Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fishing for ways to thrive: Integrating zooarchaeology to understand subsistence strategies and their implications among Early and Middle Mesolithic southern Scandinavian foragers

The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate and deduce the varied lifeways of Early Holocene foragers in southern Scandinavia. By taking an interdisciplinary approach, zooarchaeological data have been applied to the study of different aspects of Early and Middle Mesolithic subsistence, in order to frame a discussion concerning our current understanding of culture and life in early north European societies. Three different sites/areas are the focus: Norje Sunnansund, Huseby Klev and Gotland/Gisslause. However, all available material from the chosen temporal and spatial frame have been incorporated to enable holistic discussions. The three focus areas combined comprise all available coastal settlements with well-preserved organic material from the Early Mesolithic period, which has led to discussions centred on the use of aquatic resources and the importance of fish.To address the different aspects of Early and Middle Mesolithic subsistence, multiple approaches have been taken, whereby zooarchaeological methods have been combined with statistical, chemical, physical and ethnographical tools for analysis. The focus has varied between fish storage and conservation practice, by presenting evidence for delayed-return subsistence strategies through means of large-scale fish fermentation, and discussions concerning the evidence for a delayed-return lifestyle and sedentism, through the study of zooarchaeological assemblages. Furthermore, taphonomy is highlighted and discussed in order to address the many biases affecting the recovery of freshwater fish bones and the consequences for detecting a freshwater fish-based diet. Pioneer subsistence strategies are studied, and changes through time are highlighted in marine coastal regions. In addition, the reservoir effect in radiocarbon dating (14C) of human bones has been examined to evaluate the consequences of a freshwater reservoir effect stemming from a large dietary input of freshwater fish. Furthermore, stable isotopes values, δ13C and δ15N, in the collagen from all available Early and Middle Mesolithic humans have also been analysed and modelled, in order to evaluate the importance of each individual protein source in the diet.The results from the different approaches taken indicate that humans relied on fish to a higher degree and from an earlier date than previously assumed. This has implications for how Early Holocene societies are interpreted; indicating the use of delayed-return subsistence strategies, diminishing mobility and emerging sedentism already existed during the Early Mesolithic period. Overall, the results of this thesis suggest a growing territoriality, which implies that the emergence of social stratification is conceivable at an early stage of Scandinavian prehistory and offers an insight into the lifestyle of Early Holocene foragers at latitudes around 55–59° N.
Circulating Pregnancy-Associated Plasma Protein A Predicts Outcome in Patients With Acute Coronary Syndrome but No Troponin I Elevation

Background—Risk stratification in troponin (cTn)-negative acute coronary syndrome (ACS) remains a clinical challenge. We investigated the predictive value of circulating pregnancy-associated plasma protein A (PAPP-A), a novel marker of atherosclerotic plaque activity, in these patients. Methods and Results—Two hundred consecutive hospitalized ACS patients were included, of whom 136 (69 men and 67 women; mean±SD age, 66±16 years) remained cTnI-negative for up to 24 hours. PAPP-A was measured at admission, 6 to 12 hours, and 24 hours. During 6-month follow-up, 26 (19.1%) of the cTnI-negative patients reached a primary end point (cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, or revascularization). At a cutoff level of 2.9 mIU/L, elevated PAPP-A was an independent predictor of adverse outcome (adjusted risk ratio [RR], 4.6; 95% confidence interval, 1.8 to 11.8; P =0.002). Another independent predictor was admission CRP >2.0 mg/L (RR, 2.6; P =0.03). Conclusions—Measurement of plasma PAPP-A, a zinc-binding matrix metalloproteinase, is a strong independent predictor of ischemic cardiac events and need of revascularization in patients who present with suspected myocardial infarction but remain troponin negative.
A Graphene-Based Electrochemical Sensor for Rapid Determination of Phenols in Water

