Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Olfactory-Ensheathing Cell Transplantation for Peripheral Nerve Repair: Update on Recent Developments

A number of important advances have been made using transplantation of olfactory-ensheathing cells (OECs) to provide therapeutic effects with regard to peripheral nerve repair. In vivo studies have focused on transplanting OECs to stimulate axonal regeneration and sprouting, increase remyelination, confer neuroprotection, enhance neovascularization and replace lost cells. OECs support axonal regeneration and remyelination with appropriate formation of axonal nodes of Ranvier with improvement of nerve conduction velocity. Current work using gene profiling and proteomics is identifying potential therapeutic differences between OECs harvested from nasal mucosa and the olfactory bulb and genes that OECs express that may be conducive to neural repair. OECs derived from nasal mucosa are of clinical interest since the cells could potentially be harvested from a patient and used for autotransplantation. Various nerve scaffolds and materials have been used for nerve repair and recent studies have examined OECs in combination with various supportive materials, including nanoparticles and scaffolds for peripheral nerve substance defects. This review will discuss the use of OECs in nerve repair and nerve defect injuries with specific emphasis on differences between OECs derived from the olfactory bulb and the olfactory mucosa.
A Typology of Tourist Information Search Strategies

This research examined how tourists make systematic use of the information available to them for vacation planning. The literature suggests and the study findings provide sup port for the idea that tourists' choices of information sources represent discrete information search strategies with under lying spatial, temporal, and operational dimensions. Multi dimensional scaling, cluster analysis, and canonical dis criminant analyses of visitor data converge to provide evidence that tourists can be segmented by the information sources used in planning their trips, supporting the targeting of destination information to search customer niches.
1. BUILDING PREDICTIVE MODELS FOR ELECTION RESULTS IN INDIA - AN APPLICATION OF CLASSIFICATION TREES AND NEURAL NETWORKS

The 2002 Judgment of the Supreme Court of India paved the way for compulsory disclosure of information with respect to the background of candidates in elections. This information includes the assets and liabilities as well as criminal antecedents, if any. The general elections held in 2004 were the first set of elections after the implementation of Supreme Court ruling. Thus, a fairly large amount of data on the candidate’ background had become available for the first time. This data was used to build predictive models for forecasting the results of the Legislative Assembly elections of the state of Karnataka. Two different data mining techniques namely, classification trees and artificial neural networks were used to build the predictive models. The prediction accuracy ranged between 90 and 98 percent.
Anesthetic Efficacy of Articaine and Ketamine for Inferior Alveolar Nerve Block in Symptomatic Irreversible Pulpitis: A Prospective Randomized Double-Blind Study

Introduction: The aim of this prospective, randomized, double-blind study was to investigate the effect of articaine combined with ketamine on the success rate of inferior alveolar nerve block (IANB) in posterior mandible teeth with symptomatic irreversible pulpitis. Methods and Materials: Forty two adult patients with diagnosis of symptomatic irreversible pulpitis of a mandibular posterior tooth were selected. The patients received two cartridges of either containing 3.2 mL 4% articaine with epinephrine 1:200000 and 0.4 mL 50 mg/mL ketamine hydrochloride (A-ketamine group) or 3.2 mL 4% articaine with epinephrine 1:200000 and 0.4 mL normal saline (A-saline group) using conventional IANB injections. Access cavity preparation started 15 min after injection. Lip numbness was required for all the patients. Success was considered as no or mild pain on the basis of Heft-Parker visual analog scale recordings upon access cavity preparation or initial instrumentation. Data were analyzed by independent student t, Mann-Whitney and Chi-square tests. Results: The success rates were 55% and 42.9% for A-ketamine and A-saline group, respectively, with no significant differences between the two groups (P=0.437). Conclusion: Adding 0.4 mL 50 mg/mL ketamine hydrochloride to the articaine local anesthetic did not increase the efficacy of IANB for posterior mandibular teeth with symptomatic irreversible pulpitis.
The Value And Glamor Stocks Performance At The Indonesia Stocks Exchange Using The Price Earning Ratio Approach

