bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Small Partnership Company Form as a Vehicle for Small and Medium-sized Businesses in Lithuania: Is the Theoretical Model Effective in Practice?
Authors: Mikaloniene Lina
Published: July 2018

At the end of 2012, Lithuania introduced a new type of limited liability company form for small and medium-sized business – the small partnership. Based on a comparative approach, lawmakers modelled the small partnership as a hybrid entity, assimilating both partnership- and corporate-type attributes. This article analyses key features, advantages and disadvantages of the Lithuanian small partnership aiming to evaluate whether the theoretical model of this flexible vehicle for small and medium-sized businesses is functional in practice.
Legal Protection against Decisions of the Single Resolution Board pursuant to Article 85 Single Resolution Mechanism Regulation
Authors: Skauradszun Dominik
Published: July 2018

The Single Resolution Board is a powerful authority in the European Union – perhaps even one of the most powerful. The system for legal protection against decisions of the Single Resolution Board based on Article 85 of the Regulation (EU) No 06/2014 is complex. The competent Appeal Panel has rejected more than 80 percent of all cases up to now and decided that the large majority of all appeals were not even admissible. Nevertheless, the legal literature on legal protection against decisions of the Single Resolution Board is minimal. As far as can be seen, no in-depth examination of the appeal procedure has been published yet. Case law of the General Court is not (yet) available. This study examines Article 85 of the Single Resolution Mechanism Regulation and presents an interpretation of the legal protection system that balances the interests of credit institutions as well as the interests of the European financial market and the European taxpayers in a powerful European resolution authority. The results are summarised in 10 theses at the end of this paper for further discussion.
Partially Fluorinated Ether as an Electrolyte Additive to Modify Electrode Surface and Suppress Dissolution of Polysulfides in Li-S Batteries
Authors: Qian Feng , Shao Jie , Chen Yu , Zhu Guobin , Qu Qunting , Zheng Honghe
Published: July 2018

1,1,2,2-tetrafluoroethyl-2,2,3,3-tetrafluoropropyl ether (TTE), a kind of fluorinated ether, was used as an electrolyte additive for Li-S batteries. A compact, smooth, and homogenous surface layer was formed on lithium anode at the optimized amount of added TTE. In addition, TTE additive played a crucial role in modifying the composition of the passivation layer on the sulfur/carbon cathode. Consequently, the dissolution and shuttling of polysulfides were effectively prevented. The reversible capacity, initial coulombic efficiency, electrode reaction kinetic, and cycling stability of Li-S batteries were greatly improved.
Isolation and characterization of lignin from beech wood and chestnut sawdust for the preparation of lignin nanoparticles (LNPs) from wood industry side-streams
Authors: Zikeli Florian , Vinciguerra Vittorio , Taddei Anna Rita , D’Annibale Alessandro , Romagnoli Manuela , Scarascia Mugnozza Giuseppe
Published: July 2018

Lignin was isolated through mild acidolysis from local wood sources such as beech wood and chestnut wood sawdust, a high-volume side product of wood industries. The lignin fractions were characterized by pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS), Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR), ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) and two-dimensional heteronuclear single-quantum correlation nuclear magnetic resonance (2D HSQC NMR) spectroscopies and size exclusion chromatography (SEC). The Klason lignin (KL) content and polysaccharide composition were determined using traditional methods. Lignin nanoparticles (LNPs) were prepared via a non-solvent method involving dialysis and characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and FTIR and UV-VIS spectroscopies. Semi-porous as well as hollow nanoparticles endowed with a spherical shape were observed. The large majority of the LNPs exhibited an average particle diameter of 90–120 nm. Dynamic light scattering (DLS) analysis showed that both distribution and frequency of dimensional classes of LNPs are clearly affected by the lignin solvent system, i.e. solvent selection governs the size distribution of LNPs.
Dental fluorosis and associated risk factors in early adolescents in India
Authors: Kumar Sandeep , Chauhan Astha , Kumar Arunoday , Kumar Siddharth , Gupta Anjali , Roy Sayak , Kumari Simran C.
Published: July 2018

Background

Dental fluorosis has a negative impact on the facial esthetics of adolescents and is a worldwide oral health concern.

Objective

To assess the prevalence and associated risk factors for dental fluorosis in early adolescents in India.

Methods

This was a cross-sectional study carried out on 800 adolescent school children selected from the Jhabua and Dhar districts of Madhya Pradesh, India. The children were in the of 12–15-year age group. A total of eight schools from both Jhabua and Dhar districts were included in the study. A self-administered questionnaire collected information on demographic characteristics, oral hygiene practices and various risk factors for dental fluorosis. Water samples were collected from each zone and sent to a laboratory for water fluoride estimation. Dental fluorosis was assessed using the Dean index. Chi-squared (χ2) and logistic regression analysis were performed.

Results

The overall prevalence of dental fluorosis was found to be 40.5% in early adolescents. The prevalence of dental fluorosis was found to be 45% in the Jhabua district and 36% in the Dhar district. The water fluoride content was found to be the strongest predictor for dental fluorosis followed by the method of water storage.

