Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Standardized Measure

Although nursing care hours (NCH) is commonly used to examine factors related to adverse events among inpatients, the reliability of the NCH measure has rarely been examined. This study assessed the reliability of NCH data from the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators® by estimating intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) with data from the California Office for Statewide Health Planning and Development. Hospital-level aggregated NCH data for critical care units were linked from each of the databases for 48 California hospitals matched in the two databases. Estimated ICCs were . 96 for registered nurse (RN) hours and . 72 for non-RN hours. Findings provide evidence that NCH data of the national database were substantially reliable for use in national comparable benchmarking reports for hospitals’ quality improvement activities and research.
Grade-of-service-based routing in optical networks [Quality-of-Service-Based Routing Algorithms for Heterogeneous Networks]

Optical networks serve an increasing number of services, each having different requirements. This necessitates the evolution towards routing algorithms that cover all aspects of quality. This article presents a tutorial overview and comparison of grade-of-service-based routing strategies, with emphasis on mechanisms that provide differentiated call-blocking probability for different classes of lightpath requests
Effectiveness of START psychological intervention in reducing abuse by dementia family carers: randomized controlled trial

ABSTRACT Background: Family carers of people with dementia frequently report acting abusively toward them and carer psychological morbidity predicts this. We investigated whether START (STrAtegies for RelaTives), a psychological intervention which reduces depression and anxiety in family carers also reduces abusive behavior in carers of people living in their own homes. We also explored the longitudinal course of carer abusive behavior over two year. Methods: We included self-identified family carers who gave support at least weekly to people with dementia referred in the previous year to three UK mental health services and a neurological dementia service. We randomly assigned these carers to START, an eight-session, manual-based coping intervention, or treatment as usual (TAU). Carer abusive behavior (Modified Conflict Tactic Scale (MCTS) score ≥2 representing significant abuse) was assessed at baseline, 4, 8, 12, and 24 months. Results: We recruited 260 carers, 173 to START and 87 to TAU. There was no evidence that abusive behavior levels differed between randomization groups or changed over time. A quarter of carers still reported significant abuse after two years, but those not acting abusively at baseline did not become abusive. Conclusion: There was no evidence that START, which reduced carer anxiety and depression, reduced carer abusive behavior. For ethical reasons, we frequently intervened to manage concerning abuse reported in both groups, which may have disguised an intervention effect. Future dementia research should include elder abuse as an outcome, and consider carefully how to manage detected abuse.
MOMENT-ROTATION RELATION BETWEEN COLUMN AND SLAB

A METHOD IS PRESENTED FOR OBTAINING LIMITS TO THE ROTATIONAL STIFFNESS OF FLAT FLOOR PLATES AT A COLUMN-- SLAB JUNCTION. THE METHOD IS BASED ON THE ELASTIC THEORY OF ISOTROPIC THIN PLATES AND ACCOUNTS FOR THE COLUMN CROSS SECTIONAL CONFIGURATION AT THE COLUMN-- SLAB INTERFACE, AS WELL AS THE FLOOR PLATE'S BOUNDARY CONDITIONS. THE FLEXURAL STIFFNESS OF THE SLAB AT A COLUMN--SLAB JUNCTION IS REPRESENTED BY A MOMENT- ROTATION COEFFICIENT AS USED IN BEAM AND FRAME ANALYSIS. MOMENT-ROTATION COEFFICIENTS FOR SEVERAL CASES OF SQUARE PLATES ON CENTRAL SQUARE COLUMNS ARE EVALUATED. THE DISTRIBUTION OF MOMENT IN THE SLAB DUE TO AN APPLIED MOMENT AT THE COLUMN--SLAB JUNCTION IS STUDIED. A NUMERICAL EXAMPLE IS INCLUDED TO SHOW THE APPLICATION OF THE PROPOSED METHOD. /AUTHOR/
Redundant CArG Box Cis-motif Activity Mediates SHATTERPROOF2 Transcriptional Regulation during Arabidopsis thaliana Gynoecium Development

