Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Near haploidization is a genomic hallmark which defines a molecular subgroup of giant cell glioblastoma

Abstract Background Giant cell glioblastoma (gcGBM) is a rare histologic subtype of glioblastoma characterized by numerous bizarre multinucleate giant cells and increased reticulin deposition. Compared with conventional isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH)-wildtype glioblastomas, gcGBMs typically occur in younger patients and are generally associated with an improved prognosis. Although prior studies of gcGBMs have shown enrichment of genetic events, such as TP53 alterations, no defining aberrations have been identified. The aim of this study was to evaluate the genomic profile of gcGBMs to facilitate more accurate diagnosis and prognostication for this entity. Methods Through a multi-institutional collaborative effort, we characterized 10 gcGBMs by chromosome studies, single nucleotide polymorphism microarray analysis, and targeted next-generation sequencing. These tumors were subsequently compared to the genomic and epigenomic profile of glioblastomas described in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) dataset. Results Our analysis identified a specific pattern of genome-wide massive loss of heterozygosity (LOH) driven by near haploidization in a subset of glioblastomas with giant cell histology. We compared the genomic signature of these tumors against that of all glioblastomas in the TCGA dataset (n = 367) and confirmed that our cohort of gcGBMs demonstrated a significantly different genomic profile. Integrated genomic and histologic review of the TCGA cohort identified 3 additional gcGBMs with a near haploid genomic profile. Conclusions Massive LOH driven by haploidization represents a defining molecular hallmark of a subtype of gcGBM. This unusual mechanism of tumorigenesis provides a diagnostic genomic hallmark to evaluate in future cases, may explain reported differences in survival, and suggests new therapeutic vulnerabilities.
The Perceived Views of Principals and Supervisors towards Their Ethical Leadership in Some Selected Primary Schools of Eastern Ethiopia

The research’s objectives were to assess the extent to which principals and supervisors practice ethical code of conduct in leading teachers in primary schools, identify differences among leaders related to their personal characteristics, and identify immoral practices leaders experience in the schools. The research participants were 120 principals, 63 supervisors, and 62 teachers selected using stratified and available sampling techniques. The quantitative data obtained through questionnaire were analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings of the research reveal that school leaders are moderately ethical in their schools’ administration. There is no significant difference in the dimensions of ethical leadership practice with reference to positions and fields of study school leaders possess. However, there is a significant difference in experience in a leadership position and academic qualification as well as between males and females. Teachers perceive that school leaders use mainly deception, abuse, harassment of subordinates, diminished dignity of employees, and breach of the agreement. It is suggested that school leaders should have professional scaffolding and training in fostering ethical leadership behavior to lead schools successfully. Those interested may conduct more detailed research considering secondary schools.
Rainfall shocks, cognitive development and educational attainment among adolescents in a drought-prone region in Kenya

Abstract There is growing evidence that early life conditions are important for outcomes during adolescence, including cognitive development and education. Economic conditions at the time children enter school are also important. We examine these relationships for young adolescents living in a low-income drought-prone pastoral setting in Kenya using historical rainfall patterns captured by remote sensing as exogenous shocks. Past rainfall shocks measured as deviations from local long-term averages have substantial negative effects on the cognitive development and educational achievement of girls. Results for the effects of rainfall shocks on grades attained, available for both girls and boys, support that finding. Consideration of additional outcomes suggests the effects of rainfall shocks on education are due to multiple underlying mechanisms including persistent effects on the health of children and the wealth of their households, underscoring the potential value of contemporaneous program and policy responses to such shocks.
Residential Green and Blue Spaces and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: A Population-Based Health Study in China

Evidence on the health benefits of green space in residential environments is still limited, and few studies have investigated the potential association between blue space and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) prevalence. This study included 39,019 participants who had completed the baseline survey from the Henan Rural Cohort Study, 2015–2017. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) were employed to characterize the residential green space, and the distance from the participant’s residential address to the nearest water body was considered to represent the residential blue space. Mixed effect models were applied to evaluate the associations of the residential environment with T2DM and fasting blood glucose (FBG) levels. An interquartile range (IQR) increase in NDVI and EVI was significantly associated with a 13.4% (odds ratio (OR): 0.866, 95% Confidence interval (CI): 0.830,0.903) and 14.2% (OR: 0.858, 95% CI: 0.817,0.901) decreased risk of T2DM, respectively. The residential green space was associated with lower fasting blood glucose levels in men (%change, −2.060 in men vs. −0.972 in women) and the elderly (%change, −1.696 in elderly vs. −1.268 in young people). Additionally, people who lived more than 5 km from the water body had a 15.7% lower risk of T2DM (OR: 0.843, 95% CI: 0.770,0.923) and 1.829% lower fasting blood glucose levels (95% CI: −2.335%,−1.320%) than those who lived closer to the blue space. Our findings suggest that residential green space was beneficially associated with T2DM and fasting blood glucose levels. However, further research is needed to explore more comprehensively the relationship between residential blue space and public health.
Characterisation of inorganic pigments in ancient glass beads by means of Raman microspectroscopy, microprobe analysis and X‐ray diffractometry

