Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Gender differences in microcirculation: Observation using the hamster cheek pouch

OBJECTIVES: Estrogen has been shown to play an important protective role in non-reproductive systems, such as the cardiovascular system. Our aim was to observe gender differences in vivo with regard to the increase in macromolecular permeability and leukocyte-endothelium interaction induced by ischemia/reperfusion as well as in microvascular reactivity to vasoactive substances using the hamster cheek pouch preparation. METHODS: Thirty-six male and 36 female hamsters, 21 weeks old, were selected for this study, and their cheek pouches were prepared for intravital microscopy. An increase in the macromolecular permeability of post-capillary venules was quantified as a leakage of intravenously injected fluorescein-labeled dextran, and the leukocyte-endothelium interaction was measured as the number of fluorescent rolling leukocytes or leukocytes adherent to the venular wall, labeled with rhodamin G, during reperfusion after 30 min of local ischemia. For microvascular reactivity, the mean internal diameter of arterioles was evaluated after the topical application of different concentrations of two vasoconstrictors, phenylephrine (α1-agonist) and endothelin-1, and two vasodilators, acetylcholine (endothelial-dependent) and sodium nitroprusside (endothelial-independent). RESULTS: The increase in macromolecular permeability induced by ischemia/reperfusion was significantly lower in females compared with males [19 (17–22) leaks/cm2 vs. 124 (123–128) leaks/cm2, respectively, p<0.001), but the number of rolling or adherent leukocytes was not different between the groups. Phenylephrine-induced arteriolar constriction was significantly lower in females compared with males [77 (73–102)% vs. 64 (55–69)%, p<0.04], but there were no detectable differences in endothelin-1-dependent vasoreactivity. Additionally, arteriolar vasodilatation elicited by acetylcholine or sodium nitroprusside did not differ between the groups. CONCLUSION: The female gender could have a direct protective role in microvascular reactivity and the increase in macromolecular permeability induced by ischemia/reperfusion.
System dynamics: A behavioral modeling method

Nowadays, there is an increasing integration of methods from economics and psychology in simulation that allow more rigorous approaches to addressing behavioral issues. One of these approaches is the use of laboratory and field experiments of individual and group decision making concerning human judgment and decision-making under uncertainty. System Dynamics, as a simulation methodology, has been employed successfully as a behavioral experimental tool. Some researchers suggest that System Dynamics models are behavioral models of business systems which uncover intended rationality (theories in use) in business decision making. This tutorial offers an opportunity to explore the antecedents of System Dynamics as a behavioral simulation modeling method and offers examples of uses of System Dynamics in laboratory experiments, field experiments and evaluation of theories-in-use by decision makers.
Sociogeographic Variation in the Effects of Heat and Cold on Daily Mortality in Japan

Background Ambient temperature affects mortality in susceptible populations, but regional differences in this association remain unclear in Japan. We conducted a time-series study to examine the variation in the effects of ambient temperature on daily mortality across Japan. Methods A total of 731 558 all-age non-accidental deaths in 6 cities during 2002–2007 were analyzed. The association between daily mortality and ambient temperature was examined using distributed lag nonlinear models with Poisson distribution. City-specific estimates were combined using random-effects meta-analysis. Bivariate random-effects meta-regressions were used to examine the moderating effect of city characteristics. Results The effect of heat generally persisted for 1 to 2 days. In warmer communities, the effect of cold weather lasted for approximately 1 week. The combined increases in mortality risk due to heat (99th vs 90th percentile of city-specific temperature) and cold (first vs 10th percentile) were 2.21% (95% CI, 1.38%–3.04%) and 3.47% (1.75%–5.21%), respectively. City-specific effects based on absolute temperature changes were more heterogeneous than estimates based on relative changes, which suggests some degree of acclimatization. Northern populations with a cool climate appeared acclimatized to low temperature but were still vulnerable to extreme cold weather. Population density, average income, cost of property rental, and number of nurses appeared to influence variation in heat effect across cities. Conclusions We noted clear regional variation in temperature-related increases in mortality risk, which should be considered when planning preventive measures.
Safety margins perceptions integration in the driver: an explorative study on required deceleration and headway in car-following tasks

