Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cultural governance and the European Union : protecting and promoting cultural diversity in Europe

Introduction: Evangelia Psychogiopoulou PART I: THE EU CULTURAL POLICY 1. The Cultural Logic Of Economic Integration Rachael Craufurd Smith 2. Encapsulating EU Cultural Policy Into The EU's Growth And Competiveness Agenda: Explaining The Success Of A Paradigmatic Shift In Brussels Annabelle Littoz-Monnet 3. The Cultural Open Method Of Coordination Evangelia Psychogiopoulou 4. The Creative Europe Programme: Policy-Making Dynamics And Outcomes Anna Kandyla PART II: EU INTERNAL POLICIES AND CULTURE 5. The Protection Of National Treasures In The EU Single Market Tania Kyriakou 6. Cultural Diversity In The Digital Age: EU Competences, Policies And Regulations For Diverse Audiovisual And Online Content Kristina Irion And Peggy Valcke 7. Cultural Diversity And The EU Copyright Policy And Regulation Giuseppe Mazziotti 8. Digital Rights Management And Rights Licensing In The Online Music Sector: A Case For Cultural Diversity? Katharine Sarikakis 9. Cultural Diversity And State Aids To The Cultural Sector Delia Ferri 10. Cultural Diversity And State Aids To Public Service Media Karen Donders And Tim Raats PART III: FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS AND CULTURE 11. The EU Charter Of Fundamental Rights And Cultural Diversity In The EU John Morijn 12. The Right To Access Culture Under EU Law Celine Romainville 13. The EU's Relationship With Minority Rights Tawhida Ahmed PART IV: EU EXTERNAL POLICIES AND CULTURE 14. The European Union, The World Trade Organization And Cultural Diversity Mira Burri 15. The Implementation Of The UNESCO Convention On The Protection And Promotion Of The Diversity Of Cultural Expressions In EU External Relations Jan Loisen 16. EU Cultural Cooperation With Third Countries: The Cases Of Latin America And The Mediterranean Carmina Crusafon Conclusion: Culture And The European Union Evangelia Psychogiopoulou
Biomarkers in Exploring the Frontiers of Diagnosis, Prognosis, and Therapy of Barrett's Esophagus

Barrett's esophagus (BE) is the principal risk factor for esophageal adenocarcinoma. BE patients currently undergo periodic endoscopic surveillance with tissue sampling and histopathologic assessment for dysplasia. They frequently are prescribed proton pump inhibitors to pharmacologically suppress gastric acid that is the cause of BE. These standard endoscopic and pharmacologic approaches for managing BE are crude at best. Identification of novel tissue biomarkers within BE may allow for more accurate endoscopic risk stratification and provide potential targets for chemoprevention. Cancer Prev Res; 4(6); 783–6. ©2011 AACR.
The 85‐kd surface antigen gene of Trypanosoma cruzi is telomeric and a member of a multigene family.

In previous studies we identified a 500 bp DNA fragment from the genome of Trypanosoma cruzi which encoded epitopes present in an 85 kd trypomastigote‐specific surface antigen. A unique feature of this DNA insert was the presence of a 27 bp tandem repeat unit within the putative coding region. The findings presented here show that the gene which encodes this particular surface protein is a member of a multigene family, and that the 27 bp repeat unit defines a subset of this family. Only four separate members of the family contain sequences homologous to the 27 bp repeat unit. Of these, three have been cloned and shown by direct nucleotide sequence analysis not to contain the original 500 bp fragment. By restriction enzyme analysis, the 500 bp fragment is inferred to be present in a 5.4 kb EcoRI genomic DNA fragment that is refractory to isolation by standard cloning procedures. Preferential sensitivity of this fragment to digestion with Bal31 nuclease indicates that it is likely to be telomeric, thus explaining the inability to obtain it in several different recombinant DNA libraries. In order to determine which of the four members were transcribed, 26 cDNA recombinants having sequence homology with the 27 bp repeat were examined. Restriction enzyme maps and nucleotide sequence analysis of these cDNAs indicate that transcription occurs almost exclusively from the telomeric member of the family.
Value diversity and conservation conflict: Lessons from the management of red grouse and hen harriers in England

