Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A combined age-and-stock-based policy for ordering blood units in hospital blood banks

This paper analyses the performance of an ordering policy for hospital blood banks (HBBs) that takes into account the information regarding the on-hand stock along with the remaining life of blood products. The blood items are assumed to start aging as soon as they have been collected. We develop a simulation model to show that the combined age-and-stock-based policy would outperform some of the popular periodic reviews and continuous review policies in controlling total costs by about 5% on an average basis. Our results show that the suggested policy will reduce the total operational cost of managing platelets, which have a very short shelf life, by about 27% at a real-life HBB. The policy will also lead to about 7% reduction in the total cost of the negative blood groups, which are characterized by extremely erratic demand patterns. The implementation of the ordering policy will help HBBs to reduce their operational costs while ensuring a minimum desirable level of the availability of critical blood products.
Effective HRM Implementation by Line Managers: Relying on Various Sources of Support

ABSTRACT We explore one of the key underlying mechanisms that mediate the HRM–performance link, namely HRM implementation by line managers. The purpose of our study is to examine the role of various sources of support in explaining effective HRM implementation by line managers. Results indicate that HR, supervisor, and coworker support are relevant in explaining line managers’ HR role performance. In addition, younger line managers and those with greater supervisory experience are found to perform better in their HR role. Hence, organizations should consider developing a broad support network to ensure effective implementation of HRM by line managers.
Effect of Pre-ovulatory Follicular Size and Body Condition Score on Pregnancy Rate following Ovsynch Protocol in Post-partum Anestrus Buffaloes

Effect of diameter of pre-ovulatory follicle (POF) and body condition score (BCS) of buffaloes on pregnancy rate following ovsynch-TAI were studied in 100 post-partum anestrus buffaloes. The size of POF was determined through sonography on day 10 of protocol. BCS of buffaloes were estimated at the time of AI. Pregnancy was con rmed per-rectally on day 60 post-AI. Pregnancy rate in buffaloes with small (10-12mm), medium (>12-14mm) and large (>14mm) size of POF was 0%, 62.5% and 90% (p<0.05), respectively. POF size was 10.2±0.3mm (n=13) in poor BCS, 13.40±0.2mm (n=70) in Good BCS and 12.6±0.3mm (n=17) in over conditioned buffaloes. Pregnancy rate of Poor BCS (<2.0-2.5), Good (3.0-3.5) and Over conditioned (≥4.0) buffaloes was 0%, 62.8% and 47 % (p<0.05), respectively. In conclusion, the greater diameter of POF and better BCS in buffaloes has positive impact on pregnancy success.
Chinese tourism: Development and prospects for Greece

China has been, and still is, by far the fastest growing tourism source market in the world. Chinese outbound travel has seen a rapid increase because Chinese authorities have not only implemented policies which facilitate the Chinese outbound tourism but also, the rising standards of living in China have expanded the demand for overseas tourism. The objective of this study is to examine the development of Chinese tourism in Greece, identify the motivation factors of Chinese tourists who visit Greece, determine the destination attributes of Greece which attract them and discover their activity preferences in Greece. A qualitative research using semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 19 interviewees was conducted, 17 of them with Chinese tourists, conducted in the district of the Acropolis (Athens) and two with professionals in the field of tourism in Greece. Results show that the most significant push–pull factors for Chinese tourists visiting Greece are cultural exchange, the relaxation-escape from their routine, prestige, the history of Greece, the blue and white color of Cyclades, Greek hospitality, archeological sites, good quality of the hotel services and, finally, Greek food and good event organisation. The research findings could help to build a strategy for the Greek tourism authority to prepare itself to become a more active player in the Chinese outbound market. The recommendations include simplification of the visa issuing procedure and direct flights connecting the two countries, proper preparation of the accommodation sector (a better understanding and respect for the Chinese culture), improvement of amenities such as public safety and communications and effective contact with more tour operators in China.
Differential inlA and inlB Expression and Interaction with Human Intestinal and Liver Cells by Listeria monocytogenes Strains of Different Origins

