Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Characterization of SOS-CMOS FETs at Low Temperatures for the Design of Integrated Circuits for Quantum Bit Control and Readout

We have assessed the use of commercial silicon-on-sapphire CMOS electronics in control circuits, which could be used to interface with quantum bits at low temperatures. We have characterized n-type MOSFETs, p-type MOSFETs, and an n+-diffusion resistor at 300 K and 4.2 K and extended these studies into the millikelvin regime. Our measurements of dc responses at 300 K, 4.2 K, and subkelvin and transient responses at 300 K and 4.2 K show that these devices favorably operate at low temperatures with minor changes to their 300-K characteristics and no appreciable change to their operating speed. Our results indicate that control circuits based on commercial CMOS devices may successfully be operated at low temperatures for the control and readout of quantum bits.
Inducible Nitric-oxide Synthase Is an Important Contributor to Prolonged Protective Effects of Ischemic Preconditioning in the Mouse Kidney*

Ischemic preconditioning renders the mouse kidney resistant to subsequent ischemia. Understanding the mechanisms responsible for ischemic preconditioning is important for formulating therapeutic strategies aimed at mimicking protective mechanisms. We report that the resistance afforded by 30 min of bilateral kidney ischemia persists for 12 weeks after preconditioning. The protection is reflected by improved postischemic renal function, reduced leukocyte infiltration, reduced postischemic disruption of the actin cytoskeleton, and reduced postischemic expression of kidney injury molecule-1 (Kim-1). The protection is observed in both BALB/c and C57BL/6J strains of mice. Thirty minutes of prior ischemia increases the expression of inducible nitric-oxide synthase (iNOS) and endothelial NOS (eNOS) and the expression of heat shock protein (HSP)-25 and is associated with increased interstitial expression of α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), an indication of long term postischemic sequelae. Treatment with Nω-nitro-l-arginine (l-NNA), an inhibitor of NO synthesis, increases kidney susceptibility to ischemia. Gene deletion of iNOS increases kidney susceptibility to ischemia, whereas gene deletion of eNOS has no effect. Pharmacological inhibition of NOS by l-NNA or l-N6-(1-iminoethyl) lysine (l-NIL, a specific inhibitor of iNOS) mitigates the kidney protection afforded by 30 min of ischemic preconditioning. Fifteen minutes of prior ischemic preconditioning, which does not result in the disruption of the actin cytoskeleton, impairment of renal function, increased interstitial α-SMA, or increased iNOS or eNOS expression, but does increase HSP-25 expression, partially protects the kidney from ischemia on day 8 via a mechanism that is not abolished by l-NIL treatment. Thus, iNOS is responsible for a significant component of the long term protection afforded the kidney by ischemic preconditioning, which results in persistent renal interstitial disease, but does not explain the preconditioning seen with shorter periods of ischemia.
Symptoms of inherited factor V deficiency in 35 Iranian patients

The type of bleeding symptom has been evaluated in 35 Iranian patients with an inherited deficiency of factor V, with plasma levels between 1% and 10%. The most frequent symptoms included epistaxis and excessive bleeding after surgery. Haemarthroses and muscle haematomas were less common, even in severely deficient patients. More severe symptoms such as gastrointestinal and central nervous system bleeding were rare. The severity of bleeding symptoms was only partially related to the degree of factor V deficiency in plasma. On the whole, human factor V deficiency is characterized by a moderately severe bleeding phenotype.
Delayed amyloid plaque deposition and behavioral deficits in outcrossed AβPP/PS1 mice

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative dementia characterized by amyloid plaque accumulation, synapse/dendrite loss, and cognitive impairment. Transgenic mice expressing mutant forms of amyloid‐β precursor protein (AβPP) and presenilin‐1 (PS1) recapitulate several aspects of this disease and provide a useful model system for studying elements of AD progression. AβPP/PS1 mice have been previously shown to exhibit behavioral deficits and amyloid plaque deposition between 4–9 months of age. We crossed AβPP/PS1 animals with mice of a mixed genetic background (C57BL/6 × 129/SvJ) and investigated the development of AD‐like features in the resulting outcrossed mice. The onset of memory‐based behavioral impairment is delayed considerably in outcrossed AβPP/PS1 mice relative to inbred mice on a C57BL/6 background. While inbred AβPP/PS1 mice develop deficits in radial‐arm water maze performance and novel object recognition as early as 8 months, outcrossed AβPP/PS1 mice do not display defects until 18 months. Within the forebrain, we find that inbred AβPP/PS1 mice have significantly higher amyloid plaque burden at 12 months than outcrossed AβPP/PS1 mice of the same age. Surprisingly, inbred AβPP/PS1 mice at 8 months have low plaque burden, suggesting that plaque burden alone cannot explain the accompanying behavioral deficits. Analysis of AβPP processing revealed that elevated levels of soluble Aβ correlate with the degree of behavioral impairment in both strains. Taken together, these findings suggest that animal behavior, amyloid plaque deposition, and AβPP processing are sensitive to genetic differences between mouse strains. J. Comp. Neurol. , 521:1395–1408, 2013. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Why visit an eco-friendly destination? Perspectives of four European nationalities

