Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
ISSUE BRIEF: General Fund Expenditure and Revenue Growth in FY 2004-05

According to the November 2002 forecast, general fund expenditures in FY 2004-05 biennium are projected to exceed FY 2002-03 expenditures by 14.3 percent. Revenues are forecast to rise by only 6.6 percent. This issue brief begins by providing some historical perspective, comparing the projected expenditure growth rate to biennial growth rates since the late 1970’s. After commenting on the policy implications of the gap between projected growth in revenues and expenditures, the issue brief estimates how much of the 2004-05 projected growth in expenditures and revenues is due to the 2001 property tax reforms and other one-time budget changes. Historical Perspective: General Fund Expenditure Increases Figures 1 and 2 compare the projected 14.3 percent growth in general fund expenditures to biennial growth rates over the past 26 years. Growth rates are shown both for current dollar expenditures and for expenditures adjusted for inflation.
School exclusion and reintegration : an exploration of pupils', parents' and teachers' experiences

School exclusion is experienced by some of the most vulnerable children in society, and challenges to sustained reintegration and consequent ‘inclusive’ educational issues are well documented. The literature in this area has primarily focussed on exclusion or reintegration in isolation; however few studies have explored both phenomena, and those that do often focus on experiences of one set of actors at the expense of another. This research aims to contribute to these identified gaps by exploring the lived experiences (through the voices) of pupils, parents and teachers; those actors most intimately involved in both processes. This study focuses on four secondary aged pupils who had experienced multiple fixed-term exclusions, followed by sustained and successful reintegration. Using a qualitative design and a preventative approach to establish 'what works' in sustaining reintegration, data was collected via semi-structured interviews with pupils, parents and teachers to obtain their multiple perspectives. Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis participants' experiences of exclusion and reintegration were captured through emerging themes of security. Three interacting super-ordinate themes representing participants accounts were identified as: ‘Threats to Security’, the ‘Search for Security’, and the ‘Re-establishing of Security’. Themes were interpreted to explore how potential risk and protective factors are mediated within the pupil’s ecological system, and how these precipitated the emergence of vulnerability and resilience for young people. With a primary focus on how preventative practices can enhance protective factors leading to successful reintegration, the implications of these findings for Educational Psychologists and professionals working with pupils, parents and teachers are discussed in relation to the resources within the child's system. It is proposed that strengthening these resources may promote resilience and facilitate positive social, emotional and educational wellbeing.
3D Action Recognition Using Multi-Temporal Depth Motion Maps and Fisher Vector

This paper presents an effective local spatio-temporal descriptor for action recognition from depth video sequences. The unique property of our descriptor is that it takes the shape discrimination and action speed variations into account, intending to solve the problems of distinguishing different pose shapes and identifying the actions with different speeds in one goal. The entire algorithm is carried out in three stages. In the first stage, a depth sequence is divided into temporally overlapping depth segments which are used to generate three depth motion maps (DMMs), capturing the shape and motion cues. To cope with speed variations in actions, multiple frame lengths of depth segments are utilized, leading to a multitemporal DMMs representation. In the second stage, all the DMMs are first partitioned into dense patches. Then, the local binary patterns (LBP) descriptor is exploited to characterize local rotation invariant texture information in those patches. In the third stage, the Fisher kernel is employed to encode the patch descriptors for a compact feature representation, which is fed into a kernel-based extreme learning machine classifier. Extensive experiments on the public MSRAction3D, MSRGesture3D and DHA datasets show that our proposed method outperforms state-of-the-art approaches for depth-based action recognition.
Construction of the Planar Partition Postal Code Map Based on Cadastral Registration

