Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Exploratory Study of Important Critical Success Factors ( CSFs ) In Indian Manufacturing Organizations : A Partial Least Square ( PLS ) Approach

This paper investigates the highly important critical success factors (CSFs) which are essential for implementing the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, particularly in India. A survey questionnaire was developed, and data collected from 223 manufacturing organizations in India. The study results from the Partial Least Square (PLS) indicate that there were about nine CSFs highly important out of 15 CSFs chosen. The results would be very useful because it highlights the significance of CSF for academicians and practitioners in deciding which factors contribute the implementation of ERP
Increasing Clindamycin Resistance Among Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus in 57 Northeast United States Military Treatment Facilities

Background: Increasing community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) has led many to use clindamycin for CA-MRSA disease, whereas others suggest caution because of inducible clindamycin resistance and rely on drugs such as trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (TMP-SMX). Aim: To analyze the change in antibiotic susceptibility pattern of S. aureus isolates from 2001 to 2004 in a closed health care system, a period during which clindamycin and TMP-SMX use increased 99 and 62%, respectively. Methods: S. aureus cultures from 57 military hospitals and clinics from 2001–2002 and 2003–2004 were compared for body site and antibiotic sensitivity, particularly the potentially inducible clindamycin-susceptible erythromycin-resistant pattern. A portion was evaluated by a double disk diffusion test (D test). Results: Numbers of S. aureus-positive cultures obtained from “wound” sites rose significantly in both pediatric (138 to 215, P < 0.001) and adult (715 to 972, P < 0.001) isolates, with a rise in MRSA in children (6 of 138 to 60 of 215, P < 0.001) and in adults (161 of 715 to 324 of 972, P < 0.001). Clindamycin resistance increased among pediatric S. aureus isolates (1 of 207 to 13 of 327, P < 0.05), whereas >96% remained TMP-SMX-susceptible. Five methicillin-susceptible S. aureus (MSSA), 2 MRSA of 41 pediatric and 36 MSSA, 43 MRSA of 437 adult S. aureus specimens were D test-positive. Conclusions: In late 2004, most S. aureus from our region are still β-lactam-susceptible. Most of the MRSA are still susceptible to clindamycin and do not appear to have inducible resistance. We must closely monitor the rates of constitutive and inducible clindamycin resistance as well as consider treatment alternatives that may slow the rate of clindamycin resistance.
Expression of GP73, a resident Golgi membrane protein, in viral and nonviral liver disease

GP73 is a novel type II Golgi membrane protein of unknown function that is expressed in the hepatocytes of patients with adult giant‐cell hepatitis (Gene 2000;249:53‐65). Its expression pattern in human liver disease and the regulation of its expression in hepatocytes have not been systematically studied. The aims of the present study were to compare GP73 protein levels in viral and nonviral human liver disease and in normal livers, to identify its cellular sources, and to study the regulation of its expression in hepatoma cells in vitro. GP73 protein levels were quantitated in explant livers of patients with well‐defined disease etiologies and compared with the levels in normal donor livers. GP73‐expressing cells were identified immunohistochemically. GP73 expression in vitro was studied by Western blotting and immunofluorescence microscopy in HepG2 and SK‐Hep‐1 cells and in the HepG2‐derived, hepatitis B virus (HBV)‐transfected HepG2215 and HepG2T14.1 cell lines. Whole organ levels of GP73 were low in normal livers. Significant increases were found in liver disease due to viral causes (HBV, HCV) or nonviral causes (alcohol‐induced liver disease, autoimmune hepatitis). In normal livers, GP73 was constitutively expressed by biliary epithelial cells but not by hepatocytes. Hepatocyte expression of GP73 was dramatically up‐regulated in diseased livers, regardless of the etiology, whereas biliary epithelial cell expression did not change appreciably. GP73 was present at high levels in HepG2215 cells (a cell line that supports active HBV replication), but was absent in HepG2T14.1 cells (an HBV‐transfected cell line that does not support HBV replication) and in HBV‐free HepG2 cells. In SK‐Hep‐1 cells, GP73 expression was increased in response to interferon gamma (IFN‐γ), and inhibited by tumor necrosis factor α (TNF‐α). In conclusion, increased expression of GP73 in hepatocytes appears to be a general feature of advanced liver disease, and may be regulated via distinct pathways that involve hepatotropic viruses or cytokines.
Probing the interactions of proteins and nanoparticles

