Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Learning the Repair Urgency for a Decision Support System for Tunnel Maintenance

The transport network in many countries relies on extended portions which run underground in tunnels. As tunnels age, repairs are required to prevent dangerous collapses. However repairs are expensive and will affect the operational efficiency of the tunnel. We present a decision support system (DSS) based on supervised machine learning methods that learns to predict the risk factor and the resulting repair urgency in the tunnel maintenance planning of a European national rail operator. The data on which the prototype has been built consists of 47 tunnels of varying lengths. For each tunnel, periodic survey inspection data is available for multiple years, as well as other data such as the method of construction of the tunnel. Expert annotations are also available for each 10m tunnel segment for each survey as to the degree of repair urgency which are used for both training and model evaluation. We show that good predictive power can be obtained and discuss the relative merits of a number of learning methods.
Comparing human skeletal muscle architectural parameters of cadavers with in vivo ultrasonographic measurements

The purpose of this study was to document and compare the architectural parameters (fibre bundle length, angle of pennation) of human skeletal muscle in cadaveric specimens and live subjects. The medial (MG) and lateral (LG) gastrocnemius, and posterior (PS) and anterior (AS) soleus were examined bilaterally in 5 cadavers (mean age 72.6, range 65–83 y) and 9 live subjects (mean age 76.3, range 70–92 y). Data were obtained from direct measurement of cadaveric specimens and from ultrasonographic scans of the live subjects. In cadaveric muscle, fibre bundles were isolated; their length was measured in millimetres and pennation angles were recorded in degrees. In live muscle, similar measurements were taken from ultrasonographic scans of relaxed and contracted muscle. For the scans of relaxed muscle, subjects were positioned prone with the foot at a 90° angle to the leg, and for scans of contracted muscle, subjects were asked to sustain full plantarflexion during the scanning process. Fibre bundle length and angle of pennation were compared at matched locations in both groups. It was found that the relationship between cadaveric and in vivo values for fibre length and angle of pennation varied between muscle parts. The cadaveric architectural parameters did not tend to lie consistently towards either extreme of relaxation or contraction. Rather, within MG, PS and AS, cadaveric fibre bundle lengths lay between those for relaxed and contracted in vivo muscle. Similarly both the anterior and posterior cadaveric fibre angles of pennation lay between the in vivo values within LG and PS. In summary, architectural characteristics of cadaveric muscle differ from both relaxed and contracted in vivo muscle. Therefore, when developing models of skeletal muscle based on cadaveric studies, the architectural differences between live and cadaveric tissue should be taken into consideration.
Antagonistic and agonistic effects of an extracellular fragment of nectin on formation of E‐cadherin‐based cell‐cell adhesion

Background: Nectin is a Ca2+‐independent immunoglobulin‐like cell‐cell adhesion molecule at the E‐cadherin‐based cell‐cell adherens junctions (AJs), and comprises a family consisting of four members, nectin‐1, ‐2, ‐3, and ‐4. Nectin and E‐cadherin are associated with afadin and α‐catenin, actin filament (F‐actin)‐binding proteins connecting respective adhesion molecules to the actin cytoskeleton, but the role of nectin in the formation of the E‐cadherin‐based cell‐cell AJs has not yet been fully understood. To obtain evidence for this role of nectin, we attempted to develop an antagonist and/or agonist of nectin.
Impacts of the Malaysian Economic Crisis on the Livelihood of Informal Sector Participants

Malaysia’s economic crisis started in July 1997. At the macro level, the economic crisis has affected not only the country’s growth rate but its economic performance. Economic growth rate declined from 7.7% in 1997 to -6.7% in 1998, and eventually to just 1% in 1999. The social impact of the economic crisis could be analyzed through unemployment and poverty data. The economic crisis affected employment and business opportunities, increased inflation, and unemployment and poverty rates. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate increased from 2.6% in 1997 to 3.6% in 1998. The number of unemployed also increased from 109,000 in 1997 to 342,000 in 1998.
The Influence of Foreign Portfolio Investment on Domestic Stock Returns: Evidence from Taiwan

