Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Regression of splenic lymphoma with villous lymphocytes after treatment of hepatitis C virus infection.

BACKGROUND Some epidemiologic studies suggest a link between hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and some B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphomas. We undertook this study after a patient with splenic lymphoma with villous lymphocytes had a hematologic response after antiviral treatment of HCV infection. METHODS Nine patients who had splenic lymphoma with villous lymphocytes and HCV infection were treated with interferon alfa-2b (3 million IU three times per week) alone or in combination with ribavirin (1000 to 1200 mg per day). The outcomes were compared with those of six similarly treated patients with splenic lymphoma with villous lymphocytes who tested negative for HCV infection. RESULTS Of the nine patients with HCV infection who received interferon alfa, seven had a complete remission after the loss of detectable HCV RNA. The other two patients had a partial and a complete remission after the addition of ribavirin and the loss of detectable HCV RNA. One patient had a relapse when the HCV RNA load again became detectable in blood. In contrast, none of the six HCV-negative patients had a response to interferon therapy. CONCLUSIONS In patients with splenic lymphoma with villous lymphocytes who are infected with HCV, treatment with interferon can lead to regression of the lymphoma.
An empirical investigation of total quality management: a Taiwanese case

Not long ago, the Asia Pacific area suffered economic decline due to financial crises. By contrast, Taiwan, stood apart from its regional competitors and was able to manage and turn the crises into opportunities. Besides the financial factors discussed by economists, quality management should also be considered as a major factor in this development. Investigates how industry in Taiwan implemented quality issues, especially total quality management, within the last decade. Questionnaires were generated and distributed to the largest corporations in Taiwan to gather information. Statistical analysis was performed to evaluate the quality implementation status in Taiwan. The results can be used to study the comparative impacts of quality management in the area of the Asia Pacific.
The Policy and Regulatory Environment for Organic Farming in Europe: Country Reports

This Volume (2) documents in detail the policies and regulations to organic farming for all 15 EU member states and for three non-EU countries (Norway, Switzerland and the Czech Republic). European and national regulations and their implementation are reviewed covering agri-environmental and mainstream agricultural support measures, marketing and regional development programmes, certification system and oranic farming support in the form of advice, training and research. Volume (1) provides a comparative analysis of the policy and regulatory environment within which organic farming currently operates in these countries. The book aims at policy makers, the private sector, researchers and students in the field of economics and politics of organic farming.
Antenatal and maternal health care utilization: evidence from northeastern states of India

This article examines the role played by the various socio-economic and community level factors in determining the antenatal and maternal health care utilization pattern using the data from the National Family Health Survey carried out in India in 1998/99. Our analysis document that autonomy enjoyed by women and exposure to media has a significant impact on maternal heath care utilization even after controlling for other attributes, particularly their education and household economic status. Availability of a rural health facility in the village and other community level programme propagates the utilization of health care.
Spatial metaphors of the number line

This paper examines spatial metaphors in the English language associated with the number line, in particular metaphors of direction and motion, and how these are manifested in actual spatial practices associated with number. It considers how these metaphors are culturally influenced, and how the influences of other cultures, such as Arabic, produce inconsistencies that can contribute to confusion in the classroom. It also considers how the metaphors of number vary in some other languages, and how this leads to both different spatial representations of numbers and more challenges in multilingual and multicultural classrooms. In particular, it pays attention to the implications of variety in these metaphors for the mathematics education of Indigenous students in Australia being taught by English speaking teachers.
POTASSIUM AND RUBIDIUM UPTAKE IN FRESHWATER BIVALVES

Potassium transport characteristics were investigated in three species of freshwater bivalves: a corbiculid, Corbiculafluminea , and two unionids, Carunculina texasensis and Ligumia subrostrata . Using 42K, all three were found to take up potassium from dilute artificial pondwater ([K+] about 0.05 mmoll+1). The influx ( J i) was 0. 72μequiv g−1dry tissue h−1 in the corbiculid, significantly higher than the value of about 0. 40μequiv g−1dry tissuer g−1 in the unionids. The K+ uptake displayed saturation kinetics in the range 0.05-0.36 mmoll−1: in Co. fluminea , there was a J max of 3. 56μequiv g−1 dry tissue h−1 and the affinity coefficient ( K m) was 0.27mmoll−1; in Ca. texasensis, J max had a value of 1.8 μequiv g−1dry tissue h−1 and K m was 0.16mmoll−1. Using K+-free artificial pondwater containing 0.03-0.04 mmoll−1 Rb+, the Rb+ influx was 0. 41μequiv g−1 dry tissue h−1 in the corbiculid and 0.28 μequiv g−1 dry tissue h−1 in Ca. texasensis . All animals lost K+ during the rubidium flux studies, and since they contained no Rb+, the Rb+ efflux was zero and the net flux was equal to the influx. The J max values for Rb+ were lower than the corresponding values for potassium: in Co. fluminea, J max was 1. 4μequiv g−1 dry tissueh+1, significantly higher than in Ca. texasensis , which had J max of 0. 84μequiv g−1 dry tissue h−1. The rubidium Km (approx. 0.05 mmoll−1) values were significantly lower than corresponding values for potassium. Salt depletion increased the rubidium transport rate fourfold for both Co. fluminea and Ca. texasensis . High rates of net K+ uptake may account for the bivalves' inability to tolerate elevated environmental potassium.
11C-Choline positive but 18F-FDG negative pancreatic metastasis from renal cell carcinoma on PET

