Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ultra scale-down approach for the prediction of full-scale recovery of ovine polycolonal immunoglobulins used in the manufacture of snake venom-specific Fab fragment.

In this article, we describe a new approach that allows the prediction of the performance of a large-scale integrated process for the primary recovery of a therapeutic antibody from an analysis of the individual unit operations and their interactions in an ultra scale-down mimic of the process. The recovery process consisted of four distinct unit operations. Using the new approach we defined the important engineering parameters in each operation that impacted the overall recovery process and in each case verified its effect by a combination of modelling and experimentation. Immunoglobulins were precipitated from large volumes of dilute blood plasma and the precipitated flocs were recovered by centrifugal separation from the liquor containing contaminating proteins, including albumin. The fluid mechanical forces acting on the precipitate and the time of exposure to these forces were used to define a time-integrated fluid stress. This was used as a scaling factor to predict the properties of the precipitated flocs at large scale. In the case of centrifugation, the performance of a full-scale disc stack centrifuge was predicted. This was achieved from a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis of the flow field in the centrifuge coupled with experimental data obtained from the precipitated immunoglobulin flocs using the scale-down precipitation tank, a rotating shear device, and a standard swing-out rotor centrifuge operating under defined conditions. In this way, the performance of the individual unit operations, and their linkage, was successfully analysed from a combination of modelling and experiments. These experiments required only millilitre quantities of the process material. The overall performance of the large-scale process was predicted by tracking the changes in physical and biological properties of the key components in the system, including the size distribution of the antibody precipitates and antibody activity through the individual unit operations in the ultra scale-down process flowsheet.
Analysis of Body Composition Methods in a Community Sample of African American Women

The purposes of the authors in this study were: (1) to determine whether published body mass index and bioelectrical impedance analysis equations agreed with dual energy x-ray absorptiometry body fat percentage measures and (2) to estimate new body mass index and bioelectrical impedance analysis equations in a sample of African American women. Linear regression was used to determine how well 10 body mass index and bioelectrical impedance analysis equations reflected dual energy x-ray absorptiometry body fat percentage measures in this sample of 74 African American women; new body mass index and bioelectrical impedance analysis equations were created using dual energy x-ray absorptiometry body fat percentage measures as the dependent variable. Participants (M = 47.6 years, SD = 7.7) were classified as overweight or obese (BMI Mean BF% = 35.4, SD = 8.2; BIA Mean BF% = 43.3, SD = 6.9; DXA Mean BF% = 41.5, SD = 6.1). R2 and SEE values indicated that all body mass index and bioelectrical impedance analysis equations were a poorer fit with less precision, and the new bioelectrical impedance analysis equation discussed in this article was a better fit and was more precise. All 10 body mass index and bioelectrical analysis equations inaccurately estimated dual energy x-ray absorptiometry body fat percentage measures in our sample. The new body mass index equation discussed in this article had less estimation bias and more precision than the published body mass index equations and may be a more accurate equation in African American women.
Mortality Rates above Emergency Threshold in Population Affected by Conflict in North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo, July 2012–April 2013

