Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Book review of Spreading Resiliency: Making It Happen for Schools and Communities by Mike M. Milstein and Doris Annie Henry

In the past decade, there has been growing interest in educational resiliency as an important framework that can help us understand why some students become successful in school, whereas similar students from the same disadvantaged family backgrounds and neighborhoods have not been successful. One commonly accepted definition of educational resilience is “the heightened likelihood of success in school and other life accomplishments despite environmental adversities brought about by early traits, conditions, and experiences” (Wang, Haertel, & Walberg, 1994, p. 46). Instead of investigating academic failure, the resiliency framework focuses on the predictors of academic success that may aid in the design of more effective educational interventions. Focusing on predictors of academic success enables educators to specifically identify those alterable factors that distinguish resilient from nonresilient students. Spreading Resiliency is an important book because it emphasizes practical and useful approaches for helping educators become aware of the resiliency framework. Chapter 1 sets the stage for the book by engaging the reader in exercises that focus on school, family, and community problems. It introduces the concept of resiliency and provides several exercises that assess the reader’s own resiliency. It also includes an excellent summary of internal and environmental protective factors from one of Milstein’s earlier books on resiliency (Henderson & Milstein, 1996). The next chapter examines resilient communities, and why community development and building resiliency are important. It focuses on ways to build a resilient community such as (a) getting to know one another, (b) developing positive relaJOURNAL OF EDUCATION FOR STUDENTS PLACED AT RISK, 7(1), 99–102 Copyright © 2002, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Repensando la cuestión regional brasileña: tendencias, desafíos y caminos

The complexity of regional phenomena shows that these will only be understood since a multi or interdisciplinary perspective. In the context of importants issues of regional development, like globalization and regional scales, in one hand, and the role of innovation, in the other, this article describes the main regional changes in Brazil, focusing in their economic and demographic dimensions. In the analysis are also considered contemporary transformations with possible regional impacts, such as external opening and MERCOSUR; the change in the conception and the role of the State and the process of privatization; and technological changes and productive restructuration. Considering this elements, and as a suggestion and contribution to the discussion, some issues and guidelines for a new regional development policy are presented.
Characterization of cytochrome P-450 2D1 activity in rat brain: high-affinity kinetics for dextromethorphan.

We investigated the enzymatic function, stability, and regional distribution of rat brain cytochrome P-450 (CYP) 2D1 activity. CYP2D1 is the homolog of human CYP2D6, a genetically variable enzyme that activates or inactivates many clinical drugs acting on the central nervous system (e.g., antidepressants, monoamine oxidase inhibitors, serotonin uptake inhibitors, and neuroleptics), drugs of abuse (e.g., amphetamine and codeine), neurotoxins (e.g., 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine, 1,2,3, 4-tetrahydroquinoline), and endogenous neurochemicals (e.g., tryptamine). The CYP2D family has been identified in rodent, canine, and primate brain. Conversion of dextromethorphan to dextrorphan by rat brain membranes was assayed by HPLC and was dependent on NADPH, protein concentration, and incubation time. Significant loss of activity was observed in some homogenizing buffers and after freezing of whole tissues or membrane preparations. Dextromethorphan (0.5-640 microM) metabolism was mediated by high- and low-affinity enzyme systems; K(m1) was 2.7 +/- 2.6 and K(m2) was 757 +/- 156 microM (n = 3 rats, mean +/- S.E.). The enzyme activity was significantly (p <.01) and stereoselectively inhibited by CYP2D1 inhibitors quinine and quinidine (not by CYP2C or CYP3A inhibitors), and by anti-CYP2D6 peptide antiserum (not by anti-CYP2C, -CYP2B, or -CYP3A antibodies). The enzymatic activity demonstrated significant brain regional variation (n = 10 regions, p <.001). These data characterize CYP2D1-mediated dextromethorphan metabolism in rat brain and suggest that localized metabolism of other CYP2D1 substrates (drugs, neurotoxins, and possibly endogenous compounds) within the brain will occur. In humans, CYP2D6 is genetically polymorphic; the variable expression of brain CYP2D6 may result in interindividual differences in central drug and neurotoxin metabolism, possibly contributing to interindividual differences in drug effects and neurotoxicity.
Gender inequality and research performance: moving beyond individual-meritocratic explanations of academic advancement

