Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Combining real and virtual volunteers through social media

Recent studies have called attention to the improvement of “collaborative resilience” by fostering the collaboration potentials of public and private stakeholders during disasters. With our research we consider real and virtual volunteers in order to detect conditions for cooperation among those citizen groups through social media. Therefore we analysed the usage of Twitter during a tornado crisis to look for role patterns and aspects that helped volunteer groups in the virtual to emerge, and matched the data with an interview study on experiences, attitudes, concerns and potentials professional emergency services recounted in the emergence of volunteer groups in the real. While virtual groups seem to easily form and collaborate, the engagement of real volunteers is decreasing according to the perception of professionals. We discuss the dynamics in both tendencies and suggest design implications (use of existing social networks, promotion and awareness, connection among volunteers, connection to emergency services and systems) to support both types of volunteer groups, which lead to a software prototype.
Reconstructing the massive black hole cosmic history through gravitational waves

The massive black holes we observe in galaxies today are the natural end-product of a complex evolutionary path, in which black holes seeded in proto-galaxies at high redshift grow through cosmic history via a sequence of mergers and accretion episodes. Electromagnetic observations probe a small subset of the population of massive black holes (namely, those that are active or those that are very close to us), but planned space-based gravitational wave observatories such as the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) can measure the parameters of 'electromagnetically invisible' massive black holes out to high redshift. In this paper we introduce a Bayesian framework to analyze the information that can be gathered from a set of such measurements. Our goal is to connect a set of massive black hole binary merger observations to the underlying model of massive black hole formation. In other words, given a set of observed massive black hole coalescences, we assess what information can be extracted about the underlying massive black hole population model. For concreteness we consider ten specific models of massive black hole formation, chosen to probe four important (and largely unconstrained) aspects of the input physics used in structure formation simulations: seed formation, metallicity ''feedback'',more » accretion efficiency and accretion geometry. For the first time we allow for the possibility of 'model mixing', by drawing the observed population from some combination of the 'pure' models that have been simulated. A Bayesian analysis allows us to recover a posterior probability distribution for the ''mixing parameters'' that characterize the fractions of each model represented in the observed distribution. Our work shows that LISA has enormous potential to probe the underlying physics of structure formation. « less
Risk of suicide following an alcohol-related emergency hospital admission: An electronic cohort study of 2.8 million people

Objective Alcohol misuse is a well-known risk factor for suicide however, the relationship between alcohol-related hospital admission and subsequent risk of death from suicide is unknown. We aimed to determine the risk of death from suicide following emergency admission to hospital with an alcohol-related cause. Methods We established an electronic cohort study of all 2,803,457 residents of Wales, UK, aged from 10 to under 100 years on 1 January 2006 with six years’ follow-up. The outcome event was death from suicide defined as intentional self-harm (ICD-10 X60-84) or undetermined intent (Y10-34). The main exposure was an alcohol-related admission defined as a ‘wholly attributable’ ICD-10 alcohol code in the admission record. Admissions were coded for the presence or absence of co-existing psychiatric morbidity. The analysis was by Cox regression with adjustments for confounding variables within the dataset. Results During the study follow-up period, there were 15,546,355 person years at risk with 28,425 alcohol-related emergency admissions and 1562 suicides. 125 suicides followed an admission (144.6 per 100,000 person years), of which 11 (9%) occurred within 4 weeks of discharge. The overall adjusted hazard ratio (HR) for suicide following admission was 26.8 (95% confidence interval (CI) 18.8 to 38.3), in men HR 9.83 (95% CI 7.91 to 12.2) and women HR 28.5 (95% CI 19.9 to 41.0). The risk of suicide remained substantial in subjects without known co-existing psychiatric morbidity: HR men 8.11 (95% CI 6.30 to 10.4) and women HR 24.0 (95% CI 15.5 to 37.3). The analysis was limited by the absence in datasets of potentially important confounding variables and the lack of information on alcohol-related harm and psychiatric morbidity in subjects not admitted to hospital. Conclusion Emergency alcohol-related hospital admission is associated with an increased risk of suicide. Identifying individuals in hospital provides an opportunity for psychosocial assessment and suicide prevention of a targeted at-risk group before their discharge to the community.
The characterization of a non-Newtonian blood analog in natural- and shear-layer-induced transitional flow.

