Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sur quelques généralisations polynomiales de la décomposition modulaire

La decomposition modulaire est une decomposition de graphes tres etudiee depuis son introduction en 67 par Gallai. Cette decomposition s'est montree etre un outils tres puissant tant d'un point de vue theorique que d'un point de vue algorithmique. Dans cette these nous abordons ces deux aspects. Nous proposons deux generalisations de la decomposition modulaire et nous systematisons l'usage d'une technique tres connue en algorithmique, l'affinage de partitions, pour resoudre les problemes souleves par ces generalisations. Le memoire se divise en deux parties, la premiere partie est consacree a l'introduction et l'etude de deux generalisations de la decomposition modulaire. Pour ce faire, nous introduisons une nouvelle structure discrete: les "relations homogenes" qui abstrait la notion de voisinage pour ne retenir que la notion essentielle de distinction. Nous etudions les proprietes comminatoires de la decomposition modulaire sur cette structure et nous presentons des methodes pour calculer cette decomposition efficacement. Ensuite, nous introduisons une nouvelle decomposition, la decomposition en "umodules". H s'agit d'adopter le point de vue dual de la decomposition modulaire. La seconde partie presente des algorithmes efficaces pour resoudre les deux problemes suivants. Le premier probleme consiste a trouver les composantes de chevauchement d'une famille de partie d'un ensemble fini. Nous presentons un algorithme du a Dahlhaus et simplifions ce dernier en remplacant une procedure complexe par une technique d'affinage de partition. Le second algorithme reconnait les graphes de largeur Nlc-2 en temps S0(n ^2m)S et fournit une methode de meme complexite pour resoudre le probleme de l'isomorphisme sur cette classe.
Pace of modal shifts in internationalization processes within a firm

ABSTRACT Our understanding of the temporal dimension of the internationalization of the firm is incomplete at best. Based on this knowledge gap, this article analyzes how the internationalization processes within a firm can be differentiated according to the pace of modal shifts. We built a qualitative, retrospective longitudinal, embedded case of the internationalization of a Brazilian medium-sized firm that established a footprint in 16 foreign markets over nearly three decades. We find that its internationalization processes can be classified into three groups as far as pace is concerned: an Unmovable Internationalization Process, an Inert Internationalization Process and an Accelerated Internationalization Process. We then call attention to a mismatch between the pace of learning and the modal shifts in the firm’s internationalization processes. Further, we suggest a new picture of the internationalization of the firm by proposing the existence of a number of internationalization processes that unfold at distinct paces within a single firm.
Analysis of Agility Performance of Supply Chain: A Case Study on Indian Automotive Manufacturer

Manufacturing companies should understand the changing customer needs and expectations, access and defend the competitive pressure, anticipate and manage the uncertain demand and supply chain risk, and implement the appropriate technology to survive and excel in today’s marketplace. Therefore, they are moving away from mass production (i.e. lean supply chain) to one based on fast-responsiveness and flexibility, capitalizing on the rapid advancement in internet technologies and factory-on-demand mode of production (i.e. agile supply chain). It is observed that manufacturing companies in India in general and automotive supply chain in specific are compelled to cultivate supply chain agility for enhancing its performance level on continuous basis and comparing its supply chain agility performance with competitors to survive and sustain in the competitive business environment. Therefore, a methodology is proposed to evaluate the supply chain agility of a manufacturing supply chain and compare its performance level with competitors using Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process and Taguchi Loss Function. A case study is developed and the proposed methodology is applied to Indian automotive supply chain for explaining the salient features of it.
Spaced education in medical residents: An electronic intervention to improve competency and retention of medical knowledge

