Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Morphological evolution of discs in clusters

: The recent discovery of hidden non-axisymmetric and disc-like structures in bright Virgo dwarf elliptical and lenticular galaxies (dE/dSph/dS0) indicates that they may have late-type progenitors. Using N-body simulations we follow the evolution of disc galaxies within a Λ cold dark matter (ΛCDM) cluster simulated with 107 particles, where the hierarchical growth and galaxy harassment are modelled self-consistently. Most of the galaxies undergo significant morphological transformation, even at the outskirts of the cluster, and move through the Hubble sequence from late-type discs to dwarf spheroidals. None of the discs is completely destroyed, therefore they cannot be the progenitors of ultracompact dwarf (UCD) galaxies. The time evolution of the simulated galaxies is compared with unsharp masked images obtained from Very Large Telescope (VLT) data and the projected kinematics of our models with the latest high-resolution spectroscopic studies from the Keck and Palomar telescopes ABSTRACT The recent discovery of hidden non-axisymmetric and disc-like structures in bright Virgo dwarf elliptical and lenticular galaxies (dE/dSph/dS0) indicates that they may have late-type progenitors. Using N -body simulations we follow the evolution of disc galaxies within a (cid:2) cold dark matter ( (cid:2) CDM) cluster simulated with 10 7 particles, where the hierarchical growth and galaxy harassment are modelled self-consistently. Most of the galaxies undergo signiﬁcant morphological transformation, even at the outskirts of the cluster, and move through the Hubble sequence from late-type discs to dwarf spheroidals. None of the discs is completely destroyed, therefore they cannot be the progenitors of ultracompact dwarf (UCD) galaxies. The time evolution of the simulated galaxies is compared with unsharp masked images obtained from Very Large Telescope (VLT) data and the projected kinematics of our models with the latest high-resolution spectroscopic studies from the Keck and Palomar telescopes.
Luxury Fever: Weighing the Cost of Excess

Acknowledgments ix 1. Money Well Spent? 1 2. The Luxury Spending Boom 14 3. Why Now? 3 4. The Price of Luxury 45 5. Does Money Buy Happiness? 6 6. Gains That Endure 7 7. Our Forgotten Future 94 8. Excellent, Relatively Speaking 107 9. Why Context and Position Are So Important 122 10. Smart for One, Dumb for All 146 11. Understanding Conspicuous Consumption 15 12. Self Help? 17 13. Other Failed Remedies 19 14. Luxury Without Apology 20 15. Equity Versus Efficiency: The Great Trade-Off? 227 16. We Can't Afford It? 25 17. Cash on the Table 266 Endnotes 281 References 295 Index 317
Random Mutagenesis of the Aspergillus oryzae Genome Results in Fungal Antibacterial Activity

Multidrug-resistant bacteria cause severe infections in hospitals and communities. Development of new drugs to combat resistant microorganisms is needed. Natural products of microbial origin are the source of most currently available antibiotics. We hypothesized that random mutagenesis of Aspergillus oryzae would result in secretion of antibacterial compounds. To address this hypothesis, we developed a screen to identify individual A. oryzae mutants that inhibit the growth of Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in vitro. To randomly generate A. oryzae mutant strains, spores were treated with ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS). Over 3000 EMS-treated A. oryzae cultures were tested in the screen, and one isolate, CAL220, exhibited altered morphology and antibacterial activity. Culture supernatant from this isolate showed antibacterial activity against Methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus, MRSA, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, but not Klebsiella pneumonia or Proteus vulgaris. The results of this study support our hypothesis and suggest that the screen used is sufficient and appropriate to detect secreted antibacterial fungal compounds resulting from mutagenesis of A. oryzae. Because the genome of A. oryzae has been sequenced and systems are available for genetic transformation of this organism, targeted as well as random mutations may be introduced to facilitate the discovery of novel antibacterial compounds using this system.
Distributed containment control of multi-agent systems without dynamic observers of leaders

