Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Structural and Ultrastructural Study of Rat Testes Influenced by Electromagnetic Radiation

This study was conducted to investigate the influence of whole-body electromagnetic radiation (EMR) on testicular parenchyma of Wistar rats. Sexually mature rats were subjected to pulsed electromagnetic field at frequency of 2.45 GHz and mean power density 2.8 mW/cm2 by 3-h daily applications for 3 wk. Tissue samples were obtained 3 h after the last irradiation and processed by histological techniques for light and transmission electron microscopy. Testes showed apparent degenerative changes of seminiferous epithelium. The seminiferous tubules were mostly irregular in shape, and seminiferous epithelium contained a number of empty spaces of different size. Subsequently, groups of sloughed epithelial cells were often found inside the lumina of tubules. Except for relatively unchanged Sertoli cells, some locations of basal compartment of seminiferous epithelium contained shriveled Sertoli cells with dark cytoplasm. These areas showed degenerative features including necrotizing and shriveled spermatogonia surrounded by empty irregular spaces, and undulating basement membrane. The intertubular spaces were enlarged but interstitial Leydig cells did not show any marked morphological changes. Evidence demonstrates the adverse effects of EMR on testicular parenchyma in rats.
General Equilibrium Evaluation of Temporary Employment

This paper studies the response of firms in an environment with heightened idiosyncratic risk and dual labor markets, a regular market with firing rigidity and a frictionless temporary labor market. I find that firing rigidity induces firms to switch from regular employment to temporary employment, and heightened risks amplify such behavior. Efficiency and welfare loss from friction and risk, though alleviated by a small extent, cannot be fully compensated by having temporary employment. This study also first extends the literature of temporary employment by examining its impact in the U.S. labor market.
Real time active power control in smart grid

A power balance between supply and demand is essential for reliable and stable operation of power grids. The mismatch between supply and demand causes the frequency deviations which results in malfunction of most of the electrical devices. Moreover, it affects the system stability resulting in system blackouts as that of USA, in 2003. For decades the balancing of supply and demand was based on generation side control of power systems through ahead of time generation dispatch scheduling. The smart grid is being used today to describe technologies and methods that automatically and rapidly isolate faults, restore power, monitor demand, and maintain and restore stability for more reliable electric power. Thus, in this study, a method of controlling active power (balancing demand and supply) in real time is proposed This method is feasible in smart grid as communication and advanced information technologies are used for real time data exchange about the generation, demand, storage, market, environmental conditions, and other necessary data. These data are important in making decisions about real-time supply and demand balancing in the smart grid. Additionally, in smart grid, taking the advantage of demand response and storage systems, it is possible to balance demand and supply in real-time The simulation is done by the DigSilent Power Factory simulation tool for verification of the proposed method. In addition to an electric network modeling part of the simulation tool, the DigSilent Programming Language (DPL) feature is used for coding the decision making program.
Introduction: Vulnerability and Social Justice

At the same time as failures to adequately protect ‘the most vulnerable’ seem to have become a pervasive feature of the political landscape, policies which seek to address vulnerability have proliferated. Government actors, public officers, researchers, media commentators, charities and members of the public alike use vulnerability to articulate an array of personal and political troubles, yet alongside this seemingly shared narrative a multitude of ideologically inclined assumptions and agendas operate by stealth. How vulnerability is drawn upon to frame social issues reworks and reconfigures long-running contestations related to moral dimensions of the welfare subject, understandings of the ‘self’ and wider beliefs about human behaviour. At a time when the pressures of contemporary life increasingly find release through aggression against the socially marginalised (see Wacquant, 2009; Harrison and Sanders, 2014; Atkinson, 2015), vulnerability has become a key concept for social policy research. As I have argued elsewhere, the concept of vulnerability appears to be something of a zeitgeist or ‘spirit of the time’ (Brown, 2014a, 2014b,2015), extending into and shaping responses to a vast array of policy matters.
Novel On-Chip Clock Jitter Measurement Scheme for High Performance Microprocessors

In this paper we present an on-chip clock jitter digital measurement scheme for high performance microprocessors. The scheme enables in-situ jitter measurement of the clock distribution network during the test or the debug phase. It provides very high measurement resolution, despite the possible presence of power supply noise (constituting a major cause of clock jitter) affecting itself. The resolution is higher than a min sized inverter input-output delay, and can on principle be further increased, at some additional costs in terms of area overhead and power consumption. In this paper, a resolution of the 1.8% of the clock period is achieved with limited area and power costs.
Adaptive fractionation therapy: II. Biological effective dose

