Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mass Spectrometric Proteomics

Boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) is a binary cancer treatment modality where two different agents (10B and thermal neutrons) have to be present to produce an effect. A dedicated trial design is necessary for early clinical trials. The concentration of 10B in tissues is an accepted surrogate to predict BNCT effects on tissues. Tissue, blood, and urines were sampled after infusion of two different boron carriers, namely BSH and BPA in the frame of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) trial 11001. In this study, urine samples were used to identify protein profiles prior and after drug infusion during surgery. Here, an approach that is based on the mass spectrometry (MS)-based proteomic analysis of urine samples from head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) and thyroid cancer patients is presented. This method allowed the identification of several inflammationand cancer-related proteins, which could serve as tumor biomarkers. In addition, changes in the urinary proteome during and after therapeutic interventions were detected. In particular, a reduction of three proteins that were involved in inflammation has been observed: Galectin-3 Binding Protein, CD44, and osteopontin. The present work represents a proof of principle to follow proteasome changes during complex treatments based on urine samples.
The Theory of One Team: Agile Software Development with Distributed Teams

Team co-location is a hallmark of Agile software development that advocates face-to-face interaction and close collaboration among team members. Distributed teams, however, use Agile methods despite the separation of team members through space, time and culture. Little is known about how distributed teams use Agile methods for software development. A Grounded Theory research study that involved 55 participants from 38 different software companies in the USA, India, and Australia was carried out to investigate the key concern of distributed teams in Agile software development. This thesis proposes “The Theory of One Team” which explains how a distributed team in Agile software development adopts explicit strategies for bridging spatial, temporal, and socio-cultural distances, while facing critical impact factors, in order to become one team. This thesis primarily describes how a distributed team resolves the key concern of becoming one team. This thesis also provides the members of a distributed team with techniques for building trust with one another. In addition, this thesis serves to inform senior managers about the importance of supporting distributed teams in Agile software development.
Differential expression of 10 genes in the hypothalamus of two generations of rats selected for a reaction to humans

Individual behavioral differences are due to an interaction of the genotype and the environment. Phenotypic manifestation of aggressive behavior depends on the coordinated expression of gene ensembles. Nonetheless, the identification of these genes and of combinations of their mutual influence on expression remains a difficult task. Using animal models of aggressive behavior (gray rats that were selected for a reaction to humans; tame and aggressive rat strains), we evaluated the expression of 10 genes potentially associated with aggressiveness according to the literature: Cacna1b, Cacna2d3, Drd2, Egr1, Gad2, Gria2, Mapk1, Nos1, Pomc, and Syn1. To identify the genes most important for the manifestation of aggressiveness, we analyzed the expression of these genes in two generations of rats: 88th and 90th. Assessment of gene expression levels was carried out by real-time PCR in the hypothalamus of tame and aggressive rats. This analysis confirmed that 4 out of the 10 genes differ in expression levels between aggressive rats and tame rats in both generations. Specifically, it was shown that the expression of the Cacna1b, Drd2, Egr1, and Gad2 genes does not differ between the two generations (88th vs 90th) within each strain, but significantly differs between the strains: in the tame rats of both generations, the expression levels of these genes are significantly lower as compared to those in the aggressive rats. Therefore, these genes hold promise for further studies on behavioral characteristics. Thus, we confirmed polygenic causes of phenotypic manifestation of aggressive reactions.
Broadband directional couplers using multiple-section equivalent CPW lines

In this paper, the application of the multiple-section equivalent line concept to a stepped coupling symmetric 90-degree coplanar coupler has been investigated. Two designs of 80% bandwidth, 20 dB isolation, 6-dB and 10-dB three-section coplanar directional couplers constructed on 0.025 inch thick Alumina substrates are demonstrated in this paper.
K-chart: a tool for research planning and monitoring

The importance of planning and monitoring in any activities, more particularly researches can never be over-emphasized. Inadequate research planning and monitoring leads to delayed delivery of results, inefficient use of resources and increased cost. There are various research tools available and being used to assist in research planning and monitoring. An efficient tool should address the issues under study, the methodologies used, the expected results in sufficient details, the timelines, and monitoring features. However, there is arguably no existing tool that can support all the features individually. In this paper, a new research planning and monitoring tool, K-chart is proposed. K-chart provides all the features mentioned above and presents them in a simple way. This paper elaborates on the construction of K-chart and its advantages.
MCM-D/C packaging solution for IBM latest S/390 servers

