Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Use of the 3M Precise Microvascular Anastomotic System in Grafting 1-mm Diameter Arteries with Polytetrafluoroethylene Prostheses: A Long-Term Study

The 3M Precise Microvascular Anastomotic System has had an experimental long-term testing for the first time in polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) 1-mm diameter arterial grafts. The grafts were placed in the infrarenal aorta of 48 rats. At different time intervals (2 weeks, 16 weeks and 1 year), each section containing a graft and its pair of anastomotic devices was removed and processed for light and scanning electron microscopy, with the aid of a newly-designed device. Eighty-three percent of the mechanically anastomosed grafts were found to be patent. Only 14.8 percent of the grafts harvested at 16 weeks or 1 year showed neo-endothelial lining on the inner surface of the graft. A constant finding of this study was the marked atrophy of the aortic media within the devices, that was progressively evident from 2 weeks to 1 year. A network of capillaries within the graft walls was present at 16 weeks. In one case, a large capillary was found to traverse the graft wall and to reach the luminal surface, suggesting that transmural capillaries may contribute to the formation of neo-intima in 1-mm PTFE grafts.
THE DYNAMIC OF VOLATILITY OF PAN-ASIAN PROPERTY PORTFOLIO MARKETS

The securitised market in Asia has become more progressive recently, especially with the introduction of Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs). The financial crisis such Global Financial Crisis has put the Asian property market into a convenient means to invest because of their sustained economy from that crisis. Nevertheless, the Asian property market has become more complex to understand, especially for institutional investors. As such, it is important to understand the market volatility especially the Asian property market. An understanding of volatility level especially in regional market is important to determine the cost of capital as well as to detect leverage decision and investment. Significant changes in volatility will have a significant impact to property portfolio market at the regional level. With the emergence of regional and global investors in property, it is important to answer the question on the situation of Asian property portfolio markets’ volatility. Moreover, economy of each of PanAsian countries will also be assessed to show the significance of their economy development and provide information for investor’s investment strategies from the volatility level point of view. This paper will assess the volatility level of panAsian property portfolio market over the period January 2000 to December 2015 by using EGARCH model.
Molecular Epidemiological Studies on Recently Isolated Foot-and-Mouth Disease Viruses

Phylogenetic analyses of VP1-coding sequences from viruses isolated from recent outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) are described. The PanAsia strain of FMD virus type O continues to be widespread throughout Asia, although other type O strains are also cocirculating in many countries. A new type O strain has been detected in India and the Middle East. Apparently new strains of types A and Asia 1 have been found in Iran and their possible origin is being investigated.
Horrifying basal cell carcinoma forearm lesion leading to shoulder disarticulation.

B cell carcinomas are the commonest of the skin malignancies and are also the least aggressive.1,2 We tell our patients that these lesions are called “carcinomas” because they rarely metastasize, and local control is achieved rather easily. However, once in a while, a truly aggressive basal cell carcinoma is encountered that defies all that has come to be associated with this particular lesion. We report the case of an elderly male with a surprisingly aggressive basal cell carcinoma.
Sperm DNA damage output parameters measured by the alkaline Comet assay and their importance

The alkaline Comet assay has shown high diagnostic value to determine male reproductive health and prognostic ability to predict ART success. Here, spermatozoon was analysed in 47 fertile donors and 238 patients, including 132 couples undergoing ART [semen was collected: Group I – within 3 months of their treatment (n = 79); and Group II – 3 months prior to their treatment (n = 53)]. We introduce four Comet distribution plots (A, B1, B2 and C) by plotting the level of DNA damage (x‐axis) and percentage of comets (y‐axis). Fertile donors had low mean DNA damage, olive tail moment and per cent of spermatozoa with damage and increased type A plots. Comet parameters were associated with clinical pregnancies in Group I. About 66% of couples with type A distribution plot were successful after ART, whereas couples with type B1, B2 and C distribution plots achieved 56%, 44% and 33% pregnancies respectively. The efficiency of the Comet assay was due to complete decondensation process, where the compact sperm nuclear DNA (28.2 ± 0.2 μm3) is decondensed to ~63 μm3 (before lysis) and ~1018 μm3 (after lysis). A combinational analysis of all the Comet output parameters may provide a comprehensive evaluation of patient's reproductive health as these parameters measure different aspects of DNA damage within the spermatozoa.
A Model of a Feed Forward Multi Layered Neural Network to Recognize Hand Written Bengali Digits

