Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Wedding-Vendor Cases

This is based on my contribution to a panel discussion at the 2017 National Student Symposium of the Federalist Society, the prominent conservative legal group. We were asked to comment on the stunningly one-sided report of the United States Commission on Civil Rights, and I do that very briefly, but by the time the Symposium met, the 2016 election had rendered that report obsolete. Most of this article is a scholarly version of the free exercise argument in Masterpiece Cakeshop, with responses along the way to Marci Hamilton at Cardozo and William Marshall at North Carolina. What is new here, in addition to the Civil Rights Commission, is some broader context for how the wedding-vendor cases arose and have been litigated, and responses to Professor Hamilton’s oral assertions that claims of religious liberty are all about sex discrimination and that religious liberty should be entirely left to legislatures.
Robust finite-time bounded H∞ control for a class of nonlinear quadratic Markovian jump systems

This paper is concerned with the finite-time stabilization problem for a class of nonlinear quadratic Markovian jump systems (MJSs) subject to feedback control gain perturbations. By using the stochastic quadratic Lyapunov function, sufficient conditions are given for the existence of desired controller gains as well as probability rate matrices. The obtained results are established by employing a set of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs)-based algorithm and a convex optimization problem. At last, two examples are given to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method.
Quality control of CD4+ T-lymphocyte enumeration: results from the last 9 years of the United Kingdom National External Quality Assessment Scheme for Immune Monitoring (1993-2001).

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) global epidemic has necessitated the routine enumeration of T-lymphocyte subsets, which has created a need for external quality assurance (EQA). The United Kingdom National External Quality Assessment Scheme (UK NEQAS) for Immune Monitoring provides EQA for 296 laboratories in 40 countries. In 1993, UK NEQAS developed and incorporated into its program stabilized whole blood that enables the accurate monitoring of laboratory performance. Overall, the mean interlaboratory coefficient of variation (CV) for percentage CD4(+) T-lymphocyte subset enumeration has fallen from 15% to less than 5%, as a direct result of the increased use of CD45/ side scatter (SSC) gating. Laboratories using alternative gating strategies (i.e., CD45/CD14 or forward scatter [FSC]/SSC) were about 7.4 times more likely to fail an EQA exercise. Furthermore, the adoption of single-platform technology resulted in a reduction of the overall mean interlaboratory CV for absolute CD4(+) T lymphocytes from 56% (prior to the widespread use of single-platform technology) to 9.7%. Individual laboratory deficiencies were also identified using a performance monitoring system and, through re-education by collaboration with the coordinating center, satisfactorily resolved. In conclusion, during the last 9 years, the UK NEQAS for Immune Monitoring program has highlighted the significant technological advances made by laboratories worldwide that undertake lymphocyte subset enumeration.
Evidence for repatterning of the gastric fundic epithelium associated with Ménétrier's disease and TGFalpha overexpression.

BACKGROUND & AIMS Increase of intramucosal transforming growth factor alpha (TGFalpha) levels in the gastric fundus leads to oxyntic atrophy and massive foveolar hyperplasia in both metallothionein (MT)-TGFalpha mice and patients with Ménétrier's disease. We have evaluated the hypothesis that increased levels of TGFalpha in the fundus induces an antral pattern of cell differentiation in fundic glands by studying Pdx1, a transcription factor whose expression normally is confined to the gastric antrum. METHODS Induction of Pdx1 expression was evaluated in Pdx1(lacZ/+)/MT-TGFalpha bigenic mice treated with zinc. The distribution of Pdx1 in MT-TGFalpha mice and Ménétrier's disease patients was evaluated with anti-Pdx1 antibodies. Transcript levels were evaluated by quantitative polymerase chain reaction in mouse and human tissues and AGS cells. RESULTS In Pdx1(lacZ/+) mice, Pdx1 was expressed in antral mucosal cells including gastrin cells and TFF2-expressing deep glandular mucous cells. Zinc treatment for 2 to 8 weeks in Pdx1(lacZ/+)/MT-TGFalpha transgenic mice resulted in expression of Pdx1 throughout the fundus. No ectopic fundic Pdx1 expression was observed in either H. felis-infected or DMP777-treated mice. In MT-TGFalpha mice, 8 weeks of zinc treatment elicited nuclear Pdx1 staining throughout the fundic mucosa. TGFalpha treatment in AGS cells led to increases in Pdx1 and gastrin messenger RNA expression. Fundic sections from Ménétrier's disease patients showed nuclear Pdx1 staining throughout the fundic glands. Treatment of a Ménétrier's disease patient with an anti-epidermal growth factor receptor monoclonal antibody reduced fundic expression of both Pdx1 and gastrin. CONCLUSIONS Overexpression of TGFalpha in MT-TGFalpha mice and Ménétrier's disease patients elicits ectopic expression in the fundus of Pdx1, consistent with the phenotype of antralization.
Kinematic analysis of a hand exoskeleton structure

