Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Vascular dysfunctions following spinal cord injury

The aim of this article is to analyze the vascular dysfunctions occurring after spinal cord injury (SCI). Vascular dysfunctions are common complications of SCI. Cardiovascular disturbances are the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in both acute and chronic stages of SCI. Neuroanatomy and physiology of autonomic nervous system, sympathetic and parasympathetic, is reviewed. SCI implies disruption of descendent pathways from central centers to spinal sympathetic neurons, originating in intermediolateral nuclei of T1–L2 cord segments. Loss of supraspinal control over sympathetic nervous system results in reduced overall sympathetic activity below the level of injury and unopposed parasympathetic outflow through intact vagal nerve. SCI associates significant vascular dysfunction. Spinal shock occurs during the acute phase following SCI and it is a transitory suspension of function and reflexes below the level of the injury. Neurogenic shock, part of spinal shock, consists of severe arterial hypotension and bradycardia. Autonomic dysreflexia appears during the chronic phase, after spinal shock resolution, and it is a life–threatening syndrome of massive imbalanced reflex sympathetic discharge occurring in patients with SCI above the splanchnic sympathetic outflow (T5–T6). Arterial hypotension with orthostatic hypotension occurs in both acute and chronic phases. The etiology is multifactorial. We described a few factors influencing the orthostatic hypotension occurrence in SCI: sympathetic nervous system dysfunction, low plasma catecholamine levels, rennin–angiotensin–aldosterone activity, peripheral alpha–adrenoceptor hyperresponsiveness, impaired function of baroreceptors, hyponatremia and low plasmatic volume, cardiovascular deconditioning, morphologic changes in sympathetic neurons, plasticity within spinal circuits, and motor deficit leading to loss of skeletal muscle pumping activity. Additional associated cardiovascular concerns in SCI, such as deep vein thrombosis and long–term risk for coronary heart disease and systemic atherosclerosis are also described. Proper prophylaxis, including non–pharmacologic and pharmacological strategies, diminishes the occurrence of the vascular dysfunction following SCI. Each vascular disturbance requires a specific treatment.
Rethinking researching project management: Understanding the reality of project management careers

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify issues in the long-term development of project workers, their career paths, their contribution to organizational success and their need for equity of opportunity. The long-term development of project workers, their career paths and their contribution to organizational success is explored. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative research design using semi-structured interviews was employed to gain an understanding of social and human issues related to careers in project management (PM). By researching the lived experiences and feelings of those pursuing a career in PM the aim was to gain insight into the career journeys and experiences of practicing project managers. Findings Those who choose to pursue a career in PM have the personal characteristics and sufficiently high levels of self-efficacy to deal effectively with the uncertainty inherent in the nature of projects and of project-based employment. Research limitations/implications Participants were drawn from current project practitioners. As a result, the views of those who have worked on projects and chosen not to continue their career in the area have not been gathered. Practical implications Predictions are that there will be a continuing demand for project managers with the capabilities required to deliver successful projects. The challenge for organizations is to create an environment that will encourage greater numbers of people to embrace the uncertainty of project. The findings reported provide insight into how organizations might attract, develop and retain the project expertise they require for success. Originality/value This research provides further understanding into the lived experience of project managers, with a focus on those who have unexpectedly found themselves pursuing a career in PM.
Towards a Constructionist Theory of Musically-Induced Emotions

Listening to music can arouse a variety of affective responses. The study of this phenomenon has flourished during the last two decades, particularly thanks to the contribution of the BRECVEMA theory and the Multifactorial Process Model. Nevertheless, these theoretical frameworks have adopted a psychological reductionist approach that neglects the symbolic dimension of music, and the effect of situational factors. The first aim of this thesis is to overcome these shortcomings by proposing a theory based on contemporary constructionist theories of emotion. This novel theory proposes that listening to music activates automatic perceptual mechanisms that produce fluctuations of affect, and that the activation of associative and appraisal mechanisms transform the fluctuations of affect into a variety of emotional and nonemotional responses. The second aim was to test some of the hypotheses derived from this framework. The first experiment tests the prediction that listening to music while engaging in motor rhythmic entrainment leads to fluctuations of valence and arousal. Although the results did not support the hypothesis, they suggest that the phenomena of rhythmic entrainment, musical expectancy, and motor planning arise from shared perceptual principles. The second and third experiments investigate the phenomenon of emotional contagion with music. The results suggest that embodied simulation does not contribute significantly to listeners’ affective reactions, and that semantic knowledge activated by the music, by personal associations, and by extra musical information biases the type of perceived and induced emotions experienced by the listeners. The third aim of the thesis was to explore alternative ways of measuring musically-induced emotions. Two indirect techniques are implemented and evaluated, and a novel questionnaire of subjective experiences is developed. The main conclusion of the thesis is that the constructionist theory here proposed constitutes a fruitful approach, as it provides a non-reductionist heuristic framework that produces new hypotheses for future investigation.
Nested Monte-Carlo Search with AMAF Heuristic

