Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Socioeconomic legacy yields an invasion debt

Globalization and economic growth are widely recognized as important drivers of biological invasions. Consequently, there is an increasing need for governments to address the role of international trade in their strategies to prevent species introductions. However, many of the most problematic alien species are not recent arrivals but were introduced several decades ago. Hence, current patterns of alien-species richness may better reflect historical rather than contemporary human activities, a phenomenon which might be called “invasion debt. ” Here, we show that across 10 taxonomic groups (vascular plants, bryophytes, fungi, birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish, terrestrial insects, and aquatic invertebrates) in 28 European countries, current numbers of alien species established in the wild are indeed more closely related to indicators of socioeconomic activity from the year 1900 than to those from 2000, although the majority of species introductions occurred during the second half of the 20th century. The strength of the historical signal varies among taxonomic groups, with those possessing good capabilities for dispersal (birds, insects) more strongly associated with recent socioeconomic drivers. Nevertheless, our results suggest a considerable historical legacy for the majority of the taxa analyzed. The consequences of the current high levels of socioeconomic activity on the extent of biological invasions will thus probably not be completely realized until several decades into the future.
Teacher participation in decision making and its impact on school and teachers

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine teacher involvement in different domains of decision making in Greek primary schools and explore associations with school and teacher variables.Design/methodology/approach – A survey employing self‐administered questionnaires, with a Likert‐type scale assessing teachers’ actual and desired participation in three domains of decision making, was used. Scales measuring perceived school climate, self‐efficacy and job satisfaction were also included. Data were collected from 143 teachers working in primary schools located in different areas in Greece.Findings – The multidimensional approach to measuring teacher participation in decision making revealed quite high actual participation in decisions concerning students’ and teachers’ issues, but low levels of participation in managerial decisions. The discrepancy between the actual and desired levels of participation showed significant deprivation across all decision‐making domains. Greater participation in decisi.
On exploring proactive cloud elasticity for internet of things demands

Today, Internet of Things (IoT) is an emergent concept in which billions of devices are connected to Internet capable of producing and exchanging data. One of the most used technologies in this area regards to the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). It can produce large amount of data from many things like objects, persons and assets. Thus, it is needed middlewares which must support processing in large scales. However, the state-of-the-art does not present satisfactory solutions in which this kind of middlewares are capable of adapt themselves according to processing demands. In this context, this article presents a proactive cloud elasticity model called Proliot aiming at providing scalability to IoT middlewares. Proliot is capable of predicting load behavior combining time series techniques. In addition, it adapts cloud resources beforehand an overload or underload situation occurs. We evaluated our model comparing results with a reactive elasticity model. In our experiments, Proliot achieved best performance up to 76% when compared to Eliot.
Frailty, Leisure Activity and Functional Status in Older Adults: Relationship With Subjective Well Being

Older adults generally experience high levels of life satisfaction (e.g., Charles & Carstensen, 2010) and participation in leisure activities may mediate some of their overall well-being. Frailty associated with biological aging may be related to reduced leisure activity engagement and loss of social belonging that may diminish life satisfaction (Charles, 2011). This study examined differences in leisure activity engagement by frailty status, and then tested a model evaluating the link between functional status and subjective well-being in a sample of 95 community-dwelling older adults. Participants completed self-report questionnaires that assessed leisure activity participation, life satisfaction, frailty, and mood. Leisure activities were coded as either social (e.g., taking classes) or solitary (e.g., reading) and summed across to create two composite scores. Results indicated there was a strong relationship between functional status and subjective well-being in older adults. High frailty and low social leisure engagement was associated with reduced subjective well-being. Implications for future research and clinical applications are discussed.
Assessment of Precancerous Lesions of the Uterine Cervix for Evidence of Human Papillomavirus Infection: A Histological and Immunohistochemical Study

&NA; Cervical biopsies obtained by colposcopic direction from 358 women were histologically examined for squamous dysplasia (cervical intra‐epithelial neoplasia; CIN) and human papillomavirus (HPV) infection. Of the 358 biopsies, 136 were stained by an immunoperoxidase method using an antiserum against genus‐specific (common) antigen of bovine papillomavirus. HPV antigens were detected in 40% of biopsies showing definite histological evidence of HPV effect, and in 7.9% and 2.6% of those with possible or no HPV effect, respectively. HPV effect was commonly seen in association with CIN. The frequency of histological evidence of HPV effect and positive immunoperoxidase staining decreased with increasing grades of CIN. HPV antigen was found in 57% of areas of HPV change with minor atypia, 34% of zones of CIN I and in only 8% of zones of CIN II. No antigenic staining or definite histological evidence of HPV effect was observed within areas of CIN III. Antigen was generally confined to the nuclei of superficial koilocytes, cells with lesser degrees of perinuclear clearing and parakeratotic cells. These results how a strong association between HPV infection and precancerous lesions of the uterine cervix and are consistent with the hypothesis that production of the HPV structural antigen requires a high degree of squamous cell maturation. The immunoperoxidase findings and the histopathological observations support the view that HPV change and dysplasia are part of a morphological continuum in which the cytopathic effect of HPV is expressed mainly in lower grades of dysplasia.
Conflict and the Functional Equivalence of Social Movements

