Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Political discourses on Europe and European integration in national election manifestos and party programmes

Through a textual analysis of national election manifestos, this paper critically discusses political parties' discourses towards Europe and European integration in three European Union (EU) member states: Germany, which has always promoted further integration; the United Kingdom, which has consistently been a keen supporter of intergovernmentalism; and finally the Netherlands, one of the original six and a willing, yet cautious, supporter of supranational cooperation. By analysing how political parties frame European integration in their discourses, we aim to investigate the variance in national political cultures with respect to identity and self-identification with Europe as a determining factor of support for the process. This paper concludes that although European integration is structured around a framework of interests in all the six party discourses under analysis, the construction of national identities and hence the articulation of national interest in EU membership as well as the visions for the political structure of the union varies significantly.
Characterization of point mutations in the cdtA gene of the cytolethal distending toxin of Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans

The Cdt is a family of gram‐negative bacterial toxins that typically arrest eukaryotic cells in the G0/G1 or G2/M phase of the cell cycle. The toxin is a heterotrimer composed of the cdtA, cdtB and cdtC gene products. Although it has been shown that the CdtA protein subunit binds to cells in culture and in an enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (CELISA) the precise mechanisms by which CdtA interacts with CdtB and CdtC has not yet been clarified. In this study we employed a random mutagenesis strategy to construct a library of point mutations in cdtA to assess the contribution of individual amino acids to binding activity and to the ability of the subunit to form biologically active holotoxin. Single unique amino acid substitutions in seven CdtA mutants resulted in reduced binding of the purified recombinant protein to Chinese hamster ovary cells and loss of binding to the fucose‐containing glycoprotein, thyroglobulin. These mutations clustered at the 5′‐ and 3′‐ends of the cdtA gene resulting in amino acid substitutions that resided outside of the aromatic patch region and a conserved region in CdtA homologues. Three of the amino acid substitutions, at positions S165N (mutA81), T41A (mutA121) and C178W (mutA221) resulted in gene products that formed holotoxin complexes that exhibited a 60% reduction (mutA81) or loss (mutA121, mutA221) of proliferation inhibition. A similar pattern was observed when these mutant holotoxins were tested for their ability to induce cell cycle arrest and to convert supercoiled DNA to relaxed and linear forms in vitro. The mutations in mutA81 and mutA221 disrupted holotoxin formation. The positions of the amino acid substitutions were mapped in the Haemophilus ducreyi Cdt crystal structure providing some insight into structure and function.
Heterogeneity-Aware Workload Distribution in Donation-Based Grids

In this paper, we explore the trade-offs and opportunities in porting a high-throughput Grid computing middleware to a high-performance service oriented environment. We present the limitations of the Grid computing middleware when operating in such a performance sensitive enviroment and suggest ways of overcoming these limitations. We focus on exploiting the computation and communiction heterogeneity of the Grid resources to meet the peformance requirements of services, and present several approaches of work distribution that deal with this hetergeneity. We also present a heuristic for finding the best decomposition of work and present algorithms for each of the approaches which we evaluate on a PlanetLab tesbed. The results validate the heuristic and indicate that a significant improvement in performance can be achieved by making the Grid computing middleware aware of the heterogeneity in the underlying infrastructure. The results also provide some useful insights into selecting a work distribution policy based on the dynamic status of the Grid computing environment.
Effects of western Corn Belt cropping systems on agroecosystem functions

