Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The antecedents to commitment in information systems development projects

Within the field of information systems, understanding project success has garnered much attention. A key factor with the potential to impact project outcomes is commitment to project objectives. As information systems projects are inherently complicated and often end in failure, there is a need to understand as much as possible to help with the management of the project process. This research study examines personality variables and implementation mindset as antecedents to predict the commitment to project objectives. Additionally, this study examines the existence of a higher order personality variable defined as positive self-evaluation comprised of self-efficacy, self-esteem, locus of control, and neuroticism. Results of a survey administered to 232 individuals working on information systems development projects support the existence of a higher order construct and reveal that higher levels of positive self-evaluation impact commitment to project objectives directly and indirectly through its influence on implementation mindset. The study explains 38% of the variance in commitment to development project objectives. Directions for future research and implications are presented.
Frequency stabilization design for interconnected microgrid based on T-S fuzzy model with multiple time delays

In an interconnected microgrid, the problems about the time delays and the lack of uniform control model cannot be ignored. To solve such problems for better stabilization, this paper establishes a T-S fuzzy model with multiple time delays. In addition, a parallel distributed compensation control is designed and the stability of the proposed closed-loop system has been proved. Then, the state feedback stabilization design is proposed, which can obtain fast frequency recovery and eligible stabilization effect. Simulation results which are carried out in a typical interconnected microgrid, have verified the effectiveness of the proposed method.
An insider attack on shilling attack detection for recommendation systems

Shilling attacks can affect the robustness and reliability of recommendation systems. There are many shilling attack detection schemes proposed in the literature. However, these schemes have not considered the case that the examiner who is in charge of shilling attack detections can be a malicious attacker. In this paper, we study the privacy issue in the shilling attack detection for recommendation systems. In our attack model, an examiner is assumed to be an attacker who is kept from the rating profiles by secure computations techniques. And we present a novel insider attack approach where the attacker only utilizes the output of secure computations and very little prior knowledge about ratings of a target user to infer the private rating profile. The experimental results illustrate that the proposed attack approach is very effective to breach privacy of users in the recommendation systems. It is proved that there is a serious risk to privacy in the shilling attack detection.
Assessing the Ability of Computation/Communication Overlap and Communication Progress in Modern Interconnects

Computation/communication overlap is one of the fundamental techniques in hiding communication latency. Independent progress support in messaging layer, network interface offload capability and application usage of non-blocking communications are believed to increase overlap and yield performance benefits. In this paper, we analyze four MPI implementations on top of three high-speed interconnects (InfiniBand, Myrinet and iWARP Ethernet) in their ability to support overlap and communication progress. The results confirm that the offload ability needs to be supported with communication progress to increase the level of overlap. Our progress engine micro-benchmark results show that in all examined networks transferring small messages makes an acceptable level of progress and overlap. On the other hand, in most cases, transferring large messages does not make progress independently, decreasing the chances of overlap in applications.
The “Spectroscopy of Plasma Evolution from Astrophysical Radiation” Mission

The "Spectroscopy of Plasma Evolution from Astrophysical Radiation" (SPEAR, also known as the "Far-Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph") instruments, flown aboard the STSAT-1 satellite mission, have provided the first large-area spectral mapping of the cosmic far-ultraviolet (FUV; 900-1750 Å) background. We describe the mission and its science motivation, the mission data and their processing, and the effects of mission performance on the science data. We present the first map of the cosmic FUV background (1360-1710 Å) over most of the sky as an example of the mission results. These SPEAR data reveal diffuse radiation from warm and hot (104-106 K) plasma, molecular hydrogen fluorescence, and dust-scattered starlight. They allow for an unprecedented characterization of the spectral emission from a variety of environments, including the general interstellar medium (ISM), molecular clouds, supernova remnants, and superbubbles.
Multi-Agent architecture towards the intelligent strategical algorithm for the representation and retrieval of tacit knowledge from healthcare distributed repositories

