Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
PERFORMANCE OF AMERICAN AND RUSSIAN JOINT STOCK COMPANIES ON FINANCIAL MARKET. A MICROSTRUCTURE PERSPECTIVE

This paper compares the periods before and after the Ukrainian crisis of 2014 from the perspective of market microstructure. The hypothesis is that the crisis influenced the fragile Russian financial market equilibrium. As financial markets adapt to the new equilibrium, the paper studies the effects of the crisis and the imposition of economic sanctions on Russia in terms of volatility, duration, prices and volume for selected joint stock companies listed on the U.S. and the Russian stock markets. Results reveal that the Moscow Stock exchange lacks an appropriate transmission mechanism from informed investors to the rest of the market.
The minipig model for experimental chondral and osteochondral defect repair in tissue engineering: Retrospective analysis of 180 defects

Summary Articular cartilage repair is still a challenge in orthopaedic surgery. Although many treatment options have been developed in the last decade, true regeneration of hyaline articular cartilage is yet to be accomplished. In vitro experiments are useful for evaluating cell–matrix interactions under controlled parameters. When introducing new treatment options into clinical routine, adequate animal models are capable of closing the gap between in vitro experiments and the clinical use in human beings. We developed an animal model in the Göttingen minipig (GMP) to evaluate the healing of osteochondral or full-thickness cartilage defects. The defects were located in the middle third of the medial portion of the patellofemoral joint at both distal femurs. Chondral defects were 6.3 mm, osteochondral defects either 5.4 or 6.3 mm in diameter and 8 or 10 mm deep. In both defects the endogenous repair response showed incomplete repair tissue formation up to 12 months postoperatively. Based on its limited capability for endogenous repair of chondral and osteochondral defects, the GMP is a useful model for critical assessment of new treatment strategies in articular cartilage tissue engineering.
Technical and economic assessment of distributed generation to increase energy coverage in rural areas

The grid expansion is the most usual alternative to increase the coverage of distribution utility in rural areas. However, this alternative has several constraints related with its costs, the dispersion of costumers, assets configuration (mostly radial), and reliability, among others. This paper summarizes the main issues concerning to supply the energy demand in rural areas. Technical and economic assessment methods are proposed to determine the best alternative that satisfies energy requirements in specific rural areas. Distributed Generation (DG) is suggested as a competitive option in two cases: islanded and interconnected operation. For each scenario, technical requirements are examined to be met. Similarly, an economic evaluation is performed and finally the results are contrasted.
Detection of Norwalk virus in stool specimens by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction and nonradioactive oligoprobes

A reverse transcriptase (RT)-polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-oligoprobe (OP), or RT-PCR-OP, method was developed for the detection of the Norwalk virus, which causes acute, epidemic gastroenteritis, in stool specimens. The Norwalk virus genome regions encoding the following two proteins were amplified by RT-PCR: the RNA polymerase (260-bp product) and a putative immunogenic protein (224-bp product). The resulting DNA fragments (amplicons) were hybridized to a digoxigenin-labeled internal OP specific to each amplicon. The detection limit of Norwalk virus, as determined by the endpoint of RT-PCR amplification for serially diluted, positive stool specimens, was similar to the actual virion titer as estimated by electron microscopy and at least 100-fold greater than the titer determined by radioimmunoassay (RIA). The RT-PCR-OP assay was specific for Norwalk virus and negative for other enteric viruses, including human and animal caliciviruses, hepatitis E virus, Snow Mountain agent, astroviruses, 16 human enteroviruses, and 5 human rotaviruses. Components of fecal specimens that interfere with RT-PCR were removed successfully by Sephadex G-200 gel chromatography. Of 20 stool specimens from human volunteers that were positive for Norwalk virus by RIA, a specific RT-PCR-OP result was obtained in 95% (19 of 20) of the samples by using the immunogenic protein primers and 75% (15 of 20) by using the polymerase primers. Twenty-six stool specimens from asymptomatic children and adults were negative by the Norwalk virus RT-PCR-OP. RT-PCR-OP detected Norwalk virus in the 4 of 21 coded fecal specimens that were also positive by enzyme immunoassay. Two samples that were positive by RIA or enzyme immunoassay were negative by RT-PCR, perhaps because viral RNA was not present or RT-PCR inhibitors were not adequately removed.
Motor Cortical Activity during Interception of Moving Targets.

