Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparing Kidney Perfusion Using Noncontrast Arterial Spin Labeling MRI and Microsphere Methods in an Interventional Swine Model

Objective:The purpose of this study was to assess the ability of a flow-sensitive alternating inversion recovery–arterial spin labeling (FAIR-ASL) technique to track renal perfusion changes during pharmacologic and physiologic alterations in renal blood flow using microspheres as a gold standard. Materials and Methods:Fluorescent microsphere and FAIR-ASL perfusion were compared in the cortex of the kidney for 11 swine across 4 interventional time points: (1) under baseline conditions, (2) during an acetylcholine and fluid bolus challenge to increase perfusion, (3) initially after switching to isoflurane anesthesia, and (4) after 2 hours of isoflurane anesthesia. In 10 of the 11 swine, a bag of ice was placed on the hilum of 1 kidney at the beginning of isoflurane administration to further reduce perfusion in 1 kidney. Results:Both ASL and microspheres tracked the expected cortical perfusion changes (P < 0.02) across the interventions, including an increase in perfusion during the acetylcholine challenge and decrease during the administration of isoflurane. Both techniques also measured lower cortical perfusion in the iced compared with the noniced kidneys (P ≤ 0.01). The ASL values were systematically lower compared with microsphere perfusion. Very good correlation (r = 0.81, P < 0.0001) was observed between the techniques, and the relationship appeared linear for perfusion values in the expected physiologic range (microsphere perfusion <550 mL/min/100 g) although ASL values saturated for perfusion >550 mL/min/100 g. Conclusion:Cortical perfusion measured with ASL correlated with microspheres and reliably detected changes in renal perfusion in response to physiologic challenge.
Dynamics of coordination for return policy contracts with warranty

The purpose of this paper is to determine the relationship among different variables and contract parameters in order to achieve coordination for buyback contract and quantity flexibility contract with warranty. The paper analyses the dynamics of coordination and performs numerical analysis to compare the results obtained for different demand distributions. The paper makes use of analytical model and optimization techniques to investigate the dynamics of coordination. This study finds relationship among different exogenous variables and contract parameters to achieve channel coordination through warranty period optimization. The study also finds that with increase in mean of the distribution the optimal warranty length decreases. It provides the graphical nature of the risk and profit allocation for both the parties in the supply chain with increase in flexibility, buyback rate. It is found that in case of exponential demand distribution with higher variance, the manufacturer is required to offer a higher flexibility to the retailer in terms of quantity ordered by fixing a relatively larger flexibility parameter to ensure that both the parties in the supply chain have a positive profit. Using the demonstrated guidelines the coordinator of the supply chain may optimally design the contract parameters, warranty length etc. The study contributes to the existing literature by deriving necessary conditions for achieving supply chain coordination in case of a buyback contract and a quantity flexibility contract with warranty. The study helps the channel coordinator to understand the dynamics of coordination.
THE EFFECTS OF DEMUTUALIZATION ON EXPANSION OF STOCK MARKET GROWTH: EVIDENCES FROM INDIAN STOCK MARKET AND LESSON FOR PAKISTAN STOCK EXCHANGE (PSX)

The decision to transform an exchange’s governance and ownership structure is influenced by globalized market trend which allows exchanges to gain from the benefits of internationalization and integration. This article examines the impact of demutualization on stock market indicators. Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange of India were taken as statistical frame. Wilcoxon sign rank test, Pair sample T-test, and MANOVA were used as statistical techniques. Pre-Post research design was used and data (4 years before and 4years after the demutualization) were collected from the website of the world federation of the exchanges. The result of Wilcoxon sign rank test and Pair sample T-test indicates significant differences in stock index, market capitalization, value of share trading and the number of listed companies before and after the demutualization of Indian stock exchanges. Likewise, the results of MANOVA elucidates significant influence of demutualization on stock market indicators, and conclude that demutualization leveraged Indian stock exchanges to a great extant.
How to Deduce a Proper Eigenvalue Cluster from a Proper Singular Value Cluster in the Nonnormal Case

We consider a generic sequence of matrices (the nonnormal case is of interest) showing a proper cluster at zero in the sense of the singular values. By a direct use of the notion of majorizations, we show that the uniform spectral boundedness is sufficient for the proper clustering at zero of the eigenvalues: if the assumption of boundedness is removed, then we can construct sequences of matrices with a proper singular value clustering and having all the eigenvalues of an arbitrarily big modulus. Applications to the preconditioning theory are discussed.
Implementing Digital System for Temperature Monitoring in Food Processing Industry

Food processing is a long process with multiple stages. One of stages is drying. The food materials have to be dried in the dryer for preservation. Analog meter is used to monitor the temperature of the dryer. This is a time consuming operation. To overcome these issues, another approach is to install digital system close to the dryer. In this setup, temperature sensor is used to approximate the temperature in the dryer. Then the reliable information about the temperature is displayed using seven segment display unit. An additional step added to the system is to alert with GSM. These features are used to monitor the temperature of the dryer effectively by reducing time and energy. The monitoring of temperature is essential to maintain the standard of the product.
[Multiple-choice vocabulary intelligence test MWT in schizophrenia: valid measure of premorbid intelligence?].

