Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Power to the People? The Impact of Decentralization on Governance

The paper analyzes the impact of decentralization on governance employing four indicators of governance and five measures of decentralization. Depending on data availability, crosssections for a maximum of 129 countries are estimated. Results for a panel of about 70 countries over the period 1984-2001 are also presented. The results show that decentralization - measured as the share of sub-national employment, revenues or, respectively, expenditures - improves governance. This is particularly true for low income countries but - depending on the indicator employed - to some extent for high income countries also. However, the number of sub-national government tiers exerts a negative impact on some dimensions of governance.
CAPNS1 Regulates USP1 Stability and Maintenance of Genome Integrity

ABSTRACT Calpains regulate a wide spectrum of biological functions, including migration, adhesion, apoptosis, secretion, and autophagy, through the modulating cleavage of specific substrates. Ubiquitous microcalpain (μ-calpain) and millicalpain (m-calpain) are heterodimers composed of catalytic subunits encoded, respectively, by CAPN1 and CAPN2 and a regulatory subunit encoded by CAPNS1. Here we show that calpain is required for the stability of the deubiquitinating enzyme USP1 in several cell lines. USP1 modulates DNA replication polymerase choice and repair by deubiquitinating PCNA. The ubiquitinated form of the USP1 substrate PCNA is stabilized in CAPNS1-depleted U2OS cells and mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs), favoring polymerase-η loading on chromatin and increased mutagenesis. USP1 degradation directed by the cell cycle regulator APC/Ccdh1, which marks USP1 for destruction in the G1 phase, is upregulated in CAPNS1-depleted cells. USP1 stability can be rescued upon forced expression of calpain-activated Cdk5/p25, previously reported as a cdh1 repressor. These data suggest that calpain stabilizes USP1 by activating Cdk5, which in turn inhibits cdh1 and, consequently, USP1 degradation. Altogether these findings point to a connection between the calpain system and the ubiquitin pathway in the regulation of DNA damage response and place calpain at the interface between cell cycle modulation and DNA repair.
Self and Values

The standard research programs in moral development have been criticized for adopting a narrow and restrictive view of the moral domain. There has been a dearth of alternative theories that account for the diversity of mature moral viewpoints both within and outside Western culture. We present an interactivist framework that takes into account the plurality of moral perspectives. It does so by addressing fundamental issues of psychological ontology and providing an account of values and the self based on the interactivist conception of knowledge and the knowing-levels treatment of consciousness and developmental stages. We discuss foundational questions such as the nature of the self, how it develops and the relationship between the self and values or morals, with special attention to the nature and source of value conflicts.
Researching Media Education in Schools in the United Kingdom

Through a detailed case study, this article examines the work of one Media teacher in a classroom in the United Kingdom (UK), relating this to the wider picture of Media instruction in UK secondary schools. The study of media production and institutions is frequently avoided by teachers of English. Teaching methods often repress essential aspects of social learning in relation to the media, privileging limited teacher knowledge over young people's own cultural experience. Research is needed that will focus on ways to tap into the cultural knowledge bases of adolescents.
Towards a methodology for ontology based model engineering

The philosophical discipline of Ontology is evolving towards an engineering discipline, and in this evolution the need for a principled methodology has clearly arisen. In this paper, we briefly discuss our recent work towards developing a methodology for ontology-based model engineering. This methodology builds on previous methodology efforts, and is founded on important analytic notions that have been drawn from Philosophy and adapted to Engineering: identity, unity, rigidity, and dependence. We demonstrate how these techniques can be used to analyze properties, which clarifies many misconceptions about taxonomies and helps bring substantial order to ontologies.
Who Is to Blame? Rape of Hindu-Muslim Women in Interethnic Violence in India

