Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Changes in the rapidly extracted auditory evoked potentials index and the bispectral index during sedation induced by propofol or midazolam under epidural block.

BACKGROUND The bispectral index (BIS) and the rapidly extracted auditory evoked potentials index (A-line ARX Index or AAI) have been proposed as methods to measure the depth of sedation. A prospective study was designed to assess the performance of both these methods for measuring the depth of sedation induced by propofol or midazolam under epidural block. METHODS Thirty-two ASA I and II adult patients undergoing elective gynaecological surgery under low-thoracolumbar epidural block were studied. Eighteen patients received propofol (Group P: 20 mg bolus every 3 min) and 14 received midazolam (Group M: 0.5 mg bolus every 5 min) until an observer's assessment of alertness/sedation (OAA/S) scale score of 1 was achieved. AAI and BIS were monitored for different OAA/S scores. RESULTS AAI and BIS decreased and increased following the changes on the patients' OAA/S scores and correlated with sedation significantly. During the onset phase, the coefficients of Spearman's rank correlation for AAI and BIS were respectively 0.958 and 0.898 (P < 0.001) for Group P, and 0.973 and 0.945 (P < 0.001) for Group M. During the recovery phase in Group P, the coefficients were respectively 0.946 and 0.702 (P < 0.001). Linear regression analysis showed that both AAI and BIS were linearly related to the OAA/S scores. The coefficients of Spearman's rank correlation and linear regression for AAI were all greater than those for BIS (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS Both AAI and BIS correlated well with the depth of sedation induced by propofol or midazolam under epidural block. AAI may be more valuable when monitoring depth of sedation.
A dynamic threshold method of clustering update messages into routing events in BGP measurements

To better understand BGP dynamics, a number of previous measurement studies have focused on the convergence time of the routing events in the global routing system. A time-based approach has been developed to cluster BGP updates stream of the same prefix and the same observation point into routing events with threshold value. In practical networks, the same static threshold value, i.e. 4 minutes, can not group updates into events correctly. In this paper, we present an algorithm of dynamic threshold value for per destination network based on the probability method. Our experimental results show that the threshold value is sensitive to prefixes. A threshold value suitable for one prefix is not likely appropriate for another. Therefore, we think the dynamic values are more suitable for prefixes than the static value. With our method, the routing events can be clustered precisely, so that can improve the accuracy of the measurement studies.
How Should Inflation Be Measured in India?

Though monetary policy in India is not explicitly charged with delivering low and stable inflation, it still needs to choose a measure of inflation as a reference. Questions of timeliness, weights in the price index, accuracy of food price measurement, and inclusion of the prices of services are relevant to the choice of measure. This paper looks at detailed price data, expenditure patterns of households and the composition of different price indices available in India, and discusses policies on inflation measurement in other countries. Under present conditions of measurement, the consumer price index for industrial workers, despite some serious deficiencies, is preferable to both the wholesale price index and the GDP deflator as the headline inflation rate. Thus, macroeconomic analysis and policy thinking need to move away from a focus on the WPI to the CPI-IW.
Monetary policy and credit conditions: new evidence

A number of recent papers seek to distinguish between "money" and "credit" theories of the transmission of monetary disturbances using asymmetric information arguments. In credit models money causes output not only through the real interest rate but also through the availability of bank credit. The research described in this paper extends the work of Kashyap, Stein and Wilcox (1993) who construct a model that incorporates a relationship benefit to bank borrowing and then test the implications of the model. In this paper I extend their work by taking into account the households' demand for commercial paper, the T- bill market and the default risk of the banking sector as a determinant of the relationship benefit.
SaaS business model for software enterprise

Revenue of traditional software enterprises are from software copyright licensing and software upgrades, maintenance and other services fees. As a rapidly growing operation model of software contrast to traditional perpetual-use license, SaaS (Software as a Service) softwares are subscripted by users from vendors. From views of business and technique, software product/service selection, software service classification, service pattern and charges, advantages and disadvantages of SaaS business model were analyzed in the paper. A conclusion is that SaaS business model could not only provide vendors more development opportunities but also contribute to SME's informationization.
The Process and Experience of Deciding to Live Openly Atheist in a Christian Family: A Qualitative Study