In this paper, a linkage structure of a hand exoskeleton system for interacting with virtual objects is proposed. Each finger has three degrees of freedom (DOF). Two DOFs come from the finger, and one DOF comes from an actuator. By combining the DOFs from the finger and the exoskeleton, the proposed linkage is able to apply force feedback to the fingertip while enabling the natural finger motion. The performance of the proposed linkage mechanism was verified by simulation.
The long and short of it: Somite formation in mice

A fundamental characteristic of the vertebrate body plan is its segmentation along the anterior–posterior axis. This segmental pattern is established during embryogenesis by the formation of somites, the transient epithelial blocks of cells that derive from the unsegmented presomitic mesoderm. Somite formation involves a molecular oscillator, termed the segmentation clock, in combination with gradients of signaling molecules such as fibroblast growth factor 8, WNT3A, and retinoic acid. Disruption of somitogenesis in humans can result in disorders such as spondylocostal dysostosis, which is characterized by vertebral malformations. This review summarizes recent findings concerning the role of Notch signaling in the segmentation clock, the complex regulatory network that governs somitogenesis, the genes that cause inherited spondylocostal dysostosis, and the mechanisms that regulate bilaterally symmetric somite formation. Developmental Dynamics 235:2330–2336, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Ireland’s Public Health (Alcohol) Bill

The proposal to introduce a Public Health (Alcohol) Bill marks a significant development in Ireland’s alcohol policymaking landscape. While the Bill has generated support from public health advocates, it has also raised considerable opposition, particularly from industry. This analysis aims to examine the debate around this Bill using the theoretical framework of critical discourse analysis and applying Carol Bacchi’s What’s the Problem Represented To Be critical mode of analysis. A key objective is to analyze the current prevailing representations of alcohol and its regulation in Ireland but also to consider what they reveal about the underlying governing rationality in relation to alcohol regulation. In particular, it questions whether the Bill signals a shift in the official governing rationality regarding alcohol regulation. The analysis illustrates how alcohol is problematized in markedly different ways in the debates and how such debates are often underpinned by multifaceted elements. Despite such differences, it argues that there are still signs of a neoliberal rhetoric emerging within the public health discourses, raising a question over whether the Bill and its supporting discourses signal a paradigmatic shift or are more indicative of a policy embracing hybrid forms of rule.
Non invasive human stress detection using key stroke dynamics and pattern variations

