Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of melatonin in experimental stroke models in acute, sub-acute, and chronic stages

: Melatonin ( N -acetyl-5-methoxy-tryptamine), a naturally occurring indole produced mainly by the pineal gland, is a well known antioxidant. Stroke (cerebral ischemia) is the second leading cause of death worldwide. To date, however, effective and safe treatment for stroke remains unavailable. Melatonin is both lipid- and water-soluble and readily crosses the blood–brain barrier (BBB). Increasing evidence has shown that, in animal stroke models, administering melatonin signiﬁ cantly reduces infarct volume, edema, and oxidative damage and improves electrophysiological and behavioral performance. Here, we reviewed studies that assess effects of melatonin on cerebral ischemia in acute, sub-acute, and chronic stages. In addition to its potent antioxidant properties, melatonin exerts antiapoptotic, antiexcitotoxic, anti-inﬂ ammatory effects and promotes mitochondrial functions in animals with cerebral ischemia. Given that melatonin shows almost no toxicity to humans and possesses multifaceted protective capacity against cerebral ischemia, it is valuable to consider using melatonin in clinical trials on patients suffering from stroke.
Approximation methods and reduced models for optimal radiation treatment

Radiation therapy becomes an important and common tool for cancer treatment with increasing the number of cancer deceases. Most common tools in clinics and medical institutions are based on statistical and experimental methods, e.g. a Pencil Beam, a Collapsed Cone or a Monte Carlo method. Nevertheless, in the present work we consider deterministic models for radiation therapy which are based on transport theory of the particles. The Boltzmann transport equation is used to describe evolution of charged particles in tissue. The radiation transport problem is approximated in terms of moments of the transfer equation. We introduce two different methods to solve spherical harmonics moments systems. We study properties of the numerical methods and show that the presented numerical method preserves asymptotic limit while the transport theory transmits into diffusion theory. The process of radiotherapy is an inverse problem. The main aim of the radiation therapy is to find position and dose of external beam such that particles will be distributed in a domain in desired way: much more coupled in cancer region and almost no particles in other regions. Since deterministic methods have explicit mathematical structures it allows us to formulate the radiation treatment process as optimal control problem constrained by the Boltzmann equation. We show existence, uniqueness and regularity of the optimal control and present the first–order optimality conditions. Geometrical or physical parameters of the problem may change during the treatment process which requires quick and efficient re-computation of the treatment plan. We propose low–dimensional reduced basis formulation which allows us to solve optimal control problem efficiently. We derive a posteriori error estimators for reduced basis solution with respect to the solution of high dimensional system.
Quasi‐passivity‐based adaptive stabilization for switched nonlinearly parameterized systems

This paper investigates the adaptive quasi‐passification‐based stabilization problem for a class of switched nonlinearly parameterized systems via average dwell time method. First, when all the subsystems have any same relative degree, the global practical stability is achieved by combining the recursive feedback quasi‐passification design technique with a switched adaptive control technique. The states and parameter estimation errors converge to the ball whose sizes can be reduced by choosing appropriate design parameters. Second, when the system states are unavailable for measurements, adaptive output feedback controllers are designed to stabilize the system using quasi‐passivity. The proposed output feedback controllers do not depend on any state observer. Finally, three examples show the effectiveness of the proposed methods.
An Integrated Approach to Large Amplitude Internal Wave Dynamics and Their Surface Signatures

The objective of this project is to investigate large amplitude internal wave dynamics and the associated surface roughness changes with developing an integrated internal wave prediction/remote sensing model based on (1) the strongly nonlinear internal wave model initialized with in-situ data and (2) the fully nonlinear surface wave model coupled with the surface current predictions of the internal wave model.
The Impact of Security Practices on Regulatory Compliance and Security Performance

