Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Effect of Electoral Systems on Voter Turnout: Evidence from a Natural Experiment*

I exploit the unique institutional framework of Spanish local elections, where municipalities follow different electoral systems depending on their population size, as mandated by a national law. Using a regression discontinuity design, I compare turnout under closed list proportional representation and under an open list, plurality-at-large system where voters can vote for individual candidates from the same or different party-lists. I find that the open list system increases turnout by between 1 and 2 percentage points. The results suggest that open list systems, which introduce competition both across and within parties, are conducive to more voter turnout.
Aberrant Expression of the Tyrosine Kinase Receptor EphA4 and the Transcription Factor Twist in Sézary Syndrome Identified by Gene Expression Analysis

Sézary syndrome (Sz) is a malignancy of CD4+ memory skin-homing T cells and presents with erythroderma, lymphadenopathy, and peripheral blood involvement. To gain more insight into the molecular features of Sz, oligonucleotide array analysis was performed comparing gene expression patterns of CD4+ T cells from peripheral blood of patients with Sz with those of patients with erythroderma secondary to dermatitis and healthy controls. Using unsupervised hierarchical clustering gene, expression patterns of T cells from patients with Sz were classified separately from those of benign T cells. One hundred twenty-three genes were identified as significantly differentially expressed and had an average fold change exceeding 2. T cells from patients with Sz demonstrated decreased expression of the following hematopoietic malignancy-linked tumor suppressor genes: TGF-β receptor II, Mxi1, Riz1, CREB-binding protein, BCL11a, STAT4, and Forkhead Box O1A. Moreover, the tyrosine kinase receptor EphA4 and the potentially oncogenic transcription factor Twist were highly and selectively expressed in T cells of patients with Sz. High expression of EphA4 and Twist was also observed in lesional skin biopsy specimens of a subset of patients with cutaneous T cell lymphomas related to Sz, whereas their expression was nearly undetectable in benign T cells or in skin lesions of patients with inflammatory dermatoses. Detection of EphA4 and Twist may be used in the molecular diagnosis of Sz and related cutaneous T-cell lymphomas. Furthermore, the membrane-bound EphA4 receptor may serve as a target for directed therapeutic intervention.
The design of a semi-automated football table

This paper presents the design of a semiautomated football table. One side of the table is equipped with automated rods, whereas the other side has regular rods. With this setup one or two human players can play against a computer controlled adversary. The paper describes the design and integration of a suitable hardware setup with vision based control algorithms that control the automated rods to intercept and return the ball.
Reinforcement Learning with Multiple Heterogeneous Modules: A Framework for Developmental Robot Learning

Developmental learning approach by changing the internal state representation from simple to complex is promising in order for a robot to learn behaviors efficiently. We have proposed a reinforcement learning (RL) method for multiple learning modules with different state representations and algorithms. One of interesting results we showed is that a complex RL system can learn faster with the help of simpler RL systems that can not obtain the best performance. However, it did not consider the difference in sampling rates of learning modules. This paper discusses how the interaction among multiple learning modules with different sampling rates affects the robot learning. Experimental results in navigation task show that developmental learning described above is not always good strategy
Development of a Low Mobility IEEE 802.15.4 Compliant VANET System for Urban Environments

The use of Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks (VANETs) is growing nowadays and it includes both roadside-to-vehicle communication (RVC) and inter-vehicle communication (IVC). The purpose of VANETs is to exchange useful information between vehicles and the roadside infrastructures for making an intelligent use of them. There are several possible applications for this technology like: emergency warning system for vehicles, cooperative adaptive cruise control or collision avoidance, among others. The objective of this work is to develop a VANET prototype system for urban environments using IEEE 802.15. 4 compliant devices. Simulation-based values of the estimated signal strength and radio link quality values are obtained and compared with measurements in outdoor conditions to validate an implemented VANET system. The results confirm the possibility of implementing low cost vehicular communication networks operating at moderate vehicular speeds.
Architecting Scalability for Massively Multiplayer Online Gaming Experiences

In this study, the authors propose to discuss scalability challenges posed by Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) scenarios, while outlining issues specific to the context of online interactive experiences and game genres. These scalability issues concern: game simulation, content distribution, communication and coordination, and structural scalability. The authors present a critical review of approaches to known issues and outline research goals for an integrated scalability approach, to achieve a balanced, general purpose design, for MMOG infrastructure.
Diagnosis of Schistosomiasis by Reagent Strip Test for Detection of Circulating Cathodic Antigen

