Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Reputation, Corporate Social Responsibility and Market Regulation

The paper investigates the role of the government and self-regulatory reputation mechanisms to internalise externalities of market operation. If it pays off for companies to invest in a good reputation by an active policy of corporate social responsibility (CSR), external effects of the market will be (partly) internalised by the market itself. The strength of the reputation mechanism depends on the functioning of non governmental organisations (NGOs), the transparency of the company, the time horizon of the company, and on the behaviour of employees, consumers and investors. On the basis of an extensive study of the empirical literature on these topics, we conclude that in general the working of the reputation mechanism is rather weak. Especially the transparency of companies is a bottleneck. If the government would force companies to be more transparent, it could initiate a self-enforcing spiral that would improve the working of the reputation mechanism. We also argue that the working of the reputation mechanism will be weaker for smaller companies and for both highly competitive and monopolistic markets. We therefore conclude that government regulation is still necessary, especially for small companies.
Screening for lung cancer using low dose CT scanning

Background: Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer related death in Ireland. The majority of lung cancers are inoperable at the time of diagnosis and consequently the overall 5 year survival is less than 10%. The objective of the ProActive Lung Cancer Detection (PALCAD) study was to evaluate whether low dose chest computed tomographic scanning (LDCCT) can detect early stage asymptomatic lung cancer in a high risk urban population. Methods: Four hundred and forty nine subjects of median age 55 years (range 50–74) with a median pack year smoking history of 45 years (range 10–160), with no previous cancer history and medically fit to undergo thoracic surgery were recruited. After informed consent, LDCCT was performed on all subjects. Non-calcified nodules (NCNs) of ⩾10 mm in diameter were referred for biopsy. Follow up with interval LDCCT at 6, 12 and 24 months to exclude growth was recommended for NCNs <10 mm in diameter. Results: Six (1.3%) NCNs of ⩾10 mm were detected of which one (0.23%) had non-small cell lung cancer stage 1; 145 NCNs of <10 mm were detected in 87 (19.4%) subjects. Mediastinal masses were detected in three subjects (0.7%)—one small cell lung cancer and two benign duplication cysts. Incidental pathology was noted in 276 patients (61.5%), most commonly emphysema and coronary artery calcification. Conclusion: The prevalence of resectable lung cancer detected by LDCCT at baseline screening was low at 0.23%, but there was a high rate of significant incidental pathology.
The Role of Hypoxia-Inducible Factor 1α in Determining the Properties of Castrate-Resistant Prostate Cancers

Background Castrate-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) is a lethal condition in patients receiving androgen deprivation therapy for prostate cancer (PC). Despite numerous studies showing the expression of HIF1α protein under normoxia in PC cell lines, the role of this normoxic HIF1α expression in chemo-resistance and migration has not been investigated previously. As no method is currently available to determine which tumors will progress to CRPC, the role of HIF1α in PC and its potential for predicting the development of CRPC was also investigated. Methods The effect of HIF1α protein knockdown on chemo-resistance and migration of PC3 cells was assessed by cell counting and Transwell assays, respectively. Translation efficiency of HIF1α mRNA was determined in PC cells using a HIF1α 5′UTR-luciferase construct. Clinical outcomes were correlated following the staining of 100 prostate tumors for HIF1α expression. Results The CRPC-like cell lines (PC3 and DU145) expressed more HIF1α protein than an androgen sensitive cell line (LNCaP). Migration rate and chemo-resistance were higher in the PC3 cells and both were decreased when HIF1α expression was reduced. Increased translation of HIF1α mRNA may be responsible for HIF1α overexpression in PC3 cells. Patients whose tumors expressed HIF1α had significantly decreased metastasis-free survival and the patients who were on androgen-deprivation therapy had decreased CRPC-free survival on Kaplan-Meier analysis. On multivariate analysis HIF1α was an independent risk factor for progression to metastatic PC (Hazard ratio (HR) 9.8, p = 0.017) and development of CRPC (HR 10.0, p = 0.021) in patients on androgen-deprivation therapy. Notably the tumors which did not express HIF1α did not metastasize or develop CRPC. Conclusions HIF1α is likely to contribute to metastasis and chemo-resistance of CRPC and targeted reduction of HIF1α may increase the responsiveness of CRPCs to chemotherapy. Expression of HIF1α may be a useful screening tool for development of CRPC.
Vegetation chlorophyll content estimation based on model simulation and OLI image

