Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A CERTAIN SENSE OF EUROPE?

ABSTRACT This article seeks to shed light on the identity problem of the European Union by investigating EU justifications for past enlargements. What kind of understanding of the EU do enlargement decisions indicate? Given that the EU is based on more than mere pragmatic problem-solving, the question is whether decisions to enlarge reflect a value-based or a rights-based polity. Although a certain sense of distinctiveness, certain elements of European particularities, are in evidence, the pull of universal principles has proven stronger thus far. Paradoxically, this presents the European political project with an important dilemma.
Titian: Data Provenance Support in Spark

Debugging data processing logic in Data-Intensive Scalable Computing (DISC) systems is a difficult and time consuming effort. Today’s DISC systems offer very little tooling for debugging programs, and as a result programmers spend countless hours collecting evidence (e.g., from log files) and performing trial and error debugging. To aid this effort, we built Titian, a library that enables data provenance—tracking data through transformations—in Apache Spark. Data scientists using the Titian Spark extension will be able to quickly identify the input data at the root cause of a potential bug or outlier result. Titian is built directly into the Spark platform and offers data provenance support at interactive speeds—orders-of-magnitude faster than alternative solutions—while minimally impacting Spark job performance; observed overheads for capturing data lineage rarely exceed 30% above the baseline job execution time.
Identification of Genomic Insertion and Flanking Sequence of G2-EPSPS and GAT Transgenes in Soybean Using Whole Genome Sequencing Method

Molecular characterization of sequence flanking exogenous fragment insertion is essential for safety assessment and labeling of genetically modified organism (GMO). In this study, the T-DNA insertion sites and flanking sequences were identified in two newly developed transgenic glyphosate-tolerant soybeans GE-J16 and ZH10-6 based on whole genome sequencing (WGS) method. More than 22.4 Gb sequence data (∼21 × coverage) for each line was generated on Illumina HiSeq 2500 platform. The junction reads mapped to boundaries of T-DNA and flanking sequences in these two events were identified by comparing all sequencing reads with soybean reference genome and sequence of transgenic vector. The putative insertion loci and flanking sequences were further confirmed by PCR amplification, Sanger sequencing, and co-segregation analysis. All these analyses supported that exogenous T-DNA fragments were integrated in positions of Chr19: 50543767–50543792 and Chr17: 7980527–7980541 in these two transgenic lines. Identification of genomic insertion sites of G2-EPSPS and GAT transgenes will facilitate the utilization of their glyphosate-tolerant traits in soybean breeding program. These results also demonstrated that WGS was a cost-effective and rapid method for identifying sites of T-DNA insertions and flanking sequences in soybean.
The computer is the new sewing machine: benefits and perils of crowdsourcing

There is increased participation by the developing world in the global manufacturing marketplace: the sewing machine in Bangladesh can be a means to support an entire family. Crowdsourcing for cognitive tasks consists of asking humans for questions that are otherwise impossible to answer by algorithms, e.g., is this image pornographic, are these two addresses the same, what is the translation for this text in French? In the last five years, there has been an exponential growth in the size of the global cognitive marketplace: Amazon.com's Mechanical Turk has an estimated 500,000 active workers in over 100 countries, and there are dozens of other companies in this space. This turns the computer into a modern-day sewing machine, where cognitive work of various levels of difficulty will pay anywhere from 5 to 50 dollars a day. Unlike outsourcing, which usually requires college education, competence at these tasks might be a month or even less of training. At its best, this could be a powerful bootstrap for a billion people. At its worst, this can lead to unprecedented exploitation. In this panel, we discuss the technical, social and economic questions and implications that a global cognitive marketplace raises.
A Longitudinal Study of the Impact of Open Source Software Project Characteristics on Positive Outcomes

This article formulates and tests a set of hypotheses about the success of open source software projects with respect to market penetration and human resource attraction. The authors collected data from 1025 open source software projects in a longitudinal study. The cross-sectional results show that the extent of a project’s operating systems, the range of translated languages, programming languages, and project age positively impact OSS projects’ positive outcomes with respect to market penetration and human resource attraction.
Intake of Vitamin and Mineral Supplements and Longitudinal Association with HbA1c Levels in the General Non-Diabetic Population—Results from the MONICA/KORA S3/F3 Study

