Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Exploring the role of social capital in public procurement

Purpose This study aims to build on social capital theory (SCT) and its dimensions by examining the role of social capital in the public procurement process and by identifying related contingencies that may influence procurement performance. Design/methodology/approach A systematic literature review and a thematic analysis regarding social capital in procurement are conducted. The antecedent–behaviour–consequence (ABC) model is used for illuminating linkages between social capital, contingencies and procurement performance. Findings The dimensions of social capital are investigated in the procurement process; however, the extent of social capital role can vary between the phases of the process. It is concluded that the contingencies of social dynamics are linked with social capital and may influence the outcomes and performance of the procurement process. Practical implications Social capital can ease interactions between public buyers and private suppliers by contributing to effective tendering, improving social interaction in negotiations and balancing rigidity in contract management, supporting the interests of both parties. The provided framework helps decision makers to comprehend the social dynamics in public procurement. Social implications Improving social dynamics and solutions in public procurement. Originality/value This study extends social capital research in the field of public procurement and creates a framework connecting social capital and prevailing contingency factors to procurement process performance.
Induced Relaxation Enhances the Cardiorespiratory Dynamics in COVID-19 Survivors

Most COVID-19 survivors report experiencing at least one persistent symptom after recovery, including sympathovagal imbalance. Relaxation techniques based on slow-paced breathing have proven to be beneficial for cardiovascular and respiratory dynamics in healthy subjects and patients with various diseases. Therefore, the present study aimed to explore the cardiorespiratory dynamics by linear and nonlinear analysis of photoplethysmographic and respiratory time series on COVID-19 survivors under a psychophysiological assessment that includes slow-paced breathing. We analyzed photoplethysmographic and respiratory signals of 49 COVID-19 survivors to assess breathing rate variability (BRV), pulse rate variability (PRV), and pulse–respiration quotient (PRQ) during a psychophysiological assessment. Additionally, a comorbidity-based analysis was conducted to evaluate group changes. Our results indicate that all BRV indices significantly differed when performing slow-paced breathing. Nonlinear parameters of PRV were more appropriate for identifying changes in breathing patterns than linear indices. Furthermore, the mean and standard deviation of PRQ exhibited a significant increase while sample and fuzzy entropies decreased during diaphragmatic breathing. Thus, our findings suggest that slow-paced breathing may improve the cardiorespiratory dynamics of COVID-19 survivors in the short term by enhancing cardiorespiratory coupling via increased vagal activity.
Transient Analysis of an M/M/1 queue with Multiple Exponential Vacation and N-Policy

A single server Markovian queueing model is considered. The arrivals are allowed to join the queue according to a Poisson distribution and the service takes place according to an exponential distribution. Whenever the system is empty, the server goes for a vacation and return back to the system after N or more customers are found in the system. If the number of customers in the system is less than ‘ ’ then the server takes another vacation. In this paper, we obtain explicit expressions for the time dependent system size probabilities of such a model using Laplace transform and generating function techniques. Numerical illustrations are added to support the theoretical results obtained.
RACE User''s Guide and Reference Manual

The RACE system is a knowledge representation system that implements a highly optimized tableaux calculus for an expressive description logic. It offers reasoning services for multiple TBoxes and for multiple ABoxes as well. The system implements the description logic ALCNHR+. This is the basic logic ALC augmented with number restrictions, role hierarchies and transitive roles. RACE supports the specification of general terminological axioms. A TBox may contain general concept inclusions (GCIs), which state the subsumption relation between two concept terms. Multiple definitions or even cyclic definitions of concepts can be handled by RACE.
The Efficacy of Low-Iodine Diet Instructional Media for the Preparation of Radioactive Iodine Therapy in Thyroid Patients

