Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Governance Mechanisms in Internet-Based Affiliate Marketing Programs in Spain

Internet-based affiliate marketing programs have emerged as one of the fastest-growing methods for online retailers to acquire customers and increase sales by tapping into the power of independent web sites to reach a large, diverse audience of potential customers. However, while these programs have proven effective in increasing website traffic and sales, illegal or inappropriate activities on the part of affiliates could negatively impact a retailer's brand in the eyes of customers. This study is an exploratory analysis of governance mechanisms formal contracts, partner selection, incentives and monitoring in one-to-many affiliate programs in Spain. Agency theory and transaction cost analysis provide the theoretical background. The conclusion is that there is a significant lack of transparency in the guidance and restrictions communicated to affiliates, and a lack of systematic monitoring of affiliate behavior, which increases the risk of opportunism or misconduct. General recommendations for managers of affiliate programs are considered.
A model for context effects in speech recognition.

A model is presented that quantifies the effect of context on speech recognition. In this model, a speech stimulus is considered as a concatenation of a number of equivalent elements (e.g., phonemes constituting a word). The model employs probabilities that individual elements are recognized and chances that missed elements are guessed using contextual information. Predictions are given of the probability that the entire stimulus, or part of it, is reproduced correctly. The model can be applied to both speech recognition and visual recognition of printed text. It has been verified with data obtained with syllables of the consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) type presented near the reception threshold in quiet and in noise, with the results of an experiment using orthographic presentation of incomplete CVC syllables and with results of word counts in a CVC lexicon. A remarkable outcome of the analysis is that the cues which occur only in spoken language (e.g., coarticulatory cues) seem to have a much greater influence on recognition performance when the stimuli are presented near the threshold in noise than when they are presented near the absolute threshold. Demonstrations are given of further predictions provided by the model: word recognition as a function of signal-to-noise ratio, closed-set word recognition, recognition of interrupted speech, and sentence recognition.
Improvement of molecular phylogenetic inference and the phylogeny of Bilateria

Inferring the relationships among Bilateria has been an active and controversial research area since Haeckel. The lack of a sufficient number of phylogenetically reliable characters was the main limitation of traditional phylogenies based on morphology. With the advent of molecular data, this problem has been replaced by another one, statistical inconsistency, which stems from an erroneous interpretation of convergences induced by multiple changes. The analysis of alignments rich in both genes and species, combined with a probabilistic method (maximum likelihood or Bayesian) using sophisticated models of sequence evolution, should alleviate these two major limitations. We applied this approach to a dataset of 94 genes and 79 species using CAT, a previously developed model accounting for site-specific amino acid replacement patterns. The resulting tree is in good agreement with current knowledge: the monophyly of most major groups (e.g. Chordata, Arthropoda, Lophotrochozoa, Ecdysozoa, Protostomia) was recovered with high support. Two results are surprising and are discussed in an evo–devo framework: the sister-group relationship of Platyhelminthes and Annelida to the exclusion of Mollusca, contradicting the Neotrochozoa hypothesis, and, with a lower statistical support, the paraphyly of Deuterostomia. These results, in particular the status of deuterostomes, need further confirmation, both through increased taxonomic sampling, and future improvements of probabilistic models.
Two-way automaton computations

- Computations of a two-way automaton on an input tape are studied using the algebraic notion of trace ofa two-way computation {due to J. P. Pécuchet), and certain "réductions" of traces. This paper only deals with two-way computations which begin and finish at one or the other of the two ends of the input tape. The traces of such computations are characterized, and formulas are given which tell how traces are combined when the corresponding inputs are concatenated. Another tool for studying a two-way automaton (also due to Pécuchet) is the language of its control unit (considered over a "double alphabet"). This "control language" détermines the entire two-way automaton and this leads to formulas relating the control language and the language accepted by the two-way automaton itself.
Perceptions of User Involvement: a User-Led Study

Background: User involvement in health services has been a priority for government since 1990. In mental health, concern has been expressed that involved service users (activists) are not representative of ‘ordinary’ patients. Aims: (i) To investigate service users’ perceptions of the outcomes of user involvement in two London boroughs. (ii) To determine whether the perceptions of outcomes differ between activists and non-activists. Method: The study was user-led. The user-researchers compiled a semi-structured interview schedule which they then administered to a sample of 40 people; 20 were defined as activists and 20 as non-activists. There were also 20 participants in each borough. Results: Activists were aware of more user groups and forms of user involvement than non-activists. However, in terms of perceptions of the outcomes of user involvement, there was little difference between the activists and non-activists. Discussion: There is very little extant work on the outcomes of user involvement in mental health services. This study examined this and, contrary to reservations often expressed, there was little difference between activists and non-activists. Conclusion: This is a pilot study. Further work should examine perceptions of the outcomes of user involvement by other stakeholders, for example, front-line workers, managers, carers and commissioners.
The Impact of Unstable Angina Guidelines in the Triage of Emergency Department Patients with Possible Acute Coronary Syndrome

