Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fund management for carve-out start-ups: A scheme to lead innovations outside the business scope of large corporations

Amidst the revolutionary change of today's business environment due to progress of semiconductor technologies and the Internet, existing corporations as well as their R&D groups find it increasingly challenging to realize technology-based innovations; these innovations require disruptive business models with substantial risk. It seems particularly true in new fields, such as social innovations, where traditional businesses lack the necessary skills and vision for success. The authors successfully raised the Technology Carve-out Fund to offer opportunities to “carve out” technologies and key personnel from traditional corporations or research institutes, and enable pursuit of innovative business models in start-ups, outside the existing business scope of large organizations. The concept was reported at PICMET 2005, and the ongoing efforts at PICMET 2014. Since the fund duration ended on December 31, 2015, the authors would like to summarize their work and highlight lessons for future “carve-out” efforts as follows: 1. Strong and sustained commitment of the parent organization is essential. In addition to unwavering commitment from the parent corporation, the open discussion of challenges and risks associated with new business models and how they would affect the strategy of the parent organization is important. A set of fair and agreeable terms for the “carve out” balanced between all stakeholders is an urgent need. 2. Overcoming the time constraint for early stage start-ups needed to achieve positive ROI. The start-ups founded were mostly at an early stage, and the typical fund duration of ten years has been found to be too short. Solutions to overcome this constraint are necessary. 3. Bolstering the limited business management skills of “carved-out” personnel. Although the key personnel carved-out are experts in their respective fields, their skills are not broad enough to manage a company, even for very small entities. The management team needs additional bench strength. 4. Flexible fund terms to enable a variety of deals with unpredictable new challenges. Each “carve-out” has unique circumstances, conditions, and challenges. The fund must not be overly constrained, or else it cannot create investment deals for the wide variety of “carve-out” cases that are otherwise good opportunities.
Effects of Modified Hearing Aid Fittings on Loudness and Tone Quality for Different Acoustic Scenes

Objective: To compare loudness and tone-quality ratings for sounds processed via a simulated five-channel compression hearing aid fitted using NAL-NL2 or using a modification of the fitting designed to be appropriate for the type of listening situation: speech in quiet, speech in noise, music, and noise alone. Design: Ratings of loudness and tone quality were obtained for stimuli presented via a loudspeaker in front of the participant. For normal-hearing participants, levels of 50, 65, and 80 dB SPL were used. For hearing-impaired participants, the stimuli were processed via a simulated hearing aid with five-channel fast-acting compression fitted using NAL-NL2 or using a modified fitting. Input levels to the simulated hearing aid were 50, 65, and 80 dB SPL. All participants listened with one ear plugged. For speech in quiet, the modified fitting was based on the CAM2B method. For speech in noise, the modified fitting used slightly (0 to 2 dB) decreased gains at low frequencies. For music, the modified fitting used increased gains (by 5 to 14 dB) at low frequencies. For noise alone, the modified fitting used decreased gains at all frequencies (by a mean of 1 dB at low frequencies increasing to 8 dB at high frequencies). Results: For speech in quiet, ratings of loudness with the NAL-NL2 fitting were slightly lower than the mean ratings for normal-hearing participants for all levels, while ratings with CAM2B were close to normal for the two lower levels, and slightly greater than normal for the highest level. Ratings of tone quality were close to the optimum value (“just right”) for both fittings, except that the CAM2B fitting was rated as very slightly boomy for the 80-dB SPL level. For speech in noise, the ratings of loudness were very close to the normal values and the ratings of tone quality were close to the optimal value for both fittings and for all levels. For music, the ratings of loudness were close to the normal values for NAL-NL2 and slightly above normal for the modified fitting. The tone quality was rated as very slightly tinny for NAL-NL2 and very slightly boomy for the modified fitting. For noise alone, the NAL-NL2 fitting was rated as slightly louder than normal for all levels, while the modified fitting was rated as close to normal. Tone quality was rated as slightly sharper for the NAL-NL2 fitting than for the modified fitting. Conclusions: Loudness and tone quality can sometimes be made slightly closer to “normal” by modifying gains for different listening situations. The modification for music required to achieve “normal” tone quality appears to be less than used in this study.
The Long Road to Recovery: Environmental Health Impacts of Hurricane Sandy

