Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
On-line Learning with Time-correlated Examples

We study the dynamics of on-line learning with time-correlated patterns. In this, we make a distinction between \small" networks and \large" networks. \Small" networks have a nite number of input units and are usually studied using tools from stochastic approximation theory in the limit of small learning parameters. \Large" networks have an extensive number of input units. A description in terms of individual weights is no longer useful and tools from statistical mechanics can be applied to compute the evolution of macroscopic order parameters. We give general derivations for both cases, but in the end focus on the eeect of correlations on plateaus. Plateaus are long time spans in which the performance of the networks hardly changes. Learning in both \small" and \large" multi-layered perceptrons is often hampered by the presence of plateaus. The eeect of correlations, however, appears to be quite diierent: they can have a huge beneecial eeect in small networks, but seem to have only marginal eeects in large networks.
Research progress of the role and mechanism of extracellular signal-regulated protein kinase 5 (ERK5) pathway in pathological pain

Extracellular signal-regulated protein kinase 5 (ERK5), also known as big mitogen-activated protein kinase 1 (MAPK1), is an important member of ERK family, which is a subfamily of the large MAPK family. ERK5 is expressed in many tissues, including the dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons and the spinal cord. In this review, we focus on elaborating ERK5-associated pathway in pathological pain, in which the ERK5/CREB (cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP)-response element-binding protein) pathway plays a crucial role in the transduction of pain signal and contributes to pain hypersensitivity. ERK5 activation in the spinal dorsal horn occurs mainly in microglia. The activation of ERK5 can be mediated by N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptors. We also elaborate the relationship between ERK5 activation and nerve growth factor-tyrosine kinase A (NGF-TrkA), and the connection between ERK5 activation and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in pathological pain in detail. 中文概要概 要细胞外信号调节蛋白激酶5(ERK5),也称大丝裂原活化蛋白激酶1,是ERK家族(MAPK大家族的一个亚家族)的一个重要成员。 ERK5在背根神经节和脊髓中均有表达。 本文着重阐述ERK5相关的信号通路在病理性疼痛中的作用:ERK5/CREB通路在疼痛信号的传递和痛觉过敏的形成中起重要作用;脊髓背角中ERK5的活化主要在小角质细胞;ERK5的活化可由NMDA受体介导。 同时,我们细述了在病理性疼痛中, ERK5活化与NGF-TrkA和BDNF的关联。
Efficacy of HIV antiviral polyanionic carbosilane dendrimer G2-S16 in the presence of semen

The development of a safe and effective microbicide to prevent the sexual transmission of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-1 is urgently needed. Unfortunately, the majority of microbicides, such as poly(L-lysine)-dendrimers, anionic polymers, or antiretrovirals, have proved inactive or even increased the risk of HIV infection in clinical trials, most probably due to the fact that these compounds failed to prevent semen-exposed HIV infection. We showed that G2-S16 dendrimer exerts anti-HIV-1 activity at an early stage of viral replication, blocking the gp120/CD4/CCR5 interaction and providing a barrier to infection for long periods, confirming its multifactorial and nonspecific ability. Previously, we demonstrated that topical administration of G2-S16 prevents HIV transmission in humanized BLT mice without irritation or vaginal lesions. Here, we demonstrated that G2-S16 is active against mock- and semen-exposed HIV-1 and could be a promising microbicide against HIV infection.
Primary tumor location as a prognostic factor in metastatic colorectal cancer.