Objective. The primary aim of this study is to determine whether implementing the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR) Unstable Angina Practice Guideline improves emergency physician's decision making in patients with symptoms of possible acute coronary syndrome (ACS), including those for whom the diagnosis of unstable angina is uncertain. Methods. The authors conducted a prospective guideline implementation trial with pre-post design in the emergency departments of 1 university hospital and 1 university-affiliated community teaching hospital from January 2000 to May 2001. They enrolled 1140 adults who presented with chest pain or other symptoms of possible ACS. The intervention included the following: 1) physician training in use of the AHCPR risk groups, 2) algorithm for risk stratification, and 3) group feedback. To determine how accurately physicians interpreted the guideline algorithm, the authors compared their risk ratings with actual guideline risk groups. Results. No significant difference in physician triage decisions was observed between baseline and intervention periods. Analysis of physician's risk ratings during the intervention period revealed low overall concordance with actual guideline risk groups (kappa = 0.31); however, physician's risk ratings showed superior discrimination in identifying patients with confirmed ACS (receiver operating characteristic [ROC] area .81 v. .74, P = 0.008). Strict adherence to guideline recommendations would have resulted in hospitalizing 9% more non-ACS patients without lowering the rate of missed ACS. Conclusion. Implementation of the AHCPR guideline did not improve triage decisions in emergency department patients with possible ACS. Assessing physician triage solely based on concordance with the AHCPR guideline may not accurately reflect the quality of patient care.
IL-17 targeted therapies for psoriasis

Introduction: Psoriasis is a chronic, disabling, inflammatory skin disease whose pathogenesis still remains to be fully elucidated. Genetic and environmental factors induce an immune response mediated by several cytokines and chemokines, including IL-17A. Areas covered: Emerging evidence now suggests that IL-17A is central in the pathogenesis of psoriasis. Three agents neutralizing IL-17 (i.e., secukinumab and ixekizumab) or antagonizing its receptor (i.e., brodalumab) are in development and are being studied in Phase III clinical trials to evaluate their overall efficacy and safety. However, Phase II results of IL-17 blockade with each of these agents has shown a marked improvement of disease severity, thus confirming the pathogenic relevance of IL-17 in mediating crucial inflammatory circuits in psoriasis. Expert opinion: Anti-IL-17 agents are likely to become important future therapeutics in this disease and the may potentially impact on cardiovascular diseases, arthritis and other comorbidities associated with psoriasis.
Augmenting Loop Tiling with Data Alignment for Improved Cache Performance

Loop blocking (tiling) is a well-known compiler optimization that helps improve cache performance by dividing the loop iteration space into smaller blocks (tiles); reuse of array elements within each tile is maximized by ensuring that the working set for the tile fits into the data cache. Padding is a data alignment technique that involves the insertion of dummy elements into a data structure for improving cache performance. In this work, we present DAT, a technique that augments loop tiling with data alignment, achieving improved efficiency (by ensuring that the cache is never under-utilized) as well as improved flexibility (by eliminating self-interference cache conflicts independent of the tile size). This results in a more stable and better cache performance than existing approaches, in addition to maximizing cache utilization, eliminating self-interference, and minimizing cross-interference conflicts. Further, while all previous efforts are targeted at programs characterized by the reuse of a single array, we also address the issue of minimizing conflict misses when several tiled arrays are involved. To validate our technique, we ran extensive experiments using both simulations as well as actual measurements on SUN Sparc5 and Sparc10 workstations. The results on benchmarks exhibiting varying memory access patterns demonstrate the effectiveness of our technique through consistently high hit ratios and improved performance across varying problem sizes.
Competitive concurrent distributed queuing

Distributed queuing is a fundamental problem in distributed computing, arising in a variety of applications. The challenge in designing a distributed queuing algorithm is to minimize message traffic and delay. This paper gives a novel competitive analysis of the Arrow distributed queuing protocol under concurrent access. We analyze the combined latency of r simultaneous requests, and derive a competitive ratio of s · log r, where s is the stretch of a preselected spanning tree in the network. Our analysis employs a novel greedy characterization of the way the Arrow protocol orders concurrent requests, and yields a new lower bound on the quality of the nearest-neighbor heuristic for the Traveling Salesperson Problem.
Managing Ontological Constraints

