells were in the gel phase region at ambient pressure. In contrast, cells grown at 15°C and pressure treated at 37°C lost >99% of HorA activity and viable cell counts within 4 and 8 min, respectively. The membranes of these cells were in the liquid crystalline phase region at ambient pressure. The kinetic analysis of inactivation of L. plantarum provided further evidence that inactivation of HorA is a crucial step during pressure-induced cell death. Comparison of the biological findings and the membrane state during pressure treatment led to the conclusion that the inactivation of cells and membrane enzymes strongly depends on the thermodynamic properties of the membrane. Pressure treatment of cells with a liquid crystalline membrane at 0.1 MPa resulted in HorA inactivation and cell death more rapid than those of cells with a gel phase membrane at 0.1 MPa.
Bulk viscous cosmology.

We propose a scenario in which the dark components of the Universe are manifestations of a single bulk viscous fluid. Using dynamical system methods, a qualitative study of the homogeneous, isotropic background scenario is performed in order to determine the phase space of all possible solutions. The specific model which we investigate shares similarities with a generalized Chaplygin gas in the background but is characterized by nonadiabatic pressure perturbations. This model is tested against supernova type Ia and matter power spectrum data. Different from other unified descriptions of dark matter and dark energy, the matter power spectrum is well behaved, i.e., there are no instabilities or oscillations on small perturbation scales. The model is competitive in comparison with the currently most popular proposals for the description of the cosmological dark sector.
Is the world ready or do we need more tools for programming related teamwork?

Teamwork is an essential part of work nowadays, but many student team projects have serious problems in collaboration. In this work we have identified success and failure factors in programming teamwork projects. Research was conducted with an internationally distributed questionnaire. The results identify that one of the main problems is a failure to see each project member's ongoing progress. Analysis of the data shows a strong correlation between active team communications and positive views of project success, especially in student teams. We propose that project tools should be researched further to support active communication behavior e.g. by visualizing each team member's current inputs in code repositories.
Multi-letter converse bounds for the mismatched discrete memoryless channel with an additive metric

The problem of mismatched decoding with an additive metric q for a discrete memoryelss channel W is addressed. Two max-min multi-letter upper bounds on the mismatch capacity Cq(W) are derived. We further prove that if the average probability of error of a sequence of codebooks converges to zero sufficiently fast, then the rate of the code-sequence is upper bounded by the “product-space” improvement of the random coding lower bound on the mismatched capacity, C(∞)q (W), introduced by Csiszár and Narayan. In particular, if q is a bounded rational metric, and the average probability of error converges to zero faster than O(1/n), then R ≤ C(∞)q (W). Consequently, in this case if a sequence of codes of rate R is known to achieve average probability of error which is o(1/n), then there exists a sequence of codes operating at a rate arbitrarily close to R with average probability of error which vanishes exponentially fast. We conclude by presenting a general expression for the mismatch capacity of a general channel with a general type-dependent decoding metric.
Ageism and its clinical impact in oncogeriatry: state of knowledge and therapeutic leads

Cancer is a major health problem that is widespread in elderly people. Paradoxically, older people suffering from cancer are often excluded from clinical trials and are undertreated when compared to younger patients. One explanation for these observations is age stigma (ie, stereotypes linked to age, and thus ageism). These stigmas can result in deleterious consequences for elderly people’s mental and physical health in “normal” aging. What, then, is the impact in a pathological context, such as oncology? Moreover, health care professionals’ attitudes can be tainted with ageism, thus leading to undesirable consequences for patients. To counter these stigmas, we can apply some possible interventions emerging from research on normal aging and from social psychology, such as intergenerational contact, activation of positive stereotypes, self-affirmation, and so on; these tools can improve opinions of aging among the elderly people themselves, as well as health care professionals, thus affecting patients’ mental and physical health.
UNED at MediaEval 2011: Can Delicious help us to improve automatic video tagging?

