Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
PREVALENCE OF ORTHOSTATIC HYPOTENSION AMONG DIABETIC PATIENTS IN A COMMUNITY HOSPITAL OF PESHAWAR

Background: The postural drop in blood pressure caused by autonomic neuropathy in diabetes mellitus is regarded as a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. The objectives of this study were to assess the prevalence of orthostatic hypotension and its relation with hypertension in patients with diabetes mellitus admitted in a tertiary care hospital. Methods: Two hundred indoor diabetic patients were assessed. Lying and standing blood pressure of each patient was determined using standard procedure for determination of orthostatic hypotension. Patients having orthostatic hypotension were compared with those having no orthostatic hypotension for different clinical and biochemical parameters using statistical program for social sciences. Results: Twenty-six percent of the patients were found to have orthostatic hypotension. Fifty two percent of the total patients showed hypertension. Proportion of hypertension in the patients having orthostatic hypotension was more than those without orthostatic hypotension while other parameters showed no difference. Conclusion: Orthostatic hypotension is a common phenomenon in our diabetic patients admitted to tertiary care facilities. Diabetic hypertensive patients are more likely to have postural drop in blood pressure as compared to diabetic normotensive patients.
Organophosphate Flame Retardants Act as Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals in MA-10 Mouse Tumor Leydig Cells.

The organophosphate flame retardants (OPFRs) have emerged as alternatives to banned brominated flame retardants but little is known about their possible activity as endocrine disruptors. Our goal was to compare the effects of 7 commonly used OPFRsin vitroon MA-10 mouse Leydig tumor cells to those of a major brominated flame retardant, 2,2',4,4'-tetrabromodiphenyl ether (BDE-47). The effects of OPFRs and BDE-47 on mitochondrial activity, cell counts, oxidative stress, steroid secretion and gene expression were investigated. BDE-47 and all 7 OPFRs tested significantly reduced MA-10 cell mitochondrial activity (concentrations ≥50 μM) and cell number (concentrations ≥10 μM). All of the OPFRs significantly increased (10 μM, 1.7-4.4-fold) superoxide production whereas BDE-47 had no significant effect. Basal progesterone production was significantly increased (10 μM, 1.5 to 3-fold) by 2-ethylhexyl diphenyl phosphate, isodecyl diphenyl phosphate, isopropylated triphenyl phosphate, tert-butylphenyl diphenyl phosphate, and tricresyl phosphate, while BDE-47, triphenyl phosphate and tri-o-cresyl phosphate had no effect. Interestingly, isopropylated triphenyl phosphate enhanced dbcAMP-stimulated steroid production (∼2-fold), while tri-o-cresyl phosphate decreased (∼2/3) LH-stimulated steroid production. Several OPFRs affected the expression of genes involved in the biosynthesis of progesterone. In conclusion, all the OPFRs tested affected mitochondrial activity, cell survival, and superoxide production. Basal or stimulated steroid secretion was affected by all of the OPFRs except triphenyl phosphate; BDE-47 had no effect. Hence, the OPFRs currently used as alternatives affect Leydig cells to a greater extent than the brominated flame retardants that they have replaced.
The role of trust as a mediator in the relationship between technology factors and intention to accept internet banking in Nigeria

This study had been carried out to investigate factors that influence the intention to accept internet banking and examined the mediating role of trust between technology factors and the intention to accept an internet banking. This study reviewed related technology acceptance theories and trust models. The decomposed theory of planned behaviour, innovation diffusion theory and trustworthiness technology were adopted. The aforementioned adopted models suggested five main factors namely; perceived behaviour control, attitude, subjective norm, trust and intention to accept internet banking. This was a quantitative research method. Questionnaire was adopted to 559 bank customers within Lagos, Port-harcourt and Abuja in Nigeria. The response rate is 55.85%, representing 391 worth questionnaires. SPSS and AMOS version 20 tools were utilized to analyze the data in reference to descriptive statistics, standardized regression and mediation effects. The initial model without mediation analyzes revealed 71% variance (R2) in customer intent to accept internet banking. However, when modified with trust mediating factors, the results revealed 74% variance, implying that trust contributed a 3% to the model. Consequently serves as a partial mediator towards the intention to accept internet banking in Nigeria. As a result, thorough understanding of this may assist practitioners in analyzing reason(s) for slow pace in acceptance of the technology, provide efficient measures to improving customers’ acceptance and provide an insight for academia about internet usage in Nigeria. Future studies can be directed towards replicating the use of this model in other locations and different analytical techniques.
Reduced memory turbo MAP decoding algorithm for non-binary orthogonal signaling