We explore the use of ontological constraints in a new way: deploying them in a software system's formal evaluation. We present a formalism for ontological constraints and elaborate on a meta interpretation technique in the field of ontologies. Ontological constraints often need enhancements to capture application-specific discrepancies. We propose an editing system that provides guidance in building those constraints and we explain how this helps us to detect conceptual errors that reflect a misuse of ontological constructs. We describe a multilayer architecture for performing such checks and we demonstrate its usage via an example case. We speculate on the potential impact of the approach for the system's design process.
Bis[4-(dimethylamino)pyridinium] tetrabromidobis(3,4-dichlorophenyl)stannate(IV)–1-bromo-3,4-dichlorobenzene (1/1)

The Sn atom in the title substituted pyridinium stannate bromo-3,4-dichlorobenzene solvate, (C7H11N2)2[SnBr4(C6H3Cl2)2]·C6H3BrCl2, lies on a twofold axis within an octahedral C2Br4 donor set. Each cation forms an N—H⋯Br hydrogen bond to one of the Br atoms of the anion. The solvent molecule is disordered about the twofold rotation axis with equal occupancy. The crystal under investigation was non-merohedrally twinned, with a twin component ratio of 0.76:0.24.
From Restaurants to Board Rooms

Negotiation is an interpersonal process common to everyday personal and professional success. Yet individuals often fail to recognize opportunities for initiating negotiations and the immediate and long-term implications of these oversights for themselves and others. This article describes a simple yet rich negotiation exercise that learners can undertake outside the classroom in a familiar and highly accessible setting, an exercise that offers insights into and reinforcement of principles and theories from the individual (e.g., perception, personality, motivation), interpersonal/group (e.g., communication media, group dynamics, power), and organizational/environmental (e.g., design/structure, ethics) dimensions of organizational behavior and management. The application of these and other lessons to negotiations across organizational levels are offered, along with specific observations from learners of the parallels to asking one’s boss for a raise.
Nitrosothiol Formation and Protection against Fenton Chemistry by Nitric Oxide-induced Dinitrosyliron Complex Formation from Anoxia-initiated Cellular Chelatable Iron Increase*

Background: Dinitrosyliron complexes (DNIC) have been found in a variety of pathological settings. Results: Cellular DNIC formation upon brief nitric oxide (•NO) exposure is dramatically increased by anoxia pretreatment. Conclusion: DNIC is rapidly generated from •NO reaction with chelatable iron. Significance: This experimental system provides a useful tool to manipulate the levels of DNIC and probe their cellular functions. Dinitrosyliron complexes (DNIC) have been found in a variety of pathological settings associated with •NO. However, the iron source of cellular DNIC is unknown. Previous studies on this question using prolonged •NO exposure could be misleading due to the movement of intracellular iron among different sources. We here report that brief •NO exposure results in only barely detectable DNIC, but levels increase dramatically after 1–2 h of anoxia. This increase is similar quantitatively and temporally with increases in the chelatable iron, and brief •NO treatment prevents detection of this anoxia-induced increased chelatable iron by deferoxamine. DNIC formation is so rapid that it is limited by the availability of •NO and chelatable iron. We utilize this ability to selectively manipulate cellular chelatable iron levels and provide evidence for two cellular functions of endogenous DNIC formation, protection against anoxia-induced reactive oxygen chemistry from the Fenton reaction and formation by transnitrosation of protein nitrosothiols (RSNO). The levels of RSNO under these high chelatable iron levels are comparable with DNIC levels and suggest that under these conditions, both DNIC and RSNO are the most abundant cellular adducts of •NO.
Effects of a Metacognitive Social Skill Intervention in a Rural Setting with At-Risk Adolescents

Ten at-risk students in a rural high school completed a social skills program based on metacognitive strategies and aligned with social and emotional learning principles. The intervention's primary goal was to stimulate the development of metacognitive strategies for internal locus of control in the students, rather than attempting to change their social behavior through external controls. The students completed Behavior Assessment Scale for Children – 2nd Edition (BASC-2), and their teachers also completed a BASC-2 for each student, both pre- and post-intervention. Using the ratings, the results indicated positive changes in the students' behavior and attitude, social interactions, and academics.
Effects of inbreeding on potential and realized immune responses in Tenebrio molitor

