Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Official American Thoracic Society technical standards: spirometry in the occupational setting.

PURPOSE This document addresses aspects of the performance and interpretation of spirometry that are particularly important in the workplace, where inhalation exposures can affect lung function and cause or exacerbate lung diseases, such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or fibrosis. METHODS Issues that previous American Thoracic Society spirometry statements did not adequately address with respect to the workplace were identified for systematic review. Medline 1950-2012 and Embase 1980-2012 were searched for evidence related to the following: training for spirometry technicians; testing posture; appropriate reference values to use for Asians in North America; and interpretative strategies for analyzing longitudinal change in lung function. The evidence was reviewed and technical recommendations were developed. RESULTS Spirometry performed in the work setting should be part of a comprehensive workplace respiratory health program. Effective technician training and feedback can improve the quality of spirometry testing. Posture-related changes in FEV1 and FVC, although small, may impact interpretation, so testing posture should be kept consistent and documented on repeat testing. Until North American Asian-specific equations are developed, applying a correction factor of 0.88 to white reference values is considered reasonable when testing Asian American individuals in North America. Current spirometry should be compared with previous tests. Excessive loss in FEV1 over time should be evaluated using either a percentage decline (15% plus loss expected due to aging) or one of the other approaches discussed, taking into consideration testing variability, worker exposures, symptoms, and other clinical information. CONCLUSIONS Important aspects of workplace spirometry are discussed and recommendations are provided for the performance and interpretation of workplace spirometry.
The cellular basis of divergent head morphologies in Daphnia

Morphological defenses against predation in zooplankton result from targeted cell division and growth and provide unique opportunities for the integrated study of ecology and cell biology. This study examined the cellular basis of the various predator‐induced head shapes (neckteeth, spines, and helmets) in the cladoceran genus Daphnia. Several lines of evidence suggest that polyploid cells serve as developmental control centers to govern head shape. First, polyploid cells are present in the cephalic epidermis of Daphnia and their distribution seems to be linked to changes in head shape. For example, a strong correspondence exists between the position of polyploid cells and the presence of neckteeth. Second, variation in the number of polyploid cells seemsc linked to helmet size across members of the subgenus Ctenodaphnia and perhaps within Hyalodaphnia mendotae. Third, only among those species capable of producing spines or helmets were the DNA contents of epidermal polyploid cells routinely higher in the cephalic than in thoracic regions. Finally, mitotic activity in the cephalic epidermis of H. mendotae was concentrated in regions surrounding polyploid cells, suggesting that these cells serve as active developmental fields. This effect may be produced through the release of a mitogen, whose subsequent diffusion results in a chemical concentration gradient, with division rates of diploid cells varying in relationship to their position in this gradient.
HEPATIC AND EXTRAHEPATIC SYNTHESIS AND DISPOSITION OF DINITROPHENYL-S-GLUTATHIONE IN BILE DUCT-LIGATED RATS

The ability of the kidney and small intestine to synthesize and subsequently eliminate dinitrophenyl-S-glutathione (DNP-SG), a substrate for the multidrug resistance-associated proteins (Mrps), was assessed in bile duct-ligated (BDL) rats 1, 7, and 14 days after surgery, using an in vivo perfused jejunum model with simultaneous urine collection. A single i.v. dose of 30 μmol/kg b.wt. of 1-chloro-2,4-dinitrobenzene (CDNB) was administered, and its glutathione conjugate DNP-SG and dinitrophenyl cysteinyl glycine derivative, which is the result of γ-glutamyl-transferase action on DNP-SG, were determined in urine and intestinal perfusate by high-performance liquid chromatography. Intestinal excretion of these metabolites was unchanged at day 1, and decreased at days 7 and 14 (–39% and –33%, respectively) after surgery with respect to shams. In contrast, renal excretion was increased by 114%, 150%, and 128% at days 1, 7, and 14. Western blot studies revealed decreased levels of apical Mrp2 in liver and jejunum but increased levels in renal cortex from BDL animals, these changes being maximal between days 7 and 14. Assessment of expression of basolateral Mrp3 at day 14 postsurgery indicated preserved levels in renal cortex, duodenum, jejunum, distal ileum, and colon. Analysis of expression of glutathione-S-transferases α, μ, and π, as well as activity toward CDNB, indicates that formation of DNP-SG was impaired in liver, preserved in intestine, and increased in renal cortex. In conclusion, increased renal tubular conversion of CDNB to DNP-SG followed by subsequent Mrp2-mediated secretion into urine partially compensates for altered liver function in experimental obstructive cholestasis.
Validation of an FFQ for evaluation of EPA and DHA intake

