Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
NETosis and NADPH oxidase: at the intersection of host defense, inflammation, and injury

Neutrophils are armed with both oxidant-dependent and -independent pathways for killing pathogens. Activation of the phagocyte nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) oxidase constitutes an emergency response to infectious threat and results in the generation of antimicrobial reactive oxidants. In addition, NADPH oxidase activation in neutrophils is linked to activation of granular proteases and generation of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs). NETosis involves the release of nuclear and granular components that can target extracellular pathogens. NETosis is activated during microbial threat and in certain conditions mimicking sepsis, and can result in both augmented host defense and inflammatory injury. In contrast, apoptosis, the physiological form of neutrophil death, not only leads to non-inflammatory cell death but also contributes to alleviate inflammation. Although there are significant gaps in knowledge regarding the specific contribution of NETs to host defense, we speculate that the coordinated activation of NADPH oxidase and NETosis maximizes microbial killing. Work in engineered mice and limited patient experience point to varying susceptibility of bacterial and fungal pathogens to NADPH oxidase versus NET constituents. Since reactive oxidants and NET constituents can injure host tissue, it is important that these pathways be tightly regulated. Recent work supports a role for NETosis in both acute lung injury and in autoimmunity. Knowledge gained about mechanisms that modulate NETosis may lead to novel therapeutic approaches to limit inflammation-associated injury.
Intraindividual Variability of Boldness Is Repeatable across Contexts in a Wild Lizard

Animals do not behave in exactly the same way when repeatedly tested in the same context or situation, even once systematic variation, such as habituation, has been controlled for. This unpredictability is called intraindividual variability (IIV) and has been little studied in animals. Here we investigated how IIV in boldness (estimated by flight initiation distances) changed across two seasons—the dry, non-breeding season and the wet, breeding season—in a wild population of the Namibian rock agama, Agama planiceps. We found significant differences in IIV both between individuals and seasons, and IIV was higher in the wet season, suggesting plasticity in IIV. Further, IIV was highly repeatable (r = 0.61) between seasons and we found strong negative correlations between consistent individual differences in flight initiation distances, i.e. their boldness, and individuals' IIVs. We suggest that to understand personality in animals, researchers should generate a personality ‘profile’ that includes not only the relative level of a trait (i.e. its personality), but also its plasticity and variability under natural conditions.
Global Context Descriptors for SURF and MSER Feature Descriptors

Global context descriptors are vectors of additional information appended to an existing descriptor, and are computed as a log-polar histogram of nearby curvature values. These have been proposed in the past to make Scale Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT) matching more robust. This additional information improved matching results especially for images with repetitive features. We propose a similar global context descriptor for Speeded Up Robust Features (SURFs) and Maximally Stable Extremal Regions (MSERs). Our experiments show some improvement for SURFs when using the global context, and much improvement for MSER.
The Effects of Group Reminiscence Therapy on Depression, Self Esteem, and Life Satisfaction of Elderly Nursing Home Residents

&NA; The need to provide quality mental health care for elders in nursing home settings has been a critical issue, as the aging population grows rapidly and institutional care becomes a necessity for some elders. The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to describe the effect of participation in reminiscence group therapy on older nursing home residents' depression, self-esteem, and life satisfaction. Purposive sampling was used to recruit participants who met the study criteria. Residents of one ward were assigned to the reminiscence therapy group intervention, while residents of the other ward served as controls. Nine weekly one-hour sessions were designed to elicit reminiscence as group therapy for 12 elders in the experimental group. Another 12 elders were recruited for a control group matched to experimental subjects on relevant criteria. Depression, self-esteem, and life satisfaction were measured one week before and after the therapy. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS, Version 10.0) was used to analyze data. Results indicated that group reminiscence therapy significantly improved self-esteem, although effects on depression and life satisfaction were not significant. Reminiscence groups could enhance elders' social interaction with one another in nursing home settings and become support groups for participants. The model we created here can serve as a reference for future application in institutional care.
Boundary Learning by Optimization with Topological Constraints

