Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Managing construction contracts: Operational controls for commercial risks

Partial table of contents: CONTRACT PLANNING. Construction Contracts: Roles and Relationships. Contract Pricing Alternatives. CONTRACT FORMATION. Developing Contract Documents. Managing the Bid Cycle. Contract Award. CONTRACT ADMINISTRATION. Change Orders. Backcharges. Claims. CONTRACT MONITORING. Contract Reporting. Contract Auditing. SPECIAL RECOMMENDATIONS. The Role of a Lawyer in Contract Management. Contracting Across Borders. Glossary of Terms. Index.
What's the Matter with Cultural Heritage Tweets? An Ontology -- Based Approach for CH Sensitivity Estimation in Social Network Activities

In 2015, Twitter introduced the hashtag #culturalheritage, thus giving an empirical evidence of the increasing interest of users towards cultural topics and events. In the last years, while an increasing number of studies and initiatives about tweets, in both the academic and business worlds, raised, a lack of quantitative studies devoted to assess their potential and effectiveness for organizations promoting Cultural Heritage was recorded. So, this work describes a quantitative analysis of tweets which combines NLP, semantic technologies, geo-referencing and temporal analysis. The initial set of measures aims to characterize people's interest and sensitivity into CH subjects, geographical density of CH resources, and temporal proximity to CH-related events. Furthermore, in order to evidence the relevance of the obtained results, they are compared to similar measures computed for different but more general topics -- such as Medicine - while at the same time entail a certain specificity of interest, which cannot be confused with reactions to common mainstream, glamour or massive-impressive events (earthquakes, political elections, wars, amazing news). This kind of analysis was focused on huge datasets of tweets, issued in a long period of time from geographical areas of Italy having different densities of CH resources, The results encourage and sustain a Business-Intelligence approach which is suitable for both no-profit ad business oriented organizations, such as those involved in the DATABENC District.
Tighter end-to-end delay bound for aggregate traffic scheduling

Aggregate scheduling techniques have been developed and deployed to avoid complexities of Integrated Services model. A major breakthrough in this regard is in terms of scheduling with Packet Scale Rate Guarantee. However, fundamental limitation of the method lies in unbounded growth of end-to-end delay, whenever the strict relation between utilization and number of hops traversed, fails. A tighter end-to-end delay bound is derived in this paper for highest priority packet, called EF packet. The paper also presents an analytical expression for quantifying maximum possible increase in delay of an EF packet. Using these results, a modified relation between utilization and number of hops traversed by a packet is shown. The modified relation is shown to allow higher utilization compared to earlier result.
Combined aortic debranching and thoracic endovascular aneurysm repair (TEVAR) effective but at a cost.

OBJECTIVES To compare hybrid repair (HR) (aortic debranching and TEVAR) with conventional open thoracoabdominal and aortic arch repairs (OR), including a cost analysis. DESIGN Retrospective cohort. SETTING University hospital. PATIENTS Thirty patients with thoracoabdominal aneurysms were evaluated between November 1, 2005, and December 31, 2006. INTERVENTIONS There were 18 HRs and 12 ORs. Aortic abnormalities included the arch, visceral aorta, and arch/visceral aorta combined. Aortic debranching with TEVAR (HR) was performed at a single setting. Dacron grafts were used for OR, and branch vessels were bypassed. Hospital costs and reimbursements were obtained from the finance department. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Perioperative morbidity, mortality, and cost. RESULTS Patients were significantly older in the HR group (mean [SD], 72 [8.9] vs 58 [17.4] years, P = .2). The HR group had significantly less blood loss (mean [SD], 1.7 [2.3] vs 4.8 [3.1] L, P = .004), transfusions (5.1 [5.9] vs 14.7 [7.8] units, P = .001), renal failure (0% vs 42.0%, P = .002), and pulmonary morbidity (17% vs 67%, P < .001); shorter intensive care unit stays (5.2 [4.8] vs 16.4 [12.9] days, P = .005); and shorter hospital length of stay (mean [SD], 11.6 [6.2] vs 20.8 [10.8] days, P = .01). There were no differences in mortality or spinal cord ischemia. There was no difference in mean direct hospital costs (HR: $59,435.70 vs OR: $49,341; P = .35). However, the mean cost margin per case was -34% for HR and +6.2% for OR (P = .04). CONCLUSIONS Improved clinical outcomes are seen after HR despite treatment of an older, sicker patient population. However, HR ultimately comes at a significant cost to the hospital, with a 34% loss in revenue per case.
Differentiating Major and Incremental New Product Development: The Effects of Functional and Numerical Workforce Flexibility

