Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The influence of contextual support on persistent sharing willingness of QQ group members: Mediating effect of autonomous motivations

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the ways to encourage members in QQ knowledge-communication groups to persistently share knowledge in terms of contexts and autonomous motivations. Design/methodology/approach Based on self-determination theory, three important contextual factors of QQ knowledge-communication groups were selected as exogenous variables and three typical autonomous motivations as mediating variables to construct a knowledge-sharing model. Internet questionnaire surveys and data collection were conducted to test proposed hypotheses by means of structural equation modeling with AMOS. Findings Reciprocity, learning, and altruism have significant positive influence on persistent sharing willingness, and the degree to which each factor influences persistent sharing willingness differs considerably. Autonomy support, perceived usefulness, and relatedness support have no significantly direct influence on persistent sharing willingness, but they indirectly influence the persistent sharing behaviors by the mediating effect of different autonomous motivations. Originality/value This study contributes theoretically and practically. First, the results suggest that a particular motivation in different contexts has a different degree of autonomy. In addition, explanations are offered for the phenomenon that suggest that controlled motivations directly affect autonomous motivations. It was found that the contextual factors of competence support and relatedness support also have influence on different autonomous motivations, and hence encourage knowledge-sharing behaviors. Specific suggestions for QQ group managers and information seekers are proposed.
A simple insulin-nutrition protocol for tight glycemic control in critical illness: development and protocol comparison.

BACKGROUND Hyperglycemia is prevalent in critical care, and tight control can significantly reduce mortality. However, current protocols have been considered taxing to administer and may require extra staff. In addition, increased insulin resistance and saturation effects limit the level of control possible using insulin alone. Thus, regulating both insulin and exogenous nutritional inputs is required to control blood glucose. METHODS A robust, easy-to-use protocol ["SPRINT" (Specialized Relative Insulin Nutrition Tables)] that employs both insulin and feed modulation is developed and analyzed using retrospective data from 19 patients with average Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II score of 21.8. Results are compared with several published protocols in simulation, and verified in a proof-of-concept trial. RESULTS In simulation, 61.7% of measurements were in the 75-110 mg/dL band and 83.5% in the 75-140 mg/dL band. Results from the simulation of published protocols agreed with published results. Clinically, for two patients, 64% and 85% of measurements were between 75 and 110 mg/dL during the two proof-of-concept trials. Total enteral feeding was similar to, or exceeded, retrospective data. CONCLUSIONS Tight control was achieved in simulation using a protocol that is easy to implement in an intensive care unit. Similarly tight control was also maintained during the two proof-of-concept clinical trials. Measurement frequency of 1-2 h is seen to be critical to achieving and maintaining tight control. The overall SPRINT protocol is easy to use for clinical staff and effective in achieving and maintaining normoglycemia in critical illness.
Cognitive function and frontal lobe atrophy in normal elderly adults: Implications for dementia not as aging‐related disorders and the reserve hypothesis

Abstract We examined the relations between cognitive function and age and education in the normal elderly population. As per the community‐based stroke, dementia, and bed confinement pre‐vention in the town of Tajiri, neuropsychological assessments, including the Cognitive Ability Screening Instrument (CASI), were performed for 99 randomly selected normal elderly subjects. We assessed the frontal function (working memory, word fluency, Trail‐Making Tests, CASI subitems of list‐generating fluency, attention, and concentration/mental manipulation), language function (proverbs, CASI subitem language), non‐language function (the digit symbol test of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale‐Revised (WAIS‐R), CASI subitem visual construction), memory (Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale recall/recognition, story recall, CASI subitems short and long‐term memory, the Rey‐Osterrieth Complex Figure Test), and the global function (CASI subitems orientation and abstraction and judgment). We found that the only test affected by age was the digit symbol test of the WAIS‐R. The effects of education were distributed among various tests. There was a significant correlation between age and the frontal lobe atrophy in the lower educated group. The present findings suggest that cognitive function is spared by the aging process itself and dementia should be considered as age‐related, not aging‐related disorders, and that education might have a protective effect on cognitive change, supporting the reserve hypothesis.
IPM Synchronous Machine Drive Response to Symmetrical and Asynunetrical Short Circuit Faults

A closed-form solution is presented for the steady-state response of interior permanent magnet (IPM) synchronous machines to symmetrical short circuits including the effects of q-axis magnetic saturation. Machine response to single-phase asymmetrical short circuits is also investigated. Experimental data is presented to verify predicted behavior for both types of short circuits. It is shown that single-phase asymmetrical short circuit faults produce more severe fault responses with high pulsating torque and a significant threat of rotor demagnetization. A control strategy that purposely transitions such faults into symmetrical three-phase short circuits can minimize the fault severity and associated demagnetization risks. Implications for the design of IPM machines with improved fault tolerance are discussed.
Initial Evidence for the Reliability and Validity of the Student Risk Screening Scale for Internalizing and Externalizing Behaviors at the Elementary Level

