Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Therapeutic Action of the Mitochondria-Targeted Antioxidant SkQ1 on Retinopathy in OXYS Rats Linked with Improvement of VEGF and PEDF Gene Expression

The incidence of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the main cause of blindness in older patients in the developed countries, is increasing with the ageing population. At present there is no effective treatment for the prevailing geographic atrophy, dry AMD, whereas antiangiogenic therapies successful used in managing the wet form of AMD. Recently we showed that mitochondria-targeted antioxidant plastoquinonyl-decyl-triphenylphosphonium (SkQ1) is able to prevent the development and moreover caused regression of pre-existing signs of the retinopathy in OXYS rats, an animal model of AMD. Here we examine the effects of SkQ1 on expression of key regulators of angiogenesis vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGF) and its antagonist pigment epithelium-derived factor (PEDF) genes in the retina of OXYS rats as evidenced by real-time PCR and an ELISA test for VEGF using Wistar rats as control. Ophthalmoscopic examinations confirmed that SkQ1 supplementation (from 1.5 to 3 months of age, 250 nmol/kg) prevented development while eye drops SkQ1 (250 nM, from 9 to 12 months) caused some reduction of retinopathy signs in OXYS rats and did not reveal any negative effects on the control Wistar rat's retina. Prevention of premature retinopathy by SkQ1 was connected with an increase of VEGF mRNA and protein in OXYS rat's retina up to the levels corresponding to the Wistar rats, and did not involve changes in PEDF expression. In contrast the treatment with SkQ1 drops caused a decrease of VEGF mRNA and protein levels and an increase in the PEDF mRNA level in the middle-aged OXYS rats, but in Wistar rats the changes of gene expression were the opposite. Conclusions: The beneficial effects of SkQ1 on retinopathy connected with normalization of expression of VEGF and PEDF in the retina of OXYS rats and depended on age of the animals and the stage of retinopathy.
Consistent exploration improves convergence of reinforcement learning on POMDPs

This paper sets out the concept of consistent exploration of observation-action pairs. We present a new temporal difference algorithm, CEQ(λ), based on this concept and demonstrate using a randomly generated set of partially observable Markov decision processes (POMDPs) that it outperforms SARSA(λ). This result should generalise to any POMDP where satisficing policies which map observations to actions exists. We also set out reasons for preferring CEQ(λ) over an alternative Monte-Carlo style algorithm, MCESP, when working in the robotics domain.
Paradigmatic Working Memory (Attractor) Cell in IT Cortex

We discuss paradigmatic properties of the activity of single cells comprising an attractora developed stable delay activity distribution. To demonstrate these properties and a methodology for measuring their values, we present a detailed account of the spike activity recorded from a single cell in the inferotemporal cortex of a monkey performing a delayed match-to-sample (DMS) task of visual images. In particular, we discuss and exemplify (1) the relation between spontaneous activity and activity immediately preceding the first stimulus in each trial during a series of DMS trials, (2) the effect on the visual response (i.e., activity during stimulation) of stimulus degradation (moving in the space of IT afferents), (3) the behavior of the delay activity (i.e., activity following visual stimulation) under stimulus degradation (attractor dynamics and the basin of attraction), and (4) the propagation of information between trialsthe vehicle for the formation of (contextual) correlations by learning a fixed stimulus sequence (Miyashita, 1988). In the process of the discussion and demonstration, we expose effective tools for the identification and characterization of attractor dynamics.1 A color version of this article is found on the Web at: http://www.fiz. huji.ac. il/staff/acc/faculty/damita
Local Approximations to the Gravitational Collapse of Cold Matter

