Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The pursuit of urban happiness

Cities are attracting considerable research interest. The agenda behind smart cities is popular among computer scientists and engineers: new monitoring technologies promise to allocate urban resources (e.g., electricity, clean water, car traffic) more efficiently and, as such, make our cities 'smarter'. This talk offers a rare counterpoint to that dominant efficiency-driven narrative. It is about recent research on the relationship between happiness and cities [1]: which urban elements make people happy? To help answer that question, I built a web game with collaborators at the University of Cambridge in which users are shown ten pairs of urban scenes of London and, for each pair, a user needs to choose which one they consider to be most beautiful, quiet, and happy. Based on user votes, we are able to rank all urban scenes according to these three attributes. We recently analyzed the scenes with ratings using image processing tools [2]. We discovered that the amount of greenery in any given scene is associated with all the three attributes and that cars and fortress-like buildings are associated with sadness (we equated sadness to our measurement for the low end of our 'spectrum' of happiness). In contrast, public gardens and Victorian and red brick houses are associated with happiness. Our results (including those about distinctive and memorable areas [3]) all point in the same direction: urban elements that hinder social interactions are undesirable, while elements that increase interactions are the ones that should be integrated by urban planners to retrofit our cities for happiness. Now, as a computer scientist, you might wonder: can these findings be used to build better online tools? The answer is a definite 'Yes'! Existing mapping technologies, for example, return shortest directions. To complement them, we are designing new tools that return directions that are not only short but also tend to make urban walkers happy [4]. Another application comes from the mobile world. In mobile settings, geo-referenced content becomes increasingly important, and content about a neighborhood inherently depends on the way the neighborhood is perceived by people: whether it is, for instance, distinctive and beautiful or not. We are designing an application that identifies memorable city pictures by predicting which neighborhoods tend to be beautiful and which tend to make people happy [5].
Business environment analysis: Testing a context-specific approach in Ethiopia

A number of prominent business environment rankings have achieved outstanding results from their efforts to promote legal and regulatory reform around the world. Such tools help to raise awareness of general constraints, but lack the specificity and rigor to produce context-specific information to guide policy and programs supporting business and economic growth, especially in contexts with high levels of economic informality. We review four commonly referenced business environment rankings and identify their respective strengths and weaknesses. To address the identified shortcomings, we present a business environment assessment methodology that (1) provides investors and policy makers with a means of collecting rigorous evidence on local business constraints and (2) is representative of a particular population. The paper closes with a description of our experience applying the methodology to assess the business environment of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Overreaction, seasonality and relationship among Middle East and North Africa national stock markets

OVERREACTION, SEASONALITY AND RELATIONSHIP AMONG MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA NATIONAL STOCK MARKETS Yaser A. Al-Kulaib Old Dominion University, 2005 Director: Dr. Mohammad Najand This dissertation examines overreaction, seasonality, and relationship among Middle East and North Africa (MENA) stock markets. The dissertation is organized in five chapters. The first chapter is introduction to the dissertation and its importance. The second chapter will discuss the MENA capital market developments in the last few years, examine the human and economic development for countries in MENA, and try to find similarities and differences between them. Then the discussion will shift to an overview of the GCC, Levant, and NA regions. Finally, there will be a discussion about economic reform and development in MENA capital markets. Then, the third chapter investigates the evidence of winner-loser reversals in the national stock market indices of 12 countries from March 1994 to March 2004. The results indicate the consistent with the prediction of the overreaction hypothesis that national indices reversals occur after the formation period similar to the findings of Richards (1995). The reversals phenomenon occurs during the third year of the testing period. This is consistent with other studies and findings that support the overreaction. The fourth chapter examines the monthly seasonality in 12 MENA national stock markets. The results are mix, we find that Bahrain and Egypt have January effect; however, Bahrain has a negative significant return in January rather positive. In addition, our results show significant Sell-in-May strategy in Morocco and Turkey. However, the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. results show some markets contradict both January and the Sell-in-May effects. Bahrain and UAE stock markets have a significant positive return in the summer and a negative return in winter. Finally, chapter five investigates the existence of linkage among 12 MENA equity indices and regions. Using State Space procedure, the findings indicate that no causality or spillover from one country to another in North Africa region. The results for Levant region reveal that there are linkages between Turkish and Lebanese stock markets while either does not influence Jordan’s market. However, GCC region show more interaction and linkage than North Africa and Levant regions. Furthermore, we find that GCC region influences North Africa and Levant region. We contribute the dominance of GCC region to its sheer size relative to the other two regions. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. © Copyright, 2005 Yaser A. Al-Kulaib. All Rights Reserved. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Role of ROS and RNS Sources in Physiological and Pathological Conditions

