Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Airway inflammation is augmented by obesity and fatty acids in asthma

Obesity and asthma are associated, but the mechanism(s) of the association have yet to be elucidated. The aim of this study was to assess airway inflammation in relation to obesity and plasma fatty acids in males and females with and without asthma. Obese (n=68) and nonobese (n=47) adults with asthma, and obese (n=16) and nonobese (n=63) healthy controls had induced sputum and venous blood samples analysed for inflammatory markers. There was a positive interaction between obesity and asthma on sputum neutrophil percentage (p=0.012) and C-reactive protein level (p=0.003). Although sputum eosinophil percentage was elevated in asthma (p=0.001), there was no effect of obesity (p=0.16). Sputum neutrophil percentage was positively associated with body mass index in females with asthma (&bgr;=1.015, 95% CI 0.258–1.772; p=0.009) and neutrophilic asthma was present in a greater proportion of obese compared with non-obese females (42.9% versus 16.2%; p=0.017). In males with asthma, sputum neutrophil percentage was positively associated with total plasma saturated fatty acids (&bgr;=0.108, 95% CI 0.036–0.180; p=0.004) and negatively with monounsaturated fatty acids (&bgr;= -0.068, 95% CI -0.131– -0.005; p=0.035). This was the first study to demonstrate an increase in neutrophilic airway inflammation in obese asthma. This relationship was significant only in females with asthma. In males, saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids were important predictors of neutrophilic airway inflammation in asthma.
Components of the neural circuitry of the vaginocavernosus reflex in rabbits

In mammals the mechanisms underlying female sexual and reproductive biology are poorly understood. Little attention has been paid to striated muscles and their neural regulation. The aim of the present study was to describe the components of the vaginocavernosus reflex in adult rabbits. It was found that mechanical stimulation of the glans of the clitoris and the perineal vagina induced electromyographic (EMG) responses in bulbocavernosus (Bcm) and ischiocavernosus (Icm) muscles. Unilateral and bilateral nerve transection indicated that the clitoral nerve is the main afferent path of the reflex and that it recruits ipsilateral and contralateral perineal motoneurons. Injection of horseradish peroxides‐wheat germ agglutinin (HRP‐WGA) into the Bcm and Icm labeled spinal motoneurons scattered in L7 and S1 segments. According to the results of this study and previous work, the elements of the vaginocavernosus reflex may be described as follows. Mechanical receptors are located in the glans clitoris and in the wall of the perineal vagina. The main afferent pathway is the clitoral nerve. It activates ipsilateral and contralateral Bcm and Icm motoneurons in lumbosacral segments. Axons of efferent neurons travel through the clitoral and ischiocavernosus nerves, and the effectors are the Bcm and Icm perineal muscles. Identification of neural components of the vaginocavernosus reflex in rabbits will allow the use of this animal as a model to assess the physiological characteristics of the perineal motoneurons as well as the contribution of the Bcm and Icm in female urogenital functions. J. Comp. Neurol. 518:199–210, 2010. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
BLOOD LOSS IN GYNAECOLOGICAL OPERATIONS

WITH modern techniques, the purely anaesthetic requirements of standard gynaecological operations can be met with comparative ease. It must be admitted, however, that, in respect to its effect on operative blood loss, general anaesthesia leaves much to be desired, as its use is usually accompanied by more profuse bleeding than is seen when comparable operations are performed under local or regional analgesia. Induced hypotension is a valuable means of preventing excessive blood loss. Although regarded apprehensively by many anaesthetists, it may be used with safety providing the administrator has acquired the necessary skill. The technique has proved of great benefit in radical hysterectomy, particularly when the hypotension is produced by a high spinal blockade (Scott, 1958). In vaginal operations, however, it can be disappointing, since the lithotomy position, unless it is combined with a marked head-down tilt, does not facilitate venous drainage from the operative field. Blood from the lower limbs tends to pool in the pelvic veins instead of returning to the heart, and increased venous bleeding occurs. Epidural analgesia, combined with a light general anaesthetic, has been used by us for some years and it was felt that a considerable reduction in blood loss was effected. This was especially so in the case of vaginal operations when used in conjunction with a local infiltration of adrenaline into the operative field. As very few anaesthetists can forbear to claim that their own particular method produces a dry operating field, we decided to test the efficiency of epidural analgesia by estimating the blood loss, and comparing a series of cases with a control series performed under general anaesthesia.
Independently innovative: Teachers and change in successful schools