Background Spaced education is a novel method that improves medical education through online repetition of core principles often paired with multiple-choice questions. This model is a proven teaching tool for medical students, but its effect on resident learning is less established. We hypothesized that repetition of key clinical concepts in a “Clinical Pearls” format would improve knowledge retention in medical residents. Methods This study investigated spaced education with particular emphasis on using a novel, email-based reinforcement program, and a randomized, self-matched design, in which residents were quizzed on medical knowledge that was either reinforced or not with electronically-administered spaced education. Both reinforced and non-reinforced knowledge was later tested with four quizzes. Results Overall, respondents incorrectly answered 395 of 1008 questions (0.39; 95% CI, 0.36–0.42). Incorrect response rates varied by quiz (range 0.34–0.49; p = 0.02), but not significantly by post-graduate year (PGY1 0.44, PGY2 0.33, PGY3 0.38; p = 0.08). Although there was no evidence of benefit among residents (RR = 1.01; 95% CI, 0.83–1.22; p = 0.95), we observed a significantly lower risk of incorrect responses to reinforced material among interns (RR = 0.83, 95% CI, 0.70–0.99, p = 0.04). Conclusions Overall, repetition of Clinical Pearls did not statistically improve test scores amongst junior and senior residents. However, among interns, repetition of the Clinical Pearls was associated with significantly higher test scores, perhaps reflecting their greater attendance at didactic sessions and engagement with Clinical Pearls. Although the study was limited by a low response rate, we employed test and control questions within the same quiz, limiting the potential for selection bias. Further work is needed to determine the optimal spacing and content load of Clinical Pearls to maximize retention amongst medical residents. This particular protocol of spaced education, however, was unique and readily reproducible suggesting its potential efficacy for intern education within a large residency program.
MODELLING OCCUPATIONAL EXPOSURE USING A RANDOM EFFECTS MODEL: A BAYESIAN APPROACH

In this article we develop a similar method to Krishnamoorthy and Mathew (2002), who used a generalized confidence interval and p-value approach for the occupational exposure limit (OEL), using Bayesian methodology for the one-way random effects model in order to determine the performance of different non- informative prior distributions. The analysis of problems in this area is rather different from the traditional problems associated with the analysis of mixed models. Deriving exact tests is perhaps a slightly more complicated procedure since the analysis involves all the regular parameters of the traditional mixed model analysis, namely the mean, as well as the two variance components, that is the within- and between-subject variability. As mentioned in the Introduction, Krishnamoorthy and Mathew proposed a generalized confidence interval and generalized p-value method to the analysis of these problems.
Directionally Selective Channels Mediate the Discrimination of Moving Aperiodic Stimuli

Adaptation procedures were used to demonstrate that directionally selective channels mediate the discrimination of aperiodic stimuli moving at a common speed. Subjects were adapted to a grating that drifted to either the left or the right. They then determined the orientation of the gap in a ‘C’ that was also moving to either the left or the right. Performance in identifying the gap orientation was most impaired when the C moved in the same direction as the adapting grating.
Tolerance of the preruminant calf for selenium in milk replacer.

Calves were fed skim milk powder-based milk replacer containing either . 2, 1, 3, 5, or 10 ppm selenium (added as sodium selenate) in the dry matter from 3 to 45 d of age to estimate the lowest amount of dietary selenium that would reduce calf performance and feed utilization. Only at the highest selenium (10 ppm) did calves show reduced average daily gain and feed efficiency and lower blood packed cell volume. Apparent digestibility of dry matter, nitrogen, and lipid, and plasma creatine phosphokinase activity were not affected by any of the selenium intakes. In general, selenium in blood, bile, duodenal mucosa, liver, kidney, and muscle reflected selenium intakes with liver and kidney reaching the highest selenium concentrations. Postmortem examinations of calves revealed no gross abnormalities for any of the selenium treatments. The preruminant calf is very tolerant of high inorganic selenium concentrations in skim milk powder-based milk replacer.
DNA barcoding implicates 23 species and four orders as potential pollinators of Chinese knotweed (Persicaria chinensis) in Peninsular Malaysia