Leaf optical model PROSPECT and canopy reflectance model SAIL are used to simulate vegetation canopy reflectance. The relationships between vegetation chlorophyll content and vegetation indices, view zenith angle and LAI are analyzed, in order to provide scientific basis for the estimation of chlorophyll content. We make field measurement of winter wheat in Luancheng County in Hebei Province, China, and the location, altitude, LAI, height, mean leaf angle of winter wheat at sampling points are obtained. In model simulation, LAI 4 is used, and view zenith angles 0°, 36°and 55°are selected according to five imaging angles of CHRIS (Compact High Resolution Imaging Spectrometer) sensor onboard PROBE satellite. Other view zenith angles include 40°, 60° and 90°. Many vegetation indices are selected to make this study. Results show that when LAI is 4, MCARI705 and CIred edge are the most effective indices to estimate chlorophyll content. Under different view zenith angles, MCARI705 and CIred edge are related linearly to chlorophyll content, and the correlation coefficients are all close to 1. The correlation coefficients of chlorophyll content with GRVI and MCARI670 are greater than 0.91. At a certain view zenith angle, with the increase of chlorophyll content, RVI, PRI, GRVI, CIred edge and MCARI705 tend to increase, while EVI and MCARI670 tend to decrease. DVI values are close to saturation when chlorophyll content is greater than 40μg/cm2. When view zenith angles are less than 90°, the influence of view zenith angle on PRI is very small. Using GRVI and RVI calculated from Landsat-8 OLI image, chlorophyll content mapping of winter wheat is made.
Lymphangiogenesis in Classical Hodgkin Lymphoma - Preliminary Study with Clinicopathological Correlations

A role for lymphangiogenesis in metastatic breast and prostate cancers has been suggested recently. The relevance of lymphangiogenesis in cancer as a rule, and more specifically in classical Hodgkin lymphoma, is poorly understood in comparison with that of angiogenesis. In a preliminary (pilot) study we have investigated the role of lymphatic vessels growth in 19 cases of classical Hodgkin lymphoma stained with the D2-40 (podoplanin) antibody. In each case, three lymphatic vessels hot spots were scrutinized twice. Of the 57 hot spots thus identified, we chose 15 at random for photography, microvessel counting and image analysis. We determined the mean perimeter, surface area, major axis length and complexity factor for each hot spot and correlated them with clinical and biological features of classical Hodgkin lymphoma. No correlations were found with clinical features. No associations were noted with the standard immuno-markers of classical Hodgkin lymphoma. However, significant inverse correlations were shown with pRb, BAX and IκB-α expression. The mean lymphatic major axis length was inversely correlated with the complexity factor. Last, we carried out an additional clinicopathological correlation of the expression of pRb, BAX and IκB-α in a cohort of classical Hodgkin lymphoma patients previously published.
Bank Insolvency: Bad Luck, Bad Policy, or Bad Banking?

Since the late 1970s bank insolvencies have become increasingly common. Where these failures are systemic, they can drain a country's financial, institutional, and policy resources—result ing in large losses, misallocated resources, and slower growth. Using a new database covering some eighty-six episodes of insolvency, this article examines the causes and effects of these crises and how governments have responded. It finds that both macroeconomic and microeconomic factors have figured in bank crises and that, based on the criteria developed here, few governments have responded well to these episodes. To better manage insolvencies, policymakers must develop a regulatory framework that allows banks to respond more robustly to shocks and ensures proper management and oversight. That bankers have not regularly planned for shocks suggests that they have not had the incentive to do so. No degree of regulatory wisdom could or should have made the 1920s a profitable time for banks in [U.S.] agricultural regions affected by drastic declines in prices and land values. In the face of these shocks, some failures were inevitable. What regulation could have done, but did not do, was make the system as a whole less susceptible to shocks and more resilient in its response to failures.
How to construct pairing-friendly curves for the embedding degree k = 2 n , n is an odd prime

