Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Global Mobility and the Media

Just after the summer holiday season had started in late June 1999, the Finnish media began reporting the numbers of Slovakian Roma asylum seekers. The public heard about Roma who were ‘flooding’, ‘flowing’, and ‘mass immigrating’ Finland. The Finnish government stopped the process two weeks after the media began to report by imposing a temporary visa requirement for Slovakian citizens. All together Finland received a thousand asylum seekers from Slovakia during a three week period in summer 1999. By Finnish standards this was an exceptionally high number. The media framed the Roma as ‘economic refugees’. Instead of expressing this accusation explicitly the media constructed an image of a shady group of people with illegitimate reasons from more subtle details. This article identifies five key themes that were chosen to frame the story: the flood theme, the illegitimacy theme, the fortress theme, the reputation theme, and the lax policy theme. Choosing these themes the media constructed an image of asylum seekers which enter the country without true reasons, therefore they present a threat to the society as well as to its asylum and human rights policies. ‘Economic refugees’ is a catch phrase that has been repeated in the everyday language of the Finns since the early 1990’s. The Finns who have left the country for a better future to neighbouring Sweden or to more distant places have been regarded as adventurous, active, and having courage. The label ‘economic refugees’, however, has a negative connotation and it is being used to characterize some immigrants and refugees coming to Finland. It refers to laziness and illegitimate reasons. It is used especially in everyday language, not so much in administrative discourse. This article investigates how the media deal with the issue. It suggests that the media play a central role in the making of ‘economic refugees’. Textual and visual details are analyzed with discourse and frame analysis. Moreover, journalistic genres and professional practices are studied. The case is also investigated from the perspective of globalization theory. The practical research question is: How do the media represent asylum seeking and the Roma? Is there any variation between media and genre? But the broader question is: How does the representation relate to globalization? Mobility is one characteristic of globalization. However, only some people are welcome to move around, while others are being pushed away. The media are significantly involved with the process of constructing and defining distances, borders, and otherness.
Quantum Structure in Cognition: Fundamentals and Applications

Experiments in cognitive science and decision theory show that the ways in which people combine concepts and make decisions cannot be described by classical logic and probability theory. This has serious implications for applied disciplines such as information retrieval, artificial intelligence and robotics. Inspired by a mathematical formalism that generalizes quantum mechanics the authors have constructed a contextual framework for both concept representation and decision making, together with quantum models that are in strong alignment with experimental data. The results can be interpreted by assuming the existence in human thought of a double-layered structure, a 'classical logical thought' and a 'quantum conceptual thought', the latter being responsible of the above paradoxes and nonclassical effects. The presence of a quantum structure in cognition is relevant, for it shows that quantum mechanics provides not only a useful modeling tool for experimental data but also supplies a structural model for human and artificial thought processes. This approach has strong connections with theories formalizing meaning, such as semantic analysis, and has also a deep impact on computer science, information retrieval and artificial intelligence. More specifically, the links with information retrieval are discussed in this paper.
A New Multilevel Converter Topology With Reduced Number of Power Electronic Components

In this paper, a new topology for cascaded multilevel converter based on submultilevel converter units and full-bridge converters is proposed. The proposed topology significantly reduces the number of dc voltage sources, switches, IGBTs, and power diodes as the number of output voltage levels increases. Also, an algorithm to determine dc voltage sources magnitudes is proposed. To synthesize maximum levels at the output voltage, the proposed topology is optimized for various objectives, such as the minimization of the number of switches, gate driver circuits and capacitors, and blocking voltage on switches. The analytical analyses of the power losses of the proposed converter are also presented. The operation and performance of the proposed multilevel converter have been evaluated with the experimental results of a single-phase 125-level prototype converter.
Tubule-Guided Cell-to-Cell Movement of a Plant Virus Requires Class XI Myosin Motors

