Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
THE COSMOPOLITAN VISION

Sociology was born as an attempt to delimit an object of investigation offered by society as a social reality. The ambition was that of “treating the social facts as things” (Durkheim) or of understanding and explaining the social relations by respecting an “axiological neutrality” (Max Weber). Today, however, we are in the presence of a new kind of sociologists, and they are by no means the less popular ones, who are not trying to avoid assessments in their analysis of the present social world. I have in mind especially two sociologists, Ulrich Beck (Munich) and David Held (London). I will discuss in particular the view of sociology presented in a recent book of Ulrich Beck (Macht und Gegenmacht im globalen Zeitalter, 2002, translated into French under the title Pouvoir et contre-pouvoir a l’ere de la mondialisation, 2003), and I will show some analogies between Beck and Held. Finally, I will try to identify the points hat make the present sociological epistemology different from that of the great founders of this science.
Pd(II) and Zn(II) Based Complexes with Schiff Base Ligands: Synthesis, Characterization, Luminescence, and Antibacterial and Catalytic Activities

Two new metal complexes involving Schiff base ligands, namely, [Pd(L1)2] (1) and [Zn(L2)2] (2), [HL1: 2,4-dibromo-6-((E)-(mesitylimino)methyl)phenol and HL2: 2-((E)-(2,6-diisopropylphenylimino)methyl)-4,6-dibromophenol], have been solvothermally synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis, IR-spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, powder X-ray diffraction, and single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Both 1 and 2 are mononuclear cyclometalated complexes with square planar and tetrahedral coordination geometry, respectively. 1 and 2 display photoluminescence in the solid state at 298 K (fluorescence lifetimes τ = 5.521 μs at 508 nm for 1; τ = 3.697 μs at 506 nm for 2). These Schiff base ligands and their metal complexes have been screened for antibacterial activity against several bacteria strains, and the results are compared with the activity of penicillin. Moreover, the Suzuki reaction of 4-bromoanisole with phenylboronic acid by 1 has also been studied.
Report of Two Double‐Blind Randomized Placebo‐Controlled Pilot Studies of a Carbohydrate‐Rich Nutrient Mixture for Treatment of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)

We investigated a carbohydrate‐rich nutrient‐drink mix for treatment of seasonal affective disorder (SAD). This mixture may contribute to brain serotonin synthesis, potentially exerting an antidepressant effect and controlling carbohydrate cravings. Two successive double‐blind placebo‐controlled studies were performed. In Study 1, 18 subjects (50% women; mean age 43 ± 15 years) with SCID‐diagnosed SAD were randomized to 12 days of twice daily carbohydrate beverage (CHO) containing mixed starches, or a placebo beverage (PRO) containing the CHO mix plus casein protein to dampen serotonin synthesis. Following a 2‐day washout, subjects were crossed over to the other treatment for 12 days. In Study 2, 32 subjects (63% women; mean age 46 ± 14 years) with SCID‐diagnosed SAD were randomized to 21 days of CHO or PRO. Efficacy in both studies was determined by the first 17 items of the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM‐D‐28), an appetite questionnaire, and regular weighing. In Study 1, response rates were 50% for both groups. Remission rates favored CHO (50% vs. 38%), as did the decrease in the HAM‐D‐17 score, but differences were nonsignificant. In Study 2, response rates were 71% for CHO and 76% for PRO, and remission rates were 71% for each group. Both treatment groups experienced significant improvement in HAM‐D‐17 scores within 1 week of treatment, which continued through the entire study period. Weight change did not differ significantly between treatment groups in either study. The drink mix was well tolerated and treatment adherence was high. Both the active and placebo intervention were effective in alleviating symptoms of SAD. Replication studies in larger samples appear warranted.
Creative Imagination Imagery and Analogy

