Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Identification of a novel population of Langerin+ dendritic cells

Langerhans cells (LCs) are antigen-presenting cells that reside in the epidermis of the skin and traffic to lymph nodes (LNs). The general role of these cells in skin immune responses is not clear because distinct models of LC depletion resulted in opposite conclusions about their role in contact hypersensitivity (CHS) responses. While comparing these models, we discovered a novel population of LCs that resides in the dermis and does not represent migrating epidermal LCs, as previously thought. Unlike epidermal LCs, dermal Langerin+ dendritic cells (DCs) were radiosensitive and displayed a distinct cell surface phenotype. Dermal Langerin+ DCs migrate from the skin to the LNs after inflammation and in the steady state, and represent the majority of Langerin+ DCs in skin draining LNs. Both epidermal and dermal Langerin+ DCs were depleted by treatment with diphtheria toxin in Lang-DTREGFP knock-in mice. In contrast, transgenic hLang-DTA mice lack epidermal LCs, but have normal numbers of dermal Langerin+ DCs. CHS responses were abrogated upon depletion of both epidermal and dermal LCs, but were unaffected in the absence of only epidermal LCs. This suggests that dermal LCs can mediate CHS and provides an explanation for previous differences observed in the two-model systems.
Anagenetic evolution in island plants

Aim Plants in islands have often evolved through adaptive radiation, providing the classical model of evolution of closely related species each with strikingly different morphological and ecological features and with low levels of genetic divergence. We emphasize the importance of an alternative (anagenetic) model of evolution, whereby a single island endemic evolves from a progenitor and slowly builds up genetic variation through time.
Labour market integration of immigrants in Portugal in times of austerity: resilience, in situ responses and re-emigration

ABSTRACT The austerity regime implemented in Portugal to face the financial and economic crisis caused readjustments in the country’s productive structure and labour market with an impact on immigrants’ lifeworlds. This article aims at analysing the consequences of the crisis in the lives of third-country nationals living in Portugal, reflecting particularly on the impact on their integration process, understood as economic incorporation, in a context of increasing work precariousness. Special attention will be given to the resilience of immigrants visible in their responses to the labour market constraints, namely through their choices of geographic (im)mobility and also the implementation of strategies to ‘normalise’ their lives. Starting with a brief reference to the meaning of integration in Portugal in a context of crisis, we draw on data from two research projects, arguing that despite the increased hardship, the resilience of foreign workers is considerable and they still think it is worth coming to Portugal. The strategies adopted may be either in situ or implying onward migration, resulting from the combination of context opportunities and individual agency. Factors like legal status, education and having relatives abroad play a moderate role in this process.
Update in critical care 2005.

Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) stopped earlier than planned because of apparent benefit, such as PROWESS (Recombinant Human Activated Protein C Worldwide Evaluation in Severe Sepsis) and the ARDS (Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome) Network low tidal volume study, often generate considerable excitement and affect clinical practice. Montori and coworkers (1) systematically reviewed RCTs involving interventions stopped early for benefit, finding that such trials are becoming more common, often fail to adequately report relevant information about the stopping decision, and show implausibly large treatment effects, particularly when the number of events is small. Because the decision to stop is typically driven by highly significant p value thresholds, trials that are terminated early because of apparent benefit will frequently show large treatment effects, even when the number of events is large. In the future, journals should require adequate reporting about the stopping decision. Glance through any major medical journal and you will increasingly encounter terms from the world of molecular medicine that, unless you live in that world, are unfamiliar and sometimes meaningless. A supplement to Critical Care Medicine (2) attempts to demystify these terms with a series of short articles by international experts that use extensive illustrations and diagrams to emphasize the value of these concepts in the context of the “real world” practice of critical care medicine.
Empirical validation of object-oriented metrics on open source software for fault prediction

Open source software systems are becoming increasingly important these days. Many companies are investing in open source projects and lots of them are also using such software in their own work. But, because open source software is often developed with a different management style than the industrial ones, the quality and reliability of the code needs to be studied. Hence, the characteristics of the source code of these projects need to be measured to obtain more information about it. This paper describes how we calculated the object-oriented metrics given by Chidamber and Kemerer to illustrate how fault-proneness detection of the source code of the open source Web and e-mail suite called Mozilla can be carried out. We checked the values obtained against the number of bugs found in its bug database - called Bugzilla - using regression and machine learning methods to validate the usefulness of these metrics for fault-proneness prediction. We also compared the metrics of several versions of Mozilla to see how the predicted fault-proneness of the software system changed during its development cycle.
Improving the Reliability of Clinical Practice Guideline Appraisals: Effects of the Korean AGREE II Scoring Guide