Cell-to-cell movement of plant viruses occurs via plasmodesmata (PD), organelles that evolved to facilitate intercellular communications. Viral movement proteins (MP) modify PD to allow passage of the virus particles or nucleoproteins. This passage occurs via several distinct mechanisms one of which is MP-dependent formation of the tubules that traverse PD and provide a conduit for virion translocation. The MP of tubule-forming viruses including Grapevine fanleaf virus (GFLV) recruit the plant PD receptors called Plasmodesmata Located Proteins (PDLP) to mediate tubule assembly and virus movement. Here we show that PDLP1 is transported to PD through a specific route within the secretory pathway in a myosin-dependent manner. This transport relies primarily on the class XI myosins XI-K and XI-2. Inactivation of these myosins using dominant negative inhibition results in mislocalization of PDLP and MP and suppression of GFLV movement. We also found that the proper targeting of specific markers of the Golgi apparatus, the plasma membrane, PD, lipid raft subdomains within the plasma membrane, and the tonoplast was not affected by myosin XI-K inhibition. However, the normal tonoplast dynamics required myosin XI-K activity. These results reveal a new pathway of the myosin-dependent protein trafficking to PD that is hijacked by GFLV to promote tubule-guided transport of this virus between plant cells.
Association between CYP1A1 Ile462Val Polymorphism and Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma Susceptibility: Evidence from 13 Investigations

CYP1A1 Ile462Val polymorphism might play a key role in pathogenesis of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Many case-control studies have investigated the association between CYP1A1 Ile462Val polymorphism and OSCC susceptibility. However, the conclusions are inconsistent. To aim a convincible conclusion, we carried out a meta-analysis to systematically evaluate the association of CYP1A1 Ile462Val polymorphism with OSCC susceptibility. We searched Pubmed, Web of Science, Ovid and Embase databases for available publications. The odds ratio (OR) with the corresponding 95% confidence interval (95% CI) was carried out to estimate the association. A total of 13 papers including 1468 cases and 2183 controls were included, a significant increased OSCC risk was observed in recessive model (OR=1.64, 95% CI=1.08-2.49), but not other genetic models. Our results suggest that the homozygous variant of CYP1A1 Ile462Val might be a risk factor of OSCC.
A fast and reliable protocol for wireless sensor networks in critical conditions monitoring applications

Sensor networks are increasingly being deployed for fine-grain monitoring of physical environments subjected to critical conditions such as fire, leaking of toxic gases and explosions. A great challenge to these networks is to provide a fast, reliable and fault tolerant channel for events diffusion, which meets the requirements of query-based, event-driven and periodic sensor networks application scenarios, even in the presence of emergency conditions that can lead to node failures and path disruption to the sink that receives those events. This paper presents a fault tolerant and low latency algorithm, which we refer to as PEQ (Periodic, Event-Driven and Query-Based Protocol), that meets sensor networks requirements for critical conditions surveillance applications. The algorithm uses the publish/subscribe paradigm to disseminate requests across the network and an ack-based scheme to provide fault tolerance. The algorithm was implemented using NS-2 simulator and compared to the Directed Diffusion paradigm. Important metrics were evaluated showing that the proposed algorithm can be a proper solution to meet constraints and requirements of events delivery in critical conditions monitoring applications.
Age-Related Optimal Income Taxation

Due to the di¢culties of devising a system of …rst-best lump-sum taxes, optimal taxation models usually con…ne themselves to the study of the optimal shape of the linear/nonlinear income tax schedule and the structure of (linear) commodity taxation, disregarding any possibility to raise revenue by means of some limited, second-best lump-sum measures based on characteristics which are both easily observable and hard to alter by the individual. This approach has been criticized by Hahn (1972) who argues that there is a scope for some kind of lumpsum taxation with redistributive power and that this possibility has been de-emphasized by economists rashly. As Akerlof (1978) pointed
Border regulars : an ethnographic enquiry into the becomings of the Thai-Lao border from the vantage point of small-scale trade

