Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Brain perfusion defects by SPET/CT and neurostat semi-quantitative analysis in two patients with congenital erythropoietic porphyria.

BACKGROUND Congenital erythropoietic porphyria (CEP) is a rare autosomal recessively inherited disorder with chronic and relatively stable presentation. Till now brain blood flow derangements have been described only in acute hepatic porphyrias. We describe the first findings of brain perfusion defects, studied by single photon emission tomography/computed tomography (SPET/CT), in two patients affected by CEP, by using a semi-quantification anatomic-standardized voxel-based program compared with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) results. SUBJECTS AND METHODS Two Pakistanis brothers were investigated for CEP confirmed by a genetic test. The disease was severe with: skin burning, mood depression and haemolytic anemia. Considering depression, patients underwent brain SPET/CT and MRI. Single photon emission tomography/CT images were processed by neurostat semi-quantitative software. Data obtained were compared to a normal database and z-score images were generated. RESULTS In both patients we found several perfusion defects evident in transaxial slices and in z-score images obtained by neurostat processing. Magnetic resonance imaging was negative in both patients. Biochemical mechanisms inducing localized brain hypoperfusion are uncertain. However, mismatch between SPET/CT data and MRI was probably due to absence of necrosis. CONCLUSION In our opinion, SPET/CT could have a key role in this setting of patients due to its high sensitivity and reliability in mild-to-moderate brain perfusion defects detection. Moreover, the quantitative analysis by using neurostat may allow to recognize even mild brain perfusion alterations, difficult to detect only visually.
Midazolam and ropivacaine act synergistically to inhibit bone cancer pain with different mechanisms in rats.

Analgesic strategy of a single drug analgesia in bone cancer pain (BCP) has shifted to combined analgesia with different drugs which have different mechanism. After tumor cell inculation, the activation of signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT3) and extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) signaling pathway are involved in the development and maintenance of BCP, whereas a decrease in the expression of spinal STAT3 and ERK through using their specific blocker, lead to attenuation of BCP. Hence, in this study, we clarified that intrathecal (i.t.) injection of midazolam (MZL) and ropivacaine (Ropi) induces synergistic analgesia on BCP and is accompanied with different mechanisms of these analgesic effect. Hargreaves heat test was used to detect the analgesic effect of single dose of i.t. MZL, Ropi and their combination on the BCP rats. At consecutive daily administration experiment, thermal hyperalgesia was recorded, and immunohistochemical staining was used to detect the expression of c-Fos, spinal glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and ionized calcium binding adapter molecule-1 (IBA-1). Then, western blot analysis was used to examine spinal TSPO, GFAP, IBA-1, pERK/ERK and pSTAT3/STAT3 levels on day 14 after tumor cell inoculation. i.t. MZL or Ropi showed a short-term analgesia dose-dependently, and MZL displayed better effect on inhibition of pSTAT3 expression than pERK, but Ropi was just the reverse, then consecutive daily administrations of their combination acted synergistically to attenuate thermal hyperalgesia with downregulated spinal 'neuron-astrocytic activation' in the BCP rats. i.t. co-delivery of MZL and Ropi shows synergistic analgesia on the BCP with the inhibition of spinal 'neuron-astrocytic activation'. Spinal different signaling pathway inhibition for MZL and Ropi may be involved in this process.
“Your Professor Will Know You as a Person”

Over the past 30 years, several management educators have urged faculty to reexamine their relationships with students. To do this, many have proposed novel metaphors to reconceptualize the faculty-to-student relationship. These include embracing students not as pupils to be taught but rather as clients, consumers, and even employees. At the heart of these metaphors, though, is a subtle and not-so-subtle pressure to build more intimate, personal, and close relationships with students. As more and more stories surface in the scholarly and practitioner press about “close relationships” that have devolved into sad and disappointing outcomes for students, faculty, and universities, it is necessary to revisit the core assumption that closer is better. In this essay, we describe the forces driving more personal relationships between faculty and students. Next, we question the assumptions along with the unintended consequences of adopting more intimate relationships with students. Finally, we conclude by challenging management educators to rethink the notion of professional calling along with the notion of pedagogical caring. To be sure, we offer some prescriptions and principles to help management educators navigate the student–faculty relationship—a relationship, we believe, more in flux now than in any other time in the history of higher education.
Sensory Work of Diagnosis: A Crisis of Legitimacy

