Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Statin use is associated with reduced mortality in COPD

Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have an increased risk of ischaemic heart disease (IHD). Statins reduce mortality and morbidity in IHD. It has been hypothesised that statin treatment is associated with reduced long-term mortality in patients with COPD. Using a retrospective cohort design, 854 consecutive patients (mean age 70.8 yrs; 51.5% female) with a diagnosis of COPD exacerbation were included in the study at discharge from a Norwegian teaching hospital. Median follow-up was 1.9 yrs, during which 333 patients died. The crude mortality rate per 1,000 person-yrs was 110 in patients treated with statins, and 191 in patients not treated with statins. After adjustment for sex, age, smoking, pulmonary function and comorbidities, the hazard ratio (HR) for statin users versus statin nonusers was 0.57 (95% confidence interval 0.38–0.87). When subdividing statin users and statin nonusers into groups according to concomitant treatment with inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) the following HRs were found: 0.75 (0.58–0.98) for ICS only; 0.69 (0.36–1.3) for statins only; and 0.39 (0.22–0.67) for the combined treatment with statin and ICS compared with no such treatment. Treatment with statins was associated with improved survival after chronic obstructive pulmonary disease exacerbation, while inhaled corticosteroids appeared to increase the survival benefit associated with statin use.
siRNA Screening of the Kinome Identifies ULK1 as a Multidomain Modulator of Autophagy*

Autophagy is a vital response to nutrient starvation. Here, we screened a kinase-specific siRNA library using an autophagy assay in human embryonic kidney 293 cells that measures lipidation of the marker protein GFP-LC3 following amino acid starvation. This screen identified ULK1 in addition to other novel candidates that could be confirmed with multiple siRNAs. Knockdown of ULK1, but not the related kinase ULK2, inhibited the autophagic response. Also, ULK1 knockdown inhibited rapamycin-induced autophagy consistent with a role downstream of mTOR. Overexpression of ULK1 inhibited autophagy and this inhibition was independent of its kinase activity. Deletion of the PDZ domain-binding Val-Tyr-Ala motif at the ULK1 C terminus generated a more potent dominant-negative protein. Further deletions revealed that the minimal ULK1 dominant-negative region could be mapped to residues 1–351. Full-length ULK1 localized to cytoplasmic structures, some of which were GFP-LC3-positive, and this localization required the conserved C-terminal domain. In contrast, ULK1-(1–351) was diffuse in the cytoplasm. These experiments reveal at least two domains in ULK1 which likely function via unique sets of effectors to regulate autophagy.
On The Equivalence of the PA-SLNR and PA-SINR MU-MIMO Precoding Design Criterien

In this work, we develop on average relationship between the Per-Antenna Signal to Interference plus Noise Ratio (PA-SINR) and the Per-Antenna Signal to Leakage plus Noise Ratio (PA-SLNR) performance metrics. Simulation results confirm the equivalence between the two metrics which opens up the door to use PA-SLNR instead of PA-SINR to construct simple Multi-user Multiple Input Multiple Output (MU-MIMO) precoding algorithm.
Experimental Economics as a Method for Normative Business Ethics

We advance the thesis that the method of experimental economics can make significant contributions to normative, as opposed to descriptive, business ethics. We contend that there are two basic ways in which experimental economics may make this contribution, and we exemplify these ways by pointing to experimental support of social contract theory as rational foundation for business ethics. These two ways are: (1) adding psychological realism; and (2) testing some quasi‐empirical assumptions present in normative theory. In order to make good our methodological claim, we first describe the methodological rules of experimental economics, distinguishing this method from other behavioral business ethics approaches. We also contemplate the possible objection that empirical methods cannot bear on normative ethics because there is no way of bridging the gap between descriptive theory (how people behave) and normative theory (how people ought to behave).
Task Superscalar: An Out-of-Order Task Pipeline

We present \emph{Task Super scalar}, an abstraction of instruction-level out-of-order pipeline that operates at the task-level. Like ILP pipelines, which uncover parallelism in a sequential instruction stream, task super scalar uncovers task-level parallelism among tasks generated by a sequential thread. Utilizing intuitive programmer annotations of task inputs and outputs, the task super scalar pipeline dynamically detects inter-task data dependencies, identifies task-level parallelism, and executes tasks out-of-order. Furthermore, we propose a design for a distributed task super scalar pipeline front end, that can be embedded into any many core fabric, and manages cores as functional units. We show that our proposed mechanism is capable of driving hundreds of cores simultaneously with non-speculative tasks, which allows our pipeline to sustain work windows consisting of tens of thousands of tasks. We further show that our pipeline can maintain a decode rate faster than 60ns per task and dynamically uncover data dependencies among as many as \tilde 50,000 in-flight tasks, using 7MB of on-chip eDRAM storage. This configuration achieves speedups of 95&#x2013;255x (average 183x) over sequential execution for nine scientific benchmarks, running on a simulated CMP with 256 cores. Task super scalar thus enables programmers to exploit many core systems effectively, while simultaneously simplifying their programming model.
Web server support for tiered services

