Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Point Mutation in Suppressor of Cytokine Signalling 2 (Socs2) Increases the Susceptibility to Inflammation of the Mammary Gland while Associated with Higher Body Weight and Size and Higher Milk Production in a Sheep Model

Mastitis is an infectious disease mainly caused by bacteria invading the mammary gland. Genetic control of susceptibility to mastitis has been widely evidenced in dairy ruminants, but the genetic basis and underlying mechanisms are still largely unknown. We describe the discovery, fine mapping and functional characterization of a genetic variant associated with elevated milk leukocytes count, or SCC, as a proxy for mastitis. After implementing genome-wide association studies, we identified a major QTL associated with SCC on ovine chromosome 3. Fine mapping of the region, using full sequencing with 12X coverage in three animals, provided one strong candidate SNP that mapped to the coding sequence of a highly conserved gene, suppressor of cytokine signalling 2 (Socs2). The frequency of the SNP associated with increased SCC was 21.7% and the Socs2 genotype explained 12% of the variance of the trait. The point mutation induces the p.R96C substitution in the SH2 functional domain of SOCS2 i.e. the binding site of the protein to various ligands, as well-established for the growth hormone receptor GHR. Using surface plasmon resonance we showed that the p.R96C point mutation completely abrogates SOCS2 binding affinity for the phosphopeptide of GHR. Additionally, the size, weight and milk production in p.R96C homozygote sheep, were significantly increased by 24%, 18%, and 4.4%, respectively, when compared to wild type sheep, supporting the view that the point mutation causes a loss of SOCS2 functional activity. Altogether these results provide strong evidence for a causal mutation controlling SCC in sheep and highlight the major role of SOCS2 as a tradeoff between the host’s inflammatory response to mammary infections, and body growth and milk production, which are all mediated by the JAK/STAT signaling pathway.
Prediction of molecular substructures from mass spectograms

This paper describes work in progress. We propose a possible approach to predicting the structure of a molecule from its mass spectrogram. The main idea is to cluster molecules based on their mass spectrogram. On these clusters one can perform a frequent subgraph mining algorithm to find the most frequent substructures in these molecules. Substructures that are much more frequent in one cluster than in others are likely to have an important influence on the mass spectrogram. Once these substructures have been identified, they can be used in a second clustering step to improve the clustering, after which a new search for frequent substructures in the new clusters can be performed. This can be repeated until the process stabilizes, which should lead to clusters that are coherent with respect to mass spectrograms as well as those molecular substructures most related to them. We discuss two variants of the approach, both of which remain to be validated empirically.
Trade Liberalisation and International Co-operation: A Legal Analysis of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement

Contents: 1. Introduction: National Regulatory Autonomy and the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement Tania Voon 2. Coping with Proliferating Preferential Rules of Origin and the TPP's Role in their Harmonisation Won-Mog Choi 3. The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement and Development Meredith Kolsky Lewis 4. The TPP as a Case Study of Changing Dynamics for International IP Negotiations Kimberlee Weatherall 5. Plain Packaging for the Pacific Rim: Tobacco Control and the Trans-Pacific Partnership Matthew Rimmer 6. Agriculture and the Trans-Pacific Partnership Negotiations Deborah Elms 7. Services in the TPP: A Case Study of Telecommunications Danny Kotlowitz and Tania Voon 8. State-State Dispute Settlement under the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement Andrew D Mitchell and James Munro 9. Investor-State Dispute Settlement under the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement Leon E Trakman 10. The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, the Environment and Climate Change Joshua P Meltzer 11. The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement and Regulatory Coherence Rodrigo Polanco Bibliography Index
Does Government Support for Private Innovation Matter? Firm Level Evidence from Turkey and Poland

