Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Quantitative Fluorescence Measures for Determination of Intracellular Perforin Content

ABSTRACT We present methodologic details and operating characteristics of a procedure with whole blood for the quantitative assessment of intracellular perforin within distinct lymphocyte subsets. Using this method, we analyzed 20 healthy controls and 2 individuals with an inherited deficiency of perforin. The mean ± standard deviation perforin contents of natural killer (NK) cells and cytotoxic T cells of healthy controls were 3,561 ± 1,157 and 500 ± 779 relative number of molecules (rMol) of antiperforin antibody bound per cell, respectively. The NK cell perforin contents of individuals with heterozygous and homozygous perforin deficiency (familial hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis) were 2,260 and 212 rMol of antiperforin antibodies per NK cell. While the homozygous deficiency was found to be associated with negligible antiperforin binding, the heterozygous condition was associated with a level of perforin binding that was below the 15th percentile for healthy individuals. Because 83% of this subject's NK cells were shown to bind to antiperforin antibodies by conventional flow cytometry (relative to the normal range of 81% ± 25%), quantitative cytometry may be more sensitive than conventional cytometric methods in identifying cytolytic defects.
Co-Movements between Developed Stock Markets and the Frontier Stock Markets of Africa

It has been widely noted that as the world becomes more connected the movements of the Developed and the main Emerging Stock Markets of the world are getting correlated over time. This co-movement of the world’s Developed and Emerging markets reduces the benefit that could be obtained from diversification across more than one national market. The key question for international investors who are seeking higher returns and less volatility in their portfolio is whether diversifying into the smaller, less liquid Frontier Emerging Markets, simply known as Frontier Markets, would provide the needed variation in equity price movements.This dissertation seeks to answer this question by investigating the degree of correlation in the movements of the equity prices of Frontier African Stock Markets with those of the Developed Stock Markets of the world. African markets rather than other Frontier markets were chosen for this study because the region as a whole is largely a 'Frontier' Market. Asia and Latin America are dominated by huge Emerging Market economies, North America and Europe and by and large Developed Markets.The investigation commences with a detailed discussion of relevant existing literature. None of the journal articles published to date seem to specifically address the co-movement between African and Developed stock markets. Also coverage of African Markets seems to be generalized, covering the continent as a whole; this study focused on the relatively liquid and better developed Frontier African stock markets of Tunisia, Kenya and Nigeria.Mathematical models are used to compute the degree of correlation of the sample of three markets from each of the Developed, Emerging and Frontier Africa Stock Market segments. Other relevant figures such as variability of returns and the total returns are also computed from the sample indexes.In conclusion, the study establishes that Frontier African markets have a lower degree of correlation with Developed Markets as compared to Emerging Markets. The risk of investing in these markets in terms of variability of returns is found to be less than that for Emerging Markets. Finally, the degree of correlation in the stock movements between the individual African Markets is found to be low.
Comprehensive analysis of sperm DNA fragmentation by five different assays: TUNEL assay, SCSA, SCD test and alkaline and neutral Comet assay

Sperm DNA fragmentation (SDF) is becoming an important test to assess male infertility. Several different tests are available, but no consensus has yet been reached as to which tests are most predictive of infertility. Few publications have reported a comprehensive analysis comparing these methods within the same population. The objective of this study was to analyze the differences between the five most common methodologies, to study their correlations and to establish their cut‐off values, sensitivity and specificity in predicting male infertility. We found differences in SDF between fertile donors and infertile patients in TUNEL, SCSA, SCD and alkaline Comet assays, but none with the neutral Comet assay. The alkaline COMET assay was the best in predicting male infertility followed by TUNEL, SCD and SCSA, whereas the neutral COMET assay had no predictive power. For our patient population, threshold values for infertility were 20.05% for TUNEL assay, 18.90% for SCSA, 22.75% for the SCD test, 45.37% for alkaline Comet and 34.37% for neutral Comet. This work establishes in a comprehensive study that the all techniques except neutral Comet are useful to distinguish fertile and infertile men.
Assessment of Floodwater Behavior in Van Coc Lake, Hanoi in Event of Emergency Situation

Van Coc Lake located in the Dan Phuong and Phuc Tho, Hanoi, Vietnam, has an area of 30.83 km 2 . It is usually dry and includes arable land and residential areas. However, to protect Hanoi City from catastrophic floods, in emergency situations, it receives the floodwater from the Red River as a regulating reservoir and drains the floodwater to the downstream Day River through the Day Weir. We performed numerical simulations to assess the movement of floodwater in this lake and evaluated the impact of floodwater on its residential areas. A two-dimensional depth-integrated hydrodynamic model was constructed to simulate inundation in this lake. The model was validated and the effects of Manning’s coefficient of roughness were examined. In case of emergency, it has to receive an inflow of 2,500 m 3 /s into the area. Inflow rates of 1,200 and 600 m 3 /s were also examined to compare the results. The simulation results indicate that this lake was entirely inundated in 13, 28, and 56 h by inflow rates of 2,500, 1,200, and 600 m 3 /s, respectively. Between 66% and 99% of residential areas were inundated. The areas with highest velocity were primarily focused behind the gate with a velocity of 1.5-1.8 m/s.
Reliability and Validity of an Iranian Version of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire for Patients with Multiple Myeloma: the EORTC QLQ-MY20.

