Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Universi semantici tra luoghi immaginati e luoghi esperiti first visitor italiani in sei capitali storiche

Following a previous scientific communication presented at the national congress of the Social Psychology Division of the AIP (Italian association of psychologists, Cagliari, September 2009), we are now presenting further results of a wider research program, led by de Rosa, on first-visitor tourists from different countries in six European capitals (Helsinki, Lisbon, London, Madrid, Paris, Vienna), currently extended to other historical capitals (Warsaw and Brussels). Amongst the different dimensions investigated in the manifold research program, which is underpinned by the concepts of Social representation (SR) and Place identity with respect to communication systems, we are here focusing: i) on the semantic universes associated by Italian first visitor tourists to each capital before the visit and, ii) on the comparison between imagined places (before the visit) and experienced places (after the visit). Results, provided by the analysis of some sections of a multi-method questionnaire, will be discussed in terms of a comparison in order to point out common features and peculiarities shown by the processes of SR building up and transformation for the analysed capitals before and after the visit. These results will be also commented drawing upon what has already emerged in previous researches on Rome SR for first visitor tourists from six different countries (de Rosa 1992; de Rosa & d'Ambrosio 2004 a and b).
Evaluation of handoff algorithms using a call quality measure with signal based penalties

This paper proposes a new call quality measure based on mobile signal strength measurements to evaluate performance of handoff algorithms in wireless cellular networks. The proposed measure allows the quantification of the impact of the handoff algorithms of performance. Using the proposed measure we compare existing handoff algorithms to identify the trade-off between signal quality and required number of handoffs. Our results indicate that a handoff method based on a threshold with 2 dB hysteresis provides better performance compared to the conventional wisdom of 3 dB hysteresis. We provide a benchmark value for handoff algorithms based on an off-line heuristic method using the new measure. Our benchmark shows that there is substantial room for improvement of the existing handoff algorithm
PROXY-DRIVEN RATE-DISTORTION OPTIMIZED VIDEO STREAMING OVER WIRELESS NETWORK USING ASYNCHRONOUS CLOCKS

Video streaming over wireless network is challenging due to node mobility and high channel error rate. In this paper, we propose a joint server/peer, proxy-driven video streaming architecture to support high quality video streaming service over IEEE 802.11-based wireless networks. The video proxy tracks peer mobility pattern, coordinates among multiple senders and performs rate-distortion optimized streaming. We formulate the joint server /peer streaming as a combinatorial optimization problem and introduce the concept of asynchronous clocks to decouple the problem into three steps: first deciding the candidate set of potential senders among the wireless peers based on their mobility pattern, then selecting the sender in each optimization instance using asynchronous clocks, and finally applying point-to-point rate-distortion optimization framework between the selected sender-receiver pair. In addition, we consider two different system setups, no cache and limited cache, to investigate cache effect on the streaming performance. To design more realistic simulation models, we use empirical results from corporate wireless networks to model peer mobility. Simulation results show that our proposed joint streaming scheme has better performance than the server-only streaming scheme. Simulation results also show that having cache in the proxy can potentially improve the streaming performance.
A New Nonsense Mutation in Capsanthin/Capsorubin Synthase Controlling Orange Pepper Fruit

