Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mesenchymal stem cells accelerate bone allograft incorporation in the presence of diabetes mellitus

Allograft (Allo) incorporation in the presence of a systemic disease like diabetes mellitus (DM) is becoming a major issue in the orthopedic community. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) are multipotent stem cells that may be derived from adult, whole bone marrow and have been shown to induce bone formation in segmental defects when combined with the appropriate carrier/scaffold. The objectives of this study were to analyze the effect of DM upon Allo incorporation in a segmental rat femoral defect and to also investigate MSC augmentation of Allo incorporation. Segmental (5 mm) femoral defects were created in non‐DM and DM rats and treated with Allo containing demineralized bone matrix (DBM) or DBM with MSC augmentation. Histological scoring at 4 weeks demonstrated less mature bone in the DM/DBM group compared to its non‐DM counterpart (p < 0.001). However, there was significantly more mature bone in the DM/MSC group when compared to the DM/DBM group at both 4 and 8 weeks (p < 0.001 and p = 0.004). Furthermore, significantly more bone formation was observed in the DM/MSC group compared to the DM/DBM group at the 4‐week time point (p < 0.001). The results of this study suggest that MSC are a potential adjunct for bone regeneration when implanted in an orthotopic site in the presence of DM. © 2010 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 28:942–949, 2010
Switchable Frequency Selective Slot Arrays

A switchable frequency selective surface (FSS) made of square loop slots and PIN diodes connected to a novel separate biasing circuit is presented. The structure uses a very thin, flexible substrate sandwiched between two physically independent metallic layers to create the active filter. An application is the modification of the EM architecture of buildings, where propagation could be controlled using active FSS. The relatively small number of elements employed creates a compact FSS structure which could fit in an aperture within a wall of a building. The Fabry-Perot approach is used to design a cascaded version for improved filter selectivity.
Services Rendered by Commercial Bank: A Customer Oriented Empirical Evidence from State Bank of India

In the modern customer centric competitive arena, satisfaction and quality prove to be key factors reciprocally interrelated in a causal, cyclical relationship. The higher the service quality, the more satisfied are the customers. With the current change in the functional orientation of banks, the main driver of banks success and survival is fulfilling customer needs and expectations. Thus, customer satisfaction is quite a complex issue. The paper is an attempt to examine empirically services rendered by State Bank of India in Garo Hills of Meghalaya. A sample of 100 customers was selected for the purpose of the study. The information has been collected through structured questionnaires. The opinion of the respondents on 25 variables indicating the satisfaction level were measured with Likert five point scale ranging from five to one depending on the importance. Further, Factor analysis technique has been employed to determine the satisfaction level of customers.
Another look into the agenda of customer satisfaction: focusing on service providers’ own and perceived viewpoints

Customer satisfaction is increasingly considered to be a basic determinant of business success, one that has considerable effect on firm performance (customer retention, re‐purchase and profitability). Seeks to add to previous but limited attempts to assess the service providers’ understanding of the satisfaction of their customers. The indirect assessment of customer satisfaction draws on management’s ability to differentiate between the quality of the provided services as perceived by themselves and as they think it is perceived by their customers. Develops a service satisfaction construct by making use of previous research instruments that have been developed to assess customer satisfaction from the customers’ perspective. Contests and tests empirically a five‐dimensional construct which comprises interactive, corporate, physical, price and convenience dimensions. Uses empirical data from a sample of 270 retail bank managers in Greece in order to test the hypotheses.
A Functional Polymorphism of Ptpn22 Is Associated with Type 1 Diabetes in the BioBreeding Rat

The R620W variant of PTPN22 is one of the major genetic risk factors for several autoimmune disorders including type 1 diabetes (T1D) in humans. In the BioBreeding T1D-prone (BBDP) rat, a single nucleotide polymorphism in Ptpn22 results in an A629T substitution immediately C-terminal to the aliphatic residues central to the Ptpn22–C-terminal Src kinase interaction. This variant exhibits a 50% decrease in C-terminal Src kinase binding affinity and contributes to T cell hyperresponsiveness. Examination of BBDP sublines congenic for the Iddm26.2 locus that includes Ptpn22 has not only shown an expansion of activated CD4+25+ T lymphocytes in animals homozygous for the BBDP allele, consistent with enhanced TCR-mediated signaling, but also a decrease in their proportion of peripheral Foxp3+ regulatory T cells. Furthermore, clinical assessment of both an F2(BBDP × ACI.1u.Lyp) cohort and Iddm26.2 congenic BBDP sublines has revealed an association of Ptpn22 with T1D. Specifically, in both cases, T1D risk is significantly greater in BBDP Ptpn22 homozygous and heterozygous animals. These findings are consistent with a role for rat Ptpn22 allelic variation within Iddm26.2 in the regulation of T cell responses, and subsequently the risk for development of T1D.
A novel harmonic elimination method for a three-phase diode rectifier with controlled DC link current

