Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Le pilotage des centres de recherche des pôles de compétitivité: le cas du centre de recherche intégré MIRCen (CEA)

En juillet 2005, l'Etat Francais a officialise la creation de 66 poles de competitivite. La mise en place de ces poles a pour vocation de favoriser les synergies entre entreprises, centres de formation et unites de recherche autour de projets innovants sur un territoire donne, pour ameliorer la situation de l'emploi et l'attractivite du territoire (CIADT, 2004). Cette dynamique entre dans le cadre des entreprises-reseaux, reseaux d'entreprises, poles de competences, districts industriels et autres poles et reseaux. Les entreprises qui y appartiennent, dont les centres de recherche, se trouvent alors prises dans un jeu inter-organisationnel fort et doivent repondre a la fois a leurs propres objectifs et aux objectifs generaux de ces poles. Les centres de recherche sont des entreprises particulieres dont la production principale est la production de connaissances. Remis dans ce contexte inter-organisationnel, leur pilotage n'est pas aise et doit etre adapte. De notre point de vue, tres peu d'etudes portent a ce jour sur ce sujet. Dans cet article, nous analysons, a travers une etude de cas, les difficultes de pilotage auxquelles font face les centres de recherche des poles de competitivite. Un nouveau mode de pilotage nous semble necessaire pour ce type de centres. Cet article propose une premier mode de pilotage approprie. Pour cela, nous allons d'abord presenter le cas de notre etude et la problematique rencontree. Nous pourrons alors introduire notre proposition de pilotage par les valeurs.
Estimating the bias in meta analysis estimates for continuous data with non-random missing study variance

When study variances are not reported or ‘missing”, it is common practice in meta analysis to assume that the missing variances are missing completely at random (MCAR). In practice, however, it is possible that the variances are not missing completely at random (NMAR). In this paper, we examine, analytically, the biases introduce in the meta analysis estimates when the missing study variances occur with non-random missing mechanism (MNAR), namely, when the magnitude of the missing variances are mostly larger than those that are reported. In meta analysis, this is more likely to occur in studies which carry larger variances. We looked at two common approaches in handling this problem, namely, the missing variances are imputed using the mean imputation, and the studies with missing study-variances are omitted from the analysis. The results suggest that for the estimate of the variance of the effect size, if the magnitude of the study-variances that are missing are mostly larger than those that are reported, the variance of the effect size will be underestimated. Thus under MNAR, the mean imputation gives false impression of precision as the estimated variance of the overall effect is too small. On the other hand, if the missing variances are mostly smaller, the variance will be overestimated.
Coherent-photon-assisted cotunneling in a Coulomb blockade device

We study cotunneling in a double junction Coulomb blockade device under the influence of time dependent potentials. It is shown that the ac-bias leads to photon assisted cotunneling which in some cases may dominate the transport. We derive a general non-perturbative expression for the tunneling current in the presence of oscillating potentials and give a perturbative expression for the photon assisted cotunneling current.
Influence of heart failure on resting lung volumes in patients with COPD

ABSTRACT Objective: To evaluate the influence of chronic heart failure (CHF) on resting lung volumes in patients with COPD, i.e., inspiratory fraction-inspiratory capacity (IC)/TLC-and relative inspiratory reserve-[1 − (end-inspiratory lung volume/TLC)]. Methods: This was a prospective study involving 56 patients with COPD-24 (23 males/1 female) with COPD+CHF and 32 (28 males/4 females) with COPD only-who, after careful clinical stabilization, underwent spirometry (with forced and slow maneuvers) and whole-body plethysmography. Results: Although FEV1, as well as the FEV1/FVC and FEV1/slow vital capacity ratios, were higher in the COPD+CHF group than in the COPD group, all major "static" volumes-RV, functional residual capacity (FRC), and TLC-were lower in the former group (p < 0.05). There was a greater reduction in FRC than in RV, resulting in the expiratory reserve volume being lower in the COPD+CHF group than in the COPD group. There were relatively proportional reductions in FRC and TLC in the two groups; therefore, IC was also comparable. Consequently, the inspiratory fraction was higher in the COPD+CHF group than in the COPD group (0.42 ± 0.10 vs. 0.36 ± 0.10; p < 0.05). Although the tidal volume/IC ratio was higher in the COPD+CHF group, the relative inspiratory reserve was remarkably similar between the two groups (0.35 ± 0.09 vs. 0.44 ± 0.14; p < 0.05). Conclusions: Despite the restrictive effects of CHF, patients with COPD+CHF have relatively higher inspiratory limits (a greater inspiratory fraction). However, those patients use only a part of those limits, probably in order to avoid critical reductions in inspiratory reserve and increases in elastic recoil.
A High Efficiency Protocol for Reporting Integrity Measurements

One of the important functionalities in trusted computing is platform attestation, which allows us to reporting the current configuration of the platform to a remote Challenger. As a result of single threaded access mode on Trusted platform module (TPM), the server platform needs to process integrity requests turn and turn about, and then an issue on response efficiency arises in practice. An improved attestation protocol based on batching has been proposed in this paper, which achieved integrity reporting by batching all requests that arrived within a short duration, and TPM need only one time signing operation.
American College of Rheumatology. Preliminary definition of improvement in rheumatoid arthritis.

