Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
ADELFE Design, AMAS-ML in Action A Case Study

The complexity of engineers tasks leads us to provide means to bring the Adaptive Multi-Agent Systems (AMAS) design to a higher stage of automation and confidence thanks to Model Driven Development (MDD). This paper focuses on a practical example and illustrates the modifications that have been done to the ADELFE methodology. In the Design phase, we propose to use a Domain Specific Modeling Language (DSML) for the specification of cooperative agents. We also, add a Model Diven Implementation phase using model transformation, DSMLs and code generation. These phases carry out a model centric process to produce and partially generate the system code. We present the use of our MD process applied to a simple, but very illustrative example: the foraging ants simulation.
Carotid Pressure Is a Better Predictor of Coronary Artery Disease Severity Than Brachial Pressure

The mechanisms relating pulse pressure to cardiovascular outcome may include surrogacy for coronary disease severity. Although pulse pressure is typically measured at the brachial artery, central pulse pressure and its principal determinant, large-artery stiffness, may relate more closely to disease severity. This study aimed to determine the relationships between large-artery stiffness and carotid and brachial blood pressures and coronary artery disease severity. One hundred fourteen male patients with coronary artery disease (age 60±8 years, mean±SD) and 57 age-matched healthy male controls (age 59±9 years) were recruited. Patients were classified into 2 groups based on the magnitude of their maximum coronary stenosis: moderate (50% to 89%) and severe (≥90%). Large-artery stiffness was assessed as systemic arterial compliance and carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity. Mean pressure was not different between the 3 groups. Systemic compliance and carotid pulse pressure were significantly different between all 3 groups, with compliance lowest and pressure highest in the severe group (P <0.05). Pulse wave velocity was higher in patients with severe stenosis than in those with moderate stenosis (P <0.01) and those in the control group (P <0.001). Brachial pulse pressure was higher in patients than in controls (P <0.05), but there was no difference between the 2 disease groups. In separate multivariate analyses, carotid pressures and systemic arterial compliance were determinants of coronary artery disease severity, independent of age, smoking status, body mass index, mean arterial pressure, heart rate, cholesterol levels (total, LDL, and HDL), triglycerides, and &bgr;-antagonist and lipid-lowering therapy (P <0.001), whereas brachial pressures and pulse wave velocity were not. In conclusion, central blood pressures and systemic arterial compliance are more sensitive markers of coronary artery disease severity than brachial pressures.
Large-scale convex optimization for ultra-dense cloud-RAN

The heterogeneous cloud radio access network (Cloud-RAN) provides a revolutionary way to densify radio access networks. It enables centralized coordination and signal processing for efficient interference management and flexible network adaptation. Thus it can resolve the main challenges for next-generation wireless networks, including higher energy efficiency and spectral efficiency, higher cost efficiency, scalable connectivity, and low latency. In this article we will provide an algorithmic approach to the new design challenges for the dense heterogeneous Cloud-RAN based on convex optimization. As problem sizes scale up with the network size, we will demonstrate that it is critical to take unique structures of design problems and inherent characteristics of wireless channels into consideration, while convex optimization will serve as a powerful tool for such purposes. Network power minimization and channel state information acquisition will be used as two typical examples to demonstrate the effectiveness of convex optimization methods. Then we will present a twostage framework to solve general large-scale convex optimization problems, which is amenable to parallel implementation in the cloud data center.
Elevated Level of DNA Damage and Impaired Repair of Oxidative DNA Damage in Patients with Recurrent Depressive Disorder

Background Depressive disorder (DD), including recurrent DD (rDD), is a severe psychological disease, which affects a large percentage of the world population. Although pathogenesis of the disease is not known, a growing body of evidence shows that inflammation together with oxidative stress may contribute to development of DD. Since reactive oxygen species produced during stress may damage DNA, we wanted to evaluate the extent of DNA damage and efficiency of DNA repair in patients with depression. Material/Methods We measured and compared the extent of endogenous DNA damage – single- and double-strand breaks, alkali-labile sites, and oxidative damage of the pyrimidines and purines – in peripheral blood mononuclear cells isolated from rDD patients (n=40) and healthy controls (n=46) using comet assay. We also measured DNA damage evoked by hydrogen peroxide and monitored changes in DNA damage during repair incubation. Results We found an increased number DNA breaks, alkali-labile sites, and oxidative modification of DNA bases in the patients compared to the controls. Exposure to hydrogen peroxide evoked the same increased damage in both groups. Examination of the repair kinetics of both groups revealed that the lesions were more efficiently repaired in the controls than in the patients. Conclusions For the first time we showed that patients with depression, compared with non-depresses individuals, had more DNA breaks, alkali-labile sites, and oxidative DNA damage, and that those lesions may be accumulated by impairments of the DNA repair systems. More studies must be conducted to elucidate the role of DNA damage and repair in depression.
Exercising Privilege: The Cyclical Reproduction of Capital through Swim Club Membership