ABSTRACT A newly developed reagent strip assay for the diagnosis of schistosomiasis based on parasite antigen detection in urine of infected individuals was evaluated. The test uses the principle of lateral flow through a nitrocellulose strip of the sample mixed with a colloidal carbon conjugate of a monoclonal antibody specific for Schistosoma circulating cathodic antigen (CCA). The strip assay to diagnose a group of highly infected schoolchildren in Mwanza, Tanzania, demonstrated a high sensitivity and association with the intensity of infection as measured both by egg counts, and by circulating anodic antigen and CCA levels determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. A specificity of ca. 90% was shown in a group of schistosome-negative schoolchildren from Tarime, Tanzania, an area where schistosomiasis is not endemic. The test is easy to perform and requires no technical equipment or special training. The stability of the strips and the conjugate in the dry format lasts for at least 3 months at ambient temperature in sealed packages, making it suitable for transport and use in areas where schistosomiasis is endemic. This assay can easily be developed to an end-user format.
Fault-resilient routing unit in NoCs

With aggressive technology scaling in deep submicron era, burgeoning transistors make chips more susceptible to failures. It is inevitable that process variation is gradually becoming a crucial challenge in the IC design. In addition, aging leads to faults, shortening the lifetime of the circuits. Networks-on-chip also come to the problems caused by variations and aging, leading to degraded performance and erroneous behaviors. Faults may occur in numerous locations of the on-chip networks and once they occur in the control path, more severe effects such as deadlock and livelock are expected. In this paper, we present a fine-grained mechanism to tolerate faults in the routing computation units without disabling the faulty routers. By applying this mechanism, routing and packet-receiving services are separated. The faulty routing computation unit is replaced by a light-weight redundant circuit, providing static but reliable routing services. The other components in this router are still functional retaining the on-chip performance. Experimental results indicate that the on-chip network with the proposed mechanism is fault-tolerant when 14% of all routing computation modules are suffering from faults. The area overhead and power consumption of the proposed method is around 7.29% and 6.20% over the baseline approach.
A stateful and open publish-subscribe structure for online marketplaces

We observe a mismatch between how academia models publish-subscribe systems for marketplace applications and how such applications are actually structured by the industry. To address this mismatch, we propose a new structure for online marketplace applications. A stateful and open publish-subscribe system exposes internal state and events to clients, through both a search mechanism and a subscription mechanism. This way, sellers and buyers may get valuable insight into the activity of the participants of the marketplace. Admittedly, this contradicts the idea that publishers and subscribers should be strictly decoupled. However, we argue that at a high level of abstraction this decoupling is unnecessary, or even unwanted, for many marketplace applications. Additionally, the structure presents the new idea of recursive subscriptions, and argues for its applicability in marketplace applications.
Cluster Analysis of PM10 Concentrations from Urban Air Monitoring Network in Korea during 2000 to 2005

Variations in PM10 concentration between 2000 and 2005 from 84 urban air monitoring stations operated by the government were analyzed. The K-means cluster analysis was attempted using annual average and the 99th percentile of daily averages as parameters. The results obtained by excluding Asian dust episode days were compared with those obtained by using all available data. In any cases, the cluster with the highest mean concentration was mostly composed of stations in Seoul and Gyeonggi. Annual average of the cluster with the highest mean concentration showed a distinct decreasing trend, but that excluding Asian dust episode days did not show such a trend. Without Asian dust episode days high concentrations of monthly averages in March and April were also not observed. The effect of Asian dust was more pronounced in the 99th percentile of daily averages. The 99th percentile of daily averages of the cluster with the highest mean concentration was the highest in June following downs in April and May.
Investigation of sensorless direct torque control using high frequency injection apply to a fractional-slot concentrated winding interior PMSM

This paper presents the sensorless direct torque control based on the high frequency injection method for a fractional-slot concentrated winding Interior Permanent Magnet (FSCW IPM) Synchronous Machine. Application of the concentrated winding to IPM machine is gaining attention from research community because of its advantages such as highpower density, high efficiency and wider flux-weakening capability. Sensorless direct torque control of such a machine is important for its application in high performance drive systems. High frequency injection method is based on detecting the anisotropy caused by the saliency of the machine. Since the FSCW-IPM machine produces a low saliency ratio close to unity, the high frequency injection method for position estimation will be challenging. In this paper, the sensorless direct torque control scheme that uses high frequency injection signal was applied to a prototype FSCW IPM machine. The rotor positions are estimated effectively at low speed by using high frequency injection signal. The experiment results, presented in this paper, confirm the effectiveness of the method applied to a FSCW IPM synchronous machine.
Seismicity and present-day tectonics of the Svalbard region

