Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Arterial structure and function in young adults with the metabolic syndrome: the Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study.

AIMS To study the relations between the metabolic syndrome (MS) and subclinical atherosclerosis in young adults. METHODS AND RESULTS International Diabetes Federation (msIDF), National Institute of Health Adult Treatment Panel III (msNCEP), and European Group for the Study of Insulin Resistance (msEGIR) definitions of MS were related to carotid artery intima-media thickness (cIMT), brachial flow-mediated dilatation (FMD), and carotid artery compliance (CAC) in 2163 Finnish adults (aged 32 +/- 5years). All definitions associated with increased cIMT and decreased CAC in both sexes. The cIMT values (mean+/-SD) were 0.576 +/- 0.088 mm in subjects without the syndrome, 0.615 +/- 0.102 mm in msIDF, 0.617 +/- 0.104 mm in msNCEP, and 0.607 +/- 0.097 mm in msEGIR (P < 0.0001). Corresponding CAC values were 2.26 +/- 0.72, 1.76 +/- 0.66, 1.73 +/- 0.66, 1.72 +/- 0.66%/10 mmHg (P < 0.001). Impaired brachial FMD was not related to MS but it modified the relations between MS and cIMT: MS correlated with increased cIMT in subjects with an impaired FMD response (P = 0.003) but not in subjects with an enhanced FMD response (P = 0.75). CONCLUSION All current definitions of MS identify a population of young adults with evidence of increased subclinical atherosclerosis. Impaired brachial endothelial response is not a hallmark of MS in young adults, but the status of endothelial function modifies the association between metabolic risk factors and atherosclerosis.
Wages, prices, and international trade: Trends across industries for an "export champion"

The recent economic policy debate in Germany emphasizes the impact of globalization of the world economy on the German labor market. This paper provides an empirical analysis of the relationship between trade and the labor market in West Germany for the period from 1970 until German reunification in 1990. Building on the emphasis of trade theory on relative output prices as the major transmission channel of trade effects on the labor market, the empirical analysis first develops a series of empirical regularities characterizing trends in trade, total factor productivity growth, and labor markets. Then building on Learner (1996), a more structural analysis identifies empirically the qualitative effects of trade and total factor productivity growth. The analysis allows for three skill types of labor. The major empirical findings are that, relative to skilled labor, wages were increasing disproportionately both for low- and highskilled labor whereas employment trends were favoring higher skill levels monotonically. Import competition as well as total factor productivity were increasing disproportionately in those industries using low- or high-skilled labor-intensively. These results are consistent with trade effects dominating for low-skilled labor and technology effects for high-skilled labor. At the same time, the wage bargaining institutions were holding up relative wages of low-skilled labor which accounts for the disproportionate increase of unemployment for this group. The empirical analysis merges national account data for 49 industries with the "IAB-Beschaftigtenstichprobe", a 1% random sample from German social security accounts, which has become available only recently.
Signs of Mood and Anxiety Disorders in Chimpanzees

Background In humans, traumatic experiences are sometimes followed by psychiatric disorders. In chimpanzees, studies have demonstrated an association between traumatic events and the emergence of behavioral disturbances resembling posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression. We addressed the following central question: Do chimpanzees develop posttraumatic symptoms, in the form of abnormal behaviors, which cluster into syndromes similar to those described in human mood and anxiety disorders? Methodology/Principal Findings In phase 1 of this study, we accessed case reports of chimpanzees who had been reportedly subjected to traumatic events, such as maternal separation, social isolation, experimentation, or similar experiences. We applied and tested DSM-IV criteria for PTSD and major depression to published case reports of 20 chimpanzees identified through PrimateLit. Additionally, using the DSM-IV criteria and ethograms as guides, we developed behaviorally anchored alternative criteria that were applied to the case reports. A small number of chimpanzees in the case studies met DSM-IV criteria for PTSD and depression. Measures of inter-rater reliability, including Fleiss' kappa and percentage agreement, were higher with use of the alternative criteria for PTSD and depression. In phase 2, the alternative criteria were applied to chimpanzees living in wild sites in Africa (n = 196) and chimpanzees living in sanctuaries with prior histories of experimentation, orphanage, illegal seizure, or violent human conflict (n = 168). In phase 2, 58% of chimpanzees living in sanctuaries met the set of alternative criteria for depression, compared with 3% of chimpanzees in the wild (p = 0.04), and 44% of chimpanzees in sanctuaries met the set of alternative criteria for PTSD, compared with 0.5% of chimpanzees in the wild (p = 0.04). Conclusions/Significance Chimpanzees display behavioral clusters similar to PTSD and depression in their key diagnostic criteria, underscoring the importance of ethical considerations regarding the use of chimpanzees in experimentation and other captive settings.
Knowledge Base Population and Linking for Meetings

