Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Robust Subspace Segmentation by Low-Rank Representation

We propose low-rank representation (LRR) to segment data drawn from a union of multiple linear (or affine) subspaces. Given a set of data vectors, LRR seeks the lowest-rank representation among all the candidates that represent all vectors as the linear combination of the bases in a dictionary. Unlike the well-known sparse representation (SR), which computes the sparsest representation of each data vector individually, LRR aims at finding the lowest-rank representation of a collection of vectors jointly. LRR better captures the global structure of data, giving a more effective tool for robust subspace segmentation from corrupted data. Both theoretical and experimental results show that LRR is a promising tool for subspace segmentation.
Great Expectations: The Unintended Consequences of Educational Choices

Human capital is invariably found to be an important explanatory variable of various proxies for well being (WB), i.e. income, happiness, job and life satisfaction, and health status. Nevertheless, to date few systematic efforts have been made to explain its various interconnected functions. The U-shaped age-SWB relation found in many empirical studies suggests that investigating the pattern of different measures of WB over people’s life cycles may reveal important information and provide useful insights into the principal mechanisms that connect human capital and WB. In this paper, I explore data drawn from the Survey on Household Income and Wealth (SHIW) conducted by the Bank of Italy, which is a rich source of information on people’s socioeconomic and educational backgrounds, educational and skill mismatches in the workplace, and various measures of WB such as income, happiness, job satisfaction, and health status. I adopt a novel approach based on the idea that one should look at the overall contribution of education to well being within people’s life-cycles. The tentative explanations of my empirical findings are: (a) more educated people and people with vocational educations experience wide mismatches in their aspirations and expectations early in their adult lives; (b) these mismatches are largely confined to the labour market; and (c) the curvature of the U-shaped age-happiness relationship depends on the level and type of education. The suggested interpretation of these results is that education affects both people’s expectations and the way they react to unfulfilled aspirations.
Direct Social Work Practice: Theory and Skills

Part I: INTRODUCTION. 1. The Challenges of Social Work. 2. Direct Practice: Domain, Philosophy, and Roles. 3. Overview of the Helping Process. 4. Operationalizing the Cardinal Social Work Values. Part II: EXPLORING, ASSESSING, AND PLANNING. 5. Building Blocks of Communication: Conveying Empathy and Authenticity. 6. Verbal Following, Exploring, and Focusing Skills. 7. Eliminating Counterproductive Communication Patterns. 8. Assessment: Exploring and Understanding Problems and Strengths. 9. Assessment: Intrapersonal, Interpersonal, and Environmental Factors. 10. Assessing Family Functioning in Diverse Family and Cultural Contexts. 11. Forming and Assessing Social Work Groups. 12. Developing Goals and Formulating a Contract. Part III: THE CHANGE-ORIENTED PHASE. 13. Planning and Implementing Change-Oriented Strategies. 14. Developing Resources, Organizing, Planning, and Advocacy as Intervention Strategies. 15. Enhancing Family Functioning and Relationships. 16. Intervening in Social Work Groups. 17. Additive Empathy, Interpretation, and Confrontation. 18. Managing Barriers to Change. Part IV: THE TERMINATION PHASE. 19. The Final Phase: Evaluation and Termination.
EndoG Links Bnip3-Induced Mitochondrial Damage and Caspase-Independent DNA Fragmentation in Ischemic Cardiomyocytes

Mitochondrial dysfunction, caspase activation and caspase-dependent DNA fragmentation are involved in cell damage in many tissues. However, differentiated cardiomyocytes repress the expression of the canonical apoptotic pathway and their death during ischemia is caspase-independent. The atypical BH3-only protein Bnip3 is involved in the process leading to caspase-independent DNA fragmentation in cardiomyocytes. However, the pathway by which DNA degradation ensues following Bnip3 activation is not resolved. To identify the mechanism involved, we analyzed the interdependence of Bnip3, Nix and EndoG in mitochondrial damage and DNA fragmentation during experimental ischemia in neonatal rat ventricular cardiomyocytes. Our results show that the expression of EndoG and Bnip3 increases in the heart throughout development, while the caspase-dependent machinery is silenced. TUNEL-positive DNA damage, which depends on caspase activity in other cells, is caspase-independent in ischemic cardiomyocytes and ischemia-induced DNA high and low molecular weight fragmentation is blocked by repressing EndoG expression. Ischemia-induced EndoG translocation and DNA degradation are prevented by silencing the expression of Bnip3, but not Nix, or by overexpressing Bcl-xL. These data establish a link between Bnip3 and EndoG-dependent, TUNEL-positive, DNA fragmentation in ischemic cardiomyocytes in the absence of caspases, defining an alternative cell death pathway in postmitotic cells.
Impact of a Work-Related Interpersonal Communication Skills Curriculum on the Work- and Social-Relationships of Ninth-Grades