OBJECTIVE Trials of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) treatments report the average response in multiple outcome measures for treated patients. It is more clinically relevant to test whether individual patients improve with treatment, and this identifies a single primary efficacy measure. Multiple definitions of improvement are currently in use in different trials. The goal of this study was to promulgate a single definition for use in RA trials. METHODS Using the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) core set of outcome measures for RA trials, we tested 40 different definitions of improvement, using a 3-step process. First, we performed a survey of rheumatologists, using actual patient cases from trials, to evaluate which definitions corresponded best to rheumatologists' impressions of improvement, eliminating most candidate definitions of improvement. Second, we tested 20 remaining definitions to determine which maximally discriminated effective treatment from placebo treatment and also minimized placebo response rates. With 8 candidate definitions of improvement remaining, we tested to see which were easiest to use and were best in accord with rheumatologists' impressions of improvement. RESULTS The following definition of improvement was selected: 20% improvement in tender and swollen joint counts and 20% improvement in 3 of the 5 remaining ACR core set measures: patient and physician global assessments, pain, disability, and an acute-phase reactant. Additional validation of this definition was carried out in a comparative trial, and the results suggest that the definition is statistically powerful and does not identify a large percentage of placebo-treated patients as being improved. CONCLUSION We present a definition of improvement which we hope will be used widely in RA trials.
An Information Systems Design Theory for Web-Based Education

An Information Systems Design Theory (ISDT) is a prescriptive theory that offers theory-based principles that can guide practitioners in the design of effective Information Systems and set an agenda for on-going research. This paper introduces the origins of the ISDT concept and describes one ISDT for Web-based Education (WBE). The paper shows how this ISDT has, over the last seven years, produced a WBE Information System that is more inclusive, flexible and is more closely integrated with the needs of its host organization.
Towards best practices for crowdsourcing ontology alignment benchmarks

Ontology alignment systems establish the links between ontologies that enable knowledge from various sources and domains to be used by applications in many diﬀerent ways. Unfortunately, these systems are not perfect. Currently the results of even the best-performing alignment systems need to be manually veriﬁed in order to be fully trusted. Ontology alignment researchers have turned to crowdsourcing platforms such as Amazon’s Mechanical Turk to accomplish this. However, there has been little systematic analysis of the accuracy of crowd-sourcing for alignment veriﬁcation and the establishment of best practices. In this work, we analyze the impact of the presentation of the context of potential matches and the way in which the question is presented to workers on the accuracy of crowdsourcing for alignment veriﬁcation.
Alpha-Synuclein Levels in Blood Plasma Decline with Healthy Aging

There is unequivocal evidence that alpha-synuclein plays a pivotal pathophysiological role in neurodegenerative diseases, and in particular in synucleinopathies. These disorders present with a variable extent of cognitive impairment and alpha-synuclein is being explored as a biomarker in CSF, blood serum and plasma. Considering key events of aging that include proteostasis, alpha-synuclein may not only be useful as a marker for differential diagnosis but also for aging per se. To explore this hypothesis, we developed a highly specific ELISA to measure alpha-synuclein. In healthy males plasma alpha-synuclein levels correlated strongly with age, revealing much lower concentrations in older (avg. 58.1 years) compared to younger (avg. 27.6 years) individuals. This difference between the age groups was enhanced after acidification of the plasmas (p<0.0001), possibly reflecting a decrease of alpha-synuclein-antibody complexes or chaperone activity in older individuals. Our results support the concept that alpha-synuclein homeostasis may be impaired early on, possibly due to disturbance of the proteostasis network, a key component of healthy aging. Thus, alpha-synuclein may be a novel biomarker of aging, a factor that should be considered when analyzing its presence in biological specimens.
Perceptual denoising of color images

Denoising of color images is a trade‐off between sharpness of an image and perceived noise. We formulate a novel optimization problem that can maximize sharpness of an image while limiting the perceived noise under a model of visibility of additive random noise. We derive a closed‐form expression for an optimal two‐dimensional finite impulse response filter, show its uniqueness and existence, and present simulation results for black and white as well as color images. Simulation results show remarkable reduction in perceptibility of noise, while preserving sharpness. The computational burden required for the optimal filter is reduced by a new adhoc filter which is simple but has near optimal performance. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Imaging Syst Technol, 20, 215–222, 2010.
Identification and Clonal Characterisation of a Progenitor Cell Sub-Population in Normal Human Articular Cartilage

