Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Map2k1 and Map2k2 genes contribute to the normal development of syncytiotrophoblasts during placentation

The mammalian genome contains two ERK/MAP kinase kinase genes, Map2k1 and Map2k2, which encode dual-specificity kinases responsible for ERK/MAP kinase activation. In the mouse, loss of Map2k1 function causes embryonic lethality, whereas Map2k2 mutants survive with a normal lifespan, suggesting that Map2k1 masks the phenotype due to the Map2k2 mutation. To uncover the specific function of MAP2K2 and the threshold requirement of MAP2K proteins during embryo formation, we have successively ablated the Map2k gene functions. We report here that Map2k2 haploinsufficiency affects the normal development of placenta in the absence of one Map2k1 allele. Most Map2k1+/-Map2k2+/- embryos die during gestation because of placenta defects restricted to extra-embryonic tissues. The impaired viability of Map2k1+/-Map2k2+/- embryos can be rescued when the Map2k1 deletion is restricted to the embryonic tissues. The severity of the placenta phenotype is dependent on the number of Map2k mutant alleles, the deletion of the Map2k1 allele being more deleterious. Moreover, the deletion of one or both Map2k2 alleles in the context of one null Map2k1 allele leads to the formation of multinucleated trophoblast giant (MTG) cells. Genetic experiments indicate that these structures are derived from Gcm1-expressing syncytiotrophoblasts (SynT), which are affected in their ability to form the uniform SynT layer II lining the maternal sinuses. Thus, even though Map2k1 plays a predominant role, these results enlighten the function of Map2k2 in placenta development.
Are Small, Isolated Wetlands Expendable?

What is most evident in the recent debate concerning new wetland regulations drafted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is that small, isolated wetlands will likely continue to be lost. The critical biological question is whether small wetlands are expendable, and the fundamental issue is the lack of biologically relevant data on the value of wetlands, especially so‐called “isolated” wetlands of small size. We used data from a geographic information system for natural‐depression wetlands on the southeastern Atlantic coastal plain (U.S.A.) to examine the frequency distribution of wetland sizes and their nearest‐wetland distances. Our results indicate that the majority of natural wetlands are small and that these small wetlands are rich in amphibian species and serve as an important source of juvenile recruits. Analyses simulating the loss of small wetlands indicate a large increase in the nearest‐wetland distance that could impede “rescue” effects at the metapopulation level. We argue that small wetlands are extremely valuable for maintaining biodiversity, that the loss of small wetlands will cause a direct reduction in the connectance among remaining species populations, and that both existing and recently proposed legislation are inadequate for maintaining the biodiversity of wetland flora and fauna. Small wetlands are not expendable if our goal is to maintain present levels of species biodiversity. At the very least, based on these data, regulations should protect wetlands as small as 0.2 ha until additional data are available to compare diversity directly across a range of wetland sizes. Furthermore, we strongly advocate that wetland legislation focus not only on size but also on local and regional wetland distribution in order to protect ecological connectance and the source‐sink dynamics of species populations.
Development of a robotic arm for dangerous object disposal

The Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria has become a menace and threat to the security of lives and property most especially in the Northern part of the country. The use of Bombs and dangerous unsuspected objects is the weapon employed to carry out this deadly act. The number of lives lost as well as personnel who sustain injuries while discharging their duties is now on the increase as a result of lack of initial assessment of a dreadful scene or an object suspected to be harmful. Though preventive and counter attacking measures, such as use of protective vest have been employed to reduce the risk experienced; these however do not guarantee safety which can run into huge cost to restore in terms of infrastructures and properties. Hence this paper proposes the development of a robotic arm for dangerous object disposal. A three-degree of freedom robotic arm was developed using a microcontroller programmed with (MPLAB) integrated development environment software, interfaced to a camera that transmits the video by way of monitoring the scene on a television set. The system is activated by a remote control thereby providing a line of defense to human lives and preventing loss of proven and tested personnel.
Evaluation of Short Run Inflation Forecasts in Chile

The Central Bank of Chile builds inflation forecasts for several time horizons and using various methodologies. In this paper, we analyze one of these series of short-term inflation forecasts, which we call Auxiliary Inflation Forecasts (AIF), comparing them to forecasts made by private analysts and to forecasts built from simple time-series models. We also evaluate the AIF using encompassing tests and bias and weak efficiency tests. Our aim is to answer two linked questions: first, which is the best forecast series under a specific loss function? and second, are the differences of accuracy between any two series of forecasts totally explained by the differences in the information sets from which they have been built? Our results indicate that the AIF behave extremely well at one- and two-month horizons, but they are less adequate at longer horizons.
VARIABLE SELECTION IN FORECASTING MODELS FOR CORPORATE BANKRUPTCY

