Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
BALANCING COMPETING ACCOUNTABILITY REQUIREMENTS: Challenges in Performance Improvement of the Nonprofit Human Services Agency

Nonprofit human services agencies (NHSAs) face the acute challenge of improving their performance under multiple and competing systems of accountability. This article examines the impact of various systems of accountability on NHSAs as they struggle to demonstrate program success while providing vital human services within professional norms of practice and to respond to their multiple stakeholders. To explore the competing accountability relationships and their effects on agency performance, the failures of organizational change in a large community mental health center are examined based on Johnston and Romzek's (1999) four types of accountability: hierarchical, legal, professional, and political. I argue that encouraging greater emphasis on legal and hierarchical accountability can damage professional and political accountability, thereby preventing NHSAs from realizing an improvement in performance. This emphasis implies that upsetting the mutual balance between multiple and competing accountability relationships may result in a major hindrance in effective improvement of the performance of NHSAs.
STAT proteins as novel targets for cancer drug discovery

Signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) proteins are latent cytoplasmic transcription factors that were discovered in the context of cytokine and growth factor signalling. Normal STAT signalling is tightly controlled with finite kinetics, which is in keeping with standard cellular responses. However, persistent STAT activation has also been observed and is frequently associated with malignant transformation. Constitutive activation of STAT proteins, notably of Stat3 and Stat5, is detected in many human tumour cells and cells transformed by oncoproteins that activate tyrosine kinase signalling pathways. It is well-established that constitutively active Stat3 is one of the molecular abnormalities that has a causal role in oncogenesis. Aberrant Stat3 promotes uncontrolled growth and survival through dysregulation of gene expression, including cyclin D1, c-Myc, Bcl-xL, Mcl-1 and survivin genes, and thereby contributes to oncogenesis. Moreover, recent studies reveal that persistently active Stat3 induces tumour angiogenesis by upregulation of vascular endothelial growth factor induction, and modulates immune functions in favour of tumour immune evasion. Overall, studies have validated Stat3 as a novel target for cancer therapy, and hence provided the rationale for developing small-molecule Stat3 inhibitors. This review will discuss current evidence for the critical role of aberrant STAT signalling in malignant transformation, and examine the validity as well as the therapeutic potential of Stat3 as a cancer target. An update on the efforts to develop novel Stat3 inhibitors for therapeutic application will also be provided.
Pharmacokinetics and Tissue Disposition of Indole-3-carbinol and Its Acid Condensation Products after Oral Administration to Mice

Indole-3-carbinol (I3C) and 3,3′-diindolylmethane (DIM) are promising cancer chemopreventive agents in rodent models, but there is a paucity of data on their pharmacokinetics and tissue disposition. The disposition of I3C and its acid condensation products, DIM, [2-(indol-3-ylmethyl)-indol-3-yl]indol-3-ylmethane (LTr1), indolo[3,2b]carbazole (ICZ) and 1-(3-hydroxymethyl)-indolyl-3-indolylmethane (HI-IM) was studied, after oral administration of I3C (250 mg/kg) to female CD-1 mice. Blood, liver, kidney, lung, heart, and brain were collected between 0.25 and 24 h after administration and the plasma and tissue concentrations of I3C and its derivatives determined by high-performance liquid chromotography. I3C was rapidly absorbed, distributed, and eliminated from plasma and tissues, falling below the limit of detection by 1 h. Highest concentrations of I3C were detected in the liver where levels were approximately 6-fold higher than those in the plasma. Levels of DIM, LTr1, and HI-IM were much lower, although they persisted in plasma and tissues for considerably longer. DIM and HI-IM were still present in the liver 24 h after I3C administration. Tissue levels of DIM and LTr1 were found to be in equilibrium with plasma at almost every time point measured. In addition to acid condensation products of I3C, a major oxidative metabolite (indole-3-carboxylic acid) and a minor oxidative metabolite (indole-3-carboxaldehyde) were detected in plasma of mice after oral administration of I3C. ICZ was also tentatively identified in the liver of these mice. This study shows for the first time that, after oral administration to mice, I3C, in addition to its acid condensation products, is absorbed from the gut and distributed systemically into a number of well-perfused tissues, thus allowing the possibility for some pharmacological activity of the parent compound in vivo.
The Vital South: How Presidents Are Elected.

