Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bogotá: Social and Business Innovation in Garbage Collection - Public Policy beyond Neoliberal Vision

This study deals withthe social innovation that is occurring in the city of Bogotá (Colombia) following the recognition given by the Constitutional Court of Colombiaof the work of independent recyclers to assist in the provision of waste collection services and recovery of recyclable materials. The Court's judgment is one important step towards the recovery of the regulatory capacity of the state for the provision of public services, the implementation of which corresponds to the executive power (mayors). Application of the Court ́s provisions required the creation of a new model of garbage collection focused on public companies, a move of Bogotá ́s mayoraway from traditional neoliberal policies that provoked strong social, political, and business reactions. This paper describes and analyzes the process, its achievements and the growing political, human, and business difficulties, as well as its political implications.
Correlations between the ICIQ‐SF score and urodynamic findings

The primary aim of this prospective study was to examine the correlations between “The International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire‐Short Form (ICIQ‐SF)” score and urodynamic findings in patients with urge incontinence. In addition, we aimed to observe the alterations of these parameters with antimuscarinic therapy.
Substance dependence. A hospital based survey.

OBJECTIVE To collect basic data on multiple and diverse issues such as drugs of dependence, smoking, initiation age, injection related harm, nutritional status, trauma, accidents, abnormal laboratory parameters and co-morbid conditions. METHOD Seven hundred and ninety nine subjects from a voluntary detoxification unit were studied. Four hundred and ninety seven charts from June 1995 to December 1995 were reviewed retrospectively. For the other 302 subjects admitted between September 1996 to December 1996, information regarding drug use, smoking, trauma, accidents and co-morbid conditions was recorded during the admission interview while the remaining data was later obtained from the charts. RESULTS Sixty eight percent were under 35. Ninety seven percent were smokers and 55% started smoking before the age of 15. Sixty four percent initiated drugs before the age of 25 while 34% had been on drugs for less than 5 years. Eighty seven percent were using heroin or alcohol. Fourteen percent were dependent on more than one drug. Among heroin users 91% were injecting, 21% had injection related complications, 69% had Hepatitis C Virus and 0.40% died. Forty four percent had at least one current medical disorder, 59% had one abnormal laboratory parameter and 21% below normal Body Mass Index. Nine percent had mental disorders and 1% presented with overdose. Twenty nine percent reported unintentional injuries and 12% reported of road traffic accidents. Seventeen point five percent had family history of drug use, 4.5% had mental disorders and 87% physical disorders. CONCLUSION More accurate and reliable data is required. Current services need to be improved. Preventative measures should focus on early detection and intervention and a central body for information collection should be established.
Educational Games in formal education - Results of an explorative study using an Educational Game in school

This article investigates the application of Educational Games in formal education. In it, we provide background on the actual status of the application of educational games in formal education, as well as information on problems and chances of the use of Educational Games in classrooms on the basis of first findings of an explorative applied study in a German junior high school. To allow a multidimensional view on the hereby presented topic, we discuss the questionnaire offered to the students and the teacher’s point of view as well as the pedagogical background of the game Ice Ice Maybe.
Age Is Not Necessarily Aging: Another Step towards Understanding the ‘Clocks’ That Time Aging

Hofer and Sliwinski raise a critical concern regarding a popular practice in aging research of inferring associations among aging changes of different processes from correlations based on cross-sectional age differences. It is shown analytically that cross-sectional information drawn from age-heterogeneous samples is not suitable for answering questions about the interdependence between aging changes. While in general we agree with the problem pointed out by Hofer and Sliwinski, the two aims of this commentary are: (1) to highlight links between the specific concern and two long-standing issues confronting life-span researchers and (2) to introduce alternative approaches that are currently underutilized in gerontological research. We elaborate general issues with respect to challenges in inferring aging changes from age differences and using age as a proxy for aging. We show that several other sources of variance independent of rates of change, such as cohort- and mortality-related selection effects, are confounded in age-heterogeneous designs. We suggest general considerations for developing more explicit theories of cognitive aging in the future. Alternative research methods and paradigms for studying the causes and mechanisms of the aging mind at different time scales and levels are also highlighted. The role of chronological age in aging research is rather ‘superficial’. To understand the underlying processes and mechanisms of cognitive aging, classical process-oriented, rather than solely age-oriented, theoretical conceptions need to be reconsidered and reified with new methodological and empirical advances. Concerted gerontological research endeavors utilizing recent progresses made in statistical analyses of dynamic processes and in cognitive and computational neurosciences that may lead to fruitful breakthroughs.
Molecular Epidemiology of HIV Transmission in a Dental Practice

Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) transmission from infected patients to health-care workers has been well documented, but transmission from an infected healthcare worker to a patient has not been reported. After identification of an acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) patient who had no known risk factors for HIV infection but who had undergone an invasive procedure performed by a dentist with AIDS, six other patients of this dentist were found to be HIV-infected. Molecular biologic studies were conducted to complement the epidemiologic investigation. Portions of the HIV proviral envelope gene from each of the seven patients, the dentist, and 35 HIV-infected persons from the local geographic area were amplified by polymerase chain reaction and sequenced. Three separate comparative genetic analyses—genetic distance measurements, phylogenetic tree analysis, and amino acid signature pattern analysis—showed that the viruses from the dentist and five dental patients were closely related. These data, together with the epidemiologic investigation, indicated that these patients became infected with HIV while receiving care from a dentist with AIDS.
Mapping of the Human Testicular Proteome and its Relationship With That of the Epididymis and Spermatozoa*

The testis produces male gametes in the germinal epithelium through the development of spermatogonia and spermatocytes into spermatids and immature spermatozoa with the support of Sertoli cells. The flow of spermatozoa into the epididymis is aided by testicular secretions. In the epididymal lumen, spermatozoa and testicular secretions combine with epididymal secretions that promote sperm maturation and storage. We refer to the combined secretions in the epididymis as the sperm-milieu. With two-dimensional-PAGE matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight MS analysis of healthy testes from fertile accident victims, 725 unique proteins were identified from 1920 two-dimensional-gel spots, and a corresponding antibody library was established. This revealed the presence of 240 proteins in the sperm-milieu by Western blotting and the localization of 167 proteins in mature spermatozoa by ICC. These proteins, and those from the epididymal proteome (Li et al. 2010), form the proteomes of the sperm-milieu and the spermatozoa, comprising 525 and 319 proteins, respectively. Individual mapping of the 319 sperm-located proteins to various testicular cell types by immunohistochemistry suggested that 47% were intrinsic sperm proteins (from their presence in spermatids) and 23% were extrinsic sperm proteins, originating from the epididymis and acquired during maturation (from their absence from the germinal epithelium and presence in the epididymal tissue and sperm-milieu). Whereas 408 of 525 proteins in the sperm-milieu proteome were previously identified as abundant epididymal proteins, the remaining 22%, detected by the use of new testicular antibodies, were more likely to be minor proteins common to the testicular proteome, rather than proteins of testicular origin added to spermatozoa during maturation in the epididymis. The characterization of the sperm-milieu proteome and testicular mapping of the sperm-located proteins presented here provide the molecular basis for further studies on the production and maturation of spermatozoa. This could be the basis of development of diagnostic markers and therapeutic targets for infertility or targets for male contraception.
An Enhanced Immune Response in Mice Lacking the Transcription Factor NFAT1

Transcription factors of the NFAT family are thought to play a major role in regulating the expression of cytokine genes and other inducible genes during the immune response. The role of NFAT1 was investigated by targeted disruption of the NFAT1 gene. Unexpectedly, cells from NFAT1−/− mice showed increased primary responses to Leishmania major and mounted increased secondary responses to ovalbumin in vitro. In an in vivo model of allergic inflammation, the accumulation of eosinophils and levels of serum immunoglobulin E were increased in NFAT1−/− mice. These results suggest that NFAT1 exerts a negative regulatory influence on the immune response.
Antibacterial activity of ergosterol peroxide against Mycobacterium tuberculosis: dependence upon system and medium employed

Ergosterol peroxide, cycloart‐23‐en‐3β,25‐diol, vanillin and 4‐hydroxybenzaldehyde have been isolated and characterized from a crude methanol extract of Euphorbia lagascae. Previous studies have shown contradictory results about the antibacterial activity of ergosterol peroxide against Mycobacterium tuberculosis. In order to clarify this question, the activity of this compound was tested against Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv ATCC 27294 strain using two different systems: BACTEC 460TB (Bactec 460) and BACTEC MGIT 960 system (Bactec 960). The results obtained show that significant activity was demonstrable only with the Bactec 460 system. The lack of activity noted with the Bactec 960 system appears to be due to the much faster growth rate of the organism in the medium of this system as opposed to that of the Bactec 460 system. Ergosterol peroxide is also shown by the current study to be devoid of any activity against an antibiotic sensitive ATCC strain of Staphylococcus aureus. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
THE DYNAMICS OF FISHERMEN'S COMPLIANCE