In this paper we present the second participation of the NLP&IR group at UNED in the MediaEval Genre Tagging Task. This categorization task was carried out applying an Information Retrieval (IR) approach considering the video collection’s textual data and query expansion techniques. The results show that the combination of social tags and language models is useful to perform query expansion.
Nordihydroguaiaretic Acid from Creosote Bush (Larrea tridentata) Mitigates 12-O-Tetradecanoylphorbol-13-Acetate-Induced Inflammatory and Oxidative Stress Responses of Tumor Promotion Cascade in Mouse Skin

Nordihydroguaiaretic acid (NDGA) is a phenolic antioxidant found in the leaves and twigs of the evergreen desert shrub, Larrea tridentata (Sesse and Moc. ex DC) Coville (creosote bush). It has a long history of traditional medicinal use by the Native Americans and Mexicans. The modulatory effects of topically applied NDGA was studied on acute inflammatory and oxidative stress responses in mouse skin induced by stage I tumor promoting agent, 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA). Double TPA treatment adversely altered many of the marker responses of stage I skin tumor promotion cascade. Pretreatment of NDGA in TPA-treated mice mitigated cutaneous lipid peroxidation and inhibited production of hydrogen peroxide. NDGA treatment also restored reduced glutathione level and activities of antioxidant enzymes. Elevated activities of myeloperoxidase, xanthine oxidase and skin edema formation in TPA-treated mice were also lowered by NDGA indicating a restrained inflammatory response. Furthermore, results of histological study demonstrated inhibitory effect of NDGA on cellular inflammatory responses. This study provides a direct evidence of antioxidative and anti-inflammatory properties of NDGA against TPA-induced cutaneous inflammation and oxidative stress corroborating its chemopreventive potential against skin cancer.
Effects of dipyridamole on muscle blood flow in exercising miniature swine.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether a vasodilator reserve exists in respiratory muscles and forelimb skeletal muscles in miniature swine during treadmill exercise. Blood flow (BF) was measured with radiolabeled microspheres during preexercise and before and after dipyridamole (DYP; 1 mg/kg iv) at 2 min of treadmill exercise at 11.2 (70% Vo2 max) and 17.6 km/h (Vo2 max). Muscle BFs were increased during exercise, and the relationship between exercise intensity and BF varied among the muscles. The high-oxidative extensor muscles and the flexor muscles attained peak BFs at 11.2 km/h, whereas the more superficial, lower oxidative extensor muscles showed increases in BF up to maximal exercise. During running at 11.2 km/h, DYP produced increases in BF only in cardiac muscle, respiratory muscle and the medial head of the triceps muscle (MHT), which is composed of 91% slow-twitch oxidative (SO) fibers. During maximal exercise (17.6 km/h), DYP produced a 31-mmHg decrease in mean arterial pressure (MAP) and increases in vascular conductance in all muscles studied. BF was only increased in MHT and cardiac muscle. We conclude that vasodilator reserve remains in skeletal muscle and respiratory muscle even during maximal exercise in swine. If it is assumed that DYP-induced vasodilation in a muscle sample is indicative of adenosine production, these results suggest that SO skeletal muscle (MHT) and respiratory muscle are similar to cardiac muscle in that they produce adenosine even when adequately perfused. Furthermore, during maximal exercise, all skeletal muscle appears to produce adenosine, suggesting that muscle BF is restricted under these conditions. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
On the Necessary Grid Resolution for Verified Calculation of Premixed Laminar Flames

We consider the grid resolution necessary to resolve combustion in a mix- ture of calorically imperfect ideal gases described by detailed kinetics and multicom- ponent transport. Using the steady premixed laminar flame asa paradigm, the re- quired spatial discretizationto captureall detailed physics inthe reactionzone is found via 1) determination of the finest grid used in a standard software tool which employs adaptive mesh refinement, 2) examination of peak values of intermediate species mass fractions in the flame zone as a function of grid size, 3) a formal grid resolution study, and 4) a robust new eigenvalue analysis developed to estimate the finest length scale. Application to laminar premixed flames in hydrogen-air flames reveals that the finest length scale is on the order of 10 "4 cm for combustion at atmospheric pressure. Res- olution at this scale is shown to be necessary to capture detailed species mass fraction profiles; other features such as steady flame speeds and equilibrium thermochemical properties do not have such a stringent length scale requirement.
Expression of Aurora kinases in human thyroid carcinoma cell lines and tissues