Despite the hype concerning the vast and imminent commercial potential of nanotechnology, there is little doubt that nanoparticles offer real and radically new opportunities in fields such as biomedicine and materials science (1, 2), among others. Such particles are small enough to enter almost all areas of the body, including cells and organelles, potentially leading to a new approach to medicine (nanomedicine), including rational approaches to targeted intracellular delivery of genes and other therapies (see, e.g., ref. 3). However, there have been widespread concerns that their use could involve some biological hazard (4–8) and a growing consensus that our understanding of the interaction of nanoscale objects with living matter, even at the level of single cells, has not kept pace with the explosive development of nanoscience in the past decades. A significant step in this area has been taken by Cedervall et al. (9) in this issue of PNAS on development of methods for probing the association of proteins to nanoparticles: Such association is almost always a first step when nanoparticles enter a biological fluid, so that when we think of the interactions of nanoparticles with a living system, we are really speaking of protein-coated particles. Adsorption of the proteins onto the particle surface can lead to altered conformation, exposure of novel “cryptic” peptide epitopes, perturbed function (caused by structural effects or local high concentration), or avidity effects arising from the close spatial repetition of the same protein (10). Thus, although protein adsorption has been studied classically both on planar surfaces and in colloidal dispersions (11–13), the focus by Cedervall et al. on the specific binding rates and affinities of different plasma-related proteins to nanoparticles is a welcome development in this field. Proteins compete for the nanoparticle surface, leading to an adsorbed protein layer or “corona” that largely defines the biological identity of the particle. Underlying all of these effects is the fact that nanoparticles have a very large surface-to-volume ratio, so that even small amounts of particles present extremely large surface areas available for protein binding.
HMDC: Live Virtual Machine Migration Based on Hybrid Memory Copy and Delta Compression

: Live VM (virtual machine) migration has become a research hotspot of virtualized cloud computing architecture. We present a novel migration algorithm which is called HMDC. Its main idea includes two parts. One is that it combines memory pulling copy with memory pushing copy to achieve hybrid memory copy. The other one is that it uses a delta compression mechanism during dirty pages copy, in which source host makes use of memory cache to get XOR delta pages, and then compresses delta pages which are easy to compress by the XOR binary RLE (run-length encoding) algorithm. Source host transmits delta compression pages instead of dirty pages to target host. HMDC increases throughput and decreases total migration data by using delta compression and thus to achieve dirty pages copy quickly. The experimental results demonstrate that HMDC evidently reduces total migration time, VM downtime and total migration data compared with Pre-copy and XBRLE algorithm. It makes the process of memory migration more high-effective and transparent.
The quantum confined Stark effect in silicon nanocrystals

The quantum confined Stark effect (QCSE) in Si nanocrystals embedded in a SiO2 matrix is demonstrated by photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy at room and cryogenic temperatures. It is shown that the PL peak position shifts to higher wavelengths with increasing applied electric field, which is expected from carrier polarization within the quantum dots. It is observed that the effect is more pronounced at lower temperatures due to the improved carrier localization at the lowest energy states of the quantum dots. Experimental results are shown to be in good agreement with phenomenological model developed for the QCSE model.
Transparency principle as an evolving principle of EU law : Regulative contours and implications