Motivation -- To verify if visual information about required deceleration and preferred headway are integrated by drivers during car-following tasks. Research approach -- A within subjects simulator-based experiment is being conducted, in which 18 subjects are asked to drive under different cinematic conditions, grouped in two sessions. Obstacle size, absolute speed and relative speed are manipulated. Findings/Design -- The results are being collected and analysed. Three main hypothesis are under inquiry: integration of safety margins perceptions, dominance of preferred headway, or dominance of required deceleration information. Take away message -- Several studies have shown empirical evidence supporting diverging models attempting to describe how drivers regulate longitudinal control of the vehicle. An attempt to investigate how existing models could be integrated or included is outlined.
Social Support and Life‐Domain Interactions Among Assigned and Self‐Initiated Expatriates

Based upon conservation of resources theory, this study is the first to explore (1) the relations between life-domain support received by internationally mobile employees (IMEs) from their organization, supervisors, coworkers, and family and friends and their life-domain conflicts and enrichments in two directions: work life → personal life (WL → PL) and personal life → work life (PL → WL) and (2) whether these links are different between assigned expatriates (AEs) and self-initiated expatriates (SIEs). The questionnaire data were collected from 182 SIEs and 102 AEs. Results from multivariate analyses show that (1) the more IMEs perceive receiving life-domain support from their family and friends and their organization, the less they report life-domain conflicts and (2) the more IMEs perceive receiving life-domain support from their coworkers, the more they report life-domain enrichments. Finally, it appears that AEs' perceived life-domain organizational support is positively related to their perceived WL → PL enrichments and that SIEs' perceived life-domain coworker support is negatively related to their life-domain conflicts in both directions.
Risky policies: Local contestation of mainstream flood risk management approaches in Ireland

In 2017, the idea that floods are exceptional and temporary episodes is a conviction increasingly contradicted by their growing incidence and severity across the globe. Floods have lasting consequences for affected populations and such effects can be wide-ranging depending on local context. However, prevailing misconceptions remain concerning the nature and effect of floods on populations. The advent of risk-based approaches is arguably responsible for a distinct managerial perspective on floods, which often undermines the local contexts and the impacts central to these experiences. This is observable in Ireland, the case study site for this article, where policy transitions into risk-based approaches are increasingly leading to growing discontent regarding the manner in which flooding and community vulnerabilities are represented. The matter is further complicated by the interplay between risk and conservation policy. This paper considers how these powerful discourses shape ideas and decisions around flooding. Using narrative-based data, centred on a case study in the west of Ireland, we explore the understanding and perception of flood risk and nature conservation by local communities and contrast these with the views expressed through managerial approaches linked to flood risk management and conservation. By bringing together these three distinct positions (i.e. the flood risk management approach, conservation practice and local narratives) we have found limitations in underlying assumptions informing current flood risk management approaches and we bring to light crucial human dimensions of flooding which, we argue, are consistently diluted and/or buried by fractured representations of environmental and social dynamics.
AEGIS: An Unknown Combinatorial Auction Mechanism Framework for Heterogeneous Spectrum Redistribution in Noncooperative Wireless Networks