Stress is considered as a very harmful health problem in the modern world. A large proportion of sick leave in the industrial world is believed to be related to stress. While some level of stress can act as a positive factor, extensive exposure to high levels of stress can have detrimental effects on one's health. Depression, panic attacks, high blood pressure, diabetes, heart problems are few of such diseases that can be initiated or worsened by stress. With the increasing people centricity in contemporary developments of computer science, Affective Computing has become a popular research area. According to the existing research, affective computing has shown positive results in detecting human stress. Stress detection has been tackled in various approaches including heart rate variability (HRV), skin conductance (SC), pupil diameter (PD) based detection, Finger Temperature (FT) and etc. Our focus in this study is to utilize a readily available yet underutilized resource in Affective Computing, key stroke dynamics (KSD). Recent developments in KSD based affective computing and Biometrics research proves that key stroke variations is a very powerful source of input that provides a valuable insight about an individual's psychological and emotional states. Our methodology suggests a personalised approach in detecting stress levels through key stroke variations. An application specific Individual key stroke pattern profile is created for an individual based on his normal typing patterns. This profile consists of trained average values for a set of typing features. Real time stress specific deviations of these features are analysed in order to arrive at the individual stress level. The remainder of the paper is structured as follows. First we introduce the research problem that this study is attempting to address. Then the significance of our approach is brought to the attention. The related work section tries to analyse and evaluate the existing related literature revolving around this research area. After that we present the details of our approach through the methodology section. The experiment section describes about the experiment conducted to gather the keystroke data that are to be analysed as stress and non-stress data samples. A brief overview of the results of the experiment is provided towards the end of the paper.
Evaluation of Fourier and wavelet analysis for efficient recognition of broken rotor bar in squirrel-cage induction machine

Incipient fault detection of the induction machines (IM) prevents the unscheduled downtime and hence reduces maintenance costs. The Motor Current Signature Analysis (MCSA) is considered as an effective fault detection method in any IM. However, a signal processing technique, which enhances the fault signature and suppress the dominant system dynamics and noise must be considered. Frequency analysis as well as time-frequency analysis is the most common signal processing methods. In this paper, the effectiveness of these two analysis methods were investigated for incipient broken rotor bar detection. Wavelet transform provides more accurate failure detection in different operational circumstances. However, there are different families in the wavelet analysis that affect the efficiency of encoding, denoising, compressing, decomposing and reconstructing the signal under observation. Accordingly, it is desirable to select the powerful wavelet family, which produces the best results for the signal being analyzed. This research also investigated the analysis of current signal using different families of wavelet for effective detection of broken rotor bars in IM.
Ziffersystem: A novel malware distribution detection system

Cyber-criminals use various malware technologies to bypass antivirus software. For example, drive-by downloads happen without a person's knowledge when visiting a website, viewing an email message, or clicking on a deceptive pop-up window. One way to understand drive-by download attacks is to study the connections between different drive-by download behaviors during the installation phase. However, current solutions need a large number of browsing records from ISPs to build up a model. Insufficient historical browsing data may prevent this approach from working. In this study, we propose Ziffersystem, a system that identifies the suspicious connections in a targeted enterprise. We develop a graph-based model of malicious orchestrated behaviors. Ziffersystem does not need large-scale network data (e.g., IPS traffic) to model malicious activity, and therefore the system is useful for an enterprise with few in-house blacklists and highly sensitive data. We apply the proposed system to the analysis of blacklists from public and private sources, and we show its effectiveness for visualizing malicious download behavior that cannot be identified through piecewise event logs.
Pilot design and AMP-based channel estimation for massive MIMO-OFDM uplink transmission

This paper investigates the pilot design and channel estimation issue for massive MIMO-OFDM uplink transmission. By exploiting the channel sparsity in the beam-delay domain, the channel estimation issue for multiuser uplink transmission is formed into a sparse compressed sensing (CS) model. We propose a cyclic shift pilot scheme, which satisfies Restricted Isometry Property under the CS frameworks. As the sparsity is efficiently utilized, the proposed scheme significantly reduces the pilot overhead, especially when the number of users becomes large. Furthermore, based on approximate message passing (AMP) algorithm, an approximate Bayesian inference can be conducted for channel estimation with low complexity. Simulation results show that the proposed AMP-based algorithm with the pilot scheme outperforms several existing baselines, especially when the BS is equipped with large antenna arrays.
TRPV2 Channels Contribute to Stretch-Activated Cation Currents and Myogenic Constriction in Retinal Arterioles.