BACKGROUND Reliable and validated instruments are needed in order to study the quality of life in myeloma patients. This study aimed to translate and explore the psychometric properties of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) myeloma module (QLQ-MY20) in Iranian patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS Two hundred and fifteen patients with multiple myeloma (MM) were recruited from Imam Khomeini Hospital, Tehran. A standard forward-backward translation procedure was implemented. Participating patients were asked to complete the EORTC QLQ-C30 and the QLQ-MY20 three times, at study entry, after two weeks, and again after three months. Data were tested for the range of measurement, internal consistency, test-retest reliability, known group comparison, responsiveness and factor structure. RESULTS Mean age of the patients was 60.7 years. No floor and ceiling effects were seen for the QLQ-MY20. Cronbach's α was greater than 0.80 for all three multi-item scales (ranging from 0.82 to 0.93). All four scales had test-retest reliability of 0.85 or greater. Results of the confirmatory factor analysis that the hypothesized 3-scale measurement model of the QLQ-MY20. Moreover, the Persian version for the QLQ-MY20 differentiated between subgroups of the patients in terms of beta-2 microglobulin, fracture and performance status. The responsiveness of the QLQ-MY20 to change over time was confirmed within 3 months. CONCLUSIONS the results of our study indicate that our Iranian version of the QLQ-MY20 is a feasible, reliable and valid questionnaire for assessing the condition-specific quality of life of patients with MM.
Action research in teacher education : the case of the National University of Lesotho B.Ed programme

The purpose of this study was to examine the environment of action research project in the National University of Lesotho B.Ed. teacher education programme. The intention was to identify factors that facilitate or impede action research at the teacher educatiun institution where student teachers are prepared for the project to be undertaken in schools during teaching practice. The study also sought to understand the stud-:nt teachers' and teacher educators' perceptions and experiences of the action research project. The core assumption of action research is that it improves practice through the development of teachers' reflective skills. It is argued though that conditions in teacher education programmes are not favourable to action research. Thus, some scholars indicate that the full potential of action research can only be realised if teachers reflect critically on social and institutional factors that circumscribe their practices. The study adopted a qualitative research approach. The case studied was the NUL B.Ed. teacher education programme. The 2000101 B.Ed. student teachers and the teacher educators in the Language and Social Education department were interviewed. Four action research projects completed by these students were also selected and analysed. The findings revealed lack of understanding of the research approach by the students and an inadequate preparation for the research project. Although it was found that the school environment was favourable, to a certain extent, to students' research activities the teaching practice on the other hand revealed a behaviourist orientation that impacted negatively on the students' research project. iii Un ive rsi ty of Ca pe To wn
An Analytical Study of Genetic Algorithm for Generating Frequent Itemset and Framing Association Rules At Various Support Levels

In customary, frequent itemsets are propogated from large data sets by employing association rule mining algorithms like Apriori, Partition, Pincer-Search, Incremental and Border algorithm etc., which gains inordinately longer computer time to cast up all the frequent itemsets. On utilizing Genetic Algorithm (GA) the scheme is reformed. The outstanding benefit of utilizing GA in determining the frequent itemsets is to discharge exhaustive survey and its time convolution subsides in collation with other algorithms, since GA is built on the greedy mode. The effective plan of this report is to detect all the frequent itemsets and to generate the association rules at various levels of minimum support and confidence defined by the user, with very less time and less memory from the furnished data sets using genetic algorithm.
Propagation of high frequency overvoltages in transformers

In modern grids and networks more and more switching and reconfiguration operations are present. In addition external stresses like lightning may cause overvoltages. Thus, such transients may subject the electric insulation system of power equipment. The crest value of overvoltages appearing at the transformer terminals are limited by protective devices such as surge arresters to the level determined by the insulation coordination. Those values are usually much higher than maximum nominal voltage. In some cases overvoltages may influence transformers despite of overvoltage protection systems. Usually overvoltages contain oscillating dumped components in broad frequency range. Thus, often the internal overvoltages formed inside the insulation system of high voltage equipment are caused by internal resonance in windings. Particularly some switching transients of oscillating character may cause high amplitude internal overvoltages. Overvoltages manifesting such character and having lower amplitude than the protection level of the surge arresters are not attenuated at the transformer terminal. They arrive to the transformer input practically without any changes both in amplitude and waveform. The paper will present comparison of overvoltage propagation in different types of transformer design, taking into account also impact of steel and amorphous core. Both resonance and transfer overvoltages will be analyzed.
Adaptive cooperative spectrum sensing using random access in cognitive radio networks

