Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
GLOBAL CHALLENGES AND TRENDS IN THE TOURISM INDUSTRY; ROMANIA, WHERE TO?

In the context of an increasingly dynamic global society, adapting to new market conditions becomes a necessity, so that mutations in the tourism industry, as the economic sector to record the fastest ascent, become part of worldwide change. Tourism in the 21st century meets new dimensions as a result of unprecedented economic and technological expansion, the implications of these changes being profound and sometimes even difficult to explain or quantify. Therefore, defining an adequate tourism offer and adapting to market requirements become real challenges for economic agents, challenges that must be managed carefully in order to attain success. Currently, the focus is mainly on the technological factor and the sustainability of tourist activities, which become real progress binders, with strong influence on the entire supply chain. Global outlined trends define new ways to practice tourism, so that the technological evolution marks the transition of the entire travel experience from the offline to the online environment. The mobile segment is the one currently creating the newest opportunities for the development of tourist services, which is based on an increasingly close relationship between operators and tourists. It is to be seen whether Romania, as an emerging tourism market, which owns all necessary assets for a rapid and strong ascent, will be able to turn challenges offered by global dynamics into opportunities or will face the risks induced by it.
Trends in death with tuberculosis during the AIDS era.

OBJECTIVE To describe and analyze recent changes in tuberculosis mortality in the United States during the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) epidemic. DESIGN We used National Center for Health Statistics multiple-cause mortality data and analyzed deaths with tuberculosis (1980 through 1990) and/or AIDS (1987 through 1990) as an underlying or associated cause. We also categorized the 50 states and the District of Columbia into high (five states), medium (23 states), and low (23 states) AIDS incidence groups and then compared the groups' rates of death with tuberculosis during the period 1980 through 1990. STUDY POPULATION Residents of the United States who died in the period 1980 through 1990. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Death certificates indicating AIDS and/or tuberculosis. RESULTS A bimodal age distribution of persons dying with tuberculosis has emerged concurrent with the AIDS epidemic. A new peak spanning the ages 20 to 49 years accompanies the preexisting peak in the elderly. In 1990, 54.2% (729/1344) of the deaths with tuberculosis in persons 20 to 49 years of age occurred in persons who also had AIDS listed on their death certificates. During the period 1987 through 1990, there was an increasing trend in the proportion of AIDS deaths that also had tuberculosis: 2.3% (353/15,075) in 1987, 2.5% (460/18,649) in 1988, 3.0% (738/24,607) in 1989, and 3.0% (836/27,975) in 1990 (P < .001). Of AIDS deaths in 1990, 1.6% (253/15,565) of whites died with tuberculosis, compared with 4.7% (400/8533) of blacks (P < .001) and 4.7% (172/3666) of Hispanics (P < .001). In the high AIDS incidence states, the rate of death with tuberculosis in persons aged 20 to 49 years rose from 0.61 to 2.82 per 100,000 population in the period 1982 through 1990, an increase of 362%. For this age group in the states with medium and low AIDS incidence, the rates of death with tuberculosis during this period rose 52% and 47% (from 0.44 to 0.67 and from 0.19 to 0.28 per 100,000 population), respectively. The increases in the rate of death with tuberculosis within all three groups and the differences among the groups were all highly statistically significant (P < .001). CONCLUSION The AIDS epidemic has significantly increased the number and rate of tuberculosis deaths in younger adults through 1990, although in this study discrimination of deaths due to tuberculosis from deaths with tuberculosis was not possible. Vigorous efforts to prevent and treat tuberculosis and AIDS are indicated to reverse the trends we have described.
Induction by estrogen metabolite 16 alpha-hydroxyestrone of genotoxic damage and aberrant proliferation in mouse mammary epithelial cells.

BACKGROUND Estrogens are potent mammary tumor promoters influencing post-initiation events via epigenetic mechanisms. The upregulation (i.e., induction) of the C16 alpha-hydroxylation pathway during 17 beta-estradiol (E2) biotransformation has been associated with mammary cell transformation. The action of E2 metabolites on tumorigenic transformation, however, is poorly understood. PURPOSE The newly established mammary epithelial cell line C57/MG, derived from the C57BL mouse strain, was used to examine whether E2 or its metabolites, 16-hydroxyestrone (16 alpha-OHE1) and estriol (E3), function as initiators of mammary cell transformation. METHODS DNA repair (hydroxyurea-insensitive thymidine uptake), estrogen metabolism (3H exchange to form 3H2O), hyperproliferation (increased cell number), and acquisition of anchorage-independent growth (soft-agar colonies) were used as quantitative end points to measure the relative extent of transformation. RESULTS Treatment of cells with 200 ng/mL 16 alpha-OHE1 resulted in a 55.2% increase in DNA repair synthesis, a 23.09% increase in proliferative activity, and a 18-fold increase in the number of soft-agar colonies, relative to the solvent controls (P less than .0001). The extent of upregulation of the three end points was similar to that induced by the genotoxic mammary carcinogen 7, 12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene (DMBA, positive control). DMBA treatment also upregulated the ratio of 16 alpha/C2 hydroxylation of E2 leading to increased formation of 16 alpha-OHE1. E2 and E3 were not effective in upregulating these markers for transformation. CONCLUSION These results demonstrate that in nontransformed C57/MG cells, 16 alpha-OHE1 may function as an initiator, perturbing the intermediate biomarkers for preneoplastic transformation.
An on-line measurement of symmetrical components utilizing the energy operator

