Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
CALL FOR PAPERS Biomarkers in Lung Diseases: from Pathogenesis to Prediction to New Therapies Resolvin E 1 normalizes contractility, Ca 2 (cid:2) sensitivity and smooth muscle cell migration rate in TNF- (cid:3) - and IL-6-pretreated human pulmonary arteries

normalizes contractility, sensitivity and smooth muscle cell migration rate in TNF- (cid:3) - and IL-6-pretreated human pulmonary arteries. Am J Physiol Lung Cell Physiol 309: L776–L788, 2015. hypertension (PH) is a rare disease in which pathophysiology is characterized by an increase in proinﬂammatory mediators, chronic endothelial dysfunctions, and a high migration rate of smooth muscle cells (SMC). Over the course of the last decade, various treatments have been proposed to relax the pulmonary arteries, none of which have been effective in resolving PH. Our hypothesis is that artery-relaxing drugs are not the long-term solution, but rather the inhibition of tissue inﬂammation, which underlies human pulmonary artery (HPA) dysfunctions that lead to abnormal vasoconstriction. The goal of the present study was to assess the anti-inﬂammatory effects of resolvin E 1 (RvE 1 ) with concomitant effects on SMC migration and on HPA reactivity. The role and mode of action of RvE 1 and its precursor, monoacylglyceride eicosapentaenoic acid were assessed on HPA under proinﬂammatory conditions, involving a combined pretreatment with 10 ng/ml TNF- (cid:3) and 10 ng/ml IL-6. Our results show that TNF- (cid:3) and IL-6 treatment induced hyperreactivity and Ca 2 (cid:2) hypersensitivity in response to pharmaco-mechanical stimuli, including 80 mM KCl, 1 (cid:4) M phorbol 12–13-dibutyrate, and 30 nM U-46619. Furthermore, the proinﬂammatory treatment increased the migration rate of SMC isolated from HPA. The phosphorylation level of regulatory contractile proteins (CPI-17, MYPT-1), and proinﬂammatory signaling pathways (c-Fos, c-Jun, NF- (cid:5) B) were also signiﬁcantly increased compared with control conditions. Conversely, 300 nM RvE 1 was able to normalize all of the above abnormal events triggered by proinﬂammation. In conclusion, RvE 1 can resolve human arterial hyperreactivity via the resolution of inﬂammatory markers. of each cytokine), both conditions in the absence or presence of RvE 1 (according to the combined treatment described below in the RESULTS ). After a 24-h incubation period under the various experimental conditions, cells in the upper area of the membrane were removed with a dry Q-tip, while the cells that had migrated to the lower surface were ﬁxed in absolute methanol and stained with 0.25% crystal violet for cell counting under a confocal microscope. Averages of ﬁve random ﬁelds were analyzed con- dition.
Experimental and computational investigation of PVDF– BaTiO 3 interface for impact sensing and energy harvesting applications

The interfacial polarization between PVDF and BaTiO 3 was studied using density functional theory calculations and atomic charge density analysis. A comparative study of dielectric relaxation, thermodynamic properties and impact analysis of the electrospun polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and a 3 % BaTiO 3 –PVDF nanofibrous composite are presented. The frequency-dependent dielectric properties revealed the microstructural feature of the composite material. The impedance analysis and Nyquist plots showed a decrease in the bulk resistance of the composite compared to the pure PVDF. The temperature dependence of the electric modulus shows Arrhenius-type behavior. The electric loss modulus relaxation peak shifts towards the high frequency side which indicates a decrease in relaxation time and faster charge carrier dynamics. The observed non-Debye type dielectric relaxation in electric loss modulus follows a thermally activated process, which can be attributed to the polaron hopping effect. The particle-induced crystallization of the PVDF polymer is supported by thermodynamic properties from differential scanning calorimetric measurements. The observed increase in piezoelectric response from high strain rate impact sensing was attributed to the interfacial interaction between PVDF and BaTiO 3 .
Both PPARγ and C/EBPα are Sufficient to Induce Transdifferentiation of Goat Fetal Myoblasts into Adipocytes

