Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Supply line engineering on importation and exportation: bimstec perspective

Purpose – the purpose of this paper is to investigate whether supply line engineering strategies of goods and service exports, exports transport services and export time have a significant impact on GDP growth of BIMSTEC countries or not. Research methodology – the study employed a panel vector error correction model (VECM) instead of loose VAR to examine the short and long-run relationship among the selected indicators and GDP growth. Findings – in the long-run, the time of export negatively and suggestively associate with GDP. Conversely, VECM based Granger causality test signposted that in short-run only unidirectional causality running from goods and service exports (GSE), trade duration like exports time (ET) toward GDP and for the rest of the variables no causality found. Research limitations – this study is contextualized only on Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand. Practical implications – to investigate the current position of the link between supply line logistics strategies and economic growth by using annual data for the period of 1980 to 2014 and possible weaknesses and logistics presence. Originality/Value – this paper is an attempt, first of its kind, to fill up this shortfall, to estimate the relationship of exports transport services, exports time, and goods and services exports with GDP growth of BIMSTEC countries.
Modeling based decision for smart city environmental alert system for accidental air pollution

The importance of industrial activities in Sfax (Tunisia) lies not only in the local economy boost, but also in the impact on the urban and natural environments. In fact, Sfax is characterized by two major industrial sectors: Phosphate and petroleum industries, presenting therefore numerous possible hazards caused by pipeline accidental leaks and incidents, tanks or eruptive wells explosions. The risk management in industrial areas such as phosphate and petroleum industries aims to reduce hazards as low as possible in order to protect the environment, the staff and the inhabitants in and around sites. In the proposed study, the areal location of hazardous atmospheres (ALOHA) models have been selected for its simplicity to simulate and assess key hazards like toxicity, flammability, thermal radiation and explosion. Results are used to estimate the individual and societal risk inside and outside the industrial area. These results are useful as operational tools for industrialists and risk experts to assess the vulnerability of the areas surrounding the industry. Finally, the maps obtained from simulating different scenarios can be publicly accessible via google drive to apply emergency measures plan when needed.
Which climate change path are we following? Bad news from Scots pine

Current expectations on future climate derive from coordinated experiments, which compile many climate models for sampling the entire uncertainty related to emission scenarios, initial conditions, and modelling process. Quantifying this uncertainty is important for taking decisions that are robust under a wide range of possible future conditions. Nevertheless, if uncertainty is too large, it can prevent from planning specific and effective measures. For this reason, reducing the spectrum of the possible scenarios to a small number of one or a few models that actually represent the climate pathway influencing natural ecosystems would substantially increase our planning capacity. Here we adopt a multidisciplinary approach based on the comparison of observed and expected spatial patterns of response to climate change in order to identify which specific models, among those included in the CMIP5, catch the real climate variation driving the response of natural ecosystems. We used dendrochronological analyses for determining the geographic pattern of recent growth trends for three European species of trees. At the same time, we modelled the climatic niche for the same species and forecasted the suitability variation expected across Europe under each different GCM. Finally, we estimated how well each GCM explains the real response of ecosystems, by comparing the expected variation with the observed growth trends. Doing this, we identified four climatic models that are coherent with the observed trends. These models are close to the highest range limit of the climatic variations expected by the ensemble of the CMIP5 models, suggesting that current predictions of climate change impacts on ecosystems could be underestimated.
Research Paper: Rapidly Retargetable Approaches to De-identification in Medical Records

OBJECTIVE This paper describes a successful approach to de-identification that was developed to participate in a recent AMIA-sponsored challenge evaluation. METHOD Our approach focused on rapid adaptation of existing toolkits for named entity recognition using two existing toolkits, Carafe and LingPipe. RESULTS The "out of the box" Carafe system achieved a very good score (phrase F-measure of 0.9664) with only four hours of work to adapt it to the de-identification task. With further tuning, we were able to reduce the token-level error term by over 36% through task-specific feature engineering and the introduction of a lexicon, achieving a phrase F-measure of 0.9736. CONCLUSIONS We were able to achieve good performance on the de-identification task by the rapid retargeting of existing toolkits. For the Carafe system, we developed a method for tuning the balance of recall vs. precision, as well as a confidence score that correlated well with the measured F-score.
Role of Complement Receptors in Uptake ofMycobacterium avium by Macrophages In Vivo: Evidence from Studies Using CD18-Deficient Mice

