Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Satisfaction with Life and Service Delivery in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union: Some Insights from the 2006 Life in Transition Survey

The main objective of the Life in Transition Survey (LiTS) was to assess the impact of transition on people, and so the survey questionnaire covered four main themes. First, it collected personal information on aspects of material well-being, including household expenditures, possession of consumer goods such as a car or mobile phone, and access to local public services and utilities. Second, the survey included measures of satisfaction and attitudes towards economic and political reforms as well as public service delivery. Third, the LiTS captured individual 'histories' through transition from around 1989 to the present, especially key events and episodes that may have influenced their attitudes towards reforms, and collected information on individuals; family background, on their employment situation, and on coping strategies during transition. Finally, the survey also attempted to capture the extent to which crime and corruption are affecting peoples' lives, and the extent to which individuals' trust in other people and in state institutions has changed over time. This volume presents the main findings of three studies by World Bank economists using data from the 2006 LiTS. Chapter one examines quantitative and qualitative dimensions welfare in countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, with 'satisfaction with life' being the key welfare measure used. Chapter two analyzes socioeconomic characteristics of different income groups across countries, and shows how the welfare measure derived from the LiTS provides a very useful and effective means to measure household welfare and/or rank households by relative economic status, both within as well as across countries. Finally, chapter three focuses on three interlinked questions: (i) why are some people more likely than others to use publicly provided health services? (ii) What are some of the key influences on users' satisfaction with quality and efficiency of medical treatment received? And (iii) how does the prevalence of informal payments impact people's decision on using publicly provided health services, and upon use, the level of satisfaction with services received?
Capacity autocorrelation characteristic of distributed MIMO systems in Doppler spread channels

In order to decrease the feedback complexity of distributed MIMO system, we consider a simplified feedback, the capacity autocorrelation information (CAI) feedback, and investigate the CAI characteristics in this paper. Results show that the CAI, which can be fed back to the transmitter for adaptive coding and modulation, can be simply predicted by the channel autocorrelation in the distributed MIMO system, which results in even less complexity in the calculation of the feedback information
The Conceptualisation and Measurement of Issue Ownership

Issue ownership means that some parties are considered by the public at large as being more able to deal with, or more attentive to, certain issues. The theory has been used to explain both party behaviour – parties are expected to focus on owned issues – and voter behaviour – when a voter considers a party to own an issue, this affects the odds of voting for that party. The purpose of this article is, first, to provide a look backward at the existing research through a literature review of the studies that were conducted in the past decade-and-a-half. Secondly, it takes stock of the current conceptualisation and argues that issue ownership is a multidimensional concept. Thereafter the article discusses how this multidimensionality affects both the role of issue ownership in voter and in party behaviour. Finally, the article outlines a number of shortcomings of the extant literature and discusses potential avenues for future research.
An ABC Transporter Plays a Developmental Aggregation Role in Myxococcus xanthus

ABSTRACT Myxococcus xanthus is a gram-negative bacterium which has a complex life cycle. Autochemotaxis, a process whereby cells release a self-generated signaling molecule, may be the principal mechanism facilitating directed motility in both the vegetative swarming and developmental aggregation stages of this life cycle. The process requires the Frz signal transduction system, including FrzZ, a protein which is composed of two domains, both showing homology to the enteric chemotaxis response regulator CheY. The first domain of FrzZ (FrzZ1), when expressed as bait in the yeast two-hybrid system and screened against a library, was shown to potentially interact with the C-terminal portion of a protein encoding an ATP-binding cassette (AbcA). The activation domain-AbcA fusion protein did not interact with the second domain of FrzZ (FrzZ2) or with two other M. xanthus response regulator-containing proteins presented as bait, suggesting that the FrzZ1-AbcA interaction may be specific. Cloning and sequencing of the upstream region of the abcA gene showed the ATP-binding cassette to be linked to a large hydrophobic, potentially membrane-spanning domain. This domain organization is characteristic of a subgroup of ABC transporters which perform export functions. Cloning and sequencing downstream of abcAindicated that the ABC transporter is at the start of an operon containing three open reading frames. An insertion mutation in theabcA gene resulted in cells displaying the frizzy aggregation phenotype, providing additional evidence that FrzZ and AbcA may be part of the same signal transduction pathway. Cells with mutations in genes downstream of abcA showed no developmental defects. Analysis of the proposed exporter role of AbcA in cell mixing experiments showed that the ABC transporter mutant could be rescued by extracellular complementation. We speculate that the AbcA protein may be involved in the export of a molecule required for the autochemotactic process.
MicroRNA 10b promotes abnormal expression of the proto-oncogene c-Jun in metastatic breast cancer cells

