Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Residential Stability, Neighborhood Racial Composition, and the Subjective Assessment of Neighborhood Problems Among Older Adults

This study investigates the effects of neighborhood racial composition and residential stability—as measured by the percentage of individuals who have lived in the same location for the past five years—on perceived neighborhood problems. Among a sample of older black and white adults, findings indicate that the patterns are contingent upon residents' race. For whites who reside in neighborhoods with a low percentage of black residents, greater residential stability is associated with fewer perceived neighborhood problems net of individual- and neighborhood-level disadvantage. For blacks, greater residential stability is associated with fewer neighborhood problems, but the percentage of black residents is associated with more neighborhood problems. In both cases, individual- and neighborhood-level socioeconomic disadvantages contribute to those patterns. These findings have implications for theories about the personal and social effects of residential stability and neighborhood racial composition, as well as race differences in the links between neighborhood context and the subjective assessment of neighborhood problems.
Incremental, team-oriented activity and plan recognition for software agents

Activity and plan recognition are well-developed research fields, where much work has been done. There has been, however, almost no effort in combining both to create intelligent software that can effectively support the decision-making process faced by human teams enacting a joint plan. In this paper, we present an architecture to integrate activity recognition and plan recognition using a team-oriented, incremental and distributed approach. In this way intelligent software assistants will be able to interact effectively in human-agent teams, and offer helpful and meaningful support to humans during plan enactment.
Scalable location guide overlay multicast in mobile ad hoc networks using tree partition scheme

Nodes mobility brings flinty challenges to multicast in Mobile ad hoc Networks (MANETs). To track nodes mobility, flooding messages are widely used for data delivery structure construction and maintenance in many multicast protocols. These periodic flooding messages significantly consume network resources, such as energy and bandwidth, and result in network collisions. To release data delivery structure maintenance onus, profited from GPS location service, a number of stateless location based multicast protocol were proposed, where a destination list is encapsulated into each data packet for data packet orientation. However, due to data packet capability limitation, the way of encapsulating a destination list in each data packet header restricts the protocol scalability. To solve the scalability issue of multicast protocols, we propose a Scalable Location Guide Overlay Multicast (SLGOM) for MANETs. Analysis and simulation results show that SLGOM achieves high performance in large multicast group and significantly improves the scalability of stateless multicast with respect to group size. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Host plant-driven sensory specialization in Drosophila erecta

Finding appropriate feeding and breeding sites is crucial for all insects. To fulfil this vital task, many insects rely on their sense of smell. Alterations in the habitat—or in lifestyle—should accordingly also be reflected in the olfactory system. Solid functional evidence for direct adaptations in the olfactory system is however scarce. We have, therefore, examined the sense of smell of Drosophila erecta, a close relative of Drosophila melanogaster and specialist on screw pine fruits (Pandanus spp.). In comparison with three sympatric sibling species, D. erecta shows specific alterations in its olfactory system towards detection and processing of a characteristic Pandanus volatile (3-methyl-2-butenyl acetate, 3M2BA). We show that D. erecta is more sensitive towards this substance, and that the increased sensitivity derives from a numerical increase of one olfactory sensory neuron (OSN) class. We also show that axons from these OSNs form a complex of enlarged glomeruli in the antennal lobe, the first olfactory brain centre, of D. erecta. Finally, we show that 3M2BA induces oviposition in D. erecta, but not in D. melanogaster. The presumed adaptations observed here follow to a remarkable degree those found in Drosophila sechellia, a specialist upon noni fruit, and suggest a general principle for how specialization affects the sense of smell.
An experimental approach towards big data for analyzing memory utilization on a hadoop cluster using HDFS and MapReduce

When the amount of data is very large and it cannot be handled by the conventional database management system, then it is called big data. Big data is creating new challenges for the data analyst. There can be three forms of data, structured form, unstructured form and semi structured form. Most of the part of bigdata is in unstructured form. Unstructured data is difficult to handle. The Apache Hadoop project provides better tools and techniques to handle this huge amount of data. A Hadoop distributed file system for storage and the MapReduce techniques for processing this data can be used. In this paper, we presented our experimental work done on big data using the Hadoop distributed file system and the MapReduce. We have analyzed the variable like amount of time spend by the maps and the reduce, different memory usages by the Mappers and the reducers. We have analyzed these variables for storage and processing of the data on a Hadoop cluster.
Hepatic Encephalopathy: An Update on the Pathophysiology and Therapeutic Options