In this paper we develop statistical models for bankruptcy prediction of Italian firms in the limited liability sector, using annual balance sheet information. Several issues involved in default risk analysis are investigated, such as the structure of the data-base, the sampling procedure and the influence of predictors. In particular we focus on the variable selection problem, comparing innovative techniques based on shrinkage with traditional stepwise methods. The predictive performance of the proposed default risk model has been evaluated by means of different accuracy measures. The results of the analysis, carried out on a data-set of financial ratios expressly created from a sample of industrial firms annual reports, give evidence in favor of the proposed model over traditional ones.
Weighted Combination of Q&A Retrieval Models Based on Part-of-Speech of Question Word

Question and answer archives have become useful information resources with increase of community based question and answer service. For effective question and answering system, it is important to find semantically similar questions and retrieve its answer from the archive for user's question. In this paper, we propose a weighted combination of retrieval models for question and answer archives. In contrast to well-known translation based language model, the proposed model reflects significance of each word in user's question by giving variant weight to the word depending on its part-of-speech. In experiment, our model improves performance considerably when compared to conventional ones.
Post-decision consolidation and distortion of facts

Participants decided whom of two patients to prioritize for surgery in three studies. The factual quantitative information about the patients (e.g., probability of surviving surgery) was given in vignette form with case descriptions on Visual Analogue Scales — VAS’s. Differentiation and Consolidation theory predicts that not only the attractiveness of facts but also the mental representations of objective facts themselves will be restructured in post-decision processes in support of a decision (Svenson, 2003). After the decision, participants were asked to reproduce the objective facts about the patients. The results showed that distortions of objective facts were used to consolidate a prior decision. The consolidation process relied on facts initially favoring the non-chosen alternative and on facts rated as less, rather than more important.
A Preliminary Investigation of a Semi-Automatic Criminology Intelligence Extraction Method: A Big Data Approach

The aim of any science is to advance the state-of-the-art knowledge via a rigorous investigation and analysis of empirical observations, as well as the development of new theoretical frameworks. Data acquisition and ultimately the extraction of novel knowledge, is therefore the foundation of any scientific advance. However, with the increasing creation of data in various forms and shapes, identifying relevant information from structured and unstructured data sets raises several challenges, as well as opportunities. In this paper, we discuss a semi-automatic method to identify, analyse and generate knowledge specifically focusing on Criminology. The main motivation is to provide a toolbox to help criminology experts, which would potentially lead to a better understanding and prediction of the properties to facilitate the decision making process. Our initial validation shows the potential of our method providing relevant and accurate results.
OWNERSHIP STRUCTURE , CORPORATE GOVERNANCE , AND FIRMS ' PERFORMANCE : The Case of Chinese Stock Companies

and other participants of a workshop held at China and Mongolia Department of the World Bank, and the financial support provided by the Bank's Research Committee. The views expressed here are entirely those of the authors and should not be attributed to the institutions they are affiliated with. All errors and omissions are of course the authors' responsibility.
G 99 / 7 Concordance in Business Cycles

We study the properties of a test of that determines whether two time series co-move. The test computes a simple non-parametric statistic for “concordance,” which describes the proportion of time that the cycles of two series spend in the same phase. We establish the size and power properties of this test. As an illustration, the procedures are applied to output series from selected major industrial countries. We find limited evidence of widespread concordance for these countries. 1 We received valuable comments from Paul Cashin, Paul Conway, Weshah Razzak, Christie Smith, and Peter Wickham. The views expressed in the paper are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect those of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand.
The Hyperinflation Model of Money Demand Revisited

In this paper we propose a test of the hyperinflation model of money demand which is valid under any assumption concerning agents' expectations, subject only to the restriction that forecasting errors are stationary. It is also demonstrated that highly efficient parameter estimates can be obtained, and restrictions on them tested, under the same weak assumption. Finally, it is shown how these first-stage estimates can be utilized to test the stronger assumption of rational expectations. The arguments are illustrated by analysis of the classic data on European hyperinflations previously analyzed by Cagan (1956), Barro (1970) and Abel, Dornbusch, Huizinga and Marcus (1979). Copyright 1991 by Ohio State University Press.
Ultra-low power hybrid VO2/Si photonic microring switch

An ultra-low power 2×2 photonic switch based on VO2/Si technology is proposed. The switch structure consists of an add-drop ring resonator with a footprint below 50 μm2. The waveguide structure is based on a fully etched silicon waveguide with a VO2 film on top of it. Electro-optical switching is achieved by means of the metal-insulator-transition (MIT) that can be induced in VO2. This MIT provides an ultra-large change of the refractive index at 1550 nm optical wavelengths that yields to ultra-low power operation. Waveguide structures have been fabricated by a combination of molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) growth, ex-situ annealing, e-beam lithography and lift-off. Experimental results have also been carried out to evaluate propagation losses as well as the electro-optical performance.
Analysis of acoustic-prosodic features of spontaneous expressive speech

