Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Microbiological Characteristics of Acute Prostatitis After Transrectal Prostate Biopsy

Purpose We aimed to identify microbiological characteristics in patients with acute prostatitis after transrectal prostate biopsy to provide guidance in the review of prevention and treatment protocols. Materials and Methods A retrospective analysis of medical records was performed in 1,814 cases who underwent prostate biopsy at Seoul St. Mary's Hospital and St. Vincent's Hospital over a 5 year period from 2006 to 2011. Cases in which acute prostatitis occurred within 7 days after the biopsy were investigated. Before starting treatment with antibiotics, sample collections were done for culture of urine and blood. Culture and drug susceptibility was identified by use of a method established by the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute. Results A total of 1,814 biopsy procedures were performed in 1,541 patients. For 1,246 patients, the procedure was the first biopsy, whereas for 295 patients it was a repeat biopsy. Twenty-one patients (1.36%) were identified as having acute bacterial prostatitis after the biopsy. Fifteen patients (1.2%) had acute prostatitis after the first biopsy, and 6 patients (2.03%) experienced acute prostatitis after a repeat biopsy. Even though the incidence of acute bacterial prostatitis was higher after repeat biopsy than that after the first biopsy, there was no statistically significant intergroup difference in terms of incidence (χ2=1.223, p=0.269). When the collected urine and blood samples were cultured, Escherichia coli was found in samples from 15 patients (71.4%), Klebsiella pneumoniae in 3 patients (14.3%), Enterobacter intermedius in 1 patient (4.8%), E. aerogenes in 1 patient (4.8%), and Pseudomonas aeruginosa in 1 patient (4.8%). A fluoroquinolone-resistant strain was confirmed in 5 cases (23.8%) in total. Three cases of E. coli and 1 case of Klebsiella had extended-spectrum β-lactamase activity. Conclusions Empirical treatment of acute prostatitis should be done with consideration of geographical prevalence and drug resistance. This study will provide meaningful information for the management of acute prostatitis after transrectal prostate biopsy.
Alternatives to the Six-Minute Walk Test in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension

Introduction The physiological response during the endurance shuttle walk test (ESWT), the cycle endurance test (CET) and the incremental shuttle walk test (ISWT) remains unknown in PAH. We tested the hypothesis that endurance tests induce a near-maximal physiological demand comparable to incremental tests. We also hypothesized that differences in respiratory response during exercise would be related to the characteristics of the exercise tests. Methods Within two weeks, twenty-one PAH patients (mean age: 54(15) years; mean pulmonary arterial pressure: 42(12) mmHg) completed two cycling exercise tests (incremental cardiopulmonary cycling exercise test (CPET) and CET) and three field tests (ISWT, ESWT and six-minute walk test (6MWT)). Physiological parameters were continuously monitored using the same portable telemetric device. Results Peak oxygen consumption (VO2peak) was similar amongst the five exercise tests (p = 0.90 by ANOVA). Walking distance correlated markedly with the VO2peak reached during field tests, especially when weight was taken into account. At 100% exercise, most physiological parameters were similar between incremental and endurance tests. However, the trends overtime differed. In the incremental tests, slopes for these parameters rose steadily over the entire duration of the tests, whereas in the endurance tests, slopes rose sharply from baseline to 25% of maximum exercise at which point they appeared far less steep until test end. Moreover, cycling exercise tests induced higher respiratory exchange ratio, ventilatory demand and enhanced leg fatigue measured subjectively and objectively. Conclusion Endurance tests induce a maximal physiological demand in PAH. Differences in peak respiratory response during exercise are related to the modality (cycling vs. walking) rather than the progression (endurance vs. incremental) of the exercise tests.
Learning Depth from Single Monocular Images Using Deep Convolutional Neural Fields

