Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Discovering Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms Regulating Human Gene Expression Using Allele Specific Expression from RNA-seq Data

The study of the genetics of gene expression is of considerable importance to understanding the nature of common, complex diseases. The most widely applied approach to identifying relationships between genetic variation and gene expression is the expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) approach. Here, we increased the computational power of eQTL with an alternative and complementary approach based on analyzing allele specific expression (ASE). We designed a novel analytical method to identify cis-acting regulatory variants based on genome sequencing and measurements of ASE from RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) data. We evaluated the power and resolution of our method using simulated data. We then applied the method to map regulatory variants affecting gene expression in lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCLs) from 77 unrelated northern and western European individuals (CEU), which were part of the HapMap project. A total of 2309 SNPs were identified as being associated with ASE patterns. The SNPs associated with ASE were enriched within promoter regions and were significantly more likely to signal strong evidence for a regulatory role. Finally, among the candidate regulatory SNPs, we identified 108 SNPs that were previously associated with human immune diseases. With further improvements in quantifying ASE from RNA-seq, the application of our method to other datasets is expected to accelerate our understanding of the biological basis of common diseases.
Education in Togo: From Its Creation until the Period of Socio-Political and Economic Crisis of 1990

In order to study in long-term the impact of the socio-political and economic crisis on the public policy of Togolese educational system, this article tries to relate the history of Togolese education since its creation until the beginning of the period of the socio-political and economic crisis of 1990. Being given that one of the primordial objectives of the Togolese state is reached at the universal primary school education by 2015. Thus, this study will be focused more on the primary education. Therefore the study proposes to explore the functioning of the Togolese educational system in order to better understand its strengths and weaknesses, to identify present sources of inefficiencies and suggest possible ways to reduce them.
Flow Cytometry and Electron Microscopy Study of Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli Treated with Mdc-Hly

Abstract In our previous study, a novel hybrid protein combining human lysozyme (Hly) with Musca domestica cecropin (Mdc) was successfully constructed. The broad antibacterial activity against various foodborne pathogens of Mdc-hly suggests its scope as a food preservative. The aim of the present study was to investigate the antibacterial mechanism of the recombinant Mdc-hly. The damage induced by Mdc-hly on Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli was investigated using flow cytometry (FC), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The results of FC showed that Mdc-hly causes bacterial membrane permeabilization. SEM and TEM studies revealed that Mdc-hly is capable of damaging both the membrane and the wall of bacteria, resulting in efflux of essential cytoplasmic contents. Both FC and EM revealed that the effects of Mdc-hly were greater than its parental peptides. Understanding the antibacterial mechanism of Mdc-hly is of a great interest in further utilization of its use in treatment of food and in clinical environments.
Effects of acute angiotensin II type 1 receptor antagonism and angiotensin converting enzyme inhibition on plasma fibrinolytic parameters in patients with heart failure.

Antagonism and Angiotensin Converting Enzyme Inhibition on Plasma Fibrinolytic Parameters in Patients With Heart Failure To the Editor: We read with interest the study by Goodfield et al 1 comparing the effects of the acute administration of a single dose of enalapril or losartan on fibrinolytic parameters. We would like to raise several concerns about the design of this study that we believe should temper the authors’ interpretation of their results. First, a well-described diurnal variation exists in plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) antigen and activity. In this study, subjects received oral doses of enalapril and losartan at 10:00 AM; blood samples were drawn before drug administration and at 4:00 PM. However, in carefully controlled studies, we have shown that in subjects with an activated renin-angiotensin system (RAS), plasma PAI-1 antigen levels fall spontaneously by '50% over that same time period. 2 Although the decrease in PAI-1 after losartan was greater than that measured after enalapril, it is possible that neither reduction was different from that which would have been measured during placebo. Second, the authors studied patients with congestive heart failure who were taking other medications that could affect the RAS. Without data on renin or aldosterone concentrations during each study day, it is impossible to exclude the possibility that the degree of stimulation of the RAS differed on the 2 study days. Third, because blood was sampled at only one time point after drug administration, the authors cannot exclude the possibility that they measured a pharmacokinetic rather than a pharmacodynamic effect. Finally, the relatively low affinity of enalapril for tissue angiotensin-converting enzyme may explain the apparent reduced potency of this drug in reducing PAI-1. However, the more likely explanation is that neither drug had any real effect on plasma fibrinolytic balance, with the reported results merely reflecting predicted diurnal changes and the effects of confounding variables.
Capital structure determinants: an empirical study of French companies in the wine industry

