Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Abnormalities in the recirculation phase of contrast agent bolus passage in cerebral gliomas: comparison with relative blood volume and tumor grade.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Abnormalities in the recirculation phase of the passage of a contrast agent bolus have been identified in tumors and have been suggested to represent vascular tortuosity and hypoperfusion in areas of angiogenic neovascularization. This study was performed to examine the hypothesis that these abnormalities provide information concerning the microcirculation related to tumor grade in patients with cerebral glioma. METHODS Contrast-enhanced dynamic susceptibility MR imaging was performed in 27 patients with glioma. Residual relaxivity effects were minimized by injection of contrast agent before dynamic imaging. Maps of relative cerebral blood volume (rCBV) and relative recirculation (rR) were calculated, and values from enhancing tumor tissue were compared with tumor grade. RESULTS Histologic grades were grade II, astrocytoma (n = 3); grade III, anaplastic astrocytoma (n = 10); and grade IV, glioblastoma multiforme (n = 14). rCBV values varied among tumor grades, with higher mean values in higher grade tumors (P <.001). Mean rR values in grade II tumors were not significantly different from those in normal gray and white matter. Mean rR values in grades III and IV tumors were similar and were significantly higher than those in grade II tumors (P <.01). The distribution of the pixel values of rR showed significant differences between grades III and IV tumors (P <.001), with low values of skewness in keeping with a normal distribution in grade III tumors and higher values in grade IV tumors. CONCLUSION Variation in the recirculation characteristics of a contrast agent bolus is related to tumor grade in gliomas. This supports the hypothesis that abnormalities in contrast agent recirculation provide independent information concerning the microcirculation in imaging studies of angiogenesis and may be of value as surrogate markers in trials of antiangiogenic therapy.
The Equity Accounting Saga in Australia: Cyclical Standard Setting

Equity accounting in Australia has had a long, chequered history. This article examines that history by reference to a succession of six Exposure Drafts, one Statement of Accounting Practice and two Standards issued between 1968 and 1995. We adapt Nobes' (1991, 1992a. 1992b) cycle model of regulation to explain variation in ‘standardization’ across these documents. Nobes defined ‘standardization’ to mean the restriction of choice in accounting methods but we modify the concept to allow for measurement rule ‘improvements’ and changes in required disclosure levels. Nobes' cycle model has four stages: a starting point of varied practice: energy inputs, often crises, drawing attention to the issue at hand: forces opposing and forces in favour of standardization. A cycle- like pattern of variation in standardization emerges in the present context. Potential shortcomings of the cycle model are addressed, including Skerratt and Whittington's (1992) criticisms of Nobes' cycle model. The article extends the literature with respect to a cyclical explanation of the standard setting process. The cycle pattern evident here reflects a slow and incomplete resolution of various conceptual and legal difficulties in regulating equity accounting in Australia.
T cells mediate resistance to genetically modified bone marrow in lethally irradiated recipients1

Background. In order for gene therapy to attain clinical relevance, efficient engraftment and long-term survival of cells that express transduced genes of interest must be achieved. In this study, we examined the extent to which host T cells affect engraftment of syngeneic bone marrow cells engineered to express a retrovirally transduced allogeneic major histocompatibility complex class-I gene. Methods. B10.AKM mice were preconditioned with lethal irradiation or lethal irradiation plus transient CD4 and CD8 T-cell depletion in addition to CD40-CD154 costimulatory blockade and were then reconstituted with syngeneic bone marrow cells transduced with retroviruses that carried the gene that encoded H-2Kb (Kb). Expression of Kb on bone marrow–derived cells was then analyzed, and induction of tolerance to Kb was evaluated. Results. Mice conditioned using CD4 and CD8 T-cell depletion in addition to CD40-CD154 costimulatory blockade and lethal irradiation showed a significant increase in the frequency of bone marrow–derived cells that expressed Kb when compared to animals that received lethal irradiation alone. Survival of allogeneic skin grafts that expressed Kb was significantly prolonged in animals conditioned with anti-CD4, anti-CD8, and co-stimulatory blockade in addition to lethal irradiation (median survival time, 81 days) when compared to mice that received irradiation alone (mean survival time, 31 days;P =0.001). Conclusions. Radioresistant host T cells significantly affect the ability to induce tolerance by gene therapy by affecting engraftment of transduced cells that expressed allogeneic major histocompatibility complex class-I genes in the absence of host T-cell depletion and costimulatory blockade, even after lethal irradiation. Thus, radioresistant host T cells are a significant barrier to engraftment of transduced bone marrow progenitors and to the induction of tolerance by gene therapy.
A data reusage algorithm based on incremental combination of LMS filters

