Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
THE GEOGRAPHY OF INTANGIBLES

The shift towards the intangible economy is almost unanimously acknowledged as one of the most important changes that characterize the current state of the economy. This presents significant challenges for corporate managers, accountants and policy makers. One of these challenges is a reflection on the geographical distribution of economic activities. Clustering has recently became a topic of intense interest among academic scholars circles and policy makers. However clusters have been usually analyzed in traditional manufacturing industries or, in recent years, with reference to particular aspects of the intangible economy, such as in the literature on the geography of innovation or in the literature on high-technology clusters. It is still not clear what is the overall impact of the growing importance of intangible assets on the geography of economic activities. At the same time the debate on intangible assets, can be enriched by further clearness on the spatial implication of intangibles, that is a partially unexplored aspect of the topic. Considering the spatial implications of different types of intangible assets, and more interestingly, the inherent characteristics of intangibles it is possible to argue that spatial proximity still have a great importance in spite of recent claim on the 'death of distance' and the 'end of geography' consequent to the Internet revolution. However it is worth to consider also networking of relationships both internal and external to the cluster as a determinant factor for competitiveness. Moreover, theories on intangible assets rather to focus only on individual firms must take into account a higher level of analysis considering clusters as independent actors able to generate intangible assets such as trust, mutual understanding, learning, transfer of tacit knowledge, collective knowledge and innovation.
Characterization of the type IV restriction modification system BspLU11III from Bacillus sp. LU11.

We report the characterization and cloning of the genes for an unusual type IV restriction-modification system, BspLU11III, from Bacillus sp. LU11. The system consists of two methyltransferases and one endonuclease, which also possesses methyltransferase activity. The three genes of the restriction-modification system, bsplu11IIIMa, bsplu11IIIMb and bsplu11IIIR, are closely linked and tandemly arranged. The corresponding enzymes recognize the dsDNA sequence 5'-GGGAC-3'/5'-GTCCC-3', with M.BspLU11IIIa modifying the A (underlined) of one strand and M.BspLU11IIIb the inner C (underlined) of the other strand. R.BspLU11III has both endonuclease and adenine-specific methyltransferase activities and is able to protect the DNA against cleavage by itself. In contrast to all type IV restriction-modification systems described so far, which have only one adenine-specific methyltransferase, BspLU11III is the first type IV restriction-modification system that includes two methyltransferases, one of them being cytosine specific.
A joint coding method of video plus depth based on H.264

This paper presents a study on joint coding of video plus depth utilizing the correlation between video and depth. The Rate Distortion Optimization (RDO) technique has been employed in H.264 for intra prediction mode selection to achieve better coding efficiency. The proposed method considers the color video and depth video to compress jointly, which is based on the RDO mode decision algorithm and the same prediction modes of video and depth. Due to having the similar edge feature of color video and depth video, intra prediction mode of most 16×16 macroblocks of color video and its corresponding depth video are the same. For the inter prediction of depth video, the optimal prediction mode is 16×16 mode. These characteristics are used to jointly encode color video and depth video to reduce the number of encoding bit. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method can decrease the number of encoding bit.
Blast Crisis

