Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Positive corona inception voltages and corona currents for air at various pressures and humidities

The variation of positive dc corona characteristics with air pressure and humidity using a point/plane electrode system was studied in a perspex chamber allowing the pressure and humidity to be varied. A method of calculation was developed to determine the corona current for humid air over a range of pressures and humidities in which the effective ionization coefficient was calculated as a linear interpolation of the effective ionization coefficients for dry air and water vapor. The calculation method involved the solution of partial differential equations using a particle-in-cell algorithm. This also allowed the determination of the corona inception voltages for a range of pressures and humidities as the voltage at which the corona current first appeared. The validity of these calculations was confirmed by a series of experimental determinations of the corona inception voltages and of the variation of the corona current with the applied voltage for the same range of pressures and humidities. It was found that the corona current increased when the air pressure or humidity decreased (at constant applied voltage) mainly because of the rise in the space charge density or the positive ion mobility, respectively. The coefficient C, in the relationship between the corona current, the applied dc voltage and the corona inception voltage, declined with the increase of humidity. The rate of decrease of C with humidity became larger as the pressure was reduced. An approximately inversely proportional relationship was found to exist between C and the relative air density at constant humidity. This variation of C was principally associated with the variation in the positive ion mobility.
Parallelism in production systems: the sources and the unexpected speed up

Production systems (or rule-based systems) are widely used in Artificial Intelligence for modeling intelligent behavior and building expert systems. On the surface production systems appear to be capable of using large amounts of parallelism—it is possible to perform match for each production in parallel. Initial measurements and simulations, however, show that the speed-up available from such use of parallelism is quite small. The limited speed-up available from the obvious sources has led us to explore other sources of parallelism. This paper represents an initial attempt to identify the various sources of parallelism in production system programs and to characterize them, that is, to determine the potential speed-up offered by each source and the overheads associated with it. The paper also addresses some implementation issues related to using the various sources of parallelism. This research was sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DOD), ARPA Order No. 3597, monitored by the Air Force Avionics Laboratory under Contract F33615-81-K-1539. ITie views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as representing the official policies, either expressed or implied of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency or the US Government
Implementation of the Surviving Sepsis Campaign guidelines

Purpose of review Early identification and appropriate management of sepsis improves outcomes. Despite convincing data showing the benefits of early recognition and treatment of sepsis and septic shock, implementation of such evidence-based therapy is suboptimal. This review describes methods that have been shown to improve bedside application of the evidence-based guidelines. Recent findings The Surviving Sepsis Campaign (SSC) has developed guidelines for the management of severe sepsis and septic shock. The initial SSC guidelines were published in 2004; as evidence continued to evolve, the guidelines were updated, with the most recent iteration published in 2016. Guidelines by themselves can take years to change clinical practice. To affect more rapid change, the SSC guidelines are filtered into bundles to impact behavior change in a simple and uniform way. Summary Implementation of the SSC bundles revolves around practice improvement measures. Hospitals that have successfully implemented these bundles have consistently shown improved outcomes and reductions in healthcare spending. Finally, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has approved SSC bundle compliance as a core measure, and hospitals in the United States are mandated to collect and report their data regularly to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Higher education as self-formation: the case of cross-border students

In research in cross-cultural psychology, cross border international education is largely understood as a process of ‘adjustment’ to host country norms and institutions. The student is seen as in deficit in relation to these requirements. Home country identity becomes a barrier to be broken down. This paper instead defines international education as a process of self-formation in which student subjects manage their lives reflexively, fashioning their own changing iden tities, albeit within social conditions and relations largely not made by them. International students form their selves and their trajectories between home country identity, host country identity and a larger set of cosmopolitan options.
Integration of Email and Task Lists

Email has evolved from a mere communication system to a general tool for organizing workflow (Whittaker and Sidner, 1996; Cadiz et al., 2001; Bellotti et al., 2003). Widely used email clients address this issue by providing additional functionality, including contact management, calendaring and task lists (i.e., " to do " lists). However, some of these functions are poorly integrated. For example, to create a task, a user might have to switch from an email view to manually fill in a form. We describe SmartMail (Corston-Oliver et al., 2004), a system that improves the integration of the various functions of an email client by identifying the speech act of each sentence in an email message and performing actions appropriate to the speech act. We consider fifteen application-specific speech acts, but our focus to date has been the processing of tasks; SmartMail helps users prioritize emails by identifying tasks. We collected a corpus of 15,741 email messages sent by 3,098 distinct individuals, with no more than 50 messages from any one person. Three annotators labeled sentences as containing one of the fifteen speech acts. Pair-wise inter-annotator agreement was measured using Cohen's Kappa on a common set of 146 messages, and ranged from 82.3% to 85.8%. Annotators marked a sentence as a task if it looked like an appropriate item to add to an ongoing task list. The following are examples of tasks in our data: …you could possibly generate the same sequence of numbers to select the same cases. …it'd be great if you could add some stuff re MSRDPS. Could you please remote desktop in and try running it on my machine. SmartMail segments an email message into header, message body (containing the new message content), and forwarded sections and then identifies tasks in each sentence in the message body using a machine-learned classifier. The tasks are reformulated and presented to the user. For example the sentence On the H-1 visa issue, I am positive that you need to go to the Embassy in London to get your visa stamped into your passport is reformulated as Go to the Embassy in London to get your visa stamped into your passport. The reformulation consists of analyzing the sentence to produce a logical form (LF) (Campbell & Suzuki, 2001), performing knowledge-engineered steps that isolate the part of the LF containing the task, removing extraneous material, and modifying the LF to disambiguate items that …
Giving birth to and parenting children with developmental disabilities: an application of persoanl construct psychology

