Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Neuromarketing Analysis of the Impact of Financial Predation on Victims

Recent literature has argued that financial experts act as predators as soon as given a chance. Bernard Madoff is one example among many whereby a financial expert has occupied the top level of a financial web and has devised a plan to take advantage of his clients for his own benefit, causing them financial harm, by surprise. The model currently in use in the area of financial predation, named the Mesly model, states that perceived predation influences trust and cooperation between a financial predator and his clients. This multidisciplinary paper examines the neurobiological mechanisms supporting such model. Indeed, finding the neurobiological basis for the model of financial predation may allow regulators to better understand how financial predators work, hence the possibility to devise better safeguard measures to protect naive investors.
Bias in the analysis of multilingual legislative speech

textabstractIn this paper we investigate the application of natural language processing tools to the multilingual proceedings of the European Parliament. This work is part of a study in which we explore (1) how subcorpora in different languages may lead to different conclusions about the political landscape, (2) how to determine what a potential language-related bias originates from, and (3) to what extent we can limit or even prevent an unwanted language-bias.
Listeria monocytogenes Invasion of Epithelial Cells Requires the MEK-1/ERK-2 Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase Pathway

ABSTRACT PD98059, a specific inhibitor of MEK-1 mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase kinase, blocked Listeria monocytogenesinvasion into HeLa epithelial cells. The effects of PD98059 were reversible, as adherent extracellular bacteria were internalized upon removal of the drug. Previously, we reported that L. monocytogenes could activate ERK-1 and ERK-2 MAP kinases through the action of listeriolysin O (LLO) on the host cell (P. Tang, I. Rosenshine, P. Cossart, and B. B. Finlay, Infect. Immun. 64:2359–2361, 1996). We have now found that two other MAP kinase pathways, those of p38 MAP kinase and c-Jun N-terminal kinase, are also activated by wild-type L. monocytogenes. Mutants lacking functional LLO (hly mutants) were still invasive but only activated ERK-2 and only activated it at later (90-min) postinfection times. Two inhibitors of L. monocytogenesinvasion, cytochalasin D, which disrupts actin polymerization, and wortmannin, which blocks phosphatidylinositol (PI) 3-kinase activity, did not block ERK-2 activation by wild-type L. monocytogenes and hly mutants. However, genistein, an inhibitor of tyrosine kinases, and PD98059 both blocked invasion and decreased ERK-2 activation. These results suggest that MEK-1 and ERK-2 activities are essential for L. monocytogenes invasion into host epithelial cells. This is the first report to show that a MAP kinase pathway is required for bacterial invasion.
Selective activation of the prostaglandin E2 circuit in chronic injury-induced pathologic angiogenesis.

PURPOSE Cyclooxygenase (COX)-derived prostaglandin E(2) (PGE(2)) is a prevalent and established mediator of inflammation and pain in numerous tissues and diseases. Distribution and expression of the four PGE(2) receptors (EP1-EP4) can dictate whether PGE(2) exerts an anti-inflammatory or a proinflammatory and/or a proangiogenic effect. The role and mechanism of endogenous PGE(2) in the cornea, and the regulation of EP expression during a dynamic and complex inflammatory/reparative response remain to be clearly defined. METHODS Chronic or acute self-resolving inflammation was induced in mice by corneal suture or epithelial abrasion, respectively. Reepithelialization was monitored by fluorescein staining and neovascularization quantified by CD31/PECAM-1 immunofluorescence. PGE(2) formation was analyzed by lipidomics and polymorphonuclear leukocyte (PMN) infiltration quantified by myeloperoxidase activity. Expression of EPs and inflammatory/angiogenic mediators was assessed by real-time PCR and immunohistochemistry. Mice eyes were treated with PGE(2) (100 ng topically, three times a day) for up to 7 days. RESULTS COX-2, EP-2, and EP-4 expression was upregulated with chronic inflammation that correlated with increased corneal PGE(2) formation and marked neovascularization. In contrast, acute abrasion injury did not alter PGE(2) or EP levels. PGE(2) treatment amplified PMN infiltration and the angiogenic response to chronic inflammation but did not affect wound healing or PMN infiltration after epithelial abrasion. Exacerbated inflammatory neovascularization with PGE(2) treatment was independent of the VEGF circuit but was associated with a significant induction of the eotaxin-CCR3 axis. CONCLUSIONS These findings place the corneal PGE(2) circuit as an endogenous mediator of inflammatory neovascularization rather than general inflammation and demonstrate that chronic inflammation selectively regulates this circuit at the level of biosynthetic enzyme and receptor expression.
Why Does the Apple Fall Far from the Tree? How Early Political Socialization Prompts Parent-Child Dissimilarity