In this paper, a dynamic model of fishermen’s compliance is developed and used to analyse several issues. There are two parties involved in the fishery; the regulator and the fishermen. Regulator takes on a long term view and sets quota at the beginning of every period in order to maximise an objective function. Fishermen act on a period to period basis, seeking to maximise welfare within every period. In addition to buying a quota and legally harvest the quota quantity, they have the possibility to harvest illegally in excess of quotas. I introduce non-monetary moral costs of illegal harvesting that varies across the population of fishermen. The first part of the paper analyse optimal fisherman behaviour, in terms of compliance and quota purchase. In the second part, I use these results to analyse the dynamics of the fishery.
Automated synthesis of mixed-technology MEMS systems with electronic control

Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) design requires an integration of elements from two or more disparate physical domains: mechanical (translational, rotational, hydraulic), electrical, magnetic, thermal, etc. Different parts of a MEMS system are traditionally designed separately, using different methodologies and different tools applied to different energy domains. Although major Hardware Description Languages (HDLs) such as VHDL, Verilog and SystemC have been supplemented with analogue and mixed-signal (AMS) extensions which are essential in analogue and mixed-technology design, development of corresponding analogue and mixed-technology synthesis methodologies is still lagging behind. Therefore, there is an increasing need for automated synthesis techniques that can reduce the development cycle and facilitate the generation of optimal configurations. This research investigates and develops techniques for automated high-level performance optimisation and synthesis of mixed-technology MEMS systems. Results of this research have been published in 9 papers at peer reviewed international conferences and one two-part journal paper. Specific contributions of this research can be summarised as follows. Firstly, a dedicated distributed model of a mixed-technology MEMS case study of an accelerometer operating in a Sigma-Delta force-feedback control scheme is developed. The distributed behaviour is essential in the MEMS accelerometer design because it has been observed that sense finger resonance, usually not included in conventional models, affects the performance of the electromechanical Sigma-Delta feedback control. As shown in the simulation results, the Sigma-Delta loop failure, when the sense fingers bend seriously or oscillate, is captured by the proposed model but cannot be correctly modelled using conventional approach. Secondly, a novel, holistic approach is proposed for automated optimal layout synthesis of MEMS systems embedded in electronic control circuitry from user-defined high-level performance specifications and design constraints. The synthesis technique has been implemented in SystemC-A and named SystemC-AGNES. The method efficiently, and in an automated manner, generates suitable layouts of mechanical sensing element and configurations of the Sigma-Delta control loop by combining primitive components stored in a library and optimising them according to user specifications. Synthesis results show that the proposed technique explores the configuration space effectively, and it develops new structures which have not been investigated before. This contribution has been published as a two part paper in the Sensors & Transducers Journal. Finally, to enhance the modelling efficiency and capability of SystemC-A, for mixed-technology systems with crucial distributed behaviour, language extension has been proposed to efficiently support general partial differential equations(PDEs) modelling.
The Coming Health Crisis

By the turn of the century, the largest generation of Americans in history, the "Baby Boomers," will be approaching 65 years old. But as the demand for health and long-term care is growing dramatically, health care programs have been shrinking instead of expanding to meet the older generation's needs. In this timely book, John R. Wolfe offers practical solutions to the coming health crisis, exploring innovative ways of developing insurance plans for the care of the large, aging "Baby Boom" generation and beyond. In previous decades, when younger Americans far outnumbered older ones, retirees could depend on financial support through taxes from the population at large. But as "Boomers" retire and the work force begins to shrink, there will be a disproportionately large population of retirees to workers. With such a big jump in the percentage of older Americans in the population, fewer workers will be able to to transfer funds, through taxes, to retirees. Moreover, other traditionally reliable sources of financial assistance—Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid—have faced serious financial difficulties in recent years. Who will the aged turn to for assistance? The Coming Health Crisis suggests that as funds from all quarters dwindle, older Americans will have to look to alternative programs for financial assistance. Wolfe urges immediate action to develop new saving programs and increase existing transfer schemes to head off an imminent crisis. Although tax increases might provide some resources, he demonstrates that it is more important to accumulate capital to create solid reserves for the future. Wolfe also explores two roles for government: prefunding new or existing social insurance programs and promoting private insurance options. By exempting insurance fund income from corporate taxation and permitting people at all income levels to defer income tax on accounts earmarked for long-term care, he shows how government could greatly encourage and expand personal saving. Finally, this work assesses the value of other recent health and long-term-care innovations: social/health maintenance organizations, long-term-care individual retirement accounts, and reverse annuity mortgages, in addition to vouchers, care rationing, mandatory public insurance, and expanded private coverage. Through this wide-ranging survey, Wolfe demonstrates that, through a combination of these programs, we can care for the aging "Baby Boom" generation by anticipating their needs and saving now.
Concurrent engineering at Titan Industries Ltd: a case study from the watch industry

