Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pattern-Preserving k-Anonymization of Sequences and its Application to Mobil- ity Data Mining

Sequential pattern mining is a major research field in knowledge discovery and data mining. Thanks to the increasing availability of transaction data, it is now possible to provide new and improved services based on users’ and customers’ behavior. However, this puts the citizen’s privacy at risk. Thus, it is important to develop new privacy-preserving data mining techniques that do not alter the analysis results significantly. In this paper we propose a new approach for anonymizing sequential data by hiding infrequent, and thus potentially sensible, subsequences. Our approach guarantees that the disclosed data are k-anonymous and preserve the quality of extracted patterns. An application to a real-world moving object database is presented, which shows the effectiveness of our approach also in complex contexts.
On task schedulability in real-time control systems

Most real-time computer-controlled systems are built in two separate steps, each in isolation: controller design and its digital implementation. Computational tasks that realize the control algorithms are usually scheduled by treating their execution times and periods as unchangeable parameters. Task scheduling therefore depends only on the limited computing resources available. On the other hand, controller design is primarily based on the continuous-time dynamics of the physical system being controlled. The set of tasks resulting from this controller design may not be schedulable with the limited computing resources available. Even if the given set of tasks is schedulable, the overall control performance may not be optimal in the sense that they do not make a full use of the computing resource. We propose an integrated approach to controller design and task scheduling. Specifically, task frequencies (or periods) are allowed to vary within a certain range as long as such a change does not affect critical control functions such as maintenance of system stability. We present an algorithm that optimizes task frequencies and then schedules the resulting tasks with the limited computing resources available. The proposed approach is also applicable to failure recovery and reconfiguration in real-time control systems.
One CNV Discordance in NRXN1 Observed Upon Genome-wide Screening in 38 Pairs of Adult Healthy Monozygotic Twins

Monozygotic (MZ) twins stem from the same single fertilized egg and therefore share all their inherited genetic variation. This is one of the unequivocal facts on which genetic epidemiology and twin studies are based. To what extent this also implies that MZ twins share genotypes in adult tissues is not precisely established, but a common pragmatic assumption is that MZ twins are 100% genetically identical also in adult tissues. During the past decade, this view has been challenged by several reports, with observations of differences in post-zygotic copy number variations (CNVs) between members of the same MZ pair. In this study, we performed a systematic search for differences of CNVs within 38 adult MZ pairs who had been misclassified as dizygotic (DZ) twins by questionnaire-based assessment. Initial scoring by PennCNV suggested a total of 967 CNV discordances. The within-pair correlation in number of CNVs detected was strongly dependent on confidence score filtering and reached a plateau of r = 0.8 when restricting to CNVs detected with confidence score larger than 50. The top-ranked discordances were subsequently selected for validation by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), from which one single ~120kb deletion in NRXN1 on chromosome 2 (bp 51017111–51136802) was validated. Despite involving an exon, no sign of cognitive/mental consequences was apparent in the affected twin pair, potentially reflecting limited or lack of expression of the transcripts containing this exon in nerve/brain.
Effects of Gamma and Heavy Ion Damage on the Impulse Response and Pulsed Gain of a Low Breakdown Voltage Si Avalanche Photodiode

Effects of displacement and ionization damage on the impulse response of a high-bandwidth low breakdown voltage Si Avalanche Photodiode was investigated using a picosecond laser system. Damage was generated using either Co60 gamma-irradiation or by scanning the device with an MeV ion microbeam. No shift in the impulse response characteristics and gain was observed for gamma doses as high as 100 kGy(Si). However, dark current measurements for irradiations with biases close to typical operating levels, exhibited enhanced ionization damage orders of magnitude higher than for no bias. Displacement damage introduced by the microbeam was used to differentiate between ionization damage in the guard ring isolation oxide and bulk damage. The absence of any marked change in the impulse response is discussed, as are possible mechanisms for the enhanced ionization damage
Effectiveness of antibiotic treatment in infertile patients with sterile leukocytospermia induced by tobacco use

ABSTRACT Our study investigated whether antibiotic therapy in infertile tobacco users with sterile leukocytospermia and a history of former sexual transmitted disease (STD) has an advantage over cessation of smoking alone. For this study, 80 male infertile smokers were divided into two subgroups. The first group numbered 40 patients treated with a two week course of doxycycline, 100 mg, twice daily, while the second group simply ceased smoking. A control group of 20 patients with chronic abacterial prostatitis (CPPS III a) were treated with the same antibiotic for two weeks. Patients from the first group exhibited significantly higher values in semen volume, total motility, and progressive motility of spermatozoa, when compared with the second group, two weeks post treatment. The latter two measures persisted during the 12 week follow up period. In both groups of patients, the correlation coefficient between the number of leukocytes and progressive motility was determined as statistically significant. However, in the control group the correlation was not statistically significant; however progressive motility, total motility, and vitality were significantly improved after a two week course of antibiotics. Our study implies that antibiotic treatment is perhaps effective in treating sterile leukocytospermia in smokers with a former STD and is a more effective treatment option in improving sperm parameters over smoking cessation alone. Abbreviations: STD: sexual transmitted disease; CPPS IIIa: chronic abacterial prostatitis; PSA: prostatic specific antigen; EPS: expressed prostatic secretion; WBC: white blood count; LUTS: lower urinary tract symptoms; PPMT: pre-massage and post-massage urine test; VAS: visual analogue scale
A Systematic Review of the Familial Co-Aggregation of Schizophrenia With Non-Psychotic Disorders

