Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Critical Role of Endothelial Hydrogen Peroxide in Post-Ischemic Neovascularization

Background Reactive oxygen species (ROS) play an important role in angiogenesis in endothelial cells (ECs) in vitro and neovascularization in vivo. However, little is known about the role of endogenous vascular hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in postnatal neovascularization. Methodology/Principal Findings We used Tie2-driven endothelial specific catalase transgenic mice (Cat-Tg mice) and hindlimb ischemia model to address the role of endogenous H2O2 in ECs in post-ischemic neovascularization in vivo. Here we show that Cat-Tg mice exhibit significant reduction in intracellular H2O2 in ECs, blood flow recovery, capillary formation, collateral remodeling with larger extent of tissue damage after hindlimb ischemia, as compared to wild-type (WT) littermates. In the early stage of ischemia-induced angiogenesis, Cat-Tg mice show a morphologically disorganized microvasculature. Vascular sprouting and tube elongation are significantly impaired in isolated aorta from Cat-Tg mice. Furthermore, Cat-Tg mice show a decrease in myeloid cell recruitment after hindlimb ischemia. Mechanistically, Cat-Tg mice show significant decrease in eNOS phosphorylation at Ser1177 as well as expression of redox-sensitive vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) and monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1) in ischemic muscles, which is required for inflammatory cell recruitment to the ischemic tissues. We also observed impaired endothelium-dependent relaxation in resistant vessels from Cat-Tg mice. Conclusions/Significance Endogenous ECs-derived H2O2 plays a critical role in reparative neovascularization in response to ischemia by upregulating adhesion molecules and activating eNOS in ECs. Redox-regulation in ECs is a potential therapeutic strategy for angiogenesis-dependent cardiovascular diseases.
The role of community integration and empowerment for the transformative change in community mental health

The present article first presents a critique about the current status of the CMH field; and second based in theoretical and empirical literature it presents a perspective inspired by the inception of community psychology, namely the empowerment and community integration principles to offer a challenging framework to inspire reforms in CMH field. The article also discusses two major promising CMH practices: supported employment and independent housing with support, determinant for the transformation of the life conditions of the people experiencing mental illness while promoting people’s empowerment and integration in the community. Concluding authors argue that CMH programs and practices focused on integration, together with self-representation movements, organizations or networks, aligned with the community psychology acting principles, have the potential to inform a renovated partnership within CMH stakeholders, and bring about sustainable change focused on the active citizenship for the people who experience mental illness.
Essays on Labour Market Structure and Policies

The thesis consists of three essays on labour market structure and policies.Minimum Wage and Tax Evasion: Theory builds a theoretical model to analyse the interaction between minimum wage legislation and tax evasion by employed labour. The firm and the worker agree on the amount of earnings to report to the fiscal authorities, which possess an imperfect detection technology. The introduction of the minimum wage poses a constraint on the reporting decision and induces an increase in compliance by some agents. As a consequence, a spike at the minimum wage appears in the distribution of declared earnings. Moreover, a nominally neutral fiscal regime becomes regressive, while fiscal revenues may increase.Minimum Wage and Tax Evasion: Empirical Evidence tests the prediction derived from the model in the first essay that a minimum wage hike implies a fall in true income even for those workers who appear to benefit from it. It uses the massive increase in the minimum wage that took place in Hungary in 2001 as a quasi-natural experiment. A difference-in-difference approach is used, comparing food consumption before and after the minimum wage hike for households affected by it and for similar but unaffected households. The treatment effect is negative and significant across different specifications, thus supporting the prediction of the model. The control group is validated by showing that it did not differ from the treatment group in the pre-policy period.In-Work Benefits in Search Equilibrium investigates the general equilibrium effects of in-work benefits in a search framework. Introducing in-work benefits reduces equilibrium unemployment, moderate wages, and boosts participation and search. Total employment increases as a result. Compared to a partial equilibrium analysis, accounting for general equilibrium effects reinforces the impact of benefits on labour market variables. The case when benefits are financed through proportional taxation on wages is also analysed.
Absolute Stability and Complete Synchronization in a Class of Neural Fields Models