Recent research on scientific collaboration shows that distributed interdisciplinary collaborations report comparatively poor outcomes, and the inefficiency of the coordination mechanisms is partially responsible for the problems. To improve information sharing between past collaborators and future team members, or reuse of collaboration records from one project by future researchers, this paper describes systems that automatically construct a knowledge base of the meetings from the calendars of participants, and that then link reference to those meetings found in email messages to the corresponding meeting in the knowledge base. This is work in progress in which experiments with a publicly available corporate email collection with calendar entries show that the knowledge base population function achieves high precision (0.98, meaning that almost all knowledge base entities are actually meetings) and that the accuracy of the linking from email messages to knowledge base entries (0.90) is already quite good.
The effects of MK-801 and U-83836E on post-ischemic reperfusion injury in rat brain.

Rats were subjected to incomplete cerebral ischemia induced by occlusion of common carotid arteries for 30 min, and subsequent reperfusion for 15 min. The concentrations of reduced glutathione (GSH), malondialdehyde (MDA) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity were determined in the dorsal hippocampus in order to evaluate their changes during ischemia and reperfusion following ischemia. The depletion of GSH was observed during ischemia with a further depletion during post-ischemic reperfusion (P < 0.001), while a significant increase in SOD activity and MDA levels was found only after reperfusion following ischemia (P < 0.001). Animals in which ischemia was followed by reperfusion were treated with a non-competitive NMDA receptor antagonist, MK-801 (1 mg/kg, i.v.), and a radical scavenger, U-83836E (5 mg/kg, i.v.), prior to ischemia. Although a full recovery of GSH levels was not observed following MK-801 and U-83836E pretreatment as compared to control (P < 0.05), MK-801 was more potent than U-83836E in the partial protection of the GSH pool (P < 0.05 and P < 0.01, respectively). The rise in SOD activity and MDA level were brought close to those of control due to the effects of both MK-801 and U-83836E (P > 0.05). In conclusion, the tissue changes in GSH concentrations evoked by ischemia and reperfusion were partially prevented by the effects of both drugs, MK-801 having the greater effect. This suggests that the NMDA receptor activation may play a role in the generation of reactive oxygen species. On the other hand, the inhibition of lipid peroxidation brought about by both MK-801 or U-83836E suggests the therapeutic efficiency of these agents in ischemia/reperfusion injury.
Direct Cause Direct Cause

An interventionist account of causation characterizes causal relations in terms of changes resulting from particular interventions. We provide an example of a causal relation for which there does not exist an intervention satisfying the common interventionist standard. We consider adaptations that would save this standard and describe their implications for an interventionist account of causation. No adaptation preserves all the aspects that make the interventionist account appealing.
Bit-shuffled trie: A new approach for IP address lookup

IP address lookup is a fundamental operation in packet forwarding. Using multi-level index tables to find out the next-hop value is an attractive approach due to its simplicity. However, memory efficiency is relatively low because prefixes are sparsely distributed in the address space. In this poster, we shall outline a new approach to construct memory efficient index tables based on a technique called bit-shuffling. The proposed method is evaluated using a real-life IPv4 routing table with 321K prefixes. The lookup tables occupy 0.8MB memory.
A Technique to Reduce On-Wafer Measurement Uncertainty for CMOS Transmission Line Characterization