Mediterranean and EU member countries consider enhancing innovation and R&D an important policy objective. In order to improve economic competitiveness and increase their citizens’ welfare, these countries have been formulating and implementing innovation policies. In recent years, the volume of resources allocated to such policies has considerably increased and the number of instruments used in this framework has widened. Nevertheless, a relatively limited number of studies have been conducted to assess the effectiveness of innovation policies in these countries and formulate proposals for those aspects of policies that are in contradiction with the aims.Creation-Date: 2012-09
Spectrum Aware Routing for Multi-Hop Cognitive Radio Networks with a Single Transceiver

In multi-hop single transceiver Cognitive Radio networks (MSCRN), routing becomes of great challenge when IEEE 802.11 DCF is used as the MAC protocol. Routing should not base on common control channel because it is not ensured that common control channel can be obtained by each node. In this paper, we propose a spectrum aware on-demand routing which doesn't base on control channel. A channel assignment algorithm aimed at improving link utilization is derived from delay-analysis. The overhead and gain by switching are balanced in this algorithm. For deafness problem caused by switching can result in significant performance degradation, constraints to avoid the appearance of deafness in channel assignment process are given. We stress that our approach can be easily implemented for the using of standard IEEE 802.11DCF. Results of simulation show that, our approach can well fit MSCRN and improve the network throughput comparing to the same network scenario without cognitive ability.
An entropy conservation law for testing the completeness of covert channel analysis

Covert channel analysis typically involves study of individual covert channels in isolation, and determining the thoroughness of such case-by-case analysis can be difficult. To help address this problem, this paper formally defines the notion of a “complete” set of covert channels. Informally, a set of covert channels is “complete” when those channels in the set can operate in tandem to produce the maximum possible covert information flow out of a system. More formally, a “complete” set of covert channels is defined as a solution to an equation called the Maximum Information Flow Equation. An alternate way of expressing “completeness” for sets of covert channels is that all “complete” convert channel sets, and only “complete” sets, always satisfy a certain Entropy Conservation Law, which is given in different forms. One form of the Entropy Conservation Law is that any “complete” set of covert channels can be used to represent overall system behavior in what the author calls Covert Channel Normal Form. Although this paper is mainly theoretical in nature, the author also discusses some possible ways of using the theory, along with open issues.
Implementation and evaluation of global router for Information-Centric Networking A real time implementation

Context. A huge majority of the current Internet tra c is information dissemination. Information-Centric Networking (ICN) is a future networking paradigm that focuses on global level information dissemination. In ICN, the communication is de ned in terms of requesting and providing Named Data Objects (NDO). NetInf is a future networking architecture based on Information-Centric Networking principles. Objectives. In this thesis, a global routing solution for ICN has been implemented. The authority part of NDO's name is mapped to a set of routing hints each with a priority value. Multiple NDOs can share the same authority part and thus the rst level aggregation is provided. The routing hints are used to forward a request for a NDO towards a suitable copy of the NDO. The second level aggregation is achieved by aggregating high priority routing hints on low priority routing hints. The performance and scalability of the routing implementation are evaluated with respect to global ICN requirements. Furthermore, some of the notable challenges in implementing global ICN routing are identi ed. Methods. The NetInf global routing solution is implemented by extending NEC's NetInf Router Platform (NNRP). A NetInf testbed is built over the Internet using the extended NNRP implementation. Performance measurements have been taken from the NetInf testbed. The performance measurements have been discussed in detail in terms of routing scalability. Results. The performance measurements show that hop-by-hop transport has signi cant impact on the overall request forwarding. A notable amount of time is taken for extracting and inserting binary objects such as routing hints at each router. Conclusions. A more suitable hop-by-hop transport mechanism can be evaluated and used with respect to global ICN requirements. The NetInf message structure can be rede ned so that binary objects such as routing hints can be transmitted more e ciently. Apart from that, the performance of the global routing implementation appears to be reasonable. As the NetInf global routing solution provides two levels of aggregation, it can be scalable as well.
Improved testing for the efficiency of asset pricing theories in linear factor models

This paper suggests a refinement of the standard T2 test statistic used in testing asset pricing theories in linear factor models. The test is designed to have improved power characteristics and to deal with the empirically important case where there are many more assets than time periods. This is necessary because the case of too few time periods invalidates the conventional T2. Furthermore, the test is shown to have reasonable power in cases where common factors are present in the residual covariance matrix.
Marriage and Consumption Insurance: What’s Love Got to Do with It?