The present study evaluated the impact of a work-related interpersonal skills curriculum on the classroom behavior of 114 ninth-graders at a charter school affiliated with a large southeastern university. This seven-week curriculum taught the workrelated interpersonal communication skills of self-awareness and corrective feedback, empathic support, assertive responding, and conflict management. The evaluation component of this study addressed the curriculum in terms of three standards: (a) improvement in performance on critical incidents; (b) degree to which participants report having achieved the learning competencies; and (c) participant satisfaction with instruction. The result was a direct relationship between students who completed the curriculum assignments and significant (p < 0.01, B = 0.23) improvement from the pretest to the posttest on the quality of written responses to critical incidents. Seventy percent (70%) of the participants also reported achieving at least thirteen out of the fifteen learning goals and seventy-three percent (73%) reported that they felt satisfied with the instruction. The research component of this study measured changes of the in-class collegial workgroup peer ratings and out-of-class collegial socializing peer ratings over time (baseline, pretest, posttest, and follow-up periods). The changes in means of both peer ratings over time were measured with a within-subjects repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA). The results revealed that both peer ratings declined over time. Post-hoc analyses indicated a significant (p < 0.001; d = 0.4) mean change between the pretest and the posttest for in-class collegial workgroup peer ratings. There was also a significant (p < 0.01; d = 0.27) mean change between the baseline and the pretest, as well as a significant (p < 0.001; d = 0.26) mean change between pretest and posttest.
A complexidade emocional dos relacionamentos intergeracionais e a saúde mental dos idosos

The aim of this article is to discuss the emotional complexity of intergenerational relationships and its relation with the mental health of the elderly. The text presents a review of the literature divided into two parts. First, we introduced the psychological mechanisms of social relationship regulation, their association with the ability to regulate and manage emotions and how they affect the social support and the perception of family functioning. Finally, the relationship of the elderly with their descendants is analyzed according to the theoretical perspectives on the emotional quality of the parent-child and grandparent-grandchild relationship. The complexity of the social and family ties in old age highlights the value of social adjustment mechanisms and the quality of relationships to mental health.
Optical Observations of the Binary Millisecond Pulsars J2145–0750 and J0034–0534

We report on optical observations of the low-mass binary millisecond pulsar systems J0034-0534 and J2145-0750. A faint (I = 23.5) object was found to be coincident with the timing position of PSR J2145-0750. While a galaxy or distant main-sequence star cannot be ruled out, its magnitude is consistent with an ancient white dwarf, as expected from evolutionary models. For PSR J0034-0534 no objects were detected to a limiting magnitude of R = 25.0, suggesting that the white dwarf in this system is cold. Using white dwarf cooling models, the limit on the magnitude of the PSR J0034-0534 companion suggests that at birth the pulsar in this system may have rotated with a period as short as 0.6 ms. These observations provide further evidence that the magnetic fields of millisecond pulsars do not decay on timescales shorter than 1 Gyr.
Temporal precision and the capacity of auditory–verbal short-term memory

