Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Patients' Experiences After CKD Diagnosis: A Meta-ethnographic Study and Systematic Review.

BACKGROUND Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is often asymptomatic at first diagnosis, and awareness of CKD is low in the general population. Thus, individuals who are unexpectedly identified as having CKD may struggle to adjust to living with this diagnosis. This study aims to synthesize qualitative research exploring patients' views and experiences of a CKD diagnosis and how they adjust to it. STUDY DESIGN Systematic review and meta-ethnography. SETTING & POPULATION Adult patients with CKD stages 1 to 5. SEARCH STRATEGY & SOURCES MEDLINE, PsycINFO, CINAHL, Embase, and Web of Science were searched from the earliest date available to November 2015. Qualitative studies were selected that explored patients' views and experiences of a CKD diagnosis and their adjustment. ANALYTICAL APPROACH Meta-ethnography was adopted to synthesize the findings. RESULTS 10 studies involving 596 patients with CKD from secondary-care settings were included. 7 key themes were identified: a challenging diagnosis, diverse beliefs about causation, anticipated concerns about progression, delaying disease progression, unmet informational needs, psychosocial impact of CKD, and adjustment to life with CKD. LIMITATIONS Limited to views and experiences of participants in included studies, which were mostly conducted in high-income countries. Studies not written in English were excluded. Transferability of findings to other populations may be limited. CONCLUSIONS This review highlights variation in patients' understanding of CKD, an overall lack of information on the trajectory of CKD, and a need for psychosocial support, especially in later stages, to help patients adjust to living with CKD. Future research that acknowledges CKD as a condition with diverse complicating morbidities and explores how patients' information and psychosocial needs vary according to severity and comorbid conditions would be beneficial. This will support delivery of easily understandable, timely, and targeted information about CKD, as well as practical advice about recommended lifestyle changes.
Balancing the risk of dioxins and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and the benefit of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids of the n-3 variety for French fish consumers in western coastal areas

A study of 401 fish-eating adults living in a coastal region of France was undertaken to establish exposure to dioxins/polychlorinated biphenyls and the intake of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids of the n-3 variety. Fish consumption was estimated using food frequency diaries and the dioxin/polychlorinated biphenyl data collected by the French control authorities was used to calculate dietary exposure. The results showed that for a group of adult subjects selected because of their consumption of fish, 60% achieved the nutritional recommendation for long-chain n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids and 79% were exposed to total dioxins below the toxicological threshold of 14 pg kg−1 body weight week−1. Nevertheless, only 41% of these subjects had an optimal balance between the risk and benefit of eating fish, because 19% were meeting the nutritional recommendation but exceeding the toxicological threshold, whereas 38% were exposed below the toxicological threshold but failed to reach the recommended intake of long-chain n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. Similar results were found regarding the balance between long-chain n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids and polychlorinated biphenyls even if a toxicological threshold was not established for these compounds. The results show that meeting the nutritional requirements of 0.5 mg day−1 of long-chain n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids is compatible with respect to toxicological thresholds, while an intake higher than 1.5 g day−1 is likely to lead to a dietary exposure above the provisional tolerable weekly intake for dioxins.
Discrimination of Deciduous Tree Species from Time Series of Unmanned Aerial System Imagery

Technology advances can revolutionize Precision Forestry by providing accurate and fine forest information at tree level. This paper addresses the question of how and particularly when Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) should be used in order to efficiently discriminate deciduous tree species. The goal of this research is to determine when is the best time window to achieve an optimal species discrimination. A time series of high resolution UAS imagery was collected to cover the growing season from leaf flush to leaf fall. Full benefit was taken of the temporal resolution of UAS acquisition, one of the most promising features of small drones. The disparity in forest tree phenology is at the maximum during early spring and late autumn. But the phenology state that optimized the classification result is the one that minimizes the spectral variation within tree species groups and, at the same time, maximizes the phenologic differences between species. Sunlit tree crowns (5 deciduous species groups) were classified using a Random Forest approach for monotemporal, two-date and three-date combinations. The end of leaf flushing was the most efficient single-date time window. Multitemporal datasets definitely improve the overall classification accuracy. But single-date high resolution orthophotomosaics, acquired on optimal time-windows, result in a very good classification accuracy (overall out of bag error of 16%).
Attitude and velocity high-gain control of a tilt-trirotor UAV

