Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Penalized additive regression for space-time data: a Bayesian perspective

We propose extensions of penalized spline generalized additive models for analysing space-time regression data and study them from a Bayesian perspective. Non-linear effects of continuous covariates and time trends are modelled through Bayesian versions of penalized splines, while correlated spatial effects follow a Markov random field prior. This allows to treat all functions and effects within a unified general framework by assigning appropriate priors with different forms and degrees of smoothness. Inference can be performed either with full (FB) or empirical Bayes (EB) posterior analysis. FB inference using MCMC techniques is a slight extension of own previous work. For EB inference, a computationally efficient solution is developed on the basis of a generalized linear mixed model representation. The second approach can be viewed as posterior mode estimation and is closely related to penalized likelihood estimation in a frequentist setting. Variance components, corresponding to smoothing parameters, are then estimated by using marginal likelihood. We carefully compare both inferential procedures in simulation studies and illustrate them through real data applications. The methodology is available in the open domain statistical package BayesX and as an S-plus/R function.
A Novel Pathogen- and Wound-Inducible Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) Protein with Antifungal Activity

A novel pathogen- and wound-inducible antifungal protein of 20 kD was purified from tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) Samsun NN leaves inoculated with tobacco mosaic virus (TMV). The protein, designated CBP20, was purified by chitin-affinity chromatography and gel filtration. In vitro assays demonstrated that CBP20 exhibits antifungal activity toward Trichoderma viride and Fusarium solani by causing lysis of the germ tubes and/or growth inhibition. In addition it was shown that CBP20 acts synergistically with a tobacco class I chitinase against F. solani and with a tobacco class I [beta]-1,3-glucanase against F. solani and Alternaria radicina. Analysis of the protein and corresponding cDNAs revealed that CBP20 contains an N-terminal chitin-binding domain that is present also in the class I chitinases of tobacco, the putative wound-induced (WIN) proteins of potato, WIN1 and WIN2, and several plant lectins. The C-terminal domain of CBP20 showed high identity with tobacco pathogenesis-related (PR) proteins, PR-4a and PR-4b, tomato PR-P2, and potato WIN1 and WIN2. CBP20 is synthesized as a prepro-protein, which is processed into the mature protein by the removal of an N-terminal signal peptide and a C-terminal propeptide, most likely involved in the vacuolar targeting of the protein. The intracellular localization of CBP20 and its induction upon TMV infection and wounding indicate that CBP20 is the first class I PR-4 type protein purified.
Thermal compression bonding for fine pitch solder interconnects

Thermal Compression Flip Chip bonding (TCFC) is a new interconnection technology in electronic packaging. With decreasing pitch of solder interconnects, traditional mass reflow solder bump faces the risk of shorting and non-wets for very fine pitch devices. The drive for ever-increasing numbers of interconnects, coupled with limited package size, necessitates finer pitch flip-chip solutions. In this paper, we introduce a TCFC-bonded copper pillar with solder cap interconnect solution, using non-conductive paste (NCP) on a laminate substrate with busless surface finish. This TCFC interconnect provides improved ELK performance relative to traditional mass reflow. The challenges to achieve a reliable TCFC solder joint structure will be discussed from different aspects such as assembly process, substrate surface finish and reliability testing.
Breeder nutrition and offspring performance

