Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sociology: A Very Short Introduction

Drawing on studies of social class, crime and deviance, education, work in bureaucracies, and changes in religious and political organizations, Sociology: A Very Short Introduction explores the tension between the individual’s place in society and society’s role in shaping the individual, and demonstrates the value of sociology for understanding the modern world. It outlines the unique vision of sociology and shows that much social theory is actually philosophy or literary theory. It discusses the continuing arguments for social egalitarianism, considering issues such as gay marriage, women in combat roles, and the 2010 Equality Act to debunk contemporary arguments against parity, and looks at the likely consequences for society as gender divisions are increasingly questioned.
Cognitive coordinating behaviors in multitasking web search

This paper investigates how users cognitively coordinate multitasking Web search across different information search problems. The analysis suggests that (1) multitasking is a prevalent Web search behavior including both sequential multitasking (31%) and parallel multitasking (69%); (2) multitasking is performed through a task switching process; and (3) such a process is supported and underpinned by cognitive coordination mechanisms and strategy coordination.
Linking parenchymal disease progression to changes in lung mechanical function by percolation.

RATIONALE The mechanical dysfunction accompanying parenchymal diseases such as pulmonary fibrosis and emphysema may follow a different course from the progression of the underlying microscopic pathophysiology itself, particularly in the early stages. It is tempting to speculate that this may reflect the geographical nature of lung pathology. However, merely ascribing mechanical dysfunction of the parenchyma to the vagaries of lesional organization is unhelpful without some understanding of how the two are linked. OBJECTIVES We attempt to forge such a link through a concept known as percolation, which has been invoked to account for numerous natural processes involving transmission of events across complex networks. METHODS We numerically determined the bulk stiffness (corresponding to the inverse of lung compliance) of a network of springs representing the lung parenchyma. We simulated the development of fibrosis by randomly stiffening individual springs in the network, and the development of emphysema by preferentially cutting springs under the greatest tension. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS When the number of stiff springs was increased to the point that they suddenly became connected across the network, the model developed a sharp increase in its bulk modulus. Conversely, when the cut springs became sufficiently numerous, the elasticity of the network fell to zero. These two conditions represent percolation thresholds that we show are mirrored structurally in both tissue pathology and macroscopic computed tomography images of human idiopathic fibrosis and emphysema. CONCLUSIONS The concept of percolation may explain why the development of symptoms related to lung function and the development of parenchymal pathology often do not progress together.
HIV-Associated Alterations in Normal-Appearing White Matter: A Voxel-Wise Diffusion Tensor Imaging Study

Objective:There are conflicting reports of adverse HIV-associated alterations in white matter integrity as measured by diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). We sought to address these conflicting reports by assessing, on a voxel-by-voxel basis, HIV-associated regional changes in radiologically defined normal-appearing white matter (NAWM) integrity using high-resolution DTI. Methods:30 HIV-seropositive (SP) and 30 HIV-seronegative (SN) nondemented, community-dwelling participants underwent DTI to derive whole-brain measures of white matter integrity (fractional anisotropy [FA] and mean diffusivity [MD]). For each participant, the white matter T2 volume was thresholded to remove regions of abnormal signal, resulting in a NAWM mask, which was then applied to the FA and MD volumes to extract voxel-wise NAWM measures of white matter integrity. Voxel-wise group comparisons of FA and MD were conducted (P < 0.005, extent threshold 5 voxels) while controlling for age and substance-abuse history. Results:There were no significant differences between the groups for demographic or cognitive performance variables. Summary whole-brain measures of FA and MD were equivalent between the SP and SN samples. Among the SP sample, history of substance abuse was associated with significantly increased whole-brain NAWM MD, and coinfection with hepatitis C virus (HCV) was associated with a trend for increased MD. Correlations between whole-brain NAWM FA and MD with cognitive performance measures were not significant. Regional analyses of DTI measures revealed variable differences in NAWM FA in the SP sample, with findings of both decreased and increased FA. Differences in NAWM MD were more consistent, with widespread increases noted in the SP sample compared to the SN sample. Eight of the 10 regions displaying significantly increased FA in the SP sample were also found to have significantly increased MD compared to the SN sample. Conclusions:Decreased white matter integrity is present even in radiologically defined NAWM in nondemented, community-dwelling patients with HIV. The decrease in NAWM integrity is best seen in increases in MD, a measure of generalized tissue breakdown. Indications of NAWM axonal integrity (FA) present a more complicated picture, with both decreased FA and increased FA in the SP sample. Our findings of variable HIV-associated FA changes in NAWM may account for previous conflicting reports of changes in DTI parameters in this population. The results of our study suggest that HIV infection contributes to variable changes in DTI values, reflecting both direct loss of axonal integrity and a loss of complexity to the underlying axonal matrix.
Halofuginone Has Anti-Proliferative Effects in Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia by Modulating the Transforming Growth Factor Beta Signaling Pathway

