Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Knowledge exchange using Web 2.0 technologies in NGOs

Purpose – Members' knowledge is the most important resource in NGOs and it is important to stimulate its exchange. Knowledge that is needed to act in complex situations is hard to exchange, but Web 2.0 technologies provide a toolbox to develop a knowledge management strategy. The paper aims to specify optimal conditions and necessary measures that NGOs should take in order to successfully use Web 2.0 technologies for knowledge exchange.Design/methodology/approach – NGOs and Web 2.0 technologies have specific characteristics in common. It is suggested that these characteristics require certain prerequisites in order to make the use of Web 2.0 technologies successful. Using an iterative and participative design method, a case study is presented that investigated prior boundary conditions and implemented a Web 2.0‐based platform as knowledge management strategy in a large NGO.Findings – NGOs and Web 2.0 are based on strong voluntariness, they are democratic, contribution and personality are strongly tied to .
Constraining Alternate Models of Black Holes: Type I X-Ray Bursts on Accreting Fermion-Fermion and Boson-Fermion Stars

The existence of black holes remains open to doubt until other conceivable options are excluded. With this motivation, we consider a model of a compact star in which most of the mass consists of dark particles of some kind and a small fraction of the mass is in the form of ordinary nucleonic gas. The gas does not interact with the dark matter other than via gravity, but collects at the center as a separate fermionic fluid component. Depending on whether the dark mass is made of fermions or bosons, the objects may be called fermion-fermion stars or boson-fermion stars, respectively. For appropriate choices of the mass of the dark matter particles, these objects are viable models of black hole candidates in X-ray binaries. We consider models with a dark mass of 10 M☉ and a range of gas mass from 10-6 to ~1 M☉, and analyze the bursting properties of the models when they accrete gas. We show that all the models would experience thermonuclear type I X-ray bursts at appropriate mass-accretion rates. Since no type I bursts have been reported from black hole candidates, the models are ruled out. The case for identifying black hole candidates in X-ray binaries as true black holes is thus strengthened.
Recent Energy Balance of Earth

A recently published estimate of Earth’s global warming trend is 0.63 ± 0.28 W/m2, as calculated from ocean heat content anomaly data spanning 1993-2008. This value is not representative of the recent (2003-2008) warming/cooling rate because of a “flattening” that occurred around 2001-2002. Using only 2003-2008 data from Argo floats, we find by four different algorithms that the recent trend ranges from –0.010 to –0.161 W/m2 with a typical error bar of ±0.2 W/m2. These results fail to support the existence of a frequently-cited large positive computed radiative imbalance.
The Effect of Vitamin C on Parathyroid Hormone in Patients on Hemodialysis With Secondary Hyperparathyroidism: A Double Blind, Placebo-Controlled Study

Background Secondary hyperparathyroidism (SHPT) is a prevalent disorder in patients with chronic kidney disease. It is proffered that there is a contradictory relation between serum level of vitamin C and parathyroid hormone (PTH) in hemodialysis patients with secondary hyperparathyroidism. Objectives The goal of this study was to assess the effects of the supplemental vitamin C on parathyroid hormone among hemodialysis patients with secondary hyperparathyroidism. Patients and Methods This randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind and parallel-group trial was conducted on 82 hemodialysis patients with serum levels of PTH more than 200 pg/mL. In intervention group, 250 mg vitamin C was injected three times a week for 8 weeks in a row immediately at the end of each dialysis session via the intravenous route. In the control group, same term of placebo saline was injected. Results The mean of serum PTH was 699.81 (± 318.8) and 596.03 (± 410.7) pg/mL in intervention and control groups respectively at baseline (reference range, 6 to 66 pg/mL), and at the end of study it changed to 441.4 and 424.6 in these groups. The values of serum Calcium and Phosphate did not significantly change during the study (8.4 ± 0.6 mg/dL versus 8.1 ± 0.8 mg/dL, P = 0.39; 5.89 ± 1.7 mg/dL versus 5.9 ± 1.9 mg/dL, P = 0.08, respectively). Conclusions This study finding does not warranted therapeutic effect of vitamin C on secondary hyperparathyroidism.
An iterative algorithm for joint signal and interference alignment