ABSTRACT In this study, a number of Listeria monocytogenes strains of different origins were evaluated for in vitro invasion capacity for various human cell types (monocytic THP-1, enterocytic Caco-2, and hepatocytic HepG2 cells) and for expression levels of specific virulence genes. For THP-1 cells, no differences between clinical and nonclinical L. monocytogenes strains in invasion capacity or in production of the proinflammatory cytokine interleukin-8 (IL-8) were observed, whereas for the Caco-2 and HepG2 cells, significant differences in invasion capacity were noticed. On average, the clinical strains showed a significantly lower invasion capacity than the nonclinical L. monocytogenes strains. Furthermore, it was shown that the clinical strains induce lower IL-8 levels in HepG2 cells than do the nonclinical strains. This observation led us to study the mRNA expression levels of inlA, inlB, and ami, important virulence genes mediating adhesion and invasion of eukaryotic cells, by real-time reverse transcription-PCR for 27 clinical and 37 nonclinical L. monocytogenes strains. Significant differences in inlA and inlB expression were observed, with clinical strains showing a lower expression level than nonclinical strains. These observations were in accordance with in vitro invasion of Caco-2 and HepG2 cells, respectively. The results of this study indicate that differential expression levels of inlA and inlB possibly play a role in the virulence capacities of L. monocytogenes strains. The lower capacity of clinical strains to invade HepG2 cells and to induce IL-8 is possibly a mechanism of immune evasion used by specific L. monocytogenes strains.
Construction of large area organotypical cultures of oral mucosa and skin.

BACKGROUND Skin and oral mucosal keratinocytes grown in vitro usually lose their normal patterns of differentiation, unless grown as organotypical cultures that are constructed by allowing collagen gels containing fibroblasts to contract before they are plated with keratinocytes and raised to the air/medium interface. However, the contraction process tends to produce small irregular cultures. METHODS To generate uniformly differentiating large cultures, we have investigated several aspects of the factors involved in the culture construction. By adjusting the number of fibroblasts used and by plating the matrices with keratinocytes prior to contraction, cultures of up to 72 cm2 were constructed. RESULTS The cultures retained almost the full surface areas of the original matrices and showed uniform patterns of epithelial plating and differentiation. Immunostaining for cytokeratins and integrins indicated restoration of in vitro phenotypes similar to those of the epithelial tissues of origin. CONCLUSIONS These methods successfully generate cultures required for certain types of investigations and tissues that are suitable for clinical use as grafts.
Evaluation of GSMaP Daily Rainfall Satellite Data for Flood Monitoring: Case Study—Kyushu Japan

In this paper, the Global Satellite Mapping of Precipitation Moving Vector with Kalman filter (GSMaP_MVK) was evaluated and corrected at daily time scales with a spatial resolution of 0.1°; latitude/longitude. The reference data came from thirty-four rain gauges on Kyushu Island, Japan. This study focused on the GSMaP_MVK’s ability to detect heavy rainfall patterns that may lead to flooding. Statistical analysis was used to evaluate the GSMaP_MVK data both quantitatively and qualitatively. The statistical analysis included the relative bias (B), the mean error (E), the Nash-Sutcliffe coefficient (CNS), the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) and the correlation coefficient (r). In addition, Generalized Additive Models (GAMs) were used to conduct GSMaP_MVK data correction. The results of these analyses indicate that GSMaP_MVK data have lower values than observed data and may be significantly underestimated during heavy rainfall. By applying GAM to bias correction, GSMaP_MVK’s ability to detect heavy rainfall was improved. In addition, GAM for bias correction could effectively be applied for significant underestimates of GSMaP_ MVK (i.e., bias of more than 55%). GAM is a new approach to predict rainfall amount for flood and landslide monitoring of satellite base precipitation, especially in areas where rain gauge data are limited.
Single Image Deraining using Scale-Aware Multi-Stage Recurrent Network

