Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Unsuspected Echocardiographic Abnormality in the Long QT Syndrome: Diagnostic, Prognostic, and Pathogenetic Implications

BackgroundThe idiopathic long QT syndrome (LQTS) is characterized by electrocardiographic abnormalities and by a high incidence of lethal arrhythmias. The present case/control study demonstrates the frequent occurrence of unusual and specific ventricular wall motion abnormalities in LQTS and their association with history of syncope or cardiac arrest. These anomalies were present in 23 of 42 LQTS patients (55%) and in two of 42 healthy controls (5%, p < 0.0001) matched for age, sex, height, and weight. Methods and ResultsTwo new measurements were developed to assess quantitatively the abnormalities observed. The first, Thl/2, is an index of the rapidity of the early contraction phase; the second, TSTh, is an index of the presence of a slow movement in the late thickening phase. Thl/2 was smaller in LQTS patients (15.0 + 4.1 versus 19.9 + 3.9% of the cardiac cycle, p < 0.001), indicating that they reach half-maximal systolic contraction more rapidly than controls. TSTh was greater in LQTS patients (9.37 ± 6.82 versus 2.88 ± 4.46%, p < 0.001), indicating that they spend more time at a very low thickening rate. A peculiar double peak pattern of late thickening was present in 11 patients and in no controls. These abnormalities were more frequent in symptomatic than in asymptomatic patients (20 of 26, 77%, versus three of 16, 19%, p < 0.005; relative risk, 2.75). They were not affected by α-blockade or by left cardiac sympathetic denervation. The same echocardiographic abnormalities were produced by right stellectomy in nine of nine anesthetized dogs, were not dependent on cycle length, and were not modified by subsequent left stellectomy. ConclusionsThis study demonstrates a previously unsuspected abnormality in the ventricular contraction pattern of LQTS patients and, for the first time, provides evidence that a noninvasively detected cardiac abnormality is associated with a higher risk for syncope/cardiac arrest. The experimental reproduction of this echocardiographic abnormality by right stellectomy indicates that this newly found clinical characteristic of LQTS does not contradict the “sympathetic imbalance” hypothesis.
SMALLHOLDER WOMEN OFF-FARM ADAPTATION STRATEGIES TO CLIMATE VARIABILITY IN RURAL SAVANNAH, GHANA

Climate variability (CCV) presents an additional challenge to the agricultural sector and society’s livelihood due its persistent low rainfall and high temperatures. Particularly to face the brunt of climate variability are women smallholder farmers who depend on agricultural production and have limited natural resources to enable them respond to the changing climate. The aim of the study was to investigate smallholder women farmers’ off-farm adaptation strategies to climate variability in the Wa West district in the Upper West region. The study adopted a case study designed method with a population of 187 smallholder farmers. Purposive and multi-stage probability sampling were used to select the communities and women respondents for the study. Questionnaires and interviews were used and data collected was analyzed descriptively using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS). The results of the study indicated that, smallholder women farmers have adopted mixed off-farm adaptation strategies to climate variability. The study recommends a comprehensive and an integrated adaptation program for the agricultural sector with special focus on smallholder women farmers to include education and training of women on diseases and pest control and prevention, access to credit and value chain development for agro-processing business, and access to climate variability information.
Fairness-aware radio resource management in downlink OFDMA cellular relay networks

Relaying and orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) are the accepted technologies for emerging wireless communications standards. The activities in many wireless standardization bodies and forums, for example IEEE 802.16 j/m and LTE-Advanced, attest to this fact. The availability or lack thereof of efficient radio resource management (RRM) could make or mar the opportunities in these networks. Although distributed schemes are more attractive, it is essential to seek outstanding performance benchmarks to which various decentralized schemes can be compared. Therefore, this paper provides a comprehensive centralized RRM algorithm for downlink OFDMA cellular fixed relay networks in a way to ensure user fairness with minimal impact on network throughput. In contrast, it has been observed that pure opportunistic schemes and fairness-aware schemes relying solely on achievable and allocated capacities may not attain the desired fairness, e.g., proportional fair scheduling. The proposed scheme is queue-aware and performs three functions jointly; dynamic routing, fair scheduling, and load balancing among cell nodes. We show that the proposed centralized scheme is different from the traditional centralized schemes in terms of the substantial savings in complexity and feedback overhead.
Radio-Wave Propagation in the Non-Gaussian Interstellar Medium

