Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cortisol reactivity following pharmacological “clamp” exposes women’s vulnerability to major depressive disorder

Stress-evoked hyperactivity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis— typically measured via cortisol activity—is a major risk factor in the pathogenesis of major depressive disorder (MDD). However, the standard laboratory assessment of stress reactivity—the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST)—reveals no sex differences, despite the finding that women experience MDD at about twice the rate of men. One possibility is that HPA axis responses to the TSST are at or the near physiologic ceiling. If true, then down-regulation of the HPA axis prior to TSST administration might reveal the expected sex difference in HPA axis response. To this end, we hypothesized that suppression of HPA axis response using dexamethasone would reveal the sex difference in TSST-evoked cortisol reactivity, thus supporting the role of hypercortisolemia in the pathophysiology of MDD. Prior to TSST administration, 92 healthy, never-depressed participants (50% female) were randomized to receive either two placebo pills, or 2mg dexamethasone and 80mg propranolol. Cardiovascular (heart rate) and HPA axis (cortisol) responses were assessed before, during, and after TSST administration.
GWRM: An R Package for Identifying Sources of Variation in Overdispersed Count Data

Understanding why a random variable is actually random has been in the core of Statistics from its beginnings. The generalized Waring regression model for count data explains that inherent variability is given by three possible sources: randomness, liability and proneness. The model extends the negative binomial regression model and it is not included in the family of generalized linear models. In order to avoid that shortcoming, we developed the GWRM R package for fitting, describing and validating the model. The version we introduce in this communication provides a new design of the modelling function as well as new methods operating on the associated fitted model objects, so that the new software integrates easily into the computational toolbox for modelling count data in R. The release of a plug-in in order to use the package from the interface R Commander tries to contribute to the spreading of the model among non-advanced users. We illustrate the usage and the possibilities of the software with two examples from the fields of health and sport.
Keeping the wolves from the doors… wolves in sheep’s clothing, that is

In traditional face-to-face environments, we have been able to confirm the identity of students who are undertaking assessment. We have also been able to ensure the security of the exam papers and scripts during examination processes, including the transportation to and from the exam hall. These security issues have been moved into a state of flux with the use of flexible delivery methods. Students may now be scattered from one side of the globe to the other. Is it realistic to require foreign students to attend examinations at the Institution originating the course, or even to attend authorised examination centres within their country of residence? Is it even feasible to establish authorised examination centres at all locations where students may possibly study? With computer assisted assessment, conducted on-line, it is now possible for students to participate in assessment tasks and examinations from any location on the planet. However, how do we authenticate and invigilate these assessment processes? Is it the actual candidate, sitting the exam or participating in the assessment? How can we ensure that the person sitting at the computer is in fact the intended student? This paper examines the emerging new media communication hybrid technologies and devices, including authentication and cryptographic technologies, and highlights how these may be effective for the facilitation of Authenticated Secure On-line Computer Assisted Assessment (ASOCAA). These authentication and security methods will empower educators to construct more flexible assessment environments, where all participants (both faculty and students), can be assured that the assessment process is secure and authentic. This in turn will provide a richer learning experience for students undertaking flexible and distance learning.
Modeling and Measuring Quality of Context Information in Pervasive Environments

Pervasive Environments offer new opportunities for users to dynamically access resources and services based on information characterizing their situation (context), generally assuming that this information is correct and trustworthy. In this scenario, the Quality of Context information (QoC) plays an important role for improving context-based adaptation processes and for ensuring the correct behavior of context-aware applications and services. Some research attempts have been done for modeling and measuring the quality of raw context information sensed from the environment. However, so far no attention has been paid to the quality evaluation of derived and inferred context information. This paper describes an approach for modeling and measuring quality of raw, inferred, and derived context information based on the following points of view: privacy, security, precision, completeness, and resolution. We propose a context management framework that support QoC in their various layers, protecting and providing QoC-enriched context information of users to context-aware applications and services.
Induction of c-Fos by Prostaglandin F 2 a in Human Ciliary Smooth Muscle Cells

