Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Differential Modulation of Angiogenesis by Erythropoiesis-Stimulating Agents in a Mouse Model of Ischaemic Retinopathy

Background Erythropoiesis stimulating agents (ESAs) are widely used to treat anaemia but concerns exist about their potential to promote pathological angiogenesis in some clinical scenarios. In the current study we have assessed the angiogenic potential of three ESAs; epoetin delta, darbepoetin alfa and epoetin beta using in vitro and in vivo models. Methodology/Principal Findings The epoetins induced angiogenesis in human microvascular endothelial cells at high doses, although darbepoetin alfa was pro-angiogenic at low-doses (1–20 IU/ml). ESA-induced angiogenesis was VEGF-mediated. In a mouse model of ischaemia-induced retinopathy, all ESAs induced generation of reticulocytes but only epoetin beta exacerbated pathological (pre-retinal) neovascularisation in comparison to controls (p<0.05). Only epoetin delta induced a significant revascularisation response which enhanced normality of the vasculature (p<0.05). This was associated with mobilisation of haematopoietic stem cells and their localisation to the retinal vasculature. Darbepoetin alfa also increased the number of active microglia in the ischaemic retina relative to other ESAs (p<0.05). Darbepoetin alfa induced retinal TNFα and VEGF mRNA expression which were up to 4 fold higher than with epoetin delta (p<0.001). Conclusions This study has implications for treatment of patients as there are clear differences in the angiogenic potential of the different ESAs.
Mapreduce Performance Evaluation through Benchmarking and Stress Testing On Multi-Node Hadoop Cluster

Over the past few years, many data based applications have been developed using the powerful tools provided by the World Wide Web. In today’s world an organization may generate petabytes of data each second. To gain insights from this vast pool of data, applications based on data-mining and web indexing such as artificial neural networks, decision trees etc., play an important role. Such tools are tremendously helping social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter to get meaningful information from their data. Hadoop is an open source distributed batch processing infrastructure. It works by distributing the amount of processing required by a task across a number of machines, thereby balancing the load depending on the node. Hadoop, in a very short time has gained huge popularity amongst many IT firms. Infact, many big players such as IBM, Google, Quora and Yahoo are using numerous applications based on Hadoop infrastructure.
Appliance and Equipment Efficiency Standards : History , Impacts , Current Status , and Future Directions

It has been more than twenty years since the first appliance efficiency standards were enacted in the United States. In the initial years appliance standard discussions were marked by bitter debates but by the early 1990s a middle ground had been found in which manufacturers, states, and energy efficiency advocates often worked together to negotiate consensual national efficiency standards that preempted standards set by states. Standards set in this manner are producing substantial reductions in U.S. energy use (more than 2.5 percent of U.S. energy use, once existing standards are fully implemented) while maintaining a benefitcost ratio of more than 3:1.
Socially Constructed School Violence: Lessons from the Field

Socially Constructed School Violence: Lessons from the Field argues that the way we understand what constitutes violence is socially constructed, and that people from different social locations, that is, gender, race, social class, geographic location, and so on, will have varied perspectives on what is violent. Based on ethnographic work at an urban alternative school for students expelled for bringing weapons to school and an affluent suburban school eighteen miles away, this book describes various ways violence can be constructed. Specifically, this book discusses personal and structural forms of violence that students, teachers, administrators, and other school staff encounter. Using powerful examples from the ethnographic analysis, this book describes some of the valuable lessons learned about how we can work to prevent school violence.
Mixed Effects Models for Single-Trial ERP Detection in Noninvasive Brain Computer Interface Design

Single-trial evoked response potential detection is a fundamental problem that needs to be solved with high accuracy before noninvasive brain computer interfaces (BCI) can become a widely used practical tool that enables seamless communication with and control of a computer and any peripheral devices that can be connected to it. While in current BCI prototypes multi-trial inference is utilized with some success to convey user’s intent to the computer for various applications, speed of such communication is inherently limited by the number of stimulus repetitions the subject has to go through before one command selection can be transmitted to the computer. Consequently, number of stimulus repetitions (i.e., number of trials) is inversely proportional to the speed of communication and control that the subject can achieve. In this chapter, we provide a review of our recent work on using mixed effects models, a parametric modeling approach to statistically model trial-responses in electroencephalography in a generative fashion. Emerging from this generative model, we also develop a Fisher kernel that is in turn utilized in the support vec
Getting to NO Alzheimer's Disease: Neuroprotection versus Neurotoxicity Mediated by Nitric Oxide

