Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dynamical mechanism for coexistence of dispersing species.

Dispersal of organisms may play an essential role in the coexistence of species. Recent studies of the evolution of dispersal in temporally varying environments suggest that clones differing in dispersal rates can coexist indefinitely. In this work, we explore the mechanism permitting such coexistence for a model of dispersal in a patchy environment, where temporal heterogeneity arises from endogenous chaotic dynamics. We show that coexistence arises from an extreme type of intermittent behavior, namely the phenomenon known as on-off intermittency. In effect, coexistence arises because of an alternation between synchronized and de-synchronized dynamical behaviors. Our analysis of the dynamical mechanism for on-off intermittency lends strong credence to the proposition that chaotic synchronism may be a general feature of species coexistence, where competing species differ only in dispersal rate.
A new probabilistic transformation of belief mass assignment

In this paper, we propose in Dezert-Smarandache Theory (DSmT) framework, a new probabilistic transformation, called DSmP, in order to build a subjective probability measure from any basic belief assignment defined on any model of the frame of discernment. Several examples are given to show how the DSmP transformation works and we compare it to main existing transformations proposed in the literature so far. We show the advantages of DSmP over classical transformations in term of probabilistic information content (PIC). The direct extension of this transformation for dealing with qualitative belief assignments is also presented.
Human Resource Management Practices at Subsidiaries of Multinational Corporations and Local Firms in Taiwan

Global competition has forced corporations to invest overseas in order to gain or maintain competitive advantage. International investment entails not only the movement of capital, machinery, and products but also the spread of corporate cultures to host countries. This is so because, to maintain managerial consistency among its branches, a multinational corporation (MNC) will attempt to transplant its management system to any country in which it invests.However, it is also recognized that cultural contexts differ markedly among nations, and that multinational firms must adjust their management practices to accommodate specific conditions in host-country environments.
Phase II study of neoadjuvant therapy with nab-paclitaxel and cisplatin followed by surgery in patients with locally advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

Background We carried out a phase II study to evaluate the efficiency and safety of the combination of nanoparticle albumin bound-paclitaxel (nab-paclitaxel) and cisplatin as preoperative chemotherapy for locally advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) Results From Oct 2011 to Dec 2012, 35 patients were enrolled and received neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Thirty patients underwent surgery and achieved a 100% R0 resection. Pathological complete response (pCR) rate was 13.3% and near pCR rate was 6.7%. Down-staging was achieved in 19 patients. With median follow-up of 37.8 months, 16 patients were still alive. One-, 2- and 3- year overall survival (OS) rate was 90.0%, 70.0% and 43.3%, respectively. This treatment resulted in a median disease-free survival (DFS) of 34.7 months and a median OS of 37.8 months. Median DFS and OS of down-staged patients were significantly longer than those of non-downstaged patients. The grade 4 toxicities during neoadjuvant chemotherapy were limited to neutropenia (2.9%) and vomiting (2.9%). Methods Patients with locally advanced ESCC (stage IIA to IIIC) and performance status 0-1 were enrolled and received two cycles of nab-paclitaxel (100 mg/m2) on day 1, 8, 22 and 29, and cisplatin (75 mg/m2) on day 1 and 22, followed by resection. Two cycles of adjuvant chemotherapy with the same regimen were given. Postoperative radiotherapy was permitted and decided by radiation therapist. Conclusion Weekly nab-paclitaxel with three-weekly cisplatin seems effective and safe as a neoadjuvant chemotherapy strategy for locally advanced ESCC. Down-staged patients have favorable outcome. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier NCT01258192
Acceleration of a QM/MM‐QMC simulation using GPU

We accelerated an ab initio molecular QMC calculation by using GPGPU. Only the bottle‐neck part of the calculation is replaced by CUDA subroutine and performed on GPU. The performance on a (single core CPU + GPU) is compared with that on a (single core CPU with double precision), getting 23.6 (11.0) times faster calculations in single (double) precision treatments on GPU. The energy deviation caused by the single precision treatment was found to be within the accuracy required in the calculation, ∼10−5 hartree. The accelerated computational nodes mounting GPU are combined to form a hybrid MPI cluster on which we confirmed the performance linearly scales to the number of nodes. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comput Chem, 2011
Simulation of young neocortical networks by spatially coupled oscillators

During early development neocortical neurons develop synchronous oscillatory network activity with the beginning of the second week in culture. This spontaneous synchronous activity is considered to be a requisite for the maturation of the synaptic networks. To simulate this activity it is common to use networks of neurons and analyze different connection strategies. On the other hand global population models (complex oscillators) are able to simulate the average activity of a large number of neurons. In the present work we combine both approaches to extend a population model to a set of distributed oscillators. In this way we get a spatial distribution of parameters and activity and are able to study effects of local external stimulation and propagation of excitation waves in large network areas. Small world connection strategy allows to investigate different behaviors by adjusting only one parameter.
Community infections caused by extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-producing Escherichia coli.

