Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Anti-inflammatory action of insulin via induction of Gadd45-β transcription by the mTOR signaling pathway

Insulin regulates a large number of genes in a tissue-specific manner. We have previously identified genes modulated by insulin in the liver and in liver-derived cells that have not yet been characterized as insulin regulated, and results of these previous studies indicated that numerous genes are induced by insulin via the MEK-ERK pathway. We now describe new studies indicating that Gadd45-β can be induced by acute insulin treatment. Although other regulators of Gadd45-β expression may utilize the MEK-ERK pathway, the data indicate that insulin utilizes signaling pathways separate from either MEK-ERK, PI3-K, or p38 signaling pathways in the regulation of Gadd45-β transcription. Our findings show that activation of a downstream effector of multiple signaling pathways, mTOR, was required for insulin-induction of Gadd45-β gene transcription. Increased expression of Gadd45-β can inhibit c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) activity. Since TNFα is increased during inflammation, and acts, at least in part, via the JNK signaling pathway, insulin induction of Gadd45-β suggests a mechanism for the anti-inflammatory actions of insulin.
Combinatory Categorial Grammar Parsing With One Structure Per n-gram

There is an inherent redundancy in natural languages whereby certain common phrases (or n-grams) appear frequently in general sentences, and each time they appear, they have the same syntactic analysis. We investigate whether the speed of statistical parsers can be improved through the use of a “one structure per n-gram” hypothesis, used in a “one sense per discourse manner”. We explore how this hypothesis can be used to improve parser efficiency through two different techniques. We first analyse the process of memoising the analyses for frequently occurring n-grams, with the intention that these frequently occurring n-grams can be used directly in a one structure per ngram manner. We showed through extensive corpus analysis as well as empirical results obtained from experiments that the memoisation of frequently occurring n-grams does not fulfill our one structure per n-gram hypothesis. The second method we explore in this thesis is to memoise analyses based on frequently occurring sequences of CCG categories. As with the frequently occurring n-gram idea, extensive corpus analysis was performed, which indicated that this memoisation technique has potential to fulfill our one structure per n-gram assertion. Experiments were then performed to test this theory, and a 15% improvement in parser speed was achieved at a loss of 0.5% F-score using our one structure per n-gram assertion. This speed improvement will have substantial benefits for NLP system such as Question Answering, that rely on very large-scale parsed text.
Public confidence in the New South Wales Criminal Justice System: 2014 update

Aim: To assess (1) the level of public confidence in the New South Wales (NSW) criminal justice system (CJS) in 2014, (2) the relationship between confidence levels and individuals' characteristics, including personal exposure to crime, and media consumption behaviours, (3) how confidence in the NSW CJS has changed since 2007, and (4) whether changes in confidence are associated with changing perceptions of crime and criminal justice outcomes. Method: Data are sourced from a repeat cross-sectional survey of the NSW public (n=2,002 in 2007; n=2,001 in 2012; n=1,989 in 2014). Variation in confidence levels across the 2014 sample and over time is documented and tested for statistical significance. Basic logistic regression models are developed to predict respondents' confidence as a function of their individual characteristics, and extended to control for variation in their perceptions of crime and justice outcomes. Results: The results suggest that two out of every three NSW residents (64 per cent) are confident that the CJS brings people who commit crimes to justice. Just 44 per cent of residents are confident that the CJS meets the needs of victims, compared with 81 per cent confidence that the CJS treats individuals accused of committing crimes fairly and respects their rights. Most residents (66 per cent) believe sentences handed down are too lenient. One in three residents (35 per cent) are confident that the CJS deals with cases promptly. Personal exposure to crime is associated with lower levels of confidence in the CJS in general, and confidence also varies across groups with different media consumption habits. Since 2012, there has been a slight reduction in confidence around whether the CJS meets the needs of victims, and punitiveness appears to have intensified. Otherwise, public confidence in the justice system remained largely unchanged over this two-year window. Confidence is at higher levels than those recorded in 2007, and this partly reflects slight corrections in public perceptions of crime and justice outcomes. Conclusion: Public confidence in the NSW CJS has improved since 2007, but pervasive misperceptions around crime trends and justice outcomes seemingly continue to undermine confidence. The magnitude of the media's influence on confidence levels remains an open question.
Courant algebroid and Lie bialgebroid contractions

Contractions of Leibniz algebras and Courant algebroids by means of (1,1)-tensors are introduced and studied. An appropriate version of Nijenhuis tensors leads to natural deformations of Dirac structures and Lie bialgebroids. One recovers presymplectic-Nijenhuis structures, PoissonNijenhuis structures, and triangular Lie bialgebroids as particular examples. MSC 2000: Primary 17B99; Secondary 17B62, 53C15, 53D17.
Fast Neural Networks with Circulant Projections

