Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Assessing pneumatic tube systems with patient-specific populations and laboratory-derived criteria.

To the Editor: The October 2011 issue of Clinical Chemistry highlights the importance of monitoring pneumatic tube systems (PTSs) to control preanalytical factors that may affect laboratory results (1, 2). Two important themes emerge: ( a ) the possible requirement of more-frequent monitoring if the PTS produces changes in the 3-axis acceleration (i.e., forces) and ( b ) consideration for specific populations of patients (i.e., hematology and/or oncology patients) whose blood samples may be more susceptible to PTS. As Felder noted, the work by Streichert et al. may usher in a new practice for monitoring PTS by means of data loggers (1, 2); however, in the interim, laboratories will be required to monitor PTSs with split-sample testing. In this regard, the number of studies and approaches that have assessed the impact of PTSs on the quality of samples has been surprisingly limited (3). Moreover, the available guidelines have mainly suggested that PTSs be evaluated and that certain analytes may be affected by the automated system (e.g., lactate dehydrogenase), whereas others (e.g., aspartate aminotransferase) may not (4). Additional questions arising from the study of Streichert et al. are whether samples from healthy …
Conditional Transgenesis Using Dimerizable Cre (DiCre)

Cre recombinase is extensively used to engineer the genome of experimental animals. However, its usefulness is still limited by the lack of an efficient temporal control over its activity. We have recently developed a conceptually new approach to regulate Cre recombinase, that we have called Dimerizable Cre or DiCre. It is based on splitting Cre into two inactive moieties and fusing them to FKBP12 (FK506-binding protein) and FRB (binding domain of the FKBP12-rapamycin associated protein), respectively. These latter can be efficiently hetero-dimerized by rapamycin, leading to the reinstatement of Cre activity. We have been able to show, using in vitro approaches, that this ligand-induced dimerization is an efficient way to regulate Cre activity, and presents a low background activity together with a high efficiency of recombination following dimerization. To test the in vivo performance of this system, we have, in the present work, knocked-in DiCre into the Rosa26 locus of mice. To evaluate the performance of the DiCre system, mice have been mated with indicator mice (Z/EG or R26R) and Cre-induced recombination was examined following activation of DiCre by rapamycin during embryonic development or after birth of progenies. No recombination could be observed in the absence of treatment of the animals, indicating a lack of background activity of DiCre in the absence of rapamycin. Postnatal rapamycin treatment (one to five daily injection, 10 mg/kg i.p) induced recombination in a number of different tissues of progenies such as liver, heart, kidney, muscle, etc. On the other hand, recombination was at a very low level following in utero treatment of DiCre×R26R mice. In conclusion, DiCre has indeed the potentiality to be used to establish conditional Cre-deleter mice. An added advantage of this system is that, contrary to other modulatable Cre systems, it offers the possibility of obtaining regulated recombination in a combinatorial manner, i.e. induce recombination at any desired time-point specifically in cells characterized by the simultaneous expression of two different promoters.
Khnum - a scalable rapid application deployment system for dynamic hosting infrastructures

In a dynamically scalable hosting infrastructure for E-business computing, servers need to be quickly allocated in order to satisfy a sudden demand for increased computing power for a hosted site. Khnum is the applications and data management component of Oceano - a dynamically scalable hosting infrastructure for E-business computing utilities. It is responsible for server reconfiguration and for application deployment. Application deployment involves all services, configuration directives, executables and data of the application. A hosted site may include several applications. Khnum enables Oceano to rapidly deploy multiple applications to tens of servers simultaneously in just a few minutes. It uses AFS as the infrastructure for secure storage, automatically mapping files and directories onto the new servers' local filesystems and multicasting hot AFS cache content to the new servers. To avoid overloading the AFS servers during the deployment process, the hot cache content is multicast to all the new servers, avoiding the boot storming (or "rushing") effect. This, in turn, improves the scalability of the deployment process; experimental results attest to Khnum's scalability in simultaneously deploying applications to tens of servers.
2D Analysis of Earthquake Ground Motion in Haifa Bay, Israel