ABSTRACT Mycobacterium avium is an intracellular pathogen that has been shown to invade macrophages by using complement receptors in vitro, but mycobacteria released from one cell can enter a second macrophage by using receptors different from complement receptors. Infection of CD18 (β2 integrin) knockout mice and the C57 BL/6 control mice led to comparable levels of tissue infection at 1 day, 2 days, 1 week, and 3 weeks following administration of bacteria. A histopathological study revealed similar granulomatous lesions in the two mouse strains, with comparable numbers of organisms. In addition, transmission electron microscopy of spleen tissues from both strains of mice showed bacteria inside macrophages. Our in vivo findings support the hypothesis that M. avium in the host is likely to use receptors other than CR3 and CR4 receptors to enter macrophages with increased efficiency.
Identification of the Temporal Components of Seizure Onset in the Scalp EEG

Background: The identification of the earliest indication of rhythmical oscillations and paroxysmal events associated with an epileptic seizure is paramount in identifying the location of the seizure onset in the scalp EEG. In this work, data-dependent filters are designed that can help reveal obscure activity at the onset of seizures in problematic EEGs. Methods: Data-dependent filters were designed using temporal patterns common to selected segments from pre-ictal and ictal portions of the scalp EEG. Temporal patterns that accounted for more variance in the ictal segment than in the pre-ictal segment of the scalp EEG were used to form the filters. Results: Application of the filters to the scalp EEG revealed temporal components in the seizure onset in the scalp recording that were not obvious in the unfiltered EEG. Examination of the filtered EEG enabled the onset of the seizure to be recognized earlier in the recording. The utility of the filters was confirmed qualitatively by comparing the scalp recording to the intracranial recording and quantitatively by calculating correlation coefficients between the scalp and intracranial recordings before and after filtering. Conclusion: The data-dependent approach to EEG filter design allows automatic detection of the basic frequencies present in the seizure onset. This approach is more effective than narrow band-pass filtering for eliminating artifactual and other interference that can obscure the onset of a seizure. Therefore, temporal-pattern filtering facilitates the identification of seizure onsets in challenging scalp EEGs.
Evaluation complacency or evaluation inertia? A study of evaluative metrics and research practices in Irish universities

Evaluative metrics have been used for research assessment in most universities and funding agencies with the assumption that more publications and higher citation counts imply increased productivity and better quality of research. This study investigates the understanding and perceptions of metrics, as well as the influences and implications of the use of evaluative metrics on research practices, including choice of research topics and publication channels, citation behavior, and scholarly communication in Irish universities. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with researchers from the humanities, the social sciences, and the sciences in various career stages. Our findings show that there are conflicting attitudes toward evaluative metrics in principle and in practice. The phenomenon is explained by two concepts: evaluation complacency and evaluation inertia. We conclude that evaluative metrics should not be standardized and institutionalized without a thorough examination of their validity and reliability and without having their influences on academic life, research practices, and knowledge production investigated. We also suggest that an open and public discourse should be supported for the discussion of evaluative metrics in the academic community.
Flavopiridol in the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia

Purpose of review The synthetic flavone flavopiridol induces apoptosis of chronic lymphocytic leukemia cells in vitro; however, initial studies administering flavopiridol by a 24- to 72-h continuous intravenous infusion demonstrated no clinical activity. This review focuses on a novel dosing regimen that has achieved significant clinical activity in relapsed, poor-risk chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Recent findings Binding to human plasma proteins reduces free flavopiridol concentration and makes continuous intravenous infusion dosing ineffective. Pharmacokinetic modeling indicated that administering flavopiridol by a 30-min intravenous bolus followed by a 4-h continuous intravenous infusion would achieve serum concentrations necessary to induce in-vivo apoptosis. Our institution conducted a phase I study in relapsed chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Dose-limiting toxicity was acute tumor lysis syndrome resulting in fatal hyperkalemia. Careful monitoring and aggressive intervention for hyperkalemia, including hemodialysis if necessary, allowed flavopiridol to be given safely. Nineteen of 42 patients responded (45%), including five of 12 patients (42%) with del(17p13) and 13 of 18 patients (72%) with del(11q22). Summary Flavopiridol, when administered by a 30-min intravenous bolus followed by a 4-h continuous intravenous infusion, is active in high-risk, refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Careful monitoring and aggressive intervention for tumor lysis syndrome and hyperkalemia is necessary for safe drug administration. Further studies to optimize the dose and schedule of administration, and to study this drug in other hematologic malignancies, are ongoing.
Mitochondrial Biogenesis and Remodeling during Adipogenesis and in Response to the Insulin Sensitizer Rosiglitazone