BACKGROUND Although a blood analog of aqueous glycerol and xanthan gum was found to replicate the viscoelastic behavior of blood, measurements were restricted to laminar flow. OBJECTIVE To expand the characterization of a non-Newtonian blood analog of aqueous glycerol and xanthan gum to transitional Reynolds numbers to quantify its behavior as a function of both natural and shear-layer-induced mechanisms. METHODS A Newtonian analog and a shear-thinning aqueous glycerol, xanthan gum solution were circulated through an in vitro flow loop replicating both a straight and obstructed artery where transition was initiated through natural and shear-layer-induced mechanisms respectively. Steady and pulsatile pressure drop measurements for both fluids were acquired across a range of Reynolds numbers up to 7600 and Womersley numbers of 4 and 6. RESULTS In steady and pulsatile straight flow, the non-Newtonian analog presented with reduced pressure drops and prolonged laminar flow to Reynolds numbers of 3200 and 3800 respectively. Upon blockage inclusion, non-Newtonian minor losses were comparable to Newtonian in steady flow and greater in pulsatile flow suggesting an elongation of downstream non-Newtonian recirculation. Although non-Newtonian total system pressure drops in both straight and obstructed flows were lower, the ratio of pressure drop difference between the two fluids decreased through shear-layer-induced transition. CONCLUSIONS These findings not only demonstrated the suitability of using a xanthan gum analog to model blood flow in transitional regimes, but also presented the respective differences in analog behavior as a function of transition mechanism.
The development, status and trends of recommender systems: a comprehensive and critical literature review

Recommender systems have been used in many fields of research and business applications. In this paper, a comprehensive and critical review of the literature on recommender systems is provided. A classification mechanism of recommender systems is proposed. The review pays attention to and covers the recommender system algorithms, application areas and data mining techniques published in relevant peer-reviewed journals between 2001 and 2013. The development of the field, status and trends are analyzed and discussed in the paper.
Protective effect of maternal vitamin E supplementation on phenytoin-induced teratogenicity in rat pups

Objectives:Phenytoin teratogenicity is induced by embryonic hypoxia as a result of generation of reactive oxygen species.Antioxidants are effective in treating conditions associated with oxidative damage. This study investigated the possible protective effect of vitamin E maternal supplementation on oxidative damage, and the morphological and morphometricchanges induced by phenytoin in pups. Methods: Five groups of female rats were utilized. All the treatments were injected intraperitoneal. Groups I and II were injected with saline and olive oil, respectively. Group III was injected with vitamin E (0.5 g/kg BW/day) from day one to day 20 of gestation. Group IV was injected with phenytoin (150 mg/kg BW/day) from day 6 to day 18 of gestation. Group V was injected withphenytoin and vitamin E. The N-acetyl D-glucosaminidase, malondialdehyde, and glutathione were determined as markers of tissue damage. The skeletons of pups were examined after staining with alizarin red-S. Results: Phenytoin significantly increased oxidative stress indices in maternal plasma and tissues and in pup tissues. This wasassociated with a significant decrease in the weight, length and number of pups. Moreover, there were maxillary hypoplasia and skeletal anomalies. Co-administration of vitamin E with phenytoin reduced oxidative damage with significant increasein the weight, length and number of pups. Reduction in maxillary hypoplasia and skeletal anomalies were observed. Conclusion:Vitamin E maternal supplementation has significant effect in the reduction of the anomalies induced by phenytoin in pups
Neuroinflammation and neurological alterations in chronic liver diseases