We study the earthquake response of the Zevulun Valley basin, underlying northern Israel’s largest urban area, with 2D viscoelastic seismic modeling of a detailed geological section. We found that amplification of the horizontal vibrations, the ratio of basin to no-basin response spectra, correlates with basin depth. In the deepest portion of the basin (Qishon graben), long periods (2–5 sec) are amplified by 400%; in the shallowest portion of the basin (Afeq horst), shorter periods (∼0.5 sec) are amplified by 300%–400%. These resonances in the vertical direction through the basin are strong enough that their amplitude overwhelms the amplitude of a previously recognized basin-edge effect. The horizontal/vertical (H/V) Fourier spectral ratios based on 124 ambient noise measurements do not fully coincide with the basin to no-basin Fourier spectral ratios of the simulation, but the resonance frequencies found in both methods are alike. Moreover, the relation between the resonance frequency and the depth of the corresponding seismic reflector in the simulation is almost identical to the empirical frequency-depth relations obtained from measurements. This indicates that the average shear-wave velocity of the sedimentary column in the model is consistent with measurements. To evaluate the necessity of 2D analysis, we performed additional 1D simulations at two locations along the section. For the Qishon graben, 1D analysis underestimates the amplification factor relative to 2D by 25%, whereas for the Afeq horst, 1D and 2D simulations are similar. For a hard layer within the soft Qishon graben fill, we found that when the hard layer is thinner than ∼50 m, its influence on ground motion is small.
Transgene Excision Has No Impact on In Vivo Integration of Human iPS Derived Neural Precursors

The derivation of induced human pluripotent stem cells (hiPS) has generated significant enthusiasm particularly for the prospects of cell-based therapy. But there are concerns about the suitability of iPS cells for in vivo applications due in part to the introduction of potentially oncogenic transcription factors via viral vectors. Recently developed lentiviral vectors allow the excision of viral reprogramming factors and the development of transgene-free iPS lines. However it is unclear if reprogramming strategy has an impact on the differentiation potential and the in vivo behavior of hiPS progeny. Here we subject viral factor-free, c-myc-free and conventionally reprogrammed four-factor human iPS lines to a further challenge, by analyzing their differentiation potential along the 3 neural lineages and over extended periods of time in vitro, as well as by interrogating their ability to respond to local environmental cues by grafting into the striatum. We demonstrate similar and efficient differentiation into neurons, astrocytes and oligodendrocytes among all hiPS and human ES line controls. Upon intracranial grafting in the normal rat (Sprague Dawley), precursors derived from all hiPS lines exhibited good survival and response to environmental cues by integrating into the subventricular zone, acquiring phenotypes typical of type A, B or C cells and migrating along the rostral migratory stream into the olfactory bulb. There was no teratoma or other tumor formation 12 weeks after grafting in any of the 26 animals used in the study. Thus neither factor excision nor persistence of c-myc impact the behavior of hiPS lines in vivo.
Does Overt memory testing lead to better learning than Covert memory testing

The testing effect is described as an improvement of memory performance at a final test as a result of previous test sessions. Several studies reported that initial testing during learning provides a better memory representation at a delayed retention interval. The aim of present study is to assess whether an Overt or a Covert retrieval procedure leads to better final recall. Participants were at initial testing instructed to retrieve and write down the words (Overt group), retrieve it without writing down (Covert group) or only restudy the words (SSS group). Memory was tested after[1]15 minutes and again after 1 week. The results indicated a significant main effect of learning group and retrieval interval, where the Overt group performed reliably better than remaining groups. The idea behind the testing effect may work as a guideline of how the testing procedure can be conformed into educational contexts, which advocates for more consistent use of testing in classroom for optimal learning.
A hybrid method based on FDTD for simulation of far field from opening in shielding enclosure

