Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Modelling studies by adsorption for the removal of sunset yellow azo dye present in effluent from a soft drink plant

This paper reports a study on the adsorption of the dye sunset yellow, present in an aqueous synthetic solution and a real effluent from a soft drink plant, onto granular-activated carbon derived from coconut husks, using a batch system. The kinetic equilibrium was investigated using two different dye concentrations (102 and 103 mg L−1) at 25°C and 150 rpm. The adsorption isotherms and thermodynamics parameters were evaluated at 25°C, 35°C, 45°C and 55°C, using the synthetic and real effluents (5–103 mg L−1). Experimental data showed that the adsorbent was effective in the removal of sunset yellow dye and the contact time required to attain the adsorption equilibrium did not exceed 10 h. The adsorption capacity was not influenced within a wide range of pH values (1–12), although at high dye concentrations it increased with increasing temperature for both the synthetic and real effluents. The Redlich–Peterson isotherm best represented the equilibrium data of the system. The negative values obtained for Δ G0 and Δ H0 suggest that this adsorption process is spontaneous, favourable, and exothermic. The positive values for Δ S0 indicate an increase in the entropy at the solid/liquid interface. Based on the results of this study, adsorption appears to be a promising method for the removal of sunset yellow azo dye from effluent generated at soft drink plants.
Review: D1 dopamine receptor—the search for a function: A critical evaluation of the D1/D2 dopamine receptor classification and its functional implications

The present review focuses on the hypothesized D1/D2 dopamine (DA) receptor classification, originally based on the form of receptor coupling to adenylate cyclase activity. The pharmacological effects of compounds exhibiting putative selective agonist or antagonist profiles at those DA receptors positively coupled to adenylate cyclase activity (D1 DA receptors) are extensively reviewed. Comparisons are made with the effects of putative selective D2 DA receptor agonists and antagonists, and on the basis of this work, the DA receptor classification is critically evaluated. A variety of biochemical, behavioral, and electrophysiological evidence is presented which supports the view that D1 and D2 DA receptors can interact in both an opposing and synergistic fashion. Particular attention is focused on the possibility that D1 receptor stimulation is required to enable the expression of certain D2 receptor‐mediated effects, and the functional consequences of this form of interaction are considered. A hypothetical model is presented which considers how both the opposing and enabling forms of interaction between D1 and D2 DA receptos can control behavioral expression. Finally, the clinical relevance of this work is discussed and the potential use of selective D1 receptor agonists and antagonists in the treatment of psychotic states and Parkinson's disease is considered.
Mammographic Cancer Detection Using Computer-Aided Diagnosis System

Cancer is one of the common diseases occurring among the people all over the world. It can be due to various reasons such as different habitats, environmental disorders etc. Cancer being detected at early stages can save millions, if effective treatment is provided. It can cause damage to any part of body. Breast cancer occurs when breast cells divide rapidly to form a lump or mass known as a tumor. The detection of the breast cancer is a challenging problem, due to the structure of the cancer cells. This project presents a threshold method, for segmenting mammographic images to detect the Breast cancer in its early stages. The threshold will be determined by clustering an image based on row and column separation. The manual analysis of this samples are time consuming, inaccurate and requires intensive trained person to avoid diagnostic errors. The segmentation results will be used as a base for a Computer Aided Diagnosis system for early detection of cancer from mammographic images which will improves the chances of survival for the patient. Furthermore, the probability of the tumor to identify its type is also taken by us i.e. benign, suspicious or malignant.
Geographical differences in human herpesvirus 8 seroepidemiology: A survey of 1,201 individuals in Asia

Since the discovery of human herpesvirus 8 (HHV8) as a contributory cause of Kaposis sarcoma, the clinical role of this virus has been actively investigated. An understanding of HHV8 seroepidemiology is critical for the study of its pathogenesis within a specific environment. A sero‐survey is described in Taiwan of 1,201 individuals ranging in age from under 1 year to over 70. Indirect immunofluorescence assay was used to determine antibody titers against both latent and lytic antigens of HHV8. The results indicate that very few individuals (3–4%) were exposed to HHV8 before 10 years of age. Infection rate peaked (19.2%) between the ages of 21 to 40. Females showed a slightly higher seroprevalence for HHV8 than males, but the difference was not statistically significant. Pregnancy did not correlate with increased HHV8 infection rate nor with augmented HHV8 antibody titers. It is concluded that HHV8 in Taiwan is predominantly an infectious agent for adults. In this geographical locale, HHV8 is similar to herpes simplex virus type 2 in its likely transmission occurring presumptively through sexual routes. However, the study also indicates that a smaller portion of HHV8‐transmission could occur through nonsexual contacts. J. Med. Virol. 60:290–293, 2000. © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Differential checkpointing for reducing memory requirements in optimized SOAP deserialization

