Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Digital labour and development: impacts of global digital labour platforms and the gig economy on worker livelihoods

As ever more policy-makers, governments and organisations turn to the gig economy and digital labour as an economic development strategy to bring jobs to places that need them, it becomes important to understand better how this might influence the livelihoods of workers. Drawing on a multi-year study with digital workers in Sub-Saharan Africa and South-east Asia, this article highlights four key concerns for workers: bargaining power, economic inclusion, intermediated value chains, and upgrading. The article shows that although there are important and tangible benefits for a range of workers, there are also a range of risks and costs that unduly affect the livelihoods of digital workers. Building on those concerns, it then concludes with a reflection on four broad strategies – certification schemes, organising digital workers, regulatory strategies and democratic control of online labour platforms – that could be employed to improve conditions and livelihoods for digital workers.
Recovery of Neuronal Function after Prolonged Cerebral Ischemia

Cats were submitted to complete cerebral ischemia by clamping the innominate and subclavian arteries and simultaneously lowering the systemic blood pressure. Neuronal function was assessed by recording the electroencephalogram and the anti- and orthodromic activation of the pyramidal tract. A full recovery of the pyramidal response and even of evoked electroencephalographic activity occurred after ischemia of more than 1 hour's duration.
Religious Coping Methods as Predictors of Psychological, Physical and Spiritual Outcomes among Medically Ill Elderly Patients: A Two-year Longitudinal Study

A total of 268 medically ill, elderly, hospitalized patients responded to measures of religious coping and spiritual, psychological and physical functioning at baseline and follow-up two years later. After controlling for relevant variables, religious coping was significantly predictive of spiritual outcome, and changes in mental and physical health. Generally, positive methods of religious coping (e.g. seeking spiritual support, benevolent religious reappraisals) were associated with improvements in health. Negative methods of religious coping (e.g. punishing God reappraisal, interpersonal religious discontent) were predictive of declines in health. Patients who continue to struggle with religious issues over time may be particularly at risk for health-related problems.
Hysteretic Effects in Droplet Motions on Heterogeneous Substrates: Direct Numerical Simulation

A method of calculation is introduced that allows the simulation of the time-dependent three-dimensional motion of liquid droplets on solid substrates for systems with finite equilibrium contact angles. The contact angle is a prescribed function of position on the substrate. An evolution equation is given, using the lubrication assumption, that includes viscous, capillary, and disjoining forces. Motion to and from dry substrate regions is made possible by use of a thin energetically stable wetting layer. We simulate motion on heterogeneous substrates with periodic arrays of high-contact-angle patches. For a homogeneous substrate, calculated droplet spreading rates are compared to published experimental results, revealing the need for a time-scale correction. Two different problems are treated. The first is spontaneous motion driven only by wetting forces. If the contact-angle difference is sufficiently high, the droplet can find several different stable positions, depending on the previous history of the .
Entanglement purification of Gaussian continuous variable quantum states

Quantum communication is hampered by the difficulty to generate maximally entangled states between distant nodes. Due to loss and decoherence, in reality we can only generate partially entangled states. Entanglement purification techniques are needed to concentrate maximally entangled states from partially entangled states. Here we present an entanglement purification scheme with the following properties: (i) For pure two-mode squeezed states it reaches the maximal allowed efficiency in the asymptotic limit (when the number of pairs of modes goes to infinity); (ii) It can be readily extended to distill maximally entangled states from a relevant class of mixed Gaussian states which result from losses in the light transmission. Furthermore, we propose and analyze a scheme to implement this protocol experimentally using high finesse cavities and cross-Kerr nonlinearities.
Poly‐Epsilon‐Caprolactone Nanocapsules Containing Octyl Methoxycinnamate: Preparation and Characterization

This study investigates the different nanocapsules (NCs) made of poly‐epsilon‐caprolactone (PCL) containing the lipophilic sunscreen Escalol® 557 [octyl methoxycinnamate (OMC)] and analyzes the influence of nanoparticle‐based systems on light‐induced decomposition of the sunscreen agent. The NCs were designed and prepared by the solvent displacement method. Formulation parameters, such as the nature and volume of the organic and aqueous phase and the nature and concentration of the surfactants and polymer, have relevant implications on NC elaboration. We investigated the influence of several technological (stirring speed: 300–800 rpm) and formulation factors [polymer amount, 195–244.5 mg; surfactant, Tween® 85 (Polysorbate 85), Montanox® 80 (Polysorbate 80), and Synperonic® PE/F68 (Poloxamer 188) as stabilizing agents; and volume of the organic phase, 20–30 mL of acetone] on the particle size and the OMC loading capacity of the formulations—encapsulation efficiency and yield. The sizes of NC obtained were in the range of 309 to 1042 nm, the encapsulation efficiencies ranged from 93.82% to 99.97%, and yields of NC encapsulation ranged from 48.12% to 86.28%. Of all the preset experimental conditions, Montanox® 80, 30 mL of acetone, 244.5 mg of polymer, and a stirring speed of 350 rpm have been selected as the best in this experimental design study. The experimental conditions selected to obtain OMC‐loaded NC of 374 nm resulted in a high entrapment percentage (97.52%) and yield (82.95%). The PCL nanoparticles loaded with OMC were effective in reducing light‐induced degradation of the sunscreen agent.
Decreased p66Shc promoter methylation in patients with end-stage renal disease

