Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Head Normal Form Bisimulation for Pairs and the λμ-Calculus (Extended Abstract)

B¨ ohm tree equivalence up to possibly infinite η expansion for the pure λ-calculus can be characterized as a bisimulation equivalence. We call this co-inductive syntactic theory extensional head normal form bisimilarity and in this paper we extend it to the λFP-calculus (the λ-calculus with functional and surjective pairing) and to two untyped variants of Parigot’s λμ-calculus. We relate the extensional head normal form bisimulation theories for the different calculi via Fujita’s extensional CPS transform into the λFPcalculus. We prove that extensional hnf bisimilarity is fully
Role of Phenylalanine and Valine10 Residues in the Antimicrobial Activity and Cytotoxicity of Piscidin-1

Piscidin-1 (Pis-1) is a linear antibacterial peptide derived from mast cells of aquacultured hybrid striped bass that comprises 22 amino acids with a phenylalanine-rich amino-terminus. Pis-1 exhibits potent antibacterial activity against pathogens but is not selective for distinguishing between bacterial and mammalian cells. To determine the key residues for its antibacterial activity and those for its cytotoxicity, we investigated the role of each Phe residue near the N-terminus as well as the Val10 residue located near the boundary of the hydrophobic and hydrophilic sectors of the helical wheel diagram. Fluorescence dye leakage and tryptophan fluorescence experiments were used to study peptide-lipid interactions, showing comparable depths of insertion of substituted peptides in different membranes. Phe2 was found to be the most deeply inserted phenylalanine in both bacterial- and mammalian-mimic membranes. Each Phe was substituted with Ala or Lys to investigate its functional role. Phe2 plays key roles in the cytotoxicity as well as the antibacterial activities of Pis-1, and Phe6 is essential for the antibacterial activities of Pis-1. We also designed and synthesized a piscidin analog, Pis-V10K, in which Lys was substituted for Val10, resulting in an elevated amphipathic α-helical structure. Pis-V10K showed similar antibacterial activity (average minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) = 1.6 µM) to Pis-1 (average MIC = 1.5 µM). However, it exhibited much lower cytotoxicity than Pis-1. Lys10-substituted analogs, Pis-F1K/V10K, Pis-F2K/V10K, and Pis-F6K/V10K in which Lys was substituted for Phe retained antibacterial activity toward standard and drug-resistant bacterial strains with novel bacterial cell selectivity. They exert anti-inflammatory activities via inhibition of nitric oxide production, TNF-α secretion, and MIP-1 and MIP-2 production. They may disrupt the binding of LPS to toll-like receptors, eventually suppressing MAPKs-mediated signaling pathways. These peptides may be good candidates for the development of peptide antibiotics with potent antibacterial activity but without cytotoxicity.
Putting the New Keynesian DSGE Model to the Real-Time Forecasting Test

Dynamic stochastic general equilibrium models have recently become standard tools for policy-oriented analyses. Nevertheless, their forecasting properties are still barely explored. We fill this gap by comparing the quality of real-time forecasts from a richly-specified DSGE model to those from the Survey of Professional Forecasters, Bayesian VARs and VARs using priors from a DSGE model. We show that the analyzed DSGE model is relatively successful in forecasting the US economy in the period of 1994-2008. Except for short-term forecasts of inflation and interest rates, it is as good as or clearly outperforms BVARs and DSGE-VARs. Compared to the SPF, the DSGE model generates better output forecasts at longer horizons, but less accurate short-term forecasts for interest rates. Conditional on experts' now casts, however, the forecasting power of the DSGE turns out to be similar or better than that of the SPF for all the variables and horizons. JEL Classification: C11, C32, C53, D58, E17
Distributed Coverage Control with Sensory Feedback for Networked Robots