This study examines how a healthcare organization’s security practices (including IT controls, policies, education, and hiring practices) influence their perceived regulatory compliance and security performance. We utilized qualitative and quantitative survey data provided by senior IT managers from 250 healthcare organizations. The data provides a snapshot of patient information security in the surveyed organizations. Healthcare organizations must focus on preventing breaches (which results in brand damage and direct remediation costs) as well as complying with government regulation (to avoid indirect costs, including fines and penalties). Using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM), we examine how specific security practices improve regulatory compliance, protect patient information, and minimize the impact of a breach incident. The results show that audit polices are positively associated with perceived regulatory compliance and security policies are associated with security performance. We also find that the interaction of both audit and security policies has a more significant effect than either type alone. Surprisingly, an organization’s level of compliance is not significantly associated with actual security performance. This study contributes to demonstrating which security practices can help the organizations comply with the regulations and the effects of security practices and regulatory compliance on information security performance. This can provide healthcare organizations with strategic guidelines to improve their regulatory compliance and security performance.
Practices and Factors Influencing the Use of Antibiotics in Selected Poultry Farms in Ghana

Many of the antibiotics employed in animal production also serve as essential medicines for use in humans. However, only a handful of studies address antibiotic use in animal husbandry in Ghana. The aim of this study was to investigate the use of essential antibiotics in poultry production in Ghana and to assess factors influencing farmers’ choice of antibiotics for use on their farms. A cross-sectional survey using questionnaires and semistructured interviews was conducted among 400 poultry farms in the Ashanti, Brong-Ahafo and Greater Accra regions of Ghana. Data was analysed using IBM SPSS and Microsoft Excel. Multivariate analyses were used to evaluate correlations between farm variables and the dependency of antibiotic use on internal and external farm characteristics. Farmers reported the use of 35 different antimicrobial agents for management of conditions such as Newcastle, fowl pox, coccidiosis, and coryza. From these agents, 20 essential antibiotics belonging to 10 antibiotic classes were extracted. Frequently employed antibiotics were tetracyclines (24.17%), aminoglycosides (17.87%), penicillins (16.51%) and fluoroquinolones (10.55%). Only 63% of the farms completed recommended antibiotic course durations, 58% reported following recommended withdrawal periods and 88% sought veterinary advice before administration of antibiotics. Farmers had easy access to antibiotics and antibiotic-related information from veterinary offices, vet-chemical shops and mobile salesmen. Correlation analysis showed farm activities such as frequency of change of bedding material, disinfectant use and seeking expert advice correlated significantly with size and age. The use of antibiotic-containing agents was observed to be dependent on internal factors such as size, presence of other livestock on the farm and infections. External factors such as easy access to antibiotics also influenced farmers’ use of antibiotics. These findings call for stricter regulations on access to and use of antibiotics on poultry farms in Ghana.
Hamburger Beitr¨age zur Angewandten Mathematik

Scattered data interpolation by radial kernel functions leads to linear equation systems with large, fully populated, ill-conditioned interpolation matrices. A successful iterative solution of such a system requires an eﬃcient matrix-vector multiplication as well as an eﬃcient preconditioner. While multipole approaches provide a fast matrix-vector multiplication, they avoid the explicit set-up of the system matrix which hinders the construction of preconditioners, such as approximate inverses or factorizations which typically require the explicit system matrix for their construction. In this paper, we propose an approach that allows both an eﬃcient matrix-vector multiplication as well as an explicit matrix representation which can then be used to construct a preconditioner. In particular, the interpolation matrix will be represented in hierarchical matrix format, and several approaches for the blockwise low-rank approximation are proposed and compared, of both analytical nature (separable expansions) and algebraic nature (adaptive cross approximation).
Effect of Radiation on Chromospheric Magnetic Reconnection: Reactive and Collisional Multi-fluid Simulations

