Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Strategic technology adoption: extending ERP across the supply chain

Purpose – This article proposes examining how small to medium‐sized organisations (SMEs) are responding to the challenge of harnessing enterprise resource planning (ERP) and internet technologies to enhance performance and improve competitiveness and aims to identify the barriers preventing organisations from harnessing these technologies.Design/methodology/approach – A case‐based research strategy was chosen. Four leading SMEs were interviewed to determine their approach to extended ERP and the barriers encountered. The primary data collection was based on structured in‐depth interviews with key respondents who were involved in the implementation of extended ERP and closely involved in day‐to‐day operations.Findings – While each of the SMEs had already taken some steps to extended ERP, they adopted a cautious approach to the future. In short, SMEs considering extended ERP should determine the impact on all organisations before proceeding and should also apply the lessons learned from their initial ERP im.
Morphological Changes in Duodenal Epithelium of Japanese Quail after Chronic Cadmium Exposure

Our study investigated morphological changes in enterocytes of adult Japanese quails that were given cadmium (CdCl2) perorally and individually by tube, dissolved in water at a dose of 0.24 mg Cd per animal per day, for 57 and 118 days. The aim of our study was to observe chronic effects of cadmium on the structure of duodenal epithelium by means of light microscopy (LM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). On day 57, following peroral administration of cadmium, necrotizing enterocytes were found in the apical part of intestinal villi and their occurrence was only sporadic. Particularly on day 118 following cadmium administration, we were able to observe clusters of 2-3 necrotizing cells in the apical part of intestinal villi. However, the structure and ultrastructure of goblet cells was normal. The most notable finding in ultrastructure of all enterocytes of treated animals was the damage to cell organelles. Mitochondria and cisternae of the endoplasmic reticulum were more or less damaged and the cytoplasm contained flocculent material, particularly in the basal part of enterocytes. Some enterocytes exhibited signs of necrosis, shrivelled nucleus and damaged organelles within the markedly electrondense cytoplasm. Microvilli on the apical surface of these enterocytes were damaged and disintegrated. Junctions between cells of the intestinal epithelium were disturbed, and a present of intracellular plaques associated with the adhering and occluding junctions was observed. Cadmium caused the formation of gaps within the specialized junctional complexes, and injury to enterocytes results in the breakdown of the intercellular attachments and the sloughing of the injured cells into the intestinal lumen.
Toll‐like receptor 9 binds single‐stranded CpG‐DNA in a sequence‐ and pH‐dependent manner

Toll‐like receptors (TLR) recognize bacterial and viral components, but direct interaction of receptor and ligand is unclear. Here, we demonstrate that TLR9 binds directly and sequence‐specifically to single‐stranded unmethylated CpG‐DNA containing a phosphodiester backbone. TLR9‐CpG‐DNA interaction occurs at the acidic pH (6.5–5.0) found in endosomes and lysosomes. By sequence comparison we identified a potential CpG‐DNA binding domain homologous to that described for methyl‐CpG‐DNA binding proteins. Amino acid substitutions in this region abrogated CpG‐DNA binding and led to loss of NF‐κB activation. Furthermore, chloroquine and quinacrine, therapeutic agents for autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus, directly blocked TLR9‐CpG‐DNA interaction but not TLR2‐Pam3Cys binding. Our results demonstrate direct binding of TLR9 to CpG‐DNA and suggest that the therapeutic activity of chloroquine and quinacrine in autoimmune diseases may be due to its activity as a TLR9 antagonist and inhibitor of endosomal acidification.
Bioética y anatomía patológica

Este artículo debe citarse como: Álvarez-Díaz JA. Bioética y anatomía patológica. Patología Rev Latinoam 2012;50(4):311-319. El tema de la bioética es casi ubicuo en la medicina contemporánea. Sin embargo, se ha relacionado muy poco con la anatomía patológica. Basta con una exploración en la base de datos MEDLINE a través de su motor de búsqueda PubMed, ofrecido por la Biblioteca Nacional de Medicina de Estados Unidos y conocido por todo profesional sanitario. Con la palabra clave “bioethics” se arrojan un total de 19 952 resúmenes RESUMEN
The influence of selection on the evolutionary distance estimated from the base changes observed between homologous nucleotide sequences.