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explain the leverage of French wine companies (410 companies) in the wine industry during the period 2000‐2004.Design/methodology/approach – Different classical capital structure theories are reviewed (trade‐off theory (TOT), pecking order theory (POT) and dynamic TOT) in order to formulate testable propositions concerning the determinants of debt levels of the French wine companies. A number of regression models (classical and panel techniques) are developed to test the static theory of trade‐off against the POT.Findings – The results suggest that POT seems to better explain leverage of French wine companies. Significant differences in debt ratio were found between cooperatives and other legal structures. Debt ratios are also different between sub‐sectors (wholesalers, wine growers, wine makers, etc.). Practical implications – Cost of capital is one of the pillars of competitive advantage (or disadvantage) of companies. With the objective to minimize the cost of c.
Polychlorinated biphenyls as hormonally active structural analogues.

Among the environmental chemicals that may be able to disrupt the endocrine systems of animals and humans, the polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are a chemical class of considerable concern. One possible mechanism by which PCBs may interfere with endocrine function is their ability to mimic natural hormones. These actions reflect a close relationship between the physicochemical properties encoded in the PCB molecular structure and the responses they evoke in biological systems. These physicochemical properties determine the molecular reactivities of PCBs and are responsible for their recognition at biological acceptors and receptors, as well as for triggering molecular mechanisms that lead to tissue response. "Coplanarity" of PCB phenyl rings and "laterality" of chlorine atoms are important structural features determining specific binding behavior with proteins and certain toxic responses in biological systems. We compare qualitative structure-activity relationships for PCBs with the limited information on the related non-coplanar chlorinated diphenyl ethers, providing further insights into the nature of the molecular recognition processes and support for the structural relationship of PCBs to thyroid hormones. Steroidlike activity requires conformational restriction and possibly hydroxylation. We offer some simple molecular recognition models to account for the importance of these different structural features in the structure-activity relationships that permit one to express PCB reactivities in terms of dioxin, thyroxine, and estradiol equivalents. The available data support the involvement of PCBs as mimics of thyroid and other steroidal hormones. The potential for reproductive and developmental toxicity associated with human exposure to PCBs is of particular concern. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS) Imagesp290-aFigure 2.Figure 3.Figure 4.Figure 5.Figure 6.
Discovering Spatio-Textual Association Rules in Document Images

This chapter introduces a data mining method for the discovery of association rules from images of scanned paper documents. It argues that a document image is a multi-modal unit of analysis whose semantics is deduced from a combination of both the textual content and the layout structure and the logical structure. Therefore, it proposes a method where both the spatial information derived from a complex document image analysis process (layout analysis), and the information extracted from the logical structure of the document (document image classification and understanding) and the textual information extracted by means of an OCR, are simultaneously considered to generate interesting patterns. The proposed method is based on an inductive logic programming approach, which is argued to be the most appropriate to analyze data available in more than one modality. It contributes to show a possible evolution of the unimodal knowledge discovery scheme, according to which different types of data describing the units of analysis are dealt with through the application of some preprocessing technique that transform them into a single double entry tabular data.
Psychosocial Contextualization of Peace Educations and it's Implication for National Development

