Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
"Comparative Studies on the Susceptible and Non-Susceptible Biomphalaria alexandrina the Intermediate Snail Host of Schistosoma mansoni in Western Saudi Arabia"

Schistosomiasis is an important parasitic disease that infects humans. Among the main species of schistosomes infecting humans is Schistosoma mansoni and S. haematobium. Snails of various genera, such as Biomphalaria alexandrina and Bulinus truncates, act as intermediate hosts and play a major role in the transmission of schistosomes. Transmission from human to snail is under the influence of the ciliated miracidium larvae that hatch from the eggs of the parasite voided in the faeces or urine. After a period of asexual multiplication in the snail, a second aquatic larval stage, the cercaria, emerges and infects human by direct penetration of the skin. The present work was carried out on Biomphalaria alexandrina snails, the intermediate host of Schistosoma mansoni. Snails were collected from various sites in south western Saudi Arabia. Their progeny were reared in the laboratory under standard conditions. Different biological experiments were carried out to determine the susceptibility level in the various populations of snail. The miracidia were obtained by isolating viable ova of the hatching parasite from faeces of infected individuals (human and mice). Different sets of regulated experimental infection of snails with the miracidia of Schistosoma mansoni were preformed. The effect of miracidial density, water temperature, miracidial age, size of snails, as well as light and darkness were investigated. The study revealed that the infection rate increased as the number of miracidia used increased (1, 60%; 2, 60%; 3, 70%; 5, 80%; 15, 90%; and 20, 90%). No significant increase of infection rate was achieved at higher water temperatures (at 15°C: 65% with newly hatched miracidia; 75%, with 15 minutes miracidia; 85% with 30 minutes miracidia; 95% with 45 minutes miracidia and 100% with 60 minutes miracidia. At 20°C: 75% with newly hatched miracidia; 80%, with 15 minutes miracidia; 90%, with 30 minutes miracidia; 95% with 45 minutes miracidia and 100% with 60 minutes miracidia). Similar results were obtained at 25°C and 30°C. However, the infection rate decreased in relation to snail size increase. At snail size 2-4 mm the infection rate was 90%, the rate decreased to 85% at 4-6 mm and 6-8 mm size, while at 8-10 mm size the rate was 80%. At 10-12 mm and 13-15 mm size the rate dropped to 75%. Light and dark conditions had a significant difference on the infection rate (40% in darkness and 90% in light). Laboratory observations also indicated that some of the snails exposed to infection with miracidia of the respective parasite developed infection and produced cercariae, while the rest remained uninfected.
Summarizing and Visualizing Web People Search Results

People search is one major search activity on the Web. If the list of people search results is merely “person 1, person 2, . and so on,” users have difficulty determining which person clusters they should select. In this paper, we present a project that summarizes and visualizes Web people search results to help users select person clusters more easily. We explore three ways of summarizing people: (a) selecting terms from the extracted information, (b) combining the extracted information, and (c) obtaining information from external databases referring to the extracted information. To visualize people, we present three types of interfaces: (a) tables, (b) two-dimensional space, and (c) map interfaces. We report the two results of the project. (1) We investigated algorithms for distinguishing individuals with identical names and three ways of summarizing people: extracting keywords, prefectures and vocations; combining vocation-related information; and obtaining locations. (2) We developed prototypes to display separated individuals by three types of interfaces.
Natural and unnatural answers to evolutionary questions.

Although Sol Spiegelman, Manfred Eigen, and other pioneers (2, 3) initiated the study of directed molecular evolution using Qβ bacteriophage, in recent years such experiments have become much more powerful due to the advent of facile methods for DNA synthesis and nucleic acid amplification. Now, functional nucleic acid binding species (aptamers) and catalysts can be …
Infusion of angiotensin II reduces loss of glomerular capillary area in the early phase of anti-Thy-1.1 nephritis possibly via regulating angiogenesis-associated factors.