The single-unit activity of 831 cells was recorded in the arm area of the motor cortex of tow monkeys while the monkeys intercepted a moving visual stimulus (interception task) or remained immobile during presentation of the same moving stimulus (no-go task). The moving target traveled on an oblique path from either lower corner of a screen toward the vertical meridian, and its movement time (0.5,1.0, or 1.5 sec) and velocity profile (accelerating, decelerating, or constant velocity) were pseudorandomly varied. The moving target had to be intercepted within 130 msec of target arrival at an interception point. By comparing motor cortical activity at the single-neuron tasks, we tested whether information about parameters of moving target is represented in the primary motor cortex to generate appropriate motor responses. A substantial number of neurons displayed modulation of their activity during the no-go task, and this activity was often affected by the stimulus parameters. These results suggest a role of motor cortex in specifying the timing of movement initiation based on information about target motion. In addition, there was a lack of systematic relation between the onset times of neural activity in the interception and no-go task, suggesting that processing of information concerning target motion and generation of hand movement occurs in parallel. Finally, the activity in the most motor cortical neurons was modulated according to an estimate of the time-to-target interception, raising the possibility that time-to-interception may be coded in the motor cortical activity.
Operator support for ageing nuclear critical infrastructure systems: integrating ecological interface design with prospect theory

Operator support is essential for making decisions involving ageing infrastructure. In particular, ageing plants may have deviated from their original condition into a new state with a less predictable set of possible actions and outcomes. Standard procedures and practices may be insufficient to handle the risks and vulnerabilities of ageing nuclear infrastructure. Operator support must be designed with an understanding of how operators make decisions under uncertainty and a view to supporting unexpected situations. Prospect theory (PT) and ecological interface design (EID) are proposed as two complementary approaches for guiding operator support. PT describes how people make decisions under uncertainty and EID is an interface design approach for aiding operators with the problem-solving process in unanticipated situations. We suggest that these two approaches can be integrated to improve complex decision making in ageing nuclear plants.
Understanding the motivation: a qualitative study of dental students' choice of professional career.

BACKGROUND Given the changing nature of the dental workforce, and the need to retain the services of future members, it is important to understand why current dental students perceive that they were motivated to study dentistry. Qualitative research provides the opportunity to explore the underlying issues in addition to informing subsequent quantitative research. The objectives of this research were to investigate final-year dental students' motivation for studying dentistry and how they perceive this has been modified during their undergraduate degree programme. METHODS Purposive sampling of a representative group of 35 final-year dental students at King's College London Dental Institute to participate in audio-taped focus groups. Qualitative data were analysed using Framework Methodology. RESULTS The findings suggest a strong emphasis on having a career, providing 'professional status', 'financial benefits', 'job security, flexibility and independence' and 'good quality of life'. Students reported being attracted by features of the job, supported to a greater or lesser extent by personal experience, family and friends. It appears however that students' initial motivation is being tempered by their experiences during their undergraduate degree programme, in particular, the 'responsibilities of an intensive professional education', their 'mounting student debt' and the perception of 'feeling undervalued'. This perception related to dentistry in general and National Health Service dentistry in particular, being undervalued, by government, patients, the public and members of the dental profession. CONCLUSIONS Students' vision of a 'contained professional career' within health care, providing status and financial benefits, appears to have influenced their choice of dentistry. Pressures relating to student life and policy changes are perceived as impacting on key components of professional life, particularly status in the social and economic order. The implications for educators, professional leaders and policy makers are explored.
The Nuclear Receptor TLX Is Required for Gliomagenesis within the Adult Neurogenic Niche

ABSTRACT Neural stem cells (NSCs) continually generate functional neurons in the adult brain. Due to their ability to proliferate, deregulated NSCs or their progenitors have been proposed as the cells of origin for a number of primary central nervous system neoplasms, including infiltrating gliomas. The orphan nuclear receptor TLX is required for proliferation of adult NSCs, and its upregulation promotes brain tumor formation. However, it is unknown whether TLX is required for gliomagenesis. We examined the genetic interactions between TLX and several tumor suppressors, as well as the role of TLX-dependent NSCs during gliomagenesis, using mouse models. Here, we show that TLX is essential for the proliferation of adult NSCs with a single deletion of p21, p53, or Pten or combined deletion of Pten and p53. While brain tumors still form in Tlx mutant mice, these tumors are less infiltrative and rarely associate with the adult neurogenic niches, suggesting a non-stem-cell origin. Taken together, these results indicate a critical role for TLX in NSC-dependent gliomagenesis and implicate TLX as a therapeutic target to inhibit the development of NSC-derived brain tumors.
Molecular and phenetic characterization of the bacterial assemblage of Hot Lake, WA, an environment with high concentrations of magnesium sulphate, and its relevance to Mars

