Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Echocardiographic parameters in 14 healthy English Bull Terriers.

OBJECTIVE To determine the range of various cardiac parameters using echocardiography in apparently normal, healthy English Bull Terriers. DESIGN Fourteen English Bull Terriers were selected for study. Cardiac auscultation of the parents of these dogs was normal. Echocardiographic examination of one parent of each animal showed: no mitral or aortic valve abnormalities; no myocardial lesions; no two dimensional evidence of fixed or dynamic left ventricular outflow tract obstruction; and no systolic aortic or left ventricular outflow tract turbulence on colour flow Doppler examination. The 14 selected dogs did not have arrhythmias or murmurs, and on echocardiographic examination had similar findings to their parents. Systolic blood pressure was measured in all dogs and they had no clinical evidence of Bull Terrier polycystic kidney disease or Bull Terrier hereditary nephritis. PROCEDURE All dogs were auscultated and subjected to a sequential global echocardiographic assessment of the heart, including two dimensional long and short axis, and colour flow Doppler interrogation of the mitral and aortic valves. Dimensional measurements, including those from the left atrium, aortic annulus and left ventricle, were taken from a right parasternal window, and derived values such as fractional shortening, stroke volume and left atrial to aortic annulus ratio were calculated. Peak systolic aortic velocity was measured from the left parasternal window using two dimensional-guided pulsed wave Doppler with angle correction. Systolic blood pressure was measured using a Doppler monitor. The absence of Bull Terrier polycystic kidney disease was determined using renal ultrasonography, and of Bull Terrier hereditary nephritis using urinary protein to creatinine ratio. RESULTS These 14 dogs had greater left ventricular wall thickness and smaller aortic root diameters than those reported as normal for other breeds of comparable body size. Left atrial dimensions were also larger, however this may have been due to the "maximising" method of measurement. These apparently normal English Bull Terriers also had higher aortic velocities than those reported for other breeds, possibly due to a smaller aortic root diameter or other anatomic substrate of the left ventricular outflow tract, lower systemic vascular resistance, or breed-specific "normal" left ventricular hypertrophy. While these dogs were selected to be as close to normal as possible, the breed may have a particular anatomy that produces abnormal left ventricular echocardiographic parameters. CONCLUSION These echocardiographic parameters may be used to diagnose left ventricular outflow tract obstruction and left ventricular hypertrophy, and inaccurate diagnoses may result if breed-specific values are not used.
Dynamic Changes in Brain Functional Connectivity during Concurrent Dual-Task Performance

This study investigated the spatial, spectral, temporal and functional proprieties of functional brain connections involved in the concurrent execution of unrelated visual perception and working memory tasks. Electroencephalography data was analysed using a novel data-driven approach assessing source coherence at the whole-brain level. Three connections in the beta-band (18–24 Hz) and one in the gamma-band (30–40 Hz) were modulated by dual-task performance. Beta-coherence increased within two dorsofrontal-occipital connections in dual-task conditions compared to the single-task condition, with the highest coherence seen during low working memory load trials. In contrast, beta-coherence in a prefrontal-occipital functional connection and gamma-coherence in an inferior frontal-occipitoparietal connection was not affected by the addition of the second task and only showed elevated coherence under high working memory load. Analysis of coherence as a function of time suggested that the dorsofrontal-occipital beta-connections were relevant to working memory maintenance, while the prefrontal-occipital beta-connection and the inferior frontal-occipitoparietal gamma-connection were involved in top-down control of concurrent visual processing. The fact that increased coherence in the gamma-connection, from low to high working memory load, was negatively correlated with faster reaction time on the perception task supports this interpretation. Together, these results demonstrate that dual-task demands trigger non-linear changes in functional interactions between frontal-executive and occipitoparietal-perceptual cortices.
Influence of degree of polymerization on behavior of cellulose during homogenization and extrusion/spheronization