Vertical integration in poultry industry strongly emphasizes the importance of cost control at all levels. In the usual broiler production operations, the costs involved with the production of the hatching egg or the day old chick are negligible if seen in the perspective of the cost per kg of live bird. From a research point of view, anyway, the greatest attention is usually given to the performance of broiler breeders, and most of the research in the field is focused on the improvement of their relative performance, mainly in terms of saleable chicks produced per hen, while less attention has been given to the quality of the chick and to the improvement of its growth performances, even if these last parameters have an effective impact on the overall economics of the poultry growing business. Most of the data available is quite dated, as can be seen from some recent reviews, and in general little attention is given to the impact of parental nutrition on the subsequent broiler performance. It is in fact more usual to find data about dam nutrition influence on egg fertility and hatchability than on subsequent progeny performance. The objectives of this review were to assess, on the basis of published reports, the effects of selected nutrients and anti-nutrients normally prevailing in commercial broiler breeder feeds - vitamins, micro-minerals, mycotoxins, - trying to pinpoint which could be the positive and the negative effects of both on the subsequent broiler performance, with a particular attention to the impact on immune function and carcass yield.
Lactic Acid Efflux from White Skeletal Muscle Is Catalyzed by the Monocarboxylate Transporter Isoform MCT3*

The newly cloned proton-linked monocarboxylate transporter MCT3 was shown by Western blotting and immunofluorescence confocal microscopy to be expressed in all muscle fibers. In contrast, MCT1 is expressed most abundantly in oxidative fibers but is almost totally absent in fast-twitch glycolytic fibers. Thus MCT3 appears to be the major MCT isoform responsible for efflux of glycolytically derived lactic acid from white skeletal muscle. MCT3 is also expressed in several other tissues requiring rapid lactic acid efflux. The expression of both MCT3 and MCT1 was decreased by 40–60% 3 weeks after denervation of rat hind limb muscles, whereas chronic stimulation of the muscles for 7 days increased expression of MCT1 2–3-fold but had no effect on MCT3 expression. The kinetics and substrate and inhibitor specificities of monocarboxylate transport into cell lines expressing only MCT3 or MCT1 have been determined. Differences in the properties of MCT1 and MCT3 are relatively modest, suggesting that the significance of the two isoforms may be related to their regulation rather than their intrinsic properties.
Pulmonary eosinophilia associated with increased airway responsiveness in young racing horses.

Horses are known to acquire small airway disease (SAD), an allergen-induced naturally occurring syndrome of reversible obstructive lung disease accompanied by airway hyperresponsiveness and increased inflammatory cell numbers on bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL). This disorder has received scant attention in young racehorses. The purpose of the present report was to examine the effect of BAL eosinophilia in young racehorses on clinical examination, BAL, hematology, airway responsiveness, and on pulmonary function at rest and after a standardized exercise challenge. Five (3 males, 2 females; age 2.6 +/- 0.9 years) with a history of respiratory compromise and BAL eosinophil differential count > 5% and 6 controls (4 males, 2 females; age 3.5 +/- 1.0 years) training and performing to expectation with normal BAL cell differential (eosinophils < 1%) were studied. Respiratory system clinical examination was performed and expressed as a clinical score. Arterial blood gas measurements, CBC, and pulmonary function testing were performed at rest. Pulmonary mechanics measurements were repeated 1 hour and 20 hours after a standardized treadmill exercise challenge. Incremental histamine inhalation challenge was performed and the concentration of histamine effecting a 35% decrease in dynamic compliance (PC35CDyn) was determined. Significant differences were noted between and controls with regard to clinical score (P = .01), blood eosinophils (P = .04), BAL cell count (P = .04), BAL macrophage differential (P = .04), PC35CDyn (P = .008), and tidal volume and respiratory rate at 20 hours following exercise challenge (P = .05). We conclude that pulmonary eosinophilia and airway hyperresponsiveness are manifest in some young horses without overt airway obstruction at rest. We speculate that these may be early events in the natural progression of heaves.
More than Moore: micro-machined products enable new applications and open new markets

Moore's law and its mapping into International Technology Roadmap of Semiconductors have been the most powerful drivers for the development of the microelectronic industry. In the same silicon manufacturing facilities, micro-electro-mechanical systems have made their appearance, but, unlike CMOS, MEMS' development doesn't need to follow the lithography scaling law for technical and economical reasons. Micro-machined products are penetrating automotive, industrial, medical, and lately, consumer applications. But this is only the beginning. Future wireless sensor networks, domestic robots, smart pills and labs-on-chips have benefit tremendously from next generation, tiny, inexpensive, and low power-consumption MEMS devices
Direct Control of the Inverter Impedance to Achieve Controllable Harmonic Sharing in the Islanded Microgrid

