Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Case–Control and Case‐Only Designs with Genotype and Family History Data: Estimating Relative Risk, Residual Familial Aggregation, and Cumulative Risk

Summary In case–control studies of inherited diseases, participating subjects (probands) are often interviewed to collect detailed data about disease history and age‐at‐onset information in their family members. Genotype data are typically collected from the probands, but not from their relatives. In this article, we introduce an approach that combines case–control analysis of data on the probands with kin–cohort analysis of disease history data on relatives. Assuming a marginally specified multivariate survival model for joint risk of disease among family members, we describe methods for estimating relative risk, cumulative risk, and residual familial aggregation. We also describe a variation of the methodology that can be used for kin–cohort analysis of the family history data from a sample of genotyped cases only. We perform simulation studies to assess performance of the proposed methodologies with correct and misspecified models for familial aggregation. We illustrate the proposed methodologies by estimating the risk of breast cancer from BRCA1/2 mutations using data from the Washington Ashkenazi Study.
Psychological processes in adversarial growth

This thesis set out to investigate some of the variables associated with, and the processes and mechanisms of, positive change following trauma and adversity, or adversarial growth, in diverse populations. A systematic and comprehensive review of the literature (Chapter 2) identified the state of knowledge, and pointed to a number of salient directions for future research. Some of these directions were pursued in the subsequent empirical chapters. Five empirical chapters (Chapters 3 –7) examined a range of variables and processes in adversarial growth, using a variety of populations. Using two large student samples, it was found that emotion-focused coping mediated the association between subjective distress and adversarial growth, and that emotional intelligence was a potentially key variable in the role of emotions in adversarial growth (Chapter 3). A longitudinal study of people who had been severely traumatised and were suffering chronic psychological distress revealed that the experience of positive change predicted lower psychological distress and negative change six months later (Chapter 4). Vicarious processes in adversarial growth were investigated in therapists, and it was shown that the working alliance may be a core channel through which the process of vicarious growth operates (Chapter 5). Extending this focus on vicarious processes, in two samples of disaster workers, and funeral directors, it was shown that psychosocial variables were more salient in their associations with adversarial growth than professional experience variables. Specifically, the role of cognitive processing was emphasised, together with an exploration of the novel area of death attitudes (Chapter 6). A more explicitly existential focus, using three samples of churchgoers, members of the general population, and funeral directors, addressed the role of Yalom’s ultimate existential concerns and adversarial growth. Negative death attitudes were shown to be consistently associated with more negative changes and fewer positive changes, but the associations with negative changes were mediated, in some instances, by the presence of meaning in life and satisfying close relationships, consistent with theoretical predictions. Further, aspects of the organismic valuing theory of growth through adversity were tested, and broadly supported (Chapter 7). The concluding chapter (Chapter 8) reviewed the main findings from the thesis, identified ongoing questions from the literature, and indicated salient directions for research, including an emphasis on the clinical applications of adversarial growth.
Instantaneous inactivation of cofilin reveals its function of F-actin disassembly in lamellipodia

Chromophore-assisted laser inactivation (CALI) was developed to instantly and specifically inactivate cofilin in cells. Simultaneous CALI and live imaging revealed that the principal role of cofilin in lamellipodia at steady state is to break down F-actin, control filament turnover, and regulate the rate of retrograde flow in lamellipodia.
Inhibition of COX-2 Aggravates Neutrophil Migration and Pneumocyte Apoptosis in Surfactant-Depleted Rat Lungs

Pulmonary inflammation and parenchymal apoptosis are implicated in the pathogenesis of the acute lung injury, but the mechanisms of these reactions are still unclear. Because inhibition of the proinflammatory cyclo-oxygenase (COX)-2 enzyme action is proposed to be useful in various inflammatory lung injuries, we decided to investigate the expression of COX-2 and the possible beneficial effects of its inhibition on pulmonary inflammation and apoptosis in surfactant-depleted lungs. The injury was induced in 2-mo-old rats by repeated lung lavage to remove alveolar surfactant. Eight of these rats were pretreated with a specific COX-2 inhibitor, NS-398. All rats, including control rats without lung lavage, were ventilated with 60% oxygen for 5 h, and the lungs were then studied histologically for tissue injury and with DNA nick-end labeling, cleaved caspase-3 immunohistochemistry, and electron microscopy for apoptotic cell death. Lung tissue myeloperoxidase activity and the expression of COX-2 protein and concentration of prostaglandin E2 were additionally analyzed. Lung lavage increased pulmonary neutrophil migration, histologic injury, and the occurrence of epithelial apoptosis. In contrast, expression of COX-2 and amount of PGE2 were significantly lower in surfactant-depleted lungs than controls. Pretreatment with the COX-2 inhibitor further increased the migration of neutrophils and occurrence of epithelial apoptosis in the surfactant-depleted lungs, compared with nontreated insulted lungs. These results suggest that specific inhibitors of COX-2 should be used cautiously in association with surfactant-deficient lung injuries.
Peptide growth factors modulate prostaglandin E and F production by goldfish ovarian follicles.