Results. After treatment with either agonist, the mean induction score (proportion of brightly immunostained nuclei) increased to a maximal level during the first hour and returned to basal levels 4 to 8 hours after treatment. Increasing the agonist concentration increased the maximal level, but had no effect on the time course of the response. The dose responses after 1 hour of treatment with PGF2o or 17-phenyltrinor-PGF2a increased similarly between 1.6 X 10~ 9 M and 2 X 10~ M. When treated with 1 X 10~ M of either agonist, however, the induction was half that obtained at 2 X 10" M. Conclusion. Exposure of ciliary smooth muscle cells to either PGF2a or 17-phenyltrinor-PGF2o induces an immediate early gene expression response that is similar to c-Fos induction in other cell systems. These results establish the basis for future investigations evaluating the potential role of c-fos induction in mediating the effects of PGF2a on uveoscleral outflow. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 1994;35:242-250
Fibrillin-1, induced by Aurora-A but inhibited by BRCA2, promotes ovarian cancer metastasis

While Aurora-A (Aur A) provokes, BRCA2 restrains primary tumorigenesis, the roles of Aur A and BRCA2 in cancer metastasis remains unclear. Here, we show that the metastatic promoting markers SLUG, FBN1, and MMP2, 9, 13 are either stimulated or suppressed by Aur A or BRCA2, but the metastatic suppressors E-cadherin, β-catenin, and p53 are either inhibited or promoted by Aur A or BRCA2, leading to enhanced or reduced cell migration and invasion. Further study suggests that FBN1 inhibits E-cadherin and β-catenin, but stimulates MMP2, 9, 13. Depletion of SLUG abrogates FBN1 and MMP9, but increases E-cadherin, while p53 decreases both SLUG and FBN1. Animal assays demonstrate that FBN1 promotes both ovarian tumorigenesis and metastasis. Clinically, overexpression of BRCA2 or Aur A in ovarian cancer tissues predicts good or poor overall and disease free survivals. High expression of SLUG or FBN1 indicates poor overall survivals, whereas high expression of FBN1 but not of SLUG predicts poor disease free survival. No significant associations between p53 expression and patient survivals were found. Overall, FBN1, acts at the downstream of Aur A and BRCA2, promotes ovarian cancer metastasis through the p53 and SLUG-associated signaling, which may be useful for ovarian cancer diagnosis and treatment.
epartment of Quantitative Social Science Understanding income mobility : the role of education for intergenerational income persistence in the US , UK and Sweden

A growing number of studies in several countries over the past twenty years have documented the persistence in incomes across generations, and much of the current literature is seeking to understand the processes driving intergenerational mobility and how these differ across time periods and across countries. Education is commonly seen, just as in sociological studies of social mobility or status attainment, as the key driving force of intergenerational associations. In this paper we study the role of education for intergenerational income associations in three countries over time, and across the life-span of sons. We pay particular attention to issues of life-cycle bias and measurement error in modelling income mobility in a comparative setting. To explore the role of education, we utilise a three-stage framework that decomposes the intergenerational elasticity into three parts: the relationship between income and education, the returns to education, and the direct relationship between parental income and their child’s income in the next generation after controlling for education. We find that the US and the UK have high levels of income persistence (low mobility) across generations while Sweden is more moderate. Levels of educational inequality are surprisingly similar in all three countries with the majority of the difference between the US/UK and Sweden working through unequal returns to education and, more strikingly, inequality of opportunities for people with similar educational qualifications. JEL classification: J62, J13, J31
Biogeochemical implications of comparative growth rates of Emiliania huxleyi and Coccolithus species

