Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cardiovascular and respiratory variability during orthostatic and mental stress: A comparison of entropy estimators

The aim of this study is to characterize cardiovascular and respiratory signals during orthostatic and mental stress as reflected in indices of entropy and complexity, providing a comparison between the performance of different estimators. To this end, the heart rate variability, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure and respiration time series were extracted from the recordings of 61 healthy volunteers undergoing a protocol consisting of supine rest, head-up tilt test and mental arithmetic task. The analysis was performed in the information domain using measures of entropy and conditional entropy, estimated through model-based (linear) and model-free (binning, nearest neighbor) approaches. Our results show that different types of stress elicited different responses in the employed indices. On one hand, entropy mainly reflected known changes in the variance of physiological time series. On the other hand, the information conveyed by conditional entropy allowed to characterize the complexity of the four time series during the two stress tasks: we found that cardiac and vascular dynamics underwent a reduction in complexity as a consequence of postural stress, while vascular and respiratory complexity increased as a result of mental stress. As for the performance of different estimators, we did not find substantial differences between model-based and model-free approaches, possibly indicating that significant non-linear dynamics did not appear in the studied conditions.
Metaphors of Meltdown: Political Representations of Economic Space in the Asian Financial Crisis

Economic geographers have increasingly acknowledged the importance of discursive constructions and metaphorical representations of economic space. The representational has been recognized as more than just colourful rhetoric, being also a construction of reality that contains implicit understandings of how economic processes work and the corollaries of such processes in terms of government policy. Furthermore, the connections between understanding processes, making policy, and retaining legitimacy mean that such metaphors are highly political. The author explores some of the metaphors that have been employed by political leaders in understanding the Asian financial crisis of 1997–99. Two sets of contrasting metaphors are highlighted in the rhetoric of leaders in Malaysia and Singapore, respectively: in Malaysia, metaphors of colonial domination and militaristic aggression dominate; in Singapore, ‘natural’ metaphors of typhoon damage and tectonic shifts tend to prevail. These representational strategies can be linked to discourses of political power and the construction of economic policy in each context.
Direct Estimation of the Mitochondrial DNA Mutation Rate in Drosophila melanogaster

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variants are widely used in evolutionary genetics as markers for population history and to estimate divergence times among taxa. Inferences of species history are generally based on phylogenetic comparisons, which assume that molecular evolution is clock-like. Between-species comparisons have also been used to estimate the mutation rate, using sites that are thought to evolve neutrally. We directly estimated the mtDNA mutation rate by scanning the mitochondrial genome of Drosophila melanogaster lines that had undergone approximately 200 generations of spontaneous mutation accumulation (MA). We detected a total of 28 point mutations and eight insertion-deletion (indel) mutations, yielding an estimate for the single-nucleotide mutation rate of 6.2 × 10−8 per site per fly generation. Most mutations were heteroplasmic within a line, and their frequency distribution suggests that the effective number of mitochondrial genomes transmitted per female per generation is about 30. We observed repeated occurrences of some indel mutations, suggesting that indel mutational hotspots are common. Among the point mutations, there is a large excess of G→A mutations on the major strand (the sense strand for the majority of mitochondrial genes). These mutations tend to occur at nonsynonymous sites of protein-coding genes, and they are expected to be deleterious, so do not become fixed between species. The overall mtDNA mutation rate per base pair per fly generation in Drosophila is estimated to be about 10× higher than the nuclear mutation rate, but the mitochondrial major strand G→A mutation rate is about 70× higher than the nuclear rate. Silent sites are substantially more strongly biased towards A and T than nonsynonymous sites, consistent with the extreme mutation bias towards A+T. Strand-asymmetric mutation bias, coupled with selection to maintain specific nonsynonymous bases, therefore provides an explanation for the extreme base composition of the mitochondrial genome of Drosophila.
Industrial Clustering and Technological Innovation in China: New Evidence from the ICT Industry in Shenzhen

