Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
E-Government Policy and Health Information Systems Implementation in Andhra Pradesh, India: Need for Articulation of Linkages Between the Macro and the Micro

In recent years, many different types of e-government projects have been implemented across the developing world. One important application area, especially following the Millennium Development Goals, is the introduction of health information systems to improve the management of health care for development. Despite significant investments in these projects, experience reveals a disjuncture between macro-level policy priorities and micro-level implementation of these programmes. We use a broad conceptualization of evaluation to synthesize priorities at different levels during the implementation of an e-government project—the Health Information Systems Project (HISP) in Andhra Pradesh, India. This enables us to identify important enabling processes and conditions which serve to connect policy and implementation priorities. Our findings suggest that evaluation does help us to understand the disjuncture between policy at the macro level and implementation at the micro level and to identify linkages between the two. Finally, we discuss some of the key institutional issues that need to be addressed to translate the learning derived from the field into policy actions.
Nucleoside metabolism in herpes simplex virus-infected cells following treatment with interferon and acyclovir, a possible mechanism of synergistic antiviral activity

Alpha interferon (IFN-alpha) and nucleoside analogs have been shown to have synergistic antiherpesvirus activity in cultured cells. The mechanisms responsible for this synergistic activity are not known, but we hypothesize that IFN-alpha-induced alterations of nucleoside metabolism in virus-infected cells may play an important role. Infection of cells with herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) led to an increase in uptake of thymidine into cells. Treatment of infected cells with recombinant IFN-alpha for 24 h prior to infection resulted in a significant reduction in the uptake of exogenous thymidine but did not reduce the apparent incorporation of exogenous thymidine into DNA. The amount of exogenous thymidine phosphorylated relative to the amount taken up was the same in IFN-alpha-treated and control cultures. IFN-alpha treatment of HSV-1-infected cells also resulted in a reduction in the pool sizes of endogenous deoxyribonucleoside-5'-triphosphates relative to those of untreated HSV-1-infected cultures. Although IFN-alpha affected the metabolism of natural nucleosides in HSV-1-infected cells, it did not significantly reduce the uptake of the antiviral guanosine analog acyclovir into HSV-1-infected cells or the amount of acyclovir-5'-triphosphate accumulated. Therefore, in IFN-alpha-treated cells the concentration of a natural nucleoside, thymidine, was reduced, as were the pools of all deoxyribonucleoside-5'-triphosphates. No decrease in acyclovir or acyclovir-5'-triphosphate concentration was observed, however, when acyclovir-treated cells were exposed to IFN-alpha. These data suggest that IFN-alpha-induced alterations in nucleoside metabolism may be one mechanism whereby IFN-alpha and acyclovir express synergistic antiherpes-virus activity.
An efficient numerical procedure to compute stabilizing state feedback gains for linear time-varying periodic systems

This report presents a procedure to synthesize a stabilizing periodic static state-feedback controller that does not explicitly need the application of the Floquet theory and which can be easily computed numerically. In addition to the complete uniform controllability condition, which is a common requirement in this kind of problem, the open-loop system must also be uniformly observable with the synthesized controller in order to be stabilised. The periodic state feedback gain is obtained through the numerical integration of two differential matrix equations over two periods.
Low-Complexity Demapping Algorithm for Two-Dimensional Non-Uniform Constellations

Non-uniform constellations (NUCs) have been recently introduced in digital broadcasting systems to close the remaining gap to the unconstrained Shannon theoretical limit. Compared to uniform quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) constellations, NUCs provide a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) gain (i.e., a reduction in the required SNR), especially for high-order constellations. One-dimensional NUCs (1D-NUC) have a squared shape with non-uniform distance between the constellation symbols. Since the I and Q components remain as two independent signals, a 1D-demapper as for uniform QAM constellations is feasible. Two-dimensional NUCs (2D-NUC) provide a better performance than 1D-NUCs, since they are designed by relaxing the square shape constraint, with arbitrary shape along the complex plane. However, the main drawback of 2D-NUCs is the higher complexity at the receiver, since a 2D-demapper is needed. In this paper, we propose a demapping algorithm that reduces from 69% to 93% the number of required distances when using 2D-NUCs. The algorithm discards or replicates those constellation symbols that provide scarce information, with a performance degradation lower to 0.1 dB compared to the optimal maximum likelihood demapper.
An anti-trojans design approach based on activation probability analysis