A analise de caracteristicas acustico-prosodicas foi conduzida em umbanco de dados de fala espontânea, com o proposito de construirum sintetizador de fala capaz de sintetizar uma fala expressiva, ouseja, varios estilos de fala. Os estilos de fala foram categorizadosde acordo com os seguintes itens: estado emocional percebido(neutro, preocupado, contente, insatisfeito, bravo, cansado, etc.);atitude com respeito ao ouvinte (grau de polidez, gentileza,consideracao); atitude com respeito ao conteudo da fala (grau deconfianca, envolvimento, interesse); qualidade da voz (energia, brilho,dureza). As seguintes caracteristicas acusticas foram analisadas: F0 e RMS (relacionados a altura e a intensidade da voz), terceiro equarto formantes (F3 e F4, relacionados com o comprimento dotrato vocal, e podem estar correlacionados com o grau de extensaodos labios), e quociente de amplitude (AQ – “amplitude quocient”,relacionado com o tipo de fonacao da voz). Analise de componentesprincipais e coeficientes de correlacao foram usados para avaliaros dados. Os resultados indicaram correlacao entre algumascategorias do estilo da fala e da qualidade de voz, por exemplo,energia e envolvimento, brilho e interesse, gentileza e dureza.Correlacoes significativas foram obtidas entre qualidade de voz ecaracteristicas acustico-prosodicas. Valores medios de F0, RMS, AQe F4 foram encontrados como sendo os parâmetros mais influentesna qualidade de voz, indicando que uma combinacao destascaracteristicas acusticas pode, possivelmente, ser usada para predizerqualidades de voz.
Outcomes in Localized Prostate Cancer: National Prostate Cancer Register of Sweden Follow-up Study

Background Treatment for localized prostate cancer remains controversial. To our knowledge, there are no outcome studies from contemporary population-based cohorts that include data on stage, Gleason score, and serum levels of prostate-specific antigen (PSA). Methods In the National Prostate Cancer Register of Sweden Follow-up Study, a nationwide cohort, we identified 6849 patients aged 70 years or younger. Inclusion criteria were diagnosis with local clinical stage T1–2 prostate cancer from January 1, 1997, through December 31, 2002, a Gleason score of 7 or less, a serum PSA level of less than 20 ng/mL, and treatment with surveillance (including active surveillance and watchful waiting, n = 2021) or curative intent (including radical prostatectomy, n = 3399, and radiation therapy, n = 1429). Among the 6849 patients, 2686 had low-risk prostate cancer (ie, clinical stage T1, Gleason score 2-6, and serum PSA level of <10 ng/mL). The study cohort was linked to the Cause of Death Register, and cumulative incidence of death from prostate cancer and competing causes was calculated. Results For the combination of low- and intermediate-risk prostate cancers, calculated cumulative 10-year prostate cancer–specific mortality was 3.6% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 2.7% to 4.8%) in the surveillance group and 2.7% (95% CI = 2.1% to 3.45) in the curative intent group. For those with low-risk disease, the corresponding values were 2.4% (95% CI = 1.2% to 4.1%) among the 1085 patients in the surveillance group and 0.7% (95% CI = 0.3% to 1.4%) among the 1601 patients in the curative intent group. The 10-year risk of dying from competing causes was 19.2% (95% CI = 17.2% to 21.3%) in the surveillance group and 10.2% (95% CI = 9.0% to 11.4%) in the curative intent group. Conclusion A 10-year prostate cancer–specific mortality of 2.4% among patients with low-risk prostate cancer in the surveillance group indicates that surveillance may be a suitable treatment option for many patients with low-risk disease.
Towards the Enhancement of Process Families Support using Change Patterns

This paper presents the ongoing research on change patterns for process families. A process family is a collection of related process model variants sharing a number of commonalities (i.e., modeling elements found in all process variants), but also showing differences due to their application context. The research goal is to provide a set of change patterns for dealing with process families regarding all process perspectives and along the entire process lifecycle. Recently, generic and language-independent adaptation patterns were successfully introduced for creating and evolving single business process models. However, they are not sufficient to cope with the variability-specific aspects introduced by process families. The main goal is hence to define a set of a complementary set of generic, language-independent patterns specifically tailored towards the needs of process families. When used in combination with existing adaptation patterns, change patterns for process families will enable the modeling, configuration and evolution of process families at a high-level of abstraction regarding all process perspectives. Further, they will serve as reference for implementing tools or comparing proposals managing process families.
Optimization of Shallow Foundation Using Gravitational Search Algorithm