Abstract Hepatic encephalopathy is a spectrum of reversible neuropsychiatric abnormalities, seen in patients with liver dysfunction and/or portosystemic shunting. One of the most debilitating complications of cirrhosis, encephalopathy affects 30–45% of cirrhotics. In addition to significantly affecting the lives of patients and their caregivers, it is also associated with increased morbidity and mortality as well as significant utilization of health care resources. In this paper, we provide an overview on the pathophysiology, diagnosis, management and newer therapies of hepatic encephalopathy.
SAPPHIRE: an extensible speech analysis and recognition tool based on Tcl/Tk

The SAPPHIRE system is a powerful, extensible, object oriented toolkit allowing researchers to rapidly build and configure customized speech analysis tools. Implemented in Tcl/Tk and C, the current version of SAPPHIRE provides a wide range of functionality, including the ability to configure and run the SUMMIT speech recognition system. We use SAPPHIRE widely in almost all aspects of our speech analysis and recognition research.
"Contagious Love": A Qualitative Study of the Couple Relationships of Ten AIDS Carriers

The qualitative study in this article portrays the couple relationship among AIDS carriers, based on Sternberg's triangular love theory (involving domains of intimacy, passion and commitment). The central study hypothesis is that certain components of the Sternberg model will be more significant than others among the AIDS carrier population. The study was conducted on ten AIDS carriers aged 21-37 who had experienced a couple relationship. Six men and four women participated; most of them were in a romantic couple relationship of homosexual orientation. The interviewees answered a questionnaire that included the three domains-- intimacy, passion and commitment--in the personal interview technique. The interview focused on interviewee's attitude towards his/her relationship with a partner, as he/she understood it. The findings of the study focus on relevant content that was gathered from the interviews and these portray a limited view of couple patterns in the world of AIDS carriers. The study reveals two major findings regarding the carrier's desires: On the one hand, the carrier describes a powerful need for a stable, permanent relationship--from the diagnosis of AIDS and throughout the subsequent years. On the other hand, the carrier also expresses powerful sexual desires that are not necessarily limited to a permanent partner. Thus passion is the dominant among the three domains. The intimacy domain is mainly affected by disclosure of the disease and the joint coping that follows. The findings are discussed in the context of the romantic internalized model theory and Sternberg's triangular love theory.
On the Use of Emulab Testbeds for Scientifically Rigorous Experiments

Internet is considered a Critical Infrastructure (CI) that is vital for both the economy and the society. Disruptions caused by natural disasters, malicious human actions and even hardware failure pose serious risks. Emulation testbeds are increasingly used to study the Internet in order to improve protection and response mechanisms. These are frequently considered more adequate than software simulators to realistically recreate the complex behavior of networks. In this paper we study how testbeds based on the Emulab software can be used to conduct scientifically rigorous experiments, specifically in terms of: a) experiment fidelity, b) repeatability, c) measurement accuracy, and d) interference. Our study, which is based on extensive experimentation on different testbeds, indicates that the current trend of using emulation testbeds is justified as both realistic and efficient. We show that Emulab-based experiments are representative of real systems in terms of emerging behavior (qualitative) and that repeatable experiments are possible. The main contribution of this tutorial article is that based on experimental results we identified caveats and provided insights to significant configuration parameters and limitations that are further elaborated into a set of guidelines that any Emulab user should be aware of. Then, he/she can decide about the importance of each guideline in the context of a specific study and experiment.
New Rodenticides: An Update on Recent Research Trials

Rodents cause substantial amounts of damage and losses of foodstuffs around the world. While various methods are used to reduce damage and losses to rodents, rodenticides re- main the most important tool in the toolbox. However, like all tools, rodenticides have ad- vantages and disadvantages. Several considerations are shaping the future of rodenticide use. These include manufacturing and registration costs, concern about toxicity levels and non-target animal hazards, potential hazards to children, reduced effectiveness of some formulations, and humaneness to the targeted rodents. While there have been very few new developments in ro- denticides in the last several decades, new formulations and active ingredients need to be investi- gated so that these concerns can be addressed. We are conducting studies on some new materials: sodium nitrite, lower concentrations of zinc phosphide, and two-active ingredient formulations (cholecalciferol plus diphacinone). Preliminary results are promising with a number of rodent species. Some materials (sodium nitrite and zinc phosphide) have been encapsulated to avoid low palatability and bait shyness issues. Preliminary cage study results are presented as well as pro- posed future studies.
Mediated Public Diplomacy: A Strategic Contest over International Agenda Building and Frame Building

