Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Type I Interferon Is a Catastrophic Feature of the Diabetic Islet Microenvironment

A detailed understanding of the molecular pathways and cellular interactions that result in islet beta cell (β cell) destruction is essential for the development and implementation of effective therapies for prevention or reversal of type 1 diabetes (T1D). However, events that define the pathogenesis of human T1D have remained elusive. This gap in our knowledge results from the complex interaction between genetics, the immune system, and environmental factors that precipitate T1D in humans. A link between genetics, the immune system, and environmental factors are type 1 interferons (T1-IFNs). These cytokines are well known for inducing antiviral factors that limit infection by regulating innate and adaptive immune responses. Further, several T1D genetic risk loci are within genes that link innate and adaptive immune cell responses to T1-IFN. An additional clue that links T1-IFN to T1D is that these cytokines are a known constituent of the autoinflammatory milieu within the pancreas of patients with T1D. The presence of IFNα/β is correlated with characteristic MHC class I (MHC-I) hyperexpression found in the islets of patients with T1D, suggesting that T1-IFNs modulate the cross-talk between autoreactive cytotoxic CD8+ T lymphocytes and insulin-producing pancreatic β cells. Here, we review the evidence supporting the diabetogenic potential of T1-IFN in the islet microenvironment.
The Effect of Error Rate in Artificially Generated Data for Automatic Preposition and Determiner Correction

In this research we investigate the impact of mismatches in the density and type of error between training and test data on a neural system correcting preposition and determiner errors. We use synthetically produced training data to control error density and type, and “real” error data for testing. Our results show it is possible to combine error types, although prepositions and determiners behave differently in terms of how much error should be artificially introduced into the training data in order to get the best results.
A review of marketing for tramp shipping

This paper tries to fill the gap in the literature dealing with tramp shipping marketing. After an extensive literature review for works during at least last 20 years, it begun with presenting the traditional marketing mix, transformed into shipping realm and adding paperless trade. Paper's contribution however we consider to be the introduction into tramp shipping marketing of the non-linear marketing techniques like the phase space. We have worked out four case-studies trying to draw the trajectories in two circumstances of actual shipping companies' sales and revenues or profits, and to draw business suggestions for them. In our fourth case-study we submitted to the temptation to understand the business strategy of a leading Greek shipping company in the transportation of petroleum products. We have worked out a marketing framework/pigeon holes box and we tried to place company's strategies and actions into that. All went to place but something was lacking and this was Porter's ideas.
Constructible falsity

The present note introduces a constructible interpretation for the logical connectives of number theory which is divergent from that of the intuitionists. Under the intuitionistic interpretation, the principle of excluded middle and certain other classically acceptable principles of logic must be rejected. Under the present interpretation, while some classical principles may be reinstated, other principles, acceptable both classically and intuitionistically, may be shown to be invalid. Among these is the principle of contradiction.
A Novel Locus, Mody4, Distal to D7Mit189 on Chromosome 7 Determines Early-Onset NIDDM in Nonobese C57BL/6 (Akita) Mutant Mice

In this article, we report on a nonobese C57BL/6 (B6) mouse model of NIDDM named Akita mouse, characterized by early age onset and autosomal dominant mode of inheritance. At 7 weeks of age, the mean morning blood glucose levels (mmol/1) under ad libitum feeding conditions were significantly higher (P < 0.01, analysis of variance [ANOVA]) in diabetic mice than in unaffected mice: 27.3 ± 5.3 for diabetic males (n = 50) and 9.3 ± 1.2 for unaffected males (n = 50); 13.6 ± 3.8 for diabetic females (n = 50) and 8.7 ± 1.1 for unaffected females (n = 50), while corresponding immunoreactive insulin levels in plasma were significantly lower in diabetic mice than in unaffected mice. In vitro insulin secretion was also impaired, even at 4 weeks of age. The 50% survival time for male diabetic mice (305 days) was significantly shorter than that of unaffected counterpart mice but not for diabetic females. Obesity did not occur in diabetic mice. Histological examinations of the pancreas in diabetic mice, from 4 to 35 weeks of age, revealed decreases in the numbers of active β-cells without insulitis. Morphometry demonstrated specific decreases in immunologically detectable insulin density in islets in diabetic mice, even at 4 weeks of age, without changes of relative islet areas. By linkage analysis, a single locus was identified on the basis of 178 N2 mice [(B6 × C3H/He)F1 × B6 and (B6 × C3H/He)F1 × C3H/He]. This locus, which we named Mody4, was mapped to chromosome 7 in a region 2–8 cM distal to D7Mitl89 (logarithm of odds [LOD] score = 15.6 and 10.3).
Tactile transducer based on electromechanical solenoids