Differential serialization (DDS) is a SOAP optimization technique wherein servers save checkpoints and parser states associated with portions of previously received messages, and use them to avoid full parsing and deserialization of similar new messages. In this paper, we characterize DDS's memory requirements and memory overhead, introduce a new technique for storing only the differences between successive parser states for a message, and demonstrate how this optimization, which we call differential checkpointing, speeds up the DDS optimization and reduces its memory requirements.
Convergence of generalized MIT bag models to Dirac operators with zigzag boundary conditions

This work addresses the resolvent convergence of generalized MIT bag operators to Dirac operators with zigzag type boundary conditions. We prove that the convergence holds in strong but not in norm resolvent sense. Moreover, we show that the only obstruction for having norm resolvent convergence is the existence of an eigenvalue of infinite multiplicity for the limiting operator. More precisely, we prove the convergence of the resolvents in operator norm once projected into the orthogonal of the corresponding eigenspace.
VIP: a Virtual Interface-based aPproach for vertical handover in single-subnet networks

We propose a simple and practical solution, called the virtual interface-based approach (VIP), for seamless vertical handover in single-subnet networks. VIP combines a virtual interface and ARP update messages to achieve vertical handovers, and can run stand-alone without modification of existing network protocols or installation of additional servers. Therefore, it is ready for immediate real-world deployment. Using testbed experiments, we evaluate VIP by observing TCP (FTP downloading) behavior in various vertical handover scenarios. The results show that the proposed approach can successfully maintain an application's connectivity in all test cases. Furthermore, the results show that handover from a low capacity link to a high capacity link does not cause service latency; however, during handover from a high capacity link to a lower capacity link, non-negligible latency can not be alleviated unless early handover notification is provided.
Default activity patterns at the neocortical microcircuit level

Even in absence of sensory stimuli cortical networks exhibit complex, self-organized activity patterns. While the function of those spontaneous patterns of activation remains poorly understood, recent studies both in vivo and in vitro have demonstrated that neocortical neurons activate in a surprisingly similar sequential order both spontaneously and following input into cortex. For example, neurons that tend to fire earlier within spontaneous bursts of activity also fire earlier than other neurons in response to sensory stimuli. These “default patterns” can last hundreds of milliseconds and are strongly conserved under a variety of conditions. In this paper, we will review recent evidence for these default patterns at the local cortical level. We speculate that cortical architecture imposes common constraints on spontaneous and evoked activity flow, which result in the similarity of the patterns.
Betacellulin and Amphiregulin Induce Upregulation of Cyclin D1 and DNA Synthesis Activity Through Differential Signaling Pathways in Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells

Abstract— Activation of EGF receptors is closely involved in vascular proliferative diseases. The signaling mechanisms of EGF ligands, including betacellulin (BTC) and amphiregulin (AR), are poorly understood. We examined how BTC and AR induced DNA synthesis activity in primary cultures of human thoracic aortic smooth muscle cells (HTASMCs). BTC induced phosphorylation of all four EGF receptors present on HTASMCs: ErbB1, ErbB2, ErbB3, and ErbB4. BTC rapidly induced the phosphorylation of Akt, GSK3&agr;/&bgr;, and two FoxO factors, FKHR and AFX, in a dose- and time-dependent manner. BTC increased nuclear &bgr;-catenin accumulation. BTC increased cyclin D1 mRNA, cyclin D1 protein, and DNA synthesis activity. Pretreatment with the phosphatidylinositol 3′-kinase (PI 3′-kinase) inhibitor wortmannin suppressed BTC-induced cyclin D1 mRNA and protein and DNA synthesis activity. In contrast, AR, a specific ErbB1 ligand, induced sustained ERK1/2 and Elk1 phosphorylation, increased cyclin D1 mRNA and protein, and increased DNA synthesis activity. AR did not produce any changes in Akt phosphorylation. Pretreatment with PD98059 suppressed AR-induced cyclin D1 mRNA and protein. Thus, the PI 3′-kinase/Akt/GSK/FoxO/&bgr;-catenin pathway could be the major signaling cascade for BTC-induced upregulation of cyclin D1 protein, whereas a sustained ERK/Elk1 activation could be the major signaling cascade for AR-induced upregulation of cyclin D1 protein in HTASMCs. Moreover, immunohistochemical staining revealed that that BTC, ErbB1, and ErbB4 are upregulated in the plaques of human atherosclerotic coronary arteries. Taken together, BTC and AR could be potent growth factors in proliferative vascular diseases.
Trust, control, interactionand performancein IJVs: A taxonomy of German-Chinese Joint Ventures