BACKGROUND We sought to clarify the prognostic impact of primary tumor location in metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC). METHODS We evaluated the association between tumor location and survival parameters in patients with previously untreated mCRC receiving first-line chemotherapy ± bevacizumab in three independent cohorts: a prospective pharmacogenetic study (PROVETTA) and two randomized phase III trials, AVF2107g and NO16966. Cancers proximal or distal of the splenic flexure were classified as right-sided or left-sided, respectively. The primary end point was overall survival (OS). Data were analyzed with Cox proportional hazards and logistic regression models. All statistical tests were two-sided. RESULTS Among evaluable patients in the PROVETTA (n = 200), AVF2107g (n = 559), and NO16966 (n = 1268) studies, 72.0%, 63.1%, and 73.7% had left-sided tumors, respectively. In PROVETTA, patients with left-sided tumors had superior OS (left-sided vs right-sided: hazard ratio [HR] = .44, 95% confidence interval [CI] = .28 to .70, P < .001) and progression-free survival (HR = .52, 95% CI = .36 to .75, P < .001) outcomes. Multivariable analyses confirmed right-sided location as a negative prognostic variable, independent of mucinous histology and BRAF mutational status. Data from the AVF2107g (HR for OS = .55, 95% CI = .43 to .70) and NO16966 trials (HR for OS = .71, 95% CI = .62 to .82 both P < .001) also showed favorable outcomes in patients with left-sided tumors. In both randomized studies, the efficacy of bevacizumab was independent of tumor location. CONCLUSIONS These data demonstrate that primary tumor location is an important prognostic factor in previously untreated mCRC. Given the consistency across an exploratory set and two confirmatory phase III studies, side of tumor origin should be considered for stratification in randomized trials.
The Strategic Implications of China ’ s Economic Pacts with Sub-Saharan African Countries : The Case of Nigeria

That China has positioned itself as a country to reckon with in today’s world economy is no longer contestable. This reflects in the influx of economic activities from various foreign investors who are attracted to the existence of a market for their products and services in the over 1 billion populated country. This also has some connections with the country’s investments in other countries such as sub-Saharan Africa. For example Africa supplied 77% of oil, 13 % of metalliferous ore, 3% of cotton, 2% wood, 3% pear and precious stones to Chinese economy, and on the demand side African economy sourced 5% industrial equipment, 7% electrical appliances, 8% telecommunication equipment, 8% transport vehicles, 14% clothing wares, and 16% textiles from the Chinese economy (UNCTAD, 2006). Essentially, this positive development about China has been severally linked to its ‘open-door policy’ which took effect from the 1980s (Chan et al., 2005) and the eventual joining of the WTO in December, 2001 (Taylor, 2004; Zhu and McKenna, 2007). Interestingly, the prevailing interest in China as ‘economic powerhouse’ (Jiang et al., 2005) is not only limited to its economic activities, but has also attracted the interest of scholars who have written extensively about this development. However, a critical look at the extant literature in this area indicates that academic contributions about China economic development is skewed towards investment by others in China’s economy while academic write-ups of China’s investment outside the country is limited. Therefore, owing to the dearth of study in this area, the main thrust of this paper is to explore the recent increasing Chinese investments in Africa with specific reference to Nigeria. Nigerian economic outlook shows that the country has potentials to tap huge agricultural capacity, large deposit of gas and deepwater oil reserves, and large youthful population (Soludo, 2007). Also, it is claimed that the objectives of Chinese policy towards Africa and its implementation emphasize that the essence of the strategic economic and trade relationships were to create “mutual benefits”, “common development”, and “win-and-win” results in economic relations (Wang, 2007). Thus, the recent and nascent Sub-Saharan African (including Nigeria) economic relations with China have been a welcome development. Accordingly, this paper, through a critical review of the literature examines, and evaluates the opportunities and challenges abound in the nascent economic and trade relationships, and discusses the future prospects of the deals for the Chinese, Nigerian, and African socio-economic growth.
SIMULATION OF MICROELECTROMECHANICAL SYSTEMS

A method for simulation of microelectromechanical systems is presented. It is based on usage of behavioural simulators and their hardware description languages. Behaviour of a micromachined sensor can be described in such language. For the first time, partial differential equations are used for modelling in environment of this kind. Models of micromechanical sensors can be invoked in the same manner as electronic components. In that way, complex microelectromechanical systems can be simulated. As an example, a piezoresistive pressure sensor is simulated together with processing circuitry.
A Parallel Downloading Algorithm for Redundant Networks

In this paper, we study the downloading mechanism of BitTorrent (or BT), a P2P based popular and convenient parallel downloading software tool, point out some of its limitations, and propose an algorithm to improve its performance. In particular, we address the limitations of BT by using neighbours in P2P networks to resolve the redundant copies problem and to optimise the downloading speed. Our preliminary experiments show that the proposed enhancement algorithm works well.
How to make a biological switch.

