Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Chronic Over-Expression of Heat Shock Protein 27 Attenuates Atherogenesis and Enhances Plaque Remodeling: A Combined Histological and Mechanical Assessment of Aortic Lesions

Aims Expression of Heat Shock Protein-27 (HSP27) is reduced in human coronary atherosclerosis. Over-expression of HSP27 is protective against the early formation of lesions in atherosclerosis-prone apoE−/− mice (apoE−/−HSP27o/e) - however, only in females. We now seek to determine if chronic HSP27 over-expression is protective in a model of advanced atherosclerosis in both male and female apoE−/− mice. Methods and Results After 12 weeks on a high fat diet, serum HSP27 levels rose more than 16-fold in male and female apoE−/−HSP27o/e mice, although females had higher levels than males. Relative to apoE−/− mice, female apoE−/−HSP27o/e mice showed reductions in aortic lesion area of 35% for en face and 30% for cross-sectional sinus tissue sections – with the same parameters reduced by 21% and 24% in male cohorts; respectively. Aortic plaques from apoE−/−HSP27o/e mice showed almost 50% reductions in the area occupied by cholesterol clefts and free cholesterol, with fewer macrophages and reduced apoptosis but greater intimal smooth muscle cell and collagen content. The analysis of the aortic mechanical properties showed increased vessel stiffness in apoE−/−HSP27o/e mice (41% in female, 34% in male) compare to apoE−/− counterparts. Conclusions Chronic over-expression of HSP27 is atheroprotective in both sexes and coincides with reductions in lesion cholesterol accumulation as well as favorable plaque remodeling. These data provide new clues as to how HSP27 may improve not only the composition of atherosclerotic lesions but potentially their stability and resilience to plaque rupture.
Performance Evaluation of Bypassing Array Multiplier with Optimized Design

In this paper a new method is proposed to reduce power and area of the array multiplier. In the proposed method vector merging final adder is removed at final stage of the multiplier, at the final stage the generated carry is given to the input of the column of top adder. The adders also do the same what the vector merging final adder can do. The method is applied for array multiplier and column bypassing multiplier (CBM). The results are carried out by H-Spice with different TSMC (Standard and PTM) technology files at a supply voltage 2.0V. Array multiplier has shown 13.91% and Proposed Column Bypassing Multiplier (PCBM) shown 23.38% less power consumption for 180nm CMOS technology than the conventional array multiplier and CBM. 14-T full adder is used to design the multipliers. Due to elimination of the final adder proposed method saves 56 transistors and cause low area. General Terms Embedded, DSP
aillet Constructing Optimal Golomb Rulers in Parallel

In this paper, a construction of the Golomb optimal rulers is studied with a tree search approach. Improvements to the basic algorithm are given and it is parallelized using a shared memory. The application associated to this approach is written in C using the standard OpenMP and MPI libraries. The algorithm takes advantage of a collaboration mechanism between the processors. Different load balancing strategies are studied. The application has proved efficient up to 32 processors. This solution opens up some new perspectives such as solving the already resolved instances of the problem more quickly, and solving next open instances in the future.
Biomarkers and functional foods for obesity and diabetes.

Obesity has reached epidemic proportions in many countries around the world. Because of the close relationship between obesity and type 2 diabetes, an epidemic of diabetes is close behind the obesity epidemic. Preventing and treating obesity is becoming an increasing priority. In the United States, over 60 % of the adult population is overweight or obese and thus at increased risk of developing diabetes and cardiovascular disease. While the aetiology of obesity and diabetes is complex, diet clearly plays an important role both in the development and management of these diseases. There is interest in functional foods that could help in prevention and/or management of obesity and type 2 diabetes. This could involve food products that help management of 'hunger' or that increase 'satiety'. It could also involve foods that contribute to more inefficient use of ingested energy (i.e. foods that stimulate energy expenditure more than would be expected from their energy content). As the concept of insulin sensitivity becomes generally more accepted by health care professionals and the public, foods may be targeted towards maximizing insulin sensitivity and towards 'prevention' of diabetes. In addition to foods that impact upon body weight, these may include foods that affect the glucose and/or insulin levels that are seen either following the ingestion of food or later in the day. The present paper reviews the complex aetiology of obesity and diabetes and considers a potential role for functional foods in prevention and treatment of obesity and diabetes.
KORRIGAN: Development of GaN HEMT Technology in Europe

