Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Insider position and social identities of service providers with immigrant backgrounds in accommodation for asylum seekers

This article focuses on the social identities of service providers with immigrant backgrounds in Norwegian reception centres for asylum seekers. Migrant service providers who work with migrant clients are often perceived as ‘insiders’ who understand explicit cultural expectations in intra-group interactions with clients. We explore how the insider position of service providers with immigrant backgrounds in accommodation for asylum seekers is experienced, negotiated and constructed in interaction with asylum seekers and Norwegian colleagues. On the one hand, our findings indicate that service providers with immigrant and refugee background, who are very often themselves ex-residents of reception centres, are seen as an asset for the working environment. On the other hand, the professionalism and loyalty of these workers is often questioned, both by the staff and residents. Migrant workers also risk being accused of ethnic favouritism while they try to provide more emphatic and more culturally and linguistically-adjusted service provision. The article is based on interviews with asylum seekers and service providers of immigrant and non-immigrant background.
Stress-Induced Phosphorylation and Activation of the Transcription Factor CHOP (GADD153) by p38 MAP Kinase

CHOP, a member of the C/EBP family of transcription factors, mediates effects of cellular stress on growth and differentiation. It accumulates under conditions of stress and undergoes inducible phosphorylation on two adjacent serine residues (78 and 81). In vitro, CHOP is phosphorylated on these residues by p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAP kinase). A specific inhibitor of p38 MAP kinase, SB203580, abolished the stress-inducible in vivo phosphorylation of CHOP. Phosphorylation of CHOP on these residues enhanced its ability to function as a transcriptional activator and was also required for the full inhibitory effect of CHOP on adipose cell differentiation. CHOP thus serves as a link between a specific stress-activated protein kinase, p38, and cellular growth and differentiation.
Respiration and reproductive effort in Xanthium canadense.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS The proportion of resources devoted to reproduction in the plant is called the reproductive effort (RE), which is most commonly expressed as the proportion of reproductive biomass to total plant biomass production (RE(W)). Reproductive yield is the outcome of photosynthates allocated to reproductive structures minus subsequent respiratory consumption for construction and maintenance of reproductive structures. Thus, RE(W) can differ from RE in terms of photosynthates allocated to reproductive structures (RE(P)). * METHODS Dry mass growth and respiration of vegetative and reproductive organs were measured in Xanthium canadense and the amount of photosynthates and its partitioning to dry mass growth and respiratory consumption were determined. Differences between RE(W) and RE(P) were analysed in terms of growth and maintenance respiration. * KEY RESULTS The fraction of allocated photosynthates that was consumed by respiration was smaller in the reproductive organ than in the vegetative organs. Consequently, RE(P) was smaller than RE(W). The smaller respiratory consumption in the reproductive organ resulted from its shorter period of existence and a seasonal decline in temperature, as well as a slower rate of maintenance respiration, although the fraction of photosynthates consumed by growth respiration was larger than in the vegetative organs. * CONCLUSIONS Reproductive effort in terms of photosynthates (RE(P)) was smaller than that in terms of biomass (RE(W)). This difference resulted from respiratory consumption for maintenance, which was far smaller in the reproductive organ than in vegetative organs.
Strategic cost management calculation and evaluation from the view of activity-based costing method

In today's highly competitive environment, cost management has become a critical survival skill for many firms. Many firms place their cost into a long-term and external competitive advantage building process, and this phenomenon suggests the need to reposition the management of costs as strategic cost management instead of simply reducing costs. Strategic cost measurement and evaluation are two important factors of strategic cost management, but they have been almost ignored from the discussion. The purpose of this paper is to establish a better measurement system and a more efficient evaluation system of strategic cost management. So there are two main parts of this paper: finding a way to measure the strategic cost accurately and then putting it into further use. The third part is a supplementary discussion: how to make the measurement work; how to use the information to assist strategic decision-makers; and have a short version of further discussion.
Tumefactive fibro‐inflammatory lesions of the head and neck

