Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mind Design and Minimal Syntax

This book introduces generative grammar as an area of study and asks what it tells us about the human mind. Wolfram Hinzen lays the foundation for the unification of modern generative linguistics with the philosophies of mind and language. He introduces Chomsky's program of a 'minimalist' syntax as a novel explanatory vision of the human mind. He explains how the Minimalist Program originated in work in cognitive science, biology, linguistics, and philosophy, and examines its implications for work in these fields. He considers the way the human mind is designed when seen as an arrangement of structural patterns in nature, and argues that its design is the product not so much of adaptive evolutionary history as of principles and processes that are ahistorical and internalist in character. Linguistic meaning, he suggests, arises in the mind as a consequence of structures emerging on formal rather than functional grounds. From this he substantiates an unexpected and deeply unfashionable notion of human nature. Clearly written in nontechnical language and assuming a limited knowledge of the fields it examines and links, Minimal Mind Design will appeal to a wide range of scholars in linguistics, philosophy, and cognitive science. It also provides an exceptionally clear insight into the nature and aims of Chomsky's Minimalist Program.
Promoting a Local Entrepreneurial Class in Ghana: The Issues and Problems

ResumeLes gouvernements qui se sont succedes au Ghana ont formule et applique des politiques de developpement industriel, mais sans vraiment s’engager a aider les entrepreneurs locaux. En effet, les proprietaires d’un commerce etaient percus comme une menace politique, parce qu’ils pouvaient generer des richesses qui echapperaient au controle du gouvernement. C’est ainsi que depuis l’independance en 1957, les programmes de developpement industriel au Ghana se sont concentres sur la promotion de l’importation sur une grande echelle de produits de substitution manufactures, ou sur les entreprises qui sont la propriete de l’etat (les SOE). Mais, pour s’harmoniser avec les tendances economiques, les institutions non etatiques de developpement ont, avec le soutien des institutions financieres internationales (IFIs) comme la Banque mondiale et le Fonds monetaire international (FMI), emerge comme les institutions capables d’offrir des programmes de developpement, et de promouvoir une classe animee de l’esprit d’.
Simulation and performance analysis of 802.15.1

In the vicinity of information technology, engineers are looking for creative approaches to migrate wired system applications into the wireless domain. These applications includes, computing, sensing, and communication. Growth in the wireless technology started with Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN), ad-hoc networks (MANET), Wireless Personal Area Networks WPAN, and then Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN). Recently, wireless technology invaded industrial applications, which have been trying to utilize the available wireless solutions to accommodate their stringent environment requirements and application constraints. The main objective for this effort is to develop a universal model for wireless personal area network (WPAN) technology as specified in the IEEE 802.15. 1 standard. We focus on bit error rate issues and need to minimize in communication. We choose to quantify the performance of IEEE 802.15. 1 in the presence of IEEE 802.11b by increasing the signal to noise ratio. We can also improve the performance by increasing the distance between the wireless technologies using the unlicensed 2.4GHz ISM band and causing the interference. Since, these wireless technologies may be the preferred technologies for most web access and email applications.
Expression pattern of fatty acid-binding proteins in human normal and cancer prostate cells and tissues.

PURPOSE Fatty acid-binding protein (FABP) expression patterns were evaluated as potential markers and therapeutic targets for prostate cancer. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN FABP expression levels were determined by reverse transcription-PCR in cultured prostate normal and tumor cells and in human biopsy samples. Regulation of cellular processes was examined using FABP antisense constructs. RESULTS Prostate cells express a variety of different FABPs. Liver (L)- and intestine-FABPs were elevated 5-9-fold in prostate cancer compared with normal primary prostate cells. In contrast, adipose- and epidermal-FABPs were markedly down-regulated (3-20-fold) in cancer versus normal cells. Similar expression patterns were found in human tissue biopsy samples. However, brain-FABP had a distinct pattern of expression: it was overexpressed only in LNCaP cells and in well-differentiated tissue samples, suggesting a stage-specific expression profile. Secretion of L-FABP protein was observed from DU 145 prostate cancer cells, but not in the culture fluid of normal prostate epithelial cells. Antisense oligodeoxynucleotides, designed to block production of epidermal-FABP (a marker for normal prostate cells), caused increased proliferation in DU 145 prostate cancer cells. In vivid contrast, antisense oligodeoxynucleotides to L-FABP (overexpressed in prostate cancer) decreased proliferation and caused apoptosis. CONCLUSIONS We propose that there is a distinct balance between these groups of FABPs, whose altered regulation in cells may play a role in prostate cancer. Furthermore, the pattern of expression and secretion of FABPs have the potential to serve as a diagnostic marker for an aggressive phenotype of prostate cancer.
Association of the small latent transforming growth factor‐beta with an eight cysteine repeat of its binding protein LTBP‐1.

