Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Molecular Mechanisms of Anesthetic Neurotoxicity: A Review of the Current Literature

Data from epidemiologic studies and animal models have raised a concern that exposure to anesthetic agents during early postnatal life may cause lasting impairments in cognitive function. It is hypothesized that this is due to disruptions in brain development, but the mechanism underlying this toxic effect remains unknown. Ongoing research, particularly in rodents, has begun to address this question. In this review we examine currently postulated molecular mechanisms of anesthetic toxicity in the developing brain, including effects on cell death pathways, growth factor signaling systems, NMDA and GABA receptors, mitochondria, and epigenetic factors. The level of evidence for each putative mechanism is critically evaluated, and we attempt to draw connections between them where it is possible to do so. Although there are many promising avenues of research, at this time no consensus can be reached as to a definitive mechanism of injury.
Iron loading in congenital dyserythropoietic anaemias and congenital sideroblastic anaemias

Summary. The relationship between body iron status, degree of anaemia, erythroid expansion, age and sex has been studied in eight patients with congenital dyserythropoietic anaemia (CDA) and two patients with congenital sideroblastic anaemia, who had received no or very few blood transfusions and no medicinal iron during the course of their illness. All patients had increased iron stores. Iron load was mild in three women in the reproductive age and severe in two men, in middle age, who had evidence of parenchymal organ dysfunction. Iron loading, as judged by the plasma ferritin concentration, was independent of the degree of anaemia while it was closely related to the patient's age and the degree of increase in the total erythropoietic activity. It is concluded that patients with CDA or congenital sideroblastic anaemia are at high risk of developing haemochromatosis in middle age. Prophylactic phlebotomy or iron chelation therapy should be considered for such patients.
Protection against Myocardial Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury at Onset of Type 2 Diabetes in Zucker Diabetic Fatty Rats Is Associated with Altered Glucose Oxidation

Background Inhibition of glucose oxidation during initial reperfusion confers protection against ischemia-reperfusion (IR) injury in the heart. Mitochondrial metabolism is altered with progression of type 2 diabetes (T2DM). We hypothesized that the metabolic alterations present at onset of T2DM induce cardioprotection by metabolic shutdown during IR, and that chronic alterations seen in late T2DM cause increased IR injury. Methods Isolated perfused hearts from 6 (prediabetic), 12 (onset of T2DM) and 24 (late T2DM) weeks old male Zucker diabetic fatty rats (ZDF) and their age-matched heterozygote controls were subjected to 40 min ischemia/120 min reperfusion. IR injury was assessed by TTC-staining. Myocardial glucose metabolism was evaluated by glucose tracer kinetics (glucose uptake-, glycolysis- and glucose oxidation rates), myocardial microdialysis (metabolomics) and tissue glycogen measurements. Results T2DM altered the development in sensitivity towards IR injury compared to controls. At late diabetes ZDF hearts suffered increased damage, while injury was decreased at onset of T2DM. Coincident with cardioprotection, oxidation of exogenous glucose was decreased during the initial and normalized after 5 minutes of reperfusion. Metabolomic analysis of citric acid cycle intermediates demonstrated that cardioprotection was associated with a reversible shutdown of mitochondrial glucose metabolism during ischemia and early reperfusion at onset of but not at late type 2 diabetes. Conclusions The metabolic alterations of type 2 diabetes are associated with protection against IR injury at onset but detrimental effects in late diabetes mellitus consistent with progressive dysfunction of glucose oxidation. These findings may explain the variable efficacy of cardioprotective interventions in individuals with type 2 diabetes.
Biomarkers for genome instability in some genetic disorders: a pilot study

