Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
ICTs and the Adaptability of Work Arrangements in the EU

ICT-enabled new ways of working are in general associated with increases in flexibility, and as such are central to the European Employment Strategy. This paper compares the progress individual EU Member States have made with regard to the diffusion of flexibility on labour markets. In order to do so, the authors set up an index model that is in line with the key policy objectives of the European Community, which means using a radically different approach as compared to existing labour market flexibility indices such as the one developed by the OECD. The AWAI (Adaptability of Work Arrangements Index) consists of two elements: one subindex measuring worker-centred flexibility and another one measuring company-centred flexibility. Using a preliminary selection of variables (which is based on a theoretical framework conceptualising the nature of developments in work organisation) for calculation of both of these components, the authors calculated AWAI scores for each of 10 EU Member States. Comparing the results for both sub-indices shows that there are marked differences between both rankings, with some countries performing well in one subindex and below-average in the other. The paper aims to contribute to the development of a more differentiated view at the issue of flexibility of labour markets.
Solving a Levinthal's paradox for virus assembly identifies a unique antiviral strategy

Significance One of the important puzzles in virology is how viruses assemble protective protein containers for their genomes rapidly and efficiently during an infection. Recent advances in the field of RNA viruses suggests that multiple specific contacts between the genomic RNA and the proteins in these containers play crucial roles in this process, but the detailed molecular mechanisms by which this occurs are largely obscure. We describe here a mathematical model of virus assembly that incorporates these contacts and other details of real virus infections. It demonstrates how such contacts act collectively to reduce the complexity of virus formation, ensuring efficient and selective packaging of the viral genomes. These competitive advantages shed new light on viral assembly and evolution and open up unique avenues for antiviral therapy. One of the important puzzles in virology is how viruses assemble the protein containers that package their genomes rapidly and efficiently in vivo while avoiding triggering their hosts’ antiviral defenses. Viral assembly appears directed toward a relatively small subset of the vast number of all possible assembly intermediates and pathways, akin to Levinthal’s paradox for the folding of polypeptide chains. Using an in silico assembly model, we demonstrate that this reduction in complexity can be understood if aspects of in vivo assembly, which have mostly been neglected in in vitro experimental and theoretical modeling assembly studies, are included in the analysis. In particular, we show that the increasing viral coat protein concentration that occurs in infected cells plays unexpected and vital roles in avoiding potential kinetic assembly traps, significantly reducing the number of assembly pathways and assembly initiation sites, and resulting in enhanced assembly efficiency and genome packaging specificity. Because capsid assembly is a vital determinant of the overall fitness of a virus in the infection process, these insights have important consequences for our understanding of how selection impacts on the evolution of viral quasispecies. These results moreover suggest strategies for optimizing the production of protein nanocontainers for drug delivery and of virus-like particles for vaccination. We demonstrate here in silico that drugs targeting the specific RNA–capsid protein contacts can delay assembly, reduce viral load, and lead to an increase of misencapsidation of cellular RNAs, hence opening up unique avenues for antiviral therapy.
Gene Expression Profiling of Hairy Cell Leukemia Reveals a Phenotype Related to Memory B Cells with Altered Expression of Chemokine and Adhesion Receptors

Hairy cell leukemia (HCL) is a chronic B cell malignancy characterized by the diffuse infiltration of bone marrow and spleen by cells displaying a typical “hairy” morphology. However, the nature of the HCL phenotype and its relationship to normal B cells and to other lymphoma subtypes remains unclear. Using gene expression profiling, we show here that HCL displays a homogeneous pattern of gene expression, which is clearly distinct from that of other B cell non-Hodgkin lymphomas. Comparison with the gene expression profiles of purified normal B cell subpopulations, including germinal center (GC), pre-GC (naive), and post-GC (memory) B cells, shows that HCL cells are more related to memory cells, suggesting a derivation from this B cell population. Notably, when compared with memory cells, HCL cells displayed a remarkable conservation in proliferation, apoptosis, and DNA metabolism programs, whereas they appeared significantly altered in the expression of genes controlling cell adhesion and response to chemokines. Finally, these analyses have identified several genes that are specifically expressed in HCL and whose expression was confirmed at the protein level by immunocytochemical analysis of primary HCL cases. These results have biological implications relevant to the pathogenesis of this malignancy as well as clinical implications for its diagnosis and therapy.
An Exploration of Cross-cultural Adjustment and Job Satisfaction among Primary School Native-speaking English Teachers in Hong Kong