Schizophrenia is a highly heritable mental health condition, likely due to a combination of genetic and environmental factors. Given that genes appear to predispose offspring to vulnerabilities or endophenotypes rather than to the disorder itself, and that environmental risk-factors tend to be shared across psychopathologies, we may expect other non-psychotic conditions to likewise aggregate with schizophrenia in families. This article reviews studies on familial co-aggregation of schizophrenia with other disorders, published over the past two decades. Twenty-two studies met inclusion criteria. Although many early family and cohort studies lacked statistical power due to small sample sizes, the overriding pattern is one in favor of familial co-aggregation of schizophrenia with a broad range of psychiatric conditions, including affective, anxiety, substance use, and childhood-onset disorders, which has been confirmed in recent population-based studies. Several causal hypotheses are proposed to explain these associations, which should be directly tested in future studies. These results suggest that family-based social work interventions for schizophrenia may benefit from an added emphasis on prevention and treatment of common mental health conditions among family members.
Reactive and effortful processes in the organization of temperament

Self-organization can be approached in terms of developmental processes occurring within and between component systems of temperament. Within-system organization involves progressive shaping of cortical representations by subcortical motivational systems. As cortical representations develop, they feed back to provide motivational systems with enhanced detection and guidance capabilities. These reciprocal influences may amplify the underlying motivational functions and promote excessive impulsivity or anxiety. However, these processes also depend upon interactions arising between motivational and attentional systems. We discuss these between-system effects by considering the regulation of approach motivation by reactive attentional processes related to fear and by more voluntary processes related to effortful control. It is suggested that anxious and impulsive psychopathology may reflect limitations in these dual means of control, which can take the form of overregulation as well as underregulation.
Des broussailles dans les prairies alpines: organisation spatiale de l`activité et pratiques des éleveurs en valleé d´Abondance (Haute Savoie, France)

Landscape closing due to the decline in agricultural activity is considered to be a major problem in the Alps. Abondance Valley provides a good example of this phenomenon and is also representative of a paradox commonly found in the Northern French Alps: the mountainsides and alpine pastures are still used, whereas they are becoming increasingly afforested. Environmental conditions play a major role in the localisation of agricultural land uses, but they are not sufficient to explain why pastures still in use are being invaded by shrub. Even if cutting makes it possible to effectively control the encroachment by woody species, this is not true for uncut pastures where grazing is not able to keep up with grass production. This situation is repeated every year and is the likely cause of the colonisation by woody species. To ensure their forage system and to simplify their work, farmers tend to establish grazing units that are oversized in relation to the needs of their animals. They implement compensatory practices that consist of mechanical maintenance as a complement to grazing to limit the dynamics of woody species. These labour-intensive practices are not used on all of the pastures. The analysis of farmers’ practices by agronomists is therefore a useful complement to studies of physical and socio-economic environments, at the level of the grazed field as well as at that of the valley as a whole.
Nucleotide-Oligomerization-Domain-2 Affects Commensal Gut Microbiota Composition and Intracerebral Immunopathology in Acute Toxoplasma gondii Induced Murine Ileitis

Background Within one week following peroral high dose infection with Toxoplasma (T.) gondii, susceptible mice develop non-selflimiting acute ileitis due to an underlying Th1-type immunopathology. The role of the innate immune receptor nucleotide-oligomerization-domain-2 (NOD2) in mediating potential extra-intestinal inflammatory sequelae including the brain, however, has not been investigated so far. Methodology/Principal Findings Following peroral infection with 100 cysts of T. gondii strain ME49, NOD2-/- mice displayed more severe ileitis and higher small intestinal parasitic loads as compared to wildtype (WT) mice. However, systemic (i.e. splenic) levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as TNF-α and IFN-γ were lower in NOD2-/- mice versus WT controls at day 7 p.i. Given that the immunopathological outcome might be influenced by the intestinal microbiota composition, which is shaped by NOD2, we performed a quantitative survey of main intestinal bacterial groups by 16S rRNA analysis. Interestingly, Bifidobacteria were virtually absent in NOD2-/- but not WT mice, whereas differences in remaining bacterial species were rather subtle. Interestingly, more distinct intestinal inflammation was accompanied by higher bacterial translocation rates to extra-intestinal tissue sites such as liver, spleen, and kidneys in T. gondii infected NOD2-/- mice. Strikingly, intracerebral inflammatory foci could be observed as early as seven days following T. gondii infection irrespective of the genotype of animals, whereas NOD2-/- mice exhibited higher intracerebral parasitic loads, higher F4/80 positive macrophage and microglia numbers as well as higher IFN-γ mRNA expression levels as compared to WT control animals. Conclusion/Significance NOD2 signaling is involved in protection of mice from T. gondii induced acute ileitis. The parasite-induced Th1-type immunopathology at intestinal as well as extra-intestinal sites including the brain is modulated in a NOD2-dependent manner.
Heterozygous Hfe gene deletion leads to impaired glucose homeostasis, but not liver injury in mice fed a high‐calorie diet

