Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Collective narratives as indicators of examining intergroup relations

Purpose – This study aims to examine inter‐group relations between two religious minorities, Palestinian Christians and Muslim citizens of Israel, by measuring perceptions of in‐group and “other” group collective narratives.Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from a representative sample of 1,121 Muslims and 756 Christians in Israel. The questionnaire presents narratives that are common among Muslim and Christian populations in Israel, relating to eight different historical, social, or political events. Subjects were asked to rate levels of legitimacy, feeling of empathy, and anger towards each one of the presented narratives.Findings – In comparison to Muslims, Christians reported a lower tendency to give legitimacy to the narrative of the other, showed more emotions of anger, and lower feeling of empathy towards the Muslim narrative. In addition, a content analysis of the narratives that were used in the questionnaire revealed two different patterns of response to narratives. One related t.
A framework for vision-based swimmer tracking

Swimmer tracking in swimming pools is a challenging vision task due to its varying complex background. Most moving object detection methods are developed for static or partial static backgrounds, and thus can not be applied in swimmer detection problems. This work presents an approach combining mean-shift clustering and cascaded boosting learning algorithm for swimmer detection. There are three main steps in the proposed framework: background modeling, swimmer detection, and swimmer tracking. A recorded image sequences from a practical indoor swimming pool was used to verify the proposed approach. Experimental results showed that the proposed approach is feasible and able to detect the swimmers in complex backgrounds.
Cysteamine, glutathione and ionomycin treatments improve in vitro fertilization of prepubertal goat oocytes

The aim of this study was to improve in vitro embryo development of prepubertal goat oocytes by studying the effect of adding cysteamine to in vitro maturation medium, glutathione (GSH) to in vitro fertilization medium and ionomycin to the sperm capacitation medium. In experiment 1, we analysed the effect of 1 mM GSH added to fertilization medium of oocytes matured with 400 μM cysteamine. The control group were oocytes without cysteamine and GSH. In experiment 2, oocytes matured and fertilized in the presence of 400 μM cysteamine and 1 mM GSH, respectively, were inseminated with spermatozoa treated with ionomycin or heparin. In experiment 1, the percentages of total and normal fertilized oocytes were significantly higher for oocytes supplemented with cysteamine and GSH (40.26% and 30.20%, respectively) than for oocytes from the control group (16.66%, and 10.61%, respectively). The percentage of total embryos obtained after 7 days of culture was significantly higher in the group supplemented with cysteamine and GSH (30.62%) than in the control group (8.09%) . In experiment 2, percentages of total and normal fertilized oocytes were significantly higher for the group of spermatozoa capacitated with ionomycin (52.21% and 37.17%, respectively) than with heparin (38.62% and 28.35%, respectively). After 7 days of culture, total embryo rate was significantly higher in the group of sperm capacitated with ionomycin (44.91%) than with heparin (38.69%) . However, the percentage of embryos developed to the blastocyst stage was not affected by any of the treatments studied.
Tropical entrainment time scales inferred from stratospheric N2O and CH4 observations

Simultaneous in situ measurements of N2O and CH4 were made with a tunable diode laser spectrometer (ALIAS II) aboard the Observations from the Middle Stratosphere (OMS) balloon platform from New Mexico, Alaska, and Brazil during 1996 and 1997. We find different compact relationships of CH4 with N2O in the tropics and extra‐tropics because mixing is slow between these regions. Transport into the extra‐tropics from the tropics or the polar vortex leads to deviations from the normal compact relationship. We use measured N2O and CH4 and a simple model to quantify entrainment of mid‐latitude stratospheric air into the tropics. The entrainment time scale is estimated to be 16 (+17, −8) months for altitudes between 20 and 28 km. The fraction of tropical air entrained from the extra‐tropical stratosphere is 50% (+18%, −30%) at 20 km, increasing to 78% (+11%, −19%) at 28 km.
Online conflict-free coloring for intervals