Radiation therapy is fractionized to differentiate the cell killing between the tumor and organ at risk (OAR). Conventionally, fractionation is done by dividing the total dose into equal fraction sizes. However, as the relative positions (configurations) between OAR and the tumor vary from fractions to fractions, intuitively, we want to use a larger fraction size when OAR and the tumor are far apart and a smaller fraction size when OAR and the tumor are close to each other. Adaptive fractionation accounts for variations of configurations between OAR and the tumor. In part I of this series, the adaptation minimizes the OAR (physical) dose and maintains the total tumor (physical) dose. In this work, instead, the adaptation is based on the biological effective dose (BED). Unlike the linear programming approach in part I, we build a fraction size lookup table using mathematical induction. The lookup table essentially describes the fraction size as a function of the remaining tumor BED, the OAR/tumor dose ratio and the remaining number of fractions. The lookup table is calculated by maximizing the expected survival of OAR and preserving the tumor cell kill. Immediately before the treatment of each fraction, the OAR-tumor configuration and thus the dose ratio can be obtained from the daily setup image, and then the fraction size can be determined by the lookup table. Extensive simulations demonstrate the effectiveness of our method compared with the conventional fractionation method.
The Role of Sexual Orientation in School-Based Victimization

School-based victimization is associated with poorer developmental, academic, and health outcomes. This meta-analytic review compared the mean levels of school-based victimization experienced by sexual minority youth to those of heterosexual youth, and examined moderators of this difference. Results from 18 independent studies (N = 56,752 participants) suggest that sexual minority youth experience moderately higher levels of school-based victimization compared to heterosexual youth (d = 0.33). This effect varied by two study characteristics: the average effect size increased over time and was larger in studies that had a greater proportion of male participants. Results highlight the need for future research on school-based victimization to include measures of sexual orientation and for interventions to include a component that addresses sexual orientation.
Thermal conductivity and contact conductance of BSCCO-2212 material

Thermal conductivity of bulk high temperature superconducting materials is a very important property in the current lead applications because it determines the heat load of the lead at the low temperature end. The thermal conductivity of BSCCO-2212 superconducting material has been measured between 10 and 130 K. Our results compare favorably with other published results. The thermal contact conductance between a joint of BSCCO-2212 and copper has also been measured. Our results indicate that although this kind of joint provides a relatively poor thermal interface, the electrical resistance is small. This joint is still a good choice for making a easy joint which requires both thermal and electrical interfacing. <<ETX>>
Public communications and freedom of information: Basic conditions for the Brazilian legislative media

﻿﻿The present text analyzes the relation between public communications and freedom ofexpression in the public systems of information in Brazil. Its perspective derives fromreflections on the outlets known as “media of the sources”, especiallytheonesmaintained by the Legislative Branch. The liberal conception of freedom ofexpression favors the right of the journalists and of the means of communication inthe management of the liberty of speech, in detriment of the free participation by thecitizens and by the society in the public sphere. Keywords : Public communications, freedom of information, legislative media,Brazil Submission date: 2011-02-15 Acceptance date: 2011-03-25
Infertility Case Management: Improving Both Short‐Term and Long‐Term Outcomes While Reducing Costs

Purpose/Objectives Infertility is a growing medical condition as more women are desirous of having children at an older age. It is estimated to be a $3 billion business, and, while infertility treatment is a for-profit commercial endeavor, the product is noncommercial (baby or babies). The treatment process may be complicated with overutilization, drug wastage, and adverse outcomes. High-order multiple gestations may result in preterm births, chronic adult diseases, and lifelong neurological impairments (such as cerebral palsy). The total national cost of infertility treatment unfortunately equals the cost of providing care to these babies in the nursery and neonatal intensive care unit. This article explores the potential benefit of the integration of information technology with clinical case management to reduce overall cost and improve provider accuracy. Primary practice setting(s) Office-based telephonic nurse case management and pharmacology management practice. Findings/ConclusionsThe article demonstrates that the challenging integration of information technology with clinical case management is very effective and improves provider accuracy, resulting in the best transfer of real-time information.The case management program at Women's Integrated Network Healthcare has been shown to lower infertility treatment costs by 30% to 40% and lower the numbers of high-order multiple gestations. Implications for case management practice Eighty-one percent of the cost reduction is related directly to case management, not reduction in physician fees or unit pharmaceutical costs. Case management can improve effectiveness and quality of conception, and there is a reduction in high-order multiple gestations. It was also found that, by expanding infertility benefits and including case management as the pivotal element, payers and employers could recognize significant savings and, more importantly, the women and families would benefit.
Analysts issuing forecasts on weekends

