Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Patient Transport and Brain Oxygen in Comatose Patients

OBJECTIVETransport of critically ill intensive care unit patients may be hazardous. We examined whether brain oxygen (brain tissue oxygen partial pressure [PbtO2]) is influenced by transport to and from a follow-up head computed tomography (transport head computed tomography [tHCT]) scan. METHODSForty-five patients (24 men, 21 women; Glasgow Coma Scale score ≤8; mean age, 47.3 ± 19.0 years) who had a traumatic brain injury (n = 26) or subarachnoid hemorrhage (n = 19) were retrospectively identified from a prospective observational cohort of PbtO2 monitoring in a neurosurgical intensive care unit at a university-based level I trauma center. PbtO2, intracranial pressure, and cerebral perfusion pressure were monitored continuously and compared during the 3 hours before and after 100 tHCT scans. RESULTSThe mean PbtO2 before and after the tHCT scans for all 100 scans was 37.9 ± 19.8 mm Hg and 33.9 ± 17.2 mm Hg, respectively (P = .0001). A decrease in PbtO2 (>5%) occurred after 54 tHCTs (54%) and in 36 patients (80%). In instances in which a decrease occurred, the average decrease in mean, minimum, and maximum PbtO2 was 23.6%, 29%, and 18.1%, respectively. This decrease was greater when PbtO2 was compromised (<25 mm Hg) before tHCT. An episode of brain hypoxia (<15 mm Hg) was identified in the 3 hours before tHCT in 9 and after tHCT in 19 instances. On average, an episode of brain hypoxia was 46.6 ± 16.0 (standard error) minutes longer after tHCT than before tHCT (P = .008). Multivariate analysis suggests that changes in lung function (PaO2/fraction of inspired oxygen [FiO2] ratio) may account for the reduced PbtO2 after tHCT (parameter estimate 0.45, 95% confidence interval: 0.024–0.871; P = .04). CONCLUSIONThese data suggest that transport to and from the intensive care unit may adversely affect PbtO2. This deleterious effect is greater when PbtO2 is already compromised and may be associated with lung function.
The Effect of Mindfulness on Stress in Mothers of Children with and without Autism Spectrum Disorders: An Emotion Regulation Framework

Parents, especially mothers, of a child with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are more likely to experience higher levels of stress, and adaptive emotion regulation strategies, such as mindfulness and acceptance, may decrease stress among parents of children with ASD. Research has shown that mindfulness-based interventions reduce perceived stress among parents of typically developing children and improve the parent-child relationship, and similar interventions may be helpful for mothers of children with ASD. However, research has not yet established that mindfulness is related to decreased stress among parents. It is important to first establish this relationship, given the possibility that other factors, such as child behavioral difficulties or parental psychopathology are stronger predictors of maternal stress than the mother’s regulation strategies. This study examined the unique contribution of maternal mindfulness to maternal stress in a sample of mothers (n = 154) who completed an online battery of measures. As predicted, maternal mindfulness significantly predicted level of maternal stress, above and beyond child behavior problems and maternal psychopathology, and this relationship was not moderated by child’s ASD diagnosis. Maternal emotion regulation and effortful control were also significantly related to maternal stress, and may account for the explained variance of mindfulness. These findings and their implications are discussed.
An Experimental Comparison of Symbolic and Connectionist Learning Algorithms

Despite the fact that many symbolic and connectionist (neural net) learning algorithms are addressing the same problem of learning from classified examples, very little Is known regarding their comparative strengths and weaknesses. This paper presents the results of experiments comparing the ID3 symbolic learning algorithm with the perceptron and back-propagation connectionist learning algorithms on several large real-world data sets. The results show that ID3 and perceptron run significantly faster than does backpropagation, both during learning and during classification of novel examples. However, the probability of correctly classifying new examples is about the same for the three systems. On noisy data sets there is some indication that backpropagation classifies more accurately.
Damper windings in induction machines for reduction of unbalanced magnetic pull and bearing wear