Recent studies have shown that machine learning can improve the accuracy of detecting object boundaries in images. In the standard approach, a boundary detector is trained by minimizing its pixel-level disagreement with human boundary tracings. This naive metric is problematic because it is overly sensitive to boundary locations. This problem is solved by metrics provided with the Berkeley Segmentation Dataset, but these can be insensitive to topo-logical differences, such as gaps in boundaries. Furthermore, the Berkeley metrics have not been useful as cost functions for supervised learning. Using concepts from digital topology, we propose a new metric called the warping error that tolerates disagreements over boundary location, penalizes topological disagreements, and can be used directly as a cost function for learning boundary detection, in a method that we call Boundary Learning by Optimization with Topological Constraints (BLOTC). We trained boundary detectors on electron microscopic images of neurons, using both BLOTC and standard training. BLOTC produced substantially better performance on a 1.2 million pixel test set, as measured by both the warping error and the Rand index evaluated on segmentations generated from the boundary labelings. We also find our approach yields significantly better segmentation performance than either gPb-OWT-UCM or multiscale normalized cut, as well as Boosted Edge Learning trained directly on our data.
An Heuristic Approach to Page Recommendation in Web Usage Mining

Personalized Web page recommendation is strongly limited by the nature of web logs, the intrinsic complexity of the problem and the tight efficiency requirements. When tackled by traditional Web Usage Mining techniques, due to the presence of an huge number of meaningful clusters and profiles for visitors of a typical highly rated website, the model-based or distance-based methods tend to make too strong and simplistic assumptions or, conversely, to become excessively complex and slow. In this paper, a heuristic “ majority intelligence” strategy is designed, that easily adapts to changing navigational patterns, without the costly need to explicitly individuate them before navigation. The proposed approach mimics human behavior in an unknown environment in presence of many individuals acting in parallel and is able to predict with good accuracy and in real time the next page category visited by a user. The method has been tested on real data coming from users who visited a popular website of generic content. Average accuracy on test sets is good on a 17 class problem and, most remarkably, it remains stable as the web navigation goes on.
Should Merger Policy Be An Antitrust Perspective Changed ?

Over the past 15 years, a revolution has occurred in U.S. merger policy. ~ Antitrust attacks on non-horizontal mergers have all but disappeared. Regulation of horizontal mergers now starts from the presumption that "the vast majority of horizontal mergers pose no market power problems and should simply be approved rapidly" (Schmalensee 1987, p. 44). In February 1986, the Reagan adminisration urged Congress to codify the new interpretation of Section 7 and to mandate consideration of a merger’s salutory effects on economic efficiency. 2 If former Commerce Secretary Baldridge had had his way, the Administration would have sought complete repeal of the antimerger law. Reversal of the conventional wisdom on mergers can be traced to acceptance of Robert Bork’s views on the subject. In large measure, the case for the status quo rests on the soundness of his position. As a result, I shall discuss that position in some detail. Finding it deeply flawed, I then propose a research agenda for those who doubt the adequacy of current enforcement. I begin, however, with a brief discussion of the U.S. Supreme Court opinion that did so much to inspire retreat from an activist policy stance.
Black Hole Mass, Velocity Dispersion and the Radio Source in Agn

