Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nationalism and Social Communication: An Inquiry into the Foundations of Nationality

There are outstanding studies of nationalism as a history of nationalistic ideas, as in the writings of Hans Kohn; there are competent descriptions of nationalism as a force in politics, as by the Study Group of the Royal Institute of International Affairs headed by Edward Hallett Carr; and there are important works organizing the many facts about nationalism in terms of some particular problem, such as Quincy Wright? s monumental Study of War. But there has seemed to be no answer to the question why nationalist ideas met with wide and strong response at certain times and places, and with almost no response at others.In certain areas, economic growth has led to national unification; in others to greater national diversity. Why did national sentiments develop in one direction but not in the other? In certain cases, individuals can and do change from membership in one people to membership in another; in other situations they seem almost powerless to do so, and nationality appears as if it were some objective fact beyond the decisions of individuals.What, then, is ethnic nationality? Under which conditions will a government or a political organization find it an asset? Under which a liability? What is the relation of this nationalisty to economic life, to incomes, opportunities, and expectations? And how may it become so important to individuals as to override their economic interest and even their interest in self-preservation? To make a beginning at answering these questions we need studies about objective as well as the subjective sides of nationalisty, and about the long-run trends of national assimilation or differentiation.The present study represents an attempt toward such a theory.
The Dynamics of Interaction and Consciousness

In this paper there is a short presentation of the extended system of mirror neurons and Michael Tomasello's theory of imitation. Imitation is the minimal change in human behaviour relative to other primates necessary for the emergence of meta-cognitive abilities. Emergence is here taken as in the theory of dynamic systems, where it is shown that local interaction between two individuals might spread in a community and cause the emergence of a global structure qualitatively different from the local one. Imitation and mirroring secure that an individual has an internal motor representation of observed behaviour. In a situation where humans develop an extended sense of force-dynamic manipulation of the material world this leads to representations of different strategies for the same goal, which stimulates the development of choice making mechanisms. We can therefore see the metacognitive monitoring of strategic behaviour as inherent in the dynamics determined by imitation and the mirror system.
Fully automatic hippocampus segmentation discriminates between early Alzheimer’s disease and normal aging

The hippocampus is among the first structures affected in Alzheimer's disease (AD); hippocampal MRI volumetry is a potential biomarker for AD but is hindered by the limitations of manual segmentation. We propose a fully automatic method using probabilistic and anatomical priors for hippocampus segmentation. Probabilistic information is derived from 16 young controls and anatomical knowledge is modeled with automatically detected landmarks. The results were compared with manual segmentation on data from 16 young healthy controls, with a leave-one-out strategy, and 8 AD patients. High accuracy was found for both groups (volume error 6% and 7%, overlap 87% and 86%, respectively). The resulting volumes were used to discriminate between 25 elderly subjects, 25 early AD patients and 24 patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (MCI). The classification proved accurate with 87% of the AD patients and 74% of the MCI patients correctly classified with respect to the elderly controls.
Attenuation of Eph Receptor Kinase Activation in Cancer Cells by Coexpressed Ephrin Ligands

The Eph receptor tyrosine kinases mediate juxtacrine signals by interacting “in trans” with ligands anchored to the surface of neighboring cells via a GPI-anchor (ephrin-As) or a transmembrane segment (ephrin-Bs), which leads to receptor clustering and increased kinase activity. Additionally, soluble forms of the ephrin-A ligands released from the cell surface by matrix metalloproteases can also activate EphA receptor signaling. Besides these trans interactions, recent studies have revealed that Eph receptors and ephrins coexpressed in neurons can also engage in lateral “cis” associations that attenuate receptor activation by ephrins in trans with critical functional consequences. Despite the importance of the Eph/ephrin system in tumorigenesis, Eph receptor-ephrin cis interactions have not been previously investigated in cancer cells. Here we show that in cancer cells, coexpressed ephrin-A3 can inhibit the ability of EphA2 and EphA3 to bind ephrins in trans and become activated, while ephrin-B2 can inhibit not only EphB4 but also EphA3. The cis inhibition of EphA3 by ephrin-B2 implies that in some cases ephrins that cannot activate a particular Eph receptor in trans can nevertheless inhibit its signaling ability through cis association. We also found that an EphA3 mutation identified in lung cancer enhances cis interaction with ephrin-A3. These results suggest a novel mechanism that may contribute to cancer pathogenesis by attenuating the tumor suppressing effects of Eph receptor signaling pathways activated by ephrins in trans.
Use of Hyaluronan‐Derived Hydrogels for Three‐Dimensional Cell Culture and Tumor Xenografts