With the growing deployment of wireless communication technologies, radio spectrum is becoming a scarce resource. Auctions are believed to be among the most effective tools to solve or relieve the problem of radio spectrum shortage. However, designing a practical spectrum auction mechanism has to consider five major challenges: strategic behaviors of unknown users, channel heterogeneity, preference diversity, channel spatial reusability, and social welfare maximization. Unfortunately, none of the existing work fully considered these five challenges. In this paper, we model the problem of heterogeneous spectrum allocation as a combinatorial auction, and propose AEGIS, which is the first framework of unknown combinatorial Auction mEchanisms for heteroGeneous spectrum redIStribution. AEGIS contains two mechanisms, namely AEGIS-SG and AEGIS-MP. AEGIS-SG is a direct revelation combinatorial spectrum auction mechanism for unknown single-minded users, achieving strategy-proofness and approximately efficient social welfare. We further design an iterative ascending combinatorial auction, namely AEGIS-MP, to adapt to the scenario with unknown multi-minded users. AEGIS-MP is implemented in a set of undominated strategies and has a good approximation ratio. We evaluate AEGIS on two practical datasets: Google Spectrum Database and GoogleWiFi. Evaluation results show that AEGIS achieves much better performance than the state-of-the-art mechanisms.
Aider les parents à être parents

Depuis quelques annees se developpent dans l'ensemble des pays de l'OCDE des services visant a soutenir les parents dans l'exercice de leur fonction parentale. En complement des prestations monetaires familiales ou des mesures permettant de concilier vie privee et vie professionnelle, ces nouveaux services entendent promouvoir le bien-etre des enfants comme celui des parents. Alors que cette politique publique se structure progressivement en France, l'ambition de ce rapport est double : d'une part, eclairer la reflexion par une approche historique et internationale ; de l'autre, en presentant plus de cinquante actions de soutien, mettre en exergue des experiences et des pratiques prometteuses. Leur analyse montre tout l'interet qu'ont les pouvoirs publics a creer des services a destination de tous les parents, quelle que soit la configuration familiale et a toutes les etapes du developpement de l'enfant. Se pose alors la question determinante de l'acces a ces services qui ont pour vocation d'aider les parents a etre de meilleurs parents.
Flash photolysis of caged compounds in Limulus ventral photoreceptors

Rapid concentration jumps of Ins(1,4,5)P3 or ATP were made inside Limulus ventral photoreceptors by flash photolysis of the parent caged compounds. In intact ventral photoreceptors, the photolysis flash evokes a maximum amplitude light-activated current; therefore, a procedure was developed for uncoupling phototransduction by blocking two of the initial reactions in the cascade, rhodopsin excitation and G protein activation. Rhodopsin was inactivated by exposure to hydroxylamine and bright light. This procedure abolished the early receptor potential and reduced the quantum efficiency by 325 +/- 90- fold (mean +/- SD). G protein activation was blocked by injection of guanosine-5'-O-(2-thiodiphosphate) (GDP beta S). GDP beta S injection reduced the quantum efficiency by 1,881 +/- 1,153-fold (mean +/- SD). Together hydroxylamine exposure and GDP beta S injection reduced the quantum efficiency by 870,000 +/- 650,000-fold (mean +/- SD). After the combined treatment, photoreceptors produced quantum bumps to light that was approximately 10(6) times brighter than the intensity that produced quantum bumps before treatment. Experiments were performed with caged compounds injected into photoreceptors in which phototransduction was largely uncoupled. Photolysis of one compound, myo-inositol 1,4,5- triphosphate P4(5)-1-(2-nitrophenyl)ethyl ester (caged IP3), increased the voltage clamp current in response to the flashlamp by more than twofold without changing the latency of the response. The effect was not seen with photolysis of either adenosine-5'-triphosphate P3-1-(2- nitrophenyl)ethyl ester (caged ATP) or caged IP3 in cells preloaded with either heparin or (1,2-bis-(o-amino-phenoxy)ethane-N-N-N'-N' tetraacetic acid tetrapotassium salt (BAPTA). The results suggest that photoreleased IP3 releases calcium ions from intracellular stores and the resulting increase in [Ca2+]i enhances the amplification of the phototransduction cascade.
Periodontal status and serum biomarkers levels in haemodialysis patients.