Abstract Sensory judgments have always been a part of medical practice, as sensory studies scholars have emphasized. However, in current regulatory, management and technological contexts, there is a push toward rational decision-making procedures and test-based evidence over clinical diagnosis. Sociological scholarship highlights that in focusing on explicit medical knowledge and disembodied data we take for granted aspects of healthcare work, including the ways in which health and illness is sensed. Research in sociologies of diagnosis and social studies of science and technology has captured that while the senses continue to play a role in medical work, the status and practice of this sensory work is not straightforward as evidenced by dual use of the senses and tests and the delegation of sensory work. Based on semi-structured interviews with expert doctors in diverse specialties, this article examines the sensory work of medical decision-making, with attention to its legitimacy. It examines applications of the senses from auscultation to ongoing sensing of patients’ bodies unmediated and via technological outputs. While critical to clinical judgments, there is discomfort with this sensory work in light of medico-legal pressures. I argue that the sensory work of diagnosis is vital, to the extent that gaps in sensory information imply gaps in understanding.
SHORT-TERM SOLAR FLARE PREDICTION USING MULTIRESOLUTION PREDICTORS

Multiresolution predictors of solar flares are constructed by a wavelet transform and sequential feature extraction method. Three predictors—the maximum horizontal gradient, the length of neutral line, and the number of singular points—are extracted from Solar and Heliospheric Observatory/Michelson Doppler Imager longitudinal magnetograms. A maximal overlap discrete wavelet transform is used to decompose the sequence of predictors into four frequency bands. In each band, four sequential features—the maximum, the mean, the standard deviation, and the root mean square—are extracted. The multiresolution predictors in the low-frequency band reflect trends in the evolution of newly emerging fluxes. The multiresolution predictors in the high-frequency band reflect the changing rates in emerging flux regions. The variation of emerging fluxes is decoupled by wavelet transform in different frequency bands. The information amount of these multiresolution predictors is evaluated by the information gain ratio. It is found that the multiresolution predictors in the lowest and highest frequency bands contain the most information. Based on these predictors, a C4.5 decision tree algorithm is used to build the short-term solar flare prediction model. It is found that the performance of the short-term solar flare prediction model based on the multiresolution predictors is greatly improved.
Human smooth pursuit: stimulus-dependent responses.

We studied pursuit eye movements in seven normal human subjects with the scleral search-coil technique. The initial eye movements in response to unpredictable changes in target motion were analyzed to determine the effect of target velocity and position on the latency and acceleration of the response. By restricting our analysis to the presaccadic portion of the response we were able to eliminate any saccadic interactions, and the randomized stimulus presentation minimized anticipatory responses. This approach has allowed us to characterize a part of the smooth-pursuit system that is dependent primarily on retinal image properties. The latency of the smooth-pursuit response was very consistent, with a mean of 100 +/- 5 ms to targets moving 5 degrees/s or faster. The responses were the same whether the velocity step was presented when the target was initially stationary or after tracking was established. The latency did increase for lower velocity targets; this increase was well described by a latency model requiring a minimum target movement of 0.028 degrees, in addition to a fixed processing time of 98 ms. The presaccadic accelerations were fairly low, and increased with target velocity until an acceleration of about 50 degrees/s2 was reached for target velocities of 10 degrees/s. Higher velocities produced only a slight increase in eye acceleration. When the target motion was adjusted so that the retinal image slip occurred at increasing distances from the fovea, the accelerations declined until no presaccadic response was measurable when the image slip started 15 degrees from the fovea. The smooth-pursuit response to a step of target position was a brief acceleration; this response occurred even when an oppositely directed velocity stimulus was present. The latency of the pursuit response to such a step was also approximately 100 ms. This result seems consistent with the idea that sensory pathways act as a low-pass spatiotemporal filter of the retinal input, effectively converting position steps into briefly moving stimuli. There was a large asymmetry in the responses to position steps: the accelerations were much greater when the position step of the target was away from the direction of tracking, compared with steps in the direction of tracking. The asymmetry may be due to the addition of a fixed slowing of the eyes whenever the target image disappears from the foveal region. When saccades were delayed by step-ramp stimuli, eye accelerations increased markedly approximately 200 ms after stimulus onset. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Sentencing recommendations are insensitive to juvenile offender’s age and maturation

Abstract Research on perceptions of juvenile criminals has long sought to understand what drives punishment of juvenile. While some researchers argue that age influences the punishment of juvenile offenders, others argue that more severe crimes receive harsher punishments. However, in much past research, information about the juvenile and the details surrounding the crime have been manipulated, yielding inconsistent results. In this study, we manipulated age, maturity, crime severity, and offender characteristics and measured blame, sentencing recommendations, and likelihood of a guilty verdict. We expected more severe crimes would garner harsher judgments. We also expected information about the juvenile’s reasons for acting would influence judgments. Results indicate that crime severity explained the largest amount of variance in sentencing. However, age and maturity influenced judgments about blame and guilt. This study helps clarify the effects of age and maturity on punishment-related judgments by demonstrating that crime severity, rather than age, influences punishment of juvenile offenders.
Secure degrees of freedom of the Gaussian multiple access wiretap channel