Based on a literature review from various theoretical frameworks, along with personal construct psychology, I developed a preliminary personal construct model of the adaptation process to giving birth to and parenting children with developmental disabilities. This model was tested and elaborated from qualitative and quantitative analysis of interview data collected from 81 participants. It was a longitudinal study with the first data collection being within 6 to 24 months of the diagnosis and the second data collection being 18 months later. A matched control group of 81 parents of children without disabilities was interviewed on both occasions. The results indicated that parents of children with developmental disabilities did experience significantly higher levels of cognitive anxiety, death, mutilation, separation, guilt, and shame when compared with parents of children without developmental disabilities. The participants w h o could incorporate the event into their preferred way of viewing life, experienced less anxiety compared with parents who perceived themselves as being on their non-prefened construct poles. The adaptive process was most effective when parents experienced themselves as having been de-railed by the events from their preferred construct pole and reconstrued life. In so doing they moved again to their preferred construct pole. This group of i parents indicated no significant difference in the levels of their negative emotions compared to parents who gave birth to children without developmental disabilities.
The relationship between vitamin D, vertebral deformity and quality of life in psoriatic arthritis.

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study is to investigate the relation between vitamin D levels, vertebral deformities, functional status, quality of life, acute phase reactants and enthesopathy in patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA). PATIENTS AND METHODS Fifty-two patients with PsA and 52 controls were enrolled to the study. Routine blood tests and serums 25-(OH)D3 were measured. The thoracic and lumbar vertebrae deformities identified in the radiographies were evaluated by a radiologist. Psoriatic Arthritis Quality of Life (PSAQoL) was used for evaluating quality of life and disease activity parameters for PsA were assessed. In PsA patients, correlations was performed between the 25(OH)-D3 levels and PGE (patient global assessment), PHGE (Physician global assessment), tender JC (joint count), HAQ-S (Health Assessment Questionnaire for the Spondyloarthropathies), PSAQoL, MASES (Maastricht Ankylosing Spondylitis Enthesitis Score) and BASDAI(Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index) values. RESULTS The results showed that 25(OH)-D3 levels was not correlated with these values. (p>0.05 for r = -0.171, r = -0.167, r=-0.069, r=-0.236, r=-0.062, r= -0.058 and r = -0.106 respectively). It was determined that the PSAQoL score had a positive and statistically significant correlation with the DGD, swollen JC, CRP, HGD, tender JC, VAS-pain, HAQ-S, MASES and BASDAI values in PsA patients. (p>0.05 for r=0.291, r=0.324, r=0.346, r=0.312; and p=0.001 for r=0.472, r=0.380, r=0.565, r=0.696, r=0.359, r=0.633, respectively) Statistical analyses demonstrated that PsA patients with vertebral deformities had higher numbers of tender joints, more prolonged periods of morning stiffness, higher DAS28-ESR (Disease Activity Score) scores, and higher levels of vitamin D (p<0.05, p<0.05, p=0.05 and p<0.05, respectively). The multiple logistic regression analysis indicated that the only factor which had an effect on the development of vertebral deformities was the use of steroids. CONCLUSIONS This result has demonstrated that psoriatic arthritis has a considerable effect on patient quality of life. Most significant factors that affecting quality of life were physical pain and disability while vertebral deformities and 25-(OH)D3 had no significant effect.
Impact of CYP1A1 and COMT genotypes on breast cancer risk in Mexican women: a pilot study.