In this article, we tackle the problem of depth estimation from single monocular images. Compared with depth estimation using multiple images such as stereo depth perception, depth from monocular images is much more challenging. Prior work typically focuses on exploiting geometric priors or additional sources of information, most using hand-crafted features. Recently, there is mounting evidence that features from deep convolutional neural networks (CNN) set new records for various vision applications. On the other hand, considering the continuous characteristic of the depth values, depth estimation can be naturally formulated as a continuous conditional random field (CRF) learning problem. Therefore, here we present a deep convolutional neural field model for estimating depths from single monocular images, aiming to jointly explore the capacity of deep CNN and continuous CRF. In particular, we propose a deep structured learning scheme which learns the unary and pairwise potentials of continuous CRF in a unified deep CNN framework. We then further propose an equally effective model based on fully convolutional networks and a novel superpixel pooling method, which is about 10 times faster, to speedup the patch-wise convolutions in the deep model. With this more efficient model, we are able to design deeper networks to pursue better performance. Our proposed method can be used for depth estimation of general scenes with no geometric priors nor any extra information injected. In our case, the integral of the partition function can be calculated in a closed form such that we can exactly solve the log-likelihood maximization. Moreover, solving the inference problem for predicting depths of a test image is highly efficient as closed-form solutions exist. Experiments on both indoor and outdoor scene datasets demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms state-of-the-art depth estimation approaches.
Conditional spectrum bidirectional record selection for risk assessment of 3D structures using scalar and vector IMs

Several proposals are explored for the hazard and intensity measure (IM) consistent selection of bidirectional ground motions to assess the performance of 3D structural models. Recent studies have shown the necessity of selecting records that thoroughly represent the seismicity at the site of interest, as well as the usefulness of efficient IMs capable of estimating the response of buildings with low scatter. However, the advances realized are mostly geared towards the structural analysis of 2D models. Few are the combined record, and IM selection approaches suggested expressly for nonlinear dynamic analysis of 3D structural models, especially when plan asymmetry and torsion sensitivity come into play. Conditional spectrum selection is leveraged and expanded here to offer a suite of approaches based on both scalar and vector IMs that convey information from two orthogonal horizontal components of the ground motion. Applications on multiple 3D building models highlight the importance of (a) employing the same IM for both record selection and response assessment and (b) maintaining hazard consistency in both horizontal components, when using either a scalar or a vector IM. All tested approaches that respect these conditions can be viable, yet the one based on the geometric mean of multiple spectral ordinates from both components over a period range seems to hold the most promise for general use.
Application Performance Monitoring: Trade-Off between Overhead Reduction and Maintainability

Monitoring of a software system provides insights into its runtime behavior, improving system analysis and comprehension. System-level monitoring approaches focus, e.g., on network monitoring, providing information on externally visible system behavior. Application-level performance monitoring frameworks, such as Kieker or Dapper, allow to observe the internal application behavior, but introduce runtime overhead depending on the number of instrumentation probes. We report on how we were able to significantly reduce the runtime overhead of the Kieker monitoring framework. For achieving this optimization, we employed micro-benchmarks with a structured performance engineering approach. During optimization, we kept track of the impact on maintainability of the framework. In this paper, we discuss the emerged trade-off between performance and maintainability in this context. To the best of our knowledge, publications on monitoring frameworks provide none or only weak performance evaluations, making comparisons cumbersome. However, our micro-benchmark, presented in this paper, provides a basis for such comparisons. Our experiment code and data are available as open source software such that interested researchers may repeat or extend our experiments for comparison on other hardware platforms or with other monitoring frameworks.
Structure and Subhalo Population of Halos in a Self-interacting Dark Matter Cosmology