Agricultural sustainability is enhanced by management practices that optimize the performance of multiple agroecosystem functions. The performance of western Corn Belt cropping systems was evaluated based on four agroecosystem functions: food production, raw materials production, nutrient cyding, and greenhouse gas regulation. A simple multiattribute ranking procedure was used to quantify agroecosystem performance using data from a long-term cropping systems experiment near Mead, NE. Treatments included in the procedure were continuous corn (Zea mays L.) (CC), corn-soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr. ] (C-SB), corn-oat (Avena sativa L.) + clover [80% sweet dover (Melilotus officinalis L.) and 20% red clover (Trifolium pratense L.)]-sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench]-soybean (C-OCL-SG-SB), and corn-soybean-sorghum-oat + clover (C-SB-SG-OCL) each at three N fertilization levels (ZERO, LOW, and HIGH). Based on treatment averages of soil and crop indicators from 1983 to 1998, agroecosystem performance scores ranged from 66.6 to 77.3, with a least significant difference (LSD) between treatments of 2.2 (P < 0.05). Treatments with the highest scores included C-OCL-SG-SBILOW (77.3), C-SB/LOW (76.9), CC/LOW (76.7), CC/HIGH (76.6), and C-SB-SG-OCL/LOW (75.3). Among these treatments, those fertilized at the LOW N rate attained high scores through moderate performance in all four agroecosystem functions. The CC/ HIGH treatment, however, attained a high score solely through its superior capacity to be highly productive, as its scores for the two environmental quality-related functions were the lowest among all treatments. Correlations between production- and environmental protection-related functions were negative, emphasizing the importance of employing management practices that are productive yet minimize deleterious environmental impacts.
The Comet Assay and its applications in the field of ecotoxicology: a mature tool that continues to expand its perspectives

Since Singh and colleagues, in 1988, launched to the scientific community the alkaline Single Cell Gel Electrophoresis (SCGE) protocol, or Comet Assay, its uses and applications has been increasing. The thematic areas of its current employment in the evaluation of genetic toxicity are vast, either in vitro or in vivo, both in the laboratory and in the environment, terrestrial or aquatic. It has been applied to a wide range of experimental models: bacteria, fungi, cells culture, arthropods, fishes, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and humans. This document is intended to be a comprehensive review of what has been published to date on the field of ecotoxicology, aiming at the following main aspects: (i) to show the most relevant experimental models used as bioindicators both in the laboratory and in the field. Fishes are clearly the most adopted group, reflecting their popularity as bioindicator models, as well as a primary concern over the aquatic environment health. Amphibians are among the most sensitive organisms to environmental changes, mainly due to an early aquatic-dependent development stage and a highly permeable skin. Moreover, in the terrestrial approach, earthworms, plants or mammalians are excellent organisms to be used as experimental models for genotoxic evaluation of pollutants, complex mix of pollutants and chemicals, in both laboratory and natural environment. (ii) To review the development and modifications of the protocols used and the cell types (or tissues) used. The most recent developments concern the adoption of the enzyme linked assay (digestion with lesion-specific repair endonucleases) and prediction of the ability to repair of oxidative DNA damage, which is becoming a widespread approach, albeit challenging. For practical/technical reasons, blood is the most common choice but tissues/cells like gills, sperm cells, early larval stages, coelomocytes, liver or kidney have been also used. (iii) To highlight correlations with other biomarkers. (iv) To build a constructive criticism and summarize the needs for protocol improvements for future test applications within the field of ecotoxicology. The Comet Assay is still developing and its potential is yet underexploited in experimental models, mesocosmos or natural ecosystems.
Early retinal development in the zebrafish, Danio rerio: Light and electron microscopic analyses

The morphological differentiation of the zebrafish retina was analyzed by using light (LM) and transmission electron (TEM) microscopy between the time of initial ganglion cell differentiation (≈32 hours postfertilization; hpf) and shortly after the point when the retina appears functional (≈74 hpf), i.e., when all major cell types and basic synaptic connections are in place. The results show that the inner retinal neurons, like the photoreceptor and ganglion cells, differentiate first within the ventronasal region, and differentiation subsequently spreads asymmetrically into the nasal and dorsal regions before reaching the ventrotemporal retina. In addition, we show that the attenuation of the optic stalk occurs in parallel with ganglion cell differentiation between 32 and 40 hpf. The first conventional synapses appear within the inner plexiform layer simultaneously with the first photoreceptor outer segment discs at 60 hpf; functional ribbon triads arise within photoreceptor synaptic terminals at 65 hpf; and synaptic ribbons occur within bipolar cell axon terminals at the time larvae exhibit their first visual responses (≈70 hpf). Although development is initially more advanced within the ventronasal region between 50 and 60 hpf, development across the retina rapidly equilibrates such that it is relatively comparable within all quadrants of the central retina by 70 hpf. An area within the temporal retina characterized by tightly packed and highly tiered cones emerges with subsequent development. Retinal differentiation in the zebrafish corresponds with that generally described in other vertebrates and can be correlated with the development of visual and electroretinographic responses in the animal. J. Comp. Neurol. 404:515–536, 1999. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
GAMBARAN RESILIENSI ANAK PASCA BENCANA BANJIR DI DESA DAYEUHKOLOT, KABUPATEN BANDUNG, JAWA BARAT

