Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bacterial pyrogenic exotoxins as superantigens

The recent discovery of the mode of interaction between a group of microbial proteins known as superantigens and the immune system has opened a wide area of investigation into the possible role of these molecules in human diseases. Superantigens produced by certain viruses and bacteria, including Mycoplasma species, are either secreted or membrane-bound proteins. A unique feature of these proteins is that they can interact simultaneously with distinct receptors on different types of cells, resulting in enhanced cell-cell interaction and triggering a series of biochemical reactions that can lead to excessive cell proliferation and the release of inflammatory cytokines. However, although superantigens share many features, they can have very different biological effects that are potentiated by host genetic and environmental factors. This review focuses on a group of secreted pyrogenic toxins that belong to the superantigen family and highlights some of their structural-functional features and their roles in diseases such as toxic shock and autoimmunity. Deciphering the biological activities of the various superantigens and understanding their role in the pathogenesis of microbial infections and their sequelae will enable us to devise means by which we can intervene with their activity and/or manipulate them to our advantage.
Business Process Reengineering : Literature Review of Approaches and Applications

This study was conducted with the aim to collect and review the work done so far in the field of BPR. Focus of this study was on providing a comprehensive overview of overall development of BPR concept, theories, models, approaches and outcomes, and success and failure causes. Design/Methodology/ Approach: study was based on secondary source i.e. published and available researches in the field of BPR. Research papers were critically reviewed and then were divided into sub headings i.e. introduction, why do firm need change, background of BPR, BPR methodologies, approaches, causes of success and failure, and BPR in practice (both in public and private sectors). Research Limitations: Study was restricted to the subject of available researches (online) and to the specific objective i.e. to review the progress in this field of BPR mainly management oriented and not to IT or engineering etc. Conclusion drawn was based on the previous research studies and it was concluded that there is no universal approach to the BPR nor can it be guaranteed that BPR will ensure the success of an organization.
Confrontation Analysis: How to Win Operations Other Than War

Abstract : This book is based on research commissioned by the United Kingdom's Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA) in 1997 into how Confrontation Analysis might be applied to Peace Support Operations. The book presents a simple idea: a Peace Operations campaign (or Operation Other Than War) should be seen as a linked sequence of confrontations in contrast to a traditional, warfighting campaign, which is a linked sequence of battles. The objective in each confrontation is to bring about certain "compliant" behavior on the part of other parties, until in the end the campaign objective is reached. This is a state of sufficient compliance to enable the military to leave the theater. If this simple idea is accepted, one can show how the new technique of Confrontation Analysis (derived from Game Theory) can be applied to win an Operation Other Than War. Since this book was written, further research carried out in the Bosnia theater has clearly revealed that Special Forces commanders are already doing it. They are winning confrontations, or campaigns, made up of linked sequences of confrontations on a day-to-day basis. But they are doing it without a clear, uniform system of concepts specifically designed for a confrontational campaign. Using practical good sense, they are instead taking doctrinal concepts developed primarily for warfighting, and adapting them for use in confrontations. For example, they are using concepts of artillery targeting to plan how to "target" noncompliant parties (e.g., a local Mayor and police chief who are refusing to provide security for returning refugees from a different ethnic group). Such common-sensical adaptation of standard warfighting systems and concepts is admirable, and it works. The author believes, however, that a system that treats confrontations as confrontations, distinguishing them from battles both conceptually and in terms of planning procedures, will made British forces still more effective.
Suprathreshold Visual Psychophysics and Applications to Image Compression

Image Compression was the first lecture in the Honors Seminar series to deal directly with communications and signal processing, my main areas of interest. I found the talk to be very interesting, and hence decided to write a summary paper about it. Having taken Fundamental Information Theory this semester, I found the material that she covered to relate very nicely with my study of Rate Distortion Theory and the fundamental limits on lossy compression that it establishes. Professor Hemami's lecture gave me a good idea of the types of psychophysically meaningful distortion measures that can be used for image compression. After all, " the ultimate purpose of a distortion measure is to reflect the distortion between x and x ˆ as perceived by the user " [1]. It was good to see that, contrary to Cover and Thomas [2], there are in fact real alternatives to the mean squared error distortion measure for image coding. Additionally, I had participated in an experiment performed by Professor Hemami's research group about the visual perception of different video coding schemes, and the lecture helped explain some of the theory behind the actual implementation that I had seen. In particular, the lecture helped me understand the relationship between the video sequences that I had seen and the philosophy of developing robust compression algorithms, which are effective for a wide range of bit rates and video content.
P-Stable Equilibrium : Definition and Some Properties