Nested Monte-Carlo Search, which calls MonteCarlo search in the nested call, has succeeded in the one-person game named Morpion Solitaire. The depth for the nest is called a level, and the runtime increases exponentially in the search for higher level. In the present study, All-Move-As-First heuristic is incorporated in Nested Monte-Carlo Search and the number of search is reduced to maintain a pseudo number of searches in order to achieve the higher level search. Our system generated a new world record 146 moves of the computer search in Morpion Solitaire touching version by this
Non conversion of sputum smears in new smear positive pulmonary tuberculosis patients in Yaoundé, Cameroon.

OBJECTIVES To identify clinical, radiological and microbiological factors associated with the non conversion of sputum smears in new smear positive cases of pulmonary tuberculosis after two months of treatment and to evaluate the influence of non-smear conversion on treatment outcomes. DESIGN A prospective cohort study. SETTING Tuberculosis centre of Hôpital Jamot in Yaoundé- Cameroon from April 2006 to September 2007. SUBJECTS A total of 413 patients were studied. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Sputum smear status at two months of treatment, favourable treatment outcome (cured, treatment completed), unfavourable treatment outcome (death, treatment failure, default from treatment) and transferred out. RESULTS A total of 413 patients were studied; There were 234 (56.8%) males and 178 (43.2%) females with a mean age of 33 years (range 9.80 years). Sputum smears did not convert in 55 (13.4%) patients at the end of two months of treatment. Logistic regression analysis showed that age above or equal to 40 years (OR=2.716, 95% CI:1.412-5.223, p=0.003), and a bacillary load of 3+ on pre-treatment sputum smears (OR=1.955; 95% CI: 1.039-3.68, p=0.037) were significantly associated with non conversion of sputum smears at the end of two months of treatment. Persistent positive smears at the end of two months of treatment were significantly associated with unfavourable treatment outcomes (p=0.025) especially default during the course of treatment. CONCLUSION In Yaoundé, Cameroon, non conversion of positive sputum smears in new patients with pulmonary tuberculosis at the end of two months of treatment is associated with an unfavourable outcome particularly defaulting later in the course of treatment. Non conversion of sputum smears at two months of treatment is significantly associated with age above or equal to 40 years and the presence of numerous bacilli (3+) on pre-treatment sputum smears. Patients with these factors who do not smear convert after two months of treatment should be given a fully supervised treatment for the entire duration of therapy so as to prevent in particular treatment default.
Sex-specific manifestations of Löfgren's syndrome.

MOTIVATION It has been debated whether patients need to have erythema nodosum to be classified as having Löfgren's syndrome. In this study, we have therefore in detail evaluated and compared a large number of patients with an acute onset of sarcoidosis and bilateral hilar lymphadenopathy (BHL), with or without erythema nodosum (EN). This study is important because it may lead to a more accurate definition of Löfgren's syndrome, and an exact phenotype of patients is crucial in modern medical research. BACKGROUND Löfgren's syndrome is commonly regarded as a distinct clinical entity. METHODS We have in detail evaluated a large group of patients (n = 150) with an acute onset of sarcoidosis with BHL, in most cases with fever, EN, and/or bilateral ankle arthritis or periarticular inflammation. Within this group, 87 patients had EN (EN positive), whereas 63 were without EN (EN negative), though with distinct symmetric ankle inflammation. RESULTS EN-positive and EN-negative patients were identical in every aspect except that there were significantly more women in the EN-positive group: 58 women (67%) in the EN-positive group compared with only 17 (27%) women in the EN-negative group (p < 0.0001). In all other aspects, such as age, smoking habits, seasonal clustering of disease onset, rate of positive biopsies, chest radiography, pulmonary function, bronchoalveolar lavage cell distributions including the typically increased CD4/CD8 ratio, and clinical development of the disease, the EN-positive and EN-negative groups were close to identical. The two groups were also identically strongly associated with HLA-DRB1*0301/DQB1*0201, with 60 (69.0%) and 44 (69.8%) patients having this particular HLA type in the EN-positive and EN-negative groups, respectively. Such patients recovered to the same degree-that is, at almost 100%. CONCLUSIONS We conclude that manifestations of Löfgren's syndrome differ between men and women, with EN found predominantly in women, whereas a marked periarticular inflammation of the ankles or ankle arthritis without EN is seen preferentially in men.
The visual analysis of emotional actions