Existing literature reveals that atheists are among the least accepted groups in America. This study examined the process atheists go through when disclosing their atheism to their religious family members. It is hoped that the information gained may benefit therapists who work with this population as they go through this potentially difficult time and adds to the currently insufficient body of research on atheism and atheists. Using the guided frameworks of grounded theory and social exchange and choice theory, a focus group was conducted with seven atheists and coded for themes. The data revealed the disclosure process as happening in three main stages which cover how the atheists arrived at the belief system, how it was disclosed and its reception, and how relationships have been impacted since the disclosure. The clinical implications of the findings and suggestions for future research are also discussed.
The Psychology of Psychologists: An Exploration of the Factors that Influence School Psychologists' Practices and Perspectives in the Assessment of Children Referred with Behvioural Difficulties

Children all around the world demonstrate behaviour problems. These may consist of a wide array of disruptions ranging from mildly annoying and relatively minor problems to more significant and marked behaviours. Among the forty-three countries where school psychology services exist, school psychologists are often called upon to assess children who are demonstrating behaviour difficulties and other mental health issues. Yet few studies exist which explore school psychologists’ practices and perspectives in the assessment of children referred due to behaviour difficulties. This thesis will contribute to the existing body of knowledge by exploring the: 1. Theoretical Factors, School Psychologist Factors and 3. Assessment Factors that influence Ontario school psychologists’ practices and/or perspectives in their assessments of children referred with behavioural difficulties. Forty-four school psychologists from the province of Ontario, Canada, participated in a mixed-methods study using self-administered postal questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The results of this study highlight that Ontario school psychologists aim to provide psychological assessments that allow them to identify difficulties across the continuum of behaviour from mild to severe. Significant findings include relationships between the areas of: training, registration, years of professional experience, methods of assessment, diagnosis, interventions, as well as theoretical perspectives of behaviour. As school psychology continues to grow internationally, it is essential that school psychologists are at the forefront of conducting research that encourages self-reflection, enhances their knowledge and skills, and advances the profession.
Bidirectional A* Search with Additive Approximation Bounds

In this paper, we present new theoretical and experimental results for bidirectional A* search. Unlike most previous research on this topic, our results do not require assumptions of either consistent or balanced heuristic functions for the search. Our theoretical work examines new results on the worst-case number of node expansions for inconsistent heuristic functions with bounded estimation errors. Additionally, we consider several alternative termination criteria in order to more quickly terminate the bidirectional search, and we provide worst-case approximation bounds for our suggested criteria. We prove that our approximation bounds are purely additive in nature (a general improvement over previous multiplicative approximations). Experimental evidence on large-scale road networks suggests that the errors introduced are truly quite negligible in practice, while the performance gains are significant.
Working with offenders with personality disorder: it’s more than just the offender

This thesis considers the experiences of those working with offenders with personality disorder (PD). Chapter one introduces the concept of PD and identifies the aims of the thesis. Chapter two comprises of a systematic literature review of the psychological consequences of working with offenders with PD. The evidence suggests that working with offenders with PD can result in staff ’burnout’, feeling professionally isolated, reduced self-efficacy, and negative emotional lability. Despite the dominance of negative consequences from their work, positive experiences were also identified including feeling professionally challenged and satisfied. Chapter three explores the experiences of professionals working within ‘Unit A’ for offenders with PD and personality difficulties located within a high security prison. The results indicate a multiplicity of factors impact on the experiences of professionals working on the unit, including the prison environment, synergy of the workforce, the level of support required and provided, knowledge level, and individual perceptions. Additionally, the by-product of personal change was identified, which in turn influenced professionals’ experiences of working on ‘Unit A’. The findings demonstrate that numerous factors influenced a professional’s experiences working on ‘Unit A’, and most appear external to the challenging personality traits of the individuals with PD. Chapter four provides a critique of the Essen Climate Evaluation Schema (EssenCES; Schalast et al., 2008). Findings suggest that the EssenCES has an emerging research base which supports its rise as a valid and reliable measure of social climate. The chapter highlights the strengths of the EssenCES but also highlights the psychometric limitations of the measure. The final chapter discusses the thesis findings with reference to the need for further research and the implications for current practice.
An Epstein-Barr Virus-Encoded Protein Complex Requires an Origin of Lytic Replication In Cis to Mediate Late Gene Transcription

