Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Recent Developments in Employment Relations in the Philippines

We seek to describe recent developments in employment relations in the Philippines, placing these developments in the contexts of the distinctive elements of the Philippine social/political/industrial relations systems as well as the ongoing trade-based and functional integration of international markets and the recent regional economic crisis. We find that, while some firms are pursuing functional flexibility and more cooperative employment relations, the logic of competition has primarily induced firms to adopt practices that promote numerical flexibility such that a core-periphery workforce is created. We argue that the labor movement in the Philippines has been hampered in its efforts to effectively counter employer strategies by its low density, its fragmentation, and an unfavorable public policy environment; Philippine labor unions have, however, made some recent gains in organizing and inter-union coordination. We also argue that governments, both national and regional, have not done enough to counteract the negative effects of market integration on workers nor to evolve the Philippines into a higher value-added exporter.
Serial Default and Debt Renegotiation Tamon Asonuma

Emerging countries that have defaulted on their debt repayment obligations in the past are more likely to default again in the future than are non-defaulters even with the same debt-toGDP ratio. This paper explains this stylized fact within a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium framework by explicitly modeling renegotiations between a defaulting country and its creditors. The quantitative analysis of the model reveals that the equilibrium probability of default for a given debt-to-GDP level is weakly increasing with the number of past defaults, consistent with empirical observations. The equilibrium of the model also accords with an additional observed fact: a country for which default terms require less than a 100 percent recovery rate tends to pay a higher rate of return (relative to a risk-free rate) on subsequently issued debt than do defaulting countries that agree to a full recovery rate. JEL Classi cation Codes: E43; F32; F34; G12
Functional Anatomy of Spatial Mental Imagery Generated from Verbal Instructions

Positron emission tomography (PET) was used to monitor regional cerebral blood flow variations while subjects were constructing mental images of objects made of three-dimensional cube assemblies from auditorily presented instructions. This spatial mental imagery task was contrasted with both passive listening (LIST) of phonetically matched nonspatial word lists and a silent rest (REST) condition. All three tasks were performed in total darkness. Mental construction (CONS) specifically activated a bilateral occipitoparietal–frontal network, including the superior occipital cortex, the inferior parietal cortex, and the premotor cortex. The right inferior temporal cortex also was activated specifically during this condition, and no activation of the primary visual areas was observed. Bilateral superior and middle temporal cortex activations were common to CONS and LIST tasks when both were compared with the REST condition. These results provide evidence that the so-called dorsal route known to process visuospatial features can be recruited by auditory verbal stimuli. They also confirm previous reports indicating that some mental imagery tasks may not involve any significant participation of early visual areas.
Visual Misperception in Aviation: Glide Path Performance in a Black Hole Environment

Objective: We sought to improve understanding of visual perception in aviation to mitigate mishaps in approaches to landing. Background: Research has attempted to identify the most salient visual cues for glide path performance in impoverished visual conditions. Numerous aviation accidents caused by glide path overestimation (GPO) have occurred when a low glide path was induced by a black hole illusion (BHI) in featureless terrain during night approaches. Method: Twenty pilots flew simulated approaches under various visual cues of random terrain objects and approach lighting system (ALS) configurations. Performance was assessed relative to the desired 3° glide path in terms of precision, bias, and stability. Results: With the high-ratio (long, narrow) runway, the overall performance between 8.3 and 0.9 km from the runway depicted a concave approach shape found in BHI mishaps. The addition of random terrain objects failed to improve glide path performance, and an ALS commonly used at airports induced GPO and the resulting low glide path. The worst performance, however, resulted from a combination ALS consisting of both side and approach lights. Surprisingly, novice pilots flew more stable approaches than did experienced pilots. Conclusions: Low, unsafe approaches occur frequently in conditions with limited global and local visual cues. Approach lights lateral of the runway may counter the bias of the BHI. The variability suggested a proactive, cue-seeking behavior among experienced pilots as compared with novice pilots. Application: Visual spatial disorientation training in flight simulators should be used to demonstrate visual misperceptions in black hole environments and reduce pilots' confidence in their limited visual capabilities.
CEA in activated macrophages. New diagnostic possibilities for tumor markers in early colorectal cancer.

