Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cannabidiol attenuates pulmonary arterial hypertension by improving vascular smooth muscle cells mitochondrial function

Rationale: Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a chronic disease associated with enhanced proliferation of pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells (PASMCs) and dysfunctional mitochondria, and the clinical therapeutic option for PAH is very limited. Recent studies showed that cannabidiol (CBD), a non-psychoactive constituent of cannabinoids, possessed antioxidant effect towards several cardiovascular diseases, whereas the mechanistic effect of CBD in PAH is unknown. Methods: In this study, the effects of CBD in PAH were determined by analyzing its preventive and therapeutic actions in PAH rodent models in vivo and PASMCs' proliferation test in vitro. Additionally, CBD's roles in mitochondrial function and oxidant stress were also assessed in PASMCs. Results: We found that CBD reversed the pathological changes observed in both Sugen-hypoxia and monocrotaline-induced PAH rodent models in a cannabinoid receptors-independent manner. Our results also demonstrated that CBD significantly inhibited the PASMCs' proliferation in PAH mice with less inflammation and reactive oxygen species levels. Moreover, CBD alleviated rodent PAH by recovering mitochondrial energy metabolism, normalizing the hypoxia-induced oxidant stress, reducing the lactate overaccumulation and abnormal glycolysis. Conclusions: Taken together, these findings confirm an important role for CBD in PAH pathobiology.
Time-varying $\ell_0$ optimization for Spike Inference from Multi-Trial Calcium Recordings

Optical imaging of genetically encoded calcium indicators is a powerful tool to record the activity of a large number of neurons simultaneously over a long period of time from freely behaving animals. However, determining the exact time at which a neuron spikes and estimating the underlying firing rate from calcium fluorescence data remains challenging, especially for calcium imaging data obtained from a longitudinal study. We propose a multi-trial time-varying $\ell_0$ penalized method to jointly detect spikes and estimate firing rates by robustly integrating evolving neural dynamics across trials. Our simulation study shows that the proposed method performs well in both spike detection and firing rate estimation. We demonstrate the usefulness of our method on calcium fluorescence trace data from two studies, with the first study showing differential firing rate functions between two behaviors and the second study showing evolving firing rate function across trials due to learning.
Extremely Transparent and Conductive ZnO:Al Thin Films Prepared by Photo-Assisted Metalorganic Chemical Vapor Deposition (photo-MOCVD) Using AlCl3(6H2O) as New Doping Material

Extremely transparent and conductive ZnO:Al thin films were successfully prepared by a photo-assisted metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (photo-MOCVD) technique at a temperature of 140° C using diethylzinc and H2O as source materials. The vapor from an aqueous solution of aluminum chloride hydrate ( AlCl3(6H2O)) was used as a doping gas. ZnO:Al thin films with a minimum resistivity of 6.22×10-4 Ω cm were obtained. Their total transmittance at 550 nm was 91%. Moreover, the average transmittance in the wavelength region of 400 nm to 1200 nm was over 91%. The new Al-doping method using AlCl3(6H2O) by the photo-MOCVD, proposed for the first time in this study, is economical as well as safe, and high-quality ZnO:Al can be successfully applied to a transparent conductive electrode for large area thin-film solar cells.
HTTPS-Only: Upgrading all connections to https in Web Browsers

—The number of websites that support encrypted and secure https connections has increased rapidly in recent years. Despite major gains in the proportion of websites supporting https , the web contains millions of legacy http links that point to insecure versions of websites. Worse, numerous websites often use http connections by default, even though they already support https . Establishing a connection using http rather than https has the downside that http transfers data in cleartext, granting an attacker the ability to eavesdrop, or even tamper with the transmitted data. To date, however, no web browser has attempted to remedy this problem by favouring secure connections by default. We present HTTPS-Only , an approach which ﬁrst tries to establish a secure connection to a website using https and only allows a fallback to http if a secure connection cannot be established. Our approach also silently upgrades all insecure http subresource requests (image, stylesheet, script) within a secure website to use the secure https protocol instead. Our measurements indicate that our approach can upgrade the majority of connections to https and therefore suggests that browser vendors have an opportunity to evolve their current connection model.
Protected areas in Ngamiland, Botswana: investigating options for conservation‐development through human footprint mapping