In the Arabidopsis thaliana seed pod, pod shatter and seed dispersal properties are in part determined by the development of a longitudinally orientated dehiscence zone (DZ) that derives from cells of the gynoecial valve margin (VM). Transcriptional regulation of the MADS protein encoding transcription factors genes SHATTERPROOF1 (SHP1) and SHATTERPROOF2 (SHP2) are critical for proper VM identity specification and later on for DZ development. Current models of SHP1 and SHP2 regulation indicate that the transcription factors FRUITFULL (FUL) and REPLUMLESS (RPL) repress these SHP genes in the developing valve and replum domains, respectively. Thus the expression of the SHP genes is restricted to the VM. FUL encodes a MADS-box containing transcription factor that is predicted to act through CArG-box containing cis-regulatory motifs. Here we delimit functional modules within the SHP2 cis-regulatory region and examine the functional importance of CArG box motifs within these regulatory regions. We have characterized a 2.2kb region upstream of the SHP2 translation start site that drives early and late medial domain expression in the gynoecium, as well as expression within the VM and DZ. We identified two separable, independent cis-regulatory modules, a 1kb promoter region and a 700bp enhancer region, that are capable of giving VM and DZ expression. Our results argue for multiple independent cis-regulatory modules that support SHP2 expression during VM development and may contribute to the robustness of SHP2 expression in this tissue. Additionally, three closely positioned CArG box motifs located in the SHP2 upstream regulatory region were mutated in the context of the 2.2kb reporter construct. Mutating simultaneously all three CArG boxes caused a moderate de-repression of the SHP2 reporter that was detected within the valve domain, suggesting that these CArG boxes are involved in SHP2 repression in the valve.
Emerging Nucleic Acid–Based Tests for Point-of-Care Detection of Malaria

Malaria remains a serious disease in the developing world. There is a growing consensus that new diagnostics are needed in low-resource settings. The ideal malaria diagnostic should be able to speciate; measure parasitemia; low-cost, quick, and simple to use; and capable of detecting low-level infections. A promising development are nucleic acid tests (NATs) for the diagnosis of malaria, which are well suited for point-of-care use because of their ability to detect low-level infections and speciate, and because they have high sensitivity and specificity. The greatest barrier to NAT use in the past has been its relatively high cost, and the amount of infrastructure required in the form of equipment, stable power, and reagent storage. This review describes recent developments to decrease the cost and run time, and increase the ease of use of NAT while maintaining their high sensitivity and specificity and low limit of detection at the point-of-care.
On the Spectral Efficiency of Full-Duplex Small Cell Wireless Systems

We investigate the spectral efficiency of full-duplex small cell wireless systems, in which a full-duplex capable base station (BS) is designed to send/receive data to/from multiple half-duplex users on the same system resources. The major hurdle for designing such systems is due to the self-interference at the BS and co-channel interference among users. Hence, we consider a joint beamformer design to maximize the spectral efficiency subject to certain power constraints. The design problem is first formulated as a rank-constrained optimization problem, and the rank relaxation method is then applied. However, the relaxed problem is still nonconvex, and thus, optimal solutions are hard to find. Herein, we propose two provably convergent algorithms to obtain suboptimal solutions. Based on the concept of the Frank-Wolfe algorithm, we approximate the design problem by a determinant maximization program in each iteration of the first algorithm. The second method is built upon the sequential parametric convex approximation method, which allows us to transform the relaxed problem into a semidefinite program in each iteration. Extensive numerical experiments under small cell setups illustrate that the full-duplex system with the proposed algorithms can achieve a large gain over the half-duplex system.
Formation of Bence-Jones protein and myeloma protein in vitro by the plasma-cell tumour MPC-2.

