Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Consistency of sensor data in presence of updates

With the emergence of more and more intelligent, autonomous, small and cheap sensors, sensor-based applications become very popular in various domains, e.g., industrial, domestic, medical, environmental and military. Sensor data management has become a very actif research domain. However, existing research has principally focused on querying of sensor data. Their "updates" are little explored in this context. The updates concern for instance modification of properties, reconfigurations or firmware updates. These operations are necessary for remote management of sensors by their providers. However, updates may may invalidate the results of the concurrently executing continuous queries. This article studies the sensor updates and their impact on the coherency of query results.
Efficient decentralized power control via a compensation mechanism

A "mechanism" is a set of procedures and rules intended to lead selfish entities to a desirable outcome, "on their own". This work applies a relatively simple mechanism, available in the economics literature, to achieve an efficient decentralized allocation of power among data-transmitting terminals. The resulting operating point is "efficient", because terminals end up "fairly" compensating each other for the interference each one causes. The same ideas can be fruitfully applied in more general networks, and outside the engineering context.
The effect of structural empowerment and perceived organizational support on middle level nurse managers' role satisfaction.

BACKGROUND The restructuring of Canadian health care organizations during the past decade has reduced the visibility of nursing leadership. This has resulted in job conditions that have disempowered nurse managers and influenced their ability to create positive work environments, mentor potential nurse leaders, and gain satisfaction in the leadership role. These conditions threaten the retention of a cadre of high quality nurse leaders in today's chaotic health care setting. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between structural empowerment and perceived organizational support and the effect of these factors on the role satisfaction of middle level nurse managers. METHOD A secondary analysis was conducted as part of a larger study of 126 middle level nurse managers working in Canadian acute care hospitals, randomly selected from the Ontario provincial registry. Eighty-four nurse managers responded to a questionnaire mailed to their home addresses. RESULTS Structural empowerment was positively associated with middle level nurse managers' perceived organizational support. The combination of empowerment and perceptions of organizational support were significant predictors of middle level nurse managers' role satisfaction. CONCLUSIONS The findings support R.M. Kanter's (1977, 1993; Men and Women of the Corporation. Basic Books, New York) contention that empowering work conditions have an impact on employees' feelings of support and sense of accomplishment at work. Positive perceptions of organizational support may play an important role in retaining current middle managers, and possibly attracting future leaders to management positions.
ESTIMATING THE DOSE RESPONSE RELATIONSHIP FOR OCCUPATIONAL RADIATION EXPOSURE MEASURED WITH MINIMUM DETECTION LEVEL

Occupational exposures are often recorded as zero when the exposure is below the minimum detection level (BMDL). This can lead to an underestimation of the doses received by individuals and can lead to biased estimates of risk in occupational epidemiologic studies. The extent of the exposure underestimation is increased with the magnitude of the minimum detection level (MDL) and the frequency of monitoring. This paper uses multiple imputation methods to impute values for the missing doses due to BMDL. A Gibbs sampling algorithm is developed to implement the method, which is applied to two distinct scenarios: when dose information is available for each measurement (but BMDL is recorded as zero or some other arbitrary value), or when the dose information available represents the summation of a series of measurements (e.g., only yearly cumulative exposure is available but based on, say, weekly measurements). Then the average of the multiple imputed exposure realizations for each individual is used to obtain an unbiased estimate of the relative risk associated with exposure. Simulation studies are used to evaluate the performance of the estimators. As an illustration, the method is applied to a sample of historical occupational radiation exposure data from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Characterization of protein-binding to the spinach chloroplast psbA mRNA 5' untranslated region.