We show that the sum secure degrees of freedom (d.o.f.) of the K-user Gaussian multiple access (MAC) wiretap channel is K(K-1)/K(K-1)+1. Our achievability is based on real interference alignment and structured cooperative jamming. Each user divides its message into K - 1 sub-messages, and sends a linear combination of signals carrying these sub-messages together with a structured cooperative jamming signal. All cooperative jamming signals are aligned in a single dimension at the legitimate receiver allowing for reliable decoding of the message carrying signals by the legitimate receiver. Each cooperative jamming signal is aligned with K-1 message signals at the eavesdropper limiting the information leakage rate to the eavesdropper. We provide a matching converse establishing the exact sum secure d.o. f. of the Gaussian MAC wiretap channel as K(K-1)/K(K-1)+1.
The impact on quality of life of dialysis patients with renal insufficiency

Aim The aim of the study was the subjective assessment of the quality of life (QoL) of 140 patients treated with dialysis (peritoneal dialysis and hemodialysis). Background Chronic kidney disease and the methods of its treatment play an important part in shaping the QoL of patients receiving dialysis. As a result, kidney failure causes many limitations in patients’ physical, mental, and social activities. Methods The instrument to measure the QoL was the authors’ own questionnaire made on the basis of Kidney Disease and Quality of Life Short Form version 1.2 (KDQOL – SF 1.2) and their selection of areas influencing the perceived QoL of chronically ill patients. Results The research showed that patients receiving peritoneal dialysis assessed their QoL in its different dimensions as much higher than patients receiving hemodialysis. The parameter having the biggest negative impact on the QoL of patients receiving hemodialysis was an impeded possibility to continue work or studies and a change of life plans. The will to live was more highly assessed by patients receiving peritoneal dialysis as compared to patients receiving hemodialysis. Conclusion In order to improve the functioning of hemodialysis patients in a manner most similar to healthy persons, the renal replacement therapy should consider patients’ individual needs and expectations, ie, guarantee flexible hours of work or study and of receiving dialysis. In addition, patients treated with hemodialysis should receive psychological care, in particular those demonstrating emotional problems, in order to achieve better results in therapy and improve their QoL.
Evaluating Consumer Permission in Sms Advertising

This study examines the phenomenon of consumers' willingness to give permission to receive Short Message Service (SMS) advertisements. The purpose of this research is threefold: to better understand the phenomenon of consumers' willingness to give permission to receive text message (SMS) advertisements, to provide empirical data that supports our understanding, and to develop and test a basic model of consumers' willingness to give permission to receive SMS advertisements. The study utilised a multi-method research approach with both qualitative and quantitative data – via focus group and scenario-based survey. The results show that even if the relevance of the advertisement is high it does not on its own make consumers give permission; it need to be combined with the control over opt-in conditions to assure consumers and gain permission. Regarding brand familiarity, this appears to have little impact on consumers' willingness to give permission to receive SMS advertisements. The opt-in conditions valued the most are: the possibility to withdraw at any time, personal data disclosure only with consent, and mobile phone operators as a primary advertising filter. The paper rounds off with conclusions, implications for marketing practice and directions for future research into permission in SMS advertising.
Run-Time Partial Reconfiguration for Removal, Placement and Routing on the Virtex-II Pro

Reconfigurable computing entails the utilization of a general-purpose processor augmented with a reconfigurable hardware structure (usually an FPGA). Normally, a complete reconfiguration is needed to change the functionality of the FPGA even when the change is minor. Moreover, the complete chip needs to be halted to perform the reconfiguration. Dynamic partial reconfiguration (DPR) provides the possibility to change certain parts of the hardware while other parts of the FPGA remain in use. In this paper, we propose a solution using dynamic partial reconfiguration which provides a methodology to generate bitstreams for removal of 'old' hardware modules, and placement and routing of new hardware modules within an FPGA. Hardware modules may reside at any location and our solution can connect the additional functionality to the remaining running parts of the chip. In addition, bus macros are no longer necessary and we use the Xilinx tools only for generating the modules. We implemented our solution on a Xilinx Virtex-II Pro series FPGA, specifically the XC2VP30 on the XUP board, and demonstrated that the solution is fully functional.
An Evolutionary Risk Basis for the Differential Treatment of Gains and Losses