We study magnetic reconnection under chromospheric conditions in five different ionization levels from 0.5% to 50% using a self-consistent two-fluid (ions + neutrals) model that accounts for compressibility, collisional effects, chemical inequilibrium, and anisotropic heat conduction. Results with and without radiation are compared, using two models for the radiative losses: an optically thin radiation loss function, and an approximation of the radiative losses of a plasma with photospheric abundances. The results without radiation show that reconnection occurs faster for the weakly ionized cases as a result of the effect of ambipolar diffusion and fast recombination. The tearing mode instability appears earlier in the low ionized cases and grows rapidly. We find that radiative losses have a stronger effect than was found in previous results as the cooling changes the plasma pressure and the concentration of ions inside the current sheet. This affects the ambipolar diffusion and the chemical equilibrium, resulting in thin current sheets and enhanced reconnection. The results quantify this complex nonlinear interaction by showing that a strong cooling produces faster reconnections than have been found in models without radiation. The results accounting for radiation show timescales and outflows comparable to spicules and chromospheric jets.
Rates, risks and routes to reduce vascular dementia (R4vad), a UK-wide multicentre prospective observational cohort study of cognition after stroke: Protocol

Background Stroke commonly affects cognition and, by definition, much vascular dementia follows stroke. However, there are fundamental limitations in our understanding of vascular cognitive impairment, restricting understanding of prevalence, trajectories, mechanisms, prevention, treatment and patient-service needs. Aims Rates, Risks and Routes to Reduce Vascular Dementia (R4VaD) is an observational cohort study of post-stroke cognition. We aim to recruit a wide range of patients with stroke, presenting to geographically diverse UK hospitals, into a longitudinal study to determine rates of, and risk factors for, cognitive and related impairments after stroke, to assess potential mechanisms and improve prediction models. Methods We will recruit at least 2000 patients within six weeks of stroke with or without capacity to consent and collect baseline demographic, clinical, socioeconomic, lifestyle, cognitive, neuropsychiatric and informant data using streamlined patient-centred methods appropriate to the stage after stroke. We will obtain more detailed assessments at four to eight weeks after the baseline assessment and follow-up by phone and post yearly to at least two years. We will assess diagnostic neuroimaging in all and high-sensitivity inflammatory markers, genetics, blood pressure and diffusion tensor imaging in mechanistic sub-studies. Planned outputs: R4VaD will provide reliable data on long-term cognitive function after stroke, stratified by prior cognition, stroke- and patient-related variables and improved risk prediction. It will create a platform enabling sharing of data, imaging and samples. Participants will be consented for re-contact, facilitating future clinical trials and providing a resource for the stroke and dementia research communities.
Volume of Abstracts Logic, Algebra and Truth Degrees 2010

Mathematical Fuzzy Logic (MFL) is the subdiscipline of mathematical logic devoted to the study of formal systems of fuzzy logic. It has been a fairly active research field for more than two decades, since scholars undertook the task of providing solid formal foundations for deductive systems arising from Fuzzy Set Theory by realizing that these systems could be seen as a special kind of many-valued logics. This approach turned out to be very fruitful when Petr Hájek collected the results of the first systematic study of fuzzy logics in his monograph Metamathematics of Fuzzy Logic (Kluwer, 1998), a true landmark of the field. This book, together with other influential works by prominent researchers, was the start of an ambitious scientific agenda aiming to the study of all aspects of fuzzy logics, including algebraic semantics , proof systems, game-theoretic semantics, functional representation, first-order and higher-order logics, decidability and complexity issues, model theory, philosophical issues and applications. Moreover, it was made clear that these systems of fuzzy logic constitute a particular family of substruc-tural logics, a central topic for the broad community of researchers studying non-classical logics. Since substructural logics typically enjoy good proof systems and algebraic semantics based on classes of residuated lattices, this connection shed great light on MFL and led to further avenues of research. In order to promote and organize research in the field at the international level, the Working Group on Mathematical Fuzzy Logic (MathFuzzLog) was established under the auspices of the European Society for Fuzzy Logic and Technology (EUSFLAT) in September 2007. Since then it has grown and now includes almost all scholars working on MFL across the globe, with more than 90 members from more than 20 countries. It has its own web site (http://www.mathfuzzlog.org) which can be edited by any member of the group to share information and resources of common interest. Moreover, the group has promoted special issues on MFL in mainstream logic journals and organized specific workshops and special sessions at broader international conferences. Among them, a central activity of the group is to organize its official conference Logic, Algebra and Truth Degrees (LATD) every two years. It is intended to be the main event of our community: besides being the conference where we all can meet and share the latest developments of our field, it also aims to bring together prominent researchers from neighboring fields, and become an excellent opportunity to …
Climate Change and Human Health—The Links to the UN Landmark Agreement on Disaster Risk Reduction