We report findings of an exploratory validation study of a revised instrument: the Student Risk Screening Scale-Internalizing and Externalizing (SRSS-IE). The SRSS-IE was modified to include seven additional items reflecting characteristics of internalizing behaviors, with proposed items generated from the current literature base, review of current measures, and teaching experience with students with emotional and behavioral disorders. The original seven items developed by Drummond (1994) were retained in the exact form, yielding an instrument containing 14 items (SRSS-IE14), each rated on a 4-point Likert-type scale. First, we explore the reliability of the SRSS-IE14 by examining item-level data, internal consistency, and factor structure with 2,460 elementary students. Results of a data analytic plan grounded in classical test theory support retention of five additional items, yielding the SRSS-IE12. Second, we established convergent validity of the SRSS-IE12 with two well-established screening tools: the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (Goodman, 1997) and the Systematic Screening for Behavior Disorders (Walker & Severson, 1992). Limitations and future directions are offered.
Diathesis alternations and NP semantics *

In this paper we examine the relationships among diathesis alternations, the semantics of verbs, and the referential status of NPs. Some diathesis shifts are argued to involve changes in the semantic type of NP arguments, including possible alternations between ‘referential’ NPs and ‘property-type’ NPs. We explore applications of this approach to alternations of Genitive and Accusative, both with intensional verbs like ždat’ ‘wait’and with the Genitive of Negation.
A New Minimal Detectable Bias in Fault Detection for Positioning

The Minimal Detectable Bias method of Fault Detection is frequently employed to determine if a position has integrity. However, to provide integrity the Type I error probability of the statistical tests is required to be preset. Normally, this probability is set to avoid the unnecessary rejection of measurements or to satisfy the continuity requirements. In this paper, the Type I error probability is set based on the integrity requirements by initially setting the Protection Levels equal to the Alert Limit. This new procedure of setting the Type I error probability is compared with the more conventional approach when there are different continuity requirements and when multiple biases are considered. From the results of this comparison, it is concluded that the new procedure increases the availability rates regardless of the continuity requirements and the number of biases considered.
A Narrative Synthesis of the Health Systems Factors Influencing Optimal Hypertension Control in Sub-Saharan Africa

Introduction In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), an estimated 74.7 million individuals are hypertensive. Reducing the growing burden of hypertension in sub-Saharan Africa will require a variety of strategies one of which is identifying the extent to which actions originating at the health systems level improves optimal management and control. Methods and Results We conducted a narrative synthesis of available papers examining health systems factors influencing optimal hypertension in SSA. Eligible studies included those that analyzed the impact of health systems on hypertension awareness, treatment, control and medication adherence. Twenty-five articles met the inclusion criteria and the narrative synthesis identified the following themes: 1) how physical resources influence mechanisms supportive of optimal hypertension control; 2) the role of human resources with enabling and/or inhibiting hypertension control goals; 3) the availability and/or use of intellectual resources; 4) how health systems financing facilitate and/or compromise access to products necessary for optimal hypertension control. Conclusion The findings highlight the need for further research on the health systems factors that influence management and control of hypertension in the region.
Individual Differences in Working Memory Capacity and Retrieval: A Cue-Dependent Search Approach.

T he ability to accurately and efficiently retrieve infor. mation from memory is a critical component for successful performance on a number of tasks. Take for instance, performance on a reading comprehension task. Here, an individual is required to read a number of passages and then answer questions concerning those passages. Assuming that the individual accurately encodes and stores (e.g., Melton, 1963) the information, all that is needed to answer the ques­ tions is accurate retrieval of the desired information. The pertinent question is, how does the individual go about retrieving the desired information? Additionally, · what factors are needed in order for the desired information to be accessed? These basic questions regarding human memory retrieval provide the core con­ cepts in understanding remembering; that is, as advocated by Roediger (2000) and Tulving (1983), in order to understand memory, we must understand retrieval processes. The work presented in this chapter was heavily infl uenced by the work of Roediger (2000), in terms of the importance of retrieval processes. Additionally, as will become evident later on, the work presented here was infl uenced by the Baddeley and Hitch (1974) working memory model, Tulving's arguments for cue-dependent forgetting (Tulving, 1983), Watkins's notion of cue-overload (1979), Shiffrin's elaboration of these concepts into a formal model of cue­ dependent search (1970; see also Raaijmakers & Shiffrin, 1981), Glenberg's emphasis on temporal-contextual search (1987), and Wixted and Rohrer's work examining cumulative latency distributions in terms of a random search model call to combine eXperimental investigations with individual differences analyses in order to gain a better understanding of the underlying process. Thus, in this chapter we will advoca te the view that not only is it important to examine retrieval processes from
Adaptive Online Learning

