87value/wos11967 huggingface dataset:
Purpose This paper reviews and adapts the methodology Guide on the methodology for carrying out cost-benefit analysis prepared by the European Commission (EC). It is specifically tailored to the assessment of an innovative rail freight service, and its application in the context of a number of potential service areas (principally pan European) in Europe. The SPECTRUM service is an innovative rail freight concept for the transport of low density high value (LDHV) goods. Methods The methodology is primarily based on the Guide to cost-benefit analysis of investment projects of the European Commission. The cost definition takes input from a Life Cycle Cost analysis and applies a series of conversion factors. The benefits have been estimated considering the user's surplus, i.e. the difference between Generalised Logistic Costs (GLC) borne by transport/logistics operators (and more in general freight transport service users) when using the SPECTRUM service and GLC connected to preshift mode, i.e. road or traditional rail; and the difference in external costs generated by freight transport activities connected to externalities such as air pollution and climate change, noise, accidents, and other externalities (up-and down-stream processes, nature and landscape, biodiversity losses, soil and water pollution, congestion). Results The adapted methodology has proven capable of representing the multiple effects resulting from the theoretical introduction of an innovative rail service in the freight transport sector - accounting for the differential impacts compared to the baseline scenario solutions. The logical articulation of the analysis is flexible; two specific estimation schemes (the estimation of ad hoc unit parameters for the external costs and ad hoc approach for using GLC as proxies of users' surplus in a scenario where the introduction of the innovative service modifies the modal split of freight transport between different solutions) can be applied to other territorial contexts. It may also be used to evaluate other types of freight transport services, provided that some unit data can be retrieved, which pertain to site-specific cost of infrastructures, average speeds and rates of different transport solutions, costs of personnel and other operating costs.
Background: Selenium is an essential element, but its metabolism in humans is not well characterized. A few small studies indicate that the trimethylselenonium ion (TMSe) is a common selenium metabolite in humans. Objective: This study aimed to elucidate the human metabolism of selenium to TMSe. Design: Study individuals constituted subsamples of 2 cohorts: 1) pregnant women (n = 228) and their 5-y-old children (n = 205) in rural Bangladesh with poor selenium status [median urinary selenium (U-Se): 6.4 mu g/L in mothers, 14 mu g/L in children] and 2) women in the Argentinian Andes (n = 83) with adequate selenium status (median U-Se: 24 mu g/L). Total U-Se and blood selenium were measured by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICPMS), and urinary concentrations of TMSe were measured by high-performance liquid chromatography/vapor generation/ICPMS. A genomewide association study (GWAS) was performed for 1,629,299 (after filtration) single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the Bangladeshi women (n = 72) by using Illumina Omni5M, and results were validated by using real-time polymerase chain reaction. Results: TMSe producers were prevalent (approximately one-third) among the Bangladeshi women and their children, in whom TMSe constituted similar to 10-70% of U-Se, whereas nonproducers had, on average, 0.59% TMSe. The TMSe-producing women had, on average, 2-mu g U-Se/L higher concentrations than did the nonproducers. In contrast, only 3 of the 83 Andean women were TMSe producers (6-15% TMSe in the urine); the average percentage among the nonproducers was 0.35%. Comparison of the percentage of urinary TMSe in mothers and children indicated a strong genetic influence. The GWAS identified 3 SNPs in the indolethylamine N-methyltransferase gene (INMT) that were strongly associated with percentage of TMSe (P < 0.001, false-discovery rate corrected) in both cohorts. Conclusions: There are remarkable population and individual variations in the formation of TMSe, which could largely be explained by SNPs in INMT. The TMSe-producing women had higher U-Se concentrations than did nonproducers, but further elucidation of the metabolic pathways of selenium is essential for the understanding of its role in human health.
