Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
METHYLENE BLUE, SPATIAL MEMORY AND ANTERIOR THALAMIC LESIONS RELEVANT TO AMNESIC DISORDERS

While recent studies have focused on methylene blue’s interaction with amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles in Alzheimer’s disease,! no studies have investigated the efficacy of methylene blue in animal-lesion models of regional pathology relevant to AD. The goal of this dissertation was to examine the effects of methylene blue on spatial memory in aged Wistar rats with lesions to the anterior thalamic nuclei (ATN), part of an extended episodic memory system that shows early pathology in AD and diencephalic amnesia. First, 12 ATN rats were compared to 14 aged shams (18 to 22 months old) to assess spatial memory acquisition in a standard water maze task (10 days). Rats in each group then received intraperitoneal injections of methylene blue (1 mg/kg) or placebo 1 hour after each daily trial for 10 days in which acquisition of a new platform position was examined, followed by a probe trial 5 days later. Anterior thalamic lesions impaired initial acquisition of the reference memory task. In the subsequent acquisition and probe trial, methylene blue treatment vs. placebo improved spatial learning in ATN rats, but there was no effect in sham rats. These results provide the first evidence that methylene blue may prevent the learning impairments observed in rats with lesions to the anterior thalamus and supports methylene blue as a potential therapeutic intervention for older humans with memory disorders associated with injury to the ATN and the extended episodic memory system.
Clinical Demographics and Outcomes in Mechanically Ventilated Patients in Korean Intensive Care Units

Knowledge of clinical demographics and outcomes of mechanically ventilated patients is important but there are few prospectively collected data in Korea. The objective of the present study was to describe the current status of mechanically ventilated patients in Korea as of 2010. We analyzed the data of Korean patients (275 patients in 12 Korean intensive care units [ICU]) participating in a multinational prospective cohort study on mechanical ventilation. The most common indication for mechanical ventilation was pneumonia (23%). Pressure-limited ventilation modes were preferred over volume-cycled ventilation modes. Non-invasive positive pressure ventilation was used in only seven (2%) patients as the initial ventilatory support. Median duration of mechanical ventilation was 7 days and ICU mortality was 36%. The multiple logistic regression model revealed that the Simplified Acute Physiology Score II (SAPS II) score at ICU admission (odds ratio [OR], 1.034; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.001-1.036; P=0.033), peak pressure (OR, 1.054; 95% CI, 1.016-1.095; P=0.006), and the number of failed organs (OR, 2.132; 95% CI, 1.634-2.781; P<0.001) were independently associated with ICU mortality. This study provides a snapshot of current practice of mechanical ventilation in Korea. Graphical Abstract
Mobile Software Reliability Measurement Using Growth Model in Testing

In this paper, we study the software reliability measurement method of reliability testing metrics. Software reliability is very important. But, it is very difficult to test for software reliability measurement. So we describes the software reliability metrics for ISO/IEC 9126, and we introduce GammaLomax software reliability model for multiple error debugging. And we calculate the software reliability measure(reliability metrics, parameter estimation etc). We introduce the measurement method of software reliability quality of software product.
Amblyopia screening in children in Bandar Abbas (Iran) during 2011–2012

Background: Amblyopia is an acquired defect of vision caused by abnormal visual experience that occurs during childhood. Since early diagnosis is important in preventing further irreparable effects, the aim of this study was to investigate the outcome of amblyopia screening in children. Methods: Data from the amblyopia screening program in the Welfare Department of Bandar Abbas during 2011–2012 were used. Suspected cases were referred to specialists in the Optometry clinic for screening purposes. Subsequently, patients who suffered from strabismus, amblyopia, or refractive errors were referred to ophthalmologists. SPSS version16 was used to analyze the data. The significance level was set at P < 0.05. Results: Of the 16,599 children examined in 2012, 2486 suspected cases of amblyopia were diagnosed and 168 being diagnosed with amblyopia after visit with ophthalmologist. The prevalence rate of amblyopia was 1.01%. In 2011, of 17,733 cases, 2013 children were diagnosed as suspected cases and 171 patients were diagnosed to be amblyopic finally. Conclusions: The prevalence of amblyopia in this study was 0.96% and 1.01% in years 2011 and 2012 respectively, which was consistent with the results of studies in other countries. By considering the importance of diagnosing the prevalence of amblyopia on time in preschool and in order to prevent children`s low vision or blindness in future, it is essential to increase the quality of the examinations that are conducted by the trainers.
New pertussis vaccination strategies beyond infancy: recommendations by the global pertussis initiative.