We consider an online version of the conflict-free coloring of a set of points on the line, where each newly inserted point must be assigned a color upon insertion, and at all times the coloring has to be conflict-free, in the sense that in every interval I there is a color that appears exactly once in I. We present several deterministic and randomized algorithms for achieving this goal, and analyze their performance, that is, the maximum number of colors that they need to use, as a function of the number n of inserted points. We first show that a natural and simple (deterministic) approach may perform rather poorly, requiring Ω(√n) colors in the worst case. We then modify this approach, to obtain an efficient deterministic algorithm that uses a maximum of Θ(log2 n) colors. Next, we present two randomized solutions. The first algorithm requires an expected number of at most O(log2 n) colors, and produces a coloring which is valid with high probability, and the second one, which is a variant of our efficient deterministic algorithm, requires an expected number of at most O(log n log log n) colors but always produces a valid coloring. We also analyze the performance of the simplest proposed algorithm when the points are inserted in a random order, and present an incomplete analysis that indicates that, with high probability, it uses only O(log n) colors. Finally, we show that in the extension of this problem to two dimensions, where the relevant ranges are disks, n colors may be required in the worst case. The average-case behavior for disks, and cases involving other planar ranges, are still open.
Adipose-Derived Stem Cells Induce Angiogenesis via Microvesicle Transport of miRNA-31

Cell secretion is an important mechanism for stem cell‐based therapeutic angiogenesis, along with cell differentiation to vascular endothelial cells or smooth muscle cells. Cell‐released microvesicles (MVs) have been recently implicated to play an essential role in intercellular communication. The purpose of this study was to explore the potential effects of stem cell‐released MVs in proangiogenic therapy. We observed for the first time that MVs were released from adipose‐derived stem cells (ASCs) and were able to increase the migration and tube formation of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). Endothelial differentiation medium (EDM) preconditioning of ASCs upregulated the release of MVs and enhanced the angiogenic effect of the released MVs in vitro. RNA analysis revealed that microRNA was enriched in ASC‐released MVs and that the level of microRNA‐31 (miR‐31) in MVs was notably elevated upon EDM‐preconditioning of MV‐donor ASCs. Further studies exhibited that miR‐31 in MVs contributed to the migration and tube formation of HUVECs, microvessel outgrowth of mouse aortic rings, and vascular formation of mouse Matrigel plugs. Moreover, factor‐inhibiting HIF‐1, an antiangiogenic gene, was identified as the target of miR‐31 in HUVECs. Our findings provide the first evidence that MVs from ASCs, particularly from EDM‐preconditioned ASCs, promote angiogenesis and the delivery of miR‐31 may contribute the proangiogenic effect.
A universal mechanism generating clusters of differentiated loci during divergence‐with‐migration

Genome‐wide patterns of genetic divergence reveal mechanisms of adaptation under gene flow. Empirical data show that divergence is mostly concentrated in narrow genomic regions. This pattern may arise because differentiated loci protect nearby mutations from gene flow, but recent theory suggests this mechanism is insufficient to explain the emergence of concentrated differentiation during biologically realistic timescales. Critically, earlier theory neglects an inevitable consequence of genetic drift: stochastic loss of local genomic divergence. Here, we demonstrate that the rate of stochastic loss of weak local differentiation increases with recombination distance to a strongly diverged locus and, above a critical recombination distance, local loss is faster than local “gain” of new differentiation. Under high migration and weak selection, this critical recombination distance is much smaller than the total recombination distance of the genomic region under selection. Consequently, divergence between populations increases by net gain of new differentiation within the critical recombination distance, resulting in tightly linked clusters of divergence. The mechanism responsible is the balance between stochastic loss and gain of weak local differentiation, a mechanism acting universally throughout the genome. Our results will help to explain empirical observations and lead to novel predictions regarding changes in genomic architectures during adaptive divergence.
Dietary pre‐exposure of rats to fish oil does not enhance myocardial efficiency of isolated working hearts or their left ventricular trabeculae