Control and trust are recurring themes in the analysis of the management of International Joint Ventures (IJVs). Both issues (and their antecedents) have been analysed in isolation and in their relation with performance, though hardly any study exists which analyses them simultaneously in their interdependence. More importantly however, there are few, if any, studies that have empirically tested the existence and nature of the mechanisms that are assumed to link control and trust to performance. It is the purpose of this paper to empirically investigate these mechanisms in view of the interaction processes taking place between the JV partners. Analysing the interaction processes in the context of control, trust and performance is expected to provide a better understanding of the relationship between control, trust and performance. To this aim a concept of inter-firm interaction in IJVs is proposed. The empirical basis for this study consists of data gathered through a questionnaire survey among German and Chinese General Managers of German-Chinese Joint Ventures (GCJVs) in the People? s Republic of China carried out in 2000/01. Using Cluster-Analysis two JV types are derived, which allow for some first yet tentative inferences to be made regarding the complex interplay between control, trust, performance, and interaction in GCJVs.
Using Design Strategy Matrix based on Cognitive Usability Model for Mobile Devices in New Product Development

The mobile devices have grown rapidly with the progresses of Information Technology (IT) over past decades. As this reason, mobile devices have become the personal equipments(e.g. iPhone, iPad, Tablet PC and smart-phone). The designs for those devices can be traced to the original design-works of Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), which conceptual design integrated the critical issues with personal computer (PC) and mobility. Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) is a creative and original production for Internet Information Appliance (IA), so the study wishes to explore design issues (which are most important and critical factors for the developers) in the New Product Development (NPD). Therefore, the study uses the Extension of Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to extend a model called Cognitive Usability Model (CUM) to construct Design Strategy Matrix (DSM) for the decision-making among a lot of design factors, so the developers can use the indicators (e.g. real-time, integration & convenience) into DSM to reduce the complex design-combination based on those factors and to evaluate the capability and acceptance for the users. The study uses the cases of the digital devices designs - "Mobile Addresses Book" and demonstrates the evaluation of the usability factors during the processes of design works. Keywords—Technology Acceptance Model(TAM), Cognitive Usability Model(CUM), Personal Digital Assistant(PDA), New Product Development (NPD) , Design Strategy Matrix (DSM)
Endocrinological and immunological variables sensitive to psychosocial factors of possible relevance to work-related musculoskeletal disorders

Research has indicated that energy mobilization in the body is associated with lowered anabolism, which promotes the repair and restoration of damaged or worn out tissues. Problems may arise when adversity requires energy mobilization for a long period of time. Increased tissue vulnerability can be anticipated. There is evidence that growth hormone has anabolic activity, as do the male and female hormones testosterone and oestradiol and a precursor of both these anabolic steroids, dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate (DHEA-s). The levels of these in serum/plasma may be lowered during periods of adversity. It can therefore be hypothesized that due to the lowering of anabolic activity, tissues are at risk during periods of stress (part of the 'anabolic hypothesis') and that this will be reflected in musculoskeletal symptoms. Furthermore, low anabolic activity predicts more long-lasting illness/disability. In the present study, blood samples were drawn from representative groups of men and women with musculoskeletal disorders. The participants, who were engaged in various occupations in the Norrtälje area of Stockholm, Sweden, were followed up at 3 and 6 months, and development with regard to disability and pain was related to the hormone levels at the acute phase. Results indicated that a low level of DHEA-s was associated with persistent disability in women with acute low-back pain, which partially supports the hypothesis that low anabolic activity predicts more long-lasting illness (the second part of the 'anabolic hypothesis'). Also, a low concentration of g endorphin, which indicates activity of the pain regulation system, was found to be associated with long-lasting disability in this group.
Re: Roles of radiation dose, chemotherapy, and hormonal factors in breast cancer following Hodgkin's disease.

The recent study by van Leeuwen et al. (1) quantified the carcinogenic effect of therapeutic radiation on the breast in young women with Hodkgin’s disease. We believe that the results of this important study have implications beyond the treatment of women with Hodgkin’s disease. The study has caused us to rethink the possible hazardous effect of mammography in young women, in particular in those with BRCA1 mutations. The carcinogenic effect of radiation on the breast is highly dependent on the age of exposure, and young women are particularly sensitive. It is striking that early menopause mitigated the effect of the radiation in van Leeuwen’s study, given that surgical menopause is also highly effective in preventing the development of BRCA1related breast cancers (2). To date, the established cofactors for BRCA1associated breast cancers appear to be hormonally based (3). The parallels between radiationinduced carcinogenesis and BRCA1associated carcinogenesis are striking. However, this result is not really surprising, given that a primary function of BRCA1 is to help in the repair of double-stranded DNA breaks, and such breaks are the typical consequence of ionizing radiation. It is likely that both radiation-induced and BRCA1-associated breast cancers are initiated by chromosome breakage. Both appear to be promoted by later ovarian hormone exposure. Therefore, we might expect other cofactors to be in common and the tumor types to be similar. The incidence of breast cancer in BRCA1 carriers is substantial by age 25 and increases until menopause after which it plateaus. An effective surveillance system that begins at age 25 would be of value but, at this age, radiation (even in small doses) is worrisome. Mammography has not been shown to be effective in reducing mortality from high-grade breast cancers in young women (4,5), and the sensitivity of mammography in BRCA1 carriers is poor (6–7). Magnetic resonance imaging is much more effective than mammography in detecting early hereditary breast cancers (7). We feel that it is time to reconsider the justification for presenting mammography as a potential lifesaver to young women with BRCA1 mutations.
Desing and Optimization of a Programmable Instruction Decoder for DSP Architecture

