Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Late Outcomes of Infants Supported by Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation Following the Norwood Operation

Background: Hospital survival for infants who require extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) following the Norwood operation is 30% to 60%. However, little is known about late outcomes of hospital survivors and their ability to progress through subsequent palliative stages. Methods: Between 2002 and 2012, 38 (13.4%) of the 284 neonates with hypoplastic left heart syndrome or other single ventricle variants received ECMO support following Norwood. We examined factors affecting hospital death and compared postdischarge events between hospital survivors who received postoperative ECMO (n = 16 of 38) and a control of hospital survivors who did not receive ECMO (220 of 246). Results: Unplanned cardiac reoperation was the only predictor of postoperative ECMO requirement. Overall, 22 (58%) of the 38 patients were weaned from ECMO support and 16 (42%) of the 38 survived to hospital discharge. The ECMO duration was a significant factor for hospital mortality (odds ratio = 1.52 per 1-day increase [1.03-2.24], P = .035). Following discharge, 15 (94%) of the 16 underwent Glenn and 1 (6%) of the 16 had interstage mortality. In the control group, 194 (88%) of the 220 underwent Glenn and 26 (12%) of the 220 had interstage mortality or received transplantation (P = .499). Following Glenn, 3 (20%) of the 15 patients had interstage mortality or received transplantation and 12 (80%) of the 15 proceeded to Fontan or were alive awaiting Fontan. In the control group, 23 (12%) of the 194 had interstage mortality or received transplantation and 171 (88%) proceeded to Fontan or were alive awaiting Fontan (P = .357). Overall, 81% of hospital survivors were alive 5 years following discharge in both ECMO and non-ECMO groups. Conclusions: ECMO support following Norwood is associated with high probability of hospital death. Nonetheless, interstage mortality, progression to subsequent palliative stages, intermediate survival, and freedom from heart transplantation are comparable to those in patients who did not require postoperative ECMO support.
Classifying relationships between object-oriented design patterns

Since the publication of the Design Patterns book (E. Gamma et al., 1994), a large number of object-oriented design patterns have been identified and codified. As part of the pattern form, object-oriented design patterns must indicate their relationships with other patterns, but these relationships are typically described very briefly, and different collections of patterns describe different relationships in different ways. In this paper, we describe and classify the common relationships between object-oriented design patterns. Practitioners can use these relationships to help them identity those patterns which may be applicable to a particular problem, and pattern writers can use these relationships to help them integrate new patterns into the body of the patterns literature.
Inflation and the Skewness of the Distribution of Relative Price Changes: Empirical Evidence for Germany / Inflation und die Schiefe der Verteilung relativer Preisänderungen: Empirische Evidenz für Deutschland

Summary The paper uses German annual data covering the period 1969-2000 to present evidence on the link between aggregate inflation and the skewness of the distribution of relative price changes. Our empirical results are mixed. Our regression-based analyses suggest that the skewness of the distribution of relative price changes may be an explanatory variable for the inflation rate. Our empirical evidence in favor of the hypothesis that the skewness measure may help to explain shifts in the Phillips curve is somewhat weaker. Moreover, a structural vector autoregression reveals that the skewness may help to explain the dynamics of real output. At the same time, however, demand shocks seem to explain a non-negligible proportion of the variation of the skewness. Zusammenfassung Der Aufsatz untersucht auf der Basis deutscher Jahresdaten für den Zeitraum 1969-2000 den Zusammenhang zwischen der gesamtwirtschaftlichen Inflationsrate und den höheren Momenten der Verteilung der relativen Preisveränderungen. Unsere empirischen Ergebnisse bestätigen in der Grundtendenz die Vorhersagen theoretischer Ansätze nach denen die Schiefe der Verteilung relativer Preisveränderungen eine erklärende Variable für die Inflationsentwicklung darstellt. Die Hypothese, wonach die Schiefe hilft, Verschiebungen der Phillipskurve zu erklären, kann durch unsere empirische Evidenz nur schwach gestützt werden. Empirische Untersuchungen unter Zuhilfenahme einer strukturellen Vektorautoregression zeigen, dass die Variation des Outputs teilweise mit Hilfe dieser Variablen erklärt werden kann. Gleichzeitig jedoch scheinen Nachfrageschocks einen nicht vernachlässigbaren Anteil der Variation der Schiefe zu erklären.
Mineralogical nomenclature: pseudorutile revalidated and neotype given

