Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Endocrine disrupting chemicals

In the past 200 years, an enormous number of synthetic chemicals with diverse structural features have been produced for industrial, medical and domestic purposes. These chemicals, originally thought to have little or no biological toxicity, are widely used in our daily lives and commonly present in foods. It was not until the first World Wildlife Federation Wingspread Conference held in 1994 that concerns about the endocrine disrupting (ED) effects of these chemicals were articulated. The potential hazardous effects of endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) on human health and ecological well-being are one of the global concerns that affect the health and propagation of human beings. Considerable numbers of studies indicated that endocrine disruption is linked to “the developmental basis of adult disease”, highlighting the significant effects of EDC exposure on a developing organism, leading to the propensity of an individual to develop a disease or dysfunction in later life. In this review, we intend to provide environmental, epidemiological and experimental data to associate pollutant exposure with reproductive disorders, in particular on the development and function of the male reproductive system. Possible effects of pollutant exposure on the processes of embryonic development, like sex determination and masculinization are described. In addition, the effects of pollutant exposure on hypothalamus-pituitary-gonadal axis, testicular signaling, steroidogenesis and spermatogenesis are also discussed.
Loss of circadian clock gene expression is associated with tumor progression in breast cancer

Several studies suggest a link between circadian rhythm disturbances and tumorigenesis. However, the association between circadian clock genes and prognosis in breast cancer has not been systematically studied. Therefore, we examined the expression of 17 clock components in tumors from 766 node-negative breast cancer patients that were untreated in both neoadjuvant and adjuvant settings. In addition, their association with metastasis-free survival (MFS) and correlation to clinicopathological parameters were investigated. Aiming to estimate functionality of the clockwork, we studied clock gene expression relationships by correlation analysis. Higher expression of several clock genes (e.g., CLOCK, PER1, PER2, PER3, CRY2, NPAS2 and RORC) was found to be associated with longer MFS in univariate Cox regression analyses (HR<1 and FDR-adjusted P < 0.05). Stratification according to molecular subtype revealed prognostic relevance for PER1, PER3, CRY2 and NFIL3 in the ER+/HER2- subgroup, CLOCK and NPAS2 in the ER-/HER2- subtype, and ARNTL2 in HER2+ breast cancer. In the multivariate Cox model, only PER3 (HR = 0.66; P = 0.016) and RORC (HR = 0.42; P = 0.003) were found to be associated with survival outcome independent of established clinicopathological parameters. Pairwise correlations between functionally-related clock genes (e.g., PER2-PER3 and CRY2-PER3) were stronger in ER+, HER2- and low-grade carcinomas; whereas, weaker correlation coefficients were observed in ER- and HER2+ tumors, high-grade tumors and tumors that progressed to metastatic disease. In conclusion, loss of clock genes is associated with worse prognosis in breast cancer. Coordinated co-expression of clock genes, indicative of a functional circadian clock, is maintained in ER+, HER2-, low grade and non-metastasizing tumors but is compromised in more aggressive carcinomas.
Implementation of Otsu's thresholding process based on FPGA

Otsu's global automatic image thresholding method has been widely employed in various real-time applications. In this paper, an implementation on FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) using Altera's Cyclone II series chip for the BCVC (Between Class Variance Computation) of Otsu's method is presented to meet these high speed requirements. The hardware implementation takes advantage of parallel computation capabilities offered by FPGA technology. The proposed architecture employs Altera's megacore to eliminate the complex divisions and multiplications in the Otsu's procedure. The FPGA implementation architecture is verified on DE2 board to enable real-time image segmentation, and the experimental results indicate that the system can obtain a good performance of image segmentation.
Generalized Crick equations for modeling noncanonical coiled coils.