Objective: To develop and evaluate a low-iodine diet (LID) instructional media for preparing radioactive iodine (RAI) therapy on LID practices, and knowledge in thyroid patients. Material and Methods: This study was a randomized control trial (RCT), consisting of 120 thyroid participants; divided into 2 groups: a control group (original leaflet) and an intervention group (video and booklets). The efficacy of LID media was determined by measuring iodine intake, urine I/Cr ratio, knowledge tests, satisfaction surveys, and facilitators and barriers during the LID period. Results: This study was conducted with 96 individuals. The energy and biggest nutrient intake changes were significantly lower than the baseline. The iodine intake levels of the intervention group were significantly lower than those of the control group. Conversely, the urine I/Cr ratio and proportion of participants that achieved the criteria of both groups showed no significant difference via inter-group. Participants evaluated “agreed” and “strongly agreed” for satisfaction assessment. Furthermore, both groups suggested the importance of social support and encouragement to attain their goal. Conclusion: The results of the efficacy of LID instructional media were evidence-based for developing and evaluating LID multimedia for preparing RAI therapy in thyroid patients in Thailand. There are also good instruments for advice to thyroid patients in the hospital.
Unveiling the Properties of Fls 1718+59: a Galaxy-Galaxy Gravitational Lens System

We present the results of the analysis of FLS 1718+59, a galaxy-galaxy gravitational lens system in the Spitzer First Look Survey (FLS) field. A background galaxy (zs = 0.245) is severely distorted by a nearby elliptical galaxy (zl = 0.08), via gravitational lensing. The system is analysed by several methods, including surface brightness fitting, gravitational lens modeling, and spectral energy distribution fitting. From Galfit and Ellipse we measure basic parameters of the galaxy, such as the effective radius and the average surface brightness within it. gravlens yields the total mass inside the Einstein radius (REin), and MAGPHYS gives us an estimate of the stellar mass inside REin. By comparing these parameters, we confirm that the lens galaxy is an elliptical galaxy on the Fundamental Plane and calculate the stellar mass fraction inside REin, and discuss the results with regards to the initial mass function.
Oncogenic Viruses and the Epigenome: How Viruses Hijack Epigenetic Mechanisms to Drive Cancer

Globally, viral infections substantially contribute to cancer development. Oncogenic viruses are taxonomically heterogeneous and drive cancers using diverse strategies, including epigenomic dysregulation. Here, we discuss how oncogenic viruses disrupt epigenetic homeostasis to drive cancer and focus on how virally mediated dysregulation of host and viral epigenomes impacts the hallmarks of cancer. To illustrate the relationship between epigenetics and viral life cycles, we describe how epigenetic changes facilitate the human papillomavirus (HPV) life cycle and how changes to this process can spur malignancy. We also highlight the clinical impact of virally mediated epigenetic changes on cancer diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment.
A surface roughness grade recognition model for milled workpieces based on deep transfer learning

Many roughness measurement methods rely on designed feature indexes that cannot accurately characterize the roughness and are demanding on the workpiece imaging environment. Roughness measurement methods based on deep neural networks require huge numbers of training samples and the same data distribution for training samples and testing samples, which makes it difficult to achieve wide application in the machining industry. Deep AlexCORAL, a surface roughness grade recognition model for milled workpieces based on deep transfer learning, is proposed in this paper to automatically extract more general roughness-related features. It not only reduces the amount of data required by the model but also the difference in data distribution between the source domain (training set) and the target domain (testing set). The experimental results show that Deep AlexCORAL has 99.33% cross-domain recognition accuracy in a variety of cases with inconsistent data distribution due to various lighting environments. This is unmatched by other roughness grade recognition models.
Long-term thermohaline trends in the Sulawesi Sea based on a high-resolution reanalysis data

Based on the global ocean reanalysis data of COPERNICUS MARINE ENVIRONMENT MONITORING SERVICE (CMEMS) from 1993 to 2019, the long-term thermohaline trends in the Sulawesi Sea are analyzed. The results show that the temperature of the upper middle layer of the Sulawesi Sea has a long-term increasing trend, and the fastest warming is located at 130m, which is 0.05°C/yr, implying a total of 1.35°C in the 27 years. For salinity, there is a whole negative trend, except for the surface layer. Further study shows that the temperature and salinity interannual variations show positive and negative correlation with Niño index, respectively.
Coconut Shell Ash as Partial Substitute to Cement in Concrete Hollow Blocks