An improvement to the L-L method for Si monolithic Transmission Line (TL) parameter extraction is presented. The propagation constant γ and characteristic impedance Z0 are obtained from cascaded ABCD matrices using on-wafer measurements up to 40 GHz. It is shown that the L-L method matrices processing is strongly dependent on the access variations as different pairs of measurements lead to different extracted TL parameters. Associating three different TLs lengths test structures measurements matrices, which theoretically point to an identity matrix, a technique is proposed to obtain the best set of three measurements with the most similar accesses. The deviation from the ideal identity matrix indicates the access variations. The suggested technique was implemented with TL structures fabricated on a 130 nm CMOS process. When using the best set of three different TL length measurements, the extracted γ and Z0 parameters are almost independent on the TL pair used.
Mid-Infrared Emission from Elliptical Galaxies: Sensitivity to Stellar Age

Mid-infrared observations (3.6-24 μm) of normal giant elliptical galaxies with the Spitzer Space Telescope are consistent with pure populations of very old stars with no evidence of younger stars. Most of the stars in giant elliptical galaxies are old, but the mean stellar age determined from Balmer absorption in optical spectra can appear much younger due to a small admixture of younger stars. The mean stellar age can also be determined from the spectral energy distribution in the mid-infrared, which decreases with time relative to the optical emission and shifts to shorter wavelengths. The observed flux ratios F8 μm/F3.6 μm and F24 μm/F3.6 μm for elliptical galaxies with the oldest Balmer line ages are lower than predicted by recent models of single stellar populations. For elliptical galaxies with the youngest Balmer line ages in our sample, 3-5 Gyr, the flux ratios F24 μm/F3.6 μm are identical to those of the oldest stars. When theoretical mid-IR spectra of old (12 Gyr) and young stellar populations are combined, errors in the F24 μm/F3.6 μm observations are formally inconsistent with a mass fraction of young stars that exceeds ~1%. This is less than the fraction of young stars expected in discussions of recent surveys of elliptical galaxies at higher redshifts. However, this inconsistency between Balmer line ages and those inferred from mid-IR observations must be regarded as provisional until more accurate observations and theoretical spectra become available. Finally, there is no evidence to date that central disks or patches of dust commonly visible in optical images of elliptical galaxies contribute sensibly to the mid-IR spectrum.
Impact of Financial Leverage on Market Value Added: Empirical Evidence from India

The paper aims at analyzing the impact of financial leverage on market value added in the context of companies listed on Bombay Stock Exchange and provide empirical evidence. The study covers 197 companies classified as A group companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange. The study period ranges from 2010 to 2014. Univariate linear regression and multiple regression analysis are used to test the relationship between measures of financial leverage and market value added. The results show that interest cover is the most significant predictor of market value added by companies listed on Bombay Stock Exchange. Univariately, debt equity ratio and debt ratios are found to be statistically significant in explaining variation in market value added of the sample companies. But when taken together, they are not significantly related to market value added of sample companies. The research was restricted to only those companies which are classified as A group companies on Bombay Stock Exchange. The study relied on Market Value Added as a measure of value creation. Other measures like, Economic Value Added, Created Shareholder Value, Total Shareholder Return could also be used to gauge the impact of financial leverage on the shareholder value creation. The study identifies interest cover as the most significant predictor of change in Market Value Added. Financial managers will thus be motivated to maintain higher interest cover to ensure higher value creation for their shareholders. Research paper Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Pandya. B. (2016). “Impact of Financial Leverage on Market Value Added: Empirical Evidence from India”, Journal of Entrepreneurship, Business and Economics, Vol. 4, No. 2, pp. 40–58.
Crystal structure of 2-(3,4-dimethoxyphenyl)-3-hydroxy-4H-chromen-4-one