The area of Walikale in North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo, is intensely affected by conflict and population displacement. Médecins-Sans-Frontières (MSF) returned to provide primary healthcare in July 2012. To better understand the impact of the ongoing conflict and displacement on the population, a retrospective mortality survey was conducted in April 2013. A two-stage randomized cluster survey using 31 clusters of 21 households was conducted. Heads of households provided information on their household make-up, ownership of non-food items (NFIs), access to healthcare and information on deaths and occurrence of self-reported disease in the household during the recall period. The recall period was of 325 days (July 2012–April 2013). In total, 173 deaths were reported during the recall period. The crude mortality rate (CMR) was of 1.4/10,000 persons/day (CI95%: 1.2–1.7) and the under-five- mortality rate (U5MR) of 1.9/10,000 persons per day (CI95%: 1.3–2.5). The most frequently reported cause of death was fever/malaria 34.1% (CI95%: 25.4–42.9). Thirteen deaths were due to intentional violence. Over 70% of all households had been displaced at some time during the recall period. Out of households with someone sick in the last two weeks, 63.8% sought health care; the main reason not to seek health care was the lack of money (n = 134, 63.8%, CI95%: 52.2–75.4). Non Food Items (NFI) ownership was low: 69.0% (CI95%: 53.1–79.7) at least one 10 liter jerry can, 30.1% (CI95%: 24.3–36.5) of households with visible soap available and 1.6 bednets per household. The results from this survey in Walikale clearly illustrate the impact that ongoing conflict and displacement are having on the population in this part of DRC. The gravity of their health status was highlighted by a CMR that was well above the emergency threshold of 1 person/10,000/day and an U5MR that approaches the 2 children/10,000/day threshold for the recall period.
Design and Value of Service-Oriented Technologies for Smart Business Networking

Business networks that effectively use technologies and outperform competing networks are known as smart business networks. Theory hypothesizes that smart business networking requires a ‘Networked Business Operating System’ (NBOS), a technological architecture consisting of business logic, that enables high performance business networking. At the heart of the NBOS architecture are services (provided and used by organizations in the business network) and a centralized directory that contributes to finding, selecting and executing the services available. While the idea of SOA for NBOS is compelling, SOA has largely remained a technological concept mainly applied in intra-organizational settings and received only limited adoption in business networks. The key question addressed in this paper is how firms in a business network can develop a NBOS so that SOA technologies create business value. This research aims to contribute to the understanding of the business value of SOA for smart business networking. An in-depth case study in a German banking network is used to obtain profound insights in the intricacies of service design and the business value of SOA technologies in practice. The findings are generalized in an initial research model, distinguishing between service network design and service directory design within business networks.
Do parent and child behaviours differentiate families whose children have obsessive-compulsive disorder from other clinic and non-clinic families?

BACKGROUND Limited research has been conducted investigating parent and child behaviour during family interactions in families who have a child with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). While a number of authors in the field of childhood OCD have suggested possible parent and child behaviours that are characteristic of these families, few studies have attempted to explore these in a methodologically sound approach. METHOD This study compared the observed behaviours of parents and children in families whose children were diagnosed with OCD, to families whose children were diagnosed with other anxiety disorders, externalising disorders and no clinical problems. During family discussions, parent and child behaviours and affect were coded using a Likert-scale system. Family members were rated on behavioural dimensions of control, warmth, doubt, avoidance, confidence, positive problem solving, and rewarding independence. RESULTS Results indicated that parents and children in the OCD group could be clearly differentiated from families in the other groups based on parent and child behaviour. Mothers and fathers of OCD children were less confident in their child's ability, less rewarding of independence, and less likely to use positive problem solving. Children in the OCD group showed less positive problem solving, less confidence in their ability to solve the problem, and they displayed less warmth during their interactions with their parents. CONCLUSIONS Parents and children in families where there is a child with OCD behave in a different manner during family interactions to other families. These findings offer interesting and important exploratory information relating to observed parent and child behaviour across different clinical and non-clinical groups. Limitations of this study are addressed and directions for further research are discussed.
QCD Corrections to the Masses of the neutral CP-even Higgs Bosons in the MSSM

We perform a diagrammatic calculation of the leading two-loop QCD corrections to the masses of the neutral CP -even Higgs bosons in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM). The results are valid for arbitrary values of the parameters of the Higgs and scalar top sector of the MSSM. The two-loop corrections are found to reduce the mass of the lightest Higgs boson considerably compared to its one-loop value. The numerical results are analyzed in the GUT favored regions of small and large tan β . Their impact on a precise prediction for the mass of the lightest Higgs boson is brieﬂy discussed.
A Vasoactive Role for Endogenous Relaxin in Mesenteric Arteries of Male Mice