Since the nineties, transparency has gained significant attention in the eu context, being mainly viewed as a response to the lack of legitimacy and as a mean to cope with the democratic deficit. Furthermore, the notion of transparency has emerged in a wide range of other areas, ranging from legislation on financial matters to social law and to recruitment by the EU Institutions1. Despite the divergences in the way it is applied in various areas, one can recognize a common-core element in the notion of transparency, which can be described as the opposite of opaqueness and secretiveness. In this context, the definition given by the Advocate General R.J. Colomer in the case C-110/03 (Belgium v. Commission) can be regarded as satisfactory to describe the general contours of that loose notion. According to this definition, transparency is concerned with the quality of being clear, obvious and understandable without doubt or ambiguity2. Beyond that general definition, the precise meaning of transparency depends on the context in which it is used and the function that it is expected to fulfil. Furthermore, what is highly interesting is how the notion of transparency is applied at the distinct but interrelated levels of governance within the framework of the European Union. In particular, at the EU level, transparency applies directly to the relationship between the EU and the Member States and the relationship between the European institutional organs and individuals, including the business sector, and indirectly to the relationship between the authorities of the Member States and the citizens or businesses. The main aim of this paper is to focus upon those aspects of transparency which have a normative effect both on the institutional organs of the EU, when acting either in a legislative or an administrative capacity, and on the member-states and their administrations. Subsequently, beyond the scope of this paper are those aspects of transparency that emerge in certain areas of European Economic Law, such as the state aid and the public procurement law, and relate to the obligations of the public authorities to facilitate or supervise market transparency, mainly by providing adequate information to market participants.
A novel signal separation algorithm based on compressed sensing for wideband spectrum sensing in cognitive radio networks

In cognitive radio networks, since cognitive terminals use a shared wideband frequency spectrum for data transmissions, they are susceptible to malicious denial‐of‐service attacks, where adversaries try to corrupt communication by actively transmitting interference signals. To address this issue, in this paper, we propose a novel signal separation algorithm based on compressed sensing, which can not only recover the entire spectrum but also separate mixed occupying signals. Specifically, the proposed algorithm is executed following three steps: (i) each cognitive terminal attempts to recover all signals over an entire wideband spectrum employing the compressed sensing technique; (ii) all cognitive terminals send their recovered signals to the fusion center where a wavelet edge detection method is adopted to locate the spectrum edges of these signals and then divide the entire spectrum into several sub‐bands; (iii) the fusion center separates its received signals on each spectrum sub‐band into different categories according to their features. Both analytical and simulation results indicate that this novel compressed‐sensing‐based algorithm can effectively separate wideband signals at a low cost and combat interference of the malicious terminals in cognitive radio networks as well. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
MMSE-SIC Transceiver Design in Amplify-and-Forward MIMO Relay Systems

Most precoding schemes in amplify-and-forward (AF) multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) relay systems only consider the relay precoder, and the receiver is often linear. In this paper, we propose a joint source/relay precoders design method for a nonlinear minimum-mean-squared-error successive interference cancellation (MMSE-SIC) receiver. It is shown that a direct minimization of the average bit-error-rate (BER) is not feasible. Using the uniform channel decomposition (UCD) method, we can design the source and relay precoders such that the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) for each layer is equal and the block BER (BLER) can be minimized. Unlike UCD in conventional MIMO systems, two precoders have to be optimized simultaneously and the optimum solution is still difficult to derive. We then propose to adopt the primal decomposition method decomposing the original problem into a master and a subproblem optimizations. To facilitate the optimization, we propose a unitary source precoder such that the subproblem can be analytically solved, and the source precoder can be expressed as a function of the relay precoder. Then, with a proposed relay precoder structure, the master problem can be translated into a standard concave optimization problem. By Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) conditions, we can finally obtain the closed-form solutions for the relay and source precoders. Simulations show that the proposed design can outperform existing precoding methods in AF MIMO relay systems.
Safety, Tolerance, and Metabolism of Broccoli Sprout Glucosinolates and Isothiocyanates: A Clinical Phase I Study