The Korean translated Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation II (Korean AGREE II) instrument was distributed into Korean medical societies in 2011. However, inter-rater disagreement issues still exist. The Korean AGREE II scoring guide was therefore developed to reduce inter-rater differences. This study examines the effects of the Korean AGREE II scoring guide to reduce inter-rater differences. Appraisers were randomly assigned to two groups (Scoring Guide group and Non-Scoring Guide group). The Korean AGREE II instrument was provided to both groups. However, the scoring guide was offered to Scoring Guide group only. Total 14 appraisers were participated and each guideline was assessed by 8 appraisers. To evaluate the reliability of the Korean AGREE II scoring guide, correlation of scores among appraisers and domain-specific intra-class correlation (ICC) were compared. Most scores of two groups were comparable. Scoring Guide group showed higher reliability at all guidelines. They showed higher correlation among appraisers and higher ICC values at almost all domains. The scoring guide reduces the inter-rater disagreement and improves the overall reliability of the Korean-AGREE II instrument. Graphical Abstract
temporal neurons Speed and direction selectivity of macaque middle

[PDF] [Full Text] [Abstract] , September , 2010; 20 (9): 2172-2187. Cereb. Cortex Pierre Lebranchu, J. Bastin, M. Pelegrini-Issac, S. Lehericy, A. Berthoz and G.A. Orban Retinotopic Coding of Extraretinal Pursuit Signals in Early Visual Cortex [PDF] [Full Text] [Abstract] , March 9, 2011; 31 (10): 3894-3903. J. Neurosci. Richard T. Born Carlos R. Ponce, J. Nicholas Hunter, Christopher C. Pack, Stephen G. Lomber and Middle Temporal Area MT Contributions of Indirect Pathways to Visual Response Properties in Macaque [PDF] [Full Text] [Abstract] , March 21, 2011; 11 (3): . J Vis Padma B. Iyer, Alan W. Freeman, J. Scott McDonald and Colin W. G. Clifford suppression Rapid serial visual presentation of motion: Short-term facilitation and long-term [PDF] [Full Text] [Abstract] , July 12, 2011; 108 (28): 11668-11673. PNAS David Mattijs Arnoldussen, Jeroen Goossens and Albert V. van den Berg Adjacent visual representations of self-motion in different reference frames [PDF] [Full Text] [Abstract] , November 16, 2011; 31 (46): 16561-16569. J. Neurosci. Sonja S. Hohl and Stephen G. Lisberger MT of Macaque Monkeys Representation of Perceptually Invisible Image Motion in Extrastriate Visual Area
Reduced‐order 4D‐Var: A preconditioner for the Incremental 4D‐Var data assimilation method

This study demonstrates how the incremental 4D‐Var data assimilation method can be applied efficiently preconditioned in an application to an oceanographic problem. The approach consists in performing a few iterations of the reduced‐order 4D‐Var prior to the incremental 4D‐Var in the full space in order to achieve faster convergence. An application performed in the tropical Pacific Ocean, with assimilation of TAO temperature data, shows the method to be both feasible and efficient. It allows the global cost of the assimilation to be reduced by a factor of 2 without affecting the quality of the solution.
Trajectory control of autonomous fixed-wing aircraft performing multiple target passive detection and tracking

This paper presents progress made in a previously proposed algorithm for trajectory optimization of autonomous aerial vehicles performing multiple target tracking. The base algorithm, which was described in two earlier papers, involves a variant of the model predictive control approach, built on a partially observed Markov decision process (POMDP) model of the sensor-target system. In this paper modifications and additions made to deal with fixed-wing aircraft dynamics of the controlled vehicles are described and results of simulations involving multiple fixed-wing UAVs, no-fly zones and targets are presented.
Integer-grid maps for reliable quad meshing

Quadrilateral remeshing approaches based on global parametrization enable many desirable mesh properties. Two of the most important ones are (1) high regularity due to explicit control over irregular vertices and (2) smooth distribution of distortion achieved by convex variational formulations. Apart from these strengths, state-of-the-art techniques suffer from limited reliability on real-world input data, i.e. the determined map might have degeneracies like (local) non-injectivities and consequently often cannot be used directly to generate a quadrilateral mesh. In this paper we propose a novel convex Mixed-Integer Quadratic Programming (MIQP) formulation which ensures by construction that the resulting map is within the class of so called Integer-Grid Maps that are guaranteed to imply a quad mesh. In order to overcome the NP-hardness of MIQP and to be able to remesh typical input geometries in acceptable time we propose two additional problem specific optimizations: a complexity reduction algorithm and singularity separating conditions. While the former decouples the dimension of the MIQP search space from the input complexity of the triangle mesh and thus is able to dramatically speed up the computation without inducing inaccuracies, the latter improves the continuous relaxation, which is crucial for the success of modern MIQP optimizers. Our experiments show that the reliability of the resulting algorithm does not only annihilate the main drawback of parametrization based quad-remeshing but moreover enables the global search for high-quality coarse quad layouts - a difficult task solely tackled by greedy methodologies before.
Dimensionality Reduction as a Defense against Evasion Attacks on Machine Learning Classifiers