(cid:151)This paper presents a control strategy that allows a group of mobile robots to position themselves to optimize the measurement of sensory information in the environment. The robots use sensed information to estimate a function indicating the relative importance of different areas in the environment. Their estimate is then used to drive the network to a desirable placement con(cid:2)guration using a computationally simple decentralized control law. We formulate the problem, provide a practical control solution, and present the results of numerical simulations. We then discuss experiments carried out on a swarm of mobile robots.
The impact of national educational policies on student achievement: a European study

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the impact of national policies for improving teaching and the school learning environment (SLE) on student achievement. In each participating country (i.e., Belgium/Flanders, Cyprus, Germany, Greece, Ireland, and Slovenia), a sample of at least 50 schools was drawn and tests in mathematics and science were administered to all Grade 4 students (N = 10,742) at the beginning and end of school year 2010–2011. National policies were measured through (a) content analysis of policy documents, (b) interviews with policymakers, and (c) head-teacher questionnaires. Multilevel analyses revealed that most aspects of national policies for teaching and SLE were associated with student achievement in each subject irrespective of the source of data used to measure them. Implications are, finally, drawn.
Comparative Study of Serum Leptin and Insulin Resistance Levels Between Korean Postmenopausal Vegetarian and Non-vegetarian Women

The present study was conducted to compare serum leptin and insulin resistance levels between Korean postmenopausal long-term semi-vegetarians and non-vegetarians. Subjects of this study belonged to either a group of postmenopausal vegetarian women (n = 54), who maintained a semi-vegetarian diet for over 20 years or a group of non-vegetarian controls. Anthropometric characteristics, serum leptin, serum glucose, serum insulin, insulin resistance (HOMA-IR; Homeostasis Model Assessment of Insulin Resistance), and nutrient intake were compared between the two groups. The vegetarians showed significantly lower body weight (p < 0.01), body mass index (p < 0.001), percentage (%) of body fat (p < 0.001), and serum levels of leptin (p < 0.05), glucose (p < 0.001), and insulin (p < 0.01), than the non-vegetarians. The HOMA-IR of the vegetarians was significantly lower than that of the non-vegetarians (p < 0.01) after adjustment for the % of body fat. A long-term vegetarian diet might be related to lower insulin resistance independent of the % of body fat in postmenopausal women.
Enhanced mobilization of bone marrow cells does not ameliorate renal fibrosis.

BACKGROUND The plasticity of bone marrow-derived stem cells, also comprising haematopoietic stem cells, has been shown to extend to renal epithelial lineages. Yet, the low rate of their contribution to the injured kidney has led to questions regarding their significance in tissue repair after acute injury. We describe here the effect of stem cell mobilization therapy on the progression of renal fibrosis in a mouse model of chronic obstructive nephropathy. METHODS Mice were subjected to unilateral ureter obstruction (UUO) and treated with stem cell factor (SCF) and granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) or saline. Circulating cells were analysed by flow cytometry; labelled bone marrow c-KIT(HIGH) cells were injected into animals subjected to UUO. Granulocytes, macrophages, cellular proliferation or apoptosis and myofibroblasts were detected by immunostaining. Collagen deposition was determined by measuring renal hydroxyproline contents. Cytokine levels were measured by ELISA. RESULTS SCF/G-CSF treatment of mice induced significant haematopoietic stem and progenitor cell mobilization from the bone marrow. Although these cells are able to migrate to the obstructed kidney, they did not influence renal damage, fibrosis and inflammatory cell influx. CONCLUSIONS Although SCF/G-CSF treatment significantly enhanced the availability of haematopoietic stem cells to the obstructed kidney, the progression of renal fibrosis could not be delayed or halted. Our results indicate that effective stem cell mobilization does not alter renal fibrosis.
Is Sentiment a Property of Synsets? Evaluating Resources for Sentiment Classification using Machine Learning