The peptide hormone relaxin has striking effects on the vascular system. Specifically, endogenous relaxin treatment reduces myogenic reactivity through nitric oxide (NO)-mediated vasorelaxation and increases arterial compliance in small resistance arteries. However, less is known about the vascular roles of endogenous relaxin, particularly in males. Therefore, we used male wild-type (Rln +/+) and relaxin knockout (Rln −/−) mice to test the hypothesis that passive wall properties and vascular reactivity in mesenteric arteries would be compromised in Rln −/− mice. Passive compliance was determined in arteries (n = 8–9) mounted on a pressure myograph and in Ca2+-free Krebs containing 2 mM EGTA. Passive volume compliance was significantly (P = 0.01) decreased in the mesenteric arteries of Rln −/− mice. Vascular reactivity was assessed using wire myography. In mesenteric arteries (n = 5) of Rln −/− mice, there was a significant (P<0.03) increase in sensitivity to the vasoconstrictors phenylephrine and thromboxane-mimetic U41669. This enhanced responsiveness to vasoconstrictors was abolished by endothelial denudation, and attributed to impaired NO and prostanoid pathways in Rln −/− mice. Sensitivity to the endothelial agonist acetylcholine was significantly (n = 7–9, P≤0.03) decreased, and this was abolished in the presence of the cyclooxygenase inhibitor, indomethacin (2 µM). This indicates that prostanoid vasoconstrictor pathways were upregulated in the mesenteric arteries of Rln −/− mice. In summary, we demonstrate endothelial dysfunction and impaired arterial wall remodeling in male mice deficient in relaxin. Thus, our results highlight a role for endogenous relaxin in the maintenance of normal mesenteric artery structure and function in males.
Rho Kinase Enhances Contractions of Rat Mesenteric Collecting Lymphatics

The mechanisms that control phasic and tonic contractions of lymphatic vessels are poorly understood. We hypothesized that rho kinase ROCK, previously shown to increase calcium (Ca2+) sensitivity in vascular smooth muscle, enhances lymphatic contractile activity in a similar fashion. Contractions of isolated rat mesenteric lymphatic vessels were observed at a luminal pressure of 2 cm H2O in a 37°C bath. The expression of ROCK in isolated rat mesenteric lymphatic vessels was assessed by Western blotting and confocal microscopy. The role of ROCK in contractile function was tested using two specific yet structurally distinct inhibitors: H1152 (0.1–10 μM) and Y-27632 (0.5–50 μM). In addition, lymphatics were transfected with constitutively active (ca)-ROCK protein (2 μg/ml) to assess gain of contractile function. Vessel diameter and the concentration of intracellular free Ca2+ ([Ca2+]i) were simultaneously measured in a subset of isolated lymphatics loaded with the Ca2+-sensing dye fura-2. The results show expression of both the ROCK1 and ROCK2 isoforms in lymphatic vessels. Inhibition of ROCK increased lymphatic end diastolic diameter and end systolic diameter in a concentration-dependent manner. Significant reductions in lymphatic tone and contraction amplitude were observed after treatment 1–10 μM H1152 or 25–50 μM Y-27632. H1152 (10 μM) also significantly reduced contraction frequency. Transient increases in [Ca2+]i preceded each phasic contraction, however this pattern was disrupted by either 10 μM H1152 or 50 μM Y-27632 in the majority of lymphatics studied. The significant decrease in tone caused by H1152 or Y-27632 was not associated with a significant change in the basal [Ca2+]i between transients. Transfection with ca-ROCK protein enhanced lymphatic tone, but was not associated with a significant change in basal [Ca2+]i. Our data suggest that ROCK mediates normal tonic constriction and influences phasic contractions in lymphatics. We propose that ROCK modulates Ca2+ sensitivity of contractile proteins in lymphatics.
Performance Analysis of Power Saving Mechanism with Adjustable DRX Cycles in 3GPP LTE