This paper reports on the joint multinational initiative KORRIGAN launched in 2005 to accelerate the development of independent GaN HEMT foundries in Europe. The project addresses several key research areas such as materials, processing, reliability, thermal management and advanced packaging solutions. The benefits of GaN technology will be evaluated at system level with the fabrication of circuit, MMIC and module demonstrators. The project is supported by the MOD of seven nations and is primarily dedicated to defence applications. The KORRIGAN consortium consists of major European system houses and research laboratories, under the lead of Thales Airborne Systems, providing all the necessary competence for the establishment of the future GaN HEMT supply chain.
How Schools Improve: An International Report

Part 1 Introduction: learning from success experiences from field work in typically successful schools. Part 2 The country reports: the Escuela Nueva school programme in Colombia the Primary Education Reform Programme in Ethiopia universal primary education in Bangladesh. Part 3 International analysis and recommendations: the success seen centrally the outcomes of educational reform - seen locally explaining implementation, impact and institutionalization findings recommendations. Appendices: research questions interview guide - teachers factors from school display worktables 1-48 display 7D operational definitions.
Application of system dynamics tools to model 24-hour metro systems: Integration of system engineering and operation management

Considering the growing demand for railway transportation, especially metros, and the changing social context, regular 24-hour operation is becoming a requirement. The railway is an inherently complicated and complex system and extending the service hours increases the level of difficulty in operating. In order to run all the services safely, punctually and reliably, we have to manage this complexity. In this paper, the authors suggest the application of system dynamics tools to model 24-hour metros in terms of sub-systems, sub-components and behaviour. An initial causal loop diagram (CLD) has been developed to study the relationships and interactions between different sub-systems of system. The proposed causal loop diagram is intended to allow planners, designers and managers of 24-hour metros to develop a proper understanding of the non-linear environment of such systems. In metros, due to the high level of diversity and variability, there are many system interfaces that must be managed systematically. Causal loop diagram empower managers to understand the effect of their decision-making in managing the interfaces and related changes. The causal loop diagram can be applied as a system optimisation tool when upgrading the existing metros to 24-hour operation and developing new lines while considering risks, complexities and complications. Causal loop modelling allows a rapid identification of the problems of 24-hour operation and will result in safer, more punctual and more reliable system.
Swarming Patterns in a Two-Dimensional Kinematic Model for Biological Groups

We construct a continuum model for the motion of biological organisms experiencing social interactions and study its pattern-forming behavior. The model takes the form of a conservation law in two spatial dimensions. The social interactions are modeled in the velocity term, which is nonlocal in the population density and includes a parameter that controls the interaction length scale. The dynamics of the resulting partial integrodifferential equation may be uniquely decomposed into incompressible motion and potential motion. For the purely incompressible case, the model resembles one for fluid dynamical vortex patches. There exist solutions which have constant population density and compact support for all time. Numerical simulations produce rotating structures which have circular cores and spiral arms and are reminiscent of naturally observed phenomena such as ant mills. The sign of the social interaction term determines the direction of the rotation, and the interaction length scale affects the degree o.
NAVIGATION OF SIMULATED MOBILE ROBOTS IN THE WEBOTS ENVIRONMENT

Development of various robotic algorithms can be supported with the aid of robot simulation programs. We present the Webots mobile robot simulator and its applicability to handle machine-learning methods. Furthermore, we show advantages and disadvantages of different navigation paradigms. We focus our investigation on metric navigation and especially on the creation and the usage of occupancy grids. We show a working method on how to use occupancy grid to efficiently navigate in Webots.
ON SIMULATING THE RADIO SIGNAL PROPAGATION IN THE REVERBERATION CHAMBER WITH THE RAY LAUNCHING METHOD

The modeling of the reverberation chamber with the use of deterministic techniques, one of which is the Ray Launching (RL) method, requires a careful tuning with measurements. A few factors that most severely in∞uence the simulation results are: the minimum number of stirrer rotations to produce representative outcomes, the number of re∞ections of each traced ray and, flnally, the size of the receive probe and the wall re∞ection loss. In the course of investigations it was demonstrated that these factors have a difierent, and in some instances | even opposite, impact on the simulated results in the electromagnetic (EM) power domain and in the time domain (the time delay spread). A simple procedure consisting of a few steps has been proposed for tuning deterministic RL models to the measured data.
Generating Statistic Application Signatures for Inference of Unknown Applications