Audience This scenario was developed to educate emergency medicine residents on the diagnosis and management of blast crisis. Introduction Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) makes up 15% of diagnosed adult leukemias with the median age of diagnosis being 67 years old. Chronic myeloid leukemia consists of three phases: chronic, accelerated, and blast phases. Most patients are initially diagnosed while in the chronic phase.1 Of those diagnosed in the chronic phase and being treated with a tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI), about 1% –1.5% of CML patients per year will subsequently transform into an advanced phase or blast crisis.2 While rare, blast crisis is considered an oncologic emergency, with increased mortality occurring primarily from subsequent infections or bleeding. Therefore, emergency physicians must be familiar with its clinical presentation and subsequent management. Educational Objectives By the end of this simulation, the participant will be able to: 1) create a thorough differential for the undifferentiated febrile, altered patient, 2) identify the signs and symptoms of blast crisis, 3) describe proper resuscitation of a patient in blast crisis, and 4) describe the indications, steps, and contraindications of performing a lumbar puncture. Educational Methods This session was conducted using high-fidelity simulation, followed by a debriefing session and lecture on the diagnosis, differential diagnosis, and management of blast crisis. Debriefing methods may be left to the discretion of participants, but the authors have used advocacy-inquiry techniques. This scenario may also be run as an oral boards case. Research Methods Our simulation center’s feedback form is based on the Center of Medical Simulation’s Debriefing Assessment for Simulation in Healthcare (DASH) Student Version Short Form, with the inclusion of required qualitative feedback if an element was scored less than a 6 or 7. Results This session received all 6 or 7 scores (consistently effective/very good or extremely effective/outstanding). During the debriefing session, feedback from the residents was largely positive. They appreciated reviewing the broad differential of altered mental status and oncologic emergencies. While many groups anchored on the diagnosis of encephalitis, they also expressed that after this experience, blast crisis would be added to their differential for patients with CML. Discussion This is a cost-effective method for reviewing blast crisis. Learners were able to identify more common causes of altered mental status in their differentials, but without further prompting, they were unable to ultimately come up with the diagnosis of blast crisis. Our main take-away is to continue reviewing oncologic emergencies as a part of our residency curriculum. Topics Medical simulation, chronic myeloid leukemia, blast crisis, leukostasis, emergency medicine, oncologic emergencies, hematologic emergencies.
Selective Treatment of Symptomatic Gallstones

List of papers I. Vetrhus M, Soreide O, Solhaug JH, Nesvik I, Sondenaa K. Symptomatic, non-complicated gallbladder stone disease. Operation or observation? A randomized clinical study. Scand J Gastroenterol 2002; 37(7); 834-839. II. Vetrhus M, Soreide O, Nesvik I, Sondenaa K. Acute cholecystitis: Delayed surgery or observation. A randomized clinical trial. Scand J Gastroenterol 2003; 38(9):985-990. III. Vetrhus M, Soreide O, Eide GE, Solhaug JH, Nesvik I, Sondenaa K. Pain and quality of life in patients with symptomatic, non-complicated gallbladder stones: Results of a randomized controlled trial. Scand J Gastroenterol 2004; 39(3):270-276. IV. Vetrhus M, Soreide O, Eide GE, Nesvik I, Sondenaa K. Quality of life and pain in patients with acute cholecystitis. Results of a randomized clinical trial. Scand J Surg 2005; 94(1):34- 39. V. Vetrhus M, Berhane T, Soreide O, Sondenaa K. Pain persists in many patients five years after removal of the gallbladder: observations from two randomized controlled trials of symptomatic, noncomplicated gallstone disease and acute cholecystitis. J Gastrointest Surg. 2005; 9(6):826-31.
Application of Asynchronous Channels Method to the W-CDMA Systems

We evaluate new interference suppression method that utilizes the effect of asynchronous accesses in wireless telecommunication. The method is called as asynchronous channels (ACL), which can be applied to one of the present third generation standards, wideband code division multiple access (W-CDMA) systems. The simulation result shows that the system capacity gains up by 145% in band-unlimited rectangular pulse situations. On the other hand, in practical band- limited root raised cosine (RRC) pulse situation, ACL applied system performances are inferior to the conventional syn- chronous channel systems. Because the another band-limited Gaussian pulse simulation shows better interference than synchronous channels, whether the asynchronous channel can have an effect on interference suppression is highly depend- ing on the choice and the design of pulse shaping filters.
Suppressing false alarms of intrusion detection using improved text categorization method

Although some text processing techniques can be employed to intrusion detection based on the characterization of the frequencies of the system calls executed by the privileged programs, and achieve satisfactory detection accuracy, high false alarms make it hardly practicable in real life. We modify the traditional weighting method tf-idf for suppressing false alarms by considering the necessary information between the processes and sessions. Preliminary experiments with 1998 DARPA BSM auduit data show that our modified method can suppress high false alarms effectively while maintaining satisfactory detection accuracy, which thus make text categorization approaches more practicable for intrusion detection.
Neuromodulation therapies and treatment-resistant depression