The whole world is evolving very fast, and of course technology is being innovated very quickly as well. Vision in 2020, as the main theme of the conference said, sounds like the far future. But five years is not such a long time, nevertheless technical possibilities are increasing dramatically. That is why it is necessary to think about the future, to plan the future and to have some vision. And this whole process starts in education. Young and innovative people are the most effective choice for an employer, and can meet objectives more rapidly. But they need to have the necessary education. New models, an intense focus on the student experience, and a drive for innovation and entrepreneurism will ensure that higher education continues to meet society's needs. (Educase 2010) It is very important for students to deal with real problems during their studies, such as projects coming from local companies. Students must have high-quality study materials which come from real projects from industry. Few students would study engineering without expecting their education to help them prepare for engineering work. (Male 2010) Sometimes we can see lectures are supported by twenty year old materials and it is necessary to change, because if it takes graduates from technical faculties months or years until they are able to work independently and to be beneficial for society, the efficiency of the education is at a low level.
The study aims to discuss the criminalization processes of the cultural manifestations of brazilian funk, especially in the context of the city of Porto Alegre / RS, from its more expressive representation called Baile Funk da Tuka. Therefore, it focuses on a political-historical memory about crime linked to a hunt of the samba-funk to current formation of refractory punitive ethos of proibidoesas cultural manifestation. Thus, one can reach the local stage, through semistructured interviews with the regulars of these bailes, MCs that lead the meetings, as well as with the military police responsible for the ostensible policing in the region. The criticism built is the result of discourse analysis of these social actors, focused on participant intervention dialogues, which endows the work only outlines the perspective of getting the punitive power by suprise in its forceful dynamics of inequality, often prone to turn prejudice and stigmatization as naturalized products of violence and social exclusion.
The use of smart devices is increasing rapidly; this trend is changing the paradigm in which notifications are delivered to users. Smart devices are important to provide user awareness. However, their use must be controlled and human perception should be considered to avoid information overload. In this paper, we present a dynamic mechanism to coordinate the distribution of notification across smart devices. This personalized notification mechanism uses an inference engine and a set of rules to generate notification alternatives and select the best one. A continuous refinement approach is also used to improve notification delivery. Our system was evaluated and the baseline rules were established by 11 expert users. The main results show that in some scenarios, the notification mechanism selection converged quickly and results are promising. However, further work is required to provide not only personalized but integrated (i.e., more than one device at the time) notification management.
The neural basis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is not yet understood. ASD is marked by social deficits and is strongly associated with cerebellar abnormalities. We studied the organization and cerebellar connectivity of the temporoparietal junction (TPJ), an area that plays a crucial role in social cognition. We applied localized independent component analysis to resting-state fMRI data from autistic and neurotypical adolescents to yield an unbiased parcellation of the bilateral TPJ into 11 independent components (ICs). A comparison between neurotypical and autistic adolescents showed that the organization of the TPJ was not significantly altered in ASD. Second, we used the time courses of the TPJ ICs as spatially unbiased seeds for a functional connectivity analysis applied to voxels within the cerebellum. We found that the cerebellum contained a fine-grained, lateralized map of the TPJ. The connectivity of the TPJ subdivisions with cerebellar zones showed one striking difference in ASD. The right dorsal TPJ showed markedly less connectivity with the left Crus II. Disturbed cerebellar input to this key region for cognition and multimodal integration may contribute to social deficits in ASD. The findings might also suggest that the right TPJ and/or left Crus II are potential targets for noninvasive brain stimulation therapies.
