Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Studies in the economic analysis and regulation of environmental and social problems

The twelve refereed publications (drawn from over eighty-five journal articles and a number of books and books chapters) which form the basis of this PhD each deal with an environmental and social problem that poses some regulatory or competition issues. They may be contended to have arisen due to a range of market failures that can warrant intervention. In some cases they are argued to challenge market conduct and/or regulatory practice. The selection of papers is in my judgement broadly reflective of the range of topics investigated throughout my research career and also chosen to include early work as well as some of my most recent and ongoing work. A wide range of research methods are used and all of the publications are to varying degrees considered to be policy relevant. The submitted work includes primarily theoretical or conceptual studies, critical policy assessments, as well as studies reporting empirical work drawing either on quantitative or qualitative modes of analysis, or some combination of the two. Most of the research has been undertaken in a UK setting though some took place in a South African setting and all are explored within the framework of the available international literature. The first part of the thesis commentary provides an introduction with personal background, an explanation of the thesis structure and a review of the relevant literature, highlighting the key work informing the selected articles and explaining the research context in which they evolved and developed. Then the commentary presents a reflective critical analysis of the selected articles. Finally the commentary unfolds a critical appraisal of the contribution of the published works to the field of study (including citation analysis) and in relation to some of the articles a more qualitative discussion is presented.
Automatic Detection of Diabetic Retinopathy- A Technological Breakthrough

Diabetic Retinopathy is a dangerous eye disease and the most common cause of blindness for worldwide population. Digital color fundus images are becoming very important as they help in diagnosing Diabetic Retinopathy. With this fact new image processing techniques can be applied to improve automatic detection of diabetic retinopathy. Segmentation, feature extraction, enhancement, image classification, pattern matching are the major image processing elements in detecting eye diseases . Microaneurysms are the primary sign of DR, therefore necessary preprocessing step for a correct diagnosis to automatically detect the microaneurysms in fundus image is an algorithm. For detecting the microaneurysms in retina images this review paper aims to develop and test a new method.
Evidence for positive selection driving the evolution of HIV-1 env under potent antiviral therapy.

In HIV-infected individuals treated with potent antiretroviral therapy, viable virus can be isolated from latently infected cells several years into therapy, due to the long life of these cells, ongoing replication replenishing this population, or both. We have analysed the V3 region of the HIV-1 env gene isolated from six patients who have undergone 2 years of potent antiretroviral therapy without frank failure of viral suppression. We show that in two (and possibly three) patients, the sequence changes between baseline virus and virus isolated from infected cells persisting 2 years into infection result from positive selection driving adaptive evolution, occurring either prior to or during therapy. Our analyses suggest low-level replication despite absence of drug resistance due to drug sanctuary sites, or to low-level ongoing replication in the presence of alterations in the selective environment during therapy, perhaps due to a decline in HIV-specific immune responsiveness or changes in target cell pools. In one patient, genetic divergence between baseline plasma and infected cells isolated during therapy may reflect the long half-life of some of these persistent cell populations and the divergence of viral subpopulations that occurred prior to therapy.
Physiological Signals That Induce Flowering.

The timing of the transition from vegetative growth to flowering is of paramount importance in agriculture, horticulture, and plant breeding because flowering is the first step of sexual reproduction. Studies to understand how this transition is controlled have occupied countless physiologists during the past half century and have produced an almost unmanageably large amount of information (Bernier et al., 1981a; Halevy, 1985-1989; Bernier, 1988; Kinet, 1993). A majority of plants use environmental cues to regulate the transition to flowering because all individuals of a species must flower synchronously for successful outcrossing and because all species must complete their sexual reproduction under favorable externa1 conditions. Any environmental variables exhibiting regular seasonal changes are potential factors that control the transition to flowering. The major factors are photoperiod, temperature, and water availability. Plants that do not require a particular photoperiod or temperature to flower, i.e., the so-called “autonomous-flowering” plants, are usually sensitive to irradiance. The environmental factors are perceived by different parts of the plant. Photoperiod and irradiance are perceived mainly by mature leaves in intact plants. Temperature is perceived by all plant parts, although low temperature (vernalization) is often perceived mainly by the shoot apex. Water availability is perceived by the root system. There are strong interactions between these different factors, so that each factor can change the threshold value for the effectiveness of the others. Plants, as opportunists, will thus make use of a different critical factor in different environments. Melilotus officinalis, for example, is a biennial with a vernalization requirement in temperate zones and an annual long-day (LD) plant with no cold requirement in arctic regions. In photoperiodic species, such as the short-day (SD) plant Pharbitis nil and the LD plant Silene armeria, flowering in unfavorable photoperiods can be caused by changing temperature, irradiance, or nutrition or by removing the roots. Similarly, in some late-flowering mutants of Arabidopsis, vernalization and an increase in the proportion of far-red light in the light source can substitute for one another in promoting the transition to flowering (Martinez-Zapater and Somerville, 1990; Bagnall, 1992). Clearly, there are alternate pathways to flowering in most, if
Resveratrol protects against methylglyoxal‐induced apoptosis and disruption of embryonic development in mouse blastocysts