A series of high-resolution numerical simulations were performed to study the structure and substructure of Milky Way-sized (MW-sized) and cluster-sized halos in a ΛCDM cosmology with self-interacting (SI) dark matter particles. The cross section per unit of particle mass has the form σDM = σ0(1/v100)α, where σ0 is a constant in units of cm2 g-1 and v100 is the relative velocity in units of 100 km s-1. Different values for σ0 with α = 0 or 1 were used. For small values of σDM = const (≲0.5, α = 0), the core density of the halos at z = 0 is typically higher at a given mass for lower values of σ0 or, at a given σ0, for lower masses. For values of σ0 as high as 3.0, both cluster- and MW-sized halos may undergo the gravothermal catastrophe before z = 0. The core expansion occurs in a stable regime because the heat capacity C is positive in the center. After the maximum expansion, the isothermal core is hotter than the periphery and C < 0. Then the gravothermal catastrophe is triggered. The instability onset can be delayed by both the dynamical heating of the halo by major mergers and the interaction of cool particles with the hot environment of a host halo. When α = 1, the core density of cluster- and MW-sized halos is similar. Using σDM = 0.5-1.0(1/v100), our predictions agree with the central densities and the core scaling laws of halos inferred from the observations of both dwarf and low surface brightness galaxies and clusters of galaxies. Regarding the cumulative vmax function of subhalos within MW-sized halos, when (σ0, α) = (0.1, 0.0), (0.5, 0.0), or (0.5, 1.0) it agrees roughly with observations (luminous satellites) for vmax ≳ 30 km s-1, while at vmax = 20 km s-1 the functions are already a factor of 5-8 higher, similar to the CDM predictions. For (σ0, α) = (1.0, 1.0), this function lies above the corresponding CDM function. The structure and number of subhalos are affected by the scattering properties of the host halo rather than by those of the subhalos. The halos with SI have more specific angular momentum at a given mass shell and are rounder than their CDM counterparts. However, the angular momentum excess with regard to CDM is small. We conclude that the introduction of SI particles with σDM ∝ 1/v100 may remedy the cuspy core problem of the CDM cosmogony, at the same time keeping a subhalo population similar to that of the CDM halos.
Influence of self-efficacy and attitudes towards statistics on undergraduates’ statistics engagement in a Malaysian public university

Undergraduate students’ statistics engagement plays a vital role in their performance in introductory statistics courses. Self-efficacy and attitudes towards statistics were claimed to influence students’ engagement. Accordingly, this study investigated the influence of self-efficacy and attitudes towards statistics on undergraduate students’ statistics engagement in a Malaysian public university. This study was conducted on first year students from various fields of study enrolled in an introductory statistics course. A random sample of 293 students were selected to participate in the survey. Descriptive analysis revealed that both students’ statistics engagement and self-efficacy were moderate, while their attitudes towards statistics were positive. Correlation analysis indicated that statistics engagement was significantly related to self-efficacy and attitudes towards statistics. Furthermore, multiple linear regression analysis showed that self-efficacy and attitudes towards statistics are significant predictors of statistics engagement and explained half of its’ variation. Attitudes towards statistics had a greater influence on statistics engagement than self-efficacy for these students. These findings affirmed that self-efficacy and attitudes towards statistics influenced students’ statistics engagement. In essence, having high self-efficacy and positive attitudes towards statistics will help stduents to be highly engaged in their learning to perform better in statistics course.
Cell Lineage and Regional Identity of Cultured Spinal Cord Neural Stem Cells and Comparison to Brain-Derived Neural Stem Cells