Background Patients with treatment-resistant depression (TRD) who showed partial response to pharmacological and psychotherapeutic interventions need a trial of neuromodulation therapies (NTs). Objective This paper aims to review evidence-based data on the use of NTs in TRD. Method Using keywords and combined-word strategy, multiple computer searches of PubMed, Google Scholar, Quertle(R), and Medline were conducted for retrieving relevant articles published in English-language peer-reviewed journals (2000–2012). Those papers that addressed NTs in TRD were retained for extensive review. Results Despite methodological challenges, a range of 30%–93% of TRD patients showed substantial improvement to one of the NTs. One hundred–percent improvement was reported in two single-case studies on deep brain stimulation. Some studies reported no benefits from transcranial direct current stimulation. NTs were reported to have good clinical efficacy, better safety margin, and benign side-effect profile. Data are limited regarding randomized clinical trials, long-term efficacy, and cost-effectiveness of these approaches. Both modified electroconvulsive therapy and magnetic seizure therapy were associated with reversible but disturbing neurocognitive adverse effects. Besides clinical utility, NTs including approaches on the horizon may unlock the biological basis underlying mood disorders including TRD. Conclusion NTs are promising in patients with TRD, as the majority of them show good clinical response measured by standardized depression scales. NTs need further technological refinements and optimization together with continuing well-designed studies that recruit larger numbers of participants with TRD.
Adaptive Impedance Control of a Robotic Orthosis for Gait Rehabilitation

Intervention of robotic devices in the field of physical gait therapy can help in providing repetitive, systematic, and economically viable training sessions. Interactive or assist-as-needed (AAN) gait training encourages patient voluntary participation in the robotic gait training process which may aid in rapid motor function recovery. In this paper, a lightweight robotic gait training orthosis with two actuated and four passive degrees of freedom (DOFs) is proposed. The actuated DOFs were powered by pneumatic muscle actuators. An AAN gait training paradigm based on adaptive impedance control was developed to provide interactive robotic gait training. The proposed adaptive impedance control scheme adapts the robotic assistance according to the disability level and voluntary participation of human subjects. The robotic orthosis was operated in two gait training modes, namely, inactive mode and active mode, to evaluate the performance of the proposed control scheme. The adaptive impedance control scheme was evaluated on ten neurologically intact subjects. The experimental results demonstrate that an increase in voluntary participation of human subjects resulted in a decrease of the robotic assistance and vice versa. Further clinical evaluations with neurologically impaired subjects are required to establish the therapeutic efficacy of the adaptive-impedance-control-based AAN gait training strategy.
Proliferative endocrine effects of adipose tissue from obese animals on MCF7 cells are ameliorated by resveratrol supplementation

Obesity is clearly associated with an increased risk of breast cancer in postmenopausal women. The purpose was to determine if obesity alters the adipocyte adipokine secretion profile, thereby altering the adipose-dependent paracrine/endocrine growth microenvironment surrounding breast cancer cells (MCF7). Additionally, we determined whether resveratrol (RSV) supplementation can counteract any obesity-dependent effects on breast cancer tumor growth microenvironment. Obese ZDF rats received standard chow diet or diet supplemented with 200 mg/kg body weight RSV. Chow-fed Zucker rats served as lean controls. After 6 weeks, conditioned media (CM) prepared from inguinal subcutaneous adipose tissue (scAT) was added to MCF7 cells for 24 hrs. Experiments were also conducted using purified isolated adipocytes to determine whether any endocrine effects could be attributed specifically to the adipocyte component of adipose tissue. scAT from ZDF rats promoted cell cycle entry in MCF7 cells which was counteracted by RSV supplementation. RSV-CM had a higher ratio of ADIPO:LEP compared to ZDF-CM. This altered composition of the CM led to increased levels of pAMPKT172, p27, p27T198 and AdipoR1 while decreasing pAktT308 in MCF7 cells grown in RSV-CM compared to ZDF-CM. RSV-CM increased number of cells in G0/G1 and decreased cells in S-phase compared to ZDF-CM. Co-culture experiments revealed that these obesity-dependent effects were driven by the adipocyte component of the adipose tissue. Obesity decreased the ratio of adiponectin:leptin secreted by adipocytes, altering the adipose-dependent growth microenvironment resulting in increased breast cancer cell proliferation. Supplementation with RSV reversed these adipose-dependent effects suggesting a potential for RSV as a nutritional supplementation to improve breast cancer treatment in obese patients.
Osteonecrosis in Patients After Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS): Possible Role of Anticardiolipin Antibodies