Due to heightened demand for construction materials and environmental crisis, this study presents an alternative to cement using upcycled agricultural waste to help the construction industry and address environmental issues. The study focuses on substituting cement in concrete hollow blocks with coconut shell ash at 0, 10, 20, and 30 percent replacement. Four-inch width specimens are fabricated after slump test and underwent compressive strength and water absorption tests at 7, 14, and 28 curing periods. These are some of the insights of the study: (a) slump height of CHB with 30% substitution is the lowest at 4 mm, (b) the 10% CSA performed well among CHB with CSA gaining 3.7454 MPa, and (c) CSA decreased the water absorption to up to 4.6% at 20% replacement and moisture content to a value of 18.22% at 30% substitution after 28 days curing.
A progressive surrogate gradient learning for memristive spiking neural network

In recent years, spiking neural networks (SNNs) have received increasing attention of research in the field of artificial intelligence due to their high biological plausibility, low energy consumption, and abundant spatio-temporal information. However, the non-differential spike activity makes SNNs more difficult to train in supervised training. Most existing methods focusing on introducing an approximated derivative to replace it, while they are often based on static surrogate functions. In this paper, we propose a progressive surrogate gradient learning for backpropagation of SNNs, which is able to approximate the step function gradually and to reduce information loss. Furthermore, memristor cross arrays are used for speeding up calculation and reducing system energy consumption for their hardware advantage. The proposed algorithm is evaluated on both static and neuromorphic datasets using fully connected and convolutional network architecture, and the experimental results indicate that our approach has a high performance compared with previous research.
Interleukin‐33 increases type 2 innate lymphoid cell count and their activation in eosinophilic asthma

Abstract Background Interleukin‐33 (IL‐33) exacerbates asthma probably through type 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s). Nevertheless, the association between eosinophilic asthma (EA) and ILC2s remains obscure, and the mechanisms by which IL‐33 affects ILC2s are yet to be clarified. Methods ILC2s were evaluated in peripheral blood mononuclear cells, induced sputum, and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid obtained from patients with EA. Confocal microscopy was performed to locate ILC2s in lung tissue and the mRNA expression of ILC2‐related genes was also evaluated in the EA model. The proliferation of ILC2s isolated from humans and mice was assessed following IL‐33 or anti‐IL‐33 stimulation. Results The counts, activation, and mRNA expression of relevant genes in ILC2s were higher in PBMCs and airways of patients with EA. In addition, ILC2 cell counts correlated with Asthma control test, blood eosinophil count, Fractional exhaled nitric oxide level, and predicted eosinophilic airway inflammation. IL‐33 induced stronger proliferation of ILC2s and increased their density around blood vessels in the lungs of mice with EA. Moreover, IL‐33 treatment increased the counts and activation of ILC2s and lung inflammatory scores, whereas anti‐IL‐33 antibody significantly reversed these effects in EA mice. Finally, IL‐33 enhanced PI3K and AKT protein expression in ILC2s, whereas inhibition of the PI3K/AKT pathway decreased IL‐5 and IL‐13 production by ILC2s in EA. Conclusions ILC2s, especially activated ILC2s, might be critical markers of EA. IL‐33 can induce and activate ILC2s in the lungs via the PI3K/AKT pathway in EA. Thus, using anti‐IL‐33 antibody could be a part of an effective treatment strategy for EA.
Population structure and phylogeography of three closely related tree peonies