2. The main hydrolysis products were 4-0-(,D-glucopyranosyl)-D-ribitol 1-phosphate (III) and its isomeric 2-phosphate (IV). These were separated from each other and their structures determined by periodate oxidation. 3. Minor hydrolysis products included the 1:5and 2: 5-diphosphates (V and VI) of glucosylribitol. The structures assigned to these followed from periodate oxidation. The oxidation product from the 2: 5-diphosphate gave a ribitol diphosphate when treated with alkali. 4. The structure previously suggested for this ribitol teichoic acid is confirmed by these studies. 5. Oxidation of the teichoic acid with buffered periodate before and after removal of alanine ester residues has shown that the amino acid is attached to a hydroxyl at either the 2or 3-position in the ribitol residues.
Production and Properties of Glass-Ceramic from Incinerator Fly Ash

To recycle waste materials, the work is concerned with development of a glass-ceramic from a Korean incinerator fly ash with a high content of Cl. As a pre-treatment of ash, water washing the fly ash was used to remove the high Cl content before melting the ash. The process induced internal crystallization of fly ash after melting under a single stage heat treatment without adding nucleating agents into the ash. As a result, fracture stress of 220MPa and fracture toughness of 1.7 MPam 1/2 were found in the glass-ceramic, which were high values compared to others reported. Thus, the present process suggests that a good glass-ceramic produced from an incinerator ash could be applicable for structural materials in terms of economical and environmental points.
IL-2-mediated apoptosis of kidney tubular epithelial cells is regulated by the caspase-8 inhibitor c-FLIP.

BACKGROUND Tubular epithelial cells (TECs) are essential in the maintenance of kidney function. Apoptosis of TECs occur during acute and chronic renal allograft rejection as well as other forms of renal injury, including autoimmune nephritis. The regulation of TEC apoptosis by proinflammatory cytokines associated with renal inflammation [e.g., interleukin (IL)-2 and interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma)] has not been extensively investigated. METHODS Apoptosis in murine TECs was determined by FACS with annexin-V or ligation-mediated-polymerase chain reaction (LM-PCR) and mRNA levels by reverse transcription (RT)-PCR or Northern blot. Protein expression was observed using Western blot. RESULTS IL-2R (CD25) was expressed by murine TECs and up-regulated by IL-2. Both IL-2 and IFN-gamma induced TEC apoptosis and activated caspase-8. Apoptosis with IL-2 was concentration-dependent and blocked by z-IETD-fmk, a specific caspase-8 inhibitor. Apoptosis with IFN-gamma was associated with increased surface expression of Fas, while IL-2 had no effect on Fas. IL-2 did not induce apoptosis in Fas-deficient TECs (M3.1-lpr) suggesting IL-2 regulation of caspase-8 activity requires Fas. Consistent with this, IL-2 but not IFN-gamma was found to decrease mRNA and protein expression of c-FLIP, an endogenous caspase-8 inhibitor in murine TECs. Overexpression of c-FLIP in TECs (CS3.7-FLIP) blocked apoptosis and caspase-8 activation with both IFN-gamma and IL-2. c-FLIP expression was found in kidney cortex, primary and cloned TECs, suggesting c-FLIP is likely a key regulator of caspase-8-mediated apoptosis in vivo. CONCLUSION This is the first report of c-FLIP regulation by IL-2 in renal TECs. Augmentation of c-FLIP in TECs may enhance an endogenous mechanism by which TECs normally resist injury to caspase-8-mediated apoptosis and thus may be a useful and novel strategy to prevent tubular injury in transplant rejection and autoimmune nephritis.
Children's Production of Unfamiliar Word Sequences Is Predicted by Positional Variability and Latent Classes in a Large Sample of Child-Directed Speech

We explore whether children's willingness to produce unfamiliar sequences of words reflects their experience with similar lexical patterns. We asked children to repeat unfamiliar sequences that were identical to familiar phrases (e.g., A piece of toast) but for one word (e.g., a novel instantiation of A piece of X, like A piece of brick). We explore two predictions-motivated by findings in the statistical learning literature-that children are likely to have detected an opportunity to substitute alternative words into the final position of a four-word sequence if (a) it is difficult to predict the fourth word given the first three words and (b) the words observed in the final position are distributionally similar. Twenty-eight 2-year-olds and thirty-one 3-year-olds were significantly more likely to correctly repeat unfamiliar variants of patterns for which these properties held. The results illustrate how children's developing language is shaped by linguistic experience.
N=(4,4) Type IIA String Theory on PP-Wave Background