Neural fields are an interesting option for modeling macroscopic parts of the cortex involving several populations of neurons, like cortical areas. Two classes of neural field equations are considered: voltage- and activity-based. The spatio-temporal behavior of these fields is described by nonlinear integro-differential equations. The integral term, computed over a compact subset of $\mathbb{R}^q$, $q=1,2,3$, involves space and time varying, possibly nonsymmetric, intracortical connectivity kernels. Contributions from white matter afferents are represented as external input. Sigmoidal nonlinearities arise from the relation between average membrane potentials and instantaneous firing rates. Using methods of functional analysis, we characterize the existence and uniqueness of a solution of these equations for general, homogeneous (i.e., independent of the spatial variable), and spatially locally homogeneous inputs. In all cases we give sufficient conditions on the connectivity functions for the solutions to be absolutely stable, that is to say, asymptotically independent of the initial state of the field. These conditions bear on some compact operators defined from the connectivity kernels, the maximal slope of the sigmoids, and the time constants used in describing the temporal shape of the postsynaptic potentials. Numerical experiments are presented to illustrate the theory. To our knowledge this is the first time that such a complete analysis of the problem of the existence and uniqueness of a solution of these equations has been obtained. Another important contribution is the analysis of the absolute stability of these solutions—more difficult but more general than the linear stability analysis which it implies. The reason we have been able to complete this work is our use of the functional analysis framework and the theory of compact operators in a Hilbert space which has allowed us to provide simple mathematical answers to some of the questions raised by modelers in neuroscience.
A Comparative Study of English, Korean and Chinese Word Order and Movement: A Minimalist Approach

This paper is an exploratory study on the syntactic structure of English, Korean and Chinese. Based on the minimalist approach proposed by Adger (2003), the study attempts to discover the relationships of the syntactic structure among the three languages via analyzing unergative sentence, unaccusative sentence and transitive sentence in these languages from a comparative perspective. This paper makes comparative analysis on the syntactic structure of English, Korean and Chinese, which brings out implication for the study of languages in the different typological types.
Expert systems in the context of decision support related interventions

Although expert systems are recognized as part of the technological support available for decision making, expert systems have not explicitly been included in evaluations of directiveness in decision support. This paper develops a framework and an example to illustrate how expert systems can be employed in a decision support environment based on a needed intervention style. Permission to copy without fee all or part of this material is granted provided that the copies are not made or distributed for direct commercial advantage, the ACM copyright notice and the title of the publication and its date appear, and notice is given that copying is by permission of the Association for Computing Machinery. To copy othetwise, or to republish, requires a fee and/or specific permission.
Einstein–Maxwell gravitational instantons and five-dimensional solitonic strings

We study various aspects of four-dimensional Einstein–Maxwell multicentred gravitational instantons. These are half-BPS Riemannian backgrounds of minimal supergravity, asymptotic to or AdS2 × S2. Unlike for the Gibbons–Hawking solutions, the topology is not restricted by boundary conditions. We discuss the classical metric on the instanton moduli space. One class of these solutions may be lifted to causal and regular multi ‘solitonic strings’, without horizons, of (4 + 1)-dimensional supergravity, carrying null momentum.
Real-Time Monitoring and Evaluation of a Visual-Based Cervical Cancer Screening Program Using a Decision Support Job Aid

In many developing nations, cervical cancer screening is done by visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA). Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of such screening programs is challenging. An enhanced visual assessment (EVA) system was developed to augment VIA procedures in low-resource settings. The EVA System consists of a mobile colposcope built around a smartphone, and an online image portal for storing and annotating images. A smartphone app is used to control the mobile colposcope, and upload pictures to the image portal. In this paper, a new app feature that documents clinical decisions using an integrated job aid was deployed in a cervical cancer screening camp in Kenya. Six organizations conducting VIA used the EVA System to screen 824 patients over the course of a week, and providers recorded their diagnoses and treatments in the application. Real-time aggregated statistics were broadcast on a public website. Screening organizations were able to assess the number of patients screened, alongside treatment rates, and the patients who tested positive and required treatment in real time, which allowed them to make adjustments as needed. The real-time M&E enabled by "smart" diagnostic medical devices holds promise for broader use in screening programs in low-resource settings.
Health Related Quality of Life May Increase when Patients with a Stoma Attend Patient Education – A Case-Control Study

Introduction Adaptation to living with a stoma is complex, and studies have shown that stoma creation has a great impact on patients' health related quality of life. The objective was to explore the effect of a structured patient education program on health related quality of life. Therefore, we implemented interventions aimed at increasing health related quality of life during and after hospital admission. Materials and Methods We designed a case/control study aimed at adult patients admitted to the surgical ward for stoma creation, irrespective of type of stoma or reason for creation of stoma. We included 50 patients in the study. Health related quality of life was measured before hospital discharge, three months and six months after stoma creation. The program included educational interventions involving lay-teachers, alongside health professional teachers. Results We found a significant rise in health related quality of life in the intervention group (P<0.001) and no significant change in the control group (P = 0.144). However, we found no significant differences when comparing between groups at 3 and 6 months (p = 0.12 and p = 0.63, respective). Additionally, there were differences in scores in health related quality of life baseline (p = 0.045) with lower scores in the intervention group compared with the intervention group. However, there were no significant differences in the demographic variables at baseline Conclusions Educational activities aimed at increase in knowledge and focusing on patients' psychosocial needs may lead to a rise in patients' health related quality of life. When patients with a stoma attend a structured patient education program it is possible to improve their health related quality of life compared with patients with a stoma, who do not attend the program. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01154725
Vector Space Model and Overlap Metric for Author Identification Notebook for PAN at CLEF 2013

