Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Realtime Analysis of Information Diffusion in Social Media

The goal of this thesis is to investigate real-time analysis methods on social media with a focus on information diffusion. From a conceptual point of view, we are interested both in the structural, sociological and temporal aspects of information diffusion in social media with a twist on the real time factor of what is happening right now. From a technical side, the sheer size of current social media services (100's of millions of users) and the large amount of data produced by these users renders conventional approaches for these costly analyses impossible. For that, we need to go beyond the state-of-the-art infrastructure for data-intensive computation. Our high level goal is to investigate how information diffuses in real time on the underlying social network and the role of different users in the propagation process. We plan to implement these analyses with full and partially missing datasets and compare the cost and quality of both approaches.
Economists’ Contribution to the Study of Crime and the Criminal Justice System

Economists’ contributions to criminal justice research can be divided into three main areas of theory, technique, and substantive expertise. Economists’ work on perceptual deterrence, with its emphasis on the centrality of time discounting, has already been incorporated into criminological research. There has been a much more mixed record in taking up economic approaches to criminal justice theory: early work on prosecutors has been neglected, whereas the newer area of outcome analysis, based on maximizing behavior by criminal justice actors, has influenced criminological work on discrimination. There is a mixed record with respect to technique. Econometrics methods, particularly James Heckman’s approaches to selection problems, have been influential but are often mishandled. Cost‐benefit analysis, though much sought after by policy makers, has not entered mainstream criminology. One substantive area in which economists have substantive expertise concerns illegal markets, especially drug markets. The research by economists has produced important findings on intervention outcomes such as price and quantity. Criminology can benefit from collaboration with economists but need not worry that the economists will soon take over.
Microgravity Studies of Cells and Tissues

Abstract: Controlled in vitro studies of cells and tissues under the conditions of microgravity (simulated on Earth, or actual in space) can improve our understanding of gravity sensing, transduction, and responses in living cells and tissues. This paper discusses the scientific results and practical implications of three NASA‐related biotechnology projects: ground and space studies of microgravity tissue engineering (JSC‐Houston), and the development of the cell culture unit for use aboard the International Space Station (ARC‐Ames).
Influence of CO2 on neurovascular coupling: interaction with dynamic cerebral autoregulation and cerebrovascular reactivity

PaCO2 affects cerebral blood flow (CBF) and its regulatory mechanisms, but the interaction between neurovascular coupling (NVC), cerebral autoregulation (CA), and cerebrovascular reactivity to CO2 (CVR), in response to hypercapnia, is not known. Recordings of cerebral blood flow velocity (CBFv), blood pressure (BP), heart rate, and end‐tidal CO2 (EtCO2) were performed in 18 subjects during normocapnia and 5% CO2 inhalation while performing a passive motor paradigm. Together with BP and EtCO2, a gate signal to represent the effect of stimulation was used as input to a multivariate autoregressive‐moving average model to calculate their separate effects on CBFv. Hypercapnia led to a depression of dynamic CA at rest and during stimulation in both hemispheres (P < 0.02) as well as impairment of the NVC response, particularly in the ipsilateral hemisphere (P < 0.01). Neither hypercapnia nor the passive motor stimulation influenced CVR. Dynamic CA was not influenced by the motor paradigm during normocapnia. The CBFv step responses to each individual input (BP, EtCO2, stimulation) allowed identification of the influences of hypercapnia and neuromotor stimulation on CA, CVR, and NVC, which have not been previously described, and also confirmed the depressing effects of hypercapnia on CA and NVC. The stability of CVR during these maneuvers and the lack of influence of stimulation on dynamic CA are novel findings which deserve further investigation. Dynamic multivariate modeling can identify the complex interplay between different CBF regulatory mechanisms and should be recommended for studies involving similar interactions, such as the effects of exercise or posture on cerebral hemodynamics.
A Phase I clinical trial of ixabepilone (BMS‐247550), an epothilone B analog, administered intravenously on a daily schedule for 3 days

The epothilones are a novel class of microtubule‐stabilizing agents. Ixabepilone (BMS‐247550; NSC 710428) is a semisynthetic analog of the natural product epothilone B. The authors conducted a Phase I study by administering ixabepilone to patients as a 1‐hour intravenous infusion daily for 3 consecutive days every 21 days.
Transgenic Overexpression of Active Calcineurin in β-Cells Results in Decreased β-Cell Mass and Hyperglycemia