Knowledge is deemed a key asset in today’s knowledge enriched society and such a ‘Knowledge Age’ has fuelled Knowledge Management discipline to address many complex problem issues pertaining to knowledge creation, procurement, representation, retrieval,capitalization, etc. Knowledge is categorized in many forms and one of the complex forms of knowledge is known as “Tacit Knowledge” that put forwards many challenges for acquisition and retrieval, in particular,from distributed repositories. We will present, in this paper, a novel strategical algorithm implemented with multi-agent architecture for the retrieval,of tacit knowledge with incorporation of ‘Ontology’ and ‘Query Optimization’,from distributed healthcare repositories.
Income Inequality and Saving

Over the last three decades, average income for the bottom half of the US distribution increased by 8% while their average saving rate decreased by eight percentage points. Over the same period the US experienced a substantial increase in inequality and a continuous decrease in the aggregate saving rate. We propose an explanation based on interpersonal comparisons consistent with these trends. When households care about their consumption relative to others, individual saving rates decrease with reference income while aggregate saving decreases with income inequality. We provide evidence from the PSID and a panel of OECD countries consistent with these predictions.
Force, fraud, and coercion: Bridging from knowledge of intercountry adoption to global surrogacy

This report discusses concerns raised by participants of Thematic Area 4 (Force, Fraud and Coercion) of the International Forum on Intercountry Adoption and Global Surrogacy held in August 2014. There has been a significant body of research on intercountry adoption practices over the past 30 years; force, fraud, and coercion have been identified in a small but important component of the literature. However, this knowledge in intercountry adoption has not yet truly bridged into research in global surrogacy with some recent exceptions. Learning from the past of ICA and connecting the evidence is particularly relevant due to the fact that the need for international law focused on global surrogacy and issues of parentage has been considered. The lessons learned from a history of corruption and human rights abuses are important to integrate when formulating future international law and regulations to protect vulnerable peoples in global surrogacy practices. Concepts of exploitation and human trafficking are explored with considerations of how to prevent, protect, and prosecute as emergent focal points of discourse. Effective prosecution of crimes, implications for a convention on global surrogacy, exploitation in global surrogacy arrangements, emotional safeguards for surrogate mothers, limited knowledge about the sense of origin, and experiences of children born through surrogacy are all areas in need of continued research.
Transplantation of D15A-Expressing Glial-Restricted-Precursor-Derived Astrocytes Improves Anatomical and Locomotor Recovery after Spinal Cord Injury

The transplantation of neural stem/progenitor cells is a promising therapeutic strategy for spinal cord injury (SCI). In this study, we tested whether combination of neurotrophic factors and transplantation of glial-restricted precursor (GRPs)-derived astrocytes (GDAs) could decrease the injury and promote functional recovery after SCI. We developed a protocol to quickly produce a sufficiently large, homogenous population of young astrocytes from GRPs, the earliest arising progenitor cell population restricted to the generation of glia. GDAs expressed the axonal regeneration promoting substrates, laminin and fibronectin, but not the inhibitory chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans (CSPGs). Importantly, GDAs or its conditioned medium promoted the neurite outgrowth of dorsal root ganglion neurons in vitro. GDAs were infected with retroviruses expressing EGFP or multi-neurotrophin D15A and transplanted into the contused adult thoracic spinal cord at 8 days post-injury. Eight weeks after transplantation, the grafted GDAs survived and integrated into the injured spinal cord. Grafted GDAs expressed GFAP, suggesting they remained astrocyte lineage in the injured spinal cord. But it did not express CSPG. Robust axonal regeneration along the grafted GDAs was observed. Furthermore, transplantation of D15A-GDAs significantly increased the spared white matter and decreased the injury size compared to other control groups. More importantly, transplantation of D15A-GDAs significantly improved the locomotion function recovery shown by BBB locomotion scores and Tredscan footprint analyses. However, this combinatorial strategy did not enhance the aberrant synaptic connectivity of pain afferents, nor did it exacerbate posttraumatic neuropathic pain. These results demonstrate that transplantation of D15A-expressing GDAs promotes anatomical and locomotion recovery after SCI, suggesting it may be an effective therapeutic approach for SCI.
2 9 M ay 2 00 2 Non – commutative geometry , dynamics , and ∞ – adic Arakelov geometry