This paper investigates the distributed containment control problem for multi-agent systems with general linear dynamics under a directed graph. A new observer based on the relative outputs of neighboring agents is developed to estimate the relative states of neighbors which avoid designing the observer for the leaders in the existing literature. A matrix transformation is introduced to eliminate the coupling terms resulting from the simultaneous design of the observer and the controller gains. Then a sufficient condition on the existence of the observer-based controllers is presented in terms of strict linear matrix inequalities. Finally, a simulation example is provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed design method.
Study of Association between Pre-Senile Cataracts and the Polymorphisms rs2228000 in XPC and rs1042522 in p53 in Spanish Population

Purpose To determine if the presence of certain polymorphisms in the DNA repair gene XPC and the apoptosis inductor gene p53 is associated with pre-senile cataract development. Methods We have performed a retrospective study over three groups of patients. The group with pre-senile cataract formed by 72 patients younger than 55 with cataract surgery. The group with senile cataract formed by 101 patients older than 55 with cataract surgery. The group without cataract was formed by 42 subjects older than 55 without lens opacities. We analyzed the presence of SNP rs2228000 from XPC and rs1042522 from p53; and the relationship between risk factors such as smoking, alcohol intake, hypertension or diabetes. Results The comparison of the genotype distribution in XPC, within the different groups, did not show any statistically significant association in any of our analysis (p>0,05). The comparison of the genotype distribution in p53 within the different groups did not show any statistically significant association (p>0,05); except for the comparison between the pre-senile cataract group and the group with senile cataract where the genotype Pro/Pro (C/C) in the recessive inheritance model showed a higher risk for developing pre-senile cataract (p = 0,031; OR = 1.04–15.97). This association decreased when we performed the analysis adjusting by the studied risk factors (p = 0.056). Conclusions Allelic variants in the gene XPC are not associated with an increased risk for developing pre-senile cataract. The presence of the genotype Pro/Pro in p53 might be associated with a major risk for developing pre-senile cataract.
Robust speech recognition using microphone arrays and speaker adaptation

paper proposes the use of a low complexity microphone array combined with speaker adaptation for a speech recognition system. Microphone arrays are known to reduce different sources of acoustic degradation by producing directionally sensitive gain patterns in a desired speaker's direction and reducing the gain in the direction of undesired sound sources. Speaker adaptation aims at achieving speaker dependent (SD) performance for speaker independent (SI) recognition systems. In this contribution we propose the combination of microphone array and adaptation techniques as processing stages for a Hidden Markov Model (HMM) based text-independent speech recognition system. Our aim is to show that the combination of speech enhancement and speaker adaptation would greatly improve speech recognition when a system is tested in adverse conditions.
A Detailed Survey on Recent Trends in Secure XML Labeling Schemes

XML is widely used to store and share information over the World Wide Web. A labeling scheme is required to efficiently store, process and query an XML document in data management systems. XML documents are assumed as XML trees then a labeling scheme is applied to uniquely identify the XML nodes effectively through the labels. Efficiency of a labeling scheme is measured based on the memory space required to store the labels and the time taken for labeling the XML nodes. Also, labels should preserve the structural relationship present between the nodes of an XML document to answer structural queries. Secure XML labeling schemes are exclusively used for secure content dissemination in publish/subscribe systems. Along with the basic properties of a labeling scheme, a secure labeling scheme should prevent structural information leakage exists in labels. In this paper, we present the recently available secure XML labeling schemes with the fundamental labeling schemes. Additionally, we also analyze the labeling schemes efficiency based on memory space, labeling time and the structural relationships they support.
Connectivity of Collaborative Robots in Partially Observable Domains

Collaborative information processing is vital for a swarm of robots tasked with many different applications. Swarm connectivity is necessary for achieving good collaboration. Our approach to this is a physics-based autonomous robot framework that acts as a distributed mobile sensor network that is capable of maintaining high connectivity during self-organization and movement. The framework, called Physicomimetics, is a robust control scheme built on local interactions between the robots, making it highly scalable, adaptive, and cost effective. This paper presents connect ivity results of mobile sensor networks on two partially observable domains - formation movement through obstacle fields and the self-organization of chain formations.
Accounting for China's Growth in 1952-2008: China's growth performance debate revisited with a newly constructed data set

