Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Apoptosis and asthma in the elderly.

BACKGROUND Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the airways. The persistence of airway inflammation depends on a decrease in apoptosis of T lymphocytes and eosinophils and survival of these activated cells. T lymphocytes expressing gamma delta receptors can be identified in human lungs and play an important role in immune defence against pathogens and in the regulation of chronic inflammation. Aging is associated with evidence of some immune dysregulation. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to analyze the apoptosis receptors of T lymphocytes in long-lasting asthma, to establish their correlation with activation markers such as CD25+ and human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-DR+, and to analyze the gama delta T cell expression in this disease. METHODS A group of 64 individuals (group A) who had had asthma for more than 30 years (mean age [+/-SD] 72 +/- 5 years) and 61 healthy individuals acting as controls--group B with 41 individuals (mean age 79 +/- 7 years) and group C with 20 individuals (mean age 38 +/- 12 years) were included in the study. All subjects underwent clinical evaluation and spirometric testing. Peripheral blood cells were stained with monoclonal antibodies anti-CD3, anti-CD4, anti-CD8, anti-CD25, anti-TCR gamma delta, anti-HLA-DR and anti-CD95. Statistical comparisons were performed between the asthmatics and the elderly control group and between the elderly control group and the adult control group. RESULTS The average percentage of predicted forced expiratory volume in the first second was 73.6 gamma delta 25.3. The mean values of T cell receptors for asthma group A vs elderly control group B vs adult control group C respectively, were the following: CD3, 74.9+/-7 vs. 74.8 +/- 8.8 (P=ns) vs. 76.7 +/- 4.2 (P=ns); CD4, 48.8 +/- 8.7 vs. 43.5 +/- 10.2 (P=ns) vs. 44.8 +/- 3.8 (P=ns); CD8, 23.3 +/- 7.9 vs. 25.7 +/- 10.2 (P=ns) vs. 25.6 +/- 4.5 (P=ns); CD25, 14.3 +/- 5.9 vs. 22.4 +/- 7.8 (P = .0001) vs. 5.5 +/- 2.4 (P = .0001); TCR gamma delta, 2.8 +/- 2.1 vs. 4.1 +/- 3.3 (P < .05) vs. 4.6 +/- 2.1 (P=ns); HLA-DR, 18.4 +/- 9.2 vs. 17.8 +/- 5.9 (P=ns) vs. 15.4 +/- 5.1 (P=ns) and CD95, 49.3 +/- 13.7 vs. 52.6 +/- 12.1 (P=ns) vs. 13.8 +/- 10.8 (P = .0001). CONCLUSIONS The immunological and inflammatory changes related to ageing may cause an increase in CD95 and CD25 T cell expression. In asthma, blood cells may express increased activation and apoptosis markers but in elderly patients taking steroids, these receptors remain within normal ranges. The number of gamma delta T cells may be lower in long-lasting asthma, and have a limited modulatory effect on allergic inflammatory reactions. The evaluation of patients with long-lasting asthma should take into account the immunological and inflammatory changes present in the elderly in order to avoid results being misinterpreted.
Toward a Synthetic Understanding of the Role of Phenology in Ecology and Evolution Introduction. Phenology in Ecology and Evolution J. Forrest & A. J. Miller-rushing 3103