The study objective was to investigate the influence of the degree of polymerization (DP) of cellulose materials (microcrystalline cellulose [MCC] and powder cellulose [PC]) on the behavior of these materials during homogenization and extrusion/spheronization processes. Suspensions of the cellulose types with different DP values were homogenized using a high-pressure homogenizer. The particle size, agglomeration index, and apparent viscosity of these suspensions was determined at different times after pouring. Additionally, these different cellulose types were processed into pellets using the extrusion/spheronization, method, and the water content and power consumption as a function of the DP were determined. Cellulose types with a high DP value showed greater particle size after homogenization, than the types with a low DP value. In contrast, no relevant relationship between the apparent viscosity and DP could be observed. During the extrusion process, water content in the extrudate and pellet porosity were increased as the DP was increased for the extrudates produced at the same level of power consumption. MCC types with various DPs compared with PC provided a novel way of understanding the role of cellulose in the extrusion process. The DP showed a remarkable influence on the physicochemical properties of the cellulose materials and, consequently, on the behavior of these materials during the extrusion/spheronization process. It is postulated that the sponge model is more appropriate for the cellulose type with high DP (PC), whereas the gel model is more applicable to cellulose types with lower DP (MCC).
Pulse oximetry screening for clinically unrecognized critical congenital heart disease in the newborns

Aim: To determine the incidence of clinically unrecognized critical congenital heart disease (CCHD) in the newborns by using pulse oximetric screening. Methods: Pulse oximetry was performed on clinically normal newborns at 24-48 hours of age. If screening oxygen saturation (SpO2) was below 95%, echocardiography was then performed. Data regarding true and false positives as well as negatives were collected and analyzed. Results: Pulse-oximetric screening was performed on 1847 clinically normal newborns. Low SpO2 (<95%) was found in three babies two of them had CCHD, including one with transposition of the great vessels, one with complete atrioventricular canal with moderate tricuspid regurgitation (sensitivity: 100%; specificity: 99.8%; positive predictive value: 100%; negative predictive value: 100%; accuracy: 99.8%). Conclusions: In addition to routine physical examination in the newborn infants pulse oximetry may improve the early diagnosis CCHD in the newborn. If oxygen saturation in clinically normal newborns is below 95% at 24-48 hours of age, referral to a cardiology unit is suggested.
A Synthesis Methodology for Ternary Logic Circuits in Emerging Device Technologies

Automatic synthesis of digital circuits has played a key role in obtaining high-performance designs. While considerable work has been done in the past, emerging device technologies call for a need to re-examine the synthesis approaches, so that better circuits that harness the true power of these technologies can be developed. This paper presents a methodology for synthesis applicable to devices that support ternary logic. We present an algorithm for synthesis that combines a geometrical representation with unary operators of multivalued logic. The geometric representation facilitates scanning appropriately to obtain simple sum-of-products expressions in terms of unary operators. An implementation based on Python is described. The power of the approach lies in its applicability to a wide variety of circuits. The proposed approach leads to the savings of 26% and 22% in transistor-count, respectively, for a ternary full-adder and a ternary content-addressable memory (TCAM) over the best existing designs. Furthermore, the proposed approach requires, on an average, less than 10% of the number of the transistors in comparison with a recent decoder-based design for various ternary benchmark circuits. Extensive HSPICE simulation results show roughly 92% reduction in power-delay product (PDP) for a $12\times 12$ TCAM and 60% reduction in PDP for a 24-ternary digit barrel shifter over recent designs.
Music with the Brain in Mind

Although compelling evidence supports the value of the musical arts in school, many of us still fight for its inclusion. This timely new resource translates the latest brain and music research and provides practical strategies for incorporating the musical arts at all levels. Readers will: * Discover how music supports learning * Get specific links to solid research and more than 200 practical suggestions * Learn how to boost achievement, motivation, and recall With sections on both theory and classroom applications, you'll find it easy to put the science into practice immediately and convince others of its benefits. From a primer on how the body hears music to music's impact on stress level, perceptual-motor skills, memory, and emotional intelligence, you're in for a super-sonic feast of facts and findings. Included are tips for choosing music and the various benefits of different music types.
Frameshift-mutation-derived peptides as tumor-specific antigens in inherited and spontaneous colorectal cancer