ABSTRACT White adipose tissue is an important endocrine organ involved in the control of whole-body metabolism, insulin sensitivity, and food intake. To better understand these functions, 3T3-L1 cell differentiation was studied by using combined proteomic and genomic strategies. The proteomics approach developed here exploits velocity gradient centrifugation as an alternative to isoelectric focusing for protein separation in the first dimension. A 20- to 30-fold increase in the concentration of numerous mitochondrial proteins was observed during adipogenesis, as determined by mass spectrometry and database correlation analysis. Light and electron microscopy confirmed a large increase in the number of mitochondrion profiles with differentiation. Furthermore, mRNA profiles obtained by using Affymetrix GeneChips revealed statistically significant increases in the expression of many nucleus-encoded mitochondrial genes during adipogenesis. Qualitative changes in mitochondrial composition also occur during adipose differentiation, as exemplified by increases in expression of proteins involved in fatty acid metabolism and of mitochondrial chaperones. Furthermore, the insulin sensitizer rosiglitazone caused striking changes in mitochondrial shape and expression of selective mitochondrial proteins. Thus, although mitochondrial biogenesis has classically been associated with brown adipocyte differentiation and thermogenesis, our results reveal that mitochondrial biogenesis and remodeling are inherent to adipose differentiation per se and are influenced by the actions of insulin sensitizers.
Methods for using narrative text from injury reports to identify factors contributing to construction injury.

BACKGROUND Several methods exist for classifying injuries from written text, thereby identifying possible points of intervention. We describe an innovative method for such classification. METHODS Using Haddon's matrix as a framework, two independent reviewers coded text from over 4,000 injury reports into a qualitative software package to identify factors contributing to injuries sustained during construction of Denver International Airport (DIA). We compared our classification scheme with three others. RESULTS This process created a coded data set, an expanded version of Haddon's matrix adapted for construction injury, and coding rules for interpreting narrative text. Haddon's matrix provides a flexible theoretical framework for coding information about a spectrum of contributing factors. CONCLUSIONS Narrative descriptions from injury reports can provide detail on circumstances surrounding injuries and identify factors contributing to injury. Forms guiding investigators to explicitly consider human, organizational, and environmental factors could foster more complete descriptions of factors contributing to construction injury.
Nonoscillatory streamline upwind formulations for drift-diffusion equation

Several representative discretization schemes for the drift-diffusion (or convection-diffusion) equation are reviewed. After the discussion of the drawbacks being inherent in the previous approaches, a discretization method named NOSU (nonoscillatory streamline upwind) for the convection-diffusion equation is developed. The NOSU approach substantially eliminates the interior and boundary layer oscillations and efficiently reduces the crosswind effect. A popular discriminating test problem is analyzed with the present method and some previous approaches. The numerical results demonstrate the superiority of the present method over the previous approaches in accurately solving the convection-diffusion equation. >
Characterization of murine SIRT3 transcript variants and corresponding protein products

SIRT3 is one of the seven mammalian sirtuin homologs of the yeast SIR2 gene. SIRT3 possesses NAD+‐dependent protein deacetylase activity. Recent studies indicate that the murine SIRT3 gene expresses different transcript variants, resulting in three possible SIRT3 protein isoforms with various lengths at the N‐terminus: M1 (aa 1–334), M2 (aa 15–334), and M3 (aa 78–334). The transcript variants 1 and 3 can only produce M3 protein, while M1 and M2 proteins are translationally initiated from different in‐frame ATG sites in transcript 2. Here we report that three transcript variants of the mouse SIRT3 gene are broadly expressed in various mouse tissues. By expressing these SIRT3 isoforms in HEK293 cells through transient transfection, we confirmed recent reports that two longer murine SIRT3 proteins (M1 and M2) are targeted to mitochondria with higher efficiency than the shorter M3 isoform. Additionally, the M1 and M2 proteins are processed into a mature form. Using Edman degradation we identify Ile38 (majority) or Val42 as the N‐terminal amino acid of the mature M1 isoform, and Met78 or Val79 as the N‐terminal amino acid of the M3 isoform. Interestingly, we found that even upon mutation of the M2 ATG site in the M1 cDNA, a processed mature protein could still be produced. In terms of deacetylase activity, we found that although only the mature protein derived from M1 or M2 proteins were active against acetylated peptide substrates, all three forms had equal deacetylase activity towards a full‐length native protein substrate, acetyl CoA synthetase 2. J. Cell. Biochem. 111: 1051–1058, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The Structure of the Mental Health Inventory Among Chinese in Taiwan

This study attempted to ascertain the construct validity and external validity of the Mental Health Inventory in a Chinese population in Taiwan and contrast these results with results obtained from studies of several U.S. populations. In particular, a series of measurement models were specified and evaluated to address the issues of reliability and validity. Data were collected from personal interviews of a probability sample of 1,194 Chinese respondents 14 years of age and older in four townships in southwest Taiwan. The Mental Health Inventory was found to involve two major components: positive well-being and psychological distress. As a hierarchical structure, each component consists of one second-order and two or three first-order factors. The relationships between well-being and distress can be characterized as substantially independent and modestly bipolar depending on the level and specification.
Complete Genome Sequence of the Sugar Beet Endophyte Pseudomonas poae RE*1-1-14, a Disease-Suppressive Bacterium

