Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Turbulent Structure of Drag Reducing Boundary Layer Flows

The turbulent structure of wall-bounded drag reduced flow has been studied with particle image velocimetry (PIV) in a zero-pressure-gradient boundary layer. Drag reduction was achieved by injection of a concentrated polymer solution through a spanwise slot along the test wall at a distance approximately 2 m upstream of the PIV measurement station. For comparison, water was injected at the same flow rate as the polymer solution. In both instances, we acquired velocity data in the streamwise-spanwise plane (parallel to the test-wall), for a total of 30 planes across the thickness of the boundary layer. Drag reduction was measured with thermal and optical wall shear stress sensors. For increasing drag reduction, we found a significant modification of the near-wall structure of turbulence with a coarsening of the low-speed velocity streaks and a reduction in the number and strength of the near-wall vortices. Flow visualization, using planer laser induced fluorescence (PLIF), showed local accumulation of polymer concentration near the low-speed velocity streaks. A mechanism of polymer drag reduction as determined from the PIV measurements is highlighted.
Engineering a Single-Agent Cytokine/Antibody Fusion That Selectively Expands Regulatory T Cells for Autoimmune Disease Therapy

IL-2 has been used to treat diseases ranging from cancer to autoimmune disorders, but its concurrent immunostimulatory and immunosuppressive effects hinder efficacy. IL-2 orchestrates immune cell function through activation of a high-affinity heterotrimeric receptor (composed of IL-2Rα, IL-2Rβ, and common γ [γc]). IL-2Rα, which is highly expressed on regulatory T (TReg) cells, regulates IL-2 sensitivity. Previous studies have shown that complexation of IL-2 with the JES6-1 Ab preferentially biases cytokine activity toward TReg cells through a unique mechanism whereby IL-2 is exchanged from the Ab to IL-2Rα. However, clinical adoption of a mixed Ab/cytokine complex regimen is limited by stoichiometry and stability concerns. In this study, through structure-guided design, we engineered a single agent fusion of the IL-2 cytokine and JES6-1 Ab that, despite being covalently linked, preserves IL-2 exchange, selectively stimulating TReg expansion and exhibiting superior disease control to the mixed IL-2/JES6-1 complex in a mouse colitis model. These studies provide an engineering blueprint for resolving a major barrier to the implementation of functionally similar IL-2/Ab complexes for treatment of human disease.
Interference Alignment on the Deterministic Channel and Application to Fully Connected Gaussian Interference Networks

An interference alignment example is constructed for the deterministic channel model of the K-user interference channel. The deterministic channel example is then translated into the Gaussian setting, creating the first known example of a fully connected Gaussian K-user interference network with single antenna nodes, real, nonzero and constant channel coefficients, and no propagation delays where the degrees of freedom outerbound is achieved. An analogy is drawn between the propagation delay based interference alignment examples and the deterministic channel model which also allows similar constructions for the two-user X channel as well.
Influence of Spraying Urea , Born , and Active Dry Yeast on Growth , Yield , Leaf Chemical Composition and Fruit Quality of " Superior " Grapevines Grown in Sandy Soil Conditions

This investigation was carried out during two successive seasons i.e. 2011 and 2012 on grapevines "superior" cultivar grown in sandy soil in a private vineyard located in new reclaimed area in Ahmed Orabi Association, Qalyoub Government Egypt. Grapevine received 9 spray treatments: Control (sprayed with water), urea at 0.5% and 1.0%, boric acid at 0.1% and 0.2%, active dry yeast at 0.1% and 0.2%, (0.5% urea + 0.1% boric acid + 0.1% yeast), (1.0% urea + 0.2% boric acid + 0.2% +yeast). From the results of this investigation it could be concluded that combined spraying with urea at 1.0% plus boric acid at 0.2% plus active dry yeast at 0.2% four times during growing season( i.e. at the beginning of growth, first bloom, immediately after fruit set and 3 weeks later) in addition to the recommended N, P and K fertilizers is recommended for achieving high growth, yield with fairly good barriers quality from "Superior" grapevines under the condition of the experiment and the resembling conditions.
Environmental Taxes