Children are more likely to adopt their family's political views when politics is important to their parents, and the children of politically engaged parents tend to become politically engaged adults. When these transmission dynamics are considered together, an important hypothesis follows: the children who are most likely to initially acquire the political views of their parents are also most likely to later abandon them as a result of their own engagement with the political world. Data from the Political Socialisation Panel Study provide support for this hypothesis, illuminate its observational implications and shed light on the mechanisms, pointing to the role of new social contexts, political issues and salient political events. Replications using different data from the US and the UK confirm that this dynamic is generalizable to different cohorts and political periods.
Dependable and secure remote management in IaaS clouds

In Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) clouds, the users manage the systems in the provided virtual machines (VMs) called user VMs through remote management software such as Virtual Network Computing (VNC). For dependability, they often perform out-of-band remote management via the management VM. Even in the case of system failures inside their VMs, the users could directly access their systems. However, the management VM is not always trustworthy in IaaS. Once outside or inside attackers intrude into the management VM, they could easily eavesdrop on all the inputs and outputs in remote management. To solve this security issue, this paper proposes FBCrypt for preventing information leakage via the management VM in out-of-band remote management. FBCrypt encrypts the inputs and outputs between a VNC client and a user VM using the virtual machine monitor (VMM). Sensitive information is protected against the management VM between them. The VMM intercepts the reads of virtual devices by a user VM and decrypts the inputs, whereas it intercepts the updates of a framebuffer by a user VM and encrypts the pixel data. We have implemented FBCrypt in Xen and TightVNC and confirmed that any keystrokes or pixel data did not leak.
Equal latency contours and auditory weighting functions for the harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena)

Loudness perception by human infants and animals can be studied under the assumption that sounds of equal loudness elicit equal reaction times (RTs). Simple RTs of a harbour porpoise to narrowband frequency-modulated signals were measured using a behavioural method and an RT sensor based on infrared light. Equal latency contours, which connect equal RTs across frequencies, for reference values of 150–200 ms (10 ms intervals) were derived from median RTs to 1 s signals with sound pressure levels (SPLs) of 59–168 dB re. 1 μPa and centre frequencies of 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 16, 31.5, 63, 80 and 125 kHz. The higher the signal level was above the hearing threshold of the harbour porpoise, the quicker the animal responded to the stimulus (median RT 98–522 ms). Equal latency contours roughly paralleled the hearing threshold at relatively low sensation levels (higher RTs). The difference in shape between the hearing threshold and the equal latency contours was more pronounced at higher levels (lower RTs); a flattening of the contours occurred for frequencies below 63 kHz. Relationships of the equal latency contour levels with the hearing threshold were used to create smoothed functions assumed to be representative of equal loudness contours. Auditory weighting functions were derived from these smoothed functions that may be used to predict perceived levels and correlated noise effects in the harbour porpoise, at least until actual equal loudness contours become available.
LINEAR SORTING WITH O(Iog n) PROCESSORS

A file of n records can be sorted in linear time given O(log(n)) processors . Four such algorithms are presented and analyzed . All of them have reasonable hardware requirements ; no memory access conflicts are generated ; a constant number of communication . lines per processor are needed (except for one case) ; and the space requirements are 4(n) or O(n log(log(n))).
A PLL based readout and built-in self-test for MEMS sensors