Background Glucose modulates β-cell mass and function through an initial depolarization and Ca2+ influx, which then triggers a number of growth regulating signaling pathways. One of the most important downstream effectors in Ca2+ signaling is the calcium/Calmodulin activated serine threonine phosphatase, calcineurin. Recent evidence suggests that calcineurin/NFAT is essential for β-cell proliferation, and that in its absence loss of β-cells results in diabetes. We hypothesized that in contrast, activation of calcineurin might result in expansion of β-cell mass and resistance to diabetes. Methodology/Principal Findings To determine the role of activation of calcineurin signaling in the regulation of pancreatic β-cell mass and proliferation, we created mice that expressed a constitutively active form of calcineurin under the insulin gene promoter (caCnRIP). To our surprise, these mice exhibited glucose intolerance. In vitro studies demonstrated that while the second phase of Insulin secretion is enhanced, the overall insulin secretory response was conserved. Islet morphometric studies demonstrated decreased β-cell mass suggesting that this was a major component responsible for altered Insulin secretion and glucose intolerance in caCnRIP mice. The reduced β-cell mass was accompanied by decreased proliferation and enhanced apoptosis. Conclusions Our studies identify calcineurin as an important factor in controlling glucose homeostasis and indicate that chronic depolarization leading to increased calcineurin activity may contribute, along with other genetic and environmental factors, to β-cell dysfunction and diabetes.
Cyclic nucleotide regulation of teleost rod photoreceptor inner segment length

Retinal rod photoreceptors of teleost fish elongate in the light and shorten in the dark. Rod cell elongation and shortening are both mediated by actin-dependent mechanisms that occur in the inner segment myoid and ellipsoid. The intracellular signaling pathways by which light and dark regulate the actin cytoskeleton in the inner segment are unknown. To investigate the intracellular signals that regulate teleost rod motility, we have been using mechanically isolated rod inner/outer segments (RIS-ROS) obtained from the retinas of green sunfish, Lepomis cyanellus. In culture, RIS-ROS retain the ability to elongate in response to light; myoids elongate 15-20 microns in length during 45 min of light culture. A pharmacological approach was taken to investigate the role of cyclic nucleotides, cyclic nucleotide-dependent kinases, and protein phosphatases in the regulation of RIS-ROS motility. Millimolar concentrations of cAMP and cGMP analogues were both found to inhibit light-induced myoid elongation and two cyclic nucleotide analogues, SpCAMPS and 8BrcGMP, promoted myoid shortening after RIS-ROS had elongated in response to light. The cyclic nucleotide- dependent kinase inhibitor, H8, mimicked light by promoting myoid elongation in the dark. The effects of H8 were dose dependent, with maximal elongation occurring at concentrations of approximately 100 microM. Similar to the effects of cyclic nucleotide analogues, the phosphatase inhibitor, okadaic acid (0.1-10 microM), inhibited light- induced elongation and promoted shortening. The results presented here suggest that RIS-ROS motility is regulated by protein phosphorylation: phosphorylation in the dark by cyclic nucleotide-dependent protein kinases promotes rod shortening, while dephosphorylation in the light promotes rod elongation.
Chlamydia testing in community pharmacies: evaluation of a feasibility pilot in south east London

Background and objective:Chlamydia trachomatis infection is a common sexually transmitted infection with serious sequelae. Excellent access to testing, treatment and contact tracing are an essential part of strategies to control it. With traditional sexual health services overstretched, community pharmacies are well placed to provide this service. They have the potential to improve access by offering chlamydia testing and treatment from high street venues with long opening hours. This study evaluated the feasibility and acceptability to users and pharmacists of this service in independent community pharmacies. Method: A chlamydia testing and treatment service was offered in three community pharmacies in two inner London boroughs for a 3-month pilot. Data on the feasibility and acceptability of the new service were collected via a survey of client experience, indepth semistructured interviews with clients and pharmacists, and structured evaluation reports completed by professional patients paid to visit the pharmacies. Results: 83 tests were taken with eight (9.5%) of these positive for C trachomatis. Of those tested, 94% (n = 73) were women and 71% (n = 56) were from ethnic minorities. 80 clients completed the questionnaires and 24 clients were interviewed. Most clients heard about the service from the pharmacist when requesting emergency contraception and 16% (n = 13) would not otherwise have been tested. Clients valued the speed and convenience of the service and the friendly, non-judgmental approach of the pharmacist. Confidentiality when asking for the service at the counter was suboptimal, and the pharmacist trained to deliver the service was not always available to provide it. Conclusions: Chlamydia testing and treatment in community pharmacies is feasible and acceptable to users. The service increases access among young women at high risk of sexually transmitted infection but not among young men.
Speculative Memory Checkpointing