Purpose This study aims to investigate the motivation of financial analysts issuing forecasts on weekends and the impact of such behavior on forecast accuracy and analysts’ careers. Design/methodology/approach Logistic regression and ordinary least squares models with Huber–White standard errors were used in this study. Findings This paper first documented the emerging trends of the weekend forecasts after 2000. Longitudinal data from 2002 to 2011 validated that analysts’ conscientious timing of information release in line with their workload and confidence level gives more accurate forecasts. Further, given the same accuracy, analysts exhibiting diffident behaviors (analysts who are predicted to work on weekdays but in fact work on weekends) are not fired or demoted by brokerage houses, but those exhibiting inactive behaviors (analysts who are predicted to work on weekends but did not do so) are more likely to be dismissed or demoted by brokerage houses, indicating that brokerage houses are aware of the negative effect of both behaviors, but treat them differently. Research limitations/implications Weekend versus weekday proxies for an analyst’s timing of information release consider only one of many timing options. Other timing proxies, the nature and the composition of the information release of analysts are not examined in this study. Practical implications For practitioners, the results indicate that depending on the alignment, capital market can predict analysts’ future forecast accuracy, and hence, respond accordingly. For example, in addition to analyst forecast level or change, investors could pay attention to when the information is released to the market and possible reasons behind the choice of timing. Investors can thus better assess the forecast accuracy of one specific forecast and respond with the right action. Furthermore, analysts can better project their own forecast accuracy and career potential by assessing to what extent their forecasts are released conscientiously. Social implications This study examines analysts’ forecast behavior, but generate some insights on linking the analysts and investors in the capital market. Originality/value This study is the author’s original work.
Does the presence of polycystic ovary syndrome increase the risk of obstetrical complications in women with gestational diabetes?

Objective. To determine whether women with both polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) have an increased risk of obstetric complications compared with women with GDM alone. Methods. A retrospective cohort study of maternal/fetal outcomes in women with GDM and PCOS was compared with women with GDM alone. Outcomes were compared using Fisher's exact test for categorical variables and t-test for continuous variables. Logistic regression models allowed for the calculation of odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for each outcome, adjusted for confounding. Results. One hundred seventy one women were included in the study. Significantly more women with both GDM and PCOS had pregnancy-induced hypertension/preeclampsia (15.9% vs. 3.9%, p = 0.019, OR = 4.62, 95% CI = 1.38–15.41). Multiple logistic regression revealed that this increase persisted after controlling for body mass index (p = 0.028, OR = 4.43, 95% CI = 1.17–16.72) and parity (p = 0.050, OR = 3.45, 95% CI = 1.00–11.92). Women with GDM and PCOS tended to have more preterm deliveries (25.0% vs. 11.8%, p = 0.063). More infants of women with GDM and PCOS required phototherapy treatment for hyperbilirubinemia (25.0% vs. 7.9%, p = 0.0066, OR = 3.90, 95% CI = 1.52–9.98). Logistic regression revealed that this association persisted after controlling for preterm delivery (OR = 3.18, 95% CI = 1.14–8.82, p = 0.026). Conclusions. Mothers with both disorders should be monitored more carefully and counseled regarding their increased risk of both maternal and fetal complications.
GPS-based measurement of geographic spillovers in tourism – example of Polish districts

ABSTRACT The agglomeration phenomenon in tourism often spreads beyond the borders of territorial units what is referred to as geographic spillovers. However, the measurement of spatial concentration of tourism demand and economic activity is usually based on statistics collected within regional administrative boundaries and omits the spatial interdependency between neighboring regions. Recognition of such spatial interdependency in the standard procedure to define neighborhood relies on the distance between geometric means (centroids) of territorial units which, however, rarely reflects real ‘centers’ of tourism agglomerations and leads to errors and biased results. Hence, we propose to modify the measures of the neighborhood with the use of GPS coordinates of tourism firms and attractions in order to designate their regional central tendencies and thus to correct (shift in space) localization of centroids of territorial units. We test the usefulness of the new approach to obtain a more precise measurement of spatial concentration when tourism spills over beyond the boundaries of territorial units using the example of Polish districts. We employ the exploratory spatial data analysis (spatial statistics) and spatial regression models – to assess the difference between using traditional centroids and GPS coordinates in defining neighborhood and determining spillover effects in regional analysis. Furthermore we apply the new method into the model of tourism potential in order to identify spillover effects in Polish regions. We use the data collected by Central Statistical Office (tourists staying overnight in 379 districts in 2014) and by Polish Tourist Organization (14,390 GPS coordinates of individual entities: tourism firms and attractions). The neighborhood determined with the use of GPS coordinates to measure the distance between centers of tourism agglomerations eliminates the dependence of the results on the administrative boundaries – but only to some degree. The challenge is to identify tourism agglomeration phenomenon as such, based on the mobility of tourists in space.
Texture roughness estimation using dynamic tactile sensing

