Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of the i-STAT Portable Clinical Analyzer for point-of-care blood testing in the intensive care units of a university children's hospital.

We evaluated the analytical performance of the i-STAT Portable Clinical Analyzer (PCA), a point-of-care testing system consisting of a hand-held analyzer and single-use cartridges that measure different panels of electrolytes, metabolites, blood gases, and hematocrit in 65-100 microl of blood. Our objective was to determine whether PCA measurements at the bedside of patients in the neonatal and pediatric intensive care units of the MUSC Children's Hospital would be as reliable as those performed by the clinical laboratory's primary methods (Radiometer ABL 725 blood gas analyzer; Vitros 750 chemistry analyzer; and Coulter STKS hematology analyzer). Four cartridge types: (a) EC8+ (sodium; potassium; chloride; urea; glucose; pH; blood gases [PO2; pCO2]), (b) EC6+ (sodium; potassium; ionized calcium; glucose; hematocrit; pH), (c) G3+ (pH; PO2; pCO2), and (d) creatinine, were assessed for reproducibility, linearity, and method comparisons using aqueous samples, blood samples supplemented with several analytes, and -225 blood samples from patients. Reproducibility (CV) was good (< 2%) for electrolytes, glucose, urea, and pH, satisfactory (< 6.5%) for blood gases and creatinine, but poor (21%) for hematocrit. Linearity concentrations spanning the clinically relevant ranges were verified for all analytes. Method comparison studies with samples separated into 2 subgroups by patient age (> or < 3 mo) showed that agreement between the PCA and the primary methods was clinically acceptable. After the PCA was implemented for clinical testing, the observation of discrepant results of creatinine concentrations in neonatal blood samples that would have affected clinical management led to a second creatinine comparison study (59 additional samples) and to our eventual discontinuation of the PCA creatinine assay. This problem notwithstanding, the successful implementation of the PCA is attributed to careful analytical evaluations and ongoing communication with the clinical staff.
High Prevalence of Skin Test Positivity in Severe or Difficult-to-Treat Asthma

Background: Skin tests are considered the gold standard for detecting allergen-specific immunoglobulin E (IgE) in the clinical setting and are an important tool for diagnosing and managing allergic asthma. Objective: To assess the prevalence of skin testing in patients ≥ 12 years enrolled in The Epidemiology and Natural History of Asthma: Outcomes and Treatment Regimens (TENOR) study. Methods: Patients were asked whether they had ever been skin tested and, if so, they were asked to provide the test results. Clinical characteristics were used to compare positive (ST+), negative (ST−), and skin test not done (STND) patients. Results: Of 2,985 patients eligible, 85.8% recalled being skin tested. Of those tested, 93.5% were positive (allergist 95.7%, pulmonologist 87.3%). A high proportion of Whites (93.5%) and non-Whites (94.0%) were ST+; however, more non-Whites had never been skin tested (21.7% vs. 12.3%, respectively; p < 0.0001). Total serum IgE was 104.6 IU/mL for ST+ patients, 87.1 IU/mL for STND patients, and 32.4 IU/mL for ST− patients. Age at asthma onset, duration of asthma, and the prevalence of atopic disorders and asthma triggers differentiated the ST+ from the ST− group. Disease severity appeared similar between the two groups. In general, values for STND patients were closer to the ST+ group, suggesting that those not tested would have been ST+ if administered a test. Conclusions: The prevalence of ST+ patients was high in allergy and pulmonology practices, and in White and non-White patients. These data support the utility of a more complete allergic evaluation in severe asthmatics. Skin testing appears associated with disease pathophysiologies in asthma.
Localization and Transcriptional Responses of Chrysoporthe austroafricana in Eucalyptus grandis Identify Putative Pathogenicity Factors