A hardware/software co-reconfiguration technique is introduced to design a programmable instruction decoder for DSP systems that do not employ field-programmable gate-array. This technique allows software developers to swiftly and accurately retarget their DSP systems. In order to present the reconfiguration procedures and performance evaluations of the technique, a reconfigurable instruction decoder (RID) for Texas Instruments' TMS320C55 DSPs was implemented and optimized
Reionization of the Inhomogeneous Universe

A model of the density distribution in the intergalactic medium (IGM), motivated by that found in numerical simulations, is used to demonstrate the effect of a clumpy IGM and discrete sources on the reionization of the universe. In an inhomogeneous universe reionization occurs outside-in, starting in voids and gradually penetrating into overdense regions. Reionization should not be sudden but gradual, with a continuous rise of the photon mean free path over a fair fraction of the Hubble time as the emissivity increases. We show that a hydrogen Gunn-Peterson trough should be present at z ≃ 6 unless the emissivity increases with redshift at z > 4. However, the epoch of overlap of cosmological H II regions could have occurred at a higher redshift if sources of low luminosity reionized the IGM; the Gunn-Peterson trough at z ~ 6 would then appear because even the most underdense voids have a large enough neutral fraction in ionization equilibrium to be optically thick to Lyα photons. Cosmological H II regions near the epoch of overlap can produce gaps of transmitted flux only if luminous quasars contributed to the reionization, producing large H II regions. Despite the clumpiness of the matter distribution, recombinations do not increase the required emissivity of ionizing photons by a large factor during the reionization of hydrogen because the high-density gas is not ionized until a late time. We show that the He II reionization was most likely delayed relative to the hydrogen reionization but was probably complete by z ~ 3 (the redshift where observations are available). The reported large optical depth fluctuations of He II are not necessarily due to an incomplete He II reionization but can arise from a combination of IGM density fluctuations and variations in the intensity of the He II ionizing background due to luminous QSOs.
Radiative Acceleration and X-ray Spectrum of Outflowing Pure Electron-Positron Pair Fireball in Magnetar Bursts

One X-ray short burst accompanied by a Galactic fast radio burst has been detected so far, and its X-ray cut-off energy was significantly higher than that of other X-ray short bursts. Such X-ray bursts are thought to be emitted from a fireball in the magnetosphere of magnetars. If a fireball is formed around a magnetic pole, it expands and is accelerated under its radiation pressure, later producing photon emission and plasma outflow, which can be responsible for radio bursts. We numerically study the radiative acceleration of this outflowing fireball, which consists of electron-positron pairs and radiation, and obtain the spectrum of the escaped X-ray photons. We consistently take into account cyclotron resonant scattering, which enhances the scattering cross section resulting in a strong radiative force and high optical depth. Our results show that similar spectra to the observed X-ray spectrum in the Galactic fast radio burst are realized in outflowing fireballs and that the plasma outflow is simultaneously accelerated to a high Lorentz factor owing to cyclotron resonant scattering.
Multi-Sensor-Based Aperiodic Least-Squares Estimation for Networked Systems With Transmission Constraints

This paper investigates the least-squares estimation problem for networked systems with transmission constraints. A group of sensors are deployed to measure the outputs of a plant and send the measurements to an estimator through a common communication channel. Due to the transmission constraints caused by the heterogeneous or long-distance deployed sensors, only one sensor is allowed to transmit its measurement over one time slot. In this regard, a stochastic competitive transmission strategy is proposed to schedule the transmission permissions. By using the least-squares estimation approach, an aperiodic multi-step estimation algorithm is proposed for the estimator to aperiodically generate the estimates. Performance analysis is presented for the estimation system with bounded noises and random noises. An upper bound is derived for the expectation of the estimation error and a sufficient condition is presented to ensure the convergence of the obtained upper bound. An illustrative example is provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed results.