Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Is paper safer? The role of paper flight strips in air traffic control

Air traffic control is a complex, safety-critical activity, with well-established and successful work practices. Yet many attempts to automate the existing system have failed because controllers remain attached to a key work artifact: the paper flight strip. This article describes a four-month intensive study of a team of Paris en-route controllers in order to understand their use of paper flight strips. The article also describes a comparison study of eight different control rooms in France and the Netherlands. Our observations have convinced us that we do not know enough to simply get rid of paper strips, nor can we easily replace the physical interaction between controllers and paper strips.These observationshighlight the benefits of strips, including qualities difficult to quantify and replicate in new computer systems. Current thinking offers two basic alternatives: maintaining the existing strips without computersupport and bearing the financial cost of limiting the air traffic, or replacing the strips with automated versions, which offer potential benefits in terms of increased efficiency through automation, but unknown risks through radical change of work practices. We conclude with asuggestion for a third alternative: to maintain the physical strips, but turn them into the interface to the computer. This would allow controllers to build directly upon their existing, safe work practices with paper strips, while offering them a gradual path for incorporating new computer-based functions. Augmented paper flight strips allow us to take advantage of uniquely human skills in the physical world, and allows us to leave the user interface and its subsequent evolution in the hands of the people most responsible, the air traffic controllers themselves.
Pattern of cardiovascular admissions at Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital Nnewi, South East Nigeria

Introduction Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is one of the top killer diseases in the world sparing neither developed or developing countries. The study was carried out to determine the pattern of cardiovascular admissions at Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital Nnewi South East Nigeria. Methods The study was a retrospective study covering the period January 2007 to December 2009. SPSS version 13 software was used to analyze data. Results 537 (15%) patients were admitted into the study out of 3546 patients {females 1756 and 1790} admitted into medical wards. 322 (60%) of study population were males and 215 (40%) females. 359(67.5%) were discharged, 170 (32%) died and 8 (0.5%) were discharged against medical advice. The majority of the deaths 105(61.8%), were in patients with CVA. Most of the deaths (111 or 65.3%) occurred within the first seven days of admission. The mean age of the population was 60.7 years ±15.9 with a range of 18 to 110 years. The length of stay in hospital ranged between 1 and 140 days with a mean of 13.5 ± 13.9 days and a median of 10 days. 33 of the subjects were single, 406 were married, 94 were widowed (11 males and 83 females) and 4 were divorced. 46.7% (251) were admitted for CVA and 30.9% (166) for heart failure. Cardiomyopathy/valvular heart diseases (clinical diagnosis due to absence of echocardiography) constituted 3.9%, hypertension 20.5% and pre-existing hypertension with uremia 1.9%. Conclusion The study has shown that cardiovascular disease contributed significantly to medical admissions the elderly accounting for a significant proportion. There is thus the need for intensification of primary preventive strategies for cardiovascular diseases.
Nelotanserin, a Novel Selective Human 5-Hydroxytryptamine2A Inverse Agonist for the Treatment of Insomnia

5-Hydroxytryptamine (5-HT)2A receptor inverse agonists are promising therapeutic agents for the treatment of sleep maintenance insomnias. Among these agents is nelotanserin, a potent, selective 5-HT2A inverse agonist. Both radioligand binding and functional inositol phosphate accumulation assays suggest that nelotanserin has low nanomolar potency on the 5-HT2A receptor with at least 30- and 5000-fold selectivity compared with 5-HT2C and 5-HT2B receptors, respectively. Nelotanserin dosed orally prevented (±)-1-(2,5-dimethoxy-4-iodophenyl)-2-aminopropane (DOI; 5-HT2A agonist)-induced hypolocomotion, increased sleep consolidation, and increased total nonrapid eye movement sleep time and deep sleep, the latter marked by increases in electroencephalogram (EEG) delta power. These effects on rat sleep were maintained after repeated subchronic dosing. In healthy human volunteers, nelotanserin was rapidly absorbed after oral administration and achieved maximum concentrations 1 h later. EEG effects occurred within 2 to 4 h after dosing, and were consistent with vigilance-lowering. A dose response of nelotanserin was assessed in a postnap insomnia model in healthy subjects. All doses (up to 40 mg) of nelotanserin significantly improved measures of sleep consolidation, including decreases in the number of stage shifts, number of awakenings after sleep onset, microarousal index, and number of sleep bouts, concomitant with increases in sleep bout duration. Nelotanserin did not affect total sleep time, or sleep onset latency. Furthermore, subjective pharmacodynamic effects observed the morning after dosing were minimal and had no functional consequences on psychomotor skills or memory. These studies point to an efficacy and safety profile for nelotanserin that might be ideally suited for the treatment of sleep maintenance insomnias.
Experimenting Content-Centric Networks in the future internet testbed environment

