Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Metal on Metal Bearings in Hip Arthroplasty

Periprosthetic osteolysis caused by wear debris released from the bearing surface of polyethylene components is the major problem in contemporary hip arthroplasty. Several types of metal on metal prostheses were developed in the 1960s, but by the mid 1970s they were completely displaced by polyethylene bearings. There have been several generations of all metal components with significant variation in design, tolerances, and bearing surface quality. A number of these hips have survived for more than 25 years because of low wear rates and minimal osteolysis. Identification of the characteristics that contributed to long term function is important. The historical development and clinical results of metal on metal hip arthroplasties are presented. Factors that led to the abandonment of the metal on metal bearings are related to: (1) the early success of the Charnley prosthesis; (2) the frictional torque issue; (3) carcinogenesis concerns; (4) metal sensitivity concerns; (5) high infection rates; and (6) increased strain rates in periprosthetic bone and fatigue fractures of the acetabular floor. The accumulated experience to date enables one to evaluate all the factors with a different perspective and makes the use of newer metal on metal bearings a viable option in younger patients.
Eotaxin and CCR3 are up‐regulated in exacerbations of chronic bronchitis

Background: Eosinophils and T lymphocytes represent constant features in the airways of subjects with exacerbated chronic bronchitis. Eotaxin is the most potent and selective eosinophil chemoattractant which can also attracts lymphocytes. The aim of the study was to evaluate the expression of eotaxin and its receptor, CCR3, in bronchial airways during exacerbation of chronic bronchitis.
Does Corporate Governance Matter? Evidence from Accounting Conservatism Practices among Jordanian Listed Companies

The problem in accounting conservatism practice has been the focus of everyone. In our view, it was attributed amongst other factors to the weak of corporate governance practices. Such study develops an empirical model on the association between some mechanisms of corporate governance and accounting conservatism in terms of foreign ownership, board independence, board size and audit committee, through choosing Jordanian listed companies as research sample. The data were collected through using the annual reports of 113 Jordanian companies for year 2011. Four hypotheses were developed in this study. Upon using the multiple regression analysis, three of them were significant while one was not. This study concludes that there is a positive and significant association between each of foreign ownership, board independence and audit committee and accounting conservatism. While a negative and insignificant relationship between board size and conservatism. In addition, this study opens up opportunities and provides avenues for more in-depth research related to the accounting conservatism.
Energy Aware Congestion Control Mechanism toward Improving Performance in MANET

A Mobile ad-hoc Network (MANETs) is an infrastructure less network consist of mobile nodes which communicate with each other. MANETs have dynamic topology, limited bandwidth and limited power of mobile nodes. Routing is the challenging task in MANETs due to its characteristics. As wireless network grows in size, complexity and demand, effective load balancing becomes the crucial part of MANET routing protocols. For the sustained network functionality, load balancing mechanism need to compute energy aware paths with lesser load. In this paper, we have devised an alternative approach to select the primary path using any multipath algorithm on the basis of energy, load and delay parameters. Proposed approach is integrated in AOMDV protocol for simulation. Comparison is done between I-AOMDV and original AOMDV. Simulation results shows that I-AOMDV improves the overall performance of the network.
Similarity invariant partial shape matching using coarse-to-fine strategy

Abstract. The matching between an open contour and a closed contour is a basis for the alignment of their common part and a similarity measure. We propose a coarse-to-fine method for partial shape matching, which does not need to scan the target shape, construct a codebook of model contour fragments, or depend on background support domains. For this purpose, a linearization algorithm for partial shapes is introduced to extract the initial shape segments from the closed contour those possibly match with the open contour. The next refining procedure of the coarse matching eliminates significantly dissimilar shape segments to reduce the further processing of fine matching. We propose a shape similarity description to finely describe the similarity between the open contour and the remaining shape segments. Finally, an order-preserving point injection between the open contour and the closed contour is established. Valuations of the proposed method on a benchmark dataset and real images demonstrate that the overall and component performances are excellent and robust to various disturbances and similarity transformations. Last, a gesture recognition application is implemented.
PDR-type ABC transporter mediates cellular uptake of the phytohormone abscisic acid