We investigate three different local approximations for nonlinear gravitational instability in the framework of cosmological Lagrangian fluid dynamics of cold dust. By local we mean that the evolution is described by a set of ordinary differential equations in time for each mass element, with no coupling to other mass elements aside from those implied by the initial conditions. We first show that the Zel'dovich approximation (ZA) can be cast in this form. Next, we consider extensions involving the evolution of the Newtonian tidal tensor. We show that two approximations can be found that are exact for plane-parallel and spherical perturbations. The first one (“nonmagnetic” approximation, or NMA) neglects the Newtonian counterpart of the magnetic part of the Weyl tensor in the fluid frame and was investigated previously by Bertschinger & Jain. A new approximation (“local tidal”, or LTA) involves neglecting still more terms in the tidal evolution equation. It is motivated by the analytic demonstration that it is exact for any perturbations whose gravitational and velocity equipotentials have the same constant shape with time. Thus, the LTA is exact for spherical, cylindrical, and plane-parallel perturbations. It corresponds physically to neglecting the curl of the magnetic part of the Weyl tensor in the comoving threading as well as an advection term in the tidal evolution equation. All three approximations can be applied up to the point of orbit crossing. We tested them in the case of the collapse of a homogeneous triaxial ellipsoid, for which an exact solution exists for an ellipsoid embedded in empty space and an excellent approximation is known in the cosmological context. We find that the LTA is significantly more accurate in general than the ZA and the NMA. Like the ZA, but unlike the NMA, the LTA generically leads to pancake collapse. For a randomly chosen mass element in an Einstein–de Sitter universe, assuming a Gaussian random field of initial density fluctuations, the LTA predicts that at least 78% of initially underdense regions collapse owing to nonlinear effects of shear and tides.
A 60dB gain and 4dB noise figure CMOS V-band receiver based on two-dimensional passive Gm-enhancement

A direct conversion receiver which consists of low noise amplifier (LNA), mixer and programmable gain amplifier (PGA) for V-band (60GHz) applications is designed and realized in 65nm CMOS. A novel two-dimensional passive gm-enhancement technique is devised to boost the conversion gain and lower the Noise Figure (NF) with insignificant power overhead. An overall minimum SSB NF of 3.9dB and a maximum power conversion gain of 60dB have been validated from such fabricated receiver that occupies core silicon area of 0.2mm2 and draws 34mA from 1V supply.
ORAL COMMUNICATION APPREHENSION AND COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE WITH ELECTRICALENGINEERING UNDERGRADUATES IN UTeM

This study attempted to determine if communication apprehension existed among electrical engineering students, their perceived communication competence, their general performance in the oral presentation skills and more specifically the possible correlations that existed between these elements. The instruments that were used for data collection in the study are the Self-Perceived Communication Competence Scale (SPCC), Personal Report of Communication Apprehension (PRCA-12) and a Presentation Evaluation Rubric. The findings revealed that the students fall under the modest group of speakers and they do have a moderate amount of communication anxiety but that does not affect their grades. The higher the students' perception of their communicative competence, there is less communication anxiety. The findings also indicate that there's no linear correlation between their levels of apprehension and lecturer evaluation but there does exist a linear relationship between their Self-Perceived Communication Competence and lecturer's evaluation meaning twhen they had more confidence on their competence, their tance in the presentation perform is better. Keywords: oral communication apprehension, communicative competence, oral presentation, electrical engineering undergraduates, confidence, performance
Dualities Associated To Binary Operations On R

conjugation theory, we introduce and study dualities ∆:R X → R associated to a binary operation ∗ on R, where X and W are two arbitrary sets and R = [−∞,+∞], which encompass, as particular cases, conjugations, ∨-dualities and ⊥-dualities in the sense of [14] and [7]. We show that this class of dualities can be extended so as to encompass also the ∗-dualities ∆:A → A in the sense of [8], where A is the canonical enlargement of a complete totally ordered group.
HUBUNGAN ANTARA KECEMASAN MATEMATIKA DAN SELF-EFFICACY DENGAN HASIL BELAJAR MATEMATIKA SISWA SMA X KOTA PALANGKA RAYA