Conclusion

Dental fluorosis affects a large number of adolescents in both the Jhabua and Dhar districts of Madhya Pradesh. Effective policies focusing on oral health education and prevention of dental fluorosis need to be drafted.
Drying Performance and Product Quality of Sliced Carrots by Infrared Blanching Followed by Different Drying Methods
Authors: Wu Bengang , Pan Zhongli , Xu Baoguo , Bai Junwen , El-Mashad Hamed M. , Wang Bei , Zhou Cunshan , Ma Haile
Published: July 2018

The objective of this study was to investigate the processing parameters and quality of carrots under sequential infrared (IR) dry-blanching and (1) hot air drying (IRB-HAD), (2) infrared drying (IRB-IRD), and (3) Infrared-hot air drying (IRB-IRHAD). Water blanching at 90oC was used for comparison. The quality of dried carrot was evaluated based on vitamin C content, rehydration ratio, color, shrinkage and hardness. Applying IR dry-blanching for 15 min resulted in the reductions of about one log in peroxidase (POD) activities and 54 % in moisture reduction. A notable change in the surface color and retention of vitamin C were obtained with IR blanching. IRB-IRD and IRB-IRHAD had higher drying rates and higher quality. The recommended processing parameters for IRB-IRHAD are IR blanching for 15 min, followed by IR drying to a moisture content of 30–40 % wet basis (w.b.), and then finished by HA drying to a targeted MC (8 % w.b.).
Existence of Solutions to Boundary Value Problems for a Class of Nonlinear Difference Systems
Authors: Zhou Tao , Liu Xia , Shi Haiping
Published: July 2018

This paper is devoted to investigate a question of the existence of solutions to boundary value problems for a class of nonlinear difference systems. The proof is based on the notable mountain pass lemma in combination with variational technique. By using the critical point theory, some new existence criteria are obtained.
Analyzing morphology-related strategies in Spanish L2 lexical inferencing: how do suffixes matter?
Authors: Marcos Miguel Nausica
Published: July 2018

Intraword awareness, i. e., of affixes and stems, helps L2 learners in inferring the meaning of unknown words. Learners draw inferences relying on suffixes, prefixes and stems since each element can independently contribute to comprehension. This study analyzes morphology-related strategies in inferencing and focuses on the contribution of suffixes for adult L1 English-speaking learners of Spanish. Differences among suffixes (i. e., transparency, biuniqueness, explicitness of instruction, and cognateness) are taken into account. In a cross-sectional design with learners (n=209) of different proficiency levels (from 2 to 7 semesters of university study), intraword awareness was analyzed by means of two metalinguistic tasks. Participants of all proficiency levels relied on morphology-related strategies, with an increase of proficiency accompanied by an increase in strategy use. As for suffixes, instruction andcognatenessmattered more than frequency in guiding students to successful inferencing. Nevertheless, knowledge of suffixes was still limited for the most advanced learners.
Generating vascular conduits: from tissue engineering to three-dimensional bioprinting
Authors: Maina Renee M. , Barahona Maria J. , Finotti Michele , Lysyy Taras , Geibel Peter , D’Amico Francesco , Mulligan David , Geibel John P.
Published: July 2018

Vascular disease – including coronary artery disease, carotid artery disease, and peripheral vascular disease – is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. The standard of care for restoring patency or bypassing occluded vessels involves using autologous grafts, typically the saphenous veins or internal mammary arteries. Yet, many patients who need life- or limb-saving procedures have poor outcomes, and a third of patients who need vascular intervention have multivessel disease and therefore lack appropriate vasculature to harvest autologous grafts from. Given the steady increase in the prevalence of vascular disease, there is great need for grafts with the biological and mechanical properties of native vessels that can be used as vascular conduits. In this review, we present an overview of methods that have been employed to generate suitable vascular conduits, focusing on the advances in tissue engineering methods and current three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting methods. Tissue-engineered vascular grafts have been fabricated using a variety of approaches such as using preexisting scaffolds and acellular organic compounds. We also give an extensive overview of the novel use of 3D bioprinting as means of generating new vascular conduits. Different strategies have been employed in bioprinting, and the use of cell-based inks to create de novo structures offers a promising solution to bridge the gap of paucity of optimal donor grafts. Lastly, we provide a glimpse of our work to create scaffold-free, bioreactor-free, 3D bioprinted vessels from a combination of rat vascular smooth muscle cells and fibroblasts that remain patent and retain the tensile and mechanical strength of native vessels.
OLS and 2SLS in Randomized and Conditionally Randomized Experiments
Authors: Ansel Jason , Hong Han , Jessie Li and
Published: July 2018

We investigate estimation and inference of the (local) average treatment effect parameter when a binary instrumental variable is generated by a randomized or conditionally randomized experiment. Under i.i.d. sampling, we show that adding covariates and their interactions with the instrument will weakly improve estimation precision of the (local) average treatment effect, but the robust OLS (2SLS) standard errors will no longer be valid. We provide an analytic correction that is easy to implement and demonstrate through Monte Carlo simulations and an empirical application the interacted estimator’s efficiency gains over the unadjusted estimator and the uninteracted covariate adjusted estimator. We also generalize our results to covariate adaptive randomization where the treatment assignment is not i.i.d., thus extending the recent contributions of Bugni, F., I.A. Canay, A.M. Shaikh (2017a), Inference Under Covariate-Adaptive Randomization. Working Paper and Bugni, F., I.A. Canay, A.M. Shaikh (2017b), Inference Under Covariate-Adaptive Randomization with Multiple Treatments. Working Paper to allow for the case of non-compliance.
Screening for autoimmune thyroiditis and celiac disease in minority children with type 1 diabetes
Authors: Kochummen Elna , Marwa Albara , Umpaichitra Vatcharapan , Perez-Colon Sheila , Chin Vivian L.
Published: July 2018