Parks and reserves, created to protect Africa’s unique mammal life increasingly share buffer zones needed for their ecological survival with expanding rural populations, resulting in more conflict. While concern about the encroachment of human activity (or ‘human sprawl’) into natural areas is worldwide, it takes on an extra dimension in eastern and southern Africa, where we find the last large‐scale migrating herds of large mammals. The paper uses the Ngamiland region of Botswana in which the Moremi Game Reserve is situated to discuss problems and options surrounding park buffer zones in a context of rapid national economic growth, high levels of demographic growth and increasing international tourism activity, using human footprint and human sprawl mapping as tools to assess population conservation interaction. The paper argues that it is useful to employ footprint mapping in African protected area buffer zones to reveal specific regional patterns and options in order to enhance the search for workable solutions.
A panel of selected serum protein biomarkers for the detection of aggressive prostate cancer

Background: Current PSA-based tests used to detect prostate cancer (PCa) lack sufficient specificity, leading to significant overdetection and overtreatment. Our previous studies showed that serum fucosylated PSA (Fuc-PSA) and soluble TEK receptor tyrosine kinase (Tie-2) had the ability to predict aggressive (AG) PCa. Additional biomarkers are needed to address this significant clinical problem. Methods: A comprehensive Pubmed search followed by multiplex immunoassays identified candidate biomarkers associated with AG PCa. Subsequently, multiplex and lectin-based immunoassays were applied to a case-control set of sera from subjects with AG PCa, low risk PCa, and non-PCa (biopsy negative). These candidate biomarkers were further evaluated for their ability as panels to complement the prostate health index (phi) in detecting AG PCa. Results: When combined through logistic regression, two panel of biomarkers achieved the best performance: 1) phi, Fuc-PSA, SDC1, and GDF-15 for the detection of AG from low risk PCa and 2) phi, Fuc-PSA, SDC1, and Tie-2 for the detection of AG from low risk PCa and non-PCa, with noticeable improvements in ROC analysis over phi alone (AUCs: 0.942 vs 0.872, and 0.934 vs 0.898, respectively). At a fixed sensitivity of 95%, the panels improved specificity with statistical significance in detecting AG from low risk PCa (76.0% vs 56%, p=0.029), and from low risk PCa and non-PCa (78.2% vs 65.5%, p=0.010). Conclusions: Multivariate panels of serum biomarkers identified in this study demonstrated clinically meaningful improvement over the performance of phi, and warrant further clinical validation, which may contribute to the management of PCa.
Robots, Motivation, and Academic Success*

Educational literature has long supported strong correlations between student motivation and academic success. STEM literature has more recently shown mechatronic experiences to have positive impacts on these constructs, albeit limited empirical grounding. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to conduct a pilot experiment to empirically quantify diﬀerences in undergraduate student motivation and academic success in a mechatronic vs. a non-mechatronic experience, as well as examine the correlation between student motivation and academic success in both groups. We used a quasi-experimental, non-equivalent control vs. treatment design to collect n = 84 responses from multiple sections of a single undergraduate course. The multivariate dependent variable of student motivation was measured using the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire’s motivational orientation items. Our multivariate dependent variable of academic success was based on ﬁnal course grades, ﬁnal project scores, and quiz scores. Using ANCOVA and diﬀerences of proportions, we found no statistical diﬀerence in motivational orientation—speciﬁcally value choices and expectancy beliefs —in the mechatronic vs. non-mechatronic experience. In contrast, statistically signiﬁcant diﬀerences in project scores and ﬁnal course grades were observed in the mechatronic experience group. Additionally, we found no signiﬁcant correlation between student motivation and academic success. These results indicated that students in the mechatronic experience, while earning signiﬁcantly higher grades, did not exhibit diﬀerent levels of motivation, leading to no association between student motivation and academic success. Even so, future research is needed to further understand the nuanced dynamics of motivational orientation within a mechatronic experience.
Citizen Satisfaction and Expectations over Time: Findings from a Large Sample Panel Survey of Public School Parents in Denmark