The functional role and specificity of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) is generally not well characterized. Prominent lymphocyte infiltration is the hallmark of the most common form of hereditary colon cancer, hereditary nonpolyposis colon cancer (HNPCC) and the corresponding spontaneous colon cancers with the microsatellite instability (MSI) phenotype. These cancers are caused by inherited or acquired defects in the DNA mismatch–repair machinery. The molecular mechanism behind the MSI phenotype provides a clue to understanding the lymphocyte reaction by allowing reliable prediction of potential T cell epitopes created by frameshift mutations in candidate genes carrying nucleotide repeat sequences, such as TGFβRII and BAX. These tumors therefore represent an interesting human system for studying TIL and characterizing tumor-specific T cells. We here describe T cell reactivity against several T helper cell epitopes, representing a common frameshift mutation in TGFβRII, in TIL and peripheral blood lymphocytes from patients with MSI+ tumors. The peptide SLVRLSSCVPVALMSAMTTSSSQ was recognized by T cells from two of three patients with spontaneous MSI+ colon cancers and from all three patients with HNPCC. Because such mutations are present in 90% of cancers within this patient group, these newly characterized epitopes provide attractive targets for cancer vaccines, including a prophylactic vaccine for individuals carrying a genetic disposition for developing HNPCC.
Distribution of HOMA-IR in Brazilian subjects with different body mass indexes.

N THE CLINICAL SETTING, assessment of insulin resistance (IR) can be made without any laboratory test, but by evaluating data such as weight or BMI, among others. However, in the last few years laboratories have been asked to provide direct or indirect measures of IR. Homeostatic model assessment (HOMA-IR) is a simple and inexpensive technique to evaluate IR from basal (fasting) glucose and insulin or C-peptide concentrations, validated against a variety of physiological methods (1-4). To validate the potential use of HOMA-IR values in clinical practice, it is important to establish its distribution in a sample of normoglycemic individuals from a population with the same genetic background (2). In this regard, we aim to describe the distribution of HOMA-IR values in a large sample of Brazilian population. We analyzed retrospectively fasting insulin and glucose levels in 1,898 Brazilian adults (25% males, age range 18-90 years). All had fasting glucose 30 (n= 391) (table 1). A recent publication in a group of 312 non-obese, normoglicemic Brazilian subjects found a mean HOMA-IR of 1.7, and a threshold value for insulin resistance of 2.71 (3). The use of HOMA ‐IR to quantify insulin sensitivity can be helpful in clinical practice for comparisons of insulin sensitivity, gathering of longitudinal data in subjects at risk for development of abnormal glucose tolerance. Also, HOMA ‐IR can be used to assess longitudinal changes of IR in patients with diabetes in order to examine the natural history of the disease and to assess the effects of treatment, as demonstrated for example in the U.K. Prospective Diabetes Study (UKPDS) (5). Our results can be useful as a reference for further Brazilian studies using HOMA-IR values as a measure of IR in this particular population.
Flowers help bees cope with uncertainty: signal detection and the function of floral complexity

SUMMARY Plants often attract pollinators with floral displays composed of visual, olfactory, tactile and gustatory stimuli. Since pollinators' responses to each of these stimuli are usually studied independently, the question of why plants produce multi-component floral displays remains relatively unexplored. Here we used signal detection theory to test the hypothesis that complex displays reduce a pollinator's uncertainty about the floral signal. Specifically, we asked whether one component of the floral display, scent, improved a bee's certainty about the value of another component, color hue. We first trained two groups of bumble bees (Bombus impatiens Cresson) to discriminate between rewarding and unrewarding artificial flowers of slightly different hues in the presence vs absence of scent. In a test phase, we presented these bees with a gradient of floral hues and assessed their ability to identify the hue rewarded during training. We interpreted the extent to which bees' preferences were biased away from the unrewarding hue (‘peak shift’) as an indicator of uncertainty in color discrimination. Our data show that the presence of an olfactory signal reduces uncertainty regarding color: not only was color learning facilitated on scented flowers but also bees showed a lower amount of peak shift in the presence of scent. We explore potential mechanisms by which scent might reduce uncertainty about color, and discuss the broader significance of our results for our understanding of signal evolution.
Statistical Methodology for Comparison of SAT Solvers