Background:

Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (HT) and celiac disease (CD) are commonly associated with type 1 diabetes (T1DM). There is no consensus on screening, however, the American Diabetes Association (ADA) and the International Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Diabetes (ISPAD) recommend testing for thyroid function (TFT), thyroid antibodies and anti-tissue transglutaminase antibodies (TTG) IgA soon after diagnosis. TFT should be repeated every 1–2 years while TTG IgA should be tested for within 2 and 5 years. We hypothesize that the rate of HT and CD in our T1DM children is lower, so screening may need to be revised to reflect their underlying risk.

Methods:

An Institutional Review Board (IRB)-approved retrospective chart review was conducted on children with T1DM in the past 10 years. Age, sex, race, A1C, TFT, thyroid and celiac antibodies were obtained. t-Tests, the Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test and stepwise regression were performed.

Results:

Of 222 children with T1DM, with a mean age of 15.8±5.53 years, followed for 6.1±4.0 years, 53% female, mean A1C 11.1±1.9% and 87% African American (AA). Three had Graves’ disease (1.3%), three had HT (1.3%) and 97% were euthyroid. TFT were assessed on average every 1.3 years and thyroid antibodies every 2.5 years. Positive thyroid antibody was found in 11%, negative in 57% and unknown in 32%. The positive antibody group had higher mean A1C and TSH. No biopsy confirmed cases of CD (0%) were found when screened every 2.3 years.

Conclusions:

The number of individuals who screened positive for hypothyroid HT and CD was lower than expected in our population. Further studies are needed to assess the optimal screening frequency for HT and CD in minority children with T1DM.
Evaluation of Mn-superoxide dismutase and catalase gene expression in childhood obesity: its association with insulin resistance
Authors: Mohseni Roohollah , Arab Sadeghabadi Zahra , Goodarzi Mohammad Taghi , Teimouri Maryam , Nourbakhsh Mitra , Razzaghy Azar Maryam
Published: July 2018

Background

Obesity is associated with oxidative stress. Superoxide dismutase (SOD) is the first line of defense against reactive oxygen species (ROS), eliminating the strong superoxide radical and producing H2O2, which can then be degraded by catalase (CAT). The main objective of this study was to evaluate the gene expression antioxidant enzymes (Mn-SOD and CAT) in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of obese and normal-weight children, and its association with anthropometric and biochemical parameters.

Methods

Thirty obese and 30 control subjects between the ages of 8 and 16 years were enrolled in this study. Serum insulin levels were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and insulin resistance was calculated using the homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR). Biochemical parameters were also measured. PBMCs of the subjects were separated and Mn-SOD and CAT gene expression was measured using real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR).

Results

Mn-SOD and CAT gene expression was significantly lower in the obese group compared with the control group (p<0.01). Also, a positive correlation was observed between the gene expression of Mn-SOD and CAT and body mass index (BMI), fasting blood sugar, insulin resistance, low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) cholesterol, triglycerides (TG) and systolic blood pressure (SBP).

Conclusions

Induction of antioxidants, especially Mn-SOD and CAT, can lead to reduction of oxidative stress and prevent the complications of obesity in children.
Severe consumptive hypothyroidism caused by multiple infantile hepatic haemangiomas
Authors: Simsek Enver , Demiral Meliha , Gundoğdu Elif
Published: July 2018

Background

Infantile hepatic haemangiomas (IHHs) produce an excess of the thyroid hormone inactivating enzyme type-3 iodothyronine deiodinase (D3), leading to rapid degradation of thyroid hormones and consumptive hypothyroidism. The L-thyroxine replacement dose in patients with consumptive hypothyroidism is inappropriately higher than that in congenital hypothyroidism.

Case presentation

A 4-month-old boy presented with abdominal distention. Thyroid function tests (TFTs) revealed an elevated thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) level of 177 mU/L, normal free thyroxine (fT4) of 1.23 ng/dL, low free tri-iodothyronine (fT3) of 1.55 pg/mL and increased reverse T3 (rT3) of 1240 ng/dL. Abdominal ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed multiple IHHs. Based on his TFTs, ultrasonography and MRI evidence, he was diagnosed with consumptive hypothyroidism, and L-thyroxine replacement at 15 μg/kg/day was started. The L-thyroxine dose was increased gradually to 35 μ/kg/day until a stabilising euthyroid status was achieved. By the age of 8 months, the TSH concentration was decreased to normal levels; the L-thyroxine dose was gradually reduced and finally discontinued at the age of 12 months. Repeat abdominal ultrasound and MRI revealed a reduction in the number and size of the haemangiomas. The TFTs were at normal reference levels. The patient remains in active follow-up.

