Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Integral-Field Spectroscopy of the Post-Red Supergiant IRC +10420: Evidence for an Axisymmetric Wind

We present NAOMI/OASIS adaptive-optics-assisted integral-field spectroscopy of the transitional massive hypergiant IRC +10420, an extreme mass-losing star apparently in the process of evolving from a red supergiant toward the Wolf-Rayet phase. To investigate the present-day mass-loss geometry of the star, we study the appearance of the line emission from the inner wind as viewed when reflected off the surrounding nebula. We find that, contrary to previous work, there is strong evidence for wind axisymmetry, based on the equivalent width and velocity variations of Hα and Fe II λ6516. We attribute this behavior to the appearance of the complex line profiles when viewed from different angles. We also speculate that the Ti II emission originates in the outer nebula in a region analogous to the strontium filament of η Carinae, based on the morphology of the line emission. Finally, we suggest that the present-day axisymmetric wind of IRC +10420, combined with its continued blueward evolution, is evidence that the star is evolving toward the B[e] supergiant phase.
Treatment-resistant schizophrenia: current insights on the pharmacogenomics of antipsychotics

Up to 30% of people with schizophrenia do not respond to two (or more) trials of dopaminergic antipsychotics. They are said to have treatment-resistant schizophrenia (TRS). Clozapine is still the only effective treatment for TRS, although it is underused in clinical practice. Initial use is delayed, it can be hard for patients to tolerate, and clinicians can be uncertain as to when to use it. What if, at the start of treatment, we could identify those patients likely to respond to clozapine – and those likely to suffer adverse effects? It is likely that clinicians would feel less inhibited about using it, allowing clozapine to be used earlier and more appropriately. Genetic testing holds out the tantalizing possibility of being able to do just this, and hence the vital importance of pharmacogenomic studies. These can potentially identify genetic markers for both tolerance of and vulnerability to clozapine. We aim to summarize progress so far, possible clinical applications, limitations to the evidence, and problems in applying these findings to the management of TRS. Pharmacogenomic studies of clozapine response and tolerability have produced conflicting results. These are due, at least in part, to significant differences in the patient groups studied. The use of clinical pharmacogenomic testing – to personalize clozapine treatment and identify patients at high risk of treatment failure or of adverse events – has moved closer over the last 20 years. However, to develop such testing that could be used clinically will require larger, multicenter, prospective studies.
MrkH, a Novel c-di-GMP-Dependent Transcriptional Activator, Controls Klebsiella pneumoniae Biofilm Formation by Regulating Type 3 Fimbriae Expression

Klebsiella pneumoniae causes significant morbidity and mortality worldwide, particularly amongst hospitalized individuals. The principle mechanism for pathogenesis in hospital environments involves the formation of biofilms, primarily on implanted medical devices. In this study, we constructed a transposon mutant library in a clinical isolate, K. pneumoniae AJ218, to identify the genes and pathways implicated in biofilm formation. Three mutants severely defective in biofilm formation contained insertions within the mrkABCDF genes encoding the main structural subunit and assembly machinery for type 3 fimbriae. Two other mutants carried insertions within the yfiN and mrkJ genes, which encode GGDEF domain- and EAL domain-containing c-di-GMP turnover enzymes, respectively. The remaining two isolates contained insertions that inactivated the mrkH and mrkI genes, which encode for novel proteins with a c-di-GMP-binding PilZ domain and a LuxR-type transcriptional regulator, respectively. Biochemical and functional assays indicated that the effects of these factors on biofilm formation accompany concomitant changes in type 3 fimbriae expression. We mapped the transcriptional start site of mrkA, demonstrated that MrkH directly activates transcription of the mrkA promoter and showed that MrkH binds strongly to the mrkA regulatory region only in the presence of c-di-GMP. Furthermore, a point mutation in the putative c-di-GMP-binding domain of MrkH completely abolished its function as a transcriptional activator. In vivo analysis of the yfiN and mrkJ genes strongly indicated their c-di-GMP-specific function as diguanylate cyclase and phosphodiesterase, respectively. In addition, in vitro assays showed that purified MrkJ protein has strong c-di-GMP phosphodiesterase activity. These results demonstrate for the first time that c-di-GMP can function as an effector to stimulate the activity of a transcriptional activator, and explain how type 3 fimbriae expression is coordinated with other gene expression programs in K. pneumoniae to promote biofilm formation to implanted medical devices.
The Effectiveness of Internal Auditing: An Empirical Examination of its Determinants in Israeli Organisations

