Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Modelos econométricos y capacidad tributaria municipal en México: ¿Pueden los municipios de México recaudar más?

This article analyzes the determinants of fiscal potential of municipalities in Mexico. A methodology is proposed that allows the quantification of fiscal effort of states and municipalities; the main contribution is the application of a robust econometric model,the Stochastic Frontier Model, to the analytical determination of the capacity of the 300 most important municipalities of the country to obtain fiscal resources during the period 1992 to 2005, with two logical boundaries: municipalities-capital and municipalities of the interior. One concludes that the municipalities of Mexico can indeed collect more. For more than 13 years (1992 to 2005) a group of municipalities has been realizing an important effort to increase their tax collection efficiency. Nevertheless, a great number of domestic governments have a weak fiscal effort, and thus a low efficiency to collect resources, originating basically from property taxes.
Minimally Invasive Transpalpebral “Eyelid” Approach to the Anterior Cranial Base

BACKGROUND Supra orbital frontal minicraniotomy is one of the most commonly used minimally invasive approaches for anterior cranial fossa lesions. OBJECTIVE To describe our experience with the transpalpebral “eyelid” incision to obtain access to the anterior cranial fossa. METHODS We describe the approach and technique of the transpalpebral eyelid incision in a step-by-step fashion and discuss the results of 40 cases for which the eyelid incision was used. We retrospectively reviewed the charts of these patients to analyze outcomes with regard to opening and closing time, length of hospital stay, residual aneurysm or Simpson grade for resection, complications, and cosmetic result. RESULTS We treated 31 anterior circulation aneurysms (28 unruptured and 3 ruptured), 7 anterior skull base meningiomas, 1 frontal low-grade glioma, and 1 frontal cavernoma using the transpalpebral incision. Opening time was about 45 to 60 minutes, and closure time from dura to skin was about 45 to 60 minutes. The hospital length of stay was similar to that in our open craniotomy cases. No residual aneurysm was demonstrated in the follow-up studies of all 31 aneurysms. Simpson grade I resection was achieved in 6 meningiomas. Complications included 1 postoperative eyelid hematoma, 2 postoperative infections, and a subclinical stroke discovered on postoperative imaging. Excellent cosmetic outcome was accomplished in 39 of 40 patients. CONCLUSION The transpalpebral approach provides dissection in natural anatomical planes, affords preservation of the frontalis muscle, avoids injury to nerve VII branches, and results in an excellent cosmetic outcome.
Chimeric Vitreoscilla Hemoglobin (VHb) Carrying a Flavoreductase Domain Relieves Nitrosative Stress in Escherichia coli: New Insight into the Functional Role of VHb

ABSTRACT Dimeric hemoglobin (VHb) from the bacterium Vitreoscilla sp. strain C1 displays 30 to 53% sequence identity with the heme-binding domain of flavohemoglobins (flavoHbs) and exhibits the presence of potential sites for the interaction with its FAD/NADH reductase partner. The intersubunit contact region of VHb indicates a small interface between two monomers of the homodimer, suggesting that the VHb dimers may dissociate easily. Gel filtration chromatography of VHb exhibited a 25 to 30% monomeric population of VHb, at a low protein concentration (0.05 mg/ml), whereas dimeric VHb remained dominant at a high protein concentration (10 mg/ml). The structural characteristics of VHb suggest that the flavoreductase can also associate and interact with VHb in a manner analogous to flavoHbs and could yield a flavo-VHb complex. To unravel the functional relevance of the VHb-reductase association, the reductase domain of flavoHb from Ralstonia eutropha (formerly Alcaligenes eutrophus) was genetically engineered to generate a VHb-reductase chimera (VHb-R). The physiological implications of VHb and VHb-R were studied in an hmp mutant of Escherichia coli, incapable of producing any flavoHb. Cellular respiration the of the hmp mutant was instantaneously inhibited in the presence of 10 μM nitric oxide (NO) but remained insensitive to NO inhibition when these cells produced VHb-R. In addition, E. coli overproducing VHb-R exhibited NO consumption activity that was two to three times slower in cells overexpressing only VHb and totally undetectable in the control cells. A purified preparation of VHb-R exhibited a three- to fourfold-higher NADH-dependent NO uptake activity than that of VHb alone. Overproduction of VHb-R in the hmp mutant of E. coli conferred relief from the toxicity of sodium nitroprusside, whereas VHb alone provided only partial benefit under similar condition, suggesting that the association of VHb with reductase improves its capability to relieve the deleterious effect of nitrosative stress. Based on these results, it has been proposed that the unique structural features of VHb may allow it to acquire two functional states in vivo, namely, a single-domain homodimer that may participate in facilitated oxygen transfer or a two-domain heterodimer in association with its partner reductase that may be involved in modulating the cellular response under different environmental conditions. Due to this inherent structural flexibility, it may perform multiple functions in the cellular metabolism of its host. Separation of the oxidoreductase domain from VHb may thus provide a physiological advantage to its host.
Evolving Formation Movement for a Homogeneous Multi-Robot System: Teamwork and Role-Allocation with Real Robots