We propose the use of dimensionality reduction as a defense against evasion attacks on ML classifiers. We present and investigate a strategy for incorporating dimensionality reduction via Principal Component Analysis to enhance the resilience of machine learning, targeting both the classification and the training phase. We empirically evaluate and demonstrate the feasibility of dimensionality reduction of data as a defense mechanism against evasion attacks using multiple real-world datasets. Our key findings are that the defenses are (i) effective against strategic evasion attacks in the literature, increasing the resources required by an adversary for a successful attack by a factor of about two, (ii) applicable across a range of ML classifiers, including Support Vector Machines and Deep Neural Networks, and (iii) generalizable to multiple application domains, including image classification, and human activity classification.
Numerical analysis of the planewave discretization of orbital-free and Kohn-Sham models Part I: The Thomas-Fermi-von Weizacker model

We provide {\it a priori} error estimates for the spectral and pseudospectral Fourier (also called planewave) discretizations of the periodic Thomas-Fermi-von Weizs\"acker (TFW) model and of the Kohn-Sham model, within the local density approximation (LDA). These models allow to compute approximations of the ground state energy and density of molecular systems in the condensed phase. The TFW model is stricly convex with respect to the electronic density, and allows for a comprehensive analysis (Part I). This is not the case for the Kohn-Sham LDA model, for which the uniqueness of the ground state electronic density is not guaranteed. Under a coercivity assumption on the second order optimality condition, we prove in Part II that for large enough energy cut-offs, the discretized Kohn-Sham LDA problem has a minimizer in the vicinity of any Kohn-Sham ground state, and that this minimizer is unique up to unitary transform. We then derive optimal {\it a priori} error estimates for both the spectral and the pseudospectral discretization methods.
Full-scale experimental studies of soil-structure interaction?A review

This paper presents a review of full-scale testing of structures related to soil-structure interaction and associated phenomena. It starts with a review of the early research on soil-structure interaction (including the work of Suyehiro, Sesawa and Kanai, and Biot), and proceeds with studies of the Hollywood Storage Building, of Millikan Library in Pasadena, and more recent studies. The usefulness of full-scale testing is illustrated by presenting recent results for the Hollywood Storage Building by the authors. Finally, an analysis of general trends in full-scale testing and soil-structure interaction research is presented based on the number of publications on these topics in the Earthquake Engineering Abstracts database. This analysis shows that the number of papers on the general topic of soil-structure interaction peaked at 35/year during the late 1970s, and at present is only about 10/year. Papers dealing with experimental aspects of soilstructure-intersection do not exhibit major fluctuations, and since 1970 appear at an average rate of 3.3/year. Only about 1.2 papers/year deal with full-scale experiments , about 2/3 of the experimental papers being devoted to laboratory testing. The only year with five papers on full-scale tests involving soilstructure-interaction was 1975, and about 45% of the time there were no contributions on this topic recorded in this database. Obviously, the priorities in earthquake engineering research are not properly balanced, and this situation is alarming. While small-scale laboratory tests and computer simulations are useful for understanding selected phenomena in soil-structure interaction, they lack the completeness of the full-scale tests. Laboratory experiments are designed to measure what the researcher has decided to study and may lead to discovering new physics only by accident, while the as-built environment contains all the physical properties of reality. This paper also presents a discussion on various difficulties in interpretation of earthquake response data recorded in structures and the use of full-scale test data. The main difficulty appears to be nonuniqueness of the interpretation of these data due to inadequate strong motion instrumentation and lack of processed data recorded in structures with intermediate amplitudes (between strong motion and microtremor levels). Finally, it is recommended that soil-structure models be refined, and more detailed seismic monitoring instrumentation be installed in buildings, including rotational transducers which will measure point rotation and will help separate the contribution of foundation rocking and structural deformation from the total recorded response. 1 Professor, Civil Engineering Department, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, 2531, U.S.A. 2 Research Associate Professor 3 Ph.D. Candidate “Strong motion accelerograms properly interpreted are the nearest thing to scientific truth in earthquake engineering” (Duke et al. (1970).
Stock market development and economic growth: a matter of informational problems

This paper aims to provide further insights into the linkages between stock market development and economic growth within the context of a dynamic general equilibrium framework of informational asymmetries, endogenous contract choice and capital accumulation. When firms have access to different projects with different unobservable rate of returns, the market valuation of those projects is an "average" value reflecting the expected return across all projects. Consequently, as in a typical lemon's market, higher return projects are penalised since they attract lower than fair prices. This informational cost, or dilution cost, depends on the degree of informational asymmetry in the market, as well as on the type of financial contract issued by the firm to finance those projects. Typically, an equity contract involves higher dilution costs than a debt contract, which, in turn, might involve other forms of costs, such as bankruptcy costs. The combinations of these costs determines the prevailing financial contract in the market. On this grounds, we develop a model in which, as capital accumulates, the level of information asymmetry decreases, and, consequently, the development of stock market is the result of a change in the optimal financial choice of firms which switch from debt financing to a less costly - lower dilution costs - equity financing.
The STRANDS Project: Long-Term Autonomy in Everyday Environments