This book chronicles the massive shift of southern electoral power to the Republican party, "The Vital South" explores the history, meaning, and ramifications of a Republican South in presidential politics. Combining political narrative, in-depth analysis, and telling anecdotes, it aims to be a definitive source on southern presidential politics for some time to come.
Formulae for the Design of Polarization-Insensitive Multimode Interference Couplers

We present simple analytical formulae to explicitly show the effects of various waveguide parameters in the design of multimode interference (MMI) couplers with a general strip waveguide structure. In particular, we find that polarization-insensitive operation can be achieved by using a suitable width of the waveguide core to balance the modal birefringence in the slab waveguide which is the intermediate structure in the process of fabricating the strip waveguide. This finding suggests an efficient and practical approach to realizing polarization-insensitive MMI couplers based on reliable measurement data.
Effectiveness of problem‐based learning curricula: theory, practice and paper darts

In a recent review article, Colliver concluded that there was no convincing evidence that problem‐based learning was more effective than conventional methods. He then went on to lay part of the blame on cognitive psychology, claiming that ‘the theory is weak, its theoretical concepts are imprecise. the basic research is contrived and ad hoc’. This paper challenges these claims and presents evidence that (a) cognitive research is not contrived and irrelevant, (b) curriculum level interventions are doomed to fail and (c) education needs more theory‐based research.
Molecular discrimination of Opisthorchis-like eggs from residents in a rural community of central Thailand

Background Opisthorchis viverrini infection is a major public health problem in northern and northeastern Thailand. The chronic infection of O. viverrini is related to cholangiocarcinoma which causes high mortality in endemic areas. Therefore, the diagnosis, treatment, control and prevention of O. viverrini infection are necessary. The morphology of the egg is very similar to that of other species of human liver flukes (Opisthorchis felineus and Clonorchis sinensis) as well as that of small intestinal flukes in the family Heterophyidae. Thus, molecular characterization is crucially required to discriminate species of Opisthorchis-like eggs in fecal examination. Methodology/Principal findings We aimed to determine the prevalence of O. viverrini infection among villagers living in Sanamchaikate District, Chachoengsao Province, in central Thailand, where O. viverrini infection has previously been reported. A total of 2,609 fecal samples were examined for Opisthorchis-like eggs using microscopic examination. PCR-RFLP analysis of the ITS2 region was used to discriminate Opisthorchis-like eggs. The genetic structure of O. viverrini infection was demonstrated using nucleotide sequencing of cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (cox1) and NADH dehydrogenase subunit 1 (nad1). Testing of evolutionary neutrality of the cox1 and nad1 sequences of O. viverrini was performed using Tajima's D tests and Fu's Fs tests. Moreover, the haplotype networks and phylogenetic trees were constructed to study the relationships of O. viverrini isolated from different endemic areas. A high prevalence of O. viverrini infection is still observed in a rural community of Chachoengsao Province, central Thailand. The overall prevalence of Opisthorchis-like eggs using microscopic examination was 16.8%. PCR-RFLP profiles showed the predominant infection of O. viverrini (9.6%) including very low infections of other small intestinal flukes, Haplorchis taichui (0.08%) and Euparyphium albuferensis (0.08%). The genetic structure of O. viverrini populations in central Thailand was also described and revealed a non-significant difference in genetic diversity. In addition, the genetic background of the O. viverrini populations was closely related to the isolate from Lao PDR. Conclusions/Significance Our study highlighted the prevalence of O. viverrini infection in central Thailand indicating that control programs and health education regarding opisthorchiasis is still required in this endemic area. Additionally, the study demonstrated the genetic structure of O. viverrini, in central Thailand which could provide information on the molecular epidemiology of this parasite.
Seasonal Distribution of Anthocoris spp. and Deraeocoris brevis (Heteroptera: Anthocoridae, Miridae) in Orchard and Non-Orchard Habitats of Central Washington

