Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The impact of initial highly active antiretroviral therapy on future treatment sequences in HIV infection

Objectives: To determine whether the initial use of non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTI) or protease inhibitors (PI) differentially influences subsequent HIV therapy. Design: A cohort study using a prospective clinical database in a university-based HIV clinic. Subjects: A total of 440 HIV-seropositive patients, naive or nucleoside experienced, initiating therapy with either an NNRTI or PI between January 1998 and July 2003 and followed to December 2003. Main outcome measures: Time until stopping the first regimen and until exposure to all antiretroviral classes (excluding tenofovir and enfuvirtide) according to the type of initial regimen. Results: A total of 291 subjects initiated HAART with PI and 149 with NNRTI; median follow-up 3.1 and 2.3 years, respectively. Subjects starting NNRTI remained on their initial regimens longer (median time to change 2.1 versus 1.6 years; log rank P = 0.03). Overall, subjects initiating NNRTI-based regimens were less likely to alter their therapy. Previous nucleoside exposure was an important predictor of treatment modification. Subjects initiating NNRTI-based HAART were also less likely to experience virological failure than those initiating PI-based HAART. Individuals starting with NNRTI were exposed to fewer regimens (15 versus 25% received three or fewer regimens), and showed a trend towards lower rates of three-class exposure (7 versus 12%). Conclusion: There is a high rate of treatment modification among patients initiating HAART. The initial use of NNRTI-based HAART was associated with more durable treatment and lower rates of virological failure, which may translate into a reduced need for multiple salvage therapies.
Schedulability Analysis in Time-Triggered Automotive Real-Time Systems

In embedded automotive real-time systems correct timing is required to effectively implement distributed applications, time-triggered communication, and integration of intelligent safety applications. We use formal schedulability analysis to validate the task timing for asynchronous real-time systems in an automotive context. Restricting the computational model to purely time-triggered task activation and applying application specific constraints enables us to perform exact response time analyses without pessimism. The analysis can be done efficiently since our computational model drastically limits the number of critical instant candidates to be considered for the worst-case scenario. Simulation results show that the original computational model incorporates a significant amount of response time overestimation and a high computational workload. The presented method can be applied in early design stages as well as in series development and helps to reduce development risks for electronic control units and embedded telematic systems.
Quality Control in the Yeast Secretory Pathway

The yeast plasma-membrane H+-ATPase, encoded by PMA1, is delivered to the cell surface via the secretory pathway and has recently emerged as an excellent system for identifying quality control mechanisms along the pathway. In the present study, we have tracked the biogenesis of Pma1-G381A, a misfolded mutant form of the H+-ATPase. Although this mutant ATPase is arrested transiently in the peripheral endoplasmic reticulum, it does not become a substrate for endoplasmic reticulum-associated degradation nor does it appear to stimulate an unfolded protein response. Instead, Pma1-G381A accumulates in Kar2p-containing vesicular-tubular clusters that resemble those previously described in mammalian cells. Like their mammalian counterparts, the yeast vesicular-tubular clusters may correspond to specific exit ports from the endoplasmic reticulum, since Pma1-G381A eventually escapes from them (still in a misfolded, trypsin-sensitive form) to reach the plasma membrane. By comparison with wild-type ATPase, Pma1-G381A spends a short half-life at the plasma membrane before being removed and sent to the vacuole for degradation in a process that requires both End4p and Pep4p. Finally, in a separate set of experiments, Pma1-G381A was found to impose its phenotype on co-expressed wild-type ATPase, transiently retarding the wild-type protein in the ER and later stimulating its degradation in the vacuole. Both effects serve to lower the steady-state amount of wild-type ATPase in the plasma membrane and, thus, can explain the co-dominant genetic behavior of the G381A mutation. Taken together, the results of this study establish Pma1-G381A as a useful new probe for the yeast secretory system.
A Secure , Scale-Out

