Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Meeting the challenges of future automotive HMI design: an overview of the AIDE integrated project

The general objective of the AIDE (Adaptive Integrated Driver-vehicle InterfacE) Integrated Project, funded within the EU 6th Framework Programme (FP6), is to develop human machine interaction (HMI) methodologies and technologies for the safe and efficient integration of driver assistance and information systems (including nomad devices) in future vehicles. The present paper identifies some major challenges for HMI designers of future invehicle systems, and describes how these challenges will be addressed by the AIDE project.
Avoidance of fisheries-induced evolution: management implications for catch selectivity and limit reference points

I examined how the fitness (r) associated with early‐ and late‐maturing genotypes varies with fishing mortality (F) and age‐/size‐specific probability of capture. Life‐history data on Newfoundland’s northern Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) allowed for the estimation of r for individuals maturing at 4 and 7 year in the absence of fishing. Catch selectivity data associated with four types of fishing gear (trap, gillnet, handline, otter trawl) were then incorporated to examine how r varied with gear type and with F. The resulting fitness functions were then used to estimate the F above which selection would favour early (4 year) rather than delayed (7 year) maturity. This evolutionarily‐sensitive threshold, Fevol, identifies a limit reference point somewhat similar to those used to define overfishing (e.g., Fmsy, F0.1). Over‐exploitation of northern cod resulted in fishing mortalities considerably greater than those required to effect evolutionary change. Selection for early maturity is reduced by the dome‐shaped selectivities characteristic of fixed gears such as handlines (the greater the leptokurtosis, the lower the probability of a selection response) and enhanced by the knife‐edged selectivities of bottom trawls. Strategies to minimize genetic change are consistent with traditional management objectives (e.g., yield maximization, population increase). Compliance with harvest control rules guided by evolutionarily‐sensitive limit reference points, which may be achieved by adherence to traditional reference points such as Fmsy and F0.1, should be sufficient to minimize the probability of fisheries‐induced evolution for commercially exploited species.
Intergenerational equitiy in long-run decision problems reconsidered

Although the individuals' lifetime is finite, intergenerational equity is dis- cussed in infinitely lived agent models. We argue to explicitly consider the generations' life-cycles for three reasons: First, from infinitely lived agent specifications, underlying assumptions about individual and social time preference rates cannot be unambiguously deduced. Second, within infinitely lived agent models the distribution among generations living at the same time cannot be captured. Third, a utilitarian social planner's solution may not be implementable in overlapping generations market economies. Re-examining the recent debate on climate change, we conclude that Stern's and Nordhaus' infinitely lived agent models are not suitable to discuss issues of intergenerational equity, as they cannot adequately address these three aspects.
On the Asymmetric May-Leonard Model of Three Competing Species

In this paper we analyze the global asymptotic behavior of the asymmetric May--Leonard model of three competing species:\, $\frac{dx_i}{dt}=x_i(1-x_i-\beta_ix_{i-1}-\alpha_ix_{i+1})$, $x_i(0) > 0$, $i=1,2,3$ with $x_{0}=x_3$, $x_4=x_1$ under the assumption \, $0 B1B2B3 and P is a saddle point with one-dimensional stable manifold $\Gamma$ if A1A2A3 B1B2B3 then P is global asymptotically stable in Int(R3+ ), (ii) if A1A2A3 < B1B2B3 then for each initial condition $x_0\not\in\Gamma$, the solution $\v.
On the Reduction of the Number of Coefficient Circuits in a DTCNN Cell

This paper introduces a methodology to reduce the number of coefficient circuits in a DTCNN cell without penalty at application level. Trade-offs like area-processing time, and some other figures of merit like accuracy and power dissipation are considered. It is shown that it is possible to obtain efficient implementations with a reduced number of coefficient circuits. Some examples illustrate the proposal
Plasmodium falciparum Adhesion on Human Brain Microvascular Endothelial Cells Involves Transmigration-Like Cup Formation and Induces Opening of Intercellular Junctions

Cerebral malaria, a major cause of death during malaria infection, is characterised by the sequestration of infected red blood cells (IRBC) in brain microvessels. Most of the molecules implicated in the adhesion of IRBC on endothelial cells (EC) are already described; however, the structure of the IRBC/EC junction and the impact of this adhesion on the EC are poorly understood. We analysed this interaction using human brain microvascular EC monolayers co-cultured with IRBC. Our study demonstrates the transfer of material from the IRBC to the brain EC plasma membrane in a trogocytosis-like process, followed by a TNF-enhanced IRBC engulfing process. Upon IRBC/EC binding, parasite antigens are transferred to early endosomes in the EC, in a cytoskeleton-dependent process. This is associated with the opening of the intercellular junctions. The transfer of IRBC antigens can thus transform EC into a target for the immune response and contribute to the profound EC alterations, including peri-vascular oedema, associated with cerebral malaria.
Impact Evaluation of PRONTO Mexico: A Simulation-Based Program in Obstetric and Neonatal Emergencies and Team Training