A glassy carbon electrode (GCE) coated with a graphene/polymer film was fabricated for rapid determination of phenols in aqueous solutions. The electrochemical behavior of different phenols at the graphene/polymer-coated GCE was also investigated. In PBS buffer solution with a pH of 6.5, hydroquinone exhibits a well-defined reduction peak at the modified GCE. Based on this, an electrochemical method for the direct determination of phenols is proposed. Investigating different parameters revealed the optimized detection conditions for the electrode are a scan rate of 50 mV/s, dosage of graphene-polyaniline of 8 μL, dosage of tyrosinase of 3 μL, and pH of 6.5. Under the optimal conditions, the reduction peak current varies linearly with the concentration of phenols, with a linear regression equation of I (10−6A) = −4.887 × 10−4C (mol/L)−5.331 × 10−6 with a correlation coefficient of 0.9963 and limit of detection (S/N = 3) of 2.00 × 10−4 mol/L. The electrochemical sensor is also used to detect phenols in actual samples, where it shows great promise for rapid, simple and quantitative detection of phenols.
Ethical dilemmas concerning decision-making within health care leadership: a systematic literature review.

UNLABELLED The objective was to describe the research methods and research focuses on ethical dilemmas concerning decision-making within health care leadership. MATERIAL AND METHODS The search was conducted on Medline and PubMed databases (1998-2008). The systematic review included 21 selected articles. RESULTS The ethical dilemmas concerning decision-making within health care leadership are related to three levels: institutional (particular organization), political and local interface (local governmental structure), and national (professional expertise and system). The terms that are used as adequate to the term of "ethical dilemma" are the following: "continuous balancing," "result of resource allocation," "gap between professional obligations and possibilities," "ethically controversial situation," "concern about interactions," "ethical difficulty," "outcome of medical choices," "concern about society access to health care resources," "ethically difficult/challenging situation," "(the consequence of) ethical concern/ethical issue. " In qualitative studies, a semi-structured interview and qualitative content analysis are the most commonly applied methods; in quantitative studies, questionnaire surveys are employed. In the research literature, there is a lack of specification according to professional qualification of health care professionals concerning ethical dilemmas by decision-making within health care management/administration. CONCLUSIONS The research on ethical dilemmas in health care leadership, management, and administration should integrate data about levels at which ethical dilemmas occur and investigate ethical dilemmas as complex phenomena because those are attached to decision-making and specific nuances of health care management/administration. In this article, the presented scientific problem requires extensive scientific discussions and research on ethical dilemmas concerning decision-making within health care leadership at various levels.
Evaluation of soil physical properties of long-used cultivated lands as a deriving indicator of soil degradation, north Ethiopia

ABSTRACT Soil degradation causes low land productivity. To tackle soil degradation, soil management practices have been implemented in the study area. However, less attention has been given to the management of physical soil quality. Hence, the objective of this study is to evaluate soil physical properties of long-used cultivated lands. Twelve Land Mapping Units (LMUs) were identified by overlaying slope and soil maps. Twelve composite and 12 undisturbed soil samples were collected from the 12 LMUs, and soil physical properties analyzed. Soil bulk density varied from 1.22 g cm−3 in LMU3 to 1.68 g cm−3 in LMU4. Available water capacity ranged from 0.09 in LMU4 to 0.17 in LMU3. Stability index (SI) values ranged from a low of 3.58 at LUM10 to 62.5 at LMU3; stability quotient (SQ) values ranged from 79.4 at LMU9 to 2782.8 at LUM3. Highest and lowest soil crust index values were found to be 1.53 in LMU5 and 0.29 in LMU9. This study indicated that poor soil management practice in the study area has caused soil physical degradation. Therefore, this study provides insight into improved land management of long-used cultivated land in the semi-arid region of the study area and other similar environments.
Trypanosomatid EST: a neglected information resource regarding flagellated protozoa?