Methylglyoxal (MG) is a glucose metabolite. Diabetic patients have increased serum levels of MG, and MG is also implicated in tissue injury during embryonic development. In the present work, we show that MG induces apoptosis in the inner cell mass of mouse blastocysts and inhibits cell proliferation. Both effects are suppressed by resveratrol, a grape‐derived phytoalexin with known antioxidant and anti‐inflammatory properties. MG‐treated blastocysts displayed lower levels of implantation (compared to controls) when plated on culture dishes in vitro and a reduced ability to proceed to later stages of embryonic development. Pretreatment with resveratrol prevented MG‐induced disruption of embryonic development, both in vitro and in vivo. Further investigation of these processes revealed that MG directly promotes reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, loss of mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP), and activation of caspase‐3, whereas resveratrol effectively blocks MG‐induced ROS production and the accompanying apoptotic biochemical changes. Our results collectively imply that MG triggers the mitochondrion‐dependent apoptotic pathway via ROS generation, and the antioxidant activity of resveratrol prevents MG‐induced toxicity. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Environ Toxicol 28: 431–441, 2013.
A new group delay-based feature for robust speech recognition

In this paper we present a novel feature extraction algorithm based on group delay function for robust speech recognition. The modified group delay function (MODGDF) is the main feature extraction method based on group delay function, generally used for robust speech recognition. The recognition tests indicate this feature does not provide notably better results in the presence of additive noise in comparison with MFCC. In the presence of convolutional noise, the performance of MODGDF is considerably lower than MFCC. The method proposed in this paper is simple and makes more efficient utilization of the high resolution property of GDF. It is formed from three main parts which are signal modeling, GDF computation based on extracted model, and compression. The recognition results obtained over AURORA 2.0 task indicate its superior performance in comparison with MODGDF and MFCC.
FUNCTIONAL DELAY CLOCK FAULT MODELS

The test can be developed at the functional level of the circuit. Such an approach allows developing the test at the early stages of the design process in parallel with other activities of this process. The problem is to choose the right fault model because the implementation of the circuit is not available yet. The paper introduces three new fault models for synchronous sequential circuits: functional clock at-speed, functional clock static-based and functional clock delay. The introduced models are based on the primary input values, on the primary output values and on the state bits values of the programming prototype. The presented experimental results explore the possibilities of the functional test that is constructed on the base of the static-based fault model to detect the transition and stuck-at faults. The fault coverage of the functional static-based, stuck-at and transition faults corresponds with one another quite well.
“No Messing Allowed”: The Enactment of Childhood in Urban Public Space from the Perspective of the Child

Abstract:A gradual tendency towards children being less present at play in the public spaces of Western cities has been noted in the literature. Drawing on a study that examined children's experience of their everyday walks through public space, this paper argues that while they have a sense of belonging along their routes, children indicate that playful behavior is constrained. Fifty-two children aged 9–11 living in Dublin City, Ireland participated in a survey and a smaller group of 20 children contributed qualitative data through photography and interviews. This paper concludes that reinstating play in the street requires a reconsideration of how to support playful activity in public space.
Automatically finding execution scenarios to deploy security-sensitive workflows

We introduce a new class of analysis problems, called Scenario Finding Problems (SFPs), for security-sensitive business processes that—besides execution constraints on tasks—define access control policies (constraining which users can execute which tasks) and authorization constraints (such as Separation of Duty). The solutions to SFPs are concrete execution scenarios that assist customers in the reuse and deployment of security-sensitive workflows. We study the relationship of SFPs to well-known properties of security-sensitive processes such as Workflow Satisfiability and Resiliency together with their complexity. Finally, we present a symbolic approach to solving SFPs and describe our experience with a prototype implementation on real-world business process models taken from an on-line library.
Towards a Model-Driven Product Line for Web systems

Companies focused in the design and implementation of Web based systems, which are also interested in the adoption of state-of-theart Model-Driven Web Engineering and Software Product Line Engineering techniques, are finding difficulties adapting the requirements of their domains to the already available tooling. This article explains how to successfully combine these two approaches in an industrial context. The techniques described in the case-study show how model-driven product line engineering can be used to provide domain knowledge encapsulation, and automatic generation of the products. These products include both, Content-Manager infrastructures to populate the system’s contents, and automatically adapted Web frontend prototype generation for different devices and user profiles.
An Improvement to Life of Wireless Sensor Network Using Leach Design a Cluster