We consider the problem of signal design for transmission over an interference channel, along the lines of the recently proposed strategy of Interference Alignment. In the framework of interference alignment, each receiver maintains an interference subspace. The transmitters shape their transmissions such that all the interference seen at a particular receiver falls into its interference subspace, hence allowing the remaining receiver space to be used for reception of the useful signal. In contrast to previously proposed iterative interference alignment algorithms for the general interference channel, our proposed technique not only minimizes the interference power that is spilled outside the interference subspace, but also minimizes the signal power that is spilled over into the interference subspace. A weighted optimization technique is proposed to tradeoff between the relative importance associated with the leakage interference and the leakage signal powers. It is proven that the algorithm converges monotonically, and simulation results reveal that the proposed technique outperforms other known algorithms in terms of throughput. Further discussions on generalizing the algorithm are also presented.
Computation of Time Delay Margins for Stability of a Single-Area Load Frequency Control System with Communication Delays

Time delays have become unavoidable in power systems since communication links are extensively used for sending and receiving control signals. This paper investigates the effect of time delays on the stability of a single-area load Frequency Control (LFC) system. A direct and exact method to compute delay margins is presented. The delay margin is the maximum amount of the time delay that the system can tolerate before it becomes unstable for a given operating point.The proposed method starts with the determination of all possible purely imaginary characteristic roots for any positive time delay. To achieve this, Rekasius substitution is first used to convert the transcendental characteristic equation of the LFC system into a polynomial. Then, Routh stability criterion is applied to determine the critical root, the corresponding oscillation frequency and the delay margin for stability. For a wide range of controller gains, delay margins of LFC system are determined to find out the qualitative effect of controller gains on the delay margin. Finally, theoretical delay margin results are verified by using the time-domain simulation capabilities of Matlab/Simulink. Key-Words: -Load Frequency Control System, Time Delay, Stability, Delay Margin
Assessing the Impact of Socioeconomic Variables on Small Area Variations in Suicide Outcomes in England

Ecological studies of suicide and self-harm have established the importance of area variables (e.g., deprivation, social fragmentation) in explaining variations in suicide risk. However, there are likely to be unobserved influences on risk, typically spatially clustered, which can be modeled as random effects. Regression impacts may be biased if no account is taken of spatially structured influences on risk. Furthermore a default assumption of linear effects of area variables may also misstate or understate their impact. This paper considers variations in suicide outcomes for small areas across England, and investigates the impact on them of area socio-economic variables, while also investigating potential nonlinearity in their impact and allowing for spatially clustered unobserved factors. The outcomes are self-harm hospitalisations and suicide mortality over 6,781 Middle Level Super Output Areas.
Inhibition of JNK by a Peptide Inhibitor Reduces Traumatic Brain Injury–Induced Tauopathy in Transgenic Mice

Abstract Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major environmental risk factor for subsequent development of Alzheimer disease (AD). Pathological features that are common to AD and many tauopathies are neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) and neuropil threads composed of hyperphosphorylated tau. Axonal accumulations of total and phospho-tau have been observed within hours to weeks, and intracytoplasmic NFTs have been documented years after severe TBI in humans. We previously reported that controlled cortical impact TBI accelerated tau pathology in young 3xTg-AD mice. Here, we used this TBI mouse model to investigate mechanisms responsible for increased tau phosphorylation and accumulation after brain trauma. We found that TBI resulted in abnormal axonal accumulation of several kinases that phosphorylate tau. Notably, c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) was markedly activated in injured axons and colocalized with phospho-tau. We found that moderate reduction of JNK activity (40%) by a peptide inhibitor, D-JNKi1, was sufficient to reduce total and phospho-tau accumulations in axons of these mice with TBI. Longer-term studies will be required to determine whether reducing acute tau pathology proves beneficial in brain trauma.
Longitudinal Strain Is a Marker of Microvascular Obstruction and Infarct Size in Patients with Acute ST-Segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction

Objectives We assessed the value of speckle tracking imaging performed early after a first ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) in order to predict infarct size and functional recovery at 3-month follow-up. Methods 44 patients with STEMI who underwent revascularization within 12 h of symptom onset were prospectively enrolled. Echocardiography was performed 3.9±1.2 days after myocardial reperfusion, assessing circumferential (CGS), radial (RGS), and longitudinal global (GLS) strains. Late gadolinium-enhanced cardiac magnetic imaging (CMR), for assessing cardiac function, infarct size, and microvascular obstruction (MVO), was conducted 5.6±2.5 days and 99.4±4.6 days after myocardial reperfusion. Results GLS was evaluable in 97% of the patients, while CGS and RGS could be assessed in 85%. Infarct size significantly correlated with GLS (R = 0.601, p<0.001), RGS (R = −0.405, p = 0.010), CGS (R = 0.526, p = 0.001), ejection fraction (R = −0.699, p<0.001), wall motion score index (WMSI) (R = 0.539, p = 0.001), and left atrial volume (R = 0.510, p<0.001). Baseline ejection fraction and GLS were independent predictors of 3-month infarct size. MVO mass significantly correlated with GLS (R = 0.376, p = 0.010), WMSI (R = 0.387, p = 0.011), and ejection fraction (R = −0.389, p = 0.011). In multivariate analysis, GLS was the only independent predictor of MVO mass (p = 0.015). Longitudinal strain >−6.0% within the infarcted area exhibited 96% specificity and 61% sensitivity for predicting the persistence of akinesia (≥3 segments) at 3-month follow-up. Conclusions Speckle-tracking strain imaging performed early after a STEMI is easy-to-use as a marker for persistent akinetic territories at 3 months. In addition, GLS correlated significantly with MVO and final infarct size, both parameters being relevant post-MI prognostic factors, usually obtained via CMR.
Exploiting Context to Make Delivered Information Relevant To Tasks and Users

Building truly “context-aware” environments presents a greater challenge than using data transmitted by ubiquitous computing devices: it requires shared understanding between humans and their computational environments. This essay articulates some specific problems that can be addressed by representing context. It explores the unique possibilities of design environments that model and represent domains, tasks, design guidelines, solutions and their rationale, and the larger context of such environments embedded in the physical world. Context in design is not a fixed entity sensed by devices, but it is emerging and it is unbounded. Context-aware environments must address these challenges to be more supportive to all stakeholders who design and evolve complex design artifacts.
Experiments in map generation using Markov chains

In this paper we describe a method of procedurally generating maps using Markov chains. This method learns statistical patterns from human-authored maps, which are assumed to be of high quality. Our method then uses those learned patterns to generate new maps. We present a collection of strategies both for training the Markov chains, and for generating maps from such Markov chains. We then validate our approach using the game Super Mario Bros. , by evaluating the quality of the produced maps based on diﬀerent conﬁgurations for training and generation.
Data parallel volume rendering as line drawing

In this paper we describe an algorithm for volume raytracing in a data parallel framework. The algo-rithm uses the idiom of line drawing to traverse the data set when evaluating the path-integrals corresponding to a raytracing of the volume. Since the rays of a parallel projection correspond to a single line instanced multiple times across the viewing plane the approach lends itself well to implementation on massively parallel computers. We have implemented this algorithm on the Princeton Engine (PE) and the Connection Machine CM2 computers and achieved interactive performance.
Un co rre cte d Pr oo f Multiple Aspects of Neural Activity during Reaching Preparation in the V 6 A