Carotenoids are plant pigments that play a major role in conferring fruit color. Carotenoid content is often controlled by genetic variation in the biosynthetic genes. The color of mature pepper fruit is mainly classified as red, orange, and yellow. Orange and yellow fruit colors are determined by mutations in phytoene synthase (Psy) and capsanthin-capsorubin synthase (Ccs), respectively. In contrast to the current fruit color model, we hypothesized that genetic variation in Ccs also controls orange fruit color in pepper. Ripe fruit of Capsicum annuum ‘K146465’ is orange, and its carotenoid profile obtained by HPLC analysis showed a lack of the major pepper carotenoid capsanthin but an abundance of lutein, zeaxanthin, and β-carotene compared to red pepper. cDNA cloning and sequencing analysis detected a new nonsense mutation due to a T insertion in the coding region of Ccs, but no DNA sequence variation in Psy. We developed a derived cleaved amplified polymorphic sequence (dCAPS) marker to distinguish the nonsense mutation in Ccs. Genetic analysis of the F2 population derived from C. annuum ‘Sweet Banana’ (red fruit color) × C. annuum ‘K146465’ revealed that orange fruit color is determined by a single recessive gene. The nonsense mutation in Ccs distinguished by the dCAPS marker cosegregated with orange fruit color in the F2 population. This germplasm, coupled with the dCAPS marker and carotenoid profiling, will facilitate marker-assisted breeding to select orange fruit color and improve lutein, zeaxanthin, and β-carotene levels in pepper. OPEN ACCESS Received:
Effects of Charge Density on the Recognition Properties of Molecularly Imprinted Polymeric Hydrogels

Molecular imprinting is a technique used to synthesize polymers that display selective recognition for a given molecule of interest. In this study, the role of hydrogel electrostatic charge density on the recognition and selectivity properties of protein-imprinted hydrogels was explored, and the effect of variations of the template extraction protocol on the MIP recognition properties were also studied in depth. Using 3-methacrylamidopropyltrimethylammonium chloride (MAPTAC) as a cationic monomer and 2-acrylamido-2-methylpropanesulfonic acid (AMPS) as an anionic monomer, a number of acrylamide-based hydrogels with varying positive and negative charge densities were prepared. The gels exhibited template recognition properties that were dependent on both the monomer charge density and on whether the chosen monomer carried a positive or negative charge. In addition, we found that common agents used in template extraction may be responsible for the specific and selective binding properties exhibited by molecularly imprinted polymers in many published studies.
The Stückelberg–Kibble model as an example of quantized symplectic reduction

Recently, it has been observed that a certain class of classical theories with constraints can be quantized by a mathematical procedure known as Rieffel induction. After a short exposition of this idea, we apply the new quantization theory to the Stuckelberg–Kibble model. We explicitly construct the physical state space Hphys, which carries a massive representation of the Poincare group. The longitudinal one‐particle component arises from a particular Bogoliubov transformation of the five (unphysical) degrees of freedom one has started with. Our discussion exhibits the particular features of the proposed constrained quantization theory in great clarity.
An Association Study between Longitudinal Changes of Leukocyte Telomere and the Risk of Azoospermia in a Population of Iranian Infertile Men

Background: Telomeres are evolutionary, specialized terminal structures at the ends of eukaryotic chromosomes containing TTAGGG repeats in human. Several human diseases have been known to be associated with dramatic changes in telomere length. The aim of the present study was to assess the correlation between the relative leukocyte telomere length (LTL) and infertility in a group of Iranian azoospermic males. Methods: In this case-control pilot study, relative telomere length (RTL) of peripheral blood leukocytes from a total of 30 idiopathic non-obstructive azoospermic males and 30 healthy fertile males was evaluated using real-time PCR. RTL was calculated as T (telomere)/S (single copy gene) ratio and compared between infertile and fertile groups. Results: Patients with azoospermia showed significantly shorter RTL than fertile males (0.54 vs. 0.84, p < 0.05). The area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was estimated to be 99.8%, suggesting LTL as a potential marker for the diagnosis of azoospermia. Conclusion: Our findings demonstrated a probable association between telomere shortening and azoospermia in a population of Iranian infertile men affected by idiopathic azoospermia.
Bayesian Agnosia : A Form-Independent Approach to Wide-Field Person Detection

