Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mini-review of the geotechnical parameters of municipal solid waste: Mechanical and biological pre-treated versus raw untreated waste

The most viable option for biostabilisation of old sanitary landfills, filled with raw municipal solid waste, is the so-called bioreactor landfill. Even today, bioreactor landfills are viable options in many economically developing countries. However, in order to reduce the biodegradable component of landfilled waste, mechanical and biological treatment has become a widely accepted waste treatment technology, especially in more prosperous countries. Given that mechanical and biological treatment alters the geotechnical properties of raw waste material, the design of sanitary landfills which accepts mechanically and biologically treated waste, should be carried out with a distinct set of geotechnical parameters. However, under the assumption that ‘waste is waste’, some design engineers might be tempted to use geotechnical parameters of untreated raw municipal solid waste and mechanical and biological pre-treated municipal solid waste interchangeably. Therefore, to provide guidelines for use and to provide an aggregated source of this information, this mini-review provides comparisons of geotechnical parameters of mechanical and biological pre-treated waste and raw untreated waste at various decomposition stages. This comparison reveals reasonable correlations between the hydraulic conductivity values of untreated and mechanical and biological pre-treated municipal solid waste. It is recognised that particle size might have a significant influence on the hydraulic conductivity of both municipal solid waste types. However, the compression ratios and shear strengths of untreated and pre-treated municipal solid waste do not show such strong correlations. Furthermore, another emerging topic that requires appropriate attention is the recovery of resources that are embedded in old landfills. Therefore, the presented results provide a valuable tool for engineers designing landfills for mechanical and biological pre-treated waste or bioreactor landfills for untreated raw waste as well as planning landfill mining projects.
Observation of relativistic and charge-displacement self-channeling of intense subpicosecond ultraviolet (248 nm) radiation in plasmas.

Abstract : Experimental studies examining a new relativistic regime of high-intensity short-pulse propagation in plasmas have been performed that present evidence for the formation of a stable mode of spatially confined (channeled) propagation. For an electron density of approx. 1.35 x 10(exp 21) cm(exp -3) and a power of approx. 3 x 10(exp 11) W the results indicate a channel radius less than 1 micrometer and a peak intensity of approx. 10(exp 19) W/sq cm. Comparison of these findings with a dynamical theory yields agreement for both the longitudinal structure and the radial extent of the propagation observed.
Institutional Dual Holdings and Risk Shifting: Evidence from Corporate Innovation

This paper analyzes the impact of shareholder-creditor conflicts on corporate risk-taking. In particular, I examine the role played by institutional dual-holders (i.e., those simultaneously holding a same firm's debt and equity) in corporate innovation. Baseline results show that firms held by dual-holders generate fewer but more valuable patents. To establish causality, I use a difference-in-differences approach based on the quasi-natural experiment of financial institution mergers. The evidence is consistent with the hypothesis that institutional dual-holders can mitigate shareholder-creditor conflicts and thus curb excessive risk-taking. I further find that the decreased sensitivity of managerial compensation to firm risk might be one possible channel through which dual-holders affect risk shifting. Overall, the paper offers new evidence that shareholder-creditor conflicts indeed exist and lead to risk shifting (asset substitution), and that institutional dual ownership can partially mitigate this problem.
Amphetamine restores locomotor function after motor cortex injury in the rat.

The invention is an electrical power vehicle employing one or more motion electrical generators for converting up and down, horizontal or component motion of the vehicle or its wheel structure relative to the vehicle to pulse-type power for operating a flywheel motor-generator unit which drives a flywheel via a torque damper whereby the flywheel generator provides charging power for the batteries, which in turn operate the vehicle through a motor speed control, and supplies the other vehicle circuits. A self-contained electric generator may operate at any location in the vehicle, preferably at the location of greatest vibration created by reciprocating motion when the vehicle is operated over roadways.
The multiple sclerosis-associated retrovirus and its HERV-W endogenous family: a biological interface between virology, genetics, and immunology in human physiology and disease

This mini-review summarizes current knowledge of MSRV (multiple sclerosisassociated retrovirus), founder member of the type W family of human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs), its pathogenic potential and association with diseases. As retrotransposable elements, HERVs behave differently from stable genes, and cannot be studied with “Mendelian genetics” concepts only. They also display complex interactions with other HERV families, and with classical viruses. These concepts may contribute to unravelling the etiopathogenesis of complex diseases such as multiple sclerosis, schizophrenia, and other chronic multifactorial diseases.
Mild Hypomania (the Highs) can be a Feature of the First Postpartum Week

