Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Central Bank Independence Indexes in Economic Analysis: A Reappraisal

The paper, by means of panel data analysis, reexamines the empirical regularities strongly advocated by Alesina and Summers (1993), i.e., that (1) central bank independence and inflation are negatively correlated in industrialized countries; and that (2) central bank independence and real growth are not correlated in industrialized countries. The analysis here shows that both regularities become unstable when stricter conditions are imposed, and have not proved to be robust. Therefore, one may conclude that Alesina and Summers' results have not yet provided a reliable basis for policy recommendations.
Wearable haptic augmentation system using skin vibration sensor

The aim of study is to complement and enhance the haptic sensation of human fingers that have different tactile perceptions owing to the age and proficiency. In this paper, we developed a wearable haptic augmentation system to modulate the haptic sensations in real-time using polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) skin vibration sensor and vibro-tactile feedback. We observed that the users could get more exhilarating experiences when touching the surrounding objects, and recognition of haptic properties became easier. The experimental result shows that the haptic sensation obtained by our proposed condition is approximately 5% higher than the no haptic feedback condition.
High sensitivity of both sequencing and real-time PCR analysis of KRAS mutations in colorectal cancer tissue

The KRAS mutation status predicts the outcome of treatment with epidermal growth factor receptor targeted agents, and therefore the testing for KRAS mutations has become an important diagnostic procedure. To optimize the quality of this test, we compared the results of the two most commonly used KRAS mutation tests, cycle sequencing and a real‐time PCR‐based assay, in DNA extracted from formalin‐fixed paraffin‐embedded (FFPE) colorectal cancer samples of 511 patients. The results were interpreted in the context of the tumour cell percentage and the assay parameters. In 510 samples KRAS mutation status assessment was successful. A KRAS mutation was detected in 201 tumours (39.4%). Sequencing and the real‐time PCR‐based assay generated the same result in 486 samples (95.3%). The sequencing result was considered false positive in one (0.2%) and false negative in nine samples (1.8%). The assay result was considered false positive in six (1.2%) and false negative in seven samples (1.4%). Explanations for discrepant test results were a higher sensitivity of the assay in samples with a low tumour cell percentage, occurrence of mutations that are not covered by the assay and δ Ct values approximating the cut‐off value of the assay. In conclusion, both sequencing and the real‐time PCR‐based assay are reliable tests for KRAS mutation analysis in FFPE colorectal cancer samples, with a sensitivity of 95.5% (95% confidence interval [CI] 91.7–97.9%) and 96.5% (95% CI 93.0–98.6%), respectively. The real‐time PCR based assay is the method of choice in samples with a tumour cell percentage below 30%.
Proteomics Characterization of Cell Membrane Blebs in Human Retinal Pigment Epithelium Cells*