Given a single input rainy image, our goal is to visually remove rain streaks and the veiling effect caused by scattering and transmission of rain streaks and rain droplets. We are particularly concerned with heavy rain, where rain streaks of various sizes and directions can overlap each other and the veiling effect reduces contrast severely. To achieve our goal, we introduce a scale-aware multi-stage convolutional neural network. Our main idea here is that different sizes of rain-streaks visually degrade the scene in different ways. Large nearby streaks obstruct larger regions and are likely to reflect specular highlights more prominently than smaller distant streaks. These different effects of different streaks have their own characteristics in their image features, and thus need to be treated differently. To realize this, we create parallel sub-networks that are trained and made aware of these different scales of rain streaks. To our knowledge, this idea of parallel sub-networks that treats the same class of objects according to their unique sub-classes is novel, particularly in the context of rain removal. To verify our idea, we conducted experiments on both synthetic and real images, and found that our method is effective and outperforms the state-of-the-art methods.
Physical and functional interactions between Drosophila TRAF2 and Pelle kinase contribute to Dorsal activation

Signaling through the Toll receptor is required for dorsal/ventral polarity in Drosophila embryos, and also plays an evolutionarily conserved role in the immune response. Upon ligand binding, Toll appears to multimerize and activate the associated kinase, Pelle. However, the immediate downstream targets of Pelle have not been identified. Here we show that Drosophila tumor necrosis factor receptor-associated factor 2 (dTRAF2), a homologue of human TRAF6, physically and functionally interacts with Pelle, and is phosphorylated by Pelle in vitro. Importantly, dTRAF2 and Pelle cooperate to activate Dorsal synergistically in cotransfected Schneider cells. Deletion of the C-terminal TRAF domain of dTRAF2 enhances Dorsal activation, perhaps reflecting the much stronger interaction of the mutant protein with phosphorylated, active Pelle. Taken together, our results indicate that Pelle and dTRAF2 physically and functionally interact, and that the TRAF domain acts as a regulator of this interaction. dTRAF2 thus appears to be a downstream target of Pelle. We discuss these results in the context of Toll signaling in flies and mammals.
Factors associated with failure to return for HIV test results in a free and anonymous screening centre

Free and anonymous screening centres (CDAG: Centres de Depistage Anononyme et Gratuit) are public facilities set up for HIV infection diagnosis in France. Some people visiting CDAG fail to return for test results and are not informed of their serology. This study aimed to assess factors associated with failure to return for HIV test results. Patients visiting the Fernand-Widal CDAG (Paris) for an HIV test in January–February 2011 were eligible to take part in the study. Data were collected with an anonymous self-administered questionnaire. Factors associated with failure to return were assessed using logistic regression models. Of the 710 participants (participation rate 88%), 46 patients failed to return. Not specifying birthplace and not living in the region of Paris were associated with failure to return. Those who perceived no risk of HIV infection and those who felt they were more at risk than other people were both statistically associated with failure to return. Self-perceived risk seemed to be of chief concern for failure to return for HIV test results and should be considered during pre-test counselling.
Correlation between hemodynamic and electrophysiological signals dissociates neural correlates of conflict detection and resolution in a Stroop task: a simultaneous near-infrared spectroscopy and event-related potential study

Abstract. Conflict processing is crucial for humans and has been investigated using hemodynamic and electrophysiological measures. However, because most previous research has studied hemodynamic and electrophysiological measures separately, the relationship between these two measures in conflict processing is poorly understood. In our study, we measure near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) and event-related potential (ERP) signals simultaneously in a Chinese color-word matching Stroop task and examine the relationship between the conflict-related hemodynamic signal in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and electrophysiological signal. The results show significant Stroop effects for behavioral, NIRS (oxy-hemoglobin: HbO2), and ERP [N450, late positive complex (LPC)] data. The significant N450 Stroop effect occurs before the behavioral response to incongruent stimuli, while the evident LPC Stroop effect occurs after it, suggesting that only N450 is associated with conflict processing. Additionally, N450 Stroop effects during the early and later phases are negatively correlated with HbO2 Stroop effects in the left PFC and in the bilateral PFC, respectively. These results suggest that N450 reflects conflict detection and resolution, the left PFC may be involved in conflict detection, and the bilateral PFC is engaged in conflict resolution. Overall, the analysis of the correlation between hemodynamic and electrophysiological signals is useful for studying human brain function.
The Yeast Eukaryotic Translation Initiation Factor 2B Translation Initiation Complex Interacts with the Fatty Acid Synthesis Enzyme YBR159W and Endoplasmic Reticulum Membranes