The relationship between industrial clustering and technological innovation has been a subject of intense enquiry and heated debate. We examine the actual pattern of industrial clustering and technological innovation in China, focusing on the information and communication technology (ICT) industry. With our systematic analysis of the data gathered at the national level we found no significant relationship between spatial agglomeration and economic performance. Our questionnaire survey and personal interviews conducted in Shenzhen—China's leading special economic zone—revealed a peculiar pattern consistent with that at the national level. Although there existed frequent and intensive production linkages among firms in the Shenzhen ICT industrial cluster, the innovative performance of these firms has been rather poor. Most of the ICT manufacturing firms obtained their core technology through internal research and development (R & D) activities rather than through technology transfer or knowledge spillover. There is a lack of interest among firms to seek cooperation and communication based on knowledge, technology, or R & D activities with other firms in the same cluster. The peculiar pattern of clustering and innovation in China suggests that technological innovation may have a divergent regional trajectory more sophisticated than that which has been described in the existing theory of industrial clusters. The study closes with a plea to go beyond a relational turn in economic geography and to take more seriously the roles played by actors and agents within different bounded and grounded institutional and regional contexts.
General Hierarchical Model (GHM) to measure similarity of time series

Similarity query is a frequent subroutine in time series database to find the similar time series of the given one. In this process, similarity measure plays a very important part. The previous methods do not consider the relation between point correspondences and the importance (role) of the points on the content of time series during measuring similarity, resulting in their low accuracies in many real applications. In the paper, we propose a General Hierarchical Model (GHM), which determines the point correspondences by the hierarchies of points. It partitions the points of time series into different hierarchies, and then the points are restricted to be compared with the ones in the same hierarchy. The practical methods can be implemented based on the model with any real requirements, e.g. FFT Hierarchical Measures (FHM) given in this paper. And the hierarchical filtering methods of GHM are provided for range and k-NN queries respectively. Finally, two common data sets were used in k-NN query and clustering experiments to test the effectiveness of our approach and others. The time performance comparisons of all the tested methods were performed using the synthetic data set with various sizes. The experimental results show the superiority of our approach over the competitors. And we also give the experimental powers of the filtering methods proposed in the queries.
Image Velocity, Not Tau, Explains Arrival-Time Judgments From Global Optical Flow

The time-to-passage (TTP; i.e., the time) until an object passes an observer is optically specified by global tau, a variable that operates on the expansion rate of the angle subtended by an object relative to the observer's heading. M. K. Kaiser and L. Mowafy (1993) provided evidence for observers' sensitivity to global tau in a 3-D cloud of point lights. This interpretation is challenged, and it is suggested that TTP judgments are based on a related but much simpler variable, the image velocity of the object. The present study reexamined several factors that are relevant for the extraction of global tau. When global tau and image velocity were brought into conflict by varying the lateral offsets of the targets, observers showed a strong tendency to rely on the latter variable. Other factors that are supposed to affect TTP judgments only if observers relied on global tau, such as flow-field density and gazemovement angle, did not affect performance.
Roles of ERβ and GPR30 in Proliferative Response of Human Bladder Cancer Cell to Estrogen

Bladder cancer belongs to one of the most common cancers and is a leading cause of deaths in our society. Urothelial carcinoma of the bladder (UCB) is the main type of this cancer, and the estrogen receptors in UCB remain to be studied. Our experiment aimed to investigate the possible biological effect of 17β-estradiol on human bladder-derived T24 carcinoma cells and to indicate its related mechanisms. T24 cells were treated with various doses of 17β-estradiol, and cell proliferation was detected using MTT assays. 17β-estradiol promoted T24 cell proliferation independent of ERβ/GPR30-regulated EGFR-MAPK pathway, while it inhibited cell growth via GPR30. Furthermore, the expression levels of downstream genes (c-FOS, BCL-2, and CYCLIN D1) were increased by 17β-estradiol and this effect was independently associated with activity of the EGFR-MAPK pathway. The two estrogen receptors might be potential therapeutic targets for the treatment of bladder cancer.
Investigating Rumor Propagation with TwitterTrails

Social media have become part of modern news reporting, used by journalists to spread information and find sources, or as a news source by individuals. The quest for prominence and recognition on social media sites like Twitter can sometimes eclipse accuracy and lead to the spread of false information. As a way to study and react to this trend, we introduce {\sc TwitterTrails}, an interactive, web-based tool ({\tt twittertrails.com}) that allows users to investigate the origin and propagation characteristics of a rumor and its refutation, if any, on Twitter. Visualizations of burst activity, propagation timeline, retweet and co-retweeted networks help its users trace the spread of a story. Within minutes {\sc TwitterTrails} will collect relevant tweets and automatically answer several important questions regarding a rumor: its originator, burst characteristics, propagators and main actors according to the audience. In addition, it will compute and report the rumor's level of visibility and, as an example of the power of crowdsourcing, the audience's skepticism towards it which correlates with the rumor's credibility. We envision {\sc TwitterTrails} as valuable tool for individual use, but we especially for amateur and professional journalists investigating recent and breaking stories. Further, its expanding collection of investigated rumors can be used to answer questions regarding the amount and success of misinformation on Twitter.
Alternative Household Water Systems: Perceptions of Knowledge and Trust Among Residents of South East Queensland

