Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The European Respiratory Journal makes COPD a priority

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) represents a major problem for public health worldwide and its burden is expected to increase in the next decade. Despite the extensive resources invested in research and the wealth of studies published in leading scientific journals, there are still many unknown aspects regarding the nature of COPD, which make this disease difficult to treat. A number of authors and societies have recently outlined some of the burning questions on COPD that need to be addressed by researchers in order to reduce the burden of the disease and help funding agencies to prioritise limited resources in competitive calls. They include documents from the American Thoracic Society (ATS)/European Respiratory Society (ERS) [1, 2], the Global Alliance against Chronic Respiratory Diseases (GARD) [3], the International Primary Care Research Group [4] and the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine [5, 6]. The number of indexed respiratory journals has substantially increased in the past few years and some also incorporate COPD in their title, which allows more room for articles on this disease. The European Respiratory Journal ( ERJ ) has already published many papers on COPD and is eager to publish more, and better, research on this topic in the near future. However, we must keep in mind that space is limited and the competition for priority is tough among manuscripts in different fields. The ERJ can currently accept less than 15% of submitted manuscripts, and immediate rejection without external peer review is becoming a painful but necessary measure given the overload of manuscripts not focused on sufficiently relevant questions. We …
Corporate governance attributes as determinants of the Islamic Social Reporting of Shariah-compliant companies in Malaysia

An increase in the number of Shariah-compliant companies in Malaysia has greatly contributed to stabilising the Islamic Capital Market (ICM). The aim of this study is to examine the nature and extent of Islamic Social Reporting (ISR) practices among Shariah-compliant companies listed on the ACE Market in Malaysia. The study also examines the potential existence of a relationship between corporate governance attributes and ISR. The study focuses on four attributes of corporate governance: Shariah supervisory board size, Audit quality, Audit committee and Muslim ownership. A sample was selected comprising 53 Shariah-compliant companies listed on the ACE Market of Bursa Malaysia during the three-year period of 2015–2017. The study uses content analysis, with ISR coded according to a modified Islamic Social Disclosure Index. The results show significant relationships between the corporate governance attributes of board size, audit quality and audit committee, and ISR. This may reflect the benefits of having more board members with a range of expertise and experience in terms of the ability to make better reporting decisions. The appointment of auditors from the Big 4 firms indicates more transparent reporting practices, while an audit committee, serving as a management watchdog, may encourage more transparent reporting in annual reports. The findings may help to strengthen the understanding of parties such as regulators, practitioners and potential investors of the attributes of effective governance among growing companies in Malaysia.
Protein Kinase C and Lipid‐Induced Insulin Resistance in Skeletal Muscle

Abstract: Insulin resistance of skeletal muscle in humans, animals, and cells is often strongly correlated with increased lipid availability. The elevation of certain intracellular lipid species can lead to the activation of signal transduction pathways that inhibit normal insulin action. Thus, increased diacylglycerol levels in muscle are associated with the activation of one or more isoforms of the protein kinase C family, which is known to attenuate insulin signaling, especially at the level of IRS‐1. In addition, de novo synthesis of ceramide can inhibit more distal sites by the activation of protein phosphatase 2A and hence promote the dephosphorylation and inactivation of protein kinase B. Such mechanisms may account at least in part for the reduced insulin sensitivity occurring in obesity and type 2 diabetes where lipid oversupply is a major factor.
External auditor type, discretionary accruals and investors’ reactions

