Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Modeling the Public Health Response to Bioterrorism: Using Discrete Event Simulation to Design Antibiotic Distribution Centers

Background Post-exposure prophylaxis is a critical component of the public health response to bioterrorism. Computer simulation modeling may assist in designing antibiotic distribution centers for this task. Methods The authors used discrete event simulation modeling to determine staffing levels for entry screening, triage, medical evaluation, and drug dispensing stations in a hypothetical antibiotic distribution center operating in low, medium, and high disease prevalence bioterrorism response scenarios. Patient arrival rates and processing times were based on prior mass prophylaxis campaigns. Multiple sensitivity analyses examined the relationship between average staff utilization rate (UR) (i.e., percentage of time occupied in patient contact) and capacity of the model to handle surge arrivals. Results Distribution center operation required from 93 staff for the low-prevalence scenario to 111 staff for the high-prevalence scenario to process approximately 1000 people per hour within the baseline model assumptions. Excess capacity to process surge arrivals approximated (1-UR) for triage staffing. Conclusions Discrete event simulation modeling is a useful tool in developing the public health infrastructure for bioterrorism response. Live exercises to validate the assumptions and outcomes presented here may improve preparedness to respond to bioterrorism.
Assessment of right ventricular systolic function using tricuspid annular-plane systolic excursion in Nigerians with systemic hypertension

Aim Right ventricular (RV) systolic function in patients with hypertensive heart disease (HHD) is not well characterised. The primary aim of this study was to assess the systolic function of the right ventricle in patients with HHD using tricuspid annular-plane systolic excursion (TAPSE). Methods The study was cross-sectional in design and carried out in Kano, Nigeria. Patients were recruited if they had HHD on echocardiography and were at least 15 years of age. Patients with other cardiac pathologies such as ischaemic and valvular heart diseases were excluded. Patients were considered to have abnormal RV systolic function if they had reduced values of TAPSE (< 15 mm). A p-value of < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results A total of 186 patients were serially recruited over seven months. Of these, 131 (70.4%) had normal RV systolic function (group 1) and 55 patients (29.6%) had abnormal function (group 2). Group 2 patients were older (p = 0.002) and had a higher prevalence of peripheral oedema (p = 0.002), moderate to severe dyspnoea, higher heart rate and lower left ventricular ejection fraction (p < 0.001). Atrial arrhythmias were also more prevalent among group 2 patients (p < 0.05). The best correlate to TAPSE was the septal mitral annularplane systolic excursion (r = +0.541, p < 0.001). Several variables such as age predicted the presence of reduced TAPSE. Conclusion The study found that almost one-third of patients with HHD in Kano had RV systolic dysfunction as defined by reduced TAPSE, and these patients had a greater prevalence of factors associated with morbidity and mortality.
Carnot cycle for an oscillator

In 1824 Carnot established that the efficiency of cyclic engines operating between a hot bath at absolute temperature Thot and a bath at a lower temperature Tcold cannot exceed 1 − Tcold/Thot. We show that linear oscillators alternately in contact with hot and cold baths obey this principle in the quantum as well as classical regime. The expression of the work performed is derived from a simple prescription. Reversible and non-reversible cycles are illustrated. The paper begins with historical considerations and is essentially self-contained.
Scalable Learning of Non-Decomposable Objectives

Modern retrieval systems are often driven by an underlying machine learning model. The goal of such systems is to identify and possibly rank the few most relevant items for a given query or context. Thus, such systems are typically evaluated using a ranking-based performance metric such as the area under the precision-recall curve, the $F_\beta$ score, precision at fixed recall, etc. Obviously, it is desirable to train such systems to optimize the metric of interest. In practice, due to the scalability limitations of existing approaches for optimizing such objectives, large-scale retrieval systems are instead trained to maximize classification accuracy, in the hope that performance as measured via the true objective will also be favorable. In this work we present a unified framework that, using straightforward building block bounds, allows for highly scalable optimization of a wide range of ranking-based objectives. We demonstrate the advantage of our approach on several real-life retrieval problems that are significantly larger than those considered in the literature, while achieving substantial improvement in performance over the accuracy-objective baseline.
Contextualized indigenous entrepreneurial models: A systematic review of indigenous entrepreneurship literature