Reliable wide-field detection of human activity is an unsolved problem. The main difficulty is that low resolution and the unconstrained nature of realistic environments and human behaviour make form cues unreliable. Here we argue that reliability in faror wide-field detection can still be achieved by probabilistic combination of multiple weak but complementary visual cues that do not depend on detailed form analysis. To demonstrate, we describe a real-time Bayesian algorithm for localizing human activity in relatively unconstrained scenes, using motion, background subtraction and skin colour cues. Fast sampling of scalespace is achieved using integral images and a flexible norm that can handle sparse cues without loss of statistical power. We show that the probabilistic approach far outperforms a representative logical approach [1] in which skin and background subtraction classifiers are combined conjunctively. Our method is currently used in a pre-attentive human activity sensor, generating saccadic targets for an attentive foveated vision system that reliably fixates faces over a 130 deg field of view, allowing high-resolution capture of facial images over a large dynamic scene.
Using Danish as a CG Interlingua: A Wide-Coverage Norwegian-English Machine Translation System

This paper presents a rule­based Norwe­ gian­English MT system. Exploiting the closeness of Norwegian and Danish, and the existence of a well­performing Danish­En­ glish system, Danish is used as an «interlin­ gua». Structural analysis and polysemy res­ olution are based on Constraint Grammar (CG) function tags and dependency struc­ tures. We describe the semiautomatic con­ struction of the necessary Norwegian­Dan­ ish dictionary and evaluate the method used as well as the coverage of the lexicon.
Linear and nonlinear Granger causality in the stock price-volume relation : A perspective on the agent-based model of stock markets

From the perspective of the agent-based model of stock markets, this paper examines the possible explanations for the presence of the causal relation between stock returns and trading volume. The implication of this result is that the presence of the stock price-volume causal relation does not require any explicit assumptions like information asymmetry, reaction asymmetry, noise traders, or tax motives. In fact, it suggests that the causal relation may be a generic property in a market modeled as evolving decentralized system of autonomous interacting agents. Keyword: Agent-based model, Artificial stock markets, Genetic programming, Granger causality test, Stock price-volume relation 1 Motivation and introduction Agent-based modeling of stock markets, originated in Santa Fe Institute [44, 2], is a fertile and promising field, which can be thought as a subfield of agent-based computational economics (ACE). 1 Up to the present, most of the research efforts have been devoted to the analysis of the price dynamics and/or market efficiency of the artificial markets (e.g. [13, 14, 41, 52]). Some focused their study on the price deviation or mispricing in the artificial stock markets (e.g. [2, 8, 10, 12, 40, 41, 44, 51]). Some of them went further to explore the corresponding microstructure of the markets, such as aspect traders’ beliefs and behaviors (e.g. [11, 13, 14]). Nevertheless, few have ever visited the univariate dynamics of trading volume series [40, 51], and, to our best knowledge, none has addressed its joint dynamics with prices.2 As Farmer and Lo [22] mentioned, “Evolutionary and ecological models of financial markets is truly a new frontier whose exploration has just begun. ” By modeling financial markets “as evolving systems of autonomous interacting agents,” the agent-based approach in finance, indeed, follows this evolutionary paradigm [49]. Visit the ACE website maintained by Leigh Tesfatsion for a comprehensive guide to the field of agent-based computational economics. <URL: http://www.econ.iastate.edu/tesfatsi/ace.htm> See Chen [9] or LeBaron [39] for reviews of the field of artificial financial markets.
Neuroeffector Ca2+ transients for the direct measurement of purine release and indirect measurement of cotransmitters in rodents