Accurate postal code maps have many applications within GIS as the postal code has the potential to link the address description of buildings to their location in a specified global reference system in a more natural way. This relationship is possible in both directions: geocoding and reverse-geocoding. These operators demand a mechanism for translating an exact geometric position (i.e. WGS84 coordinate) into a location indication (town, street, house number) and vice versa. As most built-up parcels are provided with a postal code, this indicator can be used as the linkage. This paper describes the procedure, based on the Dutch cadastral registration, to obtain a reliable 6-position (i.e. 2628BX, the highest level of detail possible) planar postal code map for the Netherlands. Problems with existing, Voronoi-diagram based, postal code maps, like intersected houses and arbitrary derived (and thus unrecognizable) boundaries are avoided. The reliability of the derived planar postal code map is discussed and results are illustrated by figures. For a planar coverage, non built-up parcels having no postal code should be assigned a plausible postal code. Furthermore special attention is given to infrastructural parcels. These parcels are divided at their (approximated) skeletons first and then these subdivided infrastructure parcels are piecewise attached to their neighbour parcels. This new approach results in very reliable postal code maps, which are visually attractive too as infrastructure lines can be recognized. The procedure is generic and can be applied to other administrative parcel information as well. The algorithm is implemented using the Computational Geometry Algorithms Library (CGAL), and the possibilities and limitations of this library are addressed as well. Also a number of non-implemented alternatives or improvements are given.
An antigen-specific signal is required for the activation of second- order suppressor T cells in the regulation of delayed-type hypersensitivity to 2,4,6-trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid

Suppressor T cells (Ts-1) induced with trinitrophenyl (TNP)-conjugated syngeneic spleen cells (TNP-SC) can be enriched on antigen-coated plates and are afferent suppressors. In addition, these suppressor cells produced soluble suppressor factors (TsF) that were active in vivo. Therefore, the Ts-1 cells in the TNP system are very similar to the Ts-1 cells in other systems we have studied earlier. Further characterization of these TsF-1 revealed that TsF-1 obtained from TNP- SC-induced Ts-1 is major histocompatibility complex restricted in its activity. Injection of TNP-specific TsF-1 into naive mice did not induce Ts-2 unless additional corresponding antigen was provided. Moreover, the Ts-2 cells induced by administration of both TsF-1 and trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid were antigen specific rather than antiidiotypic.
Noise and Intermodulation Properties of Tunable Recursive Active MMIC Filters for Future Adaptive On-chip Radar Receivers

The possibilities and the limitations of tunable narrow band recursive active MMIC filters with respect to future adaptive on-chip radar receivers are investigated. We compare the measured and the simulated results of two recursive active MMIC filters with the corresponding theoretical results obtained using our analytical filter models. A good agreement between these results is generally found. Using our analytical filter models we also estimate the noise and intermodulation properties of the low noise amplifier used in the filters that are necessary in order to achieve a filter performance adequate for future adaptive on-chip radar receivers.
THE ROLE OF COLD FLOWS IN THE ASSEMBLY OF GALAXY DISKS

We use high-resolution cosmological hydrodynamical simulations to demonstrate that cold flow gas accretion, particularly along filaments, modifies the standard picture of gas accretion and cooling onto galaxy disks. In the standard picture, all gas is initially heated to the virial temperature of the galaxy as it enters the virial radius. Low-mass galaxies are instead dominated by accretion of gas that stays well below the virial temperature, and even when a hot halo is able to develop in more massive galaxies there exist dense filaments that penetrate inside of the virial radius and deliver cold gas to the central galaxy. For galaxies up to ∼L*, this cold accretion gas is responsible for the star formation (SF) in the disk at all times to the present. Even for galaxies at higher masses, cold flows dominate the growth of the disk at early times. Within this modified picture, galaxies are able to accrete a large mass of cold gas, with lower initial gas temperatures leading to shorter cooling times to reach the disk. Although SF in the disk is mitigated by supernovae feedback, the short cooling times allow for the growth of stellar disks at higher redshifts than predicted by the standard model.
The Gilles de la Tourette Syndrome and Obsessional Disorder

