Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Capitalist Development and Democracy.

It is a commonplace claim of Western political discourse that capitalist development and democracy go hand in hand. Crossnational statistical research on political democracy supports this claim. By contrast, comparative historical studies carried out within a political economy approach argue that economic development was and is compatible with multiple political forms. The authors offer a fresh and persuasive resolution to the controversy arising out of these contrasting traditions. Focusing on advanced industrial countries, Latin America, and the Caribbean, they find that the rise and persistence of democracy cannot be explained either by an overall structural correspondence between capitalism and democracy or by the role of the bourgeoisie as the agent of democratic reform. Rather, capitalist development is associated with democracy because it transforms the class structure, enlarging the working and middle classes, facilitating their self-organization, and thus making it more difficult for elites to exclude them. Simultaneously, development weakens the landed upper class, democracy's most consistent opponent. The relationship of capitalist development to democracy, however, is not mechanical. As the authors show, it depends on a complex interplay of three clusters of power: the balance of power among social classes, power relations between the state and society, and transnational structures of economic and political power. Looking to the future, the book concludes with some reflections on current prospects for the development of stable democracy in Latin America and Eastern Europe.
Bio2RDF Release 3: A larger, more connected network of Linked Data for the Life Sciences

Bio2RDF is an open source project to generate and provide Linked Data for the Life Sciences. Here, we report on a third coordinated release of ∼11 billion triples across 30 biomedical databases and datasets, representing a 10 fold increase in the number of triples since Bio2RDF Release 2 (Jan 2013). New clinically relevant datasets have been added. New features in this release include improved data quality, typing of every URI, extended dataset statistics, tighter integration, and a refactored linked data platform. Bio2RDF data is available via REST services, SPARQL endpoints, and downloadable files.
Minimal control synthesis adaptive control of nonlinear systems: utilizing the properties of chaos

This paper discusses a novel approach to the control of chaos based on the use of the adaptive minimal control synthesis algorithm. The strategies presented are based on the explicit exploitation of different properties of chaotic systems including the boundedness of the chaotic attractors and their topological transitivity (or ergodicity). It is shown that chaos can be exploited to synthesize more efficient control techniques for nonlinear systems. For instance, by using the ergodicity of the chaotic trajectory, we show that a local adaptive control strategy can be used to synthesize a global controller. An application is to the swing-up control of a double inverted pendulum.
Mapping short DNA sequencing reads and variants calling using mapping quality scores ( Supplementary Text )

In this supplement text, a letter in uppercase indicates a random variable, whereas a letter in lowercase represents a constant, a known value or a function. Let Σ = {‘A’,‘C’,‘G’,‘T’} be the alphabet of the four nucleotides. In sequencing, the true nucleotide is B ∈ Σ and the one estimated by base caller is B̂. The base error B is defined as: B = Pr{B̂ 6= B} and base quality QB is: QB = −c log B where c is a scaling constant. For Phred quality, c = 10/ log 10 ≈ 3.434. We have:
Laval University and Lakehead University Experiments at TREC 2015 Contextual Suggestion Track

Abstract : In this paper we describe our effort on TREC Contextual Suggestion Track. We present are commendation system that built upon Elastic Search along with a machine learning re-ranking model. We utilize real world users opinion as well as other information to build user profiles. With profile information, we then construct customized Elastic Search queries to search on various fields. After that, a learning to rank regressor is implemented to give better ranking results. Track results of our submitted runs show the effectiveness of the system.
Proteolytic control of neurite outgrowth inhibitor NOGO-A by the cAMP/PKA pathway

