Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome: An Overview for Anesthesiologists

The acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) epidemic in the United States is in an exponential growth phase, the number of cases doubling each year (1). As of December 30, 1985, there were 15,948 diagnosed and reported cases and 8161 deaths. This disease, reported in all 50 states, is clearly not just a big-city problem (Centers for Disease Control, personal communication). Nor is it confined to the highrisk groups that were first identified, namely, promiscuous homosexual men, intravenous drug abusers, hemophiliacs, and recent Haitian immigrants. The Haitians have been dropped from this listing, but infants of high-risk mothers (2-4) and patients receiving multiple transfusions of blood products have been added to it (5,6). The causative agent of AIDS, the human T-lymphotropic virus type I11 (HTLV-111)also known as the lymphadenopathy-associated virus (LAV)-can also be transmitted heterosexually by either sex (7-9). Most of the cases of AIDS first reported in this population were in spouses of members belonging to high-risk groups. More recently, promiscuous heterosexual behavior, including female prostitution, has received recognition as a problem in this regard. Such activity appears to be the most important means of transmission of AIDS in some countries (10-12) and is likely to become more important in the United States as well. ATDS is an incurable, ultimately fatal disease (13,14). The full-blown disease is characterized by a severe reduction in cell-mediated immunity, caused primarily by the critical injury of helper T-lymphocytes by
Multinational Firms: Reconciling Theory and Evidence

An important component of Robert Lipsey's work has been his research on multinational firms, and his careful documentation of their behavior in terms of production and intra-firm trade. In this paper, we extend recent theory referred to as the knowledge-capital model', which simultaneously generates motives for both horizontal and vertical multinational production. We use this model to derive predictions about foreign affiliates' pattern of production for local markets versus production for exports as functions of country characteristics such as market sizes, size differences, and relative endowment differences. These predictions are then taken to data on affiliate production and trade. Results confirm several hypotheses. The ratio of production for export sales to production for local sale by affiliates of foreign multinationals depends negatively on market size, investment and trade costs in the host country, and positively on the relative skilled-labor abundance of the parent country (skilled-labor scarcity of the host country).
Kinetics of the Interaction of myo1c with Phosphoinositides*

myo1c is a single-headed myosin that dynamically links membranes to the actin cytoskeleton. A putative pleckstrin homology domain has been identified in the myo1c tail that binds phosphoinositides and soluble inositol phosphates with high affinity. However, the kinetics of association and dissociation and the influence of phospholipid composition on the kinetics have not been determined. Stopped-flow spectroscopy was used to measure the binding and dissociation of a recombinant myo1c construct containing the tail and regulatory domains (myo1cIQ-tail) to and from 100-nm diameter large unilamellar vesicles (LUVs). We found the time course of association of myo1cIQ-tail with LUVs containing 2% phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PtdIns(4,5)P2) followed a two-exponential time course, and the rate of the predominant fast phase depended linearly upon the total lipid concentration. The apparent second-order rate constant was approximately diffusion-limited. Increasing the molar ratio of anionic phospholipid by adding phosphatidylserine, additional PtdIns(4,5)P2, or by situating PtdIns(4,5)P2 in a more physiologically relevant lipid background increased the apparent association rate constant less than 2-fold. myo1cIQ-tail dissociated from PtdIns(4,5)P2 at a slower rate (2.0 s−1) than the pleckstrin homology domain of phospholipase C-δ (13 s−1). The presence of additional anionic phospholipid reduced the myo1cIQ-tail dissociation rate constant >50-fold but marginally changed the dissociation rate of phospholipase C-δ, suggesting that additional electrostatic interactions in myo1cIQ-tail help to stabilize binding. Remarkably, high concentrations of soluble inositol phosphates induce dissociation of myo1cIQ-tail from LUVs, suggesting that phosphoinositides are able to bind to and dissociate from myo1cIQ-tail as it remains bound to the membrane.
An Aesthetic Solution for Photo Collection Page Layout