Abstract Pseudorutile, , has recently been revalidated as a mineral species, and the neotype locality is now South Neptune Island, South Australia. Powder X-ray diffraction data are given on a hexagonal primitive unit cell with a = 2.8667(5) and c = 4.5985(9) Å. Leucoxene, arizonite and proarizonite are considered to be mixtures. Kleberite is considered to be a hydroxylian pseudorutile, .
Measurement properties of the WheelCon for powered wheelchair users

Abstract Purpose: To evaluate the measurement properties of the Wheelchair Use Confidence Scale for power wheelchair users (WheelCon-P). Design: One-month test–retest design, using data from a longitudinal study of power wheelchair use. Participants: Volunteer sample of 73 community dwelling, older adult experienced power wheelchair users who had a mean age of 60.5 ± 7.1 years. Methods: Participants completed the WheelCon-P twice to assess retest reliability. Concurrent validity was assessed by evaluating hypothesized relationships between the WheelCon-P and relevant variables. Results: The baseline mean (standard deviation) WheelCon-P score was 78.8 ± 14.5. Cronbach’s α was 0.92. The one-month test–retest intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.85 (CI 0.77–0.90). Correlations ranging from r = 0.26 (social support) to r = 0.49 (wheelchair skills) were found between the WheelCon-P and the validation outcome measures. Conclusion: The WheelCon-P has high internal consistency, strong retest reliability and evidence supporting its validity. Although further work is needed, the WheelCon-P may serve as a useful clinical and research tool for measuring power wheelchair confidence. Implications for rehabilitation The WheelCon-P is a reliable and valid outcome measure for assessing wheelchair confidence. This tool can be used to identify individuals with low power wheelchair confidence who require a confidence-enhancing intervention.
The Thickness of Tectonic Plates

Seismic studies continue to refine the elusive boundary that defines the depth at which the lithosphere ends. A fundamental premise of plate tectonics on Earth is that rigid lithospheric plates, formed at mid-ocean ridges, float above a more deformable substratum, the asthenosphere (1). The precise nature of the asthenosphere is still debated. Mechanical models predict a well-defined, sharp lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary (LAB), but evidence for such a boundary from conventional seismic measurements is ambiguous. On pages 499 and 495 of this issue, Kawakatsu et al. (2) and Rychert and Shearer (3) present analyses of more sophisticated seismic studies that help refine the LAB and hence the thickness of the lithosphere and tectonic plates, although challenges still remain in picking out this boundary versus other structures within the lithosphere.
Synthesis, Electronic Properties, and Applications of Indium Oxide Nanowires

Abstract: Single‐crystalline indium oxide nanowires were synthesized using a laser ablation method and characterized using various techniques. Precise control over the nanowire diameter down to 10 nm was achieved by using monodisperse gold clusters as the catalytic nanoparticles. In addition, field effect transistors with on/off ratios as high as 104 were fabricated based on these nanowires. Detailed electronic measurements confirmed that our nanowires were n‐type semiconductors with thermal emission as the dominating transport mechanism, as revealed by temperature‐dependent measurements. Furthermore, we studied the chemical sensing properties of our In2O3 nanowire transistors at room temperature. Upon exposure to a small amount of NO2 or NH3, the nanowire transistors showed a decrease in conductance of up to five or six orders of magnitude, in addition to substantial shifts in the threshold gate voltage. Our devices exhibit significantly improved chemical sensing performance compared to existing solid‐state sensors in many aspects, such as the sensitivity, the selectivity, the response time and the lowest detectable concentrations. We have also demonstrated the use of UV light as a “gas cleanser” for In2O3 nanowire chemical sensors, leading to a recovery time as short as 80 seconds.
Application of NMR-based metabolomics to the investigation of salt stress in maize (Zea mays).

