Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Inequality and Mortality: New Evidence from U.S. County Panel Data

A large body of past research, looking across countries, states, and metropolitan areas, has found positive and statistically significant associations between income inequality and mortality. By contrast, in recent years more robust statistical methods using larger and richer data sources have generally pointed to little or no relationship between inequality and mortality. This paper aims both to document how methodological shortcomings tend to positively bias this statistical association and to advance this literature by estimating the inequality-mortality relationship. We use a comprehensive and rich new data set that combines U.S. county-level data for 1990 and 2000 on age-race-gender-specific mortality rates, a rich set of observable covariates, and previously unused Census data on local income inequality (Gini index and three income percentile ratios). Using panel data estimation techniques, we find evidence of a statistically significant negative relationship between mortality and inequality. This finding that increased inequality is associated with declines in mortality at the county level suggests a change in course for the literature. In particular, the emphasis to date on the potential psychosocial and resource allocation costs associated with higher inequality is likely missing important offsetting positives that may dominate.
Canonical metrics on 3-manifolds and 4-manifolds

We prove certain weak or idealized existence results for minimizers of the natural quadratic curvature functionals on the space of metrics on 4-manifolds. Overall, we try to exhibit the relations with the picture in 3-dimensions provided by Thurston geometrization. The existence results apply in particular to the structure of the moduli spaces of such metrics, and as such generalize most of the known results for moduli of Einstein metrics.
Migration, Ethnicity, Race, and Health in Multicultural Societies

FOREWORD PREFACE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ABBREVIATIONS 1. Introduction: the concepts of ethnicity and race in health and their implications in the context of international migration 2. Terminology and classifications for migrant, ethnic and racial groups 3. Challenges of collecting and interpreting data using the concepts of migration, ethnicity and race 4. Historical analysis of the development of health and health care services for migrant, ethnic and racial minorities 5. Defining health and health care needs using quantitative and qualitative data 6. Inequalities in health and health care in migrant, ethnic and racial groups 7. Principles for setting priorities for migrant, ethnic and racial minority populations 8. Strategic approaches to health and health care services for migrant, ethnic and racial minority groups 9. Research on and with migrant, ethnic and racial minority groups: past and future 10. Theoretical, ethical and future-orientated perspectives: improving the health of whole populations in our globalised world APPENDIX: TERMINOLOGY, CATEGORIES AND CENSUSES IN CANADA, BRAZIL, INDIA, AUSTRALIA, FIJI, MAURITIUS, SOUTH AFRICA AND SINGAPORE A BRIEF GLOSSARY BIBLIOGRAPHY KEY WEB SITES INDEX
NGO Politics in Uganda: A Practitioner's Perspective (SWP 25)

Over the past decade the relationship between non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the government of Uganda has become increasingly adversarial. In order to gauge perceptions of the causes and implications of the increasing tensions, interviews were conducted with NGO professionals and government officials in the Masaka, Gulu and Kampala districts. Based on the responses from these interviews, this paper argues that the tension between the government of Uganda and NGOs is due in part to the increased focus on lobbying and advocacy. The resulting antagonism between NGOs and the government of Uganda has deleterious effects on the ability of both actors to implement effective development programmes. This paper also finds that the capability of both of these actors is limited by their narrow social base and lack of meaningful connection with the majority of Ugandan citizens. About the author: Scott Andrews recently completed the requirements for the Masters of Arts in International Studies at Simon Fraser University. He works for the Spectrum Society for Community Living and is the co-founder and president of Youth in Development, a Vancouver based social enterprise that provides learning opportunities for Canadian university students in Uganda. Andrews is the former head of Oxfam Canada’s Advocacy and Outreach Committee and is on the board of directors of the International Community Empowerment Foundation (ICEF), an NGO that works with partners in Uganda to provide education, health care and economic opportunity in rural areas. About the publisher: The School for International Studies (SIS) fosters innovative interdisciplinary research and teaching programs concerned with a range of global issues, but with a particular emphasis on international development, and on global governance and security. The School aims to link theory, practice and engagement with other societies and cultures, while offering students a challenging and multi-faceted learning experience. SIS is located within the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Simon Fraser University. Our website is www.sfu. ca/internationalstudies. NGO Politics in Uganda 5 NGO Politics in Uganda: A Practitioner’s Perspective
Unemployment and labour market policy in Central and Eastern Europe