Significance Damage of the central nervous system (CNS) and neurodegenerative disorders represent the principal cause of morbidity and mortality among adults. An injured CNS is unable to regenerate dendritic or neurite connections because they spontaneously occur in the peripheral nervous system. Inhibitory influences of the glial cells and of myelin-associated inhibitors oppose the spontaneous regeneration of CNS neurons. Here, we identify a positive mechanism of neuronal differentiation, which acts in response to activation of intracellular pathway(s) to remove an inhibitory constraint of neurite outgrowth. Unveiling the molecular events regulating the regenerative capacity of neurons will impact on therapeutic initiatives to stem the course of brain damage or neurodegeneration. Protein kinase A (PKA) controls major aspects of neurite outgrowth and morphogenesis and plays an essential role in synaptic plasticity and memory. However, the molecular mechanism(s) of PKA action on neurite sprouting and activity are still unknown. Here, we report that in response to neurotrophin or cAMP stimulation the RING ligase praja2 ubiquitinates and degrades NOGO-A, a major inhibitor of neurite outgrowth in mammalian brain. Genetic silencing of praja2 severely inhibited neurite extension of differentiating neuroblastoma cells and mesencephalic neurons and axon outgrowth and sprouting of striatal terminals in developing rat brain. This phenotype was rescued when both praja2 and NOGO-A were depleted, suggesting that NOGO-A is, indeed, a biologically relevant target of praja2 in neuronal cells. Our findings unveil a novel mechanism that functionally couples cAMP signaling with the proteolytic turnover of NOGO-A, positively impacting on neurite outgrowth in mammalian brain.
The Level of CD4 Expression Limits Infection of Primary Rhesus Monkey Macrophages by a T-Tropic Simian Immunodeficiency Virus and Macrophagetropic Human Immunodeficiency Viruses

ABSTRACT The entry of primate immunodeficiency viruses into cells is dependent on the interaction of the viral envelope glycoproteins with receptors, CD4, and specific members of the chemokine receptor family. Although in many cases the tropism of these viruses is explained by the qualitative pattern of coreceptor expression, several instances have been observed where the expression of a coreceptor on the cell surface is not sufficient to allow infection by a virus that successfully utilizes the coreceptor in a different context. For example, both the T-tropic simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) SIVmac239 and the macrophagetropic (M-tropic) SIVmac316 can utilize CD4 and CCR5 as coreceptors, and both viruses can infect primary T lymphocytes, yet only SIVmac316 can efficiently infect CCR5-expressing primary macrophages from rhesus monkeys. Likewise, M-tropic strains of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) do not infect primary rhesus monkey macrophages efficiently. Here we show that the basis of this restriction is the low level of CD4 on the surface of these cells. Overexpression of human or rhesus monkey CD4 in primary rhesus monkey macrophages allowed infection by both T-tropic and M-tropic SIV and by primary M-tropic HIV-1. By contrast, CCR5 overexpression did not specifically compensate for the inefficient infection of primary monkey macrophages by T-tropic SIV or M-tropic HIV-1. Apparently, the limited ability of these viruses to utilize a low density of CD4 for target cell entry accounts for the restriction of these viruses in primary rhesus monkey macrophages.
hSulf-1 Gene Exhibits Anticancer Efficacy through Negatively Regulating VEGFR-2 Signaling in Human Cancers

Background Human sulfatase 1 (hSulf-1) is a heparin-degrading endosulfatase that desulfates cell surface heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs) in extracellular matrix and negatively modulates heparin-binding growth factor and cytokine signaling in cell proliferation. But hSulf-1 function is more complicated, and its molecular mechanism has not been well known. Principal Findings To further investigate the functions of hSulf-1 gene in regulating the vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGFR) signaling, a series of vectors expressing hSulf-1, hSulf-1 small hairpin RNA (shRNA) and VEGFR-2 shRNA were generated. hSulf-1 re-expression could downregualte the VEGFR-2 phosphorylation and inhibit cancer cell proliferation both in ovarian and hepatocellular cancer cell lines. Knockdown of hSulf-1 expression by hSulf-1 shRNA enhanced the recovery of high levels of phosphorylated VEGFR-2, and knockdown of VEGFR-2 expression by VEGFR-2 shRNA inhibited the proliferation activity of cancer cells in vitro to some extent. In human cancer xenografts in nude mice, tumor growth was inhibited markedly after injections of adenovirus expressing hSulf-1, with the tumor inhibition rates of 46.19% and 49.56% in ovarian and hepatocellular tumor models, respectively. hSulf-1 expression significantly reduced tumor microvessel density. Conclusions The results demonstrated that hSulf-1 re-expression both in ovarian and hepatocellular cancer cells induces antitumor efficacy by attenuating the phosphorylation of VEGFR-2 and suppressing angiogenesis. Therefore, hSulf-1-mediated antiproliferation and antiangiogenesis could be a reasonable approach for cancer therapy.
Enabling Situation Awareness at Intersections for IVC Congestion Control Mechanisms

