Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Long-term effects of prenatal indomethacin administration on the pulmonary circulation in rats.

Mechanical properties of the adult pulmonary vasculature are affected by perinatal experience of hypoxic pulmonary hypertension. In the present study, we followed the long-term effects of perinatal pulmonary hypertension induced by means other than hypoxia in rats. Daily injections of indomethacin (1 mg.kg-1 body weight (BW)) were given to the parturient rats. Their newborn pups had significantly increased number of muscularized peripheral pulmonary vessels. Pulmonary hypertension, however, did not persist to adulthood (mean pulmonary arterial pressure (Ppa) was 17.2 +/- 1.3 torr in the experimental group and 16.4 +/- 0.8 torr in controls). Pulmonary hypertension induced in adult rats by exposure to chronic hypoxia or by acute hypoxic challenges was similar in indomethacin-treated and control rats. Normoxic perfusion pressure/flow (P/Q) plots in isolated lungs were less steep in indomethacin-treated than in control rats. Acute hypoxia increased the slope of P/Q plots in indomethacin treated rats but not in controls. The described changes in the pulmonary vasculature induced by indomethacin are similar to those found previously in adult rats born in hypoxia. We conclude that perinatal pulmonary hypertension permanently modifies the pulmonary vasculature.
Resolving the obscuring torus in NGC 1068 with the power of infrared interferometry: revealing the inner funnel of dust

We present new interferometric data obtained with MIDI (MID infrared Interferometric instrument) for the Seyfert II galaxy NGC 1068, with an extensive coverage of sixteen uv points. These observations resolve the nuclear mid-infrared emission from NGC 1068 in unprecedented detail with a maximum resolution of 7 mas. For the first time, suffi cient uv points have been obtained, allowing us to generate an image of the source using maximum entropy image reconstruction. The features of the image are similar to tho se obtained by modelling. We find that the mid-infrared emission can be represented by two components, each with a Gaussian brightness distribution. The first, identified as the inner f unnel of the obscuring torus, is hot (∼800K), 1.35 parsec long, and 0.45 parsec thick in FWHM at a PA=−42 ◦ (from north to east). It has an absorption profile di fferent than standard interstellar dust and with evidence for clumpiness. The second component is 3× 4 pc in FWHM with T=∼300K, and we identify it with the cooler body of the torus. The compact component is tilted by∼ 45 ◦ with respect to the radio jet and has similar size and orientation to the obse rved water maser distribution. We show how the dust distribution relates to other observables within a few parsecs of the core of the galaxy such as the nuclear masers, the radio jet, and the i onization cone. We compare our findings to a similar study of the Circinus galaxy and other re levant studies. Our findings shed new light on the relation between the different parsec-scale components in NGC 1068 and the obscuring torus.
The Emerging Role of NETs in Venous Thrombosis and Immunothrombosis

Venous thrombosis (VT), a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, has recently been linked to neutrophil activation and release of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) via a process called NETosis. The use of various in vivo thrombosis models and genetically modified mice has more precisely defined the exact role of NETosis in the pathogenesis of VT. Translational large animal VT models and human studies have confirmed the presence of NETs in pathologic VT. Activation of neutrophils, with subsequent NETosis, has also been linked to acute infection. This innate immune response, while effective for bacterial clearance from the host by formation of an intravascular bactericidal “net,” also triggers thrombosis. Intravascular thrombosis related to such innate immune mechanisms has been coined immunothrombosis. Dysregulated immunothrombosis has been proposed as a mechanism of pathologic micro- and macrovascular thrombosis in sepsis and autoimmune disease. In this focused review, we will address the dual role of NETs in the pathogenesis of VT and immunothrombosis.
CRDT: Correlation Ratio Based Decision Tree Model for Healthcare Data Mining

The phenomenal growth in the healthcare data has inspired us in investigating robust and scalable models for data mining. For classification problems Information Gain(IG) based Decision Tree is one of the popular choices. However, depending upon the nature of the dataset, IG based Decision Tree may not always perform well as it prefers the attribute with more number of distinct values as the splitting attribute. Healthcare datasets generally have many attributes and each attribute generally has many distinct values. In this paper, we have tried to focus on this characteristics of the datasets while analysing the performance of our proposed approach which is a variant of Decision Tree model and uses the concept of Correlation Ratio(CR). Unlike IG based approach, this CR based approach has no biasness towards the attribute with more number of distinct values. We have applied our model on some benchmark healthcare datasets to show the effectiveness of the proposed technique.
The warped young stellar disc in the Galactic Centre

