Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Local Residents’ Perceptions of Socio-Cultural Impacts of Tourism in Mangochi, Malawi

The purpose of this paper is to examine residents’ perceptions of the socio-cultural impacts of tourism in Mangochi, Malawi. This paper is based on results of a survey of 196 households together with ten key informant interviews. A concurrent triangulation mixed method was used to ensure well-validated and substantiated findings. The study findings indicate that local residents perceive specific positive and negative socio-cultural impacts of tourism in their community. Some of the positive sociocultural impacts of tourism include the provision of jobs; improved personal incomes; stimulation of the local economy and improved security in the destination area. However, the study also revealed two major negative socio-cultural impacts of tourism: the migration of people to the area in search of jobs; and the influence of Western visitors on local culture and “the way of life” of local people due to the demonstration effect. The paper indicates the degree to which local residents perceive different sociocultural impacts of tourism development in an African local community setting. Therefore, the paper will assist tourism planners and local government in the planning and implementation of tourism development strategies for the area aiming at consolidating local residents’ support for tourism
The gradient-based cache partitioning algorithm

This paper addresses the problem of partitioning a cache between multiple concurrent threads and in the presence of hardware prefetching. Cache replacement designed to preserve temporal locality (e.g., LRU) will allocate cache resources proportional to the miss-rate of each competing thread irrespective of whether the cache space will be utilized [Qureshi and Patt 2006]. This is clearly suboptimal as applications vary dramatically in their use of recently accessed data. We address this problem by partitioning a shared cache such that a global goodness metric is optimized. This paper introduces the Gradient-based Cache Partitioning Algorithm (GPA), whose variants optimize either hitrate, total instructions per cycle (IPC) or a weighted IPC metric designed to enforce Quality of Service (QoS) [Iyer 2004]. In the context of QoS, GPA enables us to obtain the maximum throughput of low-priority threads, while ensuring high performance on high-priority threads. The GPA mechanism is robust, low-cost, integrates easily with existing cache designs and improves the throughput of an in-order 8-core system sharing an 8MB L3 cache by ∼14%.
Response of a SOI microdosimeter to a /sup 238/PuBe neutron source

The response of a solid state microdosimeter based on semiconductor on insulator (SOI) technology to a 238PuBe neutron source was investigated. Simulations of the device response using the GEANT4 Monte Carlo toolkit are also presented. The microdosimetric spectra was measured for lineal energies above 1 keV/mum. The possible application of the SOI microdosimeter for radiation protection applications in the form of a personnel microdosimeter is suggested
Differential Adipose Tissue Gene Expression Profiles in Abacavir Treated Patients That May Contribute to the Understanding of Cardiovascular Risk: A Microarray Study

Objective To compare changes in gene expression by microarray from subcutaneous adipose tissue from HIV treatment naïve patients treated with efavirenz based regimens containing abacavir (ABC), tenofovir (TDF) or zidovidine (AZT). Design Subcutaneous fat biopsies were obtained before, at 6- and 18–24-months after treatment, and from HIV negative controls. Groups were age, ethnicity, weight, biochemical profile, and pre-treatment CD4 count matched. Microarray data was generated using the Agilent Whole Human Genome Microarray. Identification of differentially expressed genes and genomic response pathways was performed using limma and gene set enrichment analysis. Results There were significant divergences between ABC and the other two groups 6 months after treatment in genes controlling cell adhesion and environmental information processing, with some convergence at 18–24 months. Compared to controls the ABC group, but not AZT or TDF showed enrichment of genes controlling adherence junction, at 6 months and 18–24 months (adjusted p<0.05) and focal adhesions and tight junction at 6 months (p<0.5). Genes controlling leukocyte transendothelial migration (p<0.05) and ECM-receptor interactions (p = 0.04) were over-expressed in ABC compared to TDF and AZT at 6 months but not at 18–24 months. Enrichment of pathways and individual genes controlling cell adhesion and environmental information processing were specifically dysregulated in the ABC group in comparison with other treatments. There was little difference between AZT and TDF. Conclusion After initiating treatment, there is divergence in the expression of genes controlling cell adhesion and environmental information processing between ABC and both TDF and AZT in subcutaneous adipose tissue. If similar changes are also taking place in other tissues including the coronary vasculature they may contribute to the increased risk of cardiovascular events reported in patients recently started on abacavir-containing regimens.
Characterization of the Dioscorin Gene Family in Dioscorea alata Reveals a Role in Tuber Development and Environmental Response