The capacity of serially ordered auditory–verbal short-term memory (AVSTM) is sensitive to the timing of the material to be stored, and both temporal processing and AVSTM capacity are implicated in the development of language. We developed a novel “rehearsal-probe” task to investigate the relationship between temporal precision and the capacity to remember serial order. Participants listened to a sub-span sequence of spoken digits and silently rehearsed the items and their timing during an unfilled retention interval. After an unpredictable delay, a tone prompted report of the item being rehearsed at that moment. An initial experiment showed cyclic distributions of item responses over time, with peaks preserving serial order and broad, overlapping tails. The spread of the response distributions increased with additional memory load and correlated negatively with participants’ auditory digit spans. A second study replicated the negative correlation and demonstrated its specificity to AVSTM by controlling for differences in visuo-spatial STM and nonverbal IQ. The results are consistent with the idea that a common resource underpins both the temporal precision and capacity of AVSTM. The rehearsal-probe task may provide a valuable tool for investigating links between temporal processing and AVSTM capacity in the context of speech and language abilities.
Gemcitabine and capecitabine in previously anthracycline-treated metastatic breast cancer: a multicenter phase II study (SOLTI 0301 trial).

BACKGROUND On the basis of clinical activity of capecitabine and gemcitabine for metastatic breast cancer, we carried out a multicenter phase II clinical trial on the combination of these two agents in advanced anthracycline-pretreated breast cancer patients. Main objectives were to assess its efficacy and safety profile. PATIENTS AND METHODS Seventy-six anthracycline-pretreated breast cancer patients were evaluated and were stratified according to previous treatment of advanced disease (group-1: not previously treated and group-2: previously treated). Study treatment consisted of gemcitabine 1000 mg/m(2), i.v. , as 30 min-infusion, days 1 and 8 every 21 days, plus oral capecitabine 830 mg/m(2) b.i. d. , days 1-14 every 21 days. RESULTS Overall response rate was 61% for group-1, 48.5% for group-2 and 55.2% for the whole population. Clinical benefit rate was 73% for group-1, 80% for patients in group-2 and 76% for all patients. Median time to progression was 13.0 months for group-1, 8.2 months for group-2 and 11.1 months for the whole population. Most frequent grade 3-4 observed toxic effects per patient were neutropenia (60%), asymptomatic liver toxicity (13.5%), asthenia (14%) and hand-foot syndrome (16%). Only one patient presented febrile neutropenia. No treatment-related deaths occurred. CONCLUSION Combination of gemcitabine and capecitabine is an active and safe regimen in anthracycline-pretreated breast cancer patients.
Global Remodeling of the Vascular Stem Cell Niche in Bone Marrow of Diabetic Patients: Implication of the microRNA-155/FOXO3a Signaling Pathway

Rationale: The impact of diabetes mellitus on bone marrow (BM) structure is incompletely understood. Objective: Investigate the effect of type-2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) on BM microvascular and hematopoietic cell composition in patients without vascular complications. Methods and Results: Bone samples were obtained from T2DM patients and nondiabetic controls (C) during hip replacement surgery and from T2DM patients undergoing amputation for critical limb ischemia. BM composition was assessed by histomorphometry, immunostaining, and flow cytometry. Expressional studies were performed on CD34pos immunosorted BM progenitor cells (PCs). Diabetes mellitus causes a reduction of hematopoietic tissue, fat deposition, and microvascular rarefaction, especially when associated with critical limb ischemia. Immunohistochemistry documented increased apoptosis and reduced abundance of CD34pos-PCs in diabetic groups. Likewise, flow cytometry showed scarcity of BM PCs in T2DM and T2DM+critical limb ischemia compared with C, but similar levels of mature hematopoietic cells. Activation of apoptosis in CD34pos-PCs was associated with upregulation and nuclear localization of the proapoptotic factor FOXO3a and induction of FOXO3a targets, p21 and p27kip1. Moreover, microRNA-155, which regulates cell survival through inhibition of FOXO3a, was downregulated in diabetic CD34pos-PCs and inversely correlated with FOXO3a levels. The effect of diabetes mellitus on anatomic and molecular end points was confirmed when considering background covariates. Furthermore, exposure of healthy CD34pos-PCs to high glucose reproduced the transcriptional changes induced by diabetes mellitus, with this effect being reversed by forced expression of microRNA-155. Conclusions: We provide new anatomic and molecular evidence for the damaging effect of diabetes mellitus on human BM, comprising microvascular rarefaction and shortage of PCs attributable to activation of proapoptotic pathway.
Fine-Grained Power and Body-Bias Control for Near-Threshold Deep Sub-Micron CMOS Circuits