High-frequency memory checkpointing is an important technique in several application domains, such as automatic error recovery (where frequent checkpoints allow the system to transparently mask failures) and application debugging (where frequent checkpoints enable fast and accurate time-traveling support). Unfortunately, existing (typically incremental) checkpointing frameworks incur substantial performance overhead in high-frequency memory checkpointing applications, thus discouraging their adoption in practice. This paper presents Speculative Memory Checkpointing (SMC), a new low-overhead technique for high-frequency memory checkpointing. Our motivating analysis identifies key bottlenecks in existing frameworks and demonstrates that the performance of traditional incremental checkpointing strategies in high-frequency checkpointing scenarios is not optimal. To fill the gap, SMC relies on working set estimation algorithms to eagerly checkpoint the memory pages that belong to the writable working set of the running program and only lazily checkpoint the memory pages that do not. Our experimental results demonstrate that SMC is effective in reducing the performance overhead of prior solutions, is robust to variations in the workload, and incurs modest memory overhead compared to traditional incremental checkpointing.
An evaluation of connectivity in mobile wireless ad hoc networks

We consider the following problem for wireless ad hoc networks: assume n nodes, each capable of communicating with nodes within a radius of r, are distributed in a d-dimensional region of side l; how large must the transmitting range r be to ensure that the resulting network is connected? We also consider the mobile version of the problem, in which nodes are allowed to move during a time interval and the value of r ensuring connectedness for a given fraction of the interval must be determined. For the stationary case, we give tight bounds on the relative magnitude of r, n and l yielding a connected graph with high probability in l-dimensional networks, thus solving an open problem. The mobile version of the problem when d=2 is investigated through extensive simulations, which give insight on how mobility affects connectivity and reveal a useful trade-off between communication capability and energy consumption.
Effects of colonization history and landscape structure on genetic variation within and among threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) populations in a single watershed

Question: How do post-glacial colonization history and current watershed geomorphology affect population genetic structure in lacustrine fish populations? Study system: Eleven populations of lacustrine threespine sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus) from a single watershed, and two adjacent marine populations of G. aculeatus as outgroups. Methods: Individuals were genotyped using six microsatellite loci and several population genetic parameters were calculated (including genetic differentiation, genetic diversity, migration, and divergence time). We regressed population genetic parameters against environmental variables such as stream gradient and length, distance from the mouth of the watershed, and lake area. Results: Genetic differentiation was highest between lakes separated by high-gradient streams, but was unaffected by stream length. Estimated divergence times between adjoining populations declined from >10,000 years ago for lake pairs close to the ocean to less than 5000 years for lake pairs near the top of the watershed. Genetic diversity declined as a function of geographic distance from the mouth of the watershed but was positively correlated with lake area. Conclusions: Our findings confirm expectations that landscape features such as stream gradient and stream branching structure strongly influence patterns of genetic divergence. However, in contrast to previous studies, we found no significant relationship between geographic distance and genetic divergence among lake pairs. We present novel evidence that post-glacial colonization occurred gradually over a significant period of time, rather than a single rapid invasion into all lakes.
Transcriptomic Analysis of Toxoplasma Development Reveals Many Novel Functions and Structures Specific to Sporozoites and Oocysts

Sexual reproduction of Toxoplasma gondii occurs exclusively within enterocytes of the definitive felid host. The resulting immature oocysts are excreted into the environment during defecation, where in the days following, they undergo a complex developmental process. Within each oocyst, this culminates in the generation of two sporocysts, each containing 4 sporozoites. A single felid host is capable of shedding millions of oocysts, which can survive for years in the environment, are resistant to most methods of microbial inactivation during water-treatment and are capable of producing infection in warm-blooded hosts at doses as low as 1–10 ingested oocysts. Despite its extremely interesting developmental biology and crucial role in initiating an infection, almost nothing is known about the oocyst stage beyond morphological descriptions. Here, we present a complete transcriptomic analysis of the oocyst from beginning to end of its development. In addition, and to identify genes whose expression is unique to this developmental form, we compared the transcriptomes of developing oocysts with those of in vitro-derived tachyzoites and in vivo-derived bradyzoites. Our results reveal many genes whose expression is specifically up- or down-regulated in different developmental stages, including many genes that are likely critical to oocyst development, wall formation, resistance to environmental destruction and sporozoite infectivity. Of special note is the up-regulation of genes that appear “off” in tachyzoites and bradyzoites but that encode homologues of proteins known to serve key functions in those asexual stages, including a novel pairing of sporozoite-specific paralogues of AMA1 and RON2, two proteins that have recently been shown to form a crucial bridge during tachyzoite invasion of host cells. This work provides the first in-depth insight into the development and functioning of one of the most important but least studied stages in the Toxoplasma life cycle.
MONETARY POLICY WHEN POTENTIAL OUTPUT IS UNCERTAIN : UNDERSTANDING THE GROWTH GAMBLE OF THE 1990 S YURIY GORODNICHENKO University of Michigan