Of any given perspective on social movements, one may ask what is included and what is excluded, how far does the perspec tive go, and where does it stop in tracing out the numerous factors in the dynamics of social movements? The concern for "why individuals join" has often characterized psychological and nomo thetic approaches to social movements, while the primacy of "why this particular movement at this particular time and place" has been more typical of historical and idiographic approaches. While these concerns need not be mutually exclusive, they are usually separated by the preferences of given investigators. And as a consequence, studies of social movements tend to be partial and fragmented, and to reflect the particular researcher's conception of the nature of man and society.
HealthGear: a real-time wearable system for monitoring and analyzing physiological signals

We present HealthGear, a real-time wearable system for monitoring, visualizing and analyzing physiological signals. HealthGear consists of a set of noninvasive physiological sensors wirelessly connected via Bluetooth to a cell phone which stores, transmits and analyzes the physiological data, and presents it to the user in an intelligible way. In this paper, we focus on an implementation of HealthGear using a blood oximeter to monitor the user's blood oxygen level and pulse while sleeping. We also describe two different algorithms for automatically detecting sleep apnea events, and illustrate the performance of the overall system in a sleep study with 20 volunteers
Phonological Deletion Revisited: Errors in Young Children’s Two-Handed Signs

The omission or deletion of one hand from two-handed signs was examined in 9 young children of deaf parents. The patterns of hand deletion found in the early signs of these children were quite similar to those reported by Battison (1974) for adult signers. Battison accounted for the deletion patterns he observed largely by sign symmetry. Analyses of the present children’s deletions, however, revealed that the likelihood of hand deletion was also highly related to the type of contact the sign required. Deletion was most frequent in signs that involved contact with the signer’s body. This finding is interpreted as indicating that the likelihood of hand deletion in ASL is related to the amount of information about the location aspect of the sign that would be lost when the sign is produced with only one hand. Evidence for the phonological process of assimilation in the children’s early signs and the children’s accuracy for handshapes in two-handed (as compared with one-handed) signs also is examined.
Embedding information flows into renewal traffic

The secure networking problem of embedding information flows into cover traffic is addressed. When relayed packets must obey a causal delay constraint, this naturally remaps to a matching problem between point processes (here taken as arbitrary renewal processes). The best hiding policy is thus characterized in terms of the maximum fraction of matched points, which is accordingly referred to as embedding capacity. For a broad range of renewal models encountered in practice, we provide a simple analytical formula for the capacity, which depends only on the renewal function of the underlying processes, and further find conditions for capacity-ordering of different types of cover traffic. The results are also tested on real network traces, and a very good match is observed, especially for tight delay constraints.
Specific Induction of TSLP by the Viral RNA Analogue Poly(I:C) in Primary Epithelial Cells Derived from Nasal Polyps

Introduction Chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyposis is an inflammatory disease that, although not directly linked to allergy, often displays a Th2-skewed inflammation characterized by elevated local IgE and IL-5 levels. The nasal cavity is constantly exposed to bacteria and viruses that may trigger epithelial inflammatory responses. To gain more insight into mechanisms by which such a biased inflammation might arise, we have investigated the epithelial expression of the Th2 skewing mediators (TSLP, IL-25, and IL-33) in relationship to disease and microbial triggers. Methods Epithelial cells were obtained from polyp tissues of nasal polyposis patients and from inferior turbinates of non-diseased controls. Cells were exposed to various TLR-specific triggers to study the effect on mRNA and protein expression level of TSLP, IL-25, and IL-33 and the potential regulatory mechanisms through the expression profile the transcription factors ATF-3, DUSP-1, EGR-1, and NFKB-1. Results The TLR3 agonist and viral analogue poly(I:C) induced TSLP mRNA 13.0 ± 3.1 fold (p < 0.05) and protein expression by 12.1 ± 2.3-fold (p < 0.05) higher in epithelium isolated from nasal polyposis patients than in epithelium form healthy controls. This enhanced induction of TSLP may be a consequence of a down-regulated expression of DUSP-1 in polyp epithelium. Conclusion The TLR3 induced expression of TSLP introduces a mechanism by which the Th2-skewed tissue environment might arise in nasal polyps and invites a further evaluation of the potential contribution of current or past viral infections to polyposis pathogenesis.
The Processes of Project-based Learning