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate, in an Egyptian context, the external auditor type (Big 4 vs local) implications on reporting quality proxied by discretionary accruals (DA) and also examine whether auditor type impacts the market’s pricing of DA, where pricing is considered a proxy for the perceived DA quality. Design/methodology/approach The sample period is 2012–2015, that is meant to be post the Egyptian revolution financial crisis; all Egyptian stock exchange (EGX) listed firms (except banks and financial institutions) are considered. DA are estimated using modified Dichev and Dechow’s (2002) model (McNicholas, 2002). Ordinary least squares regression tests are used to investigate the external auditor type implications on DA level and the related EGX investors’ pricing. Findings The findings generally show the external auditor’s minimal role in mitigating DA. Moreover, the findings reflect the EGX investors’ negligence and/or lack of confidence in regards to DA and external auditor type factors in stock pricing. Practical implications The paper findings highlight to regulators the need for effective monitoring of audit firms earnings management mitigation performance to help reinforce investor confidence in financial reporting quality. Originality/value This paper is the first that investigates the external auditor monitoring mechanism implications on investors’ perceptions of earnings quality in Egypt. The paper findings would provide important contributions, particularly post the Egyptian revolution crisis, where the EGX market is trying to restore the investors’ confidence.
Cardiovascular reactivity and silent ischemia in response to mental stress in symptomatic and asymptomatic coronary artery disease patients: Results of a pilot study

The current study was designed to examine cardiovascular reactivity to psychological tasks and its relationship to provocation of ischemia in asymptomatic coronary artery disease (CAD) patients with documented silent ischemia and those with painful ischemia. ECG, heart rate, and blood pressure responses to mental stress were collected for 13 patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) and for 6 healthy control subjects. Six of the CAD patients were asymptomatic (documented silent ischemia and no history of angina), while the remaining 7 were symptomatic (history of angina). Three types of mental stress were employed: white noise (a passive stressor), digits repeated backwards (an active stressor), and a math task plus white noise (active +passive stressor). Results indicate that significant increases in heart rate and blood pressure, but not silent ischemic episodes, were in‐ duced by the mental stress tasks. In addition, patients with documented exercise‐induced and ambulant silent ischemia showed trends of blunted autonomic responsiveness to the stressors. On the digits backwards task, the CAD patients with silent ischemia showed significantly lower diastolic blood pressure responses compared with controls or angina patients. Findings suggest that ischemic episodes are not easily induced by brief mental stress. However, results indicate that asymptomatic CAD patients with silent ischemia may be lacking in autonomic responsiveness, particularly in terms of peripheral resistance, to mental stress in comparison with health controls and symptomatic ischemic patients. Further investigation is needed to explore how patients with silent ischemia typically respond autonomically to mental stress and how blunted reactivity may relate to the provocation of unrecognized ischemic episodes.
Modélisation et gestion du dialogue oral homme-machine de commande

La conception et la realisation d'un systeme de dialogue oral homme-machine de commande accessible au plus grand nombre, c'est-a-dire a des utilisateurs non specialistes du dialogue avec une machine, necessite la prise en compte de certaines caracteristiques de la conversation humaine en general, pour permettre une interaction langagiere la plus naturelle possible entre le systeme et l'utilisateur, et le respect de contraintes propres au dialogue finalise, c'est-a-dire dedie a la gestion d'une tâche informatique precise. Dans ce contexte, nous proposons un modele pour ce type de dialogue, destine in fine a etre implante dans un systeme de commande operationnel, mais dont la definition repose sur une etude approfondie des principes et mecanismes du dialogue homme-homme. Plus precisement, notre modelisation du dialogue se compose d'un formalisme de representation structuree des donnees du dialogue et de la tâche, fonde sur la notion d'eventualite, et d'une procedure de gestion du dialogue qui comprend l'analyse pragmatique des enonces de l'utilisateur, la gestion effective de la representation evenementielle du dialogue, la gestion de l'application sous-jacente, et la production des enonces du systeme. Notre modele se veut generique vis-a-vis de l'application a piloter.
Op zoek naar de 'monitorial citizen'. Een empirisch onderzoek naar de prevalentie van postmodern burgerschap in België