Introduction Most maternal deaths in Mexico occur within health facilities, often attributable to suboptimal care and lack of access to emergency services. Improving obstetric and neonatal emergency care can improve health outcomes. We evaluated the impact of PRONTO, a simulation-based low-cost obstetric and neonatal emergency and team training program on patient outcomes. Methods We conducted a pair-matched hospital-based trial in Mexico from 2010 to 2013 with 24 public hospitals. Obstetric and neonatal care providers participated in PRONTO trainings at intervention hospitals. Control hospitals received no intervention. Outcome measures included hospital-based neonatal mortality, maternal complications, and cesarean delivery. We fitted mixed-effects negative binomial regression models to estimate incidence rate ratios and 95% confidence intervals using a difference-in-differences approach, cumulatively, and at follow-up intervals measured at 4, 8, and 12 months. Results There was a significant estimated impact of PRONTO on the incidence of cesarean sections in intervention hospitals relative to controls adjusting for baseline differences during all 12 months cumulative of follow-up (21% decrease, P = 0.005) and in intervals measured at 4 (16% decrease, P = 0.02), 8 (20% decrease, P = 0.004), and 12 months’ (20% decrease, P = 0.003) follow-up. We found no statistically significant impact of the intervention on the incidence of maternal complications. A significant impact of a 40% reduction in neonatal mortality adjusting for baseline differences was apparent at 8 months postintervention but not at 4 or 12 months. Conclusions PRONTO reduced the incidence of cesarean delivery and may improve neonatal mortality, although the effect on the latter might not be sustainable. Further study is warranted to confirm whether obstetric and neonatal emergency simulation and team training can have lasting results on patient outcomes.
Long-Term Enhancement of Neuronal Excitability and Temporal Fidelity Mediated by Metabotropic Glutamate Receptor Subtype 5

The cellular substrate for memory is generally attributed to long-lasting changes in synaptic strength. We report here that synaptic or pharmacological activation of the metabotropic glutamate receptor subtype 5 (mGluR5) induces long-term potentiation of intrinsic excitability (LTP-IE) in layer V pyramidal neurons. mGluR5-dependent LTP-IE was associated with a persistent reduction of the afterhyperpolarization (AHP) outward current (IAHP), resulting in the potentiation of EPSP-spike coupling. Apamin occluded induction of LTP-IE, indicating that downregulation of small conductance calcium-dependent potassium (SK) channels mediates this process. In addition to the improved reliability of the input-output function, LTP-IE led to increased temporal precision. The induced reduction of IAHP accelerated the rate of membrane depolarization preceding each action potential and subsequently decreased the jitter of the neuronal discharge. We conclude that mGluR5-dependent LTP-IE not only promotes the spread of excitation in the cortical network but also persistently enhances the temporal fidelity of the neuronal message.
Relation between immune variables and burnout in a sample of physicians

OBJECTIVES To evaluate in a group of physicians the relation between burnout, demographic or job characteristics, anxiety, and immune variables. METHODS Seventy one physicians of all grades were recruited among different departments to a cross sectional survey. The Maslach burnout inventory, scales of emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation, and personal accomplishment, the trait scale of anxiety inventory (STAI-Y2), and a questionnaire on personal and professional characteristics were administered. The immune profile included quantitative (number (%) of lymphocytes and subsets) and functional (natural killer cytotoxicity) measures. RESULTS With a model of stepwise multiple regression analysis, emotional exhaustion was significantly affected by both personal (marital, sex) and job characteristics (qualification, working activity), whereas only patient contact explained a portion of variation in depersonalisation. Furthermore, trait anxiety was found to predict the Maslach burnout inventory scores. After correction for potential confounders, physicians who scored high levels of personal accomplishment showed significantly higher numbers of total lymphocytes, T cells (CD3), T helper cells (CD4), and T suppressor cells (CD8) than those who scored low levels. No other correlation was found between burnout and immune variables. CONCLUSIONS In our group of relatively young physicians a high degree of personal accomplishment was associated with an increase in the number of peripheral lymphocytes, particularly T subsets. The meaning of this is not clear, although it could be speculated that to evaluate oneself positively, particularly with regard to work with patients in the health services, might help to stimulate the immune system. By contrast, there is no evidence that to work hard, to feel tired from work, and to have a cynical reaction towards patient care is related to immunosuppression.
Ethnicity and Elections in Turkey: Party Politics and the Mobilization of Swing Voters