Foreign investors have played an increasingly important role in the stock markets of emerging host countries. Although foreign investors bring large amounts of capital, due to asymmetric information and home bias, they tend to invest only in certain stocks, rather than in the market as a whole. Therefore, the benefits of foreign investment may be limited and stock price dispersion may exist between foreign favored stocks and foreign un-favored stocks. We analyze how foreign investment portfolios affect the domestic stock market of host countries by comparing the performance of favored and un-favored stocks of foreign investors. Specifically, we empirically tested whether investors herded into each group and whether the favored group outperforms the un-favored group during both expansion and recession periods. The findings show that market participants did herd in the foreign investor favored stock group, but herded in the un-favored group only in bear markets. The foreign investor favored group outperformed the other only during economic expansion. During recession, the foreign investor unfavored group performed better.
Histological changes but not virus eradication reflect biochemical improvement in chronic hepatitis C patients showing a long-term response to interferon alpha therapy.

AIMS To assess the relationship between changes in liver histology and virological parameters of HCV infection in patients with a sustained biochemical response to alpha-interferon treatment for chronic hepatitis, with the aim of identifying the most reliable indicator of treatment efficacy. METHODS Quantitative serial testing of HCV-RNA in plasma samples collected on a monthly basis over the last period of post-treatment follow-up were tested in sixteen subjects with > or = 12 months aminotransferase normalisation following discontinuation of interferon therapy. The quantitative HCV-RNA determination in plasma was performed by a competitive reverse-transcription polymerase-chain reaction. Pretreatment and 12-month post-treatment liver histologies were blindly evaluated using a semi-quantitative scoring system. At these times a qualitative HCV-RNA analysis was also carried out. RESULTS The post-treatment histological grading score was significantly reduced. Nevertheless, all patients except one tested positive for HCV-RNA in plasma (mean 1.7 x 10(6) molecules/ml): nine were positive in all the serial determinations, while the remaining 6 were intermittently positive. No relationship between genotype, viral load, pattern of viremia (intermittent or continuous) and change in histological score was found. CONCLUSIONS Changes in liver histology are the most reliable indicator of the efficacy of interferon treatment in hepatitis C related liver disease. HCV-RNA clearance based on serial sampling does not appear to be a reliable indicator, even in the presence of a sustained biochemical response and histological improvement.
Parameters Affecting Solvent Production by Clostridium pasteurianum

The effect of pH, growth rate, phosphate and iron limitation, carbon monoxide, and carbon source on product formation by Clostridium pasteurianum was determined. Under phosphate limitation, glucose was fermented almost exclusively to acetate and butyrate independently of the pH and growth rate. Iron limitation caused lactate production (38 mol/100 mol) from glucose in batch and continuous culture. At 15% (vol/vol) carbon monoxide in the atmosphere, glucose was fermented to ethanol (24 mol/100 mol), lactate (32 mol/100 mol), and butanol (36 mol/100 mol) in addition to the usual products, acetate (38 mol/100 mol) and butyrate (17 mol/100 mol). During glycerol fermentation, a completely different product pattern was found. In continuous culture under phosphate limitation, acetate and butyrate were produced only in trace amounts, whereas ethanol (30 mol/100 mol), butanol (18 mol/100 mol), and 1,3-propanediol (18 mol/100 mol) were the major products. Under iron limitation, the ratio of these products could be changed in favor of 1,3-propanediol (34 mol/100 mol). In addition, lactate was produced in significant amounts (25 mol/100 mol). The tolerance of C. pasteurianum to glycerol was remarkably high; growth was not inhibited by glycerol concentrations up to 17% (wt/vol). Increasing glycerol concentrations favored the production of 1,3-propanediol.
A new locus for nonsyndromic deafness DFNB51 maps to chromosome 11p13‐p12