This paper presents a hybrid method for the calculation of the electric far field outside the enclosure. The method computes electric near fields on the opening by finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) to determine the equivalent magnetic current. Then the far fields are calculated using this equivalent current. Simulation results show that the proposed method significantly reduces the computational effort and still maintains satisfactory results in comparison to a full FDTD simulation and the traditional hybrid method
Distinct Distribution of Laminin and Its Integrin Receptors in the Pancreas

Tissue function is regulated by the extracellular microenvironment including cell basement membranes, in which laminins are a major component. Previously, we found that laminin-1 promotes differentiation and survival of pancreatic islet cells. Here we characterize the expression pattern of laminins and their integrin receptors in adult pancreas. Although they are expressed in the basement membrane of acinar cells and duct epithelium, no laminin chains examined were detected extracellularly in the pancreatic islets. In contrast to laminin β1- and γ1-chains, the α1-chain, unique to laminin-1, was not detected. Laminin-10 (α5β1γ1) was expressed in acinar tissue, whereas laminins-2 (α2β1γ1) and -10 were expressed in the blood vessels. The laminin connector molecule, nidogen-1, had a distribution similar to that of laminin β1 and γ1, whereas fibulin-1 and -2, which compete with nidogen-1, were mostly confined to blood vessels. Integrin subunits α6 and α3 were detected in acinar cells and duct epithelial cells, but α6 was absent in islet cells. Integrin α6β4 was detected only in duct cells, α6β1 in both acinar and ductal cells, and α3β1 in acinar, duct, and islet cells. These findings are a basis for further investigation of the role of extracellular matrix molecules and their receptors in pancreas function.
Pathfinders and Problem Solving

Abstract The effects of Problem Solving (Taymans & Parese, 1998) are compared across small diversion and prison samples for men and women. A second program, Pathfinders (Hansen, 1993), was compared to the Problem Solving program among incarcerated women offenders to determine whether its focus upon empowerment and relationships enhanced the effects of the more generic program. Problem Solving participants in three of the four settings achieved significantly fewer correctional misconducts than comparisons. These reductions were found for both men and women. No effects were detected on measures pertaining to conflict and work. Pathfinders did not augment the effects of Problem Solving for incarcerated women offenders, but it did significantly reduce their depression (CESD) scores over time. Problem Solving significantly reduced depression scores for all but the incarcerated women's group.
Plasma levels of soluble tumour necrosis factor receptors are increased in coal miners with pneumoconiosis.

Among other cytokines, tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha is considered to play a key role in the development of mineral dust related fibrosis. Previously, we showed that ex-vivo release of TNF by peripheral blood monocytes is a marker for progression of coal workers' pneumoconiosis (CWP). Since soluble TNF receptors (sTNF-Rs) are believed to play an important regulatory role in systemic effects of TNF, we measured plasma levels of sTNF-R55 and sTNF-R75 in coal miners with (n = 28) or without (n = 76) CWP and in nonexposed controls (n = 29). sTNF-R75 levels were significantly increased in miners with CWP (2.09 +/- 0.44 ng.mL-1) versus the nonexposed controls (1.86 +/- 0.23 ng.mL-1). Neither sTNF-R55 nor sTNF-R75 were related to exposure, stage of pneumoconiosis, smoking, or (spontaneous or ex-vivo induced) monocyte TNF-release. sTNF-R55 was increased in subjects with medication (especially those using cardiovascular drugs); upon exclusion of these subjects, sTNF-R55 was found also to be significantly increased in CWP. In conclusion, bearing in mind a confounding effect of medication, soluble TNF receptors are elevated in plasma of retired miners with coal workers' pneumoconiosis. These observations further support the important role of TNF-mediated pathways in the pathogenesis of mineral dust related fibrosis.
Self-management and leadership development