Jawa Barat merupakan salah satu wilayah di Indonesia yang sering mengalami bencana alam. Salah satunya daerahnya adalah Dayeuhkolot, Kabupaten Bandung. Bencana alam yang seringkali dihadapi oleh masyarakat Dayeuhkolot adalah banjir. Setiap turun hujan, maka daerah ini akan terendam oleh air. Lebih-lebih jika intensitas curah air hujan cukup tinggi dan berdurasi lama, maka dapat dipastikan banjir akan melanda. Bencana banjir beresiko tinggi mengancam keselamatan jiwa para warga serta merusak infrastruktur yang ada. Bukan hanya kerugian secara materi yang menjadi masalah, namun juga dampak psikologis. Penelitian ini mengacu pada konsep resiliensi dari Reivich & Shatte (2002) yang menyatakan bahwa resiliensi merupakan kemampuan untuk beradaptasi dan tetap teguh dalam situasi sulit. Menurut Reivicih & Shatte (2002) Resiliensi dibangun dari tujuh kemampuan. Adapun ketujuh kemampuan itu adalah: Regulasi emosi (emotion regulation) , pengendalianÂ impuls (impuls control , analisis Kausal (causal analysis ), efikasi diri ( self-efficacy ), Optimisme (realistic optimism) , empati (emphatic) , mencapai hal yang positif (Reaching Out . ) . Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian awal yang bermaksud untuk menggambarkan resiliensi anak korban bencana banjir di Dayeuhkolot, Bandung. Penelitian ini termasuk penelitian deskriptif, dengan menggunakan metode kualitatif dan kuantitatif. Pengumpulan data menggunakan Resilence Quotient (RQ) dari Reivich & Shatte (2002) yang dilakukan penyesuaian oleh peneliti ( alpha cronbach = 0,885). Sampel penelitian berjumlah 31 orang anak di daerah Dayeuhkolot, Kabupaten Bandung, Jawa Barat dengan teknik accidental sampling . Hasil penelitian menunjukkan secara umum kemampuan resiliensi yang dimiliki oleh anak-anak pasca bencana banjir di desa Dayeuhkolot, Kabupaten Bandung, Jawa Barat menunjukkan Â kemampuan yang baik/tinggi Â dalam impulse control, optimism dan causal analysis , sedangkan kemampuan yang tergolong rendah adalah regulasi emosi, empati, self efficacy dan reaching out . Meskipun demikian, penelitian ini merupakan penelitian awal, sehingga penelitian lebih lanjut masih perlu dilakukan. Untuk meningkatkan kemampuan resiliensi anak, tampaknya perlu dirancang dan dilakukan program intervensi dan pengembangan terutama dalam kemampuan regulasi emosi, empati, self efficacy dan reaching out . Kata kunci : Resiliensi, bencana banjir, anak (remaja).
Pitch-Based Segregation of Reverberant Speech

Abstract : In everyday listening, both background noise and reverberation degrade the speech signal. Psychoacoustic evidence suggests that human speech perception under reverberant conditions relies primarily on monaural processing. While speech segregation based on periodicity has achieved considerable progress in handling additive noise, little research in monaural segregation has been devoted to reverberant scenarios. Reverberation smears the harmonic structure of speech signals, and our evaluations using a pitch-based segregation algorithm show that an increase in the room reverberation time causes a degradation in performance due to the loss in periodicity for the target signal. We propose a two-stage monaural separation system that combines the inverse filtering of the room impulse response corresponding to target location with a pitch-based speech segregation method. As a result of the first stage, the harmonicity of a signal arriving from target direction is partially restored while signals arriving from other locations are further smeared, and this leads to improved segregation. A systematic evaluation of the system shows that the proposed system results in considerable signal-to-noise ratio gains across different conditions.
‘Community means the World to me’: an ethnographic study of a public house and bowling club