Pairing based cryptography is a new public key cryptographic scheme. The most popular one is constructed by using the Weil pairing of elliptic curves. For a large prime ` which devides E(Fq), a subgroup G generated by Fq-rational point P of order l is embedded into Fqk by using the Weil pairing for some positive integer k. Pairing-friendly curves are required to have appropriately large q and `, and appropriately small k and ρ := log q/ log `. Recently, Freeman-Scott-Teske proposed a method to obtain curves with small ρ for each fixed k, following Brezing-Weng’s result which uses a cyclotomic field Q(ζk). But their result needs an extension of Q(ζk) in many cases and therefore q and ` becomes extremely large. In this article, for k = 2n with odd n, we propose an improved method without field extensions which achieves small ρ. In some cases, we achieve the same value of ρ as in Freeman-Scott-Teske’s result, but with smaller q and ` than Freeman-Scott-Teske’s result.
An Open-Source Component-Based Toolkit to Support E-learning Multimedia Environments

In the Distributed Systems area, the number of Multimedia Applications has increased due to fact that it provides a better integration among their users, as well as being recognized as an essential distinctive feature for e-learning environments. However, most of the existing e-learning solutions are not open-source and are not designed with extensibility in mind, making integration with other systems difficult. In this way, this paper proposes an open-source component-based toolkit to support e-learning multimedia environments called ArCoLIVE, which offers real time multimedia services for e-learning systems.
Human activity recognition from spatial data sources

Recent availability of big data of digital traces of human activity boosted research on human behavior. However, in most of the datasets such as mobile phone data or GPS traces, an important layer of information is typically missing: providing an extensive information of when and where people go typically does not allow understanding of what they do there. Predicting the context of human behavior in such cases where such information is not directly available from the data is a complex task that addresses context recognition problems. To fill in the contextual information for such data, we developed an ontological and stochastic model (HRBModel) that interprets semantic (high-level) human behaviors from geographical maps like OpenStreetMap, analyzing the distribution of Points of Interest(POIs), in a given region and time period. The semantic human behaviors are human activities that are accompanied by their likelihood, depending on their location and time. In this paper, we perform an extended evaluation of this model based on other qualitative data source, namely a country-wide anonymized bank card transaction data in Spain, which contains contextual information about the locations and the types of business categories where transactions occurred. This allows us to validate the model, by matching our predicted activity patterns with the actually observed ones, so that it can be later applied to the cases where such information is unavailable. This extended evaluation aimed to define the applicability of the predictive model, HRBModel, taking various type of spatial and temporal factors into account.
Improving Fairness in Memory Scheduling Using a Team of Learning Automata

Conventional memory controllers deliver relatively low fairness partly because they do not learn from their past decisions. This paper proposes an intelligent memory scheduling technique for multiple memory controllers. The technique is decentralized and the controllers implicitly cooperate with each other without any exchange of information among them. Our learning technique on a 16-core simulated system gives 3.12% improvement in harmonic speedup for PARSEC workloads and 1.88% for SPEC CPU2006 workloads over Thread Cluster Memory Scheduling algorithm.
Histone Modification of Embryonic Stem Cells Produced by Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer and Fertilized Blastocysts