Epstein-Barr virus lytic replication is accomplished by an intricate cascade of gene expression that integrates viral DNA replication and structural protein synthesis. Most genes encoding structural proteins exhibit “true” late kinetics–their expression is strictly dependent on lytic DNA replication. Recently, the EBV BcRF1 gene was reported to encode a TATA box binding protein homolog, which preferentially recognizes the TATT sequence found in true late gene promoters. BcRF1 is one of seven EBV genes with homologs found in other β- and γ-, but not in α-herpesviruses. Using EBV BACmids, we systematically disrupted each of these “βγ” genes. We found that six of them, including BcRF1, exhibited an identical phenotype: intact viral DNA replication with loss of late gene expression. The proteins encoded by these six genes have been found by other investigators to form a viral protein complex that is essential for activation of TATT-containing reporters in EBV-negative 293 cells. Unexpectedly, in EBV infected 293 cells, we found that TATT reporter activation was weak and non-specific unless an EBV origin of lytic replication (OriLyt) was present in cis. Using two different replication-defective EBV genomes, we demonstrated that OriLyt-mediated DNA replication is required in cis for TATT reporter activation and for late gene expression from the EBV genome. We further demonstrate by fluorescence in situ hybridization that the late BcLF1 mRNA localizes to EBV DNA replication factories. These findings support a model in which EBV true late genes are only transcribed from newly replicated viral genomes.
Should Hospitals Keep Their Patients Longer? The Role of Inpatient and Outpatient Care in Reducing Readmissions

Twenty percent of Medicare patients are readmitted to the hospital within 30 days of discharge, resulting in substantial costs to the U.S. government. As part of the 2010 Affordable Care Act, the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program financially penalizes hospitals with higher than expected readmissions. Utilizing data on the over 6.6 million Medicare patients treated between 2008 and 2011, we estimate the impact of an inpatient intervention (keeping patients in the hospital for an extra day) versus providing outpatient interventions (often used for patients treated via a managed care plan) on reducing readmission and mortality rates. We find that for heart failure patients, the inpatient and outpatient interventions have practically identical impact on reducing readmissions. For heart attack and pneumonia patients, keeping patients for one more day can potentially save 5 to 6 times as many lives over outpatient programs. Moreover, we find that even if the outpatient programs were cost-free, the number of additional lives saved makes it cost-effective to incur the additional costs of an extended hospital stay. While some outpatient programs can be very effective at reducing hospital readmissions, we find that 1) inpatient interventions can be just as, if not more, effective and 2) to the extent that hospitals can implement such an inpatient intervention, it is reasonable to hold them accountable for some of their excess readmissions.
Chemically modified oligonucleotides exhibit decreased immune stimulation in mice.

Phosphorothioate oligodeoxynucleotides produce splenomegaly and mononuclear cell infiltrates in multiple organs in mice after repeated i.v. administration. Several phosphorothioate oligodeoxynucleotides were studied to better understand the basis of immunostimulatory properties of these molecules in mice and to study the effects of chemically modified oligonucleotides. Chemical modifications examined included 5-methyl cytosine and 2'-methoxyethoxy substituents. Male mice (six per group) were treated with oligonucleotide concentrations of 0, 2, 10, or 50 mg/kg by i.v. injection every other day for 14 days. Immune stimulation was assessed 24 h after the last dose by measuring spleen weight, or histologic and immunohistochemical examination of liver and kidney. Immune stimulation was dose-dependent for the phosphorothioate oligodeoxynucleotides studied, but potency varied as a function of sequence. Results from this study reveal that there is a close correlation between the extent of splenomegaly and other evidence of immune stimulation, such as the severity of cell infiltrates in liver and kidney in mice. Immunohistochemical analysis indicated that cell infiltrates in liver and kidney were primarily mononuclear cells associated with increased expression of the endothelial-leukocyte cellular adhesion molecule intracellular adhesion molecule-1 and the cytokine interleukin-6. Immune stimulation was markedly decreased with oligonucleotides containing the 5-methyl cytosine and further decreased by 2'-methoxyethoxy modifications. Administration of these modified oligonucleotides to mice did not produce splenomegaly even at the 50-mg/kg dose, and only produced minimal cell infiltrates despite the presence of comparable or greater tissue oligonucleotide concentrations. Thus, chemical modifications appeared to increase the tolerability profile for these compounds that are representative of the second generation of antisense oligonucleotides.
Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth is Associated with Intestinal Inflammation in the Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Background and aim Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth is encountered in bowel disorders, including irritable bowel symptoms. Low degrees of inflammation have been recently reported in the irritable bowel syndrome. We looked for the association between intestinal inflammation and small intestinal bacterial overgrowth in irritable bowel syndrome. Methods Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth was assessed by the H2 glucose breath test in 90 consecutive patients with irritable bowel syndrome. A check-up of the oral cavity was carried out before the breath testing. Further on, the patients were classified into two groups, positive and negative, at the breath test. Then they were tested for intestinal inflammation with a fecal test for calprotectin. We used a semiquantitative test for this study. Both groups were compared for the association of intestinal inflammation with small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. Results A number of 24/90 (26.7%) patients with irritable bowel syndrome had small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. A positive test for intestinal inflammation was significantly more frequent in patients with irritable bowel syndrome and small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (chi2: p<0.05). Conclusions Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth is present in almost one quarter of patients with irritable bowel syndrome. It is significantly associated with intestinal inflammation.
Detecting Highly Overlapping Communities with Model-Based Overlapping Seed Expansion

