Growth of meromorphic solutions of higher-order linear differential equations

In this paper, we investigate the higher-order linear differential equations with meromorphic coefficients. We improve and extend a result of M.S. Liu and C.L. Yuan, by using the estimates for the logarithmic derivative of a transcendental meromorphic function due to Gundersen, and the extended Winman-Valiron theory which proved by J. Wang and H.X. Yi. In addition, we also consider the nonhomogeneous linear differential equations

A New Load Transfer Model of Skin Friction for Super-long Pile Under Axially Load

In present investigation, a new load transfer model was proposed, in which the softening and strengthening of super-long pile skin friction was considered. The influence of parameters variation on the softening load transfer model was discussed in detail. The load transfer model proposed was verified by engineering results. The nonlinear iterative calculation method of the super-long piles was improved with considering the nonlinear compression model of concrete and the weight of the pile body. Comparing calculation results and the engineering measured data, it demonstrates that the relationship between pile skin friction and the relative displacement and the settlement results are generally in good agreement with the practical engineering results. The skin friction of super-long piles increases with the increase of the depth, while decreases with the increase of the depth near the end of the pile and it has an obvious downward trend. As the load continues to increase, the skin friction near the pile end increases significantly and shows a gradual expansion of the pattern. It completely reflects the softening and strengthening properties of pile skin friction

SYSTEMATIC POLICY ANALYSIS AND MANAGEMENT

Determining whether a given policy meets a site’s high-level security goals has been a challenging task, due to the low-level nature and complexity of the policy language, various security requirements and the multiple policy violation patterns. In this dissertation, we outline a systematic policy analysis and management approach that enables system administrators to easily identify and resolve various policy violations. Our approach incorporates a domain-based isolation model to address the security requirements and visualization mechanisms to provide the policy administrator with intuitive cognitive sense about the policy analysis and policy violations. Based on the domain-based isolation model and the policy visualization mechanisms, we develop a visualization-based policy analysis and management framework. We also describe our implementation of a visualization-based policy analysis and management tool that provides the functionalities discussed in our framework. In addition, a user study is performed and the result is included as part of our evaluation efforts for the prototype system. One important application of our policy analysis and management is to support remote attestation. Remote attestation is an important mechanism to provide the trustworthiness proof of a computing system by verifying its integrity. In our work, we propose a remote attestation framework, called Dynamic Remote Attestation Framework and Tactics (DR@FT), for efficiently attesting a target system based on our extended visualization-based policy analysis and management approach. In addition, we adopt the proposed visualization-based policy violation expression to represent integrity violations with a ranked violation graph, which supports intuitive reasoning of attestation results. We also describe our experiments and performance evaluation

Evaluating and Inducing Personality in Pre-trained Language Models

Standardized and quantified evaluation of machine behaviors is a crux of understanding LLMs. In this study, we draw inspiration from psychometric studies by leveraging human personality theory as a tool for studying machine behaviors. Originating as a philosophical quest for human behaviors, the study of personality delves into how individuals differ in thinking, feeling, and behaving. Toward building and understanding human-like social machines, we are motivated to ask: Can we assess machine behaviors by leveraging human psychometric tests in a principled and quantitative manner? If so, can we induce a specific personality in LLMs? To answer these questions, we introduce the Machine Personality Inventory (MPI) tool for studying machine behaviors; MPI follows standardized personality tests, built upon the Big Five Personality Factors (Big Five) theory and personality assessment inventories. By systematically evaluating LLMs with MPI, we provide the first piece of evidence demonstrating the efficacy of MPI in studying LLMs behaviors. We further devise a Personality Prompting (P^2) method to induce LLMs with specific personalities in a controllable way, capable of producing diverse and verifiable behaviors. We hope this work sheds light on future studies by adopting personality as the essential indicator for various downstream tasks, and could further motivate research into equally intriguing human-like machine behaviors.Comment: Accepted at NeurIPS 2023 (Spotlight

Dilation of Retinal Arterioles in Response to Lactate: Role of Nitric Oxide, Guanylyl Cyclase, and ATP-Sensitive Potassium Channels