SUMMARY Data collected by temporary seismic networks and individual stations over a 7-yr period in the Svalbard Archipelago are integrated and used to study the seismicity and present-day tectonics of the archipelago and surrounding regions. Most of the continental seismic activity occurs in three concentrated zones, one in Heer Land near the eastern coast of the island of Spitsbergen and two, in close proximity to one another, on the island of Nordaustlandet. All three zones are in regions which have been devoid of major orogenic activity since the late Devonian. The Heer Land zone and at least one of the zones in Nordaustlandet define active faulting which has not been identified by surface mapping. The other zone in Nordaustlandet occurs in the region of a mapped system of faults, all branches of which are relatively minor. A number of smaller concentrations and individual earthquakes occur throughout much of the archipelago and surrounding continental shelves. Seismicity is currently low in the region of Tertiary orogenic activity in western Spitsbergen. A roughly linear pattern of minor activity in southern Spitsbergen occurs west of the Heer Land zone and extends at least 50km southward. The major N-S faults in Spitsbergen which are thought to have accomodated large displacements in Devonian time are currently inactive, except perhaps at the southern termini of the Billefjorden and Lomfjorden fault zones, where they approach the Heer land seismic zone. Earthquakes located near the western continental margin of Spitsbergen may occur on segments of rifting and shearing which reflect the opening of the Greenland Sea during the Tertiary. The limited extent of the currently active zones of activity, their spatial stability over several years, and the lack of activity on the major faults of Svalbard argue against the existence of plate boundaries, along which motion is currently occurring, in the Svalbard region. All fault-plane solutions on Svalbard are consistent with a stress field characterized by E-W compression, whereas previously published fault-plane solutions for the ridge system west of Svalbard indicate E-W extension. The magnitude of the compressive stress increases from small values near the ridge system to values sufficiently large to dominate the regional seismicity of Svalbard over distances of 200-300 km.
A DNA HELICASE FROM SACCHAROMYCES CEREVISIAE MITOCHONDRIA

Hmi1p is a Saccharomyces cerevisiae mitochondrial DNA helicase that is essential for the maintenance of functional mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). Hmi1p has also an effect on the replication of nonfunctional ρ mtDNA. In both wild type and ρ strains Hmi1p is required for processive synthesis of mtDNA. Here we show, using restriction enzyme digested ρ mtDNAs separated in 2dimensional agarose gels, that Hmi1p stimulates specifically synthesis of one strand of mtDNA. In vitro experiments reveal that Hmi1p binds strandand structure-specifically to ori elements in mtDNA. Based on these results we suggest that ρ mtDNA can be replicated by a specific Hmi1p-dependent mechanism, which includes initial overproduction of one strand.
The cellular oncogene c-myb can interact synergistically with the Epstein-Barr virus BZLF1 transactivator in lymphoid cells

Regulation of replicative functions in the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) genome is mediated through activation of a virally encoded transcription factor, Z (BZLF1). We have shown that the Z gene product, which binds to AP-1 sites as a homodimer and has sequence similarity to c-Fos, can efficiently activate the EBV early promoter, BMRF1, in certain cell types (i.e., HeLa cells) but not others (i.e., Jurkat cells). Here we demonstrate that the c-myb proto-oncogene product, which is itself a DNA-binding protein and transcriptional transactivator, can interact synergistically with Z in activating the BMRF1 promoter in Jurkat cells (a T-cell line) or Raji cells (an EBV-positive B-cell), whereas the c-myb gene product by itself has little effect. The simian virus 40 early promoter is also synergistically activated by the Z/c-myb combination. Synergistic transactivation of the BMRF1 promoter by the Z/c-myb combination appears to involve direct binding by the Z protein but not the c-myb protein. A 30-bp sequence in the BMRF1 promoter which contains a Z binding site (a consensus AP-1 site) is sufficient to transfer high-level lymphoid-specific responsiveness to the Z/c-myb combination to a heterologous promoter. That the c-myb oncogene product can interact synergistically with an EBV-encoded member of the leucine zipper protein family suggests c-myb is likely to engage in similar interactions with cellularly encoded transcription factors.
Breast cancer in male-to-female (MtF) transgender patients: Is hormone receptor negativity a feature?

