Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
β-hydroxybutyrate, a cerebral function improving agent, protects rat brain against ischemic damage caused by permanent and transient focal cerebral ischemia

In our previous study, beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHB) was found to prolong survival time and to inhibit cerebral edema by improving energy metabolism in the hypoxia, anoxia and global cerebral ischemia models. In this study, the cerebroprotective effect of BHB was examined in rats with permanent (p)-occlusion and transient (t)-occlusion of middle cerebral artery (MCA). BHB (30 mg x kg(-1) x h(-1) was continuously administered through the femoral vein. In rats with p-MCA occlusion, BHB significantly reduced infarct area at 24 h after the occlusion, but not at 72 h after the occlusion. In rats with 2-h t-MCA occlusion followed by 22-h reperfusion, BHB significantly reduced cerebral infarct area, edema formation, lipid peroxidation and neurological deficits. Moreover, in the t-MCA occlusion model, delayed administration of BHB started at 1 h after the initiation of the MCA occlusion also significantly reduced cerebral infarct area. Taking together the results obtained in our previous study into account, these results indicate that BHB decreased cerebral edema formation and infarct area by improving of the cerebral energy metabolism during ischemia and by inhibition of lipid peroxidation after reperfusion.
Computerized scheme for detection of arterial occlusion in brain MRA images

Magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) is routinely employed in the diagnosis of cerebrovascular disease. Unruptured aneurysms and arterial occlusions can be detected in examinations using MRA. This paper describes a computerized detection method of arterial occlusion in MRA studies. Our database consists of 100 MRA studies, including 85 normal cases and 15 abnormal cases with arterial occlusion. Detection of abnormality is based on comparison with a reference (normal) MRA study with all the vessel known. Vessel regions in a 3D target MRA study is first segmented by using thresholding and region growing techniques. Image registration is then performed so as to maximize the overlapping of the vessel regions in the target image and the reference image. The segmented vessel regions are then classified into eight arteries based on comparison of the target image and the reference image. Relative lengths of the eight arteries are used as eight features in classifying the normal and arterial occlusion cases. Classifier based on the distance of a case from the center of distribution of normal cases is employed for distinguishing between normal cases and abnormal cases. The sensitivity and specificity for the detection of abnormal cases with arterial occlusion is 80.0% (12/15) and 95.3% (81/85), respectively. The potential of our proposed method in detecting arterial occlusion is demonstrated.
A 20Gb/s Dual-Mode PAM4/NRZ Single-Ended Transmitter with RLM Compensation

In this paper, a 20Gb/s dual-mode four-level pulse amplitude modulation (PAM4)/non-return-to-zero (NRZ) single-ended voltage-mode transmitter is proposed. Its output drivers are composed of 60 basic source-series terminated (SST) driver units and 12 additional pull-up (PU) driver units. The additional PU driver units are used to reduce the eye height difference between four amplitude levels of PAM4. Implemented in 65nm CMOS technology, the active area of the transmitter is 0.06mm2 including the clock buffer and IQ generator. It draws 61.5mW at 20Gb/s during PAM4 operation and 72mW at 10Gb/s during NRZ operation.
PPPs — True Financial Costs and Hidden Returns

Abstract The cost of using private finance is at the centre of the public private partnerships (PPPs) debate, but until now most works considered only the direct financial costs such as the loan interest rate and the shareholders return on equity and were based on various secondary sources. This paper focuses on seven shadow toll deals closed in Portugal between 1999 and 2002 and reports the financial costs of the PPP model considering also the associated transaction costs and is based on detailed information included in each concession's financial base case. The transaction costs include financial costs such as banking fees, due diligence costs and the impact of all cash distribution traps, such as reserve accounts or minimum-level of debt ratios. The PPP financial costs were then compared with the costs arising from raising public debt through a government or a public agency bond. Our analysis shows that the PPP ‘true' financing costs are, on average, 370 basis points above the cost of raising public debt and that the ‘transaction costs' account for around 40% of that financial premium.
First In-orbit Experience of TerraSAR-X Flight Dynamics Operations

