Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Radiographic Predictors of Lead Conductor Fracture

Background—Lead fracture is a limiting factor in high voltage lead durability. Fractures noted with the Medtronic Fidelis leads provide an opportunity to examine factors captured on implant chest x-ray that correlate with risk for lead conductor fracture. We evaluated contributory factors in a large population of fractures. Methods and Results—We conducted a retrospective case–control study at 8 Canadian centers that routinely capture anterior posterior and lateral chest x-rays within 2 weeks of implant. Cases were patients that experienced confirmed Medtronic Fidelis 6949 lead fracture based on standard definitions, matched one-to-one to controls for date of implant, sex, and age with normally functioning Fidelis leads from the same center. Select chart data and x-rays were collected for all patients. Radiographic measurements by ≥2 individuals per case/control were blinded to patient status. The data were analyzed using a time to failure multivariable Cox proportional hazards model with stratification for each matched pair. X-ray pairs from 111 fracture patients were compared with 111 controls (age 61.5±12.8 years, 75% male, 221 model 6949 leads). Six parameters included in the statistical analysis were significantly associated with risk of fracture, including slack/tortuosity measures, pulse generator and superior vena cava coil location, and angle of lead exit from the pocket. Conclusions—Pocket, intravascular and intracardiac lead characteristics on x-ray correlate with risk of lead conductor fracture. These observations may be useful to direct implant technique to optimize lead durability. Validation in larger populations and other lead models may inform the application of these results.
Live and Heat-Inactivated Streptococcus thermophilus MN-ZLW-002 Mediate the Gut–Brain Axis, Alleviating Cognitive Dysfunction in APP/PS1 Mice

Research on regulating brain functions with probiotics and postbiotics through the gut–brain axis is attracting attention, offering the possibility of adjuvant therapy for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Three-month-old male APP/PS1 mice were gavaged with live and heat-inactivated S. thermophilus MN-002 for three months. This study demonstrated that live and heat-inactivated S. thermophilus MN-002 improved cognitive dysfunctions in APP/PS1 mice, especially in spatial memory. However, the main effects of live S. thermophilus MN-002 directly altered the intestinal microbiota composition and increased serum IL-1β and IL-6. Heat-inactivated S. thermophilus MN-002 increased colonic propionic acid levels and enhanced the hippocampus’s antioxidant capacity. Furthermore, the changes were more obvious in the high-dose group, such as astrogliosis in the hippocampus. These results indicate that different forms and doses of the same strain, S. thermophilus MN-002, can partly improve cognitive functions in AD model mice via the gut–brain axis.
Subspace Properties of Network Coding and Their Applications

Systems that employ network coding for content distribution convey to the receivers linear combinations of the source packets. If we assume randomized network coding, during this process, the network nodes collect random subspaces of the space spanned by the source packets. We establish several fundamental properties of the random subspaces induced in such a system and show that these subspaces implicitly carry topological information about the network and its state that can be passively collected and inferred. We leverage this information toward a number of applications that are interesting in their own right, such as topology inference, bottleneck discovery in peer-to-peer systems, and locating Byzantine attackers. We thus argue that randomized network coding, apart from its better known properties for improving information delivery rate, can additionally facilitate network management and control.
Lexical-perceptual integration influences sensorimotor adaptation in speech

A combination of lexical bias and altered auditory feedback was used to investigate the influence of higher-order linguistic knowledge on the perceptual aspects of speech motor control. Subjects produced monosyllabic real words or pseudo-words containing the vowel [ε] (as in “head”) under conditions of altered auditory feedback involving a decrease in vowel first formant (F1) frequency. This manipulation had the effect of making the vowel sound more similar to [I] (as in “hid”), affecting the lexical status of produced words in two Lexical-Change (LC) groups (either changing them from real words to pseudo-words: e.g., less—liss, or pseudo-words to real words: e.g., kess—kiss). Two Non-Lexical-Change (NLC) control groups underwent the same auditory feedback manipulation during the production of [ε] real- or pseudo-words, only without any resulting change in lexical status (real words to real words: e.g., mess—miss, or pseudo-words to pseudo-words: e.g., ness—niss). The results from the LC groups indicate that auditory-feedback-based speech motor learning is sensitive to the lexical status of the stimuli being produced, in that speakers tend to keep their acoustic speech outcomes within the auditory-perceptual space corresponding to the task-related side of the word/non-word boundary (real words or pseudo-words). For the NLC groups, however, no such effect of lexical status is observed.
On Higher Order Approximations for Hermite–Gaussian Functions and Discrete Fractional Fourier Transforms