Some biological regulatory systems must "remember" a state for long periods of time. A simple type of system that can accomplish this task is one in which two regulatory elements negatively regulate one another. For example, two repressor proteins might control one another's synthesis. Qualitative reasoning suggests that such a system will have two stable states, one in which the first element is "on" and the second "off", and another in which these states are reversed. Quantitative analysis shows that the existence of two stable steady states depends on the details of the system. Among other things, the shapes of functions describing the effect of one regulatory element on the other must meet certain criteria in order for two steady states to exist. Many biologically reasonable functions do not meet these criteria. In particular, repression that is well described by a Michaelis-Menten-type equation cannot lead to a working switch. However, functions describing positive cooperativity of binding, non-additive effects of multiple operator sites, or depletion of free repressor can lead to working switches.
Glucose Metabolism Disorders, HIV and Antiretroviral Therapy among Tanzanian Adults

Introduction Millions of HIV-infected Africans are living longer due to long-term antiretroviral therapy (ART), yet little is known about glucose metabolism disorders in this group. We aimed to compare the prevalence of glucose metabolism disorders among HIV-infected adults on long-term ART to ART-naïve adults and HIV-negative controls, hypothesizing that the odds of glucose metabolism disorders would be 2-fold greater even after adjusting for possible confounders. Methods In this cross-sectional study conducted between October 2012 and April 2013, consecutive adults (>18 years) attending an HIV clinic in Tanzania were enrolled in 3 groups: 153 HIV-negative controls, 151 HIV-infected, ART-naïve, and 150 HIV-infected on ART for ≥ 2 years. The primary outcome was the prevalence of glucose metabolism disorders as determined by oral glucose tolerance testing. We compared glucose metabolism disorder prevalence between each HIV group vs. the control group by Fisher’s exact test and used multivariable logistic regression to determine factors associated with glucose metabolism disorders. Results HIV-infected adults on ART had a higher prevalence of glucose metabolism disorders (49/150 (32.7%) vs.11/153 (7.2%), p<0.001) and frank diabetes mellitus (27/150 (18.0%) vs. 8/153 (5.2%), p = 0.001) than HIV-negative adults, which remained highly significant even after adjusting for age, gender, adiposity and socioeconomic status (OR = 5.72 (2.78–11.77), p<0.001). Glucose metabolism disorders were significantly associated with higher CD4+ T-cell counts. Awareness of diabetes mellitus was <25%. Conclusions HIV-infected adults on long-term ART had 5-fold greater odds of glucose metabolism disorders than HIV-negative controls but were rarely aware of their diagnosis. Intensive glucose metabolism disorder screening and education are needed in HIV clinics in sub-Saharan Africa. Further research should determine how glucose metabolism disorders might be related to immune reconstitution.
Using Adaptation Plans to Control the Behavior of Models@runtime

The models@runtime pattern proposes to leverage models as executable artefacts. A runtime model describing the state of the system is causally connected to the running system. Models@runtime engines typically play an active role in the definition of the adaptation plan that specifies the set of concrete tasks describing how the system should be adapted to reflect the change made on the runtime model. However, the generation of such plans generally relies on a set of predefined rules and the resulting plan is thus arbitrarily derived. In this paper we present an evolution of the models@runtime pattern with: (i) a DSL for the specification of adaptation plans and (ii) a runtime environment to enact such adaptation plans. The proposed approach has been applied to the Cloud Modelling Framework (CLOUDMF).
Some practical remarks about Binary Decision Diagram size reduction

