Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Maternal Smoking and Infant Mortality: Does Quitting Smoking Reduce the Risk of Infant Death?

Background: Maternal smoking has repeatedly been associated with increased infant mortality rates. No study has investigated whether smoking cessation influences the risk of infant death. This study estimates infant mortality after the second pregnancy in relation to smoking behavior in both the first and the second pregnancy. Methods: We used the Swedish Medical Birth Register to identify women who delivered their first and second singleton infants during 1983–2002. Maternal smoking during the 2 pregnancies was categorized into (1) never smoker, (2) quitter, (3) starter, and (4) persistent smoker. In the second pregnancy, 555,046 live births (of at least 22 completed gestational weeks) were followed for infant death within 1 year. Cox regression was used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results: Compared with infants born to never smokers, the HR (95% CI) of infant mortality in the second pregnancy was 2.0 (1.7–2.4) among infants born to persistently heavy smokers, whereas among women who stopped smoking in the second pregnancy, the HRs were 1.4 (1.0–2.0) among those who had been heavy smokers in the first pregnancy, and 1.0 (0.8–1.2) among those who had been light smokers. The association of smoking during pregnancy with infant mortality was modified by infant's age, and was strongest at 4–15 weeks after birth. The smoking effect on neonatal mortality, but not postneonatal mortality, was mediated by gestational age. Conclusions: Smoking cessation reduced the risk of infant death. The smoking-related risk of neonatal mortality appears to be mediated by smoking effects on gestational age, a factor that only partly explains the association between smoking and postneonatal mortality.
Pulmonary Vein Ostium Geometry: Analysis by Magnetic Resonance Angiography

Background—During a catheter ablation procedure for selective electrical isolation of pulmonary vein (PV) ostia, the size of these ostia is usually estimated using fluoroscopic angiography. This measurement may be misleading, however, because only the projected supero/inferior ostium diameters can be measured. In this study, we analyzed 3-dimensional magnetic resonance angiographic (MRA) images to measure the minimal and maximal cross-sectional diameter of PV ostia in relation to the diameter that would have been projected on fluoroscopic angiograms during a catheter ablation procedure. Methods and Results—In 42 patients with idiopathic atrial fibrillation who were scheduled for selective electrical isolation of PV ostia, the minimal and maximal diameters of these ostia were measured from 3-dimensional MRA images. Thereafter, these images were oriented in a 45° right or left anterior oblique direction and the projected diameter of the PV ostia were measured again. The average ratio between maximal and minimal diameter was 1.5±0.4 for the left and 1.2±0.1 for the right pulmonary vein ostia. Because of the orientation and oval shape of especially the left pulmonary vein ostia, their minimal diameters were significantly smaller than the projected diameters. Conclusion—Pulmonary vein ostia, especially those at the left, are oval with the short axis oriented approximately in the antero/posterior direction. Consequently, PV ostia may sometimes be very narrow despite a rather normal appearance on angiographic images obtained during a catheter ablation procedure.
[Changes in prostate specific antigen levels during intravesical instillations with Calmette-Guerin bacillus: relationship with transurethral resection of the prostate].

OBJECTIVES To evaluate variations on the serum PSA levels during and after administration of intravesical BCG and its relationship with previous transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP). METHODS PSA serum concentration variations were studied after each instillation, at 1 month and at 3 months in 24 patients with superficial bladder cancer and/or CIS under weekly BCG instillations treatment. Three patients had undergone TURP. RESULTS A raise in PSA was observed in 87.5% of the cases during BCG instillations, although the increase was only significative in patients who had undergone TURP. PSA values descended at one and three months. CONCLUSIONS Endovesical BCG administration produces an increase on serum PSA levels. This variation is higher in patients with history of TURP.
Postconviction Review of Jury Discrimination: Measuring the Effects of Juror Race on Jury Decisions

In the spring of 1992, a state jury with no black members acquitted four white police officers charged with using excessive force to restrain black motorist Rodney King. Many Americans who had watched the relentlessly televised videotape of the officers delivering sixty-one baton blows in eighty-one seconds found the acquittals incredible.2 Some suggested that the defendants would have been convicted if blacks had been on the jury.3 Others considered such assumptions racist; presuming that a verdict may depend on the race of the jurors, they countered, is impermissible.4 Still others argued that no one can
Neural representations of kinematic laws of motion: Evidence for action-perception coupling