Abstract Background: p66Shc is a stress response protein and partially regulated by epigenetic modifications. Mice lacking p66Shc have reduced atherosclerosis, increased resistance to oxidative stress and a prolonged life time. The aim of the present study was to compare promoter methylation of the p66Shc gene between healthy controls and patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD). There are two reasons for studying patients with ESRD. First, patients with ESRD have a disturbed homocysteine metabolism, and second an increased risk of morbidity and mortality from cardiovascular disease is a constant finding in these patients. Methods: In our study, we measured fasting levels of homocysteine, S-adenosylmethionine (SAM), S-adenosylhomocysteine (SAH) and 8-isoprostane in 22 patients and in 26 healthy, age- and sex-matched controls. The methylation of the p66Shc promoter and Line-1, as surrogate marker of whole genome methylation was quantified in peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Results: In comparison to the control group, homocysteine, SAM, SAH, 8-isoprostane and whole genome methylation were significantly elevated in ESRD patients, while the p66Shc promoter methylation was significantly reduced. A significant correlation was found between SAH and p66Shc promoter methylation in the patient group. This observation underlines the role of SAH as a potent inhibitor of methyltransferases. Using backward regression analysis, we demonstrated that 8-isoprostane has a significant influence on p66Shc promoter methylation. In the control group and in patients with ESRD, increasing 8-isoprostane levels were linked to an elevated promoter methylation. Conclusions: Under physiological conditions, based on the results of the control group, the p66Shc expression is more silenced through epigenetic modifications. The atherosclerotic risk is dramatically increased in ESRD patients; therefore, our experimental results of methylation are in accordance with the clinical situation. Clin Chem Lab Med 2007;45:1764–70.
Exploring Multi-factor Tagging Activity for Personalized Search

Coping with ambiguous queries has long been an important part in the research of Web Information Systems and Retrieval, but still remains to be a challenging task. Personalized search has recently got significant attention to address this challenge in the web search community, based on the premise that a user’s general preference may help the search engine disambiguate the true intention of a query. However, studies have shown that users are reluctant to provide any explicit input on their personal preference. In this paper, we study how a search engine can learn a user’s preference automatically based on a user’s tagging activity and how it can use the user preference to personalize search results. Our experiments show that users’ preferences can be learned from a multi-factor tagging data and personalized search based on user preference yields significant precision improvements over the existing ranking mechanisms in the literature.
Sustainability of Open Systems Based on an Agent Model with Fluctuation

In IT technology, especially in software development, open development system has been proven to be useful. Linux, apache software and GNU software are typical examples. Still, it is also known that there are many open software development projects that failed or stopped developments. So far, it has not been clearly known what the key factor is to give the difference between the successful open projects and the ones that fails. In this report, we analyze the sustainability of open systems based on an agent model that explicitly takes the effect of fluctuation into account. Although the model is simple, it is shown that the system with many less-powered leaders is more stable than a system with small number of powerful leaders.
Anorexia Induced by the Parasitic Nematode, Nippostrongylus brasiliensis: Effects on NPY and CRF Gene Expression in the Rat Hypothalamus

Infections of the gastrointestinal nematode, Nippostrongylus brasiliensis, in the laboratory rat result in a characteristic biphasic anorexia which is followed by hyperphagia once the worm burden has been cleared. Despite the importance of parasite‐induced anorexia, relatively little is known of the underlying mechanisms. We have investigated the involvement of the central appetite drive in this anorexia by studying the gene expression of two neuropeptides with opposing actions on energy balance, NPY and CRF. Gene expression was assessed by in situ hybridization at 2, 8 and 16 days post‐infection (p.i.) in infected rats, in uninfected controls, and in a group with food intake restricted to match that taken voluntarily by the parasitized animals. The sampling intervals corresponded to each of the two phases of maximum anorexia and the period of compensatory hyperphagia. Surprisingly, we found that increases in NPY gene expression in the hypothalamic arcuate nucleus (ARC) accompany anorexia in rats infected with N. brasiliensis; there was a significant relationship between degree of anorexia and induction of NPY mRNA after 8 days of infection. Furthermore, ARC NPY mRNA levels in parasitized animals were similar to those in pair‐fed individuals with food intake restricted to match the infected rats. The number of larvae used to establish the infection affected both the degree of anorexia and the level of NPY mRNA at 8 days p.i. in a dose‐dependent manner. NPY gene expression remained elevated in infected rats during at least the initial stages of compensatory hyperphagia. This suggests that animals detect a state of energy deficit during the early stages of the infection, yet do not feed, but become hyperphagic coincident with worm loss. The failure of anorectic parasitized animals to feed in response to activation of the NPYergic system makes this a novel system in which to study the regulation of hypothalamic NPY by physiological challenge. There were no significant differences in CRF gene expression between the groups at any of the sampling intervals.
A twin study of genetic and environmental determinants of abnormal persistence of psychotic experiences in young adulthood