Discrete equivalents of Hermite-Gaussian functions play a critical role in the definition of a discrete fractional Fourier transform. The discrete equivalents are typically calculated through the eigendecomposition of a commutator matrix. In this letter, we first characterize the space of DFT-commuting matrices and then construct matrices approximating the Hermite-Gaussian generating differential equation and use the matrices to accurately generate the discrete equivalents of Hermite-Gaussians.
Abundance and Diurnal Trends of Fluorescent Bioaerosols in the Troposphere over Mt. Tai, China, in Spring

Primary biological aerosol particles are ubiquitous in the global atmosphere and can affect cloud formation, deteriorate air quality, and cause human infections. Mt. Tai (1,534 m a.s.l.) is an elevated site in the North China Plain where atmospheric aerosols reflect both regional advection and long‐range transport. In this study, we deployed a Wideband Integrated Bioaerosol Sensor (WIBS‐4A) and collected total suspended particles and eight‐stage size‐segregated aerosol samples at the summit of Mt. Tai in spring from 21 March to 8 April 2017 to quantify the abundance, size distributions, and diurnal variations of fluorescent bioaerosols and to investigate the effect of different fluorescence thresholds of WIBS for ambient bioaerosol recognition. During the whole sampling period, the number concentration of fluorescent particles (>0.8 μm) was 647 ± 533 L−1, accounting for 26.9% ± 10.0% by number of the total particles in that size range. Three‐dimensional excitation‐emission matrix fluorescence of water‐soluble organic matter in size‐segregated aerosols shows that humic‐like substances (HULIS) are mainly in the fine mode (<2.1 μm) while protein‐like substances are mainly in the coarse mode (>2.1 μm). From the diurnal variation, it is shown that bioaerosols can undergo transformation during long‐range transport and contribute to HULIS. For bioaerosol recognition, we find that 6σ‐threshold can lead to better classification of fluorescent aerosol particles for fungal spores. Overall, our results constrain the abundance of primary bioaerosols in the troposphere over East Asia and elucidate the processes for their evolution via mountain/valley breezes and long‐range transport.
Pediatric Resident Education in Palliative Care: A Needs Assessment

OBJECTIVE. The goal was to characterize pediatric residents' perceived educational needs for pediatric palliative care. The data generated from this study will facilitate the planning of specific educational interventions. METHODS. All residents in the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh pediatrics residency program were asked to complete a survey in September 2003. Participation in the study was voluntary. Residents rated their previous training, personal experience, knowledge, competence, and emotional comfort with 10 specific aspects of pediatric palliative care. This rating was followed by 13 questions related to attitudes about palliative care practices and training. The last section asked the respondents to rank 11 palliative care educational topics in order of importance. RESULTS. Forty-nine of 75 eligible residents participated. Although residents thought that pediatricians should have an important role in providing palliative care, residents reported minimal training, experience, knowledge, competence, and comfort in virtually all areas of palliative care for children. We found no significant improvement in any of these areas from the pediatric level-1 year to the pediatric level-3 year. Residents wanted more training regarding pain management. After pain control, the next 4 educational needs were communication skills, namely, discussing prognosis, bad news, and code status and talking with children about end-of-life care. CONCLUSIONS. There is a clear need for increased efforts in pediatric palliative care education during residency training. Pediatric residents do not think that they are trained adequately in palliative care, and this perception does not improve with time. Pediatric residents view palliative care as important for primary care physicians and desire more education.
Need satisfaction and catastrophizing: Explaining the relationship among emotional ambivalence, pain, and depressive symptoms