Behavioral and modeling studies have established that curved and drawing human hand movements obey the 2/3 power law, which dictates a strong coupling between movement curvature and velocity. Human motion perception seems to reflect this constraint. The functional MRI study reported here demonstrates that the brain's response to this law of motion is much stronger and more widespread than to other types of motion. Compliance with this law is reflected in the activation of a large network of brain areas subserving motor production, visual motion processing, and action observation functions. Hence, these results strongly support the notion of similar neural coding for motion perception and production. These findings suggest that cortical motion representations are optimally tuned to the kinematic and geometrical invariants characterizing biological actions.
The effect of Chinese ESL learners’ beliefs on their autonomous learning

What beliefs do Chinese learners hold about language learning? What is the effect of these beliefs on their autonomous learning? These are the two questions that this study aims to address. I employed naturalistic inquiry (Lincoln & Guba, 1985) to investigate five Chinese ESL learners’ beliefs about language learning and their learning behaviour. A number of instruments (interviews, classroom observations and stimulated recall, learning logs) were used to collect triangulated data over a 12-week period. Following standard procedures of qualitative data analysis, I identified five categories of learners’ beliefs. The results revealed that the beliefs that the learners held were context-specific, reflecting their learning experiences. Some of them were conducive to learning autonomy while others were not. The beliefs influenced the level of the learners’ autonomy. The study suggests that educators should take into account learners’ beliefs when promoting autonomous learning.
Predictability affects vowel dispersion and dynamics in the Buckeye Corpus

Research on vowel space dispersion has found that vowel spaces are less dispersed when lexical and contextual factors favor identiﬁcation of a word (e. g., a highly predictable word), and vowel spaces are more dispersed when lexical and contextual factors create an environment for less predictability [1, 2]. Examining sound changes in progress, recent work has demonstrated that, for some vowel changes, a vowel will be produced in a more innovative way when the lexical item in which it oc-curs is highly semantically predictable [3]. The data for such claims have been collected in laboratory settings. In this paper we investigate whether these ﬁndings from the laboratory extend into more naturalistic settings, and we examine the precise character of the reduction by examining dynamic movement across a vowel’s duration.
A Globally Consistent Richness‐Climate Relationship for Angiosperms

Species richness, the simplest index of biodiversity, varies greatly over broad spatial scales. Richness‐climate relationships often account for >80% of the spatial variance in richness. However, it has been suggested that richness‐climate relationships differ significantly among geographic regions and that there is no globally consistent relationship. This study investigated the global patterns of species and family richness of angiosperms in relation to climate. We found that models relating angiosperm richness to mean annual temperature, annual water deficit, and their interaction or models relating richness to annual potential evapotranspiration and water deficit are both globally consistent and very strong and are independent of the diverse evolutionary histories and functional assemblages of plants in different parts of the world. Thus, effects of other factors such as evolutionary history, postglacial dispersal, soil nutrients, topography, or other climatic variables either must be quite minor over broad scales (because there is little residual variation left to explain) or they must be strongly collinear with global patterns of climate. The correlations shown here must be predicted by any successful hypothesis of mechanisms controlling richness patterns.
Circulating tumor cells and response to chemotherapy in metastatic breast cancer: SWOG S0500.

PURPOSE Increased circulating tumor cells (CTCs; five or more CTCs per 7.5 mL of whole blood) are associated with poor prognosis in metastatic breast cancer (MBC). A randomized trial of patients with persistent increase in CTCs tested whether changing chemotherapy after one cycle of first-line chemotherapy would improve the primary outcome of overall survival (OS). PATIENTS AND METHODS Patients with MBC who did not have increased CTCs at baseline remained on initial therapy until progression (arm A). Patients with initially increased CTCs that decreased after 21 days of therapy remained on initial therapy (arm B). Patients with persistently increased CTCs after 21 days of therapy were randomly assigned to continue initial therapy (arm C1) or change to an alternative chemotherapy (arm C2). RESULTS Of 595 eligible and evaluable patients, 276 (46%) did not have increased CTCs (arm A). Of those with initially increased CTCs, 31 (10%) were not retested, 165 were assigned to arm B, and 123 were randomly assigned to arm C1 or C2. No difference in median OS was observed between arm C1 and C2 (10.7 and 12.5 months, respectively; P = .98). CTCs were strongly prognostic. Median OS for arms A, B, and C (C1 and C2 combined) were 35 months, 23 months, and 13 months, respectively (P < .001). CONCLUSION This study confirms the prognostic significance of CTCs in patients with MBC receiving first-line chemotherapy. For patients with persistently increased CTCs after 21 days of first-line chemotherapy, early switching to an alternate cytotoxic therapy was not effective in prolonging OS. For this population, there is a need for more effective treatment than standard chemotherapy.
MC EMiNEM Maps the Interaction Landscape of the Mediator