When markets are incomplete, individuals may choose to marry to diversify their labor income risk. Love, however, can complicate the picture. If love is fleeting or the resolution of agents’ income uncertainty occurs predominantly later in life, then marriages with good economic matches last longer. In contrast, if love is persistent and the resolution of uncertainty to agents’ income occurs early, then marriages with good economic matches are more likely to be caught short with too little love to save a marriage. Consequently, once married, the partners will be more likely to divorce. Evidence is provided to distinguish between these alternative scenarios.
Merit-infonomics Research Memorandum Series Sovereign Risk and Simple Debt Dynamics in Asia Sovereign Risk and Simple Debt Dynamics in Asia

In this paper we develop a simple neoclassical growth model with perfect international capital mobility to analyze the international debt dynamics of developing countries in general and Korea, Malaysia and Thailand in particular. We show that three different regimes can be distinguished: a stable steady state debtor regime, a stable steady state creditor regime and an unstable regime. A switch from a stable debtor or a stable creditor position to an unstable creditor regime may be a sign of forthcoming trouble. We investigate this issue empirically for the three Asian countries in the run-up to the 1997 Asia crisis, using data over the period 1975-2000. Over the full sample, the evidence suggests that debt dynamics evolved according to the stable debtor case in each country. Using a rolling regression technique, we find that indeed occasional switches to the unstable regime occurred. More in particular, we demonstrate that all three countries investigated here were facing deteriorating domestic fundamentals – reflected in potentially unstable debt dynamics – prior to the breakout of the Asia crisis. As such, our approach appears to offer an interesting early warning indicator for financial (debt) crises. * We are grateful to Bertrand Candelon for useful help and comments. Responsibility for this paper is entirely ours. Rainer Haselmann is now at the Graduate Business School Leipzig.
A client server application for the recognition of artefacts in a museum

This document represents a client server based application designed for the purpose of artefact recognition in a museum, based on photos made with the help of a mobile phone. Image recognition was conducted with the help of SURF (Speeded Up Robust Features) algorithm. Server was implemented with the usage of Netty library. Because of the parallel approach used both in the classification part and during the exchange of data between client and server the system is fast and able to decrease time of working by usage of all available cores of hardware.
Single-stage three-phase current-source inverter for photovoltaic grid-connected system

A single-stage three-phase current source inverter (CSI) using in photovoltaic grid-connected (PVGC) system is investigated. A dynamic predictive optimal control (DPOC) strategy for grid current is presented. In this method, based on a predictive model of grid current and real-time dynamic optimization cost function, an optimal control action for the next sampling interval is achieved in advance. In addition, a perturbing resistance maximum power point tracking (PR-MPPT) algorithm is proposed for the CSI PVGC system. The algorithm is implemented by perturbing resistance instead of perturbing current or voltage in conventional perturbation and observation (P&O) MPPT method. The PR-MPPT algorithm can solve the issues of current instability and power dropping instantly at the right side of maximum power point (MPP) of P-I curves in CSI PVGC system. With the proposed methods, the CSI PVGC system achieves the features of simple circuit, good stability and fast dynamic response and MPPT function. Experimental results validate the feasibility of the proposed work.
Mobile Mapping of Sporting Event Spectators Using Bluetooth Sensors: Tour of Flanders 2011

Accurate spatiotemporal information on crowds is a necessity for a better management in general and for the mitigation of potential security risks. The large numbers of individuals involved and their mobility, however, make generation of this information non-trivial. This paper proposes a novel methodology to estimate and map crowd sizes using mobile Bluetooth sensors and examines to what extent this methodology represents a valuable alternative to existing traditional crowd density estimation methods. The proposed methodology is applied in a unique case study that uses Bluetooth technology for the mobile mapping of spectators of the Tour of Flanders 2011 road cycling race. The locations of nearly 16,000 cell phones of spectators along the race course were registered and detailed views of the spatiotemporal distribution of the crowd were generated. Comparison with visual head counts from camera footage delivered a detection ratio of 13.0 ± 2.3%, making it possible to estimate the crowd size. To our knowledge, this is the first study that uses mobile Bluetooth sensors to count and map a crowd over space and time.
Current management of glaucoma

