Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparison of the ìstep downî and the ìstep upî approach in the treatment of patients with symptomatic gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD): Results of a randomized open-label pilot study with omeprazole in Northwest Greece

SUMMARY INTRODUCTION: Gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD) is a potentially serious condition that affects 20- 40% of the adult population at least once a month. Effec- tive management of the disease remains a challenge. The literature is split between two therapeutic approaches, the istep upi and the istep downi approach. A prospective open-label clinical trial was conducted in the area of North- west Greece to compare the clinical effectiveness, in terms of relief of symptoms, and the level of improvement in the quality of life of patients between the two approaches. METHODS: Patients who fulfilled the inclusion and ex- clusion criteria and underwent an upper gastrointestinal tract endoscopy were randomly assigned into the istep downi or istep upi therapeutic approach. Patientsi GERD diagnoses with heartburn being the predominant symptom was assisted by the use of the Carlsson questionnaire. De- mographic and quality-of-life data were also assessed. A second visit was carried out 4 weeks later and the patientsi GERD symptoms were evaluated. Clinical effectiveness was assessed as the percentage of patients presenting relief of symptoms at 4 weeks (acute phase treatment) and after 7 months (acute and maintenance period). Quality-of-life as- sessments were made with the use of the Gastrointestinal Symptom Rating Scale (GSRS). This is a preliminary analy- sis of the comparison of the clinical effectiveness of the istep downi and istep upi therapeutic approaches. RESULTS: Ninety-two patients were enrolled in the study, eighty of whom were finally eligible for analysis. Thirty- seven patients were included in the istep downi and forty- three in the istep upi approach. No statistically signifi- cant differences in the presence of GERD symptoms, de- mographic data and the scores of the Carlsson and GSRS questionnaires were detected between the two groups at the initial visit. After 4 weeks of treatment, there was a statisti- cally significant difference between the two groups in the percentage of patients presenting relief of symptoms (71% in istep downi vs. 47% in istep upi). Furthermore, there was a considerable reduction in the number of days with GERD symptoms in both groups, which was more evident in the istep downi therapeutic approach.
Inter-and Intragenerational Distribution and the Valuation of Natural Capital

This paper studies how the intraand intergenerational distribution of income and wealth affect the economic valuation of environmental public goods derived from natural capital. We consider both a single payment or a constant payment fraction share over time and the willingness to pay (WTP) for a marginal change of the level or the growth rate of the environmental public good. We find that the intragenerational distribution affects the intertemporal valuation of environmental goods derived from natural capital. We show that for both payment vehicles, societal mean WTP for the level as well as the growth rate of natural capital decreases (increases) with intratemporal income inequality if environmental goods derived from natural capital and consumption goods are substitutes (complements). We obtain closed-form adjustment factors for benefit transfer to control for differences in dynamic aspects between study and policy sites, such as income growth, the growth rate of the environmental goods, and interest rates. Our results are relevant for the economic appraisal of environmental policy as well as natural capital accounting and management. JEL-Classification: D63, H43, Q51
Zeolitic imidazole frameworks: structural and energetics trends compared with their zeolite analogues

We use periodic DFT calculations to compute the total energy of known zeolitic imidazole frameworks (ZIFs) together with those of hypothetical porous ZIFs. We show that the total energy of ZIFs decreases with increasing density, in a similar fashion to the alumino-silicate zeolites, but with a more complex energy landscape. The computational evaluation of the stability of hypothetical ZIFs is useful in the search for viable synthesis targets. Our results suggest that a number of hitherto undiscovered nanoporous topologies should be amenable to synthesis (CAN, ATN) and that even the most open framework types might be obtained with appropriately substituted ligands.
Predicting Social Unrest Events with Hidden Markov Models Using GDELT