BACKGROUND Serum tumor markers show low sensitivity, making them unsuitable for early detection of cancer. Activated macrophages (AM) from peripheral blood can accumulate tumor marker substances and facilitate early detection in prostate cancer. Here it was investigated whether carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA)-containing macrophages (CEACM) can be used to detect colorectal cancer (CRC) at earlier stages than can serum CEA. PATIENTS AND METHODS Peripheral blood was collected from patients with CRC (n=48), inflammatory colorectal disease (n=5) and from healthy controls (n=18). After separating and labeling AM with CD14-APC/CD16-FITC, AM were intracellularly labeled with anti-CEA antibody and flow cytometrically analyzed. Serum CEA and C-reactive protein (CRP) were measured. RESULTS The fraction-size of CEACM discriminated between controls and CRC patients, irrespective of AJCC stage (AJCC stage I-IV, p< or =0.0001). Serum CEA values were significantly elevated in AJCC stage II, III and IV (p=0.02, 0.006 and <0.0001, respectively). Combining CEACM with CRP levels separated CRC from inflammatory colorectal disease. CONCLUSION CEACM combined with CRP appears to have diagnostic potential in early CRC.
A New Take on Detecting Insider Threats: Exploring the Use of Hidden Markov Models

The threat that malicious insiders pose towards organisations is a significant problem. In this paper, we investigate the task of detecting such insiders through a novel method of modelling a user's normal behaviour in order to detect anomalies in that behaviour which may be indicative of an attack. Specifically, we make use of Hidden Markov Models to learn what constitutes normal behaviour, and then use them to detect significant deviations from that behaviour. Our results show that this approach is indeed successful at detecting insider threats, and in particular is able to accurately learn a user's behaviour. These initial tests improve on existing research and may provide a useful approach in addressing this part of the insider-threat challenge.
Endothelial Dysfunction and Low-Grade Inflammation Explain Much of the Excess Cardiovascular Mortality in Individuals With Type 2 Diabetes: The Hoorn Study

Objective—The mechanisms responsible for the increased cardiovascular disease risk that accompanies type 2 diabetes (T2D) remain poorly understood. It is commonly held that endothelial dysfunction and low-grade inflammation can explain, at least in part, why deteriorating glucose tolerance is associated with cardiovascular disease. However, there is no direct evidence for this contention. Methods and Results—In this population-based study (n=631), T2D was cross-sectionally associated with both endothelial dysfunction and low-grade inflammation, whereas impaired glucose metabolism (IGM) was associated only with low-grade inflammation. These findings were independent of other risk factors that accompany T2D or IGM. During a follow-up of 11.7 years (median; range 0.5 to 13.2 years), low-grade inflammation was associated with a greater risk of cardiovascular mortality (hazard ratio, 1.43 [95% CI, 1.17 to 1.77] per 1 SD difference). For endothelial dysfunction, the association with cardiovascular mortality was stronger in diabetic (hazard ratio, 1.87 [95% CI, 1.43 to 2.45]) than in nondiabetic individuals (hazard ratio, 1.23 [95% CI, 0.86 to 1.75]; P interaction=0.06). Finally, T2D-associated endothelial dysfunction and low-grade inflammation explained ≈43% of the increase in cardiovascular mortality risk conferred by T2D. Conclusions—These data emphasize the necessity of randomized controlled trials of strategies that aim to decrease cardiovascular disease risk by improving endothelial function and decreasing low-grade inflammation, especially for T2D patients.
When Social Bots Attack: Modeling Susceptibility of Users in Online Social Networks