Using a "data fundamentalist approach," this study revisits the long debate about China's growth performance by seriously tackling the existing data problems that have been the major obstacles to a proper assessment of China's growth performance. First, this study examines and adjusts the serious break in the official employment statistics in 1990. Second, it provides an adjustment for the numbers employed by a human capital effect. Third, it tests the sensitivity of Maddison's (1998a) "zero labor productivity growth" assumption in gauging the real growth of the so-called "non-material (including non-market) services. " Fourth, it further improves the author's earlier physical output-based production index for the industrial sector (Wu, 2002a) by using multiple weights and time-variant value added ratios obtained from the Chinese input-output tables. The likely problem of "product quality" in such a physical measure is examined and rejected. Fifth, it provides a new set of estimates of capital stock for the aggregate economy using alternative deflators and depreciation rates, crosschecked by the author's industry-level capital stock estimates (Wu, 2008b). This completely new data set is used in a Solow-type growth accounting exercise with different factor income share assumptions. The new results-under the full adjustment scenario for the post-reform period using input-output table income weights-show that the estimated annual TFP growth rate is 0.3 percent, which is substantially lower than the estimate of 3.1 percent derived from the official data without any major adjustment. A range of TFP estimates is also provided for each sub-period under different assumptions.
The Chosen Few: On Identifying Valuable Patterns

Constrained pattern mining extracts patterns based on their individual merit. Usually this results in far more patterns than a human expert or a machine learning technique could make use of. Often different patterns or combinations of patterns cover a similar subset of the examples, thus being redundant and not carrying any new information. To remove the redundant information contained in such pattern sets, we propose a general heuristic approach for selecting a small subset of patterns. We identify several selection techniques for use in this general algorithm and evaluate those on several data sets. The results show that the technique succeeds in severely reducing the number of patterns, while at the same time apparently retaining much of the original information. Additionally the experiments show that reducing the pattern set indeed improves the quality of classification results. Both results show that the approach is very well suited for the goals we aim at.
Réformer le Pacte de stabilité : l'état du débat

'Reforming the Stability and Growth Pact: where do we stand ? Reforming the SPG has become a highly debated issue in Europe. This parper starts with recalling the fiscal policy framework in the euro area: the 3% of GDP limit for public deficits, stability programmes, the broad economic policy guidelines. The weaknesses of the existing procedures are addressed: the arbitary nature of th criteria, the lack of economic policy co-ordination. We discuss the propositions recently made by the Commission to strengthen its influence on national fiscal policies. We then deal with several other propositions: budgetary federalism, golden rule of public finances, budgetary policy committees, public debt rather than deficits surveillance. Finally, we present our proposal: national budgetary policies would be responsilbe for managing the inflation- production trade off, under a medium term inflation objective, while monetary policy would target interest rates.
ÖRGÜTSEL VATANDAŞLIK DAVRANIŞI VE BİLGİ PAYLAŞIMI ARASINDAKİ İLİŞKİYE YÖNELİK BİR ARAŞTIRMA A Research on the Relation Between Organizational Citizenship Behavior And Knowledge Sharing

Bu calismanin amaci, orgutsel vatandaslik davranisi ve bilgi paylasimi arasindaki iliskinin aciklanmasidir. Bu kapsamda oncelikle literatur taramasi yapilmis ve orgutsel vatandaslik davranisi ile bilgi paylasimi arasindaki iliski belirlenmeye calisilmistir. Bu amacla gelistirilen hipotezler Kutahya Defterdarligi'nda farkli gorev duzeylerinde calisan 167 kisiyi kapsayan bir anketle test edilerek, elde edilen veriler degerlendirilmis, orgutsel vatandaslik davranisi boyutlari ile bilgi paylasimi boyutlari arasindaki iliskiler belirlenerek bu dogrultuda calismanin hipotezleri test edilerek yorumlanmaya calisilmistir. Arastirma sonucunda orgutsel vatandaslik davranisinin belirlenen boyutlari ile bilgi paylasimi arasinda pozitif bir iliski oldugu ortaya cikmistir.
An Efficient, Automatic Approach to High Performance Heterogeneous Computing