Background Lower levels of hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) are associated with a decreased risk of cardiovascular complications in diabetic and non-diabetic individuals. The aim of the study was to longitudinally investigate the association between the use of 11 vitamins and minerals (vitamins E, C, D, B1, folic acid, carotenoids, calcium, magnesium, zinc, iron, and selenium) and change in HbA1c levels over 10 years in non-diabetic individuals drawn from the general population. Methods Baseline data were available from 4447 subjects included in the population-based “Monitoring of Trends and Determinants in Cardiovascular Diseases” (MONICA) Augsburg S3 survey (1994/95). Follow-up data were derived from 2774 participants in the follow-up survey named “Cooperative Health Research in the Region of Augsburg” (KORA) F3 (2004/05). Vitamin/mineral intake from supplements and medications was assessed in a personal interview, where participants were asked to bring product packages of preparations that had been ingested during the last 7 days prior to the examination. Associations between regular vitamin/mineral intake amounts and HbA1c levels measured at baseline and follow-up were investigated using generalized estimating equation models. For carotenoids, analyses were stratified by smoking status. Results None of the investigated nutrients except for carotenoids was significantly associated with changes in HbA1c levels after 10 years. Regular intake of carotenoids from supplements and medications in amounts > 6.8mg/d (upper tertile) was associated with an absolute –0.26% (95% CI: –0.43 to –0.08) lower increase in HbA1c levels compared with no intake of carotenoids. An inverse association was observed in those who never smoked but not in (former) smokers. Conclusion Larger prospective and intervention studies in non-diabetic/non-smoking individuals are needed to confirm the results and to assess whether the observed associations between carotenoid intake and change in HbA1c levels are causal. If our results are confirmed, high carotenoid intake could be one strategy for the prevention of cardiovascular complications in non-diabetic people.
Learning in two languages : from conflict to consensus in the reorganization of schools

After being off the public agenda for a decade, the subject of bilingual education is once again at the center of public debate. Assumptions about the values of cultural pluralism and the rise of the "unmeltable ethnics" so dominant for the last twenty years have met a renewed public affirmation of the value of assimilation. In the United States "bilingual education" refers to programs that emphasize students' home languages and culture; teach academic subject matter in students' home languages; and introduce English into the curriculum at a deliberate pace. Students in such programs are generally members of immigrant groups and racial and ethnic minorities, and they usually come from lower-class economic backgrounds. Over the years, a number of different objectives have been advanced for bilingual education programs. In the 1960s and early 1970s, educators believed that these programs should be evaluated by students' linguistic proficiency and progress on standardized tests. More recently, advocates have promoted more subjective measures, such as students' enhanced sense of well-being and self-esteem. And yet others argue that the real goals of bilingual education should be social change and economic redistribution, and that programs should be evaluated by these long-range goals. The conference that gave rise to the essays in this volume was the first national symposium at which advocates and critics of bilingual education confronted each other's arguments face-to-face. These essays address the objectives by which bilingual education should be evaluated; the administrative practices by which programs are run; and the latest research findings on the effectiveness of bilingual education. Authors include Henry Trueba, Rudolph Troike, James Banks, Joshua Fishman, and Christine Rossell. "Learning in Two Languages "will interest educators and policy researchers, students of ethnic relations, and others concerned about the future direction of U.S. educational policies in this controversial area.
MiSFIT: A Tool for Constructing Safe Extensible C++ Systems

The boundary between application and system is becoming increasingly permeable. Extensible applications, such as web browsers, database systems, and operating systems, demonstrate the value of allowing end-users to extend and modify the behavior of what was formerly considered to be a static, inviolate system. Unfortunately, flexibility often comes with a cost: systems unprotected from misbehaved end-user extensions are fragile and prone to instability. Object-oriented programming models are a good fit for the development of this kind of system. An extension can be designed as a refinement to an existing class and loaded into a running system. In our model, when code is downloaded into the system, it is used to replace a virtual function on an existing C++ object. Because our tool is source-language neutral, it can be used to build safe, extensible systems written in other languages as well. There are three methods commonly used to make end-user extensions safe: restrict the extension language (e.g., Java), interpret the extension language (e.g., Tcl), or combine run-time checks with a trusted environment. The third technique is the one discussed here; it offers the twin benefits of the flexibility to implement extensions in an unsafe language, such as C++, and the performance of compiled code. MiSFIT, the Minimal i386 Software Fault Isolation Tool, can be used as a component of a tool set for building safe extensible systems in C++. MiSFIT transforms C++ code, compiled by the Gnu C++ compiler, into safe binary code. Combined with a runtime support library, the overhead of MiSFIT is an order of magnitude lower than the overhead of interpreted Java, and permits safe extensible systems to be written in C++.
High Throughput Phenotypic Analysis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium bovis Strains' Metabolism Using Biolog Phenotype Microarrays

