Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cardiac AL Amyloidosis (RCD code: III-3A.2a)

Primary systemic amyloidosis (AL amyloidosis) is the most common subtype of amyloidosis in developed countries. Amyloid fibrils deposition results from an abnormal secondary structure of immunoglobulin light chains produced by a plasma cell clone. The most common accompanying plasma cell dyscrasia is monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance, while multiple myeloma coexists in only 10–15% of patients. The kidneys and the heart are the most frequently affected organs. Patients usually present with concentric left ventricular concentric thickening displaying a restrictive filling pattern with well-preserved systolic function. Clinical suspicion of AL amyloidosis should be raised in older adults and elderly patients with diastolic heart failure accompanied by heavy proteinuria, upon detection of thick-walled heart on echocardiography with low-voltage QRS on ECG (“red-flags” for amyloidosis”), in non-diabetic subjects with peripheral neuropathy or autonomic neuropathy, commonly with severe postural hypotension. Classical clinical stigmata, i.e. periorbital purpura, macroglossia, carpal tunnel syndrome, are not frequent (10–20%) but can guide diagnosis. In the presence of typical echocardiographic features recommended diagnostic steps include identification of monoclonal gammopathy (serum and urine immunofixation and serum free light-chain kappa to lambda ratio) and confirmation of amyloid deposition, preferentially in a non-cardiac tissue such as periumbilical fat or minor salivary glands. Bone marrow biopsy, serum calcium assay and skeletal survey are mandatory to exclude multiple myeloma. Prognosis is mainly dependent on cardiac involvement, being determined by cardiac biomarkers and the difference between involved and uninvolved light chains. Intensive chemotherapy is the therapy of choice in intermediate-risk patients with AL amyloidosis. An improved overall survival was reported in patients with a complete haematological response and an adequate cardiac response, especially a fall in circulating levels of B-type natriuretic peptides. JRCD 2016; 2 (8): 245–253
Cultural theory and aircraft noise policy in the Netherlands

In this paper we apply cultural theory to understand the constitution of aircraft noise policy at Amsterdam Schiphol, the largest airport in the Netherlands. In line with Smit and Van Gunsteren (1997) this constitution is identified as an alliance between the hierarchical and egalitarian way of life. We show that this alliance has several weaknesses, in part, because it marginalizes the individualistic way of life. Given the nature of human response to aircraft noise the individualistic way of life can make a positive contribution to aircraft noise policy. Based on an empirical study into the ways actors around the airport respond to a concrete operationalization of the individualistic way of life we identify several explanations for its marginalization.
Organizational Excellence as the Driver for Organizational Performance: A Study on Dubai Police

This study was set up to examine the effect of organizational excellence on organizational performance. A questionnaire survey was employed to collect the data from Dubai Police departments. Two hundred fifty questionnaires were distributed and one hundred seventy five were returned completely filled. To analyze the data collected, Partial Least Square (PLS) structural Equation Modelling was employed. Based in the statistical results, the effect of organizational excellence on organizational performance was confirmed. The results of this study have different theoretical and practical implications. Theoretically, this study closes the gap in the previous literature in terms of the few studies examine empirically the casual effect of organizational excellence on organizational performance in public organization. Practically, this study increases the awareness on managers, decision makers, and practitioners about the significant of excellence when implementing their strategies and practices.
Using agent-based technology for aspect-oriented development

Aspect-oriented technologies are increasingly promoting new ways of developing software in order to better control change and improve software adaptability and evolution. However, aspect-oriented development still appears strongly attached to the underlying programming approach used to support it, rather than to design mechanisms guiding development. In this context, we propose an approach for enhancing aspect-oriented software development considering aspects as first-class design entities. This work presents an agent-based tool called Smartweaver, which allows developers to describe aspect designs using UML extensions and a special documentation method, and then provides smart assistance through a planning agent to translate these specifications into particular AOP implementation technologies.
Electronic Word of Mouth, Cross-Border Logistics Way and Imports Retail E-commerce

This paper mainly discussed how to improve Chinese import retail e-commerce sellers’ competitive strategy. We took Porter's competitive strategy which includes product optimization strategy, cost leadership and reputation priority to analyze the competition through import retail e-commerce sellers. We have done the survey through questionnaire to several import retail e-commerce enterprises from 7 cross-border e-commerce pilot cities. We have chosen 3 kinds of best-selling goods with 150 sellers on Tmall International, observed 27 weeks and collected 4050 samples of business data. We took panel data regression to validate theoretical assumptions, and results support most of theoretical assumptions. We took another 2 variables to do the robustness test. The conclusions and suggestions would help to improve the competition strategy of imports retail e-commerce sellers. Furthermore, it would be a good proposal to the development of Chinese cross-border e-commerce market.
The Importance of Two Cognitive Mechanisms in Analyzing Counterfactuals: An Implementation-Oriented Explication 1