The practice of in vitro three‐dimensional (3‐D) cell culture has lagged behind the realization that classical two‐dimensional (2‐D) culture on plastic surfaces fails to mirror normal cell biology. Biologically, a complex network of proteins and proteoglycans that constitute the extracellular matrix (ECM) surrounds every cell. To recapitulate the normal cellular behavior, scaffolds (ECM analogs) that reconstitute the essential biological cues are required. This unit describes the 3‐D cell culture and tumor engineering applications of Extracel, a novel semisynthetic ECM (sECM), based on cross‐linked derivatives of hyaluronan and gelatin. A simplified cell encapsulation and pseudo‐3‐D culturing (on top of hydrogels) protocol is provided. In addition, the use of this sECM as a vehicle to obtain tumor xenografts with improved take rates and tumor growth is presented. These engineered tumors can be used to evaluate anticancer therapies under physiologically relevant conditions. Curr. Protoc. Cell Biol. 40:10.14. 1‐10.14. 21. © 2008 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Developing Employability Skills: Peer Assessment in Higher Education.

Purpose – Reports examining graduate employment issues suggest that employers are concerned by the lack of employability skills exhibited by entry‐level job applications. It is also suggested that employers consider it the responsibility of educational institutions to develop such skills. The current study seeks to identify peer assessment as a potential strategy for developing employability skills and aims to examine – from a students' perspective – the process of introducing peer assessment into higher education teaching programmes.Design/methodology/approach – The focus of the study was on the assessment of students' attitudes towards both being assessed by and assessing other students' work. Data were gathered from a sample of undergraduate students following a structured peer assessment exercise.Findings – In line with previous work, the study found that students expressed a positive attitude towards peer assessment but had concerns relating to their capability to assess peers and to the responsibili.
Development of JPEG2000 with Gamma Code based on Discrete Wavelet Transform for Still Image Compression Standard

many contemporary applications, such as distributed multimedia systems, rapid transmission of images is necessary. Cost of transmission and storage tends to be directly proportional to the volume of data. Therefore, application of digital image compression techniques becomes necessary to minimize the cost. A number of digital image compression algorithms have been developed and standardized. The method proposed by Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) is a lossy compression technique. An improved version of JPEG is JPEG2000, which is currently the most popular compressor. The paper deals with a new compressing non-negative integer method JPEG2000 with Gamma code compressors by modifying the JPEG2000 architecture. In the proposed methods, the entropy coder is replaced by new coders. Simulated experiments using the methods show that proposed methods gives better image quality when compared to the JPEG2000 at any given bit rate.
Using the Coronary Artery Calcium Score to Guide Statin Therapy: A Cost-Effectiveness Analysis

Background—The coronary artery calcium (CAC) score predicts future coronary heart disease (CHD) events and could be used to guide primary prevention interventions, but CAC measurement has costs and exposes patients to low-dose radiation. Methods and Results—We estimated the cost-effectiveness of measuring CAC and prescribing statin therapy based on the resulting score under a range of assumptions using an established model enhanced with CAC distribution and risk estimates from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis. Ten years of statin treatment for 10 000 55-year-old women with high cholesterol (10-year CHD risk, 7.5%) was projected to prevent 32 myocardial infarctions, cause 70 cases of statin-induced myopathy, and add 1108 years to total life expectancy. Measuring CAC and targeting statin treatment to the 2500 women with CAC>0 would provide 45% of the benefit (+501 life-years), but CAC measurement would cost $2.25 million and cause 9 radiation-induced cancers. Treat all was preferable to CAC screening in this scenario and across a broad range of other scenarios (CHD risk, 2.5%–15%) when statin assumptions were favorable ($0.13 per pill and no quality of life penalty). When statin assumptions were less favorable ($1.00 per pill and disutility=0.00384), CAC screening with statin treatment for persons with CAC>0 was cost-effective (<$50 000 per quality-adjusted life-year) in this scenario, in 55-year-old men with CHD risk 7.5%, and in other intermediate risk scenarios (CHD risk, 5%–10%). Our results were critically sensitive to statin cost and disutility and relatively robust to other assumptions. Alternate CAC treatment thresholds (>100 or >300) were generally not cost-effective. Conclusions—CAC testing in intermediate risk patients can be cost-effective but only if statins are costly or significantly affect quality of life.
Simulation study of Schottky contact based single Si wire solar cell

We model single silicon nanowire (SiNW) solar cells with dissimilar work function metal contacts. Both short circuit current (ISC) and open circuit voltage (VOC) have been investigated. Effects of nanowire dimension, minority carrier lifetime, and contact metal work function difference are investigated. Both ISC and VOC increase with nanowire length before saturating due to minority carrier recombination. The saturation length is found to be approximately five times the diffusion length. The larger the contact work function difference, the more improved the solar cell characteristics. Large work function differences may also avoid need for any doping in axial p-i-n nanowire solar cells. Saturation in ISC as well as degradation in current density with length can be minimized by spreading the contacts along the length of the nanowire.
Transfer Semi-Supervised Non-Negative Matrix Factorization for Speech Emotion Recognition

