Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Ills of Aid: An Analysis of Third World Development Policies

In The Ills of Aid, Eberhard Reusse draws on his thirty years of experience with international development aid programs to diagnose the problems afflicting these programs and to suggest ways to improve them. Throughout the book he demonstrates that unrealistic interventionist paradigms - that is, erroneous Western notions of Third World realities that misidentify needs for intervention - are at the root of most inappropriate development policies. Reusse bases his analysis on detailed case studies of two rural development programs in Africa: the UN's "war on waste" and "cereal banks" for small farmers. He shows, for instance, that the "war on waste" was based on the wrong assumption that post-harvest losses totaled up to 40 percent of all crops in Third World countries, whereas they were actually closer to 5 percent. But even after donors had the opportunity to discover their mistake, some programs remained unchanged for decades. To cure the ills of aid, Reusse advocates fundamental changes, including more direct accountability to the primary funding base - the international taxpayer - and the privatization of aid.
Storage systems for integrating wind and solar energy in Spain

Renewable energies are on the rise in many countries. Mainly due to environmental concerns they have obtained the political support and are fostered in a large number of countries. Among the technologies which have experienced the highest rise are intermittent generation technologies which are variable and uncertain in their electricity production, such as those using wind or solar power. These characteristics require a radical change of the way electricity energy systems are organized nowadays. More flexibility is needed to adapt to these fluctuating and only to a certain extent controllable energy technologies. Storage systems offer perfect conditions for the integration of these intermittent energy sources. Electricity generation surplus from these technologies can be stored and injected into the electricity system later when demand or prices are higher. Investigation in new storage systems is necessary to analyse which storage systems may adapt best to this type of fluctuating production. This article aims to compare some already mature storage technologies and their impact on the integration of renewable energies in the operation of the electric system. In specific, we will analyse the following four storage technologies: pumped hydro storage, compressed air energy storage, heat storage in combination with concentrated solar power and lithium-ion batteries which are operated stationary as well as in electric vehicles. Cost savings, emission reductions and the effect on the production of other generation technologies will be observed.
Teaching History in the Digital Classroom

This history of 20th-century Russia has been expanded to tell the story of the Soviet aftermath. Michael Kort describes the immense difficulty Russia faces in its "transition" - still uncertain - from a totalitarian Communist society to democratic, free-market society. To succeed, Russia must simultaneously build democratic political institutions, establish a viable free-market economy, evolve a positive national identity and develop constructive new relationships with neighbouring states, both near and distant.
Global path planning on uneven elevation maps

This paper introduce about graph-search based global path planning on uneven elevation maps. An elevation map is an efficient and popular representation for 3-D terrains due to its easy manipulation by a computer. On the elevation map, we investigate three different optimal paths in the aspects of travel distance, travel time, and energy consumption. A distance/time-optimal path is derived by simple extension of A* on 2-D grid maps. A formulation on energy consumption leads an energy-optimal version and traversiblity criteria. We demonstrate effectiveness of our proposed method by experiments on randomly generated Gaussian hills.
BUS TRANSIT COST, PRODUCTIVITY AND FACTOR SUBSTITUTION

This paper develops a neoclassical cost function from cross-sectional data pertaining to sixty-two bus transit systems. The cost function is used to study the effects of total factor productivity and input substitution on cost. It is concluded that labour and fuel productivity improvements are important actions to reduce average cost, and in terms of efficiency of operations that long-run scale diseconomies are found in all transit systems. Such general characterisation is not possible in the short run. For example, while bus systems operating more than fifty vehicles have short-run economies of density, those operating less than fifty vehicles have diseconomies of density. (Author/TRRL)
Fault Accommodation for Nonlinear Dynamic Systems

This note investigates process fault accommodation in a class of nonlinear continuous-time systems. A new fault estimation module, based on an adaptive estimator, is first proposed. The fault tolerant controller is constructed to compensate for the effect of the faults by stabilizing the closed-loop system. A flexible joint robotic example is given to illustrate the efficiency of the proposed approach
A Common Evaluation Setting for Just.Ask, Open Ephyra and Aranea QA systems