Several million people with chronic liver diseases (cirrhosis, hepatitis) show neurological alterations, named hepatic encephalopathy (HE) with cognitive and motor alterations that impair quality of life and reduces life span. Inflammation acts synergistically with hyperammonemia to induce cognitive and motor alterations in patients with chronic liver disease and minimal hepatic encephalopathy (MHE). Previous studies in animal models have suggested that neuroinflammation is a major player in HE. This would also be the case in patients with liver cirrhosis or hepatitis C with HE. Rats with MHE show microglial activation and neuroinflammation that is associated with cognitive impairment and hypokinesia. The anti-inflammatory drug ibuprofen reduces microglial activation and neuroinflammation and restores cognitive and motor functions in rats with MHE. Chronic hyperammonemia per se induces neuroinflammation. Both peripheral inflammation and hyperammonemia would contribute to neuroinflammation in chronic liver failure. Therefore, neuroinflammation may be a key therapeutic target to improve the cognitive and motor alterations in MHE and overt HE. Identifying new targets to reduce neuroinflammation in MHE without inducing secondary effects would serve to develop new therapeutic tools to reverse the cognitive and motor alterations in patients with HE associated with chronic liver diseases.
Persistently Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1‐infected T Cell Clone Expressing Only Doubly Spliced mRNA Exhibits Reduced Cell Surface CD4 Expression

Several cell clones possessing the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV‐1) genome, consisting of an almost full‐length DNA sequence, were isolated by limiting dilution of the clonal cell line M10 derived from MT‐4 that survived infection with HIV‐1 vpr mutant (M10/vpr−). One of the isolated clones (termed Vpr‐1) expressed only doubly spliced mRNA, but not unspliced or singly spliced mRNA. Western blots of Vpr‐1 revealed the presence of the nef translation product, although no expression of major structural genes such as gag, pol, and env was detected by indirect immunofluorescence and assay of reverse transcriptase activity. These HIV‐1 phenotypes differed greatly from those of the original M10/vpr−, most of which expressed major structural HIV‐1 proteins. Despite undetectable levels of env expression in Vpr‐1, CD4 antigens were greatly down‐modulated on the surface without alteration of steady‐state levels of CD4 mRNA expression, similar to M10/vpr−. These HIV‐1 phenotypes in Vpr‐1 did not change after the treatment of the cells with both phorbol 12‐myristate 13‐acetate and phytohemagglutinin. Therefore, the abnormal HIV‐1 life cycle in Vpr‐1 seems to be due to some viral factor(s), as well as cellular factors. Thus, Vpr‐1 could be a useful model for understanding one HIV‐1 latent form.
Recruitment of Seemingly Overeducated Personnel: Insider-Outsider Effects on Fair Employee Selection Practices

We analyze a standard employee selection model given two institutional constraints: First, professional experience perfectly substitutes insufficient formal education for insiders while this substitution is imperfect for outsiders. Second, in the latter case the respective substitution rate increases with the advertised minimum educational requirement. Optimal selection implies that the expected level of formal education is higher for outsider than for insider recruits. Moreover, this difference in educational attainments increases with lower optimal minimum educational job requirements. Investigating data of a large US public employer confirms both of the above theoretical implications. Generally, the econometric model exhibits a �good fit�.
Considerations for Time Sampling Interval Durations in the Measurement of Young Children’s Classroom Engagement

Classroom engagement is important to young children’s academic and social development. Accurate methods of capturing this behavior are needed to inform and evaluate intervention efforts. This study compared the accuracy of interval durations (i.e., 5 s, 10 s, 15 s, 20 s, 30 s, and 60 s) of momentary time sampling (MTS) in approximating the duration of classroom engagement as measured by continuous duration recording (CDR). Twenty-four sessions of children in large-group instruction were observed using the Behavioral Observation of Students in School for Early Education (BOSS-EE). In general, shorter intervals produced engagement estimates that more highly correlated with CDR data and had less measurement error relative to estimates from longer intervals. Findings suggest that selection of MTS interval duration may affect the accuracy of estimates for children with low levels of engagement to a greater extent relative to children with high levels of engagement. Implications and future directions are discussed.
Experimenting with the acting self

