Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Selling Nature to save It? Biodiversity and Green Developmentalism

New supranational environmental institutions, including the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the ‘green’ World Bank, reflect attempts to regulate international flows of ‘natural capital’ by means of an approach I call ‘green developmentalism’. These institutions are sources of eco-development dollars and of a new ‘global’ discourse, a postneoliberal environmental-economic paradigm. By the logic of this paradigm, nature is constructed as a world currency and ecosystems arc recoded as warehouses of genetic resources for biotechnology industries. Nature would earn its own right to survive through international trade in ecosystem services and permits to pollute, access to tourism and research sites, and exports of timber, minerals, and intellectual property rights to traditional crop varieties and shamans' recipes. I contend that green developmentalism, with its promise of market solutions to environmental problems, is blunting the North-South disputes that have embroiled international environmental institutions. But by valuing local nature in relation to international markets—denominating diversity in dollars, euros, or yen—green developmentalism abstracts nature from its spatial and social contexts and reinforces the claims of global elites to the greatest share of the earth's biomass and all it contains. Meanwhile, the CBD has become a gathering ground for transnational coalitions of indigenous, peasant, and NGO opponents of ‘biopiracy’ and the patenting of living things, and advocates of international environmental justice. They have begun to put forward counterdiscourses and alternative practices to those of green developmentalism.
ACCOUNTING IN THE SERVICE OF THE HOLOCAUST

Abstract This paper argues that, in addition to raising visibility of processes, activities and behaviours, accounting can also be a powerful means of disguise. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the treatment of Jews during the period now known as the Holocaust. Accounting numbers were substituted for qualitative attributes of individuals thereby denying them their humanity and individuality and making them invisible to Germans not directly involved in the attempted annihilation of all European Jews. The Nazis also endeavoured to use accounting to purify their expropriation and disposal of the vast amount of property taken from the Jews.
Specialization in the Structure and Organization of Geography

Abstract Specialty groups are a relatively recent innovation within the Association of American Geographers (AAG), but have grown rapidly to play a major part in the functioning of the organization. This paper examines the role of specialization within and between disciplines, with special reference to geography, as a response to the complexity of knowledge and of scientific activity, and as a phenomenon of social organization. The scale and basis of organization of the specialty groups are seen as responses to needs for communication and survival. Natural and empirical views of the organization of disciplines and other academic divisions within the field of knowledge, and of the processes operating on individual career paths, are discussed. The empirical (or pragmatic) view provides the basis for analyzing the membership of AAG specialty groups to determine the structure of the current discipline and the trends to which it is subject. A multidimensional scaling and an elementary linkage analysis of the c.
Nodal Domains for the p-Laplacian

In this paper we consider the eigenvalue problem −� pu = λ(m)|u| p−2 u, u ∈ W 1,p 0 (�) where p> 1, � p is the p-Laplacian operator, λ> 0, � is a bounded domain in R N (N ≥ 1) and m is a given positive function in L r (�) (r depending on p and N ). We prove that the second positive eigenvalue admits exactly two nodal domains.
The effects of stress on young children's memory for a natural disaster.

The effects of stress on children's long-term memory for a major hurricane were studied. Stress was objectively defined as low, moderate, or high according to the severity of damage to the child's home. One hundred 3and 4-year-old children received a structured interview 2-6 months following the hurricane. Older children recalled and elaborated more than younger children. Prompted recall was greater than spontaneous recall. There was a quadratic function, consistent with an inverted U-shaped curve, relating storm severity with overall as well as spontaneous recall. These findings can be applied to the effects of stress on the amount recalled by children giving retrospective accounts of temporally extended, naturalistic events.
Design, implementation and performance of fault-tolerant message passing interface (MPI)