A new readout and self-test circuit for MEMS devices is presented in this paper. A Phase Locked Loop (PLL) has been utilized to convert variations of MEM capacitance to time domain signals. The proposed scheme presents a robust performance against process, power supply and temperature variations due to inherent feedback of PLL systems. Simulation results in Cadence environment using TSMC CMOS 65nm technology indicate that a measurement resolution of 73aF can be achieved.
Browsing the 3D Web

The 3D browser gives users access to the technology's benefits, is a critical part of the 3D Web. 3D browser software performs complex calculations of the perspective, shading, and other features necessary to give a rendered image or object a three-dimensional appearance. Proponents say the addition of a third dimension to Web browsing would result in better visualization and analysis of financial, business, and scientific data; more effective training; more entertaining browsing and game playing; and better viewing of products for sale via e-commerce, a critical factor in selling items that online shoppers can't interact with physically
Language Identification in Document Images

This paper presents a system dedicated to automatic language identification of text regions in heterogeneous and complex documents. This system is able to process documents with mixed printed and handwritten text and various layouts. To handle such a problem, we propose a system that performs the following sub-tasks: writing type identification (printed/handwritten), script identification and language identification. The methods for the writing type recognition and the script discrimination are based on the analysis of the connected components while the language identification approach relies on a statistical text analysis , which requires a recognition engine. We evaluate the system on a new public dataset and present detailed results on the three tasks. Our system outperforms the Google plug-in evaluated on the ground-truth transcriptions of the same dataset.
Algorithmic Bayesian persuasion

Persuasion, defined as the act of exploiting an informational advantage in order to effect the decisions of others, is ubiquitous. Indeed, persuasive communication has been estimated to account for almost a third of all economic activity in the US. This paper examines persuasion through a computational lens, focusing on what is perhaps the most basic and fundamental model in this space: the celebrated Bayesian persuasion model of Kamenica and Gentzkow. Here there are two players, a sender and a receiver. The receiver must take one of a number of actions with a-priori unknown payoff, and the sender has access to additional information regarding the payoffs of the various actions for both players. The sender can commit to revealing a noisy signal regarding the realization of the payoffs of various actions, and would like to do so as to maximize her own payoff in expectation assuming that the receiver rationally acts to maximize his own payoff. When the payoffs of various actions follow a joint distribution (the common prior), the sender's problem is nontrivial, and its computational complexity depends on the representation of this prior. We examine the sender's optimization task in three of the most natural input models for this problem, and essentially pin down its computational complexity in each. When the payoff distributions of the different actions are i.i. d. and given explicitly, we exhibit a polynomial-time (exact) algorithmic solution, and a ``simple'' (1-1/e)-approximation algorithm. Our optimal scheme for the i.i. d. setting involves an analogy to auction theory, and makes use of Border's characterization of the space of reduced-forms for single-item auctions. When action payoffs are independent but non-identical with marginal distributions given explicitly, we show that it is #P-hard to compute the optimal expected sender utility. In doing so, we rule out a generalized Border's theorem, as defined by Gopalan et al, for this setting. Finally, we consider a general (possibly correlated) joint distribution of action payoffs presented by a black box sampling oracle, and exhibit a fully polynomial-time approximation scheme (FPTAS) with a bi-criteria guarantee. Our FPTAS is based on Monte-Carlo sampling, and its analysis relies on the principle of deferred decisions. Moreover, we show that this result is the best possible in the black-box model for information-theoretic reasons.
Reinquiry into Advertising Avoidance on the Internet: A Conceptual Replication and Extension

