Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Neuropharmacological and pharmacokinetic properties of berberine: a review of recent research.

OBJECTIVES This review summarizes recent research on the neuropharmacological and pharmacokinetic properties of berberine, an isoquinoline alkaloid extracted from Coptidis rhizoma. KEY FINDINGS Berberine has multiple neuropharmacological properties, such as neuroprection, anti-neuronal apoptosis, improvement of cerebral microcirculation and anti-Alzheimer's disease, and so on. The pharmacokinetic characteristics of berberine are that it is not easily absorbed and it is not stable in the gastrointestinal tract of animals or humans. SUMMARY Further studies need to be carried out to develop berberine as a drug for nervous system diseases, such as brain ischaemia and Alzheimer's disease, that has favorable pharmacokinetic properties.
The Role of Organizational Culture and Human Resource Management Practices in Strengthening the Effect of Leadership on Knowledge Sharing (A Study at Ngudi Waluyo General Hospital, Wlingi, Blitar, East Java, Indonesia)

"Objective – The results of previous studies show that leadership has a positive effect on knowledge sharing. However, there was a lack of studies which could prove that organizational culture and human resource practices can strengthen the effect of leadership on knowledge sharing. The objective of this study is to explain the role of organizational culture and human resource practices as moderating variables for the effect of leadership on knowledge sharing. Methodology/Technique – The study was conducted at the Ngudi Waluyo General Hospital, Wlingi, Blitar, East Java, Indonesia. The number of respondents were 55 nurses. The WarpPLS program was utilized to obtain analysis of the study. Findings – The results of the study show that both organizational culture and human resource practices are not strong enough to serve as moderators for the effect of leadership on knowledge sharing. Novelty – This study shares the idea that both organizational culture and human resource management practices cannot serve as moderating variables which can affect transformational leadership in health service organizations. In this case, the nurses’ knowledge sharing. This study also generated an advanced idea for verification. "
Remarks on Base Extension for Modular Arithmetic

It is shown that in a residue system with only the two moduli m-1 and m+1, base extension to modulus m is possible with savings in time and sometimes in hardware over conventional techniques. It is also shown that the underlying theory generalizes to provide comparable savings when extending any system with two moduli nm-1 and nm+1 (where n may be any integer) to include the third modulus m. For systems with more than two moduli, the savings are obtained in sign detection and partial base-extension operations. Savings are also possible during other residue operations (e.g., scaling, magnitude comparison, and overflow determination) in which sign detection and base extension are used.
SYNTHESIS OF 2-AMINOBIARYL DERIVATIVES PROMOTED BY WATER EXTRACT OF ONION PEEL ASH

The biaryl and its derivatives are important organic compounds that possess various interesting applications, such as in the field of medicine, organic-light emitting materials, agrochemicals and other functional properties. Traditionally, radical arylation of arylhydrazines and anilines requires the use of metals, excess of base, flammable solvent and so on. Thus, a greener catalytic system for the synthesis of 2-aminobiaryls is highly sought after. In this work, a recyclable catalytic media has been developed for the synthesis of 2-aminobiaryl derivatives via a direct arylation of anilines with arylhydrazines in the presence of water extract of the burned-ash of onion peel waste (ash-water extract). This method provides numerous advantages, such as external baseand metal-free, recyclable catalytic system, inexpensive and the products were achieved in moderate to good yield. This sustainable synthesis is scientifically important, as it is capable of minimizing the use of toxic reagents and at the same time offers an alternative method to manage the abundant bio-waste.
Multimarket Contact and Mergers and Acquisitions: The Cases of Southwest Airlines and Airtran Airways in the US Airline Industry

Many studies have empirically shown that multimarket contact (MMC) has collusive effects in the US airline industry. The US airline industry has recently undergone large changes. For example, some airlines have implemented mergers and acquisitions (M&A), while Low-cost carriers (LCCs) have matured over time and developed according to multiple business models. Few previous empirical studies of MMC have taken these changes into account. Thus, this paper analyzes the impact of M&A on the effects of MMC while taking into consideration the presence of LCCs. We focus on Southwestâ€™s â€œacquisition of Airtran Airways and estimate the simultaneous demand and price equations using unbalanced panel data for the fourth quarters of 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014. We madethree findings. First, MMC has collusive effects on airlinesâ€™ pricing in the US airline industry. Second, the effect of MMC on Southwest Airlinesâ€™ pricing did not increase after the acquisition of Airtran Airways. Third, Southwest Airlinesâ€™ rivals may show more collusive effects of MMC after an acquisition is made by Southwest Airlines.
Closed clubs: Cumulative advantages and participation in Horizon 2020