Conclusions

Neonatal screening for congenital hypothyroidism is usually negative in cases of IHH, as seen in our case. A high index of suspicion is necessary to diagnose hypothyroidism in cases of IHH. The present case required very high doses of levothyroxine to achieve a euthyroid status. In cases of hypothyroidism in the first year of life with consumptive hypothyroidism caused by hepatic haemangioma, aggressive L-thyroxine replacement is required with no upper limit. The dose should be increased gradually until a stabilising euthyroid status is achieved.
First record of the Egyptian fruit bat, Rousettus aegyptiacus (Pteropodidae), from Kastellorizo island, Greece
Authors: Strachinis Ilias , Kalaentzis Konstantinos , Katsiyiannis Philippos , Kazilas Christos
Published: July 2018

The Egyptian fruit bat (Rousettus aegyptiacus) is a pteropodid species with a large part of its range in the Palearctic region. It has a quite discontinuous range from sub-Saharan Africa to NW India, including SW Turkey. In this note we present the first record of the Egyptian fruit bat in Greek territory, observed during a zoological expedition on the island of Kastellorizo (Dodecanese, Greece). At least three specimens were observed foraging a white mulberry in the town of Megisti on May 4 2017, but no individual was spotted during a summer expedition in August 2017.
The faces at play in performance appraisals: With a focus upon a UK retail organization
Authors: Archer Dawn , Willcox Phil
Published: July 2018

A variety of face types can be in operation in workplaces, dependent on, for example, the kind of workplace, the various activities engaged in in that workplace, the status/role/gender of participants working in and/or connected with the workplace, etc. This paper offers an adapted version of Archer’s (2015) Facework Scale as a means of accounting for the different types of face in evidence in one activity - Performance Appraisals - in one workplace, relating to a UK retail organization. We will show that interlocutors used facework strategies that emphasized different or multiple facets of face on both a professional and personal level (Jagodziński 2013). This includes attempting to safeguard/support their working relationships (Haugh 2013) by managing impressions of self and/or the company (Jones and Pitman 1982) at the same time as maintaining credibility for self and/or other(s) (Bolino et al. 2016). We use our findings to argue that employers and their employees would benefit from having an understanding of face(work), and briefly discuss the training implications for Performance Appraisals if face(work) notions were introduced.
“Helping you to pay us”: Rapport management in debt collection call centre encounters
Authors: Harrington Leigh
Published: July 2018

This paper investigates the rapport management (Spencer-Oatey 2005) that collections agents at a UK-based utilities company call centre are expected to perform during debt collection telephone interactions. It examines the rapport-relevant information communicated in the textual materials, including training manuals, through which a prescribed debt collection style is implemented. The analysis reveals that there are tensions in the rapport-concerns that collectors must attend to when using the style. Collectors are instructed to perform potentially face-threatening behaviours in order to collect debt, whilst simultaneously engaging in linguistic behaviour that may be interpreted as face-enhancing and which functions to develop rapport with the debtor. It is suggested that the local deployment of this contradictory “helping you to pay us” philosophy is problematic on multiple levels and may give rise to relational tensions between collectors and debtors who have conflicting expectations about rapport management entitlements. In turn, this may contribute to a culture of sanctioned face-attacks in call centres (Archer and Jagodziński 2015). Therefore, I suggest that call centres may need to loosen the synecdochical hold they have over their employees, thereby affording them the flexibility and volition to cope with the complex face demands, unpredictability and potential volatility of debt collection encounters.
Co-creating customer experience through call centre interaction: Interactional achievement and professional face
Authors: Jagodziński Piotr , Archer Dawn
Published: July 2018

Many customer service institutions draw on the (argued over) notion of “customer experience”. Gentile et al. (2007) suggest that, at an optimum, the notion assumes a thinking and feeling customer who co-creates their customer experience together with the service providing institution. This co-creation is believed to comprise interactional involvement, personalization and the holistic treatment of the customer’s needs. Given the latter, we might expect service providers, such as call centres, to view language as a vital means of creating an experience with the customer. The extant linguistic call centre research, including our own, points to the fact that call centre institutions view language as fundamental to their functioning. However, heavy language regulation tends to be the most important - if not the only - means of achieving outstanding customer experience (Cameron 2000; Jagodziński 2013; Archer and Jagodziński 2015). There is a clear mismatch, then, between the tenets of customer experience and the way language is conceptualized, interactionally managed and regulated. Throughout this paper, we argue that the co-creation of customer experience must be accompanied by its linguistic co-construction, which can only be achieved by giving frontline employees more interactional freedom than they tend to have in practice.
Neuroprotective effect of ZnT3 knockout on subarachnoid hemorrhage
Authors: Chen Duo , Nie Zhao-Bo , Chi Zhi-Hong , Wang Zhan-You , Wei Xiang-Tai , Guan Jun-Hong
Published: July 2018

Background

The pathophysiology of early brain injury (EBI) after subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) is poorly understood. The present study evaluates the influence of zinc transporter 3 (ZnT3) knockout and the depletion of vesicular zinc on EBI.

Methodology

SAH was induced in ZnT3 KO mice by internal carotid artery perforation. The changes in behavior were recorded at 24 hours after SAH. Hematoxylin-eosin, Nissl and TUNEL staining were performed to evaluate neuronal apoptosis. Data from mice with a score of 8-12 in intracerebral bleeding (i.e. moderate SAH), were analyzed.

Results

The degree of SAH-induced neuronal injury was directly correlated to the amount of blood lost, which in turn was negatively reflected in their behavior. The Wild Type (WT)-SAH group behaved poorly when compared to the knockout (KO)-SAH mice and their poor neurological score was accompanied by an increase in the number of apoptotic neurons. Conversely, the improvement of behavior in the KO-SAH group was associated with a marked reduction in apoptotic neurons.