Seven patients had tumefactive inflammatory fibrous lesions of the head similar in histologic appearance to Riedel's thyroiditis, sclerosing mediastinitis, and retroperitoneal fibrosis. Five patients were females, and the mean age at presentation was 48 years. Four patients presented clinically with a mass. Histologically, these lesions were characterized by an admixture of mature fibrous tissue and an inflammatory infiltrate of lymphocytes and scattered polymorphonuclear leukocytes. Initially, all patients had been treated surgically. Two patients received radiation therapy when recurrent disease could not be controlled surgically. Five of the six patients on whom follow-up information was available were alive at follow-up that ranged from 14 to 49 months (mean 29). These lesions are distinct histologically from desmoid tumors, fibromatoses, and nodular fasciitis. The spectrum of fibrosclerosing lesions (Riedel's thyroiditis, idiopathic mediastinal fibrosis, retroperitoneal fibrosis, and sclerosing cholangitis) probably includes this group of turnefactive inflammatory fibrous lesions of the head.
Human resource malpractice: the deregulation of health and safety at work in the USA and Britain

Business deregulation has been an important and growing component of governmental policy in recent years, and workplace health and safety has not been immune from such pressures. The article analyses the origins and aims of the deregulation campaigns in the USA and Britain, the attitudes of employers and unions, and suggests that the issue is unlikely to disappear.
Developing a service quality evaluation model for luxurious restaurants in international hotel chains

The earnings of luxurious restaurants are a major source of revenue for international hotel chains in Taiwan. To guarantee success of the restaurants, service quality is a key factor. This study aims to establish a service quality evaluation model for luxurious restaurants in international hotel chains. A specialist questionnaire is first developed based on the five dimensions of PZB service quality model and an additional ‘innovation’ dimension. Analytic hierarchy process is then applied to calculate the relative weights among the dimensions and indicators. The results show that reliability is the chief evaluation dimension, followed by empathy. Crucial indicators include maintaining and cleaning the environment and facilities regularly, and delivering guaranteed and timely service.
Sex-related differences of urethane and sodium valproate effects on Ki-67 expression in urethane-induced lung tumors of mice

The aim of the present study was to evaluate sex differences in tumorigenesis by assessing the number of Ki-67-positive cells [Ki-67(+)] in urethane-induced mice lung tumors and the effect of sodium valproate (NaVP) in BALB/c mice. Gonad-intact and gonadectomized female and male mice were divided into the following groups: i) Treated with urethane, ii) treated with urethane and NaVP and iii) gonad-intact or gonadectomized control. Urethane (total 50 mg/mouse) was injected intraperitoneally. The NaVP 0.4% solution was administered orally for 6 months. Histologically, lung tumors were divided into adenomas and adenocarcinomas and assessed immunohistochemically using antibodies against Ki-67. The Ki-67(+) was calculated per one mm2 of a tumor. In adenomas, Ki-67(+) in the urethane-treated gonad-intact males was significantly higher than in females (P=0.001) and in castrated males (P<0.01); Ki-67(+) in adenomas of the urethane-treated gonad-intact males was significantly higher than in urethane-NaVP-treated ones (P<0.04). No significant differences were found in analogous female groups. In adenocarcinomas, Ki-67(+) in urethane-treated gonad-intact males was significantly higher than in females and gonadectomized mice of both sexes (P<0.001), and in ovariectomized females was significantly higher than in ovary-intact group (P=0.01). A significantly higher number of Ki-67(+) cells were observed in gonad-intact adenocarcinomas of the urethane-NaVP-treated females compared with the urethane-treated ones (P<0.001). Comparing between urethane-NaVP-treated gonadectomized males and females in adenocarcinomas, determined that Ki-67(+) was significantly lower in females (P=0.005). In adenocarcinomas, Ki-67(+) in urethane-NaVP-treated gonadectomized males and females was significantly lower than in gonad-intact mice of the same sex (P<0.001). In summary, gonadectomy with NaVP treatment decreased Ki-67(+) in adenocarcinomas for mice of both sexes. The results of the present study indicate sex-related differences in mice lung tumorigenesis, and a sex-related effect of NaVP on progression in urethane-induced BALB/c mice lung tumors.
Diagnosis of Bacteremia in Whole-Blood Samples by Use of a Commercial Universal 16S rRNA Gene-Based PCR and Sequence Analysis