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of legal blindness among the elderly population in the industrialized world, affecting about 14 million people in the United States alone. Smoking is a major environmental risk factor for AMD, and hydroquinone is a major component in cigarette smoke. Hydroquinone induces the formation of cell membrane blebs in human retinal pigment epithelium (RPE). Blebs may accumulate and eventually contribute first to sub-RPE deposits and then drusen formation, which is a prominent histopathologic feature in eyes with AMD. As an attempt to better understand the mechanisms involved in early AMD, we sought to investigate the proteomic profile of RPE blebs. Isolated blebs were subjected to SDS-PAGE fractionation, and in-gel trypsin-digested peptides were analyzed by LC-MS/MS that lead to the identification of a total of 314 proteins. Identified proteins were predominantly involved in oxidative phosphorylation, cell junction, focal adhesion, cytoskeleton regulation, and immunogenic processes. Importantly basigin and matrix metalloproteinase-14, key proteins involved in extracellular matrix remodeling, were identified in RPE blebs and shown to be more prevalent in AMD patients. Altogether our findings suggest, for the first time, the potential involvement of RPE blebs in eye disease and shed light on the implication of cell-derived microvesicles in human pathology.
Abstract Analogical Reasoning in High‐Functioning Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) exhibit a deficit in spontaneously recognizing abstract similarities that are crucial for generalizing learning to new situations. This may contribute to deficits in the development of appropriate schemas for navigating novel situations, including social interactions. Analogical reasoning is the central cognitive mechanism that enables typically developing children to understand abstract similarities between different situations. Intriguingly, studies of high‐functioning children with ASD point to a relative cognitive strength in basic, nonabstract forms of analogical reasoning. If this analogical reasoning ability extends to abstract analogical reasoning (i.e., between superficially dissimilar situations), it may provide a bridge between a cognitive capability and core ASD deficits in areas such as generalization and categorization. This study tested whether preserved analogical reasoning abilities in ASD can be extended to abstract analogical reasoning, using photographs of real‐world items and situations. Abstractness of the analogies was determined via a quantitative measure of semantic distance derived from latent semantic analysis. Children with ASD performed as well as typically developing children at identifying abstract analogical similarities when explicitly instructed to apply analogical reasoning. Individual differences in abstract analogical reasoning ability predicted individual differences in a measure of social function in the ASD group. Preliminary analyses indicated that children with ASD, but not typically developing children, showed an effect of age on abstract analogical reasoning. These results provide new evidence that children with ASD are capable of identifying abstract similarities through analogical reasoning, pointing to abstract analogical reasoning as a potential lever for improving generalization skills and social function in ASD. Autism Res 2014, 7: 677–686. © 2014 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Popularity Among Peer Role Models: A Moderator of Peer Victimization and Depressive Symptoms

This short-term, longitudinal study examines evidence that the level of popularity among adolescents’ peer role models exacerbates the emotional impact of mistreatment by peers. We recruited 469 adolescents (255 boys, 214 girls; X ¯ age = 12.7 years) from an ethnically diverse middle school and followed these youth for a 1-year period. We collected identical measurement batteries in two consecutive waves. Participants completed a self-report assessment of depressive symptoms, as well as a peer-nomination inventory identifying victimized and popular classmates. The inventory also included items asking adolescents to identify peers they want to be like, respect, and admire. High popularity levels among peer role models were associated with intensified associations between peer victimization and depressive symptoms. However, these findings held only for boys. Taken together, these results suggest that victimization by peers is most detrimental for adolescent boys who seek to identify with their more socially dominant classmates.
Expression of the paralogous tyrosine hydroxylase encoding genes th1 and th2 reveals the full complement of dopaminergic and noradrenergic neurons in zebrafish larval and juvenile brain

The development of dopaminergic and noradrenergic neurons has received much attention based on their modulatory effect on many behavioral circuits and their involvement in neurodegenerative diseases. The zebrafish (Danio rerio) has emerged as a new model organism with which to study development and function of catecholaminergic systems. Tyrosine hydroxylase is the entry enzyme into catecholamine biosynthesis and is frequently used as a marker for catecholaminergic neurons. A genome duplication at the base of teleost evolution resulted in two paralogous zebrafish tyrosine hydroxylase‐encoding genes, th1 and th2, the expression of which has been described previously only for th1. Here we investigate the expression of th2 in the brain of embryonic and juvenile zebrafish. We optimized whole‐mount in situ hybridization protocols to detect gene expression in the anatomical three‐dimensional context of whole juvenile brains. To confirm whether th2‐expressing cells may indeed use dopamine as a neurotransmitter, we also included expression of dopamine beta hydroxylase, dopa decarboxylase, and dopamine transporter in our analysis. Our data provide the first complete account of catecholaminergic neurons in the zebrafish embryonic and juvenile brain. We identified four major th2‐expressing neuronal groups that likely use dopamine as transmitter in the zebrafish diencephalon, including neurons of the posterior preoptic nucleus, the paraventricular organ, and the nuclei of the lateral and posterior recesses in the caudal hypothalamus. th2 Expression in the latter two groups resolves a previously reported discrepancy, in which strong dopamine but little tyrosine hydroxylase immunoreactivity had been detected in the caudal hypothalamus. Our data also confirm that there are no mesencephalic DA neurons in zebrafish. J. Comp. Neurol. 518:423–438, 2010. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
An Empirical Study of Flash Crowd Dynamics in a P2P-Based Live Video Streaming System

