Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The clinical practice of CPCR in small animals: an internet-based survey.

OBJECTIVE To characterize the provision of CPCR by small animal veterinarians in clinical practice and to assess how this practice varies among different levels of expertise. DESIGN Internet-based survey. SETTING Academia, referral practice, and general practice. SUBJECTS Six hundred and two small animal veterinarians in clinical practice. Respondents were grouped a priori according to level of expertise: board-certified (ACVECC, ACVA, ECVAA) specialists; general practitioners in emergency clinics; general practitioners in general practice (GPG). INTERVENTIONS Email invitations to the online questionnaire were disseminated via a veterinary internet platform and mailing list server discussion groups. Questions explored respondent characteristics, CPCR preparedness, infrastructural and personnel resources, and techniques of basic and advanced life support. MAIN RESULTS In this group of practitioners, the majority (65%) were in general practice. GPG were more likely to perform CPCR <5 times per year and to have 3 or fewer members on their resuscitation team. Most practitioners have a crash cart and drug-dosing chart available. GPG were less likely to obtain resuscitation codes on their patients, and less likely to use end-tidal carbon dioxide monitoring or defibrillation. Intubation, oxygen supplementation, vascular access, and external thoracic compressions were widely used, however, GPG were more likely to use lower chest compression rates. Drugs used for CPCR differed among the groups with GPG more likely to use doxapram and glucocorticoids. CONCLUSIONS CPCR is heterogeneously performed in small animal veterinary medicine; differences exist, both among and within different types of veterinarians with varying levels of expertise, in respect to available infrastructure, personnel and CPCR techniques used.
Identifying Variable-Power Appliances in Non-intrusive Load Monitoring Systems

Appliance load monitoring is critical to household energy management. In recent years, non-intrusive load monitoring (NILM) is considered as an attractive method for appliance load monitoring, as it aims to separate household energy consumption data collected from a single point of measurement into appliance-level consumption data. While the NILM idea seems feasible, practical NILM implementation suffers from the problem of accurately tracking the appliance usage. One major issue for the NILM accuracy problem is that not every appliance is with a distinguishable and deterministic signature. Several appliances are with variable power consumption during operation. The presence of the variable power appliances in a NILM system complicates disaggregation in the NILM system, as the NILM system relies on the identification of steady states of individual appliances. In this paper, we address the problem of identifying 220 volts variable-power appliances in NILM systems. We introduce a technique to remove the distortion caused by 220 volts variable-power appliances in NILM systems. The core idea is that the power consumption of the 220 volts appliances is provided by two current supplies in the common single-phase three wires power distribution. By detecting the synchronized status of the two current supplies, the usage of the 220 volts appliance can be identified. This paper summarizes our observation, the idea, and the proposed algorithms. Experiments are made to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed techniques.
Electronic Measurement of the Intracellular Concentration and of Sodium in the Squid Axon Net Flux

A unique, rapid, and non-destructive determination of the intracellular sodium concentration of a squid axon may be provided by the "voltage c lamp" technique, in which the potential across the axon membrane is under electronic control. The potential at which the early component of ionic current reverses following a membrane potential step was used as an index of the intracellular sodium concentration. Several types of experiments were used to test the applicability of this method for measurement of intracellular sodium and its net flux. The concentration was found to increase from 38 mM for a fresh axon to 50 mM in about an hour. From this change, the net flux for a fresh resting axon was estimated to be 40 pmoles/cm 2 sec. Rapid stimulation of an unclamped axon produced a marked increase in the rate of sodium accumulation. Rapid pulsing of the membrane in a voltage clamp to potentials more positive than the sodium potential moved sodium out fast enough to produce a definite decrease in internal concentration. The agreement between the results with this method and those with more direct methods is quite satisfactory. An attractive feature of this method of intracellular sodium determination is that the physiological function of the axon is maintained and other measurements may be made concurrently. I N T R O D U C T I O N H o d g k i n a n d H u x l e y (1952 a) found that , w h e n depola r iz ing potent ia l steps were app l ied to the squid axon m e m b r a n e in a vo l tage c l amp , the d i rec t ion of the ear ly c o m p o n e n t of ionic cu r r en t reversed w h e n the m e m b r a n e potent ia l was pulsed b e y o n d the assumed va lue for the sod ium equ i l ib r ium potential . T h e po ten t i a l a t wh ich this reversa l occur red fol lowed r a t h e r closely the p red ic t ed change in the equ i l i b r ium po ten t i a l u p o n va r i a t ion of the ext e rna l sod ium concent ra t ion . T h e y therefore n a m e d the reversal po in t the
Role of wave cyclones in transporting boundary layer air to the free troposphere during the spring 2001 NASA/TRACE‐P experiment