Internal auditing (IA) has become an indispensable control mechanism in both public and private organisations. Yet very few academic studies have been conducted on the effectiveness of IA. The current exploratory study aims to build a conceptual understanding of the effectiveness of IA in organisations. Towards this end it develops a scale to measure the effectiveness of IA and a model of its determinants. One hundred and eight Israeli organisations that employ IA participated in the study (a 37% response rate). Data on the effectiveness of IA were collected from the organisations' general managers and data on the determinants from their internal auditors. The findings reveal good psychometric properties for the scale developed in this study. The correlation and regression analyses show support from top management to be the main determinant of IA effectiveness, with some effect also found for the organisational independence of IA. The effect of the predictors was consistent between the public and private sectors. The research model explained al arge amount of variance of IA effectiveness. The findings are discussed in terms of how they can help guide and encourage the continuation of research on this issue.
Adipophilin Enhances Lipid Accumulation and Prevents Lipid Efflux From THP-1 Macrophages: Potential Role in Atherogenesis

Objective—Uptake of modified low-density lipoprotein (LDL) by macrophages through scavenger receptors results in lipid droplets accumulation and foam cell formation. Excess lipid deposition in macrophages has been reported to modulate expression of several genes including adipophilin. In this study, we investigated the function of adipophilin in lipid accumulation and cholesterol efflux in THP-1 macrophages. Methods and Results—Adipophilin mRNA expression was 3.5-fold higher in human atherosclerotic plaques compared with healthy areas of the same arteries. Moreover, in the presence of acetylated LDL (AcLDL), triglycerides and cholesteryl esters were increased in macrophages overexpressing adipophilin by 40% and 67%, respectively, whereas their accumulation was reduced when endogenous cellular adipophilin was depleted using siRNA approach. In addition, neither overexpression nor downregulation of adipophilin altered expression of genes involved in lipid efflux. However, the affinity and the number of AcLDL receptors were not affected. After 24-hour incubation of lipid-loaded macrophages with apolipoprotein A-I, cholesterol efflux was reduced by 47% in adipophilin transfected cells versus control cells. Conclusion—Our results showed that stimulation of adipophilin expression in macrophages by modified LDL promotes triglycerides and cholesterol storage and reduces cholesterol efflux. Therefore, adipophilin might contribute, in vivo, to lipid accumulation in the intima of the arterial wall.
Factors that influence the use of the Internet for job-seeking purposes amongst a sample of final-year students in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa

Orientation: Organisations are turning to the Internet in search for talent. A constituency often targeted are those students nearing the end of their tenure of study who are making a transition into the working world. Given this, it is important to understand not only those factors that influence the use of the Internet within the Human Resources (HR) talent search process, but also how such factors relate to actual intent to apply for jobs. Research purpose: Drawing on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model, the study investigates factors that influence the adoption of the Internet for purposes of job seeking. Motivation for the study: Calls have been made for research that investigates factors that influence the intention to use the Internet to apply for jobs in developing countries such as South Africa. Research approach, design and method: The study used the quantitative approach (relying on a survey) to test the hypotheses into factors that influence the use of Internet for the purpose of job seeking amongst a sample of 346 prospective job seekers in their final year of study at a South African university. Main findings: Through correlation and regression analysis, findings reveal a positive relationship to exist between (1) performance expectancy with intention to use the Internet to apply for jobs, (2) effort expectancy with intention to use the Internet to apply for jobs, (3) individual effort expectancy and performance expectancy and (4) individual trust and the intention to use the Internet for job seeking. However, no relationship was found to exist between facilitating conditions and intention to use the Internet for job seeking. Practical/managerial implications: The findings magnify the role of salient factors in the intention to use the Internet for job-seeking purposes. Efforts from applicants, universities, recruitment agencies and organisations, potentially, have an effect on the intention to use the Internet for job-seeking purposes. Such efforts may enhance the students’ online experience and minimise problems that accompany technology adoption for the purposes of recruitment. Findings from this research may help enhance the online recruitment experience both from the end-user and recruiter perspective. Contribution/value-add: The study contributes to the recruitment literature in three ways: Firstly, UTAUT is shown to be a useful framework to explain final-year, job-seeking students’ intention to use the Internet to apply for jobs. Furthermore, the findings illustrate the value of the UTAUT as a model useful in enhancing understanding on intentions. Secondly, the study places focus on the human factor rather than facilitating conditions as important issues regarding intention to use the Internet to apply for a job. Finally, based on these findings, future angles of research that have academic and practitioner implications are proposed.
Spectators’ Awareness, Attitudes and Behaviors towards a Stadium’s Social Media Campaign