We define a continuous index of strategic stability,p.stability, which requires equilibrium to be the unique outcome compatible with common knowledge of rationality and common knowledge of p.beliefs (beliefs that put probability at least p on the equilibrium profile). We show that every equilibrium (within a large class) is p-stable for some p
Patients Covert Visuospatial Attention Orienting in a Brain-Computer Interface for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Background. Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) allow people to control devices by translating brain signals into commands. BCIs represent a concrete solution with regard to communication and motor control disabilities of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Most of the BCIs rely on visual interfaces in which patients must move their eyes to achieve efficient BCI control. This fact represents a limitation of BCI use in ALS patients who are in the final stages of the disease. Objective. We aimed to improve visual interfaces for ALS patients to control the movement of a cursor on a monitor by orienting their covert visuospatial attention (ie, orienting without eye movements). Methods. A total of 10 ALS patients with different levels of impairment used 2 new visual interfaces in an event-related potential (ERP)–based BCI. In the first interface, they were required to use exogenous visuospatial attention orienting (VAO), whereas in the second interface, they were required to use endogenous VAO. Results. ALS patients were able to use the 2 interfaces for controlling the ERP-based BCI system in real time. Nevertheless, better target classification and information transfer rate were associated with the interface that was based on endogenous VAO. Conclusions. ALS patients can exploit their covert VAO to control a BCI that does not require eye movements. The implementation of endogenous VAO in the design of covert visuospatial attention-based interfaces seems to be suitable for designing more ergonomic and efficient BCIs for ALS patients with impaired eye movements.
Normative evidence accumulation in unpredictable environments

In our dynamic world, decisions about noisy stimuli can require temporal accumulation of evidence to identify steady signals, differentiation to detect unpredictable changes in those signals, or both. Normative models can account for learning in these environments but have not yet been applied to faster decision processes. We present a novel, normative formulation of adaptive learning models that forms decisions by acting as a leaky accumulator with non-absorbing bounds. These dynamics, derived for both discrete and continuous cases, depend on the expected rate of change of the statistics of the evidence and balance signal identification and change detection. We found that, for two different tasks, human subjects learned these expectations, albeit imperfectly, then used them to make decisions in accordance with the normative model. The results represent a unified, empirically supported account of decision-making in unpredictable environments that provides new insights into the expectation-driven dynamics of the underlying neural signals. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.7554/eLife.08825. 001
The Effect of Globalization in an Endogenous Growth Model with Heterogeneous Firms and Endogenous International Spillovers: Note

This paper shows that globalization increases (decreases) the growth rate if and only if the beachhead cost for the domestic market is strictly higher (lower) than that for the foreign market in a endogenous growth model with firm heterogeneity, international trade, and endogenous international spillover under specified necessary and sufficient conditions for exporting firms being more productive than non-exporting firms.
Muscle Coordination 1 Changes in Muscle Coordination with Training

Three core concepts: activity dependent coupling, the composition of muscle synergies, and Hebbian adaptation, are discussed with a view to illustrating the nature of the constraints imposed by the organisation of the CNS upon the changes in muscle coordination induced by training. It is argued that training invoked variations in the efficiency with which motor actions can be generated, influence the stability of coordination by altering the potential for activity dependent coupling between the cortical representations of the focal muscles recruited in a movement task and brain circuits that do not contribute directly to the required behaviour. The behaviours that can be generated during training are also constrained by the composition of existing intrinsic muscle synergies. In circumstances in which attempts to produce forceful or high velocity movements would otherwise result in the generation of inappropriate actions, training designed to promote the development of control strategies specific to the desired movement outcome may be necessary to compensate for protogenic muscle recruitment patterns. Hebbian adaptation refers to processes whereby, for neurons that release action potentials at the same time, there is an increased probability that synaptic connections will be formed. Neural connectivity induced by the repetition of specific muscle recruitment patterns during training may however inhibit the subsequent acquisition of new skills. Consideration is given to the possibility that, in the presence of the appropriate sensory guidance, it is possible to gate Hebbian plasticity, and promote greater subsequent flexibility in the recruitment of the trained muscles in other task contexts.
Strongly Stable Matchings in Time O ( nm )

