Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A population-based assessment of the familial component of acute kidney allograft rejection.

BACKGROUND The genetic determinants of acute kidney transplant rejection (AR) are not well studied, and familial aggregation has never been demonstrated. The goal of this retrospective case-control study was to exploit the unique nature of the Utah Population Database (UPDB) to evaluate if AR or rejection-free survival aggregates in families. METHODS We identified 891 recipients with genealogy data in the UPDB with at least one year of follow-up, of which 145 (16.1%) had AR and 77 recipients had biopsy-proven rejection graded >or=1A. We compared the genealogical index of familiality (GIF) in cases and controls (i.e. recipients with random assignment of rejection status). RESULTS We did not find evidence for familial clustering of AR in the entire patient population or in the subgroup with early rejection (n = 52). When the subgroup of recipients with rejection grade >or=1A (n = 77) was analysed separately, we observed increased familial clustering (GIF = 3.02) compared to controls (GIF = 1.96), although the p-value did not reach the level of statistical significance (p = 0.17). Furthermore, we observed an increase in familial clustering in recipients who had a rejection-free course (GIF = 2.45) as compared to controls (GIF = 2.08, p = 0.04). When all recipients were compared to non-transplant controls, they demonstrated a much greater degree of familiality (GIF = 2.03 versus GIF 0.63, p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS There is a familial component to rejection-free transplant course and trend to familial aggregation in recipients with AR grade 1A or higher. If a genetic association study is performed, there are families in Utah identified in the current study that can be targeted to increase the power of the test.
A friction model with velocity, temperature and load torque effects for collaborative industrial robot joints

In this paper, a comprehensive friction model for collaborative industrial robot joints is proposed which takes into account the velocity, temperature and load torque effects. The model indicates that the velocity and temperature have a strong influence on viscous friction nonlinearly, whereas load torque significantly influences the Coulomb friction linearly and causes a slight Stribeck effect. The friction characteristics were investigated on the collaborative robot joints which are equipped with temperature sensor and harmonic reducer. The proposed model has been verified successfully under wide velocity, temperature and load range. In addition, the permillage of the rated current of the motor is used to scale the value of joint torque, so that the model can be applied in common industrial robot.
The Boundary Surface Control Principle and Its Applications

In order to control a sound field using multiple sources and microphones, we must choose the optimum values of parameters such as the numbers of sources and microphones, the location of the sources and the microphones and the filter tap length. Because there is a huge number of possible combinations of these conditions, the boundary surface control principle can be useful as a basis of a design method of such a system. In this paper, a design method of sound field reproduction and active noise control based on the BSC principle are described and several example of its application are presented.
Reserve Currency And A Lender of Next-To-Last Resort: A Literature Review

The role of the US dollar as the global dominant reserve currency is eroding. Debate is ongoing regarding next steps. Moving the international monetary system to a single global currency is part of the debate. Literature reviews the eroding role of the US dollar and implications the erosion carries for the US. The Special Drawing Rights developed by the IMF could fill the role of Keynes’ recommended global currency known as the “bancor. ” Regardless of the nature of the global reserve currency, access to liquidity is required to have an effective international monetary system. Literature defines a missing layer of liquidity stability in the financial system. Research of a global GSE lender of next-to-last resort is recommended by this paper to increase global access to reserve currency liquidity.
Factors influencing the Usage and Acceptance of Multimedia-based Digital Textbooks in Pilot School

Digital textbooks, considered as core textbooks tailored to the abilities and interests of students, provide them with a combination of textbooks, reference books, workbooks, dictionaries and multimedia contents. In this paper, we employ a modified version of the Technology Acceptance Model(TAM), a model which has been widely used and empirically validated to explain why individuals use a particular information technology(IT). This paper proposes that additional variables, such as educational impacts, contents quality, interaction and enjoyment, enhance our understanding of behaviors of pilot school teachers in using multimedia-based digital textbooks as a substitute for traditional paper-version of textbooks. A structural equation model is employed with survey data from 157 pilot school teachers in pilot program supported by Korean government and KERIS(Korea Education & Research Information Service), to empirically assess the strength of the relationships in the proposed model. It is hoped that the results from this study provide meaningful insight into the development and delivery of high quality digital textbooks.
Risk Theory in a Periodic Environment: The Cramér-Lundberg Approximation and Lundberg's Inequality