The tilting trirotor presented in this paper is able to perform levelled flight at almost null attitude which is an important requirement for fixed wing tilt rotors in view of the lift control during transition from hovering to forward flight. The nonlinear dynamics, the large effect of wind due to the small scale, and the absence of aerodynamic data at low speed and Reynolds numbers, are crucial factors when designing controllers. A two nested loops, high-gain controller scheme is proposed to control attitude and both longitudinal and vertical speed. Controller design is based on the selection of high-gain PI control actions together with suitable sliding surfaces where the closed loop system state variables are forced to evolve. This approach guarantees robustness and fast tuning. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed controller, also in the presence of actuator dynamics and saturations, numerical simulations have been conducted on a detailed simulator of the tri-rotor.
Explore and Exploit Security Flaws in Web Applicationsfor Implementing Efficient Security Provision Techniques

Security of any web-application is very important due to its excessive use in daily routine life (such as business, education, health etc). The advancement of technology raises a question mark to the security of any web-application. Serious attacks on web-application can cause an exposure of sensitive data or provide access to the system on which an application is stored and maintained. This paper aims to identify 3-tier defense mechanism of any web-application. Defense mechanism acts as a baseline for the classification of all possible flaws which make a web-application inaccessible. This paper also refers to the exploitation of flaws, found during classification phase, in order to make uncomplicated and resourceful techniques for the avoidance of security threats. These techniques develop reliability and trust-ability on web-applications.
Automatic Speech Recognition of Pathological Voice

Background/Objectives: Automatic speech recognition (ASR) benefits human beings in many useful applications. Various ASR systems exhibiting good performance have been developed for normal speakers. The speech produced by a voice disordered patient is not like a normal speaker due to irregular vibration and incomplete closure of vocal fold. Therefore, an investigation is required by exploring the different speech features to develop an ASR system which can perform well for both pathological and normal speakers. Methods: In this paper, we proposed an automatic speech recognition system using Hidden Markov Model Toolkit (HTK) for normal and pathology voice. Four techniques are applied for feature extraction; Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficient (MFCC), Perceptual Linear Prediction (PLP), RelAtiveSpecTrA - Perceptual Linear Predictive (RASTA-PLP), and linear prediction coefficients (LPC). The database that used to evaluate the performance of the developed system; includes a total of 297 speakers 121 of them were normal speakers and the remaining containing five types of vocal fold disorders. Findings: Experimental results show that the developed system gives good accuracies for normal and pathology voice. The highest accuracy of 94.44 % with a word error rate 5.55% is achieved in case of normal voice, and 88.63 % with a word error rate 11.63 % in case of pathology voice. Fuzzy logic controller is proposed to automatically segmentation the normal and disorders voice.
An effective method for preventing SQL injection attack and session hijacking

Today's world is very much dependent on the web applications, may it be shopping or financial transactions. Providing security to these web applications isvery important. Most of the transactioninformation or the customer information is stored in the backend databases for these web applications. One of the vulnerabilities of these web applications is SQL (Structured Query Language) injection attack. Also, the web application sessions are prone to session hijacking attack, if the adversary can get hold of the session id. Considering that there are various tools available to retrieve session/HTTP cookies, this makes web applications very vulnerable session hijacking attacks. Though there are many ways proposed to defend the databases against SQL injection attacks, there is no sure shot way to prevent these SQL injection attacks. This project proposes an efficient technique for the prevention of SQL injection attack and session hijacking. The hashing technique is used for implementing the preventionthese attacks.
β-Phenylethylamine Alters Monoamine Transporter Function via Trace Amine-Associated Receptor 1: Implication for Modulatory Roles of Trace Amines in Brain