This research examined attitudes that predict rape blame in contexts of interethnic violence between minority Muslims and dominant Hindu communities in Mumbai, India. I hypothesized that, in contexts of interethnic violence, prejudicial attitudes toward communities and attitudes that view rape as a conflict tool (i.e., an effective strategy to control an ethnic community) would predict victim blame. This study is among the first to provide empirical support that ethnic prejudice and specific misogynistic attitudes are important predictors of rape victim blame in ethnic violence contexts. Findings indicate that attitudes that exploit women's positions across categories of gender and religious community predict higher victim blame attributions. Findings are relevant to current intercommunity relationships and provide insights for community-based responses and primary interventions.
Kinetics of Antibody Response in BALB/c and C57BL/6 Mice Bitten by Phlebotomus papatasi

Background Phlebotomine sand flies are blood-sucking insects transmitting Leishmania parasites. In bitten hosts, sand fly saliva elicits specific immune response and the humoral immunity was shown to reflect the intensity of sand fly exposure. Thus, anti-saliva antibodies were suggested as the potential risk marker of Leishmania transmission. In this study, we examined the long-term kinetics and persistence of anti-Phlebotomus papatasi saliva antibody response in BALB/c and C57BL/6 mice. We also tested the reactivity of mice sera with P. papatasi salivary antigens and with the recombinant proteins. Methodology/Principal Findings Sera of BALB/c and C57BL/6 mice experimentally bitten by Phlebotomus papatasi were tested by ELISA for the presence of anti-saliva IgE, IgG and its subclasses. We detected a significant increase of specific IgG and IgG1 in both mice strains and IgG2b in BALB/c mice that positively correlated with the number of blood-fed P. papatasi females. Using western blot and mass spectrometry we identified the major P. papatasi antigens as Yellow-related proteins, D7-related proteins, antigen 5-related proteins and SP-15-like proteins. We therefore tested the reactivity of mice sera with four P. papatasi recombinant proteins coding for most of these potential antigens (PpSP44, PpSP42, PpSP30, and PpSP28). Each mouse serum reacted with at least one of the recombinant protein tested, although none of the recombinant proteins were recognized by all sera. Conclusions Our data confirmed the concept of using anti-sand fly saliva antibodies as a marker of sand fly exposure in Phlebotomus papatasi–mice model. As screening of specific antibodies is limited by the availability of salivary gland homogenate, utilization of recombinant proteins in such studies would be beneficial. Our present work demonstrates the feasibility of this implementation. A combination of recombinant salivary proteins is recommended for evaluation of intensity of sand fly exposure in endemic areas and for estimation of risk of Leishmania transmission.
The exception-maximization algorithm and its application in quantitative remote sensing inversion

In remote sensing inversion, we always assume that the observed data error distribution is normal distribution for simplifying the calculation. But under this assumption, only if a few observed data have big error, the inversion result will become unstable. In this paper, we try to use expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm to get more precise and robust inversion result based on another statistical distribution. Linear kernel-driven model with t-distribution error solved by EM algorithm is used to prove this new idea. The inversion methods include traditional ML estimate without prior distribution information of inversion parameters and Bayesian inversion based on prior normal distribution. The test about robustness showed that under the assumption of t-distribution error, more than or over half of observed data have big error can cause instability of inversion results.
Collusion-aware traitor tracing in multimedia fingerprinting using sparse signal approximation

We pose the problem of tracing traitors, who have colluded to circumvent a multimedia fingerprinting system, as a sparse underdetermined linear problem. We propose a range of detection algorithms, based on sparse signal approximation, that span a tradeoff between performance and complexity. These algorithms are superior to conventional detection by correlation because they are collusion-aware. The simplest algorithm among them is more expensive than correlation by only a constant factor, and the second simplest one is more expensive by only a factor linear in the maximum number of traitors. We demonstrate that our proposed algorithms extend the robustness of already deployed fingerprinting schemes under both linear and nonlinear collusion attacks. For example, roughly twice as many traitors can be traced reliably than by using correlation, under mean or median collusion followed by compression.
Crowdfunding Public Projects with Provision Point: A Prediction Market Approach

