Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Current Murine Models of Sepsis.

Sepsis is a common clinical entity causing thousands of deaths and costing billions of healthcare dollars annually in the U.S. alone [1–4]. Further, sepsis and septic shock represent a heterogeneous spectrum of complex biology and pathophysiology [5–10]. The rise of early goaldirected therapy led to increased standardization of care for patients with severe sepsis or septic shock with corresponding improvements in mortality rates [11,12]. More recent trials, however, have since called into question the benefits of strict protocols for septic shock among those promptly recognized [13–15]. Novel therapies, outside of antibiotics, fluid resuscitation, and basic supportive care, have eluded clinicians and investigators for decades [16]. Yet, the search for new targets to enhance care for patients with sepsis continues. As it is not feasible to test each potential new therapy immediately in human patients, researchers have used animal models to provide platforms for testing, as they provide levels of sophistication far beyond that of cell and tissue culture. Recently, murine models of sepsis have been a topic of considerable debate, particularly as they relate to human disease and guiding the development of novel biologic therapeutics. Detractors cite substantial differences between the murine and human response to sepsis at the genomic level [17,18]. In contrast, others argue that there are biologic similarities but also highlight the importance of model selection. For example, it is inappropriate to draw comparisons between the complex nature of the human condition and a homogeneous model of endotoxemia in a single genetic strain of mouse [7,19]. Models that result in universal and rapid death of experimental mice likely only compare with a minority of human sepsis patients, where death is of lower probability and likely to occur in the time frame of days rather than hours from disease onset [6,20]. In addition, pretreatment experiments for sepsis translate poorly to human patients, who do not have the luxury of medical therapy prior to developing life-threatening infection [6]. This equipoise underscores the importance of model selection when conducting potentially translatable animal studies of sepsis. Among animal models of sepsis, mouse models are often used because of the ease of experimentation, the availability of genetically engineered species, and the relative low cost. Herein, we summarize the currently available murine models of sepsis, with a focus on methodology, common variations, issues, and limitations. The idea that a perfect murine model of sepsis exists is untenable, owing to the complex and heterogeneous nature of the condition, but a variety of good options for modeling exist depending on the focus of the research.
Sensitivity of Miniaturized Photo-elastic Transducer for Small Force Sensing 1

The sensitivity of a force sensor based on photo-elastic effect in a monolithic Nd-YAG laser depends strongly on the geometrical shape and dimensions of the laser medium. The theoretical predictions of sensitivity are in good agreement with first results obtained with a plano-concave cylindrical crystal of (4×4) mm and some values reported by other groups. However, for small size of the laser sensor, the developed model predicts sensitivity, about 30 % higher than the values given by available experiments. In this paper, we present experimental results obtained with a force sensor using a miniaturized monolithic cylindrical Nd-YAG laser of dimensions (2×3) mm with suitable optical coatings on its plane end faces. The new result of measurement concerning the sensitivity has allowed us to refine the theoretical model to treat photo-elastic force sensors with small dimensions. Copyright © 2015 IFSA Publishing, S. L.
Willingness to Pay for Improved Water Quality and Influencing factors: An Insight from Chia Lagoon, Malawi

(1) Background: Water resources at Chia lagoon experience possible threat to its sustainability. Communities are seeking alternatives to improve water quality at the lagoon. The study evaluated the extent at which local communities are WTP to improve water quality at Chia lagoon and the influencing factors. (2) Methods: A study was conducted at Chia lagoon, Western Part of Lake Malawi from November, 2015 to March, 2016. Wide range of data collection approaches such as household surveys, exploratory surveys, focus group discussions, key informant interviews and field observation were employed. A sample of 240 households were selected randomly. Qualitative data was analysed using content analysis. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to determine factors influence WTP. (3) Results: Out of 240 respondents, 57.4% expressed WTP. Multivariate logistic regression analysis demonstrated significant (P<0.01 or P<0.05) relationship between demographic (Gender, age, literacy level), social-economic (Land ownership, main agriculture water source and income) and institution (civic education and social network, extension, water user rights) factors and WTP. (4) Conclusion: The findings from this study provide significant clues for further research and baseline information for local government and local communities in development of more effective and holistic approaches to improve water quality.
LEXICOGRAPHIC MULTI-OBJECTIVE OPTIMISATION OF HYBRID POWER GENERATION SYSTEMS FOR COMMUNITIES IN NON-INTERCONNECTED ZONES

