Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
γ-Secretase Inhibitor Alleviates Acute Airway Inflammation of Allergic Asthma in Mice by Downregulating Th17 Cell Differentiation

T helper 17 (Th17) cells play an important role in the pathogenesis of allergic asthma. Th17 cell differentiation requires Notch signaling. γ-Secretase inhibitor (GSI) blocks Notch signaling; thus, it may be considered as a potential treatment for allergic asthma. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of GSI on Th17 cell differentiation in a mouse model of allergic asthma. OVA was used to induce mouse asthma model in the presence and absence of GSI. GSI ameliorated the development of OVA-induced asthma, including suppressing airway inflammation responses and reducing the severity of clinical signs. GSI also significantly suppressed Th17-cell responses in spleen and reduced IL-17 levels in serum. These findings suggest that GSI directly regulates Th17 responses through a Notch signaling-dependent pathway in mouse model of allergic asthma, supporting the notion that GSI is a potential therapeutic agent for the treatment of allergic asthma.
Knee osteoarthritis: influence of work involving heavy lifting, kneeling, climbing stairs or ladders, or kneeling/squatting combined with heavy lifting

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the evidence for an association between knee osteoarthritis (kneeOA) and physical work demands. Systematic searches were made, and epidemiological studies on kneeOA and heavy lifting, kneeling and climbing stairs published in 1966 to 2007 inclusive were reviewed. The quality of the studies was assessed and an overall evaluation of the degree of evidence of a causal relationship between kneeOA and physically demanding work was made, using specific criteria of the different degrees of evidence of causality. Limitations of the studies include few participants, use of different diagnostic criteria and a poor description of the exposure. It is concluded that moderate evidence was found for a relationship between kneeling, heavy lifting and kneeOA. For the combination of kneeling/squatting and heavy lifting the association seemed stronger than for kneeling/squatting or heavy lifting alone, but only a few studies were found concerning this relationship. Therefore the degree of evidence for a causal relationship was considered to be moderate. In the studies on the association between kneeOA and climbing stairs or ladders, there was an increased risk for kneeOA, but only a few studies were found and no dose–response relationship has been investigated. The evidence of a causal relationship is therefore considered to be limited.
What can pictorial artifacts teach us about light and lightness?1

The virtual collection of human pictorial artifacts represents a treasure for vision scientists: they are not only a showcase of possible — even if often improbable — visual experiences, but also a showcase of visual indexes and information employed by the visual system to generate our phenomenal world. In this work, we address three possible lessons that can be derived from the study of pictorial artifacts, related to the experiences of light and achromatic surface color. The first addresses the definitions of the words lightness and brightness; the second lesson is about the interactions between light and lightness; the third is about the visual experience of light and how artists managed to represent such experiences.
Europe's coastal fisheries: instability and the impacts of fisheries policy

This article discusses the precarious situation of Europe's coastal fisheries in an increasingly complex world where environmental, economic, political and social instabilities – either separately or interactively – threaten their future sustainability. It draws particular attention to key lessons from resilience thinking and the role that social sciences can play in developing a deeper understanding of the nature of change and the processes shaping the vulnerability, resilience and adaptation of fishing communities and livelihoods, as well as the dangers implicit in certain aspects of fisheries policy. The article concludes by introducing the articles in this special issue of Sociologia Ruralis on ‘Resilience and Adaptation of Fishing Communities’.
Non-Executive Employee Ownership and Corporate Risk

ABSTRACT: Prior research documents a negative link between risk and executive holding of stock, but a corresponding positive link for options. We find a similar negative relation for non-executive holding of stock. Our finding is consistent with the view that non-executives not only face significant incentives to reduce risk when they hold stock, but they are also able to affect corporate risk. While endogeneity cannot be ruled out fully, the results of a battery of tests suggest that it plays a limited role. A second robust result is that the documented relation becomes more negative as option-based executive compensation increases. Overall, corporate risk is related to the incentives created by stock and options held by both executives and non-executives, as well as interactions among those incentives. JEL Classifications: G30.
Person- and context-oriented perceptual age measures: additional evidence of distinctiveness and usefulness

Cleveland and Shore (1992) suggested that four perceptual age measures could be grouped into person-oriented and context-oriented factors. This study examined longitudinal data from their same sample, and tested three propositions related to the distinctiveness and usefulness of the age measures. Confirmatory factor analyses showed that the factor structure proposed by Cleveland and Shore was invariant over time, and that new multi-item scales measuring two types of age loaded on appropriate factors. As hypothesized, context-oriented measures showed less temporal stability than person-oriented measures, and the temporal relationships among person-oriented measures were more easily explained in terms of a strict simplex structure than was the case for context-oriented measures. Perceptual age measures accounted for variance in self-ratings and managers' ratings of employee health, self-ratings of retirement intentions, and managers' ratings of promotability not accounted for by chronological age. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Exploring the Value of Emotional Intelligence: A Means to Improve Academic Performance