Hardware Trojan, realized by malicious modification of design characteristics, has emerged as a major security concern. The recently proposed Trojan detection methods are mainly classified into two categories: side-channel signal analysis and logic testing. Due to the stealthy nature of Trojan circuits, it's difficult to activate Trojans to perform logic testing. In this paper, an activation probability-based approach is proposed. A probability obfuscation scan chain (POSC) is presented aiming at increasing the difficulty of Trojan insertion and increasing the activation probability of the Trojan circuits. It proves to be very effective in detecting the presence of a Trojan in a circuit. Experimental results on ISCAS benchmark circuits show that this approach can effectively increase Trojan activation probability and make the detection of the Trojan more easily.
Lentiviral Vectors Interfering with Virus-Induced CD4 Down-Modulation Potently Block Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Replication in Primary Lymphocytes

ABSTRACT CD4 down-modulation is essential for the production of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infectious particles. Disease progression correlates with enhanced viral induced CD4 down-modulation, and a subset of long-term nonprogressors carry viruses defective in this function. Despite multiple pieces of evidence highlighting the importance of this function in viral pathogenesis in vivo, to date, HIV-induced CD4 down-modulation has not been used as a target for intervention. We describe here HIV-based vectors that deliver truncated CD4 molecules resistant to down-modulation by the viral products Nef and Vpu. Infection of cells previously transduced with these vectors proceeded normally, and viral particles were released in normal amounts. However, the infectivity of the released virions was reduced 1,000-fold. Lentiviral vectors expressing truncated CD4 molecules were efficient at blocking HIV-1 infectivity and replication in several cell lines and in CD4-positive primary lymphocytes. The findings presented here provide proof-of-principle that approaches targeting the virus-induced CD4 down-modulation may constitute the basis for novel anti-HIV therapies.
Stereological Evaluation of the Effects of Momordica charantia, antioxidants and Testosterone on Seminiferous Tubules of Rat

El consumo ubicuo de Momordica charantia ha girado en torno a su potencial participacion en el alivio de dolencias. El objetivo fue estudiar los efectos del extracto de la semilla de Momordica charantia (MC), acido ascorbico (C), alfa-tocoferol (E) y testosterona (T) sobre parametros histomorfometricos en testiculos de ratas. Noventa y cinco ratas machos Sprague-Dawley (S-D) maduras (6-8 semanas de edad) fueron asignadas al azar en seis grupos. Grupo I: alimentados con MC durante 16 semanas. Grupo II: MC administrado durante 8 semanas, luego agua destilada por otras 8 semanas. Grupo III: C, E, T administrados junto a una combinacion de las tres soluciones de prueba (CET) durante 8 semanas y luego alimentados con MC por otras 8 semanas. Grupo IV: MC inicialmente durante 8 semanas y posteriormente C, E, T y CET por otras 8 semanas. Grupo V: alimentado al mismo tiempo con el extracto, C, E, T y CET durante 8 semanas. Grupo VI (control): administrado con C, E, T, CET y agua destilada durante 16 semanas. Las dosis de MC, C, E y T fueron de 50 mg/100 g de peso corporal/oral/dia, 0,01, 20,0 y 0,05 mg/kg. Los animales fueron sacrificados y se estimo el volumen de los testiculos. El diametro, area de seccion transversal (AC), el numero de perfiles por unidad de area (NA), la densidad de longitud (LV) y la densidad numerica (NV) de los tubulos seminiferos fueron determinados. Los volumenes medio testicular, diametro de tubulos y AC mostraron una disminucion significativa (p 0,05) en los grupos I y III en comparacion con los controles. Al quitar MC, los valores se recuperaron al valor basal de control. Los grupos IV y V, no fueron significativamente diferentes de los controles (p 0,05). Hubo una diferencia significativa (p 0,05) con aumento de la NA, LV y NV de los tubulos seminiferos de los grupos I y III en comparacion con los controles. Los datos histomorfometricos apoyan la reversibilidad de los efectos nocivos de la MC en los testiculos.
A General Surface Approach to the Integration of a Set of Range Views

