Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pharmacological treatment of persistent atrial fibrillation in the older adult: Evidence‐based practice

Purpose: To answer the clinical question: In adults over 65 years of age with persistent atrial fibrillation (AF), do pharmacological rhythm‐control agents offer a lower risk of stroke when compared to pharmacological rate‐control agents? To address whether or not rhythm control improves quality of life compared to rate control was a secondary outcome question. Data sources: Comprehensive review of pharmacological treatment of AF on stroke and quality of life outcomes; a meta‐analysis of five randomized controlled trials. Conclusions: Research suggests that all AF patients should continue anticoagulant therapy long term, even if they convert to sinus rhythm. Adequate rate control or rhythm control does not appear to reduce the need for lifelong antithrombotic therapy. Implications for practice: While an individualized treatment approach to AF is essential, a strong focus in the care of the older adult with AF should be on maintaining therapeutic International Normalized Ratio (INR) levels. Improved quality of life is more dependent on reducing thromboembolic events and subsequent sequelae of stroke.
Modulation of radiative heating by the Madden‐Julian Oscillation and convectively coupled Kelvin waves as observed by CloudSat

The vertical distribution of radiative heating affects the moist static energy budget and potentially the maintenance and propagation of the Madden‐Julian Oscillation (MJO). This paper uses CloudSat data to examine the radiative heating climatology in the tropics and the vertical structure of its modulation by the MJO and convectively coupled Kelvin Waves (KWs). Composites of active regions of the MJO and KW both show positive radiative heating anomaly in the middle and lower troposphere and slightly negative radiative heating anomaly in upper troposphere. Such bottom‐heavy profiles can help to strengthen the MJO while weaken the KWs. Another finding is that cloud condensate anomalies associated with the MJO are significantly more bottom‐heavy than those of the KWs, while the radiative heating anomalies associated with the MJO are only very slightly more bottom‐heavy.
Glycoproteins E and I of Marek's Disease Virus Serotype 1 Are Essential for Virus Growth in Cultured Cells

ABSTRACT The role of glycoprotein E (gE) and gI of Marek's disease virus serotype 1 (MDV-1) for growth in cultured cells was investigated. MDV-1 mutants lacking either gE (20ΔgE), gI (20ΔgI), or both gE and gI (20ΔgEI) were constructed by recE/T-mediated mutagenesis of a recently established infectious bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) clone of MDV-1 (D. Schumacher, B. K. Tischer, W. Fuchs, and N. Osterrieder, J. Virol. 74:11088–11098, 2000). Deletion of either gE or gI, which form a complex in MDV-1-infected cells, resulted in the production of virus progeny that were unable to spread from cell to cell in either chicken embryo fibroblasts or quail muscle cells. This was reflected by the absence of virus plaques and the detection of only single infected cells after transfection, even after coseeding of transfected cells with uninfected cells. In contrast, growth of rescuant viruses, in which the deleted glycoprotein genes were reinserted by homologous recombination, was indistinguishable from that of parental BAC20 virus. In addition, the 20ΔgE mutant virus was able to spread from cell to cell when cotransfected into chicken embryo fibroblasts with an expression plasmid encoding MDV-1 gE, and the 20ΔgI mutant virus exhibited cell-to-cell spread capability after cotransfection with a gI expression plasmid. The 20ΔgEI mutant virus, however, was not able to spread in the presence of either a gE or gI expression plasmid, and only single infected cells were detected by indirect immunofluorescence. The results reported here demonstrate for the first time that both gE and gI are absolutely essential for cell-to-cell spread of a member of the Alphaherpesvirinae.
Mitochondrial membrane potential and apoptosis of blood mononuclear cells in untreated HIV‐1 infected patients

Infection with HIV leads to progressive CD4 T‐cell loss, resulting in AIDS. Apoptosis is the main mechanism for the loss of infected and bystander cells, but the complex interacting factors inducing and inhibiting apoptosis are not fully understood. Mitochondrial dysfunction is a pivotal step of the apoptotic cascade and can result in reduced mitochondrial membrane potential.
Higher Surgical Morbidity for Ulcerative Colitis Patients in the Era of Biologics