The study aimed to explore Primary School Native-speaking English Teachers’ (NETs’) cross-cultural adjustment and job satisfaction in Hong Kong. The relationship between NETs’ cross-cultural adjustment, stress and job satisfaction was investigated in a sample of 150 NETs by the quantitative analysis of a survey. A self-administered questionnaire comprised a biographical questionnaire and six measuring instruments. The differences in cross-cultural adjustment and job satisfaction between NETs who reported with high job satisfaction and those who reported with low job satisfaction were then examined in a sample of the 10 selected NETs, 5 from the high satisfaction group and 5 from the low satisfaction group, by the qualitative interpretations of the face-to-face semi-structured interviews which were designed on the basis of the survey. A survey of 150 NETs indicated that all factors in the conceptual framework were significantly related to NETs’ cross-cultural adjustment, stress and job satisfaction. Selection mechanism and criteria, neuroticism and role ambiguity were the predictors of work adjustment. Extraversion was positively related to and conscientiousness was negatively related to interaction adjustment. Previous overseas living experience, extraversion and culture novelty were positively related to general adjustment. Neuroticism and culture novelty were the predictors of cultural stress. Previous overseas teaching experience, role ambiguity and role conflict were significantly related to organisational stress. Work adjustment, general adjustment and organisational stress were the key predictors of job satisfaction. The interviews of the NETs confirmed the survey results and revealed that the NETs who were highly satisfied and those who were not satisfied with their jobs experienced considerable difference in terms of job characteristics, job content and work context. This study provided an important reference for all stakeholders to better prepare the NETs and to maximise the effectiveness of the NET Scheme in Hong Kong.
Parallel Implementation and Performance of FastDNAml - A Program for Maximum Likelihood Phylogenetic Inference

This paper describes the parallel implementation of fastDNAml, a program for the maximum likelihood inference of phylogenetic trees from DNA sequence data. Mathematical means of inferring phylogenetic trees have been made possible by the wealth of DNA data now available. Maximum likelihood analysis of phylogenetic trees is extremely computationally intensive. Availability of computer resources is a key factor limiting use of such analyses. fastDNAml is implemented in serial, PVM, and MPI versions, and may be modified to use other message passing libraries in the future. We have developed a viewer for comparing phylogenies. We tested the scaling behavior of fastDNAml on an IBM RS/6000 SP up to 64 processors. The parallel version of fastDNAml is one of very few computational phylogenetics codes that scale well. fastDNAml is available for download as source code or compiled for Linux or AIX.
Segmentation and Pose Estimation of Planar Metallic Objects

The problem of estimating the pose of metallic objects with shiny surfaces is studied. A new application has been developed using state-of-the-art 3D object segmentation (euclidean clustering) and pose estimation (ICP) methods. We analyze the planar surfaces of the metallic objects in 3D laser scanner data. First we segment these planar objects using euclidean clustering based on surface normals. Thereafter to estimate the pose of these segmented objects we compute Fast Point Feature Histograms (FPFH) descriptors. Finally we use an ICP algorithm that computes the rigid transformation with Singular Value Decomposition(SVD). Two different round of experiments are conducted:-one for the clustering and the other one for the pose estimation. We present the experimental results and analysis along with the possible application scenario and future work.
Modélisation multi-agents du transfert de connaissances : réflexions théoriques et application à un pôle de compétitivité