Richardson dan Suinn (dalam Mahmood & Khatoon, 2011) mengatakan bahwa kecemasan Matematika adalah perasaan tegang dan cemas yang menggangu dan bisa menghambat kemampuan mental aritmetika dalam kehidupan sehari-hari. Bandura (dalam Feist & Feist, 2013) mendefinisikan self-efficacy sebagai keyakinan diri seseorang pada kemampuannya untuk melakukan kontrol terhadap peristiwa yang sedang mereka hadapi. Tujuan dari penelitian ini untuk mengetahui hubungan antara kecemasan Matematika dan self-efficacy dengan hasil belajar Matematika siswa SMA X di Kota Palangka Raya, Kalimantan Tengah. Peneliti menyertakan 467 siswa yang berasal dari kelas X, XI, dan XII menggunakan teknik purposive sampling. Pengambilan data dengan menggunakan kuesioner kecemasan Matematika, dan kuesioner self-efficacy serta data hasil belajar Matematika berdasarkan nilai rapot siswa. Analisis data dalam penelitian ini yaitu menggunakan teknik spearman correlation. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan terdapat hubungan signifikan negatif antara kecemasan Matematika dan hasil belajar Matematika siswa SMA (r = -0,196 dan p = 0,000 < 0,05). Hasil penelitian ini juga menunjukkan bahwa terdapat hubungan signifikan positif antara self-efficacy dengan hasil belajar Matematika siswa SMA (r = 0,210 dan p = 0,000 < 0,05).
Immigrant Identities and Geographies of Belonging: Jamaican Immigrant Organizations in Toronto

II Acknowledgements . IV List of Tables . IX List of Figures . X Chapter 1: Jamaican Immigrants and Organizations in Toronto . 1 Introduction . 1 Research Objectives . 6 Key Concepts . 8 Key Concept: Place . 8 Key Concept: Sense of Belonging . 9 Key Concept: Identity . 12 Research Questions . 14 Research Contributions . 16 Dissertation Outline . 20 Chapter 2: Geographical Perspectives on Immigrant Organizations, Identity, and Sense of Belonging . 23 Introduction . 23 Constructions of Place and Immigrant Identity . 23 Sense of Belonging and Mobilizing for Successful Settlement . 29 Identity . 33 Ethnicity, Race, Class, Gender and Color . 37 Ethnicity and race . 37 Class . 41 Gender . 43 Jamaican Immigrants, the Impact of Place, and Identity Construction . 44 Immigrant Organizations: Understanding the Impact of Place and Transnationalism . 51 Political Context and the Establishment of Immigrant Organizations . 62 The Imagined Community and Immigrant Organizations . 63 The Role of Churches in Immigrant Settlement . 64 Conclusion . 67 Chapter 3: Methodology and Research Design . 69 Introduction . 69 Paradigmatic Considerations and Qualitative Research . 71 Data Collection Strategies . 73 Qualitative Research Methods . 73 A Multi-method Approach . 74 Semi-structured Interviews . 76 Case Studies . 79 Archival Research . 81 Sampling strategies . 82 Characteristics of the Interview Participants: Toronto, Canada . 87 vi Reflections on Methodology: a Critical Human Geography Approach . 94 Positionality: the Challenges of ‘Insider’ Research . 96 Analysis and Interpretation . 100 Conclusion . 102 Chapter 4: The Geography of Migration and Settlement amongst Jamaican Immigrants in Toronto. 104 Introduction . 104 Understanding Disparities in the Socio-economic Integration for Visible Minorities . 107 Ethnicity and Year of Immigration . 109 Patterns of Migration: Jamaican Immigrants in Toronto . 111 Residential Geographies . 114 Dwelling and Tenure . 120 Age . 123 Level of Education . 124 Levels of Employment . 126 Labour Force ActivitiesIndustry Sectors . 127 Occupations . 131 Income . 135 After-tax Income . 136 Total Income . 138 Household Income . 139 Family Structure . 140 Conclusion . 143 Chapter 5: The Historical Formation of Jamaican immigrant Organizations in Toronto, Canada. 145 Introduction . 145 A Typology of Jamaican Immigrant Organizations in Toronto . 147 Sociocultural Organizations . 148 Ethnic Organizations . 152 Special Interest Groups . 153 Political Organizations . 155 Alumni Associations . 157 Factors Influencing the Development of Jamaican Immigrant Organizations. 158 Sense of Belonging, Reactionary Productions of Place and the Establishment of Sociocultural Organizations .
Combined On-line and Off-line Trust Mechanism for Agent Computing