Abstract Chinese knotweed (Persicaria chinensis) is of ecological and economic importance as a high-risk invasive species and a traditional medicinal herb. However, the insects associated with P. chinensis pollination have received scant attention. As a widespread invasive plant we would expect P. chinensis to be associated with a diverse group of insect pollinators, but lack of taxonomic identification capacity is an impediment to confirm this expectation. In the present study we aimed to elucidate the insect pollinators of P. chinensis in peninsular Malaysia using DNA barcoding. Forty flower visitors, representing the range of morphological diversity observed, were captured at flowers at Ulu Kali, Pahang, Malaysia. Using Automated Barcode Gap Discovery, 17 morphospecies were assigned to 23 species representing at least ten families and four orders. Using the DNA barcode library (BOLD) 30% of the species could be assigned a species name, and 70% could be assigned a genus name. The insects visiting P. chinensis were broadly similar to those previously reported as visiting Persicaria japonica, including honey bees (Apis), droneflies (Eristalis), blowflies (Lucilia) and potter wasps (Eumedes), but also included thrips and ants.
Polyelectrolyte multilayer thin films with antimicrobial, antifouling and drug releasing properties

This thesis work focuses on designing thin polyelectrolyte multilayer (PEM) films via layer-bylayer (LbL) deposition technique with the ability to kill pathogenic bacteria and inactivate human viruses, especially the influenza (flu) virus on contact. This work builds on four years of research at the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies (ISN) focusing on creating new, nonleaching microbicidal material; this film is envisioned to be used as permanent surface coatings for weapons, equipments, uniforms, personal items, etc. because a small reduction in the rate of infection will greatly enhance the readiness and performance of soldiers and other military personnel. Extending this application to everyday life, commonly handled objects such as doorknobs, computer keyboards, and touch screens can also be made sterile by coating them with these highly effective microbicidal PEM films. These films can also be used to prevent infections and long-term bacterial biofilms on implant surfaces. The ultimate aim of this thesis work is to create a broadly applicable multifunctional platform film technology that will satisfy various thin film surface coating applications; this film will impart a surface with long term antimicrobial / antifouling functionality via a permanent microbicidal base, and controlled delivery of a therapeutic agent via a hydrolytically degradable top film as needed. Efforts were focused on maximizing and understanding the factors that influence the microbicidal / antifouling property of the film; thus far, we successfully designed a set of contact-killing ionically cross-linked polymeric thin films; a hydrophobic polycation, linear NNdodecyl, methyl- poly(ethylenimine) (DMLPEI) with microbicidal activity was layered with a hydrophilic polyanion, such as poly(acrylic acid) (PAA), to create LbL films highly effective against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus (Gram negative and positive bacteria, respectively), as well as the influenza A/WSN (H1N1) virus. The microbicidal film was also demonstrated to significantly resist adsorption of protein from blood plasma relative to an uncoated substrate. By generating PEM films assembled with the hydrophobic N-alkylated poly(ethylenimine) and the hydrophilic poly(acrylic acid), an ultrathin film that exhibited antifouling and antimicrobial properties was created. Results showed that a fine balance of hydrophobicity and hydrophilicity on the surface of the films was needed to create molecularlevel heterogeneities unfavorable to protein adsorption; due to the contrasting nature of the polymer making up the film, nanoscale segregation of the polymer segments into hydrophobic and hydrophilic moieties could occur on the surface. We then moved on to design a dual functional LbL film construct combining the permanent microbicidal / antifouling base film with a hydrolytically degradable PEM top film offering controlled and localized delivery of therapeutics (e.g. antibiotic, anti-inflammatory drug, etc.). When the degradable top film is completely eroded, the surface…
Serum leptin levels may have diagnostic and predictive roles in patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma treated with gemcitabine-based chemotherapy.

