Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Self-Expanding Symetis Acurate Does Not Increase Cerebral Microembolic Load When Compared to the Balloon-Expandable Edwards Sapien Prosthesis: A Transcranial Doppler Study in Patients Undergoing Transapical Aortic Valve Implantation

Objectives The aim of this study was to quantify potential differences in count, frequency and pattern of high-intensity transient signals (HITS) during transapical transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TA-TAVI), by comparing the Symetis Acurate TA (SA) with the balloon-expandable Edwards Sapien XT (ES) system. Background Recently, the Symetis Acurate TA revalving system has been introduced for TA-TAVI. The Symetis Acurate TA aortic bioprosthesis is self-expanding and is deployed by a specific two-step implantation technique. Whether this novel method increases the load of intraprocedural emboli, detected by transcranial Doppler ultrasound (TCD) as HITS, or not is not clear. Methods Twenty-two patients (n = 11 in each study arm, median logistic EuroScore 20%, median STS score 7%) displayed continuous TCD signals of good quality throughout the entire TA-TAVI procedure and were included in the final analysis. Data are presented as median with interquartile ranges. Results No significant differences were detected in total procedural or interval-related HITS load (SA: 303 [200; 594], ES: 499 [285; 941]; p = 0.16). With both devices, HITS peaked during prosthesis deployment (PD), whereas significantly fewer HITS occurred during instrumentation (SA: p = 0.002; ES: <0.001) or post-implantation PI (SA: p = 0.007; ES: <0.001). PD-associated HITS amounted to almost half of the total HITS load. One patient suffered new disabling stroke at 30 days. Thirty-day mortality amounted to 13.6% (3 of 22 patients). Conclusions Simplified transapical delivery using the self-expanding SA device does not increase HITS, despite of a two-step deployment technique with more interactions with the native aortic valve, when compared to the balloon-expandable ES valve. The similarity in HITS count, frequency and pattern with the two systems suggests a common mechanism for the release of cerebral microemboli.
Scheduling analysis of real-time systems with precise modeling of cache related preemption delay

Accurate timing analysis is key to efficient embedded system synthesis and integration. Caches are needed to increase the processor performance but they are hard to use because of their complex behaviour especially in preemptive scheduling. Current approaches use simplified assumptions or propose exponentially complex scheduling analysis algorithms to bound the cache related preemption delay at a context switch. We present a conservative polynomial algorithm that extends real-time scheduling analysis to consider cache effects due to the preempted and the preempting task for the preemption delay. Dataflow analysis on task level is combined with real-time scheduling analysis to determine the response time including cache related preemption delay for each task accurately. The experiments show significant improvement in analysis precision over previous polynomial approaches for typical embedded benchmarks.
Sensitivity of Campylobacter spp. to irradiation in poultry meat

The sensitivity of Campylobacter jejuni (three strains), Camp. coli (three strains), Camp. fetus (one strain) and Camp. lari (one strain) to irradiation in poultry meat was investigated. There was no significant difference in the counts obtained on Blood or Skirrows agar. Preston agar gave a significantly lower recovery of the pathogens after irradiation so these results were not included in calculations of D10 values. The D10 values ranged from 0.12 to 0.25 kGy and there was a significant difference in the radiation sensitivity between different Campylobacter spp. and within strains of the same species. These values indicate that Campylobacter spp. are more radiation‐sensitive than Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes irradiated under similar conditions. Therefore irradiation treatments suggested to eliminate the latter from poultry carcasses would also be sufficient to remove Campylobacter.
Nigeria and the Selenium Micronutrient: A Review

