Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Inhibition of Progenitor Dendritic Cell Maturation by Plasma from Patients with Peripartum Cardiomyopathy: Role in Pregnancy-associated Heart Disease

Dendritic cells (DCs) play dual roles in innate and adaptive immunity based on their functional maturity, and both innate and adaptive immune responses have been implicated in myocardial tissue remodeling associated with cardiomyopathies. Peripartum cardiomyopathy (PPCM) is a rare disorder which affects women within one month antepartum to five months postpartum. A high occurrence of PPCM in central Haiti (1 in 300 live births) provided the unique opportunity to study the relationship of immune activation and DC maturation to the etiology of this disorder. Plasma samples from two groups (n = 12) of age- and parity-matched Haitian women with or without evidence of PPCM were tested for levels of biomarkers of cardiac tissue remodeling and immune activation. Significantly elevated levels of GM-CSF, endothelin-1, proBNP and CRP and decreased levels of TGF- were measured in PPCM subjects relative to controls. Yet despite these findings, in vitro maturation of normal human cord blood derived progenitor dendritic cells (CBDCs) was significantly reduced (p < 0.001) in the presence of plasma from PPCM patients relative to plasma from post-partum control subjects as determined by expression of CD80, CD86, CD83, CCR7, MHC class II and the ability of these matured CBDCs to induce allo-responses in PBMCs. These results represent the first findings linking inhibition of DC maturation to the dysregulation of normal physiologic cardiac tissue remodeling during pregnancy and the pathogenesis of PPCM.
Analysis of the periodic impulsive noise asynchronous with the mains in indoor PLC channels

Indoor broadband power-line noise is composed of three main terms: impulsive components, narrowband interferences and background noise. Impulsive components can be classified into three groups according to their behavior with respect to the mains cycle: periodic synchronous with the mains, periodic asynchronous with the mains and aperiodic. Periodic asynchronous terms are the most interesting ones because they have significant spectral components in the band used by broadband power-line communication systems. This paper presents a detailed analysis of this noise component in the frequency band up to 25MHz. By means of a methodology that combines both frequency and time domain techniques, repetition rates and pulse waveforms are obtained even in scenarios in which the remaining noise terms have significant level.
Capital social y acción colectiva en el sector agrario Social capital and collective action in farming sector

This paper analyses organized interests in agriculture and food sector, as well as the role of farmers’ organisations in the development of rural areas from social capital approach. The author states that social capital produced by farmers’ organizations is different according to the kind of association (co-operatives, farmers unions, producers organizations,etc.). In fact, some farmers’ associations produce a kind of social capital which is a very useful resource to encourage interesting strategies of rural development, whereas in other associations social capital can even restrict such strategies and become an obstacle to guarantee their
Biological Stability of Drinking Water: Controlling Factors, Methods, and Challenges

Biological stability of drinking water refers to the concept of providing consumers with drinking water of same microbial quality at the tap as produced at the water treatment facility. However, uncontrolled growth of bacteria can occur during distribution in water mains and premise plumbing, and can lead to hygienic (e.g., development of opportunistic pathogens), aesthetic (e.g., deterioration of taste, odor, color) or operational (e.g., fouling or biocorrosion of pipes) problems. Drinking water contains diverse microorganisms competing for limited available nutrients for growth. Bacterial growth and interactions are regulated by factors, such as (i) type and concentration of available organic and inorganic nutrients, (ii) type and concentration of residual disinfectant, (iii) presence of predators, such as protozoa and invertebrates, (iv) environmental conditions, such as water temperature, and (v) spatial location of microorganisms (bulk water, sediment, or biofilm). Water treatment and distribution conditions in water mains and premise plumbing affect each of these factors and shape bacterial community characteristics (abundance, composition, viability) in distribution systems. Improved understanding of bacterial interactions in distribution systems and of environmental conditions impact is needed for better control of bacterial communities during drinking water production and distribution. This article reviews (i) existing knowledge on biological stability controlling factors and (ii) how these factors are affected by drinking water production and distribution conditions. In addition, (iii) the concept of biological stability is discussed in light of experience with well-established and new analytical methods, enabling high throughput analysis and in-depth characterization of bacterial communities in drinking water. We discussed, how knowledge gained from novel techniques will improve design and monitoring of water treatment and distribution systems in order to maintain good drinking water microbial quality up to consumer’s tap. A new definition and methodological approach for biological stability is proposed.
On Privacy Evidence for UbiComp Environments