Academic debates addressing the persistent gender gap in science reveal considerable contestation of the relevance and extent of the problem. Particular attention has been given to the question of whether women's high attrition rates should be ascribed to the structural and cultural barriers inherent to the academic system or instead individualistic matters, such as personal motivation, performance and merit. In order to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of this particular issue, this cross-sectional bibliometric study investigates the link between gender and research performance in the Danish context. More specifically, it compares the citation and self-citation rates, source normalized impact per publication scores and collaborative patterns of 3293 male and female researchers at a Danish university and provides evidence challenging the widespread assumption of a persistent performance gap in favour of male researchers. The result has implications for research organizations and managers, as it raises concerns about the validity of individual-meritocratic explanations of the skewed gender distributions in academia.
Heterogeneous impact of dust on tropospheric ozone: Sensitivity to season, species, and uptake rates

Heterogeneous chemistry on mineral dust particles causes significant reductions in important tropospheric trace gases such as O3, OH, and HNO3 in dust-dominated regions such as the North African Tropical Atlantic region. We analyze the spatial and temporal modes of dust-induced heterogeneous ozone removal (∆HO3) using empirical orthogonal functions (EOFs) and principal components analysis. We use the results to attribute ozone removal to specific pathways, and to assess the sensitivity of ozone removal to uncertainties in key heterogeneous uptake rates. The first EOF mode dominates ∆HO3 variance (93%) and shows that dust reduces O3 through heterogeneous reactions globally and year-around with the maximum in July. The second mode explains only 4% of ∆HO3 spatial variance yet accounts for most ∆HO3 seasonality. With best-guess uptake coefficients, indirect ozone reduction due to HNO3 uptake exceeds direct heterogeneous uptake of O3. However, uncertainties in uptake rates allow the possibility that direct O3 uptake exceeds HNO3-induced O3 uptake, especially in Northern Spring. Recently published HNO3 uptake coefficients on authentic dust range from 10−5 < γHNO3 < 0.2, and imply that dust destroys 0.5–5.2% of tropospheric O3, respectively. Improved γHNO3 measurements and correct model representation of global dust composition, deliquesence, and aging are required to further reduce these order-of-magnitude uncertainties.
Effects of RNAi-mediated inhibition of aggrecanase-1 and aggrecanase-2 on rat costochondral chondrocytes in vitro

AbstractAim:Failure of transplanted cartilage or allogenic chondrocytes is attributed mainly to immunological rejection and cartilage degradation. A major feature is the loss of aggrecan from the cartilage matrix, primarily due to the action of the specific proteinases aggrecanase-1 and aggrecanase-2. The aim of this in vitro study was to determine whether the specific inhibition of aggrecanase-1 and aggrecanase-2 by RNAi would mitigate aggrecan loss from cultured chondrocytes.Methods:Expression plasmid vectors of shRNA targeting aggrecanase-1 and aggrecanase-2 were constructed and transfected into cultured rattus costochondral chondrocytes. The transfected cells were induced with interleukin-1β (IL-1β). Gene mRNA levels were analyzed by RT—PCR. Aggrecan and collagen II content were measured by immunohistochemistry and Western blotting.Results:As the chondrocytes underwent dedifferentiation, agggrecanase-1 increased significantly. The specific inhibition of aggrecanase-1 and aggrecanase-2 by RNAi had no negative effect on the morphology and growth velocity of the chondrocytes. The mRNA of aggrecanase-1 and aggrecanase-2 decreased significantly. The α-2-macroglobulin expression level was increased by the shRNA specific for aggrecanase-1. Other genes of the chondrocytic extracellular matrix were not affected. RNAi significantly increased the aggrecan and collagen II content of chondrocytes treated with IL-1β. Conclusion:The results suggest that inhibition of aggrecanase-1 and aggrecanase-2 by RNAi can mitigate aggrecan degradation, without interfering with chondrocytic gene phenotype recovery. RNAi technology can be a useful tool for studying degenerative processes in cartilage.
An SDR-based reconfigurable multicarrier transceiver for terrestrial and satellite communications