1. Conflicts between people over wildlife management are damaging, widespread, and notoriously difficult to resolve where people hold different values and worldviews. Cognitive approaches examining steps from human thought to action can help us understand conflict and explore strategies for their management. 2. We focused on the conflict between hunters and conservationists over the management of red grouse (Lagopus lagopus scoticus) and hen harriers (Circus cyaneus) in the English uplands which represents a classic, persistent conflict, where human dimensions are poorly understood. 3. Guided by conceptual frameworks from social and environmental psychology, we conducted a questionnaire‐based study to assess wildlife value orientations of key stakeholders. We quantified attitudes towards hen harriers, grouse shooting, gamekeepers, and raptor conservationists. We also measured support/opposition for harrier management strategies in England and investigated trust in the responsible government authority. 4. We present data from 536 respondents from field sport or nature conservation organizations. Respondents were categorized according to the primary objectives of their affiliated organization: Field sport (i.e., hunters), Non‐raptor, Pro‐raptor, and Pro‐bird (i.e., organizations promoting conservation of birds excluding raptors, raptors specifically, or birds generally). 5. Utilitarian value orientations were prominent among Field sport and Non‐raptor respondents. Most Pro‐raptor and Pro‐bird participants held mutualist value orientations, indicating they did not support shooting or management of wildlife. 6. As suggested by the cognitive hierarchy, we found strong correlations between attitude and support for management options, our proxy for behaviour. 7. Pro‐bird affiliates showed clear preference for less invasive management, and along with Pro‐raptor respondents did not support brood management (removal and later release of eggs/young when harrier density is high). Field sport individuals expressed a degree of support for all management types. Trust in Natural England was limited. 8. Understanding value orientations and attitudes of stakeholders helps explain differences in levels of support for management approaches. Our study highlighted strongly divergent beliefs. Such positions are hard to change. Increasing the level of ecological knowledge alone is unlikely to facilitate conflict management. Instead, conflict management would benefit from combining such knowledge with a focus on relationships, deliberation, and trust in addition to exploring comanagement interventions.
Time to retire: Why Americans claim benefits early & how to encourage delay

Because they are retiring earlier, living longer, and not saving enough for retirement, many Americans would benefit financially if they delayed claiming Social Security retirement benefits. However, almost half of Americans claim benefits as soon as possible. Responding to the Simpson– Bowles Commission's 2010 recommendation that behavioral economics approaches be used to encourage delayed claiming, we analyzed this decision using query theory, which describes how the order in which people consider their options influences their choices. After confirming that people consider early claiming before and more often than they consider later claiming, we designed interventions intended to encourage later claiming. Changing how information was presented did not produce significant shifts, but asking people to focus on the future first significantly delayed preferred claiming ages. Policymakers can apply these insights.
Amount, type, and sources of carbohydrates in relation to ischemic heart disease mortality in a Chinese population: a prospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND The relation between carbohydrate intake and risk of ischemic heart disease (IHD) has not been fully explored in Asian populations known to have high-carbohydrate diets. OBJECTIVE We assessed whether intakes of total carbohydrates, different types of carbohydrates, and their food sources were associated with IHD mortality in a Chinese population. DESIGN We prospectively examined the association of carbohydrate intake and IHD mortality in 53,469 participants in the Singapore Chinese Health Study with an average follow-up of 15 y. Diet was assessed by using a semiquantitative food-frequency questionnaire. HRs and 95% CIs were calculated by using a Cox proportional hazards analysis. RESULTS We documented 1660 IHD deaths during 804,433 person-years of follow-up. Total carbohydrate intake was not associated with IHD mortality risk [men: HR per 5% of energy, 0.97 (95% CI: 0.92, 1.03); women: 1.06 (95% CI: 0.99, 1.14)]. When types of carbohydrates were analyzed individually, starch intake was associated with higher risk [men: 1.03 (95% CI: 0.99, 1.08); women: 1.08, (95% CI: 1.02, 1.14)] and fiber intake with lower risk of IHD mortality [men: 0.94 (95% CI: 0.82, 1.08); women: 0.71 (95% CI: 0.60, 0.84)], with stronger associations in women than men (both P-interaction < 0.01). In substitution analyses, the replacement of one daily serving of rice with one daily serving of noodles was associated with higher risk (difference in HR: 26.11%; 95% CI: 10.98%, 43.30%). In contrast, replacing one daily serving of rice with one of vegetables (-23.81%; 95% CI: -33.12%, -13.20%), fruit (-11.94%; 95% CI: -17.49%, -6.00%), or whole-wheat bread (-19.46%; 95% CI: -34.28%, -1.29%) was associated with lower risk of IHD death. CONCLUSIONS In this Asian population with high carbohydrate intake, the total amount of carbohydrates consumed was not substantially associated with IHD mortality. In contrast, the shifting of food sources of carbohydrates toward a higher consumption of fruit, vegetables, and whole grains was associated with lower risk of IHD death.
Redundancy analysis and motion control using ZMP equation for underwater vehicle-manipulator systems

The underwater vehicle-manipulator system (UVMS) is basically a redundant system. Hence, this redundant system can have various combinations of joint velocities that do not affect the given velocity profile of an end-effector and this may induce a self-motion of a vehicle. In the current paper, the performance index based on the concept of Zero Moment Point(ZMP) is proposed to enhance the stability of the redundant UVMS while the specified task is performed by using the underwater manipulator. In order to generate the joint angle trajectories of the manipulator, a redundancy resolution is performed to minimize the distance between the position of ZMP and the mass center of the underwater vehicle, which means the propulsion energy for controlling the vehicle's motion can be reduced. To control the motion of the system with uncertainties, a controller based on the sliding mode theory has been designed. Finally, an example simulation of a simple UVMS is conducted to show the performance of the designed robust controller.
A non-linear LLR approximation for LDPC decoding over impulsive noise channels