Abstract Occurrence of Anthocoris tomentosus Péricart, A. antevolens White, A. whitei Reuter, and Deraeocoris brevis (Uhler) in non-orchard habitats is described for areas adjacent to the pear growing regions of Yakima, WA. The four species were found on a number of tree and shrub species, especially willow, cottonwood, oak, alder, aspen, poplar, and bitterbrush. The four predators differed in degree of specialization. A. whitei was found almost exclusively on antelope bitterbrush (Purshia tridentata Pursh), apparently in close association with an unidentified psyllid. The other two anthocorids were more generalized, but differed in occurrence on some tree species. Adult and immature A. antevolens were common on oak, cottonwood, and poplar. Conversely, A. tomentosus was comparatively uncommon on these species, but was more abundant than A. antevolens on the neighboring willows; immatures of A. tomentosus were never recovered from oak. Adult and immature D. brevis were collected from several species not shown to support populations of Anthocoris spp. , suggesting that the mirid is more of a generalist than the anthocorids. Anthocoris spp. were rare in apple orchards, whereas D. brevis was common there. A. tomentosus and A. antevolens showed distinct seasonal changes in plant use. Both species congregated on willow catkins beginning in March, but began to appear on summer hosts (oak, cottonwood, alder, aspen, poplar) in May and June. Some of the movement from willow may have been a result of the disappearance of a univoltine psyllid from this host plant. Traps composed of corrugated cardboard were placed at different sites to collect overwintering predators. A. antevolens and D. brevis were more broadly distributed among plant species than A. tomentosus or A. whitei (the latter restricted to pear and bitterbrush). A. antevolens was very abundant in traps collected from poplar and cottonwood, apparently because both tree species are important sources of late-summer prey for this predator. Other miscellaneous Anthocoridae and Deraeocoris spp. were collected while sampling, and lists of these species are provided. Orius tristicolor (White) was common at several sites, and was easily the most abundant anthocorid in overwintering traps at one intensively sampled orchard. This species was particularly abundant in traps placed in peach trees. Overwintering sex ratios of D. brevis, Anthocoris spp. , and O. tristicolor were moderately to strongly female-biased.
Affordance-Based Control of Visually Guided Action

The purpose of this essay is to compare and contrast existing theoretical approaches to understanding the visual guidance of action and to introduce a new approach. The focus is on tasks, such as steering, braking, and intercepting, that are (more or less) continuously guided on the basis of visual information. The prominent approach, information-based control, captures important aspects of behavior but is incompatible with the theory of affordances, a core principle of the ecological approach. Information-based control also fails to capture how actors behave in ways that take the limits of their action capabilities into account. I attempt to resolve these problems by introducing a new approach, affordance-based control, which asserts that a primary function of vision is to allow actors to see the world in terms of what they can and cannot do. Affordance-based control captures the tight coupling between information in optic flow and movement that is characteristic of visually guided action but also provides a parsimonious explanation of how actors take into account the dynamic properties of their body and the environment.
Detection of partial discharge signals in high voltage XLPE cables using time domain features

Almost all cases of insulation degradation in high voltage cables are due to partial discharge (PD) activity. To date, wavelet based analysis has been widely used to extract PD pulses from noisy environments. This paper explores the use of time domain features, namely short-time energy and short-time zero-crossing counts, to detect the presence of partial discharge signals prior to de-noising the signal for further investigation. In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of short-time energy and zero-crossing counts to identify PD signals embedded in noise, these features are tested with laboratory data. To further verify these results, real data was collected from a substation and the overall results demonstrate that these two time domain features are very effective in identifying PD pulses and are computationally efficient such that they can be considered for use in online PD monitoring.
S-Glycoprotein-Like Protein Regulates Defense Responses in Nicotiana Plants against Ralstonia solanacearum1[C][W]