Abstract This study uses discourse analysis to examine the ways urban households in South East Queensland (N=10) talk about water issues and decentralized (i.e., on-site, separate from the grid) water systems, as well as their trust in new water technology. Analysis of talk and language showed that participants constructed the concept of “water” as a precious resource and described an underlying water culture in which interactions with water resources were embedded. Participants often described themselves as being accepting of decentralized technology, in particular, rainwater tanks, but also provided strong rationalizations for why their homes did not have such systems installed. Important knowledge gaps were found to exist relevant to water issues affecting urban regions, despite participants constructing themselves as highly aware of these issues. Perceptions of mistrust and limited confidence in the governance of alternative water systems were highlighted as a concern. These findings demonstrated vari.
Alternative models of dialect death : Dissipation vs. concentration

The comparison of the moribund dialects of Ocracoke Island, North Carolina, and Smith Island, Maryland, demonstrates that valuable insight into the patterning of variation and change in language death can be obtained by investigating moribund varieties of healthy languages. In addition, it is crucial to investigate not only cases of death by linguistic decay (DISSIPATION), but also cases of death by population attrition in which linguistic distinctiveness is maintained or heightened among fewer speakers (CONCENTRATION). The comparative investigation of both types of language death lends insight into the macrolevel socioeconomic and microlevel sociopsychological factors that lead to the maintenance or demise of moribund languages and language varieties, as well as the nature of change in language death. It is demonstrated that change in both concentrating and dissipating varieties is rapid but otherwise indistinct from change in healthy varieties and that unusual patterns of variation and change can be explained by appealing to the social significance of language features.
SERBO-CROATIAN PITCH ACCENT: THE INTERACTION OF TONE, STRESS, AND INTONATION

This article develops an autosegmental account of tone and stress in Serbo-Croatian. The traditional four accents of Serbo-Croatian are decomposed into two independent subcomponents within the accentual system: tone and stress. While tone participates in lexical contrasts, the location of stress is predictable from that of tone, and in this respect Serbo-Croatian represents a previously unattested type of pitch-accent language. The analysis extends naturally to a range of intonation data, some of which are beyond the scope of earlier accounts. * Serbo-Croatian is one of many languages whose accentual system falls under the somewhat elusive heading of pitch accent. In this paper we address the question of what exactly this abstract entity consists of, concluding that pitch accent can be broken down into several component parts. We show that tone and stress are the two operative phonological entities sufficient to characterize prosody in Serbo-Croatian, rendering the term 'accent' superfluous. Using the tools of autosegmental phonology and underspecification theory, we account for the distribution of Serbo-Croatian 'accents' solely in terms of tone: stress, by being totally predictable from tone, makes no contribution to lexical contrasts. We offer a simple and comprehensive account of the data that have been described in the literature. Moreover, our approach extends naturally to cover a range of intonation data which have not been discussed in the literature before
Hemogram responses in goats toward challenged with Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis and its immunogen mycolic acids

Aim:: This study was conducted to analyze the changes in blood profile of goats inoculated with Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis and its immunogen mycolic acid (MA) extract. Materials and Methods:: A total of 12 clinically healthy crossbred Boer female goats were divided into three groups; A, B and C (4 goats each per group). Group A was inoculated with 2 ml sterile phosphate buffered saline via intradermal route as the negative control group whilst Group B was inoculated with 2 ml of MA extract (1 g/ml) intradermally and Group C was then inoculated with 2 ml (1×109) colony forming unit of active C. pseudotuberculosis intradermally. Blood sample was collected aseptically from the jugular vein periodically for complete blood count (CBC) analysis throughout the experimental period (3 months). Result:: A significant decrease (p<0.05) was observed in red blood cells, hemoglobin (Hb), packed cell volume, mean corpuscular volume and mean corpuscular Hb concentration in Groups B and C as compared to the control while WBCs, neutrophil, lymphocyte and basophil showed a significant increase (p<0.05) as compared to the control. Conclusion:: The inoculation of C. pseudotuberculosis and MA resulted in a significant change in the CBC, thereby, indicating that MA has a role in caseous lymphadenitis pathogenesis.
Software-Based Online Detection of Hardware Defects Mechanisms, Architectural Support, and Evaluation