BACKGROUND Extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Escherichia coli is an increasingly important group of community pathogens worldwide. These organisms are frequently resistant to many of the antimicrobial agents usually recommended for the treatment of infections caused by E coli, such as penicillins, cephalosporins, fluoroquinolones, and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole. Data concerning risk factors, clinical features, and therapeutic options for such infections are scarce. METHODS A case-control study was performed to investigate the risk factors for all types of community-acquired infections caused by ESBL-producing E coli in 11 Spanish hospitals from February 2002 to May 2003. Controls were randomly chosen from among outpatients with a clinical sample not yielding ESBL-producing E coli. The clinical features of these infections were investigated in the case patients. The efficacy of fosfomycin tromethamine and amoxicillin-clavulanate potassium was observationally studied in patients with cystitis. RESULTS A total of 122 cases were included. Risk factors selected by multivariate analysis included the following: age older than 60 years; female sex; diabetes mellitus; recurrent urinary tract infections (UTIs); previous invasive procedures of the urinary tract; follow-up in outpatient clinic; and previous receipt of aminopenicillins, cephalosporins, and fluoroquinolones. Urinary tract infections accounted for 93% of the cases; 6% of the patients were bacteremic and 10% needed hospitalization. The cure rate of patients with cystitis was 93% with fosfomycin therapy (all isolates were susceptible); among patients treated with amoxicillin-clavulanate, cure rates were 93% for those with susceptible isolates (minimum inhibitory concentration < or =8 microg/mL) and 56% for those with intermediate or resistant isolates (minimum inhibitory concentration > or =16 microg/mL) (P = .02). CONCLUSIONS In predisposed patients, ESBL-producing E coli is a notable cause of community-acquired infection, and particularly UTI. Fosfomycin and amoxicillin-clavulanate appear to be effective for cystitis caused by susceptible isolates.
Handwriting of children who have hemiplegia: A profile of abilities in children aged 8–13 years from a parent and teacher survey

Handwriting is a major occupational task for children attending mainstream schools in Australia, including children who have hemiplegia and attend their local school. A preliminary exploratory study was undertaken at the Crippled Children's Association of South Australia to determine the prevalence of handwriting difficulties in this population, as there is little information published on their specific abilities. The handwriting abilities of 42 primary school children with hemiplegia were surveyed, with replies gained from 31 parents and 25 teachers. Results indicate that parents report 75% of children have handwriting problems while teachers report 69% of children have difficulty. Greatest difficulty was reported with the ability to write from dictation, or to maintain neatness over long periods of time or at speed. Children with right hemiplegia, boys, and those having coexisting conditions experienced more generalised problems. Also noted to impact on performance was variability in the children's abilities from one day to the next.
Not just class: towards an understanding of the whiteness of middle-class schooling choice

Abstract There is increased attention to questions of class in studies of education, particularly among those who adopt a Bourdieuian perspective. This paper explores the burgeoning literature on school choice and class (in particular middle ‘classness’) to argue that there are serious analytical and sociological costs to a singular focus on class without due attention to race. Examining interview material, it will show instances where the racialized nature of schooling choice has been ignored or overlooked. It argues that viewing the literature through the lens of race and class is imperative for an understanding of the complexities of class and white middle classness in particular.
An Investigation into the Energy Effic iency of Pure and Slott ed Aloha Based REID Anti-Collision Protocols

This paper investigates the energy efficiency of RFID anti-collision protocols and their suitability for use in RFID-enhanced wireless sensor networks (WSNs). We present a detailed analytical methodology and an in-depth qualitative and Aloha anti-collision protocols and their variants. We find that Slotted Aloha variants that employ muting with early-end are the most energy efficient, but are computationally expensive. Overall, for all Aloha variants we investigated, if the offered load is very high, tag responses cause a bottleneck at the reader. Thereby, resulting in no tags being identified and incur significant identification delays - thus severely impacting a sensor node's battery life
A Cost Analysis of Solving the Amnesia Problems

Transactional replicated systems have usually adopted the crash-recovery with partial amnesia failure model. These systems need to deal with the amnesia phenomenon; i.e. non committed state is lost at crash time. So, if this phenomenon is not accurately managed in recovery processes it can lead to state inconsistencies in the replicate state. A general solution that consists in persisting messages atomically in the delivery process has been proposed for overcoming this problem, demonstrating also its validity. But, its use implies a cost: the overhead introduced for persisting messages atomically in the delivery process. This paper analyses this overhead simulating the proposed solution for a transactional replication protocol based on certification and demonstrates how this overhead can be minimized using solid-state memories, making it acceptable.
The influence of illness‐related variables, personal resources and context‐related factors on real‐life functioning of people with schizophrenia