The recent discovery of a correlation between nuclear black hole mass, M•, and the stellar velocity dispersion, σ∗(Gebhardt et al. 2000a; Ferrarase & Merritt 2000), in elliptical galaxies and spiral bulges, has raised the question whether such a relationship exists for AGN. Estimates of M• for many AGN, made using reverberation mapping techniques, allow exploration of the relationship between black hole mass, the host galaxy and the energetics of nuclear emission. However, since only a few AGN have both M• and σ∗ measurements, we use the [OIII] λ 5007 emission line widths on the assumption that for most AGN the forbidden line kinematics are dominated by virial motion in the host galaxy bulge. We find that a relation does exist between M• and [OIII] line width for AGN which is similar to the one found by Gebhardt et al. (2000a), although with more scatter as expected if secondary influences on the gas kinematics are also present. Our conclusion is that both active and inactive galaxies follow the same relationship between black hole mass and bulge gravitational potential. We find no compelling evidence for systematic differences in the mass estimates from reverberation mapping and stellar dynamics. We also find that for radio quiet AGN the radio power and black hole mass are highly correlated linking emission on scales of kiloparsecs with the nuclear energy source. Subject headings: galaxies: nuclei — galaxies: Seyfert — quasars:general — galaxies: kinematics and
Essays on International Capital Flows, Currency Crises and Exchange Rate Regimes

Onderzoek naar de koppeling tussen internationale kapitaalstromen, valutacrises en wisselkoersregimes De koppeling tussen internationale kapitaalstromen, valutacrises en wisselkoersregimes is van belang voor de mondiale financi? le stabiliteit. Het promotieonderzoek van Yanping Zhao draagt daar, zowel methodologisch als empirisch, aan bij. In haar proefschrift komen de volgende onderzoeksvragen aan bod: (1) Is Chinees vluchtkapitaal gerelateerd aan ontwikkelingen in de vastgoed- en de aandelenmarkten, het renteverschil ten opzichte van de VS, de verwachte appreciatie van de wisselkoers en de Chicago Board Options Exchange Market Volatility Index (VIX)? Hangen deze relaties af van structurele hervormingen en nieuwe regelgeving en van de recente financi? le crisis? Worden de resultaten beinvloed door de keuze van een bepaalde maatstaf van vluchtkapitaal? (2) Welke factoren bepalen of een plotselinge ingrijpende vermindering van internationale kapitaalstromen wordt gevolgd door een valutacrisis of niet? Speelt de wisselkoers en met name het wisselkoersregime hierbij een rol? (3) Zijn leidende indicatoren van valutacrises verschillend in verschillende wisselkoersstelsels? Zo ja, welke indicatoren zijn bruikbaar bij verschillende wisselkoersstelsels? (4) Wat is de relatie tussen het toekomstige contante koers rendement van de renminbi en het agio op de termijnkoers? Geldt de 'unbiased forward rate' hypothese in China? Wat is de invloed van de recente financiele crisis op deze relatie?
On the bounded cohomology of semi-simple groups, S-arithmetic groups and products

Abstract We prove vanishing results for Lie groups and algebraic groups (over any local field) in bounded cohomology. The main result is a vanishing below twice the rank for semi-simple groups. Related rigidity results are established for S-arithmetic groups and groups over global fields. We also establish vanishing and cohomological rigidity results for products of general locally compact groups and their lattices.
An RNS architecture of an F/sub p/ elliptic curve point multiplier

An elliptic curve point multiplier (ECPM) is the main part of all elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) systems and its performance is decisive for the performance of the overall cryptosystem. A VLSI residue number system (RNS) architecture of an ECPM is presented in this paper. In the proposed approach, the necessary mathematical conditions that need to be satisfied, in order to replace typical finite field circuits with RNS ones, are investigated. It is shown that such an application is feasible and that it leads to a significant improvement in the execution time of a scalar point multiplication
HFR1 Is Crucial for Transcriptome Regulation in the Cryptochrome 1-Mediated Early Response to Blue Light in Arabidopsis thaliana