The Mediator is a highly conserved, large multiprotein complex that is involved essentially in the regulation of eukaryotic mRNA transcription. It acts as a general transcription factor by integrating regulatory signals from gene-specific activators or repressors to the RNA Polymerase II. The internal network of interactions between Mediator subunits that conveys these signals is largely unknown. Here, we introduce MC EMiNEM, a novel method for the retrieval of functional dependencies between proteins that have pleiotropic effects on mRNA transcription. MC EMiNEM is based on Nested Effects Models (NEMs), a class of probabilistic graphical models that extends the idea of hierarchical clustering. It combines mode-hopping Monte Carlo (MC) sampling with an Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm for NEMs to increase sensitivity compared to existing methods. A meta-analysis of four Mediator perturbation studies in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, three of which are unpublished, provides new insight into the Mediator signaling network. In addition to the known modular organization of the Mediator subunits, MC EMiNEM reveals a hierarchical ordering of its internal information flow, which is putatively transmitted through structural changes within the complex. We identify the N-terminus of Med7 as a peripheral entity, entailing only local structural changes upon perturbation, while the C-terminus of Med7 and Med19 appear to play a central role. MC EMiNEM associates Mediator subunits to most directly affected genes, which, in conjunction with gene set enrichment analysis, allows us to construct an interaction map of Mediator subunits and transcription factors.
Query Optimization Time: The New Bottleneck in Real-time Analytics

In the recent past, in-memory distributed database management systems have become increasingly popular to manage and query huge amounts of data. For an in-memory distributed database like MemSQL, it is imperative that the analytical queries run fast. A huge proportion of MemSQL's customer workloads have ad-hoc analytical queries that need to finish execution within a second or a few seconds. This leaves us with very little time to perform query optimization for complex queries involving several joins, aggregations, sub-queries etc. Even for queries that are not ad-hoc, a change in data statistics can trigger query re-optimization. Query Optimization, if not done intelligently, could very well be the bottleneck for such complex analytical queries that require real-time response. In this paper, we outline some of the early steps that we have taken to reduce the query optimization time without sacrificing plan quality. We optimized the Enumerator (the optimizer component that determines operator order), which takes up bulk of the optimization time. Generating bushy plans inside the Enumerator can be a bottleneck and so we used heuristics to generate bushy plans via query rewrite. We also implemented new distribution aware greedy heuristics to generate a good starting candidate plan that significantly prunes out states during search space analysis inside the Enumerator. We demonstrate the effectiveness of these techniques over several queries in TPC-H and TPC-DS benchmarks.
Heart rate prescriptions from performance and anthropometrical characteristics.

PURPOSE Heart rate (HR) is widely used to adjust exercise intensity in aerobic training. Training HR recommendations are calculated often from simple equations. Because at lactate steady state (LASS) may be an intensity of exercise eliciting similar objective measures of intensity and similar subjective measures of metabolism, it is an appropriate intensity upon which to base aerobic-training prescription. The purpose of this research was to develop regression equations using age and other easily accessible characteristics to estimate the HR associated with LASS (HRLASS). METHODS The data of 7397 healthy subjects (age >or= 10 yr; 5044 male, 2353 female) with different training habits were analyzed. All participants were tested in an incremental exercise test on the treadmill until subjective exhaustion. The LASS was determined by the concept of blood lactate at the "lactate threshold" plus a net increase of 1.5 mmol.L-1. The interdependence of further characteristics was tested by stepwise multiple regression. RESULTS Age alone did not allow a precise prediction of lass=hText>HRLASS (r = 0.645 for all participants), regardless of adjustment by sex, training state, body mass, or performance characteristics using ANCOVA. Resting HR (HRrest) decreased steeply within the second life decade but not with further advancing age. The best discrete lactate-independent predictor for HRLASS was HRmax (r = 0.798). Inclusion of age and weight in the model resulted in only a small improvement of the prediction (r = 0.826). Other anthropometrical characteristics could not improve the model further. CONCLUSIONS The use of age alone seems too imprecise for exactly driven aerobic training prescriptions. A minor improvement can be achieved in this objective by use of HRmax supplemented by age using a multiple regression model.
0.1–1-THz High-Repetition-Rate Femtosecond Pulse Generation From Quasi-CW Dual-Pumped All-Fiber Phase-Locked Kerr Combs