Crick envisaged the alpha-helical coiled coil to result from systematic bending of an alpha-helix such that every seventh residue was structurally equivalent, and he derived equations for the coordinates of the backbone atoms. Crick's predictions were vindicated experimentally and coiled-coil sequences were shown to have hydrophobic residues alternately spaced 3 and 4 residues apart. Nonetheless, in some coiled coils such canonical heptad repeats are interrupted by inserts of 3 or 4 residues generating decad and hendecad motifs. The supercoiling of the coiled coils varies with the sequence pattern, being left- or right-handed in purely heptad-based or hendecad-based motifs, respectively. To model coiled coils with a mixture of motifs, we describe how Crick's equations can be modified for cases where the pitch is not constant. Using the analogy of the bending of a beam, we took the tilt angle to change linearly with distance along the major helix and the pitch of a motif to be affected by neighboring motifs depending on the rigidity of the alpha-helical strands. We tested our approach by fitting the two-, three-, and four-stranded noncanonical coiled coils of GrpE, hemagglutinin, and tetrabrachion. The backbone atoms of the model and crystal structures agreed with root mean square deviations of <1.1 A.
A 1.3-V 5-mW fully integrated tunable bandpass filter at 2.1 GHz in 0.35-μm CMOS

A 2.1-GHz 1.3-V 5-mW fully integrated Q-enhancement LC bandpass biquad programmable in f/sub o/, Q, and peak gain is implemented in 0.35-/spl mu/m standard CMOS technology. The filter uses a resonator built with spiral inductors and inversion-mode pMOS capacitors that provide frequency tuning. The Q tuning is through an adjustable negative-conductance generator, whereas the peak gain is tuned through an input G/sub m/ stage. Noise and nonlinearity analyses presented demonstrate the design tradeoffs involved. Measured frequency tuning range around 2.1 GHz is 13%. Spiral inductors with Q/sub o/ of 2 at 2.1 GHz limit the spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR) at 31-34 dB within the frequency tuning range. Measurements show that the peak gain can be tuned within a range of around two octaves. The filter sinks 4 mA from a 1.3-V supply providing a Q of 40 at 2.19 GHz with a 1-dB compression point dynamic range of 35 dB. The circuit operates with supply voltages ranging from 1.2 to 3 V. The silicon area is 0.1 mm/sup 2/.
BER-optimized power allocation for amplify-and-forward in single relay system

In single relay non-cooperative amplify-and-forward (AaF) system, taking into account both long-term path loss and short-term Rayleigh fading, a closed form expression to distribute total power optimally among source and relay is obtained, which minimize end-to-end BER. The simulation results under various channel conditions and scenarios show that it is consistent with theoretical analysis, and optimal power allocation is realized to minimize BER in a simple way.
Financing Transportation Networks

Pollution, alternative fuels, congestion, intelligent transportation systems, and the shift from construction to maintenance all call for a reconsideration of the existing highway revenue mechanisms, especially the gas tax. David Levinson explores the fundamental theoretical basis of highway finance, in particular the use of tolls, and supports that theory with empirical evidence. The author examines highway finance from the perspective of individual jurisdictions and travellers, and considers their interactions rather than specifying a single optimal solution. Congestion pricing has long been a goal of transportation economists, who believe it will result in a more efficient use of resources. Levinson argues that if the governance were to become more decentralized, and collection costs continue to drop, tolls could return to prominence as the preferred means of financing roads for both local and intercity travel. An approach that creates the local winners necessary to implement road pricing is required before it can be expected to become widespread.
Activation Mechanism of Anticoagulant Protein C in Large Blood Vessels Involving the Endothelial Cell Protein C Receptor

Protein C is an important regulatory mechanism of blood coagulation. Protein C functions as an anticoagulant when converted to the active serine protease form on the endothelial cell surface. Thrombomodulin (TM), an endothelial cell surface receptor specific for thrombin, has been identified as an essential component for protein C activation. Although protein C can be activated directly by the thrombin–TM complex, the conversion is known as a relatively low-affinity reaction. Therefore, protein C activation has been believed to occur only in microcirculation. On the other hand, we have identified and cloned a novel endothelial cell surface receptor (EPCR) that is capable of high-affinity binding of protein C and activated protein C. In this study, we demonstrate the constitutive, endothelial cell–specific expression of EPCR in vivo. Abundant expression was particularly detected in the aorta and large arteries. In vitro cultured, arterial endothelial cells were also found to express abundant EPCR and were capable of promoting significant levels of protein C activation. EPCR was found to greatly accelerate protein C activation by examining functional activity in transfected cell lines expressing EPCR and/or TM. EPCR decreased the dissociation constant and increased the maximum velocity for protein C activation mediated by the thrombin–TM complex. By these mechanisms, EPCR appears to enable significant levels of protein C activation in large vessels. These results suggest that the protein C anticoagulation pathway is important for the regulation of blood coagulation not only in microvessels but also in large vessels.
Checking timing constraints in distributed object-oriented programs