This work deals with the recognition of handwritten Bengali digits using feed forward multi layered neural network approach. It proposes an overall guideline of how to construct and train a neural network in order to give it the recognition capability. The paper presents findings of different experiments undertaken and concludes on the quality of recognition. The key aspect of this research is the solution network that successfully recognized handwritten digits with as high accuracy as 96% on casually written digits and 100% accuracy on carefully written digits. It also features two very simple, yet interesting and efficient network structures that were used. The advantage of these features is the small size, which takes smaller storage space and helps to train faster. Another major achievement is the implementation of a new activation function which theoretically reaches ‘zero error’ at some stage of the training. A sophisticated conversion and compression algorithm for digitizing the handwritten images has also been developed and described in the paper.
Are Traditional Signal Processing Techniques Rate Maximizing in Quantized SU-MISO Systems?

In this contribution, we provide an information theoretical analysis of coarsely-quantized downlink Single-User (SU)- Multiple Input Single Output (MISO) communication systems. We address the question of whether traditional signal processing techniques, i.e., proper signaling and channel rank transmit covariance matrices, are still optimal with respect to maximizing the data rate. We investigate the mutual information lower bound based on the Bussgang theorem, in the SU-MISO downlink scenario, where we assume 1-bit quantized Digital-to-Analog Converters (DACs) in the transmit antennas at the Base Station (BS). We prove that at low Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR), existing signal processing techniques maximize the data rate. However, at higher SNR we show, using counter examples, that the data rates can be improved using different signal processing techniques. These results show the potential merit of reconsidering signal processing techniques in coarsely- quantized SU-MISO downlink scenarios.
CHALLENGES IN INDUSTRIAL APPLICATIONS OF TECHNICAL LIGNINS

The primary aim of modern biorefineries is the efficient conversion of lignocellulosic materials into valuable products. Sugars and oils can be converted into valuable chemicals, but processing of lignin is still a challenge. A vast amount of lignin is incinerated to produce process steam and energy, and only a very small part is used for the production of value-added products. Technical lignins are isolated as by-streams in lignocellulosic refineries, e.g., as kraft, soda, organosolv, and hydrolysis lignins, as well as lignosulphonates. They have a modified structure and contain impurities that are dependent on the processing method. The structure and the composition of technical lignins restrict their subsequent applications. This paper reviews limiting factors in utilization of technical lignins. Four major classes of problems are identified, and approaches to overcoming these problems are suggested.
Protection by simvastatin on hyperglycemia-induced endothelial dysfunction through inhibiting NLRP3 inflammasomes

Recent studies have demonstrated that NLRP3 inflammasome complex acts as pivotal elements to initiate inflammatory responses and plays an important role in the dysfunction of cardiovascular complications. Meanwhile, simvastatin prevents vascular endothelial dysfunction from inflammasome invasion contributing to reduce cardiovascular risk. However, Whether or not the simvastatin improves vascular endothelial barrier function through inhibiting the activation of NLRP3 inflammasome pathway remains unknown. Here, we explored the role and mechanisms of simvastatin in the activation of NLRP3 inflammasome which are involved in vascular endothelial hyperpermeability causing by the disruption of tight junction protein ZO-1 and adherens junction protein VE-Cadherin, an early initiation of cardiovascular complication. Our results found that high glucose significantly induced the formation and activation of NLRP3 inflammasome through NADPH oxidase-dependent reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation, associated with vascular endothelial hyperpermeability causing by ZO-1 and VE-Cadherin disruption in the rat aortic endothelial cells (RAECs). Simvastatin treatment remarkably abolished vascular endothelial hyperpermeability and enhanced the protein expression of ZO-1 and VE-Cadherin through NLRP3 inflammasome. Mechanistically, the inhibitory role of simvastatin endothelial hyperpermeability is attributed to the decreased release of cytoplasmic high mobility group box protein-1 (HMGB1) derived from endothelial NLRP3 inflammasome activation. We further confirm the protective role of simvastatin on vascular leakage in the heart of diabetic rats injected with Evans blue dye, which was associated with HMGB1 release in the serum. Collectively, the mechanism of simvastatin treatment alleviating vascular endothelial permeability dysfunction may be through inhibiting the NLRP3 inflammasome-dependent HMGB1 release in RAECs.
Exploiting extra-textual and linguistic information in keyphrase extraction