viewed to construct the pedigrees and to confirm the relationships in these consanguineous families. Inheritance of deafness in both of the families is consistent with an autosomal recessive trait. All the participating members of families PKDF240 and PKDF407 underwent a physical examination. Clinical histories were obtained from all of the individuals to rule out environmental causes of hearing loss such as mumps, rubella, meningitis, ototoxic drugs, or chronic otitis media. Pure tone audiometry tests for air conduction were performed at frequencies ranging from 250 to 8,000 Hz. Funduscopic examination was conducted to determine gross ocular status and to rule out a retinopathy, while vestibular function was evaluated by using the tandem gait and Romberg tests. All affected individuals of these two families exhibited prelingual bilateral profound sensorineural hearing loss, with no obvious vestibular or ocular abnormalities. No other medical problem was found to co-segregate with the deafness.
Multiple‐Targeting and Conformational Selection in the Estrogen Receptor: Computation and Experiment

Conformational selection is a primary mechanism in biomolecular recognition. The conformational ensemble may determine the ability of a drug to compete with a native ligand for a receptor target. Traditional docking procedures which use one or few protein structures are limited and may not be able to represent a complex competition among closely related protein receptors in agonist and antagonist ensembles. Here, we test a protocol aimed at selecting a drug candidate based on its ability to synergistically bind to distinct conformational states. We demonstrate, for the case of estrogen receptor α (ERα) and estrogen receptor β (ERβ), that the functional outcome of ligand binding can be inferred from its ability to simultaneously bind both ERα and ERβ in agonist and antagonist conformations as calculated docking scores. Combining a conformational selection method with an experimental reporter gene system in yeast, we propose that several phytoestrogens can be novel estrogen receptor β selective agonists. Our work proposes a computational protocol to select estrogen receptor subtype selective agonists. Compared with other models, present method gives the best prediction in ligands’ function.
Improving TLS Protocol Using Identity-Based Double-certificate Mechanism

Although Identity-Based Cryptography (IBC) has many attractive properties, its application is restricted for lacking of security protocols supporting. To overcome this problem, we propose an improved Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol using identity-based double-certificate mechanism (IBDC_TLS) in this paper. Firstly, the concept of identity-based double-certificate is presented. Secondly, by designing new cipher suites, IBC is appended to security parameters. At last, by modifying protocol message parameters, the TLS protocol is improved to fit the double-certificate mechanism. The results show that IBDC_TLS has advantages of lightweight and efficiency of IBC and flexibility of key recovery and management of double-certificate mechanism, as well as easy to deploy.
Gene Ontology Analysis of Colorectal Cancer Biomarkers Probed with Affymetrix and Illumina Microarrays

Colorectal cancer is the fourth most common cause of death worldwide. Recently, many microarray experiments have been done to investigate the expression of the genes in the colorectal tissues and thus, to find the answers for its occurrence. Previously, we used experiments obtained from both Illumina and Affymetrix microarray platforms to analyze the gene expression in healthy and carcinogenic tissues. As a result we got specific sets of biomarkers that we used to build an accurate Bayesian diagnostic system. The high degree of classifier’s sensitivity and specificity intrigued us to proceed with the research of the significant genes we discovered, the biomarkers. Therefore, in this paper we aim towards biomarkers identification and the functional groups they are associated with, i.e., we performed gene ontology analysis. Investigating the genes that control the colorectal carcinogenic tissue development is of central importance to the verification of the biomarkers’ revealing method’s validity. Moreover, we showed the importance of their participation in the prior distributions modeling, which is the key part for achieving an accurate Bayesian classification, regardless their strict disease and disorder association.
Natural insect host–parasite systems show immune priming and specificity: puzzles to be solved

