Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Media Bias, Perspective, and State Repression: The Black Panther Party

Davenport, Christian. Media Bias, Perspective, and State Repression: The Black Panther Party. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009. 242 pp. $25.99 In the pre-dawn hours of October 1967, police officer John Frey pulled over Black Panther Party leader Huey Newton and his associate Gene McKinney at an intersection in Oakland, California. By the end of the traffic stop, Frey would be shot to death, and Newton and another police officer, Herbert Heanes, would be seriously wounded. While being treated, Newton was handcuffed to his hospital bed and arrested and charged with Freys murder. What happened in the days after these events depends on where one gets the information. This is the focus of Christian Davenport's study of how five newspapers, representing different perspectives, covered San Francisco Bay-area law enforcement and Black Panther relations from 1967 to 1973. Although the Panthers existed in different places in the nation and existed in some form after 1973, he uses this faction at this particular time because these were the first years of the party's existence and the time and place of the party's well-known members. He uses the "Rashomon Effect" as a basis for analyzing the newspapers' variant accounts of this relationship. This is named after the Akira Kurosowa film Rashomon, a film about how its characters provide differing accounts of a rape and murder. The notion that people witnessing the same event can provide different accounts of it is not new. Davenport stresses that scholars consider this notion, as reflected in Rashomon, when analyzing conflicts and contentious politics and thoroughly traces studies of conflicts pointing out how their approaches have changed from objective/ quantitative ones emphasizing the events to subjective/qualitative ones examining the sources connected to the events. Moreover, his literature review crosses a variety of disciplines, including sociology, communication, history, and political science. Understanding the scholarly approaches from these varied disciplines, he contends, is necessary for applying the "Rashomon Effect. " Called event catalogs, Davenport collected data from newspapers that represented three perspectives - mainstream/establishment (the New York Times and the Oakland Tribune), neutral (the Sun Reporter), and anti-mainstream/establishment (the Berkeley Barb and the Bhck Panther Intercommunal News Service) - to examine the extent to which the state repressed the Black Panther Party. Guided by twenty-four hypotheses, his study concludes that source political orientation and source proximity not only influence the way information is presented about contentious events but also influences the public's understanding of repressive behavior. Davenport does not look at source variation as just an issue of methodology but recommends it as an area of inquiry. …
Improved Class-Specific Codebook with Two-Step Classification for Scene-Level Classification of High Resolution Remote Sensing Images

With the rapid advances in sensors of remote sensing satellites, a large number of highresolution images (HRIs) can be accessed every day. Land use classification using high-resolution images has become increasingly important as it can help to overcome the problems of haphazard, deteriorating environmental quality, loss of prime agricultural lands, and destruction of important wetlands, and so on. Recently, local feature with bag-of-words (BOW) representation has been successfully applied to land-use scene classification with HRIs. However, the BOW representation ignores information from scene labels, which is critical for scene-level land-use classification. Several algorithms have incorporated information from scene labels into BOW by calculating a class-specific codebook from the universal codebook and coding a testing image with a number of histograms. Those methods for mapping the BOW feature to some inaccurate class-specific codebooks may increase the classification error. To effectively solve this problem, we propose an improved class-specific codebook using kernel collaborative representation based classification (KCRC) combined with SPM approach and SVM classifier to classify the testing image in two steps. This model is robust for categories with similar backgrounds. On the standard Land use and Land Cover image dataset, the improved class-specific codebook achieves an average classification accuracy of 93% and demonstrates superiority over other state-of-the-art scene-level classification methods.
The social-sensory interface: category interactions in person perception

Research is increasingly challenging the claim that distinct sources of social information—such as sex, race, and emotion—are processed in discrete fashion. Instead, there appear to be functionally relevant interactions that occur. In the present article, we describe research examining how cues conveyed by the human face, voice, and body interact to form the unified representations that guide our perceptions of and responses to other people. We explain how these information sources are often thrown into interaction through bottom-up forces (e.g., phenotypic cues) as well as top-down forces (e.g., stereotypes and prior knowledge). Such interactions point to a person perception process that is driven by an intimate interface between bottom-up perceptual and top-down social processes. Incorporating data from neuroimaging, event-related potentials (ERP), computational modeling, computer mouse-tracking, and other behavioral measures, we discuss the structure of this interface, and we consider its implications and adaptive purposes. We argue that an increased understanding of person perception will likely require a synthesis of insights and techniques, from social psychology to the cognitive, neural, and vision sciences.
Calcium release from the sarcoplasmic reticulum.