Lowering supply voltage is still the most effective technique to reduce dynamic power, and Vdd is being pushed toward the threshold voltage for ultra-low power applications. However, near-threshold circuit leakage power is comparable to switching power and performance is highly sensitive to static and dynamic threshold voltage variations. This makes designing circuits for a target performance very difficult, and post-silicon tunability is required to achieve performance targets without taking huge design margins. Post-silicon tuning of voltage supply and body bias in active mode, together with power gating for idle leakage power minimization are being investigated to tackle variability challenges in near-threshold operation. In this paper, we review and put in perspective techniques recently proposed in the literature for fine-grained post-silicon tuning and power gating. These techniques leverage the typical row-based ASIC layout style and use the row as the atomic element for circuit clustering. The results of row-based power gating on a set of benchmark circuits show that the leakage savings can be achieved are, superior to those obtained using existing power-gating solutions and with much tighter timing and area constraints. Benchmark results on row-based forward body biasing show large leakage power savings with a maximum savings of 61% in case of 18% compensation in 45 nm and 93% in case of 10% compensation in 32 nm with respect to block-level approaches. Finally, row-based dual-Vdd can provide post-silicon speed compensation in near-threshold region up-to 45% while achieving more than 50% lower power compared to single-Vdd.
Automatic quantification of epicardial fat volume on non-enhanced cardiac CT scans using a multi-atlas segmentation approach.

PURPOSE There is increasing evidence that epicardial fat (i.e., adipose tissue contained within the pericardium) plays an important role in the development of cardiovascular disease. Obtaining the epicardial fat volume from routinely performed non-enhanced cardiac CT scans is therefore of clinical interest. The purpose of this work is to investigate the feasibility of automatic pericardium segmentation and subsequent quantification of epicardial fat on non-enhanced cardiac CT scans. METHODS Imaging data of 98 randomly selected subjects belonging to a larger cohort of subjects who underwent a cardiac CT scan at our medical center were retrieved. The data were acquired on two different scanners. Automatic multi-atlas based method for segmenting the pericardium and calculating the epicardial fat volume has been developed. The performance of the method was assessed by (1) comparing the automatically segmented pericardium to a manually annotated reference standard, (2) comparing the automatically obtained epicardial fat volumes to those obtained manually, and (3) comparing the accuracy of the automatic results to the inter-observer variability. RESULTS Automatic segmentation of the pericardium was achieved with a Dice similarity index of 89.1 ± 2.6% with respect to Observer 1 and 89.2 ± 1.9% with respect to Observer 2. The correlation between the automatic method and the manual observers with respect to the epicardial fat volume computed as the Pearson's correlation coefficient (R) was 0.91 (P < 0.001) for both observers. The inter-observer study resulted in a Dice similarity index of 89.0 ± 2.4% for segmenting the pericardium and a Pearson's correlation coefficient of 0.92 (P<0.001) for computation of the epicardial fat volume. CONCLUSIONS The authors developed a fully automatic method that is capable of segmenting the pericardium and quantifying epicardial fat on non-enhanced cardiac CT scans. The authors demonstrated the feasibility of using this method to replace manual annotations by showing that the automatic method performs as good as manual annotation on a large dataset.
Epidermal growth factor regulates connexin 43 in the human epididymis: role of gap junctions in azoospermia.