The Aurora kinases are involved in the regulation of cell cycle progression, and alterations in their expression have been shown to associate with cell malignant transformation. In the present study, we demonstrated that human thyrocytes express all 3 Aurora kinases (A, B and C) at both protein and mRNA level and this expression is cell cycle‐regulated. An increase in the protein level of the 3 kinases was found, with respect to normal human thyrocytes (HTU5), in the human cell lines derived from follicular (FTC‐133), papillary (B‐CPAP) and anaplastic (8305C) thyroid carcinomas, but not in cells derived from a follicular adenoma (HTU42). These observations were mirrored in RT‐PCR experiments for Aurora‐A and B. In contrast, Aurora‐C mRNA levels were not significantly different among the different cell types analyzed, suggesting that posttranscriptional mechanism(s) modulate its expression. The expression at the protein level of all 3 Aurora kinases was significantly higher in 3 thyroid papillary carcinomas with respect to normal matched tissues obtained from the same patients. Similar modifications, at the mRNA level, could be observed in 7 papillary carcinoma tissues for Aurora‐A and B, but not for Aurora‐C. In conclusion, we demonstrated that normal human thyrocytes express all 3 members of the Aurora kinase family, and their expression is amplified in malignant thyroid cell lines and tissues. These results suggest that the Aurora kinases may play a relevant role in malignant thyroid cancers, and may represent a putative therapeutic target for thyroid neoplasms. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Strand Opening-deficient Escherichia coli RNA Polymerase Facilitates Investigation of Closed Complexes with Promoter DNA

Formation of the strand-separated, open complex between RNA polymerase and a promoter involves several intermediates, the first being the closed complex in which the DNA is fully base-paired. This normally short lived complex has been difficult to study. We have used a mutant Escherichia coli RNA polymerase, deficient in promoter DNA melting, and variants of the PR promoter of bacteriophage λ to model the closed complex intermediate at physiologically relevant temperatures. Our results indicate that in the closed complex, RNA polymerase recognizes base pairs as double-stranded DNA even in the region that becomes single-stranded in the open complex. Additionally, a particular base pair in the -35 region engages in an important interaction with the RNA polymerase, and a DNase I-hypersensitive site, pronounced in the promoter DNA of the open complex, was not present. The effect of temperature on closed complex formation was found to be small over the temperature range from 15 to 37 °C. This suggests that low temperature complexes of wild type RNA polymerase and promoter DNA may adequately model the closed complex.
A read-write aware DRAM scheduling for power reduction in multi-core systems

The demand of high performance and low power has increased the importance of power efficiency in multi-core systems. In modern multi-core architectures, DRAM has dominated the power consumption and therefore reordering based DRAM scheduling has been intensively studied to reduce the power. However, the benefit of reordering is not fully explored by the previous studies. To further reduce the power, this paper proposes the read-write reordering and the read-write aware throttling. When compared to the existing work, the proposed techniques reduce 10% more DRAM power with less performance degradation.
A new TV program retrieval method using a semantic relations dictionary

Broadcasting companies have started offering video-on-demand services to provide their viewers with various kinds of TV programs. Most of these services have a program retrieval system that helps users find the TV programs they would like to watch. The conventional systems retrieve TV programs by keyword matching of the query and the TV program summary. However, it is difficult for these systems to retrieve TV programs from small databases (e.g. databases where the broadcasting companies select the programs) because there are only a few programs featuring summaries that include the query. As a result, retrieval systems often output very few programs. To tackle this problem, we propose a new retrieval method using a semantic relations dictionary (SRD). We first generate a graph structure from the SRD and TV programs and then calculate the similarity scores between an input query and all TV programs. We use four metrics - the distance in the graph structure, the number of paths from query to TV program, word similarity and word ambiguity - to calculate similarity scores effectively and efficiently. The system then retrieves TV programs that have a high similarity score with the query.
The VLT-FLAMES survey of massive stars: observations centered on the Magellanic Cloud clusters NGC 330, NGC 346, NGC 2004, and the N11 region