ABSTRACT Choline is a new PET tracer, which uptake may occur via a choline-speciﬁc transporter protein and be accelerated during the proliferation of tumor cells. We report a 61-year-old woman with a metastatic pancreatic tumor from renal cell carcinoma, measuring 35×40 mm. PET scans demonstrated accumulation of 11C-choline in the metastatic pancreatic tumor, but no accumulation of 18F-FDG. Choline PET/CT may play a useful and complementary imaging modality, especially when FDG-PET/CT does not show expected findings or when the evaluation of tumor viability is needed, in patients with renal cell carcinoma.
Centering labor in the land grab debate

Placing labor at the center of the global ‘land-grab’ debate helps sharpen critical insights at two scales. At the scale of agricultural enterprises, a labor perspective highlights the jobs generated, and the rewards received, by people who work in and around large farms. This approach guides my critical reading of the report prepared by a World Bank team that argues for large-scale land acquisition as a way to reduce poverty. Using data from within the report itself, I show why poverty reduction is a very unlikely result. I develop the argument further by drawing on research in colonial and contemporary Indonesia, where large-scale plantations and associated smallholder contract schemes have a long history. A labor perspective is also relevant at the national and transnational scale, where it highlights the predicament of people whose labor is not needed by the global capitalist system. In much of the global South, the anticipated transition from the farm to factory has not taken place and education offers no solution, as vast numbers of educated people are unemployed. Unless vast numbers of jobs are created, or a global basic income grant is devised to redistribute the wealth generated in highly productive but labor-displacing ventures, any program that robs rural people of their foothold on the land must be firmly rejected.
Homomorphic Encryption for Secure Computation on Big Data

With the ubiquity of mobile devices and the emergence of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies, most of our activities contribute to ever-growing data sets which are used for big data analytics for a variety of uses, from targeted advertising to making medical and financial judgments and beyond. Many individuals and organizations adopt this new big data paradigm without giving any consideration to privacy and security when they create this data and voluntarily give it up for aggregation. Data breaches have become such a common occurrence that it is easy to despair that concepts like privacy and security are antiquated and we should simply accept data leakage as a new normal. Homomorphic Encryption (HE) is a method of secure computation which allows for calculations to be made on encrypted data without decrypting it and without giving away information about the operations being done. While HE has historically been plagued by computational inefficiencies, the field is rapidly advancing to a point where it is efficient enough for practical use in limited settings. In this paper, we argue that, with sufficient investment, HE will become a practical tool for secure processing of big data sets.
Lumpy Demand and the Diagrammatics of Aggregation

Economists are used to sketching demand curves that do not reach the vertical axis. What happens to the demand curve at low quantities is often ignored, which is understandable if the relevant cases for analysis all have prices that intersect the demand curve at quantities measurably far from zero. Nevertheless, in textbook treatments of the summation of individual demand curves (horizontal for rival goods or vertical for nonrival goodst), the individual curves are pictured as nicely intersecting the vertical axis. The point of intersection is sometimes referred to as the choke price. In textbook treatments of aggregation, the demand curve is continuous, but not continuously differentiable, through the choke price. A hidden implication of this is that the inverse demand curve, which, abstracting from income effects, is the marginal valuation schedule, is represented by the same diagram. Adding the demand curves horizontally or the marginal valuation curves vertically poses no particular problem. In distinction to the usual treatment, we were motivated by the real possibility that small amounts of a good are worthless to the consumer. For example, a pint of gasoline would not allow one to operate an automobile in a useful way, but several tankfuls could be a valuable input toward vacation travel. Wheels for one's automobile are generally worthless until you have at least four; 20 feet of fencing may be worthless if your property line is 30 feet; a bridge spanning 40
Histopathologic Evaluation of Alopecias