Expressed Sequence Tag (EST) sequence analysis rapidly gained widespread use and application for the discovery of gene transcripts in a variety of organisms (Adams et al. 1991). As of April 11, 2008, 51,391,051 ESTs entries were recorded in the dbEST NCBI (National Cen -ter of Biotechnology Information). Most of these (61%) are generated from laboratory models and economically important organisms (21 species; see Table I for the 10 most frequently sequenced organisms). ESTs have proven invaluable tools for accelerating the discovery of trans-cribed sequences in the genome and generating markers for genome mapping. Several bioinformatic methods for the analysis of ESTs at both small and large scales have been developed in the last 10 years. A thorough revision of these methods as well as a comprehensive analysis regarding the breadth of their applications for EST pro-cessing, quality sequence analysis and functional dis-covery has been published by Nagaraj et al. (2007). Ac-companying this road map analysis is a guide through the world of EST bioinformatics tools available at http://biolinfo.org/EST /. This guide contains an extensive list of software and methods.For the purpose of this opinion article, I am focusing on the
Seat vibrotactile warning interface for forward vehicle collision avoidance

A collision warning system utilizing haptic interface is expected to be more effective than an auditory as well as visual warning types. In order to reduce the number of the traffic accidents and their injuries, this paper proposes a forward vehicle collision warning system by using seat vibrotactile interface. At first, an investigation of the frequency for using as collision warning is shown. Comparing the time response to each type of warning system, the effectiveness of seat vibrotactile warning interface is examined. Based on the examination, a forward vehicle collision warning system using seat vibrotactile is designed and installed in the experimental vehicle. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed system is examined by test drives.
Juvenile rhegmatogenous retinal detachment.

PURPOSE To review the clinical features, evaluate visual, and anatomical outcomes and potential complications following surgery for rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (RRD) in juveniles. METHODS Retrospective, consecutive case series of children and young adults (birth through 18 years) who underwent surgerys for RRD between February 1999 and January 2002. RESULTS The authors reviewed a consecutive series of 111 eyes of 105 juveniles [86 (77.47%) eyes belonged to male and 25 (22.52%) to female subjects] operated for RRD. The mean age of patients was 13.62 years. Bilateral retinal detachment was present in 12 (10.8%); 51 (46%) patients had some form of bilateral ocular pathology at initial presentation. The two most common aetiologies were non-penetrating trauma (45.04%) and myopia (41.44%). Decreased vision was the most frequent symptom. The mean duration of symptoms was 165.36 days. The commonest retinal break was a retinal hole (34.23%). Late diagnosis was common, evidenced by high frequency of macular detachment (97.29%) and proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR) (45.94%) at initial presentation. The most commonly performed primary surgery was scleral buckle (61.26%). The average postoperative follow-up after the first procedure was 10 months (range 8-19 months). Final retinal reattachment was accomplished in 78.37% (87/111) with a mean of 1.29 surgeries per eye. Improvement, no change and decline in vision was seen in 50 (48%), 32 (31%) and 22 (21%) eyes respectively. CONCLUSION Non-penetrating injury and myopia were the most common cause for RRD in juveniles. Fellow eyes commonly had vision-threatening abnormalities. Final anatomical and visual recovery rates were encouraging despite late initial presentation and high rates of macular detachment, and PVR at initial presentation.
High Efficiency of Hybrid Resumption in Distributed Data Warehouses

ETL processes are sometimes interrupted by occurrence of a failure. In such a case, one of the interrupted extraction resumption algorithms is usually used. In this paper we present a modified Design-Resume algorithm enriched by the possibility of handling ETL processes containing many loading nodes. We use the DR algorithm to resume a distributed data warehouse load process. The key feature of this algorithm is that it does not impose additional overhead on the normal ETL process. In our work we modify the algorithm to work with more than one loading node, and combine it with staging technique, which increases the efficiency of the resumption process. The combined algorithm, we name it hybrid resumption algorithm. Based on the results of performed tests, the benefits of our improvements are discussed
IMODE: Improving Multi-Objective Differential Evolution Algorithm

Differential Evolutionary (DE) is an evolutionary algorithm that was developed to handle optimization problems. DE is a simple algorithm, but it has been successfully applied to selected real world multi-objective problems. In this paper, Improving Multi-objective Differential Evolutionary (IMODE) is a new approach to solve multi-objective optimization based on basic DE. This algorithm is equipped with contour line to select candidate individuals, and combines with the crowding distance sorting and Pareto-based ranking, and epsiv dominance. The solutions provided by the IMODE algorithm for five standard test problems, is competitive to three known multi-objective optimization algorithms.
Hybrid ZF-ML detection for N × N spatial multiplexing systems