In real-time systems design-assumptions can be divided into functional and temporal assumptions. While checks for functional correctness are already addressed by some modern programming languages (e.g. Eiffel's pre- and postconditions), checks for temporal correctness are usually out of the scope of the existing programming or runtime systems. Our work in the DIRECT [GKS94] project tries to fill this gap. A methodology for specifying and checking timing constraints in an object-oriented environment is presented. The approach extends previous work on RTL[JM86] (Real-Time Logic) based monitors towards an object-oriented responsive system. The paper focuses on how object-orientation can be utilized to simplify the specification and the checking of timing constraints and how this can be integrated into an existing programming language like C++.
Competition, Innovation and Productivity Growth

This paper reviews recent studies on the links between competition, innovation and productivity growth in the long run. From a long-run perspective, one can see that gains from competition-enhancing regulatory reform are likely to exceed static gains observed in the short run since firms will continue to innovate in ways they would not have under regulation. By taking a dynamic perspective on competition and efficiency, one can also understand better the new modes of competition observed in "dynamically competitive" industries. This paper also attempts to cover some of relatively new research areas including: i) measuring welfare gains from product innovation; ii) competition and efficiency in e-commerce, education, and health care; and iii) interactions between product- and factor-market competition .
A Genetically Defined Morphologically and Functionally Unique Subset of 5-HT Neurons in the Mouse Raphe Nuclei

Heterogeneity of central serotonin (5-HT) raphe neurons is suggested by numerous lines of evidence, but its genetic basis remains elusive. The transcription factor Pet1 is required for the acquisition of serotonergic identity in a majority of neurons in the raphe nuclei. Nevertheless, a subset of 5-HT neurons differentiates in Pet1 knock-out mice. We show here that these residual 5-HT neurons outline a unique subpopulation of raphe neurons with highly selective anatomical targets and characteristic synaptic differentiations. In Pet1 knock-out mice, 5-HT innervation strikingly outlines the brain areas involved in stress responses with dense innervation to the basolateral amygdala, the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus, and the intralaminar thalamic nuclei. In these regions, 5-HT terminals establish asymmetric synaptic junctions. This target selectivity could not be related to altered growth of the remaining 5-HT neurons, as indicated by axon tracing and cell culture analyses. The residual 5-HT axon terminals are functional with maintained release properties in vitro and in vivo. The functional consequence of this uneven distribution of 5-HT innervation on behavior was characterized. Pet1 knock-out mice showed decreased anxiety behavior in novelty exploration and increased fear responses to conditioned aversive cues. Overall, our findings lead us to propose the existence of Pet1-dependent and Pet1-resistant 5-HT neurons targeting different brain centers that might delineate the anatomical basis for a dual serotonergic control on stress responses.
Distance based Detection and Localization of multiple spoofing attackers for wireless networks

Wireless networks are prone to identity based spoofing attacks and tend to degrade network performance. Received Signal Strength (RSS) spatial correlation is usually used for detecting and localizing spoofing attacks. This cannot be applied to environments where RSS value is not stable and varies with distance. This approach is also not desirable for accurate localization of multiple adversaries. This paper proposes Distance based Detection and Localization (DDL) algorithm that adds distance parameter to the existing system to perform spoofing detection and accurate localization of multiple adversaries. In addition, it determines the number of attackers, eliminates them from the network and thereby improves network performance. Simulation results demonstrate that this proposed work provides excellent localization performance and is generic across different technologies including IEEE 802.11 (WiFi) and IEEE 802.15. 4 (ZigBee) networks.
Improved Evidence for a Black Hole in M32 from HST/FOS Spectra. I. Observations