Dioscorin is one of the major soluble proteins in yam tubers. Unlike other well-known plant storage proteins, such as patatin and sporamin, dioscorin is argued for its function as storage proteins, and the molecular mechanisms underlying its expressional complexity are little understood. In this study, we isolated five dioscorin genes from Dioscorea alata L. , comprising three class A (Da-dio1, -3 and -4) and two class B (Da-dio2 and -5) isoforms. Expressions of all dioscorin genes gradually decreased in mother tubers during yam sprouting and regrowth. On the other hand, all dioscorin genes accumulated transcripts progressively with tuber development in new tubers, with Da-dio5 being the most prominent isoform. In yam leaves, the expressions of Da-dio5 were up-regulated by the treatments of five phytohormones (gibberellic acid, salicylic acid, indole-3-acetic acid, abscisic acid, and ethylene), and three abiotic stresses (high-temperature, low-temperature and drought). To further elucidate the regulatory mechanisms of Da-dio5 expressions, transgenic Arabidopsis plants harboring the Da-dio5 promoter-β-glucuronidase (GUS) fusion were generated. GUS staining showed that expressions of the Da-dio5 promoter were detected mainly in the shoot apical meristem (SAM) and hypocotyls, and enhanced by the treatments of the five hormones, and the three abiotic stresses mentioned above. These results suggest diverse roles of Da-dio5 in yam sprouting, regrowth, and tuberization, as well as in response to enviromental cues.
Perceived Social Support Moderates the Relationship Between Activities of Daily Living and Depression After Lower Limb Loss

Objective: This study examined the moderating influence of perceived social support on the prospective relationship between baseline levels of activities of daily living (ADL) and depressive symptoms during the 1st year following amputation. Method: Participants included 73 veterans with new/first unilateral lower extremity amputation due to vascular disease or diabetes. Baseline levels of perceived social support, ADL function, and mobility were assessed by retrospective recall 6 weeks after amputation. Depressive symptoms were measured at 6 weeks and 12 months following surgery. Results: Perceived social support moderated the relationship between baseline ADL functioning and depressive symptoms at 12 months (&bgr; = −0.27, p < .001) after controlling for 6-week depressive symptoms and sociodemographic and physical/functional variables. Lower levels of baseline ADL function were associated with depressive symptoms at 12 months among those who reported lower levels of perceived social support. Conclusion: These data allowed us to identify those participants with both low ADL function at baseline and low social support as being at higher risk for depression symptoms postamputation. The findings support the stress buffering hypothesis and suggest that perceived social support may be an important modifiable target of intervention among individuals with lower levels of functioning.
Surgical practice patterns in endometrial cancer: results of the Korean Gynecologic Oncology Group survey.