This study focuses on the competition over international agenda building and frame building as one central strategic activity of public diplomacy processes. It is the first analysis of a multi-actor contest over agenda and frame building in foreign media focusing on two strategic acts with evident mediated public diplomacy objectives and implications: Israel's disengagement from Gaza and the general elections in the Palestinian Authority. The success of the actors in promoting their agenda and frames in the U.S. and British news media is analyzed, revealing a complex media arena that includes the antagonists, foreign governments, and the media themselves as actors, each trying to promote its own agenda and frames. Cultural and political congruence between a foreign country and an adversary gives that antagonist an advantage over its rival actor. However, the antagonist actor still has to compete with the agenda and frames of foreign governments and media organizations.
Reservoir characterization in an underground gas storage field using joint inversion of flow and geodetic data

Characterization of reservoir properties like porosity and permeability in reservoir models typically relies on history matching of production data, well pressure data, and possibly other fluid‐dynamical data. Calibrated (history‐matched) reservoir models are then used for forecasting production and designing effective strategies for improved oil and gas recovery. Here, we perform assimilation of both flow and deformation data for joint inversion of reservoir properties. Given the coupled nature of subsurface flow and deformation processes, joint inversion requires efficient simulation tools of coupled reservoir flow and mechanical deformation. We apply our coupled simulation tool to a real underground gas storage field in Italy. We simulate the initial gas production period and several decades of seasonal natural gas storage and production. We perform a probabilistic estimation of rock properties by joint inversion of ground deformation data from geodetic measurements and fluid flow data from wells. Using an efficient implementation of the ensemble smoother as the estimator and our coupled multiphase flow and geomechanics simulator as the forward model, we show that incorporating deformation data leads to a significant reduction of uncertainty in the prior distributions of rock properties such as porosity, permeability, and pore compressibility. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Cellular Requirements for Systemic Control of Salmonella enterica Serovar Typhimurium Infections in Mice

ABSTRACT The rational design of vaccines requires an understanding of the contributions of individual immune cell subsets to immunity. With this understanding, targeted vaccine delivery approaches and adjuvants can be developed to maximize vaccine efficiency and to minimize side effects (S. H. E. Kaufmann et al., Immunity 33:555–577, 2010; T. Ben-Yedidia and R. Arnon, Hum. Vaccines 1:95–101, 2005). We have addressed the contributions of different immune cell subsets and their ability to contribute to the control and clearance of the facultative intracellular pathogen Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium (S. Typhimurium) in a murine model. Using a systematic and reproducible model of experimental attenuated S. Typhimurium infection, we show that distinct lymphocyte deficiencies lead to one of four different infection outcomes: clearance, chronic infection, early death, or late death. Our study demonstrates a high level of functional redundancy in the ability of different lymphocyte subsets to provide interferon gamma (IFN-γ), a critical cytokine in Salmonella immunity. Whereas early control of the infection was entirely dependent on IFN-γ but not on any particular lymphocyte subset, clearance of the infection critically required CD4+ T cells but appeared to be independent of IFN-γ. These data reinforce the idea of a bimodal immune response against Salmonella: an early T cell-independent but IFN-γ-dependent phase and a late T cell-dependent phase that may be IFN-γ independent.
Heavy use of equations impedes communication among biologists

Most research in biology is empirical, yet empirical studies rely fundamentally on theoretical work for generating testable predictions and interpreting observations. Despite this interdependence, many empirical studies build largely on other empirical studies with little direct reference to relevant theory, suggesting a failure of communication that may hinder scientific progress. To investigate the extent of this problem, we analyzed how the use of mathematical equations affects the scientific impact of studies in ecology and evolution. The density of equations in an article has a significant negative impact on citation rates, with papers receiving 28% fewer citations overall for each additional equation per page in the main text. Long, equation-dense papers tend to be more frequently cited by other theoretical papers, but this increase is outweighed by a sharp drop in citations from nontheoretical papers (35% fewer citations for each additional equation per page in the main text). In contrast, equations presented in an accompanying appendix do not lessen a paper’s impact. Our analysis suggests possible strategies for enhancing the presentation of mathematical models to facilitate progress in disciplines that rely on the tight integration of theoretical and empirical work.
The galectin lattice at a glance

ABSTRACT Galectins are a family of widely expressed β-galactoside-binding lectins in metazoans. The 15 mammalian galectins have either one or two conserved carbohydrate recognition domains (CRDs), with galectin-3 being able to pentamerize; they form complexes that crosslink glycosylated ligands to form a dynamic lattice. The galectin lattice regulates the diffusion, compartmentalization and endocytosis of plasma membrane glycoproteins and glycolipids. The galectin lattice also regulates the selection, activation and arrest of T cells, receptor kinase signaling and the functionality of membrane receptors, including the glucagon receptor, glucose and amino acid transporters, cadherins and integrins. The affinity of transmembrane glycoproteins to the galectin lattice is proportional to the number and branching of their N-glycans; with branching being mediated by Golgi N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase-branching enzymes and the supply of UDP-GlcNAc through metabolite flux through the hexosamine biosynthesis pathway. The relative affinities of glycoproteins for the galectin lattice depend on the activities of the Golgi enzymes that generate the epitopes of their ligands and, thus, provide a means to analyze biological function of lectins and of the ‘glycome’ more broadly. Summary: Galectin crosslinking of plasma membrane glycans regulates diffusion, compartmentalization and endocytosis of glycoproteins and glycolipids impacting immunity, cancer and metabolism.
Non-linear book manifolds: learning from associations the dynamic geometry of digital libraries