This paper presents a new and general solution to the problem of range view integration. The integration problem consists in computing a connected surface model from a set of registered range images acquired from different viewpoints. The proposed method does not impose constraints on the topology of the observed surfaces, the position of the viewpoints, or the number of views that can be merged. The integrated surface model is piecewise estimated by a set of triangulations modeling each canonical subset of the Venn diagram of the set of range views. The connection of these local models by constrained Delaunay triangulations yields g non-redundant surface triangulation describing all surface elements sampled by the set of range views. Experimental results show that the integration technique can be used to build connected surface models of free-form objects. No integrated models built from objects of such complexity have yet been reported in the literature, It is assumed that accurate range views are available and that frame transformations between all pairs of views can be reliably computed. >
Speech technology--implications for biomedical engineering.

The article looks at the biomedical applications of speech technology. The techniques of speech synthesis and recognition are described first, and then the range of available products is reviewed. Current biomedical applications of the new technology are described and problem areas are highlighted. Finally, a prediction of the likely future role of speech technology in medicine is attempted.
A critical evaluation of current protocols for the follow-up of women treated for gynecological malignancies: A pilot study

This retrospective review was undertaken to determine the efficacy of routine follow-up in the detection and management of recurrent cancer. The case notes of all women attending a regional cancer center who were diagnosed with cancer in 1997 were reviewed. Of 81 new cancers followed up for a median of 42 months (range 36–48), 14 have recurred after curative treatment and there were six cases of persistent disease. The median number of clinic visits per patient was 3.5 (range 1–16). Eight recurrences (57.1%) were diagnosed at scheduled outpatient appointments, three (2 l.4%) presented to the general practitioner (GP), and three were seen as emergencies in hospital. Seventeen patients with persistent/recurrent disease have died and three are alive with disease. The median time from initial presentation to disease recurrence was 12 months (range 5–25) and the median time from recurrence to death was 5 months (range 1–20). The longest interval between onset of symptoms and diagnosis of recurrence (4 months) occurred in those presenting at scheduled outpatient clinics. This study demonstrates that the current follow-up protocol is associated with delays in diagnosing recurrence, because symptomatic patients postpone seeking help until their scheduled visit. We have therefore commenced a prospective study evaluating other models of follow-up.
A Peak Price Tracking-Based Learning System for Portfolio Selection

We propose a novel linear learning system based on the peak price tracking (PPT) strategy for portfolio selection (PS). Recently, the topic of tracking control attracts intensive attention and some novel models are proposed based on backstepping methods, such that the system output tracks a desired trajectory. The proposed system has a similar evolution with a transform function that aggressively tracks the increasing power of different assets. As a result, the better performing assets will receive more investment. The proposed PPT objective can be formulated as a fast backpropagation algorithm, which is suitable for large-scale and time-limited applications, such as high-frequency trading. Extensive experiments on several benchmark data sets from diverse real financial markets show that PPT outperforms other state-of-the-art systems in computational time, cumulative wealth, and risk-adjusted metrics. It suggests that PPT is effective and even more robust than some defensive systems in PS.
Methodology for Estimating Numbers of Free-Living and Attached Bacteria in Estuarine Water

