Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Diffusion in Direct Democracy

Many theories of policy diffusion contend that the flow of information is the driving force in the diffusion process. Prior scholarship has identified at least two types of information: information about policy and information about political viability. Few empirical approaches have been able to distinguish between these separate mechanisms. The authors argue that an analysis of policy proposals can untangle political information from policy-based information. They employ their strategy with data on the proposal of tax and expenditure limits (TELs) in the U.S. states since 1970 through direct democracy. The authors find that states in close geographic proximity to states that have rejected TELs are significantly less likely to propose TELs themselves. Since this event does not reveal information about policy effectiveness, the authors conclude that information about political viability systematically diffuses from state to state at the proposal stage of policy making.
The aggression paradox: understanding links among aggression, sensation seeking, and the consideration of future consequences.

Four studies involving 573 female and 272 male college students demonstrated that multiple forms and measures of aggression were associated with high levels of sensation seeking, impulsivity, and a focus on the immediate consequences of behavior. Multiple regression analyses and structural equation models supported a theoretical model based on the general aggression model (C.A. Anderson & B.J. Bushman. 2002), positing that hostile cognition and negative affect mediate the relationships between the aforementioned individual differences and aggression. Sensation seeking also predicted a desire to engage in physical and verbal aggression. The final study demonstrated that relative to those scoring low, individuals scoring high on the consideration of future consequences are only less aggressive when aggression is likely to carry future costs.
Activation of 3‐nitrobenzanthrone and its metabolites by human acetyltransferases, sulfotransferases and cytochrome P450 expressed in Chinese hamster V79 cells

3‐Nitrobenzanthrone (3‐NBA) is a potent mutagen and suspected human carcinogen identified in diesel exhaust and ambient air pollution. 3‐Aminobenzanthrone (3‐ABA), 3‐acetylaminobenzanthrone (3‐Ac‐ABA) and N‐acetyl‐N‐hydroxy‐3‐aminobenzanthrone (N‐Ac‐N‐OH‐ABA) have been identified as 3‐NBA metabolites. Recently we found that 3‐NBA and its metabolites (3‐ABA, 3‐Ac‐ABA and N‐Ac‐N‐OH‐ABA) form the same DNA adducts in vivo in rats. In order to investigate whether human cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes (i.e., CYP1A2), human N,O‐acetyltransferases (NATs) and sulfotransferases (SULTs) contribute to the metabolic activation of 3‐NBA and its metabolites, we developed a panel of Chinese hamster V79MZ‐h1A2 derived cell lines expressing human CYP1A2 in conjunction with human NAT1, NAT2, SULT1A1 or SULT1A2, respectively. Cells were treated with 0.01, 0.1 or 1 μM 3‐NBA, or its metabolites (3‐ABA, 3‐Ac‐ABA and N‐Ac‐N‐OH‐ABA). Using both enrichment versions of the 32P‐postlabeling assay, nuclease P1 digestion and butanol extraction, essentially 4 major and 2 minor DNA adducts were detected in the appropriate cell lines with all 4 compounds. The major ones were identical to those detected in rat tissue; the adducts lack an N‐acetyl group. Human CYP1A2 was required for the metabolic activation of 3‐ABA and 3‐Ac‐ABA (probably via N‐oxidation) and enhanced the activity of 3‐NBA (probably via nitroreduction). The lack of acetylated adducts suggests N‐deacetylation of 3‐Ac‐ABA and N‐Ac‐N‐OH‐ABA. Thus, N‐hydroxy‐3‐aminobenzanthrone (N‐OH‐ABA) appears to be a common intermediate for the formation of the electrophilic arylnitrenium ions capable of reacting with DNA. Human NAT1 and NAT2 as well as human SULT1A1 and SULT1A2 strongly contributed to the high genotoxicity of 3‐NBA and its metabolites. Moreover, N,O‐acetyltransfer reactions catalyzed by human NATs leading to the corresponding N‐acetoxyester may be important in the bioactivation of N‐Ac‐N‐OH‐ABA. As human exposure to 3‐NBA is likely to occur primarily via the respiratory tract, expression of CYPs, NATs and SULTs in respiratory tissues may contribute significantly and specifically to the metabolic activation of 3‐NBA and its metabolites. Consequently, polymorphisms in these genes could be important determinants of lung cancer risk from 3‐NBA. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Knowledge Benefits of Social Capital Upon Repatriation: A Longitudinal Study of International Assignees