Dietary fish oil has been found to have protective effects against cardiovascular disease, particularly in its role as an anti‐arrhythmic agent. An additional mechanism proposed for the putative cardio‐protective effect is enhanced efficiency of metabolic energy usage by the heart. We tested whether dietary supplementation of fish oil enhances cardiac efficiency or otherwise improves mechano‐energetic performance. Experiments were performed at two distinct physiological levels (whole organ and isolated tissues) employing two independent metabolic indices (oxygen consumption and heat production), respectively. Feeding rats with either a fish oil‐enriched or a saturated fatty acid‐enriched diet did not alter the efficiency of either the isolated whole heart or its left ventricular trabeculae.
Evaluating the Interests of Different Stakeholders in Beijing Wastewater Reuse Systems for Sustainable Urban Water Management

Whether water systems can be operated successfully and sustainably is influenced by the attitudes and willingness of stakeholders involved in the management of such systems. This study quantitatively evaluates the interests of different stakeholders in wastewater reuse systems in Beijing. Such interests comprise economic, environmental, and social effects induced by the wastewater reuse systems. The study considers four main stakeholders in Beijing, namely the Municipal Administration Committee (MAC), Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau (MEPB), plant managers, and users. Cost benefit analysis is conducted to determine the aforementioned interests separately from the perspectives of the various stakeholders. The results reveal that not all stakeholders’ interests in the wastewater reuse systems in Beijing are satisfied. From the perspectives of both the MAC and MEPB, the evaluation results indicate that both decentralized and centralized wastewater reuse systems are economically feasible. However, from the viewpoints of plant managers and users, the results reveal that only the centralized wastewater reuse systems are economically feasible, whereas the decentralized systems are not. The failure to satisfy the interests of plant managers and users may be a major reason for the interrupted operation of the decentralized systems in Beijing. The study demonstrates that successful and sustainable development of a new water project necessitates satisfying the interests of all stakeholders.
Comparison of colonoscopies performed under sedation with propofol or with midazolam or without sedation.

BACKGROUND Previous studies have shown that some patients are not able to tolerate colonoscopy without sedation because of low pain threshold, anxiety, colonic sensitivity and anatomical variations. Benzodiazepines are most commonly used, often in combination with pethidine. Our study compares sedation with propofol to midazolam and colonoscopy without sedation. METHODS In this study 147 patients were examined. The patients were divided into three groups: The first group included patients in whom propofol was used for sedation, the second group included patients sedated with midazolam, and the third group was comprised of patients who received no sedation. Oxygen saturation and heart rate were recorded continuously by pulse oxymetry. Arterial blood pressure (BP) was monitored at 3-min intervals. RESULTS A decrease in blood pressure and heart rate was documented in the first two groups (P < 0.001), whereas in group 3 we found an increase in both BP and heart rate (P < 0.001). Oxygen saturation dropped below 90 % in 11/102 patients sedated with propofol and in 9/23 sedated with midazolam. Two of 22 patients in whom no sedation was used were found to have oxygen saturation below 90 %. The recovery time was shorter (7 min) in group 1 (propofol) than in group 2 (midazolam), in which it was found to be 20 min. CONCLUSIONS Our results showed that propofol provided good sedation with excellent pain control, a short recovery time and no significant haemodynamic side effects.
An Efficient Semidefinite Programming Relaxation for the Graph Partition Problem

We derive a new semidefinite programming relaxation for the general graph partition problem (GPP). Our relaxation is based on matrix lifting with matrix variable having order equal to the number of vertices of the graph. We show that this relaxation is equivalent to the Frieze-Jerrum relaxation for the maximum k-cut problem with an additional constraint that involves the restrictions on the subset sizes. Because the new relaxation does not depend on the number of subsets k into which the graph should be partitioned we are able to compute bounds for large k. We compare theoretically and numerically the new relaxation with other semide-finite programming (SDP) relaxations for the GPP. The results show that our relaxation provides competitive bounds and is solved significantly faster than any other known SDP bound for the general GPP.
Prior Knowledge for Part Correspondence