Abstract Governmental development strategies focus on entrepreneurship as a major resource for the economic development of indigenous peoples. While initiatives and programs are locally based, there is a debate in the academic literature about how contextual factors affect the identification of indigenous entrepreneurship. The purpose of this paper is to analyze and integrate indigenous entrepreneurship literature to identify the main indigenous entrepreneurship models. Thus, a systematic literature review was conducted. In total, 25 relevant articles were identified in selected electronic databases and manual searches of Australian Business Deans Council ranked journals from January 1, 1995 to the end of 2016. Using a systematic analysis of sociocultural contexts and locations, the paper proposed that a typology of contextualized indigenous entrepreneurship models was possible, that were classified as urban, remote and rural. The parameters of these models, and their potential theoretical and practical applications to the study and practice of indigenous entrepreneurship ecosystems were also outlined.
Apéry-like numbers arising from special values of spectral zeta functions for non-commutative harmonic oscillators

We derive an expression for the value ζQ(3) of the spectral zeta function ζQ(s) for the non-commutative harmonic oscillator using a Gaussian hypergeometric function. In this study, two sequences of rational numbers, denoted ${\\ ilde J}\\sb 2 (n)$ and ${\\ ilde J}\\sb 3 (n)$, which can be regarded as analogues of the Apery numbers, naturally arise and play a key role in obtaining the expressions for the values ζQ(2) and ζQ(3). We also show that the numbers ${\\ ilde J}\\sb 2 (n)$ and ${\\ ilde J}\\sb 3 (n)$ have congruence relations such as those of the Apery numbers.
Broadband CMOS stacked power amplifier using reconfigurable interstage network for envelope tracking application

A 2-stage stacked-FET power amplifier with a reconfigurable interstage network is developed for broadband envelope tracking application using SOI CMOS. The wideband PA is based on Class-J mode of operation, where output matching is realized with two-section low-pass network. Miller capacitors are also employed across the FET stack to guarantee Class-J-like operation for inner FET stacks. To overcome the bandwidth limit due to high-Q interstage matching, reconfigurable matching network is employed using SOI switch, allowing dual frequency-mode operation. The fabricated PA shows CW efficiencies in excess of 60% from 0.65 to 1.0 GHz. When operated with an ET supply modulator, overall ET PA system shows W-CDMA efficiencies higher than 50% from 0.68 to 0.92 GHz and LTE efficiencies higher than 40% from 0.65 to 0.95 GHz.
Judges' behaviour and relationship with political parties in a non-common-law country : the case of the German Federal Constitutional Court

In contrast to common-law countries, in civil-law countries it is di cult to investigate individual judges as political actors. It is mainly due to the legal norm under the civil-law tradition which is averse to disclosing individual judges' behavior. An exception is the German Federal Constitutional Court, permitting their judges to publish dissenting opinions. This paper identi es individual judges' political orientation on an underlying dimension by applying an unfolding-type of item-response model to those dissenting opinions. We nd di erent degrees of congruence between political parties' and judges' political orientation, which we explain by the principal-agent theory. More speci cally, we argue that some characteristics of potential judges are crucial for the screening by political parties in the selection process of the judges. Our empirical analysis shows that judges' party membership and former political career promise more screening success by parties, while lifetime appointment decreases congruence of nominating parties and judges.
The perception of nasalized vowels in American English: An investigation of on-line use of vowel nasalization in lexical access

The goal of the presented study was to investigate the use of coarticulatory vowel nasalization in lexical access by native speakers of American English. In particular, we compare the use of coarticulatory place of articulation cues to that of coarticulatory vowel nasalization. Previous research on lexical access has shown that listeners use cues to the place of articulation of a postvocalic stop in the preceding vowel. However, vowel nasalization as cue to an upcoming nasal consonant has been argued to be a more complex phenomenon. In order to establish whether coarticulatory vowel nasalization aides in the process of lexical access in the same way as place of articulation cues do, we conducted two perception experiments: an off-line 2AFC discrimination task and an on-line eyetracking study using the visual world paradigm. The results of our study suggest that listeners are indeed able to use vowel nasalization in similar ways to place of articulation information, and that both types of cues aide in lexical access.
Workload-aware worst path analysis of processor-scale NBTI degradation

As technology further scales semiconductor devices, aging-induced device degradation has become one of the major threats to device reliability. In addition, aging mechanisms like the negative bias temperature instability (NBTI) is known to be sensitive to workload (i.e., signal probability) that is hard to be assumed at design phase. In this work, we analyze the workload dependence of NBTI degradation using a processor, and propose a novel technique to estimate the worst-case paths. In our approach, with careful examination, we exploit the fact that the deterministic nature of circuit structure limits the amount of NBTI degradation on different paths, and proposes a two-stage path extraction algorithm to identify the invariable critical paths in the processor. Through numerical experiment on a MIPS32 processor, we performed a detailed signal probability analysis, and successfully extracted 85 invariable critical paths out of the 24,978 path candidates, achieving nearly 300× reduction in the sheer number of paths.
Dose-Dependent Activation of Putative Oncogene SBSN by BORIS