There is significant evidence that, in living systems, free radicals and other reactive oxygen and nitrogen species play a double role, because they can cause oxidative damage and tissue dysfunction and serve as molecular signals activating stress responses that are beneficial to the organism. Mitochondria have been thought to both play a major role in tissue oxidative damage and dysfunction and provide protection against excessive tissue dysfunction through several mechanisms, including stimulation of opening of permeability transition pores. Until recently, the functional significance of ROS sources different from mitochondria has received lesser attention. However, the most recent data, besides confirming the mitochondrial role in tissue oxidative stress and protection, show interplay between mitochondria and other ROS cellular sources, so that activation of one can lead to activation of other sources. Thus, it is currently accepted that in various conditions all cellular sources of ROS provide significant contribution to processes that oxidatively damage tissues and assure their survival, through mechanisms such as autophagy and apoptosis.
Improving Verb Phrase Extraction by Targeting Phrasal Verbs based on Valency Frames

In the Gender and Work project (GaW), historians are building a database with information on what men and women did for a living in the Early Modern Swedish society, i.e. approximately 1550–1800 [1]. This information is currently extracted by researchers manually going through large volumes of court records and church documents, searching for relevant text passages describing working activities. In this process, it has been noticed that working activities often are described in the form of verb phrases, such as hugga ved (”chop wood”), sälja fisk (”sell fish”) or tjäna som piga (”serve as a maid”). In previous work I have, in cooperation with the historians, developed a method for automatically extracting verb phrases from historical documents, by use of spelling normalisation, tagging and parsing [4]. With this approach, most of the verbs in historical Swedish texts are correctly extracted. Due to differences in word order and significantly longer sentences than in present-day Swedish texts, it is however still hard for the parser to correctly identify the precise complements associated with a verb in a sentence. The aim of my proposed project is to improve the verb phrase extraction results by providing verb valency information in the extraction step, with a special focus on phrasal verbs. In this project, I refer to phrasal verbs in its broader sense, including particle phrasal verbs such as äga rum (”take place”), prepositional phrasal verbs such as handla med (”trade with”), and the combination of these two as in betala igen till (”pay back to”).
Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinase and Calcium-Activated Transcription Pathways Are Required for VLDL-Induced Smooth Muscle Cell Proliferation

Abstract— Little is known regarding the molecular mechanisms of atherogenicity of triglyceride-rich lipoproteins such as very low-density lipoproteins (VLDLs). We examined the effect of VLDL on proliferation of rat aortic smooth muscle cells, intracellular Ca2+ handling, and activity of cAMP-responsive element binding protein (CREB) and nuclear factor of activated T cells (NFAT) transcription factors. VLDL, isolated from human serum, dose- and time-dependently promoted proliferation. After 4 hours of exposure to VLDL (0.15 g/L proteins), the caffeine-induced Ca2+ release was inhibited and the IP3-sensitive Ca2+ release induced by ATP (10 &mgr;mol/L) was markedly prolonged. In quiescent cells, CREB was phosphorylated (pCREB) and NFAT was present in the cytosol, whereas in cells exposed to VLDL for 4 to 24 hours, pCREB disappeared and NFAT was translocated to the nucleus. VLDL-induced NFAT translocation and proliferation were blocked by cyclosporin A and LY294002 involving calcineurin and phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) pathways. Indeed, VLDLs rapidly phosphorylate protein kinase B and glycogen synthase kinase-3&bgr; in a PI3K-dependent way. These results provide the first evidence that VLDLs induce smooth muscle cell proliferation by activating the PI3K pathway and nuclear NFAT translocation. Blockade of the Ca2+-induced Ca2+ release mechanism and dephosphorylation of pCREB contribute but were not sufficient to induce a proliferating phenotype.
BAC Libraries from Wheat Chromosome 7D: Efficient Tool for Positional Cloning of Aphid Resistance Genes

Positional cloning in bread wheat is a tedious task due to its huge genome size and hexaploid character. BAC libraries represent an essential tool for positional cloning. However, wheat BAC libraries comprise more than million clones, which makes their screening very laborious. Here, we present a targeted approach based on chromosome-specific BAC libraries. Such libraries were constructed from flow-sorted arms of wheat chromosome 7D. A library from the short arm (7DS) consisting of 49,152 clones with 113 kb insert size represented 12.1 arm equivalents whereas a library from the long arm (7DL) comprised 50,304 clones of 116 kb providing 14.9x arm coverage. The 7DS library was PCR screened with markers linked to Russian wheat aphid resistance gene DnCI2401, the 7DL library was screened by hybridization with a probe linked to greenbug resistance gene Gb3. The small number of clones combined with high coverage made the screening highly efficient and cost effective.
Assessing quality score of Wikipedia article using mutual evaluation of editors and texts

