Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The nurse practitioner role in pain management in long-term care.

AIM This paper is a report of a study exploring the perceptions of long-term care team members and nurse managers about barriers and facilitators to optimal use of nurse practitioners to manage residents' pain in long-term care settings. BACKGROUND Considering the high rates of pain in long-term care, research is needed to explore innovations in health-services delivery, including the emerging nurse practitioner role. METHODS For this study, an exploratory descriptive design was used to collect data in spring 2007 from five focus groups of nurses and 14 individual interviews with other healthcare team members and nurse managers. Data were analysed using thematic content analysis. FINDINGS Five pain management activities performed by nurse practitioners were identified, including assessing pain, prescribing pain medications, monitoring pain levels and side effects of pain medications, consulting and advocating for staff and patients, and leading and educating staff related to pain management. Factors that influenced the implementation of the nurse practitioner role included the availability of the nurse practitioner, scope of practice, role clarity, perceived added value of nurse practitioner role, terms of employment, nurse practitioner-physician relationship. Perceived outcomes of the nurse practitioner role were also described. CONCLUSIONS The findings from this study contribute to our understanding of how the nurse practitioner role is perceived by other healthcare professionals, particularly in pain management. Stronger interprofessional collaborative relationships need to be facilitated within a model of care that includes a nurse practitioner, with the ultimate goal of improving pain management services in long-term care.
Distribution of entropy production for a colloidal particle in a nonequilibrium steady state

For a colloidal particle driven by a constant force across a periodic potential, we investigate the distribution of entropy production both experimentally and theoretically. For short trajectories, the fluctuation theorem holds experimentally. The mean entropy production rate shows two regimes as a function of the applied force. Theoretically, both mean and variance of the pronounced non-Gaussian distribution can be obtained from a differential equation in good agreement with the experimental data.
Inducible and reversible phenotypes in a novel mouse model of Friedreich’s Ataxia

Friedreich’s ataxia (FRDA), the most common inherited ataxia, is caused by recessive mutations that reduce the levels of frataxin (FXN), a mitochondrial iron binding protein. We developed an inducible mouse model of Fxn deficiency that enabled us to control the onset and progression of disease phenotypes by the modulation of Fxn levels. Systemic knockdown of Fxn in adult mice led to multiple phenotypes paralleling those observed in human patients across multiple organ systems. By reversing knockdown after clinical features appear, we were able to determine to what extent observed phenotypes represent reversible cellular dysfunction. Remarkably, upon restoration of near wild-type FXN levels, we observed significant recovery of function, associated pathology and transcriptomic dysregulation even after substantial motor dysfunction and pathology were observed. This model will be of broad utility in therapeutic development and in refining our understanding of the relative contribution of reversible cellular dysfunction at different stages in disease.
Effects of atmospheric CO 2 enrichment on soil CO 2 efflux in a young longleaf pine system

The southeastern landscape is composed of agricultural and forest systems that can store carbon (C) in standing biomass and soil. Research is needed to quantify the effects of elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) on terrestrial C dynamics including CO2 release back to the atmosphere and soil sequestration. Longleaf pine savannahs are an ecologically and economically important, yet understudied, component of the southeastern landscape. We investigated the effects of ambient and elevated CO2 on soil CO2 efflux in a young longleaf pine system using a continuous monitoring system. A significant increase (26.5%) in soil CO2 efflux across 90 days was observed under elevated CO2; this occurred for all weekly and daily averages except for two days when soil temperature was the lowest. Soil CO2 efflux was positively correlated with soil temperature with a trend towards increased efflux response to temperature under elevated CO2. Efflux was negatively correlated with soil moisture and was best represented using a quadratic relationship. Soil CO2 efflux was not correlated with root biomass. Our data indicate that, while elevated CO2 will increase feedback of CO2 to the atmosphere via soil efflux, terrestrial ecosystems will remain potential sinks for atmospheric CO2 due to greater biomass production and increased soil C sequestration.
Long Term Transcript Accumulation during the Development of Dehydration Adaptation in Cicer arietinum1

