Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of Sodium Bicarbonate Administration on Mortality in Patients with Lactic Acidosis: A Retrospective Analysis

Background Lactic acidosis is a common cause of high anion gap metabolic acidosis. Sodium bicarbonate may be considered for an arterial pH <7.15 but paradoxically depresses cardiac performance and exacerbates acidosis by enhancing lactate production. This study aimed to evaluate the cause and mortality rate of lactic acidosis and to investigate the effect of factors, including sodium bicarbonate use, on death. Methods We conducted a single center analysis from May 2011 through April 2012. We retrospectively analyzed 103 patients with lactic acidosis among 207 patients with metabolic acidosis. We used SOFA and APACHE II as severity scores to estimate illness severity. Multivariate logistic regression analysis and Cox regression analysis models were used to identify factors that affect mortality. Results Of the 103 patients with a mean age of 66.1±11.4 years, eighty-three patients (80.6%) died from sepsis (61.4%), hepatic failure, cardiogenic shock and other causes. The percentage of sodium bicarbonate administration (p = 0.006), catecholamine use, ventilator care and male gender were higher in the non-survival group than the survival group. The non-survival group had significantly higher initial and follow-up lactic acid levels, lower initial albumin, higher SOFA scores and APACHE II scores than the survival group. The mortality rate was significantly higher in patients who received sodium bicarbonate. Sodium bicarbonate administration (p = 0.016) was associated with higher mortality. Independent factors that affected mortality were SOFA score (Exp (B) = 1.72, 95% CI = 1.12–2.63, p = 0.013) and sodium bicarbonate administration (Exp (B) = 6.27, 95% CI = 1.10–35.78, p = 0.039). Conclusions Lactic acidosis, which has a high mortality rate, should be evaluated in patients with metabolic acidosis. In addition, sodium bicarbonate should be prescribed with caution in the case of lactic acidosis because sodium bicarbonate administration may affect mortality.
Mobilizing Political Talk in a Presidential Campaign

This article takes a talk-centered perspective on a mediated presidential campaign. It argues that election campaigns can be conceived of as collective deliberations and that informal political talk during a campaign may be examined as an analytical category in its own right. Analyzing the National Election Study 2000 panel data (n = 1,555), this article shows that political talk during the campaign was prevalent. Both the likelihood and frequency of engaging in political talk during the campaign were related to individuals’ propensity to participate in public life and resulted from individuals’ ideological intensity and interest in the campaign. The campaign also stimulated such political talk through individuals’ exposure to campaign messages and other-initiated campaign contacts. General news media uses contributed to more political talk and campaign participation indirectly by increasing the frequency of exposure to campaign messages on media. Theoretical implications for the research on political campaigns in particular and media effects in general are discussed.
The Effects of Sexual Orientation on State Legislators' Behavior and Priorities

This article explores whether sexual orientation, surrogate representation, and political factors affect legislators' work on gay, lesbian, and bisexual (GLB) interests, and whether the latter explains away the influence of sexual orientation. A survey of openly GLB state legislators and their colleagues was conducted to measure legislators' campaign issues, legislative priorities, surrogate representation, and ambition. This information is supplemented with bill introduction and district data. The results indicate that legislators' sexual orientation strongly influences their work on GLB issues and although surrogate representation and electoral considerations also affect GLB work, they do not explain away the importance of sexual orientation. The implications of this for the relationship between descriptive and substantive representation are explored.
Saccade Planning Evokes Topographically Specific Activity in the Dorsal and Ventral Streams

Saccade planning may invoke spatially-specific feedback signals that bias early visual activity in favor of top-down goals. We tested this hypothesis by measuring cortical activity at the early stages of the dorsal and ventral visual processing streams. Human subjects maintained saccade plans to (prosaccade) or away (antisaccade) from a spatial location over long memory-delays. Results show that cortical activity persists in early visual cortex at the retinotopic location of upcoming saccade goals. Topographically specific activity persists as early as V1, and activity increases along both dorsal (V3A/B, IPS0) and ventral (hV4, VO1) visual areas. Importantly, activity persists when saccade goals are available only via working memory and when visual targets and saccade goals are spatially disassociated. We conclude that top-down signals elicit retinotopically specific activity in visual cortex both in the dorsal and ventral streams. Such activity may underlie mechanisms that prioritize locations of task-relevant objects.
Underwater video analysis for Norway lobster stock quantification using multiple visual attention features