This study explores teachers' perceptions of school change and leadership. The study is guided by the question: In an innovative independent school, how do teachers perceive deliberate change efforts and relate to the leaders who lead them. Other issues considered are the role of school culture, professional development and institutional goals in an effective change process. This research is distinctive in that it examines school change from the teachers' perspective and was conducted in a school that had previously demonstrated positive growth. The result is a qualitative, case study of one exemplary, independent school. In the summer and fall of 2010, the researcher gathered artifacts and conducted two focus groups and two follow up interviews with teacher-participants. From each focus group one participant was chosen by lottery to be interviewed. Participants discussed the change process they experienced at their school. Data was tape recorded, transcribed, and analyzed for categories and themes. The researcher compared this data to existing literature, drew inferences, and generated theory. Findings include an overarching theme and three sub-themes pertaining to leadership and school change. The overarching theme demonstrated that when leaders address teachers' personal and professional needs, they set the stage for positive school change. The first sub-theme was the importance of faculty and leaders working together to identify both vexing problems to solve and worthy goals to accomplish. A second subtheme illuminates the leaders built the faculty by helping teachers to improve, by hiring well, and by firing when improvement could not occur. The third sub-theme reinforces the idea that teachers are motivated to change because of the relationships they and the leaders share. Teachers are motivated to accept school initiatives that reflect a commitment to the school's mission and philosophy.
Locomotion modes of an hybrid wheel-legged robot

The main objective of this paper is to compare and evaluate the performance of several locomotion modes of an hybrid wheel-legged robot. Each studied locomotion mode is described, compared and evaluated according to the same criteria, which are the gradeability i.e. the climbing ability and the power consumption. A hierarchical scheme dedicated to the selection and the control of each locomotion mode is also presented.
Systems Biology and Cancer Prevention: All Options on the Table

In this paper, we outline the status quo and approaches to further development of the systems biology concepts with focus on applications in cancer prevention science. We discuss the biological aspects of cancer research that are of primary importance in cancer prevention, motivations for their mathematical modeling and some recent advances in computational oncology. We also make an attempt to outline in big conceptual terms the contours of future work aimed at creation of large-scale computational and informational infrastructure for using as a routine tool in cancer prevention science and decision making.
Persuasion through overheard communication by life-like agents

It is important to investigate the influence of life-like agents interacting with a user since some studies suggest thai life-like agents can "persuade" people, in other words, they have potential to change people's attitude and behavior. In this study, the influence of overheard communication (OC), one of famous persuasion techniques, by life-like agents toward online shopping Web site users was examined, since the OC by people often changes attitude of receivers. An experiment to compare the effect of OC by two life-like agents (a persuader agent and a persuadee agent) with regular communication by one persuader agent were conducted. The result of this experiment implied that even the OC by life-like agents could promote Web site users' online shopping purchase likelihood. Moreover, despite impression to a life-like agent as a persuader was not strongly affected by OC, attractiveness toward a persuader agent evaluated by participants was positively correlated with their purchase likelihood. These results suggest the effectiveness of the OC by life-like agents and the new direction of studies of social response to life-like agents, from the viewpoints of presence, gaze, and appearance of lifelike agents.
The Decoupling of CEO Pay and Performance: An Agency Theory Perspective