The evolving needs of conducting commerce using the Internet requires more than just network quality of service mechanisms for differentiated services. Empirical evidence suggests that overloaded servers can have significant impact on user perceived response times. Furthermore, FIFO scheduling done by servers can eliminate any QoS improvements made by network-differentiated services. Consequently, server QoS is a key component in delivering end to end predictable, stable, and tiered services to end users. This article describes our research and results for WebQoS, an architecture for supporting server QoS. We demonstrate that through classification, admission control, and scheduling, we can support distinct performance levels for different classes of users and maintain predictable performance even when the server is subjected to a client request rate that is several times greater than the server's maximum processing rate.
A structural equation modeling approach to the multiple memory systems question

Linear structural equation modeling was used for testing 2 models of declarative memory. A unitary model was compared with the semantic-episodic theory proposed by E. Tulving (e.g., 1972, 1983). The data consisted of performance scores of 300 Ss on 14 cognitive tests. The results of 2 sets of analyses suggest rejection of the unitary model but not the 2-factor model. Moreover, nested comparisons of the models revealed that the 2-factor model provided a significantly better fit to data than did the unitary model. The results support a division of declarative memory into memory for episodic information and memory for facts. This finding is discussed in terms of (a) different underlying memory systems mediating performance on semantic and episodic tests and (b) differences in the retrieval strategies that are required for accessing semantic and episodic information
Towards PLDA-RBM based speaker recognition in mobile environment: Designing stacked/deep PLDA-RBM systems

The vast majority of text-independent speaker recognition systems rely on intermediate-sized vectors (i-vectors), which are compared by probabilistic linear discriminant analysis (PLDA). This paper proposes a PLDA-alike approach with restricted Boltzmann machines for i-vector based speaker recognition: two deep architectures are presented and examined, which aim at suppressing channel effects and recovering speaker-discriminative information on back-ends trained on a small dataset. Experiments are carried out on the MOBIO SRE'13 database, which is a challenging and publicly available dataset for mobile speaker recognition with limited amounts of training data. The experiments show that the proposed system outperforms the baseline i-vector/PLDA approach by relative gains of 31% on female and 9% on male speakers in terms of half total error rate.
A Dashboard to Support Management of Business Analytics Capabilities

Business analytics (BA) systems create value and provide competitive advantage for organisations. They involve technology and data infrastructure, BA capabilities and business processes that provide useful insights and support decision-making. To provide value and competitive advantage, BA capabilities should be valuable, rare and inimitable, and have organisational support (VRIO). In this paper, we develop and evaluate a prototype dashboard for the VRIO assessment of BA capabilities. The dashboard is intended to support the strategic management of BA capabilities. We discuss implications of the prototype dashboard for researchers and practitioners and suggest directions for future research.
Retracted: Viral pathogenicity determinants are suppressors of transgene silencing in Nicotiana benthamiana

Post‐transcriptional gene silencing (PTGS) of a green fluorescent protein (GFP) transgene is suppressed in Nicotiana benthamiana plants infected with potato virus Y (PVY) or with cucumber mosaic virus (CMV), but not in plants infected with potato virus X (PVX). By expressing PVY and CMV‐encoded proteins in a PVX vector we have shown that the viral suppressors of gene silencing are the HCPro of PVY and the 2b protein of CMV. The HCPro acts by blocking the maintenance of PTGS in tissues where silencing had already been set, whereas the 2b protein prevents initiation of gene silencing at the growing points of the plants. Combined with previous findings that viruses are both activators and targets of PTGS, these data provide compelling evidence that PTGS represents a natural mechanism for plant protection against viruses.
On Symmetry Analysis and Exact Wave Solutions of New Modified Novikov Equation