Question Answering (QA) is not a new research field in Natural Language Processing (NLP). However in recent years, QA has been a subject of growing study. Nowadays, most of the QA systems have a similar pipelined architecture and each system use a set of unique techniques to accomplish its state of the art results. However, many things are not clear in the QA processing. It is not clear the extend of the impact of tasks performed in earlier stages in following stages of the pipelining process. It is not clear, if techniques used in a QA system can be used in another QA system to improve its results. And finally, it is not clear in what setting should be these systems tested in order to properly analyze their results.
Client-centric data streaming on smartphones: An energy perspective

Todays users extensively download video files on their wireless handheld devices, namely, smartphones and tablet computers, which are inherently power constrained. The batteries on those devices barely last for 2-3 hours while downloading and playing video files. Experiments have shown that video downloads account for a large portion of the total energy cost of downloading and playing video files. In this paper, we present a novel, energy-efficient, purely client-centric video downloading algorithm with three tunable parameters: buffer size, low water mark, and socket-reading size. By means of implementation of the algorithm on a smartphone and measurements of the actual energy cost of downloading video files, we show the impacts of the three parameters on the energy cost of video downloads. By tuning the buffer size, low water mark, and socket-reading, we observed energy savings of 60%, 64%, and 63%, respectively. Armed with the insights into the process of video downloading, mobile app designers will be better positioned to fine tune their apps to reduce the energy cost of downloading large files in general.
A Repeatability Test for Two Orientation Based Interest Point Detectors

This report evaluates the stability of two image interest point detectors, star-pattern points and points based on the fourth order tensor. The Harris operator is also included for comparison. Different image transformations are applied and the repeatability of points between a reference image and each of the transformed images are computed. The transforms are plane rotation, change in scale, change in view, and change in lightning conditions. We conclude that the result largely depends on the image content. The star-pattern points and the fourth order tensor models the image as locally straight lines, while the Harris operator is based on simple/non-simple signals. The two methods evaluated here perform equally well or better than the Harris operator if the model is valid, and perform worse otherwise.
Seek and decode: Random multiple access with multiuser detection and physical-layer network coding

We present a novel random multiple access scheme that combines joint multiuser detection (MUD) with physical layer network coding (PLNC) over extended Galois fields (EGF). We derive an analytical bound on the throughput at the system level and present simulation results for the decoding at the physical level in both fast fading and block fading channels. We adopt a cross layer approach in which a non-binary joint multiuser decoder is used in combination with PLNC at slot level, while the use of EGF aims at increasing the system diversity at frame level. The results we present are encouraging and suggest that the combination of these two interference management techniques can significantly enhance the performance of random multiple access systems.
Patterns, Probabilities, and People: Making Sense of Quantitative Change in Complex Systems

The learning sciences community has made significant progress in understanding how people think and learn about complex systems. But less is known about how people make sense of the quantitative patterns and mathematical formalisms often used to study these systems. In this article, we make a case for attending to and supporting connections between the behavior of complex systems, and the quantitative and mathematical descriptions. We introduce a framework to examine how students connect the behavioral and quantitative aspects of complex systems and use it to analyze interviews with 11 high school students as they interacted with an agent-based simulation that produces simple exponential-like population growth. Although the students were comfortable describing many connections between the simulation’s behavior and the quantitative patterns it generated, we found that they did not readily describe connections between individual behaviors and patterns of change. Case studies suggest that these missed connections led students who engaged in productive patterns of sense-making to nonetheless make errors interpreting quantitative patterns in the simulation. These difficulties could be resolved by drawing students’ attention to the graph of quantitative change featured in the simulation environment and the underlying rules that generated it. We discuss implications for the design of learning environments, for the study of quantitative reasoning about complex systems, and for the role of mathematical reasoning in complex systems fluency.
M-CSF Induces Monocyte Survival by Activating NF-κB p65 Phosphorylation at Ser276 via Protein Kinase C