This study seeks to explain the differential effects of workforce flexibility on incremental and major new product development (NPD). Drawing on the resource-based theory of the firm, human resource management research, and innovation management literature, the authors distinguish two types of workforce flexibility, functional and numerical, and hypothesize differential effects on NPD outcomes. A large-scale sample of 284 Dutch firms across various manufacturing goods and business services industries serves to test these hypotheses. The results suggest that functional flexibility positively influences incremental NPD only, internal numerical flexibility negatively influences incremental NPD only, and external numerical flexibility positively influences major NPD only. Thus, differences between major and incremental NPD are grounded in the human resource flexibility of the firm. This complements research that found that such differences lie in critical development activities, learning processes, and capabilities. It also complements product innovation research on flexibility in NPD processes and on flexibility in organizational structures and routines. It extends the resource-based theory of the firm suggesting that human resource flexibility is part of the dynamic capabilities that allow firms to reconfigure existing competencies. The conclusions imply that managers of manufacturing and service firms may use training and education and create a functional flexible workforce that can progressively enhance incremental NPD outcomes. They may want to avoid paying overtime, because such internal numerical flexibility hampers incremental NPD, but use fixed-term contracts to expand external numerical flexibility to enhance major NPD.
Skin Malar rash Discoid rash CNS Spleen Splenomegaly Kidney Serum Glomerulonephritis Anti-nuclear antibodies Blood IFN signature Plasma blasts Anemia Thrombocytopenia Neurological damage Affective disorder Lung Inflammation Joints Arthritis

1033 ABSTRACT Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) represents a challenging autoimmune disease from a clinical perspective because of its varied forms of presentation. Although broad-spectrum steroids remain the standard treatment for SLE, they have many side effects and only provide temporary relief from the symptoms of the disease. Thus, gaining a deeper understanding of the genetic traits and biological pathways that confer susceptibility to SLE will help in the design of more targeted and effective therapeutics. Both human genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and investigations using a variety of mouse models of SLE have been valuable for the identification of the genes and pathways involved in pathogenesis. In this Review, we link human susceptibility genes for SLE with biological pathways characterized in mouse models of lupus, and discuss how the mechanistic insights gained could advance drug discovery for the disease.
A strategy of real-time animation of clothed body movement

Runtime animation of clothed body has great potential in the applications of many areas, such as virtual fashion, game and 3D movies. In order to enable a quick preview of the clothed body movement, this paper proposes a strategy to generate real-time animation of clothed body movement, which is more fast and convenient than the previous methods. The experimental results show the animation of clothed body movement with realistic performance can be achieved by this proposed strategy.
Intelligibility at a multilingual cocktail party: effect of concurrent language knowledge

Our research aims at exploring the nature of the interferences that occur during the speech-in-speech situation. French target words were inserted in 2 types of backgrounds: (i) 4-talker babble spoken in various languages such as French, Italian or Irish, containing acoustic and linguistic information, (ii) fluctuating noise derived from each 4-talker babble signal, with only acoustic information. In Experiment 1, French native participants with no knowledge of Italian or Irish performed a lexical decision task. The comparison of performances obtained with the 2 types of backgrounds for each language revealed that acoustic and linguistic information from babble spoken in a known language to the participants (French) competed with the target words; whereas for babble produced in unknown languages (Italian and Irish) only acoustic information was involved. In Experiment 2, the experimental conditions were identical as in Experiment 1, except that French native participants speaking Italian as L2 and with no knowledge of Irish were recruited. The fact that Italian became an intelligible language to the participants led to acoustic and linguistic interferences from Italian babble.
Expression of the apoptosis inhibitor Bcl‐2 in sputum eosinophils from children with acute asthma