Cryptochromes are blue light photoreceptors involved in development and circadian clock regulation. They are found in both eukaryotes and prokaryotes as light sensors. Long Hypocotyl in Far-Red 1 (HFR1) has been identified as a positive regulator and a possible transcription factor in both blue and far-red light signaling in plants. However, the gene targets that are regulated by HFR1 in cryptochrome 1 (cry1)-mediated blue light signaling have not been globally addressed. We examined the transcriptome profiles in a cry1- and HFR1-dependent manner in response to 1 hour of blue light. Strikingly, more than 70% of the genes induced by blue light in an HFR1-dependent manner were dependent on cry1, and vice versa. High overrepresentation of W-boxes and OCS elements were found in these genes, indicating that this strong cry1 and HFR1 co-regulation on gene expression is possibly through these two cis-elements. We also found that cry1 was required for maintaining the HFR1 protein level in blue light, and that the HFR1 protein level is strongly correlated with the global gene expression pattern. In summary, HFR1, which is fine-tuned by cry1, is crucial for regulating global gene expression in cry1-mediated early blue light signaling, especially for the function of genes containing W-boxes and OCS elements.
Pluralistic Ignorance in Corporate Boards and Firms' Strategic Persistence in Response to Low Firm Performance

This study examines how a social psychological bias referred to as pluralistic ignorance may occur in corporate boards and how this bias could contribute to strategic persistence in response to relatively low firm performance. Our theory suggests that under conditions of low performance, there may be a systematic tendency for outside directors to underestimate the extent to which fellow directors share their concerns about the viability of the firm's corporate strategy. This reduces the propensity for individual directors to express their concerns about the current corporate strategy in board meetings, decreasing the likelihood that boards will initiate strategic change in response to low firm performance. We also posit factors that may moderate the extent to which pluralistic ignorance occurs on boards. We suggest that demographic homogeneity among outside directors (with respect to gender, functional background, education, and industry of employment) and the density of friendship ties among them will significantly moderate the occurrence of pluralistic ignorance on boards. We test our hypotheses with original survey data from a large sample of outside directors at medium-sized U.S. companies and find support for our theory. We discuss contributions of our theory and findings to the literatures on corporate governance, strategic persistence and change, and group decision-making processes in organizations.
Association of Chronic Hepatitis C Virus Infection and Diabetes Mellitus in Korean Patients

Background : It has been suggested that chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is associated with diabetes. The aim of this study was to establish a potential relationship between chronic HCV infection and diabetes mellitus in Korean patients. Methods : We performed a prospective analysis of 404 patients with chronic viral hepatitis or liver cirrhosis who visited our hospital and analyzed whether age, sex, body mass index, alcohol consumption, hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, HCV infection and cirrhosis were associated with diabetes. We also enrolled 627 diabetic patients and the seroprevalence of HBV surface antigen (HBsAg) and anti-HCV was determined. Results : Diabetes was observed more frequently in individuals with HCV infected chronic liver disease (24.0%) than in those with HBV infected (10.4%) (p<0.05). Univariate analyses revealed that age, alcohol consumption and HCV infection were significant independent predictors for diabetes. The mean age of the patients with HCV infected chronic liver disease was higher than that of HBV infected (56 ± 16 vs 44 ± 13, p<0.05). The prevalence of diabetes in HCV infected group was higher than that in HBV infected group in the age of 41–60 (p<0.05). In diabetic group, the seroprevalence of HBsAg positivity was 4.5% and that of anti-HCV was 2.1%. Conclusion : Our study demonstrates an association between diabetes and chronic HCV infection in Korean patients. The prevalence of diabetes in patients with HCV infected chronic liver disease is higher than that in those with HBV infected. Age and alcohol consumption are another risk factor for diabetes in patients with chronic viral liver disease.
"Avoiding management" of resistances during IT pre-implementation phase: A longitudinal research in a high tech corporation

Most of empirical research about users' resistance toward IT has been conducted after IT been implemented in organizations surveyed. Few longitudinal research have been done about the way individual and group resistances emerge and evolve during prior stages of projects. This focus on preimplementation phases is all the more important that IS managers need to anticipate potential conflicts and users’ resistances likely to involve project failure. This article delivers the results a two year longitudinal research conducted at Netia corp. (a worldwide leader in video and audio broadcasting) during preliminary phases of its ERP implementation project. As main findings, while conflicts toward IT implemented are often considered as having negative effects and requiring to be actively managed by the hierarchy, the case study delivers an alternative observation: it describes how an affective oriented conflict has been solved while managers adopted an “avoiding management style”. Our observations differ from several prior studies about conflict management styles and support that an avoiding management style can drive team’s members to cope efficiently with conflict situations during IT pre-implantation phase. In conclusion, the article presents research perspectives associated to these results.
A new paradigm shift in antithrombotic therapy