Context: The study of genome integrity in some genetic disorders has diagnostic and prognostic importance because of the evident relationship between genome instability and both DNA repair deficiencies and cancer predisposition. Objective: The objective was to compare the chromosomal and DNA damage responses in lymphocytes from patients with Nijmegen breakage syndrome (NBS), Fanconi anemia (FA) and Williams–Beuren syndrome (WBS) to find additional biomarkers of genome instability. Methods: The cytogenetic approaches were combined with the alkaline Comet assay to estimate genome integrity in cultured or freshly isolated and H2O2-treated lymphocytes. Results: Basal frequencies of chromosome aberrations were significantly increased in NBS/FA probands and NBS heterozygous carriers. The NBS diagnosis was confirmed by detecting site-specific rearrangements, while the mitomycin C (MMC)-stress test was highly positive in a FA patient. Among patients with suspected WBS, 12 individuals had a 7q11.23 microdeletion. In the Comet assay, genome instability was revealed in all three disorders, impaired capacity to repair oxidative damage being observed in NBS and WBS in contrast to FA and controls. Conclusion: The results indicate that the estimates of DNA damage response may be proposed as efficient biomarkers for detecting and characterizing genome instability in the genetic disorders under study.
Obesity in childhood, ambulatory blood pressure and lifestyle interventions: filling gaps in knowledge.

D uring the past decade, the number of studies addressing the issue of hypertension in childhood and its tight relationship with overweight has grown exponentially [1,2]. Conclusive evidence has also been provided on the existence of a strong association between blood pressure values and visceral fat amount not only in adults, but also in children as well [3–4]. Whereas on the one hand, literature is so overwhelming in providing descriptive images of this important problem, on the other hand, it seems to be quite reticent in proposing solutions and in documenting that therapeutic interventions in children aimed at reducing overweight are successful also in exerting other positive cardiovascular effects such as, for example, in reducing elevated blood pressure values. In this target group, data regarding the effectiveness of nonpharmacological interventions based on lifestyle modifications are particularly lacking. A recent meta-analysis reports that from 1975 until today, 33 studies correctly evaluating the effectiveness of lifestyle interventions in obese children have been published and that surprisingly only in seven of them, the effects of body weight changes on blood pressure values were taken into account [5]. Furthermore, only one randomized study shows the ability of exercise physical training in reducing elevated blood pressure values in obese hypertensive children [6]. Future studies will be thus needed to fill this gap of information, taking also into account that guidelines on hypertension in children and adolescents indicate in the increase in physical activity, in the reduction of the sedentary lifestyle, as well as in the adoption of correct food habits, the first-line interventions to be adopted in this high-risk young population [7].
بررسی تأثیر اسانس Rosmarinus officinalis L. بر رشد و بیان ژنی انتروتوکسینهای A، C و E استافیلوکوکوس اورئوس ATCC 29213

مسمومیت غذایی استافیلوکوکی به علت مصرف مواد غذایی که در آن استافیلوکوکوس انتروتوکسیژنیک رشد و تولید انتروتوکسین کرده است، رخ می‌دهد. هدف قرار دادن فاکتورهای بیماری‌زایی باکتریایی، در حال حاضر به‌عنوان یک راهبرد جایگزین برای توسعه انواع جدیدی از مواد نگهدارنده ضدمیکروبی مورد توجه بسیاری از پژوهشگران و محققان صنایع غذایی قرار گرفته است. هدف این تحقیق بررسی تأثیر اسانس Rosmarinus officinalis L. (رزماری) بر رشد و بیان ژنی انتروتوکسین‌های A، C و E استافیلوکوکوس اورئوس ATCC 29213 می‌باشد. در این مطالعه پس از تعیین حداقل غلظت بازدارنده رشد، رشد باکتری و ترشح SEA، SEC و SEE تحت تأثیر غلظت‌های بازدارنده اسانس رزماری (به روش ELISA) ارزیابی شد. علاوه‌بر این، تأثیر اسانس بر نسخه‌برداری ژن‌های sea، sec و see (ژن‌های کدکننده SEA، SEC و SEE) با استفاده از PCR نیمه کمی بررسی شد. اسانس Ros در غلظت MIC 75% رشد باکتری را به میزان قابل ملاحظه‌ای کاهش داد. همچنین، اسانس از نسخه‌برداری ژن‌های sea، sec و see بازداری نمود و باعث کاهش ترشح SEA، SEC و SEE شد. غلظت‌های تحت بازدارنده اسانس تولید انتروتوکسین را در روند وابسته به دوز کاهش دادند. بنابراین داده‌های این مطالعه پیشنهاد می‌کند که اسانس رزماری می‌تواند به‌عنوان نگهدارنده طبیعی به‌منظور بازداری رشد و تولید انتروتوکسین توسط استافیلوکوکوس اورئوس در صنایع غذایی بکار رود.
Turning up the Heat on Online Teaching Evaluations: Does “Hotness” Matter?