Crowdfunding is emerging as a popular means to generate funding from citizens for public projects. This is popularly known as civic crowdfunding. In this paper, we focus on crowdfunding public projects with provision point: these are projects in which contributions must reach a predetermined threshold in order for the project to be provisioned. On web based civic crowdfunding platforms, the success of crowdfunding public projects has been somewhat mixed. In this paper, our objective is to design a mechanism that improves the success of crowdfunding public projects. In particular, we propose a class of mechanisms for crowdfunding platforms with sequentially arriving agents. This class of mechanisms induces an extensive form game for agents arriving on the platform and we show that the game has a non-empty set of sub-game perfect equilibria at which the project is fully funded. We call this new class of mechanisms Provision Point Mechanism with Securities (PPS). The novelty of PPS lies in the use of a prediction market to incentivize agents to contribute in proportion to their true value for the project and to contribute as soon as they arrive at the crowdfunding platform. Different variations of PPS are possible depending on the underlying prediction market. In this paper, we use a cost function (or equivalently, scoring rule) based prediction market; in fact, we specify the requirements that a cost function should satisfy to be used in PPS. We study and compare two specific instances of PPS: (1) Logarithmic Market Scoring Rule based and (2) Quadratic Scoring Rule based. We also discuss the considerations that should guide the choice of the cost function when deploying our mechanism on crowdfunding platforms.
RAMP: reconfigurable architecture and mobility platform

There are many incompatible wireless systems. How to integrate them has become an important issue. The integration should be done in both radio access networks (RANs) and core networks. The current trend is to integrate various RANs with an IP-based core network so users with a multi-mode handset or reconfigurable radio, such as software defined radio (SDR), could seamlessly roam among different RANs. With this all-IP paradigm, there should be one common core network, or various core networks should be compatible. Unfortunately, although both 3GPP and 3GPP2 have adopted IP in their packet-switched core networks, the architectures and protocols are not necessary compatible. In addition, they are also different from today's Internet. A user with reconfigurable radio still could not roam seamlessly among 3GPP, 3GPP2, and other IP core networks. As that in RANs, in this paper we propose a reconfigurable architecture in which users could use different protocols in core networks dynamically. There are many potential research topics for the reconfigurable core network. This paper focuses on reconfigurable mobility management. An architecture called reconfigurable architecture and mobility platform (RAMP) is proposed. Both analytical model and simulation are developed to analyze the architecture. In addition, a testbed is constructed. Empirical experiments are conducted to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed idea
Globally Trained Handwritten Word Recognizer Using Spatial Representation, Convolutional Neural Networks, and Hidden Markov Models

We introduce a new approach for on-line recognition of handwritten words written in unconstrained mixed style. The preprocessor performs a word-level normalization by fitting a model of the word structure using the EM algorithm. Words are then coded into low resolution "annotated images" where each pixel contains information about trajectory direction and curvature. The recognizer is a convolution network which can be spatially replicated. From the network output, a hidden Markov model produces word scores. The entire system is globally trained to minimize word-level errors.
A channel adaptive video broadcast scheme based on analog coding and delivery

Limited to the traditional digital transmission design which forces the source to pick a single bit rate supported by the worst receiver to transmit data, the mobile video broadcast service cannot provide better video qualities to the receivers with better channels. This paper proposes an analog coding and transmission scheme named Realcast to provide channel adaptive video broadcast service. It utilizes a series of linear operations to encode the video frame to maintain the linear relationship between the pixels and the transmitted signals so that the distortion in decoded video is proportional to the added channel noise in signal naturally. Meanwhile, Realcast adopts a distributed source coding scheme which combining the frame difference and coset coding to efficiently remove the inter-frame redundancy and avoid the error propagation. Simulation results indicate that Realcast outperform Softcast and Dcast, the typical analog video broadcast schemes, by nearly 3 dB and 1 dB respectively.
A Concept for the Satellite On-Orbit Self-Servicing