The present study was conducted to investigate whether goat fetal myoblasts with no inherent adipogenic potential can be induced to transdifferentiate into adipocytes. Goat fetal myoblasts were transiently transfected by the adipogenic transcription factors, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ (PPARγ) and CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein-α (C/EBPα). Both PPARγ and C/EBPα were capable of inducing adipogenic transdifferentiation as indicated by the appearance of mature adipocytes when the transfected cells were cultured in adipogenic differentiation medium (ADM). Ectopic expression of PPARγ induced endogenous C/EBPα expression and vice versa only when the cells were cultured in ADM. Removal of troglitazone, a PPARγ agonist, from the ADM resulted in a dramatic decline in the number of adipocytes, indicating that PPARγ stimulation is necessary to induce adipogenic transdifferentiation of goat fetal myoblasts. These results demonstrate for the first time that primary cultured myoblasts can be transdifferentiated into adipocytes.
A new decade for social changes

The school administrators' skill in managing conflict and resolution is vital towards creating a peaceful and productive working environment. The purpose of this phenomenological study is to explore the lived experiences of public secondary school administrators on conflict management. Using a purposive sampling technique, three school administrators participated in an in-depth interview. The data were analyzed using the recursive textual analysis aided by the framework of Lichtman. The study's findings show that school administrators primarily consider the source of conflict to understand the appropriate approach to apply. By classification, the conflict between teachers usually rooted in jealousy, faction, personal grudges, and pride. In contrast, conflicts between teachers and administrators would usually involve the performance of duties. Moreover, they believe that there is no single approach to be followed in the implementation of conflict resolution strategies since it depends on the situation and the parties involved. The findings suggest that each person is dynamic, and the beauty of dynamism of people enables them to understand and resolve conflicts in the end.
What is Local Seldom Remains Local: Social Media, Foreign Chatter, and Stock Performance of Multinational Firms

As social media has penetrated into our life, multinational firms face a dynamic and interconnected international environment. Since online social media could make the marketplace borderless by promoting information dissemination, what is local seldom remains local. However, despite much anecdotal evidence, there is little empirical evidence on the relationship between foreign chatter in social media and stock market performance of multinational firms. To investigate the impact of foreign chatter, we collect about 1.9 billion tweets from Twitter over the period from July 2012 to July 2013. Then, we filter out the tweets which mention the S&P 500 firms, leaving about 16 million tweets. The most used language is English, accounting for 57.5%, followed by Spanish (10.4%). Other languages account for about 32%. We expect that this study would be the first study to investigate the impact of foreign chatter in social media on multinational firms, using a large-scale Twitter data.
Ridge Subduction and Afterslip Control Aftershock Distribution of the 2016 Mw 7.8 1 Earthquake

We characterise the aftershock sequence following the 2016 Mw=7.8 Pedernales earthquake. 12 More than 10,000 events were detected and located, with magnitudes up to 6.9. Most of the 13 aftershock seismicity results from interplate thrust faulting, but we also observe a few normal 14 and strike-slip mechanisms. Seismicity extends for more than 300 km along strike, and is 15 constrained between the trench and the maximum depth of the coseismic rupture. The most 16 striking feature is the presence of three seismicity bands, perpendicular to the trench, which 17 are also observed during the interseismic period. Additionally, we observe a linear 18 dependency between the temporal evolution of afterslip and aftershocks. We also find a 19 temporal semi-logarithmic expansion of aftershock seismicity along strike and dip directions, 20 further indicating that their occurrence is modulated by afterslip. Lastly, we observe that the 21 spatial distribution of seismic and aseismic slip processes is correlated to the distribution of 22 bathymetric anomalies associated with the northern flank of the Carnegie Ridge, suggesting 23 that slip in the area could be influenced by the relief of the subducting seafloor. To explain 24 our observations, we propose a conceptual model in which the Ecuadorian margin is subject 25 to a bimodal slip mode, with distributed seismic and aseismic slip mechanically controlled by the subduction of a rough oceanic relief. Our study sheds new light on the mechanics of 27 subduction, relevant for convergent margins with a complex and heterogeneous structure 28 such as the Ecuadorian margin.
Design and optimisation of exhaust system of light turboprop airplane