The magic and mystery of the imagination set in motion by creative energy have given articulation to our world, transforming reality to dreams and dreams to reality. William Blake saw it as &dquo;some source of spiritual energy&dquo; in whose exercise we experience in some way the activity of God. Samuel T. Coleridge regarded the imagination as an ability fo first importance since human beings involved in creative activities simulate in some way the creative act of God. More recently Bowra (1950) astutely observed the function of the imagination as a mysterious activity of the mind in the act of
Reef-scale trends in Florida Acropora spp. abundance and the effects of population enhancement

Since the listing of Acropora palmata and A. cervicornis under the US Endangered Species Act in 2006, increasing investments have been made in propagation of listed corals (primarily A. cervicornis, A. palmata to a much lesser extent) in offshore coral nurseries and outplanting cultured fragments to reef habitats. This investment is superimposed over a spatiotemporal patchwork of ongoing disturbances (especially storms, thermal bleaching, and disease) as well as the potential for natural population recovery. In 2014 and 2015, we repeated broad scale (>50 ha), low precision Acropora spp. censuses (i.e., direct observation by snorkelers documented via handheld GPS) originally conducted in appropriate reef habitats during 2005–2007 to evaluate the trajectory of local populations and the effect of population enhancement. Over the decade-long study, A. palmata showed a cumulative proportional decline of 0.4 –0.7x in colony density across all sites, despite very low levels of outplanting at some sites. A. cervicornis showed similar proportional declines at sites without outplanting. In contrast, sites that received A. cervicornis outplants showed a dramatic increase in density (over 13x). Indeed, change in A. cervicornis colony density was significantly positively correlated with cumulative numbers of outplants across sites. This study documents a substantive reef-scale benefit of Acropora spp. population enhancement in the Florida Keys, when performed at adequate levels, against a backdrop of ongoing population decline.
A Comparative Analysis of Network-Based Similarity Measures for Scientific Paper Recommendations

In this paper three similarity measures for scientific papers are compared: bibliographic coupling, co-citation coupling and cosine similarity. All three measures are based on the connections of papers in citation networks. The comparison is conducted both on a mathematical as well as an empirical level. The latter is performed on a real citation network as well as artificially generated networks. The mathematical comparison shows that some measures are structurally very similar, yet if node pairs are ordered according to their similarity, the two measures do not always produce the same rankings. The empirical evaluation shows that bibliographic coupling and one variant of cosine similarity tend to produce the same rankings. The same holds for co-citation coupling and another variant of cosine similarity. Therefore, if only rankings are considered, these measures are interchangeable. The rankings produced by co-citation coupling and bibliographic coupling on the other hand are very different. This also applies to the two cosine similarity variants. Therefore, these measures are not interchangeable.
WiFi position estimation in industrial environments using Gaussian processes

The increased popularity of wireless networks has enabled the development of localization techniques that rely on WiFi signal strength. These systems are cheap, effective, and require no modifications to the environment. In this paper, we present a WiFi localization algorithm that generates WiFi maps using Gaussian process regression, and then estimates the global position of an autonomous vehicle in an industrial environment using a particle filter. This estimate can be used for bootstrapping a higher-resolution localizer, or for cross-checking and localization redundancy. The system has been designed to operate both indoors and outdoors, using only the existing wireless infrastructure. It has been integrated with an existing laser-beacon localizer to aid during initialization and for recovery after a failure. Experiments conducted at an industrial site using a large forklift-type autonomous vehicle are presented.
Evidence-based improvement of the National Trauma Triage Protocol: The Glasgow Coma Scale versus Glasgow Coma Scale motor subscale