Contents: PART I: SELF-AWARENESS AND LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT 1. The Role of the Individual in Self-Assessment for Leadership Development Allan H. Church and Christopher T. Rotolo 2. Inspiring the Development of Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Intelligence Competencies in Managers Richard E. Boyatzis, Tony Lingham and Angela Passarelli 3. Problems in Managing The Self-Assessment Process for Leaders-To-Be James G.S. Clawson 4. Taking Charge: Discovering the Magic in your Psychological Assessment Sandra L. Davis 5. Assessing Leadership and the Leadership Gap Jean Brittain Leslie and Ruohong Wei 6. Emotional Intelligence and Interpersonal Competencies Ronald E. Riggio 7. How to Matter Stewart Emery PART II: THE SELF-MANAGEMENT OF COMMON LEADERSHIP CHALLENGES 8. Managing your Leadership Career in Hard Times John Blenkinsopp, Yehuda Baruch and Ruth Winden 9. Goals and Goal Pursuit: Traditional and New Perspectives for Self-Directed Leaders Tom Bateman 10. Self-Directed Work Teams: Best Practices for Leadership Development Wendy L. Bedwell, Marissa L. Shuffler, Jessica L. Wildman and Eduardo Salas 11. Work Motivations, Job Behaviors and Flourishing in Work and Life Ronald J. Burke 12. Enlisting Others in your Development as a Leader Dawn E. Chandler and Kathy E. Kram 13. Resilience and Leadership: The Self-Management of Failure Gillian A. King and Mitchell G. Rothstein 14. The Role of Developmental Social Networks in Effective Leader Self-Learning Processes Krista L. Langkamer, Stephen J. Zaccaro, Sena Garven and David S. Geller PART III: SELF-MANAGEMENT AND UNIQUE LEADERSHIP CHALLENGES 15. Self-Assessment and Self-Development of Global Leaders Paula Caligiuri and Ruchi Sinha 16. Learning from Life Experiences: A Study of Female Academic Leaders in Australia Linley Lord and Susan Vinnicombe 17. Preparing Next Generation Business Leaders Philip Mirvis, Kevin Thompson and Chris Marquis 18. And Leadership Development for All Lyndon Rego, David G. Altman and Steadman D. Harrison III
Obstacle Avoidance and Two Wheeled Mobile Robot Control Using Potential Function

An obstacle avoidance scheme of two wheeled mobile robot is shown by selecting an appropriate Lyapunov function based on potential field method. When considering the obstacle, Lyapunov function may have some local minima. A method which erases the local minima is proposed by using a function which covers the minima by a plane surface. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by numerical simulations.
Botnet Detection by Monitoring Similar Communication Patterns

Botnet is most widespread and occurs commonly in today's cyber attacks, resulting in serious threats to our network assets and organization's properties. Botnets are collections of compromised computers (Bots) which are remotely controlled by its originator (BotMaster) under a common Command-and-Control (C&C) infrastructure. They are used to distribute commands to the Bots for malicious activities such as distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, spam and phishing. Most of the existing Botnet detection approaches concentrate only on particular Botnet command and control (C&C) protocols (e.g., IRC,HTTP) and structures (e.g., centralized), and can become ineffective as Botnets change their structure and C&C techniques. In this paper at first we provide taxonomy of Botnets C&C channels and evaluate well-known protocols which are being used in each of them. Then we proposed a new general detection framework which currently focuses on P2P based and IRC based Botnets. This proposed framework is based on definition of Botnets. Botnet has been defined as a group of bots that perform similar communication and malicious activity patterns within the same Botnet. The point that distinguishes our proposed detection framework from many other similar works is that there is no need for prior knowledge of Botnets such as Botnet signature.
Returns and Volatility of Eurozone Energy Stocks

This paper constitutes a first analysis on stock returns and stock return volatility of energy corporations from the Eurozone. According to our results, the gas market does not play a role for the pricing of Eurozone energy stocks. However, changes in the Euro to U.S. Dollar exchange rate as well as developments at the money and especially at the oil market strongly affect returns of the energy stock portfolios analyzed. While oil price hikes negatively impact on stock returns of European utilities, they lead to an appreciation of oil and gas stocks. Most importantly, we show that oil market volatility negatively affects European oil and gas stocks. In contrast, energy stock volatility is not driven by volatility of the resource market, but only by its own dynamics.
Four-dimensional ensemble Kalman filtering