Cool season crops face intermittent drought. Exposure to drought and other abiotic stresses is known to increase tolerance of the plants against subsequent exposure to such stresses. Storage of environmental signals is also proposed. Preexposure to a dehydration shock improved adaptive response during subsequent dehydration treatment in a cool season crop chickpea (Cicer arietinum). We have identified 101 dehydration-inducible transcripts of chickpea by repetitive rounds of cDNA subtraction; differential DNA-array hybridization followed by northern-blot analysis and analyzed their responses to exogenous application of abscisic acid (ABA). Steady-state expression levels of the dehydration-induced transcripts were monitored during the recovery period between 2 consecutive dehydration stresses. Seven of them maintained more than 3-fold of expression after 24 h and more than 2-fold of expression level even at 72 h after the removal of stress. Noticeably, all of them were inducible by exogenous ABA treatment. When the seedlings were subjected to recover similarly after an exposure to exogenous ABA, the steady-state abundances of 6 of them followed totally different kinetics returning to basal level expression within 24 h. This observation indicated a correlation between the longer period of abundance of those transcripts in the recovery period and improved adaptation of the plants to subsequent dehydration stress and suggested that both ABA-dependent and -independent mechanisms are involved in the maintenance of the messages from the previous stress experience.
Qualitative matching of spatial information

Next to authoritative spatial representations stemming from surveying and cartography efforts, there have always been spatial representations produced by laypeople which often come in a non-georeferenced form, such as sketch maps or verbal descriptions. With the advent of volunteered geographic information the amount and accessibility of such "sketched" information increased drastically. This results in issues of ambiguity (not knowing what is depicted) and trust (not knowing whether the provided information is correct). To process this kind of information, matching approaches for establishing the correct correspondences between multiple representations are needed. As typically only qualitative relations are preserved in sketched information, performing the matching on a qualitative level has been suggested, but efficient solutions that are able to handle the involved combinatorial explosion of matching hypotheses are still lacking. We address this problem by developing a matching approach that exploits qualitative spatial reasoning to prune the search space while performing a heuristic search through the tree of possible matching hypotheses. The developed approach is general in that it can be employed for different tasks and problem domains, such as data integration and retrieval. In a case-study we apply it to the task of matching a sketch map to a geo-referenced data set.
Optimization, approximation, and complexity classes

We define a natural variant of NP, MAX NP, and also a subclass called MAX SNP. These are classes of optimization problems, and in fact contain several natural, well-studied ones. We show that problems in these classes can be approximated with some bounded error. Furthermore, we show that a number of common optimization problems are complete under a kind of careful transformation (called L-reduction) that preserves approximability. It follows that such a complete problem has a polynomial-time approximation scheme iff the whole class does. These results may help explain the lack of progress on the approximability of a host of optimization problems.
Biological applications of optical forces.

D ESIGN CON SID ERATION S . 253 Bll/ding a Trap . 253 Beam Steering 254 Trapping Lasers . 257 T RAPPIN G TH EORY . 260 Ray-Optics Theory . 262 Electromagnetic Theory . 264 F ORCE M EASUREM EN T . 267 Calibration . 267 Measurement of Trap Stiffness . 270 Physics of Trup Stiffness Measurements . 271 B�ownia,! Motion During Force Measurements . 272 PlcotenslOmeters 273 Other Applications of Picotensiometry . 276 Determinants of Trapping Forces . 277
Reliability analysis of combinational circuits based on a probabilistic binomial model