Background Articular cartilage displays a poor repair capacity. The aim of cell-based therapies for cartilage defects is to repair damaged joint surfaces with a functional replacement tissue. Currently, chondrocytes removed from a healthy region of the cartilage are used but they are unable to retain their phenotype in expanded culture. The resulting repair tissue is fibrocartilaginous rather than hyaline, potentially compromising long-term repair. Mesenchymal stem cells, particularly bone marrow stromal cells (BMSC), are of interest for cartilage repair due to their inherent replicative potential. However, chondrocyte differentiated BMSCs display an endochondral phenotype, that is, can terminally differentiate and form a calcified matrix, leading to failure in long-term defect repair. Here, we investigate the isolation and characterisation of a human cartilage progenitor population that is resident within permanent adult articular cartilage. Methods and Findings Human articular cartilage samples were digested and clonal populations isolated using a differential adhesion assay to fibronectin. Clonal cell lines were expanded in growth media to high population doublings and karyotype analysis performed. We present data to show that this cell population demonstrates a restricted differential potential during chondrogenic induction in a 3D pellet culture system. Furthermore, evidence of high telomerase activity and maintenance of telomere length, characteristic of a mesenchymal stem cell population, were observed in this clonal cell population. Lastly, as proof of principle, we carried out a pilot repair study in a goat in vivo model demonstrating the ability of goat cartilage progenitors to form a cartilage-like repair tissue in a chondral defect. Conclusions In conclusion, we propose that we have identified and characterised a novel cartilage progenitor population resident in human articular cartilage which will greatly benefit future cell-based cartilage repair therapies due to its ability to maintain chondrogenicity upon extensive expansion unlike full-depth chondrocytes that lose this ability at only seven population doublings.
LES PRATIQUES COMPTABLES DES DIRIGEANTS DE PME SYRIENNES DANS UN CONTEXTE DE LIBERALISATION DE L'ECONOMIE

For nearly ten years, Syria has been progressively moving from a strongly state-controlled economy to a more free market economy. In order to deal with this new context of business affairs which appears more competitive, complex and uncertain, business leaders may have changed their vision of the role of accounting. This is why we thought it appropriate to carry out a study investigating the accounting practices of business leaders in Syrian SMEs. The analysis of data collected by a survey where 92 Syrian industrial SMEs were interviewed confirms that accounting represents a major part in the information system of business leaders and shows that practices within SMEs vary. The analysis of the relationships between the accounting practices and the contingency factors reveals intermediate tendencies between some indices of structural determinism and behavioral determinism.
Clustering by deterministic annealing andWishart based distance measures for fully-polarimetric SAR-data

The basic assumption of clustering is that the observed data embodies a specific structure. This structure is represented by groups of data points, which are relativly isolated within the feature space. The goal of clustering is to find and represent this dissimilar groups of similar elements or, in other words, to subdivide the data space into a number of partitions. In this paper a spectral clustering based on deterministic annealing is used to obtain image segments with similar spectral properties. The results are compared with other established clustering methods for polarimetric SAR data and advantages of this approach are investigated.
Algorithmic Analysis of Programs with Well Quasi-ordered Domains

Over the past few years increasing research effort has been directed towards the automatic verification of infinite-state systems. This paper is concerned with identifying general mathematical structures which can serve as sufficient conditions for achieving decidability. We present decidability results for a class of systems (called well-structured systems) which consist of a finite control part operating on an infinite data domain. The results assume that the data domain is equipped with a preorder which is a well quasi-ordering, such that the transition relation is “monotonic” (a simulation) with respect to the preorder. We show that the following properties are decidable for well-structured systems: ? Reachability: whether a certain set of control states is reachable. Other safety properties can be reduced to the reachability problem. Eventuality: whether all executions eventually reach a given set of control states (represented as AFp in CTL). Simulation: whether there exists a simulation between a finite automaton and a well-structured system. The simulation problem will be shown to be decidable in both directions. We also describe how these general principles subsume several decidability results from the literature about timed automata, relational automata, Petri nets, and lossy channel systems.
Body Image Dissatisfaction and Eating Disturbances Among Children and Adolescents