Currently, there is no consensus among scholars as to what peace education means. As a result of this lack of conceptual clarity which impedes educational attempts to promote peace, it is imperative that interventions in form of peace education be contextually situated for a clearer understanding to be achieved. This paper therefore posited that some psychosocial factors amidst other factors be included in the curriculum development of any peace education process. These contextual factors include an understanding of conflict-based worldviews, which express themselves in conflicted intrapersonal, interpersonal, intergroup, international relationships. Others are parental upbringing, socio-economic, religious and cultural practices. It also highlighted the imperatives of peace education and the implications of peace education for national development. It further suggest that parents and teachers should seek out teachable moments to talk and teach children the positive values of the society.
Nothing Is Impossible Pengaruh Kecemasan terhadap Prokrastinasi Akademik

Prokrastinasi akademik adalah kecenderungan seseorang untuk menunda-nunda mengerjakan tugas-tugas akademik yang seharusnya dikerjakan sampai tidak ada lagi waktu untuk menunda. Banyak alasan yang membuat seseorang akhirnya memutuskan untuk melakukan prokrastinasi. Salah satu alasannya adalah kecemasan. Penelitian ini dilakukan dengan menggunakan metode eksperimen pretest-posttest control group design non-randomized. Subjek penelitian adalah semua mahasiswa yang sedang mengambil mata kuliah Penyusunan Alat Ukur pada semester genap tahun ajaran 2011/2012. Tujuan penelitian adalah untuk mengetahui apakah kecemasan yang ditimbulkan oleh tugas berpengaruh pada perilaku prokrastinasi mahasiswa tersebut. Penelitian ini mengkajinya dengan Temporal Motivation Theory (TMT) (Steel, 2007). Penelitian ini menggunakan Pure Procrastination Scale (PPS) dan jam pengumpulan tugas untuk mengukur tingkat prokrastinasinya, sedangkan untuk kecemasan digunakan skala yang terdiri atas 22 butir pernyataan. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa ada hubungan antara kecemasan dan prokrastinasi akademik (r = 0,417 ; p = 0,000). Terbukti pada kelompok eksperimen seseorang yang cemas lebih memilih untuk segera mengerjakannya, sedangkan pada kelompok kontrol terbukti seseorang yang cemas lebih memilih untuk melakukan penundaan.
The role of surface and deep-level defects on the emission of tin oxide quantum dots

This paper reports on the role of surface and deep-level defects on the blue emission of tin oxide quantum dots (SnO2 QDs) synthesized by the solution-combustion method at different combustion temperatures. X-ray diffraction studies showed the formation of a single rutile SnO2 phase with a tetragonal lattice structure. High resolution transmission electron microscopy studies revealed an increase in the average dot size from 2.2 to 3.6 nm with an increase of the combustion temperature from 350 to 550 °C. A decrease in the band gap value from 3.37 to 2.76 eV was observed with the increase in dot size due to the quantum confinement effect. The photoluminescence emission was measured for excitation at 325 nm and it showed a broad blue emission band for all the combustion temperatures studied. This was due to the creation of various oxygen and tin vacancies/defects as confirmed by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy data. The origin of the blue emission in the SnO2 QDs is discussed with the help of an energy band diagram.
Hemodynamic Variables Affecting the Relation Between Mean Left Atrial and Left Ventricular End‐Diastolic Pressures

The observations reported in this paper support the view that a vigorous and properly timed atrial contraction, by transporting blood into the ventricle and by approximating the atrioventricular valve prior to ventricular systole, provides a mechanism by which mean atrial pressure is maintained at a substantially lower level for any ventricular end-diastolic pressure than would be the case if these functions of the atrium were not operative. The central nervous system, by way of efferent sympathetic pathways, can regulate appropriately the vigor and timing of atrial systole as well as the duration of the diastolic filling period. The net effect of such regulation is to decrease mean atrial pressure at any given heart rate and cardiac output, and to permit rapid heart rates which could not otherwise be tolerated without elevations of atrial pressure. The fact that MLAP–LVEDP is independent of aortic pressure and stroke volume, and of heart rate over certain ranges suggests that this hemodynamic measurement is uniquely dependent on, and therefore useful in the analysis of, atrial performance.
Ex vivo pharmacodynamic study of piperacillin alone and in combination with tazobactam, compared with ticarcillin plus clavulanic acid