In this paper, we propose a novel approach of protocol reverse engineering to extract protocol keywords of unknown application from raw network traffic data without a prior knowledge about the application based on compression theory, entropy and variance analysis. We also present an efficient method to generate statistic signature of unknown application leveraging machine learning and probabilistic models. The experiment results show that our approach extract protocol keywords of application in high accuracy, the false positive and false negative of application identification using our method are very low. Our technique can also discover new application in unknown traffic.
Development and Analysis of Generic VoIP Attack Sequences Based on Analysis of Real Attack Traffic

Security issues like service misuse and fraud are emerging problems of SIP-based networks. To devise effective countermeasures it is important to know how these attacks are launched in reality. Multi-stage attacks to commit Toll Fraud are already known in principle. We have identified different variations in these attack patterns by analyzing over 25 GByte of SIP attack traffic collected in our SIP Honeynet over a period of three years i.e., from December 2009 to November 2012. Based on this analysis, we have developed a Generic Attack Replay tool (GART) which allows replaying samples of the major attack variants in arbitrary network setups. This tool can be used for evaluation of detection and mitigation components where realistic and reproducible attack traffic is needed. The tool described here and the sample database will be made available to interested groups.
A Comparison of the Effects of Neuronal Nitric Oxide Synthase and Inducible Nitric Oxide Synthase Inhibition on Cartilage Damage

The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of selective inducible nitric oxide synthase and neuronal nitric oxide synthase inhibitors on cartilage regeneration. The study involved 27 Wistar rats that were divided into five groups. On Day 1, both knees of 3 rats were resected and placed in a formalin solution as a control group. The remaining 24 rats were separated into 4 groups, and their right knees were surgically damaged. Depending on the groups, the rats were injected with intra-articular normal saline solution, neuronal nitric oxide synthase inhibitor 7-nitroindazole (50 mg/kg), inducible nitric oxide synthase inhibitor amino-guanidine (30 mg/kg), or nitric oxide precursor L-arginine (200 mg/kg). After 21 days, the right and left knees of the rats were resected and placed in formalin solution. The samples were histopathologically examined by a blinded evaluator and scored on 8 parameters. Although selective neuronal nitric oxide synthase inhibition exhibited significant (P = 0.044) positive effects on cartilage regeneration following cartilage damage, it was determined that inducible nitric oxide synthase inhibition had no statistically significant effect on cartilage regeneration. It was observed that the nitric oxide synthase activation triggered advanced arthrosis symptoms, such as osteophyte formation. The fact that selective neuronal nitric oxide synthase inhibitors were observed to have mitigating effects on the severity of the damage may, in the future, influence the development of new agents to be used in the treatment of cartilage disorders.
The predominant role of recently discovered tetrahydropyrimidines for the osmoadaptation of halophilic eubacteria

The aim of this investigation was to perform an extensive screening using HPLC and 13C-NMR spectroscopy to disclose the spectrum of osmolytes produced by aerobic heterotrophic and anoxygenic phototrophic eubacteria. The most predominant solutes detected within a wide range of marine and halophilic micro-organisms were two recently discovered tetrahydropyrimidines ectoine and hydroxyectoine, which were synthesized in response to osmotic stress.
Multiscale Analysis of European Electricity Markets

Electricity is considered a new commodity, mainly since the start of the electricity markets liberalization. However it represents an increasingly important sector of trading and as such a challenging area of research. Here we focus on the role of electricity power exchanges for the creation of a single European electricity market, on a di¤erent empirical perspective. We use daily power exchange prices of 6 European electricity markets resorting to a novel econometric technique to study correlation at di¤erent time scales, known as wavelet analysis, through coherence and phase analysis. Results give limited support to the assumption of a single "European electricity market", especially at lower scales (high frequency data). Although some European countries share a common trend, the hypothesis of strong integration holds only for some geographically closer countries, but not the perfect integration among the markets considered in the sample. We also nd that despite the year 2005, coherence among the series has been high, whereas we also try to infer some possible causes for this lack of perfect integration in the current days. Keywords Electricity Prices; Continuous Wavelet Transform; Wavelet Coherency; Wavelet phase; Comovements; European Regulation EFM classi cation codes: 350; 630
AGENTS AND SOFTWARE ENGINEERING

Software engineers continually strive to develop tools and techniques to manage the complexity that is inherent in software systems. In this article, we argue that intelligent agents and agent-based systems are just such tools. Following a discussion on the subject of what makes software complex, we introduce intelligent agents as software structures capable of making “rational decisions”. Such rational decision-makers are well-suited to the construction of certain types of software, which mainstream software engineering has had little success with. We then go on to examine a number of prototype techniques proposed for engineering agent systems, including formal specification and verification methods for agent systems, and techniques for implementing agent specifications.
Building a Large Lexical Databank Which Provides Deep Semantics