An Intersection Assistance System aim to assist road users in avoiding collisions at intersections, either by warning the driver or by triggering automated actions. Such a system can be realized based on passive scanning only (e.g., using LiDAR) or supported by active Inter-Vehicle Communication (IVC). The main reason to use Inter-Vehicle Communication (IVC) is its ability to provide situation awareness even when a possible crash candidate is not yet in visual range. The IVC research community has identified beaconing, i.e., one-hop broadcast, as the primary communication primitive for vehicular safety applications. Recently, adaptive beaconing approaches have been studied and different congestion control mechanisms have been proposed to cope with the diverse demands of vehicular networks. In this paper, we show that current state-of-the-art congestion control mechanisms are not able to support IAS adequately. Specifically, current approaches fail due to their inherent fairness postulation, i.e., they lack fine grained prioritization. We propose a solution that extends congestion control mechanisms by allowing temporary exceptions for vehicles in dangerous situations, that is, situation-based rate adaptation. We show the applicability for two state-of-the-art congestion control mechanisms, namely Transmit Rate Control (TRC) and Dynamic Beaconing (DynB), in two different vehicular environments, rural and downtown.
Dynamic context-aware business process: a rule-based approach supported by pattern identification

Making a business process more dynamic is an open issue, and we think it is feasible if we decompose the business process structure in a set of rules, like ECA (Event Condition Action) rules, each of them representing a transition of the business process, i.e. an edge of the business process graph structure. As a consequence the business process engine can be realized by reusing and integrating an existing Rule Engine. We are proposing a way for representing Dynamic Business Process in terms of Rules based on patterns identification. With this approach it is easy to apply on a business process instance both user-based personalization rules and automatic rules inferred by an underlying context-aware system.
Exercise Training and Prescription for the Elderly

Most exercise programs designed for healthy persons older than 65 emphasize fitness development, but the maintenance of functional capacity and quality of life are equally important. The basic guidelines for frequency, intensity, and duration of training and the mode of activity recommended by the American College of Sports Medicine for healthy adults are also appropriate for the elderly. The difference in the exercise prescription for the elderly participant is the manner in which it is applied. Given that the elderly person is more fragile and has more physical-medical limitations than the middle-aged participant, the intensity of the program is usually lower while the training frequency and duration are increased. The mode of training should avoid high-impact activities, and the progression of training should be more gradual. The prescribed training heart rate for the elderly at 40 % to 80 % of maximal heart rate reserve is slightly lower than the 50% to 85% recommended for young and middle-aged participants, but its relationship to relative metabolic work (50 % to 85 % of maximal oxygen uptake) and rating of perceived exertion are similar to those found for younger participants. Because of the importance of maintaining muscle mass and bone in middle and old age, a well-rounded program including strength/resistance exercise of the major muscle groups is recommended. Hence the exercise prescription for the elderly should emphasize low to moderate intensity and low-impact activities, avoid heavy static-dynamic lifting, and allow a gradual progression in training.
Strength and Conditioning Habits of Competitive Distance Runners.