It is common to thank the anonymous reviewers of a paper. In this case, we want them to know that they added in a very significant way to this study. Their comments provided helpful guidance that made a nice study a much better article. Their comments helped both of us learn a great deal about a theoretical domain with which we were unfamiliar. The way they dealt with this project could well be a tutorial for everyone who serves as a reviewer. This paper examines the extent to which monitoring and incentive alignment of Chief Executive (CEO) compensation and influence patterns of various actors on CEO pay vary as a function of ownership distribution within the firm. Based on the reports of 175 chief compensation officers in manufacturing, it was found that the level of monitoring and incentive alignment was greater in owner-controlled than management-controlled firms. For both types of firms, there was a direct relationship between monitoring and the risk level to the CEO of annual bonuses and long-term income, although the relationship was stronger among owner-controlled firms. In the owner-controlled firms, there was more influence over CEO pay by major stockholders and boards of directors. In management-controlled firms, the CEO pay influence was separated from major stockholders and boards. The results suggest that a behavioral approach to measuring agency theory concepts can provide some new insights into the process used to determine CEO pay. '
Assessment of 2D:4D in subjects with anteroposterior mandibular dysplasia.

OBJECTIVES To compare 2D:4D ratio which is determined by testosterone levels with patients having orthognathic, retrognathic and prognathic mandibles. MATERIALS AND METHODS The study was performed at Chennai, on 320 subjects of which, 60 subjects (32 males and 28 females) had retrognathic mandible; 55 subjects (25 males and 30 females) had prognathic mandible and 205 subjects (98 males and 107 females) had normal mandible. All the subjects had a normal maxilla and were in the age group of 18 to 25 years. 2D:4D ratio was determined using the photocopies of the ventral surface of right hand made with vernier calipers of 0.01 mm accuracy. Statistical analysis was undertaken using Student's t- test, ANOVA test and TukeyHSD test. RESULTS (i) Low 2D:4D is seen in subjects with mandibular prognathism, (ii) Among females, low 2D:4D is seen only in prognathic mandible. CONCLUSION These findings highlight the fact that testosterone plays an important role in mandibular growth. Thus 2D:4D, a least invasive and reproducible procedure can be used as an early marker for mandibular progathism, and as a diagnostic tool in correlating the mandibular growth with causal relations between hormones and craniofacial development.
Performance of a motor task learned on levodopa deteriorates when subsequently practiced off

Studies in animals and in people with Parkinson's disease (PD) demonstrate complex effects of dopamine on learning motor tasks; its effect on retention of motor learning has received little attention. Recent animal studies demonstrate that practicing a task in the off state, when initially learned in the on state, leads to progressive deterioration in performance. We measured the acquisition and retention of 3 different motor tasks in the presence and absence of levodopa. Twenty individuals with Hoehn and Yahr Stage 1.5 to 3 PD practiced the tasks daily for two 4‐day weeks, one half practicing on l‐dopa the first week and off the second week. The other half practiced off l‐dopa both weeks. The tasks were (1) alternate tapping of 2 keys, (2) moving the body toward 2 targets on a posturography device, and (3) mirror drawing of a star. For the tapping and body movement tests, those who practiced on the first week had a progressive decline in performance with practice during week 2, while subjects off during week 1 maintained or improved. In contrast, for the mirror task, subjects on l‐dopa initially had much more difficulty completing the task compared to subjects who practiced off. Both groups improved with practice the first week and had flat performance the second week. These data suggest that performance of speed‐accuracy tasks learned in the on state may progressively worsen if subsequently practiced in the off state. In addition, performance, but not learning, of some tasks may be impeded by l‐dopa. © 2013 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.
Enhancing perceived enjoyment in social games through social and gaming factors