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder involving the loss of neurons in the brain which leads to progressive memory loss and behavioral changes. To date, there are only limited medications for AD and no known cure. Nitric oxide (NO) has long been considered part of the neurotoxic insult caused by neuroinflammation in the Alzheimer's brain. However, focusing on early developments, prior to the appearance of cognitive symptoms, is changing that perception. This has highlighted a compensatory, neuroprotective role for NO that protects synapses by increasing neuronal excitability. A potential mechanism for augmentation of excitability by NO is via modulation of voltage-gated potassium channel activity (Kv7 and Kv2). Identification of the ionic mechanisms and signaling pathways that mediate this protection is an important next step for the field. Harnessing the protective role of NO and related signaling pathways could provide a therapeutic avenue that prevents synapse loss early in disease.
Differential topology rectifier design for ambient wireless energy harvesting

In this paper, two types of differential topology rectifier are studied and designed for RF energy harvesting at GSM1800 band 1.83GHz. The proposed differential serial rectifier and differential doubler rectifier are with odd harmonics suppression characteristics. Radial stubs are utilized to filter the output harmonics, which makes the rectifier more compact. The rectifiers with Schottky diodes (SMS7630) are fabricated on Teflon substrate. Measured maximum efficiencies of two rectifiers are 49% @ 0dBm and 53% @ 2dBm, respectively. The results show that the rectifiers are efficient, power sensitive and compact. An application scenario of proposed rectifier are demonstrated. The proposed rectifiers can be used in many RF energy harvesting system, including RFID applications.
The Economics of Total Quality Management: Clashing Paradigms in the Global Market

Mass production-scientific management - an old-fashioned paradigm. on the nature of the continuous improvement firm - TQM in action viewing human resources as capital investment productivity and cost in the continuous improvement firm cost in the continuous improvement firm - the economics of flexibility customer value approach to demand. the continuous improvement firm in mixed competition a contradictory world of competing paradigms international transfer of continuous improvement technology the future of total quality management.
Educating for Social Action

Abstract This study employed a pretest-posttest design to evaluate the impact of an innovative fieldwork program in Israel that placed BS W students in social change organizations. It examined the program's impact upon students' willingness and sense of self-competence to engage in social action, their willingness to work in social change organizations, their perceptions regarding state responsibility for welfare, and the link between politics and social work. The sample consisted of 141 first-year BSW students from a research and comparison group. The findings show that the intended objectives of the program were not met. Several explanations are offered, as are implications for social work education.
An analysis of the relationship between painters based on their work

We propose a methodology to analyze and visualize the relationships and influences between painters. We build a graph where each painter is a node and an edge between two nodes is weighted by the painters' similarity. The similarity of two painters is measured as a function of the similarity between their paintings. Although the image representation we use was initially developed for the detection of objects in natural images, we will show how our system can discover artistic periods and non-obvious connections between painters belonging to different artistic movements, showing its usefulness for the computer-assisted study of art.
Modeling carbon nanotube transistors using neural networks approach

A model for carbon nanotube field-effect transistors (CNTFETs) is developed using neural networks approach. This model accurately predicts the I-V characteristics for different structures of CNTFETs. The model is implemented inside the circuit simulator Eldo using its general user defined model (GUDM) template. To confirm the accuracy of the proposed model, the I-V characteristics are compared to device simulation results. The model is also validated using experimental data for both shottky barrier and conventional CNTFETs. The model shows excellent fitting for both the experimental and device simulation data with average percentage error doesn't exceed 1%.
Priority Inheritance on Condition Variables Tommaso Cucinotta

In this paper, a mechanism is presented to deal with priority inversion in real-time systems when multiple threads of execution synchronize with each other by means of mutual exclusion semaphores coupled with the programming abstraction of condition variables. Traditional priority inheritance solutions focus on addressing priority or deadline inversion as due to the attempt to lock mutual exclusion semaphores, or deal exclusively with specific interaction patterns such as client-server ones. The mechanism proposed in this paper allows the programmer to explicitly declare to the run-time environment what tasks are able to perform a notify operation on a condition over which other tasks may be suspended through a wait operation. This enables developers of custom interaction models for real-time tasks to exploit their knowledge of the application-specific interaction so as to potentially reduce priority inversion. The paper discusses issues in the realization of the technique, and its integration with existing priority inheritance mechanisms on current operating systems. Also, the paper briefly presents the prototyping of the technique within the open-source RTSim real-time systems simulator, which is used to highlight the potential advantages of the exposed technique through a simple simulated scenario.
Regulatory Equity and Effectiveness: Issues of Will, Capacity, and Legitimation in New Jersey.