The paper puts forward a new concept of the satellite on-orbit self-servicing (SOOSS) which can maintain the malfunctions of deployable appendages of satellites (i.e. solar arrays, communications antennas, etc.). In order to verify this concept, a ground testbed has been presented, a light weight 4 DOF manipulator with an end effector mounted on the satellite are designed to accomplish above operations. The predominant features of the robot system are mechatronics, multi-sensory and intelligent control. The manipulator is composed of four identical joints, the large hollow joint makes the cables pass through in the manipulator which can prevent them from damage of high temperature and radiation in the space environment. The modular designed joint integrates torque sensor, position sensor, redundant motor position sensors, temperature sensors and current sensors. For the end effector, dexterous DLR/HIT hand is employed
Synthesis, Superhydrophobicity, Enhanced Photoluminescence and Gas Sensing Properties of ZnO Nanowires

The past decades have witnessed major worldwide interested in the fabrication of nanodevi‐ ces based on quasi one-dimensional (1D) semiconducting nanostructures (Xu and Wang, 2011; Long et al., 2011; Long et al., 2012). ZnO, an important II-VI group semiconductor with many excellent properties (Xu and Wang, 2011), has been suggested for a diverse range of applications, including optoelectronics (Ko et al., 2011; Wang et al., 2004), ultraviolet laser devices (Liu et al., 2011), gas sensors (Wang et al., 2011; Ra et al., 2008; Wang et al., 2006) and transparent electrodes (Kusinski et al., 2010; Goris et al., 2009), etc. 1D ZnO nanorods, nano‐ wires and nanofibers have been synthesized by a range of techniques, such as top-down ap‐ proaches by etching (Wu et al., 2004), and wet chemical methods (Vayssieres et al., 2001; Gong et al., 2009), metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) (Yang et al., 2004; Pfuller et al., 2011; Lee et al., 2004), physical vapor deposition (Huang et al., 2001; Jeong and Lee, 2010; Wang et al., 2005; Hsu et al., 2005), molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) (Heo et al., 2002), pulsed laser deposition (Shen et al., 2010; Cao et al., 2007), sputtering (Chiou et al., 2003), flux (Kong and Li, 2003), electrospinning (Sen et al., 2011; Wu et al., 2008; Lin et al., 2007; Sui et al., 2005) methods, etc.
Role of the autophagic‐lysosomal system on low potassium‐induced apoptosis in cultured cerebellar granule cells

Apoptotic and autophagic cell death have been implicated, on the basis of morphological and biochemical criteria, in neuronal loss occurring in neurodegenerative diseases and it has been shown that they may overlap. We have studied the relationship between apoptosis and autophagic cell death in cerebellar granule cells (CGCs) undergoing apoptosis following serum and potassium deprivation. We found that apoptosis is accompanied by an early and marked proliferation of autophagosomal–lysosomal compartments as detected by electron microscopy and immunofluorescence analysis. Autophagy is blocked by hrIGF‐1 and forskolin, two well‐known inhibitors of CGC apoptosis, as well as by adenovirus‐mediated overexpression of Bcl‐2. 3‐Methyladenine (3‐MA) an inhibitor of autophagy, not only arrests this event but it also blocks apoptosis. The neuroprotective effect of 3‐MA is accompanied by block of cytochrome c (cyt c) release in the cytosol and by inhibition of caspase‐3 activation which, in turn, appears to be mediated by cathepsin B, as CA074‐Me, a selective inhibitor of this enzyme, fully blocks the processing of pro‐caspase‐3. Immunofluorescence analysis demonstratesd that cathepsin B, normally confined inside the lysosomal‐endosomal compartment, is released during apoptosis into the cytosol where this enzyme may act as an execution protease. Collectively, these observations indicate that autophagy precedes and is causally connected with the subsequent onset of programmed death.
Measurement of Femoral Vein Diameter by Ultrasound to Estimate Central Venous Pressure.