In large induction machines (such as cage large induction motor pumps in the petro-chemical industry and cage or wound-rotor induction generators in wind turbines) reliability and longevity is advantageous. This is particularly relevant to wind turbine generators which can be inaccessible. There will be some degree of tolerance and wear that will lead to low-level rotor eccentricity. For a pm-pole pair machine there will be pm±1 pole pair flux waves set up by the eccentricity which will generate unbalanced magnetic pull (UMP), as well as additional higher space harmonics. This paper addresses the use of stator damper windings to reduce the side-band flux waves and hence attenuate the UMP. Examples are put forward in terms of a 10 pole cage-rotor machine with static or dynamic rotor eccentricity and then extended to use a 4 pole machine wound-rotor machine. A tested analytical model is developed to include these damper windings and the wound rotor; they are shown to reduce the UMP, particularly in a wound-rotor machine. The simulations here are in terms of a wound-rotor machine but this can be extended for DFIG operation.
Screen content image quality assessment via convolutional neural network

A number of image quality assessment (IQA) metrics have been designed in recent years for natural images, leading to a desire to develop IQA approaches for screen content image which is composed of textual as well as pictorial regions and exhibits different visual characteristics from the natural image. In this work, a no reference IQA metric based on convolutional neural network (CNN) is proposed for screen content image, which fuses the quality scores of textual and pictorial image patches by taking the differences of their visual features into accounts. Experimental results on the benchmark screen image quality assessment database (SIQAD) verify the effectiveness of the proposed CNN based approach as compared with several state-of-the-art IQA metrics.
Exploring Parental Motivations, Attitudes, and Home Literacy Practices Towards Bilingualism

This study embarks upon uncovering the probable relationships between Iranian parents’ attitudes, motivations, and home literacy practices (HLP) towards bilingualism, Persian and English. To undertake the study, sixty-eight parents of young language learners (YLLs) were asked to fill up a survey questionnaire. The questionnaire aimed to uncover parental attitudes, motivation, and the types of HLP towards bilingualism. The results of Pearson correlation and multiple linear regression analysis indicated that parents espoused positive holistic attitudes, integrative motivation, and formal practices in HLP towards bilingualism. The findings also revealed that there was positive relationship between parental attitudes, motivation and HLP. The multiple regression analysis for the corresponding variables revealed that only motivations predict the variance in the home literacy practices. Implications for teachers, policy makers, and curriculum developers along with some suggestions are provided.
Mechanism of Spontaneous Activity in Afferent Neurons of the Zebrafish Lateral-Line Organ

Many auditory, vestibular, and lateral-line afferent neurons display spontaneous action potentials. This spontaneous spiking is thought to result from hair-cell glutamate release in the absence of stimuli. Spontaneous release at hair-cell resting potentials presumably results from CaV1.3 L-type calcium channel activity. Here, using intact zebrafish larvae, we recorded robust spontaneous spiking from lateral-line afferent neurons in the absence of external stimuli. Consistent with the above assumptions, spiking was absent in mutants that lacked either Vesicular glutamate transporter 3 (Vglut3) or CaV1.3. We then tested the hypothesis that spontaneous spiking resulted from sustained CaV1.3 activity due to depolarizing currents that are active at rest. Mechanotransduction currents (IMET) provide a depolarizing influence to the resting potential. However, following block of IMET, spontaneous spiking persisted and was characterized by longer interspike intervals and increased periods of inactivity. These results suggest that an additional depolarizing influence maintains the resting potential within the activation range of CaV1.3. To test whether the hyperpolarization-activated cation current, Ih participates in setting the resting potential, we applied Ih antagonists. Both ZD7288 and DK-AH 269 reduced spontaneous activity. Finally, concomitant block of IMET and Ih essentially abolished spontaneous activity, ostensibly by hyperpolarization outside of the activation range for CaV1.3. Together, our data support a mechanism for spontaneous spiking that results from Ca2+-dependent neurotransmitter release at hair-cell resting potentials that are maintained within the activation range of CaV1.3 channels through active IMET and Ih.
Folate intake and risk of pancreatic cancer: pooled analysis of prospective cohort studies.