Innovative exhaust system for light turboprop airplane has been developed and optimised. Apart from the basic function of removing exhaust from turboprop engine, the system supports cooling of the engine bay. To do this, the system removes hot air from the engine bay, utilising the ejector-pump effect, where the exhaust stream generates under-pressure, sucking the hot air through the ejector slot and removes the air together with the exhaust gases. The design and optimisation of the exhaust system has been conducted based on computational methods of ComputerAided Design and Optimisation and Computational Fluid Dynamic. Three-dimensional analysis of flow around the airplane (including effect of propeller) and inside the exhaust system was conducted by application of URANS solver ANSYS FLUENT. Using these software the trajectories of exhaust particles, both inside the exhaust ducts and outside the airplane, have been determined. Parametric model of the designed exhaust system has been developed using the in-house software PARADES. As design parameters the diameter, length and direction of exhaust ducts as well as few parameters describing a shape of the ejector, have been established. The optimisation process aimed at designing of the exhaust system, which removes the exhaust gases possibly far away from the airframe, especially during a descent flight of the airplane. Additional objectives were maximisation of the mass flow rate of hot air sucked through the ejector and minimisation of the drag force generated by external part of the exhaust system. The optimised exhaust system should have also fulfilled requirements of permissible total-pressure losses inside the exhaust ducts. The optimised exhaust system has been implemented on the light turboprop airplane and validated during flight tests.
Open Innovation After Initial Coin Offerings - An Empirical Open Innovation After Initial Coin Offerings - An Empirical Investigation of Crowd Participation and Third-Party Support Investigation of Crowd Participation and Third-Party Support

This study investigates the relationship between third-party support of young ventures and crowd engagement in open source development projects grounded in signaling theory. It is centered on the empirical analysis of a multi-source secondary dataset of 697 firms which conducted an initial coin offering (ICO) and published their source code online. We find that internal third-party support by technology advisors is positively associated with crowd engagement for open source development projects. Contrary to our initial hypothesis, we find internal support by business advisors and prestigious external support to be negatively related to crowd participation. The study enhances our understanding of antecedents of software co-creation and contributes to IS literature on third-party endorsement in open innovation and ICOs.
Wave impedance selection for passivity-based bilateral teleoperation

Title of dissertation: WAVE IMPEDANCE SELECTION FOR PASSIVITY-BASED BILATERAL TELEOPERATION Nicholas John D’Amore, Doctor of Philosophy, 2016 Dissertation directed by: Professor David L. Akin Department of Aerospace Engineering When a task must be executed in a remote or dangerous environment, teleoperation systems may be employed to extend the influence of the human operator. In the case of manipulation tasks, haptic feedback of the forces experienced by the remote (slave) system is often highly useful in improving an operator’s ability to perform effectively. In many of these cases (especially teleoperation over the internet and ground-to-space teleoperation), substantial communication latency exists in the control loop and has the strong tendency to cause instability of the system. The first viable solution to this problem in the literature was based on a scattering/wave transformation from transmission line theory. This wave transformation requires the designer to select a wave impedance parameter appropriate to the teleoperation system. It is widely recognized that a small value of wave impedance is well suited to free motion and a large value is preferable for contact tasks. Beyond this basic observation, however, very little guidance exists in the literature regarding the selection of an appropriate value. Moreover, prior research on impedance selection generally fails to account for the fact that in any realistic contact task there will simultaneously exist contact considerations (perpendicular to the surface of contact) and quasi-free-motion considerations (parallel to the surface of contact). The primary contribution of the present work is to introduce an approximate linearized optimum for the choice of wave impedance and to apply this quasi-optimal choice to the Cartesian reality of such a contact task, in which it cannot be expected that a given joint will be either perfectly normal to or perfectly parallel to the motion constraint. The proposed scheme selects a wave impedance matrix that is appropriate to the conditions encountered by the manipulator. This choice may be implemented as a static wave impedance value or as a time-varying choice updated according to the instantaneous conditions encountered. A Lyapunov-like analysis is presented demonstrating that time variation in wave impedance will not violate the passivity of the system. Experimental trials, both in simulation and on a haptic feedback device, are presented validating the technique. Consideration is also given to the case of an uncertain environment, in which an a priori impedance choice may not be possible. WAVE IMPEDANCE SELECTION FOR PASSIVITY-BASED BILATERAL TELEOPERATION
An exploratory study on the consequences of individual upcycling: is it worth making people feel attached to their upcycled products?