Energy supply applications for populations in isolated areas have great importance in reducing poverty and environmental impacts. However, rural zones not connected to power grids require more studies related to select low cost and efficient technologies suitable to each size of community. This paper presents a lexicographic multi-objective optimisation model (LMOM) to select the best renewable energy technologies (solar and wind) of hybrid power generation systems (HPGSs) for communities located in non-interconnected zones. The model prioritises objective functions such as the generation cost, emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and energy consumption in ton-equivalent petroleum (TEP). In addition, the model considers constraints related to the production cost, environmental sustainability, environmental conditions and reliability of the system. The results show that the model provides sustainable HPGSs adapted to the size of each community and the best renewable energy technologies are the central receiver system and the wind turbine with a 20-m tower.
TRANSPARENT TESTA GLABRA 1 Regulates the Accumulation of Seed Storage Reserves in Arabidopsis 1 [ OPEN ]

College of Agronomy, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi 712100, China (M.C.); Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117543 (M.C., B.Z., C.L., F.T.C., H.Y.); Sime Darby Technology Centre, Lebuh Silikon, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor 43400, Malaysia (H.K.); and Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117604 (H.Y.)
Associations between excessive adiposity and seroprevalence of herpes simplex virus type 1 and type 2 among US adults: a population-based age–period–cohort analysis

Objectives Evidence on the association between herpes simplex virus (HSV) and excessive adiposity, such as obesity (body mass index ≥30 kg/m2) and abdominal obesity (waist circumference (WC) >102 or 88 cm), has been inconsistent. We sought to examine whether age–period–cohort (APC) effects could explain for the observed heterogeneities. Design Population-based cross-sectional study. Participants Adults aged 20–49 years with available serological data in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) in 1999–2012. Exposure measures Obesity and abdominal obesity. Results In men, excessive adiposity was generally not associated with HSV1 or HSV2 (all p>0.05); however, there were positive correlations between HSV seroprevalence and excessive adiposity in certain age and birth cohort groups. Based on APC analysis, abdominally obese men aged 30–40 years showed a nearly 20% increase in risk for HSV1 seropositivity (adjusted prevalence ratio (aPR)=1.18; 95% CI 1.10 to 1.27) as compared with abdominally non-obese men of the same age; there was no such association in men of other age groups. Also, men of a large WC who were born before 1962 or after 1979 had a 28% higher risk for HSV2 seropositivity than those of a normal WC in the same birth cohorts (aPR=1.28, 95% CI 1.17 to 1.54); yet the association did not hold for men in other cohorts (aPR=0.86, 95% CI 0.64 to 1.17). In women, a large WC was correlated with a minimally increased HSV1 seroprevalence (aPR=1.07, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.13) but not with HSV2 seropositivity (aPR=1.13; 95% CI 0.99 to 1.28). Likewise, there were strong associations between abdominal obesity and HSV2 seropositivity in subgroups of women participating in the earliest survey cycle (aPR=1.41, 95% CI 1.12 to 1.78) but not in other survey periods (aPR=0.94, 95% CI 0.85 to 1.03). Conclusions There was no consistent evidence for strong associations between HSV seropositivity and excessive adiposity in adults. APC analysis results further cautioned the generalisability of previous reports based on 1 or 2 cycles of survey data.
Factors influencing consumer loyalty: evidence from the Ghanaian retail banking industry

PurposeThe increasing number of banks in the Ghanaian banking industry has brought about intense competition in the industry. The purpose of this paper is, therefore, to examine the factors that influence retail banking customers’ loyalty intentions.Design/methodology/approachIn order to validate the proposed research model, the study adopts a survey design. Data were collected from 565 customers of the top performing banks in terms of customer deposits. Data analysis employed the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS–SEM) using SmartPLS version 3.FindingsResults from the PLS–SEM analysis indicated that satisfaction, service quality and trust had significant effect on loyalty, with satisfaction having the most significant effect. Interestingly corporate image was found to have a significant effect on both satisfaction and trust but not on loyalty. In all, the proposed model accounted for 63.3 percent of the variation in loyalty.Research limitations/implicationsThe current study samples customers from only the top performing banks in Ghana. The use of cross-sectional data makes it impossible to study how customers’ perceptions change over time. Results from this study could, however, help managers of banks in designing strategies aimed at improving customer loyalty in order to consolidate their market share.Originality/valueThis paper adds to existing works that focus on loyalty in the retail banking sector, especially from the context of a developing economy. The study draws attention to the interrelationship among service quality, perceived value, satisfaction, image, trust and loyalty.
Continuous Auctions and Insider Trading

A dynamic model of insider trading with sequential auctions, structured to resemble a sequential equilibrium, is used to examine the informational content of prices, the liquidity characteristics of a speculative market, and the value of private information to an insider. The model has three kinds of traders: a single risk neutral insider, random noise traders, and competitive risk neutral market makers. The insider makes positive profits by exploiting his monopoly power optimally in a dynamic context, where noise trading provides camouflage which conceals his trading from market makers. As the time interval between auctions goes to zero, a limiting model of continuous trading is obtained. In this equilibrium, prices follow Brownian motion, the depth of the market is constant over time, and all private information is incorporated into prices by the end of trading.
CyberGIS-enabled spatial decision support for supply chain optimization with uncertainty quantification