This study aims to evaluate the portfolio of value stocks and glamor stocks returns by Price Earning Ratio (PER) at the Indonesia Stocks Exchange during the period of 2003-2007 and to test the risk adjusted performance of the two types of stocks . Results of the study reveal that the portfolio of value stocks return is not higher than the portfolio of the glamor stocks return. The study also indicates that the risk adjusted performance of value stocks is smaller than that of glamor stocks. The implication of this research is that the investment in the portfolio of glamor stocks may yield highest returns as well as highest investment risks. The analysis of the coeeficient of variation show that the portfolio of value stocks has a lower risk (1.42) compared to that of glamors stocks (3.48). Therefore, rational investors may choose to invest in value stocks.
Combined Real-Time PCR and Pyrosequencing Strategy for Objective, Sensitive, Specific, and High-Throughput Identification of Reduced Susceptibility to Penicillins in Neisseria meningitidis

ABSTRACT A segment of penA in Neisseria meningitidis strains (n = 127), including two nucleotide sites closely associated to reduced susceptibility to penicillins, was amplified and pyrosequenced. All results were in concordance with Sanger sequencing, and a high correlation between alterations in the two Peni-specific sites and reduced susceptibility to penicillins was identified.
Community-based wetland management at Goot Ting marshes, northeast Thailand: implications for policy and practice

Wetlands cover around 36,616 km 2 or 7.5% of Thailand’s land area. The majority of the 42,000 wetland sites have no formalised, legal protection. This paper reports on a new wetland management approach for communities to manage a seasonally inundated wetland, Goot Ting marshes, in Nong Khai Province, northeastern Thailand. Activities undertaken under this initiative comprised participatory research on the natural resources to identify the biodiversity values and users within the wetland. The boundary and two recognised zones of the community-managed wetland were demarcated. Each zone had specific rules drawn up. Two new institutional bodies for community wetland management – at provincial and wetland level – were established for the management of Goot Ting marshes. This grass-roots initiative provides strong impetus towards a new community-based, conservation agenda for wetland management. Thailand should adopt suitable community wetland legislation and formulate community wetland policy, recognising cust.
Improving the recursive multiplier

This paper examines the recursive multiplier and some potential enhancements for it. The delay of the recursive multiplier is similar to Dadda/Wallace fast multipliers, but the complexity is higher. Since the increase in complexity comes from the reduction stages, modified reduction cells are defined and compared to the existing design. The modifications take advantage of the fact that some of the inputs in the reduction cells are not used Because of the simplicity of array multipliers in comparing gates and delays, most of the comparisons were done with the array multiplier. Based on the original recursive multiplier; a different implementation of the recursive multiplier is presented which has a "Dadda-like" structure, but has greater regularity since it is based on the initial base multiplier structure. The complexity is lower for the new design than the original recursive multiplier.
5 GHz CMOS Quadrature VCO Using Trifilar-Transformer-Coupling Technology

A trifilar-transformer-coupling quadrature voltage-controlled oscillator (TTC-QVCO) with dual transformer-feedback technology is proposed. Compared to traditional QVCOs, the proposed TTC-QVCO provides an additional coupling path, and therefore achieves an improved quadrature phase accuracy, a lower phase noise and a wider tuning range. The TTC-QVCO, implemented in a 0.18-μm CMOS technology, exhibits a frequency tuning range of 19.6% centered at 5.4 GHz and a power consumption of 5.4 mW from a 1.35 V supply voltage. The QVCO has a measured phase noise of -120.42 dBc/Hz at 1-MHz offset and quadrature phase error of less than 2° with a FoMT of 194.3 dB.
Advanced synchrotron-based and globar-sourced molecular (micro) spectroscopy contributions to advances in food and feed research on molecular structure, mycotoxin determination, and molecular nutrition