Proactive handling of social unrest events which are common happenings in both democracies and authoritarian regimes requires that the risk of upcoming social unrest event is continuously assessed. Most existing approaches comparatively pay little attention to considering the event development stages. In this paper, we use autocoded events dataset GDELT (Global Data on Events, Location, and Tone) to build a Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) based framework to predict indicators associated with country instability. The framework utilizes the temporal burst patterns in GDELT event streams to uncover the underlying event development mechanics and formulates the social unrest event prediction as a sequence classification problem based on Bayes decision. Extensive experiments with data from five countries in Southeast Asia demonstrate the effectiveness of this framework, which outperforms the logistic regression method by 7% to 27% and the baseline method 34% to 62% for various countries.
Assessing the capacity to meet irrigation water needs for viticulture under climate variability in the Chilean Andes

Viticulture in semi-arid mountainous regions remains entirely dependent on surface water resources (SWR) to satisfy crop water needs through irrigation. Climate change is expected to increase the risk of water shortage by altering the timing and duration of both hydrological and phenological events while increasing crop evapotranspiration. This study focuses on the estimation of IWR in the Claro River Basin Chile (4196 km2) over the last decade (2002–2011). First, a process-oriented phenological model based on the accumulation of both chilling and forcing rates was built to predict the dates of budburst, full bloom and harvest events on the basin. Then a crop coefficient (Kc) was adapted to each phenological stage and water requirements were computed following a water balance approach. Analysis of the ratio between simulated IWR and observed SWR at a 10-day time step show that water needs have frequently been unsatisfied over the period considered. This work is a first step towards an in-depth analysis of the impact of hydro-climatic variability on the capacity of the river system to satisfy IWR under various climate change and water use scenarios.
Identification of Protein Pupylation Sites Using Bi-Profile Bayes Feature Extraction and Ensemble Learning

Pupylation, one of the most important posttranslational modifications of proteins, typically takes place when prokaryotic ubiquitin-like protein (Pup) is attached to specific lysine residues on a target protein. Identification of pupylation substrates and their corresponding sites will facilitate the understanding of the molecular mechanism of pupylation. Comparing with the labor-intensive and time-consuming experiment approaches, computational prediction of pupylation sites is much desirable for their convenience and fast speed. In this study, a new bioinformatics tool named EnsemblePup was developed that used an ensemble of support vector machine classifiers to predict pupylation sites. The highlight of EnsemblePup was to utilize the Bi-profile Bayes feature extraction as the encoding scheme. The performance of EnsemblePup was measured with a sensitivity of 79.49%, a specificity of 82.35%, an accuracy of 85.43%, and a Matthews correlation coefficient of 0.617 using the 5-fold cross validation on the training dataset. When compared with other existing methods on a benchmark dataset, the EnsemblePup provided better predictive performance, with a sensitivity of 80.00%, a specificity of 83.33%, an accuracy of 82.00%, and a Matthews correlation coefficient of 0.629. The experimental results suggested that EnsemblePup presented here might be useful to identify and annotate potential pupylation sites in proteins of interest. A web server for predicting pupylation sites was developed.
CPW Dependent Loss Analysis of Capacitive Shunt RF MEMS Switch

─ CPW (CoPlanar Waveguide) plays major role in design of RF MEMS switch to improve the performance in terms of losses and required bandwidth of operation. This paper proposes the analyses of the mechanical characteristics on the electrical performance of the Capacitive Shunt RF MEMS (CSRM) switch based on various CPW structures and contact area roughness of the switch using electromagnetic 2.5D ADS simulator. The result of momentum method was analyzed up to the K-band frequency of 100 GHz. The result shows that the CSRM switch with two conductor CPW coupler has a maximum isolation of -46 dB with operating bandwidth up to 90 GHz at the resonant frequency of 50 GHz. In order to validate the obtained result, Artificial Neural Network (ANN) has been trained using ADS result. Comparison shows good agreement between ADS and ANN results. Index Terms ─ Artificial neural network, capacitive shunt switch, CPW, isolation loss, RF MEMS switch.
Surface Analysis Study on ZIRLO Cladding Hulls Oxidized at Low Temperatures