BACKGROUND Although angiotensin II (Ang II) is involved in the progression of renal diseases, infusion of Ang II was reported to surprisingly ameliorate the early phase of anti-Thy-1.1 nephritis. Considering the known proangiogenic effect of Ang II and that angiogenic glomerular capillary repair is required for the recovery of damaged glomeruli in rat anti-Thy-1.1 nephritis, we hypothesized that Ang II infusion starting prior to the initiation of nephritis may induce the expression of angiogenic growth factors such as vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and angiopoietin-1 (Ang-1), resulting in the increased glomerular capillary area in the early phase. METHODS Ang II was infused (170 ng/min) in rats, and 5 days later, nephritis was induced by the administration of monoclonal 1-22-3 antibodies. Ang II type 1 or type 2 receptor antagonist (AT(1)R or AT(2)R, respectively) (losartan or PD123319, respectively) was coadministered. RESULTS Ang II infusion affected on neither the deposition of Ig nor mesangiolysis in the initial phase, and resulted in the aggravation of creatinine clearance at day 14 and 35 after initiating anti-Thy-1.1 nephritis. Histologic alterations were ameliorated accompanied by reduced loss in rat endothelial cell antigen (RECA)-1(+) endothelial area in Ang II-infused nephritic rats on day 6 and 14 as compared to control nephritic group, and nephritic alterations were mostly resolved on day 35 in both groups. At the early stage (day 6), glomerular expression of VEGF and receptors flk-1 and flt-1 as well as Ang-1, and receptor Tie2 were increased, and glomerular monocyte infiltration and the expression of angiopoietin-2 (Ang-2), a natural antagonist of Ang-1, were reduced. Both Ang II receptors were involved in the regulation of angiogenic factors and receptors. CONCLUSION These results demonstrate that infusion of exogenous Ang II starting prior to the induction of nephritis activates VEGF and Ang-1 signaling regulated via both Ang II receptors, potentially leading to the accelerated recovery of injured glomerular endothelial cells in the early phase of anti-Thy-1.1 nephritis. Increased expression of VEGF and Ang-1 on podocytes further suggests the crucial association of endothelial cells and podocytes in maintaining proper glomerular capillary structures.
Gross Job Flows and Firms

This paper extends the work of Dunne, Roberts, and Samuelson (3) and Davis, Haltiwanger, and Schuh (2) on gross job flows among manufacturing plants. Gross job creation, destruction, and reallocation have been shown to be important in understanding the birth, growth, and death of plants, and the relation of plant life cycles to the business cycle. However, little is known about job flows between firms or how job flows among plants occur within firms (corporate restructuring). We use information on company organization from the Longitudinal Research database (LRD) to investigate the relationship between plant-level and firm-level job flows. We document: (1) the fraction of plant-level gross job flows occurring between firms; and (2) gross job flows by the extent of excess job reallocation occurring in firms.
Dynamic resource allocation using combinatorial methods in Cloud: A case study

Utilizing dynamic resource allocation for load balancing is considered as an important optimization process of task scheduling in cloud computing. A poor scheduling policy may overload certain virtual machines while remaining virtual machines are idle. Accordingly, this paper proposes a hybrid load balancing algorithm with combination of Teaching-Learning-Based Optimization (TLBO) and Grey Wolves Optimization algorithms, which can well contribute in maximizing the throughput using well balanced load across virtual machines and overcome the problem of trap into local optimum. The hybrid algorithm is benchmarked on eleven test functions and a comparative study is conducted to verify the results with particle swarm optimization (PSO), Biogeography-based optimization (BBO), and GWO. To evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm for load balancing, the hybrid algorithm is simulated and the experimental results are presented.
Value creation: an internal customers’ perspective