In this paper, a new adaptive cooperative spectrum sensing scheme using random access is proposed in a cognitive radio network. Cooperative spectrum sensing improves spectrum sensing performance considerably. In typical cooperative spectrum sensing situations, spectrum sensing data of several secondary users are collected before sensing decision. Yet how to collect the sensing data is not an easy problem because coordination between secondary users is needed. This study addresses this problem. The proposed scheme uses random access to report the sensing data of the secondary users. In this scheme, it is necessary to determine the length of the sensing data collection period. In the proposed scheme, the length of the sensing data collection period is determined adaptively based on the current status of the collected sensing data. We apply backward induction approach to decide when to stop the collection procedure of the sensing data. The proposed scheme does not need complex slot management to collect sensing data and shows performance improvement over conventional methods.
Enhancer Trap Expression Patterns Provide a Novel Teaching Resource1

A collection of Arabidopsis enhancer trap transposants has been identified for use as a teaching tool. This collection serves to assist students in understanding the patterning and organization of plant tissues and cells, and will be useful in plant anatomy, morphology, and developmental biology courses. Each transposant exhibits reporter gene expression in a specific tissue, cell type, or domain, and these lines collectively offer a glimpse of compartments of gene expression. Some compartments correspond to classical definitions of botanical anatomy and can assist in anatomical identification. Other patterns of reporter gene expression are more complex and do not necessarily correspond to known anatomical features. The sensitivity of the β-glucuronidase histochemical stain provides the student with a colorful and direct way to visualize difficult aspects of plant development and anatomy, and provides the teacher with an invaluable tool for a practical laboratory session.
Phyllanthin and hypophyllanthin inhibit function of P‐gp but not MRP2 in Caco‐2 cells

The purposes of this study were to investigate the inhibitory effects of two lignans, phyllanthin and hypophyllanthin, on the function of P‐glycoprotein (P‐gp) and multidrug resistance protein 2 (MRP2), using the in‐vitro model of Caco‐2 cells. In addition, the effect of prolonged exposure to these two compounds on the expression of active P‐gp was also determined.
Morphological study and comprehensive cellular constituents of milky spots in the human omentum.

OBJECTIVE To analyze morphological features of omental milky spots (MS). METHOD Hematoxylin-eosin staining and immunohistochemistry technique were used to study the omental MS of gastric cancer (GC) patients and rectal cancer (RC) patients. We focused on morphological features of MS and conducted quantitative analysis on the cells number and cellular constituents. Differences in MS parameters between GC and RC were also analyzed. RESULTS Various shapes of MS were mainly round, oval, irregular form in the adipose and perivascular annular. The median MS perimeter was 2752 (range 817~7753) computer-based pixels. The median value of immune cells in one MS was 141 (43~650), comprising T lymphocytes (46.1%), B lymphocytes (28.4%), macrophages (12.4%) and other immune cells (13.1%). Relatively high density of vessels in MS could be calculated by micro-vessel density (MVD) as 4 (0~13). The median value of mesothelial cells loosely arranged in the surface layer was 5 (0~51). There were no significant differences in MS perimeter, MVD, the number of mesothelial cells, total immune cells, T lymphocytes and macrophages between GC and RC (P>0.05), while the number of MS B lymphocytes in RC was significantly higher than that in GC (P<0.001). CONCLUSION MS are primary immune tissues in the omentum and structural bases for development and progression of peritoneal dissemination of GC and RC. Analyzing the morphology and cellular constituents could help understanding the mechanism of peritoneal metastasis.
The Role of Monoaminergic Neurotransmission for Metabolic Control in the Fruit Fly Drosophila Melanogaster

Hormones control various metabolic traits comprising fat deposition or starvation resistance. Here we show that two invertebrate neurohormones, octopamine (OA) and tyramine (TA) as well as their associated receptors, had a major impact on these metabolic traits. Animals devoid of the monoamine OA develop a severe obesity phenotype. Using flies defective in the expression of receptors for OA and TA, we aimed to decipher the contributions of single receptors for these metabolic phenotypes. Whereas those animals impaired in octß1r, octß2r and tar1 share the obesity phenotype of OA-deficient (tβh-deficient) animals, the octß1r, octß2r deficient flies showed reduced insulin release, which is opposed to the situation found in tβh-deficient animals. On the other hand, OAMB deficient flies were leaner than controls, implying that the regulation of this phenotype is more complex than anticipated. Other phenotypes seen in tβh-deficient animals, such as the reduced ability to perform complex movements tasks can mainly be attributed to the octß2r. Tissue-specific RNAi experiments revealed a very complex interorgan communication leading to the different metabolic phenotypes observed in OA or OA and TA-deficient flies.
Future Directions for Research

