Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Delving Into the IT Governance-Management Communication Interface

This work is devoted to addressing the IT governance - management communication aspects, considering that their responsibilities are different, but complementary, in developing an IT governance framework. Our research question consists of finding which aspects (and subsequent themes) from IT governance literature may be considered. We performed a systematic scoping literature review, as our objective is to conduct a wide-ranging search on the aspects that communicate the governance of IT and its management. Because we want to broadly know the communication aspects and subthemes, we first filtered the articles reading each title and abstract and the relevant studies were reduced to 174. Finally, after an exhaustive reading, review, and categorization, 92 studies were selected. We identified 14 aspects and 50 themes regarding the communication interface between IT governance and IT management. Our study brings insights on a clearer IT governance-management interface conceptualization and identifies an agenda for further research on it.
A novel enhancer that regulates Bdnf expression in developing neurons

Brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is a critical secreted peptide that promotes neuronal differentiation and survival, and its downregulation is implicated in many neurological disorders. Here, we investigated the regulation of the mouse Bdnf gene in cortical neurons and identified a novel enhancer that promotes the expression of many Bdnf transcript variants during differentiation, increasing total Bdnf mRNA levels. Enhancer activity contributes to Bdnf-mediated effects on neuronal clustering and activity-dependent dendritogenesis. During Bdnf activation, enhancer-promoter contacts increase, and the region moves away from the repressive nuclear periphery. Our findings suggest that changes in nuclear structure may contribute to the expression of essential growth factors during neuronal development.
Fox Serum Proteomics Analysis Suggests Host-Specific Responses to Angiostrongylus vasorum Infection in Canids

Dogs infected with the cardiopulmonary nematode Angiostrongylus vasorum may suffer from respiratory distress and/or bleeding disorders. Descriptions of clinical signs in foxes are rare, despite high prevalence. To evaluate the impact of infection on coagulation and immune response, serum proteins from eight experimentally infected foxes before and after inoculation (day 0, 35, 84, 154) were subjected to differential proteomic analyses based on quantitative data and compared to available data from dogs. The number of proteins with differential abundance compared to the uninfected baseline increased with chronicity of infection. Bone marrow proteoglycan, chitinase 3-like protein 1 and pulmonary surfactant-associated protein B were among the most prominently increased proteins. The abundance of several proteins involved in coagulation was decreased. Enriched pathways obtained from both increased and decreased proteins included, among others, “platelet degranulation” and “haemostasis”, and indicated both activation and suppression of coagulation. Qualitative comparison to dog data suggests some parallel serum proteomic alterations. The comparison, however, also indicates that foxes have a more adequate immunopathological response to A. vasorum infection compared to dogs, facilitating persistent infections in foxes. Our findings imply that foxes may be more tolerant to A. vasorum infection, as compared to dogs, reflecting a longer evolutionary host–parasite adaptation in foxes, which constitute a key wildlife reservoir.
Genetic and Antigenic Characterization of an Expanding H3 Influenza A Virus Clade in U.S. Swine Visualized by Nextstrain