INTRODUCTION High salinity, caused by either natural (e.g. climatic changes) or anthropic factors (e.g. agriculture), is a widespread environmental stressor that can affect development and growth of salt-sensitive plants, leading to water deficit, the inhibition of intake of essential ions and metabolic disorders. OBJECTIVE The application of an NMR-based metabolic profiling approach to the investigation of saline-induced stress in Maize plants is presented. METHODOLOGY Zea Maize seedlings were grown in either 0, 50 or 150 mM saline solution. Plants were harvested after 2, 4 and 6 days (n = 5 per class and time point) and (1) H NMR spectroscopy was performed separately on shoot and root extracts. Spectral data were analysed and interpreted using multivariate statistical analyses. RESULTS A distinct effect of time/growth was observed for the control group with relatively higher concentrations of acetoacetate at day 2 and increased levels of alanine at days 4 and 6 in root extracts, whereas concentration of alanine was positively correlated with the shoot extracts harvested at day 2 and trans-aconitic acid increased at days 4 and 6. A clear dose-dependent effect, superimposed on the growth effect, was observed for saline treated shoot and root extracts. This was correlated with increased levels of alanine, glutamate, asparagine, glycine-betaine and sucrose and decreased levels of malic acid, trans-aconitic acid and glucose in shoots. Correlation with salt-load shown in roots included elevated levels of alanine, γ-amino-N-butyric acid, malic acid, succinate and sucrose and depleted levels of acetoacetate and glucose. CONCLUSIONS The metabolic effect of high salinity was predominantly consistent with osmotic stress as reported for other plant species and was found to be stronger in the shoots than the roots. Using multivariate data analysis it is possible to investigate the effects of more than one environmental stressor simultaneously.
Glutamatergic transmission and plasticity between olfactory bulb mitral cells

In the olfactory bulb the sets of mitral cells that project their apical dendrite to the same glomerulus represent unique functional networks. While it is known that mitral cells release vesicular glutamate from their apical tuft it is believed that the resultant self‐excitation (SE), transmitted via dendritic gap junctions, is the main form of lateral transmission within the mitral cell assembly. In this study we used simultaneous whole‐cell recordings from mitral cell pairs to show that a direct form of chemical lateral excitation (LE) provides a means of mitral cell–mitral cell communication. In contrast to the ubiquitous expression and robust nature of SE, the efficacy of glutamatergic LE between mitral cells is highly variable and mediated by calcium‐impermeable AMPA receptors. We also find that the strength of LE is bi‐directionally modulated, in a homeostatic manner, by sniffing‐like patterns of presynaptic activity. Since these changes last many minutes we suggest that such mitral cell–mitral cell interactions provide the glomerular network with a locus for olfactory plasticity and a potential mechanism for receptive field modulation.
Influence of Shot Peening Treatment on Rotating Bending High-Cycle Fatigue Properties of Additive Manufactured Maraging Steels Material

Rotating bending fatigue tests were conducted to investigate the effect of shot peening on fatigue properties of maraging steels made by direct metal laser sintering process which was one of additive manufacturing processes. In order to investigate the effect of lamination direction of material, two types of specimen changed modeling pattern as horizontal modeling and vertical modeling were prepared. As the result of the fatigue test, non peened specimen was fractured from initial defect near the specimen surface, but the shot peened specimen was fractured from initial defect inside specimen where located 600m deeper from surface of specimen. The size of initial defect differs according to the difference in modeling pattern and its size of the vertical modeling material was larger than the horizontal modeling material ones. However, threshold stress intensity factor at which specimen fracture of both materials were the same levels. The cause of this, fatigue limits of the vertical modeling material was slightly smaller than the horizontal modeling material ones. And then, since the final dimensions of the fish eye of both materials become the same, fatigue life of vertical modeling material shorter than horizontal modeling material.
Genetic variation in PNPLA3 (adiponutrin) confers sensitivity to weight loss-induced decrease in liver fat in humans.