Virginia Murray 1,2 and Thomas David Waite 3,* ID 1 Public Health Consultant in Global Disaster Risk Reduction, Public Health England, London SE1 8UG, UK; virginia.murray@phe.gov. uk 2 Member of Integrated Research on Disaster Risk (IRDR) Scientific Committee, Beijing 100094, China 3 Interim Head of Extreme Events and Health Protection, Public Health England, London SE1 8UG, UK * Correspondence: thomas.waite@phe.gov. uk
On the Golden Rule of Capital Accumulation under Endogenous Longevity Www.pse.ens.fr on the Golden Rule of Capital Accumulation under Endogenous Longevity

This note derives the Golden Rule of capital accumulation in a Chakraborty-type economy, i.e. a two-period OLG economy where longevity is endogenous. It is shown that the capital per worker maximizing steady-state consumption per head is inferior to the Golden Rule capital level prevailing under exogenous longevity. We characterize also the Lifetime Golden Rule, that is, the capital per worker maximizing steady-state expected lifetime consumption per head, and show that this tends to exceed the standard Golden Rule capital level. la Croix acknowledges the financial support of the Belgian French speaking community (Grant ARC 03/08-235 " New Macroeconomic Approaches to the Development Problem ") and the Belgian Federal Government (Grant PAI P6/07 " Economic Policy and Finance in the Global Economy: Equilibrium Analysis and Social Evaluation ").
Interval observer design for continuous-time switched systems under known switching and unknown inputs

ABSTRACT This paper deals with unknown input estimation for switched linear systems in an unknown but bounded error (UBBE) framework. Based on a known switching signal and under the fulfilment of the relative degree property by all the subsystems, a decoupling method is used to make the state partially affected by the unknown input. Assuming that the disturbances and the measurement noises are unknown but bounded with a priori known bounds, lower and upper bounds of the unmeasured state and unknown input are then computed. A numerical example illustrates the efficiency of the proposed methodology.
Information Processing and Management

A B S T R A C T People increasingly use Social Media (SM) platforms such as Twitter and Facebook during disasters and emergencies to post situational updates including reports of injured or dead people, infrastructure damage, requests of urgent needs, and the like. Information on SM comes in many forms, such as textual messages, images, and videos. Several studies have shown the utility of SM information for disaster response and management, which encouraged humanitarian organizations to start incorporating SM data sources into their workflows. However, several challenges prevent these organizations from using SM data for response efforts. These challenges include near-real-time information processing, information overload, information extraction, summarization, and verification of both textual and visual content. We highlight various applications and opportunities of SM multimodal data, latest advancements, current challenges, and future directions for the crisis informatics and other related research fields.
Women in accounting: a historical review of obstacles and drivers on a patriarchal and classist path

This document, through a systematic review of academic papers, presents a comprehensive and synthetic proposal that compiles, on the one hand, the prevailing macho, misogynistic and phallocentric obstacles and stereotypes at the family, social and work level between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries and that had an impact on the accounting profession, hindering the access and evolution of women in it. In contrast, a series of factors are presented that drove the training and entry of women to bookkeeping and accounting tasks, which, in turn, served as a way to break stereotypes and traditional gender roles, achieve legislative improvements and the incursion of women into the paid labor market. Besides the above-mentioned elements, it is important to take into account the class perspectives that, under promises of well-being and economic status, idealized a model of a woman whose realization was exclusively at the domestic and family level.
Survey on high-frequency models of PWM electric drives for shaft voltage and bearing current analysis