A "slicing structure" or a hierarchical partition of the display space is an efficient way to present photo collections. However, with different aspect ratios or areas of basic blocks, the prevalent framework creates a number of irregular dead spaces that remain unfilled. In this paper, an efficient solution to reduce or completely eliminate these dead spaces is developed by globally adjusting positions and sizes of basic blocks. The gutter thickness is also uniquely specified to augment the aesthetic appeal. We present a detailed description of the aesthetic solution with experiments to demonstrate its efficiency.
CEO Turnover, Firm Performance, and Corporate Governance in Chinese Listed Firms

Using comprehensive financial and accounting data on China's listed firms from 1998 to 2002, augmented by unique data on CEO turnover, ownership structure and board characteristics, we estimate Logit models of CEO turnover and find that: (i) even if the firm is listed in Stock Exchanges, there is no significant and negative link between CEO turnover and firm performance unless the listing is accompanied by an ownership change from state to private; (ii) the presence of a large controlling shareholder makes CEO turnover more sensitive to firm performance; (iii) the appointment of independent directors enhances turnover-performance sensitivities; (iv) CEO turnover-performance sensitivities are weaker for listed firms with CEOs who also hold positions in the controlling shareholders; and (v) firm performance will improve significantly after the replacement of the CEO and the improvement will be greater for privately controlled firms than for state controlled firms. These findings have important implications for China's stock market development and SOE reform as well as more generally the law and finance approach to corporate governance. Consistent with the law and finance approach to corporate governance, the wholesale change of ownership and control from the state to private individuals and firms is found to be the most consistent and significant contributor to stronger CEO turnover-performance link and hence the higher quality of corporate governance. The positive effects of higher independence of board members on turnover-performance link are also consistent with the weak investor protection theory.
Cultural influences on health and safety attitudes and behaviour in small firms.

This report details the findings of a study which sought to identify the role of cultural influences on health and safety attitudes and behaviour in small and micro-enterprises and related issues concerning channels of communication and the role of the Health and Safety Executive. The main cultural influence on health and safety attitudes and behaviour in small businesses was found to be the organisational culture that typifies many such enterprises, reflecting less formal approaches to management, the preference of owner/managers for autonomy and the closeness of employer/employee relations in small businesses.
Relaxometry of brain: Why white matter appears bright in MRI

The remarkable success of magnetic resonance imaging of adult brain relates to the unusually large ratio of the longitudinal relaxation rates 1 / T1 of white and gray matter, ∼2:1 at physiological temperature and traditional imaging fields. Several investigators have conjectured that myelin is the source of the greater 1 / T1 of white matter without, however, suggesting details of the molecular mechanisms responsible. From measurements of the magnetic field dependence of 1 / T1 (NMRD profiles) of adult and neonatal gray and white matter at 5 and 35°C, we find a thermally activated contribution to the NMRD profile of adult white matter that is not present in the profiles of either adult gray or neonatal gray and white matter. We attribute this contribution to myelin and develop a quantitative model that accounts for the unique relaxation behavior of myelinated white matter. We find that myelin water, 15% of the total, has a relatively short T1 that arises from an unexpectedly large interaction with myelin lipid; when cast in terms of an interaction over the entire myelin bilipid‐water interface, it is sevenfold greater than the analogous protein‐water interfacial interaction. Its magnitude remains to be accounted for, but cholesterol, known to alter the relaxation rates of lipid protons, may play an important role. The contribution of myelin to 1/T1 at physiological temperatures is attributed to thermally activated transmembrane diffusion of water and, hence, more rapid mixing of axonal and the rapidly relaxing myelin water molecules. © 1990 Academic Press, Inc.
Further Results Concerning Delay-Dependent Control for Uncertain Discrete-Time Systems with Time-Varying Delay