Promyelocytic leukemia-retinoic acid receptor alpha (PML-RARα) expression in acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) impairs transforming growth factor beta (TGFβ) signaling, leading to cell growth advantage. Halofuginone (HF), a low-molecular-weight alkaloid that modulates TGFβ signaling, was used to treat APL cell lines and non-obese diabetic/severe combined immunodeficiency (NOD/SCID) mice subjected to transplantation with leukemic cells from human chorionic gonadotrophin-PML-RARα transgenic mice (TG). Cell cycle analysis using incorporated bromodeoxyuridine and 7-amino-actinomycin D showed that, in NB4 and NB4-R2 APL cell lines, HF inhibited cellular proliferation (P<0.001) and induced apoptosis (P = 0.002) after a 24-hour incubation. Addition of TGFβ revealed that NB4 cells were resistant to its growth-suppressive effects and that HF induced these effects in the presence or absence of the cytokine. Cell growth inhibition was associated with up-regulation of TGFβ target genes involved in cell cycle regulation (TGFB, TGFBRI, SMAD3, p15, and p21) and down-regulation of MYC. Additionally, TGFβ protein levels were decreased in leukemic TG animals and HF in vivo could restore TGFβ values to normal. To test the in vivo anti-leukemic activity of HF, we transplanted NOD/SCID mice with TG leukemic cells and treated them with HF for 21 days. HF induced partial hematological remission in the peripheral blood, bone marrow, and spleen. Together, these results suggest that HF has anti-proliferative and anti-leukemic effects by reversing the TGFβ blockade in APL. Since loss of the TGFβ response in leukemic cells may be an important second oncogenic hit, modulation of TGFβ signaling may be of therapeutic interest.
Measuring protected areas’ impact on deforestation in Panama

Throughout the last century, protected areas (PAs) have been the major policy instrument for forest conservation worldwide, as well as in the Republic of Panama. The country has strived to lower the decline in its tropical forest cover which is rich in biodiversity. The importance of evaluating existing forest policies has been increasing, especially with emergence of financial incentives given to mitigation of deforestation. Few studies, however, have examined the effectiveness of forest policies in Panama, including the adoption of PAs. This study evaluates the impact of PAs on deforestation rates in Panama through the use of matching methods. The methods are used to adjust observable selection bias of PAs location. The conventional evaluation methods for protected areas failed to consider such bias, thus results using matching methods were expected to give less distorted estimates of the impact. Two types of matching methods were applied to obtain the estimated impacts of PAs, namely propensity score matching and covariate matching. The results were compared with those from the conventional evaluation methods. Countrywide forested plots in two time periods, 1992-2000, and 2000-2005 were examined. The results indicated positive effects of PAs on prevention of deforestation. They also revealed that conventional evaluation methods overestimated the impact of PAs. Such results agree with the previous matching analysis done for other geographic regions. It seems that the magnitude of the impact was enhanced in areas where high deforestation pressure existed. There was an indication of a geographical shift of deforestation frontiers toward remote areas with time. Bias-adjusted estimates for evaluation of PAs will be critical for formulation of future policy. With PAs being effective in avoiding deforestation, the future focus should be on where to put major resources for protection. As deforestation drivers make the deforestation frontier shift geographically, PAs will need to meet needs of covering forests under large threat in the present and the future. 2 Acknowledgements This research couldn't have been realized without guidance and support of all the following individuals and organizations. Panama, for providing information about the country's policies, Dr. Lynn Maguire for supporting the research process, and lastly, my family and friends for continuous support and encouragement. Any errors remain the sole responsibility of the author.
Diagnosing performance bottlenecks in emerging petascale applications

Cutting-edge science and engineering applications require petascale computing. It is, however, a significant challenge to use petascale computing platforms effectively. Consequently, there is a critical need for performance tools that enable scientists to understand impediments to performance on emerging petascale systems. In this paper, we describe HPCToolkit-a suite of multi-platform tools that supports sampling-based analysis of application performance on emerging petascale platforms. HPCToolkit uses sampling to pinpoint and quantify both scaling and node performance bottlenecks. We study several emerging petascale applications on the Cray XT and IBM BlueGene/P platforms and use HPCToolkit to identify specific source lines - in their full calling context - associated with performance bottlenecks in these codes. Such information is exactly what application developers need to know to improve their applications to take full advantage of the power of petascale systems.
Exploring EEG for Object Detection and Retrieval