We report the generation of tunable high-repetition-rate (0.1-1 THz) femtosecond pulses based on a quasi-continuous wave (CW) dual-pumped all-fiber cascaded four-wave-mixing (FWM) scheme without requiring a cavity resonator. By synchronously injecting two pulse-modulated lasers into an 85-m-long dispersion-flat highly nonlinear fiber, cascaded FWM processes under only ~30-mW average pump power are efficiently initiated to form the Kerr frequency combs near 1.56 μm. Phase locking of the Kerr combs is confirmed by real-time measurements using an autocorrelator, and stable ultrashort pulse trains are observed. The pulse repetition rate can be tuned continuously in the range of 0.1~1 THz by controlling the wavelength spacing between the two pump lasers. The pulse duration can be correspondingly adjusted from 1.66 ps to 262 fs. Such quasi-CW dual-pumped all-fiber cascaded-FWM frequency combs with the advantages of compactness and flexibility could provide a practical solution for generating ultrahigh-repetition-rate femtosecond pulses.
Trajectories of adjustment in mothers of children with newly diagnosed cancer: a natural history investigation.

OBJECTIVES The objectives of this study were (a) to assess negative affectivity and posttraumatic symptomatology in mothers following the diagnosis of cancer in their children; (b) to examine sociodemographic and psychosocial variables associated with change in distress over time; and (c) to identify distinct subgroups of mothers whose patterns and trajectories of adjustment can be distinguished according to available predictor data. METHODS Two hundred and twelve mothers at seven sites were assessed just following their child's diagnosis, and again 3 months and 6 months later. Primary outcomes included measures of mood disturbance, depressive symptoms, and symptoms of posttraumatic stress. RESULTS Overall, mothers demonstrated a pattern of mildly elevated negative affectivity and posttraumatic symptomatology initially, with steady improvements evident at 3- and 6-month follow-up. Distinct adjustment trajectories were evident within the sample as a whole, indicating subgroups of mothers with high-declining, moderate-stable, and low-stable distress levels. CONCLUSIONS These findings highlight considerable resilience among mothers facing the stress of childhood cancer. Intervention efforts aimed at reducing maternal distress might best be targeted towards the subgroup of mothers who may be predicted to exhibit the highest level of distress.
Gbe and other West African sources of Suriname creole semantic structures. Implications for creole genesis: Implications for creole genesis

This paper reports on ongoing research on the role of various kinds of potential substrate languages in the development of the semantic structures of Ndyuka (Eastern Suriname Creole). A set of 100 senses of noun, verb, and other lexemes in Ndyuka were compared with senses of corresponding lexemes in three kinds of languages of the former Slave Coast and Gold Coast areas, and immediately adjoining hinterland: (a) Gbe languages; (b) other Kwa languages, specifically Akan and Ga; (c) non-Kwa Niger-Congo languages. The results of this process provide some evidence for the importance of the Gbe languages in the formation of the Suriname creoles, but also for the importance of other languages, and for the areal nature of some of the collocations studied, rendering specific identification of a single substrate source impossible and inappropriate. These results not only provide information about the role of Gbe and other languages in the formation of Ndyuka, but also give evidence for effects of substrate languages spoken by late arrivals some time after the “founders” of a given creole-speaking society. The conclusions are extrapolated beyond Suriname to creole genesis generally.
A COMPUTATIONAL STUDY ON DROPLET IMPINGEMENT ONTO A THIN LIQUID FILM