Abstract Hot Lake (Oroville, WA) is an athalassohaline epsomite lake that can have precipitating concentrations of MgSO4 salts, mainly epsomite. Little biotic study has been done on epsomite lakes and it was unclear whether microbes isolated from epsomite lakes and their margins would fall within recognized halotolerant genera, common soil genera or novel phyla. Our initial study cultivated and characterized epsotolerant bacteria from the lake and its margins. Approximately 100 aerobic heterotrophic microbial isolates were obtained by repetitive streak-plating in high-salt media including either 10% NaCl or 2 M MgSO4. The collected isolates were all bacteria, nearly evenly divided between Gram-positive and Gram-negative clades, the most abundant genera being Halomonas, Idiomarina, Marinobacter, Marinococcus, Nesterenkonia, Nocardiopsis and Planococcus. Bacillus, Corynebacterium, Exiguobacterium, Kocuria and Staphylococcus also were cultured. This initial study included culture-independent community analysis of direct DNA extracts of lake margin soil using PCR-based clone libraries and 16S rRNA gene phylogeny. Clones assigned to Gram-positive bacterial clades (70% of total clones) were dominated by sequences related to uncultured actinobacteria. There were abundant Deltaproteobacteria clones related to bacterial sulphur metabolisms and clones of Legionella and Coxiella. These epsomite lake microbial communities seem to be divided between bacteria primarily associated with hyperhaline environments rich in NaCl and salinotolerant relatives of common soil organisms. Archaea appear to be in low abundance and none were isolated, despite near-saturated salinities. Growth of microbes at very high concentrations of magnesium and other sulphates has relevance to planetary protection and life-detection missions to Mars, where scant liquid water may form as deliquescent brines and appear as eutectic liquids.
Role of the DNA repair nucleases Rad13, Rad2 and Uve1 of Schizosaccharomyces pombe in mismatch correction.

Repair of mismatched DNA occurs mainly by the long-patch mismatch repair (MMR) pathway, requiring Msh2 and Pms1. In Schizosaccharomyces pombe mismatches can be repaired by a short-patch repair system, containing nucleotide excision repair (NER) factors. We studied mismatch correction efficiency in cells with inactivated DNA repair nucleases Rad13, Rad2 or Uve1 in MMR proficient and deficient background. Rad13 incises 3' of damaged DNA during NER. Rad2 has a function in the Uve1-dependent repair of DNA damages and in replication. Loss of Rad13 caused a strong reduction of short-patch processing of mismatches formed during meiotic recombination. Mitotic mutation rates were increased, but not to the same extent as in the NER mutant swi10, which is defective in 5' incision. The difference might be caused by an additional role of Rad13 in base excision repair or due to partial redundancy with other 3' endonucleases. Meiotic mismatch repair was not or only slightly affected in rad2 and uve1 mutants. In addition, inactivation of uve1 caused only weak effects on mutation avoidance. Mutation rates were elevated when rad2 was mutated, but not further increased in swi10 rad2 and rad13 rad2 double mutants, indicating an epistatic relationship. However, the mutation spectra of rad2 were different from that of swi10 and rad13. Thus, the function of Rad2 in mutation avoidance is rather independent of NER. rad13, swi10 and rad2, but not uve1 mutants were sensitive to the DNA-damaging agent methyl methane sulphonate. Cell survival was further reduced in the double mutants swi10 rad2, rad13 rad2 and, surprisingly, swi10 rad13. These data confirm that NER and Rad2 act in distinct damage repair pathways and further indicate that the function of Rad13 in repair of alkylated bases is partially independent of NER.
FPGA control and implementation of a multiphase-interleaved PWM inverter for a segmented PMSM

This paper proposes a digital PWM control technique for a segmented permanent magnet synchronous motor with multi-phase interleaved PWM inverters. A segmented motor with its segmented stator windings can be connected and excited by segmented PWM converters using multiphase interleaved PWM techniques. A phase shedding control strategy is developed for efficiency optimization when operating in light load condition. A digital PWM modulator with adjustable switching frequency and phase shift has been realized with FPGA. Analysis oriented simulation has been carried out for the loss analysis of the multiphase interleaved PWM inverter. Experimental verification has been carried out to show the improvement of the proposed digital PWM technique.
A low-power wide-range voltage level shifter using a modified Wilson current mirror

In this paper, a low-power voltage level shifter is proposed which is able to convert sub-threshold voltage levels of input signal to above-threshold voltage levels. The proposed circuit is based on a modified Wilson current mirror structure which employs an inverter with different gate voltages for its nMOS and pMOS transistors leading to reduce the power consumption of the circuit. Simulation results in a 0. 18μm CMOS technology show that the proposed circuit is able to convert input voltage level of 0.35V to the output level of 1.8V with a propagation delay of 47.9 ns, a total power consumption of 229nW, and a power-delay product of 11 fJ for 1MHz input signal frequency.
The imaginary worlds of sustainability: observations from an interactive art installation

