Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Role of Perspective in Mental Time Travel

Recent years have seen accumulating evidence for the proposition that people process time by mapping it onto a linear spatial representation and automatically “project” themselves on an imagined mental time line. Here, we ask whether people can adopt the temporal perspective of another person when travelling through time. To elucidate similarities and differences between time travelling from one's own perspective or from the perspective of another person, we asked participants to mentally project themselves or someone else (i.e., a coexperimenter) to different time points. Three basic properties of mental time travel were manipulated: temporal location (i.e., where in time the travel originates: past, present, and future), motion direction (either backwards or forwards), and temporal duration (i.e., the distance to travel: one, three, or five years). We found that time travels originating in the present lasted longer in the self- than in the other-perspective. Moreover, for self-perspective, but not for other-perspective, time was differently scaled depending on where in time the travel originated. In contrast, when considering the direction and the duration of time travelling, no dissimilarities between the self- and the other-perspective emerged. These results suggest that self- and other-projection, despite some differences, share important similarities in structure.
Phosphorylation of the growth arrest-specific protein Gas2 is coupled to actin rearrangements during Go-->G1 transition in NIH 3T3 cells

Growth arrest-specific (Gas2) protein has been shown to be a component of the microfilament system, that is highly expressed in growth arrested mouse and human fibroblasts and is hyperphosphorylated upon serum stimulation of quiescent cells. (Brancolini, C., S. Bottega, and C. Schneider. 1992. J. Cell Biol. 117:1251-1261). In this study we demonstrate that the kinetics of Gas2 phosphorylation, during Go-->G1 transition, as induced by addition of 20% FCS to serum starved NIH 3T3 cells, is temporally coupled to the reorganization of actin cytoskeleton. To better dissect the relationship between Gas2 phosphorylation and the modification of the microfilament architecture we used specific stimuli for both membrane ruffling (PDGF and PMA) and stress fiber formation (L-alpha-lysophosphatidic acid LPA) (Ridley, A. J., and A. Hall. 1992. Cell. 70:389-399). All of them, similarly to 20% FCS, are able to downregulate Gas2 biosynthesis. PDGF and PMA induce Gas2 hyperphosphorylation that is temporally coupled with the appearance of membrane ruffling where Gas2 localizes. On the other hand LPA, a specific stimulus for stress fiber formation, fails to induce a detectable Gas2 hyperphosphorylation. Thus, Gas2 hyperphosphorylation is specifically correlated with the formation of membrane ruffling possibly implying a role of Gas2 in this process.
Formats of Winning Strategies for Six Types of Pushdown Games

The solution of parity games over pushdown graphs (Walukiewicz ’96) was the first step towards an effective theory of infinite-state games. It was shown that w inning strategies for pushdown games can be implemented again as pushdown automata. We continue this study and investigate the connection between game presentations and winning strategies in altogether six cases of game arenas, among them realtime pushdown systems, visibly pushdown systems, and counter systems. In four cases we show by a uniform proof method that we obtain strategies implementable by the same type of pushdown machine as given in the game arena. We prove that for the two remaining cases this correspondence fails. In the conclusion we address the question of an abstract criterion that explains the results.
Southern African topography and erosion history: plumes or plate tectonics?

The physiography of southern Africa comprises a narrow coastal plain, separated from an inland plateau by a horseshoe‐shaped escarpment. The interior of the inland plateau is a sedimentary basin. The drainage network of southern Africa is characterized by three river divides, broadly parallel to the coastline. These features contrast strongly with the broad dome and radial drainage patterns predicted by models which ascribe the physiography of southern Africa to uplift over a deep mantle plume. The drainage divides are interpreted as axes of epeirogenic uplift. The ages of these axes, which young from the margin to the interior, correlate closely with major reorganizations of spreading regimes in the oceanic ridges surrounding southern Africa, suggesting an origin from stresses related to plate motion. Successive epeirogenic uplifts of southern Africa on the axes, forming the major river divides, initiated cyclic episodes of denudation, which are coeval with erosion surfaces recognized elsewhere across Africa.
Shedding new light on wood smoke: a risk factor for respiratory health