Evidence suggests that subclinical psychotic experiences are more likely to cause transition to psychotic disorder if their expression becomes persistent. The study of longitudinal patterns of subclinical psychotic experiences may help to distinguish subgroups with transient and persistent psychotic symptoms, who may differ in risk of later psychosis. The current study investigated patterns of developmental course of subclinical psychotic experiences in a general population sample of 566 female twins, aged 18–45 years. The positive symptoms subscale of the Community Assessment of Psychic Experiences (CAPE), completed three times in 2 years, was analyzed with growth modeling. Using Latent Class Analysis, two developmental courses were distinguished: a Persistent and a Low (expression of subclinical psychotic experiences) group. The Persistent group reported significantly higher levels of depressive and negative symptoms and worse functioning in daily life. Childhood trauma (OR: 3.26, P < 0.0001) and stressful life events over the study period (OR: 3.15, P = 0.031) predicted membership of the Persistent group. Of the monozygotic (MZ) twins with their co‐twin in the Persistent group, 49% also were in the Persistent group themselves (OR: 9.32, P < 0.0001), compared to only 14% in the dizygotic (DZ) co‐twins (OR: 1.56, P = 0.42) (χ2(2) = 22.97; P < 0.001). The findings suggest that persistence of subclinical psychosis is influenced by both genetic and environmental factors, providing the possibility to study the (possibly modifiable) etiology underlying the longitudinal process of persistence of the early expression of psychosis liability. © 2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
A heuristic search for good low-density parity-check codes at short block lengths

For a given block length and given degree sequences of the underlying Tanner graph (TG), the ensemble of short low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes can have considerable variation in performance. We present an efficient heuristic method to find good LDPC codes based on what we define as the girth distribution of the TG. This method can be used effectively to design short codes for applications where delay and complexity are of major concern.
Intestinal Inflammation Modulates Expression of the Iron-Regulating Hormone Hepcidin Depending on Erythropoietic Activity and the Commensal Microbiota

States of chronic inflammation such as inflammatory bowel disease are often associated with dysregulated iron metabolism and the consequent development of an anemia that is caused by maldistribution of iron. Abnormally elevated expression of the hormone hepcidin, the central regulator of systemic iron homeostasis, has been implicated in these abnormalities. However, the mechanisms that regulate hepcidin expression in conditions such as inflammatory bowel disease are not completely understood. To clarify this issue, we studied hepcidin expression in mouse models of colitis. We found that dextran sulfate sodium–induced colitis inhibited hepcidin expression in wild-type mice but upregulated it in IL-10–deficient animals. We identified two mechanisms contributing to this difference. Firstly, erythropoietic activity, as indicated by serum erythropoietin concentrations and splenic erythropoiesis, was higher in the wild-type mice, and pharmacologic inhibition of erythropoiesis prevented colitis-associated hepcidin downregulation in these animals. Secondly, the IL-10 knockout mice had higher expression of multiple inflammatory genes in the liver, including several controlled by STAT3, a key regulator of hepcidin. The results of cohousing and fecal transplantation experiments indicated that the microbiota was involved in modulating the expression of hepcidin and other STAT3-dependent hepatic genes in the context of intestinal inflammation. Our observations thus demonstrate the importance of erythropoietic activity and the microbiota in influencing hepcidin expression during colitis and provide insight into the dysregulated iron homeostasis seen in inflammatory diseases.
Streptomycin Induction of Premature Lysis of Bacteriophage-Infected Mycobacteria

Streptomycin produces multiple effects in growing cultures of bacteria, including stimulation of ribonucleic acid (RNA) and inhibition of protein synthesis (Erdos and Ullman, Nature 183:618, 1959), interference with ribosomal function (Speyer et al., Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. U.S. 48:684, 1962), deranged deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and RNA metabolism, and changes in membrane integrity (Dubin et al., Biochim. Biophys. Acta 74:476, 1962; Dubin, J. Mol. Biol. 8:749, 1964; Anand et al., Nature 185:23, 1960). To date, a definitive theory on the mechanism of action of streptomycin has not been formulated. Although the importance of a direct action on ribosomes is well established, which of the other effects are secondary to the ribosomal damage and which, if any, are primary effects of streptomycin is not known. The experiments described here show that streptomycin affects the kinetics of lysis of phage-infected mycobacteria. High
A meta‐analysis comparing laparoscopic partial versus Nissen fundoplication