In non-binary turbo decoding combined with non-binary orthogonal signaling such as M-ary FSK, the conditional channel probabilities of the non-binary symbols require M values for each symbol. In this paper, we propose a method which can reduce the backup memory size of the channel values of non-binary orthogonal signaling. And we propose a new turbo decoding method which can reduce the memory for a non-binary turbo MAP decoder. We compare the memory requirements of the proposed algorithms and the bit error rate performance.
Determination of Economic Lot Size between Suppliers and Manufacturers for Imperfect Production System with Probabilistic Demand

This study aims to develop a combined economical lot size model between supplier and manufacturer for imperfect production processes with probabilistic demand patterns and constant lead times. The supplier side produces the product within a certain time interval then sent to the manufacturer with a certain amount of lot size. Imperfect supplier production systems are characterized by the probability of defective product (γ). The model decision variables are the lot size of the manufacturer's ordering, supplier lot size, and the reorder point of the manufacturer. The optimal decision variables are obtained by minimizing the total expected cost of the combined costs between the suppliers and the manufacturers borne by both parties. The model is built compared to the transactional partnership model, in which the supplier does not participate in the efficiency of its inventory system. A numerical example is given as an illustration of the JELS model and the transactional partnership model. Sensitivity analysis of the model is done by changing the parameters aimed at analyzing the behavior of the developed model.
An Organizational Approach to Public Governance

This chapter launches a general organizational approach to public governance. It outlines key theoretical dimensions that cut across governance structures and processes horizontally as well as vertically, thus paving the way for integrating separate empirical analyses into a coherent theoretical whole. Moreover, the organizational (independent) variables outlined represent classical dimensions in the organization literature that are generic in character. This allows for generalizations across time and space. The chapter also highlights the potential for organizational design that follows from our approach. By building systematic knowledge on how organizational factors shape governance processes on the one hand, and how organizational factors themselves might be deliberately changed on the other, the chapter offers a framework for developing a knowledge base for organizational design.
Series–Parallel Autoregulated Charge-Balancing Rectifier for Multioutput Light-Emitting Diode Driver

A series-parallel autoregulated rectifying circuit is proposed for a multioutput dc/dc light-emitting diode (LED) driver. The series-parallel autoregulated characteristics balance the charge in the secondary blocking capacitors automatically. Hence, with the proposed rectifier and secondary-side multiwinding transformer, a multioutput LED driver with precise current-sharing capability is achieved even for multiple LED strings with different voltages. The operating principle of the rectifier is analyzed with a sinusoidal current source and is verified with a four-output LLC dc/dc LED driver. This proposed rectifier can be applied to other converters featuring a high-frequency current source link at the primary side.
Getting Something for Nothing?: A User-Centric Perspective on Loyalty Card Schemes