In this study, a review on high-frequency modelling in electric machines is conducted. Pulse-width modulation (PWM) creates common-mode-voltage (CMV) and common-mode-current (CMC) in electric drives with high-frequency impacts such as shaft voltage and bearing current which in turn cause bearing failures. To predict and reduce these failures in an electric machine, transitional modelling of high-frequency pulses is necessary. At the first step, several methods for high-frequency modelling in an electric drive are categorised. At the second step, several types of bearing currents discussed and CMV and CMC in electric drives are introduced. At the third step, CMV, CMC and bearing currents are simulated for six types of PWM methods and experimental verification is reported. Finally, root-mean-square value of a distorted parasitic current is introduced for comparing the electromagnetic effects of PWM methods.
Management of chronic hepatitis C treatment failures: role of consensus interferon

: A signiﬁ cant proportion of patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection who undergo antiviral therapy have persistent or recurrent viremia and fail to achieve a sustained virologic response (SVR). Factors associated with treatment failure include HCV genotype 1 infection, high serum HCV RNA levels, and advanced ﬁ brosis. Consensus interferon (CIFN) is a synthetic type I interferon derived from a consensus sequence of the most common amino acids found in naturally occurring alpha interferon subtypes. Several prospective clinical studies have demonstrated that CIFN may be a treatment option in patients who have failed prior interferon-based therapy, including those who have failed combination therapy with standard interferon or peginterferon plus ribavirin. Daily CIFN in combination with ribavirin may be an effective regimen in this setting; however, optimal dose and treatment duration of CIFN therapy have not been well established. Patients who achieve viral suppression during prior interferon-based therapy and those who do not have advanced ﬁ brosis have a greater likelihood of achieving a SVR with CIFN retreatment. Individualized therapy targeting speciﬁ c patient groups will be an important consideration in the successful management of prior treatment failures. Additional prospective studies are required in order to identify optimal treatment strategies for the use of CIFN in these patients.
Near-infrared adaptive optics imaging- and spectro-polarimetry with the infrared camera and spectrograph of the Subaru Telescope

We have developed the near-infrared high-spatial resolution imaging and spectro-polarimetric modes with the laser guide adaptive optics system (AO188) and the Infrared Camera and Spectrograph (IRCS) of the 8.2-m Subaru telescope. A LiNbO3 Wollaston prism (as dual beam analyzer) and focal plane masks were installed into the camera section of the IRCS cryostat, enabling us to perform the low- and medium-resolution grism spectropolarimetry (λ/Δλ = 100-1960) as well as the imaging-polarimetry, in conjunction with a half-wave retarder, which had been introduced for the HiCIAO instrument originally, at the front of the AO188 system. The designed wavelength coverage of the Wollaston prism is 0.8-5 μm, although the polarimetry at the 0.95-2.5 μm region is presented in this paper because of the limitations on the current retarder and the dichroic beam splitter of AO188. The focal plane masks, which are reflecting mirror or slits made with tungsten carbide, provide two or four rectangular focal plane apertures with an individual field of view of 4.4 arcsec × 21 arcsec or 4.4 × 54 arcsec for the imaging-polarimetry, or two or four slits with a width of 0.10, 0.15, 0.225, and 0.60 arcsec and a length of 4.4 arcsec for the spectro-polarimetry. The Wollaston prism and polarimetry masks were installed on June and July 2013, and the polarimetric modes had the first light on October 2013. The polarization efficiency is 88-96% and 55-80% at maximum for the imaging- and spectro-polarimetry, respectively, and it depends heavily on the angle of image rotator of AO188. The measured instrumental polarization, which is introduced by the telescope tertiary mirror mainly, is 0.3-0.7%. We describe the design and current performance of the polarimetric function in the near-infrared region.