Genetically distinct clades of influenza A virus (IAV) in swine undermine efforts to control the disease. Swine producers commonly use vaccines, and vaccine strains are selected by identifying the most common hemagglutinin (HA) gene from viruses detected in a farm or a region. ABSTRACT Defining factors that influence spatial and temporal patterns of influenza A virus (IAV) is essential to inform vaccine strain selection and strategies to reduce the spread of potentially zoonotic swine-origin IAV. The relative frequency of detection of the H3 phylogenetic clade 1990.4. a (colloquially known as C-IVA) in U.S. swine declined to 7% in 2017 but increased to 32% in 2019. We conducted phylogenetic and phenotypic analyses to determine putative mechanisms associated with increased detection. We created an implementation of Nextstrain to visualize the emergence, spatial spread, and genetic evolution of H3 IAV in swine, identifying two C-IVA clades that emerged in 2017 and cocirculated in multiple U.S. states. Phylodynamic analysis of the hemagglutinin (HA) gene documented low relative genetic diversity from 2017 to 2019, suggesting clonal expansion. The major H3 C-IVA clade contained an N156H amino acid substitution, but hemagglutination inhibition (HI) assays demonstrated no significant antigenic drift. The minor HA clade was paired with the neuraminidase (NA) clade N2-2002B prior to 2016 but acquired and maintained an N2-2002A in 2016, resulting in a loss of antigenic cross-reactivity between N2-2002B- and -2002A-containing H3N2 strains. The major C-IVA clade viruses acquired a nucleoprotein (NP) of the H1N1pdm09 lineage through reassortment in the replacement of the North American swine-lineage NP. Instead of genetic or antigenic diversity within the C-IVA HA, our data suggest that population immunity to H3 2010.1 along with the antigenic diversity of the NA and the acquisition of the H1N1pdm09 NP gene likely explain the reemergence and transmission of C-IVA H3N2 in swine. IMPORTANCE Genetically distinct clades of influenza A virus (IAV) in swine undermine efforts to control the disease. Swine producers commonly use vaccines, and vaccine strains are selected by identifying the most common hemagglutinin (HA) gene from viruses detected in a farm or a region. In 2019, we identified an increase in the detection frequency of an H3 phylogenetic clade, C-IVA, which was previously circulating at much lower levels in U.S. swine. Our study identified genetic and antigenic factors contributing to its resurgence by linking comprehensive phylodynamic analyses with empirical wet-lab experiments and visualized these evolutionary analyses in a Nextstrain implementation. The contemporary C-IVA HA genes did not demonstrate an increase in genetic diversity or significant antigenic changes. N2 genes did demonstrate antigenic diversity, and the expanding C-IVA clade acquired a nucleoprotein (NP) gene segment via reassortment. Virus phenotype and vaccination targeting prior dominant HA clades likely contributed to the clade’s success.
Thermistors – in search of new applications, manufacturers cultivate advanced NTC techniques

As leading sensors of ambient conditions, temperature sensors act as important sensing devices. They are essential in a large variety of products. A variety of temperature sensors is available on the market to meet specific application needs. The most common include thermocouples, resistive temperature detectors (RTD), thermistors, and silicon‐based sensors. But of all of these temperature sensors, the thermistor is the only one that holds the esteemed position owing to its high sensitivity, accuracy and low cost. Temperature measurement systems utilizing thermistors are less expensive to produce because few additional components are required, especially in the present era of embedded systems. With the recent advances in manufacturing techniques, the drawbacks of conventional thermistors, like aging, interchangeability, unreliability etc., are almost eliminated. Booming demand for DVD players and portable communication appliances have pushed up the popularity of NTC thermistors. This article reviews the latest trends in thermistor manufacturing and the associated applications.
Optically-controlled microwave PSK modulator

In our transmission system there was a need to use a binary PSK modulator. However there was a condition assuming a microwave signal phase control by means of an optical fibre link. To accomplish these requirements optically controlled microwave phase shifters and a 3 dB-quadrature (90/spl deg/) microwave coupler were used. The simulations and the measurements of the optically controlled PSK modulator were investigated and presented.
Cow dung an undeciphered boon: An overview

Current intensive agriculture system faces a major challenge to achieve higher production while supporting soil health and biodiversity. Among the livestock, cow has a prominent place in our country. For millennia, cow dung has been used for several purposes and served as a source of cheap fuel, housing material and insect repellent. Panchgavya that consisted of five ingredients from cow i.e. dung, urine, milk, curd and ghee is gaining attention of researchers for its various health benefits and its potential as therapeutic agent against many human diseases. Moreover, the cow dung possesses myriad batteries of microbes that exert their beneficial effects through production of metabolites. Since the ancient times, cow dung has also been used as an vital source of organic fertilizer and in the production of biogas. However, with modern civilization, this natural bioresource is forgotten and its exceptional qualities largely ignored. This review article is an attempt to gather all the scientific research findings that support the use of cow dung and its multifarious role in various sectors.
Picosecond Pulse Sequential Waveform Generation

This paper describes a novel method of generating a pulse sequence using step-recovery diodes shunting a transmission line. Individual pulses in the train may have risetimes less than 60 DS with amplitudes qreater than 10 V. The many potential applications of the device include a short RF pulse generator, an FM generator, and a high-speed word generator.
Do AMF and Irrigation Regimes Affect Sweet Pepper Fruit Quality under Open Field Conditions?

