Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Inflammation in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease : its assessment and the effects of corticosteroids

A beneficial effect of long-term corticosteroid treatment in patients with COPD may be linked to suppressing inflammation, in particular neutrophilic inflammation. Effects on neutrophilic and eosinophilic inflammation and on lung function of longterm inhaled budesonide treatment (800 μg daily, 6 months, double-blind, randomised, cross-over versus placebo) were studied and compared to the effects of 3 weeks oral prednisolone (30 mg daily) in 19 patients with COPD (mean age 63 y, FEV1 65% of predicted). Neither treatment influenced neutrophilic inflammation. Inhaled budesonide compared to placebo significantly reduced sputum % eosinophils at 3 months (-42%, p=0.036), but not significantly at 6 months (-31%, p=0.78). Eosinophil count per g sputum was decreased with 30% at 3 months (p=0.09) and with 9% at 6 months (p=0.78). FEV1 was slightly higher after 6 months budesonide (+2.5% predicted, p=0.09). Prednisolone significantly reduced sputum % eosinophils (-87%, p=0.007), but did not affect eosinophil count per g sputum and did not improve FEV1 (-0.6% predicted, p=0.40). A higher baseline FEV1 (%) correlated with effects of budesonide on FEV1 (p<0.001), effects on sputum interleukin-8 and eosinophil cationic protein (both p<0.05) and tended to correlate with effects on sputum % eosinophils (p=0.056). Baseline inflammatory data and effects of prednisolone did not correlate with effects of budesonide. Effects of inhaled budesonide in COPD are not restricted to patients with severe disease and may be linked to a suppression of eosinophilic inflammation. Investigating effects of prednisolone has no predictive value for long-term treatment. C H A P T E R 2
Debt Maturity, Underinvestment Problem and Corporate Value

This study examine show Malaysian public listed firms with low and high corporate value use debt maturity as a tool to mitigate under investment problem.This study employs panel data methodology instead of the commonly used pooling regression. Results show that firms with low Tobin’s Q ratio, a proxy for corporate value, maintain lower level of long-term debt to mitigate agency costs of debt caused by under investment problem, whereas firms with high Tobin’s Q ratio are indifferent with the debt maturity decision.This study extends the literature on the determinants of debt maturity structure by highlighting the importance of recognizing the firms by the corporate value in relation to the under investment problem. The findings also provide additional justification to the literature in explaining the negative relationship between agency costs of debt and debt maturity structure using a sample of firms from a developing market.
SPORTS AND MEDIA: COMPLEMENTARY OR BIASED?

Members of a discourse community must have recourse to a shared system of communication in order to share information and knowledge effectively. Science has developed in such a way that scientific knowledge is shared in a manner that relies heavily on written communication and a highly structured format for presenting arguments in different science domains, sports sciences not being an exception. Thus, Montgomery claims that science would not exist “if scientists were not writers” and science “in great measure is a matter of language”. He further reflects that although it cannot be denied that science is much more than a construct of speech, it must be acknowledged that linguistic form and content cannot be separated. Recently, there have been a number of studies that seek to demonstrate that the scientific style of writing is much more than a mere objective channel through which to communicate scientific “facts” and incontrovertible “truths”. Bhatia notes that the nature and construction of a specific register and genre, especially the sports sciences genre, are characterized by the communicative purpose that it is intended to fulfill; that the language used in scientific writing reflects the position it holds in a particular context and thus needs to be rhetorically analyzed.
Value added intellectual coefficient (VAIC): an empirical study

Article history: Received June 15, 2011 Received in Revised form October, 12, 2011 Accepted 15 December 2011 Available online 7 January 2012 There is no doubt that conventional accounting does not provide actual value of a firm since they only take into account the tangible assets. Intellectual capital provides a new concept for considering actual value of the assets, which helps calculate intangible values of the firm. In this paper, we use value added intellectual coefficient (VAIC) to measure the performance of a firm. The study investigates the relationship between intellectual capital and return on assets and value added for three consecutive years between 2008 and 2010. The results indicate that there is no meaningful relationship between intellectual capital and return on assets for fiscal years of 2008 and 2009 but there is a meaningful relationship between these two items for the fiscal year of 2010 when 0.05 α = . Our findings also indicate that there is no meaningful relationship between intellectual capital and value added for the years of 2008 and 2010 but there is a meaningful relationship between the items for the fiscal year of 2009. The results somewhat confirm the recently published results in the literature, which argues the use of VAIC for assessing the direct impact of IC on other financial factors. © 2012 Growing Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Quantify The Signal Attenuation Due To Foliage Depth in Millimeter Band