OBJECTIVE This study was undertaken to document current practice patterns for the surgical treatment of endometrial cancer in Korea. METHODS Questionnaires were distributed to 131 Korean gynecologic oncologists, all members of the Korean Gynecologic Oncology Group. Questions addressed extent of hysterectomy procedure, pelvic (PEN) or paraaortic (PAN) lymph node dissection, ovarian preservation, and omentectomy. RESULTS Completed questionnaires were returned by 64.1% (84/131) of the oncologists at 50 institutes. Extrafascial hysterectomy (EH) was used by 32% of respondents and modified radical hysterectomy (MRH) or radical hysterectomy (RH) by 17%. Hysterectomy procedures were selectively employed based on tumor-related factors by 51% of the respondents. Laparoscopic hysterectomy was routinely utilized by 49% and was more commonly used by younger surgeons with 10 years of experience or less. PEN dissection was routinely utilized by 67% and was used selectively based on tumor-related factors by 33%. PAN dissection/biopsy was used either routinely (43%) or selectively based on tumor-related factors (43%). PAN dissection/biopsy had never been employed by 12% of the respondents. Sixty-nine percent of respondents stated that grossly normal looking ovaries can be preserved during surgery in young aged patients with early stage disease, and 29% stated that bilateral oophorectomy should be performed irrespective of age or stage. Omentectomy was routinely performed by 11% of respondents, and was selectively performed when extrauterine spread was present by 41%. CONCLUSION Surgical procedures for the treatment of endometrial cancer are still not standardized among Korean gynecologic surgeons. Clinical trials to determine the benefits of the different surgical procedures should be developed.
Off-line signature verification systems: a survey

Signatures are extensively used as a means of personal verification. Manual signature-based authentication of a large number of documents is a very difficult and time consuming task. Consequently for many years, in the field of protected communication and financial applications, we have observed an explosive growth in biometric personal authentication systems that are closely connected with measurable physical unique characteristics (hand geometry, iris scan, finger prints or DNA) or behavioural features. Human signatures provide secure means for confirmation and authorization in legal documents. So nowadays, automatic signature verification becomes an essential component. In order to convey the state-of-the-art in the field to researchers, in this paper we present a survey of off-line signature verification systems.
Age-related Changes in Postural Sway During Sit-to-stand in Typical Children and Children with Cerebral Palsy

ABSTRACT Objective: To assess age-related changes in postural sway during sit-to-stand (STS) in typical children (TC) and children with mild cerebral palsy (CP). Methods: Thirty-five TC and 23 children with mild CP were allocated in four different age groups: 5–6, 7–9, 10–12, and 13–15 years; they all performed STS movements over a force plate. Anterior-posterior and medial-lateral amplitude of center of pressure (CoP) displacement, area and velocity of CoP sway were analyzed and compared between the age groups for TC and children with CP. Results: TC at 5 to 6 years of age showed higher values of anterior-posterior CoP displacement and Area of CoP sway than at 10–12 years, during the stabilization phase. There were no age-related changes for CP. Conclusion: TC change their postural sway during the last STS phase over the years, reducing their body sway. Children with CP did not show age-related changes in sway during STS, reflecting a distinct rhythm of postural control development in this population.
Characterization of microsatellite DNA loci for the southern flying squirrel (Glaucomys volans)

Polymerase chain reaction primers for microsatellite DNA loci (one dinucleotide, four tetranucleotide and two compound) and the conditions necessary to amplify each are described for the southern flying squirrel ( Glaucomys volans ). These primers were tested on 22 or more individuals from a population at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. These microsatellite primers yielded a high allelic diversity (6–22 alleles/locus), and moderate to high observed heterozygosities (0.318–0.826). Primers developed for the northern flying squirrel ( Glaucomys sabrinus ) were also tested for use on G. volans , with only two successful cross amplifications from the seven loci.
Inevitability of Genetic Parasites

Abstract Almost all cellular life forms are hosts to diverse genetic parasites with various levels of autonomy including plasmids, transposons and viruses. Theoretical modeling of the evolution of primordial replicators indicates that parasites (cheaters) necessarily evolve in such systems and can be kept at bay primarily via compartmentalization. Given the (near) ubiquity, abundance and diversity of genetic parasites, the question becomes pertinent: are such parasites intrinsic to life? At least in prokaryotes, the persistence of parasites is linked to the rate of horizontal gene transfer (HGT). We mathematically derive the threshold value of the minimal transfer rate required for selfish element persistence, depending on the element duplication and loss rates as well as the cost to the host. Estimation of the characteristic gene duplication, loss and transfer rates for transposons, plasmids and virus-related elements in multiple groups of diverse bacteria and archaea indicates that most of these rates are compatible with the long term persistence of parasites. Notably, a small but non-zero rate of HGT is also required for the persistence of non-parasitic genes. We hypothesize that cells cannot tune their horizontal transfer rates to be below the threshold required for parasite persistence without experiencing highly detrimental side-effects. As a lower boundary to the minimum DNA transfer rate that a cell can withstand, we consider the process of genome degradation and mutational meltdown of populations through Muller’s ratchet. A numerical assessment of this hypothesis suggests that microbial populations cannot purge parasites while escaping Muller’s ratchet. Thus, genetic parasites appear to be virtually inevitable in cellular organisms.
On flexibility assessment of process control systems