Phenology affects nearly all aspects of ecology and evolution. Virtually all biological phenomena— from individual physiology to interspecific relationships to global nutrient fluxes—have annual cycles and are influenced by the timing of abiotic events. Recent years have seen a surge of interest in this topic, as an increasing number of studies document phenological responses to climate change. Much recent research has addressed the genetic controls on phenology, modelling techniques and ecosystem-level and evolutionary consequences of phenological change. To date, however, these efforts have tended to proceed independently. Here, we bring together some of these disparate lines of inquiry to clarify vocabulary, facilitate comparisons among habitat types and promote the integration of ideas and methodologies across different disciplines and scales. We discuss the relationship between phenology and life history, the distinction between organismal-and population-level perspectives on phenology and the influence of phenology on evolutionary processes, communities and ecosystems. Future work should focus on linking ecological and physiological aspects of phenology, understanding the demographic effects of phenological change and explicitly accounting for seasonality and phenology in forecasts of ecological and evolutionary responses to climate change. 1. INTRODUCTION The word 'phenology' has the same Greek root, phai-nomai ('to appear'), as the words 'phenomenon' and 'phenotype'. Although the latter two words may be more familiar, phenology—the study of the timing of recurring seasonal biological events—has existed as a field of scientific inquiry for centuries. Whether for agricultural or religious reasons, or simply as a way of marking the passage of the seasons, humans have long had an interest in documenting the more-or-less regular appearances of such things as the first flower blossoms of spring, the first migrating birds or the first frost-damaged leaves of fall (Hopkins 1918; Sparks & Menzel 2002; Aono & Kazui 2008). The ancient Greeks themselves recognized the value of phenology—a more reliable indicator of local weather than the movement of the constellations—and used the timing of leaf fall as a guide for when to sow winter crops (Bostock & Riley 1855). At its simplest, phenology is merely the temporal dimension of natural history. However, this temporal dimension is critical, because it determines the stage of development reached by an organism or population at the time when it intersects with particular components of its environment. Phenology is therefore a major structuring element in nearly all areas of ecology and evolution. Historically, because of its practical importance for plant cultivation, much phenological …
PERDEBATAN EPISTEMOLOGIS ILMU EKONOMI ISLAM DAN FIQH MUAMALAT

Abstra ct: Islamic Economics is basically a combination of two types of science is the science of economics and the science of religion (fiqh mu'amalat). As like other sciences, Islamic economics also has two formal object of study, namely objects and material objects. Formal object of Islamic economics is the whole system of production and distribution of goods and services by businesses better predictions about aspects of income that will be generated as well as on the legal aspects of a transaction. While the material is all science objects associated with Islamic economics . ملخص: الاقتصاد الإسلامي هو في الأساس مزيج من نوعين من العلم هو علم الاقتصاد وعلوم الدين (فقه المعاملات). ومثل غيره من العلوم، الاقتصاد الإسلامي أيضا اثنين من وجوه رسمية من الدراسة، وهي الكائنات والأشياء المادية. كائن رسمي من الاقتصاد الإسلامي هو النظام برمته من إنتاج وتوزيع السلع والخدمات من قبل الشركات التنبؤات على نحو أفضل عن جوانب الدخل التي سيتم إنشاؤها وكذلك على الجوانب القانونية للمعاملة. في حين أن المادة هي كل الكائنات العلوم المرتبطة الاقتصاد الإسلامي Kata Kunci: ilmu ekonomi, fiqh muamalat.
“Mon respe tou lezot lalang!”: a case study of native teacher attitudes towards Creole-mediated multilingual education in Seychelles*

ABSTRACT In January 1982, the Republic of Seychelles became the first country to make its Creole, Seselwa, an official medium of instruction in its multilingual education system. Overall, this innovative language policy has positively affected student levels of personal motivation and academic success. Nevertheless, the nation’s continued use of Creole-mediated multilingual education (CMME) has not been without critics. Chief among them have been the expected purveyors of the CMME policy – teachers. Using a mixed-method survey research design, this study investigated teacher attitudes towards the nation’s three official languages: Seselwa, English, and French; and the Seychelles’ CMME policy. The overall research result was as sobering as it was clear. Despite the government’s 30-year commitment to CMME, the majority of the teachers polled still questioned the efficacy of this policy. Importantly, as this investigation demonstrates, a primary source of this doubt may be found in the teachers’ own language profiles. The implications of these research findings for the future of CMME in Seychelles are discussed and recommendations for future investigations of vernacular instruction are presented.
Square-law combining for SIM/SM in atmospheric turbulence channels

In this paper, we investigate the performance of square-law combining for optical wireless communication (OWC) system based on subcarrier intensity modulation (SIM)/spatial modulation(SM). Square-law combining is one of the receive diversity techniques that can mitigate the atmospheric turbulence induced fading in outdoor environment. Simulation results show that as the number of photo detectors increases, the performance of SIM/SM system is improved in terms of bit error rate.
Sharing-aware intercloud scheduler for data-intensive jobs