This article explores the importance placed on a destination’s eco-friendliness by tourists in relation to their cultural backgrounds. The study subsequently tests relationships between the perceived eco-friendliness and other tourist motivations for visiting a nature-based destination such as Norway. An online survey, initiated on the information obtained in telephone interviews, is used to study potential tourists from four European countries: UK, France, Sweden and Norway. Altogether, 2010 French, 2891 British, 2035 Swedish and 2027 Norwegian residents finished the questionnaire, making a generalisation feasible among the residents regarding their intention to visit a nature-based destination. The results reveal differences among the four countries in terms of the importance given to the destination’s eco-friendliness as well as motivations for travel. The respondents fall into two culturally distinct groups: the Scandinavian group and the British–French group. The tourists from Scandinavia seem to be motivated by being in and enjoying nature to a larger extent than those from the British–French group, who on the other hand are motivated more strongly by non-nature related motivations such as telling others of their experiences. The study results are discussed in relation to consumer culture theory and the way people utilise nature (i.e. autotelic – in the moment, in opposition to instrumental purposes), based on their cultural and religious backgrounds. This article argues that the present study results reflect the cultural philosophy held by the four European nationalities and that human and nature are two separate entities as informed by Judeo-Christianity. Future research and managerial implications are suggested.
Characteristic Interactions with Phosphatidylinositol 4,5-Bisphosphate Determine Regulation of Kir Channels by Diverse Modulators*

The activity of specific inwardly rectifying potassium (Kir) channels is regulated by any of a number of different modulators, such as protein kinase C, Gq -coupled receptor stimulation, pH, intracellular Mg2+ or the βγ-subunits of G proteins. Phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PIP2) is an essential factor for maintenance of the activity of all Kir channels. Here, we demonstrate that the strength of channel-PIP2 interactions determines the sensitivity of Kir channels to regulation by the various modulators. Furthermore, our results suggest that differences among Kir channels in their specific regulation by a given modulator may reflect differences in their apparent affinity of interactions with PIP2.
Does Training Matter? Employee Experiences and Attitudes

Investment in vocational education and training is commonly regarded as a prerequisite of competitive success. Training is also seen as a cornerstone of management initiatives designed to enhance employee involvement and co-operation in the production process. Ironically, however, commentators have rarely sought to assess employee attitudes towards, and experiences of, training provision. the claims made by advocates of a high skills strategy with respect to employee commitment and motivation have not been empirically tested. This article seeks to fill the gap through a presentation of findings from a unique survey, undertaken by the authors, designed to examine the link between training and employee attitudes.
A cDNA Encoding the Calcitonin Gene-related Peptide Type 1 Receptor (*)

Calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) is a neuropeptide with diverse biological effects including potent vasodilator activity. We report here the cloning of a complementary DNA (cDNA) encoding a human CGRP receptor, which shares significant peptide sequence homology with the human calcitonin receptor, a member of the G-protein-coupled receptor superfamily. Northern blot analysis revealed that the messenger RNA for this receptor is predominantly expressed in the lung and heart. In situ studies showed specific localization of the receptor mRNA to alveolar cells in the lung and to cardiac myocytes in the heart. Stable expression of the cDNA in human embryonic kidney 293 (HEK 293) cells produced specific, high affinity binding sites for CGRP that displayed pharmacological and functional properties very similar to native human CGRP receptor. Exposure of these cells to CGRP resulted in a 60-fold increase in cAMP production, which was inhibited in a competitive manner by the CGRP receptor antagonist, CGRP-(8-37).
Haemopoietic stem cell development to neutrophils is associated with subcellular redistribution and differential expression of protein kinase C subspecies.