Designing a secure and open Distributed Ledger (DL) system that performs on par with classic payment-service providers such as Visa is a challenging task. Current proposals either do not scale-out or do so only at the cost of security or decentralization. OmniLedger is a new scalable DL that provides secure, decentralized, horizontal scaling by splitting the state into multiple shards and using distributed randomness to assign validators securely. To maintain intraand cross-shard consistency validators run a novel parallel consensus algorithm for the former and an Atomic Commit protocol for the latter. To mitigate storage cost and enable fast, secure bootstrapping, OmniLedger introduces compact state-blocks that summarize shard-states. OmniLedger offers tunable performance based on the assumed strength of the adversaries, and scales linearly with the number of shards. Experiments show that it achieves Visa-level throughput of 6000 transactions per second (peaking at 50000) for 1800 validators, of which up to 12.5% (5%) are assumed to be malicious. Finally, OmniLedger significantly reduces bandwidth cost for out-of-date validators to update: for a one-month-old view, a validator downloads 40% of the amount of data compared to Bitcoin, whereas a new validator downloads only 7% while bootstrapping.
Value of Retrospective Fusion of PET and MR Images in Detection of Hepatic Metastases: Comparison with 18F-FDG PET/CT and Gd-EOB-DTPA–Enhanced MRI

The purpose of this study was to compare the accuracy of lesion detection and diagnostic confidence between 18F-FDG PET/CT, gadolinium-ethoxybenzyl-diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid (Gd-EOB-DTPA)–enhanced MRI, and retrospectively fused PET and MRI (PET/MRI). Methods: Thirty-seven patients (mean age ± SD, 60.2 ± 12 y) with suspected liver metastases underwent PET/CT and Gd-EOB-DTPA–enhanced MRI within 0–30 d (mean, 11.9 ± 9 d). PET and Gd-EOB-DTPA–enhanced MR image data were retrospectively fused. Images were reviewed independently by 2 readers who identified and characterized liver lesions using PET/CT, Gd-EOB-DTPA–enhanced MRI, and PET/MRI. Each liver lesion was graded on a 5-point confidence scale ranging from definitely benign (grade of 1) to definitely malignant (grade of 5). The accuracy of each technique was determined by receiver-operating-characteristic analysis. Histopathology served as the standard of reference for all patients with malignant lesions. Results: A total of 85 liver lesions (55 liver metastases [65%] and 30 benign lesions [35%]) were present in 29 (78%) of the 37 patients. Twenty-four (65%) of the 37 patients had liver metastases. The detection rate of liver lesions was significantly lower for PET/CT than for Gd-EOB-DTPA–enhanced MRI (64% and 85%; P = 0.002). Sensitivity in the detection and characterization of liver metastases for PET/CT, Gd-EOB-DTPA–enhanced MRI, PET/MRI in reader 1, and PET/MRI in reader 2 was 76%, 91%, 93%, and 93%, respectively; the respective specificity values were 90%, 100%, 87%, and 97%. The difference in sensitivity between PET/CT and PET/MRI was significant (P = 0.023). The level of confidence regarding liver lesions larger than 1 cm in diameter was significantly higher in PET/MRI than in PET/CT (P = 0.046). Accuracy values (area under the receiver-operating-characteristic curve) for PET/CT, Gd-EOB-DTPA–enhanced MRI, PET/MRI in reader 1, and PET/MRI in reader 2 were 0.85, 0.94, 0.92, and 0.96, respectively. Conclusion: The sensitivity of Gd-EOB-DTPA–enhanced MRI and PET/MRI in the detection of liver metastases is higher than that of PET/CT. Diagnostic confidence was significantly better with PET/MRI than with PET/CT regarding lesions larger than 1 cm in diameter. Compared with Gd-EOB-DTPA–enhanced MRI, PET/MRI resulted in a nonsignificant increase in sensitivity and diagnostic confidence.
Functional MR imaging in assessment of language dominance in epileptic patients