Loyalty cards are a form of tracking and recording technology (TRT) that enables retailers to collect data about their customers' demographic and purchase behaviours. As recompense for sharing their data consumers receive 'loyalty points' which they can redeem for exclusive discounts and rewards. The design of loyalty schemes, and TRTs more generally, plays a key role in defining the economic terms of that exchange, and ultimately the economic value of personal data. In this paper we present findings from an interview study with 12 loyalty cardholders in the UK explicating the ways in which they create (and lose) value through the everyday practice of shopping with loyalty cards and the orientations associated with them. Based on our findings we suggest cardholders are less concerned with the protection of their privacy than with leveraging its value, only some of which was economic. We provide design guidelines for TRTs that may enable consumers to derive greater value from the data they produce and share.
Impact of TP53 Codon 72 and MDM2 Promoter 309 Allelic Dosage in a Moroccan Population with Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in codon 72 of the TP53 gene (rs1042522) and in the promoter region of the MDM2 gene (SNP309; rs2279744) have been shown to play a role in the predisposition to many cancers. However, these findings were inconsistent in other tumor types, and ethnicity is suspected to be a critical factor influencing the effects of these SNPs on the cancer risk. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether these functional SNPs were associated with an enhanced risk of liver tumorigenesis in Moroccan patients. We have genotyped both polymorphisms in 96 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and 222 controls without HCC matched for age, gender and ethnicity by PCR-RFLP confirmed by sequencing. A joint effect between the MDM2 and TP53 polymorphisms and an increased risk of liver cancer was detected, with the odds ratio for the presence of both MDM2 309GG and TP53 72Pro/Pro genotypes being 10 (95% confidence interval 0.39-255.55). Interestingly, a significant increase in the HCC risk was observed when at least two deleterious alleles were present, indicating an allele dosage effect. There was no evidence for any association with early age of HCC onset when deleterious alleles of MDM2 SNP309 and TP53 Arg72Pro where present. Our findings suggest that the combination of TP53 72Pro and MDM2 309G polymorphisms enhance the risk of developing HCC. These results deserve further confirmation in other populations.
Forensic Schedule Analysis of Construction Delay in Military Projects in the Middle East

This research performs forensic schedule analysis of delay factors that impacted recent large-scale military construction projects in the Middle East. The purpose of this study is to understand the most significant causes of project delay and how AFCEC might improve schedule management performance. The methodologies for analysis are adapted from the Professional Practice Guide to Forensic Schedule Analysis, particularly Method 3.7 Modeled/Additive/Multiple Base, or Time Impacted Analysis—Adjusted. The data is gathered from USACE and AFCEC, consisting of Primavera project schedules and project documents from the Resident Management System database. The project delays from two large-scale projects are apportioned as compensable, excusable, or non-excusable based on their liability and their impacts to the critical path. This investigation reveals that two particular delay factors are the most significant contributors to schedule overrun, accounting for 62% of the total delay. Obtaining building permits, an owner (government) responsibility, contributed to 38% of the delays. Design issues, consisting of change orders and submittal approvals, accounted for another 24% of the delays. In order to reduce schedule delay in future projects, several recommendations are provided that focus on various aspects of project management.
Recurrent selection for kernel weight in spring wheat

Increasing kernel weight has been proposed as a method to increase flour extraction in spring wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). Recurrent selection was initiated to increase kernel weight while maintaining genetic variation for the unselected traits. Our objectives were to determine (i) genetic gain for kernel weight after eight cycles of selection, (ii) the indirect effects of the selection for kernel weight on other agronomic traits, kernel morphology, milling fractions, and grain protein concentration, and (iii) the level of genetic variability among lines within selection cycles for kernel weight and unselected traits. Ten lines, selected for high kernel weight, were originally intermated to form the base population. About 20 F2 plants with the highest kernel weight were selected (approximately 2% of the population), and about three of their F3 progeny were intermated to form the next cycle. This procedure was repeated for eight cycles, with an average of 60 crosses per cycle. Forty random lines from each cycle were used to evaluate agronomic traits in three environments. Kernel weight increased linearly at about 4.5% cycle(-1). Cycle means did not differ for plant height and grain yield, but tillers per square meter and kernels per spike decreased 2.4 and 1.6% per cycle, respectively. Spikelets per spike, kernels per spikelet, test weight, and days to heading decreased, whereas spike length increased in response to selection for kernel weight. The proportion of bran and shorts decreased, and flour extraction and grain protein concentration increased 0.58 and 0.16% cycle(-1), respectively. No clear trend towards decreased genetic variance for kernel weight was observed since gain was linear over eight cycles. The observed gain from selection and heritability estimates point to kernel weight being controlled by several genes with small effects. Selection for increased kernel size in this population resulted in increased flour yield.
Trades, Quotes and Prices: Financial Markets Under the Microscope