The burning of wood is probably our oldest source for heating and cooking, and has been used by man for tens of thousands of years. Combustion of biomass, such as wood, animal dung and crop residues, is still used for cooking and heating by a large proportion of the global population, especially in less developed countries. In the industrialised world, and in countries with a cold winter climate, wood and other biomasses are widely used for heat production in residential wood log boilers, stoves and fireplaces. With the recognition of the limitations in amounts and durability of petroleum-based products, as well as an increasing concern regarding the issue of global warming, the interest in wood and other biomasses as alternative, sustainable and CO2-neutral energy sources for fuel production and heating has emerged. In the present issue of the European Respiratory Journal , Orozco-Levi et al . 1 studied wood-smoke exposure and the risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in Spain. This contradicts the common assumption that “natural and biological materials” are generally friendly and harmless, as they have been in use since ancient times. Concerning the emissions from domestic wood and charcoal combustion, there is clearly a background of a large number of organic and inorganic components that may be associated with adverse biological events. The potential health effects of by-products, such as volatile organic …
A New PID Neural Network Controller Design for Nonlinear Processes

In this paper, a novel adaptive tuning method of PID neural network (PIDNN) controller for nonlinear process is proposed. The method utilizes an improved gradient descent method to adjust PIDNN parameters where the margin stability will be employed to get high tracking performance and robustness with regard to external load disturbance and parameter variation. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm compared with other well-known learning methods.
Modeling, Measuring and Hedging Operational Risk

1 Introduction PART I Database Modeling 2 Database Modeling Introduction Building a Data Model Duration of Operational Risk Events Model Risk - Model, Inputs and Price Verification The Impact of Operational Risk in Market and Credit Risks Basic Database Framework for Risk Integration Including Insurance/ Hedging in the Database Provisioning Treatment of Operational Losses Developing an Operational Risk Policy PART II Stochastic Modeling 3 Severity Distributions Introduction General Approach Basic Concepts in Probability Theory Goodness-of-Fitness Tests List of Distributions Application to a Legal Events Database 4 Extreme Value Theory Introduction Risk Management and the Statistics of Extremes Extreme Distributions and EVT Application to Operational Risk Goodness of Fit Tests Working with Quantiles 5 Frequency Distributions Introduction List of Distributions Goodness-of-Fit Tests Application to the Frauds Database Extreme Events Frequency Analysis 6 The Operational Risk VaR Introduction The Concept of VaR and the differences between market and operational VaR Aggregated Risk Models Aggregating Severity and Frequency Coherent Measures of Risk Backtesting Operational VaR Models 7 Stochastic Processes in Operational Risk Introduction Risk Theory and Ruin Processes in OR Ruin Theory Applied to Hedging an OR Portfolio Markov Chain Renewal Processes Queuing Theory Reliability and Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) Stopping Times Mixtures PART III Causal Models 8 Causal Models : Applying Econometrics and Time Series Statistics to Operational Risk Introduction Basics of Multiple Regression Econometric Models Usual Problems Model Selection Criteria Spectral Analysis Multivariate Analysis Multifactor Models in Operational Risk State-Space Models and the Kalman Filter Regime-Switching Models Discriminant Analysis (OR Scores) Developing a Matrix of OR Scores Migration 9 Non-Linear Models in Operational Risk Introduction Neural Networks Bayesian Belief Networks Data Mining Fuzzy Logic 10 Bayesian Techniques in Operational Risk Introduction to Bayesian Theory More Advanced Topics in Bayesian Theory Bayesian Sampling Techniques Bayesian EVT PART IV Operational Risk Management 11- Operational Risk Reporting, Control and Management Introduction OR Reporting Operational Risk Control Operational Cost Control - Strategic OR Management Active OR Management - Risk Capital, Capital Allocation and Performance Measurement 12 - Stress Tests and Scenario Analysis in Operational Risk Introduction Useful Tools in OR Simulation Scenario Analysis Using the Multifactor Model Key Control Indicators and the Volatility of the Control Environment Developing an add-in via OR Scores Migration Probabilities Generating Scenarios based on the Parameters of the Operational VaR Model PART V Hedging Operational Risk 13 Operational Risk Derivatives Introduction Basic Framework and Challenge.
The impact of axenic strains of fungi and oomycetes on the preference of Gammarus roeselii for leaf litter

