Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The diverse world of social enterprise: a collection of social enterprise stories

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to highlight the diverse world of social enterprise. Design/methodology/approach – This paper profiles 11 different social enterprises from around the world. These range from a profit-achieving business in a very competitive industry, but one with strong social principles, through a profitable workers' co-operative to ones needing to find financial sustainability if they are to continue their social aspirations. The paper discusses a number of key issues in defining an organisation as a social enterprise and highlights the central issue of measuring success and impact. Findings – In some of the enterprises the important contribution of a pivotal social entrepreneur is apparent. The need to create and add value for customers and clients is always apparent, as is the need to find effective routes to market. It can be concluded that whilst certain beliefs and principles are routinely evident, social enterprises most certainly cannot be described as “one-size-fits-all”. Originality/value – The paper presents a collection of social enterprise stories.
Association of Macrophage Migration Inhibitory Factor Gene Promoter Polymorphisms with Multiple Sclerosis in Turkish Patients

Elevated levels of macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) have been observed in the cerebrospinal fluid of patients with multiple sclerosis. This study was designed to determine if MIF gene polymorphisms are associated with multiple sclerosis and disease severity. In total, 120 relapsing-remitting patients with multiple sclerosis and 120 control subjects were enrolled in the study. There was a statistically significant increase in the MIF −173 CC genotype in patients with multiple sclerosis compared with the control subjects. The MIF −794 6/7 genotype had a significantly lower progression index compared with MIF −794 6/6. Patients with the MIF −173 CC genotype had a significantly lower age of disease onset compared with those with the MIF −173 CG and MIF −173 GG genotypes. Additionally, patients with the MIF −794 5/6 genotype had a significantly later age of disease onset. This study indicates that the MIF −173 CC genotype may cause susceptibility to multiple sclerosis in the white Turkish population and a younger age of disease onset is associated with this polymorphism.
Actual and Warranted Relations between Asset Prices

Efficient markets models assert that the price of each asset is equal to the optimal forecast of its ex-post (or fundamental) value, but the models do not imply that the covariances between prices equal the corresponding covariances of ex-post values. We present bounds for covariances and correlations of prices based on the covariance of ex-post values, and show how such bounds can be tightened using information about forecasting variables. The methods are used to examine the historical covariance between the U.S. and U.K. stock markers 1919-1989. The bounds on the covariance include the actual correlation.
Sequence-Based Pronunciation Variation Modeling for Spontaneous ASR Using a Noisy Channel Approach

The performance of English automatic speech recognition systems decreases when recognizing spontaneous speech mainly due to multiple pronunciation variants in the utterances. Previous approaches address this problem by modeling the alteration of the pronunciation on a phoneme to phoneme level. However, the phonetic transformation effects induced by the pronunciation of the whole sentence have not yet been considered. In this article, the sequence-based pronunciation variation is modeled using a noisy channel approach where the spontaneous phoneme sequence is considered as a "noisy" string and the goal is to recover the "clean" string of the word sequence. Hereby, the whole word sequence and its effect on the alternation of the phonemes will be taken into consideration. Moreover, the system not only learns the phoneme transformation but also the mapping from the phoneme to the word directly. In this study, first the phonemes will be recognized with the present recognition system and afterwards the pronunciation variation model based on the noisy channel approach will map from the phoneme to the word level. Two well-known natural language processing approaches are adopted and derived from the noisy channel model theory: Joint-sequence models and statistical machine translation. Both of them are applied and various experiments are conducted using microphone and telephone of spontaneous speech.
Components of variance analysis of data produced in a national quality-control survey of radioimmunoassays of thyroxin, triiodothyronine, thyrotropin, prolactin, and progesterone.

Data collected in a collaborative survey for radioimmunoassays have been studied by using analysis of variance to estimate the within-kit (CVw.kit) and the between-kit (CVb.kit) components of the total variability (CVT). This analysis has been applied to the results for triiodothyronine, thyroxin, thyrotropin, prolactin, and progesterone produced by 80-150 laboratories that assayed blind, replicate samples. Total variability was lowest in the thyroxin assay (CVT = 10.9%), associated with a very close between-kit agreement (CVb.kit = 4.0%); in the triiodothyronine assay, on the other hand, the large between-kit component (CVb.kit = 10.1%) increased the total variability to 16.1%. In the prolactin assay the CVT of 19.3% included 17.5% CVw.kit and 8.1% CVb.kit. Assays for thyrotropin and progesterone involve analyses of two pools at different hormone concentrations. The CVb.kit component was very high in the low-concentration pool, both for thyrotropin (25.1%) and progesterone (45.2%); in the higher-concentration pool it decreased to 8.3% for thyrotropin but remained high (21.6%) for progesterone. Applying analysis of variance to the triiodothyronine and thyroxin data obtained by different laboratories using the same kit showed that most kits yielded significantly different measurements when used in different laboratories.
EFFECT OF ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATIONS ON STATE‐ LEVEL MANUFACTURING CAPITAL FORMATION*