Previous research has linked teachers' physical attractiveness and students' evaluations of teaching. We expanded on this literature by using data from RateMyProfessors.com (RMP), a database popular among college students. Additionally, we examined the unique variance that physical attractiveness explains in student evaluations of teaching while controlling for factors previously shown to predict teaching evaluations (e.g., rater interest, ease of professor or course). We selected student evaluations from 2,281 professors listed on RMP. After controlling for the number of student ratings, rater interest, and ease, we found that physical attractiveness (i.e., hotness) accounted for over 8% of the variance in student evaluations of teaching.
The selfish vaccine Recipe: A simple mechanism for avoiding free-riding

Social loafing and free riding are common phenomena that may hinder crowdsourcing. The purpose of this work is to identify the minimum conditions that can promote cooperation and group problem solving avoiding free riding and social loafing. We assume two kinds of scenarios (Recipe A, free riders have access to benefits produced by groups and Recipe B, the benefit produced by groups are shared only within the group) and then we investigate the relationship among the tendency to cooperate, group sizes, and difficulty of the task by means of numerical simulations. Results indicate that in the Recipe A world, collective intelligence and crowdsourcing are generally less efficient compared to what observed in the Recipe B world. Indeed, in the latter cooperation appears to be the optimal strategy for the progress of the world. Given the social importance of crowdsourcing, we discuss some useful implications of our results on crowdsourcing projects.
The Face of Wrath: Critical Features for Conveying Facial Threat

We examined the role of different facial features (shape of eyebrows, eyes, mouth, nose, and the direction of gaze) in conveying the emotional impact of a threatening face. In two experiments, a total of 100 high school students rated their impression of two sets of schematic faces in terms of semantic differential scales (Activity, Negative Evaluation, and Potency). It was found that the different facial features could be ordered hierarchically, with eyebrows as the most important feature, followed by mouth and eyes. Eyebrows thus fundamentally categorised faces as threatening or nonthreatening. The different shapes of mouth and eyes provided subsequent categorisations of faces within these primary categories.
Insider Trading Patterns

We find that corporate insiders trade over longer periods of time when they may have a longer-lived informational advantage. Controlling for the duration of insiders' trading strategies, both their sales and purchases predict sizable abnormal returns on average. We discuss how failure to account for these trading patterns has previously masked the returns to insider trading, and show how accounting for them helps sharpen screens for corporate insiders who trade on information. We also provide evidence that insiders attempt to preserve their informational advantage to maximize trading profits by disclosing their trades after the market has closed. When insiders report their trades after business hours they are more likely to engage in extended sequences of trades, they trade more shares overall, and their trades predict larger abnormal returns.
The Predictive Validity of the Early Warning System Tool

The Early Warning System is a tool developed by the National High School Center to collect data on indicators including attendance, grade point average, course failures, and credits earned. These indicators have been found to be highly predictive of a student’s likelihood of dropping out of high school in large, urban areas. The Early Warning System tool was studied in two suburban schools. With the exception of attendance data, findings suggest that the indicators and suggested threshold for risk determination are predictive in suburban contexts.
Signaling, spillover and learning effects of knowledge flows on division performance within related diversified firms