Product attachment, the emotional bond experienced with a product, is an emerging concept for sustainable production and consumption. The logic behind it is that when people are attached to any product, they are more likely to postpone its replacement or disposal. Some types of product have been studied regarding product attachment in past research but the focus has been on manufacturers ’ perspectives rather than on consumers’ ‘everyday creativity’ activities such as ‘individual upcycling’. Individual upcycling, creation or modification out of used materials resulting in a higher quality or value product than the composition al elements, is particularly relevant to product attachment. This is because upcycling, as a creative, engaging user activity, may offer the experiences of self-expression, group affiliation, special memories and pleasure, all of which are possible product attachment determinants. In the meantime, recent evidence suggests that the number of people who upcycle things has increased, possibly as a response to the contemporary ‘Maker Movement’ and aided by physical and digital resources. Despite this growth, individual upcycling has not been investigated extensively, especially its relation to product attachment and product longevity. Acknowledging this, this study investigated the consequences of individual upcycling with respect to product attachment and the product longevity of upcycled products, and compared the results with mass-produced products with the same functions through an exploratory questionnaire with 23 UK-based upcycling practitioners. The results demonstrated that the attachment to upcycled products is positively correlated with irreplaceability, and irreplaceability with product care and expected product longevity. The results also showed that the expected product lifetime years of the upcycled product with attachment are longer than the estimated average product lifetime years of the mass-produced products with the same functions.
THE DETERMINANTS OF DEBT MATURITY STRUCTURES IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

The study contributes to the literature by examining the firm- and country-specific determinants of the debt maturity structures in developing countries. The sample panel data set comprises of 3981 firms from 30 countries for 8 years from 2011 to 2018. Countries are selected among developing and transition economies based on data availability. A multilevel modelling methodology is employed in order to decompose the determinants of debt maturity. Variance components analysis revealed that country-level and firm-level are the causes of 15% and 50% of the total variability in debt maturity structures, respectively. Asset maturity, firm quality, firm size, leverage and growth opportunity are detected as firm-specific determinants of debt maturity. Besides, it is found that bank concentration and stock market development are also effective on the debt maturity structures of firms.
Using CAD parameter sensitivities for stack-up tolerance allocation

Tolerance allocation is an important step in the design process. It is necessary to produce high quality components cost effectively. However, the process of allocating tolerances can be time consuming and difficult, especially for complex models. This work demonstrates a novel CAD based approach, where the sensitivities of product dimensions to changes in the values of the feature parameters in the CAD model are computed. These are used to automatically establish the assembly response function for the product. This information has been used to automatically allocate tolerances to individual part dimensions to achieve specified tolerances on the assembly dimensions, even for tolerance allocation in more than one direction simultaneously. It is also shown how pre-existing constraints on some of the part dimensions can be represented and how situations can be identified where the required tolerance allocation is not achievable. A methodology is also presented that uses the same information to model a component with different amounts of dimensional variation to simulate the effects of tolerance stack-up.
Safety and effectiveness of Kumar’s Schlemm’s canal expander in management of open-angle glaucoma in cataract patients