This paper addresses the problem of control for uncertain discrete-time systems with time-varying delays. The system under consideration is subject to time-varying norm-bounded parameter uncertainties in both the state and controlled output. Attention is focused on the design of a memoryless state feedback controller, which guarantees that the resulting closed-loop system is asymptotically stable and reduces the effect of the disturbance input on the controlled output to a prescribed level irrespective of all the admissible uncertainties. By introducing some slack matrix variables, new delay-dependent conditions are presented in terms of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). Numerical examples are provided to show the reduced conservatism and lower computational burden than the previous results.
A Study of Visitor Satisfaction at Sovereign Hill

This study was designed to understand the tourist expectations and satisfaction levels with this destination and how visitors determine value for money and the extent to which this impacts on recommending behaviour. Visitor satisfaction studies provide the primary source of data about how the market perceives the offerings and generally forms the basis on which program managers can implement program modifications and change. Many tourist destinations are visited more than once by domestic tourists especially and program or offering renewal has become an integral part of strategies museums, for example, use to attract repeats visitors. Visitor satisfaction studies can provide insight into the changing needs of the market and are a good way of generating new ideas for service improvements as well as for keeping the offerings relevant for different market segments. This study will address the following key issues: •Levels of satisfaction reached on offerings (products and elements) based on the expenditure incurred •Overall value for money (did experience and enjoyment justify costs) •Knowledge of costs involved prior to arrival •How decision to visit was made and what role did cost play in this decision •What were the major influences on decision to visit This study examines and reports on the following propositions: (1) That level of satisfaction reported will be influenced negatively if price dissatisfaction is experienced; (2) That price dissatisfaction impacts negatively on willingness to recommend; (3) That non-for-profit status influences satisfaction levels experienced; and (4) That new visitors would be more likely to have a longer trip planning horizon than repeat visitors.
Parallel Computation of the Topological Skeleton of Vector Fields

Vector fields occur in many of the problems in science and engineering. In combustion processes, for instance, vector fields describe the flow of the gas. This process can be enhanced using vector field visualization techniques. Also, wind tunnel experiments can be analyzed. An example is the design of an air wing. The wing can be optimized to create a smoother flow around it. To analyze such kind of datasets topological methods that clearly show the whole structure of the vector field in one picture are a very good tool. During the last years, many extensions were proposed for this method. In addition to standard topological methods we also detect closed streamlines since they are a topological feature that completes the topological analysis. To accelerate the computation of such a topological analysis we developed a parallel method to reduce computational time. Therefore, we spread the computation of the separatrices of the topological skeleton to clients of a computer cluster. To test our implementation we use a numerical simulation of a swirling jet with an inflow into a steady medium. We built two different Linux clusters as parallel test systems where we check the performance increase when adding more processors to the cluster. We show that we have a very low parallel overhead due to the neglectable communication expense of our implementation.
Multiple Chemical Sensitivity: Current Concepts

Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MS) is characterized by a wide range of symptoms when affected patients come into contact with several chemical products. Very little is known of either the diagnosis or the suitable treatment. In this study we report the case of a 38-year-old woman, previously diagnosed as suffering from MCS, who was referred for an oral health evaluation. After removing all the existing restorations and extracting the diseased teeth, a removable partial denture without metal structure was made after testing her hypersensitivity to these materials. The one year follow-up of the patient did not show any remarkable reaction, confirming the reduction of a large number of MCS symptoms and the increase in her quality of life.
H‐2 antigen‐specific cytotoxic T cells induced by concanavalin A: estimation of their relative frequency