Abstract Keyphrases are the most important phrases of documents that make them suitable for improving natural language processing tasks, including information retrieval, document classification, document visualization, summarization and categorization. Here, we propose a supervised framework augmented by novel extra-textual information derived primarily from Wikipedia. Wikipedia is utilized in such an advantageous way that – unlike most other methods relying on Wikipedia – a full textual index of all the Wikipedia articles is not required by our approach, as we only exploit the category hierarchy and a list of multiword expressions derived from Wikipedia. This approach is not only less resource intensive, but also produces comparable or superior results compared to previous similar works. Our thorough evaluations also suggest that the proposed framework performs consistently well on multiple datasets, being competitive or even outperforming the results obtained by other state-of-the-art methods. Besides introducing features that incorporate extra-textual information, we also experimented with a novel way of representing features that are derived from the POS tagging of the keyphrase candidates.
Mild Traumatic Brain Injury: A Midwest Survey of Discharge Teaching Practices of Emergency Department Nurses

Research indicates that the assessment and discharge teaching practices for persons with traumatic brain injury are more focused on ruling out severe brain injury and informing the person about “red flags” warranting a return visit to the medical provider. Our primary purpose was to determine the extent to which discharge practices were aligned with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines contained within the Acute Concussion Evaluation care plan. Responses from 87 nurses (25.0% response rate) to a tailored survey were analyzed to determine emergency department nurses’ discharge teaching practices for adults who experienced a mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI). Results indicated that nurses in general were focused on injury-specific information and less often provided information about MTBI, symptom management, or strategies for preventing future brain damage. System improvements are justified to provide injured persons with a clearly defined diagnosis and instructions for follow-up and symptom management.
Production of Secondary Organic Aerosol from Multiphase Monoterpenes

Nonmethane volatile organic compounds (NMOCs) represent a key class of chemical species governing global tropospheric chemistry and the global carbon cycle (Fehsenfeld et al. 1992; Singh and Zimmerman 1992). The most important anthropogenic sources of hydrocarbons include fossil fuel combustion, direct release from industry, industrial processing of chemicals, and waste. The global estimated anthropogenic hydrocarbon flux is 1.0 × 1014 gC per year (Singh and Zimmerman 1992). Biological processes in both marine and terrestrial environments contribute to biogenic hydrocarbon sources. For the terrestrial biosphere, the principal hydrocarbon sources come from vegetation. In regions such as eastern North America, biogenic hydrocarbon emission rate estimates exceed anthropogenic emissions (Guenther et al. 1994). At the global scale it is estimated that vegetation emits 1.2 × 1015 gC per year, an amount equivalent to global methane emissions (Guenther et al. 1995).
Using coupled inductors to enhance transient performance of multi-phase buck converters

Motivated by modern microprocessors' demand for high-current, low-voltage power with large transient load steps, a scalable multi-phase coupled inductor buck circuit is presented which delivers 80 A at 1.2 V from a 12 V input. 4-phase coupling and 1 MHz per-phase switching frequency enable the use of 50 nil per-phase leakage inductance so that the system is capable of supporting 15%-to-full-to-15% load transient steps with a 72 mV output voltage window using only a small bank of MLCC output capacitors.
Derivatives and the Bankruptcy Code: Why the Special Treatment?