BACKGROUND The Global Pertussis Initiative, an expert scientific forum, was established to address the ongoing problems associated with pertussis disease worldwide. METHODS The group analyzed pertussis disease trends, developed recommendations to improve disease control through expanded vaccination strategies, and proposed solutions to barriers to implementation and support of research activities. RESULTS Bordetella pertussis infection is endemic and continues to be a serious problem among unvaccinated or incompletely vaccinated infants. In addition, the reported incidence of pertussis disease is increasing in adolescents and adults, who not only experience a considerable health burden themselves but also infect vulnerable infants. CONCLUSIONS Current vaccination strategies need to be reinforced. Expanded vaccination should include adding booster doses to existing childhood schedules (preschool or adolescent) and booster doses for those specific adult subgroups that have the highest risk of transmitting B. pertussis infection to infants (i.e., new parents, other contacts of newborns, and health care workers). More epidemiological studies and studies of disease transmission and the cost-effectiveness of vaccination would be valuable, and surveillance, diagnostic improvements, and educational campaigns are needed for implementation. However, as a prelude to universal adult vaccination, immediate universal adolescent vaccination should be instituted in countries in which it is economically feasible.
Strategic Selection of Legal Instruments on the U.S. Supreme Court

I examine and empirically test a central assumption of strategic models of Supreme Court behavior. Specifically, I consider whether the Court selects legal instruments used in the majority opinions of federal statutory cases to reduce the likelihood that Congress will overturn that opinion, in particular whether the Court invokes constitutional interpretation over statutory interpretation to avoid congressional “overrides” in cases involving federal statutes. Using decisions from the 1953 to 2000 Court terms, I find evidence that when the Court anticipates that Congress may overturn its opinion, the Court is more likely to employ constitutional interpretation in its opinion. These findings confirm that opportunities for the Court to behave strategically are not limited to voting behavior but instead extend to other areas such as choice of legal instruments.
Prognostic Relevance of Occult Nodal Micrometastases and Circulating Tumor Cells in Colorectal Cancer in a Prospective Multicenter Trial

Purpose: Nodal micrometastasis and circulating tumor cells detected by multimarker quantitative real-time reverse transcription-PCR (qRT-PCR) may have prognostic importance in patients with colorectal cancer. Experimental Design: Paraffin-embedded sentinel lymph nodes from 67 patients and blood from 34 of these patients were evaluated in a prospective multicenter trial of sentinel lymph node mapping in colorectal cancer. Sentinel lymph nodes were examined by H&E staining and cytokeratin immunohistochemistry. Sentinel lymph nodes and blood were examined by a four-marker qRT-PCR assay (c-MET, melanoma antigen gene-A3 family, β1→4-N-acetylgalactosaminyltransferase, and cytokeratin-20); qRT-PCR results were correlated with disease stage and outcome. Results: In H&E-negative sentinel lymph node patients that recurred, cytokeratin immunohistochemistry and qRT-PCR detected metastasis in 30% and 60% of patients, respectively. Disease-free survival differed significantly by multimarker qRT-PCR upstaged sentinel lymph node (P = 0.014). qRT-PCR analysis of blood for circulating tumor cells correlated with overall survival (P = 0.040). Conclusion: Molecular assessment for micrometastasis in sentinel lymph node and blood specimens may help identify patients at high risk for recurrent colorectal cancer, who could benefit from adjuvant therapy.
Comparison of some haematological parameters between three bird species from the Columbidae family - short communication