Harmonic current sharing is an important aspect of islanded microgrid due to the presence of nonlinear loads. The existing harmonic current sharing strategies suggest a tradeoff between voltage quality and harmonic sharing effectiveness. In this paper, a novel control strategy is proposed to achieve current harmonic sharing by directly controlling the inherent impedance of the inverter. The proposed technique achieves harmonic sharing, in a distributed generation (DG)-based islanded microgrid, without using any communication infrastructure. This paper also proposes a droop technique to distribute the harmonics generated by the nonlinear load as per the kVA ratings of different DG units in the system. The proposed concept of variable inverter impedance and its application in an islanded microgrid is validated using experimental studies.
Product Aspect Ranking using Sentiment Analysis: A Survey

In today's world, internet is the main origin of information. There are many ecommerce websites available where people discuss on different issues of product. All ecommerce website provide facility to the consumer to give opinion about their product and services. Consumer reviews contain rich and valuable knowledge for both firms and users. The problem with this information is that these reviews are mostly unorganized therefore creating difficulty for information transfer knowledge accession. We propose a product aspect ranking framework, which automatically determine the important aspects of products from online consumer reviews, aiming at improving the usability of the countless reviews. The important aspects are identified by two observations, a) The important aspects of a product are usually given by a large number of consumers; b) And consumers' opinions on the important aspects influence their overall opinions on the product. However Identifying important product aspects will increase the usability of numerous reviews and is useful to both consumers and firms. It is impractical for people to manually identify the important aspects of products from numerous reviews. Consumers can conveniently make purchasing decision by paying more attention to the important aspects, while enterprise can focus on improving the quality of these aspects and thus enhance product ranking effectively.
The Influence of Endotoxin on Resistance to Infection.

NDOTOXINS of Gram-negative bacteria can either raise or lower resistance to infection. This variable effect can be partly explained by the dual nature of endotoxin, a substance that is both antigenic and toxic. Toxicity takes the form of abrupt disturbances in leukocytes, body temperature, circulatory dynamics, intestinal motility, carbohydrate metabolism, serum proteins, and endocrine secretion. During the course of these profound abnormalities, it is not surprising that resistance to infection may fall sharply. The antigenic activity of endotoxins, on the other hand, may elevate resistance to infection by stimulating specific immunity to the homologous bacteria. The Gram-negative endotoxins have been designated "O" antigens and their specific immunologic properties provide the only means of distinguishing between endotoxins of different bacterial species. In contrast to these antigenic differences, there is striking uniformity in toxic manifestations of endotoxins from all Gram-negative bacteria. analysis
On the Temperature and Field Dependence of Trap-Assisted Tunneling Current in Ge $\hbox{p}^{+}\hbox{n}$ Junctions

The temperature dependence of the trap-assisted tunneling (TAT) current component in Ge p+n junctions has been studied between 25degC and 140degC. It is shown that the impact of TAT reduces significantly due to the combination of the negative thermal activation of the TAT-enhancement factor and the exponential increase of the diffusion current with temperature. It is shown that the experimental data can be well described in the frame of the Hurkx analytical model, which allows a fairly easy assessment of the TAT current contribution to the junction leakage current at realistic operation temperatures of Ge CMOS circuits.
Chemotherapy, radiotherapy and combined modality for Hodgkin's disease, with emphasis on second cancer risk.