The academic model of success in higher education often neglects the role of noncognitive variables, including Emotional Intelligence (EI). As higher education educators turn their attention to learning, scholars are focusing on the role of EI and other noncognitive variables in enhancing learning. Although learning takes place both inside and outside the classroom, this specific study addresses learning as it relates to academic performance. To explore the role of noncognitive factors in predicting academic performance, this study utilizes an initial sample of 864 first-year students at a large research university. The research addresses the value of EI in predicting academic performance as measured by cumulative grade point average (GPA). The role student affairs professionals play in the noncognitive development of students, specifically EI, could enhance student performance inside and outside the classroom. Implications for educators, including student affairs professionals, are addressed.
Energy-efficient virtual machine provisioning mechanism in cloud computing environments

As the increasing number of modern applications and enterprises demand more and more resources in computational power, memory and disk storage, cloud data centers are consuming huge amounts of electrical energy. The aim of cloud service providers is to reduce the operational costs by minimizing energy consumption while providing competitive services to their customers. The above, can be fulfilled by trying to reduce the number of active servers, using live VM migrations and keeping the system performance in the requested levels according to SLAs. In this paper, an efficient virtual machine allocation mechanism for cloud data center environments is proposed. We first describe the virtual machine allocation policy and then we perform a series of experiments based on CloudSim [1] 3.0. 3 simulator. Experimental results have shown that the proposed scheme is very efficient in terms of energy consumption and QoS (decreased SLA violations) compared to LrMmt provisioning mechanism presented in [2].
Cohort Profile Cohort Profile : The National Health Insurance Service – National Sample Cohort ( NHIS-NSC ) , South Korea

Cohort Profile: The National Health Insurance Service–National Sample Cohort (NHIS-NSC), South Korea Juneyoung Lee, Ji Sung Lee, Sook-Hee Park, Soon Ae Shin and KeeWhan Kim* Department of Biostatistics, College of Medicine, Korea University, Seoul, Korea, Clinical Research Center, Asian Medical Center, Seoul, Korea, Big Data Steering Department, National Health Insurance Service, Seoul, Korea and Department of Applied Statistics, Korea University Sejong Campus, Sejong City, Korea
Social Perception and Alcohol Use Disorder: Preliminary Findings

A growing literature suggests that social perception deficits are evident in individuals with alcohol use disorder. Recent studies suggest differences between users of alcohol and control participants may persist with abstinence and may be associated with treatment outcomes. However, measurement of social perception has been inconsistent across studies, and replication studies are needed. Moreover, prior studies of social perception in this population have not thoroughly evaluated psychiatric symptoms, which are commonly comorbid with alcohol use disorder. The present study measured social perception performance and psychiatric symptoms in patients during early alcohol abstinence. Participants were 30 patients (10 women, 20 men) participating in an inpatient treatment program for alcohol use disorder. Across the sample, the subjects performed significantly worse than the normative sample on the Affect Naming and Pairs subtests, but not on the Prosody subtest. Depression scores were negatively associated with scores on the Pairs subtest, but no other social perception measures. These findings are consistent with previous literature documenting social perception deficits among individuals with alcohol use disorders. Generally, psychiatric symptoms were not associated with social perception performance, with the exception of depression symptoms. Limitations of the study and implications for future studies are discussed.
Planlı Bir Müze Gezisinin İlköğretim Öğrencilerinin Tutumuna Etkisi

Arastirmada, ogretmenin, muze gezisi oncesinde, muzede ve muze gezisi sonrasinda yapilacak etkinlikleri planlayarak programli bir muze gezisi hazirlamasina yardimci olacak bir muze egitim paketi gelistirilmistir. Bu kapsamda arastirmada, Sanat Etkinlikleri dersi icin gelistirilen muze egitim paketini; uygulamanin, ogrencilerin tutumlarina etkisini belirlemek amaclanmistir. Arastirma 2007-2008 egitimogretim yilinda Ankara ili Şehit Mahmut Ozdemir Ilkogretim Okulu birinci kademe ucuncu sinif ogrencileri ile gerceklestirilmistir. Arastirmada ontest-sontest kontrol gruplu deneysel desen kullanilmistir. Random yoluyla secilen orneklem gruplarindan biri deney grubu (37), digeri kontrol grubu (38) olarak belirlenmistir. Veriler tutum olcegiyle elde edilmistir. Verilerin cozumlenmesinde iliskisiz orneklemler t-testi ile tek faktorlu anova uygulanmistir. Arastirmanin sonucunda, deney grubu ogrencileri ile kontrol grubu ogrencilerinin tutum duzeyleri arasinda, deney grubu lehine anlamli bir fark bulunmustur
Optical CDMA protocol with selective retransmission

