Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Metabolized‐Water Breeding Diseases in Urban India: Sociospatiality of Water Problems and Health Burden in Ahmedabad City

Studies on urban metabolism have provided important insights in the material and sociopolitical issues associated with the flow of water. However, there is a dearth of studies that reveal how infrastructure, as a hybrid of social and material construct, facilitates disease emergence. The article brings together urban metabolism, political ecology, and anthropological studies to examine the social construction and reconstruction of the material flow through everyday practices for addressing the water problem and its health burden in Ahmedabad city. The article georeferences the water problems and occurrence of diseases and, through interviews, documents Ahmedabad's sociospatial characteristics of water problems and health burden in two case study wards. Through a situated understanding of the everyday practices, the infrastructure is exposed through leakages, reveals the citizens desire for better water quality, and struggle to gain access to water using diverse ‘pressure’ tactics. It is these social‐material constructs of water that give structure and coherence to urban space, which spatially coincides with the occurrence of diseases. It reveals the sociopolitical drivers of the water problems and identifies different hypotheses of the hotspots of disease emergences. The methodology offers a way forward for researchers and development agencies to improve the surveillance and monitoring of water infrastructure and public health through an incremental approach that takes into consideration the diffuse interplay of power by diverse actors. It charts out avenues for building on the urban metabolism by emphasizing the importance of examining the sociospatiality of the everyday practices for improving resource use efficiencies in cities of rapidly growing economies.
Modified Dufourmentel flap with superior pedicle: a useful technique for sacrococcygeal pilonidal sinus

Abstract Purpose: In order to prevent postoperative infection and recurrence of sacrococcygeal pilonidal sinus, the authors developed a modified Dufourmentel flap, involving the superior pedicles, and designed a descriptive prospective study to evaluate its efficiency. Methods: Between July 2007 and March 2014, 16 patients with sacrococcygeal pilonidal sinus were treated with an irregular quadrilateral excision and reconstruction by a modified Dufourmentel flap with superior pedicle. The duration of wound healing, presence of wound complications and permanent hypoesthesia, and recurrence rates were recorded and assessed. Results: None of the patients developed flap necrosis or wound infection postoperatively. The duration of wound healing was 7.2 ± 2.9 (range = 6–15) days. Wound dehiscence was demonstrated in only one patient (6.3%). The mean follow-up period was 4 years and 2 months (range = 4 months–8 years and 8 months), whereby no permanent hypoesthesia or recurrence was detected. Conclusion: The modified Dufourmentel flap with superior pedicle can be safely used as a treatment of sacrococcygeal pilonidal sinus, with excellent results.
Hidden Markov model for dynamic obstacle avoidance of mobile robot navigation

Models and control strategies for dynamic obstacle avoidance in visual guidance of mobile robots are presented. Characteristics that distinguish the visual computation and motion control requirements in dynamic environments from that in static environments are discussed. Objectives of the vision and motion planning are formulated, such as finding a collision-free trajectory that takes account of any possible motions of obstacles in the local environments. Such a trajectory should be consistent with a global goal or plan of the motion and the robot should move at as high a speed as possible, subject to its kinematic constraints. A stochastic motion-control algorithm based on a hidden Markov model is developed. Obstacle motion prediction applies a probabilistic evaluation scheme. Motion planning of the robot implements a trajectory-guided parallel-search strategy in accordance with the obstacle motion prediction models. The approach simplifies the control process of robot motion. >
Stabilization of an Immunoglobulin Fold Domain by an Engineered Disulfide Bond at the Buried Hydrophobic Region*