Evaluating improvements to modern SAT solvers and comparison of two arbitrary solvers is a challenging and important task. Relative performance of two solvers is usually assessed by running them on a set of SAT instances and comparing the number of solved instances and their running time in a straightforward manner. In this paper we point to shortcomings of this approach and advocate more reliable, statistically founded methodologies that could discriminate better between good and bad ideas. We present one such methodology and illustrate its application.
Systematic Review of Case Management

The purpose of the present paper was to review the current state of evidence for types of case management, focusing on the last 10 years since publication of the Cochrane Systematic Reviews of case management and assertive community treatment. A literature review of electronic databases from 1995 to the present to identify recent research on psychiatric case management, both original studies and reviews, was carried out. Original articles were organized on basis of year of study, experimental group and outcome variables to determine patterns. Sixty relevant papers were located. Thirty-nine are reports of experimental trials of types of case management and 21 are reviews or discussion papers. The focus of research is on assertive community treatment or intensive case management, with only five papers on other forms of less intense case management. Numerous outcomes have been examined, of those examined often enough to draw meaningful conclusions only one, engagement with services, has been consistently positive. All other outcomes have produced mixed results. The strength of findings in favour of case management has weakened over time. A heterogeneous group of experimental designs limits comparisons. Numerous issues with methodology and definitions of types of case management have beset research in this field. Assertive types of case management (including assertive community treatment and intensive case management) are more effective than standard case management in reducing total number of days spent in hospital, improving engagement, compliance, independent living and patient satisfaction. More important than the type of service configuration is to understand the clinical criteria of the services provided and their effectiveness.
The Burden of Trachoma in Ayod County of Southern Sudan

Background Blindness due to trachoma is avoidable through Surgery, Antibiotics, Facial hygiene and Environmental improvements (SAFE). Recent surveys have shown trachoma to be a serious cause of blindness in Southern Sudan. We conducted this survey in Ayod County of Jonglei State to estimate the need for intervention activities to eliminate blinding trachoma. Methodology and Findings A cross-sectional two-stage cluster random survey was conducted in November 2006. All residents of selected households were clinically assessed for trachoma using the World Health Organization (WHO) simplified grading scheme. A total of 2,335 people from 392 households were examined, of whom 1,107 were over 14 years of age. Prevalence of signs of active trachoma in children 1–9 years of age was: trachomatous inflammation follicular (TF) = 80.1% (95% confidence interval [CI], 73.9–86.3); trachomatous inflammation intense (TI) = 60.7% (95% CI, 54.6–66.8); and TF and/or TI (active trachoma) = 88.3% (95% CI, 83.7–92.9). Prevalence of trachomatous trichiasis (TT) was 14.6% (95% CI, 10.9–18.3) in adults over 14 years of age; 2.9% (95% CI, 0.4–5.3) in children 1–14 years of age; and 8.4% (95% CI, 5.5–11.3) overall. The prevalence of corneal opacity in persons over 14 years of age with TT was 6.4% (95% CI, 4.5–8.3). No statistically significant difference was observed in the prevalence of trachoma signs between genders. Trachoma affected almost all households surveyed: 384/392 (98.0%) had at least one person with active trachoma and 130 (33.2%) had at least one person with trichiasis. Conclusions Trachoma is an unnecessary public health problem in Ayod. The high prevalence of active trachoma and trichiasis confirms the severe burden of blinding trachoma found in other post-conflict areas of Southern Sudan. Based on WHO recommended thresholds, all aspects of the SAFE strategy are indicated to eliminate blinding trachoma in Ayod.
Zihin Özürlü Çocuklara Oto Yıkama Becerisi Öğretiminde Hata Düzeltmesi Yapılarak Gerçekleştirilen Eşzamanlı İpucuyla Öğretimin Etkililiği