ABSTRACT Mycotoxin contamination has been a worldwide problem for food and feeds production for a long time. There is an obviously increased focus of the food and feed industry toward the reduction of mycotoxin concentration in both the raw materials and finished products. Therefore, both effective qualitative and quantitative techniques for the determination of mycotoxins are required to minimize their harmful effects. Conventional wet chemical methods usually are time-consuming, expensive, and rely on complex extraction and cleanup pretreatments. Synchrotron-based and globar-based molecular spectroscopy have shown great potential to be developed as rapid and nondestructive tools for the determination of molecular structure, molecular nutrition and mycotoxins in feed and food. This article reviews the common types of mycotoxins in feed and food, their toxicity, as well as the conventional detection methods. The principle of advanced molecular spectroscopy techniques and their application prospects for mycotoxin detection are discussed. Recent progress in food and feed research with molecular spectroscopy techniques is highlighted. This review provides a potential and insight into how to determine the structure and mycotoxins of feed and food on a molecular basis with advanced Synchrotron-based and globar-based molecular (micro) spectroscopy.
Defects in Peroxisomal 6-Phosphogluconate Dehydrogenase Isoform PGD2 Prevent Gametophytic Interaction in Arabidopsis thaliana 1 [OPEN]

Oxidative pentose-phosphate pathway reactions are required for reproduction. We studied the localization of 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase (PGD) isoforms of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). Similar polypeptide lengths of PGD1, PGD2, and PGD3 obscured which isoform may represent the cytosolic and/or plastidic enzyme plus whether PGD2 with a peroxisomal targeting motif also might target plastids. Reporter-fusion analyses in protoplasts revealed that, with a free N terminus, PGD1 and PGD3 accumulate in the cytosol and chloroplasts, whereas PGD2 remains in the cytosol. Mutagenesis of a conserved second ATG enhanced the plastidic localization of PGD1 and PGD3 but not PGD2. Amino-terminal deletions of PGD2 fusions with a free C terminus resulted in peroxisomal import after dimerization, and PGD2 could be immunodetected in purified peroxisomes. Repeated selfing of pgd2 transfer (T-)DNA alleles yielded no homozygous mutants, although siliques and seeds of heterozygous plants developed normally. Detailed analyses of the C-terminally truncated PGD2-1 protein showed that peroxisomal import and catalytic activity are abolished. Reciprocal backcrosses of pgd2-1 suggested that missing PGD activity in peroxisomes primarily affects the male gametophyte. Tetrad analyses in the quartet1-2 background revealed that pgd2-1 pollen is vital and in vitro germination normal, but pollen tube growth inside stylar tissues appeared less directed. Mutual gametophytic sterility was overcome by complementation with a genomic construct but not with a version lacking the first ATG. These analyses showed that peroxisomal PGD2 activity is required for guided growth of the male gametophytes and pollen tube-ovule interaction. Our report finally demonstrates an essential role of oxidative pentose-phosphate pathway reactions in peroxisomes, likely needed to sustain critical levels of nitric oxide and/or jasmonic acid, whose biosynthesis both depend on NADPH provision.
Making Sense of Public Value: Concepts, Critiques and Emergent Meanings

Abstract It has been two decades since the “public value” framework emerged, articulated initially at the Harvard Kennedy School. In this paper we set out the basics of the original approach, and then consider emerging critiques and meanings. Our aim is firstly to clarify the core concepts of Moore's approach, and secondly to track the new meanings of public value which are developing. This allows us to engage with the growing debate about public value both inside and outside academia, and also to discuss its trajectory as a new idea in public sector management.
Prospects for an HIV Vaccine: Conventional Approaches and DNA Immunization

