Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Initial Helium Content of Galactic Globular Cluster Stars from the R-Parameter: Comparison with the Cosmic Microwave Background Constraint

Recent precise determinations of the primordial He abundance (Yp) from cosmic microwave background (CMB) analyses and cosmological nucleosynthesis computations provide Yp = 0.248 ± 0.001. On the other hand, recent works on the initial He abundance of Galactic globular cluster (GGC) stars, making use of the R-parameter as an He indicator, have consistently obtained YGGC ~ 0.20. In light of this serious discrepancy, which casts doubt on the adequacy of low-mass He-burning stellar models, we have rederived the initial He abundance for stars in two large samples of GGCs by employing theoretical models computed using new and more accurate determinations of the equation of state for the stellar matter and of the uncertain 12C(α,γ)16O reaction rate. Our models include semiconvection during the central convective He-burning phase, while the breathing pulses are suppressed, in agreement with the observational constraints coming from the measurements of the R2-parameter in a sample of clusters. By taking into account the observational errors on the individual R-parameter values, as well as uncertainties in the GGC [Fe/H] scale, treatment of convection, and 12C(α,γ)16O reaction rate, we have obtained a mean YGGC = 0.243 ± 0.006 and YGGC = 0.244 ± 0.006 for the two studied GGC samples. These estimates are now fully consistent with Yp obtained from CMB studies. Moreover, the trend of the individual He abundances with respect to [Fe/H] is consistent with no appreciable He enrichment along the GGC metallicity range.
The role of hyperhomocysteinemia as well as folate, vitamin B6 and B12 deficiencies in osteoporosis – a systematic review

Abstract Hyperhomocysteinemia (HHCY) has been suggested as a new risk factor for osteoporosis. Recent epidemiological, clinical and experimental studies provide a growing body of data, which is reviewed in this article. Epidemiological and (randomized) clinical trials suggest that HHCY increases fracture risk, but has minor effects on bone mineral density. Measurement of biochemical bone turnover markers indicates a shift of bone metabolism towards bone resorption. Animal studies confirm these observations showing a reduced bone quality and stimulation of bone resorption in hyperhomocysteinemic animals. Homocysteine (HCY) has been found to accumulate in bone by collagen binding. Cell culture studies demonstrate that high HCY levels stimulate osteoclasts but not osteoblasts, indicating again a shift of bone metabolism towards bone resorption. Regarding B-vitamins, only a few in vivo studies with equivocal results have been published. However, two large cell culture studies confirm the results obtained with exogenous HCY administration. In addition, HHCY seems to have adverse affects on extracellular bone matrix by disturbing collagen crosslinking. In conclusion, existing data suggest that HHCY (and possibly B-vitamin deficiencies) adversely affects bone quality by a stimulation of bone resorption and disturbance of collagen crosslinking. Clin Chem Lab Med 2007;45:1621–32.
Oxidized LDL receptor LOX-1 binds to C-reactive protein and mediates its vascular effects.

BACKGROUND C-reactive protein (CRP) exerts biological activity on vascular endothelial cells. This activity may promote atherothrombosis, but the effects of this activity are still controversial. Lectin-like oxidized LDL receptor-1 (LOX-1), the oxidized LDL receptor on endothelial cells, is involved in endothelial dysfunction induced by oxidized LDL. METHODS We used laser confocal microscopy to examine and fluorescence cell image analysis to quantify the binding of fluorescently labeled CRP to cells expressing LOX-1. We then examined the binding of unlabeled CRP to recombinant human LOX-1 in a cell-free system. Small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) against LOX-1 were applied to cultured bovine endothelial cells to analyze the role of LOX-1 in native cells. To observe its in vivo effects, we injected CRP intradermally in stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive (SHR-SP) rats and analyzed vascular permeability. RESULTS CRP bound to LOX-1-expressing cells in parallel with the induction of LOX-1 expression. CRP dose-dependently bound to the cell line and recombinant LOX-1, with significant binding detected at 0.3 mg/L CRP concentration. The K(d) value of the binding was calculated to be 1.6 x 10(-7) mol/L. siRNA against LOX-1 significantly inhibited the binding of fluorescently labeled CRP to the endothelial cells, whereas control RNA did not. In vivo, intradermal injection of CRP-induced vascular exudation of Evans blue dye in SHR-SP rats, in which expression of LOX-1 is greatly enhanced. Anti-LOX-1 antibody significantly suppressed vascular permeability. CONCLUSIONS CRP and oxidized LDL-receptor LOX-1 directly interact with each other. Two risk factors for ischemic heart diseases, CRP and oxidized LDL, share a common molecule, LOX-1, as their receptor.
Programming for Excellence in the Summer