Underwater video is being increasingly used to assess the impact of human activities in marine habitats, as a complementary tool for the assessment of commercial stocks. But, analysing video images manually to study and evaluate marine habitats is a lengthy and tedious task. This paper proposes an automatic method to detect the Norway lobster (Nephrops Norvegicus) an important east-Atlantic and Mediterranean wide-distributed commercial crustacean species, in order to reduce the time and effort it takes marine scientists to manually quantify them. Here, the detection procedure follows a human visual attention model. Three visual attention features are considered: intensity map (IM), edge map (EM), and motion map (MM). The work is composed of two main parts: first the three feature maps are extracted; then, all candidate regions are processed and categorized in view of lobsters detection. Experimental results show that the proposed methodology is able to reliably detect candidate regions after combining the partial results.
Composition Errors and Essay Examination Grades Re-Examined

For over half a century measurement specialists have pointed out the shortcomings of the essay examination as a measurement instrument. These specialists have noted that the scores assigned to a set of essay examinations may reflect reader idiosyncrasies which are extraneous to the original purpose of the examination and which are so much a part of the reader that he is not even aware of them (Matimore, 1926; Stalnaker, 1951; Adams, 1964). These idiosyncrasies can cause a score on a single examination to vary from reader to reader and from reading to reading by the same person, and thus affect both the inter-reader and intra-reader reliabilities. Errors in grammar, punctuation, and spelling are usually apparent to teachers, but in disparate degrees, and thus these errors may have an unknown influence upon the scoring of essay examinations. The students' accomplishments or lack of accomplishments in composition could logically be a factor in the low reliability of the essay examination. Even though essay examinations have certain disadvantages, most measurement specialists and teachers are not willing to abandon them as a measurement technique. In fact many educators have extolled the use of essay examinations (Grant and Caplan, 1957; Stalnaker, 1951; Cooke, 1959). One of the most perplexing questions facing readers of essay examinations is whether or not the score assigned to a paper should reflect composition skill when it is being used to measure achievement in other than rhetoric per se. Many teachers profess that the scores assigned to essay examinations should be influenced by composition skill, but the interjection of such a criterion obscures the meaning of the grades given, and defeats the purpose for which they are assigned. The general purpose of giving grades is to provide a descriptive index of an individual's achievement in a given area. For an essay examination to be useful for measuring achievement in an academic course, it should be scored with reference to specific objectives which are germane to the subject matter being measured. This signifies that if the teacher is going
Looked After Children: Non‐local authority placements and meeting educational needs

Research consistently reports an educational disadvantage of being looked after. There is a lack of literature pertaining specifically to young people who are placed out of their local authority. The following research reports on an investigation of educational psychologists’ views on the educational implications of non‐local authority residential placements for 12 young people. The findings show that non‐local authority residential placements were usually precipitated by care crises and tended to have a negative impact on the extent to which educational needs were met. One non‐local authority residential placement which allowed continuation of the local authority educational placement had positive educational implications. Action implications for local authorities and educational psychology services are given regarding casework, working with other agencies, local commissioning of establishments and areas for further research.
Organizational investments in social capital, managerial coaching, and employee work-related performance

This survey-based research study explores the influence of managerial coaching behavior on relationships between organizational investments in social capital (OISC) and employee work-related performance. The results obtained from a survey of 408 employees from multiple organizations across a wide range of industries indicate that OISC are positively related to employee job performance, commitment to service quality, and organizational citizenship behavior. However, the results from sub-group analyses also indicate that these relationships are stronger at low to moderate levels of managerial coaching suggesting that selective rather than exhaustive application of the developmental approach may be more effective. Theoretical and practical implications of these somewhat unexpected findings are developed.
Conceptual modeling of semantic navigation structures: the MoSeNa-approach

At the present time, several shortcomings prevent the more effective use and more intense application of web information systems. Recent developments that are subsumed by the term Semantic Web aim to solve these problems. The inherent idea behind these approaches is the annotation of data with metadata, in order to enhance automated processing and the use of ontologies to describe data semantically. However, the emergence of the Semantic Web raises new issues (e.g. significantly higher complexity) for web information system engineers. From an information system engineering perspective, conceptual modeling is an approach for dealing with high complexity and diversified project teams. On the one hand, conceptual models facilitate the (semi)automated generation of information systems. On the other, they foster communication between project team members and provide a sound basis for information system development.In this paper, we present an approach to modeling semantic navigation structures. This approach aims at modeling complex, role-based and integrated navigation structures for structured and semi-structured data. Since navigation via links is the only way for users to interact with the web information system and, to a large extent, determines their ability to retrieve the desired information, a proper definition of these navigation structures is essential for a successful web information system. Comprehensible and useful navigation structures can be derived from existing structures and hierarchies in organizations. Thus, an alignment of information systems with the information needs of users, can be achieved. Furthermore, our approach supports emergent technologies for the Semantic Web.
High physical work load and low job satisfaction increase the risk of sickness absence due to low back pain: results of a prospective cohort study