A risk process with the claim arrival intensity β( t ), the claim size distribution β ( t ) and the premium rate p ( t ) at time t being periodic functions of t is considered. It is shown that the adjustment coefficient γ* is the same as for the standard time-homogeneous compound Poisson risk process obtained by averaging the parameters over a period, and a suitable version of the Cramer-Lundberg approximation for the ruin probability ψ ( s ) ( u ) with initial reserve u and initial season s is derived. An approximation in terms of a Markovian environment model with n states is studied, and limit theorems describing the rate of convergence γ n → γ* are given. Finally, various upper and lower bounds of Lundberg type for the ruin probabilities are derived for both the periodic and the Markov-modulated model. By time-reversion, the results apply also to periodic M / G /1 queues.
Short-term mortality prediction for acute lung injury patients: External validation of the Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome Network prediction model*

Objective:An independent cohort of patients with acute lung injury was used to evaluate the external validity of a simple prediction model for short-term mortality previously developed using data from Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome Network (ARDSNet) trials. Design:Data for external validation were obtained from a prospective cohort study of patients with acute lung injury. Setting:Thirteen intensive care units at four teaching hospitals in Baltimore, MD. Patients:Five hundred and eight nontrauma patients with acute lung injury. Interventions:None. Measurements and Main Results:Of the 508 patients eligible for this analysis, 234 (46%) died inhospital. Discrimination of the ARDSNet prediction model for inhospital mortality, evaluated by the area under the receiver operator characteristic curves, was 0.67 for our external validation data set vs. 0.70 and 0.68 using Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II and the ARDSNet validation data set, respectively. In evaluating calibration of the model, predicted vs. observed inhospital mortality for the external validation data set was similar for both low-risk (ARDSNet model score = 0) and high-risk (score = 3 or 4+) patient strata. However, for intermediate-risk (score = 1 or 2) patients, observed inhospital mortality was substantially higher than predicted mortality (25.3% vs. 16.5% and 40.6% vs. 31.0% for score = 1 and 2, respectively). Sensitivity analyses limiting our external validation data set to only those patients meeting the ARDSNet trial eligibility criteria and to those who received mechanical ventilation in compliance with the ARDSNet ventilation protocol did not substantially change the model's discrimination or improve its calibration. Conclusions:Evaluation of the ARDSNet prediction model using an external acute lung injury cohort demonstrated similar discrimination of the model as was observed with the ARDSNet validation data set. However, there were substantial differences in observed vs. predicted mortality among intermediate-risk patients with acute lung injury. The ARDSNet model provided reasonable, but imprecise, estimates of predicted mortality when applied to our external validation cohort of patients with acute lung injury.
Analysis of performance of a liquid level process controlled by the Super-Twisting Algorithm

Second-order sliding mode control algorithms are a popular research area. In the present research, a study of performance of the Super-Twisting (STW) controller is done, with application to a liquid level process. Comparison of its performance with the performance of an optimally tuned PID controller is done. The study is carried out through analytical approach, simulations and experiments. From the comparison of the performance, conclusions are made about suitability and perspectives of the use of the STW controller for the considered process.
Is CAPM Dead in Emerging Market? – Indian Evidence

This paper discusses the empirical validity of Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) in an emerging market context. Covering the recent global financial period, the study aims to investigate the relation between stock returns and market betas in India under a cross-sectional regression framework. The regression results find insignificant inverse risk (beta)-return relation during the overall period of the study. During sub-period analysis also it finds that risk-return relationship is significant only at the time of bull movements in the market. The intercept parameter is positive and significantly different from zero which shows the dominance of non systematic factors contributing variations to stock returns in India. The study ultimately concludes that CAPM cannot be a suitable descriptor of asset pricing in emerging markets now.
Drivers of Relationship Quality in Logistics Outsourcing in China

Given that an increasing number of companies outsource their logistics activities to third-party logistics providers (3PLs), managing logistics outsourcing relationships has become a critical capability. Although the fundamental importance of relationship quality in supply chain relationship management has begun to be understood, it has not been investigated in the context of logistics outsourcing, especially in China. This study addresses the gap in the literature by examining the drivers of relationship quality and investigating its effect on performance in logistics outsourcing in China. We use transaction cost economics and resource dependence theory as bases of this study. Dependence on 3PL (i.e., 3PL importance and unavailability of alternatives), logistics performance and relationship characteristics (i.e., the level of information sharing, relationship length and legal contract) are hypothesized as the relationship drivers based on transaction cost economics and resource dependence theory. Findings reveal that 3PL importance, logistics performance and information sharing are positively related to relationship quality, and that relationship length and the presence of a legal contract are marginally and positively related to relationship quality. The positive influence of relationship quality on financial performance is also observed. The managerial implications of the findings are considered, and the limitations along with future research directions are discussed.
Building Store Loyalty through Store Brands