Calcium that induces contraction by interacting with the contractile proteins of muscle cells may be derived from different sources: extracellular space including the basement membrane, sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) and, under certain circumstances, mitochondria. " Among these sources of Ca for excitation-contraction coupling the contribution of the SR varies between different types of muscles: cardiac, skeletal, and smooth. ' ~ An unresolved question concerns the nature of these variations: Are they only quantitative or also qualitative, consisting of fundamentally different mechanisms for the release of Ca from the SR? This review tries to answer that question. The greatest attention is placed on the mechanism of Ca release from the SR of cardiac muscle and this is compared to release in skeletal muscle. Not much space is devoted to smooth muscle, simply because little is known of the mechanisms of Ca release from the SR in this tissue. Studies concerning the sources of Ca other than the SR" and the mechanisms of Ca transport by the SR which are not directly related to the release processes will not be discussed. The first event in excitation-contraction coupling is the action potential. It is generally admitted that some Ca crosses the surface membrane of the cardiac cell during the action potential, whereas little or no Ca crosses the surface membrane of skeletal muscle cells. " Two processes have been proposed as possible links between the action potential of the sarcolemma and the release of Ca from the SR: the Ca-induced release of Ca and the "depolarization-induced" release of Ca: Ca-Induced Release of Ca. According to this hypothesis, the small amount of Ca that crosses the sarcolemma during the action potential is insufficient by itself to activate the myofilaments but induces a release of Ca from the SR sufficient for activation. " "Depolarization-Induced" Release of Ca. According to this hypothesis, the action potential traveling in the transverse tubules induces a modification of the SR membrane that increases its permeability to Ca and thereby results in a release of Ca from the SR." However, it is
Capacitive proximity sensing in smart environments

To create applications for smart environments we can select from a huge variety of sensors that measure environmental parameters or detect activities of different actors within the premises. Capacitive proximity sensors use weak electric fields to recognize conductive objects, such as the human body. They can be unobtrusively applied or even provide information when hidden from view. In the past years various research groups have used this sensor category to create singular applications in this domain. On the following pages we discuss the application of capacitive proximity sensors in smart environments, establishing a classification in comparison to other sensor technologies. We give a detailed overview of the background of this sensing technology and identify specific application domains. Based on existing systems from literature and a number of prototypes we have created in the past years we can specify benefits and limitations of this technology and give a set of guidelines to researchers that are considering this technology in their smart environment applications.
An analytical packet/flow-level modelling approach for wireless LANs with Quality-of-Service support

We present an analytical packet/flow-level modelling approach for the performance analysis of IEEE 802.11e WLAN, where we explicitly take into account QoS differentiation mechanisms based on minimum contention window size values and Arbitration InterFrame Space (AIFS) values, as included in the Enhanced Distributed Channel Access (EDCA) protocol of the 802.11e standard. We first enhance the packet-level approach previously used for best-effort WLANs to include traffic classes with different QoS requirements. The packet-level model approach yields service weights that discriminate among traffic classes. From these observations, the packet/flow-level model for 802.11e is the \textit{generalized} discriminatory processor-sharing (GDPS) queueing model where the state-dependent system capacity is distributed among active traffic classes according to state-dependent priority weights. Extensive simulations show that the discriminatory processor-sharing model closely represents the flow behavior of 802.11e.
Compatible phase co-scheduling on a CMP of multi-threaded processors

The industry is rapidly moving towards the adoption of chip multi-processors (CMPs) of simultaneous multi-threaded (SMT) cores for general purpose systems. The most prominent use of such processors, at least in the near term, is as job servers running multiple independent threads on the different contexts of the various SMT cores. In such an environment, the co-scheduling of phases from different threads plays a significant role in the overall throughput. Less throughput is achieved when phases from different threads that conflict for particular hardware resources are scheduled together, compared with the situation where compatible phases are co-scheduled on the same SMT core. Achieving the latter requires precise per-phase hardware statistics that the scheduler can use to rapidly identify possible incompatibilities among phases of different threads, thereby avoiding the potentially high performance cost of inter-thread contention. In this paper, we devise phase co-scheduling policies for a dual-core CMP of dual-threaded SMT processors. We explore a number of approaches and find that the use of ready and in-flight instruction metrics permits effective co-scheduling of compatible phases among the four contexts. This approach significantly outperforms the worst static grouping of threads, and very closely matches the best static grouping, even outperforming it by as much as 7%
The Human Plasma Proteome