The Fed kept interest rates low and essentially unchanged during the late 1990s despite a booming economy and record-low unemployment. These interest rates were accommodative by historical standards. Nonetheless, inflation remained low. How did the Fed succeed in sustaining rapid economic growth without fueling inflation and inflationary expectations? In retrospect, it is evident that the productive capacity of the economy increased. Yet as events unfolded, there was uncertainty about the expansion of the capacity of the economy and therefore about the sustainability of the Fed’s policy. This paper provides an explanation for the success of the Fed in accommodating growth with stable inflation in the late 1990s. It shows that if the central bank is committed to reverse policy errors it makes because of unwarranted optimism, inflation can remain in check even if the central bank keeps interest rates low because of this optimism. In particular, a price level target—which is a simple way to model a commitment to offset errors—can serve to anchor inflation even if the public does not share the central bank’s optimism about shifts in potential output. The paper shows that price level targeting is superior to inflation targeting in a wide range of situations. The paper also provides econometric evidence that, in contrast to earlier periods, the Fed has recently put substantial weight on the price level in setting interest rates. Moreover, it shows that CPI announcement surprises lead to reversion in the price level. Finally, it provides textual evidence that Alan Greenspan puts relatively more weight on the price level than inflation. Yuriy Gorodnichenko Matthew D. Shapiro Department of Economics Department of Economics University of Michigan University of Michigan Ann Arbor MI 49109-1220 Ann Arbor MI 48109-1220 tel. 734-615-4433 and NBER ygorodni@umich.edu tel. 734 764-5419 shapiro@umich.edu
Birthweight, childhood growth and hypertension in adulthood.

BACKGROUND Low birthweight (BW) and childhood growth have been hypothesized to be associated with an increased risk of hypertension in later life. METHODS We analysed data among 13,467 women with a recalled BW from the Shanghai Women's Health Study. Cases included those with a self-reported hypertension with ('confirmed cases') or without ('possible cases') antihypertensive medication(s) use. Logistic regression was used to derive adjusted odds ratios (OR) and 95% CI. RESULTS Birthweight was inversely associated with the odds of early onset (at age 20-40 years) hypertension in a dose response manner (P for trend = 0.01). This association is stronger for 'confirmed' hypertension (only OR for 'confirmed' hypertension are referred to subsequently). Being heavier or taller than average at 15 years of age were both related to elevated odds of early onset hypertension. Women who had a low BW but were heavier than average at age 15 were more than four times (OR = 4.63, 95% CI: 2.40-8.94) more likely to have an early onset hypertension, and those who had a low BW and became taller at 15 years of age had an OR of 1.87 (95% CI: 1.05-3.31). A significant interaction between BW and weight at age 15 was observed (P = 0.04). CONCLUSION Our study suggests that low BW, particularly if accompanied by accelerated childhood growth, may increase the risk of early onset hypertension in adulthood.
Microbial Activity in Organic Soils as Affected by Soil Depth and Crop

The microbial activity of Pahokee muck, a lithic medisaprist, and the effect of various environmental factors, such as position in the profile and type of plant cover, were examined. Catabolic activity for [7-14C]salicylic acid, [1,4-14C]succinate, and [1,2-14C]acetate remained reasonably constant in surface (0 to 10 cm) soil samples from a fallow (bare) field from late in the wet season (May to September) through January. Late in January, the microbial activity toward all three compounds decreased approximately 50%. The microbial activity of the soil decreased with increasing depth of soil. Salicylate catabolism was the most sensitive to increasing moisture deep in the soil profile. At the end of the wet season, a 90% decrease in activity between the surface and the 60- to 70-cm depth occurred. Catabolism of acetate and succinate decreased approximately 75% in the same samples. Little effect of crop was observed. Variation in the microbial activity, as measured by the catabolism of labeled acetate, salicylate, or succinate, was not significant between a sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.) field and a fallow field. The activity with acetate was insignificantly different in a St. Augustine grass [Stenotaphrum secundatum (Walt) Kuntz] field, whereas the catabolism of the remaining substrates was elevated in the grass field. These results indicate that the total carbon evolved from the different levels of the soil profile by the microbial community oxidizing the soil organic matter decreased as the depth of the soil column increased. However, correction of the amount of carbon yielded at each level for the bulk density of that level reveals that the microbial contribution to the soil subsidence is approximately equivalent throughout the soil profile above the water table.
A Comparative Evaluation of Scatter Correction Techniques in High-Resolution Detectors Based on PSPMTs and Scintillator Arrays

Single photon emission computed tomography images suffer from low contrast as a result of photon scatter. The standard method for excluding the scatter component in pixelized scintillators is the application of an energy window around the central photopeak channel of each crystal cell, but small angle scattered photons still appear in the photopeak window, and they are included in the reconstructed images. A number of scatter correction techniques have been proposed in order to estimate the scatter component, but they have not yet been applied in pixelized scintillators, where most groups use the standard one-photopeak window for scatter correction. In this paper, the author have assessed three subtraction techniques that use a different approach in order to calculate the scatter component and subtract it from the photopeak image: the dual energy window subtraction technique, the convolution subtraction technique, and a deconvolution technique. All these techniques are compared to the standard method