The basic computation of a fully-connected neural network layer is a linear projection of the input signal followed by a non-linear transformation. The linear projection step consumes the bulk of the processing time and memory footprint. In this work, we propose to replace the conventional linear projection with the circulant projection. The circulant structure enables the use of the Fast Fourier Transform to speed up the computation. Considering a neural network layer with $d$ input nodes, and $d$ output nodes, this method improves the time complexity from $\mathcal{O}(d^2)$ to $\mathcal{O}(d\log{d})$ and space complexity from $\mathcal{O}(d^2)$ to $\mathcal{O}(d)$. We further show that the gradient computation and optimization of the circulant projections can be performed very efficiently. Our experiments on three standard datasets show that the proposed approach achieves this significant gain in efficiency and storage with minimal loss of accuracy compared to neural networks with unstructured projections.
Meadow plant growth and competition under elevated ozone and carbon dioxide

nutrients and competition in the growth and biomass allocation of Agrostis capillaris and Ranunculus acris – Manuscript under revision. Influences of elevated ozone and carbon dioxide in growth responses of lowland hay meadow mesocosms – Environmental Pollution, in press. reproductive development of meadow species in mesocosms exposed to elevated O 3 and CO 2 – Environmental Pollution, in press. and visible injuries of four Centaurea jacea L. ecotypes exposed to elevated ozone and carbon dioxide – Environmental and Experimental Botany, in press. Abstract The main aim of my thesis project was to assess the impact of elevated ozone (O 3) and carbon dioxide (CO 2) on the growth, competition and community of meadow plants in northern Europe. The thesis project consisted of three separate O 3 and CO 2 exposure experiments that were conducted as open-top-chamber (OTC) studies at Jokioinen, SW Finland, and a smaller-scale experiment with different availabilities of resources in greenhouses in Helsinki. The OTC experiments included a competition experiment with two-and three-wise interactions, a mesocosm-scale meadow community with a large number of species, and a pot experiment that assessed intraspecific differences of Centaurea jacea ecotypes. The studied lowland hay meadow proved to be an O 3-sensitive biotope, as the O 3 concentrations used (40-50 ppb) were moderate, and yet, six out of nine species (Campanula rotundifolia, Centaurea jacea, Fragaria vesca, Ranunculus acris, Trifolium medium, Vicia cracca) showed either significant reductions in biomass or reproductive development, visible O 3 injury or any two as a response to elevated O 3. The plant species and ecotypes exhibited large intra-and interspecific variation in their response to O 3 , but O 3 and CO 2 concentrations did not cause changes in their interspecific competition or in community composition. However, the largest O 3-induced growth reductions were seen in the least abundant species (C. rotundifolia and F. vesca), which may indicate O 3-induced suppression of weak competitors. The overall effects of CO 2 were relatively small and mainly restricted to individual species and several measured variables. Based on the present studies, most of the deleterious effects of tropospheric O 3 are not diminished by a moderate increase in CO 2 under low N availability, and variation exists between different species and variables. The present study indicates that the growth of several herb species decreases with increasing atmospheric O 3 concentrations, and that these changes may pose a threat to the biodiversity …
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SECONDARY WALL OF THE XYLEM IN ACER PSEUDOPLATANUS

The development of the spirally thickened xylem element from a cambium initial of sycamore Acer pseudoplatanus has been traced by means of electron microscopy. The narrow elongated cambial initial undergoes considerable expansion in all dimensions. The cytoplasm at this stage is distributed in a thin skin between the cell wall and a large vacuole. No correlation has been observed between the distribution of any organelle and the pattern of the eventual thickenings. After the sites of thickening deposition have become apparent, the most conspicuous feature of the cell is the proliferation of Golgi bodies and vesicles. It is suggested that the material of the developing thickenings stems from direct apposition of the material in the Golgi vesicles. After glutaraldehyde fixation, microtubules (200 to 220 A in diameter) are seen to be sited in specific relation to the thickenings, the orientation of the tubules mirroring that of the fibrils seen in the thickenings. Possible reasons for absence of an observable pattern in the expanded but relatively undifferentiated cell are given, and the possible roles of the Golgi apparatus and microtubules in the thickening production are discussed
Unusual Synchronous Lung Tumors: Mucoepidermoid Carcinoma and Mucinous Adenocarcinoma

Primary mucoepidermoid tumors of the lung are rare entities. Synchronous primary malignancies of the lung involving mucoepidermoid carcinoma and mucinous adenocarcinoma are even rarer and constitute a unique set of patient population. The presentation, diagnosis and treatment strategies for this patient population are not well described. In most cases, the diagnosis of synchronous primary lung malignancy is made after pathological examination of the resected lung specimen. Molecular and genetic analysis is now being used to supplement the diagnosis of synchronous primary lung malignancies. In this work, we briefly discuss the current state of knowledge of this unique combination of primary lung malignancies and describe the clinical presentation and management of a patient with a rare combination of synchronous primary lung malignancies.
Acute and Chronic Local Inflammatory Reaction after Implantation of Different Extracellular Porcine Dermis Collagen Matrices in Rats