Tuberculosis is a major human and animal disease of major importance worldwide. Genetically, the closely related strains within the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex which cause disease are well-characterized but there is an urgent need better to understand their phenotypes. To search rapidly for metabolic differences, a working method using Biolog Phenotype MicroArray analysis was developed. Of 380 substrates surveyed, 71 permitted tetrazolium dye reduction, the readout over 7 days in the method. By looking for ≥5-fold differences in dye reduction, 12 substrates differentiated M. tuberculosis H37Rv and Mycobacterium bovis AF2122/97. H37Rv and a Beijing strain of M. tuberculosis could also be distinguished in this way, as could field strains of M. bovis; even pairs of strains within one spoligotype could be distinguished by 2 to 3 substrates. Cluster analysis gave three clear groups: H37Rv, Beijing, and all the M. bovis strains. The substrates used agreed well with prior knowledge, though an unexpected finding that AF2122/97 gave greater dye reduction than H37Rv with hexoses was investigated further, in culture flasks, revealing that hexoses and Tween 80 were synergistic for growth and used simultaneously rather than in a diauxic fashion. Potential new substrates for growth media were revealed, too, most promisingly N-acetyl glucosamine. Osmotic and pH arrays divided the mycobacteria into two groups with different salt tolerance, though in contrast to the substrate arrays the groups did not entirely correlate with taxonomic differences. More interestingly, these arrays suggested differences between the amines used by the M. tuberculosis complex and enteric bacteria in acid tolerance, with some hydrophobic amino acids being highly effective. In contrast, γ-aminobutyrate, used in the enteric bacteria, had no effect in the mycobacteria. This study proved principle that Phenotype MicroArrays can be used with slow-growing pathogenic mycobacteria and already has generated interesting data worthy of further investigation.
Galactose metabolism in normal human lymphoblasts studied by 1H, 13C and 31P NMR spectroscopy of extracts

The development of tools to follow and quantitate the fate of galactose in mammalian cells is crucial to the study and understanding of the inherited disorders of galactose metabolism. In this study we incubated normal human lymphoblasts with 1‐ or 2‐13C galactose for 2.5 or 5 h and prepared TCA extracts of the cells. The various galactose metabolites were identified and quantified using a combination of proton, carbon and phosphorus NMR spectra. Galactose‐1‐phosphate (gal‐1P), uridine diphosphogalactose, uridine diphosphoglucose and galactitol were present in the extracts. Average levels for gal‐1P were around 10 nmol/mg protein and for uridine diphosphoglucose, uridine diphosphogalactose and galactitol in the range of 0.5–2 nmol/mg protein. Galactonate was never found in any conditions. Percentage labeling could be estimated for gal‐1P and for the ribose carbons of AMP. The labeling agrees with a conversion of galactose to glucose through the Leloir pathway. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
ZEBRA and a Fos-GCN4 chimeric protein differ in their DNA-binding specificities for sites in the Epstein-Barr virus BZLF1 promoter

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) encodes a protein, ZEBRA, which enables the virus to switch from a latent to a lytic life cycle. The basic domain of ZEBRA is homologous to the Fos/Jun oncogene family, and both proteins bind the canonical AP-1 site (TGAGTCA). However, ZEBRA does not contain a leucine zipper dimerization domain which has been shown to be necessary for DNA binding of Fos/Jun proteins. Additionally, ZEBRA binds to sites which deviate from the AP-1 consensus sequence. Thus, it was of interest to define the domain of the ZEBRA protein required for DNA binding. We have determined by mutagenesis that ZEBRA residues 172 to 227, representing the basic domain and a putative dimerization domain, are required for specific binding to AP-1 and divergent sites. Mutagenesis of the basic amino acids 178 to 180 or 187 to 189 abrogates ZEBRA binding to all DNA target sequences. These residues are conserved in Fos and are also necessary for Fos DNA-binding activity. We have found that a Fos-GCN4 chimera and ZEBRA have different cognate binding specificities. The autoregulated BZLF1 promoter contains three divergent AP-1 sequences, ZIIIA (TGAGCCA), ZIIIB (TTAGCAA), and Z-AP-1-octamer (TGACATCA). ZEBRA binds with high specificity to ZIIIA and ZIIIB but weakly to the Z-AP-1 octamer. Conversely, the Fos-GCN4 chimera recognizes only the Z-AP-1 octamer. ZEBRA binds the ZIIIA and ZIIIB sites together in a noncooperative fashion, while Fos-GCN4 binds these sites as a higher-order complex. Additionally, we have found that flanking sequences influence binding of Fos-GCN4 to a degenerate AP-1 site (TGAGCAA). The characteristic binding specificities of ZEBRA and cellular AP-1 proteins suggest that they differentially affect viral and cellular transcription.
Further experience of the operation for excision of the major duct system of the breast

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Evidence for an ionization gradient in the local interstellar medium: EUVE observations of white dwarfs