Objective: To investigate differences in surgical approach and postoperative outcomes for patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) before and after the introduction of biologic therapy. Background: Biologic use has dramatically increased since Food and Drug Administration approval of infliximab. Studies conflict as to the effect of these agents on surgical outcomes with some demonstrating worse surgical outcomes whereas others have found no difference. Methods: We used an administrative, all-payer, all-age group database located in New York State. Patients were included if they had a diagnosis of UC and underwent surgery for their disease from 1995 to 2013. Outcomes were compared for the index admission, at 90-day, and 1-year follow up. Results: A total of 7070 patients were included for analysis; 54% patients underwent surgery between 1995 and 2005 and the remaining 46% patients underwent surgery between 2005 and 2013. There was a significant increase in the proportion of patients who underwent at least 3 procedures after 2005(14% vs 9%, P < 0.01). On adjusted analysis, patients undergoing surgery after 2005 had higher likelihood of major events (odd s ratio, OR = 1.42; 95% confidence interval, CI = 1.13–1.78), procedural complications (OR = 1.42; 95% CI = 1.20–1.68), and nonroutine discharge (OR = 3.17; 95% CI = 2.79–3.60) during the index admission. Similar trends for worse adjusted outcomes in patients initially undergoing surgery after 2005 were seen at 90-day and 1-year follow up. Conclusions: Since the introduction of biologic agents in 2005, surgery for patients with UC is more likely to require multiple procedures. Despite robust adjustments, patients having surgery recently have worse postoperative morbidity during the index hospitalization, at 90-day and 1-year follow up. More work is necessary to improve outcomes in these higher risk patients that undergo surgery.
Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution

Ninety-five percent of overweight people have a metabolic and not an eating disorder. Once metabolism is changed, the body adjusts automatically to a new way of burning fat. With Atkins' new diet program, dieters no longer crave high-carbohydrate foods, and can eat as much as they want and not feel hungry.
Perceptual learning and adult cortical plasticity

The visual cortex retains the capacity for experience‐dependent changes, or plasticity, of cortical function and cortical circuitry, throughout life. These changes constitute the mechanism of perceptual learning in normal visual experience and in recovery of function after CNS damage. Such plasticity can be seen at multiple stages in the visual pathway, including primary visual cortex. The manifestation of the functional changes associated with perceptual learning involve both long term modification of cortical circuits during the course of learning, and short term dynamics in the functional properties of cortical neurons. These dynamics are subject to top‐down influences of attention, expectation and perceptual task. As a consequence, each cortical area is an adaptive processor, altering its function in accordance to immediate perceptual demands.
Strategic Customer Behavior, Commitment, and Supply Chain Performance

This paper studies the impact of strategic customer behavior on supply chain performance. We start with a newsvendor seller facing forward-looking customers. The seller initially charges a regular price but may salvage the leftover inventory at a lower salvage price after random demand is realized. Customers anticipate future sales and choose purchase timing to maximize their expected surplus. We characterize the rational expectations equilibrium, where we find that the seller's stocking level is lower than that in the classic model without strategic customers. We show that the seller's profit can be improved by promising either that quantities available will be limited (quantity commitment) or that prices will be kept high (price commitment). In most cases, both forms of commitment are not credible in a centralized supply chain with a single seller. However, decentralized supply chains can use contractual arrangements as indirect commitment devices to attain the desired outcomes with commitment. Decentralization has generally been associated with coordination problems, but we present the contrasting view that disparate interests within a supply chain can actually improve overall supply chain performance. In particular, with strategic customer behavior, we find that (i) a decentralized supply chain with a wholesale price contract may perform strictly better than a centralized supply chain; (ii) contracts widely studied in the supply chain coordination literature (e.g., markdown money, sales rebates, and buyback contracts) can serve as a commitment device as well as an incentive-coordinating device; and (iii) some of the above contracts cannot allocate profits arbitrarily between supply chain members because of strategic customer behavior.
The attribution of motives to organizational citizenship behaviors: The influence of personality, gender and ethnicity

OF THE DISSERTATION THE ATTRIBUTION OF MOTIVES TO ORGANIZATIONAL CITIZENSHIP BEHAVIORS: THE INFLUENCE OF PERSONALITY, GENDER AND ETHNICITY by Alexander Alonso Florida International University, 2003 Miami, Florida Professor Chockalingam Viswesvaran, Major Professor A major area of research in the realm of Industrial/Organizational Psychology is the exploration of specific job performance behaviors such as organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs). However, there is a dearth of research examining how peers react to OCBs and the performers of such behaviors. Bolino noted that determining how people attribute motives to these OCBs is an important yet unanswered question in industrial/organizational psychology. The present study attempted to provide insight on what observer (or rater) traits affect the motives attributed to organizational citizenship behaviors. In particular, the effects of personality traits such as the Big Five personality factors, self-monitoring, individualism-collectivism, negative affectivity and identity factors such as cultural mistrust, ethnic orientation, and perceived similarity were examined. A within-subjects survey design was used to collect data on six hypothetical organizational citizenship behaviors from a sample of 369 participants. The gender and ethnicity of the individuals performing the hypothetical organizational citizenship
Wheelchair tennis match-play demands: effect of player rank and result.