PURPOSE Leptin is a highly pleiotropic adipokine. Pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PA) and leptin relationship is important. Our aim was to investigate the serum levels of leptin in patients with PA, the relationship of leptin with tumor progression and known prognostic parameters and its diagnostic, predictive and prognostic role. METHODS Thirty-three patients with PA were investigated. Serum samples were obtained on first admission before treatment and follow-up. Both serum leptin levels were determined using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Age, sex, and body mass index (BMI) matched to 20 healthy controls were included in the analysis. RESULTS The median patient age at diagnosis was 59 years (range 32-84) and 20 (61%) patients were men. The tumor was located in the head of pancreas in 21 (63%) patients. The most common metastatic site was liver in 23 patients with metastasis (N=19; 83%). The median follow-up time was 26.0 weeks (range 1.0-184.0). At the end of the observation period, 32 patients (97%) had died. The baseline serum leptin levels were significantly higher in patients with PA than in the control group (p=0.02). Thirty-nine percent of 23 metastatic patients who received palliative gemcitabine-based chemotherapy (gCTx) were gCTx-responsive. Serum leptin levels were significantly higher in the gCTx-unresponsive patients compared with gCTx -responsive (median 5.32 vs 1.16 ng/mL, p=0.004). Conversely, serum leptin concentration was found to have no prognostic role on survival (p=0.20). CONCLUSION Serum leptin levels may be a good diagnostic and predictive tool on the response to gCTx in PA patients.
Multi-Generator Generative Adversarial Nets

We propose a new approach to train the Generative Adversarial Nets (GANs) with a mixture of generators to overcome the mode collapsing problem. The main intuition is to employ multiple generators, instead of using a single one as in the original GAN. The idea is simple, yet proven to be extremely effective at covering diverse data modes, easily overcoming the mode collapse and delivering state-of-the-art results. A minimax formulation is able to establish among a classifier, a discriminator, and a set of generators in a similar spirit with GAN. Generators create samples that are intended to come from the same distribution as the training data, whilst the discriminator determines whether samples are true data or generated by generators, and the classifier specifies which generator a sample comes from. The distinguishing feature is that internal samples are created from multiple generators, and then one of them will be randomly selected as final output similar to the mechanism of a probabilistic mixture model. We term our method Mixture GAN (MGAN). We develop theoretical analysis to prove that, at the equilibrium, the Jensen-Shannon divergence (JSD) between the mixture of generators' distributions and the empirical data distribution is minimal, whilst the JSD among generators' distributions is maximal, hence effectively avoiding the mode collapse. By utilizing parameter sharing, our proposed model adds minimal computational cost to the standard GAN, and thus can also efficiently scale to large-scale datasets. We conduct extensive experiments on synthetic 2D data and natural image databases (CIFAR-10, STL-10 and ImageNet) to demonstrate the superior performance of our MGAN in achieving state-of-the-art Inception scores over latest baselines, generating diverse and appealing recognizable objects at different resolutions, and specializing in capturing different types of objects by generators.
The Acetabular Labrum Regulates Fluid Circulation of the Hip Joint During Functional Activities

Background: An assessment of the effect of surgical repair or reconstruction on the function of the hip labrum is critical to the advancement of hip preservation surgery; however, validated models of the hip that allow the quantification of labral function in functional joint positions have yet to be developed. Purpose: To evaluate (1) whether intra-articular pressures within the hip are regulated by fluid transport between the labrum and femoral head and (2) whether the sealing capacity of the labrum varies with joint posture. Study Design: Descriptive laboratory study. Methods: The sealing ability of the hip labrum was measured during fluid infusion into the central compartments of 8 cadaveric specimens. Additionally, the pathway of fluid transfer from the central to the peripheral compartment was assessed via direct visualization in 3 specimens. The effect of joint posture on the sealing capacity of the labrum was determined by placing all 8 specimens in 10 functional postures. The relationship between pressure resistance and 3-dimensional motion of the femoral head within the acetabulum was quantified using motion analysis and computer modeling. Results: Resistance to fluid transport from the central compartment of the hip was directly controlled by the labrum during loading. Maximum pressure resistance was affected by joint posture (P = .001). Specifically, positions that increased external rotation of the joint (pivoting) provided an improved seal, while positions that increased flexion combined with internal rotation (stooping) augmented the ease of fluid transport from the central to the peripheral compartment. Maximum pressure resistance was associated with the distance between the labrum and femoral head during pivoting. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that the transfer of fluid from the central compartment of the hip occurs at the junction of the labrum and femoral head. Joint position was shown to strongly affect the sealing function of the labrum and was attributable to the distance between the labrum and femoral head in certain positions. Clinical Relevance: Altering the relationship between the labrum and femoral head may disrupt the sealing ability of the labrum, potentially leaving the joint at risk for pathological changes with time.
Evaluation of Sensitivity of the Digital Coherent Receiver