In recent years a number of researchers have successfully applied artificial evolution approaches to the design of controllers for autonomous robots. To date, however, Evolutionary Robotics research has focussed almost exclusively on the design of single-robot systems. We are interested in the evolution of controllers for multi-robot systems that are capable of exhibiting cooperative and coordinated behaviour. We report on recent work in which we employed artificial evolution to design neural network controllers for small, homogeneous teams of mobile autonomous robots. The robots are evolved to perform a formation movement task from random starting positions, equipped only with infrared sensors. The dual constraints of homogeneity and minimal sensors make this a non-trivial task. We describe the behaviour of a successful evolved system, in which robots work as a team, adopting and maintaining distinct but interdependent roles in order to achieve the task. We believe this to be the first successful use of evolutionary robotics methodology to develop cooperative, coordinated behaviour for a real multi-robot system. All correspondence to Matt Quinn, e-mail: matthewq@cogs.susx. ac.uk. Giles Mayley is currently based at Mathematique Applique, Sussex Innovation Centre, University of Sussex, Brighton, BN1 9QG, U.K. The other authors are members of the School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences (COGS) and the Centre for Computational Neuroscience and Robotics (CCNR) at the University of Sussex.
A fast motion estimation algorithm based on the block sum pyramid

In this correspondence, a fast approach to motion estimation is presented. The algorithm uses the block sum pyramid to eliminate unnecessary search positions. It first constructs the sum pyramid structure of a block. Successive elimination is then performed hierarchically from the top level to the bottom level of the pyramid. Many search positions can be skipped from being considered as the best motion vector and, thus, the search complexity can be reduced. The algorithm can achieve the same estimation accuracy as the full search block matching algorithm with much less computation time.
Secretion of One Adipokine Nampt/Visfatin Suppresses the Inflammatory Stress-Induced NF-κB Activity and Affects Nampt-Dependent Cell Viability in Huh-7 Cells

Nampt/visfatin acts in both intracellular and extracellular compartments to regulate multiple biological roles, including NAD metabolism, cancer, inflammation, and senescence. However, its function in chronic inflammation and carcinogenesis in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has not been well-defined. Here we use Huh-7 hepatoma cells as a model to determine how Nampt/visfatin affects cellular survival under oxidative stress. We found that the transition of Nampt/visfatin from intracellular into extracellular form was induced by H2O2 treatment in 293T cells and confirmed that this phenomenon was not due to cell death but through the secretion of Nampt/visfatin. In addition, Nampt/visfatin suppressed cell viability in oxidative treatment in Huh-7 cells and acted on the inhibition of hepatoma cell growth. Oxidative stress also reduced the Nampt-mediated activation of NF-κB gene expression. In this study, we identify a novel feature of Nampt/visfatin which functions as an adipokine that can be secreted upon cellular stress. Our results provide an example to understand how adipokine interacts with chemotherapeutic treatment by oxidative stress in HCC.
Capital Augmenting and Labor Augmenting Approach in Measuring Contribution of Human Capital and Education to Economic Growth