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand and deliver the needs and wants of external customers. This being the case, we know quite a lot about one perspective of the value co-creation process (i.e. external customers’ perception) but very little about other stakeholder perspectives, in particular, internal customers’ perspectives of the value co-creation process. Design/methodology/approach – This paper draws on the works of Edvardsson et al. (2011), Giddens (1984), Sweeney and Soutar (200), Helkkula et al. (2012), Herzberg et al. (1959) and Wolf (1970) to build a conceptual model of value creation developed specifically from the internal customer’s perspective. Findings – The resultant conceptual model (shown in Figure 1) provides insight into the socio-structural and social exchange elements of the firm that provide the stimuli to value creation, which in the first instance, gratify (or not) the needs of internal customers and, secondly, influence the multi-dimensional value perceptions of i.
Socially responsible investment (SRI), responsible property investment (RPI) and urban regeneration in the UK and Europe:partnership models and social impact assessment

This discussion paper examines the evolution of the concepts of Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) (or Responsible Investment (RI)) and Responsible Property Investment (RPI) and compares their meanings with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) (or Corporate Responsibility (CR)) and Corporate Governance (CG) within the context of the wider sustainability agenda. The increasing emphasis of financial institutions and private sector real estate developers to focus on urban regeneration projects in the UK and Europe is examined in the context of (1) the growth of public and private partnership arrangements (PPPs), one of a range of joint venture and partnership vehicles which have emerged, and (2) real estate asset allocation by financial institutions as part of a diversified investment portfolio. The development of these PPP arrangements is discussed, in terms of models emerging the UK and Europe which have been developed to underpin urban regeneration partnerships. The problems and issues surrounding the measurement of social impacts arising from institutional investment, bank lending and property-based projects (including urban regeneration) are discussed in the context of SRI and RPI. Relevant experience from the USA is also reviewed in this respect. The paper concludes by drawing out the lessons learned from ‘best practice’ measurement within CSR/SRI/RPI and within real estate-based projects (including regeneration), drawing on PPP-based vehicles in terms of delivery and social impact assessment in the UK and Europe, highlighting the need for further research in the field, and developing a conceptual model for this work.
The role of cloud computing in content-centric mobile networking

Due to the ever growing popularity of smart handheld devices, the demand for multimedia services has had an upsurge in mobile networks over the past several years, and traditional mobile networking is turning into a content-centric mobile networking (CCMN). To maintain high quality of service for multimedia services, especially video services, caching is regarded as one of the most effective techniques. In this article, we first examine the limitations of caching techniques in conventional CCMN, including the core network and RAN. Then, by leveraging cloud computing into both core network and RAN caching, a cloud CCMN architecture is discussed, which overcomes the limitations of conventional CCMN architecture. Specifically, we elaborate on a cloud content delivery network in the core network and cloud RAN with caching as a service on the RAN side. Furthermore, we review the main problems that have been studied under cloud CCMN architecture. Recent results show that cloud CCMN is a promising architecture to serve the foreseen multimedia traffic. Lastly, we conclude this article by presenting some open challenges in cloud CCMN.
Automated Robotic Manipulation of Individual Colloidal Particles Using Vision-Based Control

Automated manipulation of micro- and nanosized objects using robotic setups constitutes a major challenge due to the force-scaling laws and the limited control possibilities on that scale. This paper presents a new developed approach for automated manipulation of individual colloidal particles using a dedicated dual-probe setup inside a scanning electron microscope. Based on tailored probe geometries, the setup allows for reliable pick-up and release sequences of individual particles. Applying image processing of the visual feedback provided by the microscope enables for direct and fast control of the complex manipulation routines and thus allows for fully automated alignment sequences. Experimental results reveal a high repeatability of the process with hitherto unrivaled precision. The advantages and limits of this technique are highlighted with respect to further application scenarios.
Modeling of High-k Gate Stack of Tunnel Barrier in Nonvolatile Memory MOS Structures

We studied effects of nitrogen incorporation in high-k stack gate structures on the program/erase current and retention current for performance improvement of nanoscale nonvolatile memory devices, using a numerical model based on solutions to the Schrodinger-Poisson equations. In particular, comparisons are made for gate current behavior with different tunnel barrier stacks and materials. The changes of the barrier height and dielectric constant in the high-k dielectric stacks enable us to obtain favorable program/erase current and retention current to satisfy the requirements for nonvolatile memory devices. We found that a suitable range of the nitrogen content will enable both the basic requirements for programming and data retention to be satisfied.
On Regulation, Supervision, (De)Leveraging and Banking Competition: Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger?