صلاخلا ـ ة : ق ماطترا ة يّلمع ةسارد تمّت ُـ ق يقر لئاس ءاشغ ى لع ةريط ةطاسوب ةيّباسح ةا آاحمُ ءار جإ . ّ م ت د قو تلادا عمُ لّ ح Navier-Stokes لئاوس لل ر يغ ة تباثلا للاو ،ةطوغ ضَلالا ة عئاملاو ، ّـ ـ روا حملا ل ثامتمُلا تايّثاد حلإِا ما ظنِ ي ف ةجزِ ةطا سوب كحتلا ة قيرط ّـ م جحلا ي ف م . تو لئاس لا م جح بولسأ لامعت سا مّ ) VOF ( ّ ر حُلا لئاسلا حطس عبّتتل . ترهظأ د قو جئا تن جذومنلأا ة يّربخمِلا تاسايقلا عم اًد يّج اً قفاوت . د عب ة يّكيمانيدلا تا يّلمعلا نّأ دجوُو ةعيرس ماطترلاا قلا ةعرسب رثأتلا ُــ لئاسلا ضوح قمعو ةيّئادتبلاا ةريط . ُ عل ينمزلا ريوطتلا باسح متو هرطقِو جا تلا وّل ةطاسوب ةيّباسحلا ةا آاحمُلا . وّ لعُ باسح اًض يأ مّ تو ربيو دادعأ ىلع رظانمُلا هنمزو ىصقلأا جاتلا ) We ( ءاشغلل ةفلتخم تاآامس ىلعو ةفلتخم . رٌيثأ ت اهل لئاسلا ءاشغلل ةيدعبلالا ةآامسلا نأ جئاتنلا ترهظأو ا وّ لعُب ة قلّعتمُلا ة يدعبلالا ل ماوعلا ى لع ليئض رظا نمُلا ه نمزو ىص قلأا جا تل . دد علا ة سارد ت مّت مّ ث ن مو We شّر لل جرِ حلا ) Wecr ( داد عأ ى لع Oh ) Ohnesorge ( قاطنلا نمض ةفلتخم 0.01~0.1 تارا بتخلاا جئاتن عم اًديّج اًقفاوت جئاتنلا ترهظأو ؛ . داد علأ اًض يأ ةيّباسحلا ةا آاحملا تيَرجأُو Oh ل قأ ) Oh~0.001 ( ارجإ نكمي لا ثيحو ةزهجلأا نم ةضورفملا دودحلا ببسب براجتلا ء . ددع نأ دجوُو We ؛ة يّدعبلالا ءاشغلا ةآامس ب رثّأ تلا ميدع جرِحلا ددعلا صقانت عم صُقُني هنّأ لاّإ Oh لئاسلا ةجوزل وأ . اطترا ةيّلمع يف ةمّهمُلاو ةفلتخمُلا ةيّدعبلالا لماوعلا نيب ام طبرت ةطيسب تلاداعمُ عضو مّت ،اًريخأو م قلا ُــ قيقر لئاس ءاشغ ىلع ةريط .
A Dominant Role of GTRAP3-18 in Neuronal Glutathione Synthesis

Glutathione is an essential reductant which protects cells and is reduced in neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases. Neurons rely mainly on extracellular cysteine for glutathione synthesis and a cysteine transporter termed excitatory amino acid carrier 1 (EAAC1). However, the mechanisms underlying neuronal cysteine uptake have remained elusive. Herein, we show glutamate transport-associated protein for EAAC1 (GTRAP3-18) to interact with EAAC1 at the plasma membrane and thereby regulate neuronal glutathione levels. Glutathione increased in the mouse brain as well as in primary cultured neurons, when the GTRAP3-18 protein level was decreased by genetic manipulations, whereas glutathione decreased when GTRAP3-18 was increased. Furthermore, glutathione contents that had been increased, by a translocator and activator of EAAC1, were suppressed by increased cell surface GTRAP3-18 protein. Our results demonstrate GTRAP3-18 to dominantly and negatively determine the intracellular glutathione contents in neurons.
The Input Model of Standard Graphics Systems Revisited by Formal Specification

This paper describes the specification of an input model for graphics systems. The initial aim of the work reported in this paper was to revise the input model adopted by graphics standards by means of formal specification techniques in order to acquire a deep knowledge of its capabilities, to eventually discover errors and to develop improvements. Taking into account similar works done in this area by others and considering a number of major issues related to input recently discussed within the graphics community, a new model is being proposed that addresses the very key concepts of parallelism, extensibility and reconfigurability. The model is based upon composition operations defined over basic components specified as a set of concurrent processes. Composition operations and process definitions have been formally specified by using the LOTOS notation and investigated by means of the LOTOS Interactive Tools Environment. In the first part of the paper, the input model of graphics standards is shortly examined in the light of the results so far achieved by related works on formal specification of computer graphics systems. Subsequently, an improved model is presented. Finally, its capability of simulating the traditional operating modes of logical input devices and a methodology for defining new operating modes is demonstrated.