Cloud computing, a new concept refers to a hosted computational environment that can provide elastic computation and storage services for users per demand. This paradigm arises due to the huge growth in applications and data sizes. Consider the fact that many agencies, organizations and departments are responsible for time-critical tasks and these tasks need to be completed as soon as possible. At the same time, these agencies also face IT problems because of the rapid growth of their applications, data and solution sizes. Many experts proposed that cloud computing is a solution to these problems so that each agency can execute its tasks via the cloud and expand their requirements based on each situation. This paper tackles the problem of scheduling data-intensive jobs to virtual machines located in the intercloud paradigm. The results depict the huge improvement in data transfer time and the reduction in jobs execution time. This paper concludes that ignoring the shared data would degrade the global system performance.
Electrocardiographic left ventricular hypertrophy in type 1 diabetes: prevalence and relation to coronary heart disease and cardiovascular risk factors: the Eurodiab IDDM Complications Study.

In the general population, left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH), either defined by echocardiographic or electrocardiogram (ECG) criteria, is strongly predictive of cardiovascular events, independent of conventional risk factors (1–3). Normotensive type 1 diabetic patients with nephropathy have an increase in left ventricular mass independent of blood pressure (4) and a decrease in diastolic function (5). In the general population, LVH causes electrical heterogeneity in the heart (6) and is associated with sudden cardiac death secondary to ventricular arrhythmias. Both QT interval duration (QTc) and dispersion (QTd) are affected by electrical heterogeneity and associated with sudden death (7). The EURODIAB IDDM Complications Study is a cross-sectional clinic-based study of diabetes complications recruiting 3,250 type 1 European diabetic subjects (8) using standardized methods of data collection. We aimed to assess ECG-LVH prevalence and association with coronary heart disease (CHD), microvascular complications, QTc, and QTd in this large cohort. Details of the subjects and the procedures of the EURODIAB study have been published elsewhere (8–13). To assess the role of insulin resistance, an estimated glucose disposal rate (GDR) was calculated as previously described (14). Metabolic syndrome was defined according to World Health Organization guidelines (15). LVH was defined by ECG Cornell voltage-duration product [(RaVL + SV3) × QRS complex duration] >2,623 mm × ms in …
JACK Intelligent Agents – Summary of an Agent Infrastructure

Intelligent Agents are being used for modelling simple rational behaviours in a wide range of distributed applications. In particular, multi-agent architectures based on the Belief-DesireIntention model have been used successfully in situations where modelling of human reasoning and team behaviour are needed, such as simulating tactical decision-making in defence operations and command and control structures. Other applications include intelligent web applications, manufacturing control, telephone call centres, and air traffic management. The JACK Intelligent Agents framework by Agent Oriented Software brings the concept of intelligent agents into the mainstream of commercial software engineering and Java. JACK Intelligent AgentsTM is a third generation agent framework, designed as a set of lightweight components with high performance and strong data typing. We present the design approach and major technical characteristics of JACK Intelligent Agents, with a focus on some of the more recent developments – modular structuring elements called Capabilities and the team-based reasoning model called SimpleTeam. Two example applications, in decision support and defence simulation are described. Also, we discuss the benefits of the component-based approach, both for the software engineer developing sophisticated distributed applications, and for the researcher exploring agent models and architectures.
Pengaruh Parental Structure Terhadap Basic Need Satisfaction pada Siswa Kelas IV-VI di Sekolah Dasar "X" Bandung