Future Internet Testbed with Security (FITS) is a testbed for experimenting Next-Generation Internet proposals that provides two virtualization schemes based on Xen and on OpenFlow. Experimenting new protocol proposals for the Future Internet requires a realistic condition environment for packet forwarding. FITS nodes are spread in Brazilian and European universities. In this paper, we present FITS and we use it to test a Content Centric Network (CCN), which is one of the main proposals for the Future Internet. The experiment creates a virtual network on the testbed with CCNx stack and measure the file transfer performance under real Internet traffic conditions. The results show that CCN presents an overhead of 19% when compared with the conventional TCP/IP stack. Nevertheless, CCN outperforms TCP as the number of consumers increases and CCN download time is approximately 25% smaller than TCP on the Internet.
Time scales for gas-particle partitioning equilibration of secondary organic aerosol formed from alpha-pinene ozonolysis.

Most chemical transport models assume instantaneous equilibrium to represent gas-particle partitioning of semivolatile organic aerosol. This approach has been challenged by recent studies suggesting that secondary organic aerosol (SOA) cannot reach equilibrium within atmospheric time scales. The emergent hypothesis is that gas-particle partitioning rates are limited by diffusion within the condensed phase, which is thought to be "glassy. " Here, we investigate the equilibration time scales of SOA formed from α-pinene ozonolysis by measuring the dynamic response to a modest step-change in temperature. Upon heating, equilibrium is disturbed, and the particles evaporate to restore equilibrium at the new temperature, which is attained when evaporation ceases. The SOA was formed at 10 °C and then heated to near room temperature (30 °C) so that the phase state (viscosity) of the condensed-phase after heating is similar to how it would be in the atmosphere. Experiments were performed in both a thermodenuder, with SOA loading of 350 μg/m(3), and in a smog chamber, with SOA loading of 2-12 μg/m(3). Both experiments show, contrary to previous findings, that the SOA achieves equilibrium with dynamic responses consistent with a mass accommodation coefficient of order 0.1. For typical atmospheric conditions, this translates into equilibration time scales on the order of minutes to tens of minutes, supporting the use of equilibrium partitioning in chemical transport models.
Constitutive Equations for the Rate-Dependent Deformation of Metals at Elevated Temperatures

Approximate constitutive equations are proposed for use in the analysis of the rate-dependent deformation of metals at temperatures in excess of a homologous temperature of 0.5. The constitutive equations are formulated within the scope of some recent theories of elastoviscoplasticity with internal variables, but employ only a single scalar internal variable representing an isotropic resistance to plastic flow offered by the internal microstructural state of the material. The special constitutive euqations incorporate strain hardening of the Voce type, and account for the effects of the prior histories of strain rate and temperature undergone by the material. These equations, however, do not represent the important effects of static recovery or of static and dynamic recrystallization.
EG And: Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer and Hubble Space Telescope STIS Monitoring of an Eclipsing Symbiotic Binary