New protocol for optical code-division multiple access (CDMA) networks is proposed. Our proposed protocol is based on selective retransmission technique. A mathematical model is presented using a detailed state diagram. The protocol is analyzed using equilibrium point analysis (EPA), and its performance is examined using traditional throughput and average delay for several network parameters. We also compare the performance of the proposed protocol to the R/sup 3/T protocol based on go-back-n technique. Results show that a higher performance is achieved by the proposed protocol at the expense of system complexity.
When all is said and done: updating “Elections, special interests, and financial crisis”

How do elections affect the costliness of financial crises to taxpayers? Previous research contends that more electorally competitive countries choose policies that are less costly to taxpayers. In this paper, we update Keefer’s seminal 2007 article published in International Organization with revised data. The original article found that more electorally competitive countries had lower fiscal costs from responding to crises. The commonly used IMF/World Bank data set Keefer employed has since been extensively corrected and expanded. We update the original analysis with the newest version of this data set. After doing so, we find no evidence for an association between electoral competitiveness and the fiscal costs of responding to financial crises both within the original sample and outside of it. Our update highlights a broader methodological lesson: that the costs of responding to financial crises can take many years to be settled. Future research should explicitly address and model this delayed cost resolution.
Cancer Immunotherapy: A Treatment for the Masses

Cancer immunotherapy attempts to harness the exquisite power and specificity of the immune system for the treatment of malignancy. Although cancer cells are less immunogenic than pathogens, the immune system is clearly capable of recognizing and eliminating tumor cells. However, tumors frequently interfere with the development and function of immune responses. Thus, the challenge for immunotherapy is to use advances in cellular and molecular immunology to develop strategies that effectively and safely augment antitumor responses.
Event-related synchronization/desynchronization to assess changes in alpha peak frequency along time during kinesthetic motor imagery

This work aims at analyzing event-related potentials (ERPs) of posterior and central areas of the cortex during motor imagery of spike volleyball task along the time of imagination. Multi-channel EEG was acquired following 10–20 international system over occipital, parietal and central areas during kinesthetic motor imagery (KMI) of volleyball spike and reference (REF) period (mental countdown), from athletes and non-athletes. The Event Related desynchronization / synchronization (ERD/ERS) was calculated to assess changes in alpha peak frequency in two moments: between 0.5 and 1.5 s (E1), and between 1.5 and 2.5 s (E2) after trigger sound of imagery start. The athletes showed more number of subjects with desynchronization in central areas, while in non-athletes in parietal areas ones. Moreover, the KMI along time analysis indicated more desynchronism in E2 than E1 in athletes, except for P3. According to the results, we conclude that kinesthetic motor imagery of complex task as volleyball spike demands more cognitive effort in central areas of athletes than non-athletes, reflected in desynchronism of alpha peak frequency. Moreover, the behavior of alpha peak frequency along time of imagination suggests an interaction effect related with the knowledge of task imagined. Nevertheless, more studies are needed to support these findings.
Analysis of Distractions for Teenage Drivers Utilizing a Car Simulator

An experiment was designed and implemented at the University of Tennessee to find the most important factors affecting teenager driving behavior. The factors included distraction, road condition, and gender. Response variables were standard deviation of velocity, standard deviation of lane position, and mean velocity. ANOVA and mixed model were used to determine if distractions, gender, and road condition affected response variables. Additionally, distractions were ranked based on their impact on the response variables’ values. The participants were 22 teenage drivers (16-18 years old), driving in a Ford Focus simulated car. They were faced with 11 internal distractions.
Disparities in the Prevalence of Metabolic Syndrome (MS) and its Components Among University Employees by Age, Gender and Occupation.