BACKGROUND Epidemiological studies evaluating the association between folate intake and risk of pancreatic cancer have produced inconsistent results. The statistical power to examine this association has been limited in previous studies partly because of small sample size and limited range of folate intake in some studies. METHODS We analyzed primary data from 14 prospective cohort studies that included 319,716 men and 542,948 women to assess the association between folate intake and risk of pancreatic cancer. Folate intake was assessed through a validated food-frequency questionnaire at baseline in each study. Study-specific relative risks (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated using Cox proportional hazards models and then pooled using a random effects model. All statistical tests were two-sided. RESULTS During 7-20 years of follow-up across studies, 2195 pancreatic cancers were identified. No association was observed between folate intake and risk of pancreatic cancer in men and women (highest vs lowest quintile: dietary folate intake, pooled multivariable RR = 1.06, 95% CI = 0.90 to 1.25, P(trend) = . 47; total folate intake [dietary folate and supplemental folic acid], pooled multivariable RR = 0.96, 95% CI = 0.80 to 1.16, P(trend) = . 90). No between-study heterogeneity was observed (for dietary folate, P(heterogeneity) = . 15; for total folate, P(heterogeneity) = . 22). CONCLUSION Folate intake was not associated with overall risk of pancreatic cancer in this large pooled analysis.
New normalized constant modulus algorithms with relaxation

A new normalized constant modulus algorithm is proposed that has a more desirable error performance surface (EPS) than the existing constant modulus blind equalization algorithms. We show that for an autoregressive channel, a well-known class of undesirable local solutions (ULSs) does not exist. The EPSs and convergence of the parameters are shown for a number of channels for which well-known algorithms are known to possess ULSs.
Transformation of the tumour microenvironment by a CD40 agonist antibody correlates with improved responses to PD-L1 blockade in a mouse orthotopic pancreatic tumour model

Despite the availability of recently developed chemotherapy regimens, survival times for pancreatic cancer patients remain poor. These patients also respond poorly to immune checkpoint blockade therapies (anti-CTLA-4, anti-PD-L1, anti-PD-1), which suggests the presence of additional immunosuppressive mechanisms in the pancreatic tumour microenvironment (TME). CD40 agonist antibodies (αCD40) promote antigen presenting cell (APC) maturation and enhance macrophage tumouricidal activity, and may therefore alter the pancreatic TME to increase sensitivity to immune checkpoint blockade. Here, we test whether αCD40 transforms the TME in a mouse syngeneic orthotopic model of pancreatic cancer, to increase sensitivity to PD-L1 blockade. We found that whilst mice bearing orthotopic Pan02 tumours responded poorly to PD-L1 blockade, αCD40 improved overall survival. αCD40 transformed the TME, upregulating Th1 chemokines, increasing cytotoxic T cell infiltration and promoting formation of an immune cell-rich capsule separating the tumour from the normal pancreas. Furthermore, αCD40 drove systemic APC maturation, memory T cell expansion, and upregulated tumour and systemic PD-L1 expression. Combining αCD40 with PD-L1 blockade enhanced anti-tumour immunity and improved overall survival versus either monotherapy. These data provide further support for the potential of combining αCD40 with immune checkpoint blockade to promote anti-tumour immunity in pancreatic cancer.
Role of receptor for advanced glycation end-products and signalling events in advanced glycation end-product-induced monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 expression in differentiated mouse podocytes.