We present an enlarged and homogeneous set of interstellar hydrogen and helium column densities obtained through continuum and ionization edges fitting of nearby hot white dwarfs observed with the Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUVE). We compare the HI columns towards the targets and their locations relative to the soft X-ray cavity contours drawn by Snowden et al. (1998). We then use the inferred ionization degrees of hydrogen and helium (available towards 17 objects) as a database for a search of systematic trends in the local in- terstellar medium. We find that the ionization degree of helium does not show any trend, with a constant value around 40%. At variance with helium, hydrogen ionization varies within the Local Bubble: there is an ionization increase along the general direction of the Canis Major cavity. These results are consistent with hydrogen being ionized by the Canis Major hot stars Adara and Mirzam. However, the co-existence of fully neutral hydro- gen and strongly ionized helium along some l-o-s remains to be explained.
KCNN2 polymorphisms and cardiac tachyarrhythmias

AbstractPotassium calcium-activated channel subfamily N member 2 (KCNN2) encodes an integral membrane protein that forms small-conductance calcium-activated potassium (SK) channels. Recent studies in animal models show that SK channels are important in atrial and ventricular repolarization and arrhythmogenesis. However, the importance of SK channels in human arrhythmia remains unclear. The purpose of the present study was to test the association between genetic polymorphism of the SK2 channel and the occurrence of cardiac tachyarrhythmias in humans. We enrolled 327 Han Chinese, including 72 with clinically significant ventricular tachyarrhythmias (VTa) who had a history of aborted sudden cardiac death (SCD) or unexplained syncope, 98 with a history of atrial fibrillation (AF), and 144 normal controls. We genotyped 12 representative tag single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) across a 141-kb genetic region containing the KCNN2 gene; these captured the full haplotype information. The rs13184658 and rs10076582 variants of KCNN2 were associated with VTa in both the additive and dominant models (odds ratio [OR] 2.89, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.505–5.545, P = 0.001; and OR 2.55, 95% CI = 1.428–4.566, P = 0.002, respectively). After adjustment for potential risk factors, the association remained significant. The population attributable risks of these 2 variants of VTa were 17.3% and 10.6%, respectively. One variant (rs13184658) showed weak but significant association with AF in a dominant model (OR 1.91, CI = 1.025–3.570], P = 0.042). There was a significant association between the KCNN2 variants and clinically significant VTa. These findings suggest an association between KCNN2 and VTa; it also appears that KCNN2 variants may be adjunctive markers for risk stratification in patients susceptible to SCD.
The parallel generation of 2-D Hilbert Space-filling Curve on GPU

In this paper, we propose two parallel Hilbert Space-filling Curve(HSFC) generation algorithms BMIMp and SDDMp based on block matrix iteration method(BMIM) and state diagrams driver method(SDDM) in the CUDA parallel programming mode. Numerical results show that both of them obtain high parallel speedup. Especially, the speedup of BMIMp and SDDMp can reach 207 and 290 respectively for the 14-order HSFC. Furthermore, BMIMp outperforms SDDMp when considering the total computation time.
The (Un)Reasonableness of Ad Hominem Fallacies

Starting from a pragmadialectical concept of reasonableness, the judgments of ordinary arguers concerning the reasonableness of discussion moves were investigated, concentrating on argumentum ad hominem fallacies. Three variants of ad hominem were presented to the respondents: (a) the abusive direct personal attack, (b) the circumstantial indirect personal attack, and (c) the you too! (tu quoque) variant. These fallacies were incorporated in items of three types: (a) a scientific discussion, (b) a political debate, and (c) a domestic discussion. As predicted, the respondents regarded speech acts with an ad hominem fallacy as lacking in reasonableness. They considered the direct personal attack least reasonable, then the indirect personal attack, then the tu quoque fallacy. In a scientific discussion, ad hominem fallacies were viewed as less reasonable than in the other two types of discussion.
Load voltage compensation of two modes single-phase VSI

A typical distributed generation application (DG) only operates in grid-connected mode, for safety reasons. Recently, changes in Brazilian legal framework authorized islanded operation in some cases. This paper presents a dual mode LCL VSI for DG applications. The proposed system can operate in both, grid-connected or islanded, commutating between modes seamlessly. It was designed to operate with non-linear loads for both of its modes, acting as an active filter in grid-connected mode or compensating, through a virtual capacitor strategy, the non-linear voltage drop of the grid-side inductor in islanded mode. A computer simulation was developed and 500 W prototype was build in order to verify the theoretical analysis.
Tracking pupil mobility over the pre-school and primary school period: Evidence from EPPE 3-11

This report describes the ‘tracking’ of the EPPE 3-11 sample and then goes on to examine the possible influence of mobility on EPPE 3-11 children’s cognitive progress and social/behavioural development over both the pre-school and primary school period. In the present research ‘mobility’ is defined as having changed pre-school or school centre at least once. The aims of the research are: • To determine possible means of reducing attrition in a longitudinal sample - tracking • To identify any likely predictors of mobility, that is, whether mobile individuals share any defining characteristics; • To investigate the effects of mobility when predicting children’s cognitive and social/behavioural outcomes, controlling for other background factors; • To investigate the effects of children’s mobility in terms of the academic effectiveness of the schools attended and to which children moved.