Decision making in biomass supply chain management is subject to uncertainties in a number of factors such as biomass yield, procurement prices, market demands, transportation costs, and processing technologies. To better understand such uncertainties requires statistical analysis and data-intensive computing enabled by cyberGIS (aka geographic information science and systems based on advanced cyberinfrastructure and e-science). Therefore, we have developed a cyberGIS approach to optimize biomass supply chains under uncertainties. Our approach 1) designs optimal biomass supply chains from regional to national scale with flexible spatial selection of study areas; 2) performs uncertainty and sensitivity analysis to quantify how various sources of uncertainty in the biomass supply chain contribute to the variation of optimal results; and 3) provides users with online geodesign features. This approach has been implemented as a decision support system through integration of data management, mathematical modeling, uncertainty and sensitivity analysis, scenario analysis, and result representation and visualization. An optimization modeling analysis of 7,000 scenarios using Monte Carlo methods has been conducted to quantify the uncertainty and sensitivity impact of various input factors on ethanol production costs and optimal biomass supply chain configurations in Illinois, United States. The results from uncertainty analysis showed that the minimal ethanol production costs range from $2.30 to $3.43 gal-1, considering uncertainties from biomass supply, transportation, and processing. The results of sensitivity analysis demonstrated that biomass-ethanol conversion rate was the most influential factor to ethanol production costs while the optimal biomass supply chain
Too Constrained to Converse: The Effect of Financial Constraints on Word of Mouth

Existing research demonstrates that financial constraints are widespread and influence consumer attention, preference, choice, and consumption in a variety of ways. Despite the growing knowledge of how financial constraints affect the consumer decision making process, less is known about its impact on post-purchase behavior. This work examines whether financial constraints impact an important post-purchase behavior—word-of-mouth—and in what direction. Seven studies show that financial constraints reduce purchase-related word-of-mouth. This effect emerges across consumers’ reported frequencies of discussing their purchases with friends and family, as well as their intentions, desires, and real decisions to engage in online word-of-mouth. This effect is explained by reduced anticipated pleasure of engaging in purchase-related word-of-mouth, which results from financially constrained consumers’ belief that rehearsing their monetary expenditures will reinforce negative feelings about their limited financial situation. This effect cannot be similarly explained by other accounts such as impression management or the desire to hoard informational resources. Further, the authors show that the reduction in anticipated pleasure from word-of-mouth is specific to sharing about one’s monetary expenditures. Thus, financial constraints reduce purchase-related word-of-mouth, but they do not universally decrease one’s propensity to share.
Does Option Trading Affect Audit Pricing?

We examine the impact of options trading on audit pricing for a sample of US firms over the period from 2001 to 2016. Using two option trading measures, the average daily natural logarithm of option contracts volume and the average daily natural logarithm of option contracts dollar volume, we find that option trading is significantly and negatively related to audit fees, indicating that firms with higher option trading incur lower audit fees. We conduct several additional tests to establish the robustness of the causal relation between option trading and audit fees. Using difference-in-difference analysis, we document that firms which had options listed for the first time experience a significant decrease in their audit fees after the options listing relative to a matched sample of firms without listed options. Further, we find that auditors spend a lower number of days to audit firms with higher option trading and firms with higher option trading experience lower probabilities of lawsuits and misstatements. The impact of option trading on audit fees is stronger when the auditor is located further away from the audited firm, for firms with non-specialized auditors and for firms with higher information asymmetry problems, poorer earnings and governance quality. Our findings underscore the significance of option trading in improving a firm’s information environment and reducing litigation risk, thereby enabling firms with higher option trading levels to negotiate lower audit fees than firms with lower option trading.
IGMM-Based Co-Localization of Mobile Users With Ambient Radio Signals

Co-localization of mobile users combines methods of detecting nearby users and providing them interesting and useful services or information. By exploiting the massive use of smartphones, nearby users can be co-localized using only their captured ambient radio signals. In this paper, we propose a real-time co-localization system, in a centralized manner, that leverages co-located users with high accuracy. We exploit the similarity of radio frequency measurements from users’ mobile terminal. We do not require any further information about them. Our co-localization system is based on a nonparametric Bayesian method called infinite Gaussian mixture model that allows the model parameters to change with observed input data. In addition, we propose a modified version of Gibbs sampling technique with an average similarity threshold to better fit user’s group. We design our system in a completely centralized manner. Hence, it enables the network to control and manage the formation of the users’ groups. We first evaluate the performance of our proposal numerically. Then, we carry out an extensive experiment to demonstrate the feasibility, and the efficiency of our approach with data sets from a real-world setting. Results on experiment favor our algorithm over the state-of-the-art community detection-based clustering method.
Nitrogen fertilization and soil management of winter common bean crop