Aims. Within the central parsec of the Galaxy, several dozen young stars orbiting a central supermassive black hole are observed. A subset of these stars forms a coherently rotating disc. Other observations reveal a massive molecular torus that lies at a radius ∼ 1.5 pc from the centre. In this paper we consider the gravitational influence of the molecular torus upon the stars of the stellar disc. Methods. We derive an analytical formula for the rate of precession of individual stellar orbits and we show that it is highly sensitive to the orbital semi-major axis and inclination with respect to the plane of the torus, as well as to the mass of the torus. Results. Assuming that both the stellar disc and the molecular torus are stable on the timescale ≥6 Myr, we constrain the mass of the torus and its inclination with respect to the young stellar disc. We further suggest that all young stars observed in the Galactic centre may have a common origin in a single coherently rotating structure with an opening angle ≤5°, which was partially destroyed (warped) during its lifetime by the gravitational influence of the molecular torus.
Layout Oriented Design Practice for Capturing Distributed Effects in High-Speed Circuits.

UPPATHIL, SATISH VIJAYAN. Layout Oriented Design Practice for Capturing Distributed Effects in High-Speed Circuits. (Under the direction of Michael B. Steer.) An integrated environment for layout-oriented design of circuits for spatial power combining system is aimed in this study. The simulation environment would include a full-wave electromagnetic simulator and a circuit simulator, TRANSIM, with a front engine, which is the major emphasis in this document. Also, the controlled and independent sources based on the Hspice models are implemented in the state-variable based object-oriented circuit simulator, TRANSIM. Transim implements local reference node instead of a global ground and this is crucial for distributed circuits. The models are implemented in objectoriented fashion and uses automatic differentiation. The same model can be used for DC, transient and harmonic balance analysis.
FlashStore

We present FlashStore, a high throughput persistent key-value store, that uses flash memory as a non-volatile cache between RAM and hard disk. FlashStore is designed to store the working set of key-value pairs on flash and use one flash read per key lookup. As the working set changes over time, space is made for the current working set by destaging recently unused key-value pairs to hard disk and recycling pages in the flash store. FlashStore organizes key-value pairs in a log-structure on flash to exploit faster sequential write performance. It uses an in-memory hash table to index them, with hash collisions resolved by a variant of cuckoo hashing. The in-memory hash table stores compact key signatures instead of full keys so as to strike tradeoffs between RAM usage and false flash read operations. FlashStore can be used as a high throughput persistent key-value storage layer for a broad range of server class applications. We compare FlashStore with BerkeleyDB, an embedded key-value store application, running on hard disk and flash separately, so as to bring out the performance gain of FlashStore in not only using flash as a cache above hard disk but also in its use of flash aware algorithms. We use real-world data traces from two data center applications, namely, Xbox LIVE Primetime online multi-player game and inline storage deduplication, to drive and evaluate the design of FlashStore on traditional and low power server platforms. FlashStore outperforms BerkeleyDB by up to 60x on throughput (ops/sec), up to 50x on energy efficiency (ops/Joule), and up to 85x on cost efficiency (ops/sec/dollar) on the evaluated datasets.
A Lazy Approach to Associative Classification

Associative classification is a promising technique to build accurate classifiers. However, in large or correlated data sets, association rule mining may yield huge rule sets. Hence, several pruning techniques have been proposed to select a small subset of high-quality rules. Since the availability of a "rich" rule set may improve the accuracy of the classifier, we argue that rule pruning should be reduced to a minimum. The L3 associative classifier is built by means of a lazy pruning technique that discards exclusively rules that only misclassify training data. The classification of unlabeled data is performed in two steps. A small subset of high-quality rules is first considered. When this set is not able to classify the data, a larger rule set is exploited. This second set includes rules usually discarded by previous approaches. To cope with the need of mining large rule sets and to efficiently use them for classification, a compact form is proposed to represent a complete rule set in a space-efficient way and without information loss. An extensive experimental evaluation on real and synthetic data sets shows that L:i improves the classification accuracy with respect to previous approaches.
Outstanding Literacy Instruction in First Grade: Teacher Practices and Student Achievement. Reading Research Report No. 81.