We quantify the effect of environmental regulations on regional capital formation in the manufacturing sector. Our model integrates environmental regulations into a choice-theoretic model derived from Tobin's q theory of investment. It is postulated that more stringent environmental regulations raise the firm's cost of production both directly and indirectly, thus reducing the firm's q value and lowering the rate of capital formation. The empirical results indicate that the effect of environmental regulations on net capital formation is modest. We do find that environmental regulations affect regions differently. More stringent environmental regulations will improve the relative position of manufacturers in the North-east, South Atlantic and West. Over one-fourth of the dollar losses in manufacturing capacity would occur in five states: Texas, California, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan.
Ex-prisoners and ex-offenders and the employment connection: assistance plus acceptance

This chapter reports on two studies that focus on the employment of ex-prisoners and ex-offenders (also referred to as 'people with criminal histories'). One study evaluated the impact of an employment assistance program for prisoners and offenders in Victoria from 2002 to 2005. The outcomes included significantly lower rates of re-offending for those in the program. Rates of re-offending, type of re-offence and number of different kinds of offence were used as measures of recidivism. The second study investigated the perceptions that four stakeholder groups (employers, corrections services personnel, employment service providers and prisoners and offenders) have towards the employability of people with criminal histories. This study found that, of a number of disadvantaged job-seeker groups, people with a criminal history were rated as having less chance of getting and keeping a job than were those with a chronic illness, with a physical and sensory disability, or with a communication disability. However, ex-prisoners with pre-release training were regarded more highly on employability than those with other criminal histories. The study also found that, although ex-prisoners and ex-offenders were perceived as being less likely to possess employment-related skills and characteristics than were members of the general workforce, the differences were not extreme, with ex-prisoners and ex-offenders being rated as 'fairly likely' to have such skills. Both studies contributed to the conclusion that education, training and employment assistance, as well as stakeholder perceptions, are important to success in employment for ex-prisoners and ex-offenders and thus for their reintegration into the community and desistance from crime.
Right Ventricular Outflow Tract Tachycardia Due To a Somatic Cell Mutation in G Protein Subunit

Idiopathic ventricular tachycardia is a generic term that describes the various forms of ventricular arrhythmias that occur in patients without structural heart disease and in the absence of the long QT syndrome. Many of these tachycardias are focal in origin, localize to the right ventricular outflow tract (RVOT), terminate in response to b blockers, verapamil, vagal maneuvers, and adenosine, and are thought to result from cAMP-mediated triggered activity. DNA was prepared from biopsy samples obtained from myocardial tissue from a patient with adenosine-insensitive idiopathic ventricular tachycardia arising from the RVOT. Genomic sequences of the inhibitory G protein G a i2 were determined after amplification by PCR and subcloning. A point mutation (F200L) in the GTP binding domain of the inhibitory G protein G a i2 was identified in a biopsy sample from the arrhythmogenic focus. This mutation was shown to increase intracellular cAMP concentration and inhibit suppression of cAMP by adenosine. No mutations were detected in G a i2 sequences from myocardial tissue sampled from regions remote from the origin of tachycardia, or from peripheral lymphocytes. These findings suggest that somatic cell mutations in the cAMP-dependent signal transduction pathway occurring during myocardial development may be responsible for some forms of idiopathic ventricular tachycardia. ( J. Clin. Invest. 1998. 101:2862–2868.)
Post-stroke Rehabilitation Training with a Motor-Imagery-Based Brain-Computer Interface (BCI)-Controlled Hand Exoskeleton: A Randomized Controlled Multicenter Trial

Repeated use of brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) providing contingent sensory feedback of brain activity was recently proposed as a rehabilitation approach to restore motor function after stroke or spinal cord lesions. However, there are only a few clinical studies that investigate feasibility and effectiveness of such an approach. Here we report on a placebo-controlled, multicenter clinical trial that investigated whether stroke survivors with severe upper limb (UL) paralysis benefit from 10 BCI training sessions each lasting up to 40 min. A total of 74 patients participated: median time since stroke is 8 months, 25 and 75% quartiles [3.0; 13.0]; median severity of UL paralysis is 4.5 points [0.0; 30.0] as measured by the Action Research Arm Test, ARAT, and 19.5 points [11.0; 40.0] as measured by the Fugl-Meyer Motor Assessment, FMMA. Patients in the BCI group (n = 55) performed motor imagery of opening their affected hand. Motor imagery-related brain electroencephalographic activity was translated into contingent hand exoskeleton-driven opening movements of the affected hand. In a control group (n = 19), hand exoskeleton-driven opening movements of the affected hand were independent of brain electroencephalographic activity. Evaluation of the UL clinical assessments indicated that both groups improved, but only the BCI group showed an improvement in the ARAT's grasp score from 0 [0.0; 14.0] to 3.0 [0.0; 15.0] points (p < 0.01) and pinch scores from 0.0 [0.0; 7.0] to 1.0 [0.0; 12.0] points (p < 0.01). Upon training completion, 21.8% and 36.4% of the patients in the BCI group improved their ARAT and FMMA scores respectively. The corresponding numbers for the control group were 5.1% (ARAT) and 15.8% (FMMA). These results suggests that adding BCI control to exoskeleton-assisted physical therapy can improve post-stroke rehabilitation outcomes. Both maximum and mean values of the percentage of successfully decoded imagery-related EEG activity, were higher than chance level. A correlation between the classification accuracy and the improvement in the upper extremity function was found. An improvement of motor function was found for patients with different duration, severity and location of the stroke.
Calcium transport and porton electrochemical potential gradient in mitochondria from guinea-pig cerebral cortex and rat heart.