We have obtained spectra through small apertures centered on the nuclear region and major axis of M32 with the Faint Object Spectrograph (FOS) on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). A detailed analysis and reduction of the data is presented, including (1) new calibrations and modeling of the FOS aperture sizes, point-spread function, and line-spread functions; (2) determination of the aperture positioning for each observation from the observed count rate; and (3) accurate wavelength calibration, template matching, and kinematical analysis of the spectra. This yields measurements of the stellar rotation velocities and velocity dispersions near the center of M32 with spatial resolution that is 5 times higher than the best available ground-based data. The inferred velocities provide the highest angular-resolution stellar-kinematical data obtained to date for any stellar system. The HST observations show a steeper rotation curve and higher central velocity dispersion than the ground-based data. The rotation velocity is observed to be ~30 km s-1 at 0. ″1 from the nucleus. This is roughly twice the value measured from the ground at this distance. The nuclear dispersion measured through the smallest FOS aperture (0.″068 square) is 156 ± 10 km s-1. The average of four independent dispersion measurements at various positions inside the central 0. ″1 is 126 km s-1, with a rms scatter of 21 km s-1. The nuclear dispersion measured from the ground is only 85-95 km s-1, whereas the dispersion outside the central arcsecond is only ~45-55 km s-1. These results significantly strengthen previous arguments for the presence of a massive nuclear black hole in M32. Detailed dynamical models are presented in a series of companion papers.
Design of a Beam Forming Dielectric Cylindrical EBG Antenna

A novel dielectric cylindrical electronic bandgap antenna is presented and analysed using an in-house developed Finite-Difierence- Time-Domain software simulator. The design steps and the simulations results of a geometrical parametric study are also presented and discussed, focusing on the design of antennas to operate in the X-band with high directivity patterns on the H-plane. Finally, the measurements results of a set of experiments carried out on a prototype showed very good agreement with simulations: 11% fractional bandwidth at 10GHz and an average gain of 9.5dBi are achieved in the impedance bandwidth with 13dB front-to-back-ratio in the azimuthal plane.
2012 International Conference on Information Management, Innovation Management and Industrial Engineering Insurance Fraud Identification Research Based on Fuzzy Support Vector Machine with Dual Membership

Insurance frauds continue to emerge at home and abroad, the insurance company not only faced with the failure to identify fraud which lead to abuse lose a threat, but also bear the loss of recognizing true insurance claims as insurance fraud. For "overlap" problem in insurance fraud samples, this paper constructs the fuzzy support vector machine model with dual membership, which assigns each insurance fraud sample with dual membership by its relativity to the distance of the two types of sample mean vector. The dual membership can characterize the probability of each insurance fraud sample belonging to two categories. The empirical experiments indicate that the result of dual membership fuzzy support vector machine model is better than the existing insurance fraud recognition model.
De la gestion des grandes voiries à la planification des déplacements urbains. Systèmes d'acteurs et politiques publiques dans l'agglomération grenobloise

47 La question des déplacements urbains mobilise, depuis la fin des années 1970, les acteurs de la scène publique grenobloise. La décision de créer un réseau de tramways est au centre des controverses qui conduisent au printemps 1983 à un changement de majorité municipale. La mobilisation des associations, qu’il s’agisse des unions de quartiers ou de groupements spécialisés, explique en large partie le succès du « oui » lors du référendum organisé à l’automne de cette même année par la municipalité grenobloise à propos de la première ligne de tram. Pourtant, à cette époque, si les transports collectifs intéressent les acteurs de la société civile, les problèmes de voirie restent encore l’affaire des ingénieurs et des techniciens.
Association of Parkinson’s Disease and Its Subtypes with Agricultural Pesticide Exposures in Men: A Case–Control Study in France