An instance of the stable marriage problem is an undirected b ipartite graphG = (X [̇W;E) with linearly ordered adjacency lists; ties are allowed. A m atchingM is a set of edges no two of which share an endpoint. An edge e= (a;b) 2 E nM is a blocking edgefor M if a is either unmatched or strictly prefers b to his/her partner inM, andb either is unmatched or strictly prefers a to his/her partner inM or is indifferent between them. A matching is strongly stabl e if there is no blocking edge with respect to it. We give an O(nm) algorithm for computing strongly stable matchings. The previously best algorithm had running time O(m2).
Ca2+ Signaling in Cytoskeletal Reorganization, Cell Migration, and Cancer Metastasis

Proper control of Ca2+ signaling is mandatory for effective cell migration, which is critical for embryonic development, wound healing, and cancer metastasis. However, how Ca2+ coordinates structural components and signaling molecules for proper cell motility had remained elusive. With the advance of fluorescent live-cell Ca2+ imaging in recent years, we gradually understand how Ca2+ is regulated spatially and temporally in migrating cells, driving polarization, protrusion, retraction, and adhesion at the right place and right time. Here we give an overview about how cells create local Ca2+ pulses near the leading edge, maintain cytosolic Ca2+ gradient from back to front, and restore Ca2+ depletion for persistent cell motility. Differential roles of Ca2+ in regulating various effectors and the interaction of roles of Ca2+ signaling with other pathways during migration are also discussed. Such information might suggest a new direction to control cancer metastasis by manipulating Ca2+ and its associating signaling molecules in a judicious manner.
Learning Linear Dependency Trees from Multivariate Time-series Data

Representing interactions between variables in large data sets in an understandable way is usually important and hard task. This article presents a methodology how a linear dependency structure between variables can be constructed from multivariate data. The dependencies between the variables are specified by multiple linear regression models. A sparse regression algorithm and bootstrap based resampling are used in the estimation of models and in construction of a belief graph. The belief graph highlights the most important mutual dependencies between the variables. Thresholding and graph operations may be applied to the belief graph to obtain a final dependency structure, which is a tree or a forest. In the experimental section results of the proposed method using real-world data set were realistic and convincing.
Learning Metrics for Visualizing Gene Functional Similarities

The usual first step in analyzing the large and high-dimensional data sets measured by microarrays is visual exploration. In this work self-organizing maps have been used to visualize similarity relationships of data samples. In all unsupervised data analysis methods the measure of similarity determines the result; we propose to use the learning metrics principle to derive a metric from interrelationships between data sets. A metric is derived for a gene knock-out expression data set by considering those changes in the expression space that cause changes in the functional classes of the genes to be more important. The genes for which the new metric is the most different from the usual correlation metric are listed and visualized with a self-organizing map computed in the new metric.
Self-sizing techniques for locally controlled networks

The Internet was designed to provide best effort service for delivery of data packets and to run virtually across any network transmission and system platform. Its exponential growth has turned it into a multiservice complex network of heterogeneous elements with dynamically changing traffic conditions. To regulate such a large scale network it is necessary to place intelligence in the nodes. Network control should be decentralized to make such a system reliable and manageable. It is necessary to find simple local rules and strategies that can produce purposeful and coherent behavior. These control mechanisms must be adaptive to effectively respond to continually varying network conditions. Such adaptive, distributed, localized mechanisms would provide a scalable solution for controlling these large networks. Our comprehensive study on QoS developments in the Internet, reveals the necessity and requirement of a new QoS framework which provides absolute guarantees to the underlying traffic. We propose an innovative self-sizing framework for locally controlled networks such as the Internet, which can support the stringent requirements of interactive applications. A "self-sizing" network can allocate link/switch capacity automatically and adaptively using online traffic data. Our unified, critical and comparative analysis of online resource allocation algorithms of two different classical approaches, leads us to a novel adaptive wavelet predictor. Our results show that by performing online resource allocation at each node based on their local knowledge, we can achieve considerable bandwidth savings and also satisfy QoS at the packet level. We further discover that by making some of the nodes aware of their neighbors resource availability, higher self-sizing gains can be attained.
Discovery of two new persistent Be/X‐ray pulsar systems

We present RXTE observations of two recently identified massive X-ray binaries. RX J0440.9+4431/BSD 24-491 and RX J1037.5-564/LS 1698 are confirmed as accreting Be/X-ray systems following the discovery of X-ray pulsations, with barycentric pulse periods of 202.5$\pm$0.5 s and 860$\pm$2 s respectively. The X-ray spectral analysis shows that the energy spectra of the pulsars can be represented by a power-law, modified at low energy by an absorption component and at high energy by a cut-off. Very weak Fe lines may be present. Both sources appear to display a low cut-off energy when compared to typical X-ray pulsars, low X-ray variability (factor of < 10), and no dependence of the X-ray spectrum with energy. Given the similarity of these X-ray properties with those of the other persistent BeXRB pulsars, 4U0352+309/X Per and RX J0146.9+6121/LS I +61 235, we suggest that RX J0440.9+4431/BSD 24-491 and RX J1037.5-564/LS 1698 are also members of this subclass.
Removal of Bovine Insulin From Cow's Milk Formula and Early Initiation of Beta-Cell Autoimmunity in the FINDIA Pilot Study.

