Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Soziologische Theorie und Sozialpolitik im entwickelten Wohlfahrtsstaat : Zu Esping-Andersens "Drei Welten des Wohlfahrtskapitalismus"

Ausgangspunkt von Gosta Esping-Andersens "The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism" ist seine Definition von Sozialpolitik als De-Kommodifizierung. Diese Definition liegt auch seiner Konstruktion wohlfahrtstaatlicher Regimes zugrunde. Der erste Teil dieses Beitrages zeigt die Schwierigkeiten verallgemeinernder Definitionen von Sozialpolitik anhand ihrer Folgen fur die Untersuchung und Erklarung wohlfahrtsstaatlicher Entwicklungen. Zweitens wird seine idealtypische Konstruktion von Regimes kritisiert, weil die Art und Weise ihrer Verwendung den Unterschied zwischen theoretischer Konstruktion und sozialpolitischer Realitat verwischt und Erklarungen zirkular werden last. Die Grenzen von Esping-Andersens funktionalistischer Begriffs- und makrostruktureller Theoriebildung zeigen sich besonders deutlich beim Thema des institutionellen Wandels von Sozialpolitik. Im abschliesenden dritten Teil wird schlieslich auf eine weitere Konsequenz seiner Methodik eingegangen werden: die mangelnde Brauchbarkeit seiner Theorie fur die Analyse und wissenschaftliche Klarung der Gegenwartsprobleme des Wohlfahrtsstaates. Auf drei Punkte wird dabei naher eingegangen: einmal die Grenzen politischer Gestaltung von Lebensverhaltnissen in der Marktwirtschaft und die damit verbundene Ernuchterung, dann die Selbstverknotung sozialpolitischer Interventionsketten, und schlieslich die sozialpolitische Auseinandersetzung mit Problemen, die wohlfahrtsstaatliche Institutionen selbst verursacht haben und die zu einer zunehmenden Selbstbindung der Sozialpolitik fuhrten. Dieser Beitrag macht jenseits der Kritik an Esping-Andersens "Drei Welten des Wohlfahrtskapitalismus" auf einen grundsatzlichen Punkt aufmerksam: Die Untersuchung des entwickelten Wohlfahrtsstaates benotigt andere Gesichtspunkte, analytische Unterscheidungen und begriffliche Instrumente als die Untersuchung des historischen Durchbruchs und der Entwicklung des Wohlfahrtsstaates.
Performance evaluation of Twitter datasets on SQL and NoSQL DBMS

Twitter has grown significantly in the past several years and provides a new vector for data collection, offering individual users and companies valuable insights. This presents a technical challenge to collect and analyze all the data in an efficient manner. Traditional relational databases have not been able to provide acceptable response times that this new problem presents, and focus has started shifting to newer technologies such as NoSQL databases. In this paper, we try to answer a question as follows: “If I want to store and access millions of tweets for data analysis, which database systems should I choose? ” We selected four popular SQL and NoSQL database systems and tested on different twitter dataset varying from one million to fifty million tweets. Each workload test involves running a core set of data operation commands. The experiment results are promising and provide guideline for choosing the most efficient database systems based on different user requirements.
C/EBP induces adipogenesis through PPAR: a unified pathway

PPAR and C/EBP are critical transcription factors inadipogenesis, but the precise role of these proteins hasbeen difficult to ascertain because they positively regu-late each other’s expression. Questions remain aboutwhether these factors operate independently in separate,parallel pathways of differentiation, or whether a singlepathway exists. PPAR can promote adipogenesis inC/EBP
Effect of glyceryltrinitrate and 8-Br-cGMP on tension and phosphorylase a activity in vascular smooth muscle.