Existing approaches to classifying documents by sentiment include machine learning with features created from n-grams and part of speech. This paper explores a different approach and examines performance of one selected machine learning algorithm, Support Vector Machines, with features computed using existing lexical resources. Special attention has been paid to fine tuning of the algorithm regarding number of features. The immediate purpose of this experiment is to evaluate lexical and sentiment resources in document-level sentiment classification task. Results described in the paper are also useful to indicate how lexicon design, different language dimensions and semantic categories contribute to document-level sentiment recognition. In a less direct way (through the examination of evaluated resources), the experiment analyzes adequacy of lexemes, word senses and synsets as different possible layers for ascribing sentiment, or as candidates for sentiment carriers. The proposed approach of machine learning word category frequencies instead of n-grams and part of speech features can potentially exhibit improvements in domain independency, but this hypothesis has to be verified in future works.
The power of personalization: using a personalized storybook depicting a cross-group friendship to improve White children’s attitudes, feelings, and behaviors toward Black and Hispanic peers

In the current study, 141 White thirdand fourth-grade children were asked to provide their attitudes, feelings, and behaviors toward White, Black, and Hispanic peers several days before and after being read a personalized or non-personalized storybook that depicted the children, themselves (personalized) or an unfamiliar White character (non-personalized), in a crossor same-race friendship with a target Black (cross-race) or White (same-race) storybook character. Further, children were asked to provide their attitudes, feelings, and behaviors toward the target Black or White storybook character immediately before and after being read the storybook, and report how much they felt imaginatively transported into the narrative of the story after being read the storybook. In general, and consistent with Harwood’s (2010) two-dimensional framework of contact space, it was predicted that a personalized storybook that depicted the children, themselves, in a cross-race friendship with a Black storybook character would be more effective than a non-personalized version of the storybook at improving their ratings of the Black storybook character as well as their attitudes, feelings, and behaviors toward the Black and Hispanic peers. Although analyses of the data yielded several interesting findings, no support was found for the main predictions involving the potential impact of a personalized storybook on White children's ratings of the Black storybook character, Black peers, and Hispanic peers. In fact, the only significant effect of the personalization of the storybook that merits attention involved the children’s imaginative transportation into the cross-race friendship story. Specifically, and consistent with prediction, children in the cross-race friendship storybook condition reported feeling more imaginatively transported into the narrative of the storybook when it was personalized than when it was not personalized. In sum, although personalization was indeed “powerful” in elevating White children’s imaginative transportation into a storybook that depicted a cross-race friendship, it was not powerful enough to influence their attitudes, feelings, and behaviors toward the Black storybook character, the Black peers, or the Hispanic peers. The implications and limitations of the present study, as well as directions for future research, are addressed. The power of personalization: Using a personalized storybook depicting a cross-group friendship to improve White children’s attitudes, feelings, and behaviors toward Black and Hispanic peers
Impaired Resolution of Inflammation in the Endoglin Heterozygous Mouse Model of Chronic Colitis

Endoglin is a coreceptor of the TGF-β superfamily predominantly expressed on the vascular endothelium and selective subsets of immune cells. We previously demonstrated that Endoglin heterozygous (Eng +/−) mice subjected to dextran sulfate sodium (DSS) developed persistent gut inflammation and pathological angiogenesis. We now report that colitic Eng +/− mice have low colonic levels of active TGF-β1, which was associated with reduced expression of thrombospondin-1, an angiostatic factor known to activate TGF-β1. We also demonstrate dysregulated expression of BMPER and follistatin, which are extracellular regulators of the TGF-β superfamily that modulate angiogenesis and inflammation. Heightened colonic levels of the neutrophil chemoattractant and proangiogenic factor, CXCL1, were also observed in DSS-treated Eng +/− mice. Interestingly, despite increased macrophage and neutrophil infiltration, a gut-specific reduction in expression of the key phagocytic respiratory burst enzymes, NADPH oxidase 2 (Nox-2) and myeloperoxidase, was seen in Eng +/− mice undergoing persistent inflammation. Taken together, these findings suggest that endoglin is required for TGF-β superfamily mediated resolution of inflammation and fully functional myeloid cells.
Electrophysiological Investigation of Feature-based Attention during Object Perception