ABSTRACT In a prospective, multicenter study of 342 blood samples from 187 patients with systemic inflammatory response syndrome, sepsis, or neutropenic fever, a new commercial PCR test (SepsiTest; Molzym) was evaluated for rapid diagnosis of bacteremia. The test comprises a universal PCR from the 16S rRNA gene, with subsequent identification of bacteria from positive samples by sequence analysis of amplicons. Compared to blood culture (BC), the diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of the PCR were 87.0 and 85.8%, respectively. Considering the 34 BC-positive patients, 28 were also PCR positive in at least one of the samples, resulting in a patient-related sensitivity of 82.4%. The concordance of PCR and BC for both positive and negative samples was (47 + 247)/342, i.e., 86.0%. In total, 31 patients were PCR/sequencing positive and BC negative, in whom the PCR result was judged as possible or probable to true bacteremia in 25. In conclusion, the PCR approach facilitates the detection of bacteremia in blood samples within a few hours. Despite the indispensability of BC diagnostics, the rapid detection of bacteria by SepsiTest appears to be a valuable tool, allowing earlier pathogen-adapted antimicrobial therapy in critically ill patients.
The behaviour of the distributions of stock returns: an analysis of the European market using the Pearson system of continuous probability distributions

We employ the Pearson system of frequency curves to analyse the behaviour of unconditional daily return distributions for all the shares that constitute the STOXX Europe 600 index. Our results show that over finite time periods of analysis the distributions are adequately described as type IV. The occasional exceptions are linked strictly to extraordinary events that result in abnormal returns. They are more frequent if short time intervals are examined. When an infinite time of analysis is assumed, the results do not reject the hypothesis that the behaviour of stock returns is symmetrical and that it is of type VII, which is a special case of type IV that subsumes the Student's t and the Cauchy distributions and is easier to deal with in practice.
APPLICATION OF ADAPTIVE SPLITTING AND SELECTION CLASSIFIER TO THE SPAM FILTERING PROBLEM

E-Mail spam is one of the major problems plaguing the contemporary Internet, causing an inconvenience to an individual user and financial loss to a company. Spam filtering allows for early detection of unwanted messages and separates them from the incoming e-mail. Nonetheless, designing an effective spam detection system is not a trivial task, due to the problems connected with the analysis of the e-mail content and the occurrence of variation in spam characteristics. This article presents an application of a novel ensemble classifier system for spam detection. The system is an extension of the adaptive splitting and selection (AdaSS) framework. The idea of the ensemble is based on the assumption that high effectiveness of detection can be obtained by exploitation of the local competency of a set of diverse elementary classifiers. Therefore, the ensemble training algorithm divides the feature space into several disjoint subspaces and assigns an area classifier to each of them. The area classifier consists of elementary classifiers that make a collective decision based on the weighted fusion of their support functions. The weight reflects the local competency of the classifier. To maintain the diversity of the pool of elementary classifiers, we exploit different e-mail feature extraction methods while filling the pool. There are two main extensions of the presented algorithm over original AdaSS: the aforementioned weighted fusion model used for decision making and adaptation of the AdaSS training procedure to process data streams featuring the concept drift. The effectiveness of the classifier model in spam recognition was verified in a series of experiments on two sets of spam databases. Comparison of the algorithm with some other state-of-the-art ensemble methods showed that the presented AdaSS extension can effectively recognize local competences of elementary classifiers and result in very high effectiveness of spam recognition outperforming competing methods.
Endobronchial Ultrasound for Detecting Central Pulmonary Emboli: A Pilot Study