JOPERD • Volume 77 No. 1 • January 2006 A large disparity exists between the socially desired body type and the actual physical shape of America’s children and adolescents. Young people are constantly inundated with messages and images of what defi nes beauty, which includes the glorifi cation of the unrealistically thin or the overly muscular body type. In contrast, the average weight of children and adolescents has progressively increased over the past two decades (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 1997; Strauss & Pollack; 2001; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [USDHHS], 2001). This unrealistically “ideal” body shape, combined with the increasing body weight of our young population, has become a major contributor to the development of body image dissatisfaction, particularly among young girls and increasingly among young boys (Smolak, 2004). Body image dissatisfaction can lead to unhealthy eating patterns, extreme dieting behaviors, and the development of more serious eating disorders, which can have dire health consequences and long-term ramifi cations. It is critical that educators and parents remain sensitive to these issues facing young people, particularly amid the attention focused on the widespread obesity epidemic. The purpose of this article is to defi ne body image dissatisfaction and to explain the associated eating disturbances that can arise, as well as the contributing risk factors for developing eating disturbances. Lastly, prevention strategies that may be successful in increasing body esteem and decreasing the prevalence of eating disturbances will also be discussed.
Activation of Growth Hormone Receptor Delivers an Antiapoptotic Signal: Evidence for a Role of Akt in This Pathway1.

A signaling pathway was delineated by which GH promotes cell survival. Experiments were performed in human leukemic cells (HL-60) and Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells. In HL-60 cells, GH treatment reduced starvation-induced cell death. In contrast, when HL-60 cells were treated with an anti-GH antibody, cell survival was sharply reduced. In CHO cells stably expressing either the wild-type (wtGHR) or a truncated form (Δ454GHR) of the GH receptor in which GH induces a sustained activation of the receptor-associated tyrosine kinase JAK2, we found that GH stimulation inhibited programmed cell death induced by withdrawal of survival factors. This effect was enhanced in cells expressing the truncated form. In contrast, GH did not affect cell survival in CHO cells transfected with either the empty vector or a mutated GHR unable to transduce the signal (4P/AGHR). We also showed that the inhibitory action of GH on apoptosis is probably mediated via stimulation of the serine-threonine kinase Akt, as 1) GH treatmen.
Effects of Buffer Layer on Structure and Ferromagnetism of Co-Doped SnO$_{2}$  Films

The thickness of SnO<sub>2</sub> buffer layers has been found to considerably affect the structure and magnetic properties of Sn<sub>1-x</sub>Co<sub>x</sub>O<sub>2</sub> films. As the buffer-layer thickness increases, the lattice constant <i>a</i> and Co-O bond length of the Sn<sub>1-x</sub>Co<sub>x</sub>O<sub>2</sub> films contract, which suggest the gradual relaxation of the accumulated tensile strain. Simultaneously, the amount of structural defects in Sn<sub>1-x</sub>Co<sub>x</sub>O<sub>2</sub> films decreases significantly and the grain size increases with increasing buffer-layer thickness. All the Sn<sub>1-x</sub>Co<sub>x</sub>O<sub>2</sub> films exhibit intrinsic ferromagnetism at room temperature and the saturated magnetic moment varies with the buffer-layer thickness. The dependence of ferromagnetism on the buffer-layer thickness can be explained on the basis of the variations in the density of structural defects and Co-O bond length in Sn<sub>1-x</sub>Co<sub>x</sub>O<sub>2</sub> films.
Spindle microtubule differentiation and deployment during micronuclear mitosis in Paramecium

Spindles underwent a 12-fold elongation before anaphase B was completed during the closed mitoses of micronuclei in Paramecium tetraurelia. Two main classes of spindle microtubules have been identified. A peripheral sheath of microtubules with diameters of 27-32 nm was found to be associated with the nuclear envelope and confined to the midportion of each spindle. Most of the other microtubules had diameters of approximately 24 nm and were present along the entire lengths of spindles. Nearly all of the 24-nm microtubules were eliminated from spindle midportions (largely because of microtubule disassembly) at a relatively early stage of spindle elongation. Disassembly of some of these microtubules also occurred at the ends of spindles. About 60% of the total microtubule content of spindles was lost at this stage. Most, perhaps all, peripheral sheath microtubules remained intact. Many of them detached from the nuclear envelope and regrouped to form a compact microtubule bundle in the spindle midportion. There was little, if any, further polymerization of 24-nm microtubules after the disassembly phase. Polymerization of microtubules with diameters of 27-32 nm continued as spindle elongation progressed. Most microtubules in the midportions of well-elongated spindles were constructed from 14-16 protofilaments. A few 24-nm microtubules with 13 protofilaments were also present. The implications of these findings for spatial control of microtubule assembly, disassembly, positioning, and membrane association, that apparently discriminate between microtubules with different protofilament numbers have been explored. The possibility that microtubule sliding occurs during spindle elongation has also been considered.