Abstract: Broccoli sprouts are widely consumed in many parts of the world. There have been no reported concerns with respect to their tolerance and safety in humans. A formal phase I study of safety, tolerance, and pharmacokinetics appeared justified because these sprouts are being used as vehicles for the delivery of the glucosinolate glucoraphanin and its cognate isothiocyanate sulforaphane [1-isothiocyanato-(4R)-(methylsulfinyl)butane] in clinical trials. Such trials have been designed to evaluate protective efficacy against development of neoplastic and other diseases. A placebo-controlled, double-blind, randomized clinical study of sprout extracts containing either glucosinolates (principally glucoraphanin, the precursor of sulforaphane) or isothiocyanates (principally sulforaphane) was conducted on healthy volunteers who were in-patients on our clinical research unit. The subjects were studied in three cohorts, each comprising three treated individuals and one placebo recipient. Following a 5-day acclimatization period on a crucifer-free diet, the broccoli sprout extracts were administered orally at 8-h intervals for 7 days (21 doses), and the subjects were monitored during this period and for 3 days after the last treatment. Doses were 25 μmol of glucosinolate (cohort A), 100 μmol of glucosinolate (cohort B), or 25 μmol of isothiocyanate (cohort C). The mean cumulative excretion of dithiocarbamates as a fraction of dose was very similar in cohorts A and B (17.8 ± 8.6% and 19.6 ± 11.7% of dose, respectively) and very much higher and more consistent in cohort C (70.6 ± 2.0% of dose). Thirty-two types of hematology or chemistry tests were done before, during, and after the treatment period. Indicators of liver (transaminases) and thyroid [thyroid-stimulating hormone, total triiodothyronine (T3), and free thyroxine (T4)] function were examined in detail. No significant or consistent subjective or objective abnormal events (toxicities) associated with any of the sprout extract ingestions were observed.
Antiplatelet and Antithrombotic Activity of SL65.0472, a Mixed 5-HT1B/5-HT2A Receptor Antagonist

Summary The antiplatelet and antithrombotic activity of SL65.0472 (7-fluoro-2-oxo-4-[2-[4-(thieno [3,2-c]pyrin-4-yl) piperazin-1-yl]ethyl]-1,2-dihydroquinoline-acetamide), a mixed 5-HT1B/5-HT2A receptor antagonist was investigated on 5HT-induced human platelet activation in vitro, and in rat, rabbit and canine platelet dependent thrombosis models. SL65.0472 inhibited 5-HT-induced platelet shape change in the presence of EDTA (IC50 values = 35, 69 and 225 nM in rabbit, rat and human platelet rich plasma (PRP)), and also inhibited aggregation induced in human PRP by 3-5 μM 5-HT + threshold concentrations of ADP (0.5-1 M) or collagen (0.3 g/ml) with mean IC50 values of 49 ± 13 and 48 ± 6 nM respectively. SL65.0472 inhibited thrombus formation when given both intravenously 5 min and orally 2 h prior to assembly of an arterio-venous (A-V) shunt in rats as from 0.1 and 0.3 mg/kg respectively. It was active in a rabbit A-V shunt model with significant decreases in thrombus weight as from 0.1 mg/kg i. v. and at 10 mg/kg p. o. The delay to occlusion in an electric current-induced rabbit femoral artery thrombosis model was increased by 251% (p <0.05) after 20 mg/kg p. o. SL65.0472 (30 μg/kg i. v.) virtually abolished coronary cyclic flow variations (7.2 ± 1.0/h to 0.6 ± 0.6/h, p <0.05) and increased minimum coronary blood flow (1.2 ± 0.8 ml/ min to 31.8 ± 8.4 ml/min, p <0.05) in a coronary artery thrombosis model in the anaesthetised dog. Finally, SL65.0472 significantly increased the amount of blood lost after rat tail transection at 3 mg/kg p. o. Thus the anti-5-HT2A component of SL65.0472 is reflected by its ability to inhibit 5-HT-induced platelet activation, and platelet-rich thrombus formation.
Who Is Offering and How Often? Gender Differences in Drug Offers Among American Indian Adolescents of the Southwest