Recent literature has revealed the associations among ambivalence over emotional expression (AEE), pain, and depressive symptoms. However, few studies have examined factors explaining these associations. The goal of the study is to examine the potential mediating role of basic needs and pain catastrophizing. In an ethnically diverse undergraduate sample (N = 255), we found that AEE was positively associated with both depressive symptoms and pain. Catastrophizing fully mediated the association between AEE and pain, while catastrophizing and unfulfilled needs partially mediated the association between AEE and depression. Findings suggest that need satisfaction and catastrophizing are important factors in understanding AEE and its health implications.
Analyze the Hotel Industry in Porter Five Competitive Forces

This article is going to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the Hotel Industry on a global basis and to study the viability of a hotel project, taking into account the five competitive forces of Michael Porter’s Model. The main competitive forces and factors within those forces will determine the feasibility and potential profitability in a hotel project. The two crucial factors that enable hotels to differentiate themselves are good location for relative target market and quality of service.
The Efficient Ant Routing Protocol for MANET

In recent years, mobile computing and wireless networks have witnessed a tremendous rise in popularity and technological advancement. The basic routing problem in MANET deals with methods to transport a packet across a network from source node to destination node. Due to the dynamic nature of MANET, it is difficult to design effective routing algorithms. In this paper, we introduce a novel metaheuristic on-demand routing protocol Ant-E, using the Blocking Expanding Ring Search (Blocking-ERS) to control the overhead and local retransmission to improve the reliability in term of packet delivery ratio (PDR). This method enhances the efficiency of MANET routing protocol. Ant-E is inspired by the ant-colony optimization (ACO) used to solve complex optimization problems and utilizes a collection of mobile agents as “ants” to perform optimal routing activities. Exhaustive simulations are carried out and it is observed that, Ant-E performs better than other two on demand routing protocols like AODV and DSR.
Patterns, Dungeons and Generators

This paper analyses dungeons, of the varieties commonly found in role-playing games, into several sets of design patterns at different levels of abstraction. The analysis focuses on mechanical patterns that could be either straightforwardly instantiated or recognized by a well-defined process. At the most concrete level a set of fundamental components were identified, followed by a long list of micropatterns which can be directly instantiated. Shorter lists of meso- and macro-patterns, which can be identified mechanically, are also identified. The direct motivation for this analysis is to find building blocks and objectives for a search-based procedural dungeon generator, however we believe the analysis can be useful for understanding this class of game artifacts in general. In particular, the constraints on patterns being instantiable or recognizable leads to a stricter pattern analysis than many other attempts at analyzing game design.
The Exon Junction Complex Factor RBM8A in Glial Fibrillary Acid Protein-Expressing Astrocytes Modulates Locomotion Behaviors

The role of RNA Binding Motif Protein 8a (RBM8A), an exon junction complex (EJC) component, in neurodevelopmental disorders has been increasingly studied for its crucial role in regulating multiple levels of gene expression. It regulates mRNA splicing, translation, and mRNA degradation and influences embryonic development. RBM8A protein is expressed in both neurons and astrocytes, but little is known about RBM8A’s specific role in glial fibrillary acid protein (GFAP)-positive astrocytes. To address the role of RBM8A in astrocytes, we generated a conditional heterozygous knockout (KO) mouse line of Rbm8a in astrocytes using a GFAP-cre line. We confirmed a decreased expression of RBM8A in astrocytes of heterozygous conditional KO mice via RT-PCR and Sanger sequencing, as well as qRT-PCR, immunohistochemistry, and Western blot. Interestingly, these mice exhibit significantly increased movement and mobility, alongside sex-specific altered anxiety in the open field test (OFT) and elevated plus maze (OPM) tests. These tests, along with the rotarod test, suggest that these mice have normal motor coordination but hyperactive phenotypes. In addition, the haploinsufficiency of Rbm8a in astrocytes leads to a sex-specific change in astrocyte density in the dentate gyrus. This study further reveals the contribution of Rbm8a deletion to CNS pathology, generating more insights via the glial lens of an Rbm8a model of neurodevelopmental disorder.
PYELITIS, AN IMPORTANT FACTOR IN THE PATHOGENESIS OF RETROGRADE PYELONEPHRITIS