Objectives:This study examined the anticardiolipin antibodies in post-SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) osteonecrosis patients to investigate the etiology of post-SARS osteonecrosis, and to eventually provide valuable information for the early diagnosis of nontraumatic osteonecrosis and for the susceptible population screening. Methods:This study recruited 62 post-SARS osteonecrosis patients and 52 age- and gender-matched healthy controls. Fasting blood samples were collected from all the subjects through cubital veins. Immunoglobulins A, G and M (IgA, G and M) types of anticardiolipin antibodies were examined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The routine examinations of prothrombin time, thrombin time, prothrombin activity, and international normalized ratio were also performed. Results:There were 21 of 62 post-SARS osteonecrosis patients (33.9%) who showed at least one type of anticardiolipin antibodies. The titers of specific IgA, IgG, and IgM were 11.33 ± 11.209 APL, 5.127 ± 5.927 GPL, and 17.821 ± 10.606 MPL, respectively. There were only 4 of 52 subjects in the control group (7.7%) who showed positive anticardiolipin antibody with titers of IgA at 10.702 ± 3.126 APL, IgG at 5.184 ± 4.780 GPL, and IgM at 14.684 ± 5.516 MPL. There were significant differences between the 2 groups confirmed by t-Test and &khgr;2 test (P < 0.05), while no significant differences were observed in prothrombin time, thrombin time, prothrombin activity, and international normalized ratio results between the 2 groups. Conclusions:The incidences of anticardiolipin antibodies were increased in the post-SARS osteonecrosis patients and anticardiolipin antibodies may play a role in the pathogenesis of post-SARS osteonecrosis.
Pybliometrics: Scriptable Bibliometrics using a Python Interface to Scopus

Abstract We present a wrapper for the Scopus RESTful API written for Python 3. The wrapper allows users to access the Scopus database via user-friendly interfaces and can be used without prior knowledge of RESTful APIs. The package provides classes to interact with different Scopus APIs to retrieve information as diverse as citation counts, author information or document abstracts. Files are cached to speed up subsequent analysis. The package addresses all users of Scopus data, such as researchers working in Science of Science or evaluators. It facilitates reproducibility of research projects and enhances data integrity for researchers using Scopus data.
Deep Learning-Based Landmark Detection for Mobile Robot Outdoor Localization

Outdoor mobile robot applications generally implement Global Positioning Systems (GPS) for localization tasks. However, GPS accuracy in outdoor localization has less accuracy in different environmental conditions. This paper presents two outdoor localization methods based on deep learning and landmark detection. The first localization method is based on the Faster Regional-Convolutional Neural Network (Faster R-CNN) landmark detection in the captured image. Then, a feedforward neural network (FFNN) is trained to determine robot location coordinates and compass orientation from detected landmarks. The second localization employs a single convolutional neural network (CNN) to determine location and compass orientation from the whole image. The dataset consists of images, geolocation data and labeled bounding boxes to train and test two proposed localization methods. Results are illustrated with absolute errors from the comparisons between localization results and reference geolocation data in the dataset. The experimental results pointed both presented localization methods to be promising alternatives to GPS for outdoor localization.
Uptake of Hormonal Implants Contraceptive in Zaria, Northern Nigeria