The interaction of microbial colonization with leaf litter breakdown by the shredder Gammarus roeselii was studied in the littoral of large Lake Constance. In a first step we studied selective feeding of gammarids on leaf litter from three different treatments. Littoral exposed, tap water exposed, and autoc1aved leaves were offered to G. roeselii in standard food-choice assays under laboratory conditions. We found highly selective feeding on littoral exposed leaf litter indicating that microbial conditioning is 'affecting the shredders feeding behaviour. Neither C, N, and P nor protein nor ergosterol content were positively correlated with the relative consumption rates of littoral exposed leaves. For a more detailed study of the microbial conditioning of the leaves oomycetes and fungi were iso­ lated from the littoral exposed leaves. Based on the sequence of internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions of rDNA, we identified single strains of Fusarium sporotrichoides, Microdochium sp. , Ascomycete sp. , and Cylindrocladiella parva; two strains of Cylindrocarpon sp. ; and three strains of Pythium sp. Subsequently, food choice assays were conducted using the isolated strains by offering autoclaved leaves and leaves colonized with a single strain. Three strains (c. parva, Cylindrocarpon sp. 94-2057 and Ascomycete sp.) were preferred by G. roeselii, while leaves with F. sporotrichoides were avoided. Leaves with each of the three oomycete isolates (Pythium sp.) were neither pre­ ferred nor rejected by G. roeselii. Our results suggest that the selective feeding behaviour of G. roeselii is affected by the relative abundance of specific fungal strains. Thus, whether microbial conditioning acts as a repellent or as an attractor for shredders depends on the microbial community on the leaves.
Beyond the standard accretion disc model: coupled magnetic disc–corona solutions with a physically motivated viscosity law

We present a systematic, analytical study of geometrically thin, optically thick accretion disc solutions for magnetized turbulent flows, with an α-like viscosity prescription. Under the only assumptions that (i) magneto-rotational instability (MRI) generates the turbulence that produces the anomalous viscosity needed for accretion to proceed, and that (ii) the magnetic field amplified by the instability saturates due to buoyant vertical escape, we are able to selfconsistently solve the disc structure equations including the fraction of power f that is carried off by vertical Poynting flux (and probably dissipated outside the optically thick disc). For low-viscosity discs, we obtain stable high-f solutions at low accretion rates, when gas pressure dominates, and unstable, low-f , radiation pressure dominated solutions at high accretion rates. For high-viscosity discs, however, a new thermally and viscously stable, radiation-pressure dominated solution is found, characterized by f ∼ 1 and appearing only above a critical accretion rate (of the order of few tenths of the Eddington one). We discuss the regimes of validity of our assumptions, and the astrophysical relevance of our solutions. We conclude that our newly discovered thin disc solutions, possibly accompanied by powerful, magnetically dominated coronae and outflows, should be seriously considered as models for black holes accreting at super-Eddington rates.
Sparse Eigenmotions derived from daily life kinematics implemented on a dextrous robotic hand

Our hands are considered one of the most complex to control actuated systems, thus, emulating the manipulative skills of real hands is still an open challenge even in anthropomorphic robotic hand. While the action of the 4 long fingers and simple grasp motions through opposable thumbs have been successfully implemented in robotic designs, complex in-hand manipulation of objects was difficult to achieve. We take an approach grounded in data-driven extraction of control primitives from natural human behaviour to develop novel ways to understand the dexterity of hands. We collected hand kinematics datasets from natural, unconstrained human behaviour of daily life in 8 healthy in a studio flat environment. We then applied our Sparse Motion Decomposition approach to extract spatio-temporally localised modes of hand motion that are both time-scale and amplitude-scale invariant. These Sparse EigenMotions (SEMs)[1] form a sparse symbolic code that encodes continuous hand motions. We mechanically implemented the common SEMs on our novel dexterous robotic hand [2] in open-loop control. We report that without processing any feedback during grasp control, several of the SEMs resulted in stable grasps of different daily life objects. The finding that SEMs extracted from daily life implement stable grasps in open-loop control of dexterous hands, lends further support for our hypothesis the brain controls the hand using sparse control strategies.
Western diet enhances benzo(a)pyrene-induced colon tumorigenesis in a polyposis in rat coli (PIRC) rat model of colon cancer