Multicarrier modulation is one of the cornerstones of modern radio communications. Nowadays Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) finds wide employment in terrestrial mobile standards (WiMax and LTE) and also some significant applications in satellite communications. In order to improve OFDM efficiency and reduce the impact of nonlinear amplification, some variants of OFDM have been recently proposed; the most important are: Single-Carrier OFDM (SC-OFDM), known also as Discrete-Fourier Transform (DFT)-precoded OFDM recently proposed for Digital Video Broadcasting Next Generation broadcasting system to Hand-held (DVB-NGH) standard, and the multi-user version of SC-OFDM, known as Single-Carrier Frequency-Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA), adopted by LTE for the uplink transmissions. In our paper, we aim at proposing a novel reconfigurable multicarrier transceiver implementation based on Software-Defined Radio (SDR), where OFDM and SC-OFDM TX/RX modes can coexist in the same device. The core module of the transceiver is based on the conventional OFDM, implemented in the digital domain by means of the N-point inverse Fast Fourier Transform (I-FFT). SC-OFDM precoding, performed by means of a discrete Fourier transform (DFT) applied to a subset of M information symbols, is instantiated before I-FFT, when SC-OFDM mode is required. The SDR transceiver modules have been implemented by using open source GNU Radio tools and tested in open field by means of low cost hardware devices for RF transmission of software-generated basedband signals. Experimental trials have evidenced the viability of proposed SDR implementation, together with the recognized advantages that SC-OFDM offers in terms of improved link performance in hostile propagation environment. However, it has also been noticed that such improvement is obtained at the expense of a considerable increase of the computaional burden at the receiver side, if compared to that of regular OFDM.
Impostors and pseudo-instancing for GPU crowd rendering

Animated crowds are effective to increase realism in virtual reality applications. However, rendering crowds requires large computational power. In this paper, we present a technique suitable to render large crowds of characters that takes advantage of existing programmable graphics hardware. Impostors are used for low-detail representation, while pseudo-instancing is used for higher detail. A LOD map is used to select between both representations, based on a customizable threshold.
Simulations of Plasmas with Electrostatic PIC Models Using the Finite Element Method

Particle-in-cell (PIC) methods allow the study of plasma behavior by computing the trajectories of finite-size particles under the action of external and self-consistent electric and magnetic fields defined in a grid of points. In this work, the Finite Element Method (FEM) is used in order to obtain the self-consistent fields. An electrostatic PIC-FEM computational code for simulation of one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) plasmas was developed based on two available and independent codes: the first one a 1D PIC code that uses the Finite Difference Method and the other a FEM code developed at the Instituto de Estudos Avancados (IEAv). The Poisson equation is solved and periodic boundary conditions are used. The ion background that neutralizes the total plasma charge is kept fixed and uniformly distributed in the domain of study. The code is tested by studying the fluctuations of the plasma in thermal equilibrium. In thermal equilibrium a plasma sustain fluctuations of various collective modes of electrostatic oscillations, whose spectral distribution can be analytically obtained by using the fluctuation-dissipation theorem and the Kramers-Kronig relation. In both 1D and 2D cases, there are excellent agreement between the spectral distribution curves predicted theoretically and those obtained by simulation for finite size particles and long wavelengths.
Banking on 'break-out': Finance and the development of ethnic minority businesses