Testis-specific transcription factor BORIS (Brother of the Regulator of Imprinted Sites), a paralog and proposed functional antagonist of the widely expressed CTCF, is abnormally expressed in multiple tumor types and has been implicated in the epigenetic activation of cancer-testis antigens (CTAs). We have reported previously that suprabasin (SBSN), whose expression is restricted to the epidermis, is epigenetically derepressed in lung cancer. In this work, we establish that SBSN is a novel non-CTA target of BORIS epigenetic regulation. With the use of a doxycycline-inducible BORIS expressing vector, we demonstrate that relative BORIS dosage is critical for SBSN activation. At lower concentrations, BORIS induces demethylation of the SBSN CpG island and disruption and activation of chromatin around the SBSN transcription start site (TSS), resulting in a 35-fold increase in SBSN expression in the H358 human lung cancer cell line. Interestingly, increasing BORIS concentrations leads to a subsequent reduction in SBSN expression via chromatin repression. In a similar manner, increase in BORIS concentrations leads to eventual decrease of cell growth and colony formation. This is the first report demonstrating that different amount of BORIS defines its varied effects on the expression of a target gene via chromatin structure reorganization.
ASSESSING POTENTIAL WASTE DISPOSAL IMPACT FROM PRESERVATIVE TREATED WOOD PRODUCTS

The management of discarded treated wood products upon disposal is one of the many factors that should be considered when evaluating a new wood preservative or when comparing wood preservatives as part of a life cycle assessment. Future environmental ramifications of disposal, as well as regulatory requirements and costs, must be assessed and weighed. This paper presents an overview of the factors that must be evaluated when assessing the disposal issues associated with discarded treated wood products. The discussion is based on current US regulations and policy, but the general approach toward evaluating disposal issues will be valid for most countries. A primary consideration is whether a wood preservative has the potential to cause a treated wood product to be a hazardous waste. Only a limited number of compounds can cause a solid waste to be a regulatory hazardous waste, and since the costs of hazardous waste management are high, this should be examined critically. Discarded treated wood products that are not hazardous may still pose environmental and regulatory concerns. Impact on landfill disposal, combustion systems, and wood recycling operations should be addressed. The concepts described in the paper are illustrated by examining four treated wood types: chromated copper arsenate, alkaline copper quaternary, a commercially available borate-treated product and a hypothetical treated wood product containing a silver-based biocide.
Emotional Support, Social Goals, and Classroom Behavior: A Multilevel, Multisite Study

We examined the mediating role of students’ interpersonal and academically related social goals in linking students’ perceptions of teacher and peer personal and academic emotional supports to their classroom behavior (prosocial, social responsibility) in a sample of young adolescents (n = 3,092) from 7 schools from the mid-Atlantic, Midwest, and Southwest regions of the United States. We tested models at the student level (Level 1) and the classroom level (Level 2), while controlling for incidental school-level effects (Level 3); we utilized new analytic strategies for dealing with small sample incidental clustering (using fixed effect/random effect hybrid models) and convergence issues concomitant with missing data and complex models by coupling Bayesian imputation with frequentist estimation. Our results indicate that relations between student’s perceptions of teacher and peer emotional supports for academic and personal well-being and classroom behavior are mediated, in part, by social goal pursuit at Level 1 but not Level 2; relations between social goals and classroom behavior were moderated by Level 2 emotional supports for academics from teachers and peers such that consensus concerning levels of academic support strengthened relations between social goals and behavior. Results differed as a function of the source of information concerning student behavior (peer nominations, teacher ratings) and type of behavior.
Heat Shock Proteins: Stimulators of Innate and Acquired Immunity

Adjuvants were reintroduced into modern immunology as the dirty little secret of immunologists by Janeway and thus began the molecular definition of innate immunity. It is now clear that the binding of pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) by pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) on antigen presenting cells (APCs) activates the innate immune response and provides the host with a rapid mechanism for detecting infection by pathogens and initiates adaptive immunity. Ironically, in addition to advancing the basic science of immunology, Janeway's revelation on induction of the adaptive system has also spurred an era of rational vaccine design that exploits PRRs. Thus, defined PAMPs that bind to known PRRs are being specifically coupled to antigens to improve their immunogenicity. However, while PAMPs efficiently activate the innate immune response, they do not mediate the capture of antigen that is required to elicit the specific responses of the acquired immune system. Heat shock proteins (HSPs) are molecular chaperones that are found complexed to client polypeptides and have been studied as potential cancer vaccines. In addition to binding PRRs and activating the innate immune response, HSPs have been shown to both induce the maturation of APCs and provide chaperoned polypeptides for specific triggering of the acquired immune response.
MeshHisto