When New Jersey passed the Quality Education Act to equalize expenditures between rich and poor school districts, it added a level of regulatory oversight to the "special needs districts," the 30 poorest districts in the state. This paper describes that oversight system and the additional paperwork burdens it created for those districts. It also explores the political context that contributed to the new system and the past abuses that it might help to correct. State-level policy development was tracked through document analysis and interviews with officials on the State Board of Education and in the Department of Education. Longitudinal case studies of 12 school districts involved analysis of district records and interviews with the district superintendent, administrative staff members, a union leader, the board president, a city government representative, principals, teachers, and school staff. A conclusion is that where coordination between the new system and the old was successful, the new system was moderately effective in improving the performance of those districts. However, it questions the use of an input criterion--legal status and expected funding increases--rather than a performance criterion such as student learning or avoidance of financial mismanagement for determining which districts should undergo such oversight. (LMI) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** U.111. DEPARTMENT OF COUCATION Mee of Edocatfonai Reeeefeh and Impevement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) ! Ks document has been repeodueed se renewed front the Denton of organisation oronattng It. 0 Minor change* have been med, to improve fsPrOdochon duahty Pants of vane of ocannaulatated tit that docw ment do not neceseenly fepreeent offibtat OERI posthon of poacy PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)" REGULATORY EQUITY AND EFFECTWENESS: ISSUES OF WILL, CAPACITY, AND LEGITIMATION IN NEW JERSEY William A. Firestone Brianna Nagle
Transcranial duplex scanning in parkinsonian disorders : comparison with SPECT

Background Parkinson’s disease (IPD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder. One of the most widely used techniques to diagnose IPD is a Single Photon Emission Computer Tomography (SPECT) scan to visualise the integrity of the dopaminergic pathways in the brain. Despite this there remains some discussion on the value of SPECT in the differential diagnosis of IPD. We did a meta-analysis of all the existing literature on the diagnostic accuracy of both preand post-synaptic SPECT imaging in the differential diagnosis of IPD. Methods Relevant studies were searched in Medline, EMBASE and Cochrane databases with backsearching of their reference lists. We limited our analysis to studies with a clinically relevant methodology: i.e. when they assessed the ability of SPECT to provide 1. diagnosis of IPD in an early phase vs. normalcy; 2 diagnostic differentiation between IPD and essential tremor (ET); 3. distinguishing between IPD and vascular parkinsonism (VP); 4. delineation of IPD from atypical parkinsonian syndromes (APS). Gold standard was, dependent on the study type, clinical examination at initial visit or follow-up, and/or response to dopaminergic agents. Results The search gave 185 hits, of which we deemed 32 suitable for our analysis. From these we recalculated the diagnostic odds ratio of SPECT for the clinical questions above. The pooled odds ratio (with 95%CI) for presynaptic SPECT scan’s ability to distinguish between early IPD and normalcy was 60 (13-277). For the ability to differentiate between IPD and ET this ratio was 210 (78-563). The ratio for presynaptic SPECT’s ability to delineate IPD from VP was 105 (32-348). The mean odds ratio for the presynaptic SPECT scans to differentiate between IPD and APS was 2 (14), and for the postsynaptic SPECT imaging this was 19 (10-36). Conclusions SPECT with presynaptic radiotracers is relatively accurate to differentiate patients with IPD in an early phase from normalcy, patients with IPD from those with ET, and IPD from VP. The accuracy of SPECT with both presynaptic and postsynaptic tracers to differentiate between IPD and APS is relatively low. Thesis_Vlaar_v3. pdf 22 26-6-2009 9:23:24 Meta-analysis of the literature on diagnostic accuracy of SPECTS⏐23
A 1/10000 lower error rate achievable SSD controller with Message-Passing Error Correcting Code architecture and Parity Area Combined scheme

A new Error Correcting Code (ECC) solution aiming to improve the reliability of NAND flash memory (NAND) is proposed. Implemented in Solid-State Drive (SSD) controller IC (Fabricated in TSMC65LP), it is confirmed that more than 1/10000 lower error rate without increasing redundant bits (parity) of conventional BCH code, and 1.7x longer endurance of SSD can be achieved. This solution consists of two independent techniques: MP-ECC, a Message-Passing ECC architecture; and PAC, a Parity Area Combined ECC scheme.
The risks of partner violence following HIV status disclosure, and health service responses: narratives of women attending reproductive health services in Kenya

For many women living with HIV (WLWH), the disclosure of positive status can lead to either an extension of former violence or new conflict specifically associated with HIV status disclosure. This study aims to explore the following about WLWH: 1. the women's experiences of intimate partner violence (IPV) risks following disclosure to their partners; 2. an analysis of the women's views on the role of health providers in preventing and addressing IPV, especially following HIV disclosure.
Toward Energy Efficient Big Data Gathering in Densely Distributed Sensor Networks