V τ he auditorium is nested in pine trees and flanked by two lakes. Light and musk: finger out from open doors and windows and are diffused in the woodlarxl setting. Inade, girls in blue corduroy knickers and boys in matching slacks attend to the concert, applauding again and again. They are audience to their teachers at the Natk>nal Musk: Camp in Interlochen, M i c h i g a n . Y o u n g p e r f o r m e r s themselves, they k)ve good musk. I had embarked on an intensive tour of special summer programs for gifted and talented students throughout the country, and I woukl see faculty performing for students on more than one occasKjn. Students also performed for and were guided by faculty, of course, but I sensed that the reversal was signifcant on more than one level, htot only were the faculty teaching by example, they were developing a unique relatk>nship with the students. A special camaraderie exists in the summer sessk>ns.
A theory of memory models

A memory model for a concurrent imperative programming language specifies which writes to shared variables may be seen by reads performed by other threads. We present a simple mathematical framework for relaxed memory models for programming languages. To instantiate this framework for a specific language, the designer must choose the notion of atomic steps supported by the language (e.g. 32-bit reads and writes) and specify how a composite step may be broken into a sequence of atomic steps (the decomposition rule). This rule determines which sequence of intermediate writes (if any) are visible to concurrent reads by other threads. Different choices of the rule lead to models which permit a read to return any value if there is a concurrent write (race), or models which satisfy a "No Thin Air Read"property. The former is suitable for languages such as C++(programs with races have undefined behavior), and the latter for Java. Other intermediate models are possible, useful and interesting. We establish that all models in the framework satisfy the Fundamental Property of relaxed memory models: programs whose sequentially consistent (SC) executions have no races must have have only SC executions. We show how to define synchronization constructs (such as volatiles of various kinds) in the framework, and discuss the causality test cases from the Java Memory Model.
Efficient Fuzzy C-Means Architecture for Image Segmentation

This paper presents a novel VLSI architecture for image segmentation. The architecture is based on the fuzzy c-means algorithm with spatial constraint for reducing the misclassification rate. In the architecture, the usual iterative operations for updating the membership matrix and cluster centroid are merged into one single updating process to evade the large storage requirement. In addition, an efficient pipelined circuit is used for the updating process for accelerating the computational speed. Experimental results show that the the proposed circuit is an effective alternative for real-time image segmentation with low area cost and low misclassification rate.
A genome-wide survey of homeodomain-leucine zipper genes and analysis of cold-responsive HD-Zip I members’ expression in tomato

Homeodomain-leucine zipper (HD-Zip) proteins are a kind of transcriptional factors that play a vital role in plant growth and development. However, no detailed information of HD-Zip family in tomato has been reported till now. In this study, 51 HD-Zip genes (SlHZ01-51) in this family were identified and categorized into 4 classes by exon–intron and protein structure in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) genome. The synthetical phylogenetic tree of tomato, Arabidopsis and rice HD-Zip genes were established for an insight into their evolutionary relationships and putative functions. The results showed that the contribution of segmental duplication was larger than that of tandem duplication for expansion and evolution of genes in this family of tomato. The expression profile results under abiotic stress suggested that all SlHZ I genes were responsive to cold stress. This study will provide a clue for the further investigation of functional identification and the role of tomato HD-Zip I subfamily in plant cold stress responses and developmental events. Graphical Abstract Tomato HD-Zip family genes were classified into four groups by their gene structures and the highly homology with Arabidopsis and rice HD-Zip subfamily proteins.
Risk Bounds for Regularized Least-squares Algorithm with Operator-valued kernels

