Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Intraoperative Doppler Ultrasound in Liver Transplantation

The purpose of this study was to determine the utility of intraoperative Doppler ultrasound for the diagnosis and reduction of the vascular complications in liver transplantation. This study included 19 pediatric and 5 adult patients. In the pediatric group, 12 patients received living related liver transplantation (LRLT), two splitting liver transplantation (SLT), three reduced-size liver transplantation (RLT) and two full-size pediatric liver transplants (FPLT). The hemodynamics and waveform of the hepatic vein, portal vein and hepatic artery were evaluated by intraoperative Doppler ultrasound (US) after reperfusion of the graft. Unsatisfactory hemodynamics was identified in nine cases, including decrease hepatic venous flow (6-9 cm/s) with non-pulsative flat waveform (adults, n = 2 and LRLT, n = 2); portal vein thrombosis (LRLT, n = 1); decrease portal flow (8 mL/min/kg) (LRLT, n = 1); occlusion of the portal vein (SLT, n = 1); poor arterial flow with dampened artery waveform (FPLT, n = 2). These abnormalities were all successfully re-reconstructed by surgical procedures and achieved a graft survival rate of 100%. Two late vascular complications including hepatic venous thrombosis and recurrent portal vein stenosis with splenorenal shunt were discovered 1 month later. They were treated effectively by surgical thrombolectomy and percutaneous balloon dilatation and metallic coils embolization respectively. Three patients died of non-vascular complications and all patients who underwent LRLT survived with a resultant 87.5% overall survival rate. In conclusion, intraoperative Doppler US is efficient in detecting abnormal hepatic hemodynamics, which permits early intervention and hence a better prognosis for the patients. Re-reconstructive procedures were monitored closely under Doppler US guidance until proper flow and wave-form were established. This reduces post-transplant vascular complications and thereby eliminates the likelihood of a lethal complication that might call for re-transplantation.
Toward a principled explanation of unilateral neglect

Abstract In the unilateral neglect syndrome, patients seem unable to detect or respond to stimuli in spatial locations contralateral to the damaged cerebral hemisphere. The condition has been reported in the visual, auditory, tactile, and olfactory modalities, although the most extensive investigations have concerned visuo-spatial neglect. Left neglect after right hemisphere lesion is more frequent, severe, and long-lasting than right neglect after left hemisphere lesion. Left neglect is a major negative prognostic factor after brain damage and is reliably associated with poor performance on many functional recovery measures. Many current accounts stress that neglect is an “attentional” disorder, although there are numerous (potentially competing) hypotheses that emphasise “perceptual,” “representational,” “intentional,” and “premotor” factors. In short, there is little theoretical consensus and it is possible that many distinct impairments have been conflated under the label of “unilateral neglect. ” The .
Early Developments in Children's Understanding of Number: Inferences about Numerosity and One-to-One Correspondence.

SOPHIAN, CATHERINE. Early Developments in Children's Understanding of Number: Inferences about Numerosity and One-to-One Correspondence. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1988, 59, 1397-1414. Preschool children's understanding of the relation between numerosity and 1-to-1 correspondence was evaluated in 2 experiments. 3and 4-year-old children answered questions that entailed making an inference about the correspondence between 2 sets from information about their numerosities or making an inference about the numerosity of a set from information about its correspondence to another set of a specified numerosity. Both age groups showed significant degrees of success. This success held across the 2 tasks and across several versions of the inference questions, and it was reflected both in group means and in individual patterns of performance. Better performance on problems that involved very small sets than on ones involving somewhat larger sets suggested that this knowledge may be acquired at first through experience with specific numerosities and generalized only gradually.
Linear Precoding for Finite-Alphabet Signaling Over MIMOME Wiretap Channels

In this paper, we investigate the secrecy rate of finite-alphabet communications over multiple-input-multiple-output-multiple-antenna eavesdropper (MIMOME) channels. Traditional precoding designs based on Gaussian input assumption may lead to substantial secrecy rate loss when the Gaussian input is replaced by practical finite-alphabet input. To address this issue, we investigate linear precoding designs to directly maximize the secrecy rate for MIMOME systems under the constraint of finite-alphabet input. By exploiting the theory of Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) analysis and matrix calculus, we first present necessary conditions of the optimal precoding design when instantaneous channel-state information (CSI) of the eavesdropper is known at the transmitter. In this light, an iterative algorithm for finding the optimal precoding matrix is developed, utilizing a gradient decent method with backtracking line search. Moreover, we find that the beamforming design in MIMONE systems, which is a secrecy-capacity-achieving approach for Gaussian signaling, no longer provides the maximum secrecy rate for finite-alphabet input data. This case is substantially different from the Gaussian input case. In addition, we derive the closed-form results on the precoding matrix, which maximizes the secrecy rate in the low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) region, and reveal the optimal precoding structure in the high-SNR region. A novel jamming signal generation method that draws on the CSI of the eavesdropper to additionally increase the secrecy rate is further proposed. The precoding design with only statistical CSI of the eavesdropper available at the transmitter is also considered. Numerical results show that the proposed designs provide significant gains over recent precoding designs through a power control policy and the precoding design with the Gaussian input assumption in various scenarios.
Reliable and randomized data distribution strategies for large scale storage systems