Consumption of Western diet (WD), contaminated with environmental toxicants, has been implicated as one of the risk factors for sporadic colon cancer. Our earlier studies using a mouse model revealed that compared to unsaturated dietary fat, the saturated dietary fat exacerbated the development of colon tumors caused by B(a)P. The objective of this study was to study how WD potentiates B(a)P-induced colon carcinogenesis in the adult male rats that carry a mutation in the Apc locus - the polyposis in the rat colon (PIRC) rats. Groups of PIRC rats were fed with AIN-76A standard diet (RD) or Western diet (WD) and received 25, 50, or 100 μg B(a)P/kg body weight (wt) via oral gavage for 60 days. Subsequent to exposure, rats were euthanized; colons were retrieved and preserved in 10% formalin for counting the polyp numbers, measuring the polyp size, and histological analyses. Blood samples were collected and concentrations of cholesterol, triglycerides, glucose, insulin and leptin were measured. Rats that received WD + B(a)P showed increased levels of cholesterol, triglycerides, and leptin in comparison to RD + B(a)P groups or controls. The colon tumor numbers showed a B(a)P dose-response relationship. Adenomas with high grade dysplasia were prominent in B(a)P + WD rats compared to B(a)P + RD rats and controls (p < 0.05). The larger rat model system used in this study allows for studying more advanced tumor phenotypes over a longer duration and delineating the role of diet - toxicant interactions in sporadic colon tumor development.
Job Protection and Aggregate Employment Fluctuations : A Reappraisal

This paper tackles the issue of the link between the variability of employment and job protection. On this purpose, we build an equilibrium matching model of unemployment that handles both idiosyncratic and aggregate shocks. In opposition with standard labor demand models, the simultaneous decisions of job creation and job destruction do not underline any obvious relationship between aggregate employment variability and firing costs. Still, our quantitative analysis leads us to argue that an increase in job protection is likely to enhance employment variability at the aggregate level for reasonable parameters values. JEL Codes: J23,J38,241,J64
Identification and Antioxidant Activity of the Extracts of Eugenia uniflora Leaves. Characterization of the Anti-Inflammatory Properties of Aqueous Extract on Diabetes Expression in an Experimental Model of Spontaneous Type 1 Diabetes (NOD Mice)

Medical and folklore reports suggest that Eugenia uniflora (E. uniflora) is a functional food that contains numerous compounds in its composition, with anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and anti-diabetic effects. In the present study, we investigated the best solvents (water, ethanol and methanol/acetone) for extracting bioactive compounds of E. uniflora leaves, assessing total phenols and the antioxidant activity of the extracts by 2,2-Diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), Ferric Reducing Antioxidant Power (FRAP), 2,2′-Azinobis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS) and Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC) assays, identifying hydrolysable tannins and three phenolic compounds (ellagic acid, gallic acid and rutin) present in the leaves. In addition, we evaluated the incidence of diabetes, degree of insulitis, serum insulin, hepatic glutathione and tolerance test glucose in non-obese diabetic (NOD) mice. Our results suggest that the aqueous extract presents antioxidant activity and high total phenols, which were used as a type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM-1) treatment in NOD mice. We verified that the chronic consumption of aqueous extract reduces the inflammatory infiltrate index in pancreatic islets, maintaining serum insulin levels and hepatic glutathione, and reducing serum lipid peroxidation as well as the risk for diabetes.
RAPD-PCR characterization of insecticide resistant and susceptible Anopheles species