SUMMARY In practice, emotional speech utterances are often collected from di ﬀ erent devices or conditions, which will lead to discrepancy between the training and testing data, resulting in sharp decrease of recognition rates. To solve this problem, in this letter, a novel transfer semi-supervised non-negative matrix factorization (TSNMF) method is presented. A semi-supervised negative matrix factorization algorithm, utilizing both labeled source and unlabeled target data, is adopted to learn common feature representations. Meanwhile, the maximum mean discrepancy (MMD) as a similarity measurement is employed to reduce the distance between the feature distributions of two databases. Finally, the TSNMF algorithm, which optimizes the SNMF and MMD functions together, is proposed to obtain robust feature representations across databases. Extensive experiments demonstrate that in comparison to the state-of-the-art approaches, our proposed method can signiﬁcantly improve the cross-corpus recognition rates.
UPTAKE OF GLYCINE-N15 BY COMPONENTS OF CELL NUCLEI

1. The uptake of glycine-N15 by components of cell nuclei was studied. The nuclear components were derived both from tissues with high metabolic rates-mammalian liver, kidney, and pancreas-and from cells with relatively low rates of metabolism-avian erythrocytes and echinoderm sperm. N15 uptake by nuclear components of liver, kidney, and pancreas was far more rapid than by those of erythrocytes and sperm. 2. The nuclear components of liver, kidney, and pancreas for which measurements were made were DNA, histone, and residual protein of chromatin. Uptake into DNA was low, into histone higher, and into residual protein much higher still, being comparable with that into mixed cytoplasmic protein. 3. A comparison of the uptake of N15 by the chromosomal components, histone and DNA of liver, pancreas, and kidney showed that chromosomal "activity" varies in different cells and also in the same cell depending upon its over-all activity.
Synaptopodin-deficient mice lack a spine apparatus and show deficits in synaptic plasticity

The spine apparatus is a cellular organelle that is present in many dendritic spines of excitatory neurons in the mammalian forebrain. Despite its discovery >40 years ago, the function of the spine apparatus is still unknown although calcium buffering functions as well as roles in synaptic plasticity have been proposed. We have recently shown that the 100-kDa protein synaptopodin is associated with the spine apparatus. Here, we now report that mice homozygous for a targeted deletion of the synaptopodin gene completely lack spine apparatuses. Interestingly, this absence of the spine apparatus is accompanied by a reduction in hippocampal long-term potentiation (LTP) in the CA1 region of the hippocampus and by an impairment of spatial learning in the radial arm maze test. This genetic analysis points to a role of the spine apparatus in synaptic plasticity.
Orchestrating the unfolded protein response in health and disease.

A variety of approaches have been employed to identify the UPR signaling components, their function, and their physiological role. Yeast genetics allowed the definition of the basic ER stress–signaling pathway. The identification of homologous and parallel signaling pathways in higher eukaryotes has produced a mechanistic framework the cell uses to sense and compensate for ER over-load and stress. The high-level tissue-specific expression patterns of several ER stress–signaling molecules indicated the pancreas and intestine as organs that require UPR for physiological function. Analysis of UPR-induced gene expression established that protein degradation is required to reduce the stress of unfolded protein accumulation in the ER. Major advances in identifying UPR function and relevance to disease were derived from mutation of UPR signaling components in model organisms and the identification of mutations in humans. Despite tremendous progress, our knowledge of the UPR pathway remains incomplete. Further studies promise to expand our understanding of how ER stress impacts the other cellular signaling pathways. It will be very exciting and informative to understand how the UPR varies when critical components are genetically manipulated by deletion or other types of mutations. In addition, although the accumulation of unfolded protein in the ER is now known to contribute to pathogenesis in a variety of diseases, there are still few therapeutic approaches that target these events. With a greater understanding of protein-folding processes, pharmacological intervention with chemical chaperones to promote proper folding becomes feasible, as observed with sodium phenylbutyrate for Δ508 CFTR (see Gelman and Kopito, this Perspective series, ref. 53). Future intervention should consider activation of different subpathways of the UPR or overexpression of appropriate protein chaperones, as in the case of overexpression of the J domain of cytosolic HSP70, which suppresses polyglutamine toxicity in flies (88). Treatments that activate the ERAD response may also ameliorate pathogenesis in a number of the conformational diseases. Over the past ten years, tremendous progress has been made in understanding the mechanisms and physiological significance of the UPR. The processes of protein folding and secretion, transcriptional and translational activation, and protein degradation are intimately interconnected to maintain homeostasis in the ER. A variety of environmental insults, genetic disease, and underlying genetic modifiers of UPR function contribute to the pathogenesis of different disease states. As we gain a greater understanding of the mechanisms that control UPR activation, it should be possible to discover methods to activate or inhibit the UPR as desired for therapeutic benefit.
Loss of Telomere Protection: Consequences and Opportunities