In this paper the new spectral method of the variable ordering in the Binary Decision Diagram (BDD) is introduced. The problem to find the best order is defined as NP-hard, and optimal solution can not be finding because optimizing algorithm is running in O(n! 2n) time, and calculations can not be done for the large n. Such complexity was obviously improved in many algorithms but as will be demonstrated in this paper size of the BDD can be additionally reduced. Performed results with another representative methods have been compared.
Speech Enhancement in Non-stationary Noise Using Compressive Sensing

This paper addresses the problem of single channel speech enhancement algorithm in non-stationary noise environment which is rather difficult compared to the stationary noise. We proposed a new speech enhancement algorithm based on compressive sensing. First, the noise average estimation and Wiener filter gain are calculated. Compressive sensing using GPSR technique is then incorporated by randomly selected the sparse signal of unconstrained problem with suitable basis and reconstruct the noiseless distortion to the enhanced speech. The performance is evaluated using PESQ score improvement. Our proposed algorithm shows better performance compared to other traditional algorithms across two non-stationary noises at various SNRs. On average, the PESQ improvement was 19.14% and 7.12% for exhibition and restaurant noises, respectively.
Beyond the Future Internet--Requirements of Autonomic Networking Architectures to Address Long Term Future Networking Challenges

We present in this paper an overview of current problems with the Internet from the architectural view point, and we identify and forecast trends for future developments. Our study includes perspectives from different stakeholders of the Internet as well as from the technological development point of view. We conclude that current and future requirements vary greatly between, and even within, different stakeholders, which implies that a successful future network architecture must provide maximum flexibility with a minimal set of "hard-wired" properties. In specific, a revised version of the TCP/IP layered architecture would only suffice to address some of the current issues, but would not provide a long term solution. We then show that an autonomic network architecture with a few simple architectural building blocks is enough to address a great deal of the requirements today and in the future
Energy and multipartite entanglement in multidimensional and frustrated spin models

We investigate the relation between the entanglement properties of a quantum state and its energy for macroscopic spin models. To this aim, we develop a general method to compute energy bounds for states without certain forms of multipartite entanglement. Violation of these bounds implies the presence of these types of multipartite entanglement. As examples, we investigate the Heisenberg model in different dimensions, the Ising model and the $XX$ model in the presence of a magnetic field. Finally, by studying the Heisenberg model on a triangular lattice, we demonstrate that our techniques can be applied also to frustrated systems.
Optimization of Ranking Measures

Web page ranking requires the optimization of sophisticated performance measures. Current approaches only minimize measures indirectly related to performance scores. We present a new approach which allows optimization of an upper bound of the appropriate loss function. This is achieved via structured estimation, where in our case the input corresponds to a set of documents and the output is a ranking. Training is efficient since computing the loss function can be done via a linear assignment problem. At test time, a sorting operation suffices, as our algorithm assigns a relevance score to every (document, query) pair. Moreover, we provide a general method for finding tighter nonconvex relaxations of structured loss functions. Experiments show that the our algorithm yields improved accuracies on several public and commercial ranking datasets.
Portable Devices, Sensors and Networks: Wireless Personalized eHealth Services

The 21st century healthcare systems aim at involving citizen and health professionals alike entitling especially the citizens to take over a higher level of responsibility for their own health status. Applied technologies like, e.g., Internet, notebooks, and mobile phones enable patients to actively participate in treatment and rehabilitation. It's not any longer just health cards; it's an ongoing standardized personalization of health services including application of portable devices, sensors and actuators stipulating the personalized health approach while offering chances for practicing high quality wireless personalized shared care. The path from cards to personalized and portable devices tackles aspects like health advisors, RFDI technology, the EHR, chips, and smart objects. It is important to identify criteria and factors determining the application of such personalized devices in a wirelessly operated healthcare and welfare, the paradigm change from cards to secure wireless devices to mobile sensors, and the citizen's acceptance of underlying technologies. The presentations of the workshop jointly organized by EFMI WG "Personal Portable Devices (PPD)" and ISO/IEC JTC 1 "Study Group on Sensor Networks (SGSN)" therefore aim at introducing technical approaches and standardization activities as well as emerging implementations in the addressed domain.
Evolutionary Techniques Based Combined Artificial Neural Networks for Peak Load Forecasting