Determining whether ATP and noradrenaline are released from the same vesicle at mature autonomic neuroeffector junctions is challenging because of the difficulty of simultaneously detecting the packeted release of these neurotransmitters. Contraction, overflow and electrophysiology experiments all show that both ATP and noradrenaline are released following field stimulation (although the ratio might vary) from autonomic nerves in tissues including the vas deferens, rat tail artery and mesenteric artery. The occurrence of purinergic neuroeffector Ca2+ transients (NCTs) has been used to detect the packeted release of the neurotransmitter ATP acting on postjunctional P2X receptors to cause Ca2+ influx. Neuroeffector Ca2+ transients can also be used to detect the local effects of noradrenaline through its α2‐adrenoceptor‐mediated prejunctional autoinhibitory effects on nerve terminal Ca2+ concentration and the probability of exocytosis (measured by counting NCTs). Evidence is presented that exocytosis from sympathetic varicosities does not occur in a manner independent of the history of that varicosity, but rather that the release of a packet of ATP transiently suppresses (or predicts the transient suppression of) subsequent release. This could arise by autoinhibition (by the prejunctional action of noradrenaline or purines) or due to a transient shortage of vesicles readily available for release. In summary, two high‐resolution approaches are proposed to measure the intermittent release of packets of neurotransmitter: (1) local transient suppression of nerve terminal Ca2+ transients; and (2) the local and transient inhibition of NCTs to infer local autoinhibition, hence transmitter release. Such approaches may allow the packeted corelease of ATP and noradrenaline to be investigated without the need to measure both neurotransmitters directly.
IFI16 regulates HTLV‐1 replication through promoting HTLV‐1 RTI‐induced innate immune responses

Interferon (IFN)‐inducible protein 16 (IFI16) regulates human immunodeficiency virus replication by inducing innate immune responses as a DNA sensor. Human T‐lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV‐1), a delta retrovirus family member, has been linked to multiple diseases. Here, we report that IFI16 expression is induced by HTLV‐1 infection or HTLV‐1 reverse transcription intermediate (RTI) ssDNA90 transfection. IFI16 overexpression decreases HTLV‐1 protein expression, whereas IFI16 knockdown increases it. Furthermore, the knockdown of IFI16 is followed by impaired innate immune responses upon HTLV‐1 infection. In addition, IFI16 forms a complex with ssDNA90 and enhances ssDNA90‐triggered innate immune responses. Collectively, our data suggest a critical role for IFI16 during HTLV‐1 infection by interacting with HTLV‐1 RTI ssDNA90 and restricting HTLV‐1 replication.
H fuzzy filtering design via membership function dependent Lyapunov function

In the brief technique note, we investigate the H∞ fuzzy filtering design problem with known premise variables. In the beginning, we study the derivatives of the Lyapunov function. Secondly, since the premise variable is known, in order to transform the results into LMIs, we design a membership function dependent Lyapunov function. The new function is the diagonal form and one of the main diagonal matrix is dependent on the membership function while another diagonal matrix is independent in the member ship function. In the end, we give an example to prove the correctness of the method.
A 'musculoskeletal look' to sarcopenia: Where do/should the physical and rehabilitation medicine physicians (physiatrists) stand?

Department of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine, Hacettepe University Medical School, Ankara, Department of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine, Viranşehir State Hospital, Şanlıurfa, Turkey, Karl Landsteiner Institute of Remobilisation and Functional Health, Kaiser Franz Josef Hospital, Vienna, Austria and ESPRM Special Interest Scientific Committee in Aging Persons President, European Academy of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine, Athens, Greece
Higher Order Unification via Explicit Substitutions

Higher order unification is equational unification for βη-conversion. But it is not first order equational unification, as substitution has to avoid capture. Thus, the methods for equational unification (such as narrowing) built upon grafting (i.e., substitution without renaming) cannot be used for higher order unification, which needs specific algorithms. Our goal in this paper is to reduce higher order unification to first order equational unification in a suitable theory. This is achieved by replacing substitution by grafting, but this replacement is not straightforward as it raises two major problems. First, some unification problems have solutions with grafting but no solution with substitution. Then equational unification algorithms rest upon the fact that grafting and reduction commute. But grafting and βη-reduction do not commute in λ-calculus and reducing an equation may change the set of its solutions. This difficulty comes from the interaction between the substitutions initiated by βη-reduction and the ones initiated by the unification process. Two kinds of variables are involved: those of βη-conversion and those of unification. So, we need to set up a calculus which distinguishes between these two kinds of variables and such that reduction and grafting commute. For this purpose, the application of a substitution of a reduction variable to a unification one must be delayed until this variable is instantiated. Such a separation and delay are provided by a calculus of explicit substitutions. Unification in such a calculus can be performed by well-known algorithms such as narrowing, but we present a specialised algorithm for greater efficiency. At last we show how to relate unification in λ-calculus and in a calculus with explicit substitutions. Thus, we come up with a new higher order unification algorithm which eliminates some burdens of the previous algorithms, in particular the functional handling of scopes. Huet's algorithm can be seen as a specific strategy for our algorithm, since each of its steps can be decomposed into elementary ones, leading to a more atomic description of the unification process. Also, solved forms in λ-calculus can easily be computed from solved forms in λσ-calculus.
Secure Communication of Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) using Coding Theory