AIM To investigate the association between periodontal status and serum biomarkers levels in haemodialysis patients. METHODS This cross-sectional study included 96 haemodialysis patients. The periodontal evaluation was realized using clinical attachment level (CAL), probing depth (PD), gingival bleeding index (GBI), visible plaque index (VPI) and gingival index (GI). Biochemical and haematological data - serum albumin, phosphorus, creatinine, transferrin, ferritin, iron, alkaline phosphatase, calcium, potassium and haemoglobin - were collected from the medical records. The subject was diagnosed with periodontitis if he/she had at least two inter-proximal sites in different teeth with CAL ≥4 mm and/or at least two inter-proximal sites in separate teeth with PD ≥5 mm. RESULTS The study population consisted of 45 men and 51 women, with mean time under haemodialysis of 45.6 ± 33.1 months. Periodontitis was observed in 59.4% of the subjects. The periodontitis group had albumin (p = 0.021) and phosphorus (p = 0.024) serum levels lower than the no periodontitis group. Thus, there was a positive association of periodontitis with hypoalbuminaemia (OR = 9.10, p = 0.006) and a negative association with hyperphosphataemia (OR = 0.21, p = 0.010). CONCLUSIONS These findings suggest that periodontitis is associated with albumin and phosphorus serum levels in haemodialysis patients.
Delay Constrained Fuzzy Rate Control for Video Streaming over DVB-H

A novel fuzzy video rate control algorithm (RCA) with delay and quality constraints is proposed for video streaming over DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting for Handheld terminals) application. In this application a variable bit rate (VBR) bit stream is used to improve the quality and compression performance of encoded video at the expense of buffering delay while there is a holdup as channel changing delay. DVB-H uses a time-sliced transmission scheme to reduce the power consumption for the receiver. The time-slice scheme amplifies the channel changing delay. Two main factors in channel changing delay are the time until a media decoder is refreshed by a random access point such as an IDR (Instantaneous Decoder Refresh) picture in H.264/AVC and the delay to compensate the variation in bit rate. The average decoder refresh delay can decrease by frequent IDR pictures in the bit stream while it drops the quality and compression efficiency remarkably. On the other hand, a VBR video provides higher quality at the expense of higher buffering delay. Hence force, there is a multilateral contradiction between the quality and delay in this application. The proposed RCA has been optimized to provide high quality VBR video with minimum channel changing delay. Simulation results on H.264/AVC video coding standard show that encoded bit streams by proposed RCA strictly obey the delay and quality constraints.
The Effect of 0.2% Sodium Fluoride Mouthwash in Prevention of Dental Caries According to the DMFT Index

Background and aims Dental caries still remains a major problem in the field of oral and dental health and its prevention is more important than its treatment. Fluoride plays a significant role in prevention of caries, and improving oral and dental health. One of the common ways of fluoride use is the use of a fluoride-containing mouthwash, the most important of which in use is 0.2% sodium fluoride mouthwash. School-based fluoride mouthwash programs have been used for delivering oral and dental health to children in recent years. The aim of the present study was to assess the efficiency of 0.2% sodium fluoride mouthwash in prevention of dental caries according to DMFT index. Materials and methods The study included a case and a control group. For each group, 100 students were selected randomly from elementary schools of Tabriz, Iran. Case group had been participating in school-based fluoride mouthwash program for three years, while control group did not benefit from the program. The two groups were assessed by means of intra-oral examination. Data was recorded using DMFT index. Results Following the use of 0.2% sodium fluoride mouthwash, mean DMFT index in case group decreased as much as 51.5% compared to that of control group. The mean values of decrease for the decayed, missing and filled indices were 45%, 44% and 59%, respectively. The decrease in DMFT value of the case group compared to that of control group was statistically significant (p<0.001). A statistically significant decrease was seen in the decayed and filled indices of case group (p=0.042 and p=0.016, respectively), however the missing index did not show any statistically significant difference between the two groups (p=0.361). Conclusion According to this study results, the weekly use of 0.2% sodium fluoride mouthwash program has been successful in elementary schools of Tabriz. Such program can play an important role in the improvement of oral and dental health among children of school age.
EFFICACY OF POSITIVE THINKING TRAINING ON THE FAMILY PROCESS AND SUBJECTIVE WELLBEING OF FEMALE HEADS OF HOUSEHOLD