Two cross-linked acellular porcine dermal collagen matrices (Permacol and NRX) were implanted into rats and the acute and chronic local inflammatory tissue reactions were investigated after 7, 14, 28, and 112 days. Both membranes were stable in vivo for up to 112 days. All investigated immune cell populations (CD68+ macrophages, CD163+ macrophages, T lymphocytes, MHC class II positive cells, mast cells, and NK cells) were present. Their amount decreased significantly over time compared to day 7 after implantation. A change from an acute to a chronic inflammation and an associated shift from proinflammatory M1-like to anti-inflammatory M2-like macrophages were observed. In the early phase there was a significant correlation of T cells to CD68+ (M1-like) macrophages, whereas in the chronic phase T lymphocytes were positively correlated with CD163+ (M2-like) macrophages. The material NRX showed an enhanced inflammatory reaction in comparison to Permacol possibly caused by material characteristics such as a twofold higher thickness of the membrane, roughness, and water absorption capacity. Nevertheless, a more pronounced regenerative process as, for example, indicated by nestin expression demonstrated its possible suitability for applications as wound repair material.
The Effects of Animation on Information Seeking Performance on the World Wide Web: Securing Attention or Interfering with Primary Tasks?

Although animation is commonly used in the web environment, scant scientific evidence can be found either on the effects of animation on viewer information seeking performance or on the implications for online advertising. This paper reports a limited study that provides such scientific evidence. Using research results from visual attention and perception literature to guide the discovery, the study confirms four hypotheses. (1) Animation as a secondary stimulus deteriorates viewer information seeking performance.
Improving Stereo Performance in Regions of Low Texture

In images with low texture the performance of conventional dense stereo can be poor. The usual solution to this is to use a large window but this itself can be problematic as the large window can blur important features and hence lead to errors in the disparity estimate. Here it is shown that, not only do connected set morphology operators overcome this problem, they perform best in regions of low texture. A further observation is that, since the operators give a heirarchical decompostion, there is a possibility of not only using these operators to choose a new window, but also to motivate a new matching method.
Platform Competition in Two-Sided Markets: The Case of Payment Networks

In this article, we construct a model to study competing payment networks, where networks offer differentiated products in terms of benefits to consumers and merchants. We study market equilibria for a variety of market structures: duopolistic competition and cartel, symmetric and asymmetric networks, and alternative assumptions about consumer preferences. We find that competition unambiguously increases consumer and merchant welfare. We extend this analysis to competition among payment networks providing different payment instruments and find similar results.
B7-H3 overexpression in pancreatic cancer promotes tumor progression

B7-H3, a member of the B7-family molecules, plays an important role in adaptive immune responses. In addition, B7-H3 is also expressed in several types of human cancers and is correlated with the poor outcome of cancer patients. However, its exact role in cancer is not known. In the present study, we compared B7-H3 expression in normal pancreas and pancreatic cancer tissue specimens, and determined the effects of low B7-H3 expression on the human pancreatic cancer cell line Patu8988 using lentivirus-mediated RNA interference. B7-H3 expression in pancreatic specimens was determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). A Patu8988 cell line with low B7-H3 expression was established by lentivirus-mediated RNA interference to investigate the effect of B7-H3 on cell proliferation, migration and invasion in vitro. By establishing subcutaneous transplantation tumor and orthotopic transplantation pancreatic cancer mouse models, the effect of B7-H3 on cell proliferation, migration and invasion was studied in vivo. B7-H3 in tissue samples was significantly higher in the pancreatic cancer group than in the normal pancreas group (mean ± SD, 193.6±9.352 vs. 87.74±7.433 ng/g; P<0.0001). B7-H3 knockdown by RNA interference decreased cell migration and Transwell invasion up to 50% in vitro. No apparent impact was observed on cell proliferation in vitro. In the subcutaneous transplantation tumor mouse model, the tumor growth rate was reduced by the knockdown of B7-H3. In the orthotopic transplantation pancreatic cancer mouse model, the effect of inhibiting metastasis by knocking down B7-H3 was assessed in terms of the average postmortem abdominal visceral metastatic tumor weight. This demonstrated that inhibition of B7-H3 expression reduced pancreatic cancer metastasis in vivo. In conclusion, B7-H3 is aberrantly expressed in pancreatic cancer. In addition to modulating tumor immunity, B7-H3 may have a novel role in regulating pancreatic tumor progression.
The Relationship between the Amount Read and Reading Achievement.