Deep Venous Thrombosis (DVT) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality. Manually scanning with Ultrasound (US) probe brings heavy work load for the sonographers. This paper proposes a novel Mirror robotic US scanning system. The system is composed of two-arm robot, linear US probes for master and slave side, Kinect sensor as a vision servo. On the master side, sonographers hold one robot arm and operate probe to inspect one leg. On the slave side, the robot follows the master probe on the navigation of Kinect and scans the other leg. 3D images of legs are segmented and register to get mirror matrix. Both Clustered Viewpoint Feature Histogram (CVFH) descriptors of segmented probe and CAD (Computer-Aided Design) training data were calculated to probe recognition. The leg phantom platform was built up. The mirror matrixes were obtained. The correlation coefficients between the two legs are calculated. Times of ICP (Iterative Closest Point) have been calculated for the platform. Results from the initial experiment indicate the idea is feasible and promising greatly by improving the inspection efficiently. Clinically, the method can be implemented for pre-operative procedures to predict the risk of DVT, and this may improve the US scanning efficacy.
The present study was conducted during Protective Edge, a long-lasting military operation between the State of Israel and Hamas in Gaza, during which hundreds of rockets were fired from Gaza into various regions across the country. At the same time, Israeli forces bombed Gaza and sent in ground forces. The military operation ended after 50 days of fighting, with a cease-fire between the warring sides. The aim of this study was to compare attitudes and perceptions of youth from different religious fundamentalist societies, toward the war and their readiness for peace during this specific violent struggle, and attitudes toward the Israeli-Palestinian (I-P) conflict in general. Furthermore, we wanted to examine the links between these attitudes, personal sense of coherence and state anxiety. We compared two groups of adolescents who belong to religious minorities in Israel: ultra-Orthodox and national religious. The sample included a total of 107 subjects from both groups. The young people responded to a questionnaire, distributed during the military operation, while they were still under rocket fire from the Gaza Strip. The questionnaire included: socio-demographic characteristics; attitudes toward the military operation; ways to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; sense of coherence and state anxiety. Results indicate that both groups thought that the I-P conflict would not be resolved peacefully and that there were more wars to come. Furthermore, both national religious and ultra-Orthodox adolescents thought that this operation would have limited success for only a limited time. Regarding the differences between the groups, sense of coherence was higher among the ultra-Orthodox and this group also believed more than their counterparts that everything was in God's hands. Interesting results emerged with peaceful resolution being linked to more anxiety among the national religious group, while among the ultra-Orthodox group no relationships were indicated on these two variables. The results of the study underscore the implications of ongoing political conflicts, alongside the growing global power of religion, which minimizes opportunities for world peace.
Bacterial community analyses of samples from a pilot plant for the treatment of acid mine drainage (AMD) from the lignite-mining district in Lusatia (East Germany) had previously demonstrated the dominance of two groups of acidophilic iron oxidizers: the novel candidate genus Ferrovum and a group comprising Gallionella-like strains. Since pure culture had proven difficult, previous studies have used genome analyses of co-cultures consisting of Ferrovum and a strain of the heterotrophic acidophile Acidiphilium in order to obtain insight into the life style of these novel bacteria. Here we report on attempts to undertake a similar study on Gallionella-like acidophiles from AMD. Isolates belonging to the family Gallionellaceae are still restricted to the microaerophilic and neutrophilic iron oxidizers Sideroxydans and Gallionella. Availability of genomic or metagenomic sequence data of acidophilic strains of these genera should, therefore, be relevant for defining adaptive strategies in pH homeostasis. This is particularly the case since complete genome sequences of the neutrophilic strains G. capsiferriformans ES-2 and S. lithotrophicus ES-1 permit the direct comparison of the metabolic capacity of neutrophilic and acidophilic members of the same genus and, thus, the detection of biochemical features that are specific to acidophilic strains to support life under acidic conditions. Isolation attempts undertaken in this study resulted in the microaerophilic enrichment culture ADE-12-1 which, based on 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, consisted of at least three to four distinct Gallionellaceae strains that appear to be closely related to the neutrophilic iron oxidizer S. lithotrophicus ES-1. Key hypotheses inferred from the metabolic reconstruction of the metagenomic sequence data of these acidophilic Sideroxydans strains include the putative role of urea hydrolysis, formate oxidation and cyanophycin decarboxylation in pH homeostasis.