In this paper, we propose a method for assessing quality scores of Wikipedia articles by mutually evaluating editors and texts. Survival ratio based approach is a major approach to assessing article quality. In this approach, when a text survives beyond multiple edits, the text is assessed as good quality, because poor quality texts have a high probability of being deleted by editors. However, many vandals, low quality editors, delete good quality texts frequently, which improperly decreases the survival ratios of good quality texts. As a result, many good quality texts are unfairly assessed as poor quality. In our method, we consider editor quality score for calculating text quality score, and decrease the impact on text quality by vandals. Using this improvement, the accuracy of the text quality score should be improved. However, an inherent problem with this idea is that the editor quality scores are calculated by the text quality scores. To solve this problem, we mutually calculate the editor and text quality scores until they converge. In this paper, we prove that the text quality score converges. We did our experimental evaluation, and confirmed that our proposed method could accurately assess the text quality scores.
The wealth effects of investing in information technology: The case of Sarbanes‐Oxley section 404 compliance

Purpose - Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX 404) requires auditors to attest to, and report on, management's assessment and effectiveness of the company's internal control systems. This paper aims to examine investor reaction to companies' announcements of new information technology (IT) or improved existing IT to satisfy requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Design/methodology/approach - Using a sample of 124 SOX-related IT announcements from 2003 to 2007, an event study measuring market reactions using average cumulative abnormal return is undertaken. Additionally, the cross-sectional variation in the marketplace is analyzed to test the effect of firm-specific factors on market responses. Findings - The empirical results suggest that the stock market reacts favorably to corporations that invest in SOX 404-related IT. The reaction is more favorable toward companies without prior reported internal control deficiencies/weaknesses. Additionally, the results marginally support the notion that firms with higher risk and poorer financial reporting quality can demonstrate their commitment to improve internal control over financial reporting by investing in IT for SOX 404 compliance. Originality/value - The findings will influence companies' IT investment decisions, particularly IT decisions that are SOX Section 404-related. Potential benefits of SOX 404 IT investments include favorable market returns. Additionally, the study contributes to a deeper understanding of SOX for standard-setting and regulation bodies examining past rulings and preparing for future regulation.
Imperatoxin A Induces Subconductance States in Ca2+ Release Channels (Ryanodine Receptors) of Cardiac and Skeletal Muscle

Single-channel and [3H]ryanodine binding experiments were carried out to examine the effects of imperatoxin activator (IpTxa), a 33 amino acid peptide isolated from the venom of the African scorpion Pandinus imperator, on rabbit skeletal and canine cardiac muscle Ca2+ release channels (CRCs). Single channel currents from purified CRCs incorporated into planar lipid bilayers were recorded in 250 mM KCl media. Addition of IpTxa in nanomolar concentration to the cytosolic (cis) side, but not to the lumenal (trans) side, induced substates in both ryanodine receptor isoforms. The substates displayed a slightly rectifying current–voltage relationship. The chord conductance at −40 mV was ∼43% of the full conductance, whereas it was ∼28% at a holding potential of +40 mV. The substate formation by IpTxa was voltage and concentration dependent. Analysis of voltage and concentration dependence and kinetics of substate formation suggested that IpTxa reversibly binds to the CRC at a single site in the voltage drop across the channel. The rate constant for IpTxa binding to the skeletal muscle CRC increased e-fold per +53 mV and the rate constant of dissociation decreased e-fold per +25 mV applied holding potential. The effective valence of the reaction leading to the substate was ∼1.5. The IpTxa binding site was calculated to be located at ∼23% of the voltage drop from the cytosolic side. IpTxa induced substates in the ryanodine-modified skeletal CRC and increased or reduced [3H]ryanodine binding to sarcoplasmic reticulum vesicles depending on the level of channel activation. These results suggest that IpTxa induces subconductance states in skeletal and cardiac muscle Ca2+ release channels by binding to a single, cytosolically accessible site different from the ryanodine binding site.
Physical level implementation of a web data model

The physical level implementation of web data model specifies the overall configuration of the conceptual model and its necessary mapping to existing logical model for delivering the functional and non-functional requirements of any web based information system. In our previous work [1, 2], we have proposed a graph semantic based data model, Extended Graph Data Model (EGDM) that conceptualizes the business environment components with high degree of understandability. But the design of such complex system not only demands a strong conceptual model, also a proper framework is required to offer a "doable solution". In this regard suitable model-based engineering tools and related customization is essential for traceability of the specified requirements. In this paper, software technology based specification and the concerned configuration process has been discussed for our proposed data model EGDM. The necessary mapping rules and an interpreter based on those rules have been developed to convert EGDM into Product Specific Model (PSM) using SQL: 2003 standard.
Chloroplast DNA Variations in Wild Brassicas and Their Implication in Breeding and Population Genetics Studies

