Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Migration Monuments in Italy and Australia: Contesting Histories and Transforming Identities

Rather than focusing on how Italians share the neighbourhood with other groups, this paper examines some of the intra-group processes (i.e. relations between Italians themselves) that produced various monuments to Italian migration in Australia, Brazil and Italy. Through their distinct styles and formulations, the monuments reflect diverse and often competing elaborations of the migrant experience by different generations at local, national and transnational levels. The recent increase in the construction of such monuments in Australia is linked to the gradual disappearance of ‘visibly’ Italian neighbourhoods. These commemorations effectively transform Italian migrants into Australian pioneers and, thus, resolve moral and cultural ambiguities about belonging and identity by de-emphasizing difference (ethnic diversity) and concealing intergenerational tensions about appropriate ways of expressing Italianness. Similarly, the appearance of monuments in Italy is linked to an emergent ‘diasporic’ consciousness fuelled by Italian emigrants’ growing ability to travel to Italy, but also to the attempt to obscure potentially destabilizing dual identities by emphasizing (one, Italian) ‘homeland’.
The Yersinia enterocolitica Phage Shock Proteins B and C Can Form Homodimers and Heterodimers In Vivo with the Possibility of Close Association between Multiple Domains

ABSTRACT The Yersinia enterocolitica phage shock protein (Psp) stress response is essential for virulence and for survival during the mislocalization of outer membrane secretin proteins. The cytoplasmic membrane proteins PspB and PspC are critical components involved in regulating psp gene expression and in facilitating tolerance to secretin-induced stress. Interactions between PspB and PspC monomers might be important for their functions and for PspC stability. However, little is known about these interactions and there are conflicting reports about the ability of PspC to dimerize. To address this, we have used a combination of independent approaches to systematically analyze the ability of PspB and PspC to form dimers in vivo. Formaldehyde cross-linking of the endogenous chromosomally encoded proteins in Y. enterocolitica revealed discrete complexes corresponding in size to PspB-PspB, PspC-PspC, and PspB-PspC. Bacterial two-hybrid analysis corroborated these protein associations, but an important limitation of the two-hybrid approach was uncovered for PspB. A series of PspB and PspC proteins with unique cysteine substitutions at various positions was constructed. In vivo disulfide cross-linking experiments with these proteins further supported close association between PspB and PspC monomers. Detailed cysteine substitution analysis of predicted leucine zipper-like amphipathic helices in both PspB and PspC suggested that their hydrophobic faces could form homodimerization interfaces.
Coordination of sensor platforms for tracking and identifying objects: Performance evaluations

This paper presents an evaluation of algorithms to coordinate multiple sensor platforms to track and identify multiple objects, where the system demonstrations and experiments have been performed in a simulation environment. The paper describes how object tracking and decision making methods are applied to collaborative control in a maritime channel surveillance and protection vignette. It delineates important system components and the performance evaluation metrics. The experimental results on the algorithms developed for information fusion (unscented kalman filter, bayesian identity management) and decision making (heuristic genetic algorithm) are presented. The results show that the collaborative control approach provides effective and non-overlapping sequential allocations of the scarce sensor platforms to multiple objects from different viewing angle quadrants, and increases the track management performance.
Rehumanizing the Other: Empathy and Reconciliation

The health effects of intra-ethnic conflict include hatred and fear among neighbors and friends who have become enemies. The dehumanization of specific groups through concomitant stereotyping does not stop when conflicts end. The inability to see former enemies as real people impedes reconciliation. While much attention has been paid to the reconstruction of infrastructure and the establishment of rule of law, little thought has been given to what is required at the day to day level in order to restore a sense of interpersonal security. To reverse the destruction of social and familial networks that normally sustain health and well-being, a process of rehumanization must occur. We suggest that the promotion of empathy is a critical component of reconciliation.
IGF-I and IGFBP-3 before and after inpatient alcohol detoxification in alcohol-dependent subjects