Building contractor John Pierciey stands in the gutted interior of a 1950s-era home in Manasquan, New Jersey. Wallboard, two layers of wood flooring, a layer of felt—all of it had to be ripped out to rid the house of mold caused by Hurricane Sandy’s storm surge. “This is the sixth house I’ve gutted in a week,” Pierciey says. “Every one is different. You don’t know what you’re going to find until you take them apart. ” Residents and volunteers keep warm by a fire barrel in the New Dorp Beach neighborhood of Staten Island, 5 November 2012. Power outages persisted through a cold snap that put temperatures in the single digits. So it is with the environmental health impacts of Hurricane Sandy. Every layer of society, every type of building, has felt the impact of the storm, which struck the U.S. East Coast on 29 October 2012. Incidences of death and illness, though small in number compared with some storms, have come in many forms, the effects still unfolding as time goes by.
Enhanced Biosynthesis of Hyaluronic Acid Using Engineered Corynebacterium glutamicum Via Metabolic Pathway Regulation

Hyaluronic acid (HA) is a polysaccharide used in many industries such as medicine, surgery, cosmetics, and food. To avoid potential pathogenicity caused by its native producer, Streptococcus, efforts have been made to create a recombinant host for HA production. In this work, a GRAS (generally recognized as safe) strain, Corynebacterium glutamicum, is engineered for enhanced biosynthesis of HA via metabolic pathway regulation. Five enzymes (HasA‐HasE) involved in the HA biosynthetic pathway are highlighted, and eight diverse operon combinations, including HasA, HasAB, HasAC, HasAD, HasAE, HasABC, HasABD, and HasABE, are compared. HasAB and HasABC are found to be optimal for HA biosynthesis in C. glutamicum. To meet the energy demand for HA synthesis, the metabolic pathway that produces lactate is blocked by knocking out the lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) gene using single crossover homologous recombination. Engineered C. glutamicum/Δldh‐AB is superior and had a significantly higher HA titer than C. glutamicum/Δldh‐ABC. Batch and fed‐batch cultures of C. glutamicum/Δldh‐AB are performed in a 5‐L fermenter. Using glucose feeding, the maximum HA titer reached 21.6 g L−1, more than threefolds of that of the wild‐type Streptococcus. This work provides an efficient, safe, and novel recombinant HA producer, C. glutamicum/Δldh‐AB, via metabolic pathway regulation.
Spinal surgeons' learning curve for lumbar microendoscopic discectomy: a prospective study of our first 50 and latest 10 cases.

BACKGROUND Microendoscopic discectomy (MED) is a minimally invasive operation that allows rapid recovery from surgery for lumbar disc herniation, but has replaced traditional open surgery in few hospitals because most surgeons avoid its long learning curve. We evaluated the effectiveness and safety of lumbar MED at stages of spinal surgeons' learning curve. METHODS Fifty patients receiving MED from June 2002 to February 2003 were divided into chronological groups of ten each: A - E. The control group F was ten MED patients treated later by the same medical team (September - October 2006). All operations were performed by the same team of spinal surgeons with no MED experience before June 2002. We compared groups by operation time, blood loss, complications and need for open surgery after MED failure. RESULTS Operation times by group were: A, (107 +/- 14) minutes; B, (85 +/- 13) minutes; C, (55 +/- 19) minutes; D, (52 +/- 12) minutes; E, (51 +/- 13) minutes; and F, (49+/- 15) minutes. Blood loss were: A, (131 +/- 73) ml; B, (75 +/- 20) ml; C, (48 +/- 16) ml; D, (44 +/- 17) ml; E, (45 +/- 18) ml; and F, (45 +/- 16) ml. Both operation time and blood loss in groups C, D, E and F were smaller and more stable compared with groups A and B. Japanese Orthopedic Association assessment (JOA) score of each group in improvement rate immediately and one year after operation were as follows (in percentage): A, (79.8 +/- 8.8)/(89.8 +/- 7.7); B, (78.6 +/- 8.5)/(88.5 +/- 7.8); C, (80.8 +/- 11.3)/(90.8 +/- 6.7); D, (77.7 +/- 11.4)/(88.9 +/- 9.3); E, (84.0 +/- 8.7)/(89.6 +/- 9.0); and F, (77.8 +/- 11.6)/(86.9 +/- 8.4). Groups showed no statistical difference in improvement rates. Complications developed in three patients in group A, two in group B, and none in the other groups. CONCLUSIONS Spinal surgeons performing MED become proficient after 10 - 20 operations, when their skill becomes fairly sophisticated. Patients' improvement rate is the same regardless of surgeons' phase of learning curve.
Ability of Bacillus cereus Group Strains To Cause Food Poisoning Varies According to Phylogenetic Affiliation (Groups I to VII) Rather than Species Affiliation