Objective Nuclear transfer-embryonic stem cells (NT-ESCs) are genetically identical to the donor’s cells; provide a renewable source of tissue for replacement, and therefore, decrease the risk of immune rejection. Trichostatin A (TSA) as a histone deacetylase in- hibitor (HDACi) plays an important role in the reorganization of the genome and epigenetic changes. In this study, we examined whether TSA treatment after somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) can improve the developmental rate of embryos and establishment rate of NT-ESCs line, as well as whether TSA treatment can improve histone modification in NT-ESCs lines. Materials and Methods In this experimental study, mature oocytes were recovered from BDF1 [C57BL/6×DBA/2) F 1 mice] mice and enucleated by micromanipulator. Cumulus cells were injected into enucleated oocytes as donor. Reconstructed embryos were ac- tivated in the presence or absence of TSA and cultured for 5 days. Blastocysts were transferred on inactive mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEF), so ESCs lines were estab- lished. ESCs markers were evaluated by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Histone modifications were analyzed by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Results Result of this study showed that TSA treatment after SCNT can improve devel- opmental rate of embryos (21.12 ± 3.56 vs. 8.08 ± 7.92), as well as establishment rate of NT-ESCs line (25 vs. 12.5). We established 6 NT-ESCs in two experimental groups, and three embryonic stem cells (ESCs) lines as control group. TSA treatment has no effect in H3K4 acetylation and H3K9 tri-methylation in ESCs. Conclusion TSA plays a key role in the developmental rate of embryos, establishment rate of ESC lines after SCNT, and regulation of histone modification in NT-ESCs, in a man- ner similar to that of ESCs established from normal blastocysts.
CMU wearable computers for real-time speech translation

Carnegie Mellon's Wearable Computers Laboratory has built four generations of real time speech translation wearable computers, culminating in the Speech Translator Smart Module. Smart Modules are a family of interoperable modules supporting real time speech recognition, language translation, and speech synthesis. We examine the effect of various design factors on performance with emphasis on modularity and scalability. A system level approach to power/performance optimization is described that improved the metric of (performance/(weight*volume*power)) by over a factor of 300 through the four generations.
SHIFTS OF COVERT VISUAL ATTENTION : A FUNCTION OF MERIDIA , DISTANCE , AND CUE TYPE MELI MACCURDY

Shifts of covert attention differ depending on whether the shift is exogenously or endogenously motivated. The present study examined whether crossing imaginary meridia in the visual field influences shifts directed by central or peripheral cues. A two-alternative forced-choice discrimination task was employed under direction from 70 % valid central and peripheral cues. In comparison to central cues, peripheral cues produced greater benefits in response time and accuracy when valid, and greater costs in response time and accuracy when invalid. In both cue types distance was the most prominent factor in RTs and accuracy. Meridia were also found to be significant in both cue types, and crossing a horizontal meridian took more time than crossing a vertical meridian. The most parsimonious account for these data in both cue types is a general specific location model of attention, with strong support for a gradient theory from the central cue paradigm.
A Mode-of-Action Approach for the Identification of Genotoxic Carcinogens

Distinguishing between clastogens and aneugens is vital in cancer risk assessment because the default assumption is that clastogens and aneugens have linear and non-linear dose-response curves, respectively. Any observed non-linearity must be supported by mode of action (MOA) analyses where biological mechanisms are linked with dose-response evaluations. For aneugens, the MOA has been well characterised as disruptors of mitotic machinery where chromosome loss via micronuclei (MN) formation is an accepted endpoint used in risk assessment. In this study we performed the cytokinesis-block micronucleus assay and immunofluorescence mitotic machinery visualisation in human lymphoblastoid (AHH-1) and Chinese Hamster fibroblast (V79) cell lines after treatment with the aneugen 17-β-oestradiol (E2). Results were compared to previously published data on bisphenol-A (BPA) and Rotenone data. Two concentration-response approaches (the threshold-[Td] and benchmark-dose [BMD] approaches) were applied to derive a point of departure (POD) for in vitro MN induction. BMDs were also derived from the most sensitive carcinogenic endpoint. Ranking comparisons of the PODs from the in vitro MN and the carcinogenicity studies demonstrated a link between these two endpoints for BPA, E2 and Rotenone. This analysis was extended to include 5 additional aneugens, 5 clastogens and 3 mutagens and further concentration and dose-response correlations were observed between PODs from the in vitro MN and carcinogenicity. This approach is promising and may be further extended to other genotoxic carcinogens, where MOA and quantitative information from the in vitro MN studies could be used in a quantitative manner to further inform cancer risk assessment.
Short communication Gaze following as a function of affective expression in 3-, 6- and 9-month-old infants