Summary Background It is unclear whether alcohol detoxification has an effect on factors that are involved in growth, metabolic functions and cell proliferation. Alcohol abuse is associated with low IGF-I levels that tend to rise after alcohol withdrawal. There is a paucity of studies on the course of IGFBP-3 (the main binding protein for IGF-I) after alcohol detoxification. Material/Methods We prospectively assessed IGF-I and IGFBP-3 changes at the time of admission and after 4 to 6 weeks of detoxification in an inpatient alcohol detoxification facility in 118 alcohol-dependent subjects given a regular hospital diet. No participants dropped out of the study. Results Changes in IGF-I after alcohol detoxification showed a marked dimorphism in altered hepatic biochemistry upon admission, with a rise in those with normal liver enzymes upon admission (p=0.016, Kruskall-Wallis) and a drop in those with elevated liver enzymes upon admission (p=0.05); the latter was noted in subjects that had consumed alcohol close to the time of admission. Overall, however, IGF-I and IGFBP-3 were within normal limits for most subjects both upon admission and after alcohol detoxification; no significant differences were detected among the examined parameters in men vs. women, and there were no significant correlations of IGF-I, IGFBP-3 or the IGF-I/IGFBP-3 molar ratio with BMI or age. Conclusions Regardless of hepatic enzymes’ elevation, alcohol detoxification had overall slight effects on IGF-I and IGFBP-3.
The Personal Element in Teachers’ Marks

Are teachers consistent in giving either high or low grades? If consistent, could this more or less constant deviation from a norm be corrected by multiplying the teachers' marks by an in dex number, thereby making all the grades which are entered on the final records much more comparable than they are at present? Teachers sometimes become unpopular with students, because another teacher in the same department gives higher grades for supposedly the same quality of work. Valedictory or salutatory honors sometimes go to the student who has successfully dodged the classes of teachers who are low markers. The tenure of superintendents and principals, to say nothing of teachers, is often jeopardized by rules which award prizes on the basis of highest scholastic attainments as measured by teachers' marks. I am informed that in one small mid-western city the high-school graduate who has the highest scholastic average receives a "schol arship" which pays all his expenses during four years of attend ance at the state university. It is needless to remark that in this city the tenures of high-school teachers and principals are often jeopardized by the award of the scholarship. The investigation reported here was undertaken primarily to find some answer to the question, "Are teachers consistent in giving high or low grades? " but the data received contained much additional information concerning the lack of reliability of teachers' marks. This second phase of the problem is also presented. In conducting this investigation it was decided to use material that had already been evaluated and standardized. The Hudel son English Composition Scale was decided upon as the best in strument to use for two reasons. First, the scale was new and therefore known to but few teachers; and second, the values assigned were considered reliable because the compositions in 49
Phosphorus Sources for Aquatic Weeds: Water or Sediments?

Nine common species of aquatic macrophytes took all their phosphorus from the sediments when grown in situ in both a mesotrophic and a mildly eutrophic bay. Even under hypertrophic conditions, the sediments contributed an average of 72 percent of all the phosphorus taken up during growth. These experiments unambiguously demonstrate for the first time that submergent macrophytes in nature over-whelmingly depend on the sediments for their phosphorus supply and characterize them as potential nutrient pumps to the open water.
Interpretation of measured concentration profiles in sediment pore water

A robust numerical procedure for biogeochemical interpretation and analysis of measured concentration profiles of solutes in sediment pore water has been developed. Assuming that the concentration‐depth profile represents a steady state, the rate of net production or consumption as a function of depth can be calculated, together with the flux across the sediment‐water interface. Three kinds of vertical transport can be included in the analysis: molecular diffusion, bioturbation, and irrigation. The procedure involves finding a series of least square fits to the measured concentration profile, followed by comparisons of these fits through statistical F‐testing. This approach leads to an objective selection of the simplest production‐consumption profile that reproduces the concentration profile. Because the numerical procedure is optimized with respect to speed, one prediction can typically be done in a few minutes or less on a personal computer. The technique has been tested successfully against analytical solutions describing the transport and consumption of O2 in sediment pore water. In other tests, measured concentration profiles of O2, NO3−, NH4+, and ΣCO2 have been interpreted using the new procedure.
Call for an Integrative and Multi-Disciplinary Approach to Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

Much has been gained in our understanding of the psychopathology, assessment, and treatment of TBI. Still lacking is the breadth and depth that an integrative and multi-disciplinary approach to TBI portends. While there is a greater awareness of a need for such a systems-based approach as evidenced by the number of professional organizations and government agencies recently advocating a need for standardization in the collection data in TBI, the application of multi-dimensional approach, and the development novel strategies to deliver prevention, assessment and treatment to large, diverse populations, we are still in the early stages in making this important shift. In the nearer term, there are clinical assessment and interventional programs that can be developed and empirically validated to bring us closer to this integrative, multi-disciplinary ideal. The following review calls for a universal diagnostic classification system for TBI, integration of pathophysiology and pharmacological and rehabilitative therapies, development of treatments addressing disorders comorbid with TBI, and the delivery of assessment and treatment services to large underserved populations.
RoleVAT: Visual Assessment of Practical Need for Role Based Access Control