Abstract : We show that recent results in [3] on risk bounds for regularized least-squares on reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces can be straight-forwardly extended to the vector-valued regression setting. We first briefly introduce central concepts on operator-valued kernels, then we show how risk bounds can be expressed in terms of a generalization of effective dimension.
An efficient ID-based deniable authentication protocol from pairings

Deniability is a privacy property that ensures protocol participants can later deny taking part in a particular protocol run. A deniable authentication protocol enables an intended receiver to identify the source of a given message, but not prove the identity of the sender to a third party even if the intended receiver is willing to reveal his secret-key. In this paper, we present an efficient ID-based deniable authentication protocol from pairings. The proposed protocol satisfies the correctness, authentication and deniability properties.
Phylogenetic isolation of host trees affects assembly of local Heteroptera communities

A host may be physically isolated in space and then may correspond to a geographical island, but it may also be separated from its local neighbours by hundreds of millions of years of evolutionary history, and may form in this case an evolutionarily distinct island. We test how this affects the assembly processes of the host's colonizers, this question being until now only invoked at the scale of physically distinct islands or patches. We studied the assembly of true bugs in crowns of oaks surrounded by phylogenetically more or less closely related trees. Despite the short distances (less than 150 m) between phylogenetically isolated and non-isolated trees, we found major differences between their Heteroptera faunas. We show that phylogenetically isolated trees support smaller numbers and fewer species of Heteroptera, an increasing proportion of phytophages and a decreasing proportion of omnivores, and proportionally more non-host-specialists. These differences were not due to changes in the nutritional quality of the trees, i.e. species sorting, which we accounted for. Comparison with predictions from meta-community theories suggests that the assembly of local Heteroptera communities may be strongly driven by independent metapopulation processes at the level of the individual species. We conclude that the assembly of communities on hosts separated from their neighbours by long periods of evolutionary history is qualitatively and quantitatively different from that on hosts established surrounded by closely related trees. Potentially, the biotic selection pressure on a host might thus change with the evolutionary proximity of the surrounding hosts.
Who can I trust? Investigating Trust Between Users and Agents in A Multi-Agent Portfolio Management System

Trust between agents has been explored extensively in the literature. However, trust between agents and users has largely been left untouched. In this paper, we report our preliminary results of how reinforcement-learning agents (i.e. broker agents, or brokers) win the trust of their client in an artificial market I-TRUST. The goals of these broker agents are not only to maximize the total revenue subject to their clients’ risk preference as most other agents do in [LeBaron et al. 1997; Parkes and Huberman 2001; Schroeder et al. 2000], but also to maximize the trust they receive from their clients. Trust is introduced into I-TRUST as a relationship between clients and their software broker agents in terms of the amount of money they are willing to give to these agents to invest on their behalf. To achieve this, broker agents must first elicit user models both explicitly through questionnaires and implicitly through three games. Then based on the initial user models, a broker agent will learn to invest and later update the model when necessary. In addition to the broker agent’s individual learning of how to maximize the ‘reward’ he may receive from his client, we have incorporated agents’ cooperative reinforcement learning to adjust their portfolio selecting strategy, which is implemented in FIPA-OS. A large-scale experiment is expected as our future research.
Indecomposable PD3-complexes

We show that if X is an indecomposable PD3 ‐complex and 1.X/ is the fundamental group of a reduced finite graph of finite groups but is neither Z nor Z Z=2Z then X is orientable, the underlying graph is a tree, the vertex groups have cohomological period dividing 4 and all but at most one of the edge groups is Z=2Z. If there are no exceptions then all but at most one of the vertex groups is dihedral of order 2m with m odd. Every such group is realized by some PD3 ‐complex. Otherwise, one edge group may be Z=6Z. We do not know of any such examples. We also ask whether every PD3 ‐complex has a finite covering space which is homotopy equivalent to a closed orientable 3-manifold, and we propose a strategy for tackling this question. 57M05, 57M99; 57P10
Circuit Switching Under the Radar with REACToR