Setiap siswa memiliki tiga kebutuhan dasar dalam dirinya. Penting bagi siswa untuk memenuhi basic psychological need karena membuat siswa mengembangkan motivasi dan well-being. Parental structure merupakan salah satu parenting behavior yang dapat memfasilitasi untuk memenuhi kebutuhannya. Penelitian dilakukan dengan tujuan untuk mengetahui pengaruh parental structure terhadap basic need satisfaction siswa kelas IV-VI di Sekolah Dasar“X” Bandung. Kuesioner parental structure disusun berdasarkan Teori Farkas dan Grolnick (2010) dengan reliabilitas sebesar r = 0,758. Sedangkan kuesioner basic need satisfaction disusun berdasarkan Teori “Feeling I Have” oleh Deci dan Ryan (2010) dengan reliabilitas sebesar r = 0,716. Teknik pengolahan data dilakukan dengan menggunakan uji analisis regresi linear sederhana. Berdasarkan penelitian pada 132 siswa SD kelas IV-VI ditemukan bahwa terdapat pengaruh yang signifikan parental structure terhadap basic need satisfaction (R2 = 0,277, F = 49,704, dan ρ = 0,000). Parental structure pun memiliki pengaruh yang signifikan terhadap tiga komponen dari basic need satisfaction, yaitu need for autonomy (ρ = 0,000, F = 22,495), need for competence (ρ = 0,000, F = 45,106) dan need for relatedness (ρ = 0,000, F = 21,091). Saran untuk penelitian yang akan melakukan penelitian lebih lanjut diharapkan untuk melakukan penelitian mengenai pengaruh parental structure terhadap basic need satisfaction dengan cangkupan responden yang lebih besar. Selain itu, peneliti mengajukan saran kepada pihak sekolah untuk membuat program psikoedukasi dengan materi yang berkaitan dengan pengaruh parental structure terhadap basic need satisfaction.
A book review of Duchologia polska. Rzeczy i ludzie w latach transformacji by Olga Drenda

The book by Olga Drenda Duchologia polska. Rzeczy i ludzie w latach transformacji , whose title can be rendered in English as Polish Hauntology: Things and People in the Transformation Period , is a kind of anthropological travel in time: to the past that is not too distant, that is still remembered, and still visible in Polish streets. The work covers the “haunted time” between 1987 and 1994, when Polish society underwent significant social, cultural, economic and political changes, joining liberal democracies and liberal free market economies. Drenda depicts several phases of the transition, related to the ineffectiveness of the socialist system, political changes towards democracy (with the Round Table Agreements and semi-free elections of 1989 as the landmarks of this process), and the gradual adaptation to a new social system.
The Edge-Driven Dual-Bootstrap Iterative Closest Point Algorithm for Registration of Multimodal Fluorescein Angiogram Sequence

Motivated by the need for multimodal image registration in ophthalmology, this paper introduces an algorithm which is tailored to jointly align in a common reference space all the images in a complete fluorescein angiogram (FA) sequence, which contains both red-free (RF) and FA images. Our work is inspired by Generalized Dual-Bootstrap Iterative Closest Point (GDB-ICP), which rank-orders Lowe keypoint matches and refines the transformation, going from local and low-order to global and higher-order model, computed from each keypoint match in succession. Albeit GDB-ICP has been shown to be robust in registering images taken under different lighting conditions, the performance is not satisfactory for image pairs with substantial, nonlinear intensity differences. Our algorithm, named Edge-Driven DB-ICP, targeting the least reliable component of GDB-ICP, modifies generation of keypoint matches for initialization by extracting the Lowe keypoints from the gradient magnitude image and enriching the keypoint descriptor with global-shape context using the edge points. Our dataset consists of 60 randomly-selected pathological sequences, each on average having up to two RF and 13 FA images. Edge-Driven DB-ICP successfully registered 92.4% of all pairs, and 81.1% multimodal pairs, whereas GDB-ICP registered 80.1% and 40.1%, respectively. For the joint registration of all images in a sequence, Edge-Driven DB-ICP succeeded in 59 sequences, which is a 23% improvement over GDB-ICP.
Creative Conceptual Change

Creative conceptual change involves (a) the construction of new concepts and of coherent belief systems, or theories, relating these concepts, and (b) the modification and extrapolation of existing concepts and theories in novel situations. I discuss these and other types of conceptual change, and present computational models of constructive and extrapolative processes in creative conceptual change. The models have been implemented as computer programs in two very different task domains, autonomous robotic navigation and fictional story understanding.
Früher Schulabgang und die Transition von Bildung in Beschäftigung