Long-term evolution (LTE) of the UMTS terrestrial radio access and radio access network is considered to ensure the competitiveness of 3GPP radio-access technology in a longer time frame. To minimize/optimize the user equipment (UE) power consumption, and further to support various services and large amount of data transmissions, a discontinuous reception (DRX) mechanism with adjustable DRX cycles has been adopted in LTE RRC_CONNECTED mode. In this paper, we take an overview of the DRX cycle adjustable feature of the LTE power saving mechanism and further modeling the mechanism with bursty packet data traffic using a semi-Markov process. The analytical results, which are validated against simulation experiments, show that LTE DRX achieves power saving gains over UMTS DRX at the price of prolonging wake-up delay. Based on the analytical model, effects of the DRX parameters on the power saving and wake-up delay performance are also investigated, and the results verify a trade-off relationship between the power saving and wake-up delay performance.
Reflective Practice: Decoding Ethical Knowledge

This article analyses reflective practice by exploring ethical knowledge-in-use and the influence of context on professional nursing practice. Is ethical knowledge used in an appropriate context? The author identifies and discusses the theoretical underpinnings of reflective practice and offers an alternative paradigm to the generation and use of ethical knowledge in practice. The message to teachers and practitioners is decoded to facilitate teaching and learning.
Determinants of the interindividual variability in response to antiplatelet drugs

Summary. The aim of this review article is to discuss the main determinants of the interindividual variability in response to antiplatelet agents. The main sources of pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic variability are reviewed, with particular emphasis on aspirin and clopidogrel. The term ‘resistance’ is uninformative of the mechanism(s) underlying interindividual variability in response to these antiplatelet agents, and is potentially misleading. Increased awareness of the distinct factors potentially interfering with the desired antiplatelet effects of aspirin or clopidogrel, particularly avoidable drug interactions, may ultimately result in better patient management than requesting unnecessary costly tests of platelet function. Similarly, new studies addressing the interindividual variability in response to these antiplatelet agents should rely upon mechanism‐based biochemical end‐points rather than platelet aggregation measurements. As with any drug used to prevent atherothrombosis, treatment ‘failure’ can occur with aspirin or clopidogrel perhaps not surprisingly, given the multifactorial nature of atherothrombosis. There is no scientific basis for changing antiplatelet therapy in the face of a treatment ‘failure’, as we cannot be sure whether a second vascular event occurring in the same patient will reflect the same pathophysiological event that led to the first. Moreover, we have no controlled evidence that changing therapy is a more effective strategy than maintaining an evidence‐based therapy.
A Parallel Version of the OneCut Image Segmentation Algorithm

This paper presents a parallel version of a semiautomatic image segmentation algorithm. The method is based on the OneCut algorithm. For parallelization, we used different aspects from Parallel Graph Cuts method. Tests were run on a set of images from various databases. Our results were compared with both OneCut and Boykov-Jolly algorithms. The results in terms of execution time provides an improvement of at least 23%.
Tiamulin feed premix in the improvement of growth performance of pigs in herds severely affected with enzootic pneumonia

Four field trials were carried out to evaluate the effect of feeding tiamulin hydrogen fumarate at 20 and 30 ppm to fattening pigs over an eight week period, on farms with histories of severe, complicated, enzootic pneumonia problems. These farms had a prevalence of pigs with pneumonic lesions from 81 to 94 per cent and a range between individual batches of 69 to 96 per cent. The results of the first three trials showed that tiamulin at 30 ppm significantly improved the weight gains and feed conversion efficiency of pigs, in comparison with controls and was superior to the groups fed 20 ppm tiamulin. A further trial with tiamulin at 30 ppm and controls only, confirmed the original findings. The overall average results showed that tiamulin improved average daily gain by 33 g (4.7 per cent) and feed conversion efficiency by 0.138 (4.7 per cent). This effect did not appear to result from a reduction in the total extent of pneumonic lesions and the possible reasons for this are discussed, but in the fourth trial the number of pigs requiring parenteral treatment was noticeably reduced.
Monitoring Teams by Overhearing: A Multi-Agent Plan-Recognition Approach