Conclusions

These results suggest that ZnT3 knockout may have played a vital role in the attenuation of neuronal injury after SAH and that ZnT3 may prove to be a potential therapeutic target for neuroprotection in EBI.
An Investigation of the Forced Convection and Heat Transfer with a Cylindrical Agitator Subjected to Non-Newtonian Nanofluids
Authors: Li Botong , Zheng Liancun , Zhu Liangliang , Liu Tao , Zhang Wei
Published: July 2018

The present research performed a numerical simulation of laminar forced convection nanofluid-based non-Newtonian flow in a channel connecting a tank with heating regions. To achieve a rapid diffusion of heat, a cylindrical agitator is inserted into the tank. Power-law modelling is employed to describe the effect of non-Newtonian behaviour. The velocity and temperature fields and heat transfer coefficient ratio are studied systematically, taking into account the impact of various parameters, such as the generalised Reynolds number Re, generalised Prandtl number Pr, angular velocity of a cylinder ω, nanoparticle volume fraction ϕ, mixer size and location. Our research reveals that, to improve the heat transfer in practice, several applicable strategies are available, including the addition of more nanoparticles into the base fluid, which proved to be the most efficient method to enhance the heat transfer of a nanofluid.
Conflicted between Goal-Directed and Habitual Control, an fMRI Investigation
Authors: Watson P. , van Wingen G. , de Wit S.
Published: July 2018

“Slips of action” occur in everyday life when we momentarily lose sight of a goal (for example, when in a rush or distracted). Associative models propose that these habitual responses can be activated via a direct stimulus-response (S-R) mechanism, regardless of the current hedonic value of the outcome. The slips-of-action task (SOAT) has been extensively used in both healthy and pathological populations to measure habit tendencies, the likelihood of making erroneous responses for devalued outcomes. Inspection of behavioral performance does not reveal, however, whether the impairments were due to impaired goal-directed control or aberrantly strong habit formation. In the current study, we used functional MRI while human participants performed both the instrumental training and SOAT test phases, to elucidate the relative contributions of these mechanisms to performance on the SOAT. On trials in which conflict arises between competing goal-directed and habitual responses, we observed increased activation across areas including the anterior cingulate cortex, paracingulate gyrus, lateral orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), insula, and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG). Responding for devalued outcomes was related to increased activation in the premotor cortex and cerebellum, implicating these regions in habitual responding. Increased activation in the caudate, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), and frontal pole during training was associated with better performance during the test phase, indicative of goal-directed action control. These results endorse interpretation of the SOAT in terms of competing goal-directed and habitual mechanisms and highlight that cognitive control processes present an additional bottleneck for successful performance on this task.
Prognostic relevance of proliferation-related miRNAs in pancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasms
Authors: Grolmusz Vince Kornél , Kövesdi Annamária , Borka Katalin , Igaz Peter , Patócs Attila
Published: July 2018

Objective

Pancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasms (PanNENs) are rare tumors arising from the endocrine pancreas; however, their prognosis differs significantly upon their proliferative state, which is characterized by histopathological grading. MiRNAs are small, noncoding RNAs posttranscriptionally regulating gene expression. Our aim was to identify miRNAs with altered expression upon proliferation which can be used as prognostic biomarkers in PanNENs.

Methods

MiRNA expression profiles of 40 PanNENs were downloaded from Gene Expression Omnibus and were reanalyzed upon tumor grades (discovery cohort). Results of the reanalysis were confirmed by qRT-PCR analysis of five miRNAs on an independent validation cohort of 63 primary PanNEN samples. Cox proportional hazards survival regression models were fit for both univariate and multivariate analysis to determine the miRNAs’ effect on progression-free and overall survival.

Results

Nineteen miRNAs displayed differential expression between tumor grades. The altered expression of three out of five chosen miRNAs was successfully validated; hsa-miR-21, hsa-miR-10a and hsa-miR-106b were upregulated in more proliferative PanNENs compared to Grade 1 tumors. In univariate analysis, higher expression of tissue hsa-miR-21, hsa-miR-10a and hsa-miR-106b of primary PanNENs predicted worse progression-free and overall survival; however, multivariate analysis only confirmed the expression of hsa-miR-21 as an independent prognostic factor.

Conclusions

The expression of hsa-miR-106b, hsa-miR-10a and especially hsa-miR-21 has prognostic relevance regarding progression-free and overall survival in patients with PanNENs.
MATERNAL NUTRITION AND REPRODUCTIVE FUNCTIONS OF FEMALE AND MALE OFFSPRING
Authors: Kalem Ziya , Namli Kalem Muberra , Anadol Elvan , Bakirarar Batuhan , Yilmaz Canan , Elmas Cigdem , Yalcinkaya Perihan , Ruso Halil , Gurgan Timur
Published: July 2018