Today, scepticism prevails on the part of UbiComp users with regard to their privacy. In investigating the reasons behind such a negative mindset, studies often point to the lack of transparency in the collection and usage of personal data: users indeed fear the hidden surveillance through UbiComp technologies. Our thesis is that such scepticism is a consequence of incomplete control mechanisms offered to users in UbiComp environments. Users should not only be aware of or capable of regulating the collection and usage of personal attributes, but also of supervising the system, i.e. be able to obtain credible evidence that the environment does in fact behave as expected. While there is extensive research into regulation, to our knowledge, approaches to tackle supervision are missing. To bridge this gap, we introduce the concept of privacy evidence and present the main building blocks towards its realisation.
Labelling Sun-Like Graphs from Scale-Free Small-World Network Models

General sun-graphs are applied to an actual ring network. Each node in the network represents a server, which is equivalent to that the graph is connected by nodes represented as servers. One can use labellings to distinguish nodes and edges between nodes in order to find some fast algorithms to imitate some effective transmissions and communications in information networks. We propose method for constructing scale-free small-world network models, also, building sun-like network models, motivated from some ring real-networks, and show that sun-like network models have can be strictly distinguished by felicitous labellings.
The Cornell Staff Retirement Incentive Program.

We evaluate potential determinants of enrollment in an early retirement incentive program for non-tenuretrack employees at a large university. Using administrative records on the eligible, population of employees not covered by collective bargaining agreements, historical employee count and layoff data by budget units, and public information on unit budgets, we find dips in per-employee finances in a budget unit during the application year and higher recent per employee layoffs were associated with increased probabilities of eligible employee program enrollment. Our results also suggest that, on average, employees whose salaries are lower than we would predict given their personal characteristics and job titles were more likely to enroll in the early retirement program. To the extent that employees’ compensation reflect their productivity, as it should under a pay system in which annual salary increases are based on merit, this finding suggests that adverse selection was not a problem with the program. That is, we find no evidence that on average the “most productive” employees took the incentive.
Simulation Research on an Electric Vehicle Chassis System Based on a Collaborative Control System

This paper presents a collaborative control system for an electric vehicle chassis based on a centralized and hierarchical control architecture. The centralized controller was designed for the suspension and steering system, which is used for improving ride comfort and handling stability; the hierarchical controller was designed for the braking system, which is used for distributing the proportion of hydraulic braking and regenerative braking to improve braking performance. These two sub-controllers function at the same level of the vehicle chassis control system. In order to reduce the potential conflict between the two sub-controllers and realize a coordination optimization of electric vehicle performance, a collaborative controller was built, which serves as the upper controller to carry out an overall coordination analysis according to vehicle signals and revises the decisions of sub-controllers. A simulation experiment was carried out with the MATLAB/Simulink software. The simulation results show that the proposed collaborative control system can achieve an optimized vehicle handling stability and braking safety.
Using received signal strength indicator to detect node replacement and replication attacks in wireless sensor networks

With the advent of powerful and efficient wireless sensor nodes, the usage of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) has been greatly increased. However, various kinds of security breaches have also been introduced, which exposes the vulnerability of these nodes to defend the valuable data from some specific types of attacks. In this paper, we address node replication, replacement, and man-in-the-middle attacks. We analyze the feasibility of using received signal strength indicator (RSSI) values measured at the receiver node to detect these kinds of attacks. As RSSI value is readily available for every message received by a node, a successful utilization of this information in security breach detection can be a very important contribution.
A Conceptual Model for Community of Practice and Its Implications for Human Resource Development Practice

The purpose of this study is to propose a conceptual model for a community of practice, which is the core of knowledge management, by conducting an integrative literature review. Communities of practices can effectively solve business problems or achieve specific objectives by generating and sharing powerful knowledge. The conceptual model suggests successive approaches to develop communities of practice, starting with accomplishing the fundamental dimension of motivating employees, through creating an organizational culture, and culminating in the strategic dimension of providing organizational support. The model also indicates potential barriers when implementing knowledge management interventions, such as cultural issues, internal fear of criticism, external confidentiality issues, lack of time, and shortage of technology. Based on the conceptual model, implications and recommendations for HRD practitioners seeking to optimally implement communities of practice in their organizations are presented.
Practices of Social Reporting in Public Sector and Non-profit Organizations

Abstract Social accounting and reporting practices are widely adopted all over the world by various kinds of organizations. While most of the literature focuses on private corporations, in recent years several scholars have called for more attention to be directed towards public and non-profit sectors' reporting practices. This article offers an overview of the main peculiarities of social reporting with reference to the Italian not-for-profit and public sectors. In particular, adopting an Institutional Theory approach, the article discusses reasons that social reporting practices demonstrate a process of convergence towards a partially regulated framework.
Characterization of flexural bond strength in thin bed concrete masonry