Purpose Activation of the transient receptor potential channels, TRPC6, TRPM4, and TRPP1 (PKD2), has been shown to contribute to the myogenic constriction of cerebral arteries. In the present study we sought to determine the potential role of various mechanosensitive TRP channels to myogenic signaling in arterioles of the rat retina. Methods Rat retinal arterioles were isolated for RT-PCR, Fura-2 Ca2+ microfluorimetry, patch-clamp electrophysiology, and pressure myography studies. In some experiments, confocal immunolabeling of wholemount preparations was used to examine the localization of specific mechanosensitive TRP channels in retinal vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs). Results Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction analysis demonstrated mRNA expression for TRPC1, M7, V1, V2, V4, and P1, but not TRPC6 or M4, in isolated retinal arterioles. Immunolabeling revealed plasma membrane, cytosolic and nuclear expression of TRPC1, M7, V1, V2, V4, and P1 in retinal VSMCs. Hypoosmotic stretch-induced Ca2+ influx in retinal VSMCs was reversed by the TRPV2 inhibitor tranilast and the nonselective TRPP1/V2 antagonist amiloride. Inhibitors of TRPC1, M7, V1, and V4 had no effect. Hypoosmotic stretch-activated cation currents were similar in Na+ and Cs+ containing solutions suggesting no contribution by TRPP1 channels. Direct plasma membrane stretch triggered cation current activity that was blocked by tranilast and specific TRPV2 pore-blocking antibodies and mimicked by the TRPV2 activator, Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol. Preincubation of retinal arterioles with TRPV2 blocking antibodies prevented the development of myogenic tone. Conclusions Our results suggest that retinal VSMCs express a range of mechanosensitive TRP channels, but only TRPV2 appears to contribute to myogenic signaling in this vascular bed.
Peer to Peer Anti-Money Laundering Resource Allocation Based on Semi-Markov Decision Process

The multimedia communication technologies have been widely used in the anti-money laundering (AML) field to improve the efficiency and security of the business transactions. To reduce the cost of massive multimedia processing and communications, it is desirable to allow multiple financial industries (FIs) to share the AML resources, including human, computation, communication, and storage resources, and cooperate with each other to complete the transaction tasks. In this paper, the optimal AML resource management among peer FIs towards the maximal AML rewards is studied. Specifically, an AML resource allocation model (AMLRAM) based on semi-Markov decision process(SMDP) is proposed, where the system state is represented by a tuple, i.e., the number of High-Risk Operation (HRO), the number of Low or Moderate Risk Operation (L/MRO), and the current event type (i.e., the arrival of HRO or L/MRO suspicious transaction report which needs to be further checked, and the departure of HRO or L/MRO suspicious transaction report which has been checked and releases the occupied AML resource) in the AML field. The maximal long-term rewards of the system is derived, and the optimal AML resource allocation decision among peer FIs is made to achieve the maximal system rewards. Extensive simulations validate our analysis.
The effects of frequency of encouragement on performance during maximal exercise testing

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of frequency of verbal encouragement during maximal exercise testing. Twenty-eight participants (12 males, 16 females) aged 20.9 - 1.5 years (mean - s ) performed a maximal exercise test ( V O 2max ) on a treadmill without any verbal encouragement. The participants were matched according to their pre-test V O 2max and placed into either a control group or one of three experimental groups. They performed a second exercise test (post-test) 1 week later. During the second test, the control group received no verbal encouragement; the 20 s (20E), 60 s (60E) and 180 s (180E) encouragement groups received verbal encouragement every 20, 60 and 180 s, respectively, beginning with stage 3 of the exercise test. Relative V O 2max , exercise time, blood lactate concentration, respiratory exchange ratio (RER) and ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) were not significantly different from the first test to the second test for the control group without verbal encouragement and the 180E group that received infrequent encouragement. Post-test values were significantly higher than pre-test values for the 20E and 60E groups. The post-test values of the 20E group were significantly higher than their pre-test values for relative V O 2max ( P ≪ 0.001), exercise time ( P ≪ 0.0001), blood lactate concentr . ation ( P ≪ 0.05), RER ( P ≪ 0.01) and RPE ( P ≪ 0.0001); this was also the case for the 60E group for relative V O 2max ( P ≪ 0.01), blood lactate concentration ( P ≪ 0.05), RER ( P ≪ 0.05) and RPE ( P ≪ 0.05). The results suggest that frequent verbal encouragement (every 20 s and 60 s in the present study) leads to significantly greater maximum effort in a treadmill test than when no encouragement is given or when the encouragement is infrequent (i.e. every 180 s).
An empirical examination of knowledge management and organisational performance among Malaysian manufacturing SMEs