The ever-growing amount of data requires highly scalable storage solutions. The most flexible approach is to use storage pools that can be expanded and scaled down by adding or removing storage devices. To make this approach usable, it is necessary to provide a solution to locate data items in such a dynamic environment. This paper presents and evaluates the Random Slicing strategy, which incorporates lessons learned from table-based, rule-based, and pseudo-randomized hashing strategies and is able to provide a simple and efficient strategy that scales up to handle exascale data. Random Slicing keeps a small table with information about previous storage system insert and remove operations, drastically reducing the required amount of randomness while delivering a perfect load distribution.
N-terminal probrain natriuretic peptide predicts altered circadian variation in essential hypertension

Diminished nocturnal blood pressure fall in nondipper hypertensive patients are closely associated with poor prognosis. N-terminal probrain natriuretic peptide can also identify poor prognosis in miscellaneous heart diseases. In this study, we aimed to clarify the association between probrain natriuretic peptide levels and diminished nocturnal blood pressure fall in patients with essential hypertension. Twenty-six consecutive nondipper (age: 53±8 years, 14 men) (group 1), and 26 dipper hypertensive patients (age: 52±9 years, 16 men) (group 2), based on ambulatory blood pressure monitoring, and age and sex-matched 28 normotensive participants (age: 50±11 years, 16 men) (group 3) were compared with each other. Although systolic and diastolic ambulatory blood pressure values were similar in hypertensives during the day, those at night were higher in group 1 (P<0.0001). Echocardiographic findings revealed that the left ventricular mass index was higher in both group 1 (184±47) and group 2 (142±39) compared with control participants (102±19) (P<0.0001), but ejection fraction and relative wall thickness were similar in all groups. The transmitral E-wave velocity decreased in group 1 (0.62±0.15 m/s) and group 2 (0.7±0.14 m/sec) compared with group 3 (0.95±0.22 m/s) (P<0.01). The transmitral E/A ratio decreased (0.71±0.12, 0.81±0.2 and 0.79±0.57, respectively P<0.05), and the transmitral E-wave deceleration time increased in group 1 (208±46, 203±38 and 169±42 ms, respectively, P<0.05). The isovolumic relaxation time increased (112±23, 110±18 and 86±11 m/s, respectively, P<0.01). Although group 1 and 2 have a similar number of patients with diastolic dysfunction (23/26 and 22/26, respectively, P>0.05), there were great differences between plasma probrain natriuretic peptide levels (88±20, 58±22 and 47±20 pg/ml, respectively, P<0.0001). In addition, serum uric acid (6.5±1.4, 5.3±1.5 and 5.0±1.9, respectively P<0.001), and creatinine levels (0.88±0.2 and 0.78±0.2 vs. 0.72±0.3, respectively P<0.05) were higher in group 1. These observations suggest that nondipper state may be related to the increase in left ventricular mass index and probrain natriuretic peptide levels and elevation in both plasma uric acid and creatinine levels. Serum probrain natriuretic peptide levels are found to be correlated with left ventricular mass index (Pearson's correlation 469 P<0.0001); but not creatinine (Pearson's correlation 188 P>0.05).
Perceptions of Female/Male Presidential Candidates: Familial and Personal Situations

A factor mediating attitudes toward female/male political candidates may be the potential effect of a candidate's private life. The impact of a familial situation on attitudes towards a hypothetical presidential candidate was investigated in Study 1. Although main effects for candidate sex and familial situation were found, our data did not support differential effects by candidate sex. In Study 2 the potential impact of a candidate's personal problem was examined. A male with past psychological problems was perceived as more electable than three of four female candidates. In both studies, male candidates were perceived as more likely to win the election than were female candidates.
Molecular adaptation of ammonia monooxygenase during independent pH specialization in Thaumarchaeota