Local studies have documented the contributions of minerals to the health status of mammals. Selenium (Se) is an example of such minerals. It is essential for the activation and functioning of enzymes. In Nigeria, the mineral has been reported to be present in water, foods and soils. While the soil selenium concentrations determine selenium levels in foods, difference in food concentrations of the mineral atones for the variations in the plasma and tissue selenium level across the geopolitical zones of Nigeria. Areas in Nigeria prone to erosion could be associated with inadequate soil selenium levels and this might lead to low availability of the mineral in the foods consumed by animals and humans. The plasma selenium levels in Nigerians may vary from as low as 0.006 mg/L to as high as 0.3279+/-0.0546 mg/L depending on the geographical factors and analytical methods employed. Studies in which the physiological effects of selenium supplementations were investigated revealed an improvement in CD4 counts in HIV positive human subjects, reduction in rats’ susceptibility to trypanosomiasis, improvement in reproductive function, acceleration of ulcer healing in animal model of experimental gastric ulcer and mitigation of the adverse effects in animal model of gastric ulcer. Low plasma selenium levels are associated with HIV infection, fertility problems, postpartum cardiomyopathy and diabetes mellitus. Therefore, there is growing need for dietary selenium supplementations in Nigeria.
Analysis of stress-induced degradation in CdS/CdTe solar cells

Accelerated stressing of CdS/CdTe solar cells at elevated temperatures (60-100/spl deg/C) under a range of applied bias in light and dark has identified three degradation modes: formation of a blocking contact, increased junction recombination, and increased dark resistivity. Devices with Cu-contacts degrade with a strong bias dependence. The blocking contact is formed under forward bias. Junction degradation requires both higher temperature and forward bias. Recontacting the device after stress removes the blocking contact with no change in junction losses. Devices without Cu in the contact have much poorer initial performance but degrade nearly independent of bias.
Gernot Schram and Stanley Nattel the Mechanism of the Superior Efficacy of Amiodarone Effects of Antiarrhythmic Drugs on Fibrillation in the Remodeled Atrium : Insights Into

Background—The basis of the unique effectiveness of amiodarone for atrial fibrillation (AF) is poorly understood. The present study tested the hypothesis that amiodarone blocks electrical remodeling induced by atrial tachycardia. Methods and Results—Mongrel dogs were subjected to atrial tachycardia (400 bpm for 7 days) in the absence and presence of therapy with amiodarone, the class III cardiac antiarrhythmic drug dofetilide, or the class I agent flecainide begun 3 days before the onset of tachypacing and maintained until a final electrophysiological study. AF vulnerability (percentage of sites with AF induction by single premature extrastimuli), mean AF duration, atrial effective refractory period (ERP), and conduction velocity were compared among these dogs and in unpaced dogs in the absence or presence of treatment with the same agents. Only amiodarone prevented promotion of AF duration and vulnerability by atrial tachycardia. Furthermore, only amiodarone eliminated tachycardia-induced ERP abbreviation and loss of ERP rate adaptation while obviating L-type Ca -current 1c-subunit downregulation as determined by Western blot. In an additional series of dogs monitored with repeated electrophysiological studies, amiodarone administered after the induction of atrial tachycardia remodeling reversed remodeling within several days, despite continued atrial tachypacing during amiodarone therapy. Conclusions—Amiodarone is uniquely effective against AF promotion by atrial tachycardia remodeling in this experimental model and prevents electrophysiological and biochemical consequences of remodeling. Amiodarone also reversed remodeling established by 4 days of atrial tachycardia. The inhibition of atrial tachycardia remodeling may therefore contribute to the superior efficacy of amiodarone in AF. (Circulation. 2003;107:1440-1446.)
Inhibition of the peroxidative degradation of haem as the basis of action of chloroquine and other quinoline antimalarials.