We live in a visually rich environment yet our brains are only equipped to process a small fraction of all available information at any point in time. For successful and efficient perception, the brain relies on attention to differentiate and select specific stimuli for further analysis. Attention can be directed to features – feature based attention – which enhances the processing of other similar features independent of spatial location. I have recently shown that the benefits of feature-based attention not only apply to lower-level features, but also to processes of object perception. The aim of the thesis was to examine the behavioural and electrophysiological correlates underlying the influence of feature-based attention on object perception. Chapter 1 measured the electric field activity associated with attending to higher-level features (object contours) and comparing it with the neural activity while attending to motion stimuli. We found temporally later effects for contours relative to motion, suggesting that feature-based attention to objects might be mediated by higher-tier visual areas, such as the lateral occipital cortex. In Chapter 2, I describe a study designed to investigate the time course of neural activity while cueing attention within the feature dimension of shape that more directly targets higher-tier visual areas. Consistent with Chapter 1, I iii found temporally late modulation, but behavioural effects that were weaker than expected. To account for these findings, I proposed a “wrong-turn” model which explains the perceptual benefits and costs coupled to expecting the correct or incorrect feature by taking into consideration the hierarchical structure of the visual system. Moreover, the model also makes specific predictions about the pattern of behavioural and electrophysiological activity while attending to features of varying complexity during object perception. The aim of Chapter 3 was to test the predictions of the model; I cued attention to colour, a lower-level feature essential to perceiving the object. I found much stronger behavioural cueing effects, and a biphasic pattern (early and late) electric brain activity that confirmed the predictions of the model. Together the results indicate that feature-based attention plays an important role in object perception that is mediated by a flexible perceptual system.
BOUNDS ON THE FIBONACCI NUMBER OF A MAXIMAL OUTERPLANAR GRAPH

All graphs in this article are finite, undirected, without loops or multiple edges. Let G be a graph with vertices vl5 v2,. , vn. The complement in G of a subgraph H is the subgraph of G obtained by deleting all edges in H. The join GxvG2 of two graphs GY and G2 is obtained by adding an edge from each vertex in Gl to each vertex in G2. Let Kn be the complete graph and Pn the path on n vertices. The concept Fibonacci number f of a simple graph G refers to the number of subsets S of V(G) such that no two vertices in S are adjacent [5]. Accordingly, the total number of subsets of {1,2,. , n) such that no two elements are adjacent is Fn+l, the (n + if* Fibonacci number.
Association of carotenoids, tocopherols and vitamin C in plasma with allergic rhinitis and allergic sensitisation in adults

Abstract Objectives Antioxidant nutrients like carotenoids, tocopherols and vitamin C have been suggested to protect against allergic rhinitis and allergic sensitisation but scientific evidence is scarce. The aims of the study were to measure the plasma concentration of six carotenoids, α- and γ-tocopherol and vitamin C as biomarkers of the intake, absorption and subsequent metabolism of these nutrients, and to assess their association with allergic rhinitis and sensitisation. Method Data from a cross-sectional study on representative dietary and lifestyle habits of the population of Bavaria, Germany, were analysed. The plasma levels of six carotenoids (α-carotene, β-carotene, lycopene, lutein/zeaxanthin, canthaxanthin and cryptoxanthin) as well as of α-tocopherol, γ-tocopherol and vitamin C were measured in 547 adults aged between 19 and 81 years. Participants with specific serum immunoglobulin E ≥700 U l−1 were categorised as sensitised. The association of plasma antioxidant levels, allergic rhinitis and allergic sensitisation was assessed by means of unconditional logistic regression models. Results We observed a negative association between plasma total carotenoids and the prevalence of allergic rhinitis, with odds ratio (95% confidence interval) of 1.13 (0.54–2.39) for the second, 0.72 (0.33–1.58) for the third and 0.44 (0.19–1.03) for the fourth quartile of total carotenoids concentration (P for trend = 0.0332); results for lycopene failed to reach statistical significance (P = 0.0608). Other single carotenoids, tocopherols and vitamin C were unrelated to allergic rhinitis. Allergic sensitisation was negatively associated with plasma γ-tocopherol, with odds ratio (95% confidence interval) of 0.92 (0.51–1.65) for the second, 1.00 (0.56–1.80) for the third and 0.45 (0.23–0.88) for the fourth quartile of plasma γ-tocopherol concentration (P for trend = 0.0410). No other antioxidant was significantly related to allergic sensitisation. Conclusions High plasma carotenoid concentrations reflecting a diet high in various fruits and vegetables might have a protective effect on allergic rhinitis in adulthood.
21 Centimeter Fluctuations from Cosmic Gas at High Redshifts