1Department of Pharmacology, Veterinary Physiology and Physiological Chemistry, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Trakia University, Bulgaria 2Department of Surgery, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Trakia University, Bulgaria 3Department of Internal Diseases, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Trakia University, Bulgaria 4High School of Veterinary Medicine, Stara Zagora, Bulgaria 5Department of Morphology, Animal Physiology and Nutrition, Faculty of Agriculture, Trakia University, Bulgaria
A Model-Based Investigation of Soil Moisture Predictability and Associated Climate Predictability

Soil moisture predictability and the associated predictability of continental climate are explored as an initialvalue problem, using a coupled land‐atmosphere model with prescribed ocean surface temperatures. Ensemble simulations are designed to assess the extent to which initial soil moisture fields explain variance of future predictands (soil moisture, near-surface air temperature, and precipitation). For soil moisture, the decrease of explained variance with lead time can be characterized as a first-order decay process, and a predictability timescale is introduced as the lead time at which this decay reaches e 21. The predictability timescale ranges from about 2 weeks or less (in midlatitudes during summer, and in the Tropics and subtropics) to 2‐6 months (in mid- to high latitudes for simulations that start in late fall and early winter). The predictability timescale of the modeled soil moisture is directly related to the soil moisture’s autocorrelation timescale. The degree of translation of soil moisture predictability to predictability of any atmospheric variable can be characterized by the ratio of the fraction of explained variance of the atmospheric variable to the fraction of explained soil moisture variance. By this measure, regions with the highest associated predictability of 30-day-mean near-surface air temperature (ratio greater than 0.5) are, generally speaking, coincident with regions and seasons of the smallest soil moisture predictability timescales. High associated temperature predictability is found where strong variability of soil moisture stress on evapotranspiration and abundant net radiation at the continental surface coincide. The associated predictability of 30-day-mean precipitation, in contrast, is very low.
Vocal Tract Length Perturbation (VTLP) improves speech recognition

Augmenting datasets by transforming inputs in a way that does not change the label is a crucial ingredient of the state of the art methods for object recognition using neural networks. However this approach has (to our knowledge) not been exploited successfully in speech recognition (with or without neural networks). In this paper we lay the foundation for this approach, and show one way of augmenting speech datasets by transforming spectrograms, using a random linear warping along the frequency dimension. In practice this can be achieved by using warping techniques that are used for vocal tract length normalization (VTLN) - with the difference that a warp factor is generated randomly each time, during training, rather than tting a single warp factor to each training and test speaker (or utterance). At test time, a prediction is made by averaging the predictions over multiple warp factors. When this technique is applied to TIMIT using Deep Neural Networks (DNN) of dierent depths, the Phone Error Rate (PER) improved by an average of 0.65% on the test set. For a Convolutional neural network (CNN) with convolutional layer in the bottom, a gain of 1.0% was observed. These improvements were achieved without increasing the number of training epochs, and suggest that data transformations should be an important component of training neural networks for speech, especially for data limited projects.
PROPERTIES AND ORIGIN OF THE HIGH-VELOCITY GAS TOWARD THE LARGE MAGELLANIC CLOUD