Radio waves propagating from distant pulsars in the interstellar medium (ISM) are refracted by electron density inhomogeneities, so the intensity of observed pulses fluctuates with time. The observed pulse shapes are used to diagnose electron density distribution in the ISM. The theory relating the observed pulse time shapes to the electron density correlation function has developed for 30 years; however, two puzzles have remained. First, observational scaling of pulse broadening with the pulsar distance is anomalously strong; it is consistent with the standard model only when nonuniform statistics of electron fluctuations along the line of sight are assumed. Second, the observed pulse shapes are consistent with the standard model only when the scattering material is concentrated in a narrow slab between the pulsar and the Earth. We propose that both paradoxes are resolved at once if one assumes stationary and uniform but non-Gaussian statistics of the electron density distribution in the ISM. Such statistics must be of Lévy type, and the propagating ray should exhibit a Lévy flight rather than the Gaussian random walk implied by the standard model. We propose that a natural realization of such statistics may be provided by the ISM with random electron density discontinuities. A Lévy distribution has a divergent second moment; therefore, the standard approach based on the electron density correlation function does not apply. We develop a theory of wave propagation in such a non-Gaussian random medium and demonstrate its good agreement with observations. The qualitative introduction of the approach and the resolution of the anomalous-scaling paradox was presented earlier.
False Recall Is Reduced by Damage to the Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex: Implications for Understanding the Neural Correlates of Schematic Memory

Schematic memory, or contextual knowledge derived from experience (Bartlett, 1932), benefits memory function by enhancing retention and speeding learning of related information (Bransford and Johnson, 1972; Tse et al., 2007). However, schematic memory can also promote memory errors, producing false memories. One demonstration is the “false memory effect” of the Deese–Roediger–McDermott (DRM) paradigm (Roediger and McDermott, 1995): studying words that fit a common schema (e.g., cold, blizzard, winter) often produces memory for a nonstudied word (e.g., snow). We propose that frontal lobe regions that contribute to complex decision-making processes by weighting various alternatives, such as ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), may also contribute to memory processes by weighting the influence of schematic knowledge. We investigated the role of human vmPFC in false memory by combining a neuropsychological approach with the DRM task. Patients with vmPFC lesions (n = 7) and healthy comparison participants (n = 14) studied word lists that excluded a common associate (the critical item). Recall and recognition tests revealed expected high levels of false recall and recognition of critical items by healthy participants. In contrast, vmPFC patients showed consistently reduced false recall, with significantly fewer intrusions of critical items. False recognition was also marginally reduced among vmPFC patients. Our findings suggest that vmPFC increases the influence of schematically congruent memories, a contribution that may be related to the role of the vmPFC in decision making. These novel neuropsychological results highlight a role for the vmPFC as part of a memory network including the medial temporal lobes and hippocampus (Andrews-Hanna et al., 2010).
When Functional and Bijective Constraints Make a CSP Polynomial

Many works have been carried out to improve search efficiency in CSPs, but few of them treated the semantics of the constraints. In this paper, we expose some properties of two classes of constraints, functional and bijective constraints: we first present conditions under which arc and path consistencies are sufficient to guarantee the existence of a bactrack free solution; we then exhibit classes of polynomial problems, and finally we propose a new method of decomposition for problems containing functional or bijective constraints. An interesting point in this method is that the resolution complexity is known prior to the search.
Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems ( PACIS ) 7-15-2012 Capabilities For Service Innovation : A Qualitative Case Study In The Consulting Industry

In today’s dynamic market environments, service organizations face the need to improve existing and create new services. While practice and research acknowledge the importance of this phenomenon, it is yet understudied with regard to understanding relevant resources for service innovation. Based on the resource-based view and dynamic capability theory, we develop a theoretical understanding of service innovation. In order to identify relevant resources, here: capabilities and assets, we conduct a qualitative case study at IT-CONSULT, a Germany-based IT consultancy. Results suggest that the current understanding of dynamic capabilities is unable to explain the occurrences at IT-CONSULT. Thus, we discuss the extension of the dynamic capability framework with a new class of capabilities – systemic capabilities – that function to mobilize operational capabilities and assets. Implications of this research for both theory and practice are discussed.
Fabrication of CMUTs with a low temperature wafer bonding technology