■ The posterior parietal cortex is involved in the visuomotor transformations occurring during arm reaching movements. The medial posterior parietal cortex area V6A has been shown to be implicated in reaching execution, but its role in reaching preparation has not been sufficiently investigated. Here, we addressed this issue exploring the neural correlates of reaching preparation in V6A. Neural activity of single cells during the instructed delay period of a foveated Reaching task was compared with the activity in the same delay period during a Detection task. In this latter task, animals fixated the target but, instead of performing an arm reaching movement, they responded with a button release to the go signal. Targets were allocated in different positions in 3-D space. We found three types of neurons: cells where delay activity was equally spatially tuned in the two tasks (Gaze cells), cells spatially tuned only during reaching preparation (Set cells), and cells influenced by both gaze and reaching preparation signals (Gaze/Set cells). In cells influenced by reaching preparation, the delay activity in the Reaching task could be higher or lower compared with the Detection task. All the Set cells and a minority of Gaze/Set cells were more active during reaching preparation. Most cells modulated by movement preparation were also modulated with a congruent spatial tuning during movement execution. Present results highlight the convergence of visuospatial information, reach planning and reach execution signals on V6A, and indicate that visuospatial processing and movement execution have a larger influence on V6A activity than the encoding
Discrete PSO for the uncapacitated single allocation hub location problem

Efficient network design and optimization of transportation and distribution systems has significant economic and service efficiency implications for both the public and private sectors. We propose a new solution based on a particle swarm optimization (PSO) for the uncapacitated single allocation hub location problem (USAHLP). Although various meta-heuristics have been proposed for this problem, to the authors' knowledge, this is the first attempt to use a PSO framework for this problem. An empirical study is done using well-known benchmark problems from the Civil Aeronautics Board and Australian Post data sets with node sizes of up to 200. The beauty of the proposed approach is its simplicity and effectiveness, where its solution quality is compared with that of other meta-heuristics. The proposed discrete PSO matches or outperforms the solution quality of the current best-known methods for the USAHLP.
Tensions and paradoxes in teaching: implications for teacher education

Abstract This paper focuses on the tensions and paradoxes in teaching. At present time, teacher education has the obligation to prepare teachers for diverse student populations, living in a highly varied context. This situation creates several competing expectations of the meaning of teacher education. For instance, preparing for professional autonomy in a world of externally imposed educational policy. The tension between achieving immediate results and success in external exams versus the need to prepare students in an era of migration and growing multiculturalism in school contexts is addressed. It is argued that a common knowledge base is a necessary response to growing multiculturalism while simultaneously leaving space in the curriculum for multicultural aspects of the student population. These double requirements have implications for teacher education which are discussed in the last section of the paper.
XMM-Newton and Chandra Spectroscopy of the Variable High-Energy Absorption of PG 1115+080: Refined Outflow Constraints

We present results from multi-epoch spectral analysis of XMM-Newton and Chandra observations of the mini-broad absorption line (BAL) quasar PG 1115+080. This is one of the few X-ray-detected mini-BAL quasars to date that is bright enough in the X-ray band, mostly due to large gravitational-lensing magnifications, to allow in-depth spectral analysis. The present XMM-Newton observations of PG 1115+080 have provided the highest signal-to-noise ratio X-ray spectra of a mini-BAL quasar obtained to date. By modeling the spectra of PG 1115+080 we have obtained constraints on the column density and ionization state of its outflowing absorbing gas. A comparison between these constraints over several epochs indicates significant variability in the properties of the outflowing absorbers in PG 1115+080. The depths of the high-energy broad absorption features in PG 1115+080 show a significant decrease between the first two observation epochs separated by a rest-frame timescale of ∼1 yr. This variability supports the intrinsic nature of these absorbers. Assuming the interpretation that the high-energy absorption features arise from highly ionized Fe XXV, we constrain the fraction of the total bolometric energy released by quasars PG 1115+080 and APM 08279+5255 into the intergalactic medium in the form of kinetic energy to be ϵk = 0.64 (68% confidence) and 0.09, respectively. According to recent theoretical studies this range of efficiencies is large enough to significantly influence the formation of the host galaxy and to regulate the growth of the central black hole.
Astronomy and Astrophysics Evolution of the Colour-magnitude Relation of Early-type Galaxies in Distant Clusters