Pyelitis with acute and chronic pyelonephritis and also primary chronic pyelitis were easily initiated in female rats by a single non-traumatic retrograde infusion of bacteria into the urinary tract. The virulence of the bacterial species and the time of observation were related to the type and extent of lesions, but pyelitis regardless of the virulence appeared to be an important factor. The apex and fornix of the renal pelvic lumen were anatomic sites of persistent pyelitis which permitted local proliferation of bacteria for long periods. Cortical and medullary lesions were anatomically related to these areas of underlying pyelitis. Spread of infection followed a pattern of contiguity rather than ascending tubular infection. The experimental model has many of the features of chronic urinary infections in man and suggests that pyelitis is an important factor in the pathogenesis of chronic pyelonephritis initiated by retrograde infection.
A lower bound for the number of distinct eigenvalues of some real symmetric matrices

This mostly expository note surveys and recovers a lower bound for the number of distinct eigenvalues of real symmetric matrices associated with a graph. The relation is established with the length of some paths of the underlying graph, using an improvement of an inequality involving the multiplicities of the eigenvalues. An interesting use of that number is observed. Some applications of the results to particular classes of graphs are considered.
Molecular dissection of Pax6 function: the specific roles of the paired domain and homeodomain in brain development

The transcription factor Pax6 plays a key role during development of various organs, including the brain where it affects cell fate, cell proliferation and patterning. To understand how Pax6 coordinates these diverse effects at the molecular level, we examined the role of distinct DNA-binding domains of Pax6, the homeodomain (HD), the paired domain (PD) and its splice variant (5a), using loss- and gain-of-function approaches. Here we show that the PD is necessary for the regulation of neurogenesis, cell proliferation and patterning effects of Pax6, since these aspects are severely affected in the developing forebrain of the Pax6Aey18 mice with a deletion in the PD but intact homeo- and transactivation domains. In contrast, a mutation of the HD lacking DNA-binding (Pax64Neu) resulted in only subtle defects of forebrain development. We further demonstrate distinct roles of the two splice variants of the PD. Retrovirally mediated overexpression of Pax6 containing exon 5a inhibited cell proliferation without affecting cell fate, while Pax6 containing the canonical form of the PD lacking exon 5a affected simultaneously cell fate and proliferation. These results therefore demonstrate a key role of the PD in brain development and implicate splicing as a pivotal factor regulating the potent neurogenic role of Pax6.
Shift work and chronic disease: the epidemiological evidence.

Background Shift work, including night work, has been hypothesized to increase the risk of chronic diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular disease (CVD), metabolic syndrome and diabetes. Recent reviews of evidence relating to these hypotheses have focussed on speciﬁc diseases or potential mechanisms, but no general summary of the current data on shift work and chronic disease has been published. Methods Systematic and reviews and recent original studies in PubMed prior to 31 December 2009 were retrieved, aided by manual searches of reference lists. The main conclusions from reviews and principle results from recent studies are presented in text and tables. Results Published evidence is suggestive but not conclusive for an adverse association between night work and breast cancer but limited and inconsistent for cancers at other sites and all cancers combined. Findings on shift work, in relation to risks of CVD, metabolic syndrome and diabetes are also suggestive but not conclusive for an adverse relationship. Conclusions Heterogeneity of study exposures and outcomes and emphasis on positive but non-signiﬁcant results make it difﬁcult to draw general conclusions. Further data are needed for additional disease endpoints and study populations.
Integrated resource allocation scheme for real-time video multicast