BACKGROUND Ideal triage uses simple criteria to identify severely injured patients. Glasgow Coma Scale motor (GCSm) may be easier for field use and was considered for the National Trauma Triage Protocol (NTTP). This study evaluated performance of the NTTP if GCSm is substituted for the current GCS score ⩽ 13 criterion. METHODS Subjects in the National Trauma Data Bank undergoing scene transport were included. Presence of NTTP physiologic (Step 1) and anatomic (Step 2) criteria was determined. GCSm score ⩽ 5 was defined as a positive criterion. Trauma center need (TCN) was defined as Injury Severity Score (ISS) > 15, intensive care unit admission, urgent operation, or emergency department death. Test characteristics were calculated to predict TCN. Area under the curve was compared between GCSm and GCS scores, individually and within the NTTP. Logistic regression was used to determine the association of GCSm score ⩽ 5 and GCS score ⩽ 13 with TCN after adjusting for other triage criteria. Predicted versus actual TCN was compared. RESULTS There were 811,143 subjects. Sensitivity was lower (26.7% vs. 30.3%), specificity was higher (95.1% vs. 93.1%), and accuracy was similar (66.1% vs. 66.3%) for GCSm score ⩽ 5 compared with GCS score ⩽ 13. Incorporated into the NTTP Steps 1 + 2, GCSm score ⩽ 5 traded sensitivity (60.4% vs. 62.1%) for specificity (67.1% vs. 65.7%) with similar accuracy (64.2% vs. 64.2%) to GCS score ⩽ 13. There was no difference in the area under the curve between GCSm score ⩽ 5 and GCS score ⩽ 13 when incorporated into the NTTP Steps 1 + 2 (p = 0.10). GCSm score ⩽ 5 had a stronger association with TCN (odds ratio, 3.37; 95% confidence interval, 3.27–3.48; p < 0.01) than GCS score ⩽ 13 (odds ratio, 3.03; 95% confidence interval, 2.94–3.13; p < 0.01). GCSm had a better fit of predicted versus actual TCN than GCS at the lower end of the scales. CONCLUSION GCSm score ⩽ 5 increases specificity at the expense of sensitivity compared with GCS score ⩽ 13. When applied within the NTTP, there is no difference in discrimination between GCSm and GCS. GCSm score ⩽ 5 is more strongly associated with TCN and better calibrated to predict TCN. Further study is warranted to explore replacing GCS score ⩽ 13 with GCSm score ⩽ 5 in the NTTP. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE Prognostic study, level III.
F10: A Fault-Tolerant Engineered Network

The data center network is increasingly a cost, reliability and performance bottleneck for cloud computing. Although multi-tree topologies can provide scalable bandwidth and traditional routing algorithms can provide eventual fault tolerance, we argue that recovery speed can be dramatically improved through the co-design of the network topology, routing algorithm and failure detector. We create an engineered network and routing protocol that directly address the failure characteristics observed in data centers. At the core of our proposal is a novel network topology that has many of the same desirable properties as FatTrees, but with much better fault recovery properties. We then create a series of failover protocols that benefit from this topology and are designed to cascade and complement each other. The resulting system, F10, can almost instantaneously reestablish connectivity and load balance, even in the presence of multiple failures. Our results show that following network link and switch failures, F10 has less than 1/7th the packet loss of current schemes. A trace-driven evaluation of MapReduce performance shows that F10's lower packet loss yields a median application-level 30% speedup.
Hidradenitis suppurativa treated with finasteride

Background: Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is a distressing condition for which no satisfactory treatment is available. Studies on hormonal mechanisms responsible for HS point towards altered end‐organ sensitivity, probably related to the enzyme 5α reductase that converts testosterone to dihydrotestosterone. Finasteride, an inhibitor of type II 5α reductase, has been reported to be effective in recalcitrant HS. Aim: To study the effectiveness and tolerability of finasteride in patients with HS in a preliminary trial . Methods: Seven patients (five women and two men) with HS that was not responding well to antibiotics were treated with finasteride at a dose of 5 mg/day as monotherapy. Clinical response was assessed at regular intervals. Patients were followed up for periods varying from 8 months to 2 years. Results: Six patients improved significantly and three of them had complete healing of lesions. Two patients who were followed up for more than 1 year experienced remissions lasting 8–18 months. The drug was generally well tolerated; however, two women complained of breast enlargement. Conclusion: The results of this preliminary study suggest that finasteride is an effective therapeutic option in HS.
Inflorescence and floral characters indicating C 3 and C 4 photosynthesis in some species of the genus Cyperus L. (Cyperaceae)