The G5, fastest member of the S390 server family, was announced in May of 1998. The multichip module (MCM) used consists of 29 CMOS chips on a 127.5 mm glass ceramic substrate with 6 levels of thin films (TF) including 1 signal plane pair. The G5 system performance exceeded 1,000 MIPS. This breakthrough performance resulted from the synergy created by combining IBM's leadership technologies in CMOS high frequency microprocessor design with advanced packaging and flip chip interconnections. From a substrate perspective, IBM moved from alumina ceramic and Mo conductors to glass ceramic and Cu, and from TF redistribution (4 levels) to TF wiring (6 levels). This paper discusses the TF implications from a change of substrate material and increased wiring density, as well as the need to implement a polyimide cushion layer as part of the pin grid array (PGA) fabrication process to support 4224 I/Os.
Developing the core

Part I: Core Training Essentials Chapter 1. Core Anatomy and Biomechanics Chapter 2. Core Assessment Chapter 3. Core Muscle Activity During Exercise Chapter 4. Core Development Exercises and Drills Chapter 5. Core Programming Part II: Sport-Specific Core Training Chapter 9. Golf Chapter 11. Soccer Chapter 12. Swimming Chapter 13. Tennis Chapter 14. Track and Field.
Design issues of a core-less transformer for a contact-less application

A set of rules for designing coreless transformers for contactless applications is presented in this paper. In contactless transference of energy, there is a relative big separation distance between the coils, so coupling is low. Several simulations have been performed with an FEA tool studying different technologies and winding strategies in order to quantify the improvements in coupling and resistance for different gaps. The analysis has been done for the transcutaneous transformer of a human-body implant, but the conclusions can be extended to any kind of coreless transformer for a contact-less application. The results are consistent with the measurements.
Experimental and theoretical evaluation of interference characteristics between 2.4-GHz ISM-band wireless LANs

Wireless LANs in the 2.4-GHz ISM-band create a new electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) problem. We investigated the interference characteristics between such wireless LANs in the case of identical systems, systems with different technical parameters for modulation and demodulation, and using a Gaussian noise source as a disturbance source. Experimental results show that higher throughput is obtained when adjacent wireless LANs use different systems, and that interference characteristics can be evaluated experimentally using a Gaussian noise source. Calculated BER characteristics for the interference agree with experimental measurements, indicating that this calculation method can be used for the design of the wireless LAN network to avoid interference. It is possible to construct an efficient wireless LAN network by combining different wireless LAN systems.
EVALUATING AN ACTIVE SHOOTER CURRICULUM FOR INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER LEARNING

The increased incidents of school shootings at Institutions of Higher Learning (IHLs) in the United States have become a great concern for school administrators and law enforcement officials. This literature review presents a) lessons learned from preparing IHLs for an active shooter event, b) alternative measures to support IHLs in managing an active shooter event, c) alternative active shooter training for IHLs. An examination of the literature review provides the definition of what is considered an “active shooter incident” and provides evidence for the increased occurrences of active shooter events at IHLs. Lessons learned from active shooter incidents are discussed, and various security alternatives to mitigating and responding to an active shooter crisis are investigated. The evidence presented in this research makes it clear that IHLs can no longer depend solely on outside agencies to protect them from active shooter incidents. In fact, IHL employees will respond before law enforcement arrives. Though a great deal has been written about the experiences of first responders and IHL employees in active shooter incidents, much remains to concern us. First, agencies and IHLs differ considerably, and their differences contribute to confusion at the scene. Secondly, individuals at IHLs and responders are not clear about their roles and interactions. In fact, being together at a scene does not guarantee teamwork leading to an effective response. Thirdly, educators and responders who do not train together cannot partner effectively in a crisis. Without a shared training program to prepare properly for an active shooter attack, IHLs remain at serious risk. The increase in attacks alone should alert IHLs to the necessity of preparing and training staff personnel for an active shooter encounter. However, there is still no standardized joint training for responders and IHL faculty and staff in the United States. Institutions of Higher Learning need to support the law enforcement community in providing a standardized curriculum to protect the campus environment and its interest. This review, by examining active shooter events and training in detail, could inform such training. For this reason, this study explores various methods that IHLs can use to prepare, mitigate, and respond to an armed intruder on a college campus.
Statistical Analysis of Benefits of Renewable Energy-Examples from Biogas Consumers of Nepal

Twelve hours of power outages daily from the national grid in the current season and up to sixteen hours in the lean period is the state of commercial energy in Nepal. Major section of the population here depends on firewood for cooking. A lot of time of women is spent in the collection of firewood. With ever increasing population in the developing world and depleting fossil fuel reserve, this dependence shows a rising trend. In this paper various benefits related to the use of renewable energy are minutely analyzed. Time spent in the collection of fire wood before and after the construction of plant, distance travelled in the collection of firewood before and after the plant, time saved and firewood saved are some of the variables which try to assess the befits of biogas plant. These results were obtained from a socio-economic survey of 400 households, where information about a typical middleclass Nepalese family inhabiting in rural areas, its economic and social background and change after biogas was used in their household is collected. It was conducted during September – December 2010 in three different rural settings of Nepal. The questionnaire for this survey was carefully pretested and refined and then the survey was conducted. All the possible sources of error were identified and carefully eliminated. The results will help policy makers and planners in making better strategy in popularizing biogas in particular and renewable energy in general.
A Groovy Virtual Drummer:Learning by Imitation Using a Self-Organizing Connectionist Architecture