This paper explores the implications of an increasing reliance on project forms for learning within organizations. In particular, we focus on the tensions between learning at project level and the stocks and flows of organizational knowledge. Based on a review of the existing literature, we outline propositions on two major processes of project-based learning (PBL): ‘learning-by-absorption’ and ‘learning-by-reflection’. Subsequently, the paper applies and refines this framework through the analysis of the findings from a qualitative study of three linked projects in the UK water industry. The findings from our study support and highlight the role of the above-noted processes in determining the extent and transfer of PBL. In particular, they indicate the role played by ‘quasi-organizational’ forms in enabling ‘learning-by-absorption’ and ‘learning-by-reflection’ at a project level. But equally, they help to explain limitations on the ability of project-based learning to bring about significant changes in knowledge stocks and flows in the wider organization.
1-27-2012 Statistical Issues in Assessing Hospital Performance

Preface The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), through a subcontract with Yale New is supporting a committee appointed by the Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies (COPSS) to address statistical issues identified by the CMS and stakeholders about CMS's approach to mod­ eling hospital quality based on outcomes. In the spring of 2011, with the direct support of YN­ HHSC/CORE, COPSS formed a committee comprised of one member from each of its constituent societies, a chair, and a staff member from the American Statistical Association, and held a prelim­ inary meeting in April. In June, YNHHSC/CORE executed a subcontract with COPSS under its CMS contract to support the development of a White Paper on statistical modeling. Specifically, YNHHSC/CORE contracted with COPSS to " provide guidance on statistical approaches. when estimating performance metrics, " and " consider and discuss concerns commonly raised by stake­ holders (hospitals, consumer, and insurers) about the use of " hierarchical generalized linear models in profiling hospital quality. The committee convened in June and August of 2011, and exchanged a wide variety of materials. To ensure the committee's independence, YNHHSC/CORE did not comment on the white paper findings, and CMS pre-cleared COPSS' publication of an academic manuscript based on the White Paper. The committee thanks COPSS and especially its chair, Xihong Lin of the Harvard School of Public Health; and staff of the American Statistical Association, especially Steve Pierson and Keith Crank, for their efforts in establishing the committee and coordinating its work. We thank Darcey Cobbs-Yale New Haven Hospital who issued the contract on behalf of CMS. COPSS developed a special formal review process for this report with the goals of ensuring that it is objective and addresses the CMS charge. Consequently, this report was reviewed in draft form by professionals with a broad range of perspectives and expertise. Xihong Lin coordinated the review. We thank her and the following individuals for donating their time and expertise: Adal­ charter member societies. The preamble to the COPSS charter states, " Whereas the various societies have distinct characteristics they also have some common interests and concerns that can benefit from coordinated effort. The purpose of the Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies (COPSS) is to work on shared problems, to improve intersociety communication, and to offer distinguished awards. Other activities designed to promote common interests among the member societies may be undertaken from time to …
Performance, postmodernity and errors

Mainstream attitudes to language have shifted from a basically normative and prescriptive orientation to one that celebrates actual performance and variation. This article discusses where this leaves the issue of linguistic deviations (including shortcomings). The basic theoretical framework is evolutionary theory, extended to include cultural evolution. This makes it possible to consider (in a theoretically well-founded manner) a key factor that tends to be underestimated in relation to language: the role of selection pressures as a feature of the sociocultural environment. Based on examples from a reality show (Amalies verden), the article considers in what different ways utterances may be classed as deviant from the perspective of function-based structure and discusses to what extent the recognition of a community langue as a source of adaptive pressure may throw light on different types of deviation, including language handicaps and learner errors.
Characterization of bovine herpesvirus 1 UL49 homolog gene and product: bovine herpesvirus 1 UL49 homolog is dispensable for virus growth

The sequence of the bovine herpesvirus 1 (BHV-1) gene that is homologous to the herpes simplex virus UL49 gene was determined. The BHV-1 UL49 homolog open reading frame consists of 774 bp and is capable of encoding 258 amino acids. Northern (RNA) blot analysis showed that the BHV-1 UL49 homolog is transcribed into a 1.1-kb RNA which is coterminal with the transcripts of an upstream UL49.5 homolog gene. Rabbit antisera produced against synthetic peptides of the predicted UL49 homolog gene product recognized a polypeptide of 33 to 35 kDa in both virus-infected cells and isolated virions. Further analysis by unionic-detergent partition of isolated virions suggested that the UL49 homolog gene product is a virion tegument protein. Indirect immunofluorescence assay revealed that the UL49 homolog gene product was predominantly localized in the nuclei of BHV-1-infected cells. A mutant virus with the UL49 homolog gene deleted was produced, and it was able to replicate in noncomplementing cells. Nevertheless, the yield of mutant virus was significantly reduced. The results from this study suggest that the BHV-1 UL49 homolog gene encodes a nuclear protein which constitutes a tegument component in mature virions and that it is dispensable for virus growth in cell culture.
Monitoring Apulia region coastline: A case study