Cette these sur travaux, composee de quatre articles, s’interesse a la dynamique de la diﬀusion des connaissances entre les acteurs internes d’un pole de competitivite francais au travers de modelisations multi-agents individu-centrees. Les trois premiers articles constituent un ensemble de reﬂexions theoriques sur la diﬀusion inter organisationnelle des connaissances et, comme prolongement, le quatrieme article integre des speciﬁcites d’un pole de competitivite. L’article 1 propose une extension dynamique de l’impact de la capacite d’absorption de Sakakibara (2003) et d’Egbetokun et Savin (2012) sur le stock de connaissances d’entreprises partenaires. L’article 2 porte sur des acteurs qui essayent de minimiser le deﬁcit cause par une perception erronee des interactions de deux projets dans lesquels ils investissent regulierement. Nous avons travaille sur un grand nombre de decideurs partageant de l’information avec leurs voisins les plus proches. L’article 3 eﬀectue une extension du modele de l’article 1 en integrant la mauvaise perception des informations echangees entre acteurs et etudie son impact sur l’accumulation de connaissances. L’article 4, transpose le modele precedent en y integrant la notion de conﬁance et certaines speciﬁcites des poles de competitivite.
Dynamic Model and Response of Robot Manipulators with Joint Irregularities

The dynamic equation of a robotic manipulator with joint irregularities is formulated and employed for the prediction of the positioning accuracy and precision of a robotic manipulator in high-speed operation. The mathematical model is derived by incorporating a dynamic model of irregular joints in an ideal robotic equation and employing the Lagrangian formulation. The joint irregularity is modeled as an elastic sliding pair which consists of a journal with irregular surface sliding on the surface of an elastic bearing. By employing Gaussian linearization methods, the operational accuracy and precision of the robotic manipulator are obtained from mean and covariance propagation equations of the robotic system. The operation of a single-arm robotic manipulator with joint irregularities is investigated for demonstrating the present techniques.
Decoding Choice Encodings

We study two encodings of the asynchronous π-calculus with input-guarded choice into its choice-free fragment. One encoding is divergence-free, but refines the atomic commitment of choice into gradual commitment. The other preserves atomicity, but introduces divergence. The divergent encoding is fully abstract with respect to weak bisimulation, but the more natural divergence-free encoding is not. Instead, we show that it is fully abstract with respect to coupled simulation, a slightly coarser — but still coinductively defined — equivalence that does not enforce bisimilarity of internal branching decisions. The correctness proofs for the two choice encodings exploit the properties of decodings from translations to source terms.
Verification, Diagnosis and Adaptation: Tool supported enhancement of the model-driven verification process

In this paper, we use a case study from an autonomous aerospace context as running example to show how to apply a game-based model-checking approach a as a powerful technique for the verification, diagnosis and adaptation of temporal properties. This work is part of our contribution within the SHADOWS project, where we provide a number of enabling technologies for model-driven self-healing. We propose here to use GEAR, a game-based model checker for the full modal μ-calculus and derived, more user-oriented logics, as a user friendly tool that can offer automatic proofs of critical properties of such systems. Designers and engineers can interactively investigate automatically generated winning strategies for the games, this way exploring the connection between the property, the system, and the proof.1
Undesired Small RNAs Originate from an Artificial microRNA Precursor in Transgenic Petunia (Petunia hybrida)