A method is described for the preparation of ;free' and ;synaptosomal' brain mitochondria from fractions of guinea-pig cerebral cortex respectively depleted and enriched in synaptosomes. Both preparations of mitochondria have a low membrane H(+) conductance, a high capacity to phosphorylate ADP, and a capacity to accumulate Ca(2+) at rates limited by the activity of the respiratory chain. Ca(2+) transport by ;free' brain mitochondria is compared with that of heart mitochondria. The Ca(2+) conductance of ;free' brain mitochondria was at least 20 times that for rat heart mitochondria. Ca(2+) uptake by brain mitochondria increased the pH gradient and decreased membrane potential, whereas little change occurred during the much slower uptake by heart mitochondria. In the presence of ionophore A23187, dissipative Ca(2+) cycling decreased the H(+) electrochemical potential gradient of brain mitochondria from 190 to 60mV, but caused only a slight decrease with heart mitochondria, although the ionophore lowered the pH gradient and increased membrane potential. The Ca(2+) conductance of ;free' brain mitochondria is distinctive in showing a hyperbolic dependency on free Ca(2+) concentration. In the presence of Ruthenium Red, a rapid Na(+)-dependent Ca(2+) efflux occurs. The H(+) electrochemical potential gradient is maintained during this efflux, and membrane potential increases, with both ;free' brain and heart mitochondria. The Na(+) requirement for Ca(2+) efflux appears not to be related to the high Na(+)/H(+) exchange activity but may represent a direct exchange of Na(+) for Ca(2+).
Price Dispersion and Inflation: Evidence from Israel

This paper considers the question of whether observed price differe ntials reflect perceived differences in quality, service agreements, or location, or whether information imperfections can explain this phenomenon. It sets out theoretical arguments linking inflation to reductions in the information stock held by agents and thus to greater price dispersion. The hypothesis is tested using monthly price data for thirteen uniquely-defined goods sold in Israel between 1971 and 1984. Price dispersion is shown to be positively related to the rate of market price inflation. Since inflation is an unlikely proxy for changes in perceived characteristics, the findings support price dispersion theories based on "optimally imperfect" decision making. Copyright 1988 by University of Chicago Press.
A Generalized QMRA Beta‐Poisson Dose‐Response Model

Quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA) is widely accepted for characterizing the microbial risks associated with food, water, and wastewater. Single‐hit dose‐response models are the most commonly used dose‐response models in QMRA. Denoting PI(d) as the probability of infection at a given mean dose d, a three‐parameter generalized QMRA beta‐Poisson dose‐response model, PI(d|α,β,r*) , is proposed in which the minimum number of organisms required for causing infection, Kmin, is not fixed, but a random variable following a geometric distribution with parameter 0
Linking Neural Activity to Visual Perception: Separating Sensory and Attentional Contributions

© 2012 Cook et al., licensee InTech. This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Linking Neural Activity to Visual Perception: Separating Sensory and Attentional Contributions
Multiple-integrated converters for grid-connected PV systems with intermediate DC loads

The centralized grid-connected PV systems have a serious drawback of insolation mismatch among the PV modules when a partial shadow occurs. To overcome this limitation, a decentralized grid connected PV system with multiple integrated converters (MIC) sharing a common grid connected inverter and intermediate dc loads connected through battery is proposed. The proposed multiple integrated converters are incorporated with individual MPPT controllers to track maximum power from the respective PV modules. It also increases power conversion efficiency during partial shadows when there is an insolation mismatch between the modules. The DC loads can be connected through the battery and the excess available power is supplied to the grid. The proposed configuration is simulated for various insolations and temperatures and the simulation results are presented.
A prospective, controlled clinical evaluation of surgical stabilization of severe rib fractures