We report for the first time the stabilization of an immunoglobulin fold domain by an engineered disulfide bond. In the llama single-domain antibody, which has human chorionic gonadotropin as its specific antigen, Ala49 and Ile70 are buried in the structure. A mutant with an artificial disulfide bond at this position showed a 10 °C higher midpoint temperature of thermal unfolding than that without the extra disulfide bond. The modified domains exhibited an antigen binding affinity comparable with that of the wild-type domain. Ala49 and Ile70 are conserved in camel and llama single-domain antibody frameworks. Therefore, domains against different antigens are expected to be stabilized by the engineered disulfide bond examined here. In addition to the effect of the loop constraints in the unfolded state, thermodynamic analysis indicated that internal interaction and hydration also control the stability of domains with disulfide bonds. The change in physical properties resulting from mutation often causes unpredictable and destabilizing effects on these interactions. The introduction of a hydrophobic cystine into the hydrophobic region maintains the hydrophobicity of the protein and is expected to minimize the unfavorable mutational effects.
The Stochastic Behaviour of Market Variance Implied in the Prices of Index Options

The purpose of this paper is to examine the time series properties of volatilities, and to consider various financial and real variables that may be correlated with innovations in expected volatility. The measure used in this study is the Black-Scholes volatility implied in weekly call option prices written on the spot price of the FTSE Index, a U.K. market equity index. First the authors determine if capital structure can explain the relation between changes in the volatility of equity and structure can explain the relation between changes in the volatility of equity and changes in the level of the index. Second, they analyze whether innovations in the volatilities of prices of real variables could also explain changes in equity volatility, including the volume of transactions in equities, oil prices, exchange rates, nominal and real interest rates, and inflation. Copyright 1991 by Royal Economic Society.
The Human Cytomegalovirus Gene Products Essential for Late Viral Gene Expression Assemble into Prereplication Complexes before Viral DNA Replication

ABSTRACT The regulation of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) late gene expression by viral proteins is poorly understood, and these viral proteins could be targets for novel antivirals. HCMV open reading frames (ORFs) UL79, -87, and -95 encode proteins with homology to late gene transcription factors of murine gammaherpesvirus 68 ORFs 18, 24, and 34, respectively. To determine whether these HCMV proteins are also essential for late gene transcription of a betaherpesvirus, we mutated HCMV ORFs UL79, -87, and -95. Cells were infected with the recombinant viruses at high and low multiplicities of infection (MOIs). While viral DNA was detected with the recombinant viruses, infectious virus was not detected unless the wild-type viral proteins were expressed in trans. At a high MOI, mutation of ORF UL79, -87, or -95 had no effect on the level of major immediate-early (MIE) gene expression or viral DNA replication, but late viral gene expression from the UL44, -75, and -99 ORFs was not detected. At a low MOI, preexpression of UL79 or -87, but not UL95, in human fibroblast cells negatively affected the level of MIE viral gene expression and viral DNA replication. The products of ORFs UL79, -87, and -95 were expressed as early viral proteins and recruited to prereplication complexes (pre-RCs), along with UL44, before the initiation of viral DNA replication. All three HCMV ORFs are indispensable for late viral gene expression and viral growth. The roles of UL79, -87, and -95 in pre-RCs for late viral gene expression are discussed.
Society in motion: challenges for LTE and beyond mobile communications

Tomorrow's society will see hosts of people constantly on the move, commuting between home and work, meeting up with family and friends or visiting shopping centers and leisure facilities. While on their way, these people use mobile devices to connect to the Internet, utilizing journey time for work-related tasks, entertainment, or socializing in online communities. Current fourth generation cellular networks are, however, not designed to efficiently serve large numbers of comparatively high-mobility users, often causing insufficient service quality while on the move. Machine-type communication will cause further aggravation, with wirelessly connected sensors that constantly monitor/record our environment, and vehicles that autonomously exchange traffic- and safety-relevant information. In this article, we highlight challenges that must be addressed by future mobile communications to enable efficient support of large numbers of highly mobile users in networks that are crowded with quasi-static (nomadic) users. We survey existing solutions and put special emphasis on open issues and competing priorities.
Practice trends over time in the care of infants with hypoplastic left heart syndrome: A report from the National Pediatric Cardiology Quality Improvement Collaborative