The alopecias can be broadly classified into nonscarring and scarring forms. The latter are divided into primary and secondary scarring types. In primary scarring alopecias, the hair follicle is the prime target of destruction as opposed to secondary scarring alopecias in which it is involved in a neighboring nonfollicular process that impinges upon the follicle and ultimately destroys it. After an initial overview and a critique on the concept of scarring versus nonscarring, we outline in detail the histopathologic presentation of the major forms of alopecias. Because the correct histopathologic diagnosis often requires close clinicopathologic correlation, a brief description of the clinical presentation is included. This review also discusses important pathogenetic concepts, such as stem cell failure.
The Antioch Company brings lean into the office

Kaizen Blitzes, intense multiday events that shine a light on waste in processes, have netted companies significant savings in manufacturing and other operations functions. But waste still lurks in the dark corners of administrative, support, and other office processes, buried in the accounting dumping ground called overhead. At The Antioch Company, grass-roots actions have evolved into a pragmatic lean office program, with benefits from lean events extending well beyond the expected savings in process time and cost. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Visitors' Attitudes Towards China's National Forest Park Policy, Roles and Functions, and Appropriate Use

National parks throughout the world are increasingly challenged to accommodate the dual mandates of protecting natural and cultural resources while providing positive recreation experiences for park visitors. This is particularly true for China's national forest parks (NFPs), now important destinations for both the domestic and international tourist markets. The sustainable management of the NFPs requires an understanding of park visitors' attitudes. This paper examines how visitors perceive the roles and functions, policies and appropriate uses relating to China's NFPs, based on data from an important NFP. Results suggest that visitors' attitudes towards NFPs are positive. The majority of study participants placed higher priority on the protection of the ecological integrity of NFPs than on their development and use for recreation and tourism. They were supportive of NFP policies for limiting visitor numbers and phasing out inappropriate uses. Non-consumptive activities were viewed as highly appropriate while religious activities and dancing/karaoke lounges were seen as highly inappropriate. Visitors who placed higher priority on the protection of ecological integrity were less likely to compromise protection with use, and more likely to support non-consumptive activities. Future research needs are discussed.
The Revived Bretton Woods System seen from the Benches - Lessons for Europe from a Three-Asset-Portfolio Model

The paper develops a three-asset-portfolio model to analyse consequences of foreign exchange market operations by Asian central banks on the exchange rates between euro, dollar and yen. Both an analytical as well as a graphical solution is presented. It is found that -- contrary to public belief -- the purchase of dollar assets by Asian central banks strengthens the dollar against both euro and yen. A diversification of Asian central bank reserves from dollar into euro would weaken the dollar against both other currencies. Thus, such a diversification would be incompatible with Asian currency pegs. However, it is shown that Asian central banks could alter their relative portfolio composition while keeping the peg intact if they would shift from intervening against the dollar into intervening against the euro.
Cooperation Across Boundaries: The Role of Political Entrepreneurs in Environmental Collaboration

Abstract This paper links disparate scholarship in cross-border environmental institutions from local and global policymaking literature. We explore the ability of political entrepreneurs to broker deals across borders utilizing game theory as a metaphor for the strategic agency of the policymaking entrepreneurs. Our intent is to understand why collaboration occurs across jurisdictional boundaries in some situations and not in others and when cross-border governance works. Based on the literature, we propose and examine the explanatory power of three conditions for successful cross-border environmental negotiations: i) a skilled entrepreneur, ii) costs and benefits that are perceived as equitable, and iii) veto players' preference points (the desired end goals of the governments that the entrepreneurs represent) that are close. We use two cases to demonstrate that policy change literature can be integrated with game theoretic literature to understand game switching by political entrepreneurs in the pursuit of cross-border collaborative governance.
Structural determinants of ion flow through recombinant glutamate receptor channels

Functional glutamate receptor (GluRs) were transiently expressed in cultured mammalian cells from cloned complementary DNAs encoding GluR-A, -B, -C, or -D polypeptides. The steady-state current-voltage (I-V) relations of glutamate- and kainate-induced currents through homomeric channels fell into two classes: channels composed of either the GluR-A, -C, and -D subunits showed doubly rectifying I-V curves, and channels composed of the GluR-B subunits displayed simple outward rectification. The presence of GluR-B subunits in heteromeric GluRs determined the I-V behavior of the resulting channels. Site-directed mutagenesis identified a single amino acid difference (glutamine to arginine) in the putative transmembrane segment TM2 responsible for subunit-specific I-V relationships. The properties of heteromeric wild-type and mutant GluRs revealed that the dominance of GluR-B is due to the arginine residue in the TM2 region.
Real time processing of large data sets from built infrastructure