Abscisic acid (ABA) is a ubiquitous phytohormone involved in many developmental processes and stress responses of plants. ABA moves within the plant, and intracellular receptors for ABA have been recently identified; however, no ABA transporter has been described to date. Here, we report the identification of the ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporter Arabidopsis thaliana Pleiotropic drug resistance transporter PDR12 (AtPDR12)/ABCG40 as a plasma membrane ABA uptake transporter. Uptake of ABA into yeast and BY2 cells expressing AtABCG40 was increased, whereas ABA uptake into protoplasts of atabcg40 plants was decreased compared with control cells. In response to exogenous ABA, the up-regulation of ABA responsive genes was strongly delayed in atabcg40 plants, indicating that ABCG40 is necessary for timely responses to ABA. Stomata of loss-of-function atabcg40 mutants closed more slowly in response to ABA, resulting in reduced drought tolerance. Our results integrate ABA-dependent signaling and transport processes and open another avenue for the engineering of drought-tolerant plants.
Modeling and control of DFIG based wind turbine/storage system in islanded operation

Nowadays, many economic and environmental benefits derived from distributed generation (DG) enable DG to play an increasingly important role in distribution networks satisfying the expanding power demand. Doubly-fed induction generator (DFIG) based wind turbine has been widely used for DG due to its many advantages such as high efficiency, fine controllability and improved power quantity. In the situation of losing main grid supply, DG unit will suffer a severe loading mismatch compared with load consumption. Consequently, the voltage and frequency of the islanded system will exceed the allowable limitation. In this paper, the islanded behavior of DFIG based wind turbine/storage system is studied and the modeling and novel control strategies of this system are proposed. At last, the effectiveness of the proposed control strategies is demonstrated through MATLAB simulation.
Vaccine development for Tuberculosis: Past, Present and Future Challenges

About one third of the world's population is infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tb), and new infections occur at a rate of about one per second. Additionally, more people in the developed world contact tuberculosis (TB) because their immune systems are more likely to be compromised due to higher exposure to immunosuppressive drugs, substance abuse, or AIDS. The distribution of tuberculosis is not uniform across the globe, still the treatment is difficult and requires long courses of multiple antibiotics. However, antibiotic resistance is a growing problem in multidrugresistant (MDR) tuberculosis. But mostly the prevention relies on screening programs and vaccination, usually with Bacillus Calmette- Guerin (BCG) vaccine. BCG is the most commonly used vaccine worldwide, but not as a powerful vaccine. BCG also provides some protection against severe forms of pediatric TB, but has been shown to be unreliable against adult pulmonary TB which accounts for most of the disease burden worldwide. Currently, there is an urgent need for novel, more effective vaccine that can prevent all forms of TB including drug resistant strains for all age groups and among people with HIV. The first recombinant tuberculosis vaccine rBCG30, entered clinical trials in year 2004, but, still no effective vaccine is available in a market. Study showed that DNA TB vaccine given with conventional chemotherapy can accelerate the disappearance of bacteria as well as protect against re-infection in mice and it is quite effective against TB. A very promising TB vaccine, MVA85A, is currently in phase II trials and is based on a genetically modified vaccinia virus. Many other strategies are also being used to develop novel vaccines, including both subunit vaccines such as Hybrid-1, HyVac4 or M72, and recombinant adenoviruses such as Ad35. Some of these vaccines can be effectively administered without needles making them preferable for areas where HIV is very common and few of these vaccines have been successfully tested in humans and are now in extended testing in TB-endemic regions. To encourage further discovery, researchers and policymakers across the globe are promoting new economic models of vaccine development including prices, tax incentives and advance market commitments. This review gives the basic idea of various vaccine development approaches and its effective application in TB control.
Knowledge and health beliefs of Jamaican adolescents with sickle cell disease