Fault tolerant MPI (FTMPI) enables fault tolerance to the MPICH, an open source GPL licensed implementation of MPI standard by Argonne National Laboratory's Mathematics and Computer Science Division. FTMPI is a transparent fault-tolerant environment, based on synchronous checkpointing and restarting mechanism. FTMPI relies on non-multithreaded single process checkpointing library to synchronously checkpoint an application process. Global replicated system controller and cluster node specific node controller monitors and controls check pointing and recovery activities of all MPI applications within the cluster. This work details the architecture to provide fault tolerance mechanism for MPI based applications running on clusters and the performance of NAS parallel benchmarks and parallelized medium range weather forecasting models, P-T80 and P-TI26. The architecture addresses the following issues also: Replicating system controller to avoid single point of failure. Ensuring consistency of checkpoint files based on distributed two phase commit protocol, and robust fault detection hierarchy.
Low voltage DC power supply with spike-blocking features

RFID tags, sensors embedded with buried devices and biomedical implants all operate at low voltage levels due to power limitations. The ever increasing use these embedded devices has also created a demand in the industry for low-voltage power supplies. Since many of these circuits are mobile in nature and so are bound to operate in many different environments, the power supply must also be capable of ensuring a stable voltage output even under adverse conditions. This paper analyzes and simulates a power supply circuit that promises a low ripple factor with an element of spike-blocking capability. It centers on a phase-modulation technique that effectively cancels out 99.6% of ripples when operating with a 100 mV ac input at a frequency of 10 kHz. This active noise-cancellation technique allows for a more stable voltage output. It also has a limited inbuilt capability to block spikes. A 100 mV injected spike is brought down to only 6 mV without the use of other damping circuits. This work is therefore capable of damping a large part of the variations in the input voltage, even at low voltages.
Comorbidity burden is associated with poor psychological well-being and physical health status in patients with an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator.

AIMS Comorbidity burden has been linked to survival in patients with an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD), but no study has examined the influence on psychological well-being and health status. We examined the relationship between comorbidity burden and anxiety, depression, and health status in patients with an ICD during the first 12 months post-implantation using a prospective study design. METHODS AND RESULTS Consecutively, implanted ICD patients (N = 401; 78% men) completed the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and the Short Form Health Survey 36 (SF-36) at baseline, 3, 6, and 12 months post-implantation. Data were analysed using general linear mixed modelling repeated measures multivariable analysis of variance. The mean Charlson comorbidity index score was 3.5 (± 2.4). In adjusted analyses, comorbidity burden was significantly associated with depression (P = 0.003) and the physical health status domains of the SF-36 (Physical Functioning: P < 0.001; Role Limitations-Physical: P = 0.023; Bodily Pain: P = 0.004; and General Health: P = 0.025) but not with anxiety (P = 0.62) and the mental health status domains of the SF-36 (all P's > 0.05). Chronic heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cerebrovascular disease, and renal failure were the comorbidities with the most impact on depression and physical health status. CONCLUSION Comorbidity burden was a significant predictor of poorer psychological well-being and physical health status in ICD patients during the first 12 months post-implantation. In the care and management of ICD patients, it is important to recognize the impact of comorbidity burden on patients' mood and health status, and that adjunctive intervention may be warranted to enhance well-being.
Robust Feedforward-Feedback Control of a Nonlinear and Oscillating 2-DOF Piezocantilever