Inflorescence and floral morphological characters in twelve species of Cyperus – a genus known to have C 3 and C 4 photosynthetic species – were investigated in order to check their usefulness in delimiting species into photosynthetic groups. Plant species were collected from different locations within Southwestern Nigeria. Qualitative characters were noted and recorded while some quantitative characters were measured with metric ruler to the nearest centimeter and others were counted. The results revealed that compound umbellate inflorescence, digitately arranged spikelets and short spikelets not over 1cm long are characters that separate C. difformis and C. haspan which are C 3 species, while the rest with simple umbellate inflorescence, spicate spikelets and spikelet length over 1cm are C 4 species. Cyperus dilatatus , a species without a previous record of photosynthetic grouping, is hereby grouped as a C 4 species since it shared characters with the rest C 4 species. From this study, a combination of characters was identified, which can possibly be used along with known data from other sources in the grouping of Cyperus species as either C 3 or C 4 species. Data on C. dilatatus also showed that it possibly belong to C 4 species. This is probably the first known report on photosynthetic grouping of this species. © 2015 International Formulae Group. All rights reserved. Keywords: C 3 - C 4 species, Cyperus genus, inflorescence morphology, photosynthetic grouping, taxonomy
Automatically patching errors in deployed software

We present ClearView, a system for automatically patching errors in deployed software. ClearView works on stripped Windows x86 binaries without any need for source code, debugging information, or other external information, and without human intervention. ClearView (1) observes normal executions to learn invariants thatcharacterize the application's normal behavior, (2) uses error detectors to distinguish normal executions from erroneous executions, (3) identifies violations of learned invariants that occur during erroneous executions, (4) generates candidate repair patches that enforce selected invariants by changing the state or flow of control to make the invariant true, and (5) observes the continued execution of patched applications to select the most successful patch. ClearView is designed to correct errors in software with high availability requirements. Aspects of ClearView that make it particularly appropriate for this context include its ability to generate patches without human intervention, apply and remove patchesto and from running applications without requiring restarts or otherwise perturbing the execution, and identify and discard ineffective or damaging patches by evaluating the continued behavior of patched applications. ClearView was evaluated in a Red Team exercise designed to test its ability to successfully survive attacks that exploit security vulnerabilities. A hostile external Red Team developed ten code injection exploits and used these exploits to repeatedly attack an application protected by ClearView. ClearView detected and blocked all of the attacks. For seven of the ten exploits, ClearView automatically generated patches that corrected the error, enabling the application to survive the attacks and continue on to successfully process subsequent inputs. Finally, the Red Team attempted to make Clear-View apply an undesirable patch, but ClearView's patch evaluation mechanism enabled ClearView to identify and discard both ineffective patches and damaging patches.
The effects of sepsis on mitochondria.

BACKGROUND Sepsis is associated with mitochondrial dysfunction and impaired oxygen consumption, which may condition clinical outcome independent of tissue oxygenation. However, mitochondrial role in sepsis severity remains unknown. We aimed to characterize mitochondrial function in sepsis, establish its origin and cellular consequences, and determine its correlation with clinical symptoms and outcome. METHODS Different markers of mitochondrial activity, nitrosative and oxidative stress, apoptosis, and inflammation were measured in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and plasma of 19 septic patients and 20 controls. Plasma capacity to induce mitochondrial dysfunction was assessed in muscle mitochondria from 5 healthy individuals incubated with plasma of septic patients or controls. RESULTS Despite unaltered mitochondrial mass and protein synthesis, enzymatic mitochondrial complexes I, III, and IV and oxygen consumption were significantly inhibited in sepsis. Septic plasma tended to reduce oxygen consumption of healthy mitochondria and showed significantly increased amounts of extracellular mitochondrial DNA and inflammatory cytokines, especially in patients presenting adverse outcome. Active nuclear factor kappa-light-chain enhancer of activated B cells (NFKB) was also significantly increased, together with nitric oxide, oxidative stress and apoptosis. Additionally, sepsis severity significantly correlated with complex I inhibition, NFKB activation and intercellular adhesion molecule expression. CONCLUSIONS A plasmatic factor such as nitric oxide, increased in inflammation and able to induce mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative stress and apoptosis, may be responsible for cell damage in sepsis. Together with bacterial infection, leakage of mitochondrial DNA from damaged cells into circulation could contribute to systemic inflammatory response syndrome. Mitochondrial dysfunction and inflammation correlate with sepsis severity and outcome, becoming targets for supporting therapies.
Central nervous system regulation of reflex responses to hypotension during fetal life