Both zero-forcing (ZF) and maximum-likelihood (ML) criteria are widely used for signal detection in multiple­ input multiple-output (MIMO) spatial multiplexing systems. In this paper, we propose a special formulation to combine these two detection algorithms for the N x N scenario, which can provide a good compromise between the error-rate performance and com­ putational complexity. Specifically, the detection is decomposed into some ZF stages, and at each of these stages a fraction of the data streams is nulled to zero. After that, an ML stage is performed utilizing the idea of ML with reduced dimension. We show that the resultant bit-error rate (BER) performance of this hybrid ZF-ML detection can be much better than that of the ZF detection, and the total number of floating-point operations (flops) can be comparable with that of the conventional ZF calculation.
Estrogen Signaling Modulates Allergic Inflammation and Contributes to Sex Differences in Asthma

Asthma is a chronic airway inflammatory disease that affects ~300 million people worldwide. It is characterized by airway constriction that leads to wheezing, coughing, and shortness of breath. The most common treatments are corticosteroids and β2-adrenergic receptor antagonists, which target inflammation and airway smooth muscle constriction, respectively. The incidence and severity of asthma is greater in women than in men, and women are more prone to develop corticosteroid-resistant or “hard-to-treat” asthma. Puberty, menstruation, pregnancy, menopause, and oral contraceptives are known to contribute to disease outcome in women, suggesting a role for estrogen and other hormones impacting allergic inflammation. Currently, the mechanisms underlying these sex differences are poorly understood, although the effect of sex hormones, such as estrogen, on allergic inflammation is gaining interest. Asthma presents as a heterogeneous disease. In typical Th2-type allergic asthma, interleukin (IL)-4 and IL-13 predominate, driving IgE production and recruitment of eosinophils into the lungs. Chronic Th2-inflammation in the lung results in structural changes and activation of multiple immune cell types, leading to a deterioration of lung function over time. Most immune cells express estrogen receptors (ERα, ERβ, or the membrane-bound G-protein-coupled ER) to varying degrees and can respond to the hormone. Together these receptors have demonstrated the capacity to regulate a spectrum of immune functions, including adhesion, migration, survival, wound healing, and antibody and cytokine production. This review will cover the current understanding of estrogen signaling in allergic inflammation and discuss how this signaling may contribute to sex differences in asthma and allergy.
On Coreferring: Coreference in MUC and Related Annotation Schemes

In this paper, it is argued that coreference annotations, as performed in the MUC community for example, go well beyond annotation of the relation of coreference proper. As a result, it is not always clear what semantic relation these annotations are encoding. The paper discusses a number of problems with these annotations and concludes that rethinking of the coreference task is needed before the task is expanded. In particular, it suggests a division of labor whereby annotation of the coreference relation proper is separated from other tasks such as annotation of bound anaphora and of the relation between a subject and a predicative NP.
A Study on Collaborative Beamforming with Protocol Defects in Wireless Ad Hoc Networks

To conduct collaborative beamforming in wireless ad hoc or sensor networks, several protocols must be executed, including the localization protocol, time synchronization protocol, and data dissemination protocol. In practice, however, these protocols are often limited by their complexities for achieving the ideal perfect performance. Therefore, protocol defects such as location errors, time synchronization errors, and message losses often appear in collaborative beamforming with distributed operations. In this paper, we introduce an analytical framework to analyze the impact of protocol defects on the performance of collaborative beamforming. We show numerical results of the proposed model, and explain how the proposed model can be used to mitigate the impact of protocol defects for collaborative beamforming in wireless networks.
Test Pattern Generation for Realistic Bridge Faults in CMOS ICs