Ancient coloured glass beads from Sri Lanka and Oman were analysed by Raman microspectroscopy for non-destructive identification of inorganic pigments in the glass. Calcium phosphate (Ca3(PO4)2), cassiterite (SnO2), cuprite (Cu2O) and a Pb(Sn,Si)O3-type lead tin oxide were found to be used as colouring agents. Moreover, a distinction between lead-based and alkali-based glass matrices could be made. Electron microprobe analysis and X-ray diffractometry were performed to show the capability of Raman microspectroscopy in comparison to these methods for answering archaeometric questions. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Effect of Methanol Addition on the Performance of Spark Ignition Engines

This study is an experimental investigation into the effect of methanol addition to gasoline on the performance of spark ignition engines. The performance tests were carried out, at wide open throttle and variable speed conditions, over the range of 1000 to 2500 rpm, using various blends of methanol-gasoline fuel. It was found that methanol has a significant effect on the performance of the gasoline engine. The best engine performance (within the range studied) for maximum power output, and minimum brake specific fuel cosumption, occurs when a mixture of 15 volume percent methanol and 85% gasoline blend is used. The addition of methanol to gasoline increases the octane number, thus engines fueled with methanol-gasoline blend can operate at higher compression ratios.
Is Tuberculosis Treatment Truly Free? A Study to Identify Key Factors Contributing to the Catastrophic Cost of TB Care in Pakistan

Background: The interplay between financial deprivation and tuberculosis (TB) is considered one of the vital socio-economic determinants of disease. This is the first study of its kind to be carried in Pakistan, which aims to identify leading factors contributing towards catastrophic costs of TB diagnosis and management in order to help policy makers. Methodology: From four tertiary care hospitals (TCH) in Islamabad and Rawalpindi, 400 TB patients were interviewed through a cross-sectional survey. The patient’s pre and post-TB income and direct and indirect costs for treatment were analysed following WHO recommendations. Multivariable logistic regression model was used to identify the determinants of catastrophic total cost. Results: For TB management expenditures, the median (interquartile range) of total costs by households was Rs. 58,175 Rs (32,050 - 97,500). At 20% threshold, 67% of TB patient’s households were affected by catastrophic costs. The determinants of the catastrophic total cost were as follows: patient/guardian employed (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 3.428, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.900 - 6.186), patient/guardian the only breadwinner (aOR = 1.751, 95% CI: 1.011 - 3.032), follow-up visits at current health facility (aOR = 1.352, 95% CI: 1.223 - 1.494), job loss (aOR = 3.381, 95% CI: 1.512 - 7.561), and unpaid sick leaves (aOR = 2.862, 95% CI: 1.249 - 6.558). Conclusion: The financial deprivation experienced by patients of low socio-economic status increases as TB treatment proceeds. This negatively impacts the treatment adherence, resulting in poor treatment outcomes due to income and job loss. Outcomes are exacerbated if the family has single breadwinner and treatment requires follow-up visits.
Influencers of Performance Contracting in Service Delivery: A Trend Analysis in the State Department of Water and Irrigation of Kenya