BACKGROUND Upregulation of local monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) production is involved in glomerular damage through macrophage recruitment and activation in diabetic nephropathy. Treatment of db/db mice with soluble receptor for advanced glycation end-products (RAGE) prevented recruitment of macrophages to the glomeruli and reduced albuminuria, suggesting that binding of ligands and RAGE may be involved in MCP-1 expression. Therefore, we investigated the role of advanced glycation end-products (AGEs) in MCP-1 production by podocytes and signalling events after RAGE activation. METHODS MCP-1 gene and protein expression were examined by using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in differentiated mouse podocytes. Dichlorofluorescein-sensitive intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation was measured by confocal microscopy. RAGE, phosphorylation of mitogen-activated protein kinases, nuclear factor (NF)-kappaB, c-Jun and Sp1 were studied using western blotting and immunocytochemistry. RESULTS Both differentiated and undifferentiated podocytes expressed RAGE. MCP-1 was induced by AGEs and carboxymethyllysine (CML) in a time-dependent and dose-dependent manner in differentiated podocytes. Neutralizing antibody for RAGE suppressed AGE- and CML-induced MCP-1 production. AGEs and CML rapidly generated intracellular ROS in podocytes. Blocking of ROS by using N-acetyl-l-cysteine abolished CML and H(2)O(2)-induced MCP-1 expression. Phosphorylated extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) was found in podocytes incubated with CML and was prevented by N-acetyl-l-cysteine or 7'-amino 4 [trifluoromethyl]. PD98059, an inhibitor of ERK, partially prevented CML-induced MCP-1 gene expression. NF-kappaB and Sp1 were translocated into the nucleus after podocytes were incubated with CML for 60 min. Parthenolide and mithramycin A, inhibitors of NF-kappaB and Sp1, respectively, abolished CML-induced MCP-1 gene expression in a dose-dependent manner. CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that AGEs and CML induce MCP-1 expression in podocytes through activation of RAGE and generation of intracellular ROS. NF-kappaB and Sp1 regulate MCP-1 gene transcription.
Dealing fairly with winners and losers in school: Reframing how to think about equality of educational opportunity 50 years after the Coleman Report

Although the policy and methodological legacy of Equality of Educational Opportunity, the so-called Coleman Report published by the US Department of Education in 1966, is widely recognized, the way in which it played a role in shaping theorizing about equality of educational opportunity has been less well-explored. This article reconsiders the Coleman Report in light of how it has contributed to the framing of how we think about the very idea of equality of educational opportunity and its normative capacity to evaluate the education system. The main argument is that the Coleman Report helped to crystallize the concept of equality of educational opportunity as being fundamentally about how education provides ladders of opportunity and enables upward mobility for socially disadvantaged students. This framing has, however, created certain normative blind spots that have seriously impeded its ability to engage certain issues in education. The normative blind spot singled out, in particular, is the competitive structure of the current education system – the school system is structured so that some children win, while some lose. The competitive nature of schools has often been challenged, from a wide range of perspectives, but rarely utilizing an equality of opportunity framework. Given this normative blind spot, the more constructive dimension of the article is to advance an alternative theory of equality of educational opportunity that is better able to function as a regulative ideal for competition in the education system, one that identifies standards or principles of fairness to guide policy on how to deal fairly with winners and losers.
Clinical Interventions in Aging Dovepress Teeth and Physical Fitness in a Community-dwelling 40 to 79-year-old Japanese Population