In the title compound, C17H14O5, the dimethoxy-substituted benzene ring is twisted relative to the 4H-chromenon skeleton (r.m.s. deviation = 0.015 Å) by 5.2 (4)°. The C atoms of the methoxy groups lie close to the plane of their attached benzene ring [deviations = 0.036 (3) and 0.290 (3)Å for the meta and para substituents, respectively]. An intramolecular O—H⋯O hydrogen bond closes an S(5) ring. In the cystal, inversion dimers linked by pairs of O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds generate R 2 2(10) loops and C—H⋯O interactions connect the dimers into [010] chains.
Envelopment Surface Rendering of Falling Water for Particle and Volume Based Virtual Liquid Manipulation Model

This paper describes a method to render envelopment surface of falling water in an interactive manipulation model of virtual liquid that we have proposed for virtual reality system. In the CG field, although researchers have developed the method to simulate the behavior of fluid with particle method e.g. SPH method [1], it needs enormous computation time and usually needs parallel processing to realize real-time processing. Therefore, we have already proposed an interactive manipulation model of virtual liquid like water which focus on user impression and real-time processing rather than exact behavior simulation [2]. The model can make user feel realistic sensation from the water behavior occurred by user’s manipulation. However, free fall condition water is just simulated with particles and rendered as a particle simply. Although metaball and marching cubes method [3] are famous to render surface calculated with particle system, these method are not appropriate for interactive manipulation system because of much calculation time and many times of data scan. In this paper, we propose an efficient and effective rendering method of free fall condition water. To reduce data scanning frequency and searching pattern, it is classified into simple patterns to create process of envelopment surface from particles in the method. Then envelopment surface is rendered in realtime without parallel processing.
Modeling and LQG Controller Design for a Quad Tilt-Wing UAV

In this paper, a nonlinear dynamical model of a particular class of convertible Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), called Quad Tilt-Wing (QTW), is established and used for the Linear Quadratic Gaussian (LQG) control design of such a rotorcraft. With four rotors/wings and a tilting mechanism for each pair, this Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) vehicle can take-off and landing vertically, such as helicopters, and fly horizontally like a fixed-wing aircraft. All aerodynamic forces and moments of the studied QTW are described within an inertial frame. Then, a dynamical model, relating to the vertical flight mode of the QTW, is derived using the Newton-Euler formalism. A LQG based control approach is investigated to stabilize the attitude and altitude of the QTW drone. Several numerical results are carried out in order to show the ability and effectiveness of the proposed control approach despite the addition of aerodynamic disturbances that represent small airstreams and winds. Keywords—convertible UAV, Quad Tilt-Wing, modeling, vertical flight dynamics, LQG control, altitude and attitude stabilization, MIMO systems.
Serendip: Topic model-driven visual exploration of text corpora

Exploration and discovery in a large text corpus requires investigation at multiple levels of abstraction, from a zoomed-out view of the entire corpus down to close-ups of individual passages and words. At each of these levels, there is a wealth of information that can inform inquiry - from statistical models, to metadata, to the researcher's own knowledge and expertise. Joining all this information together can be a challenge, and there are issues of scale to be combatted along the way. In this paper, we describe an approach to text analysis that addresses these challenges of scale and multiple information sources, using probabilistic topic models to structure exploration through multiple levels of inquiry in a way that fosters serendipitous discovery. In implementing this approach into a tool called Serendip, we incorporate topic model data and metadata into a highly reorderable matrix to expose corpus level trends; extend encodings of tagged text to illustrate probabilistic information at a passage level; and introduce a technique for visualizing individual word rankings, along with interaction techniques and new statistical methods to create links between different levels and information types. We describe example uses from both the humanities and visualization research that illustrate the benefits of our approach.
Neonatal Ear Molding: Timing and Technique