This paper explores the potential for using Brain Computer Interfaces (BCI) as a relevance feedback mechanism in content-based image retrieval. Several experiments are performed using a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) of images at different rates (5Hz and 10Hz) on 8 users with different degrees of familiarization with BCI and the dataset. We compare the feedback from the BCI and mouse-based interfaces in a subset of TRECVid images, finding that, when users have limited time to annotate the images, both interfaces are comparable in performance. Comparing our best users in a retrieval task, we found that EEG-based relevance feedback can outperform mouse-based feedback.
Security analysis of co-located and distributed MIMO interference networks with linear receivers

In this paper, we compare the performance of the linear receivers such as maximum-ratio combining (MRC), zero-forcing (ZF) and minimum mean-square error (MMSE) receivers in enhancing security for co-located MIMO (C-MIMO) and distributed MIMO (D-MIMO) interference network. We derive the expressions for secrecy achievable rates in case of MRC, ZF and MMSE receivers for both C-MIMO and D-MIMO systems. Then, we determine the effect of interference on secrecy achievable rate for C-MIMO and D-MIMO system with MRC, ZF and MMSE receivers. Our results show that, the performance of D-MIMO system in enhancing security is better than C-MIMO system in case of all three receivers. It is also observed that ZF and MMSE receivers are more affected by interferences in D-MIMO system with compared to C-MIMO system.
Age, influenza pandemics and disease dynamics

SUMMARY The world is currently confronting the first influenza pandemic of the 21st century [caused by a novel pandemic influenza A (H1N1) virus]. Earlier pandemics have been characterized by age distributions that are distinct from those observed with seasonal influenza epidemics, with higher attack rates (and correspondingly increased proportionate or relative mortality) in younger individuals. While the genesis of protection against infection in older individuals during a pandemic is uncertain, differential vulnerability to infection by age has important implications for disease dynamics and control, and for choice of optimal vaccination strategies. Age-related vulnerability to infection may explain differences between school- and community-derived estimates of the reproductive number (R) for a newly emerged pandemic strain, and may also help explain the failure of a newly emerged influenza A (H1N1) virus strain to cause a pandemic in 1977. Age-related factors may also help explain variability in attack rates, and the size and impact of influenza epidemics across jurisdictions and between populations. In Canada, such effects have been observed in the apparently increased severity of outbreaks on Indigenous peoples' reserves. The implications of these patterns for vaccine allocation necessitate targeted research to understand age-related vulnerabilities early in an influenza pandemic.
On Achievable Throughput Region of Prioritized Transmissions Via Network Coding

We investigate the achievable throughput regions for scenarios involving prioritized transmissions. Prioritized trans- missions are useful in many multimedia networking applications where the transmitted data have an inherent hierarchy such that a piece of data at one level is only useful if all the pieces of data at all the lower levels are present. Formally, the prioritized transmission refers to the notion that, given M prioritized packets in the decreasing order of importance, a1, a2, . , aM to be delivered to a receiver, then the packet ai is useful to a receiver only if it has received all packets aj with j< isuccessfully. Thus, the prioritized throughput can be abstractly represented j�1 where j is the position of the first lost packet. In this paper we investigate the achievable throughput regions of prioritized transmissions from a source to multiple receivers via a shared and lossy channel. We assume that the source is an oracle such that it knows precisely whether a packet is lost or received at any receiver in any future time slot, thus it can schedule the packet transmission in such a way to maximize the receiver throughputs. We show that using network coding technique, the achievable throughput region for the broadcast scenarios can be substantially enlarged. Furthermore, for some erasure patterns, the achievable throughput region using network coding technique is optimal in the sense that no scheme can do better. Index Terms—Network coding.
Rapid monitoring of changes in water diffusion coefficients during reversible ischemia in cat and rat brain

Changes in the diffusion constant of water during reversible brain ischemia and cardiac arrest were monitored with a 10‐s time resolution. Results (five cats, three rats) indicate that these changes are reversible and that the bulk of the changes are not caused by temperature or motion related to brain pulsations and blood flow. The rapid time course of the changes corresponds to the known time course for changes in energy state, signal transduction, and ionic homeostasis.
Dynamic Security Margin Estimation with Preventive Control Using Artificial Neural Networks

On-line dynamic security assessment (DSA) is challenging using conventional techniquesbecause most DSA approaches use detailed mathematical models of the system that arecomputationally intensive and time-consuming. In this paper, a method based on Artificial NeuralNetworks (ANN) is developed to estimate the security margin. The security margin for a given powersystem is obtained by applying standard operations criteria for transient response to off-line timesimulations. These simulations then form a database that can be used to train a pattern matchingapproach, such as, ANNs. Feature selection using statistical approaches is applied to overcome thedimensional problem of applying the ANN to larger systems. This method provides a fast and accuratetool to evaluate dynamic security. If the estimated security margin is less than requirements, thenpreventive control actions that guarantee dynamic security of the power system are needed. This isachieved by optimal rescheduling of the generation with given constraints on the network powerflows and system security margins as estimated by the ANN. This requires a modified Optimal PowerFlow (OPF) solution that allows the trained ANN to act as a security objective function. Numericalresults on the New England 39-bus system validate the methodology.
Regulation of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase in human hepatoma cell line Hep G2. Effects of inhibitors of cholesterol synthesis on enzyme activity.