Years of unbridled growth, with no respect for rules, in many cases due to the absence of effective monitoring tools, have produced in some localized areas of Italy the so-called eco-monsters, to which a state of widespread pollution due to multiple anthropogenic causes must be added. In this paper a review of current and emergent available techniques, materials and tools for water monitoring is presented; new solutions and designing criteria meeting low-cost specification are also proposed.
Integration of POStag-based Source Reordering into SMT Decoding by an Extended Search Graph

This paper presents a reordering framework for statistical machine translation (SMT) where source-side reorderings are integrated into SMT decoding, allowing for a highly constrained reordered search graph. The monotone search is extended by means of a set of reordering patterns (linguistically motivated rewrite patterns). Patterns are automatically learnt in training from word-to-word alignments and source-side Part-Of-Speech (POS) tags. Traversing the extended search graph, the decoder evaluates every hypothesis making use of a group of widely used SMT models and helped by an additional Ngram language model of source-side POS tags. Experiments are reported on the Euparl task (Spanish-to-English and English-to- Spanish). Results are presented regarding translation accuracy (using human and automatic evaluations) and computational efficiency, showing significant improvements in translation quality for both translation directions at a very low computational cost.
Numerical method for processing and analysing flying effects on pilots

The current article is aimed at implementing and validating software procedures by investigating the flying effects on pilots, algorithms that receive data from physiological data acquisition equipment and provide information on how the pilots' body reacts and adapts to various conditions of stress during flight. In particular, our concern was to implement some predictive real-time evaluation criteria with the view to achieving real-time conclusions regarding the pilots' health in real professional situations. The main goal of this study was to test the validity of the Normalized Short Time Partial Directed Coherence method (NSTPDC) under scrutiny and see whether it can be used to contrastively analyze the dynamic behavior of cardiovascular signal couplings in pilots during flight training sessions and relaxation sessions. Coupling dynamics changes were only observed in pilots during training sessions as opposed to relaxation sessions where no changes applied. This topic pertains to the signal-processing field, although the findings we obtained can be safely employed in aeronautical medicine.
The Enigma of Lone Wolf Terrorism: An Assessment

Lone wolf terrorism remains an ambiguous and enigmatic phenomenon. The boundaries of lone wolf terrorism are fuzzy and arbitrary. This article aims to define and analyze the main features and patterns of lone wolf terrorism in fifteen countries. Lone wolf terrorism is shown to be more prevalent in the United States than in the other countries under study. The cross-national analysis suggests that in the United States lone wolf terrorism has increased markedly during the past three decades; a similar increase does not appear to have occurred in the other countries under study. The numbers of casualties resulting from lone wolf terrorism have been relatively limited, and there is no evidence that the lethality of lone wolf terrorism is on the increase. The rates of psychological disturbance and social ineptitude are found to be relatively high among lone wolf terrorists. Lone wolf terrorists tend to create their own ideologies that combine personal frustrations and aversion with broader political, social, or religious aims. In this process, many lone wolf terrorists draw on the communities of belief and ideologies of validation generated and transmitted by extremist movements.
38dB Tuning Range Coupled VCO Based Divider Architecture with 68uW Power @2.0 GHz in 65nm CMOS

Super harmonic division at low power consumption in unilaterally injection locked current controlled ring oscillator system has been explored. Frequency divider for PLL output stage divides a 2.0GHz PLL clock by 2 while consuming just 68uW from a 1.2V power supply. Current Controlled Ring oscillator has been made using single ended inverter stage in 65nm cmos. Two new architectures are proposed to design such Injection Locked Frequency Dividers (ILFD). Compared to the conventionally used True Single Phase Clocking (TSPC) dividers for power improvement, this method gives reduction of 93 % to 67 % in total power consumption for division across the Process corners and across the tuning range of 78:8 %. The divider achieves a phase noise performance of -91dBc/Hz@1mHz offset and just takes an area of 43 m2. Another advantage of this circuit is that, it can be used inside as well as outside the PLL itself improving the performance as the injection locked stage filters out the jitter introduced by the buffer stages.