ABSTRACT The endophytic bacterium Pseudomonas poae RE*1-1-14 shows broad antagonistic activity and is applied to seeds as a biocontrol agent to suppress late root rot in the sugar beet. The completely sequenced 5.5-Mb genome reveals genes that putatively contribute to this antagonistic activity and the intimate plant-microbe interaction.
Identification of ATF-2 as a Transcriptional Regulator for the Tyrosine Hydroxylase Gene*

Transcriptional regulation of catecholamine-synthesizing genes is important for the determination of neurotransmitters during brain development. We found that three catecholamine-synthesizing genes were transcriptionally up-regulated in cloned PC12D cells overexpressing V-1, a protein that is highly expressed during postnatal brain development (1). To reveal the molecular mechanism to regulate the expression of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), which is the rate-limiting enzyme for catecholamine biosynthesis, we analyzed the transcription factors responsible for TH induction in the V-1 clonal cells. First, by using reporter constructs, we found that the transcription mediated by cAMP-responsive element (CRE) was selectively enhanced in the V-1 cells, and TH promoter activity was totally dependent on the CRE in the promoter region of the TH gene. Next, immunoblot analyses and a transactivation assay using a GAL4 reporter system revealed that ATF-2, but not cAMP-responsive element-binding protein (CREB), was highly phosphorylated and activated in the V-1 cells, while both CREB and ATF-2 were bound to the TH-CRE. Finally, the enhanced TH promoter activity was competitively attenuated by expression of a plasmid containing the ATF-2 transactivation domain. These data demonstrated that activation of ATF-2 resulted in the increased transcription of the TH gene and suggest that ATF-2 may be deeply involved in the transcriptional regulation of catecholamine-synthesizing genes during neural development.
Single Self-Injection-Locked Radar With Two Antennas for Monitoring Vital Signs With Large Body Movement Cancellation

This paper presents a novel self-injection-locked radar with two antennas to transmit and retransmit a continuous wave to opposite sides of a human body for monitoring vital signs in real time with large body movements. The system can prevent the nonlinear effects of large Doppler phase shifts on the cancellation of body motion artifacts, to extract accurate vital signs from the received Doppler-shifted signal. However, the effectiveness of the cancellation is limited by the received clutter echoes in this system. Therefore, the system also has a clutter effect elimination circuit to improve substantially the detection of vital signs in an examinee at various positions between the two antennas even when the examinee moves often by more than one wavelength.
Plasma HIV-1 RNA to Guide Patient Selection for Antiretroviral Therapy in Resource-Poor Settings: Efficiency Related to Active Case Finding

Scaling up access to highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) requires eligibility criteria that safeguard treatment efficiency in resource-poor settings. We determined whether supply of HAART on the basis of plasma viral load testing could result in a stronger reduction of AIDS incidence as compared with CD4 count-driven strategies. Expected AIDS incidence rates corresponding to distinct HAART eligibility criteria were calculated by relying on risk parameters obtained through the Amsterdam cohort studies on HIV infection and AIDS. We modeled 2 different treatment settings derived from sub-Saharan African surveys. In a hospital-based setting, the reduction in the 1-year AIDS incidence is the same for any HAART administration rate if patients are selected on a single CD4 cell count criterion or on (additional) criteria for plasma HIV-1 RNA. In a community-based setting, where patients are identified at less advanced stages of infection, the reduction in the 1-year AIDS incidence is higher at particular HAART administration rates if patients are selected on criteria for plasma HIV-1 RNA rather than CD4 cell count. Plasma viral load testing can ensure a more efficient allocation of antiretroviral therapy but only when applied to a strategy of active case finding in the community.
Elimination of Pre-Steering Delays in Space-Time Broadband Beamforming Using Frequency Domain Constraints

One of the most popular methods in broadband beamforming is the Frost space-time processing. In this method, a pre-steering delay is followed by a tapped delay line (TDL) filter in each branch of the beamformer. Pre-steering delays are used to compensate for the effect of misalignment between the array geometry and the look direction. However, any error in implementing these delays drastically degrades the performance of the array. In this letter, a new set of constrains are introduced to substitute the pre-steering delays. These constraints are defined in frequency domain and adjust the beamformer weights such that the desired signal is passed without any distortion. Setting nulls at interference directions can also be incorporated in these constraints and can further improve the performance of the beamformer.