The adolescent stage of life is generally perceived to be a challenging period, which may be magnified when a chronic illness such as sickle cell disease (SCD) is present. In this study, we sought to determine the knowledge and health beliefs of Jamaican adolescents with SCD as these factors may impact their self‐management skills.
Large-scale antenna system with massive one-bit integrated energy and information receivers

This paper proposes a new large-scale antenna system (LSAS) where the base station (BS) is equipped with several classical radio-frequency (RF) chains but massive one-bit integrated information and energy receivers (Rxs). Multiple users with multiple antennas are served simultaneously. This new LSAS is much more energy efficient than massive MIMO because it requires much less classical power-hungry RF chains, and its massive integrated Rxs can harvest new energy. For the uplink multiuser detection (MUD), we develop a practical generalized approximate message passing detector (GAMPD), which exploits the signal prior probability distribution, and the hybrid BS measurements (full ones with both amplitudes and phases from the classical Rxs, and the one-bit amplitude measurements from the integrated Rxs) in a Bayesian manner. GAMPD involves matrix-vector multiplications, small-scale matrix inversions, and parallelized nonlinear operations, so it is suitable for hardware implementation. Our numerical results indicate that the proposed LSAS retains the advantages of massive MIMO, and can even perform similarly as the latter after introducing sufficient number of integrated Rxs.
Adaptive Weighted Improved Discrete Particle Swarm Optimization for Minimizing Load Balancing Index in Radial Distribution Network

In this paper a metaheuristic based newfangled adaptive weighted improved discrete particle swarm optimization (AWIDPSO) algorithm is applied to minimize the load balancing index in radial distribution network reconfiguration (RDNR) problem. It is devised as extremely nonlinear and multimodal optimization problem under practical constraints. In order to improve the solution quality the constraint violations are augmented with objective function. Further, adaptively varying inertia weight increases the possible solution in the global search space and the proposed algorithm has obtained the optimal solution within lesser executing time. In this study, 33-bus system is analyzed for optimal network reconfiguration using the developed framework. Comparison of the simulated results with the results of well known prudent optimization technique confirms the applicability of the AWIDPSO algorithm for RDNR problem.
Thermal Boundary Resistance Between GaN and Substrate in AlGaN/GaN Electronic Devices

The influence of a thermal boundary resistance (TBR) on temperature distribution in ungated AlGaN/GaN field-effect devices was investigated using 3-D micro-Raman thermography. The temperature distribution in operating AlGaN/GaN devices on SiC, sapphire, and Si substrates was used to determine values for the TBR by comparing experimental results to finite-difference thermal simulations. While the measured TBR of about 3.3 x 10<sup>-8</sup> W<sup>-1</sup> ldr m<sup>2</sup> ldr K for devices on SiC and Si substrates has a sizeable effect on the self-heating in devices, the TBR of up to 1.2 x 10<sup>-8</sup> W<sup>-1</sup> ldr m<sup>2</sup> ldr K plays an insignificant role in devices on sapphire substrates due to the low thermal conductivity of the substrate. The determined effective TBR was found to increase with temperature at the GaN/SiC interface from 3.3 x 10<sup>-8</sup> W<sup>-1</sup> ldr m<sup>2</sup> ldr K at 150degC to 6.5 x 3.3 x 10<sup>-8</sup> W<sup>-1</sup> ldr m<sup>2</sup> ldr K at 275degC, respectively. The contribution of a low-thermal-conductivity GaN layer at the GaN/substrate interface toward the effective TBR in devices and its temperature dependence are also discussed.
On the Independence Number of Random Interval Graphs

A random interval graph of order n is generated by picking 2n numbers X1,…,X2n independently from the uniform distribution on [0,1] and considering the collection of n intervals with endpoints X2i−1 and X2i for i ∈ {1,…,n}. The graph vertices correspond to intervals. Two vertices are connected if the corresponding intervals intersect. This paper characterizes the fluctuations of the independence number in random interval graphs. This characterization is obtained through the analysis of the greedy algorithm. We actually prove limit theorems (central limit theorem and large deviation principle) on the number of phases of this greedy algorithm. The proof relies on the analysis of first-passage times through a random level.
What is preventive software maintenance?