In people suffering from schizophrenia, major areas of everyday life are impaired, including independent living, productive activities and social relationships. Enhanced understanding of factors that hinder real‐life functioning is vital for treatments to translate into more positive outcomes. The goal of the present study was to identify predictors of real‐life functioning in people with schizophrenia, and to assess their relative contribution. Based on previous literature and clinical experience, several factors were selected and grouped into three categories: illness‐related variables, personal resources and context‐related factors. Some of these variables were never investigated before in relationship with real‐life functioning. In 921 patients with schizophrenia living in the community, we found that variables relevant to the disease, personal resources and social context explain 53.8% of real‐life functioning variance in a structural equation model. Neurocognition exhibited the strongest, though indirect, association with real‐life functioning. Positive symptoms and disorganization, as well as avolition, proved to have significant direct and indirect effects, while depression had no significant association and poor emotional expression was only indirectly and weakly related to real‐life functioning. Availability of a disability pension and access to social and family incentives also showed a significant direct association with functioning. Social cognition, functional capacity, resilience, internalized stigma and engagement with mental health services served as mediators. The observed complex associations among investigated predictors, mediators and real‐life functioning strongly suggest that integrated and personalized programs should be provided as standard treatment to people with schizophrenia.
Fungal Unspecific Peroxygenases Oxidize the Majority of Organic EPA Priority Pollutants

Unspecific peroxygenases (UPOs) are secreted fungal enzymes with promiscuity for oxygen transfer and oxidation reactions. Functionally, they represent hybrids of P450 monooxygenases and heme peroxidases; phylogenetically they belong to the family of heme-thiolate peroxidases. Two UPOs from the basidiomycetous fungi Agrocybe aegerita (AaeUPO) and Marasmius rotula (MroUPO) converted 35 out of 40 compounds listed as EPA priority pollutants, including chlorinated benzenes and their derivatives, halogenated biphenyl ethers, nitroaromatic compounds, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and phthalic acid derivatives. These oxygenations and oxidations resulted in diverse products and—if at all—were limited for three reasons: (i) steric hindrance caused by multiple substitutions or bulkiness of the compound as such (e.g., hexachlorobenzene or large PAHs), (ii) strong inactivation of aromatic rings (e.g., nitrobenzene), and (iii) low water solubility (e.g., complex arenes). The general outcome of our study is that UPOs can be considered as extracellular counterparts of intracellular monooxygenases, both with respect to catalyzed reactions and catalytic versatility. Therefore, they should be taken into consideration as a relevant biocatalytic detoxification and biodegradation tool used by fungi when confronted with toxins, xenobiotics and pollutants in their natural environments.
Women and The 'Uneven' Development Of Workers' Compensation Law

This analysis of women and workers' compensation law employs the concept of 'uneven' development to explain legislative change. The article challenges notions of progress and argues that law develops unevenly in the context of social, economic and political conditions. After examining changes to South Australian workers' compensation legislation over the last century it considers recent developments that broaden the primary focus of the law from the injured workers' economic well-being to include notions of rehabilitation and future employment. At this point the article considers the divergence between law as legislation and law in practice. Presently in law most women experience the availability of workers' compensation as a condition of employment, however, scope exists for medical practitioners, rehabilitation administrators, and trade unionists to reject women's claims.
Intraventricular transplantation of oligodendrocyte progenitors into a fetal myelin mutant results in widespread formation of myelin

Transplantation of myelin‐forming cells is a promising strategy for the treatment of myelin disorders. In this study, transplantation of glial cell progenitors into the cerebral ventricles of the embryonic myelin‐deficient rat, a model of Pelizaeus‐Merzbacher disease, was performed to assess the ability of these cells to incorporate into the developing brain and produce myelin. The donor cells migrated into the white and gray matter and produced myelin at widespread sites ranging from the corpus callosum and optic nerve to the cerebellum. These data suggest that myelin repair might be achieved by intraventricular delivery and transependymal incorporation of myelin‐producing cells. Because these cells were genetically transduced to express a reporter gene, similar ex vivo manipulation with genes known to promote survival, migration, or proliferation of the transplanted cells could be used to enhance repair. Such a therapeutic strategy may be feasible in patients with inherited myelin disorders or in multiple sclerosis, particularly where the lesions are periventricular.
Some psychological motivations for fashion opinion leadership and fashion opinion seeking