This study endogenously generates the asymmetric verification concept of conservatism, using evolutionary biology as a foundation. A producer produces (or hunts) a consumable with a stochastic production technology, and possibly faces a stealer thereafter, who seeks to expropriate the consumable. The producer, for fear of being perceived as weak, will never share her output with the stealer, but will launch an all-out fight. This all-or nothing gamble demonstrates the producer's convex utility in losses. On the other hand, the optimal choice in production (or hunting) indicates a concave preference in gains. These endogenously derived asymmetric risk-profiles towards gains and losses, when applied to choice theory, generate a demand for higher verifiability standards for probable gains than losses. The model then shows how this preference is modulated by various social and informational configurations of individuals. Our findings explain observed conservatism patterns in a variety of institutional settings.
Cardiac Complications Associated with Short-Term Mortality in Schizophrenia Patients Hospitalized for Pneumonia: A Nationwide Case-Control Study

Background Pneumonia is one of most prevalent infectious diseases worldwide and is associated with considerable mortality. In comparison to general population, schizophrenia patients hospitalized for pneumonia have poorer outcomes. We explored the risk factors of short-term mortality in this population because the information is lacking in the literature. Methods In a nationwide schizophrenia cohort, derived from the National Health Insurance Research Database in Taiwan, that was hospitalized for pneumonia between 2000 and 2008 (n = 1,741), we identified 141 subjects who died during their hospitalizations or shortly after their discharges. Based on risk-set sampling in a 1∶4 ratio, 468 matched controls were selected from the study cohort (i.e., schizophrenia cohort with pneumonia). Physical illnesses were categorized as pre-existing and incident illnesses that developed after pneumonia respectively. Exposures to medications were categorized by type, duration, and defined daily dose. We used stepwise conditional logistic regression to explore the risk factors for short-term mortality. Results Pre-existing arrhythmia was associated with short-term mortality (adjusted risk ratio [RR] = 4.99, p<0.01). Several variables during hospitalization were associated with increased mortality risk, including incident arrhythmia (RR = 7.44, p<0.01), incident heart failure (RR = 5.49, p = 0.0183) and the use of hypoglycemic drugs (RR = 2.32, p<0.01). Furthermore, individual antipsychotic drugs (such as clozapine) known to induce pneumonia were not significantly associated with the risk. Conclusions Incident cardiac complications following pneumonia are associated with increased short-term mortality. These findings have broad implications for clinical intervention and future studies are needed to clarify the mechanisms of the risk factors.
SITUATIONAL ASSESSMENT OF PROBLEM GAMBLING SERVICES IN CALIFORNIA

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This project was developed under contract by the California Council on Problem Gambling (CCPG). The authors gratefully acknowledge the substantial efforts of the staff, members and directors of CCPG who administered the contract and prepared summaries of the various activities in which the Council has engaged to assist problem gamblers and their families over the past five years. We also greatly appreciate the work done by Bensinger DuPont & Associates to carry out a substantial Email and telephone survey to help assess the extent and quality of problem gambling services in California. Finally, we thank all of the individuals who took the time to respond to our questions and surveys and provide information about services for problem gamblers in California. The views and opinions expressed in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the California Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs, the Office of Problem Gambling or the Office of the Governor of California. Introduction The purpose of this report is to assist the Office of Problem Gambling in implementing the provisions of Assembly Bill 673 (Chapter 210, 2003 Statutes) which authorized the establishment of problem gambling services in California. The report identifies the current status of problem gambling research, programs and services in California and internationally and is the first step in California's problem gambling strategic planning. Throughout this report, the term problem gambling is used to refer to the entire spectrum of gambling-related difficulties that individuals experience. At its most severe end, this continuum includes pathological gambling, a recognized psychiatric disorder. The gambling industry in California has grown exponentially over the last twenty years, with revenues rising five-fold since 1997, from $2.5 billion to an estimated $13 billion in 2003. For most people, gambling is an occasional and enjoyable experience. For some people, however, gambling leads to debilitating problems that can also result in harm to people close to them and to the wider community. Some forms of gambling, most notably those that are continuous in nature and involve an element of skill or perceived skill, have a particularly strong association with problem gambling. While it is generally estimated that between 2 percent and 5 percent of the adult population are problem or pathological gamblers in jurisdictions with 'mature' gambling markets, prevalence rates among regular gamblers can be as high as 25 percent. Although legal gambling is well-established in …