Ten volunteers received piperacillin (4 g), piperacillin (4 g) plus tazobactam (0.5 g) (Tazocin), and ticarcillin (3 g) plus clavulanic acid (0.2 g) (Timentin) intravenously over 30 min in a cross-over blinded scheme. Blood samples were obtained 0.5 and 3 h after the end of infusion to measure by (high-pressure liquid chromatography) the concentration and bactericidal titers against 70 gram-negative bacilli. Serum time-kill curves were done against 35 strains to measure killing rates and area under the time-kill curve. Using the measure of serum bactericidal activity, ticarcillin-clavulanic acid and piperacillin-tazobactam were equally effective against Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, Enterobacter cloacae, Serratia marcescens, and Bacteroides fragilis. Piperacillin-tazobactam was superior to ticarcillin-clavulanic acid against piperacillin-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae (4 to 16 times) and S. marcescens (2 to 4 times). By using the area under the time-kill curve, piperacillin-tazobactam was equivalent to ticarcillin-clavulanic acid against piperacillin-susceptible strains; piperacillin-tazobactam was significantly more active than piperacillin against piperacillin-resistant strains and was more active than ticarcillin-clavulanic acid when the sample obtained 3 h after the end of infusion to volunteers was considered. Serum piperacillin concentrations (mean +/- standard error of the mean; in mg/liter) were 115 +/- 13 at 0.5 h and 7.4 +/- 1.4 at 3 h after the administration of piperacillin alone and 105.5 +/- 12.6 (0.5 h) and 7.7 +/- 1.6 after the administration of piperacillin-tazobactam. Serum tazobactam concentrations (in milligram per liter) were 13.1 +/- 1.4 at 0.5 h and 1.2 +/- 0.2 at 3 h. The piperacillin-tazobactam ratio was 8 +/- 0.3 at 0.5 h and 6.2 +/- 0.5 at 3 h. Piperacillin-tazobactam appears promising against beta-lactamase-producing gram-negative bacilli.
A voltage equalizer using flyback converter with active clamp

This paper proposes a voltage equalizer using flyback converter with active clamp. This novel voltage equalizer is able to reduce the power losses. An active clamp circuit is used as an auxiliary circuit to achieve zero voltage switching (ZVS). Simulation results with PSIM and experimental results are shown. The proposed circuit is confirmed to be more power-efficient with ZVS than the conventional voltage equalizer using flyback converter.
Concepts for the Development of a Customizable Checklist for Use by Patients

Objectives Checklists are tools that are developed to complete tasks by drawing on specific and relevant knowledge and supporting communication at critical times. If checklists were designed specifically for patient use, they could promote patient engagement, potentially leading to improved quality of care. Physicians of all specialties, nurses, patients, patient advocates, and administrators can take an active role in checklist development and dissemination. Methods Our method to investigate concepts in developing a customizable patient checklist included a literature search concerning existing checklists and resources currently available to patients. Literature containing expert opinion regarding checklists, professional organization statements, and patients and providers were consulted. Results A template for designing a patient checklist was developed incorporating methods from previous literature and resources regarding checklists. This template includes a development, drafting, and validation phase. Sample content for inclusion in potential checklists for patients with diabetes and patients undergoing anesthesia was devised. Conclusions Developed by physicians with input from patients and other involved health-care providers such as nurses, this relatively novel concept of a patient’s checklist creates a role for the patient to ensure their own safety. With increasing attention to high-quality and cost-effective health care, patient satisfaction surveys will be assessed to rate overall health care. Further development of checklists will need to be guided by specific medical conditions and acceptance by patients and providers. Providers can use these checklists as a method to gauge a patient’s understanding of an intervention, solidify the patient-doctor relationship, and improve patient safety.
A Comparison of Face to Face and Video-Based Self Care Education on Quality of Life of Hemodialysis Patients