Brain monoamines include common biogenic amines (dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin) and trace amines [β-phenylethylamine (β-PEA), tyramine, tryptamine, and octopamine]. Common biogenic amines are well established as neurotransmitters, but the roles and functional importance of trace amines remain elusive. Here, we re-evaluated the interaction of trace amines with trace amine-associated receptor 1 (TAAR1) and investigated effects of β-PEA on monoamine transporter function and influence of monoamine autoreceptors on TAAR1 signaling. We confirmed that TAAR1 was activated by trace amines and demonstrated that TAAR1 activation by β-PEA significantly inhibited uptake and induced efflux of [3H]dopamine, [3H]norepinephrine, and [3H]serotonin in transfected cells. In brain synaptosomes, β-PEA significantly inhibited uptake and induced efflux of [3H]dopamine and [3H]serotonin in striatal and [3H]norepinephrine in thalamic synaptosomes of rhesus monkeys and wild-type mice, but it lacked the same effects in synaptosomes of TAAR1 knockout mice. The effect of β-PEA on efflux was blocked by transporter inhibitors in either the transfected cells or wild-type mouse synaptosomes. We also demonstrated that TAAR1 signaling was not affected by monoamine autoreceptors at exposure to trace amines that we show to have poor binding affinity for the autoreceptors relative to common biogenic amines. These results reveal that β-PEA alters monoamine transporter function via interacting with TAAR1 but not monoamine autoreceptors. The functional profile of β-PEA may reveal a common mechanism by which trace amines exert modulatory effects on monoamine transporters in brain.
Functional Kernel-Based Modeling of Wavelet Compressed Optical Emission Spectral Data: Prediction of Plasma Etch Process

This study reports the use of a kernel-based process model, consisting of kernel partial least squares regression and kernel ridge regression, to model etch rate and uniformity in a plasma etch process. In order to characterize the plasma etch process, a 24 - 1 fractional factorial design was implemented on the process parameters: CHF3 flow rate, CF4 flow rate, RF power, and pressure. In this modeling, both functional data and in situ optical emission spectroscopy (OES) data associated with the etch response were used to formulate the model. In an effort to effectively deal with the complexity of the data, wavelet transformation with vertical-energy-thresholding (VET) shrinkage procedures were used to reduce the dimensions of the functional data. In addition, a Bayesian information criterion (BIC) was used to select the best subset to improve the model predictions. The proposed kernel-based approaches were evaluated by comparing them to conventional neural networks (NNs)-based modeling and linear-based regression techniques. Comparisons revealed that the proposed approach exhibits an improved prediction over NNs and linear-based models. Implicated in the study is a detection of process fault patterns by combining the kernel-based modeling, wavelet transformation with VET, and BIC.
What Drives Managerial Use of Marketing and Financial Metrics and Does Metric Use Affect Performance of Marketing-Mix Activities?

To increase marketing's accountability, Journal of Marketing, Marketing Science Institute, and the Institute for the Study of Business Markets have advocated development of marketing metrics and linking marketing-mix activities with financial metrics. Although the marketing field has made progress, researchers have paid less attention to what drives managerial use of marketing and financial metrics and whether metric use is associated with marketing-mix performance. The authors propose a conceptual model that links firm strategy, metric orientation, type of marketing-mix activity, and managerial, firm, and environmental characteristics to marketing and financial metric use, which in turn are linked to performance of marketing-mix activities. An analysis of 1287 marketing-mix activities reported by 439 U.S. managers reveals that firm strategy, metric orientation, type of marketing-mix activity, and firm and environmental characteristics are more useful than managerial characteristics in explaining use of marketing and financial metrics and that use of metrics is positively associated with marketing-mix performance. The results help identify conditions under which managers use fewer metrics and how metric use can be increased to improve marketing-mix performance.
Systems Suppliers: Towards 'Best Practice'