BACKGROUND Data suggest that estrogen-metabolizing genes may be involved in breast cancer carcinogenesis. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to determine the association of CYP1A1 and COMT polymorphisms with this disease. MATERIAL AND METHODS A pilot case-control study was conducted with Mexican women. Ninety-one breast cancer patients and 94 healthy controls were selected. Epidemiological and clinical questionnaires were answered by all participants, and genotyping data were obtained. CYP1A1 3801 T>C (rs4646903), CYP1A1 4889 A>G (rs1048943) and COMT 1947 G>A (rs4680) polymorphisms were analyzed by PCR-RFLP. RESULTS The results showed a high risk of breast cancer in women carrying the CYP1A1 (3801 T>C) m2/m2 genotype (OR=2.52; 95%CI=1.04-6.08). The risk was higher in postmenopausal women (OR=3.38; 95%CI=1.05-10.87). No association between COMT 1947 G>A (rs4680) or CYP1A1 4889 A>G (rs1048943) and breast cancer was found. CONCLUSIONS This study suggests that the CYP1A1 (3801 T>C) m2/m2 genotype may contribute to breast cancer susceptibility in Mexican women.
Improving the Management of Skin and Soft Tissue Infections in Primary Care: A Report From State Networks of Colorado Ambulatory Practices and Partners (SNOCAP-USA) and the Distributed Ambulatory Research in Therapeutics Network (DARTNet)

Background: Purulent skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs) requiring medical attention are often managed in primary care. The prevalence of SSTIs caused by community-acquired Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) has been increasing rapidly, including in otherwise healthy individuals. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued guidelines to improve the management of SSTIs in primary care. Purpose: In primary care settings, to assess the prevalence of CA-MRSA using an electronic chart audit and then evaluate SSTI management strategies consistent with CDC guidelines. Methods: A practical intervention that compared a historical cohort to an intervention cohort of patients seen for SSTI in 16 primary care practices in two health care systems. The intervention included a ready-made kit for I & D procedures, MRSA information for clinicians, a patient information handout, provider education, and patient follow-up. Results: A total of 3112 SSTI cases (cellulitis or purulent) were observed during the preintervention period and 1406 cases during the intervention. For purulent infections in the intervention period (n = 148), univariate and multivariate analyses showed no significant improvement in the rate of I & D procedures or cultures obtained but showed increased use of antibiotics overall and agents that typically cover MRSA strains (OR, 2.183; 95% CI, 1.443 to 3.303 and 2.624; 95% CI, 1.500 to 4.604, respectively). For infections that were cellulitis with or without purulence (n = 1258), overall rates in the use of antibiotics and those that cover MRSA increased significantly, but secular trends could not be ruled out as an explanation for this increase. Conclusion: In SSTIs, this intervention resulted in increased use of antibiotics, including antibiotics that typically cover MRSA strains, but did not demonstrate increased rates of recommended drainage procedures. It is replicable and portable, and may improve antibiotic selection in other settings.
Surgery for breast cancer liver metastases - factors determining results.

BACKGROUND/AIM The results of the surgical treatment of liver metastases from breast cancer (BCLMs) may be determined by various factors. The aim of the present study was to specify the risk factors for surgical treatment of BCLM. PATIENTS AND METHODS Twenty-four female patients with BCLMs were treated with liver resection or radiofrequency ablation (RFA). We evaluated the effects of patient age, time interval between the breast cancer and BCLM surgery, the type of surgical procedure, histopathological findings of the primary tumor, the number and overall diameter of BCLMs, the presence of resectable extra-hepatic metastases, and local tumor recurrence after breast cancer surgery on patients' overall (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS). RESULTS Age <50 years and shorter interval between breast and liver surgery were risk factors for poorer OS (p<0.02 and p<0.01, respectively) and for PFS (p<0.01 and p<0.01, respectively). The presence of extra-hepatic metastases was a risk factor for OS (p<0.005). An overall diameter of BCLM ≥3.5 cm and a negative status of both estrogen (ER) and progesterone receptors (PR) in the primary tumor were risk factors for poorer PFS (p<0.009 and p<0.0003, respectively). CONCLUSION The risk factors for surgery for BCLMs are age <50 years, the presence of extra-hepatic metastases, hormone receptor negativity of the primary tumor and an overall BCLM diameter ≥3.5 cm.
Social skills intervention in the treatment of isolated or withdrawn children.

Intervention techniques designed to treat social skills deficits in children whose peer relationship difficulties result in isolation or withdrawal are reviewed. Although some of these techniques appear to hold promise, the conclusions are limited owing to methodologica l problems, such as small numbers of subjects, different assessment procedures across studies, and lack of extended follow-up. Major conceptual difficulties also arise from different criteria used in subject selection and assessment. Further, there is a lack of basic research designed to discover critical components and processes that constitute social skills, particularly as they relate to age and sex of the child. Finally, the evidence for longterm consequences of shyness is questioned, and a summary and suggestions for future research are provided. Social processes have long been a topic of central importance in clinical research and practice. Recently, an increasing emphasis has been placed on examining interpersonal skills in relation to social adjustment. Although initial investigations with child populations have dealt with familial (parentchild) interactions and their importance for adequate socialization, a more recent trend has been to examine peer relationships in this light. A major impetus in the proliferation of this peer-based research has been the recognition of the role of minimal social interaction in behavior disorders. Although the most serious aspect of social withdrawal has been said to predispose one to childhood schizophrenia or autism (Roff, Sells, & Golden, 1972), other less extreme but equally damaging aspects of the failure to develop adequate social relations have been noted. Poor academic achievement (Buswell, 1953), inadequate behavioral development (Whitman, Mercuric, & Caponozio, 1970), social avoidance as a means of anxiety reduction through solitary play and mistreatment by peers (O'Connor, 1972) have all been implicated as outcomes of social unresponsiveness. In addition, Cowen, Pederson, Babi
Trust, situation awareness and automation use: exploring the effect of visual information degradations on human perception and performance in human-telerobot