Many tasks related to the micro/nanoworld require, not only high performances like submicrometric accuracy, but also a high dexterity. Such performances are only obtained using micromanipulators and microrobots with multiple degrees of freedom (DOF). Unfortunately, these multi-DOF systems usually present a strong coupling between the different axis making them very hard to control. The aim of this work is the modeling and control of a 2-DOF piezoelectric cantilever dedicated to microassembly/micromanipulation tasks. In addition to the coupling between the two axis, the piezocantilever is very oscillating and strongly nonlinear (hysteresis and creep). In the proposed approach, the nonlinearity and vibration are first compensated thanks to the feedforward technique. Afterwards, we derive a decoupled model in order to synthesize a linear robust H∞ controller. The experimental results show the efficiency of the proposed approach and their convenience to the micromanipulation/microassembly requirements. Note to Practitioners-The main motivation of this paper is the need of both high performances and high dexterity in micromanipulation and microassembly tasks. In such a case, not only a sub micrometric accuracy and stability are needed, but also numerous degrees of freedom. For that, in the literature, there exist piezoelectric based structures with two or more DOF. Unfortunately, the coupling between its axis, the nonlinearities (hysteresis and creep) and the structure vibration make them very difficult to control and therefore make performances lost. A classical feedback con troller can be employed but when the nonlinearities and vibration become strong, it is impossible to synthesize a linear controller. In this paper, we show that the combination of feedforward techniques, to minimize the nonlinearities and vibration, and feedback techniques makes possible to reach the high performances required in micromanipulation/microassembly. We notice that the proposed approach can also be applied to other nonlinear, oscillating and multi-DOF systems, such as piezotubes.
Malcom Coulthard & Alison Johnson (eds.), The Routledge handbook of forensic linguistics (Routledge Handbooks in Applied Linguistics). London: Routledge, 2010. Pp. xxvii+673.

Lawyers spend vast amounts of time arguing about the meaning of words. Sometimes the disagreement may strike laypeople as bizarre: for example, in the United Kingdom you can get three years in prison for carrying around an ‘article ’ for use in stealing something. The term ‘article ’ does not include a trained monkey, according to the case of Daly v Cameron [1954] 1 All ER 315 (O’Connor 2007: 192). Often, though, it is perfectly understandable for courts to deliberate at length about semantics : if someone takes some steps that might lead to stealing something, but does not actually steal anything, can they be charged with ‘attempting’ to steal? It would depend on how far advanced the steps were. If the suspect was caught tunnelling into a bank vault with a crowbar in their hand (perhaps without a trained monkey), and has a history of similar crimes, things would be fairly clear. At the other extreme, take someone with no criminal record or contacts, who speculates idly with friends about how to steal the Crown Jewels : they would probably have nothing to worry about. In between lies a wide range of behaviour that might count as an ‘attempt’, and it is often not easy for courts to decide where the dividing line should be drawn. Language and the law are closely linked, and recent years have seen a surge of work on the connections. The editors of The Routledge handbook of forensic linguistics have been prominent in the field, and the result is an absorbing state-of-the-art survey. The book is divided into three sections. Section I has twenty-one chapters which examine ‘The language of the law and the legal process ’, looking at written texts but mostly at spoken discourse in courtrooms and police stations. Section II, ‘The linguist as expert in legal processes ’, reviews different ways in which linguists can apply specialist expertise to legal matters, including forensic phonetics, court interpreting, author identification, plagiarism and the widespread practice – highly dubious, in my view – of using linguistic analysis to determine language of origin in asylum cases. This section contains twelve chapters in all. Finally, Section III consists of five chapters which survey ‘New debates and new directions’. J. Linguistics 47 (2011), 709–753. f Cambridge University Press 2011
Inhibition of Restriction Enzyme's DNA Sequence Recognition by PUVA Treatment†,¶

Abstract Applying various restriction enzymes on a specially designed 1.5 kb DNA fragment revealed that the inhibitory effects of psoralens + UVA irradiation (PUVA) treatment on restriction endonuclease activities are caused by recognition inhibition. In this study restriction enzymes that have a 5′-TpA sequence at the cleaving site (KpnI, XbaI, PmeI and DraI), and the noncleaving site (PacI) in recognition sites, or have two 5′-TpA sequences at the recognition site, and a nonspecific sequence between the recognition and the cleaving sites (BciVI), were inhibited by PUVA treatment. Most of the other restriction enzymes used in this study, which do not have a 5′-TpA sequence at their restriction site, were not inhibited by PUVA treatment, although a 5′-TpA sequence is located adjacent (SmaI) or very close (BamHI, SacI and PstI) to the recognition and cleaving sites for these enzymes. Because SphI, which does not have 5′-TpA at its restriction site, was strongly inhibited by PUVA treatment, the 5′-CpA sequence is suggested to be a new binding site of psoralens after UVA irradiation.
Advancing Change with Maltreating Fathers