This work introduces a new data reuse algorithm based on the incremental combination of LMS filters. It is able to outperform the Affine Projection Algorithm (APA) in its standard form, another well-known data reuse adaptive filter. First, the so called true gradient data reuse LMS-sometimes referred to as data reuse LMS-is shown to be a limiting case of the regularized APA. Afterwards, an incremental counterpart of its recursion is inspired by distributed optimization and adaptive networks scenarios. Simulations in different scenarios show the efficiency of the proposed data reuse algorithm, that is able to match and even outperform the APA in the mean-square sense at lower computational complexity.
Reasoning About Knowledge and Action in an Epistemic Event Calculus

We present a generalization of classical-logic Event Calculus that facilitates reasoning about non-binary-valued fluents in domains with non-deterministic, triggered, concurrent, and possibly conflicting actions. We show how this framework may be used as a basis for a "possible worlds" style approach to epistemic and causal reasoning in a narrative setting. In this framework an agent may gain knowledge about both fluent values and action occurrences through sensing actions, lose knowledge via non-deterministic actions or events, and represent plans that include conditional actions whose conditions maybe initially unknown.
Bringing Hotels to Healthcare

Abstract The field of medical tourism has grown and developed over the last ten years into a popular option for having a medical procedure done. Continuing success is expected, and becoming involved with medical tourism appears to be an excellent way for the hotel industry to differentiate their services. By integrating a medical tourism program into an existing hotel company's services, both aspects of the partnership will build off of the other's success and create a new and exciting travel experience. A joint partnership between a medical facility and a luxury hotel would enjoy abounding success in this new and exhilarating market.
Pigment—protein interactions in the photosynthetic reaction centre from Rhodopseudomonas viridis

An X‐ray structure analysis of the photosynthetic reaction centre from the purple bacterium Rhodopseudomonas viridis provides structural details of the pigment‐binding sites. The photosynthetic pigments are found in rather hydrophobic environments provided by the subunits L and M. In addition to apolar interactions, the bacteriochlorophylls of the primary electron donor (‘special pair’) and the bacteriopheophytins, but not the accessory bacteriochlorophylls, form hydrogen bonds with amino acid side chains of these protein subunits. The two branches of pigments which originate at the primary electron donor, and which mark possible electron pathways across the photosynthetic membrane, are in different environments and show different hydrogen bonding with the protein: this may help to understand why only one branch of pigments is active in the light‐driven electron transfer. The primary electron acceptor, a menaquinone (QA), is in a pocket formed by the M subunit and interacts with it by hydrophobic contacts and hydrogen bonds. Competitive inhibitors of the secondary quinone QB (o‐phenanthroline, the herbicide terbutryn) are bound into a pocket provided by the L subunit. Apart from numerous van der Waals interactions they also form hydrogen bonds to the protein.
Frequent incremental change, organizational size, and mortality in high-technology competition

While radical technological change is often characterized as hazardous, particularly to incumbents, incremental technological change has appeared to be immune from such risks. Little attention has been given to the possibility that under some circumstances incremental technological change can be quite risky. This article argues that there may be tradeoffs to high rates of incremental technological change. The costs are of two kinds: the organizational disruptions associated with frequent technological change and overestimating the advantages and receptiveness of the technological improvement. We argue that larger firms are better equipped than smaller firms to cope with these costs and will reap greater benefits from incremental changes. Using data on the population of worldwide floppy disk drive manufacturers, we find that frequent incremental technical changes decrease organizational mortality for large firms but increase it for smaller firms. We also find that large firms that frequently introduce incremental technological improvements are more potent competitors. This study helps us understand how frequent incremental change affects mortality as organizations grow. Advice to managers to engage in continuous incremental innovation can therefore be misguided because unless firms are large, they may incur costs that are so great that the firm actually "fails" by innovating frequently. Copyright 2010 The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Associazione ICC. All rights reserved. , Oxford University Press.
Two commodity perishable inventory system with negative and Impatient customers, postponed demands and a finite population

In this article, we consider a stochastic inventory system with two different items in stock, one is major item (first commodity) and other is gift item (second commodity), and the demands originate from a finite population of N sources. The maximum storage capacity for the i-th commodity is Si (i=1, 2) time points of demand occurrences form independent quasi random distributions. The second commodity is supplied as a gift whenever the demand occurs for the first commodity, but no major item (first commodity) is provided as a gift for demanding a second commodity. The items are perishable in nature. If the inventory position of first commodity is zero then any arriving demand for the first commodity either enters a pool or leaves the system according to a Bernoulli trial. The system has been identified as a Markov process and the system performance measures are derived. The total expected cost rate is also considered and the results are illustrated numerically.
Sensitivity Enhanced Vital Sign Detection Based on Antenna Reflection Coefficient Variation