Evaluation of chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) diversity in wild relatives of crop brassicas is important for characterization of cytoplasm and also for population genetics/phylogeographic analyses. The former is useful for breeding programs involving wide hybridization and synthesis of alloplasmic lines, while the latter is important for formulating conservation strategies. Therefore, PCR-RFLP (Polymerase Chain Reaction-Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism) technique was applied to study cpDNA diversity in 14 wild brassicas (including 31 accessions) which revealed a total of 219 polymorphic fragments. The combination of polymorphisms obtained by using only two primer pair-restriction enzyme combinations was sufficient to distinguish all 14 wild brassicas. Moreover, 11 primer pairs-restriction enzyme combinations revealed intraspecific polymorphisms in eight wild brassicas (including endemic and endangered species, B. cretica and B. insularis, resp.). Thus, even within a small number of accessions that were screened, intraspecific polymorphisms were observed, which is important for population genetics analyses in wild brassicas and consequently for conservation studies.
Provenance Management in Databases Under Schema Evolution

Since changes caused by database updates combine with the internal changes caused by database schema evolution, an integrated provenance management for data and metadata represents a key requirement for modern information systems. In this paper, we introduce the Archived Metadata and Provenance Manager (AM&PM) system which addresses this requirement by (i) extending the Information Schema with the capability of representing the provenance of the schema and other metadata, (ii) providing a simple time-stamp based representation of the provenance of the actual data, and (iii) supporting powerful queries on the provenance of the data and the history of the metadata.
Output, Capital, and Labor in the Short and Long Run*

Using a new series of capital stock and frequency domain analysis, this paper provides new empirical evidence on the relative importance of capital and labor in the determination of output in the short and long-run. Contrary to the common practice in the traditional growth accounting literature of assigning weights of 0.3 and 0.7 to capital and labor inputs respectively, the evidence presented here suggests that capital is a far more important factor than labor for determination of output at and near the zero frequency band. Furthermore, I show that the zero-frequency labor elasticity of output may well be close to zero, or even zero. Additional findings reported here support the traditional accelerator model of investment as a good description of the long-run investment process.
Multiple Regulatory Mechanisms Act on the 5′ Untranslated Region of the S-Layer Gene from Thermus thermophilus HB8

ABSTRACT The role of the 5′ untranslated region (5′UTR) of the S-layer gene from Thermus thermophilus was analyzed through the isolation of Δ5′UTR mutants. In these mutants the half-life ofsplA mRNA was strongly reduced and slpAtranscription was no longer subjected to growth phase-dependent repression. Overproduction and detachment of the external envelopes of the mutants were observed in stationary phase.
Optimization of Telephone Handset Distortion in Speaker Recognition by Discriminative Feature Design

This technique used mel-cepstral features, log spectrum and prosody based features with a non- linear artificial neural network in designing speaker recognition features that minimize telephone handset distortion. Effect of handset distortion was done to maximize speaker recognition performance specifically in the setting of telephone handset mismatch between training and testing as results on the 1998 NIST Speaker Recognition Evaluation corpus shows a high efficiency of 98% performance.
OVFDT with functional tree leaf — Majority class, naive Bayes and adaptive hybrid integrations

Very Fast Decision Tree (VFDT) is an exemplar of classification techniques in data stream mining where models are built by incremental learning from continuously arriving data instead of batches. Many variations and modifications were made upon VFDT since it was first introduced in year 2000. Novel contributions were mainly made in two aspects of VFDT, tree induction process and prediction process, for the sake of improving its prediction accuracy. The basic concept of inducing a VFDT is to use fresh instances from data stream for recursively replacing leaves with decision nodes. This standard version of VFDT therefore simply predicts or classifies new instance by the distribution counts of the past samples at the leaves. Gama et al, extended VFDT to VFDTNB, by installing a naive Bayes classifier at each leaf in the prediction process, so that prior probabilities as referenced from attribute-values at the leaves can be used to refine the prediction accuracy. They called this technique in general, Functional Tree Leaf. Recently a new version of VFDT called Optimized-VFDT or OVFDT has been proposed by the authors that achieve relatively good prediction accuracy and compact tree sizes by controlling the node-splitting and pruning in the tree induction process. Naturally these two types of enhanced algorithms, OVFDT and Functional Tree Leaf, which are both based on incremental learning, can be integrated together in each respective process, like two sides of a hand, for further performance improvement. Our paper reports about this integration and the experimental results.