About 10% of women show elation and associated features of hypomania in the first 5 days following childbirth. These symptoms can be detected using a self-rating scale (the ‘Highs’) based on SADS-L criteria. This phenomenon has been confirmed using the observer-rated Comprehensive Psychopathological Rating Scale, which also revealed a high degree of related irritability. Significantly more women scoring ⩾ 8 on the Highs scale at 3 days postpartum went on to manifest depression at 6 weeks than did subjects with no psychopathology in the early puerperium. It is suggested that the ‘highs’ followed by depression may be a mild and common form of bipolar disorder.
Getting Deals Done: The Use of Social Networks in Bank Decision-Making

Economic actors confront various forms of uncertainty making decisions, and how they deal with these obstacles may affect their success in accomplishing their goals. This study examines the means by which relationship managers in a major commercial bank attempt to close transactions with their corporate customers. It is hypothesized that under conditions of high uncertainty, bankers will rely on colleagues with whom they are strongly tied for advice on and support of their deals. Drawing on recent network theory, it is also hypothesized that transactions in which bankers use relatively sparse approval networks are more likely to successfully close than are transactions involving dense approval networks. Both hypotheses are supported. Bankers are faced with a strategic paradox: Their tendency to rely on those they trust in dealing with uncertainty creates conditions that render deals less likely to be closed successfully. This paradox represents an example of unanticipated consequences of purposive social action.
The Case for Visualization as a Service - Mobile Cloud Gaming as an Example

In recent years, significant progress has been made to improve the power efficiency of mobile devices. In particular, new GPU architectures have made it possible to run compute-intensive applications directly on battery-powered mobile devices. In parallel, research is also being conducted in the area of application offloading, the process of running compute-intensive tasks on cloud servers and delivering the results of these computations to mobile devices through their wireless interfaces. It is important to understand the power consumption implications of each of these two options. In this paper, we use mobile cloud gaming as an example to evaluate and compare these two alternatives (running games on the cloud or on mobile devices.) Based on this comparison, we introduce the concept of Visualization as a Service (VaaS) as a new model to design and implement graphics-intensive applications for mobile devices. In this model, advanced visualization capabilities (e. g., interactive visualization of high resolution videos/images) would be provided to mobile users as a service via the Internet. We show through actual hardware specifications that, despite the recent introduction of ultra low power GPUs for mobile devices, it remains far more power efficient to offload graphics-intensive tasks to the cloud. The associated latency can still be tolerated in most applications.
Information technology evaluation: classifying indirect costs using the structured case method

Many companies are increasing their expenditure on information technology and information systems (IT/IS) to obtain or even sustain a competitive advantage in their respective marketplaces. Many managers, however, are often left with the quandary of how to evaluate their investments in technologies. Reasons of this difficulty have been suggested in the normative literature as centring on the socio‐technical (human, organisational and technical) dimensions associated with the adoption of IT/IS. The inability of managers to determine the true costs of deploying IT/IS is considered attributable to a lack of knowledge and understanding of IT/IS related costs. In developing a broader picture of such cost dimensions and their respective taxonomies, the research presented in this paper uses a structured case method to gain an understanding of how a construction firm embraced the IT evaluation process. A review of the IT cost literature is presented and a conceptual IT evaluation framework that focuses on indirect costs is proposed.
Physicochemical characterization of the human nail: solvent effects on the permeation of homologous alcohols *

To assess how vehicles might influence permeation through human nail, the diffusion of homologous alcohols (methanol to decanol) administered as neat liquids through finger nail plate has been studied using in‐vitro diffusion cell methods and compared with permeation data for the same compounds in aqueous media. Permeation rates of the homologous alcohols through lipid depleted nail plate have also been assessed and the influences of dimethylsulphoxide (DMSO) and isopropyl alcohol on permeation rates of methanol and hexanol have been examined. With the exception of methanol, permeability coefficients are uniformly about five‐fold smaller when the alcohols are undiluted than when they are applied in water. Overall parallelism in the permeability profiles under these separate circumstances of application is an indication that the external concentrations of the alcohols themselves are a determinant of their permeation velocities through the nail plate matrix. The even separation of the profiles suggests a facilitating role of water within the nail matrix. Chloroform/methanol delipidization of the nail led to increased penetration rates of water, methanol, ethanol and butanol. On the other hand, it caused a six‐fold decrease in the permeation rate of decanol. Application of methanol and hexanol in DMSO somewhat retards their rates of permeation. Isopropyl alcohol also slows the permeation rate of hexanol but has little influence on that of methanol. Thus it appears that solvents which tend to promote diffusion through the skin horny layer have little promise as accelerants of nail plate permeability.
Optimal Financial Contracting in Strategic Alliances