This study aimed to investigate the effects of maternal unhealthy nutrition on the reproductive functions of female and male adult offspring. This was an animal study carried out with 24 virgin female Wistar rats(dams) and their male and female offspring. Rats were divided standard diet (SD) or cafeteria diet (CD) groups, after 10 weeks of feeding, all rats were paired with a Wistar stud male, and each group was again divided into CD and SD groups during the pregnancy and lactation periods. After birth, 6 female and 6 male pups in each group, were subjected to study. Following 3 weeks of lactation, the pups were fed with SD for 8 weeks and sacrificed when they were considered adult at 11th week for analysis. Primordial and antral follicle counts, serum anti-Mullerian hormone(AMH) and phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) in the oocyte cytoplasm were examined to evaluate ovarian function, and E-cadherin and integrin-β1 levels were examined in endometrial tissues for the evaluation of endometrial receptivity in female offspring. Sperm analysis was performed in male offspring. In groups in which the dams were fed CD, primordial follicular pool, PTEN, and endometrial receptivity were reduced. In contrast, anti-Mullerian hormone and the number of antral follicles were not changed. In male offspring, the testicles were smaller, testosterone production decreased, AMH increased, and the number and function of sperm were not changed. Sperm analysis results were not changed. All negative effects on reproductive functions were more apparent in groups fed with the CD during the pregestational period.
GATA4 is a negative regulator of contractility in testicular peritubular myoid cells
Authors: Wang Yu-Qian , Batool Aalia , Chen Su-Ren , Liu Yi-Xun
Published: July 2018

Reduced contractility of the testicular peritubular myoid (PTM) cells may contribute to human male sub- or infertility. Transcription factor GATA4 in Sertoli and Leydig cells is essential for murine spermatogenesis; but limited attention has been paid to the potential role of GATA4 in PTM cells. In primary cultures of mouse PTM cells, siRNA knockdown of GATA4 increased the contractile activity, while GATA4 overexpression significantly attenuated the contractility of PTM cells using a collagen gel contraction assay. Using RNA sequencing and qRT-PCR, we identified a set of genes that exhibited opposite expressional alternation between Gata4 siRNA vs nontargeting siRNA-treated PTM cells and Gata4 adenovirus vs control adenovirus-treated PTM cells. Notably, ion channels, smooth muscle function, cytokines and chemokines, cytoskeleton, adhesion and extracellular matrix were the top four enriched pathways, as revealed by cluster analysis. Natriuretic peptide type B (NPPB) content was significantly upregulated by GATA4 overexpression in both PTM cells and their culture supernatant. More importantly, the addition of 100 μM NPPB could abolish the promoting effect of Gata4 silencing on PTM cell contraction. Taken together, we suggest that the inhibitory action of GATA4 on PTM cell contraction is mediated at least partly by regulating genes belonging to smooth muscle contraction pathway (e.g. Nppb).
BIODISPONIBILITATEA ŞI FARMACOCINETICA SUBCELULARĂ [Subcellular bioavailability and pharmacokinetics] by Sorin E. Leucuţa
Authors: Popescu Honorius
Published: July 2018

Casa Cărţii de Ştiinţă, Cluj-Napoca, 2014195 pages, ISBN: 606-17-0521-4
Adverse Events in Hospitalized Pediatric Patients
Authors: Stockwell David C. , Landrigan Christopher P. , Toomey Sara L. , Loren Samuel S. , Jang Jisun , Quinn Jessica A. , Ashrafzadeh Sepideh , Wang Michelle J. , Wu Melody , Sharek Paul J. , Classen David C. , Srivastava Rajendu , Parry Gareth , Schuster Mark A. ,   for the GAPPS Study Group
Published: July 2018

BACKGROUND:

Patient safety concerns over the past 2 decades have prompted widespread efforts to reduce adverse events (AEs). It is unclear whether these efforts have resulted in reductions in hospital-wide AE rates. We used a validated safety surveillance tool, the Global Assessment of Pediatric Patient Safety, to measure temporal trends (2007–2012) in AE rates among hospitalized children.

METHODS:

We conducted a retrospective surveillance study of randomly selected pediatric inpatient records from 16 teaching and nonteaching hospitals. We constructed Poisson regression models with hospital random intercepts, controlling for patient age, sex, insurance, and chronic conditions, to estimate changes in AE rates over time.

RESULTS:

Examining 3790 records, reviewers identified 414 AEs (19.1 AEs per 1000 patient days; 95% confidence interval [CI] 17.2–20.9) and 210 preventable AEs (9.5 AEs per 1000 patient days; 95% CI 8.2–10.8). On average, teaching hospitals had higher AE rates than nonteaching hospitals (26.2 [95% CI 23.7–29.0] vs 5.1 [95% CI 3.7–7.1] AEs per 1000 patient days, P < .001). Chronically ill children had higher AE rates than patients without chronic conditions (33.9 [95% CI 24.5–47.0] vs 14.0 [95% CI 11.8–16.5] AEs per 1000 patient days, P < .001). Multivariate analyses revealed no significant changes in AE rates over time. When stratified by hospital type, neither teaching nor nonteaching hospitals experienced significant temporal AE rate variations.