The research in this thesis aims to enable robots to imitate humans. Learning by imitation is a fundamental part of human behaviour, since it allows humans to acquire motor skills simply by demonstration; seen from a robotic viewpoint you can easily “program” your fellow humans by showing them what to do. Would it not be great if the same mechanism could be used to program robots? A robot is programmed by specifying the torque of its motors. The torque can be regarded as the force or strength that is the result of muscles contracting or relaxing. Typical approaches to determine motor torques that will lead to a desired behaviour include setting them manually, i.e. on a trial-and-error basis, or specifying them by mathematical equations. Neither of these are intuitive to most humans, so most robot behaviours are programmed by engineers. However, if an engineer was to design a preprogrammed housekeeping robot, it would be very hard to program all the possible behaviours the robot could be expected to perform, even in such a limited domain. It is much more cost-efficient to make the robot learn what to do. This would allow the robot to adapt to its human owner, and not the other way around. Since humans easily learn new behaviours by imitating others, it would be ideal if humans could use the same technique to transfer motor knowledge to robots. I believe research in this area could be of great help to bridge the human-robot interaction gap that currently exists, so that you could have truly intelligent robots that could assist people in everyday life. To understand imitation learning, knowledge of psychology and neuroscience is required. The research in this thesis has taken an interdisciplinary approach, studying the desired mechanism on both a behavioural and neuroscientific level. I have focused on imitation in a musical setting. The system can both see and hear, and seeks to imitate the perceived behaviour. The application has been to create an intelligent virtual drummer, that imitates both the physical playing style (i.e. the movement of the arms) as well as the musical playing style (i.e. the groove) of the teacher. The virtual drummer will then both look and sound like a human drummer. The research in this thesis presents a multi-modal architecture for imitation of human movements. I have been working on simulated robots due to limits of time and money, however the principles of my research have been developed in a platformindependent way, so it should be applicable to real robots as well.
Influence of Government Policies on Industry Development: The Case of India's Automotive Industry

The automotive industry in India has come a long way from its nascent state at the time of India's independence in 1947 to its present day dynamic form. As compared to the production of mere 4,000 vehicles in 1950, the production of the industry crossed the historic landmark of 10 million vehicles in 2006. Today, the industry produces a wide range of automobiles and auto-components catering to both the domestic as well as foreign markets. The development of the industry has been shaped by the demand on the one hand and the government interventions on the other; the influence of the latter being considerable. The evolution of India's automotive industry is identified to have occurred in four phases. In the first (1947-1965) and second phase (1966-1979), the important policies identified were related to protection, indigenisation and regulation of the industry. On the one hand, these policies helped India to build an indigenous automotive industry, while on the other it led to unsatisfactory industry performance. In the third phase (1980-1990), the single most important policy identified was the one with regard to relaxation in the means of technology acquisition. The foreign competition inducted into the industry transformed its dynamics. Lastly, in the fourth phase (1991 onwards) the liberalisation with regard to foreign investment had a significant influence on the Indian automotive industry as we see it today. This work traces the evolution of the automotive industry from its inception to present day and identifies the important policies made by the Indian government. The work also studies the influence of important policies on the development of the industry.
Cardiac Tomography and Cardiac Magnetic Resonance to Predict the Absence of Intracardiac Thrombus in Anticoagulated Patients Undergoing Atrial Fibrillation Ablation

Background: Pulmonary veins isolation (PVI) is a standard treatment for recurrent atrial fibrillation (AF). Uninterrupted anticoagulation for a minimum of 3 weeks before ablation and exclusion of left atrial (LA) thrombus with transesophageal echography (TEE) immediately before or during the procedure minimize peri-procedural risk. We aimed to demonstrate the utility of cardiac tomography (CT) and cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) to rule out LA thrombus prior to PVI. Methods: Patients undergoing PVI for recurrent AF were retrospectively evaluated. Only patients that started anticoagulation at least 3 weeks prior to the CT/CMR and subsequently uninterrupted until the ablation procedure were selected. An intracardiac echo (ICE) catheter was used in all patients to evaluate LA thrombus. The results of CT/CMR were compared to ICE imaging. Results: We included 272 consecutive patients averaging 54.5 years (71% male; 30% persistent AF). Average CHA2DS2VASC score was 0.9 ± 0.83 and mean LA diameter was 42 ± 5.7 mm, 111 (41%) patients were on Acenocumarol and 161 (59%) were on direct oral anticoagulants. Anticoagulation was started 227 ± 392 days before the CT/CMR, and 291 ± 416 days before the ablation procedure. CT/CMR diagnosed intracardiac thrombus in two cases, both in the LA appendage. A new CT/CMR revealed resolution of thrombus after six additional months of uninterrupted anticoagulation. No macroscopic thrombus was observed in any patients with ICE (negative predictive value of 100%; p < 0.01). Conclusions: CT and MRI are excellent surrogates to TEE and ICE to rule out intracardiac thrombus in patients adequately anticoagulated prior AF ablation. This is true even for delayed procedures as long as anticoagulation is uninterrupted.
Shear behaviour of reinforced concrete pile caps under full-width wall loading