ABSTRACT Using affinity purifications coupled with mass spectrometry and yeast two-hybrid assays, we show the Saccharomyces cerevisiae translation initiation factor complex eukaryotic translation initiation factor 2B (eIF2B) and the very-long-chain fatty acid (VLCFA) synthesis keto-reductase enzyme YBR159W physically interact. The data show that the interaction is specifically between YBR159W and eIF2B and not between other members of the translation initiation or VLCFA pathways. A ybr159wΔ null strain has a slow-growth phenotype and a reduced translation rate but a normal GCN4 response to amino acid starvation. Although YBR159W localizes to the endoplasmic reticulum membrane, subcellular fractionation experiments show that a fraction of eIF2B cofractionates with lipid membranes in a YBR159W-independent manner. We show that a ybr159wΔ yeast strain and other strains with null mutations in the VLCFA pathway cause eIF2B to appear as numerous foci throughout the cytoplasm.
Prevalence of self-reported comorbidities in HIV positive and HIV negative men who have sex with men over 55 years—The Australian Positive & Peers Longevity Evaluation Study (APPLES)

In Australia, almost half of HIV-positive people are now aged over 50 and are predominately gay and bisexual men (GBM). Compared to the general HIV-negative population, GBM engage more in behaviours that may increase the risk of age-related comorbidities, including smoking, high alcohol consumption and recreational drug use. The objective of APPLES was to compare comorbidities and risk factors in HIV-positive older GBM with an appropriate control group of HIV-negative GBM. We undertook a prospectively recruited cross-sectional sample of HIV-positive and HIV-negative GBM ≥ 55 years. Detailed data collection included clinic data, a health and lifestyle survey, and blood sample collection. We report key demographic, laboratory markers and self-reported comorbidities by HIV status. For selected comorbidities we also adjust HIV status a priori for age, smoking and body mass index. Over 16 months 228 HIV-positive and 218 HIV-negative men were recruited. Median age was 63 years (IQR: 59–67). Although more HIV-positive men reported having ever smoked, smoking status was not statistically different between HIV positive and HIV negative men (p = 0.081). Greater alcohol use was reported by HIV-negative men (p = 0.002), and recreational drug use reported more often by HIV-positive men (p<0.001). After adjustment, HIV-positive men had significantly increased odds of diabetes (adjusted Odds ratio (aOR): 1.97, p = 0.038), thrombosis (aOR: 3.08, p = 0.007), neuropathy (aOR: 34.6, P<0.001), and non-significantly increased odds for heart-disease (aOR: 1.71, p = 0.077). In conclusion, HIV-positive GBM have significantly increased odds for key self-reported comorbidities. This study underscores the importance of an appropriate HIV-negative control group for more accurate evaluation of the risk and attribution of age-related comorbidities in HIV-positive people.
SUPPRESSION OF PRIMARY T-CELL RESPONSES AND INDUCTION OF ALLOANTIGEN-SPECIFIC HYPORESPONSIVENESS IN VITRO BY THE JANUS KINASE INHIBITOR TYRPHOSTIN AG4901