MicroRNAs have been shown to act as oncogenes or tumor suppressers via various cellular pathways. Specifically, in breast cancer, upregulation of miR-10b is positively associated with aggressiveness of tumors. However, the mechanism by which miR-10b contributes to cell malignancy is largely unknown. Here we show that at the receiving end of the miR-10b pathway is the proto-oncogene c-Jun, a transcription factor that plays a critical role in stimulation of cell proliferation and tumor progression. c-Jun is known to be translationally activated by loss of cell contacts or restructuring of the cytoskeleton. A comprehensive analysis of miRNA expression exhibited a significant increase in miR-10b expression. This was supported by analysis of breast cancer cells, which showed that loss of E-cadherin in metastatic cells is accompanied by elevation of miR-10b and interestingly, by a marked increase in accumulation of c-Jun. Silencing miR-10b in metastatic breast cancer cells leads to a decline in c-Jun expression, whereas overexpression of miR-10b in HaCaT cells is sufficient to elevate the accumulation of c-Jun. The increase in c-Jun protein accumulation in metastatic cells is not accompanied by an increase in c-Jun mRNA and is not dependent on MAPK activity. Knockdown and overexpression experiments revealed that the increase is mediated by NF1 and RhoC, downstream targets of miR-10b that affect cytoskeletal dynamics through the ROCK pathway. Overall, we show the ability of miR-10b to activate the expression of c-Jun through RhoC and NF1, which represents a novel pathway for promoting migration and invasion of human cancer cells.
Inflammatory Markers and the Risk of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Systemic inflammatory factors are inconsistently associated with the pathogenesis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to summarize the evidence supporting the association between systemic inflammation and the risk of COPD. Pertinent studies were retrieved from PubMed, EmBase, and the Cochrane Library until April 2015. A random-effects model was used to process the data, and the analysis was further stratified by factors affecting these associations. Sensitivity analyses for publication bias were performed. We included 24 observational studies reporting data on 10,677 COPD patients and 28,660 controls. Overall, we noted that COPD was associated with elevated serum CRP (SMD: 1.21; 95%CI: 0.92–1.50; P < 0.001), leukocytes (SMD: 1.07; 95%: 0.25–1.88; P = 0.010), IL-6 (SMD: 0.90; 95%CI: 0.48–1.31; P < 0.001), IL-8 (SMD: 2.34; 95%CI: 0.69–4.00; P = 0.006), and fibrinogen levels (SMD: 0.87; 95%CI: 0.44–1.31; P < 0.001) when compared with control. However, COPD was not significantly associated with TNF-α levels when compared with control (SMD: 0.60; 95%CI: -0.46 to 1.67; P = 0.266). Our findings suggested that COPD was associated with elevated serum CRP, leukocytes, IL-6, IL-8, and fibrinogen, without any significant relationship with TNF-α.
Losing One's Hand: Visual-Proprioceptive Conflict Affects Touch Perception

Background While the sense of bodily ownership has now been widely investigated through the rubber hand illusion (RHI), very little is known about the sense of disownership. It has been hypothesized that the RHI also affects the ownership feelings towards the participant's own hand, as if the rubber hand replaced the participant's actual hand. Somatosensory changes observed in the participants' hand while experiencing the RHI have been taken as evidence for disownership of their real hand. Here we propose a theoretical framework to disambiguate whether such somatosensory changes are to be ascribed to the disownership of the real hand or rather to the anomalous visuo-proprioceptive conflict experienced by the participant during the RHI. Methodology/Principal Findings In experiment 1, reaction times (RTs) to tactile stimuli delivered to the participants' hand slowed down following the establishment of the RHI. In experiment 2, the misalignment of visual and proprioceptive inputs was obtained via prismatic displacement, a situation in which ownership of the seen hand was doubtless. This condition slowed down the participants' tactile RTs. Thus, similar effects on touch perception emerged following RHI and prismatic displacement. Both manipulations also induced a proprioceptive drift, toward the fake hand in the first experiment and toward the visual position of the participants' hand in the second experiment. Conclusions/Significance These findings reveal that somatosensory alterations in the experimental hand resulting from the RHI result from cross-modal mismatch between the seen and felt position of the hand. As such, they are not necessarily a signature of disownership.
Information Feedback, Behaviour and ‘Smart Meters’: Using behavioural economics to improve our knowledge about the potential effectiveness of Smart Meters to use electricity efficiently