In this paper, we propose an efficient mechanism dealingwith trust assessment for agent societies, aiming to accuratelyassess the trustworthiness of the collaborating agents.In the proposed model, we formulate on-line assessment process,which applies a number of measurements affecting theevaluator agent’s estimated value regarding to the evaluatedagent’s trust. We then represent the off-line trust assessment,which compares and adjusts the involved features with theactual performance of the evaluated agent. The off-lineprocess updates the belief set of the evaluator agents in thesense that it adapts the agents with respect to the changesin the network. In this paper, the proposed frameworkis described, a theoretical analysis of its assessment andits implementation along with simulations comparison withother models are provided. We also show how our model ismore efficient than the existing models, particularly in verydynamic environments.
Use of Pulse Crops in Complementary Feeding of 6-23-Month-Old Infants and Young Children in Taba Kebele, Damot Gale District, Southern Ethiopia

Poor complementary feeding practices contribute to infants and young children (IYC) malnutrition, with lack of protein-containing food and micronutrients as major concerns. A cross-sectional survey was conducted to assess the dietary diversity, nutrient contents and use of pulse crops in complementary feeding at Taba kebele, Southern Ethiopia. A questionnaire was used to collect socio-demographic and dietary diversity data from a random sample of 128 mother-child pairs. A one day weighed food record assessed IYC median nutrient intake. Focus group discussion explored mothers’ perceptions and use of pulse crops in complementary food preparation. Dietary diversity assessment found that 43.7% consumed pulses, and only 18.7% consumed meat and 26.6% eggs. Focus group discussion showed that mothers had little interest in incorporating pulses into complementary foods. Raising awareness of mothers/caregivers on food diversification and promoting the inclusion of pulses in food preparation for infants and young children are vital to nutritional status of IYC.
Promoter Hypermethylation Profiling Identifies Subtypes of Head and Neck Cancer with Distinct Viral, Environmental, Genetic and Survival Characteristics

Background Epigenetic and genetic alteration plays a major role to the development of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). Consumption of tobacco (smoking/chewing) and human papilloma virus (HPV) are also associated with an increase the risk of HNSCC. Promoter hypermethylation of the tumor suppression genes is related with transcriptional inactivation and loss of gene expression. We investigated epigenetic alteration (promoter methylation of tumor-related genes/loci) in tumor tissues in the context of genetic alteration, viral infection, and tobacco exposure and survival status. Methodology The study included 116 tissue samples (71 tumor and 45 normal tissues) from the Northeast Indian population. Methylation specific polymerase chain reaction (MSP) was used to determine the methylation status of 10 tumor-related genes/loci (p16, DAPK, RASSF1, BRAC1, GSTP1, ECAD, MLH1, MINT1, MINT2 and MINT31). Polymorphisms of CYP1A1, GST (M1 & T1), XRCC1and XRCC2 genes were studied by using polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) and multiplex-PCR respectively. Principal Findings Unsupervised hierarchical clustering analysis based on methylation pattern had identified two tumor clusters, which significantly differ by CpG island methylator phenotype (CIMP), tobacco, GSTM1, CYP1A1, HPV and survival status. Analyzing methylation of genes/loci individually, we have found significant higher methylation of DAPK, RASSF1, p16 and MINT31genes (P = 0.031, 0.013, 0.031 and 0.015 respectively) in HPV (+) cases compared to HPV (-). Furthermore, a CIMP-high and Cluster-1 characteristic was also associated with poor survival. Conclusions Promoter methylation profiles reflecting a correlation with tobacco, HPV, survival status and genetic alteration and may act as a marker to determine subtypes and patient outcome in HNSCC.
Holistic configuration management at Facebook

Facebook's web site and mobile apps are very dynamic. Every day, they undergo thousands of online configuration changes, and execute trillions of configuration checks to personalize the product features experienced by hundreds of million of daily active users. For example, configuration changes help manage the rollouts of new product features, perform A/B testing experiments on mobile devices to identify the best echo-canceling parameters for VoIP, rebalance the load across global regions, and deploy the latest machine learning models to improve News Feed ranking. This paper gives a comprehensive description of the use cases, design, implementation, and usage statistics of a suite of tools that manage Facebook's configuration end-to-end, including the frontend products, backend systems, and mobile apps.
Prospective randomized comparison of endoscopic submucosal tunnel dissection and conventional submucosal dissection in the resection of superficial esophageal/gastric lesions in a living porcine model