At present, most cases of unresectable cancer cannot be cured. Genetic mutations, EMT, and cancer stem cells are three major issues linked to poor prognosis in such cases, all connected by inter- and intra-tumor heterogeneity. Issues on inter-/intra-tumor heterogeneity of genetic mutation could be resolved with recent and future technologies of deep sequencers, whereas, regarding such issues as the same genome, different epigenome/phenotype, we expect to solve many of these problems in the future through further research in stem cell biology. We herein review and discuss the three major issues in the biology of cancers, especially from the standpoint of stem cell biology.
Epidemiological studies based on the hygiene hypothesis declare that the level of childhood exposure to environmental microbial products is inversely related to the incidence of allergic diseases in later life. Multiple types of immune cell-mediated immune regulation networks support the hygiene hypothesis. Epithelial cells are the first line of response to microbial products in the environment and bridge the innate and adaptive immune systems; however, their role in the hygiene hypothesis is unknown. To demonstrate the hygiene hypothesis in airway epithelial cells, we examined the effect of lipopolysaccharide (LPS; toll-like receptor 4 ligand) on the expression of the proallergic cytokines thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP) and interleukin 33 (IL33) in H292 cells (pulmonary mucoepidermoid carcinoma cells). Stimulation with the TLR ligand polyI:C and human parechovirus type 1 (HPeV1) but not LPS-induced TSLP and IL33 through interferon regulatory factor 3 (IRF3) and NF-kappa B activity, which was further validated by using inhibitors (dexamethasone and Bay 11-7082) and short hairpin RNA-mediated gene knockdown. Importantly, polyI:C and HPeV1-stimulated TSLP and IL33 induction was reduced by LPS treatment by attenuating TANK-binding kinase 1, IRF3, and NF-kappa B activation. Interestingly, the basal mRNA levels of TLR signaling proteins were downregulated with long-term LPS treatment of H292 cells, which suggests that such long-term exposure modulates the expression of innate immunity signaling molecules in airway epithelial cells to mitigate the allergic response. In contrast to the effects of LPS treatment, the alarmin high-mobility group protein B1 acts in synergy with polyI:C to promote TSLP and IL33 expression. Our data support part of the hygiene hypothesis in airway epithelia cells in vitro. In addition to therapeutic targeting of TSLP and IL33, local application of non-pathogenic LPS may be a rational strategy to prevent allergies.
CASE: Kendra is a 4-year-old girl with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who presents for follow-up of feeding problems to her pediatric clinician. She is an only child in a family where both parents are scientists. Feeding concerns date to infancy, when she was diagnosed with Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD) associated with persistent bottle refusal and the acceptance of few pureed foods. At 13 months, milk and peanut allergies were diagnosed. Following a feeding clinic evaluation at 24 months, she was prescribed a soy milk supplement and an H2 blocker. There was no concern for oral-motor dysfunction. She was also referred to early intervention for feeding therapy. However, her parents terminated participation after 6 months because she became anxious and had tantrum prior to treatment groups. She was seen in another feeding program at 3 years; zinc, folate, thyroid, and a celiac panel were normal, and an endoscopy was negative for eosinophilic esophagitis. She began individual feeding therapy, where concerns for rigidity, difficulty transitioning, and limited peer interactions led to a neuropsychological evaluation. Kendra was diagnosed with an ASD and avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID). Her cognitive skills were average, and expressive and receptive language skills were low average. Her diet consisted of French fries, Ritz crackers, pretzels, and 32 ounces of soy formula daily. She had stopped accepting Cheerios and saltines 2 months prior. She controlled other aspects of feeding, insisting on a specific parking spot at a fast food restaurant and drinking from a particular sippy cup. Her parents accepted these demands with concern about her caloric intake, which they tracked daily. Following diagnosis with ARFID, she resumed feeding therapy using a systematic desensitization approach with rewards. At the first session, she kissed and licked 2 new foods without gagging. Her mother appeared receptive to recommendations that included continuing the food game at home, replacing 1 ounce of soy formula by offering water each day, limiting between-meal grazing, and refusing specific feeding demands. Currently, her parents plan to discontinue feeding therapy with concerns that the treatment was too harsh. Her father produces logs of her caloric and micronutrient intake as evidence that she did not replace missed formula with other foods and reports that she subsequently became more difficult to manage behaviorally. Her father now demands to see randomized controlled trials of feeding therapy approaches. Her weight is stable, but she has now limited her pretzel intake to a specific brand. How would you approach her continued care?