Social bots are automatic or semi-automatic computer programs that mimic humans and/or human behavior in online social networks. Social bots can attack users (targets) in online social networks to pursue a variety of latent goals, such as to spread information or to influence targets. Without a deep understanding of the nature of such attacks or the susceptibility of users, the potential of social media as an instrument for facilitating discourse or democratic processes is in jeopardy. In this paper, we study data from the Social Bot Challenge 2011 - an experiment conducted by the WebEcologyProject during 2011 - in which three teams implemented a number of social bots that aimed to influence user behavior on Twitter. Using this data, we aim to develop models to (i) identify susceptible users among a set of targets and (ii) predict users’ level of susceptibility. We explore the predictiveness of three different groups of features (network, behavioral and linguistic features) for these tasks. Our results suggest that susceptible users tend to use Twitter for a conversational purpose and tend to be more open and social since they communicate with many different users, use more social words and show more affection than non-susceptible users.
Modified Rate-Monotonic Algorithm for Scheduling Periodic Jobs with Deferred Deadlines

The deadline of a request is the time instant at which its execution must complete. The deadline of the request in any period of a job with deferred deadline is some time instant after the end of the period. The authors describe a semi-static priority-driven algorithm for scheduling periodic jobs with deferred deadlines: each job is assigned two priorities, the higher one for old requests and the lower one for the current request. This algorithm is called the modified rate-monotonic algorithm and is based on the well-known rate-monotonic algorithm. It is shown that the modified rate-monotonic algorithm is optimal when the deadline of every job is deferred by max (1, gamma -1) periods or more, where gamma is the ratio between the longest period and the shortest period. When the deadline of each job is deferred by one period of the job, any set of n independent jobs whose total utilization is equal to or less than (1+n(2/sup 1/n/-1))/2 can be feasibly scheduled by this algorithm. This bound approaches 0.845 when n approaches infinity. >
The influence of teachers' conceptions on their students' learning: children's understanding of sheet music.

BACKGROUND Despite increasing interest in teachers' and students' conceptions of learning and teaching, and how they influence their practice, there are few studies testing the influence of teachers' conceptions on their students' learning. AIMS This study tests how teaching conception (TC; with a distinction between direct and constructive) influences students' representations regarding sheet music. SAMPLE Sixty students (8-12 years old) from music conservatories: 30 of them took lessons with teachers with a constructive TC and another 30 with teachers shown to have a direct TC. METHODS Children were given a musical comprehension task in which they were asked to select and rank the contents they needed to learn. These contents had different levels of processing and complexity: symbolic, analytical, and referential. Three factorial ANOVAs, two-one-way ANOVAs, and four 2 × 3 repeated-measures ANOVAs were used to analyse the effects of and the interaction between the independent variables TC and class, both for/on total cards selected, their ranking, and each sub-category (the three processing levels). RESULTS ANOVAs on the selection and ranking of these contents showed that teachers' conceptions seem to mediate significantly in the way the students understand the music. CONCLUSIONS Students from constructive teachers have more complex and deep understanding of music. They select more elements for learning scores than those from traditional teachers. Teaching conception also influences the way in which children rank those elements. No difference exists between the way 8- and 12-year-olds learn scores. Children's understanding of the scores is more complex than assumed in other studies.
Effects on the right ventricle, pulmonary vasculature, and carotid bodies of the rat of exposure to, and recovery from, simulated high altitude.

Three groups of 10 adult male Wistar albino rats were studied. The first was kept for five weeks in a hypobaric chamber exposed to a barometric pressure of 380 mmHg, equivalent to a simulated altitude of 5,500 m above sea level. The second was exposed to the same barometric pressure for five weeks and then allowed to recover in room air for a further period of five weeks. The third group acted as controls and was kept at normal barometric pressure throughout. At necropsy right ventricular weight was expressed as an inverse ratio of left ventricular weight (LV/RV ratio). The thickness of the media of the pulmonary trunk was expressed as a ratio of that of the aorta. The volumes of the carotid bodies were measured by applying Simpson's rule to histological sections. In the first group, exposed to chronic hypoxia without relief, there was hypertrophy of the right ventricle and media of the pulmonary trunk and there was an increase of carotid body volume, as compared with the values obtained in the controls. In the recovery group these three measurements had returned almost to normal. The results appear to be applicable to hypoxic cor pulmonale in man. They suggest that hypoxia rapidly produces pulmonary hypertension and its morbid anatomical associations while recovery is equally rapid once the hypoxic stimulus is removed.
Inferring Biological Networks by Sparse Identification of Nonlinear Dynamics