OBJECTIVE The National Pediatric Cardiology Quality Improvement Collaborative (NPC-QIC) was established in 2008 to improve outcomes of hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) during the interstage period. They evaluated changes in patient variables and practice variation between early and late eras. DESIGN Data including demographic, operative, discharge, and follow-up variables from the first 100 patients (6/2008-1/2010) representing 18 centers were compared with the most recent 100 patients (1/2014-11/2014) from these same centers. RESULTS Prenatal diagnosis increased from 69% to 82% (P = .05). There were no differences in gestational age or weight at Norwood. A composite of any preoperative risk factor occurred more frequently in the early era (59% vs. 34%, P < .01). While mean age at Norwood was similar (8.3 vs. 6.6 days, P = .2), the standard deviation was significantly lower in the recent era (10.4-6.4 days, P = .04). Use of RV-PA conduit increased (67%-84%, P < .01). Rates of complete discharge communication with both the primary care physician (31%-97%, P < .01) and primary cardiologist (44%-97%, P < .01) increased substantially. There were limited changes in feeding strategies. Use of home monitoring program increased (76%-99%, P < .01) with all participants in the late era monitoring both oxygen saturation and weight. CONCLUSIONS Among NPC-QIC centers contributing patients to both eras, there were significant changes in preoperative risk factors, surgical strategy, discharge communication, and interstage care. Further study is required to determine an association between these changes and decreased mortality.
NEMATODES ASSOCIATED WITH APPLE ( MALUS PUMILA MILL . ) IN BALOCHISTAN , PAKISTAN

Sixty rhizosphere soil samples of apple seedlings and rootstock were collected from six nurseries of Khuzdar and Kalat districts of Balochistan. Six different plant nematodes were found associated with the seedlings and rootstock. The most predominant nematode was Xiphinema americanum, whereas the nematode found from a single locality was Tylenchus butteus. A matrix of similarities with respect to nematode assemblages for the six nurseries was computed.
Automated Extraction of Conceptual Models from User Stories via NLP

Natural language (NL) is still the predominant notation that practitioners use to represent software requirements. Albeit easy to read, NL does not readily highlight key concepts and relationships such as dependencies and conflicts. This contrasts with the inherent capability of graphical conceptual models to visualize a given domain in a holistic fashion. In this paper, we propose to automatically derive conceptual models from a concise and widely adopted NL notation for requirements: user stories. Due to their simplicity, we hypothesize that our approach can improve on the low accuracy of previous works. We present an algorithm that combines state-of-the-art heuristics and that is implemented in our Visual Narrator tool. We evaluate our work on two case studies wherein we obtained promising precision and recall results (between 80% and 92%). The creators of the user stories perceived the generated models as a useful artifact to communicate and discuss the requirements, especially for team members who are not yet familiar with the project.
Trade Liberalization and Poverty: A Macro-Micro Analysis in Ethiopia

Using a CGE model, this study analyses the impact of trade liberalization on poverty at the household level taking Ethiopia as a case. Two scenarios (complete tariff cut and uniform tariff scheme) suggest that further liberalization of trade has little short-run effect on the overall economy. However, the agriculture-based manufacturing sector (in particular, textile and leather) is likely to be strongly affected by further tariff reduction. Reductions in import prices of textiles and leather products increase imports of these goods implying that trade liberalization is likely to dampen domestic production of textile and leather products. Poverty shows a slight increase in both scenarios. At the national level, a complete tariff cut results in an increase in poverty by 2.8 percent, while a uniform tariff scheme raises poverty by 2.3 percent. Similarly, it is found that poverty gap and poverty severity indices show a slight increase. Comparing the effect of trade reform on different household groups, i.e. farm households, wage earner households and entrepreneur households, poverty in entrepreneur households increases by a higher percentage change (3.2 percent) in the complete tariff cut scenario. Poverty incidence increases by 1.7 and 1.5 percent for farm households and wage earners, respectively, under the complete tariff cut scenario. This comparison holds consistently when looking at the more realistic uniform tariff scheme. Entrepreneur households are at a disadvantage due to trade liberalization shown in the poverty gap and poverty severity indices. This is consistent with the theoretical argument that previously protected infant industries are highly affected by trade liberalization.
Rule‐based modeling: a computational approach for studying biomolecular site dynamics in cell signaling systems