Minimizing energy dissipation and maximizing network lifetime are important issues in the design of applications and protocols for sensor networks. Energy-efficient sensor state planning consists in finding an optimal assignment of states to sensors in order to maximize network lifetime. For example, in area surveillance applications, only an optimal subset of sensors that fully covers the monitored area can be switched on while the other sensors are turned off. In this paper, we address the optimal planning of sensors' states in cluster-based sensor networks. Typically, any sensor can be turned on, turned off, or promoted cluster head, and a different power consumption level is associated with each of these states. We seek an energyoptimal enhancement to the network in such way that maximizes network lifetime while ensuring simultaneously full area coverage and sensor connectivity to cluster heads, the approach being used will be independent to the scenario.
Aesthetic rehabilitation in a young patient using a minimally invasive approach. A multidisciplinary case report.

BACKGROUND Optimal integration and long-term stability of oral rehabilitations require correct diagnostic approach, appropriate pre-prosthetic treatments and accurate therapeutic protocols. Technology provides devices to optimise therapeutic results, according to biologic constraints and aesthetic parameters. CASE REPORT The present report describes a multidisciplinary management in a young patient affected by lateral incisor agenesis, including pre-prosthetic orthodontic treatment and restorative and implant-supported prosthetic rehabilitation. Minimally invasive clinical procedures with veneer restorations and flapless implant placement, followed by immediate prosthesis delivery, are carried out. Tridimensional diagnostic data and dedicated software were used for treatment planning, allowing to achieve optimal results.
A Consensus Support System Model for Group Decision-Making Problems With Multigranular Linguistic Preference Relations

The group decision-making framework with linguistic preference relations is studied. In this context, we assume that there exist several experts who may have different background and knowledge to solve a particular problem and, therefore, different linguistic term sets (multigranular linguistic information) could be used to express their opinions. The aim of this paper is to present a model of consensus support system to assist the experts in all phases of the consensus reaching process of group decision-making problems with multigranular linguistic preference relations. This consensus support system model is based on i) a multigranular linguistic methodology, ii) two consensus criteria, consensus degrees and proximity measures, and iii) a guidance advice system. The multigranular linguistic methodology permits the unification of the different linguistic domains to facilitate the calculus of consensus degrees and proximity measures on the basis of experts' opinions. The consensus degrees assess the agreement amongst all the experts' opinions, while the proximity measures are used to find out how far the individual opinions are from the group opinion. The guidance advice system integrated in the consensus support system model acts as a feedback mechanism, and it is based on a set of advice rules to help the experts change their opinions and to find out which direction that change should follow in order to obtain the highest degree of consensus possible. There are two main advantages provided by this model of consensus support system. Firstly, its ability to cope with group decision-making problems with multigranular linguistic preference relations, and, secondly, the figure of the moderator, traditionally presents in the consensus reaching process, is replaced by the guidance advice system, and in such a way, the whole group decision-making process is automated
PHOTOSPHERIC MAGNITUDE DIAGRAMS FOR TYPE II SUPERNOVAE: A PROMISING TOOL TO COMPUTE DISTANCES

We develop an empirical color-based standardization for Type II supernovae (SNe II), equivalent to the classical surface brightness method given in Wesselink. We calibrate this standardization using SNe II with host galaxy distances measured using Cepheids, and a well-constrained shock breakout epoch and extinction due to the host galaxy. We estimate the reddening with an analysis of the B − V versus V − I color–color curves, similar to that of Natali et al. With four SNe II meeting the above requirements, we build a photospheric magnitude versus color diagram (similar to an H-R diagram) with a dispersion of 0.29 mag. We also show that when using time since shock breakout instead of color as the independent variable, the same standardization gives a dispersion of 0.09 mag. Moreover, we show that the above time-based standardization corresponds to the generalization of the standardized candle method of Hamuy & Pinto for various epochs throughout the photospheric phase. To test the new tool, we construct Hubble diagrams for different subsamples of 50 low-redshift (cz < 104 km s−1) SNe II. For 13 SNe within the Hubble flow (czCMB > 3000 km s−1) and with a well-constrained shock breakout epoch we obtain values of 68–69 km s−1 Mpc−1 for the Hubble constant and a mean intrinsic scatter of 0.12 mag or 6% in relative distances.
Microtiles: Extracting Building Blocks from Correspondences