‘COMMUNITY MEANS THE WORLD TO ME’: AN ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY OF A PUBLIC HOUSE AND BOWLING CLUB. I ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS II CHAPTER ONE 3 INTRODUCTION: 'COMMUNITY MEANS THE WORLD TO ME': AN ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY OF A PUBLIC HOUSE AND BOWLING CLUB 3 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 13 2.
Traffic adaptation and energy saving potential of centralized radio access networks with coordinated resource allocation and consolidation

In this paper, we investigate traffic adaptation and energy saving potential of centralized radio access networks (C-RAN) with coordinated resource allocation and consolidation (CoRAC). The proposed CoRAC scheme comprises dynamic base-band unit-remote radio unit (BBU-RRU) mapping and cooperative dynamic downlink/uplink (DL/UL) reconfiguration. Specifically, in our proposed scheme, the logical connections between BBUs and RRUs are adaptively adjusted according the the traffic condition and interference patterns. Cell clusters are correspondingly formed, on which the developed cooperative reconfiguration method is conducted. With this setup,, the DL/UL configurations are no longer determined with respect to an individual cell, but are chosen in form of the cluster-specific configuration patterns (CPs) with optimized performance metrics. Our proposed CoRAC scheme is custom designed for time-division duplex (TDD) systems aiming at (1) asymmetric traffic adaptation with load balancing; and (2) cross-subframe co-channel interference (CCI) management. In addition to (1) and (2), the CoRAC is beneficial from the perspective of network energy savings. This is because by shutting down under-utilized BBUs and selecting appropriate DL/UL configurations for traffic adaptation, the power consumption of both BBUs and RRUs (in terms of per-subframe radiated transmission power) can be reduced. System level evaluation results are provided, which show that by employing our proposed scheme, remarkable performance improvements can be obtained relative to the existing methods, in terms of the packet throughput, traffic adaptation and power consumption.
Fabrication and characterization of silk fibroin-derived curcumin nanoparticles for cancer therapy

Biologically derived nanoparticles (<100 nm) were fabricated for local and sustained therapeutic curcumin delivery to cancer cells. Silk fibroin (SF) and chitosan (CS) polymers were blended noncovalently to encapsulate curcumin in various proportions of SF and CS (75:25, 50:50, and 25:75 SF:CS) or pure SF at two concentrations (0.1% w/v and 10% w/v) using the devised capillary-microdot technique. Curcumin-polymer conjugates were frozen, lyophilized, crystallized, suspended in phosphate-buffered saline for characterization, and tested for efficacy against breast cancer cells. All nanoparticle formulations except 0.1% w/v 50:50 SFCS were less than 100 nm in size as determined with the transmission electron microscopy. The entrapment and release of curcumin over eight days was highest for SF-derived nanoparticles as compared to all SFCS blends. The uptake and efficacy of SF-coated curcumin was significantly higher (p < 0.001) than SFCS-coated curcumin in both low and high Her2/neu expressing breast cancer cells. Interestingly, the uptake of curcumin was highest for the high Her2/neu expressing breast cancer cells when delivered with a 10% w/v SF coating as compared to other formulations. In conclusion, SF-derived curcumin nanoparticles show higher efficacy against breast cancer cells and have the potential to treat in vivo breast tumors by local, sustained, and long-term therapeutic delivery as a biodegradable system.
A solution to Web-based remote sensing data access and analysis

In this paper, we discussed the techniques of accessing and analyzing remotely sensed data stored in Internet/intranet servers from client browsers. First, the existing approaches for Web-based image sharing are compared. Then, to overcome the limitations of present methods, we introduce a new architecture which integrates ION (IDL on Net) and ARCIMS in developing geographic data servers - processing the image data stored in database and/or in files. Some operations, such as online enhancement, classification and filtering, which cannot be implemented before, can now be easily achieved, although this is somewhat time-consuming in some cases. Finally, we set up our national Landsat-7 ETM Plus imagery database by integrating ION with ARCIMS, and desirable results were obtained.
Scarring effects of early career unemployment