As wireless communication moves from long to short ranges with considerably lower antenna heights, the need to understand and be able to predict the impact of vegetation on coverage and quality of wireless services has become very important. The propagation of Electromagnetic waves in millimeter band is severely affected by foliage. The basic mechanism of radio wave propagation is: Reflection, Scattering, Interference, Refraction, Diffraction and Absorption. This paper presents a preliminary report of an ongoing research work investigating the effects of trees on radio signals at microwave frequencies. In this paper an attempt has been made to quantify the attenuation of microwave signal in Ka band at 35 GHz due to varying foliage length. It concludes that the signal attenuation doesn’t increase linearly with foliage depth. An outdoor measurement system will be setup and used for characterizing the channel behavior at 35 GHz. The experimental setup is established at Engineering College Bikaner, Bikaner (western part of Rajasthan which belongs to Thar Desert region). For the measurement of signal attenuation, a Gunn oscillator trans-receiver system of 35 GHz (100mW) is used.
A Study of Early Stopping, Ensembling, and Patchworking for Cascade Correlation Neural Networks

The constructive topology of the cascade correlation algorithm makes it a popular choice for many researchers wishing to utilize neural networks. However, for multimodal problems, the mean squared error of the approximation increases significantly as the number of modes increases. The components of this error will comprise both bias and variance and we provide formulae for estimating these values from mean squared errors alone. We achieve a near threefold reduction in the overall error by using early stopping and ensembling. Also described is a new subdivision technique that we call patchworking. Patchworking, when used in combination with early stopping and ensembling, can achieve an order of magnitude improvement in the error. Also presented is an approach for validating the quality of a neural network's training, without the explicit use of a testing dataset.
Prediction of SINR Using BER and EVM for Massive MIMO Applications

Future communication systems employing massive multiple input multiple output (MIMO) will not have the ability to use channel state information at the mobile user terminals. Instead, it will be necessary for such devices to evaluate the downlink signal to interference and noise ratio (SINR) with interference both from the base station serving other users within the same cell and other base stations from adjacent cells. The SINR will act as an indicator of how well the pre-coders have been applied at the base station. The results presented in this paper from a 32 x 3 massive MIMO channel sounder measurement campaign at 2.4 GHz show how received bit error rate and error vector magnitudes can be used to obtain a prediction both of the average and dynamically changing signal to interference and noise ratio.
Environmental regulations and labor markets

Environmental regulations such as air quality standards can lead to notable improvements in ambient air quality and to related health benefits. But they impose additional production costs on firms and may reduce productivity, earnings, and employment, especially in sectors exposed to trade and intensive in labor. The limited empirical evidence suggests that the benefits are likely to outweigh the costs.
Defragmenting resource management on the southeast arm of Lake Malawi: Case of fisheries

The southeast arm of Lake Malawi catchment has a wide range of natural resources that require prudent management for sustainability and maximisation of benefits. The current management practice is government sector based, with individual Departments and Ministries using their own policies, legislations and management approaches, yet dealing with the same composite resource and user communities. This has resulted in fragmentation of management leading to the lack of alignment between formal and informal institutions, and competition for power and authority for management. Fragmentation is also leading to loss of resource rent. This article analyses how and why management is fragmented in the southeast arm of Lake Malawi catchment and suggests how management could be defragmented, with special interest on fisheries. Activities with high negative impacts on fisheries include: overfishing; soil erosion resulting in siltation and turbidity of the lake; chemical and organic pollution; loss of access to land and beaches; and habitat loss. There is need for a better and more holistic understanding of how human activities represent both livelihood benefits and a threat to sustainability of natural resources to find ways for balancing these two aspects. We suggest that to increase the efficacy of management of Lake Malawi's southeast arm will require ‘defragmented decentralization’, an approach whereby devolution of authority and responsibility are ceded to the district and local levels, respectively.
Skeletal maturation in juveniles with primary hypertension

The assessment of bone age is an important factor for the analysis of biological maturity and its aberrations. In order to evaluate the possible relation between rate of biological maturity and development of primary hypertension (PH), bone age (BA) assessments based on dual X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) derived hand scans have been performed in 80 newly diagnosed children and adolescents with PH (14.99 ±2.34 yrs) and 201 healthy controls (12.73 ±3.40 yrs; 93f). Chronological age (CA), body height (BH, cm), body weight (BW, kg), and body mass index (BMI, kg/m 2 ) have been evaluated on the day of BA assessments. Results: there were no differences between PH girls and PH boys for CA, BW and BMI values, and PH groups were significantly older, higher and heavier compared to controls (p<0.0001). Mean BA of 13.1 yr ±3.8 assessed in 201 healthy controls was significantly higher by 0.37 yr ±1.24 than mean CA of 12.7 yr ±3.4 (p<0.0001). In PH group BA of 16.44yrs ± 2.48 was significantly greater by 1.45yrs±1.02 than the mean CA of 14.99yrs ± 2.34 (p<0.0001). In the pubertal PH group (n=34; 10f) mean BA of 15.82 yrs ± 1.98 was significantly higher by 1.82 years ± 1.18, when compared to CA of 14.00 yrs ± 1.15 (p<0.0001). In post-pubertal PH adolescents (n=41; 6f) mean BA of 17.79 yrs ± 0.50 was significantly higher by 1.18 years ± 0.73 than CA of 16.61 yrs ± 0.67 (p<0.0001). The difference between BA and CA correlated significantly with BW and BMI of both PH and controls. In the group of newly diagnosed PH children and adolescents significantly accelerated skeletal maturation was revealed, what coincided with markedly increased BW and BMI.
Casimir Force between a Half-Space and a Plate of Finite Thickness