Transforming growth factor‐betas (TGF‐betas) are produced by most cells in large latent complexes of TGF‐beta and its propeptide (LAP) associated with a binding protein. The latent TGF‐beta binding proteins (LTBPs‐1, −2 and −3) mediate the secretion and, subsequently, the association of latent TGF‐beta complexes with the extracellular matrix (ECM). The association of beta1‐LAP with LTBP‐1 was characterized at the molecular level with an expression system in mammalian cells, where TGF‐beta1 and various fragments of LTBP‐1 were co‐expressed and secreted with the aid of a signal peptide synthesized to the LTBP‐1 constructs. Immunoblotting of the fusion protein complexes indicated that the third 8‐Cys repeat of LTBP‐1 bound covalently to the LAP region of TGF‐beta1. The cysteine required for the association between LTBP‐1 and beta1‐LAP was mapped to Cys33 of beta1‐LAP. The N‐terminal region of LTBP‐1 consisting of the first 400 amino acids was found to associate covalently with the ECM. The data indicate that an 8‐Cys repeat of LTBP is capable of covalent and specific protein‐protein interactions. These interactions are mediated by exchanging cysteine disulfide bonds between the core 8‐Cys repeat and an optionally associated protein during the secretion. This is, to our knowledge, the first demonstration of an extracellular protein module that is able to exchange cysteine disulfide bonds with heterologous ligand proteins.
Why does prophylactic epidural blood patch fail to demonstrate efficacy in preventing post-dural puncture headache in parturients after dural puncture?

To the Editor:— We read with interest the study by Scavone et al. that demonstrates the absence of efficacy of a prophylactic epidural blood patch after inadvertent dural puncture. We suggest that two factors could have influenced the negative result of this trial. First, inadvertent dural puncture could have been overdiagnosed, namely when loss of resistance to saline was used to locate epidural space. This could explain the lower incidence of post–dural puncture headache and less frequent realization of therapeutic epidural blood patch reported in this study compared with others. Second, 20 ml may not be the adequate blood volume to test a prophylactic epidural blood patch. This volume has tended to increase over time to 20 ml or more, 23 5 ml in a study by Safat-Tisseront et al. The optimal blood volume may be the volume at which pain in the back, buttocks, or legs occurs, which was only achieved for seven patients in the study of Scavone et al. This higher volume may lead to either a larger patch over the dural tear or a significantly higher increase in lumbar and intracranial pressure, leading to reduced cerebral vasodilation. Olivier Pruszkowski, M.D.,* Orlando Goncalves, M.D., Claude Lentschener, M.D., Alexandre Mignon, M.D., Ph.D. *Hôpital Cochin Maternité Port-Royal, Assistance Publique–Hôpitaux de Paris, Paris, France. olivier.prus@club-internet.fr
Optimal communication in bluetooth piconets