Background: Contrast-enhanced, computed tomography of the chest (angio-CT) is the preferred modality for evaluating central pulmonary embolism (PE). However, acute PE must be diagnosed quickly, and contraindications to contrast agents, hemodynamic instability preventing transport and radiation exposure may limit its use. Because the mediastinal vessels lie within 5 mm of the trachea and central airways, endobronchial ultrasound (EBUS) imaging may be a feasible alternative to detecting PE. Objectives: To demonstrate the feasibility of detecting PE in the central airways by EBUS. Methods: In a prospective, multicenter pilot study, consecutive patients underwent flexible bronchoscopy with a convex EBUS probe under local anesthesia and moderate sedation within 24 h after angio-CT had documented a central PE. The EBUS images were compared to the CT findings. Results: Among 32 patients (mean age 69 years, 20 men), angio-CT documented 101 PE, of which 97 (96%) were also detected with EBUS. The 4 emboli not detected consisted of 1 in a middle lobe and 3 in a left upper lobe artery. At least 1 embolus was detected with EBUS in every patient, which is sufficient to confirm a diagnosis of central PE. No bronchoscopic complications were observed. Mean procedure time was reduced from 5 min in the first 16 patients to 3 min in the last 16. Conclusions: In this pilot study, EBUS was a feasible and safe approach to detecting central pulmonary emboli. Blinded, comparative trials will be necessary to evaluate its use as a primary tool for diagnosing these emboli.
Optimal Distributed Generation and Reactive Power Allocation in Electrical Distribution Systems

Optimal and simultaneous siting and sizing of distributed generators and capacitor banks in distribution systems have attracted a lot of attention from distribution companies. The placement and capacity of these devices have direct effects on the system's performance. This paper presents a model for the simultaneous allocation of capacitor banks and distributed generation, which takes into account the stochastic nature of distributed generation. To solve the model presented, we propose an efficient hybrid method based on Tabu search and genetic algorithms. The hybrid method is applied to a well-known system in literature.
Isolation and characterization of a mutant of Haemophilus influenzae type b deficient in outer membrane protein P1

The gene for outer membrane protein P1 of Haemophilus influenzae type b has been previously cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli. To investigate the physiologic role of the P1 protein, the cloned P1 gene was insertionally inactivated with the Tn5 derivative Tn5tac1, and an isogenic P1-deficient Haemophilus mutant was then generated by transformation with linearized plasmid DNA containing the insertionally inactivated gene. The P1-deficient strain grew normally in vitro and induced bacteremia in the infant rat model.
From ISO quality standards to an integrated management system: an implementation process in SME

The effective implementation of an integrated management system (IMS) is increasingly recognised as essential for all types of organisations facing today's turbulent and competitive environment. Literature stresses that most companies could benefit from moving from the mere adoption of the International Standards Organisation (ISO) quality standards to the implementation of an IMS linking strategy and operations by means of an interrelated set of management tools. However, despite the wide range of investigated issues, scholarly literature still mainly focuses upon large organisations, and although much progress has been made in recent years, many questions on how an IMS could be implemented in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) remain unanswered. In order to contribute to this research gap, this paper investigates the process characterising the effective implementation of an IMS in a leading SME and the main factors enabling the changeover from the adoption of ISO quality standards to the implementation of an IMS. The implementation process identified here is synthesised in a framework which can support the understanding and the implementation of an IMS in SMEs.
Executive forum: Public support for the business angel market in Europe – a critical review