We aim at covering three facets of the problem of analyzing counterfactual conditionals: emphasizing that the problem is crucial for cognitive systems to consider, investigating the cognitive mechanisms responsible for reasonable analyses of counterfactuals, and proposing how to computationally contribute to solving the problem by cognitive systems. Aiming at an implementation-oriented explication, the challenges that an articial system may encounter in computationally solving this problem are discussed. The utilization of two particular computationally-plausible cognitive mechanisms is shown to be helpful in overcoming these challenges: we argue that the operational utilization of analogical mapping and conceptual blending is possible, and leads to reasonable analyses of counterfactual conditionals in articial cognitive systems.
Development of gene based markers for mapping of oil yield traits in African oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.).

Gene based SNP markers for oil palm were developed from cloned candidate genes that are involved in fatty acid (FA), triacylglycerol (TAG) and pyruvate-acetyl CoA synthesis pathways of oil palm. Based on exon/introns splice junctions, a total of 22 specific primer pairs corresponding to 22 gene loci were designed and tested for polymorphism between 23 parents (13 dura and 10 pisifera) used in an oil palm breeding program. Single strand conformation polymorphism polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SSCP) was used to detect the polymorphism. More than 80% of the gene loci clearly showed polymorphic patterns in target parents which progenies of at least 3, up to all 14 crosses would display segregation for the markers. The gene based SNP markers developed in this study do not only provide potential marker tools for further QTL mapping analysis in multiple crosses but can also be used as anchor points for further comparing and integrating oil palm linkage maps developed from individual progenies.
Development of natural gum based fast disintegrating tablets of glipizide

Dysphagia and risk of choking are leading causes of patient non‐compliance in the self‐administration of conventional tablets.To overcome these limitations of conventional tablets fast‐disintegrating tablets were developed, using natural gums.Natural gums were evaluated for bulk swelling capacity. Powder mix containing natural gums and glipizide was evaluated for water sorption, swelling index and capillary action. For faster onset and immediate hypoglycemic action, the fast disintegrating tablets were prepared with various types of natural gums using the direct compression technique. Formulations containing guar gum disintegrated within a minute and fulfilled the official requirements for dispersible tablets. As the amount of guar gum increased, the friability increased and hardness decreased, resulting in a shorter wetting and disintegration time. Gum acacia and gum tragacanth did the opposite.The glipizide‐loaded fast disintegrating tablet prepared with 18 mg of guar gum gave a friability of 0.46 ± 0.02%, content uniformity of 99.34 ± 0.82%, drug content of 99.15 ± 1.16%, wetting time of 39.0 ± 1.04 sec, hardness of 5.70 ± 1.41 Kg and disintegration time less than 30 sec, suggesting that it was a practical product with a good tablet property. In conclusion, natural gum based patient‐friendly fast disintegrating tablets of glipizide can be successfully formulated.
Towards assessment and development of individual creativity in engineering

This paper elaborates on how to assess and develop individual creativity in the context of a company’s capability to innovate. An in depth literature survey shows the important individual pre-requisites for creativity are: personality traits (including motivation), neurological basics, expertise and creative thinking skills. All these elements could be assessed in four levels: 1. To what extent has a person these prerequisites? 2. Is a person aware of this? How does his selfperception look like? 3. Did he receive education, training or experience in fields relevant to creativity? 4. Can he successfully apply his abilities in a given exercise? This classification serves as a framework for the usability and benefit evaluation of creativity tests described in literature. We come to the conclusion that there are useful tests available to measure at least some aspects of individual creativity. Nevertheless there is no objective overall performance figure like a “Creativity-Quotient” which is widely accepted. Even more important is that there is no sufficient knowledge about how to train and develop all prerequisites of creativity and creativity itself. We identify this as an important need for research.
APPLICATION OF MACHINE LEARNING IN URBAN GREENERY LAND COVER EXTRACTION

Abstract. Urban greenery is a critical part of the modern city and the greenery coverage information is essential for land resource management, environmental monitoring and urban planning. It is a challenging work to extract the urban greenery information from remote sensing image as the trees and grassland are mixed with city built-ups. In this paper, we propose a new automatic pixel-based greenery extraction method using multispectral remote sensing images. The method includes three main steps. First, a small part of the images is manually interpreted to provide prior knowledge. Secondly, a five-layer neural network is trained and optimised with the manual extraction results, which are divided to serve as training samples, verification samples and testing samples. Lastly, the well-trained neural network will be applied to the unlabelled data to perform the greenery extraction. The GF-2 and GJ-1 high resolution multispectral remote sensing images were used to extract greenery coverage information in the built-up areas of city X. It shows a favourable performance in the 619 square kilometers areas. Also, when comparing with the traditional NDVI method, the proposed method gives a more accurate delineation of the greenery region. Due to the advantage of low computational load and high accuracy, it has a great potential for large area greenery auto extraction, which saves a lot of manpower and resources.
Subcritical Water Extraction