Bluetooth is a low-power, low-cost, short-range wireless communication system operating in the 2.4-GHz industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) band. Bluetooth links use frequency hopping whereby each packet is sent on a single frequency while different packets are sent on different frequencies. Further, there are a limited number of packet sizes. We show that we can exert indirect control over transmission conditions by choosing the packet size transmitted over each frequency as a function of the channel conditions. Our goal then is to provide a packet-size-selection algorithm that can maximize the throughput in a Bluetooth piconet in the presence of lossy wireless channels. We first develop a renewal-theory-based mathematical model of packet transmission in a frequency-hopping system such as a Bluetooth piconet. We use this model to show that a threshold-based algorithm for choosing the packet lengths maximizes the throughput of the system. We provide an algorithm that determines the optimal thresholds efficiently. We show the optimality of this algorithm without using standard optimization techniques, since it is not clear that these techniques would be applicable given the functions involved. Using simulations, we observe that this strategy leads to significantly better throughput as compared to other baseline strategies, even if the assumptions made to prove optimality are relaxed.
Effects of mutant rat dynamin on endocytosis

Dynamin is a 100-kD microtubule-activated GTPase. Recent evidence has revealed a high degree of sequence homology with the product of the Drosophila gene shibire, mutations in which block the recycling of synaptic vesicles and, more generally, the formation of coated and non- coated vesicles at the plasma membrane. We have now transfected cultured mammalian COS-7 cells with both wild-type and mutant dynamin cDNAs. Point mutations in the GTP-binding consensus sequence elements of dynamin equivalent to dominant negative mutations in ras, and an NH2- terminal deletion of the entire GTP-binding domain of dynamin, block transferrin uptake and alter the distribution of clathrin heavy chain and alpha-, but not gamma-, adaptin. COOH-terminal deletions reverse these effects, identifying this portion of dynamin as a site of interaction with other components of the endocytic pathway. Over- expression of neither wild-type nor mutant forms of dynamin affected the distribution of microtubules. These results demonstrate a specific role for dynamin and for GTP in the initial stages of receptor-mediated endocytosis.
Pregabalin in Childhood Epilepsy: A Clinical Trial Study

Objective The prevalence of active epilepsy is about 0.5–1%, and approximately 70% of patients are cured with first anti-epileptic drugs and the remaining patients need multiple drugs. Pregabalin as an add-on therapy has a postive effect on refractory seizures in adults. To the best of our knowledge, there is no research with this drug in childhood epilepsy. We use pregabalin in children with refractory seizures as an add-on therapy. The objective of this study is to evaluate the effects of pregabalin in the reduction of seizures for refractory epilepsy. Material & Methods Forty patients with refractory seizures who were referred to Mofid Children’s Hospital and Hazrat Masoumeh Hospital were selected. A questionnaire based on patient record forms, demographic data (age, gender,…), type of seizure, clinical signs, EEG record, imaging report, drugs that had been used, drugs currently being used, and the number of seizures before and after Pregabalin treatment was completed. We checked the number of seizures after one and four months. Results After one month, 26.8% of patients had more than a 50% reduction in seizures and 14.6% of these patients were seizure-free; 12.2% had a 25–50% reduction; and approximately 61% had less than a 25% reduction or no change in seizures. After the fourth month, 34.1% of patients had more than a 50% reduction in seizures and 24.4% of these patients were seizure-free. Additionally, 65.9% of patients had less than 50% reduction in seizures (9.8% between 25–50% and 56.1% less than 25% or without improvement). Conclusion We recommend Pregabalin as an add-on therapy for refractory seizures (except for myoclonic seizures) for children.
KunPeng: Parameter Server based Distributed Learning Systems and Its Applications in Alibaba and Ant Financial

In recent years, due to the emergence of Big Data (terabytes or petabytes) and Big Model (tens of billions of parameters), there has been an ever-increasing need of parallelizing machine learning (ML) algorithms in both academia and industry. Although there are some existing distributed computing systems, such as Hadoop and Spark, for parallelizing ML algorithms, they only provide synchronous and coarse-grained operators (e.g., Map, Reduce, and Join, etc.), which may hinder developers from implementing more efficient algorithms. This motivated us to design a universal distributed platform termed KunPeng, that combines both distributed systems and parallel optimization algorithms to deal with the complexities that arise from large-scale ML. Specifically, KunPeng not only encapsulates the characteristics of data/model parallelism, load balancing, model sync-up, sparse representation, industrial fault-tolerance, etc., but also provides easy-to-use interface to empower users to focus on the core ML logics. Empirical results on terabytes of real datasets with billions of samples and features demonstrate that, such a design brings compelling performance improvements on ML programs ranging from Follow-the-Regularized-Leader Proximal algorithm to Sparse Logistic Regression and Multiple Additive Regression Trees. Furthermore, KunPeng's encouraging performance is also shown for several real-world applications including the Alibaba's Double 11 Online Shopping Festival and Ant Financial's transaction risk estimation.
Potential role of yoga in secondary prevention of type 2 diabetes: a mini review