Anopheles barbirostris is the major vector of Timor filaria, and A. jamesii is of Bancroftian filaria in Srilanka, and is a suspected vector of malaria as it can support the sporogenic cycle of Plasmodium vivax. Deltamethrin screening revealed that A. jamesii was susceptible to deltamethrin (LC50 = 0.0025 ppm; LT50 = 11.38 min), while A. barbirostris was resistant (LC50 = 3.802 ppm; LT50 = 20.28 min). Genomic DNA isolated from the two species were used for characterisation of the insecticide resistance and susceptibility using Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RAPDPCR). 15 random primers produced 59 bands in A. barbirostris and 31 bands in A. jamesii. Out of these, 58 bands were polymorphic between the two species. The genetic distance calculated using FREE TREE software indicated 0.91549 (Nei and Li method) and 0.83824 (Jaccard method). The matrices for dissimilarity (1.358) and similarity (0.150) between the two species calculated using NTSYSpc 2.2 showed polymorphism of 88.9 %. Genetic variance between A. barbirostris and A. jamesi is probably the reason for the former to be resistant, while the latter is susceptible to deltamethrin.
Building the Dresden Web Table Corpus: A Classification Approach

In recent years, researchers have recognized relational tables on the Web as an important source of information. To assist this research we developed the Dresden Web Tables Corpus (DWTC), a collection of about 125 million data tables extracted from the Common Crawl (CC) which contains 3.6 billion web pages and is 266TB in size. As the vast majority of HTML tables are used for layout purposes and only a small share contains genuine tables with different surface forms, accurate table detection is essential for building a large-scale Web table corpus. Furthermore, correctly recognizing the table structure (e.g. horizontal listings, matrices) is important in order to understand the role of each table cell, distinguishing between label and data cells. In this paper, we present an extensive table layout classification that enables us to identify the main layout categories of Web tables with very high precision. We therefore identify and develop a plethora of table features, different feature selection techniques and several classification algorithms. We evaluate the effectiveness of the selected features and compare the performance of various state-of-the-art classification algorithms. Finally, the winning approach is employed to classify millions of tables resulting in the Dresden Web Table Corpus (DWTC).
Multi-source multipath HTTP (mHTTP): a proposal

Today, most devices have multiple network interfaces. Coupled with wide-spread replication of popular content at multiple locations, this provides substantial path diversity in the Internet. We propose Multi-source Multipath HTTP, mHTTP, which takes advantage of all existing types of path diversity in the Internet. mHTTP needs only client-side but not server-side or network modifications as it is a receiver-oriented mechanism. Moreover, the modifications are restricted to the socket interface. Thus, no changes are needed to the applications or to the kernel.
Customer disclosures, impression management and the construction of legitimacy: Corporate reports in the UK privatised water industry

– This paper aims to explore how organizations use annual reporting for legitimacy purposes in the context of the ten recently privatised regional water companies in the UK. Although privatization required the water plcs to establish a distinctly different organizational legitimacy for themselves as customer‐focused companies commensurate with their new private sector status, it was clear from the nature of their privatization that they would experience difficulties in achieving this. Privatization did little to change their previous monopoly character, and this created discrepancy with the model of private sector companies operating in customer‐led competitive markets. , – The paper uses a content analysis of statements concerning customer service in annual reports. The analysis examines the variety of ways in which the ten water plcs deployed both assertive and defensive impression management techniques in their attempts to gain, maintain and repair their legitimacy as customer‐focused companies. , – The analysis emphasises the importance of the role of corporate reporting as a resource in legitimacy management. The paper also argues that, despite sustained efforts, the water plcs did not wholly succeed in persuading all their customers that the privatization of water was “a good thing”. , – The paper will be valuable to researchers and practitioners alike, as it attempts to take further one's understanding of how organizations use corporate reporting for legitimacy purposes by examining a much more extreme case of the legitimacy problem than has been previously considered in the literature: namely, the need for an entirely new basis for corporate legitimacy.