This paper examines international differences in banks’ capital structure adjustments across a large panel of 94 countries over the period 1993 to 2007. A bank's ability to adjust its capital ratio is influenced by corporate governance, public policy, market structure, and bank regulatory characteristics of the countries. In institutional environments with higher adjustment costs, due to the weaker governance and stricter regulation, the adjustment is significantly slower. Banks are able to make faster capital structure adjustments in countries that practice stronger private and supervisory monitoring and have more competitive banking systems. Identifying the drivers of banks’ adjustment speed towards target capital ratios contributes to our understanding of which settings influence (i) the pro-cyclicality of capital regulation and (ii) the strength of macro-financial feedback loops.
Prevalence and Management of Acute Pain in Prehospital Emergency Medicine

Abstract Background. Less is known about the prevalence of pain in prehospital emergency medicine than about pain in the emergency department. Objectives. To estimate the prehospital prevalence of pain and to identify the factors associated with oligoanalgesia. Methods. The mobile intensive care units of the emergency services of a Paris suburb conducted this prospective study. All consecutive patients aged 16 years or older who were able to self-assess pain were included around the clock over a period of 11 months in 2007. Results. Among the 2,279 included patients, 947 had acute pain (42% [95% confidence interval (CI) 40–44]). Pain was intense to severe in 64% of patients. Factors associated with acute pain were trauma (odds ratio [OR] = 2.9 [1.9–4.3]) and age under 75 years (OR = 2.2 [1.7–2.8]). Intense pain was significantly associated with pain of cardiac or traumatic origin. Among the 1,364 patients transported by the mobile units, 48% experienced acute pain (71% had intense to severe pain). An analgesic agent was administered to 73%. According to multivariate analysis, only gynecologic/obstetric emergencies were associated with inadequate treatment (OR = 0.2 [95% CI 0.1–0.6]). Overall, 51% of patients [46–56] experienced pain relief. The rate of pain relief was lowest in patients suffering from trauma or a gynecologic/obstetric disorder. Conclusion. In our studied population, pain in prehospital emergency medicine affects 42% of patients. However, the rate varies widely according to the origin of the pain. Pain management is inadequate, as only one in two patients experiences relief.
Wideband balanced filter using T-shaped multi-mode resonators

A novel high selectivity wideband balanced filter using T-shaped multi-mode resonators is proposed in this paper. Two transmission zeros near the passband for the differential mode can be easily achieved for the balanced filter. In addition, the common mode can be suppressed with three transmission zeros with insertion loss greater than 15 dB over a wide frequency band. A prototype with 3-dB fractional bandwidth of 67.6% for the differential mode with insertion loss greater than 15 dB (7.0-12.7 GHz) is designed and fabricated. Good agreement can be observed between measured results and theoretical expectations.
Critical Review on the Significance of Olive Phytochemicals in Plant Physiology and Human Health

Olive oil displays remarkable organoleptic and nutritional features, which turn it into a foodstuff appreciated by consumers, and a basic component of the Mediterranean diet. Indeed, the noticed benefits of including olive oil in the diet have been assigned to the presence of diverse bioactive compounds with different molecular structures. These compounds confer a wide range of biological properties to this food matrix, including the prevention of distinct human diseases as well as the modulation of their severity. The most relevant bioactive compounds present in olive oil correspond to benzoic and cinnamic acids, phenolic alcohols and secoiridoids, and also flavonoids. Over the last decades, several studies, devoted to gaining a further insight into the relative contribution of the separate groups and individual compounds for their biological activities, have been conducted, providing relevant information on structure–activity relationships. Therefore, this paper critically reviews the health benefits evidenced by distinct phenolic compounds found in olive oils, thus contributing to clarify the relationship between their chemical structures and biological functions, further supporting their interest as essential ingredients of wholesome foods.
Does Consideration of the Ratio 'Efficiency of Adjusted Working Capital' Improve the Content of Financial Analyses with Regard to Forecasting Future Corporate Profitability?