PURPOSE: To evaluate safety and effectiveness of Schlemm’s canal expander (SCE) in management of open-angle glaucoma (OAG) in cataract patients. METHODS: A total of 9 cases (9 eyes) having visually significant cataract and insufficiently controlled by their current ocular hypotensive medication(s) glaucoma were operated upon. There were 5 cases of pseudoexfoliation syndrome, rigid pupils and weakening of Zinn’s ligaments resulting in instability of native lens and requiring implantation of a capsule tension ring (CTR) into the capsular bag to stabilize it. A one-stage combined surgery — phacoemulsification with in-the-bag implantation of a foldable acrylic hydrophilic intraocular lens (IOL) and implantation of SCE in Schlemm’s canal (SC) was performed in all in areas other than the exposed part of SC occurred in 1 case. In 5 cases the device could be pushed into SC completely. In 2 cases one end (0.5 to 1.0 mm in length) of the device was left in the exposed part of SC. No specific complications related to the device were noted. A filtration bleb was noticed in 5 cases on day one, 2 cases at 1 week and 1 case at 1 month. At 3 months and afterwards no filtration bleb was noticed in any of the cases. In 1 case laser capsulotomy for secondary cataract was performed to restore vision. Gonioscopically the device was in the lumen of the SC in all cases except the case with intra-operative microperforation, where one end of the device was lying in the anterior chamber (AC) without any contact with intraocular structures. CONCLUSION: Eighteen months results of the SCE implantation in surgical management of OAG in cataract patients show significant reduction in IOP from the baseline and in hypotensive medication(s) use.
The Relationship Between Complete Blood Count Parameters and Mortality in Early Period in Patients Diagnosed as Stroke in Emergency Service

Acil Serviste İnme Tanısı Alan Hastalarda Tam Kan Sayımı Parametreleri ve Erken Dönem Mortalite İlişkisi Amaç: Akut iskemik inme, kalp hastalığı ve kanserden sonra en yaygın ölüm nedenidir. İskemik inmenin erken dönemindeki tam kan sayımı parametreleri arasındaki ilişkiyi araştırmayı amaçladık. Gereç ve Yöntem: Çalışma geriye dönük arşiv çalışması şeklinde düzenlenmiştir. Acil servise başvuran ve iskemik inme tanısı alan hastalar dahil edilmiştir. Demografik bulgular, tam kan sayımı parametreleri, görüntüleme testleri, acilde kalış süresi, hastanede kalış süresi not edilmiştir. Bulgular: Dört yüz yirmi iki hastanın ortalama yaşı 69,95 ± 12,26 yıldı. Hipertansiyon %68,5 oranıyla en sık görülen ek hastalıktı. İlk 7 günde ölüm oranı %2,1 iken ilk 30 günde %5,2 oldu. Nötrofil Lenfosit Oranının (NLO) ortalama değeri ilk 7 gün içinde ölen hastalarda anlamlı olarak daha yüksekti (p = 0,013). İlk Abstract The Relationship Between Complete Blood Count Parameters and Mortality in Early Period in Patients Diagnosed as Stroke in Emergency Service Objective: Acute ischemic stroke is the most common cause of death after heart disease and cancer. We aimed to investigate the relationship between parameters of complete blood count in early period of ischemic stroke. Material Method: The study was organized as a retrospective-archive study. Patients applied Emergency Department and diagnosed as ischemic stroke were included. Demographic findings, complete blood count parameters, imaging tests, duration time in the emergency, hospitalization time were noted. Results: The mean age of 422 patients was 69.95 ± 12.26 years. Hypertension was the most common additional diseases, with the rate of 68.5%. While the mortality rate was 2.1% in the first 7 days, it was 5.2% in the first 30 days. The mean value of Neutrophil Lymphocyte Ratio (NLR) was significantly higher in patients who died within the first 7 days (p = 0.013). The sensitivity of NLR cut-off value, which was determined as 4.12 for death in the first 7 days, was 77.8% and specificity was 68.5%. Red Cell Distribution Width (RDW) values of patients who died within 30 days were found to be statistically significantly higher when compared to living patients. Increasing age, heart failure and atrial fibrillation were found to be significant risk factors for early mortality. Conclusion: In conclusion, NLR can be predictive for mortality within the first 7 days and RDW for mortality within the first 30 days. The presence of heart failure and / or atrial fibrillation and the age of 65 and above increase the risk of early mortality.