Specific and nonspecific lysis of DBA/2 (H‐2d) mastocytoma cells, P815, by concanavalin A (Con A)‐induced cytotoxic T cells was studied. In the assay for nonspecific lysis, phytohemagglutinin (PHA) was present to glue the target and killer cells together. We have presented evidence previously to show that PHA reveals only, and all, cytotoxic T cells. In the assay for specific lysis the only glue present was specific receptors on a fraction of the killer cells and surface antigens of P815. We show that when PHA was present, Con A‐induced cells which were syngeneic, semi‐syngeneic, or allogeneic, lysed P8 15 very efficiently in a 4‐h51Cr release assay. However, only Con A‐induced T cells which were allogeneic and did not carry H‐2d lysed P815 when the assay was carried out in the absence of PHA. In an experiment with two target cells, Con A‐induced B10 (H‐2b) T cells lysed B 10.D2 (H‐2d) targets specifically but did not lyse B10 targets, while Con A‐ induced B10.D2 T cells lysed B10 targets specifically but not B10.D2 targets. Furthermore, Con A‐induced B6 (H‐2b) T cells from normal mice lysed P815 specifically but Con A‐induced B6 T cells from irradiated F1(B6 × BALB/c) (H‐2b/d) mice reconstituted with B6 bone marrow did not lyse P815 specifically. A fraction of Con A‐induced T cells therefore appear to bear specific surface receptors for nonself H‐2 coded structures. We describe conditions of assay and a new method of plotting the results such that nonspecific (PHA‐revealed) and specific (PHA‐independent) cytotoxicity can be quantitatively compared. We conclude that 1–4 % of the total Con A‐induced cytotoxic effector T cells are directed against any particular foreign H‐2 haplotype. This is the first estimate of the relative frequency of antigen‐reactive cytotoxic T cells.
Compressive Sensing-Based Beamforming for Millimeter-Wave OFDM Systems

In this paper, we address codebook-based beamforming for multi-antenna orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems operating in 60-GHz millimeter-wave band. Given a pre-specified codebook, the task of the beamforming process is to identify the best transmit and receive beam vectors to maximize the spectral efficiency. By properly modeling the multipath structure in 60-GHz channels, we transform the above task into the estimation of several sparse signal vectors. Furthermore, we tailor compressive sensing (CS) technology to efficiently estimate such sparse signals, wherein the CS measurement matrix is specifically designed by minimizing the inner products between different columns of the CS effective dictionary. As a result, CS-based iterative and non-iterative beamforming schemes are proposed. Due to the ability to judiciously exploit multipath sparsity inherent in 60-GHz channels, the proposed schemes significantly outperform the existing counterparts in terms of training overhead and success probability, which is confirmed by theoretical analysis and extensive simulations.
Evaluation of slide agglutination and ring precipitation tests for capsular serotyping of Haemophilus pleuropneumoniae

Rapid slide agglutination (RSA), quantitative plate agglutination, slow tube agglutination (STA), and ring precipitation (RP) tests were performed on 200 isolates of Haemophilus pleuropneumoniae by using the type sera produced in rabbits against five known serotype strains and one strain 202. RSA and RP tests both yielded the same results as those by STA. None of the agglutination procedures could be used for serotyping isolates that autoagglutinated in saline. The RP test was successfully used for serotyping such strains. The specificity of the RSA and RP tests was confirmed by cross-absorption studies. All of the isolates except two had strong serotype-specific activities. The most common serotype isolated in Quebec was serotype 1, followed by serotypes 5 and 2. None of the isolates belonged to serotypes 3 and 4. Only two isolates were found to be untypable; they could possibly belong to serotype(s) not yet defined. The RSA and RP tests may be at least as reliable as the STA test, but easier to perform, less expensive, and much more rapid than any of the other methods reported. Of all the procedures studied by us, the RP test proved to be the method of choice for serotyping H. pleuropneumoniae; hence, it should replace the STA test for serotyping H. pleuropneumoniae.
Requirement Prioritization Decision Factors for Agile Development Environments

In an agile development environment, project planners continuously prioritize work tasks so requirements that provide the most value are delivered first. This strategy is based on Value Based Software Engineering principles that different requirements deliver different levels of value and diverse stakeholders view the importance of the value of various requirements differently and thus, will prioritize them differently. However, we found that there are several core values that stakeholders have more agreement in terms of relevancy and importance than others. By knowing these core values, project planners have increased insights as to which requirements should be prioritized higher, hence, hopefully increasing overall stakeholder satisfaction and reducing project risk.
Finding Private Venture Capital for Your Firm: A Complete Guide