[1] Transport of boundary layer air to the free troposphere by cyclones during NASA's Transport and Chemical Evolution over the Pacific (TRACE-P) experiment is investigated. Airstreams responsible for boundary layer venting are diagnosed using results from a high-resolution meteorological model (MM5) together with in situ and remotely sensed chemical data. Hourly wind data from the MM5 are used to calculate three-dimensional grids of backward air trajectories. A reverse domain filling (RDF) technique then is employed to examine the characteristics of airstreams over the computational domain, and to isolate airstreams ascending from the boundary layer to the free troposphere during the previous 36 hours. Two cases are examined in detail. Results show that airstreams responsible for venting the boundary layer differ considerably from those described by classic conceptual models and in the recent literature. In addition, airstreams sampled by the TRACE-P aircraft are found to exhibit large variability in chemical concentrations. This variability is due to differences in the boundary layer histories of individual airstreams with respect to anthropogenic sources over continental Asia and Japan. Complex interactions between successive wave cyclones also are found to be important in determining the chemical composition of the airstreams. Particularly important is the process of post-cold frontal boundary layer air being rapidly transported offshore and recirculated into ascending airstreams of upstream cyclones.
Acute Postoperative Endophthalmitis Caused by Staphylococcus lugdunensis

ABSTRACT Acute postoperative endophthalmitis caused by Staphylococcus lugdunensis is infrequently reported in clinical studies. Five cases of acute postcataract surgery endophthalmitis caused by S. lugdunensis were taken from a multicenter prospective study conducted in four university-affiliated hospitals in France (2004 to 2005). These cases were characterized by severe ocular inflammation occurring with a mean delay of 7.6 days after cataract surgery, severe visual loss (hand motions or less in three cases), and dense infiltration of the vitreous. Each of these patients was initially treated by using a standard protocol with intravitreal (vancomycin and ceftazidime), systemic, and topical antibiotics. Given the severity of the endophthalmitis, even though bacteria were sensitive to intravitreal antibiotics, pars plana vitrectomy was needed in four cases. The final visual prognosis was complicated by severe retinal detachment in three cases. The microbiological diagnosis was reached by using conventional cultures with specific biochemical tests and eubacterial PCR amplification followed by direct sequencing.
Mechanism of De Novo Initiation by the Hepatitis C Virus RNA-Dependent RNA Polymerase: Role of Divalent Metals