Coccolithophores, a diverse group of phytoplank- ton, make important contributions to pelagic calcite produc- tion and export, yet the comparative biogeochemical role of species other than the ubiquitous Emiliania huxleyi is poorly understood. The contribution of different coccolithophore species to total calcite production is controlled by inter- species differences in cellular calcite, growth rate and rela- tive abundance within a mixed community. In this study we examined the relative importance of E. huxleyi and two Coc- colithus species in terms of daily calcite production. Culture experiments compared growth rates and cellular calcite con- tent of E. huxleyi (Arctic and temperate strains), Coccolithus pelagicus (novel Arctic strain) and Coccolithus braarudii (temperate strain). Despite assumptions that E. huxleyi is a fast-growing species, growth rates between the three species were broadly comparable (0.16-0.85 d 1 ) under identical temperature and light conditions. Emiliania huxleyi grew only 12 % faster on average than C. pelagicus, and 28 % faster than C. braarudii. As the cellular calcite content of C. pelagicus and C. braarudii is typically 30-80 times greater than E. huxleyi, comparable growth rates suggest that Coc- colithus species have the potential to be major calcite produc- ers in mixed populations. To further explore these results we devised a simplistic model comparing daily calcite produc- tion from Coccolithus and E. huxleyi across a realistic range of relative abundances and a wide range of relative growth rates. Using the relative differences in growth rates from our culture studies, we found that C. pelagicus would be a larger source of calcite if abundances of E. huxleyi to C. pelagicus were below 34V 1. Relative abundance data collected from North Atlantic field samples (spring and summer 2010) sug- gest that, with a relative growth rate of 88 %, C. pelagicus dominated calcite production at 69 % of the sites sampled. With a more extreme difference in growth rates, where C. pelagicus grows at 1 / 10th of the rate of E. huxleyi, C. pelag- icus still dominated calcite production in 14 % of the field. These results demonstrate the necessity of considering in- teractions between inter-species differences in growth rates, cellular calcite and relative abundances when evaluating the contribution of different coccolithophores to pelagic calcite production. In the case of C. pelagicus, we find that there is strong potential for this species to make major contribu- tions to calcite production in the North Atlantic, although es- timates of relative growth rates from the field are needed to confirm our conclusions.
Performance analysis of conjoined supply chains

This research is concerned with the performance behaviour of conjoined supply chains, which typically arise in web-based retail. In particular, five performance measures belonging to three performance measure classes were used to study the performance effects of various operational factors on conjoined supply chains. The study is accomplished via experimental design and simulation analysis, and the results suggest the effects of the various factors on supply chain performance and identify the nature of the relationships among these factors and overall supply chain performance.
Toward Integrating Natural-HRI into Spoken Dialog

This paper summarizes our previous works in modeling non-verbal behaviors for natural human-robot interaction (HRI) and discusses a path for integrating them into spoken dialogs. While some non-verbal behaviors can be considered “optional” elements to be added to a spoken dialog, some non-verbal behaviors substantially require a harmonized plan that simultaneously considers both spoken dialog and non-verbal behavior. The paper discusses such unique HRI features.
Polarized Rac-dependent protrusions drive epithelial intercalation in the embryonic epidermis of C. elegans

Cell intercalation is a fundamental, coordinated cell rearrangement process that shapes tissues throughout animal development. Studies of intercalation within epithelia have focused almost exclusively on the localized constriction of specific apical junctions. Another widely deployed yet poorly understood alternative mechanism of epithelial intercalation relies on basolateral protrusive activity. Using the dorsal embryonic epidermis of Caenorhabditis elegans, we have investigated this alternative mechanism using high-resolution live cell microscopy and genetic analysis. We find that as dorsal epidermal cells migrate past one another they produce F-actin-rich protrusions polarized at their extending (medial) edges. These protrusions are controlled by the C. elegans Rac and RhoG orthologs CED-10 and MIG-2, which function redundantly to polarize actin polymerization upstream of the WAVE complex and WASP, respectively. We also identify UNC-73, the C. elegans ortholog of Trio, as a guanine nucleotide exchange factor (GEF) upstream of both CED-10 and MIG-2. Further, we identify a novel polarizing cue, CRML-1, which is the ortholog of human capping Arp2/3 myosin I linker (CARMIL), that localizes to the nonprotrusive lateral edges of dorsal cells. CRML-1 genetically suppresses UNC-73 function and, indirectly, actin polymerization. This network identifies a novel, molecularly conserved cassette that regulates epithelial intercalation via basolateral protrusive activity. Summary: Basolateral protrusive activity, and not apical constriction, drives cell intercalation in C. elegans embryos and is regulated by Rac/RhoG and WAVE/WASP.
New Algorithm for DOA Estimation with Low SNR