Chrysoporthe austroafricana is a fungal pathogen that causes the development of stem cankers on susceptible Eucalyptus grandis trees. Clones of E. grandis that are partially resistant and highly susceptible have been identified based on the extent of lesion formation on the stem upon inoculation with C. austroafricana. These interactions have been used as a model pathosystem to enhance our understanding of interactions between pathogenic fungi and woody hosts, which may be different to herbaceous hosts. In previous research, transcriptomics of host responses in these two clones to C. austroafricana suggested roles for salicylic acid and gibberellic acid phytohormone signaling in defense. However, it is unclear how the pathogen infiltrates host tissue and which pathogenicity factors facilitate its spread in the two host genotypes. The aim of this study was to investigate these two aspects of the E. grandis–C. austroafricana interaction and to test the hypothesis that the pathogen possesses mechanisms to modulate the tree phytohormone-mediated defenses. Light microscopy showed that the pathogen occurred in most cell types and structures within infected E. grandis stem tissue. Notably, the fungus appeared to spread through the stem by penetrating cell wall pits. In order to understand the molecular interaction between these organisms and predict putative pathogenicity mechanisms of C. austroafricana, fungal gene expression was studied in vitro and in planta. Fungal genes associated with cell wall degradation, carbohydrate metabolism and phytohormone manipulation were expressed in planta by C. austroafricana. These genes could be involved in fungal spread by facilitating cell wall pit degradation and manipulating phytohormone mediated defense in each host environment, respectively. Specifically, the in planta expression of an ent-kaurene oxidase and salicylate hydroxylase in C. austroafricana suggests putative mechanisms by which the pathogen can modulate the phytohormone-mediated defenses of the host. These mechanisms have been reported in herbaceous plant–pathogen interactions, supporting the notion that these aspects of the interaction are similar in a woody species. This study highlights ent-kaurene oxidase and salicylate hydroxylase as candidates for further functional characterization.
Minimally Invasive Coracoclavicular Stabilization with Suture Anchors for Acute Acromioclavicular Dislocation

Background The management of acute acromioclavicular (AC) joint dislocation is controversial. Purpose The authors describe a surgical technique involving securing the clavicle to the coracoid process using suture anchors for the treatment of acute AC joint injury. Study Design Case series; Level of evidence, 4. Methods Twenty patients were evaluated retrospectively, clinically, and radiographically, for a mean of 41.2 months. Results At last follow-up, the mean Constant score for the 20 patients was 89.5. Eighteen patients (90%) maintained complete AC joint reduction in both anteroposterior and axillary views. Slight loss of reduction was noted in 2 patients (10%), but their functional outcomes were good. No fixation failure or pulling out of suture anchors was encountered. Conclusion This minimally invasive technique using a suture anchor for the treatment of acute AC dislocation is easily performed.
Seeing the body modulates audiotactile integration

Audiotactile integration has been studied using various experimental setups but so far crossmodal congruency effects (CCEs) have not been found for tactile targets paired with auditory distractors. In the present study we investigated whether audiotactile CCEs exist and, if so, whether these CCEs have similar characteristics to those found by previous authors with visual distractors. We measured audiotactile CCEs by attaching four vibrators to the backs of participants and presented auditory stimuli from four loudspeakers placed, in separate blocks, at different distances in front of or behind the participant’s body. Participants discriminated the elevation of tactile stimuli while ignoring the auditory distractors. CCEs were found only when participants were provided with noninformative vision of their own body, as seen from behind via a camera and head‐mounted display; they were absent when participants did not view their body. Furthermore, in contrast to visuotactile CCEs, audiotactile CCEs did not depend on whether the distractors were presented on the same or different side as the tactile targets. The present study provides the first demonstration of an audiotactile CCE: incongruent auditory distractors impaired performance on a tactile elevation discrimination task relative to performance with congruent distractors. We show that audiotactile CCEs differ from visuotactile CCEs as they do not appear to be as sensitive to the spatial relations between the distractors and the tactile stimuli. We also show that these CCEs are modulated by vision of the body.
Interventions and Services Offered to Former Juvenile Offenders Reentering Their Communities