In this commentary we highlight some of the ways that our current views of fathers who maltreat their children or partners may be outdated, and consider appropriate services for these men and their families. We examine barriers to intervention with men, including the societal bias that mothers are more amenable to change than fathers as well as the reality that these men are difficult to work with. Help providers must possess the skills necessary to challenge and motivate maltreating and at risk fathers. These skills are described as a combination of those derived from working with male batterers and those working with children and families. A paradigm shift that promotes more accessible help for men and fathers is needed to end men's violence against women and children.
Control and Optimization of a Variable-Pitch Quadrotor with Minimum Power Consumption

Recently, there has been a rapid growth of interest in quadrotors with electric variable-pitch propellers. The control and optimization of such propellers are important factors for improving the flight performance of the vehicles. Therefore, the steady-state identification method to estimate the parameters of the mathematical model of the electric variable-pitch propeller is developed. The steady-state control and optimization scheme with minimum power consumption and the adaptive compensation scheme for the variable-pitch propeller are then proposed, based on which the response performance of the lift force produced by the variable-pitch propeller can be greatly improved by using a cascade compensation scheme. Furthermore, the direct lift-based flight control strategy is presented, which can significantly contribute to the improvement of the flight performance, precisely because the roll, pitch, yaw and vertical channels of the variable-pitch quadrotor are approximately linearized and completely decoupled from each other in this case. The experimental results demonstrate that both the endurance performance and the positioning accuracy of the variable-pitch quadrotor are improved simultaneously by using the proposed method with minimum power consumption.
Bradykinin‐induced astrocyte–neuron signalling: glutamate release is mediated by ROS‐activated volume‐sensitive outwardly rectifying anion channels

Glial cells release gliotransmitters which signal to adjacent neurons and glial cells. Previous studies showed that in response to stimulation with bradykinin, glutamate is released from rat astrocytes and causes NMDA receptor‐mediated elevation of intracellular Ca2+ in adjacent neurons. Here, we investigate how bradykinin‐induced glutamate release from mouse astrocytes signals to neighbouring neurons in co‐cultures. Astrocyte‐to‐neuron signalling and bradykinin‐induced glutamate release from mouse astrocytes were both inhibited by the anion channel blocker 4,4′‐diisothiocyanatostilbene‐2,2′‐disulfonic acid (DIDS) and phloretin. Glutamate release was also sensitive to 4‐(2‐Butyl‐6,7‐dichlor‐2‐cyclopentylindan‐1‐on‐5‐yl) oxybutyric acid (DCPIB), a specific blocker of the volume‐sensitive outwardly rectifying anion channel (VSOR). Astrocytes, but not neurons, responded to bradykinin with activation of whole‐cell Cl− currents. Although astrocytes stimulated with bradykinin did not undergo cell swelling, the bradykinin‐activated current exhibited properties typical of VSOR: outward rectification, inhibition by osmotic shrinkage, sensitivity to DIDS, phloretin and DCPIB, dependence on intracellular ATP, and permeability to glutamate. Bradykinin increased intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) in mouse astrocytes. Pretreatment of mouse astrocytes with either a ROS scavenger or an NAD(P)H oxidase inhibitor blocked bradykinin‐induced activation of VSOR, glutamate release and astrocyte‐to‐neuron signalling. By contrast, pretreatment with BAPTA‐AM or tetanus neurotoxin A failed to suppress bradykinin‐induced glutamate release. Thus, VSOR activated by ROS in mouse astrocytes in response to stimulation with bradykinin, serves as the pathway for glutamate release to mediate astrocyte‐to‐neuron signalling. Since bradykinin is an initial mediator of inflammation, VSOR might play a role in glia–neuron communication in the brain during inflammation.
ADIMUS — Adaptive Internet Multimedia Streaming