RATIONALE Central venous pressure (CVP) can be estimated by ultrasound of the inferior vena cava (IVC), but imaging the IVC is sometimes challenging. The femoral vein is easily imaged by ultrasound and might therefore provide an alternate target for estimating CVP. OBJECTIVES To assess femoral vein diameter (FVD) measured by ultrasound imaging for estimating CVP. METHODS We prospectively measured CVP and FVD in 97 patients. Receiver operating characteristic curves were used to assess the ability of FVD to predict specific CVP values: less than 10 mm Hg, less than 8 mm Hg (low CVP), and greater than 12 mm Hg (high CVP). Interobserver variability of FVD measurement was assessed in 20 patients. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS There was moderate correlation between FVD and CVP (r = 0.66, P < 0.001). FVD less than or equal to 0.8 cm was the best predictor of CVP < 10 mm Hg, with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.894 and a 95% confidence interval (CI) of 0.82 to 0.97. FVD less than or equal to 0.7 cm performed best for predicting low CVP (AUC = 0.97; 95% CI, 0.94-0.99) and FVD greater than or equal to 1.0 cm for high CVP (AUC = 0.80; 95% CI, 0.72-0.89). However, FVD greater than or equal to 1.2 cm had the greatest specificity (94%) for high CVP. Interobserver variability in FVD measurements was 8.3 ± 7.2%. CONCLUSIONS The results of this exploratory study suggest that the accuracy of FVD measured by ultrasound imaging for estimating CVP is comparable to that which has been reported for ultrasound measurement of IVC diameter. FVD may provide an alternative approach when the IVC is difficult to image. Additional studies on other cohorts of patients are warranted to validate our proposed FVD cutoff values for predicting low and high CVP.
ElastiStore: Flexible Elastic Buffering for Virtual-Channel-Based Networks on Chip

As multicore systems transition to the many-core realm, the pressure on the interconnection network is substantially elevated. The network on chip (NoC) is expected to undertake the expanding demands of the ever-increasing numbers of processing elements, while its area/power footprint remains severely constrained. Hence, low-cost NoC designs that achieve high-throughput and low-latency operation are imperative for future scalability. While the buffers of the NoC routers are key enablers of high performance, they are also major consumers of area and power. In this paper, we extend elastic buffer (EB) architectures to support multiple virtual channels (VCs), and we derive ElastiStore, a novel lightweight EB architecture that minimizes buffering requirements without sacrificing performance. ElastiStore uses just one register per VC and a shared buffer sized large enough to merely cover the round-trip time that appears either on the NoC links or due to the internal pipeline of the NoC routers. The integration of the proposed EB scheme in the NoC router enables the design of efficient architectures, which offer the same performance as baseline VC-based routers, albeit at a significantly lower cost. Cycle-accurate network simulations including both synthetic traffic patterns and real application workloads running in a full-system simulation framework verify the efficacy of the proposed architecture. Moreover, the hardware implementation results using a 45-nm standard-cell library demonstrate ElastiStore's efficiency.
Direct Interference Canceling for Two-Electrode Biopotential Amplifier

A two-electrode biopotential amplifier, though simpler than a three-electrode amplifier, has problems rejecting 60 Hz power-line interference due to the imbalance of electrode-skin impedance. A direct interference canceling (DIC) scheme to reject 60 Hz interference for a two-electrode biopotential amplifier is proposed. The DIC scheme cancels differential-mode interference directly by adding to the interference to be canceled a feedback signal that has the same magnitude and frequency as the interference, but that has phase shifted 180deg. When the DIC is started by closing a switch, transient interference appears, which decreases within several seconds. In steady state, the DIC amplifier rejects a very narrow bandwidth (BW) centered at the interference frequency. The proposed circuit was implemented and the DIC operation yielded 54 dB interference canceling with 0.6 Hz rejection BW.