This paper demonstrates how to interact with a conversational agent that speaks through an actual human body face-to-face and in person (i.e., offscreen). This is made possible by the cyranoid method: a technique involving a human person speech shadowing for a remote third-party (i.e., receiving their words via a covert audio-relay apparatus and repeating them aloud in real-time). When a person shadows for an artificial conversational agent source, we call the resulting hybrid an echoborg. We report a study in which people encountered conversational agents either through a human shadower face-to-face or via a text interface under conditions where they assumed their interlocutor to be an actual person. Our results show that the perception of a conversational agent is dramatically altered when the agent is voiced by an actual, tangible person. We discuss the potential implications this methodology has for the development of conversational agents and general person perception research.
A disruption of the oxytocin system seems to affect a variety of brain functions including emotions, mood and social behavior possibly underlying severe social deficits and susceptibility for substance use and mental health disorders. Early life adversity, such as insecure attachment in childhood, has been suggested to influence oxytocin tone contributing to a condition of neurobiological vulnerability. Aim of the present study was to investigate oxytocin serum levels in abstinent heroin addicted patients, in comparison with healthy controls, and the possible correlation with co-occurring psychiatric symptoms, aggressiveness and perception of parental neglect. Eighteen (18) abstinent patients, affected by heroin use disorders, and 18 control subjects, who never used drugs or abused alcohol, were included in the study and submitted to 1) collection of a blood sample for oxytocin assay, 2) Symptoms Check List 90 for psychiatric symptoms evaluation 3) Buss Durkee Hostility Inventory to measure aggressiveness 4) Child Experience of Care and Abuse-Questionnaire to retrospectively test the perception of parental neglect. Heroin exposure extent and heroin dosages were also recorded. Oxytocin serum levels were unexpectedly significantly higher among abstinent patients affected by heroin use disorders and positively correlated with psychiatric symptoms, aggressiveness and mother neglect scores. No correlation was evidenced between oxytocin and heroin exposure extent or dosages. Our findings appear to contradict the simplistic view of oxytocin as a pro-social hormone and confirm previous evidence concerning the peptide levels direct association with aggressive behavior and mood disorders. Considering a more complex mechanism, oxytocin would increase the sensitivity to social salience cues related to contextual or inter-individual factors, promoting pro-sociality in safe conditions and, in contrast, inducing more defensive and anti-social emotions and behaviors when the social cues are interpreted as unsafe. This latter condition is often characterizing the clinical history of addicted patients. (C) 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Water pollution permit systems are challenging to design and implement. Operational systems that has maintained functionality remains few and far between, particularly in developing countries. We present current progress towards developing such a system for nutrient enrichment based water pollution, mainly from commercial agriculture. We applied a production function approach to first estimate the monetary value of the impact of the pollution, which is then used as reference point for establishing a reserve price for pollution permits. The subsequent market making process is explained according to five steps including permit design, terms, conditions and transactional protocol, the monitoring system, piloting and implementation. The monetary value of the impact of pollution was estimated at R1887 per hectare per year, which not only provide a management budget for filamentous green algae mitigation strategies in the study area, but also enabled the calculation of a reserve price for filamentous green algae pollution permits, which was estimated between R2.25 and R111 per gram filamentous algae and R8.99 per gram at the preferred state. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.