Abstract Objective To validate an FFQ for the assessment of dietary EPA and DHA against their relative concentrations in red blood cells (RBC). Design Cross-sectional analysis of baseline data. Intakes of marine food products and EPA and DHA were estimated by FFQ on the basis of consumption of marine food products in the last month. Fatty acid composition of RBC membranes was quantified by GC. Setting Saint-François d’Assise Hospital, Québec, Canada. Subjects A total of sixty-five middle-aged women who participated in a randomized clinical trial. Results Spearman’s correlation coefficient between intake of EPA, DHA and EPA + DHA and their corresponding concentration in RBC was 0·46, 0·40 and 0·42, respectively (all P < 0·05). Multiple regression analysis of EPA+DHA intake and RBC EPA + DHA concentration indicated positive and significant correlations for oily fish (β = 0·44, 95 % CI 0·16, 0·72, P = 0·0027), total fish (β = 0·42, 95 % CI 0·19, 0·64, P = 0·0005) and marine food products (β = 0·42, 95 % CI 0·20, 0·64, P = 0·0003). No other marine food products significantly predicted RBC EPA + DHA concentration. Conclusions Although the present validation study was undertaken among middle-aged women with low consumption of marine food products (<3 servings/week), our FFQ provided estimates of EPA and DHA intakes that correlated fairly well with their RBC concentrations. However, the absence of correlations between EPA + DHA intakes from different marine species suggests that a minimum EPA + DHA intake is necessary to observe a relationship with RBC EPA + DHA concentrations.
The Effect of Housing Demolitions on Crime in Buffalo, New York

Objectives: From 2010 through 2015, the city of Buffalo demolished over 2,000 residences. This study examines whether those demolitions resulted in crime reductions. Methods: Analysis was conducted at microplaces matching demolished parcels to comparable control parcels with similar levels of crime. In addition, spatial panel regression models were estimated at the census tract and quarterly level, taking into account demographic characteristics of neighborhoods. Results: We find that at the microplace level, demolitions cause a steep drop in reported crime at the exact parcel and result in additional crime decreases at buffers of up to 1,000 feet away. At the census tract level, results indicated that demolitions reduced part 1 crimes, but the effect was not statistically significant across different models. Conclusions: While concerns over crime and disorder are common for vacant houses, the evidence that housing demolitions are an effective crime reduction solution is only partially supported by the analyses here. Future research should compare demolitions in reference to other neighborhood revitalization processes.
An interactive speech training system with virtual reality articulation for Mandarin-speaking hearing impaired children

The present project involved the development of a novel interactive speech training system based on virtual reality articulation and examination of the efficacy of the system for hearing impaired (HI) children. Twenty meaningful Mandarin words were presented to the HI children via a 3-D talking head during articulation training. Electromagnetic Articulography (EMA) and graphic transform technology were used to depict movements of various articulators. In addition, speech corpuses were organized in listening and speaking training modules of the system to help improve language skills of the HI children. Accuracy of virtual reality articulatory movement was evaluated through a series of experiments. Finally, a pilot test was performed to train two HI children using the system. Preliminary results showed improvement in speech production by the HI children, and the system was recognized as acceptable and interesting for children. It can be concluded that the training system is effective and valid in articulation training for HI children.
Learning Traffic Light Phase Schedules from Velocity Profiles in the Cloud

Traffic lights strongly impact vehicle movement and fuel consumption in cities. If drivers were aware of the traffic light phase schedule, they could predict the traffic light state at arrival time and could reduce fuel consumption. To acquire information like traffic light phase schedules, our vision is that drivers share their velocity profiles in a digital cloud, and in return benefit from smart algorithms evaluating the collected data. We present one such algorithm, Traffic Light State Estimation (TLSE), that operates on the velocity profiles to backward-estimate phase schedules of traffic light signal groups operating with fixed cycle length (representing about 80% of all traffic lights in the US). We present simulation results showing that phase schedule prediction on the base of TLSE is correct more than 90% of the time.
The Effect of a Submaximal Swimming Program on Plasma ANP Concentration and its Relationships with Essential Hypertension in Middle-Age Males

2 Abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of a selected submaximal swimming training on BP and plasma (ANP) among middle age males with EH. In this research, 30 subjects aged 40-55 years with mild EH for at least 2 years, were selected. The subjects were randomly divided into EXP and CON groups. The CON group were asked to continue their normal life but were closely observed. The EXP group was guided to participate in training protocol for 28 sessions, 3 days a week. In each session subjects were asked to swim at 60-65% of Maximum pulse rate for 55 to 60 min. The Bruce treadmill test was conducted to determine the aerobic capacity of subjects. The Doppler M. Mode Echocardiography test showed that subjects had no problems to participate in training protocol. Pulse rate was used to control the training intensity. Sys and dia BP of each EXP subject was measured before and after training session and blood samples were taken at four stages, before training started, 30 min, 24 h and two weeks after last training session. (ANP) was also measured by RIA method. The t-test, (P<0.05), was used to test the hypotheses. The findings are as follows: In EXP group there was a significant difference between sys and dia BP before and after each session. There was also a significant difference between (ANP) in EXP group before training started, 30 min, 24 h and 2 weeks after the last training session. In addition, there was significant differences between sys and dia BP and (ANP) of EXP group before training started and 24 h after the last training session. The results revealed that following a submaximal swimming training protocol, the sys and dia BP would decrease to safe border which might be due to the increase of (ANP).
Pyruvate Released by Astrocytes Protects Neurons from Copper-Catalyzed Cysteine Neurotoxicity