Background: For proven gastro‐oesophageal reflux disease, partial fundoplication is considered as effective as Nissen, but with fewer side effects. The aim of this meta‐analysis was to compare the effect of laparoscopic partial fundoplication (LPF) with laparoscopic Nissen fundoplication (LNF).
The potential role of epigenetic therapy in multiple myeloma

This review describes the role that epigenetic changes play in the pathogenesis of cancer, concentrating on the plasma cell malignancy multiple myeloma, and highlights recent findings regarding the efficacy of epigenetic therapeutic agents in laboratory studies and clinical trials. DNA methylation is altered in a wide range of cancers with hypermethylation of CpG islands associated with silencing of tumour suppressor genes. Genes found to be silenced by methylation in myeloma samples include VHL, TP53, CDKN2A, and TGFBR2. Myeloma is linked to the overexpression of a histone methylatransferase (MMSET) and inactivating mutations of a histone demethylase (UTX), suggesting that the regulation of histone methylation is a potential therapeutic target. Abnormal expression of histone deacetylases (HDACs) has been widely described in solid tumours and haematological malignancies. In myeloma, histone deacetylase inhibitors show promising results both in laboratory‐based cell culture studies and in clinical trials, where they demonstrate particularly good therapeutic outcome when administered in combination with other standard chemotherapeutic agents. The study of epigenetics shows great promise for understanding the alterations in gene expression that underlie malignancies and provides exciting novel drugable targets.
Scan Registration using the Normal Distributions Transform with Region Growing Clustering for Point-Sampled 3D Surfaces

The normal distributions transform (NDT) registration algorithm often converges to a local minimum if there is a large initial transformation error. In order to improve convergence properties, a novel region growing clustering NDT (RGC-NDT) algorithm is proposed, which replaces volumetric divisions and removes discontinuities in the cost function at the voxel boundaries during the optimization step. A set of computationally eﬃcient multi-scale diﬀerence of locally salient feature vectors is computed for each point in the point cloud using principal components analysis (PCA). Adjacent points around the seed point in the local neighborhood are aggregated into clusters according to the region membership criterion based on the similarity of these feature vectors. The normal distributions transform is then computed for each cluster and points within the region are represented as a probability density function (PDF) for distribution-to-distribution matching. Scan registration results from indoor laser scans validate the improvement of the basin of convergence for NDT algorithm over existing methods.
Artificial neural networks and machine learning for man-machine-interfaces - processing of nervous signals

Recently, Man-Machine-Interfaces contacting the nervous system in order to extract information resp. to introduce information gain more and more in importance. In order to establish systems like neural prostheses or Brain-Computer-Interfaces, powerful (real time) algorithms for processing nerve signals or their field potentials are required. Another important point is the introduction of information into nervous systems by means like functional neuroelectrical stimulation (FNS). This paper gives a short introduction and reviews different approaches towards the development of Man-Machine-Interfaces using artificial neural networks respectively machine learning algorithms for signal processing.
2 Years' experience with inspiratory muscle training in patients with neuromuscular disorders.

PURPOSE The aim of our study was to assess the long-term effects of specific inspiratory muscle training (IMT) in patients with neuromuscular disorders (NMDs) who have various degrees of respiratory impairment. PATIENTS AND METHODS Twenty-seven patients with NMDs (Duchenne's muscular dystrophy, 18 patients; spinal muscular atrophy, 9 patients) underwent 24 months of IMT. Patients were divided into three groups according to their vital capacity (VC) values. VC was measured as the parameter for the respiratory system involvement of the disease. Maximal inspiratory pressure (PImax) was assessed as the parameter for respiratory muscle strength, and the results of the 12-s maximum voluntary ventilation test (12sMVV) were assessed as the parameter for respiratory muscle endurance. Pulmonary and inspiratory muscle function parameters were assessed 6 months before training, at the beginning of training, and then every 3 months. RESULTS The PImax values improved in group A (VC, 27 to 50% predicted) from 51.45 to 87.00 cm H(2)O, in group B (VC, 51 to 70% predicted) from 59.38 to 94.4 cm H(2)O, and in group C (VC, 71 to 96% predicted) from 71.25 to 99.00 cm H(2)O. The 12sMVV values improved in group A from 52.69 to 69.50 L/min, in group B from 53.18 to 62.40 L/min, and in group C from 59.48 to 70.5 L/min. For all three groups, there was a significant improvement of PImax (p < 0.007) and 12sMVV (p < 0.015) until the 10th month when a plateau phase was reached with no decline in the following month until the end of training. CONCLUSION With IMT, respiratory muscle function can be improved in the long term of up to 2 years.