Diabetes is a global public health crisis affecting more than 415 million people across the globe [1]. Once a disease of the affluent, type2 diabetes is now increasingly common amongst the poor as well [2]. The complications of diabetes remain as the leading cause of non-traumatic limb amputation, blindness and renal failure. The use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) therapies in the management of type 2 diabetes mellitus has increased significantly in the recent past. There are growing evidences that supports the efficacy of one such CAM therapy, Yoga, which offers a safe and cost-effective intervention in the management of diabetes [3].
Clustering-Based Matrix Factorization ( under review )

Recommender systems are emerging technologies that nowadays can be found in many applications such as Amazon, Netflix, and so on. These systems help users find relevant information, recommendations, and their preferred items. Matrix Factorization is a popular method in Recommendation Systems showing promising results in accuracy and complexity. In this paper we propose an extension of matrix factorization that uses the clustering paradigm to cluster similar users and items in several communities. We then establish their effects on the prediction model then. To the best of our knowledge, our proposed model outperforms all other published recommender methods in accuracy and complexity. For instance, our proposed method’s accuracy is 0.8122 on the Netflix dataset which is better than the Netflix prize winner’s accuracy of 0.8567.
Making Memories : Linear versus Interactive Storytelling Collaboration in Mixed Reality Space

Mixed Reality is inviting new levels of collaboration into the art of storytelling from not only the production team, but also from the audience’s perspective. As stories transform from linear and passive plotlines into fully immersive interactive experiences, the collaboration becomes more dynamic and complex between director, performer, designer, composer and target audiences. The continued dialogue between creator and consumer will expand as movies become more than just promotions for the new game release. Characters and stories will be breaking free of the silver screen and set-top box and enter into other aspects of our everyday lives with Mixed Reality. Story worlds empowered by Mixed Reality will be able to transform storytelling interactively in order to feel like a film, play like a game with the multi-sensory immersion of a theme park. As science and technology changes, so does the creative content and production methods. As real-time simulation evolves, what are the new artistic conventions for story creation? What are the evolving production methods? This paper discusses how media convergence that has embraced Mixed Reality to transform the work of the storyteller. The case study of UCF’s Media Convergence Laboratory and Simiosys production projects demonstrate the transfer of the cinematic language into a contextural environment of physical reality exploring novel forms of Mixed Reality. The diversity and extent of this new convention takes Hollywood stories beyond the movie house to assist clients such as Canon Inc., Nickelodeon Studios, MGM, Brand Experience Laboratory, The Haberman Educational Foundation, the Department of Education, Department of Defense, and the National Science Foundation. CR
Dynamic data race detection in Java-programs using synchronization contracts

Data race occurs in a multi-threaded program when several threads simultaneously access the same memory location and at least one of them is a write access. Data races can damage global data structures and it's hard to detect them manually, so research in the area of automatic race detection methods has been carried out for more than 20 years. This article covers aspects of performance and precision of dynamic race detection in Java programs and proposes the idea of lowering the overheads of dynamic analysis using synchronization contracts. Synchronization contracts are mainly based on specifying pairs of methods, that being called from different threads provide synchronization between these threads. Contracts serve for exclusion of application's code parts that are not interesting from race detection perspective, for example - external libraries. In this paper we describe contracts specification language and some implementation details and discuss advantages and restrictions of our approach.
A consensus and maximizing deviation based approach for multi-criteria group decision making under linguistic setting