We have found previously that astrocytes can provide cysteine to neurons. However, cysteine has been reported to be neurotoxic although it plays a pivotal role in regulating intracellular levels of glutathione, the major cellular antioxidant. Here, we show that cysteine toxicity is a result of hydroxyl radicals generated during cysteine autoxidation. Transition metal ions are candidates to catalyze this process. Copper substantially accelerates the autoxidation rate of cysteine even at submicromolar levels, whereas iron and other transition metal ions, including manganese, chromium, and zinc, are less efficient. The autoxidation rate of cysteine in rat CSF is equal to that observed in the presence of ∼0.2 μm copper. In tissue culture tests, we found that cysteine toxicity depends highly on its autoxidation rate and on the total amount of cysteine being oxidized, suggesting that the toxicity can be attributed to the free radicals produced from cysteine autoxidation, but not to cysteine itself. We have also explored the in vivo mechanisms that protect against cysteine toxicity. Catalase and pyruvate were each found to inhibit the production of hydroxyl radicals generated by cysteine autoxidation. In tissue culture, they both protected primary neurons against cysteine toxicity catalyzed by copper. This protection is attributed to their ability to react with hydrogen peroxide, preventing the formation of hydroxyl radicals. Pyruvate, but not catalase or glutathione peroxidase, was detected in astrocyte-conditioned medium and CSF. Our data therefore suggest that astrocytes can prevent cysteine toxicity by releasing pyruvate.
Physician's Perceived EMR-Communication Fit: Towards Developing A Measurement Instrument

In this research we define the construct 'physician's perceived fit 'which refers to the fit between the EMR (Electronic Medical Record) system and the task of establishing effective communication with the patient during the medical encounter in primary care. This is the first stage of a study aimed at developing and examining a validated measurement instrument for this construct. Effective physicianpatient communication (PPC) during a medical interview was found as a critical factor for the success of the patient's treatments. Since the introduction of the EMR system to clinics, there is a possible negative influence of the system on the physician's ability to establish effective communication. If this is true then it is likely that the fit between the EMR system and the task of establishing PPC is suboptimal. Perceived fit in this context is defined as "The degree to which a physician believes that use of the EMR system during the medical encounter supports establishing effective communication with the patient. " We identified four factors as composing the construct's content domain: Sharing information, Task-Flow Support, Ease of Use and Information quality. This study serves as the foundation for developing a measurement instrument for the Fit construct.
Using Health Extension Workers for Monitoring Child Mortality in Real-Time: Validation against Household Survey Data in Rural Ethiopia

Background Ethiopia has scaled up its community-based programs over the past decade by training and deploying health extension workers (HEWs) in rural communities throughout the country. Consequently, child mortality has declined substantially, placing Ethiopia among the few countries that have achieved the United Nations’ fourth Millennium Development Goal. As Ethiopia continues its efforts, results must be assessed regularly to provide timely feedback for improvement and to generate further support for programs. More specifically the expansion of HEWs at the community level provides a unique opportunity to build a system for real-time monitoring of births and deaths, linked to a civil registration and vital statistics system that Ethiopia is also developing. We tested the accuracy and completeness of births and deaths reported by trained HEWs for monitoring child mortality over 15 -month periods. Methods and Findings HEWs were trained in 93 randomly selected rural kebeles in Jimma and West Hararghe zones of the Oromia region to report births and deaths over a 15-month period from January, 2012 to March, 2013. Completeness of number of births and deaths, age distribution of deaths, and accuracy of resulting under-five, infant, and neonatal mortality rates were assessed against data from a large household survey with full birth history from women aged 15–49. Although, in general HEWs, were able to accurately report events that they identified, the completeness of number of births and deaths reported over twelve-month periods was very low and variable across the two zones. Compared to household survey estimates, HEWs reported only about 30% of births and 21% of under-five deaths occurring in their communities over a twelve-month period. The under-five mortality rate was under-estimated by around 30%, infant mortality rate by 23% and neonatal mortality by 17%. HEWs reported disproportionately higher number of deaths among the very young infants than among the older children. Conclusion Birth and death data reported by HEWs are not complete enough to support the monitoring of changes in childhood mortality. HEWs can significantly contribute to the success of a CRVS in Ethiopia, but cannot be relied upon as the sole source for identification of vital events. Further studies are needed to understand how to increase the level of completeness.
Hardware implementation of recursive algorithms