This chapter provides an overview of key economic issues in the use of taxation as an instrument of environmental policy in the UK. It first reviews economic arguments for using taxes and other market mechanisms in environmental policy, discusses the choice of tax base, and considers the value of the revenue from environmental taxes. It is argued that environmental tax revenues do not significantly alter economic constraints on tax policy, and that environmental taxes need to be justified primarily by the cost-effective achievement of environmental goals. The chapter then assesses key areas where environmental taxes appear to have significant potential -- including taxes on energy used by industry and households, road transport, aviation, and waste. In some of these areas, efficient environmental tax design needs to make use of a number of taxes in combination -- a "multi-part instrument".
Application of High-Throughput Sequencing in the Diagnosis of Inherited Thrombocytopenia

Inherited thrombocytopenia is a group of hereditary diseases with a reduction in platelet count as the main clinical manifestation. Clinically, there is an urgent need for a convenient and rapid diagnosis method. We introduced a high-throughput, next-generation sequencing (NGS) platform into the routine diagnosis of patients with unexplained thrombocytopenia and analyzed the gene sequencing results to evaluate the value of NGS technology in the screening and diagnosis of inherited thrombocytopenia. From a cohort of 112 patients with thrombocytopenia, we screened 43 patients with hereditary features. For the blood samples of these 43 patients, a gene sequencing platform for hemorrhagic and thrombotic diseases comprising 89 genes was used to perform gene detection using NGS technology. When we combined the screening results with clinical features and other findings, 15 (34.9%) of 43patients were diagnosed with inherited thrombocytopenia. In addition, 19 pathogenic variants, including 8 previously unreported variants, were identified in these patients. Through the use of this detection platform, we expect to establish a more effective diagnostic approach to such disorders.
of Organizational Effectiveness : People and Performance Employee engagement , human resource management practices and competitive advantage : An integrated approach

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to argue in support of a model that shows how four key HRM practices focused on engagement influence organizational climate, job demands and job resources, the psychological experiences of safety, meaningfulness and availability at work, employee engagement, and individual, group and organizational performance and competitive advantage. Design/methodology/approach – This conceptual review focuses on the research evidence showing interrelationships between organizational context factors, job factors, individual employee psychological and motivational factors, employee outcomes, organizational outcomes and competitive advantage. The proposed model integrates frameworks that have previously run independently in the HR and engagement literatures. Findings – The authors conclude that HRM practitioners need to move beyond the routine administration of annual engagement surveys and need to embed engagement in HRM policies and practices such personnel selection, socialization, performance management, and training and development. Practical implications – The authors offer organizations clear guidelines for how HR practices (i.e. selection, socialization, performance management, training) can be used to facilitate and improve employee engagement and result in positive outcomes that will help organizations achieve a competitive advantage. Originality/value – The authors provide useful new insights for researchers and management professionals wishing to embed engagement within the fabric of HRM policies and practices and employee behaviour, and organizational outcomes.
Simultaneous Vertical Localization of Low-and High-Frequency Noise Bands

This study investigates the vertical localization of noise band pairs, one low-frequency and one high. Stimulus pairs were presented from a vertical array of five loudspeakers either in front, or to the side, of the subject. Loudspeakers had a concentric tweeter and woofer arrangement, the array covering a vertical angle of 30 degrees in the first experiment, and 40 degrees in the second. Every combination of highand lowfrequency source positions was tested, with the subject reporting the perceived locations of the two sources. In the first experiment, the two noise bands were presented synchronously, whilst the second used asynchronous presentation. The high-frequency noise bands were well-localized. The low-frequency bands were primarily localized based on the high-frequency band source position for synchronous sources, offset by 0.1 to 0.4 m below their physical position. For asynchronous sources, the lowfrequency bands were significantly localized to the position of the low-frequency source, except when the cut-off frequency was 125 Hz, when the high-frequency source position again dominated. Larger spectral gaps were associated a greater vertical offset.
Melatonin Uptake by Cells: An Answer to Its Relationship with Glucose?