In this paper, we investigate the sensitivity of the digital coherent receiver both theoretically and experimentally. The receiver sensitivity close to the shot-noise limit is demonstrated in the 10-Gbit/s binary phase-shift keying system with the help of a low-noise optical preamplifier. We also introduce polarization diversity into our receiver. Maximal-ratio polarization combining in the digital domain makes the receiver sensitivity independent of the state of polarization of the incoming signal without power penalty.
Minimally invasive endodontics: a new diagnostic system for assessing pulpitis and subsequent treatment needs

W. J. Wolters, H. F. Duncan, P. L. Tomson, I. E. Karim, G. McKenna, M. Dorri, L. Stangvaltaite & L. W. M. van der Sluis Center of Dentistry and Oral Hygiene, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands; Division of Restorative Dentistry & Periodontology, Dublin Dental University Hospital, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland; College of Medical & Dental Sciences, The University of Birmingham School of Dentistry, Birmingham; Centre for Dentistry, School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast; Centre for Public Health, Queens University Belfast, Belfast; School of Oral and Dental Sciences, Bristol Dental School, Bristol, UK; and Department of Clinical Dentistry, Faculty of Health Sciences, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway
Impact of Rotavirus Infections on Outpatient Clinic Visits in Chile

Background: Incorporation of new rotavirus vaccines into national programs of developing countries will rely on well-designed cost-effective analysis based on accurate assessment of disease burden. For Chile, rotavirus disease burden is determined mostly by outpatient clinic and emergency room visits and by hospitalizations. We previously estimated a yearly incidence of 8000 and 53,000 hospitalizations and emergency room visits respectively for children ≤3 years of age. Objective: The objective of this study was to quantify the impact of rotavirus as a cause of outpatient clinic visits. Methods: A prospective surveillance protocol between the Health Ministry and the University of Chile in 11 outpatient clinics from 6 regions included reporting of all acute diarrhea cases in children <5 years of age and collection of a stool sample for the first 5 children per week. Results: A total of 5217 acute diarrhea episodes requiring an outpatient medical visit for a total assigned population of 41,927 children <5 years of age were reported from August 1, 2004, to October 30, 2005, in the 11 clinics. A total of 179 rotavirus positive samples were detected from 1313 stools collected for an overall positivity of 13.6% (95% confidence limit: 11.8–15.6%). Rotavirus outpatient visits occurred during all 15 months without a clear seasonal predominance and peaked between 6 months and 2 years of age. G4 types predominated during the 15-month period. Conclusions: For Chilean children ≤3 years of age, a yearly estimate of 11,658 to 16,305 outpatient medical visits need to be added to previous disease burden estimates.
Linezolid- and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium endocarditis: successful treatment with tigecycline and daptomycin.

University of Calfornia, San Diego Enterococci are a leading cause of endocarditis and nosocomial infections. Vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) emerged in the 1980s and now represent most nosocomial isolates in the United States. The first case of VRE endocarditis was reported in 1996. Although increasing enterococcal antibiotic resistance has prompted increasing reliance on newer antibiotics, a recent review of VRE endocarditis noted that survival rates were similar to those for vancomycin-sensitive enterococcal endocarditis. Cure was achieved in several patients with bacteriostatic agents in the absence of valve replacement, but no patients were infected with truly linezolid-resistant organisms. This case of linezolid-resistant VRE endocarditis represents the first reported cure of infective endocarditis with a tigecycline-containing regimen.