In this paper, we present a framework that gives the user a tool at hand to explore large data sets from built infrastructure. In a first step we describe the integration of fully detailed product models of constructions delivering the geometric and auxiliary information we build up our data exploration from. The main part of this paper follows by presenting the application of a hierarchical data structure, an octree, that is capable of holding building information for a whole region or even a country and the development of complexity reduction algorithms that allow the visualisation of those data. To exploit the full performance of modern hardware platforms, the application of parallelisation techniques is inevitable and we present the implementation of these techniques to the data processing steps performed in the framework. After introducing the framework, we show possible applications to various disciplines such as environmental and civil engineering, architecture, or disaster management.
Comprehensive, research-based interviewing guidelines in general practice settings

Medical interviewing has evolved considerably during the last 35-50 years. Nowhere has progress been greater than with the articulation of the interview's endpoint, the biopsychosocial model (Engel, 1977b; 1980). Interviewers collect personal information and physical symptoms from the patient and, then, synthesize these data to produce a biopsychosocial description — the patient's story. We generally recognize the systems-based biopsychosocial model as the gold standard for understanding the patient from a scientific as well as humanistic vantage point (Simpson, 1963; von Bertalanffy^ 1968; Lorenz, 1971; Brody, 1973; Weiss, 1973; Bateson, 1979; Mayr, 1982). Extensive research supports this position.
A simple model of retail banking: a liquidity-providing perspective

The banking industry is experiencing a renewed focus on retail banking, a trend often attributed to the stability and profitability of retail activities. This article examines the impact of retail banking on performance by liquidity providing and branch network strategies. Our findings suggest that the bank will use cost-minimizing electronic technology to provide liquidity and external financing, which is linked with high bank interest margins but low default risk in bank equity returns.
Nontuberculous Mycobacteria

The Cystic Fibrosis/Pulmonary Research and Treatment Center, the Departments of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, and the Verne S. Caviness General Clinical Research Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina; Pulmonary/Critical Care Medicine Flight, Wilford Hall United States Air Force Medical Center, Lackland Air Force Base, Texas; the Division of Allergy/Immunology and Respiratory Medicine, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston Salem, North Carolina; and the Department of Microbiology, University of Texas Health Center at Tyler, Tyler, Texas
Mixed-signal verification challenges

Summary form only given. The verification of today's complex mixed-signal SoCs poses major difficulties: image sensors with several million pixels, RF tranceivers with GHz signals carrying thousands of symbols, heterogeneous systems with scattered time constants often suffer from some form of verification coverage reduction, resulting in design robustness degradation, unnecessary overdesign or even functional failures. This talk addresses application examples where the benefit of appropriate tools and methodologies for improved verification coverage is described.
Wireless security & privacy

Internet enabled wireless devices continue to proliferate and are expected to surpass traditional Internet clients in the near future. This has opened up new exciting opportunities in the mobile e-commerce market. Data security and privacy is the major concern in the current generation of "wireless Web" offerings. The physical security of wireless devices, Bluetooth security, WAP security, higher-level security protocols like SSL are known. In this article, the WEP algorithm is discussed. The IEEE 802.11 standard defines WEP i.e., wired equivalent privacy. WEP is designed to provide data privacy to the level of a wired network. 802.11 designed WEP is not able to achieve this goal. But WEP could achieve this by migrating from 40 bit to 104 or 128 bit RC4 keys. Privacy cannot be obtained with WEP encapsulation just by increasing key size. Even if key size is 1 into 1000 bit it does not affect the security of WEP encapsulation or if any other stream cipher which replaces RC4.
How Much Power to Tax do Regional Governments Enjoy in Spain Since the 1996 and 2001 Reforms?

From 1979 to 1983, a new intermediate level of government was created in Spain. This article focuses on the financial aspects of political decentralization in Spain. How much power to tax do the new regional parliaments and executives enjoy? What other sources of income do they dispose of? Which rules have been settled for regulating their tax and non-tax sources of income? Has fiscal decentralization affected fiscal discipline? Are these governments now financially autonomous? These are the questions addressed. The article shows that, with the exception of the Basque Country and Navarre, regional governments were financed mainly through intergovernmental grants during the 1980s and 1990s. However, as a result of several recent reforms, their power to tax as well as their financial autonomy has increased substantially since the mid-1990s, mainly through their participation by law in the revenues of several central taxes (known as ceded taxes) upon which they also enjoy significant regulatory rights. As the ceded taxes mechanism is not a simple revenue-sharing formula in Spain, the article concludes that the Spanish model departs from both the more uniform and top-down German model and the more heterogeneous and competitive one characterizing the taxing rights of the States in US federalism.