Background Apoptosis of eosinophils is of increasingly important value in modulating allergic airway inflammation in asthma. Our purpose was to investigate the degree of expression of the antiapoptotic B‐cell lymphoma/leukaemia‐2 (Bcl‐2) protein in sputum eosinophils during acute asthma exacerbation and its relationship with exacerbation severity.
Chromic oxide and acid‐insoluble ash as markers in digestibility studies with growing pigs and sows

The results of three experiments, focused on the determination of endogenous ileal flow (EIF) of amino acids (AA) and nitrogen (N) (Exp. 1), apparent ileal digestibility (AID) of AA and N (Exp. 2), and apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) of dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM), N, calcium (Ca) and phosphorus (P) (Exps. 2 and 3), were used to compare chromic oxide (Cr2 O3 ) and acid-insoluble ash (AIA) as digestibility markers. In Exps. 1 and 2, a total of six gilts fitted with T-cannula in terminal ileum, and in Exp. 3, a total of 24 pregnant sows were used. In Exps. 1 and 2, the pigs were assigned into four dietary treatments according to 4 × 6 crossover design (Exp. 1; diets with 0%, 4%, 8% and 12% of casein; Exp. 2 basal diet with different levels of phytase). In Exp. 3, the sows were assigned to four dietary treatments (basal diet with different levels of phytase) of six sows. In Exps. 1 and 2 ileal digesta and in Exps. 2 and 3 faeces were collected for the determination of EIF, AID and ATTD. Differences in EIF of AA determined by Cr2 O3 and AIA ranged (p ˃ 0.05) from -4.62 to 4.54%. The lowest EIF was for methionine and the greatest one for proline, determined by both markers. Apparent ileal digestibility determined by Cr2 O3 was slightly greater (p ˃ 0.05) in comparison with AIA. Differences ranged from 1.88% (Arg) to 7.08% (Gly). The greatest AID was for arginine and the lowest one for glycine, determined by both Cr2 O3 and AIA. Similarly for ATTD of DM, OM, N, Ca and P, there were no differences in digestibility determined by Cr2 O3 and AIA. Both, Cr2 O3 and AIA, are suitable and comparable markers for digestibility studies in pigs.
Lymphocyte subset responses to repeated submaximal exercise in men.

The effects of repeated bouts of submaximal cycle ergometry exercise on changes in the percentage of peripheral blood T-lymphocytes, the T-helper/inducer and T-cytotoxic/suppressor subsets, and natural killer (NK) cells were studied in 18 healthy young men who had no history of regular exercise training. Subjects were matched on the basis of maximal O2 uptake and assigned randomly to exercise or control groups, with controls resting quietly during the exercise sessions. The percentage of peripheral blood mononuclear leukocytes that reacted with monoclonal antibodies specific for T-lymphocytes (CD3+ cells), the helper/inducer subset (CD4+ cells) and cytotoxic/suppressor subset (CD8+ cells) of T-lymphocytes, and cells with NK activity (Leu7+ cells) were enumerated by fluorescence-activated flow cytometry for samples obtained immediately before and after exercise on days 1, 3, and 5 of a 5-day exercise regimen. The results of this study were mixed with decreases in the percentage of T-lymphocytes before vs. after exercise on days 1 and 3 (P less than 0.001), a decrease in the percentage of T-helper/inducer cells before vs. after exercise on day 3 (P less than 0.05), no effect of exercise on the percentage of T-cytotoxic/suppressor cells, and a marked increase in the percentage of NK cells after exercise on days 1 (P less than 0.05) and 3 (P less than 0.01). The total number of recovered NK cells in the mononuclear leukocyte fraction of blood also increased significantly after exercise on days 1 (P less than 0.05) and 3 (P less than 0.01). (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Differential learning and memory performance in OEF/OIF veterans for verbal and visual material.