The adoption of appropriate cultural management, which includes nitrogen fertilization and soil tillage system, is very important to increase the efficiency of plant in the utilization of available resource. This research work was conducted for three years aiming at evaluating the effect of sidedressing nitrogen application (0, 25, 50, 75, and 100 kg ha-1) on winter bean crop under different systems of soil management (conventional, minimal, and no-tillage systems). The experimental design was a randomized block arranged in strips relative to tillage systems, with random distribution of nitrogen doses into each strip, with four replications. Grain yield was affected by nitrogen rates and significant increases were obtained with the application of 75 to 100 kg N ha-1. Soil management did not affect grain yield, although the "minimum system" provided better results in the two first years.
The Changing Institutions of Private Rental Housing: An International Review

This study investigated the private rental sector policy settings and institutions relevant to Australia in 10 countries in Australasia, Europe and North America, with a detailed review of the sectors in Germany, Ireland, the United Kingdom and United States. The research investigated the international experience of housing and impact of broader economic systems, financial settings, landlord and tenancy structures and regulation in the reference countries.
Prevalence of Antimicrobial Resistance among Clinical Isolates of Bacteroides fragilis Group in Canada in 2010-2011: CANWARD Surveillance Study

ABSTRACT Clinical isolates of the Bacteroides fragilis group (n = 387) were collected from patients attending nine Canadian hospitals in 2010-2011 and tested for susceptibility to 10 antimicrobial agents using the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) broth microdilution method. B. fragilis (59.9%), Bacteroides ovatus (16.3%), and Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron (12.7%) accounted for ∼90% of isolates collected. Overall rates of percent susceptibility were as follows: 99.7%, metronidazole; 99.5%, piperacillin-tazobactam; 99.2%, imipenem; 97.7%, ertapenem; 92.0%, doripenem; 87.3%, amoxicillin-clavulanate; 80.9%, tigecycline; 65.9%, cefoxitin; 55.6%, moxifloxacin; and 52.2%, clindamycin. Percent susceptibility to cefoxitin, clindamycin, and moxifloxacin was lowest for B. thetaiotaomicron (n = 49, 24.5%), Parabacteroides distasonis/P. merdae (n = 11, 9.1%), and B. ovatus (n = 63, 31.8%), respectively. One isolate (B. thetaiotaomicron) was resistant to metronidazole, and two isolates (both B. fragilis) were resistant to both piperacillin-tazobactam and imipenem. Since the last published surveillance study describing Canadian isolates of B. fragilis group almost 20 years ago (A.-M. Bourgault et al., Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. 36:343–347, 1992), rates of resistance have increased for amoxicillin-clavulanate, from 0.8% (1992) to 6.2% (2010-2011), and for clindamycin, from 9% (1992) to 34.1% (2010-2011).
Market competition and liquidity risk: Lessons from Malaysia

This study investigates the influence of market competition (MC) on liquidity risk (LR) for conventional and Islamic banks in Malaysia. The research analyses two data sets comprising 17 Islamic and 27 conventional banks over the period of 1996–2015 using panel regression estimations. MC is measured using the Herfindahl–Hirschman index, concentration ratio, and entropy index. Meanwhile, LR is measured by the traditional and BASEL III measures using current asset to current liability ratio and net stable funding ratio, respectively. Market competition among Islamic banks has a significant positive relationship with liquidity risk. By contrast, results for conventional banks are inconclusive. This result indicates that Islamic banks need a certain degree of market power to manage liquidity risk. Thus, policy makers, regulators, and industry players should utilize a unique framework for Islamic and conventional banks when strategizing liquidity risk management. This study is the first comprehensive empirical research that compares the MC-LR relationship between Islamic and conventional banks using both traditional and BASEL III liquidity risk measures. JEL Classification: D4, E6, G21
Factors affecting mobile shopping: a Vietnamese perspective

Purpose Mobile shopping is the current trend for firms to conduct business, having great advantages over electronic shopping as well as traditional shopping. The purpose of this paper is to discuss not only the driving forces of mobile shopping behaviors from the theory of reasoned action (TRA) perspective, but also the additional promotion and barrier sides of the mobile business. Design/methodology/approach A structural equation modeling approach with latent constructs is applied on a self-administered survey data of 208 Vietnamese consumers to test the hypotheses. Findings The results of this study have proved the predictive power of TRA in exploring consumer behavior in the context of mobile shopping. Also, both promotion and barrier variables have significantly strong impacts on the intention to adopt mobile shopping. Research limitations/implications Future studies would benefit from investigating other variables (e.g. specific aspects of trust and risk) and using actual behavior (e.g. online purchases). Practical implications Business managers should pay attention to both promotion and barrier factors to understand how and why Vietnamese consumers adopt mobile shopping. Originality/value This pioneering study adapts the TRA model with extended promotion and barrier variables to explain mobile shopping in the context of Vietnam.