ABSTRACT We functionally analyzed the role of metal ions in RNA-dependent RNA synthesis by three recombinant RNA-dependent RNA polymerases (RdRps) from GB virus-B (GBV), bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV), and hepatitis C virus (HCV), with emphasis on the HCV RdRp. Using templates capable of both de novo initiation and primer extension and RdRps purified in the absence of metal, we found that only reactions with exogenously provided Mg2+ and Mn2+ gave rise to significant amounts of synthesis. Mg2+ and Mn2+ affected the mode of RNA synthesis by the three RdRps. Both metals supported primer-dependent and de novo-initiated RNA by the GBV RdRp, while Mn2+ significantly increased the amount of de novo-initiated products by the HCV and BVDV RdRps. For the HCV RdRp, Mn2+ reduced the Km for the initiation nucleotide, a GTP, from 103 to 3 μM. However, it increased de novo initiation even at GTP concentrations that are comparable to physiological levels. We hypothesize that a change in RdRp structure occurs upon GTP binding to prevent primer extension. Analysis of deleted proteins revealed that the C terminus of the HCV RdRp plays a role in Mn2+-induced de novo initiation and can contribute to the suppression of primer extension. Spectroscopy examining the intrinsic fluorescence of tyrosine and tryptophan residues in the HCV RdRp produced results consistent with the protein undergoing a conformational change in the presence of metal. These results document the fact that metal can affect de novo initiation or primer extension by flaviviral RdRps.
Synthesis and characterization of silk-inspired thermoplastic polyurethane elastomers

Segmented polyurethane elastomers containing additional ordered structures within the hard or soft domains were developed to mimic the hierarchical structure and superior properties observed in spider silk fibers. The silk's toughness is related to a fiber morphology that includes P-pleated crystalline sheets within an amorphous matrix, as well as an additional interphase with an orientation and mobility between that of the two microphases. In the polyurethane mimics, bulky aromatic diisocyanates were incorporated between aliphatic hexamethylene diisocyanate (HDI) hard segments and poly(tetramethylene oxide) (PTMO) soft segments, to enhance the size and orientation of the interphase. The mixture of diisocyanates reduces the crystallinity of the HDI hard segments, allowing the polyurethane to form more well-organized domains observed by AFM imaging. The more interconnected hard domains allow the elastomers to deform to higher elongations and absorb more energy without a decrease of initial modulus. Shearing of the hydrogen-bonded hard domains orients the hard blocks at a preferred tilt angle of ±20° from the strain direction during tensile deformation. While the average spacing of hard domains increases during deformation, the spacing of hard domains aligned with the strain decreases, and the spacing of hard domains at the preferred tilt angle remains constant. Strain-induced crystallization of the PTMO soft segments was observed in all samples; however, hard segments with mixed diisocyanates exhibited non-crystalline alignment of the hard domains. Several polyurethane nanocomposite structures were also created using particles that preferentially associate with hard or soft segments. HDI-PTMO polyurethane/Laponite nanocomposites provided modest mechanical property improvements (80% increase in modulus and 15% increase in toughness) without any loss of extensibility. The Laponite discs exhibited an exfoliated structure, associating with and reinforcing the hydrophilic polyurethane hard segments. HDI-PTMO polyurethane/MQ siloxane resin nanocomposites also exhibited particle association with the hard segments, providing a 60% increase in modulus with a small loss of toughness. However, composites of isobutyl-POSS dispersed in polyurethanes with mixed hard segments exhibited formation of POSS crystals associated with the soft segments at all loadings, resulting in tensile failure at strains 80-100% lower than the pure polyurethane. Thesis Supervisor: Paula T. Hammond Title: Mark Hyman, Jr. Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering
A comparison of self‐reported quality of life for an Australian haemodialysis and haemodiafiltration cohort

Haemodiafiltration (HDF) has been widely studied for evidence of superior outcomes in comparison with conventional haemodialysis (HD), and there is increasing interest in determining if HDF confers any benefit in relation to quality of life. Studies have been conducted with randomized incident patients; however, little is known regarding HDF and quality of life for prevalent patients. This study examined and compared self–reported quality of life at two time points, 12 months apart in a cohort of satellite HD and HDF patients, using a disease specific questionnaire to determine if HDF conferred an advantage.
Organizational Climate of Staff Working Conditions and Safety-An Integrative Model