During the transition to market economy and the accession to the EU Central and Eastern European countries have witnessed remarkable changes in the structure and functioning of national economies. This thesis aims to assess the development of aggregate and regional labour markets in new EU member states through this eventful period and to investigate the role of active labour market policy in moderating the consequences of transitional shock and improving the performance of the labour market. The analysis of the process of worker-firm matching in Latvia, Slovenia and Estonia reveals that in transition - EU accession context the hiring process is labour demand driven and displays the existence of stock-flow patterns and spatial spillovers. The effects of ALMP programs are confirmed to be positive at both macroeconomic and individual levels: involvement of unemployed in training increases aggregate outflows from unemployment to jobs and increases individual employability of participants.
Nuclear matter properties with the re-evaluated coefficients of liquid drop model

The coefficients of the volume, surface, coulomb, asymmetry and pairing energy terms of the semiempirical liquid drop model mass formula have been determined by furnishing best fit to the observed mass excesses. Slightly different sets of the weighting parameters for liquid drop model mass formula have been obtained from minimizations of chisquare and mean square deviation. The most recent experimental and estimated mass excesses from Audi-Wapstra-Thibault atomic mass table have been used for the least square fitting procedure. Equation of state, nuclear incompressibility, nuclear mean free path and the most stable nuclei for corresponding atomic numbers, all are in good agreement with the experimental results.
Metric 3D reconstruction from uncalibrated unordered images with hierarchical merging

This paper considers metric 3D reconstruction with hierarchical merging. We first describe pairwise matching of images for spanning tree construction. The epipolar constraint is imposed on two related vertices. We then present a partition method to group the images into duplets or triplets for partial reconstruction. A robust hierarchical scheme that merges partial reconstruction together is used to form a complete projective one. Finally, we describe a robust self-calibration method, allowing for more reliable upgrade to metric geometry. The proposed scheme could handle uncalibrated unordered images and was tested on real images. Experimental results show that it can give correct scene structure and camera motion across multiple widely separated images
On Information-theoretic Measures for Quantifying Privacy Protection of Time-series Data

Privacy protection of time-series data, such as traces of household electricity usage reported by smart meters, is of much practical importance. Solutions are available to improve data privacy by perturbing clear traces to produce noisy versions visible to adversaries, e.g., in battery-based load hiding (BLH) against non-intrusive load monitoring (NILM). A foundational task for research progress in the area is the definition of privacy measures that can truly evaluate the effectiveness of proposed protection methods. It is a difficult problem since resilience against any attack algorithms known to the designer is inconclusive, given that adversaries could discover or indeed already know stronger algorithms for attacks. A more basic measure is information-theoretic in nature, which quantifies the inherent information available for exploitation by an adversary, independent of how the adversary exploits it or indeed any assumed computational limitations of the adversary. In this paper, we analyze information-theoretic measures for privacy protection and apply them to several existing protection methods against NILM. We argue that although these measures abstract away the details of attacks, the kind of information the adversary considers plays a key role in the evaluation, and that a new measure of offline conditional entropy is better suited for evaluating the privacy of perturbed real-world time-series data, compared with other existing measures.
ResearchOps: The case for DevOps in scientific applications

DevOps (a portmanteau of “development” and “operations”) is a software development method that extends the agile philosophy to rapidly produce software products and services and to improve operations performance and quality assurance. It was born to accelerate the delivery of Web-based systems and quickly bring new value to users. Many Web-based systems evolve according to usage trends without a clear long-term goal. Before the widespread use of Web services, most software with a clear goal were delivered as packages that users installed on their own system. New versions were delivered with a much lower frequency, with periods in between versions ranging from months to years. Development cycles were divided into large design, coding and testing phases culminating in the release of a new stable version. In software development in the context of applied science, even when the goal is clear, the process to attain it is not. Hence, working releases that capture the current software state must be released frequently in order to reduce the risks for all stakeholders and to make it possible to assess the current state of a project and steer it in the right direction. This paper explores the usefulness of DevOps concepts to improve the development of software that supports scientific projects. We establish the similarities and differences between scientific projects and Web applications development, and discuss where the related methodologies need to be extended. Unique challenges are discussed herewith developed solutions, and still open questions. Lessons learned are highlighted as best practices to be followed in research projects. This discussion is rooted in our experience in real-life projects at the IBM Research Brazil Lab, which just as well apply to other research institutions.
Regulation of APC Activity by Phosphorylation and Regulatory Factors