Background Pesticides have been associated with Parkinson’s disease (PD), but there are few data on important exposure characteristics such as dose–effect relations. It is unknown whether associations depend on clinical PD subtypes. Objectives We examined quantitative aspects of occupational pesticide exposure associated with PD and investigated whether associations were similar across PD subtypes. Methods As part of a French population-based case–control study including men enrolled in the health insurance plan for farmers and agricultural workers, cases with clinically confirmed PD were identified through antiparkinsonian drug claims. Two controls were matched to each case. Using a comprehensive occupational questionnaire, we computed indicators for different dimensions of exposure (duration, cumulative exposure, intensity). We used conditional logistic regression to compute odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) among exposed male farmers (133 cases, 298 controls). We examined the relation between pesticides and PD subtypes (tremor dominant/non-tremor dominant) using polytomous logistic regression. Results There appeared to be a stronger association with intensity than duration of pesticide exposure based on separate models, as well as a synergistic interaction between duration and intensity (p-interaction = 0.04). High-intensity exposure to insecticides was positively associated with PD among those with low-intensity exposure to fungicides and vice versa, suggesting independent effects. Pesticide exposure in farms that specialized in vineyards was associated with PD (OR = 2.56; 95% CI: 1.31, 4.98). The association with intensity of pesticide use was stronger, although not significantly (p-heterogeneity = 0.60), for tremor-dominant (p-trend < 0.01) than for non-tremor–dominant PD (p-trend = 0.24). Conclusions This study helps to better characterize different aspects of pesticide exposure associated with PD, and shows a significant association of pesticides with tremor-dominant PD in men, the most typical PD presentation. Citation Moisan F, Spinosi J, Delabre L, Gourlet V, Mazurie JL, Bénatru I, Goldberg M, Weisskopf MG, Imbernon E, Tzourio C, Elbaz A. 2015. Association of Parkinson’s disease and its subtypes with agricultural pesticide exposures in men: a case–control study in France. Environ Health Perspect 123:1123–1129; http://dx.doi. org/10.1289/ehp.1307970
Efficient data sharing for multi-device multimedia applications

By utilizing the complementary advantages in screen size, network speed and processing power, the computing devices we own can work together and provide a better user experience. By separating the concerns of an application into components responsible for distinct tasks, these components can run on the different devices where they perform best. As a step towards multi-device applications, we have designed, implemented and tested a collaboration platform for application data sharing, optimized for low producer-to-consumer delay. Distribution trees are built automatically by our system based on latency, and the total producer-to-consumer delays measured in our experiments are below the delay requirements for multimedia applications.
Design of Low Reynolds Number Airfoils with Trips

A design philosophy for low Reynolds number airfoils that judiciously combines the tailoring of the airfoil pressure distribution using a transition ramp with the use of boundary-layer trips is presented. Three airfoils with systematic changes to the shape of the transition ramp have been designed to study the effect of trips on the airfoil performance. The airfoils were wind-tunnel tested with various trip locations and at Reynolds numbers of 100,000 and 300,000 to assess the effectiveness of the design philosophy. The results show that the design philosophy was successfullyusedin integratinga boundary-layertrip from theoutsetin theairfoildesignprocess.FortheReynolds numbers and the range of airfoil shapes considered, however, airfoils designed with trips do not hold any clear advantage over airfoils designed for good performance in the clean condition.
Comercio y Geografía Económica: una nota sobre la contribución de Krugman a la teoría económica

Resumen: El objetivo de esta nota es presentar la contribucion de Paul Krugman a la teoria economica. Se muestra el aporte y la influencia que tienen sus articulos de 1979 y 1991 en la renovacion de la teoria del comercio y la aparicion de la nueva geografia economica. En especial, se muestra que Krugman crea un marco teorico que permite explicar fenomenos como el comercio intraindustrial, el comercio entre los paises desarrollados y los procesos de aglomeracion, bajo escenarios de competencia monopolistica y de rendimientos crecientes a escala. El interes de la contribucion de Krugman estriba en que estos fenomenos no habian podido ser explicados satisfactoriamente por el modelo neoclasico estandar