We construct IIA GS superstring action on the ten-dimensional pp-wave background, which arises as the compactification of eleven-dimensional pp-wave geometry along the isometry direction. The background geometry has 24 Killing spinors and among them, 16 components correspond to the non-linearly realized kinematical supersymmetry in the string action. The remaining eight components are linearly realized and shown to be independent of x^+ coordinate, which is identified with the world-sheet time coordinate of the string action in the light-cone gauge. The resultant dynamical N=(4,4) supersymmetry is investigated, which is shown to be consistent with the field contents of the action containing two free massive supermultiplets.
Satisfaction with therapist-delivered vs. self-administered online cognitive behavioural treatments for depression symptoms in college students

Participants with symptoms of depression received either eight sessions of therapist-delivered email cognitive behaviour therapy (eCBT; n=37), or eight sessions of computerised CBT self-administered treatment (cCBT; n=43). At post-treatment participants completed a questionnaire to determine what they found satisfying about their online treatment. Quantitative and qualitative analysis was employed to report outcomes. A sample of 25 participants(eCBT n=10; cCBT n=15) completed the satisfaction questionnaire. Both groups were satisfied with accessing and using an online treatment and that they had self-control over their treatment. Perceived anonymity was important for the eCBT group. For the cCBT group they found the treatment user-friendly, engaging and also a source of learning. Both groups disliked that the online treatment could at times be complicated and impersonal.
Centromere binding specificity in assembly of the F plasmid partition complex

The segregation of plasmid F of Escherichia coli is highly reliable. The Sop partition locus, responsible for this stable maintenance, is composed of two genes, sopA and sopB and a centromere, sopC, consisting of 12 direct repeats of 43 bp. Each repeat carries a 16-bp inverted repeat motif to which SopB binds to form a nucleoprotein assembly called the partition complex. A database search for sequences closely related to sopC revealed unexpected features that appeared highly conserved. We have investigated the requirements for specific SopB–sopC interactions using a surface plasmon resonance imaging technique. We show that (i) only 10 repeats interact specifically with SopB, (ii) no base outside the 16-bp sopC sites is involved in binding specificity, whereas five bases present in each arm are required for interactions, and (iii) the A-C central bases contribute to binding efficiency by conforming to a need for a purine–pyrimidine dinucleotide. We have refined the SopB–sopC binding pattern by electro-mobility shift assay and found that all 16 bp are necessary for optimal SopB binding. These data and the model we propose, define the basis of the high binding specificity of F partition complex assembly, without which, dispersal of SopB over DNA would result in defective segregation.
Smad2 and Smad3 Are Redundantly Essential for the TGF-β–Mediated Regulation of Regulatory T Plasticity and Th1 Development

Although it has been well established that TGF-β plays a pivotal role in immune regulation, the roles of its downstream transcription factors, Smad2 and Smad3, have not been fully clarified. Specifically, the function of Smad2 in the immune system has not been investigated because of the embryonic lethality of Smad2-deficient mice. In this study, we generated T cell-specific Smad2 conditional knockout (KO) mice and unexpectedly found that Smad2 and Smad3 were redundantly essential for TGF-β–mediated induction of Foxp3-expressing regulatory T cells and suppression of IFN-γ production in CD4+ T cells. Consistent with these observations, Smad2/Smad3-double KO mice, but not single KO mice, developed fatal inflammatory diseases with higher IFN-γ production and reduced Foxp3 expression in CD4+ T cells at the periphery. Although it has been suggested that Foxp3 induction might underlie TGF-β–mediated immunosuppression, TGF-β still can suppress Th1 cell development in Foxp3-deficient T cells, suggesting that the Smad2/3 pathway inhibits Th1 cell development with Foxp3-independent mechanisms. We also found that Th17 cell development was reduced in Smad-deficient CD4+ T cells because of higher production of Th17-inhibotory cytokines from these T cells. However, TGF-β–mediated induction of RORγt, a master regulator of Th17 cell, was independent of both Smad2 and Smad3, suggesting that TGF-β regulates Th17 development through Smad2/3-dependent and -independent mechanisms.
On the approximability of the traveling salesman problem (extended abstract)