M breast cancer (MBC) at diagnosis has been reported to be in the range of 3-10% of all breast cancer patients. In recent years with the introduction of new chemotherapeutic agents, targeted therapies and hormonal treatment, these patients have been observed to live longer. Several retrospective studies including SEER 1998-2003 database analysis revealed that locoregional treatment improved survival rates in MBC. There are 2 ongoing phase III trials seeking for the efficacy of local therapy, one from India and the other from Turkey. The Indian trial randomized 350 patients who showed an objective response to systemic chemotherapy (CT) to have either mastectomy or breast conserving surgery (BCS) followed by radiotherapy (RT) or no local treatment and the early results with a median follow-up time of 17 months revealed no benefit of local treatment in overall survival rates. The design of the second trial from Turkey differed from Indian trial. In this trial patients were randomized to have either local surgery followed by sytemic treatment or systemic therapy at the time of diagnosis. Again the 54 months follow-up data of this trial revealed no significant benefit of local surgery in terms of overall survival rates. However patients with solitary bone metastases showed significant survival advantage when treated with surgery. There are no prospective data regarding the efficacy of locoregional RT (LRRT) in MBC. Several retrospective studies showed beneficial effect of RT in MBC and several of them failed to show this survival advantage. A recent study from Geiger et al. demonstrated that the greatest benefit was observed in patients with MBC who received all treatment modalities including surgery, sytemic therapy and LRRT. Hacettepe University protocol in MBC is delivering systemic CT first and in patients with at least good partial response, local surgery either as mastectomy or BSC and axillary dissection followed by LRRT in these patients. All the remaining solitary metastases are then treated with either stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) or conventional external beam radiotherapy for bone metastasis, Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) or SRS for visseral metastases. A total number of 227 MBC patients between 1999 and 2013 were treated in Hacettepe University and with a median follow up of 35 months, 5 year overall survival (OS) and progression free survival rates (PFS) were 44% and 20% retrospectively. In this period 39 patients did not receive local treatment, 54 were treated with local surgery alone and 132 were treated with both surgery and LRRT. The univariate and multivariate analysis revealed no significant benefit of surgery per se. However LRRT produced better OS and PFS rates. In conclusion the role of LRRT in MBC has not been validated yet. However the results of retrospective analyses including ours led us to believe that LRRT may have an essential role in the treatment of these patients with MBC.
High-Resolution Neurometabolic Coupling in the Lateral Geniculate Nucleus

The relationships between neural and metabolic processes in activated brain regions are central to the interpretation of noninvasive imaging. To examine this relationship, we have used a specialized sensor to measure simultaneously tissue oxygen changes and neural activity in colocalized regions of the cat's lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN). Previous work with this sensor has shown that a decrease or increase in tissue oxygen can be elicited by selective control of the location and extent of neural activation in the LGN. In the current study, to evaluate the temporal integration and homogeneity of neurometabolic coupling, we have determined the relationship between multiunit extracellular neural activity and tissue oxygen responses to visual stimuli of various durations and contrasts. Our results show that the negative but not the positive oxygen response changes in an approximately linear manner with stimulus duration. The relationship between the negative oxygen response and neural activity is relatively constant with stimulus duration. Moreover, both negative and positive oxygen responses saturate at high stimulus contrast levels. Coupling between neural activity and negative oxygen responses is well described by a power law function. These results help elucidate differences between the initial negative and subsequent positive metabolic responses and may be directly relevant to questions concerning brain mapping with functional magnetic resonance imaging.
Detection of ApoE E2, E3 and E4 alleles using MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry and the homogeneous mass-extend technology

Apolipoprotein (Apo) E is one of the five main types of blood lipoproteins (A–E). It is synthesized primarily in the liver and brain and helps in transporting lipids from one place to another as well as facilitates the clearing of dietary fats, such as triglycerides, from the blood. The ApoE gene exists in three different forms: E2, E3 and E4. E3 is considered to be the normal form. Variants of the ApoE gene have been associated with various diseases. Developing an assay for the genotyping of ApoE variants for use both in clinical and large cohort based association settings would be extremely valuable and would require the use of a platform that has high-throughput capabilities and is highly accurate. Here we describe an assay for the simultaneous genotyping of the ApoE variants in a single bi-plex reaction and a single well using the matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry and the homogeneous mass-extend (hME) technology. The assay is robust, highly accurate and suitable for both clinical applications and for the genotyping of large disease cohorts. Moreover, the prevalence of ApoE variants in a cohort of Caucasians from the central Wisconsin area is outlined.
The Challenges of Deploying Educational Games in Hong Kong Schools: a developer's perspective

This paper outlines the rationale and discusses issues related to the development and marketing of a digital educational video game. The concept, theme and design of the game are aimed at topical socio-environmental issues important to local (Hong Kong) students. This experience illustrates some of the primary challenges in the development and deployment of educational video game software.
Simulation of Subsurface Water Flow by Galerkin Finite Element Method in Dhaka City Aquifer

A two-dimensional mathematical model has been developed using Galerkin finite element method for simulation of transient saturated-unsaturated groundwater flow in multi-aquifer system with window based, menu-driven, user friendly interface to provide on screen input data interpretation, to guide user through steps of data processing , and to generate reports and graphs from output results. The model is able to handle combined and system-dependent boundary conditions that can be used in practical situation of groundwater flow in the complex hydrogeological conditions of a country like Bangladesh in general and particularly for Dhaka City. Due to less complexity in two-dimensional simulation and the availability of Graphical User Interface (GUI) the model is easier to use and time efficient.