The present study was designed to investigate the efficacy of positive thinking training on family process and subje-ctive wellbeing of female heads of household. The method was a semiexperimental with pretest-posttest and control group; and the study population included all female heads of household residing in Chaharbagh, Alborz province, who have at least one prim-ary school-kid. Corresponding author: Faculty of Psychology and Education, University of Tehran, Jalal AlAhmad highway, Tehran, Iran Email: khodayar@ut.ac. ir 594 / / ! "# $% / & ' ()*+ /
Modest Advertising Signals Strength

This paper presents a signaling model where both price and advertising expenditures are used as signals of the initially unobservable quality of a newly introduced experience good. Consumers can be either "fastidious" or "indifferent". Fastidious individuals place a greater value on a high-quality product and a lesser value on the low-quality product than do indifferent individuals. It is shown that a sensible separating equilibrium exists where both firms set their full information prices. However, the high-quality firm cuts advertising expenditures below the full information level of the low-quality firm, even if the full information advertising expenditures of the high-quality firm are larger than those of the low-quality firm. Consumers respond positively to advertising cuts and correctly identify the product quality. Hence, modest advertising may signal high quality.
Ectopic macroprolactinoma mimicking a chordoma: a case report.

A tumoral mass at the clivus is uncommon and its differential diagnosis presents a challenge, since many different tumours may result in a similar radiological image. A chordoma is the most common of these tumours and represents 40% of all cases. Less common, in decreasing order of frequency, are meningiomas, astrocytoma, germinal cell tumours, lymphoma, metastases and, finally, pituitary adenoma (Wong et al. 1995). The last type of tumour is rarely found in this localisation and is called an ectopic pituitary adenoma, as almost all pituitary adenomas are detected in the sella turcica, where they originate from, and in the immediate suprasellar and parasellar region. Outside of these sites, pituitary adenomas can be detected as a result of extensive invasion of nearby structures, metastasis of a pituitary carcinoma, or an ectopic localisation. The majority of these ectopic primary adenomas are situated outside the blood-brain barrier and mostly in the sphenoid sinus (Tovi et al. 1990). An intact pituitary gland supports the diagnosis of ectopic pituitary tumour, although cases of ectopic pituitary tumour have been reported with involvement of the intrasellar pituitary. In this article, we present an unusual intracranial ectopic pituitary adenoma located in the clivus and mimicking a chordoma.
Systems thinking within the scope of education for sustainable development (ESD) – a heuristic competence model as a basis for (science) teacher education

Abstract Systems thinking is regarded as a key competence in the field of education for sustainable development (ESD), because it helps students to understand the complexity and dynamics of natural, social and economic systems. In our research group, we developed a competence model that distinguishes four dimensions of systems thinking in ESD. Based on this model, we designed different university courses in biology and geography teacher education and measured their effects on student teachers’ systems thinking and the pedagogical content knowledge for teaching systems thinking with two different tests. Both variables could be effectively promoted depending on the course.
Universal scaling limits of matrix models, and $(p,q)$ Liouville gravity

We show that near a point where the equilibrium density of eigenvalues of a matrix model behaves like $y$~$x^{p/q}$, the correlation functions of a random matrix, are, to leading order in the appropriate scaling, given by determinants of the universal $(p,q)$-minimal models kernels. Those $(p,q)$ kernels are written in terms of functions solutions of a linear equation of order $q$, with polynomial coefficients of degree at most $\leq p$. For example, near a regular edge $y$~$x^{1/2}$, the (1,2) kernel is the Airy kernel and we recover the Airy law. Those kernels are associated to the $(p,q)$ minimal model, i.e. the $(p,q)$ reduction of the KP hierarchy solution of the string equation. Here we consider only the 1-matrix model, for which $q$=2.