Theinfluenceofaffectiveexpressionongazefollowingwasinvestigatedin3-,6-and9-month-oldinfants.Gazefollowingbecame more robust at the older ages. There was no strong evidence that infants’ gaze following activity was differentially influenced by the adult’s affective expression, but rather for a developmental difference in emotion processing.
Growth, micro-structuring, spectroscopy, and optical gain in as-deposited $Al_2O_3:Er$ waveguides

PCT No. PCT/EP93/02622 Sec. 371 Date May 27, 1994 Sec. 102(e) Date May 27, 1994 PCT Filed Sep. 27, 1993 PCT Pub. No. WO94/08169 PCT Pub. Date Apr. 14, 1994.In a flexible connection arrangement for two pipe portions having a metallic bellows which is connected axially on either side in a gastight manner with connection pieces, the sides of the connection pieces facing the bellows are provided with radially widened end portions. Also provided are a damping insert, which extends coaxially relative to the bellows a along its length and is in a working connection therewith, and heat protection device for the bellows acting in the radially inward direction. The damping insert encloses the bellows radially outwardly such that the turns of the bellows contact the damping insert. The lateral end regions of the damping insert are held in the widened end portions without being fastened thereto and are supported radially outwardly by the latter. The connection pieces are connected with one another via a spring which surrounds the damping insert radially outwardly. The heat protection means are formed by a pipe segment which extends within the bellows coaxially relative to the bellows at a radial distance from the latter and which is fastened to the connection piece located in the front as viewed in the direction of flow.
Nutritional Support of Dogs and Cats after Surgery or Illness

Nutritional support early during the postoperative period or after onset of illness decreases the mortality rate and shortens the duration of hospitalization of dogs and cats. The preferred feeding route is dependent on the condition of the patient. If there are no contraindications, every patient must receive nutritional support, at least consistent with the resting energy requirement (RER). Several nutrients may be beneficial during healing and recovery from illness or surgery, but further research is needed to empirically certify the effects of these nutrients in critically ill patients.
Audio, autonomy and authenticity: constructive comments and conversations captured by the learner

This poster describes a university-wide project designed to develop learner autonomy. The Student Audio Notes Project (SANP) involved students recording personal audio notes and conversations at their discretion. It built upon work that considered approaches to the design of audio feedback (Nortcliffe and Middleton, 2008). Usually the tutor controls the process of recording and distributing audio feedback; however, in one successful approach involving the recording of lab or studio-based feedback conversations, it was noted that a transfer of responsibility from the student to the tutor had unnecessarily occurred due to the ownership of the technology. SANP set out to discover if and how students would use devices if they were in control and to what extent 'rich, relevant and real world contexts' (Herrington and Herrington 2006) would be evident in the notes.ApproachSANP gave away discrete, large capacity MP3 recorders to 60 students from across the faculties who joined the project following an open call for participation. Participants attended a drop-in induction session where they heard the ideas of other participants and recorded their own statements of interest. These initial participant recordings were used to seed a project podcast from the VLE, which also hosted guidance materials. Students were asked to keep a record of how they used the devices. Other data were collected through surveys and focus groups.Results from the year-long project will be included in the poster. They will reveal how the student expectations for the use of MP3 recorders compared to their actual use. Participants were encouraged to think creatively about their use of the recorders. For example, during project induction many explained that their interest came from a need to record lectures due to difficulties with note-taking. The project hopes to find out if participants recorded lectures, did they listen back? Did they attempt to summarise lectures? Did they involve other people? Did they share their recordings? The poster will report on these and other ideas proposed in the project materials, which included recording summaries of sessions with peers, recording group work decisions, and peer reflective reviews following assessment. Herrington, A. and J. Herrington. 2006. Authentic learning environments in higher education. Hershey, PA; London : Information Science Pub Nortcliffe, Anne and Andrew Middleton. 2008. A three year case study of using audio to blend the engineer's learning environment. Engineering Education, Journal of the Higher Education Academy Engineering Subject Centre, Vol. 3 Issue 2.