Conventional diode rectifiers generate current harmonics which affects quality of power systems. According to the IEC61000 standards, different harmonic limits have been defined for broad range of products in which they have to fulfill the regulations. A cost effective solution to reduce current harmonic emission in low power motor drive systems (below 10 kW) is to use passive filters such as DC or AC chokes; but they are bulky and expensive filters and also input current Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) value depends on load profile. This paper presents an active harmonic mitigation technique with a novel current modulation method for three phase motor drive systems. Analysis and simulations have been carried out to verify the proposed method.
Land Management gaps accounting for persistent open-air trading in rural markets of North-Central Nigeria

SUMMARY Rural markets in North-Central Nigeria have played crucial role in the distribution of farm produce, industrial raw materials and household goods. However, the persistence of open-air trading and its attendant risks call for land management interventions. Using a case study of Ajaka market in North-Central Nigeria, primary data were harnessed from stakeholders comprising market traders, customers, and the local premises managers. Findings indicated that the top-five drivers of persistent open-air trading comprise absence of formal space planning standards, violation of easements, absence of modern infrastructure, and poor development. In response to these and other land management gaps, six major toolkits proffered by stakeholders to address this gap include space management, development control, land allocation, market redevelopment, dispute resolution, and land use mapping and planning. In addition, one-way ANOVA tests indicated a consensus among the stakeholders with respect to land management gaps and toolkits for intervention. It was recommended that these toolkits for intervention should be implemented in phases and in consultation with all stakeholders in order to uplift the status of rural markets and ameliorate the persistence of open-air trading. The study was concluded by urging stakeholders to hold local government councils accountable for the revenue generated from rural markets as these funds could be used to defray the cost of implementing each land management toolkit.
Electromagnetic flowmetry — an experimental method for continuous blood flow measurement using a New Island flap model

We describe a reliable experimental method for direct, continuous measurement of the rate of blood flow in an island skin flap, using an electromagnetic flowmeter applied to the artery of the flap. The canine saphenous island flap model, developed as part of this study, is a large (11 x 14 cm) island flap, based solely on the saphenous artery (2 mm in diameter). We describe the anatomy of the flap and the method of raising it. Electromagnetic flowmetry is the only method of blood flow determination that provides immediate, continuous, and quantitative measurement of flow. We describe the principles and pitfalls of the electromagnetic flowmeter and the numerous rules of practice that must be observed to obtain consistent results. A validation study was carried out, in which we simultaneously measured arterial inflow with the flowmeter and venous outflow from the flap using direct collection. This study was based on the assumption that at any point in time the arterial and venous rate of flow were equal. We present the results of the study, which show an extremely close linear relationship between the measured and actual rates of flow. We intend to use this experimental method to study the factors that affect the rate of blood flow in free skin flap transfer.
Large-scale Fragmentation of Mammalian DNA in the Course of Apoptosis Proceeds via Excision of Chromosomal DNA Loops and Their Oligomers (*)

It has been shown recently that apoptotic degradation of genomic DNA in mammalian cells starts by excision of large DNA fragments ranging in size from 50 kilobases to more then 300 kilobases. Although it was suggested that the above fragments could represent chromosomal DNA loops, the supposition was not supported by direct experimental evidence. In present work, we have studied the specificity of nucleolar and euchromatic gene long-range fragmentation in mouse and human cells triggered to undergo apoptosis either by tumor necrosis factor or by serum deprivation. Separation of the excised large DNA fragments by pulsed field gel electrophoresis followed by Southern analysis has demonstrated that in all cases studied the above fragmentation proceeds in a specific way. Furthermore, the patterns of DNA long-range fragmentation in the cells undergoing apoptosis were indistinguishable from the patterns of DNA cleavage into chromosomal loops by the high salt-insoluble topoisomerase II of the nuclear matrix. These results suggest the conclusion that apoptotic degradation of chromosomal DNA starts by excision of DNA loops and their oligomers.
Better Buy Case: Managing a Sales Process

Better Buy 1 is a real estate development firm that purchases prime real estate in large cities, upgrades and repositions those buildings, and then sells (not leases) spaces within the building to large, prestigious companies in the area. Even though Better Buy is growing, Roger, one of the commercial real estate developers, couldn’t help but wonder if there is a more effective way to manage their sales force. Currently, “managing” the sales process is done through a mixture of loose notes, spreadsheets and inefficient meetings. Roger is also concerned with the communication (or lack thereof) that is taking place between his sales team and the clients. His team should be staying on top of these types of things, shouldn’t they? After all, who knows how many customers have been neglected and lost? Finally, what about the lag time when a sales person is waiting to hear back from a client? Should that be managed differently? Something within this process needs to change quickly if Better Buy is to achieve its target sales. Roger believes he could develop a better way to manage their sales process, which would benefit not only the sales force but the customers as well. Better Buy has a pretty good sense of their sales process but no system to manage it or to evaluate its effectiveness. The problem is - where to begin.
Remanufacturing Closed-loop Supply Chain Model with Uncertain Demand