RNA-binding proteins play a major role in regulating mRNA metabolism in chloroplasts. In this work we characterized two proteins, of 43 and 47 kDa, which bind to the spinach psbA mRNA 5' untranslated region (psbA encoding the D1 protein of photosystem II). The 43 kDa protein, which is present in the stroma and in membranes, co-sediments with a complex of 68S. It was purified, and the N-terminal sequence was determined. Upon homology search it was identified as the chloroplast homologue of the Escherichia coli ribosomal protein S1. The 47 kDa protein, which, in contrast with the 43 kDa protein, sediments with a small sedimentation coefficient, is only detected in the stromal fraction. It is soluble in an uncomplexed form. By deletion analysis, an element within the psbA mRNA 5' untranslated region was identified that is necessary but not sufficient for binding of stromal proteins. The 'central protein binding element' ranges from nucleotide -49 to -9 of the psbA mRNA 5' untranslated region. It comprises the Shine-Dalgarno-like GGAG motif and, 7 nucleotides upstream, an endonucleolytic cleavage site involved in psbA mRNA degradation in vitro . The mechanistic impacts of this region in relation to RNA-binding proteins are discussed.
Explaining Partisan Change Among Catholics In The American Electorate

This thesis examines data from the National Election Studies in order to assess the significant determinants of the political behavior of Catholics in the American electorate. A complex array of variables including religious commitment, generational differences, social status, and policy attitudes account for limited change in partisan alignment among American Catholics. The analyses expose the long-term, durable nature of partisan attachment, as older generation Catholics who register as actively committed to their religion also remain committed Democrats. Therefore, older Catholics have not been part of the broader ideological realignment which has taken place among other religious adherents, namely evangelical and mainline Protestants. Younger Catholics are significantly more apt to become Republican in their partisan identification than were their parents. Comparing the effects of an array of policy attitudes and socio-demographic variables between Catholic and Protestants illuminates the differences and similarities among these religious groups. What emerges is a consistent pattern demonstrating an ideological realignment within the American electorate. This research adds to the ideological realignment thesis by showing how religious commitment is the driving force behind this realignment. In addition, this thesis presents evidence illustrating that younger Catholics and committed Catholics will continue to move toward Republican partisan identification and that the traditional allegiance of Catholic voters to the Democratic party will continue to decline.
Outcomes of Trabeculectomy Augmented With Subconjunctival and Subscleral Ologen Implantation in Primary Advanced Glaucoma

Purpose: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of trabeculectomy with combined subconjunctival and subscleral ologen implant in eyes with advanced glaucomatous optic neuropathy. Design: This is a retrospective, noncomparative case series. Methods: Twenty seven eyes of 23 patients with advanced primary glaucoma who underwent fornix-based trabeculectomy with insertion of ologen both subsclerally and subconjunctivally along with low dose Mitomycin-C (0.1 mg/mL×1 min) were evaluated. Data recorded included a complete history, demographic profile, and ophthalmic examination including gonioscopy and visual fields. Any complications or secondary procedures performed after trabeculectomy were recorded. Complete success was defined as intraocular pressure (IOP) ⩽15 mm Hg without ocular hypotensive medication and qualified success as IOP⩽15 mm Hg with medications. Results: The average age of patients was 46.2±14.8 years. There were 17 males and 6 females. Of these, 7 patients were diagnosed with juvenile open-angle glaucoma, 7 patients with primary open-angle glaucoma and 9 patients with primary angle-closure glaucoma and pseudophakia. The average follow-up time was 23.3±5.6 months, with a minimum of at least 12 months. The mean preoperative IOP was 38.3±6.6 mm Hg. Postoperatively, the IOP at 3 months was 12.5±1.9 mm Hg; 6 months was 12.6±3.9 mm Hg; 12 months was 12.3±2.5 mm Hg; and 24 months was 12.5±1.6 mm Hg (n=17); (P<0.0001). Complete success was noted in 92.6% eyes, qualified success in 3.7% eyes, and failure in 3.7% eyes. The preoperative and postoperative best-corrected visual acuity in logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution was 0.3±0.2 and 0.3±0.1 (P=0.31). The average number of ocular hypotensive medications used preoperatively was 4.2±0.5 (median 4) which decreased to 0.07±0.3 (median 0), (P<0.0001) postoperatively. Conclusions: Trabeculectomy with low dose Mitomycin-C and with implantation of ologen both subsclerally and subconjunctivally, appears to offer encouraging results in achieving a low target IOP in eyes with advanced primary adult glaucoma.
Lifetime of household appliances: empirical evidence of users behaviour