Multipotential FDCP-Mix A4 (A4) cells can be induced either to self-renew or to differentiate and develop into mature neutrophils in liquid culture, depending on the haemopoietic growth factors with which they are cultured. When cultured in low concentrations of interleukin 3 (IL-3, 1 unit/ml)) plus Granulocyte Macrophage Colony Stimulating Factor (GM-CSF) and Granulocyte-CSF (G-CSF), A4 cells proliferate with accompanying development to form cells which resemble mature, postmitotic neutrophils. The presence of high concentrations of IL-3 (100 units/ml) blocks the development of A4 cells even in the presence of GM-CSF plus G-CSF. A4 cell development to neutrophils is accompanied by major changes in the expression of protein kinase C (PKC) subspecies in these cells. The predominant subspecies present in multipotent A4 cells, as judged by direct chromatographic analysis, was the type III enzyme (alpha) subspecies, whereas in mature A4 cell neutrophils, the type II (beta I + beta II) enzymes were predominant. Phorbol esters added to immature A4 cells resulted in a proliferative response, but when added to postmitotic A4 cells resembling neutrophils they elicited a large increase in reactive oxygen intermediate production. This suggests that the type III (alpha) subspecies may mediate proliferative responses in stem cells, whilst the type II (beta I + beta II) enzymes are more important for the mature cell functions of postmitotic neutrophils. In cultures containing IL-3 (100 units/ml) both the type III, and also the type II subspecies were predominantly membrane-associated for prolonged periods (> 24 hours). (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Predicting Patient Flows and Hospital Case-Mix

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in the spatial modelling of health care services: to locate services in a more equitable and efficient manner; to cope with the consequences of structural change in demography and accessibility to services; to examine the interactions between different services over space and time. In this paper, one particular spatial model used for analysing impact on patient flows, catchment populations, and other key variables resulting from changes in supply, demand, or accessibility is examined in depth. Used in several countries for planning purposes, the model was originally developed in 1979 by the Operational Research Service of the Department of Health and Social Security in the United Kingdom, for the London Health Planning Consortium. It was later refined at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Laxenburg, Austria. In the present study the robustness of prediction is tested on four versions of the basic model developed at the University of Newcastle, Australia, in 1984 and applied to data from the Sydney Metropolitan Region. Key outputs from the model are examined and the extent to which it correctly predicts changes in service levels over a three-year period in the case of five different acute clinical specialties is shown. To conclude the paper, the technical details of case-mix model are presented, which combines different acute service categories with the spatial dimension to provide a more comprehensive framework for predicting and analysing the behaviour of, and interactions between, supply and demand.
Language independent end-to-end architecture for joint language identification and speech recognition

End-to-end automatic speech recognition (ASR) can significantly reduce the burden of developing ASR systems for new languages, by eliminating the need for linguistic information such as pronunciation dictionaries. This also creates an opportunity, which we fully exploit in this paper, to build a monolithic multilingual ASR system with a language-independent neural network architecture. We present a model that can recognize speech in 10 different languages, by directly performing grapheme (character/chunked-character) based speech recognition. The model is based on our hybrid attention/connectionist temporal classification (CTC) architecture which has previously been shown to achieve the state-of-the-art performance in several ASR benchmarks. Here we augment its set of output symbols to include the union of character sets appearing in all the target languages. These include Roman and Cyrillic Alphabets, Arabic numbers, simplified Chinese, and Japanese Kanji/Hiragana/Katakana characters (5,500 characters in all). This allows training of a single multilingual model, whose parameters are shared across all the languages. The model can jointly identify the language and recognize the speech, automatically formatting the recognized text in the appropriate character set. The experiments, which used speech databases composed of Wall Street Journal (English), Corpus of Spontaneous Japanese, HKUST Mandarin CTS, and Voxforge (German, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Russian), demonstrate comparable/superior performance relative to language-dependent end-to-end ASR systems.
Craniovertebral anomalies associated with pituitary gland duplication.

BACKGROUND An extremely rare occurrence of the pituitary gland duplication inspired us to examine in detail the accompanying craniovertebral congenital anomalies in a patient involved. MATERIALS AND METHODS T1-wighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was performed, as well as the multislice computerised tomography (MSCT) and MSCT angiography in our patient, as well as in a control group of 10 healthy subjects. RESULTS In a 20-year-old male a double pituitary gland was identified, as well as hypothalamic enlargement, tuberomamillary fusion and hamartoma. In addition, the patient also showed a duplicated hypophyseal fossa and posterior clinoid processes, notch of the upper sphenoid, prominent inner relief of the skull, inverse shape of the foramen magnum, third occipital condyle, partial aplasia of the anterior and posterior arches of the atlas with a left arcuate foramen, duplication of the odontoid process and the C2 body, and fusion of the C2-C4 and T12-L1 vertebrae. The MSCT angiography presented a segmental dilatation of both vertebral arteries and the A2 segment of the anterior cerebral artery, as well as a duplication of the basilar artery. CONCLUSIONS This patient is unique due to complex craniovertebral congenital anomalies associated with a duplication of the pituitary gland.
How does food price increase affect Ugandan households?: An augmented multimarket approach