BACKGROUND The rs738409 C→G single nucleotide polymorphism in the patatin-like phospholipase domain-containing 3 (PNPLA3; adiponutrin) leads to a missense mutation (I148M), which is associated with increased liver fat but not insulin resistance. The I148M mutation impedes triglyceride hydrolysis in vitro, and its carriers have an increased risk of developing severe liver disease. OBJECTIVE We explored whether the rs738409 PNPLA3 G allele influences the ability of weight loss to decrease liver fat or change insulin sensitivity. DESIGN We recruited 8 subjects who were homozygous for the rs738409 PNPLA3 G allele (PNPLA3-148MM) and 10 who were homozygous for the rs738409 PNPLA3 C allele (PNPLA3-148II). To allow comparison of changes in liver fat, the groups were matched with respect to baseline age, sex, body mass index, and liver fat. The subjects were placed on a hypocaloric low-carbohydrate diet for 6 d. Liver fat content (proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy), whole-body insulin sensitivity of glucose metabolism (euglycemic clamp technique), and lipolysis ([(2)H(5)]glycerol infusion) were measured before and after the diet. RESULTS At baseline, fasting serum insulin and C-peptide concentrations were significantly lower in the PNPLA3-148MM group than in the PNPLA3-148II group, as predicted by study design. Weight loss was not significantly different between groups (PNPLA3-148MM: -3.1 ± 0.5 kg; PNPLA3-148II: -3.1 ± 0.4 kg). Liver fat decreased by 45% in the PNPLA3-148MM group (P < 0.001) and by 18% in the PNPLA3-148II group (P < 0.01). CONCLUSION Weight loss is effective in decreasing liver fat in subjects who are homozygous for the rs738409 PNPLA3 G or C allele. This trial was registered at www.hus. fi as 233775.
Nonlinear finite element simulations of injuries with free boundaries: Application to surgical wounds

Wound healing is a process driven by biochemical and mechanical variables in which a new tissue is synthesised to recover original tissue functionality. Wound morphology plays a crucial role in this process, as the skin behaviour is not uniform along different directions. In this work, we simulate the contraction of surgical wounds, which can be characterised as elongated and deep wounds. Because of the regularity of this morphology, we approximate the evolution of the wound through its cross section, adopting a plane strain hypothesis. This simplification reduces the complexity of the computational problem; while allows for a thorough analysis of the role of wound depth in the healing process, an aspect of medical and computational relevance that has not yet been addressed. To reproduce wound contraction, we consider the role of fibroblasts, myofibroblasts, collagen and a generic growth factor. The contraction phenomenon is driven by cell‐generated forces. We postulate that these forces are adjusted to the mechanical environment of the tissue where cells are embedded through a mechanosensing and mechanotransduction mechanism. To solve the nonlinear problem, we use the finite element method (FEM) and an updated Lagrangian approach to represent the change in the geometry. To elucidate the role of wound depth and width on the contraction pattern and evolution of the involved species, we analyse different wound geometries with the same wound area. We find that deeper wounds contract less and reach a maximum contraction rate earlier than superficial wounds. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Noisy Networks for Exploration

We introduce NoisyNet, a deep reinforcement learning agent with parametric noise added to its weights, and show that the induced stochasticity of the agent's policy can be used to aid efficient exploration. The parameters of the noise are learned with gradient descent along with the remaining network weights. NoisyNet is straightforward to implement and adds little computational overhead. We find that replacing the conventional exploration heuristics for A3C, DQN and dueling agents (entropy reward and $\epsilon$-greedy respectively) with NoisyNet yields substantially higher scores for a wide range of Atari games, in some cases advancing the agent from sub to super-human performance.
High prevalence of vitamin D deficiency despite supplementation in premenopausal women with breast cancer undergoing adjuvant chemotherapy.