Objective: To determine whether physical and psychosocial load at work influence sickness absence due to low back pain. Methods: The research was a part of the study on musculoskeletal disorders, absenteeism, stress, and health (SMASH), a 3 year prospective cohort study on risk factors for musculoskeletal disorders. Workers from 21 companies located throughout The Netherlands participated in the part of this study on sickness absence due to low back pain. The study population consisted of 732 workers with no sickness absences of 3 days or longer due to low back pain in the 3 months before the baseline survey and complete data on the reasons for absences during the follow up period. The mean (range) period of follow up in this group was 37 (7–44) months. Physical load at work was assessed by analyses of video recordings. Baseline information on psychosocial work characteristics was obtained by a questionnaire. Data on sickness absence were collected from company records. The main outcome measure was the rate of sickness absences of 3 days or longer due to low back pain during the follow up period. Results: After adjustment of the work related physical and psychosocial factors for each other and for other potential determinants, significant rate ratios ranging from 2.0 to 3.2 were found for trunk flexion, trunk rotation, lifting, and low job satisfaction. A dose-response relation was found for trunk flexion, but not for trunk rotation or lifting. Non-significant rate ratios of about 1.4 were found for low supervisor support and low coworker support. Quantitative job demands, conflicting demands, decision authority, and skill discretion showed no relation with sickness absence due to low back pain. Conclusions: Flexion and rotation of the trunk, lifting, and low job satisfaction are risk factors for sickness absence due to low back pain. Some indications of a relation between low social support, either from supervisors or coworkers, and sickness absence due to low back pain are also present.
Are Gender Differences in Responses to Supportive Communication a Matter of Ability, Motivation, or Both? Reading Patterns of Situation Effects Through the Lens of a Dual-Process Theory

Women process information about support situations and messages more extensively than men, but little is known about whether these gender differences reflect underlying differences in processing ability, motivation, or both. Two studies examined information processing by men and women in both relatively less serious and more serious situations. Participants in Study 1 responded to more and less serious experimental scenarios, whereas participants in Study 2 reported on a recent bereavement situation. In both studies, the pattern of observed gender differences was most consistent with women possessing both greater ability and greater motivation to process information about support situations and messages.
In silico prediction of scaffold/matrix attachment regions in large genomic sequences.

Scaffold/matrix attachment regions (S/MARs) are essential regulatory DNA elements of eukaryotic cells. They are major determinants of locus control of gene expression and can shield gene expression from position effects. Experimental detection of S/MARs requires substantial effort and is not suitable for large-scale screening of genomic sequences. In silico prediction of S/MARs can provide a crucial first selection step to reduce the number of candidates. We used experimentally defined S/MAR sequences as the training set and generated a library of new S/MAR-associated, AT-rich patterns described as weight matrices. A new tool called SMARTest was developed that identifies potential S/MARs by performing a density analysis based on the S/MAR matrix library (http://www.genomatix.de/cgi-bin/smartest_pd/smartest.pl). S/MAR predictions were evaluated by using six genomic sequences from animal and plant for which S/MARs and non-S/MARs were experimentally mapped. SMARTest reached a sensitivity of 38% and a specificity of 68%. In contrast to previous algorithms, the SMARTest approach does not depend on the sequence context and is suitable to analyze long genomic sequences up to the size of whole chromosomes. To demonstrate the feasibility of large-scale S/MAR prediction, we analyzed the recently published chromosome 22 sequence and found 1198 S/MAR candidates.
Vector Opinion Dynamics: An Extended Model for Consensus in Social Networks

Most people hold a variety of opinions on different topics ranging from sports, entertainment, spiritual beliefs to moral principles. These can be based on personal reflections or on their interactions with others. How do we influence others in our social network and how do they influence us and how do we reach consensus? In this paper, we present our investigations based on the use of multiple opinions (a vector of opinions) that should be considered to determine consensus in a society. We have extended Deffuant model and have tested our model on top of two well-known network topologies the Barabasi-Albert network and the Erdos-Renyi network. We have implemented a two phase filtering process determining the consensus.
12th GI/ITG CONFERENCE ON MEASURING, MODELLING AND EVALUATION OF COMPUTER AND COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS 3rd POLISH-GERMAN TELETRAFFIC SYMPOSIUM SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS FOR MAP/MAP/1 QUEUES