TerraSAR-X is an advanced synthetic aperture radar satellite system for scientific and commercial applications that is realized in a public-private partnership between the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the Astrium GmbH. TerraSAR-X was launched at June 15, 2007 on top of a Russian DNEPR-1 rocket into a 514 km sun-synchronous dusk-dawn orbit with an 11-day repeat cycle and will be operated for a period of at least 5 years during which it will provide high resolution SAR-data in the X-band. Due to the objectives of the interferometric campaigns the satellite has to comply to tight orbit control requirements, which are formulated in the form of a 250 m toroidal tube around a pre-flight determined reference trajectory. The acquisition of the reference orbit was one of the main and key activities during the Launch and Early Orbit Phase (LEOP) and had to compensate for both injection errors and spacecraft safe mode attitude control thruster activities. The paper summarizes the activities of GSOC flight dynamics team during both LEOP and early Commissioning Phase, where the main tasks have been 1) the first-acquisition support via angle-tracking and GPS-based orbit determination, 2) maneuver planning for target orbit acquisition and maintenance, and 3) precise orbit and attitude determination for SAR processing support. Furthermore, a presentation on the achieved results and encountered problems will be addressed.
In vitro and in vivo assessment of the effect of initial moisture content and drying temperature on the feeding value of maize grain

ABSTRACT 1. This study assessed the impact of drying temperature (54, 90, and 130°C) and maize grain moisture content at harvest (36% and 29%) on in vitro digestibility, the growth performance and ileal digestibility of broiler chickens. 2. In contrast to the results from the in vitro digestibility, apparent ileal digestibility of starch and energy decreased when the drying temperature was raised from 54 to 130°C, and this effect was more pronounced in maize grain harvested at high initial moisture content (36%). Ileal protein digestibility of maize grain decreased significantly when dried at the intermediate temperature (90°C) and with a high harvest moisture content (36%). Drying temperature and initial moisture content did not significantly affect AMEn. 3. When maize was dried at 130°C, the particle sizes of flour recovered after standard milling procedures decreased significantly, which would influence animal growth performance and in vivo digestibility through animal feed selection.
Real-time accurate pedestrian circular tracking with UAV

In this paper, we present a solution for accurate pedestrian circular flight using an UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle), which means UAV flies circularly around a specified walking pedestrian with a fixed distance. The proposed method consists of two parts, one is the visual inspect of the pedestrian, the other is the vision guided UAV control. In the first part, we generate and update feature queues and use Locality-constrained Linear Coding (LLC) method to match the specified target. In the second part, we control the UAV's flight based on the visual detection of the specific target, aiming to let the UAV flying circularly around the target. Experiments adopting a Parrot Bebop 2 (UAV) are carried out to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Human Resource Development and Enterprise Competitiveness in Jamaica

Human resource management theory predicts that investment in human capital should lead to enterprise competitiveness. Organisations which operate in a highly competitive market environment should therefore be expected to respond by stepped up investment in human capital. Using training expenditure as a proxy, this paper employs data from the 1998 Jamaican National Survey of Workplace Practices (JNSWP) to explore the issue of human resource investment in Jamaican business organisations. We found that expenditure in human resource development was limited, unstructured and unsystematic. Among the possible reasons might be the fact that while the majority of businesses in our sample saw themselves as operating in a competitive environment, most produced for the domestic market and perceived themselves to be performing better than their competitors. In addition, most appeared satisfied with the effect of internal human resource-related variables on their businesses and were focused on other variables such as price and product quality as means of leveraging competitiveness
A novel approach to solve a mining work centralization problem in blockchain technologies

Purpose This paper aims to solve a mining work centralization problem using a gamification-based approach. Design/methodology/approach The authors have developed a simple blockchain application that incorporates a gamification concept into the mining work. Then, they asked some participants in an experiment to use the application for a week and gathered some insights from the responses on questionnaires. Findings The results show that the gamification-based approach distributed mining work among many participants by increasing their motivation to participate mining work. Originality/value The gamification-based approach solves a mining work centralization problem and opens a new direction for future blockchain technologies.
Risks of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 3 or invasive cancers in ASCUS women with different management: a population-based cohort study

Objective To investigate the progression risk of atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASCUS) with different clinical managements. Methods Women with their first diagnosis of ASCUS cytology were retrieved from the national cervical cancer screening database and linked to the national health insurance research database to identify the management of these women. The incidences of developing cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 3 and invasive cervical cancer (CIN3+) were calculated, and the hazard ratios (HRs) were estimated using a Cox proportional hazards model. This study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the National Taiwan University Hospital and is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (Identifier: NCT02063152). Results There were total 69,741 women included. Various management strategies including colposcopy, cervical biopsies and/or endocervical curettage, and cryotherapy, failed to reduce the risk of subsequent CIN3+ compared with repeat cervical smears. Loop electrosurgical excision procedure/conization significantly decreased risk of subsequent CIN3+ lesions (HR=0.22; 95% confidence interval [CI]=0.07–0.68; p=0.010). Women in their 40s–50s had an approximately 30% risk reduction compared to other age groups. Women with a previous screening history >5 years from the present ASCUS diagnosis were at increased risk for CIN3+ (HR=1.24; 95% CI=1.03–1.49; p=0.020). Conclusion In women of first-time ASCUS cytology, a program of repeat cytology can be an acceptable clinical option in low-resource settings. Caution should be taken especially in women with remote cervical screening history more than 5 years.
Phytochemical Diversity And Micropropagation of Paris Polyphylla Rhizomes From Northeast India