This exploratory study examined gender differences in the patterns of drug offers among a sample of 71 American Indian middle school students. Participants responded to an inventory of drug-related problem situations specific to the cultural contexts of Southwestern American Indian youth. They were asked to consider the frequency of drug offers from specific groups in their social networks and the difficulty associated with refusing drugs from various offerers. The results indicated that female and male American Indian youth differ in the degree of exposure to drug offers and the degree of perceived difficulty in handling such offers. Even after controlling for differences in age, grade level, socioeconomic status, family structure, and residence on a reservation, girls reported significantly more drug offers from friends, cousins, and other peers than did boys. Compared to boys, girls also reported a significantly higher sense of difficulty in dealing with drug offers from all sources.
Rough‐and‐tumble play as a window on animal communication

Rough‐and‐tumble play (RT) is a widespread phenomenon in mammals. Since it involves competition, whereby one animal attempts to gain advantage over another, RT runs the risk of escalation to serious fighting. Competition is typically curtailed by some degree of cooperation and different signals help negotiate potential mishaps during RT. This review provides a framework for such signals, showing that they range along two dimensions: one from signals borrowed from other functional contexts to those that are unique to play, and the other from purely emotional expressions to highly cognitive (intentional) constructions. Some animal taxa have exaggerated the emotional and cognitive interplay aspects of play signals, yielding admixtures of communication that have led to complex forms of RT. This complexity has been further exaggerated in some lineages by the development of specific novel gestures that can be used to negotiate playful mood and entice reluctant partners. Play‐derived gestures may provide new mechanisms by which more sophisticated communication forms can evolve. Therefore, RT and playful communication provide a window into the study of social cognition, emotional regulation and the evolution of communication systems.
Mapping Submerged Archaeological Sites using Stereo‐Vision Photogrammetry

Creating photo‐mosaics and plans of submerged archaeological sites quickly, cost‐effectively and, most importantly, to a high level of geometric accuracy remains a huge challenge in underwater archaeology. This paper describes a system that takes geo‐referenced stereo imagery from a diver‐propelled platform and combines it with mapping techniques widely used in the field of robotic science to create high‐resolution 2D photo‐mosaics and detailed 3D textured models of submerged archaeological features. The system was field tested on the submerged Bronze Age town of Pavlopetri off the coast of Laconia, Greece, in 2010. This paper outlines the equipment used, data collection in the field, image processing and visualization methodology.
A New Interference Aware Routing Metric for Multi-radio Multi-channel Wireless Mesh Networks

This paper proposes a new interference aware routing metric for Multi-Radio Multi-Channel Wireless Mesh Networks in order to provide a more accuracy, locality, and a real time estimation for wireless links. The iAWARE metric won as much as possible praises in preformed studies. However, the shortcomings of iAWARE will be pointed out in this paper, and a new metric will be designed to tackle these problems. The simulation results showed that the new metric takes the advantages of higher efficiency both in throughput and end to end delays can greatly improve the network performance, compared to the traditional ones.
CANDELS MULTI-WAVELENGTH CATALOGS: SOURCE IDENTIFICATION AND PHOTOMETRY IN THE CANDELS COSMOS SURVEY FIELD

We present a multi-wavelength photometric catalog in the COSMOS field as part of the observations by the Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey. The catalog is based on Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3 (HST/WFC3) and Advanced Camera for Surveys observations of the COSMOS field (centered at R.A.: , Decl.: ). The final catalog has 38671 sources with photometric data in 42 bands from UV to the infrared ( ). This includes broadband photometry from HST, CFHT, Subaru, the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy, and Spitzer Space Telescope in the visible, near-infrared, and infrared bands along with intermediate- and narrowband photometry from Subaru and medium-band data from Mayall NEWFIRM. Source detection was conducted in the WFC3 F160W band (at 1.6 μm) and photometry is generated using the Template FITting algorithm. We further present a catalog of the physical properties of sources as identified in the HST F160W band and measured from the multi-band photometry by fitting the observed spectral energy distributions of sources against templates.