To provide distributed multimedia applications with end-to-end QoS (quality of service) guarantees, resource reservation-based control mechanisms should be employed in both networks and end systems. In this paper, we propose a resource allocation scheme for real-time video multicasting described as a utility maximization problem. In this scheme, clients are first divided into multicast groups by means of a clustering technique. Then system resources are allocated to each group so that the total utility is maximized. We have confirmed that our proposed scheme can achieve effective use of resources while providing high-quality video to users.
Executive and memory dysfunction related to binge drinking in stroke survivors during a 9-year follow-up

Background Ischemic stroke and heavy alcohol consumption are both known risk factors for cognitive impairment. The issue gains importance because the prevalence of stroke and binge drinking have both increased among working-aged adults. Alarmingly, a recent cross-sectional study suggests the additive negative effects of binge drinking and comorbid brain disease on cognition. However, the long-term cognitive prognosis of the additive effects of stroke and binge drinking on adults remains unknown. Methods In this prospective, two-center cohort study, we recruited consecutive 18–65-year-old patients with first-ever ischemic stroke along with demographically matched stroke-free controls. Patients participated in neuropsychological assessment at 6 months, 2 years, and 9 years after stroke, and in neurological assessment at acute care and at 9-year follow-up. Controls participated in a similar follow-up procedure. We examined the association between binge drinking, follow-up time, and long-term cognitive outcomes using repeated-measures analysis of variance. Results We included 85 patients who had had their first-ever and only ischemic stroke (mean age 53 years at the incident stroke). Patients were divided into binge-drinking (n = 22) and non-binge-drinking groups (n = 63) based on the shortened version of the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test. Follow-up data in healthy controls (n = 31) was used to normalize the patients' test scores for effects of age, sex, and education. We compared cognitive changes between binge-drinking and non-binge-drinking patients over a 9-year follow-up. Non-binge-drinking patients outperformed binge-drinking patients across all follow-up points on most of the executive function tests and in one memory test: binge drinking had a significant main effect both on executive function (the phonemic fluency task, p = 0.002; the Trail Making Test, p = 0.013) and memory (the list learning task, p = 0.002). Conclusion Binge drinking was associated with executive and memory dysfunction at three time points over a decade after a first-ever ischemic stroke. Subdiagnostic binge drinking might increase the adverse effects of a first-ever ischemic stroke on executive function and memory, evident over a decade poststroke.
Housing for poor people: A review on low cost housing process in Malaysia

The main emphasis of Malaysia’s housing policy is on the provision of adequate, affordable and quality housing for all Malaysians. The government is encouraging the private sector to produce low income housing in affordable prices. But the scarcity and high cost of land in urban areas raise costs of labors and materials and affect low-cost housing programs. This research is an overview to Malaysia low cost housing’s need and Malaysian approach to low cost housing (LCH). In this study the process of a sample LCH has defined and barriers and difficulties in constructing LCH has discussed. The results confirmed that making balance between low income obligations and developer’s profit-making is the key element for building more LCH in the country. Key-Words: Low Cost Housing (LCH), Low cost settlement, Low income housing, Affordable housing,
Gentamicin in newborn infants. Comparison of intramuscular and intravenous administration.

An enzymatic assay was used to study the kinetics of serum gentamicin concentrations in 18 newborn infants who received doses of 0.7 to 2.4 mg/kg of gentamicin sulfate intramuscularly or in a 20-minute intravenous infusion. Maximum concentrations and half-lives were independent of gestational age, weight, hematocrit reading, and serum bilirubin and total protein values. Peak concentrations were more reproducible with intravenous infusion and correlated linearly with dose: on the average, a 1.0 mg/kg dose produced a 1. 75μg/ml increment. The kinetics did not differ significantly in the 11 infants in whom the intramuscular and intravenous routes of administration were alternated. Serum half-life, urinary excretion, and volume of distribution showed marked individual variation, and differed from those reported for normal adults. These and previous results emphasize that optimal patient care requires the availability of a quantitative assay for gentamicin.