In this article, the authors study the role of a store brand in building store loyalty through a game theoretic analysis. In a market in which a segment of consumers is sensitive to product quality and consumers' brand choice in low-involvement packaged goods categories is characterized by inertia, the authors show that quality store brands can be an instrument for retailers to generate store differentiation, store loyalty, and store profitability, even when the store brand does not have a margin advantage over the national brand. In addition, this loyalty argument does not apply for the “cheap and nasty” private label strategy. Such a private label policy, on the contrary, reinforces rather than reduces price competition among stores. Indeed, the quality of the store brand must be above a threshold level to create this opportunity. It also follows that quality store brands, when carried by competing retailers, can be an implicit coordination mechanism that enables all the retailers to become more profitable. Finally, a quality store brand policy is profitable only if a significant portion of shoppers buys the national brand. This surprising result establishes the complementary roles of store brands and national brands. The former create store differentiation and loyalty, whereas the latter enable the retailer to raise prices and increase store profitability. The authors provide empirical support for their thesis by using evidence from Europe and household-level scanner panel data from the United States and Canada.
Improving employee performance, motivation and engagement: A brain-based coaching model for managers

The aim of this research study was to explore the experience of managers, and specifically engineers at a steel manufacturing company, of a brain-based coaching model. Coaching’s origins can be traced back to a variety of fields including psychology, change management, training and adult learning. Many people argue that coaching is ‘heart based’ as opposed to being more analytical and scientific. This caused some confusion with the researcher. However, during his studies towards a Master’s degree in Philosophy (MPhil) in Management Coaching, he was introduced to neuroscience and the role it has played in the emergence of a new field called brainbased coaching. The fact that one could scientifically explain why the brain needs coaching and that coaching can help the brain improve its functioning, appealed so much to the researcher that he wanted to expand his knowledge of the subject. Selecting a sample group that was made up only of engineers who had participated in a training programme with the focus on brain-based coaching, provided the perfect platform from where to study the phenomenon and to discover how the engineers, who are academically trained, are analytical and who, by their very nature, prefer scientific evidence-based research, perceive a brain-based coaching model. It was also important to try and establish what they believed the benefits and possible applications are of the model and whether they think it can be used to improve performance and lift motivation and engagement. The results were positive, but it revealed more; it explained how the experience created awareness and led to a change in behaviour and thinking – not just at work, but also in their personal lives. These findings provide more knowledge about the potential that a brain-based approach has for managers and leaders as a development tool. It also gives some comfort that we do not have to continue doing and thinking about things the way we have always done; we have a choice and this approach gives us an insight into how to exercise that choice.
Information Divergence-Based Matching Strategy for Online Signature Verification

The phenomenon of data clutter caused by intervariability (individual features) and intravariability (intrinsic noise of reference samples) is one of the most important reasons for performance degradation in online signature verification systems. To address this problem, we introduce information divergence in the field of signature verification to take full advantage of the information contained in all reference samples by shifting the distance measurement between the test and reference samples to a similarity measurement between two distributions (generated between reference samples as well as between the test sample and all reference samples) and simultaneously make full use of the spatial information of the reference samples. Based on that change, we propose a novel information divergence framework and provide some matcher instances that work within the proposed framework to effectively improve the performance of a signature verification system. Furthermore, to exploit the advantages of the new matching strategy, we propose a new dynamic time warping algorithm. In addition, we provide in-depth analysis of several distance normalizations and apply them to signature verification to reduce the adverse effect of “clutter” on signature data, which can effectively improve system performance. The experimental results on the MCYT-100 and SUSIG signature databases achieved equal error rates of 2.25% and 1.70% when 10 reference samples were used and 3.16% and 2.13% when 5 reference samples were used, respectively, illustrating the effectiveness of the proposed strategy in relation to other state-of-the-art strategies.
Knowledge Management and Growth Performance in Construction Industry

The growth performance of the companies is often understood as business success while knowledge is recognized as a valuable resource for companies to sustain competitiveness in today’s challenging business environment. The objective of this paper is to investigate the relationship between knowledge management and growth performance in the Malaysian construction industry. Questionnaires were sent to 500 respondents (large construction companies grade G7) via postal service. From 500 modelling using SmartPLS© software. The findings show a positive relationship between knowledge management and growth performance in the Malaysian construction industry. The results of this study are valuable in establishing a valid and reliable survey instrument for construction companies especially in Malaysia.
Bone morphogenetic protein‐2 enhances osterix gene expression in chondrocytes