OBJECTIVE Memory complaints are particularly salient among veterans who experience combat-related mild traumatic brain injuries and/or trauma exposure, and represent a primary barrier to successful societal reintegration and everyday functioning. Anecdotally within clinical practice, verbal learning and memory performance frequently appears differentially reduced versus visual learning and memory scores. We sought to empirically investigate the robustness of a verbal versus visual learning and memory discrepancy and to explore potential mechanisms for a verbal/visual performance split. METHOD Participants consisted of 103 veterans with reported history of mild traumatic brain injuries returning home from U.S. military Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom referred for outpatient neuropsychological evaluation. RESULTS Findings indicate that visual learning and memory abilities were largely intact while verbal learning and memory performance was significantly reduced in comparison, residing at approximately 1.1 SD below the mean for verbal learning and approximately 1.4 SD below the mean for verbal memory. This difference was not observed in verbal versus visual fluency performance, nor was it associated with estimated premorbid verbal abilities or traumatic brain injury history. In our sample, symptoms of depression, but not posttraumatic stress disorder, were significantly associated with reduced composite verbal learning and memory performance. CONCLUSIONS Verbal learning and memory performance may benefit from targeted treatment of depressive symptomatology. Also, because visual learning and memory functions may remain intact, these might be emphasized when applying neurocognitive rehabilitation interventions to compensate for observed verbal learning and memory difficulties.
Fusion expression of Occludin extracellular loops and an α-helical bundle: A new research model for tight junction

Tight junctions (TJs) are the outermost structures of intercellular junctions and are highly specialized membrane domains involved in many important cellular processes. However, most TJ proteins are four-time transmembrane proteins and are difficult to express in their correct soluble form, which limits their functional study and therapeutic application. Human occludin (OCLN) is a major component of TJs and an essential co-receptor for hepatitis C virus (HCV) cell entry. To explore expression strategy for recombinant TJ proteins possessing integrated and functional extracellular loops, OCLN was here used as a model molecule, and several prokaryotic fusion constructs were designed by docking OCLN extracellular loops (ECLs) to HIV-1 gp41 NHR and CHR six-helical bundle (6HV1); then their biophysical features and anti-HCV activity were evaluated. The proteins were successfully expressed and purified in E. coli, and the double-loop constructs (D1ECL1S+D2ECL2 as a representative) were found to have more potent HCV neutralizing activity than single-loop constructs at non-cytotoxic concentrations. Circular dichroism studies indicate that D1ECL1S+D2ECL2 adopt stable α-helical folds consistent with design. Thermal denaturation assay indicated that D1ECL1S+D2ECL2 is highly stable at 80°C (melting temperature, Tm, of 89.08 ± 2.0°C) and comparable in stability to the 6HV1 scaffold. Moreover, the time-of-addition experiment revealed that D1ECL1S+D2ECL2 predominantly functioned during the early stages of HCV entry. Taken together, these findings provide a novel strategy for recombinant TJ protein expression in vitro, which may shed light on functional and structural studies for TJs and may provide a new avenue to drug development.
Factors affecting the transferability of HR policies and practices in Iranian IJVs.

This study draws on the disciplines of human resource management (HRM), cross-cultural management and international business to examine how and why human resource (HR) policies and practices are transferred to international joint ventures (IJVs) in which a multinational corporation (MNC) based abroad finds a local partner or partners to set up a new organisation in the host country. The research sets out to identify the degree of influence environmental factors have on the transferability of HR policies and practices to IJVs in a developing country and their effect on HRM. Although the study is based on IJVs in Iran, its scope is wider in that it provides a generic model—ranking the importance of environmental factors on the transferability of HR policies and practices—that can be applied by companies for setting up IJVs in other developing countries. Iran is used as the transitional country for research partly because the author is an Iranian HR consultant based in Iran, but also because Iran is an emerging economy with potential to increase international business and attract foreign direct investment. Iran is just setting out on the path of HRM, thus providing a significant background for observing transferability. The research took the form of a qualitative study conducted through a series of semi-structured interviews carried out in two stages. The material gathered from the first stage helped shape the interviews for the second stage. The responses were content analysed to arrive at the results. The findings from this study show that the role of the MNC and the microenvironment of the IJV are the two most important factors affecting HRM transferability. The macro-environment, comprising national factors and local-partner inputs, ranks third in importance. As this study is the first to examine a broad host of factors in HRM transferability, it provides a contribution to knowledge about HRM transferability in IJVs in developing countries. The model ranking the degree of influence of the different factors on the transferability of HR policies and practices in IJVs will assist MNCs and local companies to better plan for IJV relationships and their strategy of HRM transferability in various countries and IJV relationships. The generic model now needs to be tested further in different countries to see if the same factors are seen in different environmental contexts.
Analysis of promoters controlled by the putative sigma factor AlgU regulating conversion to mucoidy in Pseudomonas aeruginosa: relationship to sigma E and stress response