The relatively large Thomson optical depth, τes, inferred recently from the WMAP observations suggests that the universe was reionized in a more complex manner than previously believed. However, the value of τes provides only an integral constraint on the history of reionization and, by itself, cannot be used to determine the nature of the sources responsible for this transition. Here we show that the evolution of the ionization state of the intergalactic medium (IGM) at high redshifts can be measured statistically using fluctuations in 21 cm radiation from neutral hydrogen. By analogy with the mathematical description of anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background, we develop a formalism to quantify the variations in 21 cm emission as a function of both frequency and angular scale. Prior to and following reionization, fluctuations in the 21 cm signal are mediated by density perturbations in the distribution of matter. Between these epochs, pockets of gas surrounding luminous objects become ionized, producing large H II regions. These "bubbles" of ionized material imprint features into the 21 cm power spectrum that make it possible to distinguish them from fluctuations produced by the density perturbations. The variation of the power spectrum with frequency can be used to infer the evolution of this process. As has been emphasized previously by others, the absolute 21 cm signal from neutral gas at high redshifts is difficult to detect as a result of contamination by foreground sources. However, we argue that this source of noise can be suppressed by comparing maps closely spaced in frequency, i.e., redshift, so that 21 cm fluctuations from the IGM can be measured against a much brighter, but smoothly varying (in frequency), background.
The Growth of Global Equity Markets : A Closer Look Abstract

This paper presents both the time-series and cross-country evidence on the growth of global equity markets and attempts to shed some light on the sources of equity market growth. I show that for developed countries market size is positively related to correlation of stock markets with the global portfolio, and that it is negatively related to government consumption. For emerging market countries, financial intermediaries and trade openness are found to be conducive to the development of local equity markets. Ceteris paribus, developed countries with greater economic freedom and stronger shareholder protections are associated with more highly valued equity markets, while French and German civil law countries and countries with insider trading legislation tend to have relatively poorly valued equity markets. Emerging market countries with high quality of accounting standards are associated with more highly valued equity markets. Over time, only equities in emerging markets become more highly valued. It appears that favorable changes in valuation technology contribute to a large part of the growth in global equity markets. JEL classification: G15, international financial markets; G18, government policy and regulation; G34, corporate governance; C11, Bayesian analysis; C15, statistical simulation methods
Fear of Crime at School

Research on students’ perceptions of fear in school settings has proliferated, specifically as recent school shootings and the media blitz surrounding these events contribute to student and administrator concern. Inquiries into the topic suggest that many of the security protocols utilized by schools, such as target hardening approaches, may have a negative impact on student experiences and increase fear. However, in light of the massive social change experienced by today’s students, through the form of both high-profile school shootings and increased security after 9/11, more recent data are needed to better understand what drives student perceptions. This study explores the role of individual- and school-level predictors of perceptions of student safety. Results suggest that students who are aware of more security measures report higher odds of feeling safe at school. Differences also exist by gender and age. Implications for school security protocols and future research are discussed.