This paper models a financially constrained entrepreneur and a deep-pocket incumbent developing an innovative product through strategic alliance, which generates externalities on the incumbent. We find that i) the main agency conflict in alliances is the free-riding problem between the two collaborators, and a third party - an outside investor - is introduced to address this problem; ii) in contrast to traditional corporate finance theories, the financial constraint of the entrepreneur sometimes can be tightened by an increase in his endowment or a reduction in agency conflicts; and iii) the incentive compatible financial claims of alliances include debt, equity, warrants, convertible debt, and preferred equity, which are consistent with empirical observations.
Motivational influences on supply manager environmental sustainability behavior

Purpose Although supply chain managers serve a central role when implementing corporate environmental sustainability objectives, existing literature does not demonstrate high levels of supply manager support for such initiatives. This paper aims to investigate the potential of individual behavioral influences to explain supply manager orientation toward environmental responsibility. Methodology/approach This paper constructs a research model based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to explore how personal environmental motivations influence supply manager environmental behavior in the workplace. This paper also incorporates hyperbolic discounting as a cognitive bias moderator in the model. The research hypotheses were tested with regression of survey data of practicing supply managers in the USA. Findings Support was found for the direct TPB hypotheses, revealing the importance of an individual’s personal attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control on interpreting and applying the organization’s environmental sustainability objectives. Although the interactive effect of hyperbolic discounting as a cognitive bias was not supported, a direct effect was found. Practical implications The findings can help organizations improve supply manager support for sustainability initiatives. Originality/value Prior supply chain sustainability research has examined drivers and barriers at political, legal, economical and overall firm levels. This study expands this research base by investigating individual-level barriers and drivers related to personal responsibility for environmental sustainability. As a second contribution, integration of cognitive biases in the TPB has been understudied in existing literature.
Cutting Edge: Macrophage Migration Inhibitory Factor Is Necessary for Progression of Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis1

Macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) has been implicated in the pathogenesis of inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. The role of MIF in the progression of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) was explored using MIF−/− mice. Wild-type mice showed a progressive disease course, whereas MIF−/− mice exhibited acute signs but no further progression of clinical disease. MIF−/− mice displayed markedly elevated corticosterone levels and significant decreases in the inflammatory cytokines TNF-α, IFN-γ, IL-2, and IL-6 before, during, and after EAE onset. Taken together, these findings support that MIF is an important mediator of EAE progression through glucocorticoid antagonism and up-regulation of the inflammatory response.
Cloxacillin control of experimental arthritis induced by SEC+ Staphylococcus aureus is associated with downmodulation of local and systemic cytokines

Staphylococcus aureus is the most common agent of septic arthritis (SA) that is a severe, rapidly progressive and erosive disease. In this work we investigated the clinical, histopathological and immunological characteristics of the SA triggered by an enterotoxin C producer S. aureus strain. The effect of a β‐lactamic antibiotic over disease evolution and cytokine production was also evaluated. After confirmation that ATCC 19095 SEC+ strain preserved its ability to produce enterotoxin C, this bacteria was used to infect C57BL/6 male mice. Body weight, clinical score and disease prevalence were daily evaluated during 14 days. Cytokine production by splenocytes, cytokine mRNA expression in arthritic lesions, transcription factors mRNA expression in inguinal lymph nodes and histopathological analysis were performed 7 and 14 days after infection. ATCC 19095 SEC+ strain caused a severe arthritis characterized by weight loss, high clinical scores and a 100% disease prevalence. Histopathological analysis revealed inflammation, pannus formation and bone erosion. Arthritis aggravation was associated with elevated production of pro‐inflammatory cytokines, higher local mRNA expression of these cytokines and also higher mRNA expression of T‐bet, ROR‐γ and GATA‐3. Disease control by cloxacillin was associated with decreased production of pro‐inflammatory cytokines but not of IL‐10. These findings indicate that the ATCC 19095 SEC+ strain is able to initiate a severe septic arthritis in mice associated with elevated cytokine production that can be, however, controlled by cloxacillin.
Effects of low storage temperature on survival and infectivity of two Steinernerna species (Nematoda : Steinernematidae)