We present new observations of 470 stars using the Fibre Large Array Multi-Element Spectrograph (FLAMES) instrument in fields centered on the clusters NGC 330 and NGC 346 in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), and NGC 2004 and the N11 region in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). A further 14 stars were observed in the N11 and NGC 330 fields using the Ultraviolet and Visual Echelle Spectrograph (UVES) for a separate programme. Spectral classifications and stellar radial velocities are given for each target, with careful attention to checks for binarity. In particular, we have investigated previously unexplored regions around the central LH9/LH10 complex of N11, finding ~25 new O-type stars from our spectroscopy. We have observed a relatively large number of Be-type stars that display permitted Fe II emission lines. These are primarily not in the cluster cores and appear to be associated with classical Be-type stars, rather than pre main-sequence objects. The presence of the Fe II emission, as compared to the equivalent width of H α , is not obviously dependent on metallicity. We have also explored the relative fraction of Be- to normal B-type stars in the field-regions near to NGC 330 and NGC 2004, finding no strong evidence of a trend with metallicity when compared to Galactic results. A consequence of service observations is that we have reasonable time-sampling in three of our FLAMES fields. We find lower limits to the binary fraction of O- and early B-type stars of 23 to 36%. One of our targets (NGC 346-013) is especially interesting with a massive, apparently hotter, less luminous secondary component.
Prezygotic isolation, mating preferences, and the evolution of chromosomal inversions

Chromosomal inversions are frequently implicated in isolating species. Models have shown how inversions can evolve in the context of postmating isolation. Inversions are also frequently associated with mating preferences, a topic that has not been studied theoretically. Here, we show how inversions can spread by capturing a mating preference locus and one or more loci involved with epistatic incompatibilities. Inversions can be established under broad conditions ranging from near panmixis to nearly complete speciation. These results provide a hypothesis to explain the growing number of examples of inversions associated with premating isolating mechanisms.
Analytical results on the role of flexibility in flapping propulsion

Abstract Wing or fin flexibility can dramatically affect the performance of flying and swimming animals. Both laboratory experiments and numerical simulations have been used to study these effects, but analytical results are notably lacking. Here, we develop small-amplitude theory to model a flapping wing that pitches passively due to a combination of wing compliance, inertia and fluid forces. Remarkably, we obtain a class of exact solutions describing the wing’s emergent pitching motions, along with expressions for how thrust and efficiency are modified by compliance. The solutions recover a range of realistic behaviours and shed new light on how flexibility can aid performance, the importance of resonance, and the separate roles played by wing and fluid inertia. The simple robust estimates afforded by our theory may prove valuable even in situations where details of the flapping motion and wing geometry differ.
Personality disorder and violence in the national household population of Britain

Abstract Background: Antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) is strongly associated with violence but the effects of other personality disorder (PD) categories are uncertain. Purpose: To investigate associations between 10 DSM-IV PD categories and effects of co-occurring disorders on self-reported violence. Method: Cross-sectional survey of 8397 adults aged 16–74 years in households in Great Britain. Results: ASPD contributed strongly to the burden of violence in the British population. Paranoid and obsessive–compulsive PD made additional independent contributions, and narcissistic PD contributed to intimate partner violence. The prevalence of violence correlated with the number of PD categories. Comorbid alcohol dependence further increased the risk. Conclusions: Risk of violence increases with increasing severity of PD, measured by the number of PD categories, and with co-occurring alcohol dependence. Not all PD categories are associated with violence, and avoidant PD was protective. Identification of targets for future interventions may be obscured using a classification based solely on severity.
The cortical processing of perceived emotion: a DC‐potential study on affective speech prosody

DIRECT current (DC) components of the EEG signal were recorded in 16 right-handed subjects during presentation of pairs of declarative sentences with either happy, sad or neutral intonation. Each stimulus pair had identical wording, but differed at the acoustic level either in pitch (fundamental frequency = F0) range or in duration of stressed syllables. Subjects were asked, first, to identify the emotional category of each sentence pair and, second, to indicate the utterance displaying stronger emotional expressiveness. Stimuli with happy or sad intonation, as well as F0-manipulated neutral sentences, yielded a significantly lateralized negativity towards the right hemisphere (RH). Compared with F0-varied neutral utterances, the discrimination of time-manipulated neutral stimuli resulted in significantly reduced amplitudes, predominantly over RH areas. These results corroborate the suggestion of a dominant role of the RH for the evaluation of the emotional significance of sensory input.
Testing for imperfect integration of legacy software components

In the manufacturing domain, few new distributed systems are built ground-up; most contain wrapped legacy components. While the legacy components themselves are already well-tested, imperfect integration can introduce subtle faults that are outside the prime target area of generic integration and system tests. One might postulate that focused testing for integration faults could improve the yield of detected faults when used as part of a balanced integration and system test effort. We define such a testing strategy and describe a trial application to a prototype control system. The results suggest that focused testing does not add significant value over traditional black-box testing.