As silicon process technology scales deeper into the nanometer regime, hardware defects are becoming more common. Such defects are bound to hinder the correct operation of future processor systems, unless new online techniques become available to detect and to tolerate them while preserving the integrity of software applications running on the system. This paper proposes a new, software-based, defect detection and diagnosis technique. We introduce a novel set of instructions, called access-control extension (ACE), that can access and control the microprocessor's internal state. Special firmware periodically suspends microprocessor execution and uses the ACE instructions to run directed tests on the hardware. When a hardware defect is present, these tests can diagnose and locate it, and then activate system repair through resource reconfiguration. The software nature of our framework makes it flexible: testing techniques can be modified/upgraded in the field to trade off performance with reliability without requiring any change to the hardware. We evaluated our technique on a commercial chip-multiprocessor based on Sun's Niagara and found that it can provide very high coverage, with 99.22% of all silicon defects detected. Moreover, our results show that the average performance overhead of software-based testing is only 5.5%. Based on a detailed RTL-level implementation of our technique, we find its area overhead to be quite modest, with only a 5.8% increase in total chip area.
Assessment of Methods for Rapid Intraoperative Concentration and Selection of Marrow-Derived Connective Tissue Progenitors for Bone Regeneration Using the Canine Femoral Multidefect Model

Treatment of large bone defects remains an unsolved clinical challenge, despite a wide array of existing bone graft materials and strategies. Local deficiency in osteogenic connective tissue progenitors (CTP-Os) due to tissue loss is one of the central biological barriers to bone regeneration. Density separation (DS) and selective retention (SR) represent two promising methods that can be used intraoperatively to rapidly concentrate cells and potentially select CTP-Os. This project was designed to compare DS and SR using the canine femoral multidefect (CFMD) model. Mineralized cancellous allograft (MCA) was used as a standardized scaffold for cell transplantation. Two experiments were performed using a cohort of six animals in each comparison. In Cohort I, unprocessed bone marrow aspirate (BMA) clot was compared to DS processing. MCA combined with raw BMA or DS processed cells produced a robust and advanced stage of bone regeneration throughout the defect in 4 weeks with reconstitution of hematopoietic marrow. However, the retention of DS processed cells and CTP-Os in the MCA matrix was low compared to BMA clot. In Cohort II, MCA with DS-T cells (addition of calcium chloride thrombin to induce clotting and enhance cell and CTP-O retention) was compared to MCA with SR cells. A mean of 276 ± 86 million nucleated cells and 29,030 ± 10,510 CTP-Os were implanted per defect in the DS-T group. A mean of 76 ± 42 million nucleated cells and 30,266 ± 15,850 CTP-Os were implanted in the SR group. Bone formation was robust and not different between treatments. Histologically, both groups demonstrated regeneration of hematopoietic marrow tissue. However, SR sites contained more hematopoietic vascular tissues, less fibrosis, and less residual allograft, particularly in the intramedullary cavity, suggesting a more advanced stage of remodeling (p = 0.04). These data demonstrate excellent overall performance of DS and SR processing methods. Both methods achieve a bone regeneration response that approaches the limits of performance that can be achieved in the CFMD model. Further advancement and comparison of these intraoperative bone marrow cell processing methods will require use of a larger and more biologically compromised defect site to guide the next steps of preclinical development and optimization.
Moral Education in Early Childhood: The Limits of Constructivism

Broadly speaking there are two polar views on moral education - traditionalism and progressivism. Traditionalists tend to believe that moral values are eternal and universal. They prioritize such "hard" virtues as discipline, courage, restraint, and obedience, and believe in directive behavioral instruction with meaningful consequences for rule-following and rule-breaking. Progressives, the dominant voice in early childhood education, believe that moral values are variable, dependent on social context. They prioritize such "soft" virtues as unselfishness, caring, generosity, and tolerance, and believe virtues are acquired in a "sociomoral environment" of nurturing adults who stress cooperative interchanges and minimal authority. While most programs, despite their "tilt," acknowledge the need for a balance, they do not specify criteria for making the pedagogical decisions. Without such explicit criteria, a "strong" version of constructivism may demand more of children than they can deliver given their developmental limitations. Two criteria are suggested for determining when traditional methods may usefully supplement constructivist ones: First, one must decide if the matter at stake is a bottom-line non-negotiable value such that a child's dissension is unacceptable. Second, one must determine if the preschooler, given her cognitive egocentricity, moral realism, and "romancing of reality" can make a rational (decentered) choice. There follows a more detailed discussion of blended approaches (traditional and constructivist) within the overall goal of helping children build a moral identity.