The paper establishes a remanufacturing closed-loop supply chain model with one manufacturer and one retailer under uncertain demand by using the rules of Stackelberg game to get the pricing decisions,and get channel selections through comparing manufacturer's profit of different channels.The paper also considers the parameters' impact on supply chain decisions when they change.
Does the Evaluation of Gait Quality During Daily Life Provide Insight Into Fall Risk? A Novel Approach Using 3-Day Accelerometer Recordings

Background. Many approaches are used to evaluate fall risk. While their properties and performance vary, most reflect performance at a specific moment or are based on subjective self-report. Objective. To quantify fall risk in the home setting using an accelerometer. Methods. Seventy-one community-living older adults were studied. In the laboratory, fall risk was assessed using performance-based tests of mobility (eg, Timed Up and Go) and usual walking abilities were quantified. Subsequently, subjects wore a triaxial accelerometer on their lower back for 3 consecutive days. Acceleration-derived measures were extracted from segments that reflected ambulation. These included total activity duration, number of steps taken, and the amplitude and width at the dominant frequency in the power spectral density, that is, parameters reflecting step-to-step variability. Afterwards, self-report of falls was collected for 6 months to explore the predictive value. Results. Based on a history of 2 or more falls, subjects were classified as fallers or nonfallers. The number of steps during the 3 days was similar (P = .42) in the fallers (7842.1 ± 6135.6) and nonfallers (9055.3 ± 6444.7). Compared with the nonfallers, step-to-step consistency was lower in the fallers in the vertical axis (amplitude fallers, 0.58 ± 0.22 psd; nonfallers, 0.71 ± 0.18 psd; P = .008); in the mediolateral axis, step-to-step consistency was higher in the fallers (P = .014). The 3-day measures improved the identification of past and future falls status (P < .005), compared to performance-based tests. Conclusions. Accelerometer-derived measures based on 3-day recordings are useful for evaluating fall risk as older adults perform daily living activities in their everyday home environment.
An Efficient Virtual CPU Scheduling Algorithm for Xen Hypervisor in Virtualized Environment

The core of virtualization is hypervisor which directly determines the platform performance. How to allocate resource effectively becomes an important problem. Xen is an open source hypervisor and used as a virtual machine monitor. In this paper, we designed an efficient virtual CPU scheduling algorithm that combined Deadline-Monotonic Scheduling with Simple Earliest Deadline First (EDF) scheduler which was implemented on Xen. Our experiment demonstrates that the proposed algorithm reduced kernel latency better than Simple EDF in overloaded condition.
Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure: An Exploratory Study of the Top 10 Media Organisations

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is an issue of growing interest in the business world, and many large, multinational companies, including media organisations, are voluntarily disclosing information regarding their CSR activities. While there is criticism of the ethical values of “the media”, some media organisations are using CSR to promote a positive side of their business. This exploratory study observes what the leading media organisations are doing in terms of CSR activities to propose a CSR disclosure index for the media industry, and discusses some implications for other organisations.
Demographic Prediction Based on User Reviews about Medications

Drug reactions can be extracted fromuser reviews provided on the Web, and processingthis information in an automated way represents anovel and exciting approach to personalized medicineand wide-scale drug tests. In medical applications,demographic information regarding the authors ofthese reviews such as age and gender is of primaryimportance; however, existing studies usually assumethat this information is available or overlook theissue entirely. In this work, we propose andcompare several approaches to automated mining ofdemographic information from user-generated texts.We compare modern natural language processingtechniques, including feature rich classifiers, extensionsof topic models, and deep neural networks (bothconvolutional and recurrent architectures) for thisproblem.
Familiarity, expertise and involvement: key consumer segmentation factors

Purpose – It is generally accepted that the launch of a new product is critical to its success. Key to this is that manufacturers understand the market segment which is targeted for the launch. However, recent research and criticism suggest that modern segmentation strategies, aligning products with lifecycle typologies do not work. It is no longer possible to align consumers and products into neat and stable lifecycle segments. It is suggested that more importance should be attached to products having a familiarity fit with consumers – what they know and expect from a particular product. These views are moderated by a consumer's enthusiasm or involvement with the product as well as their level of expertise in understanding complex products. This paper aims to look at these issues.Design/methodology/approach – This research looks at consumer perceptions to the changes to two automotive models launched by one of the major manufacturers at the Frankfurt Motor Show, Germany, held in September 2005, to discov.
Is CHCHD10 Pro34Ser pathogenic for frontotemporal dementia and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis?