Georges Gilles de la Tourette first drew attention to the psychopathology of the Gilles de la Tourette Syndrome (GTS) in 1889 when he commented on the anxieties and phobias of his patients. In this paper he acknowledged the contribution of Guinon, who in 1886 had noted that “tiquers” nearly always had associated psychiatric disorders characterised by multiple phobias, arithmomania and agoraphobia. Since that time many types of psychopathology have been documented in association with GTS, including depression, anxiety, phobic disorder, hostility and aggression. However, the exact association between these disorders and GTS remains unclear. What is becoming increasingly evident is that there is a clear and strong association between obsessional thoughts and behaviours and GTS, and this is seen both in patients with GTS and in their family members. There have now been at least twenty investigations which have reported on this association, which is evident in clinic patients, epidemiological studies and family/pedigree populations. There have also been convincing arguments for the association being genetic.
Chronic Inflammation in Cancer Development

Chronic inflammatory mediators exert pleiotropic effects in the development of cancer. On the one hand, inflammation favors carcinogenesis, malignant transformation, tumor growth, invasion, and metastatic spread; on the other hand inflammation can stimulate immune effector mechanisms that might limit tumor growth. The link between cancer and inflammation depends on intrinsic and extrinsic pathways. Both pathways result in the activation of transcription factors such as NF-κB, STAT-3, and HIF-1 and in accumulation of tumorigenic factors in tumor and microenvironment. STAT-3 and NF-κB interact at multiple levels and thereby boost tumor-associated inflammation which can suppress anti-tumor immune responses. These factors also promote tumor growth, progression, and metastatic spread. IL-1, IL-6, TNF, and PGHS-2 are key mediators of an inflammatory milieu by modulating the expression of tumor-promoting factors. In this review we concentrate on the crucial role of pro-inflammatory mediators in inflammation-driven carcinogenesis and outline molecular mechanisms of IL-1 signaling in tumors. In addition, we elucidate the dual roles of stress proteins as danger signals in the development of anti-cancer immunity and anti-apoptotic functions.
Spatial distribution of marine airborne bacterial communities

The spatial distribution of bacterial populations in marine bioaerosol samples was investigated during a cruise from the North Sea to the Baltic Sea via Skagerrak and Kattegat. The analysis of the sampled bacterial communities with a pyrosequencing approach revealed that the most abundant phyla were represented by the Proteobacteria (49.3%), Bacteroidetes (22.9%), Actinobacteria (16.3%), and Firmicutes (8.3%). Cyanobacteria were assigned to 1.5% of all bacterial reads. A core of 37 bacterial OTUs made up more than 75% of all bacterial sequences. The most abundant OTU was Sphingomonas sp. which comprised 17% of all bacterial sequences. The most abundant bacterial genera were attributed to distinctly different areas of origin, suggesting highly heterogeneous sources for bioaerosols of marine and coastal environments. Furthermore, the bacterial community was clearly affected by two environmental parameters – temperature as a function of wind direction and the sampling location itself. However, a comparison of the wind directions during the sampling and calculated backward trajectories underlined the need for more detailed information on environmental parameters for bioaerosol investigations. The current findings support the assumption of a bacterial core community in the atmosphere. They may be emitted from strong aerosolizing sources, probably being mixed and dispersed over long distances.
Measurement of LowPAN Network Coexistence with Home Microwave Appliances in Laboratory and Home Environments

Due to a low installation cost of communication infrastructure, Low Power Wireless Area Networks (low PAN) presents an efficient solution for home and building automation. The low PANs operate in a microwave radio band that is often shared by several home appliances. Laptops, wireless routers, cordless phones and microwave ovens occupy the 2.4 GHz band without any channel allocation and thus interoperability with the low PAN systems presents a significant challenge. Therefore, we have performed several laboratory experiments to study the coexistence of low PAN devices with WiFi equipped laptop, WiFi router and microwave oven. The performance evaluation was based on a measurement of Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR) metric. Results shows that presence of the home appliances in the low PAN environment significantly affects the low PAN communication efficiency. Furthermore, we have deployed Zigbee based wireless network in the home environment to study the communication performance in area perturbed by common home radio interferences and obstacles. The lessons learned from network deployment are also presented within the paper.
Cognitive assessment of mice strains heterozygous for cell-adhesion genes reveals strain-specific alterations in timing