Purpose – Residing on social networking platforms, social games have unique characteristics distinguishing them from other digital games or online games. The purpose of this paper is to explore both social and gaming factors of social games and investigate their roles on enhancing perceived enjoyment. The authors also examine the relationships between perceived enjoyment, subject norm, perceived critical mass, intention to play, and actual behavior. Design/methodology/approach – This paper develops a research model including nine hypotheses. Using a survey questionnaire, empirical data were collected from 169 actual social game players. Structured equation modeling was used to test the proposed research models. Findings – Social identification, social interaction, and diversion significantly influence perceived enjoyment. Perceived enjoyment significantly influences the intention to play, which in turn significantly influences the actual behavior. Moreover, subject norm and perceived critical mass play di.
Faith communities and their assets for health promotion: the views from health professionals and faith leaders in Dundee, in Scotland

Within the European Union, as well as in Canada and the United States (US), health promoters employ a number of strategies to encourage community-based health improvements. This involves the creation of innovative health promotion partnerships to support and enable people to choose and engage in healthy living practices. Compared to the US, in other Western countries, such as the United Kingdom, faith communities have largely been ignored in health promotion partnerships. This study established existing evidence about health promotion in faith communities in Scotland by examining the perceptions and attitudes concerning health promotion among faith leaders and health promotion professionals. We conducted 33 semi-structured interviews with health promotion professionals (n = 9) and representatives of Christian and non-Christian faith communities (n = 24). The majority of participants expressed an interest in the concept of health promotion in a faith community and could readily envision its application in their area of work. Both groups identified multiple physical assets, as well as social supports within faith communities that could be directed towards healthy living activities. Faith groups and church organisations may constitute potential partners and new settings to increase community capacity for health promotion. Further research and funding for demonstration projects may be particularly helpful to provide evidence of the strengths and limitations of faith-based health promotion in Scotland, which in turn could inform health promotion practice and policy.
Reliable regulation in decentralized control systems subject to polynomial exogenous signals

This paper addresses the design of a reliable control system for a linear, asymptotically stable plant. Specifically, the considered problem consists of finding a regulator which, besides guaranteeing closed loop asymptotic stability and zero error regulation when all the instrumentation is in operation, also ensures that these properties are preserved, at their maximum possible extent, when some sensors and/or actuators faults occur, that is, some of the feedback loops open. Thus, a single regulator has to be found, able to contemporarily solve a certain number of classical regulator problems. Referring to a fully decentralized control structure, the paper presents a constructive necessary and sufficient condition for the problem to admit a solution when the exogenous signals are polynomial in time.
A Novel Type-1 Frequency-Locked Loop for Fast Detection of Frequency and Phase With Improved Stability Margins

The synchronous reference frame phase-locked loop (SRF-PLL) is a widely used synchronization technique in power electronics and power systems applications due to its ease of implementation and robust performance. The conventional SRF-PLL is a type-2 control system due to the use of proportional-integral controller as loop filter. With higher bandwidth design, it can achieve fast detection of frequency and phase under ideal grid conditions. However, its bandwidth should be sufficiently lowered to obtain proper disturbance rejection under unbalanced and distorted grid conditions. This results in a slower detection speed. Recently, several advanced PLLs with pre/in-loop filtering stage have been proposed to improve the detection speed. A major challenge with the PLLs is how to further improve their dynamic performance without compromising the disturbance rejection capability and stability. To resolve this issue, in this paper, a novel type-1 frequency-locked loop (FLL) is proposed. The disturbance rejection capability of the proposed FLL is improved using a modified structure low-pass filter with selective harmonics filtering ability. As the proposed FLL is type-1 control system, it achieves better dynamic performance with higher stability margins. The effectiveness of the proposed FLL is confirmed through experimental results and comparison with advanced type-2 PLLs.
Proteus: A Flexible and Fast Software Supported Hardware Logging approach for NVM