Surface oxidation behavior of ZIRLO (ZIRconium Low Oxidation) hulls was investigated using an X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) technique. The effects of oxidation time (10-336 h at 500℃) and temperature (400-700℃ for 10 h) were studied. Deconvolution results of the hulls oxidized at 500℃ revealed that a ZrO2 phase appeared after 24 h (11.86%), and an increase in the ZrO2 ratio was observed when the hulls were oxidized for 336 h (17.93%). On the other hand, the ZrO phase which employed 5.68% in the 10 h oxidized sample disappeared when the oxidation time increased to 24 h. The XPS results also showed that an increase in the oxidation temperature resulted in an increase in the ratio of ZrO, which increased from 0 to 5.68, 8.31, and 9.16% when the oxidation temperature increased from 400 to 500, 600, and 700℃, respectively. ZrO2 phase was observed only in the sample that was oxidized at 700℃. The mechanism of ZrO formation was not conclusive, but it was suggested that a formation of hydroxide might have been accelerated at elevated temperatures leading to a formation of a Zr(OH)4 phase. The relationship between the surface oxidation status of the hulls oxidized at 500℃ and their chlorination reaction feasibility was discussed, and it was suggested that the thickness of the oxide layer is an important parameter that determines the chlorination reaction feasibility.
Arretium or Arezzo? A Neural Approach to the Identification of Place Names in Historical Texts

English. This paper presents the application of a neural architecture to the identification of place names in English historical texts. We test the impact of different word embeddings and we compare the results to the ones obtained with the Stanford NER module of CoreNLP before and after the retraining using a novel corpus of manually annotated historical travel writings. Italiano. Questo articolo presenta l’applicazione di un’architettura neurale all’identificazione dei nomi propri di luogo all’interno di testi storici in lingua inglese. Abbiamo valutato l’impatto di vari word embedding e confrontato i risultati con quelli ottenuti usando il modulo NER di Stanford CoreNLP prima e dopo averlo riaddestrato usando un nuovo corpus di lettaratura di viaggio storica man-
Finding the Loch Ness Monster: Left‐Wing Authoritarianism in the United States

Although past research suggests authoritarianism may be a uniquely right-wing phenomenon, the present two studies tested the hypothesis that authoritarianism exists in both right-wing and left-wing contexts in essentially equal degrees. Across two studies, university (n 5 475) and Mechanical Turk (n 5 298) participants completed either the RWA (right-wing authoritarianism) scale or a newly developed (and parallel) LWA (left-wing authoritarianism) scale. Participants further completed measurements of ideology and three domain-specific scales: prejudice, dogmatism, and attitude strength. Findings from both studies lend support to an authoritarianism symmetry hypothesis: Significant positive correlations emerged between LWA and measurements of liberalism, prejudice, dogmatism, and attitude strength. These results largely paralleled those correlating RWA with identical conservative-focused measurements, and an overall effect-size measurement showed LWA was similarly related to those constructs (compared to RWA) in both Study 1 and Study 2. Taken together, these studies provide evidence that LWA may be a viable construct in ordinary U.S. samples.
Identifying key competences of industrial design and technology graduates in small and medium-sized enterprises

Industrial design graduates can be true ‘agents of change’ in manufacturing industry and nowhere is this potential more valuable than in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) where flexibility and speed of response are essential and which make up 94% of the UK economy. However, little research exists which examines the people - the initiators of change - in the light of emerging needs of SMEs in the UK. There is a huge potential amongst the SME sector to capitalise on industrial design graduates but for a number of reasons their skills and values are not fully exploited. With a growing higher education (HE) sector in design and related studies and a growing industrial base of SMEs there is an important need for research which would (i) help industrial design graduates secure employment in this significant element of the UK economy; (ii) assist HE with curricula development relevant to the needs of SMEs and (iii) help SMEs to harness the skills of industrial design graduates. This nine month project, which began in January 1999, seeks to address these points via a study of industrial design graduates employed by SMEs. 12 SMEs have been identified and each has employed, for a minimum of two years, a graduate from the Industrial Design and Technology BA/BSc programme offered by the Department of Design and Technology at Loughborough University. Particularly important to the research is the existence, manifestation and exploitation of 'competences'.
A ug 2 01 8 Steady state distributions of network of degenerate optical parametric oscillators in solving combinatorial optimization problems