The value of functional MR Imaging (fMRI) in assessing language lateralization in epileptic patients candidate for surgical treatment is increasingly recognized. However few data are available for left-handed patients. Moreover determining factors for atypical dominance in patients investigated with contemporary imaging have not been reported. We studied 20 patients (14 males, 6 females; 9 right handed, 11 left handed) aged from 9 to 48 years, investigated for intractable partial epilepsy. Epileptic focus location was temporal in 14 cases, extratemporal in 6, and lateralized in the left hemisphere in 11/20. Hemispheric dominance for language was evaluated by both Wada test and fMRI using a silent word generation paradigm in all patients. Furthermore, a postictal speech test was performed in 15 patients. An fMRI language lateralization index was calculated from the number of activated pixels (Student's t test, P < 0.0001) in the right and left hemispheres. The Wada test showed a right hemispheric dominance in 8 patients (6 were left handed and 2 right handed) and a left hemispheric dominance in 12 patients (5 were left handed and 7 right handed). These results were concordant with clinical postictal examination in 11/15 patients (73%). Clinical status did not allow a conclusion about hemispheric dominance for the remaining 4 patients. FMRI was concordant with the Wada test in 19/20 cases. For one left-handed patient, fMRI showed bilateral activation, whereas the Wada test demonstrated a right hemispheric dominance. Right language lateralization was significantly correlated with left lateralized epilepsy (P < 0.05) but was not correlated with age at epilepsy onset, early brain injury (before 6 years), and lobar localization of epileptogenic focus. However the lack of a significant relationship between these factors and atypical language lateralization may be related to the small sample size.
The Empirical Research of the Effect of Financing Constraints on Investment Efficiency Based on Chinese Listed Companies

Based on the data of the Chinese Listed Companies in 2012-2016 years as the research sample, this paper carries out an empirical research on the relationship between the financing constraints and investment efficiency of Chinese listed companies from the perspective of different regions, industries and property rights. The result shows the fact that the lower the financing constraints are the higher the efficiency of investment is, and to enhance the enterprise value, the investment efficiency of nonstate-owned enterprises is easily to be improved than that of the state-owned enterprises through easing financing constraints; similarly, the enterprises in the Midwest of China is more easily than eastern enterprises, the information technology service industry is more easily than other. Keywords—financing constraints; investment efficiency
Transformational leadership and safety performance among nurses: the mediating role of knowledge-related job characteristics.

AIMS To report the impact of transformational leadership on two dimensions of nurses' safety performance (i.e. safety compliance and safety participation) and to study the mediating role of knowledge-related job characteristics in this relationship. BACKGROUND Safety performance refers to the behaviours that employees exhibit to adhere to safety guidelines and to promote health and safety at their workplace. Nurses' safety performance is a major challenge for healthcare settings, urging the need to identify the key determinants and psychological mechanisms that influence it. DESIGN A cross-sectional survey study. METHODS The study was carried out in September 2010 in a large Belgian hospital. We used self-administered questionnaires; 152 nurses participated. The hypotheses were tested using hierarchical regression analyses. RESULTS/FINDINGS In line with our first hypothesis, the results show that transformational leadership exerted a significant positive impact on both dimensions of nurses' safety performance. This positive relation was mediated by knowledge-related job characteristics, supporting our second hypothesis. CONCLUSION Head nurses' transformational leadership can enhance nurses' compliance with and participation in safety. Furthermore, transformational head nurses are able to influence the perception that their nurses have about the kind and amount of knowledge in their job, which can also lead to increases in both dimensions of nurses' safety performance. This study therefore demonstrates the key impact that transformational head nurses have, both directly and indirectly, on the safety performance of their nurses.
Real‐time detection of serotonin release from enterochromaffin cells of the guinea‐pig ileum