As part of the development of the European electricity grid, the EU has decided that ‘Smart Meters’ should be installed in 80% of the households of the EU by 2020. It is expected that this will lead to a reduction of energy use in the residential sector in the order of 10%. Driven by the so-called ‘Information-Deficit’ model, a critical assumption in this policy development is that provision of information, via ‘Smart Meters’, enables energy end-users to make more informed, and thus better, decisions in relation to their energy service demands (e.g. lighting). However, even if there is some evidence that feedback to consumers stimulate an efficient use of energy, the magnitude of this reduction is debated. In fact, findings from behavioural economics suggest that behavioural biases (e.g. loss aversion) and cognitive limitations restrict end-users from displaying purely rational behaviour, which in turn limits the effect (and policy expectations) of policies applying the information-deficit model. The thesis at hand addresses these issues explicitly and provides empirical analyses of how behavioural biases affects consumers’ response to energy-related information. To that end, experimental research covering eight field exercises and a Smart Meter experiment was conducted. The thesis aimed to generate knowledge about the applicability and implications of using behavioural economics to deliver feedback to electricity consumers. With due limitations, the experiments illustrate that a knowledge-gap exists, and that information can help correct consumer behaviour, but that the framing and salience of this information can affect the magnitude of the response. The Smart Meter experiment on loss aversion took place in a real-life setting where consumers actually used and paid for the electricity. Results show that the intervention group reduced its electricity use, and that those reductions were larger than those found for the reference group (for both daily and standby consumption). Compared to related research, findings revealed that reductions in electricity use were also larger than the average electricity reduction found in other studies of feedback on electricity use. As a whole, it is concluded that feedback information can contribute to efficient electricity use and thus contribute to meeting EU policy targets. However, the (expected) effects depend on how feedback is designed, framed and presented. The Smart Meter experiment indicates an enhanced effect on electricity use reduction as a result loss aversion, but further research (e.g. large scale trials) is needed for more conclusive and statistically significant results.
The Price of the Smirk: Returns to Delta and Vega Neutral Portfolios of S&P 500 Futures Options

We construct portfolios of S&P500 futures and their associated options, which are long out of (in) the money puts and short out of (in) the money calls, and which are delta (price) and vega (volatility) neutral, with respect to a GARCH type model for the underlying price. These systematically earn less (more) than the riskless return. We give evidence that this loss is not a payment for insurance against a market crash, by separately including a deep out of the money put in the portfolio, which makes it neutral to a market crash, but does not substantially alter the result. Our result is consistent with a market imperfection interpretation of the smirk: out of the money puts are "too dear", relative to out of the money calls, perhaps because these puts are valuable in providing portfolio insurance. Our strategies do not earn excessive profits, and so we argue that the smirk will not disappear in an efficient market.
A CONSORT-Compliant, Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Pilot Trial of Purified Anthocyanin in Patients With Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

AbstractNonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a common liver disease that can progress to cirrhosis and liver failure. Anthocyanin, a member of the flavonoid family, has been shown to ameliorate NAFLD-associated pathologies in rodents.The aim of this CONSORT-compliant pilot study is to evaluate the effects of anthocyanin supplementation on insulin resistance and liver injury biomarkers in patients with NAFLD.A total of 74 subjects with NAFLD were divided into 2 groups in this double-blind, randomized study. Patients received either purified anthocyanin (320 mg/d) derived from bilberry and black currant or placebo for 12 weeks. Diet, physical activity, anthropometric parameters, glucose tolerance, and a set of biomarkers related to NAFLD were evaluated before and after intervention.No significant differences were observed in nutrient intake, physical activity, anthropometric parameters, or plasma lipid profile between patients receiving anthocyanin or placebo. Compared to controls, the anthocyanin group exhibited significant decreases (P < 0.05, all comparisons) in plasma alanine aminotransferase (−19.1% vs 3.1%), cytokeratin-18 M30 fragment (−8.8% vs 5.6%) and myeloperoxidase (−75.0% vs −44.8%). Significant decreases from baseline in fasting blood glucose and homeostasis model assessment for insulin resistance were observed in the anthocyanin group; however, these differences were not significant relative to placebo controls. In addition, the oral glucose tolerance test indicated that anthocyanin supplementation significantly decreased the 2-hour loading glucose level compared to control (−18.7% vs −3.8%, P = 0.02). A 12-week supplement of purified anthocyanin improved insulin resistance, indicators of liver injury, and clinical evolution in NAFLD patients. Further studies are warranted to determine the clinical applications of anthocyanin in NAFLD.This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT01940263.
How to Manage Inflation Risk in an Asset Allocation Problem : An Algebraic Approximated Solution

This paper analyses the portfolio problem of an invetsor who wants to maximize the expected utility of his terminal real wealth in an incomplete financial market. The investor must cope with a set of stochastic investment opportunities and inflation risk following a jump-diffusion process. We investigate how the inflation risk affects the optimal portfolio composition and, at this aim, we present an approximated analytical solution to the portfolio choice problem based on the Feynman-Kac representation theorem. Finally, we compare our approximate solution with some exact solutions available in the literature and we find that the main qualitative results are maintained.
Ethical stress in Scottish criminal justice social work