OBJECTIVE The multiple-choice vocabulary intelligence test MWT (Mehrfachwahl-Wortschatz-Intelligenztest) as a measure of premorbid IQ is widely used in clinical practice and research in Germany. The study examined whether the MWT is actually insensitive to brain dysfunction and psychopathology in patients with schizophrenia. METHOD 81 post-acute patients with schizophrenia and 27 matched healthy controls completed the MWT at two points in time. At baseline, we further applied a neuropsychological test battery and a psychopathology rating. RESULTS The multiple linear regression analysis showed that the MWT-IQ of patients is significantly confounded by neuropsychological dysfunctions and psychopathology. The repeated measurement ANOVA pointed to a significant recovery effect of the MWT-IQ during clinical remission in the patient group. CONCLUSION The results question the validity of the MWT as a measure of premorbid IQ in schizophrenia.
Voltammetric insights in the transfer of ionizable drugs across biomimetic membranes: recent achievements.

The latest results of voltammetric research on the ionic transfer process of ionisable drugs across bare and lipid-modified liquid-liquid interfaces are reviewed. In recent years, two voltammetric methods have been extensively applied to this purpose, i.e. the classical four electrode voltammetry at the interface between two immiscible electrolyte solutions, and the "three-phase electrode. " Thus, a brief background of the methodologies and some successful examples of their application are highlighted in this work. Particular attention is given to the ionic transfer kinetics and to the electrochemical characterization of the drug-membrane interactions between the ionized drugs and lipid-modified interfaces. Future trends in this area are also mentioned in connection with high-throughput assessment of ADMET properties of drugs.
AMVSC: A framework of adaptive mobile video streaming in the cloud

While demands on video traffic over mobile networks have been souring, the wireless link capacity cannot keep up with the traffic demand. The gap between the traffic demand and the link capacity, along with time-varying link conditions, results in poor service quality of video streaming over mobile networks such as long buffering time and intermittent disruptions. Leveraging the cloud computing technology, we propose a new mobile video streaming framework, dubbed AMVSC, which constructs a private agent at the cloud to provide video streaming services efficiently for each mobile user. For a given user, AMVSC lets her private agent adaptively adjust her streaming flow with a scalable video coding technique based on the feedback of link quality. We implement a prototype of the AMVSC framework to demonstrate its performance. It is shown that the private agents in the clouds can effectively provide the adaptive streaming.
Frugivorous and animalivorous bats (Microchiroptera): dental and cranial adaptations

The most derived fruit-eating bats have small canines, wide palates and molars with a distinctive labial rim. Paracone and metacone have moved from a dilambdodont position in the middle of the tooth to the labial side of the tooth where they form the labial cutting edge. Along with the well-developed and close fi tting labial cutting edges of the premolars and canines, this cutting edge skirts nearly the entire perimeter of the palate. The labial rim of the lower teeth fi t inside the labial rim of the upper teeth like two cookie cutters nesting one inside the other. Frugivores have a greater allocation of tooth area at the anterior end of the toothrow, while animalivorous species have more at the posterior end of the toothrow. The area occupied by canines of predators of struggling prey is greater than that for bats that eat non-struggling prey like fruit. In addition, frugivores have wider palates than long while many carnivores have longer palates than wide. Omnivores appear to have a more equal allocation of space to more kinds of teeth, particularly the incisors and non-molariform premolars, on the toothrow than do frugivores or animalivores. The mechanical nature of different food items is discussed and the suggestion made that describing foods in terms of their texture may be more important in tooth design than whether they are fruit or insect or vertebrate.
Description of a New Group of Variants of the Staphylococcus Aureus Elastin-Binding Protein that Lacks an Entire DNA Segment of 180 bp