Recent years are seeing an increasing need for on-line monitoring of teams of cooperating agents, e.g., for visualization, or performance tracking. However, in monitoring deployed teams, we often cannot rely on the agents to always communicate their state to the monitoring system. This paper presents a non-intrusive approach to monitoring by overhearing, where the monitored team's state is inferred (via plan-recognition) from team-members' routine communications, exchanged as part of their coordinated task execution, and observed (overheard) by the monitoring system. Key challenges in this approach include the demanding run-time requirements of monitoring, the scarceness of observations (increasing monitoring uncertainty), and the need to scale-up monitoring to address potentially large teams. To address these, we present a set of complementary novel techniques, exploiting knowledge of the social structures and procedures in the monitored team: (i) an efficient probabilistic plan-recognition algorithm, well-suited for processing communications as observations; (ii) an approach to exploiting knowledge of the team's social behavior to predict future observations during execution (reducing monitoring uncertainty); and (iii) monitoring algorithms that trade expressivity for scalability, representing only certain useful monitoring hypotheses, but allowing for any number of agents and their different activities to be represented in a single coherent entity. We present an empirical evaluation of these techniques, in combination and apart, in monitoring a deployed team of agents, running on machines physically distributed across the country, and engaged in complex, dynamic task execution. We also compare the performance of these techniques to human expert and novice monitors, and show that the techniques presented are capable of monitoring at human-expert levels, despite the difficulty of the task.
Segregation and Convergence of Information Flow through the Cortico-Subthalamic Pathways

Cortico-basal ganglia circuits are organized in parallel channels. Information flow from functionally distinct cortical areas remains segregated within the striatum and through its direct projections to basal ganglia output structures. Whether such a segregation is maintained in trans-subthalamic circuits is still questioned. The effects of electrical stimulation of prefrontal, motor, and auditory cortex were analyzed in the subthalamic nucleus as well as in the striatum of anesthetized rats. In the striatum, cells (n = 300) presenting an excitatory response to stimulation of these cortical areas were located in distinct striatal territories, and none of the cells responded to two cortical stimulation sites. In the subthalamic nucleus, both prefrontal and motor cortex stimulations induced early and late excitatory responses as a result of activation of the direct cortico-subthalamic pathway and of the indirect cortico-striato-pallido-subthalamic pathway, respectively. Stimulation of the auditory cortex, which does not send direct projection to the subthalamic nucleus, induced only late excitatory responses. Among the subthalamic responding cells (n = 441), a few received both prefrontal and motor cortex (n = 19) or prefrontal and auditory cortex (n = 10) excitatory inputs, whereas a larger number of cells were activated from both motor and auditory cortices (n = 48). The data indicate that the segregation of cortical information flow originating from prefrontal, motor, and auditory cortices that occurred in the striatum is only partly maintained in the subthalamic nucleus. It can be proposed that the existence of specific patterns of convergence of information flow from these functionally distinct cortical areas in the subthalamic nucleus allows interactions between parallel channels.
The impact of the market portfolio on the valuation, incentives and optimality of executive stock options

This paper examines the effect on valuation and incentives of allowing executives receiving options to trade on the market portfolio. We propose a continuous time utility maximization model to value stock and option compensation from the executive's perspective. The executive may invest non-option wealth in the market and riskless asset but not in the company stock itself, leaving them subject to firm-specific risk for incentive purposes. Since the executive is risk averse, this unhedgeable firm risk leads them to place less value on the options than their cost to the company. By distinguishing between these two types of risks, we are able to examine the effect of stock volatility, firm-specific risk and market risk on the value to the executive. In particular, options do not give incentive to increase total risk, but rather to increase the proportion of market relative to firm-specific risk, so executives prefer high beta companies. The paper also examines the relationship between risk and incentives, and finds firm-specific risk decreases incentives whilst market risk may decrease incentives depending on other parameters. The model supports the use of stock rather than options if the company can adjust cash pay when granting stock-based compensation.