In the spectra of 139 early-type Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) stars observed with Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer and with deep radio Parkes H i 21 cm observations along with those stars, we search for and analyze the absorption and emission from high-velocity gas at +90 ⩽ vLSR ⩽ +175 km s−1. The H i column density of the high-velocity clouds (HVCs) along these sightlines ranges from <1018.4 to 1019.2 cm−2. The incidence of the HVC metal absorption is 70%, significantly higher than the H i emission occurrence of 32%. We find that the mean metallicity of the HVC is [O i/H i] = −0.51 ± 0.120. 16. There is no strong evidence for a large variation in the HVC metallicity, implying that these HVCs have a similar origin and are part of the same complex. The mean and scatter of the HVC metallicities are more consistent with the present-day LMC oxygen abundance than that of the Small Magellanic Cloud or the MW. We find that on average [Si ii/O i] = +0.48 ± 0.150. 25 and [Fe ii/O i] = +0.33 ± 0.140. 21, implying that the HVC complex is dominantly ionized. The HVC complex has a multiphase structure with neutral (O i, Fe ii), weakly ionized (Fe ii, N ii), and highly ionized (O vi) components, and has evidence of dust but no molecules. All the observed properties of the HVC can be explained by an energetic outflow from the LMC. This is the first example of a large (>106 M☉) HVC complex that is linked to stellar feedback occurring in a dwarf spiral galaxy.
Return Variability in CARICOM Equity Markets

This paper examines the validity of the Sharpe-Linter-Black Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) to stocks traded on the Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago Stock Exchanges. Tests of the CAPM are based on portfolio betas made up of stocks emanating from all three exchanges and are carried out on the alternative m ultifactor specification proposed by Fama and French (1992), extended to include the possible pricing of idiosyncratic volatility proposed by Malkiel and Xu (1997, 2006). Tests are also carried out to account explicitly for negative excess market returns w ithin the framework proposed by Pettengill et al (1995). The results support the conclusion that betas, while useful, are not sufficient on their own to account for the variation in equity returns in the CARICOM markets.
Lack of reciprocity and strain: Narcissism as a moderator of the association between feeling under-benefited and irritation

Previous workplace research on narcissists has mainly focused on their performance or their role as leaders. However, little is known about their reaction to work stressors. The current study examined the moderating role of narcissism in the relationship between lack of reciprocity (feeling under-benefited) and irritation. Based on the notion that narcissists have an inflated self-view and a sense of entitlement, we proposed that lack of reciprocity would be positively related to irritation as an indicator of impaired well-being, and that the reaction to lack of reciprocity of those scoring high on narcissism should be particularly strong. We tested these hypotheses in a cross-sectional study with two samples, the first consisting of 106 pilots in the Swiss air force and the second comprising 103 employees in various Swiss organizations. In line with our assumptions, lack of reciprocity was positively related to irritation. Moreover, this relationship was stronger among participants who were high, as compared to low in narcissism. Practical implications of these results are discussed.
1 Selecting Multiway Splits in Decision Trees

Decision trees in which numeric attributes are split several ways are more comprehensible than the usual binary trees because attributes rarely appear more than once in any path from root to leaf. There are efficient algorithms for finding the optimal multiway split for a numeric attribute, given the number of intervals in which it is to be divided. The problem we tackle is how to choose this number in order to obtain small, accurate trees. We view each multiway decision as a model and a decision tree as a recursive structure of such models. Standard methods of choosing between competing models include resampling techniques (such as cross-validation, holdout, or bootstrap) for estimating the classification error; and minimum description length techniques. However, the recursive situation differs from the usual one, and may call for new model selection methods. This paper introduces a new criterion for model selection: a resampling estimate of the information gain. Empirical results are presented for building multiway decision trees using this new criterion, and compared with criteria adopted by previous authors. The new method generates multiway trees that are both smaller and more accurate than those produced previously, and their performance is comparable with standard binary decision trees.
Caught in the Act: Visualization of SNARE‐Mediated Fusion Events in Molecular Detail