This thesis uses empirical data to explore criminal justice social workers’ experience of ‘ethical stress,’ which is the discomfort experienced by workers when they cannot achieve value/behaviour congruence in their practice. The research was operationalised via questionnaires distributed to criminal justice social workers in four Scottish local authorities, from which both quantitative and qualitative data were gathered. From the data, it appears that the more risk averse a workplace is perceived to be, and the less valuebased the ethical climate is judged to be, the more ethical stress will be experienced. The approach to working with offenders, however, seems not to have a direct effect on ethical stress experienced. Rather, workers are very clear that public protection/risk work takes priority and this only becomes a source of stress when the ethical climate is such that any additional welfare, helping work the social worker is inclined to undertake, is thwarted. A worker’s experience of ethical stress may depend upon where they work, as levels vary significantly between local authorities, as do perceptions of ethical climate. Approaches taken to risk and to working with offenders, however, do not vary between local authorities, probably because of the strength of influence from government. A model of ethical stress in criminal justice social work (CJSW) is ultimately suggested, highlighting the connections and influences above, and depicting the important role of the senior social worker. Finally, significant differences on all variables were found between older, more experienced workers and younger, less experienced workers who appear to be happier with a ‘new penological’ approach to the management of (as opposed to engagement with) offenders. Less experienced workers seem to accept, more uncritically, the prioritisation of public protection and reduced autonomy and, although they do experience ethical stress when value based practice is impeded and risk aversion prevails, it is experienced to a
Fertility trait economics and correlations with other traits

National fertility evaluations are computed using greatly differing trait definitions and statistical models. Correlations of fertility traits with other traits within each country can be used to quantify those differences. Procedures analogous to those of Powell and VanRaden (2003) for longevity were used to obtain correlations for fertility traits. Relative emphasis on fertility and longevity in current national selection indexes are compared. Differences in definitions and adjustments can affect economic values of the traits evaluated.
On effective σ‐boundedness and σ‐compactness

We prove several dichotomy theorems which extend some known results on σ‐bounded and σ‐compact pointsets. In particular we show that, given a finite number of \documentclass{article}\usepackage{amssymb}\begin{document}\pagestyle{empty}$\Delta ^{1}_{1}$\end{document} equivalence relations \documentclass{article}\usepackage{amssymb}\begin{document}\pagestyle{empty}$\mathrel {\mathsf {F}}_1,\dots ,\mathrel {\mathsf {F}}_n$\end{document}, any \documentclass{article}\usepackage{amssymb}\begin{document}\pagestyle{empty}$\Sigma ^{1}_{1}$\end{document} set A of the Baire space either is covered by compact \documentclass{article}\usepackage{amssymb}\begin{document}\pagestyle{empty}$\Delta ^{1}_{1}$\end{document} sets and lightface \documentclass{article}\usepackage{amssymb}\begin{document}\pagestyle{empty}$\Delta ^{1}_{1}$\end{document} equivalence classes of the relations \documentclass{article}\usepackage{amssymb}\begin{document}\pagestyle{empty}$\mathrel {\mathsf {F}}_i$\end{document}, or A contains a superperfect subset which is pairwise \documentclass{article}\usepackage{amssymb}\begin{document}\pagestyle{empty}$\mathrel {\mathsf {F}}_i$\end{document}‐inequivalent for all i = 1, …, n. Further generalizations to \documentclass{article}\usepackage{amssymb}\begin{document}\pagestyle{empty}$\Sigma ^{1}_{2}$\end{document} sets A are obtained.
Subthreshold dynamics in periodically stimulated squid giant axons.

Action potentials resulting from periodic stimulation of nerve axons occur at intervals that are irregular at moderate stimulation frequencies. Histograms of the intervals are multimodal, as seen in stochastic resonance. At higher stimulation frequencies, the action potentials are suppressed entirely, leaving only subthreshold dynamics. Return maps constructed from data show that both types of response are governed by the same deterministic one-dimensional description, with an unstable subthreshold fixed point largely accounting for the irregular intervals at moderate stimulation frequencies. [S0031-9007(96)00200-1]
Design and implementation of SPI bus protocol with Built-in-self-test capability over FPGA

The Serial-Peripheral Interface (SPI) protocol is one of the important bus protocols for connecting with peripheral devices form microprocessor. The complexity of the circuits has aroused with the enormous advancement of IC technology. So, in order to lessen the product failure self-testability in hardware is demanded a lot in recent times. The necessity of self-testability will lead to a solution called Built-in-self-test (BIST). BIST is an effective solution to reduce the huge circuit testing cost. This paper represents designing and implementation of SPI protocol with BIST capability over FPGA. The need of programming for setting up a network with two devices is no longer needed in this proposed system. To accomplish compact, stable and reliable data transmission, the SPI is designed with Verilog HDL language and synthesized on Spartan 2 FPGA. An EEPROM and FPGA Spartan 2 are used for the communication testing where the FPGA is master and EEPROM is a Slave.