Microbes are abundant in nature and often highly adapted to local conditions. While great progress has been made in understanding the ecological factors driving their distribution in complex environments, the underpinning molecular‐evolutionary mechanisms are rarely dissected. Therefore, we scrutinized the coupling of environmental and molecular adaptation in Thaumarchaeota, an abundant archaeal phylum with a key role in ammonia oxidation. These microbes are adapted to a diverse spectrum of environmental conditions, with pH being a key factor shaping their contemporary distribution and evolutionary diversification. We integrated high‐throughput sequencing data spanning a broad representation of ammonia‐oxidizing terrestrial lineages with codon modelling analyses, testing the hypothesis that ammonia monooxygenase subunit A (AmoA) – a highly conserved membrane protein crucial for ammonia oxidation and classical marker in microbial ecology – underwent adaptation during specialization to extreme pH environments. While purifying selection has been an important factor limiting AmoA evolution, we identified episodic shifts in selective pressure at the base of two phylogenetically distant lineages that independently adapted to acidic conditions and subsequently gained lasting ecological success. This involved nonconvergent selective mechanisms (positive selection vs. selection acting on variants fixed during an episode of relaxed selection) leading to unique sets of amino acid substitutions that remained fixed across the radiation of both acidophilic lineages, highlighting persistent adaptive value in acidic environments. Our data demonstrates distinct trajectories of AmoA evolution despite convergent phenotypic adaptation, suggesting that microbial environmental specialization can be associated with diverse signals of molecular adaptation, even for marker genes employed routinely by microbial ecologists.
The Increasingly Important Role of Off-Level Testing in the Context of the Talent Development Perspective

In the context of increasing interest and support for a developmental conception of giftedness, there is perhaps an ever-greater need for off-level testing for students with high potential. Off-level testing is no longer merely a single-use tool that helps administrators identify students for gifted programs, but provides essential information about where students’ various strengths are currently situated on the developmental trajectory, which helps students, parents, teachers, and administrators to develop dynamic and individualized “pathways” toward self-discovery, opportunities for challenge and growth, and ultimately productive and fulfilling life-work. It further provides a means for assessment of progress in a way that takes into account a student’s unique abilities and needs, as well as the way in which student abilities naturally differentiate as that student develops and matures.
Teaching assistants reflect: the way forward?

If teaching assistants are to be successful in helping schools to address the Government’s standards agenda as well as meet the needs of the workforce reform it seems self‐evident that the employment, development and deployment of teaching assistants is of extreme importance. Following the publication of the Common core of skills and knowledge for the children’s workforce, ‘clarity of roles’ and knowledge of ‘how to reflect and improve’ are identified as core knowledge for the development of all staff working with children. The paper suggests that skills and performance are valued implicitly in the new arrangements in England, but there is a danger of the power of reflection not being recognised as a mechanism for the enhancement of such qualities. The issues raised in this paper are illustrated from evidence collected during a series of semi‐structured interviews with a group of eight bilingual teaching assistants who work in the same large multicultural primary school in the centre of England. The paper concludes by citing a number of specific questions for further empirical work.
PLASIM–GENIE v1.0: a new intermediate complexity AOGCM

Abstract. We describe the development, tuning and climate of Planet Simulator (PLASIM)–Grid-ENabled Integrated Earth system model (GENIE), a new intermediate complexity Atmosphere–Ocean General Circulation Model (AOGCM), built by coupling the Planet Simulator to the ocean, sea-ice and land-surface components of the GENIE Earth system model. PLASIM–GENIE supersedes GENIE-2, a coupling of GENIE to the Reading Intermediate General Circulation Model (IGCM). The primitive-equation atmosphere includes chaotic, three-dimensional (3-D) motion and interactive radiation and clouds, and dominates the computational load compared to the relatively simpler frictional-geostrophic ocean, which neglects momentum advection. The model is most appropriate for long-timescale or large ensemble studies where numerical efficiency is prioritised, but lack of data necessitates an internally consistent, coupled calculation of both oceanic and atmospheric fields. A 1000-year simulation with PLASIM–GENIE requires approximately 2 weeks on a single node of a 2.1 GHz AMD 6172 CPU. We demonstrate the tractability of PLASIM–GENIE ensembles by deriving a subjective tuning of the model with a 50-member ensemble of 1000-year simulations. The simulated climate is presented considering (i) global fields of seasonal surface air temperature, precipitation, wind, solar and thermal radiation, with comparisons to reanalysis data; (ii) vegetation carbon, soil moisture and aridity index; and (iii) sea surface temperature, salinity and ocean circulation. Considering its resolution, PLASIM–GENIE reproduces the main features of the climate system well and demonstrates usefulness for a wide range of applications.
Is Anyone to Blame? Whom Families and their Therapists Blame for the Presenting Problem