The elastin-binding protein (EbpS) is a microbial surface component recognizing adhesive matrix molecule (MSCRAMM) found in Staphylococcus aureus that mediates bacterial cell binding to soluble elastin and tropoelastin. In scientific literature it is well established that the gene encoding for the elastin-binding protein (ebpS) is present in the vast majority of Staphylococcus aureus clinical isolates. The present study aimed at investigating a group of new variant forms of ebpS gene identified in S. aureus clinical strains isolated from implant-related orthopedic infections. A PCR screening for the ebpS gene, conducted on over two hundred S. aureus clinical isolates from implant-related infections revealed the detection of six strains exhibiting an altered amplicon size, shorter than expected. In order to elucidate the sequence changes present in these gene variants, the trait comprised between the primers was analyzed in all six isolates bearing the modification and in four isolates exhibiting the regular amplicon size. A similar form of the ebpS gene, lacking a DNA trait of 180 bp, was confirmed in all six isolates independently of their clonal origin. Interestingly, only three of these isolates, all with type IV polymorphism of the accessory genes regulator (agr) locus, showed exactly the same sequence and, thus, the same pattern of point mutations with respect to reference strains. From nucleotide translation, the corresponding encoded protein was found to lack an entire peptide segment of 60 amino acids. From nucleotide sequence translation, this modification was found to implicate the disappearance of an entire hydrophobic domain, whose functional significance needs to be further investigated.
Expression of Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) in Colorectal Adenocarc inoma: an Immunohis tochemica l and Histopathological Study

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a major cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide, being the third most common malignant tumors in the world (Jemal et al., 2011), (Sameer et al., 2010). It results from both genetic and environmental factors and their interactions (Fatemi et al., 2010). In the last few years there have been many studies on the mechanisms involving the carcinogenesis of colorectal cancer. Inflammatory process and genetics play the key role in neoplasia of colorectal cancer . The identification of an enzyme COX-1 and COX-2, catalyzing fatty oxidation as rate limiting step in the progress from normal cell growth through hyperplasia or to neoplasia has opened up a whole new field of cancer search (Dempke et al., 2001). COX -1 and COX-2 catalyze the first stage in the oxidation of arachidonic acid to prostaglandin (Karahan et al., 2007). Prostaglandin E(2) increases colon carcinogenesis through induction of cell proliferation and reduction of apoptosis (Kawamori et al., 2003). The majority of the colorectal cancers are derived from adenomas (Wu et al., 2003). It has been hypothesized that the up regulation of COX-2 prolongs the survival of abnormal cells and thereby favors the accumulation of sequential genetic changes, which increases the risk of tumorigenesis (Dempke et al., 2001). However, the over-expression of COX-2 protein in
Managing standards in corporate social responsibility online: A case study of a Malaysian higher learning institution

The purpose of this study is to explore the current standards of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives through the lens of a public university's official corporate website with the aim to see which areas of CSR are addressed when measured against a set of existing and accepted best practice standards for developing nations. A case study approach was utilised to investigate a local Malaysian public university using a qualitative content analysis method. The data suggests that managing the university's corporate website is incomprehensive particularly in the areas of human rights and anti-corruption areas. The main focus was on community driven area. This study provides a platform for further investigation to explore the trend of the current practice of CSR initiatives in Malaysian higher education institutions.
Table-lookup algorithms for elementary functions and their error analysis

Table-lookup algorithms for calculating elementary functions offer superior speed and accuracy when compared with more traditional algorithms. It is shown that, with careful design, it is feasible to implement table-lookup algorithms in hardware. A uniform approach for carrying out a tight error analysis for such implementations is presented. The advantages of table-lookup algorithms over CORDIC and ordinary (without table-lookup) polynomial algorithms are described. <<ETX>>
YELP: masking sound-based opportunistic attacks in zero-effort deauthentication

Deauthentication is an important component of any computing system that promises to offer legitimate access to restricted services residing on the system. As computing devices are ubiquitous, it has underscored the need to design zero-effort deauthentication systems from a usability perspective. While the design of such deauthentication systems is geared towards making them more usable, often the security implication of these deigns overlook the physical security of the system resulting in various side channel vulnerabilities in the system. This issue highlights the need to design a defense mechanism that is capable of minimizing the threat posed by such side channel attacks while having minimal impact on the design of the system. In this paper, we aim to address the sound-based vulnerability recently introduced in the literature, against one of the prominent zero-effort deauthentication schemes, called ZEBRA, that transparently and continuously authenticates the user using a wearable device wirelessly connected with the authentication terminal. To this end, we propose YELP, a novel and practical defense mechanism based on the principle of sound masking. YELP uses two different types of masking sounds, namely "white noise", and "music" for cloaking the acoustic side channel leakage underlying the ZEBRA system. We believe that the use of such masking sounds at a reasonable volume level can hide the acoustic leakage emanating from the physical component of the system, and thereby reduce, if not eliminate, the imposed sound-based vulnerability. Indeed, our results show that white noise, as a masking sound, can effectively hide the acoustic leakage from ZEBRA system, thereby significantly reducing the attack success rate of an audio-based side channel attacker while music can moderately hide the acoustic leakage from the system. Our work therefore shows that sound masking can be used as an effective tool in improving the security of (de)authentication systems against an audio-based side channel attack without affecting its original design and without requiring additional effort from the user.
Histographic surgery: accuracy of visual assessment of the margins of basal-cell epithelioma.