The potential advantages of optics at high link speeds have led to significant interest in deploying optical switching technology in data-center networks. Initial efforts have focused on hybrid approaches that rely on millisecond-scale circuit switching in the core of the network, while maintaining the flexibility of electrical packet switching at the edge. Recent demonstrations of microsecond-scale optical circuit switches motivate considering circuit switching for more dynamic traffic such as that generated from a top-of-rack (ToR) switch. Based on these technology trends, we propose a prototype hybrid ToR, called REACToR, which utilizes a combination of packet switching and circuit switching to appear to end-hosts as a packet-switched ToR. In this paper, we describe a prototype REACToR control plane which synchronizes end host transmissions with end-to-end circuit assignments. This control plane can react to rapid, bursty changes in the traffic from end hosts on a time scale of 100s of microseconds, several orders of magnitude faster than previous hybrid approaches. Using the experimental data from a system of eight end hosts, we calibrate a hybrid network simulator and use this simulator to predict the performance of larger-scale hybrid networks.
Robustostrongylus aferensis gen. nov. et sp. nov. (Nematoda: Trichostrongyloidea) in Kob (Kobus kob) and Hartebeest (Alcelaphus buselaphus jacksoni) (Artiodactyla) from Sub-saharan Africa, with Further Ruminations on the Ostertagiinae

Abstract Abomasal nematodes (Ostertagiinae: Trichostrongyloidea), representing a previously unrecognized genus and species, were discovered in kob (Kobus kob) and kongoni (hartebeest) (Alcelaphus buselaphus jacksoni) from Uganda during surveys of ungulate parasites in the 1960s. Robustostrongylus aferensis gen. nov. et sp. nov. is characterized by a ventriculus-like, bilobed valve at the junction of the esophagus and intestine, a synlophe with unusually robust ridges, cervical papillae and excretory pore situated posterior to the mid-length of the esophagus, a unique body form and large diameter in males and females, a relatively anterior position for the vulva, and strongly convoluted and spiraled ovarian tracks in females. Bursal structure is 2-1-2, with subequal Rays 2/3, strongly reduced and robust Rays 8, and relatively narrow Rays 9/10 contained within a reduced, laterally inflated dorsal lobe. Spicules are filamentous and tripartite; the gubernaculum is cryptic, alate, and heart-shaped in the anterior. Robustostrongylus aferensis, with narrow filamentous spicules that trifurcate distally near 80%, paired arcuate “0” papillae that terminate in bulbous expansions, and a reduced dorsal lobe and ray most closely resembles species of Longistrongylus. A suite of unique characters, consistent in males and females, however, unequivocally distinguishes specimens of R. aferensis from all ostertagiines with either a 2-1-2 or 2-2-1 bursal pattern. Among 15 genera of the Ostertagiinae in the global fauna, 5 are entirely limited in distribution to Africa, including Africanastrongylus, Hamulonema, Longistrongylus, Pseudomarshallagia, and Robustostrongylus gen. nov.; species among 5 additional genera, including Cervicaprastrongylus, Hyostrongylus, Marshallagia, Ostertagia, and Teladorsagia, also occur in Africa, but they are represented as mosaics, with diversity centered in Eurasia or the Holarctic.
N-terminal acetylation and replicative age affect proteasome localization and cell fitness during aging