This paper presents a new approach using Combined Artificial Neural Network (CANN) module for daily peak load forecasting. Five different computational techniques –Constrained method, Unconstrained method, Evolutionary Programming (EP), Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), and Genetic Algorithm (GA) – have been used to identify the CANN module for peak load forecasting. In this paper, a set of neural networks has been trained with different architecture and training parameters. The networks are trained and tested for the actual load data of Chennai city (India). A set of better trained conventional ANNs are selected to develop a CANN module using different algorithms instead of using one best conventional ANN. Obtained results using CANN module confirm its validity. Abstract—Combined ANN, Evolutionary Programming, Particle Swarm Optimization, Genetic Algorithm and Peak load forecasting.Combined ANN, Evolutionary Programming, Particle Swarm Optimization, Genetic Algorithm and Peak load forecasting.
Switched Capacitor Filter

A Switched Capacitor circuit is an electronic circuit element used for discrete time signal processing. It works by moving charges into and out of capacitors when switches are opened and closed. Usually, nonoverlapping signals are used to control the switches, so that not all switches are closed simultaneously. Filters implemented with these elements are termed switched capacitor filters. Unlike analog filters, which must be constructed with resistors, capacitors (and sometimes inductors) whose values are accurately known switched capacitor filters depend only on the ratios between capacitances. This makes them much more suitable for use with in integrated circuits, where accurately specified resistors and capacitors are not economical to construct.
Testing Cold Dark Matter Models at Moderate to High Redshift

The Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) microwave background temperature fluctuations and the abundance of local rich clusters of galaxies provide the two most powerful constraints on cosmological models. When all variants of the standard cold dark matter (CDM) model are subject to the combined constraints, the power spectrum of any model is fixed to ~10% accuracy in both the shape and overall amplitude. These constrained models are not expected to differ dramatically in their local large-scale structure properties. However, their evolutionary histories differ, with the differences being dramatically larger toward higher redshifts. In particular, it should be true that any statistical measure that probes a rapidly diminishing tail of some distribution should provide a sensitive test at some sufficiently high redshift, when the objects in question are rare and hence in the tail. We examine in detail six standardized, COBE- and cluster-normalized CDM models with respect to a large set of independent observations. The observations include the correlation function of rich clusters of galaxies, the galaxy power spectrum, the evolution of the rich cluster abundance, the gravitational lensing by moderate- to high-redshift clusters, the Lyα forest, the damped Lyα systems, the high-redshift galaxies, the reionization of the universe, and future cosmic microwave background experiments. It seems that each of the independent observations examined is potentially capable of distinguishing among at least some of the models. The combined power of several or all of these observations is tremendous. Thus, we appear to be on the verge of being able to make dramatic tests of all the models in the near future using a rapidly growing set of observations, mostly at moderate to high redshift. Consistency or inconsistency among different observed phenomena on different scales and/or at different epochs with respect to the models will have profound implications for the theory of the growth of cosmic structure.
Interactive electronic holography and 300-camera array in dense arrangement

We will describe interactive feature on an electronic holography system in this paper. In addition, we will introduce our developed 300-camera array in dense arrangement, the images captured by which are used to generate the holograms for the electronic holography system. Since the observer can specify viewpoint for observing the 3D objects using interactive feature, he or she could intuitively understand the 3D information more easily. This approach would have a variety of applications such as, for example, enabling a precious object in a museum to be viewed from desired direction.