According to cultural theorist Pierre Bourdieu, social class is defined by the interplay and operation of various forms of capital, within the set of durable and objective relations in which the classed subject is located. Informed by Bourdieu's understanding of social class, this article details the empirical dimensions of upper-middle-class familial involvement at the Valley View Swim and Tennis Club. An institution prefigured on the practice and development of important physical skills, Valley View represents a site for the complex interplay of capitals (economic, social, cultural, and physical) complicit in the preservation and reproduction of members' upper-middle-class habitus, and corresponding elevated and privileged social status. Specifically, we discuss the findings of ethnographic fieldwork focused on the acquisition, transmission, and conversion of economic, social, cultural, and physical capital in and through member families' club involvement. We argue that Valley View operates as a distinctive cultural field, wherein embodied techniques and expressions of class-based power and privilege contribute to the reproduction of social class differences, boundaries, and hierarchies, in such a way as to render them natural, and largely unacknowledged, effects of being.
Implications of Targeted Genomic Disruption of β-Catenin in BxPC-3 Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma Cells

Pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PA) is among the most aggressive human tumors with an overall 5-year survival rate of <5% and available treatments are only minimal effective. WNT/β-catenin signaling has been identified as one of 12 core signaling pathways that are commonly mutated in PA. To obtain more insight into the role of WNT/β-catenin signaling in PA we established human PA cell lines that are deficient of the central canonical WNT signaling protein β-catenin by using zinc-finger nuclease (ZFN) mediated targeted genomic disruption in the β-catenin gene (CTNNB1). Five individual CTNNB1 gene disrupted clones (BxPC3ΔCTNNB1) were established from a BxPC-3 founder cell line. Despite the complete absence of β-catenin, all clones displayed normal cell cycle distribution profiles, overall normal morphology and no elevated levels of apoptosis although increased doubling times were observed in three of the five BxPC3ΔCTNNB1 clones. This confirms that WNT/β-catenin signaling is not mandatory for long term cell growth and survival in BxPC-3 cells. Despite a normal morphology of the β-catenin deficient cell lines, quantitative proteomic analysis combined with pathway analysis showed a significant down regulation of proteins implied in cell adhesion combined with an up-regulation of plakoglobin. Treatment of BxPC3ΔCTNNB1 cell lines with siRNA for plakoglobin induced morphological changes compatible with a deficiency in the formation of functional cell to cell contacts. In addition, a re-localization of E-cadherin from membranous in untreated to accumulation in cytoplasmatic puncta in plakoglobin siRNA treated BxPC3ΔCTNNB1 cells was observed. In conclusion we describe in β-catenin deficient BxPC-3 cells a rescue function for plakoglobin on cell to cell contacts and maintaining the localization of E-cadherin at the cellular surface, but not on canonical WNT signaling as measured by TFC/LEF mediated transcription.
Designing a Tunable Nested Data-Parallel Programming System

This article describes Surge, a nested data-parallel programming system designed to simplify the porting and tuning of parallel applications to multiple target architectures. Surge decouples high-level specification of computations, expressed using a C++ programming interface, from low-level implementation details using two first-class constructs: schedules and policies. Schedules describe the valid ways in which data-parallel operators may be implemented, while policies encapsulate a set of parameters that govern platform-specific code generation. These two mechanisms are used to implement a code generation system that analyzes computations and automatically generates a search space of valid platform-specific implementations. An input and architecture-adaptive autotuning system then explores this search space to find optimized implementations. We express in Surge five real-world benchmarks from domains such as machine learning and sparse linear algebra and from the high-level specifications, Surge automatically generates CPU and GPU implementations that perform on par with or better than manually optimized versions.
Pregnancy Requires Major Changes in the Quality of the Diet for Nutritional Adequacy: Simulations in the French and the United States Populations