PURPOSE To examine the heart-rate (HR) response and court-movement variables during wheelchair tennis match play for high- (HIGH) and low- (LOW) performance-ranked players. Analysis of physiological and movement-based responses during match play offers an insight into the demands of tennis, allowing practical recommendations to be made. METHODS Fourteen male open-class players were monitored during tournament match play. A data logger was used to record distance and speed. HR was recorded during match play. RESULTS Significant rank-by-result interactions revealed that HIGH winners covered more forward distance than HIGH losers (P < .05) and had higher average (P < .05) and minimum (P < .01) HRs than LOW winners. LOW losers had higher average (P < .01) and minimum (P < .001) HRs than LOW winners. Independent of result, a significant main effect for rank was identified for maximum (P < .001) and average (P < .001) speed and total (P < .001), reverse (P < .001), and forward-to-reverse (P < .001) distance, with higher values for HIGH. Independent of rank, losing players experienced higher minimum HRs (P < .05). Main effects for maximum HR and actual playing time were not significant. Average playing time was 52.0 (9.1) min. CONCLUSIONS These data suggest that independent of rank, tennis players were active for sufficient time to confer health-enhancing effects. While the relative playing intensity is similar, HIGH players push faster and farther than LOW players. HIGH players are therefore more capable of responding to ball movement and the challenges of competitive match play. Adjustments to the sport may be required to encourage skill developmental in LOW players, who move at significantly lower speeds and cover less distance.
An IPA study exploring SENCOs' experiences of a support group using a reflecting team approach

The purpose of this study was to explore Special Educational Needs Coordinators’ (SENCOs’) experiences of a support group, facilitated by myself, using a reflecting team process. Five female SENCOs accepted my invitation to attend sessions where I combined a reflecting team and solution circle approach. SENCOs were asked to keep a reflective log after each session which were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) and used to generate questions for semi-structured interviews. Interviews were carried out with all SENCOs who had a range of experience in the role. IPA was applied to the transcripts and a number of emergent themes allowed for sub-ordinate and super-ordinate themes to emerge for each individual. Four master themes emerged across participants: we felt safe, we found a sense of belonging, we valued the process and we had an opportunity to reflect. Research findings were discussed in the light of the extant literature relating to group dynamics, the reflecting team process and reflective practice. Implications for Educational Psychologists in providing support for SENCOs include: the need for reflexivity, a stance of curiosity, provision of restorative support for teachers and opportunities for reflective practice, the consideration given to group dynamics and need for supervision. Suggestions for further research include a study of the extent to which restorative and formative support benefits the performance of SENCOs and hence pupil outcomes. It is proposed that the reflecting team approach may be applicable to other staff groups in schools.
The relation between receptive grammar and procedural, declarative, and working memory in specific language impairment

What memory systems underlie grammar in children, and do these differ between typically developing (TD) children and children with specific language impairment (SLI)? Whilst there is substantial evidence linking certain memory deficits to the language problems in children with SLI, few studies have investigated multiple memory systems simultaneously, examining not only possible memory deficits but also memory abilities that may play a compensatory role. This study examined the extent to which procedural, declarative, and working memory abilities predict receptive grammar in 45 primary school aged children with SLI (30 males, 15 females) and 46 TD children (30 males, 16 females), both on average 9;10 years of age. Regression analyses probed measures of all three memory systems simultaneously as potential predictors of receptive grammar. The model was significant, explaining 51.6% of the variance. There was a significant main effect of learning in procedural memory and a significant group × procedural learning interaction. Further investigation of the interaction revealed that procedural learning predicted grammar in TD but not in children with SLI. Indeed, procedural learning was the only predictor of grammar in TD. In contrast, only learning in declarative memory significantly predicted grammar in SLI. Thus, different memory systems are associated with receptive grammar abilities in children with SLI and their TD peers. This study is, to our knowledge, the first to demonstrate a significant group by memory system interaction in predicting grammar in children with SLI and their TD peers. In line with Ullman’s Declarative/Procedural model of language and procedural deficit hypothesis of SLI, variability in understanding sentences of varying grammatical complexity appears to be associated with variability in procedural memory abilities in TD children, but with declarative memory, as an apparent compensatory mechanism, in children with SLI.
Twitter event networks and the Superstar model