Reliability analysis of digital circuits is becoming an important feature in the design process of nanoscale systems. Understanding the relations between circuit structure and its reliability allows the designer to implement some tradeoffs that can improve the resulting design. This work presents a probabilistic model that computes the reliability of combinational logic circuits relating to single and multiple faults. The methodology is targeted (but not limited) to circuits generated by synthesis tools, and standard cell based implementation. To validate the proposed methodology we have studied the reliability of some adder structures. Complexity and scalability of the model are discussed and some optimizations are presented.
ASTRONOMICAL OXYGEN ISOTOPIC EVIDENCE FOR SUPERNOVA ENRICHMENT OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM BIRTH ENVIRONMENT BY PROPAGATING STAR FORMATION

New infrared absorption measurements of oxygen isotope ratios in CO gas from individual young stellar objects confirm that the solar system is anomalously high in its [18O]/[17O] ratio compared with extrasolar oxygen in the Galaxy. We show that this difference in oxygen isotope ratios is best explained by ∼1% enrichment of the protosolar molecular cloud by ejecta from Type II supernovae from a cluster having of order a few hundred stars that predated the Sun by at least 10–20 Myr. The likely source of exogenous oxygen was the explosion of one or more B stars during a process of propagating star formation.
Mental health advisory teams: A proactive examination of mental health during combat deployments

Abstract Mental health advisory teams (MHATs) conduct comprehensive mental health surveillance of US service members in combat environments. Since 2003, six teams have deployed to Iraq and four have deployed to Afghanistan, and results have played a key role influencing behavioural health policy. The repeated deployments of the teams have provided opportunities for processes to be refined, and this refinement has led to a scientifically rigorous and replicable approach. In this article we focus on two themes. The first theme is how changes in sampling have influenced the nature of the inferences drawn from the survey-based surveillance data. The second theme is how the ability to utilize different forms of data has served to strengthen the programme. Focusing on these two themes provides a way to discuss key findings, recommendations and limitations while also interspersing practical observations intended to help inform the design of broad-scale, in-theatre mental health surveillance efforts. We believe that future surveillance efforts should build on the lessons of the MHATs and attempt to replicate the more rigorous sampling methods; nonetheless, we also strive to convey that large surveillance efforts are valuable even if they cannot be executed with random sampling.
Religion and Marriage Timing: A Replication and Extension

Previous studies have revealed denominational subculture variations in marriage timing in the U.S. with conservative Protestants marrying at a much younger age than Catholics and the unaffiliated. However, the effects of other religious factors, such as worship service attendance and religious salience, remain overlooked. Informed by a theoretical framework that integrates the denominational subculture variation thesis and the gendered religiosity thesis, this study replicates, updates, and extends previous research by examining the effects of religiosity on the timing of first marriage among 10,403 men and 12,279 women using pooled cross-sectional data from the National Survey of Family Growth, 2006–2010. Our survival regression models indicate that: (1) consistent with previous research, Protestants in general, and conservative Protestants in particular, marry earlier than the religiously unaffiliated; (2) irrespective of denominational affiliation, increased frequency of worship service attendance decreases age at first marriage for both men and women, whereas religious salience is associated with earlier marriage only for women; (3) among Catholics, as worship service attendance increases, the waiting time to first marriage decreases; and (4) among Protestants, however, worship service attendance decreases age at first marriage for men who are affiliated with mainline and non-denominational Protestant churches, while for women the decrease in age at first marriage associated with worship service attendance is found for those who report a conservative Protestant affiliation. The complex intersections of denominational affiliation, frequency of worship service attendance, religious salience, and gender are discussed. Results suggest that religion continues to exert influences on marriage timing among recent birth cohorts of young Americans.
Animal models of ventilator-associated pneumonia