The malaria parasite feeds by degrading haemoglobin in an acidic food vacuole, producing free haem moieties as a by-product. The haem in oxyhaemoglobin is oxidized from the Fe(II) state to the Fe(III) state with the consequent production of an equimolar concentration of H2O2. We have analysed the fate of haem molecules in Plasmodium falciparum-infected erythrocytes and have found that only about one third of the haem is polymerized to form haemozoin. The remainder appears to be degraded by a non-enzymic process which leads to an accumulation of iron in the parasite. A possible route for degradation of the haem is by reacting with H2O2, and we show that, under conditions designed to resemble those found in the food vacuole, i.e., at pH5.2 in the presence of protein, free haem undergoes rapid peroxidative decomposition. Chloroquine and quinacrine are shown to be efficient inhibitors of the peroxidative destruction of haem, while epiquinine, a quinoline compound with very low antimalarial activity, has little inhibitory effect. We also show that chloroquine enhances the association of haem with membranes, while epiquinine inhibits this association, and that treatment of parasitized erythrocytes with chloroquine leads to a build-up of membrane-associated haem in the parasite. We suggest that chloroquine exerts its antimalarial activity by causing a build-up of toxic membrane-associated haem molecules that eventually destroy the integrity of the malaria parasite. We have further shown that resistance-modulating compounds, such as chlorpromazine, interact with haem and efficiently inhibit its degradation. This may explain the weak antimalarial activities of these compounds.
$\mu$-NET: A Network for Molecular Biology Applications in Microfluidic Chips

This paper introduces μ-NET, a microfluidic LAN that supports the exchange of both digital information and biochemical information carried by droplets moving across molecular processors in a microfluidic chip. The μ-NET can be used to support molecular biology applications like DNA, RNA, and protein biosynthesis. The μ-NET is the first realization of a microfluidic networking paradigm that controls movements of droplets in microfluidic chips by exploiting hydrodynamic phenomena only and builds on recent solutions to achieve communications in the microfluidic domain. The μ-NET integrates techniques to represent addressing information, as well as switching and medium access control solutions. In fact, in μ-NET, the address of the molecular processor where a droplet should be sent to is encoded into the distance between droplets; switching is executed to steer the droplets inside the microfluidic device; medium access control is applied to avoid collisions between droplets that may result in their fusion and, thus, loss of the biochemical information. In this paper, the design of μ-NET is presented in detail, and simulation results validating μ-NET operations are shown.
Lack of Benefits of Endurance Training in Patients with Chronic Heart Failure: Role of Asymptomatic Peripheral Artery Disease

Purpose: To evaluate the impact of asymptomatic peripheral artery disease (PAD) on exercise recovery in patients with heart failure (HF). Methods: The study enrolled 204 HF patients in stable conditions, mean age 72 ± 12 years, M/F 138/66, consecutively admitted to our cardiac rehabilitation unit. Asymptomatic PAD was assessed by ankle/brachial index (ABI). Subjects with history of symptomatic PAD were excluded from the study. Exercise tolerance was evaluated by six minute walking test (6mwt). At admission patients were divided into three group according to their ABI index (ABI >0.9; ABI 0.6-0.9; ABI 0.9 (41.9%). In a multivariate logistic regression model, including several covariates, asymptomatic PAD predicted a reduced performance at 6MWT in the overall population (adjusted OR 1.82; 95% CI 1.66-2.11; p=0.03). Conclusions: Asymptomatic PAD is a marker of advanced HF and reduced physical performance. HF patients with asymptomatic PAD have lower functional recovery than subjects without asymptomatic PAD after exercise training. Asymptomatic PAD seems to be related to lack of benefit of exercise training in HF patients and a marker of frailty of these patients.
A PHOTOMETRIC SEARCH FOR TRANSIENTS IN GALAXY CLUSTERS

We have begun a program to search for supernovae and other transients in the fields of galaxy clusters with the 2.3 m Bok Telescope on Kitt Peak. We present our automated photometric methods for data reduction, efficiency characterization, and initial spectroscopy. With this program, we aim to ultimately identify ∼25–35 cluster Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) (∼10 of which will be intracluster, hostless events) and constrain the SN Ia rate associated with old, passive stellar populations. With these measurements we will constrain the relative contribution of hostless and hosted SNe Ia to the metal enrichment of the intracluster medium. In the current work, we have identified a central excess of transient events within 1.25r200 in our cluster fields after statistically subtracting out the “background" transient rate taken from an off-cluster CCD chip. Based on the published rate of SNe Ia for cluster populations we estimate that ∼20% of the excess cluster transients are due to cluster SNe Ia, a comparable fraction to core collapse (CC) supernovae and the remaining are likely to be active galactic nuclei. Interestingly, we have identified three intracluster SN candidates, all of which lay beyond R > r200. These events, if truly associated with the cluster, indicate a large deficit of intracluster (IC) SNe at smaller radii, and may be associated with the IC stars of infalling groups or indicate that the intracluster light (ICL) in the cluster outskirts is actively forming stars which contribute CC SNe or prompt SNe Ia.
Effects of Prenatal Micronutrient Supplementation on Spontaneous Preterm Birth: A Double-Blind Randomized Controlled Trial in China