This paper is concerned with UK‐based automotive component suppliers that have commenced the supply of a “complete system” to a vehicle assembler (VA) in recent years. The wider restructuring of VA‐supplier relations occurring in the UK automotive industry is taken asthe context for this research – reference is made to the requirements of lean and agile manufacturing. We investigate if these suppliers differ in any systematic way from their counterparts who have not moved into systems supply. This was done using a questionnaire survey and series of follow‐up interviews. Significant differences between systems and non‐systems suppliers were found in the areas of firm size, products, customers, design input and VA‐supplier relationship strategies. Both parties were typically found to gain from systems supply. The nature of these benefits is then explored. Overall, it is intended that this research should serve to inform management, and in particular that of suppliers seeking to achieve or to maintain and develop their first tier status.
Characterization of the NPa idiotype through the analysis of monoclonal BALB/c anti‐(4‐hydroxy‐3‐nitrophenyl)acetyl (NP) antibodies

Spleen cells from BALB/c mice were fused with the nonsecreting myeloma line X63.Ag8. 6.5. 3 seven days after immunization with NP‐CG (4‐hydroxy‐3‐nitrophenyl) acetyl‐chicken γ‐globulin. The hybrid cell lines obtained were analyzed for heavy and light chain distribution, fine specificity, and idiotype.
Determinants of R&D intensity and its impact on firm value in an innovative economy in which family business groups are dominant: The case of South Korea

We examine both the determinants of corporate research and development (R&D) intensity, and its impact on firm value, in Korea, a country in which family business groups are dominant and in which corporate-funded R&D intensity is one of the highest in the world. We find that growth opportunities, size of the firm and payment to executive board members have a positive effect on R&D intensity, while leverage has a negative effect on R&D intensity. When leverage is at an extremely high level, the relationship between growth opportunities and R&D intensity turns from positive to negative. The positive effect of firm size on R&D intensity is larger, the greater the number of subsidiaries the firm has, consistent with the firm engaging in cross-subsidisation. The positive effect of payments to executive board members on R&D intensity is smaller for chaebol affiliates than for stand-alone firms. Using instrument variables we find that R&D generates an increase in firm value.
Disruptive innovation, producer services and the competitive advantage of latecomer firms

The competitive advantage of latecomer firms from China has been the focus of economic research.And it has been identified by many researchers that disruptive innovation is of great importance to the competitive advantage of latecomers firms.This paper explores the relationship of disruptive innovation and competitive advantage in the case of latecomers from the perspective of Global Value Chain and emphasizes the different roles producer services play in the process of building competitive advantage.This paper concludes with a case study from Chinese practice.
Modélisation des déplacements d'animaux dans un espace géographique - analyse et simulation. (Modelling animal movements in geographical space - analyses and simulation)

Une des preoccupations de la societe est de trouver un compromis entre le developpement des territoires et la protection de la faune sauvage. La prise en compte des deplacements des animaux lors de projets d’amenagement necessite de connaitre les comportements des differentes especes et de definir ce qui a une influence sur leur localisation et sur la selection de leur lieu de vie. Notre objectif est de pouvoir representer les deplacements d’animaux sur un espace geographique precisement decrit afin ensuite de simuler et d’evaluer les consequences des amenagements.Nous avons commence par analyser l’influence des elements du paysage sur les deplacements a partir de localisations connues d’animaux comme des traces GPS (suivis menes par l’ELIZ, l’ANSES, l’ONCFS, l’INRA)et de donnees de description de l’espace notamment la BD TOPO®. Les cas d’etude correspondent a des milieux differents et a trois especes : renard, chevreuil et cerf. Nous avons pu confirmer le role de certains caracteres de l’espace selon les cas d’etude. Par exemple les preferences spatiales lors des deplacements des renards en milieu periurbain semblent se porter sur la vegetation arboree et des lieux peu occupes par les hommes pendant certaines parties de la journee (parcs, zones d’activites, le long des voies ferrees). Concernant les cervides en milieu forestier, la pente et le type de peuplement paraissent avoir le plus d’influence sur les deplacements.A l’aide des connaissances extraites par les analyses et de la litterature, nous avons defini et implemente dans la plateforme GeOxygene un modele de simulation de deplacements d’animaux. Les trajectoires sont construites par une approche agent reprenant le comportement spatial selon l’espece et l’influence des elements du paysage favorables ou faisant obstacle. Nous effectuons une analyse critique de notre modele puis nous proposons des pistes d’enrichissement a l’aide de la comparaison avec les observations et le retour des ecologues. Enfin des scenarios d’amenagement sont testes dans le but de mettre en evidence leur impact et leur efficacite.
Going Beyond Green: The “Why and How” of Integrating Sustainability Into the Marketing Curriculum