We investigate network of degenerate optical parametric oscillators (DOPOs) as a model of the coherent Ising machine, an architecture for solving Ising problems. The network represents the interaction in the Ising model, which is a generalization of a previously proposed one for the twoDOPO case. Dynamics of the DOPOs is described by the Fokker-Planck equation in the positive P representation. We obtain approximate steady state distributions for arbitrary Ising problems under some ansatz. Using the method of statistical mechanics, we analytically demonstrate that the most probable states in a particular range of the parameters correspond to the true optimal states for two rather simple problems, i.e., fully-connected ferromagnetic coupling without/with binary random fields. In particular, for the random-field problem, the distribution correctly detects the phase transition that occurs in the target Ising model with varying the magnitude of the fields.
Generation of Epstein-Barr Virus Immortalized-B Lymphocytes Cell Line of Orang Asli

Obtaining sustainable source of cells or DNA from a single individual has always been a constraint in biomedical research. Generation of lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCLs) as a surrogate for replacement of isolated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) has substantially accelerated the process of biological investigations. LCLs can be established by transfection of B lymphocytes from peripheral blood with Epstein Barr Virus (EBV), bearing minor genetic and phenotypic alterations. Here we report the generation of LCLs for the indigenous population (Orang Asli) from Peninsular Malaysia. The establishment of cell line is crucial for such isolated populations since the population size is small and sample collections are often challenging. We applied an alternative approach in isolation of PBMCs before proceeding to EBV transfection of Orang Asli samples, of which the BD Vacutainer CPT tubes were used to replace the conventional protocol such as Ficoll-paque or histopaque. We called this approach the “modified method of CPT” (MMC). A total of 59 out of the 64 samples (92%) of Orang Asli were successfully transformed into LCLs by transfecting with EBV supernatant in a single attempt. To verify the success of LCLs transformation and confirm the presence of the human DNA, FCGR3B gene copy number variations of the DNA extracted from the LCLs were typed using Paralogue ratio test-restriction enzyme digest variant ratio (PRT-REDVR) analysis. The genotype results were compared between the DNA obtained from the LCLs and the original PBMCs from the identical individuals, and results revealed 100% concordance rate. The success of the transformation for LCL for the indigenous populations will eventually allow a more comprehensive and advanced biomedical research to be carried out in the next future without the exhaustion of the biomaterials.
Electronic transport and localization in nitrogen-doped graphene devices using hyperthermal ion implantation

Adam L. Friedman,1,* Cory D. Cress,2 Scott W. Schmucker,3 Jeremy T. Robinson,2 and Olaf M. J. van ‘t Erve1 1Materials Science and Technology Division, Naval Research Laboratory, 4555 Overlook Ave., S.W. , Washington, DC 20375, USA 2Electronics Science and Technology Division, Naval Research Laboratory, 4555 Overlook Ave., S.W. , Washington, DC 20375, USA 3National Research Council Postdoctoral Research Associate residing at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC 20375, USA (Received 22 February 2016; revised manuscript received 4 April 2016; published 21 April 2016)
Myelination of Motor Neurons Derived from Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells by Oligodendrocytes Derived from Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells in a Microfluidic Compartmentalized Platform