Bu calismada, Zihin ozurlu cocuklara oto yikama becerisi ogretiminde hata duzeltmesi yapilarak gerceklestirilen eszamanli ipucuyla ogretimin etkililigi arastirilmistir. Ayni zamanda, eszamanli ipucuyla ogretimin ortam, zaman ve arac - gerecler arasi genelleme etkisi ve uygulama sona erdikten birinci, ikinci ve ucuncu haftalardaki izleme etkisi incelenmistir. Arastirmada, yoklama evreli denekler arasi coklu yoklama modeli kullanilmistir. Arastirma, Eskisehir ilinde bir ozel rehabilitasyon merkezinde okuma yazmaya hazirlik sinifina devam eden 16-20 yaslari arasindaki uc erkek ogrenci ile yurutulmustur. Oturumlarin tumu bire-bir ogretim duzenlemesi biciminde gerceklestirilmistir. Ogretim sirasinda sozel+model ipucu bir arada kullanilmis ve hata duzeltmesi olarak da fiziksel ipucuna yer verilmistir. Beceri, tum basamaklarin bir arada ogretimi biciminde ogretilmistir. Arastirmada hem gozlemciler arasi guvenirlik hem de uygulama guvenirligi verisi toplanmis, eszamanli ipucuyla ogretimin etkililigi grafiksel analiz kullanilarak belirlenmistir. Arastirma bulgulari, hata duzeltmesi yapilarak gerceklestirilen eszamanli ipucuyla ogretimin zihin ozurlu cocuklara oto yikama becerisinin ogretiminde etkili oldugunu ve ogretim sona erdikten sonra 1, 2 ve 3 hafta sonra da ogrenilenlerin kaliciliginin korundugunu gosterir niteliktedir. Farkli ortam, farkli zaman ve farkli arac gereclerle gerceklestirilen genelleme oturumlarinda uc ogrenci de %100 duzeyinde dogru tepkinin surdugunu gostermektedir.
Stochastic optimal multirate multicast in socially selfish wireless networks

Multicast supporting non-uniform receiving rates is an effective means of data dissemination to receivers with diversified bandwidth availability. Designing efficient rate control, routing and capacity allocation to achieve optimal multirate multicast has been a difficult problem in fixed wireline networks, let alone wireless networks with random channel fading and volatile node mobility. The challenge escalates if we consider also the selfishness of users who prefer to relay data for others with strong social ties. Such social selfishness of users is a new constraint in network protocol design. Its impact on efficient multicast in wireless networks has yet to be explored especially when multiple receiving rates are allowed. In this paper, we design an efficient, social-aware multirate multicast scheme that can maximize the overall utility of socially selfish users in a wireless network, and its distributed implementation. We model social preferences of users as differentiated costs for packet relay, which are weighted by the strength of social tie between the relay and the destination. Stochastic Lyapunov optimization techniques are utilized to design optimal scheduling of multicast transmissions, which are combined with multi-resolution coding and random linear network coding. With rigorous theoretical analysis, we study the optimality, stability, and complexity of our algorithm, as well as the impact of social preferences. Empirical studies further confirm the superiority of our algorithm under different social selfishness patterns.
The contact process in a dynamic random environment

We study a contact process running in a random environment in $\mathbb {Z}^d$ where sites flip, independently of each other, between blocking and nonblocking states, and the contact process is restricted to live in the space given by nonblocked sites. We give a partial description of the phase diagram of the process, showing in particular that, depending on the flip rates of the environment, survival of the contact process may or may not be possible for large values of the birth rate. We prove block conditions for the process that parallel the ones for the ordinary contact process and use these to conclude that the critical process dies out and that the complete convergence theorem holds in the supercritical case.