A fundamental problem in estuarine microbiology studies is the accurate determination of the density in the water column of both free-living bacteria and those attached to suspended particulate matter. When a water sample is filtered and the filter is viewed by epifluorescence microscopy, counts can be made of the numbers of bacteria which are seen on the filter background (free-living) and those which appear to lie on sediment particles (both free-living and attached). With only the additional knowledge of the proportion of the filter area covered by particles (a quantity that is straightforwardly determined by stereological point counting), results from geometric probability were used to determine the expected number of bacteria which are hidden by particles and hence to provide an estimation scheme for the true densities of free-living and attached bacteria. Variance equations based on a Taylor series are given, and a partial check of the method is attempted with controlled mixtures of bacteria and sediment. An alternative procedure is also proposed, in which the natural attached/free-living ratio is altered by an intervention experiment, allowing an estimation which is less model dependent but more labor intensive. Both methods are applied to a series of samples from the Tamar estuary, United Kingdom, taken in April 1985. A notable conclusion is that there are always more free-living than attached bacteria in the water column throughout the estuary.
The role of organelle genomes in plant adaptation

That organellar genome variation can play a role in plant adaptation has been suggested by several lines of evidence, including cytoplasm capture, cytoplasm effects in local adaptation, and positive selection in a chloroplast gene. In-depth analysis and better understanding of the genetic basis of plant adaptation is becoming a main objective in plant science. Arabidopsis thaliana has all the required characteristics to be used as a model for obtaining knowledge on the mechanisms underlying the role of organelles in plant adaptation. The availability of the appropriate tools and materials for assessing organelle genetic variation will open up new opportunities for developing novel breeding strategies.
Risk Prediction Models for Post-Stroke Dementia

A strong association exists between stroke and dementia with both diseases linked to ageing. Survival rates from stroke are improving which would equate to an ever-expanding population of patients at risk of future dementia. Early or timelier identification of dementia has become a priority in many countries, including the UK. Although screening for dementia is not advocated, targeting at risk populations could be used to reduce an individual’s risk via intervention (i.e., personalised medicine), where available. One approach to improving identification of high-risk dementia individuals is using risk prediction models. Such models could be applied to stroke survivors. Dementia risk prediction models specific to stroke survivors have recently been developed and will be discussed here.
Groupware design : principles, prototypes, and systems

Computers are valuable tools for a wide range of work tasks. A substantial limitation on their value, however, is the predominant focus on enhancing the work of individuals. This fails to account for the issues of collaboration that affect almost all work. Research into computer supported cooperative work (CSCW) aims to eliminate this deficiency, but the promise of computer systems for group work has not been met. This thesis presents four design principles that promote the development of successful groupware. The principles identify the particular problems encountered by groupware, and provide guidelines and strategies to avoid, overcome, or minimise their impact. Derived from several sources, the major influence on the principles development is an investigation into the relationship between factors affecting groupware failure. They are stimulated by observations of groupware use, and by design insights arising from the development of two groupware applications and their prototypes: Mona and TELEFREEK. Mona provides conversation-based email management. Several groupware applications allow similar functionality, but the design principles result in Mona using different mechanisms to achieve its user-support. TELEFREEK provides a platform for accessing computer-supported communication and collaboration facilities. It attends to the problems of initiating interaction, and supports an adaptable and extendible set of "social awareness" assistants. TELEFREEK offers a broader range of facilities than other groupware, and avoids the use of prohibitively high-bandwidth communication networks. TELEFREEK demonstrates that much can be achieved through current and widely accessible technology. Together, Mona and TELEFREEK forcefully demonstrate the use of the design principles, and substantiate the claim of their utility.
The role of pentoxifylline in the treatment of erectile dysfunction due to borderline arterial insufficiency.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the effects of pentoxifylline on penile blood flow and potency in patients with erectile dysfunction due to borderline arterial insufficiency. PATIENTS AND METHODS Following a routine diagnostic evaluation, 36 patients with borderline arterial disease diagnosed using penile duplex ultrasonography were included in the study. Of these patients, 20 (mean age 54 years, range 40-66) received 1.2 g of pentoxifylline daily, divided into three doses orally, for 2 months and 16 (mean age 54 years, range 34-65) received a placebo. Peak systolic velocities (PSVs) before and after the treatment were compared with those in patients receiving a placebo. The clinical improvement in erectile function was also evaluated. RESULTS Twelve of 20 patients receiving pentoxifylline had an increase in PSV at the end of the treatment period. The mean change in PSV achieved by pentoxifylline treatment (6.25 cm/s) was significantly higher than that achieved by the placebo (0.38 cm/s). Seven patients had a positive response (successful coitus achieved after treatment with pentoxifylline). No serious side-effects occurred. CONCLUSION Pentoxifylline was well tolerated and could increase penile arterial inflow, shown objectively as an increase in PSV on penile duplex ultrasonography. These findings should encourage further studies of the efficacy of pentoxifylline in the treatment of impotence.
Infarcted myocardium in pigs: MR imaging enhanced with slow-interstitial-diffusion gadolinium compound P760.

