Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ear Acupuncture in European Traditional Medicine

Auricular acupuncture is a diagnostic and treatment system based on normalizing the body's dysfunction through stimulation of definite points on the ear. Rudimentary forms of acupuncture which probably arose during the Stone Age have survived in many parts of the world right down to present day. It was used in the ancient Egypt, Rome, Greece and all the Mediterranean area. It is a microacupuncture technique similar to reflexology, and was first described in France in 1950 by Paul Nogier who is considered the Father of modern ear acupuncture. It was speculated that the technique works because groups of pluripotent cells contain information from the whole organism and create regional organization centers representing different parts of the body. Nevertheless stimulation of a reflex point in the ear seems relieve symptoms of distant pathologies. Modern research is confirming the efficacy of ear acupuncture for analgesia and anxiety related disease, while tobacco dependence and other substance abuse still need confirmation. Actually main methodological problems with auricular acupuncture are that exist too many maps with little agreement regarding point location in the ear, and that the correspondence or reflex systems does not correlated with modern knowledge of anatomy and physiology.
South America’s Contribution to World Food Markets: GTAP Projections to 2030

If rapid growth in the global economic importance of some emerging economies continues to be strongest in natural resource-poor Asian economies, so too will be the growth in that region’s demand for imports of primary products, to the on-going benefit of natural resource-rich countries. This paper projects global trade patterns over the next two decades in the course of economic development and structural changes. The GTAP model and Version 8 of the GTAP database are used, together with supplementary data and growth forecasts from a range of sources. The baseline projection from 2007 to 2030 assumes trade-related policies do not change in each region but that agricultural land, extractable mineral resources, population, skilled and unskilled labour, capital and real GDP grow at exogenously-inserted rates. That core projection of the world economy is compared with a number of alternative scenarios. Implications for South American versus other natural resource-abundant economies are highlighted.
Discovering Chord Idioms Through Beatles and Real Book Songs

Modern collections of symbolic and audio music content provide unprecedented possibilities for musicological research, but traditional qualitative evaluation methods cannot realistically cope with such amounts of data. We are interested in harmonic analysis and propose key-independent chord idioms derived from a bottom-up analysis of musical data as a new subject of musicological interest. In order to motivate future research on audio chord idioms and on probabilistic models of harmony we perform a quantitative study of chord progressions in two popular music collections. In particular, we extract common subsequences of chord classes from symbolic data, independent of key and context, and order them by frequency of occurrence, thus enabling us to identify chord idioms. We make musicological observations on selected chord idioms from the collections.
ROLE OF THE LOSS FUNCTION IN THE VaR COMPARISON

This paper examines whether the comparison of VaR models depends on the loss function used for such purpose. We show a detailed comparison for several VaR models for two groups of loss functions (designed for regulators and for risk managers). Additionally, we propose a firm�s loss function that exactly measures the opportunity cost of the firm when the losses are covered. We find that the VaR model that minimises the total losses is robust within groups of loss function but differs across firm�s and supervisor�s loss functions.
Free models of T-algebraic theories computed as Kan extensions

One fundamental aspect of Lawvere's categorical semantics is that every algebraic theory (eg. of monoid, of Lie algebra) induces a free construction (eg. of free monoid, of free Lie algebra) computed as a Kan extension. Unfortunately, the principle fails when one shifts to linear variants of algebraic theories, like Adams and Mac Lane's PROPs, and similar PROs and PROBs. Here, we introduce the notion of T-algebraic theory for a pseudomonad T -- a mild generalization of equational doctrine -- in order to describe these various kinds of ``algebraic theories''. Then, we formulate two conditions (the first one combinatorial, the second one algebraic) which ensure that the free model of a T-algebraic theory exists and is computed as an Kan extension. The proof is based on Benabou's theory of distributors, and of an axiomatization of the colimit computation in Wood's proarrow equipments.
Haptic sensitivity in needle insertion: the effects of training and visual aid

This paper describes an experiment conducted to measure haptic sensitivity and the effects of haptic training with and without visual aid. The protocol for haptic training consisted of a needle insertion task using dual-layer silicon samples. A visual aid was provided as a multimodal cue for the haptic perception task. Results showed that for a group of novices (subjects with no previous experience in needle insertion), training with a visual aid resulted in a longer time to task completion, and a greater applied force, during post-training tests. This suggests that haptic perception is easily overshadowed, and may be completely replaced, by visual feedback. Therefore, haptic skills must be trained differently from visuomotor skills.
CDP++.Italian: Modelling Sublexical and Supralexical Inconsistency in a Shallow Orthography

