Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Summarization Based on Event-cluster

Event-based summarization extracts and organizes summary sentences in terms of the events which stand for complete meaning of sentences. However, the basic event-based extracting method does not take the similarity of events into account, which leads to data sparseness. As a way to solve the problem, we explored a new method, what we call the shallow semantic pattern, which extracts a semantic representation of crucial information in the text. By employing shallow semantic pattern in event-based summarization, not only can we group up the similar events according to the acceptation of word, but also the similarity based on frequent application is detected. We chose four assessment methods in ROUGE to evaluate our system, and used the text sets in DUC 2005 as the inputs of our system to get the summaries. In order to do the comparison, the results of the experiments done on the other four systems are listed, and the outcome shows that our method achieves an encouraging level.
Detection of IDH1 R132H Mutation in Acute Myeloid Leukemia by Mutation-specific Immunohistochemistry

IDH1 mutations are present but are uncommon in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and although prognostically favorable in gliomas their clinical significance in AML is unclear. Some have associated IDH1 mutations with inferior outcome, whereas others found no association with prognosis. Complicating these analyses is the need to sequence IDH1 from leukemic blasts, which is technically challenging and not yet routine. Mutation-specific antibodies enable robust, cost-effective detection of mutations in routine biopsy samples. Immunohistochemistry for the R132H mutation-specific antibody was performed in a tissue microarray containing 159 cases of AML, detecting the R132H mutation in 7 cases (4.4%). Positivity was associated with intermediate risk cytogenetics. Our results demonstrate an association between the R132H IDH1 mutation and intermediate risk cytogenetics in AML, suggesting that R132H IDH1 mutation may be associated with improved clinical outcome and demonstrate the feasibility of using mutation-specific antibodies to genotype and subclassify AML.
Feasibility of T and Z scores from magnetic resonance imaging data for quantification of cartilage loss in osteoarthritis.

OBJECTIVE T scores (an indicator of the difference between patients and young healthy subjects) and Z scores (an indicator of the difference between patients and age-matched healthy subjects) are used in the diagnosis of osteoporosis and form the current basis for the definition of osteoporosis by the World Health Organization. We tested the feasibility of using T and Z scores derived from quantitative cartilage imaging with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for the diagnosis of osteoarthritis (OA). METHODS High-resolution MR images of tibial cartilage were acquired from 126 young healthy adults (ages 20-35 years), 24 age-matched elderly healthy adults (ages 50-75 years), 7 OA patients prior to tibial osteotomy, and 7 OA patients prior to knee arthroplasty. Cartilage volume, thickness, surface area, and original joint surface area (before onset of disease) were determined in the medial and lateral tibia. RESULTS The cartilage volume of the medial tibia of osteotomy patients with varus malalignment displayed moderate T scores (-1.0), and more negative T scores (-3.8) were observed in knee arthroplasty patients with varus malalignment. Normalization of the cartilage volume to the original joint surface area substantially enhanced the scores in patients undergoing osteotomy (-2.3) and in patients undergoing knee arthroplasty (-5.5), and this was superior to the normalization ratios of cartilage volume to body height and cartilage volume to body weight, in terms of distinguishing the loss of articular cartilage. CONCLUSION Quantitative analysis of OA by MRI is feasible using T and Z scores. However, cartilage volume should be normalized to the individual joint surface area in order to maximize the discriminatory power of this technique for the diagnosis of OA.
Is It What You Know or Who You Know? The Role of Social Capital in Information Technology Project Management

Both anecdotal evidence and empirical studies have demonstrated the importance of a project manager’s knowledge and experience as key success factors in information technology projects. What a project manager knows is certainly important and has been the subject of many research studies; however, who an information technology project manager knows is also important. In this paper, we introduce researchers to social capital theory, which has received some attention in the information systems literature, but not widespread notice in the information technology project management literature. To inform researchers about this theory, we offer suggestions as to how this theory has implications for both researchers and practitioners and provide suggestions for future research.
Enhancement of speech over wireless network using sinusoidal modeling and synthesis