This paper addresses whether there is a large and persistent relationship between unemployment in a worker’s early career and subsequent labour market attachment. A nearest-neighbour propensity score matching method is applied when tracking Norwegian individuals over a 13‑years period. Early career unemployment is associated with weaker labour market attachment. The risk of repeated unemployment decreases by time, while the risk of being out of labour force stays constant. Based on the Rosenbaum (2002) bounding approach the findings are unlikely to be caused solely by selection on unobservables, i.e. early career unemployment leave individuals with long‑term scars.
catena-Poly[diimidazolium [bis(μ-pyridine-2,5-dicarboxylato)bis[diaquapraseodymate(III)]]-bis(μ-pyridine-2,5-dicarboxylato)]

The title compound {(C3H5N2)2[Pr2(C7H3NO4)4(H2O)4]}n, has a chain structure featuring a dimeric unit consisting of two PrIII atoms within a dodecahedral environment. Each of the metal cations is coordinated by two N atoms and two O atoms from two pyridine-2,5-dicarboxylate ligands, two O atoms from another two pyridine-2,5-dicarboxylate ligands and two water O atoms. The PrIII ions are bridged by two ligands along the c axis, forming the dimeric unit, and these are connected by four ligands along the b axis, forming a chain. N—H⋯O and O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds are found in the structure.
Seeds of truth : J. Krishnamurti as religious teacher and educator

The thesis is a critical evaluation of the work of J. Krishnamurti (1895-1986). Part One assesses his religious teaching and educational thought. It contains biographical details, a literature survey and a discussion of Krishnamurti's ideas. Some weaknesses in Krishnamurti's work are identified, notably a tendency towards assertiveness in argument and an over-emphasis on individual psychology as an explanation for social phenomena. It is also argued that Krishnamurti's educational discourse owes much to the New Education Movement which flourished in the 1920s and that he made few contributions to educational theory as such. On the other hand many positive features of his work emerge; in particular an outstanding ability to communicate, a concern with spirituality which is not bound to institutionalized religions, and practical suggestions for evolving forms of education which might develop a high level of awareness among staff and students. Part Two focuses on two schools founded by Krishnamurti. The first, Valley School near Bangalore, South India is a school for six to eighteen year olds. Educational innovations and efforts to encourage a sense of inquiry among its pupils are described and there are reports of interviews with staff and pupils. The other school, Brookwood Park in England, is an educational centre which includes a school for teenagers and a study centre for adults who wish to go on retreat. An account of school life and interviews with staff and students convey Brockwood's atmosphere, difficulties and achievements. The concluding chapter summarizes the observations from the schools and discusses the most significant contributions that Krishnamurti made as religious thinker. Finally some avenues for future research are proposed.
Regulation of l-Lactate Utilization by the FadR-Type Regulator LldR of Corynebacterium glutamicum

ABSTRACT Corynebacterium glutamicum can grow on l-lactate as a sole carbon and energy source. The NCgl2816-lldD operon encoding a putative transporter (NCgl2816) and a quinone-dependent l-lactate dehydrogenase (LldD) is required for l-lactate utilization. DNA affinity chromatography revealed that the FadR-type regulator LldR (encoded by NCgl2814) binds to the upstream region of NCgl2816-lldD. Overexpression of lldR resulted in strongly reduced NCgl2816-lldD mRNA levels and strongly reduced LldD activity, and as a consequence, a severe growth defect was observed in cells grown on l-lactate as the sole carbon and energy source, but not in cells grown on glucose, ribose, or acetate. Deletion of lldR had no effect on growth on these carbon sources but resulted in high NCgl2816-lldD mRNA levels and high LldD activity in the presence and absence of l-lactate. Purified His-tagged LldR bound to a 54-bp fragment of the NCgl2816-lldD promoter, which overlaps with the transcriptional start site determined by random amplification of cDNA ends-PCR and contains a putative operator motif typical of FadR-type regulators, which is −1TNGTNNNACNA10. Mutational analysis revealed that this motif with hyphenated dyad symmetry is essential for binding of LldD to the NCgl2816-lldD promoter. l-Lactate, but not d-lactate, interfered with binding of LldRHis to the NCgl2816-lldD promoter. Thus, during growth on media lacking l-lactate, LldR represses expression of NCgl2816-lldD. In the presence of l-lactate in the growth medium or under conditions leading to intracellular l-lactate accumulation, the l-lactate utilization operon is induced.