Thanks to the efforts of the robotics and autonomous systems community, robots are becoming ever more capable. There is also an increasing demand from end-users for autonomous service robots that can operate in real environments for extended periods. In the STRANDS project we are tackling this demand head-on by integrating state-of-the-art artificial intelligence and robotics research into mobile service robots, and deploying these systems for long-term installations in security and care environments. Over four deployments, our robots have been operational for a combined duration of 104 days autonomously performing end-user defined tasks, covering 116km in the process. In this article we describe the approach we have used to enable long-term autonomous operation in everyday environments, and how our robots are able to use their long run times to improve their own performance.
Environmental and perceived stress in Australian dental undergraduates: Preliminary outcomes

Background. Dental students have reported a high prevalence of psychological stress and the causes are associated with the challenging dental environmental and demographic factors. This study aimed to conduct a preliminary investigation on dental students’ stress status, using a sample of first-to-third-year Bachelor of Dental Surgery students in an Australian university. Special interests included causes of dental environmental stress and access to help services. Methods. A sample of 145 students was surveyed with a modified Dental Environmental Survey and Depression Anxiety Stress Scale in 2014. The participants’ demographic information was also collected. Results. The response rate was 95.4%. Second-year (P = 0.042), third-year (P < 0.001) and employed students (P = 0.027) were more likely to report stress resulting from transition to clinical learning. Third-year students were more often stressed about communicating and approaching staff (P = 0.023) as well as different opinions between staff (P < 0.001) and reduced holidays (P < 0.001). Students that were younger than 21 years of age (P = 0.001), that were first years (P < 0.001), and that were not in a relationship (P = 0.010) more often found difficulty of course work stressful. Students who were not in a relationship more often considered learning manual dexterity a source of stress (P = 0.034). Students previously seeking professional help were more likely to be stressed (P = 0.010). Conclusion. Causes of dental environment stress varied among years of study and demographic backgrounds. Professional support to stressed students should be enhanced. Further investigation is indicated.
Socializing Giftedness: Toward an ACCEL-S Approach

In this response, we commend Sternberg’s Active Concerned Citizenship and Ethical Leadership (ACCEL) model yet urge him to consider an ACCEL-S model that more fully incorporates society’s integrative role in giftedness. ACCEL-S builds on the highly complex and contextual view of giftedness proposed by Sternberg and transforms it into a participatory framework. Within it, the skills associated with giftedness shape but are also shaped by social context; they generate meaningful forms of collaboration as well as grow out of them. The concept of giftedness itself is transformed from a person-centric one to a distributed model in which being gifted is a relational instead of purely personal achievement.
International Conference on Information Systems ( ICIS ) 1-1-2009 The Impact of Firm Learning on Financial Value in Strategic Outsourcing Relationships

We investigate whether managers in outsourcing firms, through their prior experience in managing similar strategic alliances and prior association with the provider, learn to create value in their outsourcing relationships. Value creation is estimated in terms of long-term abnormal stock returns to the outsourcing firm relative to an industry, size and book-to-market matched sample of control firms following the implementation of the outsourcing contract, announcement period returns, and allied wealth effects. We find that prior experience and prior association have a significant impact on long-term abnormal stock returns, suggesting that financial markets are slow to price learning effects in outsourcing. Further, while relational learning alone influences value creation in simpler fixed price contracts, both procedural learning through prior experience and relational learning through prior association with the provider have an impact on value creation in variable price contracts. This is because of greater ambiguity in cooperation and coordination between firms that characterizes variable price contracts. The results have implications for management of outsourcing engagements and their performance and valuation.
Perceptions of pre-service teachers on mentor teachers’ roles in promoting inclusive practicum: case studies in U.S. elementary school contexts

Abstract This case study examines a Chinese and Korean-Chinese pre-service teachers’ perceptions of their mentor teachers’ role in supporting inclusive practicum experiences in USA elementary school contexts. The findings demonstrate that a mentor teacher’s open conversations and willingness to host those students bring positive influence on their learning and growth. The findings also indicate that the facilitative roles of mentor teachers in the promotion of inclusive environments are intersected with the socio-cultural and political contexts of practicum schools and universities. The study concludes with implications for enhancing the inclusion of diverse pre-service teachers through collaborative roles of multiple practicum stakeholders, including pre-service teachers, mentor teachers, practicum schools, and universities.