This thesis is an ethnographic enquiry into how the nation-state border between Thailand and Laos comes into being. Southeast Asian borders, and no less the Thai-Lao border, are known to be porous and their porosity is often associated with ineffective government policies and poor border control management. This thesis looks beyond such state-centric perspectives by highlighting the interstices between the legal and illegal, the formal and informal, and the state and society in the context of small-scale cross-border trade. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in the Thai province of Loei, it unravels the Thai-Lao border as historically contingent, multi-layered, and as constantly in flux. My findings reveal that the border is not only a prerogative of the state but that it is also produced through the practices of non-state actors as well as through the interactions of state and non-state actors. Female small-scale traders reproduce the border by engaging in diverse practices of arbitrage. They replicate the social hierarchy between Thailand and Laos through their terminology and bargaining practices. The border is also entrenched in the social memory and imaginaries of border residents including state actors. The social embeddedness of state actors in the local community and cross-border culture allows social relationships to form and convolute stringent categories of state and society. Combined with a flexibility of legality and local conceptualisations of licitness, such relationships facilitate the movement of people and goods while at the same time they increase the state’s control over the border. They also give rise to cooperative forms of regulation that involve the giving of goods and money. Instead of construing these as corrupt practices that destabilise the border, they can also be understood to strengthen the state’s authority and to reinforce the border. The thesis concludes by arguing that non-state perspectives are a sine qua non in an attempt to comprehend the nature of a border throughout space and time.
Hands-on course in networked control systems

This paper presents a hands-on course in networked control systems (NCS) to be integrated in the education of embedded control systems engineers. The course activities have a strong practical component and most of them are applied exercises to be implemented in a NCS setup. The paper describes the experimental setup and then proposes several activities that can be shaped into a course program according to the needs and diverse background of the targeted audience.
Polynomial upper bounds for the instability of the Nonlinear Schr

We continue the study (initiated in [18]) of the orbital stability of the ground state cylinder for focussing non-linear Schrodinger equations in the $H^s(\R^n)$ norm for $1-\varepsilon < s < 1$, for small $\varepsilon$. In the $L^2$-subcritical case we obtain a polynomial bound for the time required to move away from the ground state cylinder. If one is only in the $H^1$-subcritical case then we cannot show this, but for defocussing equations we obtain global well-posedness and polynomial growth of $H^s$ norms for $s$ sufficiently close to 1.
Consumption in South America: myopia or liquidity constraints?

In this paper, we consider Brazil, Colombia, Peru, and Venezuela for a study on aggregate consumption behavior, in which we test the life cycle-permanent income hypothesis prediction that consumption growth depends only on the interest rate. Nevertheless, our results suggest that in general predicted income is a relevant covariate. We checked for some possible reasons behind this result, namely liquidity constraints, myopia and perverse asymmetry. We found support for liquidity constrained consumers in Brazil and Colombia, and perverse asymmetry for Peru. Finally, the results were uninformative about consumption in Venezuela.
Observation of New States Decaying into Λ

Using 13.7fb−1 of data recorded by the CLEO detector at CESR, we investigate the spectrum of charmed baryons which decay into Λc π −π+ and are more massive than the Λc1 baryons. We find evidence for two new states: one is broad and has an invariant mass roughly 480 MeV above that of the Λc baryon; the other is narrow with an invariant mass of 596± 1± 2 MeV above
An Algorithm for Automatic Indexing of Oscillation Images using Fourier Analysis

A fast and reliable algorithm has been developed for auto-indexing oscillation images. The observed reflection positions are used to compute the corresponding reciprocal-lattice vectors assuming a stationary crystal. These vectors are then projected onto a chosen direction. The projections are subjected to a one-dimensional Fourier analysis. A large Fourier term will be found that has a periodicity corresponding to the interplanar distance if the chosen direction happens to be perpendicular to a set of widely separated reciprocal-lattice planes. Exploration of such directions over a hemisphere establishes the best potential basis vectors of the real cell. The program has successfully determined the lengths and directions of basis vectors for numerous unit cells having cell dimensions ranging from 16 to 668 A and oscillation ranges from 0.2 to 2.0°.
Test-Driven Development - Still a Promising Approach?