This paper presents a non-invasive technique using wavelet speech signal analysis to estimate the degree of severity on a patient with vocal cord disorders. The early symptom is usually characterized by a perceivable hoarse voice that changes with respect to the degree of severity. The first step was to estimate the fundamental frequency and the formant of the speech. Using these features, we were able to measure the distortion using statistical analysis of jitter, shimmer, and harmonics-to-noise ratio (HNR), respectively. From this experiment, prescribed thresholds were set on the distortion features to classify automatically whether a subject was normal, or suffer from a mild or severe. This classification was then validated by the ear-nose-throat doctor using the fiber-optic laryngoscope (gold standard technique). The second experiment, we propose sinusoidal modeling synthesis to enhance the speech signal transmitted over wireless network and compared the results to the Daubechies wavelet speech analysis technique. The results of both experiments suggest that the proposed technique may be used as an alternative non-invasive diagnostic techniaue.
Do Not Trust the Trolls: Predicting Credibility in Community Question Answering Forums

We address information credibility in community forums, in a setting in which the credibility of an answer posted in a question thread by a particular user has to be predicted. First, we motivate the problem and we create a publicly available annotated English corpus by crowdsourcing. Second, we propose a large set of features to predict the credibility of the answers. The features model the user, the answer, the question, the thread as a whole, and the interaction between them. Our experiments with ranking SVMs show that the credibility labels can be predicted with high performance according to several standard IR ranking metrics, thus supporting the potential usage of this layer of credibility information in practical applications. The features modeling the profile of the user (in particular trollness) turn out to be most important, but embedding features modeling the answer and the similarity between the question and the answer are also very relevant. Overall, half of the gap between the baseline performance and the perfect classifier can be covered using the proposed features.
Differences in rate dependence of transient outward current in rabbit and human atrium.

Both human and rabbit atrial cells possess a large 4-aminopyridine-sensitive transient outward current (I(to1)). However, the slow reactivation of this current in rabbits suggests that its role may be limited to very slow heart rates. We used whole cell voltage-clamp recordings to evaluate the rate dependency of I(to1) in rabbit and human atrial myocytes. Our results show that at physiological temperatures in human atrium, I(to1) is rate independent at rates between 0.1 and 4.0 Hz. Peak I(to1) at 4.0 Hz in rabbit was 3.4 +/- 1.4% (mean +/- SE) of current at 0.1 Hz (P < 0.001, n = 8), whereas in humans, peak I(to1) at 4.0 Hz averaged 88.8 +/- 6.1% of the current at 0.1 Hz (P > 0.05, n = 7). These differences were due to marked discrepancies in reactivation time course, which was biexponential with time constants that averaged 650 +/- 159 ms and 8.4 +/- 1.1 s in rabbit (n = 8) compared with a single exponential time constant of 33.6 +/- 6.8 ms (n = 8) in human atrium (both at 30 degrees C). These findings suggest that I(to1) can contribute importantly to atrial repolarization at all physiological heart rates in humans. Furthermore, these results emphasize that there are important interspecies variations in the rate dependence of I(to1), which need to be considered in understanding the physiological and pharmacological regulation of atrial repolarization.
Macrophage-Targeted Photodynamic Therapy: Scavenger Receptor Expression and Activation State