Blagrove, RC, Brown, N, Howatson, G, and Hayes, PR. Strength and conditioning habits of competitive distance runners. J Strength Cond Res XX(X): 000-000, 2017-Targeted strength and conditioning (S&C) programs can potentially improve performance and reduce injury risk factors in competitive runners. However, S&C practices of distance runners are unknown. This study aimed to explore S&C practices of competitive middle- and long-distance runners and examined whether reported frequency of injuries was influenced by training behaviors. One thousand eight hundred eighty-three distance runners (≥15 years old) completed an online survey. All runners who raced competitively were included in data analysis (n = 667). Distance runners mainly engaged with S&C activities to lower risk of injury (63.1%) and improve performance (53.8%). The most common activities used were stretching (86.2%) and core stability exercises (70.2%). Resistance training (RT) and plyometric training (PT) were used by 62.5 and 35.1% of runners, respectively. Junior (under-20) runners include PT, running drills, and circuit training more so than masters runners. Significantly more international standard runners engaged in RT, PT, and fundamental movement skills training compared with competitive club runners. Middle-distance (800-3,000 m) specialists were more likely to include RT, PT, running drills, circuit training, and barefoot exercises in their program than longer-distance runners. Injury frequency was associated with typical weekly running volume and run frequency. Strength and conditioning did not seem to confer a protection against the number of injuries the runners experienced. Practitioners working with distance runners should critically evaluate the current S&C practices of their athletes, to ensure that activities prescribed have a sound evidence-based rationale.
Anger and Enforcement

Observers who are angered by rule violations and punish violators often play a critical role in enforcement. Hence a key question is: when will noncompliance provoke anger, and when will it be excused? This paper develops a theory of rule compliance as the outcome of a two-person Bayesian game. The core of the model is its description of what constitutes an excuse. Noncompliance is excused when a “reasonable person” in similar circumstances would also have failed to comply. Phenomena explained include the role of “legitimacy” in enforcement; corruption traps; graduated sanctions for repeat offenders; and tolerance of self-interestedness in markets.
Ablation of interleukin-12 exacerbates Lyme arthritis in SCID mice

The administration of interleukin-12 (IL-12) antibodies to Borrelia burgdorferi-infected C3H/HeN-scid mice increased the severity of acute Lyme arthritis. These results contrasted with the reduction of Lyme arthritis by IL-12 antibodies in immunocompetent animals. These data suggest that downregulation of innate immunity in SCID mice in the absence of B- and T-cell responses leads to an exacerbation of joint inflammation.
KINETICS OF STACKING INTERACTIONS IN FLAVIN ADENINE DINUCLEOTIDE FROM TIME‐RESOLVED FLAVIN FLUORESCENCE

The time dependence of the fluorescence of flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD) was measured with a subnanosecond‐resolving fluorometer. In contrast to the fluorescence decay of FMN, the decay of FAD was proved to be nonexponential. The time‐dependent fluorescence of FAD can be interpreted by assuming an equilibrium between closed and open conformers in the ground state. The rate constant for folding in the excited state and the fluorescence lifetime of the intramolecular complex could be evaluated from analysis of the observed fluorescence decay. The results on FAD were compared to those on NADH obtained earlier.
XCS for robust automatic target recognition

A primary strength of the XCS approach is its ability to create maximally accurate general rules. In automatic target recognition (ATR) there is a need for robust performance beyond so-called standard operating conditions (SOCs, those conditions for which training data is available) to extended operating conditions (EOCs, conditions of known targets that cannot be foreseen and trained for). EOCs include things like vehicle-specific variations, environmental effects (mud, etc.), unanticipated viewing angles, and articulation of components of the target (hatches, turrets, etc.). This paper presents experiments where XCS addresses structural generalization over global and local features normally used in ATR classification. In many SOCs, these features are adequate for target recognition. Our goal with XCS is to form generalized rules that utilize these features for effective ATR in EOCs. Results show that XCS is effective in this generalization task. Conclusions and future directions for research are discussed.
Toxicological Implications and Inflammatory Response in Human Lymphocytes Challenged with Oxytetracycline

Antibiotics are widely used in zoo technical and veterinary practices as feed supplementation to ensure wellness of farmed animals and livestock. Several evidences have been suggesting both the toxic role for tetracyclines, particularly for oxytetracycline (OTC). This potential toxicity appears of great relevance for human nutrition and for domestic animals. This study aimed to extend the evaluation of such toxicity. The biologic impact of the drug was assessed by evaluating the proinflammatory effect of OTC and their bone residues on cytokine secretion by in vitro human peripheral blood lymphocytes. Our results showed that both OTC and OTC‐bone residues significantly induced the T lymphocyte and non‐T cell secretion of interferon (IFN)‐γ, as cytokine involved in inflammatory responses in humans as well as in animals. These results may suggest a possible implication for new potential human and animal health risks depending on the entry of tetracyclines in the food‐processing chain.
Abundance and species richness of Coreoidea (Hemiptera: Heteroptera) from Parque Estadual do Turvo, Southern Brazil.