In most studies of molecular evolution, the nucleotide base at a site is assumed to change with the apparent rate under functional constraint, and the comparison of base changes between homologous genes is thought to yield the evolutionary distance corresponding to the site-average change rate multiplied by the divergence time. However, this view is not sufficiently successful in estimating the divergence time of species, but mostly results in the construction of tree topology without a time-scale. In the present paper, this problem is investigated theoretically by considering that observed base changes are the results of comparing the survivals through selection of mutated bases. In the case of weak selection, the time course of base changes due to mutation and selection can be obtained analytically, leading to a theoretical equation showing how the selection has influence on the evolutionary distance estimated from the enumeration of base changes. This result provides a new method for estimating the divergence time more accurately from the observed base changes by evaluating both the strength of selection and the mutation rate. The validity of this method is verified by analysing the base changes observed at the third codon positions of amino acid residues with four-fold codon degeneracy in the protein genes of mammalian mitochondria; i.e. the ratios of estimated divergence times are fairly well consistent with a series of fossil records of mammals. Throughout this analysis, it is also suggested that the mutation rates in mitochondrial genomes are almost the same in different lineages of mammals and that the lineage-specific base-change rates indicated previously are due to the selection probably arising from the preference of transfer RNAs to codons.
Novel Fault Ride-Through Configuration and Transient Management Scheme for Doubly Fed Induction Generator

This paper proposed a novel fault ride-through (FRT) configuration and transient management scheme to enhance the FRT capability of doubly fed induction generator-based wind turbines. The new configuration of the grid-side converter introduces shunt and series compensation for normal operation and voltage dips, respectively. A braking resistor is added to smooth switching transients from shunt to series interfaces and dissipate excessive power from the grid-side converter. To attain a flexible control solution for balanced and unbalanced fault conditions, the proposed transient management scheme employs positive and negative sequence controllers. A small-signal linear model is developed and examined to analyze the system dynamics for the series compensation topology. Based on the mathematical model, the controller is tuned to balance both voltage regulation performance and transient stability margins with consideration of various operating conditions. The combination of shunt and series interfaces demonstrates a low component count, simple protection structure, and improved performance of FRT with effective compensation to the electric grid. A comprehensive simulation verified the capability of the new configuration and transient management scheme.
Publishing research supported by the tobacco industry

The tobacco industry's behaviour is as noxious as its products. During the past year, tobacco executives have denied that nicotine is addictive, spent heavily to stop antismoking laws in the American Congress and states, prosecuted their own former executives who have tried to speak out, and even threatened the media's attempts at investigations.1 So it is not surprising that the American Thoracic Society, the scientific arm of the American Lung Association, decided last month that it would no longer accept any medical research that is funded by the tobacco industry in its two peer reviewed journals (6 January, p 11.)2 The decision was a step further in the medical society's laudable fight against tobacco, but it was a misguided one. Tobacco accounts for a third of deaths in the developed world3 and about 10% of medical costs in the United States result directly from tobacco use. More perniciously tobacco advertising has been shown to be aimed successfully at young people.4 In Washington, the industry spends millions to maintain its own livelihood by being, according to one congressman, “the most pervasive lobbyist in politics today. ”5 The tobacco industry also promotes itself through research grants. In 1994 in the United States it distributed $19.5 million for research, which resulted in 375 scientific papers. Nearly 1100 …
Optimal Voltage Control Scheme on an Observer-Based For Three-Phase Ups Systems by Using Fuzzy

A simple optimum voltage control method is proposed in this paper for three phase uninterruptible power supply systems based on fuzzy control. Moreover, the optimal load current observer is employed to optimize system cost and reliability. The previous term is designed to make the system errors converge to zero, whereas the latter term is applied to compensate for the system uncertainties then the closed loop stability of an observer based optimal voltage control law is mathematically proven by showing that the whole states of the increased observer based system errors exponentially converge to zero. Specially, fuzzy control techniques are terribly interesting for a wide range of applicable fields allowing regulation of voltage profiles handling uncertainty and inexact information. The designing of the proposed controller is validated through simulations on MATLAB/Simulink and experiments on a prototype 600-VA test bed with a TMS320LF28335 DSP. Here fuzzy management is used compared to other controllers. Finally, the comparative results for the proposed scheme and therefore the conventional feedback linearization control theme are given to demonstrate that the proposed algorithm achieves an excellent performance like fast transient response, small steady state error, and low total harmonic distortion under load step change, unbalanced load and nonlinear load with the parameter variations.
Cancer-Related Deep Venous Thrombosis: Clinical Importance, Treatment Challenges, and Management Strategies