I am sure that everyone in the audience was as stimulated as I was to hear these excellent presentations on the current state of work on DRGs, their consequences, responses in the hospital, and concerns about some of the effects that they may be having. In my remarks, I would like to talk about two things. First, I would like to broaden the discussion about reimbursement systems to see where DRGs fit in terms of the kinds of incentives that they offer compared to the kinds of incentives that would be offered in other types of reimbursement systems. Secondly, I would like to turn to a most pertinent question for us as members of the Society for Medical Decision Making: what kinds of research topics are the most prominent ones that we ought to be thinking about and working on? These topics will, in effect, summarize some of the points presented earlier in the Symposium.
Phagocytozing ameboid microglial cells studied in a mouse corpus callosum slice preparation

Highly motile brain macrophages/microglial cells were observed in the cingulum and supraventricular corpus callosum, an area termed by del Rio‐Hortega the “fountain of microglia. ” This is the first study that uses time lapse video microscopy in acute cortical brain slices to analyze directly the motile and phagocytic behaviour of these cells. The cells migrated within minutes to the slice surface and actively screened their surrounding with velum‐like processes. Dead/damaged cells on the slice surface were contacted by the processes and phagozytozed within minutes. A method to add red blood cells in a defined density was used to observe the phagocytosis. © 1996 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Economics of High-Temperature Nuclear Reactors for Industrial Cogeneration

The EU Emissions Trading Scheme challenges the cost-competitiveness of energy-intensive industries in Europe, and induces them to search for low-carbon alternatives for their process heat requirements, such as cogeneration or the employment of nuclear power plants. The high-temperature nuclear reactor (HTR) is a technology option that combines these two aspects. In this paper, the economic potential of using HTRs for cogeneration of industrial process heat and electricity is studied. We show that a reference case HTR can deliver cost-competitive process heat at temperatures of 200°C and above, rendering the chemical and pulp & paper industry as potential candidates. The economic evaluation of the reference case yields a positive net present value of € 304 million and an internal rate of return of 12.3%, which is above the cost of capital. Real options analysis is employed to account for the uncertain environment and the resulting managerial flexibilities of the project. A real option model for optimal investment timing (Pindyck, 1991) is adapted to HTRs for industrial cogeneration. The value of the option to invest in a HTR is determined at € 667 million and the electricity price threshold for an optimal investment at 78.97 €/MWh. Hence, the option to invest in a HTR represents a significant value for a utility. Yet, the investment should be delayed until the electricity price reaches the threshold value. We also propose a model to calculate the option to switch between two different modes of operation that is based on Kulatilaka and Trigeorgis (1994) but builds on a time-continuous price path instead of a binomial lattice. For the reference case, the option to switch the power plant’s output from cogeneration to electricity only is found to be worth € 85 million.
Practice Prize Paper - BRAN*EQT: A Multicategory Brand Equity Model and Its Application at Allstate

We develop a robust model for estimating, tracking, and managing brand equity for multicategory brands based on customer survey and financial measures. This model has two components: 1 offering value computed from discounted cash flow analysis and 2 relative brand importance computed from brand choice models such as multinomial logit, heteroscedastic extreme value, and mixed logit. We apply this model to estimate the brand equity of Allstate---a leading insurance company---and its leading competitor, which compete in multiple categories. The model captures the brand's spillover effects from one category to another. In addition, we identify the dimensions that drive a brand's image, examine the relationships among advertising, brand equity, and shareholder value, and build a decision support simulator for the focal brand. Our model provides reliable estimates of brand equity, and our results show that advertising has a strong long-term positive influence on brand equity, which is significantly positively related to shareholder value. The model, the brand equity estimates, and the decision support simulator are used by key executives across multiple functional areas and have enabled the company to substantially gain by reallocating its advertising resources to improve brand equity and shareholder value, and by offering better guidance to analysts and investors.
The Retirement-Consumption Puzzle and Unretirement

Using a panel sample of older Americans I investigate the drop in consumption at retirement, i.e. the so-called retirement-consumption puzzle, by taking into account that individuals may re-enter the labor force after being retired. In contrast with previous studies I look at how household consumption responds to the changes in both males’ and females’ labor market status. This paper has two important findings. Firstly, the unretirement decision is mainly determined by pre-retirement expectations of work and financial factors such as the amount of individuals’ accumulated savings at the time of retirement and having an occupational pension plan. Secondly, in a model where retirement and unretirement are instrumented with individuals’ retirement expectations, consumption does not respond to retirement or unretirement in line with the predictions of the life-cycle model. Overall, the findings of this paper suggest that individuals are able to smooth their consumption around retirement.