Discrepancy between bending theory-based shear design formulae in UK design codes BS8110 and BS5400 has arisen from the independent development of the semi-empirical formulae based on limited experimental data. Stimulated by the advent of the Eurocodes, a series of experiments of reduced scale reinforced concrete (RC) pile caps under full-length wall loading were tested to investigate the real shear capacity of pile caps. The conservatism of current design formulae was found to be a function of shear enhancement factor and the width of cap over which shear enhancement is applied. The strut-and-tie method was confirmed to give better agreement with experimental results than bending theory based shear formulae.
Differences in the Structural Chemical Composition of the Primary Xylem of Cactaceae: A Topochemical Perspective

The xylem of Cactaceae is a complex system with different types of cells whose main function is to conduct and store water, mostly during the development of primary xylem, which has vessel elements and wide-band tracheids. The anatomy of primary xylem of Cactaceae has been widely studied, but little is known about its chemical composition. The aim of this study was to determine the structural chemical composition of the primary xylem of Cactaceae and to compare it with the anatomy in the group. Seeds from eight cacti species were used, representing the Pereskioideae, Opuntioideae, and Cactoideae subfamilies. Seeds were germinated and grown for 8 months. Subsequently, only the stem of the seedling was selected, dried, milled, and processed following the TAPPI T-222 om-02 norm; lignin was quantified using the Klason method and cellulose with the Kurshner–Höffer method. Using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, the percentage of syringyl and guaiacyl in lignin was calculated. Seedlings of each species were fixed, sectioned, and stained for their anatomical description and fluorescence microscopy analysis for the topochemistry of the primary xylem. The results showed that there were significant differences between species (p < 0.05), except in the hemicelluloses. Through a principal component analysis, it was found that the amount of extractive-free stem and hot water-soluble extractives were the variables that separated the species, followed by cellulose and hemicelluloses since the seedlings developed mainly parenchyma cells and the conductive tissue showed vessel elements and wide-band tracheids, both with annular and helical thickenings in secondary walls. The type of lignin with the highest percentage was guaiacyl-type, which is accumulated mainly in the vessels, providing rigidity. Whereas in the wide-band tracheids from metaxylem, syringyl lignin accumulated in the secondary walls S2 and S3, which permits an efficient flow of water and gives the plant the ability to endure difficult conditions during seedling development. Only one species can be considered to have paedomorphosis since the conductive elements had a similar chemistry in primary and secondary xylem.
Temperature dependent E and G measurement of materials using ultrasonic guided waves

A novel technique for measuring the moduli of elastic isotropic material as a function of temperature, using ultrasonic guided wave modes is presented here. These techniques can be used for measure the Young's modulus (E) and Shear Modulus (G) of material. Here, the L (0, 1) wave mode is used for measuring E and T(0,1) mode for G. The scope of measurement is made from room temperature to maximum utility temperature of material. In this work, the material is required in the form of a waveguide with an ultrasonic guided wave generator at one end and an embodiment (such as a notch or a bend) at the other end for obtaining reflected signals. The transducer is kept at room temperature while the end (along with the embodiment) is kept inside a heating device such as a temperature controlled furnace. The time of flight difference (δTOF), as a function of temperature, between the guided wave reflections from the embodiment and the end of the waveguide, is used to measure the material properties. The technique is .
INDITEX, a model company in the implementation of sustainable human resource management

The aim of this paper is to illustrate the sustainable human resource management (SHRM) approach through the application of a theoretical model to INDITEX as an exemplary case study. According to this approach, it is necessary to integrate the human resource policies for sustained business performance and positive employee outcomes of equity, development and well-being. We have applied a qualitative content analysis technique for developing this application of published annual reports of the company. The evolution that this company shows through its public reports (2002-2012) in the corporate social responsibility framework highlights some lessons to understand the importance of focusing on people. This approach is important as a mean to achieve employee satisfaction and commitment, productivity and profits, and human resource sustainability in organisations.