PURPOSE Vitamin D deficiency is associated with increased breast cancer risk and decreased breast cancer survival. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency, as measured by serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25-OHD), in premenopausal women at initiation of adjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer and after 1 year of vitamin D supplementation. PATIENTS AND METHODS The study included 103 premenopausal women from the northeastern United States with stages I to III breast cancer who received adjuvant chemotherapy and participated in a 1-year zoledronate intervention trial. All patients were prescribed vitamin D(3) (cholecalciferol) 400 IU and calcium carbonate 1,000 mg daily. At baseline and at 6 and 12 months, bone mineral density (BMD) measurements were obtained and blood was collected and analyzed in batches for serum 25-OHD. Vitamin D deficiency was defined as serum 25-OHD less than 20 ng/mL, insufficiency as 20 to 29 ng/mL, and sufficiency as 30 ng/mL or greater. RESULTS At baseline, 74% of women were vitamin D deficient (median, 17 ng/mL). Vitamin D deficiency was slightly less common in white women (66%) compared with black (80%) and Hispanic (84%) women. After vitamin D supplementation for 1 year, less than 15% of white and Hispanic women, and no black women, achieved sufficient 25-OHD levels. Vitamin D levels did not correlate with baseline BMD and were not altered by chemotherapy or bisphosphonate use. CONCLUSION Vitamin D deficiency is highly prevalent in women with breast cancer. The current recommended dietary allowance of vitamin D is too low to increase serum 25-OHD greater than 30 ng/mL. Optimal dosing for bone health and, possibly, improved survival has yet to be determined.
Maximally permissive distributed control of large scale automated manufacturing systems modeled with Petri nets

Ensuring nonblockingness remains challenging for automated manufacturing systems (AMS) owing to their discrete event dynamics. Both scalability and maximal permissiveness are essential for the synthesis and implementation of their centralized supervisors. Inspired by the divide and conquer philosophy, this work proposes a partition methodology and distributed control technique for large scale AMS. They are represented as interconnected and overlapping subsystems sharing some common components in terms of buffers. For each subsystem, a local supervisor is designed based on its local behavior and neighboring information only. Generalizing the existing results, we develop a condition under which the control law via decomposition promises the maximal permissiveness. Buffer capacities are well designed for the sake of their decomposition into multiple overlapping subsystems. Theoretical results are developed to characterize the behavior compatibility among local controllers. An experimental study illustrates the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Virtual Laboratory for Learning Asynchronous Motors in Engineering Degrees

espanolLos estudios dentro del marco del Espacio Europeo de Educacion Superior incluyen la adquisicion de habilidades como la capacidad de aprender de forma autonoma, lo que requiere que los estudiantes dediquen gran parte de su tiempo al trabajo individual y grupal para reforzar y complementar aun mas el conocimiento adquirido en el aula. Para consolidar los resultados obtenidos de las actividades en el aula, los profesores deben desarrollar herramientas para fomentar el aprendizaje y facilitar el proceso de aprendizaje independiente. El objetivo de este trabajo es presentar el uso de laboratorios virtuales basados en Easy Java Simulations para ayudar en la comprension y prueba de maquinas electricas. EnglishStudies within the European Higher Education Area framework include the acquisition of skills such as the ability to learn autonomously, which requires students to devote much of their time to individual and group work to reinforce and further complement the knowledge acquired in the classroom. To consolidate the results obtained from classroom activities, lecturers must develop tools to encourage learning and facilitate the process of independent learning. The aim of this paper is to present the use of virtual laboratories based on Easy Java Simulations to assist in the understanding and testing of electrical machines.