Neural stem cells (NSCs) can be isolated from different regions of the central nervous system. There has been controversy whether regional differences amongst stem and progenitor cells are cell intrinsic and whether these differences are maintained during expansion in culture. The identification of inherent regional differences has important implications for the use of these cells in neural repair. Here, we compared NSCs derived from the spinal cord and embryonic cortex. We found that while cultured cortical and spinal cord derived NSCs respond similarly to mitogens and are equally neuronogenic, they retain and maintain through multiple passages gene expression patterns indicative of the region from which they were isolated (e.g Emx2 and HoxD10). Further microarray analysis identified 229 genes that were differentially expressed between cortical and spinal cord derived neurospheres, including many Hox genes, Nuclear receptors, Irx3, Pace4, Lhx2, Emx2 and Ntrk2. NSCs in the cortex express LeX. However, in the embryonic spinal cord there are two lineally related populations of NSCs: one that expresses LeX and one that does not. The LeX negative population contains few markers of regional identity but is able to generate LeX expressing NSCs that express markers of regional identity. LeX positive cells do not give rise to LeX-negative NSCs. These results demonstrate that while both embryonic cortical and spinal cord NSCs have similar self-renewal properties and multipotency, they retain aspects of regional identity, even when passaged long-term in vitro. Furthermore, there is a population of a LeX negative NSC that is present in neurospheres derived from the embryonic spinal cord but not the cortex.
Directional anisotropy of motion responses in retinotopic cortex

Recently, evidence has emerged for a radial orientation bias in early visual cortex. These results predict that in early visual cortex a tangential bias should be present for motion direction. We tested this prediction in a human imaging study, using a translating random dot pattern that slowly rotated its motion direction 360° in cycles of 54 s. In addition, polar angle and eccentricity mapping were performed. This allowed the measurement of the BOLD response across the visual representations of the different retinotopic areas. We found that, in V1, V2, and V3, BOLD responses were consistently enhanced for centrifugal and centripetal motion, relative to tangential motion. The relative magnitude of the centrifugal and centripetal response biases changed with visual eccentricity. We found no motion direction biases in MT+. These results are in line with previously observed anisotropies in motion sensitivity across the visual field. However, the observation of radial motion biases in early visual cortex is surprising considering the evidence for a radial orientation bias. An additional experiment was performed to resolve this apparent conflict in results. The additional experiment revealed that the observed motion direction biases most likely originate from anisotropies in long range horizontal connections within visual cortex. Hum Brain Mapp, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Mind the Gap: Sport Management Education and Employability: Auto-ethnographical analysis of Sport Management Education and the Sports Fitness Industry

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the position of sport management education (SME) in relation to employment in the sport fitness industry and if a shift towards a greater emphasis on business and management module teaching is justified or conversely a greater utilisation of the rich data being generated by sport management researchers can be applied to the vocational development of sport management students. Design/methodology/approach The study was conducted in two parts. Part 1 consisted of interviews with the author by an interviewer to explore their industry experiences, the author’s experience of entrepreneurial sport industry business and intrapreneurial sport teaching. The resultant data have been distilled into a series of paradigms, including employing sport industry staff and teaching sport management. Part 2 triangulates part 1 with the managerial experience of sports and leisure centre managers to develop a qualitative study. Sports and leisure centre managers were interviewed regarding candidate and employee competences judged as extreme examples of sport management knowledge and understanding. Findings Four themes emerged, such as alignment, underpinning subject-specific knowledge, a voice from the sport industry in developing SME and postgraduate opportunities for work-based learning. Research limitations/implications A small-scale study that requires further research in each of the three areas: sport spectator, sport participation and elite performer management. Practical implications The sport centre interview instrument, with some refinements, could form the basis of an improved system to gain rich data from industry members of higher education business advisory groups. The developed data collection tool could increase the effective collection of data from a wider cohort. Originality/value The approach has produced an adapted category of pedagogy. Employability inspired teaching (EiT) is an original terminology describing the subject-specific content that leads to improved opportunities for subject (sport) industry employment.
Cytosolic Calcium Oscillations in Astrocytes May Regulate Exocytotic Release of Glutamate