Melatonin, N-acetyl-5-methoxytryptamine, is an indole mainly synthesized from tryptophan in the pineal gland and secreted exclusively during the night in all the animals reported to date. While the pineal gland is the major source responsible for this night rise, it is not at all the exclusive production site and many other tissues and organs produce melatonin as well. Likewise, melatonin is not restricted to vertebrates, as its presence has been reported in almost all the phyla from protozoa to mammals. Melatonin displays a large set of functions including adaptation to light: dark cycles, free radical scavenging ability, antioxidant enzyme modulation, immunomodulatory actions or differentiation–proliferation regulatory effects, among others. However, in addition to those important functions, this evolutionary ‘ancient’ molecule still hides further tools with important cellular implications. The major goal of the present review is to discuss the data and experiments that have addressed the relationship between the indole and glucose. Classically, the pineal gland and a pinealectomy were associated with glucose homeostasis even before melatonin was chemically isolated. Numerous reports have provided the molecular components underlying the regulatory actions of melatonin on insulin secretion in pancreatic beta-cells, mainly involving membrane receptors MTNR1A/B, which would be partially responsible for the circadian rhythmicity of insulin in the organism. More recently, a new line of evidence has shown that glucose transporters GLUT/SLC2A are linked to melatonin uptake and its cellular internalization. Beside its binding to membrane receptors, melatonin transportation into the cytoplasm, required for its free radical scavenging abilities, still generates a great deal of debate. Thus, GLUT transporters might constitute at least one of the keys to explain the relationship between glucose and melatonin. These and other potential mechanisms responsible for such interaction are also discussed here.
Pearls & Oy-sters: Bow hunter syndrome: A rare cause of posterior circulation stroke

A 24-year-old man with no relevant medical history presented to our institution with a week of intermittent dizziness exacerbated by turning his head to the left. He acutely developed diplopia and disorientation on the day of presentation to the emergency room. He reported similar complaints a month prior. There was no history of fevers, rashes, headache, or neck trauma. There was no family history of similar complaints, vascular or connective tissue diseases, stroke-like episodes, seizures, or early-onset dementia. Examination demonstrated mild impairment of cognition and a right hemiparesis. Initial head CT revealed congenital atlas nonunion (C1) with fusion of the second and third vertebral bodies (C2–C3). Brain MRI revealed diffusion restriction in the left thalamus and bilateral dorsal midbrain indicative of multiple acute infarctions. Chronic infarctions were also present in the right cerebellum, which indicated prior episodes of ischemia. A series of dynamic X-rays showed malalignment of the lateral masses of the atlas with C2, but there was no evidence of instability. CT angiography (CTA) revealed the presence of a pseudoaneurysm of the right VA at its exit from the C2 transverse foramen. This was suspected to be the source of the posterior circulation emboli. Left VA was unremarkable. There was no evidence of VA dissection on CTA (figure). Magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) with fat-suppressed images of the neck was not performed. The rest of the workup including complete blood count, serum chemistry and lipids profile, glycosylated hemoglobin levels, liver function tests, hypercoagulability studies, D-dimer levels, transthoracic echocardiography, and short-term Holter monitoring were unremarkable. A transesophageal echocardiogram was not performed because of concerns for further neck manipulation.
Biocontrol potential of extracellular proteins from Xenorhabdus nematophilus on dengue vectors and the enhancement by response surface methodology