Existing literature indicates that replication and extension studies are crucial for advancement of knowledge and establishing external validity of earlier work. In this study, we replicate and extend Cho and Cheon's (2004) advertising avoidance on the Internet model. We specifically examine the relationship of perceived goal impediment, perceived ad clutter, and prior negative experience with ad avoidance. The proliferation of the Internet has greatly increased ways organizations target customers through online advertising. However, consumers have also become more proficient at advertising avoidance. Survey data from 339 consumers browsing the Internet in Iran were used to validate the original model. Further, an extension of the study suggests that user mode moderates the relationships identified in the original model.
Self-Powered 30 µW to 10 mW Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting System With 9.09 ms/V Maximum Power Point Tracking Time

A piezoelectric (PE) energy harvesting system with one-cycle maximum power point (MPP) sensing is presented. The one-cycle MPP sensing method uses a very small size sensing capacitor and it can make the transducer output voltage reach the open circuit voltage within one cycle. The proposed MPP sensing block can sense the open circuit voltage with a proposed peak detector and stores the MPP voltage using charge sharing blocks. The one-cycle MPP sensing approach simplifies the design of an MPP tracking algorithm and greatly reduces the tracking time. All control blocks are self-biased and choose the higher voltage between the input or output voltages of the switching converter as a supply voltage (V DD). Therefore, a voltage multiplexer and a low-power ramp generator with V DD independence are also proposed to control the system without additional DC to DC converter. The entire system has been implemented in a 0.35 μm BCDMOS process. It operates at 90 kHz with a 10-mH inductor. The total power dissipation of the controller is 10 μW at a V DD of 2.7 V. The MPP tracking time is only 9.09 ms/V when the input voltage of the switching converter is changed from 3.4 V to 1.2 V.
A Cis-Acting tRNA Gene Imposes the Cell Cycle Progression Requirement for Establishing Silencing at the HMR Locus in Yeast

Numerous studies have determined that the establishment of Sir protein-dependent transcriptional silencing in yeast requires progression through the cell cycle. In our study we examined the cell cycle requirement for the establishment of silencing at the HML and HMR loci using strains bearing conditional or inducible SIR3 alleles. Consistent with prior reports, we observed that establishing silencing at HMR required progression through the cell cycle. Unexpectedly, we found that the HML locus is far less dependent on cell cycle progression to establish silencing. Seeking cis-acting elements that could account for this difference, we found that deletion of a tRNA gene that serves as a chromatin boundary at HMR abolishes the cell cycle progression requirement at this locus, while insertion of sequences containing this tRNA gene adjacent to HML imposes dependence on cell cycle progression for the full establishment of silencing. Our results indicate that the cell cycle progression requirement is not a property intrinsic to the formation of heterochromatin in yeast, but is instead a cis-limited, locus-specific phenomenon. We show that inactivation of the Scc1 cohesin also abolishes the requirement for cell cycle progression and test models based on a possible link between the tRNA gene and cohesin association.
A number theory based dual transmit antennas space-time code

We construct a full data rate space-time block code over M=2 transmit-antennas and T=2 symbol periods, and we prove it achieves a transmit diversity of 2 over all 4-dimensional constellations carved from the 4-dimensional ring of complex integers Z[i]/sup 4/. Further, we optimize the coding gain of our ST code and then compare it to the Alamouti scheme (see Alamouti, S.M., IEEE Journal Selec. Areas on Communications, vol.16, p.1451-8, 1998). For N>1, we prove that our code has a better performance than the Alamouti code. The performance improvement is further enhanced when N or the size of the constellation increases. We relate the problem of ST diversity gain to algebraic number theory, and the ST coding gain optimization to the theory of simultaneous Diophantine approximation in the geometry of numbers.
Run-time Monitoring and Formal Analysis of Information Flows in Chromium

Web browsers are a key enabler of a wide range of online services, from shopping and email to banking and health services. Because these services frequently involve handling sensitive data, a wide range of web browser security policies and mechanisms has been implemented or proposed to mitigate the dangers posed by malicious code and sites. This paper describes an approach for specifying and enforcing flexible information-flow policies on the Chromium web browser. Complementing efforts that focus on information-flow enforcement on JavaScript, our approach focuses on an existing browser and encompasses a broad range of browser features, from pages and scripts to DOM elements, events, persistent state, and extensions. In our approach, which is a coarse-grained, light-weight implementation of taint tracking, entities in the browser are annotated with information-flow labels that specify policy and track information flows. We develop a detailed formal model of our approach, for which we prove noninterference. We also develop a corresponding prototype system built on top of Chromium. We demonstrate, and experimentally confirm, that the system can enforce many existing browser policies, as well as practically useful policies beyond those enforceable in standard web browsers.
Updating the Foreign Language Agenda