RsRGA4 (for Ralstonia solanacearum-responsive gene A4) encodes a polypeptide similar to S-locus glycoprotein (SGP) from Brassica rapa and SGP-like proteins from Ipomoea trifida and Medicago truncatula. Therefore, we designated RsRGA4 as NtSGLP (for Nicotiana tabacum SGP-like protein) and NbSGLP (its Nicotiana benthamiana ortholog). NbSGLP is expressed in root, leaf, petal, gynoecium, and stamen. Expression of NbSGLP was strongly induced by inoculation with an avirulent strain of R. solanacearum (Rs8107) and slightly enhanced by inoculation with virulent R. solanacearum (RsOE1-1). Expression of NbSGLP was induced by inoculation with an hrpY-deficient mutant of RsOE1-1 and Rs8107. Expression was also induced by aminocyclopropane carboxylic acid and salicylic acid. Virus-induced gene silencing of NbSGLP enhanced the growth of Rs8107. Growth of RsOE1-1 and appearance of wilt symptoms were also accelerated in silenced plants. Expression of PR-1a and EREBP was reduced, and markers for basal defense, such as callose deposition and reduced vascular flow, were compromised in NbSGLP-silenced plants. Moreover, growth of Pseudomonas cichorii, Pseudomonas syringae pv tabaci, and P. syringae pv mellea was also enhanced in the silenced plants. On the other hand, silencing of NbSGLP did not interfere with the appearance of the hypersensitive response. NbSGLP was secreted in a signal peptide-dependent manner. Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated expression of NbSGLP induced PR-1a and EREBP expression, callose deposition, and reduced vascular flow. NbSGLP-induced callose deposition and reduced vascular flow were not observed in salicylic acid-deficient N. benthamiana NahG plants. Taken together, SGLP might have a role in the induction of basal defense in Nicotiana plants.
Inhalation exposure to isobutyl nitrite inhibits macrophage tumoricidal activity and modulates inducible nitric oxide

Abuse of nitrite inhalants is common among male homosexuals and a history of abuse has been correlated with seropositivity to HIV and with the incidence of Kaposi's sarcoma among AIDS patients. The present study shows that inhalation exposure of mice to 900 ppm isobutyl nitrite for 45 min/day for 14 days compromised macrophage tumoricidal activity by up to 40% and it remained compromised for at least 7 days after terminating exposures. The inhalation exposures did not affect tumor cell binding but did inhibit inducible nitric oxide (NO•). The NO• synthase inhibitor NG‐methyl‐l‐arginine totally inhibited both NO• production and cytotoxicity, suggesting that reductions in NO• due to inhalant exposure may be responsible for the reduced cytotoxic activity. Exposure to the inhalant increased constitutive production of tumor necrosis factor‐α (TNF‐α). TNF‐α has been reported to stimulate the replication of HIV and the proliferation of Kaposi's sarcoma cells in vitro. J. Leukoc. Biol. 57: 135–140; 1995.
Optimal cytoreductive surgery is an independent prognostic indicator in stage IV epithelial ovarian cancer with hepatic metastases.

OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to determine the value of optimal cytoreduction in stage IV epithelial ovarian cancer. METHODS A retrospective review was performed of 37 women with stage IV epithelial ovarian cancer treated by radical surgery. RESULTS Optimal surgery to less than 2 cm tumor deposits was performed in 16 of the 37 cases (43%) and tumor debulking to less than 1 cm tumor deposits in 6 cases (16.2%). Twenty-three cases (62%) were designated stage IV because of the presence of liver metastases alone. Although no patients died within 2 weeks of surgery, 7 of the 37 cases (22%) failed to survive more than 50 days after primary surgery. The overall median survival was 11 months with overall 2- and 5-year survivals of 23 and 9%, respectively. On multivariate analysis comparing age, histological type, tumor grade, place of surgery, secondary surgical procedure, performance of bowel surgery, presence of liver metastases, and optimal cytoreduction, only optimal surgery and residual tumor deposits of less than 2 cm, or less than 1 cm, remained highly significant (P = 0.0029 and 0.0086, respectively). Even when assessing only the 27 cases who were designated as having stage IV disease because of the presence of liver metastases, by multivariate analysis, only optimal surgery and residual tumor deposits of less than 2 cm, or less than 1 cm, remained significant (P = 0.023 and 0.036, respectively). Site of metastases designating stage IV status was not associated with a reduced likelihood of achieving optimal debulking (P = 0.18). CONCLUSION Optimal cytoreduction in women with stage IV epithelial ovarian cancer with or without hepatic metastases is associated with a more favorable outcome survival.
Defect Detection in Tire X-Ray Images Using Weighted Texture Dissimilarity