Users of heterogeneous computing systems face two problems: firstly, understanding the trade-off relationship between the observable characteristics of their applications, such as latency and quality of the result, and secondly, how to exploit knowledge of these characteristics to allocate work to distributed resources efficiently. A domain specific approach addresses both of these problems. By considering a subset of operations, models of the observable characteristics or domain metrics may be formulated in advance, and populated at runtime for particular problem instances. These metric models can then be used to express the allocation of work as a formal integer linear programming problem, which can be solved using heuristics, numerical method-based optimisers or constrained optimisation frameworks. These claims are illustrated using the example domain of derivatives pricing in computational finance, with the domain metrics of workload latency or makespan and pricing accuracy. For a large, varied workload of 128 Black-Scholes and Heston model-based option pricing tasks, running upon a diverse array of 16 Multicore CPUs, GPUs and FPGAs platforms, predictions made by models of both the makespan and accuracy are generally within 10% of the performance actually seen at runtime. When these models are used as inputs to numerical optimiser and formal optimisation-based workload partitioning approaches, a latency improvement of up to 24 and 270 times over a naive heuristic approach is seen.
Forecasting Stock Price Using Macroeconomic Variables: A Hybrid ARDL, ARIMA and Artificial Neural Network

AbstractForecasting accuracy is the most important factor selecting any forecasting methods. Research for improving the accuracy of forecasting models has never been stopped. The idea in this paper is simple and old while the practice is straightforward using the software technology in use. We intend to filter out the residuals from a multivariate time series causality model by a univariate (residual term) time series model, then to remove any possible systematic component if left at all, by using an Artificial Neural Networks. Doing so, we believe the hybrid method will take the advantages of each and all model in use. In this practice we have compared the ultimate residuals left out of ARDL, ARIMA and ANNs linked, with that of ARDL, ARIMA and ANN, individually. The data set in our experiments consists of few macroeconomic variables such as consumer price index, interest rate, exchange rate and money volume, used to forecast the time series Tehran Stock Index, a very small and volatile market. Experimental results as expected, has indicated that the hybrid model is a better predictor for stock price compared to each of the ARDL, ARIMA and the Artificial Neural Networks.
Influence of Tumor Necrosis Factor α, Parathyroid Hormone, and Vitamin D3 on Modulation of the RANKL2 Isoform

RANKL exists as three isoforms: RANKL1, 2, and 3. RANKL1 and 3 were reported to be differently expressed upon treatment with some osteotropic factors, but RANKL2 expression could not be reliably determined. Here, we investigated through a mechanistic model, human 293 cells stably transfected with the RANKL2cDNA, the production and modulation of RANKL2 protein stability upon treatment with TNF-α, vitamin D3, and PTH. Data showed that TNF-a significantly increased (p<0.03) RANKL2 production and its half-life/stability (p<0.005). Vitamin D3 and PTH had no effect. This information will help to better define and differentiate the pathological mechanisms operating during osteolytic diseases.
The enlarged European Union : diversity and adaptation

Introduction - diversity and adaptation in the enlarged European Union, Jan Zielonka and Peter Mair eastward enlargement of the European Union and the identity of Europe, Dieter Fuchs and Hans-Dieter Klingemann culture and national identity - "the east" and European integration, David D. Laitin discomforts of victory - democracy, liberal values and nationalism in post-communist Europe, Vladimir Tismaneanu making institutions in central and eastern Europe, and the impact of Europe, Darina Malova and Tim Haughton making markets and eastern enlargement - diverging convergence? , Laszlo Bruszt health not wealth - enlarging the EMU, Daniel Gros the welfare state in transition economies and accession to the EU, Hans-Jurgen Wagener approaching the EU and reaching the US? rival narratives on transforming welfare regimes in east-central Europe, Janos Matyas Kovacs.
The EGL-3 Proprotein Convertase Regulates Mechanosensory Responses of Caenorhabditis elegans