This study integrates social resources theory and social exchange theory arguments to examine the knowledge benefits that international assignees' host‐unit social capital entails upon repatriation. Specifically, I hypothesize that assignees' host‐unit social capital, operationalized as their number of work group contacts and their proportion of trusted ties at the host unit, positively relates to two specific knowledge benefits upon repatriation: continued access to host‐unit knowledge; and continued transfer of host‐unit knowledge to colleagues in assignees' new positions. Assignees' perceptions of career and repatriation support are expected to moderate these relationships. The hypotheses are tested with a longitudinal sample of 85 inpatriate assignees in 10 German multinationals. I contribute to the literatures on international assignments, social capital, and MNC knowledge flows by explaining how and under what conditions assignees' host‐unit social capital entails knowledge benefits upon repatriation.
Hyperthermia approaches for enhanced delivery of nanomedicines to solid tumors

Drug delivery to solid tumors has received much attention in order to reduce harmful side effects and improve the efficacy of treatment. Different strategies have been utilized with nanoparticle drug delivery systems, or nanomedicines, including passive and active targeting strategies, as well as the incorporation of stimuli sensitivity. Additionally, hyperthermia has been used in combination with such systems to further improve accumulation, localization, penetration, and subsequently efficacy. Localized hyperthermia within the solid tumor tissue can be applied through different mechanisms able to trigger vascular and cellular mechanisms for enhanced delivery of nanomedicines. This review covers the use of nanoparticles in drug delivery, the different methods for inducing localized hyperthermia, combination effects of hyperthermia, and successful strategies for improving the delivery of nanomedicines using hyperthermia. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2015;112: 1967–1983. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Membrane Interface-Interacting Sequences within the Ectodomain of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Envelope Glycoprotein: Putative Role during Viral Fusion

ABSTRACT We have identified a region within the ectodomain of the fusogenic human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) gp41, different from the fusion peptide, that interacts strongly with membranes. This conserved sequence, which immediately precedes the transmembrane anchor, is not highly hydrophobic according to the Kyte-Doolittle hydropathy prediction algorithm, yet it shows a high tendency to partition into the membrane interface, as revealed by the Wimley-White interfacial hydrophobicity scale. We have investigated here the membrane effects induced by NH2-DKWASLWNWFNITNWLWYIK-CONH2(HIVc), the membrane interface-partitioning region at the C terminus of the gp41 ectodomain, in comparison to those caused by NH2-AVGIGALFLGFLGAAGSTMGARS-CONH2(HIVn), the fusion peptide at the N terminus of the subunit. Both HIVc and HIVn were seen to induce membrane fusion and permeabilization, although lower doses of HIVc were required for comparable effects to be detected. Experiments in which equimolar mixtures of HIVc and HIVn were used indicated that both peptides may act in a cooperative way. Peptide-membrane and peptide-peptide interactions underlying those effects were further confirmed by analyzing the changes in fluorescence of peptide Trp residues. Replacement of the first three Trp residues by Ala, known to render a defective gp41 phenotype unable to mediate both cell-cell fusion and virus entry, also abrogated the HIVc ability to induce membrane fusion or form complexes with HIVn but not its ability to associate with vesicles. Hydropathy analysis indicated that the presence of two membrane-partitioning stretches separated by a collapsible intervening sequence is a common structural motif among other viral envelope proteins. Moreover, sequences with membrane surface-residing residues preceding the transmembrane anchor appeared to be a common feature in viral fusion proteins of several virus families. According to our experimental results, such a feature might be related to their fusogenic function.
Double negative and positive control of tsx expression in Escherichia coli