The resolution performance of Multiple Signal Classification (MUSIC) algorithm decreases under non ideal scenario like low SNR, small number of snapshots, or incident waves from close angles. In order to solve this problem, a new method which takes use of the full information in the vectors and eigenvalues of the array correlation matrix is proposed. The key idea is constructing the spatial spectrum function by both noise and signal subspace. Seeking the local maxima of the function, the direction of arrivals (DOAs) could be got. Computer simulations further indicate that the new algorithm dramatically outperforms to MUSIC, particularly in the context of low SNR and small measurement length.
Stanford's 2014 Slot Filling Systems

We describe Stanford’s entry in the TACKBP 2014 Slot Filling challenge. We submitted two broad approaches to Slot Filling: one based on the DeepDive framework (Niu et al., 2012), and another based on the multi-instance multi-label relation extractor of Surdeanu et al. (2012). In addition, we evaluate the impact of learned and hard-coded patterns on performance for slot filling, and the impact of the partial annotations described in Angeli et al. (2014).
A toolkit for constructing refactoring engines

Refactoring is a disciplined technique for restructuring a software system in which a programmer uses a sequence of small-scale, behavior preserving changes to effect a larger-scale, behavior-preserving change to the system [1, 2]. Each of these small-scale changes, or refactorings, makes an incremental change to the system’s internal design or code quality while leaving the externally observable behavior of the system unchanged. By performing many such changes in sequence, ensuring after each step that all tests pass and the system’s behavior has not changed, the programmer can make substantial design changes while minimizing the likelihood of introducing new bugs. Often, systems are refactored because they require a new feature or bug fix that cannot be accommodated by the system’s existing design. Changing the design first, ensuring that all tests still pass, and postponing behavioral changes until afterward tends to be much less error-prone than changing everything at once. Many refactorings are simple but tedious, which makes them good candidates for automation. Common refactorings include renaming identifiers, moving code between classes or functions, and encapsulating variables. Most integrated development environments (IDEs) – including Eclipse, IntelliJ IDEA, Microsoft Visual Studio, and Apple Xcode – provide support for automated refactoring. These features allow the programmer to select a portion of the source code and select a particular refactoring to apply. The IDE then performs a static analysis of the source code, determining whether the desired change will change its behavior. If the behavior will not change, the IDE modifies the source code, showing the user a side-by-side, before-andafter view of the source code so that he can visually inspect the changes.
Reflection-in-action as a collective process: findings from a study in teaching students of negotiation

Abstract Real-time reflection-in-action is a critical capability for effective practitioners, just as the more common reflection-on-action is critical for learning. Reflective practice is typically regarded as an individual activity. However, to be an effective negotiator involves real-time reflection-in-action. Results from a Masters-level Negotiation unit show that reflection in negotiation contexts is emergent rather than sudden, is collective, and typically occurs in a break from the negotiation action. We develop the work of Schön and Yanow and Tsoukas to propose a framework of reflection-in-action that better fits the interactive context of negotiation and explore some implications for the teaching of negotiation and other similar professional situations.
Gravitational lensing of anisotropic sources