Macrophage colony-stimulating factor (M-CSF) promotes mononuclear phagocyte survival and proliferation. The transcription factor Nuclear Factor-kappaB (NF-κB) is a key regulator of genes involved in M-CSF-induced mononuclear phagocyte survival and this study focused at identifying the mechanism of NF-κB transcriptional activation. Here, we demonstrate that M-CSF stimulated NF-κB transcriptional activity in human monocyte-derived macrophages (MDMs) and the murine macrophage cell line RAW 264.7. The general protein kinase C (PKC) inhibitor Ro-31-8220, the conventional PKCα/β inhibitor Gö-6976, overexpression of dominant negative PKCα constructs and PKCα siRNA reduced NF-κB activity in response to M-CSF. Interestingly, Ro-31-8220 reduced Ser276 phosphorylation of NF-κBp65 leading to decreased M-CSF-induced monocyte survival. In this report, we identify conventional PKCs, including PKCα as important upstream kinases for M-CSF-induced NF-κB transcriptional activation, NF-κB-regulated gene expression, NF-κB p65 Ser276 phosphorylation, and macrophage survival. Lastly, we find that NF-κB p65 Ser276 plays an important role in basal and M-CSF-stimulated NF-κB activation in human mononuclear phagocytes.
Observation of phase boundaries in spontaneous optical pattern formation

Ming Shen,1,2 Yonan Su,1 Ray-Ching Hong,1 YuanYao Lin,1 Chien-Chung Jeng,3 Ming-Feng Shih,4 and Ray-Kuang Lee1 1Institute of Photonics Technologies, National Tsing-Hua University, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan 2Department of Physics, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China 3Department of Physics, National Chung-Hsing University, Taichung 402, Taiwan 4Department of Physics, National Taiwan University, Taipei 106, Taiwan (Received 6 November 2014; published 6 February 2015)
Optothermal Control of Local Fluid Temperature in Microfluidics

This paper outlines an optothermal approach to manipulate local fluid temperatures in microfluidic and lab-on-chip systems. The system has the ability to control the size, location and the source heat flux using an external computer and is not constrained by predefined geometries, complex fabrication or control system. The thermal performance is evaluated using a temperature-dependent fluorescent dye. Experiments demonstrate localized heating up to 35°C over ambient temperature for a heat source spanning a downstream length of 1.5 mm. Experimental results are compared with a 1D thermal analysis of the system based on the Taylor-Aris dispersion.Copyright © 2010 by ASME
, Isabelle Thomas Regions and borders of mobile telephony in Belgium and in the Brussels metropolitan zone Translation :

In this article, we examine the existence of regions and borders in Belgium by means of an original data set of more than 200 million mobile communications and a mathematical method which allows networks to be divided into coherent groups in a natural and automatic manner. A geography of mobile communications is thus proposed based on the relative frequency of communications as well as their average duration. In the case of the relative frequency of communications, we obtain a map of Belgium composed of 17 groups or ‘telephone areas’ that each contain only adjacent municipalities. On this first map, the area of Brussels is the only one which runs across the linguistic border and covers the three institutional regions of the country. In the case of the average duration of communications, we obtain a group in the north and a group in the south of the country. These two groups concentrate within themselves almost 98% of telephone calls; only 2% of communications are from one group to the other. The group in the south includes the 19 municipalities of Brussels, all of the municipalities in the Walloon region as well as eight municipalities with facilities located in the Flemish region. In particular, all of the municipalities with facilities in the outskirts of Brussels (with the exception of Wemmel) are part of the group in the south of the country.
Non{isomorphic Synchronous Tags