Approaches software maintenance from the service point of view. I particularly emphasize co-operation with the client. My definition of software maintenance is that software maintenance refers to all the actions that are needed to keep software in such a running order that it achieves all its objectives from the beginning until the end of its usage. The ideas I present are based on several software maintenance development projects that I have been involved in as a consultant. I answer the title question by describing 'preventive software maintenance' in connection with classification factors.
Performance Evaluation of End-to-End Congestion Control Protocols

Congestion control remains an important topic for today’s Internet protocols. Congestion is generally bad for net users, applications and network. Several mechanisms were proposed by researchers to improve congestion control. These mechanisms include TCP Tahoe, Reno, Vegas, SACK, and NewReno. In this paper, the current congestion control protocols are evaluated considering throughput, losses, delay, and fairness issues that provided by each mechanism. This study is done using the well known network simulator NS-2 and a realistic topology generator called GT-ITM
Levels of antioxidant defenses are decreased in bovine spermatozoa after a cycle of freezing and thawing

Growing evidence suggests that the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and their detoxification by antioxidants plays a very important role in fertility. However, the relationship between the level of antioxidants in spermatozoa and the decreased fecundity following a freeze/thaw cycle remains poorly understood. We assessed the activities of antioxidant enzymes such as catalase, glutathione peroxidase (GPx), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and levels of reduced/oxidized glutathione (GSH/GSSG) in bovine semen. Sperm cells were isolated using a Percoll gradient to avoid contamination from seminal plasma, cellular debris, and other cell types. We found that bovine spermatozoa are poorly adapted to metabolize the toxic hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). Indeed, very low levels of GPx and an absence of catalase were observed. We also studied the effect of freezing and thawing bovine spermatozoa in a egg yolk‐Tris‐glycerol extender (EYTG). Cryopreservation significantly reduced sperm GSH levels by 78% and SOD activity by 50%. We also investigated whether the decrease in GSH level could be linked to oxidative metabolism and found that a greater reduction in intracellular GSH level occurred when fresh sperm cells were incubated in EYTG for 6 hr at 38.5°C under aerobic conditions than when incubated under restricted oxygen availability. Our results strongly suggest the involvement of an oxidative stress during a freeze/thaw cycle and are consistent with the hypothesis that ROS generated during such a cycle are detrimental to sperm function. Mol. Reprod. Dev. 55:282–288, 2000. © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Dimer–monomer equilibrium of human thymidylate synthase monitored by fluorescence resonance energy transfer

An ad hoc bioconjugation/fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) assay has been designed to spectroscopically monitor the quaternary state of human thymidylate synthase dimeric protein. The approach enables the chemoselective engineering of allosteric residues while preserving the native protein functions through reversible masking of residues within the catalytic site, and is therefore suitable for activity/oligomerization dual assay screenings. It is applied to tag the two subunits of human thymidylate synthase at cysteines 43 and 43′ with an excitation energy donor/acceptor pair. The dimer–monomer equilibrium of the enzyme is then characterized through steady‐state fluorescence determination of the intersubunit resonance energy transfer efficiency.
Chimeras from a human rhinovirus 14-human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) V3 loop seroprevalence library induce neutralizing responses against HIV-1