Abstract Is the visual analysis of human actions modulated by the emotional content of those actions? This question is motivated by a consideration of the neuroanatomical connections between visual and emotional areas. Specifically, the superior temporal sulcus (STS), known to play a critical role in the visual detection of action, is extensively interconnected with the amygdala, a center for emotion processing. To the extent that amygdala activity influences STS activity, one would expect to find systematic differences in the visual detection of emotional actions. A series of psychophysical studies tested this prediction. Experiment 1 identified point-light walker movies that convincingly depicted five different emotional states: happiness, sadness, neutral, anger, and fear. In Experiment 2, participants performed a walker detection task with these movies. Detection performance was systematically modulated by the emotional content of the gaits. Participants demonstrated the greatest visual sensitivity to angry walkers. The results of Experiment 3 suggest that local velocity cues to anger may account for high false alarm rates to the presence of angry gaits. These results support the hypothesis that the visual analysis of human action depends upon emotion processes.
Atopic dermatitis patients carrying G allele in –1082 G/A IL-10 polymorphism are predisposed to higher serum concentration of IL-10

Introduction Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic skin inflammatory disease in which Th2-derived cytokines play an essential role. Aim of the study was to assess interleukin 4, 10 and 13 (IL-4, IL-10 and IL-13) serum concentrations in AD patients and to correlate the values with the occurrence of genotypes of selected polymorphisms in genes encoding these cytokines. Material and methods Seventy-six AD patients (mean age 11.4 years) and 60 healthy controls were enrolled in the study. Blood samples were analyzed for IL-4, IL-10 and IL-13 concentrations with ELISA assay and genotyping for –590C/T IL-4, –1082A/G IL-10 and –1055C/T IL-13 polymorphisms with PCR-RFLP. Results The obtained results revealed statistically higher serum concentration of IL-10 and IL-13 in AD patients when compared to healthy controls (10.30 pg/ml vs. 8.51 pg/ml for IL-10 and 5.67 pg/ml vs. 4.98 pg/ml for IL-13). There were no significant differences between AD patients and controls in regard to IL-4 serum level (5.10 pg/ml vs. 7.1 pg/ml). Analyzing the association between level of the examined cytokines and genotype polymorphisms –590 C/T for the IL-4 gene, –1082 A/G for the IL-10 gene and –1055 C/T for the IL-13 gene, we found a statistically higher IL-10 serum level among carriers of the G allele in the –1082 G/A IL-10 polymorphism both in AD and control groups. We did not find any significant differences between serum level of IL-4 and IL-13 in regard to genotype occurrence in examined polymorphisms: –590 C/T for the IL-4 gene and –1055 C/T for the IL-13 gene. Conclusions The obtained results confirm the genetic background of IL-10 synthesis in the Polish population.
On the degree of the inverse of quadratic permutation polynomial interleavers

An integral component of a turbo code is a carefully designed interleaver. Interleavers based on quadratic permutation polynomials (modulo N) were introduced by Sun and Takeshita. They have several good properties and were selected to be used in a future cellular phone system. Ryu and Takeshita later initiated the study of the related deinterleavers. Here we extend this latter work and introduce a very efficient method for computing the (degree of the) lowest degree polynomial giving the deinterleaver. Our approach is based on combining two techniques. The Chinese remainder theorem allows us to study one prime factor of N at a time. Our other technique is to first present the inverse function as a power series, and then turn that power series to a low degree polynomial using a Gröbner basis of the ideal of polynomials vanishing modulo a prime power.
Science reporting in Accra, Ghana: Sources, barriers and motivational factors

In Ghana, as in many other developing countries, most science reporting is done by general reporters. However, few studies have investigated science reporting in such a situation. To understand better the dynamics of science reporting in such context, we surveyed 151 general reporters in Ghana. Respondents’ demographic characteristics resembled those found in studies elsewhere. Respondents perceived health professionals and scientists as very important sources of information for reporting science. There was an inverse correlation between journalism experience and the number of science feature stories reported in the past 12 months (p = .017). Most respondents indicated that science journalism training would motivate them to report science more. Likewise, most reported that easier access to research findings would do so. We identify characteristics of reporters, media, scientific, and training institutions that are important influences of Ghanaian reporters’ coverage of science. We provide recommendations for advancing science reporting in Ghana.
Specificity of archaeal caspase activity in the extreme halophile Haloferax volcanii

Caspase-like proteases are key initiators and executioners of programmed cell death (PCD), which is initiated by environmental stimuli and manifests in organisms ranging from unicellular microbes to higher eukaryotes. Archaea had been absent from the caspase inheritance discussion due to a lack of gene homologues. We recently demonstrated extremely high, basal caspase-like catalytic activity in the model haloarcheon, Haloferax volcanii, which was linked to the cellular stress response and was widespread among diverse Archaea. Here, we rigorously tested the catalytic specificity of the observed archaeal caspase-like activities using hydrolytic assays with a diverse suite of protease substrates and inhibitors compared with known model serine and cysteine proteases (trypsin, cathepsin, papain, and human caspase-8). Our experiments demonstrate that exponentially growing H. volcanii possesses a highly specific caspase-like activity that most closely resembles caspase-4, is preferentially inhibited by the pan-caspase inhibitor, zVAD-FMK, and has no cross-reactivity with other known protease families. Our findings firmly root the extremely high levels of caspase-like activity as the dominant proteolytic activity in this extreme haloarcheaon, thereby providing further support for housekeeping functions in Haloarchaea. Given the deep archaeal roots of eukaryotes, we suggest that this activity served as a foundation for stress pathways in higher organisms.
Book Review Forum