Zero-frequency Casimir theory is analyzed from different viewpoints, focusing on the Drude-plasma issue that turns up when one considers thermal corrections to the Casimir force. The problem is that the plasma model, although leaving out dissipation in the material, apparently gives the best agreement with recent experiments. We consider a dielectric plate separated from a dielectric half-space by a vacuum gap, both media being similar. We consider the following categories: (1) Making use of the statistical mechanical method developed by H{\o}ye and Brevik (1998), implying that the quantized electromagnetic field is replaced by interaction between dipole moments oscillating in harmonic potentials, we first verify that the Casimir force is in agreement with the Drude prediction. No use of Fresnel's reflection coefficients is made at this stage. (2) Then turning to the field theoretical description implying use of the reflection coefficients, we derive results in agreement with the forgoing when first setting the frequency equal to zero, before letting the permittivity becoming large. With the plasma relation the reflection coefficient for TE zero frequency modes depend on the component of the wave vector parallel to the surfaces and lies between 0 and 1. This contradicts basic electrostatic theory. (3) Turning to high permeability magnetic materials the TE zero frequency mode describes the static magnetic field in the same way as the TM zero frequency modes describe the static electric fields in electrostatics. With the plasma model magnetic fields, except for a small part, can not pass through metals. i.e.~metals effectively become superconductors. However, recent experimental results clearly favor the plasma model. We shortly discuss a possible explanation for this apparent conflict with electrostatics.
Why a fi xed workweek ?

The main goal of this article is to to explain why the fixed workweek appeared. To this purpose we differentiate between "jobs" and "hours per job". We consider an economy where hours and number of workers are substitutes in production but in which hiring a worker entails a fixed cost plus a variable cost per hour worked. This fixed cost implies that, for firms, it is not equivalent to hire a worker for eight hours or eight workers for an hour. Therefore, firms would like workers to work as many hours as physically possible. In an unregulated economy, workers work more hours that they would like to at the on-going wage rate. This situation characterizes the economy of today’s industrialized countries in the 19th centuries. Why a fixed workweek? 2
Late season toxic alkaloid concentrations in tall larkspur (Delphinium spp.)

Tall larkspurs [Delphinium barbeyi (L. Huth), D. occidentale (Wats.), D. glaucescens (Rydb.), D. glaucum (Wats.)] pose a serious poisoning threat to cattle on many summer ranges. Livestock producers often defer grazing until larkspur is mature, but spe cific information is lacking on toxic alkaloid concentrations in larkspur from pod stage to senescence. Tall larkspur leaves and seed pods were collected about every 2 weeks during the pod stage to senescence from marked plants in locations in Utah (Logan and Salina), Idaho (Ashton, Humphrey, and Oakley), Colorado (Yampa and Montrose), and California (Carson Pass) from 1995 to 1997. Toxic alkaloid concentions in pods (x ‐ = 2.9 mg/g) exceeded leaf alkaloid concentrations (x = 1.5 mg/g in all species, but the magnitude of the difference varied among the 4 species. Leaves showed a more rapid decrease in toxic alkaloid concentration with plant maturity compared to pods. Seed pods did not begin to lose substantial amounts of toxic alkaloid until larkspur matured and pods began to dessicate. At seed shatter, D. glaucescens pods retained more toxic alkaloid than the other species, and alkaloid concentration was sufficiently high after pods had shattered (3.5 mg/g) to pose a moderate grazing risk. After seed shatter, the toxic alkaloid concentrations in leaves and pods of D. barbeyi, D. occidentale , and D. glaucum were generally less than 2 mg/g; thus, risk of losing cattle would be low for the remainder of the grazing season.
Revisiting the He ii to H i ratio in the intergalactic medium