This paper introduces a new methodology for instantaneous measurement of symmetrical components utilizing the energy operator concept. The energy operator is used to measure the changes in the amplitudes and the angles of the three phases which are then processed to calculate the symmetrical components. The proposed technique is robust, fast, simple, stable and easy to implement. Various signals experienced with different power quality problems are used to test the proposed algorithm. The results prove the efficiency of the proposed technique
Urban Improvement Districts as new form of local governance

A growing number of German towns established Urban Improvement Districts (UIDs) as instrument of redevelopment of urban neighbourhoods. Real-estate owners and further actors participate politically and contribute financially to the process of revaluation, but this brings about problems of local democracy, legitimation, participation and accountability. The article examines the implementation of UIDs in three German cities and compares experiences made with this new instrument of participative urban development. It focuses on the implications for local democracy and explores whether UIDs could be useful instruments of city governance and appropriate arrangements to unlock additional resources at local level.
Analysis of fear memory signals in the rat amygdala and thalamus

The aim of this study was to obtain an insight of how fear memory is encoded in the electrophysiological signals of the rat. We recorded local field potentials (LFPs) of the lateral amygdala (LA) and the medial geniculate nucleus (MGm) in the rat's brain during retrieval of fear memory. The rats were trained to freeze when they hear the conditioned tone (CS+) using Pavlovian fear conditioning. Total 10 adult rats were used for this experiment and 10-second of noise-free LFPs was used for analysis. We found increased theta power spectrum of neural activity in the LA and the MGm during retrieval of fear memory similar with the previous report. The linear functional connectivity between the LA and the MGm also increased after fear conditioning, specifically during CS+ presentation. In addition, approximate entropy (ApEn), a nonlinear measure of complexity and irregularity of signals, indicated that there was more information processing during fear state. These results show that recall of fear memory can be distinguished from the rest state of brain using linear and nonlinear properties of electrophysiological signals. These electrophysiological properties of fear memory would be used in neuro-engineering field to modify or decode the neural activity for clinical application
Ryanodine‐induced intracellular calcium mobilisation in cultured astrocytes

Changes in intracellular Ca2+ concentration were monitored in cultured cortical astrocytes challenged with ryanodine and ATP. Ryanodine elicited a modest, in comparison to ATP, increase in cytosolic Ca2+ concentration in approximately 60% of the cell fields examined. This effect was evident and, in fact, was augmented when incubations were performed in Ca2+ concentration were dose dependent, desensitised rapidly, and could not be mimicked by caffeine. Exposure to ryanodine was without effect on eicosanoid release from these cells nor did it influence Ca2+ mobilisation and eicosanoid release in response to ATP. In contrast, caffeine attenuated part of the ATP‐evoked increase in intracellular Ca2+ concentration in the majority of cells tested and abolished its effect on eicosanoid release.
BOLD Responses to Tactile Stimuli in Visual and Auditory Cortex Depend on the Frequency Content of Stimulation

Although some brain areas preferentially process information from a particular sensory modality, these areas can also respond to other modalities. Here we used fMRI to show that such responsiveness to tactile stimuli depends on the temporal frequency of stimulation. Participants performed a tactile threshold-tracking task where the tip of either their left or right middle finger was stimulated at 3, 20, or 100 Hz. Whole-brain analysis revealed an effect of stimulus frequency in two regions: the auditory cortex and the visual cortex. The BOLD response in the auditory cortex was stronger during stimulation at hearable frequencies (20 and 100 Hz) whereas the response in the visual cortex was suppressed at infrasonic frequencies (3 Hz). Regardless of which hand was stimulated, the frequency-dependent effects were lateralized to the left auditory cortex and the right visual cortex. Furthermore, the frequency-dependent effects in both areas were abolished when the participants performed a visual task while receiving identical tactile stimulation as in the tactile threshold-tracking task. We interpret these findings in the context of the metamodal theory of brain function, which posits that brain areas contribute to sensory processing by performing specific computations regardless of input modality.
Superchunk-Based Efficient Search in P2P-VoD System