The dynamic flexibility index (FId) is a popular performance measure of the unsteady chemical processes. In computing this index for an open-loop system, it has always been assumed that the manipulated variables can be adjusted freely to compensate the instantaneous effects of random disturbances. To produce more practical assessments, it is necessary to impose additional constraints on these variables. Thus, the present study is aimed to derive the necessary conditions of the corresponding constrained optimization problem and also to develop the numerical algorithms needed to produce a suitable flexibility metric. Furthermore, since the maximum value of FId can be viewed as the upper bound for the closed-loop counterpart, a novel tuning strategy can also be devised to identify the PID controller parameters accordingly.
Modeling of Antilatency Treatment in HIV: What Is the Optimal Duration of Antiretroviral Therapy-Free HIV Remission?

ABSTRACT A number of treatment strategies are currently being developed to promote antiretroviral therapy-free HIV cure or remission. While complete elimination of the HIV reservoir would prevent recurrence of infection, it is not clear how different remission lengths would affect viral rebound and transmission. In this work, we use a stochastic model to show that a treatment that achieves a 1-year average time to viral remission will still lead to nearly a quarter of subjects experiencing viral rebound within the first 3 months. Given quarterly viral testing intervals, this leads to an expected 39 (95% uncertainty interval [UI], 22 to 69) heterosexual transmissions and up to 262 (95% UI, 107 to 534) homosexual transmissions per 1,000 treated subjects over a 10-year period. Thus, a balance between high initial treatment levels, risk of recrudescence, and risk of transmission should be considered when assessing the “useful” or optimal length of antiretroviral therapy-free HIV remission to be targeted. We also investigate the trade-off between increasing the average duration of remission versus the risk of treatment failure (viral recrudescence) and the need for retreatment. To minimize drug exposure, we found that the optimal target of antilatency interventions is a 1,700-fold reduction in the size of the reservoir, which leads to an average time to recrudescence of 30 years. Interestingly, this is a significantly lower level of reduction than that required for complete elimination of the viral reservoir. Additionally, we show that when shorter periods are targeted, there is a real probability of viral transmission occurring between tests for viral rebound. IMPORTANCE Current treatment of HIV involves patients taking antiretroviral therapy to ensure that the level of virus remains very low or undetectable. Continuous therapy is required, as the virus persists in a latent state within cells, and when therapy is stopped, the virus rebounds, usually within 2 weeks. A major question is how to reduce the amount of persistent virus and therefore allow a delay or remission until the virus returns after ceasing therapy. In this work, we consider the probability that HIV will still rebound even after this reduction and ask what the likelihood of viral transmission would be in this case.
Ex vivo optimisation of a heterogeneous speed of sound model of the human skull for non-invasive transcranial focused ultrasound at 1 MHz