This paper presents a vital sign detection sensor based on reflection coefficient variance from an antenna used in wireless communication devices. The near-field effect is estimated by performing 3D full-wave simulations using a dipole antenna and the magnitude variation of the reflection coefficient induced by human thorax movement due to heart and lungs is observed. The results support the possibility of vital sign detection based on the magnitude variation of the reflection coefficient from an antenna, which can be explained as a narrowband modulation scheme. In particular, a sensitivity enhancement method is proposed and analyzed, and experiments are carried out for heartbeat detection using a dipole antenna with the proposed system. Experimental results are compared between the direct detection and sensitivity enhancement detection schemes. FM signal is also applied to confirm that the proposed sensor works properly in conjunction with an existing communication system. The proposed cardiopulmonary detection sensor is implemented with off-the-shelf components at 2.4 GHz and excellent performance is obtained.
Performance analysis of voltage regulated inverter for FLC based PV-wind hybrid power system with real time data

The sun and wind based generation are well-thoroughly considered to be alternate source of green power generation which can mitigate the power demand issues. As sun powered and wind power advancements are entrenched and the infiltration of these Renewable Energy Sources (RES) into to network is expanding dynamically, testing errand is to keep up the voltage and frequency of the power generated from RES consistent as they specifically relies upon environmental conditions. So as to outline a legitimate control and to harness power from RES the learning of natural conditions for a specific area is fundamental. With this fundamental information of the environmental conditions, a suitable Photovoltaic and Wind power generations can be chosen to extract maximum power from the conditions. Fuzzy Logic Controller (FLC) based Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) controlled boost converter are utilized for viable operation and to keep DC voltage steady at desired level. The control scheme of the inverter is intended to keep the load voltage and frequency of the AC supply at constant level regardless of progress in natural conditions and burden. A Simulink model of the proposed Hybrid system with the MPPT controlled Boost converters and Voltage regulated Inverter for stand-alone application is developed in MATLAB R2015a, Version 8.5. 0. The ongoing information of Wind Speed and Solar Irradiation levels are recorded at BITS-Pilani, Hyderabad Campus utilizing climate observing framework introduced at the area the performance of the voltage regulated inverter under constant and varying linear, non-linear AC load with the real time data of the solar irradiation and wind speed as input is analyzed. The investigation shows that the magnitude of load voltage and frequency of the load voltage is maintained at desired level by the proposed inverter control logic.
Agricultural Prices in China

This paper describes the major features of China's agricultural pricing system as they have evolved since l949, but focuses on adjustments in the 1976-82 period. The institutional setting for price policy is described, price-cost relationships are examined and price ratios from key inputs and outputs are defined. A major portion of the paper is devoted to agricultural marketing policy and consumer subsidies. The size of important subsidies is estimated and their distributional and allocative implications are explored. The paper suggests that state interventions in the agricultural pricing system provide disproportionately high benefits to relatively advantaged urban consumers and may restrict adjustment to more economically efficient production patterns in agriculture.
Rapid naming by children with and without specific language impairment.

PURPOSE Previous studies have reported that children with specific language impairment (SLI) name pictures more slowly than do chronological age-matched (CAM) peers. Rapid naming depends on 2 factors known to be problematic for children with SLI-lexical retrieval and nonlinguistic speed of processing. Although all studies implicate a speed-of-processing deficit as a contributing factor, researchers do not agree on the influence of language factors. The purpose of the current study was to explore word frequency (WF) and phonotactic pattern frequency (PPF) as potential lexical factors contributing to the naming deficits experienced by children with SLI. METHOD Three groups of children-20 children with SLI (Mage = 9;8 [years;months]), 20 younger vocabulary-matched (VM) controls, and 20 CAM controls-named pictures whose labels varied by WF and PPF. RESULTS Reaction time results revealed significant main effects of group (CAM < SLI = VM) and WF (high WF < low WF). Effects due to WF were comparable for all groups, but a significant Group × PPF interaction revealed that PPF effects were greater for children with SLI than for VM or CAM children. CONCLUSION Results replicate previous findings of a naming deficit in children with SLI. Furthermore, results suggest that children with SLI are more vulnerable to increased competition from words with frequent phonotactic patterns, which also come from dense phonological neighborhoods.
Pricing of vanilla and first-generation exotic options in the local stochastic volatility framework: survey and new results