Two approaches have been used to balance the cost of generating e(cid:11)ective tests for IC's and the need to increase the quality level of shipped IC's. The (cid:12)rst approach favors using high-level fault models to reduce test generation costs, and the second approach favors the use of low-level, technology-speci(cid:12)c fault models that lead to high test generation costs, but increased defect coverage in the tested circuits. In this paper we simulate complete single stuck-at test sets against a low-level model of bridge defects showing that an unacceptably high percentage of such defects are not detected by the complete stuck-at test sets. Next, we show how low-level bridge fault models can be incorporated into high-level test generation. Finally, we describe our system for generating e(cid:11)ective tests for bridge faults and report on its performance.
Robust Object Tracking with Radial Basis Function Networks

Visual tracking has been a challenging problem in computer vision over the decades. The applications of visual tracking are far-reaching, ranging from surveillance and monitoring to smart rooms. In this paper we present a novel object tracker based on fast learning radial basis function (RBF) networks. Here, the object and background pixel-based color features are used to develop object/non-object RBF classifiers. The posterior probability information of these classifiers are used for developing an efficient object model for tracking in the subsequent frames. The performance of the proposed tracker is tested with many video sequences of real-life complexity and compared against the color-based mean-shift tracker. The proposed tracker is illustrated to be suitable for real-time robust object tracking due to its low computational complexity.
Coordinated Changes in mRNA Turnover, Translation, and RNA Processing Bodies in Bronchial Epithelial Cells following Inflammatory Stimulation

ABSTRACT Bronchial epithelial cells play a pivotal role in airway inflammation, but little is known about posttranscriptional regulation of mediator gene expression during the inflammatory response in these cells. Here, we show that activation of human bronchial epithelial BEAS-2B cells by proinflammatory cytokines interleukin-4 (IL-4) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) leads to an increase in the mRNA stability of the key chemokines monocyte chemotactic protein 1 and IL-8, an elevation of the global translation rate, an increase in the levels of several proteins critical for translation, and a reduction of microRNA-mediated translational repression. Moreover, using the BEAS-2B cell system and a mouse model, we found that RNA processing bodies (P bodies), cytoplasmic domains linked to storage and/or degradation of translationally silenced mRNAs, are significantly reduced in activated bronchial epithelial cells, suggesting a physiological role for P bodies in airway inflammation. Our study reveals an orchestrated change among posttranscriptional mechanisms, which help sustain high levels of inflammatory mediator production in bronchial epithelium during the pathogenesis of inflammatory airway diseases.
To assess the effect of birth weight of children and their siblings and other perinatal / parental factors on the risk of acute leukemia

Objectives: To assess the effect of birth weight of children and their siblings and other perinatal/parental factors on the risk of acute leukemia. Methods: We linked data from the Jerusalem Perinatal Study, a population-based research cohort (n = 88,829) of offspring born 1964 to 1976, with Israel’s Cancer Registry. Risk factors for acute leukemia were assessed using univariate and multivariate proportional hazards models. Results: Leukemias developed in 65 individuals [24 acute myeloid leukemias (AML) and 41 acute lymphoblastic leukemias (ALL)]. A positive linear relation was found between gender-adjusted birth weight and all leukemias [hazard ratio (HR) 1.85, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.1-3.0] and AML (HR 2.9, 95% CI 1.3-6.4). The association between birth weight and AML was especially notable among infants (HR 8.14, 95% CI 1.8-38.9 for age 0 to 1 year) but was also observed among subjects ages >14 years at diagnosis. The relation was particularly strong among females (P = 0.001). Other risk factors for AML risk on univariate analysis were maternal origin, socioeconomic status, birth weight of sibling > 3,500 g, and family size. On multivariate analysis, only birth weight retained borderline significance (adjusted HR 2.38 per kg, 95% CI 1.0-5.7). Significant predictors for ALL in both univariate and multivariate analyses were male sex (adjusted HR 1.92, 95% CI 1.0-3.7) and birth weight categories z 3,000 g introduced into the model as nonlinear terms. Conclusion: Birth weight is associated with an increased risk of acute leukemia in infants, children, and young adults. Perinatal factors play a role in the development of childhood leukemias, but the patterns of association vary by leukemia type. (Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2004;13(6):1057–64)