We used a fully automated system for the behavioural measurement of physiologically meaningful properties of basic mechanisms of cognition to test two strains of heterozygous mutant mice, Bfc (batface) and L1, and their wild-type littermate controls. Both of the target genes are involved in the establishment and maintenance of synapses. We find that the Bfc heterozygotes show reduced precision in their representation of interval duration, whereas the L1 heterozygotes show increased precision. These effects are functionally specific, because many other measures made on the same mice are unaffected, namely: the accuracy of matching temporal investment ratios to income ratios in a matching protocol, the rate of instrumental and classical conditioning, the latency to initiate a cued instrumental response, the trials on task and the impulsivity in a switch paradigm, the accuracy with which mice adjust timed switches to changes in the temporal constraints, the days to acquisition, and mean onset time and onset variability in the circadian anticipation of food availability.
Imidazoline Compounds Protect Against Interleukin 1 – Induced-Cell Apoptosis

Imidazoline compounds have been considered for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. We have now investigated the effects of imidazolines on interleukin (IL)-1 –induced -cell apoptosis and the signal transduction pathways involved. Inhibition of Ca influx into -cells by D-600, a blocker of voltage-gated L-type Ca channels, suppressed IL-1 –induced apoptosis. Our data show that calcineurin, Ca/calmodulin-dependent serine/threonine protein phosphatase 2B, is responsible for the effect of Ca on -cell apoptosis. We also demonstrate that IL-1 – mediated apoptosis correlates with expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and the increase in intracellular production of nitric oxide. An inhibitor of cGMP-dependent protein kinase (PKG), KT5823, suppressed IL-1 –induced apoptosis, suggesting the involvement of a PKG-dependent pathway in the apoptotic process. One of the major findings in this study is that imidazoline compounds RX871024 and efaroxan, suggested as prototypes of a new generation of drugs against type 2 diabetes, can protect against IL-1 –induced apoptosis in pancreatic -cells, possibly by their inhibition of the expression of iNOS, a key element in the IL-1 – induced apoptotic pathway in pancreatic -cells. These data suggest that imidazoline compounds should be explored as a potential therapeutic agent for the treatment of both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Diabetes 50 (Suppl. 1):S70–S76, 2001
The Therapeutic Effect of Intra-articular Normal Saline Injections for Knee Osteoarthritis: A Meta-analysis of Evidence Level 1 Studies

Background: Intra-articular normal saline (IA-NS) injections have been utilized as a placebo in a number of randomized controlled trials pertaining to the management of knee osteoarthritis (OA); however, it is believed that these “placebo” injections may have a therapeutic effect that has not been quantified in the literature. Purpose: To (1) quantify the effect of IA-NS injections on patient-reported outcomes (PROs) and (2) compare postinjection PROs to established minimal clinically important difference (MCID) criteria to demonstrate a potential therapeutic effect. Study Design: Meta-analysis. Methods: A review was conducted to identify all randomized, placebo-controlled trials on injection therapy for knee OA between 2006 and 2016. Patient demographics and PROs before the injection and at 3 and 6 months after the injection were collected for patients in the IA-NS injection group in each study. A random-effects model was used to compare preinjection scores and scores at each postinjection time point in a pairwise fashion. Results: In total, there were 14 placebo cohorts in 13 studies that were analyzed after meeting inclusion criteria for this meta-analysis. This included 1076 patients (Kellgren-Lawrence grade 1-4), with a weighted mean age of 62.53 years and mean body mass index of 28.67 kg/m2. There was only sufficient information to perform analyses of visual analog scale (VAS) pain and Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Arthritis Index (WOMAC) total scores. At 3 months after the IA-NS placebo injection, there was a significant improvement in VAS pain scores (mean difference [MD], 12.10 [95% CI, 3.27 to 20.93]; P = .007), whereas improvement in the WOMAC total scores approached but did not reach statistical significance (MD, 19.75 [95% CI, –0.50 to 40.09]; P = .06). At 6 months, both VAS pain scores (MD, 16.62 [95% CI, 12.13-21.10]; P < .00001) and WOMAC total scores (MD, 11.34 [95% CI, 7.03-15.65]; P < .00001) were significantly improved in comparison to preinjection values. Furthermore, improvements in both the VAS pain and WOMAC total scores at 6 months were clinically significant (MCID, 1.37 and 9, respectively). Conclusion: The administration of an IA-NS placebo injection yields a statistically and clinically meaningful improvement in PROs up to 6 months after the injection in patients with knee OA. This observation supports the notion that the so-called placebo effect for IA-NS injections achieves a clinically meaningful response in patients with OA when provided during comparison studies to an active treatment group (ie, hyaluronic acid).
DIRECTION GÉNÉRALE DES ÉTUDES ET DES RELATIONS INTERNATIONALES STAYING AT ZERO WITH AFFINE PROCESSES: AN APPLICATION TO TERM STRUCTURE MODELLING