Abstract : This project sought to compare measures of organizational climate in ongoing patient safety studies, identify similarities and setting-specific dimensions, develop a model of climate domains that are hypothesized to affect outcomes across settings, and test aspects of the model. Investigators who had surveyed health care workers' perceptions of organizational climate in six studies funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) were invited to participate. Survey items from each study were classified using four climate domains found in a prior literature review. The authors discussed subconstructs, proposed additional constructs, developed an integrative model, and independently tested selected aspects of the model. The investigators who participated had studied acute care, home health care, long-term care, and multiple settings; two investigators had studied primary care. More than 80,000 workers were surveyed. The model's core climate domains included leadership (e.g., values) and organizational structural characteristics (e.g., communication processes and information technology), the impact of which was mediated by four process variables: supervision, group behavior (e.g., collaboration), quality emphasis (e.g., patient centeredness), and work design (e.g., staffing). These factors affect health care worker outcomes (e.g., satisfaction and intention to leave) and patient outcomes. Overall, the full model explained 24 to 65 percent of the variance in employee satisfaction, but was not as effective at predicting intention to leave. While some of these domains appeared in prior models, new domains -- quality emphasis, new subconstructs, information technology, and patient centeredness -- are emerging. The model invites dialogue among researchers and informs agenda-setting for future research into organizational climate and the safety of patients and health care employees.
Preparation, Cell Compatibility and Degradability of Collagen-Modified Poly(lactic acid)

Poly(lactic acid) (PLA) was modified using collagen through a grafting method to improve its biocompatibility and degradability. The carboxylic group at the open end of PLA was transferred into the reactive acylchlorided group by a reaction with phosphorus pentachloride. Then, collagen-modified PLA (collagen-PLA) was prepared by the reaction between the reactive acylchlorided group and amino/hydroxyl groups on collagen. Subsequently, the structure of collagen-PLA was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, fluorescein isothiocyanate-labeled fluorescence spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and DSC analyses. Finally, some properties of collagen-PLA, such as hydrophilicity, cell compatibility and degradability were characterized. Results showed that collagen had been grafted onto the PLA with 5% graft ratio. Water contact angle and water absorption behavior tests indicated that the hydrophilicity of collagen-PLA was significantly higher than that of PLA. The cell compatibility of collagen-PLA with mouse embryonic fibroblasts (3T3) was also significantly better than PLA in terms of cell morphology and cell proliferation, and the degradability of PLA was also improved after introducing collagen. Results suggested that collagen-PLA was a promising candidate for biomedical applications.
Local production of WHO-recommended alcohol-based handrubs: feasibility, advantages, barriers and costs.

PROBLEM Reduction of health-care-associated infections in low- and middle-income countries is hampered by inadequate supplies of soap and water and the lack or high cost of alcohol-based handrubs (ABHs). APPROACH In 2005, the World Health Organization (WHO) developed and tested two formulations for ABHs that were suitable for production in health-care facilities. In 2011, the feasibility, advantages and costs of the local production of the two formulations - and the barriers to such production - were evaluated in an online survey. LOCAL SETTING The survey included 34 health-care facilities and 5 private companies in 29 countries. RELEVANT CHANGES Local production of one of the WHO formulations was feasible in every participating site. Twenty-one (54%) of the sites had replaced a previously used ABH with one of the WHO formulations. In 32 sites, the WHO formulation that had been produced was well tolerated and accepted by health-care workers. The WHO formulations were found to be less expensive than marketed ABHs. Barriers to local production included difficulty in identifying staff with adequate skills, the need for staff training, and constraints in ingredient and dispenser procurement. LESSONS LEARNT The WHO formulations can be easily produced locally at low cost. They are well tolerated and accepted by health-care workers. Potential barriers to their local production - such as their smell and problems in the procurement of ingredients and dispensers and in performing quality control - require further investigation.
Lumbar microdiscectomy and microendoscopic discectomy