Although artificial microRNA (amiRNA) technology has been used frequently in gene silencing in plants, little research has been devoted to investigating the accuracy of amiRNA precursor processing. In this work, amiRNAchs1 (amiRchs1), based on the Arabidopsis miR319a precursor, was expressed in order to suppress the expression of CHS genes in petunia. The transgenic plants showed the CHS gene-silencing phenotype. A modified 5′ RACE technique was used to map small-RNA-directed cleavage sites and to detect processing intermediates of the amiRchs1 precursor. The results showed that the target CHS mRNAs were cut at the expected sites and that the amiRchs1 precursor was processed from loop to base. The accumulation of small RNAs in amiRchs1 transgenic petunia petals was analyzed using the deep-sequencing technique. The results showed that, alongside the accumulation of the desired artificial microRNAs, additional small RNAs that originated from other regions of the amiRNA precursor were also accumulated at high frequency. Some of these had previously been found to be accumulated at low frequency in the products of ath-miR319a precursor processing and some of them were accompanied by 3′-tailing variant. Potential targets of the undesired small RNAs were discovered in petunia and other Solanaceae plants. The findings draw attention to the potential occurrence of undesired target silencing induced by such additional small RNAs when amiRNA technology is used. No appreciable production of secondary small RNAs occurred, despite the fact that amiRchs1 was designed to have perfect complementarity to its CHS-J target. This confirmed that perfect pairing between an amiRNA and its targets is not the trigger for secondary small RNA production. In conjunction with the observation that amiRNAs with perfect complementarity to their target genes show high efficiency and specificity in gene silencing, this finding has an important bearing on future applications of amiRNAs in gene silencing in plants.
Automated 3-dimensional registration of stand-alone (18)F-FDG whole-body PET with CT.

UNLABELLED Image registration and fusion of whole-body (18)F-FDG PET with thoracic CT would allow combination of anatomic detail from CT with functional PET information, which could lead to improved diagnosis or PET-based radiotherapy planning. METHODS We have designed a practical and fully automated algorithm for the elastic 3-dimensional image registration of whole-body PET and CT images, which compensates for the nonlinear deformation due to breath-hold CT imaging. A set of 18 PET and CT patient datasets has been evaluated by the algorithm. Initially, a 9-parameter linear registration is performed by maximizing the mutual information (MI)-based cost function, between the CT and the combination of emission and transmission PET volumes, using progressively increased matrix sizes to increase speed and provide better convergence. Subsequently, lung contours on transmission maps and corresponding contours on CT volumes are automatically detected. A large number (few hundreds) of corresponding point pairs are automatically derived, defining a thin-plate-spline (TPS) elastic transformation of PET emission and transmission scans to match the CT scan. RESULTS In all 18 patients the automatic linear registration with multiresolution converged close to the final alignment, but, in 10 cases, the nonlinear differences in the diaphragm position and chest wall were still clearly visible. The nonlinear adjustment, which was in the order of 40-75 mm, significantly improved the alignment between breath-hold CT and PET, especially in the areas of the diaphragm. Lung volumes measured from transmission and CT scans match closely after the warping has been applied. The average computation time is <40 s for the linear component and <30 s for the nonlinear component for a typical PET scan with 4-6 bed positions. CONCLUSION We have developed a technique for automatic nonlinear registration of CT and PET whole-body images to common spatial coordinates. This technique may be applied for automatic fusion of PET with CT acquired on stand-alone scanners during normal breathing or breath-hold data acquisition.
CpG Islands in Human X‐Inactivation

Sequence comparison analyses have been carried out for 19 genes escaping X‐inactivation versus 73 genes subject to X‐inactivation, and 100 randomly chosen X chromosome genes versus 100 randomly chosen autosomal genes. The coding sequence of the genes and their upstream and downstream flanking sequences were investigated using a series of windows (1 kb, 2 kb, 5 kb, 10 kb and 100 kb). No significant difference in number of LINE‐L1 elements was observed in genes escaping X‐inactivation compared to genes subject to X‐inactivation. This result, therefore, does not support the suggestion that lack of LINE repeat elements is a key factor for genes escaping X‐inactivation. However, significantly reduced numbers of CpG islands and SINE MIR elements were found to be associated with genes escaping X‐inactivation. Compared to genes known to be inactivated, genes escaping X‐inactivation were observed to have fewer CpG islands, particularly within the 2 kb upstream flanking sequence close to the coding region. The results suggest that CpG islands may play a role in the process of X‐inactivation by providing sufficient DNA methylation targets for the maintenance of X‐inactivation. Lack of CpG islands may be a major reason for genes escaping X‐inactivation regulation.
Best Practices in High Fidelity Patient Simulation to Enhance Higher Order Thinking Skills

v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ix CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 BACKGROUND AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROBLEM 1 1.2 PURPOSE OF THE PROJECT 29 1.3 PICO QUESTION 30 1.4 EVIDENCE SEARCH PROCESS 33 1.5 DETERMINING THE DEPTH AND BREADTH OF THE LITERATURE REVIEW 33 1.6 SUMMARY 34 CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE 36 2.
Comparative Study of PCA and LDA