Extraction always involves a chemical mass transfer from one phase to another. The principles of extraction are used to advantage in everyday life, for example in making juices, coffee and others. To reduce the use of organic solvent and improve the extraction methods of constituents of plant materials, new methods such as microwave assisted extraction (MAE), supercritical fluid extraction (SFE), accelerated solvent extraction (ASE) or pressurized liquid extraction (PLE) and subcritical water extraction (SWE), also called superheated water extraction or pressurized hot water extraction (PHWE), have been introduced [1-3].
The Structure of Communication Behavior in Simulated and Actual Crisis Negotiations

This research extends recent efforts to differentiate communication in crisis negotiations (Taylor, 2002) by examining how negotiators' behavior differs across context. Data were 108 interaction episodes transcribed from 12 simulated crisis negotiations and coded at the level of thought units across 41 behavioral variables. Results of a smallest space analysis supported the hypothesized differentiation of communication behavior over 3 facets: overall orientation (Avoidance, Distributive, Integrative), motivational concern (Identity, Instrumental, Relational), and intensity (High to Low). This solution was used as a framework for identifying differences in behavior across simulated and actual negotiations. Analyses showed a systematic pattern of variations in behavior use, with simulated negotiations involving relatively more avoidance-relational and distributive-instrumental behavior than actual negotiations. Predictable differences were also observed in the purpose or function of behavior, with highlyintense behaviors showing greater uniformity in function across contexts compared to lowintensity behaviors.
The Model of Contemporary Marketing Practices (CMP) in the Russian Market: Evidence from Empirical Research

Previous research has shown that emerging markets represent a significant part of the world economy and are expanding their share. However, they are still not well examined in the marketing field. Russia is especially neglected in the academic discussion of overall marketing strategy. Previous research indicates that the model of “Contemporary marketing practices” (CMP) is commonly used as a classification scheme of marketing practices both in developed and developing markets. This article examines how “Contemporary marketing practices” (CMP) works in Russia and tests the CMP model in the Russian market to reveal what types of marketing practices (transactional marketing, database marketing, interactive marketing, network marketing and relationship marketing) are most often used by Russian companies. The article is based on a quantitative study of 329 Russian companies and includes a cluster analysis that shows that types of marketing practices are common for the Russian market. Empirical results of cluster analysis shows that basic marketing practices are widely found in emerging Russian market though their characteristics differ dramatically from those on developed markets.
Exploring the Mediating Effect of Brand Relationship Quality in the Service Brand Equity and Brand Resonance Linkage

This study attempts to explore the mediating role of brand relationship quality in predicting the effects of service brand equity towards brand resonance in Malaysia’s mobile communication service. The reliability test on all these constructs produce satisfactory reliability coefficients. Correlation analysis is conducted and the results indicate that there are positive and significant relationships among the constructs. Then, Sobel’s test is used to investigate the occurrence of mediation in the study. The result shows service brand equity and brand resonance is significantly related through the mediating effect of brand relationship quality. This is in line with the assumption of social exchange theory that anticipates the central discipline of human behaviour is about the quality of the relationship that emerges in the exchange process. Therefore, it is hoped that the findings and discussion will contribute to the theory of consumer behavior, branding and relationship marketing, as well as to offer insightful knowledge for practical consideration.
Method to discard partial discharge pulses from neighboring high voltage equipment

On-line partial discharge (PD) diagnostics data are corrupted by various noise sources and this makes it more challenging to extract the PD signal contained in the raw data. Though the noise sources can be filtered out using signal processing techniques, PDs from neighboring cables and other high voltage equipment make the de-noising process more difficult due to the similar features of these signals with the PD signal of interest. Proposed in this paper is a double-ended partial discharge diagnostic system with dual sensors at each end which uses wireless time triggering using global time reference with the aid of global positioning system (GPS). Using the time of arrival method based on the velocity of propagation on the data, PD pulses originating from other sources can be discarded which reduces the volume of data to be stored and would eventually also reduce the hardware and software requirements of the denoising process thereby improving de-noising efficiency. System design, laboratory tests and on-site measurements are discussed.
Assessment of DNA strand breakage in streptozotocin-induced diabetic Rats