In het overgrote deel van het bestaande onderzoek naar politieke participatie overheerst een toon van bezorgdheid. Over het algemeen gaan auteurs er van uit dat burgers te weinig betrokken zijn bij het politiek gebeuren, en een aantal studies stellen bovendien dat deze betrokkenheid nog verder zal dalen, vooral dan bij jongere burgers.2 Als we kijken naar het ter beschikking staande empirisch materiaal, dan zijn er inderdaad wel een aantal neergaande trends te onderkennen. Het aantal leden van politieke partijen in ons land daalt drastisch. Terwijl in 1992 nog 521.230 Belgen lid waren van een politieke partij, was dat in 2002 gedaald tot 409.230, of een daling met bijna 22 procent.3 Ons land neemt bovendien helemaal geen uitzonderlijke positie in met deze dalende trend: zowat in alle westerse landen zien we dat politieke partijen systematisch leden verliezen, en dat ze er nauwelijks in slagen aansluiting te vinden bij jongere generaties.4 Er zijn ook een heleboel andere indicatoren die er op wijzen dat de verhouding tussen jongere generaties en de traditionele politieke instellingen op zijn zachtst gezegd verstoord
Artificial Diversity and Defense Security (ADDSec) Final Report

Critical infrastructure systems continue to foster predictable communication patterns and static configurations over extended periods of time. The static nature of these systems eases the process of gathering reconnaissance information that can be used to design, develop, and launch attacks by adversaries. In this research effort, the early phases of an attack vector will be disrupted by randomizing application port numbers, IP addresses, and communication paths dynamically through the use of overlay networks within Industrial Control Systems (ICS). These protective measures convert static systems into "moving targets," adding an additional layer of defense. Additionally, we have developed a framework that automatically detects and defends against threats within these systems using an ensemble of machine learning algorithms that classify and categorize abnormal behavior. Our proof-of-concept has been demonstrated within a representative ICS environment. Performance metrics of our proof-of-concept have been captured with latency impacts of less than a millisecond, on average.
Considerations about the using of Cadence Software for simulation issues of electrostatic phenomena

The here presented paper reviews the problems of electrostatic discharges (ESD) in circuit industry and presents the standard models developed to characterize the performance of ESD protection-circuits. Electrostatic discharge is one of the most important reliability problems in the circuit industry considering that the static electricity is an electrical charge caused by the imbalance of the electrons to the surface of a material. This imbalance produces an electric field that can be measured and may influence the objects in the vicinity. In order to characterize the behavior of devices and objects in terms of electrostatic discharge, are mainly used three standardized models: Human Body Model (HBM), Machine Model (MM) and Charged Device Model (CDM). Just simple modeling is strongly preferred in terms direct application of real test voltages, being much cheaper. In accordance with the importance of chosen research field, we developed a significant number of trials, using Cadence Software, a program for modeling and simulation of electrostatic phenomena.
Computer Science in New Zealand high schools

The New Zealand Ministry of Education has recently released a new "Digital Technologies" proposal for delivering computing topics in the final three years of High Schools. The proposal aims to address a number of issues by offering topics that will be academically challenging for students, and provide them with a broader view of the kinds of advanced topics they might study beyond High School. The proposed structure includes having Digital Technologies as a separate area in the technology curriculum, and includes a strand called "Computer Science and Programming" that has sufficient coverage to communicate to students what the subject area is really about. This paper reviews the circumstances that led to this proposal, describes the international context (especially in the US) for High School computing curricula, and examines the published proposal in some detail. It also considers the issues that are likely to come up in the implementation of the proposal, and how they might be addressed.
Interkinetic nuclear migration

A hallmark of neurogenesis in vertebrate is the apical-basal fluctuation of radial glia nuclei. Such a phenomenon, called INM, has been known for decades and is closely associated with mitosis but still puzzles scientists. An impressive step in the molecular understanding of INM has recently been achieved by Tsai and coworkers. Using RNA interference associated with time-lapse imaging, these authors demonstrated a dual motor system that can push/pull the nuclei accordingly with the cell cycle stages.
Focus on perfectionism in female adolescent anorexia nervosa.