"Almost unaffected by the 2008 wave of soaring world food prices, Ugandan local market prices exhibit signs of high price volatility in the first quarter of 2009. At the household level, while net producers may reap some benefits from this increase in food prices, net consumers are more likely to suffer from it. However, the net consumption impact of food price increase is not as straightforward as reported in previous studies. In this paper, we extend Singh et al. (1986) multimarket model by adding demand elasticities from the Almost Ideal Demand System (AIDS). We use the integrated Ugandan National Household Survey (UNHS) 2005/2006 to estimate a measure of net consumption impact that includes both price and profit effects. Overall, we found that household welfare is expected to decrease with loss in consumption and increase with income gain as a result of higher food prices for the cereals producers. Simulating change in cereals consumption induced by a 50 percent increase in cereals price and taking into account the profit effect, our results predict a 23 percent decrease in food consumption for net sellers, compared with 44 percent when using the consumption approach alone. Accounting for such substitution effects, our results suggest that the impact of rising food prices may be mitigated because some households will attempt to substitute more expensive food items with cheaper ones; however, this apparent coping strategy often leads to a much poorer diet. The results suggest that the majority of households with expected positive income impact, the gainers, live in rural areas. These households also tend to have better access to agricultural services than the nongainers. " from authors' abstract
[Combination chemotherapy of advanced gastric cancer with adriamycin, mitomycin C, and ftorafur].

Thirty patients with advanced gastric cancer were treated with a combination chemotherapy consisting of adriamycin 20-30 mg/m2 iv day 1 q3wks, mitomycin C 2.7-4 mg/m2 iv day 1 weekly, and ftorafur 267 mg/m2 po b.i. d. daily. Five (28%) of 18 patients with measurable lesions achieved partial responses with a median duration of 2 months ranging 1.5 to 8 months. The median survival time from initiation of the chemotherapy was 4 months in responders, and 5 months in non-responders, respectively. The response rate did not correlate with the various baseline parameters including initial performance status, resectability of the primary tumor, histologic differentiation of the tumor, and prior chemotherapy. Gastrointestinal and hematologic toxicities were mild and well manageable. Cumulative thrombocytopenia and renal damage probably due to mitomycin C, were seen in 5(17%) and 2(7%) patients, respectively. Clinical cardiotoxicity induced by adriamycin was observed in one patient. The result indicated that the enhancement of antitumor effect with a combination of adriamycin, mitomycin C, and ftorafur for advanced gastric cancer was not significantly remarkable as expected. Thus, further study will be required for obtaining more favorable result.
The Livelihood Impacts of Payments for Environmental Services and Implications for REDD+

International discussions on reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) foresee payment for environmental services (PES) schemes as an important mechanism to provide local incentives for the conservation and enhancement of carbon stocks. There are concerns, however, about the potential impacts of REDD+ and PES on local livelihoods. This article assesses the livelihood impacts of seven existing PES schemes using a comparative case study approach, and reviews lessons for the design of REDD+. It finds that PES schemes provided some livelihood benefits to participants, particularly in terms of building individual participants’ and community institutions’ capacity, and in some cases contributing to income. Insights for the design of PES for REDD+ schemes are derived in relation to the issues of the role of intermediaries, individual versus collective contracts, payment schedules and amounts, conditionality and permanence, and property and access rights.
The significance of late responses in asthma

There is good evidence to suggest that the late response is a valid clinical model of asthma. The factors which predict late responses in individual subjects are unknown although recent studies suggest that the level of IgE sensitivity and allergen dose are two important variables. Recent placebo-controlled pharmacological studies support earlier work and vindicate the use of late responses as a preclinical screening test in the evaluation of new therapeutic agents. In addition to putative pro-inflammatory mechanisms we should evaluate possible protective mechanisms which might prevent the development of late responses in individual subjects. In this regard, altered adrenal responses as reflected by serum cortisol concentrations did not appear to play a role, protective or otherwise in the development of late asthmatic responses. In conclusion, the development of symptomatic late responses and associated increased bronchial responsiveness are relevant to day-to-day asthma. As suggested by Cockcroft, repeated allergen exposure may result in a vicious cycle of ongoing bronchial inflammation. This emphasizes the importance of allergen avoidance and the need for earlier intervention in mild to moderate asthma with effective prophylactic agents which are known to inhibit late responses.
The role of competence in initiating the transition from products to service

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to suggest a new competence‐based framework for describing and analysing the initiation of the transition of goods‐dominant companies to service providers. The paper seeks to illustrate the relevance of the new framework in an empirical study of a knowledge‐intensive mechanical engineering company.Design/methodology/approach – A single‐case study of the world's leading maker of tool steel forms the empirical basis for the paper. A study based on a qualitative research methodology, involving inductive inquiry and a field study over six years focusing on “narratives from the field” was conducted.Findings – New competencies are needed to initiate the transition from products to service and to manage service‐based offerings. The findings are summarised in two categories. The first, “customer value socialisation”, refers to the sharing of experiences and knowledge among employees. The second, “customer value management”, refers to management's ability to encourage employees t.