Knowledge management has gained increased attention recently, as many researchers have revealed its significant roles on enhancing organisational performance. This study aims to examine the relationship between knowledge management and organisational performance in the context of Malaysia. Knowledge management was conceptualised as capabilities made up of knowledge acquisition, knowledge conversion, knowledge application, and knowledge protection. One hundred sixteen respondents comprising of the top management from manufacturing SMEs had participated in this study. SmartPLS 2.0 (M3) was employed to examine the hypothesised relationships between knowledge management and organisational performance. The results revealed that among the four knowledge management capabilities, only knowledge acquisition and protection had a significant positive relationship with organisational performance, whereas knowledge conversion and application had not. Implications, limitations as well as directions for future research were further discussed.
Surgical Interventions for Lumbar Disc Prolapse: Updated Cochrane Review

Study Design. An updated Cochrane Review. Objectives. To assess the effects of surgical interventions for the treatment of lumbar disc prolapse. Summary of Background Data. Disc prolapse accounts for 5% of low back disorders yet is one of the most common reasons for surgery. There is still little scientific evidence supporting some interventions. Methods. Use of standard Cochrane review methods to analyze all randomized controlled trials published up to January 1, 2007. Results. Forty randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and 2 quasi-RCTs were identified. Many of the early trials were of some form of chemonucleolysis, whereas the majority of the later studies either compared different techniques of discectomy or the use of some form of membrane to reduce epidural scarring. Four trials directly compared discectomy with conservative management, and these give suggestive rather than conclusive results. However, other trials show that discectomy produces better clinical outcomes than chemonucleolysis, and that in turn is better than placebo. Microdiscectomy gives broadly comparable results to standard discectomy. Recent trials of an interposition gel covering the dura (5 trials) and of fat (4 trials) show that they can reduce scar formation, although there is limited evidence about the effect on clinical outcomes. There is insufficient evidence on other percutaneous discectomy techniques to draw firm conclusions. Three small RCTs of laser discectomy do not provide conclusive evidence on its efficacy. There are no published RCTs of coblation therapy or transforaminal endoscopic discectomy. Conclusion. Surgical discectomy for carefully selected patients with sciatica due to lumbar disc prolapse provides faster relief from the acute attack than conservative management, although any positive or negative effects on the lifetime natural history of the underlying disc disease are still unclear. The evidence for other minimally invasive techniques remains unclear except for chemonucleolysis using chymopapain, which is no longer widely available.
Constant pH molecular dynamics in generalized Born implicit solvent

A new method is proposed for constant pH molecular dynamics (MD), employing generalized Born (GB) electrostatics. Protonation states are modeled with different charge sets, and titrating residues sample a Boltzmann distribution of protonation states as the simulation progresses, using Monte Carlo sampling based on GB‐derived energies. The method is applied to four different crystal structures of hen egg‐white lysozyme (HEWL). pKa predictions derived from the simulations have root‐mean‐square (RMS) error of 0.82 relative to experimental values. Similarity of results between the four crystal structures shows the method to be independent of starting crystal structure; this is in contrast to most electrostatics‐only models. A strong correlation between conformation and protonation state is noted and quantitatively analyzed, emphasizing the importance of sampling protonation states in conjunction with dynamics. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comput Chem 25: 2038–2048, 2004