The widespread availability of high-quality, high-frequency data has revolutionised the study of financial markets. By describing not only asset prices, but also market participants' actions and interactions, this wealth of information offers a new window into the inner workings of the financial ecosystem. In this original text, the authors discuss empirical facts of financial markets and introduce a wide range of models, from the micro-scale mechanics of individual order arrivals to the emergent, macro-scale issues of market stability. Throughout this journey, data is king. All discussions are firmly rooted in the empirical behaviour of real stocks, and all models are calibrated and evaluated using recent data from Nasdaq. By confronting theory with empirical facts, this book for practitioners, researchers and advanced students provides a fresh, new, and often surprising perspective on topics as diverse as optimal trading, price impact, the fragile nature of liquidity, and even the reasons why people trade at all.
A question about defining moral bioenhancement

David DeGrazia1 offers, to my mind, a decisive response to the bioconservative suggestion that moral bioenhancement (MB) threatens human freedom or undermines its value. In this brief commentary, I take issue with DeGrazia's way of defining MB. A different concept of MB exposes a danger missed by his analysis. DeGrazia presents MB as a form of enhancement directed at moral capacities. There are, in the philosophical literature, two broad approaches to defining human enhancement. Simplifying somewhat, one account identifies enhancement with improvement. DeGrazia joins other advocates of MB in preferring this type of account, defining a human enhancement as ‘any deliberate intervention that aims to improve an existing capacity, select for a desired capacity, or create a new capacity in a human being. ’1 An alternative approach relativises enhancement to human norms.2 ,3 In this view, improvements up to levels of functioning properly considered normal for humans are therapy, not enhancement. Improvements beyond those levels are enhancements. The injection of synthetic erythropoietin (EPO) by someone suffering from anaemia is therapy. When healthy Tour de France competitors inject EPO, it is enhancement. We can minimise philosophical disputes about word meanings by endorsing a conceptual pluralism that acknowledges the need for more than one concept of human enhancement to address the hugely varied ways in which technology may alter humans. In the debate about biomedical moral improvements there would be enhancement as improvement and enhancement beyond human norms . DeGrazia effectively deploys the concept of enhancement as improvement to …
Multiple Time Resolution Unit Commitment for Short-Term Operations Scheduling Under High Renewable Penetration

This paper introduces the idea of unified unit commitment and economic dispatch modeling within a unique tool that performs economic dispatch with up to 24-hour look-ahead capability. The tool provides financially binding dispatch and ex-ante locational marginal prices (LMPs) for the next 5-min interval and advisory commitment, dispatch schedule and prices for the remaining scheduling horizon. Variable time resolution and variable modeling complexity are used in order to reduce computational requirements. A finer time resolution and detailed modeling are used during the first hours of the scheduling horizon while coarser time resolution and simplified modeling during the last ones. The viability of the method for medium-sized systems is demonstrated through its application to the Greek power system.
Etude expérimentale des fluctuations de vitesse, de température et de pression en turbulence développée