Serotonin (5‐hydroxytryptamine; 5‐HT) containing enterochromaffin (EC) cells may detect chemical or mechanical stimuli in the intestinal lumen and respond with release of 5‐HT. The aim of this study was to use real‐time electrochemical detection methods to detect release of 5‐HT from small numbers of EC cells. In guinea‐pig ileum, basal release of 5‐HT from the unstimulated, unparalyzed intestine was composed of individual release events (8.4 ± 1.8 events, 0.33 ± 0.06 Hz) of different amplitudes but with similar kinetics. Local compression of the mucosa with the electrode evoked peak 5‐HT release of 12.3 ± 2.8 μmol L−1 with a sustained release of 3.0 ± 0.7 μmol L−1. Brief application of acetylcholine (ACh) or carbachol elicited a transient peak (5.7 ± 1.3 μmol L−1 occurring at 35 ± 18 s, n = 9) followed by cyclic release of 5‐HT (9.7 ± 2.2 events, 0.40 ± 0.13 Hz, n = 6). This study shows that the release of 5‐HT occurs rapidly as individual events from a small number of cells and can reach very high concentrations locally.
Constructing the FEEM Sustainability Index: A Choquet-Integral Application

This paper presents an application of a multi-attribute aggregation methodology to the construction of a sustainability index. Sustainability is a multi-faceted issue, in which synergies or conflicts may arise among the different components, thus making it a complex concept to which multi attribute methods can be employed. This paper addresses the development of the FEEM Sustainability Index (FEEM SI), a composite index including 19 different indicators grouped in the three classical pillars of sustainability ? economic, social and environmental. We present the relevance of multi-attribute aggregation methodologies when dealing with such complex concepts and provide an aggregation methodology used for this case study, the Choquet-integral aggregation. First, we normalize each sustainability indicator with the use of a benchmarking procedure with a smooth target of sustainability. Furthermore, an ad-hoc questionnaire implemented to assess the importance of each sustainability indicator and their interaction with other indicators through expert elicitation. After normalizing each sustainability indicator and computing consensus importance of each sustainability indicator and their interactions for the Choquet-integral aggregation procedure, the overall sustainability index, the FEEM SI is calculated. This paper also conducts robustness analysis and discusses the main implications of the aggregation methodology used.
Chemical genetic induction of meiosis in Schizosaccharomyces pombe

In the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, meiosis is inhibited by the protein kinase Pat1, which phosphorylates and inactivates Mei2, an RNA binding protein essential for the initiation of meiosis. When diploid cells are deprived of nutrients, they initiate a cascade of events leading to the inactivation of Pat1 and entry into meiosis. Strains carrying the temperature-sensitive pat1-114 allele are forced to enter into meiosis when shifted to the non-permissive temperature, independently of the ploidity of the cell. This system has been extensively used, since it is possible to achieve a highly synchronous meiosis, which is a must for any molecular or microscopic approach that aims to decipher the mechanisms governing meiosis. Here, we have designed a new system to obtain a similarly synchronous meiosis, but independently of temperature shifts. Thus, by introducing a mutation in the ATP pocket of Pat1, we have generated a protein kinase that, in the presence of small specific inhibitors, can be inactivated. This results in forced entry into meiosis without the need of a temperature shift, minimizing the introduction of heat shock or any other stress responses along the meiotic waves of transcription.
Trehalose Is Not Relevant for In Vivo Activity of ςS-Containing RNA Polymerase in Escherichia coli

ABSTRACT The ςS- and ς70-associated forms of RNA polymerase core enzyme (E) of Escherichia coli have very similar promoter recognition specificities in vitro. Nevertheless, the in vivo expression of many stress response genes is strongly dependent on ςS. Based on in vitro assays, it has recently been proposed that the disaccharide trehalose specifically stimulates the formation and activity of EςS and thereby contributes to promoter selectivity (S. Kusano and A. Ishihama, J. Bacteriol. 179:3649–3654, 1997). However, we demonstrate here that a trehalose-free otsA mutant exhibits growth phase-related and osmotic induction of various ςS-dependent genes which is indistinguishable from that of an otherwise isogenic wild-type strain and that stationary-phase cells do not accumulate trehalose (even though the trehalose-synthesizing enzymes are induced). We conclude that in vivo trehalose does not play a role in the expression of ςS-dependent genes and therefore also not in sigma factor selectivity at the promoters of these genes.
Worst case design of digital integrated circuits