The aim of the present study was to examine the effect of glyceryltrinitrate (GTN) and 8-Br-cGMP on tension and cytosolic calcium concentration in pre-contracted bovine mesenteric arteries (BMA). The activity of glycogen phosphorylase a was used as a measure of the cytosolic calcium concentration. The activity of this enzyme is regulated by the cytosolic calcium concentration and/or cAMP. Since the cAMP level was not found to be affected by GTN-treatment, the use of phosphorylase a activity to monitor changes in the cytosolic calcium concentration can be justified. The vessels were contracted with phenylephrine (10 microM) or 100 mM K+-depolarization, which caused an increase in phosphorylase a activity. Addition of 1 microM GTN to the phenylephrine-contracted vessels resulted in a 3-4-fold rise in intracellular cGMP level, which was accompanied by a large decrease in tension and phosphorylase a activity. The K+-depolarized vessels, on the other hand, were largely resistant to the relaxant action of GTN, and there was only a slight reduction of the phosphorylase a activity. In phenylephrine-contracted vessels, made tolerant to GTN by incubation at elevated pH in the presence of GTN (0.44 mM), no changes in tension and phosphorylase a activity were seen after stimulation with a test dose of GTN (1 microM). The cGMP response was also markedly blunted in the tolerant vessels. Relaxation of phenylephrine-contracted BMA induced by 8-Br-cGMP (0.5 mM) was also accompanied by a reduction in phosphorylase a activity. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Self Cascode Current Mirrors For Low Voltage Analog Circuits

A current mirror (CM) based on self cascode arrange ment, useful for low voltage analog and mixed mode circuit is proposed. The CM uses 4 MOSFETs, has hig h input and output swing, operating at ± 0.5 V supply. Pspice simulations confirm the high performance of this CM having a bandwidth of 2.1 GHz. Resistive and capac itive compensations result in about threefold bandwidth i ncrease to 6.1 GHz.
Rapid prototyping with Limited Resources in an existing Transfer Based Machine Translation system

We describe the rapid development of a DutchEnglish Machine Translations system in an existing transfer-based framework. Constructions of Transfer-based Machine Translation prototypes are known for requiring a lot of human labour. In this approach we focus on building a prototype really fast with minimal human labour. This divides the project in two tasks: deriving a suitable lexicon and building an acceptable parallel grammar. The construction of the Lexicon is done mainly by using results of statistical training on a parallel corpus. The grammar is built by hand, because the used Framework, the Avenue framework can work with partial parses the focus is on building a grammar which recognises as much constituents as possible, but not necessarily full parses of every sentence. Performance results show this system can keep up with previous built prototypes in the Avenue Transfer-Based project.
SHV-13, a Novel Extended-Spectrum β-Lactamase, in Klebsiella pneumoniae Isolates from Patients in an Intensive Care Unit in Amsterdam

ABSTRACT Eleven clonally related Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates were examined. These had been isolated at an intensive care unit in Amsterdam in 1994. Their resistance was associated with a conjugative 170-kb plasmid which encoded a novel SHV β-lactamase designated SHV-13. The SHV-13 enzyme had two substitutions compared with SHV-1: Leu35Gln and Gly238Ala. It hydrolyzed cefotaxime much more rapidly than ceftazidime or aztreonam.
Growth in Agricultural Productivity and Its Components in Bangladeshi Regions (1987–2009): An Application of Bootstrapped Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA)

The present study applies a bootstrapped data envelopment analysis (DEA) procedure to compute bias-corrected measures of agricultural total factor productivity (TFP) change and its components (technical change and technical efficiency change) using a panel data of 19 regions of Bangladesh covering a 23-year period (1987–2009), thereby overcoming the limitation of the lack of statistical inference of the conventional non-parametric DEA. Results revealed that overall productivity grew at a modest rate of 0.03%, mainly powered by technological progress at 0.03% and a negligible decline in technical efficiency at 0.004% with large disparities amongst regions. Six regions in the middle order shifted ranks with regard to TFP change following bias correction. The estimated confidence intervals demonstrated that many regions underwent either progress or regress in productivity performance over time. Investments in research and development (R&D), agricultural extension, and crop diversification are suggested to improve regional inequality and declining technical efficiency.
Aluminum hydroxide nanoparticles show strong activity to stimulate Th-1 immune response against tuberculosis