We present highlights and an overview of 20 FUSE and HST STIS observations of the bright symbiotic binary EG And. The main motivation behind this work is to obtain spatially resolved information on an evolved giant star in order to understand the mass-loss processes at work in these objects. The system consists of a low-luminosity white dwarf and a mass-losing, nondusty M2 giant. The ultraviolet observations follow the white dwarf continuum through periodic gradual occultations by the wind and chromosphere of the giant, providing a unique diagnosis of the circumstellar gas in absorption. Unocculted spectra display high-ionization features, such as the O VI resonance doublet, which is present as a variable (hourly timescales), broad wind profile, which diagnose the hot gas close to the dwarf component. Spectra observed at stages of partial occultation display a host of low-ionization, narrow absorption lines, with transitions observed from lower energy levels up to ~5 eV above ground. This absorption is due to chromospheric/wind material, with most lines due to transitions of Si II, P II, N I, Fe II, and Ni II, as well as heavily damped H I Lyman series features. No molecular features are observed in the wind acceleration region despite the sensitivity of FUSE to H2. From analysis of the ultraviolet data set, as well as optical data, we find that the dwarf radiation does not dominate the wind acceleration region of the giant and that observed thermal and dynamic wind properties are most likely representative of isolated red giants.
Structural modeling and molecular simulation analysis of HvAP2/EREBP from barley

AP2/ERF transcription factors play a critical role in plant development and stress adaptation. This study reports the three-dimensional ab initio-based model of AP2/EREBP protein of barley and its interaction with DNA. Full-length coding sequence of HvAP2/EREBP gene isolated from two Indian barley cultivars, RD 2503 and RD 31, was used to model the protein. Of five protein models obtained, the one with lowest C-score was chosen for further analysis. The N- and C-terminal regions of HvAP2 protein were found to be highly disordered. The dynamic properties of AP2/EREBP and its interaction with DNA were investigated by molecular dynamics simulation. Analysis of trajectories from simulation yielded the equilibrated conformation between 2-10ns for protein and 7-15ns for protein-DNA complex. We established relationship between DNA having GCC box and DNA-binding domain of HvAP2/EREBP was established by modeling 11-base-pair-long nucleotide sequence and HvAP2/EREBP protein using ab initio method. Analysis of protein–DNA interaction showed that a β-sheet motif constituting amino acid residues THR105, ARG100, ARG93, and ARG83 seems to play important role in stabilizing the complex as they form strong hydrogen bond interactions with the DNA motif. Taken together, this study provides first-hand comprehensive information detailing structural conformation and interactions of HvAP2/EREBP proteins in barley. The study intensifies the role of computational approaches for preliminary examination of unknown proteins in the absence of experimental information. It also provides molecular insight into protein–DNA binding for understanding and enhancing abiotic stress resistance for improving the water use efficiency in crop plants.
Teen online information disclosure: Empirical testing of a protection motivation and social capital model

With bases in protection motivation theory and social capital theory, this study investigates teen and parental factors that determine teens’ online privacy concerns, online privacy protection behaviors, and subsequent online information disclosure on social network sites. With secondary data from a 2012 survey (N = 622), the final well‐fitting structural equation model revealed that teen online privacy concerns were primarily influenced by parental interpersonal trust and parental concerns about teens’ online privacy, whereas teen privacy protection behaviors were primarily predicted by teen cost–benefit appraisal of online interactions. In turn, teen online privacy concerns predicted increased privacy protection behaviors and lower teen information disclosure. Finally, restrictive and instructive parental mediation exerted differential influences on teens’ privacy protection behaviors and online information disclosure.
Development and Validation of a Scale to Measure Optimal Experience: The Flow State Scale

The Flow State Scale (FSS) is a new measure of flow in sport and physical activity settings. The nine FSS scales of the 36-item instrument represent the dimensions of flow discussed by Csikszentmihalyi (1990, 1993), and each scale is measured by four items. Development of items was based on (a) past research with flow state both within and outside of sport settings, (b) qualitative analysis of interviews with elite athletes, and (c) quantitative analyses conducted in the present investigation. Internal consistency estimates for the nine FSS scales were reasonable (alpha M = 33) for administration of the scale to 394 athletes. Confirmatory factor analyses supported the nine scales. Consistent with the theoretical basis of the FSS, there was also support for a hierarchical model in which one global (higher order) flow factor explained correlations among the nine first-order FSS factors. Suggestions for use of the scale and for further research are discussed.
A Randomized, Double-Blind Placebo Controlled Trial of Balapiravir, a Polymerase Inhibitor, in Adult Dengue Patients