SUMMARY Survival of two British steinernematids, one a strain of Steinemema feltiae (Filipjev) [ = S. bibionis (Bovien)], and the other an undescribed species designated Steinernema sp. (Nashes strain) was assessed after storage of infective juveniles in sterile sand at 5 "C and 15 "C and was measured by their motility (ability to be extracted by mini Whitehead trays). Infectivity after storage at the two temperatures was measured in bioassays with Galleria larvae at 15 "C and was documented as the number of nematodes that infected each larva. Bioassays used single larvae in stoppered plastic vials containing 25 ml of sand and 200-258 infective nematodes. The larvae were replaced in each via1 every 4 days until infections ceased. Survival of both nematode species was high in sand at 5 "C. However, the numbers that infected the Galleria larvae at 15 "C after storage at 5 "C produced a curve. That is, fewer nematodes infected as the period of storage increased, but after a time, the numbers that invaded the Galleria larvae increased and eventually attained the original level. Survival of the Nashes strain was tested at 15 "C and the number of infective juveniles declined until few could be extracted from the sand after 16 weeks storage. The number of nematodes per host showed a similar pattern. It appears that storage at 5 "C induces most of the nematodes into a state in which they lose their ability to parasitise a host. Infectivity is regained after a period of cooling. These effects of storage temperature on infectivity were not reflected in the data for mortality of the insects, which generally remained high in al1 tests. These studies should be repeated and extended to other species because entomopathogenic nematodes are frequently stored at low temperatures before use in experiments or in biocontrol programmes. This practice may affect virulence of the parasites and the period of storage may be critical.
Investigating the Relationship between Financial Growth and Strength with Leverage Ratios of Companies Listed inTehran Stock Exchange

The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between financial growth and strength with leverage ratios of companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchange. Sales growth, profit growth, and financial strength as independent variables and leverage ratio was used as dependent variable. four different ratios were used to assess the company's financial leverage. Financial strength has been measured by Altman bankruptcy model. Data related to 102 companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchangefor the period 2002-2011 have been used as sample totest the hypotheses and examine the effect of independent variables and and leverage ratio. Data were analyzed by combined data analysis. panel data test were used to estimate the suitable models of hypotheses test in combined data. The results indicate a correlation between sales growth, profit growth, asset growth and financial strength with a total debt leverage ratio and the model can be used to measure the relationship. In model of total debt ratio, there is negative and reverse relationship between the growth variables and financial strength with leverage ratios, i.e. increasing and improving financial growth and strength will reduce debt ratio and ultimately the company's financial leverage. Results of this research can be used by financial analysts and other users of financial information in their decisions making.
The role of senior executives in managing key customers in Arab context

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of senior managers in managing intra-and inter-organizational relationships with key customers and the factors that influence such involvement in a novel context in the Arab Middle East region. ,An exploratory qualitative research design was used in which 68 face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted in Jordan with endogenous and Western firms. ,Top/senior managers play a significant role in Arab business relationships and in creating value for the firms. Their involvement in key accounts is imperative at all levels – strategic, operational, and relational – mainly due to cultural and institutional factors that are unique to the Arab context. ,The study is limited to operations in one emerging country situated in a novel setting in one particular region of the world, which is the Middle East. ,Arab senior managers’ participation is imperative and should continue with their relatively intense involvement with key accounts. For foreign investors operating in that part of the world, it is highly recommended that senior management have a more a hands-on approach when dealing with the Arab key customer and to focus more on the relational aspect of key account management than on the organizational aspect. ,This paper adds to the very limited number of studies on senior management involvement in key account management, making a theoretical and practical contribution and adding insight on how to manage the relationship with the Arab key customer.
Preclinical Evaluation of UAB30 in Pediatric Renal and Hepatic Malignancies

Rare tumors of solid organs remain some of the most difficult pediatric cancers to cure. These difficult tumors include rare pediatric renal malignancies, such as malignant rhabdoid kidney tumors (MRKT) and non-osseous renal Ewing sarcoma, and hepatoblastoma, a pediatric liver tumor that arises from immature liver cells. There are data in adult renal and hepatic malignancies demonstrating the efficacy of retinoid therapy. The investigation of retinoic acid therapy in cancer is not a new strategy, but the widespread adoption of this therapy has been hindered by toxicities. Our laboratory has been investigating a novel synthetic rexinoid, UAB30, which exhibits a more favorable side-effect profile. In this study, we hypothesized that UAB30 would diminish the growth of tumor cells from both rare renal and liver tumors in vitro and in vivo. We successfully demonstrated decreased cellular proliferation, invasion and migration, cell-cycle arrest, and increased apoptosis after treatment with UAB30. Additionally, in in vivo murine models of human hepatoblastoma or rare human renal tumors, there were significantly decreased tumor xenograft growth and increased animal survival after UAB30 treatment. UAB30 should be further investigated as a developing therapeutic in these rare and difficult-to-treat pediatric solid organ tumors. Mol Cancer Ther; 15(5); 911–21. ©2016 AACR.