Mainstream approaches in the design of virtual libraries basically exploit the same ambient space as their physical twins. Our paper is an attempt to rather capture automatically the actual space on which the books live, and learn the virtual library as a non-linear book manifold. This tackles tantalizing questions, chief among which whether modeling should be static and book focused (e.g.using bag of words encoding) or dynamic and user focused (e.g. relying on what we define as a bag of readers encoding). Experiments on a real-world digital library display that the latter encoding is a serious challenger to the former. Our results also show that the geometric layers of the manifold learned bring sizeable advantages for retrieval and visualization purposes. For example, the topological layer of the manifold allows to craft Manifold association rules; experiments display that they bring dramatic improvements over conventional association rules built from the discrete topology of book sets.Improvements embrace each of the following major standpoints on association rule mining: computational, support, confidence, lift, and leverage standpoint.
Support Seeking in Personal Relationships

This paper introduces a new model of interactive support seeking and describes a study derived from it. Task vs relationship type of problem and gender of support seeker were examined for their effect on the selection of same-sex vs opposite-sex friends to provide social support. Male and female undergraduates were asked to vividly imagine each of two task and two relationship problems and to indicate for each problem the friend to whom they would prefer to talk. Participants were also asked to anticipate the specific interactive coping behaviors that their same-and opposite-sex friends would offer in response to each problem. We found that both males and females preferred to talk to their same-sex friends rather than their opposite-sex friends about both relationship and task problems. Yet males indicated that they would rather talk about task than relationship issues with their male friends and expected the male friends to use more dismiss behaviors in response to a relationship problem. Females expected their female friends to use more solve and support behaviors in response to relationship than task problems, and for their male friends to use more dismiss and escape behaviors in response to problems. Directions for future research on interactive support seeking are suggested.
Is it worth it? An examination of how teaching assistants experience and perceive their Foundation degree study

This paper explores the experiences of teaching assistants studying for a Foundation degree programme and the perceived impacts such a programme has on their job role and self‐esteem. A review of the related literature gave rise to three research questions that were addressed via focus groups with teaching assistants employed across four different local authorities in the Midlands. Key findings were that whilst many teaching assistants are given additional responsibilities in their workplace, these are rarely acknowledged through financial recompense or enhanced status. Consequently, teaching assistants feel significantly discouraged about the lack of recognition their Foundation degree study brings them. Further, despite Foundation degrees being promoted as having employer relevance and having been formulated with employer engagement, many teaching assistants felt unsupported by their employer. One implication of the findings is that although some benefits to the individual and their workplace are evident, their experiences of Foundation degrees are contributing towards the creation of divisions within and frustration levels among teaching assistants. To address this, the study recommends that the medium to long term impacts on teaching assistants and the form and function of the Foundation degree provision need to be examined and evaluated.
A High-Content Imaging Screen for Cellular Regulators of β-Catenin Protein Abundance

Abnormal accumulation of β-catenin protein, a key transcriptional activator required for Wnt signaling, is the hallmark of many tumor types, including colon cancer. In normal cells, β-catenin protein level is tightly controlled by a multiprotein complex through the proteosome pathway. Mutations in the components of the β-catenin degradation complex, such as adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) and Axin, lead to β-catenin stabilization and the constitutive activation of target genes. Since the signal transduction of Wnt/β-catenin is mainly mediated by protein–protein interactions, this pathway has been particularly refractory to conventional target-based small-molecule screening. Here we designed a cellular high-content imaging assay to detect β-catenin protein through immunofluorescent staining in the SW480 colon cancer cell line, which has elevated β-catenin endogenously. We demonstrate that the assay is robust and specific to screen a focused biologically diverse chemical library set against known targets that play diverse cellular functions. We identified a number of hits that reduce β-catenin levels without causing cell death. These hits may serve as tools to understand the dynamics of β-catenin degradation. This study demonstrates that detecting cell-based β-catenin protein stability is a viable approach to identifying novel mechanisms of β-catenin regulation as well as small molecules of therapeutic potential.