Peer-to-peer (P2P) based live video streaming system has emerged as a promising solution for the Internet video streaming applications, partly evident from commercial deployment of several large-scale P2P streaming systems. The key is to leverage the resources available at end users, which offers great potential to scale in the Internet. Flash crowd poses a unique challenge for live streaming systems, in which there could be potentially hundred of thousands of users joining the system during the initial few minutes of a live program. This adds considerable difficulty in particular for a P2P based system in quickly ramping to a scale that can provide reasonable streaming services for newly incoming peers. In this paper, we examine the system dynamics under flash crowd based on measurements obtained from the Coolstreaming system. We are particularly concerned with the impact and user behaviors during flash crowd. The results reveal a number of interesting observations: (1) the system can scale up to a limit during the flash crowd; (2) there is a strong correlation between the number of short sessions and joining rate due to the resource competition among newly joined peers; (3) the user behavior during flash crowd can be best captured by the number of retries and the impatience time.
Genome Sequences of Three Phytopathogenic Species of the Magnaporthaceae Family of Fungi

Magnaporthaceae is a family of ascomycetes that includes three fungi of great economic importance: Magnaporthe oryzae, Gaeumannomyces graminis var. tritici, and Magnaporthe poae. These three fungi cause widespread disease and loss in cereal and grass crops, including rice blast disease (M. oryzae), take-all disease in wheat and other grasses (G. graminis), and summer patch disease in turf grasses (M. poae). Here, we present the finished genome sequence for M. oryzae and draft sequences for M. poae and G. graminis var. tritici. We used multiple technologies to sequence and annotate the genomes of M. oryzae, M. poae, and G. graminis var. tritici. The M. oryzae genome is now finished to seven chromosomes whereas M. poae and G. graminis var. tritici are sequenced to 40.0× and 25.0× coverage respectively. Gene models were developed by the use of multiple computational techniques and further supported by RNAseq data. In addition, we performed preliminary analysis of genome architecture and repetitive element DNA.
Face Verification Using Modeled Eigenspectrum

Face verification is different from face identification task. Some traditional subspace methods that work well in face identification may suffer from severe over-fitting problem when applied for the verification task. Conventional dis- criminative methods such as linear discriminant analysis (LDA) and its variants are highly sensitive to the training data, which hinders them from achieving high verification accuracy. This work proposes an eigenspectrum model that allevi- ates the over-fitting problems by replacing the unreliable small and zero eigenvalues with the model values. It also enables the discriminant evaluation in the whole space to extract the low dimensional features effectively. The proposed approach is evaluated and compared with 8 popular subspace based methods for a face verification task. Experimental results on three face databases show that the proposed method consistently outperforms others.
The Correlations between Extremity Circumferences with Total and Regional Amounts of Skeletal Muscle and Muscle Strength in Obese Women with Type 2 Diabetes