Macrophage-targeted photodynamic therapy (PDT) may have applications in the selective killing of cells involved in atherosclerosis, inflammation and tumor. We have previously shown that a conjugate between the photosensitizer chlorin(e6) (ce6) and maleylated bovine serum albumin (BSA-mal) gives highly selective targeting to macrophages. In this report we examine the effect of macrophage activation and scavenger receptor class A (SRA) expression on this targeting in two murine macrophage tumor cell lines (RAW264.7 and P388D1) and a control murine mammary sarcoma cell line (EMT-6). Cells were pretreated with interferon gamma (IFNγ) and/or lipopolysaccharide (LPS) followed byBSA-ce6-mal addition, and SRA expression, tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFα) release, conjugate uptake and PDT killing were measured. Both macrophage cell lines expressed SRA and took up conjugate specifically in an SRA-dependent manner, but differences were observed in their response to activation. RAW264.7 expressed increasingly more SRA and took up increasingly more BSA-ce6-mal in response to IFNγ, LPS, and IFNγ+LPS, respectively. The PDT killing did not follow the same pattern as the uptake of the photosensitizer. The increase in uptake in the IFNγ treated cells did not lead to an increase in PDT killing, while stimulation with LPS or IFNγ+LPS resulted in a significant protection against PDT, despite a significant increase in photosensitizer uptake. P388D1 was responsive to neither IFNγ, nor to LPS, or to IFNγ+LPS with respect to SRA expression, conjugate uptake, and PDT killing. These data may have implications for the use of PDT to target physiologically undesirable macrophage subtypes implicated in disease, and on how manipulation of the activation status of the macrophage will influence the PDT effect.
Evidence of photosymbiosis in Palaeozoic tabulate corals

Coral reefs form the most diverse of all marine ecosystems on the Earth. Corals are among their main components and owe their bioconstructing abilities to a symbiosis with algae (Symbiodinium). The coral–algae symbiosis had been traced back to the Triassic (ca 240 Ma). Modern reef-building corals (Scleractinia) appeared after the Permian–Triassic crisis; in the Palaeozoic, some of the main reef constructors were extinct tabulate corals. The calcium carbonate secreted by extant photosymbiotic corals bears characteristic isotope (C and O) signatures. The analysis of tabulate corals belonging to four orders (Favositida, Heliolitida, Syringoporida and Auloporida) from Silurian to Permian strata of Europe and Africa shows these characteristic carbon and oxygen stable isotope signatures. The δ18O to δ13C ratios in recent photosymbiotic scleractinians are very similar to those of Palaeozoic tabulates, thus providing strong evidence of such symbioses as early as the Middle Silurian (ca 430 Ma). Corals in Palaeozoic reefs used the same cellular mechanisms for carbonate secretion as recent reefs, and thus contributed to reef formation.
Evidence from Purchases and Redemptions in the Spanish Equity Fund Market

Abstract The potential relationship between fund flows and performance is a remarkable topic in the mutual fund industry that has been explored by many empirical academic papers. In this work, it is shown that investors in Spanish equity funds respond to past good performance by increasing their (net) purchases, and to past poor performance by reducing their (net) purchases. However, the relationship between flows and performance appears to be non-linear. This non-linearity is different from the one observed in most of the previous research papers. These papers did not find any response to poor performance. Net purchases, purchases and redemptions are analysed separately and, as a new feature, the retail and wholesale markets of mutual funds are addressed. The comparison of the two markets reveals some interesting differences on the determinants of the financial decisions regarding purchasing or selling shares of equity funds. It was also found that investor sensitivity to poor performance is reduced in the case of more visible funds. This puzzling result, which originates in the retail segment, could be explained in terms of the market power of fund families.
The Procoagulatory Effects of Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol in Human Platelets

Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is increasingly used for the long-term treatment of nausea, vomiting, cachexia, and chronic pain. Recent reports, however, have indicated an increased risk of myocardial infarction and thromboangiitis obliterans after THC intake. Blood platelets have an essential role in the pathogenesis of these two diseases, but it is unclear whether platelets are potential target cells for cannabinoids. We investigated the effects of THC on human platelets and the expression of cannabinoid receptors on their cell membranes in this in vitro study. The effects of THC (final concentrations 10−7 to 10−5 M) on the expression of activated platelet fibrinogen receptor (glycoprotein IIb-IIIa) and P selectin were characterized by flow cytometry. Western blotting was performed with platelet membrane preparations to determine the surface expression of cannabinoid receptors on human platelets. THC increased the expression of glycoprotein IIb-IIIa and P selectin on human platelets in a concentration-dependent manner. The two known cannabinoid receptors (CB1 and CB2) were both detected on the cell membrane of human platelets. Our functional results may suggest a receptor-dependent pathway of THC-induced platelet activation. However, further in vivo studies are warranted to evaluate the role of cannabinoid receptors in mediating the demonstrated procoagulatory effect of THC.
Consumer search for information in the digital age: An empirical study of prepurchase search for automobiles

This research explores whether earlier findings on the economics of consumer information search still hold in the digital age. Through an Internet-based survey conducted with automobile shoppers and purchasers, we examine how individuals differ in the use of the Internet and in the patterns of substitution they exhibit across sources and media. Survey results show that basic economics continues to drive information search in general, measured in terms of amount (time) and breadth (number of sources). However, analysis of consumers’ information search behavior suggests that an additional dimension of search—whether the source is offline or online—needs to be added to the traditional two dimensions of impersonal/personal and independent/seller-dominated sources. We also analyze trends in the use of the Internet as an information source based on recency of respondents’ shopping experiences.
pH-Responsive Polymeric Nanoparticles as Drug Delivery Systems

Micelles are excellent devices to be used as controlled drug delivery systems since they exhibit the ability to protect the drug or encapsulated substance from the routes of degradation until they reach the site of action: moreover, they can pass through biological barriers and reach intracellular compartments. In addition, when a drug is administered and released from the dosage form, the kinetic behavior of the drug depends largely on their chemical structure. However, when the drug is immersed at the core of a NP, the physicochemical properties that actually affect the distribution of the drug in the body are those from the latter. As a result, this approach controls drug release, diminishing side effects and increasing therapeutic rates. In the present work novel smart micelles have been prepared and tested as drug delivery systems.
ADAPTIVE GLOBAL ASYMPTOTIC STABLE BASED ON MODEL REFERENCE AND DISTURBANCE ATTENUATION FOR MIMO UNCERTAIN LINEAR SYSTEMS WITH PERSISTENT DISTURBANCES

This paper addresses an Adaptive Global Asymptotical Stable (adaptive GAS) controller for multi-input multi output (MIMO) uncertain linear systems based on the model reference adaptive control. There are many uncertainties, such as system parameter uncertainties, external load disturbance, friction force and model uncertainty. These are always reducing the performance quality of the system. To deal with these problems, we propose a control algorithm that is made by taking advantage of adaptive based model reference and state feedback. The Lyapunov theory is used to verify the asymptotical stable of the closed-loop system even in the present of persistent and other kind of disturbances. An application to control the permanent magnet linear synchronous motors and inverted pendulum systems is a good example for verifying this method.
The role of Islamic finance in tackling financial exclusion in the UK

Abstract The role of Islamic finance in tackling financial exclusion in the UK As the fundamental principles of Islamic finance are socio-economic justice and benevolence (Al-Adle Wal-ihsan), some commentators have raised serious questions about the social benefits that Islamic banks have brought to those on low incomes. This research involves an empirical study looking at the financial exclusion of less affluent UK Muslims before and since Shari’a compliant finance was introduced. The impact of the introduction of Islamic banking in enhancing the financial inclusion level of low income Muslims is assessed. The main findings of the research are that the majority of UK Muslims are financially excluded due to the absence of banking products that would meet their needs and would also comply with Shari’a. The research also found that although UK Muslims have a preference for Shari’a compliant finance, the Shari’a compliant financial products currently on offer did not significantly enhance their financial inclusiveness. According to the research findings, the main reasons for the low take-up of the existing Shari’a compliant financial products relate to the strong skepticism about the authenticity of such products. Similarly, affordability, acceptability and accessibility of these products remained a real cause for concern for most of the less affluent UK Muslims. The research concluded that the providers of Shari’a compliant finance need to redesign their current provision to make it more relevant to the financial services needs of the less affluent UK Muslim communities. The research further suggested that Islamic micro-financing schemes should be set up by mainstream financial institutions to cater for the financial services needs of the less affluent UK Muslims. Strong coordination between governmental institutions tackling financial exclusion, providers of Shari’a compliant financial products and local community developmental organizations was also recommended.
Inhibition of iPLA2β and of stretch‐activated channels by doxorubicin alters dystrophic muscle function