Background. Dengue is the most common arboviral infection of humans. There are currently no specific treatments for dengue. Balapiravir is a prodrug of a nucleoside analogue (called R1479) and an inhibitor of hepatitis C virus replication in vivo. Methods. We conducted in vitro experiments to determine the potency of balapiravir against dengue viruses and then an exploratory, dose-escalating, randomized placebo-controlled trial in adult male patients with dengue with <48 hours of fever. Results. The clinical and laboratory adverse event profile in patients receiving balapiravir at doses of 1500 mg (n = 10) or 3000 mg (n = 22) orally for 5 days was similar to that of patients receiving placebo (n = 32), indicating balapiravir was well tolerated. However, twice daily assessment of viremia and daily assessment of NS1 antigenemia indicated balapiravir did not measurably alter the kinetics of these virological markers, nor did it reduce the fever clearance time. The kinetics of plasma cytokine concentrations and the whole blood transcriptional profile were also not attenuated by balapiravir treatment. Conclusions. Although this trial, the first of its kind in dengue, does not support balapiravir as a candidate drug, it does establish a framework for antiviral treatment trials in dengue and provides the field with a clinically evaluated benchmark molecule. Clinical Trials Registration. NCT01096576.
Low-Voltage, Compact, Depletion-Mode, Silicon Mach–Zehnder Modulator

Through rigorous process, electrical, and optical simulations, we develop a new silicon depletion-mode vertical p-n junction phase-modulator implemented in Mach-Zehnder modulator configuration, enabling an ultralow measured V ¿ L of only ~ 1 V·cm. Further, in a 500-¿m-long lumped element device, we demonstrate a 10-Gb/s nonreturn-to-zero data transmission with wide-open complementary output eye diagrams without the use of signal preemphasis.
Compact AC modeling and analysis of Cu, W, and CNT based through-silicon vias (TSVs) in 3-D ICs

This paper introduces the first accurate compact RLCG model for through-silicon vias (TSVs) in 3-D ICs valid for both low- and high-frequency regime, with consideration of MOS effect in silicon, AC conduction in silicon, skin effect in TSV metal and eddy currents in silicon substrate. The model is verified against a commercial full-wave electromagnetic (EM) simulation tool and subsequently employed for various performance (delay) analyses. The compact model is also applicable to TSVs made of carbon nanotube (CNT) bundles, once a small modification (making the effective resistivity complex) is made. Various geometries (as per the ITRS) and prospective materials (Cu, W, and Single-Walled (SW)/Multi-Walled (MW) -CNTs) are evaluated and comparative performance analysis is presented. It is shown that MWCNT bundle based TSVs can offer smaller or comparable high-frequency resistance than those of other materials due to reduced skin-effect in CNT bundle structures. On the other hand, performance (delay) analysis indicates that the performance differences among different TSV materials are rather small. However, since CNTs have other benefits over Cu and W (e.g., much higher thermal conductivity and better robustness and thermal stability), they could be the material of choice for TSVs in emerging 3-D ICs.
Vascular structure and microcirculation of experimental pancreatic carcinoma in rats.