CONCLUSIONS:

AE rates in pediatric inpatients are high and did not improve from 2007 to 2012. Pediatric AE rates were substantially higher in teaching hospitals as well as in patients with more chronic conditions.
Editorial
Authors: Martins Tânia Barbosa
Published: July 2018

Editorial referente ao volume 28, número 71 (2018), da Impulso - Revista de Ciências Sociais e Humanas, da Universidade Metodista de Piracicaba, que tem por temática o Trabalho Docente na Educação Superior e Educação Básica em Tempos de Crise.
Da universidade à Commoditycidade: ou de como e quando, se a educação/formação é sacrificada no altar do Mercado, o futuro da universidade se situaria em algum lugar do passado
Authors: Marcondes Diego , Moura Danielle Katherine da Silva
Published: July 2018

BIANCHETTI, Lucídio; SGUISSARDI, Valdemar. Da universidade à Commoditycidade: ou de como e quando, se a educação/formação é sacrificada no altar do Mercado, o futuro da universidade se situaria em algum lugar do passado. Campinas, SP: Mercado de Letras, 2017
Tecnologias digitais na formação docente: reconstrução de sentidos
Authors: Backes Luciana , Rosa Glaucia Silva da
Published: July 2018

O artigo reflete sobre a tensão evidenciada na educação entre docentes e tecnologias, a partir de uma pesquisa realizada por meio da formação docente. A pesquisa é de natureza exploratória e envolve análise de natureza qualitativa, onde a metodologia utilizada para o desenvolvimento foi a pesquisa-formação multirreferencial, que partiu da seguinte problemática: Como se constitui a reconstrução de sentidos na relação entre tecnologias digitais e educação para os docentes da rede municipal de Canoas/RS? Para desenvolver o estudo foi realizado um curso de formação docente (nível extensão acadêmica) ofertado na modalidade b-learning (encontros presenciais e online) para os professores da rede municipal do ensino básica. Nessa investigação foi possível evidenciar que a reconstrução de sentidos se dá na capacidade dos seres humanos em produzir significados, e isso se revela em meio as interações que emergiram durante o curso.
A aceleração do tempo e o declínio da experiência na contemporaneidade
Authors: Santos Elaine Moraes
Published: July 2018

Compreender como as pessoas se relacionam com o tempo na sociedade contemporânea implica uma investigação sobre aspectos históricos, sociais e subjetivos que contribuem, ou não, para uma experiência autêntica nos dias atuais. Para trazer à tona alguns questionamentos sobre a assunto, esta proposta de ensaio foi dividida em três secções. Na primeira, buscaremos identificar como um tempo social tende a provocar novas reconfigurações da experiência, na qual a relação tridimensional entre passado, presente e futuro estaria comprometida pelo afastamento de padrões significativos do passado, que não mais determinam o presente e, consequentemente, obscurecem o futuro. Neste âmbito, o conceito de experiência autêntica apresentado por Walter Benjamin fundamentará a discussão. Na segunda secção será provocado um debate sobre a subtração dos sentidos decorrente do desenvolvimento dos processos comunicativos, com ênfase nos recursos digitais. Para este propósito, a Teoria da Mídia, apresentada por Harry Pross, será articulada à Teoria da tecno-imagem, proposta por Vilém Flusser. Por fim, na terceira secção serão apresentadas reflexões pessoais da experiência cotidiana em consonância com o arcabouço teórico de Hartmut Rosa, representante da Teoria Crítica da Sociedade repensada sob a ótica da temporalidade.
Axiomatic Foundations for Ranking Systems
Authors: Altman A. , Tennenholtz M.
Published: July 2018

Reasoning about agent preferences on a set of alternatives, and the aggregation of such preferences into some social ranking is a fundamental issue in reasoning about multi-agent systems. When the set of agents and the set of alternatives coincide, we get the ranking systems setting. A famous type of ranking systems are page ranking systems in the context of search engines. In this paper we present an extensive axiomatic study of ranking systems. In particular, we consider two fundamental axioms: Transitivity, and Ranked Independence of Irrelevant Alternatives. Surprisingly, we find that there is no general social ranking rule that satisfies both requirements. Furthermore, we show that our impossibility result holds under various restrictions on the class of ranking problems considered. However, when transitivity is weakened, an interesting possibility result is obtained. In addition, we show a complete axiomatization of approval voting using ranked IIA.
Global Inference for Sentence Compression: An Integer Linear Programming Approach
Authors: Clarke J. , Lapata M.
Published: July 2018

Sentence compression holds promise for many applications ranging from summarization to subtitle generation. Our work views sentence compression as an optimization problem and uses integer linear programming (ILP) to infer globally optimal compressions in the presence of linguistically motivated constraints. We show how previous formulations of sentence compression can be recast as ILPs and extend these models with novel global constraints. Experimental results on written and spoken texts demonstrate improvements over state-of-the-art models.
Graphical Model Inference in Optimal Control of Stochastic Multi-Agent Systems
Authors: Van den Broek B. , Wiegerinck W. , Kappen B.
Published: July 2018

In this article we consider the issue of optimal control in collaborative multi-agent systems with stochastic dynamics. The agents have a joint task in which they have to reach a number of target states. The dynamics of the agents contains additive control and additive noise, and the autonomous part factorizes over the agents. Full observation of the global state is assumed. The goal is to minimize the accumulated joint cost, which consists of integrated instantaneous costs and a joint end cost. The joint end cost expresses the joint task of the agents. The instantaneous costs are quadratic in the control and factorize over the agents. The optimal control is given as a weighted linear combination of single-agent to single-target controls. The single-agent to single-target controls are expressed in terms of diffusion processes. These controls, when not closed form expressions, are formulated in terms of path integrals, which are calculated approximately by Metropolis-Hastings sampling. The weights in the control are interpreted as marginals of a joint distribution over agent to target assignments. The structure of the latter is represented by a graphical model, and the marginals are obtained by graphical model inference. Exact inference of the graphical model will break down in large systems, and so approximate inference methods are needed. We use naive mean field approximation and belief propagation to approximate the optimal control in systems with linear dynamics. We compare the approximate inference methods with the exact solution, and we show that they can accurately compute the optimal control. Finally, we demonstrate the control method in multi-agent systems with nonlinear dynamics consisting of up to 80 agents that have to reach an equal number of target states.
Refining the Execution of Abstract Actions with Learned Action Models
Authors: Stulp F. , Beetz M.
Published: July 2018

Robots reason about abstract actions, such as "go to position `l'", in order to decide what to do or to generate plans for their intended course of action. The use of abstract actions enables robots to employ small action libraries, which reduces the search space for decision making. When executing the actions, however, the robot must tailor the abstract actions to the specific task and situation context at hand.