Role based access control (RBAC) is a powerful security administration concept that can simplify permission assignment management. Migration to and maintenance of RBAC requires role engineering, the identification of a set of roles that offer administrative benefit. However, establishing that RBAC is desirable in a given enterprise is lacking in current role engineering processes. To help identify the practical need for RBAC, we propose RoleVAT, a Role engineering tool for the Visual Assessment of user and permission Tendencies. User and permission clusters can be visually identified as potential user groups or roles. The benefit and impact of this visual analysis in enterprise environments is discussed and demonstrated through testing on real life as well as synthetic datasets. Our experimental results show the effectiveness of RoleVAT as well as interesting user and role tendencies in real enterprise environments.
Effects of interactive discussion and text type on learning counterintuitive science concepts

Abstract The possibility that students can learn counterintuitive science concepts as the result of reading and then discussing ideas within a social context was examined in this study. Students read one of two texts, narrative and expository, that taught students Newtonian principles related to projectile motion. After reading, they (a) answered questions about ideas in the text, (b) participated in a scaffolded discussion with another student and a researcher to answer the same questions, or (c) participated in a control activity. Students who read expository text and students who participated in scaffolded discussion performed better on posttests than did those who read narrative and participated in question/answer sessions. Students who answered questions after reading had inappropriate search strategies, and they twisted information to make it consistent with their own nonscientific understandings. Students who discussed the text evidenced the same behaviors; however, the scaffolded discussion helped.
How far can we go without convolution: Improving fully-connected networks

We propose ways to improve the performance of fully connected networks. We found that two approaches in particular have a strong effect on performance: linear bottleneck layers and unsupervised pre-training using autoencoders without hidden unit biases. We show how both approaches can be related to improving gradient flow and reducing sparsity in the network. We show that a fully connected network can yield approximately 70% classification accuracy on the permutation-invariant CIFAR-10 task, which is much higher than the current state-of-the-art. By adding deformations to the training data, the fully connected network achieves 78% accuracy, which is just 10% short of a decent convolutional network.
The impact of training on the conflict resolution ability of rural women in the Niger Delta, Nigeria

The study investigated the impact of training in conflict resolution on the willingness and potential ability of rural women to resolve conflicts in the Niger Delta area of Nigeria. A total of 332 rural women were purposely chosen for the sample of the study. Three sets of instruments were utilized to generate data for the study. Two of them solicited information from trainees on their willingness to utilize the ‘critical core skills’ of co-creative conflict resolution process pre- and post-training in conflict resolution. The other set of instruments comprised observation, verbal debriefings and reports of focus group discussion. Both the quantitative and qualitative analysis of the data generated from the study indicated that before training, respondents were willing to utilize only two (trust for opponents and maintaining integrity during interaction with opponents) of the six critical core skills in co-creative conflict resolution process. However, after training there were significant differences in trainees' willingness to utilize all the critical core skills of co-creative conflict resolution process. Furthermore, it was observed that the rural women were highly committed to the conflict resolution process and they expressed satisfaction with the training. In addition, they appeared to be proficient in utilizing a co-creative conflict resolution process. In view of the findings of the study it was recommended that co-creative conflict resolution should be taught in schools and non-formal education centres in response to the need of the particular social milieu where the educational institutions are situated.
A fast HW/SW FPGA-based thermal emulation framework for multi-processor system-on-chip

With the growing complexity in consumer embedded products and the improvements in process technology, multi-processor system-on-chip (MPSoC) architectures have become widespread. These new systems are complex to design as they must execute multiple complex applications (e.g. video processing, 3D games), while meeting additional design constraints (e.g. energy consumption or time-to-market). Moreover, the rise of temperature in the die for MPSoC components can seriously affect their final performance and reliability. Therefore, mechanisms to efficiently evaluate complete HW/SW MPSoC designs in terms of energy consumption, temperature, performance and other key metrics are needed. In this paper, we present a new HW/SW FPGA-based emulation framework that allows designers to rapidly extract a number of critical statistics from processing cores, memories and interconnection systems being emulated on a FPGA. This information is then used to interact in real-time with a SW thermal model running on a host computer via an Ethernet port. The results show speed-ups of three orders of magnitude compared to cycle-accurate MPSoC simulators, which enable a very fast exploration of a large range of MPSoC design alternatives at the cycle-accurate level. Finally, our HW/SW framework allows designers to test run-time thermal management strategies with real-life inputs without any loss in the performance of the emulated system
Prediction in Social Media for Monitoring and Recommendation