Abstract Transcranial brain therapy has recently emerged as a non-invasive strategy for the treatment of various neurological diseases, such as essential tremor or neurogenic pain. However, treatments require millimetre-scale accuracy. The use of high frequencies (typically ≥1 MHz) decreases the ultrasonic wavelength to the millimetre scale, thereby increasing the clinical accuracy and lowering the probability of cavitation, which improves the safety of the technique compared with the use of low-frequency devices that operate at 220 kHz. Nevertheless, the skull produces greater distortions of high-frequency waves relative to low-frequency waves. High-frequency waves require high-performance adaptive focusing techniques, based on modelling the wave propagation through the skull. This study sought to optimise the acoustical modelling of the skull based on computed tomography (CT) for a 1 MHz clinical brain therapy system. The best model tested in this article corresponded to a maximum speed of sound of 4000 m.s−1 in the skull bone, and it restored 86% of the optimal pressure amplitude on average in a collection of six human skulls. Compared with uncorrected focusing, the optimised non-invasive correction led to an average increase of 99% in the maximum pressure amplitude around the target and an average decrease of 48% in the distance between the peak pressure and the selected target. The attenuation through the skulls was also assessed within the bandwidth of the transducers, and it was found to vary in the range of 10 ± 3 dB at 800 kHz and 16 ± 3 dB at 1.3 MHz.
Fast and accurate content-based video copy detection using bag-of-global visual features

In this paper, we propose a fast, accurate content-based video copy detection scheme based on bag-of-global visual features, which is characterized by (1) utilizing an efficient DCT-sign-based feature for fast detection; (2) performing multiple assignment in the temporal domain, in addition to the feature and spatial domain to ensure repeatability in segment-level matching; and (3) adopting an inverse document frequency weighting and temporal burstiness-aware scoring to emphasize distinctive visual words. Despite detection 95 times faster than real-time, the proposed system achieves a false negative rate of 0.2% against queries that are altered by non-geometric transformations without any false positives.
3-nitrotyrosine levels in dichlorvos-induced neurotoxicity

Summary The aim of this study was to evaluate dichlorvos toxicity in terms of nitro-oxidative stress by determining 3-nitrotyrosine (3-NT) levels in the fore, mid, and hindbrain regions in acutely exposed rats. Male Sprague- Dawley rats were randomly allocated to three groups of eight. Group 1 was administered a single intraperitoneal dichlorvos dose of 1.8 mg kg-1 (0.1xLD50) and group 2 a dose of 9 mg kg-1 (0.5xLD50). The control group received 0.5 mL saline solution via the same route. 3-NT and tyrosine (TYR) levels were measured using high performance liquid chromatography with a photodiode array detector (HPLC-PDA) and expressed as a ratio of 3-NT to TYR. The 3-NT/1000 TYR ratios increased significantly in the fore-, mid- and hindbrains of the exposed groups compared to control (p<0.01). In the forebrain, the increase was also significant between the treated groups. Our study has confirmed that acute exposure to dichlorvos leads to nitro-oxidative stress in the brain and that 3-NT may play a role in the mechanism of dichlorvos neurotoxicity. Sažetak Cilj je ovog ispitivanja bio ocijeniti neurotoksičnost diklorvosa kroz nitrooksidativni stres mjerenjem razina 3-nitrotirozina (3-NT) u prednjem, središnjem i stražnjem režnju mozga akutno izloženih mužjaka štakora Sprague-Dawley, koji su u tu svrhu nasumce bili podijeljeni u tri skupine po osam životinja. Skupina 1 primila je jednokratnu intraperitonealnu dozu diklorvosa od 1,8 mg kg-1 (0,1xLD50), a skupina 2 dozu od 9 mg kg-1 (0,5xLD50). Kontrolna je skupina primila 0,5 mL fiziološke otopine, također intraperitonealno. Razine 3-NT-a i tirozina (TIR) izmjerene su tekućinskim kromatografom visoke djelotvornosti s detektorom s nizom dioda (HPLC-PDA) te su izražene kao omjer 3-NT:TIR. Omjeri 3-NT/1000 TIR značajno su se povećali u svim režnjevima izloženih skupina (1 i 2) u odnosu na kontrolnu skupinu (p<0,01). Povećanje je također bilo značajno u prednjem režnju skupine 2 u odnosu na skupinu 1, ali nije bilo značajne razlike između izloženih skupina u ostalim režnjevima. Naše je istraživanje potvrdilo da akutna izloženost diklorvosu dovodi do nitrooksidativnog stresa u mozgu te da 3-NT sudjeluje u mehanizmu neurotoksičnosti diklorvosa.