In Arakelov theory a completion of an arithmetic surface is achieved by enlarging the group of divisors by formal linear combinations of the “closed fibers at infinity”. Manin described the dual graph of any such closed fiber in terms of an infinite tangle of bounded geodesics in a hyperbolic handlebody endowed with a Schottky uniformization. In this paper we consider arithmetic surfaces over the ring of integers in a number field, with fibers of genus g ≥ 2. We use Connes’ theory of spectral triples to relate the hyperbolic geometry of the handlebody to Deninger’s Archimedean cohomology and the cohomology of the cone of the local monodromy N at arithmetic infinity as introduced by the first author of this paper. First, we construct a spectral triple, where the non–commutative space is given by the reduced C∗–algebra of the Schottky group acting on the cohomology of the cone via a representation induced by the presence of a polarized Lefschetz module structure. In this setting we recover the alternating product of the Archimedean factors from a zeta function of the spectral triple. Then, we introduce a second spectral triple, which is related to Manin’s description of the dual graph of the fiber at infinity. Here the non–commutative space is a C∗–algebra representing the “reduction mod infinity” and acting on a “dynamical homology and cohomology” pair, defined in terms of the bounded geodesics in the handlebody and of a dynamical system T . Morita equivalence plays an important role in the definition of the action. The operator Φ, that represents the “logarithm of a Frobenius–type operator” on the Archimedean cohomology, gives the Dirac operator on these spectral triples. The Archimedean cohomology embeds in the dynamical cohomology, compatibly with the action of a real Frobenius F̄∞, so that the duality isomorphism on the cohomology of the cone of N corresponds to the pairing of dynamical homology and cohomology. This suggests the existence of a duality between the monodromy N and the dynamical map 1 − T . Partially supported by NSERC grant 72016789 Partially supported by Humboldt Foundation Sofja Kovalevskaja Award
Acetylation-Mediated Transcriptional Activation of the ETS Protein ER81 by p300, P/CAF, and HER2/Neu

ABSTRACT The regulated expression of the ETS transcription factor ER81 is a prerequisite for normal development, and its dysregulation contributes to neoplasia. Here, we demonstrate that ER81 is acetylated by two coactivators/acetyltransferases, p300 and p300- and CBP-associated factor (P/CAF) in vitro and in vivo. Whereas p300 acetylates two lysine residues (K33 and K116) within the ER81 N-terminal transactivation domain, P/CAF targets only K116. Acetylation of ER81 not only enhances its ability to transactivate but also increases its DNA binding activity and in vivo half-life. Furthermore, oncogenic HER2/Neu, which induces phosphorylation and thereby activation of ER81, was less able to activate acetylation-deficient ER81 mutants, indicating that both acetyltransferase and protein kinase-specific regulatory mechanisms control ER81 activity. Importantly, HER2/Neu overexpression stimulates the ability of p300 to acetylate ER81, likely by inducing phosphorylation of p300 through the Ras→Raf→mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway. This represents a novel mechanism by which oncogenic HER2/Neu, Ras, or Raf may promote tumor formation by enhancing acetylation not only of ER81 but also of other downstream effector transcription factors as well as histones.
Dynamics of microglial activation: A confocal time‐lapse analysis in hippocampal slices