The coreoid fauna from Neotropics is poorly known, especially in terms of community studies. Aiming at contributing to this knowledge, a two-year study was carried out at Parque Estadual do Turvo, Municipality of Derrubadas, state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, to evaluate the composition, abundance and species richness of Coreoidea. Samplings were conducted in the springs of 2003 and 2004 (October), and autumns of 2004 and 2005 (May), using beating tray method, along two trails of the park. Sampling effort (hours X collectors) totaled 153h. A total of 282 individuals of Coreoidea were collected, distributed in 28 species of Alydidae, Coreidae and Rhopalidae. The most abundant species was the coreid Cebrenis supina Brailovsky, representing 16% of the collected individuals, followed by the rhopalids Jadera aeola (Dallas), and Harmostes sp. , with 12.1% and 11.7%, respectively. The estimated richnesses by Chao 1, Chao 2, Jackknife 1 and Jackknife 2 indicated that the observed richness corresponds to 70% to 80% of the expected for the area. The estimated richness through rarefaction was significantly higher in spring 2003 and autumn 2004 than in the other periods. There was no significant difference, however, between spring of 2003 and autumn of 2004, and between spring of 2004 and autumn of 2005, for the same parameter. Yucumã and Garcia trails did not differ significantly for the estimated richness. Singletons and doubletons represented 32.1% of the recorded species. Additionally, eight other species were obtained qualitatively by using, besides beating tray without protocol, manual collection.
Expression and developmental regulation of oxytocin (OT) and oxytocin receptors (OTR) in the enteric nervous system (ENS) and intestinal epithelium

Although oxytocin (OT) and oxytocin receptor (OTR) are known for roles in parturition and milk let‐down, they are not hypothalamus‐restricted. OT is important in nurturing and opposition to stress. Transcripts encoding OT and OTR have been reported in adult human gut, and OT affects intestinal motility. We tested the hypotheses that OT is endogenous to the enteric nervous system (ENS) and that OTR signaling may participate in enteric neurophysiology. Reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction confirmed OT and OTR transcripts in adult mouse and rat gut and in precursors of enteric neurons immunoselected from fetal rats. Enteric OT and OTR expression continued through adulthood but was developmentally regulated, peaking at postnatal day 7. Coincidence of the immunoreactivities of OTR and the neural marker Hu was 100% in the P3 and 71% in the adult myenteric plexus, when submucosal neurons were also OTR‐immunoreactive. Co‐localization with NeuN established that intrinsic primary afferent neurons are OTR‐expressing. Because OTR transcripts and protein were detected in the nodose ganglia, OT signaling might also affect extrinsic primary afferent neurons. Although OT immunoreactivity was found only in ∼1% of myenteric neurons, extensive OT‐immunoreactive varicosities surrounded many others. Villus enterocytes were OTR‐immunoreactive through postnatal day 17; however, by postnatal day 19, immunoreactivity waned to become restricted to crypts and concentrated at crypt‐villus junctions. Immunoelectron microscopy revealed plasmalemmal OTR at enterocyte adherens junctions. We suggest that OT and OTR signaling might be important in ENS development and function and might play roles in visceral sensory perception and neural modulation of epithelial biology. J. Comp. Neurol. 512:256–270, 2009. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Battery-based intrusion detection

This paper proposes an early warning system via a host-based form of intrusion detection that can alert security administrators to protect their corporate network(s). This innovative technique operates through the implementation of battery-based intrusion detection (B-bid) on mobile devices by correlating attacks with their impact on device power consumption using a rules-based host intrusion detection engine (HIDE). HIDE monitors power behavior to detect potential intrusions by noting irregularities of power consumption.