Dengue fever is a prevalent and rapidly spreading disease. It is best controlled by controlling its vectors. Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus are the primary and secondary worldwide vectors respectively, which are bred in peridomestic man-made water containers. Biological control is the most effective and sustainable method as there is no resurgence effect and does not harm humans. Our study includes the use of extracellular proteins of Xenorhabdus nematophilus, a gram negative bacterium widely used as biocontrol agents belonging to the family enterobacteriaceae. The mortality rates of IVth instar larvae Aedes aegypti when treated with 250 Âµg of extracellular proteins of Xenorhabdus nematophilus recorded to be 40% after 72h of exposure. The rate of mortality was observed minimum even at higher concentration. Optimization of the medium through Response Surface Methodology showed that there was an increase in the production of extra cellular proteins. These proteins played a very important role in the control of Aedes aegypti. The rate of mortality was recorded to be 92% when treated with 200 Âµg of extracellular proteins within 48h of treatment. Our research proved that the media optimization enhanced the production of extracellular proteins in the Xenorhabdus nematophilus and it can be used as a bio control agent for the control of Dengue vector.
A Model for Assessing Maturity of Industry 4 . 0 in the Banking Sector

Recent technological advancements have resulted a paradigm shift in the transition from physical world to a virtual world in many industrial scenarios. Thus, the development of the concept of industry 4.0 revolutionize the way of conducting businesses. The applications of industry 4.0 are rapidly growing in the financial sector as well. As modern customer expectations have risen with the technology improvements, they value relationship centric experience that hinges on trust and personalization while receiving unlimited accessibility, convenience and speed of service. This will challenge banks to deliver their services strategy by enabling advanced technologies. Accordingly, there is an essential need to define, formulate a set of guidelines or a basis for evaluating the progress of the current state of the operational processes of banking sector in the journey of adapting industry 4.0. This study proposes a Maturity Model to assess level of readiness in adapting to industry 4.0 of the banking sector. The proposed maturity model consists of five maturity levels namely: Initial, Managed, Defined, Established and Digital Oriented. The maturity of the bank was assessed based on seven dimensions and its explanatory factors. This scrutiny will provide a comprehensive review of literature in the fields of industry 4.0, its applications in the banking sector and its maturity models.
Pro forma versus GAAP reporting : an examination of differences in investor perceptions

Many companies report profitability using pro forma earnings along with GAAP earnings. However, strong debate exists on the use of pro forma earnings reports. Proponents say that managers use such reports to help stockholders focus on the most salient details of the financial statements, while critics believe they are misused by managers to cast a positive light on undesirable financial results. The purpose of this exploratory study is to directly examine investor perceptions of pro forma earnings and to investigate whether differences exist between professional and non-professional investors in their perceptions of pro forma earnings compared to GAAP earnings reports. Results indicate that both professional and non-professional investors perceive pro forma earnings reports as less useful than GAAP reports. This finding contradicts previous research based on stock return data. Overall, results also indicate that non-professional investors may fail to adequately adjust for potential management bias in pro forma reports which could lead to suboptimal decision-making and poor or negative returns. Both groups of respondents agreed that standards should be developed for pro forma reports and those pro forma earnings releases should be reviewed by a certified public accountant prior to public release.
46 v 2 2 8 Se p 20 06 Stochastic geometry of critical curves , Schramm-Loewner evolutions , and conformal field theory

Conformally-invariant curves that appear at critical points in twodimensional statistical mechanics systems, and their fractal geometry have received a lot of attention in recent years. On the one hand, Schramm [1] has invented a new rigorous as well as practical calculational approach to critical curves, based on a beautiful unification of conformal maps and stochastic processes, and by now known as Schramm-Loewner evolution (SLE). On the other hand, Duplantier [2, 3] has applied boundary quantum gravity methods to calculate exact multifractal exponents associated with critical curves. In the first part of this paper I provide a pedagogical introduction to SLE. I present mathematical facts from the theory of conformal maps and stochastic processes related to SLE. Then I review basic properties of SLE and provide practical derivation of various interesting quantities related to critical curves, including fractal dimensions and crossing probabilities. The second part of the paper is devoted to a way of describing critical curves using boundary conformal field theory (CFT) in the socalled Coulomb gas formalism. This description provides an alternative (to quantum gravity) way of obtaining the multifractal spectrum of critical curves using only traditional methods of CFT based on free bosonic fields.
Serum Zinc Level in Children with Acute Lower Respiratory Tract Infection