Lumbar microdiscectomy, which relies on the operating microscope for visualization, was first described in the late 1970s. This operation is considered the gold standard procedure for patients who require surgery for symptomatic lumbar disc herniation causing radiculopathy that has not improved with conservative measures. A new approach to the management of symptomatic lumbar disc herniation, microendoscopic discectomy, was introduced in 1997. This operation utilizes a tubular retractor system and a microendoscope for visualization rather than the operating microscope. As it is a new procedure, long‐term outcomes have not yet been established for this operation. However, recent literature suggests that microendoscopic discectomy may be as effective as the traditional lumbar microdiscectomy in relieving radiculopathy. This article describes the operative techniques and outcomes reported in the literature for both lumbar microdiscectomy and microendoscopic discectomy.
Study on Growth Curves of Longissimus dorsi Muscle Area, Backfat Thickness and Body Conformation for Hanwoo (Korean Native) Cows

The objective of this study was to estimate the parameters of Gompertz growth curves with the measurements of body conformation, real-time ultrasound longissimus dorsi muscle area (LMA) and backfat thickness (BFT) in Hanwoo cows. The Hanwoo cows (n = 3,373) were born in 97 Hanwoo commercial farms in the 17 cities or counties of Gyeongbuk province, Korea, between 2000 and 2007. A total of 5,504 ultrasound measurements were collected for the cows at the age of 13 to 165 months in 2007 and 2008. Wither height (HW), rump height (HR), the horizontal distance between the top of the hips (WH), and girth of chest (GC) were also measured. Analysis of variance was conducted to investigate variables affecting LMA and BFT. The effect of farm nested in location was included in the statistical model, as well as the effects of HW, HR, WH, and GC as covariates. All of the effects were significant in the analysis of variance for LMA and BFT (p<0.01), except for the HR effect for LMA. The two ultrasound measures and the four body conformation traits were fitted to a Gompertz growth curve function to estimate parameters. Upper asymptotic weights were estimated as 54.0 cm2, 7.67 mm, 125.6 cm, 126.4 cm, 29.3 cm, and 184.1 cm, for LMA, BFT, HW, HR, WH, and GC, respectively. Results of ultrasound measurements showed that Hanwoo cows had smaller LMA and greater BFT than other western cattle breeds, suggesting that care must be taken to select for thick BFT rather than an increase of only beef yield. More ultrasound records per cow are needed to get accurate estimates of growth curve, which, thus, helps producers select animals with high accuracy.
A New Style Single Screw Extruder with Improved Plastification and Output Power

Abstract A single-screw-extruder is presented, consisting of a barrel with grooved feed zone (helical grooves), a grooved melting zone (axial or helical grooves) and a barrier-screw with mixing and shearing elements. Compared with extruders with a smooth melting zone, significant process improvements are achieved regarding mass throughput, pressure build up, melt temperature, melt homogeneity, feed-zone cooling, processing wall-slipping polymers, abrasive wear, residence time, total degree of efficiency and economy. The processing principles of the new extruder are explained. Experimental results confirm the theoretical predictions. The system has proven to be very worthwile in more than 100 extrusion blow molding machines since 3 years.
The antenatal diagnosis of placental attachment disorders

Purpose of review The incidence of placenta accreta is increasing as the number of cesarean sections increases. Separation of the placenta from the uterus in this situation may result in torrential bleeding. Antenatal diagnosis allows modification of the approach to delivery to conserve blood loss and avoid major medical problems. Recent findings Most of the imaging literature confines itself to patients who are at risk due to previous surgery and a placenta previa. In these patients, the most reliable sign of placenta accreta is the presence of irregular vascular spaces with arterial flow. In almost all patients, the signs needed for the diagnosis are present at the time of the screening examination at 18 weeks. Ultrasound is quite accurate in predicting severe placenta accreta in at-risk patients. Less severe cases, in which the placenta is solely difficult to separate, may not have any ultrasound findings. Nothing is known about the ultrasound appearance of placenta accreta in patients who have not had previous uterine surgery. Summary Antenatal identification of placenta accreta is possible with high sensitivity in patients with placenta previa and a previous cesarean section.