Classroom observations and in-depth interviews were used to study nine first-grade teachers who were nominated by language arts coordinators as being either outstanding or typical in their ability to help students develop the skills of beginning literacy. Based on observational measures of year-end student reading and writing achievement and on ongoing measures of student engagement, three groups of teachers emerged from the original set of nine. Among the three teachers in the highest achievement group, the following cluster of beliefs and practices were found to distinguish their instruction from that of their more typical peers: (1) instructional balance of skills and high-quality reading and writing experiences; (2) a high density of instruction; (3) extensive use of scaffolding; (4) encouragement of student self-regulation; (5) a thorough integration of reading and writing activities; (6) high expectations for all students; (7) masterful classroom management; and (8) an awareness of purpose. Results complemented earlier survey data that highlighted the complexity of primary literacy instruction. These data and the previous survey results provide convergent support for the conclusion that truly outstanding primary-level literacy instruction is a balanced integration of high-quality reading and writing experiences and explicit instruction of basic literacy skills. (Contains 66 references and 3 tables of data. Appendixes present interview protocols, sample questions asked of teachers, and a sample model presented to a teacher during an interview.) (Author/RS) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** Outstanding Literacy Instruction in First Grade: Teacher Practices and Student Achievement Ruth Wharton-McDonald Michael Pressley Jennifer Mistretta-Hampston State University of New York at Albany U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement EDU ATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it. Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy. National Reading Research Center READING RESEARCH REPORT NO. 81
INVESTING IN NEW ZEALAND: A REVIEW

A sheet of removable pirn markers is provided which may be fed through a printer, and then a row of interconnected pirn markers may be removed from the sheet by pulling outwardly on the first pirn marker in the row. Each pirn marker in the row has opposed sides defined by opposed arcuate cuts extending through the sheet, and the cuts are designed to create connection points at the ends of a line of joinder between pirn markers in the row. The end pirn markers in the row are connected to the sheet by a single, central connection point remote from the line of joinder between the end pirn marker and other pirn markers in the sheet.
Dynamic Resource Allocation and Active Predictive Models for Enterprise Applications

This work is concerned with dynamic resource allocation for multi-tiered, cluster-based web hosting environ- ments. Dynamic resource allocation is reactive, that is, when overloading occurs in one resource pool, servers are moved from another (quieter) pool to meet this demand. Switching servers comes with some overhead, so it is important to weigh up the costs of the switch against possible system gains. In this paper we combine the reactive behaviour of two well known switching policies – the Proportional Switching Policy (PSP) and the Bottleneck Aware Switching Policy (BSP) – with the proactive properties of several workload forecasting models. Seven forecasting models are used, including Last Observation, Simple Algorithm, Sample Moving Average, Exponential Moving Algorithm, Low Pass Filter and Autoregressive Moving Average. As each of the forecasting schemes has its own bias, we also develop three meta-forecasting algorithms (the Active Window Model, the Voting Model and the Selective Model) to ensure consistent and improved results. We show that request servicing capability can be improved by as much as 40% when the right combination of dynamic server switching and workload forecasting are used. As important is that we can generate consistently improved results, even when we apply this scheme to real-world, highly-variable workload traces from several sources.
Quis Custodiet Quem? Sovereign Debt and Bondholders' Protection Before 1914

The half-century before World War I has been characterized as the first age of financial globalization. This paper focuses on the role and significance of the bondholders` organizations for the governance of this market. I argue that the outcome of these institutions depended on two dimensions: the institutional variation that characterized these organizations and their strategic interaction. These aspects are addressed using a model of sovereign debt with constant renegotiation. An original data set with information on the settlement of defaulted debts in the period 1870-1913 is used to test the implications of the model. Empirical results support the premise that the quality of bondholders` representation matters for the terms of settlement and the costs of renegotiation. Renegotiation-friendly but not debtor-friendly organizations yielded the best ex post results for their members. The representation of bondholders` interests by the issue banks on the other hand, produced inferior outcomes.
Prediction of preference and choice of wines by EEG derived measures during taste and smell procedures.

Research within the field of consumer neuroscience shows that preference and choice of movies, food, and wine can be predicted by neural measures. Recent research showed that preference and choice of movie trailers can be predicted by EEG derived beta activity. The goal of this study was to examine whether neural measures make a valuable contribution to the prediction of preference and choice of wines. Participants indicated preference of four different wines after tasting and smelling the wines. EEG was recorded during the whole experiment to examine beta activity. Reported ratings of wines by participants and beta activity did not reveal preference for the wines. However, higher amplitudes of beta activity during the smell procedure were found compared to the taste procedure and the baseline measure. Unfortunately, this study failed to confirm the question if neural measures could make a valuable contribution to the prediction and choice of wines. Several explanations could be noted, for example the attribute substitution heuristic, the ambiguity of the predictive value of the different frequency bands, and the researcher’s degree of freedom could have been of influence on the fact that no preference for one of the wines was found.
Group Identity as a Social Heuristic: An Experiment With Reaction Times