SUMMARY Although numerous studies on vertebrates suggest that inbreeding reduces their resistance against parasites and pathogens, studies in insects have found contradictory evidence. In this study we tested the effect of 1 generation of brother–sister mating (inbreeding) on potential and realized immune responses and other life-history traits in Tenebrio molitor. We found that inbreeding reduced adult mass, pre-adult survival and increased development time, suggesting that inbreeding reduced the condition of the adults and thus potentially made them more susceptible to physiological stress. However, we found no significant effect of inbreeding on the potential immune response (encapsulation response), but inbreeding reduced the realized immune response (resistance against the entomopathogenic fungi, Beauveria bassiana). There was a significant family effect on encapsulation response, but no family effect on the resistance against the entomopathogenic fungi. Given that this latter trait showed significant inbreeding depression and that the sample size for the family-effect analysis was small it is likely that the lack of a significant family effect is due to reduced statistical power, rather than the lack of a heritable basis to the trait. Our study highlights the importance of using pathogens and parasites in immunoecological studies.
Enzyme Immunoassay Detection of Antigen-Specific Immunoglobulin G Antibodies in Longitudinal Serum Samples from Patients with Cryptosporidiosis

ABSTRACT Cryptosporidium parvum is a protozoan parasite that causes diarrheal illness in a wide range of mammalian hosts, including humans. Characteristic serum immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibody responses to antigens in the 27- and 17-kDa size ranges have been shown to develop after infection, and several enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and Western blot assay formats have been used to measure these IgG levels in human serum. Using a collection of serial samples from laboratory-confirmed cryptosporidiosis patients, we compared the results obtained by using two new ELISAs with those obtained with two different Western blot assays. When assayed with the large-format Western blot, 97% of the 67 patients had a demonstrable antibody response on at least one occasion. The Cp23 ELISA correctly identified 93% of the samples that had a 27-kDa response by Western blot and 100% of the negative samples. The Triton antigen ELISA detected 77% of the samples that had a 17-kDa response by Western blot and 88% of the negative samples. The sensitivity of the Triton antigen assay was higher for samples collected between 16 and 92 days after the onset of symptoms (96%). The minigel-format Western blot did not compare favorably with the large-format blot for the detection of antibodies to the 27-kDa antigen (71% sensitivity). A half-life of about 12 weeks was estimated for antibodies to both the 27- and 17-kDa antigens. We believe the Cp23 and Triton antigen ELISAs will be useful in epidemiologic studies of the prevalence ofCryptosporidium infection in the population.
Global Structure, Robustness, and Modulation of Neuronal Models

The electrical characteristics of many neurons are remarkably robust in the face of changing internal and external conditions. At the same time, neurons can be highly sensitive to neuromodulators. We find correlates of this dual robustness and sensitivity in a global analysis of the structure of a conductance-based model neuron. We vary the maximal conductance parameters of the model neuron and, for each set of parameters tested, characterize the activity pattern generated by the cell as silent, tonically firing, or bursting. Within the parameter space of the five maximal conductances of the model, we find directions, representing concerted changes in multiple conductances, along which the basic pattern of neural activity does not change. In other directions, relatively small concurrent changes in a few conductances can induce transitions between these activity patterns. The global structure of the conductance-space maps implies that neuromodulators that alter a sensitive set of conductances will have powerful, and possibly state-dependent, effects. Other modulators that may have no direct impact on the activity of the neuron may nevertheless change the effects of such direct modulators via this state dependence. Some of the results and predictions arising from the model studies are replicated and verified in recordings of stomatogastric ganglion neurons using the dynamic clamp.
CRONOS: the cross-reference navigation server

Summary: Cross-mapping of gene and protein identifiers between different databases is a tedious and time-consuming task. To overcome this, we developed CRONOS, a cross-reference server that contains entries from five mammalian organisms presented by major gene and protein information resources. Sequence similarity analysis of the mapped entries shows that the cross-references are highly accurate. In total, up to 18 different identifier types can be used for identification of cross-references. The quality of the mapping could be improved substantially by exclusion of ambiguous gene and protein names which were manually validated. Organism-specific lists of ambiguous terms, which are valuable for a variety of bioinformatics applications like text mining are available for download. Availability: CRONOS is freely available to non-commercial users at http://mips.gsf. de/genre/proj/cronos/index.html, web services are available at http://mips.gsf. de/CronosWSService/CronosWS? wsdl. Contact: brigitte.waegele@helmholtz-muenchen.de Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. The online Supplementary Material contains all figures and tables referenced by this article.