Abstract Various levels of government have implemented instruments to promote business angel investment, often mirroring those used to support the institutional venture capital market. The paper reviews the existing practices at a point in time when intervention in the field of business angels is becoming increasingly popular in Europe. Governments are looking for innovative ways to enhance business angel investments and the evolution of the policy in the field is rather trial and error based. We see a shift from classical support to network creation and improvement of the fiscal environment, towards guarantee schemes for angel investments and co-investment schemes. This latest, most recent, approach is analysed by a detailed case study of the Belgian Business Angels Plus (BA+) scheme, which matches the financing provided by a business angel investor and the entrepreneur. In its initial two and a half years of operation the BA+ scheme has received close to 70 applications, of which just over 20 have been rejected. The characteristics of the deals financed by BA+ applicants are similar to those found in the average investment in Belgium. Following up the companies applying for the BA+ loan shows that the programme has so far avoided incurring significant losses. However, it is not possible to determine if lack of finance was one of the reasons for the bankruptcy of the companies that did not secure the additional loan.
Variable slew‐rate spiral design: Theory and application to peak B1 amplitude reduction in 2D RF pulse design

A new class of spiral trajectories called variable slew‐rate spirals is proposed. The governing differential equations for a variable slew‐rate spiral are derived, and both numeric and analytic solutions to the equations are given. The primary application of variable slew‐rate spirals is peak B1 amplitude reduction in 2D RF pulse design. The reduction of peak B1 amplitude is achieved by changing the gradient slew‐rate profile, and gradient amplitude and slew‐rate constraints are inherently satisfied by the design of variable slew‐rate spiral gradient waveforms. A design example of 2D RF pulses is given, which shows that under the same hardware constraints the RF pulse using a properly chosen variable slew‐rate spiral trajectory can be much shorter than that using a conventional constant slew‐rate spiral trajectory, thus having greater immunity to resonance frequency offsets. Magn Reson Med 58:835–842, 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Demonstration of NetworkCoverage – A Mobile Network Performance Measurement App

Optimizing the Quality of Experience (QoE) of mobile applications over cellular networks requires detailed knowledge of the underlying network and it’s performance. Parameters of interest are, besides the signal strength and availability of technologies, the Round-trip Time (RTT) and available throughput of individual cells at a given location. This information is generally not readily available. Therefore, an Android application measuring the cellular network performance was developed. This demonstration shows the NetworkCoverage App, being implemented to provide visual feedback of the measured network quality to the users, and sample the cellular network in an efficient manner to later support traffic scheduling improvements based on reliable data.
International Consortium on Agricultural Biotechnology Research (ICABR)

Regaining and increasing trust in food policy is a key priority of EU authorities after the BSE crisis and is remaining a high priority facing the new challenges due to the admission of genetically modified food. At a multinational level it was recommended to separate the different tasks of Food Policy according to the concept of risk analysis: risk assessment, risk management and risk communication should be carried out by independent institutions (CODEX ALIMENTARIUS, 2003, § 10-31). The major reason is to facilitate a neutral and scientific risk assessment as well as a science based risk management both minimally influenced by political interests. The objective of this structure is to establish an efficient food policy framework and thereby trust in food policy. This approach is followed at the European Level what was initiated with the establishment of the European Food Safety Authority responsible for scientific assessment. The Commission remains involved in risk management only. The Member States reacted to the new structure at the European level in different ways: some countries, like Germany, copy the European Model, others, like the UK, still keep all three levels of risk analysis together. Against this background the paper presents an empirical evaluation of consumers’ trust in GMO Governance as a function of trust in the separate levels of the risk analysis process: scientific assessment, management and communication. A consumer survey will be carried out as case study for Germany with a scheduled sample of 400. The questions will be differentiated according to the levels of risk analysis. Given that trust is not observable, it will be estimated indirectly as perceived trust using a two level latent variable model (Joreskog and Goldberger 1975). Trust in the three different elements of the risk analysis approach will be measured based on respective relevant variables deduced from previous research projects in different disciplines, among these are variables in general relevant for risk perception like controllability and specific parameters influencing institutional perception like accountability