Low temperature process is important for capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers (CMUTs) to integrate with integrated circuits (ICs) in order to reduce parasitic capacitance and improve its device performance. This paper presents a novel low temperature fabrication technology for CMUTs. Transition metal layers (the Ti/Au layer and Ti/Sn/Au layer) were used for bonding between the silicon substrate and silicon membrane. The bonding process can be done under a temperature less than 350°C. Additionally, the use of the device layer of a silicon-on-insulator SOI wafer as the membrane can improve the membrane uniformity and performance consistence of CMUT cells in comparison with other low temperature processes using sacrificial release processes. Therefore, this fabrication technology can benefit from both integration with ICs and device performance. Using this approach, we have fabricated CMUTs with a membrane diameter of 100 μm and membrane thickness of 2 μm. The fabrication process and some measured results obtained from the fabricated CMUTs are presented in detail.
Structural analysis and DNA binding of the HMG domains of the human mitochondrial transcription factor A

The mitochondrial transcription factor A (mtTFA) is central to assembly and initiation of the mitochondrial transcription complex. Human mtTFA (h-mtTFA) is a dual high mobility group box (HMGB) protein that binds site-specifically to the mitochondrial genome and demarcates the promoters for recruitment of h-mtTFB1, h-mtTFB2 and the mitochondrial RNA polymerase. The stoichiometry of h-mtTFA was found to be a monomer in the absence of DNA, whereas it formed a dimer in the complex with the light strand promoter (LSP) DNA. Each of the HMG boxes and the C-terminal tail were evaluated for their ability to bind to the LSP DNA. Removal of the C-terminal tail only slightly decreased nonsequence specific DNA binding, and box A, but not box B, was capable of binding to the LSP DNA. The X-ray crystal structure of h-mtTFA box B, at 1.35 Å resolution, revealed the features of a noncanonical HMG box. Interactions of box B with other regions of h-mtTFA were observed. Together, these results provide an explanation for the unusual DNA-binding properties of box B and suggest possible roles for this domain in transcription complex assembly.
Characterization of a Novel vpu-Harboring Simian Immunodeficiency Virus from a Dent's Mona Monkey (Cercopithecus mona denti)

ABSTRACT We report the identification of a new simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), designated SIVden, in a naturally infected Dent's Mona monkey (Cercopithecus mona denti), which was kept as pet in Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo. SIVden is genetically distinct from the previously characterized primate lentiviruses. Analysis of the full-length genomic sequence revealed the presence of a vpu open reading frame. This gene is also found in the virus lineage of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) and chimpanzee immunodeficiency virus (SIVcpz) and was recently described in viruses isolated from Cercopithecus nictitans, Cercopithecus mona, and Cercopithecus cephus. The SIVden vpu coding region is shorter than the HIV-1/SIVcpz and the SIVgsn, SIVmon, and SIVmus counterparts. Unlike Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii viruses (SIVcpzPts) and Cercopithecus monkey viruses (SIVgsn, SIVmon, and SIVmus), the SIVden Vpu contains the characteristic DSGXES motif which was shown to be involved in Vpu-mediated CD4 and IκBα proteolysis in HIV-1 infected cells. Although it harbors a vpu gene, SIVden is phylogenetically closer to SIVdeb isolated from De Brazza's monkeys (Cercopithecus neglectus), which lacks a vpu gene, than to Cercopithecus monkey viruses, which harbor a vpu sequence.
Which Nonlinearity in the Phillips Curve ?