In this paper, we study a new modified Novikov equation for its classical and nonclassical symmetries and use the symmetries to reduce it to a nonlinear ordinary differential equation (ODE). With the aid of solutions of the nonlinear ODE by using the modified (G′/G)-expansion method proposed recently, multiple exact traveling wave solutions are obtained and the traveling wave solutions are expressed by the hyperbolic functions, trigonometric functions and rational functions. Keywords—New Modified Novikov Equation, Lie Classical Method, Nonclassical Method, Modified (G′/G)-Expansion Method, Traveling Wave Solutions
Cancer after nuclear incidents

Since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, and the subsequent reports of raised cancer risks among survivors in the two cities, there has been interest and concern about risks arising from this and other nuclear incidents, such as the 1986 Chernobyl accident. This article reviews methodological aspects associated with the detection of cancer risks in groups exposed to ionising radiation, summarises findings from relevant studies, and looks at possible future developments. It should be emphasised that cancer risks have also been examined in a multitude of studies of radiation exposures from medical, occupational, and natural sources. Further details of these studies can be found in the most recent report by the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR). 1 The ability to detect and quantify raised cancer risks in an epidemiological study depends on the study design. Particular aspects are as follows. ### STATISTICAL POWER Owing to random variation in data, it may not be possible to identify a raised risk in a small study. Therefore, before conducting a study, it is standard practice to calculate its statistical power. This is the probability that the study will detect a given level of raised risk with a specific degree of confidence—for example, the probability of detecting a doubling of risk using a significance test at the 5% level. For a cohort study, in which a cohort of individuals is followed to determine their subsequent disease incidence or mortality, the power depends on the size of the cohort, the length of time for which they are followed up, the baseline rate of cancer, the distribution of radiation exposures received by members of the cohort, and the putative radiation risk factor. For a case–control study, in which radiation exposures are compared for persons with the cancer of interest (cases) …
Situational Tests: II. Leaderless Group Discussion Variables

by time spent talking, was indicative of an observer’s rating of that individual. Another hypothesis to be tested was that those individuals who actually talked the most would not be perceived necessarily by others to have talked the most or that the time individuals spent talking measured objectively would have a far-less-thanperfect correlation with the group’s estimate of who talked the most. It was hypothesized that the group would estimate2 2
Symbiont communities and host genetic structure of the brain coral Platygyra verweyi, at the outlet of a nuclear power plant and adjacent areas

In the context of rising seawater temperatures associated with climate change, the issue of whether coral holobionts deal with this challenge by shuffling their associations with stress‐ and/or heat‐tolerant Symbiodinium, by generating heat‐resistant host genotypes, or both is important for coral survival. In this study, the composition of communities of the endosymbiont Symbiodinium and the population genetics of the coral host Platygyra verweyi were examined in a reef impacted by hot‐water discharged from the outlet of a nuclear power plant in operation in Kenting, Southern Taiwan since 1984. The water at this site is 2.0–3.0 °C warmer than adjacent reefs in summer, which have an average seawater temperature of 29.0 °C. The data were compared with those for the same species at other sites within 12 km of the outlet site. Platygyra verwyei was associated with one or both of Symbiodinium types C3 (heat sensitive) and D1a (heat tolerant) at all sites with the latter being the dominant at the nuclear power plant outlet. The proportion of C3 in populations increased gradually with increasing distance from the hot‐water discharge. Genetic analysis of the Platygyra verweyi host using mitochondrial and nuclear markers showed no genetic differentiation among sites. Changes in the composition of Symbiodinium types associated with P. verweyi among closely located sites in Kenting suggested that this coral might have acclimatized to the constant thermal stress by selective association with heat‐tolerant Symbiodinium types, whereas the role of the host in adaptation was inconclusive.
The Application of Rule-Based Methods to Class Prediction Problems in Genomics

We propose a method for constructing classifiers using logical combinations of elementary rules. The method is a form of rule-based classification, which has been widely discussed in the literature. In this work we focus specifically on issues that arise in the context of classifying cell samples based on RNA or protein expression measurements. The basic idea is to specify elementary rules that exhibit a locally strong pattern in favor of a single class. Strict admissibility criteria are imposed to produce a manageable universe of elementary rules. Then the elementary rules are combined using a set covering algorithm to form a composite rule that achieves a perfect fit to the training data. The user has explicit control over a parameter that determines the composite rule's level of redundancy and parsimony. This built-in control, along with the simplicity of interpreting the rules, makes the method particularly useful for classification problems in genomics. We demonstrate the new method using several microarray datasets and examine its generalization performance. We also draw comparisons to other machine-learning strategies such as CART, ID3, and C4.5.
Politics and Administration