The collapse of Long Term Capital Management (LTCM) in Fall 1998 and the Federal Reserve Bank's subsequent efforts to orchestrate a bailout raise important questions about the structure of the Bankruptcy Code. The Code contains numerous provisions affording special treatment to financial derivatives contracts, the most important of which exempts these contracts from the "automatic stay" and permits counterparties to terminate derivatives contracts with a debtor in bankruptcy and seize underlying collateral. No other counterparty or creditor of the debtor has such freedom; to the contrary, the automatic stay prohibits them from undertaking any act that threatens the debtor's assets. It is commonly believed that the exemption for derivatives contracts helps reduce "systemic risk" in financial markets, that is, the risk that multiple major financial market participants will fail at the same time and, as a result, drastically reduce market liquidity. Indeed, Congress is now contemplating reforms that would extend the exemption to include a broader array of financial contracts, all in the name of reducing systemic risk. This is a mistake. The Bankruptcy Code can do little to reduce systemic risk and may in fact exacerbate it, as the experience of LTCM suggests. Risk of a systemic meltdown arose there and prompted intervention by the Fed precisely because derivatives contracts were exempt from the automatic stay. Derivatives contracts may merit special treatment, but fear of systemic risk is a red herring. A better, efficiency-based reason for treating derivatives contracts differently arises naturally from the economic theory underlying the automatic stay. The stay protects assets to the extent they are needed to preserve a firm's going-concern surplus (its value above and beyond the sale value of its assets). Assets are needed to preserve going-concern surplus only if they are firm-specific, that is, only if they are worth more inside the firm than outside it. This is often true for plant and equipment. It is never true for derivatives contracts. This observation helps rationalize the Code's treatment of derivatives contracts and other features of the automatic stay. There are, however, downsides to treating derivatives contracts differently (creditors, for example, would like to disguise loans as derivatives contracts). These downsides are probably not significant, but they highlight the fragility of the Code's treatment of derivatives contracts, which should worry members of Congress as they consider arguments to expand the Code's exemptions for derivatives contracts.
Localization of the genes for the two chlorophyll a‐conjugated polypeptides (mol. wt. 51 and 44 kd) of the photosystem II reaction center on the spinach plastid chromosome

A core particle of the water‐oxidizing photosystem II reaction center has been prepared from stacked spinach thylakoid membranes by a procedure involving extraction with the non‐ionic detergent dodecyl‐β‐D‐maltoside and centrifugation in sucrose gradients. The protein‐pigment complex consists of at least four polypeptide species: two components with mol. wts. of 51 and 44 kd which are conjugated with chlorophyll a and β‐carotene, the herbicide‐binding protein of mol. wt. 32 kd and cytochrome b 559 (11 kd). The genes for the 51‐and 44‐kd polypeptides have been located on the circular 150‐kbp spinach plastid chromosome. They were identified by hybrid‐selection mapping, in vitro transcription‐translation of recombinant DNAs and specific antisera which were used to characterize the translation products. The plastid chromosome carries one uninterrupted copy for each of these genes in its large single‐copy region. The gene for the 51‐kd protein (which probably bears the P680 reaction center chlorophyll a) is located in close proximity to the gene for cytochrome b6, and some 70 kbp away from the gene for the ‘32‐kd’ herbicide‐binding protein of the reducing side of photosystem II. The gene for the 44‐kd protein is situated halfway between these two genes adjacent to the gene for the P700 chlorophyll a apoprotein of the photosystem I reaction center. Both photosystem II genes are transcribed into discrete RNA species in the same direction but from the opposite strand as the gene for the ‘32‐kd’ protein.
Residential Patterns at Monte Alban, Oaxaca, Mexico

Monte Alban was founded in period I (about 500 B.C.) probably by households from previously existing villages in the Valley of Oaxaca. There is some evidence for status variation in period I households, but more information is needed to determine its role in the early development of the city. During the millennium or more of urban growth at Monte Alban a change occurred in the organization of household space from an open outward-directed focus to a closed inward-directed one. This was accompanied by a formalization of household and interhousehold space and by a standardization in household sizes and burial treatment reflecting emergence of a social class hierarchy. These changes indicate development from a flexible to a highly structured society, which may be a general trend in urbanization.
Die Wertschätzung lokaler Biodiversität mit Geogames fördern – die Bedeutung von spielbezogenem Enjoyment im Spiel „FindeVielfalt Simulation“