1 Identifying the Nature of the Competition in Electoral Term 2 Theory: Evaluating AKP's Electoral Support Among Citizens of Kurdish Origin 3 Research Design and Selection of the Cases 4 The Main District Level Organs Responsible of the Mobilization of the Voters 5 Defining the Mobilization Strategy at the District Level 6 The Neighborhood Organization and the Effective Mobilization of Non-Kurdish and Kurdish Voters 7 Divergence in the Effectiveness of the Mobilization Strategies 8 Explaining Divergence in the Strength of the Party Organisation and Incorporation of Co-Ethnic
Phosphatidylserine Increases IKBKAP Levels in Familial Dysautonomia Cells

Familial Dysautonomia (FD) is an autosomal recessive congenital neuropathy that results from abnormal development and progressive degeneration of the sensory and autonomic nervous system. The mutation observed in almost all FD patients is a point mutation at position 6 of intron 20 of the IKBKAP gene; this gene encodes the IκB kinase complex-associated protein (IKAP). The mutation results in a tissue-specific splicing defect: Exon 20 is skipped, leading to reduced IKAP protein expression. Here we show that phosphatidylserine (PS), an FDA-approved food supplement, increased IKAP mRNA levels in cells derived from FD patients. Long-term treatment with PS led to a significant increase in IKAP protein levels in these cells. A conjugate of PS and an omega-3 fatty acid also increased IKAP mRNA levels. Furthermore, PS treatment released FD cells from cell cycle arrest and up-regulated a significant number of genes involved in cell cycle regulation. Our results suggest that PS has potential for use as a therapeutic agent for FD. Understanding its mechanism of action may reveal the mechanism underlying the FD disease.
Replenishment Strategies for Distribution Systems Under Advance Demand Information

Customers with positive demand lead times place orders in advance of their needs. A portfolio of customers with different demand lead times gives rise to what we call advance demand information. We develop effective inventory policies for a distribution system to account for this information. In particular, we study a centralized system with one warehouse serving multiple retailers under advance demand information. The inventory manager replenishes the warehouse from an outside supplier. Units arriving to the warehouse are allocated to the retailers. To control this system, we develop a lower bound and proposed a close-to-optimal heuristic for which the optimality gap is on average 1 92%. We also provide a closed-form solution to approximate the system-wide inventory level. Using this explicit solution, the model and the heuristic, we investigate (1) the benefit of advance demand information, and its impact on allocation decisions, (2) the joint role of risk pooling and advance demand information, and (3) the system performance with respect to supplier and retailer lead times. We illustrate how advance demand information can be a substitute for lead times and inventory, and how it enhances the outcome of delayed differentiation. (Stochastic Inventory Systems; Advance Demand Information; Multi-Echelon; Distribution Systems; Supply Chain Management)
Stage-Specific Adhesion of Leishmania Promastigotes to Sand Fly Midguts Assessed Using an Improved Comparative Binding Assay

Background The binding of Leishmania promastigotes to the midgut epithelium is regarded as an essential part of the life-cycle in the sand fly vector, enabling the parasites to persist beyond the initial blood meal phase and establish the infection. However, the precise nature of the promastigote stage(s) that mediate binding is not fully understood. Methodology/Principal Findings To address this issue we have developed an in vitro gut binding assay in which two promastigote populations are labelled with different fluorescent dyes and compete for binding to dissected sand fly midguts. Binding of procyclic, nectomonad, leptomonad and metacyclic promastigotes of Leishmania infantum and L. mexicana to the midguts of blood-fed, female Lutzomyia longipalpis was investigated. The results show that procyclic and metacyclic promastigotes do not bind to the midgut epithelium in significant numbers, whereas nectomonad and leptomonad promastigotes both bind strongly and in similar numbers. The assay was then used to compare the binding of a range of different parasite species (L. infantum, L. mexicana, L. braziliensis, L. major, L. tropica) to guts dissected from various sand flies (Lu. longipalpis, Phlebotomus papatasi, P. sergenti). The results of these comparisons were in many cases in line with expectations, the natural parasite binding most effectively to its natural vector, and no examples were found where a parasite was unable to bind to its natural vector. However, there were interesting exceptions: L. major and L. tropica being able to bind to Lu. longipalpis better than L. infantum; L. braziliensis was able to bind to P. papatasi as well as L. major; and significant binding of L. major to P. sergenti and L. tropica to P. papatasi was observed. Conclusions/Significance The results demonstrate that Leishmania gut binding is strictly stage-dependent, is a property of those forms found in the middle phase of development (nectomonad and leptomonad forms), but is absent in the early blood meal and final stages (procyclic and metacyclic forms). Further they show that although gut binding may be necessary for parasite establishment, in several vector-parasite pairs the specificity of such in vitro binding alone is insufficient to explain overall vector specificity. Other significant barriers to development must exist in certain refractory Leishmania parasite-sand fly vector combinations. A re-appraisal of the specificity of the Leishmania-sand fly relationship is required.
Boost a Weak Learner to a Strong Learner Using Ensemble System Approach