This study presents an analysis of 2 216 European higher education institutions (HEIs) from 27 countries. It investigates determinants of participation in the European Union’s Framework Programme for research and innovation (EU FP), Horizon 2020, and empirically assesses how cumulative advantages affect the chances of applying for and receiving funding in collaborative projects. Having a strong, influential network position in collaborative EU research is found to affect participation in H2020 greatly – suggesting ‘closed clubs’, to the detriment of less influential HEIs. Greater access to resources and capabilities significantly moderates the effect of network position on EU FP participation. Results indicate that these organizational factors are central in the feedback process whereby large, well-reputed institutions accrue further advantages.
Virulence of non-type 1-fimbriated and nonfimbriated nonflagellated Salmonella typhimurium mutants in murine typhoid fever

The virulence of Salmonella typhimurium mutants that were unable to synthesize type 1 fimbriae was tested in a murine typhoid fever model. Nonfimbriated mutants (fim) exhibited a lower 50% lethal dose than a wild-type (fim+) strain and produced significantly higher mortality (fim, 55%; fim+, 37% [P less than 0.002]) in mice that were challenged orally. There was no difference in virulence when the wild-type and mutant strains were injected intraperitoneally into mice. The progress of a short-term lethal infection was monitored after oral inoculation of mice with a mixture containing equivalent numbers of fim+ wild-type and fim mutant bacteria. The results indicated that while both strains colonized the intestinal tract equally well and invaded internal organs, the S. typhimurium fim mutant proliferated in the blood of the mice faster than the fim+ strain. The results of the mixed oral challenge suggested that bacteremia caused by fim+ S. typhimurium was reduced or delayed by the sequestration of the fimbriated bacteria in the spleen, liver, and kidneys. Thus, type 1 fimbriae were not virulence factors for S. typhimurium in this model, and the fimbriae may be an impediment to the pathogen in this setting. An S. typhimurium double mutant lacking type 1 fimbriae and flagella (fla) also was tested in mice. The virulence of the fim fla mutant was greatly reduced compared with that of the wild-type strain (mortality from fim fla challenge, 11% [P less than 0.0005]). The significance of this latter result is discussed in relation to host adaptation by pathogenic salmonellae.
A study for evaluation of different diagnostic approaches in acute leukemia in Egypt

Abstract Cytomorphology, cytochemistry, immunophenotyping, in addition to cytogenetic and molecular analyses have specific roles in the diagnosis and management of acute leukemias. This work was designed as a comparative study of different available methods for diagnosis of acute leukemia. The study comprised 47 cases with acute leukemia (21 cases with ALL and 26 cases with AML). Peripheral blood and bone marrow samples were subjected to through morphological examination of Leishman-stained smears, cytochemical analysis, immunophenotyping, conventional cytogenetic banding analysis, fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) for selected cases, and RT-PCR for detection of BCR-ABL rearrangement. The results of the study revealed that careful examination of Romanowsky-stained peripheral blood and BM films is fundamental in the diagnosis of acute leukemias, and when considered together with clinical and hematological features, indicates which of the more specialized techniques are most likely to be useful. The major role of cytochemistry was in the diagnosis of AML, while the major role of immunophenotyping was in the diagnosis of acute leukemia, which is not obviously myeloid. Apart from identification of chromosomal abnormalities unique to specific subtypes of leukemia, cytogenetic analysis had a salient impact on anticipating the prognosis and treatment outcome in acute leukemias. We could conclude that the techniques used in this study are considered complementary rather than alternatives and that stepwise employment of strategies is more cost effective than doing all the tests simultaneously.
Researching of mathematical models based on optimal control approaches for congestion control in telecommunication network

The paper presents the flow-based models that were designed for solving dynamic queues balancing problem on the telecommunication network routers. Within the models the problem of queue balancing was reduced to solution of the linear and nonlinear programming optimization problems. By using flow-based models with varying degrees of accounting parameters of transmitted flows the research of the queue balancing process was performed.
Correlation of circulating CD27high plasma cells and disease activity in systemic lupus erythematosus

CD27 is a useful marker in assessing the number of circulating B cells and B cell subsets because it permits one step identification of the major B cell compartments, CD27- naïve and CD27+ memory B cells as well as CD27high plasma cells. Abnormalities in the distributionof CD27+ B cell subsets are useful in assessing disease activity in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus(SLE). In particular, the frequencyof CD27high plasma cells significantly correlates with lupus activity in both children and adults with SLE. Conventional immunosuppressive therapies affect the number of CD27- naive B cells and CD27high plasma cells, but do not target CD27+ memory B cells. These results suggest that disease flares may relate to the retention of CD27+ memory B cells after conventional immunosuppressive therapy and that new therapies that target these cells specifically may offer new opportunities to induce remission in SLE.
Does it take Volume to move Electricity prices