Most models of reading aloud have been constructed to explain data in relatively complex orthographies like English and French. Here, we created an Italian version of the Connectionist Dual Process Model of Reading Aloud (CDP++) to examine the extent to which the model could predict data in a language which has relatively simple orthography-phonology relationships but is relatively complex at a suprasegmental (word stress) level. We show that the model exhibits good quantitative performance and accounts for key phenomena observed in naming studies, including some apparently contradictory findings. These effects include stress regularity and stress consistency, both of which have been especially important in studies of word recognition and reading aloud in Italian. Overall, the results of the model compare favourably to an alternative connectionist model that can learn non-linear spelling-to-sound mappings. This suggests that CDP++ is currently the leading computational model of reading aloud in Italian, and that its simple linear learning mechanism adequately captures the statistical regularities of the spelling-to-sound mapping both at the segmental and supra-segmental levels.
Terrorism: Key Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission and Recent Major Commissions and Inquiries

Abstract : This report highlights key recommendations set out in the report of the 9/11 Commission organized by the following major thematic areas: (1) Focus of U.S. International Anti-Terrorism Policy: (2) Institutional Steps to Protect Against and Prepare for Terrorist Attacks: (3) Intelligence Issues and (4) Congress and Oversight Issues. A bulleted summary is made, under each of these major thematic headings, of the key recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, the Gilmore Commission, the Bremer Commission, the Joint Inquiry of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, and the Hart-Rudman Commission. What is provided here is a structured road map to the most important recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, to those recommendations of the three other Commissions, and to those of the Joint Inquiry of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees that are directly related to the recommendations made by the 9/11 Commission set out within each the stipulated four thematic areas. Links are also provided to the texts of the original reports prepared by these entities. This will facilitate access to the detailed commentaries of each of these entities, providing direct access to the rationales for each of the respective recommendations. Background details on the formation and mandates of the Commissions reviewed are set out in Appendix 1 of this report, as are the links to the pertinent websites where the full texts of the individual reports may be found. This report will not be updated.
Effects of Low Birth Weight in 8- to 13-Year-Old Children: Implications in Endothelial Function and Uric Acid Levels

Low birth weight has been associated with an increased incidence of adult cardiovascular disease. Endothelial dysfunction and high levels of serum uric acid are associated with hypertension. In this study, we have determined whether uric acid is related to blood pressure and vascular function in children with low birth weight. We evaluated vascular function using high-resolution ultrasound, blood pressure, and uric acid levels in 78 children (35 girls, 43 boys, aged 8 to 13 years). Increasing levels of uric acid and systolic blood pressure were observed in children with low birth weight. Birth weight was inversely associated with both systolic blood pressure and uric acid; on the other hand, uric acid levels were directly correlated with systolic blood pressure in children of the entire cohort. Low birth weight was associated with reduced flow-mediated dilation (r=0.427, P<0.001). Because the children with low birth weight had elevated uric acid as well as higher systolic blood pressure levels, we evaluated the correlation between these variables. In the low birth weight group, multiple regression analysis revealed that uric acid (&bgr;=−2.886; SE=1.393; P=0.040) had a graded inverse relationship with flow-mediated dilation, which was not affected in a model adjusting for race and gender. We conclude that children with a history of low birth weight show impaired endothelial function and increased blood pressure and uric acid levels. These findings may be early expressions of vascular compromise, contributing to susceptibility to disease in adult life.
Marching at the front and dragging behind

Integrins are cell–substrate adhesion molecules that provide the essential link between the actin cytoskeleton and the extracellular matrix during cell migration. We have analyzed αVβ3-integrin dynamics in migrating cells using a green fluorescent protein–tagged β3-integrin chain. At the cell front, adhesion sites containing αVβ3-integrin remain stationary, whereas at the rear of the cell they slide inward. The integrin fluorescence intensity within these different focal adhesions, and hence the relative integrin density, is directly related to their mobility. Integrin density is as much as threefold higher in sliding compared with stationary focal adhesions. High intracellular tension under the control of RhoA induced the formation of high-density contacts. Low-density adhesion sites were induced by Rac1 and low intracellular tension. Photobleaching experiments demonstrated a slow turnover of β3-integrins in low-density contacts, which may account for their stationary nature. In contrast, the fast β3-integrin turnover observed in high-density contacts suggests that their apparent sliding may be caused by a polarized renewal of focal contacts. Therefore, differential acto-myosin–dependent integrin turnover and focal adhesion densities may explain the mechanical and behavioral differences between cell adhesion sites formed at the front, and those that move in the retracting rear of migrating cells.
WiTracker: An Indoor Positioning System Based on Wireless LANs