Performance Contracting (PC) is a globally accepted approach towards helping governments delivers services to its citizenry. In Kenya, performance contracting is an integral part of the performance management framework and is a tool for Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) used to constantly improve service delivery in line with the reforms within the Kenya Vision 2030 blueprint and a facilitator in the realization of the Big Four Pillars (manufacturing, affordable housing, healthcare and food security) of the Government. In the PC are indicators on Budget Absorption, Service Automation and Employee Satisfaction, considered proxy indicators in this paper. The objective of this study is to assess how Performance Contracting through these proxy Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of budget absorption, service automation and employee satisfaction on service delivery, within the Ministry of Water and Irrigation. A longitudinal research design is adopted in the study. The study relies on Secondary data that was obtained from the Ministry of Water and Irrigation headquarters. Trend analysis is undertaken on the KPIs for targets and achievements for ten (10) year ranging between FY 2005/2006 to 2014/2015. In addition, correlation analysis is computed to establish whether there is a relationship between the independent and dependent variables. Tabulations, charts and graphs are used to summarize and present the findings. The analysis reveals that there is a strong positive relationship between budget absorption with a set of proxy service delivery parameters of access to water services and customer satisfaction. However the relationship between service automation and employee satisfaction with these service delivery parameters seems weak. This helps the researcher to conclude that the implementation of performance contracting based on the KPIs has nevertheless had a positive effect on service delivery in the10 years. The paper recommends the need to continue improving on budget utilization, on the need for appropriate service automation and relevant employee motivation strategies to improve service delivery.
Evaluation of dried apple pomace on digestibility and palatability of diets for cats

ABSTRACT The objective of this study was to evaluate increasing levels of dried apple pomace on cat diets and its effects on the apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) of nutrients and diet metabolizable energy (ME) and palatability. Fecal characteristics of cats were also evaluated. Four experimental diets were produced to contain 0, 30, 60, and 90 g kg−1 of dried apple pomace. Two experiments were carried out. In experiment 1, the diets were offered to twelve adult cats distributed in [. ]
Serving the customer, serving the family, and serving the employee: toward a comprehensive understanding of the effects of service-oriented high-performance work systems

Abstract Accompanying the rise of the service economy, service-oriented high-performance work systems (SHPWS) have received increasing attention in HR research. However, existing research has predominately focused on the “bright side” of this system by highlighting its benefits to customer service outcomes as organizations hope and expect, while paying less attention to its potential costs to service employees. Using a “triple-service” perspective, this study examines how SHPWS is related to employees’ customer service as well as their service to their families and to themselves. Drawing on the job demands-resources model, we propose an integrated model in which SHPWS has both beneficial and detrimental effects on service outcomes through two opposing pathways: by providing job resources (i.e. customer orientation) and by producing job demands (i.e. service workload). The structural equation modeling analyses of a two-wave, six-week time-lagged survey data set from 222 hotel frontline service employees supported all of our hypotheses. Although SHPWS can benefit employees’ serving their customers (i.e. high service performance) by enhancing their customer orientation, it can also cause harm to employees’ serving themselves (i.e. adverse health condition) via imposing a heavy service workload. Meanwhile, SHPWS has mixed effects on employees’ serving their families (i.e. work-to-family interface) via customer orientation and service workload. These findings suggest that SHPWS works as a double-edged sword which has both bright side and dark side effects, depending on the underlying processes and the outcomes considered.
MEAN–VARIANCE EQUILIBRIUM ASSET-LIABILITY MANAGEMENT STRATEGY WITH COINTEGRATED ASSETS

Abstract This paper investigates asset-liability management problems in a continuous-time economy. When the financial market consists of cointegrated risky assets, institutional investors attempt to make profit from the cointegration feature on the one hand, while on the other hand they need to maintain a stable surplus level, that is, the company’s wealth less its liability. Challenges occur when the liability is random and cannot be fully financed or hedged through the financial market. For mean–variance investors, an additional concern is the rational time-consistency issue, which ensures that a decision made in the future will not be restricted by the current surplus level. By putting all these factors together, this paper derives a closed-form feedback equilibrium control for time-consistent mean–variance asset-liability management problems with cointegrated risky assets. The solution is built upon the Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman framework addressing time inconsistency.
Effects of spraying parameters on phase formation and distribution in plasma-sprayed hydroxyapatite coatings

Calcined spraydried hydroxyapatite i. e. , HA) powders were atmospherically plasma sprayed (APS) using various process parameters. The resulting phases within the coating and the interface between the coating and the substrate were analyzed using X-ray diffraction methods. This revealed the presence of both amorphous amorphous calcium phosphate: ACP) and crystalline phases. The crystalline phases included both HA and some impurity phases from the decomposition of HA, such as tricalcium phosphate (a-TCP and tetracalcium phosphate (TTCP) and calcium oxide The crystallinity of HA decreased with increasing spray power and stand-off distance (SOD). The percentage of all impurity phases increased with the spray power. The percentage of both TCP and 'ITCP decreased with the SOD while the percentage increased. In addition, the percentage of ACP and were higher in the interface than at the surface of the coating while the percentage of TCP and TTCP exhibited the opposite effect.
Robot-Assisted Nerve-Sparing Excision of a Symptomatic Obturator Nerve Schwannoma: A Case Report