The household appliance industry is one of the most important sectors from both the economic and environmental point of view. A greater understanding of the way in which consumers of these items behave would help to better plan the recycling needs as a function of previous purchase figures. This paper presents the findings of a field survey of Spanish consumer habits with respect to different common household appliances as regards replacement time and the reasons for replacing these appliances. The methodology used is based on survival analysis; specifically, a competing risks model. A Cox proportional hazards model is also used for the sake of comparison. Our results show that as the number of people and/or persons under 18 years in the household increases, the lifetimes of some types of appliance decrease significantly. Competing risk model shows that the probability of replacing the refrigerator due to malfunction and technological obsolescence increases with the increase of family members with a higher education. We also provide the cumulative incidence function for different appliances, which can be used to forecast future demands and electrical and electronic waste generation.
Perception of Communicative and Non-communicative Motion-Defined Gestures in Parkinson’s Disease

Abstract Objectives: Parkinson’s disease (PD) is associated with deficits in social cognition and visual perception, but little is known about how the disease affects perception of socially complex biological motion, specifically motion-defined communicative and non-communicative gestures. We predicted that individuals with PD would perform more poorly than normal control (NC) participants in discriminating between communicative and non-communicative gestures, and in describing communicative gestures. We related the results to the participants’ gender, as there are gender differences in social cognition in PD. Methods: The study included 23 individuals with PD (10 men) and 24 NC participants (10 men) matched for age and education level. Participants viewed point-light human figures that conveyed communicative and non-communicative gestures and were asked to describe each gesture while discriminating between the two gesture types. Results: PD as a group were less accurate than NC in describing non-communicative but not communicative gestures. Men with PD were impaired in describing and discriminating between communicative as well as non-communicative gestures. Conclusions: The present study demonstrated PD-related impairments in perceiving and inferring the meaning of biological motion gestures. Men with PD may have particular difficulty in understanding the communicative gestures of others in interpersonal exchanges. (JINS, 2016, 22, 1–11)
Characterization of PECI, a Novel Monofunctional Δ3,Δ2-Enoyl-CoA Isomerase of Mammalian Peroxisomes*

We report here the identification and characterization of human and mouse PECI, a novel gene that encodes a monofunctional peroxisomal Δ3,Δ2-enoyl-CoA isomerase. Human and mousePECI were identified on the basis of their sequence similarity to Eci1p, a recently characterized peroxisomal Δ3,Δ2-enoyl-CoA isomerase from the yeastSaccharomyces cerevisiae. Cloning and sequencing of the human PECI cDNA revealed the presence of a 1077-base pair open reading frame predicted to encode a 359-amino acid protein with a mass of 39.6 kDa. The corresponding mouse cDNA contains a 1074-base pair open reading frame that encodes a 358-amino acid-long protein with a deduced mass of 39.4 kDa. Northern blot analysis demonstrated human PECI mRNA is expressed in all tissues. A bacterially expressed form of human PECI catalyzed the isomerization of 3-cis-octenoyl-CoA to 2-trans-octenoyl-CoA with a specific activity of 27 units/mg of protein. The human and mouse PECI proteins contain type-1 peroxisomal targeting signals, and human PECI was localized to peroxisomes by both subcellular fractionation and immunofluorescence microscopy techniques. The potential roles for this monofunctional Δ3,Δ2-enoyl-CoA isomerase in peroxisomal metabolism are discussed.
The Gate Leakage Current in Graphene Field-Effect Transistor

The unique band structure of graphene makes the gate leakage current in a graphene field-effect transistor (FET) different from that in silicon FET. Theoretical investigation in this letter demonstrates that the Fowler-Nordheim tunneling current (TC) in a graphene FET is different from that in a silicon FET. Numerical calculations show that a higher oxide electric field results in larger TC in a graphene FET than that in a silicon FET. This implies that, to ensure a workable graphene FET, a thicker gate oxide is needed to limit the gate leakage current compared to that for a silicon FET.
ZEB1 Expression Is Correlated With Tumor Metastasis and Reduced Prognosis of Breast Carcinoma in Asian Patients