We build an Affine Term Structure Model that provides non-negative yields at any maturity and that is able to accommodate a short-term rate that stays at the zero lower bound (ZLB) for extended periods of time while longer-term rates feature high volatilities. We introduce these features through a new univariate non-negative affine process called ARG-Zero, and its multivariate affine counterpart (VARG), entailing conditional distributions with a zero-point masses. The affine property of this new class of processes implies both explicit bond pricing and quasi-explicit lift-off probability formulas. We provide an empirical application to Japanese Government Bond (JGB) yields, observed weekly from June 1995 to May 2014 with maturities from six months to ten years. Our four-factor specification is able to closely match yield levels and to capture conditional yield volatilities. JEL Codes: E43, G12. Key-words: Zero Lower Bound, Affine Process, Term-Structure Model, Lift-Off probabilities.
Study of Behavioral and Emotional Problems Among Institutionalized Children

Background: Behavior and emotional problems are common among children in any socio-economic setting. Orphans are a vulnerable group, simply because they are deprived of one or both of their primary caregivers. The level of vulnerability they face, however, increases significantly with the level of poverty. Aim of the Study: To assess behavioral and emotional problems among institutionalized children. Research Design: A Descriptive research design was applied to suit with the nature of the present study. Research Setting: This study was conducted at institution of education for Boys and Girls at Tanta and El-Mansoura Cities. Subjects: The sample of this study included all institutionalized school age children who are separated from their parents and live in the previously mentioned settings. Boys n=84 and Girls n=30. Tools: Two tools were used in this study namely: • Tool I: "An observation checklist" to assess behavioral problems, and • Tool II: "The children’s depression inventory (CDI)" is a 27 item scale assessing affective, cognitive, motivational, and somatic symptoms of depression. Results: This study found the majority of the participants were defensive, not making friendships with many children, sometimes telling lies, feeling sad, crying, shouting, screaming, and stealing, sometimes biting or pinching others and throwing things at others. The study also reveals the distribution of institutionalized school age children in relation to hyperactivity, withdrawal, aggressiveness, and disobedience scores.
Perceptions of knowledge transfer of foreign African doctors practicing in South African provincial hospitals.

This study assesses the perceptions of knowledge transfer of foreign African doctors, practicing in South African provincial hospitals relating to the process, barriers, channels and importance of knowledge transfer practices in the organization. A sample of 62 foreign African doctors practicing in South African provincial hospitals was drawn using snowball sampling. Data was collected using a selfdeveloped questionnaire whose psychometric properties were statistically determined. Data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The results indicate that foreign African doctors believe that in their hospital environments there are different barriers to knowledge transfer. Whilst the biographical profiles of these doctors do not significantly influence their perceptions of knowledge transfer, the latter is significantly impacted upon by the importance given to knowledge transfer practices in the organization and the different barriers to knowledge transfer. Strategies for enhancing knowledge sharing are recommended.