Purpose – This study aims to address the performance consequences of knowledge transfer within related diversified firms by distinguishing between knowledge outflows and knowledge inflows at the business division level. Design/methodology/approach – Questionnaire data from a sample of 118 business divisions were analyzed using stepwise linear regression. Findings – The results from a three-effect model for the analysis of knowledge transfer indicate that knowledge outflow improves division performance, while knowledge inflow damages it when absorptive capacity is weak. The overall effect of knowledge transfer is therefore beneficial with the exception of the cases of receiving divisions with low levels of absorptive capacity. Practical implications – These results indicate that knowledge transfer contributes to overall corporate performance, since knowledge outflow impacts positively on division performance in all cases and knowledge inflow impacts negatively on division performance only in some cases. Se.
Tobacco use related attitudes and behaviors in Indian Adolescents: association with school-based prevention education

Background: Adolescent tobacco use in India has increased substantially within the past few decades. Schools can serve as an important avenue for prevention education, but little is known about the current practices of Indian schools in relation to tobacco use prevention education. Methods: To assess the extent and influence tobacco use prevention education in Indian schools,we analyzed the Global Youth Tobacco Survey data for India, which was a population-based study of a national random sample of 10112 students from 180 private and public schools.Variables such as student demographic profile, tobacco use behavior, perceptions about tobacco use, and exposure to school-based tobacco use prevention education were considered for analyses. Results: Prevalence of any form of tobacco use (14%) and current smoking (8%) was found to differ by gender. A quarter of the students believed that boys who smoke are more attractive or have more friends compared to non-smokers, and almost half of the students reported that smoking and health were never discussed as a part of a lesson in school. The association between school-based prevention education and tobacco use behavior was assessed (after adjustment forage, gender, and parental smoking). Students who were educated in school about tobacco use and its effects were significantly more likely to have negative attitude toward tobacco use and less likely to report use of tobacco. Conclusion: School-based tobacco use prevention education has beneficial influence on adolescents in India. Given the early age of initiation of tobacco use, school curricula in India should emphasize on tobacco use prevention education.
Reengineering Identity

Recent theoretical work in organizational identification has developed two themes: that members of complex organizations have multiple social groups with which they identify and that acts displaying members’identifications contribute to the construction of collective identities. Using a multimethodological and longitudinal approach, this case study of a planned organizational change found that (a) members central in the communication network identified similarly across four social groups, whereas others concentrated on subsets of these identities; (b) members’ use of discursive resources to explain a contentious event both displayed structured interests and made claims on the collective’s identity; and (c) members’preferred identity structures were more local than distant following the event. These findings contribute to scholarship and practice by illustrating the multiplicity and duality of identification, by introducing a procedure to assess multiple identity structures simultaneously, and by calling attention to the influence of activity patterns in shaping identities, particularly during planned change.
Constructing the "Good Transsexual": Christine Jorgensen, Whiteness, and Heteronormativity in the Mid-Twentieth-Century Press

As with any new academic field, transgender studies has created its own pantheon of canonical texts and heroic figures. One of the most cele brated figures has been Christine Jorgensen, and not without good reason; when the news announced in late 1952 that the former GI had undergone sex reassignment surgery in Denmark, it created a maelstrom of media attention and introduced many Americans to the concept of transsexual ity. Jorgensen remained in the news throughout the 1950s as she appeared on television talk shows, starred in her own nightclub show, and her 1967 autobiography was adapted and released as a motion picture, titled The Christine Jorgensen Story, in 1970. Her engaging personality captured the imag ination of many Americans, both past and present, and she has remained the most prominent individual within historical treatments of transsexu ality.1 However, Jorgensen was not the only public representation of transsexuality in the mid-twentieth century. In April 1966, for example, African American transwoman Delisa Newton graced the cover of Sepia, and her autobiography was the subject of a two-part series featured in the magazine. Similar to much of the press coverage of Jorgensen, Sepia's coverage of Newton highlighted her lonely childhood and her fervent desire to one day be a good wife. However, whereas Jorgensen's story appeared in numerous mainstream news magazines, such as Time and
Incidence of Visits for Health Care Worker Blood or Body Fluid Exposures and HIV Postexposure Prophylaxis Provision at Rhode Island Emergency Departments