Die Anteile früher Schulabgängerinnen und -abgänger sind in Europa sehr unterschiedlich hoch. 2004 bis 2011 lagen sie zwischen vier (Slowenien) und 40 Prozent (Portugal). Diese Varianz ist wesentlich durch nationale Transitionsstrukturen, die institutionell manifestierten Wege, von Bildung in Beschäftigung begründet. Auf Basis einer umfangreichen Literaturanalyse und Sekundärauswertungen des Labour-Force-Surveys wird eine Typologie der Übergangsstrukturen vorgeschlagen, die westund osteuropäische Staaten umfasst.
Automated Testing against Timing Attacks

This paper provides an overview of a system which allows to integrate detection of potential timing attack with a regular test suite. The authors examine previous approaches to the problem and discuss their usefulness and fitness for the purposes of automated testing. A developer-friendly system for detecting timing issues using Valgrind is presented, and integration with Google Test is discussed. An example of how such test can detect vulnerabilities is provided, and the limitations of the system are outlined.
The Two Views on Ontological Query Answering

We attempt a structured view at the ontological query answering problem by distinguishing between two antagonistic perspectives: The knowledge representation perspective considers the ontology as a part of the specified knowledge whereas the database perspective assumes it to be part of the query. These two perspectives give rise to two computation strategies: (data-driven) forward chaining and (query-driven) backward chaining, based on which different types of decidability criteria can be defined. We give an overview of the two views as well as ensuing conditions for decidability, focusing on existential rules as ontological formalism that has lately gained a lot of renewed interest from both the KR and DB communities.
A Variable Step-Size Affine Projection Algorithm Designed for Acoustic Echo Cancellation

The adaptive algorithms used for acoustic echo cancellation (AEC) have to provide (1) high convergence rates and good tracking capabilities, since the acoustic environments imply very long and time-variant echo paths, and (2) low misadjustment and robustness against background noise variations and double-talk. In this context, the affine projection algorithm (APA) and different versions of it are very attractive choices for AEC. However, an APA with a constant step-size parameter has to compromise between the performance criteria (1) and (2). Therefore, a variable step-size APA (VSS-APA) represents a more reliable solution. In this paper, we propose a VSS-APA derived in the context of AEC. Most of the APAs aim to cancel p (i.e., projection order) previous a posteriori errors at every step of the algorithm. The proposed VSS-APA aims to recover the near-end signal within the error signal of the adaptive filter. Consequently, it is robust against near-end signal variations (including double-talk). This algorithm does not require any a priori information about the acoustic environment, so that it is easy to control in practice. The simulation results indicate the good performance of the proposed algorithm as compared to other members of the APA family.
Nonlinear transmission, scattering and optical limiting studies of graphene dispersions

Employing high-yield production of graphene by liquid-phase exfoliation, a series of dispersions with large populations of graphene single and few layers was prepared. Nonlinear optical properties of these graphene dispersions were studied using the open aperture Z-scan technique at 532 nm and 1064 nm. The graphene dispersions exhibit broadband nonlinear scattering induced optical limiting.
Review of research trends in underwater communications — A technical survey

Research in Underwater Communications is tremendously growing now-a-days. Because of changes in undersea environment and multipath fading, it has become a challenging task for the researchers and scientists to communicate underwater. This paper describes various signals that can be passed through underwater and also the factors influencing them. Various techniques used for underwater communication, such as, OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing), DQPSK OFDM, Magnetic Induction (MI) and the parameters, models used in UWA(Underwater Acoustic Communications) are presented. The focused areas of research have been recognized and a survey of the current activities and future research areas have been presented.
Energy Efficiency in Random Opportunistic Beamforming

As a step towards decreasing power consumption in mobile communication networks, we investigate the energy efficiency (EE) of a scheduler that can be utilized at the transmitter in a broadcast channel: the random opportunistic beamforming algorithm. Using the ratio of rate to power as the EE metric and considering the constant circuit power, the EE at the transmitter decreases with the number of transmit antennas $M$. Two approaches of optimizing the power allocation when $M=1$ are introduced. We show that the optimal EE scales double-logarithmically with the number of users, which has one antenna each. The appropriate expression for EE in communications is also discussed.