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between spectatori¯s awareness, attitudes, and behaviors related to social media efforts developed by a major sports stadium. Data was collected through in-person interviews from individuals who attended a sports event at a major stadium. The hypothesized relationships were assessed by using structural equation modeling technique. The results confirm the relationships between awareness, attitudes, and behavior; awareness of a stadiumi¯s social media presence influences following the stadium on social media directly and indirectly by promoting positive attitudes toward a stadiumi¯s social media campaign. In addition, following the stadium on social media is positively related to attendance and sharing of information using stadiumi¯s social media. Implications of these findings for stadium marketers are discussed.
Merging and Analysis of Elevation Time Series Over Greenland Ice Sheet From Satellite Radar Altimetry

Spatial-temporal variability and changes of Greenland ice sheet elevation from 1992 to 2008 are analyzed from merged ERS-1, ERS-2, and Envisat satellite radar altimeter data. A methodology for determining intersatellite biases was developed and applied in order to merge measurements from these different satellites and to create continuous and consistent time series. Intersatellite biases of elevation and backscatter coefficient have shown to be significantly affected by the bias between measurements in ascending and descending orbits. Adjustment of elevation time series for its dependence on backscatter coefficient and other waveform parameters performed in this paper substantially reduced the amplitude of elevation seasonal variations and locally corrected elevation change-rate estimates by up to several centimeters per year. It was found that the correction depends not only on the variations in the waveform parameters but also on the temporal variations of the correlation gradients, which represent the sensitivity of the elevation change to the change in the waveform parameters. An elevation change rate of +2.8 ±0.2 cm/year from 1992 to 2008 over 76% of the Greenland ice sheet area was found. Increases in surface elevation from 1995 observed over the high-elevation regions of Greenland were followed by an elevation decrease from 2006. For the whole period of 1992-2008, the elevation increase is 4.0 ± 0.2 cm/year over 87% of the area above 1500 m. In contrast, over 38% of the low-elevation areas below 1500 m, the rate of elevation change is -7.0 ±1.0 cm/year, and the surface elevation decrease that started from 2000 has continued.
Human pose estimation with implicit shape models

We address the problem of articulated 2D human pose estimation in natural images. A well-known person detector -- the Implicit Shape Model (ISM) approach introduced by Leibe et al. -- is shown not only to be well suited to detect persons, but can also be exploited to derive a person's pose. Therefore, we extend the original voting approach of ISM and let all visual words that contribute to a person hypothesis also vote for the positions of the person's body parts. Since this approach is not constrained to a certain feature type and different feature types can even be fused during the pose estimation process, the approach is highly flexible. We show preliminary evaluation results of our approach using on the public available HumanEva dataset which comprises ground-truth pose data and thereby provides training and evaluation data.
Filter-bank based all-digital channelizers and aggregators for multi-standard video distribution

This paper introduces all-digital flexible channelizers and aggregators for multi-standard video distribution. The overall problem is to aggregate a number of narrow-band subsignals with different bandwidths (6, 7, or 8 MHz) into one composite wide-band signal. In the proposed scheme, this is carried out through a set of analysis filter banks (FBs), that channelize the subsignals into 1/2-MHz subbands, which subsequently are aggregated through one synthesis FB. In this way, full flexibility with a low computational complexity and maintained quality is enabled. The proposed solution offers orders-of-magnitude complexity reductions as compared with a straightforward alternative. Design examples are included that demonstrate the functionality, flexibility, and efficiency.
Psychometric Evaluation of the Internalized Stigma of Mental Illness Scale for Patients with Mental Illnesses: Measurement Invariance across Time

Background The current investigation examined the psychometric properties of the Internalized Stigma of Mental Illness (ISMI) scale in a sample of patients with mental illness. In addition to the internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and concurrent validity that previous studies have tested for the ISMI, we extended the evaluation to its construct validity and measurement invariance using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Methods Three hundred forty-seven participants completed two questionnaires (i.e., the ISMI and the Depression and Somatic Symptoms Scale [DSSS]), and 162 filled out the ISMI again after 50.23±31.18 days. Results The results of this study confirmed the frame structure of the ISMI; however, the Stigma Resistance subscale in the ISMI seemed weak. In addition, internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and concurrent validity were all satisfactory for all subscales and the total score of the ISMI, except for Stigma Resistance (α = 0.66; ICC = 0.52, and r = 0.02 to 0.06 with DSSS). Therefore, we hypothesize that Stigma Resistance is a new concept rather than a concept in internalized stigma. The acceptable fit indices supported the measurement invariance of the ISMI across time, and suggested that people with mental illness interpret the ISMI items the same at different times. Conclusion The clinical implication of our finding is that clinicians, when they design interventions, may want to use the valid and reliable ISMI without the Stigma Resistance subscale to evaluate the internalized stigma of people with mental illness.
A Novel Fuzzy ARTMAP Architecture with Adaptive FeatureWeights based on Onicescu's Informational Energy