The dynamics of microglial cell activation was studied in freshly prepared rat brain tissue slices. Microglia became activated in the tissue slices, as evidenced by their conversion from a ramified to amoeboid form within several hours in vitro. To define better the cytoarchitectural dynamics underlying microglial activation, we performed direct three‐dimensional time‐lapse confocal imaging of microglial cells in live brain slices. Microglia in tissue slices were stained with a fluorescent lectin conjugate, FITC‐IB4, and stacks of confocal optical sections through the tissue were collected repeatedly at intervals of 2–5 min for several hours at a time. Morphometric analysis of cells from time‐lapse sequences revealed that ramified microglia progress to amoeboid macrophages through a stereotypical sequence of steps. First, in the withdrawal stage, the existing ramified branches of activating microglia do not actively extend or engulf other cells, but instead retract back (mean rate, 0.5–1.5 μm/min) and are completely resorbed into the cell body. Second, in the motility stage, a new set of dynamic protrusions, which can exhibit cycles of rapid extension and retraction (both up to 4 μm/min), abruptly emerges. Sometimes new processes begin to emerge even before the old branches are completely withdrawn. Third, in the locomotory stage, microglia begin translocating within the tissue (up to 118 μm/h) only after the new protrusions emerge. We conclude that the rapid conversion of resting ramified microglia to active amoeboid macrophages is accomplished not by converting quiescent branches to dynamic ones, but rather by replacing existing branches with an entirely new set of highly motile protrusions. This suggests that the ramified branches of resting microglia are normally incapable of rapid morphological dynamics necessary for activated microglial function. More generally, our time‐lapse observations identify changes in the dynamic behavior of activating microglia and thereby help define distinct temporal and functional stages of activation for further investigation. GLIA 33:256–266, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Microstructure of a Brassica rapa genome segment homoeologous to the resistance gene cluster on Arabidopsis chromosome 4

Genome evolution is a continuous process and genomic rearrangement occurs both within and between species. With the sequencing of the Arabidopsis thaliana genome, comparative genetics and genomics offer new insights into plant biology. The genus Brassica offers excellent opportunities with which to compare genomic synteny so as to reveal genome evolution. During a previous genetic analysis of clubroot resistance in Brassica rapa, we identified a genetic region that is highly collinear with Arabidopsis chromosome 4. This region corresponds to a disease resistance gene cluster in the A. thaliana genome. Relying on synteny with Arabidopsis, we fine-mapped the region and found that the location and order of the markers showed good correspondence with those in Arabidopsis. Microsynteny on a physical map indicated an almost parallel correspondence, with a few rearrangements such as inversions and insertions. The results show that this genomic region of Brassica is conserved extensively with that of Arabidopsis and has potential as a disease resistance gene cluster, although the genera diverged 20 million years ago.
Daily torpor reduces mass and changes stress and power output of soleus and EDL muscles in the Djungarian hamster, Phodopus sungorus

SUMMARY Djungarian hamsters (Phodopus sungorus) undergo bouts of daily torpor in response to reduced photoperiod. Metabolic rate, body temperature and energy cost are reduced during torpor. The present study exposed Djungarian hamsters to two different photoperiod regimes at a room temperature of 19–21°C: long photoperiod (control, 16 h:8 h light:dark, N=8) and short photoperiod (torpor, 8 h:16 h light:dark, N=8). After 14 weeks, muscle mechanics were analyzed in each group, examining both extensor digitorum longus (EDL) muscle and soleus muscle from each individual. Control hamsters had significantly greater body mass (43%), EDL mass (24%), EDL length (9%) and soleus mass (48%) than the torpor hamsters. However, there were no significant differences between control and torpor groups in forearm length or soleus muscle length. There were no significant differences in either muscle between control and torpor hamsters in maximum twitch stress (force per unit area), tetanus force generation or relaxation times. Maximum soleus tetanic stress was 43% greater (P=0.039) and soleus work loop power output (P<0.001) was higher in torpor than in control hamsters. Maximum EDL tetanic stress was 26% greater in control than in torpor hamsters (P=0.046), but there was no significant effect on EDL power output (P=0.38). Rate of fatigue was not affected by torpor in either soleus or EDL muscles (P>0.43). Overall, extended use of daily torpor had no effect on the rate at which stress or work was produced in soleus and EDL muscles in Djungarian hamsters; however, torpor did increase the stress and power produced by the soleus.
Peer-to-Peer vs. the Internet: A Discussion on the Proper and Practical Location of Functionality