Venous thromboembolic disease (VTE), including deep venous thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE), is an underdiagnosed and underappreciated clinical problem in cancer patients that results in significant patient morbidity and mortality. Standard treatment practices, including the use of intravenous unfractionated heparin (UFH) for initial anticoagulation, the use of oral warfarin for chronic anticoagulation, and the prescription of only 3 to 6 months total therapy, may not be optimal in the setting of active cancer and ongoing anticancer therapy. Challenges of VTE management in cancer patients include heparin resistance because of excess circulating acute phase proteins, increased recurrence rates during warfarin therapy (target international normalized ratio 2 to 3), limited venous access to support therapeutic monitoring, and increased bleeding rates during anticoagulation. Bleeding during anticoagulation is of particular concern in patients with disease- or chemotherapy-related thrombocytopenia, central nervous system involvement with cancer, and recent surgical intervention. Low-molecular-weight heparins (LMWHs) have been shown to be equally effective and safe for initial anticoagulation compared with UFH and have gained popularity, especially in the setting of VTE in cancer. LMWHs have the advantage of less nonspecific protein binding, subcutaneous weight-based dosing without the need for monitoring in most cases, and less heparin-induced thrombocytopenia. Recent clinical trials have shown LMWHs are at least as effective as oral warfarin for long-term anticoagulation in cancer patients. Interest in LMWHs and several new classes of parenteral and oral anticoagulants extends beyond the primary and secondary prevention of VTE and includes antiangiogenesis, metastasis prevention, and survival prolongation.
Perceptions about men having sex with men in southern African country: case study of print media in Malawi.

The mass media is an indispensable and important aspect of contemporary society. It has been instrumental and critical in spreading health and research messages to facilitate behavior change in prevention of diseases. In Africa, it has helped in the prevention of dissemination of HIV and raising AIDS awareness (1). Mass media is especially important since medical journals are written for professional community rather than general public. While the media has been critical in facilitating change in society, in another sense it is also a mirror to society. The media in general promotes the dominant culture by encouraging the maintenance of the status quo with regard to sexuality and gender issues (2). In the traditional perception of “African” society, heterosexual marriage is desired and childbearing is glorified. Heald (3) reported that in Botswana, which has a scarcity of men due to migrant labor movements, childbearing was common among unmarried women, as it demonstrated that one was fertile and therefore proved that marriage brings material benefit to the future husband. While heterosexuality is expected and encouraged, other forms of sexuality, such as men having sex with men and women having sex with women are generally perceived as deviant and alien to the social and cultural fabric of Africa. Perhaps as a reflection of this, there is paucity of published health literature on homosexuality in Africa. In the developed western nations, the study of homosexuality has attained particular importance, especially with regard to the elevated risk of infection with HIV, hepatitis, and other sexually transmitted infections (4,5). In the southern African country of Malawi, homosexuality has almost always been discussed in relation to sexually transmitted infections, criminality, and unsafe prison conditions (6). However, negative perceptions toward homosexuality are not restricted to less developed nations, as similar sentiments have been present in America, Western Europe, and other developed nations (2). In this text, I will present and discuss the perceptions of the Malawian public toward homosexuality as portrayed in three major newspapers.
BDK: Secure and Efficient Biometric based Deterministic Key Agreement in Wireless Body Area Networks

Wireless body area networks (WBANs) have been widely adopted to efficiently monitor patients' realtime health condition for medical treatment and emergency handling. Key agreement with the properties of plug-n-play and transparency for WBANs is indispensably required to establish the secure communication channels among body sensors. Existing works mainly focus on exploiting the technique of fuzzy vault to allow body sensors deployed on the same human body can securely establish a pairwise key at a high probability, where the authentic extracted biometric characteristics and the chaff points are indistinguishable from the adversaries' view except a brute attack. However, it simultaneously brings about a large body of additional overhead for dealing with the redundancy. In this paper, a secure and efficient biometric based deterministic key agreement for WBANs is proposed by exploiting the overlap between the biometric characteristics collected by body sensors. The pairwise keys for WBANs can be definitely negotiated by the interactions between body sensors embedded in the same human body. The security depends on the underlying one way trapdoor function rather than the coffer/vault size. Extensive simulations and comparisons illustrate the efficiency and practicability of our proposed construction BDK and the advantages over the state-of-the-art with stronger resilience, less storage, computational and communication overhead.
Urinary tract infections in older women: a clinical review.