Social media including blogs and microblogs provide a rich window into user online activity. Monitoring social media datasets can be expensive due to the scale and inherent noise in such data streams. Monitoring and prediction can provide significant benefit for many applications including brand monitoring and making recommendations. Consider a focal topic and posts on multiple blog channels on this topic. Being able to target a few potentially influential blog channels which will contain relevant posts is valuable. Once these channels have been identified, a user can proactively join the conversation themselves to encourage positive word-of-mouth and to mitigate negative word-of-mouth. Links between different blog channels, and retweets and mentions between different microblog users, are a proxy of information flow and influence. When trying to monitor where information will flow and who will be influenced by a focal user, it is valuable to predict future links, retweets and mentions. Predictions of users who will post on a focal topic or who will be influenced by a focal user can yield valuable recommendations. In this thesis we address the problem of prediction in social media to select social media channels for monitoring and recommendation. Our analysis focuses on individual authors and linkers. We address a series of prediction problems including future author prediction problem and future link prediction problem in the blogosphere, as well as prediction in microblogs such as twitter. For the future author prediction in the blogosphere, where there are network properties and content properties, we develop prediction methods inspired by information retrieval approaches that use historical posts in the blog channel for prediction. We also train a ranking support vector machine (SVM) to solve the problem, considering both network properties and content properties. We identify a number of features which have impact on prediction accuracy. For the future link prediction in the blogosphere, we compare multiple link prediction methods, and show that our proposed solution which combines the network properties of the blog with content properties does better than methods which examine network properties or content properties in isolation. Most of the previous work has only looked at either one or the other. For the prediction in microblogs, where there are follower network, retweet network, and mention network, we propose a prediction model to utilize the hybrid network for prediction. In this model, we define a potential function that reflects the likelihood of a candidate user having a specific type of link to a focal user in the future and identify an optimization problem by the principle of maximum likelihood to determine the parameters in the model. We propose different approximate approaches based on the prediction model. Our approaches are demonstrated to outperform the baseline methods which only consider one network or utilize hybrid networks in a naive way. The prediction model can be applied to other similar problems where hybrid networks exist.
Residential Learning Communities Positively Affect College Binge Drinking

Recent surveys demonstrate that college students "binge drink" or engage in high-risk episodic drinking at high rates across the country. This drinking pattern has been associated with most of the serious health, legal, and academic problems faced by students and colleges. This study explored how living in a residential learning community affects drinking behaviors. Students living in three different residential learning communities at a large, midwestern public university were found to binge drink at significantly lower rates than did matched comparison groups who lived in another university residence hall. Further, learning community residents also suffered fewer problems arising from either their own drinking or that of others. We interpret these results as suggesting that new social norms—peer expectations about acceptable behavior— are created within the learning communities that positively affect binge drinking and its associated problems. These preliminary findings are promising indicators that student housing deliberately structured to promote community and academic involvement can reduce problem drinking behaviors, even when no explicit alcohol programming is involved.
Recurrent rearrangements in synaptic and neurodevelopmental genes and shared biologic pathways in schizophrenia, autism, and mental retardation.

CONTEXT Results of comparative genomic hybridization studies have suggested that rare copy number variations (CNVs) at numerous loci are involved in the cause of mental retardation, autism spectrum disorders, and schizophrenia. OBJECTIVES To provide an estimate of the collective frequency of a set of recurrent or overlapping CNVs in 3 different groups of cases compared with healthy control subjects and to assess whether each CNV is present in more than 1 clinical category. DESIGN Case-control study. SETTING Academic research. PARTICIPANTS We investigated 28 candidate loci previously identified by comparative genomic hybridization studies for gene dosage alteration in 247 cases with mental retardation, in 260 cases with autism spectrum disorders, in 236 cases with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder, and in 236 controls. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Collective and individual frequencies of the analyzed CNVs in cases compared with controls. RESULTS Recurrent or overlapping CNVs were found in cases at 39.3% of the selected loci. The collective frequency of CNVs at these loci is significantly increased in cases with autism, in cases with schizophrenia, and in cases with mental retardation compared with controls (P < .001, P = .01, and P = .001, respectively, Fisher exact test). Individual significance (P = .02 without correction for multiple testing) was reached for the association between autism and a 350-kilobase deletion located at 22q11 and spanning the PRODH and DGCR6 genes. CONCLUSIONS Weakly to moderately recurrent CNVs (transmitted or occurring de novo) seem to be causative or contributory factors for these diseases. Most of these CNVs (which contain genes involved in neurotransmission or in synapse formation and maintenance) are present in the 3 pathologic conditions (schizophrenia, autism, and mental retardation), supporting the existence of shared biologic pathways in these neurodevelopmental disorders.