Background Insulin resistance is related to central obesity and the amount of skeletal muscle. A simple and practical anthropometric marker for muscle mass is not known, although waist circumference (WC) is used as an indicator of abdominal obesity. The aims of this study were to investigate whether arm (AC) and thigh circumferences (TC) can be used as an indicator of muscle mass and if they are related to muscle strength. Methods A total of 110 obese (body mass index [BMI]≥25 kg/m2) women with type 2 diabetes were enrolled, and WC, AC, and TC were measured. Abdominal visceral fat (AVF), subcutaneous fat (ASF), and total fat (ATF) were assessed by computed tomography, regional muscle (MM), and fat mass by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, muscle strength by one repetition maximum (1RM) of both extremities (chest and leg press) and insulin resistance by KITT. Results The mean age was 56.2±7.3 years, duration of diabetes was 4.2±4.4 years, and BMI was 27.2±2.8 kg/m2. WC was correlated with ATF, AVF, and ASF (r=0.728, P<0.001; r=0.515, P<0.001; r=0.608, P<0.001, respectively). Arm MM was correlated with AC (r=0.500, P<0.001), and leg MM with TC (r=0.291, P=0.002). Upper 1RM was related to AC/WC ratio (r=0.359, P<0.001), and lower 1RM was to TC/WC ratio (r=0.286, P=0.003). Insulin resistance had significant relations with AVF, WC, and total MM (r=-0.262, P=0.008; r=-0.217, P=0.029; r=0.160, P=0.031, respectively). Conclusion The muscle mass was related to extremity circumferences, and muscle strength was to extremity/waist circumference ratio in obese women with type 2 diabetes.
Effects of Locking and Synchronization on Future Large Scale CMP Platforms

As we enter the era of large-scale Chip MultiProcessing (CMP) systems, evaluating architectures and projecting performance for commercial workloads on such systems is becoming increasingly important. One of the major areas of concern for Multi-Socket SMP systems has been the detrimental effects of Locking and Synchronization (L&S) overheads. However, the lower on-die interconnect latency and higher available bandwidth in CMP systems can change the effects of L&S dramatically. We wanted to analyze and study these effects. Towards this goal, we built a flexible, fast and accurate platform simulation framework called ManySim, and used this to study effects of locking and synchronization. We demonstrate that the CMP architecture outperforms the multi-socket architecture due to reduced L&S overheads, making the CMP architecture highly scalable and allowing it to almost reach the limits of Amdahl’s law.
BaitAlarm: Detecting Phishing Sites Using Similarity in Fundamental Visual Features

In this paper, we present a new solution, BaitAlarm, to detect phishing attack using features that are hard to evade. The intuition of our approach is that phishing pages need to preserve the visual appearance the target pages. We present an algorithm to quantify the suspicious ratings of web pages based on similarity of visual appearance between the web pages. Since CSS is the standard technique to specify page layout, our solution uses the CSS as the basis for detecting visual similarities among web pages. We prototyped our approach as a Google Chrome extension and used it to rate the suspiciousness of web pages. The prototype shows the correctness and accuracy of our approach with a relatively low performance overhead.
Energy Efficient Selection of Computing Elements in Wireless Sensor Networks

A wide range of wireless sensor network applications are characterized by local processing of the sensed data and only meager data communication requirements. Indeed, because sensor nodes are battery powered and wireless communication bears a high energy cost, data transmission can be traded for on-the-node computation to extend node and network lifetime. Furthermore, the energy consumption can be reduced significantly by selecting and realizing the application on an appropriate processing element. In this article, we propose a new statistical technique for energy consumption estimation for a specific application on various platforms. We have empirically verified the methodology on various classes of embedded processors commonly used in sensor nodes. The methodology can also be applied to multiprocessor platforms. Our solution is not only capable to achieve high accuracy but also facilitates the application developer to evaluate different platforms without actually implementing the application on each of these platforms. Our experimental evaluation results for various platforms will help to understand the implications of using different processing elements and their effects on the lifetime of the network.
Anatomical Transcriptome of G Protein-Coupled Receptors Leads to the Identification of a Novel Therapeutic Candidate GPR52 for Psychiatric Disorders