Objectives:To compare the incidence and types of emergency department (ED) visits for blood or body fluid exposures sustained by health care workers (HCWs) in Rhode Island and to identify factors predictive of HIV postexposure prophylaxis (PEP) utilization for these exposures. Methods:A retrospective study of ED visits for blood or body fluid exposures to all Rhode Island EDs from January 1995 to June 2001 was conducted. Average incidence rates (IRs) of visits by HCW occupation and type of exposure were estimated and compared. Logistic regression models were created to determine which HCWs were more likely to be offered and to accept HIV PEP. Results:Of 1551 HCW ED visits for occupational exposures, 72.5% sustained a percutaneous injury and only 2.5% were exposed to a source known to be HIV-infected. Hospital custodians had the highest IR of ED visits for percutaneous injuries (81 ED visits per year per 10,000 workers). Visits for all exposures increased over the study years and were most common during March, on weekends, and at 5:00 pm. Of all HCWs, 91.2% presented within 24 hours of their exposure and 98.2% presented within 72 hours. HIV PEP was offered to 469 HCWs and accepted 229 times. HCWs more likely to be offered HIV PEP were exposed to a known HIV-infected source (odds ratio [OR] = 6.38), sustained a significant exposure (OR = 4.98), presented to an academic hospital ED (OR = 2.60), were a member of the medical staff (OR = 2.02), and were exposed during the latter years of the study (OR = 1.23). HCWs were more likely to accept HIV PEP when it was offered if they were male (OR = 1.64) and presented to an academic hospital ED (OR = 2.72). Conclusions:The IRs of ED visits for exposures varied by occupation, and there were clear temporal trends for these visits. Despite the existence of federal guidelines for HIV PEP for occupational blood or body fluid exposures, factors other than characteristics of the exposure, such as type of hospital, occupation, and gender, may be influencing HIV PEP utilization.
Inference in hybrid KBS with interval-valued confidence

This article discusses confidence handling for inference in hybrid knowledge-based system (KBS) with hierarchical knowledge representation. The knowledge content (precise or imprecise) represented in multiple units of knowledge hierarchy and the confidence obtained during inference process are treated as two levels separately but simultaneously based on the concept of truth value flow inference. Three-parametric triangular truth values as special subsets defined on the interval [0,1] are adopted to describe the confidence of inference, and operations on such interval-valued confidence are defined to meet commonsense interpretation of decision making.
A Design Methodology for Folded, Pipelined Architectures in VLSI Applications using Projective Space Lattices

Semi-parallel, or folded, VLSI architectures are used whenever hardware resources need to be saved at design time. Most recent applications that are based on Projective Geometry (PG) based balanced bipartite graph also fall in this category. In this paper, we provide a high-level, top-down design methodology to design optimal semi-parallel architectures for applications, whose Data Flow Graph (DFG) is based on PG bipartite graph. Such applications have been found e.g. in error-control coding and matrix computations. Unlike many other folding schemes, the topology of connections between physical elements does not change in this methodology. Another advantage is the ease of implementation. To lessen the throughput loss due to folding, we also incorporate a multi-tier pipelining strategy in the design methodology. The design methodology has been verified by implementing a synthesis tool in C++, which has been verified as well. The tool is publicly available. Further, a complete decoder was manually protototyped before the synthesis tool design, to verify all the algorithms evolved in this paper, towards various steps of refinement. Another specific high-performance design of an LDPC decoder based on this methodology was worked out in past, and has been patented as well.