The authors review youth reentry and reintegration programming services findings and describe what works and what does not. Then, as an explanatory strategy for interpreting the findings, they introduce overlooked issues concerning identity formation and the influences of race/ethnicity and class. They consider (a) a systems theoretical stance that acknowledges youths’ perspectives, (b) human development themes that do not emphasize psychopathology, and (c) the settings where reentry and reintegration programming occur. The authors conclude by recommending strategies for improving assessments of programming and services.
Emotional and psychosocial problems after brain injury

Abstract Emotional and psychosocial disorders of brain-damaged patients have a strong impact upon the outcome of the rehabilitation. However, owing to methodological difficulties, and to the intrinsic complexity of such disorders, these issues have received only a limited amount of interest. The aim of this paper is to try to disentangle some of the major factors underlying these disturbances, making a schematic distinction between three main categories: (1) neurological factors; (2) psychological (or psychodynamic) factors; (3) psychosocial factors. Emotional disorders stem directly from neurological factors when they result from the disruption of specific neural mechanisms subserving the modulation and control of emotional and social behaviour. Patients with severe traumatic head injury are, in general, the more prototypical instances of this category, as in them the lesion usually involves some of the most important cortical components of the limbic system. According to some authors, poststroke depress.
Using tests as an incentive to motivate procrastinators to study

Abstract The purposes of this study were to compare two approaches for enhancing the recall and understanding of text and to compare the effectiveness of the two approaches for students differing in procrastination tendency. The first approach was to provide incentive motivation by giving a test on each text chapter; the second approach was to provide a learning strategy by requiring students to outline each chapter as a homework assignment. Eighty-two students were classified by level of procrastination based on scores on the Procrastination Scale. Half of the students experienced the test condition; the other half experienced the homework condition. Although the test condition produced significantly higher scores overall on a final achievement examination than the outline condition did, a significant interaction between condition and student procrastination level reflected an almost 12% advantage for the test condition among high procrastinators. There was virtually no difference between conditions for .
Improving Cost, Performance, and Security of Memory Encryption and Authentication

Protection from hardware attacks such as snoopers and mod chips has been receiving increasing attention in computer architecture. This paper presents a new combined memory encryption/authentication scheme. Our new split counters for counter-mode encryption simultaneously eliminate counter overflow problems and reduce per-block counter size, and we also dramatically improve authentication performance and security by using the Galois/counter mode of operation (GCM), which leverages counter-mode encryption to reduce authentication latency and overlap it with memory accesses. Our results indicate that the split-counter scheme has a negligible overhead even with a small (32KB) counter cache and using only eight counter bits per data block. The combined encryption/authentication scheme has an IPC overhead of 5% on average across SPEC CPU 2000 benchmarks, which is a significant improvement over the 20% overhead of existing encryption/authentication schemes
Teaching Learners of All Ages

music educator friend recently asked, "What can I do with a group of adults who are completely new to music? " She raised the question because she had agreed to teach an introductory course at a local college, following a continuing education needs assessment that revealed strong interest in a music class for adult beginners. The need for educators, including music educators, to serve adult learners better is becoming increasingly apparent. Over the past two decades, the number of participants in adult education has risen dramatically, with adult education courses more than doubling between 1969 and 1984.1 An aging population, the perception of human development as continuing throughout the life cycle, and the rapid rate of change in society have converged to focus attention on education that meets the learning needs and interests of people of all ages. Systematic learning is now widely recognized as a lifelong endeavor. At the dawn of the twenty-first century, education can no longer define its
Human resource management – a survey of practices within family and non‐family firms