Abstract Many materials such as aluminum hydroxide have been tried as adjuvants to compensate low inherent immunogenicity of subunit vaccines. The aim of this study was to evaluate the specific immune response following the administration of aluminum hydroxide nanoparticles with EsxV antigen. The physiochemical properties of the nanoparticle were characterized in vitro. After subcutaneous immunization, cytokine secretion patterns including IFN-gama,IL-4, and TGF-beta levels were measured by indirect enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Aluminum hydroxide-NPs were demonstrated excellent effects to raise of IFN-γ secretion in compare to EsxV alone. Administration of aluminum hydroxide nanoparticles stimulates strong cellular immune response and could be considered as appropriate adjuvant against TB infection.
Monitoring Compliance with Open Access policies

In the last few years, academic communities have seen an increase in the number of Open Access (OA) policies being adopted at the institutional and funder levels. In parallel to policy implementation, institutions and funders have also been engaged in developing mechanisms to monitor academics and researchers compliance with the existing OA policies. This study highlights a few of the cases where compliance is being effectively monitored by institutions and funders. In the first section, Open Access is briefly overviewed and the rationale for monitoring OA policy compliance is explained. The second section looks at best practices in monitoring policy compliance with OA policies by funders and institutions. The case studies reflect on compliance with the UK Funding Councils and the USA National Institutes of Health OA policies. The third section makes recommendations on what processes and procedures universities and funders should adopt to monitor compliance with their OA policies. The final section recapitulates some of the key ideas related to monitoring policy compliance.
Association Study of Astrocyte-Derived Protein S100B Gene Polymorphisms with Major Depressive Disorder in Chinese People

Objective: Astroglial-derived protein S100B is known to play important roles in axonal growth, neural plasticity, and energy regulation. Disturbance of these neurodevelopmental processes is proposed as one possible etiology for mood disorder. Therefore, we performed a genetic analysis of S100B in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). Method: The polymorphisms of S100B were determined by polymerase chain reaction–restriction fragment length polymorphism in patients (n = 152) with MDD and healthy control subjects (n = 150). The genotypic and allelic distributions of 2 variants were analyzed in Chinese patients. Results: Two single nucleotide polymorphisms did not display significant associations with MDD. However, there were significant differences in age of onset in 3 genotypes of S100B rs9722. Significant differences in the subgroup depression (first-episode and recurrent depression) were also shown in 3 genotypes of S100B rs9722 and rs11911834 in patients and control subjects (P < 0.05). Conclusions: Our findings did not suggest association of S100B gene polymorphisms in patients with MDD in China. We found there were differences in depressive episodes among different genotypes of S100B gene.
Using Social Media Platforms for Human-Robot Interaction in Domestic Environment

This article explores the application of existing social media platforms for human–robot interaction. With the increasing popularity of social media platforms that connect humans, we propose to portray domestic robots as buddies on the contact list of family members and present a robot management system that employs complementary social media platforms for humans to interact with the vacuuming robot Roomba and a surveillance robot developed on top of iRobot Create. The social media platforms adopted include short message services (SMS), instant messenger (MSN), an online shared calendar (Google Calendar), and a social networking site (Facebook). Hence, we can provide a rich set of user-familiar, intuitive, and highly accessible interfaces, allowing users to flexibly choose their preferred tools in different situations. An in-lab experiment and a multiday field study are conducted to study the characteristics and strengths of each interface and to investigate users’ perception to the robots and behaviors in choosing the interfaces.
Using zebrafish in systems toxicology for developmental toxicity testing

With the high cost and the long‐term assessment of developmental toxicity testing in mammals, the vertebrate zebrafish has become a useful alternative model organism for high‐throughput developmental toxicity testing. Zebrafish is also very favorable for the 3R perspective in toxicology; however, the methodologies used by research groups vary greatly, posing considerable challenges to integrative analysis. In this review, we discuss zebrafish developmental toxicity testing, focusing on the methods of chemical exposure, the assessment of morphological abnormalities, housing conditions and their effects on the production of healthy embryos, and future directions. Zebrafish as a systems toxicology model has the potential to elucidate developmental toxicity pathways, and to provide a sound basis for human health risk assessments.
Cardiovascular-Emotional Dampening: The Relationship Between Blood Pressure and Recognition of Emotion