Stochastic volatility (SV) and local stochastic volatility (LSV) processes can be used to model the evolution of various financial variables such as FX rates, stock prices and so on. Considerable efforts have been devoted to pricing derivatives written on underliers governed by such processes. Many issues remain, though, including the efficacy of the standard alternating direction implicit (ADI) numerical methods for solving SV and LSV pricing problems. In general, the amount of required computations for these methods is very substantial. In this paper, we address some of these issues and propose a viable alternative to the standard ADI methods based on Galerkin-Ritz ideas. We also discuss various approaches to solving the corresponding pricing problems in a semi-analytical fashion. We use the fact that in the zero correlation case some of the pricing problems can be solved analytically, and develop a closed-form series expansion in powers of correlation. We perform a thorough benchmarking of various numerical solutions by using analytical and semi-analytical solutions derived in the paper.
From community to public ownership: A tale of changing accountabilities

Purpose - – The purpose of this paper is to examine changes in accountability as the provision and control of education moved from private nonprofit organisations to a public sector provider. Design/methodology/approach - – Analysis of nineteenth century archival documents from significant primary educational providers in a major early New Zealand settlement. Findings - – The nonprofit education provider utilised public meetings including public examinations, whose effect was to develop trust based on the education values it shared with its community of stakeholders. It also published financial reports which, along with inspections and statistical returns, were preferred once the government became the education provider. Such publications and inspections indicated bureaucracy and control. Nevertheless, government funding, rather than the nonprofit organisation’s dependence on its community, made education provision sustainable. Research limitations/implications - – It has been suggested that the differences between public sector and private sector accounting and accountability are not always sharply defined (Carnegie and Napier, 2012). However, this case study shows that a change of education provider did lead to a marked difference in accountability. While theory suggests that public sector accountability should enhance democracy, the party best meeting this brief was the nonprofit provider, with the public sector provider preferring hierarchical accountability. It could be argued that funding dependence drove these different approaches as community accountability was traded for financial security. Originality/value - – Distinctive study of accountability practices to external stakeholders, in a mid-nineteenth century education context.
System modelling of telecom service sector supply chain: a SAP-LAP analysis

By the adoption of an appropriate change management scheme, organisations can improve their core competency. In that direction, SAP-LAP has proved itself as an ideal tool. Currently, rapid developments have been witnessed in telecom logistics. This article deals with a case study carried out in an Indian telecom service sector. The various situations encountered by the organisation were considered for study. They were analysed by SAP-LAP technique followed by an actor-process matrix. The matrix was quantified using normal scores, which were then converted to prioritised scores. This gave the locations having greater intensity led to potential for a change management application. Organisations need to learn from previous situations. By locating the best key result area, it can be recommended to concentrate there and give prime considerations to such situations and how actors need to behave and how process need to be scheduled under similar situations.
Macroeconomic Variables And Seasonal Mean Reversion In Stock Returns

In this paper I investigate whether seasonal mean reversion in stock portfolio returns is related to common macroeconomic risk factors. I decompose excess returns into explained and unexplained returns using a multifactor pricing model. The explained excess returns exhibit January mean reversion; the unexplained excess returns do not. The mean reversion can be attributed to the components of return related to unexpected inflation, bond default premium and market risk. The results do not depend on the time-series properties of the portfolio betas. Bond default premia and excess market returns are mean reverting in January.
Neurological decompression illness in swine.

BACKGROUND A porcine model of neurological decompression illness (DCI) and its treatment is described. METHODS Pigs (wt. 16-22 kg) underwent a simulated dive to 200 feet of seawater (fsw) (612.6 kPa) for 24 min, then decompressed at 60 fsw/min-1 (183 kPa.min-1). Pigs that developed neurological DCI were sedated with diazepam, then treated by recompression on U.S. Navy Treatment Table 6. Functional outcome was assessed by treadmill running. At necropsy 24 h postdive, carcass density was measured by underwater weighing, and tissue samples including heart, spinal cord, and brain were taken for histopathological examination. RESULTS Neurological DCI occurred in 73% of control animals and developed within 2-7 min in 50% of cases. Affected pigs had significantly earlier onset of skin DCI than unaffected pigs (means: 9.52 min vs. 17.9 min, p < 0.001). Only 16.4% of pigs made a full functional recovery after recompression treatment. Outcome at 24 h was not improved in 20 pigs randomized to receive adjunctive lidocaine infusion compared to 20 pigs that received saline alone. Following necropsy, 77% of cases had petechial hemorrhages grossly visible in the spinal cord. Multifocal, microscopic hemorrhages, predominantly of spinal cord white matter, were found in 86.6% of DCI cases. Neither weight, density, nor genetic predisposition were found to influence DCI risk. CONCLUSIONS The model is analogous to severe, early-onset, neurological DCI in humans and allows prospective evaluation of risk reduction and treatment stratagems for this form of DCI. Many applied and basic science issues relevant to diving medicine may also be studied using the model, and adaptation to study hypobaric DCI and other clinical applications of hyperbaric oxygen is feasible.