Rule‐based modeling was developed to address the limitations of traditional approaches for modeling chemical kinetics in cell signaling systems. These systems consist of multiple interacting biomolecules (e.g., proteins), which themselves consist of multiple parts (e.g., domains, linear motifs, and sites of phosphorylation). Consequently, biomolecules that mediate information processing generally have the potential to interact in multiple ways, with the number of possible complexes and posttranslational modification states tending to grow exponentially with the number of binary interactions considered. As a result, only large reaction networks capture all possible consequences of the molecular interactions that occur in a cell signaling system, which is problematic because traditional modeling approaches for chemical kinetics (e.g., ordinary differential equations) require explicit network specification. This problem is circumvented through representation of interactions in terms of local rules. With this approach, network specification is implicit and model specification is concise. Concise representation results in a coarse graining of chemical kinetics, which is introduced because all reactions implied by a rule inherit the rate law associated with that rule. Coarse graining can be appropriate if interactions are modular, and the coarseness of a model can be adjusted as needed. Rules can be specified using specialized model‐specification languages, and recently developed tools designed for specification of rule‐based models allow one to leverage powerful software engineering capabilities. A rule‐based model comprises a set of rules, which can be processed by general‐purpose simulation and analysis tools to achieve different objectives (e.g., to perform either a deterministic or stochastic simulation). WIREs Syst Biol Med 2014, 6:13–36. doi: 10.1002/wsbm.1245
Financing health care expenditure in the OECD countries: Evidence from a heterogeneous, cross-sectional dependent panel

As apresentacoes habituais do modelo Hecksher-Ohlin (HO) nos livros de texto tem quatro problemas: analise por vezes superficial dos mecanismos economicos relevantes; escassa ilustracao atraves de exemplos economicos concretos da capacidade explicativa do modelo; utilizacao de analises matematica e sobretudo grafica frequentemente desnecessarias; e utilizacao da hipotese, muito discutivel, de que a remuneracao de um factor e determinada pela sua produtividade marginal – opcao que acaba por afastar a discussao da realidade economica concreta. Estes problemas – designadamente, a enfase na analise formal e o defice de analise economica e de exemplos ilustrativos - conferem um “sabor artificial” ao modelo HO, tornando-o pouco credivel. O presente artigo pretende dar um contributo para a resolucao deste problema, apresentando uma exposicao do modelo HO diferente das habituais nos livros de texto. Sao de destacar os seguintes contributos: i) a precisao da nocao de “preco do capital”; ii) o esclarecimento da nocao de abundância de capital; iii) a recuperacao de exemplos do texto classico de Ohlin muito elucidativos a respeito da capacidade explicativa do teorema HO; iv) uma possivel explicacao para o paradoxo de Leontieff; v) a ilustracao do efeito da especializacao sobre os precos relativos dos factores e dos bens com base em graficos diferentes dos habituais; vi) uma explicacao para a origem dos ganhos do comercio diferente da tradicional; vii) a discussao do efeito do comercio sobre o rendimento real dos factores sem a utilizacao da hipotese – muito discutivel - de que a remuneracao de um factor e determinada pela sua produtividade marginal; viii) a discussao do efeito que o comercio e o progresso tecnico terao tido sobre a evolucao dos salarios reais de trabalhadores americanos com diferentes niveis de qualificacao desde 1979; ix) por ultimo, a explicacao do teorema de Rybczynski a partir de um exemplo concreto: o aprofundamento da especializacao portuguesa em texteis, vestuario e calcado na decada a seguir ao 25 de Abril de 1974. JEL Classification: C33; H51; I10;
Title Benchmarking Multi-label Classification Algorithms