Background End stage renal disease negatively affects the patients’ quality of life. There are different educational methods to help these patients. This study was performed to compare the effectiveness of self-care education in two methods, face to face and video educational, on the quality of life in patients under treatment by hemodialysis in education-medical centers in Urmia. Methods In this quasi-experimental study, 120 hemodialysis patients were selected randomly; they were then randomly allocated to three groups: the control, face to face education and video education. For face to face group, education was given individually in two sessions of 35 to 45 minutes. For video educational group, CD was shown. Kidney Disease Quality Of Life- Short Form (KDQOL-SF) questionnaire was filled out before and two months after the intervention. Data analysis was performed in SPSS software by using one-way ANOVA. Results ANOVA test showed a statistically significant difference in the quality of life scores among the three groups after the intervention (P=0.024). After the intervention, Tukey’s post-hoc test showed a statistically significant difference between the two groups of video and face to face education regarding the quality of life (P>0.05). Conclusion Implementation of the face to face and video education methods improves the quality of life in hemodialysis patients. So, it is suggested that video educational should be used along with face to face education.
Singer cyclic difference sets for an energy-efficient joining scheme

This paper considers the problem of joining a network of constrained IoT devices. We propose to take advantage of Singer Cyclic Difference Sets (S-CDS) for a joining scheme that results in low duty cycles and apply the proposed scheme to the joining problem in 802.15. 4e TSCH networks. S-CDS distributes the active periods of nodes over time so that a joining node does not suffer from long scanning periods in contrast to other schemes. We compare S-CDS through simulation with other state-of-the-art schemes adapted to TSCH networks. The comparisons show that S-CDS achieves a better trade-off between energy consumption and joining delay than the best joining schemes while being particularly suitable for devices with strong energy constraints such as energy harvesting nodes.
Design and analysis of helical motion permanent magnet motor with cylindrical Halbach array

In this paper, it deals with the application of two types of cylindrical Halbach array to permanent magnet motor. Halbach arrays have been used for permanent magnet arrays of planar linear, cylindrical rotary, and cylindrical linear motor, etc. In particular, their self-shielding property has been highlighted as a desirable feature for electrical machines and makes them eminently appropriate for use in linear and rotary machines.
Micro cell path loss prediction through hilly-forest terrain: A case study in south of Thailand

This paper presents the path loss prediction using a modified hilly-forest model for micro cell environments in hilly suburban area. A location of received signal is chosen, where there is a problem in signal quality, which will be analyzed, and improved using the hybrid models called Lee-hilly model and modified COST 235 model. These models were evaluated with the realistic model parameters. The chosen location studied in this work consists of both the hilly and the rubber forest. The received signal strength was then improved by adjusting the base station parameter such as the height, transmitting power and angle of the antenna. The extensive drive test was performed to verify the modified model. The obtained results show that the modified path loss model can be used for microcell planning and signal quality improvement.
44 Victimization of Sulfur Mustard in Qiqihar: Case Reports

Background: Sulfur mustard (2,2’-bis-chloroethyl-sulfide; SM) has been a military threat since the World War I. SM is the major chemical warfare agent used byJapanduring World War II. The clinical picture of poisoning, including cutaneous blisters, respiratory tract damage, ocular lesions and bone marrow depression is well known. In this report, we describe a civilian exposure in August 2003, in Qiqihar, Northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province. Aim: To describe the clinical features and treatment of sulfur mustard toxicity. Results: In 44 victims of SM exposure, 32 had ocular symptoms; 43 showed significant skin blistering and pigmentation; 15 had pulmonary symptoms such as productive cough occurred; 18 have Central nervous symptoms and other effects. Conclusion: The 44 victims were all injured, when five barrels of mustard gas were dug up at a construction site inQiqihar. The gas leak killed one and injured 43 others, one of the worst accidents involving chemical weapons abandoned by Japanese invading troops in China after WWII.