In this paper, we seek to provide reliable and fast content discovery in peer-to-peer (P2P) video-on-demand (VoD) system to enable user interactivity under peer dynamics. We first identify two characteristics of content discovery in P2P-VoD: real-time constraints and limited local cache. Tapping on these properties, we propose a hybrid content discovery mechanism: SUpeRchunk- based eFficient search Network (SURFNet). SURFNet divides movies into superchunks and chunks. Stable peers that are likely to have longer lifespans in the system are used to construct an AVL tree to provide superchunk-level data availability information. Peers storing the same superchunk are grouped into a holder-chain, which is then attached to a node in the AVL tree. This structured overlay is further extended by a gossip-based unstructured network for chunk-level information exchange and data transmission. Since the AVL tree consists of only stable peers, it provides a reliable backbone even in highly dynamic environment. Our analysis and simulation results show that SURFNet supports nearly-constant and logarithmic search time for seeking within a video and jumping to a different video, respectively.
Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy Assessment Tools: A Systematic Review

PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) is a dose-limiting chemotherapy toxicity, which has a long-lasting effect and decreases quality of life. Although several tools have been developed to detect CIPN, the study quality, psychometric properties, and practicality of CIPN assessment tools have not been systematically reviewed. LITERATURE SEARCH Electronic searches using keywords were conducted in Medline, PubMed, CINAHL®, and Cochrane Library for articles published from 1980-2015. Eligible studies were included if they involved patients with cancer receiving chemotherapy, provided CIPN assessment tools with psychometric properties, and were published in English. DATA EVALUATION Data were extracted, and study quality was assessed. CIPN tools were evaluated in terms of psychometric properties and practicality. SYNTHESIS A total of 19 studies describing 20 tools were reviewed. The quality of studies varied from strong to weak. The validity ranged from low to high, and the reliability with internal consistency ranged from 0.56-0.96. Poor inter-rater agreement was found. Not all of the tools were deemed practical. CONCLUSIONS Considering the psychometric properties and practicality, two tools (Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy/Gynecologic Oncology Group-Neurotoxicity [FACT/GOG-Ntx] and Total Neuropathy Score [TNS]) are recommended for assessing CIPN. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING Routine assessment of CIPN and choosing appropriate assessment tools are imperative. The FACT/GOG-Ntx and TNS are recommended for clinical use.
Political Marketing: Exploring the Nexus between Theory and Practice in Ethiopia (Comparative Study between Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front and Coalition for Unity and Democratic Party)

The main purpose of the study was to explore the Nexus between Theory and Practice of political marketing in Ethiopia by examining the perceptions of members of EPRDF and CUDP political party. A mixed approach with 248 and 304 usable samples were collected from top members of two political parties randomly and relevant data were gathered, presented and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistical techniques. The findings revealed that there was no formal marketing practice used by both parties and no department responsible for establishment of political marketing mix elements rather they seldom undertook conventionally by simply stand for what they believe, or focused on persuading voters to agree with their preplan ideas and policies which were relating with the selling concept and product concept.
In-house Crowdsourcing-Based Entity Resolution: Dealing with Common Names

Entity Resolution (ER) is one of the techniques used to disambiguate the various manifestations of same object to improve search results in databases. Recently, Crowd sourcing has been utilized to improve entity resolution to gain positive impact when searching for particular information in a database. In this paper, we consider the domain of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and utilize the approach of Crowd sourcing to enrich the process of achieving ER. Specifically our focus is to identify the right customer that has been manifested in various ways under a common name in a database using In-house Crowd sourcing-based Entity Resolution approach (ICER). The ICER takes the list of possible duplicates into consideration (which are pre-determined) and identifies the pair of record that has the maximum impact in achieving ER. Then, this pair is crowd sourced to Customer Service Representatives (CSRs) to have their input (labeling). ICER incorporates the principles of Human Intelligence Task (HIT) that aims to keep the questions asked to the CSR to a minimum. Two ICER approaches are proposed in this study based on probabilistic (modified approach of Whang et al) and active learning schemas. The applicability of the proposed ICER approaches and comparison of their results have been highlighted by using an example.
Land Fragmentation' Larger-scale Farming and the Input-output Efficiency of Rice Planter

Baper is based on the questionnaire survey of 400 demonstration households from three counties in Jiangsu province,regarding the negative influence of fragmentation and the effect of larger-scale farming,this paper gets the conclusion by using the Modified CD production function model: Although Jiangsu Province rice production are diseconomies of scale,but the scale effect of demonstration planter is obviously bigger than ordinary planter;The land fragmentation seriously affected the efficiency of rice production,and demonstration planters are more effected by the fragmentation.Based on the conclusions above,the land fragmentation question of demonstration planter should be solved first,and encourages the demonstration planters who are more professional and efficient to expand their scale of cultivation.
MRI Volumetric Analysis in Rasmussen Encephalitis: A Longitudinal Study