The incidence of auricular deformities is believed to be ∼11.5 per 10 000 births, excluding children with microtia. Although not life-threatening, auricular deformities can cause undue distress for patients and their families. Although surgical procedures have traditionally been used to reconstruct congenital auricular deformities, ear molding has been gaining acceptance as an efficacious, noninvasive alternative for the treatment of newborns with ear deformations. We present the successful correction of bilateral Stahl’s ear deformity in a newborn through a straightforward, nonsurgical method implemented on the first day of life. The aim of this report is to make pediatric practitioners aware of an effective and simple molding technique appropriate for correction of congenital auricular anomalies. In addition, it stresses the importance of very early initiation of ear cartilage molding for achieving the desired outcome.
Entity Resolution over Graphs

Entity resolution (ER) is a long-standing challenge in many areas, such as data management and information retrieval. It is to identify which records in one or more databases refer to the same real world entity. Traditional entity resolution techniques are based on calculating the string similarity of attributes, such as name and address for people. However, some records that look similar are not necessarily referring to the same entity, traditional entity resolution techniques have some limitations in dealing with complex data sets. To take into considerate the relational similarity between records for entity resolution, collective entity resolution techniques have been proposed. This project investigates the existing entity resolution techniques, and proposes a new entity resolution technique over graphs – connectivity entity resolution, which can enrich collective entity resolution techniques. According to the experiment results, connectivity entity resolution can achieve better results than collective entity resolution in the Cora data set.
Pathogenic mechanisms of polycystic lipomembranous osteodysplasia with sclerosing leukoencephalopathy (PLOSL)

Polycystic lipomembranous osteodysplasia with sclerosing leukoencephalopathy (PLOSL), also known as Nasu-Hakola disease, is a recessively inherited disease of brain and bone. PLOSL manifests as early-onset progressive dementia and bone fractures. Mutations in the TYROBP (DAP12) and TREM2 genes have been identified as the primary cause of PLOSL. DAP12 and TREM2 encode important signalling molecules in cells of the innate immune system. The mechanism by which loss-of-function of the DAP12/TREM2 signalling complex leads to PLOSL is currently unknown. The aim of this thesis work was to gain insight into the pathogenic mechanisms behind PLOSL. To first identify the central nervous system (CNS) cell types that express both Dap12 and Trem2, the expression patterns of Dap12 and Trem2 in mouse CNS were analyzed. Dap12 and Trem2 expression was seen from embryonic stage to adulthood and microglial cells and oligodendrocytes were identified as the major Dap12/Trem2 producing cells of the CNS. To subsequently identify the pathways and biological processes associated with DAP12/TREM2 mediated signalling in human cells, genome wide transcript analysis of in vitro differentiated dendritic cells (DCs) of PLOSL patients representing functional knockouts of either DAP12 or TREM2 was performed. Both DAP12 and TREM2 deficient cells differentiated into DCs and responded to pathogenic stimuli. However, the DCs showed morphological differences compared to control cells due to defects in the actin filaments. Transcript profiles of the patient DCs showed differential expression of genes involved in immune response and for genes earlier associated with other disorders of the CNS as well as genes involved in the remodeling of bone, linking the findings with the tissue phenotype of PLOSL patients. To analyze the effect of Dap12 deficiency in the CNS, genome wide expression analysis of Dap12 deficient mouse brain and Dap12 deficient microglia as well as functional analysis of Dap12 deficient microglia was performed. Regulation of several pathways involved in synaptic function and transcripts coding for the myelin components was seen in Dap12 knockout mice. Decreased migration, morphological changes and shortened lifespan of the Dap12 knockout microglia was further observed. Taken together, this thesis work showed that both Dap12 and Trem2 are expressed by CNS microglia and that Dap12 deficiency results in functional defects of these cells. Lack of Dap12 in the CNS also leads to synaptic abnormalities even before pathological changes are seen in the tissue level.This work further showed that lossof-function of DAP12 or TREM2 leads to changes in morphology and gene expression in human dendritic cells. These data underline the functional diversity of the molecules of the innate immune system and implies their significant contribution also in demyelinating CNS disorders, including those resulting in dementia.