Der Schutz und die nachhaltige Nutzung lokaler Biodiversitat sind wichtige Grundlagen fur das menschliche Wohlergehen und wurden in der nationalen Strategie zur biologischen Vielfalt als Ziele festgeschrieben. Lokale Biodiversitat spielt im Alltag von Jugendlichen jedoch kaum eine Rolle. Um die Wahrnehmung und Wertschatzung lokaler Biodiversitat bei Jugendlichen zu fordern, wurde im Rahmen des Projekts „Finde Vielfalt – Biodiversitat erleben mit ortsbezogenen Spielen (BioDiv2Go)“ das Geogame „FindeVielfalt Simulation“ (FVS) im Rahmen einer Educational Design Research Studie entwickelt und evaluiert. Das Geogame FVS ist ein ortsbezogenes digitales Spiel fur Smartphones, das die reale mit einer virtuellen Welt verbindet. Die Spieler tauchen in eine Spielerzahlung ein, navigieren mit GPS im realen Naturraum und losen dort verschiedene Aufgaben, die zur Entdeckung der Natur anregen. Der Einsatz des Smartphones ermoglicht durch die Einbettung von Videosequenzen, Simulationen und einem unmittelbaren Feedbacksystem beim Losen der Aufgaben einen exklusiven Lernzugang, den es ohne die Technologie nicht gabe. Die ortsgebundenen Aufgaben garantieren dabei die Naturkontakte und die Auseinandersetzung mit der konkreten lokalen Biodiversitat. Das Hauptanliegen dieser Studie ist, die Bedeutung des spielbezogenen Enjoyments innerhalb der Wirksamkeitsanalyse des Geogames „FindeVielfalt Simulation“ (FVS) zu erforschen. Die theoriegeleitete Entwicklung und evidenzbasierte Uberprufung des Geogames FVS und des Rahmenmodells wird in mehreren Design- und Evaluationszyklen vollzogen und ausfuhrlich dargestellt. Die Ergebnisse der Interventionsstudie zeigen, dass durch die Nutzung des Geogames FVS bei den jugendlichen Spielern das biodiversitatsbezogene Wissen zunimmt und die Naturverbundenheit steigt. Das spielbezogene Enjoyment beeinflusst dabei die Steigerung der Naturverbundenheit positiv. Der spielbezogene Ansatz mit den Smartphones stellt in diesem Fall einen Mehrwert dar. Geschlechtereffekte konnen nicht festgestellt werden. Alterseffekte zeigen sich bereits bei den Einstiegswerten vor der Intervention in den Dimensionen Wissen und Naturverbundenheit. Fur die Steigerung der Naturverbundenheit zeigt sich ein signifikanter Effekt beim soziookonomischen Status. Demnach profitieren hier besonders die Jugendlichen mit einem niedrigen soziookonomischen Status. Da die Studie eine Feldstudie darstellt, sind die Ergebnisse nicht generalisierbar. Sie zeigen aber fur die Stichprobe bedeutsame Effekte. Neben den wissenschaftlichen Erkenntnissen werden aus dieser Studie auch praxisrelevante Designkriterien fur die Entwicklung ortsbezogener digitaler Spiele abgeleitet. Im Rahmen des Educational Design Research Ansatzes wurden wahrend des gesamten Prozesses sowohl Experten der verschiedenen wissenschaftlichen Bereiche als auch Experten der padagogischen Praxis wie auch die Jugendlichen selbst einbezogen. Dadurch werden die wissenschaftliche Strenge und Gultigkeit und auch die praktische Relevanz der Studie sichergestellt.
Are services really that valuable? Two diverse cases in an intra-company technology transfer setting

Services are currently receiving widespread managerial and academic attention. This study challenges the prevailing celebration of services by questioning the amount of value services can contribute to an offering. Service paradigm is approached in the telecommunications industry by utilizing qualitative research methods via two diverse cases in an intra-company technology transfer setting. The results indicate that services are regarded as essential and inseparable components to the technology transfer framework. Services can, however, create customer value only after the customer perceives the maturity of the transferred technology as sufficient. Further research should be directed to mapping the value paradigm in the technology transfer domain by covering other sources of value to formulate a holistic view of the provided value in technology transfers.