Test-Driven Development (TDD) has been regarded as a useful practice during the last decade as well in industry as in academia. It has been suggested to have several benefits in software development process. This paper is focused on the reported empirical research on TDD. A systematic literature review was conducted in order to analyze the current empirical evidence. Based on the review data, TDD may improve external code quality, but it also leads to increase in development time. However, there are a lot of contradictory results and it raises a question about the actual factors behind them. More systematic research, specifically controlled experiments and well reported case studies, is needed in order to better understand TDD.
Block Sorting Text Compression -- Final Report

A recent development in text compression is a “block sorting” algorithm which permutes the input text according to a special sort procedure and then processes the permuted text with Move-to-Front and a final statistical compressor. The technique combines good speed with excellent compression performance. This report investigates the block sorting compression algorithm, in particular trying to understand its operation and limitations. Various approaches are investigated in an attempt to improve the compression with block sorting, most of which involve a hierarchy of coding models to allow fast adaptation to local contexts. The best technique involves a new “structured” coding model, especially designed for compressing data with skew symbol distributions. Block sorting compression is found to be related to work by Shannon in 1951 on the prediction of English text. The work confirms block-sorting as a good text compression technique, with a compression approaching that of the currently best compressors while being much faster than other compressors of comparable performance. Preface This is third report 1 of a series on block sorting text compression (previous members Technical Reports 111, 120, Refs 10 & 11). A shorter version was presented as a paper at ACSC’96 (ref [12]). This present report was prepared as a comprehensive account of my experience with block sorting compression, including several interesting curiosities, but grew too large for publication as a paper. Important material will be extracted to form probably two journal papers, but this text remains as the comprehensive and coherent picture of the work. While it largely replaces the two earlier reports, those do contain some useful material which is omitted from here. For example Tech Report 111 includes extensive logs of the compression process and output which could be useful for people interested in the details of the operation. 1 The report is available by anonymous FTP from ftp.cs. auckland.ac. nz /out/peter-f/TechRep130.ps
Regional brain chemical alterations in young children with autism spectrum disorder

Objective: The authors evaluated regional brain chemistry for evidence of increased neuronal packing density in autism. Methods: Forty-five 3- to 4-year-old children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), 13 children with typical development (TD), and 15 children with delayed development (DD) were studied using dual-echo proton echoplanar spectroscopic imaging (32 × 32 matrix-1 cm3 voxels) to measure brain chemical concentrations and relaxation times. Chemical quantification was corrected for tissue partial volume and relative measures of chemical relaxation (T2r) were calculated from the paired echoes. Measures from averaged and individual regions were compared using analysis of variance corrected for multiple comparisons. Results: ASD subjects demonstrated reduced N-acetylaspartate (NAA) (−10%), creatine (Cre) (−8%), and myo-inositol (−13%) concentrations compared to TD controls and prolonged NAA T2r relative to TD (7%) and DD (9%) groups. Compared to DD subjects, children with ASD also demonstrated prolonged T2r for choline (10%) and Cre (9%). Regional analyses demonstrated subtle patterns of chemical alterations in ASD compared to the TD and DD groups. Conclusions: Brain chemical abnormalities are present in ASD at 3 to 4 years of age. However, the direction and widespread distribution of these abnormalities do not support hypothesis of diffuse increased neuronal packing density in ASD.
Tangles and plaques in nondemented aging and “preclinical” Alzheimer's disease