This paper describes /spl plusmn//spl sigma/ transistor modeling and its application in worst case design of digital integrated circuits. We explore the implicit assumptions made when using the /spl plusmn//spl sigma/ transistor model, establish the relationship between worst-case design and variability minimization, and extend the variability minimization principles to the worst-case measure reduction. A CMOS delay circuit is used to clarify the discussion. <<ETX>>
Predicting Shopper Volume Using ARIMA on Public Wi-Fi Signals

Shopping malls are being built at a rapid pace in many South East Asia countries and it has become competitive to attract and maintain shoppers.Being able to know the volume of shoppers and predicting the volume will greatly benefit mall management. In this paper, we present shopper volume monitoring using Wi-Fi signal detectors and use the data obtained from it to derive an Auto-Regressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) model for shopper volume prediction.
A temporal perspective on phronetic strategizing: exploring strategy making in unsettled times

Strategy making in organizations is a future oriented process and is fundamentally complex and full of uncertainties. Therefore there is a need to further improve our understanding of the way organizational actors exercise their judgment and how this informs strategic action and change. However, the role of temporality in such processes in poorly understood. In this paper we further take up this perspective and propose and apply a temporal perspective on practical judgement to study how situated actors embark on strategic action and change in respond to drastic institutional changes. By temporality is implied the dominant temporal orientations of situated actors towards either the past, present, or future that shape the way practical judgment unfolds and influences how and when strategic action and change comes about. We draw on a study of six nonprofit associations in the Netherlands who are usually concerned with the maintenance and protection of their local environments and preservation of the cultural value. We examined how members of these associations engage in practical judgement based on their dominant temporal orientations in response to a drastic change in the subsidy regimes forcing them to reconsider their strategies. We found three fundamentally different outcomes for strategic action and change: suspending (past oriented), desiring (present oriented) and adapting (future oriented). We elaborate on each of them and why practical judgement processes varied leading to these outcomes on how that relates to each dominant temporal orientation. Contributions are offered to the strategy as practice literature by proposing a temporal perspective and highlight the importance of agency in relation to outcomes in strategy practices. We also contribute to the literature on practical judgment especially in regard to the tensions that organizational actors undergo when they are forced to make tradeoffs between realizing internal goods through practice and external goods demanded by institutions.
MRStudio: A mixed reality display system for aircraft cockpit

Mixed reality techniques are boosting for aviation progress. In this paper, we present MRStudio, a mixed reality display system for aircraft cockpit. The system architecture is given, with special attention paid upon such technical issues as three-dimensional map construction for aircraft cockpit, computer vision based 6-DOF head tracking, virtual aircraft cockpit panel construction and registration, and mixed reality display for aircraft cockpit using a flexible client-server architecture. A testing scenario on a full scale mockup of the COMAC's ARJ21 cockpit is described.
SME's Innovative Performance in Indonesia: The Linkage between Innovation Culture and Production Performance

In a rapidly changing environment, fostering innovation plays a critical role for SME’s to enhance performance. The study investigates the linkage between innovation culture, process innovation, product innovation, innovative performance, and production performance in Indonesian SME’s creative industry. An empirical insight using quantitative method was conducted by distributing the data from a field survey. A cross-sectional data from 153 SME’s owners as the respondents have done to fill out the form of questionnaires. Data were analyzed by Structural Equation Modeling with smartPLS software. The result of this study found that not all hypotheses proposed are supported. Innovation culture has a significant and positive influence on process innovation and product innovation, while process innovation also has a significant and positive influence on product innovation. Moreover, process innovation affects innovative performance which ultimately influences towards production performance. However, product innovation had no significant effect on innovation performance. The results of this study make both theoretical and practical implications. Theoretically, the novelty of this research related to the innovation culture approach by focussing on the configurations of SME’s innovation activities and their performance implications was elaborated. Thus, it provides a model to demonstrate these configurations. Practically, through this study, SME’s owner has a critical role to encourage and support the new initiatives of employees in creating a unique product.