OBJECTIVE To test whether weaning to a bovine insulin-free cow's milk formula (CMF) reduces type 1 diabetes mellitus-associated autoantibodies in children at genetic risk. DESIGN Randomized, double-blind pilot trial (Finnish Dietary Intervention Trial for the Prevention of Type 1 Diabetes [FINDIA]). SETTING Three pediatric hospitals in Finland from May 15, 2002, to November 22, 2005. PARTICIPANTS A total of 1113 infants with HLA-conferred susceptibility to type 1 diabetes were randomly assigned to receive study infant formulas; 908 children provided at least 1 follow-up blood sample (last follow-up, June 2009). INTERVENTION The CMF (n = 389), whey-based hydrolyzed formula (WHF) (n = 350), or whey-based FINDIA formula essentially free of bovine insulin (n = 365) during the first 6 months of life whenever breast milk was not available. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Primary outcome was beta-cell autoimmunity monitored at ages 3, 6, and 12 months and then annually until age 3 years. Autoantibodies to insulin, the 65-kDa isoform of glutamic acid decarboxylase, and the tyrosine phosphatase-related IA-2 molecule were screened, and islet cell autoantibodies and autoantibodies to zinc transporter 8 were analyzed in infants whose primary screening test results were positive. RESULTS In the intention-to-treat analysis, 6.3% of children in the CMF group, 4.9% of those in the WHF group, and 2.6% of children in the FINDIA group were positive for at least 1 autoantibody by age 3 years. The odds ratios were 0.75 (95% CI, 0.37-1.54) in the WHF group and 0.39 (0.17-0.91) in the FINDIA group when compared with the CMF group. In the treatment-received analysis, the corresponding odds ratios were 0.81 (95% CI, 0.37-1.76) and 0.23 (0.08-0.69). CONCLUSION In comparison with ordinary CMF, weaning to an insulin-free CMF reduced the cumulative incidence of autoantibodies by age 3 years in children at genetic risk of type 1 diabetes mellitus. TRIAL REGISTRATION clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT01055080.
Muslim identities in contemporary Britain: The case of Muslim religious education teachers

In light of Preventing Violent Extremism policies and the promotion of Fundamental British Values, there has been a growth of academic and political interest surrounding Muslim identities in British education. Subsequent debate has revealed tensions surrounding Muslims and Islam within these educational contexts, leading to concern about the extent to which Muslims can incorporate their ‘Muslimness’. Surprisingly however, scant attention has been paid to Muslim teachers in these debates, who are tasked with embodying both. Given their unique positioning as interlocutors between the state and Muslims in schools, their experiences and perspectives can therefore shed new light on these debates. This thesis attends to this lacuna by exploring the experiences and identities of ‘Muslim RE teachers’. These are Muslims who work as non-confessional teachers of Religious Education in secondary state schools in England. Their explicit concerns with religion, both personally and professionally, entail that they are well-positioned to illuminate the processes of identity construction as Muslims within English school contexts. Accordingly, the study explores how ‘Muslim RE teachers’ understand and construct their personal and professional identities, the way others influence this construction, and how this is achieved in their everyday working practice, to highlight potential synergies and tensions between the two. It draws on interviews and shadowing with 21 participants across England working in a variety of secondary schools, making this study one of the largest qualitative studies of Muslim teachers to date. Through this exploration I argue that despite tensions, their attributes as ‘Muslims’ and as ‘RE teachers’ were not as incompatible as initially conceived, revealing the capacity of these participants to construct teacher identities that incorporated their faith. In doing so, my findings draw attention to the limitations of academic conceptualisations of Muslim identities, particularly within education. The study therefore provides a significant contribution to current academic debates surrounding Muslims in education. It also contributes to the fields of sociology of religion and British Muslim Studies more widely. This research should also inform current scholarship in education surrounding professional development, and teacher training for RE teachers. Consequently, the study makes original contributions to the discussions of both British Muslim identity and RE teaching in Britain.