Objective: To document our experience on the use of Jadelle/Implanon contraceptives that was recently introduced into Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital (ABUTH), Zaria, Nigeria. It is pertinent to generate data on the experiences in the use of this contraceptive in a cross sectional study within Zaria, Northern Nigeria. Method: Data on consecutive clients that accepted Jadelle/ Implanon from June 2009 to November 2013 at ABUTH were extracted from their cards and analyzed using SPSS version 17. Out of a total of 11,502 clients that were for contraception during the period under review, 798 accepted Jadelle/Implanon accounting for 7% of the total clients. All the clients were married. About 67.8% were Muslims while 27.2% were Christians and 5% belong to other sect. 4140 (36%) had tertiary education. Most of the client has been on one form of modern contraception; only 16% were first time users who accepted implant after counselling. 37% of the clients are full time housewives. The discontinuation rate was found to be 26% for Jadelle and 19% for Implanon. No pregnancy was recorded during this period. Conclusion: Jadelle/Implanon account for 7% of contractive uptake and a high discontinuation rate was found among the users.
CD8 T-Cells from Most HIV-Infected Patients Lack Ex Vivo HIV-Suppressive Capacity during Acute and Early Infection

The strong CD8+ T-cell-mediated HIV-1-suppressive capacity found in a minority of HIV-infected patients in chronic infection is associated with spontaneous control of viremia. However, it is still unclear whether such capacities were also present earlier in the CD8+ T cells from non controller patients and then lost as a consequence of uncontrolled viral replication. We studied 50 patients with primary HIV-1-infection to determine whether strong CD8+ T-cell-mediated HIV suppression is more often observed at that time. Despite high frequencies of polyfunctional HIV-specific CD8+ T-cells and a strong CD4+ T-helper response, CD8+ T-cells from 48 patients lacked strong HIV-suppressive capacities ex vivo. This indicates that the superior HIV-suppressive capacity of CD8+ T-cells from HIV controllers is not a general characteristic of the HIV-specific CD8+ T cell response in primary HIV infection.
Inheritance, 'Warnings' and Potential Refactorings: An Empirical Study

A recent empirical study of seven Java systems showed that approximately 96% of all classes added to those systems over the course of multiple versions were at inheritance level one and two and only 4% at all other lower levels. In this paper, we use code 'warnings' extracted by a tool to explore potential problems and benefits of system evolution according to this inheritance profile. We analyze the type of warning across single and multiple versions of three Java systems for commonalities based on information provided in the warnings. We compare the frequency of warning for classes added at different levels of the inheritance hierarchy and explore the possibilities for refactoring code on that basis. The research illustrates how tools can inform our understanding of potential problems in evolutionary code, allow us to assess the impact those problems may have and present opportunities for rectifying those problems through techniques such as refactoring.
Advances in Brief HIF-1 a-mediated Up-Regulation of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor , Independent of Basic Fibroblast Growth Factor , Is Important in the Switch to the Angiogenic Phenotype during Early Tumorigenesis 1

The switch to the angiogenic phenotype represents a critical checkpoint during tumor progression. The acquisition of new capillary vessels provides newly vascularized tumor nodules with a distinct biological advantage over their avascular counterparts by conferring upon them the ability to expand and develop both locally and metastatically. To identify the molecules and mechanisms underlying this rate-limiting step in successful tumorigenesis, we have developed an in vivo tumor model that reproducibly recapitulates the angiogenic switch. Using this model, we have analyzed vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), and hypoxia-inducible factor-1a (HIF-1a) expression and activity in both avascular and vascular growth phases of the tumor. A significantly higher level of VEGF protein was detected in avascular tumor nodules compared with vascular nodules. As avascular tumors became vascularized, VEGF levels decreased ;10-fold. In contrast, bFGF levels were not elevated in avascular nodules but rather were detected at levels ;2 times higher in vascular nodules compared with the avascular tumor nodules. Given that VEGF is transcriptionally regulated by HIF1a, immunohistochemical studies of chondrosarcoma nodules were conducted and revealed that the nuclear translocation of HIF-1a was detected exclusively in avascular tumor nodules. This study implicates HIF-1amediated up-regulation of VEGF but not bFGF in the switch to the angiogenic phenotype during tumorigenesis.