We have merged four different views of the human plasma proteome, based on different methodologies, into a single nonredundant list of 1175 distinct gene products. The methodologies used were 1) literature search for proteins reported to occur in plasma or serum; 2) multidimensional chromatography of proteins followed by two-dimensional electrophoresis and mass spectroscopy (MS) identification of resolved proteins; 3) tryptic digestion and multidimensional chromatography of peptides followed by MS identification; and 4) tryptic digestion and multidimensional chromatography of peptides from low-molecular-mass plasma components followed by MS identification. Of 1,175 nonredundant gene products, 195 were included in more than one of the four input datasets. Only 46 appeared in all four. Predictions of signal sequence and transmembrane domain occurrence, as well as Genome Ontology annotation assignments, allowed characterization of the nonredundant list and comparison of the data sources. The “nonproteomic” literature (468 input proteins) is strongly biased toward signal sequence-containing extracellular proteins, while the three proteomics methods showed a much higher representation of cellular proteins, including nuclear, cytoplasmic, and kinesin complex proteins. Cytokines and protein hormones were almost completely absent from the proteomics data (presumably due to low abundance), while categories like DNA-binding proteins were almost entirely absent from the literature data (perhaps unexpected and therefore not sought). Most major categories of proteins in the human proteome are represented in plasma, with the distribution at successively deeper layers shifting from mostly extracellular to a distribution more like the whole (primarily cellular) proteome. The resulting nonredundant list confirms the presence of a number of interesting candidate marker proteins in plasma and serum.
Coronary Pressure–Derived Fractional Flow Reserve Measurements: Recommendations for Standardization, Recording, and Reporting as a Core Laboratory Technique. Proposals for Integration in Clinical Trials

Evaluation of new coronary devices and demonstration of their conformity to essential principles of safety and effectiveness requires clinical trials in human subjects. Today, many trials designed to address device-oriented safety and effectiveness rely on quantitative coronary angiographic lesion severity, as an objective reproducible end point to determine whether revascularization for progressive luminal renarrowing after device therapy is clinically indicated. Given the known limitations of angiography to reflect clinical ischemia, concern exists regarding the applicability of such angiographic end points. An invasive objective functional (physiological) assessment of moderate stenoses by coronary pressure–derived fractional flow reserve has evident potential as an adjunct to quantitative coronary angiography in clinical trials. To be implemented as a potential core laboratory technique, standardization in technique and archiving of permanent data storage are imperative. The intent of this report is to propose standards for fractional flow reserve data acquisition and interpretation in coronary device research. Controlled trials with predefined safety and efficacy end points are a critical element in the assessment of new therapies or devices, for approval by regulatory bodies, and subsequent adoption for clinical use by the medical community. It is important that randomized trials adopt meaningful clinical end points that relate to the pathophysiological mechanism(s) most likely responsible for the clinical outcome.1–3 In coronary device investigations, clinically driven repeat revascularization of the target lesion is a key (device-oriented) outcome measure of clinical effectiveness.1 Adjudication of this end point has been based on the presence of clinical symptoms and angiographic lesion severity as determined by a central core laboratory using quantitative coronary angiography (QCA), such that even moderate stenosis (>50% diameter stenosis) by QCA may be considered clinically significant. Most clinical trial designs do not require functional assessment prior to repeat …
Deoxycholic Acid Triggers NLRP3 Inflammasome Activation and Aggravates DSS-Induced Colitis in Mice

A westernized high-fat diet (HFD) is associated with the development of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). High-level fecal deoxycholic acid (DCA) caused by HFD contributes to the colonic inflammatory injury of IBD; however, the mechanism concerning the initiation of inflammatory response by DCA remains unclear. In this study, we sought to investigate the role and mechanism of DCA in the induction of inflammation via promoting NLRP3 inflammasome activation. Here, we, for the first time, showed that DCA dose-dependently induced NLRP3 inflammasome activation and highly pro-inflammatory cytokine-IL-1β production in macrophages. Mechanistically, DCA-triggered NLRP3 inflammasome activation by promoting cathepsin B release at least partially through sphingosine-1-phosphate receptor 2. Colorectal instillation of DCA significantly increased mature IL-1β level in colonic tissue and exacerbated DSS-induced colitis, while in vivo blockage of NLRP3 inflammasome or macrophage depletion dramatically reduced the mature IL-1β production and ameliorated the aggravated inflammatory injury imposed by DCA. Thus, our findings show that high-level fecal DCA may serve as an endogenous danger signal to activate NLRP3 inflammasome and contribute to HFD-related colonic inflammation. NLRP3 inflammasome may represent a new potential therapeutical target for treatment of IBD.
Treadmill Training in Multiple Sclerosis: Can Body Weight Support or Robot Assistance Provide Added Value? A Systematic Review