A study investigated the relationship between the amount students read and reading achievement. Subjects, 2,185 firstthrough eighth-grade students enrolled in a Chapter 1 program during the 1990-91 school year in a large southeastern school district, kept reading logs. Teachers informally assessed comprehension of each text read, and they recorded on the log whether or not the child demonstrated comprehension. Scores on a norm-referenced, standardized achievement test were compared with the end-of-year totals for number of texts read, number of pages read, and number of texts comprehended, while controlling for previous test performance. Results indicated that there was no meaningful relationship between the amount read and reading achievement when previous reading achievement was controlled, with the exception of grade 2 and pages read for grades 4 and 8. (Three tables of data are included. Contains 16 references.) (RS)
Self-Regulation and Enforcement in Financial Markets : Evidence From Investor-Broker Disputes at the NASD

This paper investigates whether self-regulation in financial markets leads to greater industry bias and expertise in enforcement. Using hand-collected data on securities arbitration disputes from the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), I document that pro-industry arbitrators are selected more often to arbitration panels than pro-investor ones (selection on bias) and that experts are also selected more frequently to cases (selection on expertise). Moreover, both patterns vary substantially across cases. Selection on bias is strongest when large brokerage firms are sued and when cases are more important to firms while selection on expertise increases with case complexity. This suggests that arbitrators are assigned to cases in ways that lead to higher industry bias and expertise. To assess whether the NASD is responsible for these patterns, I examine the impact of a change in regulation that greatly reduced NASD control over the selection of arbitrators. Following this change, the allocation of expertise to cases declined and there is some evidence that selection on bias increased. These results suggest that the NASD is not responsible for selection on bias but that it increases selection on expertise. Thus, concerns about favoritism at the NASD may be misplaced and, more generally, self-regulation may increase expertise and even lower industry bias in enforcement. ∗I am grateful to my advisors, Antoinette Schoar (Chair), Dirk Jenter and Steve Ross, for advice, encouragement and suggestions. I also thank Manuel Adelino, Nittai Bergman, Tara Bhandari, John Cox, Joseph Doyle, Carola Frydman, Ilan Guedj, Fadi Kanaan, Adam Kolasinski, Gustavo Manso, Stew Myers, Vasia Panousi, Dimitris Papanikolaou, Michel Robe, Eric Van den Steen, Jialan Wang and presentation participants at Lehman Brothers, MIT Sloan, the NASD (Division of Dispute Resolution) and the RS-DeGroote Conference on Market Structure and Market Integrity for helpful comments.
Genome-Wide Detection of Predicted Non-coding RNAs Related to the Adhesion Process in Vibrio alginolyticus Using High-Throughput Sequencing

The ability of bacteria to adhere to fish mucus can be affected by environmental conditions and is considered to be a key virulence factor of Vibrio alginolyticus. However, the molecular mechanism underlying this ability remains unclear. Our previous study showed that stress conditions such as exposure to Cu, Pb, Hg, and low pH are capable of reducing the adhesion ability of V. alginolyticus. Non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) play a crucial role in the intricate regulation of bacterial gene expression, thereby affecting bacterial pathogenicity. Thus, we hypothesized that ncRNAs play a key role in the V. alginolyticus adhesion process. To validate this, we combined high-throughput sequencing with computational techniques to detect ncRNA dynamics in samples after stress treatments. The expression of randomly selected novel ncRNAs was confirmed by QPCR. Among the significantly altered ncRNAs, 30 were up-regulated and 2 down-regulated by all stress treatments. The QPCR results reinforced the reliability of the sequencing data. Target prediction and KEGG pathway analysis indicated that these ncRNAs are closely related to pathways associated with in vitro adhesion, and our results indicated that chemical stress-induced reductions in the adhesion ability of V. alginolyticus might be due to the perturbation of ncRNA expression. Our findings provide important information for further functional characterization of ncRNAs during the adhesion process of V. alginolyticus.
Estimation of Groundwater Recharges in Odeda Local Government Area, Ogun State, Nigeria using Empirical Formulae

Estimation and forecast of groundwater recharge and capacities of aquifers are essential issues in water resource investigation. In the current research, groundwater recharge and the recharge coefficient were determined through a case study using empirical methods applicable to the tropical zones. The related climatological data between January 1983 and December 2014 were collected from Ogun-Oshun River Basin Development Authority (OORBDA), Ogun State, Nigeria. Using empirical formulae. The results showed that groundwater recharge was 194.7 mm per year, evapotranspiration was 1296.2 mm per year, and the recharge coefficient was 20.2% for the study area. The result also showed that about 11% of rainfall infiltrated the aquifer, 73% was lost to evapotranspiration, and 16% ended up as run-off. Correlation between climatic parameters and groundwater recharge showed the highest correlation between recharge and rainfall. Temperature, humidity, solar radiation and evapotranspiraton were obtained at the 0.01 significance level; the results of linear regressions proved that precipitation has a significant effect (with R2 = 0.983) on estimated recharge.