This study was conducted to evaluate the oxidative damage in diabetic mellitus induced rats. The evaluation of DNA damage was carried out by the Alkaline Comet Assay using peripheral lymphocyte cells taken from streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats (50 mg/kg) and control rats. The levels of malondealdehyde (MDA), 4-hydroxynonenal (4-HNE), fasting blood glucose (FBG) and HbA1c were also measured. All the induced diabetic rats were hyperglycemic until the end of the study with significantly higher levels of FBG and HbA1c as compared to the control rats. The results showed the percentage of tail DNA and tail moment values were also significantly higher in the diabetic induced rats. The same observations were made on the levels of plasma MDA and 4-HNE. In conclusion, this study indicated that hyperglycemic condition in diabetic induced rats could generate oxidative DNA damage.
Talking ‘bout my generation: Generational differences in the attitudes of volunteers at the 2012 Olympic Games

This article assesses whether the values underpinning the motivations to volunteer of older and younger people are different. It does this through in-depth interviews with 38 volunteers at the London 2012 Olympic Games. Analysis using the framework of the psychological contract and narrative biographies distinguished between value led and market led motives. An initial coding of interviews showed that older volunteers were more likely to express altruistic values and younger volunteers' motivations were related to improving their employability. However, this age-dichotomy became less distinct as qualitative analysis demonstrated how the older volunteers were also motivated by self-interest in certain ways. In particular, a motivation to express a self-identity as a 'volunteer' led them to continue volunteering despite other rewards not being present. The analysis illustrates the interplay of values, circumstances and experience in influencing motivations to volunteer, and thus the difficulty in making generalisations about differences in values between generations.
A simulation-based control interface layer for a high-fidelity anthropomorphic training simulator

Deakin University’s futuristic Universal Motion simulator will overcome the limitations of current motion simulator platforms by employing an anthropomorphic robot arm to provide the motion fidelity necessary to exploit the potential of modern simulation environments. Full motion simulators frequently utilize Stewart platforms to mimic the movement of vehicles during simulation. However, due to the limited motion range and dexterity of such systems, and their inability to convey realistic accelerations, they are unable to represent accurate motion characteristics. The Universal Motion Simulation aims to close the gap between the limitations of the current motion technology and real world, by introducing a flexible, modular, high-fidelity motion system that can be used for a variety of immersive training applications. The modular nature of the design allows interchangeable and configurable simulation pods to be attached to the end effectors.
Rigorous Full Vectorial Analysis of Electromagnetic Wave Propagation in 1D

We propose a new approach to solve the problem of the propagation of electromagnetic waves in unidimensional media with an arbitrary variation of their dielectric permittivity. This method is deduced from the Maxwell equations with a minimum of approximations and allows a full vectorial description of both the electric and magnetic fields through the direct calculation of their Cartesian coordinates. The problem is then equivalent to the solution of a pair of uncoupled ordinary differential equations. We use a very intuitive, highly accurate, pseudospectral technique to solve these equations. This pseudospectral method is based in a combination of Fourier and polynomial expansions of the solution providing very good precision and excellent stability with a relatively low computational effort. We present a simple model of a photonic crystal as an example of application of this technique to real electromagnetic problems.
A new model for artificial seismic wave synthesis

A new model is proposed based on wavelet theory and genetic algorithms (GAs) in order to improve precision of artificial seismic wave. This model was mainly divided into three parts. Firstly, Mallat method was used to decompose power spectral density function with wavelet base. Then the initial artificial seismic wave was synthesized based on wavelet theory. Thirdly, the iteration processes of artificial seismic wave synthesis were optimized by genetic algorithms. Two numerical examples were given. The first numerical example mainly focuses on the analysis for the initial artificial seismic wave synthesis based on wavelet theory. And the second example mainly focuses on the analysis for the iterative process of artificial seismic wave synthesis based on genetic algorithms. Compared with the conventional method of cosine superposition, this model has smaller error between the calculated acceleration response spectrum and the target response spectrum and can be applied in engineering.
The impact of online teaching videos on the development of self-efficacy beliefs of Canadian preservice teachers

One of the major challenges in teacher training programs is the gap between the theory that is presented to pre-service teachers and actual classroom practice. Many researchers, educators, and pre-service teachers have emphasized the difficulty of linking theory and practice in teacher education programs. The purpose of this study is to better understand the impact of online teaching videos on the development of self-efficacy beliefs of preservice teachers. Over 400 student teachers participated in this study. Statistical analyses of questionnaires were conducted to assess the impact of online teaching videos. Our results reveal that online videos indeed impact the self-efficacy beliefs of pre-service teachers. These results have important implications for teacher trainers, school principals, and policy makers.