Synchronous tree{adjoining grammars (S{TAGs) combine two standard tree{adjoining grammars (TAGs), e.g., for language transduction in Machine Translation (MT). Recent advances show that the restriction to isomorphic derivation trees (IS{TAGs) ensures eecient transduction because only tree{adjoining languages can be formed in each component. As a result IS{TAGs only allow for \triv-ial" transfer rules, due to the fact that only isomorphic derivations can be synchronized. This means that only very similar constructions in the two languages can be translated into each other. To overcome these limitations and provide a way of realizing more complex translation phenomena, this paper introduces a new formalism, the dynamic link synchronous tree{adjoining grammars or DLS{TAGs. This formalism allows for the synchronization of non{isomorphic derivation trees by introducing the new concept of dynamic links. DLS{TAGs are more powerful than IS-TAGs. More precisely speaking, DLS{TAGs allow for the formulation of a non{tree{adjoining language in one of the two components. This makes the translation problem more diicult but not untractable as outlined in this paper. However , there remain non{isomorphic translation phenomena which cannot be handled by DLS-TAGs as we also show in this paper.
Nrf2 Represses FGF21 During Long-Term High-Fat Diet–Induced Obesity in Mice

OBJECTIVE Obesity is characterized by chronic oxidative stress. Fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) has recently been identified as a novel hormone that regulates metabolism. NFE2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) is a transcription factor that orchestrates the expression of a battery of antioxidant and detoxification genes under both basal and stress conditions. The current study investigated the role of Nrf2 in a mouse model of long-term high-fat diet (HFD)-induced obesity and characterized its crosstalk to FGF21 in this process. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Wild-type (WT) and Nrf2 knockout (Nrf2-KO) mice were fed an HFD for 180 days. During this period, food consumption and body weights were measured. Glucose metabolism was assessed by an intraperitoneal glucose tolerance test and intraperitoneal insulin tolerance test. Total RNA was prepared from liver and adipose tissue and was used for quantitative real-time RT-PCR. Fasting plasma was collected and analyzed for blood chemistries. The ST-2 cell line was used for transfection studies. RESULTS Nrf2-KO mice were partially protected from HFD-induced obesity and developed a less insulin-resistant phenotype. Importantly, Nrf2-KO mice had higher plasma FGF21 levels and higher FGF21 mRNA levels in liver and white adipose tissue than WT mice. Thus, the altered metabolic phenotype of Nrf2-KO mice under HFD was associated with higher expression and abundance of FGF21. Consistently, the overexpression of Nrf2 in ST-2 cells resulted in decreased FGF21 mRNA levels as well as in suppressed activity of a FGF21 promoter luciferase reporter. CONCLUSIONS The identification of Nrf2 as a novel regulator of FGF21 expands our understanding of the crosstalk between metabolism and stress defense.
Global Inequality: Beyond the Bottom Billion – A Rapid Review of Income Distribution in 141 Countries

This working paper: (i) provides an overview of global, regional and national income inequalities based on the latest distribution data from the World Bank, UNU-WIDER and Eurostat; (ii) discusses the negative implications of rising income inequality for development; (iii) calls for placing equity at the center of development in the context of the United Nations development agenda; (iv) describes the likelihood of inequalities being exacerbated during the global economic crisis; (v) advocates for urgent policy changes at national and international levels to ensure a “Recovery for All”; and, (vi) to serve as a general reference source, Annex 2 provides a summary of the most up-to-date income distribution and inequality data for 141 countries
Cinderella — Adaptive online partitioning of irregularly structured data