PURPOSE. Lactate, a key metabolite in the retinal tissue, has been implicated in regulating retinal blood flow to match retinal metabolic demand. However, the direct effect of lactate on retinal vascular tone and the possible underlying signaling mechanisms remain unknown. In the present study, the roles of endothelium-derived vasodilators, guanylyl cyclase, and potassium channels were examined in lactate-induced dilation of retinal arterioles in vitro. METHODS. Porcine second-order retinal arterioles were isolated, cannulated, and pressurized to 55 cm H 2 O lumenal pressure without flow. Diameter changes in response to agonists were recorded with videomicroscopic techniques. RESULTS. All vessels developed basal tone (ϳ70 m in internal diameter) and dilated dose dependently in response to neutralized L-lactate (0.01-10 mM). Inhibition of cyclooxygenase by indomethacin only slightly reduced the vasodilatory response to lactate. In contrast, blockade of monocarboxylate transporters, nitric oxide (NO) synthase, soluble guanylyl cyclase, and ATP-sensitive potassium (K ATP ) channels nearly abolished lactate-induced vasodilation. The cGMP phosphodiesterase inhibitor zaprinast enhanced the vasodilation response to lactate. Similar to the lactate-induced response, the vasodilation elicited by S-nitroso-N-acetylpenicillamine, an NO donor that activates cGMP signaling, was also inhibited by the soluble guanylyl cyclase and K ATP channel blockers. CONCLUSIONS. These data suggest that uptake of lactate by vascular cells via monocarboxylate transporters causes retinal arteriolar dilation predominantly via stimulation of NO synthase and subsequent activation of guanylyl cyclase. The guanylyl cyclase/cGMP signaling triggers opening of K ATP channels for vasodilation. A better understanding of the fundamental signaling pathways responsible for lactate-induced dilation of retinal arterioles may help shed light on the possible mechanisms contributing to the metabolic regulation of retinal blood flow under physiological and pathophysiological conditions. (Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2006;47:693-699

Changes in Life's Essential 8 and risk of cardiovascular disease in Chinese people

Background The American Heart Association recently released an updated algorithm for evaluating cardiovascular health-Life's Essential 8 (LE8). However, the associations between changes in LE8 score over time and risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) remain unclear. Methods We investigated associations between 6-year changes (2006-12) in LE8 score and risk of subsequent CVD events (2012-20) among 53 363 Chinese men and women from the Kailuan Study, who were free from CVD in 2012. The LE8 score was calculated based on eight components: diet quality, physical activity, smoking status, sleep health, body mass index, blood lipids, blood glucose and blood pressure. Multivariable-adjusted Cox proportional-hazards models were used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results We documented 4281 incident CVD cases during a median of 7.7 years of follow-up. Compared with participants whose LE8 scores remained stable in a 6-year period, those with the large increases of LE8 score over the 6-year period had a lower risk of CVD, heart disease and stroke in the subsequent 8 years [HRs and 95% CIs: 0.67 (0.64, 0.70) for CVD, 0.65 (0.61, 0.69) for heart disease, 0.71 (0.67, 0.76) for stroke, all P-trend < 0.001]. Conversely, those with the large decreases of LE8 score had 47%, 51% and 41% higher risk for CVD, heart disease and stroke, respectively. These associations were consistent across the subgroups stratified by risk factors. Conclusions Improving LE8 score in a short- and moderate-term was associated with a lower CVD risk, whereas decreased LE8 score over time was associated with a higher risk

Effects of sunlight on tundra nitrous oxide and methane fluxes in maritime Antarctica

The relationships of nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4) emissions to other environmental parameters have been studied extensively in Antarctic terrestrial ecosystems. However, the effects of sunlight on soil N2O and CH4 fluxes are neglected across the Antarctic tundra. Here, fluxes of N2O and CH4 from maritime Antarctic tundra soils were measured in the absence and presence of sunlight during three summers. The N2O fluxes averaged −4.6±1.2 μg·m−2·h−1 in the absence of sunlight and 5.7±1.5 μg·m−2·h−1 in its presence; CH4 fluxes averaged 119.8±24.5 μg·m−2·h−1 (absence) and −40.5±28.3 μg·m−2·h−1 (presence). The correlations between N2O and CH4 fluxes and other environmental variables (e.g., soil moisture, temperature, organic and inorganic material) were not statistically significant (P>0.05) at all sites. On average, sunlight significantly increased N2O emissions and CH4 uptake by 10.3 μg·m−2·h−1 and 160.3 μg·m−2·h−1, respectively. This study indicates that sunlight is critical for accurately estimating N2O and CH4 budgets from maritime Antarctica and necessary for constraining the role of their emissions from tundra soil