BACKGROUND Gap junctions (GJs) allow for direct communication between adjacent cells. They are composed of connexons consisting of transmembrane proteins, connexins (Cxs). The objectives of this study were to determine if GJ proteins GJA1 (Cx43), GJB1 (Cx32) and GJB2 (Cx26) are present in the epididymis of men with a normal epididymis, to assess whether or not Cx expression and localization are altered in azoospermic patients, and to determine if epidermal growth factor (EGF) regulates GJA1 expression. METHODS Epididymides were obtained from men with localized testis cancer with active spermatogenesis and histologically normal epididymal tubule (group 1), men with non-obstructive azoospermia secondary to Sertoli-cell only syndrome (group 2) and from azoospermic men with normal spermatogenesis and epididymal obstruction (group 3). Epididymides were subdivided into three segments: caput, corpus and cauda. Quantitative real-time RT-PCR was performed to assess GJA1, GJB1, GJB2 and EGF receptor (EGFR) mRNA levels in epididymides from patients from each group (all n=3, except n=1 for caput blockage). A human caput epididymal cell line was then used to determine the role of EGFR signaling on the regulation of human epididymal GJA1. RESULTS Real-time RT-PCR analysis revealed that GJA1, GJB1, GJB2 and EGFR were expressed along the human epididymis. In the cauda epididymidis of group 2 and 3 men, we observed a significant decrease in GJA1 (P=0.0456 and P=0.0465, respectively) and GJB1 (P=0.0450 and P=0.0497, respectively) mRNA levels when compared with group 1 men. We also observed a decrease in EGFR mRNA levels (P=0.0358) in the cauda epididymidis of group 3 men when compared with group 1. Immunocytochemistry revealed that in the epididymis, GJA1 and EGFR were localized between basal and principal cells and between adjacent principal cells. In group 2 and 3 patients, however, we noted a dramatic increase in cytosolic immunostaining for both GJA1 and EGFR in both principal and basal cells. Using a human caput epididymal cell line derived from fertile men, we demonstrated that changes in GJA1 phosphorylation could be regulated by EGF (P=0.015) and the extracellular regulated kinase 1/2 signaling pathway (P=0.03). Furthermore, while the phosphoinositide-3-kinase (PI3K)/AKT signaling pathway did not alter GJA1 phosphorylation, treatment with PI3K/AKT inhibitor LY294002 significantly (P=0.024) inhibited the EGF-stimulated increase in GJA1 total protein levels at 24 h. Immunolocalization indicated that loss of PI3K/AKT signaling was associated with increased cytosolic localization of Cx43 in this cell line. CONCLUSIONS Together, these data suggest that in azoospermic men decreased expression of EGFR may be responsible for decreasing GJA1 levels and increasing its cytosolic localization via the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway.
Environmental change and the carbon balance of Amazonian forests

Extreme climatic events and land‐use change are known to influence strongly the current carbon cycle of Amazonia, and have the potential to cause significant global climate impacts. This review intends to evaluate the effects of both climate and anthropogenic perturbations on the carbon balance of the Brazilian Amazon and to understand how they interact with each other. By analysing the outputs of the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) Assessment Report 4 (AR4) model ensemble, we demonstrate that Amazonian temperatures and water stress are both likely to increase over the 21st Century. Curbing deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon by 62% in 2010 relative to the 1990s mean decreased the Brazilian Amazon's deforestation contribution to global land use carbon emissions from 17% in the 1990s and early 2000s to 9% by 2010. Carbon sources in Amazonia are likely to be dominated by climatic impacts allied with forest fires (48.3% relative contribution) during extreme droughts. The current net carbon sink (net biome productivity, NBP) of +0.16 (ranging from +0.11 to +0.21) Pg C year−1 in the Brazilian Amazon, equivalent to 13.3% of global carbon emissions from land‐use change for 2008, can be negated or reversed during drought years [NBP = −0.06 (−0.31 to +0.01) Pg C year−1]. Therefore, reducing forest fires, in addition to reducing deforestation, would be an important measure for minimizing future emissions. Conversely, doubling the current area of secondary forests and avoiding additional removal of primary forests would help the Amazonian gross forest sink to offset approximately 42% of global land‐use change emissions. We conclude that a few strategic environmental policy measures are likely to strengthen the Amazonian net carbon sink with global implications. Moreover, these actions could increase the resilience of the net carbon sink to future increases in drought frequency.
Differences in the Perceived Effectiveness of Influence Tactics Among Jews and Arabs: The Mediating Role of Cultural Values1

The study investigates differences between Jewish and Arab employees vis-a-vis their evaluation of the effectiveness of several influence tactics, and examines whether these differences are mediated by cultural differences. Rational persuasion was the only influence tactic that was evaluated as more effective by Jewish employees, in comparison with Arab employees. In contrast, ingratiation, pressure, and coalition were evaluated as more effective by Arab employees, in comparison with Jewish employees. Regarding cultural values, we found indulgence higher among Jewish employees than among Arabs, whereas uncertainty avoidance was higher among Arab employees. Examination of the mediating processes indicates that even after removing the influence of cultural values, Arab employees still judged these 3 tactics as more effective than did Jewish employees.