Osterix is a recently identified zinc‐finger‐containing transcription factor, which is required for skeletogenesis as no bone formation was observed in osterix‐deficient mice. Osterix was first cloned as a gene whose expression was enhanced by BMP in C2C12 cells. As BMP induces ectopic bone formation in vivo via a pathway reminiscent to endochondral bone formation, BMP may also regulate osterix gene expression in chondrocytes. However, no information was available regarding the BMP actions on osterix gene expression in chondrocytes. We therefore examined the effects of BMP‐2 on osterix gene expression in chondrocytes in culture. RT‐PCR analysis indicated that osterix mRNA was expressed in the primary cultures of chondrocytes derived from mouse rib cartilage. The treatment with BMP‐2 enhanced the levels of osterix transcripts within 24 h and the enhancement was still observed at 48 h based on RT‐PCR analysis. This BMP effect was specific to this cytokine, as TGF‐β did not alter osterix gene expression. BMP effects on the osterix mRNA levels were also confirmed by Northern blot analysis. The enhancing effect of BMP on osterix gene expression was observed in a dose‐dependent manner starting at 200 ng/ml. The BMP enhancement of the osterix gene expression in chondrocytes was blocked in the presence of a protein synthesis inhibitor, cycloheximide, while it was still observed in the presence of 5,6‐dichloro‐1‐β D‐ribofuranosylbenzimidazol (DRB) suggesting the involvement of post‐transcriptional events, which require new protein synthesis. These results indicated that osterix gene is expressed in the primary cultures of chondrocytes and its expression is under the control of BMP‐2. J. Cell. Biochem. 88: 1077–1083, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Association of polymorphisms in 5-HTT (SLC6A4) and MAOA genes with measures of obesity in young adults of Portuguese origin

Abstract Objectives: To investigate the association of polymorphisms in SLC6A4 and MAOA genes with overweight (including obesity). Material and methods: Young adults (n = 535) of Portuguese origin were genotyped for the SLC6A4 polymorphisms 5-HTTLPR and STin2 and a MAOA VNTR. BMI and body fat percentage were measured and a questionnaire was used to assess individual’s sport practicing habits. Results: In whole study sample, haplotype-based analysis revealed significant association with overweight/obesity for the individual 5-HTTLPR/Stin2 haplotype L10 (p = 0.04). In men, the MAOA 3R genotype was nominally associated with body fat (p = 0.04). In inactive individuals, overweight/obesity was found significantly associated with 5-HTTLPR L-allele (p = 0.01) and nominally associated with STin2 10-allele (p = 0.03). A significant association was also found testing for all haplotype effects (χ2 = 8.7; p = 0.03). Conclusions: We found some evidences for the association of SLC6A4 and MAOA genes with measures of obesity. Our results suggest physical inactivity accentuates the influence of SLC6A4 polymorphisms on obesity risk.
Identity of gram negative, yellow pigmented, fermentative bacteria isolated from plants and animals.

Summary. Morphological, cultural and biochemical properties of 35 isolates of rod shaped Gram negative, yellow pigmented anaerogenic, fermentative bacteria were compared. The isolates comprised named cultures of Bacterium herbicola, Erwinia lathyri, E. ananas, E. milletiae, E. uredovora and B. typhi flavum, as well as organisms isolated from deer and man which were considered to be related to E. milletiae. The results showed that the organisms were indistinguishable from one another on the basis of the tests employed, and it is concluded that B. herbicola, B. typhi flavum, E. lathyri and E. ananas should be classified as Erwinia herbicola (Duggeli) Dye. Since there was insufficient information regarding the plant pathogenicity of E. milletiae and E. uredovora, it is suggested that they should remain separate species at present. The relationship of this group of organisms to certain coliforms and to flavobacteria is briefly discussed.
A proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy study of focal epilepsy in humans

Localized in vivo proton magnetic resonance spectra obtained from diseased areas in 2 patients with chronic localized encephalitis (Rasmussen's syndrome) showed reduced resonance intensities from N-acetyl compounds, suggesting focally decreased N-acetylaspartate concentrations. One of the patients had epilepsia partialis continua secondary to the encephalitis. In this patient, the spectra demonstrated a high lactate resonance intensity (not seen in the normal, contralateral hemisphere) corresponding to an estimated local concentration of about 7.5 mM. We speculate that the observed decrease in the N-acetyl compound resonance may be a biochemical correlate of the neuronal loss characteristic of this disease. The results establish that excessive accumulation of lactate can occur in the human brain as a result of seizure activity even in the absence of ischemia. Thus, bioenergetic compromise may be 1 predisposing factor to the death of excitable cells in the epileptogenic area.