Portrait of an angel successful entrepreneurs real deals in the real world the cast of angels where to look and what to say pricing the deal - issues of investment size, risk, control and return super angel - entrepreneur match-ups (and others) when to look for angels angels who like your business already angels where you live devils, dead ends and deal breakers custom market profiles.
Resonance in pulse rate variability induced by respiratory control

We assessed the relationship between respiration control and pulse rate variability associated with the autonomic nervous system. The transfer gain of the peak-to-peak intervals (PPI) induced resonance at the respiratory rate of 0.1 Hz. A simulation study revealed that the tested controllers had the robustness of respiratory regulation to maximize the amplitude of PPI oscillations under the abnormal and unexpected response. The respiratory pacemaker used to regulate the pulse wave feature could be applied to an effective recovery support system under blunted autonomic function.
Does FDI facilitate Domestic Entrepreneurship? Evidence from the Czech Republic

How does foreign direct investment (FDI) affect industry dynamics? In this paper, we analyze the impact of FDI on domestic firm entry in 245 industries in the Czech Republic during 1994 to 2000. We find that larger foreign presence stimulates the entry of domestic firms within the same industry indicating the existence of positive horizontal spillovers from FDI. We also find evidence of significant vertical entry spillovers – FDI in downstream (upstream) industries initiates entry in upstream (downstream) sectors via the presence of backward (forward) linkages. Our results also show that entry spillovers through forward linkages dominate both horizontal spillovers and spillovers through backward linkages. However, the spillovers vary substantially across industries: while service industries benefit from both horizontal and vertical spillovers, manufacturing industries do not experience significant positive entry spillovers of any kind. In addition, we find that while vertical spillovers prevail among competitive industries, horizontal spillovers dominate in less competitive industries. We also find differences in firm size distributions between industries with and without FDI, further suggesting the influence of FDI presence on industry dynamics.
Postextrasystolic regulation patterns of blood pressure and heart rate in patients with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy

Assessment of fluctuations in heart rate (HR) following a premature ventricular complex (PVC) is valuable for identifying patients at high risk of sudden cardiac death. We hypothesised that postextrasystolic potentiation is the main determinant of the regulation patterns of blood pressure (BP) and HR following a PVC. Twelve patients with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (IDC) and 13 control subjects with single PVCs (comparable coupling intervals) were investigated. Non‐invasive finger arterial BP and ECGs were analysed. Regulation patterns following a single PVC were quantified using the indices postextrasystolic amplitude potentiation (PEAP) and maximum turbulence slope of five consecutive mean BP values (MBP‐TS), and compared with the HR turbulence parameters turbulence slope (HR‐TS) and turbulence onset (HR‐TO). PEAP was significantly higher in IDC patients compared to controls (48.7 ± 32.6 vs. 9.8 ± 5.4 %, P < 0.01), whereas MBP‐TS was lower (0.97 ± 0.60 vs. 2.07 ± 1.04 mmHg BBI−1 (BBI, beat‐to‐beat interval), P < 0.05), as was HR‐TS (8.46 ± 7.90 vs. 30.73 ± 22.90 ms BBI−1, P < 0.01). HR‐TO was significantly higher in IDC patients (−0.56 ± 2.19 vs.−5.52 ± 4.13 %, P < 0.01). In addition, the regulation patterns of BP and HR following a single PVC differed significantly between IDC patients and controls. Specifically, we observed pronounced PEAPs in IDC patients. The baroreflex response initiated by the low pressure amplitude of the PVC was suppressed in IDC patients due to the augmented potentiation of the first postextrasystolic blood pressure. Furthermore, IDC patients displayed impressive postextrasystolic pulsus alternans phenomena, whereas healthy subjects exhibited a typical baroreflex pattern. The pulsus alternans phenomenon seems to be triggered by a PVC.