The question of how public administration fits into the governance process of a democratic society has been of great concern to scholars and practitioners since the emergence of public administration as an academic field of study in the late 1880s. The politics-administration relationship is considered of pivotal importance, as the issue bears important implications for both the disciplinary identity (and autonomy) and the institutional development of public administration. Despite a voluminous literature on the subject, the question remains unanswered. Scholarly inquiry to this date identifies two major positions, one separation and the other its opposite, political. Unlike prior conceptualizations, this article distills the literature into three major schools of thought as separation, political, and interaction. The article then examines the state of the research that has followed three strands as historical, conceptual, and empirical. The author makes an overall evaluation of the past research and lays out a different approach in studying this important question.
Multiple identities: Examining gender and marital status differences in distress.

Based upon assumptions that the social self is comprised of major role-identities and that role-identities reduce psychological distress, this paper examines the mental health advantage of married and unmarried men relative to comparable women as a function of multiple-role occupancy. Panel data from surveys of! , 106 adult heads of household in Chicago and 720 adults in New Haven are utilized. Possession of multiple role-identities (up to 6 in Chicago, 8 in New Haven) does significantly reduce distress in both samples. But identity summation does not consistently reduce gender or gender by marital status differences in distress. Further exploration revealed that men and women appear to experience equivalent levels of distress when they hold the same numbers and types of roles. When sex differences do occur, they appear to be a function of employment rather than of marriage, contrary to popular belief. Although structural inequalities in role occupancy appear to produce status differences in distress, future research will require deliberately stratified samples to adequately test this hypothesis.
The implications of contract teaching in India: A review

The attempt to rapidly increase access to primary education in developing countries like India over the past decade has created a need to commensurately increase the number of teachers in the system. In order to meet the burgeoning demand for additional teachers amidst fiscal constraints, India has chosen to actively promote the hiring of contract teachers. This paper reviews the appointments, salary structure, and training of contract teachers, and presents the argument that the salary and work conditions of contract teachers in India as well as the lack of adequate training negatively impacts their motivation, morale and long-term commitment to teaching, with potentially serious implications for education quality. A synthesis of the literature on teacher preparation in the United States is also presented in order to analyze how this body of knowledge can better inform the contract teacher debate in India.
Spline windows for power spectral density estimation

The power spectral density of a signal can be estimated most accurately by using a window with a narrow bandwidth and large sidelobe attenuation. Conventional windows generally control these characteristics by only one parameter, so there is a trade-off problem. To reduce the effect of spectral leakage, a window function can be used whose amplitude tapers smoothly and gradually toward zero at both ends. To overcome this problem, we propose using grouped spline windows with two control parameters for power spectral density estimation and analyze its characteristics.
A Fast Learning Algorithm for Robotic Emotion Recognition

The capability of robotic emotion recognition is an important factor for human-robot interaction. In order to facilitate a robot to function in daily live environments, a emotion recognition system needs to accommodate itself to various persons. In this paper, an emotion recognition system that can adapt to new facial data is proposed. The main idea of the proposed learning algorithm is to adjust parameters of SVM hyperplane for learning emotional expressions of a new face. After mapping the input space to Gaussian-kernel space, support vector pursuit learning (SVPL) is applied to retrain the hyperplane in the new feature space. To expedite the retraining procedure, only samples classified incorrectly in previous iteration are combined with critical historical sets to restrain a new SVM classifier. After adjusting hyperplane parameters, the new classifier will recognize previous erroneous facial data. Experimental results show that the proposed system recognize new facial data with high correction rates after fast retraining the hyperplane. Moreover, the proposed method also keeps satisfactory recognition rate of old facial samples.
Applying Arabic Stemming Using Query Expansion

The process of conflating different Arabic word formats to their stem or root is called stemming. Indexing text collection using stems or roots has been reported to be superior to using original word formats. However, the Arabic text stemming has negative effects on words. It conflates words with different meaning under one index term. This occurs frequently in Arabic when using stems and it becomes more frequent when choosing roots to index the collection. Furthermore, search engine whose index is constructed using a particular stemmer makes it a stemmer-dependent engine. In this paper, we show how we can still use stemming to reach the same results without indexing the stemmed text. Original words have been indexed, and a stemmer used to extract word variants and add them to the user query. Apart from making our search operation stemmer-independent, we proof that our approach is as good as light stemming and is significantly better than root stemming.