Purpose. This systematic review critically analyzes the literature on the effectiveness of treadmill training (TT), body-weight-supported TT (BWSTT), and robot-assisted TT (RATT) in persons with multiple sclerosis (MS), with focus on gait-related outcome measurements. Method. Electronic databases (Pubmed, Pedro, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library) and reference lists of articles and narrative reviews were searched. Pre-, quasi- and true-experimental studies were included if adult persons with MS were involved in TT, BWSTT, or RATT intervention studies published before 2012. Descriptive analysis was performed and two researchers scored the methodological quality of the studies. Results. 5 true- and 3 preexperimental studies (mean quality score: 66%) have been included. In total 161 persons with MS were involved (TT, BWSTT, or RATT, 6–42 sessions; 2–5x/week; 3–21 weeks). Significant improvements in walking speed and endurance were reported. Furthermore, improvements of step length, double-support time, and Expanded Disability Status Scale were found. Conclusions. There is a limited number of published papers related to TT in persons with MS, concluding that TT, BWSTT, and RATT improve the walking speed and endurance. However, it is not clear what type of TT is most effective. RCTs with larger but more homogeneous populations are needed.
The VIII Metaheuristics International Conference id-1 Variable Neighborhood Search for the Cost Constrained Minimum Label Spanning Tree and Label Constrained Minimum Spanning Tree Problems

The Minimum Label Spanning Tree (MLST) problem was introduced by Chang and Leu [2]. In this problem, we are given an undirected graph G = (V,E) with labeled edges; each edge has a single label from the set of labels L and different edges can have the same label. The objective is to find a spanning tree with the minimum number of distinct labels. The MLST is motivated from applications in the communications sector. Since communication networks sometimes include numerous different media such as fiber optics, cable, microwave or telephone lines and communication along each edge requires a specific media type, decreasing the number of different media types in the spanning tree reduces the complexity of the communication process. The MLST problem is known to be NP-complete [2]. Several researchers have studied the MLST problem including Brüggemann et al. [1], Cerulli et al. [3], Krumke and Wirth [4], Wan et al. [10], and Xiong et al. [13, 14, 15]. Recently Xiong et al. [12] introduced a more realistic adaptation of the MLST problem called the Label Constrained Minimum Spanning Tree (LCMST) problem. In contrast to the MLST problem, which completely ignores edge costs, the LCMST problem takes into account the cost or weight of edges in the network. The objective of the LCMST problem is to find a minimum weight spanning tree that uses at most K labels (i.e., different types of communications media). Xiong et al. [12] describe two simple local search heuristics and a genetic algorithm for solving the LCMST problem. They also describe a Mixed Integer Programming (MIP) model, but were unable to find solutions for problems with greater than 50 nodes, due to excessive memory requirements. The Cost Constrained Minimum Label Spanning Tree (CCMLST) problem is the dual of the LCMST problem and is another realistic adaptation of the MLST problem. The CCMLST problem was introduced by Xiong et al. [12]. In contrast to the LCMST problem, there is a threshold on the cost of the minimum spanning tree (MST) while minimizing the number of labels. Thus, given a graph
A Conceptual Model for Measuring the Effectiveness of Employee Portals

Employee portals are utilized by many companies to improve information exchange and communication between their employees as well as to better support business processes. Assessing the benefits of employee portals has become important, owing to limited IT budgets and the need to justify investments in portals. In this paper, we propose a conceptual model for measuring the effectiveness of employee portals on the basis of the DeLone and McLean IS Success Model as well as an extensive review of employee portal success measurement literature. The resulting model is presented as the basis for future empirical work in this area. The development of the survey instrument is described and further validation steps are proposed.
B-Cell Epitopes and Quantification of the ESAT-6 Protein of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

ABSTRACT ESAT-6 is an important T-cell antigen recognized by protective T cells in animal models of infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis. In an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) with overlapping peptides spanning the sequence of ESAT-6, monoclonal antibody HYB76-8 reacted with two peptides in the N-terminal region of the molecule. Assays with synthetic truncated peptides allowed a precise mapping of the epitope to the residues EQQWNFAGIEAAA at positions 3 to 15. Hydrophilicity plots revealed one hydrophilic area at the N terminus and two additional areas further along the polypeptide chain. Antipeptide antibodies were generated by immunization with synthetic 8-mer peptides corresponding to these two regions coupled to keyhole limpet hemocyanin. Prolonged immunization with a 23-mer peptide (positions 40 to 62) resulted in the formation of antibodies reacting with the peptide as well as native ESAT-6. A double-antibody ELISA was then developed with monoclonal antibody HYB76-8 as a capture antibody, antigen for testing in the second layer, and antipeptide antibody in the third layer. The assay was suitable for quantification of ESAT-6 in M. tuberculosis antigen preparations, showing no reactivity with M. bovis BCG Tokyo culture fluid, used as a negative control, or with MPT64 or antigen 85B, previously shown to cross-react with HYB76-8. This capture ELISA permitted the identification of ESAT-6 expression from vaccinia virus constructs containing the esat-6 gene; this expression could not be identified by standard immunoblotting.