This paper presents an experimental investigation of the flexural bond strength of thin bed concrete masonry. Flexural bond strength of masonry depends upon the mortar type, the techniques of dispersion of mortar and the surface texture (roughness) of concrete blocks. There exists an abundance of literature on the conventional masonry bond containing 10mm thick mortar; however, the 2mm polymer flue mortar bond is not yet well researched. This paper reports a study on the examination of the effect of mortar compositions, dispersion methods and unit surface textures to the flexural bond strength of thin bed concrete masonry. Three types of polymer modified glue mortars, three surface textures and four techniques of mortar dispersion have been used in preparing 108 four point flexural test specimens. All mortar joints have been carefully prepared to ensure achievement of 2mm layer polymer mortar thickness on average. The results exhibit the flexural bond strength of thin bed concrete masonry much is higher than that of the conventional masonry; moreover the unit surface texture and the mortar dispersion methods are found to have significant influence on the flexural bond strength.
OptiMOS: Optimal MOS-based scheduling of downlink voice flows in point-to-multipoint access networks

We introduce OptiMOS, a method for selecting deadlines for the scheduling of downlink voice flows in a centralized-scheduling point-to-multipoint network. These include cellular networks such as LTE, UMTS HSDPA, or WiMAX, and WLANs with centralized control. OptiMOS selects the deadline of each packet so as to maximize the expected Mean Opinion Score (MOS) for the talkspurt it belongs to. It requires that absolute time is both included in RTP timestamps at the source and checked for scheduling decisions, in a cross-layer approach. OptiMOS can be employed in conjunction with any deadline-based scheduling algorithm, and does not require a specific playout buffering scheme at the receiver. Simulations of an LTE system show a performance improvement in terms of MOS for the VoIP flows, good tolerance to relatively large synchronization errors and qualitatively similar results with different playout buffers.
Requirements and Tools for Variability Management

Explicit and software-supported Business Process Management has become the core infrastructure of any medium and large organization that has a need to be efficient and effective. The number of processes of a single organization can be very high, furthermore, they might be very similar, be in need of momentary change, or evolve frequently. If the adhoc adaptation and customization of processes is currently the dominant way, it clearly is not the best. In fact, providing tools for supporting the explicit management of variation in processes (due to customization or evolution needs) has a profound impact on the overall life-cycle of processes in organizations. Additionally, with the increasing adoption of Service-Oriented Architectures, the infrastructure to support automatic reconfiguration and adaptation of business process is solid. In this paper, after defining variability in business process management, we consider the requirements for explicit variation handling for (service based) business process systems. eGovernment serves as an illustrative example of reuse. In this case study, all local municipalities need to implement the same general legal process while adapting it to the local business practices and IT infrastructure needs. Finally, an evaluation of existing tools for explicit variability management is provided with respect to the requirements identified.
Estimation and testing based on data subject to measurement errors: from parametric to non‐parametric likelihood methods

Measurement error (ME) problems can cause bias or inconsistency of statistical inferences. When investigators are unable to obtain correct measurements of biological assays, special techniques to quantify MEs need to be applied. Sampling based on repeated measurements is a common strategy to allow for ME. This method has been well addressed in the literature under parametric assumptions. The approach with repeated measures data may not be applicable when the replications are complicated because of cost and/or time concerns. Pooling designs have been proposed as cost‐efficient sampling procedures that can assist to provide correct statistical operations based on data subject to ME. We demonstrate that a mixture of both pooled and unpooled data (a hybrid pooled–unpooled design) can support very efficient estimation and testing in the presence of ME. Nonparametric techniques have not been well investigated to analyze repeated measures data or pooled data subject to ME. We propose and examine both the parametric and empirical likelihood methodologies for data subject to ME. We conclude that the likelihood methods based on the hybrid samples are very efficient and powerful. The results of an extensive Monte Carlo study support our conclusions. Real data examples demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed methods in practice. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
High-level design of Multi-agent System based Microgrid

This paper describes a Microgrid controlled by a Multi-agent System. Existing electrical grid has many problems. Among them are: undercapacity, lack of power quality and pollution of the environment. Upgrading the infrastructure and replacing old equipments and devices is one way of reaching relatively fast the standards comprised by Smart Grid. Another solution of providing high quality and non-polluting energy is the concept of Microgrid. These grids rely on renewable energy from units called Distributed Generation (DG). Unfortunately this type of power sources cannot provide a constant energy flow. Integration of Microgrids in electrical networks is the next step towards achieving Smart Grid. A high level design of microgrid is presented in this article. A distributed approach was adopted in modeling the Microgrid. By using Multi-agent Systems many problems are eliminated: flow control, integration of various sources of energy, self healing, cost management with billing and monitoring in real time, power storage, demand and load management.
Condicionantes económicos de la adopción de una innovación por parte del consumidor: análisis de la compra de servicios 'online'