Wood, Charles E. , and Haiyan Tong. Central nervous system regulation of reflex responses to hypotension during fetal life. Am. J. Physiol. 277 (Regulatory Integrative Comp. Physiol. 46): R1541–R1552, 1999. —The ability of the fetus to survive, grow, and successfully complete the transition from fetal to neonatal life is critically dependent on the appropriate regulation of fetal blood pressure, blood volume, and fluid dynamics. This is a short review of the physiological mechanisms controlling the fetal cardiovascular system, focusing mainly on the neural and endocrine elements in the schema of cardiovascular function and control. The fetal cardiovascular system is arranged anatomically to provide for perfusion of the umbilical-placental circulation, the organ of gas exchange of the fetus, and to largely bypass the lungs. Fetal blood volume and pressure, maintained at levels that are appropriate for this function, are influenced by neural and endocrine control mechanisms, which are similar to, but quantitatively different from, the adult animal. Baroreceptors and chemoreceptors located in the carotid sinuses and aortic arch sense changes in blood pressure and blood gases and comprise the afferent limb of the major reflexes that maintain normal fetal blood pressure and volume. Fetal hypotension stimulates reflex decreases in fetal heart rate, which are apparently mediated by chemoreceptor input. Arginine vasopressin responses to hypotension are most likely mediated by baroreceptor input. Recent evidence suggests that the reflex responses to hypotension in the fetus are modulated by paracrine or endocrine factors. For example, baroreceptor or chemoreceptor reflex pathways are modulated by the endogenous production of prostanoids and by the preparturient changes in fetal plasma estrogen concentration.
Personalised information filtering using event causality

﻿Previous research on multimedia information filtering has mainly concentrated on key frame identification and video skim generation for browsing purposes, however applications requiring the generation of summaries as the final product for user con- sumption are of equal scientific and commercial interest. Recent advances in computer vision have enabled the extraction of semantic events from an audio-visual signal, so it can be assumed for our purposes that such semantic labels are already available for use. We concentrate instead on developing methods to prioritise these semantic elements for inclusion in a summary which can be personalised to meet a particular user's needs. Our work differentiates itself from that in the literature as it is driven by the results of a knowledge elicitation study with expert summarisers. The experts in our study believe that summaries structured as a narrative are better able to convey the content of the original data to a user. Motivated by the information filtering problem, the primary contribution of this thesis is the design and implementation of a system to summarise sequences of events by automatic modelling of the causal relationships between them. We show, by com- parison against summaries generated by experts and with the introduction of a new coherence metric, that modelling the causal relationships between events increases the coherence and accuracy of summaries. We suggest that this claim is valid, not only in the domain of soccer highlights generation, in which we carry out the bulk of our experiments, but also in any other domain in which causal relationships can be iden- tified between events. This proposal is tested by applying our summarisation system to another, significantly different domain, that of business meeting summarisation, using the soccer training set and a manually generated ontology mapping. We introduce the concept of a context-group of causally related events as a first step towards modelling narrative episodes and present a comparison between a case based reasoning and a two-stage Markov model approach to summarisation. For both methods we show that by including entire context-groups in the summary, rather than single events in isolation, more accurate summaries can be generated. Our approach to personalisation biases a summary according to particular narrative plotlines using different subsets of the training data. Results show that the number of instances of certain event classes can be increased by biasing the training set appropriately. This method gives very similar results to a standard weighting method, while avoiding the need to tailor the weights to a particular application domain.