1 Neuroscience Research Australia, Sydney, NSW, Australia 2 School of Medical Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia 3 Schizophrenia Research Institute, Sydney, NSW, Australia 4 Prince of Wales Clinical School, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia 5 School of Public Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia 6 Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing, School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia 7 Neuropsychiatric Institute, Prince of Wales Hospital, Sydney, NSW, Australia
An Updated and Streamlined Technology Readiness Index

The Technology Readiness Index (TRI), a 36-item scale to measure people’s propensity to embrace and use cutting-edge technologies, was published in the Journal of Service Research over a decade ago. Researchers have since used it in a variety of contexts in over two dozen countries. Meanwhile, several revolutionary technologies (mobile commerce, social media, and cloud computing) that were in their infancy just a decade ago are now pervasive and significantly impacting people’s lives. Based on insights from extensive experience with the TRI and given the significant changes in the technology landscape, the authors undertook a two-phase research project to update and streamline the TRI. After providing a brief overview of technology readiness and the original TRI, this article (a) describes the multiple research stages and analyses that produced TRI 2.0, a 16-item scale; (b) compares TRI 2.0 with the original TRI in terms of content, structure, and psychometric properties; and (c) demonstrates TRI 2.0’s reliability, validity, and usefulness as a customer segmentation tool. The article concludes with potential applications of TRI 2.0 and directions for future research.
A Cross-national Comparison of the Internationalisation Trajectories of Internet Start-Ups

There is considerable current research interest on how the Internet and related technologies can enable smaller firms to internationalise rapidly. Many believe that these technologies offer unprecedented opportunities for such firms to overcome geographic barriers to expansion into foreign markets (Hamill 1999, Poon & Jevons 1997, Samiee 1998, Katz & Murray 2002). Indeed, the argument that smaller firms can particularly benefit from the ability to gather information, promote themselves and service customers in new markets for relatively little expense is very persuasive (Quelch & Klein, 1996; Chattell, 1998; Franson, 1998). Many authors also contend that …
Excess Mortality Among Injection Drug Users With AIDS, New York City (1999–2004)

We calculated proportions and trends in contributing causes of death among persons with AIDS (PWA) and a history of injection drug use (IDU) in New York City and compared the proportions with those among PWA with a transmission risk of high-risk heterosexual sex (HRH) and men who have sex with men (MSM). We included all 10,575 injection drug user, HRH, and MSM residents aged 13+ years with AIDS reported by September 30, , who died from 1999 through 2004. Accidental drug overdose was the most frequent contributing cause of death among IDUs (20.5%). Overdose prevention initiatives may greatly and immediately reduce deaths among PWA.
Measuring the unmeasured in educational programs: filling in the blanks through evaluation

The indicators of performance put forward as measures of achievement at a state and territory level in Australia reflect to some extent the priorities of those jurisdictions. These are revealed in the annual reports of departments, usually under headings of targets and corresponding outcomes. It may seem reasonable to assume that these performance measures line up with stated objectives, and with what matters on the ground. But do they? This paper argues that while the aims of education are broad, the measures of education are narrow. Philosophically, a good education is one that has social, developmental, intellectual and economic aims. However, even though some of those broad aims are reflected in national, state and territory foundational documents and reports, they are not reflected in Australian measurement or reporting frameworks, which seem to suggest that it is neither practical nor cost-effective to collect such data. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that it is possible to measure educational success in ways that support the broader goals of education and schooling in Australia. To this end, the paper draws on two evaluation case studies in the field of education (run within schools), to highlight ways that the unmeasured aspects of educational activity can be measured. One case highlights the significance of social capital in a school-family partnership program, and the other demonstrates the psycho-social benefits of an alternative education program for ‘at risk’ children. These cases illustrate what can be measured and they provide useful data to fill in the blanks of what is not measured at a system level. However, the cases also raise bigger questions about what should be measured and reported as indicators of what matters to educational stakeholders.
Offshore wind farm inter-array cable layout

The approach presented in this paper was applied to optimize the electrical inter-array cable systems for Offshore Wind Farms. It is compatible with both radial and branched design philosophies, and can optimize for total cable length, cable cost, and for operational losses. The method yields significant savings in design time and capital expenditure of cable. The full optimization of such a problem is considered mathematically impossible and the method is tailored to provide a near optimal solution in a practical period of time. It enables rapid assessment of vast numbers of different design configurations while progressively refining the electrical system layout design process. A real wind farm example is used to demonstrate the applicability.