A large amount of evidence indicates that group identity influences social interactions and, in particular, economic decisions. In this article, we test the hypothesis that group identity triggers social norms or heuristics, using reaction times collected in a series of simple distributive tasks (minidictator games). We control for individual preferences using the degree of selfishness expressed in the allocation decisions, and we account for variations in the difficulty of making decisions based on subjects’ prosocial inclination. Our results support the heuristic hypothesis: Generosity seems to be an effect of “fast and frugal” behavioral rules that simplify decisions, especially when it conflicts with an underlying tendency to behave in a self-interested manner. In the language of “dual-process” theories, group identity triggers System 1 processes that facilitate choice and override slow, calculative decision-making.
Rosuvastatin improves impaired endothelial function , lowers high sensitivity C-reactive protein , complement and immuncomplex production in patients with systemic sclerosis : a prospective case-series study

Introduction. To study the effect of rosuvastatin on endothelial and macrovascular function, cardiovascular risk factors and the complement pathway in patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc). Methods. Altogether 28 patients with SSc underwent laboratory and complex vascular assessments before and after 6 months of 20mg rosuvastatin treatm ent. Flow-mediated dilation (FMD) of the brachial artery, as well as carotid a rtery intima-media thickness (ccIMT), carotid-femoral and aorto-femoral pulse wave-velocity ( PWV) were analyzed by ECG-synchronized ultrasound. Ankle-brachial index (ABI) was determine d by Doppler, forearm skin microcirculation was assessed by Laser Doppler perfusion monit oring. Results. Brachial artery FMD significantly improved upon rosuvastatin ther apy (2.2±3.3% before vs. 5.7±3.9% after treatment, p=0.0002). With regards to patient subse ts, FMD significantly improved in the 21 lcSSc patients (from 2.1% to 5.6%; p=0.001) . In the 7 dcSSc patients, we observed a tendency of improvement in FMD (from 3% to 6% ; p=0.25). Changes in PWV, ccIMT and ABI were not significant. Mean triglycerid e (1.7±0.97 vs. 1.3±0.46 mmol/l, p=0.0004), total cholesterol (5.3±1.6 mmol/l vs. 4.2±1.3 mmol/l, p=0.0003), LDLC (3.0±1.3 vs. 2.2±1.0 mmol/l, p=0.005) and CRP levels (5.1±5.2 vs. 3.4±2.7, p=0.01) levels significantly decreased after rosuvastatin treatment. Mean C3, C4 and IC levels also decreased significantly as compared to pretreatment values. Conclusions. Six-month rosuvastatin therapy improves endothelial function and lower s CRP, C3, C4 and IC levels indicating possible favourable effects of this s atin on the cardiovascular and immune system in SSc.
The Effect of Teacher Coaching on Instruction and Achievement: A Meta-Analysis of the Causal Evidence

Teacher coaching has emerged as a promising alternative to traditional models of professional development. We review the empirical literature on teacher coaching and conduct meta-analyses to estimate the mean effect of coaching programs on teachers’ instructional practice and students’ academic achievement. Combining results across 60 studies that employ causal research designs, we find pooled effect sizes of 0.49 standard deviations (SD) on instruction and 0.18 SD on achievement. Much of this evidence comes from literacy coaching programs for prekindergarten and elementary school teachers in the United States. Although these findings affirm the potential of coaching as a development tool, further analyses illustrate the challenges of taking coaching programs to scale while maintaining effectiveness. Average effects from effectiveness trials of larger programs are only a fraction of the effects found in efficacy trials of smaller programs. We conclude by discussing ways to address scale-up implementation challenges and providing guidance for future causal studies.
ICE-Lasso: An enhanced form of Lasso selection

Lasso selection tends to be inefficient in many circumstances such as selecting spatially large clusters. ICE-Lasso is a novel technique that infers likely target clusters during an ongoing lasso gesture. It provides efficient gesture-based interaction techniques as shortcuts to select partial, complete, and multiple clusters. Additionally, it is overloaded on the traditional lasso via automatic mode switching. A comparative user study show that ICE-Lasso is significantly more efficient than lasso and also well-liked by users.
Review of moxifloxacin hydrochloride ophthalmic solution in the treatment of bacterial eye infections

Moxifloxacin hydrochloride ophthalmic solution 0.5% (Vigamox®) is the ocular formulation/adaptation of moxifloxacin. Moxifloxacin is a broad spectrum 8-methoxyfluoroquinolone which terminates bacterial growth by binding to DNA gyrase (topoisomerase II) and topoisomerase IV, essential bacterial enzymes involved in the replication, translation, repair and recombination of deoxyribonucleic acid. Affinity for both enzymes improves potency and reduces the probability of selecting resistant bacterial subpopulations. Vigamox is a bactericidal, concentration dependent, anti-infective. It is preservative free, and well tolerated with minimal ocular side effects. It provides increased penetration into ocular tissues and fluids with improved activity against Streptococci and Staphylococci species and moderate to excellent activity against clinically relevant, gram-negative ocular pathogens.