hereby accept the Terms. Non-commercial uses of the work are permitted without any further permission from Dove Medical Press Limited, provided the work is properly attributed. For permission for commercial use of this work, please see paragraphs 4.2 and 5 of our Terms Purpose: Decline in the number of teeth and physical fitness begins from 40 years of age; however, several epidemiological studies have identified relationships between oral conditions and physical performance parameters in community-dwelling elderly population. The aim of this study was to validate the relationship between the muscle mass and its function and oral conditions (number of teeth and dental occlusion) after 40 years of age in a community-dwelling population in Japan. Materials and methods: The subjects comprised of 552 volunteers (198 males and 354 females, 40–79 years) who participated in the Iwaki Health Promotion Project in 2013. Multiple linear regression analyses were performed with the measures of the muscle mass and its function as objective variables and the measures of the number of teeth, age, body mass index, medical history, serum albumin concentration, smoking status, habitual alcohol intake, marital status, education levels, and exercising habits as explanatory variables. The relationships between the Eichner index and the muscle mass and its function were analyzed using analysis of covariance, with adjustment for confounding factors. Results: After adjusting for confounding factors, the number of teeth was shown to be an independent risk factor for the timed 10 m walk test (in females) and the skeletal muscle mass of the whole body (in males). The results also revealed that the timed 10 m walk test was significantly correlated with the Eichner index (Classes A and C in females were correlated). Conclusion: This cross-sectional study on a Japanese community-dwelling population revealed relationships between oral conditions and the muscle mass and its function. However, the interpretation of our results was hampered by a lack of data, including those on socioeconomic status and longitudinal observations. Future research exploring teeth loss and the muscle mass and its function is warranted.
Biliteracy Development in Chinese and English: The Roles of Phonological Awareness, Morphological Awareness, and Orthographic Processing in Word-level Reading and Vocabulary Acquisition

This thesis examined the role of metalinguistic skills in concurrent and subsequent word-level reading and oral vocabulary among Chinese-English bilingual children who learned Chinese as their heritage language and English as their societal language. While previous studies on biliteracy development among this group of children have mostly focused on one of the two languages, this thesis gave equal emphasis to both languages. The research had two general purposes: 1) to investigate the role of phonological awareness, morphological awareness and orthographic processing in predicting word-level reading and oral vocabulary in Chinese and English concurrently and longitudinally; and 2) to examine the cross-linguistic role of phonological and morphological awareness to word-level reading and vocabulary, concurrently and longitudinally, between Chinese and English. These goals were explored through two interrelated studies, using path analyses. The participants included 91 Chinese-English bilingual children, recruited from kindergarten and Grade 1 Chinese heritage language classes in Canada. They were tested twice, one year apart, on a battery of cognitive and literacy measures in Chinese and English.
A Posteriori Individual Word Language Models for Vietnamese Language

It is shown that the enormous improvement in the size of disk storage space in recent years can be used to build individual word-domain statistical language models, one for each significant word of a language that contributes to the context of the text. Each of these word-domain language models is a precise domain model for the relevant significant word; when combined appropriately, they provide a highly specific domain language model for the language following a cache, even a short cache. Our individual word probability and frequency models have been constructed and tested in the Vietnamese and English languages. For English, we employed the Wall Street Journal corpus of 40 million English word tokens; for Vietnamese, we used the QUB corpus of 6.5 million tokens. Our testing methods used a priori and a posteriori approaches. Finally, we explain adjustment of a previously exaggerated prediction of the potential power of a posteriori models. Accurate improvements in perplexity for 14 kinds of individual word language models have been obtained in tests, (i) between 33.9% and 53.34% for Vietnamese and (ii) between 30.78% and 44.5% for English, over a baseline global tri-gram weighted average model. For both languages, the best a posteriori model is the a posteriori weighted frequency model of 44.5% English perplexity improvement and 53.34% Vietnamese perplexity improvement. In addition, five Vietnamese a posteriori models were tested to obtain from 9.9% to 16.8% word-error-rate (WER) reduction over a Katz trigram model by the same Vietnamese speech decoder.
The United Kingdom Referendum on European Union Membership: The Voting of Conservative Parliamentarians

This article considers the attitudes of members of the parliamentary Conservative Party (PCP) during the European Union (EU) membership referendum held in the United Kingdom (UK) on 23 June 2016. First, the article identifies the voting positions – remain or leave – of each Conservative parliamentarian in order to assess the strength of opinion within the PCP and place it within its historical context. Second, the article uses multivariate analysis to test a series of hypotheses about the voting of Conservative parliamentarians. Through this we will aim to identify whether any associations existed between advocates and opponents of Brexit and social variables such as age, schooling, university, occupation and gender; political variables such as constituency marginality, and whether they were a minister, an ex-minister or a permanent backbencher; and the ideological variable of morality – such as support for or opposition to same sex marriage.