To obtain insights into the spatiotemporal characteristics and mechanism of Ca2+-dependent glutamate release from astrocytes, we developed a new experimental approach using human embryonic kidney (HEK) 293 cells transfected with the NMDA receptor (NMDAR), which act as glutamate biosensors, plated on cultured astrocytes. We here show that oscillations of intracellular Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i) in astrocytes trigger synchronous and repetitive [Ca2+]ielevations in sensor HEK cells, and that these elevations are sensitive to NMDAR inhibition. By whole-cell patch-clamp recordings, we demonstrate that the activation of NMDARs in HEK cells results in inward currents that often have extremely fast kinetics, comparable with those of glutamate-mediated NMDAR currents in postsynaptic neurons. We also show that the release of glutamate from stimulated astrocytes is drastically reduced by agents that are known to reduce neuronal exocytosis, i.e., tetanus toxin and bafilomycin A1. We conclude that [Ca2+]i oscillations represent a frequency-encoded signaling system that controls a pulsatile release of glutamate from astrocytes. The fast activation of NMDARs in the sensor cells and the dependence of glutamate release on the functional integrity of both synaptobrevin and vacuolar H+ ATPase suggest that astrocytes are endowed with an exocytotic mechanism of glutamate release that resembles that of neurons.
Dopaminergic Control of the Globus Pallidus through Activation of D2 Receptors and Its Impact on the Electrical Activity of Subthalamic Nucleus and Substantia Nigra Reticulata Neurons

The globus pallidus (GP) receives dopaminergic afferents from the pars compacta of substantia nigra and several studies suggested that dopamine exerts its action in the GP through presynaptic D2 receptors (D2Rs). However, the impact of dopamine in GP on the pallido-subthalamic and pallido-nigral neurotransmission is not known. Here, we investigated the role of dopamine, through activation of D2Rs, in the modulation of GP neuronal activity and its impact on the electrical activity of subthalamic nucleus (STN) and substantia nigra reticulata (SNr) neurons. Extracellular recordings combined with local intracerebral microinjection of drugs were done in male Sprague-Dawley rats under urethane anesthesia. We showed that dopamine, when injected locally, increased the firing rate of the majority of neurons in the GP. This increase of the firing rate was mimicked by quinpirole, a D2R agonist, and prevented by sulpiride, a D2R antagonist. In parallel, the injection of dopamine, as well as quinpirole, in the GP reduced the firing rate of majority of STN and SNr neurons. However, neither dopamine nor quinpirole changed the tonic discharge pattern of GP, STN and SNr neurons. Our results are the first to demonstrate that dopamine through activation of D2Rs located in the GP plays an important role in the modulation of GP-STN and GP-SNr neurotransmission and consequently controls STN and SNr neuronal firing. Moreover, we provide evidence that dopamine modulate the firing rate but not the pattern of GP neurons, which in turn control the firing rate, but not the pattern of STN and SNr neurons.
FOLLOW THE ARROWS: TRACING THE UNDERLYING STRUCTURE OF A DOCTORATE

This paper reports on the results of a four year longitudinal study of PhD students and their supervisors. The students were all registered in lab-based PhDs within a research-intensive university within the UK. Sequential concept map-mediated interviews were used to gain insight to the students’ and supervisors’ perspectives on the content and the process of gaining a doctorate. The evidence gained suggested that the students tend to focus on the PhD in terms of a product to be completed (in terms of writing a thesis and writing for peer-reviewed journals), whilst the supervisors tended to concentrate more on the process of learning and scientific development, placing the student’s contribution into the wider disciplinary discourse. The structural observations from the concept maps generated within this study are that the students perceive the PhD as a linear structure, whereas the supervisors are more likely to generate a cyclic structure to illustrate the dynamic, iterative processes of research more generally. Further structural elements emerge from the analysis of the maps, indicating the need for holistic understanding of the content, structure and meanings in concept maps.
Constraints on the Cosmological Constant in a Static Geometry from Periodicity in a Compact Fifth-Dimension

Withdrawn: The solutions presented in this work are not compatible with the equation of motion for g_{00}, which we did not properly verify. In the framework of this work, the only bulk solutions compatible with periodicity of the fifth dimension are constant fields. Also for a scalar field only constant solutions are obtained.