The paper presents new results in the hardware implementation and optimization of recursive sequential and parallel algorithms using the known and a new model of a hierarchical finite state machine. Applicability and advantages of the proposed methods are confirmed through numerous examples of the designed hardware circuits that have been analyzed and compared. The results of experiments and FPGA-based prototyping demonstrate clearly that the proposed innovations enable the required hardware resources to be decreased achieving at the same time better performance of recursive sorting algorithms compared to known implementations both in hardware and in software.
INSPIRE: The insieme parallel intermediate representation

Programming standards like OpenMP, OpenCL and MPI are frequently considered programming languages for developing parallel applications for their respective kind of architecture. Nevertheless, compilers treat them like ordinary APIs utilized by an otherwise sequential host language. Their parallel control flow remains hidden within opaque runtime library calls which are embedded within a sequential intermediate representation lacking the concepts of parallelism. Consequently, the tuning and coordination of parallelism is clearly beyond the scope of conventional optimizing compilers and hence left to the programmer or the runtime system. The main objective of the Insieme compiler is to overcome this limitation by utilizing INSPIRE, a unified, parallel, highlevel intermediate representation. Instead of mapping parallel constructs and APIs to external routines, their behavior is modeled explicitly using a unified and fixed set of parallel language constructs. Making the parallel control flow accessible to the compiler lays the foundation for the development of reusable, static and dynamic analyses and transformations bridging the gap between a variety of parallel paradigms. Within this paper we describe the structure of INSPIRE and elaborate the considerations which influenced its design. Furthermore, we demonstrate its expressiveness by illustrating the encoding of a variety of parallel language constructs and we evaluate its ability to preserve performance relevant aspects of input codes.
Choosing arrival process models for service systems: Tests of a nonhomogeneous Poisson process

Service systems such as call centers and hospital emergency rooms typically have strongly time‐varying arrival rates. Thus, a nonhomogeneous Poisson process (NHPP) is a natural model for the arrival process in a queueing model for performance analysis. Nevertheless, it is important to perform statistical tests with service system data to confirm that an NHPP is actually appropriate, as emphasized by Brown et al. [8]. They suggested a specific statistical test based on the Kolmogorov–Smirnov (KS) statistic after exploiting the conditional‐uniform (CU) property to transform the NHPP into a sequence of i.i. d. random variables uniformly distributed on [0,1] and then performing a logarithmic transformation of the data. We investigate why it is important to perform the final data transformation and consider what form it should take. We conduct extensive simulation experiments to study the power of these alternative statistical tests. We conclude that the general approach of Brown et al. [8] is excellent, but that an alternative data transformation proposed by Lewis [22], drawing upon Durbin [10], produces a test of an NHPP test with consistently greater power. We also conclude that the KS test after the CU transformation, without any additional data transformation, tends to be best to test against alternative hypotheses that primarily differ from an NHPP only through stochastic and time dependence. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 61: 66–90, 2014
Improving the Quality of Practicum Learning: Self-Study of a Faculty Member’s Role in Practicum Supervision

Abstract This self-study of activities as a practicum supervisor in several secondary schools focuses on the supervisor’s contribution to the quality of a teacher candidate’s professional learning in the context of a familiar tension between on-campus courses and in-school practicum experiences. Data from both formal and informal supervisory experiences are taken from notes recorded in classes with those supervised formally, records of notes taken in practicum observations, and email messages exchanged with teacher candidates about their supervision experiences. Analysis of formal supervision experiences generated a series of insights into candidates’ experiences of the practicum, a modest innovation in supervisory practice, and important reminders arising from a significant error in personal practice as a supervisor. Informal supervision experiences involved visits arising from invitations to observe extended by candidates in the author’s physics methods course. These experiences generated opportunities to test an alternative supervisory strategy focused on candidates’ perceptions of their learning from experience. Related literature includes the topics of learning from experience, reflective practice, and the potential significance of an epistemology of practice. In closing, attention is given to trustworthiness, the personal significance of the study and connections to the teacher education literature.
Diagnosing Progressive Supranuclear Palsy: Role of Biological and Neuroimaging Markers

Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP) is a neurodegenerative disorders characterised by a kinetic-rigid syndrome with ocular motor dysfunction, postural instability, and frontal lobe and bulbar dysfunction. In most of the cases, especially at early disease stages, diagnosis is still challenging. PSP signs and symptoms may indeed overlap with both dementing neurodegenerative syndromes and movement disorders. In the last few years, a better definition of clinical picture along with the identification of biological and neuroimaging markers have increased diagnostic accuracy. In the present work, we reviewed the current literature on PSP diagnosis and the usefulness of potential diagnostic markers.