Ensemble Kalman filteringwas developed as away to assimilate observed data to track the current state in a computational model. In this paper we showthat the ensemble approach makes possible an additional benefit: the timing of observations, whether they occur at the assimilation time or at some earlier or later time, can be effectively accounted for at low computational expense. In the case of linear dynamics, the technique is equivalent to instantaneously assimilating data as they are measured. The results of numerical tests of the technique on a simple model problem are shown.
Evaluating Gene Expression in C57BL/6J and DBA/2J Mouse Striatum Using RNA-Seq and Microarrays

C57BL/6J (B6) and DBA/2J (D2) are two of the most commonly used inbred mouse strains in neuroscience research. However, the only currently available mouse genome is based entirely on the B6 strain sequence. Subsequently, oligonucleotide microarray probes are based solely on this B6 reference sequence, making their application for gene expression profiling comparisons across mouse strains dubious due to their allelic sequence differences, including single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). The emergence of next-generation sequencing (NGS) and the RNA-Seq application provides a clear alternative to oligonucleotide arrays for detecting differential gene expression without the problems inherent to hybridization-based technologies. Using RNA-Seq, an average of 22 million short sequencing reads were generated per sample for 21 samples (10 B6 and 11 D2), and these reads were aligned to the mouse reference genome, allowing 16,183 Ensembl genes to be queried in striatum for both strains. To determine differential expression, ‘digital mRNA counting’ is applied based on reads that map to exons. The current study compares RNA-Seq (Illumina GA IIx) with two microarray platforms (Illumina MouseRef-8 v2.0 and Affymetrix MOE 430 2.0) to detect differential striatal gene expression between the B6 and D2 inbred mouse strains. We show that by using stringent data processing requirements differential expression as determined by RNA-Seq is concordant with both the Affymetrix and Illumina platforms in more instances than it is concordant with only a single platform, and that instances of discordance with respect to direction of fold change were rare. Finally, we show that additional information is gained from RNA-Seq compared to hybridization-based techniques as RNA-Seq detects more genes than either microarray platform. The majority of genes differentially expressed in RNA-Seq were only detected as present in RNA-Seq, which is important for studies with smaller effect sizes where the sensitivity of hybridization-based techniques could bias interpretation.
Adaptive Web Search Considering User's Ephemeral and Persistent Preferences

Web search engines help users find useful information on the World Wide Web (WWW). However, when the same query is submitted by different users, typical search engines return the same results regardless of who submitted the query. Generally, each user has different information needs for his/her query. Therefore, the search results should be adapted to users with different information needs. In this paper, we propose several approaches to adapting search results according to each user's information need considering their ephemeral and persistent preferences.
Scaling Effects on the Electrochemical Stimulation Performance of Au, Pt, and PEDOT:PSS Electrocorticography Arrays

The efficacy of electrical brain stimulation in combatting neurodegenerative diseases and initiating function is expected to be significantly enhanced with the development of smaller scale microstimulation electrodes and refined stimulation protocols. These benefits cannot be realized without a thorough understanding of scaling effects on electrochemical charge injection characteristics. This study fabricates and characterizes the electrochemical stimulation capabilities of Au, Pt, poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene):polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS/Au), and PEDOT:PSS/Pt electrode arrays in the 20–2000 µm diameter range. This study observes substantial enhancement in charge injection capacity up to 9.5× for PEDOT:PSS microelectrodes compared to metal ones, and 88% lower required power for injecting the same charge density. These significant benefits are strongest for electrode diameters below 200 µm. Detailed quantitative analyses are provided, enabling optimization of charge injection capacity with potential bias and symmetric and asymmetric pulse width engineering for all diameters. These systematic analyses inform the optimal design for acute and potentially chronic implants in regards to safety and clinically effective stimulation protocols, ensure the longevity of the electrodes below critical electrochemical limits of stimulation, and demonstrate that the material choice and pulse design can lead to more energy efficiency stimulation protocols that are of critical importance for fully implanted devices.