Neurotransmitter release at the synapse requires fusion of synaptic vesicles with the presynaptic plasma membrane. SNAREs are the core constituents of the protein machinery responsible for this membrane fusion, but the actual fusion mechanism remains unclear. Here, we have simulated neuronal SNARE‐mediated membrane fusion in molecular detail. In our simulations, membrane fusion progresses through an inverted micelle fusion intermediate before reaching the hemifused state. We show that at least one single SNARE complex is required for fusion, as has also been confirmed in a recent in vitro single‐molecule fluoresence study. Further, the transmembrane regions of the SNAREs were found to play a vital role in the initiation of fusion by causing distortions of the lipid packing of the outer membrane leaflets, and the C termini of the transmembrane regions are associated with the formation of the fusion pores. The inherent mechanical stress in the linker region of the SNARE complex was found to drive both the subsequent formation and expansion of fusion pores. Our simulations also revealed that the presence of homodimerizations between the transmembrane regions leads to the formation of unstable fusion intermediates that are under high curvature stress. We show that multiple SNARE complexes mediate membrane fusion in a cooperative and synchronized process. Finally, we show that after fusion, the zipping of the SNAREs extends into the membrane region, in agreement with the recently resolved X‐ray structure of the fully assembled state.
Embryonic Exposure to Domoic Acid Increases the Susceptibility of Zebrafish Larvae to the Chemical Convulsant Pentylenetetrazole

Background Domoic acid (DA) is a neurotoxin produced by diatoms of the genus Pseudo-nitzschia that targets the limbic system to induce tonic–clonic seizures and memory impairment. In utero DA exposure of mice leads to a reduction in seizure threshold to subsequent DA exposures in mid-postnatal life, and similar studies have shown neurotoxic effects in rats that were delayed until adolescence. Objective We used in ovo microinjection of zebrafish (Danio rerio) to characterize the effect of embryonic exposure of DA on seizure-inducing agents later in life as an alternative species model to screen environmental contaminants that might induce a fetal-originating adult disease. Methods Embryos were microinjected within hours of fertilization to DA concentrations ranging from 0.12 to 1.26 ng/mg egg weight. Seven days later, the larval animals were characterized for sensitivity to the chemical convulsant pentylenetetrazole (PTZ), an agent that is well-defined in laboratory rodents and, more recently, in zebrafish. Results In ovo DA exposure, most significantly at 0.4 ng/mg, reduces the latency time until first PTZ seizure in larval fish and increases the severity of seizures as determined by seizure stage and movement parameters. The interaction between in ovo DA exposure and PTZ caused seizure behaviors to individually asymptomatic doses of PTZ (1.0 and 1.25 mM) and DA (0.13 and 0.22 ng/mg). Conclusion These studies demonstrate that in ovo exposure to DA reduces the threshold to chemically induced seizures in larval fish and increases the severity of seizure behavior in a manner that is consistent with in utero studies of laboratory rodents.
The Costs and Determinants of International Capital Raising : Evidence from Yankee and Eurodollar Corporate Bond Offerings

This paper examines the costs and determinants of international capital raising for a sample of 427 straight public debt issues made by non-U.S. firms in the U.S. (Yankee) and Eurodollar markets. We model the joint determination of market choice and interest costs using a switching regression model with endogenous switching. We find that firms issue bonds in the highly regulated U.S. market when the estimated interest cost is low relative to the Eurodollar market. Firms issuing Yankee bonds are more likely to be located in countries that require transparent accounting standards, protect creditor rights, and have strong traditions of law and order. Further, we find that investors are willing to pay higher prices for Yankee bonds issued by firms that have previously met U.S. registration and reporting requirements. Our analysis provides new insights into why foreign firms choose a particular market to raise debt capital, and how relative interest costs, disclosure requirements, creditor protections, and contract characteristics drive the decision. We would like to thank Vihang Errunza, Steve Forester, Ro Gutierrez, Philippe Jorion for helpful comments and suggestions. We thank Hwan Shin for help with the data. We also thank the Center for International Business Studies at Texas A&M University for financial support. We especially thank Laura Field for suggestions that have improved the quality of the paper. The usual disclaimer applies.
Stellar Metamorphosis: An Alternative for the Star Sciences

A correct version of star evolution is presented with definitions, pictures, explanations, diagrams and the like. It is explained that star evolution is planet formation itself and the vast majority of all accepted astrophysics/geophysics is horrendously incomplete and inconsistent. The Big Bang and Nebular Hypothesis are fully replaced in this tour de force.