The state of the HIV pandemic has reached epic proportions with an estimated 40 million infected worldwide with HIV and 22 million dead from AIDS and AIDSrelated diseases. The introduction of HAART (highly active anti-retroviral therapy) in developed countries has significantly curbed the morbidity and mortality associated with HIV infection. However, infection with HIV still remains universally fatal, and the high cost of HAART makes this treatment strategy unrealistic in many of the countries devastated by this epidemic. Furthermore, the ability of the virus to integrate into the host cell genome and establish long-lasting cellular reservoirs early in the course of infection makes eradication of infection by this approach unfeasible. Therefore, the development of an effective prophylactic HIV vaccine is now more essential than ever. Despite two decades of efforts, the development of an effective vaccine has been an elusive task, and now it is clear that we will have to surmount many obstacles. Many of these obstacles are due to characteristics of the virus itself, while others involve an understanding of the host immune response. A further
An index recovery method for real-time DBMS in client-server architecture

Most real-time systems keep the whole databases in main memory for high performance. In this paper we presuppose that the system has client-server architecture with the restrictions on the memory and the time. In the light of these presupposition, we suggest an effective recovery technique for the index structures, a part of the database, and describe how it provides further performance improvement in the real-time client-server system. The basic paradigm of the proposed recovery technique is that the recovery technique of the indices should be designed differently from that of the other data part to tackle the constraints of the systems. The more client systems are appended to the system, the better performance can be guaranteed in the proposed recovery technique compared with the previous techniques.
System and Waveform Design for Wavelet Packet Division Multiplexing-Based Visible Light Communications

This study introduces the wavelet packet division multiplexing (WPDM) to visible-light communication (VLC) system. We provide the transceiver system model for the WPDM-based VLC, as well as the associated optimal waveform design under the lighting emitting diodes (LEDs) dispersion. The dispersion specific to each LED shows that such waveform design is done in an offline manner. Numerical results show the performance gain of the WPDM over the OFDM, in terms of improved out-of-band power leakage, smaller PAPR, more robust to LED nonlinearity and the channel dispersion. Moreover, the optimized waveform for the LED distortion shows performance gain over the conventional wavelet function, e.g., Daubechies wavelet functions. Such advantages make WPDM a good candidate for future VLC systems.
A simple analytical model for the electrical characteristics of depletion-mode MOSFET's with application to low-temperature operation

A simple analytical model for depletion-mode MOSFET's is developed based on the gradual channel approximation and taking into account carrier freeze-out onto impurity sites implanted for threshold voltage modification. Theory is found to be in reasonable agreement with experimental results for n-channel depletion-mode MOSFET's at room temperature and at 77 K. It is shown that the common methods used for enhancement-mode devices to determine carrier channel mobility and threshold voltage, respectively, from the slope and voltage intercept of the current-gate voltage characteristics are invalid for depletion-mode devices. By comparison of enhancement and depletion devices on the same chip, it is shown that the processes associated with ion implantation had no effect on electron channel mobility at room temperature and caused at most a 25-percent reduction at 77 K. The model also is applicable to buried p-channel devices as used in CMOS technologies.
Behavior of Listeria monocytogenes inoculated into raw tomatoes and processed tomato products

Rates of death and growth of Listeria monocytogenes inoculated onto raw whole and into chopped tomatoes stored at 10 and 21 degrees C were not influenced by prior treatment of tomatoes with chlorine or packaging under an atmosphere of 3% O2 and 97% N2. Growth of the pathogen occurred in whole tomatoes held at 21 degrees C but not at 10 degrees C, while death occurred in chopped tomatoes stored at these temperatures. Likewise, growth patterns of mesophilic aerobic microorganisms, psychrotrophic microorganisms, and yeasts and molds on whole and chopped tomatoes were essentially unaffected by chlorine and modified atmosphere packaging treatments. Populations of L. monocytogenes inoculated into commercially processed tomato juice and sauce and held at 5 degrees C remained constant for 14 days. A gradual decrease in the number of viable L. monocytogenes cells was observed in juice and sauce held at 21 degrees C. In contrast, the organism died rapidly when suspended in commercial tomato ketchup at 5 and 21 degrees C. Unlike low-acid raw salad vegetables such as lettuce, broccoli, asparagus, and cauliflower on which we have observed L. monocytogenes grow at refrigeration temperatures, tomatoes are not a good growth substrate for the organism. Nevertheless, L. monocytogens can remain viable on raw whole and chopped tomatoes and in commercial tomato juice and sauce for periods extending beyond their normal shelf-life expectancy.
Efficiency and Organizational Structure: A Study of Reverse LBOs