Today’s military and industry increasingly uses human-robot sys tem to perform complex tasks, such as firefighting. Automated systems that support or eve n make important decisions require human operators to understand and trust automation in order to rely on it appropriately. This study used a real human-telerobot system perfor ming a firefighting task in an unknown welding room to examine the effects of two different l vels of automation associated with intermittent and permanent visual system degrad ation on human performance, trust in automation, mental workload and situation awareness. Twenty-four participants were divided into two groups based on the level of automation use. Each participant completed a series of three 30-minutes se ssions in which he or she was required to explore the threat targets in an unknown “hazard” welding room. Results indicated a significant difference between low and high level of control in collision rate when permanent error occurred. And in low level automation group the typ of error had a significant effect on the collision rate, while it had a signi f cant effect on situation awareness dimensions in both groups. Generally, in the experiment high level of aut m tion had better performance than low level of automation especially if it is m ore reliable, suggesting that subjects in the high level of automation group could rely on the automati c i plementation to perform the task more effectively and more accurately.
The Remediation of School Psychologist Trainees

School Psychology training programs have an important responsibility of making sure their graduates are competent professionals. The current study gathered data from National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) approved training programs in order to explore how they have handled competency problems in their program. A survey was sent to all NASP approved training programs via e-mail. Surveys were also completed by 32 program representatives at the 2010 Annual NASP Conference. The results of the survey were analyzed using Chi Square and a frequency analysis. The Chi Square analysis did not yield any significant differences at p<0.05 between educational specialist or equivalent degree programs and doctorate degree programs. The frequency analysis, however, did disclose pertinent data in regards to the remediation of school psychology trainees. Remediation of School Psychology Trainees iii
Isolation and characterization of transposon mutants of Staphylococcus epidermidis deficient in capsular polysaccharide/adhesin and slime

We used transposon (Tn) mutagenesis to study the role of capsular polysaccharide/adhesin (PS/A) and slime in adherence of Staphylococcus epidermidis to catheters. pLTV1, containing Tn917-LTV1, was transformed into S. epidermidis M187 by protoplast fusion with S. aureus RN4220(pLTV1), creating M187(pLTV1). Tn mutants were isolated following growth at 42 degrees C; mutants deficient in PS/A and slime production were selected. PS/A- and slime-deficient Tn mutants had a 10-fold decrease in vitro in the initial phase of adherence to catheters, comparable to levels of strains that do not produce PS/A. Introduction of Tn917-LTV1-interrupted DNA from PS/A-deficient mutant M187sn3 into the parental strain via transformation of protoplasts yielded recipients with inserts identical to those of the Tn mutant that were PS/A and slime deficient. Chromosomal DNA flanking the Tn in mutant M187sn3 was cloned into Escherichia coli. The cloned DNA was found to hybridize to approximately 5-kb EcoRI fragments from the parental strain and from control Tn mutants that express parental levels of PS/A and to either approximately 9- or approximately 14-kb EcoRI fragments from other highly adherent, PS/A-producing strains. Mapping studies demonstrated that in the eight PS/A-deficient mutants that have been isolated, the Tn insertions all occur within a region of approximately 11.6 kb that is defined by three EcoRI sites. These results support previous findings indicating that in S. epidermidis PS/A is involved with in vitro adherence to plastic biomaterials and elaboration of PS/A is closely associated with slime production.
Management of calyceal diverticular stones with extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy and percutaneous nephrolithotomy: long‐term outcome

In this section this month, we have two papers. The first is from authors from Scotland. They present a review of patients with an extended follow‐up who have undergone extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL) or percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL) for calyceal diverticular stones over a 15‐year period to assess long‐term outcome, irrespective of treatment. They concluded that PCNL is an effective and durable means of treating calyceal diverticular stones, regardless of stone size or location of the diverticulum. Despite low stone‐free rates with ESWL, most patients are rendered symptom‐free with minimal complications. The second paper is from the USA; the authors discuss the new generation of flexible ureteroscopes, which provide exaggerated active deflection to facilitate intrarenal manipulation. They compared the relative ease of manipulation around a calyceal model. The authors concluded that the Wolf Viper proved superior for manipulation in the hands of experienced endoscopists.