Condensation phenomenon is often observed in social networks such as Twitter where one “superstar” vertex gains a positive fraction of the edges, while the remaining empirical degree distribution still exhibits a power law tail. We formulate a mathematically tractable model for this phenomenon that provides a better fit to empirical data than the standard preferential attachment model across an array of networks observed in Twitter. Using embeddings in an equivalent continuous time version of the process, and adapting techniques from the stable age-distribution theory of branching processes, we prove limit results for the proportion of edges that condense around the superstar, the degree distribution of the remaining vertices, maximal non-superstar degree asymptotics, and height of these random trees in the large network limit. 1. Retweet Graphs and a mathematically tractable Model Our goal here is to provide a simple model that captures the most salient features of a natural graph that is determined by the Twitter traffic generated by public events. In the Twitter world (or Twitterverse), each user has a set of followers; these are people who have signed-up to receive the tweets of the user. Here our focus is on retweets; these are tweets by a user who forwards a tweet that was received from another user. A retweet is sometimes accompanied with comments by the retweeter. Let us first start with an empirical example that contains all the characteristics observed in a wide array of such retweet networks. Data was collected during the Black Entertainment Television (BET) Awards of 2010. We first considered all tweets in the Twitterverse that were posted between 10 AM and 4 PM (GMT) on the day of the ceremony, and we then restricted attention to all the tweets in the Twitterverse that contained the term “BET Awards”. We view the posters of these tweets as the vertices of an undirected simple graph where there is an edge between vertices v and w if w retweets a tweet received from v, or vice-versa. We call this graph the retweet graph. In the retweet graph for the 2010 BET Awards one finds a single giant component (see Figure 1.1). There are also many small components (with five or fewer vertices) and a large number of isolated vertices. The giant component is also approximately a tree in Date: July 17, 2014,
Pulse oximetry: a diagnostic instrument in pulpal vitality testing.

One hundred children with normal maxillary central and lateral incisors were subjected to vitality tests each by electrical and pulse oximetry. As a control population to confirm the readings, 10 known nonvital anterior teeth with complete endodontic fillings were tested. The systemic oxygen saturation values measured on the index finger of the patient served as the control for the comparison of the oxygen saturation values measure on the teeth. The SaO2 values obtained on the teeth were correlated with the electrical test readings. The correlation between the SaO2 readings and electrical testing readings were found to be negative i.e. as the values of the electrical pulp testing reading increased, the SaO2 values decreased. Since a reproducible SaO2 level is obtainable on the vital teeth, pulse oximetry has immediate clinical value in providing base line vitality data for the traumatised teeth.
When Talent Is Not Enough: Why Technologically Talented Women Are Not Studying Technology.

The position of technology education in Finland is quite different from that in most other European countries, even for Finland’s Nordic neighbors. Technology education is incorporated within the scopes of other subjects, such as physics, chemistry, biology, home economics, and craft education. Craft education is, in practice, further divided into technical work and textile work. Although the national curriculum stated as early as 1970 that both technical and textile crafts are compulsory for both boys and girls, traditionally, boys select technical crafts and girls choose textile classes. As technological contents are mostly taught in the technical craft lessons, this division has a negative effect when students select subjects such as physics in upper secondary school and when they make considerations to study in technical universities and science departments in universities. Gender-based segregation and falling recruitment for scientific and technological studies are common phenomena in all the Nordic countries (Sjøberg, 2002). However, paradoxically the inequity is particularly noticeable in Finland where gender equality has been a prime educational goal for decades. This article builds on two earlier studies. The first one defined and assessed technological competence among adolescents (Autio & Hansen, 2002). The second, traced three students who had achieved the best results in a measurement of technological competence given 15 years ago (Autio, 2011). This study showed that, in terms of technological competence, it is possible to predict students’ potential for career success in the technical professions. The aim of this study was to examine how the three highest scoring females have progressed. Are they working in technology today, or did they find other professions? In addition, the researcher tried to determine the elements accounting for the participants’ motivated behavioral choices in the area of technology. Finally, in the discussion section, the researcher will highlight some differences within these elements between males and females. The main research questions were as follows: 1. Did technologically talented females choose technological careers? 2. What were the main elements in the test participants’ motivated behavioral choices in the area of technology? The research data was analyzed using content analysis. The analysis was carried out by assessing which of the essential elements in the participants’ lives contributed to their motivated behavioral choices in the area of technology. These findings were later classified and finally reported in the conclusions. The