The connection between the ratio 'efficiency of adjusted working capital' and the prognosis of future profitability is investigated on the basis of 4351 annual financial statements of corporate clients of the German savings bank Kreissparkasse Augsburg during the period 2004-2007. The results of the study indicate that consideration of the new ratio 'efficiency of adjusted working capital' improves the content of financial analyses with regard to the prognosis of future corporate profitability in comparison with most of the ratios considered up until now. Apart from this, for the period covered by the study, no correlation was found between corporate profitability and the ratio 'efficiency of adjusted working capital. '
The Interplay Between the Thai And Several Other International Stock Markets

The paper analyses the effect of various international stock market price indices and some relevant macroeconomic variables on the Thai stock market price index, using a GARCH-M model and monthly data from January 1988 to December 2004. It is found, inter alia, that (a) changes in stock market returns in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia in the pre-1997 Asian crisis, and changes in Singapore, the Philippines and Korea in the post-1997 era instantaneously influenced returns in the Thai stock market; (b) changes in the price of crude oil negatively impacted on the Thai stock market only in the pre-Asian crisis period; (c) volatility clustering (i.e. ARCH and GARCH effects) as well as a GARCH-M model were statistically significant only in the pre-1997 era; and (d) stock markets outside the region had no significant immediate impact on monthly aggregate returns in the Thai stock market.
The Ethics of the Promise in the Service Marketing Triangle and its Effect on Value and Customer Intentions for Education Services

This research attempts to reveal the role of ethics in the concept of the promise (making, enabling and keeping promises), and its impact on the value and intentions of educational service customers. Using qualitative and field survey research approaches for selected MBA programs in five cities in Indonesia, the results of the study show that the ethical aspect has a significant role in making, developing, and keeping promises, as it influences the attainment of the customer values for education service institutions. Such value would act as the antecedent for the behavioral intentions of education service customers and be indicated by positive word of mouth. The implication of the research is directed to institutional strategy development in applying the Service Marketing Triangle concept, specifically in managing the MBA Programs.
Double-resonant Raman scattering in graphite: Interference effects, selection rules, and phonon dispersion

We present a comprehensive analysis of double-resonant Raman scattering in graphite and derive an analytical expression for the Raman cross section of the D mode in one dimension. The extension to two dimensions does not change the double-resonant phonon wave vectors. In the full integration of the Raman cross section, the contributions by phonons from exactly the K point cancel due to destructive interference. We calculate the D mode explicitly based on recent experimental data of the graphite phonon dispersion. Applying the selection rules, a mapping of additional disorder-induced and second-order Raman modes onto the Brillouin zone of graphite is obtained. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.70. 155403
Different Strokes for Different Folks: The Evolution of the Distribution of Traits within Heterogeneous Populations

Most population models assume that individuals within a given population are identical, that is, they ignore the fundamental role of variation. By understanding the dynamics within heterogeneous populations, we can more accurately predict population growth and composition. Using computational and analytical techniques, we consider Malthus, logistic and Allee growth models with several different initial parameter distributions. Our results highlight the importance of local dynamics on genetic diversity and, consequently, the role of natural selection on the evolution of traits.
Risk Management, Derivatives, and Financial Analysis under SFAS No. 133

Managing a firm has always involved managing risks, but in this high–tech information age, managing risk frequently involves establishing derivative positions. In this Research Foundation monograph, Gastineau, Smith, and Todd begin by providing an overview of the elements of risk management and then delve into the specifics of derivative and hedging activity under SFAS No. 133. They conclude by coming full circle and discussing the implications for financial analysts of a firm's risk management practices and its derivative and hedging activity.