PURPOSE To assess the value of P760, a gadolinium chelate with slow interstitial diffusion and high relaxivity, for magnetic resonance (MR) imaging of acute myocardial infarction in pigs. MATERIALS AND METHODS First-pass gradient-echo MR imaging and spin-echo MR imaging were performed with P760 and then with gadoterate meglumine in eight pigs with occlusive acute myocardial infarction. P760 signal intensity enhancement and clearance were compared with those of gadoterate meglumine. RESULTS The first-pass enhancement ratio of P760 in normal myocardium was higher than that in infarcted myocardium (1.37 +/- 0.06 [SEM] vs 1.05 +/- 0.03, P = .03). The myocardial first pass showed a blood pool-like curve for P760. The blood pool enhancement ratio 40 seconds after injection was higher for P760 than for gadoterate meglumine (left ventricular cavity, 1.75 +/- 0.06 vs 1.45 +/- 0.06, P = .009). Spin-echo MR imaging showed improved contrast between normal and infarcted myocardium after P760 administration: The ratio before contrast material administration was 0.21 +/- 0.03, that at 15 minutes was 0.48 +/- 0.05 (P = .002), and that at 25 minutes was 0.47 +/- 0.07 (P = .003). CONCLUSION P760 is an MR imaging contrast agent characterized by low diffusion, a blood pool effect soon after low-dose administration, and fast elimination. This agent is useful for improved myocardial perfusion MR imaging of acute myocardial infarction.
Entrepreneurial Orientation and Antecedents of Low-Income Household Heads in Kelantan, Malaysia

The objective of this study is to determine the distribution of entrepreneurial orientation across districts, gender, education level, occupation, and experience levels in Kelantan, Malaysia. This study employs the crosssectional approach and quantitative data were collected from 800 low-income household heads in Kelantan, Malaysia. It was found that the distribution of entrepreneurial orientation is the same across gender. However, findings reported a significant difference in the distribution of entrepreneurial orientation across districts, education level, occupation, and experience level. Policy makers should therefore focus on interactive programs in order to increase the level of entrepreneurial orientation among low-income household heads in the district of Jeli, those who never attended school, the unemployed, and those who reported to have no experience as they scored the lowest mean rank. Received: September, 2017 1st Revision: November, 2017 Accepted: December, 2017 DOI: 10.14254/20718330.2018/11-1/10 Journal of International Studies S ci en ti fi c P a pe rs © Foundation of International Studies, 2018 © CSR, 2018 Naresh Kumar, Abdullah Al Mamun, Mohamed Dahlan Ibrahim, Hakimin Yusoff Entrepreneurial orientation and antecedents of low-income household heads in Kelantan, . 141
Extremely low frequency plasmons in metallic mesostructures.

The plasmon is a well established collective excitation of metals in the visible and near UV, but at much lower frequencies dissipation destroys all trace of the plasmon and typical Drude behavior sets in. We propose a mechanism for depression of the plasma frequency into the far infrared or even GHz band: Periodic structures built of very thin wires dilute the average concentration of electrons and considerably enhance the effective electron mass through self-inductance. Computations replicate the key features and confirm our analytic theory. The new structure has novel properties not observed before in the GHz band, including some possible impact on superconducting properties.