Background Maternal nutrition is critical to the health of both mother and offspring, but there is a paucity of data on the nutritional adequacy of diets during pregnancy. Objective Our objective was to identify to what extent pregnancy reduces the nutritional adequacy of the expecting mother’s diet and if this nutritional gap can be resolved by simple quantitative or qualitative changes in the diet. Materials and Methods We evaluated the observed overall nutritional adequacy of diets of French and American women of childbearing age participating in ENNS (n = 344) and NHANES (n = 563) using the probabilistic approach of the PANDiet system, resulting in a 100-point score. Then, we simulated the changes in the PANDiet scores of women of childbearing age who would remain on their diet during pregnancy. Finally, by either increasing the quantity of consumed foods or using eleven snacks recommended during pregnancy, we simulated the effect of a 150-kcal increase in the energy intake of French women. Results Observed PANDiet scores were equal to 59.3 ± 7.0 and 58.8 ± 9.3 points respectively in France and in the US. Simulation of pregnancy for women of childbearing age led to a decrease in nutritional adequacy for key nutrients during pregnancy and resulted in reducing PANDiet scores by 3.3 ± 0.1 and 3.7 ± 0.1 points in France and in the US. Simulated 150-kcal increases in energy intake proved to be only partially effective in filling the gap both when the quantity of food consumed was increased and when recommended snacks were used. Conclusions The decrease in nutritional adequacy induced by pregnancy cannot be addressed by simply following generic dietary guidelines.
Going for Gold: An Analysis of Morningstar Analyst Ratings

We investigate Morningstar’s new qualitative, forward-looking analyst ratings, which reflect independent analysts’ expectations of a fund’s future performance. We find relatively higher flows to funds receiving higher ratings, suggesting that the average investor values the analyst’s subjective views when allocating their wealth. Performance tests show that investors would have earned significantly higher returns over our sample period by investing in funds with the highest analyst conviction. These results suggest that independent research that expands the information set to include qualitative elements may help investors make better investment allocation decisions.
The Advanced Placement Arms Race and the Reproduction of Educational Inequality

Background Access to Advanced Placement (AP) courses is stratified by class and race. Researchers have identified how schools serving disadvantaged students suffer from various kinds of resource deprivations, concluding that interventions are needed to equalize access to AP courses. On the other hand, the theory of Effectively Maintained Inequality (EMI) argues that schools serving advantaged students may perpetuate inequalities by expanding their AP curriculum so their graduates can be competitive in the college admissions process. Research Questions Between 2000 and 2002, California attempted to expand AP offerings and enrollments. This study answers whether or not this intervention narrowed inequalities in AP along class and racial lines. It also examines if community affluence affects district officials’ views of pressures to offer AP courses, which could explain any effectively maintained inequalities in AP access. Research Design This study uses a panel dataset of all California public high schools from 1997 to 2006. It examines the changing effects of school poverty, upper-middle class presence, and school racial composition on offerings of and enrollments in AP subjects. It supplements the quantitative analysis with interviews from 11 school district officials in California conducted in 2006. Results Hierarchical generalized linear models show that upper-middle class presence structures California high schools’ AP subject offerings and enrollments, much more than school poverty. California's intervention resulted in increased AP subject offerings and enrollments in high schools serving disadvantaged and less advantaged students, but these reductions in deprivation had trivial effects on inequalities, since schools serving advantaged students increased their own AP offerings and enrollments. In addition, high schools serving White and Asian students had larger increases in AP offerings and enrollments than high schools serving Black and Hispanic students. Interview data indicate that officials in affluent districts perceived a greater demand for AP subjects, and were more likely to report their school staff was proactive to initiate new AP courses than officials in districts serving working-class communities. Conclusions The findings document that while policies can increase AP access at schools serving low-income students, the actions of affluent schools and families will pose substantial barriers to achieving parity in AP offerings and enrollments. Moreover, studies gauging resource inequalities among schools may underestimate these inequalities if they use school poverty to measure schools’ socioeconomic composition.
Protective effects of Picrorhiza kurroa on cyclophosphamide-induced immunosuppression in mice

Objective: To study the immunomodulatory effect of ethanolic and aqueous extract of the rhizomes of Picrorrhiza kurroa (Scrophulariaceae) in normal and immunosuppressed mice models. Materials and Methods: The rhizomes extract of Picrorrhiza kurroa was administered orally according to their body weight in mice. The study was carried out by various hematological and serological tests. The assessment of immunomodulatory activity on specific and non-specific immunity was studied by administration of test extract. The method of cyclophasphamide-induced immunosuppression was employed with slight modification to study the immunomodulatory potential of the extract. Plant extracts were administered by oral feeding canula to the test groups (groups III–VI), group I (control animals) and group II (model control animals) received same volume of normal saline (0.2 ml). Humoral antibody response to SRBC measurement of antibody titer by hemagglutination reaction was done. The mice belonging to the all groups were antigenically challenged with SRBC (0.5×109 cells/ml/100 g) on 10th day intraparitoneally. Cellular immune response (Foot pad reaction test) the edema was induced by injecting SRBC (0.025×109 cells) in left paw, and 0.025 ml of saline was injected in right paw. Results: The plant extract showed protective effects on humoral immunity. The change in percentage deduction in footpad volume was also found significant (P<0.001). Administration of extract remarkably ameliorated both cellular and humoral antibody response. Conclusion: It is concluded that the test extracts possessed promising immunostimulant properties. But, the alcoholic extract is more potent than aqueous extract in producing delayed type hypersensitivity response.
Teacher transformations: A phenomenological study on the effect of Courage to Teach on experienced teachers' growth and development