OBJECTIVE To study angiogenesis and microcirculation in experimental pancreatic carcinoma. DESIGN Open experimental study. SETTING 2 University hospitals, Germany and USA. ANIMALS 16 male Lewis rats. INTERVENTIONS Induction of a duct-like pancreatic cancer in the pancreas and peritoneum by interposition of fragments of tumour between 2 inert transparent polymethylmethacrylate plates. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Microcirculation in the tumour and interaction between leucocytes, tumour, and endothelium investigated by intravital microscopy. RESULTS The density of vessels in the carcinoma was significantly less than in normal pancreatic tissue (p = 0.0004). The vasculature of the tumour was characterised by a lack of differentiation in architecture of vessels, formation of sinusoidal and lacunar vessels and sudden changes in diameter of vessels. Red blood cell velocity differed among tumour vessels, but mean values were similar to those of normal exocrine pancreas. The mixed lymphocyte culture test indicated that the cell line DSL6A was immunogenic. However, high-affinity leucocyte-endothelium-interaction was significantly reduced in the tumour's microcirculation after both orthotopic and heterotopic implantation (p = 0.002). Rates of apoptosis were suppressed in heterotopic tumours compared with orthotopic ones. Tumour growth was faster in heterotopic tumours. CONCLUSIONS Experimental duct-like pancreatic carcinoma can be differentiated from normal pancreas by: chaotic arrangement of vessels with loss of differentiation of architecture and heterogeneous distribution; the formation of sinusoidal or lacunar vessels; lower vascular density with similar erythrocyte velocity; increase in mean diameter of vessels; reduced leucocyte-endothelium interaction despite confirmed immunogeneity independent of wall shear rates. The site of implantation influences apoptosis and growth rates.
Physiologically-based pharmacokinetic modeling of renally excreted antiretroviral drugs in pregnant women.

AIM Physiological changes during pregnancy can affect drug disposition. Anticipating these changes will help to maximize drug efficacy and safety in pregnant women. Our objective was to determine if physiologically-based pharmacokinetics (PBPK) can accurately predict changes in the disposition of renally excreted antiretroviral drugs during pregnancy. METHODS Whole body PBPK models were developed for three renally excreted antiretroviral drugs, tenofovir (TFV), emtricitabine (FTC) and lamivudine (3TC). To assess the impact of pregnancy on PK, time-varying pregnancy-related physiological parameters available within the p-PBPK Simcyp software package were used. Renal clearance during pregnancy followed glomerular filtration changes with or without alterations in secretion. PK profiles were simulated and compared with observed data, i.e. area under the curves (AUC), peak plasma concentrations (Cmax ) and oral clearances (CL/F). RESULTS PBPK models successfully predicted TFV, FTC and 3TC disposition for non-pregnant and pregnant populations. Both renal secretion and filtration changed during pregnancy. Changes in renal clearance secretion were related to changes in renal plasma flow. The maximum clearance increases were approximately 30% (TFV 33%, FTC 31%, 3TC 29%). CONCLUSIONS Pregnancy PBPK models are useful tools to quantify a priori the drug exposure changes during pregnancy for renally excreted drugs. These models can be applied to evaluate alternative dosing regimens to optimize drug therapy during pregnancy.
Stroke knowledge among stroke support group members.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Community stroke education is needed to improve early stroke recognition and reduce delays in the referral of stroke patients. In some regions, stroke support groups are important promoters of regional stroke education. However, there are no data about the level of stroke knowledge among support group members that support this promotional role. METHODS We performed a cross-sectional questionnaire survey among 11 German stroke support groups. The questionnaire asked for stroke knowledge and sociodemographic and medical data. Stroke knowledge was excellent if a participant knew (1) at least 2 stroke symptoms (good symptom knowledge) and (2) at least 2 stroke risk factors (good risk factor knowledge), as well as knowing (3) that immediate hospital admission or an emergency call is necessary in case of stroke (good action knowledge). RESULTS A total of 133 members (96.2%) of 11 stroke support groups took part in the study. Mean age was 65.3 years (SD 11.2 years). Fifty-four percent of subjects were female, 72.8% were retired, and 69.8% were stroke patients. Of the participants, 80.3% had good symptom knowledge, 64.7% had good risk factor knowledge, and 79.7% had good action knowledge. Stroke knowledge was excellent in 44.0% of subjects. Logistic regression analysis showed that age <70 years and not having had a stroke were significant predictors for excellent stroke knowledge. CONCLUSIONS Overall, members of stroke support groups are well informed about all aspects of modern stroke care. Because of their knowledge and personal experience, support groups should be viewed as important partners in community stroke education.