This paper describes the design, the preliminary evaluation and proposes a control strategy of a novel distributed tactile transducer for finger tip stimulation. The presented study has been conducted for the realization of a compact tactile device aiming at integration with a kinesthetic feedback systems. The transducer is a 5x6 array based on custom electromechanical mini-solenoid designed and optimized for reduced encumbrance and lightweight. The realized actuator has a diameter of 2.4mm and is capable of delivering a maximum force of 73mN. In the first section we present the electro-mechanical design, the optimization and the first experimental test of a prototype for the new transducer. In the second section we show the electronic design and a strategy for controlling arrays of transducers with a reduced number of connectors. This principle is based on active matrix addressing of LCD displays.
How Presidential Running Mates Influence Turnout

Primaries frequently exacerbate ideological divisions within a party. When parties select more moderate candidates whom they believe will appeal to a broader audience, the nominee must find a way to win over their party’s base. We investigate the potential rewards of using the vice presidential nominee to increase voter turnout among those ideologically alienated by a party’s moderate nominee. We also examine the risks of a more extreme vice presidential nominee costing a president the support of moderate voters. To perform this analysis, we examine how voters’ ideologies and attitudes toward Sarah Palin affected their voter turnout and their vote choice. By doing this, we are able to assess the effectiveness of the attempt to activate the base and find that while vice presidential nominees may provide the opportunity to effectively target ideological groups, they may also contribute to a loss of support from moderately inclined voters.
Liquidity, Volatility and Equity Trading Costs Across Countries and Over Time

Actual investment performance reflects the underlying strategy of the portfolio manager and the execution costs incurred in realizing those objectives. Execution costs, especially in illiquid markets, can dramatically reduce the notional return to an investment strategy. This paper examines the interactions between cost, liquidity and volatility, and analyses their determinants using panel data for 42 countries from September 1996 to December 1998. We document wide variation in trading costs across countries; emerging markets, in particular, have significantly higher trading costs even after correcting for factors such as market capitalization and volatility. We analyse the inter-relationships between turnover, equity trading costs and volatility, and investigate the impact of these variables on equity returns. In particular, we show that increased volatility, acting through costs, reduces a portfolio's expected return. However, higher volatility reduces turnover also, mitigating the actual impact of higher costs on returns. Further, turnover is inversely related to trading costs, providing a possible explanation for the increase in turnover in recent years. The results demonstrate that the composition of global efficient portfolios can change dramatically when cost and turnover are taken into account. Copyright 2001 by Blackwell Publishers Ltd.
Trading Business-Cycle Depth for Duration using an economy-specific characteristic

Regarding the trade-off between the depth and the duration of recessions, there exists a mounting empirical evidence of the idiosyncratic and non-synchronized behavior of the business cycle over time within and across countries. To account for the trade-off, a model is presented wherein an economy-specific parameter does control the magnitude, severity and persistence of the business cycle without the need to add an asymmetric functional form [that captures the propagation mechanism] to the model. The model results show that as much as half of a percentage point of GDP in depth and a relative difference of three years duration can be attributed to this parameter. The model implies a two-dimensional depth-duration space wherein we place the [average] depth-duration expansion and contraction for the U.S.
Money-Wage Dynamics and Labor-Market Equilibrium

This chapter discusses money-wage dynamics and labor-market equilibrium. A generalized excess-demand theory of the rate of change of the average money-wage rate has been developed for frictional labor markets that allocate heterogeneous jobs and workers without having perfect information and market clearance by auction. There are two explanatory variables: the vacancy rate and the unemployment rate. The unemployment rate and the rate of change of employment are shown to be joint proxies for the vacancy rate. Hence, generalized excess demand can be regarded as a derived function of the unemployment rate and the rate of change of employment. This relationship is the augmented Phillips curve. Some of its properties are deduced. Equilibrium entails equality between the actual and expected rates of wage change. The steady-state equilibrium locus is implied to be a vertical line at a unique steady-state equilibrium unemployment rate. This is consistent with the usual theory of anticipated inflation. But if there are downward money-wage rigidities, then, up to a point, every one percentage point increase of the expected rate of wage change produces less than a one percentage point increase of the actual rate of wage change. The steady-state equilibrium locus will then have the characteristic negative slope of the Phillips curve in the range of large unemployment rates. But at sufficiently small unemployment rates, equilibrium is impossible and under the adaptive expectations theory, an explosive hyperinflation will result.
Psychosocial factors and treatment adherence in paediatric HIV/AIDS