Reflecting recent changes in the pattern of ethnic minority business activity in Britain, this paper examines the experiences of firms attempting to break out from the cramped range of generally marginal activities historically occupied by South Asian, African-Caribbean and other immigrant-origin entrepreneurs. Based on in-depth case histories supplemented by a large-scale quantitative survey, the present paper addresses the financial experiences of these firms in the light of the assumption that break-out entails a shift from labour-intensive to capital-intensive activities requiring external financing. Access to bank credit continues to be problematic, with frequent perceptions of racist discrimination even in the case of entrepreneurs with seemingly impressive track records and personal resource endowments.
3D Liver Vessel Reconstruction from CT Images

We propose a novel framework for reconstructing 3D liver vessel model from CT images. The proposed algorithm consists of vessel detection, vessel tree reconstruction and vessel radius estimation. First, we employ the tubular-filter based approach to detect vessel structure and construct the minimum spanning tree to bridge all the gaps between vessels. Then, we propose an approach to estimate the radius of the vessel at all vessel centerline voxels based on the local patch descriptors. Using the proposed 3D vessel reconstruction system can provide detailed 3D liver vessel model very efficiently. Our experimental results demonstrate the accuracy of the proposed system for 3D liver vessel reconstruction from 3D CT images.
Modeling and compensation of joint-dependent kinematic errors in robotic manipulators

Bearing systems and harmonic drives in robots introduce complex kinematic errors which result in joint kinematic errors that reduce the accuracy of their manipulators. Typical calibration methods do not consider these complex errors, thus, limiting post calibration performance. In this paper, a method of modeling and calibrating robot kinematic errors by building a joint-dependent kinematic error model is presented. Measurements are collected by a laser tracker and Active Target mounted on the end of the last robot link. A joint-dependent kinematic error model is constructed and the model parameters are identified with a mathematical algorithm based on maximum likelihood estimation. The kinematic error model is used to modify joint commands offline. Experiments are implemented on a FANUC LR Mate 200i robot. Using 250 measurements to construct the kinematic error model, the mean residual between the measured and modeled positions is reduced from 3.379 to 0.105 mm, a 96.9% reduction. Compensation is applied to an independent set of 100 measurements, and the mean residual is reduced from 3.614 to 0.131 mm, a 96.4% reduction.
Caring for a relative with dementia: A theoretical model of coping with fall risk

The purpose of this study was to discover how carers of dementia sufferers deal with fall risk. Using grounded theory techniques, data were collected by a focus group and interviews with carers. A core category of being on the edge of chaos emerged, in which a fall represented moving into chaos. Carers used multiple strategies to avoid falls and maintain their precarious position on the brink of chaos, by creating order in their lives. They selectively used information, exercised control, redefined normality, reconstructed their self-identity and the relationship with their impaired relative. Although ordering strategies lowered carers' perception of fall risk, it may have increased actual risk by enhancing relatives' dependency and helplessness. Professionals need to help carers balance their use of 'ordering' strategies with others that allow more independence and freedom.
Kidney segmentation in 3D CT images using B-Spline Explicit Active Surfaces

In this manuscript, we propose to adapt the B-Spline Explicit Active Surfaces (BEAS) framework for semi-automatic kidney segmentation in computed tomography (CT) images. To study the best energy functional for kidney CT extraction, three different localized region-based energies were implemented within the BEAS framework, namely localized Chan-Vese, localized Yezzi, and signed localized Yezzi energies. Moreover, a novel gradient-based regularization term is proposed. The method was applied on 18 kidneys from 9 CT datasets, with different image properties. Several energy combinations were contrasted using surface-based comparison against ground truth meshes, assessing their accuracy and robustness against surface initialization. Overall, the hybrid energy functional combining the localized signed Yezzi energy with gradient-based regularization simultaneously showed the highest accuracy and the lowest sensitivity to the initialization. Volumetric analysis demonstrated the feasibility of the method from a clinical point of view, with similar reproducibility to manual observers.
β-N-Acetylhexosaminidases HEXO1 and HEXO3 Are Responsible for the Formation of Paucimannosidic N-Glycans in Arabidopsis thaliana