ABSTRACT Cytotoxic activity levels of culture filtrates and toxin distributions varied according to the phylogenetic group (I to VII) within the B acillus cereus group, suggesting that these groups are of different clinical significance and are more suitable than species affiliations for determining food poisoning risk. A first-line, simple online tool (https://www.tools.symprevius.org/Bcereus/english.php ) to assign strains to the different phylogenetic groups is presented.
CYTOGENETIC ANALYSES IN INFERTILE MEN

In order to assess the significance of chromosome abnormalities and polymorphic chromosomal variants in male infertility, the results of cytogenetic studies of 90 patients (32 azoospermic and 58 oligozoospermic men) were compared with those of 30 control fertile men in Estonia. Total chromosome alterations were revealed in 47.8% of infertile men. Major chromosomal abnormalities had a 10-fold increase (13.4%) in infertile males (15.6% in azoospermics and 12% in oligozoospermics) compared to the control group. In azoospermics, the most prevalent were sex chromosomal abnormalities (47,XXY)(12%), whereas a Robertsonian translocation, t(13;14) was found in one patient (3.1). In contrast, in the oligospermia group the most frequent abnormalities were autosomal (10%), of which 6.9% were translocations. Sex chromosomal abnormalities were found very rarely (1.7%). Incidence of chromosomal variants was high (38%), but similar in all groups. The most frequently observed polymorphisms involved chromosome 9. In conclusion, chromosomal abnormalities found with a high frequency in infertile males are a major cause of male infertility, and justify the requirement of cytogenetic analysis in every infertile man.
A cooperative rescue framework by using wireless sensor and actor networks

Recently, considerable research has been reported on the design of rescue framework, but mostly relies on teleoperated robots, or teams of wireless robots. This paper presents a cooperative rescue framework by using wireless sensor and actor networks (WSANs), where the objective of actors is to reach the event area with the aid of sensors. When an emergency event is detected, the sensor nodes will transmit an event report to inform the actors. Considered the actor mobility and duty cycle of sensor nodes, the data forwarding process from sensor nodes to mobile actors is described as an agent-based search. Then an improved ballooning strategy is proposed to control the search process. After actors receive the event report, a potential-based controller is proposed to make the actors reach the event area while avoiding collision between actors. Finally, simulation results are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Low Range of Ankle Dorsiflexion Predisposes for Patellar Tendinopathy in Junior Elite Basketball Players