ABSTRACT Tumor metastasis is one of the key events leading to tumor relapse and poor prognosis. Nowadays, increasing evidences demonstrated that ZEB1 was implicated in human carcinogenesis. However, involvement of ZEB1 deregulation in tumorigenesis in Asian patients with breast carcinoma remains elusive. The present study included 102 Asian patients with breast carcinoma treated by surgery from January of 2005 to December of 2006, and the expression of ZEB1 was evaluated by immunohistochemistry. To further assess the prognostic value of ZEB1, Kaplan–Meier curves were constructed. In this study, elevated levels of ZEB1 expression was found in carcinomas with higher aggressive potential. We also correlated expression of ZEB1 with lymph node metastasis (P = 0.021), advanced clinical stage (P = 0.012) in all cases, and high tumor grade (P = 0.047) in invasive ductal carcinoma. Furthermore, our data suggested an elevated level of Ki-67 expression in cases with positive expression of ZEB1. Clinically, reduced overall survival and disease-free survival were observed in cases with positive ZEB1 expression than that in negative cases. Our results correlated ZEB1 with aggressive potentials of breast carcinoma and revealed a possibility for ZEB1 as a prognostic marker in breast carcinoma.
Amplification of the rbcL gene from dissolved and particulate DNA from aquatic environments

The carboxylation of ribulose biphosphate by the enzyme ribulosebisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase is the mechanism for CO2 fixation and primary production in nearly all ecosystems on this planet. Although certain algal isolates and higher plants contain conserved nucleotide sequences in the large subunit of the gene (rbcL) for this enzyme, such genes from natural microbial assemblages have not been heretofore examined. Using oligonucleotide primers designed for conserved regions of the rbcL gene of a Synechococcus sp. (Anacystis nidulans), we have amplified rbcL from DNA preparations from planktonic samples from a Florida reservoir and from algal isolates by the polymerase chain reaction. We have also detected rbcL by gene amplification in the extracellular DNA fraction of this reservoir, indicating that phytoplankton can be a source of dissolved DNA. These results suggest that gene amplification can be applied for the detection of conserved genes encoding enzymes involved in important ecological functions in aquatic environments.
Molecular heterogeneity of triple-negative breast cancer and its clinical implications

Purpose of review Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is defined by a lack of expression of hormone receptors, oestrogen and progesterone, as well as human epidermal factor receptor 2. This review focuses on the increasing understanding of the molecular heterogeneity of TNBC subtypes and the therapeutic implications of this subclassification. Recent findings Emerging evidence clearly indicates that TNBC is a heterogeneous disease with varying prognosis according to clinical, pathological and genetic factors. Some distinct histological special types within this clinically defined collection of entities have been shown to have a particularly good prognosis (e.g. medullary carcinomas), and others very poor outcome (e.g. metaplastic carcinomas), whereas the broader immunohistochemically defined ‘core-basal-like’ or gene expression defined ‘basal’ groups generally have a poor prognosis. This molecular subclassification has implicated several biological processes as potential therapeutic targets: the DNA damage response, drivers of deregulated proliferation, angiogenesis, epithelial–mesenchymal transition and immune deregulation. Summary Molecular stratification of these prognostic groups has been critical in identifying novel therapeutic targets for future drug development. The development of poly-(ADP)ribose polymerase inhibitors for BRCA1-mutation carriers with TNBC has led the ongoing efforts to translate fundamental biological insights into improved therapies for a difficult-to-treat breast cancer subgroup.
Deliberative Indispensability and Epistemic Justification