The Escherichia coli tsx gene encodes an outer membrane protein that is involved in nucleoside uptake and serves as the receptor protein for colicin K and several bacteriophages. Regulation of its expression was studied by using tsx-lacZ protein and operon fusion strains carrying mutations in deoR, cytR, and crp. The cytR-encoded repressor had a stronger influence on tsx transcription than the DeoR repressor did, and the level of tsx expression in a deoR cytR double mutant was approximately the sum of those found in the single deoR and cytR strains. This double negative control of Tsx synthesis was superceded by a positive control mechanism mediated by the cyclic AMP-catabolite activator protein (cAMP-CAP) complex. Our results suggest that tsx expression is controlled at two separate and differently regulated promoters: the weaker promoter (P1) is repressible by DeoR, while the stronger promoter (P2) is subject to negative and positive control by the CytR repressor and the cAMP-CAP complex, respectively. A mutant was isolated that showed unaltered tsx regulation by DeoR and the cAMP-CAP complex but strongly reduced repression by CytR. This tsx operator mutant was used to obtain a suppressor mutation located on a plasmid carrying the cloned cytR gene that restored CytR control of tsx expression. The direction of tsx transcription was determined and found to be counterclockwise on the E. coli chromosome.
Block Factorization of Hankel Matrices and Euclidean Algorithm

It is shown that a real Hankel matrix admits an approximate block diagonalization in which the successive transformation matrices are upper triangular Toeplitz matrices. The structure of this factorization was first fully discussed in [1]. This approach is extended to obtain the quotients and the remainders appearing in the Euclidean algorithm applied to two polynomials u (x ) and v (x ) of degree n and m , respectively, whith m
RCBM: a rough content-based image quality assessment metric

A generalised content-based image quality assessment technique is proposed in this paper. Different from many existing image quality metrics, where the digital image quality is evaluated by comparing with a reference image and a single ‘exact’ value is provided for the purpose of ‘accurately’ quantifying the image quality, our proposed method defines the image quality metric based on the theory of the rough fuzzy integral and a region (with a pair of the boundary values) is presented to estimate the image quality instead of a scalar value. The new philosophy for the proposed ‘rough’ content-based image quality metric lays on the acceptance of the uncertainty of subjective image quality assessment through the human visual system (HVS) and addresses this kind of uncertainty by applying the rigorous mathematical concept of the rough and fuzzy set on the standard content-based image quality analysis. Therefore, the proposed method is a good mimicking of the subjective image quality assessment and meets the ac.
Securing smartphone based ITS

GPS-equipped smartphones present several advantages for data acquisition in Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), compared to solutions that require a new communication infrastructure. However, there are still significant challenges to meet before deployment. Traffic information and location samples must be collected in a secure manner, to not jeopardize the system operation. Equally important, users must be assured about their privacy, notably the protection of information on their whereabouts. To address this two-fold problem, we propose extending the Generic Bootstrapping Architecture (GBA) with anonymous authentication. Identity and location information are protected and separated, and location samples cannot be linked to each other and to any specific user. Thus, our scheme protects users even in the case of a compromised ITS server. Initial evaluation results indicate the feasibility of our approach with off-the-self mobile platforms.
Report al Spatial Attention and Reading Acquisition