Whom family members blame for their difficulties, and to what extent they blame them, is widely thought to affect their response to those difficulties. In addition, the extent to which parents experience themselves as being blamed by therapists is thought to influence their ability to make use of therapeutic intervention. Yet, despite frequent references in the clinical literature to the need to be sensitive to issues of blame, little attempt has been made to systematically investigate how blame arises naturally in therapeutic encounters. This article develops operational definitions of blame and of exoneration and uses them to undertake an exploratory study into how a sample of 10 families and their systemic therapists attribute blame and exoneration in relation to the presenting problem. Multidimensional scalogram analysis is used to explore how patterns of blame might possibly relate to service uptake. It is argued that as clinicians we may want to hone our sensitivity to the different ways that blame may be invoked in conversation in order to increase our therapeutic efficacy.
Engaging Online Adult Learners in Higher Education: Motivational Factors Impacted by Gender, Age, and Prior Experiences

Abstract As the number of online degree programs continues to grow among higher education institutions in the United States, engaging online adult learners to online degree programs is getting more difficult than before. Therefore, this study, situated in a land grant university, investigated the motivational factors that contribute to adult learners’ engagement with online graduate degree programs. Based on 190 sets of survey responses, this quantitative study identified four significant motivational factors (intrinsic motivation, short-term extrinsic motivation, long-term extrinsic motivation, and technological willingness) that contributed to their selection of online programs. Gender differences were found to be influential in intrinsic motivation while age differences could affect learners’ short- and long-term extrinsic motivations. Discussions further focused on the implications of the findings in engaging online adult learners in order to sustain online degree programs in higher education.
Outcomes of Subsequent Pregnancies After Uterine Compression Sutures for Postpartum Hemorrhage

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the association between uterine compression sutures for postpartum hemorrhage and subsequent pregnancy outcomes. METHODS: We reviewed the medical records of 336 women who received uterine compression sutures to control postpartum hemorrhage during their first delivery at a single medical center between 2006 and 2011. Of these, 42 women who became pregnant again and received care through our hospital were included in this study. One hundred thirty-nine pregnant women matched for age and parity who did not receive uterine compression sutures during a previous cesarean delivery served as the control group. We compared subsequent pregnancy outcomes and operative findings during repeat cesarean delivery between the two groups. RESULTS: There were four (9.5%) miscarriages and one (2.4%) tubal pregnancy in the compression suture group compared with 14 (10.1%) miscarriages and two (1.5%) tubal pregnancies in the control group (P=.92 and P=.68, respectively). In the compression suture group, 34 (81.0%) women delivered at term and two (4.7%) women had preterm deliveries. In the control group, 114 (82.0%) women delivered at term and seven (5.0%) women had preterm deliveries (P=.88 and P=.60, respectively). The rate of pelvic adhesions on repeat cesarean delivery was significantly higher in the compression suture group than in the control group (34.3% compared with 17.5%, P=.03). CONCLUSIONS: Subsequent pregnancy outcomes were similar for women who did and those who did not receive uterine compression sutures during their prior delivery, whereas uterine adhesions at repeat cesarean delivery were more prevalent in women who received uterine compression sutures. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: II
Biomechanical Determinants of Pedaling Energetics: Internal and External Work Are Not Independent

KAUTZ, S.A. , and R.R. NEPTUNE. Biomechanical determinants of pedaling energetics: Internal and external work are not independent. Exerc. Sport Sci. Rev., Vol. 30, No. 4, pp. 159–165, 2002. Simulation analyses of pedaling demonstrate how individual muscle forces act to accelerate and decelerate the leg segments and the crank to perform external work. The work done by the muscles to accelerate the leg segments ultimately drives the pedals because when the legs decelerate, their mechanical energy is used to overcome the external load.
Child Characteristics, Home Social‐Contextual Factors, and Children's Academic Peer Interaction Behaviors in Kindergarten

This study addressed questions about the relations between personal characteristics and aspects of home environments and young children's subsequent academically relevant peer interaction behaviors in kindergarten in a sample of 108 preschool‐age children (57 males, 51 females) from 2 Midwest cities and neighboring communities. A year prior to the children's entrance to kindergarten their cognitive skills were assessed through a battery of tests. In addition, child temperament characteristics (self‐control and responsiveness), parent emphasis on structure (order, organization, routine) and communication (emphasis on discussion and expression of ideas in the home), and parent control beliefs in the home were assessed through parent questionnaires and reports. Each child was observed in the kindergarten classroom during student‐centered academic tasks on at least 3 occasions throughout the following year. Each child was observed for 5‐minute intervals (for a total of an hour and a half) during which the observer coded 5 academic peer interaction behaviors: instructional support, direction, normative exchange, passivity, and distractive behavior with peers. Findings revealed that child resources (cognitive skills and temperament) and home structures influenced how children responded to information and sanctions within the home and in turn the roles they assumed and the quality of their academic interactions with peers, and that personal factors mediated the effects of the home social factors.