Heterozygous mutations of the Hfe gene have been proposed as cofactors in the development and progression of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Homozygous Hfe deletion previously has been shown to lead to dysregulated hepatic lipid metabolism and accentuated liver injury in a dietary mouse model of NAFLD. We sought to establish whether heterozygous deletion of Hfe is sufficient to promote liver injury when mice are exposed to a high‐calorie diet (HCD). Eight‐week‐old wild‐type and Hfe+/− mice received 8 weeks of a control diet or HCD. Liver histology and pathways of lipid and iron metabolism were analyzed. Liver histology demonstrated that mice fed a HCD had increased NAFLD activity score (NAS), steatosis, and hepatocyte ballooning. However, liver injury was unaffected by Hfe genotype. Hepatic iron concentration (HIC) was increased in Hfe+/− mice of both dietary groups. HCD resulted in a hepcidin‐independent reduction in HIC. Hfe+/− mice demonstrated raised fasting serum glucose concentrations and HOMA‐IR score, despite unaltered serum adiponectin concentrations. Downstream regulators of hepatic de novo lipogenesis (pAKT, SREBP‐1, Fas, Scd1) and fatty acid oxidation (AdipoR2, Pparα, Cpt1) were largely unaffected by genotype. In summary, heterozygous Hfe gene deletion is associated with impaired iron and glucose metabolism. However, unlike homozygous Hfe deletion, heterozygous gene deletion did not affect lipid metabolism pathways or liver injury in this model.
Acts, Persons, and Intuitions

Negative gut reactions to harmless-but-offensive transgressions can be driven by inferences about the moral character of the agent more so than condemnation of the act itself. Dissociations between moral judgments of acts and persons emerged, such that participants viewed a harmless-but-offensive transgression to be a less immoral act than a harmful act, yet more indicative of poor moral character. Participants were more likely to become “morally dumbfounded” when asked to justify their judgments of a harmless-but-offensive act relative to a harmful act. However, they were significantly less likely to become morally dumbfounded when asked to justify character judgments of persons who engaged in the harmless-but-offensive transgression, an effect based in part on the information-rich nature of such behaviors. Distinguishing between evaluations of acts and persons helps account for both moral outrage over harmless transgressions and when individuals are (and are not) at a loss to explain their own judgments.
The body and the self

Interdisciplinary issues in self-consciousness and the body, Naomi Eilan, Anthony Marcel and Jose Bermudez the body image and self-consciousness, John Campbell infants' understanding of people and things - from body imitation to folk psychology, Andrew N. Meltzoff and M. Keith Moore persons, animals and bodies, Paul Snowdon an ecological perspective on the origins of self, George Butterworth objectivity, casuality and agency, Thomas Baldwin at two with nature - agency and the development of self-world dualism, James Russell ecological perception and the notion of a point of view, Jose Luis Bermudez bodily sensation and the self, Anthony Marcel proprioception and the body image, Brian O'Shaughnessy awareness of one's own body - an attentional theory of its nature, development and brain basis, Marcel Kinsbourne body schema and intentionality, Shaun Gallagher living without touch and peripheral information about body position and movement - studies upon deafferented subjects, Jonathan Cole and Jacques Paillard bodily awareness - a sense of ownership, Michael Martin bodily awareness and the self, Bill Brewer introspection and bodily self-ascription, Quassim Cassam consciousness and the self, Naomi Eilan.
Effects of ultraviolet radiation on trophic interactions not detected?