This work analyzes the process of adoption of a specific innovation by the final consumer -;in this case, the use and adoption of the Internet as a channel for information and purchasing-; in the acquisition of a service. Specifically, it looks at a tourist service with very particular characteristics, namely hotel reservations. The choice of this intangible product turns out to be a large contribution to the relevant literature, not only due to the scarcity of previous work analyzing this type of services, but also given the key importance that the tourism sector has in the geographical realm where the study was carried out. To do so, an effort was made using the TAM as the basis to analyze the influence of certain economic factors such as signs of quality and trust regarding intentions to buy. The results obtained using a sampling of 759 Internet users who, as potential tourists, have not actually acquired the service, have shown the importance of consumers' subjective rules, the perceived usefulness, trust in the web site and the signs emitted by the companies to mitigate information asymmetries on consumers' intentions to buy. Interesting conclusions are formed from this work, which contribute to a better introduction to and management of the Internet as a channel for information and sales by companies.
Detecting falsified financial statements: a comparative study using multicriteria analysis and multivariate statistical techniques

Falsifying financial statements involves the manipulation of financial accounts by overstating assets, sales and profit, or understating liabilities, expenses or losses. This paper explores the effectiveness of an innovative classification methodology in detecting firms that issue falsified financial statements (FFS) and the identification of the factors associated to FFS. The methodology is based on the concepts of multicriteria decision aid (MCDA) and the application of the UTADIS classification method (UTilités Additives DIScriminantes). A sample of 76 Greek firms (38 with FFS and 38 non-FFS) described over ten financial ratios is used for detecting factors associated with FFS. A jackknife procedure approach is employed for model validation and comparison with multivariate statistical techniques, namely discriminant and logit analysis. The results indicate that the proposed MCDA methodology outperforms traditional statistical techniques which are widely used for FFS detection purposes. Furthermore, the results indicate that the investigation of financial information can be helpful towards the identification of FFS and highlight the importance of financial ratios such as the total debt to total assets ratio, the inventories to sales ratio, the net profit to sales ratio and the sales to total assets ratio.
Implementing a Cognitive Model in Soar and ACT-R: A Comparison

This paper presents an implementation of a cognitive model of a complex real-world task in the cognitive architecture Soar. During the implementation process there were lessons learned on various aspects, such as the retrieval of working memory elements with relative values, alternative approaches to reasoning, and reasoning control. Additionally, the implementation is compared to an earlier implementation of the model in the ACT-R architecture and both implementations are discussed in terms of cognitive theories.
Income inequality and growth: A regime-switching approach

This paper explores the methodology of regime-switching in the analysis of the income inequality-economic growth relationship. The underlying idea is that when some income determinant passes a certain threshold introduces a new relationship between inequality and income and/or income determinants. There are three implications of the estimated models. First, inequality decreases with economic growth when government consumption as share of GDP is ‘low’. Second, in a ‘low’ inflation environment government consumption increases inequality. Third, in countries with ‘strict’ rule of law openness to international trade and government consumption are associated with lower inequality, while financial development implies higher inequality.
Structural role of Sfi1p–centrin filaments in budding yeast spindle pole body duplication

Centrins are calmodulin-like proteins present in centrosomes and yeast spindle pole bodies (SPBs) and have essential functions in their duplication. The Saccharomyces cerevisiae centrin, Cdc31p, binds Sfi1p on multiple conserved repeats; both proteins localize to the SPB half-bridge, where the new SPB is assembled. The crystal structures of Sfi1p–centrin complexes containing several repeats show Sfi1p as an α helix with centrins wrapped around each repeat and similar centrin–centrin contacts between each repeat. Electron microscopy (EM) shadowing of an Sfi1p–centrin complex with 15 Sfi1 repeats and 15 centrins bound showed filaments 60 nm long, compatible with all the Sfi1 repeats as a continuous α helix. Immuno-EM localization of the Sfi1p N and C termini showed Sfi1p–centrin filaments spanning the length of the half-bridge with the Sfi1p N terminus at the SPB. This suggests a model for SPB duplication where the half-bridge doubles in length by association of the Sfi1p C termini, thereby providing a new Sfi1p N terminus to initiate SPB assembly.