Purpose of review This study reviews current concepts in the goals of glaucoma therapy, interventional sequence, and options for the management of glaucoma in light of recent clinical trials. Recent findings Recent randomized prospective trials of ocular hypertension and glaucoma have provided evidence for more specific treatment goals in glaucoma therapy. In addition, the advent of the prostaglandin analogs, advances in laser technology, and innovative techniques for filtering surgery have expanded the armamentarium that ophthalmologists use in the treatment of glaucoma. Summary Despite continued advances in laser and incisional surgery, medical therapy still appears to be the primary means by which intraocular pressure is controlled. Initial medical therapy has changed with the introduction of prostaglandin analogs, which are replacing β-antagonists as the drug of first choice. Laser trabeculoplasty, using either photocoagulative (argon and diode) or photodisruptive (frequency doubled Nd:YAG) lasers, is still reserved for patients who do not improve with medical therapy, although there is good evidence that initial laser trabeculoplasty is just as effective as initial medical therapy. Trabeculectomy with antifibrotic agents (5-fluorouracil or mitomycin C) is still the next step in intraocular pressure control, and glaucoma drainage implants are reserved for refractory cases. Cyclophotocoagulation is a last resort procedure because of poor visual outcomes and is reserved for patients with intractable pain and vision thought not to be useful.
Motion Retrieval Based on Semantic Code and Dynamic Bayesian Network Inference

A novel motion retrieval scheme is proposed. Based on semantic analysis and graph model, this scheme involves system learning in the first stage. In system learning, a Motion Semantic Dictionary (MSD) is derived by clustering. A Dynamic Bayesian Network (DBN) graph model is constructed based on the MSD and learning parameters. MSD and DBN are combined to derive motion information as features. Motion categories are recognized based on motion feature queries and matching. Experimental results are presented, showing the proposed method is more effective in execution time as compare to some existing representative algorithms.
Contributions of Temperament to Buffering and Sensitization Processes in Children's Development

Abstract: Temperament refers to relatively stable, early appearing, biologically rooted individual differences in behavioral traits. Individual differences in temperament are multidetermined encompassing both biological and experiential influences. Evidence indicates that certain temperament traits, such as impulsivity, inhibition, and negative emotionality, can serve as developmental risk factors. Evidence also indicates that other temperament traits, such as flexible self‐regulation, sociability, and task orientation, can serve to increase children's resilience. Five potential mechanisms through which individual differences in temperament can increase vulnerability or facilitate resilience are presented: (1) Differential treatment of children with different temperaments by caregivers or teachers (reactive covariance). (2) Children with different temperament styles seeking out environments that may increase risk or promote resilience (active covariance). (3) Goodness or poorness of fit between child temperament characteristics and environmental demands. (4) Children with different temperaments reacting to similar levels or types of stress in different ways. (5) Different coping strategies used by children with different temperaments.
Pilot-Aided Multicarrier Wireless Channel Estimation via MMSE Polynomial Interpolation

Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) and multiple access (OFDMA) signal receivers often employ pilot-aided channel estimation. For it, an often considered technique is frequency-domain polynomial interpolation, due to its simplicity. However, the performance of polynomial interpolators suffers in channels with large delay spreads due to modeling error. The problem can be remedied by including a linear phase to the interpolator. In this paper, we derive a method to estimate the optimal phase shift that minimizes the mean-square channel estimation error. We further consider adaptive selection of the interpolation order for best performance. As a practical application, we adapt the proposed channel estimation technique to mobile WiMAX downlink transmission and examine the resulting performance.
Defining AKI: closer to getting the math right.