Abstract Paeonia decomposita, Paeonia rotundiloba, and Paeonia rockii are three closely related species of Sect. Moutan is distributed in the montane area of the Eastern Hengduan Mountain region. Understanding the population history of these three tree peony species could contribute to unraveling the evolutionary patterns of undergrowth species in this hotspot area. We used one nuclear DNA marker (internal transcribed spacer region, ITS) and two chloroplast DNA markers (matK, ycf1) to reconstruct the phylogeographic pattern of the populations. In total, 228 individuals from 17 populations of the three species were analyzed in this study. Three nuclear clades (Clade I – Clade III) and four maternal clades (Clade A – Clade D) were reconstructed. Molecular dating suggested that young lineages diverged during the late Pliocene and early Pleistocene, younger than the uplift of the Hengduan Mountains but older than the last glacial maximum (LGM). Significant population and phylogeographic structures were detected at both markers. Furthermore, the populations of these tree peonies were overall at equilibrium during the climatic oscillations of the Pleistocene. The simulated palaeoranges of the three species during the LGM period mostly overlapped, which could have led to cross‐breeding events. We propose an evolutionary scenario in which mountain orogenesis around the Hengduan Mountain area triggered parapatric isolation between maternal lineages of tree peonies. Subsequent climatic fluctuations drove migration and range recontact of these populations along the valleys. This detailed evolutionary history provides new insights into the phylogeographic pattern of species from mountain‐valley systems.
Targeting neuronal mitophagy in ischemic stroke: an update

Abstract Cerebral ischemia is a neurological disorder associated with complex pathological mechanisms, including autophagic degradation of neuronal mitochondria, or termed mitophagy, following ischemic events. Despite being well-documented, the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying the regulation of neuronal mitophagy remain unknown. So far, the evidence suggests neuronal autophagy and mitophagy are separately regulated in ischemic neurons, the latter being more likely activated by reperfusional injury. Specifically, given the polarized morphology of neurons, mitophagy is regulated by different neuronal compartments, with axonal mitochondria being degraded by autophagy in the cell body following ischemia–reperfusion insult. A variety of molecules have been associated with neuronal adaptation to ischemia, including PTEN-induced kinase 1, Parkin, BCL2 and adenovirus E1B 19-kDa-interacting protein 3 (Bnip3), Bnip3-like (Bnip3l) and FUN14 domain-containing 1. Moreover, it is still controversial whether mitophagy protects against or instead aggravates ischemic brain injury. Here, we review recent studies on this topic and provide an updated overview of the role and regulation of mitophagy during ischemic events.
Probing the physical properties of M2LiCeF6 (M = Rb and Cs) double perovskite compounds for prospective high-energy applications employing the DFT framework

Herein, the optoelectronic, structural, thermoelectric, and elastic characteristics of M2LiCeF6 (M = Rb and Cs) double perovskite compounds were investigated using ab initio modeling in the DFT framework. The Birch–Murnaghan fitting curve used for the optimization showed that these two compounds are structurally stable. The elastic properties of the M2LiCeF6 (M = Rb and Cs) double perovskite compounds were examined using the IRelast code. The results showed that these two compounds possess mechanical stability, anisotropy, and toughness, and offer resistance to plastic deformation. The precise and accurate determination of their electronic properties was achieved via the Trans-Blaha-modified Becke-Johnson (TB-mBJ) approximation. The Rb2LiCeF6 and Cs2LiCeF6 compounds are narrow band gap semiconductors with band gaps of 0.6 eV and 0.8 eV at the high symmetrical points from (Γ–M), respectively, exhibiting an indirect nature. To further understand how the various states contribute to the different band structures, total and partial density of state (DOS) computations were performed. The optical properties in the energy range of 0–40 eV for Rb2LiCeF6 and Cs2LiCeF6 were explored. The selected materials show transparency in the low incident photon energy range and have large light absorption and transmission at higher photon energies. Thus, it can be concluded that Rb2LiCeF6 and Cs2LiCeF6 can be used in high-frequency UV devices based on their optical characteristics. Both materials exhibit high electrical conductivity, power factors, and figures of merit (ZT) and act as effective thermoelectric resources. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first theoretical research on the optoelectronic, structural, thermoelectric, and elastic features of M2LiCeF6 (M = Rb and Cs).
A scoping review: What are the cellular mechanisms that drive the allergic inflammatory response to fungal allergens in the lung epithelium?