Reports in the literature have presented the feasibility of a minimally invasive resection of retroperitoneal or pelvic schwannomas. However, there are only a few reports in the literature about a robot-assisted nerve-sparing approach towards obturator schwannomas. We present a case of a concomitant excision of a symptomatic obturator nerve schwannoma in a patient undergoing robot-assisted radical prostatectomy with pelvic lymphadenectomy. The patient complained about an ongoing, low-grade sensory dysfunction in the left proximal thigh area, without loss of muscular function. A preoperative pelvic MRI incidentally showed a thickening of the left obturator nerve of about 1 cm. During pelvic lymphadenectomy, the thickening was identified, an axial incision was made to the nerve sheath, and a small tumor mass (9 mm x 5 mm x 3 mm) was excised, thereby decompressing the nerve fibers and simultaneously preserving the continuity of the obturator nerve. The nerve sheath was closed using a 7-0 monofilament suture. Frozen section biopsy that was undertaken during the surgical procedure excluded the presence of a malignancy. There were no intra- or postoperative complications. Postoperatively, the patient described a temporary sensory dysfunction of the left inner-thigh area, which regressed completely. The histopathological result confirmed a benign schwannoma of the obturator nerve. In experienced hands, the robot-assisted approach appears safe and feasible as a technique to excise a schwannoma of the obturator nerve, without the need to proceed to a full nerve resection.
Topological Interface States in the Low-Frequency Band Gap of One-Dimensional Phononic Crystals

Topological invariance has recently attracted rapidly growing attention, which can be characterized in a one-dimensional (1D) system by the Zak phase, a special kind of Berry phase. While acoustic systems are proven to be excellent platforms for exemplifying the diversity of topological properties, it remains challenging to downscale the device, since such interface states are usually attained at higher-frequency regimes. Here, we report both theoretically and experimentally the realization of interface states in the low-frequency band gap of a 1D chain of Helmholtz resonators. By numerically inspecting the Zak phase of the bulk band of the proposed system, we reveal the transition point of the band structure in a low-frequency range and elucidate the underlying mechanism of interface states at the lowest band gap in the spectrum. As a result, the lattice constant is reduced to the subwavelength scale, instead of being comparable to the wavelength. Our proposed mechanism is verified experimentally by measuring acoustic intensity for the interface state. The experimental results agree quite well with the theoretical predictions, showing the existence of interface states at the desired frequencies. We anticipate our mechanism to open up the possibility for the miniaturization and integration of acoustic functional devices and have far-reaching implications in diverse applications, such as enhanced sensing and biomedical imaging.
Tail Dependence and Risk Spillover from the US to GCC Banking Sectors

This study investigates the structure of the tail dependence between the United States (US) and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) banking sectors for the period February 2010 to July 2017. Conditional value at risk and conditional diversification benefits are calculated. The GCC banking sectors show lower tail dependence with the US banking sector. This is confirmed by the fact that GCC banking sectors receive higher downside risk spillover from the US banking system during downside market movements compared to upside risk spillover effects. Interestingly, an equally weighted portfolio of US and GCC banking stocks can provide relatively higher diversification benefits. These findings have implications for portfolio diversification, asset allocation and hedging strategies.
How to Create Walking Friendly Cities. A Multi-Criteria Analysis of the Central Open Market Area of Rijeka

Current mobility strategies tend to pursue sustainable solutions with low environmental and economic impact, such as the disincentive to the use of private vehicles. Mobility on foot is among the most advantageous forms for short distances, especially if different technological and infrastructural solutions are inserted in the urban context such as underpasses that limit the likely conflicts with motor vehicles. These solutions, however, are not easily perceived as positive because people often do not like to change their usual routes or because they feel psychological discomfort when they pass through closed places. This research work focuses on the evaluation of the benefits of including a small underpass in the city of Rijeka, Croatia and through an Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), a multi-criteria analysis, it was possible to prioritize a number of decision-making alternatives, related to qualitative and quantitative evaluations, otherwise not directly comparable, and combining multidimensional measurement scales into a single priority scale. This analysis allows to provide cues for local and non-local urban planning, encouraging through the participatory form an active comparison between the population and local authorities and at the same time allows to assess which multidisciplinary processes (psychological/engineering) are possible to put in place to encourage the research on pedestrian behavior.