Identification of medicinal plant for elite genotypes requires assessment of phytochemical diversity across different populations. Such study is fundamental for further scale of plant resources as well as subsequent drug development for treatment of human ailments. The present study was taken up to assess the total steroidal saponins diversity in Paris polyphylla across the Northeast region of India. From the study, it was found that P. polyphylla populations from Khonoma showed the highest total saponins content, recording an average of 32.06mg/g DW in comparison with all the populations under study. The findings of the study were taken up for micropropagation of the Khonoma populations for mass propagation of rhizomes of this high valued plant. Efficiency of two cytokinins with different sucrose concentrations on minirhizome induction was studied, and it was found that 0.5mg/l BAP+6% sucrose and 1.0mg/l 2iP+6% gave the best response giving 88.6% and 89.2% response with 1.27±0.02g fresh weight and 1.36±0.10g fresh weight minrhizome respectively.
Insubordination in Tlingit: An Areal Effect?

This paper documents a hitherto unnoticed grammatical phenomenon of Tlingit, a Na-Dene language of Alaska, British Columbia and the Yukon. This phenomenon, which has lately been given the name ‘insubordination’ (Evans 2007), is one in which a free-standing, matrix utterance bears morphosyntactic markers that are otherwise indicative of subordinated clauses. I distinguish three syntactic types of such ‘insubordinate clauses’, as well as four distinct semantic types, and discuss the possible relations between the form and meaning of Tlingit insubordinate clauses. I also discuss the possible origins of insubordination in Tlingit, noting that the phenomenon is not universal amongst the Na-Dene languages. Rather, its appearance in related languages appears to be driven by areal pressures, and I posit that insubordination in the neighboring Haida and Tsimshianic languages may have exerted such pressures on Tlingit as well. Finally, this paper is accompanied by an annotated corpus of Tlingit insubordinate clauses, which provides the empirical basis of the key generalizations proposed here.
Selection for Increased Natural Antibody Levels to Improve Disease Resilience in Pigs

Breeding animals are typically raised under high health conditions in nucleus herds, but their offspring are often exposed to multiple disease challenges in commercial production facilities. Because breeding animals are not exposed to many common swine pathogens, it is difficult to select for resilience to disease. A possible solution is selecting for levels of natural antibodies (NAb), which can be measured in a high health environment and in this study are shown to correlate with disease resilience and to be heritable (h2 = 0.11 to 0.39). Therefore, breeding for increased NAb levels in clean conditions could be a valuable method to improve resilience and decrease mortality in market pigs. Work is ongoing to verify the potential of this prediction.
Use of patient simulators to characterize the repeatability and reproducibility of automated oscillometric blood pressure monitors

Objectives Automated oscillometric blood pressure (BP) monitors can be critical health assessment tools if they are accurate and can provide repeatable and reproducible readings. Commercial patient simulators are capable of screening for poorly performing oscillometric BP monitors. A valid screening bench test method to identify unreliable and underperforming BP monitors could advance surveillance of these devices and support regulatory decision making. Methods Two simulators were used to characterize a total of 19 legally marketed upper arm, wrist, hospital-grade, and public-use BP monitors. These oscillometric BP monitors were tested for repeatability and reproducibility across different simulated patient populations. The metrics for evaluating these devices were the difference between the simulated pressure and the BP monitor output, and the variability from repeated measurements. Results All but one of the BP monitors tested provided repeatable readings (<3 mmHg). The mean error between the simulated pressure and the BP monitor output was largest for the wrist devices, whereas hospital-grade BP monitors most closely estimated the target BP waveforms. In general, device error and measurement variability increased at elevated BPs. Conclusion Patient simulators are more suitable for repeatability analysis as opposed to assessing device accuracy. Despite their limitations, patient simulators can be used as effective tools to screen and improve the quality of BP monitors.
The perceived influence of the elements of internal marketing on the brand image of a staffing agency group

The main purpose of the study on which this article is based was to determine the influence of internal marketing on service quality as a means of improving the brand image of staffing agencies. The population of the study was the public staffing industry in South Africa. The sampling unit was the clients of a selected staffing brand. The selected sample of respondents was surveyed through an online self-administered survey distributed via a link in an email. The data was analysed using multivariate regression statistics. The application of an internal marketing approach enables staffing agencies to minimise employee turnover and increase service quality and performance, aiding staffing agencies to gain strong brand images that result in higher levels of competitiveness and profitability. Successful internal marketing should have a positive influence on employee attitudes and actions and therefore enhance customer satisfaction and service quality. The integration of internal marketing into the organisation's overall marketing strategy is therefore critical. The purpose of such a strategy can be to ensure that the organisation recruits and trains employees to deliver on the values of the brand in order to ensure that staffing agencies strengthen their brand images.
Motor Synchronization in Patients With Schizophrenia: Preserved Time Representation With Abnormalities in Predictive Timing