This paper describes our entry for the Author Identification task at PAN 2013. The Author Identification task was performed using a combination of Vector Space Model [1] (VSM) and Similarity Overlap Metric [3] (SOM) on the character n-grams extracted from the documents related to an author and the document of question. A combination of the VSM and SOM provided an overall F-measure, precision and recall values of 0.576 each.
Sequential Posted Pricing and Multi-parameter Mechanism Design

We consider the classical mathematical economics problem of {\em Bayesian optimal mechanism design} where a principal aims to optimize expected revenue when allocating resources to self-interested agents with preferences drawn from a known distribution. In single-parameter settings (i.e., where each agent's preference is given by a single private value for being served and zero for not being served) this problem is solved [Myerson '81]. Unfortunately, these single parameter optimal mechanisms are impractical and rarely employed [Ausubel and Milgrom '06], and furthermore the underlying economic theory fails to generalize to the important, relevant, and unsolved multi-dimensional setting (i.e., where each agent's preference is given by multiple values for each of the multiple services available) [Manelli and Vincent '07]. In contrast to the theory of optimal mechanisms we develop a theory of sequential posted price mechanisms, where agents in sequence are offered take-it-or-leave-it prices. These mechanisms are approximately optimal in single-dimensional settings, and avoid many of the properties that make optimal mechanisms impractical. Furthermore, these mechanisms generalize naturally to give the first known approximations to the elusive optimal multi-dimensional mechanism design problem. In particular, we solve multi-dimensional multi-unit auction problems and generalizations to matroid feasibility constraints. The constant approximations we obtain range from 1.5 to 8. For all but one case, our posted price sequences can be computed in polynomial time.
Model Predictive Control Applied into Time Delay Capsubot System

In this paper, a model predictive controller for time delay capsubot system is presented. Linearized dynamics is used to predictive future system behavior and a control law is derived from a quadratic cost function penalizing the system tracking error and the control effort. It is noted that model predictive control has advantages over state feedback law because of consideration of constraints on inputs or state vectors. Examples are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the approach. Some ideas for future work are also discussed.
Barriers to oral medication adherence for adolescents with inflammatory bowel disease.

OBJECTIVE To identify family-reported, adherence-related barriers for adolescents with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and examine their relationship to 6-MP/azathioprine and 5-ASA medication adherence. METHODS Participants included 74 adolescents, aged 13-17 years, diagnosed with IBD and their caregivers. Adolescents and caregivers jointly completed a measure of barriers to medication adherence. Adherence to medication was measured by family-report, pill-count, and serum assay. RESULTS Families endorsed one to seven total barriers to medication adherence. The most commonly reported barriers included forgetting, being away from home, and interference with an activity. Neither demographic nor disease severity variables were related to the total number of reported barriers. Fewer total reported barriers was related to better adherence by adolescent and maternal report. CONCLUSION Most families experience at least one barrier to treatment adherence. Effective problem-solving around these barriers and its integration into future treatment protocols may help improve medication adherence in the pediatric IBD population.
Handling outdated information in optical PCE environments

The rapid emergence of new network scenarios and architectures, such as Data Centers Networks (DCNs), Path Computation Element (PCE), and Software Defined Networking (SDN), has refreshed some on-line routing-related problems, objective of many research efforts in the past. As a result, new scalable and efficient path computation algorithms are required to address particular characteristics and demands of on-line scenarios, such as those brought by inaccurate Network State Information (NSI), strongly affecting the overall blocking probability. In this paper, we propose a prediction-based PCE scheme, referred to as PPCE. PPCE is devised for highly dynamic network scenarios, aiming at reducing the amount of signaling messages as well as the blocking probability.
The Mis-entropists : New Approaches to Measures in Tor

Measuring path compromise in the anonymity system Tor is a problem of important and immediate interest. We discuss the drawbacks to the traditional anonymity network measure—entropy—and explore the advantages of an attackbased measure. Our perspective is that of an adversary with a bandwidth budget (a fixed amount of bandwidth he or she can compromise), and we derive theoretical and numerical results that illustrate path compromise under these conditions.
Effects of Kinetin, IAA, and Gibberellin on Ethylene Production, and Their Interactions in Growth of Seedlings.