Ubiquitin-dependent proteolysis of Cut2/Pds1 and Cyclin B is required for sister chromatid separation and exit from mitosis, respectively. Anaphase-promoting complex/cyclosome (APC) specifically ubiquitinates Cut2/Pds1 at metaphase–anaphase transition, and ubiquitinates Cyclin B in late mitosis and G1 phase. However, the exact regulatory mechanism of substrate-specific activation of mammalian APC with the right timing remains to be elucidated. We found that not only the binding of the activators Cdc20 and Cdh1 and the inhibitor Mad2 to APC, but also the phosphorylation of Cdc20 and Cdh1 by Cdc2-Cyclin B and that of APC by Polo-like kinase and cAMP-dependent protein kinase, regulate APC activity. The cooperation of the phosphorylation/dephosphorylation and the regulatory factors in regulation of APC activity may thus control the precise progression of mitosis.
Hemidesmosome Formation Is Initiated by the β4 Integrin Subunit, Requires Complex Formation of β4 and HD1/Plectin, and Involves a Direct Interaction between β4 and the Bullous Pemphigoid Antigen 180

Hemidesmosomes (HDs) are stable anchoring structures that mediate the link between the intermediate filament cytoskeleton and the cell substratum. We investigated the contribution of various segments of the β4 integrin cytoplasmic domain in the formation of HDs in transient transfection studies using immortalized keratinocytes derived from an epidermolysis bullosa patient deficient in β4 expression. We found that the expression of wild-type β4 restored the ability of the β4-deficient cells to form HDs and that distinct domains in the NH2- and COOH-terminal regions of the β4 cytoplasmic domain are required for the localization of HD1/plectin and the bullous pemphigoid antigens 180 (BP180) and 230 (BP230) in these HDs. The tyrosine activation motif located in the connecting segment (CS) of the β4 cytoplasmic domain was dispensable for HD formation, although it may be involved in the efficient localization of BP180. Using the yeast two-hybrid system, we could demonstrate a direct interaction between β4 and BP180 which involves sequences within the COOH-terminal part of the CS and the third fibronectin type III (FNIII) repeat. Immunoprecipitation studies using COS-7 cells transfected with cDNAs for α6 and β4 and a mutant BP180 which lacks the collagenous extracellular domain confirmed the interaction of β4 with BP180. Nevertheless, β4 mutants which contained the BP180-binding region, but lacked sequences required for the localization of HD1/plectin, failed to localize BP180 in HDs. Additional yeast two- hybrid assays indicated that the 85 COOH-terminal residues of β4 can interact with the first NH2-terminal pair of FNIII repeats and the CS, suggesting that the cytoplasmic domain of β4 is folded back upon itself. Unfolding of the cytoplasmic domain may be part of a mechanism by which the interaction of β4 with other hemidesmosomal components, e.g., BP180, is regulated.
Cross-sectional Anatomy of Ilium for Guiding Acetabular Component Placement Using High Hip Center Technique in Asian Population

Background:Many clinical studies have been published involving the use of a high hip center (HHC), achieved good follow-up. However, there is a little anatomic guidance in the literature regarding the amount of bone stock available for initial implant coverage in this area of the ilium. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the thickness and width of the human ilium and related acetabular cup coverage for guiding acetabular component placement in HHC. Methods:A total of 120 normal hips in 60 cases of adult patients from lower extremities computer tomographic angiography Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine data were chosen for the study. After importing the data to the mimics software, we chose the cross sections every 5-mm increments from the rotational center of the hip to the cephalic of the ilium according the body sagittal axis, then we measured the thickness and width of the ilium for each cross section in axial plane, calculated the cup coverage at each chosen section. Results:At the acetabular dome, the mean thickness and width of the ilium were 49.71 ± 4.88 mm and 38.92 ± 3.67 mm, respectively, whereas at 1 cm above the dome, decreased to 41.35 ± 5.13 and 31.13 ± 3.37 respectively, and 2 cm above the dome, decreased to 31.25 ± 4.04 and 26.65 ± 3.43, respectively. Acetabular cup averaged coverage for 40-, 50-, and 60-mm hemispheric shells, was 100%, 89%, and 44% at the acetabular dome, 100%, 43.7%, and 27.5% for 1 cm above the dome, and 37.5%, 21.9%, and 14.2% for 2 cm above the dome. Conclusions:HHC reconstructions within 1 cm above the acetabular dome will be an acceptable and smaller diameter prosthesis would be better.
Opening remarks 9 : 15-9 : 45 Active Sequential Estimation of Object Dynamics with Tactile Sensory Feedback -

This paper addresses a new challenge in active learning: objects are described in different levels of quality and we can obtain a better version of an object at a given cost. This setting is very useful in robotics, where computing and time resources are limited. We aim to improve and label only a few objects under a given budget in an active learning setting.
Inverted S-Shaped Compact Antenna for X-Band Applications