Neuroactive peptides are packaged as proproteins into dense core vesicles or secretory granules, where they are cleaved at dibasic residues by copackaged proprotein convertases. We show here that theCaenorhabditis elegans egl-3 gene encodes a protein that is 57% identical to mouse proprotein convertase type 2 (PC2), and we provide evidence that this convertase regulates mechanosensory responses. Nose touch sensitivity (mediated by ASH sensory neurons) is defective in mutants lacking GLR-1 glutamate receptors (GluRs); however, mutations eliminating theegl-3 PC2 restored nose touch sensitivity toglr-1 GluR mutants. By contrast, body touch sensitivity (mediated by the touch cells) is greatly diminished inegl-3 PC2 mutants. Taken together, these results suggest that egl-3 PC2-processed peptides normally regulate the responsiveness of C. elegans to mechanical stimuli.
Generalized Hybrid Orbital (GHO) Method for Combining Ab Initio Hartree-Fock Wave Functions with Molecular Mechanics

The generalized hybrid orbital (GHO) method provides a way to combine quantum mechanical (QM) and molecular mechanical (MM) calculations on a single molecular system or supramolecular assembly by providing an electrostatically stable connection between the QM portion and the MM portion. The GHO method has previously been developed for semiempirical molecular orbital calculations, on the basis of neglect of diatomic differential overlap (GHO−NDDO); in the present work, it is extended to the ab initio Hartree−Fock (HF) level (GHO−AIHF). First, the theoretical foundation for the GHO−AIHF extension is discussed, and four different approaches are proposed to overcome the nonorthogonality between active molecular orbitals (MOs) and auxiliary MOs. In the first scheme, the auxiliary hybrid basis functions are projected out of the active QM basis. The second scheme neglects the diatomic differential overlap between the auxiliary basis and the active QM basis. In the third scheme, hybrid orbitals are constructed fr.
Life expectancy of daily newspapers in the Netherlands: the Period 1848 - 1997

In 1848 freedom of press was written into the Constitution of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. This paper investigates the expected life span of daily newspapers in the Netherlands since then. Life expectancy depends on the cyclical evolution of the number of daily newspapers through time. The life cycle of the competitive newspaper industry in the Netherlands is characterized by a turning period of turmoil during World War II. Models that aim at estimating the expected lifetime of newspaper that do not acknowledge the cyclical characteristics of the industry are most likely misspecified.
Prediction of protein-protein interaction sites using covering algorithms

The identification of protein-protein interface residues is essential for drug design, understanding cell activity of organism. In this paper, a couple of covering algorithms are presented to predict protein-protein interaction sites by using several protein features, such as sequence profile, residue entropy and so on. These features are utilized to construct covering algorithms classifiers to identify interaction sites. The Sensitivity, Specificity, Accuracy, Correlation coefficient and F1-measure are 30.82%, 42.88%, 68.26%, 15.42%, 34.23%, respectively for alternative covering algorithm and 30.08%, 53.42%, 71.45%, 23.78%, 35.9%, respectively for neighborhood covering algorithm. It is indicated that our classifiers are robust, effective and can be applied to complement experimental techniques in studying protein-protein interactions.
A comparison of three imaging algorithms on reconstructing tumor target in acoustic heterogeneous tissue with realistic numerical breast phantoms in microwave induced thermo-acoustic tomography

Accurately reconstruct the tumor target in an acoustic heterogeneous tissue is a hot research issue in thermo-acoustic tomography (TAT). In this paper, we present three imaging algorithms for microwave induced thermo-acoustic tomography (MITAT): time reversal mirror (TRM), active adjoint modeling (AAM) method and iterative reconstruction method (IRM). The performance of the three imaging methods for reconstructing tumor target in heterogeneous breast tissue are verified and compared by using the anatomically realistic numerical breast phantoms derived from T1-weighted MRIs of prone patients. Through the simulation results, the IRM proves to have better imaging results than TRM and consume much less computing time than AAM. The IRM is a promising approach for imaging tumor target in heterogeneous breast tissue in TAT.