With the rapid development of wireless local area networks, indoor positioning technology based on received signal strength in wireless networks are becoming more and more attractive. In this paper, we firstly introduced the implementation of an indoor positioning system, named WiTracker. Then three improvement mechanisms, called signal strength filter, user location filter and path tracking assistance, were proposed to improve the positioning accuracy of the WiTracker system. Thirdly, we analyzed the comprehensive performance of the WiTracker system and compared it with the Radar system. Experimental results demonstrated that the proposed WiTracker system can improve the 89% accuracy in 3 meters of Radar system to 93% in a typical office building testbed. Finally, two key influence factors to positioning accuracy were further discussed and analyzed, including number of access points, and spacing between sampling points.
Bayesian Learning in Sparse Graphical Factor Models via Annealed Entropy

We describe a class of sparse latent factor models, called graphical factor models (GFMs), and relevant sparse learning algorithms for posterior mode estimation. Linear, Gaussian GFMs have sparse, orthogonal factor loadings matrices, that, in addition to sparsity of the implied covariance matrices, also induce conditional independence structures via zeros in the implied precision matrices. We describe the models and their use for robust estimation of sparse latent factor structure and data/signal reconstruction. We develop computational algorithms for model exploration and posterior mode search, addressing the hard combinatorial optimization involved in the search over a huge space of potential sparse configurations. A mean-field variational technique coupled with annealing is developed to successively generate “artificial” posterior distributions that, at the limiting temperature in the annealing schedule, define required posterior modes in the GFM parameter space. Several detailed empirical studies and comparisons to related approaches are discussed, including analyses of handwritten digit image and cancer gene expression data sets.
What Drives Fiscal Decentralisation

This paper investigates the determinants of fiscal decentralisation, focusing in particular on the impact of the level of income on the level of fiscal decentralisation. Various measures of fiscal decentralisation, several of them novel in this context, are employed in a cross-country econometric model to test established and more recent hypotheses. Paying careful attention to variable measurement, model specification and sample coverage, the results suggest that there are significant relationships between a range of factors, including income, geographical size, population density, population diversity, military expenditure, the structure of the public sector and openness to trade, and fiscal decentralisation. However, these relationships may be more complicated than previously reported. For the entire sample and for the OECD subsample a positive relationship between income and decentralisation is found, which corroborates the results found in earlier studies. However, for the middle and lower income nations, higher income is found to be associated with less decentralisation. JEL Classification: E62, H1, H7, R5.
Network interface sharing for SoCs based NoC

The demand for IP reuse and system level scalability in System-on-Chip designs is growing. Network-on-chip constitutes a viable solution space to emerging SoC design challenges. In this paper, we present a configurable Network Interface(NI) architecture design approach with smaller area and lower power. The small area is achieved by memory resources sharing in the three modes used by the OCP IP or by many IPs connected to the NI. The low power is obtained by the implementation of a mechanism based on two level of gated clock for power saving. Experimental results show that adaptability, FIFO sharing, and gated clock aspects integrated in the proposed NI allow a significant reduction in terms of area and power.
A Comparison of McCullagh's Proportional Odds Model to Modern Ordinal Regression Algorithms

We introduce McCullagh’s Proportional Odds as the foundation for modern Ordinal Regression approaches. Proportional Odds introduced the ideas of (1) mapping examples to the real number line, and (2) segmenting the real number line using a set of thresholds. We compare against two modern approaches to Ordinal Regression which use the framework established by Proportional Odds and find some surprising similarities.
HIPPO Pathway Members Restrict SOX2 to the Inner Cell Mass Where It Promotes ICM Fates in the Mouse Blastocyst

Pluripotent epiblast (EPI) cells, present in the inner cell mass (ICM) of the mouse blastocyst, are progenitors of both embryonic stem (ES) cells and the fetus. Discovering how pluripotency genes regulate cell fate decisions in the blastocyst provides a valuable way to understand how pluripotency is normally established. EPI cells are specified by two consecutive cell fate decisions. The first decision segregates ICM from trophectoderm (TE), an extraembryonic cell type. The second decision subdivides ICM into EPI and primitive endoderm (PE), another extraembryonic cell type. Here, we investigate the roles and regulation of the pluripotency gene Sox2 during blastocyst formation. First, we investigate the regulation of Sox2 patterning and show that SOX2 is restricted to ICM progenitors prior to blastocyst formation by members of the HIPPO pathway, independent of CDX2, the TE transcription factor that restricts Oct4 and Nanog to the ICM. Second, we investigate the requirement for Sox2 in cell fate specification during blastocyst formation. We show that neither maternal (M) nor zygotic (Z) Sox2 is required for blastocyst formation, nor for initial expression of the pluripotency genes Oct4 or Nanog in the ICM. Rather, Z Sox2 initially promotes development of the primitive endoderm (PE) non cell-autonomously via FGF4, and then later maintains expression of pluripotency genes in the ICM. The significance of these observations is that 1) ICM and TE genes are spatially patterned in parallel prior to blastocyst formation and 2) both the roles and regulation of Sox2 in the blastocyst are unique compared to other pluripotency factors such as Oct4 or Nanog.
Diversity through duplication: Whole-genome sequencing reveals novel gene retrocopies in the human population