Given the attempts within human geography over the last 30 years to disassemble academic boundaries, agricultural geographers now appear to be a rare breed. My reading of Stefan Ouma’s book, more research monograph, came from this endangered agricultural geography perspective! I was transported by this volume back to the mid-1980s when a radical new way of thinking about agriculture emerged in geography; that of the modified political economy perspective (‘modified’ to take account of agency; a nuance that has not always been fully appreciated – see Marsden et al., 1996). Co-authored by Richard Munton, whom Ouma describes at one point (34) as ‘probably the leading scholar on assetization of farmland in the United Kingdom at that time’, the ‘buzz word’ was the ‘restructuring’ of agriculture (Marsden et al., 1986). The central focus for the approach was the family labour-based farm and its prospects for survival; one with deeper roots to Kautsky’s ‘Agrarian Question’ itself. This arose in the context of a fierce industrialisation of agriculture, a phenomenon proceeding at pace and attracting increasing research attention from agricultural geographers; as testified by the collection of works in the first half of Healey and Ilbery’s (1985) book on The Industrialisation of the Countryside. Features discussed included vertical integration of production, a managerialist approach to farming on the ground, and, crucially, the subsumption (both direct and indirect) of factors of production (including land) by industrial capitals. Many are now raised again in Ouma’s book. To cut a long story short, the general conclusion from the application of a modified political economy approach to agriculture at this time was that there would be no ‘disappearing middle’. Farm families had survived, and would continue to survive, in business, in the UK at least, because it was in the interests of corporate capitals to avoid owning land and tying up money in something fixed with unattractive ‘long capital turnover time’ (Goss et al., 1979: 19). Having solved that hitherto stubborn problem, agricultural geographers subsequently became distracted away from agrarian industrialisation into the realms of: farm diversification (eventually leading to whole new theorisations, including my pet hate of ‘post-productivism’! – see Evans et al., 2002); agri-environmental policy; and the broader ‘geography of food’ (Atkins, 1988). But, how does this saunter down memory lane relate to Ouma’s book? For me, and after more than three decades, it essentially picks up where we left off with the industrialisation of agriculture. In other words, it represents the type of investigative work agricultural geographers should, and possibly would, have done next if focus had been maintained on this theme. Ouma himself declares that he was inspired by Worthington’s (1979) work for the Countryside Commission (a UK Government Book review forum
Safe Operating Area of GaAs HBTs Based on Sub-Nanosecond Pulse Characteristics

Using a novel sub-nanosecond pulse current-voltage measurement technique, InGaP/GaAs heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) were shown to survive strong impact ionization and to have a much larger safe operating area (SOA) than previously measured or predicted. As the result, an empirical model for impact ionization with both voltage and current dependence was extracted and added to a commercially available HBT model. The modified model could predict the HBT characteristics across the enlarged SOA, as well as the performance of ultra-wideband pulse generators and the ruggedness of continuous wave Class-C power amplifiers.
Wages, Productivity, and Worker Characteristics: A French Perspective

We investigate the relationship between wages, productivity, and workercharacteristics using a new exhaustive matched employer–employee longitudinaldataset for France. Expanding on the methodology originally proposed byHellerstein, Neumark and Troske (1999), we relax their hypotheses and providea new method using cost for the employer. Interestingly, results for Francestand in stark contrast with those found in the US: in manufacturing, we findno or little wage discrimination against women who appear to hold less productivejobs, while older workers are relatively overpaid, or equivalently, youngerworkers are underpaid. Robustness of these results across time periods, industriesand identifying assumptions, are confirmed. (J24, J31, J7) Labor productivity, wages, discrimination.
Principals’ Perspectives on Social Media in Schools

The purpose of this study was to gather information from Texas school principals regarding their perspectives on social media as an instructional tool. This study examined current uses of social media in the schools, principals’ perceptions of the educational value of social media, the necessity for digital citizenship, the potential barriers to using social media, and device usage. Overall, principals indicated via online questionnaire that they were using social media to communicate with stakeholders and there was enthusiasm toward using social media in the classroom for instructional purposes. However, the use of social media to promote 21st century skills remains has yet to reach its full potential and remains an elusive target. Principals also acknowledged implementing social media as instructional tools was a complex process.