Incubating Hep G2 cells for 18 h with triparanol, buthiobate and low concentrations (less than 0.5 microM) of U18666A, inhibitors of desmosterol delta 24-reductase, of lanosterol 14 alpha-demethylase and of squalene-2,3-epoxide cyclase (EC 5.4.99.7) respectively, resulted in a decrease of the HMG-CoA (3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A) reductase activity. However, U18666A at concentrations higher than 3 microM increased the HMG-CoA reductase activity in a concentration-dependent manner. None of these inhibitors influenced directly the reductase activity in Hep G2 cell homogenates. Analysis by t.l. c. of 14C-labelled non-saponifiable lipids formed from either [14C]acetate or [14C]mevalonate during the cell incubations confirmed the sites of action of the drugs used. Beside the 14C-labelled substrates of the blocked enzymes and 14C-labelled cholesterol, another non-saponifiable lipid fraction was observed, which behaves as polar sterols on t.l. c. This was the case with triparanol and at those concentrations of U18666A that decreased the reductase activity, suggesting that polar sterols may play a role in suppressing the reductase activity. In the presence of 30 microM-U18666A (sterol formation blocked) the increase produced by simultaneously added compactin could be prevented by addition of mevalonate. This indicates the existence of a non-sterol mevalonate-derived effector in addition to a sterol-dependent regulation. LDL (low-density lipoprotein), which was shown to be able to decrease the compactin-induced increase in reductase activity, could not prevent the U18666A-induced increase. On the contrary, LDL enhanced the U18666A effect, showing that the LDL regulation is not merely the result of introducing cholesterol to the cells.
Human Dengue Antibodies against Structural and Nonstructural Proteins

ABSTRACT Antibodies against dengue virus type 2 and 4 proteins in acute-phase sera of 10 primary and 10 secondary dengue fever and dengue hemorrhagic fever patients were studied by Western blotting. In the first group the immune response was barely detectable, while in the second group more proteins were detected, with a very strong reaction. Anti-NS1 and -NS3 antibodies were detected mainly in secondary cases. Anti-E, -NS3, and -NS5 antibodies were detected in a high number of cases. The possibility of implementing early diagnostic assays for antigen detection is suggested.
Impact of pipeline in the power performance of tunnel transistor circuits

Tunnel transistors are one of the most attractive steep sub threshold slope devices currently being investigated as a means of overcoming the power density and energy inefficiency limitations of CMOS technology. In this paper, we analyze the impact of the logic depth into the power consumption and energy efficiency of logic circuits and show critical differences between tunnel transistors and CMOS technologies, due to the distinct delay versus supply voltages exhibited by each type of device. Obtained results show that reducing logic depth as a power reduction technique is more efficient for tunnel transistors circuits than for their CMOS counterparts. A simple model to estimate the power reductions achieved when using pipeline to cut down logic depth, and taking into account the power overheads associated to the pipelined registers is developed. It shows that in CMOS power benefits cancels with the incorporation of a number of flip-flops equal to the 5% of the number of gates in the original circuit while this number rises to 90% for tunnel circuits. Simulation experiments of a simple adder tree are carried out to validate our analysis. No power savings are obtained by the CMOS pipelined circuit while the TFET pipelined circuit saves 77% of power. The results of this work suggest that architectural issues should be considered in the evaluation of this type of transistors.
Hybrid-Search Quantum-Behaved Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm

Quantum-behaved particle swarm optimizafion algorithm(QPSO) can improve the search quality of particle swarm optimizafion algorithm(PSO) in a certain extent. But it still shows that its precision of searching is low and its capability of local searching is weak. Hybrid-search quantum-behaved particle swarm optimizafion algorithm(HSQPSO) has introduced the Chaos search mechanism which based on tent map. It doesn't change the search mechanism of QPSO, and it re-joins the chaos search mechanism to compose the hybrid-search mechanism based on the original. Through comparing the optimal values of two search mechanisms in the iterative process, the global optimum will be obtained. results show that the HSQPSO not only retains the fast convergence of QPSO, but also has higher search efficiency and search precision and isn't easy to be trapped in the local optimal value.