Telomeres are repetitive sequences at the natural ends of linear eukaryotic chromosomes that protect these from recognition as chromosome breaks. Their ability to do so critically depends on the binding of sufficient quantities of functional shelterin, a six-unit protein complex with specific and crucial roles in telomere maintenance and function. Insufficient telomere length, leading to insufficient concentration of shelterin at chromosome ends, or otherwise crippled shelterin function, causes telomere deprotection. While contributing to aging-related pathologies, loss of telomere protection can act as a barrier to tumorigenesis, as dysfunctional telomeres activate DNA-damage-like checkpoint responses that halt cell proliferation or trigger cell death. In addition, dysfunctional telomeres affect cancer development and progression by being a source of genomic instability. Reviewed here are the different approaches that are being undertaken to investigate the mammalian cellular response to telomere dysfunction and its consequences for cancer. Furthermore, it is discussed how current and future knowledge about the mechanisms underlying telomere damage responses might be applied for diagnostic purposes or therapeutic intervention.
The Influence of Prior Relationship on Perceptions of Stalking in the United Kingdom and Australia

Research in the United Kingdom and Australia has produced inconsistent findings regarding the influence of the prior relationship between the perpetrator and the target on perceptions of stalking. It is unclear whether these inconsistencies represent a genuine cross-cultural difference. The current study investigates the influence of prior relationship and the nationality of participants on perceptions of stalking with a combined sample of 315 university students from the United Kingdom and Australia. Overall, perceptions failed to reflect the reality that ex-partner stalkers pose a greater threat than stranger or acquaintance stalkers. Participants were more likely to believe that behavior constituted stalking, necessitated police intervention, caused fear or apprehension, and caused mental or physical harm when the perpetrator was depicted as a stranger rather than an acquaintance or ex-partner. The direction of findings was consistent in the United Kingdom and Australia, although Australian participants perceived the perpetrator’s behavior to be more severe than did participants from the United Kingdom.
Clinical practice. Helicobacter pylori infection.

A 29-year-old man presents with intermittent epigastric discomfort, without weight loss or evidence of gastrointestinal bleeding. He reports no use of aspirin or nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs. A serologic test for Helicobacter pylori is positive, and he receives a 10-day course of omeprazole, amoxicillin, and clarithromycin. Six weeks later, he returns with the same symptoms. How should his case be further evaluated and managed?
Reference velocity estimation method for on-road unmanned ground vehicle

The proposed method generates a safe global trajectory with reference velocities for a on-road unmanned ground vehicle to navigate in outdoor environments such as highways or roads. It generates a trajectory from a given global path consist of sparse waypoints without abrupt heading direction changes and estimates reference velocities to follow the given global path without slippages. It was implemented to verify that it can generate a safe trajectory with reference velocities using a data set acquired in a real outdoor environment.
A model of mass extinction.

In the last few years a number of authors have suggested that evolution may be a so-called self-organized critical phenomenon, and that critical processes might have a significant effect on the dynamics of ecosystems. In particular it has been suggested that mass extinction may arise through a purely biotic mechanism as the result of "coevolutionary avalanches". In this paper we first explore the empirical evidence which has been put forward in favor of this conclusion. The data center principally around the existence of power-law functional forms in the distribution of the sizes of extinction events and other quantities. We then propose a new mathematical model of mass extinction which does not rely on coevolutionary effects and in which extinction is caused entirely by the action of environmental stress on species. In combination with a simple model of species adaption we show that this process can account for all the observed data without the need to invoke coevolution and critical processes. The model also makes some independent predictions, such as the existence of "aftershock" extinctions in the aftermath of large mass extinction events, which should in theory be testable against the fossil record.
Lay prototypes of illness: Their content and use

Abstract This paper examines the laypersons “illness prototypes”, their use in interpreting symptoms of illness, and their systematic inter-relationship. The domain of illness was mapped out by analysing the similarities perceived between 35 illnesses. Seven clusters of illnesses were obtained. Next, the content of the prototypes of 12 illnesses from 4 different clusters was investigated. Features investigated included the nature of the typical sufferer of an illness and its typical cause, as well as other elements such as its typical consequences. There was homogeneity of features within cluster and difference between clusters. Finally, subjects were presented with vignettes consisting of typical and atypical combinations of symptom and person/ environmental cause information, and invited to diagnose what illness the person described was suffering from. The importance of illness prototypes in the diagnosis of illness was demonstrated. The nature of the typical sufferers and of the typical causes of illne.