Objective: Persons with elevated blood pressure (BP) show dampened emotional responses to affect-laden stimuli. We sought to further examine cardiovascular-emotional dampening by examination of the relationship between resting hemodynamic measures and recognition of emotion in an African American community-based sample. Methods: Participants were 106 African American men and women (55 women; mean age = 52.8 years), mainly low in socioeconomic status, and part of the Healthy Aging in Nationally Diverse Longitudinal Samples pilot study. Participants evaluated emotional expressions in faces and sentences using the Perception of Affect Test (PAT). Resting BP, total peripheral resistance (TPR), cardiac output, and heart rate were obtained continuously using a Portapres BP monitor. Results: Total PAT scores were inversely related to systolic (r = −0.30) and diastolic (r = −0.24) BPs, TPR (r = −0.36), and age (r = −0.31; p values < .01) and were positively related to cardiac output (r = 0.27) and education (r = 0.38; p values < .01), as well as with mental state (r = 0.25) and body mass index (r = −0.20; p values < .05). Accuracy of emotion recognition on the PAT tasks remained inversely related to TPR and BP after adjustment for demographic variables, medication, mental state, and body mass index. Conclusions: Elevated BP and TPR were associated with reduced perception of affect. TPR was the most consistent independent hemodynamic correlate of emotional dampening for the PAT scores. These results suggest potentially important links among central nervous system regulation of emotions, hemodynamic processes, and hypertension development.BP = blood pressure; CNS = central nervous system; PAT = Perception of Affect Test; HANDLS = Healthy Aging in Nationally Diverse Longitudinal Samples; SES = socioeconomic status; CV = cardiovascular; HR = heart rate; TPR = total peripheral resistance; CO = cardiac output; SBP = systolic blood pressure; DBP = diastolic blood pressure; MMSE = Mini-Mental State Examination
Regulation of Adenovirus Alternative Pre-mRNA Splicing Functional Characterization of Exonic and Intronic Splicing Enhancer Elements

Pre-mRNA splicing and alternative pre-mRNA splicing are key regulatory steps controlling geneexpression in higher eukaryotes. The work in this thesis was focused on a characterization of thesignificance of exonic and intronic splicing enhancer elements for pre-mRNA splicing.Previous studies have shown that removal of introns with weak and regulated splice sitesrequire a splicing enhancer for activity. Here we extended these studies by demonstrating thattwo "strong" constitutively active introns, the adenovirus 52,55K and the Drosophila Ftzintrons, are absolutely dependent on a downstream splicing enhancer for activity in vitro.Two types splicing enhancers were shown to perform redundant functions as activators ofSplicing. Thus, SR protein binding to an exonic splicing enhancer element or U1 snRNP bindingto a downstream 5'splice site independently stimulated upstream intron removal. The datafurther showed that a 5'splice site was more effective and more versatile in activating splicing.Collectively the data suggest that a U1 enhancer is the prototypical enhancer element activatingsplicing of constitutively active introns.Adenovirus IIIa pre-mRNA splicing is enhanced more than 200-fold in infected extracts. Themajor enhancer element responsible for this activation was shown to consist of the IIIa branchsite/polypyrimidne tract region. It functions as a Janus element and blocks splicing in extractsfrom uninfected cells while functioning as a splicing enhancer in the context of infected extracts.Phosphorylated SR proteins are essential for pre-mRNA splicing. Large amount recombinantSR proteins are needed in splicing studies. A novel expression system was developed to expressphosphorylated, soluble and functionally active ASF/SF2 in E. Coli.
Data Mining for XML Query Answering Support

The database research field has concentrated on the Extensible Markup Language (XML) due to its flexible hierarchical nature which can use to represent huge amounts of data. XMLdoesn’t have a fixed schema, while having a possibly irregular and incomplete structure. In this recent world, we have seen digital information available on the web like e-business transaction, e -shopping, e-learning etc., These XML documents are enormous and so the datasets returned an answer query is also huge, which in turn is a complicated process for the retrieval of interpretable knowledge. In this paper, we use an enhanced Tree based Association Rule (TAR) to retrieve the results for the queries posed by the users on the XML document. TAR files provide intensional information on the structure and content of XML document. In addition we propose a method to dynamically update the TAR files when the dataset changes. KeywordsXML, Query-answering, Data mining, Intensional information, Tree-based association
Cash Management Practices of Small Business Owners in the Cape Coast Metropolitan Area of Ghana