Chronic elevation in intracellular Ca2+ concentration participates in death of skeletal muscle from mdx mice, a model for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). Candidate pathways mediating this Ca2+ overload involve store‐operated channels (SOCs) and stretch‐activated channels (SACs), which are modulated by the Ca2+‐independent form of PL A2 (iPLA2). We investigated the effect of doxorubicin (Dox), a chemotherapeutic agent reported to inhibit iPLA2 in other systems, on the activity of this enzyme and on the consequences on Ca2+ handling and muscle function in mdx mice.
Molecular characterization and detection of variants of Taenia multiceps in sheep in Turkey

SUMMARY Taenia multiceps is a cestode (family Taeniidae) that in its adult stage lives in the small intestine of dogs and other canids. The metacestode, known as Coenurus cerebralis, is usually found in the central nervous system including brain and spinal card in sheep and other ruminants. The presence of cysts typically leads to neurological symptoms that in the majority of cases result in the death of the animal. Coenurosis could cause high losses in sheep farms because the disease commonly affects young animals. A total of 20 C. cerebralis isolates collected from naturally infected sheep in Mardin province of Turkey were characterized through the polymerase chain reaction and sequencing of a fragment of cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (CO1) gene. The results showed that the CO1 gene sequences were highly conserved in C. cerebralis isolates. Phylogenetic analysis based on partial CO1 gene sequences revealed that C. cerebralis isolates were composed of three different variants.
Comparing Lagged Linear Correlation, Lagged Regression, Granger Causality, and Vector Autoregression for Uncovering Associations in EHR Data

Time series analysis methods have been shown to reveal clinical and biological associations in data collected in the electronic health record. We wish to develop reliable high-throughput methods for identifying adverse drug effects that are easy to implement and produce readily interpretable results. To move toward this goal, we used univariate and multivariate lagged regression models to investigate associations between twenty pairs of drug orders and laboratory measurements. Multivariate lagged regression models exhibited higher sensitivity and specificity than univariate lagged regression in the 20 examples, and incorporating autoregressive terms for labs and drugs produced more robust signals in cases of known associations among the 20 example pairings. Moreover, including inpatient admission terms in the model attenuated the signals for some cases of unlikely associations, demonstrating how multivariate lagged regression models' explicit handling of context-based variables can provide a simple way to probe for health-care processes that confound analyses of EHR data.
A PID and fuzzy logic based method for Quadrotor aircraft control motion

This paper proposes a quadrotor aircraft motion control method based on the combination of PID and a fuzzy control algorithm. The dynamical system of quadrotor aircrafts is modeled. Target colors are recognized and tracked based on the OpenCV. The target-following flight attitudes of the quadrotor is controlled by a fuzzy PID control algorithm. We focus on exterior, unknown, interfering factors, such as gusts, and adjust kp, ki, kd parameters online in real time. This allows the response speed of the quadrotor flight control system to increase and improves the anti-jamming capability for the exterior non-linear factors. The simulation of the control system is accomplished with the Matlab/Simulink, and the real flight tests are based on the Parrot AR Drone 2.0 quadrotor aircraft, which verifies the effectiveness of the proposed method. The proposed method is able to improve the adaptability of the quadrotor for exterior, environmental changes, shorten the system adjustment time and improve the following accuracy of the quadrotor.