Recent neuroscientific research has developed the concept of the embodied agent as a scientifically viable approach to the psychological concept of the self. Both the awareness of one's own actions and awareness of one's own body are necessary conditions for the experience of selfhood. The relative contributions of efferent and afferent information in self-awareness are yet to be fully understood. We review experimental evidence that highlights the phenomenological and functional differences between the “acting self” and the “sensory self. ” These differences may underlie the ubiquitous modulation of perception in voluntary action. We focus on three main research fields: somatosensory perception, time-awareness, and self-recognition. A series of experiments, designed so as to dissociate afferent from efferent information, are reviewed. As a whole the results suggest that intentional action functions as a general context for awareness, modulating the perception of one's own body. The “acting self,” owner of the efferent information, modulates the phenomenal experience of the “sensory self” because of the intrinsically agentic nature of voluntary movement. Finally, it is suggested that this sense of agency is efferent-driven, originating from pre-action processes. The authors would like to thank three anonymous reviewers, as well as Julie Grèzes, Dorothée Legrand, and Dan Zahavi, for their helpful comments and suggestions.
IRIS: The Openflow-based Recursive SDN controller

SDN is a novel and promising networking technology that enables a software-based control over reactive packet-switching devices which query forwarding decisions for every flow: by controlling the answers to the queries, it is possible to `program' the whole network according to a specific set of networking policies. That kind of programmability is backed by NOS (Network OS), which is usually called SDN controller. A Controller supports network-controlling applications to run on top of it by transparently dealing with the actual communication with the switching devices. However, as the controller is normally centralized, the scalability and availability issue is inevitable: a controller should provide reasonable performance to each of the switching device regardless of the network size, and guarantee the non-stop operation of NOS applications against system and software failures to prevent the whole network from halting on the control plane crashes. In this paper, we investigate the issues deeply, and introduce a comprehensive solution called IRIS (ETRI Recursive SDN controller platform).
Compact Planar Balanced Crossover With Bandpass Response

A planar balanced crossover with bandpass response is proposed. This crossover consists of a ring resonator and four half-wavelength resonators. It acts as a third-order filter between two diagonal ports under differential-mode (DM) excitation and exhibits isolation between two adjacent ports under DM excitation or two arbitrary ports under common-mode excitation. To demonstrate the design, a crossover working at 2.41 GHz is fabricated and measured. The measured results exhibit good agreement with the simulation results.
Frequency response and directivity of highly sensitive optical microresonator detectors for photoacoustic imaging

Plano-convex optical microresonator detectors have been developed as an alternative to planar Fabry-Pérot (FP) sensors used in all-optical photoacoustic imaging systems with the potential to provide two or more orders-of-magnitude higher detection sensitivity. This study further characterises the performance of these detectors by investigating their normal incidence frequency response and frequency-dependent directivity. It is shown that sensors with thicknesses in the range ~50-320μm provide broadband, smooth frequency response characteristics and low directional sensitivity. This suggests that a photoacoustic imaging system based on microresonator detectors may be capable of imaging with similar performance to the FP system but with significantly higher sensitivity, paving the way to deep tissue imaging applications such as the clinical assessment of breast cancer and preclinical whole body small animal imaging.
An overview of the advantages and constraints of coded pattern projection techniques for autonomous navigation

The absolute necessity of obtaining 3D information of structured and unknown environments in autonomous navigation reduce considerably the set of sensors that can be used. The necessity to know, at each time, the position of the mobile robot with respect to the scene is indispensable. Furthermore, this information must be obtained in the least computing time. Stereo vision is an attractive and widely used method, but, it is rather limited to make fast 3D surface maps, due to the correspondence problem. The spatial and temporal correspondence among images can be alleviated using a method based on structured light. This relationship can be directly found codifying the projected light; then each imaged region of the projected pattern carries the needed information to solve the correspondence problem. We present the most significant techniques, used in recent years, concerning the coded structured light method.
A 32-mW 40-Gb/s CMOS NRZ transmitter