Abstract A social ecological model provides a promising framework for understanding the individual, family, and societal factors contributing to non-adherence to treatment of paediatric HIV. This study explored which factors relevant to this model are associated with caregivers’ adherence and child health outcomes. A cross-sectional design was utilized to assess relationships among current individual, familial, extra-familial factors, caregiver adherence, and viral load. Data were collected from 43 caregivers, and viral load data were obtained from the medical records of their HIV+ children. Caregiver drug and alcohol use and HIV+ status were associated with non-adherence and elevated viral load. Negative outcome expectancy was associated with lower adherence but was not significant in the multivariate analyses. Family factors were not significant, but these measures had low reliability in this sample. Extra-familial factors such as dissatisfaction with medical specialty care and more stressful life events were not directly associated with adherence but were related to increased caregiver substance use. Results of this first study to explore multiple predictors of adherence and health outcomes in paediatric HIV require replication with larger samples, but findings suggest caregiver characteristics that place children at risk for disease progression due to poor adherence to treatment.
Wireless Implants

In vivo wireless biomedical microsystems fueled by the continued scaling of electronic components and the development of new micro sensors and micropackaging technologies is rapidly changing the landscape of the electronics and medical industry. These devices can be used for a myriad of monitoring, diagnostic, therapeutic, and interventional applications that range from the well known cardiac pacemakers and defibrillators to emerging applications in visual prosthesis, brain computer interfaces (BCIs), and embedded monitoring of a variety of medical useful variables such as oxygen, glucose, pH level, pressure, and core temperature. This article presents a brief overview of design considerations for implementing wireless power and data interfaces for in vivo biomedical devices. Examples of emerging implantable and ingestible wireless biomedical devices are discussed.
A NOTE ON BANTU EDUCATION, 1953 TO 1970

In 1954 Hendrik Verwoerd, one of the main architects of the apartheid system, said that blacks ought not to be trained above certain “forms of labour”. These words, often quoted out of context, are commonly interpreted as based on a view of black inferiority and as designed to keep blacks in a position of servitude. This note argues that other considerations should also be taken into account, including the need for providing appropriate labour on a mass basis in an industrialising society and for establishing control over urbanised black youths.
STRIPE: Signal selection for runtime power estimation

Knowledge of power consumption at a subsystem level can facilitate adaptive energy-saving techniques such as power gating, runtime task mapping and dynamic voltage and/or frequency scahng. While we have the ability to attribute power to an arbitrary hardware system's modules in real time, the selection of the particular signals to monitor for the purpose of power estimation within any given module has yet to be treated as a primary concern. In this paper, we show how the automatic analysis of circuit structure and behaviour inferred through vectored simulation can be used to produce high-quality rankings of signals' importance, with the resulting selections able to achieve lower power estimation error than those of prior work coupled with decreases in area, power and modelling complexity. In particular, by monitoring just eight signals per module (∼0.3% of the total) across the 15 we examined, we demonstrate how to achieve runtime module-level estimation errors 1.5–6.9× lower than when rehant on the signal selections made in accordance with a more straightforward, previously published metric.
Monte Carlo Bias Field Correction in Endorectal Diffusion Imaging

Prostate cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer death in the male population. The detection of prostate cancer using imaging has been challenging until recently. Multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been shown to allow accurate localization of the cancers and can help direct biopsies to cancer foci, which is required to plan the treatment. The interpretation of MRI, however, requires a high level of expertise and review of large multiparametric datasets. An endorectal receiver coil is often used to improve signal-to-noise ratio and aid in detection of smaller cancer foci. Moreover, computed high b-value diffusion-weighted imaging show improved delineation of tumors but is subject to strong bias fields near the coil. Here, a nonparametric approach to bias field correction for endorectal diffusion imaging via Monte Carlo sampling is introduced. It will be shown that the delineation between the prostate gland and the background and intensity inhomogeneity may be improved using the proposed approach. High b-value generated results also show improved visualization of tumor regions. The results suggest that Monte Carlo bias correction may have potential as a preprocessing tool for endorectal diffusion images for the prostate cancer detection and localization or segmentation.
Phenotypic spectrum of patients with PLA2G6 mutation and PARK14-linked parkinsonism