In practical group decision making (GDM) problems adhere to uncertain and imprecise data, the decision makers may express their preferences using linguistic terms. The aim of this paper is to present a method to assist the consensus process and selection process of multi-criteria GDM (MCGDM) problem under linguistic setting. If the consensus level does not meet predefined requirements, an algorithm is provided to help the decision maker or moderator reach the consensus goal. Once the consensus reaching process is finished, the maximizing deviation method is used to derive the importance weights of the attributes. Then, the linguistic weighted arithmetic averaging (LWAA) operator of 2-tuple linguistic variables is used to obtain the overall assessment value of each alternative and the ranking order of all alternatives can be determined. Finally, one example of personal selection problem is given to show the use of the proposed method.
Rapid quantification of 11 prostanoids by combined capillary column gas chromatography and negative ion chemical ionization mass spectrometry: application to prostanoids released from normal human embryonic lung fibroblasts WI38 in a culture medium.

The rapid and simultaneous quantification of 11 prostanoids has been carried out with a short-capillary gas chromatograph and negative ion chemical ionization (ammonia) mass spectrometer. The methoxime-trimethylsilyl ether-pentafluorobenzyl esters (MO-TMS-PFB) of nine prostanoids, PGA1, PGA2, PGB1, PGB2, PGD2, PGE1, PGE2, 6-oxo-PGF1 alpha and TXB2 and the TMS-PFB of two prostanoids, PGF1 alpha and PGF2 alpha, were separated in less than 5.5 min on a bonded OV-1 capillary column 0.25 mm i.d. x 6 m (0.15 micron thickness) using hydrogen as a carrier gas. PGD2, PGE2, PGF2 alpha, 6-oxo-PGF1 alpha and TXB2 were quantified up to 2.5 fmol injected (0.1 pmol derivatized) and both PGA2 and PGB2 up to 25 fmol injected (1 pmol derivatized). In order to maintain the stability of the prostanoids containing a carbonyl group, such as TXB2 during the purification and derivatization steps of biological materials, methyl acetate was used in place of methyl formate as an eluant for Sep-Pak C18 purification. Normal human embryonic lung fibroblasts W138 (5.63 x 10(5) cells in a log phase) produced: PGA2 15.28, PGB2 13.48, PGD2 7.95, PGE1 2.62, PGE2 177.76, PGF2 alpha 25.14, 6-oxo-PGF1 alpha 27.33 and TXB2 61.00 pmol in 10 ml of Eagle minimal essential medium.
Curcumin Structure-Function, Bioavailability, and Efficacy in Models of Neuroinflammation and Alzheimer's Disease

Curcumin can reduce inflammation and neurodegeneration, but its chemical instability and metabolism raise concerns, including whether the more stable metabolite tetrahydrocurcumin (TC) may mediate efficacy. We examined the antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, or anti-amyloidogenic effects of dietary curcumin and TC, either administered chronically to aged Tg2576 APPsw mice or acutely to lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-injected wild-type mice. Despite dramatically higher drug plasma levels after TC compared with curcumin gavage, resulting brain levels of parent compounds were similar, correlating with reduction in LPS-stimulated inducible nitric-oxide synthase, nitrotyrosine, F2 isoprostanes, and carbonyls. In both the acute (LPS) and chronic inflammation (Tg2576), TC and curcumin similarly reduced interleukin-1β. Despite these similarities, only curcumin was effective in reducing amyloid plaque burden, insoluble β-amyloid peptide (Aβ), and carbonyls. TC had no impact on plaques or insoluble Aβ, but both reduced Tris-buffered saline-soluble Aβ and phospho-c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase (JNK). Curcumin but not TC prevented Aβ aggregation. The TC metabolite was detected in brain and plasma from mice chronically fed the parent compound. These data indicate that the dienone bridge present in curcumin, but not in TC, is necessary to reduce plaque deposition and protein oxidation in an Alzheimer's model. Nevertheless, TC did reduce neuroinflammation and soluble Aβ, effects that may be attributable to limiting JNK-mediated transcription. Because of its favorable safety profile and the involvement of misfolded proteins, oxidative damage, and inflammation in multiple chronic degenerative diseases, these data relating curcumin dosing to the blood and tissue levels required for efficacy should help translation efforts from multiple successful preclinical models.