The purpose of this qualitative study is to investigate the effects of a professional development experience on ten experienced teachers who participated as a cohort in Courage to Teach. Courage to Teach, founded by Parker Palmer, is a program of quarterly retreats that foster personal and professional renewal for teachers. The program focuses on renewal through deep reflection that helps teachers to investigate the inner and outer landscapes of their lives. By using seasonal themes, poetry, readings, and insights from various wisdom traditions, teachers reflect on their identity and integrity as teachers as large group, small group, and solitary settings. Using phenomenological methodology, the study examines the teachers' transformative learning as a result of their participation in Courage to Teach, using Mezirow's (2000) definition of transformation as a permanent shift in one's meaning perspective. Data was gathered in two phases, using a questionnaire and semistructured, in-depth interviews of 10 retreat participants. The findings revealed that 100% of the participants in this study experienced disorienting dilemmas that influenced their decision to join Courage to Teach. According to Mezirow (2000), these are external events that lead a person to question his or her meaning perspective. In addition, 100% of study participants reported personal and/or professional transformations as result of their participation in Courage to Teach. Four areas of transformation were identified: in teachers' personal/professional lives; in classroom teaching; in leadership; and, for these considering either retirement or a career change, a clearer understanding of their next career move. \
Memory Functioning Following Traumatic Brain Injury in Children With Premorbid Learning Problems

This study examines the memory functioning of 25 children who sustained a traumatic brain injury (TBI) and who had prior learning problems, 48 children with TBI who did not have prior learning problems, and 23 noninjured controls. The children with TBI and prior learning problems displayed significantly worse memory abilities than both the control participants and the children with TBI and no prior learning problems. They differed significantly from these 2 groups on measures of general memory, verbal memory, sound-symbol learning, and attention. The results suggest that children with premorbid learning problems who sustain TBI have less cognitive reserve and a lower threshold for the expression of cognitive impairments in areas that reflect preexisting learning and language problems, compared to children without premorbid learning problems.
Novel PMMA Polymer-Based Nanopores Capable of Detection and Discrimination Between Structurally Different Biomolecules

We report, for the first time, the use of single poly (methyl-methacrylate) (PMMA) polymer-based nanopores to not only detect the translocating biomolecules of dsDNA and BSA in individual populations, but also distinguish between them in a mixed population, based on the obtained depths (iBlock) and durations (tD) of the ionic current blockade events. Quantitative analyzes of current blockade events induced by separate populations of dsDNA and BSA molecules translocating through single PMMA-based nanopores revealed a mean iBlock value of 22.4 ± 0.69 pA with a tD of 0.202 ± 0.009 ms, and a mean iBlock value of 60.14 ± 0.19 pA with a tD of 0.59 ± 0.08 ms for dsDNA and BSA molecules, respectively. Evaluation of translocation events by dsDNA and BSA molecules in a mixed population through single nanopores indicated two distinct groups of current blockade events, extrapolation of which could perfectly correlate the group demonstrating iBlock values of 13-38 pA to the dsDNA molecules, whereas the group demonstrating iBlock values of 52-73 pA to the BSA protein molecules transporting through the nanopores. Analysis of the data suggests that the majority of dsDNA or BSA protein molecules translocating through the nanopores are in their partially folded conformation. This paper is an important milestone in the development of polymer-based solid-state nanopore devices for fast and accurate biomolecule detection, differentiation/discrimination, and future structural characterization.
A Support Tool for Deriving Domain Taxonomies from Wikipedia

Organizing data into category hierarchies (taxonomies) is useful for content discovery, search, exploration and analysis. In industrial settings targeted taxonomies for specific domains are mostly created manually, typically by domain experts, which is time consuming and requires a high level of expertise. This paper presents an algorithm and an implemented interactive system for automatically generating target-domain taxonomies based on the Wikipedia Category Hierarchy. The system also enables human post-editing, facilitated by intelligent assistance.