quality improvement tool. Psychooncology 2012 46. Holland J, Watson M, Dunn J. The IPOS new International Standard of Quality Cancer Care: integrating the psychosocial domain into routine care. Psychooncology 2012, doi:10.1002/ pon.3116 [Epub ahead of print]. 47. Bultz BD, Groff SL, Fitch M et al. Implementing screening for distress, the 6th vital sign: a Canadian strategy for changing practice. Psychooncology 2011; 20: 463–469
Object oriented fuzzy filter for noise reduction of Pgm images

Noise is an important factor that influences image quality, which is mainly produced in the processes of image acquirement and transmission. Noise reduction is necessary for us to do image processing and image interpretation so as to acquire useful information that we want. This paper presents a novel approach to the problem of noise reduction for PGM images. The proposed technique is based on the maximization of the similarities between pixels in the filtering window. The method is able to remove the noise component, while adapting itself to the local image structure. In this way, the proposed algorithm eliminates impulsive noise while preserving edges and fine image details. Since the algorithm can be considered as a modification of the vector median filter driven by fuzzy membership functions, it is fast, computationally efficient, and easy to implement. Simulation results show that the proposed fuzzy filter effectively removes the noise by preserving image originality.
8 Structure and Toxicity of the Prefibrillar Aggregation States of Beta Peptides in Alzheimer ’ s Disease

As in several neurodegenerative diseases, Alzheimer’s disease (AD) arises when proteins fail to get their functional fold and aggregate in amyloid fibrils (Chiti & Dobson, 2006; Chiti et al., 2002). The Abeta peptides (Aβ), proteolytic products generated from beta-amyloid precursor protein (APP), are the subunits of amyloid fibrils that deposit in brain (Forloni et al., 2002; Selkoe, 1996, 2004). Aβ aggregates consist of a mixture of Aβ peptides around 40 aminoacids having different Nand Ctermini (Russo et al., 2000). It is now largely accepted that the pathogenic species in AD are the toxic oligomeric aggregates of Aβ that assembly in the brain before the formation of amyloid fibrils (Chiti & Dobson, 2006; Kirkitadze et al., 2002; Walsh & Selkoe, 2007; Yankner & Lu, 2009). Oligomers extracted from AD brain potently impair synapse structure and function (Shankar et al, 2008). The structural characterization and neurotoxicity of these oligomeric aggregation states, even though very difficult to achieve due to the fast aggregation processes involved, to the heterogeneous peptide contents and transient organization, is of primary importance in the study of AD pathogenesis (Jahn et al., 2010). Monomeric Aβ may assume in water a β-hairpin conformation stabilized by intramolecular H-bonds and antiparallel β-strands that lead to intermediate oligomeric states of Aβ subunits with intermolecular H-bonds and parallel β-strand organization (Campioni et al., 2010; Ono et al., 2009; Roychaudhuri et al., 2009; Sandbergh et al., 2010). More evidence of the structure of oligomers and protofibrils is required that may be obtained by TEM and AFM (Apetri et al., 2006; Pastor et al., 2008; Yoshiike et al., 2007). Recently, new AFM techniques enabled to image a dynamic of Aβ oligomer formation, consistent with the hairpin conformation hypothesis (Mastrangelo et al., 2006). Changing the peptide composition of these prefibrillar aggregates, significant differences in packing strength and solvent exposure are eventually achieved that may be strictly related to cell toxicity. Between the different species of water-soluble β-peptides, found in abundance in the fibril brain deposits (full length Aβ1-42, Aβ1-40 and N-terminal truncated Aβs), Aβpy3-42, a peptide N-terminal truncated at residue 3 (Glu) and further modified by cyclization of Glu to pyroglutamic acid pyGlu, (catalysed, both in vitro and in vivo, by glutamynil cyclase enzyme, upregulated in the cortices of AD individuals (Shilling et al., 2008)), may have an important role in the cooperative process leading to AD. The N termination at residue 3 in