Emerging non-volatile memory (NVM) technologies, such as phase-change memory, spin-transfer torque magnetic memory, memristor, and 3D Xpoint, are encouraging the development of new architectures that support the challenges of persistent programming. An important remaining challenge is dealing with the high logging overheads introduced by durable transactions. In this paper, we propose a new logging approach, Proteus for durable transactions that achieves the favorable characteristics of both prior software and hardware approaches. Like software, it has no hardware constraint limiting the number of transactions or logs available to it, and like hardware, it has very low overhead. Our approach introduces two new instructions: log-load creates a log entry by loading the original data, and log-flush writes the log entry into the log. We add hardware support, primarily within the core, to manage the execution of these instructions and critical ordering requirements between logging operations and updates to data. We also propose a novel optimization at the memory controller that is enabled by a persistent write pending queue in the memory controller. We drop log updates that have not yet written back to NVMM by the time a transaction is considered durable. We implemented our design on a cycle accurate simulator, MarssX86, and compared it against state-of-the-art hardware logging, ATOM [19], and a software only approach. Our experiments show that Proteus improves performance by 1.44-1.47 $\times$ depending on configuration, on average, compared to a system without hardware logging and 9-11% faster than ATOM. A significant advantage of our approach is dropping writes to the log when they are not needed. On average, ATOM makes $3.4 \times$ more writes to memory than our design. CCS CONCEPTS • Computer systems organization → Serial architectures; • Hardware → Memory and dense storage;
Effect of Enalapril, Hydralazine Plus Isosorbide Dinitrate, and Prazosin on Hospitalization in Patients With Chronic Congestive Heart Failure

BackgroundHospitalization of persons with congestive heart failure for recurrent heart failure or other complications is common. Methods and ResultsMale patients aged 18-75 with chronic heart failure were randomized in two sequential trials designed to study the efficacy of vasodilator therapy. Patients were evaluated every months, and information regarding hospitalizations between visits was obtained from the patient, his family, and/or hospital records. Hospitalization data also were obtained for patients who had died between scheduled clinic visits. Hospitalizations were not recorded if a patient died during transit to the hospital or in the hospital emergency department before admission. In Vasodilator-Heart Failure Trial (V-HeFT) I, no significant difference in number of patients hospitalized or number of hospitalizations was noted among the treatment groups, although there was a trend for fewer and delayed cardiac hospitalizations in the hydralazine plus isosorbide dinitrate arm in which the survival was greater. In V-HeFT II, no difference in hospitalizations was apparent between the enalapril and hydralazine plus isosorbide dinitrate arms. Univariate predictors of hospitalization for all causes were reduced peak oxygen consumption (V02) during exercise (P<0.0001), reduced exercise duration (P<0.0001), increased cardiothoracic ratio on chest radiograph (P<0.0001), increased age (P<0.03), and use of antiarrhythmic drugs (p <0.013), whereas multivariate predictors were reduced peak Vo2 (p <00.0001), use of antiarrhythmic drugs (P<0.015), and increased cardiothoracic ratio (P<0.03). Univariate predictors of hospitalization for heart failure were peak Vo2 (P<0.0001), LVEF (P<0.0001), reduced exercise duration (P<0.0001), elevated cardiothoracic ratio (P<0.0001), and elevated plasma norepinephrine (P<0.0001). Multivariate predictors were exercise duration (P<0.0001), LVEF (P<0.04), elevated cardiothoracic ratio (P<0.03), plasma norepinephrine (P<0.0005), and coronary artery disease (P<0.02). Time to first hospitalization, cause specific or overall, was considerably shorter for patients with baseline peak Vo2< 10 mL. kg-1 min-1 compared with those with peak Vo2> 15 mL. kg. -1 min-1. ConclusionsDespite better survival in patients randomized to hydralazine plus isosorbide dinitrate compared with placebo and better survival in patients randomized to enalapril compared with hydralazine plus isosorbide dinitrate, no significant differences between the treatment groups were apparent in the incidence of hospitalization or time to first hospitalization for congestive heart failure, for cardiac reasons other than congestive heart failure, or for other causes. V-HeFT I and V-HeFT II data demonstrate no treatment effect on hospitalization, perhaps reflecting in part the effectiveness of the Veterans Affairs special heart failure clinics in dealing with worsening heart failure on an outpatient basis. Identification of predictors of hospitalization were similar in both studies.