Reading is a unique, cognitive human skill crucial to life in modern societies, but, for about 10%of the children, learning to read is extremely difficult. They are affected by a neurodevelopmental disorder called dyslexia [1, 2]. Although impaired auditory and speech sound processing is widely assumed to characterize dyslexic individuals [1–5], emerging evidence suggests that dyslexia could arise from amore basic cross-modal letter-to-speech sound integration deficit [6–9]. Letters have to be precisely selected from irrelevant and cluttering letters [10, 11] by rapid orienting of visual attention before the correct letter-to-speech sound integration applies [12–17]. Here we ask whether prereading visual parietal-attention functioning may explain future reading emergence and development. The present 3 year longitudinal study shows that prereading attentional orienting—assessed by serial search performance and spatial cueing facilitation—captures future reading acquisition skills in grades 1 and 2 after controlling for age, nonverbal IQ, speech-sound processing, and nonalphabetic crossmodal mapping. Our findings provide the first evidence that visual spatial attention in preschoolers specifically predicts future reading acquisition, suggesting new approaches for early identification and efficient prevention of dyslexia.
DE-based PID control of full-car nonlinear, servo-hydraulic suspension systems

This paper presents a differential evolution (DE)-based multi-loop proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller design for full-car nonlinear, servo-hydraulic suspension systems. The multi-loop PID control stabilises the actuator via forcefeedback and also improves the system performance. Controller gains are computed using manual tuning and through DE optimization to minimise a performance index, which addresses suspension travel, road holding, vehicle handling, ride comfort and power consumption constraints. Simulation results showed superior performance of the DE-optimized PID-controlled active vehicle suspension system (AVSS) over the manually-tuned PID-controlled AVSS and the passive vehicle suspension system (PVSS)1.
ntegrated rapid mapping of onchocerciasis and loiasis in the Democratic epublic of Congo : Impact on control strategies fework

Background: Onchocerciasis can be effectively controlled by annual mass treatment with ivermectin in endemic communities. However, in communities that are endemic for loiasis there may be significant risk of severe adverse reactions after ivermectin treatment. Planning of control requires therefore mapping of these two infections using rapid assessment tools developed for each disease. These tools were initially implemented independently till the feasibility of combining them was demonstrated. This paper reports the results of integrated mapping in four epidemiological zones in the Democratic Republic of Congo and its implications on operational decision-making on ivermectin treatment. Methods: Rapid assessment surveys were conducted between 2004 and 2005 using both rapid epidemiological mapping of onchocerciasis (REMO) and rapid assessment procedure for loiasis (RAPLOA). The survey results were subjected to a spatial analysis in order to generate for each of the two diseases maps of the estimated prevalence of infection throughout the four zones. Results: Surveys were undertaken in 788 villages where 25,754 males were examined for palpable onchocercal nodules and 62,407 people were interviewed for history of eye worm. The results showed major differences in the geographic distribution of the two diseases. Loiasis was highly endemic in some areas, where special precautions were required, but not in others where routine ivermectin treatment
Enhancing the Decision Quality through Learning from the Social Commerce Components

The adoption of social networks introduced a new set of components to the e-commerce environment, which are called social commerce components SCCs e.g., forums and communities, rating and reviews and social recommendations. Although various SCCs have transformed customer behaviors and decision patterns, few studies have investigated their roles together in enhancing customers' decision quality. In this study, based on the social learning theory, the authors develop a research model to explore how customers learn from the SCCs to influence their uncertainty in shopping experience, and thus improve their decision quality. The results from 243 actual customers of social commerce site in China suggest that demand uncertainty is one of the most important factors that reduces decision quality, whereas product quality uncertainty has a significant positive influence on decision quality, and seller quality uncertainty has no influence on decision quality. Also, learning from forums and communities, learning from rating and reviews and learning from social recommendations play different roles on forming customers' uncertainty. In addition, product type can moderate most of the above associations. In summary, these findings increase one's understanding of the customers' decision pattern in social commerce context and extend the scope of social learning theory and uncertainty theory. The findings also provide insights for social commerce practitioners in developing strategies for improved implementation of social commerce as well as the design of social commerce sites.
Disease status at autologous stem cell transplantation and the cell of origin phenotype are important predictors of outcome in patients with neurologic (central nervous system) relapse of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma undergoing autologous stem cell transplantation