In 72 basal-cell epitheliomas, the clinical extension and the actual extension of the defect measured by complete tumor removal by Mohs' chemosurgery were compared. Subclinical extension depends on the type of basal-cell epithelioma (primary, recurrent), on case history, location, clinical diameter, number of previous treatments and histological type. It is remarkably great in large (diameter more than 20 mm), in morphea-like basal-cell epitheliomas on the forehead, temple and scalp, especially following several previous treatments. In such cases the excision should include at least a 5-10 mm margin of "normal tissue. " Present results again show that "histographic," that is, Mohs' chemosurgery is the method of choice for the treatment for these tumors.
Early death and severe lymphopenia caused by ubiquitous expression of the Rag1 and Rag2 genes in mice

The recombination activating proteins (RAG1 and RAG2) are essential for V(D)J recombination of immunoglobulin chains. Expression of both genes is lymphocyte‐specific and RAG levels are tightlyregulated throughout lymphopoiesis and cell cycle. To assess the significance of this pattern of expression, we generated transgenic mice expressing the Rag genes both continuously throughout lymphocyte development and constitutively in most non‐lymphoid tissues. The transgenes partially complement an endogenous Rag2 null mutation and lead to a partial block in early B and T lymphopoiesis when introduced on a Rag2 sufficient background. The defect in thymocyte number is restricted to the α β lineage leaving the γ δ T cell pool intact, while neither IgH phenotypic allelicexclusion nor the κ/λ light chain ratio are altered. Finally, the ectopic expression of the Rag genes associates with growth retardation and early death of the animals, a phenotype reminiscent of those reported for mice deficient in double‐strand break repair molecules.
Buy Low, Sell High? Do Private Equity Fund Managers Have Market Timing Abilities?

When investors commit capital to a private equity fund, the money is not immediately invested but is called by the fund manager throughout an investment period of up to five years. This business model allows private equity fund managers to invest the committed capital at their own discretion, which gives them the flexibility to time the markets. Based on 5,366 private equity deals, which are benchmarked against around 11,000 transaction market multiples and 170,000 trading market multiples, we find evidence that on average private equity funds are able to add value by timing the markets. Throughout the holding period, private equity funds achieve on average a 0.5 EBITDA market multiple expansion. Market timing ability is not captured by performance measures such as the PME, yet it is a potential source of returns for investors.
A meta-level argumentation framework for presenting and reasoning about disagreement

The contribution of this thesis is to the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI), specifically to the sub-field called knowledge engineering. Knowledge engineering involves the computer representation and use of the knowledge and opinions of human experts. In real world controversies, disagreements can be treated as opportunities for exploring the beliefs and reasoning of experts via a process called argumentation. The central claim of this thesis is that a formal computer-based framework for argumentation is a useful solution to the problem of representing and reasoning with multiple conflicting viewpoints. The problem which this thesis addresses is how to represent arguments in domains in which there is controversy and disagreement between many relevant points of view. The reason that this is a problem is that most knowledge based systems are founded in logics, such as first order predicate logic, in which inconsistencies must be eliminated from a theory in order for meaningful inference to be possible from it. I argue that it is possible to devise an argumentation framework by describing one (FORA : Framework for Opposition and Reasoning about Arguments). FORA contains a language for representing the views of multiple experts who disagree or have differing opinions. FORA also contains a suite of software tools which can facilitate debate, exploration of multiple viewpoints, and construction and revision of knowledge bases which are challenged by opposing opinions or evidence. A fundamental part of this thesis is the claim that arguments are meta-level structures which describe the relationships between statements contained in knowledge bases. It is important to make a clear distinction between representations in knowledge bases (the object-level) and representations of the arguments implicit in knowledge bases (the meta-level). FORA has been developed to make this distinction clear and its main benefit is that the argument representations are independent of the object-level representation language. This is useful because it facilitates integration of arguments from multiple sources using different representation languages, and because it enables knowledge engineering decisions to be made about how to structure arguments and chains of reasoning, independently of object-level representation decisions. I argue that abstract argument representations are useful because they can facilitate a variety of knowledge engineering tasks. These include knowledge acquisition; automatic abstraction from existing formal knowledge bases; and construction, rerepresentation, evaluation and criticism of object-level knowledge bases. Examples of software tools contained within FORA are used to illustrate these uses of argumentation structures. The utility of a meta-level framework for argumentation, and FORA in particular, is demonstrated in terms of an important real world controversy concerning the health risks of a group of toxic compounds called aflatoxins.