: Face recognition gains a lot of courtesy in recent years due to its various applications in our societies. In the appearance-based face recognition classical principal component analysis (PCA) and linear component analysis (LDA) algorithms are widely used. Small database marks the robust result of these algorithms principally. These algorithms are mainly used for feature point extraction and dimensionality reduction in 2D face recognition. We present a comparison of both the algorithms and combination of these two algorithms.
ERPLAB: an open-source toolbox for the analysis of event-related potentials

ERPLAB toolbox is a freely available, open-source toolbox for processing and analyzing event-related potential (ERP) data in the MATLAB environment. ERPLAB is closely integrated with EEGLAB, a popular open-source toolbox that provides many EEG preprocessing steps and an excellent user interface design. ERPLAB adds to EEGLAB’s EEG processing functions, providing additional tools for filtering, artifact detection, re-referencing, and sorting of events, among others. ERPLAB also provides robust tools for averaging EEG segments together to create averaged ERPs, for creating difference waves and other recombinations of ERP waveforms through algebraic expressions, for filtering and re-referencing the averaged ERPs, for plotting ERP waveforms and scalp maps, and for quantifying several types of amplitudes and latencies. ERPLAB’s tools can be accessed either from an easy-to-learn graphical user interface or from MATLAB scripts, and a command history function makes it easy for users with no programming experience to write scripts. Consequently, ERPLAB provides both ease of use and virtually unlimited power and flexibility, making it appropriate for the analysis of both simple and complex ERP experiments. Several forms of documentation are available, including a detailed user’s guide, a step-by-step tutorial, a scripting guide, and a set of video-based demonstrations.
Rotavirus Increases Levels of Lipidated LC3 Supporting Accumulation of Infectious Progeny Virus without Inducing Autophagosome Formation

Replication of many RNA viruses benefits from subversion of the autophagic pathway through many different mechanisms. Rotavirus, the main etiologic agent of pediatric gastroenteritis worldwide, has been recently described to induce accumulation of autophagosomes as a mean for targeting viral proteins to the sites of viral replication. Here we show that the viral-induced increase of the lipidated form of LC3 does not correlate with an augmented formation of autophagosomes, as detected by immunofluorescence and electron microscopy. The LC3-II accumulation was found to be dependent on active rotavirus replication through the use of antigenically intact inactivated viral particles and of siRNAs targeting viral genes that are essential for viral replication. Silencing expression of LC3 or of Atg7, a protein involved in LC3 lipidation, resulted in a significant impairment of viral titers, indicating that these elements of the autophagic pathway are required at late stages of the viral cycle.
What Linear Estimators Miss: Re-Examining the Effects of Family Income on Child Outcomes

This paper uses a rich Norwegian dataset to re-examine the causal relationship between family income and child outcomes. Motivated by theoretical predictions and OLS results that suggest a nonlinear relationship, we depart from previous studies in allowing the marginal effects on children’s outcomes of an increase in family income to vary across the income distribution. Our nonlinear IV and fixed-effect estimates show an increasing, concave relationship between family income and children's educational attainment and IQ. The linear estimates, however, suggest small, if any, effect of family income, because they assign little weight to the large marginal effects at the lower part of the income distribution.
Feature grouping by 'relocalisation' of eigenvectors of the proximity matrix

We describe a widely applicable method of grouping or clustering image features (such as points, lines, corners, flow vectors and the like). It takes as input a "proximity matrix" H a square, symmetric matrix of dimension N (where N is the number of features). The element i,j of H is an initial estimate of the "proximity" between the ith and yth features. As output it delivers another square symmetric matrix S whose i-)th element is near to, or much less than unity according as features i and j are to be assigned to the same or different clusters.