Kinetin in concentrations of 10(-8) to 10(-4)m, stimulated ethylene production in 3 and 4-day old etiolated seedlings of Alaska pea (Pisum sativum L. var. Alaska). Seedlings of other species responded similarly. The response to kinetin depended on the age of the seedlings.Kinetin alone did not influence ethylene production in 6-day old stem sections, but it greatly increased the enhancing effect of IAA.Gibberellic acid had no effect on ethylene production by pea seedlings during the first 6 days of growth. Ethylene and gibberellic acid are antagonistic in their effects on growth of the seedlings; ethylene interfered severely with the action of gibberellic acid but did not completely suppress it.The inhibitors cycloheximide, cupferron, and N-ethylmaleimide, caused considerable inhibition of kinetin-induced ethylene production but were much less effective in the endogenous ethylene-forming system.
Fault Tolerance and Security in Forwarding Packets Using Game Theory

In self-organized wireless network, such as ad hoc network, sensor network or mesh network, nodes are independent individuals which have different benefit; Therefore, selfish nodes refuse to forward packets for other nodes in order to save energy which causes the network fault. At the same time, some nodes may be malicious, whose aim is to damage the network. In this paper, we analyze the cooperation stimulation and security in self-organized wireless networks under a game theoretic framework. We first analyze a four node wireless network in which nodes share the channel by relaying for others during its idle periods in order to help the other nodes, each node has to use a part of its available channel capacity. And then, the fault tolerance and security problem is modeled as a non-cooperative game in which each player maximizes its own utility function. The goal of the game is to maximize the utility function in the giving condition in order to get better network efficiency. At last, for characterizing the efficiency of Nash equilibria, we analyze the so called price of anarchy, as the ratio between the objective function at the worst Nash equilibrium and the optimal objective function. Our results show that the players can get the biggest payoff if they obey cooperation strategy.
Global Software Development – the Challenges Ita

Software development has become a globally sourced commodity. Software development processes such as requirements elicitation, development of components and maintenance tasks are often distributed across sites and countries. This research paper focuses on the distribution of the testing process, which is not a straightforward task. The research presented here has examined the management of virtual teams within a distributed testing environment in two multi-national companies in Ireland. This has elicited many issues over and above the ‘socio-cultural’ issues so often discussed. Some of the difficulties encountered include language differences, use of communication tools, different process maturity levels, tools and standards, technical ability and knowledge management. Apart from the management of the testing process, we are also considering the technical issues involved in the global distribution of testing. A related study is being undertaken with teams of students from Masters classes in our two Universities to investigate a global testing infrastructure to identify critical factors that reduce the time to product stability while improving the competitive position of developing organizations. Teams of graduate computer science students in Ireland and in the United States will conduct operational testing on an industrial software system following several scenarios. We will compare various approaches of processing trouble reports and software updates to determine their impact on defects uncovered, the severity levels and types of defects, and the complexity of the modules in which the defects occurred. The results will be analyzed using theoretical models and compared to industry standards for defects at delivery, latent errors and time to product stability.
Incremental Active Opinion Learning Over a Stream of Opinionated Documents

Applications that learn from opinionated documents, like tweets or product reviews, face two challenges. First, the opinionated documents constitute an evolving stream, where both the author's attitude and the vocabulary itself may change. Second, labels of documents are scarce and labels of words are unreliable, because the sentiment of a word depends on the (unknown) context in the author's mind. Most of the research on mining over opinionated streams focuses on the first aspect of the problem, whereas for the second a continuous supply of labels from the stream is assumed. Such an assumption though is utopian as the stream is infinite and the labeling cost is prohibitive. To this end, we investigate the potential of active stream learning algorithms that ask for labels on demand. Our proposed ACOSTREAM 1 approach works with limited labels: it uses an initial seed of labeled documents, occasionally requests additional labels for documents from the human expert and incrementally adapts to the underlying stream while exploiting the available labeled documents. In its core, ACOSTREAM consists of a MNB classifier coupled with "sampling" strategies for requesting class labels for new unlabeled documents. In the experiments, we evaluate the classifier performance over time by varying: (a) the class distribution of the opinionated stream, while assuming that the set of the words in the vocabulary is fixed but their polarities may change with the class distribution; and (b) the number of unknown words arriving at each moment, while the class polarity may also change. Our results show that active learning on a stream of opinionated documents, delivers good performance while requiring a small selection of labels