This study examines the effect of epidermal growth factor (EGF) on prostaglandin synthesis by goldfish ovarian follicles at different developmental stages. Early vitellogenic follicles (EVIT), vitellogenic follicles (VIT), and prematurational full-grown follicles (PMFG) were examined. EGF alone had no effect on prostaglandin synthesis whereas production of PGE2 and PGF2alpha was enhanced in the presence of the eicosaniod precursor arachidonic acid (AA) in all three follicle classes. EGF enhanced AA stimulation of PGE2 production in both VIT and PMFG follicles. In the same follicles, AA-induced PGF2alpha production either was reduced or was unaffected by EGF. This suggests regulation of prostaglandin synthesis at a point downstream of the conversion of AA to PGH2: the precursor for both PGE2 and PGF2alpha. EGF had no effect on AA stimulation of either PGE2 or PGF2alpha in EVIT follicles. While only VIT and PMFG follicles were responsive to EGF, Western blotting with an antibody to the human EGF-receptor (EGF-R) suggests that all three classes of follicle may possess the receptor protein. Additional tests showed that insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) had no effect on the production of either PGE2 or PGF2alpha by PMFG follicles. By comparison both TGFalpha (which binds to the EGF receptor) and TGFbeta (which acts through a different receptor) enhanced AA-stimulated PGE2 production while having no effect on AA-stimulated PGF2alpha production. In summary, this study demonstrates that several growth factors (EGF, TGFalpha, TGFbeta) may play a role in the regulation of ovarian prostaglandin synthesis and that the actions of EGF change during ovarian follicular development in the goldfish.
Minimal Residual Disease and Leukemic Stem Cells in Acute Myeloid Leukemia

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is the most common type of acute leukemia in adults. With current treatment strategies, almost 80% of AML patients (18-60 years) will achieve com‐ plete remission (CR). However, approximately 50% of these patients will experience a re‐ lapse, resulting in a five-year survival rate of only 35%-40% [1]. This implies that despite CR, in these patients a number of cancer cells survive treatment and can grow out to cause a re‐ lapse. Efforts towards development of more sensitive methods to accurately determine CR and detect residual cancer cells are necessary to improve risk-adapted management to even‐ tually prolong overall survival rates.
Spectral efficiency of incoherent OCDMA systems

OCDMA allows multiple users to share a common optical channel simultaneously and asynchronously, and thus has many advantages, such as great system capacity, efficient bandwidth utilization, asynchronous access, secure communication, and so on. Many studies on OCDMA techniques have been made in recent years. In direct-sequence (DS) incoherent OCDMA systems, each user is assigned a unique signature sequence (1’s and 0’s) for spreading and identification purposes. Through the use of encoding process, the user signal is spread in the frequency domain so that each user occupies the entire bandwidth available at all times. This results in a total bandwidth utilization. The optical medium is superbly suited to spread spectrum multiple access communications due to its extremely large bandwidth, however the spectral efficiency of OCDMA system is an important factor. This paper analyses the spectrum efficiency of incoherent OCDMA systems, emphatically discusses several kinds of codes, compares and evaluates their performances.
La culture organisationnelle perçue des cabinets comptables français par les associés-dirigeants:essai de typologie

(VF)L'objet de la recherche est d'etudier la culture organisationnelle percue par les dirigeants associes du cabinet. L'echelle de mesure de O'Reilly et al. (1991) a ete validee. Trois groupes de cabinets ont ete mis en evidence:les innovants, les incertains et les collectifs. L'esprit d'equipe, le sens du resultat et, dans une moindre mesure, le respect des collaborateurs semblent structurer fortement le projet du cabinet. (VA)This paper examines the organizational culture of accounting firms perceived by partners. The O'Reilly et al. (1991) scale has been validated. Three types of accounting firms emerged:innovative, doubtful, collective. Team orientation, results orientation and respect for people seem to structure the partners project.
Analysis of harmonic interactions between DG inverters and polluted grids

This paper proposes an impedance-based analytical method for modeling and estimation of harmonic interactions between the grid and DG inverters. The root cause of harmonic interaction/resonance problems is introduced. Starting with a simple PI regulator controlled inverter, the output impedance of the converter is modeled and proven by simulations to be operative for forecasting harmonic interactions. Moreover, another test case based on an inverter with multiple PR controllers is designed and modeled to clarify impedance-based design and harmonic interaction analysis. Assuming the impedance models of individual inverters and local loads within a distribution grid are knowledgeable, especially in the case of new grids under construction, harmonic interactions between the grid and a certain number of DG inverters can be preliminarily estimated.
Psychometric properties of the diurnal type scale of torsvall and Åkerstedt (1980)