Much of the literature relating to human resource management (HRM) has attempted to demonstrate that the “Human resource” is the most valued asset in a company. Large companies have revolutionised their approach to the training and development of their personnel in order to maximise their “competitive edge”. Hotly debated is whether investment in “good HRM” is linked to commercial success. However, very little is known about HRM practices within the small‐ to medium‐size business (SME) and even less is known about the practice within a family business. This survey describes the HRM practices of SMEs (both family and non‐family businesses) in Northern Ireland. Comparisons between the groups are made and findings suggest that family businesses practice HRM differently than their non‐family counterparts. Implications for the training and development of these two groups question whether family businesses need to be treated as a “special case”.
Evaluation of an imagery intervention to improve penalty taking ability in soccer: A study of two junior girls teams

The aim of this study was to investigate whether a simple, 1-week physical–environment–task–timing–learning–emotion–perspective (PETTLEP)-based imagery task would improve penalty taking ability in junior soccer players. Four measures were assessed in order to examine potential moderating variables that could affect the intervention. The intervention involved experimental manipulation in which both outfield players and goalkeepers were rewarded for good performance. In addition, we attempted to simulate the pressure associated with penalty shoot-outs in real soccer tournaments (e.g., by deceiving the participants that they were participating in a national competition in which their results would be compared with the results of similar teams in a domestic publication; by having a spectator visibly present taking notes). The intervention as such did not affect penalty taking performance, but one moderating variable, “peaking under pressure,” was found. Players in the intervention group who scored higher on the variable “peaking under pressure” significantly improved their penalty taking ability. The results suggest that players who evaluate themselves peaking under pressure more easily benefit from the imagery intervention. Athletes or practitioners should consider this if experiencing difficulties in their PETTLEP-imagery training in the context of penalty kicks.
Multiorgan dysfunction in infants with post-asphyxial hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy

Background: Multiorgan dysfunction (MOD) is one of four consensus based criteria for the diagnosis of intrapartum asphyxia. The theoretical concept behind MOD is the diving reflex (conservation of blood flow to vital organs at the cost of non-vital organs). Objectives: To assess the patterns of involvement of each major organ/system and combinations of involvement in infants with post-asphyxial hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy (HIE), and to describe this in relation to long term outcome. Design: Retrospective cohort study. Setting: Regional tertiary neonatal intensive care unit at the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada. Patients: Term neonates with post-intrapartal asphyxial HIE assessed for kidney, cardiovascular system, lung, and liver function. Outcome: Death and presence or absence of severe neurodevelopmental disability. Results: Out of 130 of 144 eligible infants with outcome data, 80 (62%) had severe adverse outcome and 50 (38%) had good outcome. All infants had evidence of MOD (at least one organ dysfunction in addition to HIE). Renal, cardiovascular, pulmonary, and hepatic dysfunction was present in 58–88% of infants with good outcome and 64–86% of infants with adverse outcome. Conclusions: MOD was present in all the infants with severe post-asphyxial HIE. However, there was no association between MOD and outcome in these infants. No relation between individual or combinations of organ involvements and long term outcomes was observed.
Complex event detection at wire speed with FPGAs

Complex event detection is an advanced form of data stream processing where the stream(s) are scrutinized to identify given event patterns. The challenge for many complex event processing (CEP) systems is to be able to evaluate event patterns on high-volume data streams while adhering to real-time constraints. To solve this problem, in this paper we present a hardware-based complex event detection system implemented on field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). By inserting the FPGA directly into the data path between the network interface and the CPU, our solution can detect complex events at gigabit wire speed with constant and fully predictable latency, independently of network load, packet size, or data distribution. This is a significant improvement over CPU-based systems and an architectural approach that opens up interesting opportunities for hybrid stream engines that combine the flexibility of the CPU with the parallelism and processing power of FPGAs.
Tropical cyclone cloud‐top height and vertical temperature structure detection using GPS radio occultation measurements