This paper reports on the design of a lexical database for English which is currently under construction ("FrameNet-2" ), and describes the kinds of linguistic facts that the database is intended to make available, for both human and computer consumers. Building on a recently completed pilot study ("FrameNet-1" ), it is centered on the nature of the relation between lexical meanings and the conceptual structures which underlie them (semantic frames). The database will show the semantic and syntactic combinatorial possibilities (based on frame membership) of the lexical items it includes, as these are documented through grammatical and semantic annotations of sentences extracted from a large corpus of contemporary written English. The notions of profiling within a frame, frame inheritance including multiple inheritance, frame blending, and frame composition will be explained and illustrated, and the manner of storing information about them in the database will be outlined. The building of the database, with its necessary labor-intensive manual component, will be explained.
Pannexin-1 as a potentiator of ligand-gated receptor signaling

Pannexins are a class of plasma membrane spanning proteins that presumably form a hexameric, non-selective ion channel. Although similar in secondary structure to the connexins, pannexins notably do not form endogenous gap junctions and act as bona fide ion channels. The pannexins have been primarily studied as ATP-release channels, but the overall diversity of their functions is still being elucidated. There is an intriguing theme with pannexins that has begun to develop. In this review we analyze several recent reports that converge on the idea that pannexin channels (namely Panx1) can potentiate ligand-gated receptor signaling. Although the literature remains sparse, this emerging concept appears consistent between both ionotropic and metabotropic receptors of several ligand families.
Improving 'National Brands': Reputation for Quality and Export Promotion Strategies

This paper studies the effect of firm and country reputation on exports when buyers cannot observe quality prior to purchase. Firm-level demand is determined by expected quality, which is driven by the dynamics of consumer learning through experience and the country of origin's reputation for quality. We show that asymmetric information can result in multiple steady-state equilibria with endogenous reputation. We identify two types of steady states: a high-quality equilibrium (HQE) and a low-quality equilibrium (LQE). In a LQE, only the lowest-quality and the highest-quality firms are active; a range of relatively high-quality firms are permanently kept out of the market by the informational friction. Countries with bad quality reputation can therefore be locked into exporting low-quality, low-cost goods. Our model delivers novel insights about the dynamic impact of trade policies. First, an export subsidy increases the steady-state average quality of exports and welfare in a LQE, but decreases both quality and welfare in a HQE. Second, there is a tax/subsidy scheme based on the duration of export experience that replicates the perfect information outcome. Third, a large reputation shock is self-fulfilling when the economy has multiple steady states. Finally, a minimum quality standard can help an economy initially in a LQE moving to a HQE, but is not necessarily welfare improving.
Student-Centered Support Systems to Sustain Logo-Like Learning

Conventional wisdom attributes the lack of effective technology use in classrooms to a shortage of professional development or poorly run professional development. At the same time, logo-like learning environments require teachers to develop more expertise not only in technology but also in pedagogy. This paper proposes that the perceived lack of technology professional development is a myth and that traditional professional development is ill-suited to teaching teachers how to create logo-like learning environments. Furthermore, it proposes models of student-centered, student-led support for teachers that support classroom practice aligned with the attributes of logo-like learning environments. These models situate teacher learning about technology in their own classroom, reinforce constructivist teaching practices, provide support for technology use in the classroom, and enrich learning environments for students.
On the Determination of Occupational Attainment and Mobility

The underlying motivation for much of the research into the determinants of occupational attainment is to enable inferences to be made as to the relative position of various groups at a point in time, or an individual's economic mobility over time. In this paper we compare unordered and ordered discrete choice approaches to estimating models of occupational attainment. Estimates from these methods differ substantially, indicating that the determination of which technique is more appropriate is an important issue. The ordered method appears to be more consistent with the motivation of previous research and requires less computer time. Unordered models, however, are better able to predict occupational distribution.
Combining Linguistic Features for the Detection of Croatian Multiword Expressions

As multiword expressions (MWEs) exhibit a range of idiosyncrasies, their automatic detection warrants the use of many different features. Tsvetkov and Wintner (2014) proposed a Bayesian network model that combines linguistically motivated features and also models their interactions. In this paper, we extend their model with new features and apply it to Croatian, a morphologically complex and a relatively free word order language, achieving a satisfactory performance of 0.823 F1-score. Furthermore, by comparing against (semi)naive Bayes models, we demonstrate that manually modeling feature interactions is indeed important. We make our annotated dataset of Croatian MWEs freely available.