Abstract The psychometric properties of the Diurnal Type Scale (DTS) of Torsvall and Akerstedt (1980) when used on a young sample with no or limited experience of shiftwork were investigated. Four hundred and forty-five students completed the DTS, the Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire (MEQ) (Home and Ostberg 1976), and the Circadian Type Questionnaire (CTQ) (Folkard et al. 1979). The DTS was not found to be a homogeneous scale (Cronbach's alpha = 0·29) and appeared to be assessing two relatively independent dimensions: morningness and eveningness. Adequate test-retest reliability was found when subjects remained as students (r = 0·78), however, scores obtained from students did not correlate highly (r = 0·43) with those obtained when they were working on rotating shifts. The DTS correlated only moderately with the MEQ (r = 0·50) and with the CTQ. Future researchers should be cautious in using the instrument until they have information about its psychometric properties when applied to their population .
Dendritic Spines and Development: Towards a Unifying Model of Spinogenesis—A Present Day Review of Cajal's Histological Slides and Drawings

Dendritic spines receive the majority of excitatory connections in the central nervous system, and, thus, they are key structures in the regulation of neural activity. Hence, the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying their generation and plasticity, both during development and in adulthood, are a matter of fundamental and practical interest. Indeed, a better understanding of these mechanisms should provide clues to the development of novel clinical therapies. Here, we present original results obtained from high-quality images of Cajal's histological preparations, stored at the Cajal Museum (Instituto Cajal, CSIC), obtained using extended focus imaging, three-dimensional reconstruction, and rendering. Based on the data available in the literature regarding the formation of dendritic spines during development and our results, we propose a unifying model for dendritic spine development.
Experiment as Code - An Automated Testbed for Cloud Scaling and Operations

Cloud Computing has been widely adopted in industry, administrations, as well as research. At the same time, development and testing of new technologies is troubled by inconsistent environments. Exchanging modules of a system during research becomes a major obstacle. As a result, baselines for comparisons are lacking, and evaluating new developments may lead to heavy time cost. Big industrial players typically circumvent this problem by relying on the scale of their datacenters, experiments, and problems, which makes them inherently interesting.We propose a softwarised testbed that abstracts away inevitable hardware differences. Its design closely follows the established philosophy to separate workloads and declare expressive interfaces between them. The result is a coherent testbed, consisting of interchangeable, but state of the art, components. It establishes Experiment-as-Code, where an experiment is declared to load generators programmatically. In sum, the testbed yields reproducible results. We verify networking, computational and interacting components by reproducing known results. We illustrate one use case of scaling under uncertainty the applicability for research. The whole system is hosted on-premise, with minimal hardware requirements, which enables especially academia to contribute. The low-effort in setup also allows handover to students and staff with the goal to ensure knowledge transfer.
A Life Course Perspective on Urban–Rural Migration: the Importance of the Local Context

The relationship between migration and age has long been established, and most recently, there have been calls for the inclusion of a life course perspective to migration research. In this paper, we explore Northern Ireland's internal migration patterns, and in particular, we test for the importance of urban to rural migration at different stages of the life course. Data from the Northern Ireland Longitudinal Study are used for the first time to analyse urban–rural migration patterns. The resulting modelling demonstrates unique aspects of urban to rural migration within Northern Ireland, which up until now have gone largely unreported. Results from logistic regression modelling suggest that there is an age selectivity to urban–rural mobility but not necessarily at the life course stages predicted from a review of the life course migration literature. Individuals in younger age groups (at the household and family formation stages of the life course) are most likely to make an urban to rural move in Northern Ireland, with a decline in the likelihood of this move type with age. Possible explanations are offered linked to Northern Ireland's settlement hierarchy, rural planning policy, and family farming traditions. The findings challenge researchers to pay due attention to how migration processes may play out differently in varying geographical, social, and planning contexts and emphasise the importance of structural factors to explain migration patterns. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Auditory interfaces in automated driving: an international survey

This study investigated peoples' opinion on auditory interfaces in contemporary cars and their willingness to be exposed to auditory feedback in automated driving. We used an Internet-based survey to collect 1,205 responses from 91 countries. The respondents stated their attitudes towards two existing auditory driver assistance systems, a parking assistant (PA) and a forward collision warning system (FCWS), as well as towards a futuristic augmented sound system (FS) proposed for fully automated driving. The respondents were positive towards the PA and FCWS, and rated the willingness to have automated versions of these systems as 3.87 and 3.77, respectively (on a scale from 1 = disagree strongly to 5 = agree strongly). The respondents tolerated the FS (the mean willingness to use was 3.00 on the same scale). The results showed that among the available response options, the female voice was the most preferred feedback type for takeover requests in highly automated driving, regardless of whether the respondents' country was English speaking or not. The present results could be useful for designers of automated vehicles and other stakeholders. Practitioner Summary: In an Internet-based survey, peoples' opinion on auditory interfaces in contemporary cars and people's willingness to be exposed to auditory feedback in automated driving were evaluated. The results showed that a female voice was the most preferred feedback mode for takeover requests in highly automated driving.
Transforming a Secure eCommerce Application into a Multi-Agent based Solution for eContracting ∗