In contrast to earlier studies (Bothwell et al. 1993, 1994; DeNicola and Hoagland 1996; Kiffney et al. 1997b), Hill et al. (1997) recently concluded that there was no effect of ambient solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation on periphyton and grazers in a small Tennessee stream. These conclusions were based on the appearance that grazing pressure by pleurocerid snails (Elimia clavaeformis) controlled algal biomass and primary production in three in situ stream experiments designed to test the role of UV radiation in trophic interactions. We assert that Hill et al.’s experimental design, site selection, and assumptions about the organisms within the system minimized biotic response to any UV radiation treatment and thus, preclude them from making general claims about lack of sensitivity of stream systems to UV radiation. UV effects on periphyton communities were investigated by Hill et al. in White Oak Creek, a small, north-south– oriented, clear-water stream with high densities of Elimia. Plexiglas sheets (40 3 40 cm) impermeable to UV radiation (50% cut-off @ 375 nm) were suspended 5–10 cm above the water surface approximately 1 m apart in an upstreamdownstream orientation (Hill pers. comm.), and each of these sheets was paired with a directly adjacent sheet of UV-permeable plastic of the same size. In each of three experiments performed between June and November, ten 1-in. square ceramic tiles were placed under each sheet; chlorophyll a (Chl a), ash-free dry mass, and photosynthetic rates were measured from these. During these experiments, tiles were 10– 25 cm below the surface of the water and were preconditioned in full-spectrum sunlight for at least 1 yr prior to the experiment. During all three experiments, experimental substrates were exposed to sunlight for at least 6 h during the day (varying according to season). We suggest that a fundamental error in Hill et al.’s experimental design resulted from the small size of the Plexiglas sheets. As a result of varying solar angles, both elevational and rotational, during the day as well as over seasonal scales, the actual area under the screens that was shielded or exposed to solar UV changed position with time. Using solar elevation and azimuth angles, the site longitude and latitude, and the experimental dates, we demonstrate that, during the experiments performed by Hill et al., there would have been times when area thought to be shielded from UV would have been exposed to UV. A corollary of this is that the ‘‘UV-exposed’’ substrate, directly under the adjacent UVtransparent plastic, would have been shielded from UV during parts of the day when the shadow of the UV-opaque Plexiglas passed over it.
The influence of national culture and organizational culture alignment on job stress and performance: evidence from Greece

Job‐related stress has significant untoward consequences and appears to be wide‐spread. Although job‐related stress has a number of causes, the focus of this study is the stress associated with the lack of alignment between managers’ societal values and the culture of the organization in which the manager works. Using a sample of 78 Greek managers, it is argued that the Eiffel Tower organizational culture, characterized by low levels of decentralization and high levels of formalization, is congruent with the Greek societal values of high power distance and strong uncertainty avoidance, reducing Greek managers’ job‐related stress and increasing their performance. Results indicate that an Eiffel Tower organizational culture/Greek societal culture fit is associated with lower reported job stress but not increased managerial performance. Implications of the results are discussed.
Availability, Similarity, and Gender as Determinants of Adolescent Peer Acceptance1

Attributes of accepted classmates were investigated as a function of (a) respondent-target similarity, (b) availability of desirable peers, (c) gender of respondent and accepted peers, and (d) level of intimacy of the social contact. It was assumed that availability would play a greater role than was previously recognized, in determining attributes of accepted peers in casual as well as intimate contacts, and same-gender and opposite-gender acceptance of males and females would be affected differentially by availability and similarity. Seven hundred and fitly-five 6th, 7th. and 8th grade male and female students indicated their readiness to engage in closer or more casual contacts with each of their classmates, using the Interpersonal Relationship Assessment Technique. It was found that in more superficial relations attributes of accepted peers tended to reflect availability of desirable peers (mean level of desirable student attributes in class), but not respondent-peer similarity; whereas readiness to maintain more intimate contacts with peers was significantly associated with similarity between respondent and accepted peers, as well as availability of desirable peers. It was found further that availability and similarity play different roles in determining acceptance of same-gender or opposite-gender peers by boys and by girls. These results were replicated over four levels of intimacy and four different student attributes.
Personalidad y percepción de autoeficacia : influencia sobre el bienestar y el afrontamiento de los problemas de salud

Esta investigacion examino el papel que desempenan la personalidad y determinados factores psicosociales en relacion con criterios de salud (bienestar, satisfaccion y conductas preventivas), y el afrontamiento ante los problemas de salud. Ciento setenta y tres participantes completaron medidas de los Cinco Factores, Percepcion de Autoeficacia Generalizada (AEG) y Competencia Percibida en Salud (CPS), junto con criterios de salud y afrontamiento. Los resultados mostraron que los rasgos se conectaron mas con la satisfaccion, mientras que AEG y CPS se vincularon mas estrechamente con las conductas preventivas y el bienestar, respectivamente. Asimismo los rasgos dieron cuenta de una mayor varianza del afrontamiento instrumental y emocional, en comparacion con AEG y CPS. Sin embargo CPS fue el principal predictor de estos dos tipos de afrontamiento. Estos resultados sugieren que la consideracion conjunta de las dimensiones de personalidad y los factores psicosociales permite clarificar su utilidad predictiva en el campo de la salud.