A novel probe-fed compact inverted S-shaped multifrequency patch antenna is designed. By employing two rectangular slots that change the conventional rectangular patch into an inverted S-shaped patch, the antenna is able to operate in triple frequency in the X-band. The performance criteria of the proposed design have been experimentally verified by fabricating a printed prototype. The measured results show that the −10 dB impedance bandwidth of the proposed antenna at lower band is 5.02% (8.69–9.14 GHz), at middle band is 9.13% (10.47–11.48 GHz), and at upper band is 3.79% (11.53–11.98 GHz). Two elliptical slots are introduced in the ground plane to increase the peak gain. The antenna is excited by a simple probe feeding mechanism. The overall antenna dimension is 0. 52λ × 0. 60λ × 0. 046λ at a lower resonance frequency of 9.08 GHz. The antenna configuration and parametric investigation are conducted with the help of the high frequency structural simulator, and a good agreement is achieved between the simulated and measured data. The stable gain, omnidirectional radiation pattern, and consistent radiation efficiency in the achieved operating band make the proposed antenna a suitable candidate for X-band applications.
Harmonization at the European Union: A difficult but needed task

New Public Management (NPM) is a cluster of techniques that guide the public sector towards modernization and innovation and accountancy is one of the matters being reformed. In the recent years, local governments have initiated, with different intensities, important changes in their counting systems. Nevertheless, these changes have had different effects in each country and this affects comparability. Harmonization tries to allow comparison by eliminating differences. In this paper, firstly, we analyze the degree of harmony between the annual accounts of Eurpean Union local governments, taking the IPSAS of the IFAC as a reference. Secondly, we analyze whether the information disclosed was enough to satisfy certain objectives.
A conceptual framework for understanding e-service quality : implications for future research and managerial practice

As e-commerce proliferates, the most experienced and effective e-tailers are realizing that the key determinants of success or failure are not merely Web presence or low price but rather the delivery of electronic service quality (e-SQ). To encourage repeat purchases and build customer loyalty, companies must shift the focus of e-business from e-commerce—the transactions—to e-service—all the cues and encounters that occur before, during, and after the transactions. To do so, managers need answers to many questions. What is good service on the Web? What are the underlying dimensions of superior e-SQ? How can e-SQ be conceptualized, measured, and thereby assessed? What actions can be taken to deliver e-SQ? And, what role will different technologies play in addressing the various aspects of customer service on the Web?
The Animosity Model of Foreign Product Purchase

Recently, Klein, Ettenson and Morris showed that the country of origin and animosity toward a (previously or current) ‘enemy’ nation affect purchase behavior of foreign products independent of each other. To assess the generalizability of this model, an empirical test of this model was done in the context of Korea. The findings show (1) that animosity is negatively associated with willingness to buy while country of origin (i.e. favourable product quality judgements) is positively associated with willingness to buy and (2) that the animosity and country of origin relationships with purchase intention are independent of each other. Thus, it seems that the animosity model generally works in Korea. Managerial implications are also discussed briefly. This research was financially supported by Hansung University I. The Animosity Model of Foreign Product Purchase History of the world is full of dramatic examples of the damaging effects of hostility
Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 Protects Against Cardiac Microvascular Injury in Diabetes via a cAMP/PKA/Rho-Dependent Mechanism

Impaired cardiac microvascular function contributes to cardiovascular complications in diabetes. Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) exhibits potential cardioprotective properties in addition to its glucose-lowering effect. This study was designed to evaluate the impact of GLP-1 on cardiac microvascular injury in diabetes and the underlying mechanism involved. Experimental diabetes was induced using streptozotocin in rats. Cohorts of diabetic rats received a 12-week treatment of vildagliptin (dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitor) or exenatide (GLP-1 analog). Experimental diabetes attenuated cardiac function, glucose uptake, and microvascular barrier function, which were significantly improved by vildagliptin or exenatide treatment. Cardiac microvascular endothelial cells (CMECs) were isolated and cultured in normal or high glucose medium with or without GLP-1. GLP-1 decreased high-glucose–induced reactive oxygen species production and apoptotic index, as well as the levels of NADPH oxidase such as p47phox and gp91phox. Furthermore, cAMP/PKA (cAMP-dependent protein kinase activity) was increased and Rho-expression was decreased in high-glucose–induced CMECs after GLP-1 treatment. In conclusion, GLP-1 could protect the cardiac microvessels against oxidative stress, apoptosis, and the resultant microvascular barrier dysfunction in diabetes, which may contribute to the improvement of cardiac function and cardiac glucose metabolism in diabetes. The protective effects of GLP-1 are dependent on downstream inhibition of Rho through a cAMP/PKA-mediated pathway.