This is a case study on the application of concurrent engineering for reducing the product development time in a watch-making firm. By using a horizontal interaction process, overlapping phases of development, carrying frequent reviews and cross-functional teaming the company reduced the product development cycle time. Concurrent engineering helped Titan watches to develop watches in a shorter time and increase product variety through horizontal interactions. These require coordination and cohesive teamwork. The benefits have been substantial. Competition is inducing every firm to shorten product development time and work in an integrated manner.
A new dual-input hybrid buck DC-DC converter

The proposed dual input hybrid buck C/ hybrid buck L (HBCL) DC-DC converter, is suitable for power conversion in renewable energy, automotive and telecom power systems. It extends the use of the hybrid DC-DC converters in a dual-input structure, with high voltage-conversion ratio. Operation modes, analytical description, digital simulations and test results, in good correspondence, are presented and discussed in this paper.
Temporal interpolation alters motion in fMRI scans: Magnitudes and consequences for artifact detection

Head motion can be estimated at any point of fMRI image processing. Processing steps involving temporal interpolation (e.g., slice time correction or outlier replacement) often precede motion estimation in the literature. From first principles it can be anticipated that temporal interpolation will alter head motion in a scan. Here we demonstrate this effect and its consequences in five large fMRI datasets. Estimated head motion was reduced by 10–50% or more following temporal interpolation, and reductions were often visible to the naked eye. Such reductions make the data seem to be of improved quality. Such reductions also degrade the sensitivity of analyses aimed at detecting motion-related artifact and can cause a dataset with artifact to falsely appear artifact-free. These reduced motion estimates will be particularly problematic for studies needing estimates of motion in time, such as studies of dynamics. Based on these findings, it is sensible to obtain motion estimates prior to any image processing (regardless of subsequent processing steps and the actual timing of motion correction procedures, which need not be changed). We also find that outlier replacement procedures change signals almost entirely during times of motion and therefore have notable similarities to motion-targeting censoring strategies (which withhold or replace signals entirely during times of motion).
Analysis of resting state and task-related fMRI data in small cell lung cancer patients before undertaking PCI

As the use of prophylactic cranial irradiation (PCI) increases life expectancy in certain types of cancer, there is evidence that this technique may contribute to neurocognitive deficits. The aim of this research is to investigate functional connectivity in patients before and after being administered brain radiotherapy as well as their neurocognitive functionality, depending on the course of disease and the phase of treatment and time of clinical examination. In the current study we attempt to identify potential alterations in brain function during resting state and task-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in small cell lung cancer patients (SCLC) patients before PCI compared to healthy subjects. The brain regions that were activated for both groups during a sequential tapping task are consistent with previous studies. However, the patient group showed a lower level of activation in the primary somatosensory cortex bilaterally. During rest, the Default Mode Network (DMN) was identified in both groups. The results presented are subject to further investigation with larger patient and control group.
Diatom/Copepod Interactions in Plankton: The Indirect Chemical Defense of Unicellular Algae

Numerous coexisting species can be observed in the open oceans. This includes the complex community of the plankton, which comprises all free floating organisms in the sea. Traditionally, nutrient limitation, competition, predation, and abiotic factors have been assumed to shape the community structure in this environment. Only in recent years has the idea arisen that chemical signals and chemical defense can influence species interactions in the plankton as well. Key players at the base of the marine food web are diatoms (unicellular algae with silicified cell walls) and their main predators, the herbivorous copepods. It was assumed that diatoms represent a generally good food source for the grazers but recent work indicates that some species use chemical defenses. Secondary metabolites, released by these algae immediately after wounding, are targeted not against the predators themselves but rather at interfering with their reproductive success. This strategy allows diatoms to reduce the grazer population, thereby influencing the marine food web. This review addresses the chemical ecology of the defensive oxylipins formed by diatoms and the question of how these metabolites can act in such a dilute environment. Aspects of biosynthesis, bioassays, and the possible implications of such a chemical defense for the plankton community structure are also discussed.