Alginate overproducition by mucoid Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a critical pathogenic determinant expressed by this organism during chronic infections in cystic fibrosis. Conversion to mucoidy and a subsequent loss of mucoid character can occur via different mutations in the algU mucA mucB gene cluster. The algU gene encodes a 22.2-kDa putative alternative sigma factor required for expression of the critical alginate biosynthetic gene algD. In this work, algU transcription was studied by S1 nuclease protection analysis. Transcription from the promoter proximal to the algU coding region was found to be dependent on AlgU. The -35 and -10 sequences of this newly mapped promoter showed strong similarity ot the promoters of two other critical alg genes: algD and algR. The proximal promoter of algR was also shown to depend on algU. Interestingly, the putative -35 and -10 regions of all three promoters displayed striking similarity to the consensus sequence of the sigma E-dependent promoters in Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhimurium. This 24-kDa sigma factor, controlling genes participating in resistance to high temperatures and oxidative stress, has been previously biochemically characterized, but the gene for sigma E remained unidentified. To examine whether AlgU is related to sigma E, the effect of algU inactivation on the sensitivity of P. aeruginosa to killing by heat and reactive oxygen intermediates was tested. Two isogenic pairs of algU+ and algU mutant strains were compared. The algU mutants, irrespective of the mucoid status of the parental strains, displayed increased sensitivity to killing by paraquat, known to generate intracellular superoxide radicals, and heat. Further lgobal homology searches revealed the presence of a previously unrecognized E. coli gene with the predicted gene product showing a striking 66% identity to AlgU. The corresponding gene from S. typhimurium was cloned and sequenced, and it is displayed one amino acid substitution relative to its E. coli equivalent. AlgU and its close homologs in E. coli and S. typhimurium may be functionally related.
Functional reconstitution of Drosophila melanogaster NMJ glutamate receptors

Significance We report the first functional reconstitution of neuromuscular (NMJ) glutamate receptors from the fruit fly Drosophila. The identification of these receptors enabled tremendous insight into the mechanisms of synapse assembly and development. However, analysis of animals with mutant receptors is complicated by compound phenotypes; studies on isolated receptors are necessary to identify the structural elements and auxiliary proteins important for receptor assembly, surface delivery, and function. We show that Neto is an essential component required for the function of Drosophila NMJ receptors expressed in Xenopus oocytes, and use this system to examine subunit dependence and function. We find that Drosophila NMJ receptors have ligand-binding properties and structural features strikingly different from vertebrate glutamate receptors. The Drosophila larval neuromuscular junction (NMJ), at which glutamate acts as the excitatory neurotransmitter, is a widely used model for genetic analysis of synapse function and development. Despite decades of study, the inability to reconstitute NMJ glutamate receptor function using heterologous expression systems has complicated the analysis of receptor function, such that it is difficult to resolve the molecular basis for compound phenotypes observed in mutant flies. We find that Drosophila Neto functions as an essential component required for the function of NMJ glutamate receptors, permitting analysis of glutamate receptor responses in Xenopus oocytes. In combination with a crystallographic analysis of the GluRIIB ligand binding domain, we use this system to characterize the subunit dependence of assembly, channel block, and ligand selectivity for Drosophila NMJ glutamate receptors.