The distribution and density of neurofibrillary tangles and amyloid plaques was studied in a unique series of cases whose premortem cognitive status had been assessed with the Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR), including 39 nondemented cases (CDR = 0; age, 51–88 years), 15 very mildly demented cases (CDR = 0.5), and 8 severely demented (CDR = 3) cases. The initial formation of tangles and plaques in healthy aging appeared to be independent of each other. Tangles were found in all the nondemented cases, especially in hippocampal and parahippocampal areas; the average tangle concentration increased exponentially with age. In contrast, plaques were absent in some brains up to age 88, and the earliest plaque formation in other cases occurred in the neocortex, in patches of diffuse plaques. Widely distributed neuritic as well as diffuse plaques throughout neocortex and limbic structures characterized a further group of nondemented cases. In these cases there was also a substantial increase over other nondemented cases, both in the number of tangles and in the rate of increase in tangles with age, suggesting an interaction between amyloid and neurofibrillary change at this stage. Such cases closely resemble CDR = 0.5 cases, and it is proposed they represent “preclinical” Alzheimer's disease. Ann Neurol 1999;45:358–368
A Hybrid RF/Metal Clock Routing Algorithm to Improve Clock Delay and Routing Congestion

Global clock network has been a major limitation on delay, power and routing resources in modern VLSI circuits. Recently, some methods are proposed to use RF instruments for on-chip clock routing in large chips but they suffer from large power and area overhead. In this paper, a hybrid RF/metal clock networking is presented which combines the benefits of RF/wireless Interconnect and Cu/wired interconnects. Our experiments show that clock network delay and clock tree congestion are improved by 64\% and 40% on average in a cost of 1.9% area overhead and less than 10% power consumption overhead for large circuits. Moreover, power consumption overhead will be reduced for larger circuits and smaller featured sized technologies.
The Relationship Between Religion and Attitudes Toward Large Carnivores in Northern India?

ABSTRACT Evidence suggests that religion is an important driver of peoples’ attitudes toward nature, but the link between religion and carnivore conservation is poorly understood. We examined peoples’ attitudes in Buddhist (n = 83) and Muslim communities (n = 111) toward snow leopards (Panthera uncia) and wolves (Canis lupus) in Ladakh, India. We found that the effect of religion on attitudes was statistically nonsignificant, and was tempered by gender, education, and awareness of wildlife laws. Even though religion by itself was not an indication of an individual’s attitude toward large carnivores, the extent to which he/she practiced it (i.e., religiosity) had a positive correlation with pro-carnivore attitudes in the case of Buddhist but not Muslim communities. Our findings indicate that it may be useful to integrate locally relevant religious philosophies into conservation practice. However, the emphasis of conservation messaging should vary, stressing environmental stewardship in the case of Islam, and human–wildlife interdependence in the case of Buddhism.
Facebook Enhances Antidepressant Pharmacotherapy Effects

Treatment-resistant major depressive disorder (TR-MDD) is a complex condition, with very low remission rates. In recent years some studies have been conducted on the implementation of cognitive behavioral therapy and psychodynamic psychotherapy interventions via the Internet to MDD patients, and results have been promising. However, there have been no studies in patients with TR-MDD nor with the use of Facebook with the psychiatrist as “friend. ” 60 TR-MDD patients were randomized to one of three groups: Facebook group with psychiatrist as “friend,” Facebook group without psychiatrist as “friend,” and control group (no Facebook use). Both Facebook groups spent at least 1 hour/day on Facebook, 7 days/week, during the 3 months. All patients maintained their usual pharmacotherapy. All participants were evaluated at baseline and at 1, 2, and 3 months for depressive symptoms using HAD17 and BDI-II. Results show that both Facebook groups had a decrease on HADM17 and BDI-II scores as well as higher remission and response rates than the control group, with better results if the psychiatrist was a “friend” on Facebook. Therefore, in TR-MDD, Facebook can be used as an effective enhancement therapy, adjuvant to pharmacological therapy with regular consultations, especially if the psychiatrist is the patient's online “friend. ”