BACKGROUND Metabolic Syndrome (MS), a known risk factor for Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) and type II diabetes is an emerging epidemic in China. Studies carried out on the general population indicate a varied clustering of cardiovascular risks in many parts of the country. However, there is limited data on its prevalence in the working population. Workplace can serve as an important place for prevention, control and management of CVD risks. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of MS and its components among University workers, and determine how the prevalence varied according to sex and occupation. METHODS This was a cross-sectional study of 2,428 University employees (22-60 years) who received an annual clinical examination at the University hospital. Anthropometric measurements, blood pressure, Fasting Plasma Glucose (FPG), and lipid profiles were measured. MS was defined according to the National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment panel III modified criteria. RESULTS Overall prevalence of MS was 6.1%, higher in males (5.1%) than females (1.1%), and increased with age. The most prevalent MS components in all workers were hypertension (37.9%) and hypertryglyceridemia (20.8%), corresponding rates in males were 28.3% and 16.1% while females had a prevalence of 9.6% and 4.7%. After adjustment for age, administrative work was associated (p<0.05) with increased hypertension (odds ratio (OR) =1.474; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.146-1.896) and hyperglycemia (OR=1.469; 95% CI, 1.082-1.993) in male workers, and with hypertension (OR=1.492; 95% CI, 1.071-2.080) in females. However, prevalence of hypertryglyceridemia was lower (OR=0.390; 95% CI, 0.204-0.746) in female administrators compared to those in academics. Obesity, MS and reduced High Density Lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol prevalence was not different (p>0.05) between the two occupations in both sexes. CONCLUSIONS Prevalence of MS and its components was higher in male workers than in females, increased with age, and were more common in administrative workers. The findings support the need for gender and occupation specific health interventions to prevent CVDs and type II diabetes in the workplace.
Empowerment: a universal agent-centric measure of control

The classical approach to using utility functions suffers from the drawback of having to design and tweak the functions on a case by case basis. Inspired by examples from the animal kingdom, social sciences and games we propose empowerment, a rather universal function, defined as the information-theoretic capacity of an agent's actuation channel. The concept applies to any sensorimotor apparatus. Empowerment as a measure reflects the properties of the apparatus as long as they are observable due to the coupling of sensors and actuators via the environment. Using two simple experiments we also demonstrate how empowerment influences sensor-actuator evolution
The Colonizer/Colonized Chicana Ethnographer: Identity, Marginalization, and Co-optation in the Field.

In this article, Sofia Villenas describes her experience of being caught in the midst of oppressive discourses of "othering" during her work as a Chicana ethnographer in a rural North Carolina Latino community. While Villenas was focusing on how to reform her relationship with the Latino community as "privileged" ethnographer, she missed the process by which she was being co-opted by the dominant English-speaking community to legitimate their discourse of Latino family education and child-rearing practices as "problem. " By engaging in this discourse, she found herself complicit in the manipulation of her own identities and participating in her own colonization an marginalization. Through her story, Villenas recontextualizes theories about the multiplicity of identities of the researcher. She problematizes the "we" in the literature of qualitative researchers who analyze their race, class and gender privileges. Villenas challenges dominate-culture education ethnographers to move beyond the researcher-as-co.
Culturally Meaningful Leisure as a Way of Coping with Stress among Aboriginal Individuais with Diabetes

The purpose of this study was to gain insights into the lived experiences of urban Aboriginal Canadians with diabetes in stress and coping through leisure. A framework of resilience was used to conceptually ground the study and to analytically synthesize findings about the role of leisure in coping with stress. Focus groups were used as the data collection technique, and phenomenology as an analytical approach. Not only were participants' experiences of stress tied to diabetes-related aspects of their lives, but their descriptions also suggested that stress originated from broader structural systems and dynamics at various intertwined leveis—socio-economic, cultural, historical, and political (e.g., racism). On the other hand, the results revealed the use of human strengths and resilience through culturally appropriate forms of leisure (e.g., Native arts, Aboriginal dancing, music, spiritual reading, going to reserves) in coping with stress. The findings emphasized that culture plays a central role in explaining leisure stress-coping mechanisms, whether these are tied to collective strengths, cultural identity, spiritual renewal, or physical/behavioral benefits. Concerning the connection between stress and leisure, culturally-based forms of leisure seemed useful to deal with culturally-bound stressors (e.g., racism), while some evidence was found for the role of leisure (e.g., physical activity) in coping with diabetes-related stressors.
Acquisition of Subjective Adjectives with Limited Resources

This paper describes a bootstrapping algorithm for acquiring a lexicon of subjective adjectives which minimizes the recourse to external resources (such as lexical databases, parsers, manual annotation work). The method only employs a corpus tagged with part-ofspeech information and a seed set of subjective adjectives. The list of candidate subjective adjectives is generated incrementally by looking at the head nouns they modify and computing their distribution-based semantic similarity (cosine) with respect to the seed set and its successive extensions. The advantages of a method using limited resources include the following: a) it can be used for languages other than English for which resources such as parsers and annotated corpora are not available, but a part-of-speech tagger is; b) it can be used for English as well when fast and low cost development is required in specific sub-domains of subjective