The performance of Low-Density Parity-Check codes over symmetric alpha-stable impulsive noise channels is considered in this paper. Due to the lack of closed-form expressions for the probability density functions of almost all the alpha-stable distributions, an efficient non-linear approximation method for channel log-likelihood ratio is presented to achieve high decoding performance covering the range of characteristic exponent from 1 to 2 and avoid the use of complicated numerical integrations. The simulations for both long and short codes show that the parameter selection of the proposed method is not sensitive to the noise level. Even fixed parameter setting for the proposed non-linear approximation can obtain a satisfying decoding performance.
Emotion-aware technologies for consumer electronics

Emotions pervade in peoplepsilas daily lives. Recently, there is a trend of adding emotional characteristics as new features to electronic devices in order to provide more natural and intelligent interaction with human. Affective computing, a concept that combines computer science with psychology and cognitive science was brought forward to support the idea of making machines aware of humanpsilas affective states. This study focuses on differentiating peoplepsilas emotional states based on arousal and valence using physiological signals with the aim to improve human computer interaction for next generation consumer electronic devices.
Nicotinamide N‐methyltransferase expression decreases in iron overload, exacerbating toxicity in mouse hepatocytes

Iron overload causes the generation of reactive oxygen species that can lead to lasting damage to the liver and other organs. The goal of this study was to identify genes that modify the toxicity of iron overload. We studied the effect of iron overload on the hepatic transcriptional and metabolomic profile in mouse models using a dietary model of iron overload and a genetic model, the hemojuvelin knockout mouse. We then evaluated the correlation of nicotinamide N‐methyltransferase (NNMT) expression with body iron stores in human patients and the effect of NNMT knockdown on gene expression and viability in primary mouse hepatocytes. We found that iron overload induced significant changes in the expression of genes and metabolites involved in glucose and nicotinamide metabolism and that NNMT, an enzyme that methylates nicotinamide and regulates hepatic glucose and cholesterol metabolism, is one of the most strongly down‐regulated genes in the liver in both genetic and dietary iron overload. We found that hepatic NNMT expression is inversely correlated with serum ferritin levels and serum transferrin saturation in patients who are obese, suggesting that body iron stores regulate human liver NNMT expression. Furthermore, we demonstrated that adenoviral knockdown of NNMT in primary mouse hepatocytes exacerbates iron‐induced hepatocyte toxicity and increases expression of transcriptional markers of oxidative and endoplasmic reticulum stress, while overexpression of NNMT partially reversed these effects. Conclusion: Iron overload alters glucose and nicotinamide transcriptional and metabolic pathways in mouse hepatocytes and decreases NNMT expression, while NNMT deficiency worsens the toxic effect of iron overload. For these reasons, NNMT may be a drug target for the prevention of iron‐induced hepatotoxicity. (Hepatology Communications 2017;1:803–815)
Gene expression profiling during differentiation of human monocytes to macrophages or dendritic cells

Macrophages and dendritic cells (DC) are APC, which regulate innate and adaptive immune responses. Macrophages function locally mainly, maintaining inflammatory responses in tissues, whereas DC take up microbes, mature, and migrate to local lymph nodes to present microbial antigens to naïve T cells to elicit microbe‐specific immune responses. Blood monocytes can be differentiated in vitro to macrophages or DC by GM‐CSF or GM‐CSF + IL‐4, respectively. In the present study, we performed global gene expression analyses using Affymetrix HG‐U133A Gene Chip oligonucleotide arrays during macrophage and DC differentiation. During the differentiation process, 340 and 350 genes were up‐regulated, and 190 and 240 genes were down‐regulated in macrophages and DC, respectively. There were also more that 200 genes, which were expressed differentially in fully differentiated macrophages and DC. Macrophage‐specific genes include, e.g., CD14, CD163, C5R1, and FcγR1A, and several cell surface adhesion molecules, cytokine receptors, WNT5A and its receptor of the Frizzled family FZD2, fibronectin, and FcεR1A were identified as DC‐specific. Our results reveal significant differences in gene expression profiles between macrophages and DC, and these differences can partially explain the functional differences between these two important cell types.
A cellular-centric service architecture for machine-to-machine (M2M) communications