Classical approaches to shape correspondence base their computation purely on the properties, in particular geometric similarity, of the shapes in question. Their performance still falls far short of that of humans in challenging cases where corresponding shape parts may differ significantly in geometry or even topology. We stipulate that in these cases, shape correspondence by humans involves recognition of the shape parts where prior knowledge on the parts would play a more dominant role than geometric similarity. We introduce an approach to part correspondence which incorporates prior knowledge imparted by a training set of pre‐segmented, labeled models and combines the knowledge with content‐driven analysis based on geometric similarity between the matched shapes. First, the prior knowledge is learned from the training set in the form of per‐label classifiers. Next, given two query shapes to be matched, we apply the classifiers to assign a probabilistic label to each shape face. Finally, by means of a joint labeling scheme, the probabilistic labels are used synergistically with pairwise assignments derived from geometric similarity to provide the resulting part correspondence. We show that the incorporation of knowledge is especially effective in dealing with shapes exhibiting large intra‐class variations. We also show that combining knowledge and content analyses outperforms approaches guided by either attribute alone.
Effects of changes of intracellular pH on contraction in sheep cardiac Purkinje fibers

Intracellular pH (pHi) was measured with a pH-sensitive microelectrode in voltage-clamped sheep cardiac Purkinje fibers while tension was simultaneously measured. All solutions were nominally CO2/HCO3 free and were buffered with Tris. The addition of NH4Cl (5-20 mM) produced an initial intracellular alkalosis that was associated with an increase of twitch tension. At the same time, a component of voltage-dependent tonic tension developed. Prolonged exposure (greater than 5 min) to NH4Cl resulted in a slow recovery of pHi accompanied by a decrease of tension. Removal of NH4Cl produced a transient acidosis that was accompanied by a fall of force. In some experiments, there was then a transient recovery of force. If extracellular pH (pHo) was decreased, then pHi decreased slowly. Tension also fell slowly. An increase of pHo produced a corresponding increase of both force and pHi. The application of strophanthidin (10 microM) increased force and produced an intracellular acidosis. The addition of NH4Cl, to remove this acidosis partially, produced a significant increase of force. The above results show that contraction is sensitive to changes of intracellular but not extracellular pH. This pH dependence will therefore modify the contractile response to inotropic maneuvers that also affect pHi.
Chemical Dimensions of Plastic Wastes and Their Recycling in Environmental Education

Environment, energy, recycling, sustainability, various footprints that take attentions of all layers of society, are such a key concepts in last decades. These layers are widespread all over the world in terms of the perspectives of academics, politics, economics, mediatics which all try to manipulate societal life respectively to better position. One of the popular debates is usage of plastics and their supposed environmental pollution. This subject also takes the attention of educators and becomes at least one of the subtitles of environmental education research. While, the governmental municipality which has the key responsibility of these issues, academicians make research about these subjects to activate inner faculties of people. Chemical dimension of environmental issues - along with biology, geography and environmental sciences- helps us to take picture of huge problems. In this study, plastics and their recycling were examined as a chemical dimension of environmental education. And also it is accepted that the attitude of the people is a promising sign and indicator to execute the specified behavior. The attitude sometimes supported on triangles of cognitive, affective, and psychomotor skills which covers than all learning behavior of humans. Here, attitudes of sixth grade students were determined about the plastics and recycling in environment. The previously developed attitude scale was applied to 492 primary school students in Kastamonu province of Turkey. The results were analyzed with statistically and evaluated. The factors of the attitude scale and socioeconomic factors were correlated. Some significant differences related with gender residence type obtained. DOI: 10.5901/jesr.2015. v5n1s1p37
Negotiating the Transition to Junior High School: The Contributions of Coping Strategies and Perceptions of the School Environment