The burden of cash management has become a topical issue in small businesses. To gain information on current practice, this paper examines survey evidence on cash management practices of two hundred and two small business owners (SBOs) in the Cape Coast Metropolitan Area of Ghana. It is evident in the study that majority of the SBOs studied either do not understand the attributes or the importance of cash management and as a result did not practice any formal system of the concept. The informal systems of cash management mainly practiced were found to be susceptible to cash fraud and other business growth difficulties. Some associated cash management problems have been highlighted and solutions proffered for ameliorating the situation. The paper further suggests that future research and policy directions consider gender differences and attributes as well as some industry peculiarities to the present rear growth in this important business unit.
A bidirectional neural interface with a HV stimulator and a LV neural amplifier

This paper shows a neural stimulator with 15V supply voltage combined with a neural low-noise amplifier (LNA) with a supply of ±1.65V around the common mode voltage (VCM) of 7.5V. In most implementations, the stimulator and recorder use the same supply domain, thus either leading to low voltage compliance (VC) for the stimulator or to high power consumption in the recorder. Obviously, a separation of both is the preferable choice, but comes with the challenge of effective protection of the low voltage (LV) sensitive input nodes of the recorder. A high voltage (HV) transistor used as a switch between the two parts enables different supply voltages for stimulator and recorder. Thus, a high current stimulator with high VC can be combined with a high efficient LV neural recorder. The presented implementation shows a stimulator with a maximum stimulation current of ±15mA with 5-bit resolution out of a 15V supply. The recording part consists of a LNA with a VCM of 7.5V and a supply voltage of ±1.65V around VCM - VDDLNA=9.15V and VSSLNA=5.85V. It consumes only 11. 8μW and achieves an input referred root-mean-square (RMS) noise of 5. 5μV in the frequency band of 1Hz to 100kHz. The design is implemented and simulated in a 0. 18μm HV technology.
Enhanced photothermal lens using a photonic crystal surface

A photonic crystal (PC)-enhanced photothermal lens (PTL) is demonstrated for the detection of optically thin light absorption materials. The PC-enhanced PTL system is based on a pump-probe scheme consisting of a PC surface, pump laser beam, and probe laser beam. Heated by the pump beam, light absorption materials on the PC surface generate the PTL and cause a substantial change to the guided-mode resonance supported by the PC structure. The change of the PC resonance is detected using the probe laser beam by measuring its reflectivity from the PC surface. When applied to analyze dye molecules deposited on the PC substrate, the developed system is capable of enhancing the PTL signal by 10-fold and reducing the lowest distinguishable concentration by 8-fold, in comparison to measuring without utilizing the PC resonance. The PC-enhanced PTL was also used to detect gold nanoparticles on the PC surface and exhibited a 20-fold improvement of the lowest distinguishable concentration. The PC-enhanced PTL technolo.
Nonlinear Servomotor in Single Pulse Simulation of Electrical Discharge Machining System Modeling

Electrical Discharge Machining, EDM is a nonconventional and high precision machining. EDM system is considered a combination of servo system and EDM process. The servo system precisely controls the gap between electrode and workpiece for the continuous electrical discharges occurrence. Machining performance and stability depend on the performance of servo system. The EDM servo system usually modeled as a linear system, which ignores the nonlinearities of the motor. An assumption that the nonlinearities are insignificant in EDM system model may leads to modeling errors and result in poor control performance. In this study, nonlinear EDM servo system model was presented and the dynamic response of the model was analyzed and compared with the linear model. Simulation result shows a slightly difference in system response and a controller used in linear model is less efficient for a nonlinear EDM servo system model. The results are very useful for control strategy and can contribute to a better machining performance and stability of EDM applications.