We show that the traveling salesman problem with triangle inequality cannot be approximated within ~0 when the edge lengths are allowed to be asymmetric and within 12_~9 z2s when the edge lengths are symmetric. The best previous 2s05 _ j 53s1 respectively. The reduction lower bounds were ~ ~ttt is from H£stad's maximum satisfiability of linear equations modulo 2, and is nonconstructive.
A real time spectrum scanning technique based on compressive sensing for cognitive radio networks

This paper describes a real time spectrum scanning method using software defined radio (SDR) units to perform and evaluate the wideband spectrum occupancy survey. The proposed method is based on compressive sensing in order to reduce the scanning time as the conventional spectrum scanning requires a great deal of processing time. It consists of performing spectrum scanning on the compressed measurements through the compressive sensing framework. Energy, autocorrelation, and Euclidean distance based sensing techniques were used to perform the spectrum sensing on the compressed signals instead of the entire signals. Also, an SNR estimation technique is used to enhance the scanning performance. The results of the experiments were analyzed and compared in terms of processing time, number of sensed channels, SNR, occupancy, detection rate, and false detection rate. Through analyzing the results, the proposed method is faster than the conventional spectrum scanning.
Correlations of cognitive reflection with judgments and choices

We investigated the role of individual differences in cognitive reflection in decision making. We measured the performance of 157 participants in the cognitive reflection test (Frederick, 2005) and a number of decision-making tasks. We examined the relation of cognitive reflection with performance in tasks that assess correspondence (as distinct from coherence), such as predicting the ratings of chess players. We found significant correlations between cognitive reflection and all the estimation measures in correspondence tasks. Our results suggest that cognitive reflection is a thinking disposition that includes more characteristics than originally proposed by Frederick (2005). We proposed that cognitive reflection is related to the concept of actively open-minded thinking (Baron, 1985, 2008). We concluded that cognitive reflection is a thinking disposition that interacts with knowledge, domain-specific heuristics and characteristics of the environment and that it may play an essential role in the adaptation of the decision maker to different environments and situations.
Deakin Research Online Deakin University ’ s institutional research repository DDeakin Research Online Research Online This is the published version ( version of record ) of : Ridgers

Background: Recess provides a daily opportunity for children to engage in moderate-to-vigorous (MVPA) and vigorous physical activity (VPA). Limited research has investigated the effects of recess-based interventions on physical activity using large sample sizes whilst investigating variables that may influence the intervention effect. The aim of the study was to investigate the short-term effects of a playground markings and physical structures intervention on recess physical activity. A secondary aim was to investigate the effects of covariates on the intervention. Methods: 150 boys and 147 girls were randomly selected from 26 elementary schools to wear uni-axial accelerometers that quantified physical activity every 5 seconds during recess. Fifteen schools located in deprived areas in one large urban city in England received funding through a national initiative to redesign the playground environment. Eleven schools served as matched socioeconomic controls. Data were collected at baseline and 6-weeks following playground intervention. Recess MVPA and VPA levels adjusted for pupiland school-level covariates (baseline physical activity, age, gender, recess length, body mass index) were analysed using multilevel analyses. Results: Positive but non-significant intervention effects were found for MVPA and VPA when confounding variables were added to the model. Gender was a significant predictor of recess physical activity, with boys engaging in more MVPA and VPA than girls. Significant interactions for MVPA revealed that the intervention effect was stronger for younger elementary aged school children compared to older children, and the intervention effect increased as daily recess duration increased. Conclusion: The playground redesign intervention resulted in small but non-significant increases in children's recess physical activity when school and pupil level variables were added to the analyses. Changing the playground environment produced a stronger intervention effect for younger children, and longer daily recess duration enabled children to engage in more MVPA following the intervention. This study concludes that the process of increasing recess physical activity is complex when school and pupil-level covariates are considered, though they should be taken into account when investigating the effects of playground intervention studies on children's physical activity during recess. Published: 21 May 2007 International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity 2007, 4:19 doi:10.1186/14795868-4-19 Received: 2 August 2006 Accepted: 21 May 2007 This article is available from: http://www.ijbnpa. org/content/4/1/19 © 2007 Ridgers et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.