Study of the multiplicity of interactions between invertebrate hosts and their parasites helps to define the aspects of the host immune systems that have ecological and evolutionary significance. Such study, however, reveals how much is yet unknown. For instance, the costs of mounting an immune response, the nature of the long‐lasting protection sometimes attained, and the high degree of specificity observed in certain hosts are phenomena that still await full explanation. An additional puzzle is the high degree of specificity achieved in light of the apparent low degree of specificity in the recognition and effector mechanisms of insect immune systems. Furthermore, while protective immunity is typically associated with vertebrate adaptive immune systems, invertebrates may have analogous capacities, whose nature is still largely unknown. This review will illustrate how the traditional host‐centred view of immune defence can be usefully extended by taking account of parasite immune evasion strategies and the variation that such strategies create in the observed outcomes of infection. BioEssays 27:1026–1034, 2005. © 2005 Wiley Peiodicals, Inc.
Timing and expression pattern of carbonic anhydrase II in pancreas

In the search for genetic markers for assessing the role of duct cells in pancreas growth, we examined whether carbonic anhydrase II (CAII) has ductal cell specificity. We determined the distribution and timing of CAII expression in mouse pancreas from embryonic stage to adult. The pancreatic ducts only start expressing CAII at embryonic day (E) 18.5, with increases after birth. Around E15.5, glucagon‐positive cells, but not insulin‐positive cells, also express CAII, with further increases by adult. CAII expression was restricted to cells within ductal structures and glucagon‐positive cells with no colocalization with any insulin‐positive cells at any time. In the human pancreas, CAII expression is restricted to the ducts. Furthermore, the activity of a 1.6‐kb fragment of the human promoter with Luciferase assays was moderately strong compared with the cytomegalovirus promoter in human pancreatic duct cell line (PANC‐1). Thus, we believe that the CAII gene could serve as a useful pancreatic duct cell marker. Developmental Dynamics 235:1571–1577, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The Impact of Leadership style as a Moderator Variable on the Relationship between Leadership practices and Organizational Performance Analytical Study on Jordanian Commercial Banks

The purpose of the study is to examine the impact of Leadership both transformational and transactional style as a Moderator Variable on the Relationship between leadership practices and Organizational Performance, Analytical Study on Commercial Banks on Jordan. The questionnaire was developed and distributed to the higher managerial employees and the middle managerial employees (General Manager, Assistant General Manager, head of department, assistant head of department and Branch manager). The researchers used the multiple regression and hierarchy regression analysis to measure the impact of Leadership practices on Organizational Performance and leadership style both transformational and transactional style as a Moderator Variable on the Relationship between leadership practices and Organizational Performance. The present study of the relationship between leadership practices and organizational performance had an positive effect, also the interaction between leadership practices and leadership style (transformational and transactional style)were positive. To add to the current problems that Iraq is facing now, a dispute between Iraq’s‟ federal government and Kurdistan’s regional government over foreign investment in Kurdistan’s oil reserves have risen even more with very fast developments in the country which will show its effect on the FDI patterns in petroleum sector. Keywords : Leadership, Style, Practices, Performance, Banks, Jordan.
Marketing applications: from Angry Birds to happy marketers

This marketing teaching case is focussed on the rapidly emergent industry associated with Apps for mobile devices. After setting the context in respect of the awe-inspiring numbers associated with these markets the case is made that innovative marketing is happening across all parts of the basic marketing framework – the 4Ps. The case presents many specific examples of marketing related decision making and outcomes, focussing on games-Apps such as Rovio’s best-selling Angry Birds game.
Poison Pills in 2011

Having been buffeted by sustained attacks from activists and proxy voting advisers in past years, the shareholder rights agreement is no longer as prevalent as it once was - a phenomenon that has been documented by many corporate governance observers like The Conference Board. However, the most recent case law confirms the validity of poison pills that are properly structured, adopted, and administered. This report discusses these new trends and provides guidance to boards considering whether to adopt a pill and how to formulate its terms.
Improving organizational effectiveness