Inferring the structure and dynamics of network models is critical to understanding the functionality and control of complex systems, such as metabolic and regulatory biological networks. The increasing quality and quantity of experimental data enable statistical approaches based on information theory for model selection and goodness-of-fit metrics. We propose an alternative data-driven method to infer networked nonlinear dynamical systems by using sparsity-promoting optimization to select a subset of nonlinear interactions representing dynamics on a network. In contrast to standard model selection methods-based upon information content for a finite number of heuristic models (order 10 or less), our model selection procedure discovers a parsimonious model from a combinatorially large set of models, without an exhaustive search. Our particular innovation is appropriate for many biological networks, where the governing dynamical systems have rational function nonlinearities with cross terms, thus requiring an implicit formulation and the equations to be identified in the null-space of a library of mixed nonlinearities, including the state and derivative terms. This method, implicit-SINDy, succeeds in inferring three canonical biological models: 1) Michaelis-Menten enzyme kinetics; 2) the regulatory network for competence in bacteria; and 3) the metabolic network for yeast glycolysis.
The Long-Term Mortality and Morbidity of Behçet Syndrome: A 2-Decade Outcome Survey of 387 Patients Followed at a Dedicated Center

We surveyed the 20-year outcome of a cohort of patients with Behçet syndrome with emphasis on both mortality and morbidity. During 1999 and 2000, we collected outcome information on 387/428 (90.4%) of a cohort of patients (262 male, 125 female) who had registered in a dedicated outpatient clinic between July 1977 and December 1983. In 245/345 (71.0%) patients, outcome information was based on a formal hospital reevaluation, and in the remaining patients, on detailed telephone interviews.Forty-two patients (9.8%) (39 male, 3 female) had died, mainly due to major vessel disease and neurologic involvement. Mortality, as measured by standardized mortality ratios (SMR), was specifically increased among young males, among whom morbidity was also the highest. However, the SMR tended to decrease significantly with the passage of time. The same was also true for all mucocutaneous and articular manifestations. Both the onset of eye disease and its greatest damage were also usually within the first few years of disease onset. These suggest that the “disease burden” of Behçet syndrome is usually confined to the early years of its course, and in many patients the syndrome “burns out. ” However, central nervous system involvement and major vessel disease are exceptions. They can have their onset late (5–10 yr) during the disease course. As reflected in the mortality figures, the disease was less severe among the females for almost each disease manifestation. There were no female patients with arterial aneurysms.Severely impaired vision did not always mean an eventual loss of useful vision, and those patients with a late onset of eye disease had a better visual prognosis.
Human Chorionic Gonadotropin as a Pivotal Endocrine Immune Regulator Initiating and Preserving Fetal Tolerance

The pregnancy hormone, human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), is crucially involved in processes such as implantation and placentation, two milestones of pregnancy whose successful progress is a prerequisite for adequate fetal growth. Moreover, hCG determines fetal fate by regulating maternal innate and adaptive immune responses allowing the acceptance of the foreign fetal antigens. As one of the first signals provided by the embryo to its mother, hCG has the potential to regulate very early pregnancy-driven immune responses, allowing the establishment and preservation of fetal tolerance. This mini review focuses on how hCG modulates the adaptive arm of the immune system including dendritic cells as key regulators of adaptive immune responses.
Co-existence of micronutrient deficiencies in hospitalized children with severe malnutrition treated according to the WHO protocol

We assessed the involvement of vitamin A deficiency (VAD) and anaemia as co-morbidities associated with severe forms of protein-energy malnutrition in hospitalized children. In a descriptive case series study of 57 children, one clinical case of xerophthalmia was diagnosed: 44.0% had levels of serum retinol <20 µg/dL and 88.0% had Hb <11 g/dL, of whom 30.0% had haemoglobin levels below 7.0 g/dL.
The early course of schizophrenic thought disorder.