Background: Pediatric respiratory disease remains an important cause of morbidity in both the developing and the developed world. Pneumonias and inflammatory process develops in alveoli and interstitium as a response to infectioncausing factors such as bacteria and viruses. Since pneumonia in infancy is difficult to discriminate from acute bronchiolitis, the term acute lower respiratory tract infection (ALRTI) inclusive of these both diseases is used. Zincis a micronutrient with important roles in growth and in the immune, nervous and reproductive systems. Regular dietary intake of zinc is necessary because the human body cannot produce zinc and does not have an adequate mechanism for storing or releasing it. Objective: was to evaluate serum zinc level in children with ALRTI. Patients and Methods: Serum zinc level in children with ALRTI. 80 patients (subdivided into 3 groups according to severity of infection) compared to 20 normal individuals were included in this study. Results: there was highly statistical significant difference between all patients and control groups as regard serum zinc level (mean of serum vitamin D level in patients and control groups were 56.413 ±29.474 and 90.135 ± 17.345 respectively, p=<0.0001). Conclusion: Zinc deficiency occurs in the majority of recurrent respiratory infection in children and therefore a decreased serum zinc level is considered an additional risk factor for recurrent respiratory infection.
Tackling Wasteful Spending on Health

The authors would like to thank all the delegates and experts for their comments on the draft and suggestions at the various stages of the project, in particular during the expert meeting of 8 April 2016, and the OECD Health Committee meeting of 28-29 June 2016. We also thank Hanne Bak Pedersen from World Health Organization Europe, for detailed comments on earlier versions, as well as Torfinn Aanes from the Norwegian Drug Cooperation (LIS), Øyvind Melien from the Norwegian Directorate of Health and Eric de Roodenbeke, CEO of the International Hospital Federation for their contributions and fruitful discussions. At the OECD, we would like to thank Annalisa Belloni, Allison Colbert, Francesca Colombo, Valérie Paris and Mark Pearson. This chapter focuses on opportunities to spend less on pharmaceuticals and other medical supplies. It starts with a discussion of perhaps the most intuitive case of waste, which occurs when prescribed pharmaceuticals (and other medical goods) are discarded unused. Next, the chapter proceeds to the foregone opportunities associated with not substituting originator drugs with cheaper therapeutic alternatives, such as generics or biosimilars. The final issue explored is whether lower prices for pharmaceuticals and other medical supplies could be obtained with more efficient procurement processes.
The Intracellular Cyclophilin PpiB Contributes to the Virulence of Staphylococcus aureus Independently of Its Peptidyl-Prolyl cis/trans Isomerase Activity

The Staphylococcus aureus cyclophilin PpiB is an intracellular peptidyl prolyl cis/trans isomerase (PPIase) that has previously been shown to contribute to secreted nuclease and hemolytic activity. In this study, we investigated the contribution of PpiB to S. aureus virulence. ABSTRACT The Staphylococcus aureus cyclophilin PpiB is an intracellular peptidyl prolyl cis/trans isomerase (PPIase) that has previously been shown to contribute to secreted nuclease and hemolytic activity. In this study, we investigated the contribution of PpiB to S. aureus virulence. Using a murine abscess model of infection, we demonstrated that a ppiB mutant is attenuated for virulence. We went on to investigate the mechanism through which PpiB protein contributes to virulence, in particular the contribution of PpiB PPIase activity. We determined the amino acid residues that are important for PpiB PPIase activity and showed that a single amino acid substitution (F64A) completely abrogates PPIase activity. Using purified PpiB F64A protein in vitro, we showed that PPIase activity only partially contributes to Nuc refolding and that PpiB also possesses PPIase-independent activity. Using allelic exchange, we introduced the F64A substitution onto the S. aureus chromosome, generating a strain that produces enzymatically inactive PpiB. Analysis of the PpiB F64A strain revealed that PPIase activity is not required for hemolysis of human blood or virulence in a mouse. Together, these results demonstrate that PpiB contributes to S. aureus virulence via a mechanism unrelated to prolyl isomerase activity.