Background and study aims: To assess experimentally endoscopic submucosal tunnel dissection (ESTD) as an alternative technique of endoscopic submucosal resection. Patients and methods: This was a prospective, randomized, comparative experimental animal study carried out over a period of 9 months at the surgical research and teaching center of Aix-Marseille University, France. Virtual esophageal and gastric lesions measuring 3 cm in diameter were resected in pigs weighing 25 to 30 kg. The primary aim was to evaluate ESTD’s efficacy compared with endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD). The secondary aims were to determine complication rates as well as to assess procedure time and procedure speed, histologic quality of the resected specimen, and procedure cost. Results: Eighteen procedures (9 ESD and 9 ESTD) were performed in nine pigs. The technical success rate was 88.9 % for both techniques, with one single failure in each. The en bloc resection rate was 100 % for ESTD and 88.9 % for ESD (one failure). The complication rate (22 %) and median procedure time were similar but dissection speed was quicker with ESTD in the esophagus (P = 0.03). Median procedure cost (728 Euros for ESD and ESTD) did not differ. On histologic examination, the lateral margins were healthy in 100 % of ESTD and in 88.9 % of ESD (P = 0.49). Deep resection margins were of better quality in ESTD (median submucosal thickness: 1307.1 µm vs. 884.7 µm; P = 0.039). Conclusions: ESTD is feasible and safe but not superior in the treatment of superficial esophageal/gastric lesions in porcine models compared with ESD. Nevertheless it provides a better quality histologic specimen.
Updated guidelines for evaluating public health surveillance systems: recommendations from the Guidelines Working Group.

The purpose of evaluating public health surveillance systems is to ensure that problems of public health importance are being monitored efficiently and effectively. CDC's Guidelines for Evaluating Surveillance Systems are being updated to address the need for a) the integration of surveillance and health information systems, b) the establishment of data standards, c) the electronic exchange of health data, and d) changes in the objectives of public health surveillance to facilitate the response of public health to emerging health threats (e.g., new diseases). This report provides updated guidelines for evaluating surveillance systems based on CDC's Framework for Program Evaluation in Public Health, research and discussion of concerns related to public health surveillance systems, and comments received from the public health community. The guidelines in this report describe many tasks and related activities that can be applied to public health surveillance systems.
The Second Socialist Revolution: An Alternative Soviet Strategy

Part 1 Brief historical background: Stalinism the "Thaw" re-Stalinization or "Stagnation". Part 2 The sociology of economic reform: social conditions and pre-assumptions of reform economic management on the eve of reform the socio-economic basis of restructuring the social consequences of restructuring. Part 3 A social policy and its problems: the new social policy development and realization of abilities income distribution policy regulation of the consumer market the development of social guarantees. Part 4 The social management of restructuring. Part 5 Political conditions for success: democratization and openness restructuring political institutions. Part 6 1989 as the first year of the radical restructuring of Soviet society - a postscript.
Feature Selection Using Support Vector Machines

Text categorization is the task of classifying natural language documents into a set of predefined categories. Documents are typically represented by sparse vectors under the vector space model, where each word in the vocabulary is mapped to one coordinate axis and its occurrence in the document gives rise to one nonzero component in the vector representing that document. When training classifiers on large collections of documents, both the time and memory requirements connected with processing of these vectors may be prohibitive. This calls for using a feature selection method, not only to reduce the number of features but also to increase the sparsity of document vectors. We propose a feature selection method based on linear Support Vector Machines (SVMs). First, we train the linear SVM on a subset of training data and retain only those features that correspond to highly weighted components (in absolute value sense) of the normal to the resulting hyperplane that separates positive and negative examples. This reduced feature space is then used to train a classifier over a larger training set because more documents now fit into the same amount of memory. In our experiments we compare the effectiveness of the SVM -based feature selection with that of more traditional feature selection methods, such as odds ratio and information gain, in achieving the desired tradeoff between the vector sparsity and the classification performance. Experimental results indicate that, at the same level of vector sparsity, feature selection based on SVM normals yields better classification performance than odds ratioor information gainbased feature selection when linear SVM classifiers are used.