Automatic defect detection is an important and challenging problem in industrial quality inspection. This paper proposes an efficient defect detection method for tire quality assurance, which takes advantage of the feature similarity of tire images to capture the anomalies. The proposed detection algorithm mainly consists of three steps. Firstly, the local kernel regression descriptor is exploited to derive a set of feature vectors of an inspected tire image. These feature vectors are used to evaluate the feature dissimilarity of pixels. Next, the texture distortion degree of each pixel is estimated by weighted averaging of the dissimilarity between one pixel and its neighbors, which results in an anomaly map of the inspected image. Finally, the defects are located by segmenting this anomaly map with a simple thresholding process. Different from some existing detection algorithms that fail to work for tire tread images, the proposed detection algorithm works well not only for sidewall images but also for tread images. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm can accurately locate the defects of tire images and outperforms the traditional defect detection algorithms in terms of various quantitative metrics.
Parameters of the patch antenna outside operating frequency range

The characteristics of the rectangular microstrip antenna with a triple coverage of frequency range are investigated. Dependencies of directivity and gain with a possible mismatch were calculated using computer modeling. The results allow for a more accurate analysis taking into account interference in the evaluation of the electromagnetic compatibility of radio electronic means for this type of antennas.
Comparative Analysis of Pressure Regions of Gaseous Benzene Using Ground Activated Carbon Sorbents Under Ambient Conditions

The effective removal of atmospheric hazardous pollutants using activated carbon for the real-world application is a crucial and reliable process. Therefore, the performance comparison of ground activated carbon BPL 4×6 (ACb212) based on varied outlet pressure of benzene vapour were analyzed in ambient condition (room temperature and pressure). The maximum adsorption capacity was found ~110 mg. g-1) for all pressure regions. However, the competition showed maximum capacity for higher pressure region i.e., 50.5 mg. g-1, minimum capacity at lower pressure region 7.96 mg. g-1, and moderate for moderate outlet pressure 20.6 mg. g-1. On the other hand, the partition coefficient (PC) behaved inversely to the sorption capacity i.e., high PC (397 mol.kg-1. Pa-1) at the low outlet and low PC (1.47 mol.kg-1. Pa-1) at high outlet benzene partial pressure regions. The adsorption capacity on ACb212 followed the classical Langmuir isotherm of Type-1 at low and high-pressure outlet pressure regions, while a retrograde behaviour isotherm (Type-1) was observed for lowest benzene outlet partial pressure region. Furthermore, the linearized Langmuir isotherm analysis also confirmed the existence of two or more sorption sites for gaseous benzene.
Molecular modeling and statistical analysis in the design of derivatives of human dipeptidyl peptidase IV

Human dipeptidyl peptidase IV (hDDP-IV) has a considerable importance in inactivation of glucagon-like peptide-1, which is related to type 2 diabetes. One approach for the treatment is the development of small hDDP-IV inhibitors. In order to design better inhibitors, we analyzed 5-(aminomethyl)-6-(2,4-dichlrophenyl)-2-(3,5-dimethoxyphenyl)pyrimidin-4-amine and a set of 24 molecules found in the BindingDB web database for model designing. The analysis of their molecular properties allowed the design of a multiple linear regression model for activity prediction. Their docking analysis allowed visualization of the interactions between the pharmacophore regions and hDDP-IV. After both analyses were performed, we proposed a set of nine molecules in order to predict their activity. Four of them displayed promising activity, and thus, had their docking performed, as well as, the pharmacokinetic and toxicological study. Two compounds from the proposed set showed suitable pharmacokinetic and toxicological characteristics, and therefore, they were considered promising for future synthesis and in vitro studies.