According to one influential view in metaethics (e.g. Harman 1977; Boyd 1997), we are justified in believing in ethical facts just in case they (or their reduction base) feature in our best explanations of scientifically respectable phenomena. This naturalistic criterion, however, can seem to miss a crucial point. Many of us care about the existence of ethical facts not because of scientific-explanatory roles that they may play, but rather because we seemingly need such facts to make adequate sense of our practical lives. This suggests a Tempting Idea: that the (putative) indispensability of belief in ethical facts for our practical projects—including, for example, the project of deliberating about what to do—can justify our belief in such facts. Some version of this idea has attracted a range of philosophers, including Christine Korsgaard (1996), Ronald Dworkin (2011), and T. M. Scanlon (2014). Any philosopher hoping to develop the Tempting Idea needs to answer two questions. First: which beliefs are relevantly indispensable? And second: what is the significance of this indispensability? David Enoch has recently spelled out a powerful and novel version of the Tempting Idea, which he develops primarily in “An Outline of an Argument for Robust Metanormative Realism” (2007) and chapter 3 of his Taking Morality Seriously (2011b). Enoch’s account offers ambitious answers to each of these questions. In response to the first question, Enoch argues for the indispensability of belief in what he calls Robust Realism about ethical facts.1 According to
Detection of normal and abnormal tissues in MR images of the brain using an advanced multilevel thresholding technique and kernel SVM classifier

Segmentation of MR images is more important and is an essential process in resolving the human tissues, especially at the time of clinical analysis. Brain tissue is explicitly complex and it consists of three normal main tissues named White Matter (WM), Gray Matter (GM) and Cerebral Spinal Fluid (CSF) and abnormal tissues like tumor and edema. These normal and abnormal tissues can be detected using segmentation of the brain MR image and are very important for surgical planning and in diagnosing neurological diseases. This paper presents a novel approach for the detection of normal and abnormal tissues. Anisotropic diffusion filtering is used as the preprocessing step. The part of the algorithm used to detect the healthy tissues WM, GM, and CSF is based on multilevel thresholding that selects the best threshold values using Electro-magnetism-Like algorithm. A Region-based Active Contour is used to detect the tumor. A trained Support Vector Machine with different kernels which can be treated as KSVM is used for the classification of the tumor. In the classification process, features are extracted from the tumor images using the single level decomposition of 2-D Daubechies DWT. The high dimensioned feature vector is reduced by using Independent Component Analysis (ICA). The suggested method can identify the benign and malignant type of tumors. The pursuance of the suggested method is evaluated in terms of sensitivity, specificity, segmentation accuracy using ground truth images and results are compared with some of the existing methods. Experimental results demonstrate the high performance of the proposed method.
High-Resolution Acoustic-Radiation-Force-Impulse Imaging for Assessing Corneal Sclerosis

In ophthalmology, detecting the biomechanical properties of the cornea can provide valuable information about various corneal pathologies, including keratoconus and the phototoxic effects of ultraviolet radiation on the cornea. Also, the mechanical properties of the cornea can be used to evaluate the recovery from corneal refractive surgeries. Therefore, noninvasive and high-resolution estimation of the stiffness distribution in the cornea is important in ophthalmic diagnosis. The present study established a method for high-resolution acoustic-radiation-force-impulse (ARFI) imaging based on a dual-frequency confocal transducer in order to obtain a relative stiffness map, which was used to assess corneal sclerosis. An 11-MHz pushing element was used to induce localized displacements of tissue, which were monitored by a 48-MHz imaging element. Since the tissue displacements are directly correlated with the tissue elastic properties, the stiffness distribution in a tiny region of the cornea can be found by a mechanical B/D scan. The experimental system was verified using tissue-mimicking phantoms that included different geometric structures. Ex vivo cornea experiments were carried out using fresh porcine eyeballs. Corneas with localized sclerosis were created artificially by the injection of a formalin solution. The phantom experiments showed that the distributions of stiffness within different phantoms can be recognized clearly using ARFI imaging, and the measured lateral and axial resolutions of this imaging system were 177 and 153 μm, respectively. The ex vivo experimental results from ARFI imaging showed that a tiny region of localized sclerosis in the cornea could be distinguished. All of the obtained results demonstrate that high-resolution ARFI imaging has considerable potential for the clinical diagnosis of corneal sclerosis.