Background: Patellar tendinopathy (PT) is one of the most common reasons for sport-induced pain of the knee. Low ankle dorsiflexion range might predispose for PT because of load-bearing compensation in the patellar tendon. Purpose: The purpose of this 1-year prospective study was to analyze if a low ankle dorsiflexion range increases the risk of developing PT for basketball players. Study Design: Cohort study (prognosis); Level of evidence, 2. Methods: Ninety junior elite basketball players were examined for different characteristics and potential risk factors for PT, including ankle dorsiflexion range in the dominant and nondominant leg. Data were collected over a 1-year period and follow-up, including reexamination, was made at the end of the year. Results: Seventy-five players met the inclusion criteria. At the follow-up, 12 players (16.0%) had developed unilateral PT. These players were found to have had a significantly lower mean ankle dorsiflexion range at baseline than the healthy players, with a mean difference of −4.7° (P = .038) for the dominant limb and −5.1° (P = .024) for the nondominant limb. Complementary statistical analysis showed that players with dorsiflexion range less than 36.5° had a risk of 18.5% to 29.4% of developing PT within a year, as compared with 1.8% to 2.1% for players with dorsiflexion range greater than 36.5°. Limbs with a history of 2 or more ankle sprains had a slightly less mean ankle dorsiflexion range compared to those with 0 or 1 sprain (mean difference, −1.5° to −2.5°), although this was only statistically significant for nondominant legs. Conclusion: This study clearly shows that low ankle dorsiflexion range is a risk factor for developing PT in basketball players. In the studied material, an ankle dorsiflexion range of 36.5° was found to be the most appropriate cutoff point for prognostic screening. This might be useful information in identifying at-risk individuals in basketball teams and enabling preventive actions. A history of ankle sprains might contribute to reduced ankle dorsiflexion range.
Brain Morphology in Autism and Fragile X Syndrome Correlates With Social IQ: First Report From the Canadian-Swiss-Egyptian Neurodevelopmental Study

Fragile X syndrome shares most of the behavioral phenotypic similarities with autism. How are these similarities reflected in brain morphology? A total of 10 children with autism and 7 with fragile X underwent morphological (T1) 1.5-T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The authors found no significant difference in total brain volumes, regional volumes, gyrification index, sulcul depth, and cerebral cortical thickness. However, children with autism showed significant decrease in the medial prefrontal bilaterally and the left anterior cingulate cortices. Regression analysis revealed positive correlation between the medial prefrontal cortical thickness and the social IQ. The authors suggest that the difference between the 2 groups in the medial prefrontal and anterior cingulate cortices thickness may entail an altered social cognitive style. Functional MRI studies directly differentiating between social indifference (autism) and social avoidance (fragile X) are needed to further characterize the spectrum of social abnormalities between these 2 groups.
A systematic review of the main mechanisms of heart failure disease management interventions

Objective To identify the main mechanisms of heart failure (HF) disease management programmes based in hospitals, homes or the community. Methods Systematic review of qualitative and quantitative studies using realist synthesis. The search strategy incorporated general and specific terms relevant to the research question: HF, self-care and programmes/interventions for HF patients. To be included, papers had to be published in English after 1995 (due to changes in HF care over recent years) to May 2014 and contain specific data related to mechanisms of effect of HF programmes. 10 databases were searched; grey literature was located via Proquest Dissertations and Theses, Google and publications from organisations focused on HF or self-care. Results 33 studies (n=3355 participants, mean age: 65 years, 35% women) were identified (18 randomised controlled trials, three mixed methods studies, six pre-test post-test studies and six qualitative studies). The main mechanisms identified in the studies were associated with increased patient understanding of HF and its links to self-care, greater involvement of other people in this self-care, increased psychosocial well-being and support from health professionals to use technology. Conclusion Future HF disease management programmes should seek to harness the main mechanisms through which programmes actually work to improve HF self-care and outcomes, rather than simply replicating components from other programmes. The most promising mechanisms to harness are associated with increased patient understanding and self-efficacy, involvement of other caregivers and health professionals and improving psychosocial well-being and technology use.
Central projections of gustatory nerves in the rat