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of a mycorrhizal inoculation (AMF) and irrigation regime on certain yield morphological parameters and the biological value of fruits of open field-grown sweet pepper under temperate climate conditions. A study on the Polish hybrid cultivar ‘Roberta F1’ was conducted over the period 2016–2018 in a private certified organic farm. Sweet pepper was harvested at physiological maturity from the second 10 days of August to the first 10 days of October. AMF and irrigation were shown to significantly modify the selected morphological parameters of the peppers. Fruits with the highest weight, length, and width were harvested from AMF-inoculated plants, both irrigated and non-irrigated ones. The chemical composition and antioxidant activity (AA) of pepper fruit extracts were significantly affected by AMF and irrigation. AMF application contributed to a decrease in the percentage of dry matter, vitamin C, reducing sugars, extract, carotenoids, and AA. Irrigation, on the other hand, had a beneficial effect on enhancing the biological value of pepper fruits (except for vitamin C), also increasing their AA. The highest levels of carotenoids (4.64 mg 100 g−1 of fresh matter (FM) were found in the fruits of irrigated plants without AMF, whereas the highest levels of vitamin C (134.10 mg 100 g−1 FM) were accumulated by the fruits of plants grown without AMF and without irrigation.
Progress toward solid-state local oscillators at 1 THz

A varactor tripler to 800 GHz with 250 mW output power is reported. This tripler uses a new GaAs Schottky diode which has been optimized for high frequency applications. It features a smaller anode diameter and higher epitaxial doping density than previous varactor multipliers. The resulting output power is much greater than has been previously reported at such a high frequency.
Evaluating the Risk of Breast Cancer Recurrence and Metastasis After Adjuvant Tamoxifen Therapy by Integrating Polymorphisms in Cytochrome P450 Genes and Clinicopathological Characteristics

Tamoxifen (TAM) is the most commonly used adjuvant endocrine drug for hormone receptor-positive (HR+) breast cancer patients. However, how to accurately evaluate the risk of breast cancer recurrence and metastasis after adjuvant TAM therapy is still a major concern. In recent years, many studies have shown that the clinical outcomes of TAM-treated breast cancer patients are influenced by the activity of some cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes that catalyze the formation of active TAM metabolites like endoxifen and 4-hydroxytamoxifen. In this study, we aimed to first develop and validate an algorithm combining polymorphisms in CYP genes and clinicopathological signatures to identify a subpopulation of breast cancer patients who might benefit most from TAM adjuvant therapy and meanwhile evaluate major risk factors related to TAM resistance. Specifically, a total of 256 patients with invasive breast cancer who received adjuvant endocrine therapy were selected. The genotypes at 10 loci from three TAM metabolism-related CYP genes were detected by time-of-flight mass spectrometry and multiplex long PCR. Combining the 10 loci with nine clinicopathological characteristics, we obtained 19 important features whose association with cancer recurrence was assessed by importance score via random forests. After that, a logistic regression model was trained to calculate TAM risk-of-recurrence score (TAM RORs), which is adopted to assess a patient’s risk of recurrence after TAM treatment. The sensitivity and specificity of the model in an independent test cohort were 86.67% and 64.56%, respectively. This study showed that breast cancer patients with high TAM RORs were less sensitive to TAM treatment and manifested more invasive characteristics, whereas those with low TAM RORs were highly sensitive to TAM treatment, and their conditions were stable during the follow-up period. There were some risk factors that had a significant effect on the efficacy of TAM. They were tissue classification (tumor Grade < 2 vs. Grade ≥ 2, p = 2.2e−16), the number of lymph node metastases (Node-Negative vs. Node < 4, p = 5.3e−07; Node < 4 vs. Node ≥ 4, p = 0.003; Node-Negative vs. Node ≥ 4, p = 7.2e−15), and the expression levels of estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR) (ER < 50% vs. ER ≥ 50%, p = 1.3e−12; PR < 50% vs. PR ≥ 50%, p = 2.6e−08). The really remarkable thing is that different genotypes of CYP2D6*10(C188T) show significant differences in prediction function (CYP2D6*10 CC vs. TT, p < 0.019; CYP2D6*10 CT vs. TT, p < 0.037). There are more than 50% Chinese who have CYP2D6*10 mutation. So the genotype of CYP2D6*10(C188T) should be tested before TAM therapy.
On efficient relabeling of symmetric discrete‐event systems