This paper is a report on seventy-two firms that went public since 1983, but previously underwent a full or divisional levereged buy-out. Accounting measures of performance reveal significant improvements in profitability, which resulted mainly from these firms' ability to reduce costs. Firms experience dramatic increases in leverage at the levereged buyout, but the leverage ratios are gradually reduced. The evidence is consistent with the hypothesis that the change in the governance structure of these firms towards more concentrated residual claims created a new organizational structure that is more efficient than its predecessor. Copyright 1990 by American Finance Association.
Multi-level voting and party competition in vertically simultaneous elections: the case of Ukraine

Vertically simultaneous elections to state-wide and regional legislatures provide us with a naturally occurring experiment in which to examine regionalism and multi-level voting. We examine the 2006 vertically and horizontally simultaneous state-wide and regional elections in Ukraine to determine how the internal dynamics of regionalism within a state account for the dissimilarity of voting behavior across electoral levels. Drawing on the party competition literature, we demonstrate that variations in both supply (parties) and demand (voters) produce considerable dissimilarity between regional and state results, with lower levels of consolidation and greater fractionalization at the regional level. We show that political cleavages operate differently across levels, that regional distinctiveness rather than regional authority better predicts first order-ness in regional elections, and that voters display varying tolerance for polarization at the regional and state level.
Explaining the profitability of foreign banks in Shanghai

This paper uses survival analysis to examine the factors determining the time taken for branches of foreign banks in Shanghai, China to make a positive rate of return after entering that market. Particular attributes of banks including the parent bank's size, early entry and the number of branches the bank has in China are found to reduce time to profitability. Market conditions in Shanghai, captured by levels of foreign direct investment and Eurodollar interest rates, are also found to have significant effects. A number of managerial implications are drawn from the analysis in light of the greater access to the Chinese banking markets following China's accession to the WTO. To ensure long-term profitability in Shanghai, the foreign bank needs to contain costs and risks in the new markets, formulate an effective market penetration strategy, identify appropriate customer target groups, attract businesses from firms of different countries, seek early entry and undertake more fee-income generating businesses. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Oberoi-Hilton strategic alliance that died in infancy

East India Hotels Ltd. (EIH), India's well respected name in the hospitality sector passed through rough weather in years starting 2001. The annual financial results showed downward trend in sales, net profits, value addition, and earnings per share. The process of globalisation started by India in 1991 had benefited the country in providing a boost to the economy. To the hospitality sector it meant more discerning foreign visitors. In 2003, EIH decided to enter into an alliance with Hilton, one of the top hotel chains at the global level. Hilton was equally keen to make its presence felt in the emerging fast growing Indian economy. The alliance made effective in 2004 had become sour by 2006, compelling both the partners to call it off in 2007. The case traces events leading to the sad demise of the alliance raising fundamental issues about the missing homework before signing of the agreement.
A Novel Simple but Empirically Consistent Model for Stock Price and Option Pricing

In this paper, we propose a simple but empirically consistent stochastic model for stock price dynamics and option pricing, which not only has the same analyticity as log-normal and Black-Scholes model, but is also consistent with many phenomenons arising from empirical stock and option markets. It is another way to model stock price and options under leptokurtic distribution that hopefully can add some new insight or give new ideas to improve stock and option valuation.