The accurate determination of tropical cyclone (TC) cloud‐top height and its vertical thermal structure using the GPS radio occultation (RO) technique is demonstrated in this study. Cloud‐top heights are determined by using the bending angle anomaly and the temperature anomaly profiles during the TC events, and the results are compared to near‐coincident cloud‐top heights determined by Cloud‐Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) measurements. Based on 34 closely located RO‐CALIOP pairs during 2006 to 2009, TC cloud‐top heights from RO are highly correlated with CALIOP (r = 0.84), with a mean RO‐CALIOP cloud‐top height difference of approximately 500 m and a root‐mean‐square difference near 1 km. GPS RO data also allow analysis of the TC thermal structure, showing warm anomalies in the middle troposphere and cold anomalies in the upper levels, with a strong inversion near cloud top. We further investigate the thermal structure of the TCs from collocated radiosondes, and identify 246 RO‐radiosonde pairs from 2001 to 2009. Radiosonde data confirm the thermal structure identified in GPS RO, with a strong inversion near the inferred cloud top. The mean difference between RO‐derived inversion heights and those from radiosonde temperature profiles is approximately 500 m. Results show that, while cloud‐top height detected from nadir‐viewing satellites can be easily biased by a few kilometers, the biases of RO‐derived cloud‐top height are within ~500 m.
EPO‐receptor is present in mouse C2C12 and human primary skeletal muscle cells but EPO does not influence myogenesis

The role and regulation of the pleiotropic cytokine erythropoietin (EPO) in skeletal muscle are controversial. EPO exerts its effects by binding its specific receptor (EPO‐R), which activates intracellular signaling and gene transcription in response to internal and external stress signals. EPO is suggested to play a direct role in myogenesis via the EPO‐R, but several studies have questioned the effect of EPO treatment in muscle in vitro and in vivo. The lack of certainty surrounding the use of nonspecific EPO‐R antibodies contributes to the ambiguity of the field. Our study demonstrates that the EPO‐R gene and protein are expressed at each stage of mouse C2C12 and human skeletal muscle cell proliferation and differentiation and validates a specific antibody for the detection of the EPO‐R protein. However, in our experimental conditions, EPO treatment had no effect on mouse C2C12 and human muscle cell proliferation, differentiation, protein synthesis or EPO‐R expression. While an increase in Akt and MAPK phosphorylation was observed, we demonstrate that this effect resulted from the stress caused by changing medium and not from EPO treatment. We therefore suggest that skeletal muscle EPO‐R might be present in a nonfunctional form, or too lowly expressed to play a role in muscle cell function.
CT Findings of Gallbladder Metastases: Emphasis on Differences According to Primary Tumors

Objective To describe computed tomography (CT) features of metastatic gallbladder (GB) tumors (MGTs) from various primary tumors and to determine whether there are differential imaging features of MGTs according to different primary tumors. Materials and Methods Twenty-one patients who had pathologically confirmed MGTs and underwent CT were retrospectively enrolled. Clinical findings including presenting symptoms, type of surgery, and interval between primary and metastatic tumors were recorded. Histologic features of primary tumor and MGTs including depth of invasion were also reviewed. Imaging findings were analyzed for the location and morphology of MGTs, pattern and degree of enhancement, depth of invasion, presence of intact overlying mucosa, and concordance between imaging features of primary and metastatic tumors. Significant differences between the histologies of MGTs and imaging features were determined. Results The most common primary tumor metastasized to the GB was gastric cancer (n = 8), followed by renal cell carcinoma (n = 4) and hepatocellular carcinoma (n = 3). All MGTs (n = 21) manifested as infiltrative wall thickenings (n = 15) or as polypoid lesions (n = 6) on CT, similar to the features of primary GB cancers. There were significant differences in the morphology of MGTs, enhancement pattern, enhancement degree, and depth of invasion according to the histology of primary tumors (p < 0.05). Metastatic adenocarcinomas of the GB manifested as infiltrative and persistently enhancing wall thickenings, while non-adenocarcinomatous metastases usually manifested as polypoid lesions with early wash-in and wash-out. Conclusion Although CT findings of MGTs are similar to those of primary GB cancer, they are significantly different between the various histologies of primary tumors.