Animal models are an essential step between “in vitro” testing and clinical studies. Different animal models have been useful for the study of pathophysiology, diagnosis and therapy in ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP). Aspiration has been studied in dog and cat models and bacteriological diagnosis has been evaluated in baboons. Pigs have been used for studying either spontaneous or induced VAP. Intubated piglets in prone position were administered analgesia and muscle paralysis was induced, and the intubated piglets underwent mechanical ventilation for several days. In this model, spontaneous VAP due to common bacterial pig colonisation develops within a few days. Pneumonia can also be induced by inoculating high concentrations of microorganisms (Pseudomonas aeruginosa and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus). Different clinical, physiological, microbiological and pathological parameters of infection have been studied in this model. In addition, administration of antibiotics and inflammatory modulators and their consequences in microbiological eradication and local and systemic inflammation have been evaluated with interesting translational results. Although bronchial inoculation of healthy subjects does not resemble the common pathophysiological mechanisms, the experimental model of ventilator-associated pneumonia induced by the inoculation of high concentrations of microorganisms in mechanically ventilated piglets is useful for the study of the local and systemic responses of lung infection and for the determination of potential measures of prevention or therapeutic modulation.
Impact of chronic rhinosinusitis therapy on quality of life: a prospective randomized controlled trial.

OBJECTIVES To conduct the first prospective randomized controlled trial, evaluating and comparing the effect of medical and surgical treatment of chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) on quality of life. MATERIALS AND METHODS Ninety patients with CRS, who remained symptomatic after initial medical treatment with Dexarhinaspray duo and nasal douche, were randomized either to medical or surgical therapy. All patients underwent pre- and post-treatment assessments of the Sinonasal Outcome Test-20 (SNOT-20), and the Short Form 36 Health Survey (SF-36). Each patient had three assessments: before starting the randomized treatment, after six months and finally after one year. RESULTS Both the medical and surgical treatment of CRS significantly improved almost all the parameters of SNOT and SF-36 (p<0.05), with no significant difference being found between the medical and surgical groups (p>0.05). CONCLUSION Both maximal medical and surgical therapy of CRS improves the quality of life of CRS patients, providing further evidence that chronic rhinosinusitis should be targeted with maximal medical therapy in the first instance, with surgical treatment being reserved for cases refractory to medical therapy. The presence of nasal polyps does not imply any negative effect on the quality of life after CRS therapy, either medical or surgical.
The unresponsiveness of lipid metabolism in canine mesenteric adipose tissue to biogenic amines and to sympathetic nerve stimulation.

The net release or uptake of glycerol and free fatty acids by adipose tissue in perfused mesentery of dogs was determined a) during stimulation of the superior mesenteric nerves and b) following intra-arterial injection of noradrenaline, 5-hydroxytryptamine, histamine and compound 48/80. Nerve stimulation had no observable effect on lipolysis, a finding which is in contrast to previously reported results from subcutaneous adipose tissue. Moreover, in order to evoke lipolysis, noradrenaline and histamine had to be administered in amounts over 10 times higher than required for subcutaneous adipose tissue. Compound 48/80, a mast cell-depleting agent, and 5-hydroxytryptamine did not increase lipolysis. It is concluded that mesenteric adipose tissue may not be influenced by the same agents for lipolysis as subcutaneous adipose tissue from the same species.
Airborne fungi in an intensive care unit

The presence of airborne fungi in Intensive Care Unit (ICUs) is associated with increased nosocomial infections. The aim of this study was the isolation and identification of airborne fungi presented in an ICU from the University Hospital of Pelotas – RS, with the attempt to know the place’s environmental microbiota. 40 Petri plates with Sabouraud Dextrose Agar were exposed to an environment of an ICU, where samples were collected in strategic places during morning and afternoon periods for ten days. Seven fungi genera were identified: Penicillium spp. (15.18%), genus with the higher frequency, followed by Aspergillus spp. , Cladosporium spp. , Fusarium spp. , Paecelomyces spp. , Curvularia spp. , Alternaria spp. , Zygomycetes and sterile mycelium. The most predominant fungi genus were Aspergillus spp. (13.92%) in the morning and Cladosporium spp. (13.92%) in the afternoon. Due to their involvement in different diseases, the identified fungi genera can be classified as potential pathogens of inpatients. These results reinforce the need of monitoring the environmental microorganisms with high frequency and efficiently in health institutions.
Evaluation of Arteriosclerotic Vascular Disease with a New Noble Stiffness Indicator, Cardio-Ankle Vascular Index (CAVI)