As research into community finding in social networks progresses, there is a need for algorithms capable of detecting overlapping community structure. Many algorithms have been proposed in recent years that are capable of assigning each node to more than a single community. The performance of these algorithms tends to degrade when the ground-truth contains a more highly overlapping community structure, with nodes assigned to more than two communities. Such highly overlapping structure is likely to exist in many social networks, such as Facebook friendship networks. In this paper we present a scalable algorithm, MOSES, based on a statistical model of community structure, which is capable of detecting highly overlapping community structure, especially when there is variance in the number of communities each node is in. In evaluation on synthetic data MOSES is found to be superior to existing algorithms, especially at high levels of overlap. We demonstrate MOSES on real social network data by analyzing the networks of friendship links between students of five US universities.
Engineering Rhizobial Bioinoculants: A Strategy to Improve Iron Nutrition

Under field conditions, inoculated rhizobial strains are at a survival disadvantage as compared to indigenous strains. In order to out-compete native rhizobia it is not only important to develop strong nodulation efficiency but also increase their competence in the soil and rhizosphere. Competitive survival of the inoculated strain may be improved by employing strain selection and by genetic engineering of superior nitrogen fixing strains. Iron sufficiency is an important factor determining the survival and nodulation by rhizobia in soil. Siderophores, a class of ferric specific ligands that are involved in receptor specific iron transport into bacteria, constitute an important part of iron acquisition systems in rhizobia and have been shown to play a role in symbiosis as well as in saprophytic survival. Soils predominantly have iron bound to hydroxamate siderophores, a pool that is largely unavailable to catecholate-utilizing rhizobia. Outer membrane receptors for uptake of ferric hydroxamates include FhuA and FegA which are specific for ferrichrome siderophore. Increase in nodule occupancy and enhanced plant growth of the fegA and fhuA expressing engineered bioinoculants rhizobial strain have been reported. Engineering rhizobia for developing effective bioinoculants with improved ability to utilize heterologous siderophores could provide them with better iron acquisition ability and consequently, rhizospheric stability.
Vitamin A deficiency in chickens

The importance of vitamin A for the normal development and maintenance of skeletal, nervous and epithelial tissues has long been recognized, and the general signs of deficiency of this vitamin in chickens have been described by Seifried (1930) and by Beach (1923). One of the most important changes caused by vitamin A deficiency, often leading to serious infection, is the replacement of many secretory epithelia by non-secretory, keratinizing membranes. In the experiments reported here, the effects of vitamin A deficiency on the corneal, conjunctival, oesophageal and tracheal epithelia of the young chick have been studied. In many animals these epithelia show metaplastic changes in vitamin A deficiency. Xerophthalmia (i.e. drying of the eyes, with keratinization of the corneal and conjunctival epithelia) was one of the first signs recognized as characteristic of vitamin A deficiency, and in many species, e.g. the rat, it is often one of the earliest and most obvious changes to appear. In vitamin A-deficient chickens, gross changes can be seen in the eyes (Beach, 1923), but these lesions are not as extensive or as obvious as they sometimes are in rats and many other mammals. Metaplastic changes also occur in the mucous glands of the chick oesophagus in vitamin A deficiency (Beach, 1923; Seifried, 1930); in the trachea the epithelium, which is normally ciliated and secretory, gradually becomes stratified and keratinized (Seifried, 1930). It was thought desirable to study the effects of vitamin A deficiency on these epithelia in more detail, however, for comparison with changes in the same tissues grown as organ cultures and subjected to varying concentrations of vitamin A. The results of these tissue-culture experiments, and a comparison between the epithelial changes observed in vitro and in vitamin A-deficient chicks, are presented in another publication (Aydelotte, 1963).