In this paper, we develop a theoretical framework for characterizing shapes by building blocks. We address two questions: First, how do shape correspondences induce building blocks? For this, we introduce a new representation for structuring partial symmetries (partial self‐correspondences), which we call “microtiles”. Starting from input correspondences that form point‐wise equivalence relations, microtiles are obtained by grouping connected components of points that share the same set of symmetry transformations. The decomposition is unique, requires no parameters beyond the input correspondences, and encodes the partial symmetries of all subsets of the input. The second question is: What is the class of shapes that can be assembled from these building blocks? Here, we specifically consider r‐similarity as correspondence model, i.e., matching of local r‐neighborhoods. Our main result is that the microtiles of the partial r‐symmetries of an object S can build all objects that are (r+ε)‐similar to S for any ε >0. Again, the construction is unique. Furthermore, we give necessary conditions for a set of assembly rules for the pairwise connection of tiles. We describe a practical algorithm for computing microtile decompositions under rigid motions, a corresponding prototype implementation, and conduct a number of experiments to visualize the structural properties in practice.
Circulation of Progenitor Cells in Obese and Lean Colorectal Cancer Patients

Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a common life-threatening malignancy; risk and progression are elevated in obesity. The purpose of this study was to measure the frequency of circulating CD34-positive endothelial and progenitor cells in the circulation and evaluate their potential values as CRC biomarkers. Methods: Blood was collected from 45 patients with CRC and compared with cancer-free control donors. Detection and enumeration of cells was carried out by flow cytometry on the basis of immunophenotypes established for the cell populations of interest: hematopoietic and endothelial circulating progenitor cells, endothelial cells, mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC), and CD34bright leukocytes (CD34b LC). Groups were compared using multivariate regression analysis. Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was used to evaluate the diagnostic values. Results: After adjusting for age and body mass index (BMI), the mean frequencies of MSCs and CD34b LCs were significantly higher in the circulation of patients with CRC than in controls. The areas under the ROC curve were 0.77 and 0.82 for MSCs and CD34b LCs, respectively. The frequency of circulating MSCs, but not of the other cell populations, was also found to be significantly higher in the circulation of obese patients with CRC (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2) than in lean patients with CRC and obese controls. Conclusions: Increased frequency of MSCs and CD34b LCs in the peripheral blood may represent a new diagnostic marker for CRC. Impact: BMI-dependent changes in circulating MSCs, potentially mobilized from white adipose tissue may reveal their trafficking to tumors, which could be one of the mechanistic links between obesity and cancer progression. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 20(11); 2461–8. ©2011 AACR.
Abstracts From the 33rd Annual Scientific Meeting of the High Blood Pressure Research Council of Australia

Fetal glucocorticoid exposure commonly occurs in women threatening to deliver their baby prematurely. This treatment has proved efficacious in preventing much of the morbidity and mortality associated with life threatening respiratory problems faced by premature delivery. Howev er, it is now recognised that prenatal glucocorticoid exposure can have deleterious effects on the development of other organs (such as the kidney and the heart) which may in the longer term contribute to adult onset disease, including hypertension. Recent data have suggested that neonatal outcomes following prenatal glucocortiod exposure may in part be dependent upon fetal sex with the placenta playing a role in modifying the amount of corticosteroid that reaches the fetal circulation. Also of recent concern are data suggesting that small for gestational age (SGA) babies may respond quite different to glucocorticoid exposure compared to an appropriately grown baby. Giv en that many babies being born prematurely are also growth restricted it is particularly pertinent to consider the impact of glucocortcioid exposure in SGA babies. Our own emerging data in mouse models suggest that maternal glucocorticoid treatment has differential effects on development of organs such as the kidney, heart and skin depending upon pup size. This suggests future treatment of a mother with prenatal glucocorticoids should take into account the fetal size.
Development of a Hybrid Defensive Embedded System with Face Recognition

The rapid development of Internet of Things and the current capabilities of high performance embedded systems have made them more attractive for the replacement of human personnel in hazardous or tedious duties. One such application is for guarding certain areas, such as the entrance of a warehouse for example. The aim of this work is to design an autonomous embedded security system for surveillance reasons. This system consists of a sentry gun and a camera. The software directing the sentry gun’s actions is based on face and motion detection and face recognition. This gun locates, tracks and aims those who enter guarded areas and after verbal warning it fires, when facial recognition fails. This process is automated and works with high accuracy in real time circumstances. It also has the ability to inform its user when an intruder enters the area. The system meets the characteristics of ubiquitous computing as it is autonomous, can be used in any location and can be operated remotely via a web interface. It is hybrid because it supports two different versions of software with different hardware on each one, in order to allow the user to select the proper system version for him. The asymmetric embedded system’s first version consists of a single board computer and the second version consists of a mini desktop for the computationally intensive tasks. A microcontroller is being used for high accuracy on the actuators and the system has the capability to use both USB and stereoscopic camera.