Symmetric discrete‐event systems (SDES) are composed of classes of components with identical structures. By utilizing such symmetry, for specifications irrelevant to the detailed component information, the supervisory control of SDES can be achieved in the relabeled level. Namely, for events fulfilling the same task (similar events) in a class of components, they are relabeled to the same symbol. The relabeling mechanism is first implemented by directly renaming similar events to the same symbol. Then by employing the subset construction algorithm (SCA), the resultant nondeterministic automaton is converted to its deterministic counterpart. As the SCA is computationally intensive, the relabeling algorithm is inefficient, especially when the number of components increases. In this paper, inspired by the construction process of quotient automata, we first employ symmetry to generate the state set of the relabeled automaton. Then the relabeled automaton is generated based on the generated state set and transition information among these states. As we avoid using the SCA to eliminate nondeterminism, the relabeling process is more efficient. A running example is given throughout the paper.
Analysis of Novel Building Blocks for Photonic MEMS Based on Deep 1D Photonic Crystals

This papers deals with the study of novel building blocks suitable for architectures of MEMS tunable lasers integrated in SOI platforms. These building blocks are based on the use of 1D photonic crystals (1D PCs) made of silicon-air thin layers stacks. These provide high reflectivity in certain wavelength range as well as access to simple Fabry-Perot cavities. The latter was studied more in detail and simulations are presented along with preliminary experimental results. A tilted Fabry-Perot cavity was analyzed for its potential of mode selector to prevent for mode hopping and thus enable continuous mode tuning by control of separation gap. As 1D PCs exhibit dispersion characteristics, this behavior is analyzed as well for its potential use for compensation purposes of wavelength dependence of the refractive index in the III-V gain medium.
Quantitative models for building repair and maintenance: a comparative case‐study

This paper presents a comparative study of three well‐established building maintenance forecasting models in conjunction with a quantitative model which has been developed recently. After a brief introduction of each method, data collected from a large building survey were mapped into four distinctive methods and comparison was carried out in terms of priorities that these four methods adopt for future maintenance work. An analysis of responses to a questionnaire including 100 companies and individuals involved in maintenance and facilities management work (including quantity surveyors’ organisations) revealed that 100 percent of the public sector organisations use maintenance assessment methods for their prioritisation of maintenance management work. It also revealed that 92 percent of the private sector and 95 percent of all the organisations use condition based maintenance assessment methods for the prioritisation of maintenance operations. Results of this questionnaire have been used as introductory material to support the necessity for this piece of research.
Density Functional Theory for Polymer Phase Separations Induced by Coupling of Chemical Reaction and Elastic Stress

A density functional theory is applied to phase separation dynamics influenced by crosslinking reactions in dense polymer solutions. The crosslinking reaction is modeled by a change from non‐crosslinked polymers comprising transient network (TN) to crosslinked polymers participating in the percolated permanent network (PN). Deformed TN polymers are considered to relax to the isotropic equilibrium state according to the Maxwellian linear viscoelastic constitutive equation, which is used in the modeling of viscoelastic phase separations. The PN is modeled by a linear elastic constitutive model. When TN polymers are taken into the PN by crosslinking reaction, the instantaneous deformation of the TN polymers are frozen, and such frozen deformations are accumulated as time goes on. A series of simulations is performed using this model, so that two specific features of the viscoelastic and reactive phase separation are obtained, i.e., 1) two‐stage phase separation process that leads to a domain structure with two different characteristic length scales, and 2) fixing the phase‐separated structure before reaching the macrophase separation.
Should project management be based on theories of economics or production?