Expectations are thought to affect how citizens form their attitudes and behavior towards public services. Such attitudes may include citizen satisfaction, where expectations play a fundamental role, and relevant behaviors include choice of services and the decision to voice opinions about them. However, there are few investigations into what drives citizen expectations and even fewer that consider these relationships across time. This article tests whether prior expectations, perceived performance and citizen satisfaction influence future expectations, using a unique dataset that follows individual citizens across two subsequent school satisfaction surveys from 2011 and 2013. The results show that prior expectations have a large and consistent influence on future expectations, as predicted by the literature, whereas the influence from prior perceived performance seems less consistent. Prior satisfaction may also influence future expectations, although the effect is minor. The results indicate that citizens’ expectations are rather stable across time and may contain normative values and beliefs about how public services should perform. Author statement: I would like to thank the 4 anonymous reviewers, Simon Calmar Andersen, Gregg G. Van Ryzin, Oliver James and Christian Bøtcher Jacobsen for thoughtful comments on earlier drafts of this article. I would also like to thank the City of Aarhus for giving access to their satisfaction data.
The combined induction of liver progenitor cells and the suppression of stellate cells by small molecules reverts chronic hepatic dysfunction

Rationale: We developed a cocktail of soluble molecules mimicking the in vivo milieu supporting liver regeneration that could convert mature hepatocytes to expandable liver progenitor-like cells in vitro. This study aimed to induce endogenous liver progenitor cells by the administration of the soluble molecules to provide an alternative approach for the resolution of liver fibrosis. Methods: In vitro cultured hepatocyte-derived liver progenitor-like cells (HepLPCs) were transplanted into CCL4-treated mice to investigate the therapeutic effect against liver fibrosis. Next, we used HGF in combination with a cocktail of small molecules (Y-27632, A-83-01, and CHIR99021 (HACY)) to induce endogenous CD24+ liver progenitor cells and to inhibit the activation of hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) during CCL4-induced hepatic injury. RNA sequencing was performed to further clarify the features of HACY-induced CD24+ cells compared with CCL4-induced CD24+ cells and in vitro derived HepLPCs. Finally, we evaluated the expansion of HACY-induced CD24+ cells in human hepatocyte-spheroids from fibrotic liver tissues. Results: HepLPCs exhibited the capacity to alleviate liver fibrosis after transplantation into CCL4-treated mice. The in vivo administration of HACY not only induced the conversion of mature hepatocytes (MHs) to CD24+ progenitor cells but prevented the activation of HSCs, thus leading to enhanced improvement of liver fibrosis in CCL4-treated mice. Compared to CD24+ cells induced by CCL4 alone, HACY-induced CD24+ cells retained an enhanced level of hepatic function and could promote the restoration of liver function that exhibited comparable gene expression profiles with HepLPCs. CD24+ cells were also observed in human liver fibrotic tissues and were expanded in three-dimensional (3D) hepatic spheroids in the presence of HACY in vitro. Conclusions: Hepatocyte-derived liver progenitor-like cells are crucial for liver regeneration during chronic hepatic injuries. The administration of HACY, which allowed the induction of endogenous CD24+ progenitor cells and the inactivation of HSCs, exerts beneficial effects in the treatment of liver fibrosis by re-establishing a balance favoring liver regeneration while preventing fibrotic responses.
Privacy - Preserving Clustering