The major changes that have been affecting businesses in recent years have called for a large-scale reappraisal of the management of organizations and their individual staff members. Providing practical advice on the key elements that improve effectiveness, this study details a modern approach to human resource management that covers job design, the management of change, leadership skills, empowerment, team-building and productivity and quality management.
Torque Characteristic Analysis of a Transverse Flux Motor Using a Combined-Type Stator Core

An external rotor transverse flux motor using a combined-type stator core is proposed for a direct drive application in this paper. The stator core is combined by two kinds of components that can both be manufactured conveniently by generic laminated silicon steel used in traditional motors. The motor benefits from the predominance of low manufacturing cost and low iron loss by using a silicon-steel sheet. Firstly, the basic structure and operation principles of the proposed motor are introduced. Secondly, the expressions of the electromagnetic torque and the cogging torque are deduced by theoretical analysis. Thirdly, the basic characteristics such as permanent magnet flux linkage, no-load back electromotive force, cogging torque and electromagnetic torque are analyzed by a three-dimensional finite element method (3D FEM). Then, the influence of structure parameters on the torque density is investigated, which provides a useful foundation for optimum design of the novel motor. Finally, the torque density of the proposed motor is calculated and discussed, and the result shows that the proposed motor in this paper can provide considerable torque density by using few permanent magnets.
Stress Hyperglycemia and Prognosis of Minor Ischemic Stroke and Transient Ischemic Attack: The CHANCE Study (Clopidogrel in High-Risk Patients With Acute Nondisabling Cerebrovascular Events)

Background and Purpose— We aimed to determine the association between stress hyperglycemia and risk of new stroke in patients with a minor ischemic stroke or transient ischemic attack. Methods— A subgroup of 3026 consecutive patients from 73 prespecified sites of the CHANCE trial (Clopidogrel in High-Risk Patients With Acute Nondisabling Cerebrovascular Events) were analyzed. Stress hyperglycemia was measured by glucose/glycated albumin (GA) ratio. Glucose/GA ratio was calculated by fasting plasma glucose divided by GA and categorized into 4 even groups according to the quartiles. The primary outcome was a new stroke (ischemic or hemorrhagic) at 90 days. We assessed the association between glucose/GA ratio and risk of stroke by multivariable Cox regression models adjusted for potential covariates. Results— Among 3026 patients included, a total of 299 (9.9%) new stroke occurred at 3 months. Compared with patients with the lowest quartile, patients with the highest quartile of glucose/GA ratio was associated with an increased risk of stroke at 3 months after adjusted for potential covariates (12.0% versus 9.2%; adjusted hazard ratio, 1.46; 95% confidence interval, 1.06–2.01). Similar results were observed after further adjusted for fasting plasma glucose. We also observed that higher level of glucose/GA ratio was associated with an increased risk of stroke with a threshold of 0.29 using a Cox regression model with restricted cubic spline. Conclusions— Stress hyperglycemia, measured by glucose/GA ratio, was associated with an increased risk of stroke in patients with a minor ischemic stroke or transient ischemic attack. Clinical Trial Registration— URL: http://www.clinicaltrials. gov. Unique identifier: NCT00979589.
Oxidative Stress in University Students during Examinations

Mental stress in psychiatric disease and in daily life contributes to oxidative stress in the body. In this study we investigated a connection between possible psychological stress caused by university undergraduate examinations and oxidative stress experienced by our test subjects. Some parameters of oxidative stress (single strand breaks of DNA in lymphocytes, sensitivity to lipid oxidation and antioxidant status) were studied in medical students on the day of the examination (stress condition) and compared with the same parameters obtained from the same students during the term between two examination periods (non-stress condition). The results show that in the stress condition oxidative damage to DNA and sensitivity to lipid oxidation were significantly increased (p<0.05) when compared with the same parameters in “non-stress” conditions. A significant decrease in plasma antioxidant activity (p<0.05) in students that were under stress was observed. These results suggest that during university examinations students are under increased oxidative stress.