Arterial stiffness is a well-known predictor of arteriosclerotic vascular disease. One index of arterial stiffness was the pulse wave velocity (PWV). But, it is known that PWV depends on the blood pressure at measuring time. Cardio-ankle vascular index (CAVI) is derived from stiffness parameter beta, and reflects the stiffness of the artery from the origin of the aorta to the ankle as a whole. Conspicuous feature is independency from the blood pressure at measuring time. An administration of alfa-1 blocker, doxazosin decreased CAVI transiently. Prostacyclin analogue, beraprost also decreased CAVI. These results suggest that CAVI might reflect the smooth muscle cell contracture. CAVI showed high value with aging, and in patients with cerebral infarction, coronary stenosis, and chronic hemodialysis, suggesting that CAVI is reflecting systemic vascular arteriosclerosis. As for the risks of coronary artery disease, CAVI showed high value in hypertension, diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia, smoking and metabolic syndrome. Improvement of those risk factors reduced CAVI. CAVI seems to be a useful indicator for the management of the risk factors. Arterial inflammatory diseases also showed high CAVI value. Furthermore, various associations between CAVI and cardiac functions such as left ventricular diastolic function were reported. Above results suggested that CAVI reflect the degrees of arteriosclerosis and of ages, and also reflect the contracture of arterial smooth muscle cells. CAVI might be useful to investigate a new insight of vascular function.
Performance of optical OFDM systems using new PAPR reduction approach

The major drawback of optical orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDM) system is their inherent intensity noise and peak average power ratio (PAPR). We introduce a new direct detection receiver based on PAPR reduction for optical OFDMA systems that maintains greater noise mitigating and leaves spectral efficiency unchanged. Unlike standard receivers, our scheme does not filter the desired signal. In this paper, we first demonstrate that the newly proposed receiver is equivalent to standard OFDMA receivers when no optical noise is present at the transmitter. Although a 2.9 dB power penalty is incurred, network capacity is unchanged, i.e., bit error rate (BER) floors due to intensity noise are the same. When a PAPR reduction scheme is employed to mitigate severe PAPR, we show that our receiver outperforms the wide filtering strategy by two orders of magnitude. Optical OFDM capacity is demonstrated up to 10 Gb/s using a thermal source, a single mode fiber (SMF), and the direct detection scheme. A BER of 1 × 10 -9 is achieved at 10 Gb/s; further improvement is possible using a better OFDM design parameters. This demonstrates the ability of optical OFDM passive optical networks (PONs) to operate at 10 Gb/s at 60 km achieving less system complexity (via, direct detection) and reliable transmission.
Utility of TMS to understand the neurobiology of speech

According to a traditional view, speech perception and production are processed largely separately in sensory and motor brain areas. Recent psycholinguistic and neuroimaging studies provide novel evidence that the sensory and motor systems dynamically interact in speech processing, by demonstrating that speech perception and imitation share regional brain activations. However, the exact nature and mechanisms of these sensorimotor interactions are not completely understood yet. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has often been used in the cognitive neurosciences, including speech research, as a complementary technique to behavioral and neuroimaging studies. Here we provide an up-to-date review focusing on TMS studies that explored speech perception and imitation. Single-pulse TMS of the primary motor cortex (M1) demonstrated a speech specific and somatotopically specific increase of excitability of the M1 lip area during speech perception (listening to speech or lip reading). A paired-coil TMS approach showed increases in effective connectivity from brain regions that are involved in speech processing to the M1 lip area when listening to speech. TMS in virtual lesion mode applied to speech processing areas modulated performance of phonological recognition and imitation of perceived speech. In summary, TMS is an innovative tool to investigate processing of speech perception and imitation. TMS studies have provided strong evidence that the sensory system is critically involved in mapping sensory input onto motor output and that the motor system plays an important role in speech perception.