This document is the final scientific report of the ADIMUS project which was funded by the NORDUnet3 programme. ADIMUS addresses the problem of enhancing the quality of multimedia streams at run-time based on the perceived quality. We present an architecture that addresses the different requirements from end-to-end for a mobile terminal. The architecture comprises an overlay network in the long-distance part, while the multiaccess network employs cross-layer technology. Both parts interact, and use adaptation techniques shown in this report. We also present quality estimation techniques for both audio and video streams. This report is based on the scientifc papers published during the project, and sets these papers into the context of the ADIMUS project.
The PmrA/PmrB Two-Component System of Legionella pneumophila Is a Global Regulator Required for Intracellular Replication within Macrophages and Protozoa

ABSTRACT To examine the role of the PmrA/PmrB two-component system (TCS) of Legionella pneumophila in global gene regulation and in intracellular infection, we constructed pmrA and pmrB isogenic mutants by allelic exchange. Genome-wide microarray gene expression analyses of the pmrA and pmrB mutants at both the exponential and the postexponential phases have shown that the PmrA/PmrB TCS has a global effect on the expression of 279 genes classified into nine groups of genes encoding eukaryotic-like proteins, Dot/Icm apparatus and secreted effectors, type II-secreted proteins, regulators of the postexponential phase, stress response genes, flagellar biosynthesis genes, metabolic genes, and genes of unknown function. Forty-one genes were differentially regulated in the pmrA or pmrB mutant, suggesting a possible cross talk with other TCSs. The pmrB mutant is more sensitive to low pH than the pmrA mutant and the wild-type strain, suggesting that acidity may trigger this TCS. The pmrB mutant exhibits a significant defect in intracellular proliferation within human macrophages, Acanthamoeba polyphaga, and the ciliate Tetrahymena pyriformis. In contrast, the pmrA mutant is defective only in the ciliate. Despite the intracellular growth defect within human macrophages, phagosomes harboring the pmrB mutant exclude late endosomal and lysosomal markers and are remodeled by the rough endoplasmic reticulum. Similar to the dot/icm mutants, the intracellular growth defect of the pmrB mutant is totally rescued in cis within communal phagosomes harboring the wild-type strain. We conclude that the PmrA/PmrB TCS has a global effect on gene expression and is required for the intracellular proliferation of L. pneumophila within human macrophages and protozoa. Differences in gene regulation and intracellular growth phenotypes between the pmrA and pmrB mutant suggests a cross talk with other TCSs.
Recognising the Dynamics of Faces across Multiple Views

We present an integrated framework for dynamic face detection and recognition, where head pose is estimated using Support Vector Regression, face detection is performed by Support Vector Classification, and recognition is carried out in a feature space constructed by Linear Discriminant Analysis. Unlike most traditional approaches to matching the patterns from static face images, we model the dynamics of human faces from video sequences in a consistent spatio-temporal context, i.e. recognition is accomplished by matching an object trajectory to a set of identity model trajectories in feature space. The model trajectories are synthesized from only a few views which sparsely cover the view sphere. Compared with the static face matching techniques, this approach is more robust and accurate under a coarse correspondence of face images, and has potential to visual interaction and advanced human behaviour recognition in real-world scenarios.
Hiding mobile traffic fingerprints with GLOVE

Preservation of user privacy is paramount in the publication of datasets that contain fine-grained information about individuals. The problem is especially critical in the case of mobile traffic datasets collected by cellular operators, as they feature high subscriber trajectory uniqueness and they are resistant to anonymization through spatiotemporal generalization. In this work, we first unveil the reasons behind such undesirable features of mobile traffic datasets, by leveraging an original measure of the anonymizability of users' mobile fingerprints. Building on such findings, we propose GLOVE, an algorithm that grants k-anonymity of trajectories through specialized generalization. We evaluate our methodology on two nationwide mobile traffic datasets, and show that it achieves k-anonymity while preserving a substantial level of accuracy in the data.