The eCommerce domain needs more and more automation, speed and security for its customers. That’s why the number of B2B applications handling electronic contracts and digital signatures is still increasing. These ones are based on certificates and use secure communication protocols. Nevertheless most of them don’t take into account negotiation regarding to contracts clauses and arbitration of potential conflicts. In the Multi-Agent System (MAS) domain contract notion exists too. Social contracts make social control and management of cooperation between agents possible. This paper will consist in combining notions of electronic contract and social contract in order to integrate agents within an eCommerce platform for the automation and autonomous negotiation of electronic contracts terms. We experiment our proposal in the context of secure eBusiness application trading intangible assets where we consider a specific business case related to the translation sector.
Applying the heuristic evaluation method in the evaluation of social aspects of an exercise community

Social interaction plays an important role in the use of modern websites. Because the practical ways to improve social interaction through community design often remain unknown, this study aims to provide guidelines for designing and developing social features for websites. In this paper, we introduce the results of a three-week-long qualitative field study with an internet service prototype intended for people who exercise. We aim to provide knowledge of factors that improve the social design of websites by introducing a set of heuristics for evaluating sociability. In order to validate the heuristics, the findings from heuristic expert evaluations were compared with data collected from ten test users of the internet service prototype. We suggest that the Heuristic Evaluation Method with sociability heuristics helps to identify the most fundamental problems concerning sociability and thus serves as a practical tool, particularly in the early stages of the design process of social internet sites.
Selective Vulnerability of Subplate Neurons after Early Neonatal Hypoxia-Ischemia

Neonatal hypoxia-ischemia in the preterm human leads to selective injury to the subcortical developing white matter, which results in periventricular leukomalacia (PVL), a condition associated with abnormal neurodevelopment. Maturation-dependent vulnerability of late oligodendrocyte progenitors is thought to account for the cellular basis of this condition. A high frequency of cognitive and sensory deficits with decreasing gestational age suggests pervasive abnormalities of cortical development. In a neonatal rat model of hypoxic-ischemic injury that produces the characteristic pattern of subcortical injury associated with human PVL, selective subplate neuron death is seen. The premature subplate neuron death occurs after thalamic axons have reached their targets in cortex. Thus, as expected, thalamocortical connections form normally, including patterned connections to somatosensory cortex. However, deficits in motor function still occur, as in babies with PVL. Subplate neuron cell death in PVL provides another mechanism for abnormal neurodevelopment after neonatal hypoxia-ischemia.
An Adaptable (n, n) Secret Image Sharing Mechanism Based on Boolean Operation

Secret image sharing, as an extension of secret sharing, has attracted the attention of many scholars in recent years. Multi-secret image sharing is an extension of traditional secret image sharing in which only one secret image can be shared among one group. In order to extend the utility of the mechanism, we propose an innovative (n, n) secret image sharing scheme based on matrix transformation. Due to the skillful design of the matrix operation used in matrix transformation, the proposed scheme is applicable to more than one secret image. Further, more secret images and participants can be included in this sharing system even after the secret image sharing procedure has been constructed. Also, the proposed scheme produces highquality shadow images, and it can reconstruct the secret images losslessly. Moreover, the computational complexity of the proposed scheme is minimized by only using the XOR operation, which stands for exclusive or and is a logical operation that outputs true whenever both inputs differ. The experimental results demonstrated that the proposed scheme provides the aforementioned advantages.
Gauge Invariant Framework for Shape Analysis of Surfaces

This paper describes a novel framework for computing geodesic paths in shape spaces of spherical surfaces under an elastic Riemannian metric. The novelty lies in defining this Riemannian metric directly on the quotient (shape) space, rather than inheriting it from pre-shape space, and using it to formulate a path energy that measures only the normal components of velocities along the path. In other words, this paper defines and solves for geodesics directly on the shape space and avoids complications resulting from the quotient operation. This comprehensive framework is invariant to arbitrary parameterizations of surfaces along paths, a phenomenon termed as gauge invariance. Additionally, this paper makes a link between different elastic metrics used in the computer science literature on one hand, and the mathematical literature on the other hand, and provides a geometrical interpretation of the terms involved. Examples using real and simulated 3D objects are provided to help illustrate the main ideas.