Background. Tyrphostin AG490 has recently been shown to block interleukin (IL)-2 receptor &ggr;-chain-associated Janus kinase 3. Here, we analyzed the effect of AG490 on T-cell alloresponses in vitro. Methods. For the evaluation of T-cell activation, DNA synthesis, surface marker expression, cytokine secretion, intracellular calcium mobilization, early protein tyrosine phosphorylation, and apoptosis were measured. Results. AG490 effectively inhibited T-cell proliferation in human mixed lymphocyte culture (MLC) even when added 4 days after culture initiation. Inhibition of IL-2-dependent proliferation in T-cell blasts and the incapability of IL-2 or IL-15 to restore proliferation in AG490-treated MLC suggests interference with cytokine receptor signaling. T-cell receptor-triggered early protein tyrosine phosphorylation, calcium mobilization, up-regulation of CD69, and initial CD25 expression were not affected. Interestingly, AG490 substantially inhibited production of IL-2 and interferon-&ggr; in T cells stimulated with alloantigen or via CD3 and CD28. In CD28-independent activation models (e.g., stimulation with phorbol myristate acetate plus ionomycin), however, cytokine secretion was not inhibited. Pretreatment of primary MLC with AG490 resulted in substantial down-regulation of secondary responses to cells from the original donor as opposed to third-party cells or phytohemagglutinin. Unresponsiveness was induced also in T cells stimulated with CD3 monoclonal antibody. Induction of apoptosis in polyclonally activated T cells and the incapability of IL-2 to reverse specific hyporesponsiveness, suggest programmed cell death as an important mechanism underlying antigen-specific down-regulation of alloresponses. Conclusions. We demonstrate that AG490 blocks different manifestations of T-cell activation. This and its ability to induce alloantigen-specific hyporesponsiveness point to a potential use for interfering with alloreactivities in vivo.
Wake transition in the flow around two circular cylinders in staggered arrangements

The wake transition of the flow around two circular cylinders placed in staggered arrangements with fixed streamwise separation of 5D and cross-stream separation varying from 0 to 3D has been studied. The wake transition is compared to that of a single isolated cylinder. Linear stability analysis utilizing Floquet theory and direct numerical simulations using a spectral/hp element spatial discretization were carried out. The unstable modes that first appear in the wake transition of the flow around a single cylinder, which are the long-spanwise-wavelength mode A and the short-spanwise-wavelength mode B, are also found in the flow around the staggered arrangements. However, a third mode, referred to as mode C, is also present in the wake transition of the flow around staggered arrangements, depending on the relative positioning of the cylinders. This mode has an intermediate spanwise wavelength and period-doubling character. The structure and onset characteristics of mode C are analysed and the nonlinear character of the bifurcation for this mode is investigated.
Quantitative Analysis of Fragrance and Odorants Released from Fresh and Decaying Strawberries

The classes and concentrations of volatile organic compounds (VOC) released from fresh and decaying strawberries were investigated and compared. In this study, a total of 147 strawberry volatiles were quantified before and after nine days of storage to explore differences in the aroma profile between fresh strawberries (storage days (SRD) of 0, 1, and 3) and those that had started to decay (SRD = 6 and 9). In terms of concentration, seven compounds dominated the aroma profile of fresh strawberries (relative composition (RC) up to 97.4% by mass, sum concentration): (1) ethyl acetate = 518 mg·m−3, (2) methyl acetate = 239 mg·m−3, (3) ethyl butyrate = 13.5 mg·m−3, (4) methyl butyrate = 11.1 mg·m−3, (5) acetaldehyde = 24.9 mg·m−3, (6) acetic acid = 15.2 mg·m−3, and (7) acetone = 13.9 mg·m−3. In contrast, two alcohols dominated the aroma profile of decayed samples (RC up to 98.6%): (1) ethyl alcohol = 94.2 mg·m−3 and (2) isobutyl alcohol = 289 mg·m−3. Alternatively; if the aroma profiles are re-evaluated by summing odor activity values (ΣOAV); four ester compounds ((1) ethyl butyrate (6,160); (2) ethyl hexanoate (3,608); (3) ethyl isovalerate (1,592); and (4) ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (942)) were identified as the key constituents of fresh strawberry aroma (SRD-0). As the strawberries began to decay; isobutyl alcohol recorded the maximum OAV of 114 (relative proportion (RP) (SRD = 6) = 58.3%). However, as the decay process continued, the total OAV dropped further by 3 to 4 orders of magnitude—decreasing to 196 on SRD = 6 to 7.37 on SRD = 9. The overall results of this study confirm dramatic changes in the aroma profile of strawberries over time, especially with the onset of decay.