In this secondary analysis of data from a double-blind randomized controlled trial carried out in northern China, we aimed to assess the effect of prenatal supplementation with multiple micronutrients (MMN) or iron + folic acid (IFA), versus folic acid (FA) alone, on risk of spontaneous preterm birth (SPB) and the impact of supplementation timing on SPB. A total of 18,775 nulliparous pregnant women enrolled between 2006 and 2009 were randomly assigned to receive daily FA, IFA, or MMN from the period before 20 weeks' gestation to delivery. The incidences of SPB for women consuming FA, IFA, and MMN were 5.7%, 5.6% and 5.1%, respectively. Compared with women given FA, the relative risks of SPB for those using MMN and IFA were 0.99 (95% confidence interval: 0.85, 1.16) and 0.89 (95% confidence interval: 0.79, 1.05), respectively. SPB incidence in women who started consuming FA, IFA, and MMN before the 12th week of gestation (4.6%, 4.2%, and 3.9%, respectively) was significantly reduced compared with starting supplement use on or after the 12th gestational week (6.9%, 7.2%, and 6.4%, respectively). Starting use of FA, IFA, or MMN supplements before the 12th week of gestation produced a 41%-45% reduction in risk of SPB. Early prenatal enrollment and micronutrient use during the first trimester of pregnancy appeared to be of particular importance for prevention of SPB, regardless of supplement group.
A Stemming Procedure and Stopword List for General French Corpora

Due to the increasing use of network-based systems, there is a growing interest in access to and search mechanisms for text databases in languages other than English. To adapt searching systems to those foreign languages with characteristics similar to the English language, all we need to do for the most part is to establish a general stopword list and a stemming procedure. This article presents the tools needed to establish these in the French language databases and some retrieval experiments that have been carried out using two medium-sized French language test collections. These experiments were conducted to evaluate the retrieval effectiveness of the propositions described.
Tentative hierarchization of the influence of milk properties and technological practices on rheological properties of Abondance cheese

An attempt at classifying the influence of different characteristics of milk and cheesemaking on the rheological properties of Abondance cheese is presented. Abondance is a traditional farmhouse French hard cheese with protected denomination of origin (PDO). Thirty-nine cheeses made from unpasteurized cows' milk were sampled. Spline partial least squares regression was used to relate milk properties and cheesemaking practices to rheological properties of the six-month-old cheeses. These properties were the deformability modulus and the strain and stress at fracture measured by compression. Milk properties and technological practices had overall the same degree of relationship with the rheological properties investigated: plasminogen-derived activity in milk and mineral-protein equilibrium, on the one hand, and brining and resting, on the other hand. However, acidification kinetics and 1-d pH, which result from both milk properties and technological practices, showed the strongest relationships with rheological characteristics. Factors that were most appropriate for modelling Abondance rheological properties are discussed.
Effects of Vasodilator Therapy for Severe Pump Failure in Acute Myocardial Infarction on Short‐term and Late Prognosis