A wireline transmitter with 2-tap feedforward equalization achieves more than a two-fold improvement in the power efficiency through the use of a new integrating multiplexer, as well as quadrature clock phases with 25% duty cycle. Serializing data by a factor of 128 and including an on-chip phase-locked loop, the transmitter is realized in 45-nm CMOS technology and delivers a differential output swing of 460 mVpp.
Traditional Knowledge About Polar Bears (Ursus maritimus) in East Greenland: Changes in the Catch and Climate Over Two Decades

In Greenland, polar bears (Ursus maritimus) are nutritional, economic, and cultural subsistence resources for Inuit. Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) collected from subsistence hunters can provide important insights and improve management decisions when collected systematically. We report on the results of a TEK survey of subsistence polar bear hunters living in the areas around Tasiilaq and Ittoqqortoormiit, East Greenland. Twenty-five full-time polar bear hunters were interviewed between December 2014 and March 2015 in a conversation-style interview, where a local interviewer fluent in the East Greenlandic dialect asked a series of 55 predetermined questions. The primary goals were to 1) gather Inuit perspectives on polar bear subsistence quotas and hunting strategies, 2) understand how climate change is affecting the polar bear subsistence hunt, and 3) document observed changes in polar bear distribution, abundance, and biology. Approximately 40% of the Tasiilaq respondents had caught between 10-19 polar bears in their lifetime, while 67% of Ittoqqortoormiit respondents reported lifetime catches of >20 bears. In both areas, polar bears were most commonly hunted between February and April. Hunters noted large changes to the climate in the areas where they hunt polar bears. Most hunters reported loss of sea ice, receding glaciers, unstable weather, and warmer temperatures. In Tasiilaq 73% of the hunters said climate changes had affected the polar bear hunt and in Ittoqqortoormiit about 88% of respondents reported the same. Hunters indicated that sea ice loss has created more areas of open water so dog sledges have become unsafe for hunting transportation compared to 10-15 years ago (reported by 100% of hunters in Tasiilaq and 80% in Ittoqqortoormiit). In both areas hunters noted that more polar bears are coming into their communities compared to 10-15 years ago (81% of Tasiilaq hunters and 78% of Ittoqqortoormiit hunters) and pointed to the introduction of quotas and loss of sea ice as potential reasons. This study provides an important perspective on the East Greenland subpopulation of polar bears that can be used to direct science questions and inform management.
Understanding conflict’s dynamics in participatory natural resources management : a critical review

This paper investigated conflicts in participatory protected areas management in Benin to better understand their dynamics. This review paper is based on four articles written from three case-studies of conflicts that emerged and evolved in participatory protected areas management in Benin and a review of literature on the issue of conflicts in participatory processes, particularly in natural resources management. The objective of the case-studies was to understand why and how conflicts emerge and evolve in negotiation among the stakeholders involved in the participatory management of protected areas in Benin. Three cases were studied where participatory protected areas management started with cooperation and shifted into conflicts among the stakeholders involved. In each case-study, frame analysis was used to investigate how stakeholders involved built cooperation at the start of the process and why and how conflicts emerged and evolved. Building upon the results of the individual case-studies and the comparative analysis conducted in a fourth paper, this paper identifies the cross-cutting conclusions and themes about the emergence and escalation of conflict in participatory processes. Subsequently, the paper discusses the practical implications for participatory and community-based natural resources management. The paper ends with the overall conclusion on conflict emergence and evolution in participatory natural resources management, including a reflection on the usefulness of a frame analysis for understanding conflict dynamics in participatory processes.