In an increasing number of use cases, databases face the challenge of managing irregularly structured data. Irregularly structured data is characterized by a quickly evolving variety of entities without a common set of attributes. These entities do not show enough regularity to be captured in a traditional database schema. A common solution is to centralize the diverse entities in a universal table. Usually, this leads to a very sparse table. Although today's techniques allow efficient storage of sparse universal tables, query efficiency is still a problem. Queries that reference only a subset of attributes have to read the whole universal table including many irrelevant entities. One possible solution is to use a partitioning of the table, which allows pruning partitions of irrelevant entities before they are touched. Creating and maintaining such a partitioning manually is very laborious or even infeasible, due to the enormous complexity. Thus an autonomous solution is desirable. In this paper, we define the Online Partitioning Problem for irregularly structured data and present Cinderella. Cinderella is an autonomous online algorithm for horizontal partitioning of irregularly structured entities in universal tables. It is designed to keep its overhead low by incrementally assigning entities to partitions while they are touched anyway during modifications. The achieved partitioning allows queries that retrieve only entities with a subset of attributes easily pruning partitions of irrelevant entities. Cinderella increases the locality of queries and reduces query execution cost.
Parallel Aggregation Queries over Star Schema: A Hierarchical Encoding Scheme and Efficient Percentile Computing as a Case

Big data analysis is a main challenge we meet recently. Cloud computing is attracting more and more big data analysis applications, due to its well scalability and fault-tolerance. Some aggregation functions, like SUM, can be computed in parallel, because they satisfy distributive law of addition. Unfortunately, some of statistical functions are not naturally parallelizable. That means they do not satisfy distributive law of addition. In this paper, we focus on percentile computing problem. We proposed an iterative-style prediction-based parallel algorithm in a distributed system. Prediction is done through a sampling technique. Experiment results verify the efficiency of our algorithm.
Carbonic anhydrase III protects cells from hydrogen peroxide‐induced apoptosis

Carbonic anhydrase III (CA III; EC 4.2.1.1) is a cytoplasmic enzyme that exhibits a relatively low carbon dioxide hydratase activity. It is expressed at a very high level in skeletal muscle, where physical exercise has been shown to increase free radical production. In this work we show the effect of overexpression of CA III on cellular response to oxidative stress. Rat CA III cDNA was transfected to NIH/3T3 cells, which have no endogenous CA III expression. The isolated clones expressed CA III mRNA and protein. The protein was localized to cytoplasm and nuclei. Compared to parental cells, transfected cells showed lower basal oxidized state as judged by measurement of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) using fluorescent dye and an image analysis system. Addition of exogenous H2O2 to cells induced a rapid increase of ROS in control but not in CA III overexpressing cells. Association of this phenomenon with CA III expression was further confirmed by showing that overexpression of CA II could not prevent H2O2‐stimulated increase of ROS. In proliferation assays, CA III overexpressing cells grew faster and were more resistant to cytotoxic concentrations of H2O2 than control cells. After a 16 h exposure to oxidative stress, the number of apoptotic cells was also reduced in transfectants. Our results suggest that CA III functions as an oxyradical scavenger and thus protects cells from oxidative damage. A lower level of free radicals in CA III overexpressing cells may also affect growth signaling pathways. —Räisänen, S. R. , Lehenkari, P., Tasanen, M. , Rahkila, P., Härkönen, P. L. , Väänänen, H. K. Carbonic anhydrase III protects cells from hydrogen peroxide‐induced apoptosis. FASEB J. 13, 513–522 (1999)
Mid-infrared period–magnitude relations for AGB stars

Asymptotic giant branch (AGB) variables are found to obey period–luminosity relations in the mid-infrared (mid-IR) similar to those seen at KS (2.14 μm), even at 24 μm where emission from circumstellar dust is expected to be dominant. Their loci in the M, log P diagrams are essentially the same for the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and for NGC 6522 in spite of different ages and metallicities. There is no systematic trend of slope with wavelength. The offsets of the apparent magnitude versus log P relations imply a difference between the two fields of 3.8 in distance modulus. The colours of the variables confirm that a principal period with log P > 1.75 is a necessary condition for detectable mass loss. At the longest observed wavelength, 24 μm, many semiregular variables have dust shells comparable in luminosity to those around Miras. There is a clear bifurcation in LMC colour–magnitude diagrams involving 24 μm magnitudes.