Roughness estimation can help with improving tactile prehension and distinguishing slippage events during object manipulation with a robotic hand. Humans are able to estimate roughness from a small contact area with an object, and adapt manipulation strategies using this information [1]. In order to do the same with a robotic hand fitted with tactile sensors, this article focuses on how to estimate roughness with data from a tactile sensor. We propose a learning algorithm that estimates roughness on a scale from 1 to 5, which was inspired by human tactile capabilities. For more adapted parameters values, this algorithm is optimized with a genetic algorithm. To initialize the scale, we asked 30 people to classify 25 textures on a roughness scale from 1 to 5. The results were used to feed the learning algorithm. After testing our algorithm on those 25 textures, we conclude that even if there are small errors on certain textures, our algorithm is able to adapt itself to new textures and provide a roughness estimation that approximates the human one.
Myocardial perfusion scintigraphy in asymptomatic diabetic patients: a critical review

The increasing prevalence of diabetes mellitus and the associated high cardiovascular risk has made the non‐invasive identification of silent coronary heart disease in diabetic individuals an important issue. This strategy could identify higher risk asymptomatic patients with diabetes mellitus in whom coronary revascularization may improve the outcome beyond that achieved by currently recommended medical management. Stress myocardial perfusion imaging has been shown to be effective in detecting coronary heart disease and predicting adverse cardiac events in asymptomatic diabetic patients. However, the clinical utility of myocardial perfusion scintigraphy is debated intensively due to the paucity of prospective and outcome based evidence. The controversy stems from several observational studies, epidemiologic data and cost‐effectiveness analyses. Thus, although several authors and professional organizations advocate the use of stress imaging for screening higher risk asymptomatic diabetic patients, others are cautious in recommending any kind of stress testing in that population. This review is based on a broad survey of the literature and discusses the potential role of stress myocardial perfusion scintigraphy in screening asymptomatic diabetic subjects for coronary heart disease in the current era and in relation with other non‐invasive screening tools. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
ABPA diagnosis in cystic fibrosis patients: the clinical utility of IgE specific to recombinant Aspergillus fumigatus allergens.

OBJECTIVE Allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis (ABPA) is a complicating factor of cystic fibrosis which can result in a devastating combination as lung disease progresses. The overlap between the signs and symptoms of the two conditions makes diagnosis problematic, even if standardized criteria are used. The objective of this study was to identify, in a group of cystic fibrosis patients, cases of ABPA by assaying IgE specific to recombinant Aspergillus fumigatus antigens and to compare the method with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation diagnostic criteria. METHODS Fifty-four patients, aged 2 to 20 years, presenting characteristics that could occur with ABPA in isolation, were systematically assessed based on the following: clinical data, a chest CT scan, immediate hypersensitivity skin test for A. fumigatus, total serum IgE assay, RAST for A. fumigatus and serum IgE specific for the recombinant allergens Asp f1, f2, f3, f4 and f6. RESULTS Thirty-nine patients were eligible for the study. Thirty-two of these were investigated. Sensitization to A. fumigatus was observed in 34%. Both the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation criteria and the recombinant antigen specific IgE assay defined three patients as suffering from ABPA; however, only two of these patients were diagnosed by both methods. CONCLUSIONS The detection of A. fumigatus recombinant antigen specific IgE was a useful tool for the early detection of sensitization and diagnosis of ABPA. Nevertheless, diagnostic confirmation cannot be divorced from clinical findings, and before this method can be used for ABPA diagnosis, for detecting relapses and for defining cure criteria, longitudinal studies with larger numbers of patients are required.
General expression based loop unrolling scheme for real-time implementation of PAI

Despite the total variation gradient descent (TV-GD) algorithm has revealed a good performance for photoacoustic imaging (PAI), fast or real-time imaging remains a challenge. In this paper, a dependence graph was introduced to help to exploit the data dependencies that exist in the TV-GD algorithm, and a general expression was then for the first time derived to unroll the inner loop that occupied the majority of the entire running time of the algorithm. Thus all the terms consisting of the system matrices or the projections were extracted and preprocessed rather than being calculated along with reconstruction, and the reconstruction time was then expected to be linear to the iteration steps decided by the outer loop. For implementation, we adopted a low cost preprocessing method to avoid directly calculating the compute-intensive matrix chain products carried by the general expression itself. For simplicity, we accessed the CUBLAS library to parallelize the execution of the matrix-vector multiplication and the vector addition generated by the general expression. The under-sampled data with 30, 60, 90 and 120 projections were adopted to reconstruct a 128×128 Shepp-Logan Phantom. As expected, the simulation results revealed that the reconstruction time of the proposed scheme almost increased linearly with the iteration steps. Similarly, once the iteration steps was determined, the reconstruction time appeared independent of the sampling points and almost kept still. In addition, the mean squared errors (MSEs) of reconstruction were kept lower than 10-5 in each case with the iteration steps set as 30, and a maximum speedup of 179X was then achieved from the 120-view data with 30 iterations.