BACKGROUND Previous studies of surgical stabilization of rib fractures (SSRF) have been limited by small sample sizes, retrospective methodology, and inclusion of only patients with flail chest. We performed a prospective, controlled evaluation of SSRF as compared with optimal medical management for severe rib fracture patterns among critically ill trauma patients. We hypothesized that SSRF improves acute outcomes. METHODS We conducted a 2-year clinical evaluation of patients with any of the following rib fracture patterns: flail chest, three or more fractures with bicortical displacement, 30% or greater hemithorax volume loss, and either severe pain or respiratory failure despite optimal medical management. In the year 2013, all patients were managed nonoperatively. In the year 2014, all patients were managed operatively. Outcomes included respiratory failure, tracheostomy, pneumonia, ventilator days, tracheostomy, length of stay, daily maximum incentive spirometer volume, narcotic requirements, and mortality. Univariate and multivariable analyses were performed. RESULTS Seventy patients were included, 35 in each group. For the operative group, time from injury to surgery was 2.4 day, operative time was 1.5 hours, and the ratio of ribs fixed to ribs fractured was 0.6. The operative group had a significantly higher RibScore (4 vs. 3, respectively, p < 0.01) and a significantly lower incidence of intracranial hemorrhage (5.7% vs. 28.6%, respectively, p = 0.01). After controlling for these differences, the operative group had a significantly lower likelihood of both respiratory failure (odds ratio, 0.24; 95% confidence interval, 0.06–0.93; p = 0.03) and tracheostomy (odds ratio, 0.18; 95% confidence interval, 0.04–0.78; p = 0.03). Duration of ventilation was significantly lower in the operative group (p < 0.01). The median daily spirometry value was 250 mL higher in the operative group (p = 0.04). Narcotic requirements were comparable between groups. There were no mortalities. CONCLUSION In this evaluation, SSRF as compared with the best medical management improved acute outcomes among a group of critically ill trauma patients with a variety of severe fracture patterns. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE Therapeutic study, level II.
Red blood cell proteomics update: is there more to discover?

The present dataset, although not definitive, supports the idea that there is still ample opportunity for discovery in one of the most historically studied human cells. Recent comprehensive updates of the RBC proteome complexity -only some of which are referenced here- have been detailed using advanced proteomics technologies and investigating both mature and immature mitochondria-endowed (reticulocyte) RBC fractions 12 . Further extensions of RBC protein complexity and biochemistry are anticipated, stemming from the application of advancing bioanalytical technologies. Meanwhile, this study could serve as a reference for the feasibility of large-scale RBC proteomics studies using routine laboratory analytical strategies while delivering results as comprehensive as those obtainable only with state-of-the-art technologies less than a decade ago. Combined advances in discovery-mode and functional -omics technologies are thus currently available to perform large-scale validation studies and enable the identification of novel modes of therapeutic intervention for the most abundant host cell in the human body.
The impact of G-3 exchange rate volatility on developing countries

This paper describes G-3 exchange rate volatility and evaluates its impact on developing countries. The paper presents empirical evidence showing that G-3 exchange rate volatility has a robust and significantly negative impact on developing countries’ exports. A one percentage point increase in G-3 exchange rate volatility decreases real exports of developing countries by about 2 per cent, on average. G-3 exchange rate volatility also appears to have a negative influence on foreign direct investment to certain regions, and increases the probability of occurrence of exchange rate crises in developing countries. These results imply that greater stability in the international exchange rate system would help improve trade and foreign direct investment prospects for developing countries – and would help prevent currency crises.
Targeting Of miR9/NOTCH1 Interaction Reduces Metastatic Behavior in Triple‐negative Breast Cancer

Many reports have indicated deregulation of a variety of microRNAs (miRNAs) in human cancers. In this study, we appraised miR‐9 correlation with NOTCH1 involved in Notch signaling in metastatic breast cancer. The Notch signaling pathway has been approved to be associated with the development and progression of many human cancers, including breast cancer, but the precise mechanism has remained unknown. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that introduces miR‐9 and NOTCH1 correlation as an effective factor in breast cancer. We found that miR‐9 expression was decreased in MDA‐MB‐231 breast cancer cells compared with MCF‐10A normal breast cell line. However, NOTCH1 was upregulated in the metastatic breast cancer cells. Furthermore, luciferase assay revealed a significant inverse correlation between miR‐9 and NOTCH1. Overexpression of Notch signaling via Notch1 intracellular domain in MDA‐MB‐231 cell line was suppressed by lentiviruses expressing miR‐9. Taken together, the results obtained by MTT, flow cytometry, migration, and wound healing assays showed that it is possible to inhibit metastasis and induce pro‐apoptotic state by induction of miR‐9 expression in MDA‐MB‐231 cells but with no effect on cell proliferation. These results shows that miR‐9, by direct targeting of NOTCH1, can reveal a suppressor‐like activity in metastatic breast cancer cells.