We propose a general framework for studying adaptive regret bounds in the online learning setting, subsuming model selection and data-dependent bounds. Given a data- or model-dependent bound we ask, "Does there exist some algorithm achieving this bound? " We show that modifications to recently introduced sequential complexity measures can be used to answer this question by providing sufficient conditions under which adaptive rates can be achieved. In particular each adaptive rate induces a set of so-called offset complexity measures, and obtaining small upper bounds on these quantities is sufficient to demonstrate achievability. A cornerstone of our analysis technique is the use of one-sided tail inequalities to bound suprema of offset random processes. Our framework recovers and improves a wide variety of adaptive bounds including quantile bounds, second order data-dependent bounds, and small loss bounds. In addition we derive a new type of adaptive bound for online linear optimization based on the spectral norm, as well as a new online PAC-Bayes theorem.
A Novel Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Receptor Participates in White Spot Syndrome Virus Infection in Litopenaeus vannamei

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) signaling pathway is known to play key roles in endothelial cell proliferation, migration, angiogenesis, vascular permeability, inhibition of apoptosis, and virus infection. In the present study, a novel VEGFR gene (LvVEGFR2) was identified and characterized from Litopenaeus vannamei. The deduced amino acid sequence of LvVEGFR2 possessed typical features of VEGFRs reported in other species, including six IG-like domains, a transmembrane motif, a protein kinase (PK) domain, and one tyrosine-PK active site. The transcripts of LvVEGFR2 were mainly detected in hemocytes and lymphoid organ (Oka). Subcellular localization analysis showed that LvVEGFR2 was a membrane protein. Its expression level was obviously upregulated in hemocytes and Oka of the shrimp after white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) infection. Knockdown of LvVEGFR2 gene expression by double-strand RNA mediated interference could lead to a decrease of virus copy number in WSSV-infected shrimp. The interaction between LvVEGFR2 and different LvVEGFs (LvVEGF1, LvVEGF2, and LvVEGF3) in shrimp was analyzed at the transcription level and protein level, respectively. Knockdown of LvVEGF2 or LvVEGF3 could downregulate the expression level of LvVEGFR2, and injection of the recombinant LvVEGF2 or LvVEGF3 could upregulate the expression level of LvVEGFR2. Yeast two-hybrid analysis showed that LvVEGFR2 could interact with LvVEGF2 and LvVEGF3 directly. The study improved our understanding on the VEGF signaling pathway of shrimp and its role during WSSV infection.
An Approximate Model for Slug Flow Heat Transfer in Channels of Arbitrary Cross Section

In this paper, a novel approximate solution to determine the Nusselt number for thermally developed, slug (lowPrandtl), laminar, single phase flow in channels of arbitrary cross section is presented. Using the Saint-Venant principle in torsion of beams, it is shown that the thermally developed Nusselt number for low-Prandtl flow is only a function of the geometrical parameters of the channel cross section, i.e., area, perimeter and non-dimensional polar moment of inertia. The new proposed model is compared with the existing numerical results for elliptic, rectangular, regular polygonal, flat plate, isosceles triangular, equilateral triangular and circular sector channels. The model predicts the Nusselt number for the above mentioned channels within the about 10% or better with the exception of the circular sector in very small aspect ratios. The new model is expected to be accurate for other singly connected channels and can be used to determine the fully developed turbulent Nusselt number for liquid metal flows. Finally, the proposed model is used to determine the slug flow Nusselt number for unavailable geometries in the literature such as rhombic, circular segment, annular sector channel as well as rectangular channel with semicircular ends.
Recombinant human platelet‐derived growth factor BB (rhPDGF‐BB) and beta‐tricalcium phosphate/collagen matrix enhance fracture healing in a diabetic rat model

Diabetes mellitus is a common systemic disease that has been associated with poor fracture healing outcomes. The mechanism through which diabetes impairs bone regeneration is unknown. One possible mechanism may be related to either decreased or uncoordinated release of local growth factors at the fracture site. Indeed, previous studies have found reduced platelet‐derived growth factor (PDGF) levels in the fracture callus of diabetic rats, suggesting that local application of PDGF may overcome the negative effects of diabetes and promote fracture healing. To test this hypothesis, low (22 µg) and high (75 ug) doses of recombinant human PDGF‐BB (rhPDGF‐BB) were applied directly to femur fracture sites in BB Wistar diabetic rats that were then compared to untreated or vehicle‐treated animals. rhPDGF‐BB treatment significantly increased early callus cell proliferation compared to that in control specimens. Low dose rhPDGF‐BB treatment significantly increased callus peak torque values (p < 0.05) at 8 weeks after fracture as compared to controls. High dose rhPDGF‐BB treatment increased callus bone area at 12 weeks postfracture. These data indicate that rhPDGF‐BB treatment ameliorates the effects of diabetes on fracture healing by promoting early cellular proliferation that ultimately leads to more bone formation. Local application of rhPDGF‐BB may be a new therapeutic approach to treat diabetes‐impaired fracture healing. © 2009 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 27: 1074–1081, 2009
Infection and the Elite Athlete: A Review