A machine-to-machine (M2M) communications system is a large-scale network with diverse applications and a massive number of interconnected heterogeneous machines (e.g., sensors, vending machines and vehicles). Cellular wireless technologies will be a potential candidate for providing the last mile M2M connectivity. Thus, the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) and IEEE 802.16p, have both specified an overall cellular M2M reference architecture. The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), in contrast, has defined a service- oriented M2M architecture. This article reviews and compares the three architectures. As a result, the 3GPP and 802.16p M2M architectures, which are functionally equivalent, complement the ETSI one. Therefore, we propose to combine the ETSI and 3GPP architectures, yielding a cellular-centric M2M service architecture. Our proposed architecture advocates the use of M2M relay nodes as a data concentrator. The M2M relay implements a tunnel-based aggregation scheme which coalesces data from several machines destined to the same tunnel exit-point. The aggregation scheme is also employed at the M2M gateway and the cellular base station. Numerical results show a significant reduction in protocol overheads as compared to not using aggregation at the expense of packet delay. However, the delay rapidly decreases with increasing machine density.
Generic Design of Web-Based Clinical Databases

Background The complexity and the rapid evolution and expansion of the domain of clinical information make development and maintenance of clinical databases difficult. Whenever new data types are introduced or existing types are modified in a conventional relational database system, the physical design of the database must be changed accordingly. For this reason, it is desirable that a clinical database be flexible and allow for modifications and for addition of new types of data without having to change the physical database schema. The ideal clinical database would therefore implement a highly-detailed logical database schema in a completely-generic physical schema that stores the wide variety of clinical data in a small and constant number of tables. Objective The objective was to review the medical literature regarding generic design of clinical databases. Methods A search strategy was devised for PubMed and Google to get the best match of peer-reviewed articles and free Web resources on the subject. Results Eight peer reviewed articles and a Web tutorial were found. All the resources described the so-called Entity-Attribute-Value (EAV) design as a means of simplifying the physical layout of data tables in a clinical database. In Entity-Attribute-Value design all data can be stored in a single generic table with conceptually 3 columns: 1 for entity (eg, patient identification), 1 for attribute (eg, name), and 1 for value (eg, "Jens Hansen"). To add more descriptive fields to the entity class, all that is necessary is to add attribute values to be stored in the attribute field. The main advantages of the Entity-Attribute-Value design are flexibility and effective entity-centered data retrieval. The main disadvantages are complicated front-end programming needed to display data in a conventional layout that the user understands and less-efficient attribute-centered queries. The Internet offers unique opportunities for database deployment, eliminating problems of user-interface deployment. Furthermore, Web forms may be generated in a completely-generic fashion during run time from metadata describing the semantic structure of clinical information stored in the database. Conclusions The Entity-Attribute-Value model is useful for generic design of clinical databases. Depending on the specific requirements of the application, more or less complex metadata models may be applied.
Efficient full-rate LDCs in correlated Rician fading channel with decoupled decoder

Space-time block codes (STBCs) with orthogonal structures provide full-diversity reception and simple decoupled detection at the receiver. Rate-one orthogonal STBCs (OSTBC) for complex constellations have been found only for two transmit antennas. On the other hand, STBCs' designs are classically based on the assumption of independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) fading channels. However, poor scattering conditions may have harmful effects on the performance of STBCs. In this paper, we first derive the average of received signal power at the receiver over Rician fading channel, when the signals are coded with linear dispersion code (LDC). Then by using a genetic algorithm (GA), we present a new method to construct rate-one STBCs, which uses very simple processing at the receiver. Based on the proposed method, we design STBC for four transmit antennas. Simulation results show that the efficient proposed code outperforms Torrieri code in correlated fading channels.
Neural substrates of the impaired effort expenditure decision making in schizophrenia.

OBJECTIVE Unwillingness to expend more effort to pursue high value rewards has been associated with motivational anhedonia in schizophrenia (SCZ) and abnormal dopamine activity in the nucleus accumbens (NAcc). The authors hypothesized that dysfunction of the NAcc and the associated forebrain regions are involved in the impaired effort expenditure decision-making of SCZ. METHOD A 2 (reward magnitude: low vs. high) × 3 (probability: 20% vs. 50% vs. 80%) event-related fMRI design in the effort-expenditure for reward task (EEfRT) was used to examine the neural response of 23 SCZ patients and 23 demographically matched control participants when the participants made effort expenditure decisions to pursue uncertain rewards. RESULTS SCZ patients were significantly less likely to expend high level of effort in the medium (50%) and high (80%) probability conditions than healthy controls. The neural response in the NAcc, the posterior cingulate gyrus and the left medial frontal gyrus in SCZ patients were weaker than healthy controls and did not linearly increase with an increase in reward magnitude and probability. Moreover, NAcc activity was positively correlated with the willingness to expend high-level effort and concrete consummatory pleasure experience. CONCLUSION NAcc and posterior cingulate dysfunctions in SCZ patients may be involved in their impaired effort expenditure decision-making. (PsycINFO Database Record