Abstract Allergic airway disease (AAD) is a collective term for respiratory disorders that can be exacerbated upon exposure to airborne allergens. The contribution of fungal allergens to AAD has become well established over recent years. We conducted a comprehensive review of the literature using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta‐Analyses guidelines to better understand the mechanisms involved in the allergic response to fungi in airway epithelia, identify knowledge gaps and make recommendations for future research. The search resulted in 61 studies for final analysis. Despite heterogeneity in the models and methods used, we identified major pathways involved in fungal allergy. These included the activation of protease‐activated receptor 2, the EGFR pathway, adenosine triphosphate and purinergic receptor‐dependent release of IL33, and oxidative stress, which drove mucin expression and goblet cell metaplasia, Th2 cytokine production, reduced barrier integrity, eosinophil recruitment, and airway hyperresponsiveness. However, there were several knowledge gaps and therefore we recommend future research should focus on the use of more physiologically relevant methods to directly compare key allergenic fungal species, clarify specific mechanisms of fungal allergy, and assess the fungal allergy in disease models. This will inform disease management and future interventions, ultimately reducing the burden of disease.
An improved algorithm for coherent-system reliability

This paper presents a simpler and more efficient algorithm (LVT), based on the one proposed by Veeraraghavan and Trivedi (VT), to calculate system reliability using 'sum of disjoint products' and 'multiple variable inversion' (MVI) techniques. A proposition, a state space division idea, and a theorem are introduced. To compare LVT with several well known MVI algorithms (viz. VT, KDH88, CAREL) the 4 algorithms are implemented on the same platform (Solaris), and the execution-time comparison shows the computational saving achieved by LVT is appreciable.
Instantaneous antidepressant effect of lateral habenula deep brain stimulation in rats studied with functional MRI

The available treatments for depression have substantial limitations, including low response rates and substantial lag time before a response is achieved. We applied deep brain stimulation (DBS) to the lateral habenula (LHb) of two rat models of depression (Wistar Kyoto rats and lipopolysaccharide-treated rats) and observed an immediate (within seconds to minutes) alleviation of depressive-like symptoms with a high-response rate. Simultaneous functional MRI (fMRI) conducted on the same sets of depressive rats used in behavioral tests revealed DBS-induced activation of multiple regions in afferent and efferent circuitry of the LHb. The activation levels of brain regions connected to the medial LHb (M-LHb) were correlated with the extent of behavioral improvements. Rats with more medial stimulation sites in the LHb exhibited greater antidepressant effects than those with more lateral stimulation sites. These results indicated that the antidromic activation of the limbic system and orthodromic activation of the monoaminergic systems connected to the M-LHb played a critical role in the rapid antidepressant effects of LHb-DBS. This study indicates that M-LHb-DBS might act as a valuable, rapid-acting antidepressant therapeutic strategy for treatment-resistant depression and demonstrates the potential of using fMRI activation of specific brain regions as biomarkers to predict and evaluate antidepressant efficacy.
Application of Fuzzy Logic Detector to Improve the Performance of Impulse Noise Filter

: Images and pictures are required as sources of information for analysis and interpretation in various ﬁelds such as medicine, remote sensing etc., These images are prone to impulse noise as a result of errors in the image acquisition or transmission process. Thus, the output image needs to be enhanced. This work presents a novel fuzzy logic based impulse detector to guide the noise ﬁlter to improve their performance and to restore images corrupted by impulse noise. The proposed scheme is based on the sugeno type and its parameters are trained using genetic algorithm. Simulation results show that this proposed detector can be effectively used to improve the performance of the impulse noise ﬁlter.
THE CORRELATION BETWEEN PAHS AND DIOXINS FORMATION DURING COAL AND MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE CO-INCINERATION PROCESS

In order to check the relation between PAHs and dioxins formation, the paper evaluated the possibility of dioxins formation from PAHs via precursor pathway, as well as the corresponding mechanism in municipal solid waste (MSW) incineration process. The incineration experiment mixed proportionally by municipal solid waste and coal on a fixed-bed had been done, then the PAHs and dioxins formation performance were studied. With the increase of S/C1 ratio, the total PAH emission decreases, and this trend is similar with that of dioxins emission. It shows that the correlation between PCDF and PAHs is obvious. Especially the correlation between Benzo(a) anthracene and PCDF is very obvious, so BaA may be one of typical PCDF indicators.