Objective: Basic temporal dysfunctions have been described in patients with schizophrenia, which may impact their ability to connect and synchronize with the outer world. The present study was conducted with the aim to distinguish between interval timing and synchronization difficulties and more generally the spatial-temporal organization disturbances for voluntary actions. A new sensorimotor synchronization task was developed to test these abilities. Method: Twenty-four chronic schizophrenia patients matched with 27 controls performed a spatial-tapping task in which finger taps were to be produced in synchrony with a regular metronome to six visual targets presented around a virtual circle on a tactile screen. Isochronous (time intervals of 500 ms) and non-isochronous auditory sequences (alternated time intervals of 300/600 ms) were presented. The capacity to produce time intervals accurately versus the ability to synchronize own actions (tap) with external events (tone) were measured. Results: Patients with schizophrenia were able to produce the tapping patterns of both isochronous and non-isochronous auditory sequences as accurately as controls producing inter-response intervals close to the expected interval of 500 and 900 ms, respectively. However, the synchronization performances revealed significantly more positive asynchrony means (but similar variances) in the patient group than in the control group for both types of auditory sequences. Conclusion: The patterns of results suggest that patients with schizophrenia are able to perceive and produce both simple and complex sequences of time intervals but are impaired in the ability to synchronize their actions with external events. These findings suggest a specific deficit in predictive timing, which may be at the core of early symptoms previously described in schizophrenia.
Liquidity, risk, and the collapse of the Mexican peso: A dynamic CGE interpretation

On December 19th, 1994, Mexico's central bank announced a "one-time" 13% devaluation of the narrow band within which the peso had been allowed to float. Investors reacted violently, and within 48 hours the attack on reserves forced Mexico to abandon exchange rate management entirely. The free-floating peso began a slide leaving it 33% lower relative to the dollar by the new year, and 50% lower by the middle of February. This paper argues that the Bank of Mexico's December 19th regime change revealed new information to the market, rationalizing the subsequent attack on reserves.2 Specifically, the regime change announcement contained "news" regarding Mexico's stock of official foreign reserves. Insights borrowed from option pricing theory illustrate that such news leads investors to raise the risk premium assigned to peso-denominated loans. The general equilibrium implications of such a shock are shown to include a sharp and immediate devaluation. The shock is simulated using a multi-sector dynamic computable general equilibrium model of Mexico. Following the devaluation, the model predicts a gradual real revaluation extending over several years. In the short-run, resources shift into export and import-competing sectors (principally Mining and Manufacturing), while the current account moves into surplus and net foreign indebtedness is reduced. In the mediumto long-term, the short-run impact is reversed: non-traded goods production expands and export and import competing sectors contract, leaving Mexico with a smaller volume of outstanding debt and of international trade than would have been the case absent the shock.
Social recommender approach for technology-enhanced learning

The present work fits into the context of recommender systems for educational resources, especially systems that use social information. Based on the research results in the field of recommender systems, social networks and technology-enhanced learning, we defined an educational resource recommendation approach. We rely on social relations between learners to improve recommendation accuracy. Our proposal is based on formal models that generate three types of recommendation, namely recommendation of popular resources, useful resources and recently viewed resources. We developed a learning platform which integrates our recommendation models. In this paper, we present the results of an experiment conducted during six months in a real educational context. The goal of this experiment is to measure the relevance, quality and utility of the recommended resources. We also conduct an offline analysis by using a dataset in order to compare our approach with four baseline algorithms.
Political Competition and Financial Stability in the Developing World

This paper examines the ways in which electoral competition and institutional distribution of veto players in domestic politics influence the robustness of banking regulation and financial stability in developing world. I conduct a cross-section time-series multivariate logistic regression on a banking crisis data set for 60 developing countries from 1974 through 1997. Using outbreak of banking crisis as a measure of the robustness of banking regulations, I examine how political institutional variables affect the likelihood of outbreak of banking crisis in developing world. I find that greater electoral competition is associated with less likelihood of banking crisis. I also find that the most dominant argument in the field of market reform that centralized decision making is most conducive for market reform is not significant in the case of banking regulation. These findings have broad implications for research on the political determinants of policy outcomes in general and financial reform in particular.