ABSTRACT Specific degradation of proteins is essential for virtually all cellular processes and is carried out predominantly by the proteasome. The proteasome is important for clearance of damaged cellular proteins. Damaged proteins accumulate over time and excess damaged proteins can aggregate and induce the death of old cells. In yeast, the localization of the proteasome changes dramatically during aging, possibly in response to altered proteasome activity requirements. We followed two key parameters of this process: the distribution of proteasomes in nuclear and cytosolic compartments, and the formation of cytoplasmic aggregate-like structures called proteasome storage granules (PSGs). Whereas replicative young cells efficiently relocalized proteasomes from the nucleus to the cytoplasm and formed PSGs, replicative old cells were less efficient in relocalizing the proteasome and had less PSGs. By using a microscopy-based genome-wide screen, we identified genetic factors involved in these processes. Both relocalization of the proteasome and PSG formation were affected by two of the three N-acetylation complexes. These N-acetylation complexes also had different effects on the longevity of cells, indicating that each N-acetylation complex has different roles in proteasome location and aging.
Computing the aspect graph for line drawings of polyhedral objects

J.J. Koenderink and A.J. van Doorn (1979) introduced aspect graphs as a way of representing 3-D shape for object recognition. The set of viewpoints on the Gaussian sphere is partitioned into regions such that in each region, the qualitative structure of the line drawing remains the same. The viewing data of an object are the partition of the Gaussian sphere and representative line drawings for each region of the partition. An algorithm is presented for computing the viewing data of polyhedral objects. A full catalog of the visual events that occur for polyhedral objects is provided. <<ETX>>
Towards Clinically Available Closed-loop Systems for Mechanical Ventilation in the Intensive Care Unit

Summary Objective To provide an overview of the state-of-the-art of closedloop systems in the field of mechanical ventilation. Methods This survey is reviewing the literature and proposes an overview of existing closed-loop systems, in different areas of mechanical ventilation. It discusses the key points that guided their development and addresses specific issues such as their performance and penetration at the bedside. Results Much research has been undertaken in the hope of improving patient-ventilator interaction and shortening the weaning process. This led to the development of new modes of ventilation and expert weaning systems that are starting to achieve a wider clinical audience. Conclusion Intensive care unit personnel are facing increasing work load during care for patients with severe, multi-system illness, using sophisticated equipments that generate high information flows requiring quick processing. Mechanical ventilation is a good example of a process that requires skilful and timely management of multiple parameters that could be delegated to closed-loop systems. Availability of commercial offerings, validated by randomized controlled trials in a well-defined set of clinical situations, is starting to fulfill the promise of intelligent systems skillfully assisting caregivers at the bedside.
A 2.8 mW/Gb/s, 14 Gb/s Serial Link Transceiver

Design techniques to improve energy efficiency of serial link transceivers are presented. Power consumption is reduced by using: 1) low-power clock generation, recovery, and distribution schemes; 2) charge-based circuits to implement analog front-end and samplers/flip-flops; and 3) a partially segmented voltage-mode (VM) output driver. An <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$LC$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-oscillator based digital phase-locked loop (PLL) is used to generate a low jitter clock that is shared between the transmitter (Tx) and receiver (Rx). The clock recovery unit uses a local ring-oscillator based PLL to reduce the number of phase interpolators and the amount of high-frequency clock distribution. Charge-based samplers that were shown to operate with limited return-to-zero voltage swings and consume only dynamic power are modified to provide non-return-to-zero outputs and used extensively in the deserializer and Rx front-end circuits. A partially segmented VM output driver with embedded 2-tap de-emphasis is proposed to reduce power consumption of pre-drivers. Fabricated in a 65 nm CMOS process, the 14 Gb/s transceiver prototype employs aforementioned techniques and achieves an energy efficiency of 2.8 mW/Gb/s. The Tx achieves a phase margin of 0.36 UI (BER = 10<sup>−12</sup>) at the end of an 11 dB loss channel with an energy efficiency of 0.89 mW/Gb/s. The Rx recovers clock with 1.8 ps<sub>rms</sub> long term absolute jitter at BER < 10<sup>−12</sup> and achieves an energy efficiency of 1.69 mW/Gb/s. The <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$LC$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-oscillator based digital PLL achieves an integrated jitter of 0.605 ps<sub>rms</sub> with an energy efficiency of 0.5 mW/GHz at 7 GHz output frequency.