£ We wish to acknowledge Derek Bunn and Ronald Huisman for useful comments. All errors and omissions are our own. Abstract By using time series of hourly spot prices and volumes of four European electricity markets , we show that the total traded volume has negligible impact in determining the volatility of the electricity prices. This result is robust to the dierent econometric techniques adopted, namely a GARCH specication and a linear regression on realized volatilities. Our main explanation for the absence of a positive relation between volume and volatility is the lack of trading in the market based on superior information. We also discuss other theoretical explanations based on models borrowed from nancial economics.
How Brand Relationship Affects Brand Forgiveness : A Qualitative Study within the Retail Industry in a Swedish Cultural Setting

Purpose - Existing research of forgiveness has received substantial notice in the field of psychology. Nevertheless, less is known about forgiveness within a business context. To address this absence, this paper aims to investigate how the brand relationship affects the strategies and influential factors of brand forgiveness from a company perspective after service failures. Furthermore, this paper aims to address challenges and opportunities faced by a brand within the retail industry in a Swedish cultural context. An analytical combination of empirical findings as well as literature on branding, trust repair after negative publicity, and consumer forgiveness is conducted to generate a comprehensive model on how brand relationship affects brand forgiveness.Design/Methodology/Approach - The research method of this paper is qualitative, and the empirical data is collected through focus groups with Swedish students at Jonkoping University using vignette technique. The research approaches used for this study are inductive and abductive.Findings - A company that successfully implements its branding activities is able to create a positive brand image, which can have a positive influence on the brand-consumer relationship and consequently the forgiveness strategies that companies undertake in cases of service failures. This study suggests that a close brand-consumer relationship increases consumers’ need for brand forgiveness.Research Limitations and Implications - Due to the limitations of our research, the empirical findings need to be tested in a quantitative study with a large sample size within a Swedish cultural setting in order to be generalized. To generalize the findings from an international perspective, the findings are required to be tested in different cultural contexts in order to investigate potential similarities. This paper suggests that achieving forgiveness from a closely related brand is similar to achieving forgiveness from a close friend. It highlights guidelines for practitioners on how to reach brand forgiveness within the retail industry in a Swedish cultural setting. This thesis suggests that practitioners within the retail industry should focus on building close brand-consumer relationships as it may have a positive influence on the forgiveness strategies that a company undertakes in cases of service failures.
Social Cohesion and Development

This paper discusses the study focused on the reform of Greek Hospital Sector, also known as “hospital mergers”. The aim of the study was to propose a new pattern of organizing hospitals in groups based on the reform of emergency care and the management of five main chronic diseases (AMI, Stroke, Cancer, Diabetes Mellitus and COPD). The proposals in general concern the creation of a national network of health services provided mainly by primary healthcare units and the largest hospitals of the groups in each health region. In the context of improving the hospital sector efficiency, ways of collaborations between private and public sector and expenditure containment measures are presented. The restructuring of the public hospital sector relied on six specific criteria including the population criterion, catchment area, hospital size, infrastructure age, utilization of hospital facilities and cost. Due to its nature, the study was exposed to various factors such as the diversity of actors being involved, collection and compilation of the relevant data in a short term of three months, last minute adjustments and the variety of audience.
Periodic point free homeomorphisms and irrational rotation factors

Abstract We provide a complete characterization of periodic point free homeomorphisms of the $2$ -torus admitting irrational circle rotations as topological factors. Given a homeomorphism of the $2$ -torus without periodic points and exhibiting uniformly bounded rotational deviations with respect to a rational direction, we show that annularity and the geometry of its non-wandering set are the only possible obstructions for the existence of an irrational circle rotation as topological factor. Through a very precise study of the dynamics of the induced $\rho $ -centralized skew-product, we extend and generalize considerably previous results of Jäger.
Dynamic Obstacle Avoidance with PEARL : PrEference Appraisal Reinforcement Learning

Manual derivation of optimal robot motions for task completion is difficult, especially when a robot is required to balance its actions between opposing preferences. One solution has been to automatically learn near optimal motions with Reinforcement Learning (RL). This has been successful for several tasks including swing-free UAV flight, table tennis, and autonomous driving. However, high-dimensional problems remain a challenge. We address this dimensionality constraint with PrEference Appraisal Reinforcement Learning (PEARL), which solves tasks with opposing preferences for acceleration controlled robots. PEARL projects the high dimensional continuous robot state space to a low dimensional preference feature space resulting in efficient and adaptable planning. We demonstrate that on a dynamic obstacle avoidance robotic task, a single learning on a much simpler problem performs realtime decision-making for significantly larger, high dimensional problems working in unbounded continuous states and actions. We trained the agent with 4 static obstacles, while the trained agent avoids up to 900 dynamic obstacles in a highly constrained space. We compare these tasks to traditional, often manually tuned solutions for these high-dimensional problems.
In vitro comparison of the delivery of gaseous microemboli and hemodynamic energy for a diagonal and a roller pump during simulated infantile cardiopulmonary bypass procedures.

Cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) is used for a variety of procedures in pediatric patients. Flow settings of the CPB pump have dramatic effects on patient outcome, and gaseous microemboli delivery within the CPB circuit has been linked to neurological complications. To ensure the ongoing improvement of pediatric CPB, consistent evaluation and improvement of the equipment is necessary. In this study we analyze the Jostra HL-20 roller pump (Jostra USA, Austin, TX, USA) and a Medos Deltastream DP3 diagonal pump (MEDOS Medizintechnik AG, Stolberg, Germany) which has not yet received Food and Drug Administration approval. An infant CPB model with heparinized human blood is used to quantify the gaseous microemboli delivery (via an Emboli Detection and Classification Quantifier), as well as the hemodynamic energy delivered under flow rates of 400, 800, and 1200 mL/min. Results show that at most flow settings the DP3 delivers fewer microemboli than the Jostra roller pump at the pre-oxygenator site, with an exception at 1200 mL/min under pulsatile mode. The total volume and the number of gaseous microemboli greater than 40 μm in diameter were lower in the DP3 group. The HL-20 exhibits less stolen blood flow (except at 1200 mL/min) and oxygenator pressure drops in both pulsatile and nonpulsatile mode. Additionally, under pulsatile flow the DP3 delivers greater surplus hemodynamic energy. Both pumps produce relatively few microemboli and deliver adequate hemodynamic energy to the pseudo-patient, with the DP3 performing slightly better under most flow settings.
Understanding "Tiger Parenting" Through the Perceptions of Chinese Immigrant Mothers: Can Chinese and U.S. Parenting Coexist?

How Chinese immigrant mothers perceive "Chinese" and "U.S." parenting and changes in their parenting postmigration remains unclear, despite recent interest in Chinese parenting particularly in response to A. Chua's (2011) controversial book on "Tiger Mothers". The present study addressed this issue by examining the parenting beliefs and practices of Chinese immigrant mothers through qualitative interviews. Participants included 50 first-generation Chinese immigrant mothers (mean age = 38.39 years; SD = 5.19) with a 3- to 6-year-old child. Mothers had been in the U.S. for an average of 10.20 years and were interviewed regarding their perceptions of the contrasts between typical Chinese and U.S. parenting, the strengths of Chinese and U.S. parenting, and what changes (if any) occurred in their own parenting after they migrated to the U.S. Mothers identified key differences between the parenting in the 2 cultures across 4 themes. Importantly, mothers endorsed different aspects of parenting from both cultures and attempted to achieve a balance between supporting their child's development of autonomy and individuality versus maintaining a sense of relatedness and familism in their parenting, contrary to Chua's (2011) portrayal of rigid "Chinese parenting. " With regard to their parenting acculturation, mothers discussed having to be flexible across different areas of their parenting in order to accommodate the cultural values of the larger societal context and promote their child's development in the U.S. These complex dynamics highlighted the challenges that Chinese immigrant mothers face as they adapt and adjust to the new cultural context, and how their parenting beliefs and practices acculturate.
The use of hierarchies as organizational models in systematics

A hierarchy is an abstract organizational model of inter-level relationships among entities. When isomorphic with nature, hierarchies are useful for organizing and manipulating our knowledge. Hierarchies have been used in biological systematics to represent several distinct, but interrelated, facets of the evolution of life with different organizational properties, and these distinctions have been confused by the rubric «the hierarchy of life». Evolution, as descent with modification, is inherently dualistic. The organizational structure of a hierarchy can be used to represent dualistic properties as inter-level relationships. Cladistics is monistic, with a singular focus on patterns of descent. Descent has conceptual priority over modification, but the organizational relationship is not exclusive. «Cladistic classification» is an oxymoron because cladistics lacks the class concepts needed to construct a classification, a point recognized by those who suggest abandoning Linnaean classification in favour of a newly devised monophyletic systematization. Cladistic analysis of descent can be supplemented with an analysis of modification that provides the class concepts needed to construct an evolutionary/phylogenetic classification. When a strong monophyletic pattern of modification is detected (in addition to its monophyletic pattern of descent), the criterion of subsequent modification provides the basis for formally recognizing a certain monophyletic group at a given rank, as opposed to a group that is one node more inclusive or one node less. The criterion of subsequent modification also permits detection of strong paraphyletic patterns of modification, when they exist. By setting standards of evidence needed to recognize paraphyletic groups, one concomitantly strengthens the basis for formally recognizing selective monophyletic groups.Copyright 1998 The Linnean Society of London