At the founding of the National Foreign Language Center in 1987, several major structural problems facing the field of foreign language (FL) instruction were identified in an editorial in The Modern Language Journal . These broad architectural issues are part of a national agenda for change, both here and abroad, and have been the focus of the NFLC’s activities since its establishment. The agenda issues identified in the article are: evaluating language competency; articulating instruction across educational levels and the different contexts in which FLs are taught; increasing the range of languages taught and studied; achieving higher levels of language skills; promoting language competency and use among adults; expanding research and maximizing its impact on FL teaching and learning; and assessing and diffusing new technologies in instructional practice, with particular attention to Internet communication, machine translation, and distance education. The article briefly indicates the nature of these challenges and notes the progress that has been made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Calcium currents in the A7r5 smooth muscle-derived cell line. An allosteric model for calcium channel activation and dihydropyridine agonist action

We have investigated the gating kinetics of calcium channels in the A7r5 cell line at the level of single channels and whole cell currents, in the absence and presence of dihydropyridine (DHP) calcium channel agonists. Although latencies to first opening and macroscopic currents are strongly voltage dependent, analysis of amplitude histograms indicates that the primary open-closed transition is voltage independent. This suggests that the molecular mechanisms for voltage sensing and channel opening are distinct, but coupled. We propose a modified Monod-Wyman-Changeux (MWC) model for channel activation, where movement of a voltage sensor is analogous to ligand binding, and the closed and open channels correspond to inactive (T) and active (R) states. This model can account for the activation kinetics of the calcium channel, and is consistent with the existence of four homologous domains in the main subunit of the calcium channel protein. DHP agonists slow deactivation kinetics, shift the activation curve to more negative potentials with an increase in slope, induce intermingled fast and slow channel openings, and reduce the latency to first opening. These effects are predicted by the MWC model if we make the simple assumption that DHP agonists act as allosteric effectors to stabilize the open states of the channel.
p13 SUC1 and the WW Domain of PIN1 Bind to the Same Phosphothreonine-Proline Epitope*

The WW domain of the human PIN1 and p13 SUC1 , a subunit of the cyclin-dependent kinase complex, were previously shown to be involved in the regulation of the cyclin-dependent kinase complex activity at the entry into mitosis, by an unresolved molecular mechanism. We report here experimental evidence for the direct interaction of p13 SUC1 with a model CDC25 peptide, dependent on the phosphorylation state of its threonine. Chemical shift perturbation of backbone1HN, 15N, and13Cα resonances during NMR titration experiments allows accurate identification of the binding site, primarily localized around the anion-binding site, occupied in the crystal structure of the homologous p9 CKSHs2 by a sulfate molecule. The epitope recognized by p13 SUC1 includes the proline at position +1 of the phosphothreonine, as was shown by the decrease in affinity for a mutated CDC25 phosphopeptide, containing an alanine/proline substitution. No direct interaction between the PIN1 WW domain or its catalytic proline cis/trans-isomerase domain and p13 SUC1 was detected, but our study showed that in vitro the WW domain of the human PIN1 antagonizes the binding of the p13 SUC1 to the CDC25 phosphopeptide, by binding to the same phosphoepitope. We thus propose that the full cyclin-dependent kinase complex stimulates the phosphorylation of CDC25 through binding of its p13 SUC1 module to the phosphoepitope of the substrate and that the reported WW antagonism of p13 SUC1 -stimulated CDC25 phosphorylation is caused by competitive binding of both protein modules to the same phosphoepitope.