Light to moderate exercise has been associated with an increase in immune function and reduced risk of infectious diseases. Conversely, heavy exercise has been implicated in suppression of many immune parameters and a concomitant increased risk of infectious diseases. Infections can result in lost training time and negatively affect the performance of the elite athlete. Exercising during an infection can also increase the risk of secondary complications, such as viral myocarditis and post-viral fatigue syndrome. In addition to immunosuppression, other factors responsible for increased infection rates among athletes are close bodily contact with other people during training and competition, and environmental factors during the pursuit of sporting activities that increase exposure to pathogens. Although there is a generally higher risk of infection among athletes compared to the general population, some sports are associated with a particularly high risk for certain infections. These are skin infections in rugby and wrestling, infections of the foot in long-distance runners, and ear infections in those involved in water sports. Upper respiratory tract infections are the most frequently reported disability among all athletes and are the cause of more lost training days than all other infections put together. Transmission of blood-borne pathogens, although very uncommon in the athletic setting, are the cause of the most serious infections an athlete may develop. When considering the negative impact of infections on performance, it seems prudent that athletes use interventions to decrease the immunosuppressive effects of heavy exercise, and to minimize exposure to pathogens as far as practically possible. Management of the infected athlete is especially important if there is to be a speedy return to full training, and if the incidence of a relapse or secondary complications are to be minimized.
Theoretical and Experimental Investigation of Thermo-Tunable Metal–Insulator–Vanadium Dioxide Coplanar Waveguide Structure

This paper presents a thermo-tunable metal–insulator–vanadium dioxide (MIV) coplanar waveguide structure (CPW). An analytical quasi-TEM model is used to thoroughly study the structural and material-dependent characteristic parameters of the device, while the temperature-dependent broadband permittivity and conductivity of the deposited vanadium dioxide (VO2) thin film at microwave frequencies are experimentally extracted. The designed thermo-tunable MIV-CPW, focused on its slow-wave properties, shows a drastic increase in slow-wave factor when the temperature of the VO2 thin film is increased over its transition temperature. This phase change allows converting this composite structure into the metal–insulator–semiconductor coplanar slow-wave structure. This demonstrates the potential of such MIV-CPW for the design of tunable and reconfigurable integrated microwave passive components with a significantly reduced size.
Procalcitonin as an indicator of urosepsis

Background Procalcitonin has been advocated as a marker of bacterial infection, so this study was carried out to determine the usefulness of serum procalcitonin in the early diagnosis of urosepsis. Methods The subjects were 37 febrile patients with urinary tract infection in whom we examined the serum procalcitonin concentration at the start of treatment. Results Thirty patients had acute pyelonephritis (16 simple, 14 complex), one had emphysematous pyelonephritis, five had acute prostatitis, and one had acute epididymitis. The procalcitonin level was <0.5 ng/mL in 18 patients, ≥0.5 ng/mL in one patient, ≥2 ng/mL in seven patients, and ≥10 ng/mL in 11 patients. Five of the 11 patients with procalcitonin levels ≥ 10 ng/mL had disseminated intravascular coagulation. All patients with urinary tract obstruction and disseminated intravascular coagulation had procalcitonin levels ≥ 10 ng/mL. Conclusion Although this retrospective study comprised a small number of patients, we found that procalcitonin was a useful marker for urinary tract infection.
Functions of Learning Rate in Adaptive Reward Learning

As a crucial cognitive function, learning applies prediction error (the discrepancy between the prediction from learning and the world state) to adjust predictions of the future. How much prediction error affects this adjustment also depends on the learning rate. Our understanding to the learning rate is still limited, in terms of (1) how it is modulated by other factors, and (2) the specific mechanisms of how learning rate interacts with prediction error to update learning. We applied computational modeling and functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate these issues. We found that, when human participants performed a reward learning task, reward magnitude modulated learning rate. Modulation strength further predicted the difference in behavior following high vs. low reward across subjects. Imaging results further showed that this modulation was reflected in brain regions where the reward feedback is also encoded, such as the medial prefrontal cortex (MFC), precuneus, and posterior cingulate cortex. Furthermore, for the first time, we observed that the integration of the learning rate and the reward prediction error was represented in MFC activity. These findings extend our understanding of adaptive learning by demonstrating how it functions in a chain reaction of prediction updating.