In this paper an effort has been made to unveil some hidden and implicit assumptions that has been used in different models dealing with analysis and measurement of contribution of human capital to economic growth. In order to do it we started from the general production function with heterogeneous labor input and general production function with heterogeneous human and physical capital. By introducing different assumptions regarding the partial elasticity of substitution between different factors of production we derived different models for human capital contribution. Apart from making hidden assumptions of existing models explicit we also derived several others models that can be used for the same purposes.
Triptolide Induces Growth Inhibition and Apoptosis of Human Laryngocarcinoma Cells by Enhancing p53 Activities and Suppressing E6-Mediated p53 Degradation

Triptolide, an active compound extracted from Chinese herb Leigongteng (Tripterygium wilfordii Hook F.), shows a broad-spectrum of anticancer activity through its cytotoxicity. However, the efficacy of triptolide on laryngocarcinoma rarely been evaluated, and the mechanism by which triptolide-induced cellular apoptosis is still not well understood. In this study, we found that triptolide significantly inhibited the laryngocarcinoma HEp-2 cells proliferation, migration and survivability. Triptolide induces HEp-2 cell cycle arrest at the G1 phase and apoptosis through intrinsic and extrinsic pathways since both caspase-8 and -9 are activated. Moreover, triptolide enhances p53 expression by increasing its stability via down-regulation of E6 and E6AP. Increased p53 transactivates down-stream target genes to initiate apoptosis. In addition, we found that short time treatment with triptolide induced DNA damage, which was consistent with the increase in p53. Furthermore, the cytotoxicity of triptolide is decreased by p53 knockdown or use of caspases inhibitor. In conclusion, our results demonstrated that triptolide inhibits cell proliferation and induces apoptosis in laryngocarcinoma cells by enhancing p53 expression and activating p53 functions through induction of DNA damage and suppression of E6 mediated p53 degradation. These studies indicate that triptolide is a potential anti-laryngocarcinoma drug.
Identification of an Alternative Oxidase Induction Motif in the Promoter Region of the aod-1 Gene in Neurospora crassa

The nuclear aod-1 gene of Neurospora crassa encodes the alternative oxidase and is induced when the standard cytochrome-mediated respiratory chain of mitochondria is inhibited. To study elements of the pathway responsible for alternative oxidase induction, we generated a series of mutations in the region upstream from the aod-1 structural gene and transformed the constructs into an aod-1 mutant strain. Transformed conidia were plated on media containing antimycin A, which inhibits the cytochrome-mediated electron transport chain so that only cells expressing alternative oxidase will grow. Using this functional in vivo assay, we identified an alternative oxidase induction motif (AIM) that is required for efficient expression of aod-1. The AIM sequence consists of two CGG repeats separated by 7 bp and is similar to sequences known to be bound by members of the Zn(II)2Cys6 binuclear cluster family of transcription factors. The AIM motif appears to be conserved in other species found in the order Sordariales.
TRPC6 is required for hypoxia-induced basal intracellular calcium concentration elevation, and for the proliferation and migration of rat distal pulmonary venous smooth muscle cells

Hypoxia induces pulmonary vasoconstriction and reconstruction in the pulmonary arteries and pulmonary veins (PVs), and elevation of intracellular calcium concentration ([Ca2+]i) is a primary factor of these processes. In the present study, the role of transient receptor potential cation channels (TRPCs) in mediating the hypoxia-induced elevation of [Ca2+]i in rat distal pulmonary venous smooth muscle cells (PVSMCs) was investigated. Rats with chronic hypoxic pulmonary hypertension (CHPH) were used for in vivo experiments, and PVSMCs were isolated for in vitro experiments. [Ca2+]i was measured using fura-2-based fluorescence calcium imaging. Reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction and western blotting were used to detect the mRNA and protein expression levels of TRPCs. Methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium and Transwell assays were used to investigate the proliferation and migration of PVSMCs, respectively. The results of the present study demonstrated that TRPC6 was increased in the distal PVs of CHPH rats, and in PVSMCs exposed to hypoxic conditions (4% O2, 72 h); however, TRPC1 was not. The 1-oleoyl-2-acetyl-sn-glycerol-induced [Ca2+]i elevation was increased in PVSMCs isolated from CHPH rats and in PVSMCs cultured under hypoxic conditions (4% O2, 72 h). Hypoxia induced PVSMC [Ca2+]i elevation, proliferation and migration. These alterations were inhibited following TRPC6 knockdown. Results from the present study suggest that TRPC6 expression is increased during chronic hypoxia, which contributes to Ca2+ entry into the cell, thus promoting proliferation and migration of PVSMCs.
All links are not the same: evaluating word alignments for statistical machine translation