Gene retrocopies are generated by reverse transcription and genomic integration of mRNA. As such, retrocopies present an important exception to the central dogma of molecular biology, and have substantially impacted the functional landscape of the metazoan genome. While an estimated 8,000–17,000 retrocopies exist in the human genome reference sequence, the extent of variation between individuals in terms of retrocopy content has remained largely unexplored. Three recent studies by Abyzov et al., Ewing et al. and Schrider et al. have exploited 1,000 Genomes Project Consortium data, as well as other sources of whole‐genome sequencing data, to uncover novel gene retrocopies. Here, we compare the methods and results of these three studies, highlight the impact of retrocopies in human diversity and genome evolution, and speculate on the potential for somatic gene retrocopies to impact cancer etiology and genetic diversity among individual neurons in the mammalian brain.
ChipInfo: software for extracting gene annotation and gene ontology information for microarray analysis

To date, assembling comprehensive annotation information for all probe sets of any Affymetrix microarrays remains a time-consuming, error-prone and challenging task. ChipInfo is designed for retrieving annotation information from online databases such as NetAffx and Gene Ontology and organizing such information into easily interpretable tabular format outputs. As companion software to dChip and GoSurfer, ChipInfo enables users to independently update the information resource files of these software packages. It also has functions for computing related summary statistics of probe sets and Gene Ontology terms. ChipInfo is available at http://biosun1.harvard. edu/complab/chipinfo/.
Noun ontology generation from Wikipedia article using Map Reduce with pattern based approach

Recently, data on the internet grows and it can be used as supporting information for human life. Wikipedia as an online encyclopedia provides many resources, data, and information on the internet. Main problem in our research is how to represent information from Indonesian Wikipedia article into some knowledge representation such as ontology. Ontology is a set of related concept and relation between those concepts. Ontology usually has a large and complex structure because ontology is made to cover a large area topic. Our approach in this ontology building is focused on hyponymy relation and meronymy relation. Our proposed method is using taxonomy template information in Wikipedia to extract hyponymy relation and some pattern to extract the meronymy relation. Our experiment shows that hyponymy relation can be extracted into 5038 relations. For our meronymy relation extraction process has 82.23% as the highest accuracy.
Competition and Corporate Governance in Transition

This paper examines the elements of institutional development critical to the enhancement of company performance in transition economies. This includes initial conditions, forms of privatization, institutional frameworks and the competitiveness of markets. Comparing empirical evidence, the paper concludes that there is a clear distinction in effectiveness of policies followed and their impact between Central Europe and CIS countries. This divergence is attributed to fundamentally different political attitudes toward reform, the need of CIS governments to gain political support for reform and as a consequence of the desire of Central European countries to join European Union.
Rectangle Diagrams for the Lusztig Cones of Quantized Enveloping Algebras of Type A

Abstract Let U be the quantum group associated to a Lie algebra g of type A n . The negative part U − of U has a canonical basis B defined by Lusztig and Kashiwara, with favorable properties. We show how the spanning vectors of the cones defined by Lusztig (1993, Israel Math. Conf. Proc. 7 , 117–132), when regarded as monomials in Kashiwara's root operators, can be described using a remarkable rectangle combinatorics. We use this to calculate the Lusztig parameters of the corresponding canonical basis elements, conjecturing that translates of these vectors span the simplicial regions of linearity of Lusztig's piecewise-linear function (1990, J. Amer. Math. Soc. 3 , 447–498, Sect. 2).
Weather Radar Data Compression Based on Zerotree Wavelet Algorithm

Wavelet based image compression is getting popular due to its promising compaction properties at low bit-rate. Zerotree wavelet image coding scheme efficiently exploits multi-level redundancy presented in transformed data to minimize coding bit. In this paper, a novel compression algorithm for weather radar data based on zerotree coding is presented. Considering the dependence of radar data, an efficient pre-processing algorithm of the data is given first and the redundancy of the data is efficiently reduced. Then an advanced Embedded Zerotree Wavelet encoding algorithm is presented which uses context-based adaptive arithmetic coding to improve its performance. Experimental results show that for weather radar data, the proposed algorithm achieves good PSNR even in very low bit rate.