Neuronal cell death and demyelination are devastating aspects of neurological diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, and spinal cord injury. Stem cell derived neurons and oligodendrocytes have shown potential as therapeutics for replacement of damaged neurons and remyelination of demyelinated axons in the central nervous system (CNS). However, in some cases, the neurons and axons are damaged so severely that they should be replaced. In this paper, we examined the hypothesis that stem cell derived oligodendrocytes can myelinate axons of stem cell derived motor neurons in a microfluidic platform, which mimics the isolated in vivo environment. The polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microfluidic platform achieves compartmentalization of mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) derived motor neurons and mESCs derived oligodendrocytes, while allowing the axons of the motor neurons to pass through microchannels and reach the oligodendrocytes. As results show, axons of mESCs derived motor neurons were subjected to myelination by mESCs derived oligodendrocytes shown by myelin basic protein immunostaining and electron microscopy. These functioning neuron and oligodendrocyte units may be a very useful tool to study stem cell replacement therapies for nerve injuries where nerve reconstruction would be beneficial.
CH4 and CO2 Adsorption Study in ZIF-8 and Al-BDC MOFs

Thanks to UNESCO/Keizo Obuchi Research Fellowships Programme (UNESCO/Japan Young Researcher’s Fellowship Program), Cycle 2012, Programa de Becas para la realizacion de la tesis doctoral en la Universidad de Malaga convocatoria curso 2011-2012 (AUIP-UMA), European project 295156, FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IRSES and MINECO, Spain, Project CTQ2015-68951-C3-3-R and FEDER funds. Dr. Giselle Autie Castro thanks to CNPq-TWAS Postdoctoral Fellowship 2014 and its financial support.
Metrology Data-Based Simulation of Freeform Optics

This paper describes the approach to use measurement data to enhance the simulation model for designing freeform optics. Design for manufacturing of freeform optics is still challenging, since the classical tolerancing procedures cannot be applied. In the case of spherical optics manufacturing, tolerances are more or less isotropic, and this relationship is lost in case of freeform surfaces. Hence, an accurate performance prediction of the manufactured optics cannot be made. To make the modeling approach as accurate as possible, integration of measured surface data of fabricated freeform optics in the modeling environment is proposed. This approach enables performance prediction of the real manufactured freeform surfaces as well as optimization of the manufacturing process. In our case study this approach is used on the design of an Alvarez-optics manufactured using a microinjection molding (µIM) process. The parameters of the µIM process are optimized on the basis of simulation analysis resulting in optics, with a performance very close to the nominal design. Measurement of the freeform surfaces is conducted using a tactile surface measurement tool.
Running Time Improvement of Influence Maximization in Social Network Using Graph Reducing Technique (GRT)

Influence maximization is to find a small seed set of most influence people in a domain. With the increased popularity of social network, influence maximization in the social network has become a potential problem and the result has been begun to be applied in various applications like viral marketing, domain expert search, recommending network etc. The basic influence maximization problem is NP-hard and many researchers has developed different approximation algorithms. In this research we have proposed an algorithm named Graph Reduced Technique (GRT) which estimates influence based on heuristics. The algorithm offers better running time and with feasible amount of spread of influence.
Gender differences in HIV related psychological variables in a Tanzanian intervention using sport

Despite the encouraging reduction in new HIV infections in most parts of the world, Sub-Saharan Africa accounted for 72% of all new infections worldwide in 2011 [UNAIDS (2012). World AIDS day report. Geneva: Author]. Young women are more likely to be infected than young men. However, the possibilities for doing research on development of strategies and interventions for HIV prevention are not well supported in most Sub-Saharan universities. It is therefore important that we in the developed world support our colleagues in finding ways to develop research environments: In this case, on preventive strategies for HIV in the local culture in Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. Sport is gaining recognition as an effective means to increase HIV/AIDS awareness and reduce vulnerability. We used an HIV/AIDS education intervention through soccer, using peer coaches, to investigate the efficacy of the intervention and in particular to examine gender differences in changes in HIV-related psychological variables of at-risk youth subgroups participating in the intervention. Participants were at-risk children within a community sport programme. Children attending local schools, and a group of street children from the same communities acted as control groups. The intervention lasted eight weeks. The intervention was successful in that both boys and girls improved their scores on the behavioural intention variables. However, gender differences at pre-test were maintained post-test in that girls continued to score lower than boys. The sport intervention was successful, but girls scored reliably lower on most of the variables under study, especially the variables involving the use of a condom.