Decades after the introduction of oral anti-coagulants namely the vitamin K antagonist (VKA) Warfarin and antiplatelet agents such as Aspirin and Plavix, new classes of direct, small molecule, novel oral anti-coagulant medications and antiplatelet P2Y12 receptor inhibitors have recently become available. For the novel oral anticoagulants (NOAC), these agents can be separated by direct thrombin inhibitors such as Dabigatran and direct Factor Xa inhibitors such as Rivaroxaban and Apixaban. For next generation antiplatelet agents such as Ticagrelor and Prasugrel, these new P2Y12 receptor inhibitors form the cornerstone of therapy for patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) or undergoing percutaneous interventions. These novel oral antithrombotics are revolutionizing the field of stroke prevention, atrial fibrillation (AF), the management of venous thromboembolism (VTE) and treatment of ACS. This article reviews the current research developed in order to identify therapeutic effects and establish net clinical benefits of these new oral antithrombotics.
Local Access to Sparse and Large Global Information in P2P Networks: A Case for Compressive Sensing

In this paper we face the following problem: how to provide each peer local access to the full information (not just a summary) that is distributed over all \emph{edges} of an overlay network? How can this be done if local access is performed at a given rate? We focus on \emph{large and sparse} information and we propose to exploit the compressive sensing (CS) theory to efficiently collect and pro-actively disseminate this information across a large overlay network. We devise an approach based on random walks (RW) to spread CS random combinations to participants in a random peer-to-peer (P2P) overlay network. CS allows the peer to compress the RW payload in a distributed fashion: given a constraint on the RW size, e.g., the maximum UDP packet payload size, this amounts to being able to distribute larger information and to guarantee that a large fraction of the global information is obtained by each peer. We analyze the performance of the proposed method by means of a simple (yet accurate) analytical model describing the structure of the so called CS sensing matrix in presence of peer dynamics and communication link failures. We validate our model predictions against a simulator of the system at the peer and network level on different models of random overlay networks. The model we developed can be exploited to select the parameters of the RW and the criteria to build the sensing matrix in order to achieve successful information recovery. Finally, a prototype has been developed and deployed over the PlanetLab network to prove the feasibility of the proposed approach in a realistic environment. Our analysis reveals that the method we propose is feasible, accurate and robust to peer and information dynamics. We also argue that centralized and other distributed approaches, i.e., flooding and gossiping, are unfit in the context we consider.
A Variant of Higher-Order Anti-Unification

We present a rule-based Huet's style anti-unification algorithm for simply-typed lambda-terms in eta-long beta-normal form, which computes a least general higher-order pattern generalization. For a pair of arbitrary terms of the same type, such a generalization always exists and is unique modulo alpha-equivalence and variable renaming. The algorithm computes it in cubic time within linear space. It has been implemented and the code is freely available.
Implications of Labor Market Frictions for Risk Aversion and Risk Premia

A flexible labor margin allows households to absorb asset value shocks with changes in hours worked, altering the households’ attitudes toward risk (Swanson 2012). This paper analyzes how frictional labor markets affect that analysis. Risk aversion is higher (i) in countries with more frictional labor markets, (ii ) in recessions, and (iii ) for households that have more difficulty finding a job. Labor market frictions in Europe are large enough to raise risk aversion in those countries. Nevertheless, risk aversion in the United States and Europe is much closer to the frictionless benchmark in Swanson (2012) than to traditional, fixed-labor measures. (JEL D11, D81, E24, E32, J22)