Clustering is an unsupervised machine learning technique that divides a data set into groups. The manifold applications of clustering range from segmenting a market using consumer preferences [1] to grouping photos of diseased organs in medical imaging [2]. These scenarios inevitably require sensitive data such as business secrets or personal health records. We consider multiple mutually distrusting parties, e.g., corporations or hospitals that do not want to or are not permitted to share their clients’ or patients’ data due to legislation such as GDPR [3] or HIPAA[4] or to protect their market position and business secrets. Nevertheless, these parties wish to cluster their joint data, since a larger data pool usually results in a better result providing more insights. A growing body of research proposes privacy-preserving variants of clustering algorithms. These algorithms operate in a semi-honest security model, which assumes that all parties honestly follow the protocol. However, existing implementations are impractical for real-world usage [5] due to immense computational costs or privacy-compromising data leakage during the clustering process [6, 7, 8]. To the best of our knowledge, the few clustering schemes that fully preserve privacy [9, 10, 5] focus on the simple and efficient k-means algorithm; however, the effectiveness of k-means depends on many assumptions. For example, the number of clusters must be known in advance, and the input data cannot include nominal variables or outliers. These assumptions often do not hold for real-world clustering applications, limiting k-means’ practicality. In our work, we explore the suitability of advanced clustering algorithms for efficient crypto-oriented clustering. We identify affinity propagation [11] to be the most promising algorithm candidate. Affinity propagation and k-means have comparable computational complexities of O(n), and affinity propagation provides more flexibility in terms of tolerance to outliers, compatibility with various data types, and the selection of tunable parameters. Furthermore, affinity propagation involves only operations that can be implemented relatively efficiently using secure computation techniques, such as addition and comparison. The algorithm was also successfully applied for privacy-relevant use cases, e.g., the detection of genes from chromosomal data [11]. Based on our insights, we design the first privacy-preserving affinity propagation clustering protocol using secure computation techniques. Moreover, our protocol was implemented and benchmarked with the SPDZ framework [12] and enables private clustering in a malicious security model for the first time, providing protection from strong adversaries that deviate from the protocol.
AGREEABLENESS IN BORDERLINE PERSONALITY DISORDER 1 Running head: AGREEABLENESS IN BORDERLINE PERSONALITY DISORDER The Role of Interactional Agreeableness in Responsive Treatments for Patients with Borderline Personality Disorder

Patients with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) present with variable levels of agreeableness. It has been shown that agreeableness had an impact on therapy process and outcome. This was particularly relevant for patients in Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), but not for patients in a General Psychiatric Management (GPM; Hirsh, Quilty, Bagby & McMain, 2012). The goal of the present study was to test whether agreeableness affects the therapeutic alliance and outcome assessed after brief treatment for BPD, and whether this link is moderated therapist responsiveness. The original outcome study (Kramer, Kolly et al., 2014) – from which the present data are extracted (N = 60) compared two types of brief interventions in a 10-sessions treatment for BPD: a GPM-based treatment and the same treatment supplemented with the Motive-Oriented Therapeutic Relationship (MOTR), based on Plan Analysis case conceptualizations (PA; Caspar, 1995), as operationalization of therapist responsiveness. In order to measure interactional agreeableness in the present study, we used the qualitative information in all Plan Analyses and re-rated all items on a 7-point Likert scale. Inter-rater reliability was excellent. The results showed that there was a significant link between agreeableness and outcome for the GPM condition, but not for the MOTR condition. No links between agreeableness and the therapeutic alliance were found in both conditions. We may conclude the MOTR enables to suppress the influences of the patient’s initial characteristics (i.e., high or low agreeableness) on the therapeutic results and this over the course of the first few sessions. These results are interpreted as an empirical demonstration of the responsiveness effect described in the psychotherapy research literature. Key-Words: Agreeableness; Borderline Personality Disorder; Therapist Responsiveness; Motive-Oriented Therapeutic Relationship; Psychiatric Treatment AGREEABLENESS IN BORDERLINE PERSONALITY DISORDER 3
China's Growth Outlook: Is High-Income Status in Reach?