Word alignments, the mappings between source and target language words for two languages, are a critical component of statistical machine translation. A long-standing issue in statistical machine translation is that the quality of word alignments does not correlate as well as would be expected with measures of translation quality. A number of recent papers have shed light on this issue by improving on existing metrics such as Alignment Error Rate and examining the importance of word alignment quality in terms of phrase alignments. In this paper, we attempt to elucidate this situation further by ﬁrst presenting a new word alignment evaluation metric, Word Alignment Agreement F1 (WAA F1 ), which improves upon existing alignment quality metrics. We then present experiments which demonstrate that WAA F1 also correlates better with measures of translation quality than do previous metrics.
Visualization of Leukocyte Transendothelial and Interstitial Migration Using Reflected Light Oblique Transillumination in Intravital Video Microscopy

Dynamic visualization of the intravascular events leading to the extravasation of leukocytes into tissues by intravital microscopy has significantly expanded our understanding of the underlying molecular processes. In contrast, the detailed observation of leukocyte transendothelial and interstitial migration in vivo has been hampered by the poor image contrast of cells within turbid media that is obtainable by conventional brightfield microscopy. Here we present a microscopic method, termed reflected light oblique transillumination microscopy, that makes use of the optical interference phenomena generated by oblique transillumination to visualize subtle gradients of refractive indices within tissues for enhanced image contrast. Using the mouse cremaster muscle, we demonstrate that this technique makes possible the reliable quantification of extravasated leukocytes as well as the characterization of morphological phenomena of leukocyte transendothelial and interstitial migration.
EVOLUTIONARY PLATFORM FOR AGENT LEARNING

This paper describes a novel methodology for agent learning. This method allows agents to learn how to better operate given the external conditions, in order not to repeat their previous mistakes. Evolutionary Platform for Agent Learning (EPAL) allows agents to change their behavior by changing the parameters of the tasks they are executing and by adding new programming constructs and tasks to their workflow. The method was especially constructed for EMAA agents developed in Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Laboratories and proven in many military and DARPA programs. EPAL presents a general approach to agent learning, based on an extension to Genetic Programming that we developed. Our approach is suitable to learning by any agent that can be represented as a workflow that can be further decomposed into building blocks, such as operators, tasks, and parameters.
Antihypertensive Treatment and Resistant Hypertension in Patients With Type 1 Diabetes by Stages of Diabetic Nephropathy

OBJECTIVE To assess blood pressure (BP) control, antihypertensive treatment, and prevalence of resistant hypertension (RH) in patients with type 1 diabetes stratified by stage of diabetic nephropathy. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS This cross-sectional study included a nationally representative cohort of patients with type 1 diabetes (N = 3,678) from the Finnish Diabetic Nephropathy Study (FinnDiane). The data were linked to the Drug Prescription Register to obtain purchases of antihypertensive drugs 6 months prior to the baseline visit. The treatment targets were based on the American Diabetes Association guidelines. RH was defined as failure to reach BP target despite the use of three or more antihypertensive drugs of different classes (one of which was a diuretic). RESULTS In patients with normal albumin excretion rate, 14.1% were on antihypertensive treatment and 74.6% of them had uncontrolled BP despite treatment. The corresponding figures were 60.5 and 71.2% for the microalbuminuric patients, 90.3 and 80.0% for the macroalbuminuric patients, 88.6 and 88.1% for dialysis, and 91.2 and 90.4% for kidney-transplanted patients. The prevalence of RH was 1.2% in the normoalbuminuric, 4.7% in the microalbuminuric, 28.1% in the macroalbuminuric, 36.6% in the dialysis, and 26.3% in the kidney transplant groups. Age (odds ratio 1.04 [95% CI 1.02–1.05]), estimated glomerular filtration rate (0.97 [0.96–0.97]), waist-to-hip ratio (1.44 [1.15–1.80]), triglycerides (1.19 [1.01–1.40]), microalbuminuria (2.58 [1.43–4.67]), and macroalbuminuria (5.61 [3.20–9.84]) were independently associated with RH. CONCLUSIONS The prevalence of uncontrolled hypertension and RH increases with advanced diabetic nephropathy. These data suggest that there is an urgent need for improvement of antihypertensive treatment.
Execution Time Measurement of Virtual Machine Volatile Artifacts Analyzers