Purpose – To model the relationships between consumer need for uniqueness and attention to social comparison information with fashion opinion leadership and fashion opinion seeking.Design/methodology/approach – A total of 201 US undergraduate students were surveyed and standard scales were used to measure consumer need for uniqueness, attention to social comparison information, fashion opinion leadership, and fashion opinion seeking.Findings – Both consumer need for uniqueness and attention to social comparison information were positively related to fashion opinion leadership. Attention to social comparison information was also positively related to fashion opinion seeking, but consumer need for uniqueness was negatively related to fashion opinion seeking.Research limitations/implications – The findings are limited to US consumers and the convenience sample. Other limitations include the specific measures used, and the cross‐sectional survey method prevents one from making causal statements. The effects o.
MICA: pervasive middleware for learning, sharing and talking

MICA (multimodal interagent communication architecture) is a middleware layer for pervasive computing that is especially well suited to sharing of information between users, learning user's preferences and interacting with the user through many devices and modalities. It is based on the idea of a blackboard: a global shared memory which acts as both a communication and storage mechanism. It uses an extremely simple API that is easy to program, but still small enough to fit on PDAs and mobile phones. It has been used to implement several systems, including a context-aware application that learns the user's email preferences.
Attributable risks for colorectal cancer in Northern Italy

Using data from a case‐control study conducted between 1985 and 1992 in northern Italy on 828 cases of colon cancer, 498 cases of rectal cancer and 2,024 controls in hospital for acute, non‐neoplastic, non‐digestive tract disorders, we estimated the percent population attributable risk (PAR) for colorectal cancer in relation to β‐carotene, vitamin C (as markers of a diet rich in fruit and vegetables), red meat and seasoning fat intake, daily meal frequency and family history of the disease. On the basis of multivariate odds ratios, adjusted for total calorie intake, a low intake of β‐carotene accounted for 39% of all the cases and a low intake of vitamin C for 14%. These two micronutrients together explained 43% of all colorectal cancer cases in this population. A high frequency of intake of red meat consumption explained 17% of all cases, and a high score of seasoning fats 4%. A higher daily meal frequency was responsable for 13% of the cases, and these 5 dietary factors together explained 63% of colorectal cancer cases in this population. Family history of colorectal cancer accounted for 4% of all cases. These estimates were similar for colon and rectal cancers separately, in males and females, and in younger and elderly subjects, except for seasoning fats and family history, whose PARs were apparently greater for colon cancer and at younger age. Thus, even though available dietary data were limited in several aspects, and the PAR estimates were based on somewhat arbitrary assumptions regarding the exposure distribution, about two‐thirds of all colorectal cancers in this population could be explained in terms of a few risk factors or risk indicators considered. This would correspond to the avoidance of a large proportion of the over 18,000 deaths from colorectal cancer registered per year in the whole of Italy. © 1996 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Predictors of retention and achievement of higher education students within a further education context

Following recent developments within higher education where provision of foundation degree courses at further education colleges has been extended, it seemed appropriate to investigate the extent to which the system is working. This should not necessarily be measured by the number of students enrolling, but rather by how many are achieving their qualifications. This research involved matching 457 higher education students’ entry data, obtained from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS), with the outcome at the end of the first year of their course. Their entry profile was a combination of demographic and educational data. The outcomes were measured in terms of success through grade average for stage 1, failure by the summer award board, based on how many credits they had achieved, and withdrawal, measured by time spent on the course. The findings suggest that there are two major predictors of retention and achievement: academic entry level and age. The higher the UCAS grade on entry, the more likely the students were to complete the course and achieve a higher grade average. A similar pattern was seen among the mature student cohorts. Possible explanations for these findings could be based on the types of skills students have previously acquired. Those with higher entry‐level qualifications may have more confidence in their academic ability. More mature students, perhaps benefiting from additional life experiences and transferable skills, may have more determination to complete their studies.
Effect of vitamin C and its derivatives on collagen synthesis and cross‐linking by normal human fibroblasts

Vitamin C (VitC) plays a critical role in the maintenance of a normal mature collagen network in humans (anti‐scurvy properties) by preventing the auto‐inactivation of lysyl and prolyl hyroxylase, two key enzymes in collagen biosynthesis. In this study two in vitro models were designed to evaluate the effects of VitC on collagen biosynthesis and cross‐linking at cellular and tissue levels. It was shown that VitC induced a dose‐dependent increase in collagen type I deposits by normal human fibroblasts (NHF) cultured in monolayer, and enhanced extracellular matrix contraction by NHF in a lattice model, in a non‐cytotoxic range of concentrations (103m, 104m, 105m). Exogenous VitC supply could thus contribute to the maintenance of optimal collagenic density in the dermis and locally strengthen the collagen network. Vitamin C‐phosphate (VitC‐P) and vitamin C‐glucoside (VitC‐Glu) (two VitC derivatives presenting higher chemical stability in aqueous solution) were also tested in our two models, and showed similar biological properties, but with different potencies. These two compounds can be considered as pro‐vitamins for skin, and could thus advantageously substitute for VitC in VitC‐based anti‐ageing products, as they allow the development of stable, easy‐to‐use formulations.