Summary: Purpose: Rasmussen encephalitis is a progressive inflammatory process with difficult‐to‐control focal or lateralized seizure activity, leading to hemispheric dysfunction and atrophy in advanced stages. Anatomic changes of atrophy may be subtle in earlier phases of the disease, and progressive changes on serial scans may be difficult to detect. We report a case of early‐stage Rasmussen encephalitis with a relatively stable clinical course in whom we performed magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)‐based volumetric analysis over an interval of 1 year, to assess for volumetric changes.
Individual Packet Deadline Constrained Opportunistic Scheduling for a Multiuser System

In this work an opportunistic scheduling scheme is presented and analyzed for a multiuser system. The objective of the proposed scheme is to minimize the system transmit energy in the presence of a hard deadline delay constraint for the individual packets. In the large system limit, the scheme is modeled and analyzed in the scenario when arriving packets have associated deadlines which vary from packet to packet. We introduce transmission thresholds that depend on channel quality and number of time slots left before a packet reaches its hard deadline. These thresholds are optimized such that they reflect the interaction of deadline delay and channel variation, and result in a minimum system energy. The results demonstrate the saving in energy for a system where the applications have individual packet deadline delay constraints.
Recycling Program Design, Management, and Participation: A National Survey of Municipal Experience

materials. Disposal of urban wastes in the old county dump is a practice quickly nearing extinction in the United States. More stringent national and state environmental standards and a citizenry concerned with the public health consequences of traditional modes of disposal have contributed to a crisis in solid waste disposal that dominates the political agendas of many local governments. Financially and politically, it is now much more difficult to dispose of the nation's steadily growing volume of waste that by some estimates will increase this decade from 3.6 to 4.0 pounds per person, per day. By 2000, local officials will have to manage some 190 million tons of solid waste annually (Office of Technology Assessment, 1989).
Measurement of the secretion of a small peptide at the single cell level by the cell immunoblot assay: thyroidectomy increases the number of substance P-secreting anterior pituitary cells.

The present study developed a technique for quantification of a small peptide secreted by single endocrine cells and investigated the cellular basis for the effects of endocrine environments on their secretion by using this technique. To quantify substance P (SP) secreted by monodispersed rat anterior pituitary cells and to estimate the relative abundance of SP-secreting cells, the cell immunoblot assay was improved by several modifications, including the use of incubation chambers and addition of immunostaining procedures of fixation by paraformaldehyde and elimination of nonspecifically stained blots. Single pituitary cells formed SP-specific blots on protein-blotting transfer membranes that constituted a floor portion of the incubation chamber. A combination of microscopic image analysis and SP standard curve made it possible to quantify the amount of SP stained as blots. SP secretion from single pituitary cells showed a large variation ranging from 0.14-144 fg/cell.h. The mean SP secretion and the number of SP-secreting cells were increased in an incubation time-dependent manner, with plateau levels of 20.3 fg/cell and 30.2 in a chamber area of 8 x 8 mm, respectively, at 3 h. Thyroidectomy significantly increased the number of SP-secreting cells and the total amount of SP secretion but decreased the mean SP secretion from single pituitary cells. This decrease in the mean SP secretion in the thyroidectomized rats was found to be due to a relative abundance of cells that secrete small amounts of SP. The present study demonstrates that the cell immunoblot assay is useful for quantifying peptide secretion at the single cell level and suggests that thyroidectomy-induced increase in SP secretion from anterior pituitary cells is not due to an increase in SP secretion per cell but due to an increase in the number of SP-secreting cells.
A Constant Throughput Geometric Mean Decomposition Scheme Design for Wireless MIMO Precoding

The geometric mean decomposition (GMD) algorithm is a popular approach in developing a precoding scheme for joint multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) transceiver designs. In this paper, the adverse effects of conventional GMD algorithms on hardware implementations are first reviewed. Then, a constant throughput modified GMD algorithm is presented. The proposed GMD scheme is constructed on a QR decomposition framework and requires no singular value decomposition (SVD) preprocessing. The new scheme is exempt from the convergence problem, which may seriously degrade throughput performance. It also features lower computational complexity and permutation-free operations and supports hardware sharing between precoding and signal detection modules. Quantitative analysis shows that, under similar symbol-error-rate (SER) performance, the proposed scheme possesses a computational complexity edge over conventional schemes by a margin of 30%. The complexity breakdown indicates that the SVD nullification sweep is the dominant factor of the SVD-based GMD schemes. Even when the sweep number is set to twice the matrix size (2N), the implementation loss is still 0.5 dB inferior to the proposed scheme. Finally, an architecture design of the proposed scheme is given to demonstrate a constant throughput implementation and the feasibility of hardware sharing between precoding and signal detection modules.