OBJECTIVE Maudsley Family-Based Treatment (FBT) for anorexia is successful for between 50 and 80% of adolescents. To improve this success rate, various approaches to augmenting the treatment have been proposed. METHOD In this study, we describe the treatment of three girls with FBTaugmented with a module focusing on perfectionism, defined as personally prescribed or socially derived irrational and rigid expectations and exceedingly high standards of self performance. Multiple times across the 1 year of treatment, girls completed the measures of perfectionism and other outcomes. RESULTS The results were optimistic for remission, and showed reductions in girls? perfectionism and obsessional and rigid thinking.
ERBB‐2 overexpression and cyclooxygenase‐2 up‐regulation in human cholangiocarcinoma and risk conditions

Quantitative immunohistochemistry of ERBB‐2 and MET receptor proteins and of cyclooxygenase 2 (COX‐2) was undertaken to determine if there is a positive correlation between overexpression of either ERBB‐2 or MET and up‐regulation of COX‐2 in human cholangiocarcinogenesis. ERBB‐2, MET, and COX‐2 immunoreactivities were measured in cancerous parenchyma of 71 archival cases of human cholangiocarcinoma (ChC) compared with hyperplastic small biliary ducts in surrounding nonneoplastic liver and with bile ducts of normal adult human liver. ERBB‐2, MET, and COX‐2 immunoreactivities were also assessed in both large and small hyperplastic biliary ducts (HBDs) in 27 archival cases of hepatolithiasis and 20 archival cases of primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC), both of which are risk conditions for human cholangiocarcinogenesis. There was a strong positive correlation between increased ERBB‐2, but not MET, and COX‐2 immunoreactivity measured in the tumors and risk conditions. Enhanced immunoreactivity for ERBB‐2 and COX‐2 also correlated directly with tumor differentiation and was highest in well‐differentiated tumors. Interestingly, some but not all cases of hepatolithiasis and most cases of PSC showed increased ERBB‐2 and COX‐2 immunostaining in the large but not small HBDs, whereas strong MET immunostaining was detected in both the large and small ducts. In conclusion, overexpression of ERBB‐2 and COX‐2 may herald an early carcinogenic event in the human hepatic biliary tract and one that is consistent with a frequent anatomic site of origin of the tumors. The results also suggest ERBB‐2 and COX‐2 as potentially important targets relevant to chemoprevention or adjunct therapy of ChC.
A branching dendritic model of a rodent CA3 pyramidal neurone.

1. We constructed a branching dendritic compartmental model of a CA3 pyramidal neurone, using experimental data from guinea‐pig and rat cells obtained in vitro. The goal was to understand interactions between synaptic events impinging on dendritic branches and voltage‐ and calcium‐dependent currents. The model contained sixty‐four soma‐dendrite (SD) compartments, an axon initial segment (IS), and four axonal compartments. There were six active conductances in the SD membrane, including a sodium conductance (gNa) and a high‐threshold calcium conductance (gCa), with kinetic properties similar to those reported in a previous study. 2. The distribution of conductance densities across the IS and SD was adjusted by testing the model response to antidromic stimulation and current pulses or sustained currents injected into the soma or apical dendrites. As before, gNa was concentrated on and near the soma with lower density in the dendrites, while gCa had a higher density in apical dendrites than at the soma. 3. The model predicts that CA3 pyramidal neurones in media blocking synaptic transmission should fire a burst of action potentials following antidromic stimulation. This was confirmed experimentally in hippocampal slices. 4. Both in the model and in guinea‐pig neurones, dendritic IPSCs can delay the onset of bursting. If an IPSC begins soon enough after the first fast action potential, the later burst envelope is attenuated. This effect results from suppression of dendritic Ca2+ electrogenesis. 5. The model predicts that an appropriately timed dendritic IPSC (after the first somatic spike but before the dendritic Ca2+ spike) may suppress the transient local [Ca2+] signal, while having a negligible effect on the electrical output of the neurone. This phenomenon has been reported in guinea‐pig Purkinje cells. 6. We conclude that active dendritic currents are critical for regulation of the electrical output of CA3 pyramidal neurones. We suggest also that dendritic [Ca2+] signals might be controlled in individual dendrites independently of action potential outputs, an effect of possible importance for synaptic plasticity.
Lack of effect of the antimigraine drugs, sumatriptan, ergotamine and dihydroergotamine on arteriovenous anastomotic shunting in the dura mater of the pig