In this article we propose a novel robot action execution system that learns success and performance models for possible specializations of abstract actions. At execution time, the robot uses these models to optimize the execution of abstract actions to the respective task contexts. The robot can so use abstract actions for efficient reasoning, without compromising the performance of action execution. We show the impact of our action execution model in three robotic domains and on two kinds of action execution problems: (1) the instantiation of free action parameters to optimize the expected performance of action sequences; (2) the automatic introduction of additional subgoals to make action sequences more reliable.
Analogical Dissimilarity: Definition, Algorithms and Two Experiments in Machine Learning
Authors: Miclet L. , Bayoudh S. , Delhay A.
Published: July 2018

This paper defines the notion of analogical dissimilarity between four objects, with a special focus on objects structured as sequences. Firstly, it studies the case where the four objects have a null analogical dissimilarity, i.e. are in analogical proportion. Secondly, when one of these objects is unknown, it gives algorithms to compute it. Thirdly, it tackles the problem of defining analogical dissimilarity, which is a measure of how far four objects are from being in analogical proportion. In particular, when objects are sequences, it gives a definition and an algorithm based on an optimal alignment of the four sequences. It gives also learning algorithms, i.e. methods to find the triple of objects in a learning sample which has the least analogical dissimilarity with a given object. Two practical experiments are described: the first is a classification problem on benchmarks of binary and nominal data, the second shows how the generation of sequences by solving analogical equations enables a handwritten character recognition system to rapidly be adapted to a new writer.
Optimal Strategies for Simultaneous Vickrey Auctions with Perfect Substitutes
Authors: Gerding E. H. , Dash R. K. , Byde A. , Jennings N. R.
Published: July 2018

We derive optimal strategies for a bidding agent that participates in multiple, simultaneous second-price auctions with perfect substitutes. We prove that, if everyone else bids locally in a single auction, the global bidder should always place non-zero bids in all available auctions, provided there are no budget constraints. With a budget, however, the optimal strategy is to bid locally if this budget is equal or less than the valuation. Furthermore, for a wide range of valuation distributions, we prove that the problem of finding the optimal bids reduces to two dimensions if all auctions are identical. Finally, we address markets with both sequential and simultaneous auctions, non-identical auctions, and the allocative efficiency of the market.
Adaptive Stochastic Resource Control: A Machine Learning Approach
Authors: Csaji B. C. , Monostori L.
Published: July 2018

The paper investigates stochastic resource allocation problems with scarce, reusable resources and non-preemtive, time-dependent, interconnected tasks. This approach is a natural generalization of several standard resource management problems, such as scheduling and transportation problems. First, reactive solutions are considered and defined as control policies of suitably reformulated Markov decision processes (MDPs). We argue that this reformulation has several favorable properties, such as it has finite state and action spaces, it is aperiodic, hence all policies are proper and the space of control policies can be safely restricted. Next, approximate dynamic programming (ADP) methods, such as fitted Q-learning, are suggested for computing an efficient control policy. In order to compactly maintain the cost-to-go function, two representations are studied: hash tables and support vector regression (SVR), particularly, nu-SVRs. Several additional improvements, such as the application of limited-lookahead rollout algorithms in the initial phases, action space decomposition, task clustering and distributed sampling are investigated, too. Finally, experimental results on both benchmark and industry-related data are presented.
AND/OR Multi-Valued Decision Diagrams (AOMDDs) for Graphical Models
Authors: Mateescu R. , Dechter R. , Marinescu R.
Published: July 2018

Inspired by the recently introduced framework of AND/OR search spaces for graphical models, we propose to augment Multi-Valued Decision Diagrams (MDD) with AND nodes, in order to capture function decomposition structure and to extend these compiled data structures to general weighted graphical models (e.g., probabilistic models). We present the AND/OR Multi-Valued Decision Diagram (AOMDD) which compiles a graphical model into a canonical form that supports polynomial (e.g., solution counting, belief updating) or constant time (e.g. equivalence of graphical models) queries. We provide two algorithms for compiling the AOMDD of a graphical model. The first is search-based, and works by applying reduction rules to the trace of the memory intensive AND/OR search algorithm. The second is inference-based and uses a Bucket Elimination schedule to combine the AOMDDs of the input functions via the the APPLY operator. For both algorithms, the compilation time and the size of the AOMDD are, in the worst case, exponential in the treewidth of the graphical model, rather than pathwidth as is known for ordered binary decision diagrams (OBDDs). We introduce the concept of semantic treewidth, which helps explain why the size of a decision diagram is often much smaller than the worst case bound. We provide an experimental evaluation that demonstrates the potential of AOMDDs.