Current modeling packages have polished interfaces for editing polygonal meshes, where artists work individually on each mesh. A variety of recent cloud-based services have shown the benefits of editing documents in real-time collaboration with others. In this paper, we present a system for collaborative editing of low-polygonal and subdivision mesh models. We cast collaborative editing as a special instance of distributed version control. We support concurrent editing by robustly sharing and merging mesh version histories in real-time. We store and transmit mesh differences efficiently by encoding them as sequences of primitive editing operations. We enable collaboration by merging and detecting conflicts. We extend this model letting artists adapt others' editing histories by retargeting sequences of editing operations to new parts of the mesh with potentially different topology. We tested our algorithms by editing meshes with up to thousand edits, in collaborative editing sessions lasting a few hours, and by retargeting sequences of several hundred edits. We found the proposed system to be reliable, fast and scaling well with mesh complexity. We demonstrate that our merge algorithm is more robust than prior work. We further validated the proposed collaborative workflow with a user study where MeshHisto was consistently preferred over other alternatives for collaborative workflows.
Coping behavior and risk and resilience stress factors in French regional emergency medicine unit workers: a cross-sectional survey

The Emergency Department (ED) has the highest workload in a hospital, offering care to patients in their most acute state of illness, as well as comforting their families and tending to stressful situations of the physical and psychological areal. Method. A cross-sectional survey of 366 Emergency Unit staff members including medical doctors, medical residents, medical nurses and ward aids, was undergone. Study participants came from four periphery hospitals in the Moselle Department of Eastern France with similar workforce and daily patient loads statistics. The instruments used were the Perceived Stress Scale PSS-10 and the Brief COPE questionnaire. Conclusions. Perceived work overload and overall stress is strongly related to work hours and tend to have a stronger influence on doctors than on the nursing staff. Substance use is a common coping method for medical interns, consistent with prior research. The regular assessment of the ED staff perception of stress and stress related factors is essential to support organizational decisions in order to promote a better work environment and better patient care.
An Event-Related Potential Study on the Effects of Cannabis on Emotion Processing

The effect of cannabis on emotional processing was investigated using event-related potential paradigms (ERPs). ERPs associated with emotional processing of cannabis users, and non-using controls, were recorded and compared during an implicit and explicit emotional expression recognition and empathy task. Comparisons in P3 component mean amplitudes were made between cannabis users and controls. Results showed a significant decrease in the P3 amplitude in cannabis users compared to controls. Specifically, cannabis users showed reduced P3 amplitudes for implicit compared to explicit processing over centro-parietal sites which reversed, and was enhanced, at fronto-central sites. Cannabis users also showed a decreased P3 to happy faces, with an increase to angry faces, compared to controls. These effects appear to increase with those participants that self-reported the highest levels of cannabis consumption. Those cannabis users with the greatest consumption rates showed the largest P3 deficits for explicit processing and negative emotions. These data suggest that there is a complex relationship between cannabis consumption and emotion processing that appears to be modulated by attention.
Sustaining the Entrepreneurship in Rural Tourism Development

Entrepreneurs play an important role in sustaining rural tourism and formulation of sustainable strategies being the initiators of the tourism business and the engine of the local development. Therefore, it is necessary to stimulate the development of entrepreneurial activities for the recovery of rural tourism potential and regional traditions, maintaining local employment growth and increase living standards in line with identifies needs and priorities of regional human resources development. This article aims to discuss the involvement of local communities in development of rural tourism entrepreneurship as well as addressing the issue of entrepreneurship in rural tourism.
Learning recommender systems with adaptive regularization

Many factorization models like matrix or tensor factorization have been proposed for the important application of recommender systems. The success of such factorization models depends largely on the choice of good values for the regularization parameters. Without a careful selection they result in poor prediction quality as they either underfit or overfit the data. Regularization values are typically determined by an expensive search that requires learning the model parameters several times: once for each tuple of candidate values for the regularization parameters. In this paper, we present a new method that adapts the regularization automatically while training the model parameters. To achieve this, we optimize simultaneously for two criteria: (1) as usual the model parameters for the regularized objective and (2) the regularization of future parameter updates for the best predictive quality on a validation set. We develop this for the generic model class of Factorization Machines which subsumes a wide variety of factorization models. We show empirically, that the advantages of our adaptive regularization method compared to expensive hyperparameter search do not come to the price of worse predictive quality. In total with our method, learning regularization parameters is as easy as learning model parameters and thus there is no need for any time-consuming search of regularization values because they are found on-the-fly. This makes our method highly attractive for practical use.