Recently, the big data emerged as a hot topic because of the tremendous growth of the information and communication technology. One of the highly anticipated key contributors of the big data in the future networks is the distributed wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Although the data generated by an individual sensor may not appear to be significant, the overall data generated across numerous sensors in the densely distributed WSNs can produce a significant portion of the big data. Energy-efficient big data gathering in the densely distributed sensor networks is, therefore, a challenging research area. One of the most effective solutions to address this challenge is to utilize the sink node's mobility to facilitate the data gathering. While this technique can reduce energy consumption of the sensor nodes, the use of mobile sink presents additional challenges such as determining the sink node's trajectory and cluster formation prior to data collection. In this paper, we propose a new mobile sink routing and data gathering method through network clustering based on modified expectation-maximization technique. In addition, we derive an optimal number of clusters to minimize the energy consumption. The effectiveness of our proposal is verified through numerical results.
A Real-time relative probabilistic mapping algorithm for high-speed off-road autonomous driving

Reliable mapping and hazard detection are prerequisites for autonomous navigation for unmanned ground vehicles. Because of the uncertainty and vibration induced by high-speed navigation and rugged terrain, the problem of mapping for high-speed off-road autonomous navigation has not been completely solved yet. A relative probabilistic mapping (RPM) algorithm is introduced to address the problem. Firstly, the relative probabilistic map is updated by Kalman filter and Gaussian Mixture algorithm based on the probabilistic exteroceptive measurements model. Then, terrain traversability is evaluated to identify obstacles in the map. Experiments on off-road high-speed autonomous vehicle, which suffers from severe vibration, with different sensor configurations are carried out to demonstrate the capability of the RPM algorithm.
Sparse Codebook Model of Local Structures for Retrieval of Focal Liver Lesions Using Multiphase Medical Images

Characterization and individual trait analysis of the focal liver lesions (FLL) is a challenging task in medical image processing and clinical site. The character analysis of a unconfirmed FLL case would be expected to benefit greatly from the accumulated FLL cases with experts' analysis, which can be achieved by content-based medical image retrieval (CBMIR). CBMIR mainly includes discriminated feature extraction and similarity calculation procedures. Bag-of-Visual-Words (BoVW) (codebook-based model) has been proven to be effective for different classification and retrieval tasks. This study investigates an improved codebook model for the fined-grained medical image representation with the following three advantages: (1) instead of SIFT, we exploit the local patch (structure) as the local descriptor, which can retain all detailed information and is more suitable for the fine-grained medical image applications; (2) in order to more accurately approximate any local descriptor in coding procedure, the sparse coding method, instead of K-means algorithm, is employed for codebook learning and coded vector calculation; (3) we evaluate retrieval performance of focal liver lesions (FLL) using multiphase computed tomography (CT) scans, in which the proposed codebook model is separately learned for each phase. The effectiveness of the proposed method is confirmed by our experiments on FLL retrieval.
Double bubbles in the 3-torus

conjecture,based on com putationalresults,on the area inim izing way to enclose and separate two arbitrary volum esin the (cid:13)at cubic three-torus T 3 . For com parable sm allvolum es,we prove that an area m inim izing double bubble in T 3 isthe standard double bubble from R 3 .
A noise-insensitive high-resolution digitally controlled ring oscillator with multipoint-tuning technique

An eight-phase digitally controlled ring oscillator that employs a multipoint-tuning technique is presented. The DCO fine-tuning is realized by multi-variable RC loads to improve frequency resolution and coupled-noise rejection by reducing DCO gain. With a set of rotating control logic circuits and eight DACs, the DCO achieves a minimum frequency quantization step of 55 kHz and noise sensitivity of 22 MHz/V. Implemented in a 0.13-μm CMOS process with a 1.2-V supply, the proposed ring-DCO is tuned by 24-bit frequency control word and operates from 1.76 to 3.74 GHz.
Predictable Management of System Resources for Linux

In current operating systems, a process acts both as a protection domain and as a resource principal. This may not be the right model as a user may like to see a set of processes or a sub-activity in a process as a resource principal. Another problem is that much of the processing may happen in the interrupt context, and will not be accounted for properly. Resource Containers have been introduced to solve such problems in the large-scale server systems context by separating out the protection domain from the resource principal by associating and charging all the processing to the correct container. This paper tries to investigate how this model fits into a Linux framework, especially in the soft real-time context. We show that this model allows us to allocate resources in a predictable manner and hence can be used for scheduling soft real-time tasks like multimedia. We also provide a framework in Linux which allows privileged users to have their own schedulers for scheduling a group of activities so that they can make use of the domain knowledge about the applications. We also extend this model to allow multiple scheduling classes.