It is standard to model the output-inflation trade-off as a linear relationship with a time-invariant slope. We assess empirical evidence for three types of nonlinearity in the short-run Phillips curve. At an empirical level, we aim to discover why large negative output gaps in Japan during the period 1998-2002 did not lead to accelerating deflation, but instead coincided with stable, be it moderately negative inflation. We document that this episode is most convincingly interpreted as reflecting a gradual flattening of the Phillips curve. The broader relevance of our analysis lies in its attempt to shed light on the determinants of such time-variation in the Phillips curve slope. Our results suggest that, in any economy where trend inflation is substantially lower (or substantially higher) today than in past decades, time-variation in the slope of the short-run Phillips curve has become too important to ignore. JEL codes: C22, C32, E31, E32
Effects of levobupivacaine and bupivacaine on intracellular calcium signaling in cultured rat dorsal root ganglion neurons

Bupivacaine and levobupivacaine have been shown to be effective in the treatment of pain as local anesthetics, although the mechanisms mediating their antinociceptive actions are still not well understood. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of bupivacaine and levobupivacaine on intracellular calcium ([Ca2+]i) signaling in cultured rat dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons. DRG neuronal cultures loaded with 5 μM Fura-2/AM and [Ca2+]i transients for stimulation with 30 mM KCl (Hi K+) were assessed by using fluorescent ratiometry. DRGs were excited at 340 and 380 nm, emission was recorded at 510 nm, and responses were determined from the change in the 340/380 ratio (basal-peak) for individual DRG neurons. Data were analyzed by using Student’s t-test. Levobupivacaine and bupivacaine attenuated the KCl-evoked [Ca2+]i transients in a reversible manner. [Ca2+]i increase evoked by Hi K+ was significantly reduced to 99.9 ± 5.1% (n = 18) and 62.5 ± 4.2% (n = 15, P < 0.05) after the application of 5 and 50 µM levobupivacaine, respectively. Bupivacaine also inhibited Hi K+-induced [Ca2+]i responses, reduced to 98.7 ± 4.8% (n = 10) and 69.5 ± 4.5% (n = 9, P < 0.05) inhibition of fluorescence ratio values of Hi K+-induced responses at 5 and 50 μM, respectively. Our results indicate that bupivacaine and levobupivacaine, with no significant differences between both agents, attenuated KCl-evoked calcium transients in a reversible manner. The inhibition of calcium signals in DRG neurons by levobupivacaine and bupivacaine might contribute to the antinociceptive effects of these local anesthetics.
Low complexity wideband LSF quantization using GMM of uncorrelated Gaussian mixtures

We develop a Gaussian mixture model (GMM) based vector quantization (VQ) method for coding wideband speech line spectrum frequency (LSF) parameters at low complexity. The PDF of LSF source vector is modeled using the Gaussian mixture (GM) density with higher number of uncorrelated Gaussian mixtures and an optimum scalar quantizer (SQ) is designed for each Gaussian mixture. The reduction of quantization complexity is achieved using the relevant subset of available optimum SQs. For an input vector, the subset of quantizers is chosen using nearest neighbor criteria. The developed method is compared with the recent VQ methods and shown to provide high quality rate-distortion (R/D) performance at lower complexity. In addition, the developed method also provides the advantages of bitrate scalability and rate-independent complexity.
The Video Head Impulse Test to Assess the Efficacy of Vestibular Implants in Humans

The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether it is possible to restore the high-frequency angular vestibulo-ocular reflex (aVOR) in patients suffering from a severe bilateral vestibulopathy (BV) and implanted with a vestibular implant prototype. Three patients (S1–3) participated in the study. They received a prototype vestibular implant with one to three electrode branches implanted in the proximity of the ampullary branches of the vestibular nerve. Five electrodes were available for electrical stimulation: one implanted in proximity of the left posterior ampullary nerve in S1, one in the left lateral and another one in the superior ampullary nerves in S2, and one in the right lateral and another one in the superior ampullary nerves in S3. The high-frequency aVOR was assessed using the video head impulse test (EyeSeeCam; EyeSeeTec, Munich, Germany), while motion-modulated electrical stimulation was delivered via one of the implanted vestibular electrodes at a time. aVOR gains were compared to control measurements obtained in the same patients when the device was not activated. In three out of the five tested electrodes the aVOR gain increased monotonically with increased stimulation strength when head impulses were delivered in the plane of the implanted canal. In these cases, gains ranging from 0.4 to values above 1 were measured. A “reversed” aVOR could also be generated when inversed stimulation paradigms were used. In most cases, the gain for excitatory head impulses was superior to that recorded for inhibitory head impulses, consistent with unilateral vestibular stimulation. Improvements of aVOR gain were generally accompanied by a concomitant decrease of corrective saccades, providing additional evidence of an effective aVOR. High inter-electrode and inter-subject variability were observed. These results, together with previous research, demonstrate that it is possible to restore the aVOR in a broad frequency range using motion-modulated electrical stimulation of the vestibular afferents. This provides additional encouraging evidence of the possibility of achieving a useful rehabilitation alternative for patients with BV in the near future.
Epigenetic Regulation of HIV-1 Latency by Cytosine Methylation

Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) persists in a latent state within resting CD4+ T cells of infected persons treated with highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). This reservoir must be eliminated for the clearance of infection. Using a cDNA library screen, we have identified methyl-CpG binding domain protein 2 (MBD2) as a regulator of HIV-1 latency. Two CpG islands flank the HIV-1 transcription start site and are methylated in latently infected Jurkat cells and primary CD4+ T cells. MBD2 and histone deacetylase 2 (HDAC2) are found at one of these CpG islands during latency. Inhibition of cytosine methylation with 5-aza-2′deoxycytidine (aza-CdR) abrogates recruitment of MBD2 and HDAC2. Furthermore, aza-CdR potently synergizes with the NF-κB activators prostratin or TNF-α to reactivate latent HIV-1. These observations confirm that cytosine methylation and MBD2 are epigenetic regulators of HIV-1 latency. Clearance of HIV-1 from infected persons may be enhanced by inclusion of DNA methylation inhibitors, such as aza-CdR, and NF-κB activators into current antiviral therapies.
Recombinant Human Granulocyte-Colony Stimulating Factor (rh G- CSF) After Induction and Consolidation Therapy in Acute Myeloid Leukemia -

1 , MD Neutropenia and subsequent susceptibility to infection are the major side effects of cytotoxic chemotherapy. Although colony stimulating factors have been shown to accelerate recovery from severe neutropenia after intensive chemotherapy, their use in acute leukemia has been controversial because they stimulate leukemic colonies in vitro. To determine the safety and efficacy of recombinant human granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (rh G-CSF), we evaluated 21 periods of rh G-CSF treatment in 15 patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) who received induction or consolidation therapy (9 female, 6 male). rh G- CSF (5μ/kg daily subcutaneously) was begun 24 hours after the end of the chemotherapy consisting of Daunorubicin (45 mg/m 2 daily intravenously for 3 days) and Ara-C (100 mg/m 2 by continuous infusion for 7 days) and continued until the neutrophil count rose above 1000/mm 3 for two consecutive days. The historical control group consisted of 19 AML patients who received same chemotherapy regimen but without rh G- CSF. Compared with control group patients treated with rh G-CSF had a significantly faster neutrophil recovery. The number of days to granulocyte recovery above 1000/mm 3 was 11+0.81 in the rh G-CSF group versus 20+1.58 days in control group (p<0.001). In conclusion, these results suggest that rh G-CSF as an adjunct to induction and consolidation chemotherapy in AML is safe, accelerating neutrophil recovery after chemotherapy without effecting the regrowth of leukemic cells. (Journal of Turgut Ozal Medical Center 1998;5(1):1-6)
Multi-objective fitness-proportional attraction approach with weights

This paper proposes a new multi-objective optimization algorithm that is called Fitness-Proportional Attraction with Weights (F-PAW). In contrast to many other approaches, this work was inspired by physics rather than biology. It is based on concepts from several methods, including the attraction principle of gravity from the Gravitational Search Algorithm (GSA), the weight sum approach from Multi-Objective Evolutionary Algorithm based on Decomposition (MOEA/D) as well as particle swarm optimization methods. These and other algorithms that were providing inspiration are introduced during the text and their techniques are investigated for the use in F-PAW. The performance of F-PAW is compared to three well-known multi-objective algorithms through an experiment on 16 common test problems taken from the WFG and DTLZ benchmarks. The results indicate two conclusions. On the one side, the proposed approach with the weight sum obtains a good diversity. On the other side, the currently implemented local search is lacking reliability and speed.