BACKGROUND Second malignancies (SM) are a major late effect of treatment for Hodgkin's disease (HD). Reliable comparisons of SM risk between alternative treatment strategies are lacking. OBJECTIVES Radiotherapy (RT), chemotherapy (CT) and combined chemo-radiotherapy (CRT) for newly-diagnosed Hodgkin's disease are compared with respect to SM risk, overall (OS) and progression-free (PFS) survival. Further, involved-field (IF-)RT is compared to extended-field (EF-)RT. SEARCH STRATEGY We searched the Cochrane Controlled Trials Register, PubMed, EMBASE, CancerLit, LILACS, relevant conference proceedings, trials lists and publications. SELECTION CRITERIA RCTs accruing 30+ patients and completing accrual before/during 2000, comparing at least two treatment modalities for newly-diagnosed HD. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS Individual patient data were collected and assessed for data quality. Trialists submitted additional information concerning methods and data quality. Peto Odds Ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated for OS, PFS and SM-free survival. Secondary acute leukemia (AL), non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) and solid tumours (ST) were also analysed separately. MAIN RESULTS 37 trials (9312 patients) were analysed: 15 (3343) for RT vs. CRT, 16 (2861) for CT vs. CRT, 3 (415) for RT vs. CT and 10 (3221) for IF-RT vs. EF-RT.CRT was superior to RT in terms of OS (OR=0.76, CI=0.66 to 0.89, p=0.0004), PFS (OR=0.49, CI=0.43 to 0.56, p<0.0001) and SM (OR=0.78. CI=0.62 to 0.98, p=0.03). The superiority of CRT also applied to early and advanced stages (mainly IIIA) separately. Excess SM with RT is due mainly to ST and is apparently caused by greater need for salvage therapy after RT.CRT was superior to CT in terms of PFS (OR=77, CI 0.68 to 0.77, p<0.0001). OS was better with CRT for early stages only (OR=0.62, CI 0.44 to 0.88, p=0.006). SM risk was higher with CRT (OR=1.38, CI 1.00 to 1.89, p=0.05), although not significant for early stages alone. This effect, also seen in AL and ST separately, was due directly to first-line treatment. Data were insufficient to compare RT to CT.EF-RT was superior to IF-RT (each additional to CT in most trials) in terms of PFS (OR=81, CI 0.68 to 0.95, p=0.009) but not OS. No significant difference in SM was observed. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS CRT seems to be optimal for most early stage (I-II) HD patients. For advanced stages (III-IV), CRT better prevents progression/relapse but CT alone seems to cause less SM. RT alone gives a higher overall SM risk than CRT due to increased need for salvage therapy. Reduced SM risk after IF-RT instead of EF-RT could not be demonstrated. Due to the large number of studies excluded because no IPD were received, to the inclusion of many outdated treatments and to the limited amount of long-term data, one must be cautious in applying these results to current therapies.
DNA polymerase η is a limiting factor for A:T mutations in Ig genes and contributes to antibody affinity maturation

DNA polymerase η (POLH) is required for the generation of A:T mutations during the somatic hypermutation of Ig genes in germinal center B cells. It remains unclear, however, whether POLH is a limiting factor for A:T mutations and how the absence of POLH might affect antibody affinity maturation. We found that the heterozygous Polh+/− mice exhibited a significant reduction in the frequency of A:T mutations in Ig genes, with each type of base substitutions at a level intermediate between the Polh+/+ and Polh−/− mice. These observations suggest that Polh is haplo‐insufficient for the induction of A:T mutations in Ig genes. Intriguingly, there was also a reduction of C to T and G to A transitions in Polh+/− mice as compared with WT mice. Polh−/− mice produced decreased serum titers of high‐affinity antibodies against a T‐dependent antigen, which was associated with a significant reduction in the number of plasma cells secreting high‐affinity antibodies. Analysis of the V region revealed that aa substitutions caused by A:T mutations were greatly reduced in Polh−/− mice. These results demonstrate that POLH is a limiting factor for A:T mutations and contributes to the efficient diversification of Ig genes and affinity maturation of antibodies.
A mini-atlas of the human blastocyst in vitro