L'utilisation de l'helium a basse temperature en turbulence developpee s'avere decisive pour l'etude des proprietes statistiques des champs de vitesse et de traceur passif, grâce a une gamme de nombres de Reynolds inegalee et a d'excellentes conditions de stabilite. Les experiences presentees dans cette these sont effectuees en geometrie confinee, entre deux disques en rotation. Nous decrivons dans un premier temps les transferts d'energie a travers les echelles, et en particulier l'existence d'une tendance algebrique vers un regime asymptotique (loi des 4/5 de Kolmogorov) dans la limite des tres grands nombres de Reynolds. Nous discutons en detail la validite de l'equation de Kolmogorov dans differentes configurations d'ecoulement, et caracterisons en particulier l'influence des grandes echelles sur un tel regime asymptotique. Nous presentons dans un second temps de nouveaux resultats concernant des mesures de fluctuations de temperature, realisees pour la premiere fois dans l'helium a basse temperature. Nous caracterisons notamment l'intermittence du scalaire passif sous l'aspect des lois d'echelles anormales. Nous montrons que l'evolution des exposants de fonction de structure suggere la presence d'une saturation aux ordres eleves, signature de statistiques dominees par la presence de fronts intenses. Nous etudions les proprietes statistiques de ces fronts, et mettons en evidence leur repartition auto-similaire. Enfin, nous presentons de nouveaux resultats concernant les fluctuations de pression en turbulence, a partir d'une experience originale de cavitation dans l'eau. Nous menons une etude qualitative des structures coherentes de basse pression dans l'ecoulement en contrarotation. Nous nous penchons ensuite sur leur contribution aux distributions de pression exponentielles, mesurees en volume, soulignant l'importance des grandes echelles dans la description des fluctuations de pression.
A chamber study of secondary organic aerosol formation by limonene ozonolysis.

UNLABELLED Limonene ozonolysis was examined under conditions relevant to indoor environments in terms of temperatures, air exchange rates, and reagent concentrations. Secondary organic aerosols (SOA) produced and particle-bound reactive oxygen species (ROS) were studied under situations when the product of the two reagent concentrations was constant, the specific concentration combinations play an important role in determining the total SOA formed. A combination of concentration ratios of ozone/limonene between 1 and 2 produce the maximum SOA concentration. The two enantiomers, R-(+)-limonene and S-(-)-limonene, were found to have similar SOA yields. The measured ROS concentrations for limonene and ozone concentrations relevant to prevailing indoor concentrations ranged from 5.2 to 14.5 nmol/m(3) equivalent of H2O2. It was found that particle samples aged for 24 h in freezer lost a discernible fraction of the ROS compared to fresh samples. The residual ROS concentrations were around 83-97% of the values obtained from the analysis of samples immediately after collection. The ROS formed from limonene ozonolysis could be separated into three categories as short-lived, high reactive, and volatile; semi-volatile and relatively stable; non-volatile and low-reactive species based on ROS measurements under various conditions. Such chemical and physical characterization of the ROS in terms of reactivity and volatility provides useful insights into nature of ROS. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS A better understanding of the formation mechanism of secondary organic aerosol generated from indoor chemistry allows us to evaluate and predict the exposure under such environments. Measurements of particle-bound ROS shed light on potential adverse health effect associated with exposure to particles.
Natural killer cell activity and sex hormone levels in mastopathy.

The aim of the study was to test the cytotoxic activity of peripheral blood natural killer (NK) cells in relation to serum levels of sex hormones in patients with mastopathy. The study included 37 patients classified into mastalgia, fibrosis, fibrocystic disease, and fibroadenoma groups and 19 healthy age-matched volunteer women. Estradiol, progesterone, luteinizing hormone (LH), follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), and prolactin were evaluated in sera by specific radioimmunoassays. NK cell activity was evaluated by means of 51Cr-release assay. In all patient groups, progesterone levels were significantly decreased. There was also an increased frequency of patients with low levels of estradiol (< 50 pg/ml). On the other hand, LH levels in fibrocystic disease and fibroadenoma groups were significantly increased. NK cell activity was in the normal range in all patient groups. In individual women, NK cell cytotoxicity did not correlate with the levels of the studied hormones. However, in patients with low (< 50 pg/ml) and high (> 200 pg/ml) estradiol levels an increase and a decrease of NK cell activity was observed, respectively. This suggests that in patients with mastopathy, estradiol may directly or indirectly affect NK cell cytotoxicity. High levels of estradiol and low NK cell activity might constitute an increased risk for neoplasia.