- Several schemes to establish secret key between sensor nodes in wireless sensor network for secure communication has been proposed. But due to lack of priori deployment knowledge and limited resources of sensor nodes and security threats, it is always challenging to propose a better scheme apart from existing. In this paper I have suggested a novel idea for secure communication in wireless sensor network ( WSN ) using BCH code. Here communication key and connectivity key are used separately for more secure communication. I have created connectivity key using BCH code. In this scheme a new approach has been proposed to establish a secure communication between sensor nodes with desired scalability and resiliency. This scheme also support the mobility of sensor nodes.
PLAG (1-Palmitoyl-2-Linoleoyl-3-Acetyl-rac-Glycerol) Modulates Eosinophil Chemotaxis by Regulating CCL26 Expression from Epithelial Cells

Increased number of eosinophils in the circulation and sputum is associated with the severity of asthma. The respiratory epithelium produces chemokine (C-C motif) ligands (CCL) which recruits and activates eosinophils. A chemically synthesized monoacetyl-diglyceride, PLAG (1-palmitoyl-2-linoleoyl-3-acetyl-rac-glycerol) is a major constituent in the antlers of Sika deer (Cervus nippon Temminck) which has been used in oriental medicine. This study was aimed to investigate the molecular mechanism of PLAG effect on the alleviation of asthma phenotypes. A549, a human alveolar basal epithelial cell, and HaCaT, a human keratinocyte, were activated by the treatment of interleukin-4 (IL-4), and the expression of chemokines, known to be effective on the induction of eosinophil migration was analyzed by RT-PCR. The expression of IL-4 induced genes was modulated by the co-treatment of PLAG. Especially, CCL26 expression from the stimulated epithelial cells was significantly blocked by PLAG, which was confirmed by ELISA. The transcriptional activity of signal transducer and activator of transcription 6 (STAT6), activated by IL-4 mediated phosphorylation and nuclear translocation, was down-regulated by PLAG in a concentration-dependent manner. In ovalbumin-induced mouse model, the infiltration of immune cells into the respiratory tract was decreased by PLAG administration. Cytological analysis of the isolated bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) cells proved the infiltration of eosinophils was significantly reduced by PLAG. In addition, PLAG inhibited the migration of murine bone marrow-derived eosinophils, and human eosinophil cell line, EoL-1, which was induced by the addition of A549 culture medium.
Globalization, Recession and the Internationalization of Industrial Districts: Experiences from the Italian Gold Jewellery Industry

Abstract Globalization and the recent recession crisis are significantly challenging Italian industrial districts (IDs), leading to deep transformations in their internationalization, innovation and organization strategies. With our empirical focus on a single industry (gold jewellery) and a specific country (Italy) and through the theoretical lenses of the global value chain (GVC) approach, the evidence in this article sheds light on the differences in how three IDs within Italy's gold jewellery sector (Valenza Po, Arezzo and Vicenza) compete in the global arena. Our comparative analysis reveals striking differences among these districts with regard to their upstream and downstream internationalization strategies in response to two industry shocks: increasing global competition in the early 2000s and the world economic recession of 2008–2009. Our explanation for the varied gold jewellery district responses to these two global crises involves both internal and external factors: (1) structural differences between the three IDs; (2) distinct business strategies; and (3) how these districts are linked to the gold jewellery GVC.