In this study an effective method for nonlinear constrained optimization of shallow foundation is presented. A newly developed heuristic global optimization algorithm called Gravitational Search Algorithm (GSA) is introduced and applied for the optimization of foundation. The algorithm is classified as random search algorithm and does not require initial values and uses a random search instead of a gradient search, so derivative information is unnecessary. The optimization procedure controls all geotechnical and structural design constraints while reducing the overall cost of the foundation. To verify the efficiency of the proposed method, two design examples of spread footing are illustrated. To further validate the effectiveness and robustness of the GSA, these examples are solved using genetic algorithm. The results indicate that the proposed method could provide solutions of high quality, accuracy and efficiency for optimum design of foundation.
Understanding the link between work life balance practices and organisational outcomes in SMEs: The mediating effect of a supportive culture

Purpose – This study aims to explore the impact of the availability of work life balance (WLB) practices on organisational outcomes in small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) mediated by the existence of a culture that supports WLB.Design/methodology/approach – An empirical study was performed with a sample of 229 SMEs representing the metal industry sector of Southeast Spain.Findings – The findings show that a WLB supportive culture mediates the effect of the availability of WLB practices on organisational performance.Research limitations/implications – Among the limitations of this study the authors highlight the transverse nature of the research and the data collection based on self‐reports.Practical implications – Companies interested in increasing organisational outcomes should introduce WLB practices. Moreover, practitioners should enhance an organisational culture positive towards employees' balance, communicating their support towards WLB initiatives.Social implications – The availability of WLB.
The mast cell stabiliser ketotifen decreases visceral hypersensitivity and improves intestinal symptoms in patients with irritable bowel syndrome

Background Mast cell activation is thought to be involved in visceral hypersensitivity, one of the main characteristics of the irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). A study was therefore undertaken to investigate the effect of the mast cell stabiliser ketotifen on rectal sensitivity and symptoms in patients with IBS. Methods 60 patients with IBS underwent a barostat study to assess rectal sensitivity before and after 8 weeks of treatment. After the initial barostat, patients were randomised to receive ketotifen or placebo. IBS symptoms and health-related quality of life were scored. In addition, mast cells were quantified and spontaneous release of tryptase and histamine was determined in rectal biopsies and compared with biopsies from 22 age- and gender-matched healthy volunteers. Results Ketotifen but not placebo increased the threshold for discomfort in patients with IBS with visceral hypersensitivity. This effect was not observed in normosensitive patients with IBS. Ketotifen significantly decreased abdominal pain and other IBS symptoms and improved quality of life. The number of mast cells in rectal biopsies and spontaneous release of tryptase were lower in patients with IBS than in healthy volunteers. Spontaneous release of histamine was mostly undetectable but was slightly increased in patients with IBS compared with healthy volunteers. Histamine and tryptase release were not altered by ketotifen. Conclusions This study shows that ketotifen increases the threshold for discomfort in patients with IBS with visceral hypersensitivity, reduces IBS symptoms and improves health-related quality of life. Whether this effect is secondary to the mast cell stabilising properties of ketotifen or H1 receptor antagonism remains to be further investigated. Trial Registration Number NTR39, ISRCTN22504486.
An efficient Public Key Encryption with Conjunctive Keyword Search scheme based on pairings

The Public Key Encryption with Conjunctive Keyword Search (PECK) scheme enables one to search a document included multiple encrypted keywords without compromising any original data information. The existing PECK schemes mostly depend on pairings and authenticated channel to achieve searchable encryption. In this paper, we propose a new PECK scheme based on pairings, where no pairing operations are involved in the encryption and trapdoor phases and no secure channel is needed between server and users. In comparison with previous schemes, our scheme can achieve high efficiencies in both computation and communication. And then we further discuss on the consistency, efficiency and security of the proposed scheme.
Comparison between optimal interconnection network in different 2D and 3D NoC structures

The current article studies optimal intercore interconnect network in a NoC structure for 2D and 3D mesh, torus and hypercube topologies. Optimal wire width/spacing is calculated by numerically maximizing bandwidth times the reciprocal delay, which depends on the technology node and hop length. Through 3D integration and increasing tiers, optimal interconnect width and spacing in torus and hypercube topologies will decrease. The core-to-core channel width in all topologies will be obtained by assigning 20% of the power consumption to the routers. By increasing number of cores, channel width will decrease due to reduced power consumption of each core. This is more in hypercube topology, due to the fact that the number of router ports will increase along with an increase in the number of cores. In terms of the worst case delay, mesh topology is worse than the two other topologies. Also it is not scalable due to the increase in the number of cores. In all topologies, power consumption of the chip and the worst case delay will decrease by 3D integration and utilizing more tiers. Mesh and torus topologies make the least and the most use of wiring area, respectively. Bisection bandwidth increases in all topologies by 3D integration.