We report on preliminary results from a public engagement project based on a procedural approach to sustainability. The project centered on an interactive art installation that comprised a live actor, an immersive soundscape featuring a handful of different characters, an interactive touch-table, and four interactive rooms within which participants wandered, partially guided by a narrative through-line, yet at the same time left to make sense of any larger meanings on their own. The installation was designed to experiment with two propositions: (1) that there is value in public engagement with sustainability based on the exploration and articulation of deeply held beliefs about the world—the worldviews, values, and presuppositions that mediate perception and action; (2) that there is value in replacing the infocentric tendency of most public engagement on sustainability with an approach premised in aesthetics and experiential resonance. Following the installation’s two-week pilot run, our preliminary results indicated that the majority of participants found the experience both resonant and thought provoking, and were mostly willing to critically engage with their preexisting notions of sustainability.
Peritraumatic and persistent dissociation in the presumed etiology of PTSD.

OBJECTIVE Dissociative responses that occur at the time of a trauma (peritraumatic dissociation) have been described as a major risk factor for subsequent posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The current study evaluated peritraumatic dissociation and PTSD from a multivariate perspective, along with a less-investigated phenomenon: trauma-specific dissociation that begins during or after an event and continues until the time of assessment (persistent dissociation). METHOD In two studies, 52 local community participants and 386 participants from the general population with histories of exposure to at least one traumatic event were assessed for the presence of PTSD and were administered measures of dissociation and peritraumatic distress. RESULTS In both studies, peritraumatic dissociation, persistent dissociation, peritraumatic distress, and generalized dissociative symptoms were associated with PTSD by univariate analyses. However, multivariate analyses in both studies indicated that PTSD status was no longer related to peritraumatic dissociation once other variables (especially persistent and generalized dissociation) were taken into account. In contrast, persistent dissociation was a strong predictor at univariate and multivariate levels. CONCLUSIONS Trauma-related persistent dissociation is a substantial predictor of PTSD, whereas peritraumatic dissociation ceases to predict PTSD at the multivariate level. These findings suggest that it is less what happens at the time of a trauma (e.g., disrupted encoding) that predicts PTSD than what occurs thereafter (i.e., persistent avoidance).
A modified fuzzy ART for image segmentation

This paper presents a clustering approach for image segmentation based on a modified fuzzy ART model. The goal of the proposed approach is to find a simple model able to instance a prototype for each cluster in order to avoid complex post-processing phases. Some results and comparisons with other models present in the literature, like SOM and original fuzzy ART are presented. Qualitative and quantitative evaluations confirm the validity of our approach.
Hybrid shipboard microgrids: System architectures and energy management aspects

Strict regulation on emissions of air pollutants imposed by the maritime authorities has led to the introduction of hybrid microgrids to the shipboard power systems (SPSs) which acts toward energy efficient ships with less pollution. A hybrid energy system can include different means of generation such as renewables (e.g., solar PV, wind power) and conventionals (e.g., diesel engines) as well as energy storage systems (ESSs) such as batteries, fuel cells and flywheels. To optimally manage different energy sources in a shipboard microgrid while meeting different technical/environmental constraints, it is necessary to set up an energy management system. This paper provides an overview of hybrid shipboard microgrids and discusses different methods of power and energy management in such systems which are essential for control, monitoring and optimizing the overall system performance in various mission profiles.
A randomized clinical trial of intermittent subglottic secretion drainage in patients receiving mechanical ventilation.

OBJECTIVE To study the effect of subglottic secretions drainage on the incidence of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) in patients receiving mechanical ventilation. DESIGN A randomized clinical trial. SETTING A 12-bed general ICU. PATIENTS One hundred fifty patients with an expected duration of mechanical ventilation > 72 h were enrolled in the study. INTERVENTION Patients were randomly assigned to receive either an endotracheal tube for intermittent subglottic secretions drainage or a standard endotracheal tube. OUTCOME MEASUREMENTS Incidence of VAP, duration of mechanical ventilation, length of ICU stay, length of hospital stay, and mortality. RESULTS Seventy-five patients were randomized to subglottic secretion drainage, and 75 patients were randomized to the control group. The two groups were similar at the time of randomization with respect to demographic characteristics and severity of illness. VAP was seen in 3 patients (4%) receiving suction secretion drainage and in 12 patients (16%) in the control group (relative risk, 0.22; 95% confidence interval, 0.06 to 0.81; p = 0.014). The other outcome measures were not significantly different between the two groups. CONCLUSION Intermittent subglottic secretion drainage reduces the incidence of VAP in patients receiving mechanical ventilation.