Multi-label classification is an approach to classification problems that allows each data point to be assigned to more than one class at the same time. Real life machine learning problems are often multi-label in nature—for example image labelling, topic identification in texts, and gene expression prediction. Many multi-label classification algorithms have been proposed in the literature and, although there have been some benchmarking experiments, many questions still remain about which approaches perform best for certain kinds of multi-label datasets. This paper presents a comprehensive benchmark experiment of eleven multilabel classification algorithms on eleven different datasets. Unlike many existing studies, we perform detailed parameter tuning for each algorithmdataset pair so as to allow a fair comparative analysis of the algorithms. Also, we report on a preliminary experiment which seeks to understand how the performance of different multi-label classification algorithms changes as the characteristics of multi-label datasets are adjusted.
Auckland's Urban Containment Dilemma: The Case for Green Belts

In November 2010, the new Auckland Council was established as a unitary authority. Before the amalgamation, the Auckland region consisted of seven Territorial Local Authorities (TLAs) and the Auckland Regional Council (ARC). Because of the rapid urban growth during the 1990s, the then local governments and the ARC had collectively decided to control urban sprawl by delineating a Metropolitan Urban Limits (MUL) boundary. New subdivisions, commercial and industrial development were controlled beyond the MUL in varying degrees through district plans and zoning regulations. Before the amalgamation, extensions of the MUL were a contentious and often highly litigated process that required approval from the ARC. Now, however, as a unified authority, the MUL boundary extensions are approved by the new Council without oversight from a regional council. This new governance arrangement has the potential to politicise an already contentious process. This article examines the tensions created by growth pressures on the urban fringe of the new Auckland Council and investigates various planning tools that may strengthen the Council’s ability to control urban growth. Containing urban growth has the potential to become a problem because the majority of the newly elected councillors represent urban areas and have a limited understanding of rural issues. Consequently, the voice of the rural areas in policymaking, budget setting and other areas has been diminished. To date, it appears that the Council has continued to embrace the ‘compact city’ model (Auckland Council, 2011, p. 11). It is also investigating alternative planning policy options that may be used to augment its efforts to contain urban sprawl. The Council’s dilemma is how to enable the expansion of the urban area, provide new business zoned land and lifestyle residential opportunities without diminishing the rural ambiance, recreational opportunities and most importantly, the rural economy. This research argues that a green belt policy should be
Toluene-Degrading Bacteria Are Chemotactic towards the Environmental Pollutants Benzene, Toluene, and Trichloroethylene

ABSTRACT The bioremediation of polluted groundwater and toxic waste sites requires that bacteria come into close physical contact with pollutants. This can be accomplished by chemotaxis. Five motile strains of bacteria that use five different pathways to degrade toluene were tested for their ability to detect and swim towards this pollutant. Three of the five strains (Pseudomonas putida F1,Ralstonia pickettii PKO1, and Burkholderia cepacia G4) were attracted to toluene. In each case, the response was dependent on induction by growth with toluene. Pseudomonas mendocina KR1 and P. putida PaW15 did not show a convincing response. The chemotactic responses of P. putidaF1 to a variety of toxic aromatic hydrocarbons and chlorinated aliphatic compounds were examined. Compounds that are growth substrates for P. putida F1, including benzene and ethylbenzene, were chemoattractants. P. putida F1 was also attracted to trichloroethylene (TCE), which is not a growth substrate but is dechlorinated and detoxified by P. putida F1. Mutant strains of P. putida F1 that do not oxidize toluene were attracted to toluene, indicating that toluene itself and not a metabolite was the compound detected. The two-component response regulator pair TodS and TodT, which control expression of the toluene degradation genes in P. putida F1, were required for the response. This demonstration that soil bacteria can sense and swim towards the toxic compounds toluene, benzene, TCE, and related chemicals suggests that the introduction of chemotactic bacteria into selected polluted sites may accelerate bioremediation processes.