We estimate the He II to HI column density ratio, η = N(He II)/N(He I), in the intergalactic medium towards the high-redshift (z em = 2.885) bright quasar QSO HE 2347-4342 using Voigt-profile fitting of the H I transitions in the Lyman series and the He II Lyman α transition as observed by the FUSE satellite. In agreement with previous studies, we find that η > 50 in most of the Lyman α forest, except in four regions where it is much smaller (η ~ 10-20) and therefore inconsistent with photoionization by the ultraviolet background flux. We detect O VI and CIV absorption lines associated with two of these regions (z abs = 2.6346 and 2.6498). We show that, if we constrain the fit of the H I and/or He II absorption profiles with the presence of metal components, we can accommodate η values in the range 15-100 in these systems, assuming that broadening is intermediate between pure thermal and pure turbulent. While simple photoionization models reproduce the observed N(O VI)/N(C iv) ratio, they fail to produce low η values, in contrast to models with high temperatures (i.e T ≥ 10 5 K). The Doppler parameters measured for different species suggest a multiphase nature of the absorbing regions. Therefore, if low η values were to be confirmed, we would favour a multiphase model in which most of the gas is at a high temperature (> 10 5 K) but the metals, and in particular C IV, are due to a lower-temperature (~few 10 4 K) photoionized gas.
The effect of workpiece hardness and cutting parameters on surface roughness in dry hard turning of X210Cr12 cold tool steel

دییامن هدافتسا لیذ ترابع زا هلاقم نیا هب عاجرا یارب : Please cite this article using: B. Heydari, M. M. Abootorabi, H. R. Karimi zarchi, The effect of workpiece hardness and cutting parameters on surface roughness in dry hard turning of X210Cr12 cold tool steel, Modares Mechanical Engineering, Vol. 17, No. 6, pp. 241-247, 2017 (in Persian) هعطق یتخس ریثأت تخس رد حطس یربز رب یشرب یاهرتماراپ و راک رازبا دلاوف کشخ یشارت راکدرس X210Cr12
Optimizing parallel GEMM routines using auto-tuning with Intel AVX-512

This paper presents the optimal implementations of single- and double-precision general matrix-matrix multiplication (GEMM) routines for the Intel Xeon Phi Processor code-named Knights Landing (KNL) and the Intel Xeon Scalable Processors based on an auto-tuning approach with the Intel AVX-512 intrinsic functions. Our auto-tuning approach precisely determines the parameters reflecting the target architectural features. Our approach significantly reduces the search space and derives optimal parameter sets including the size of submatrices, prefetch distances, loop unrolling depth, and parallelization scheme. Without a single line of assembly code, our GEMM kernels show the comparable performance results to the Intel MKL and outperform other open-source BLAS libraries.
A Randomized Open-Label Clinical Study Comparing the Efficacy, Safety, and Bioavailability of Calcium Lysinate with Calcium Carbonate and Calcium Citrate Malate in Osteopenia Patients

Introduction: Many factors influence bone health, but osteoporosis is viewed as a calcium deficiency disorder in which bone is resorbed to maintain the serum calcium levels. Dietary calcium supplements have been recommended for the prevention of osteoporosis in the elderly. Many forms of dietary calcium supplements are widely available in market, but products containing calcium citrate and calcium carbonate are the most common. Calcium lysinate, a new form of calcium preparation, may have a better absorption and can be a better calcium supplement. Aim: The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy, safety, and bioavailability of calcium lysinate in comparison to other calcium supplements in improving the bone mineral density (BMD) status in osteopenia patients. Methodology: A total of 24 osteopenia patients were randomly divided into three groups of eight subjects in each. Anyone of the study drug, namely, calcium lysinate, calcium carbonate, or calcium citrate malate was administered to each group. Blood samples for the determination of serum calcium was taken, based on which the area under the curve (absorption profile) and relative bioavailability were calculated. BMD was assessed on the day 0 and at 8 weeks’ post-treatment. Results: The relative oral bioavailability of calcium lysinate was 223.15%. There is a significant improvement in the T-score of BMD in all the groups. It was more significant in calcium lysinate group (P < 0.0004). Conclusion: The high oral bioavailability of calcium lysinate, high percentage of calcium content, and a good clinical improvement in the BMD T-scores of osteopenia patients suggest that calcium lysinate will serve as a better dietary calcium supplement.
Improved Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm Based on Last-Eliminated Principle and Enhanced Information Sharing

In this study, an improved eliminate particle swarm optimization (IEPSO) is proposed on the basis of the last-eliminated principle to solve optimization problems in engineering design. During optimization, the IEPSO enhances information communication among populations and maintains population diversity to overcome the limitations of classical optimization algorithms in solving multiparameter, strong coupling, and nonlinear engineering optimization problems. These limitations include advanced convergence and the tendency to easily fall into local optimization. The parameters involved in the imported “local-global information sharing” term are analyzed, and the principle of parameter selection for performance is determined. The performances of the IEPSO and classical optimization algorithms are then tested by using multiple sets of classical functions to verify the global search performance of the IEPSO. The simulation test results and those of the improved classical optimization algorithms are compared and analyzed to verify the advanced performance of the IEPSO algorithm.