1 In anaesthetized animals, the antimigraine drugs, sumatriptan, ergotamine and dihydroergotamine, reduce carotid arteriovenous anastomotic shunting. Within the carotid vascular bed arteriovenous anastomoses are located, amongst other places in the dura mater, which is a putative site of the pain during a migraine attack. 2 In this investigation, we have localized and measured the arteriovenous shunting within the carotid vascular bed of the pig by using simultaneous intracarotid injections of radiolabelled microspheres of three different sizes (10, 15 and 50 μm), which provides an index of blood flow via arteriovenous anastomoses larger than approximately 14, 27 and 90 μm diameter, respectively. The effects of sumatriptan (0.3 mg kg−1), ergotamine (0.02 mg kg−1), dihydroergotamine (0.1 mg kg−1) and saline were studied by repeating the injections of 15 and 50 μm spheres after the treatments. 3 There was no difference in shunting or entrapment between the 10 and 15 μm microsphere, indicating the absence of arteriovenous anastomoses with a diameter between 14 and 27 μm. 4 Arteriovenous anastomoses with a diameter between 27 and 90 μm, as indicated by the difference in blood flow measured by 15 and 50 μm spheres, were located in the dura mater, ears, skin, fat and, to a lesser extent, in the skeletal muscles and eyes. 5 Sumatriptan, ergotamine and dihydroergotamine reduced the overall flow in the smaller arteriovenous anastomoses (diameter between 27 and 90 μm), and even more in larger shunts (wider than 90 μm). 6 Locally, blood flow in the smaller arteriovenous shunts was reduced in the skin and fat, but not in the dura mater, ears, eyes and muscles. It is not possible to determine in which tissues blood flow in the larger arteriovenous anastomoses was reduced. 7 Tissue blood flow measured with 15 μm microspheres remained unchanged after the three antimigraine drugs, implying a lack of effect on capillary flow. 8 It is concluded that in the anaesthetized pigs the only evident effect of these antimigraine drugs on carotid haemodynamics is a decrease in blood flow in both smaller and larger arteriovenous anastomoses; the smaller arteriovenous anastomoses were affected in the skin and fat, but not in other tissues.
Segmentation anisotrope 3D pour la quantification en imagerie vasculaire par résonance magnétique

L'objectif de cette these est la segmentation d'images vasculaires tridimensionnelles obtenues par resonance magnetique. L'application clinique visee est la quantification de stenoses arterielles. Nous proposons une methode de segmentation divisee en deux etapes : extraction de l'axe central du vaisseau et detection des contours sur les plans localement perpendiculaires a l'axe. Notre principale contribution est la methode d'extraction automatique de la ligne centrale du vaisseau, basee sur un modele de squelette extensible dont la croissance est regie par l'analyse multi-echelle du tenseur d'inertie. Cette analyse nous fournit des informations sur l'orientation, le diametre et la forme locale du vaisseau en chaque point de l'axe. Ceci nous permet de proposer un mecanisme de reconstruction approximative du vaisseau a l'aide d'un volume binaire compose d'une succession de spheroides centres sur l'axe, orientes selon l'orientation locale du vaisseau et adaptes a la taille locale du vaisseau. Sur la meme base theorique, nous proposons une methode de detection semi-automatique de bifurcations arterielles. Le traitement recursif des bifurcations detectees vise a aborder la problematique de l'extraction de l'arbre vasculaire entier. Le calcul des parametres de stenose s'appuie sur l'extraction de contours planaires. Pour ce faire, nous avons implemente deux algorithmes : le premier base sur l'extraction d'iso-contours a seuil adaptatif et le deuxieme sur un modele de contour actif a longueur normalisee. Ces algorithmes ont ete implementes dans un logiciel convivial appele MARACAS (MAgnetic Resonance Angiography Computer ASsisted analysis) qui a ete soumis a une validation pre-clinique portant sur 6 fantomes vasculaires et sur des donnees cliniques de 27 patients.