The central distributions of gustatory and nongustatory branches of cranial nerves V, VII, IX, and X were examined after application of horseradish peroxidase to the cut nerve. The nerves conveying gustatory information, chorda tympani (CT), greater superficial petrosal (GSP), lingualtonsilar branch of IX (LT‐IX), superior laryngeal branch of X (SL), distributed primarily to the lateral division of the nucleus of the solitary tract (NST) from its rostral pole to the obex. The CT and GSP distributions were coextensive and terminated most densely in the rostral pole of NST. The LT‐IX distribution concentrated between this major CT/GSP distribution and the area postrema with a caudal extension into the interstitial nucleus of NST. This nerve also had a substantial projection, not found in other gustatory nerves, into the dorsolateral aspect of the medial NST. The SL distribution overlapped LT‐IX in the caudal medulla. The lingual and inferior alveolar nerves, two oral trigeminal branches, projected to regions of NST innervated by the gustatory nerves. The cervical vagus nerve distributed primarily to the medial NST in the caudal half of the nucleus and exhibited only minimal overlap with gustatory nerve distributions. The nucleus of the solitary tract appears to have two major functional divisions–an anterior‐lateral oral‐gustatory half, and a posterior‐medial visceral afferent half.
Selección de unidades léxicas para reconocimiento automático del habla continua en euskera

Basque is an agglutinative language, which implies that corpusvocabulary can not be defined with words, because they growcombinationally making medium and large vocabulary tasks intractable. Pseudo-morphemes, generated with an automatic segmentation tool, could be an alternative choice for building the lexicon and the language model, for they notably reduce the vocabulary size. In Basque, there are many short and acoustically very similar morphemes. This phenomenon has to be taken into account, because the acoustic-phonetic decodification proccess can influence the CSR task, increasing the possibility of confussion and insertion of certain lexical units (very short units with high rates of acoustic confussion). A feasible way to deal with this problem is to avoid the segmentation of those units. The next step to improve the CSR system in Basque is the use of a language model in order to guide the recognition proccess.
Three-dimensional structure of large-pore mesoporous cubic Ia3d silica with complementary pores and its carbon replica by electron crystallography.

Large-pore three-dimensional (3D) mesoporous silicas are among the most interesting mesoporous materials discovered in recent years, and they have attracted much attention for potential applications requiring easily accessible, uniform, large pores. Examples of these are SBA-15 (p6mm) and SBA16 (Im3̄m), which have cylindricaland cage-type structures, respectively. It has been reported that hexagonally ordered large-pore mesoporous SBA-15 silica made by using a block copolymer contains complementary pores, while such pores were not found in MCM-41 with the same 2D hexagonal p6mm symmetry. These complementary pores are arranged in a disordered way between the hexagonally ordered largepore channels. Recently, large-pore mesoporous silicas with a cubic Ia3̄d structure were synthesized by using triblock copolymers as structure-directing agent under various synthesis conditions. The mesoporous silica with a bicontinuous cubic structure of Ia3̄d symmetry is composed of an enantiomeric pair of 3D mesoporous networks that are interwoven, as observed in the MCM-48 structure. The structures of these highly ordered mesoporous materials can hardly be determined from powder XRD patterns alone, because the few reflections that are observed at low scattering angles are especially broad and overlap. Electron microscopy is the main tool for characterization of such structures. The advantage over XRD is the stronger interaction of electrons with matter, which enables us to obtain structural information from a single crystal with only a few hundred unit cells. In electron crystallography (EC) the phases and amplitudes of the structure factors are obtained by Fourier transformation of high-resolution TEM (HRTEM) images. By calculating the inverse Fourier transform of the structure factors, a 3D electrostatic potential distribution of the structure can be obtained. This is another advantage compared to traditional single-crystal XRD. Based on the 3D electrostatic potential distribution of the structure, direct information on the detailed structures inside the mesoporous crystals such as diameter, shape, and connectivity of the pores can be obtained. Herein we report on the structure of the large-pore mesoporous silica with cubic Ia3̄d symmetry after removal of the surfactant by calcination and, in particular, on its ordered complementary pores between two independent channel systems, determined by using EC methods. Furthermore, the structure of its carbon replica, made by using this large-pore mesoporous silica as a hard template and then removing the template, is reported. Figure 1 shows HRTEM images of mesoporous silica with Ia3̄d symmetry taken with the incident beam parallel to the