Can China build on its development success to achieve high-income status in the decades ahead? To shed light on this question, we examine the past and prospective future sources of growth in China through the lens of the neoclassical growth model. Our key finding is that China would need to sustain total factor productivity growth at the top end of the range achieved by its high-income Pacific Rim neighbors in order to match their success in raising living standards. While fast-growing working-age populations boosted per capita income growth elsewhere in the Pacific Rim, a rapidly aging population will act as a powerful drag on income growth in China’s case. Moreover, China's already capital-intensive production structure will make it difficult to match those countries' gains from capital deepening. These restraints mean that a sustained and exceptionally high pace of productivity growth will be needed for Chinese per capita incomes to reach even 50 percent of the U.S. level by 2040. We argue that lagging institutional development represents the chief obstacle to the needed productivity gains.
Forum 4.0: An Open-Source User Comment Analysis Framework

With the increasing number of user comments in diverse domains, including comments on online journalism and e-commerce websites, the manual content analysis of these comments becomes time-consuming and challenging. However, research showed that user comments contain useful information for different domain experts, which is thus worth finding and utilizing. This paper introduces Forum 4.0, an open-source framework to semi-automatically analyze, aggregate, and visualize user comments based on labels defined by domain experts. We demonstrate the applicability of Forum 4.0 with comments analytics scenarios within the domains of online journalism and app stores. We outline the underlying container architecture, including the web-based user interface, the machine learning component, and the task manager for time-consuming tasks. We finally conduct machine learning experiments with simulated annotations and different sampling strategies on existing datasets from both domains to evaluate Forum 4.0’s performance. Forum 4.0 achieves promising classification results (ROC-AUC ≥ 0.9 with 100 annotated samples), utilizing transformer-based embeddings with a lightweight logistic regression model. We explain how Forum 4.0’s architecture is applicable for millions of user comments in real-time, yet at feasible training and classification costs.
University of Birmingham Researching IT multi-sourcing and opportunistic behavior in conditions of uncertainty

: Multi-sourcing arrangements are a major trend in the contemporary outsourcing landscape, but our understanding of what makes these complex ventures effective remains relatively fragmented. Our study focuses on the multi-sourcing and opportunistic behavior of service providers, and in particular a relatively neglected but major driver of opportunistic behavior, namely the uncertainty surrounding the transaction. Developing an extended transaction cost economics perspective, our investigation focuses on the roles of internal and behavioral uncertainty and the occurrence of opportunistic behavior. We research a rich multi-sourcing case study within the financial services sector and compare and re-analyze a detailed case in the literature. According to our findings, internal uncertainty creates an ‘alignment of actions’ problem between outsourcing partners, while behavioral uncertainty can shape an ‘alignment of objectives’ problem, leading to the occurrence of opportunistic behavior. Our findings further contribute to a more thorough understanding of ways to reduce these uncertainties and facilitate coopetition between multiple vendors.
Low interest rates in Europe and the US- one trend, two stories

We thank Lionel Guetta-Jeanrenaud for excellent research assistance and Faycal Hafied for drawing our attention to ESOPs. We are grateful to seminar participants at Bruegel for comments and suggestions. This research has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 822390. In both Europe and the United States, interest rates have been declining for more than fifteen years. For much of this.
STABILITY ANALYSIS OF JOINTED ROCK SLOPES USING GEOMECHANICAL, KINEMATICAL, AND LIMIT EQUILIBRIUM METHODS: THE CHOUF AMAR CAREER, M’SILA, NE ALGERIA

Many open-cast mines in Algeria are regularly affected by instabilities that disrupt the exploitation activity, such as Chouf Amar’s career where recurrent failures are caused by the combined action of a number of predisposition and triggering factors. I this study we uses a commbinedGeomechanical, Kinematical, numerical and limit equilibrium analysis to evaluate the behaviour of the discontinuous rock masses in open pit mine, and we chooses the Chouf Amar career as a case study. We determines nine main sets of discontinuities in the three main facies of the stone-pit. We proved also that the quarry suffers from various types of failures and that blasting declines the values of safety factor. We find out the causes of the 2009 slip-incident. By this combined approaches we have made it possible to optimize operations and to improve career productivity while ensuring the safety of equipment and personnel.