Teaching sustainable marketing practices requires that curricula advocate a “triple bottom line” approach to personal and marketing decision making, emphasizing requirements for a sustainable lifestyle, company, economy, and society. These requirements include environmental/ecological stewardship (maintenance and renewal of “natural capital”), social stewardship (equitable distribution of resources, human, and community well-being), and economic stewardship (valuing financial continuity over profit). In this article, the authors suggest how marketing educators might incorporate these sustainability principles into marketing pedagogy. Toward that end, the authors (a) offer a formal definition of the term sustainability, (b) examine the current role of sustainability in marketing strategy at the firm level, (c) present a brief history of academic literature relevant to this topic and review current initiatives at academic institutions, (d) offer resources for integrating sustainability into marketing curricula, and (e) propose and describe the implementation of an MBA-level marketing elective dedicated to the topic of sustainability.
[Diagnosis of adnexal torsion and predictive factors of adnexal necrosis].

OBJECTIVE To determine the most relevant findings for diagnosis of adnexal torsion and predictive factors of adnexal necrosis. PATIENTS AND METHODS Clinical, biological, ultrasound, pathologic and surgical findings in surgically confirmed cases of adnexal torsion treated over a five-year period in a gynaecologic emergency department were retrospectively reviewed. RESULTS A total of 52 cases of adnexal torsion were studied. Abdominal pain was present in 80.8%, vomiting in 13.5% and fever only in 9.6%. Leukocytosis was noted in 19 (36.5%). The most frequent ultrasound findings were ovarian enlargement in 22 patients (42.3%), ovarian cysts in 26 (50%), and hyperechogenic parenchyma with follicles along the periphery of the ovary in 13 (25%). Age over 40 years and a delay to surgery longer than 10 hours were significantly associated with diagnosis of adnexal necrosis. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION Prompt diagnosis of adnexal torsion requires a combination of clinical, biological and radiological evidence. No predictive factors of necrosis are found. Risk of adnexal torsion is potentially increased by waiting period for surgery and patient's age.
Separate fractions of mRNA from Torpedo electric organ induce chloride channels and acetylcholine receptors in Xenopus oocytes.

Poly(A)+ mRNA extracted from the electric organ of Torpedo was fractionated by sucrose density gradient centrifugation. After injection into Xenopus oocytes one mRNA fraction induced the appearance of chloride channels in the oocyte membrane. Many of these channels were normally open, and the ensuing chloride current kept the resting potential of injected oocytes close to the chloride equilibrium potential. When the membrane was hyperpolarized, the chloride current was reduced. A separate fraction of mRNA induced the incorporation of acetylcholine receptors into the oocyte membrane. When translated in a cell‐free system this fraction directed the synthesis of the alpha, beta, gamma, and delta subunits of the acetylcholine receptor. In contrast, the mRNA fraction that induced the chloride channels caused the synthesis of the delta subunit, a very small amount of alpha, and no detectable beta or gamma subunits. This suggests that the size of the mRNA coding for the chloride channel is similar to the preponderant species of mRNA coding for the delta subunit of the acetylcholine receptor.