In strong gravitational lensing, the multiple images we see correspond to light rays that leave the source in slightly different directions. If the source emission is anisotropic, the images may differ from conventional lensing predictions (which assume isotropy). To identify scales on which source anisotropy may be important, we study the angle δ between the light rays emerging from the source, for different lensing configurations. If the lens has a power-law profile M ∝ R γ , the angle δ initially increases with lens redshift and then either diverges (for a steep profile γ 1) as z l → z s . The scaling with lens mass is roughly δ ∝ M 1/(2―γ) . The results for an Navarro-Frenk-White (NFW) profile are qualitatively similar to those for a shallow power law, with δ peaking at about half the redshift of the source (not half the distance). In practice, beaming could modify the statistics of beamed sources lensed by massive clusters: for an opening angle θ jet , there is a probability as high as P ∼ 0.02∼0.07(θ jet /0.5°) ―1 that one of the lensed images may be missed (for 2 ≤ z s ≤ 6). Differential absorption within active galactic nuclei (AGNs) could modify the flux ratios of AGNs lensed by clusters; a sample of AGNs lensed by clusters could provide further constraints on the sizes of absorbing regions. Source anisotropy is not likely to be a significant effect in galaxy-scale strong lensing.
Enhancement of DNA Vaccine Potency by Coadministration of a Tumor Antigen Gene and DNA Encoding Serine Protease Inhibitor-6

Serine protease inhibitor 6 (SPI-6), also called Serpinb9, inhibits granzyme B and thus may provide a method for delaying apoptotic cell death in dendritic cells. We have previously enhanced DNA vaccine potency by targeting antigen to MHC antigen presentation pathways, using proteins such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis heat shock protein 70, calreticulin, domain II of Pseudomonas aeruginosa exotoxin A, or the sorting signal of the lysosome-associated membrane protein type 1. In this study, we explored intradermal coadministration of DNA encoding SPI-6 with DNA constructs encoding human papillomavirus type 16 E7 linked to these intracellular targeting molecules for its ability to generate E7-specific CD8+ T-cell immune responses and E7-specific antitumor effects. This combination of strategies resulted in significantly increased E7-specific CD8+ T-cell and CD4+ Th1-cell responses, enhanced tumor treatment ability, and stronger tumor protection when compared with vaccination without SPI-6. Among these targeting strategies tested, mice vaccinated with Sig/E7/lysosome-associated membrane protein type 1 mixed with SPI-6 showed the greatest fold increase in E7-specific CD8+ T cells (∼5-fold). Vaccination with a nonfunctional mutant of SPI-6 did not result in immune enhancement, indicating that enhancement was dependent on the antiapoptotic function of SPI-6. Our results suggest that DNA vaccines combining strategies that enhance MHC class I and II antigen processing with SPI-6 have potential clinical implications for control of viral infection and neoplasia.
Intrusion Detection based on KELM with Levenberg-Marquardt optimization

Intrusion is an illegitimate event that can either be active or passive in a network. In this work, we propose an Intrusion Detection System (IDS) on the basis of Kernel Extreme Learning Machine (KELM) clubbed with Levenberg-Marquardt optimization technique. We incorporate KELM in this work, because of its efficiency in pattern recognition. Levenberg-Marquardt optimization technique is employed because of its efficiency over other gradient descent techniques. The proposed system is compared with several existing works and the results obtained are satisfactory.
Distribution of Distances and Triangles in a Point Set and Algorithms for Computing the Largest Common Point Sets

Abstract. This paper considers the following problem, which we call the largest common point set problem (LCP): given two point sets P and Q in the Euclidean plane, find a subset of P with the maximum cardinality that is congruent to some subset of Q . We introduce a combinatorial-geometric quantity λ(P, Q) , which we call the inner product of the distance-multiplicity vectors of P and Q , show its relevance to the complexity of various algorithms for LCP, and give a nontrivial upper bound on λ(P, Q) . We generalize this notion to higher dimensions, give some upper bounds on the quantity, and apply them to algorithms for LCP in higher dimensions. Along the way, we prove a new upper bound on the number of congruent triangles in a point set in four-dimensional space.