A sensitivity analysis of a single-server, infinite-buffer queue with correlated arrivals and correlated service times is performed. We study and compare the isolated impact of (normalized) marginal moments and (normalized) correlation structures of the arrival and service processes on the performance measures of such a queue. For these correlated processes, we use Markovian arrival processes of order 2 (with a hyperexponential marginal distribution), which may be constructed from any permissible set of the first three moments and a correlation parameter. With this closed-form solution for the inverse problem at hand and an appropriate scaling, we take a first step to a consistent and general, completely analytic framework for sensitivity analysis of queueing systems. The presented numerical results focus on the queue behavior in terms of the first two moments of the queue length distribution (computed by means of matrix-analytic techniques). Besides some well-known qualitative tendencies, we observe systematically and comparably the isolated quantitative impact of the involved parameters.
Application of a Perturbation Recycling Method in the Large-Eddy Simulation of a Mesoscale Convective Internal Boundary Layer

An arrangement of boundary conditions is described and demonstrated that facilitates the large-eddy simulation (LES) of inhomogeneous boundary layers such as internal boundary layers. In addition to the domain where the internal boundary layer develops, the method requires a section of domain over the upwind surface that is of the order of 10 boundary layer thicknesses and thus similar in size to that needed for the LES of the upwind boundary layer. In addition to periodic lateral, closed upstream, and open downstream boundary conditions, a simple and efficient perturbation recycling technique, which follows from one of Lund, Wu, and Squires, is used to generate a steady supply of fully developed turbulence from the inflow boundary. The arrangement is used to simulate a convective internal boundary layer during a cold-air outbreak over water. Results show the method consistently produces a solution that is homogeneous over the upwind surface and inhomogeneous over the downwind surface, and that the statistics are stationary after spinup. The sensitivity to the placement of the outflow boundary is tested, and examples of instantaneous and mean fields generated by the simulations are shown.
Surgery in the treatment of malignant pleural mesothelioma: recruitment into trials should be the default position

Background Europe is at the peak of an epidemic of malignant pleural mesothelioma and the burden of disease is likely to continue rising in the large areas of the world where asbestos remains unregulated. Patients with mesothelioma present with thoracic symptoms and radiological changes so respiratory physicians take a leading role in diagnosis and management. Belief that the modest survival times reported after radical surgery, whether alone or as part of multimodal therapy, are longer than they it would have been without surgery relies on data from highly selected, uncontrolled, retrospectively analysed case series. The only randomised study, the Mesothelioma and Radical Surgery (MARS) trial showed no benefit. A simple modelling study of registry patients, described here, shows that an impression of longer survival is eroded when patients who were never candidates for operation on grounds of histology, performance status and age are sequentially excluded from the model. Conclusion Whenever the question arises `Might an operation help me? ' there are two responses that can and should be given. The first is that there is doubt about whether there is any survival or symptomatic benefit from surgery but we know that there is harm. The second is that there are on-going studies, including two randomised trials, which patients should be informed about. The authors suggest that the default position for clinicians should be to encourage recruitment into these trials.
Islamic tourism: an empirical examination of travel motivation and satisfaction in Malaysia

The objectives of this study are to test the relationship between tourism motivations and tourist satisfaction, and to test how ‘Religion’ moderates the relationship. The variable ‘Religion’ is represented by the availability of Islamic norms and practices relevant to tourism at the destination. The results of the partial least square indicate that tourism motivations are significantly and positively related to tourist satisfaction. The results also showed that Religion significantly moderates the relationship between pull motivation and tourist satisfaction. However, the moderating effect of Religion on the relationship between push motivation and tourist satisfaction was not supported.
Some Determinants of Conflict Avoidance

Most research on conflict resolution has ignored the fact that conflict avoidance may be used as a strategy of conflict resolution. To fill this gap, a study was designed to examine the determinants of the occurrence of conflict avoidance in two cultural groups. College students and residents of a community in the United States and in Hong Kong were asked to read a conflict scenario and indicate how likely they would be to pursue the conflict. A conflict was more likely to be pursued if the stakes involved were large and if the would-be disputant was from an out-group. Chinese subjects were less likely to pursue a conflict with an in-group disputant, and more likely to pursue a conflict with an out-group disputant, than were Americans. The cultural differences were interpreted as consistent with previous conceptualizations of cultural collectivism.