Forty-three patients with severe pump failure complicating acute myocardial infarction were treated with vasodilators (nitroprusside (40) and phentolamine (3)) for four hours to 27 days. Cardiac index, stroke volume index, and stroke work index (SWI) increased while the left ventricular filling pressure (LVFP) decreased during vasodilator therapy. Twenty-four of the 43 patients (56%) survived. Of patients with initial SWI between 11–20 gm-m/mi and LVFP < 15 mm Hg, 68% survived. In contrast only 18% of patients with SWI of 10 gm-m/mi or less and LVFP > 15 mm Hg survived. Of the 17 patients with clinical shock, 8 (47%) survived.All 24 patients discharged from the hospital were followed for at least 12 months. Fourteen patients died one to 25 months (average 9.2 months) after discharge and the cause of death was pump failure in ten of them (71%). The ten survivors at last follow-up had been followed for 15 to 32 months (average 24 months). The cumulative survival at 24 months was 28%. Thus, despite improvement in shortterm prognosis with vasodilator therapy in patients with severe pump failure complicating acute myocardial infarction, the prognosis for long term survival remains unfavorable, possibly due to severe intrinsic cardiac damage.
ACHIEVING GENDER EQUALITY IN THE CONSTRUCTION PROFESSIONS : LESSONS FROM THE CAREER DECISIONS OF WOMEN CONSTRUCTION STUDENTS IN THE UK

In the UK women remain under-represented in the construction workforce, despite calls for gender equality. Research into the persistence of gender inequality in construction has investigated barriers and solutions to women’s recruitment, retention and progression in the industry. It is thought that recruitment into the industry can be supported by developing an understanding of the influences on those women that have entered construction. Using qualitative interview data, this paper explores the career decisions of women studying construction-related courses in the UK. Existing research has identified some of the factors that influence women’s career choices, including key people, such as parents and teachers, existing knowledge of construction professions, skills and ability, and perceived career rewards. These factors underline the need to raise awareness of the industry from an early age and to tackle gendered socialization processes. This research, however, goes further by analysing women’s identity through their career decisions, considering the implications of this for improving gender equality in construction. Specifically it finds that identity is often contested ground for women construction students who, at times, uphold gendered stereotypes about women’s suitability for so-called ‘masculine’ work such as construction, yet also subscribe to an ideal that the sector is accessible to all who want to work in it. Unlike most career choice research, this highlights the problematic nature of entrenched gender stereotypes and the need to consider the views of women in the sector when striving for cultural change aimed at achieving gender equality.
Microglia in Culture: What Genes Do They Express?

The cell culture model utilized in this study represents one of the most widely used paradigms of microglia in vitro. After 14 days, microglia harvested from the neonatal rat brain are considered ‘mature’. However, it is clear that this represents a somewhat arbitrary definition. In this paper, we provide a transcriptome definition of such microglial cells. More than 7,000 known genes and 1,000 expressed sequence tag clusters were analysed. ‘Microglia genes’ were defined as sequences consistently expressed in all microglia samples tested. Accordingly, 388 genes were identified as microglia genes. Another 1,440 sequences were detected in a subset of the cultures. Genes consistently expressed by microglia included genes known to be involved in the cellular immune response, brain tissue surveillance, microglial migration as well as proliferation. The expression profile reported here provides a baseline against which changes of microglia in vitro can be examined. Importantly, expression profiling of normal microglia will help to provide the presently purely operational definition of ‘microglial activation’ with a molecular biological correlate. Furthermore, the data reported here add to our understanding of microglia biology and allow projections as to what functions microglia may exert in vivo, as well as in vitro.
Integrating depth and color cues for dense multi-resolution scene mapping using RGB-D cameras

The mapping of environments is a prerequisite for many navigation and manipulation tasks. We propose a novel method for acquiring 3D maps of indoor scenes from a freely moving RGB-D camera. Our approach integrates color and depth cues seamlessly in a multi-resolution map representation. We consider measurement noise characteristics and exploit dense image neighborhood to rapidly extract maps from RGB-D images. An efficient ICP variant allows maps to be registered in real-time at VGA resolution on a CPU. For simultaneous localization and mapping, we extract key views and optimize the trajectory in a probabilistic framework. Finally, we propose an efficient randomized loop-closure technique that is designed for on-line operation. We benchmark our method on a publicly available RGB-D dataset and compare it with a state-of-the-art approach that uses sparse image features.