Over the past two decades advances in reproductive biology and medicine have made important strides in alleviating many conditions of sub-sterility in the human. It is the general consensus that gametes and embryos from other mammalian species are not good models for the study of human embryology and therefore assisted reproductive technologies have also been fundamental and opportune in providing material for the systematic study of human embryology. A global increase in human reproductive incompetence due to environmental stress make such studies essential.
E-Learning 2.0? - Diskussionspunkte auf dem Weg zu einer neuen Informations- und Kommunikationsinfrastruktur in der Hochschulausbildung

Interactive technologies and collaborative phenomena of Web 2.0 offer new opportunities for enhancing higher education. On the one hand E-Learning 2.0 enables changes in formal educational scenarios, for example the incorporation of blog and wikis in single lectures. On the other, hand social technologies and social phenomena of Web 2.0 offers possibilities to build up new information and communication infrastructures to connect all university members. The paper argues that such a rather knowledge management based focus on E-Learning 2.0 in that web 2.0 technologies and social phenomena could and should be seen as a chance to open new communication channels that reach beyond formal course scenarios. These are often not supported by the currently rather restricted or closed learn management systems.
Self-Report of Right-Left Confusion in College Men and Women

Self-report questionnaires of difficulty in right-left discrimination and handedness were given to 575 male and 607 female undergraduates. Significantly more men and lefthanders reported having right-left confusion frequently or all the time. The validity of such self-report measures in predicting actual performance on right-left discrimination tasks is questioned since the results, at least as a function of handedness, depended on the question asked.
Temporal and Spectral Characteristics of Short Bursts from the Soft Gamma Repeaters 1806–20 and 1900+14

We study the temporal and coarse spectral properties of 268 bursts from SGR 1806-20 and 679 bursts from SGR 1900+14, all observed with the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer/Proportional Counter Array. Hardness ratios and temporal parameters, such as T90 durations and τ90 emission times are determined for these bursts. We find a lognormal distribution of burst durations, ranging over more than 2 orders of magnitude: T90 ~ 10-2 to ≳1 s, with a peak at ~0.1 s. The burst light curves tend to be asymmetrical, with more than half of all events showing rise times tr < 0.3 T90. We find that there exists a correlation between the duration and fluence of bursts from both sources. We also find a significant anticorrelation between hardness ratio and fluence for SGR 1806-20 bursts and a marginal anticorrelation for SGR 1900+14 events. Finally, we discuss possible physical implications of these results within the framework of the magnetar model.
Determinants of MicroRNA Processing Inhibition by the Developmentally Regulated RNA-binding Protein Lin28*

The developmentally regulated RNA-binding protein Lin28 blocks processing of let-7 family microRNAs (miRNAs) in embryonic cells. The molecular basis for this selective miRNA processing block is unknown. Here we find that Lin28 selectively binds the terminal loop region of let-7 precursors in vitro and that the loop mediates miRNA processing inhibition in vivo. Additionally, we identify the domains of Lin28 required for this inhibition. These findings establish a regulatory role for the terminal loop of precursors in miRNA maturation and provide insight into the mechanism by which Lin28 negatively regulates let-7 processing.
Direct and Inverse Medium Scattering in a Three-Dimensional Homogeneous Planar Waveguide

Time-harmonic acoustic waves in an ocean of finite height are modeled by the Helmholtz equation inside a layer with suitable boundary conditions. Scattering in this geometry features phenomena unknown in free space: resonances might occur at special frequencies, and wave fields consist of partly evanescent modes. Inverse scattering in waveguides hence needs to cope with energy loss and limited aperture data due to the planar geometry. In this paper, we analyze direct wave scattering in a three-dimensional planar waveguide and show that resonance frequencies do not exist for a certain class of bounded penetrable scatterers. More important, we propose the factorization method for solving inverse scattering problems in the three-dimensional waveguide. This fast inversion method requires near-field data for special incident fields, and we rigorously show how to generate this data from standard point sources. Finally, we discuss our theoretical results in light of numerical examples.