Background: PLA2G6 is the causative gene for infantile neuroaxonal dystrophy, neurodegeneration associated with brain iron accumulation, and Karak syndrome. Based on previous reports, patients with PLA2G6 mutations could show axonal dystrophy, dystonia, dementia, and cerebellar signs. Recently, PLA2G6 was also reported as the causative gene for early-onset PARK14-linked dystonia-parkinsonism. Methods: To clarify the role of PLA2G6 mutation in parkinsonism, we conducted mutation analysis in 29 selected patients with very early-onset (≤30, mean 21.2 ± 8.4 years, ±SD) parkinsonism. These patients had other clinical features (e.g., mental retardation/dementia [14/29], psychosis [15/29], dystonia [11/29], and hyperreflexia [11/29]). Results: Two novel compound heterozygous PLA2G6 mutations were detected (patient A: p.F72L/p.R635Q; patients B1 and B2: p.Q452X/p.R635Q). All 3 patients had early-onset l-dopa–responsive parkinsonism with dementia and frontotemporal lobar atrophy. Disease progression was relatively rapid. SPECT in patient B1 showed frontotemporal lobar hypoperfusion. MRI in patient A showed iron accumulation in the substantia nigra and striatum. Conclusions: Although the clinical presentation of PLA2G6-associated neurodegeneration was reported to be homogeneous, our findings suggest patients with PLA2G6 mutation could show heterogeneous phenotype such as dystonia-parkinsonism, dementia, frontotemporal atrophy/hypoperfusion, with or without brain iron accumulation. Based on the clinical heterogeneity, the functional roles of PLA2G6 and the roles of PLA2G6 variants including single heterozygous mutations should be further elucidated in patients with atypical parkinsonism, dementia, or Parkinson disease. PLA2G6 mutations should be considered in patients with early-onset l-dopa–responsive parkinsonism and dementia with frontotemporal lobar atrophy.
Survey on ISO 9000 quality management system implementation in Hong Kong

The reasons for the high level of interest in quality standards and quality management have arisen because of the continued growth in world trade and the need of countries for an ever‐increasing strategy to have access to the world markets. The far‐reaching political changes in many countries, coupled with the transition to market economies and the desire to participate in the global market‐place, contribute well to the interest. The design of questions in the questionnaire was based on the people’s thinking, concepts or philosophies of the published ISO quality standards. The amalgamation of these useful thoughts, concepts and philosophies would help in developing some quality management strategies that will lead to business excellence performance. This paper outlines the methodologies and bases used in the design of a questionnaire for the investigation of ISO 9000 quality management system status in Hong Kong. The survey itself also assesses the state of development of quality management aspects and identifies the business management strategies that suit the needs of Hong Kong.
Android app recommendation approach based on network traffic measurement and analysis

A large amount and different types of mobile applications (or apps) are being offered to end users via app markets. These apps normally generate network traffic, which will consumes users' mobile data plan and may even cause potential security issues. However, the amount and type of network traffic generated by a mobile app in the wild is still poorly understood due to the lack of a systematic measurement methodology. In this paper, we first measure and analyze network traffic cost of Android apps in the official Android markets. Based on the results, we find that the apps from different categories have different traffic costs. In particular, there is a remarkable difference among the apps with similar functionality in terms of network traffic cost. Then, we add metrics of traffic cost into our app recommendation algorithm, which differs from the conventional app recommendation approaches. Experimental results show that the proposed recommendation algorithm can effectively help mobile app users avoid various potential security and privacy risks brought by the unnecessary network traffic consumption.
Cross-Dependency Inference in Multi-Layered Networks

The increasingly connected world has catalyzed the fusion of networks from different domains, which facilitates the emergence of a new network model—multi-layered networks. Examples of such kind of network systems include critical infrastructure networks, biological systems, organization-level collaborations, cross-platform e-commerce, and so forth. One crucial structure that distances multi-layered network from other network models is its cross-layer dependency, which describes the associations between the nodes from different layers. Needless to say, the cross-layer dependency in the network plays an essential role in many data mining applications like system robustness analysis and complex network control. However, it remains a daunting task to know the exact dependency relationships due to noise, limited accessibility, and so forth. In this article, we tackle the cross-layer dependency inference problem by modeling it as a collective collaborative filtering problem. Based on this idea, we propose an effective algorithm Fascinate that can reveal unobserved dependencies with linear complexity. Moreover, we derive Fascinate-ZERO, an online variant of Fascinate that can respond to a newly added node timely by checking its neighborhood dependencies. We perform extensive evaluations on real datasets to substantiate the superiority of our proposed approaches.
Randomized path planning with preferences in highly complex dynamic environments

SUMMARY In this paper we consider the problem of planning paths for articulated bodies operating in workplaces containing obstacles and regions with preferences expressed as degrees of desirability. Degrees of desirability could specify danger zones and desire zones. A planned path should not collide with the obstacles and should maximize the degrees of desirability. Region desirability can also convey search-control strategies guiding the exploration of the search space. To handle desirability specifications, we introduce the notion of flexible probabilistic roadmap (flexible PRM) as an extension of the traditional PRM. Each edge in a flexible PRM is assigned a desirability degree. We show that flexible PRM planning can be achieved very efficiently with a simple sampling strategy of the configuration space defined as a trade-off between a traditional sampling oriented toward coverage of the configuration space and a heuristic optimization of the path desirability degree. For path planning problems in dynamic environments, where obstacles and region desirability can change in real time, we use dynamic and anytime search exploration strategies. The dynamic strategy allows the planner to replan efficiently by exploiting results from previous planning phases. The anytime strategy starts with a quickly computed path with a potentially low desirability degree which is then incrementally improved depending on the available planning time.