Many drugs of abuse and most neuropharmacological agents regulate G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) in the central nervous system (CNS)_ENREF_1. The striatum, in which dopamine D1 and D2 receptors are enriched, is strongly innervated by the ventral tegmental area (VTA), which is the origin of dopaminergic cell bodies of the mesocorticolimbic dopamine system_ENREF_3 and plays a central role in the development of psychiatric disorders_ENREF_4. Here we report the comprehensive and anatomical transcript profiling of 322 non-odorant GPCRs in mouse tissue by quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR), leading to the identification of neurotherapeutic receptors exclusively expressed in the CNS, especially in the striatum. Among them, GPR6, GPR52, and GPR88, known as orphan GPCRs, were shown to co-localize either with a D2 receptor alone or with both D1 and D2 receptors in neurons of the basal ganglia. Intriguingly, we found that GPR52 was well conserved among vertebrates, is Gs-coupled and responsive to the antipsychotic drug, reserpine. We used three types of transgenic (Tg) mice employing a Cre-lox system under the control of the GPR52 promoter, namely, GPR52-LacZ Tg, human GPR52 (hGPR52) Tg, and hGPR52-GFP Tg mice. Detailed histological investigation suggests that GPR52 may modulate dopaminergic and glutamatergic transmission in neuronal circuits responsible for cognitive function and emotion. In support of our prediction, GPR52 knockout and transgenic mice exhibited psychosis-related and antipsychotic-like behaviors, respectively. Therefore, we propose that GPR52 has the potential of being a therapeutic psychiatric receptor. This approach may help identify potential therapeutic targets for CNS diseases.
Entrepreneurship education and its impact on the entrepreneurship career intentions : A Study of Algerian Students’ Entrepreneurial Intentions and Opportunity Identification ( case study Université Amar Telidji)

: Purpose - This study aims towards investigating the impact of entrepreneurship education by means of variables that include: attitudes toward entrepreneurial behavior, personal standards and perceived behavioral control and on the basis of entrepreneurship career intentions of students from the Faculty of Economic Sciences, Business Sciences and Management Sciences at Laghouat University. Design/methodology - Depending on the design of a questionnaire directed at (46) for randomly selected students, the study examines the extent to which students intend to participate in entrepreneurship in the near future. The Spearman correlation test and regression analysis were used to test the relationships between entrepreneurship education and the entrepreneurship career intentions to activate the components of planned behavior theory. Findings – It has been found that entrepreneurship education had a positive correlation with the entrepreneurial intentions of entrepreneurship. In addition, the results largely proved the validity of the planned behavior theory as an invaluable instructional tool for academics and trainers. It also assessed policy makers seeking to find effective ways to promote the process of creating potential entrepreneurs. Recommendations -If one is to stimulate entrepreneurship in the educational or training community, the results of this study provide guidance by making many suggestions on how to improve leadership vigilance.
Functional connectivity and information flow of the respiratory neural network in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Breathing involves a complex interplay between the brainstem automatic network and cortical voluntary command. How these brain regions communicate at rest or during inspiratory loading is unknown. This issue is crucial for several reasons: (i) increased respiratory loading is a major feature of several respiratory diseases, (ii) failure of the voluntary motor and cortical sensory processing drives is among the mechanisms that precede acute respiratory failure, (iii) several cerebral structures involved in responding to inspiratory loading participate in the perception of dyspnea, a distressing symptom in many disease. We studied functional connectivity and Granger causality of the respiratory network in controls and patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), at rest and during inspiratory loading. Compared with those of controls, the motor cortex area of patients exhibited decreased connectivity with their contralateral counterparts and no connectivity with the brainstem. In the patients, the information flow was reversed at rest with the source of the network shifted from the medulla towards the motor cortex. During inspiratory loading, the system was overwhelmed and the motor cortex became the sink of the network. This major finding may help to understand why some patients with COPD are prone to acute respiratory failure. Network connectivity and causality were related to lung function and illness severity. We validated our connectivity and causality results with a mathematical model of neural network. Our findings suggest a new therapeutic strategy involving the modulation of brain activity to increase motor cortex functional connectivity and improve respiratory muscles performance in patients. Hum Brain Mapp 37:2736–2754, 2016. © 2016 The Authors Human Brain Mapping Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.