According to adherents of lean construction, project management theorists and practitioners, when drawing from the concepts and principles of economics, have neglected the management of production. The consequences of this neglect are said to include poor control (low reliability) of handoffs between design, supply and construction specialists, and a tendency to promote adversarial relationships – reducing value delivered and increasing waste. There is increasing agreement in the construction community that these problems must be solved and that the production perspective must be integrated into project management theory and practice. But how is it best to do so? Is it a matter of supplementing existing project management theory and practice with an additional perspective, or should we start from a conceptualization of projects as temporary production systems? This paper explores the alternative of subordinating the economics-based theory of project management to the theory of production. A recent synthesis of an economics-based project management approach is critically assessed, and an alternative, production-based approach is outlined. Selon les tenants de la construction ‘au plus juste’, les théoriciens et les praticiens de la gestion de projet, lorsqu'ils puisent dans les concepts et les principes économiques, ont négligé la gestion de la production. Cette négligence a notamment pour conséquence le contrôle médiocre (faible fiabilité) des transferts entre spécialistes de la conception, de la fourniture et de la construction ainsi qu'une tendance à encourager les rapports d'opposition, ce qui réduit la valeur fournie et augmente les déchets. On s'accorde de plus en plus à dire, au sein du monde de la construction, que ces problèmes doivent être résolus et que les perspectives de production doivent être intégrées dans la théorie et la pratique de la gestion de projet. Mais quelle est la meilleure façon de procéder? S'agit-il d'ajouter à la théorie et à la pratique existante de la gestion de projet une perspective supplémentaire, ou bien, devrions-nous partir d'une conceptualisation des projets comme systèmes provisoires de production? Cet article analyse l'option qui consisterait à subordonner la théorie de la gestion de projet basée sur l'économie à la théorie de la production. Une synthèse récente d'une méthode de gestion de projet basée sur l'économie fait l'objet d'une évaluation critique tandis que l'auteur donne les grandes lignes d'une autre approche qui serait basée sur la production. gestion de contrat, construction ‘au plus juste’, gestion de la production, production, gestion de projet, gestion des risques, théorie de la production, théorie des projets
Characterization and design of digital pointing subsystem for Optical Communication Demonstrator

The Optical Communications Demonstrator (OCD) is a laboratory- based lasercom demonstration terminal designed to validate several key technologies, including beacon acquisition, high bandwidth tracking, precision beam pointing, and point-ahead compensation functions. It has been under active development over the past few years. The instrument uses a CCD array detector for both spatial acquisition and high-bandwidth tracking, and a fiber coupled laser transmitter. The array detector tracking concept provides wide field-of-view acquisition and permits effective platform jitter compensation and point-ahead control using only one steering mirror. This paper describes the detailed design and characterization of the digital control loop system which includes the Fast Steering Mirror (FSM), the CCD image tracker, and the associated electronics. The objective of this work is to improve the overall system performance using laboratory measured data. The design of the digital control loop is based on a linear time invariant open loop model. The closed loop performance is predicted using the theoretical model. With the digital filter programmed into the OCD control software, data is collected to verify the predictions. This paper presents the results of the system modeling and performance analysis. It has been shown that measurement data closely matches theoretical predictions. An important part of the laser communication experiment is the ability of FSM to track the laser beacon within the required tolerances. The pointing must be maintained to an accuracy that is much smaller than the transmit signal beamwidth. For an earth orbit distance, the system must be able to track the receiving station to within a few microradians. The failure to do so will result in a severely degraded system performance.