The goal of classification learning is to develop a model that separates the data into the different classes, with the aim of classifying new examples in the future. A weak learner is one which takes labeled training examples and produces a classifier which can label test examples more accurately than random guessing. When such weak learner is used directly for classification task then it may not give the better prediction accuracy, due to the limitation and simplicity of single classifier system. On the other hand, multiple classifier systems often known as ensemble based systems, have shown to produce favorable results compared to single-classifier systems. Boosting is one of the most important recent developments in ensemble system, which works by sequentially applying a classification algorithm to re-weighted versions of the training data and then taking a weighted majority vote of the sequence of classifiers. Our experiments demonstrate the underlying weak learner's ability to achieve a fairly low error rate on the testing data, as well as the boosting algorithm's ability to reduce the error rate of the weak learner. In our experiment we have used decision stump as a weak learner (classifier) and using the boosting approach, the result demonstrates the improvement in the classifier's accuracy.
Towards a Multimodal Repository of Expressive Movement Qualities in Dance

In this paper, we present a new multimodal repository for the analysis of expressive movement qualities in dance. First, we discuss guidelines and methodology that we applied to create this repository. Next, the technical setup of recordings and the platform for capturing the synchronized audio-visual, physiological, and motion capture data are presented. The initial content of the repository consists of about 90 minutes of short dance performances movement sequences, and improvisations performed by four dancers, displaying three expressive qualities: Fluidity, Impulsivity, and Rigidity.
Tumour Cell Lines HT-29 and FaDu Produce Proinflammatory Cytokines and Activate Neutrophils In Vitro: Possible Applications for Neutrophil-Based Antitumour Treatment

There is evidence that polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMNs) can exert severe antineoplastic effects. Cross-talk between tumour cells and endothelial cells (ECs) is necessary for the accumulation of PMN around a tumour. This work reports the ability of two PMN-sensitive, human, permanent cell lines—colorectal adenocarcinoma (HT-29) and pharyngeal squamous-cell carcinoma (FaDu) cells—to act as inflammatory foci. PMNs were cytotoxic to both lines, the adhesion of the PMNs to the tumour cells being important in this effect. The tumour cells released appreciable amounts of IL-8 and GROα, and induced the transmigration of PMN through human microvascular-EC monolayers. Conditioning media associated with both lines induced the adhesion of PMN and the surface expression of ICAM-1 in microvascular-EC. In addition, FaDu-conditioning-medium strongly induced the production of proinflammatory cytokines by microvascular-EC. These results support the idea that tumour cells might normally induce a potent acute inflammatory response, leading to their own destruction.
VITAMIN A: MOVING THE FOOD-BASED APPROACH FORWARD

2 The designations employed and the presentation of material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) or of the World Health Organization (WHO) concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. Dotted lines on maps represent approximate border lines for which there may not yet be full agreement. The mention of specific companies or products of manufacturers, whether or not these have been patented, does not imply that these are or have been endorsed or recommended by FAO or WHO in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned. Errors and omissions excepted, the names of proprietary products are distinguished by initial capital letters. All reasonable precautions have been taken by FAO and WHO to verify the information contained in this publication. However, the published material is being distributed without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied. The responsibility for the interpretation and use of the material lies with the reader. In no event shall FAO and WHO be liable for damages arising from its use. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of FAO or WHO. FAO and WHO encourage the use, reproduction and dissemination of material in this information product. Except where otherwise indicated, material may be copied, downloaded and printed for private study, research and teaching purposes, provided that appropriate acknowledgement of FAO and WHO as the source and copyright holder is given and that FAO and WHO's endorsement of users' views, products or services is not implied in any way. All requests for translation and adaptation rights, and for resale and other commercial use rights should be made via Abstract Food-based approaches to combating vitamin A deficiency continue to be largely ignored by governments and donors. This may be partly because the way of viewing them has largely been informed by the community which supports supplementation. Food-based approaches may be perceived as competitive or distracting and are thus slandered, for example claiming they are unproven or even ineffective. To the contrary, it is the supplementation approach that fails to improve vitamin A status and is even lacking in proof of impact on young child mortality in real life settings. …