Summary Investigated are the contributions of seventh graders' coping strategies and their perceptions of the school environment to predicting changes in their adaptation during the transition to junior high school. The students completed measures three weeks into the new school year and again three months later. Resource variables included students' use of approach and avoidance coping strategies in response to a specific transition-related Stressor, and their perceptions of their new school environment. Criterion variables included students' ratings of how effectively they coped with the specific Stressor, and their general adaptation to the transition. Zero-order and cross-lag correlations generally showed that the use of approach coping strategies and favorable perceptions of the school environment were associated with higher levels of perceived coping effectiveness and general adaptation to junior high school, while the use of avoidance coping strategies was associated with lower levels of perceived .
Effect of High Pressure Processing on the Microbial Inactivation in Fruit Preparations and Other Vegetable Based Beverages

The purpose of this study is to review the effects of High Hydrostatic Pressure Processing (HPP) on the safety of different fruit derivatives (juices, nectars, jams, purees, pastes…), considering the types established in the European legislation and some other vegetable-based beverages (mainly juices and smoothies). The main inactivation processes and mechanisms on microorganisms are reviewed. Studies have revealed that HPP treatment is capable of destroying most microorganisms, depending on the application conditions (amplitude of the pressure, duration time, temperature, and the mode of application), the properties of the fresh and processed fruit/vegetables (pH, nutrient composition, water activity, maturity stage), and the type of microorganisms or viruses.
The clinical course of deep-vein thrombosis. Prospective long-term follow-up of 528 symptomatic patients.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE In contrast to the extensive documentation on the short-term outcome of patients with acute deep vein thrombosis (DVT) of the lower extremities, little is known about the long-term clinical course of this disease. To determine the clinical course of patients with a first episode of symptomatic DVTn over an 8-year follow-up period. The primary aims were to assess the long-term incidence of recurrent venous thromboembolism and that of the post-thrombotic syndrome. In addition, we determined mortality and evaluated potential risk factors for all these outcomes. METHODS This was designed as a prospective cohort follow-up study. Consecutive symptomatic outpatients with a first episode of venography proven DVT were treated with an initial course of full-dose (low molecular weight) heparin, followed by at least three months of oral anticoagulants. After discharge, they were instructed to wear compression elastic stockings for at least two years. Follow-up assessments were scheduled at three and six months, and then every six months up to eight years. Diagnosis of recurrent venous thromboembolism was made according to standard criteria. The presence of post-thrombotic syndrome was evaluated using a standardized scale. RESULTS A total of 528 consecutive patients with a first episode of venography confirmed DVT were included in the study. The cumulative incidence of recurrent venous thromboembolism after two, five and eight years was 17.2, 24.3 and 29.7%, respectively. Malignancy and impaired coagulation inhibition increased the risk of recurrent venous thromboembolism (RR = 1.48 and 2.0, respectively). In contrast, surgery and recent trauma or fracture were associated with a diminished risk of recurrent venous thromboembolism (RR = 0.65 and 0.39, respectively). The cumulative incidence of post-thrombotic syndrome after two, five and eight years was 24.5, 29.6 and 29.8%, respectively. The development of ipsilateral recurrent DVT was strongly associated with the risk for post-thrombotic syndrome (risk ratio, 2.4). Survival after eight years was 69%. The presence of malignancy increased the risk of death remarkably (risk ratio, 7.1). INTERPRETATION AND CONCLUSIONS Symptomatic DVT carries a high risk for recurrent venous thromboembolism that persists for many years, especially in patients without transient risk factors for DVT. The post-thrombotic syndrome occurs in almost one-third of patients and is strongly related to recurrent ipsilateral DVT. Our findings challenge the widely adopted short course of anticoagulation in patients with symptomatic DVT.