Peer-to-peer information sharing has become one of the dominant Internet applications, measured not only in the number of users, but also in the network bandwidth consumed. Thus, it is reasonable to examine the location of support functionality such as self-organisation, resource discovery, multipoint-to-multipoint group communication, forwarding, and routing, to provide the needed service to applications while optimising resource usage in the network. This position paper is intended to stimulate discussion in two related areas: First, where {\em should} functionality to support peer-to-peer applications be located: in the network, or as an application overlay among end systems. Second, where {\em can} functionality be located, given the practical constraints of the modern Internet including closed systems and middleboxes, as well as administrative, legal, and social issues. We will discuss the performance implications of these decisions, including whether low latency bounds for delay sensitive peer-to-peer applications (such as distributed network computing) can ever be achieved in this environment.
The Mesh Propagation Algorithm for Isosurface Construction

A new algorithm, Mesh Propagation, is presented for the generation of isosurfaces from three‐dimensional discrete data sets. While producing the same surface mesh as that generated by a corrected Marching Cubes algorithm, its characteristic is that it constructs an isosurface using connected strips of dynamically triangulated polygons. This compact data structure speeds up surface construction and reduces surface storage requirements. The surface can also be displayed more quickly, particularly where there is hardware support for rendering triangle strips.
Evaluating Trust and Safety in HRI : Practical Issues and Ethical Challenges

In an effort to increase the acceptance and persuasiveness of socially assistive robots in home and healthcare environments, HRI researchers attempt to identify factors that promote human trust and perceived safety with regard to robots. Especially in collaborative contexts in which humans are requested to accept information provided by the robot and follow its suggestions, trust plays a crucial role, as it is strongly linked to persuasiveness. As a result, humanrobot trust can directly affect people’s willingness to cooperate with the robot, while underor overreliance could have severe or even dangerous consequences. Problematically, investigating trust and human perceptions of safety in HRI experiments is not a straightforward task and, in light of a number of ethical concerns and risks, proves quite challenging. This position statement highlights a few of these points based on experiences from HRI practice and raises a few important questions that HRI researchers should consider.
A FVF based LDO with dynamic bias current for low power RFID chips

A low power flipped voltage follower (FVF) based output capacitor-less low-dropout (LDO) regulator, designed for the low power radio frequency identification (RFID) chips, has been proposed and simulated by using a standard 0.18 μm CMOS process in this paper. Utilizing the FVF structure and dynamic bias current technique, proposed LDO is able to achieve a fast transient response and the power supply rejection (PSR) is also improved to reduce the output ripple by additional measures. The simulation and measurement results show that proposed LDO can provide stable power supply voltage with a small ripple and good transient response. It has been applied in a passive transponder chip design, which was fabricated successfully based on 0.18 μm CMOS process.
Detection Technology for Oil Pipeline Plugging Based on Decompression Wave Method

Oil pipeline could be clogged by congealed oil products, due to low temperature. Thus, the distinct pressure difference around the plugged pipe section can be used to detect pipeline clogging, and the decompression wave of water hammer is put forward to identify plugged position of oil pipeline. The detailed theory is given below: when the pipeline is completely plugged, increase the pressure of pipeline, making it a pressure vessel, and then pressure relief has been implemented at the starting point of the pipeline. Now, a decompression wave is sent out from the head of the pipeline. It then bounds back to the pipeline head when it encounters the stemming on its way to down stream section. Therefore, the pipeline head can acquire twice decompression wave information. Then collect the pressure signals at the head of pipeline and acquire the abrupt information of pressure signals by using wavelet transform method. Accordingly, the two-way time which decompression wave takes to pass by the sensor is recorded. The last step is locating of line plugging by means of combining decompression wave velocity. The method is cost effective, easy for operation and no need of complex equipments, etc. It is superior compared with the existent pipeline plugging detection method, which has wide application potential.