Due to a rapid revaluation in a virtualization environment, Virtual Machines (VMs) are target point for an attacker to gain privileged access of the virtual infrastructure. The Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs) such as malware, rootkit, spyware, etc. are more potent to bypass the existing defense mechanisms designed for VM. To address this issue, Virtual Machine Introspection (VMI) emerged as a promising approach that monitors run state of the VM externally from hypervisor. However, limitation of VMI lies with semantic gap. An open source tool called LibVMI address the semantic gap. Memory Forensic Analysis (MFA) tool such as Volatility can also be used to address the semantic gap. But, it needs to capture a memory dump (RAM) as input. Memory dump acquires time and its analysis time is highly crucial if Intrusion Detection System IDS (IDS) depends on the data supplied by FAM or VMI tool. In this work, live virtual machine RAM dump acquire time of LibVMI is measured. In addition, captured memory dump analysis time consumed by Volatility is measured and compared with other memory analyzer such as Rekall. It is observed through experimental results that, Rekall takes more execution time as compared to Volatility for most of the plugins. Further, Volatility and Rekall are compared with LibVMI. It is noticed that examining the volatile data through LibVMI is faster as it eliminates memory dump acquire time. Keywords—Hypervisor, Semantic gap, Intrusion Detection System, Memory Forensic Analysis, Rootkit, Virtual Machine Introspection.
NON-POSITIVE SEMIGROUP DYNAMICS IN CONTINUOUS VARIABLE MODELS

Non-positive, Markovian semigroups are sometimes used to describe the time evolution of subsystems immersed in an external environment. A widely adopted prescription to avoid the appearance of negative probabilities is to eliminate from the admissible initial conditions those density matrices that would not remain positive by the action of the semigroup dynamics. Using a continuous variable model, we show that this procedure leads to physical inconsistencies when two subsystems are considered and their initial state is entangled.
Absence of rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder in 11 members of the pallidopontonigral degeneration kindred.

BACKGROUND Rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder (RBD) is a parasomnia that is manifested by dream enactment behavior. The electrophysiologic substrate for RBD on polysomnography is rapid eye movement sleep without atonia. Rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder likely stems from neuronal network dysfunction in the brainstem, although it is not yet clear which specific networks are involved. Rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder is often associated with the sporadic synucleinopathies but rarely associated with the sporadic tauopathies. There are no reports on the possible association of rapid eye movement sleep without atonia and RBD with any familial tauopathy. OBJECTIVE To characterize the clinical sleep and polysomnography features in a kindred with a familial tauopathy. METHODS We performed standard polysomnography in 11 members of the pallidopontonigral degeneration kindred irrespective of any sleep-related complaints. Neuropathologic findings were analyzed in those who subsequently underwent autopsy. RESULTS Six affected and 5 genealogically at-risk family members were studied. None of the 11 had a history of dream enactment behavior. Nine of the 11 members attained sufficient rapid eye movement sleep on polysomnography, and the electrophysiologic features of rapid eye movement sleep without atonia and behavioral manifestations of RBD were absent in all subjects. Neuropathologic examination of 4 affected individuals revealed marked nigral degeneration in 3 along with mild degenerative changes in the locus coeruleus, pontine nuclei and tegmentum, and medullary tegmentum. CONCLUSIONS These findings argue against nigral degeneration being the primary cause of RBD. The absence of the historical, electrophysiologic, and behavioral manifestations of RBD in this kindred provides further evidence that RBD is rare in the sporadic and familial tauopathies. The difference in frequencies of RBD associated with the synucleinopathies compared with the tauopathies suggests differences in the selective vulnerability of brainstem circuits between the synucleinopathies and tauopathies.