Fuzzy ARTMAP with Relevance factor (FAMR) is a Fuzzy ARTMAP (FAM) neural architecture with the following property: Each training pair has a rel- evance factor assigned to it, proportional to the importance of that pair during the learning phase. Using a relevance factor adds more flexibility to the training phase, allowing ranking of sample pairs according to the confidence we have in the infor- mation source or in the pattern itself. We introduce a novel FAMR architecture: FAMR with Feature Weighting (FAM- RFW). In the first stage, the training data features are weighted. In our experiments, we use a feature weighting method based on Onicescu's informational energy (IE). In the second stage, the obtained weights are used to improve FAMRFW training. The effect of this approach is that category dimensions in the direction of relevant features are decreased, whereas category dimensions in the direction of non-relevant feature are increased. Experimental results, performed on several benchmarks, show that feature weighting can improve the classification performance of the general FAMR algorithm.
Revalidating the Religious/Spiritually Integrated Practice Assessment Scale With Five Helping Professions

Objective: This article describes the validation of the Religious/Spiritually Integrated Process Assessment Scale (RSIPAS) across five helping professions. The RSIPAS was originally developed to measure clinical social workers’ self-efficacy, attitudes, perceived feasibility, behaviors, and overall orientation toward integrating clients’ religion and spirituality in practice. Method: The current study examines the internal consistency and criterion, discriminant, convergent, and factorial validity of this instrument with a sample of clinical social workers, psychologists, nurses, counselors, and marriage and family therapists in Texas (N = 550). Results: Findings support the reliability (α = .95) and various forms of validity, with an improved fit in the factor structure among this more diverse sample. Conclusions: The RSIPAS may be used among these five helping professions to identify training needs or evaluate training efforts related to the integration of clients’ religious or spiritual beliefs in mental and behavioral health treatment.
ANALYSIS OF A GAP-COUPLED STACKED ANNULAR RING MICROSTRIP ANTENNA

A theoretical analysis of a gap-coupled stacked annular ringmicrostrip antenna with superstrate is performed in order to obtain wider bandwidth operation. The effects of air gap, superstrate thickness and feedingpoint location on the antenna performance are analyzed in TM11 mode usingequivalent circuit concept. It is noted that the proposed antenna is very sensitive to the feedingpoint location in TM11 mode while annular ringmicrostrip patch antenna is independent of feed point in that mode. The optimized proposed antenna shows an impedance bandwidth of 13.96% whereas the antenna without air-gap has 8.75% bandwidth and without superstrate it has bandwidth of 10.89%. The theoretical results are compared with simulated and experimental results.
Revisiting Concurrent Separation Logic and Operational Semantics

We present a new soundness proof of Concurrent Separation Logic (CSL) based on a structural operational semantics (SOS). We build on two previous proofs and develop new auxiliary notions to achieve the goal. One uses a denotational semantics (based on traces). The other is based on SOS, but was obtained only for a fragment of the logic - the Disjoint CSL - which disallows modifying shared variables between concurrent threads. In this work, we lift such restriction, proving the soundness of full CSL with respect to a SOS. Thus contributing to the development of tools able of ensuring the correctness of realistic concurrent programs. Moreover, given that we used SOS, such tools can be well-integrated in programming environments and even incorporated in compilers.
The Role of Mammographic Calcification in the Neoadjuvant Therapy of Breast Cancer Imaging Evaluation

Introduction Investigate the patterns of mammographically detected calcifications before and after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) to determine their value for efficacy evaluation and surgical decision making. Methods 187 patients with malignant mammographic calcifications were followed to record the appearances and changes in the calcifications and to analyze their responses to NACT. Results Patients with calcifications had higher rates of hormonal receptor (HR) positive tumors (74.3% versus 64.6%) and HER2 positive tumors (51.3% versus 33.4%, p = 0.004) and a similar pathologic complete response (pCR) rate compared to patients without calcifications (35.4% versus 29.8%). After NACT, the range of calcification decreased in 40% of patients, increased in 7.5% and remained stable in 52.5%; the calcification density decreased in 15% of patients, increased in 7.5% and remained stable in 77.5%; none of these change patterns were related to tumor response rate. No significant correlation was observed between the calcification appearance (morphology, distribution, range, diameter or density) and tumor subtypes or pCR rates. Among patients with malignant calcifications, 54 showed calcifications alone, 40 occurred with an architectural distortion (AD) and 93 with a mass. Calcifications were observed inside the tumor in 44% of patients and outside in 56%, with similar pCR rates and patterns of change. Conclusions Calcification appearance did not clearly change after NACT, and calcification patterns were not related to pCR rate, suggesting that mammogram may not accurate to evaluate tumor response changes. Microcalcifications visible after NACT is essential for determining the extent of excision, patients with calcifications that occurred outside of the mass still had the opportunity for breast conservation.