Neurologic relapse of systemic diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is associated with poor outcome. The existing literature about this specific entity is very limited. We present a retrospective analysis of patients with neurological relapse of DLBCL and correlate the outcome according to the disease stage at autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) and the cell of origin phenotype. Totally, 11 patients with neurologic relapse of DLBCL underwent ASCT, seven in complete remission (CR) and four with active disease. The conditioning regimens included LACE (six), BEAM (two), and Bu/Mel (three). Ten patients relapsed after ASCT. All patients with CNS relapse died of progressive disease. Patients with systemic relapse were salvaged by further treatment. The median disease free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) for patients in CR at ASCT is far superior than those with active disease at ASCT (24 and 33 months versus 3 and 5 months, respectively). For patients undergoing ASCT in CR, the germinal centre (GC) phenotype is associated with a superior DFS and OS as compared to non GC phenotype (36 and 40 months versus 3.5 months and 5 months, respectively). Patients with neurological relapse of DLBCL have a poor outcome after ASCT; the outcome is worse for patients with non-GC phenotype irrespective of the disease stage at ASCT.
A novel method to improve the omnidirectionality of the dielectric resonator antenna array

A wideband omnidirectional dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) has been proposed. The simulated results show that the reflection coefficient of the DRA is less than −10dB in the frequency band of 1.61GHz-2.92GHz (57.8%), which can cover the 2G/3G/LTE bands simultaneously. In order to improve the omnidirectionality of the DRA array, a novel method to arrange the feeding coaxial cable is proposed. Based on this method, a wideband DRA array with a good omnidirectionality is designed, which gain variation ranges from 0.65dB to 0.97dB over the operating band of 1.7GHz–2.7GHz. Besides, the maximum and minimum gain in the horizontal plane are 9.0dBi (at 2.31GHz) and 6.33dBi (at 1.7GHz), respectively. The proposed antenna in this paper can be a good alternative in wireless communication systems.
Logic and Knowledge Bases

IntroductIon Knowledge bases (KBs) must be able to capture a wide range of situations. One must be able to represent and answer questions regarding indefinite information where it is not clear that there is a unique answer to a question. One must also represent and answer questions about negative information. We discuss a powerful way to represent such information, namely through reasoning about knowledge bases using logic. In the real world, information known at one time may change. However, in first-order logic, information once known cannot change. This phenomenon is known as monotonicity. Since KBs deal with incomplete information, they are not monotonic. We shall discuss a form of logic programming, below, which is able to handle nonmonotonic information and situations required by KBs such as definite and indefinite data, and logical and default negation. The question of how to adapt first-order logic to handle complex situations started in the 1950s. Early systems handled problems in an ad hoc way. Several primitive deductive databases (DDBs), function-free logic programs, were developed in the 1960s. Robinson (1965) developed a general method for automated theorem proving to perform deduction. This method is known as the Robinson Resolution Principle; it is a generalization of mo-dus ponens to first-order predicate logic. Green and Raphael (1968) were the first to recognize the importance and applicability of the work performed by Robinson and developed a system using this principle. November 1977 is generally considered to be the start of the modern era of DDBs. A workshop , " Logic and Data Bases, " was organized in Toulouse, France, by Gallaire and Nicolas in collaboration with Minker. The workshop included researchers who had performed work in deduction from 1969 to 1977 using the Robinson Resolution Principle. The book Logic and Data Bases, edited by Gallaire and Minker (1978), contained these papers. Many significant contributions were described in the book. Nicolas and 682 Logic and Knowledge Bases Gallaire discussed the difference between model theory and proof theory. They demonstrated that the approach taken by the database community was model theoretic—that is, the database represents the truths of the theory, and queries are answered by a bottom-up search. However, in logic programming, answers to a query use a proof theoretic approach, starting from the query, in a top-down search. Reiter discussed the closed world assumption (CWA), whereby in a theory, if one cannot prove that an atomic formula is true, …