Most plant glycoproteins contain substantial amounts of paucimannosidic N-glycans instead of their direct biosynthetic precursors, complex N-glycans with terminal N-acetylglucosamine residues. We now demonstrate that two β-N-acetylhexosaminidases (HEXO1 and HEXO3) residing in different subcellular compartments jointly account for the formation of paucimannosidic N-glycans in Arabidopsis thaliana. Total N-glycan analysis of hexo knock-out plants revealed that HEXO1 and HEXO3 contribute equally to the production of paucimannosidic N-glycans in roots, whereas N-glycan processing in leaves depends more heavily on HEXO3 than on HEXO1. Because hexo1 hexo3 double mutants do not display any obvious phenotype even upon exposure to different forms of abiotic or biotic stress, it should be feasible to improve the quality of glycoprotein therapeutics produced in plants by down-regulation of endogenous β-N-acetylhexosaminidase activities.
Identification and specificities of N‐terminal acetyltransferases from Saccharomyces cerevisiae

N‐terminal acetylation can occur cotranslationally on the initiator methionine residue or on the penultimate residue if the methionine is cleaved. We investigated the three N‐terminal acetyltransferases (NATs), Ard1p/Nat1p, Nat3p and Mak3p. Ard1p and Mak3p are significantly related to each other by amino acid sequence, as is Nat3p, which was uncovered in this study using programming alignment procedures. Mutants deleted in any one of these NAT genes were viable, but some exhibited diminished mating efficiency and reduced growth at 37°C, and on glycerol and NaCl‐containing media. The three NATs had the following substrate specificities as determined in vivo by examining acetylation of 14 altered forms of iso‐1‐cytochrome c and 55 abundant normal proteins in each of the deleted strains: Ard1p/Nat1p, subclasses with Ser‐, Ala‐, Gly‐ and Thr‐termini; Nat3p, Met‐Glu‐ and Met‐Asp‐ and a subclass of Met‐Asn‐termini; and Mak3p subclasses with Met‐Ile‐ and Met‐Leu‐termini. In addition, a special subclass of substrates with Ser‐Glu‐ Phe‐, Ala‐Glu‐Phe‐ and Gly‐Glu‐Phe‐termini required all three NATs for acetylation.
Level-set person segmentation and tracking with multi-region appearance models and top-down shape information

In this paper, we address the problem of segmentation-based tracking of multiple articulated persons. We propose two improvements to current level-set tracking formulations. The first is a localized appearance model that uses additional level-sets in order to enforce a hierarchical subdivision of the object shape into multiple connected regions with distinct appearance models. The second is a novel mechanism to include detailed object shape information in the form of a per-pixel figure/ground probability map obtained from an object detection process. Both contributions are seamlessly integrated into the level-set framework. Together, they considerably improve the accuracy of the tracked segmentations. We experimentally evaluate our proposed approach on two challenging sequences and demonstrate its good performance in practice.
Acceptability of self-collected human papillomavirus specimens as a primary screen for cervical cancer

The aim of this study was to compare the acceptability of self-collected vs clinician-collected human papillomavirus (HPV) tests. Utilising a cross-sectional approach, 250 non-pregnant, 25–60-year-old women from Leon, Nicaragua self-collected vaginal swabs and brushes for HPV and received a pelvic examination for liquid-based cytology and reflex HPV. Subjects underwent colposcopy, with biopsy if indicated, and completed questionnaires comparing their perceptions of HPV testing methods. Acceptability indices were significantly higher for self-collected brushes (M = 18.40, SD = 2.73) and swabs (M = 18.48, SD = 2.41) than clinician-collection (M = 17.56, SD = 2.92), p < 0.001. Multiple regression analyses revealed that age, education, and reproductive history were not significant predictors of acceptability. A total of 81.1% of subjects reported they would self-collect in the future. Self-collected HPV tests are highly acceptable in terms of pain, comfort, privacy and embarrassment, and are thus a viable method of screening in low-resource areas.