A chimeric virus library was designed whereby sequences corresponding to the V3 loop of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) were presented on the surface of human rhinovirus 14. The V3 loop sequences consisted of a relatively conserved segment of seven amino acids and five adjacent residues that were allowed to vary in proportion to their seroprevalence among HIV-1 isolates of North America and Europe. A technique called random systematic mutagenesis was used to incorporate the composite V3 loop sequences flanked by zero to two randomized amino acids. This library could contain 2.7 x 10(8) members having diverse sequences and conformations. Immunoselection of a portion of this library by using two neutralizing V3 loop-directed monoclonal antibodies followed by selection for desirable growth and purification characteristics yielded a set of chimeric rhinoviruses, five of which are described. The inserted sequences in the five chimeras do not match those of any known isolate of HIV-1. Nonetheless, all five chimeras were neutralized by antibodies directed against different strains of HIV-1 and were able to elicit the production of antibodies that bind V3 loop peptides from diverse HIV-1 isolates. Moreover, antisera derived from four of the five chimeras were capable of neutralizing one or more strains of HIV-1 in cell culture. This study demonstrates that random systematic mutagenesis in conjunction with antibody screening is a powerful and efficient means to obtain antigenic chimeras with relevant immunogenic properties.
Overexpression and DNA-binding properties of the mer-encoded regulatory protein from plasmid NR1 (Tn21)

In plasmid NR1 the expression of genes involved in mercury resistance (Tn21) is regulated by the trans-acting product of the merR gene. An in vivo T7 RNA polymerase-promoter overexpression system was used to detect a protein of approximately 16,000 daltons encoded by the merR reading frame. Overexpressed MerR constituted about 5% of labeled proteins. An in vitro MerR-mer-op (mer-op is the mer operator and promoter region) gel electrophoresis binding assay established that the binding site for MerR was located between the putative -35 and -10 sequences of the promoter for the mer structural genes. A nonsense mutation in the carboxyl half of MerR resulted in the loss of biological function and the loss of in vitro mer-op binding properties.
Metal–Oxide–High-$k$ -Oxide–Silicon Memory Device Using a Ti-Doped $\hbox{Dy}_{2}\hbox{O}_{3}$  Charge-Trapping Layer and $\hbox{Al}_{2}\hbox{O}_{3}$  Blocking Layer

In this paper, we propose Al/SiO<sub>2</sub>/Dy<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub>/ SiO<sub>2</sub>/ Si, Al/SiO<sub>2</sub>/DyTi<sub>x</sub>O<sub>y</sub>/SiO<sub>2</sub>/Si, and Al/Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub>/DyTi<sub>x</sub>O<sub>y</sub>/SiO<sub>2</sub>/Si as charge-trapping memory devices incorporating high-<i>k</i> Dy<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> and Ti-doped Dy<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> films as charge-trapping layers, and SiO<sub>2</sub> and Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> films as blocking layers. The Al/Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub>/DyTi<sub>x</sub> O<sub>y</sub>/ SiO<sub>2</sub>/Si memory device exhibited a larger memory window of ~4.5 V (measured at a sweep voltage range of ±9 V), a smaller charge loss of ~20% (measured time up to 10<sup>6</sup>s and at 85<sup>°</sup>C), and better endurance (program/erase cycles up to 10<sup>4</sup>) than other devices. These results suggest higher probability for trapping the charge carrier due to the Ti content in the Dy<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> film, which produce a high dielectric constant and suppress the formation of the Dy-silicate layer, and create a deep trap level in the DyTi<sub>x</sub>O<sub>y</sub> film.
Human telomeric G‐quadruplex: The current status of telomeric G‐quadruplexes as therapeutic targets in human cancer

The 3′‐ends of human chromosomal DNA terminate in short single‐stranded guanine‐rich tandem‐repeat sequences. In cancer cells, these are associated with the telomere‐maintenance enzyme telomerase together with the end‐binding protein hPOT1. Small molecules that can compete with these proteins and induce the single‐stranded DNA to form quadruplex–ligand complexes are, in effect, able to expose these 3′‐ends, which results in the activation of a DNA damage response and selective inhibition of cell growth. Several of these G‐quadruplex binding molecules have shown promising anticancer activity in tumour xenograft models, which indicate that the approach may be applicable to the treatment of a wide range of human cancers. This minireview summarizes the available data on these compounds and the challenges posed for drug discovery.