IMPORTANCE Asymptomatic bacteriuria and symptomatic urinary tract infections (UTIs) in older women are commonly encountered in outpatient practice. OBJECTIVE To review management of asymptomatic bacteriuria and symptomatic UTI and review prevention of recurrent UTIs in older community-dwelling women. EVIDENCE REVIEW A search of Ovid (Medline, PsycINFO, Embase) for English-language human studies conducted among adults aged 65 years and older and published in peer-reviewed journals from 1946 to November 20, 2013. RESULTS The clinical spectrum of UTIs ranges from asymptomatic bacteriuria, to symptomatic and recurrent UTIs, to sepsis associated with UTI requiring hospitalization. Recent evidence helps differentiate asymptomatic bacteriuria from symptomatic UTI. Asymptomatic bacteriuria is transient in older women, often resolves without any treatment, and is not associated with morbidity or mortality. The diagnosis of symptomatic UTI is made when a patient has both clinical features and laboratory evidence of a urinary infection. Absent other causes, patients presenting with any 2 of the following meet the clinical diagnostic criteria for symptomatic UTI: fever, worsened urinary urgency or frequency, acute dysuria, suprapubic tenderness, or costovertebral angle pain or tenderness. A positive urine culture (≥105 CFU/mL) with no more than 2 uropathogens and pyuria confirms the diagnosis of UTI. Risk factors for recurrent symptomatic UTI include diabetes, functional disability, recent sexual intercourse, prior history of urogynecologic surgery, urinary retention, and urinary incontinence. Testing for UTI is easily performed in the clinic using dipstick tests. When there is a low pretest probability of UTI, a negative dipstick result for leukocyte esterase and nitrites excludes infection. Antibiotics are selected by identifying the uropathogen, knowing local resistance rates, and considering adverse effect profiles. Chronic suppressive antibiotics for 6 to 12 months and vaginal estrogen therapy effectively reduce symptomatic UTI episodes and should be considered in patients with recurrent UTIs. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE Establishing a diagnosis of symptomatic UTI in older women requires careful clinical evaluation with possible laboratory assessment using urinalysis and urine culture. Asymptomatic bacteriuria should be differentiated from symptomatic UTI. Asymptomatic bacteriuria in older women should not be treated.
Structure of mouse Fc receptor

A variety of mouse cell types were externally labeled with radioactive iodine and solubilized in detergent. A single chain radioactive molecule of mol. wt. 120 000 was precipitated from lysates of surface‐labeled lymphocytes, macrophages and fibroblasts by complexes between pneumococcal type 3 poly‐saccharide and its homologous rabbit antibody in the IgG form, but not as F(ab'Iz or Facb. The same results were obtained using an alternative precipitating system, namely ovalbumin and IgG and F(ab'Iz forms of rabbit antiovalbumin. The 120 000 mol. wt. compound could not be detected on a thymoma cell line (5 178) previously known to lack the Fc receptor. On the basis of these criteria the material was therefore identified as mouse Fc receptor.Although very susceptible t o proteolysis, the fragments resulting from digestion remain associated by disulfide bonds in such a way as t o still bind to the anti‐body‐antigen precipitate. The proteolytic fragmentation products (mol. wts. 75 000,45 000,20 000 and 10 000) only become apparent upon chemical reduction, but the ease with which the molecule is degraded explains the wide variation in mol. wts. reported for the Fc receptor, and is perhaps a clue to explain the biological role of the molecule.
Ultrastructural localization of CART (cocaine‐ and amphetamine‐regulated transcript) peptides in the nucleus accumbens of monkeys

CART (cocaine‐ and amphetamine‐regulated transcript) peptides are proposed to play a role in the action of psychostimulants as neurotransmitters/neuromodulators. In the present study, we demonstrate that the shell of the nucleus accumbens, a brain structure involved in drug reinforcement, is densely innervated by a dense plexus of CART peptide‐immunoreactive varicose fibers in register with immunoreactive perikarya in monkeys. At the electron microscopic level, varicosities appeared as immunoreactive axon terminals packed with round electron‐lucent vesicles and a variable number of darkly stained dense‐core vesicles that formed symmetric synapses with dendrites. These findings suggest that CART peptides may be a cotransmitter with gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA) in intrinsic axon collaterals of striatal projection neurons or interneurons in the primate nucleus accumbens. Synapse 27:90–94, 1997. © 1997 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Automatic calibration of streaming applications for software mapping exploration

Streaming models have lately gained a lot of interest in embedded software design as they closely resemble computation of signal processing applications typically found in wireless and multimedia domains. To map streaming applications ontoMPSoCs (Multi-Processor System-on-Chips) efficiently, programmers need not only to validate software but also to estimate the performance of their software accurately. Therefore, fast MPSoC virtual platforms which support fully functional execution of software with good timing accuracy are required. In this paper, we propose a tool-flow to construct such MPSoC virtual platforms. The key idea is to annotate timing of sequential execution of streaming applications automatically by calibration in a configurable abstract MPSoC virtual platform. A case study of applying the tool-flow to a real-life heterogeneous MPSoC, TI's OMAP, has been conducted to prove the tool-flow's feasibility and show good accuracy of the calibrated virtual platform for software mapping exploration.