We present a thorough quantitative analysis of the evolution of the colour-magnitude relation for early-type galaxies in 17 distant clusters with redshifts 0.31 < z < 1.27 using the Kodama & Arimoto (1997) evolutionary model for elliptical galaxies. The model is calibrated to reproduce the colour-magnitude relation for Coma el-lipticals at z ∼ 0 and gives the evolution of the slope and zero-point as a function of redshift. We find no significant differences between the colour-magnitude relations of the clusters in our sample. The slopes can be reproduced by a single model sequence in which all elliptical galaxies are assumed to be equally old (the maximum age difference allowed for the brightest 3 magnitudes is only 1 Gyr) and to have mean stellar metallicities which vary as a function of galaxy luminosity. The zero-points of the colour-magnitude relations constrain the epoch of major star formation in early-type galaxies to z f > 2–4. This study provides two important constraints for any model of the formation of rich clusters: the uniformity of the ages of the stellar populations in the early-type galaxies and the universality of the metallicity sequence of these galaxies as a function of galaxy mass.
X-ray variability in a complete sample of Soft X-ray selected AGN

We present ROSAT All-Sky Survey and ROSAT pointed observations (PSPC and HRI) of a complete sample of 113 bright soft X-ray AGN selected from the ROSAT Bright Source Catalog. We compare these observations in order to search for extreme cases of flux and spectral X-ray variability - X-ray transient AGN. Three definite transients and one transient candidate are found. The other sources show amplitude variations typically by factors of 2-3 on timescales of years. We found that the variability strength on timescales of days is a function of the steepness of the X-ray spectrum: steeper X-ray objects show stronger variability than flat X-ray spectrum sources. We also present new HRI measurements of our extreme X-ray transients IC 3599 and WPVS007. We discuss possible models to explain the X-ray transience and the variabilities observed in the non-transient sources.
In-Sample Fit and Out-of-Sample Fit: Their Joint Distribution and its Implications for Model Selection

We consider the case where a parameter, �; is estimated by maximizing a criterion function, Q(X;�). The estimate, ^ = ^(X); is then used to evaluate the criterion function with the same data, X, as well as with an independent data set, Y. The insample …t and out-of-sample …t relative to that of the true, or quasi-true, parameter, � � ; are de…ned by � = Q(X;^) Q(X;� � ) and ~ = Q(Y;^) Q(Y;� � ), respectively. We derive the joint limit distribution of (�;~) for a broad class of criterion functions and the
Xmm-newton observations of two black hole x-ray transients in quiescence

We report on XMM-Newton observations of GRO J1655-40 and GRS 1009-45, which are two black hole X-ray transients currently in their quiescent phase. GRO J1655-40 was detected with a 0.5-10 keV luminosity of 5.9 x 10 3 1 erg s - 1 with 20% accuracy, taking into account both statistical errors and uncertainty on the distance. This luminosity is comparable to a previous Chandra measurement, but ten times lower than the 1996 ASCA value, most likely obtained when the source was not yet in a true quiescent state. Unfortunately, XMM-Newton failed to detect GRS 1009-45. A stringent upper limit of 8.9 x 10 3 0 erg s - 1 was derived by combining data from the EPIC-MOS and PN cameras. The X-ray spectrum of GRO J1655-40 is very hard as it can be fitted with a power law model of photon index 1.3 ′ 0.4. Similarly hard spectra have been observed from other systems; these rule out coronal emission from the secondary or disk flares as the origin of the observed X-rays. On the other hand, our observations are consistent with the predictions of the disc instability model in the case that the accretion flow forms an advection dominated accretion flow (ADAF) at distances less than a fraction (∼0.1-0.3) of the circularization radius. This distance corresponds to the greatest extent of the ADAF that is thought to he possible.