The current investigation studied the early course of positive thought disorder and its relationship to other aspects of schizophrenic outcome. Forty-eight schizophrenics diagnosed using the Research Diagnostic Criteria (RDC), 51 psychotic nonschizophrenics, and 67 nonpsychotic patients were studied at index hospitalization and at a 1.5-year followup. Most thought-disordered schizophrenics and other psychotic patients showed some reduction in thought pathology between index hospitalization and followup (p less than .02). A larger percentage of schizophrenics than other psychotic and nonpsychotic showed thought disorder at the acute phase and at followup assessment (p less than .05), although only a subgroup of 27 percent of the schizophrenics showed severe thought disorder at followup. At followup, severely thought-disordered schizophrenics showed residual signs of psychosis and poor functioning in other areas. Positive thought disorder in schizophrenics at followup most often occurred within the context of an unremitted illness and was less frequently due to a new, acute episode of disturbance. Continuously thought-disordered schizophrenics exhibited more severe impairments in life adjustment at 1.5-year followup than did episodic or nonthought-disordered schizophrenics (p less than .02). The results suggest that severe thought disorder is a persistent characteristic in a subgroup of early schizophrenics.
Empirical observations on wireless LAN performance in vehicular traffic scenarios and link connectivity based enhancements for multihop routing

In this work we assess the performance of a WLAN in different vehicular traffic and mobility scenarios. Furthermore, we investigate ad-hoc routing for a vehicular network. We deploy a topology consisting of vehicles bearing laptop computers equipped with IEEE 802.11b compliant equipment. Test scenarios for WLAN assessment are varied by conducting experiments under different vehicular mobility, peer-distance and driving environment conditions. The network throughput and the quality of the channel are observed to degrade with increasingly stressful communication scenarios. Based on empirical observations, we present results that can facilitate the development of efficient applications for inter-vehicular communication. To address multihop routing, we investigate and demonstrate the application of link connectivity assessment to efficient ad-hoc routing. A framework for enhancements is delineated and incorporated in the implementation of the optimized link state routing (OLSR) protocol. We demonstrate that the link quality assessment based enhancements improve the performance of OLSR.
The Effect of Long-Term Continuous Cropping of Black Pepper on Soil Bacterial Communities as Determined by 454 Pyrosequencing

In the present study, 3 replanted black pepper orchards with continuously cropping histories for 10, 21, and 55 years in tropical China, were selected for investigating the effect of monoculture on soil physiochemical properties, enzyme activities, bacterial abundance, and bacterial community structures. Results showed long-term continuous cropping led to a significant decline in soil pH, organic matter contents, enzymatic activities, and resulted in a decrease in soil bacterial abundance. 454 pyrosequencing analysis of 16S rRNA genes revealed that the Acidobacteria and Proteobacteria were the main phyla in the replanted black pepper orchard soils, comprising up to 73.82% of the total sequences; the relative abundances of Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes phyla decreased with long-term continuous cropping; and at genus level, the Pseudomonas abundance significantly depleted after 21 years continuous cropping. In addition, bacterial diversity significantly decreased after 55 years black pepper continuous cropping; obvious variations for community structures across the 3 time-scale replanted black pepper orchards were observed, suggesting monoculture duration was the major determinant for bacterial community structure. Overall, continuous cropping during black pepper cultivation led to a significant decline in soil pH, organic matter contents, enzymatic activities, resulted a decrease in soil bacterial abundance, and altered soil microbial community membership and structure, which in turn resulted in black pepper poor growth in the continuous cropping system.